Missive from Florence

As I arrived in San Diego for our CEOs for Cities meeting, I received this from our very much missed colleague Joe Cortright who is in Florence.

Hope you are doing well at the national meeting in San Diego.  If I were anywhere but here, I'd have definitely changed plans to join you in the discussions there.

In my absence, I thought I'd offer a brief observation from Florence.

We're focused, as we should be on the role of creativity in cities and the economy today.  But Florence  is a singular and epic example of the critical role cities played in knowledge creation.  In this fledgling and imperfect city state  democracy in the 1400s, commerce thrived, and the merchant class (and government) were prominent patrons of the arts.  Prosperity, creativity, and urbanity all went hand in hand.  The civic culture supported the arts; the arts advanced culture and knowledge.  And this happened within the walls of this city, on the streets and in the buildings we see today.

We went to see the Church of Santa Maria Novella; which has a 1427 fresco by Massaccio which was the first full realization of three dimensional perspective in painting.  The logic of perspective that the artist achieved by intuition was shortly confirmed by scientific and mathematical proof.  To the Florentines of the day, this must have been a revelation, or a revolution; a fundamental change in perspective about the world.  The City was both a place that gave rise to this work (through Massaccio's patrons, and the school for art), but then also was  changed by it.

Political science (Machiavelli's keen analysis of the Medici's), and literature (Dante's Inferno) got a huge start in this city. 

By our 21st Century standards, the Florence of the 14th century was small and poor (perhaps 50,000 or so people, and living standards a tiny fraction of today's.  But  it was a place that was genuinely open to new ideas.  And the ideas that flourished in this city are still affecting the world today.

Before the renaissance in Florence, it would have been difficult to imagine prosperity, functioning democracy, and artistic and scientific innovation.  By  the standards of that day, Florence would likely have been judged "politically impossible."  But the citizens of this city did not know any  better, and wnet ahead, building a great city, and generating new ideas.

We can only hope that our cities still nurture this same ethic.

Ciao

Joe

  

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