The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
The earliest timeline of Florence, the Annales florentini, was created in the 12th century.
Prior to 14th century
59 BCE – Roman colony founded (approximate date). 1st century CE – Catholic Diocese of Florence established. 285 – Florence becomes seat of Tuscia region. 405 – Siege of Florence (405). 541 – Florence sacked by forces of Ostrogoth Totila. 1078 – City walls built. 1080 – Stone Ponte Vecchio (bridge) built. 1107 – Monte Orlandi and Prato become part of Florence. 1115–16 – Commune form of government adopted; Republic of Florence established. 1128 – Florence Baptistery built. 1138 – "City divided into six wards." 1182 – Arte di Calimala (cloth guild) first mentioned (approximate date). 1201 – Bankers' guild active (approximate date). 1222 – Monte comune (pawnshop) opens. 1230 – allegedly occurs. 1237 – Ponte alle Grazie (bridge) built. 1244 – Venerabile Arciconfraternita della Misericordia di Firenze founded. 1251 – First Capitano del popolo elected. 1252 Mint established; Florin (Italian coin) introduced. Santa Trinita bridge built. 1258 – Bargello built. 1261 – Public prison established. 1267 – Charles of Anjou in power. 1269 – Flood. 1282 – "Florence adopts a new system of government by members of a guild." 1284 – Tertio Cerchio (wall) built. 1285 – Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova founded. 1289 Slavery abolished. Fire. 1299 – Palazzo Vecchio construction begins.
14th–16th centuries 1312 – Siege of Florence (1312) 1321 – University of Florence founded. 1333 – November: Flood.(it) 1345 – Ponte Vecchio rebuilt. 1348 – Black Death plague. 1350 – October: Petrarch visits Florence and stays at Boccaccio's home. 1353 – Public clock installed in Palazzo Vecchio tower. 1355 – (church) built. 1360 – Cathedral Campanile built. 1361 – After the failed coup, Boccaccio left Florence to reside in Certaldo. 1361-1362 – Boccaccio composed De Mulieribus Claris (On Famous Women). 1370 - Boccaccio completed his last autograph manuscript of The Decameron (Ms Berliner Hamilton 90). 1375-1378 – War of the Eight Saints 1377 – Medici in power. 1378-1382 – Ciompi Revolt.John M Najemy, “War, Territorial Expansion, and the Transformation of Political Discourse,” in A History of Florence 1200–1575, (Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 188–218, https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470754870.ch8. 1382 – Loggia dei Lanzi built. 1385 – Basilica of Santa Croce built. 1390-1402 – Florentine–Milanese Wars. 1397 – Ancient Greek teaching begins at the University of Florence.Federica Ciccolella and Luigi Silvano, Teachers, Students, and Schools of Greek in the Renaissance (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 1st ed. Vol. 264, 2.https://books.google.com.br/books/about/Teachers_Students_and_Schools_of_Greek_i.html?id=ISN4DgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 1397 – Medici Bank established. 1401 – Ghiberti wins the competition to create the Florence Baptistry doors..1. Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, A Documentary History of Art, Volume 1: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Princeton University Press, 1982), 173-176. 1403-1424 Lorenzo Ghiberti sculpted 28 reliefs for the North Doors of the Florence Baptistery 1415 – Bruni's History of Florence issued. 1415 – Cosimo de' Medici weds Contessina de' Bardi.Casciola, Isabella. “Cosimo de’ Medici: Dynastic Solidarity, Piety and Political Promotion.” The Clearihue Review (2011): 24. 1419 – Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici commissions Filippo Brunelleschi to rebuild the Basilica of San Lorenzo. 1426-1428 Masaccio painted the Holy Trinity 1427 – Catasto tax begins. 1432 – Ufficiali di Notte tribunal begins. 1434 – 23 June: Pope Eugene IV arrives in Florence, having fled Rome. 1434 – 6 October: Cosimo de' Medici in power. 1435 – The publication of Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De Pictura. 1435-1440 Donatello sculpted David (bronze) for the Medici family 1436 – Filippo Brunelleschi Completion of Brunelleschi’s Dome on Santa Maria del Fiore. 1436 – Duomo consecrated. 1440 – June 29: Florence wins the Battle of Anghiari. 1444 – Construction of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi starts. 1445 – Ospedale degli Innocenti formally opens. 1455 – The incomplete written manuscript of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s I Commentarii (Commentaries), which includes the first written biography of an artist from the Italian Renaissance 1464 – 1 August: Cosimo de' Medici dies. 1465 – March 16: Cosimo de' Medici is named Pater Patriae.Arne R Flaten, “The Cosimo Medals Revisited,” Visual Resources 28, no. 1 (2012): 6–23, https://doi.org/10.1080/01973762.2012.653429. 1469 – Lorenzo de' Medici assumes power 1471 – Printing press in operation. 1472 – Leonardo da Vinci becomes a Master Painter in Florence. 1476 – First performance of Terence's Andria (comedy) in Florence.Martin McLaughlin. “The Recovery of Terence in Renaissance Italy: From Alberti to Machiavelli,” in The Reinvention of Theatre in Sixteenth-Century Europe, edited by T. F. Earle and Catarina Fouto, 1st ed., (Routledge 2015), 115. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315085456-7. 1478 – April 26: Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici. 1478 – 1 June: Pope Sixtus IV issues papal bull excommunicating Lorenzo de' Medici and Florence. 1478-1483 – Lucrezia Tornabuoni commissions the epic poem Morgante from Luigi Pulci.Solum, Stefanie. Women, Patronage, and Salvation in Renaissance Florence: Lucrezia Tornabuoni and the Chapel of the Medici Palace. Routledge, 2017. 1484 – January: Marsilio Ficino publishes Plato's works translated into Latin.James Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill 1990), 301. https://books.google.com.br/books?id=BLgfAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA300&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 1484-1486 – Sandro Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus 1485 – The publication of the first printed book on architectural theory: Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De re aedificatoria (On the Art of Building) 1487 – Medici giraffe arrives.Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary tr. Alice de Rosen Jervis (New York, 1969) p. 44 1488 – Ancient Greek poet Homer first published in print. 1490 – Palazzo Cocchi-Serristori built. 1492 Lorenzo the Magnificent dies and is succeeded by Piero the Unfortunate. Michelangelo creates the Battle of the Centaurs relief.Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, “Michelangelo Buonarroti,” in A Documentary History of Art, Volume 2: Michelangelo and the Mannerists, The Baroque and the Eighteenth Century., vol. 2 (Princeton University Press, 1983), 1. 1494 Charles VIII of France invades the Italian peninsula. Piero II acquiesces to Charles VIII and is forced to flee Florence. Republic of Florence restored, ruled nominally by Girolamo Savonarola 1494 – Salone dei Cinquecento built in the Palazzo Vecchio. 1497 – 7 February: Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence. 1498 Niccolò Machiavelli becomes secretary to the Second Chancery. 23 May: Savonarola executed. 1503 – Leonardo da Vinci begins painting a portrait of Mona Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo. 1504 – Michelangelo's David sculpture installed in the Piazza della Signoria. 1509 – Militia established. 1512 Florentine Republic dissolved after defeat by Papal forces under Medici control. Piero Soderini and Niccolò Machiavelli exiled. 1513 Giulio de Medici becomes Archbishop of Florence. Machiavelli publishes The Prince 1517 – Machiavelli publishes Discourses on Livy 1519 – June: the Sagrestia Nuova of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, planned. 1527 – 21 June: Machiavelli dies 1529 – 24 October: Siege of Florence (1529–30) begins. 1532 – Alessandro de Medici becomes duke of the Florentine Republic. 1536 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V visits city. 1537 Villani's Nuova Cronica published. Cosimo I moves into the Palazzo della Signoria.Ring, Trudy, Robert M. Salkin, and Sharon La Boda. International Dictionary of Historic Places. Routledge, 1994, 281, https://books-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks4/taylorandfrancis4/2018-06-02/10/9781134259588#page=281 Giorgio Vasari was commissioned by Cosimo I to expand and redesign the Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) March 29, 1539 – Cosimo I de' Medici marries Eleanor of Toledo.Baker, Nicholas Scott. “Creating a Shared Past: The Representation of Medici–Habsburg Relations in the Wedding Celebrations for Eleonora de Toledo and Cosimo I de’ Medici.” Renaissance Studies 33, no. 3 (2019): 397–416. 1545 – Orto Botanico di Firenze established. 1549 – Eleanor of Toledo purchases the Palazzo Pitti.Eisenbichler, Konrad, ed. The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo: Duchess of Florence and Siena. Routledge, 2017. 1550 – the Medici ducal family moves into the Palazzo Pitti. 1550 – The publication of Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects 1557 – September: Flood.(it) 1559 – Palazzo Uguccioni built. 1560-1581 – The building of Galleria degli Uffizi was initiated by Giorgio Vasari.Testa, Judith. An Art Lover’s Guide to Florence. Cornell University Press, 2021, 175, https://books-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks6/degruyter6/2021-09-03/27/9781501756740#page=175 1562 – Accademia del Disegno established. 1564 – Vasari Corridor built. 1565 – Fountain of Neptune inaugurated. 1569 – Ponte Santa Trinita (bridge) rebuilt. 1569 – late August: Cosimo I de' Medici becomes the first Grand Duke of Tuscany.Nicholas Scott Baker, "The Emperor and the Duke: Cosimo I, Charles V, and the Negotiation of Sovereignty,” in A Companion to Cosimo I de’ Medici, ed. Alessio Assonitis and Henk Th. van Veen, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2021), 151-159, https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1163/9789004465213_006 1570-1574 – Giorgio Vasari begins The Last Judgement frescoes in the dome of Florence Cathedral; completed by Federico Zuccari.Liana De Girolami Cheney, “Giorgio Vasari’s Saint Michael the Archangel in the Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore: A Neoplatonic Sphere,” Journal of Literature and Art Studies 12, no. 6 (2022): 545, https://doi.org/10.17265/2159-5836/2022.06.001 1573 – 14 January: First meeting of the Florentine Camerata.Claude V. Palisca, Claude V, The Florentine Camerata: Documentary Studies and Translations, Music Theory Translation Series (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1989), 5. https://books.google.com.br/books/about/The_Florentine_Camerata.html?id=S3EzAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y 1580 – Rules of Calcio Fiorentino sport published. 1581 – Uffizi art museum built. 1582 – State Archives of Tuscany established. 1592 – Theorbo musical instrument invented. 1598 – Premiere of Peri's opera Dafne. 1600 5 October: . Biblioteca Riccardiana founded (approximate date). Premiere of Peri's opera Euridice.
17th–19th centuries
1625 – Premiere of Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero. 1656 – Teatro della Pergola built. 1700 – Fortepiano musical instrument prototyped. 1739 – Academia Botanica established. 1740 – Teatro di Santa Maria built. 1753 – Accademia dei Georgofili established. 1775 – Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze established. 1784 – Galleria dell'Accademia established. 1799 – French occupation begins. 1814 French occupation ends. Jewish ghetto abolished. 1817 – Teatro Goldoni opens. 1828 – Teatro Alfieri opens. 1844 – 3 November: . 1847 – Premiere of Verdi's opera Macbeth. 1848 Prato-Florence railway begins operating. Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station opens. 1852 – State Archives of Florence established. 1859 – La Nazione newspaper begins publication. 1861 National Library active. Population: 150,864. 1862 – Politeama Fiorentino Vittorio Emanuele amphitheatre opens. 1864 – Florence becomes part of Italy. 1865 – Italian capital relocated to Florence from Turin. 1867 – Società Geografica Italiana headquartered in Florence. 1871 Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali built. Population: 167,093.