The City as Palimpsest: Interwoven Beliefs in Renaissance Florence

Reflective Commentary (2025)

This essay examines the layered meeting point of pagan and Christian traditions in Renaissance Florence, using the transformation of the Temple of Mars into the city's Baptistry as a symbol of wider cultural and theological interplay. My intent is not only to recount historical transitions but to probe the processes underlying how distinct worldviews coexist, interact, and leave lasting imprints on a city’s identity.

A key part of understanding this interplay lies in clarifying what it means for cultures or beliefs to converge, fuse, assimilate, or be appropriated. These terms, while related, map out a spectrum of interaction:

Convergence: Two traditions move toward union, creating points of contact or overlap without erasing their distinctiveness—like neighbors sharing a boundary but keeping separate homes.
Fusion: Separate elements merge to form something fundamentally new, as with musical styles blending into a unique genre.
Assimilation: A process of one tradition absorbing aspects of another, often resulting in diminished difference and increased uniformity.
Appropriation: One culture takes specific elements from another, often setting them apart for a new use, such as adapting ancient rituals for new religious ceremonies.

Florence in the Renaissance embodied all these processes—its sacred and civic rituals, public architecture, and local identity were informed by a history both inherited and reimagined. Rather than a simple replacement of paganism with Christianity, the city’s story is one of persistent mingling and negotiation, where traces of the old world are visible even in the proudest symbols of the new.

As you engage with the essay ahead, consider these distinctions as lenses for understanding the ways religious and cultural change are never simply linear. Florence emerges not only as a scene of historical succession, but as a dynamic environment where meaning was constantly made and remade through complex overlay.

With these conceptual distinctions in mind, we can better appreciate how Florence’s religious and cultural identity was shaped over centuries—sometimes by gradual convergence, other times by outright fusion, assimilation, or appropriation of beliefs and rituals. The following essay explores these dynamics through the lens of Florence’s transformation from its pagan past to its Christian present, drawing on primary sources and the lived reality of the city’s people. I invite you now to read the original work and consider how these powerful forces of cultural interaction helped forge the unique character of Renaissance Florence.

Religion and Culture: A Fusion of Theologies Amid Cultural Nuance (2015)

In the heart of Florence once stood “the temple where the baptistry is now located.”[1] Postured as a Florentine centerpiece the temple served as a sacred relic to Mars, son of the king of the gods in Roman mythology, Jupiter.[2] Mars, the god of war, was the lover of Venus and father of Romulus, the famed founder of Rome. With lineage to the gods Romulus set in order the formation of a city called Rome that became an empire. It was this god to which was built “an outstanding ancient structure which the pagans dedicated to Mars.”[3] The temple dedicated to the mythological god was eventually replaced by a Christian baptistry. The baptistry remains in Florence today some six hundred years after the pen of Bruni went silent and his body rests eternally in the basilica of Santa Croce.

This pagan temple that became a Christian baptistry serves as a typology of the convergence of the God of the Bible with the gods of Roman mythology encapsulated in the cultural milieu of the Italian Renaissance. This ancient structure was sacred to the pagans who sequestered the temple as a holy relic to Mars. A convergence of pagan and Christian theology merged into one worldview during the Florentine Renaissance.

The craftsmen erected the structure with great care as "the temple of Mars was built in the same spirit of emulation, for it was to this god that the Romans, superstitiously, traced their ancestry."[4] A sense of cultural pride shrouded the raising of the temple with the spirit like that of the architects who laid the plan and the builders who constructed Rome. This spirit of national and ethnic pride was deeply embedded in their collective psyche because Mars was their genealogical forefather. And that forefather was none other than the god Mars, offspring to Jupiter. The psychology of this lineage must have been deeply empowering and comforting to the descendants of gods known in this context as the Florentines. The spirit of Roman mythology lies embedded in the birth myth of the Florentine people of the Renaissance.

Religious ritual was borrowed from Greeks. These people “received the Greek name, Etruscans, which referred either to their sacrificial rites or to their contemplation of clear skies.”[5] The Etruscans were the precursors to the modern day inhabitants in the region known as Tuscany. The influence of the Greek culture has had a lasting impact on the region of Tuscany of which Florence is the center. Bruni denotes that the name Etruscan may have originated in connection to sacrificial rites of the pagan gods in mythology or due to astrological influences of the zodiac.[6] Modern archaeology reveals that the Etruscan ancestors were known for human sacrifice based upon an archeological discovery of a number of burials in this non-funerary context, of infants, children and adults.[7]

Florence was a melting pot of cultural nuance. At the time of Bruni’s authorship of the “History” the Florentines culture generally espoused belief in the divine being of God and gods. The Florentines acknowledged the role of apostolic authority in the conduct of the Holy Roman Church although often times the papacy was corrupted by men whose political agenda overpowered their sacred office. Their religion was based upon the Holy Roman Church with all the adjacent attributes of clergy, monks and curia that administered the Holy See's work. Even though the sacred canopy of the Catholic religion was vibrant, Bruni notes historically that the Romans also adopted their religious ceremonial and cultic practices from the Etruscans- and in these arts the Tuscans are reported to have excelled all other nations- doing this in such a way that they left the older rites in the charge of their Etruscan inventors. As soon as a serious crisis would threaten the commonwealth and the Romans decided that the spirits of the gods needed placating, priests and soothsayers would be summoned from Etruria. All such religious matters was referred to by the Romans as 'Etruscan learning'. It seems to me that the Roman willingness to borrow these things shows that they had a certain respect for the Etruscans. Imperial insignia, religious ceremonies, and literary studies are excellent and important matters, things that relate to private as well as public life.[8]

A fusion of pagan religion emerged upon which the Christian religion was cast.[1] [2] [3] The Romans embraced the Etruscan cultic practices in religion, art, and education in both private and public life. The Florentines appear to have scripted a blended approach to deity embracing both the biblical God and the mythological gods[4] [5] .[9]

Even with the depth of pagan influence a distinctly Christian worldview existing in which the monotheistic God was sovereign. The idea of God lived deeply within the fabric of Florentine society. The culture of Florence included the concept of God. The extant writings of Bruni display in many forms a belief in God. Totila was referred to as “the Scourge of God.”[10] Florence conquered enemies “by the will of the gods.”[11] Great crisis was averted. Not only did the Florentines have “brave hearts” but they had “the good will of God” who ordained their relief from the crisis.[12] In the midst of revolutionary changes “a comet was seen in the sky which terrified men the more as they are already fearful… and it was no vain portent” because “a pestilence followed.”[13] The Florentine exiles were given to prayer. Bruni notes that “after much call of God and men to witness” they made a strategic decision as they faced “a great obstacle.”[14] Bruni opines that one powerful leader had lived “without respect for the moral law [and] had done whatever his lust and cupidity had driven him to do; he had never shown the least shame before men or fear before God.”[15] Bruni quotes of a speech made to the Florentine people stating, “I pray God that He may put into your minds what will be the most salutary decision.”[16]

God is portrayed as the divine beneficence to the Florentine people. Charlemagne “certainly enjoyed both divine and human favor” being “truly worthy of the highest position of emperor” and deserving “to be called ‘The Great’ not only for the greatness of his deeds but for excellence of his many virtues.”[17] Further, Bruni confidently exerts that “it is by no means inappropriate to believe that the divine power by whose generosity victory was won, with an equal generosity announced his propitious favor instantaneously to the very persons he had favored.”[18] Bruni attributes the salvation of the city from “imminent danger” as being “removed less by human aid than by divine beneficence.”[19] As a form of confession Bruni writes a profound cultural statement of the social environment of Florence[6] [7] ,

For my part, I confess, as one who practices the common life and moral customs of mankind, I am moved by the things that men hold to be goods: extending borders, enlarging empire, raising on high the glory and the splendor of the state, assuring our own security and advantage. If we say that these are not desirable things, then the welfare of the republic, patriotism and practically this whole life of ours will be overthrown. If those who would dissuade you from taking Lucca despise such things and think them of no account, they are in their turn introducing new moral standards into life; if they prove approve of them and consider them goods, then they must necessarily believe that Lucca should be taken, for so many goods and advantages follow together therefrom. In my view this opportunity has been offered us by a kind of divine beneficence, that we are now able to subdue to our power without danger or suffering the city from which first Uguccione della Faggiuola, then Castruccio, made dangerous war against us.[20]

Hints toward the social aspects include reference to “the common life and moral customs.” A window into the mind of the people includes “extending borders, enlarging empire, raising on high the glory and the splendor of the state, assuring our own security and advantage.” Further, discussion of the welfare of the republic, patriotism and practically this whole life” being overthrown was of great concern. To conclude his thoughts the orator said, “In my view this opportunity has been offered us by a kind of divine beneficence.”[21]

These texts provide a rare occasion to observe Renaissance Florence from a cultural perspective that certainly embraced the religious mind of the day.[8] The convergence of pagan and Christian theology into one worldview during the Florentine Renaissance set the foundation for a full birth of humanist thought. The spirit of Roman mythology embedded in the “birth myth” of the Florentine people guided their theological tendencies. Religious ritual was borrowed from Greeks establishing Florence as a melting pot of cultural nuance. The fusion of pagan religion emerged which cast the die for the Christian religion. Even with the depth of pagan influence in Florence, a distinctly Christian worldview emerged as sovereign in a culture of transition. [9] [10] [11] [12]

Footnotes

[1]Leonardo Bruni, History of the Florentine People (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 1.4.

[2] Zeus in Greek mythology.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., 1.5.

[5] Ibid., 1.13.

[6] Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (Study in Intellectual Patterns) (University of California Press, 2009), 43. The reference to “contemplation of clear skies” is a reference to observing the skies for zodiacal signs.

[7] Nancy de Grummond, “Cult of the Kiln,” Archaeology 54, no. 1 (2001): 58-61.

[8] Ibid., 1.20.

[9] Ibid., 2.13; 2.107. Note reference to the will of the gods "Mothers with flowing locks, priests bearing holy objects in their hands, pleaded for mercy. The Florentines (they said) had conquered the city by the will of the gods; they should spare the citizens and the innocent mob..." In addition, note the reference to the mythological Furies. "Like a man possessed by the Furies, he turned the matter over in his mind incessantly, comparing the two girls in terms of their appearance and the prominence of their families. The idea of the Christian God is well established in the varying aspects of culture within Renaissance trecento and quattrocento timeframes. Historical studies confirm the belief in pagan mythological gods in Rome and Greece. Bruni’s History acknowledges the historical presence of pagan mythology in Florence by virtue of the multiple references to the temple of Mars in the center of Florence and in depth discussions of the influence of cultic sacrificial rites and astral theology. The idea of belief in a polytheistic framework is not affirmed in scholarly circles today the question has not been answered as to how much of a direct influence did pagan theology have upon the mind of the Renaissance citizenry as a whole and on the Christian in particular.

[10] Ibid., 1.63. "Such was Totila, whom some called the Scourge of God because of the savagery with which he inflicted carnage. He was of the Gothic race, though born and educated in Italy- we should like to note this because many persons, misled by vulgar traditions, have held quite different views about him."

[11] Ibid., 2.13.

[12] Ibid., 5.153.

[13] Ibid., 6.91. The term “portent” is defined as “a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen.”

[14] Ibid., 6.93.

[15] Ibid., 7.22.

[16] Ibid., 7.49.

[17] Ibid., 1.73.

[18] Ibid., 4.11.

[19] Ibid., 5.156.

[20] Ibid., 6.5.

[21] Ibid.