Ada PalmerSometimes people ask me (as a historian of the period) about the super rich in Renaissance Florence, whether the art/culture/science boom was an example of trickle-down working. (A) Florence had a wealth tax, (B) its richest man Palla Strozzi had the equivalent of only $250 million. Want more Leonardos? Tax the Rich. 🎨🧑🎨🖌🎭🔭🖼📚📐🏛🎻💰
Luis Villa@adapalmer is there any good deeper writing on this? Would be very curious to go deep on just about any aspect of it.
@luis_in_brief My forthcoming book “Inventing the Renaissance” dives into it a bunch. For the technical side you can try Richard Goldthweit’s “The Economy of Renaissance Florence” but it’s a very dry read, alas, though brilliant!
@adapalmer this level of nerdery probably doesn’t surprise coming from an avid reader of your stuff, but I have read Goldthwaite, albeit ages ago—so that I mostly remember the discussions of double-entry bookkeeping, of all things. Look forward to your new book! And looks like perhaps this other Goldthwaite might be right up my alley as well: https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Demand-Art-Italy-1300-1600/dp/0801852358/