Renaissance Lucca

Paolo Guinigi worked tirelessly to ensure the city's pacification and the return of the exiles. The economy was revitalized and the tax system reformed. Foreign policy was managed prudently, recognizing Lucca's small size compared to the other Italian regional states. Paolo Guinigi's power was maintained thanks in part to arranged marriages, such as that to the young Ilaria del Carretto, who sadly died young.

The famous marble sarcophagus, now preserved in the Cathedral of San Martino, was built for Ilaria around 1406. Tensions and wars between Venice and Florence, united against Filippo Maria Visconti's Milan, Lucca's greatest ally, led to a crisis that allowed the Florentines to besiege the city in 1429. In 1430, an internal conspiracy deposed Paolo Guinigi and exiled him.

Upon the return of the Republic, Lucca secured peace with Florence in 1438, supported by military aid from the Visconti. However, the territorial situation was compromised: Garfagnana had been partially invaded by the Este family, Barga by Florence, and Pietrasanta occupied by the Genoese and then by the Florentines. However, the small republic, now territorially reduced to a city-state, returned to prosperity in the second half of the 15th century through international commercial activities, such as the production of fine silk fabrics. The silk industry entered a crisis in the 16th century, when competition with other European centers led to overproduction, prompting a revolt among the weavers themselves.

Thanks to its mercantile contacts with Northern Europe, the city of Lucca welcomed the Protestant Reformation: the presence of "heretics" in nearly all of Lucca's leading families was tolerated and minimized. But fear of a Florentine crusade blessed by the Pope drove the citizens into voluntary exile in Geneva and other northern cities. The Republic of Lucca proved determined to maintain its jurisdiction intact, refusing to submit to interference from the Church and, later, the establishment of the Inquisition.

The exodus of some of Lucca's leading families impoverished the city of capital, human resources, and culture. Beginning in 1556, Gonfaloniere Martino Bernardini's reform made public office accessible only to families of the most ancient lineage, demonstrating the oligarchic nature of the Republic of Lucca. From an urban planning perspective, between the late 15th and early 16th centuries, most of the city's aristocratic palaces were renovated according to the canons of contemporary Tuscan architecture, and the abandoned medieval towers were decimated and demolished. These urban changes were integrated into the fabric of the city, which preserved its volumes and stratifications.