Episode 5: Burn Their Songs, Then Teach Them Yours – Savonarola, the Reformation, and Music as Political Technology (1490sā1560s)
Carnival Before the Seizure In fifteenth-century Florence, Carnival occupied the city physically. Songs moved through streets and public squares while masks loosened ordinary identities and seasonal excess temporarily rearranged the social order. The Medici tolerated and sponsored a civic culture in which spectacle and government were closely entangled. Carnival gave Florence a sanctioned place to…