Originally published on March 20, 2019 (Episode 103)
Introduction
In 1349, Florence had barely survived the Black Death. Yet despite depleted population and treasury, the city launched a war against the Ubaldini clan, who controlled mountain passes north of the city. Humanist Francesco Petrarch—better known as a promoter of peace—was a powerful voice urging Florence to strike against the clan after the Ubaldini killed a friend of his.
William Caferro calls this “Petrarch’s War.” Studying the conflict, he explores wages, the economics of mercenary service, and even why Florence sent a cook as an ambassador. More broadly, he argues that historians must take context seriously, and that over-reliance on long-term studies can obscure short-term dynamics that are essential to understanding the past.
About the Guest
William P. Caferro is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History and Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University. He has written extensively on medieval and Renaissance Italy, including works on mercenary companies and the English captain John Hawkwood. His scholarship combines economic, military, and cultural history.
For Further Investigation
William P. Caferro, Petrarch’s War: Florence and the Black Death in Context (Cambridge, 2018)
—, Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena (Hopkins, 1998)
—, John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy (Hopkins, 2015)
Jo Guldi and David Armitage, The History Manifesto (Cambridge, 2014)
David Herlihy and Christine Klapisch-Zuber, Tuscans and their Families: A Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427 (Yale, 1985)
David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, edited and with an introduction by Samuel K. Cohn, Jr. (Harvard, 1997)
The Petrarch Project—a series of translations of Petrarch’s letters and writings
Listen & Discuss
How does studying a small, seemingly “minor” war shed light on larger historical patterns?
What does Caferro’s critique of long-term studies suggest about how we approach economic and social history today?
👉 Share this episode with someone who thinks “context” is just filler—it might change their mind.
