Chancellor of Florence

The Chancellor of Florence held the most important position in the bureaucracy of the Florentine Republic. Though the chancellor was not officially a member of the Republic's elected political government like the gonfaloniere or the nine members of the signoria, occupying a role roughly equivalent to the head of the civil service in some countries today, he could nevertheless wield considerable political influence. Holders of the post included some of the most famous scholars, political thinkers and humanists of the Renaissance.