This text seeks to answer the question: why did the Florentine Republic keep a university in its capital city between 1385 and 1473 rather than follow the example of other Italian states in maintaining a university in a subject town? Based on a wide range of sources, the volume discloses that the University of Florence owed its survival to the support of the Florentine elite, especially the Medici family and its followers. It demonstrates the close ties between University and major developments in the social, economic, political, ecclesiastical and cultural life of Florence and Florentine Tuscany.