Late Middle Ages · Europe · Religion

1497

Bonfire of the Vanities

1497

In Florence's Piazza della Signoria, the Dominican friar Savonarola ordered the burning of mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, musical instruments, and paintings deemed sinful. Botticelli reportedly threw his own canvases into the flames. The republic had become a theocracy of scrubbed consciences, and it was already running out of patience with the preacher.

More from 1497 Late Middle Ages

In context

Also in 1497 (3 other events on record)

Cabot Reaches North America · North America · Exploration
Vasco da Gama Departs Lisbon · Europe · Exploration
Cornish Rising · Europe · Politics

Before and after in Europe

Before: 1496: Manuel I Expels Jews from Portugal
After: May 23, 1498: Savonarola Executed in Florence

Before and after in Religion

Before: 1496: Manuel I Expels Jews from Portugal
After: May 23, 1498: Savonarola Executed in Florence

Era

Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.