Brucker’s Four Traditional Value Systems

1. Christian – love, charity, humility, and poverty.
2. Noble (feudal-Gothic) – honor, pride, glory, munificence, aggressiveness, and valor.
3. Mercantile or burgher -- thrift (sparing), sobriety, caution, restraint, and accumulation.
4. Communal -- civic loyalty, mutual cooperation, mutual trust, dedication to general welfare.

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Brucker’s idea is that these are positive values of each of four traditional value systems that influenced the behavior of the elite classes of Renaissance towns like Florence. Of course, each of these positive values had a negative counterpart: for example, the Christian value system opposed pride, avarice, gluttony, & lechery. [Gene A. Brucker, Renaissance Florence. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969.]