The Two First Centuries of Florentine History / The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression.

FOOTNOTES

1 Originally published in the Milan Politecnico, March, 1866.

2 "Lettres sur l'hist. de France." close of Letter xxv.

3 See, for example, Goro Dati's "Storia di Firenze."

4 Since this paper first appeared many important researches have been made on the origin of Florence and its Commune, particularly by Professor D.O. Hartwig, of whose estimable work we shall speak later on. Several general histories of Florence have also been published, of which the more noteworthy are the "Storia della Repubblica di Firenze," by the Marquis Gino Capponi (Florence, Barbera, 1875, 2 vols.), and "L'Histoire de Florence," by Mons. Perrens (Paris, 1877–90, 9 vols.), both to be mentioned farther on.

5 At the time when this sentence was written Malespini was held to be anterior to Villani, and the latter his plagiarist. Later, the contrary was proved by Scheffer-Boichorst, many of whose arguments admit of no reply. But Marchese G. Capponi refused to be convinced, on the strength of certain indications establishing, as he thought, that Malespini had written at an earlier date than Villani. Later again the diligent researches begun by Professor Lami confirmed the fact that Malespini's work is a compilation, chiefly, from Villani, and perhaps, though only here and there, from some other chronicler of possibly earlier date. The latter hypothesis would explain the deductions of Gino Capponi.

6 Published in Florence, 1838, 2 vols., at "The Sign of Dante" printing office. See also Gervinus, "Geschichte der florentinischen Historiographie." Frankfurt, 1833.

7 CapellÆ, "Commentarii," of which eleven editions appeared between 1531 and 1542. Ranke, "Zur Kritik neurer Geschichtschreiber." I may now add that in my opinion Ranke was exaggeratedly hostile to Guicciardini, whose historic merits are proved by documentary evidence. Vide my work on Machiavelli, end of vol. iii.

8 Here allusion is made to Capponi's "History," which was still unpublished at the time.

9 Vide "Discorso Storico," chap. i.

10 Gino Capponi, "Lettere sui Longobardi."

11 Everything connected with the division of the land has been the theme of much dispute, both in Italy and abroad. It was learnedly treated by Troya, in his work on the "Condizione dei Romani vinti dai Longobardi"; Capponi and Capei discussed it with much subtlety in their "Lettere sui Longobardi" (appendix of the "Archivio Storico Italiano," vols. i. and ii.); so too Manzoni, Balbo, &c. The question turns on the interpretation of two passages in "Paulus Diaconus." The passage alluding to the first division made, when the Longobards seized one-third of the revenues of the land, is clear enough: "His diebus multi nobilium Romanorum ob cupiditatem interfecti sunt. Reliqui vero per hospites divisi, ut terciam partem suarum frugum Langobardis persolverent, tributarii efficiuntur." But the other is much less clear, and has been variously interpreted. This is the reading most generally adopted: "Hujus in diebus" (i.e., in Autari's reign) "ob restaurationem Regni, duces qui tunc erunt, omnem substantiarum suarum mediatatem regalibus usibus tribuunt; populi tamen agravati per langobardos hospites, partiuntur." But a tenth-century version, in the Ambrosian Codex, runs as follows: "Aggravati pro Longobardis, hospitia partiuntur." The division of the land (hospitia), and not of the fruits of the land, would seem more clearly indicated in this second reading, accepted by Balbo. Prof. Capei, on the other hand, while accepting the first reading, asserts that the word partiuntur should be interpreted in an active sense. The conquered divided their lands with their conquerors, and therefore were oppressed (aggravati), being compelled to yield one-half of their estates, but they had at least the advantage of retaining the other half in their own possession.

12 Among other authorities, vide Gino Capponi, note to doc. 3, vol. i. of the "Archivio Storico Italiano."

13 Codex 772 of the Vatican Palatine Library, containing the so-called Lombard collection of Longobard laws. The discovery of the Florentine annals on the back of sheet 71 is owed to the librarian Foggini. He communicated his find to Professor Lami, who published part of the fragment, with notes. The whole was afterwards edited by Professors Pertz and Hartwig, and finally Professor C. Paoli issued an exact photo-type of the fragment in No. 1 of the "Archivio paleografico Italiano," edited by Prof. Monaci, of Rome.

14 This is a codex from Santa Maria Novella, now No. 776, E.A. (Suppressed Monasteries section), of the Magliabecchian Library. It consists of forty-six records, part of which (the first twenty-five, down to the year 1217) were published by Fineschi in his "Memorie Storiche degli uomini illustri di S.M. Novella," vol. i. pp. 330–332.

15 D.O. Hartwig, "Quellen und Forschungen zur Altesten Geschichte der Stadt Florenz." Part i. of this work was published in Marburg, 1875; part ii., containing both series of annals, at Halle, 1880.

16 First published by Fineschi (op. cit., vol. i. p. 257) and afterwards by Hartwig (ii. 185 and fol.), with many notes and additions. Some new names of Consuls are contained in the so-called "Chronicle" of Brunetto Latini, to be mentioned later on.

17 One was discovered by Pro. C. Paoli in the Laurentian Library, Codex xxviii. 8, vide his paper "Di un libro del Dr. O. Hartwig," in the "Archivio Storico It.," tom. ix., anno 1882. Other copies were discovered by the late Prof. Lami, who intended to mention them in an essay on Malespini.

18 Discovered, but not published, by Follini, the editor of Malespini, in a codex of the Magliabecchian Library at Florence, shelf ii. No. 67.

19 In the Archives of Lucca, in a codex of the Orsucci Collection, O. 40.

20 This date (Hartwig i. 64) is not found in the Latin version, which is consequently held to be of earlier date.

21 "Appendice alle Letture di famiglia," vol. i. Florence: Cellini, 1854.

22 Hartwig, "Quellen und Forschungen," etc.

23 Vide Professor Santini, in pt. i. doc. 18 of his forthcoming work, gives a document dated June 14, 1188, with the signature, "Ego Sanzanome index et notarius." In the Acts of the Tuscan League of 1197 (Santini, vol. i. 21, p. 37) we find the name of "Sanzanome de Sancto Miniato" among the signatures following that of the Consul of San Miniato.

24 Professor Paoli makes the same statement in his before-mentioned work. The Codex in question is the Magliab.-Strozz., Cl. xxv. 571. The "Gesta" were published about the same time by Hartwig (op. cit.) and by the Tuscan "Deputazione di Storia patria" (Cellini, 1876).

25 Just at this point there are several gaps in the Codex.

26 Vide Weiland's edition in the Mon^ta.-Germ^a. xxii. 377–475, and the same editor's remarks in the "Archiv. der Gesellschaft fÜr Ältere deutsche Geschichte," vol. xii. p. 1 and fol.

27 Ciampi, the editor of one part of it, and Scheffer Boichorst in his "Florentiner Studien."

28 Prof. Santini, who gave much attention to the subject, discovered in Florence twelve copies of Martin Polono, and three of its translations, all of the fourteenth century. Other copies have been found since by Prof. Lami.

29 "Impressum FlorentiÆ apud Sanctum Jacobum de Ripoli, Anno Domini mcccclxxviii." Other editions were produced in the sixteenth century. Prof. Santini has discovered three fourteenth-century MSS. of this work in Florence.

30 The Naples Codex is marked xiii.-F. 16. A similar codex of the fifteenth century, carried down to the death of Henry of Luxemburg, is in the Laurentian-Gaddiano Collection, cxix.

31 In pt. ii. of his "Quellen," &c., where these extracts are given under the title of "Gesta Florentinorum und deren Ableitungen und Fortsetzungen."

32 In mentioning certain Saracen nobles, sent as prisoners that year alla Chiesa di Roma, he adds: "et io gli viddi" ("and I beheld them").

33 It comes down to 1303, but the concluding paragraph seems to be written by a later hand. But the preceding paragraph narrates events of 1297, and Brunetto Latini certainly died before then (1294).

34 Florence National Library, cl. xxv. Cod. 566.

35 This has also been clearly proved by Prof. Santini's numerous verifications.

36 Two very short records, or rather notes, were added by another hand where the gap occurs, namely: "Pope Adrian V., born of the Fiesco family of Genoa, 1276, reigned as Pope thirty days; the Chair vacant twenty-eight days. Pope Innocent VI. elected, who came from Portugal." The second note is certainly erroneous. Innocent VI. (Etienne d'Albert) was a Frenchman of Limousin birth, and was raised to the Papacy in 1352. But Adrian's successor was John XXI., a Portuguese. The author mistook Johannes (probably written in an abbreviated form) for Innocentius, XXI. for VI. Even in other chronicles the two records stand together, and almost in the same words, but without the same blunder.

37 Codex Laur. Gadd. 77. On the back are these words: "Cronica romanorum Pontificum et Imperatorum." This title explains the connection of the Chronicle with Martin Polono, and why the MS. so long escaped the researches of students of Florentine history. The work of Professor Santini from which we have quoted being an essay sent in for his B.A. examination, was discussed at the Istituto Superiore, and an account given of it in the "Arch. Stor. It.," Series iv. vol. xii. No. iv. p. 483 and fol., 1883. The paper itself has remained unpublished, as Alvisi's discovery made its demonstrations superfluous. Santini regarded the Chronicle as one of great importance, since it records the names of certain consuls, omitted in all the others, but contained in newly discovered documents, now in type, and forming part of the work that will soon, we hope, be published by Signor Santini.

38 Baluzio Manzi, "Miscellanea," tom. iv. This Orsucci Codex, in the Lucca Archives, has been very minutely described by Hartwig (vol. i. xxx. and fol.), who, as before mentioned, brought out the Italian version of the legend he had extracted from it.

39 VIII. 36.

40 I. 1.

41 VIII. 36.

42 In the Acta Sanctorum.

43 "L'estoire de Eracles empereur, et la conqueste de la terre d'outremer (Receuil des historiens des Croisades)," translated into Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, Italian. For the sources consulted by Villani, vide Busson, "Die florentinische Geschichte der Malespini" (InnsbrÜck, 1869), and Scheffer-Boichorst, "Die Geschichte Malespini, eine FÄlschung," in his "Florentiner Studien."

44 Vide Paoli's article on Hartwig's work.

45 "II y en eut (des consuls) tout au moins en 1101." And after quoting the document he adds this note:—"Devant de fait si positif, il serait oiseux de S'arrÊter aux conjectures des auteurs mÊme presque contemporains," p. 209.

46 Perrens, pp. 152–4.

47 Borghini, "Discorsi," vol. ii. pp. 27 and 93. Florence, 1755.

48 The ninth and last volume is now published, and extends to the fall of the Republic (1530–32).

49 Concerning the numerous errors contained in this first volume, Dr. Hartwig has written at some length in Sybil's "Historiche Zeitschrift," vol. iii. No. 3, anno 1868. Of the other volumes nothing need be said at this point.

50 Servius writes, in his Commentary on the Ænead (bk. iii. v. 104): "Dardanus Iovis filius et Electrae, profectus de Corytho [Cortona], civitate Tusciae, primus venit ad Troyam." And farther on (Com., bk. iii. v. 187), he says that "Dardanus et Iasius fratres ... cum ex Etruria proposuissent sedes exteras petere ecc." In tracing the genealogy of Æneas, he begins thus: "Ex Electra Atalantis filia et Iove Dardanus nascitur." This must have partly inspired the legend, although, according to the latter, Electra is the wife of Atlas and the daughter of Jove. Vide Hartwig, vol. i. xxi.

51 Even Brunetto Latini, in bk. i. of his "Tesoro," makes the Catiline legend relate to the origin of Florence, records the great slaughter occurring at the battle wherein Catiline was routed, and also the subsequent pestilence. "E per quella grande peste di quella grande uccisione, fu appellata la cittÀ di Pistoia" (bk. i. chap. 37, in the vulgate of Bono Giamboni). The principal authorities for the historical information in the "Tesoro" are Dictys of Crete, and the "De excidio Troie," attributed to Dares the Phrygian. Undoubtedly the latter is also one of the sources of our legend. Vide Thor Sundy, "Della vita e delle opere di Brunetto Latini," translated, with many additions, by Prof. R. Renier. Florence: Le Monnier, 1884.

52 The "Libro fiesolano" styles them Africans instead of Franks, una compagnia venuta d'Africa, as elsewhere, instead of Ottone or Otto, it says Ceto, a blunder also found in the MS. that was printed. The blunders probably originated from some ignorant copyist of the legend, and were frequently repeated by later scribes. John of Salisbury ("Polikratikus," vi. 17, edit. Giles), in mentioning the cities built by Brennus, according to history, repeats the same story of Siena contained in the legend. He remarks that all this is not real history, sed celebris traditio est, adding, however, that tradition is confirmed by the fact that in their constitution, beauty and customs, the Siennese resemble "ad gallos et Britones a quibus originem contraxerunt." John of Salisbury's words are also recorded by Benvenuto da Imola in his Commentary on the "Divina Commedia," where he mentions that Dante intended to allude to this resemblance ("Inferno," xxix. 121) in the lines:

"Or fu giammai
Gente si vana come la senese?
Certo non la francesca si d'assai."

Boccaccio's "Commento" gives the same explanation of these lines.

53 The Latin compilation says: quingentos annos et plus; the Italian, and more modern versions, merely say, "five hundred years."

54 Even history tells us that Totila was in Tuscany towards the middle of the sixth century.

55 "Libro fiesolano", chap. xv.

56 This is also mentioned by Hartwig, i., xxiv., and fol.

57 The first to note this was Hegel: "Ueber die Anfange der florentinischen Geschichtschreibung," in Sybel's Historical Journal, No. 1, anno 1876.

58 Chaps. xvi. and xvii. of Follini's edition.

59 Villani, i. 41.

60 Villani, iii. 3.

61 Vide G. Rosa, "Delle Origini di Firenze," in the "Archivio Storico Ital.," Series iii., vol. ii. p. 62 and fol. Hartwig, op. cit., and Milani, "Scavi di Mercato Vecchio," in the "Notizie degli scavi nel mese d' Aprile, 1887, Atti dell' Accademia dei Lincei."

62 In digging a sewer in the street called Borgo dei Greci, in 1886, the discovery was made in Professor Milani's presence, "at the depth of about three metres beneath the street level, and exactly beneath the pavement of the first circuit of the Amphitheatre, ... of a half asse onciale, weighing 12 grammes 25, undoubtedly coeval with the construction of the Florentine Amphitheatre. This kind of coin assuredly dates from 89 B.C., and was issued after the Plautian-Papirian decree reducing the weight of the aes from 1 oz. to ½ oz. The aes cut with a chisel were only in currency for a short time, and were withdrawn when the new coins were issued. Accordingly they must have ceased by the date of the second triumvirate (43 B.C.), when the aes was further reduced to the third of an ounce. We may therefore accept the conclusion that the Florence Amphitheatre was of the Sullian period. Opposed to this conclusion is the fact that, according to the report of Dione (li. 23), the first stone amphitheatre built in Rome was that of Taurus, dating from anno 30 B.C. But recalling how Cicero accused Sulla of having wasted treasures on magnificent buildings, exactly when he was under Fiesole, one is justified in assigning the construction of the Florence amphitheatre, and also of that of Pompei, to Sulla's day. Likewise the basements of the Tuscanic columns, found in situ near the Amphitheatre, and some architectural fragments discovered in 1887 on the south side of Santa Maria del Fiore, confirmed the opinion that some of the chief public buildings of Florence were connected with the times of Sulla and also with the last days of the Republic." (From a letter by Prof. Milani addressed to myself.)

63 The inscription (now lost) beginning thus: "Col[onia] Iul[ia] Aug[usta], Flor[entia]", should be differently interpreted, according to Mommsen, as referring to Vienne in Dauphiny. Vide "Hermes," 1883, p. 176 and p. 180, note 1. Prof. Milani takes the same view regarding the new and important inscription recently found in the excavation of the Mercato Vecchio, containing the following words:

"... Genio Coloniae
... Florentiae."

Vide "Scoperte epigrafiche nel Centro di Firenze," in the "Nazione," April 15, 1890.

64 Milani, "Relazione degli scavi," &c.

65 Villani, ii. 1 and 2, and also the "Chronica de Origine Civitatis."

66 Ibid., ii. 1, 2, 3.

67 Vide Hodgkin, "Italy and her Invaders," vol. iv. p. 446 and fol.

68 Lami, "Lezioni," pt. i. p. 293. From a document also quoted by Maratori and Tiraboschi, it would seem that Florence was included, as it were, in the city of Fiesole; and therefore some of the Florentine churches were described as being in Fiesole. Vide also pt. ii. p. 429 of the same work.

69 This is described in detail by Lami, Borghini, and Hartwig.

70 Villani, iii. 3.

71 Ibid., iv. 1.

72 Lami, "Lezioni," at preface to pts. cvi.-viii; Hartwig, i. 85, 86.

73 Villani, iv. 6.

74 Villani, iv. 7.

75 It is related by St. Pier Damiano in the letter quoted farther on.

76 Petri Damiani, "Epistolarum libri viii." Parisiis ex-officina nivelliana, 1610, vide p. 727. The epistle (p. 721 and fol.) is addressed: "Dilectis in Christo civibus florentinis, Petrus peccator, monachus, fraternae charitatis obsequium."

77 Tocco, "L'Eresia nel Medio Evo," bk. i. chap. iii. pp. 207–228.

78 Passerini, "Arch. Storico Italiano," New Series, vol. iii. pp. 43, 44; Perrens, i. 85 and fol.; Hartwig, i. 88, 89; Capecelatro, "Vita di S. Pier Damiano," bk. vii. two vols. Florence: Barbera, 1862.

79 "Ad hec ille se inquit, neutrum jubere, neutrum velle, neutrum recipere. Quin etiam edictum a Preside per legatos suos impetravit, ut quicumque laicorum, quicumque clericorum se ut episcopum non coleret suique imperio non obediret, ad Presidem victus non duceretur, sed traeretur: si quis autem his minis territus, de civitate fugeret, ad dominium Potestatis assumeretur quicquid possedisset." Thus runs the letter dated Millesimo lxviii idus februari, and beginning, "Alexandro prime sedis reverentissimo, ac universali episcopo, clerus et populus Florentinus sincere devotionis obsequium." It was repeatedly, but incorrectly printed (vide Brocchi, "Vite di Santi e Beati," p. 145. Florence, 1742; "Acta Sanctorum," iii. luglio, pp. 359, 379), in the two lives of St. G. Gualberto; included in the Laurentian Cod. xx. 22, in sec. xi. The letter placed at the end of the Codex itself is written in a different and somewhat later hand; but, according to the opinion of Prof. Paoli, who examined it at my request, the writing has every characteristic of the eleventh century, "and could not possibly be of later date than the first half, or rather first quarter of the twelfth century." It more resembles a narrative in an epistolary form than a genuine letter. The title given it in the Codex also supports this view: "Incipit textus miraculi quod Dominus," &c. We shall have to recur to the subject later on.

At any rate, it is plain that the Potestas above-mentioned has no relation with the PodestÀ of a later period. Here the term signifies superior authority—i.e., that of the Duke Goffredo. The Preside I consider to mean Goffredo's representative in Florence. Both are old-fashioned, rhetorical terms, similar to those afterwards employed by Sanzanome.

80 The same letter, after narrating how certain persons, having taken refuge in an oratory, were threatened with expulsion, "extra Civitatem pellerentur," unless they made submission, also adds that those persons refused to obey. "Hincque factum est ut ... municipal. presid ... illos extra emunitatem oratori ... eiceret." The two abbreviated words in the Codex were printed in many different ways, changing the verb and often altering the whole phrase, to the reader's great confusion. Several colleagues I have consulted agree with my view, that the words should be rendered municipale praesidium.

81 This description is also taken from the same document.

82 The Nuova Antologia of Rome, June 1, 1890.

83 In the Laurentian Codex previously referred to.

84 Rhetor was then synonymous with causidicus.

85 Ficker's work pays great attention to this point, and is also treated by Fitting. Vide "Die AnfÄnge der Rechtsschule zu Bologna." Berlin and Leipzig, 1888.

86 "Lege Digestorum libris inserta, considerata." So styled in a placito of 1076, pronounced by an envoy of Beatrice at Marturi, near Poggibonsi ("prope plebem Sancte Marie, territurio fiorentino"), where the presence is also noted of Pepone, the precursor of Irnerius (Werner). A Florentine, who was contesting certain lands with the monastery, adduced the temperis praescripto, on the authority of the Digest, that, according to the legal custom of the time, he produced in court. Vide Fitting, op. cit., p. 88. Zdekauer, "Sull' Origine del manoscritto Pisano delle Pandette Giustiniane." Sienna: Torrini, 1890. In a document of 1061, treating of a dispute between two Florentine Churches (vide Della Rena e Camici, vols. ii. 2, p. 99), we find "Indices secundum romanae legis tenorem, utramque ceperunt inquirere partem." According to Ficker, the judges in question were Florentines: "und zwar schienen das die gewÖhnlichen stÄdtischen Iudices von Florenz zu sein." Ficker, iii. par. 469, at p. 90. Goro Dati, a chronicler who died at the beginning of the fifteenth century, stated in his Chronicle that the Florence notaries were the best reputed of all, although the most celebrated doctors of law were those of Bologna. Vide Dati, "Storia di Firenze," Florentine edition of 1735, at p. 133.

87 Petrus Damiani, "De parentelae gradibus," in his "Opera, Opusc, viii," chaps. i. and vii. He combats here the opinion expressed by the sapientes of Ravenna, in contradiction to the canonical law, as to the degrees of relationship prohibiting marriage. Touching a wise man he asserts to be a Florentine, he adds: "promptulus cerebrosus ac dicax, scilicet acer ingenio, mordax eloquio vehemens argumento."

88 Ficker says, in mentioning the before-quoted document of 1061: "Diese Romagnolen scheinen nun weiter kaum nur zufÄllig zu Florenz gewesen zu sein."

89 As regards the ever-increasing action of Roman law in Tuscany there is a very remarkable passage in the Pisan Statutes of 1161, in which it is said of that city, "a multis retro temporibus, vivendo lege romana, retentis quibusdam de lege longobarda." In a Siennese document of 1176, edited by Ficker (vol. iv. doc. 148), the Consuls declare: "Item nos professi sumus lege romana cum tota Civitate vivere." The mixture of Roman with Longobard or other legal systems is very frequent throughout the whole of the eleventh century, and even later on. Often, women who professed to live according to the Roman law, declared themselves at the same time as being under the mundium of their sons or of others.

90 Lami, "Lezioni," preface, p. cxv and fol. Vide also the documents published in Fiorentini's "Memorie delle gran Contessa Matilde" (Lucca, 1756); Della Rena e Camici, "Serie cronologica-diplomatica degli antichi duchi e marchesi di Toscana," pt. ii. These documents clearly show in what manner Matilda's tribunal was composed.

91 Vide Fiorentini, doc. at p. 168; Della Rena e Camici, pt. ii. vol. ii. docs. xv. and xvi. pp. 106 and 108; vol. iii. p. 9; vol. iv. doc. xiv. p. 61.

92 "UnthÄtiger Vorsitzende," says Ficker, when clearly proving this fact. Vol. iii. par. 573, p. 294 and fol.

93 On this head Ficker remarks: "Dass schon frÜher die Gerichtsbarheit in der Stadt nicht durch die Feudalgewalt, sondern durch BÜrger der Stadt als rechtskundige KÖnigsboten geÜbt wurde." Vol. iii. par. 584, pp. 315–16.

94 "Consuetudines etiam perversas a tempore Bonifactii Marchionis duriter eisdem impositas, omnino interdicimus." Ficker, vol. i. par. 136, pp. 255–6, and the text of the document in vol. iv. pp. 124–5; Pawinski, "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Consulats in den Comunen Nord und Mittel-Italiens." Berlin, 1867, p. 29.

95 "Nec Marchionem aliquem in Tusciam mittemus sine laudatione hominum duodecim electorum in Colloquio facto sonantibus campaniis." Murat., "Antiq." iv. 20. Also vide Ficker and Giesebrecht, before cited, and Pawinski at p. 31.

It has been suggested that some interpolations have been made in these patents (of which only an ancient copy survives, not the original), and especially in the second, but Ficker and Pawinski oppose this view. At any rate, the substance of both documents is now accepted by all the most competent writers. Vide Ficker, vol. iii. p. 408; Giesebrecht (4th ed.), vol. iii. pp. 537–8.

96 Amari, "Storia dei Musulmani in Sicilia," vol. iii. p. 1 and fol.

97 We use the word grandi here for the sake of clearness, although in this particular sense it only came into general use in Florence at a later date, and more particularly in 1293 in the days of Giano della Bella.

98 Pawinski, p. 31, note 3.

99 "Nec domum in predictis terminis relevari, neque ad triginta sex brachia interdici, permittemus" (Pawinski, p. 34).

100 Bonaini, "Statuti inediti della cittÀ di Pisa," vol. i. p. 16.

101 Frequent mention is made of counts and viscounts of whom, so far, there was no record in Florence. Later on, from causes that will be related, some few were found there.

102 But I cannot agree with Pawinski when, in noting this characteristic of Pisa and other similar communes, he neglects the popular, commercial element, that even in Pisa, as elsewhere, was very influential, and considers that the birth of the Italian Commune should be solely attributed to the nobles.

103 "Nisi fortitan communi Consilio Civitatis, vel maioris partis Bonorum vel Sapientum ... ad commune Colloquium Civitatis ... supra-dictorum hominum consensu et omnibus Pisae habitantibus" (Bonaini, op. cit., vol. i. p. 16).

104 Murat., "Antiq.," iii., 1099. A poem attributed to Guido da Pisa narrates the campaign of 1087 carried on by the Pisans, in alliance with Genoa, Amalfi, and Rome, against the Saracens in Africa, and cites the names of four Pisans:—

"Vocat ad se Petrum et Sismundum
Principales Consules,
Lambertum et Glandulfum
Cives cari [clari?] nobiles."

This, however, is a poetical work, and in order to accept it as a proof that these Consuls existed in 1087 it would be necessary to carry back to that year, at least, the first concordia of Bishop Daiberto. This might not be impossible, seeing that he held the bishopric from 1085 to 1092, when he was named archbishop. Vide Pawinski, p. 31, note 3. Leonardo Vernese recounts the expedition to the Balearic Isles (1113–15) in his "Carmen," and says:—

"Inde duo et denos de culmine nobilitatis
Constituere viros, quibus est permissa potestas
Consulis atque ducis."

But the existence of Consuls at that time has been already proved by other documents. Vide Pawinski, pp. 38–9.

105 The chronicler designates the chief families as anteriores, possibly because they were the first to settle in Venice; he represents them as a supreme and governing class, and in the list he gives of them mentions what trades they carried on. "Cerbani de Cerbia venerunt, anteriores fuerunt de omni artificio ingeniosi. Signati (variant: Cugnati) Tribuni Ianni appellati sunt, anteriores fuerunt, mirabilia artificia facere sciebant caliditate ingenii. Aberorlini ... anteriores fuerunt; non aliud operabantur nisi negocia, sed advari et increduli." And so on regarding other families exercising from generation to generation the same trade, commerce, or liberal profession. As to the guilds or ministeria, we find many expressions affording hints of their embryo organisation. "Hetolus autem appellatus est, quia ipse erat princeps de his qui ministerii erant retinendis." They were sadlers, cattle-herds, &c. Many more of these families are named in the list given in the Chronicle, and all seems to denote the continuation of a state of things that had existed during the lower Empire.

106 This document is in the Vatican (Urb. 440), and has also been examined by GfrÔrer. The ironsmith, Giovanni Sagornino, "insimul cum cunctis meis parentibus," appeals first to the Doge Pietro Barbolano (1026–31), and then to the Doge Domenico Flabiabico (1032–43), against the gastaldo of the guild, who sought to compel him to labour at iron-work for the prisons in the palace yard, whereas Sagornino asserted his right, according to custom, of making the iron-work at his own house, when fulfilling his gratuitous task for the State. A regular suit was carried on; and being decided in favour of the appellant, the latter was permitted to do the work in his own shop. All this proves that well-defined traditional customs prevailed before the guild possessed written statutes (sec. xiii.), since these would have been mentioned had they existed at the time.

The document we have quoted speaks at one point of the gastaldo of the doge, and at another alludes to him as the gastaldo of the smiths, because the director of the guild held his nomination from the doge. This is clearly evidenced in the thirteenth century by a decree (pro-missione) of the Doge Jacopo Tiepolo, dated March 6, 1229, and by another of the Doge Marco Morosini (June 13, 1249). Thus we see, on the one hand, how much the organisation of the Venetian guilds differed from that of the Florentine, while, on the other, we note how ancient and persistent in all Italian communes was the character of their institutions in general and of the trade guilds in particular. For the details given in this and the preceding note we are indebted to Prof. Monticolo, a man of great learning, and now engaged in important researches on Venetian history, of which the results will soon be published. Meanwhile we seize this occasion to express our thanks in print.

P.S.—We may now add that Prof. Monticolo has already begun to publish his discoveries in "Le Fonti della Storia d'Italia," issued by the Istituto Storico Italiano.

107 Repetti, article on Gangalandi and Monte Orlando.

108 "Dum in Dei nomine, Domina inclita Comitissa Matilda, Ducatrix, stante ea in obsedione Prati," &c. Anno 1107. Vide "Fiorentini," op. cit., bk. ii. p. 299. Villani, vol. iv. pp. 25 and 26; Hartwig, vol. ii. pp. 45 and 47; Repetti, art. "Prato"; "Arch. Stor. It.," Storie v. vol. v. disp. i., p. 108 and fol. Villani's narrative, however, is crammed with fantastic details concerning Prato. The destruction of Monte Orlando is not mentioned in vol. i. of the "Annales," which only begin with the year 1110; but is recorded in the Codex Neap. and in Tolomeo da Lucca.

109 The "Annales florentini," ii., followed by Villani, merely relate the destruction of the castle in 1113, without any comments, for the next event they mention relates to the year 1135. The "Annales florentini," i., say nothing about it in 1113, and place the "secunda et ultima destruccio murorum" in 1114. In 1119 they record two other attacks on the castle, "quem marchio Rempoctus defendebat": by the second of which the Florentines "Monte Cascioli ignem (sic) consumpserunt." It seems clear that three attacks were made in succession, and farther dispute on the point would be superfluous.

110 The "Annales," i. and ii., omit this event. The Neap. Codex assigns it, as does Villani, to the year 1117, but only says that the Pisans went to the Balearic Isles, and that "the Florentines guarded the city of Pisa" (Hartwig, ii. 272). The same account is given by Tolomeo da Lucca, but he dates the event in 1118; so, too, the pseudo Brunetto Latini, who records the gift of two porphyry columns, "by reason that the Florentines guarded their lands, while they were at the war," but adds nothing more to this statement. As to the error of date, we will merely remark that Capmany, in his "Memorias historicas sobra la marina ... de Barcelona," vol. i. p. 10, after narrating the expedition of 1113–15, goes on to say that Raimondo Berengario III. came to Pisa and Genoa in 1118, in order to promote another campaign. Perhaps the remembrance of this visit contributed to the mistake, the which, once made, was repeated by many subsequent writers.

111 Dr. Hartwig quotes particulars received from Dr. WÜstenfeld of a patent dated 1114, which would seem to show that the Florentines also took part in the expedition, in which case, he observes, the columns might have been the gift of the Pisans, and nevertheless part of the spoil taken in common. I caused a search to be made for the diploma in the Pisan Archives, and obtained it through the courtesy of Prof. Lupi. It is inserted in another patent, dated vi. idus Augusti, 1233, whereby King James of Aragon confirms the Pisans in the privileges conferred on them by the preceding diploma that "Berengarius Barchinione gloriosissimus Comes Pisanis fecit." This older patent is reproduced in the document, and bears this date: "M.C. quarto decimo ... septimo idus septembris, indictione sexta." Although several other words stand between those of decimo and septimo, this mode of writing the date may have been another cause of the blunder committed by the chroniclers who dated the event in 1117.

Whatever may be thought of these very disputable theories, it is certain, on the other hand, that the privileges were conferred on the populo pisano, and that three of their Consuls were invested with them, and received "vice aliorum Consulum tociusque pisani populi," and that this concession was made "coram marchionibus, comitibus, principibus romanis, lucensibus, florentinis, senensibus, volterranis, pistoriensibus, longobardis, sardis et corsis, aliisque innumerabilis gentibus, que in predicto exercitu aderant." Therefore it was no mere alliance between one or two cities: it was the Pisan people in conjunction with many potentates from different parts of Italy. The chancellor of the Pisan Consuls drew up the diploma, in the presence of the Archbishop of Pisa, "qui Dompni apostolici in predicto exercitu vicem gerebat," of two vice comites and nine Consuls, the names of the latter being given. This diploma had never been published in Italy; therefore Amari, who was much interested in the subject, wished to print, just before his decease, the copy I had sent him, although he had ascertained that it was already published in Spain by Moragues y Bover in the notes to a "Historia de Mallorca," by Don Vincente Mut, printed at Palma in 1841.

112 Vide "Documenti che illustrano la memoria di una monaca del secolo xiii." ("Arch. Stor. It.," Series iii. vol. xxiii.). These documents are among the earliest of the thirteenth century, and contain the depositions of witnesses, alluding almost always to events of the twelfth century, and continually mentioning the monastery of Rosano, and of one who "defendit ipsum monasterium a Teutonicis" (vide pages 206, 391–2, and other parts also).

113 The "Annales," i., record two fires (1115 and 1117), which destroyed the whole place; the Neap. Codex only mentions the second. Thomas Tuscus, writing in Florence about 1279, speaks of both the fires in his "Gesta Imperatorum et Pontificum," attributing to that cause the destruction of many chronicles which he supposes to have existed, but which probably never existed at all. Villani adopted the same theory, being equally unable to understand that the Commune might have had no historians of earlier date.

114 Petrus f. Mingardole, who, "ad defendendum se de crucifixo," passed through the fire unhurt. Certain historians, unwilling to credit the existence of heresy in Florence at that time, have disputed as to the words de crucifixo, and proposed this reading instead: cum crucifixo or de crimine infixo. But the facsimile of the Codex, published by Prof. Paoli, leaves no doubt on the point.

115 In fact, Simone della Tosa, a later chronicler, who may have copied from Villani at this point, after relating the second burning of the city in 1117, goes on to say that "the heresy of the Paterini was then abroad in Florence." Pope Innocent III. (1198–1216), in discoursing on heretics, wrote: "Impii Manichaei qui se Catharos vel Paterenos appellant" (Ep. lib. x. ep. 54, in Migne's ed. vol. ii. p. 1147). Also, in the "Annales Camaldulenses" (vol. iii. app. p. 396) there is a sentence pronounced at Sutri, in 1141, running as follows: "Igitur universi qui vulgo Paterenses vocantur, eo quia, sub iugo peccati, retinebant omnia que de predicta ecclesia sancte Fortunate accipiebant." Therefore it is plain that the name of Paterini (although strictly speaking that of a special sect, quite separate from others) was here applied to all those occupying Church lands, or opposed in any way to the Church. Hartwig, vol. ii. pp. 17 and 21.

116 Vide the Chronicle, ad annum. As we have already observed, all information regarding this period is derived from the Gaddi Codex, discovered in the Laurentian Library a few years ago. The part beginning from 1181 is also contained in the autograph Chronicle that has been longer known to us; but being very difficult to decipher has not been much studied.

117 "Would to God that Ghibellines were declared to be Paterini!" So says the pseudo Brunetto Latini in the year 1215.

118 The MS. of the "Annales," i., writes, Rempoctus, not Remperoctus, as it was printed elsewhere.

119 Ficker, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224, par. 310; Murat., "Antiq.," iii. 1125.

120 Murat., "Antiq.," i. 315.

121 The "Annales," i., say that, "deo auctore, Florentini Monte Cascioli igne consumpserunt." The MS. really seems to run, de auctore, but this would be nonsense. Lami proposed the reading, des auctoritate, but this too would lack sense. The interpretation preferred and adopted by ourselves was suggested by Prof. Paoli. In combating the Empire and fighting for the Church, the Florentines believed themselves to be under Divine protection, and considering their adversaries as enemies of God, accordingly named them heretics and Paterini.

122 "Teneanla certi gentiluomini Cattani, stati della cittÀ di Fiesole, e dentro vi si riducevano masnadieri e sbanditi e mala gente, che alcuna volta faceano danno alle strade e al contado di Firenze" (iv. 32).

123 According to the "Annales," i., the war lasted less than three months, while Sanzanome stretches it to three years. Possibly the latter included all the attacks and skirmishes by which the war may have been prefaced.

124 Soldani, "Historia Monasterii S. Michaelis de Passiniano," p. 109, quoted by Lami, "Lezioni," i. 288.

125 In Passerini's collection of documents, quoted above, one finds, at p. 211, the following words: "Domina Sofia dixit et dicit quod est lxxx. annorum et plus, et recordatur de destructione Fesularum." Others give testimony to the same effect.

126 In a sentence given on December 30, 1172, we find seven Consuls named, a judge in ordinary, and three proveditors. The Consuls instal the judge, "huic missioni in possessum auctoritatem prestans." This document and many similar ones are in the Florence Archives, Curia di S. Michele. Some have been printed separately by Prof. Santini, in pt. ii. of a volume soon, we hope, to be given to the world. We call the reader's attention to the fact that we quote from his work not only with regard to documents which are still inedited, but also touching those already edited by other writers, because we know that he has carefully collated all with their originals. In his forthcoming work he will probably indicate which documents were discovered by himself, which simply reproduced. Vide Santini, pt. ii. doc. i. In October, 1181, three Consuls preside "super facto iustitiae, nominatim in mense octobris." The judge Restauransdampnum confirms the sentence (ibid., doc. ii.). There are other documents to the same effect, though we also sometimes find two Consuls for one month. On January 27, 1197, there are two Consuls of justice for January and February (Santini, pt. ii. doc. ix.), and so on for some time, two Consuls for two months. On February 28, 1198, the two Consuls are judges by profession; but, nevertheless, the assistance of a judge in ordinary—one Spinello Spada—is still required (ibid., doc. x.). This is an additional proof that the Consuls of justice did not exactly fulfil the function of real judges. From 1201 downwards we find one Consul of justice per totum annum (ibid., docs. xiii., xv.).

127 On April 18, 1201—there being then a PotestÀ—we only find "Gerardus ordinarium iudex cognitor controversiae ... hanc sententiam tuli ideoque subscripsi," without a Consul of justice, who reappears soon afterwards (Santini, pt. ii. doc. xi.). It would seem that at Pisa it was the rule to nominate special judges, electi, or dati a Consulibus et universo populo, who pronounced judgment on their own account, sometimes in the presence of the Consuls. Elsewhere we find Consules de placitis, or Assessores Consulum (as at Parma, for instance), who pronounced judgment without the intervention of the Consuls of the Commune (Ficker, iii. pars. 584 and 585).

128 Originally, Florence was divided in quarters (quartieri). The old city did not then comprise the part beyond the Arno, Oltrarno, which was only inhabited by a few "low folk of small account" (Villani, iv. 14). Afterwards, but from the earliest days of the Commune, the city was arranged in sestieri, of which the Oltrarno formed one. In the year 1343 (Villani, xii. 18) the division in four quarters was resumed.

129 It is dated January, 1165, and is to be found in the Florentine Archives (S. Appendix ii. doc. i. p. 517). It is an act of donation, giving part of a house to the members of the SocietÀ della Torre of Capo di Ponte: "Tam qui modo sunt, aut in antea fuerunt ex Societate vestre turris de Capite Pontis."

130 On two scraps of parchment dated 1179 and 1180, together with a document, part of which dates from May 16, 1209, and part from an older period, in the Florence Archives. The Statute of the PodestÀ (in 1324) also mentions the Societies of the Towers. The whole question has been minutely studied by Prof. Santini in his learned work on the "SocietÀ delle Torri in Firenze," first published in the "Arch. Stor. It.," Series iv. t. xx. 1887, and subsequently in a separate form. In Appendix ii. of his previously quoted work the author includes several documents relating to these societies. They are respectively dated 1165, 1179, 1180, 1181, 1183, 1201, 1209, &c.

131 In the above-quoted, separate, work, at p. 55, and fol. Prof. Santini names many of these families, and supports his statements by documentary evidence.

132 On this point I differ from Santini. The rural societies he has been able to discover are few in number, of a different nature from the others, and of less ancient date. Out in the country the principal basis of the society was lacking—i.e., the tower surrounded by houses belonging to different members.

133 Villani (v. 32) also tells us that Florence was under "the rule of Consuls chosen from the greatest and best of the city, with a council of the senate", that is of one hundred worthies, and that, as in Rome, all these Consuls "guided and governed the city, holding office for one year." He arbitrarily fixes their number at four or six, according to the division of the city in quarters or sixths, and adds that, whenever mentioned, only the chief Consul was named. January seems to have been the time fixed for the election. In 1202 we find the same Consuls in the first and second half of the year (March 1 and October 1). This would likewise prove that the year was not then begun on the 25th of March, according to Florentine style (Santini, doc. v.). In Sienna, January was the time of the election, and on the evidence of the chroniclers one may infer that it was the same in Florence.

134 The first document recording the names of consuls is dated March 19, 1138 (quoted by Hartwig, ii. 185, from the "Memorie di Lucca," vol. iv. p. 173, doc. 122), and states that "Broccardus et Selvorus" promise "pro se et pro sociis suis." The second is dated June 4, 1138 (Santini, pt. i. doc. ii.), and in this a Count Ugicio (or Egicio) receives "launechild et meritum a Burello et Florenzito Consulibus, vice totius populi." These two documents of the same year do not contain identical names, perhaps because they only give those of the Consules priores, who sat in turn, as we have before remarked. Even in Sienna the Consules priores seem to have been continually changed. Vide Caleffo Vecchio for June, August, October, 1202; Caleffo dell' Assunta, 1202. And when Consuls were replaced by Governors, each of these was Prior for one week.

In two Florentine documents, among the Capitoli, dated April 7, 1174, and April 4, 1176 (Santini, pt. i. docs. vi. and ix.), all the Consuls—ten in number—are named, possibly the Consuls of justice being omitted. But, on the other hand, in an oath sworn by the men of Mangona to Florence (October 28, 1184, in Santini, pt. i. doc. xv.) we read: "Annualiter dabimus unam albergariam xij. Consulibus Florentie." Even in 1204 we find twelve; but more than twelve are recorded in the documents of the League (1197–8), and likewise in the year 1203. We have already given the probable explanation of this fact. The Consules priores, also existing in other communes, are seldom mentioned in Florence by the name of Priores, especially in early days. But there is one doc. dated October 24, and November 7, 1204 (S. pt. i. doc. liii.) saying: "Potestas Florentie vel Consules eiusdem civitatis, omnes vel maior pars vel Priores aut Prior eorum." So, too, another document dated October 15, 1200.

135 Santini, pt. i. doc. xii.

136 Ibid., pt. i. doc. xv.

137 There were, in fact, Consuls of the Commune, of the guilds, of the Arno, of the city gates, of the Societies of the Towers, and the latter were more specially styled Rectors. Yet even "Rectors" was a generic term, indicating all who governed, and there were Rectors of the Towers, of the city, and of the guilds. Potestas then indicated the supreme authority in general, and was only converted later on into a special and separate office.

138 There are so many examples of this, that quotation is unneeded. It was the usual formula in other cities as well as in Florence. In the treaty drawn up between Lucca and Florence (July 24, 1184), from which we have already quoted, there was a proviso in case there might be no Consuls at Lucca, no Lucana Potestas, and this addition was accordingly made "aut bonos viros lucensis civitatis, si Consules vel Rector aut Potestas tunc ibi non fuerit."

139 "Forte Belicocci Senator eiusdem [Florentiae] Civitatis" (in a document dated April 15, 1204, Santini pt. i. doc. li). Another document of November 13 and 14, 1197, in the Acts of the Tuscan League, we find the name Bilicozus among the consiliarii present. In the "Breve Consulum Pisane Civitatis," of 1162, edited by Bonaini, the councillors are styled senatores.

140 This document (Santini, pt. i. doc. xxii.) is that of November 13 and 14, 1197, and also one of those of the Tuscan League. It should be remarked, however, that even at this grave juncture there were more than twelve Consuls; so, too, for similar reasons, either the number of the councillors was augmented, or else (being towards the end of the year) some of the newly elected members sat together with those about to retire.

141 The term arengo, arrengo, aringo, or arringo, was derived from the verb arringare, to harangue, in the same way as parliament from the verb parlare, to speak.

142 In Italian communes habitatores, and even assidui habitatores, are clearly distinguished both from cives and foreigners. Florentine documents often mention cives salvatichi, a term that indicates, I believe, the quasi citizenship of persons living in the country, but bound to dwell in the city during part of the year. These greatly increased in number later on, and in course of time became real and entire citizens, in accordance with certain rules not yet fully known to us.

143 Many examples of this have been found by us among provvisioni (or decrees) of later date.

144 Nuova Antologia. Rome, July 1, 1890.

145 Ficker, vol. ii. par. 310, p. 223. Here the names of many of these envoys are given, and what scanty details are known concerning them. To Rabodo (died 1119) succeeded a Corrado (1120–27), afterwards a Rampret (1131), then an Englebert (1134), then Errico of Bavaria (1137), immediately followed by Ulrico d'Attems, then the Duke Guelfo (1160–62), uncle to the Emperor Frederic I., by whom he was sent.

146 "Annales," i.

147 "Annales," i.; Sanzanome, Florentine ed., p. 128; Villani, iv. 36.

148 "Annales," i.; 16 kal. Iulii. Ingelbertus Florentiam est ingressus."

149 "Annales," i.; Otho of Friesland, vide Pertz, xx. 264, and the Annali Senesi.

150 Sanzanome, Florentine ed., p. 129.

151 This is related by an eye witness in the Passerini collection of documents (often quoted to us) at p. 389. The "Annales," i., manifestly err in assigning precisely this date of 1147 to the capture of Monte Orlando, which really happened in 1107. The erasures in the Codex just where the date and places of the event narrated are written—i.e., before the entry in Florence of Henry IV., 1111—also serve to prove that a blunder had been made.

152 The above-quoted Passerini Documents make repeated mention of the reconstruction of the walls, both at p. 394 and p. 217. It records at the same point the subsequent destruction of Monte di Croce: "Et dixit quod sunt lx. annos quod fuit destructus Mons Crucis." Both Villani (iv. 37) and the pseudo Brunetto Latini give the date of 1154; the "Annales," ii., the Neapolitan Codex, and Paolino Pieri, that of 1153. Sanzanome, according to his frequent practice, gives no precise date even here (at p. 130). He merely says that the first attack on the castle took place in 1146.

153 Santini, i. doc. iii. dated April 4, 1156.

154 "Constituit etiam Teutonicos principes ac dominatores super Lombardos et Tuscos, ut de caetero eius voluntati nullus Ytalicus resistendi locum habere ullatenus posset. Vita Alexandri," in the year 1164. In the "Cronica Urspergense," of the year 1186, we read that: "Coepit Imperator in partibus Tusciae et terrae romanae castra ad se spectantia, suae potestati vendicare, et quaedam nova construere, in quorum presidiis Teutonicos praecipue collocavit." Vide Ficker, vol. ii. par. 311, p. 227.

155 "Nullus enim Marchio et nullus nuntius Imperii fuit, qui tam honorifice civitates Italiae tributaret, et romano subiceret Imperio." Vide the Annali Pisani, in Pertz's Mon^ta. Ger^ma. xx. 249. Ficker, vol. i. par. 137, p. 259.

156 Ficker, vol. i. par. 122–4.

157 Vide the Passerini Documents, pp. 208, 394–400.

158 Some of these depositions have been printed before, but the whole collection is now given in Santini, i. doc. xlv. They are dated May, 1203, but naturally refer to a much earlier period. Vide Santini, pp. 115, 117–19.

159 Vide the treaty given in Santini, i. doc. iv.

160 Count Macharius was the Imperial representative at San Miniato. Ficker gives a list of other German counts in that castle (vol. ii. par. 311, p. 227 and fol.).

161 "Castrum autem intelligimus recuperatum etiam sine superiori incastellatura."

162 At this moment many former partisans of the Empire were fighting against it. Pisa is one example.

163 Nevertheless it was not kept among the Capitoli comprising real official documents, but among papers of an almost private nature. Hartwig was the first to bring it to light (ii. 61); and it was afterwards reprinted verbatim in Santini, pt. iii. doc. i.

164 Tommasi, "Storia di Lucca," in the "Arch. Stor. It.," vol. x. ad annum; Roncioni, "Istorie Pisane," in the "Arch. Stor. It.," vol. vi. ad annum; Marangoni, i. 285; Ottoboni, "Annales," i. 95; Hartwig, ii. 58–63.

165 Vide Santini, i. docs, v., vi., vii., viii. The first of these is dated Feb. 23, 1173; the others are of April 7, 1174.

166 "Annales," ii., year 1170; Villani, v. 5.

167 "Annales," ii.; Sanzanome; Villani, v. 6; Neapolitan Codex (here, however, the event is ascribed to the year 1175); Repetti, art. "Asciano"; Hartwig, ii. 64–5.

168 This treaty (in which not only the emperor, but also Christian of Mayence, and Count Macharius, who was then at San Miniato, are expressly named) is in the Siennese Archives, Caleffo Vecchio, at c. 9, and Caleffo dell' Assunta, at c. 53. Dr. Hartwig published a large summary of it, made by WÜstenfeld. Thanks to the kindness of Cavaliere Lisini, Director of the Sienna Archives, we were enabled to obtain a copy of the treaty, and of other documents connected with the peace. Some belonging to Florence are comprised in Santini's work, i. docs. ix., x., xi. (April 4 and 8, and December 11, 1176).

169 "Et quod Comunis Senensis acquisierit extra eorum episcopatus et comitatus, dabo medietatem Florentinis." In the above-quoted treaty among the Siennese Archives.

170 Nevertheless, in the year 1174, we find a Guido Uberti on the list of Consuls. Santini, i. doc. vi.

171 Villani, v. 8. The "Annales," ii., of 1177, say that "Orta est guerra inter Consules et filios Uberti; eodem anno combusta est civitas florentina." The Neapolitan Codex dates the first fire the 4th of August, as Villani also does, and gives the commencement of the civil war immediately afterwards, the which "filled two years." Paolino Pieri dates the first fire August 4, 1174, and the fall of the bridge and the second fire in 1178. Tolomeo da Lucca merely states that a revolution broke out in 1177 and lasted for two years.

172 Chronicle of the pseudo Brunetto Latini, ad annum.

173 We subjoin an extract from the pseudo Brunetto Latini, as it stands in the Gaddi Codex, with all its blunders. After giving an account of the revolution, the chronicler goes on to say: "Then in the year 1180 the Uberti gained the victory, and Messer Uberto degli Uberti and Messer Lamberto Lamberti were consul and rector of the city of Florence, together with their companions, and these formed the first consulate of the city, the which was brought about by violence, only afterwards they began to rule the city according to reason and justice, every one preserving his own position, so that it was decided by the citizen Consuls to summon powerful nobles of foreign birth to fill the post of PodestÀ, as will be shown to you in writing farther on." It is strange that the chronicler should ascribe the origin of the Consuls to so late a date. But, seeing that his list of these magistrates only begins at this point, it would seem that he really believed them to have no earlier origin. Nevertheless, shortly before, in writing of 1177, he had stated that the Uberti began to make war on the Consuls; hence it is clear that even in his opinion they had existed before the year 1180. Still, blunders and incongruities of this sort are frequently found even in Villani and other chroniclers of the same period.

174 Santini, i. doc. xii. This is the document stating that the tribute of fifty pounds of "good money" was to be paid to the Consuls of the city, or, failing these, to the Consuls of the merchants, authorised to receive it for the Commune.

175 This had been granted them in an Imperial patent, given at Pavia iv. Idus Augusti, 1164, the which has been published several times, and is also included in the "Storia della guerra di Semifonte," by Messer Pace da Certaldo (p. 5). As all know, this is a counterfeit "Storia" dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century.

176 Santini, i. doc. xiii. This is the document with the erroneous date, 1101, rectified by Marquis Capponi to 1181 (modern style, 1182).

177 Villani, Paolino Pieri, the Neapolitan Codex, and the pseudo Brunetto Latini. The "Annales," ii., wrongly assign the event to 1172.

178 Santini, i. doc. xiv. The terms were not to be altered without the consent of the Consuls of either city, together with that of at least twenty-five councillors on either side; and the Consuls of the soldiery and of the merchants were to be included in the number. We note that in naming the Consuls a hint is already given of the possible election of a PodestÀ, although none had as yet been chosen in Florence. This subject will be resumed later on. Meanwhile, the words of the document run as follows: "Inquisitis florentinis Consulibus, vel florentina Potestate, sive Rectori vel Dominatore a comuni populo electo." On Lucca's side mention is also made of the "bonos viros lucensis civitatis, si Consules vel Rector aut Potestas ibi non fuerint."

179 The "Annales," ii., the pseudo Brunetto Latini, and the Neap. Cod. date the event in 1185; Villani (v. ii.) dates it instead 1184, and says that Pogna was occupied by nobles, who were cattani and hostile to Florence. We follow Villani, for otherwise it would be impossible to explain the captivity of Count Alberto in 1184, an event confirmed by documentary evidence.

180 Santini, i. doc. xvi. and xvii.; the first dated November, 1184, and the second, November 29, 1184.

181 Hartwig, ii. 79.

182 Villani, v. 12.

183 The "Annales," ii., and Paolino Pieri except Pisa alone; Villani, the Neap. Cod., and the pseudo Brunetto Latini except both Pisa and Pistoia.

184 The chroniclers only say, with obvious inexactitude, for ten miles round.

185 This diploma is given in Ficker, iv. doc. 170, p. 213. Henry (then Henry VI., King of the Romans, afterwards, as emperor, also called Henry V.), after granting the concession, adds: "Excepto ac salvo iure nobilium et militum, a quibus etiam volumus ut Florentini nihil exigant." The diploma only refers in general terms to the services rendered by the Florentines to Henry and to his father, Frederic I. Villani considers the grant a reward for their prowess in the Crusade; but the Crusade took place in 1189, and the grant was made in 1187; for although he wrongly dates the latter in 1188, this blunder does not suffice to remove the anachronism. Besides, he also states that the concession was granted through the intervention of Pope Gregory VIII., who was elected in 1187, and died the same year.

186 In 1186 Perugia was granted judicial rights over the contado beyond the walls: "Exceptis domibus et possessionibus, quas habent marchiones et monasterium S. Salvatoris," and, excepting several nobles, specified by name, "in quibus nihil iuris Perusinis relinquitur." Ficker, i. par. 128, p. 242. Sienna, after being deprived of the contado in June, 1186, received it back in October, under the same conditions, and so, too, Lucca in the same year. Ficker, i. par. 125. p. 239, and par. 128, p. 2 2.

187 Ficker often gives the names of these Imperial PodestÀ, as gleaned from the depositions of witnesses. Vide Ficker, vol. iii. p. 440. Hartwig (ii. 192) cites one Henricus comes florentinus, also mentioned by Stumpf and who seems to have been a PodestÀ of the contado in September, 1186. After all this, it is not surprising that the Imperial authority should be often referred to in documents of the latter half of the twelfth century. We may cite some instances from the rolls of the Florence Archives: October 14, 1175 (Passignano), "Sub obligo Consulum Florentinorum vel Nuntio Regis"; October 9, 1185 (Passignano), "Sub duplice pena Imperatoris et eius Missi aut quicumque habuerint dominium pro tempore." (Reference is here made to the contado, and is another proof of the uncertain rule previously described by us.)

188 "Liberalitate benefica ipsos respicere volentes, concedimus," &c. ... "huius munifice nostre concessionis."

189 In 1184, vide in addition to the chroniclers, Santini, i. docs. xiv., xv., xvii. and Hartwig, ii. 191. For the years 1185, 1186, and 1187, besides the names recorded by the pseudo Brunetto Latini, the documents furnish frequent allusions of the following kind: April 30, 1185 (Passignano), "Sub obligo Consulum Florentie resarcire promitto"; December 13, 1185 (Santa FelicitÀ), "Sub obligo Consulum Florentie"; April 26, 1186 (Passignano), "Penam ad Consules Florentie"; September 21, 1187 (Arch. Capitolare, 629), "Consulum vel Rectorum pro tempore Florentie existentium (Actum Florentie)." The rolls of the Arch. Capitolare were examined by Santini, to whom we are indebted for the information; those of the Florence Archives we have personally examined, but some of these were first brought under our notice by Santini.

In 1189 there were undoubtedly Consuls. Not only are the names of three of them recorded by the pseudo Brunetto Latini, but documents give the names of the Consuls of justice. Santini, ii. docs. v. and vi.

190 Ficker (ii. par. 313, p. 234) cites the words of Pillius, a jurist of the period: "Ut quando faciunt castellanos vel comites in Tuscia"; and, further on: "Sicut fit hodie illis, qui pracficiuntur in singulis provinciis, vel in parte alicuius provinciae, ut in comitatu senensi, florentino vel aretino."

191 They are both named in the Passerini documents, from which we have frequently quoted.

192 According to the results of Hartwig's inquiries, between 1150 and 1180.

193 We find in the Passerini documents (p. 206) that one of the witnesses states that Count Guidi "defendit ipsum monasterium [of Rosano] a Teutonicis et a Renuccio de Stagia, quando erat Potestas Florentinorum, et a Consulibus Florentinis."

194 October 14, 1175 (Passignano), "Sub potestate consulum Florentinorum vel Nuntio Regis"; July 5, 1191 (Arch. Capitolare, 347), "Sub pena Consulum Florentie vel Potestatis"; April 15, 1192 (Arch. Capitolare, 449), "Sub obligo Potestatis vel Rectorum pro tempore Florentie existentibus"; November 7, 1192 (Passignano, in the Church of St. Biagio), "Sub obligo Potestatis in hac terra existentis" (here allusion is possibly made to some PodestÀ of the contado); May 9, 1193 (Passerini documents in the Florence Archives), "Sub obligo Potestatis vel Consulum Florentinorum ... Actum Florentie." According to these and other rolls examined by me in the Florence Archives, the change is seen to have been carried out in a regular and steady manner. The ancient formulas reappear from time to time.

195 "Inquisitis florentinis Consulibus, vel florentina Potestate, sive Rectore vel Dominatore ... florentini Consules vel florentina Potestate sive Rector vel Dominator" (Santini, i. doc. xiv).

196 Santini, i. doc. xx.

197 Santini, ii. doc. viii. His name is Corsus, and at one point he is styled a councillor super facto iustitie, at another, consul iustitie.

198 In the years 1193 and 1195 he still mentions the Consuls, and even by name. These may have been the consiliarii of the two PodestÀ known to have existed in those years. It is well to observe here that all this would have been impossible in the case of Imperial PodestÀ, had there ever been any in Florence. They could never have appeared in the light of chief Consuls.

199 Florence Archives, "Bullettone," c. 131. July 10, 1196: "Dominus Petrus episcopus habuit tenutam a consulibus curie Communis Florentie." In the years 1197–99, vide the documents of the Tuscan League, quoted later on, and Hartwig, ii. 194.

200 In the year 1197, Paolino Pieri tells us: "San Miniato al Tedesco, or rather its fortress, was destroyed." In 1198, he tells how "San Genesio was pulled down by the inhabitants" (terrazzani), who then returned to the hill-top, and rebuilt San Miniato. Villani (v. 21) says that San Miniato was destroyed, and its inhabitants came down to St. Genesio in the plain. Vide also the "Annales," ii., and the Neap. Cod., ad annum. Hartwig (ii. 93) has examined the question minutely, and swept away all inaccuracies and exaggerations.

201 "Annales," ii., Neap. Cod., ad annum, Villani (v. 22). From the reports of eye witnesses, published by Passerini, one sees that Montegrossoli was troublesome to its neighbours, and even Villani says that it was held by cattani, who made continual attacks on the Florentines.

202 Vide the "Acts of the League" (November 11 and December 14, 1197; February 5 and 7, 1198), in Santini, i. doc. xxi., and in Ficker, vol. iv. p. 242, doc. 196. Ficker uses some of the documents preserved in Florence, and also some of those at Sienna which are more complete and correct at certain points.

203 Sed Podiumbonizi possit recipi per capud.

204 Vide the "Acts of the League" in Ficker, vol. iv. p. 246.

205 "Atti della Lega." The Florentines swore to the League on November 13 and 14, 1197. The document in Santini, i. doc. xxiii. gives the names of sixteen Consuls and 133 councillors who took the oath. In a preceding document, also relating to February 5 and 17, 1198, there are the names of ten Consuls, but three of them are not the same on both days, so that there must have been more than twelve Consuls in February, 1198. Some, too, were already in office even in November, 1197, and this confirms our previous hypothesis that, on the great occasion of the League, all or part of the withdrawing Consuls remained in office with those just elected. Nor is this a solitary instance. On April 2, 1212, the Commune of Prato, in arranging a treaty with Florence, sent three Consules veteri, and three Consules novi eiusdem terre to conclude it. Santini, i. doc. lx.

206 Innocentii III., "Epistolae," i. 15, 27, 34, 35; Ficker, vol. ii. par. 363, p. 384.

207 Instead of mentioning the Ducatus Tusciae, he now spoke of the magna pars Tusciae, quae in nostris privilegiis continetur. To the Pisans he wrote, "Post correctionem adhibitam, nihil invenimus quod in ecclesiastici iuris vel cuiusquam maioris vel minoris personae praeiudicium redundaret." And in February, 1199, he urged them to join the League. Innocentii, "Ep.," bk. i. 401 and 555; "Gesta Innocentii," c. ii.; Ficker, vol. ii. par. 363, pp. 385–6.

208 Santini, i. docs. xxiii., xxiv., xxv. The first is dated the 10th; the second, April 15, 1198; and the third, giving the names of the men of Figline swearing fealty to the League, is also dated the 15th of April. The second alludes to the chief Consuls: "Comandamenta Consulum florentine civitatis omnium vel maioris partis aut priorum ex eis." The third informs us (pp. 43 and 44) that the oath was sworn: "In Florentia, in ecclesia S. Reparate et Parlamento, coram florentino populo iuraverunt." Also further on: "In ecclesia S. Reparate, in Aringo." This is another instance of the parliament being convened in a church.

209 Santini, i. doc. xxvi. Obedience was sworn to the Consuls or Rectors vel segnoratico aliquo extante. This, too, is an expression having very little savour of the more democratic temper of former times.

210 In Villani (v. 26) he is wrongly styled Count Arrigo della Tosa. The Della Tosa family were not counts. The pseudo Brunetto Latini speaks of him in an undated paragraph, anterior to his record of 1200, as "Messer Arrigo, count of Capraia."

211 As we have stated, it seems to be for this reason that the pseudo Brunetto Latini dates the office of PodestÀ from this moment: "A novel thing was done, and for the first time a Potestade was elected in Florence, from jealousy of the Consuls, the which Potestade was Paganello Porcaro of Lucca."

212 Santini, i. doc. xxvii. (February 12 and 23, 1200); doc. xxviii. (February 12 and 19); doc. xxix. (February 12 and 23, and March 25). In these papers the PodestÀ is always mentioned with the councillors, and the office of the Consuls is also invariably recorded: "Sive parabola Potestatis et Consiliariorum vel Consulum sive Rectorum Florentie" (p. 49). "A Potestate vel Consiliariis eius, sive a Consulibus Florentie vel Rectoribus" (p. 48). In a posterior document (Santini, i. doc. xxxvii., dated August 14, 1201), we find the councillors representing the PodestÀ: "Sitio filio condam Butrighelli, Melio filio Catalani Consiliarii domini Potestatis Florentie, recipienti (sic) vice et nomine dicte Potestatis et totius Comunis Florentie" (p. 72). These councillors did not yet form a special council, but were on the way to it, since the council or senate of the city being already called the general council, the existence of a special one is implied: "In Florentia, in ecclesia S. Reparate, coram generali consilio civitatis, iuraverunt." Santini, i. doc. xxviii. p. 53.

213 Santini, i. doc. xxx.

214 It may be roughly rendered:

"Florence, get out of the way,
Semifonte's a city to-day."

215 Santini, i. doc. xxxiv.

216 This treaty was concluded April 27, 1201; about five hundred inhabitants of Colle swearing adhesion to it on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of April. Santini, i. docs. xxxv. and xxxvi.

217 "Per quinquennium guerra durante et eidem omnibus de Tuscia prestantibus patrocinium.... Tacere tamen nolo magnalia quae inter caetera vidi, guerra durante." Sanzanome, Florentine ed., pp. 134–5.

218 The document is given in the "Delizie," of Ildefonso di San Luigi, vii. 178. Perpetual exemption from all taxes was decreed to Gonella and his comrades, "qui mortui fuere in turre de Bagunolo et in muris apud Summumfontem, in servitio Communis Florentie." Vide also in Hartwig, ii. 100.

219 Santini, i. xxxviii., xxxix. The treaty of peace was concluded between Alberto da Montauto, lord of San Gimignano, for the people of Semifonte, and Claritus Pillii, Consul of the merchants for Florence.

220 This letter, published by Winkelmann (Philipp von Schwaben, i. 556), is taken from a MS. of the Florentine Boncompagni, in the Archives of Berne, No. 322, fol. 18, and part of it is referred to by Hartwig, ii. 102.

221 About eight hundred men of Montepulciano swore to these terms on the hand of the Florentine Consul. Santini, i. doc. xl. October 19, 24, 1202.

222 Santini, i. docs. xlii., xliii., xliv., and xlv. These papers, dated April and May, 1203, give the names of all the Siennese citizens and country people sanctioning the arbitration in the name of their city. The last document contains the depositions of the witnesses examined by Ogerio. Doc. xlvii., June 4, 1203, is the verdict pronounced by him.

223 On the days 4th, 7th, and 8th of June, the Bishop and Commune of Sienna gave up all that was due to Florence, in accordance with the verdict. Santini, i. doc. xlviii. On the 6th of the same month one hundred and fifty Siennese councillors swore observance to the terms. Santini, i. doc. xlix.

224 Santini, i. doc. lii.

225 Ibid., i. doc. xlvi.

226 Murat., "Antiq. It.," iv. 576–83. Vide also Ficker (vol. ii. par. 312, p. 229 and fol.), who gleaned from this important document the list of the PodestÀ established as Imperial envoys in the Siennese territory. These PodestÀ are mentioned by the witnesses as "Comites teutonici, Comites comitatus senensis pro imperatore Federigo," and occasionally even as "Comites contadini."

227 "Per distruggere questa capra, non ci vuol altro che un lupo." Vide Repetti, art. "Capraia e Montelupo"; Hartwig (ii. 106–9) rectifies some chronological and other blunders made by Villani.

228 The treaty is probably extant in the Archives of Pistoia. Repetti, in citing it from the "Aneddoti" of Zaccaria, dates it the 3rd of June; other writers date it July.

229 Dated October 29, November 17, 1204, in Santini, i. doc. liii. The oath sworn before the Consul Guido Uberto was of obedience to the commands "que ... fecerint Potestas Florentie vel Consules Civitatis vel maior pars vel priores aut prior eorum." Thus the PodestÀ's name came first, even at a time when there were Consuls in office, before whom the oath was sworn, in presence of "Angiolerii Beati, Doratini et Burniti Paganiti sexcalcorum Comunis Florentie." Even the office of sexcalcus is new (it is also mentioned in another document of the 30–31st of May, in Santini, i. xlvi.), and seems to us a sign of the change tending to a more aristocratic form of government in Florence. The communal oath sworn on October 29, 1204 (Santini, i. doc. liv.) began thus, "Hec sunt sacramenta, quae Potestas et Consules Comunis et Consules militum, mercatorum et Priores Artium et generale Consilium, ad sonum campane coadunatum, fecerunt Guidoni Borgognoni comiti et filiis et Caprolensibus." The Consuls took the oath, not the PodestÀ, for there was none, although nominally heading the formula.

230 Recorded in the "Acta Sanctorum," the 1st of May, at p. 14, and also in the list (known as that of Sta. Maria Novella) of the Consuls and PodestÀ. Vide Hartwig, ii. 197. But the documents of this year only refer in general to the Consuls and PodestÀ without giving any names.

231 Sizio Butrigelli, or Butticelli, is mentioned in the Sta. Maria Novella Catalogue. Hartwig, ii. 197.

232 Sanzanome, pp. 139–40; Hartwig, ii. 111–12.

233 Santini, i. doc. lviii. and lix. A great number of Siennese swore to the treaty in the presence of the PodestÀ Gualfredotto Grasselli, vice et nomine Comunis Florentie recipienti, without the consiliarii. But the ceremony being very lengthy, he delegated Ildebrandino Cavalcanti to represent him, procuratoris nomine. Some of the documents of this peace are in Florence, the others in Sienna. The former were discovered by Santini, and all are mentioned by Hartwig, ii. 113–14.

234 This chapter was originally published in the Politecnico of Milan, numbers for July and September, 1866.

235 The details of this event are differently told by Villani (v. 38), by the pseudo Brunetto Latini (ad annum), and by Dino Compagni at the beginning of his Chronicle. But the gist is the same in all three, and we have mainly adhered to the first and second authorities, whose accounts are longer and more detailed than that of Compagni.

236 Villani, v. 38.

237 Villani, vi. 5.

238 Villani (vi. 33) says: "Albeit the said parties existed among the nobles of Florence, and they oftentimes came to blows from private enmities, and were split into factions by the said parties," nevertheless the people "remained united, for the good and honour and dignity of the Republic" (vol. i. p. 253). The "Annales," ii., of the year 1236 relate that the palaces of the Commune and of the Galigai were destroyed, which would certainly seem to be a proof of a genuine revolution.

239 Ammirato, "Storie," lib. xi. (with additions made by Ammirato the younger). Anno 1240.

240 In this year we find the first official mention of the Florentine Guelphs. Frederic II. complains of their conduct, saying: "Pars Guelforum Florentiae, cui dudum nostra Maiestas pepercerat." The "Annales," ii., first name the Guelphs in 1239, and in 1242 mention the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Vide Hartwig, "Quellen," &c., vol. ii. pp. 159–60 and 164. This author believes that the names of the two Florentine parties first came into use in the year 1239.

241 Lami, "AntichitÀ Toscane," lesson xv.; Passerini, "Istituti di Beneficenza—Il Bigallo." Florence: Le Monnier, 1853.

242 Vide "Statuta Populi et Communis Florentiae," published in Florence, but with the mark of the Friburg press, vol. i.; Cantini, "Saggi," vol. iii. chap. xvi.; "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," vol. ix. p. 256 and fol.

243 Villani says: "They stripped all power from the PodestÀ then in Florence, and dismissed all the officers" (vi. 39). As usual, Malespini copies from Villani (chap. cxxxvii.). But reading farther we see clearly that the PodestÀ was elected as before, and that a palace was built for his use. The chronicler's real meaning was that the form of government was changed, and the actual governors dismissed from office. The term PodestÀ was used in its general sense of magistrate-in-chief.

244 Villani, vol. vi. pp. 39 and 40. Vide also Coppo Stefani.

245 It is thought to be the work of Lapo or Jacopo, the supposed master of Arnolfo Brunelleschi.

246 Villani, vi. 39.

247 Vide Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, "Storia Fiorentina," bk. ii. rubric 63. In relating the first rupture of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the author says: "Almost all the families on the Ghibelline, or Imperial side, were nobles of the contado, because these held lands or castles in fief from the Empire." Also Ammirato, who was well versed in contemporary chronicles and documents, in relating what was said by men of the people as to the reforms of 1250, makes them continue their statement that the Uberti, as leaders of the nobles, were the authors of all the misfortunes of Florence, with the following words: "Who but the Uberti waste our substance and our strength by exorbitant taxes and imposts? These haughty men deemed it an honourable thing, among their other grand and noble usages, to be our foes; inasmuch as, exulting in their descent from the princes of Germany, they consider us to be churls and peasants, and despise us, as though we were of a different clay from their own." Ammirato, "Storie," bk. ii. ad annum.

248 In fact, Villani only mentions them at a much later date. But there is documentary evidence of their previous existence. Vide, for instance, the "Arch. Stor. Ital.," Series iii. vol. xxiii. p. 222. Doc. dated April 30, 1251. Vide M. di Coppo Stefani, rub. 90.

249 Giannotti, "Opere," ed. Le Monnier, vol. i. p. 82.

250 Machiavelli, "Storie," bk. ii. On this point it may be well to repeat our former remarks, to the effect that Machiavelli is often as inaccurate in his definition of facts as profound in his intuition of their character and tendency. After the first book of his "Storie," giving a general introduction to the Middle Ages, he begins to narrate the history of Florence in the second book. He was the first writer, after L. Aretino, to put aside nearly all the fabulous tales of the chroniclers touching the origins of Florence, and start from well-authenticated facts. For although he, too, believes that Florence was destroyed by Totila and rebuilt by Charlemagne, and even credits the destruction of Fiesole by the Florentines in 1010, it is easy to condone these blunders, remembering how many other legendary tales were rejected by him, and how much time elapsed before some germ of historic truth could be gleaned from the less incredible traditions to which he adhered. But why did Machiavelli pass over almost at one bound the interval between 1010 and 1215 without saying anything of the first and second Florentine constitutions, or alluding to the numerous deeds of war and political revolutions occurring during that period? Regarding these events, he might have derived information from the chroniclers. But he clings to the theory that the Buondelmonti tragedy was the primary cause and origin of all internecine strife in Florence, although the evidence of contemporary chroniclers and his own historical acumen might have saved him from this error. Continuing with the same strangely unaccountable negligence, he skips another period—from 1215 to 1250—saying that then at last Guelphs and Ghibellines came to an agreement, and "deemed the moment come to establish free institutions," almost as though this were the first time that the Florentines had contemplated organising a free government. Yet we have seen that Florentine liberties were assured, and the first constitution founded in 1115; that the constitution of 1250 was the third, not the first, and established by the Guelph popolani, to the hurt of the Ghibelline nobles, instead of being formed, as Machiavelli states, by the united efforts of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Nor is this the last of his blunders, for Machiavelli goes on to say: "Likewise to remove causes of enmity arising from judgments delivered, they [the Florentines] decreed the establishment of two foreign judges, with the respective titles of Captain and PodestÀ, authorised to administer justice to the citizens in all cases, whether civil or criminal." In this manner he converts the two chief political authorities into ordinary judges, places both on the same level, and fails to remark that, although the Captain was a newly created functionary, the PodestÀ had been in existence for more than half a century. He also states that the carroccio was instituted in 1250, to give prestige, or maestÀ, to the army, although the Florentines had adopted the use of the carroccio long before this date. He shows equal negligence in his account of the organisation of the army, and without drawing any distinction between the forces of the Commune and those of the people, although this point is fully elucidated by the chroniclers. Villani, for instance, tells us: "Inasmuch as we have treated of the gonfalons and banners of the people," it is fitting to make mention of those "of the knights and the army proper" (guerra). Nevertheless, whenever Machiavelli pauses to consider the general character of Florentine revolutions, and particularly of those subsequent to 1250, his definitions excel those of any other writer.

251 November, 1252.

252 "Arch. Stor. It." Series iii. vol. xxiii. p. 220.

253 Villani and Ammirato, ad annum.

254 Villani, vi. 51. Ammirato, ad annum.

255 Ammirato, ad annum, contains a summary of the treaty of peace.

256 Villani and Ammirato, ad annum.

257 VI. 70.

258 Scaggiale—a leathern belt with a buckle.

259 Tassello—a square of cloth attached to the cloak so as to be used as a hood.

260 Villani, vi. 70.

261 Vide "I Capitoli del Comune di Firenze, inventario e regesto," vol. i., edited by C. Guasti. Florence: Cellini, 1866.

262 Ammirato, ad annum, gives a summary of the treaty.

263 Villani, vi. 62. This incident, highly praised by Villani as a magnanimous example, has been quoted by others as a proof that the Florentine people must have been corrupt at a time when so exceptional a monument could be decreed to one of the citizens simply because he had refused to betray his country. But it should be noted, first of all, that he was not honoured with a monument merely because he had rejected a bribe, but, as Villani goes on to say, because "Aldobrandino died in such excellent repute for his virtuous deeds for the good of the Commune." Even should Villani's praises of the deed in itself seem too marked and consequently indicative of general corruption, this corruption might be more fitly attributed to Villani's own days than to the earlier period of Aldobrandino and the Primo Popolo, when genuine virtue and true patriotism were undoubtedly predominant.

264 "Storie," lib. ii.

265 Villani, vi. 65.

266 C. Paoli, "La battagali di Montaperti" (extract from vol. ii. of the "Bollettino della SocietÀ Senese di Storia patria"). Sienna, 1869. In 1889 Prof. Paolo added another very important publication to this work, i.e., "Il libro di Montaperti," in the "Documenti di Storia Italiana," brought out by the Royal Commission for Tuscany, Umbria, and the Marches, vol. ix.

267 Marchionni di Coppo Stefani, "Stor. fior.," rubric 120.

268 Villani and other Florentine chroniclers.

269 The figures given by Florentine chroniclers are never exact, and must be therefore regarded as approximate ones only.

270 Here is an instance extracted from a law of 1284: "Item quod nullus presumat consulere, vel arengare super aliquo quod non sit principaliter propositum per dominum Potestatem, vel aliquem loco sui. Et qui contrafacerit, in soldos sexaginta florenorum parvorum vice qualibet puniatur, et plus et minus ad voluntatem domini Potestatis. Et quicquid dictum vel consultum contra propositionem, non valeat, nec teneat." "Consigli Maggiori, Provvisioni e Registri," i., sheets 12 retro. Archivio di Stato, Florence.

271 Too coarse to be translated.—Translator's note.

272 Villani, vi. 78.

273 Aldobrandini, "Chroniche," p. 9; Paoli, "La battaglia di Montaperti," p. 46.

274 In the cathedral of Sienna certain poles are shown traditionally believed to have belonged to the Florentine Carroccio. But Siennese scholars now justly maintain that these poles formed part of their own Carroccio instead.

275 Paoli, op. cit., p. 58.

276 Sismondi, after comparison of the chroniclers' accounts, raises the number of killed to 10,000 and the wounded to the same figure.

277 VI. 19.

278 Lord of the Castle of Poppi in the Casentino. He had separated from the other Counts Guidi, who were Guelphs.

279 All this is narrated by Villani and other chroniclers, and is likewise recorded by Dante in the "Divina Commedia." A few writers have tried to throw doubt on the incident, but, as Dr. Hartwig justly observes, it is difficult to suppose that Guelph chroniclers would have invented a legend so entirely favourable to the Ghibelline chief.

280 Prof. Del Lungo gives a full account of these demolitions in his paper, "Una vendetta in Firenze," in the "Arch. Stor. It.," Series iv. vol. 18, p. 355 and fol.

281 P. Ildefonso, "Delizie," &c., vol. ix. p. 19 and fol.

282 Machiavelli, "Storie," lib. i. p. 37.

283 It is said that Manfred, on witnessing their attack, showed his admiration for their courage by exclaiming, "Whoever may win the victory, these Guelphs will not lose it."

284 Dante (Purgatorio, iii. 121–32). The poet places Manfred in purgatory, although at the period he was classed as a heretic together with the Emperor Frederic, Farinata, and many other Ghibellines:

"Orribili furon li peccati miei,
Ma la bontÀ infinita ha si gran braccia
Che prende ciÒ che si rivolve a lei.
Se il pastor di Cosenza, che alla caccia
Di me fu messo per Clemente, allora
Avesse in Dio ben letta questa faccia,
L'ossa del corpo mio sarieno ancora
In co' del ponte presso a Benevento,
Sotto la guardia della grave mora.
Or le bagna la pioggia e move il vento,
Di fuor del Regno, quasi lungo il Verde,
Ove le trasmutÒ a lume spento."

285 Machiavelli, "Storie," lib. ii. p. 73.

286 This result had come to pass at a much earlier period, was of frequent occurrence in Florentine history, and was now more assured than at any previous time. Malespini's Chronicle, chap. 104, even before the coronation of Frederic II., refers to certain families who "were beginning to be prominent, although too obscure to be mentioned a short while ago.... The Mozzi, Bardi, Jacopi detti Rossi, Frescobaldi, all these were of recent creation, inasmuch as they were still merchants and of petty origin: likewise the Tornaquinci and Cavalcanti, also traders, were of petty origin, and the same may be said of the Cerchi, who shortly began to rise higher than the aforesaid."

287 Most of these letters are given in MartÈne, others are published by Del Giudice in his "Codice diplomatico di Carlo I. and Carlo II d'AngiÒ."

288 Machiavelli, "Storie," lib. ii. p. 75.

289 "Il Codice diplomatico di Carlo I. e II. d'AngiÒ," published by Del Giudice, in Naples, serves to rectify many blunders made by the chroniclers on this point.

290 "The citizens of ancient times being either entirely extinguished, or, at least decayed by age, another race began to spring up, as it were, in a new city." Ammirato, "Storie."

291 There are so many discrepancies among Florentine authorities regarding this question that, after careful study and comparison of the different accounts given by the chroniclers, we have chosen Villani as our guide. He is the most celebrated of the old writers and the nearest to the times described. On close consideration of his words (vide Villani, lib. vii. chap. xvi.) we see that the councils are to be specified as those of the Twelve, of the Captain and of the PodestÀ. But reference to the State Archives, the Consulte, or first volume of Provvisioni—dated a few years after the reform of which we speak—will serve to prove that sometimes the Council of One Hundred was assembled; at others both the special council of the Captain and his council-general and special were summoned; sometimes again the PodestÀ's special council—likewise styled the Council of Ninety—with his council-general and special, amounting in all to 390 members (300 + 90). We also find that admittance to these four last-mentioned councils was usually granted to the seven masters (capitudini) of the greater guilds, and that in course of time the number of the masters increased, and that they were sometimes summoned to meet as a separate council. By studying the number of votes given at the councils, we find sufficient proof of the accuracy of Villani's statements. In special councils the voting was done with black and white balls, a record being kept of their respective numbers. But at that period general councils only signified their verdict by standing up or remaining seated, and the votes were not recorded in writing. But regarding these points the rules changed as circumstances required, for the magistrates were frequently authorised to consult whichever councils they preferred.

In affairs of the highest importance, and in discussions carried on in a strictly legal way, every measure proposed had to be first approved by the twelve worthies, who were likewise allowed to ask the advice of confidential private persons, afterwards denominated advisers (richiesti). The proposal was next submitted to the One Hundred, then to the Captain's two councils, and finally to those of the PodestÀ. All these details are confirmed by the documents in the Archives; and as a more easily verified instance, although of later date than the period now described, we may quote the opening sentence of the "Statuto dell' Esecutore di Giustizia," given in the Appendix to Signor Giudici's "Storia de' Municipi Italiani," p. 402 (1st edition). "In the name of God, Amen. In the year of His Holy Incarnation, 1306, &c., firstly, in the Council of One Hundred, and subsequently in the council and through the special council of Messere lo Capitano and the masters of the twelve greater guilds (these having already increased in number) ... and farthermore, at once, without delay, in the council and through the general and special council of Messere lo Capitano and of the people of Florence, and of the masters of the guilds ... done, confirmed, and carried the vote by sitting and rising, as prescribed by the same Statutes.... Likewise after these proceedings, in the same year, same 'indiction' and day, in the council and by the general council of three hundred and special council of ninety men of the Florentine Commune, with the aforesaid guild-masters, by order of the noble gentleman, Messere Count Gabrielli d'Agobbio of the same city and Commune of Florence, PodestÀ, &c." Here it should also be noted that although in this case the councils of the PodestÀ assembled on the same day as those of the captain, yet according to law and usage the former should not have been convoked until one or two days had elapsed.

292 Vide "Delizie degli eruditi Toscani," by P. Ildefonso, vol. vii. pp. 203–286.

293 Del Lungo "Una Vendetta," in "Firenze Arch. Stor. It.," Series iv. vol. xviii. p. 354 and fol.

294 The Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani, anno i., No. 1, contains "Lo Statuto di Parte Guelfa," of 1335, edited by Bonaini, whose learned commentary on the same appeared in subsequent numbers. Villani tells us (vii. 17) that, "by mandate from the Pope and the king, the said Guelphs nominated three knights as rectors of the party." But this must be a blunder, since, according to the statutes of the party, three knights and three men of the people were named to the office. A document dated December 12, 1268, appended to Del Lungo's "Una Vendetta in Firenze," mentions, "Unus de sex Capitaneis Partis Guelforum." Villani, in the same chap. xvii., confuses Pope Clement with Pope Urban, deceased in 1264. The statute of 1335 adds a third council, of one hundred, to the others, and this probably served the same purpose with regard to the councils as that fulfilled by the parliament to the Republic.

295 The English word "milliner" is derived from Milan.

296 The term calimala seems to have been taken from the name of the street in which the guild was situated. The street led to a house of ill-fame, hence the name Calis malus, in the sense of Via mala—evil road or lane.

297 A statute of the Calimala Guild, dated 1332, is given in the appendix of Giudici's "Storia dei Municipi Italiani." Another, dated 1301–2, has been published, with a commentary by Dr. Filippi, "Il piÙ antico Statuto dell' Arte di Calimala." Turin: Bocca, 1889. The statutes formulated regulations already long in vigour by means of special laws.

298 All these details of the Calimala Guild are to be found in the statutes cited above. We have quoted from the earliest statutes.

299 Originally published in the Milan Politecnico, Nos. for November and December, 1867.

300 Ammirato (ed. of 1846; Florence, Batelli), i. 248.

301 The chroniclers say Guy de Montfort, but the latter only came in 1269. Vide Del Giudice, Cod. Dipl. ii. 23.

302 Villani, vii. 19. The frequent mention of eight hundred knights by the chroniclers of this period excites doubts as to their accuracy. It is never safe to accept their statements regarding the number of this or that army. Probably eight hundred horse was a species of regulation number, signifying a squadron of French men-at-arms.

303 Villani, vii. 19; Marchionne Stefani, rubric 138; Ammirato, lib. iii.

304 Gregorovius, vol. v. chap. 8: Cherrier, "Storia della lotta dei Papi e degli Imperatori di Casa Sveva," lib. x.

305 Ammirato, i. 262; "Delizie degli Eruditi," vol. ix. p. 41.

306 Machiavelli, "Storie," vol. i. p. 77. Italy, 1813.

307 "Ipsas petitiones benigne accessimus et audivimus cum effectu, primo de conservando iure et honore Comunis Florentie; contra Pisanos et Senenses invasores et Gibellinos et exiticios terre vestra et infideles Podiibonizi proditores nostros proponimus, cum Dei auxilio atque vestro, facere vivam guerram, donec peniteant de commissis, et vos de factis vestris habeatis comodum et honorem.... Vicarium Ytalicum virum providum discretum et fidelem, cuius devotionem, fidem et probitatem in magnis factis nostris cognovimus, firmiter et ab experto vobis concessimus secundum quod vestra postulatio continebat, et volumus quod sit contentus salario et expensis et emendis, prout in ipsius Civitatis statutis continetur, nec ultra aliquid exigat." Del Giudice, "Codice Diplomatico," ii. 116–17.

We find that several Italian PodestÀ were afterwards appointed in Florence by Charles.

308 Villani, vii. 54.

309 Raynaldi, anno 1278; Sismondi, vol. ii. chap. vii.

310 Villani, vii. 56.

311 Ammirato, vol. i. p. 274.

312 Ammirato the younger was the first writer to give an exact report of this agreement, with minute details derived from State papers, in his additions to the elder Ammirato's "History" (Anno 1279 and 1280). Several documents are given in the "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," by Padre Ildefonso, vol. ix. p. 63 and fol. Still ampler details are given by Bonaini ("Della Parte Guelfa in Firenze") in the Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani, vol. iii. p. 167 and fol. Vide also A. Gherardi's recent and very important work, "Le Consulte della Repubblica Fiorentina" (Firenze, Sansoni). The original document of the Peace is to be found (mutilated) in the State Archives of Florence.

313 The Fourteen are mentioned together with the Twelve in the cardinal's treaty of peace, and for some time later both bodies are simultaneously mentioned in the "Consulte," according to the usual Florentine custom of enumerating the old as well as the new magistrates. Subsequently the Fourteen alone are recorded, and the Twelve disappear entirely.

314 Villani, vii. 56; Ammirato (Florentine edition of 1846), lib. iii. p. 275, &c.

315 The old chronicles contain indications of these particulars, but for the minute description of them, corroborated by documentary evidence, vide Ammirato the younger, in his appendices to the "Storie" of Ammirato the elder.

316 Dr. Hartwig, who first called attention to this point, also remarked that the office of Defensor is first recorded in the "Consulte," in November, 1282, and that the first Defender mentioned by name is Bernardino della Porta. "Consulte," pp. 116, 132, 133, 140, from November 6, 1282 to February 6, 1283.

317 Dr. Hartwig also ascertained that in the "Consulte" the first mention of the priors occurs on June 26, 1282. Their names are recorded after those of the Fourteen; on April 24, 1283, they are given precedence over the latter; and from December forwards they are mentioned alone, without the Fourteen.

318 Bk. i. p. 25 and fol. (the Del Lungo edition).

319 Villani, vii, 79; Ammirato, iii. pp. 288–90.

320 Villani says (vii. 89) that this "was the most noble and renowned court ever held in the city of Florence."

321 "Consulte," vol. i. pp. 169–70.

322 Hartwig, "Ein menschenalter florentinische Geschichte" (1250–93). Freiburgi B., 1889–91, p. 111.

323 Ammirato gives full details of this treaty. A summary of the original document was afterwards included by Canale, in his "Nuova Istoria della Repubblica di Genova" (the Le Monnier edition), vol. iii. p. 34.

324 Villani, vii. 98; Malespini, ccxliii.

325 Some of the chroniclers assert that the archbishop hoped to extract large sums of money from his captives before making an end of them.

326 For details of the Pisan war with Genoa and Florence, vide "Storie e Cronache Pisane," edited by Bonaini and others in vol. vi. (pts. i. and ii.) of the "Archivio Storico Italiano"; Canale, "Nuova Istoria della Repubblica di Genova"; Villani; Flaminio dal Borgo; Muratori Script., vol. xv.; Sismondi; "Hist. des Rep. It.," T. ii. chap. 8.

327 An order of knighthood limited to the nobility.

328 G. Villani, Dino Compagni, and the other Florentine chroniclers.

329 Villani, Compagni, Ammirato, and the Pisan historians previously quoted.

330 Villani, vii. 99; Vasari, "Vita di Arnolfo"; Ammirato (Florence: Batelli and Co., 1846), vol. i. pp. 310–11.

331 Ammirato, vol. i. p. 337.

332 Vide Note A at the end of this chapter.

333 Prof. P. Santini has treated of this question in his article entitled "Condizione personale degli abitanti del contado nel secolo xiii.," "Arch. Stor. It." (Series iv. vol. xvii. p. 178 and fol.). He justly remarks that there is no basis of comparison between the Bolognese law of 1256 and the Florentine law of 1289, seeing that they relate to persons of a different class and to two different periods of the movement set on foot in every commune for ameliorating the conditions of the inhabitants of the contado (p. 188 and fol.).

334 Villani, vii. 132.

335 Ammirato, bk. iii. ad annum.

336 Vide Note B at the end of this chapter.

337 Vide Note C at the end of this chapter.

338 Originally published in the Politecnico of Milan; Nos. for June and July, 1867.

339 Vide the Florentine edition of 1755, p. 133.

340 This anecdote is related by the Friar of St. Gall, "De rebus bellicis Caroli Magni." Vide Muratori, Dissertazione xxv.

341 Muratori, Dissertazione xxv. Vide likewise Pignotti, "Storia della Toscana," vol. iv. Saggio iii. Florence, 1824.

342 We have already mentioned the probable derivation of this term.

343 Vide Pagnini, "Della Decima," vol. ii. sec. 4 and 5.

344 Pagnini, "Della Decima," ibid.

345 Villani, lib. xi. chap. 94.

346 Villani, lib. xi. chap. 94.

347 It would seem that the Guild of Por' Santa Maria originally traded in Florentine woollen stuffs, and that the silk merchants formed a secondary and separate branch. Gradually, however, they became amalgamated with the guild (early in the thirteenth century), and then became its principal components, until at last the Silk Guild and Por' Santa Maria were entirely fused in one.

348 Vide the "Cronaca" of Benedetto Dei (1470–92), preserved among the MSS. of the Magliabecchian Library. Many interesting portions of this "Cronaca" have been published in the appendix to vol. ii. of Pagnini's "Decima."

349 Vide the same "Cronaca" of Dei.

350 "Again, a law was passed in 1371, inasmuch as many men traded the shares of the Monte in this wise: One said to another: 'the shares of the Monte are at thirty; I wish to do some business with you to-day. This time next year I'll sell to you, or you to me, at what price shall we say?' At thirty-one the share [of one hundred]? 'What premium do you ask for this?' So they bargained, and the terms were fixed. When shares fell, the merchant bought, if they rose, he sold out, and the stock changed hands twenty times in the year. Accordingly a tax was charged of two florins in the hundred for every transfer." Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, vol. viii. p. 97, in the "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," vol. xiv.

351 Vettori, "Il Fiorino d'oro"; Orsini, "Storia delle Monete." Florence, 1760.

352 Pagnini, "Della Decima," vol. ii. sec. iii. chaps. i.-iv. Other details are supplied by Ammirato, Dei, and more especially by Villani (xi. 88, and xii. 55).

353 G. Villani, xl. 54.

354 Ammirato, lib. 18, ad annum.

355 "Cronaca" of Benedetto Dei, given in Pagnini.

356 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 275.

357 Ammirato, ad annum; Pagnini, loc. cit.

358 This led some writers to believe that slavery still existed in Italy many centuries after it had disappeared. A praiseworthy article on this theme, by Signor Salvatore Bongi, was published in the Nuova Antologia, anno I. No. 6.

359 Vide the Speech of Tommaso Mocenigo, so often reproduced by chroniclers and historians; Pagnini, "Della Decima," vol. ii. p. 7 and fol.; Romanin, "Storia documentata di Venezia," vol. ii. pp. 156–7.

360 Urghanj, the chief city of Khwarezm, the country now called Khiva. New Urghanj, the present commercial capital of Khiva, is sixty miles from the ancient city.

361 Balducci Pegolotti, in Pagnini's book. Colonel H. Yule's "Cathay, and the Way Thither, being a Collection of MediÆval Notices of China" (London, printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1866), is a very important work, includes a series of documents translated by the author, and is prefaced by a learned dissertation from his pen.

362 Pagnini, vol. ii. sec. i. K. Sieveking, "Geschichte von Florenz." This very brief but excellent work was published anonymously at Hamburg in 1844. It has furnished many of the details given in this chapter.

363 The first five were frequently joined to the greater guilds, which were then increased to twelve.

364 "Inferno," Canto x.

365 Franco Sacchetti tells us that while he was a member of the government the magistrates of the Republic never succeeded in enforcing the laws against luxury. One of them, having been severely reprimanded on this score and threatened with dismissal from office, gives the following account of the devices by which Florentine women evaded the regulations established by law:

"Signori miei,—All my life I have sought to acquire reason; and now, when methought I knew something, I find I know nothing; inasmuch as when searching for forbidden ornaments, according to your orders, the women bring forward arguments of a kind never found by me in any law; and among others I will quote these: There comes a woman with an embroidered trimming turned down over her hood, and the notary says, 'Give me your name, since you wear an embroidered trimming.' The good woman takes off this trimming, which is fastened to the hood by a pin, and, holding it in her hand, declares it is a garland. He goes to another woman and says, 'I find you have too many buttons on the front of your gown; you must not wear those buttons.' But she replies, 'Yes, Messere, I can, for these are not buttons, but bosses; and if you do not believe me, see, they have no shanks, and neither are there button-holes.' The notary passes on to another woman wearing ermine fur, saying to himself, 'What excuse can she allege for that? You wear ermine,' and he begins to write her name. The woman says, 'Do not write me down, for this is not ermine, but lattizzi fur.' Says the notary, 'What are these lattizzi?' 'They are animals....' One of the magistrates says, 'We are trying to fight against a wall.' And another remarks, 'It were better to attend to affairs of more importance!'" (Novella, 137.)

366 Guicciardini, "Considerazioni sui Discorsi del Machiavelli" (Opere inedite, vol. i., BarbÉra, Florence). Full confirmation of the above statements are to be found in this work. In treating of chap. xii. bk. i., where Machiavelli charges the Popes with having prevented the unity of Italy, the author qualifies his approval of the remark by adding: "But I feel uncertain whether it were a good or an ill chance for this province to escape being absorbed in a kingdom; for although to be subject to a republic might prove a glory to the name of Italy and a happiness to the dominant city, it could only bring calamity to all other cities, seeing that, oppressed by the latter's shadow, they were unable to rise to any greatness, it being the wont of republics 'to give no share of the fruits of their independence and power to any save their own citizens.... This reason does not hold good in a monarchy wherein all subjects enjoy more equality, and therefore we behold France and many other provinces living contentedly under a king.'"

367 Originally published in the Milan Politecnico, July and August, 1868.

368 To avoid the addition of too many notes to a chapter treating of the general course of events, and only purposing to throw some light on the political conditions of our communes, more especially of Florence, I may say once for all, that besides the statutes, quoted in due place, the authorities most frequently referred to are: Savigny, "Storia del Diritto Romano nel Medio Evo"; Francesco Forti, "Istituzioni Civili e Trattati inediti di giurisprudenza"; Gans, "Il Diritto di Successione nella Storia Italiana," translated by A. Torchiarulo: Naples (Pedone, Lauriel, 1853); Gide, "Etude sur la condition privÉe de la femme": Paris, 1868; Schupfer, "La Famiglia Longobarda," in the Law Archives of Bologna, Nos. 1, 2. At this date it is scarcely necessary to remark that since 1868 these studies have made enormous progress in Italy, and that many works of signal importance have been produced which were naturally unknown to me while engaged on these pages, only intended—at the moment—to assist my pupils to a clearer comprehension of the Florentine revolution of 1293, and the "Ordinamenti di Giustizia," which were its inevitable and long needed results.

369 Translator's note to Chapter VII.—With regard to this chapter, I am greatly indebted to the kindness of my learned friend Mr. Ninian Thompson, late judge at Calcutta, since without his skilled collaboration and revision it would have been impossible to cope with the legal technicalities of the text. My thanks are also due to Signor Del Vecchio, Professor of Jurisprudence, for his valuable explanation of ancient terminology.—Linda Villari.

370 Gaius, i. pp. 890–2.

371 Comitis Gabriellis Verri, "De ortu et progressu iuris mediolanensis," &c. In Book I. of this work we find, among others, the following words: "QuÆ omnia manifeste demonstrant, maiores nostros maximum atque perpetuum studium, contulisse ad agnationem conservandam pro veteri xii. tabularum iure, a Justiniano postea immutato, quo certe nihil ad servandum augendumque familiarum splendorem ... utilius, commodius, aptius, commendabilius potuit afferri."

Another of those old writers on law who steadfastly maintain this view is Cardinal De Luca, who, in his "Theatrum veritatis et iustitiÆ," makes a singularly angry attack upon Justinian and all agreeing with his views on the subject of agnation. According to De Luca, the Italians never accepted the reforms, or, rather, as he calls them, the destructions and corruptions, favoured by Justinian.

Even Giannone, in his "Storia Civile del Regno di Napoli" (bk. iii. paragraph v.), says that Justinian's works met with no favour among us. "They found no acceptance either in Italy or in our provinces, nor could they be planted and strike deep roots here, as on foreign soil; on the contrary, the ancient books of the juris-consults were retained, and the code of Theodosius lost neither its reputation nor its authority."

Here it may be well to remark that the persistence of the Roman law in Italy during the Middle Ages, maintained by Savigny, but combated by others, is now admitted on all hands.

372 Dr. J. Ficker, "Forschungen zur Reichs und Rechtgeschicte Italiens," 4 vols. Innsbruck, 1868–74.

373 Gans, while accepting the ideas of Savigny as to the diffusion of the Justinian law in Italy, also takes this view, which is in accordance with his own theory that the new forms of the Italian law were derived from the laws of the Longobards.

374 Baudi de Vesme, in his notes on the Longobard laws, repeatedly remarks: "Theodosiani juris vestigia hic agnoscere mihi vedetur." Del Giudice has recently proved that certain passages are taken from the Justinian law and others from the Theodosian code.

375 This discussion may now be considered superfluous, it being generally acknowledged at the present day, that even subsequently to Justinian's constitution, the Theodosian code continued in force. In this way the Justinian and pre-Justinian forms had a contemporaneous existence, only the Pandects were longer neglected.

376 According to Savigny, the school of Guarnerius was already flourishing in 1113–18. It is now well ascertained that this school was preceded by others adhering far less closely to Justinian forms.

377 The ancient statute of Giacomo Tiepolo, of which the MS. is extant in the Archives of the Frari, in Venice, and which has been frequently printed, concludes its first prologue with these words: "Et se alguna fiada occorresse cosse che per quelli statuti non fossero ordinade, perchÈ l'È de plui i facti che li statuti, s'el occorresse question stranie, et in quele alcuna cossa simela se trovasse, de simel cosse a simele È da proceder. Aver, secondo la consuetudine approvada, oltremente, se al tuto sia diverso, over si facta consuetudine non se trovase, despona i nostri iudexi come zusto et raxionevole a la so providentia apparÈrÀ, habiendo Dio avanti i ochi de la soa mente, si fatamente che, al di del zudixio, de la streta examination davanti el tremante (tremendo) Iudexe render possa degna raxione."

378 Many examples to this effect will be found in the volumes of "Provvisioni" in the Florence Archives.

379 "Statuta RomÆ," RomÆ, 1519, ii. 110, 111, and iii. 17.

380 "Statuta Pisauri, noviter impressa," 1531, ii. 79, 84, 106, 107.

381 "Statuta Pisauri, noviter impressa," 1531, ii. 79, 84, 106, 107.

382 "Etiam nullis probationibus, quia volumus quod nuda patris assertio plenam probationem faciat." Vide "Statuta Civitatis Lucensis," 1539, ii. 66, 67, 68.

383 "Statuta Civitatis Urbini, impressa, Pisauri," 1519, vi. 30. Quod pater pro filis, dominus pro famulo teneatur in damnis datis.

384 "Statuta FlorentiÆ" (edition dated from Friburg), ii. 110.

385 "Statuta FlorentiÆ" (edition dated from Friburg), ii. 110.

386 Vide "Statuti Pisani," edited by Bonaini.

387 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 61, 62, 63.

388 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 64.

389 Ibid. ii. 65. Vide also the statutes of 1324 (ii. 36 and 74) and of 1355 (ii. 39) in the State Archives.

390 "Nisi promiserit de continuo habitando in dicta civitate, vel comitatu Urbini" ("Statuta Urbini," Pisauri, 1519, ii. 54).

391 "Liber juris civilis urbis VeronÆ," chap. xliv. Verona, 1728.

392 See Gans, op. cit. This author made a very careful examination of the Pisan law in the statutes (then unpublished) contained in a MS. Codex at Berlin.

393 Vide the "Consuetudini della cittÀ d'Amalfi," edited and annotated by Scipione Volpicella, p. 22; and the "Consuetudini della cittÀ di Napoli," under the heading, "De successionibus ab intestato." The same provisions are found also in the "Consuetudini Sorrentine." See also Dr. Otto Hartwig's work, "Codex iuris municipalis SiciliÆ." Heft 1, "Das Stadtrecht von Messina." Cassel und GÖttingen, 1867.

394 "Statuta Comunis MantuÆ," Rubric li., "De successionibus ab intestato." Cod. MS. F.T., 1, fourteenth century, Mantua Archives. Similar terms are used in the Veronese statutes ("Statuta VeronÆ." VeronÆ, 1588, bk. ii. chap. 82). "Ut bona parentum in filios masculos et cÆteros per lineam masculinam descendentes conserventur, pro conservandis domibus et oneribus Communis VeronÆ sustinendis, statuimus," &c.

395 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 130.

396 Statutes 4 (of 1324), ii. 70, and 9 (of 1355), ii. 73, in the State Archives, declare in fact that when there are no surviving sons, but only brothers or their sons, the woman is entitled to have the usufruct of her father's, grandfather's, or great-grandfather's estate: "Tunc ipsa mulier habeat usufructum omnium bonorum talis patris, avi, vel proavi defuncti." This is the usufruct for which alimony is afterwards substituted.

397 State Archives, "Statuti," 4, bk. ii. 50, and 9, bk. ii. 51.

398 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 32.

399 Ibid. ii. 130.

400 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 126.

401 Ibid. ii. 129.

402 "Constitutiones MarchiÆ AnconitanÆ." Forolivii, 1507.

403 "Statuti della honoranda Universitate deli Mercanti de la Citade di Bologna," 1530, file 98 and following.

404 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 51.

405 Ibid. ii. 76.

406 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 75.

407 Ibid. ii. 77.

408 Ibid. ii. 108.

409 Ibid. ii. 109.

410 The frequent repetition of this phrase is worthy of note, since it enables us to understand the manner in which associations were usually constituted.

411 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 66.

412 State Archives, "Statuti" 9, ii. 30. The same provision is found in the statutes of 1324 (ii. 87), and was already comprised in those of Pistoia dated 1296 (ii. 6), having been copied from another Florentine statute of earlier date.

413 The Mezzeria system obtains not only throughout Tuscany and Lucca, but over a considerable part of Romagna. But the terms and contracts most favourable to the peasantry are to be found near Florence and in the Pistoian district. Contracts implying a system of Mezzeria more or less rudimentary, and dating from about the close of the twelfth century, are still extant.

414 Two of 1250 and 1251, in the Florentine territory, have been edited by Ruhmor (vide also Capei in the "Atti dei Georgofili," vol. xiv. p. 228); other hardly less ancient examples have been found at Cortona by the Notary L. Ticciati, and published by him in the "Archivio Storico Italiano," Series v., vol. x., No. 4, 1892. Nevertheless, contracts on the true Mezzeria system cannot have been in general use earlier than the commencement of the fourteenth century. A common contract drawn up in 1331 on Siennese territory was communicated by Prof. C. Paoli to Baron S. Sonnino, and published by the latter in 1875 Florence, in his work "Sulla Mezzeria in Toscana." In a review, entitled "L'Agricoltura Italiana," nineteenth year (1893), Nos. 274–5, Marquis L. Ridolfi justly remarks that the difficulty in finding old Mezzeria contracts in the Florentine territory proceeds from the custom prevailing there of seldom referring to a public notary for the purpose. As a rule, the parties concerned merely exchange written copies of the agreement.

415 "Statuta FlorentiÆ," ii. 18.

416 Ibid. ii. 21.

417 Ibid. ii. 23. Vide, on this subject, Salvetti, "Antiquitates FlorentinÆ."

418 "Nuova Antologia," Florence, July, 1869.

419 G. Villani, "Cronica," xi. 96.

420 P.E. Giudici, "Storia dei Comuni Italiani," bk. vi., paragraphs 53 and 54. Florence, Le Monnier, 1866. Vannucci, "I primi tempi della libertÀ fiorentina," chap. iv. p. 161 and fol. Florence, Le Monnier, 1861. Napier's "Florentine History," vol. i. chap. xiii. p. 342. London, 1846. T.A. Trollope, "A History of the Commonwealth of Florence," bk. ii. chap. iii. p. 212. London, 1865. It should be noted that although Mr. Trollope failed to overcome every difficulty, he was enabled to avoid various blunders on this head by merely translating certain parts of the enactments without explaining the more obscure items. Mons. Perrens, in a recent work, written after the first publication of this chapter, has generally accepted its conclusions and corroborated them by fresh researches of his own.

421 Vide chaps. v. and vi. of the present work.

422 It is impossible to believe that there were no duties of any kind. Villani himself (bk. xi. chap. xcii.) enumerates a great many imposed between 1336 and 1338, and certain of these were unquestionably of earlier origin. Perhaps he meant to express that the duties were few and slight.

423 "Per non mettere gravezza." Whenever taxes were imposed on the property of citizens, an estimate was made of it, as the tax in question was paid in lire or libbre, the term far libbra, allibbrare, was often used to signify making valuations of property as well as the imposition of taxes.

424 G. Villani, viii. 2.

425 Vide the preceding chapter.

426 Dino Compagni, bk. ii. p. 201, the Del Lungo edition. I quote from this edition, as being far more correct than the others, although it was only published in 1879, ten years after the first appearance of this chapter in the form of a separate essay.

427 Vide in Padre Ildefonso's "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," the document appended to vol. viii. It consists of a petition presented by certain inhabitants of Castelnuovo after having been attacked by the Pazzi and others, armata manu, cum militibus et peditibus, who had burnt their houses, killed several persons, and compelled others to sign a contract, under false pretence of a law suit, that had never occurred, et scribi faciendo litem contra eos esse super renovationem servitiorum.

428 G. Villani, vii. 16.

429 Vide the "Statuto della Parte Guelfa," chap. xxxix. It may be found in vol. i. (1857) of the "Giornale storico degli Archivi Toscani," that was published for some years jointly with the "Arch. Stor. It." This statute of 1355 (edited by Bonaini) is the earliest known statute of the Parte Guelfa, but does not appear to be the first that was compiled. In the above-mentioned "Giornale," vol. iii. (1859), Bonaini began a monograph, entitled, "Della Parte Guelfa in Firenze," which was continued in several numbers, but then left incomplete. Vide also G. Villani, vii. 17, describing the original formation of the Society. Its precise condition in 1293 is as yet imperfectly known, but this may be inferred from what it was shortly before and after that period.

430 G. Villani, viii. 1.

431 The first of these laws, already known to the public, and the others which were then inedited, have been fully examined in chap. v. of this work and are printed in the appendix to the same.

432 In fact the "Ordinamenti" (rubric xviii. of the Bonaini edition) refer to this law, dated October 2, 1286 ("Provvisioni," i. 27), and comprised in the statute. Both the rubric and title are quoted in the "Ordinamenti." A Consulta (or decree) of March 20, 1280 (81), given in Gherardi's collection, p. 33, had also cited a similar and still older law: "De securitatibus prestandis a magnatibus," which was afterwards amended by that of 1286.

433 Ammirato, at commencement of bk. iv.; also in "Provvisioni," ii. 72, Florentine Archives.

434 Dino Compagni, bk. i. p. 56.

435 G. Villani, viii. 8.

436 Ammirato, bk. iv. p. 348.

437 In fact, many neglected to give surety (sodare), and several laws were framed to compel the contumacious to obey.

438 This is known from the terms of the debate, which has been published by Bonaini in the "Arch. Stor. It.," New Series, vol. i. p. 78, document B.

439 At the period there were twelve Greater and nine Lesser Guilds.

440 Many historians assert that he was among the priors when the "Ordinamenti" were compiled. But these are officially dated the 18th of January, and Compagni states that Giano entered the Signory on the 15th of February. This statement is supported by the list of priors given by Coppo Stefani, in his "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," and likewise by documentary evidence.

441 Another inedited compilation also exists in the Florence Archives. Certain new rubrics were inserted in this at a later date, and even, as we shall show further on, among the first twenty-eight.

442 Dr. K. Hegel, "Die Ordnungen der Gerechtigheit," Erlangen, 1867. This is a Prolusion, in which the learned author of the "Storia della Costituzione dei Municipi Italiani," very carefully examines the code edited by Bonaini, and compares it with others. But he does not investigate the value or intrinsic importance of the enactments, and merely gives a brief summary of them.

443 "Arch. Stor. It.," New Series, vol. i. (1855) p. 38, note 1.

444 Until this draft was published, we could only refer to posterior compilations, and had no means of ascertaining to what extent they differed from the law in its original form. Although Bonaini had failed to discover the original document of the law as approved, his publication of the first draft brings us very near to the real thing. And this is a point of no small importance, seeing that the laws of the Florentine Republic underwent such radical changes from one day to another, that a compilation, dated only two or three years after the original law, might be very different from it. For instance, Document A, published by Bonaini ("Arch. Stor. It.," New Series, vol. i. p. 72), contains a rider or addendum to the Ordinamenti passed on the 9th and 10th of April, 1293. This was inserted as part of the original law in the compilations edited by Fineschi and Giudici.

In the following bibliographical notices I shall be obliged, for the sake of greater clearness, to occasionally repeat or sum up previously related facts.

1. Of the various compilations of the enactments, that included among the printed statutes was the first to be published.

2. P.F. Vincenzo Fineschi published a second compilation in his "Memorie storiche, che possono servire alle vite degli uomini illustri di Santa Maria Novella," &c., Florence, 1790.

3. The third published compilation was given by Prof. P.E. Giudici in the appendix to his "Storia dei Municipi Italiani," Florence, Poligrafia italiana, 1853; reprinted in 3 vols., Florence, Le Monnier, 1864–66. The Italian compilation, divided in 118 rubrics, the last of which is mutilated, was published from a codex in the State Archives of Florence ("Statuti," No. 8). By some oversight the author chanced to omit the three concluding rubrics.

4. The last published compilation is that brought out by Bonaini in the "Arch. Stor. It.," New Series, vol. i, No. 1, 1855, of which we have already spoken, and shall have to mention again farther on.

5. Another compilation, to which previous allusion has been made (p. 89, note 92), is also deserving of notice. It is among the MSS. of the Florence Archives (ch. ii., dist. i., No. 1), and is still inedited. Padre Ildefonso published certain fragments of it, however, in vol. ix. of the "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," and Bonaini published an index of its rubrics, 134 in number.

6. In conclusion, we may mention the Miscellany or "Zibaldone," likewise referred to before, which in addition to many decrees issued between 1274 and 1465, some of which augment the force of the enactments, also includes a petition presented by the people of Florence in June, 1378—namely, the year in which the Revolt of the Ciompi occurred, imploring that the Enactments of Justice should be again enforced, the which request was granted. This codex is also a useful contribution to the history of the enactments.

Recently both Prof. Del Lungo (vide "Bullettino della SocietÀ Dantesca," Nos. 10, 11, of July, 1892) and Sig. G. Salvemini, undergraduate of the Instituto Superior, Florence (vide "Arch. Stor. It.," Series v., vol. x. 1892), have published the provision of July 6, 1295, introducing several modifications and mitigations in the enactments. Although this provision was already known to the world, by Prof. Del Lungo's previous careful examination of it in his work on "Dino Compagni" (vol i., 1078–80), Salvemini's clever commentary has gleaned fresh information from it. This provision includes all the modifications made in the enactments in 1295, and often gives fragments of the law as it previously stood, together with the changes then introduced. Hegel, having examined all the documents edited in his day, was the first to prove, on assured evidence, that the rough draft edited by Bonaini, although, as he thinks, omitting certain rubrics and comprising some disparities, mostly of form, contained the real gist of the original enactments. This in itself was an important result. Regarding the disparities noted by Hegel, and the missing rubrics, Salvemini was enabled, by studying the document of July 6, 1295, to make some novel remarks, to which we shall refer later on.

445 Rubric iii. of the draft states that "De prudentioribus, melioribus et legalioribus artificibus civitatis FlorentiÆ, continue artem exercentibus, dummodo non sint milites." Also farther on: "Aliquis qui continue artem non exerceat, vel aliquis miles non possit nec debeat modo aliqui eligi, vel esse in dicto officio Prioratus." "Arch. Stor. It.," New Series, vol. i. pp. 44, 45. Rubric xviii., p. 66, enumerates the persons bound to give guaranty as nobles, although exercising a trade, "non obstante quod ipsi vel aliquis eorum de dictis domibus et casatis ... sint artifices vel artem seu mercantiam exerceant."

446 Vide on this point a document of 1287 appended to this chapter. It proves that the practical exercise of a trade or craft was held indispensable before 1293, and shows what precautions were required to prevent the law from being easily evaded.

447 Rubric iii., G. We generally quote from Giudici's Italian compilation as being more widely known than the others. But we are careful to collate it with the versions of Fineschi and Bonaini, taking note of significant divergences. The letters B.G.F. are used to indicate the respective editions of Bonaini, Giudici, and Fineschi.

448 Mons. Perrens (vol. ii. p. 385, note 2) doubts this fact, and states that it only occurred in 1305. It is certain that the Gonfalonier's function was to enforce the enactments, and that when released from this duty by the creation of an "Executor" in 1306, he then began to be more specially considered as the chief of the Signory; but it is none the less certain, that among seven magistrates, all of the same legal standing, the one possessed from the first of loftier attributes and more direct command of the army, was virtually, if not nominally, their president and chief.

449 Rubric iv., G. and F. We should note that the Latin draft reduces the Gonfalonier's interval of ineligibility to one year only, while the other compilations extend it to two years, as in the case of the Priors and as subsequently enforced. We have followed the Latin draft, for the additional reason that, in the law of 1293, edited by Bonaini (Doc. A. at p. 74), we find it ordained that Priors and Gonfalonier should share the same benefits and privileges, "salvo et excepto quod quÆ in Ordinamento iustitie, loquente de electione Vexilliferi, continentur circa devetum et tempus deveti ipsius Vexilliferi, et circa alia omnia in ipso ordinamento descripta, in sua permaneant firmitate." This is repeated even under rubric xxxi., G. and F., whence we are forced to conclude that the prescribed interval before re-election to the Gonfaloniership was originally different from that established with regard to the Priorate, and only equalised with the latter at a subsequent time. Besides, in Compilations F. and G. no thought was given to correcting the rule laid down in rubric xxxi., where it is taken for granted that the original diversity was still in force. Florentine laws were always made and amended bit by bit. All doubts, however, are solved by the document from which we have quoted, dated July 6, 1295, extending the term of prohibition, as regarded the Gonfalonier, from one to two years. Salvemini has found proofs in the "Provvisioni" and "Consulte" that this rule had been already applied in December, 1294.

450 As we shall see farther on, Dr. Lastig was the first writer to point this out.

451 Rubrics i. and ii. in Compilations B., F., and G.

452 Rubrics lxiii.-lxv., which, as we have noted, were added by another hand in 1297, to the codex edited by Fineschi, and correspond with rubrics lxxxii.-lxxxiv. of the codex edited by Giudici, there is renewed reference to the tricks employed in order to avoid giving guarantees or nullifying their effect. When a noble committed a crime and refused to pay the prescribed fine, his nearest relation was legally bound to pay it in his stead. But in this case the said relation frequently made declaration, "that the guilty person who had either failed to give guarantees or offered pledges unsuited to the case, possessed one or more legitimate or natural children, aged one year, or more or less; and that for this reason the next of kin, or those supposed to be responsible in virtue of the said enactment, are exempt from the penalty prescribed by the same." (Rubric lxxxii., G., lxv., F.)

453 Rubric xvii., G. The law quoted here is of October 2, 1286 ("Provvisioni," i. 27).

454 Rubric xvii., B., F., G. The two later compilations have an addition tacked on at the end, that is not included in Compilation B. In the Italian codex (G.) this addition is undated, but in the Fineschi compilation is dated July 6, 1295. Its purpose is that of attenuating the law by declaring that all omitted from the list of nobles in the statute, or who have changed their name, and are known by another, are not to be considered nobles. This addition was contemporaneous with the extension of the legal number of witnesses from two to three.

455 Rubrics xviii. and xix., F., G. These and rubric xx. also are not in the Latin draft, as we shall have again to remark farther on.

456 Compagni, i. 11; Villani, viii. 1.

457 "Storie," bk. ii. p. 80, Italy, 1813.

458 viii. 1.

459 The nobles frequently employed friends or dependents to execute their deeds of vengeance or assault—hence the enactments nearly always refer to authors of crime in the plural as those chiefly charged with the deed. The law of the 6th of July, 1295, was attenuated on this point, as we shall see, by its recognition of a single leader or "captain" of the crime, the others being only punished as accessories.

460 Rubric vi., F.G. and V.B.

461 This is derived both from the terms of the enactments and from the chroniclers. According to the latter, criminals occasionally obtained partial compensation because the destruction of their property had been carried too far.

462 Rubric xii., F.G., vii., B.

463 Rubric xiii., F.G. This being a codicil added in 1295, it is not comprised in Compilation B.

464 Rubrics vi., vii., F. and G. Not comprised in B, having been added in 1295. It should be remarked that in the legal phraseology of the time "common law" signified Roman law; the law as prescribed by the statutes being held almost in the light of a special or exceptional code. But as the enactments constituted in themselves an exception, with regard to the statutes, the latter are referred to wherever common law is mentioned. When the question was of two municipalities, one of which was subject to the other, the subject municipality was always allowed (excepting in political concerns) to retain its own statutes; but in cases where these proved insufficient, it had recourse to those of the dominant city, as though these constituted the common law.

465 Rubric ix., F.G., and vi., B. In this case two witnesses were always needed to prove the offence, and on this point all the compilations, including the rough draft, are agreed. Regarding the other cases, Compilation B (rubric v.) only says per testes, meaning more than one, that is, two or three. On the 6th of July, 1295, per testes was changed to per tres testes, and so it stands also in rubric vi., F. and G.

It should be remarked that in the Italian compilation this rubric ix. has a codicil that is neither comprised in the draft nor even in Fineschi's compilation, and this is an additional proof that the Italian compilation was of later date than the Latin text, of which it is generally the faithful translation. The codicil decrees that the fine is to be paid to the Commune either by the offending party himself or his nearest relation.

Rubric xi., F. and G., answering to rubric xvi., B., treats of the rights acquired by nobles over real property appertaining to the people, and alludes in this connection to the associates or relatives of the popolani. This proves that the custom of joining in associations was very general at the time, and likewise shows how nearly the ties of association resembled ties of relationship.

466 Rubric xvi., F. and G., rubric ix., B.

467 Rubric xxvi., G., xxi., B.

468 This "Conclusion" is mutilated in the xxii. and final rubric of Compilation B. It exists in full in rubric xxvii., F., and rubric xxv., G.

It should be noted at this point that, leaving aside other partial disparities, those rubrics, included in Compilations G. and F., and entirely omitted from Compilation B. (whether as the results of later decrees, or actually passed at the time when the draft was engrossed in its definite official shape, we have no means of really ascertaining), were those indicated in Compilations G. and F. by the numbers xviii., xix., and xx.

469 This law, drawn up in full official form, is contained in Document A. of the Bonaini Compilation, but still as a separate law. On the other hand, in Compilations F. and G. we find it incorporated with the enactments it was designed to strengthen. In Compilation G. it is dated April 10, 1293, so also in the Latin Codex, but is undated in Compilation G. We should remark in this connection that the law edited by Bonaini is not only incorporated with the enactments in Compilations F. and G., but in both comprises codicils of a later date—such, for instance, as giving power to call nearly the whole of the city and territory to arms, up to the number of 12,200 men. Had this clause been passed in Giano's time, the chroniclers could not have failed to record it. Villani states that at first one thousand men only were enrolled—that is, the same number authorised by the earlier enactments; the number was afterwards raised to two thousand, as enjoined by the new law, and later still to four thousand (viii. 1). Therefore, even according to Villani, the number was progressively enlarged.

470 Villani, viii. 8.

471 After Villani, Ammirato wrote: "For in addition to the measures ordained, Giano had deprived the Captains of the Society of their seal; and had provided that the funds of the said Society, which amounted to a large sum, should be consigned to the Commune" (vol i. bk. iv. p. 346, Batelli edition, Florence, 1846–49).

472 Villani, viii. 2.

473 Villani, viii. 2; Ammirato, ad annum, vol. i. pp. 339.

474 Ibid. viii. 2; Ammirato, vol. i. pp. 340, 341.

475 Villani, viii. 2; and "Cronica" of the pseudo B. Latini, ad annum.

476 Ibid. viii. 1. Compagni gives a different version in vol. i. 12. He relates that the offenders were of the Galigai family, and that he, being Gonfalonier at the time, had to demolish their dwellings. We have adhered to Villani, who states the fact to have occurred under the first Gonfalonier, Baldo Ruffoli (in office from February 15th to April 15th), whereas Compagni held the Gonfaloniership from June 15th to August 15, 1293, and it is scarcely probable this could have been the first occasion on which the enactments were enforced. It is known that Compagni's Chronicle is only extant in copies dated after his time, and therefore probably containing blunders, alterations, and additions made by its transcribers. Compagni's chronology is often extremely vague. While Gonfalonier he may have undoubtedly seen some sentences executed; but the first sentence on the nobles seems to have been carried out as related by Villani, and also corroborated by Coppo Stefani, bk. iii., rubric 198, Ammirato, vol. i. p. 338, and other historians of weight. Some years after the first publication of this essay, Professor Scheffer Boichorst produced the famous work (vide "Historische Zeitschrift," xxiv. p. 313, 1870) that raised the very heated controversy as to the authenticity of Dino Compagni's Chronicle. At a later period Professor Del Lungo's learned volumes induced the German scholar to cede many of the points in dispute. Accordingly we may still continue to refer to Dino Compagni, although not without careful sifting and discrimination.

477 Compagni, i. 12, p. 55.

478 Vide chap. vi. of this work.

479 Jean of ChÂlons in Burgundy.

480 It is known that the PodestÀ, Captain, and many other magistrates were subjected to an investigation or sindacato, on retiring from office.

481 Dino Compagni, i. 13; Villani, viii. 10.

482 Dino Compagni, i. 13. The author does not explain the nature of these meetings in which nobles and people were brought together. They may have been private or preliminary assemblies. But even at the Councils of the Guelph Society, as also at those of the PodestÀ, nobles and people sat together, and therefore had continual opportunities for talking over affairs of the State and discussing proposed bills.

483 Dino Compagni, i. 15.

484 We have gleaned this narrative from Villani and Compagni, endeavouring to make their accounts agree, although this is no easy task, seeing that the two are at odds on many points. Accordingly we have tried to collect all the details given by both which are not in contradiction. Compagni, i. 16, 17; Villani, viii. 8.

485 Villani, loc. cit.

486 This famed decree, quoted in Del Migliore's "Firenze Illustrata" (Florence, Ricci, 1821), vol. i. p. 6, and repeated by numerous writers, is certainly a very beautiful one; but the original document of it has never been discovered, and the form in which it has come down to us leads to the belief that some changes at least must have been made in it by a modern hand.

487 Florence Archives, the Strozzi-Uguccioni Collection, 127. This document was discovered by Signor Salvemini, who has kindly placed it at our disposal.

488 This Daddoccio was admitted into the Money-Changers' Guild on the 14th of December, 1283, and on the 1st of December, 1287, paid his rate as member of the same (Strozzi-Uguccioni Collection, 1283, 14th of December).

489 Originally published in the "Nuova Antologia" of Rome, December 1, 1888.

490 Many just observations and important notes on this subject are to be found in L. Chiapelli's work, "L'Amministrazione della Giustizia in Firenze" ("Arch. Stor. It.," Series iv., vol. xv. p. 35 and fol.); and Francesco Novati's "La Giovinezza di Coluccio Salutati" (Turin, Loescher, 1888, chap. iii. p. 66 and fol.). But in my opinion both writers have devoted all their acuteness and learning to proving the corrupt state of justice at the time, without dwelling on the origin of that corruption and its notable increase during the fourteenth century. Its origin should, I think, be sought in the changed conditions of the PodestÀ, Captains of the People, chancellors, notaries, judges, &c. What was said of judges in the fourteenth century, certainly could not have applied to those of the times of Piero della Vigna, Rolandino dei Passeggieri, or of the numerous mediÆval PodestÀ wielding so much power, that they tried, and often with success, to become absolute tyrants of the communes. These were not men to act as blind tools of others' party passions; on the contrary, they strove for their own ends alone. It may have been owing to the political decline of the PodestÀ's office, and to his consequent inclination to serve party strife, that, dating from 1290, his term of power was reduced from one year to six months (vide Ammirato, ad annum). Naturally the Captain's term also had to be similarly shortened.

491 "Cronica," i. 13, p. 57.

492 G. Villani, viii. 17.

493 The Calimala, or Guild of Dressers, Finers and Dyers of foreign woollen stuffs; the Changers or Bankers, the Guild of Wool; the Porta Sta Maria, or Silk Guild; lastly, the Guild of Physicians, Druggists, and Mercers, with whom the Painters were also joined. Dante Alighieri was a member of this guild.

494 Lastig, "Entwicklungswege und Quellen des Handelsrechts," Stuttgart, Enke, 1877, p. 251 and fol. Among many other just observations, the author notes that the enactments fixed the number of the guilds at twenty-one, that this number remained unchanged from that time, and that in the statutes of the guilds, the year 1293 is continually referred to as their "normal year," "wiederholt geradezu als Normaljahr" (p. 244). Vide also p. 267 and fol.

495 Villani, bk. viii. chaps. 2 and 39.

496 Vide "Il Comune di Roma nel Medio Evo," in my "Saggi Storici e Critici," Bologna, Zanichelli, 1890.

497 Villani, viii. 12. Vide also the Provision of July 6, 1295, that has been previously quoted.

498 Villani, viii. 12.

499 Del Lungo, "Dino Compagni e la sua Cronica," i. p. 162. The author believes that Dante Alighieri may have been one of the nobles proclaimed men of the people.

500 The chroniclers have much to relate on this subject. Compagni says (pp. 86–7) that the Cerchi "made friends with the people and the rulers;" farther on he remarks that "all holding the views of Giano della Bella gathered round them" (the Cerchi) (p. 106). Stefani (iv. p. 220) states that the people "adhered to the Cerchi from party spirit, and chiefly because they were merchants."

501 Professor Del Lungo supplies special information on this subject in several passages of his work.

502 Villani, viii. 38.

503 The aims of Pope Boniface and his plots with the Blacks have been placed in a new light by the careful researches of Signor Guido Levi and the documents discovered by him. Vide his excellent work, "Bonifazio VIII. e la sue Relazioni col Comune di Firenze," first published in vol. iv. of the "Archivio Storico della SocietÀ Romana di Storia Patria," and subsequently in separate form. Rome, Forzani, 1882. My quotations are taken from the latter.

504 Levi, Doc. i.

505 Vide Ficker, "Forschungen," iv. n. 499, p. 506; Levi, p. 49.

506 The words quoted above form the heading of a copy of the document mentioned by Signor Levi (p. 49, note 2), and were taken as a motto for his work.

507 Levi gives the whole passage at p. 51, note 2.

508 Levi, pp. 48, 49, and Doc. iii.

509 Bondone Gherardi and Lippo, son of Ranuccio del Becca.

510 Levi, pp. 39, 40. According to a letter of the Pope, published by Signor Levi, in Doc. iv., the three persons accused were: "Simonem Gherardi familiarem nostrum, nostrÆque CamerÆ mercatorem; Cambium de Sexto procuratorem in audientia nostra; Noffum de Quintavallis, qui tunc ad Curiam nostram accesserat."

511 Levi, Doc. ii.

512 Ibid. p. 66.

513 Villani, too, compares it with the Buondelmonti affair (viii. 39).

514 Levi, p. 42; Dino Compagni, "Cronica," i., xxii. note 9.

515 G. Levi, Doc. iv.

516 Villani, viii. 40.

517 Ibid. viii. 40.

518 Dino Compagni, i. pp. 96–7.

519 Prof. Del Lungo, with his usual careful research, notes that all the exiled were Grandi. Levi, in repeating the remark (at p. 59), considers this a singular fact, "seeing that the evil germs of discord had then spread through the mass of the citizens." Yet the fact seems easily accounted for by the circumstances related above.

520 Villani, viii. 40; Compagni, i. 21.

521 Perrens, "Histoire de Florence," vol. iii. p. 31.

522 Villani, viii. 43.

523 Villani, viii. 42.

524 Signor Levi gives a very clear explanation of the case by distinguishing between various facts confused together by the chroniclers.

525 "Chronicon Parmense," in Muratori, r. i., ix. 843.

526 Del Lungo, vol. i. p. 230; Dino Compagni, bk. ii. 8, note 3.

527 Villani, viii. 43 and 49; Del Lungo, vol. i. p. 206.

528 Villani, viii. 56. Boccaccio also alludes to Franzesi as "a trader turned knight."

529 Fraticelli's "Storia della Vita di Dante" (Florence, BarbÈra, 1861) includes at p. 135 and fol. fragments of the debates in which Dante took a part, and the same were republished more correctly and completely in Imbriani's work, "Sulla Rubrica Dantesca del Villani," first published in the "Propugnatore" of Bologna for 1879 and 1880, and afterwards in a separate volume. Bologna, 1880; Del Lungo, p. 209.

530 Fraticelli and Imbriani, op. cit.

531 One of the first writers refusing belief in this embassy was Professor V. Imbriani in his already mentioned essay, "Sulla Rubrica Dantesca del Villani." Subsequently, my colleague and friend, the late Professor Bartoli, applied his learning to a re-examination of Dante's entire career, in vol. v. of his "Storia della Letteratura Italiana," and without explicitly denying that the embassy in question had been sent, expounded the doubts which might be raised about it. He included in the volume an essay by Professor Papa, who, with youthful daring, decidedly disbelieves in the embassy. But that learned scholar, Professor Del Lungo, asserts that it really took place. This is a very important question with reference to Dante's career, but very unimportant as regards the general history of Florence, since even if the embassy were really sent, it produced no practical result. Nevertheless, without presuming to decide the lengthy dispute, I will show my reasons for crediting the fact of the embassy.

Although Villani says nothing on the subject, it is mentioned by Dino Compagni (ii. 25), the authenticity of whose chronicle is maintained by Bartoli, Papa, and Del Lungo. Hence, if any of these writers intends to deny the fact of the embassy, without denying Compagni's authenticity, he must suppose this special passage to be an interpolation. Yet it is impossible that such interpolation could have been made at a later date in the fifteenth century manuscript containing the passage. Besides, the testimony of nearly all Dante's biographers has still to be dealt with. Leonardo Bruno (born 1369) makes very explicit mention of the embassy; Filippo Villani, Giovanni Villani's grandson, who expounded the Divine Comedy in 1401, by order of the government, speaks of a mission undertaken by Dante "ad summum Pontificem, urgentibus ReipublicÆ necessitatibus." Boccaccio also alludes to it, but far more indirectly and vaguely. Certainly the latter is no trustworthy historian, nor were the other two contemporaries of Dante. But after acknowledging all this, and even granting that some one of those writers may have borrowed from the others, and likewise admitting the theory of an interpolation inserted during the fifteenth century, in Compagni's chronicle, we are still met by the undisputed fact, that those who studied Dante's works, and wrote Dante's life at a period little removed from his own day, and therefore enjoying better opportunities than we possess for learning its details, all believed in the fact of his mission to Rome.

Until fresh documents are found, what reasons can be alleged to justify us in denying it at this distant date? In no case, says Professor Papa, could such an adversary as the author of the "Monarchia" have gone as ambassador to Boniface VIII. First of all, however, the period in which the "Monarchia" was written is still disputable and disputed. Professor Del Lungo and many others ascribe the work to a much later period. As far as we know, Dante was still a Guelph then, but certainly no favourer of the Papal pretensions against which the Florentine Government sent him to protest. Hence, so far there is nothing to make us think his mission incredible.

But Professor Papa winds up with an argument that, as he thinks, should finally dispose of the question. If, as asserted by Compagni and Aretino, Dante was really sent ambassador to Rome, and departed thence, after a time, without returning to Florence, how is it that the decree sentencing him to banishment should set forth, as it does, that he had been cited by the Nuncio to appear in Rome? According to the statute, forenses, or absent persons, had to be cited by letter. Therefore, if the citation was made through the Nuncio, it proves that Dante was undoubtedly in Florence, and had not gone to Rome. But forensis does not signify an absent person, i.e., one who extra civitatem manet, but, on the contrary, signifies—according to the statute—one having no domicile either in the city, contado, or district.

Accordingly Dante, having a domicile in Florence, was not forensis, and if he went to Rome was only absent; his embassy, decreed in September, must have been speedily ended, since a new and adverse government came into office the 8th of November; and Dante's banishment was only proclaimed on the 27th of January of the following year. Together with three other persons he was cited to appear and be heard in his own defence and exculpation. As neither he nor the others appeared, and none of them would have consented to appear, even if in Florence, they were condemned, as they would have been in any case. Thus, strictly speaking, it cannot be said that even in this instance there was any violation of legal procedure, although in those days legality, justice, and humanity were trampled under foot without the slightest scruple.

Therefore, as Professor Bartoli admits, there is no absolute proof of the impossibility of the embassy in question. Even if Villani's silence may seem strange, Compagni's statement to be considered an interpolation, the fact remains that the embassy was credited at a time little removed from Dante's day, and credited by men better acquainted than we can be with the circumstances of his career. For these reasons, while admitting the weight of often reiterated doubts, pending absolute proof to the contrary, I shall retain my belief in the embassy.

532 Vide Del Lungo, vol. i., Letter in appendix vi. pp. xlv. and xlvi.

533 Compagni, ii. 8.

534 Villani, viii. 49. Compagni says that he saw the sealed (bollate) letters.

535 "Purgatorio," xx. 72–5.

536 Villani, viii. 49, p. 53.

537 Ibid. viii. 49. Many other details are given in the Chronicles of Compagni, Paolino Pieri, Neri degli Strinati, &c., &c.

538 Vide Del Lungo (vol. i., Appendix, Doc. vi. p. xlv.) in the Letter dated 12th of November, sent to the Commune of San Gimignano.

539 Vide the "Provvisione" in Del Lungo, vol. i. p. 290.

540 Compagni, "Cronica," ii. 20 and 21.

541 Potthast, Boniface's Letter in the Regesta Pont. Rom., p. 2006.

542 Vide the notices and documents collected in Professor Del Lungo's monograph, "Sull' Esilio di Dante," Florence, Le Monnier, 1881. Some fragmentary information on this subject had been already published in the "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani."

543 Bk. viii. chap. 49, p. 53.

544 Dino Compagni, ii. 25; Prof. Del Lungo, pp. 212–13, note 3.

545 Del Lungo, i. p. 305.

546 Vide the "Libro del Chiodo."

547 G. Villani, bk. viii. chap. 49, p. 54.

548 First published in the "Nuova Antologia" of Rome, in issue of 16th of December, 1888, and 16th of January, 1889.

549 Villani, viii. 52, 53; Del Lungo, Appendix xii. to Compagni's "Cronica," p. 562, and fol.; "Le guerre Mugellane e i primi anni dell' esilio di Dante."

550 Villani, viii. 58. Dino Compagni, "Cronica," ii., xxxiv., and notes 13 and 14.

551 Dino Compagni, "Cronica," ii., xxxiv., note 20 (document).

552 Del Lungo, p. 546.

553 Compagni, iii. 11.

554 Ibid. iii. 11.

555 Villani, viii. 68.

556 Vide the letter given by Del Lungo at pp. 556–7.

557 Dino Compagni, iii., vii.

558 Villani, viii. 69; Compagni iii., vii.

559 Villani, viii. chap. 69, p. 87.

560 An anonymous and undated epistle addressed to Cardinal Da Prato by the Captain Alessandro (supposed to be Alessandro da Romena) and the council and university of the Bianchi party, was published among Dante's Letters as one composed by him for the use of his fellow-exiles, and was long attributed to him by his biographers. But the Captain's name is not given in the old manuscript from which the letter was printed, but merely indicated thus: A. ca. (Epistle I. of the Fraticelli edition, Florence, BarbÈra, 1863).

This epistle says in reply to letters and advice from the Cardinal that the Bianchi are grateful to him and disposed to peace. "Ad quid aliud in civile bellum corruimus? Quid aliud candida nostra signa petebant? Et ad quid aliud enses et tela nostra rubebant, nisi ut qui civilia iura, temeraria voluptate truncaverunt, et iugo piÆ legis colla submitterent, et ad pacem patriÆ cogerentur?" Therefore the gist of Dante's words would have been: The desire to have our laws and liberties respected was the sole cause of our rebellion; all that we now wish is to see justice and peace again triumphant. This language is worthy of the poet, we think.

But doubts have lately arisen as to his authorship. Professor Bartoli, after examining the subject from all points, and ingeniously discussing all different theories respecting it, concludes his prolonged and careful inquiry by stating that there is no historical evidence to prove whether the letter were really by Dante or not ("Storia della Letteratura Italiana," vol. v. chaps. 8–10). Professor Del Lungo says that the style of the letter is Dantesque, in its merits as well as in certain defects; but that this fact does not justify him in decidedly attributing it to the poet's pen, since it may have proceeded from some contemporary in similar circumstances. Indeed, after examining the contents of the letter, he considers that it cannot have been written by Dante, and, among other reasons, chiefly because the words candida nostra signa, and enses et tela nostra rubebant, &c., are almost identical with those used by Compagni in describing the fight that occurred at Lastra on the 20th of July, 1304. Hence, he is of opinion that the letter undoubtedly refers to that event, and was therefore only written after that date. And seeing that Dante had separated from the exiles before that time, Del Lungo considers that the letter cannot be by him.

For my own part, I doubt whether the letter really referred to the Lastra affair. Surely the words in question: "Our white ensigns were displayed, and our weapons flashed," may have been used either in reference to Lastra or any other battle fought by the exiles, in spite of their resemblance to, and apparent translation from the passage in Compagni relative to the fight at Lastra. This being the case, without altogether rejecting Del Lungo's view, I will merely remark that his argument is insufficient to disprove Dante's authorship, since the poet may have written the letter in the name of the exiles, when they were carrying on those negotiations with the Cardinal on the subject of peace, afterwards leading, as we have seen, to the despatch of twelve delegates to Florence. The failure of those negotiations, the cruel slaughter of the Cavalcanti and their friends, the wholesale destruction by fire and pillage, the partial junction of the Bianchi with Corso Donati, and the union of the exiles with the Bolognese, Pistoiese, Pisans, and all foes of Florence, immediately followed up by the foolish attempt at Lastra, may well suffice to explain, not only Dante's indignant withdrawal from the exiled Bianchi, but likewise the withdrawal of many other citizens. In fact, the latter's non-appearance at Lastra may be perhaps assigned to the same motive, as we shall have occasion to show later on.

561 Villani, viii. 69. This chronicler dates the Cardinal's departure the 4th of June; Dino Compagni, the 9th; Paolino Pieri and the "Cronica," designated by Del Lungo as the "Cronica Marciana-Magliabecchiana," give the date of the 10th. This is also adopted by Del Lungo, p. 563. Vide Dino Compagni, "Cronica," iii. 7, note 26.

562 Compagni, iii. 8.

563 Villani, viii. 71.

564 Ibid.

565 Villani, viii. 71.

566 "Storia della Repubblica Fiorentina," vol. i. chap. 6, p. 116 (edition of 1875).

567 Villani, viii. 72.

568 Vide the well-known words pronounced by Cacciaguida in Canto xvii. of the "Paradiso":

"E quel che piÙ ti graverÀ le spalle
SarÀ la compagnia malvagia e scempia,
Con la qual tu cadrai in questa valle;
Che tutta ingrata, tutta matta ed empia,
Si farÀ contra te; ma poco appresso
Ella, non tu, n'avrÀ rotta la tempia.
Di sua bestialitade il suo processo
FarÀ la pruova, si che a te fia bello
L'averti fatta parte per te stesso."
("Paradiso," xvii. 61–69.)

569 Del Lungo notes this fact (vol. i. p. 577), and observes that it was frequently repeated between 1301 and 1304.

570 Villani, viii. 74; Del Lungo, pp. 578–9.

571 These Catalans, after fighting the Moors in Spain, scattered to different parts of the world, and refused to return to their own country.

572 Villani, viii. 87.

573 This law is placed under rubric lxxxiii. of the enactments. Vide Giudici, "Storia dei Comuni Italiani," vol. iii. p. 119 and fol. Florence, Le Monnier, 1864–66.

574 Other clauses tending to increase the rigour of this law were added on to it in 1307, 1309, and 1324, as may be seen in Bonaini's edition, published in the "Archivio Storico Italiano," new series, vol. i., 1885.

575 Dino Compagni, iii. 18, p. 326.

576 Villani, viii. 89.

577 Ibid.

578 Ibid. viii. 96.

579 Villani, viii. 96; Dino Compagni, iii. 20, 21.

580 Dino Compagni, iii. 20, note 29; Del Lungo, Introduction, p. 607. Prof. Del Lungo, the editor of these documents, does not believe that Corso was favourable at that time to the exiles and Ghibellines. Besides, the latter were no longer the genuine Ghibellines of older days. Therefore the Signory could have no motive for deceiving their friends, the Lucchese, and their letters are likewise corroborated by the previous events we have described.

581 Villani, viii. 100.

582 Villani, iii. 118, 119.

583 Compagni, "Cronica," iii. 35, note. 26.

584 Villani, ix. 10.

585 Villani, ix. 11.

586 Compagni, iii. 32.

587 Villani, ix. 12.

588 Ibid. ix. 18.

589 Vide the letter sent by Florence, June 17, 1311, in Gregorovius (3rd edition), vol. vi. p. 39, note 2.

590 Bonaini, "Acta Enrici VII.," ii., lv., lxxxvi., Florence, Cellini, 1877.

591 Ibid. ii., xcviii., xcix.

592 Published in the "Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani," and given more completely in Prof. Del Lungo's "Dell' Esilio di Dante," &c., p. 107 and fol.

593 Villani, ix. 21, 24, 26, 29.

594 "Ita quod ipsi Florentini possint uti, pro eorum faciendis negotiis et mercationibus, regno vestro, non obstantibus novitatibus antedictis." This letter is dated 1311, and though the month is not indicated, it alludes to Henry's arrival in Genoa as a recent event. Vide Desjardins, "NÉgociations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane," vol. i. p. 12. and fol.

595 The Bishop of BotrintÒ gives an account of his strange and perilous journey in his work, "De Henrici VII. imperatoris itinere italico." This is to be found in Muratori, R.I., and has been recently republished by Doctor Heyck (InnsbrÜck, 1888).

596 Villani, ix. 26–29; Del Lungo, p. 632.

597 Villani, ix. 33. The fact of making the Pazzi knights by way of compensation, serves to prove that the title of cavaliere was already losing its former significance. For, at the close of the thirteenth century, when used as a sign of nobility, possession of this title helped to exclude a man from the Government.

598 Perrens, vol. iii. p. 145.

599 This letter was written about the end of 1310 and beginning of 1311. It is No. v. of the Fraticelli edition.

600 Epistola vi. of the Fraticelli edition.

601 Epistle vii.

602 Gregorovius, vol. vi. p. 40; Perrens, iii. 172; "Cronaca di Pisa," R.T.S., xv. 985; Malavolti, par. ii. bk. iv. f. 66; Mussato, bk. i. rub. 10.

603 Mussato, in Gregorovius, vi. 73, note 1.

604 Villani, ix. 45, p. 170.

605 Villani, ix. 49.

606 Bonaini, op. cit., ii., ccclxv.

607 Gregorovius, vi. 89.

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