The firm domination of the ancient Marquises Bonifazj had prevented Tuscany from becoming free like the Lombard cities but those with the Countess Matilde (1115) extinguished, the disputes that arose between the popes and the emperors around this inheritance, offered the municipalities the right to emancipate oneself, and to one or the other, leaning on them, to acquire privileges, or to usurp them in the struggle [15] . Frederick II, heir to the last Duke of Swabia, Barbarossa’s brother, kept vicars there, but each of them poorer in authority, and hospitalized in some castellated land, such as Sanminiato, which was therefore said to the German.
The territory remained in the domain of foreign lords; or Lombards, such as the Marquises of Lunigiana, the Counts Guido, those of Gherardesca; or Franks, such as the Oberto marquises, those of Monte Santa Maria, the Aldobrandeschi counts, the Scialenga, the Pannochieschi, the Alberti del Vernio, the Bevardenga, the Ardenghesca, and so on.
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Fiesole, a remnant of the cities where the Etruscans had crowned the Italic heights, already noted by Cicero for great luxury and bandage costs, delightful farms, sumptuous factories, changed times, had reduced a beautiful remnant of pagan antiquity to a baptistery; the cathedral was built, where in 1028 the bishop Jacopo Bavaro transported the relics of St. Romulus, patron saint of the city; and from up there the patrician families threatened the men of the plain. But the time had come for these to prevail; and Florence, inferior in posture to Fiesole as to Pisa in terms of commercial opportunities, matured freedom, which for a long time it had to cherish and always love. The first general meeting of the people was held there in 1105 at the request of Bishop Ranieri: the first undertaking that is remembered is the 1113 expedition against Ruperto imperial vicar, who,
Dragged by Pisa into the struggle against Lucca, Florence knows its own strengths, and uses them to subdue the castellans; “Because in all lands there are many noble men, counts and cattani, who love her more in discord than in peace, and obey her more out of fear than out of love” ( Dino Compagni ); he demolishes the castles, which hinder traffic and shelter the bullies; it forces the ancient families to descend from the threatening Fiesole [16] , and the populace to accept its laws, as it did with the cattani of Montorlandi and those of Chiavello, who, redeemed by the Guido counts, had settled in a beautiful meadow on the Bisenzio , whence the happy city took its name [35]who made you [17]. From the Buondelmonti, who in the castle of Montebuono exacted tolls from anyone who passed, not being able to obtain reason, Florence won them (1143), and forced them to come to the city. From Count Uggero he wanted a promise not to hurt any Florentine, rather to help them, to be with them in the war, to live in the city for three months, pledging the castles of Collenuovo, Sillano, Trémali. The lords of Pogna, who did not try to harass the Valdelsa, were tamed with their arms, and demolished that one and the towers of Certaldo and how many there had been up to Florence, so that Barbarossa would shout about this which seemed to him a violation of power. imperial. In 1197 he bought the castle of Montegrossoli in Chianti: in 99 he tore through that of Frondigliano, then with a long siege Semifonti and the castle of Combiata, revolted by the Municipality: in 1220 he destroyed Mortenana castello degli Squarcialupi,
Most powerful of all were the Alberti; but having divided themselves by jambs, they could be subjected to covenants or by force from the city. In 1184 the count of Capraja of that family with his wife and children gave himself in leave to the Florentine Republic, forcing himself to hand over to its consuls one of the towers of Capraja, to be guarded or destroyed at will; and immediately we find the members of that family, rectors and consuls in the city. But [36]then spoiled with it, they beat up the passengers and the villagers, so that the Florentines went to host them, and having destroyed their castle of Malborghetto, they built that of Montelupo to keep them in check. Count Guido Borgognone tried in vain to oppose the Pistojesi, to whom he had been sworn loyal (1204): defeated, he had to pay homage to the Municipality of Florence with his sons and the men of Capraja, submitting that land to him, paying twenty-six denarii for each hearth. , and promising to make war at the will of the consuls against anyone, except the Lucchesi for three years, and the emperor forever: the consuls of Florence mutually promised to defend them from the Pistoians and from every other enemy, and not to demolish the castle of Capraja [18]. However, those accounts did not stand so to the agreements, that Florence was not forced several times to oppose them: they certainly remained powerful in sign, which many ajuti were able to give to the Pisans to recover the island of Sardinia.
In 1273 the general council of the fourteenth century and the special of the nineties approved that the men, the lands, the castles of Montemurlo, Montevarchi, Empoli, Monterappoli, Vinci, Cerreto, Collegonzi, Musignano, Colledipietra, be bought from Count Guido Salvatico, paying eight thousand florins little ones; which sum would be administered by the redeemed municipalities in proportion to the lira, that is, to the estimate [19] .
Some lords maintained local sovereignty in their ancestral castles, such as the Pazzi in Valdarno, the Ricásoli in Chianti. A coterie of Lombards or Lambardi [37]he mastered Versilia, that is, the Seravezza valley. The Ubaldini branched out in such a kinship that they almost dominated a principality [20] . The Pulci, the Nerli, the Gangalandi, the Giandonati, the Della Bella had placed in their arms that of Ugo of Brandeburg, Marquis of Tuscany at the time of Otto III, from whom they had received the nobility; and on the day of St. Thomas they celebrated the name of that baron in the abbey of San Settimo [21] . Other families rose in the city for traffic, such as the Cerchi, the Mozzi, the Bardi, the Frescobaldi, then the Albizzi and the Medici; and sometimes they were attacked in their own homes, like vassals in the rocks.
Add the ecclesiastical lordships; because, as the Santambrosian monks in Milan, so the abbots of Agnano, Montamiata, Trivio, Passignano and Monteverde were princes on their property; maximum those of Sant’Àntimo in Val d’Orcia, to which Lodovico Pio had granted almost the entire territory between the Ombrone, the Orcia and the Asso, so much so that over the patrimony of this abbey Lotario II assigned a thousand mansi as a gift wedding in Adelaide. The abbots of the island near Staggia in the Volterrano were barons on the whole island and on the people of Borgonuovo; and Castelnuovo dell’abate, Gello dell’abate, Vico dell’abate and many other similar recurring names mark villages born through the work of these toparchi monks.
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Anyone looking for the same goodwill would find in all the municipalities of Tuscany. Montegémoli of the Counts Guido submitted to the monastery of Monteverde, from which it was ceded to Volterra in 1208; and so are Querceto and Castelnuovo da Montagna. In 1221 the Aldobrandeschi counts took leave of the Sanesi family, pledging the castles of Radicóndoli and Belforte; likewise the lords of Montorsajo and the Cacciaconti of Montisi, and various noble families of Chiusdino. Montalcino was taken from the abbots of Sant’Antimo, a town begun on a hill dressed in holm oaks, and then surrounded by walls.
Siena fought the Scalenghi; in 1212 he bought the belongings of Asciano; since 1151 Palteniero Forteguerra had subdued its castles to it, including San Giovanni d’Asso. Thus the Salimbeni di Belcaro, the Viscounts of Campagnatico and others submitted to it. But Omberto di Campagnatico around 1250 attacked on the road those who were friends in Siena, until some Sienese disguised as friars entered his keep and killed it. The Ubaldinis also harassed the Santerno and Sieve valleys for a long time: the Pannochieschi continued to dominate Montemassi, which Castruccio in 1328 rebelled against the Sienese, who therefore defeated it with arms and hunger and had it destroyed, and this fact painted in the palace of the consistory by Simone Memmi. The Salimbeni, because one beheaded and others of their coterie imprisoned, in 1374 they waged war on the Municipality of Siena, and took Montemassi back: war was born of it; finally the matter was compromised in the Signoria of Florence, and the rebuilt rock was returned to that Municipality[22] .
The castles of Chianti were the incentive for wars between Siena and Florence, which border there; and Montepulciano, of [39]whose origin is unknown, but is already mentioned in 715, placed himself in devotion to the Florentines, promising not to impose taxes on their goods, and to offer for St. John a candle of fifty pounds, and the annual tribute of fifty silver marks. The Sienese recalled it in front of a congress of nobles from the neighborhood and representatives of the cities; and from the examination it appeared that for forty or more years it had not belonged to the district of Siena, but was dominated by some Teutonic counts. Siena was not satisfied with it, and repeatedly tried to subdue Montepulciano with its weapons, which was destroyed and rebuilt, and after many vicissitudes he went to Siena, promising to have the same friends and enemies, not levy duties or taxes on the Sienese, offer, day of Maria Assunta, a flowered candle weighing fifty pounds,
Grosseto, center of the valley of the lower Sienese Ombrone, was born around the year 1000, and was a city when Innocent II in 1138 transferred the bishopric of Roselle, an ancient Etruscan city, then fallen and exposed to the infestations of thieves. It remained in the lordship of the Aldobrandeschi of Sovana, who then went to the Republic of Siena, to which the Grossetans themselves swore submission, and the tribute of forty-eight annual lire and fifty pounds of wax; as the bishop paid twenty-five lire and a candle of twelve pounds. The submission, however, was always restless, and repeatedly shaken.
Pistoja, which came up after its marshes were dried in the 16th century, had rich families, including the progenitors of the Counts Guido and also of the Cadolingi; it was governed by the bishop, the count, the steward; and after death the Countess Matilde emancipated herself. Her statutes are the oldest that [40]be conserved: in 1150 he already had podestà and councilors, to whom Cardinal Ugo, papal legate and disciple of St. Bernard, wrote in order to quash the illicit oath they made, upon entering office, never to do any good to the Spedalinghi or in life nor in death. That Commune subjected the episcopal vassals of Lamporecchio, the Counts Guido di Montemurlo, the Counts of Capraja, the Counts Alberti of Val Bisenzio, the peoples of Artimino and Carmignano.
Cortona made up its commune of consuls, nobility ( majores milites), chief professions, with a chamberlain and chancellor: the council of belief consisted of twenty nobles; the general of a hundred citizens and craftsmen. In 1213 the Alfieri gave her the castle of Poggioni, promising that at least one of them would have a family in the city; the Bandinucci Montemaggio, the Balducchini Castelgherardi, the Mancini Ruffignano, the Bostoli Cignano, the Baldelli Peciana, the Venuti Cigliolo, the Tommasi Cintoja, the Boni Fusigliano, the Cappi Ossaja, the Pancrazj Ronzano, the Serducci Danciano, the Melli Borghetto and Malalbergo sul Trasimeno lake, the Passerini Montalla. He also submitted the Marquises of Petrella, Pierle, Mercatale, the Alticozzi, the Semini, the Rodolfini, the Vagnucci, the Camaldolesi of the Sant’Egidio priory, making them enter the city, so that in 1219 he enlarged the walls to close the suburb as well of San Vincenzo. Friendships and wars alternated with the Aretini, who surprised her in 1269, sacked and dismantled it, forcing her to always take an Aretino for mayor. Eventually the Casati, made vicars of the Empire, acquired dominion there until the Florentine republic subdued it.
The cities prepared new villages for the freed villagers, and made friends with them with the reliefs (t. VI, p. 53, 54). Florence united to its own countryside all those spontaneously given, making them participate in the right of citizenship, [41]and dividing them into neighborhoods; while those subjected to force or bought for money formed the district , each with particular agreements and conditions. Comunelli, parish churches, peoples had formed leagues to defend themselves from violence, forcing themselves to clean up their territory from criminals and bandits, keep the streets safe, damage those who suffered from it, having for this purpose officers and common expenses.
Florence, having come to freedom later than the Lombard Communes, had a less long struggle and a more rapid development of civilization, of arts, of commerce; she avoided wars with Barbarossa, and was able to make sense of the experience of others. His posture and the character of the inhabitants helped to preserve those simple and straightforward customs, of which a description is given to us by the most imaginative poet and faithful chronicler of half times, Dante, who sings how, in the days of atavo his Cacciaguida, Florence, still inside a narrow enclosure, should be sober and modest in peace; not the overwhelming feminine ornaments more than the person himself attracted the eye; she had not yet, from her birth, feared her daughter of her father, who was already thinking of immature time and the large dowry of marriages; Bellincion Berti [23]and other illustrious citizens wore leather belts, and were content in uncovered leather garments; their women did not leave smoothed out by the mirror, but waiting for the spindle and the distaff, they watched over the study of the cradle, consoling the children with that little boy to talk that first amused the parents; [42]and drawing the crown from the fortress, they reasoned with the family not of vanity and folly, but of the Trojani, of Fiesole, of Rome.
To which verses, which everyone has by heart, comments the good Giovanni Villani: – At that time (ie 1250) the citizens of Florence lived sober and on large food and with small expenses, and in many large and rude customs; and in thick cloths they dressed their women; and many wore bare skins without cloth, with hats on their heads, and all with hats on their feet; and the women of the common fashion wore a large green of cambrasio in the same manner; and the common people used to give a dowry one hundred lire, and those that they gave to the majority, two hundred; and in three hundred lire she was kept dazzled; and most of the maidens who married were twenty or older. And so they were the Florentines with their loyal hearts and faithful to each other. And Benvenuto da Imola: – Back then the bakeries didn’t wear pearls in their shoes,
These descriptions, perhaps exaggerated, but on a basis of truth, we will carry out by recalling how, when the Pisans had to proceed with an undertaking over the Balearic Islands, Florence made a show of ensuring in the meantime the safety of their city; then, offering her a prize, she asked for two porphyry columns. The fact and the guide say a lot about that age.
Thus Florence grew in the rested life of citizens, when the private enmity of two houses plagued it with the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Buondelmonte de ‘Buondelmonti, former lords of Montebuono in the Val d’Arno, [43]he had engaged a daughter of Oderigo Giantrufetti degli Amedei (1215). Now riding one day in front of the house of the Donati, Aldruda, his wife, gave him a motto, and showing him his daughter, the beautiful and only heiress of great wealth, said to him: “I had raised her and kept her for you.” Buondelmonte fell in love with her, and broke up the marriage with the other. Vivid indignation conceived Oderigo of it, and, after having united with his relatives, Uberti, Fifanti, Lamberti, Gangalandi, they resolved to beat him and shame him; but Mosca de ‘Lamberti uttered the bad word: What has he done head, as if to say – Let’s freeze him, because after the fact he patches up »; and on the day that, once again nobly dressed in a white robe over a white palafreno, he took his wife, they killed him at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio. The people gave on to the killers, and serious enmities began among the citizens, each siding with this or that under the name of Guelphs or Ghibellines, so that the city had the semblance of two enemy camps. In San Pier Scheraggio were the houses of the Uberti, who, followed by the Fifanti, Infangati, Amedei, Malespini, fought the Bagnesi, the Pulci, the Guidalotti, the Gherardini, the Foraboschi, the Sacchetti, the Manieri, the Cavalcanti, of Guelph intention . Barucci, Agolanti, Brunelleschi narrowed to the cathedral around the Lancia tower, contending with Tosinghi, Agli, Sizi, Arrigucci. At Porta San Pietro the Tedaldini with the Caponsacchi, Elisei, Abati, Galigaj contrasted the Guelphs Donati, Visdomini, Pazzi, Adimari, Della Bella, Cerchi, Ardinghi. The tower of the Scarafaggio de ‘Soldanieri in San Pancrazio spread the Ghibelline flag, supported by the Lamberti, Cipriani, Toschi, Migliorelli, Amieri, Pigli, against Tornaquinci, Vecchietti, Bostichi. So in the remaining sestieri; and also in Borgo the Buondelmonti fought the Scolari, being with them the Giandonati, Gianfigliazzi, Scali, Gualterotti, Importuni Guelphs, with [44]these the Guidi, Galli, Capiardi, Soldanieri; and beyond the Arno the Gangalandi, Ubriachi, Mannelli Ghibellini, Guelfi the Nerli, the Frescobaldi, the Bardi, the Mozi: and they hunted each other, and asked for an alliance in the other cities and from the castellani of their amistade.
At the time of Frederick II the Ghibellines prevailed, and among them the Uberti (1249) hindered the trade of Florence, and invited a crowd of Germans with Frederick of Antioch, son of the emperor, they routed the Guelphs from the city. Rustico Marignolli, leader of this part, was the expert in the fray; and, so as not to leave him to the insult of their enemies, they turned back without caring for danger, and carrying the candles and the coffin in one hand, and in the other very ferocious weapons, they made him singular funeral. The triumphant Ghibellines demolished the towers of the enemies, and tried to destroy San Giovanni where they held their meetings, they pursued them in the countryside and in the castles of Capraja, Figline, Montevarchi, and having obtained some prisons, they handed them over to Frederick II, who killed them. , blinded or held prisoners.
Left without competitors, the Ghibellines established an aristocratic government in the city, all in the aggravation of the plebs and the free bourgeois. But these took revenge, and claimed by those extortions and bullying, held parliament in Piazza Santa Croce (1250 – 20 8 October), and formed a confederation with the name of the people, more laudable ways because they knew how to temper themselves from re-actions. Having abolished the podestà of the nobles, substitute a captain who was “a zealous Guelph and of the Guelph party, faithful and devoted to the sacrosanct Roman Church, and not loyal to any king, prince, lord or baron opposed to it”; assisted by a bimonthly seigniory of twelve elderly people, two per district; and they divided the citizenship into twenty banners, which constituted as many militia companies, the countryside into ninety-six plovers. At a nod from the [45]captain and at the toll of the martinella , the militia had to gather around the carroccio of the white and vermilion banner, and in this way they ran several times at the greats. To whom it was taken away only the power to overwhelm, by cutting off of their towers what exceeded the fifty arms, and with stones forging the sestiere of the Arno to have the strength that broke freedom: in the shape of a fortress, the palace of the podestà was built, where the members of the Government resided.
With this new form of popular state, Florence spent ten memorable years for great facts. As soon as the death of Emperor Frederick relieved him of fear, he repatriated the exiled Guelphs, forced the nobles of the two factions to sign peace, forced Pistoja, Arezzo, Siena to change from the imperial flag to his own: he beat Poggibonzi and Volterra, whose Etruscan walls sheltered the Ghibellines; near Pontedera he defeated the Pisans [24] ; and in memory of this year of victories he minted the new gold coin of twenty-four carats and an eighth of an ounce of gold, called the florin because it bore the flower, the speaking symbol of that city.
The following years continued the prosperity; but the Ghibellines plotted to regain the upper hand, and [46]summoned to justify themselves, they took up arms and erected barricades. The people attacked him, some killed, the others away. Led by Farinata degli Uberti, they hospitalized in Siena; and since this had a mutual agreement with Florence not to accept the refugees, war was ordered to it. Florence had been placed under interdict for having cut the ruff on the public squareto a Beccaria Pavese abbot of Vallombrosa, accused of plotting with the exiles, so that the war also covered religious appearances; and the Ghibellines (1258) were not aware of asking Germans for help from King Manfred, who had already been called lord of Siena. An army was promised, and he sent only a hundred men; whereupon the Ghibellines were disheartened: but the shrewd Farinata said to them: “It is enough for him to send his sign, and we will place it in such a place that, without a doubt to pray, he will give us more help.” Drunk, he pushed them on to the Guelphs, of whom they massacred: but these, rannoditisi, defeated them and killed up to one. The flag of the black eagle on a silver field was dragged through the mud as far as Florence, where ten lire were decreed to anyone who had made a knight prison, half for a citizen infantryman,[25] .
As Farinata had foreseen, Manfredi knew his honor committed; and driven by twenty thousand florins sent to him, he sent eighteen hundred German knights, commanded by his nephew Giordano d’Anglano; with whom and with the Sienese and the exiles he fielded twenty thousand men. Two liars friars promised the Florentines that the Sienese Guelphs would open the city to them: hence, although the prudent ones advised against getting entangled in enemy territory, while waiting they would see the Germans [47]soon scattered for lack of wages, the exaggerated which cowardice they call waiting for opportunity prevailed: a knight who suggested this party was fined; to another imposed silence, on pain of a hundred lire, and he subjected himself to it to speak; doubled the fine, it did not remain silent; nor when it was raised to four hundred lire, and until he was threatened with his head.
Once the expedition was resolved (1260), he had no family there that did not send anyone on foot or on horseback. In the march the archers and crossbowmen of the city and of the countryside made an antiguard; followed the cavalry and the people of three districts of the city, then the cavalry and foot soldiers of the others; the Confederates on foot or on horseback formed the rear. With them went people from Bologna, Lucca, Pistoja, Sanminiato, San Geminiano, Volterra, Perugia, Orvieto and many mercenaries; in all more than thirty thousand fighters. The battle which took place in the hills of Monteaperti (4th 7th October) on the Arbia, six miles from Siena, is one of the most famous events in the heroic age of our Republics. The Sienese prepared for it with devotions, «and almost all night the people waited to confess and make peace with one another. Whoever has received greater insult, the good one was looking for his enemy to kiss him on the mouth and forgive him. In this, most of the night was consumed “[26] . Then the ranks started: and “those talented women, who had remained in Siena together with Messere the Bishop and with those Cherici, began a solemn procession on Friday morning in time with all the relics that were in the cathedral and in all the churches of Siena . So they went visiting for effect, always the cherics singing divine psalms, litanies and prayers: the women all barefoot with very vile clothing [48]they went always praying to God that he would send back who their father, who their son, who their brothers, who their husbands; and all with great tears and weeping went to it procession, always calling the Virgin Mary. So they went all Friday, and all that day they fasted. When evening came, the procession returned to the cathedral, and there all knelt down, and remained so still that the litanies were said with many prayers. Coming down from the hillock they went to the plain, and there the frank knight master Arrigo d’Astimbergo stood before everyone, and gave reverence to the captain and all the others, saying:All those of our house are privileged by the sacred empire, that in every battle that we find ourselves, we must be the first servants. Therefore it is my turn to have the honor of our home; and I beg you to be happy with this. And it was granted to him, as it should have been.
“Being so the people of the Sienese, a very white cloak was seen for most of the people (Florentine), which covered the whole Campo de ‘Senesi and the city of Siena ….. Some people said that the cloak seemed to them of our Virgin Mary, who looks and defends the people of Siena ….. In this being seen the cloak in the Campo de ‘Senesi and above the city of Siena, as aluminated by God they knelt on the ground with tears invoking the Virgin glorious. And they all said: This is a great miracle; this is for the prayers of our bishop and religious saints ” [27] .
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The Ghibellines were fewer in number, but better disciplined and in agreement; and Bocca degli Abbati and others, their secret supporters, deserted from the Florentines, who were confused by them: the hammer stopped ringing; the first horsemen fled and thus remained safe, but perhaps three thousand of the pedestrians were dead, very much prisoners; the carroccio taken, and with great feasts dragged backwards; and on a donkey and with his hands on his back a herald whom the Florentines, credulous in their intelligence, had sent to ask for the gates of Siena; and the people behind shouted: “Now come and occupy the city, and build a fort” [28]. The banner of King Manfred waved before the Germans, who with fronds in their helmets praised the victory over ours in the language of their country. From the magnificently decorated Sienese carroccio waved the banner of the Municipality, behind which the prisoners, sated with outrages: of which not even the chroniclers are sparing, who tell how private individuals were allowed to receive the ransom of prisons, but the magistrates they wanted to add a goat for each head, with the blood of which the lime was mixed to restore a fountain which kept the name of the Becchi . A church was also erected in memory and in honor of St. George, with an anniversary party; and Margaritone painted a crucifix for Farinata in the Byzantine manner. Many families of [50]Frightened Florence mutaronsi in Lucca, where the Guelphs of Prato, Pistoja, Volterra, San Geminiano and other places too.
Resumed superiority, the Ghibellines congregated in Empoli set out to destroy Florence, the nest of the adversaries: only the magnanimous Farinata declared that he had come to that confederation, not to undo the city, but to keep it victorious [29]. This proposition hints at the fury of the Ghibelline party, which punished, extorted and reformed the state in an imperial way, removing plebeian privileges and burdens against the aristocrats. Count Guido Novello, made vicar of King Manfredi in Tuscany, attacked Lucca, a shelter of the Guelfi, which, sent in vain to invite Corradino, could not save himself except by rejecting the refugees, who no longer remained in Tuscany. Despite the victory of Charles of Anjou, Guido was able to keep Florence for the Ghibellines, and to two Gaudenti friars of Bologna he gave the task of putting them in peace with the Guelphs, appointing them podestà with thirty-six savjs (1266). With these, they distributed the arts in twelve guilds, part called major, part minor; and each had consuls, captains, standard. Hence the true popular government begins; so well says the [51]Villani that “from then on there was no one great”, that is, superior to the law.
Union is always fatal to tyranny; and soon the people rose up against Count Guido, who thought it good to retire; and the city was reformed under the Guelph flag, committing the lordship to Charles of Anjou for ten years. He fought the Ghibellines in Poggibonzi, who resisted four months, and took many castles in the Pisan area. The pope had sent the flag with the vermilion eagle on a white background and under a green snake, which then always remained the insignia of the Guelph mass , as a magistrate established to administer the assets confiscated from the defective Ghibellines for the benefit of the Guelphs was called [30 ]. Independent from the Signoria, it elected its own offices and councils by itself, made orders and laws, received and passed out letters to other states with its own seal, and ensured that no Ghibelline was admitted to the honors or benefits of the Commune: therefore it was of great weight. in events, and having survived freedom as an economic administration, it was abolished only in 1769.
Those alternations multiplied the grudges, the confiscations, the sufferings, but at the same time the life and the daring [52]great things. “The city of Florence is placed by its nature in a safe and sterile place, which could not with all the effort give the inhabitants a living … and for this reason they went out of their land to look for other lands and provinces and countries, where one and another saw that they could advance once, and treasure, and return home: and going this way through all the kingdoms of the world, both Christians and infidels, they saw the custom of the other nations … and the one has caused the will to come to the other, meanwhile, whoever is not a merchant and who has sought the world and seen the strange nations of the peoples and returned to his homeland with having, is not reputed by anything … and it is so much the number, that they go around the world in their youth, and gain and acquire practice and virtue and customs and treasure,[31] . Often the merchants found themselves alone to support public burdens, and lent money to the nobles to grow, to the plebs to buy food. They therefore took heart not only to want to take part in the government, but to exclude the owners; and the lordship of six priors was established, obliged to live together in the palace without leaving it for two months which lasted; and who, united with the councils of the major arts, elected successors. They must belong to an art, and therefore the nobles and the families of messeri who aspired to the government were also registered there; hence the Commune considered itself only as artisans and people. A gonfalonier presided over the priors; and they were served by three great foreign officers, the mayor, the captain of the people, the executor of the orders of justice.
Section drawn the Florentines armed to make the Guelph faction prevail, or mixed in controversies [53]of Lucca, Siena, Pistoja, Cortona, where the same changes took place, in most cases democracy prevailing. In Siena the Nine, bimonthly defenders of the community and of the people, had to be merchants: and so in Pistoja the elderly, excluding the ancient nobles and those who for any fault were registered among the nobles. The Ghibellines from all over Tuscany had reduced to Arezzo, so that the noble part was raised under the bishop Guglielmo degli Ubertini. The Guelphs of Florence wanted to repress them, and having all of Tuscany taken part here or there, they clashed in Campaldino near Bibiena (1289 – 11 June). On coming to the fray, they used to designate twelve paladins, who rushed as lost against the enemies at the head of the cavalry, encouraging it with their example. To this enterprise the Florentine Vieri de ‘Cerchi, although infirm, he named himself, then his son, then he did not want to name others; but that was enough for them to want to be of the number, and about fifty asked to enter paladins.
«The bishop (of Arezzo), who had a brief sight, asked: What are the walls? Fugli replied: The palvesi of the enemies . Messer Barone de ‘Mangiadori da Sanminiato, frank and expert knight in military matters, gathered the men of arms, said to them: Gentlemen, the wars of Tuscany used to win for good assault, and did not last, and few men would die there, because killing them was not in use … Now the fashion has changed, and you win to stay well still: why I advise you to be strong, and let them attack. And so they are willing to do. The Aretini attacked the camp so vigorously and with such force that the ranks of the Florentines recoiled strongly. The battle was very bitter and hard. New knights had come on both sides. Messer Corso Donati with the Pistoia brigade wounded the enemies on the coast, whence they were uncovered: the air was covered with clouds, the [54]dust was very great. The pedestrians of the Aretines got on all fours under the bellies of the horses with knife in hand, and gutted them, and of their wounders passed so long that in the middle of the line many of each side were killed. Many that day were cowardly, who were esteemed of great prowess; and many of whom we did not speak, were esteemed ” [32] .
The Florentines triumphed, but neither did they pose for this from the riots.
The nobles, confident in the practice of arms, did not know how to bend to the restraint of the law, they abused the commoners, and when someone had committed a crime, his whole family appeared with arms on their side, to save him from justice. The standard bearer was then forced to arm the youth in order to forcefully punish the criminal. – Many were punished according to the law, and the first who fell there were the Galigaj; for some of them made a malice in France in two sons of a merchant, Ugolino Benivieni, who came to words together, for which one of the said brothers was wounded by that of Galigaj, who died of it. And I Dino Compagni (as this good chronicler tells us) finding myself gonfalonier of justice in 1293, I went to their homes and to their spouses, and I had them unpacked according to the laws. This principle was followed by a bad use by the other gonfalonieri, because, if they unraveled according to the laws, the people said that they were cruel; who were cowardly, if not at all unraveling: and many distorted justice for the sake of the people ».
Giano della Bella, noble yet made head of the common people (1293), of whom he personified the resentments, “a virile man and of great spirit, who defended those things that others abandoned, and spoke those that others were silent”, had [55]the courage that popular societies lacked to repress the great, and persuaded them to choose a standard-bearer of justice with a thousand foot soldiers, so that with the popular insignia of the red cross on a white field he might vigorously repress the bullies. Having himself departed from that unlimited office, and availing himself of being the nobles in war with one another, he proclaimed ordinances in their aggravation, “and in true and perpetual harmony, unity and preservation and increase of the peaceful and restful state of the architects and of the arts and of all the common people, and of the whole municipality and of the city and of the district of Florence ». He had thirty-seven magnate houses excluded from the citizens’ offices for ever, and he gave the will to add any noble family that had demerit to them; and the law made it possible to enlist among the nobles onlypro homicidio, pro veneno, pro robaria seu robaria, pro furtu, pro incestu . Whoever was so noticed, had to give two thousand lire as security for his bearing, not to go out in times of turmoil, not to own a house near a bridge or a city gate, not to appeal to criminal courts, not to accuse a plebeian, except for crime against himself or one of his family; not to testify against a commoner without the consent of the priors: and his relatives up to the fourth degree were jointly and severally liable for the fines imposed on him. The bourgeois were divided into twenty companies of fifty men, then by two hundred, so that they promptly rushed to the call of arms. The people became attached to these systems of justice [33] , col [56]give some authority in general councils to the capitudes , that is, to the consuls of the workers.
At the same time the Republic extended its jurisdiction over Poggibonzi, Certaldo, Gambussi, Catignano; he took away those which some counts and cattanei held from ancient times, or had recently recovered. The nobles, indignant, especially since they considered Janus as a deserter, resorted to every way to lose him. Not daring to assassinate the people for theme, they opposed him by a gentleman who enclosed diplomas of the emperor or the pope; but they better profited from an artifice no longer unlearned, and although just put into practice by our patriots, not only put into practice, but taught in the press, which is to throw slander on the political opponent, so that with honor he may be deprived of belief. They therefore placed Janus in suspicion of the people, attributing his severity to tyranny; and since in punishing the wicked (1295) he wanted to protect the mayor against a street insurrection, he was expelled; and confiscated his possessions, he died in exile.
Not for this the nobles retaliated, and finding themselves dissuaded from the law, they withdrew from the city, using as tyrannies in their castles. To repress the two powerful families of the Pazzi and the Ubertini in the upper Valdarno, the Florentines built the three fortresses of Terranuova, San Giovanni and Castelfranco, next to those estates, granting so many franchises, that the subjects of those and the Ricàsoli and the Counts and other neighboring baroncelli hastened to make themselves terraces of those castles, [57]for this they promptly grown. Casaglia, Scarperia or Castel San Barnaba, Firenzuola, Barberino were also built against the Ubaldinis, acquitted for ten years of impositions, and with the right to the magnates to be able to make purchases.
