THE

HISTORY

OF

FLORENCE.

BOOK II.

ARGUMENT.

The utility of Colonies. The original of Florence. Whence it took its name. The first divifion that happened in the City. The rife of the Guelph and Ghibeline factions. Their reunion, and the form of government established in Florence. The inftitution of the Anziani, the Captain of the People, and the Podeftà. Their forces and generofity in time of war. Manfred, King of Naples, chief Patron of the Ghibelines. The Patriotism of Farinata Uberti. Charles of Anjou called into Italy by the Pope. A reform of the State in Florence. Fresh commotions. The government new modelled by the Guelphs. The twelve Buonhuomini and the Credenza appointed. Gregory X. Pope. Florence under Excommunication. Innocent V. fucceeds Gregory. The jealoufy of the Popes. Nicholas III. Pope. The Ghibelines return from banishment. Martin, a Frenchman, elected Pope. The Government reformed by the Citizens. The inftitution of three Priori to govern for two months, and to be chofen indifferently out of the Citizens. The Signiory. Difcords betwixt the Nobility and the People, A Gonfaloniere di Giuftizia, or Standard-bearer, appointed. The Nobility exhorted to peace. The fame admonitions given to the People. Another reform in Florence in the year 1298. A great quarrel in the family of the Cancellieri; the occafion and confequences of it. They divide into two factions, diftinguished by the names of Bianchi and Neri, i. e. Whites and Blacks. Their Chiefs and Partijans. Charles of Valois

made

made Governor of Florence. New troubles occafioned by Corfo Donati; fomented by the Medici and Giugni. A great fire in Florence, 1304. Corfo Donati condemned as a rebel; his death. Fresh divifions. The tyranny and cruelty of Lando d'Agobbio. The fuccefs of Caftruccio Caf tracani. A Council of the Signiory to last forty months. Election of the magiftrates by Imborfation. Ramondo da Cardona, general of the Florentine army; his bad conduct, defeat, and death. The Duke of Athens, Deputy-governor of Florence. The Emperor, Lewis of Bavaria, called into Italy. The death of Caftruccio and the Duke of Calabria. A new model of Government. The Florentines quiet at home. Their new buildings. Their tranquillity difturbed. A Captain of the guards appointed. Maffeo da Maradi prevents an engagement betwixt the factions in Florence, by his mediation. Lucca fold to the Florentines; and taken from them by the Pifans. The Duke of Athens made Governor of Florence. The speech of one of the Signiory to him. His answer. He is made Sovereign by the people. His violent manner of proceeding. Matteo di Morozzo difcovers a plot to him. Three confpiracies on foot against him at the fame time. An infurrection in Florence. The Duke is expelled. His character. Another reform. The Nobility turned out of their offices. The bold attempt of Andrea Strozzi. The Nobles endeavour to recover their authority. The people take arms and utterly suppress them.

A

MONGST other wife and praise-worthy inftitutions of former Kingdoms and Republics, which are difcontinued in our times, it was the custom to build new towns and cities upon every proper opportunity. And indeed nothing is more worthy of a great and good Prince, or a well regulated Common-wealth, nor more for the interest and advantage of a Province, than to establish such communities, where men may live together for greater convenience, either of cultivating the earth, or of mutually affifting and defending each other and this they usually effected, by fending fome of their own fubjects to inhabit fuch countries which they had either conquered or found unpeopled. Such fettlements were called Colonies, and ferved not only to beautify and meliorate the face of the country, by building new towns, but to render it more fecure to the Conqueror, by filling the void places, and making a proper diftribution of the people through every part of it. Thus, living with greater comfort and convenience, the inhabitants multiplied fafter, and were more able to invade others, or defend themselves. But this cuftom being now laid afide, either by the fupineness or bad policy of Princes and Republics, fome Provinces are become exceeding weak, and others totally ruined. For this Order alone fecures a Country and fills it with people. It makes it fecure, because a Colony planted by a 'Prince

I

Prince in a Country newly conquered, is a fort of a garrifon to check and keep the natives in obedience. Befides, without it, no Province could long continue properly inhabited, nor preserve a just distribution of the people: for as all parts of it cannot be equally fertile or healthful, men will naturally abandon the barren places, and are carried off by diftempers in thofe that are unwholfome; fo that except fome way can be found to invite fresh fettlers from the other quarters, to inhabit both the one and the other, that Province muft foon be ruined; as the abandoning fome places leaves them defolate, and crowding too large numbers into others, exhaufts and impoverishes them. And fince these inconveniences are not to be remedied by nature alone, art and industry must be applied: for we fee many countries that were at first unhealthful, much altered when they come to be inhabited by a multitude of people, the earth being purified by tillage, and the air by their fires; which, without that affiftance, nature only could never have effected. Of this, Venice is a remarkable inftance: for though it was built in a fenny and unwholsome situation, the concourfe of fo many people at one time, foon made it healthful. Pifa likewife, on account of the badness of its air, was very thinly inhabited, till the Genoefe were driven out of their territories by the Saracens, and flocked thither in fuch numbers, that it foon became a populous and powerful city. But fince the cuftom of fending out Colonies is now out of fashion, new conquefts are not fo eafily maintained, void places not fo foon filled, nor thofe that are too much crowded fo readily difburthened. From whence it comes to pass, that many places in the world, and particularly in Italy, are now become defolate and unpeopled, in comparison of what they were in former ages; the true caufe of which failure is, that Princes have now no appetite for true glory, and Commonwealths no longer obferve the laudable customs and inftitutions they anciently used to do.

In former times, I fay then, many new Cities were founded, and feveral that had been built before, much enlarged by Colonies. The City of Florence, to give a particular example, was begun by the inhabitants of Fiefole, and augmented by the people they were continually fending thither. It is certain, if Dante and Giovanni Villani are to be credited, that the Citizens of Fiefole, which is fituated upon the top of a hill, marked out a plot of ground upon the plain that lies betwixt the fkirts of that hill and the river Arno, for the conveniency of Merchants; that fo their goods might be conveyed thither with lefs difficulty, and their markets better frequented. Thefe Merchants, I fuppofe, firft built warehouses in that place to ftow their goods in, which, in courfe of time, became a fettled habitation. But when the Romans had fecured Italy against foreign invafions, by the deftruction of Carthage, they be

gan

gan to multiply exceedingly:"for men will not live any longer in want and distress than they are compelled to it, by abfolute neceffity: and though the terrors of war may force them for a while to take shelter in defart mountains, and inacceffible Places; yet, when the danger is blown over, comfort and convenience allure them back again, and they naturally return to places that are more habitable and commodious. The fecurity, therefore, which was established in Italy, by the reputation of the Roman arms, might poffibly be the occafion that this place increased fo faft from fo fmall a beginning, that it foon came to be a town, which at firft was called Villa Arnina.

After this, there arose civil wars in Rome betwixt Marias and Sylla, then betwixt Cæfar and Pompey, and laftly betwixt the Affaffins of Cæfar and thofe that undertook to revenge his death. Sylla was the firft, and after him, the three Roman Citizens who revenged the death of Cæfar and divided the Empire, that fent Colonies to Fiefole; all, or the greater part of which, fettled in a plain not far from the town which was already begun fo that by this addition, the place became fo full of buildings and inhabitants, and fuch provifions were made for a civil government, that it might well be reckoned amongst the cities of Italy. But whence it took the name of Florence is not fo clearly known. Some will have it, that it was fo called from Florino, one of the chiefs of the Colony. Others fay, it was not called Florentia, but, Fluentia at first, from its being fituated so near the stream of the Arno; and to fupport their affertion they produce the teftimony of Pliny, who says, [a]." The Fluentines are feated upon the banks of the Arno." But that seems to be an error, because Pliny is there fpeaking of the fituation, not the name, of the Florentines; and the word Fluentini is moft probably a corruption of the text, fince Frontinus and Tacitus, two writers that were nearly cotemporary with Pliny, call the town Florentia and the people Florentines: and it is certain, that in the time of Tiberius, they were governed by the fame laws and authority that the reft of the cities in Italy were then subject to. Of which we see a proof in the fame Tacitus, [b] who relates, that the Florentines fent Deputies to petition the Emperor that he would not fuffer their Country to be ruined by turning the ftream of the river Clanis upon it, as was defigned: and it is abfurd to fuppofe that city should have two names at the fame time. It is my opinion therefore, whatever might be the occafion of its Original or Denomination, that it was always called Florentia. It was founded under the Roman Empire, and began to be mentioned in History in the time of the firft Emperors: and when [b] Annal. lib. 1. ad finem.

[a] Nat. Hift. 1. iii. c. 25.

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the

the Empire was over-run by Barbarians, Totila, King of the Oftrogoths, took and demolifhed Florence. Two hundred years after which, it was rebuilt by Charlemagne, from whofe time, till the year 1215, it followed the fortune of thofe that fucceffively had the rule in Italy: for, during that period, it was governed firft by the pofterity of Charlemagne, afterwards by the Berengarii, and laft of all by the German Emperors, as we have already fhewn in our fummary of the affairs of Italy.

In those days, the Florentines being under the dominion of foreigners, were not able either to extend their boundaries, or to perform any thing worthy of relation, except, that on St. Romulus's day, in the year 1010, which the Fiefolans obferved as a folemn feftival, they took and deftroyed Fiefole, availing themselves either of the connivance of the Emperors, or the opportunity that was afforded them by the inter-regnum betwixt. the death of one Emperor and the Election of another. But afterwards, when the Popes affumed greater authority in Italy, and the power of the German Emperors was upon the wane, all the towns of that province began to govern themselves, and fhewed but little regard to their Princes: fo that in the year 1080, Italy was in a manner divided betwixt Henry the Third and the Church. Notwithstanding which, the Florentines always fubmitting to the Conqueror, and aiming at nothing further than their own preservation, kept themselves quiet and undivided till the year 1215. But as it is obferved, that the later diseases make their approach, the more dangerous and mortal they commonly are to the human body: so the longer it was before Florence was feized by the paroxyfms of Faction, the more fatal they proved when it did happen. The cause of its first Division is very well known, as it has been already related by Dante and feveral other Writers: however, I shall give a fhort account of it.

The greatest and most powerful families in Florence at that time, were the Buondelmonti and the Uberti; and next to them, the Amadei and Donati. In the family of the Donati there was a very rich widow Lady, who had a daughter of remarkable beauty. This Lady had refolved with herself to marry her daughter to Meffer Buondelmonte, a young Cavalier, who was then head of that family; but either out of negligence, or because the thought it was yet in good time, fhe had not communicated her defign to any body: fo that before he was aware, young Buondelmonte had engaged himself to a daughter of the Houfe of Amadei, at which the old Lady was exceedingly difappointed and chagrined, when she came to know it. But as the entertained fome hopes that her daughter's beauty might ftill have power enough to break the match, feeing him come alone one day towards her house, she went to the door with her daughter, to falute him as he paffed by, and amongst

other