Mar. 29. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



245 



faisaiit matrleiiler Hans quelque corps de metier, ou en 

 excr^ant quelque profession .... Les mem'ures de 

 ces trente-sept families t'urent designes, meme dans les 

 lois, par les noms de grands et de magnats ; et pour 

 la premiere fois, on vit un litre d'honneur devenir non- 

 seuleraent un fardeau onereux, mais une punition." — 

 Sismondi, Hhtoire des Rcjnibliq'tes Italiennes, torn. iv. 

 pp. 63-4. : Paris, 1826. 



" The people, now sure of their triumph, relaxed 

 the Ordinances of Justice, and, to make some distinction 

 in favour of merit or innocence, effaced certain families 

 from the list of the nobility. Five hundred and thirty 

 I)ersons were thus elevated, as we may call it, to the 

 rank of commoners. As it was beyond the competence 

 of the Republic of Florence to change a man's an- 

 cestors, tills nominal alteration left all the real ad- 

 vanta ge of birth as they were, and was undoubtedly 

 an enhancement of dignity, though, in appearance, a 

 very singular one. Conversely, several unpopular com- 

 moners were ennobled in order to disfranchise them. 

 Notliing was more usual, in subsequent times, than 

 such an arbitrary change of rank, as a penalty or 

 a benefit. (Messer Antonio de Baldinaccio degli 

 Adimari, tutto che fosse de piii grandi e nobili, per 

 grazia era misso tra '1 popolo. — Villain., xii. c. 108.) 

 Those nobles who were rendered plebeian by favour, 

 were obliged to change their name and arms." — Hal- 

 lain 's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. -435-6.: London, 1834. 



" In the history of Florentine families, a singular 

 feature presents itself; by a practice peculiar to Italy, 

 nay, it is believed to Florence, families, under certain 

 circumstances, were compelled to change their arms 

 and their surnames, the origin of which was as follows. 

 After having long suffered the insolent factions of the 

 great families to convulse the state, the middle classes, 

 beaded indeed by one of the nobles, by a determined 

 movement, obtained the mastery. To organize their 

 newly-acquired power, they instituted an office, the 

 chief at Florence during the republican era, that of 

 Gonfalonier of Justice ; they formed a species of na- 

 tional guard from the whole body of the citizens, who 

 were again subdivided into companies, under the com- 

 mand of other officers of inferior dignity, also styled 

 Gonfaloniers (IJannarets). As soon as any noble com- 

 mitted violence within the walls of (he city, likely to com- 

 promise the public peace, or disturb the quiet of the state, 

 the great bell at the Palazzo Vecchio raised its alarum, 

 the population flew to arins, and hastened to the spot, 

 where the Gonfalonier of Justice speedily found him- 

 self in a position, not merely to put an end to the dis- 

 turbance, but even to lay siege to the stout massive 

 fortresses which formed the city residences of the in- 

 solent and refractory offenders to which they then 

 withdrew. Uut the reforming party did not stop 

 there ; l)y the new constitution, which was then intro- 

 duced, the ancient noble families, termed by cotem- 

 porary lii-,torians ' i grandi,' and explained to include 

 those only which had ever been illustrated by the order 

 of knighthood, were all placed under a severe system of 

 civil restrictions, and their names were entered upon a 

 roll called the Ordinances of Justice ; the immediate 

 effect was that, lositig all political rights, they were 

 placed in a most disadvantageous position before the 

 law. 



" Dy a remarkable species of democratic liberality, a 

 man or a family might be emancipated from this po- 

 sition and rendered lit for office, born again as it were 

 into a new political life, by renouncing their connections 

 (consorteria) and changing their arms and surnames. 

 They were then said to be made plebeian or popular 

 (fatti di popolo). Kiebuhr has noticed the analogy of 

 such voluntary resignation of nobility to the ' transitio 

 ad plebem ' of the Romans. 



'• This practice of changing arms and surnames ori- 

 ginated from the Ordinances of Justice promulgated 

 about that time, which expressly requires this as a con- 

 dition to the enjoyment by any of the old families of 

 popular rights. It gave rise to great varieties of sur- 

 names and armorial bearings in different branches of 

 the same house. But it has nevertheless been noted 

 that in all these mutations it was still the endeavour of 

 the parties to retain as much as possible of the ancient 

 ensigns and appellations, so that traces of descent and 

 connexion might not in the progress of years be alto- 

 gether obliterated. Thus the Cavalcanti took the name 

 of Cavallereschi, the Tornaquinci that of Tornabuoni. 

 Sometimes they ol)tained the object by a play upon the 

 name itself thus ; at other times by making a patro- 

 nymic of the Christian name of the first or some other 

 favourite ancestor ; thus a branch of the Bardi assumed 

 the name of Gualterotti, and a branch of the Pazzi that 

 of Accorri. Sometimes they took their new name from 

 a place or circumstance calculated to preserve the me- 

 mory of their origin ; thus the Agolanti designated 

 themselves Fiesolani, the Bostichl from the antiquity 

 of their stock, Buonantichi. In mutation of arms a 

 similar object was borne in mind. Thus the Buondel- 

 monti simply added to their ancient bearings a moun- 

 tain az. and a cross gu. The Baccelli, who were a 

 branch of the JNIazzinghi, replaced the three perpen- 

 dicular clubs, the ancient ensigns of the family, by two 

 placed in the form of a cross. 



" As the object of these provisions was to discrimi- 

 nate for the future those of the ancient families who 

 had acceded to the principles of the popular institutions 

 from their more haughty kindred, who remained true to 

 the defence of their feudal and aristocratical pretensions, 

 the change either of arms or surname was not required 

 if the whole family became converts to the new doc- 

 trines ; for then there was no need of discrimination, 

 and the law was not framed out of any dislike merely 

 to particular ensigns, but only to the principles and 

 opinions which they had up to a certain time bejn 

 understood to represent." — Muzzinijlii. 



The identity of the Volpcs and Bigliottis is 

 attested by ancient sepulchral monuments of the 

 family in Santo Spirito at Florence. To mark 

 the ancient origin, they retained or assumed the 

 fo.-i (volpc) .as their arms. Eorgliini, in his Dis- 

 corsi (Florence, 1584-5), mentions the faniily 

 as an instance of the name giving rise to the arms, 

 and mentions Sandro Bigiiotti, 133!), as tlic (irst 

 who assumed the fo.x as his ensigns. The distinc- 

 tion and iidluenco enjoyed at Florence by the 

 family is imlicated by'its having contributed ten 

 Gonfaloniers of Justice to the republic ; an ollice 

 corresponding in rank with those of Doge of Venice 



