FLORENCE 



which enshrines the National 

 Museum, and the Palazzo Vecchio, 

 with its soaring tower and project- 

 ing battlements, designed (1298) 

 by Arnolfo di Cambio, for the safe 

 housing of the Priori. The adjoin- 

 ing open-vaulted Loggia dei Priori 

 (or Lanzi) was begun in 1376. 

 The captain of the people resided 

 at the Badia, a Benedictine Abbey 

 founded by the mother of Count 

 Hugo of Tuscany, whose graceful 

 campanile dates from 1300. 



The first great period of Flor- 

 entine art coincided with the estab- 

 lishment of democratic government. 

 Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano in 

 sculpture, and in painting, Cima- 

 bue, his pupil Giotto, and Andrea 

 Orcagna led the way in the great 

 era of artistic freedom and grace, 

 inspired by that same passionate 

 interest in life as Dante and Boc- 

 caccio exhibit in verse and prose. 

 In architecture, Arnolfo di Cambio, 

 besides the city walls and the 

 Palazzo Vecchio, built Santa Croce 

 for the Franciscans (1297). Here, 

 as in the building of the Duomo, he 

 was succeeded by Giotto and Fran- 

 cesco Talenti. In 1420 the great 

 dome of this, the fourth largest 

 church in Europe, was begun by 

 Filippo Brunelleschi. Giotto's 

 lovely campanile, with its four 

 storeys of marble, was begun, 1334, 

 and completed by Andrea Pisano 

 and Francesco Talenti, 1387. 

 Church Architecture 



S. of the Piazza del Duomo is the 

 graceful little Loggia del Bigallo 

 (1352), resembling in style Andrea 

 Orcagna' s more gorgeous tabernacle 

 in that splendid sanctuary of the 

 guilds, Or San Michele, begun in 

 1337. The Dominican church of 

 Santa Maria Novella was begun in 

 1278. The facade is by Leo 

 Battista Alberti, the lovely arcade 

 by Brunelleschi, and the exquisite 

 Spanish chapel by Fra Jacopo 

 Talenti. The much modernised 

 church and convent of San Marco 

 fascinates both by the art of Fra 

 Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo, 

 and its memories of Savonarola. 

 The great 14th century church of 

 the Santissima Annunziata has 

 also been much altered, but con- 

 tains some of the finest work of 

 Andrea del Sarto. 



The story of Florentine art, as it 

 developed through Masolino and 

 Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Lippi, 

 Andrea del Castagno, to Andrea 

 Verrocchio, Sandro Botticelli, Dom- 

 enico Ghirlandaio and Leonardo 

 da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti 

 and Raphael, and a host of other 

 great artists, including Luca and 

 Andrea della Robbia, Vasari, Ben- 

 venuto Cellini, and Gian di Bologna, 

 can be followed in these and other 

 churches, as well as in the great 



3208 



galleries, the Academy of Fine Art, 

 the Uffizi Palace, government 

 offices constructed by Vasari for the 

 grand duke Cosimo I, and the 

 Pitti Palace. The latter, like the Pal- 

 azzo Strozzi and Palazzo Rucellai 

 (Alberti), is a typical Renaissance 

 palace, and was begun by Luca 

 Pitti, the opponent of Lorenzo the 

 Magnificent, and afterwards occu- 

 pied by his successors. 



HISTORY. Florence was founded 

 by the Etruscans. They had first 

 settled at Fiesole, about 700 B.C., 

 upon a rocky height to the N., 

 commanding the way across the 

 neighbouring Apennines to the 

 Adriatic coast. Tempted down to 

 the banks of the Arno by the com- 

 mercial advantages of plain and 

 river, they were presently sup- 

 planted by the Romans, whose 

 quadrangular castrum is described 

 as municipium splendidissimum in 

 the time of Sulla. 



Saved from the Goths by the 

 legions of Stilicho and the prayers 

 of Zenobius, a saintly bishop whose 

 miracles often figure in Florentine 

 art, the inhabitants fled later for 

 refuge to Fiesole before the Lom- 

 bards, but prosperity returned to 

 their city under Charlemagne. The 

 great power of the margraves of 

 Tuscany delayed the rise of the 

 Tuscan towns ; but under the pro- 

 tection of Matilda, countess of Tus- 

 cany, and after her death in 1115, 

 while Papacy and Empire were 

 fighting for her heritage, Florence 

 developed into a powerful, inde- 

 pendent burgher city. Members of 

 the chief families who had ad- 

 ministered Florence in Matilda's 

 name, now became consuls of the 

 commune, annually elected, two 

 for each sestiere, and were advised 

 by a senate of 100 drawn mainly 

 from the trade guilds. They led the 

 burgher forces in their struggle 

 against imperial vicars and feudal 

 nobles. For the surrounding coun- 

 try, called the contado, bristled 

 with castles, whence barons, of 

 Teuton origin and adherents of the 

 Empire, harried the pack-trains of 

 the citizens. 



Growth of the Commune 



As the commune made herself 

 mistress first of Fiesole (1125), 

 and then of the contado, she 

 compelled these barons to take up 

 their residence within the city. 

 There they joined with other 

 citizen-nobles of aristocratic ten- 

 dencies and fortified themselves 

 in lofty towers. Against these 

 societies of the towers, and the 

 domination of an alien power, the 

 burghers of the commune, a com- 

 mercial democracy of Latin de- 

 scent, grouped into trade guilds, 

 strove unceasingly. This is the 

 form which the feud betwixt 



FLORENCE 



Guelph and Ghibelline took in 

 Florence. 



Her interest as a growing bank- 

 ing and carrying community on 

 the trade-route from Rome natur- 

 ally inclined Florence to the side 

 of the Church, while involving her 

 in commercial rivalry with Pisa, 

 which barred her free communica- 

 tion with the sea ; with Siena, the 

 leading city between her and 

 Rome ; Pistoia, and other Ghibel- 

 line cities. For centuries she waged 

 deadly trade wars with these rivals 

 until she finally reduced them to 

 subjection. The murder of one of 

 the Buondelmonti, leaders of the 

 democratic party, accentuated the 

 bitterness of party faction. 



Beneath the mask of family 

 feuds, the Florentine commune was 

 always striving, through successive 

 changes in the constitution, and in 

 spite of frequent reactions, towards 

 the completest form of democratic 

 liberty known to the Middle Ages. 

 The lower class of artisans and the 

 populace had as yet no share in the 

 government (Signoria), except as a 

 parliament (Arengo), assembled in 

 the city square to shout a decision 

 upon momentous matters. But the 

 struggle between people and pat- 

 rician magnates by this time had 

 already begun. 



Democratic Developments 



The Guelph magnates remained 

 in power, leading the Carroccio and 

 red and white banner (gonfalone) 

 of the commune to victory against 

 their neighbours until, in 1249, the 

 Uberti, aided by the Emperor's 

 German troops, thrust them into 

 exile. On the death of Frederick 

 II in 1250, however, the people 

 rose and established the first demo- 

 cratic constitution. Twelve elders 

 (anziani) and thirty-six corporals 

 (caporali) were appointed as a 

 central government. A popular 

 militia was formed, and a foreign 

 Guelph noble, assisted by a special 

 and a general council, was annually 

 elected as " captain of the people " 

 to champion their cause against 

 the Podesta (1250). 



This officer, also an annually 

 elected foreign noble, had replaced 

 the consuls about 1200, and became 

 the representative of the Ghibelline 

 aristocrats and of imperial claims. 

 He, too, presided over two councils; 

 so that there were now two political 

 organizations, that of the nobles 

 and that of the people, within the 

 Republic. Ten years later the ex- 

 iled Ghibellines, rallying at Siena, 

 and reinforced by the German mer- 

 cenaries of Manfred of Sicily, de- 

 feated the Guelphs at Montaperti. 



The coming of Charles of Anjou, 

 after the battle of Benevento, put 

 an end to the domination of Ghibel- 

 line and German (1266). The 



