FLORENCE 



321O 



Florence. 



Plan of the centre of the city, showing the principal buildings and 

 bridges 



Florentine Guelphs acknowledged 

 Charles's suzerainty as king of 

 Naples and Sicily. An organization 

 (Parte Guelfa) was formed to per- 

 secute Ghibellines, and a new con- 

 stitution (Secondo Popolo) similar 

 to the first, but of a more demo- 

 cratic character, was set up. 



In 1293 the famous ordinances of 

 justice were enacted, intended to 

 restrain the reviving power of the 

 nobles, and barring them alto- 

 gether from the Signoria. In 1300 

 a new officer of justice, the Gon- 

 faloniere, or standard-bearer of the 

 people, was added. Under this 

 republic of merchants ( Villari) the 

 great " Trecento " era of art and 

 literature blossomed forth. 

 Commercial Prosperity 



The commercial prosperity of 

 Florence was now great. Her mer- 

 chants dealt in the wool of Latium 

 and Lombardy, the oil and wine of 

 Tuscany, the spices, silks, and dyes 

 of the East ; the craftsmen of the 

 Calimala guild dressed and dyed 

 foreign cloth into artistic fabrics, 

 which were prized throughout 

 Europe ; while her bankers with 

 their standard golden " florin," 

 first corned 1252, provided the 

 necessary medium of exchange, 

 and extended her financial influence 

 far and wide. 



Head of the Guelphic League, 

 Florence was now the chief power 

 in Tuscany. At Campaldino 

 (1289) she had shattered the re- 

 maining forces of the Tuscan 

 Ghibellines. The Guelphs, how- 

 ever, soon split into factions, Neri 



and Bianchi, headed by the Do- 

 nati and Cerchi families. Dante, 

 an adherent of the Bianchi, was 

 banished when Charles of Valois, 

 in alliance with the Neri, sacked 

 the city, 1301. Nevertheless, the 

 merchant republic succeeded in 

 forming what was practically a 

 confederation of all Italy. 



The victorious Neri soon split 

 into factions, Florence then fell a 

 prey to the exactions of the 

 Angevin sovereigns of Naples, and 

 the tyranny of a French soldier of 

 fortune, Walter de Brienne, duke 

 of Athens. After his fall the 

 people rose and annihilated the 

 magnates, 1343. 



Dawn of the Renaissance 



The struggle for political power 

 was henceforth between the rich 

 burgher aristocracy (Ottimati) of 

 the greater guilds and popolo 

 minuto, the rest of the unen- 

 franchised guilds and people, typi- 

 fied by a rising of the latter 

 (Ciompi), led by Michele di Lando, 

 a patriotic wool-comber. The dawn 

 of the Renaissance found Florence 

 full of artists and scholars patro- 

 nised by the Ottimati. Fierce 

 wars were waged with Milan and 

 other cities by mercenaries, such as 

 those led by the English captain 

 Hawkwood, and the dominion of 

 Florence was extended over Pisa 

 (1406), Arezzo, Cortona, and Leg- 

 horn. But the divisions of the Re- 

 public finally placed it at the mercy 

 of Cosimo, son of Giovanni de' 

 Medici, the richest banker in Italy. 

 Returning from exile, he took his 



FLORENCE 



place as Despot of Florence (1443). 

 The outward forms of the old 

 constitution were retained, while 

 Cosimo controlled the elections and 

 broke the power of the Ottimati. 

 At home he patronised artists 

 (Brunelleschi, Michelozzo, Dona- 

 tello, Fra Lippo Lippi, Fra Ange- 

 lico), and encouraged the Neo- 

 Platonism of the Renaissance by 

 his Platonic Academy. He was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Piero (1464) and 

 his grandson Lorenzo il Magnifico. 

 Lorenzo and Savonarola 



Lorenzo maintained the balance 

 of power among the five Italian 

 states, and was treated as an equal 

 by foreign potentates. At home, 

 Florence, beautified by artists 

 sprung from the people, became the 

 brilliant world-centre of the re- 

 vival of Greek culture. But be- 

 fore Lorenzo's death Fra Girolamo 

 Savonarola, denouncing the tyranny 

 and corruption of state and church, 

 had prepared the way for Repub- 

 lican reaction. Roused by Piero 

 II' s surrender to the French in- 

 vaders, the people expelled the 

 three sons of Lorenzo. Charles 

 VIH entered the city, Nov. 17, 

 1494, and took the Republic under 

 his protection. A brief period of 

 political and spiritual reform, in- 

 spired by the prophetic fervour of 

 Savonarola, was followed by the 

 excommunication and burning of 

 the monk (May 23, 1498). 



The Gonfaloniere, Piero Soderini 

 (1502), with Niccolo Macchiavelli 

 for secretary of state, maintained 

 the Republic until the Medici were 

 restored by the Spanish invaders 

 (1512). Republicanism made one 

 last glorious effort under Niccolo 

 Capponi (1527). But the emperor 

 Charles V, in alliance with Pope 

 Clement VII, who had ruled 

 Florence as Cardinal Giulio de' 

 Medici, reduced the town after a 

 siege of eleven months. 



Charles appointed Alessandro, 

 illegitimate son of Lorenzo, son of 

 Piero II, duke of Florence. Ales- 

 sandro suppressed the ancient 

 Signoria for ever. He was mur- 

 dered in the Palazzo Medici by his 

 kinsman, Lorenzino, and was suc- 

 ceeded by Cosimo I de' Medici, "the 

 Great" (1537). Allying himself with 

 Spam and the Papacy, and making 

 himself master of the surrounding 

 country, while he patronised the 

 artists of the late Renaissance, 

 Cosimo founded a long line of 

 grand dukes of Tuscany (1569). 



Florence remained the capital 

 of Tuscany when, in 1737, the 

 Medici line having become ex- 

 tinct, the duchy was annexed by 

 the emperor and became an ap- 

 panage of the House of Austria. 

 After the Napoleonic interludes of 

 the republic and kingdom of 



