Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/346

334 FLOKENCE title of priors. Not satisfied with having driven their Ghibelline rivals into banishment, they sent an army to encounter them at Campaldiuo, where the Ghibellines were defeated with great slaughter. To arrest the power of the nobles within the city, a new code was framed in 1293, which went so far as to exclude them from their rights as citizens, and an officer was appointed gonfaloniere di gius- tizia (standard-bearer of justice) with a guard of soldiers to enforce the laws. Seventy-two families were declared incapable of holding office, and as they naturally combined in self-defence, peace seemed as far removed as ever from the walls of Florence. The 13th century is one of the most important in the annals of the city. When Boniface VIII. held his jubilee in 1300, twelve of the ambassadors representing foreign powers were Florentines. So vast were the riches of Florence at this period, that when a citizen of Verona beheld the yet unfinished campanile, and exclaimed that the wealth of two monarchies would not suffice for such a monument, he was shown the public treasury to convince him that were the Florentines so inclined, they conld build their whole city of marble. The most illustrious of Florentine citizens, as well as poets, Dante Alighieri, born in 1265, was present at the battle of Campaldino in 1289, and was chosen prior of the republic in 1300. In his immortal poem, the Divina Corn/media, he has preserved the names and deeds of the great men who made Florence renowned by their works. The friend of Dante, Guido Cavalcante, was considered no mean poet, and among the historians or chroniclers Dino Compagni and Giovanni Villain have left faithful records of their age. Cimabue commenced a new era in painting, and his pupil Giotto carried the art still further. Pre-eminent also in sculpture and architecture, in which Nicolo Pisano had led the way by his study of Greek art, Giotto built the beautiful cam panile of the cathedral. St Croce, founded in 1297, and the new cathedral of St Maria del Fiore, were the work of the celebrated architect Arnolfo di Cambio. The exquisite church of Sta Maria Novella was also begun in this cen tury. The bridge of Rubaconte or Delle Grazie, and that of Carraia, were added to the Ponte Vecchio, and thus the two sides of the river were connected by three thorough fares, although before the 13th century there had been no houses of importance south of the Arno. With the commencement of the 14th century the parties which contended for power in Florence had assumed new names. On one side were the Bianchi, including the remnant of the old Ghibelline faction, but now represent ing the popular party ; on the other, the Neri or Guelphs, who, under their leader, Corso Donati, represented the nobles or aristocracy of the city. Each party as it gained the ascendency sent its opponents into exile, until Pope Boniface VIII. again resorted to the fatal expedient of send ing for a French prince, Charles of Valois, to restore order, and establish papal supremacy in the peninsula. When Charles arrived in Florence, he gave full licence to the Neri to pillage the city, and avenge their wrongs. The signory endeavoured to conciliate him by bribes, a measure to vhich Dante, then a prior, refused his consent, thus lead ing to his own banishment. A few years later the emperor Henry of Luxembourg descended into Italy, and the Florentines, whilst boldly preparing to resist his pretensions, added a third circuit of walls to their city. His death in 1313 put an end to this danger. In a war with Castruccio Castracani, the tyrant of Lucca and Pisa, the Florentines sought the assistance of Robert, king of Naples, the son of Charles of Valois ; but soon becoming jealous of the foreign power they had themselves invited, they created a new officer of justice, called the Bargello or head of police, who exercised his authority with so much cruelty that for a few months Florence was sub jected to a reign of terror. During another war with Lucca, the Florentines again applied to Robert of Naples, who sent them his son, the duke of Calabria. He was accom panied by Walter de Brienne, duke of Athens, who, acting as lieutenant for the young prince, set aside the government of the priors, and ruled Florence with a rod of iron. The people could not long endure his acts of savage cruelty, and drove him from their city, after having put his minions to death in a manner so barbarous as to rival the deeds of the tyrant they had expelled. Tumults, a famine, and lastly the plague, devastated the land and as a cul mination of disasters, the mercenary troops employed everywhere in Italy roamed over the country and spread desolation wherever they came. In 1378 occurred the famous rebellion of the Ciompi (Wooden Shoes), in which the artisans of Florence, led by a wool-carder, Michele di Lando, gained possession of the Palazzo Vecchio, and turned out the signory. Lando proved himself a man of sense and courage ; he finally quelled the riot in which he had been engaged but had not roused, and restored the authority of the government. It was about this period that Salvestro de Medici, Bettino Ricasoli, and Gino Capponi were among the leading men of the republic. From the riot of the Ciompi to the year 1390 Florence enjoyed the rare blessing of peace. This was broken by the ambitious thirst for universal dominion of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Milan, and Florence owed her preservation to her general, Sir John Havrkwood, an Essex tailor, who had joined the mercenary bands on the Continent, and earned himself wealth and celebrity as one of the greatest commanders of the age. The death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402 terminated the war. In 1406 the Florentines gained possession of their ancient rival Pisa after a long and cruel siege. The fall of Pisa put an end to the power of the Ghibelline or feudal party in Tuscany. In 1414, at the council of Constance, Pope John XXIII. was deposed, and came to reside in Florence, where his monument in the baptistry is one of the finest works of Donatello. The wealth of the city was meantime always increasing, and manufactures of silk and woollen articles flourished within her walls. The richest of her citizens, Giovanni de Medici, was chosen gonfalonier in 1426, but the popularity of this family had begun to excite the apprehension of all true patriots. When Giovanni introduced the " catasta," or inquiry into the possessions of every citizen, with a view to taxation according to their means a measure favour ably viewed by the lower orders, it raised loud opposition on the part of the wealthy ; for, however great their riches, none could compete with the Medici, and they saw in the " catasta " another stepping stone to raise their rival to greater power and authority. At Giovanni s death his popularity descended to his eldest son Cosimo, who lived to be called (however undeservedly) the father of his country. From him, descended Lorenzo the Magnificent, Popes Leo X. and Clement VII., Catharine de Medici queen of Henry II. of France, and Alexander, the first duke of Florence. From Giovanni s younger son Lorenzo descended the grand-dukes from Cosimo I. to Gian Gastone. Cosimo de Medici and Rinaldo dei Albizzi represented the two great families who aspired to rule Florence. The Albizzi for a short time gained the ascendency, and Cosimo was sent into exile. Before a year lie was recalled, and was created gonfalonier, and the Albizzi were banished. In 1441 an oecumenical council was held in Florence by Pope Eugenius IV., to settle the claims of the Latin and Greek Churches, when learned men arrived from the East, and introduced the study of Greek classical authors. Neri Capponi aloue ventured to oppose the ambition of