Part 11

Florence possesses four important libraries besides a number of smaller collections. The _Biblioteca Nazionale_, originally founded by Antonio Magliabecchi in 1747, enjoys the right, shared by the _Vittorio Emanuele_ library of Rome, of receiving a copy of every work printed in Italy, since 1870 (since 1848 it had enjoyed a similar privilege with regard to works printed in Tuscany). It contains some 500,000 printed volumes, 700,000 pamphlets, over 9000 prints and drawings (including 284 by Albert Durer), nearly 20,000 MSS., and 40,000 letters. The number of readers in 1904 was over 50,000. Unfortunately, however, the confusion engendered by a defective organization has long been a byword among the people; there is no printed catalogue, quantities of books are buried in packing-cases and unavailable, the collection of foreign books is very poor, hardly any new works being purchased, and the building itself is quite inadequate and far from safe; but the site of a new one has now been purchased and the plans are agreed upon, so that eventually the whole collection will be transferred to more suitable quarters. The _Biblioteca Marucelliana_, founded in 1752, contains 150,000 books, including 620 incunabula, 17,000 engravings and 1500 MSS.; it is well managed and chiefly remarkable for its collection of illustrated works and art publications. The _Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana_, founded in 1571, has its origin in the library of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, and was enlarged by Piero, Giovanni and above all by Lorenzo the Magnificent. Various princes and private persons presented it with valuable gifts and legacies, among the most important of which was the collection of _editiones principes_ given by Count d'Elci, in 1841, and the Ashburnham collection of MSS. purchased by the Italian Government in 1885. It contains nearly 10,000 MSS., including many magnificent illuminated missals and Bibles and a number of valuable Greek and Latin texts, 242 incunabula and 11,000 printed books, chiefly dealing with palaeography; it is in some ways the most important of the Florentine libraries. The _Biblioteca Riccardiana_, founded in the 16th century by Romolo Riccardi, contains nearly 4000 MSS., over 32,000 books and 650 incunabula, chiefly relating to Florentine history. The state archives are among the most complete in Italy, and contain over 450,000 _filze_ and _registri_ and 126,000 charters, covering the period from 726 to 1856.

Galleries of Fine Arts and Museums.

Few cities are as rich as Florence in collections of works of artistic and historic interest, although the great majority of them belong to a comparatively limited period--from the 13th to the 16th century. The chief art galleries are the Uffizi, the Pitti and Accademia. The two former are among the finest in the world, and are filled with masterpieces by Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, the Lippi, and many other Florentine, Umbrian, Venetian, Dutch and Flemish artists, as well as numerous admirable examples of antique, medieval and Renaissance sculpture. The Pitti collection is in the royal palace (formerly the residence of the grand dukes), and a fine new stairway and vestibule have been constructed by royal munificence. In the Uffizi the pictures are arranged in strict chronological order. In the Accademia, which is rich in early Tuscan masters, the Botticelli and Perugino rooms deserve special mention. Other pictures are scattered about in the churches, monasteries and private palaces. Of the monasteries, that of St Mark should be mentioned, as containing many works of Fra Angelico, besides relics of Savonarola, while of the private collections the only one of importance is that of Prince Corsini. There is a splendid museum of medieval and Renaissance antiquities in the Bargello, the ancient palace of the Podesta, itself one of the finest buildings in the city; among its many treasures are works of Donatello, Ghiberti, Verrochio and other sculptors, and large collections of ivory, enamel and bronze ware. The Opera del Duomo contains models and pieces of sculpture connected with the cathedral; the Etruscan and Egyptian museum, the gallery of tapestries, the Michelangelo museum, the museum of natural history and other collections are all important in different ways.

Population.

The total population of Florence in 1905, comprising foreigners and a garrison of 5500 men, was 220,879. In 1861 it was 114,363; it increased largely when the capital of Italy was in Florence (1865-1872), but decreased or increased very slightly after the removal of the capital to Rome, and increased at a greater rate from 1881 onwards. At present the rate of increase is about 22 per 1000, but it is due to immigration, as the birth rate was actually below the death rate down to 1903, since when there has been a slight increase of the former and a decrease of the latter.

Administration.

Florence is the capital of a province of the same name, and the central government is represented by a prefect (_prefetto_), while local government is carried on by a mayor (_sindaco_) and an elective town council (_consiglio comunale_). The city is the seat of a court of cassation (for civil cases only), of a court of appeal, besides minor tribunals. It is the headquarters of an army corps, and an archiepiscopal see.

Education.

There are 22 public elementary schools for boys and 18 for girls (education being compulsory and gratuitous), with about 20,000 pupils, and 56 private schools with 5700 pupils. Secondary education is provided by one higher and four lower technical schools with 1375 pupils, three _ginnasii_ or lower classical schools, and three _licei_ or higher classical schools, with 1000 pupils, and three training colleges with over 700 pupils. Higher education is imparted at the university (_Istituto di studii superiori e di perfezionamento_), with 600 to 650 students; although only comprising the faculties of literature, medicine and natural science, it is, as regards the first-named faculty, one of the most important institutions in Italy. The original _Studio Fiorentino_ was founded in the 14th century, and acquired considerable fame as a centre of learning under the Medici, enhanced by the presence in Florence of many learned Greeks who had fled from Constantinople after its capture by the Turks (1453). Although in 1472 some of the faculties and several of the professors were transferred to Pisa, it still retained importance, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it originated a number of learned academies. In 1859 after the annexation of Tuscany to the Italian kingdom it was revived and reorganized; since then it has become to some extent a national centre of learning and culture, attracting students from other parts of Italy, partly on account of the fact that it is in Florence that the purest Italian is spoken. The revival of classical studies on scientific principles in modern Italy may be said to have begun in Florence, and great activity has also been displayed in reviving the study of Dante; Dante lectures being given regularly by scholars and men of letters from all parts of the country, above the church of Or San Michele as in the middle ages, under the auspices of the _Societa Dantesca_. Palaeography, history and Romance languages are among the other subjects to which especial importance is given. Besides the _Istituto di studii superiori_ there is the _Istituto di scienze sociali_ "_Cesare Alfieri_," founded by the marchese Alfieri di Sostegno for the education of aspirants to the diplomatic and consular services, and for students of economics and social sciences (about 50 students); an academy of fine arts, a conservatoire of music, a higher female training-college with 150 students, a number of professional and trade schools, and an academy of recitation. There are also many academies and learned societies of different kinds, of which one of the most important is the _Accademia della Crusca_ for the study of the Italian language, which undertook the publication of a monumental dictionary.

Charities, etc.

Several of the Florence hospitals are of great antiquity, the most important being that of Santa Maria Nuova, which, founded by Folco Portinari, the father of Dante's Beatrice, has been thoroughly renovated according to modern scientific principles. There are numerous other hospitals both general and special, a foundling hospital dating from the 13th century (Santa Maria degli Innocenti), an institute for the blind, one for the deaf and dumb, &c. Most of the hospitals and other charitable institutions are endowed, but the endowments are supplemented by private contributions.

Commerce and Industry.

Florence is the centre of a large and fertile agricultural district, and does considerable business in wine, oil and grain, and supplies the neighbouring peasantry with goods of all kinds. There are no important industries, except a few flour-mills, some glass works, iron foundries, a motor car factory, straw hat factories, and power-houses supplying electricity for lighting and for the numerous tramcars. There are, however, some artistic industries in and around the city, of which the most important is the Ginori-Richard porcelain works, and the Cantagalli majolica works. There are many other smaller establishments, and the Florentine artificer seems to possess an exceptional skill in all kinds of work in which art is combined with technical ability. Another very important source of revenue is the so-called "tourist industry," which in late years has assumed immense proportions; the city contains a large number of hotels and boarding-houses which every year are filled to overflowing with strangers from all parts of the world. (L. V.*)

HISTORY

Florentia was founded considerably later than Faesulae (Fiesole), which lies on the hill above it; indeed, as its name indicates, it was built only in Roman times and probably in connexion with the construction by C. Flaminius in 187 B.C. of a road from Bononia to Arretium (which later on formed part of the Via Cassia) at the point where this road crossed the river Arnus. We hear very little of it in ancient times; it appears to have suffered at the end of the war between Marius and Sulla, and in A.D. 15 (by which period it seems to have been already a colony) it successfully opposed the project of diverting part of the waters of the Clanis into the Arno (see CHIANA). Tacitus mentions it, and Florus describes it as one of the _municipia splendidissima_. A bishop of Florence is mentioned in A.D. 313. A group of Italic cremation tombs _a pozzo_ of the Villanova period were found under the pavement of the medieval Vicolo del Campidoglio. This took its name from the _Capitolium_ of Roman times, the remains of which were found under the Piazza Luna; the three _cellae_ were clearly traceable. The capitals of the columns were Corinthian, about 4 ft. in diameter, and it became clear that this temple had supplied building materials for S. Giovanni and S. Miniato. Fragments of a fine octagonal altar, probably belonging to the temple, were found. Remains of baths have been found close by, while the ancient amphitheatre has been found near S. Croce outside the Roman town, which formed a rectangle of about 400 by 600 yds., with four gates, the _Decumanus_ being represented by the Via Strozzi and Via del Corso, and the _Cardo_ by the Via Calcinara, while the Mercato Vecchio occupied the site of the Forum.

See L.A. Milani, "Reliquie di Firenze antica," in _Monumenti dei Lincei_, vi. (1896), 5 seq. (T. As.)

The countess Matilda.

Guelphs and Ghibellines.

Beginnings of the commune.

War with the nobles.

The potestas.

The first event of importance recorded is the siege of the city by the Goths, A.D. 405, and its deliverance by the Roman general Stilicho. Totila besieged Florence in 542, but was repulsed by the imperial garrison under Justin, and later it was occupied by the Goths. We find the Longobards in Tuscany in 570, and mention is made of one _Gudibrandus Dux civitatis Florentinorum_, which suggests that Florence was the capital of a duchy (one of the regular divisions of the Longobard empire). Charlemagne was in Florence in 786 and conferred many favours on the city, which continued to grow in importance owing to its situation on the road from northern Italy to Rome. At the time of the agitation against simony and the corruption of the clergy, the head of the movement in Florence was San Giovanni Gualberto, of the monastery of San Salvi. The simoniacal election of Pietro Mezzabarba as bishop of Florence (1068) caused serious disturbances and a long controversy with Rome, which ended in the triumph, after a trial by fire, of the monk Petrus Igneus, champion of the popular reform movement; this event indicates the beginnings of a popular conscience among the Florentines. Under the Carolingian emperors Tuscany was a March or margraviate, and the marquises became so powerful as to be even a danger to the Empire. Under the emperor Otto I. one Ugo (d, 1001) was marquis, and the emperor Conrad II. (elected in 1024) appointed Boniface of Canossa marquis of Tuscany, a territory then extending from the Po to the borders of the Roman state. Boniface died in 1052, and in the following year the margraviate passed to his daughter, the famous countess Matilda, who ruled for forty years and played a prominent part in the history of Italy in that period. In the Wars of the Investitures Matilda was ever on the papal (afterwards called Guelph) side against the emperor and the faction afterwards known as Ghibelline, and she herself often led armies to battle. It is at this time that the people of Florence first began to acquire influence, and while the countess presided at the courts of justice in the name of the Empire, she was assisted by a group of great feudal nobles, judges, lawyers, &c., who formed, as elsewhere in Tuscany, the _boni homines_ or _sapientes_. As the countess was frequently absent these _boni homines_ gave judgment without her, thus paving the way for a free commune. The citizens found themselves in opposition to the nobility of the hills around the city, Teutonic feudatories of Ghibelline sympathies, who interfered with their commerce. Florence frequently waged war with these nobles and with other cities on its own account, although in the name of the countess, and the citizens began to form themselves into groups and associations which were the germs of the _arti_ or gilds. After the death of Countess Matilda in 1115 the _grandi_ or _boni homines_ continued to rule and administer justice, but in the name of the people--a change hardly noticed at first, but which marks the foundation of the commune. After 1138 the _boni homines_ began to be called _consules_, while the population was divided into the _grandi_ or _delle torri_, i.e. the noble families who had towers, and the _arti_ or trade and merchant gilds. At first the _consules_, of whom there seem to have been twelve, two for each _sestiere_ or ward, were chosen by the men of the towers, and assisted by a council of 100 _boni homines_, in which the _arti_ were predominant; the government thus came to be in the hands of a few powerful families. The republic now proceeded to extend its power. In 1125 Fiesole was sacked and destroyed, but the feudal nobles of the _contado_ (surrounding country), protected by the imperial margraves, were still powerful. The early margraves had permitted the Florentines to wage war against the Alberti family, whose castles they destroyed. The emperor Lothair when in Italy forced Florence to submit to his authority, but at his death in 1137 things returned to their former state and the Florentines fought successfully against the powerful counts Guidi. Frederick Barbarossa, however, elected emperor in 1152, made his authority felt in Tuscany, and appointed one Welf of Bavaria as margrave. Florence and other cities were forced to supply troops to the emperor for his Lombard campaigns, and he began to establish a centralized imperial bureaucracy in Tuscany, appointing a _potestas_, who resided at San Miniato (whence the name of "San Miniato al Tedesco"), to represent him and exercise authority in the _contado_; this double authority of the _consoli_ in the town and the _potestas_ or _podesta_ outside generated confusion. By 1176 the Florentines were masters of all the territory comprised in the dioceses of Florence and Fiesole; but civil commotion within the city broke out between the _consoli_ and the greater nobles, headed by the Alberti and strengthened by the many feudal families who had been forced to leave their castles and dwell in the city (1177-1180). In the end the Alberti, though not victorious, succeeded in getting occasionally admitted to the consulship. Florence now formed a league with the chief cities of Tuscany, made peace with the Guidi, and humbled the Alberti whose castle of Semifonte was destroyed (1202). Later we find a _potestas_ within the city, elected for a year and assisted by seven councillors and seven _rectores super capitibus artium_. This represented the triumph of the feudal party, which had gained the support of the _arti minori_ or minor gilds. The _potestates_ subsequently were foreigners, and in 1207 the dignity was conferred on Gualfredotto of Milan; a new council was formed, the _consiglio del comune_, while the older senate still survived. The Florentines now undertook to open the highways of commerce towards Rome, for their city was already an important industrial and banking centre.

Comune and popolo.

Battle of Montaperti (1260).

Discord among the great families broke out again, and the attempt to put an end to it by a marriage between Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti and a daughter of the Amidei, only led to further strife (1215), although the causes of these broils were deeper and wider, being derived from the general division between Guelphs and Ghibellines all over Italy. But the work of crushing the nobles of the _contado_ and of asserting the city's position among rival communes continued. In 1222 Florence waged war successfully on Pisa, Lucca and Pistoia, and during the next few years against the Sienese with varying results; although the emperor supported the latter as Ghibellines, on his departure for Germany in 1235 they were forced to accept peace on onerous terms. During the interregnum (1241-1243) following on the death of Pope Gregory IX. the Ghibelline cause revived in Tuscany and imperial authority was re-established. The tumults against the Paterine heretics (1244-1245), among whom were many Ghibelline nobles favoured by the _podesta_ Pace di Pesamigola, indicate a successful Guelphic reaction; but Frederick II., having defeated his enemies both in Lombardy and in the Two Sicilies, appointed his natural son, Frederick of Antioch, imperial vicar in Tuscany, who, when civil war broke out, entered the city with 1600 German knights. The Ghibellines now triumphed completely, and in 1249 the Guelph leaders were driven into exile--the first of many instances in Florentine history of exile _en masse_ of a defeated party. The attempt to seize Montevarchi and other castles where the Guelph exiles were congregated failed, and in 1250 the burghers elected thirty-six _caporali di popolo_, who formed the basis of the _primo popolo_ or body of citizens independent of the nobles, headed by the _capitano del popolo_. The Ghibellines being unable to maintain their supremacy, the city came to be divided into two almost autonomous republics, the _comune_ headed by the _podesta_, and the _popolo_ headed by the _capitano_ and militarily organized into twenty companies; the central power was represented by twelve _anziani_ or elders. The _podesta_, who was always a foreigner, usually commanded the army, represented the city before foreign powers, and signed treaties. He was assisted by the _consiglio speciale_ of 90 and the _consiglio generale e speciale_ of 300, composed of nobles, while the _capitano del popolo_ had also two councils composed of burghers, heads of the gilds, _gonfalonieri_ of the companies, &c. The _anziani_ had a council of 36 burghers, and then there was the _parlamento_ or general assembly of the people, which met only on great occasions. At this time the _podesta's_ palace (the Bargello) was built, and the gold florin was first coined and soon came to be accepted as the standard gold piece throughout Europe. But, although greatly strengthened, the Guelphs, who now may be called the democrats as opposed to the Ghibelline aristocrats, were by no means wholly victorious, and in 1251 they had to defend themselves against a league of Ghibelline cities (Siena, Pisa and Pistoia) assisted by Florentine Ghibellines; the Florentine Uberti, who had been driven into exile after their plot of 1258, took refuge in Siena and encouraged that city in its hostility to Florence. Fresh disputes about the possession of Montepulciano and other places having arisen, the Florentines declared war once more. A Florentine army assisted by Guelphs of other towns was cunningly induced to believe that Siena would surrender at the first summons; but it was met by a Sienese army reinforced by Florentine exiles, including Farinata degli Uberti and other Ghibellines, and by the cavalry of Manfred (q.v.) of Sicily, led by Count Giordano and the count of Arras, with the result that the Florentines were totally routed at Montaperti on the 4th of September 1260. Count Giordano entered Florence, appointed Count Guido Novello _podesta_, and began a series of persecutions against the Guelphs. The Ghibellines even proposed to raze the walls of the city, but Farinata degli Uberti strongly opposed the idea, saying that "he had fought to regain and not to ruin his fatherland."

New constitution.

During this new Ghibelline predominance (1260-1266) the old liberties were abolished, and the _popolo_ was deprived of all share in the administration. But when Charles I. (q.v.) of Anjou descended into Italy as champion of the papacy, and Manfred was defeated and killed (1266), the _popolo_, who had acquired wealth in trade and industry, was ready to rise. After some disturbances Guido Novello and the Ghibellines were expelled, but it was not the _popolo_ who triumphed; the pope and Charles were the real masters of the situation, and the Florentines found they had exchanged a foreign and Ghibelline protector for one who was foreign and Guelph. Nevertheless much of the old order was restored; the _podesta_ who represented King Charles was assisted by 12 _buoni uomini_, and by the council of the 100 _buoni uomini del popolo_, "without the deliberation of whom," says Villani, "no great matter nor expenditure could be undertaken." Other bodies and magistrates were maintained, and the _capitano del popolo_, now called _capitano della massa di parte Guelfa_, tended to become a very important person. The property of the Ghibellines was confiscated, and a commission of six _capitani di parte Guelfa_ appointed to administer it and in general to expend it for the persecution of the Ghibellines. The whole constitution of the republic, although of very democratic tendencies, seemed designed to promote civil strife and weaken the central power.

Florentine trade and the gilds.