Villani's Chronicle Part 25

[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 119, 120.]

In the said year 1294 there died in Florence a worthy citizen whose name was M. Brunetto Latini, who was a great philosopher, and was a perfect master in rhetoric, understanding both how to speak well and how to write well. And he it was which commented upon the rhetoric of Tully, and made the good and useful book called "The Treasure," and "The Little Treasure," and "The Key to the Treasure," and many other books in philosophy, and concerning vices and virtues. And he was secretary of our commonwealth. He was a worldly man, but we have made mention of him because it was he who was the beginner and master in refining the Florentines and in teaching them how to speak well, and how to guide and rule our republic according to policy.

[Sidenote: 1294 A.D.]

-- 11.--_How S. Louis, king that was of France, was canonised._

-- 12.--_How the magnates of Florence raised a tumult in the city to break up the Popolo._

[Sidenote: 1295 A.D.]

On the 6th day of the month of July of the year 1295, the magnates and great men of the city of Florence, seeing themselves mightily oppressed by the new Ordinances of Justice made by the people--and especially by that ordinance which declares that one kinsman is to be held to account for another, and that two witnesses establish public report--having their own friends in the priorate, gave themselves to breaking down the ordinances of the people. And first they made up their great quarrels amongst themselves, especially between the Adimari and Tosinghi, and between the Mozzi and the Bardi. And this done, on an appointed day, they made a great gathering of folk, and pet.i.tioned the Priors to have the said articles amended; whereupon all the people in the city of Florence rose in tumult and rushed to arms; the magnates, on armoured horses themselves, and with their retainers from the country and other troops on foot in great numbers; and one set of them drew up in the piazza of S. Giovanni, over whom M. Forese degli Adimari held the royal ensign; another set a.s.sembled at the Piazza a Ponte, whose ensign was held by M. Vanni Mozzi; and a third set in the Mercato Nuovo, whose standard M. Geri Spini held; with intent to overrun the city. The popolani were all in arms, in their ranks, with ensigns and banners, in great numbers; and they barricaded the streets of the city at sundry points to hinder the hors.e.m.e.n from overrunning the place, and they gathered at the palace of the Podesta, and at the house of the Priors, who at that time abode at the house of the Cerchi behind San Brocolo. And the people found themselves in great power and well ordered, with force of arms and folk, and they a.s.sociated with the Priors, whom they did not trust, a number of the greatest and most powerful and discreet of the popolani of Florence, one for each sesto. Wherefore the magnates had no strength nor power against them, and the people might have overthrown them; but consulting for the best, and to avoid civil battle, by the mediation of certain friars between the better sort of either side, each party disarmed; and the city returned to peace and quiet without any change; the Popolo being left in its state and lords.h.i.+p; save that whereas before the proof of public report was established by two witnesses, it was now laid down that there must be three; and even this was conceded by the Priors against the will of the popolani, and shortly afterwards it was revoked and the old order re-established.

But for all that this disturbance was the root and beginning of the dismal and ill estate of the city of Florence which thereafter followed, for thenceforth the magnates never ceased to search for means to beat down the people, to their utmost power; and the leaders of the people sought every way of strengthening the people and abasing the magnates by reinforcing the Ordinances of Justice, and they had the great crossbows taken from the magnates and bought up by the commonwealth; and many families which were not tyrannical nor of any great power they removed from the number of the magnates and added them to the people, to weaken the power of the magnates and increase that of the people; and when the said Priors went out of office they were struck with cudgels behind and had stones flung at them, because they had consented to favour the magnates; and by reason of these disturbances and changes there was a fresh ordering of the people in Florence, whereof the heads were Mancini and Magalotti, Altoviti, Peruzzi, Acciaiuoli, Cerretani and many others.

-- 13.--_How King Charles made peace with King James of Aragon._

[Sidenote: Purg. vii. 115-120, iii. 116.]

[Sidenote: 1295 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Par. viii. 49-75.]

[Sidenote: Par. viii. 55.]

[Sidenote: Purg. iii. 116, vii. 115-120. Par. xix. 130-135, xx. 61-63; Convivio iv. 6: 180-190. De Vulg. Eloquio i. 12: 15-38.]

In the year of Christ 1295 the King Alfonso of Aragon died; by the which death Don James, his brother, which had been crowned king of Sicily and held the island, sought to make peace with the Church and with King Charles; and by the hand of Pope Boniface it was done after this manner: that the said Don James should take to wife the daughter of King Charles, and should resign the lords.h.i.+p of Sicily, and should set the hostages free which King Charles had left in Aragon, to wit Robert and Raymond and John, his sons, with other barons and knights of Provence. And the Pope, with King Charles, promised that they would cause Charles of Valois, brother of the king of France, to renounce the claim which Pope Martin IV. had granted him to the kingdom of Aragon; and to the end he might consent thereto, King Charles gave him the county of Anjou, and his daughter to wife. And to order this matter King Charles went into France in person, and when he returned with the compact made, and with his sons whom he had set free from prison, he came to the city of Florence, whither was already come to meet him Charles Martel, his son, king of Hungary, with his company of 200 knights with golden spurs, French and Provencal and from the Kingdom, all young men, invested by the king with habits of scarlet and dark green, and all with saddles of one device, with their palfreys adorned with silver and gold, with arms quarterly, bearing golden lilies and surrounded by a bordure of red and silver, which are the arms of Hungary. And they appeared the n.o.blest and richest company a young king ever had with him. And in Florence he abode more than twenty days, awaiting his father, King Charles, and his brothers; and the Florentines did him great honour, and he showed great love to the Florentines, wherefore he was in high favour with them all. And when King Charles was come into Florence, and Robert and Raymond and John, his sons, with the marquis of Montferrat, which was to have for wife the daughter of the king, he made many knights in Florence and received much honour and many presents from the Florentines; and then the king with all his sons returned to the papal court and afterwards to Naples. And this done, and after all the articles of the treaty of peace had been fulfilled by the Pope and by King Charles, Don James departed from Sicily and came into Aragon, and was crowned king over the realm; but whosoever may have been in fault, whether the Pope or Don James, King Charles found himself deceived, for when King Charles thought to have the island of Sicily again in quiet, after Don James had departed, Frederick, his next brother, became lord thereof, and caused himself to be crowned king by the Sicilians against the will of the Church by the bishop of Cephalonia; wherefore the Pope was much angered with the king of Aragon, as well as with Frederick his brother, and caused him to be summoned to court, which King James came thither the following year, as hereafter we shall make mention.

[Sidenote: 1296 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xxvii. 49-51.]

[Sidenote: 1297 A.D.]

[Sidenote: 1298 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Purg. vi. 97.]

-- 14.--_How the Guelf party were driven by force out of Genoa._ -- 15.--_The doings of the Tartars of Persia._ -- 16.--_How Maghinardo da Susinana defeated the Bolognese and took the city of Imola._ -- 17.--_How the people of Florence built the cities and strongholds of Sangiovanni and Castelfranco in Valdarno._ -- 18.--_How King James of Aragon came to Rome, and Pope Boniface granted him the island of Sardinia._ -- 19.--_How the counts of Flanders and of Bar rebelled against the king of France._ -- 20.--_How the count of Artois defeated the Flemings at Furnes, and how the king of England pa.s.sed into Flanders._ -- 21.--_How Pope Boniface deposed from the cardinalate M.

Jacopo and M. Piero della Colonna._ -- 22.--_How Albert of Austria defeated and slew Adolf, king of Germany, and how he was elected king of the Romans._

-- 23.--_How the Colonnesi came to ask pardon of the Pope, and afterwards rebelled a second time._

[Sidenote: 1298 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xxvii. 67-111.]

In the said year, in the month of September, negociations having taken place between Pope Boniface and the Colonnesi, the said Colonnesi, both laymen and clergy, came to Rieti, where the court was, and threw themselves at the feet of the said Pope, asking pardon, who forgave them and absolved them from excommunication, and desired them to surrender the city of Palestrina; and this they did, and he promised to restore them to their state and dignity, which promise he did not fulfil, but caused the said city of Palestrina to be destroyed from the hill and stronghold where it was, and a new city to be built on the plain, to which the name of the Civita Papale was given; and all this false and fraudulent treaty the Pope made by the counsel of the count of Montefeltro, then a minor friar, when he said the evil word "ample promise and scant fulfilment." The said Colonnesi, finding themselves deceived in that which had been promised to them, and the n.o.ble fortress of Palestrina destroyed by the said deceit, before the year was ended rebelled against the Pope and the Church; and the Pope excommunicated them again with heavy sentence; wherefore, fearing lest they should be taken or slain through the persecution of the said Pope, they departed from the city of Rome and were dispersed, some to Sicily, some to France and to other places, concealing themselves in one place after another so as not to be recognised, and to the end no certain abiding-place of theirs might be known, especially M. Jacopo and M. Piero, which had been cardinals; and thus they continued in exile so long as the said Pope lived.

-- 24.--_How the Genoese defeated the Venetians at sea._ -- 25.--_Of the great earthquakes that befell in certain cities in Italy._

-- 26.--_When the palace of the people of Florence was begun, where dwell the Priors._

[Sidenote: 1298 A.D.]

In the said year 1298, the commonwealth and people of Florence began to build the Palace of the Priors, by reason of the differences between the people and the magnates, forasmuch as the city was always in jealousy and commotion, at the election of the Priors afresh every two months, by reason of the factions which had already begun; and the Priors which ruled the city and all the republic, did not feel themselves secure in their former habitation, which was the house of the White Cerchi behind the church of San Brocolo. And they built the said palace where had formerly been the houses of the Uberti, rebels against Florence, and Ghibellines; and on the site of those houses they made a piazza, so that they might never be rebuilt. And they bought other houses from citizens, such as the Foraboschi, and there built the said palace and the tower of the priors, which was raised upon a tower which was more than fifty cubits high, pertaining to the Foraboschi, and called the Torre della Vacca. And to the end the said palace might not stand upon the ground of the said Uberti, they which had the building of it set it up obliquely; but for all that it was a grave loss not to build it four-square, and further removed from the church of San Piero Scheraggio.

[Sidenote: 1299 A.D.]

-- 27.--_How peace was made between the commonwealth of Genoa and that of Venice._ -- 28.--_How peace was made between the commonwealth of Bologna and the marquis of Este and Maghinardo da Sussinana by the Florentines._ -- 29.--_How King James of Aragon with Ruggeri di Loria and with the armada of King Charles defeated the Sicilians off Cape Orlando._ -- 30.--_How peace was made between the Genoese and Pisans._ -- 31.--_When the new walls of the city of Florence were begun again._ -- 32.--_How the king of France by his practices got hold of all Flanders, and had the count and his sons in prison._ -- 33.--_How the king of France allied himself with King Albert of Germany._ -- 34.--_How the prince of Taranto was defeated in Sicily._ -- 35.--_How Ghazan, lord of the Tartars, defeated the soldan of the Saracens, and took the Holy Land in Syria._

-- 36.--_How Pope Boniface VIII. gave pardons to all Christians which should go to Rome, in the year of the jubilee, 1300._

[Sidenote: 1300 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Purg. ii. 98, 99.]

[Sidenote: Par. x.x.xi. 104-108.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xviii. 28-33.]

In the year of Christ 1300, according to the birth of Christ, inasmuch as it was held by many that after every hundred years from the nativity of Christ, the Pope which was reigning at the time granted great indulgences, Pope Boniface VIII., which then occupied the apostolic chair, in reverence for the nativity of Christ, granted supreme and great indulgence after this manner; that within the whole course of this said year, to whatsoever Roman should visit continuously for thirty days the churches of the Blessed Apostles S.

Peter and S. Paul, and to all other people which were not Romans which should do likewise for fifteen days, there should be granted full and entire remission of all their sins, both the guilt and the punishment thereof, they having made or to make confession of the same. And for consolation of the Christian pilgrims, every Friday and every solemn feast day, was shown in S. Peter's the Veronica, the true image of Christ, on the napkin. For the which thing, a great part of the Christians which were living at that time, women as well as men, made the said pilgrimage from distant and divers countries, both from far and near. And it was the most marvellous thing that was ever seen, for throughout the year, without break, there were in Rome, besides the inhabitants of the city, 200,000 pilgrims, not counting those who were coming and going on their journeys; and all were suitably supplied and satisfied with provisions, horses as well as persons, and all was well ordered, and without tumult or strife; and I can bear witness to this, for I was present and saw it. And from the offerings made by the pilgrims much treasure was added to the Church, and all the Romans were enriched by the trade. And I, finding myself on that blessed pilgrimage in the holy city of Rome, beholding the great and ancient things therein, and reading the stories and the great doings of the Romans, written by Virgil, and by Sall.u.s.t, and by Lucan, and t.i.tus Livius, and Valerius, and Paulus Orosius, and other masters of history, which wrote alike of small things as of great, of the deeds and actions of the Romans, and also of foreign nations throughout the world, myself to preserve memorials and give examples to those which should come after took up their style and design, although as a disciple I was not worthy of such a work. But considering that our city of Florence, the daughter and creature of Rome, was rising, and had great things before her, whilst Rome was declining, it seemed to me fitting to collect in this volume and new chronicle all the deeds and beginnings of the city of Florence, in so far as it has been possible for me to find and gather them together, and to follow the doings of the Florentines in detail, and the other notable things of the universe in brief, as long as it shall be G.o.d's pleasure; in hope of which, rather than in my own poor learning, I undertook, by his grace, the said enterprise; and thus in the year 1300, having returned from Rome, I began to compile this book, in reverence to G.o.d and the blessed John, and in commendation of our city of Florence.

[Sidenote: 1300 A.D.]

-- 37.--_How Count Guido of Flanders and two sons of his surrendered to the king of France, and how they were deceived and cast into prison._

-- 38.--_How the parties of the Blacks and Whites first began in the city of Pistoia._

[Sidenote: 1300 A.D.]

In these times the city of Pistoia being in happy and great and good estate, among the other citizens there was one family very n.o.ble and puissant, not however of very ancient lineage, which was called the Cancellieri, born of one Ser Cancelliere, which was a merchant, and gained much wealth, and by his two wives had many sons, which by reason of their riches all became knights, and men of worth and substance, and from them were born many sons and grandsons, so that at this time they numbered more than 100 men in arms, rich and puissant and of many affairs, so that not only were they the leading citizens of Pistoia, but they were among the most puissant families of Tuscany.

There arose among them through their exceeding prosperity, and through the suggestion of the devil, contempt and enmity, between them which were born of one wife against them which were born of the other; and the one part took the name of the Black Cancellieri, and the other of the Whites, and this grew until they fought together, but it was not any very great affair. And one of those on the side of the White Cancellieri having been wounded, they on the side of the Black Cancellieri, to the end they might be at peace and concord with them, sent him which had done the injury and handed him over to the mercy of them which had received it, that they should take amends and vengeance for it at their will; they on the side of the White Cancellieri, ungrateful and proud, having neither pity nor love, cut off the hand of him which had been commended to their mercy on a horse manger. By which sinful beginning, not only was the house of the Cancellieri divided, but many violent deaths arose therefrom, and all the city of Pistoia was divided, for some held with one part and some with the other, and they called themselves the Whites and the Blacks, forgetting among themselves the Guelf and Ghibelline parties; and many civil strifes and much peril and loss of life arose therefrom in Pistoia; and not only in Pistoia, but afterwards the city of Florence and all Italy was contaminated by the said parties, as hereafter we shall be able to understand and know. The Florentines, fearing lest the said factions should stir up rebellion in the city to the hurt of the Guelf party, interposed to bring about an atonement between them, and took the lords.h.i.+p of the city, and brought both parties of the Cancellieri from Pistoia, and set them under bounds at Florence. The Black party were kept in the house of the Frescobaldi in Oltrarno, and the White party in the house of the Cerchi in Garbo, through kins.h.i.+p which there was between them. But like as one sick sheep infects all the flock, thus this accursed seed which came from Pistoia, being in Florence corrupted all the Florentines, and first divided all the races and families of the n.o.bles, one part thereof holding to and favouring one side, and the other the other, and afterwards all the popolari. For the which cause and beginning of strife not only were the Cancellieri not reconciled together by the Florentines, but the Florentines by them were divided and broken up, increasing from bad to worse, as our treatise will hereafter make manifest.

-- 39.--_How the city of Florence was divided and brought to shame by the said White and Black parties._