FLORENCE. Of all the fairest cities of the earth, None are so fair as Florence. Rogers. TALIAN History presents nothing more interesting and exciting than the annals of Florence. Tracing this city downwards from her first appearance on the page of legitimate history, as a Roman colony, till she became the very temple of literature and art,-we gather in our progress such instances of indomitable courage in the dark ages which succeeded the fall of the empire; such union of the highest chivalry of romance with the sanguinary scenes which marked the struggle between rival parties; such displays of pure patriotism and unbounded munificence on the part of the first merchant princes of the Medicean family; such thrilling tragedies connected with the subsequent history of this distinguished house, when its descendants, forgetting their virtuous and patriot origin, sunk into oppressors of their country, and riotous slaves of profligacy and prodigality; and, interwoven with these, the glorious imaginings of Dante; Petrarch's impassioned strains; the "Hundred Tales of Love," of the elegant, but impure, Boccaccio; the dramatic triumphs of Alfieri; the heaven-ward contemplations of Galileo, who walked amidst the brightness of the firmament, whilst the thunders of the Vatican were directed against him, and the terrors of the Inquisition were arrayed before him;-and, blended with these again, the triumphs of Painting, the triumphs of Sculpture, the triumphs of Architecture:-we gather from the annals of Florence such salient points as these, to distinguish above all common records an historical drama, played upon Roman ground, and represented in its various acts by a dramatis personæ of princes, and of men greater and more ennobled than princes. The antiquity of Florence cannot be traced back, with certainty, farther than sixty years previous to the Christian era. Then it was, that a division of Roman soldiers were sent thither, after the battle of Perusia, by Octavianus. Little remains to distinguish its history as a Roman colony, either in recorded achievements, or in architectural remains of former greatness. Beyond a few traces of an amphitheatre, and some inscriptions, nothing is presented to the eye to identify Florence with the empire. Ecclesiastical history has preserved an account of persecutions and martyrdoms in this city, under Decius, in the third century; and in 313, Felix, one of its bishops, attended a council in Rome. When the Goths made irruption into Italy, the Florentines distinguished themselves by a bold defence of their city; from whose walls they triumphantly repulsed the barbarian host, first in 405, and subsequently in 542. We afterwards find the city in the possession of the Longobards, who made the district one of their dukedoms; but in their hands, Florence itself became little better than a deserted mass of ruins. On the defeat of the Longobards by Charlemagne, Florence was raised from its forlorn condition; but it never shone forth in all its lustre, till governed by its own magistrates, G-H and under laws enacted by its own authority, it acquired the name and the energies of a republic. In the latter part of the eleventh, and the beginning of the twelfth century, when the disputes between the Church and the Empire were violent, and when every Italian town became involved in their contests, Florence was under the jurisdiction of the Countess Matilda, who, dying in 1115, left her inheritance to the See of Rome. Florence had then a very limited territory, but already the commercial character of its people had shown itself, in their transactions with the Levant and with France. Before the death of Matilda, the Florentines had made a grand struggle for liberty, by opposing the appointment of a new vicar nominated by the emperor; on which occasion an obstinate battle was fought at Monte Cascioli, about six miles from Florence, wherein the imperial vicar was slain, and the troops of the empire discomfited. Notwithstanding the bequest of Matilda, successive popes, from motives of policy, acted with great moderation towards the Florentines, and laid their authority lightly upon them; by which means they effectually won them to the side of the Church, and arrayed them in permanent hostility against the empire. Thus was Florence established as an independent commonwealth, attached to the Guelphic, or Church party, in opposition to the Ghibelline faction, which gave its support to the emperor. As the community of Florence increased, many partisans of the emperor became citizens, and the seeds of dissension were sown within the city itself. Thenceforward, till the time of the Medici, the history of Florence is a fearful record of party strife. The dissensions of the Florentines may be altogether referred to the dispute for supremacy between the Church and the Emperor; but out of this original ground of quarrel, not unfrequently arose private bickerings, in which the party epithets of Guelph and Ghibelline were made subservient to the fierce passions of powerful and rival families thirsting for each other's blood. In 1215, the whole city was divided into two great factions, in consequence of a domestic tragedy, the subject of many a drama and picture. A young man of the Buondelmonti family had been betrothed to a young lady of the family Uberti. He broke faith with her, and married a Donati, for which he was stabbed in the streets by the Uberti. The citizens took part, some with the one family and some with the other; and as the Uberti were for the Emperor, Frederick II., and the Buondelmonti and Donati were partisans of the Church, these domestic quarrels were combined with the public and political struggle which so long hung like a curse upon Italy. O Buondelmonti! what ill counseling Prevailed on thee to break the plighted bond? Paradiso, XVII. 139--143. We cannot enter minutely into all the vicissitudes which attended the strife of parties in Florence. Ages passed in a frightful monotony of tumult and massacre, relieved occasionally by an act of devoted courage and patriotism, or by an incident destined in after-times "to point a moral and adorn a tale." Governed sometimes by its bishop, sometimes by its nobles, and not unfrequently by its people, Florence experienced all the varieties and all the agitations of republican administration. Sometimes convulsed by the rival pretensions of the former, or by the licentious claims of the latter, it was converted into a field of battle, a theatre of guilt and assassination; at intervals, under the sway of a wise and virtuous magistracy, it exhibited tokens of peace, industry, and prosperity; and in its frequent wars with the neighbouring states of Siena, Pisa, and Lucca, it obtained a fame that placed it upon a level with the other commonwealths of Italy. But ever and anon, the volcano of intestine division, which never ceased to give indication of its presence, broke forth into terrible eruption, that swept before it the peace and order, and happy presages, to which a brief interval of quiet had given birth. About the middle of the thirteenth century, the Guelphic party had utterly expelled the Ghibellines from Florence. They recorded their successes in the annals of the city, as "the year of victories ;" and on this occasion, they first coined their fine gold florins, bearing the municipal emblems, St. John the Baptist, and the Lily. Within a few years, almost before the acclamations of triumph had ceased, the proscribed Ghibellines returned to take vengeance upon their enemies. The Guelphs were now, in turn, expelled from the city, which was only saved from utter destruction by the patriotism of Farinati, himself a Ghibelline. When his party proposed to raze Florence to its foundations, and scatter its population over the surrounding country, he indignantly declared that he would rather unite with the Guelphs than consent to the proposal. Florence was saved: and her defender still lives in the poetry of Dante. In that affray I stood not singly, nor, without just cause, Inferno, X. 87-92. The tide of circumstances again rolled in favour of the Guelphs, who in 1625 returned in triumph to Florence, whence they drove the garrison of their opponents. Thenceforward the strength of the Ghibellines declined; and their triumphs were confined to partial and temporary advantages, which failed to re-establish their supremacy, but sufficed to perpetuate the horrors of intestine strife and tumult. An attempt on the part of Pope Nicholas III., to mediate between these factions, utterly failed; and centuries passed away leaving only records of enmity and bloodshed. Other parties also arose; and the contests of the Bianchi and the Neri, are as distinguished in the history of hatred, as those of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Amidst all these disasters, Florence prosecuted her commercial enterprises with great success, and also entered into fierce contest with the other republics of Italy, some of which she reduced to entire subjection. * The wealth of the Florentines must in these ages have been immense the physical force of the city and neighbourhood could not furnish strength for their warlike expeditions; and their armies were therefore composed of mercenaries, commanded by a foreign leader, and maintained at great cost. With the growth of her commer • Florence exult! for thou so mightily Hast thriven, that o'er land and sea thy wings Inferno, XXV. 1-3. |