It is needless to say that the number of books, old and new, is very considerable indeed, to which anyone venturing in these days to write yet another book on Florence must have had recourse, and to whose authors he is bound to be indebted--from the earliest Florentine chroniclers down to the most recent biographers of Lorenzo the Magnificent, of Savonarola, of Michelangelo--from Vasari down to our modern scientific art critics--from Richa and Moreni down to the Misses Horner. My obligations can hardly be acknowledged here in detail; but, to mention a few modern works alone, I am most largely indebted to Capponi's _Storia della Repubblica di Firenze_, to various writings of Professor Pasquale Villari, and to Mr Armstrong's _Lorenzo de' Medici_; to the works of Ruskin and J. A. Symonds, of M. Reymond and Mr Berenson; and, in the domains of topography, to Baedeker's _Hand Book_. In judging of the merits and the authorship of individual pictures and statues, I have usually given more weight to the results of modern criticism than to the pleasantness of old tradition. Carlyle's translation of the _Inferno_ and Mr Wicksteed's of the _Paradiso_ are usually quoted. If this little book should be found helpful in initiating the English-speaking visitor to the City of Flowers into more of the historical atmosphere of Florence and her monuments than guide-books and catalogues can supply, it will amply have fulfilled its object. E. G. G. ROEHAMPTON, May 1900. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE _The Commune and People of Florence_ 1 CHAPTER II _The Times of Dante and Boccaccio_ 32 CHAPTER III _The Medici and the Quattrocento_ 71 CHAPTER IV _From Fra Girolamo to Duke Cosimo_ 111 CHAPTER V _The Palazzo Vecchio--The Piazza della Signoria--The Uffizi_ 146 CHAPTER VI _Or San Michele and the Sesto di San Piero_ 184 CHAPTER VII _From the Bargello past Santa Croce_ 214 CHAPTER VIII _The Baptistery, the Campanile, and the Duomo_ 246 CHAPTER IX _The Palazzo Riccardi--San Lorenzo--San Marco_ 283 CHAPTER X _The Accademia delle Belle Arti--The Santissima Annunziata, and other Buildings_ 314 CHAPTER XI _The Bridges--The Quarter of Santa Maria Novella_ 340 CHAPTER XII _Across the Arno_ 374 CHAPTER XIII _Conclusion_ 409 * * * * * _Genealogical Table of the Medici_ 423