The Story of Siena and San GimignanoGardner, Edmund G.
History
The Story of Siena and San Gimignano
Gardner, Edmund G.
Art -- Italy -- Siena; San Gimignano (Italy) -- History; Siena (Italy) -- History
Rome and Leonardo Bellanti in Pisa--probably with the knowledge of the
Cardinal Francesco, who, throughout these turbulent and blood-stained
years, had acted strenuously, though not always successfully, as
peace-maker. The Noveschi and other exiles assembled at Staggia, and,
with a small force of Florentine soldiers, arrived at the Porta
Fontebranda before dawn on July 22nd, 1487. Pandolfo Petrucci is said to
have been the first to scale the walls. Leaving a small guard to hold
the gate and secure their retreat if unsuccessful, they pressed up to
the Croce del Travaglio, and then rushed through the streets, shouting
"People and Nine! Liberty and Peace!" After a brief resistance, the
Captain of the People was forced to surrender the Palace, and there was
practically no opposition elsewhere. Camillo Venturini--a young man of
the Monte del Popolo--killed with a bill-hook a certain Messer
Cristoforo di Guidoccio to avenge his father, Lorenzo di Antonio
Venturini, who had been beheaded in the previous year, and the Captain
of the People was likewise put to death. But otherwise there was little
or no bloodshed, save by way of private vendetta in the first confusion.
Bartolommeo Sozzini, one of the Dodicini who had worked the scheme at
Pisa, where he held a chair, returned with a party of mounted
crossbowmen to share in the new regime. The two most honoured citizens
of Siena--the Cardinal Francesco and his brother Andrea
Piccolomini--came in, a day or two later, and the revolution was
complete.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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