Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni VillaniVillani, Giovanni
History
Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani
Villani, Giovanni
Florence (Italy) -- History
of Florentine cloths, of stockings, of linen cloths, and hucksters),
white and red standard; butchers, a yellow field with a black goat;
shoemakers, the transverse stripes, white and black, known as the
pezza gagliarda [gallant piece]; workers in stone and in timber, a red
field charged with the saw, and the axe, and the hatchet, and the
pick-axe; smiths and iron workers, a white field charged with large
black pincers.
Sec. 14.--_How the second Popolo rose in Florence, for the which cause
Count Guido Novello, with the Ghibelline leaders, left Florence._
[Sidenote: 1266 A.D.]
[Sidenote: Inf. xxxii. 121.]
By reason of the said doings in Florence by the said two Podestas and
the Thirty-six, the Ghibelline magnates in Florence, such as the
Uberti, the Fifanti, and Lamberti, and Scolari, and the others of the
great Ghibelline houses, began to have their factious fears raised,
for it seemed to them that the said Thirty-six supported and favoured
the Guelf popolani which had remained in Florence, and that every
change was against their party. Through this jealousy, and because of
the news of the victory of King Charles, Count Guido Novello sent for
help to all the neighbouring allies, such as were the Pisans, Sienese,
Aretines, Pistoians, and them of Prato, of Volterra, Colle, and
Sangimignano, so that with 600 Germans which he had, his horsemen in
Florence numbered 1,500. It came to pass that in order to pay the
German troops, which were with Count Guido Novello, captain of the
league, he required that an impost of 10 per cent. should be levied;
and the said Thirty-six sought some other method of finding the money,
less burdensome to the people. For this cause, when they delayed some
days longer than appeared fitting to the Count and to the other great
Ghibellines of Florence, by reason of the suspicion which they felt
concerning the ordinances made by the Popolo, the said nobles
determined to put the town in an uproar, and destroy the office of the
said Thirty-six, with the help of the great body of horse which the
vicar had in Florence; and when they were armed, the first that began
were the Lamberti, which with their armed troops sallied forth from
their houses in Calimala, saying, "Where are these thieving
Thirty-six, that we may cut them all in pieces?" which Thirty-six were
then taking counsel together in the shop where the consuls of Calimala
administered justice, under the house of the Cavalcanti in the Mercato
Nuovo. When the Thirty-six heard this they broke up the council, and
straightway the town rose in uproar, and the shops were closed, and
every man flew to arms. The people all gathered in the wide street of
Santa Trinita, and Messer Gianni de' Soldanieri made himself head of
the people to the end he might rise in estate, not considering the
end, that it must bring about loss to the Ghibelline party, and damage
to himself, which seems always to have happened in Florence to
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