History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy: From the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent
Niccolo Machiavelli · en
As there could not be found a magistrate willing to search out who were
Ghibellines, and as this renewed enactment against them was therefore
of small value, it was provided that authority should be given to the
Capitani to find out who were of this faction; and, having discovered,
to signify and ADMONISH them that they were not to take upon
themselves any office of government; to which ADMONITIONS, if they were
disobedient, they became condemned in the penalties. Hence, all those
who in Florence are deprived of the power to hold offices are called
_ammoniti_, or ADMONISHED.
The Capitani in time acquiring greater audacity, admonished not only
those to whom the admonition was applicable, but any others at the
suggestion of their own avarice or ambition; and from 1356, when this
law was made, to 1366, there had been admonished above 200 citizens.
The Captains of the Parts and the sect of the Guelphs were thus become
powerful; for every one honored them for fear of being admonished; and
most particularly the leaders, who were Piero degli Albizzi, Lapo da
Castiglionchio, and Carlo Strozzi. This insolent mode of proceeding was
offensive to many; but none felt so particularly injured with it as
the Ricci; for they knew themselves to have occasioned it, they saw
it involved the ruin of the republic, and their enemies, the Albizzi,
contrary to their intention, became great in consequence.
On this account Uguccione de' Ricci, being one of the Signory, resolved
to put an end to the evil which he and his friends had originated, and
with a new law provided that to the six Captains of Parts an additional
three should be appointed, of whom two should be chosen from the
companies of minor artificers, and that before any party could be
declared Ghibelline, the declaration of the Capitani must be confirmed
by twenty-four Guelphic citizens, appointed for the purpose. This
provision tempered for a time the power of the Capitani, so that the
admonitions were greatly diminished, if not wholly laid aside. Still the
parties of the Albizzi and the Ricci were continually on the alert to
oppose each other's laws, deliberations, and enterprises, not from a
conviction of their inexpediency, but from a hatred of their promoters.