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H. B. Cotterill
Medieval Italy

CHAPTER II
THE REPUBLICS AND SIGNORIES DOWN TO c. 1320

We have noted the gradual rise of the free cities of North Italy since the days of Hildebrand and Henry IV and have seen how the Lombard League, victorious over Frederick Barbarossa, laid the foundation of what might have proved, but did not prove permanently, a great republican Confederation. After his crushing defeat at Legnano and his acceptance of the situation by the Peace of Constanz the Emperor loyally recognized the liberties of the northern Communes, and his son, Henry the Cruel, was so much taken up with his endeavours to establish his claim to the crown of the Norman kings that he made but little effort to enforce his authority over Lombardy, though he set his dukes over Tuscany and Umbria. His son too, the Emperor Frederick II, was almost wholly engrossed by his southern dominions and exercised scarcely any authority in Northern Italy except what was voluntarily conceded to him by Ghibelline cities in their desire to secure imperial aid against their rivals. Thus the northern cities little by little detached themselves from the Empire and became republican, while South Italy and Sicily became monarchical; and when the pitiable execution of Conradin at Naples in 1268 put an end to the Hohenstaufen dynasty these southern regions passed into the power of Angevin and Aragonese monarchs, under whose rule they were destined to remain for many years.

But besides the northern Communes and the southern monarchies there was a Papal State composed of regions of Central Italy, such as parts of Latium, Tuscia, Romana, and Sabina, in which the Popes exercised a certain amount of effective authority — a matter, of course, totally distinct from the claim that they made to overlordship in the Two Sicilies in Tuscany, in Pentapolis (Emilia), the March of Ancona, the duchy of Spoleto, and elsewhere. This Papal State (Stato della Chiesa) was of a vague, inorganic, and fluctuating nature. Ever and again the Emperors had treated the actual as well as the imaginary Papal States as integral parts of the Empire. Thus Henry VI placed his brother, Duke Philip, as his Vicar in Tuscany and others of his captains as governors in Romagna and the Marches; Frederick II too, in spite of his pious promises, occupied Romagna and other regions claimed by the Papacy; and Manfred, whose soldiers helped the Florentine Ghibellines to their victory at Montaperti (1260), made one of his captains the imperial governor of Florence, and for a time, until the arrival of Charles of Anjou, was master of much of the papal territory in Central Italy. Nominally of course Charles of Anjou favoured the Popes, but practically he too was their master and did little to extend their sovran rights, so that it is not surprising that at last, in 1278, Pope Nicholas III found it convenient to renounce the papal claims to Romagna, Pentapolis, Ancona, and Spoleto in favour of the Emperor Rudolf of Habsburg.

Thus it was only in a comparatively small territory that latterly the Pope exercised sovran rights — rights which he often had to share with the republican government at Rome; and he had to rely on the somewhat precarious loyalty of his legates and his subjects, and through insurrections, both democratic and aristocratic, he frequently lost his hold on various cities, such as Perugia and Viterbo. Finally, when Clement V removed the Papal Seat to Avignon (1309) the authority of the Popes in Central Italy dwindled away to a mere shadow.

Thus with a few strokes may be roughly intimated the state of Italy during the period when the chief northern cities attained their fullest development in commercial prosperity and republican liberty and then suffered — some of them — the same fate that in earlier days befell not a few of the ancient Greek republics, where it so often happened that some eminent political leader, or head of a faction, gained the favour and abused the confidence of the people and established himself as 'tyrant.' The process has repeated itself many times in history. At first the people and the feudal nobility come into conflict. Then, as trade and general prosperity increase, there ensues the still bitterer conflict between capital and labour, between the nouveaux riches and the working classes. The old and poorer nobility then allies itself with the people. At last some bold and gifted leader of this caste wins the unconditional support of the popular party and by a coup d'état seizes the reins of power. Thus it was with the Greek Tyrannides and thus with the Italian Signorie.

The interesting and instructive story of the rise and the fortunes of the Italian Republics has been related, with full accounts of the chief of these cities, by many authors from the time of Dino Compagni and Giovanni Villani (c. 1300) down to the Istorie fiorentine of Machiavelli (c. 1500) and onwards to Sismondi and the numberless writers, political, literary, and artistic, of our own days. It will be here impossible to do more than state a few facts connected with some of these cities, and for this purpose I shall select once more Florence, Milan, and Venice, the stories of which we have already traced up to about 1200; and I shall add some remarks about Verona, Bologna, and other towns.

FLORENCE (c. 1200‑1320)

The early history of Florence has already been sketched. From the first it had been adverse to the arrogant domination of Teuton Emperors and nobles, and its freedom may be considered to have begun on the death of Countess Matilda in 1115, when it first elected its own Consuls. But, although it was destined to become the most notable of the Italian Communes, its evolution was slow. The greater part of Tuscany remained under imperial influences for a considerable time after the Lombard cities had won independence, and there were Tuscan cities, such as Pisa and Arezzo, which, even after the days of Dante and Henry of Luxemburg, remained strongholds of Ghibellinism while Florence was gradually, amidst many reverses and relapse, securing that republican liberty which was not finally overthrown until the rise of the Medici in the fifteenth century.

The early development of the Florentine republic was stunted by the introduction of baneful feuds. I have already related how the murder of Buondelmonte, assassinated at the base of the ancient statue of Mars, divided the city into two embittered factions headed by the Donati and the Uberti, and how the imperialists made use of this feud in order to forward their own interests. Supported by the powerful influence of the Emperor Frederick II, these Ghibelline nobles succeeded in expelling the democratic and papal Guelf leaders. But on the death of Frederick the Guelf party was recalled and reconstituted as an important factor of the Florentine Commune, under the leadership of a Capitano del Popolo, and finally, when in 1259 Ezzelino, the great Ghibelline tyrant of North Italy, was overpowered and killed, the popular faction in Florence gained such power that in its turn it expelled its rivals. Thus in Florence the Guelfs were for a season triumphant and the white lily was made vermilion.1. But the exiled Ghibellines collected a large army at Siena and, captained by Farinata degli Uberti, with the help of the Sienese and Pisans and Manfred's German cavalry inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces led against them by the Florentines. The battle took place (1260, five years before Dante's birth) at Montaperti, not far from Siena. The carnage, especially round the Florentine Carroccio, was so terrible that it made, says Dante, the Arbia incarnadined with blood; and so disastrous was the rout that the Guelfs, not daring to return to their own city, withdrew to Lucca. How Florence was then doomed by the victors to be razed to the ground and how it was saved by Farinata is known to all readers of Dante.2

For six years after this battle of Montaperti the Ghibelline influence was supreme at Florence, and the city was governed by Manfred's imperial Vicar, Guido Novello; but when Manfred was slain at Benevento (1266) the Guelfs once more came into power. At first they submitted in a somewhat disgraceful fashion to Pope Clement IV and elected as their Podestà Charles of Anjou, who for a time governed Florence by his emissaries. But republicanism, fostered by the immense increase of trade and wealth, had now struck root firmly and was beginning to assert its vitality.

The Guilds were the basis of the constitution now adopted by the popular party. Of these Guilds, or Arti, there were seven greater and five (later fourteen) lesser.3 Each had its Council, its president or Consul, and a military official — the Gonfaloniere. These formed the chief magistracy of the popular government. The Consuls however gave way for a time to Anziani (4) and in the year of the Sicilian Vespers (1282) the title was changed to that of Priors. Three (later six) Priors of the greater Arts were invested with the highest magisterial authority in the Commune and formed the executive Signory. About the date of Dante's Priorate (1300) a Gonfaloniere della Giustizia was associated with the Priors. This official possessed in seasons of sedition and disturbance almost dictatorial power and thus in time became the most important personage in the State.

It was during the early period of the Priorate (i.e. in 1284) that Florence suddenly gained a great increase of power and prosperity by a crushing defeat that her ally, Genoa, inflicted on her great rival, Pisa, which city had for long blocked her access to the sea. The battle was fought near the rocky islet of Meloria, off Livorno. So great was the booty and the number of the prisoners that the saying arose, He who will see Pisa must go to Genoa. One of the Pisan commanders at Meloria was that Count Ugolino della Geradesca whose tragic story inspired one of the most touching and vivid passages in Dante's great poem. After the battle he established himself as despot in Pisa, but he was accused of having occasioned the defeat of the Pisan fleet by treasonable complicity with the Florentine Guelfs,

INSERT DRAWING

COIN OF THE SONS OF UGOLINO, c. 1290

See p. xxviii

and his rival, Archbishop Ruggieri, succeeded in treacherously bringing about his death — perhaps starving him to death together with his sons and grandsons in the Torre della Fame — facts which induced Dante to doom them both to the frozen sea of the Traitors in the deepest pit of the Inferno.

Ugolino's fall was followed by the re‑establishment of Ghibelline supremacy at Pisa. The disaster of Meloria put an end to its successful maritime and trade rivalry with Florence, but it remained a staunch political adversary, true to its imperial principles, and it frequently tried its strength against its victorious rivals — evidence of which facts is supplied by its famous Campo Santo, where one may see not only the tomb of the last genuine Holy Roman Emperor, Henry of Luxemburg, but also the chains that once barred the harbour of Pisa and were captured in 1362 by Genoa and Florence and restored, as a sign of Italian unity, in our days.

Other Tuscan cities that for a time favoured the anti-republican cause were Arezzo, Siena, and S. Gimignano. The aid given by Arezzo to exiled Ghibellines induced the Florentines in 1289 to attack the Aretines; and they overthrew them at Campaldino. At this battle Dante, then twenty-four years of age, was present, as he tells us5 in the fragment that still survives of one of his letters. "I was there.' he says, 'a novice in arms, and had great fear, and at last great joy.' A still more determined Ghibelline city was at first Siena, which, as we have seen, gave such effectual aid to the Florentine exiles at the battle of Montaperti. But ten years later (1270) it changed its policy. By the influence of Charles of Anjou, who after Manfred's fall possessed himself of most of the Tuscan cities, Siena joined the Guelf league, and she remained fairly independent and republican till a later age when (c. 1490) Pandulf the Magnificent established his Signoria over the city. S. Gimignano's fate was very different. In early days it became a fairly independent commune which was inclined to favour republican Florence. Dante visited it, about 1300, as an envoy from Florence, and is said to have made a speech in what is now called the Sala di Dante; but in spite of his eloquence democratic liberty was ruined by the party feuds of the local nobility, especially that of the Ghibelline Salvucci against the Ardinghelli.6 Finally about 1353, by the complicity of the Guelf Ardinghelli, Florence was enabled to proclaim its protectorate over the city.

When Dante was twenty-eight years of age — some three years after the death of Beatrice — the Florentine State gained a most important advantage by the public sanction of the Ordinamenti della Giustizia, which conferred on all citizens equality before the law. Most unfortunately the chance that Florence now had of developing into a model republic was for a time frustrated by the introduction from Pistoia — that 'den of noxious beasts,' as Dante calls it — of a new feud, that of the Neri and Bianchi, whose quarrel was taken up by two rival Florentine families, the Donati and the Cerchi. The chief leader of the Neri-Donati party, Corso Donati, allied himself with Pope Boniface VIII and, aided by the visit of Charles of Valois to Florence in 1301, succeeded in ejecting the Bianchi-Cerchi, who were accused of being not only disaffected Guelfs but disguised Ghibellines. Among these exiles was the poet Dante.7

While Dante was wandering as an exile, probably at that time in the Lunigiana (which lies around me as I write these words), the people of Florence arose against the tyranny of Corso Donati; and he soon afterwards met his death — perhaps by violence, perhaps by an accident.8 But these events did not allow Dante to return to his native city. When exiled he had gone over openly to the Ghibellines; but he had already abandoned them, disgusted and determined to 'form a party for himself.'

The subsequent history of Florence was for many years that of a free republic. It was disturbed now and then by war and by popular tumults, such as that of the Ciompi in 1378, but on the whole it enjoyed liberty and prosperity until the rise of the Medicean Signoria.

 

MILAN AND OTHER TOWNS (c. 1200‑1320)

While Florence was thus winning her way towards republican liberty many of the North Italian Communes (Venice and Genoa being brilliant exceptions) suffered the fate that has been described. In Verona — the home of the Montecchi and Capuletti — the bloodthirsty Ezzelino, as we have seen, established his tyranny, as also in Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, and other cities. After his death (1259) Mastino della Scala was elected Podestà and perpetual Capitano del Popolo, and thus began the dynasty of the Scaligeri. Of this family the best known is that Can Grande at whose court Dante for a time found a home, and experienced

come sa di sale
Lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle
Lo scendere e il salir per l'altrui scale.

In like fashion the Gonzaga established themselves in Mantua, the Margraves of Este in Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, the Correggi and Visconti in Parma, the Montefeltri in Urbino,

 
 
INSERT DRAWING

COIN OF MILAN, c. 1260

See p. xxviii

the Malatesta family in Rimini, the da Polenta in Ravenna.9

Of special interest are the annals of Milan. Its story down to about 1200 has already been briefly told. After it had arisen from the ashes to which the German Barbarossa reduced it and had won its independence by the victory over the Teuton oppressor at the battle of Legnano and the treaty of Constance it had for some time a curious triple constitution. The most powerful of the three bodies politic was the Credenza of St. Ambrose, which represented the popular party. The Molta represented the minor nobility and the Credenza of the Consuls the higher nobility. Each of these bodies had its own magistrates and formed a kind of republic by itself. This state of things naturally led to dissension, and, as usual, dissension led to the rise of a dictator. Thus about 1250 the Torriani (the della Torre family) espoused the popular cause and came into power. But they behaved so despotically that Archbishop Otto, of the rival family of the Visconti, placed himself at the head of the aristocratic (Ghibelline) party and was enabled to eject them (1277) and to dominate Milan for a long period. Otto was succeeded by Matteo, who, although for some years he was driven from the city by the exiled Torriani, was restored by Henry VII, when that 'peacemaker' came in 1311 to Milan to receive the Iron Crown;10 and with German help he succeeded in massacring and almost annihilating his rivals and founding the famous dynasty of the Milanese Visconti.

A remarkable, though short-lived Signoria was that of Guglielmo Spadalunga (Longsword), Margrave of Monteferrato. About 1270 he made himself master of a large number of Lombard towns, among which were Novara, Vercelli, Asti, and Pavia. But his fictitious realm fell to pieces at once when, about 1290, he was overpowered by a coalition of some of the Communes that he had enslaved.

It is interesting to note that the army of these Communes was led by one of the early ancestors of the present King of Italy — Amedeo of Savoy. The earliest known ancestor of the House of Savoy was a certain Count Umberto, called Biancamano, who, descending from the Savoy mountains, gained a footing by fighting and clever alliances in Piemonte and in 1033 helped Conrad II to conquer Burgundy. In 1310 we hear of another of these Savoy Counts, Luigi, being elected Senator of Rome. The family during many centuries by its valour and energy has proved its worthiness for its present high distinction.

GENOA AND VENICE (c. 1200‑1320)

We have already heard of the notable part that in early times Genoa took in the struggle against the Saracens and how, after having been captured and plundered by Saracen pirates in 936, it regained its maritime power and as the champion of the Ligurian towns and the ally of Pisa swept the seas with its galleys. Also we have heard how the Genoese joined in the first Crusade and helped to set Baldwin on the throne of Jerusalem and became a great commercial and colonial power in the Eastern Mediterranean. The presence of external foes, first Saracens and afterwards powerful lords of Liguria, caused a coalition of the popular party with the lesser nobility. This coalition was called the Compagna, and the election of Guglielmo Boccanegra as Capitano del Popolo in 1257, or perhaps the final triumph of the popular party in 1270, may be regarded as the beginning of the Genoese republic and of its great maritime power and commercial prosperity. In 1284, as we have seen, Genoa crushed its rival, Pisa, in the naval battle off Meloria. Some forty years later (1298) it utterly destroyed the fleet of Venice near Curzola. About eight thousand Venetians were made prisoners, among them the traveller Marco Polo, who wrote in prison his famous work Milione. Thus we take leave of Genoa at the acme of her greatness — for not many years later her sea-power was crippled by a serious defeat off Chioggia. Then, by the victories of Doge Andrea Dandolo about 1350, and the capture of the Genoese fleet in the Lagunes in 1380, the maritime supremacy of Venice over her great rival was permanently established.

The story of Venice from its earliest beginnings down to about 1200 has been already briefly told. Its political and artistic history during the thirteenth century continues to show many interesting characteristics diverse from those of the other Italian Communes.

Firstly, as regards its internal political history, its development was in the direction of oligarchy, or what we may perhaps call a patrician rather than a democratic republic. The old Venetian families were for the most part not, as in other North Italian cities, a feudal Germanic aristocracy, but were of ancient Roman stock (Venice and its islands having been a favourite residence of wealthy Romans in early days). The close connexion, too, of Venice with Byzantium resulted in the introduction of wealth and luxury and of Oriental ideas not favourable to democracy.

In early days the Doge was indeed chosen by the general voice of the people, who in their popular assembly (the Arengo) had means of representing their will. The Doges however differed essentially from the Gonfalonieri and Capitani and Priori of the Communes, for they were not temporary presidents, but were elected for life. And although the people used their rights and limited the Doge's powers by means of a Council and a Senate (Maggior Consiglio and Pregadi), the democratic gain was cancelled by the fact that these Councils were selected from the wealthy classes and that every new reform diminished more and more the numbers of those from whom the councillors could be chosen, so that in course of time the tendency towards oligarchical government was no longer to be restrained. At almost the same time when Florence was passing those Ordinamenti della Giustizia which excluded the nobility from the government and gave legal equality to all Florentines the Venetians decreed the momentous Serratura (closing) of their Great Council, which act excluded the whole body of ordinary citizens from election and limited the candidature to a comparatively few noble families.11

But many of the Venetian nobles of this period had gained their wealth and rank by commerce, and the old noble families ousted by these plutocrats, grew so discontented that at last, headed by Baiamonte Tiepolo, they made a violent and vain attempt to overthrow the constituted government (1310). The committee instituted to investigate the origins of this conspiracy held office for a series of years, and at last by a decree passed in 1335 it was declared permanent. This was the notorious and formidable Council of the Ten, of which we hear so much in later times.

As regards the external development of Venice during the thirteenth century, its maritime power and trade were very favourable influenced by its fortunate position, which enabled it to serve as an emporium for commerce between eastern countries and the north-western parts of Europe. In the disgraceful capture and sack of Constantinople during the so‑called fourth Crusade by the so‑called Latins (Franks, Flemings, and others) the Venetians took an active part, and were rewarded by an immense extension of their commerce in the East, where their merchants enjoyed many privileges. The result in Venice itself was a marked revival of Byzantine influence — conspicuous especially in architecture and mosaics.12 This Byzantine influence lasted at Venice for a long time, strongly affecting and surviving that Venetian Romanesque style which I have already mentioned and shall have call to mention again. (See p. 434 n. and Fig. 56)

As we have seen, the Venetians were severely defeated in 1298 by the Genoese fleet. During the next half-century and more Genoa developed an activity very injurious to Venetian trade and acquired some of the Venetian possessions in the East, and it was not till the end of the fourteenth century that Venice became unquestionably the Queen of the Adriatic and established her supremacy over her rivals in the Levant. When we come to consider the rise of Italian Gothic we shall see that it was not until a somewhat late period that this style of architecture began to find favour at Venice. Here we need only note that this Venetian Gothic has special and beautiful characteristics, being affected not only by local but also by Eastern influences — among which, as Ruskin has pointed out, the Saracen is sometimes recognizable.

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The Author's Notes:

1 Dante, Par. xvi, 153. The ancient Florentine (and Ghibelline) ensign was a white lily on red; the Guelfs adopted a red lily on white. Dante's words 'made vermilion' evidently also intimate the stain of blood. His great ancestor, Cacciaguida (p. 368), was devoted to the Empire. The later Alighieri, Dante's immediate progenitors, were staunch Guelfs.

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2 Inf. x. Farinata, rising erect in his fiery tomb and with proud, calm dignity conversing with Dante — 'as if he had Hell in great disdain' — is one of the grandest and most vivid portraits in the Commedia.

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3 Dante enrolled himself in the greater Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries (Medici e Speziali).

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4 See Dante, Inf. xxi, 38: Un degli anzian di Santa Zita, i.e. of Lucca. The Anziani of Lucca and Pisa answered to the Florentine Priori.

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5 See also Inf. xxii, 4, and Purg. v, 92. In the next year he was present at the capitulation of Caprona, a fort on the Arno held by the Pisans. See Inf. xxi, 94, where he gives a vivid picture of the scene.

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6 Thirteen of over fifty (?) towers built by the nobles of S. Gimignano still lend a very striking appearance to this citta delle belle torri. See Fig. 54.

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7 For the facts connected with Dante's banishment see pp.485‑86. Ten years previously he had married Gemma, probably a sister of Corso Donati, leader of the ultra-Guelfs. Though Dante never mentions his wife, he evidently had great affection for Piccarda, Corso's sister, whom he met in Paradise, and also for Forese, Corso's brother, though he condemns him for gluttony to terrible punishment in Purgatory.

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8 Dante seems to confirm the report that he was thrown (doubtless in a scuffle) from his horse (in the Casentino) and dragged by the stirrup (a coda d'una bestia tratto, Purg. xxiv.)

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9 Guido da Polenta was Dante's friend in his last days. At Ravenna the poet doubtless often saw as a child the little Francesca, daughter or niece of Guido, afterwards wedded to and killed by Gianciotto Malatesta, as all readers of the Inferno know. The name of the Mantuan Gonzaga awakes memories of Hamlet.

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10 Henry VII, it will be remembered, proclaimed himself rex pacificus (somewhat as the German Wilhelm of our day), but found it a 'military necessity' to take a bloody part in Italian politics. His destruction of Cremona is paralleled by that of Louvain.

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11 In 1315, says Villari, the first register of these families was published. In later times (sixteenth century) this register acquired the name of 'The Golden Book' (Libro d'oro).

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12 E.g. the older mosaics of the vestibule in St. Mark's. Much fine marble and other treasures — among them the famous bronze horses — were brought from Constantinople, c. 1204, by the 'blind old Dandolo; and his warriors.