_Or San Michele and the Sesto di San Piero_
"Una figura della Donna mia
s'adora, Guido, a San Michele in Orto,
che di bella sembianza, onesta e pia,
de' peccatori e gran rifugio e porto."
(_Guido Cavalcanti_ to _Guido Orlandi_.)
At the end of the bustling noisy Via Calzaioli, the Street of the
Stocking-makers, rises the Oratory of Our Lady, known as San Michele
in Orto, "St. Michael in the Garden." Around its outer walls,
enshrined in little temples of their own, stand great statues of
saints in marble and bronze by the hands of the greatest sculptors of
Florence--the canonised patrons of the Arts or Guilds, keeping guard
over the thronging crowds that pass below. This is the grand monument
of the wealth and taste, devotion and charity, of the commercial
democracy of the Middle Ages.
[Illustration: ORCAGNA'S TABERNACLE, OR SAN MICHELE]
The ancient church of San Michele in Orto was demolished by order of
the Commune in the thirteenth century, to make way for a piazza for
the grain and corn market, in the centre of which Arnolfo di Cambio
built a loggia in 1280. Upon one of the pilasters of this loggia there
was painted a picture of the Madonna, held in highest reverence by the
frequenters of the market; a special company or sodality of laymen
was formed, the _Laudesi_ of Our Lady of Or San Michele, who met here
every evening to sing _laudi_ in her honour, and who were
distinguished even in mediaeval Florence, where charity was always on a
heroic scale, by their munificence towards the poor. "On July 3rd,
1292," so Giovanni Villani writes, "great and manifest miracles began
to be shown forth in the city of Florence by a figure of Holy Mary
which was painted on a pilaster of the loggia of San Michele in Orto,
where the grain was sold; the sick were healed, the deformed made
straight, and the possessed visibly delivered in great numbers. But
the preaching friars, and the friars minor likewise, through envy or
some other cause, would put no faith in it, whereby they fell into
much infamy with the Florentines. And so greatly grew the fame of
these miracles and merits of Our Lady that folk flocked hither in
pilgrimage from all parts of Tuscany at her feasts, bringing divers
waxen images for the wonders worked, wherewith a great part of the
loggia in front of and around the said figure was filled." In spite of
ecclesiastical scepticism, this popular devotion ever increased; the
company of the Laudesi, amongst whom, says Villani, was a good part of
the best folk in Florence, had their hands always full of offerings
and legacies, which they faithfully distributed to the poor.
The wonderful tidings roused even Guido Cavalcanti from his melancholy
musings among the tombs. As a sceptical philosopher, he had little
faith in miracles, but an _esprit fort_ of the period could not allow
himself to be on the same side as the friars. A delightful _via media_
presented itself; the features of the Madonna in the picture bore a
certain resemblance to his lady, and everything was at once made
clear. So he took up his pen, and wrote a very beautiful sonnet to his
friend, Guido Orlandi. It begins: "A figure of my Lady is adored,
Guido, in San Michele in Orto, which, with her fair semblance, pure
and tender, is the great refuge and harbour of sinners." And after
describing (with evident devotional feeling, in spite of the obvious
suggestion that it is the likeness of his lady that gives the picture
its miraculous powers) the devotion of the people and the wonders
worked on souls and bodies alike, he concludes: "Her fame goeth
through far off lands: but the friars minor say it is idolatry, for
envy that she is not their neighbour." But Orlandi professed himself
much shocked at his friend's levity. "If thou hadst said, my friend,
of Mary," so runs the double sonnet of his answer, "Loving and full of
grace, thou art a red rose planted in the garden; thou wouldst have
written fittingly. For she is the Truth and the Way, she was the
mansion of our Lord, and is the port of our salvation." And he bids
the greater Guido imitate the publican; cast the beam out of his own
eye and let the mote alone in those of the friars: "The friars minor
know the divine Latin scripture, and the good preachers are the
defenders of the faith; their preaching is our medicine."
One of the most terrible faction fights in Florentine history raged
round the loggia and oratory on June 10th, 1304. The Cavalcanti and
their allies were heroically holding their own, here and in Mercato
Vecchio, against the overwhelming forces of the Neri headed by the
Della Tosa, Sinibaldo Donati and Boccaccio Adimari, when Neri Abati
fired the houses round Or San Michele; the wax images in Our Lady's
oratory flared up, the loggia was burned to the ground, and all the
houses along Calimara and Mercato Nuovo and beyond down to the Ponte
Vecchio were utterly destroyed. The young nobles of the Neri faction
galloped about with flaming torches to assail the houses of their
foes; the Podesta with his troops came into Mercato Nuovo, stared at
the blaze, but did nothing but block the way. In this part of the town
was all the richest merchandise of Florence, and the loss was
enormous. The Cavalcanti, against whom the iniquitous plot was
specially aimed, were absolutely ruined, and left the city without
further resistance.
The pilaster with Madonna's picture had survived the fire, and the
_Laudesi_ still met round it to sing her praises. But in 1336 the
Signoria proposed to erect a grand new building on the site of the old
loggia, which should serve at once for corn exchange and provide a
fitting oratory for this new and growing cult of the Madonna di
Orsanmichele. The present edifice, half palace and half church, was
commenced in 1337, and finished at the opening of the fifteenth
century. The actual building was in the hands of the Commune, who
delegated their powers to the Arte di Por Sta. Maria or Arte della
Seta. The Parte Guelfa and the Greater Guilds were to see to the
external decoration of the pilasters, upon each of which tabernacles
were made to receive the images of the Saints before which each of the
Arts should come in state, to make offerings on the feasts of their
proper patrons; while the shrine itself, and the internal decorations
of the loggia (as it was still called), were left in the charge and
care of the _Laudesi_ themselves, the Compagnia of Orsanmichele, which
was thoroughly organised under its special captains. It is uncertain
whom the Arte della Seta employed as architect; Vasari says that
Taddeo Gaddi gave the design, others say Orcagna (who worked for the
Laudesi inside), and more recently Francesco Talenti has been
suggested. Benci di Cione and Simone di Francesco Talenti, who also
worked at the same epoch upon the Duomo, were among the architects
employed later. The closing in of the arcades, for the better
protection of the tabernacle, took away the last remnants of its
original appearance as an open loggia; and, shortly before, the corn
market itself was removed to the present Piazza del Grano, and thus
the "Palatium" became the present church. The extremely beautifully
sculptured windows are the work of Simone di Francesco Talenti.
There are fourteen of these little temples or niches, partly belonging
to the Greater and partly to the Lesser Arts. It will be seen that,
while the seven Greater Arts have each their niche, only six out of
the fourteen Minor Arts are represented. Over the niches are _tondi_
with the insignia of each Art. The statues were set up at different
epochs, and are not always those that originally stood here--altered
in one case from significant political motives, in others from the
desire of the guilds to have something more thoroughly up to date--the
rejected images being made over to the authorities of the Duomo for
their unfinished facade, or sent into exile among the friars of Santa
Croce. In 1404 the Signoria decreed that, within ten years from that
date, the Arts who had secured their pilasters should have their
statues in position, on pain of losing the right. But this does not
seem to have been rigidly enforced.
[Illustration: WINDOW OF OR SAN MICHELE]
Beginning at the corner of the northern side, facing towards the
Duomo, we have the minor Art of the Butchers represented by
Donatello's St. Peter in marble, an early and not very excellent work
of the master, about 1412 (in a tabernacle of the previous century);
the _tondo_ above containing their arms, a black goat on a gold field,
is modern. Next comes the marble St. Philip, the patron saint of the
minor Art of the Shoemakers, by Nanni di Banco, of 1408, a
beautiful and characteristic work of this too often neglected
sculptor. Then, also by Nanni di Banco, the _Quattro incoronati_, the
"four crowned martyrs," who, being carvers by profession, were put to
death under Diocletian for refusing to make idols, and are the patrons
of the masters in stone and wood, a minor Art which included
sculptors, architects, bricklayers, carpenters, and masons; the
bas-relief under the shrine, also by Nanni, is a priceless masterpiece
of realistic Florentine democratic art, and shows us the mediaeval
craftsmen at their work, the every-day life of the men who made
Florence the dream of beauty which she became; above it are the arms
of the Guild, in an ornate and beautiful medallion, by Luca della
Robbia. The following shrine, that of the Art of makers of swords and
armour, had originally Donatello's famous St. George in marble, of
1415, which is now in the Bargello; the present bronze (inappropriate
for a minor Art, according to the precedent of the others) is a modern
copy; the bas-relief below, of St. George slaying the dragon, is still
Donato's. On the western wall, opposite the old tower of the Guild of
Wool, comes first a bronze St. Matthew, made together with its
tabernacle by Ghiberti and Michelozzo for the greater Guild of
Money-changers and Bankers (Arte del Cambio), and finished in 1422.
The Annunciation above is by Niccolo of Arezzo, at the close of the
Trecento. The very beautiful bronze statue of St. Stephen, by
Ghiberti, represents the great Guild of Wool, Arte della Lana;
originally they had a marble St. Stephen, but, seeing what excellent
statues had been made for the Cambio and the Calimala Guilds, they
declared that since the Arte della Lana claimed to be always mistress
of the other Arts, she must excel in this also; so sent their St.
Stephen away to the Cathedral, and assigned the new work to Ghiberti
(1425). Then comes the marble St. Eligius, by Nanni di Banco (1415),
for the minor Art of the Maniscalchi, which included farriers,
iron-smiths, knife-makers, and the like; the bas-relief below, also by
Nanni, represents the Saint (San Lo he is more familiarly called, or
St. Eloy in French) engaged in shoeing a demoniacal horse.
On the southern facade, we have St. Mark in marble for the minor Art
of Linaioli and Rigattieri, flax merchants and hucksters, by
Donatello, (about 1412).[32] The Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai,
furriers, although a greater Guild, seems to have been contented with
the rather insignificant marble St. James, which follows, of uncertain
authorship, and dating from the end of the Trecento; the bas-relief
seems later. The next shrine, that of the Doctors and Apothecaries,
the great Guild to which Dante belonged and which included painters
and booksellers, is empty; the Madonna herself is their patroness, but
their statue is now inside the church; the Madonna and Child in the
medallion above are by Luca della Robbia. The next niche is that of
the great Arte della Seta or Arte di Por Santa Maria, the Guild of the
Silk-merchants, to which embroiderers, goldsmiths and silversmiths
were attached; the bronze statue of their patron, St. John the
Evangelist, is by Baccio da Montelupo (1515), and replaces an earlier
marble now in the Bargello; the medallion above with their arms, a
gate on a shield supported by two cherubs, is by Luca della Robbia.
[32] The eight Arti Minori not represented are the vintners (St.
Martin), the inn-keepers (St. Julian), the cheesemongers (St.
Bartholomew), the leather-dressers (St. Augustine), the saddlemakers
(the Blessed Trinity), the joiners (the Annunciation), tin and
coppersmiths (St. Zenobius), and the bakers (St. Lawrence).
Finally, on the facade in the Via Calzaioli, the first shrine is that
of the Arte di Calimala or Arte dei Mercatanti, who carried on the
great commerce in foreign cloth, the chief democratic guild of the
latter half of the thirteenth century, but which, together with the
Arte della Lana, began somewhat to decline towards the middle of the
Quattrocento; their bronze St. John Baptist is Ghiberti's, but hardly
one of his better works (1415). The large central tabernacle was
originally assigned to the Parte Guelfa, the only organisation outside
of the Guilds that was allowed to share in this work; for them,
Donatello made a bronze statue of their patron, St. Louis of Toulouse,
and either Donatello himself or Michelozzo prepared, in 1423, the
beautiful niche for him which is still here. But, owing to the great
unpopularity of the Parte Guelfa and their complete loss of authority
under the new Medicean regime, this tabernacle was taken from them in
1459 and made over to the Universita dei Mercanti or Magistrato della
Mercanzia, a board of magistrates who presided over all the Guilds;
the arms of this magistracy were set up in the present medallion by
Luca della Robbia in 1462; Donatello's St. Louis was sent to the
friars minor; and, some years later, Verrocchio cast the present
masterly group of Christ and St. Thomas. Landucci, in his diary for
1483, tells us how it was set up, and that the bronze figure of the
Saviour seemed to him the most beautiful that had ever been made. Last
of all, the bronze statue of St. Luke was set up by Giovanni da
Bologna in 1601, for the Judges and Notaries, who, like the
silk-merchants, discarded an earlier marble. It must be observed that
the substitution of the Commercial Tribunal for the tyrannical Parte
Guelfa completes the purely democratic character of the whole
monument.
Entering the interior, we pass from the domains of the great
commercial guilds and their patrons to those of the _Laudesi_ of Santa
Maria. It is rich and subdued in colour, the vaults and pilasters
covered with faded frescoes. It is divided into two parts, the one
ending in the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin, the other in the chapel
and altar of St. Anne, her mother and the deliveress of the Republic.
These two record the two great events of fourteenth century Florentine
history--the expulsion of the Duke of Athens and the Black Death. It
was after this great plague that, in consequence of the Compagnia
having had great riches left to them, "to the honour of the Holy
Virgin Mary and for the benefit of the poor," the Captains of
Orsanmichele, as the heads of these Laudesi were called, summoned
Orcagna, in 1349, to the "work of the pilaster," as it was officially
styled, to enclose what remained of the miraculous picture in a
glorious tabernacle. He took ten years over it, finishing it in 1359,
while the railing by Pietro di Migliore was completed in 1366. It was
approximately at this epoch that it was decided to find another place
for the market, and to close the arcades of the loggia, _per
adornamento e salvezza del tabernacolo di Nostra Donna_.
It is goldsmith's work on a gigantic scale, this marble reliquary of
the archangelic painter. "A miracle of loveliness," wrote Lord
Lindsay, "and though clustered all over with pillars and pinnacles,
inlaid with the richest marbles, lapis-lazuli, and mosaic work, it is
chaste in its luxuriance as an Arctic iceberg--worthy of her who was
spotless among women." The whole is crowned with a statue of St.
Michael, and the miraculous picture is enclosed in an infinite wealth
and profusion of statues and arabesques, angels and prophets, precious
stones and lions' heads. Scenes in bas-relief from Our Lady's life
alternate with prophets and allegorical representations of the
virtues, some of these latter being single figures of great beauty and
some psychological insight in the rendering--for instance, Docilitas,
Solertia, Justitia, Fortitudo--while marble Angels cluster round their
Queen's tabernacle in eager service and loving worship. At the back is
the great scene beneath which, to right and left, the series begins
and ends--the death of Madonna and her Assumption, or rather, Our Lady
of the Girdle, the giving of that celestial gift to the Thomas who had
doubted, the mystical treasure which Tuscan Prato still fondly
believes that her Duomo holds. This is perhaps the first
representation of this mystery in Italian sculpture, and is signed and
dated: _Andreas Cionis pictor Florentinus oratorii archimagister
extitit hujus, 1359._ The figure with a small divided beard, talking
with a man in a big hat and long beard, is Orcagna's own portrait. The
miraculous painting itself is within the tabernacle. The picture in
front, the Madonna and Child with goldfinch, adored by eight Angels,
is believed to be either by Orcagna himself or Bernardo Daddi[33]; it
is decidedly more primitive than their authenticated works, probably
because it is a comparatively close rendering of the original
composition.
[33] There are three extant documents concerning pictures of the
Madonna for the Captains of Saint Michael; two refer to a painting
ordered from Bernardo Daddi, in 1346 and 1347; the third to one by
Orcagna, 1352. _See_ Signor P. Franceschini's monograph on Or San
Michele, to which I am much indebted in this chapter.
On the side altar on the right is the venerated Crucifix before which
St. Antoninus used to pray. At one time the Dominicans were wont to
come hither in procession on the anniversary of his death. In his
Chronicle of Florence, Antoninus defends the friars from the
accusations of Villani with respect to their scepticism about the
miraculous picture. On the opposite side altar is the marble statue of
Mother and Child from the tabernacle of the Medici e Speziali. It was
executed about the year 1399; Vasari ascribes it to a Simone di
Firenze, who may possibly be Simone di Francesco Talenti.
The altar of St. Anne at the east end of the left half of the nave is
one of the Republic's thank-offerings for their deliverance from the
tyranny of Walter de Brienne. Public thanksgiving had been held here,
before Our Lady's picture, as early as 1343, while the "Palatium" was
still in building; but in the following year, 1344, at the instance of
the captains of Or San Michele and others, the Signoria decreed that
"for the perpetual memory of the grace conceded by God to the Commune
and People of Florence, on the day of blessed Anne, Mother of the
glorious Virgin, by the liberation of the city and the citizens, and
by the destruction of the pernicious and tyrannical yoke," solemn
offerings should be made on St. Anne's feast day by the Signoria and
the consuls of the Arts, before her statue in Or San Michele, and that
on that day all offices and shops should be closed, and no one be
subject to arrest for debt. The present statue on this votive altar,
representing the Madonna (here perhaps symbolising her faithful city
of Florence) seated on the lap of St. Anne, who is thus protecting her
and her Divine Child, was executed by Francesco da Sangallo in 1526,
and replaces an older group in wood; although highly praised by
Vasari, it will strike most people as not quite worthy of the place or
the occasion. The powerful and expressive head of St. Anne is the best
part of the group.
The beneficent energies of these Laudesi and their captains spread far
beyond the limits of this church and shrine. The great and still
existing company of the Misericordia was originally connected with
them; and the Bigallo for the foundling children was raised by them at
the same time as their Tabernacle here. They contributed generously to
the construction of the Duomo, and decorated chapels in Santa Croce
and the Carmine. Sacchetti and Giovanni Boccaccio were among their
officers; and it was while Boccaccio was serving as one of their
captains in 1350 that they sent a sum of money by his hands to Dante's
daughter Beatrice, in her distant convent at Ravenna. They appear to
have spent all they had in the defence of Florentine liberty during
the great siege of 1529.
The imposing old tower that rises opposite San Michele in the Calimala
is the Torrione of the Arte della Lana, copiously adorned with their
arms--the Lamb bearing the Baptist's cross. It was erected at the end
of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, and in it
the consuls of the Guild had their meetings. It was stormed and sacked
by the Ciompi in 1378. The heavy arch that connects the tower with the
upper storey of Or San Michele, and rather disfigures the building, is
the work of Buontalenti in the latter half of the sixteenth century.
The large vaulted hall into which it leads, intended originally for
the storage of grain and the like, is now known as the Sala di Dante,
and witnesses the brilliant gatherings of Florentines and foreigners
to listen to the readings of the _Divina Commedia_ given under the
auspices of the _Societa Dantesca Italiana_.
This is the part of the city where the Arts had their wealth and
strength; the very names of the streets show it; Calimala and
Pellicceria, for instance, which run from the Mercato Vecchio to the
Via Porta Rossa. The Mercato Vecchio, the centre of the city both in
Roman and mediaeval times, around which the houses and towers of the
oldest families clustered--Elisei, Caponsacchi, Nerli, Vecchietti, and
the rest of whom Dante's _Paradiso_ tells--is now a painfully
unsightly modern square, with what appears to be a triumphal arch
bearing the inscription: _L'antico centro della citta da secolare
squallore a vita nuova restituita_(!). Passing down the Calimala to
the Via Porta Rossa and the Mercato Nuovo, near where the former
enters the Via Calzaioli, the site is still indicated of the Calimala
Bottega where the government of the Arts was first organised, as told
in chapter i. Near here and in the Mercato Nuovo, the Cavalcanti had
their palaces. In the Via Porta Rossa the Arte della Seta had their
warehouses; the gate from which they took their second name, and which
is represented on their shield, is of course the Por Santa Maria, Our
Lady's Gate of the old walls or Cerchia Antica, which was somewhere
about the middle of the present Via Por Santa Maria. The Church of
Santa Maria sopra la Porta, between the Mercato Nuovo and the Via
delle Terme, is the present San Biagio (now used by the firemen);
adjoining it is the fine old palace of the dreaded captains of the
Parte Guelfa. The Via Porta Rossa contains some mediaeval houses and
the lower portions of a few grand old towers still standing; as
already said, in the first circle of walls there was a postern gate,
at the end of the present street, opposite Santa Trinita. In the
Mercato Nuovo, where a copy of the ancient boar--which figures in Hans
Andersen's familiar story--seems to watch the flower market, the
arcades were built by Battista del Tasso for Cosimo I. Here, too,
modernisation has destroyed much. Hardly can we conjure up now that
day of the great fire in 1304, when the nobles of the "black" faction
galloped through the crowd of plunderers, with their blazing torches
throwing a lurid glow on the steel-clad Podesta with his soldiers
drawn up here idly to gaze upon the flames! A house that once belonged
to the Cavalcanti is still standing in Mercato Nuovo, marked by the
Cross of the People; the branch of the family who lived here left the
magnates and joined the people, as the Cross indicates, changing their
name from Cavalcanti to Cavallereschi.
[Illustration: TOWER OF THE ARTE DELLA LANA]
The little fourteenth century church of St. Michael, now called San
Carlo, which stands opposite San Michele in Orto on the other side of
the Via Calzaioli, was originally a votive chapel to Saint Anne, built
at the expense of the captains of the Laudesi on a site purchased by
the Commune. It was begun in 1349 by Fioraventi and Benci di Cione,
simultaneously with Orcagna's tabernacle, continued by Simone di
Francesco Talenti, and completed at the opening of the fifteenth
century. The captains intended to have the ceremonial offerings made
here instead of in the Loggia; but the thing fell through owing to a
disagreement with the Arte di Por Santa Maria, and the votive altar
remained in the Loggia.
Between San Carlo and the Duomo the street has been completely
modernised. Of old it was the Corso degli Adimari, surrounded by the
houses and towers of this fierce Guelf clan, who were at deadly feud
with the Donati. Cacciaguida in the _Paradiso_ (canto xvi.) describes
them as "the outrageous tribe that playeth dragon after whoso fleeth,
and to whoso showeth tooth--or purse--is quiet as a lamb." One of
their towers still stands on the left. On the right the place is
marked where the famous loggia, called the Neghittosa, once stood,
which belonged to the branch of the Adimari called the Cavicciuli,
who, in spite of their hatred to the Donati, joined the Black Guelfs.
One of them, Boccaccio or Boccaccino Adimari, seized upon Dante's
goods when he was exiled, and exerted his influence to prevent his
being recalled. In this loggia, too, Filippo Argenti used to sit, the
_Fiorentino spirito bizzarro_ whom Dante saw rise before him covered
with mire out of the marshy lake of Styx. He is supposed to have
ridden a horse shod with silver, and there is a rare story in the
_Decameron_ of a mad outburst of bestial fury on his part in this very
loggia, on account of a mild practical joke on the part of Ciacco, a
bon vivant of the period whom Dante has sternly flung into the hell of
gluttons. On this occasion Filippo, who was an enormously big, strong,
and sinewy man, beat a poor little dandy called Biondello within an
inch of his life. In this same loggia, on August 4th, 1397, a party of
young Florentine exiles, who had come secretly from Bologna with the
intention of killing Maso degli Albizzi, took refuge, after a vain
attempt to call the people to arms. From the highest part of the
loggia, seeing a great crowd assembling round them, they harangued the
mob, imploring them not stupidly to wait to see their would-be
deliverers killed and themselves thrust back into still more grievous
servitude. When not a soul moved, "finding out too late how dangerous
it is to wish to set free a people that desires, happen what may, to
be enslaved," as Machiavelli cynically puts it, they escaped into the
Duomo, where, after a vain attempt at defending themselves, they were
captured by the Captain, put to the question and executed. There were
about ten of them in all, including three of the Cavicciuli and
Antonio dei Medici.
On November 9th, 1494, when the Florentines rose against Piero dei
Medici and his brothers, the young Cardinal Giovanni rode down this
street with retainers and a few citizens shouting, _Popolo e liberta_,
pretending that he was going to join the insurgents. But when he got
to San Michele in Orto, the people turned upon him from the piazza
with their pikes and lances, with loud shouts of "Traitor!" upon which
he fled back in great dread. Landucci saw him at the windows of his
palace, on his knees with clasped hand, commending himself to God.
"When I saw him," he says, "I grew very sorry for him (_m'inteneri
assai_); and I judged that he was a good and sensible youth."
To the east of the Via Calzaioli lies the Sesto di San Piero Maggiore,
which, at the end of the thirteenth century, received the pleasant
name of the Sesto di Scandali. It lies on either side of the Via del
Corso, which with its continuations ran from east to west through the
old city. In the Via della Condotta, at the corner of the Vicolo dei
Cerchi, still stands the palace which belonged to a section of this
family (the section known as the White Cerchi to distinguish them from
Messer Vieri's branch, the Black Cerchi, who were even more "white" in
politics, in spite of their name); in this palace the Priors sat
before Arnolfo built the Palazzo Vecchio, which became the seat of
government in 1299. It was there, not here, that Dante and his
colleagues, on June 15th, 1300, entered upon office, and the same day
confirmed the sentences which had been passed under their predecessors
against the three traitors who had conspired to betray Florence to
Pope Boniface; and then, a few days later, passed the decree by which
Corso Donati and Guido Cavalcanti were sent into exile. Later the
vicars of Robert of Anjou for a time resided here, and the
administrators appointed to assess the confiscated goods of "rebels."
At the corner of the Via dei Cerchi, where it joins the Via dei
Cimatori, are traces of the loggia of the Cerchi; the same corner
affords a picturesque glimpse of the belfrey of the Badia and the
tower of the Podesta's palace.
There was another great palace of the Cerchi, referred to in the
_Paradiso_, which had formerly belonged to the Ravignani and the Conti
Guidi, the acquisition of which by Messer Vieri had excited the envy
of the Donati. This palace is described by Dante (_Parad._ xvi.) as
being _sopra la porta_, that is, over the inner gate of St. Peter, the
gate of the first circuit in Cacciaguida's day. No trace of it
remains, but it was apparently on the north side of the Corso where it
now joins the Via del Proconsolo. "Over the gate," says Cacciaguida,
"which is now laden with new felony of such weight that there will
soon be a wrecking of the ship, were the Ravignani, whence is
descended the Count Guido, and whoever has since taken the name of the
noble Bellincione." Here the daughter of Bellincione Berti, the _alto
Bellincion_, lived,--the beautiful and good Gualdrada, whom we can
dimly discern as a sweet and gracious presence in that far-off early
Florence of which the _Paradiso_ sings; she was the ancestress of the
great lords of the Casentino, the Conti Guidi. The principal houses of
the Donati appear to have been on the Duomo side of the Corso, just
before the Via dello Studio now joins it; but they had possessions on
the other side as well. Giano della Bella had his house almost
opposite to them, on the southern side. A little further on, at the
corner where the Corso joins the Via del Proconsolo, Folco Portinari
lived, the father, according to tradition, of Dante's Beatrice: "he
who had been the father of so great a marvel, as this most noble
Beatrice was manifestly seen to be." Folco's sons joined the Bianchi;
one of them, Pigello, was poisoned during Dante's priorate; an elder
son, Manetto Portinari (the friend of Dante and Cavalcanti),
afterwards ratted and made his peace with the Neri. All the family are
included, together with the Giuochi who lived opposite to them, in a
sentence passed against Dante and his sons in 1315, from which Manetto
Portinari is excepted by name. The building which now occupies the
site of the Casa Portinari was once the Salviati Palace.
[Illustration: HOUSE OF DANTE]
In the little Piazza di San Martino is shown the Casa di Dante, which
undoubtedly belonged to the Alighieri, and in which Dante is said to
have been born. It has been completely modernised. The Alighieri had
also a house in the Via Santa Margherita, which runs from the Piazza
San Martino to the Corso, opposite the little church of Santa
Margherita. Hard by, in the Piazza dei Donati a section of that family
had a house and garden; and here Dante saw and wooed Gemma, the
daughter of Manetto Donati. The old tower which seems to watch over
Dante's house from the other side of the Piazza San Martino, the
Torre della Castagna, belonged in Dante's days to the monks of the
Badia; in it, in 1282, the Priors of the Arts held their first
meeting, when the government of the Republic was placed in their
hands. At the corner of the Piazza, opposite Dante's house, lived the
Sacchetti, the family from which the novelist, Franco, sprang. They
were in deadly feud with Geri del Bello, the cousin of Dante's father,
who lived in the house next to Dante's; and, shortly before the year
of Dante's vision, the Sacchetti murdered Geri. He seems to have
deserved his fate, and Dante places him among the sowers of discord in
Hell, where he points at Dante and threatens him vehemently. "His
violent death," says the poet in _Inferno_ xxix, "which is not yet
avenged for him, by any that is a partner of his shame, made him
indignant; therefore, as I suppose, he went away without speaking to
me; and in that he has made me pity him the more." Thirty years after
the murder, Geri's nephews broke into the house of the Sacchetti and
stabbed one of the family to death; and the two families were finally
reconciled in 1342, on which occasion Dante's half-brother, Francesco
Alighieri, was the representative of the Alighieri. Many years later,
Dante's great-grandson, Leonardo Alighieri, came from Verona to
Florence. "He paid me a visit," writes Leonardo Bruni, "as a friend of
the memory of his great-grandfather, Dante. And I showed him Dante's
house, and that of his forebears, and I pointed out to him many
particulars with which he was not acquainted, because he and his
family had been estranged from their fatherland. And so does Fortune
roll this world around, and change its inhabitants up and down as she
turns her wheel."
Beyond the Via del Proconsolo the Borgo, now called of the Albizzi,
was originally the Borgo di San Piero--a suburb of the old city, but
included in the second walls of the twelfth century. The present name
records the brief, but not inglorious period of the rule of the
oligarchy or Ottimati, before Cosimo dei Medici obtained complete
possession of the State. It was formerly called the Corso di Por San
Piero. The first palace on the right (De Rast or Quaratesi) was built
for the Pazzi by Brunelleschi, and still shows their armorial bearings
by Donatello. They had another palace further on, on the left,
opposite the Via dell'Acqua. Still further on (past the Altoviti
palace, with its caricatures) is the palace of the Albizzi family, on
the left, as you approach the Piazza. Here Maso degli Albizzi, and
then Rinaldo, lived and practically ruled the state. Giuliano dei
Medici alighted here in 1512. At the end of the Borgo degli Albizzi is
now the busy, rather picturesque little Piazza di San Piero Maggiore,
usually full of stalls and trucks. St. Peter's Gate in Dante's time
lay just beyond the church, to the left. In this Piazza also the
Donati had houses; and it was through this gate that Corso Donati
burst into Florence with his followers on the morning of November 5th,
1301; "and he entered into the city like a daring and bold cavalier,"
as Dino Compagni--who loves a strong personality even on the opposite
side to his own--puts it. The Bianchi in the Sesto largely outnumbered
his forces, but did not venture to attack him, while the populace
bawled _Viva il Barone_ to their hearts' content. He incontinently
seized that tall tower of the Corbizzi that still rises opposite to
the facade of the church, at the southern corner of the Piazza in the
Via del Mercatino, and hung out his banner from it. Seven years later
he made his last stand in this square and round this tower, as we have
told in chapter ii. Of the church of San Piero Maggiore, only the
seventeenth century facade remains; but of old it ranked as the third
of the Florentine temples. According to the legend, it was on his way
to this church that San Zenobio raised the French child to life in the
Borgo degli Albizzi, opposite the spot where the Palazzo Altoviti now
stands. It is said to have been the only church in Florence free from
the taint of simony in the days of St. Giovanni Gualberto, and of old
had the privilege of first receiving the new Archbishops when they
entered Florence. The Archbishop went through a curious and beautiful
ceremony of mystic marriage with the Abbess of the Benedictine convent
attached to the church, who apparently personified the diocese of
Florence. Every year on Easter Monday the canons of the Duomo came
here in procession; and on St. Peter's day the captains of the Parte
Guelfa entered the Piazza in state to make a solemn offering, and had
a race run in the Piazza Santa Croce after the ceremony. The artists,
Lorenzo di Credi, Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo and Luca
della Robbia were buried here. Two of the best pictures that the
church contained--a Coronation of the Madonna ascribed to Orcagna and
the famous Assumption said by Vasari to have been painted by
Botticelli for Matteo Palmieri (which was supposed to inculcate
heretical neoplatonic doctrines concerning the human soul and the
Angels in the spheres), are now in the National Gallery of London.
It was in this Piazza that the conspirators resolved to assassinate
Maso degli Albizzi. Their spies watched him leave his palace, walk
leisurely towards the church and then enter an apothecary's shop,
close to San Piero. They hurried off to tell their associates, but
when the would-be assassins arrived on the scene, they found that
Maso had given them the slip and left the shop.
Turning down the Via del Mercatino and back to the Badia along the Via
Pandolfini, we pass the palace which once belonged to Francesco
Valori, Savonarola's formidable adherent. Here it was on that terrible
Palm Sunday, 1498, when Hell broke loose, as Landucci puts it, that
Valori's wife was shot dead at a window, while her husband in the
street below, on his way to answer the summons of the Signoria, was
murdered near San Procolo by the kinsmen of the men whom he had sent
to the scaffold.
The Badia shares with the Baptistery and San Miniato the distinction
of being the only Florentine churches mentioned by Dante. In
Cacciaguida's days it was close to the old Roman wall; from its
campanile even in Dante's time, Florence still "took tierce and nones
"; and, at the sound of its bells, the craftsmen of the Arts went to
and from their work. Originally founded by the Countess Willa in the
tenth century, the Badia di San Stefano (as it was called) that Dante
and Boccaccio knew was the work of Arnolfo di Cambio; but it was
entirely rebuilt in the seventeenth century, with consequent
destruction of priceless frescoes by Giotto and Masaccio. The present
graceful campanile is of the fourteenth century. The relief in the
lunette over the chief door, rather in the manner of Andrea della
Robbia, is by Benedetto Buglione. In the left transept is the monument
by Mino da Fiesole of Willa's son Hugo, Margrave of Tuscany, who died
on St. Thomas' day, 1006. Dante calls him the great baron; his
anniversary was solemnly celebrated here, and he was supposed to have
conferred knighthood and nobility upon the Della Bella and other
Florentine families. "Each one," says Cacciaguida, "who beareth aught
of the fair arms of the great baron, whose name and worth the festival
of Thomas keepeth living, from him derived knighthood and privilege"
(_Paradiso_ xvi.). In a chapel to the left of this monument is
Filippino Lippi's picture of the Madonna appearing to St. Bernard,
painted in 1480, one of the most beautiful renderings of an
exceedingly poetical subject. For Dante, Bernard is _colui
ch'abbelliva di Maria, come del sole stella mattutina_, "he who drew
light from Mary, as the morning star from the sun." Filippino has
introduced the portrait of the donor, on the right, Francesco di
Pugliese. The church contains two other works by Mino da Fiesole, a
Madonna and (in the right transept) the sepulchral monument of
Bernardo Giugni, who served the State as ambassador to Milan and
Venice in the days of Cosimo and Piero dei Medici. At the entrance to
the cloisters Francesco Valori is buried.
It was in the Badia (and not in the Church of San Stefano, near the
Via Por Santa Maria, as usually stated) that Boccaccio lectured upon
the _Divina Commedia_ in 1373. Benvenuto da Imola came over from
Bologna to attend his beloved master's readings, and was much edified.
But the audience were not equally pleased, and Boccaccio had to defend
himself in verse. One of the sonnets he wrote on this occasion, _Se
Dante piange, dove ch'el si sia_, has been admirably translated by
Dante Rossetti:--
If Dante mourns, there wheresoe'er he be,
That such high fancies of a soul so proud
Should be laid open to the vulgar crowd,
(As, touching my Discourse, I'm told by thee),
This were my grievous pain; and certainly
My proper blame should not be disavow'd;
Though hereof somewhat, I declare aloud
Were due to others, not alone to me.
False hopes, true poverty, and therewithal
The blinded judgment of a host of friends,
And their entreaties, made that I did thus.
But of all this there is no gain at all
Unto the thankless souls with whose base ends
Nothing agrees that's great or generous.
[Illustration: ARMS OF THE SESTO DI SAN PIERO]