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THE
STORY OF SIENA
AND
SAN GIMIGNANO
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: _Madonna with Saints._
_by Neroccio di Bartolommeo Landi._]
THE
STORY OF SIENA
AND
SAN GIMIGNANO
BY
EDMUND G. GARDNER
ILLUSTRATED BY
HELEN M. JAMES
AND MANY REPRODUCTIONS
FROM THE WORKS OF
PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS
[Illustration]
1902
LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
ALDINE HOUSE, W.C.
To
THE MEMORY
OF
HELEN M. JAMES
PREFACE
This present volume is intended to provide a popular history of the
great Republic of Siena, in such a form that it can also serve as a
guide-book to that most fascinating of Tuscan cities and its
neighbourhood. San Gimignano has been included, because no visitor to
Siena leaves the "fair town called of the Fair Towers" unvisited; I have
made special reference to it in the title of the book, to lay stress
upon the point that, although for administrative purposes San Gimignano
is included in the province (and in the _circondario_) of Siena, its
history is practically distinct from that of Siena and is more
intimately connected with the story of Florence.
The appended list of books and authorities, needless to say, is not a
complete bibliography, nor even a catalogue of those quoted in the
course of this work. It only represents some of those that my readers
will find most useful and helpful, or that will supply further
information upon many topics which the limits of this series of
Mediaeval Towns have compelled me to treat somewhat cursorily and
scantily.
The lamented death of Miss Helen M. James deprived us of her assistance
in the illustration of the last three chapters, more especially of the
two dealing with San Gimignano. Her work has been at the service of
this series from the beginning; but it is, perhaps, especially those who
have had the privilege of knowing her, and who have had the opportunity
of appreciating her character and her personality, that will realise the
greatness of this loss. My friend and publisher, Mr. J. M. Dent,
associates himself with me in dedicating this volume to her memory.
E. G. G.
_October 1902._
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
_The Republic of Siena_ 1
CHAPTER II
_Saint Catherine of Siena_ 43
CHAPTER III
_The People and the Petrucci_ 67
CHAPTER IV
_The Sculptors and Painters of Siena_ 99
CHAPTER V
_The Campo of Siena and the Palace of the
Commune_ 126
CHAPTER VI
_The Duomo and the Baptistery_ 149
CHAPTER VII
_In the Footsteps of Saint Catherine_ 184
CHAPTER VIII
_The Last Days of the Republic_ 210
CHAPTER IX
_Through the City of the Virgin_ 246
CHAPTER X
_Some Famous Convents and Monasteries_ 298
CHAPTER XI
_San Gimignano_ 324
CHAPTER XII
_In the Town of the Beautiful Towers_ 344
_The Family of Pope Pius the Second_ 297
_Bibliographical Appendix_ 366
_General Index_ 373
ILLUSTRATIONS
* _The Madonna with Saints_ (_Neroccio di Bartolommeo
Landi_). _Photogravure_ Frontispiece
PAGE
_Siena from behind San Domenico_ 3
_La Castel Vecchio, the oldest part of Siena_ 8
*_On the Battlefield of Montaperti_ _facing_ 17
_A street in Siena_ 24
_La Croce del Travaglio_ 35
_La Lupa_ 42
*_St Catherine of Siena_ (_Andrea di Vanni_) _facing_ 47
*_Letter from St Catherine to Stefano Maconi_ _facing_ 56
_St Catherine's Lamp_ 65
_The Mangia Tower_ 69
+ _The Elevation of Enea Silvio Piccolomini to the
Papacy as Pius II._ (_Pinturicchio_) _facing_ 73
_Via Fontebranda_ 77
_The Porta Romana_ 95
+ _The Pulpit of the Duomo_ (_Niccolò Pisano and
his Pupils_). _Photogravure_ _facing_ 100
+ _The Font of San Giovanni of Siena_ (_Giacomo
della Quercia_) _facing_ 104
* _The Madonna and Child_ (_detail from Duccio's
Altarpiece_). _Photogravure_ _facing_ 112
_Bastion outside the Porta Pispini, erected by
Baldassare Peruzzi_ 116
_Via Giovanni Duprè_ 121
_The Palazzo Pubblico_ 133
_The Market-Place_ 146
_The Duomo_ 151
_Interior of the Duomo_ 163
+ _The Canonisation of Saint Catherine, from
Pinturicchio's fresco._ _Photogravure_ _facing_ 174
+ _The Crucifixion, by Duccio di Buoninsegna.
Photogravure_ _facing_ 178
_Steps beside the Baptistery_ 180
_Fontebranda_ 189
_House of St Catherine_ 193
_Via della Galluzza_ 199
+ _The Ecstasy of St Catherine. Detail from
Bazzi's fresco. Photogravure_ _facing_ 204
_A suburban Chapel_ 212
_Banner-holder in the Piazza Postierla_ 217
_An old fanale in the Piazza San Giusto_ 223
_Via dei Termini_ 229
_Porta Ovile_ 237
_Remains of a Mural Tower_ 244
_Palazzo Saracini_ 249
_The Tower of Sant' Ansano_ 255
_Pozzo della Diana_ 259
_Via delle Sperandie_ 263
_Via della Fonte_ 267
_Fonte San Maurizio_ 279
_Piazza and Palazzo Tolomei_ 287
_At the older circuit of the walls_ 296
_Fountain outside Posta Ovile_ 299
+ _Coronation of Virgin_ (_Andrea della Robbia_) _facing_ 304
*_A Miracle of St Benedict_ (_Bazzi_) _facing_ 314
*_Maurus and Placidus_ (_Bazzi_) _facing_ 320
*_San Gimignano_ _facing_ 325
+ _Apparition of St Gregory._ (_Domenico Ghirlandaio_) _facing_ 330
*_In the Town of the Fair Towers_ _facing_ 340
+ _The Funeral of Santa Fina_ (_Domenico Ghirlandaio_) _facing_ 349
+ _Heads of Choristers_ (_Domenico Ghirlandaio_) _facing_ 352
+ _St Augustine at School._ (_Benozzo Gozzoli_) _facing_ 358
_Map of Siena_ _facing_ 372
* _These illustrations are reproduced, with permission, from photographs
by Messrs Alinari of Florence._
+ _These illustrations are reproduced, with permission, from photographs
by Messrs Lombardi of Siena._
_We are indebted to Signor Enrico Torrini of Siena for permission
to make use of his map._
_The remaining illustrations are all from drawings by Helen M.
James._
The Story of Siena
and
San Gimignano
CHAPTER I
_The Republic of Siena_
Siena remains the most perfectly mediaeval of all the larger cities of
Tuscany. Its narrow streets, its spacious Gothic palaces and churches,
the three hills upon which it rises enthroned, with the curiously
picturesque valleys between them, are still inclosed in frowning walls
of the fourteenth century. The Renaissance came to it late, gave it its
enduring epithet of "soft Siena," and blended harmoniously, almost
imperceptibly, with its mediaeval spirit.
According to the more picturesque of the traditions respecting its
origin, Siena was founded by Senius, the son of Remus, who brought with
him the image of the _Lupa_, the she-wolf suckling the twins, which
still remains the city's badge. When he offered sacrifice to his gods, a
dense black smoke arose from the altar of Apollo and a pure white smoke
from that of Diana--in commemoration of which was made the _balzana_,
the black and white shield of the Commune that we still see upon
Siena's gates and public buildings. There are two other shields
associated with it: a blue shield with the word _Libertas_ in gold
letters; a red shield with a white lion rampant. According to other
traditions, scarcely more historical, the first was granted to Siena by
Charlemagne, the second (the arms of the People) by the Emperor Otto.
Siena was a place of very small importance during the dark ages. As in
the case of its neighbour and rival, Florence, its epoch of greatness
begins with the earlier decades of the twelfth century, in the confused
period that followed the death of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany.
Throughout the greater part of the twelfth century and at the beginning
of the thirteenth, the Republic of Siena was nominally ruled by Consuls,
who up to the middle of the twelfth century shared their authority with
the Bishop. They were men of noble rank, usually three or sometimes six
in number, elected by the people in the parliament that met either
before the then Romanesque Duomo or in the Piazza di San Cristofano, to
hold office for one year. At first the nobles were the greater power in
the State; some at least were the descendants of the foreign invaders,
the counts and barons of the Frankish and German Emperors, and the
result of their prepotency was naturally combined with the territorial
rivalry with Florence to make Siena throw in its lot with the
Ghibellines, when the great struggle between Papacy and Empire, between
republican ideals and feudal traditions, divided Italy. Gradually five
noble families came to stand out pre-eminently as the _schiatte
maggiori_, with special privileges from the Republic and a predominating
influence in the State, names that we shall meet with again and again in
Siena's story; the Piccolomini, the Tolomei, the Malavolti, the
Salimbeni and the Saracini. The Salimbeni were
[Illustration: SIENA FROM BEHIND S. DOMENICO]
the richest and exercised considerable territorial sway in the contado;
the Piccolomini claimed to be of pure Latin descent, and were
undoubtedly of more democratic tendencies. These nobles were divided
against themselves; there was bitter feud between the Salimbeni and the
Tolomei, between the Malavolti and the Piccolomini. And presently the
people took advantage of this to rise and claim their share in the
administration of the city, and in the reformation of 1147 they obtained
a third part of the government.
Gradually the Republic of Siena extended its sway over the neighbouring
townlets and over the castelle of the contado, whose feudal lords were
forced to reside in the city for some months in the year, to fight for
the Commune in war. In spite of internal factions and dissensions, the
city increased in wealth and prosperity; its commerce was largely
extended; fugitives from Milan, flying from the Teutonic arms of
Frederick Barbarossa, introduced the Art of Wool; Sienese gentlemen, led
by Filippo Malavolti--a noble whom we dimly discern as a great figure in
those far-off republican days--sailed to Syria in Pisan galleys and
shared in the capture of Acre. Notwithstanding its traditional support
of the imperial cause, it was in this century that Siena gave to the
Church the "great Pope of the Lombard League"--Orlando Bandinelli, who
during his long pontificate as Alexander III. (from 1159 to 1181) knew
how to uphold the rights of Italy no less than the claims of the Papacy
against the mightiest of the Kaisers. And, indeed, the Ghibellinism of
the Sienese was always of a patriotic Italian type. In 1186 they closed
their gates in the face of Barbarossa, believing that he meant to
deprive them of their contado, and hurled back his son Henry discomfited
from the Porta Camollia. At the close of the century, Siena began to
have a Podestà as chief magistrate, like the other cities of Tuscany,
who was probably at the outset an imperial nominee, and the consular
government appears to have ceased by about 1212; while the people became
associated into Arts or Guilds, somewhat resembling the more famous
Florentine associations, whose representatives sat in the councils of
the Republic and had their voice in the affairs of State.[1] Already the
glorious Duomo, though needless to say not in its present form, had been
consecrated by Pope Alexander, and the Dogana stood on the site of the
present Palazzo Comunale, a sign of increasing commercial prosperity. A
great part of the public authority was now in the hands of the
Camarlingo and the four Provveditori di Biccherna, the officials who
presided over the finances of the Republic. Though for a few years we
still find the names of consuls, the Podestà was from 1199 onwards the
chief officer of the State; we find in 1200 and in 1201 that Filippo
Malavolti held this office, but after 1211 it was invariably assigned to
a foreigner. In 1208 the oldest of the Sienese palaces, the Palazzo
Tolomei, was built; although burned by the people on at least two
occasions, it still retains not a little of its early mediaeval aspect.
Throughout the greater part of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
Siena--usually more or less allied with Pisa, Pistoia and the Conti
Guidi--was engaged in a series of wars with Florence, an intermittent
struggle alternating with hollow, insincere treaties of peace. This was
due to the antagonistic ideals of Guelf and Ghibelline, to the growing
commercial rivalry between the two republics, each especially striving
to get into the hands of its own merchants and noble bankers all the
increasingly lucrative affairs of the Roman Curia, and, perhaps, more
immediately to the fact that each was striving to extend its contado at
the expense of the other. Poggibonsi, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Montalcino
and Montepulciano--in which right was probably with Siena and might with
Florence--were perpetual sources of contention, and the Sienese suffered
severe defeats time after time. "Do not forget through eternity those
that deny thee, that withdraw themselves from the homage they owe thee,
that plot against thee and that bring shame to thee." So runs the black
book of the Commune, the _Memoriale delle Offese_, in which these things
were recorded. "Be mindful of Montepulciano, that, though it be of thy
contado, most proudly endeavours to withdraw itself therefrom."[2]
Grosseto was the first place of importance that, in 1224, fell
permanently into the hands of the Sienese, a town previously swayed by
the Counts Aldobrandeschi of Santa Fiora, those most potent nobles of
the Sienese contado whose pride and whose imperialistic tendencies are
recorded by Dante.
Within the city the factions raged furiously. The power of the nobles or
_gentiluomini_ was waning, even in Ghibelline Siena. It was laid to
their charge that the wars with Florence had taken so unfavourable a
turn, that the Florentines were ravaging the contado, had hurled donkeys
into Siena with their catapults, and on one occasion had even penetrated
into the city itself. By what appears to have been a comparatively
peaceful revolution in 1233, the people obtained an increased share in
the government; a supreme magistracy of Twenty-four was created, elected
annually by the General
[Illustration: In Castel Vecchio, the oldest part of Siena]
Council, eight from each _terzo_ of the city, half from each order.[3]
But their rule became irksome to the more conservative section of the
nobles, who formed a rival party and strove to oust the _popolani_ from
power. In 1240 it came to blood, to adopt the Dantesque phrase. The
opponents of the new regime, headed by the Podestà, Manfredi da
Sassuolo, rose in arms; the people, led by a certain Aldobrandino di
Guido Cacciaconti, who is described as one of the "grandi del popolo di
Siena," and who was of an old feudal family, rallied round the
Twenty-four. The battle began in three places in the city. There was
fighting up and down the narrow streets; there was flaming of torches
and clashing of weapons round the palaces and towers. The Palazzo
Tolomei and the Palazzo Malavolti were burned, and after much
devastation and bloodshed, when many had fallen on either side, the
Twenty-four got the upper-hand, drove out a certain number of the
nobles, and appointed Aldobrandino Podestà. He was a strong and prudent
man, who put down disorder with a firm hand, and reconciled many of the
leaders of either party. In the comparative tranquillity that followed,
the streets and squares of Siena were paved for the first time. But the
struggle with Florence proved disastrous. The Sienese were forced to
make a disadvantageous peace, and, in 1255, there was an alliance
concluded between the rival republics, in the epoch of Guelf
predominance that followed the deaths of Frederick II. and King Conrad.
It was in this brief breathing space, of external peace and internal
tranquillity, that a knight of Siena, Messer Folcacchiero de'
Folcacchieri, wrote what was once thought to be the earliest extant
example of a regular canzone, describing his own hapless plight through
love: _Tutto lo mondo vive senza guerra_: "All the world is living
without war, yet I can find no peace." The constitution at this time
shows the usual bewildering number of separate councils that we find in
mediaeval Italian republics. The four Provveditori di Biccherna with
their Camarlingo still administered the revenues of the State, the
executive was in the hands of the Podestà and Captain. Laws were
discussed and approved in the General Council of the Campana, composed
of "three hundred good Catholics, not excommunicated nor suspected of
heresy." There was nominally a Parliament, which the Podestà and Captain
could not summon without the consent of two-thirds of the Council of the
Campana, and without previously explaining what they intended to
propose. But "the Twenty-four were the informing soul of the
constitution, and once a month they met in secret council without the
Podestà and Captain."[4]
But it was not for long that the Lion shook hands with the Wolf, as we
see them at a later epoch on the pavement of the Duomo. Florence was now
the predominant power in Tuscany, fiercely democratic and strenuously
Guelf; while Pisa and Siena alone clung to the discredited cause of the
Ghibellines, the latter thirsting to recover Montalcino which had been
lost in the last war. Away in the south, Frederick's heroic son, King
Manfred, was upholding the claims of the imperial house of Suabia, and
Siena looked to him. A band of exiled Florentines came to Siena in 1258,
led by that tremendous Ghibelline noble whom Dante was afterwards to see
rising from his fiery tomb as though he held all Hell in scorn, the man
whom the triumph of the Guelfs would torture more than all the torments
of his burning bed: Farinata degli Uberti. In spite of the express terms
of the treaty, Siena turned a deaf ear to the remonstrance of her
nominal ally, and refused to expel the fugitives. War being now
inevitable, ambassadors were sent to Manfred to obtain his aid. The
price of the royal assistance was that the Sienese should swear fidelity
and obedience to him. This was done, and in May 1259, from Lucera, the
King received the Commune under his protection. To a second embassy,
praying him to take the imperial crown and to send a captain with an
army into Tuscany, Manfred answered that he loved Siena above all the
cities of Italy, and that he would shortly send to those parts such a
captain of his own blood and so great a force of armed men with him
"that he shall make the rough ways smooth, and rule that province in
peace."[5] And in December the Count Giordano d'Anglano, the King's
near kinsman, appeared in Siena, with a small force of Germans. He at
once took the field in the Maremma, where Grosseto and Montemassi had
rebelled from Siena, and forced the former town to surrender in
February. Hearing that the Florentines were making huge preparations,
and were sending supplies to Montepulciano and Montalcino, another
embassy was sent to Manfred in March, headed by the most influential
citizen of Siena, Provenzano Salvani.
No sooner had spring come than the Florentine army, headed by their
Podesta, Jacopino Rangoni of Modena, entered the territory of the
republic and advanced upon Siena by way of Colle and Montereggioni,
forcing the Sienese to raise the siege of Montemassi, and to withdraw
all their troops for the defence of the city. On the morning of May
18th, there was a smart engagement at Santa Petronilla outside the Porta
Camollia. A small force of Germans and Sienese made a vigorous sortie,
in which the Germans bore the brunt of the fighting, lost the greater
part of their number killed, and the royal banner fell into the hands of
the Florentines, who retired to their encampment, having suffered
severely in killed and wounded. They broke up their camp and retreated
on the 20th, almost simultaneously with the return of Provenzano and his
colleagues to Siena followed by a strong force of German and Italian
mercenaries from the King.[6] The war was at once renewed with activity,
Provenzano Salvani being the leading spirit throughout. Montemassi was
taken and Montalcino rigorously blockaded.
The critical condition of Montalcino combined with Ghibelline intrigues
to bring the Florentines again into the field. Farinata and his fellow
exiles gave the _anziani_, who then ruled in Florence, to understand
that Siena was thirsting for a change of government, for the overthrow
of the Twenty-four, and the banishment of Provenzano, "who was the
greatest _popolano_ of Siena," and that the nobles were prepared to sell
the city to the Florentines. In spite of the strenuous opposition of
Tegghiaio Aldobrandino and the Conte Guidoguerra, the Florentines
decided instantly to resume hostilities--nominally to relieve
Montalcino, in reality to destroy Siena. They called the people to arms
to follow the standards of their companies, summoned aid from Lucca and
Bologna and all the Guelf cities of their league. At the beginning of
September the army of Florence with the Carroccio or battle car of the
Republic, over which floated the red and white standard of the Commune,
entered the Sienese contado, where it was joined by the men of Perugia
and Orvieto. Without counting these, there were at least 3000 horsemen
and more than 30,000 infantry; but there were traitors in the army, in
secret understanding with the enemy. From their camp beyond the Arbia,
the captain and commissaries of the Florentines sent ambassadors to the
Sienese, to demand their instant and absolute submission. "Straightway
throw down your walls," they began, "in order that we may enter your
city at whatever place likes us best."
Forthwith the Twenty-four of Siena summoned the council to meet in the
church of San Cristofano. There was some wavering at first. The worthy
burghers knew nothing of the secret dealings of the Florentine exiles
(to which, probably, Provenzano alone was privy), but had heard much of
the might and fierceness of the invading forces, and several of the
council urged a compromise. At once Provenzano Salvani sprang to his
feet and bade them summon the Count Giordano. The Count came and, with
the sixteen German constables, his seneschal and an interpreter, stood
before the council. There was no thought of surrender then; the Germans
shouted with delight at the prospect of double pay and speedy fighting,
and Salimbene Salimbeni at once hurried to his palace and returned with
the money, driving through the piazza in a cart covered with scarlet and
decked with olive. Through his mouth the Twenty-four gave their reply to
the Florentine herald: "Go back to your captain and the commissaries,
and tell them that we shall answer them by word of mouth on the field."
The whole city was arming; before the church, the piazza of the Tolomei
and all the streets leading to it were packed with a wildly expectant
and ever increasing crowd. While away in the Duomo the Bishop assembled
the clergy and religious, with bare feet moving in solemn procession to
implore the divine aid against "the impious appetites of the
Florentines," the Twenty-four had elected Buonaguida Lucari _sindaco_
with full powers--practically Dictator.
"Men of Siena," cried Buonaguida from the steps of San Cristofano, "ye
all know how we have recommended ourselves to the protection of King
Manfred; let us now surrender ourselves, our goods and persons, our city
and our contado with all our rights, to the Queen of Eternal Life, to
our Lady and Mother, the Virgin Mary. Follow me now, all of you, with
purity of faith and freedom of will, to make this offering."
Bareheaded and barefooted, clad like a beggar with a halter round his
neck, the Dictator solemnly carried the keys of the city to the Duomo,
followed by the people, barefooted too, and crying continually,
_misericordia, misericordia_. There all the clergy met them, and at the
foot of the choir the Bishop and Dictator solemnly embraced, in pledge
of the complete union of Church and State, while hereditary foes fell
into each other's arms. Then after silent prayer, prostrate before the
altar, the Dictator in an impassioned harangue formally made over the
city and contado of Siena to the Mother of Heaven, while the Bishop
mounted the pulpit and solemnly exhorted the people to mutual
forgiveness and to approach the sacraments. The next day there was a
long procession through the streets, the keys were blessed and given
over to the keeping of the Gonfalonieri (the elected heads of the three
terzi). All night the churches had been thronged by crowds approaching
the confessionals, by enemies seeking reconciliation with each other,
and at daybreak the Twenty-four sent three heralds with the banners of
each terzo to call the people to arms in the name of God and of the
Virgin Mary.
It was Friday, September 3rd. The whole army consisted of a little more
than 20,000 men. There were 800 Germans and other royal horsemen with
the imperial banner, under Count Giordano and the Count of Arras; 400
more horsemen, partly Germans and partly noble Sienese, under the Count
Aldobrandino degli Aldobrandeschi of Santa Fiora and Niccolò de'
Bigozzi, seneschal of the Commune. The Florentine and other Ghibelline
exiles, under the Count Guido Novello and Farinata, were partly with
Giordano, partly with Count Aldobrandino. There were 19,000 citizen
infantry from the three terzi of the city and the contado, under the
Podestà, Francesco Troghisio, and their three Gonfalonieri, with the
Carroccio of the Republic over which floated a white standard "that gave
right good comfort, for it seemed the mantle of the Virgin Mary." A
number of priests, some of them armed, accompanied the army; the rest
with the Bishop, old men and women, spent the day fasting, going in
procession from church to church throughout the city reciting litanies
and the like. They marched out of the Porta Pispini and occupied the
hill of Monteropoli beyond which, in the plain of the Cortine between
the Biena and the Malena (little streams that join the Arbia), and on
the opposite hill of Monteselvoli, lay the Guelf army--its leaders
confidently expecting a revolution in Siena in their favour and the
speedy surrender of one of the gates of the city. All during the night
the Sienese harassed the Florentine camp, and on Saturday morning,
September 4th, the battle began.
The Count of Arras, with some 400 horse and foot, advancing along the
Biena, moved round Monteselvoli to fall upon the Florentine left flank;
while the rest of the army left their hill, crossed the Arbia and
approached the enemies' position--the Florentines in the valley
hastening up their own side of Monteselvoli to join the main body. The
German heavy cavalry commenced the assault, dashing like dragons into
the ranks of the men of Prato, Arezzo and Lucca, horse and men falling
in heaps before their terrible lances. The Count Giordano led his
_tedeschi_ straight for the centre of the Guelfic army, where the
"martinella" rang continuously over the Carroccio of Florence, round
which the flower of the burgher army stood. The Count Aldobrandino with
his cavalry and the eager Sienese followed up the German onslaught; but
the resistance was long and stubborn. At last Bocca degli Abati, the
traitor in the troop of Florentine nobles, _hostis e cive factus_ as
Leonardo Bruni puts it, struck Jacopo Pazzi with his sword on the arm
that upheld one of the standards of the Republic; a portion of the
cavalry went over to the enemy; the rest, seeing themselves betrayed,
took to flight. Simultaneously the Count of Arras with the reserve,
shouting "San Giorgio! San Giorgio!" burst furiously upon the
Florentine flank. Then came, in Dante's immortal phrase, "the havoc and
the great slaughter that dyed the Arbia red." The Sienese, writes the
chronicler Niccolò di Giovanni Ventura, "seemed like unchained lions
rushing upon their foes; little did it avail these to call on San Zanobi
or Santa Liperata for aid, for they made a greater slaughter of them
than do the butchers of their beasts on Good Friday." The infantry were
driven from their position down into the valley, only to be ruthlessly
massacred. A band of Florentine burghers--the flower of the Primo
Popolo--stood to the end in heroic desperation round the Carroccio and
the standards, and fell in their places, resisting to the last,
embracing and kissing the blood-stained wood of the car as they died. A
number of the fugitives took refuge in the little castle of Montaperto
and held out there till later in the day, when it was stormed and they
were all put to the sword. It was not until evening had come that the
Count Giordano and the Gonfalonieri of the Sienese bade that quarter
should be given and prisoners accepted. The number of the slain Guelfs
probably lies somewhere between 10,000, which is the Sienese estimate,
and the 2500 given by Villani. The Carroccio had been taken; the _popolo
vecchio_ of Florence was "broken and annihilated," in Villani's terribly
expressive phrase; every house in Florence had lost members, and the
allied cities suffered only slightly less. Twelve thousand prisoners are
said to have been taken.[7]
[Illustration:
_Lombardi, Siena_
ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF MONTAPERTI]
We should visit the battle-field to-day, for the walk or drive is one of
the pleasantest in the neighbourhood of Siena. About four miles beyond
the Porta Pispini we cross the Bozzone, and then, to the left, ascend
the long, low hill of Monteropoli. This was the Sienese position before
the battle. Opposite is Monteselvoli, and at our feet the Arbia, and
between the two long hills the valley. The contadini take an uncanny
pleasure in showing us the way, in pointing out and naming the various
sites that witnessed the struggle. Away to the left, above the
Malena--nearly an hour's walk from the small railway station of
Arbia--is the spot where the battle ended. A steep little hill, the
lower part of which is a vineyard, is crowned with olive trees and
cypresses, surrounding a pyramid of rough brown stone. The view that it
commands is grand and sweeping; the black and barren hills to the south
east; Santafiore hid in clouds to the south; and westwards the
blood-stained valley of the battle-field, beyond which rises Siena
itself with its towers, behind which the sun was already sinking when
the Florentines made their last stand.
From the tower of the Marescotti (now of the Palazzo Saracini), Cerreto
Ceccolini had watched the whole fight, beating his drum in signal to the
people in the streets below, telling them of the course of the struggle,
bidding them cry to God and the Madonna while the event hung in doubt,
to shout in exultation when the day was won.
The victorious army rested that night on Monteropoli, with their
prisoners and booty. They made their solemn entry into Siena the next
day by the same gate through which they had passed out to the war, the
German nobles and soldiers crowned with garlands of olive, singing songs
in their own tongue as they made their way in triumphant procession to
the Duomo. Three days of general supplication and thanksgiving followed;
to the title _Sena vetus_ was added by solemn decree _Civitas Virginis_,
to the litany an _Advocata Senensium_. According to Malavolti, not more
than 600 Sienese had fallen on the field of battle, but among them were
many young men of the noblest families in the city. It is needless to
re-tell in this place the familiar story of the triumphant entry of the
Count Giordano with the Ghibelline exiles and his German mercenaries
into the desolate Florence, and how that short-lived despotism was set
up which the people themselves--those strenuous burghers and artisans of
the Florentine Guilds--overthrew six years later. Montalcino, the
original cause of the war, had surrendered to Siena a few days after the
battle, and had been cruelly humiliated. According to the Sienese
chroniclers, the people of Montalcino came through the Porta Romana in
penitential robes, with halters round their necks, crying
_misericordia_, and were forced to go to the field of battle to bury all
the abandoned dead. A similar fate befell Montepulciano, which Manfred
granted to the Commune of Siena on November 20th. In the following year
Provenzano was made Podestà of Montepulciano, and with him went Don Ugo,
the Camarlingo di Biccherna, to arrange for the building of a fortress
there.
But this epoch of Ghibelline prepotency in Tuscany was brief. The
victory of Charles of Anjou over Manfred at Benevento, in February 1266,
was followed by the restoration of the Guelf supremacy in Florence.
Siena and Pisa now stood alone.
Siena had not long remained united. There was still a Guelf faction
within the walls, headed by the Tolomei, and the nobles were daily
growing more estranged from the people. There was fighting in the Piazza
Tolomei in 1265, when the people fired the palace; and again, in 1267,
when, after the fall of Manfred, the Guelfs commenced to raise their
heads anew. It was in these years that Provenzano Salvani became the
ruling spirit of the State, and, in Dante's words, "in his presumption
thought to bring all Siena into his own hands." It was mainly through
his influence that Siena joined with Pisa in aiding Corradino, the
youthful grandson of the great Frederick, in his designs upon Italy.
Corradino came, a victim marked for the slaughter; and in August 1268 he
rode into Siena with his army, and was received with the utmost joy as
true Caesar. It was during his stay here that his troops, united with
the Sienese, gained a slight victory in the Valdarno, and the prisoners
brought into the city seemed to the exulting Ghibellines an augury of
the complete triumph of the imperial cause. In the utter overthrow of
these aspirations on the disastrous field of Tagliacozzo, "where without
arms the old Alardo conquered," a friend of Provenzano's had fallen into
the hands of the Angevin victor, who set a heavy ransom as the price of
his life. Then was it that Provenzano appeared in the guise of a
supplicant in the Campo, as Dante tells us in the _Purgatorio_, begging
money of all that passed by, till the sum was made up "to deliver his
friend from the torment that he was suffering in Charles' prison."
In the very next year a more bitter fate was Provenzano's own. With
Florentine aid, the Guelf exiles were threatening the Sienese frontier,
and Provenzano Salvani, with Count Guido Novello, led a mixed force of
Tuscan Ghibellines and Spanish and German mercenaries to attack Colle di
Val d'Elsa. Here, in June 1269, they were surprised by a smaller force
of French cavalry under Guy de Montfort, "routed and rolled back in the
bitter paces of flight," the Florentines and Guelf exiles taking ample
vengeance for the slaughter of Montaperti. More than a thousand Sienese
fell. Provenzano himself, to whom before the battle it had been foretold
that his head should be the highest in the field, was taken prisoner,
and murdered in cold blood by Cavolino Tolomei, who rode through the
host with his head upon the point of his lance. Among the Guelf exiles
in Colle was a noble lady named Sapia--the wife, it is said, of
Ghinibaldo Saracini--who waited in agonised suspense in a tower near the
field, declaring that she would hurl herself down from the window if her
countrymen were victorious. When she saw them routed, and watched the
furious Guelf pursuit, she broke out into the paroxysm of delight
recorded by Dante, "crying to God, Henceforth I fear thee no more."[8]
The battle of Colle di Val d'Elsa closes the period of Ghibelline
supremacy in Siena. In the following year Guy de Montfort, as vicar of
King Charles, forced the Sienese to take back their Guelf exiles, who
soon drove out the Ghibellines. Instead of the Twenty-four, the chief
power was now vested in a Thirty-six, who included both nobles and
_popolani_. The long struggle with Florence was over for the present,
Siena being forced to join her rival in the Guelf League under the
suzerainty of the Angevin king. And as was inevitable when the Guelfs
got the upper hand in an Italian state, in 1280 the nobles, or
_gentiluomini_, were excluded from the Government, which was now put
into the hands of the "Fifteen Governors and Defenders of the Commune
and People of Siena." A daring, but unsuccessful attempt of the
Ghibelline exiles and their adherents within the walls to recapture the
city in 1281 only resulted in strengthening the new democratic
government. In 1285 the Fifteen were reduced to Nine, the famous
magistracy of the _Signori Nove_, "the Lords Nine, the Defenders of the
Commune and People of the city and district of Siena, and of the
jurisdiction of the same," in which no members of noble houses could sit
(though still eligible for the other offices of the State, such as those
of the Provveditori di Biccherna). Their term of office was two months,
during which they lived at the expense of the State in one or other of
the palaces of the city, rented for the purpose, until the present
Palazzo Pubblico was built. The Nine were chosen from the _popolo di
mezzo_, the rich and enlightened merchant class, that came between the
nobles and the plebeians. Throughout the story of Siena we find the word
_Monte_ used to denote the faction or order that held sway, and this was
the beginning of the _Monte dei Nove_, whose adherents were afterwards
known as the _Noveschi_. The order that had previously held the
supremacy is henceforth known as the _Monte de' Gentiluomini_.
The Siena of this epoch of Guelf predominance is that luxurious city of
the _gente vana_, the "vain folk," that Dante knew, the city whose paths
he trod in the early days of his exile. Senseless extravagance reigned
side by side with hectic devotion and mystic enthusiasm. Typical,
indeed, of this time are two figures of whom we read in the _Divina
Commedia_; the young nobleman, Lano Maconi, who, having squandered all
his substance in riotous living, joined in the unsuccessful expedition
of the Sienese and Florentines against Arezzo in 1288, and, when the
Sienese fell into an ambush at the ford of Pieve del Toppo, instead of
saving his life by flight, dashed into the middle of the Aretines and
found the death he sought; Pietro Pettignano, Franciscan tertiary and
combseller of the Terzo di Camollia, who saved the soul of Monna Sapia
by his prayers, saw visions and wrought miracles, and after a life of
humility and righteousness died in 1289, and was venerated as a
saint.[9] Magnificent processions, gorgeous ceremonies of church and
state, sumptuous balls and banquets, celebrated the bestowing of the
order of knighthood upon the nobles of city and contado--each
aristocratic house striving to eclipse the other in lavish hospitality
and brilliant display. Amidst it all we hear the voice of that realist
of the Trecento--Cecco degli Angiolieri, who "anticipates Villon from
afar"[10]--singing of the three things for which he cares, _la donna_,
_la taverna_, _e' l dado_, celebrating his sordid passion for Becchina,
the shoemaker's daughter, pouring venomous abuse upon his own father,
who persisted in living on and thus keeping him out of his heritage,
railing against all mankind in half furious, half humorous style, daring
to break a lyric lance even with the divine Florentine, Dante Alighieri
himself. More characteristic of Siena is Cecco's contemporary; Folgore
da San Gimignano, in his _corona_ of fourteen sonnets addressed to the
_brigata nobile e cortese_, a club of twelve extravagant young Sienese
nobles. Month by month through the year he sets forth a round of
pleasures of every kind, feasting and hunting, music and jousting (the
latter, in spite of a reference to Camelot, of a very harmless,
carpet-knight description), dallying in pleasant places with lovely
women. Nowhere else shall you find so perfect a picture of the splendid
life and delicate living of courtly circles in "soft Siena"--_Siena
l'amorosa madre di dolcezza_, as another poet called her--with her gay
young gallants--
"Who as King Priam's sons might surely stand,
Valiant and courteous more than Lancelot,
Each one, if need should be, with lance in hand,
Would fight in tournament at Camelot."
It was from these glittering, luxurious scenes that one of Siena's
proudest nobles, Bernardo Tolomei, fled to the desert, in 1313, to found
the great convent of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, and to return to the city
in 1348 with his white-robed companions, to lay down his life for his
fellow-countrymen during the pestilence.
Until the advent of that terrible pestilence of 1348, the epoch of the
supremacy of the Nine is the brightest in the history of Siena. "In that
time," wrote Fra Filippo Agazzari, a few years later, "the city of Siena
was in such great peace, and in such great abundance of every earthly
good, that almost every feast day innumerable weddings of young women
were celebrated in the city."[11] It is the epoch in which most of
Siena's noblest buildings were reared, the epoch in which its three
supreme painters--Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, Ambrogio
Lorenzetti--for a brief while raised the school of their native city to
an equality with that of Florence. Trade flourished, the university
prospered; the Republic remained Guelf, though it retained a certain
Ghibelline element within its core that kept it from an aggressive
policy, and led the more strenuous Florentines to a proverb touching
their neighbour: _La lupa puttaneggia_, "the she-wolf plays the harlot."
In 1303 the Sienese purchased Talamone--which they fondly hoped to make
into a valuable sea-port whereby they might become a great maritime
power to rival Genoa or even Venice--from the Abbot of San Salvadore.
Henceforth, to their mocking neighbours, they became the "vain folk that
hopes in Talamone," upon which they spent enormous sums of money with no
result, owing to the unhealthiness of the situation and the
impossibility of keeping the harbour clear. They joined the Italian
league against Henry of Luxemburg, sent men and money to the defence of
Brescia, and, by their prompt assistance to the Florentines, helped in
forcing the Emperor to raise the siege of Florence in 1312, when his
army wasted their contado. A little later, when Uguccione della
Faggiuola was upholding the imperial cause, 400 Sienese cavalry and 3000
infantry were in the Guelf army that was annihilated at Montecatini in
1315. But in 1326, when Duke Charles of Calabria came to Siena on his
way to Florence, and demanded the lordship of the former city as well,
they rose in arms against him, barricaded the streets with chains, and
forced the proud Guelf prince to accept their terms. The Duke of Athens,
in 1343, having made himself tyrant of Florence, attempted to get Siena
into his hands, by stirring up the nobles against the Nine; the Nine
retaliated by arranging the conspiracy that caused his overthrow and his
expulsion from Florence. "For three days," writes Bindino da Travale,
"the _balzana_ floated over the Tower of the Commune of Florence, alone,
without any other banner."
[Illustration: A Street in Siena]
The external wars of this epoch, mainly against Pisa, were unimportant.
Within Siena itself the harmony was by no means unintermittent. A
passage that we read in the _Cronica Senese_ under the year 1314 is only
too typical: "On the sixteenth day of April there was great tumult and
battle in Siena, between the Tolomei and the Salimbeni, and all the city
was up in arms." And, in addition to the never ending feud between these
two great houses, there were political interests at stake. The Tolomei,
with whom were other houses of the magnates, were opposed to the Nine,
and adopted the cause of the lower classes of the people, the _popolo
minuto_, who were excluded from the Government by the burgher oligarchy.
In 1318 the Tolomei, with certain of the Forteguerri and other nobles,
plotted with the notaries and butchers and a number of artisans, to
overthrow the Nine; but the attempt was easily repressed. A prolonged
vendetta between Salimbeni and Tolomei kept the whole city disturbed
between 1320 and 1326, while similar feuds, accompanied by ferocious
murders and sanguinary riots, between the Malavolti and Piccolomini,
Saracini and Scotti, enlivened the two following decades of the century.
In 1346, a section of the Tolomei, allied with the _popolo minuto_,
attempted a rising in the contrada of the Porta Ovile; several of their
plebeian adherents were hanged, but the Captain of War was afraid to lay
hands upon the nobles. In 1347, the Pope's legate and the Nine succeeded
in reconciling the Piccolomini and the Malavolti.
The terrible pestilence, known as the Black Death, that swept over
Europe in 1348, devastated Siena for nearly six months. Even when we
remember Boccaccio's pages, we still read the account in the _Cronica
Senese_ with a fresh thrill of horror.[12] It raged from May to October.
Men and women felt the fatal swelling, "and suddenly, crying out, they
died. The father hardly stayed to see his son; one brother fled the
other; the wife abandoned her husband; for it was said that this disease
was caught by looking, and in the breath." So great was the mortality
that none could be hired to bury the dead. No sooner was a man's breath
out of his body, than his friends took him to the church and buried him,
without any funeral service, as best they could. Huge trenches were dug
in different parts of the city, and the dead thrown in,
indiscriminately, in great heaps. "And I, Agnolo di Tura called Grasso,
buried five of my sons in one trench with my own hands; and many others
did the like. And also there were some that were so badly covered up
that the dogs dragged them out, and ate many bodies in the city. No
bells tolled, and no one wept at any misfortune that befel, for almost
every person expected death; and the thing went in such wise that folk
thought that no one would remain on live, and many men believed and
said: This is the end of the world. Here no physician availed, nor
medicine, nor any defence; rather it seemed that the more precaution a
man took, the sooner he died." About three quarters of the inhabitants
of city and contado perished, though the "more than 80,000 persons" of
Agnolo di Tura must be an exaggeration. While the pestilence raged most
fiercely, Bernardo Tolomei and his white robed Olivetani came down from
their cloistered retreat to tend the stricken people of their native
city, and almost all, including Bernardo, died with them. In the
following year the Sienese who survived gave themselves up to feasting
and riotous living. They all behaved for a while like brothers and
relations, says the chronicler; each one felt as though he had won back
the world, and no one could settle down to doing anything. And for a
long while Siena seemed uninhabited, _per Siena non pareva che fusse
persona_.
The order of the Nine fell in 1355, and thirteen years of tumultuous,
perpetual change followed. The Emperor elect, Charles IV.--"di
Lusimburgo ignominioso Carlo," as Fazio degli Uberti calls him--was on
his way from Pisa to be crowned at Rome; the Sienese ambassadors,
headed by Guccio Tolomei and Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni, had sworn
fidelity to him at Pisa on behalf of the Nine, and he had sworn in
return to preserve the liberties of Siena, and to make the Nine his
vicars. With a thousand knights and barons, the Emperor and Empress
entered Siena on March 25th, each under a baldacchino gorgeous with
gold, with music playing and banners flying, and were greeted with
enthusiasm. No sooner had the Caesar dismounted at the palace of the
Salimbeni, than a cry arose throughout the city: "Long live the Emperor
and death to the Nine!" The Piccolomini with the consent of the other
magnates (excepting only Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni) began the
rising, and the _popolo minuto_ on the following day rose in arms at
their call. When night fell, on the 26th, the chains of the city were
cut, and the keys brought to the Emperor; the Nine, helpless and
terrified, lurked in the Palace of the Commune, while the people sacked
and burned their houses. The next day all Siena was in arms. The Emperor
rode through vast acclaiming throngs in the Campo to confer with the
Nine in the Palace, while louder and louder rose the deafening roar,
"Long live the Emperor and death to the Nine!"--the nobles instigating
the populace to further efforts. In the Palace the Caesar received the
abdication of the Nine, forced them to renounce all the privileges he
had granted them, to annul the oath he had sworn to their
ambassadors--while the younger nobles, shouting and cheering, led the
populace to sack the palaces of the Provveditori di Biccherna and
Consoli di Mercanzia, and the houses of the wool merchants, to release
the prisoners, to hunt out the luckless Podestà and War-Captain. The
books of condemnation, the papers of the Nine, were burnt before the
Emperor's eyes in the piazza, and their official chest was dragged
through the city at the tail of an ass. Though Charles had sufficient
decency to refuse to surrender the persons of the Nine to the fury of
the mob outside, he let the nobles and populace avenge themselves on
their houses and property, and it was not until the evening had come
that he sent his soldiers to guard the Dogana del Sale, and to order
every one to lay down their arms. But such was the general alarm that no
one would receive any of the adherents of the luckless Nine; their
servants deserted them, the very priests and religious shrank from them
as though they had the plague. The Emperor caused a certain number of
citizens to be elected--twelve nobles and eighteen of the _popolo
minuto_ to "reform the government," and went on his way leaving his
vicar, the Patriarch of Aquileia, in charge. A supreme magistracy of
twelve _popolani_ was elected, henceforth known as the _Signori Dodici_,
four from each terzo of the city, holding office for two months, one of
them to serve as Captain of the People; there was further to be a kind
of subsidiary council of six _gentiluomini_, who were not to reside with
the Signoria in the Palazzo, but without whom the Twelve could undertake
nothing of importance nor open letters that concerned the state. When
the Emperor returned from Rome at the beginning of May and passed
through Siena again, he was received with great honours and renewed
acclamations, as the Deliverer of the People, and made about sixty
knights, nobles of Siena and plebeians alike--many of the latter carried
bodily to him on the shoulders of the populace and knighted, amidst the
wildest clamour and confusion, against their own will and to the great
disgust of the imperial barons.
Hardly had the Emperor left the city than the six nobles--with the
consent of their leader, Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni, who appears
prominently during these years as a powerful influence in the Republic
on the side of peace and moderation--were forced to lay down their
office. The whole government now remained in the hands of the Twelve,
who were mostly petty tradesmen and notaries, and whose rule was corrupt
and incapable. A number of the subject towns refused to acknowledge
them; Montepulciano gave itself to Perugia, and the Sienese, in revenge,
persuaded the governor of Cortona to revolt against the Perugians. A
fierce war between Siena and Perugia followed. The Sienese gained a
creditable victory outside the walls of Cortona. The light armed cavalry
of Perugia harried the Sienese contado, and even approached the gates of
the city itself, and the Sienese retaliated by taking the mercenaries of
Conrad of Landau into their pay--who were, however, intercepted and
severely cut up by the Florentine mountaineers of the Val di Lamone--and
ravaged the Perugian territories up to the walls of Perugia. Peace was
made at the end of 1358, much to the advantage of Siena, who kept
Cortona, while the Perugians had to set Montepulciano free at the end of
five years. At the beginning of 1365 the latter town made Messer
Giovanni di Agnolino their Podestà, and returned to the obedience of
Siena.
During these years of the rule of the Twelve, the contado was
perpetually threatened by wandering bands of mercenaries--the Compagnia
Bianca, mainly Englishmen, but led by German captains; the Compagnia
della Stella; the Compagnia del Cappello of Italians, under Niccolò da
Montefeltro; the Compagnia di San Giorgio, which is associated with the
great name of John Hawkwood. These had to be compounded with, to be
guarded against by enrolling other mercenaries, to be played off against
each other. In October 1363, the Sienese, led by their Conservatore or
War-Captain, Ceccolo di Giordano Orsini, and stiffened by a strong force
of Germans and Hungarians, overtook the Compagnia del Cappello, which
was devastating the contado, in the Valdichiana, and gained a complete
victory, taking its captain and other leaders prisoners. But when, in
March 1367, they tried to play the same game with John Hawkwood and his
company of Englishmen, near Montalcinello, there was a very different
tale to tell; the Sienese were driven back to Siena in headlong rout,
their Conservatore was taken prisoner, and peace had to be purchased at
a goodly rate of golden florins. Within the city there was restless
plotting against the Twelve, followed by banishments and executions--for
this government was by no means so reluctant to lay hands upon the
nobles as the Nine had been. Realising that the feeling of the city was
turning against them, the Twelve sent a splendid embassy to receive Pope
Urban V. when he landed at the Port of Talamone (on his way to Rome in
that ineffectual, because premature, attempt to heal the leprosy of
Avignon), entered into league with him, sent horsemen under Sozzo
Bandinelli and Piero Piccolomini to support the cause of the Church at
Viterbo and Bologna. This was good so far as it went, but it did not
avert the storm that burst upon Siena in 1368.
The Twelve had split into two factions--the "Canischi" and the
"Grasselli." The Canischi sided with the Tolomei, with whom were
Piccolomini, Saracini, and Cerretani; the Grasselli were allied with the
Salimbeni. The Emperor was expected in Tuscany, and the most honoured
citizen of Siena, Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni, had come from
Montepulciano to head the embassy that went from Siena to greet Caesar
in Lombardy. Although even the magistrates in the Signoria were at
daggers drawn, Giovanni's influence had delayed the catastrophe; but, on
his return from the Emperor, he was killed by a fall from his horse on
the way from Siena to Rocca d'Orcia. The nobles rose in mass, united
with the adherents of the Nine, and _senza colpo di spada_, at the
beginning of September, forced the Twelve to surrender the Palace and
the entire control of the State. A new magistracy of thirteen consuls
was established; one from each of the five Greater Families, five
representatives of the lesser nobles, three to represent the Nine. An
embassy was dispatched by this new government to the Emperor; but, in
the meanwhile, the Salimbeni had made common cause with the adherents of
the Twelve, and sent ambassadors on their own account. On September 24th
the Salimbeni, shouting for the People and the Emperor, rushed out of
their palace and gardens in arms, joined forces with the Twelve, broke
open the Porta di San Prospero, and admitted Malatesta de' Malatesta,
the imperial vicar, who with 800 horse had been lying in wait. From
street to street the people and nobles struggled desperately with each
other; during the three weeks of their rule, the latter had fortified
their houses and enrolled soldiers for this emergency, which enabled
them to hold their own at first even against the trained cavalry of the
imperial vicar, while their overbearing and tyrannous conduct had
exasperated the people to madness. A last stand was made in the Campo
round the Palazzo, where there was a grim struggle, _grande e aspra
battaglia_, until Malatesta carried the place by storm, and the
populace, rushing in after the imperial soldiery, sacked it. The nobles
fled from the city with their families, carrying with them all the goods
that they could save from the wreck. Malatesta fortified himself in the
Poggio Malavolti, from which, until the following January, he
practically ruled the city as imperial vicar; while in the Palazzo a
popular council of 124 plebeians met, which was called the _Consiglio de
Riformatori_, and created a new supreme magistracy of twelve, composed
of five of the _popolo minuto_, four of the Twelve, three of the order
of the Nine; the Signori Dodici Difensori del Popolo Senese. The same
proportion of the three _ordini_ or _Monti_ was to hold in the general
council of 650 _popolani_. To reward the Salimbeni for their services to
the People, or, as Malavolti, the aristocratic historian of Siena, puts
it, "for the perfidy they had used against the other nobles," they were
given five castles in the Sienese contado and declared _popolani_, so as
to be eligible for the chief magistracy.
The Emperor came back to Siena on October 12th, with the Empress. He
entered at the Porta Tufi, where the Twelve and the Salimbeni met him,
all crowned with flowers and bearing olive branches. He alighted at the
Salimbeni palace, while his followers were quartered in the deserted
houses of the exiled nobles. The next day, after Mass in the Duomo, he
knighted Reame and Niccolò Salimbeni--"and very little pleasure did any
one take in that," says the Sienese Chronicle grimly. An enormous
present of money was made to him and the Empress, as also to Malatesta,
and when the Emperor left on the 14th, the Empress remained behind for
some days to induce Siena to redeem the imperial crown which had been
pawned in Florence. In the meanwhile the nobles were making alarms and
excursions in the contado, almost up to the gates of the city. There was
another revolution in December. The lowest portion of the populace, or
at least lower than those hitherto represented in the
administration--"verily plebeians and entirely new men," as Malavolti
has it--assailed the Palazzo, forced their way in, hunted out the
representatives of the Twelve and Nine alike. Finally by a sort of
general compromise a council of 150 _riformatori_ was appointed, who
reformed the State by the creation of a supreme magistracy of Fifteen
Defenders, composed of eight of the _popolo minuto_, four of the Twelve,
three of the Nine. This was the origin of the _Monte dei Riformatori_,
because the name was retained in the families of those _popolani_ who
took a part in this regime, the names of Nine and Twelve (_Nove_ and
_Dodici_) being retained in those families who belonged to these two
orders and shared their fortunes. The Monti of Riformatori, Dodicini,
and Noveschi were likewise known as the People of the Greater Number,
the People of the Middle Number, and the People of the Lesser Number
respectively.[13]
The Emperor rode again into Siena, with the Empress and a long train of
knights and nobles, on December 22nd. He dismounted as before at the
Palace of the Salimbeni. The nobles were still ravaging the contado and,
by means of the Marquis of Montferrat, Charles made some sort of attempt
to effect a reconciliation between them and the people, which was cut
short by the intrigues of the Salimbeni and Dodicini, who had gained the
shallow Caesar's ear. The arrival of a papal legate, the Cardinal of
Bologna, with armed men at the end of the month increased the general
alarm: it was rumoured that Charles intended to sell Siena to the Pope.
The Emperor demanded the surrender of the fortresses of Massa,
Montalcino, Grosseto, Talamone and Casole, and implied that he meant to
reform the State; the Fifteen summoned a general council of more than
800 citizens, and returned an absolute refusal. Then the Salimbeni
thought that the time had come to strike. On January 18th, Niccolò
Salimbeni rode furiously through the street with armed followers,
shouting "Long live the People! Down with the traitors who want the
nobles back!" Malatesta with his cavalry entered the Campo, drew up in
front of the Palace, calling upon the Signoria in the name of Caesar to
surrender, and to expel the three representatives of the Nine. Instantly
the alarm was sounded from the Mangia Tower. The armed forces of the
people poured into the Campo, and their captain, Matteino di Ventura
Menzani, with the gonfalone in his hand, led them against the foreign
cavalry. The bells were ringing _a stormo_ from churches and palaces,
clashing and clanging over the heads of republicans and imperialists,
when Caesar himself, his royal helmet crowned with a garland, appeared
upon the scenes. With the Salimbeni and a long train of horsemen he was
making his way to the Palazzo, when the victorious people, having routed
Malatesta, burst upon him at the Croce del Travaglio. The imperial
banner was struck down and the imperial forces broken. At the Palazzo
Tolomei "there was an incredible battle," the imperial escort fighting
desperately to cover the Caesar's retreat. One of the Salimbeni, with an
olive branch in his hand, came into the Campo in the name of Caesar to
implore the Captain to grant a cessation of hostilities, but was
promptly sent about his business. By the time that the unfortunate
Emperor got back to the Salimbeni Palace, he had lost more than 400
killed--including two of his nephews--and all the hospitals were full of
his wounded.
Before the fight had ended the Defenders sent a solemn procession to
bring back the three of the Nine who had left the Palace; "with a goodly
company, preceded by the trumpets, with garlands on their heads and with
olive branches in their hands; they put them back in the Palace in their
place, embracing them and kissing them with the greatest tenderness and
craving pardon." The Captain of the People issued a proclamation that no
one should sell nor give any food to the Emperor and his folk. "The
Emperor remained alone with the greatest fear that any rascal ever had.
The people stared at him; he wept and made excuses, embraced and kissed
every person that went to him, and said: 'I have been betrayed by Messer
Malatesta and by Messer Giovanni and by the Salimbeni and by the
Twelve.'"[14] Half starved and altogether terrified, the unfortunate man
promised anything the Sienese wanted, in order to get away from the
[Illustration: LA CROCE DEL TRAVAGLIO]
dreadful city. He made the Defenders his vicars in perpetuity, granted
the Sienese all conceivable privileges, pardoned everybody everything,
accepted a handsome sum of money, and went. Many of the Salimbeni and
others tried to escape disguised among the knights of his train, but
several were detected and handed over to the Captain of the People. It
was said that there had been a conspiracy to make over the lordship of
Siena to Malatesta with an annual tribute to the Emperor, to give the
Salimbeni and the Dodicini two days of complete vengeance over their
foes, to allow the soldiers three days' sack of the city. But the matter
was hushed up and the prisoners released, to the indignation of the
populace.
A few months of anarchy followed. The Salimbeni and the Dodicini were at
the throats of the Noveschi in the city, while the banished nobles
maintained a state of war in the contado. The Defenders and the Council
of the Riformatori appointed an _esecutore_ to maintain order and
execute justice, and formed a new association known as the Casata Grande
del Popolo, with the white lion for arms, to preserve the popular
constitution of the State. In July, 1369, by arbitration of the
Florentine Republic, peace was at last made, and the six exiled
families--Piccolomini, Malavolti, Saracini, Tolomei, Forteguerri,
Cerretani--were reconciled with the Republic and restored to their
country, with the right of sitting in all the magistracies of the State,
saving only those of the fifteen Defenders, the three Gonfalonieri, and
the Councils of the Riformatori. The treaty was received with universal
satisfaction--but the peace was of brief duration. Although the
Salimbeni had previously made terms with the other nobles, they
continued to hang the banner of the People out of their windows "come
consorti del Popolo."
Among the lowest degrees of the _popolo minuto_--men of the _infima
plebe_, workers and carders of the Art of Wool, who lived in the narrow
lanes up and down the Costa di Porta Ovile--an association had been
formed which afterwards came to be known as the Compagnia del Bruco,
from the badge of the contrada. In July 1371, induced partly by hunger,
partly by the oppression of the Masters of the Arte della Lana, a number
of them rose, took grain by force from the houses where it was stored,
and made a disturbance in the Campo. The Senator (as the Conservatore
and Capitano di Guerra was now called) arrested three of their
ringleaders, put them to the torture and sentenced them to death. They
were wool-combers of the Art, all belonging to the association. At once
the whole Compagnia rose in arms, and with tremendous uproar, on July
14th, assailed the Palace of the Senator, demanding that the three
should be released or else they would burn the place down. Hearing this,
the Captain of the People, Francesco di Naddo, left the Palazzo del
Commune with the gonfalone and the trumpets before him, and forced his
way up to the Senator's Palace. He induced the Senator to surrender the
three prisoners--with the sole result that the whole Compagnia, roaring
"Out with the Nine and the Twelve," "Long life to the People," led by a
certain Ferraccio swept through the streets, tore down the banner of the
People from the Salimbeni palace, seized the gonfaloni of the terzi,
drove headlong before them a band of nobles who had tried to stay their
march, and finally--with the aid of the greater part of the
populace--captured the Palazzo and expelled the four of the Twelve and
the three of the Nine from the Signoria, substituting seven of the
"Popolo del Maggior Numero." There was a short breathing space in which
the Council of the Riformatori attempted a sort of compromise. But in
the meanwhile the leaders of the Dodicini, with some of the Salimbeni
and others of the people who misliked what had happened, gained over the
Captain and the three Gonfalonieri to their side. It was arranged that
the Captain should secretly introduce armed men into the Palazzo, that
each Gonfaloniere should secure his own terzo, and that the Salimbeni
should march in from the contado with all their forces and seize the
city gates, after which there should be a general massacre of all their
opponents and the whole State should be reformed. The plot was to take
effect on August 1st; but some inkling of what was intended reached the
Signoria. Many arrests were made, and the conspirators resolved to
precipitate matters. But on the night of the 29th, hearing the clash of
arms in the Captain's apartments, the Defenders were put upon the alert,
and succeeded in taking the Captain red-handed in the act of opening the
gate. When day broke, the whole city was in an uproar. The three
Gonfalonieri and the Dodicini had armed their adherents to the number of
nearly two thousand men; they had occupied the mouths of the Campo and
the Croce del Travaglio. A horrible massacre commenced in the quarters
of the carders' association. The conspirators, armed with crossbows,
lances and swords fell upon the unarmed populace, hunting them up and
down the narrow lanes along the Costa d'Ovile, breaking into the houses,
murdering men, women and children alike. Then they turned to assail the
Palace. But the shrieks and the cries for aid of the fugitives had
roused the nobles and certain of the Noveschi, who armed themselves and
moved to the support of the Signoria. There was fierce fighting in the
Campo and at the foot of the Palace, and in each terzo; but at last the
victory was complete on the side of the government, and the soldiery of
the Salimbeni only moved up from the contado to find that all was over.
There was a large number of executions. On the 1st of August, the day on
which the conspiracy was to have taken effect, the Captain of the People
himself, dressed in scarlet, was led out into the Campo and solemnly
beheaded upon a scaffold covered with scarlet cloth. The Gonfaloniere of
the Terzo di Città was taken in hiding near San Domenico, and executed
at the Porta Salaia; his two colleagues, who had escaped, were declared
rebels, with many others. In the new reformation of the State, the
popolani of the Middle Number (_Dodicini_) were excluded, the Fifteen
being composed of twelve popolani of the Greater Number (_Riformatori_)
and three of the Minor Number (_Noveschi_), while almost all the
artisans, _minori artifici_, were added to the number of the
_Riformatori_.
The government of the Riformatori lasted till 1385. It was practically a
government of artisans; though patriotic and energetic, their rule was
extremely oppressive, and burghers and nobles alike murmured. There were
continual plots, followed by banishments, torturings, executions. The
Salimbeni were expelled in 1374, their houses and possessions wasted;
but they gathered together in the contado, captured many castles, and
carried on a formidable war against the State. In the stormy years that
followed the return of the Popes from Avignon and the consequent schism
in the Church, Siena suffered greatly from the bands of mercenaries who
appeared at intervals in the territory of the Republic, ravaging the
country with great damage. In June 1384 the army of the Sienese, engaged
in a war in the Papal States against the Prefetto di Vico and Hawkwood,
was completely defeated, and the Riformatori compelled to purchase an
ignominious peace. This shook their power. Shortly afterwards a futile
attempt to get possession of Arezzo by purchase from Enguerrand de
Courcy, who had occupied it for Louis of Anjou--in which they were
forestalled by the diplomatic skill of the Florentines--brought things
to a climax. The Malavolti with the Piccolomini, Cerretani, and other
nobles joined the Salimbeni in arms, and made war upon the Republic,
cruel reprisals being committed on either side, men's tempers
embittered; the Riformatori, in despair, were ready to admit the
Dodicini and Noveschi and all the people into their order. The
Florentines secretly fanned the flames. By the beginning of March the
Riformatori no longer dared to leave the city, while the nobles
threatened the gates of Siena itself. "Although I am not one of the
Riformatori," says the chronicler,[15] "yet do I say that the
Riformatori were more thoroughly artisan than any other government ever
was, and also the most loyal men towards their Commune; and they were
more courageous against their neighbours than any other government."
According to him they were undone by Florentine intrigue, and by the
fault of a few bad men among them. On March 23rd, 1385, certain of the
Dodicini forced the Bargello to release a prisoner whom he had arrested
near the Porta Salaia. This was the occasion of the rising. The
Riformatori called their partisans to arms, while the Dodicini and
Noveschi, led by the Saracini and Scotti, assailed them furiously in the
Campo. For the greater part of the day the struggle raged through Siena.
The masses of the people were desperately excited, but divided and
disposed to support the Riformatori. Then said a Jew to one of the
Saracini: "Do you wish to conquer? Now cry, _Viva la Pace!_ And at that
word all the people will hold with you." The rabble, _tutta la gente
minuta_, at once turned upon the Riformatori, and the rout was complete;
and on the following day the nobles and their allies entered Siena in
triumph. "Thus," writes our chronicler,[16] "the city was despoiled of
all the Arts, and the Kingdom benefited thereby and all the Marches and
the Patrimony, and Pisa grew populous with them. And I, the writer, who
am not one of the Riformatori, judged that it was ill done; for the city
of Siena was ruined and wasted, seeing that successively more than four
thousand good artisans, citizens of the city, were driven out, of whom
not the sixth part ever returned."
[Illustration: LA LUPA]