| 7. Guelphs and Ghibellines |
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 The period of peace which followed the installation of
government under a podestà did not last long. As early as
1216 the antagonism between the consorterie of the Buondelmonte
and the Amidei served as a pretext for a renewal of the struggles
within the ruling group and for the beginning of feuds which were
to afflict Florentine society for the entire century, dividing
the citizens between Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1244 the
Ghibelline nobles, who were in power, decided to broaden the
social base of the government, so as to obtain the favor of the
merchant middle class. This was the prelude to the beginning of
the period that was to be known as "Primo Popolo". The
Podestà was flanked by two
"Captains", representatives of the "People",
that is of the organizations of commerce and the artisans. But
only a few years later (1250) the merchants and the artisans as a
whole, "radunandosi insieme a romore", managed to usurp
the power of the Ghibelline nobles and initiate a new political
policy. The "Popolo" was juxtaposed to the other
municipal institutions. The new organization was of a military
character: twenty companies based on a topographical distribution
each had their own banner, gonfalonier and Council. The
"Capitano del Popolo" was set at its head. To ensure
his impartiality he was to be a foreigner and he was flanked by a
Council of ancients and a Council of the representatives of the
Guilds.
The Societas militum were abolished, in the hopes of allaying the
arrogance of the nobles and of preventing them from returning to
power. So all the towers had to be cut down to a height of 50
braccia (29 meters), "... since (the city) had a great
quantity 120 braccia high". This was the beginning of
another period of peace and prosperity and the city's economic
and financial power was affirmed. Outstanding evidence of this
economic expansion was the coining in 1252 of the gold florin,
which joined the silver florin coined as early as 1235. Symbol of
the city (it was not by chance that the coin represented St. John
the Baptist on one side and the Florentine lily on the other),
the gold florin testified to the existence in 13th-century
Florence of a flow of precious metal, furnished by commerce,
which by this time was on a continental scale, and credit, which
was to make the city the financial capital of the West.
During the period of the "Primo Popolo" the population
of the city grew and new public buildings went up. In 1255
construction began on what was to be called the Palazzo del
Popolo.The district of the Oltrarno was also furnished with
stronger fortifications, utilizing for the scope material from
the numerous towers which had been lopped off, and a fourth
bridge, Santa Trinita, was built as already mentioned. The
Palazzo del Popolo (now the Bargello)
was erected to house the Councils of the Commune. With its
imposing mass and its crenellated tower rising above all other
city towers, it was the expression in architecture of the new
political policy. The present aspect of the palace is the result
of the integrations and additions of 1340-1345. Severe and
suggestive, the unified massive block is lightly marked by the
delicate cornice moldings which divide it into three stories, the
second of which is softened by a succession of one and twolight
openings.
The ill-omened day of the battle of Montaperti (1260) with the
painful defeat of the Florentines by the Sienese hosts,
determined the obliteration of all that the merchant middle class
had accomplished politically. When the Ghibellines resumed power
and restored the old institutions they decreed the destruction of
the palaces and towers and houses which the principal exponents
of the Guelph party owned in the city and in the surroundings. A
valuable document of 1269, the Liber Extimationum, or Book of the
damage done, tells us just how great the destruction inflicted by
the Ghibelline party was. The city was covered with rubble, and
103 palaces, 580 houses and 85 towers were totally demolished not
to speak of the partial damage done to other buildings. But
despite this, incredible as it may seem, the economic development
of the city does not seem to have suffered from all the damage
inflicted on the architectural patrimony.
 For six years
Florence was forced to submit to the outrages of the great
Ghibellines. It would have been destroyed had it not been for the
fearless defense of Farinata degli Uberti at the convention of
Empoli. But on the death of Manfredi (Feb. 26, 1266), the middle
classes, defeated but not conquered, attempted to take over the
government. The attempt failed, but the Ghibellines, fearing the
power of the people, and deprived of imperial support, were
forced to accept the services of Clement IV as peacemaker between
the opposing factions. The pope openly favored the Guelph faction
which thus succeeded in reconquering the power, with the aid of
the knights of Charles of Anjou whose Italian expedition was
financed by money from the Florentine bankers. Masters of the
city, the Guelphs named Charles podestà for six years and
reintroduced the political institutions abrogated by the
Ghibellines.
In the meanwhile, notwithstanding a series of attempts (all of
which failed) to make peace between the two factions, two new
parties began to shape up among the people at large: the
"Magnati" or entrepeneurs (persons whose aims were
deemed dangerous to the populace as a whole, in other words the
noble Guelphs and the repatriated Ghibellines, mostly large
holders of houses and lands) and the "Popolani" or
workers (merchant and artisans organized in guilds and in turn
divided into "grassi" and "minuti" depending
on the extent of their interests). Between 1282 and 1283 the Arti
Maggiori, corresponding to the bourgeois business class, managed
to introduce their own organs and institutions into the
government. This was the beginning of the regime known as
"Secondo Popolo" which was to lead to the constitution
of the "Priorato" an institution which with all its ups
and down was to represent the supremacy of the Guilds for almost
two centuries. The new representatives of the Commune from then
on were called "Priori delle Arti" (or later
"Signori"). There were six of them, one for each civic
quarter, with a "Difensore delle Arti e degli Artigiani,
Capitano e Conservatore della pace del Comune di Firenze" at
its head. The Magnati were not initially excluded from the
government but in order to participate were obliged to join one
of the Guilds. Later (1293), with the famous "Ordinamento di
Giustizia" promoted by Giano della Bella, the historical
process begun in the 12th century was to reach its natural
conclusion - the Magnati were prohibited from taking part in the
political life of the city. In the latter part of the 13th
century Florence reached the zenith of its economic and
demographic development. This was the period when great things
were done in the fields of architecture and town planning, made
possible by the formidable accumulations of capital that resulted
from the expanding commercial and financial activities. The towered city, enclosed within a wall, was
being replaced by an urban structure composed of a city
"spread out in an equilibrium of open and built-up
spaces" where "the urban landscape dominated by the
recurring towers of the powerful private families was replaced by
a landscape organized around large public structures" (G.
Fanelli). The population which had continued to increase
(according to Fiumi's figures there must have been more than
90,000 inhabitants) spread beyond the walls of 1172 creating new
suburbs (borghi). New city walls were needed and in 1282 a belt
8,500 meters long was planned, with 73 tall towers and 15 gates
equipped with their own towers, enclosing an area of 430
hectares, five times that of the precedent urban area. The size
of the project based on an anticipated further expansion of the
city (which was not to be), made it possible to include many
fields and building areas together with the suburbs. The new city
walls were planned so as to include within their circuit the
extensions of the roads which departed from the gates of the
precedent city wall. This explains the inclusion of the hills
corresponding to Boboli and Costa San Giorgio. The Mugnone was
naturally deviated once more and its waters, as before, filled
the moats along the walls. These sixth (and last) city walls were
the greatest financial commitment ever undertaken by the
Florentine Commune. This was why work went on so slowly,
interrupted more than once because of war and not finished until
1333. Much of the wall was demolished in the 19th century and
only a few tracts, Oltrarno, and the principal gates, of which
only one Porta San Niccolò) has preserved its original
height, are still extant. The ground plan of the walls however is
still to be seen in the line of the avenues that run around the
city periphery and for whose building they were demolished.
At the end of the 13th century Florence could rightly consider
itself the main city of the West, as cited in the commemorative
tablet of the construction of the church of Santi Simone e Giuda
"... de florentina (civitate) pre qualibet urbe
latina..". The entrepreneurs then in power decided to
construct two great buildings which were in a sense to be symbols
of the wealth and power of the city: the new cathedral and Palazzo della Signoria. Arnolfo
di Cambio was the outstanding figure who designed both buildings,
as well as all the other important works promoted by the
government of the Guilds, including the new walls. The imposing
palace-fortress for the residence of the Priors was begun in 1294
and its mass loomed over all other buildings in the city.
Visualized as a great square block, topped by a projecting
crenellated gallery, the building is characterized by the
vigorous thrust of the high tower which surmounts it and which
echoes threedimensionally the terminating motif of the palazzo.
The facing of rusticated ashlar in pietraforte accentuates its
character of "keep and martial pride" and it is divided
into three stories by cornice moldings on which the two-light
windows circumscribed by round-headed arches rest.
In 1296 the reconstruction of the old cathedral of Santa Reparata was begun, a
church which had become "... very coarse in its shape and
small in comparison to a city of this kind". (G. Villani).
The new building, no longer dedicated to the Palestinian saint,
but to the Madonna, or more precisely Santa Maria del Fiore, was to
undergo various changes in size and plan in the course of its
construction which lasted for almost a century. Arnolfo's bold
project was however basically maintained.The longitudinal scheme
of a nave and two aisles was grafted onto a central plan building
which fused the transept and the presbytery into a single
organism and resulted in three tribunes in a trilobate
arrangement around an enormous octagonal dome. The interior of
the building is characterized by its great sense of space which
dilates in all directions from the wide nave with its ogee cross
vaulting springing from powerful composite piers (multipli et
uni) connected to all the imposts of the arches. The construction
of the great Franciscan church of Santa
Croce is also attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, as previously
mentioned. Together with the  Dominican Santa Maria Novella it
represents another of the most prestigious monuments erected at
the end of the 13th century under the government of the
"Secondo Popolo".
When the city and the countryside were organized into districts
(1292) and the building of the new city walls was begun, a whole
new series of urban measures were undertaken with a view to
opening new streets and widening or adapting the ones that were
already there, so as to confer order, regularity, and decorum on
the urban fabric which in the meanwhile was being enriched with
new types of residential buildings. The numerous towerhouses (all
of which have now been lopped off) were flanked by the palaces
which the middle class merchants were building as a symbol and
visible sign of their wealth and power. In the course of the 13th
century, as we have seen, the tower-houses gradually modified
their characteristics, with a greater number of openings that
corresponded to the various rooms and, at times, an occasional
decorative element (witness the Amidei tower with its two
protruding lion protoma). The new 13th century type of
tower-dwelling can be characterized by the fine torre degli
Alberti in the Via dei Benci, the torre dei Cerchi in the street
of the same name, the torre dei Corbuzzi in the Piazza San Pier
Maggiore, the torre dei Marsili, in the Borgo san Jacopo, the
torre dei Foresi, in the Via Porta Rossa the torre dei Donati, in
the Borgo degli Albizi, to mention only a few of the better
preserved ones.
But the new residences which the rich businessmen built from the
late 13th century on were the fruit of a profound transformation
of civil architecture which replaced the tower houses with
buildings in which the rooms were prevalently distributed
horizontally, with the volumes relatively articulated and spread
out and resulting in a greater complexity of layout.The massive
cubes of the palaces with their regular facing of rusticated
pietra forte were pierced by more and more openings, signs of a
new, freer and less schematic concept of the organization and
construction of space.
The large Palazzo Mozzi, which dates to between 1260 and 1273, is
one of the most conspicuous examples of the palaces that were
built in this period. For decades it was considered the noblest
civic building and it was not unusual for important personages in
visit to the city to be lodged there. Palazzo Ruggerini, later
Gianfigliazzi, between the Piazza Santa Trinita and the Santa
Trinita bridge, is also of note, as well as the complex of
buildings the Peruzzi erected around 1283 on the ruins of the
Parlascio (the name the Florentines gave to the remains of the
Roman amphitheater, a corruption of the Greek perielaison meaning
circular space). Many other palaces of the late 13th century were
later remodelled and now traces are still to be found in various
architectural elements, (doors, windows, fragments of walls in
sandstone blocks) in the buildings that line some of the oldest
city streets such as Borgo San Jacopo, Borgo degli Albizi, Borgo
Santi Apostoli, Via del Corso, Via Condotta, Via dei Cimatori,
Via delle Terme, etc.
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