| 8. From the Fourteenth Century to the Renaissance |
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Towards the end of the 13th century and in the early 14th
century the contrasts between the popolo minuto (middle and lower
middle classes) and the popolo grasso (wealthy merchants) were
accentuated. The latter had a firm grip on the power, since the
Priors were chosen exclusively from representatives of the Arti
maggiori, who also held the majority in the Councils of the
Republic. In the 14th century the popolo minuto tried several
times to broaden the democratic base of the government by
increasing the participation of the Arti minori in the
government. In 1378, under the impulse of a movement set in
motion by the proletariat led by a wool-carder, Michele de Lando,
the popolo grasso were obliged to accept an institutional reform
which not only extended the right to elect one of their
representatives as Prior to all the guilds but also provided for
the constitution of three new Guilds (Tintori, Farsettai, Dyers,
Corseteers and Ciompi: the revolt was to take its name from
latter) corresponding to the most humble activities and the
workers.But due to internal divergent interests and an incapacity
to govern, the pepole minute was unable to withstand the reaction
of the large merchant middle classes which soon once more took
over power.
The rivalry between the Donati family which had become noble and
the Cerchi family resulted in much dissension and led to the
formation of two antagonistic groups of political factions to be
known as Neri and Bianchi or Blacks  and Whites. The
former were generally exponents of the "gente nova dai
subiti guadagni" (newcomers with easy profits) such as the
Cerchi, who had recently come from the country and had quickly
made a fortune. The Neri, under the guidance of Corso Donati
grouped together the representatives of the old noble classes and
the most intransigent Guelphists. The two parties took turns at
the priorate in the last decade of the 13th century but from then
on the conflict was intensified. The Priors were forced to exile
the heads of the two factions, and the situation precipitated.
The Neri invoked the intervention of the pope who sent as his
peacemaker Charles of Valois, the brother of Philip Le Belle,
king of France.
He openly favored the Neri, and even had the heads of the Bianchi
arrested and forced those who were most compromised, including
Dante Alighieri, into exile.
In addition to these internal struggles, the city had also to
sustain the onerous burden of the wars against the powerful
Ghibelline signorias of the Visconti and the Scaligeri, joined by
the Pisans and the Luccans. The "foreign" policies of
the merchant classes were aimed at maintaining the Guelph
alliance which reunited "a military force, an economic power
and a spiritual and moral power that all complemented each other
perfectly" (Y. Renouard). Two serious defeats (Montecatini,
August 29, 1315 and Altopascio, Sept. 23, 1325) induced Florence
first to ask for the protection of the Angevin troops
(accompanied by the government of a viceroy of King Robert's),
then to place themselves under the direct dominion of the house
of Anjou, in the person of Charles, duke of Calabria. The death
of the duke in 1327 unexpectedly restored its freedom to the
Florentine Commune. But it did not end there.A new attempt to
take over Pisa and Lucca failed miserably. The Florentines,
defeated by the Ghibelline forces under the leadership of the
lord of Verona, Martino della Scala (1339), were once more forced
to ask King Robert for aid. This resulted in a brief tyranny by a
viceroy of the king, Gualtierio di Brienne, duke of Athens, who
even succeeded in getting himself nominated lord for life. The
tyranny ended on July 26, 1343, on the day of Saint Anne, and the
people, tired of violence and abuses of power, threw out the
tyrant and restored the civic liberties.
During the 14th century, internal strife and wars were aggravated
by famine and epidemics (particularly deadly the plague of 1348)
which made a situation that was already precarious even more
grievous. It was a period of decisive juncture common to all
Western economy. Further damage was caused by the disastrous
flood of 1333 which also swept away all the bridges over the Arno
except the Rubaconte. The 14th century was therefore a century of
political and economic crisis, apart from the fact that epidemics
reduced the population by half. The crisis was also reflected in
the city's architectural activity which continued at a much
slower pace than before. The buildings that saw the light in the
14th century, even if on the whole greatly inferior to those of
the preceding century, were nonetheless outstanding achievements
and the expression of a precise cultural will on the part of a
ruling class which disposed of a productive structure with a
noteworthy capacity for the accumulation of capital. From the
point of view of town planning the city settled into the form
already established by the developments of the 13th century.
Building activity turned first of all to finishing the great
undertakings of the end of the 13th century (the walls, the
cathedral, the Palazzo della
Signoria, the large monastic complex) and to reconstructing
the bridges which had been destroyed. The first of
these to be rebuilt, between 1334 and 1337, was the Ponte alla
Carraia, apparently after a design by Giotto. The reconstructions
of the other bridges, from the Ponte Vecchio on, were based on
this bridge. The Ponte Vecchio built by Taddeo Gaddi in three
sweeping arches with a road much wider than before. Also the
Loggia dei Lanzi and the church Orsanmichele
were built at the same. After the impressive expansion of the
13th century, the city began to take shape and what might be
called a real town planning policy attempted to provide the
inchoate building fabric with some degree of order and
regularity. Throughout the 14th century one provision after
another was taken in an effort to broaden the streets or modify
their routes; to tear down ramshackle buildings or those with
superstructures (such as projection or external stairs) wich
impeded traffic. The main scope of the Commune's town planning
policy (widen and straighten the streets) was on the whole
successfully accomplished in the sector that lay between the last
two city walls, but was much more difficult in the older heart of
the city. Public intervention, at least in most cases, was based
on considerations of "decorum". "For the greater
beauty of the city" new piazzas were created or renovated;
it was decreed that the houses were to have a stone facing on
their lower part, certain activities were prohibited because they
were antihygienic; unhealthy areas were to be reclaimed.
Naturally the Commune's first obligations were in the
reorganization of the city's two principal piazzas (Piazza della
Signoria and the area around the complex of Cathedral and Baptistery, which required the
demolition of various structures) as well as the broadening of
the Via de' Calzaioli to unite the two piazzas. As can often
still be seen, the buildings that line this street have a facade
with rough-hewn blocks of pietraforte at least in the bottom
part, and a series of regular arches in correspondence to the
ground floor, features that had already appeared in some of the
buildings in the Piazza della Signoria and in those set behind
the apse of the Duomo. Loggias
and large arcades were frequently used in civil architecture of
the 14th century where the ground-floor rooms served as
warehouses or shops and the vaulted loggias were reserved for the
official family ceremonies. The patrician building of the 14th
century, the best example of which is the Palazzo Davanzati, built by the
Davizzi around 1330, has by now lost all pretense of being an
offensive or defensive structure. The size kept increasing, where
possible, and the ground plan of the palaces expanded to include
courtyards and even small green areas inside. The revetment, of
rusticated pietra forte for the lower floors, became smoother on
the upper part where rhythmic rows of arched windows were
inserted. The typical "Florentine" arch consisted of a
roundheaded or flat intrados and a slightly pointed extrados.
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