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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Historians dealing with the political and cultural history of the Florentine Commune during the Renaissance have been fortunate in having at their disposal the extensive resources of the local Archivio di Stato. One can find among its riches abundant evidence concerning many facets of private activity and public policy of the Trecento and Quattrocento. The great attention that Florence has received in the historical accounts of the Italian Renaissance reflects not only Florentine erninence during that epoch but also the survival of so much evidence not existing for many other cities. Yet one real difficulty which confronts historians of the early Renaissance has been the lack of extensive sources dealing with individual members of the Florentine society, particularly those who were active and prominent in the agitated arena of communal politics. Some diaries, of course, have survived, but the number is small and more often than not they were penned by men whose detachment from daily involvement in the formulation and implementation of policies allowed them the leisure to maintain a continuing record of their political views and commitments.
The author wishes to thank the American Philosophical Society for a travel grant which enabled him to spend the summer of 1966 in Florence when he first studied and transcribed the documents of the appendix and the Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence, Dott. Emanuele Casamassima, for permission to publish the documents in the appendix.
1 Stefani's and Minerbetti's chronicles were, of course, written contemporaneously with the events which the authors described. But, although both these men were actively involved in the political affairs of the Commune they were not among the most prominent members of the ruling group. Giovanni Cavalcanti's history of Florence, to which can be traced a great many of the current generalizations about the character of the ‘Albizzian era,’ was written while its author was imprisoned in the communal debtors’ prison.
2 Ser Lapo, Mazzei, Lettere di un notaro ad un mercante, ed. Cesare, Guasti (Florence, 1880).Google Scholar
3 For a more detailed exposition of the current assumptions on the character of the late Florentine Trecento the reader is referred to my forthcoming article, ‘The Florentine Oligarchy and the Balie of the late Trecento,’ to be published in Speculum.
4 These conclusions can be found in all the works which have dealt with the politics of Florence during that period. For the purpose of brevity, references are here made only to the three standard histories of Florence: Gino, Capponi, Storia della Repubblica di Firenze, 2 vols. (Florence, 1875), II, book IV, chs. 3 and 4.Google Scholar Francois-Tomy, Perrens, Histoire de Florence, depuis sa foundation jusqu'à la domination des Médicis, 6 vols. (Paris, 1877-1883), VI, chs. 1 and 2.Google Scholar Schevill, F., History of Florence (New York, 1936), ch. xx.Google Scholar
5 Comtnissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il comune di Firenze, ed. Cesare Guasti, 3 vols. (Florence, 1876), 1, 33. (Hereinafter Comtnissioni.)
6 ‘Essendo io in Firenze … i signori Priori mi mandarono loro ambasciadore (bene che volesseno ch'io parlassi in nome di messer Maso) al signor Carlo Malatesti; e non volleno che i Dieci della balia lo sapessino, ne eziandio ser Coluccio lor cancellieri: e per la detta cagione ne feceno una Commissione scritta in mano di tutti e nove i detti Signori, come apparisce di sotto la copia; et io ho anco la originale. E più mi promissero alla mia tornata farmi pagare del salario che s'usa … i quali danari non mai ebbi; che tornai nella fine del loro umcio … Et anche perchè i Dieci della balia presono sdegno co’ Signori della mia andata sanza lor saputa, mai non gli volleno stanziare, benche i Signori, in verità, ne facessono ultimo de potentia.’ Ibid.
7 Perrens, Histoire, VI, 130.
8 The details of the war are covered in the general histories of Florence cited above, and in: Bueno de, Mesquita, Giangaleazzo Visconti—Duke of Milan (1351-1402) (Cambridge, 1941), ch. VIII.Google Scholar
9 Piero di Giovanni Minerbetti, Cronica (Florence, 1770), 487-488; Piero, Buoninsegni, Historia Fiorentina (Florence, 1631), 779–780.Google Scholar
10 Cotnmissioni, 36; Minerbetti, 489-490; Buoninsegni, 780.
11 'Partimociene e ritornamociene a Firenze con poco honore.’ Buonaccorso, Pitti, Cronica, ed. Alberto Bacchi, della Lega (Bologna, 1905), 145.Google Scholar
12 Minerbetti, 485-486.
13 For these negotiations see: Renato, Piattoli, ‘II problema portuale di Firenze dall’ ultima lotta con Giangaleazzo Visconti alle prime trattative per l'acquisto di Pisa (1402- 1405),’ Rivista Storica degli archivi toscani, II (1930), 157–190.Google Scholar
14 Scaramella, G., in his ‘La dominazione viscontea in Pisa,’ Studi Storici, III (1894), 450–451 Google Scholar, printed the instructions issued to the Florentine ambassador sent to negotiate with Giovanni Colonna's representative.
15 Filippo Corsini was sent to Pisa to negotiate with Gabriele Maria's mother, armed with the following instructions: ‘Noi siamo contend seguitare il ragionamento, cioè di contrarre con lei buona pace e sicura; e che tra lei e noi non abbia a essere guerra. Ma che per fare contento il nostro popolo, e mostrargli come esso sia sicuro che guerra non gli sia fatta, a noi è bisogno ch'ella metta nelle mani del Comune nostro quattro castella … Se ella dinegasse questo volere fare … e ella dicesse di volere mettere le dette castella colle fortezze loro in mano di terza persona fidata a lei e a noi dirai, in ultimo che noi siamo contenti.’ Commissioni, 36.
16 Leon|Mirot, ‘Un conflit diplomatique au xve siècle—L'arrestation des ambassadeurs florentins en France,’ Bibliothèque de 1'école des Chartes, XVVV (1934), 82–84 Google Scholar; Petitot, M. (ed.), Le livre desfaits du Mareschal de Boucicaut, 2 vols. (Paris, 1825), 11, 127–131 Google Scholar; Scaramella, ‘La dominazione,’ 448.
17 Buoninsegni, 780-781; Pitti says that the value of the sequestered merchandise was 200,000 florins. Cronica, 146; Minerbetti, 491-492.
18 Commissioni, , 55; Pitti, Cronica, 145 ff.; Luigi Fumi and Eugenio Lazzareschi (eds.), Carteggio di Paolo Guinigi, 1400-1430 (Lucca, 1925), 15 (no. 25), 17 (no. 29)Google Scholar; Scaramella, , ‘La dominazione,’ 452. The terms of the truce are listed in: C. Guasti (ed.), I capitoli del commune di Firenze, 2 vols. (Florence, 1880), 11, 143, no. 57.Google Scholar
19 ‘L'oligarchie ayant bien digéré Arezzo, elle avait faim di Pise.’ Perrens, Histoire, VI, 125. Guasti, referring to the events of late April, stated: ‘Le lettere che uscivano a que’ giorni dalla penna dei notari del Comune mostrano che pace non si voleva neppure a parole.’ Commissioni, 36; this statement makes part of Guasti's commentary.
20 Scaramella, ‘La dominazione,’ 455.
21 Mattei Palmerii, De captivitate Pisarum—Sive de hello contra Pisanos, XIX of Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Milano, 1731), 169-170; Gino di Neri Capponi, Commentari dell'acquisto ovvero presa di Pisa seguita I'anno 1406, XVIII of Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Milan,1731), 1127; Scaramella, ‘La dominazione,’ 457.