Blacks and Whites in Pistoja—In Florence—Cerchi and Donati—May Day, 1300—Dante in office—Embassy to Rome—Charles of Valois in Florence—Triumph of the Blacks—Condemnation and Exile of Dante—His Possessions and Debts.
FLORENCE at the time of Dante’s election to the priorate was in a dangerous state of ferment owing to the recent introduction from Pistoja of the factions of the Blacks and the Whites, which divided the Guelf party in Florence into two opposite camps, and were the occasion of frequent brawls and bloodshed in the streets.
These factions, according to the old chroniclers, originated in Pistoja in a feud between two branches of the Cancellieri, a Guelf family of that city, who were descended from the same sire, one Ser Cancelliere, but by different mothers. These two branches adopted distinctive names, the one being known as the Cancellieri Bianchi, or White Cancellieri, as being descended from Cancelliere’s wife Bianca, the other as the Cancellieri Neri, or Black Cancellieri. A strong feeling of rivalry existed between the two branches, which at last, as the story is told, on the occasion of a trifling quarrel, broke out into actual hostilities.
It appears that one day the father of a certain Focaccia, who belonged to the White Cancellieri, chastised one of his nephews for assaulting another boy with a snowball. The nephew in revenge a few days after struck his uncle, for which he was sent by his father to receive such punishment as the uncle should see fit to administer. The latter, however, laughed the matter off, and sent the boy away with a kiss. But Focaccia, catching his cousin as he came out of the house, dragged him into the stable and cut off his hand on the manger, and then, not content with this, sought out the boy’s father, his own uncle, and murdered him. This atrocious crime naturally led to reprisals, and in a short time the whole city was in an uproar. One half the citizens sided with the Whites, the other half with the Blacks, so that Pistoja was reduced to a state of civil war. To put an end to this state of things the Florentines intervened ; and in the hope of extinguishing the feud they secured the leaders of both factions, and imprisoned them in Florence. Unhappily this measure only led to the introduction of the feud among the Florentines themselves. In Florence also there happened to be two rival families—the Donati, who were of ancient lineage, but in reduced circumstances, and the Cerchi, who were wealthy upstarts. The former, headed by the brave Corso Donati, one of the Guelf leaders at the battle of Campaldino, took the part of the Black Cancellieri, while the Cerchi, headed by Vieri de’ Cerchi, who had also distinguished himself on the Guelf side at Campaldino,1 took the part of the White Cancellieri. Thus it came about that through the private enmities of two Pistojan and two Florentine houses, Florence, which was ostensibly Guelf at the time, became divided into Black Guelfs and White Guelfs. These two divisions, which had originally been wholly unpolitical, by degrees became respectively pure Guelfs and disaffected Guelfs, the latter, the White Guelfs, eventually throwing in their lot with the Ghibellines.
“When the city of Pistoja,” says Leonardo Bruni, “was divided into factions by reason of this wicked quarrel, it seemed good to the Florentines, in order to put an end to the trouble, to summon the leaders of both factions to Florence, so that they might not create any further disturbance in Pistoja. But this remedy was of such sort that it did more harm to the Florentines by drawing the plague upon themselves, than good to the Pistojans by ridding them of the ringleaders in the mischief. For, inasmuch as the latter had many friends and relations in Florence, through their partisanship the conflagration immediately burst out with greater fury in this city than it had done in Pistoja before they quitted it. And as the matter came to be discussed everywhere, in public and in private, the ill seed wondrous quickly took root, and the whole city was divided, so that there was hardly a family, noble or plebeian, but was divided against itself; nor was there a private individual of any consequence who did not join one side or the other. And the division spread even between own brothers, one holding with one faction, and one with the other. And after the dispute had lasted for several months, and disagreements became more frequent, not only in words but also in angry and harsh deeds, at first between young men, and afterwards between their elders, the city of Florence at last was everywhere in a state of ferment and disturbance.”2
The degree of jealousy and suspicion with which the Cerchi and Donati, the respective champions of the Whites and Blacks in Florence, regarded each other may be gathered from the following incident related by a contemporary chronicler:3—
“It happened that there was a family who called themselves Cerchi, men of low estate, but good merchants and of great wealth; and they dressed richly, and kept many servants and horses, and made a fine show; and some of them bought the palace of the Conti Guidi, which was close to the houses of the Donati, who were more ancient of blood but not so rich; wherefore seeing the Cerchi rise to great position, and that they had walled and enlarged the Palace, and kept great state, the Donati began to have a great hatred against them. Wherefrom great scandal and peril ensued to private persons and to the city at large.
“Now it came to pass one day that many people of the city were gathered together, for the burying of a dead lady, on the Piazza de’ Frescobaldi; and it being the custom of the city that at such gatherings the citizens should sit below on rush-bottomed stools, and the knights and doctors above upon benches, the Donati and the Cerchi, such of them as were not knights, being seated on the ground, opposite to each other, one of them, either for the purpose of adjusting his dress, or for some other reason, rose to his feet. Whereupon those of the opposite party likewise rose up, suspecting somewhat, and laid their hands on their swords ; and the others doing the same, they began to make a brawl. But the rest of those who were present interfered between them, and would not let them come to blows. The disturbance, however, was not so completely quelled but that a large crowd collected at the residence of the Cerchi, and straightway at a word would have made for the Donati, had not some of the Cerchi forbidden it.”
The commencement of actual hostilities in Florence between the Blacks and the Whites was due to a street brawl on the evening of May Day in the year 1300—the year of Dante’s priorate—between some of these same Cerchi and Donati on the occasion of a dance in the Piazza of Santa Trinita. Two parties of young men on horseback belonging to either side, while looking on, began hustling each other. This soon led to serious fighting, during which one of the Cerchi had his nose cut off.
“At this time (in the year of Christ 1300),” says Villani, “our city of Florence was in the greatest and happiest state it had ever been in since it was rebuilt, or even before, as well in size and power as in the number of her people, for there were more than thirty thousand citizens in the city, and more than seventy thousand fit to bear arms in the districts belonging to her territory; and by reason of the nobility of her brave knights and of her free people, as well of her great riches, she was mistress of almost the whole of Tuscany.
“But the sin of ingratitude, with the help of the enemy of the human race, out of this prosperity brought forth pride and corruption, whereby the feasting and rejoicings of the Florentines were brought to an end. For up to this time they had been living in peace, in great luxury and delicacy, and with continual banquets; and every year on May Day, through nearly the whole of the city, there were gatherings and companies of men and women, with entertainments and dancing. But now it came about that through envy there arose divisions among the citizens; and the chief and greatest of these began in that quarter of strife, the quarter of Porte San Piero, between those belonging to the house of the Cerchi and those of the Donati, on the one side through envy, on the other through rudeness and ungraciousness.
“The head of the house of the Cerchi was M. Vieri de’ Cerchi, and he and his house were men of great consequence, and powerful, with great connections, and very wealthy merchants, for their company was one of the largest in the world; and they were touchy and uncouth, rude in their manners and harsh, after the manner of those who have risen in a sh
ort time to great power and estate. The head of the house of the Donati was M. Corso Donati, and he and his house were of gentle birth, and men of war, with no great wealth.
“And the Cerchi and Donati were neighbours in Florence and in the country, and what with the boorish temper of the one house and the jealousy of the other, there sprang up between them a bitter scorn, which was greatly inflamed by the ill seed of the Black and White parties introduced from Pistoja, for the Cerchi were the heads of the Whites in Florence, and the Donati were the heads of the Blacks. And by the said two parties all the city of Florence and her territory was divided and infected. For which cause the Guelf party, fearing lest these divisions should turn to the advantage of the Ghibellines, sent to Pope Boniface to ask him to heal them. Wherefore the Pope sent for M. Vieri de’ Cerchi, and when he was come into his presence, besought him to make peace with M. Corso Donati and his party, and to submit their differences to him, promising to advance him and his friends to a great position, and offering him any spiritual favours he might ask. M. Vieri, although in other matters he was a prudent knight, in this matter showed little wisdom, but was obstinate and touchy, and would do nothing of what the Pope asked, saying that he had no quarrel with any man; and so he returned to Florence, and left the Pope very wrathful against him and his party.
“Not long after this it happened that certain of each party were riding on horseback through the city, armed and on the alert, young men of the Cerchi, with some of the Adimari, and others, to the number of more than thirty horsemen, and young men of the Donati, with some of the Pazzi, and others of their following; and it being the evening of May Day in this year 1300, as they were looking on at a dance of ladies which was being held in the Piazza of Santa Trinita, one party began to provoke the other, and to push their horses one against the other, whence there arose a great scuffle and uproar, and several were wounded, and by ill-luck Ricoverino, son of M. Rico-vero de’ Cerchi, had his nose cut from off his face; and by reason of the scuffle that evening the whole city was in alarm and under arms.
“And this was the beginning of the dissensions and divisions in the city of Florence and in the Guelf party, wherefrom ensued much evil and great danger to the Guelf party and to the Ghibellines, and to all the city of Florence, and to the whole of Italy also. And in like manner as the death of M. Buondelmonte was the beginning of the Guelf and Ghibelline parties in Florence, so was this the beginning of the great ruin of the Guelf party and of our city.” 4
In consequence of the repeated disturbances caused by the quarrels between the Blacks and the Whites, during Dante’s priorate it was decided to banish from Florence the leaders of both parties, in the hope of restoring the city to peace and quiet. Among the leaders of the Whites was the poet, Guido Cavalcanti, Dante’s earliest friend. It thus came about that in the impartial exercise of his office Dante was instrumental in sending his dearest friend into exile, and, as it proved, to his death; for, though the exiles were recalled after a few weeks, Guido never recovered from the effects of the malarious climate of Sarzana in Lunigiana, to which he had been banished, and died in Florence at the end of August in the same year (1300).5
The feuds between the two factions now reached such a height that, as we have seen, the interference of Pope Boniface was invoked, and at this time the Blacks were clamouring for Charles of Valois, brother of the King of France, to come to Florence as the Pope’s representative. The Whites, on the other hand, to which faction Dante himself belonged, were bitterly opposed both to Boniface and to Charles of Valois.
In April of the next year (1301), in the midst of these troubles, Dante was entrusted with the charge of superintending the works on the street of San Procolo, which were intended to facilitate the bringing of troops from the outside districts into the city.6 On 19 June in this year Dante voted in the Council of the Hundred against the proposal to supply a contingent of a hundred soldiers to serve with the Papal forces, on the requisition of Pope Boniface;—“Dante Alighieri,” the record runs, “advised that in the matter of furnishing assistance to the Pope, nothing should be done”. He recorded his vote on various matters several times in one or other of the Councils during the month of September, the last of which mention is preserved being on 28 September. In the following October, in order to protest against the Papal policy, which aimed at the virtual subjection of Florence, and if possible to avert the coming of Charles of Valois, the Whites sent an embassy to Rome, of which Dante was a member. But while Dante was still absent at Rome, the Pope’s “peacemaker” Charles arrived in Florence, which he entered on All Saints’ Day (1 November, 1301), his entrance having been unopposed, on the faith of his promise to hold the balance between the two parties, and to maintain peace. No sooner, however, had he obtained command of the city, than he treacherously espoused the cause of the Blacks, armed his followers, and threw the whole of Florence into confusion. In the midst of the panic Corso Donati, one of the exiled leaders of the Blacks, made his way into the city, broke open the prisons and released the prisoners, who, together with his own adherents, attacked and pillaged the houses of the Whites during five days, Charles of Valois meanwhile, in spite of his promises, making no attempt to interfere.
The Blacks, having thus gained the upper hand in Florence, began without delay to strengthen themselves by getting rid of their opponents. On 27 January, 1302, the Podestà, Cante de’ Gabrielli of Gubbio, pronounced a sentence against Dante and four other Whites, who had been summoned before the Podestà and had failed to appear. The charge against them was the infamous one of “barratry,” that is, of fraud and corrupt practices in office, including the extortion of money and the making of illicit gains. They were further charged with having conspired against the Pope, against the admission into the city of his representative, Charles of Valois, and against the peace of the city of Florence and of the Guelf party. The penalty was a fine of five thousand florins, and the restitution of the sums illegally exacted; payment was to be made within three days of the promulgation of the sentence, in default of which all their goods were to be forfeited7 and destroyed. In addition to the fine, the delinquents were sentenced to banishment from Tuscany for two years, and to perpetual deprivation from office in the commonwealth of Florence, their names to that end being recorded in the book of the Statutes of the People, as peculators and malversators in office.
This sentence having been disregarded, on 10 March in the same year a second severer sentence8 was pronounced against Dante and the others (with whom ten more were now included), condemning them to be burned alive9 should they ever be caught: “if any of the aforesaid at any time should come into the hands of the said Commonwealth, such an one shall be burned with fire so that he die”.
That Dante was entirely innocent of the charge of corruption brought against him there can hardly be the smallest doubt It was merely a base device on the part of his enemies within the city to disqualify him and the rest of the Whites from taking any further part in the government of Florence. None of his early biographers believes in his guilt, while his contemporary and fellow-citizen, the chronicler, Giovanni Villani, who belonged to the opposite party, states frankly that he was driven into exile for no other fault than that of being an adherent of the Whites. “The said Dante,” he says, “was one of the chief magistrates of our city, and was of the White party, and a Guelf withal; and on that account, without any other fault, with the said White party he was driven out and banished from Florence.”10
Dante’s private property, which, as stated above, was condemned to be confiscated at the time of his exile, was, it may be gathered, not inconsiderable. Boccaccio states that his father’s fortune at the time of his birth was abundant, abundant at any rate for those days;11 and Leonardo Bruni tells us that before his exile, though not very wealthy, he was by no means a poor man, but had a sufficient patrimony to enable him to live comfortably.12 Bruni adds that, besides house property in Florence, he owned land in the neighbourhood of the city, which is known from ot
her sources to have consisted of farms, vineyards, oliveyards, and plantations.13 He also says, on Dante’s own authority, that he possessed a quantity of valuable furniture.14 It might be supposed consequently that Dante was possessed of ample means; but it appears, not only from certain allusions in a sonnet addressed to him by Forese Donati,15 but also from documentary evidence, that even before his exile he was in embarrassed circumstances, and was obliged to borrow considerable sums of money. Thus, on 11 April, 1297, he and his half-brother, Francesco, borrowed gold florins (“fiorini di buon peso d’ oro di Firenze”) from Andrea di Guido de’ Ricci;16on 23 December, of the same year they borrowed 480 florins from Jacopo di Lotto and Pannochia di Riccomanno; Dante further borrowed ninety florins from Perso Ubaldino, and forty-six florins from Filippo di Lapo Bonaccolti; these three last sums on the security of Manetto Donati, Dante’s father-in-law, as we learn from the will of his widow, Maria, dated 17 February, 1315.17 Again, on 14 March, 1299, Dante borrowed 125 florins from his half-brother, Francesco; and another ninety florins from the same on 11 June of the following year, four days before he entered on his office as Prior.18
For what purpose these debts, amounting in all to more than 1000 florins, were contracted there is nothing to show. From the facts that in several of the loans Dante was associated with his half-brother, and that his father-in-law was security, it may be inferred that they were incurred in the family interest. At any rate, to whatever cause they may have been due, they were all punctiliously discharged after Dante’s death by his half-brother, Francesco, and his sons, Pietro and Jacopo, who sold sundry parcels of land for the purpose, as is recorded in various documents still preserved in the Florentine archives.19
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1 See above, pp. 58, 61.
2 Vita di Dante, ed. cit. pp. xvii-xviii.
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