FLORENCE (Italian, Firenze; Latin, floe a flower, and florere, to bloom, etc.), Italy, metropolis of Tuscany, capital of the province also called Florence. It is exceeded in number of inhabitants by six of the other Italian cities; in distinction and interest, however, it is sur passed by Rome alone.
Situation and Florence is built on both banks of the Arno at a point (lat. 43° 46' N. and long. 11° 15' E.) which is properly characterized as the true centre of Italy in the sense that it is the point of intersection of the two great routes, from Rome to Milan and cen tral Europe, and from Pisa to Bologna and Venice. In this circumstance we find the ex planation of the development of its commerce during the Middle Ages and the diffusion of its language in all parts of Italy. (See ITALY — LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE). For good weather, the month of May is to be commended as per haps the most perfect. Autumn is apt to be cloudy; in winter icy winds from the Apen nines blow bitterly down the valley of the Arno; during summer the heat is often overpowering: caldo di Firenze° is the Italian way of say ing "hot as Florence)); and that has become proverbial.
Early History.— In its origin, probably Etruscan, Florence absorbed colonists whom the Romans called Tuscans and who, three cen turies before the foundation of Rome, estab lished a kingdom extending between the shores of the Mediterranean at the mouth of the Arno to the Apennines. Sylla, as proconsul, em bellished the town; Attila's hordes reduced it to ashes; 250 years later Charlemagne rebuilt and favored it; next, Countess Matilda, sover eign lady over all Tuscany, presented it to the Holy See. That donation was ratified by the Florentines, indeed, but not by Frederick Bar Parossa, who, esteeming himself the successor of the Roman emperors, in 1153 conferred the investiture upon Guelph of Este.
Guelphs and Ghibellines.— Pope Innocent III maintained his claim by force of arms. Forthwith Italy was divided into two hostile camps. Florence itself, however, declined to take sides positively until, in 1215, the blood feud of the Buondelmonte and the Amadei, both powerful Florentine families, proved to be the origin of that famous quarrel which, cen tury after century, distracted all Italy with civil wars, led to the exile of the greatest citi zens and made the peninsula an easy prey to invaders. Florence constituted itself an inde pendent republic. Then the Emperor Frede rick II, intent upon recovery of domain over Tuscany, joined forces with the Amadei (polit ically, the Ghibellines) and drove the Buondel monte partisans (the Guelphs) from Florence. Thus banished, the Guelphs fortified and held Valdarno (1247), and from that time the two parties (the Ghibelline, party of the Emperors, and the Guelphs, naturally or necessarily•driven to embrace the cause of the Popes) contended for supremacy. Reconciliation was indeed ar ranged; but it was merely a truce, for then the factions known as "Whites° and "Blacks° revived such contentions as had become tradi tional; and in 1301 Charles of Anjou, at the request of the Pope and the Neri ("Blacks"), crossed the Alps, entered Florence, and banished the "Whites'—among whom was Dante Alighieri.
The Plague.—In 1348 the plague ("coming from the East° it is asserted) caused the death of 100,000 Florentines, according to Machia velli. That disaster set loose elemental pas sions, and in that century the strife between families of the old aristocracy — that of birth — merged in a more significant struggle be tween the people (Popolari) and a new aristoc racy of wealth. At the beginning of the 15th century the Popolari were in power. Then it was that the Medici family began to exercise influence over the masses.
The Medici.— First of that family to re ceive notice, Giovanni, who died 28 Feb. 1428, was merely a merchant prince; but his son Cosimo (known as Cosimo the Elder and "Father of the Country))) laid the foundation of the fame of his house. Official authority he neither possessed nor desired, since he gov erned by moral supremacy to which the people gave voluntary adhesion, and which became his family's hereditary privilege — to such de gree that in course of time Florentines came to regard the Medici as the natural depositaries of power. Cosimo's grandson was that Lorenzo who fairly earned and by his personality added new meaning to his title "the Magnificent.° All-powerful in Tuscany from 1469 to 1492, he is identified with a period in a century that brought forth lovers of beauty, lovers of learn ing, lovers of adventure; discoverers or creators in many a field; the Florentine Vespucci, whose name was to be given to all the New World. Machiavelli wrote concerning Lorenzo as fol lows: He governed the republic with great judgment, and was recognized as an equal bbyy various crowned heads of other countries. He was the greatest patron of literature and art that any prince has ever been, and he won the people by his liberality and other popular quali ties. By his political talents he made Florence the leading state in Italy, and by his other qualities made it the intellectual, artistic and fashionable centre of Italy.° He it was who caused Ghirlandaio's frescoes in Santa Maria Novella and Santa Trinita to be painted — a detail to which we refer because we wish to speak again about Ghirlandaio. Only by cour tesy a "prince,* the Magnificent Lorenzo nei ther held nor claimed official rank. The first Grand Duke of Tuscany, Duke of Florence (1519-74), was a member of a lateral branch of the family de Medici, the line of Cosimo the Elder falling. Last of the Medici line in office was Gian. Gastone (1723-37) who, as Yriarte writes, was "a queer mixture of virtue and vice, but at his death the people remembered only his goodness and the generous use he made of the money that might have been spent upon pomp and show.° His sister survived till 1743, when the grand-ducal house of Medici became extinct.