of her artisans and her peasants, there rankled still the class-hatred, which had ever threatened her internal peace.

The constant feuds and factions which distracted Florence, from the first day, when, in 1177, the Uberti tried to seize upon the Lordship, until the very end of the Republic, did nothing more or less than winnow parties and thresh out policies, leaving behind as a substantial result a solidarity which had no equal in Europe. Her rulers were men of sterling grit, and her laws,— forced by exigency of circumstances,-were perspicuous for liberty, large mindedness, and justice.

Merchants of the "Calimala"-the finishers of foreign woven cloth-for example, carried on their business undaunted by troubles at home. Its members belonged to all and every party in the State. When the feud of the Donati and Cerchi was at its height, thirty-eight merchant-families sided with the former-the Neri or "Blacks," and thirty-two with the latter-the Bianchi or "Whites " —whilst as many more were neutral.1

Machiavelli has, in his "History of Florence," given an excellent and sententious view of the vicissitudes to which governments are subject. He says:-"The general course of changes that occur in States is from a condition of order to one of disorder, and from the latter they pass again to one of order. For as it is not the fate of mundane affairs to remain stationary, so when they have attained their highest state of perfection, beyond which they cannot go, they of necessity decline. And these again, when they have descended to the lowest, and by their disorders have reached the very depth of debasement, they must of necessity rise again, inasmuch as they cannot go lower." 2

"Cities that govern themselves under the name of Republics, and especially such as are not well constituted, are exposed to frequent revolutions in their government." 3

"The causes of nearly all the evils which afflict Republics are to be found in the great and natural enmities that exist between " Machiavelli, "Le Istorie di Firenze," Lib. v. sect i. 3 Machiavelli, Lib. iv. sect i.

1 Villani, v. 38.

the people and the nobles, which result from the disposition of the one to command, and the indisposition of the other to obey."1

Perhaps the most perfect, and certainly the most beautiful, building in Florence is the famous Campanile. Vasari says:— "Giotto not only made the design for this bell-tower, but also sculptured part of these stories in marble, in which are represented the beginnings of all the arts." These stories are told in panels of hexagonal shape, not in the conventional and devotional manner of the age, but freely from the standpoint of everyday life. Giotto gloried in his Florence and in her progress, and so he has adorned his Campanile with the records of her industries and of her

commerce.

His first subjects are "The Creation of Adam," and "The Creation of Eve"; next he presents "The labours of Adam and Eve"-the man working patiently with his spade, the woman with her laden distaff;—and then "Jabal-the father of such as have cattle," setting forth man's pastoral work. After Jabal follows his brother, "Jubal-the father of all who handle harp and organ." Tubal Cain is next in order,-the instructor of the art of working in metals. Labour in the vineyard, personified in Noah, succeeds; and here ends the Scriptural subjects so called. The seven Arts and Sciences follow in turn-Astronomy, Arithmetic, Geometry, Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric and Music,-each pourtrayed in a separate panel.

Three panels are devoted to the crafts of Building, Pottery,2 1 Machiavelli, Lib. iii. sect. i.

2 Some say this panel represents a Physician in his chair, attending to his patients. His pose is that commonly depicted in the examination of urine, and a similar pose is seen in woodcuts of the end of the fifteenth century: e.g. Jacopo de Cessolis's Il Giuoccho delle Scacchi, printed by Antonio Miscomini, in 1493, where the doctor, or apothecary, as the Quenis Pawne, is testing some ointment or other mixture. Others assert that the panel exhibits a master-potter examining earthenware vessels, made in the Contado, and brought into the city by women with wicker bearing-baskets, as was the custom. Probably the panel represents both Medicine and Pottery-the row of boccali, albarelli, etc., on the shelf indicating the useful purposes served by the Potters' craft, and indispensable in the prosecution of the Science of Healing.

and Wool-weaving-the special industries of Florence. A dignified group comes next,-probably illustrative of the Judicial function,and then three subjects, setting forth man's mastery over land, and air, and sea-a horseman, an aeronaut (Dædalus), and a ship with its crew of navigators.

Pastoral industries follow:-Ploughing and Transport, with Painting-Apelles, and Sculpture-Pheidias. These chiselled pictures of life and life's activities have made of Giotto's Campanile a pulpit, whence for all time is preached the " Gospel of Intelligent Labour."

The Florentines of old looked down with ill-disguised contempt upon the citizens of other States, and especially upon the inhabitants of cities which they had conquered. These in their turn had petty rivalries amongst themselves-Siena, Pisa, Volterra, Montepulciano, San Gimignano, and the rest. Nothing pleased the citizens of Florence more than to boast of their victory in 1260 at Montaperti, and of other successes, when they met people from the defeated cities.

This peculiarly Tuscan characteristic led every city to boast of its own importance, and of the superiority of its public institutions and buildings. The "Spirito del Campanile," as it was called, was nowhere else more rampant than in Florence, where everybody seemed to be only too ready to disparage his neighbour, whilst he vaunted his own eminence, or the excellence of his craft, or the superiority of his City.

The Florentines were essentially a nation of shopkeepers, but, at the same time, they were a Republic of independent gentlemen. Whilst industrious beyond all their contemporaries, and frugal beyond the generality of men, their leisure was marked by creations in Art, Science and Literature, and their table distinguished by mirth, erudition and hospitality.

Each party in the State in turn sought to outdo the other in the advancement and adornment of his well-beloved city. Fine work set on foot by one party was elaborated by another. Wealth, honour, and dear life itself, were ever at the service