Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/825

* FLORENCE. 739 FLORENCE. when the civil feud assumed a new form in tin- strife between the two factions, into which the Guelph party had split, the Neri (blacks) and the Bianchi (whites), the latter of whom soon became identified with the Ghibelline cause. Their dissensions were interrupted bj the ap- pearance of Charles of Valois, invited by Boni- face VIII. to restore tranquillity, in 1301. Charles espoused the part of the (iuelphs OT Neri, and sanctioned every outrage on the Bianchi, who were plundered and barbarously murdered, tie- survivors being exiled and beggared. Among these were Dante and the father of Pctrarca. In 130G Pistoja. was besieged, and taken by famine with great barbarity. In 1315 the Flor- entines met with a severe check from the Ghibel- lines of Pisa, and in 1325 were completely de- feated by Castruccio Castracani, Chief of the Republic of Lucca, in the battle of Altopascio. Weakened by long dissensions, and alarmed by Castruccio's threat of marching on the city, the citizens appealed to the King of Naples for aid. The}' received joyfully an officer of the King, entitled the Duke of Athens, sent as royal vicar, whom they proclaimed dictator of the Republic. His intrigues to overturn the Republic caused a general popular rising and his expulsion in 1343. After an aristocratic regime of the wealthier merchant guilds, there came, in 1378, a revolu- tion of the woolcombera for the benefit of the lowest classes. Under the leadership of Michele Lande they dominated the city three years, im- parting certain permanent democratic tendencies. The chief power of Florence was then alter- nately wielded by the democratic families of the Alberti and the Ricci, and by their patrician rivals, the Albizzi, who for the space of fifty- three years guided the Republic in the path of independence and progress. In 1406 the Repub- lic of Pisa fell under the sway of Florence, after a most heroic resistance. From 1434 the history of Florence is intimately connected with the House of Medici, whose influence supplanted that of the Albizzi. (See Medici.) Under Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-92), styled II Magnifico, Flor- ence was the great centre of the Renaissance movement which revived the arts and elegances of antiquity. The prophetic fulminations of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (q.v.), whose influence lived long after he was martyred at the stake in 149S. resulted in the expulsion of the Medici from Florence in consequence of their licentious lives, extravagance, and their aim- ing at sovereign power. They were restored in 1512 and again expelled in 1527. To their in- trigues Florence owed her final loss of republican rights and institutions. Pope Clement VII., of the House of Medici, formed a league with the Emperor Charles V.. by which the liberties of Florence were to be extinguished and the sover- eign power invested in the son of C4iuliano de' Medici, Alessandro de' Medici, who had married the Emperor's natural daughter. In September, 1529, an army of Imperialists under Emperor Charles V. entered Tuscany; on August 8, 1530, the siege of Florence terminated after a defense of eleven months, marked by unexampled devo- tion and bravery on the part of the citizens, in which Michelangelo as the Republic's engineer, greatly distinguished himself. Ducal government was established in 1532, and in 1569 the Floren- tine dominions were erected into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel entered - ■■ hii h in 1865 replaced Turin a the capital of the new Kingdom oi Italy. In lsV I, however, t hi ca pital ed to Rome. BiblioqBAPHY. The most popular descriptions of Florence are those oi Taine, I Italic (Paris, 1866; English translation, New fork, 1897) j Yriarte, Florence (Paris, 1881), I ti.-iu [ation I London. 1882) ; and Munz, / '■ et la Toncant (Paris, 1897); consull also Rus kin, Mornings in Florence (Orpington, Hare, Florence lib. 1884); and Hutton erary Landmarks of Florence (Nen fork, 1897). A critical modern work on the principal build- ings of old' Florence i- i rey, La Logg (Berlin, 1885). The stately line of Florentine historians, beginning with nlatteo Villain. Cro niche (latest edition, Triest, In;,; 58), includes such names as Varchi, Nardi, Jacopo I'itti, and especially Machiavelli, whose Istorii (Florence, 1532; Engl, trans., London. 1891) is a fine specimen of Italian prose of the Re- naissance. Scholarly modern contributions are the two works of Villari, V origine del communi di Firenze (Milan, 1890) and / primi due secoli della storia di Firenze (Florence. 1891; Engl. trans., London, 1H94). Consult also Guicciardim, Storia fiorentma lib. 1859) ; Trollope, History of the Commonwealth of Florence (4 vols., Lon- don, 1864-65) ; Seheffer-Boichorst, Florentiner Studien (Leipzig, 1874) ; Capponi, Storia della repubblica di Firenze (Florence, 1888). The most detailed history is that by Perrens (Paris, 1877- 1900) in twelve volumes; other important works are Davidsohn, Oeschichte von Florenz (Berlin, 1896) ; id., Forschungen(3 parts, ib. 1896-1901) ; Doren's studies on the Florentine gilds (Leipzig, 1897) and economic history (Stuttgart, 1900); Gardner, Story of Florence (London, 1900); and Heyck, Florenz und die Medicaer i Bielefeld, 1902): For the art of Florence, which pro- foundly influenced the artistic development of the Western world, see Renaissance Art. Scrjup- TTJBE and Painting, and l-'l.c IRK MINK Sa I "I Painting; consult the authorities there cited. FLORENCE. A city and the county-seat of Lauderdale County, Ala., 127 miles southwest of Nashville, Tenn. ; on the Tennessee River, at the foot of the Muscle Shoals Canal, and on the Louisville and Nashville and the Southern rail- roads (Map: Alabama, B 1). It is finely situ- ated on a plateau 200 feet above the river, and is the seat of the State Normal College, founded in 1872. Other features are the steel railroad and passenger bridge across the Tennessee, and Wild- wood Park, of 250 acres. The manufactures, which include wagons, wooden pumps, stoves, boilers, engines, pig iron, cottonseed oil, fertiliz- ers, staves, cotton yarns and cloth, during years have increased rapidly, with the de ment of the lumbering and mining industl the vicinity. Florence was laid out in 1819, and received a' city charter in 1889. This charter provides for a mayor, elected every two and a unicameral council. Population, in 1890 (.012; in 1900, 047S. FLORENCE. A city and the county seat of Florence County, S. C, 82 miles cast by north of Columbia; on the Atlantic Coast Line Kail- road (Map: South Carolina, E 2). It is in a fertile agricultural region: carries on an exten- sive trade in cotton and tobacco; and has tobai co warehouses, stenimeries, and drying plants, cot-