its breaking out, and causing a division of the whole
city. They therefore applied to the pontiff, praying that he would
interpose his authority between these turbulent parties, and provide the
remedy which they found themselves unable to furnish. The pope sent
for Veri, and charged him to make peace with the Donati, at which Veri
exhibited great astonishment, saying that he had no enmity against them,
and that as pacification presupposes war, he did not know, there being
no war between them, how peacemaking could be necessary. Veri having
returned from Rome without anything being effected, the rage of the
parties increased to such a degree, that any trivial accident seemed
sufficient to make it burst forth, as indeed presently happened.

It was in the month of May, during which, and upon holidays, it is the
custom of Florence to hold festivals and public rejoicings throughout
the city. Some youths of the Donati family, with their friends, upon
horseback, were standing near the church of the Holy Trinity to look
at a party of ladies who were dancing; thither also came some of the
Cerchi, like the Donati, accompanied with many of the nobility, and,
not knowing that the Donati were before them, pushed their horses and
jostled them; thereupon the Donati, thinking themselves insulted, drew
their swords, nor were the Cerchi at all backward to do the same, and
not till after the interchange of many wounds, they separated. This
disturbance was the beginning of great evils; for the whole city became
divided, the people as well as the nobility, and the parties took the
names of the Bianchi and the Neri. The Cerchi were at the head of the
Bianchi faction, to which adhered the Adimari, the Abati, a part of the
Tosinghi, of the Bardi, of the Rossi, of the Frescobaldi, of the Nerli,
and of the Manelli; all the Mozzi, the Scali, Gherardini, Cavalcanti,
Malespini, Bostichi, Giandonati, Vecchietti, and Arrigucci. To these
were joined many families of the people, and all the Ghibellines then
in Florence, so that their great numbers gave them almost the entire
government of the city.

The Donati, at the head of whom was Corso, joined the Nera party, to
which also adhered those members of the above-named families who did not
take part with the Bianchi; and besides these, the whole of the Pazzi,
the Bisdomini, Manieri, Bagnesi, Tornaquinci, Spini, Buondelmonti,
Gianfigliazzi, and the Brunelleschi. Nor did the evil confine itself to
the ci