e door he put up his sign--seven golden
_Pillole di Speziale_--pills or balls, which were emblazoned upon the
proud escutcheon of his descendants. He was called "_il Medico_"--"the
doctor"--hence the family name "Medici."

These were the days when the foundations of the fortunes of many great
Florentine families were laid. The loaning of money was the royal road
to affluence, and everybody who, by chance, had a spare gold florin or
two, became _ipso facto_ a "_Presto_" or bank. Next, after lending to
one another with a moderate profit--a _dono di tempo_ or a
_merito_--"quick returns," came the ambitious system of State loans,
with the regulated _interesso_ and the speculative dealings in
_Cambio_--on 'Change--with _boroccolo_--"unexpected gain," and
_ritravgola_--"sly advantage," or, as we say, "sharp practice."

Ser Filippo, or "Lippo"--the twin son, as the name implies, of Ser
Chiarissimo II.--what happened to the other twin we do not know--was
probably the first of his family of doctor-apothecaries to deliberately
abandon his less lucrative profession and establish himself as a banker
in the Mercato Nuovo. Anyhow, his two sons were born and baptised under
the happy auspices of plenty of money!

The elder, the prosperous doctor-banker, was jubilantly called
Averardo--"Blessed with good means," and the younger was christened
Chiarissimo III., to mark quite sententiously that, whilst his
bank-balance was considerable, it had been accumulated by honest
dealing!

True to the variable law of vicissitude, this Averardo I. failed to make
any very great name for himself, as might have been expected in a lad
of so much promise. He was shadowed doubtless by his more strenuous
parent. Still, he added to the family possessions by acquiring the
lay-patronage of the churches of San Pietro a Sieve and San Bartolommeo
di Petrone. Near the latter he built a _castello_, or fortress, which
was then considered a title to nobility. He made also a prosperous
marriage with Donna Benricevuta de' Sizi.

Messer Averardo's son, Averardo II., was, in the crisscross nature of
things, a man of stronger grit than his father. He came to great honour
as well as to great riches. Elected Prior in 1304, he was chosen as
_Gonfaloniere di Giustizia_ in 1314, and, between these dates, in 1311,
Ser Teghia de' Sizi, his mother's brother, made him his heir, and gave
him, besides full money-bags, much valuable property and ecclesiastical
patronage. To hi