ze_: P. Franceschini: Firenze, 1892), says that the
Tabernacle of Orcagna was built round the old brick pillars. It may well
be that the pillar on which the Madonna was painted or was hung (for it
is not clear whether the painting was a panel or a wall painting) was
saved while the rest was destroyed.

[95] The Parte Guelfa originally set up their statue of St. Louis of
Toulouse, carved by Donatello, in the place where now stands the statue
of Magistrates, the group of Christ and St. Thomas made by Verrocchio.
Eight of the fourteen lesser arts are not represented--namely, the
Bakers, the Carpenters, the Leatherworkers, the Saddlers, the
Innkeepers, the Vintners, and the Cheesemongers.

XIV. FLORENCE

PALAZZO RICCARDI, AND THE RISE OF THE MEDICI

It is in the Ciompi rising of 1278, that social revolution in which all
Florence seems for once to have been interested, that we catch really
for the first time the name of Medici. In 1352, Salvestro de'
Medici--_non gia Salvestro ma Salvator mundi_, Franco Sacchetti calls
him--had led the Florentines against the Archbishop of Milan, and in
1370 he had been chosen Gonfaloniere of Justice. He was filling this
office against the wishes of the Parte Guelfa, when, not without his
connivance, the Ciompi riot broke out against the magnates, whose power
he had sought to break by means of the Ordinances of Justice.

The result of that bloody struggle was really a victory for the Arti
Maggiori, the Arti Minori being bribed with promises and thus separated
from the populace, who had sided with the Parte Guelfa, which was beaten
for ever. The oligarchy was saved, but the struggle between rich and
poor was by no means over. Soon the older Guilds seem to lose grip, and
we see instead great trusts arising, associations of wealth, and above
all, Banking Companies. What was wanting in Florence, as elsewhere in
Italy, was some legitimate authority that might have guided the people
in their desire for power. As it was, the city became divided into
classes, each anxious to gain power at the expense of others, the result
being an oligarchy, continually a prey to schism, merely waiting for a
despot to declare himself.

Seemingly in the hands of a group of families without any legitimate
right, the government was really in the power of one among them, and
thus of one man, the head of it, Maso degli Albizzi. Brilliant, clever,
and fascinating, Maso ruled with a certain strength and gener