and they put them in the People's
Palace over against the Badia, believing that by virtue of their habit
they would be impartial, and would guard the commonwealth from
extravagant spendings; the which, albeit in heart they were of diverse
parties, under cover of false hypocrisy were at one, more for their
own gain than for the public weal; and they ordained thirty-six good
men, merchants and artificers of the greatest and best which there
were in the city, the which were to give counsel to the said two
Podestas, and were to provide for the spendings of the commonwealth;
and of this number were both Guelfs and Ghibellines, popolani and
magnates which were to be trusted, which had remained in Florence at
the banishment of the Guelfs. And the said thirty-six met together
every day to take counsel as to the common well-being of the city, in
the shop and court of the consuls of Calimala, which was at the foot
of the house of the Cavalcanti in the Mercato Nuovo; the which made
many good ordinances for the common weal of the city, among which they
decreed that each one of the seven principal Arts in Florence should
have a college of consuls, and each should have its ensign and
standard, to the intent that, if any one in the city rose with force
of arms, they might under their ensigns stand for the defence of the
people and of the commonwealth. And the ensigns of the seven greater
Arts were these: the judges and notaries, an azure field charged with
a large golden star; the merchants of Calimala, to wit, of French
cloths, a red field with a golden eagle on a white globe; money
changers, a red field sewn with golden florins; wool merchants, a red
field charged with a white sheep; physicians and apothecaries, a red
field, thereupon S. Mary with her son Christ in her arms; silk
merchants and mercers, a white field charged with a red gate, from the
title of Porta Sante Marie; furriers, arms vair, and in one corner an
Agnus Dei upon an azure field. The next five, following upon the
greater arts, were regulated afterwards when the office of Priors of
the Arts was created, as in time hereafter we shall make mention; and
they had assigned to them after a similar fashion to the seven Arts,
standards and arms: to wit, the Baldrigari (that is, retail merchants
of Florentine cloths, of stockings, of linen cloths, and hucksters),
white and red standard; butchers, a yellow field with a black goat;
shoemakers, the transverse stripes, white an