n practice by the
Florentines. All the arts of factions, all the machinations of exiles,
all the skill of demagogues, all the selfishness of party-leaders, all
the learning of scholars, all the cupidity of subordinate officials, all
the daring of conspirators, all the ingenuity of theorists, and all the
malice of traitors, were brought successively or simultaneously into
play by the burghers, who looked upon their State as something they
might mold at will. One thing at least is clear amid so much apparent
confusion, that Florence was living a vehemently active and
self-conscious life, acknowledging no principle of stability in her
constitution, but always stretching forward after that ideal
_Reggimento_ which was never realized.[1]

[1] In his 'Proemio' to the 'Trattato del Reggimento di Firenze,
Guicciardini thus describes the desideratum: 'introdurre in Firenze
un governo onesto, bene ordinato, e che veramente si potesse
chiamare libero, il che dalla sua prima origine insino a oggi non e
mai stato cittadino alcuno che abbia saputo o potuto fare.'

It is worth while to consider more in detail the different magistracies
by which the government of Florence was conducted between the years of
1250 and 1531, and the gradual changes in the constitution which
prepared the way for the Medicean tyranny.[1] It is only thus an
accurate conception of the difference between the republican systems of
Venice and of Florence can be gained. Before the date 1282, which may be
fixed as the turning-point in Florentine history we hear of twelve
Anziani, two chosen for each Sestiere of the city, acting in concert
with a foreign Podesta, and a Captain of the People charged with
military authority. At this time no distinction was made between nobles
and plebeians; and the town, though Guelf, had not enacted rigorous laws
against the Ghibelline families. Towards the end of the thirteenth
century, however, important, changes were effected in the very elements
of the commonwealth. The Anziani were superseded by the Priors of the
Arts. Eight Priors, together with a new officer called the Gonfalonier
of Justice, formed the Signoria, dwelling at public charge in the
Palazzo and holding office only for two months.[2] No one who had not
been matriculated into one of the Arti or commercial guilds could
henceforth bear office in the state. At the same time severe measures,
called Ordinanze della Giustizia, were passed, by which th