longest day is 15 hours 23 minutes; the shortest, 8 hours 50 minutes. The average annual rainfall is about 9 inches. The drainage of the city is imperfect, and it is ill supplied with water, which is largely impregnated with carbonate of lime. The wells are shallow, not above 20 or 22 feet deep. The best drinking water is conveyed in pipes from a distance of seven miles north of Florence to the Palazzo Pitti. The water of the Arno above the town has latterly been filtered and pumped up to a reservoir for distribution in the city. Public Buildings, Parks, and Charitable Foundations.Florence contains more than 170 churches, several of which are Italian Evangelical, besides English, American, French, and German Protestant, and a large Jewish synagogue lately erected. The most remarkable are the Badia or ancient abbey, the cathedral with its campanile, and the baptistry, Sta Maria Novella, San Marco, the SS. Annunziata, and Or San Michele, with San Miniato and San Francesco beyond the walls. Of the palaces, whose construction of rough hewn stone gives a peculiar character to the city, those of greatest interest are the royal residence of the Pitti, the Palazzo Vecchio or municipal palace, and the Palazzo Riccardi, once the mansion of the Medici, but now the palace of the prefect. To these may be added the private palaces of the Strozzi, Rucellai, Corsini, Corsi, Quaratesi, Gondi, Albizzi, and Alessandri. The streets of modern Florence bear the names of many illustrious citizens of the past, and in the older narrower streets which have been left standing, the former homes of Dante, Macchiavelli, | for the perfect symmetry of the arches. The fortresses of Guicciardini, &c., have tablets with their names inscribed. Some of the tabernacles, or frames containing pictures of sacred subjects, with lamps burning before them, still remain, commemorating the ancient usage of praying in the corners of the streets. The walls of Florence north of the Arno have been demolished, leaving the gates isolated, huge monuments of the past. South of the Arno the four gates of Romana, San Frediano, San Giorgio, and San Nicolo, remain as of old. Belvedere and Del Basso are now only used as barracks for soldiers. Since the annexation of Tuscany to the Italian kingdom the convents in Florence have been suppressed. A few monks are allowed to remain in each sanc tuary, but the Government has prohibited any new monks or nuns to be added to the present number. This prohibition is, however, constantly evaded, and some of the schools for the young continue in their hands. There are twelve hospitals, including those for the blind, deaf and dumb, and insane. The hospital for the sick of Sta Maria Nuova, was founded by Folco Portinari, the father of Dante's Beatrice, and the institute for the relief of the poveri vergognosi, or those ashamed to beg, by the good bishop Antonino, in the 15th century. One of the most important and beneficial charities is that of the Misericordia, or brothers of mercy. The city is intersected from S.E. to N.W. by the river, which is crossed by six bridges. Two are suspension briages, the remaining four of stone. The Ponte Vecchio, or jewellers' bridge, alone retains its ancient form, and is still flanked on both sides by goldsmiths' shops; the bridge of the S. Trinità is adorned with statues, and is remarkable Florentines of all ranks belong to the society, and the members are equally bound to lend their services without remuneration when summoned, either to convey sick or wounded persons to the hospital, to nurse them in their homes, or to carry the dead to burial. Next in antiquity is the Bigallo for the reception of orphans or children abandoned by their parents, as well as the Innocenti or Foundling Hospital. The most admirably conducted modern charity is the work-house or Pia Casa di Lavoro of Monte Domini. The building comprises two former convents; the Pia Casa is self-supporting, and independent of the municipality. None are admitted who are able-bodied, or who have relations capable of supporting them. Au excellent education is provided for the boys, who are taught a trade by being bound apprentices to one of the workshops attached to the establishment. The girls are provided with dowries when they leave the Pia Casa. There are nine theatres, and several public parks or gardens. The Cascine, a large extent of ground surrounding a fancy farm formerly belonging to the grand dukes, and planted in long avenues of ilex and other trees, is the fashionable resort of the Florentine nobility. The Strada dei Colli, outside the Porta Romana, winds round the hills of Arcetri and San Miniato, affording a magnificent prospect over Florence. The Boboli garden, behind the Pitti, and belonging to the royal palace, is open twice a week to the public, and, with its trim alleys, quaint terraces, statues. and fountains, is the delight of the Florentines. Galleries of Art and Libraries.-Besides some excellent private collections, such as those of the Torrigiani, Corsini, and Strozzi, the Uffizi contains a very fine gallery of paint ings, especially of the Tuscan school, but including several of Raphael's and Titian's masterpieces. The greatest treasures of the gallery are contained in one room called the Tribune, where are also placed the most celebrated statues of antiquity. A suite of small rooms contains some admirable specimens of other schools of painting. In one of the larger rooms is the famous group of the Niobe; two others are filled with portraits of artists, chiefly by their own hands; and there are, besides, valuable collections of busts, coins, medals, gems, engravings, and drawings by the old masters. The Fitti collection of paintings is perhaps the finest in the world, not only from the chefs d'œuvre of the great masters, but from the small number of pictures which may be considered of even mediocre merit. The Academy is assigned for the best examples of early art down to the time of Fra Angelico and Perugino; and connected with it are the cloisters of the former convent of the Scalzo or barefooted friars, where are some of the finest works of Andrea del Sarto in chiaroscuro. The Egyptian museum in the Via Faenza is small, but contains several objects of interest, and the museum of Etruscan art under the same roof is peculiarly important from a life-size bronze statue, a marble Greek sarcophagus with a coloured representation of the battles between the Greeks and Amazons, and a terra-cotta statue of a lady in the costume of the third century before Christ. Here also is an interesting fresco of the Last Supper attributed to Raphael, whilst the Convent de' Pazzi possesses the finest work of his master Perugino, a Crucifixion, now open to the public. There are three large and valuable libraries in the city. The National library, which unites the former library of the Pitti with the Magliabecchian, the two together containing 280,000 volumes; the Marucelliana, chiefly remarkable for important works on art; and the Laurentian, founded by Lorenzo de' Medici, and attached to the convent of San Lorenzo. This last is rich in a collection of more than 9000 valuable manuscripts, as well as illuminated bibles and missals, and possesses about 20,000 volumes of print. The pride of the collection is an original and perhaps unique copy of the Pandects of Justinian. University and Schools.-The university of Florence, which is rather an institute for advanced studies,-Istituti de' Studi Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento,—has its origin as far back as the year 1348. It was divided into six "scholæ," viz., theology, jurisprudence, medicine, belles lettres, Greek and Latin literature, and astrology or astronomy. To counteract the effects of the plague, which in the year just mentioned had decimated Florence and caused the city to be avoided by strangers, it was decreed that no one living within the walls, or even in the territory of the republic, should be allowed to seek an education abroad, and that those youths who were already attending other lyceums should forthwith return to their native city. In 1421 there were already 42 professors, and although in 1472 the Medici desired to revive the splendour of the Pisan university, and transferred several of the chairs from the city to Pisa, Florence retained many distinguished professors. The university underwent various changes, both in organization and name, but continued to flourish under the Medicean grand dukes. It gave rise to several academies, the most ancient of which was the Platonic, founded by Marsilio Ficino, for the cultivation of Greek literature, the Floreutine academy, and the Accademia del Cimento (discussion) which had its rise with Galileo and his scholars. The Accademia della Crusca-named from crusca (bran) to express sifting the language-was founded in 1552, and the agricultural academy of the Georgofili in 1783. The taste for botany of Cosimo I. led to the formation of a herbal garden (Giardino de' Semplici)-and ultimately to the botanic garden under the walls of the Boboli. Natural science first formed a branch of study under the patronage of the Medici, who invited foreigners of scientific distinction to Florence. A vast collection of objects of natural science and physics having accumulated, the celebrated professor Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, in the 18th century, threw them open to the public. The observatory, once attached to the museum, has been removed to a height corresponding with that on which Galileo made his observations. The collection in the museum was enriched by the valuable waxen anatomical preparations of Giulio Zummo of Syracuse, and by a unique collection of physical instruments, most of which had belonged to the Accademia di Cimento. The university was reorganized in 1859, when Baron Ricasoli presided over Tuscany. Several new professorships were founded, in law, philosophy, and philology. In 1869 a chair of anthropology was added. The medical school of Sta Maria Nuova has also been attached to the university. At one time the students of law, medicine, and natural science were expected to pursue their studies, first in Pisa, and the last two years in Florence, where they received their degrees. This has again been modified, and students in Florence have now the option of receiving degrees in Florence, Siena, or Pisa, Natural science degrees are conferred at the Specula, or institute of natural science, in the Via Romana. The communal or municipal schools, where the pupils are admitted gratis, have increased enormously. From 4 schools under the last grand-duke, there are now, besides 32 elementary schools, 15 lyceums, of which three are for girls, and one of these a normal school for the training of teachers. The entire number of pupils in the schools averages 7900. The manufactures are few and of small importance, that of silk standing first. The cultivation of the silk-worm and straw plaiting are the usual occupations of the people. The porcelain manufacture of the Marchese Ginori at Doccia, a few miles from Florence, has greatly fallen off in work as well as reputation; but a successful attempt to revive majolica ware has recently been made by Signor Can- | the reign of Tiberius Caesar the Florentines sent an embassy tigalli, whose manufactory is beyond the Porta Romana. Administration.-Florence is governed by a prefect or representative of the chief government, who has a force of carabineers (mounted police) at his disposal, besides guardie di sicurezza, partly paid by the municipality, although there is also a city police. The ancient office of gonfalonier is replaced by that of syndic, who is president of the junta or municipal council. The city is divided into four electoral districts, and sends four deputies to parliament. Every male inhabitant above twenty-five years of age has the right of suffrage, although twenty-one is the usual age qualifying for official posts in Italy. Population. The population of Florence is very fluctuating. In 1854 the inhabitants numbered 115,675, but during the short period when it was the capital of the new kingdom there was a large increase of Italians as well as foreigners; this diminished as rapidly on the transference of the capital to Rome. By the census taken December 31, 1871, the total population, foreigners included, amounted to 167,093. On December 23, 1876, the number had risen to 176,121. In 1871 there were 158,704 Italian Roman Catholics, 917 Italian Protestants, 2366 Jews, and 5106 of other sects. The Florentines are gentle and courteous in their manners, though retaining the republican feeling of equality, and are well disposed towards all who treat them with kindness and respect. They are justly proud of the traditions of their native city, but are hardly conscious that centuries of misgovernment have left them behind in the race of civilization. Though the advantages of a liberal education are now open to them, and they are remarkably rapid in acquisition, the more important moral training is still wanting,-a defect which, with the absence of chivalrous respect for women, renders men of all classes, as is too much the case also in other parts of Italy, tyrannical to their wives and children, as well as indifferent to the sufferings of the lower animals, all alike being regarded as property, over which they have an absolute control. From their nervous physical organization the Florentines are defective in manly courage, but peculiarly sensitive to the beautiful in art, and able to reproduce all that is delicate and refined in decoration. As, however, with the decline of the healthy vigour and simple lives of their ancestors they have lost much of their originality, modern sculpture and painting are in general feeble, and wanting in truth of expression and colour. Though indolent and incapable of great exertion, the lower orders are industrious, and though impetuous, they have displayed exemplary patience and moderation in times of adversity. Their greatest misfortunes are the passion for gambling, with other vices remaining from a corrupt state of society, and the extremes of superstition and scepticism, which belong to the state of transition, political and religious, of the present era in Italy (1878). The large middle class, however, besides producing men eminent in literature and science, is rising in social and political importance, and by their intelligence and domestic virtues may well redeem faults in their fellow citizens, which are to be regarded rather as the result of adverse circumstances, than as a constant factor in the character of the Florentine people. History.-Florence was originally a small trading village belonging to the Etruscan city of Fiesole, whence merchandise was sent down the Arno to Pisa, then a seaport. When colonized by the soldiers of Sulla, it gradually attained the dignity of a city, with the rank and privileges of a municipium. The name Florentia may have been derived from Florinus, a Roman general, or from Fluentia, because situated at the confluence of the Arno and Mugnone, or from the profusion of flowers growing in the vicinity. In to Rome to deprecate a decree of the Roman senate, by which, in order to check the inundations caused by the number of tributary streams flowing into the Tiber, it had been proposed to turn the Chiano into the Arno. Christianity was first introduced in 313 A.D., and the most celebrated of early Florentine bishops was Zanobius, who died in 417, and to whom various miracles are ascribed. During his lifetime an invading army of barbarians approached Florence, but were defeated and destroyed in the fastnesses near Fiesole by the Roman general Stilicho. The Florentines, however, attributed the preservation of their city to the prayers of Zanobius. The victory was won in 405 on the 8th October, a day dedicated to a youthful saint, Reparata, who is said to have appeared in the midst of the battle, bearing in her hand a blood-red banner with the device of the white lily, which from that time became the badge of the city, whilst a new cathedral, built on the site of the old church of San Salvador, received her name. Florence had suffered the fate of other Italian cities at the hands of northern invaders, when Charlemagne, on his way to Rome, rebuilt its walls. Commerce began to flourish in the 10th century, when as yet German nobles or their descendants, who held their castles in fief of the German emperors, dwelt beyond the city. The pope, because an Italian sovereign, was regarded as the representative of national independence, and when Tuscany fell to the inheritance of the Countess Matilda, the Florentines found in her a patriotic champion of their rights, as well as a staunch adherent of the reigning pope, Gregory VII. A second circle of walls was built as a protection against the imperialists, and Matilda obliged some of the powerful nobles in the neighourhood to yield their lands to the canons of Sta Reparata. She died in 1115, leaving a name so beloved by the Florentines that their female children were frequently christened Contessa, or Tessa, in remembrance of their benefactress. As the Florentines conquered and destroyed the castles of the robber chieftains who infested their neighbourhood, they obliged them to reside within their city-an impolitic measure, which sowed the seeds of future discord and civic war. The romantic story of the Buondelmonti, whose assassination in 1215, for a breach of promise of marriage, occasioned a fierce outbreak of strife, is an instance of the many feuds that caused bloodshed in Florence during centuries. About 1240 the Paterini, a sect of Reformers, after the manner of the Albigenses in France, had gained considerably in numbers and influence, especially among tho imperialists, who about this time assumed the name of Ghibellines. Their adversaries, the Guelphic or papal party, called in Peter Martyr, a Dominican friar of Verona, to rouse the multitude for the destruction of this heresy. Two columns in Florence still mark the spots where the Paterini were massacred. A few years later the Guelphic Florentines sustained a severe defeat from Manfred, a natural son of the emperor Frederick II., at Monteaperti near Siena; and the Ghibellines, whom they had banished, re-entered Florence. The Ghibelline conquerors proposed to level the city with the ground, but were deterred by the bold and determined opposition of one of their own party, Farinata degli Uberti, whose name has been immortalized by Dante. About this time a French pope, Clement IV., invited Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. of France, to take possession of Naples and drive the imperialists from Italy; and after the defeat and death of Manfred at Benevento, Charles complied with the request of the Florentine Guelphs, to assume the lordship of their eity. In 1282, however, the wealthier guilds of Florence established a form of government or signory of their own, consisting of members chosen among themselves with the title of priors. Not satisfied with having driven their Ghibelline rivals into banishment, they sent an army to encounter them at Campaldino, where the Ghibellines were defeated with great slaughter. To arrest the power of the nobles within the city, a new code was framed in 1293, which went so far as to exclude them from their rights as citizens, and an officer was appointed-gonfaloniere di giustizia (standard-bearer of justice)-with a guard of soldiers to enforce the laws. Seventy-two families were declared incapable of holding office, and as they naturally combined in self-defence, peace seemed as far removed as ever from the walls of Florence. The 13th century is one of the most important in the annals of the city. When Boniface VIII. held his jubilee in 1300, twelve of the ambassadors representing foreign powers were Florentines. So vast were the riches of Florence at this period, that when a citizen of Verona beheld the yet unfinished campanile, and exclaimed that the wealth of two monarchies would not suffice for such a monument, he was shown the public treasury to convince him that were the Florentines so inclined, they could build their whole city of marble. The most illustrious of Florentine citizens, as well as poets, Dante Alighieri, born in 1265, was present at the battle of Campaldino in 1289, and was chosen prior of the republic in 1300. In his immortal poem, the Divina Commedia, he has preserved the names and deeds of the great men who made Florence renowned by their works. The friend of Dante, Guido Cavalcante, was considered no mean poet, and among the historians or chroniclers Dino Compagni and Giovanni Villani have left faithful records of their age. Cimabue commenced a new era in painting, and his pupil Giotto carried the art still further. Pre-eminent also in s.ulpture and architecture, in which Nicolo Pisano had led the way by his study of Greek art, Giotto built the beautiful campanile of the cathedral. St Croce, founded in 1297, and the new cathedral of St Maria del Fiore, were the work of the celebrated architect Arnolfo di Cambio. The exquisite church of Sta Maria Novella was also begun in this century. The bridge of Rubaconte or Delle Grazie, and that of Carraia, were added to the Ponte Vecchio, and thus the two sides of the river were connected by three thoroughfares, although before the 13th century there had been no houses of importance south of the Arno. 8 much cruelty that for a few months Florence was subjected to a reign of terror. During another war with Lucca, the Florentines again applied to Robert of Naples, who sent them his son, the duke of Calabria. He was accompanied by Walter de Brienne, duke of Athens, who, acting as lieutenant for the young prince, set aside the government of the priors, and ruled Florence with a rod of iron. The people could not long endure his acts of savage cruelty, and drove him from their city, after having put his minions to death in a manner so barbarous as to rival the deeds of the tyrant they had expelled. Tumults, a famine, and lastly the plague, devastated the land; and as a culmination of disasters, the mercenary troops employed everywhere in Italy roamed over the country and spread desolation wherever they came. In 1378 occurred the famous rebellion of the Ciompi (Wooden Shoes), in which the artisans of Florence, led by a wool-carder, Michele di Lando, gained possession of the Palazzo Vecchio, and turned out the signory. Lando proved himself a man of sense and courage; he finally quelled the riot in which he had been engaged but had not roused, and restored the authority of the government. It was about this period that Salvestro de' Medici, Bettino Ricasoli, and Gino Capponi were aniong the leading men of the republic. From the riot of the Ciompi to the year 1390 Florence enjoyed the rare blessing of peace. This was broken by the ambitious thirst for universal dominion of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Milan, and Florence owed her preservation to her general, Sir John Hawkwood, an Essex tailor, who had joined the mercenary bands on the Continent, and earned himself wealth and celebrity as one of the greatest commanders of the age. The death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402 terminated the war. In 1406 the Florentines gained possession of their ancient rival Pisa after a long and cruel siege. The fall of Pisa put an end to the power of the Ghibelline or feudal party in Tuscany. In 1414, at the council of Constance, Pope John XXIII. was deposed, and came to reside in Florence, where his monument in the baptistry is one of the finest works of Donatello. The wealth of the city was meantime always increasing, and manufactures of silk and woollen articles flourished within her walls. The richest of her citizens, Giovanni de' Medici, was chosen gonfalonier in 1426, but the popularity With the commencement of the 14th century the parties of this family had begun to excite the apprehension of all which contended for power in Florence had assumed new true patriots. When Giovanni introduced the "catasta," names. On one side were the Bianchi, including the or inquiry into the possessions of every citizen, with a view remnant of the old Ghibelline faction, but now represent. to taxation according to their means-a measure favour ing the popular party; on the other, the Neri or Guelphs, ably viewed by the lower orders,—it raised loud opposition who, under their leader, Corso Donati, represented the on the part of the wealthy; for, however great their riches, nobles or aristocracy of the city. Each party as it gained none could compete with the Medici, and they saw in the the ascendency sent its opponents into exile, until Pope catasta " " another stepping stone to raise their rival to Boniface VIII. again resorted to the fatal expedient of send-greater power and authority. At Giovanni's death his ing for a French prince, Charles of Valois, to restore order, and establish papal supremacy in the peninsula. When Charles arrived in Florence, he gave full licence to the Neri to pillage the city, and avenge their wrongs. The signory endeavoured to conciliate him by bribes, a measure to vhich Dante, then a prior, refused his consent, thus leading to his own banishment. A few years later the emperor Henry of Luxembourg descended into Italy, and the Florentines, whilst boldly preparing to resist his pretensions, added a third circuit of walls to their city. His death in 1313 put an end to this danger. In a war with Castruccio Castracani, the tyrant of Lucca and Pisa, the Florentines sought the assistance of Robert, king of Naples, the son of Charles of Valois; but soon becoming jealous of the foreign power they had themselves invited, they created a new officer of justice, called the Bargello or head of police, who exercised his authority with popularity descended to his eldest son Cosimo, who lived to be called (however undeservedly) the father of his country. From him descended Lorenzo the Magnificent, Popes Leo X. and Clement VII., Catharine de' Medici queen of Henry IL of France, and Alexander, the first duke of Florence. From Giovanni's younger son Lorenzo descended the grand-dukes from Cosimo I. to Gian Gastone. Cosimo de' Medici and Rinaldo dei Albizzi represented the two great families who aspired to rule Florence. The Albizzi for a short time gained the ascendency, and Cosimo was sent into exile. Before a year he was recalled, and was created gonfalonier, and the Albizzi were banished. In 1441 an cecumenical council was held in Florence by Pope Eugenius IV., to settle the claims of the Latin and Greek Churches, when learned men arrived from the East, and introduced the study of Greek classical authors. Nori Capponi alone ventured to oppose the ambition of the Medici, and it was said of him that, if Cosimo was the wealthiest man, Neri was the wisest in Florence; but the death of Capponi in 1457 left the Medici without rival. The death of Cosimo's favourite son Giovanni in 1463 cast a gloom over the few remaining months of his own life, for his surviving son Pietro was a man enfeebled by disease. At the death of Pietro in 1469, his young son Lorenzo relates how the principal men of the city and of the state came to their house to condole with them on their loss, and to encourage him to take on himself the care of the city and government, as his grandfather and father had done. In 1470 Lorenzo was created syndic, and the next year he entertained with the utmost magnificence Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan. In 1472 Volterra was added to the Florentine dominions. Such horrible atrocities were committed during the siege and sack of this city, that the crime lay heavy on Lorenzo's conscience in his dying hour. In the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 Lorenzo narrowly escaped with his life, whilst his brother Giovanni was murdered before the altar of the cathedral. The conspirators were put to death with great barbarity, and Lorenzo's popularity rose higher than ever. Surrounded by men of genius and leruing whom his wealth could buy, or the charms of his manners and accomplishments could attract, Lorenzo added to the honours of his native city by reviving Greek taste and culture. The appearance of Girolamo Savonarola, or tl.. "Frate," as he was called in Florence, awoke a new spirit. His denunciation of the immoral lives of the citizens, and of books and works of art which tended to lower rather than exalt human nature, including the writings of Lorenzo himself, were listened to by crowded audiences. Such was his influence that even Lorenzo, when on his death-bed in 1492, sent for the "Frate" to receive his confession, and grant him absolution. That absolution Savonaiola refused, unless Lorenzo repented of his usurpations, and promised to restore a free government to Florence; but to this Lorenzo would not consent, and he died unshriven. The dawn of art and literature in the 13th century had attained its greatest brilliancy in the 14th and 15th. Before the Medici had risen to power, the city had been embellished by the works of Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Andrea Castagno, Donatello, and Desiderio di Settignano; Ghiberti had designed his Gates of Paradise for the baptistry; Brunelleschi had added a cupola to the cathedral; and Maso Finiguerra had led by his niello work to the discovery of copperplato engraving. It was in the 15th century that Bernardo Cennini introduced the art of printing into Florence. Filippino Lippi, Fra Bartolommeo and his friend Mariotto Albertinelli, Baccio d'Agnolo, Baldovinetti, Sandro Botticelli, the Ghirlandai, the Peselli, Benedetto da Rovezzano and Benedetto da Majano, Mino da Fiesole, Andrea Verocchio, and Leonardo da Vinci were the precursors, and some of them the contemporaries, of Michelangelo, the glory of his fellow citizens. With Andrea del Sarto and Raphael-who, though from Urbino, painted some of his finest works in Florencepainting reached its highest perfection. Among the men of literature were Boccaccio, Guicciardini, Macchiavelli, Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola. Lorenzo's eldest son Piero succeeded to his honours; his second son Giovanni, already a cardinal, became afterwards Leo X., and his youngest son Giuliano, duke of Nemours, perhaps the only virtuous man among the Medici, died young. When Charles VIII. of France was invited by Lodovico il Moro, lord of Milan, into Italy, Piero de' Medici, to conciliate the goodwill of the French king, visited him in his camp, and offered to yield the fortresses of Tuscany into his hands. On Piero's return to Florence he found himself condemned as a traitor, and had to escape from the city, Early in the 16th century Louis XII. of France having entered Italy to claim the duchy of Milan, by right of his grandmother Valentina, a Milanese princess, Pope Julius 11., who had placed himself at the head of the league to drive him from the country, insisted on the Florentines joining the enemies of the French king and recalling the Medici. Piero had met his death by accidental drowning, but his son Lorenzo, duke of Urbino, returned to Florence, and after a short life of vicious indulgence, died in 1519, leaving an infant daughter, Catharine, afterwards married to Henry II. of France. Two illegitimate scions of the family, Ippolito and Alexander, now occupied the Medici palace in Florence. Clement VII., also a Medici, who bad succoeded Pope Julius, was at this time besieged in his castle of St Angelo by the Constable Bourbon, general of the emperor Charles V.; and in the year 1527 Rome was taken and sacked, to the consternation of all Europe, whilst the party in Florence hostile to the Medici alone perceived a gleam of hope in the destruction of a Medicean pope. Niccolo Capponi, a weak though amiable man, was the leader of this party, and Clarice, the sister of Lorenzo of Urbino and wife of Filippo Strozzi, one of the most unprincipled of Florentine citizens, appealed to Niccolo for aid to drive out of Florence the two youths Ippolito and Alexander, whom she refused to accept as belonging to her family. Meantime Clement had been reconciled to the emperor, and both approached Florence with a large army. After enduring all the protracted sufferings of a siege, and after the gallant but vain attempts of the patriot Feruccio to relieve his fellow citizens, Florence fell by treachery into the hands of the enemy; the Medici entered the city in triumph, and Alexander was created its duke (1530). Ippolito died by poison, administered, it is supposed, by his cousin Alexander, who, after a reign rendered detestable by his vices, was murdered in his bed by his cousin Lorenzino, in 1537. Cosimo de' Medici, son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, a brave soldier and captain of mercenary troops, and descended from Lorenzo the brother of Cosimo the "father of his country," succeeded to the dukedom. |