POLITICAL CONSPIRACY IN FLORENCE, 1340-1382 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Robert A. Fredona February 2010 © 2010 Robert A. Fredona POLITICAL CONSPIRACY IN FLORENCE, 1340-82 Robert A. Fredona, Ph. D. Cornell University 2010 This dissertation examines the role of secret practices of opposition in the urban politics of Florence between 1340 and 1382. It is based on a wide variety of printed and archival sources, including chronicles, judicial records, government enactments, the records of consultative assemblies, statutes, chancery letters, tax records, private diaries and account books, and the ad hoc opinions (consilia) of jurists. Over the course of four chapters, it presents three major arguments: (1) Conspiracy, a central mechanism of political change and the predominant expression of political dissent in the city, remained primarily a function of the factionalism that had shattered the medieval commune, although it was now practiced not as open warfare but secret resistance. (2) Conspiracies were especially common when the city was ruled by popular governments, which faced almost constant conspiratorial resistance from elite factions that been expelled from the city or had had their political power restricted, while also inspiring increased worker unrest and secret labor organization. (3) Although historians have often located the origins of the “state” in the late medieval and early Renaissance cities of northern and central Italy, the prevalence of secret political opposition, the strength of conspirators and their allies, and the ability of conspiratorial networks, large worker congregations, and even powerful families to vie with weak regimes for power and legitimacy seriously calls this into question. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Robert Fredona graduated from Fenwick, a Dominican Catholic High School in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1996. He earned a B.A. with honors in history in 2000 from the College of the University of Chicago, where he concentrated in medieval history and was advised by Julius Kirshner. At Cornell University, he studied medieval and Renaissance history and worked with John Najemy (major field adviser), as well as Paul Hyams, and Susanne Pohl before her departure from the University. Duane Corpis joined his committee after he began the dissertation. Before the completion of his thesis, Robert Fredona published (or had in press) several articles. He has also received a post- doctoral fellowship at the Robbins Collection, an institute for legal history, in the University of California at Berkeley’s law school. iii Dedicated to my parents, Robert and Mary Fredona iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In order to undertake research in Italy, I was fortunate to receive extraordinarily generous funding from the bequest of Theodor E. Mommsen to the history department of Cornell University, as well as additional support in the form of a Sage Fellowship awarded by Cornell University in 2005, and a one-month research grant from the Renaissance Society of America in 2006. I also received a one-month Mellon fellowship to work at the Vatican Microfilm Library at St. Louis University in 2007. I am indebted to the archivists, staff, and directors of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale and the Archivio di Stato in Florence, where I undertook the vast majority of my research, for providing me daily with invaluable and kind assistance. I also wish to thank the personnel at the following libraries in the United States and Italy where I did research: the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Vatican Microfilm Library of St. Louis University, the Biblioteca Berenson at Villa I Tatti in Florence, and, especially, the John M. Olin Library at Cornell University and its extraordinary and unfailingly helpful staff. I have also been helped immeasurably by a number of scholars: Paul Hyams (Cornell University) taught me a great deal about the law and carefully read the entire thesis, providing me with characteristically keen judgments and helpful suggestions; Osvaldo Cavallar (Nanzan University) offered me a rigorous and necessary critique of a draft of my final chapter; Vincenzo Colli (Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte) generously provided v me with microfilms and shared his vast knowledge of Baldo’s consilia; Anthony Molho (European University Institute) invited me into his circle of friends and scholars at Fiesole, and shared his deep understanding of Florentine history and contemporary historiography; since I met him on my very first day in the archives, Lawrin Armstrong (Pontifical Institute, Toronto) has provided me with friendship and invaluable conceptual and practical advice; and Lauro Martines (University of California at Los Angeles, emeritus), for whom my respect is immense, has to my delightful surprise continued to supply me with the warmest possible encouragement. Two scholars, in particular, have taught and guided me over the last decade: Julius Kirshner (University of Chicago, emeritus) introduced me to both the history of law and of Florence when I was an undergraduate and I have profited ever since from his incomparable erudition, thoughtfulness, and liberal assistance. John Najemy, my mentor and friend, taught me how to be a historian; it is to him that I owe my greatest debt as a scholar—one too large to ever be repaid. I can only hope to pay back some of that debt by following his example of incredible personal generosity, sensitivity, and scholarly rigor in my own career. Many colleagues and friends in Ithaca and in Italy made my research more pleasurable, but space sadly permits me to name only a few. In Ithaca: Ionuţ Epurescu-Pascovici and Yael Nadav-Manes. In Italy: Douglas Dow, Carol Nisbet, and Francesca Lidia Viano. In Ithaca and Italy: my dear friends Niall Atkinson and Alizah Holstein; I hope they all know how much their friendship has meant and continues to mean to me. While in Europe, I also profited from the kindness and generosity of three couples: Laura Battistoni vi and Gabriele Griffini (in Florence), Carlo Augusto and Giorgia Viano (in Turin and Santa Margherita-Ligure), and Erik and Fernanda Reinert (in Venice and Norway). I would also like to thank my two brothers, Andrew and Joseph, and their families in Chicago, as well as my friends there, Matthew Norris and Anthony Vais. Finally, Sophus Reinert has been my best friend since I first met him in 2001; he has made this dissertation immeasurably better and made its writing immeasurably more fun. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Robert and Mary Fredona. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch iii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Table of Contents viii List of Illustrations xi List of Tables xii List of Abbreviations xiii Explanatory Notes xvi Introduction 1 Faction, Opposition, and Conspiracy 1 The Vocabulary of Conspiracy 10 Organization and Argument 15 Chapter I: Political Conspiracy in Florence, 1340-1368 22 Elite and Magnate Conspiracies 22 The Bardi-Frescobaldi Plot of 1340 23 The Conspiracies against the Duke of Athens 34 The Corso Donati Plot of 1344 42 The Ricci-Magnate Plot of December 1360 51 Workers’ Conspiracies and Revolts 61 The Rebellion of Andrea Strozzi 63 The Tumultuous 1340s 69 The Grain Riot of 1368 79 viii Chapter II: Conspiracy and the Tumult of the Ciompi 83 The Plots of June 1378 83 The Plots of July 1378 105 The Knights of the Ciompi 115 The Petitions of July 125 The Plots of August 1378 140 After the Tumult 147 Chapter III: Conspiracies against the Guild Government, 1379 152 The Good Friday Plot 158 The Plot of Giannozzo Sacchetti 165 The Attack at Figline 174 The Great Conspiracy of December 1379 181 The Roster of Guildsmen 214 Chapter IV: Baldo degli Ubaldi on Conspiracy and Treason (Crimen Laesae Maiestatis) in Late Trecento Florence 221 The Condemnation of Donato Barbadori 221 The Legal Issues 225 The Consilia 229 The Influence of Baldo’s Opinion 251 The Case of Tommasino da Panzano 259 Appendices 267 Appendix 1 267 ix Appendix 2 272 Appendix 2a 274 Appendix 3 276 Appendix 4 279 Bibliography 287 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I. Schematic of the Santa Maria Novella quarter of the Florentine contado circa 1340, showing important towns and fortresses (page 28) II. Map of the Arno River Valley east of Empoli circa 1340 (page 47) xi LIST OF TABLES I. Personal provisions in Ciompi petitions, 1378 (pages 133-4) II. Parte Guelfa leadership, petition and arson victims, and balìa participation, 1378 (page 136) III. Office-holding among the leaders of the Parte Guelfa, 1370-89 (in two parts, pages 201-02) xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Archival source abbreviations ASF Archivio di Stato, Florence Capitano Atti del Capitano del Popolo CP Consulte e pratiche CR Capitoli, registri Esecutore Atti dell’Esecutore degli Ordinamenti di Giustizia Missive Signori, missive (prima cancelleria) Podestà Atti del Podestà PR Provvisioni, registri Statuti Statuti del commune di Firenze BCFL Biblioteca Capitolare Feliniana, Lucca BNCF Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City N.B.: The names of most fondi at the ASF are not abbreviated (e.g., Estimo, Prestanze, etc.) and full references are given for all manuscript sources not at the ASF. Printed source abbreviations ACCIAIUOLI = Cronaca di Alamanno Acciaiuoli, in SCARAMELLA, pp. 13-34. xiii AGGIUNTE = Aggiunte anonime alla cronaca precedente (i.e., ACCIAIUOLI), pp. 35-41, in SCARAMELLA. ANONIMO = Diario d’anonimo fiorentino dall’ anno 1358 al 1389, ed. Alessandro Gherardi, in Cronache dei secoli XIII e XIV, ed. Marco Tabarrini (Florence: Cellini, 1876), pp. 207-588. GIOVANNI VILLANI = Giovanni Villani, Nuova cronica, 3 volumes, ed. Giuseppe Porta (Parma: Fondazione Bembo, 1990-1). MATTEO VILLANI = Matteo Villani, Cronica, ed. Francesco Gherardi Dragomanni (Florence: Sansoni, 1846). MONALDI = Diario del Monaldi, printed together with and in Istorie pistolesi ovvero delle cose avvenute in Toscana… (Prato: Guasti, 1835), pp.