Toynbee "Fiorenza_1, (part 1)"

In the Vita Nuova D. describes it as la cittade ove la mia donna fue posta da l'altissimo sire, V.N. vi. 2; la sopradetta cittade, V.N. vii. 1, V.N. viii. 1, V.N. ix. 1, V.N. xix. 3, V.N. xxx. 1; questa desolata cittade, V.N. xxx. 1; la cittade ove nacque e vivette e morio la gentilissima donna, V.N. xl. 1; la dolorosa cittade, V.N. xl. 3; la città dolente, V.N. xl. 9.

In the Convivio D. refers to it as la bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma, Conv. I. iii. 4; and apostrophizes it as misera, misera patria mia! Conv. IV. xxvii. 11. In his letter to the Emperor Henry VII, he reviles it as 'a stinking vixen', ' a viper', ' a sick sheep that contaminates the whlole flock', 'the rebellious daughter of Rome', 'a mad woman', 'a second Myrrha', 'a second Amata', Epist. vii. 24 [Amata: Mirra].

Florence, the birthplace of D., [Inf. x. 26]; [Inf. xxiii. 94-96]; [Purg. xxiv. 79]; [Par. vi. 53], [Par. ix. 127], [Par. xv. 130], [Par. xxv. 5]; Conv. I. iii. 4, Conv. IV. xxvii. 11; V.E. I. vi. 3, V.E. I. xiii. 3; of Beatrice, V.N. vi. 2; V.N. xl. 1; of Cacciaguida, [Par. xv. 130-135]; of Farinata, [Inf. x. 26]; the pleasantest spot on earth, V.E. I. vi. 3; D.'s exile from, referred to by Ciacco, [Inf. vi. 67-68]; by Farinata, [Inf. x. 81]; by Oderisi (in Circle I of Purgatory), [Purg. xi. 140-141]; by Cacciaguida, [Par. xvii. 46-69]; by D. himself, [Par. xxv. 4-6], Rime cxvi. 77-79; Conv. I. iii. 4 V.E. I. vi. 3; Epist. ii. 3; Epist. iii. 1, {Epst. v. 1}, Epist. vi. 1, Epist. vii. 1, Epist. xii [Dante]; her situation on the banks of the Arno, [Inf. xv. 113], [Inf. xxiii. 95]; [Purg. xiv. 50]; V.E. I. vi. 3; at the foot of the hills of San Miniato, [Purg. xii. 100-102]; and of Fiesole, [Par. vi. 53-54]; the daughter of Rome, [Inf. xv. 76-78]; Conv. I. iii. 4; Epist. vii. 24; compared with Rome, [Par. xv. 109-111] [Montemalo: Uccellatoio]; John the Baptist her patron saint, she having been originally under the protection of Mars, [Inf. xiii. 143-144], [Inf. xix. 17], [Inf. xxx. 74]; [Par. xvi. 25], [Par. xvi. 47], [Par. xvi. 145-146] [Batista, il: Martel]; her gold florin, [Inf. xxx. 74] [Adamo, Maestro]; [Par. xviii. 133-135] [Giovanni XXII]; her population (in first half of cent. xii), [Par. xvi. 46-48] (see below); saved from destruction by Farinata degli Uberti, [Inf. x. 91-93] [Farinata]; her sacrilege in executing Tesauro de' Beccheria, the papal legate, [Inf. xxxii. 119-120] [Beccheria]; her betrayal by Charles of Valois, [Purg. xx. 71-75] [Carlo_4]; denounced as the city of envy, [Inf. vi. 49]; [Inf. xv. 68]; discord, [Inf. vi. 61]; pride, [Inf. xv. 68], [Inf. xvi. 74]; avarice, [Inf. xv. 68]; excess, [Inf. xvi. 74]; immodesty, [Purg. xxiii. 96]; [Par. xv. 127-129]; and of every sort of iniquity, [Inf. xv. 78], [Inf. xvi. 9], [Inf. xxvi. 1-6]; [Purg. xiv. 64]; [Par. xxxi. 37-39]; Epist. vii. 24; her want of stability, [Inf. xxiv. 144]; [Purg. vi. 128-151]; her degeneracy from her primitive simplicity and peacefulness, [Par. xv. 97-132]; [Par. xvi. 49-154]; the child of the devil, [Par. ix. 127-128]; a second Barbagia, [Purg. xxiii. 96] [Barbagia]; a second Babylon, Epist. vi. 8 [Fiorentini].

In response to D.'s inquiry as to the population of Florence in the days of Cacciaguida ([Par. xvi. 25-26]), the latter states that the number of those fit to bear arms was a fifth of those then alive (in 1300, the assumed date of the Journey), [Par. xvi. 46-48].

In the Convivio, Conv. II. xiii. 22, D. alludes to the appearance of a fiery cross in the sky over the city of Florence nel principio de la sua destruzione, i.e. at the time of the entry of Charles of Valois into the city (Nov. 1301). This phenomenon is recorded by Dino Compagni:

La sera apparì in cielo uno segno maraviglioso; il quale fu una croce vermiglia, sopra il palagio de' priori. Fu la sua lista ampia più che palmi uno e mezzo; e l'una linea era di lunghezza braccia xx in apparenza, quella a traverso uno poco minore, la quale durò per tanto spazio, quanto penasse uno cavallo a correre dua aringhi. Onde la gente che la vidde, e io che chiaramente la viddi, potemo comprendere che Iddio era fortemente contro alla nostra città crucciato. (ii. 19.)

Villani ({Villani. Chroniche. viii. 48}) describes the appearance as that of a comet with an immense trail, as of smoke, behind it.

The following public buildings and places in Florence are mentioned or alluded to by D.: the baptistery, San Giovanni, [Inf. xix. 17]; l'antico Batisteo, [Par. xv. 134], il Batista, [Par. xvi. 47] [Batisteo]; the church of San Miniato, [Purg. xii. 101-102] [Miniato, San]; the old wall (of 1078) and Badia, [Par. xv. 97-98] [Badia]; the Ponte Vecchio, il passo d'Arno, [Inf. xiii. 146]; Marte, [Par. xvi. 47]; il ponte, [Par. xvi. 146] [Ponte Vecchio]; the Ponte di Rubaconte, [Purg. xii. 102] [Rubaconte]; the Gardingo, [Inf. xxiii. 108] [Gardingo]; the Porta san Piero, [Par. xvi. 40, 94] [Porta san Piero]; the Porta Peruzza, [Par. xvi. 126] [Porta Peruzza] ; the Corso, [Par. xvi. 40-42] [Corso]; the Mercato Vecchio, [Par. xvi. 121] [Mercato]; the Borgo sant'Apostolo, [Par. xvi. 134] [Borgo].

The city of Florence is situated at about 50 m. above sea level near the east end of an alluvial plain that extends WNW. for some 25 miles, 40 km. This plain was a lake in the tertiary period, until the Arno cut the gorge of the Gonfolina through the Monti Albani towards the Tyrrhenian sea. The average flow of the Arno is 51 cubic m./sec., but has been known to rise to 910 cubic m./sec. and to sink to 1 cubic m./sec.

The city, originally set back from the Arno on the north bank, is now unequally divided by it. The S. portion is known as Oltrarno.

D.'s conception of the history of Florence is based on the traditional, largely legendary, story that is known to us in various forms: in the chronicles published by Otto Hartwig, Quellen und Forschungen zur ältesten Geschichte der Stadt Florenz, 2 vols. (1875), in the Historia Antica (ed. V. Follini, Firenze, 1816) of Ricordano Malispini, and in the Croniche of Giovanni Villani (ed. I. Moutier, Firenze 1823 and 1844-1847).

Since 1870, when Paul Scheffer-Boichorst attacked Ricordano Malispini's history as a forgery based on Villani ('Die florentinische Geschichte der Malispini, Eine Fälschung', Historische Zeitschrift, xxiv (1870), 274-313), 'that history has been suspect, and Paget Toynbee made no use of it, but only of Villani. But since then efforts have been made to rehabilitate it, by Raffaello Morghen, 'Note malispiniane', BISI, xl (1920), 105-126, xli (1921), 171-194: 'Dante, Villani e Ricordano Malispini' xlvi (1931), 41-92: 'Ancora sulla questione malispiniana'; 'La storiografia fiorentina del Trecento: Ricordano Malispini, Dino Compagni e Giovanni Villani', in Secoli vari ('300- '400- '500) (Firenze, 1958), 71-93.

His arguments have been recapitulated and added to by Alberto del Monte, 'La storiografia fiorentina dei secoli XII e XIII', BISI, lxii(1950). 175-265.

Authenticity is supported by Guglielmo Maetzke's identification of the circuit of walls described by Ricordano Malispini, c. 27 (and assumed by him to be those of the original Roman city) as the vith-cent. circuit due to Justinian's generals in the wars against the Goths, 'Ricerche sulla topografia fiorentina nel periodo delle guerre goto-bizantine') (Acc. Naz. Lincei, Rendiconti, viii. 8 (1948), 97-112, [Map 3] and [Map 4]. But the question cannot be regarded as settled, see C. T. Davis, Dante and the Idea of Rome (Oxford 1957), Appendix, 244-262.

The lists of the old families of Florence, [Par. xvi, 52] Malispini, c. 52, and Villani, iv. 10-13 are important; no one of them is reducible to either of the other two. Of the Giudi and Sizii, both in Dante, Malispini has only the Giudi, Villani only the Sizii.

The Florentine tradition is strongly marked by hostility to Fiesole, and as Fiesole was destroyed by Florence in 1125 and its inhabitants removed to Florence, the tradition can be dated to the first half of cent. xii (see N. Rubinstein, 'The beginnings of political thought in Florence', Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Inst. v (1942), 198-227, and for subsequent criticism of the tradition, id. 'Il Poliziano e la questione delle origini di Firenze', in Il Poliziano e il suo tempo (Firenze, 1954), 101-110). Sanzanome, writing probably before 1234, in his Gesta Florentinorum (Hartwig, p. 2, 28-29) begins from 1125 as the origin of modern Florence: 'a destructione itaque Fesulorum modernis temporibus facta victoriarum sumatur initium, cum eius occasione Florentia sumpsisset originem.' Florence, till then outdistanced by some other Tuscan (Pisa, Lucca) and Lombard towns began to expand more rapidly. With hostility to Fiesole goes emphasis on a special relationship with Rome. The quarrel with Fiesole is in the fully developed legend projected back to the foundation of Florence as a Roman colony (but the Liber de origine civitatis, p. 604, knows better: 'et ita post quingentos annos stetit postea (A.D. 450) civitas Faesulana et civitas Florentina: postea crevit inimicitia maxima inter eos'), and the Roman foundation (by Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cicero, etc.) is duplicated for emphasis, after the destruction of the city by Attila-Totila, whether soon after (Hartwig, Libro fiesolano, p. 10), or 361 years after, by Charlemagne. In both the fine flower of the Roman race participates in the colony, and Florence is thought of as a second Rome, reproducing the features of Rome.

The destruction of the first Florence is ascribed to a composite figure, dated A.D. 440, of Attila, king of the Huns (d. 453) and Totila, king of the Goths (542), a 'flagellum Dei', who favoured Fiesole against Roman Florence.

Opinions differed on the relation of the second Florence to the first in size. The Libro fiesolano says that after Totila's death the Romans rebuilt Florence 'maggiore e più forte che prima', and then describes the Roman rectangle by the four gates (S. Piero and S. Brancazio, S. Maria Sopra Porta and 'the ancient tower by the bishop's church'). Ricordano 27 explains this, by describing the smaller circuit within the rectangle Villani, iii. 1, took the second city to be smaller, reckoning the Roman city to have included S. Lorenzo, the amphitheatre and theatre. He mentions, i. 38, though not as his own, the view that the Capitol had been on the site of Palazzo Vecchio. He was right in so far as Florence had expanded far beyond the Roman walls, wrong in thinking that the area must have been walled. The Cronica de quibusdam gestis (ed. A. del Monte, BISI, lxii (1950), 265-286) speaks of the 'modicus circuitus' of the second Florence in comparison with either the previous Roman or later circuit of 1172.