The life of Lorenzo de' Medici Author:William Roscoe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Florence was at continual war with itself; and a number of citizens under the name of Fuorusciti, or ab- ' ., sentees, were constantly employed in attempting to ... more »regain , / . / A " their native residence, for which purpose they ,scrupled not, by all possible means, to excite the resentment of other powers against it. If their attempts proved success- fol, the weaker party left the city, till they in their turn could expel their conquerors. These disadvantages were however amply compensated by the great degree of freedom enjoyed by the citizens of Florence, which had the most favourable effects on their character, and gave them a decided superiority over the inhabitants of the rest of Italy. The popular nature of the government, not subjected to the will of an individual, as in many of the surrounding states, nor restricted like that of Venice to a particular class, was a constant incitement to exertion. Nor was it on the great body of the people only that the good effects of this system were apparent; even those who claimed the privileges of ancestry felt the advantages mon ancestor of the family had two wives, from one of whom descended the line of Guglielmo, from the other that of Bertuccio. One of these wives was named Bianca, whence that branch of their family and their adherents were named Bianchi, and their opponents, by way of distinction, obtained the name of Neri. The whole city espoused the part of one or other of these factions, and the contagion soon spread to Florence, where it received fresh vigour from the ancient dissentions of the Cerchi and the Donati. The quarrel shortly became tinctured with political enmity, and the Bianchi were considered as Ghibelines, the Neri as Guelphs. Mace. 1st. Fior. Lib ii. Amm. 1st. Fior. v. i. p. 2o4. advantages of...« less