freshness, and the thrill and exhilaration of conscious activity.  Her imagination was roused by the revival of ancient and now new learning, by the stories of travellers, by the gains of commerce, by the excitements of religion and the alarms of superstition.  She was boastful, jealous, quarrelsome, lavish, magnificent, full of fickleness,—­exhibiting on all sides the exuberance, the magnanimity, the folly of youth.  After the long winter of the Dark Ages, spring had come, and the earth was renewing its beauty.  And above all other cities in these days Florence was full of the pride of life.  Civil brawls had not yet reduced her to become an easy prey for foreign conquerors.  She was famous for wealth, and her spirit had risen with prosperity.  Many years before, one of the Provencal troubadours, writing to his friend in verse, had said,—­“Friend Gaucelm, if you go to Tuscany, seek a shelter in the noble city of the Florentines, which is named Florence.  There all true valor is found; there joy and song and love are perfect and adorned.”  And if this were true in the earlier years of the thirteenth century, it was still truer of its close; for much of early simplicity and purity of manners had disappeared before the increasing luxury (le morbidezze d’ Egitto, as Boccaccio terms it) and the gathered wealth of the city,—­so that gayety and song more than ever abounded.  “It is to be noted,” says Giovanni Villani, writing of this time, “it is to be noted that Florence and her citizens were never in a happier condition.”  The chroniclers tell of constant festivals and celebrations.  “In the year 1283, in the month of June, at the feast of St. John, the city of Florence being in a happy and good state of repose,—­a tranquil and peaceable state, excellent for merchants and artificers,—­there was formed a company of a thousand men or more, all clothed in white dresses, with a leader called the Lord of Love, who devoted themselves to games and sports and dancing, going through the city with trumpets and other instruments of joy and gladness, and feasting often together.  And this court lasted for two months, and was the most noble and famous that ever was in Florence or in all Tuscany, and many gentlemen came to it, and many rhymers,[4] and all were welcomed and honorably cared for.”  Every year, the summer was opened with May and June festivals.  Florence was rejoicing in abundance and beauty.[5] Nor was it only in passing gayeties that the cheerful and liberal temper of the people was displayed.

The many great works of Art which were begun and carried on to completion at this time show with what large spirit the whole city was inspired, and under what strong influences of public feeling the early life of Dante was led.  Civil liberty and strength were producing their legitimate results.  Little republic as she was, Florence was great enough for great undertakings.  Never was there such a noble activity within the narrow compass of her walls as from about 1265, when Dante