The revolution spread through the city; the palaces of the Ghibelline nobles were sacked and burnt.  A period of discord and disaster followed, but, with the firm hand of Salvestro de’ Medici upon the helm of the ship of the Republic, matters settled.  In 1376 he was unanimously chosen Capitano della Parte Guelfa—­an office of still more personal influence than the Gonfaloniership.  No one questioned his authority.  He was, as the historian, Michaele Bruto, has recorded, “The first of his family to show his successors how that by conciliating the middle and lower classes they could make their way to sovereignty.”

Another crisis in the history of Florence arose in 1378, during Cavaliere Salvestro de’ Medici’s second Gonfaloniership, when the Ciompi—­“Wooden Shoes” they were called in derision—­the wool-workers—­rose en masse, and besieged the Signoria sitting at the Palazzo Vecchio.  They claimed to rule the city and to abolish the nobles, and a second time Salvestro was “the man of the hour!”

Acting upon his advice, terms were arranged with the revolutionaries, and Michaele Lando—­a common woolcarder by trade, but a born leader of men—­was elected Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, and a new government was set up.  Upon Salvestro, “the Champion of the People,” was again conferred by public acclamation the accolade of knighthood; moreover, as a further mark of popular estimation, to him were allocated the rents of the shops upon the Ponte Vecchio and other prerogatives.

The public spirit displayed by Cavaliere Salvestro gained for him not only personal distinction and reward, but obtained for his family recognition as the first in Florence.  He married Donna Bartolommea, the daughter of Messer Oddo degli Altoviti, by whom he had many children.  None of his sons seem to have added laurels to the family fame, but to have lived peacefully in the glamour of their father’s renown.  The Cavaliere retired into private life in 1380, and his death, which occurred in 1388, marked the establishment of Medicean domination in the affairs of Florence.

The second of the “Grand” Medici was Giovanni, the son of Averardo III.—­called “Bicci”—­and his first wife, Donna Giovanna de’ Cavallini, born in 1360.  He was just twenty-eight years of age when his popular relative, Cavaliere Salvestro de’ Medici, died.  His young manhood found him in the very forefront of party strife, and from the first he held unswervingly with the Guelphs.

Married, in 1384, to Donna Piccarda, daughter of Messer Odoardo de’ Bueri, he was the father of four sons—­Antonio, Damiano, Cosimo, and Lorenzo—­the two former died in childhood.  The choice of names for two of the boys is significant of the value Messer Giovanni placed upon his family’s origin—­Saints Damiano and Cosimo, of course, were patrons of doctors and apothecaries.  Hence he was not ashamed of the golden pillules of his armorial bearings!