[4] See Varchi, vol. i. p. 169; Mach. Ist.  Fior. end of book ii.

    [5] Archivio Storico, vol. xvi.  See also the article ‘Perugia,’ in
    my Sketches in Italy and Greece.

    [6] Vol. iii. p. 347.

    [7] See App. ii. for the phrases ‘Squittino’ and ‘Borse.’

    [8] Of these new nobles the Albizzi and Ricci, deadly foes, were the
    most eminent.  The former strove to exclude the Medici from the
    government.

    [9] The number of the Arti varied at different times.  Varchi treats
    of them as finally consisting of seven maggiori and fourteen minori.

[10] Proemio to Storia Fiorentina.  ’In Florence the nobles first split up, then the nobles and the people, lastly the people and the multitude; and it often happened that when one of these parties got the upper hand, it divided into two camps.’  For the meaning of Popolo see above, p. 55.

In the next generation the constitutional history of Florence exhibits a new phase.  The equality which had been introduced into all classes of the commonwealth, combined with an absence of any state machinery like that of Venice, exposed Florence at this period to the encroachments of astute and selfish parvenus.  The Medici, who had hitherto been nobodies, begin now to aspire to despotism.  Partly by his remarkable talent for intrigue, partly by the clever use which he made of his vast wealth, and partly by espousing the plebeian cause, Cosimo de’ Medici succeeded in monopolizing the government.  It was the policy of the Medici to create a party dependent for pecuniary aid upon their riches, and attached to their interests by the closest ties of personal necessity.  At the same time they showed consummate caution in the conduct of the state, and expended large sums on works of public utility.  There was nothing mean in their ambition; and though posterity must condemn the arts by which they sought to sap the foundations of freedom in their native city, we are forced to acknowledge that they shared the noblest enthusiasms of their brilliant era.  Little by little they advanced so far in the enslavement of Florence that the elections of all the magistrates, though still conducted by lot, were determined at their choice:  the names of none but men devoted to their interests were admitted to the bags from which the candidates for office were selected, while proscriptive measures of various degrees of rigor excluded their enemies from participation in the government.[1] At length in 1480 the whole machinery of the republic was suspended by Lorenzo de’ Medici in favor of the Board of Seventy, whom he nominated, and with whom, acting like a Privy Council, he administered the state.[2] It is clear that this revolution could never have been effected without a succession of coups d’etat.  The instrument for their accomplishment lay ready to the hands of the Medicean party in the pernicious