d to till a small piece of land and rear his family.

In addition to intelligence in agriculture, it would seem that he, or
perhaps his wife, possessed some knowledge of the virtues of roots and
herbs, for, in one corner of his _podere_, he had a garden of "simples."
The few peaceable inhabitants of that warlike valley, and also many a
wounded man-at-arms, sought "Old Honesty" and his wise mate for what we
now call "kitchen remedies."

Those, indeed, were happy days with respect to suffering human nature.
"Kill or Cure" might have been the character of the healing art, but
certainly specialists had not invented our appendicitis and other
fashionable twentieth-century physical fashions! A little medical
knowledge sufficed, and decoctions, pillules, poultices, and bleedings
made up the simple pharmacopoeia.

All the same, the satirical rhyme, which an old chronicler put into the
mouths of many a despairing patient, in later days, may have been true
also of "Old Honesty" and his nostrums:

"There's not a herb nor a root
Nor any remedy to boot
Which can stave death off by a foot!"

Of that good couple's family only one name has been
preserved--Gianbuono, "Good John." Passerini says he was a
priest--probably he means a hermit. Anyhow, he acquired more property in
the Valle della Sieve and founded a church--Santa Maria dell'
Assunta--possibly the enlargement of his cell--upon Monte Senario,
between the valley of the Arno and that of the Sieve.

Ser Gianbuono--ecclesiastic or not--had two sons--Bonagiunto, "Lucky
Lad," and Chiarissimo II. In those primitive times nobody troubled about
surnames--idiosyncrasy of any kind was a sufficient indication of
individuality. The brothers were enterprising fellows, and both made
tracks for Florence, which--risen Phoenix-like from barbarian ashes--was
thriving marvellously as a mart for art and craft.

Ser Bonagiunto, in the first decade of the thirteenth century, was
living in the Sestiere di Porta del Duomo, and working busily in wood
and stone, the stalwart parent of a vigorous progeny. It was his
great-grandson, Ardingo--a famous athlete in the _giostre_ and a soldier
of renown--who first of his family attained the rank of _Signore_.

Ser Chiarissimo, between 1201-1210, owned a tower near San Tommaso, at
the north-east angle of the Mercato Vecchio--later, the family church of
the Medici--and under it a _bottega_, or _canova_, for the sale of his
grandmother's recipes. Over th