li Albizzi, where the roofs of the
beautiful palaces almost touch, and the way is cool and full of shadow.
There, amid all the hurry and bustle of the narrow, splendid street, I
shall think only of old things for a time, I shall remember the great
men who founded and established the city, I shall recall the great
families of Florence. Here in this Borgo the Albizzi built their towers
when they came from Arezzo, giving the city more than an hundred
officers, Priori and Gonfalonieri, till Cosimo de' Medici thrust them
out with the help of Eugenius IV. The grim, scornful figure of Rinaldo
seems to haunt the old palace still. How often in those September days
must he have passed to and fro between his palace and the Bargello close
by, the Palace of the Podesta: but the people, fearing they knew not
what, barricaded the place so that Rinaldo was persuaded to consult
with the Pope in S. Maria Novella. At dawn he dismissed his army, and
remained alone. Then the friends of Cosimo in exile went to the Pope and
thanked him, thus, as some have thought, surprising him into an
abandonment of Rinaldo. However that may be, Rinaldo was expelled,
leaving the city with these words, "He is a blind man without a guide,
who trusts the word of a Pope." And what figure haunts Palazzo Altovite,
the home of that fierce Ghibelline house loved by Frederick II, if not
that hero who expelled the Duke of Athens. Palazzo Pazzi and Palazzo
Nonfinito at the Canto de' Pazzi where the Borgo degli Albizzi meets Via
del Proconsolo, brings back to me that madman who first set the Cross
upon the walls of Jerusalem in 1099, and who for this cause was given
some stones from Christ's sepulchre by Godfrey de Bouillon, which he
brought to Florence and presented to the Republic. They were placed in
S. Reparata, which stood where the Duomo now is, and, as it is said, the
"new fire" was struck from them every Holy Saturday, and the clergy, in
procession, brought that sacred flame to the other churches of the city.
And the Pazzi, because of their gift, gave the guard of honour in this
procession: and this they celebrated with much pomp among themselves;
till at last they obtained permission to build a _carro_, which should
be lighted at the door of S. Reparata by some machine of their
invention, and drawn by four white oxen to their houses. And even to
this day you may see this thing, and to this day the car is borne to
their canto. But above all I see before that "unf