as he was ill with the gout, and because he was
angered with these leaders of the Black party; and almost all the
other magnates held aloof, and the popolani also, save the Medici and
the Giugni, which held strongly with the Blacks. And the fighting
began between the White Cerchi and the Giugni at their houses at the
Garbo, and they fought there by day and by night. In the end, the
Cerchi defended themselves with the aid of the Cavalcanti and
Antellesi, and the force of the Cavalcanti and Gherardini so increased
that with their followers they rode through the city as far as the
Mercato Vecchio, and from Orto San Michele as far as the piazza of S.
Giovanni, without any opposition or hindrance whatever, because their
forces increased both in the city and in the country; forasmuch as the
greater part of the people followed them, and the Ghibellines sided
with them; and they of Volognano and their friends were coming to
their aid with more than 1,000 foot-soldiers; and were already at
Bisarno; and certainly on that day they would have conquered the city
and driven out thence the aforesaid leaders of the Blacks and Guelfs,
whom they held as their enemies (forasmuch as it was said that they
had caused M. Betto Gherardini to be beheaded, and Masino Cavalcanti
and the others, as we before made mention), save that when they were
flourishing and victorious in several parts of the city where they
were fighting against their enemies, it came to pass, as it pleased
God, either to avoid worse ill, or that He permitted it to punish the
sins of the Florentines, that one, Ser Neri Abati, a clerk and prior
of San Piero Scheraggio, a worldly and dissolute man, and a rebel
against and enemy of his associates, of purpose set fire first to the
house of his associates in Orto San Michele, and then to the
Florentine Calimala at the house of the Caponsacchi, near to the
entrance of the Mercato Vecchio. And the accursed fire was so furious
and impetuous, fanned by the north wind, which was blowing strongly,
that on that day were burnt the houses of the Abati, and of the Macci,
and all the loggia of Orto San Michele, and the houses of the Amieri,
and Toschi, and Cipriani, and Lamberti, and Bachini, and Buiamonti,
and all Calimala, and the houses of the Cavalcanti, and all around the
Mercato Nuovo and S. Cecilia, and all the street of Porte Sante Marie
as far as the Ponte Vecchio, and Vacchereccia, and behind San Piero
Scheraggio, and the houses of