nstitution of 1495. The principle was not, however, recognized at
large by the republics.

[3] On the Government of Siena (vol. i. p. 351 of his collected
works): 'I say not all the inhabitants of the state, but all those
who have rank; that is, who have acquired, either in their own
persons or through their ancestors, the right of taking magistracy,
in short those who are participes imperandi et parendi.' What has
already been said in Chapter II. about the origin of the Italian
Republics will explain this definition of burghership.

[4] It would be very interesting to trace in detail the influence of
Aristotle's Politics upon the practical and theoretical statists of
the Renaissance. The whole of Giannotti's works; the discourses of
de' Pazzi, Vettori, Acciaiuoli, and the two Guicciardini on the
State of Florence (_Arch. St. It._ vol. i.); and Machiavelli's
_Discorso sul Reggimento di Firenze_, addressed to Leo X.,
illustrate in general the working of Aristotelian ideas. At
Florence, in 1495, Savonarola urged his Constitution on the burghers
by appeals to Aristotle's doctrine and to the example of Venice [see
Segni, p. 15, and compare the speeches of Pagolo Antonio Soderini
and Guido Antonio Vespucci, in Guicciardini's _Istoria d' Italia_,
vol. ii. p. 155 of Rosini's edition, on the same occasion]. Segni,
p. 86, mentions a speech of Pier Filippo Pandolfini, the arguments
of which, he says, were drawn from Aristotle and illustrated by
Florentine history. The Italian doctrinaires seem to have imagined
that, by clever manipulation of existing institutions, they could
construct a state similar to that called [Greek: _politeia_] by
Aristotle, in which all sections of the community should be fairly
represented. Venice, meanwhile, was a practical instance of the
possible prosperity of such a constitution with a strong
oligarchical complexion.

[5] These numbers, 100,000 for the population, and 5,000 for the
burghers, are stated roundly. In Florence, when the Consiglio
Maggiore was opened in 1495, it was found that the Florentines
altogether numbered about 90,000, while the qualified burghers were
not more than 3,200. In 1581 the population of Venice numbered
134,890, whereof 1,843 were adult patricians [see below, p. 209].

Intolerant of foreign rule, and blinded by the theoretical sup