of suppressing poorer citizens, and the force of
their personal ability, acquired a perilous importance. At Florence the
political balance was so nicely adjusted that the ringing of the great
bell in the Palazzo meant a revolution, and to raise the cry of _Palle_
in the streets was tantamount to an outbreak in the Medicean interest.
To call aloud _Popolo e liberta_ was nothing less than riot punishable
by law. Segni tells how Jacopino Alamanni, having used these words near
the statue of David on the Piazza in a personal quarrel, was beheaded
for it the same day.[3] The secession of three or four families from one
faction to another altered the political situation of a whole republic,
and led perhaps to the exile of a sixth part of the enfranchised
population.[4] After this would follow the intrigues of the outlaws
eager to return, including negotiations with lukewarm party-leaders in
the city, alliances with hostile states, and contracts which compromised
the future conduct of the commonwealth in the interest of a few
revengeful citizens. The biographies of such men as Cosimo de' Medici
the elder and Filippo Strozzi throw the strongest light upon these
delicacies and complexities of party politics in Florence.

[1] It may be worth while to compare the accurate return of the
Venetian population in 1581 furnished by Yriarte (Vie d'un Patricien
de Venise, p. 96). The whole number of the inhabitants was 134,600.
Of these 1,843 were adult patricians; 4,309 women and children of
the patrician class; Cittadini of all ages and both sexes, 3,553;
monks, nuns, and priests, 3,969; Jews, 1,043; beggars, 187.

[2] We might mention, as famous instances, the Neri and Bianchi
factions introduced into Pistoja in 1296 by a quarrel of the
Cancellieri family, the dismemberment of Florence in 1215 by a feud
between the Buondelmonti and Amidei, the tragedy of Imelda
Lambertazzi, which upset Bologna in 1273, the student riot which
nearly delivered Bologna into the hands of Romeo de' Pepoli in 1321,
the whole action of the Strozzi family at the period of the
extinction of Florentine liberty, the petty jealousies of the Cerchi
and Donati detailed by Dino Compagni, in 1294.

[3] Segni, _St. Fior_. p. 53.

[4] As an instance, take what Marco Foscari reported in 1527 to the
Venetian Senate respecting the parties in Florence (_Rel. Ven._
serie ii. vol. i. p. 70). The _C