two whole months, always living
and sleeping in the Palace; in order that, according to the notion of
our ancestors, they might be able to attend with greater diligence to
the affairs of the commonwealth, in concert with their colleagues, who
were the sixteen gonfaloniers of the companies of the people, and the
twelve _buoni uomini_, or special advisers of the Signory. These
magistrates collectively in one body were called the College, or else
the Signory and the Colleagues. After this magistracy came the Senate;
the number of which varied, and the name of which was altered several
times up to the year 1494, according to circumstances. The larger
councils, whose business it was to discuss and make the laws and all
provisions both general and particular, were until that date two; the
one called the Council of the people, formed only by the _cittadini
popolani_, and the other the Council of the Commune, because it embraced
both nobles and plebeians from the-date of the formation of these
councils.[1] The appointment of the magistrates, which of old times and
under the best and most equitable governments was made on the occasion
of each election, in this more modern period was consigned to a special
council called _Squittino_.[2] The mode and act of the election was
termed _Squittinare_, which is equivalent to Scrutinium in the Latin
tongue, because minute investigation was made into the qualities of the
eligible burghers. This method, however, tended greatly to corrupt the
good manners of the city, inasmuch as, the said scrutiny being made
every three or five years, and not on each occasion, as would have been
right, considering the present quality of the burghers and the badness
of the times, those who had once obtained their nomination and been put
into the purses thereto appointed, being certain to arrive some time at
the honors and offices for which they were designed, became careless and
negligent of good customs in their lives. The proper function of the
Gonfaloniers was, in concert with their Gonfalons and companies, to
defend with arms the city from perils foreign and civil, when occasion
rose, and to control the fire-guards specially deputed by that
magistracy in four convenient stations. All the laws and provisions, as
well private as public, proposed by the Signory, had to be approved and
carried by that College, then by the Senate, and lastly by the Councils
named above. Notwithstanding this rule, everything of