ny
office); either because none of their ancestors, and in particular their
father or their grandfather, has sat or been passed for any of the three
greater magistracies; or else because they have not had themselves
submitted to the scrutiny,[1] or, if they have advanced so far, have not
been approved and nominated for office. These are indeed entitled
citizens: but he who knows what a citizen is really, knows also that,
being unable to share either the honors or the advantages of the city,
they are not truly citizens; therefore let us call them burghers,
without franchise. Those again who pay taxes and enjoy the citizenship
(whom we will therefore call enfranchised burghers) are in like manner
of two kinds. The one class, inscribed and matriculated into one of the
seven first arts, are said to rank with the greater; whence we may call
them Burghers of the Greater: the others, inscribed and matriculated
into the fourteen lesser arts, are said to rank with the lesser; whence
we may call them Burghers of the Lesser. This distinction had the
Romans, but not for the same reason.

_Varchi: Storia Fiorentina, lib. ix. chs. 48, 49, 46._

As for natural abilities, I for my part cannot believe that any one
either could or ought to doubt that the Florentines, even if they do
not excel all other nations, are at least inferior to none in those
things to which they give their minds. In trade, whereon of a truth
their city is founded, and wherein their industry is chiefly exercised,
they ever have been and still are reckoned not less trusty and true than
great and prudent: but besides trade, it is clear that the three most
noble arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture have reached that
degree of supreme excellence in which we find them now, chiefly by the
toil and by the skill of the Florentines, who have beautified and
adorned not only their own city but also very many others, with great
glory and no small profit to themselves and to their country. And,
seeing that the fear of being held a flatterer should not prevent me
from testifying to the truth, though this will turn to the highest fame
and honor of my lords and patrons, I say that all Italy, nay the whole
world, owes it solely to the judgment and the generosity of the Medici
that Greek letters were not extinguished to the great injury of the
human race, and that Latin literature was restored to the incalculable
profit of all men.

[1] For an explanation of _