The Politics of Exclusion in Early Renaissance Florence (review)

This book is a study of the various forms of exclusion of political opponents of the Florentine government that took place between 1215 (the beginning of the battles between members of the Guelf pro-papal and Ghibelline pro-imperial forces in Florentine politics) and 1434 when Cosimo de' Medici the Elder returned to Florence after having himself been excluded from politics and government the previous year by the triumphant Albizzi. This period is often thought of as the heyday of Florentine republicanism and Fabrizio Ricciardelli argues that the story of political exclusion that he wishes to tell represents 'the dark side of the Florentine republican system' (p. 1). This 'dark side' is exemplified by the fate of one of the city's most famous poets Dante Alighieri who was excluded as a result of being on the losing side of a battle between two opposing factions of the dominant Guelf Party in the fourteenth century (Chapter 2). The system that supported the economic prosperity of Florentine merchants and enabled and celebrated the city's renowned cultural achievements could not tolerate any form of political dissent.

It is noteworthy that Ricciardelli chooses the phrase 'political exclusion' to frame his narrative rather than 'political exile' and he does so, he argues, because the legal records of the period referred to exclusion not exile. Moreover, Ricciardelli suggests that the nature of the punishments imposed – exclusion from political office, heavy fines and even the death penalty – were designed to ensure that opponents had no choice but to flee, thereby effectively excluding themselves from their native city.

The book's first chapter is principally concerned with the legal forms of exclusion such as the ban, a judicial process that could be overturned through the payment of a steep fine, but which if not paid would lead to banishment or possibly even death. While there was little difference between being banned or confined in terms of the actual effect, the latter was a harsher, distinctly political instrument. Another form of punishment was an admonition, which was used by the Guelf majority in Florence as a blunt political weapon against any and all whom the Guelf Party saw as opposition, regardless of the political leanings of the people concerned. Accusations could be brought without evidence and the accused was stripped of political office as were his immediate male relatives and descendants. The lack of political office was so great a shame that the men affected had no option but to leave.

Ricciardelli argues that the exclusions that occurred in the thirteenth century were often the result of street fights and vendetta between warring families whose violent activities threatened the stability of Florence. The affected families, known as magnates, were subject to specific legislation (the Ordinances of Justice) and other punitive measures including fines, banishment, the destruction of family palaces or towers and even death sentences.

By the fourteenth century, the rise of the mercantile classes and the use of mediation to settle disputes reduced the need to exclude people because of lawlessness. Instead, exclusion was used to deal with political conflict between various factions, the dominance of the Guelf Party as well as internal political instability within the Florentine Government. As the century went on, successive political regimes came and went, including the well-known Ciompi (wool-carders) regime of 1378-1382 that gave previously disenfranchised, poor workers a brief hold on political power. The factional brawls between prominent families and their supporters continued during the late fourteenth century and into the fifteenth, with each successive regime expelling members of the previous one along with their male relatives. During this period, the enforcement arm was the Eight on Security, which Ricciardelli suggests increased its power, from the time Cosimo de' Medici the Elder returned from exile in 1434, to become a police force directly appended to the executive. Cosimo was able to use the same measures as his...