La citta dei crucci: Fazioni e clientele in uno stato repubblicano del '400. .

William J. Connell. La citta dei crucci: Fazioni e clientele in uno stato repubblicano del '400.

Florence: Nuova Toscana Editrice, 2000. x + 318 pp. index, append. $15.49. ISBN: 88-87263-10-8.

Having observed with some detachment the civic rituals that celebrated the autonomy of the Tuscan town of Pistoia, Michel de Montaigne ironically branded those ceremonies as a singerie instead of a sign of seigneurie (44). However, the inhabitants of Pistoia had good reason to define themselves proudly not as subjects of Florence, but as its proteges. Although included in the Florentine state, Pistoia had been granted so many privileges, especially in the second half of the fifteenth century, that it actually enjoyed what amounted to a form of self-government.

With La citta dei crucci Connell helps to make this paradox more understandable. His main point is that the relationships between Florence and Pistoia were defined less by formal agreements and institutional structures than by the creation of a close network of patronage between the members of both patriciates. Recent studies of patronage as a way of ruling subject territories have made important contributions to our understanding of the making of the Florentine state in Tuscany, and William Connell deserves to be recognized as one of the first scholars to have introduced and developed this idea.

In the first chapter of his book, the author summarizes the history of Pistoia's submission to Florence by narrating the highlights of this long process -- culminating in 1401 -- and the institutional steps which defined the relationship of subjugation. However, his attention is more focused on the "friendships" which increasingly sprang up between Florentine and Pistoiese families. The development and the fabric of the network created by these "friendships" serve as basis for the analysis of the political relationship between the two cities. Thus, the evolution of these relationships during the fifteenth century can be traced in the changing patterns of patronage from the Albizzi family and Neri Capponi, who were allied with certain segments of the local patriciate, to Cosimo and later Lorenzo de' Medici, who aspired to be seen as patrons of Pistoia as a whole.

Another central theme in Connell's reconstruction is the structural split of the local patriciate into two parties, the Cancellieri and Panciarichi factions. Factionalisin was an endemic feature of political struggle in late medieval Italy. However, the case of Pistoia has always been considered exceptional, both for the high level of violence and for the remarkable persistence of the two factions, whose ceaseless struggle dominated the local political scene from the thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth century. The author points out how this phenomenon was emphasized not only by contemporaries like Dante and Machiavelli, but became a leitmotif in subsequent political discourse, cited even by the President of the United States, John Adams, in the context of his stigmatization of the internal discord within the American States at the end of eighteenth century (50).

The second and third chapters, devoted to the two parties and their respective connections with Florence, offer an original and well-grounded view of the main theme. The author traces the history of the Cancellieri-Panciatichi split, whose origins are found in thirteenth-century disputes for the control over the Pistoiese countryside. He also attempts to reconstruct the internal structure of both factions, underscoring the key role played by the control over the major charitable institutions, the real heart of the political and economic power in the city. This brilliant and convincing picture of the local patriciate is completed by the examination of its interaction with Florentine policy towards Pistoia. Indeed, the persistence of factionalism was shrewdly promoted by the Florentine leaders. The old cleavage, born under the communal regime, was somehow institutionalized in the new regional context of the Florentine state. According to the famous policy known as "tenere Pistoia con le parti" (to hold Pistoia with factions), in 1376 the government of the capital city set up a new selection system for Pistoia's government officials which divided the available posts equally between the two parties. This reform was abolished eighty years later by Cosimo de' Medici, but not before the factions were strengthened.

Florentine patronage and Pistoia's factionalism constitute the two axes of vertical and horizontal solidarity on which Connell's interpretation is founded. The interweavings between them provide him with forceful explanations of the most important events which affected the city in late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. This is especially true for the harsh internal crisis which upset Pistoia in 1499, leading to the outbreak of a three-year-long civil war. The author demonstrates the extent to which the strife among Florentine patrons, supporting one faction or the other, brought about both the crisis itself and the repeated breakdowns of the reconciliation policy professed by Florence government.

This penetrating analysis is based upon a broad range of sources with particular attention to the local chronicles, the Medici letters, and the minutes of the meetings held by the inner circle of the Florentine ruling group (the Pratiche). Nevertheless, a more extensive consideration of the documentation produced by the commune of Pistoia, especially the books of deliberations, might have offered other important perspectives. This gap accounts in part for the scant attention the author devotes to some important aspects of the theme, such as the fiscal relationships between Florence and Pistoia, which were not only a significant part of their relationships as a whole but also one of the main premises for patronage connections.

In my opinion, the hook is a little disjointed. For instance, the fifth chapter, concerning the letters between the Medici family and the local governments of the subjected towns, is not well integrated into the general framework. This defect may ultimately derive from the genesis of the work, first produced as a doctoral dissertation, but then substantially changed to include later articles and lectures. The book would have benefited from more careful revising, which might have better assimilated the impressive documentary material and permitted the avoidance of some errors of fact, such as the postdating of Lorenzo de' Medici's death by eight months (151) or the inexact definition of the Biblioteca Moreniana as a collection of the Biblioteca Riccardiana instead of as a library in its own right (x and 38, n. 86).

These few flaws do not reduce the remarkable value of La citta dei crucci. I totally agree with the author when he states that this study is not only a survey of Pistoia, but concerns Florence as well. Indeed, by reading these pages one learns much about the political strife and the structure of power in the capital city. William Connell's book is not only an interesting example of local history, but also a valuable contribution to one of the principal topoi of Italian historiography, state-building in the late Middle Ages.