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 Fire in the City:
Savonarola and the
Struggle for Renaissance
Florence

LAURO MARTINES

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

 CHAPTER TITLE

FIRE
IN THE
CITY
 A L S O B Y L AU RO M A RT I N E S

Non-Fiction
The Social World of the Florentine Humanists
Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence
Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities, –
(editor)
Not in God’s Image: Women in History from the Greeks to the Victorians
(with Julia O’Faolain)
Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy
Society and History in English Renaissance Verse
An Italian Renaissance Sextet: Six Tales in Historical Context
Strong Words: Writing and Social Strain in the Italian Renaissance
April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against Medici

Fiction
Loredana: A Venetian Tale
 FIRE
IN THE
CITY
S AVO N A RO L A A N D T H E S T RU G G L E
FOR RENAISSANCE FLORENCE

LAURO MARTINES


 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that
further Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright ©  by Lauro Martines
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martines, Lauro.
Fire in the city: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of
Renaissance Florence / by Lauro Martines.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-: ---- (alk. paper)
ISBN-: --- (alk. paper)
. Savonarola, Girolamo, –.
. Florence (Italy)—History—–.
. Florence (Italy)—Politics and government—–.
. Florence (Italy)—Church history.
. Reformers—Italy—Florence—Biography.
. Dominicans—Italy—Florence—Biography.
. Florence (Italy)—Biography.
I. Title.
DG..M 
'.—dc 


Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
al mio carissimo jairo, un gigante a modo suo
 CONTENTS
AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
xi
L I S T O F I L L U S T R AT I O N S
xiii
A N X - R AY O F F L O R E N T I N E G O V E R N M E N T
xiv
G L O S S A RY O F T E R M S
xvi

 Chorus 
 Vile Bodies: 1472–1490 
 The Friar Returns: 1490–1491 
 The Wait: 1492–1494 
 Fear and Loathing: November 1494 
 Holy Liberty 
 Stamping out Tyranny: 1494–1495 
 God and Politics 
 Angels and Enforcers: 1496–1498 
 The Pope and the Friar: 1495–1497 
 The Savonarolan Moment 
 Wailers and Bigots 
 Excommunication: May–June 1497 
 Five Executions: August 1497 
 Rome Closes In 
 Foiled Fire 
 The Siege of San Marco: April 1498 

[ ix ]
 Confessions of a Sinner 
 Fire Again: Three Executions: May 1498 
 The Conscience of a City 

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX


[x]
 AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S

M
Y IRREDEEMABLE DEBT must be to the Savonarola experts
living and dead, whose labours and intelligence made this
book possible. Without their work, not a single page of what
I have done here would exist. They are all cited in the notes, comments,
and Bibliography. The writing of history – in the modern world, at all
events – can never be anything but a team enterprise. Those of us who
forget this belong to the demon of ingratitude.
Yet once more I have the happy obligation to thank my publishers,
Will Sulkin and Peter Ginna, superb readers and editors. In my years as
an academic, never did I have critics and commentators as alert and
perceptive as they. The university world is far from having all the best
of what there is in imaginative talent and intellectual rigour.
My friend and agent, Kay McCauley, an ongoing inspiration, knows
how much she is appreciated, but an expression of public thanks can
never be wrong. My first reader, as always, Julia O’Faolain, deserves all
that the heart can offer.
All translations are mine, unless otherwise indicated.

Lauro Martines
London
Autumn, 2005

[ xi ]
This page intentionally left blank
 L I S T O F I L L U S T R AT I O N S

. Nerli Altarpiece, detail of the San Frediano gate in Florence, 

by Filippino Lippi. Santo Spirito, Florence. (Bridgeman)
. Porta San Frediano, Florence. (© , Photo Scala, Florence)
. Profile of King Charles VIII, King of France, by the Florentine
School. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. (Alinari Archives
– Florence)
. Portrait of Pope Alexander VI, Spanish School. Vatican, Pinacoteca
(© , Photo Scala, Florence)
. Piazza Signoria, Florence, . (Alinari Archives – Florence)
. Interior of the Florence Cathedral. (Alinari Archives – Florence)
. Detail St Francis receiving the Rule of the Order from Pope Honorius, scene
from the cycle of the Life of St Francis of Assisi,  (fresco)
by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico Bigordi). Sassetti Chapel,
Santa Trinita, Florence. (Bridgeman)
. The Medici Palace, Florence. (Alinari Archives – Florence)
. The Strozzi Palace, Florence, . (Alinari Archives – Florence)
. Bust of Niccolò Machiavelli in profile, polychrome terracotta, in
the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. (Alinari Archives – Florence)
. The Bargello, c. – (photo) by Italian School. Via del
Proconsolo, Florence. (Bridgeman)
. The Execution of Savonarola (–), by Italian School, (oil on panel,
th century). Museo di San Marco, Florence. (Bridgeman)
. The Lady with the Ermine (Cecilia Gallerani),  by Leonardo da
Vinci (oil on walnut panel) © Czartoryski Museum, Cracow,
Poland. (Bridgeman)
. Bust of Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, ascribed to Antonio de
‘Benintendi. (Courtesy of the Trustees of the Victoria & Albert
Museum)

[ xiii ]
 An X-Ray of
Florentine Government

G
overnment in Florence was the job of a pyramid of small coun-
cils, with the Signoria or Signory – eight Priors and the
Gonfalonier of Justice – at the apex. These nine men held office
for two months, and were then replaced by a new group. The city thus
saw six changes of government per year. Although seemingly unstable,
the system worked very effectively for more than two centuries, because
other councils were drawn in to support the Signory.
Two bodies of counsellors, the Twelve Good Men and the Sixteen
Gonfaloniers, worked closely with the Signory. They spoke for the different
parts of the city and voted on most matters of importance. Their short
office terms were staggered, so that the incoming (new) Signory always
meshed, so to speak, with counsellors who were fully on top of the
current political situation.
In wartime and periods of danger, the Signoria shared diplomatic power
with the War-Office Ten, who served for six months or a year and who
conducted the war. If the Ten were renewed, owing to strains in foreign
affairs, they could be re-elected.
The Eight, a political and criminal police, were continually consulted
by the Signory. Like the Sixteen, the Twelve, and the Ten, they met in
the government palace, the Palazzo della Signoria.
Everyday Florence, then, was ruled by a cluster of offices. The Signoria
took the initiative and introduced all new bills to the Great Council, but
only after sustained consultation. Offices were filled by lot or, in part, by
election in the Great Council. Action by lot simply meant the blind
drawing of eligible names from electoral pouches. Political eligibility, in

[ xiv ]
 A N X - R AY O F F L O R E N T I N E G OV E R N M E N T

turn, was based on long residence in Florence (thirty years or more), on

the long-term payment of taxes, but most especially – in practice – on
descent from a direct male ancestor who had qualified in recent times
for the Signoria, the Twelve, or the Sixteen. On these grounds, the men
who were eligible for election to office were a citizen oligarchy.
In their habit of close consultation and the soliciting of advice, the
Priors of the Signoria captained a collegiate form of government with
a relatively wide social base. To help them decide important questions,
they could at any moment – and often did – call in and, in effect, take
the votes of the city’s top politicians and leading public figures: in all,
some 200 to 300 men. Just here was the solidity and force of Florentine
republican government.

[ xv ]
 G L O S S A RY O F T E R M S

Arrabbiati (the Angry Ones, or even ‘Mad Dogs’). A porous political grouping,
strongly opposed to Savonarola.
Compagnacci (the Rude or Ugly Companions). A company of upper-class
pleasure-seekers, founded to fight Savonarola and his movement.
Eight, the. A police council, geared to use spies and to work in secret.
Frateschi (the Friar’s Men). Supporters of Savonarola. See also Piagnoni.
Great Council (the). Florence’s supreme legislative body after 1494.
Parlamento. Assembly in the government square of at least two-thirds of all
Florentine political citizens.
Piagnoni (Wailers or Weepers). Ardent Savonarolans, also known as Frateschi.
Priors. The eight members (Signori) of the Signoria, the city’s chief governing
body.
Signoria, Signory. Made up of eight Priors and the Gonfalonier (Standard-
Bearer) of Justice, the Signoria conducted the daily business of govern-
ment, held office for two months, and was succeeded by a new group
of nine men.
Sixteen, the (Sixteen Gonfaloniers). Counsellors to the Signory, they spoke
for the city’s sixteen gonfaloni (broad neighbourhoods or districts).
Ten, the. The War-Office Ten. They handled war and military affairs, including
foreign relations, in times of war or danger.
Twelve, the. The Twelve Good Men. Counsellors to the Signory, they repre-
sented the city’s four administrative divisions (quartieri), three men for
each quarter.

[ xvi ]
 CHAPTER ONE

Chorus

I
N THE FINAL MONTHS of Savonarola’s life – it was early 1498 –
a plot was concocted to blow him up in the cathedral of Florence,
as his great preacher’s voice boomed forth from the pulpit to thou-
sands of listeners. The ringleaders belonged to a kind of fraternity known
as the ‘Rude’ or ‘Ugly Companions’ (Compagnacci). They planned to hire
a man named Baia, an ‘explosives expert’ (maestro di fuochi lavorati), and to
let him concoct and place an explosive device in the cathedral. If they
had carried out their plan, theirs would have been the first ‘terrorist’
bomb in the history of Europe. Having looked into the particulars,
however, they discovered that some of their own friends and relatives,
who were likely to be present at the sermon, might ‘be maimed or killed’,
and so they backed away from the idea.
Viewed as a figure of prime political importance, Girolamo Savonarola
would be the target of other murderous threats. The Pope himself,
Alexander VI, longed to get his hands on him. No wonder, then, that
in the 1490s, the people of Florence began to see something that they
had never seen before, nor had any other Italian city: the sight of a simple
priest, a Dominican friar, flanked by an escort of armed men whenever
he left his convent to go out into the streets of the city.
The same friar also attracted acts of sacrilege. On the night of 3–4
May, 1497, several of his enemies broke into Santa Maria del Fiore, the
city’s great cathedral. They smeared the pulpit with excrement, covered
it with the stinking carcass of a donkey, and drove nails up under the
pulpit’s bookrest, in the hope that if Savonarola managed to preach the
next morning, he would impale his hands, as he struck the bookrest in
the midst of his fiery delivery. Less than a year later, with government
support, his enemies mounted their final attack – an armed assault on

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