Editing Ciompi Revolt (section)

==Revolt's end, reflection, and impact==

===End of Ciompi control===
The city of [[Florence]] was governed by the Ciompi until 1382 when fear of foreign incursion and a prolonged dispute between the wool merchants and the dyers was used to justify an intervention by the elite families on behalf of a disintegrating government. Delegitimizing the new established guilds and removing them from constitutional functions became a main objective of the post-1382 regime that repealed the guild government's reforms. City government engaged in a concerted campaign to depict the non-guilded workers as criminal and heretical.<ref name=plebian />{{rp|742}}

[[File:Machiavel Offices Florence.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of Niccolò Machiavelli at the [[Uffizi]]]]

The Ciompi Rebellion was not particularly long, lasting only for three and a half years (1378–1382).<ref name=plebian />{{rp|737}} Yet, it not only reflected the long-existing social issue of late 14th-century Florence, but also constituted a long-lasting impact on many generations to come.<ref name=plebian />{{rp|737}} It greatly influenced Florentine society in the 15th century, and became a memorable moment of Florentine history, which historians of later centuries all showed great interest in, but interpreted the same event in a variety of different ways.

===Reflection on problems in late 14th-century Florence===

Late 14th-century Florence was not a harmonious city, but one that had long been filled with tensions. The two major tensions were social and political, accumulating since Florence's commercial revolution 150 years prior to the rebellion. Social tension existed between the poor Ciompi and wealthy merchants who dominated the lucrative wool industry, and the Florentine government, which continued to increase taxation. The political tension was between the Ciompi, gente nuova, and the [[oligarchy]], with the former two challenging the latter for more participation in government.<ref name=plebian />{{rp|739}} The Ciompi Rebellion was the eruption of these long-existing tensions, which could no longer be contained.

===Impacts on 15th-century Florence===

After the Ciompi Uprising, the restored Florentine government did attempt to alleviate the plight of Ciompi artisans, such as a reform to lessen the burden of taxation.<ref name=plebian />{{rp|742}} Yet, the rebellion left a permanent scar in the Florentine elites' mind (both the new and the old nobility) and created their everlasting fear and hatred toward the Ciompi. This scar built a tension between the new nobility and the lower labouring class greater than that prior to the uprising,<ref name=plebian />{{rp|737}} as the elites constantly feared the rabble's secret plots. The elites thus began to favour a more authoritative government, which may be more centralized and stronger in crushing a revolt. This eventually gave rise to the Medici family, the most powerful banking family of Florence, whose power outweighed [[Salvestro de' Medici]]'s bad reputation, and became the de facto ruler of Florence in the 15th century, drastically changing the character of the Florentine communal government.<ref name=bruni>Ianziti, Gary. "Leonardo Bruni, the Medici, and Florentine Histories." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 69.1 (2008): 1–22: 13.</ref>

===Impacts on historians from different eras===

[[File:Michele di lando.JPG|thumb|Statue of [[Michele di Lando]], [[Loggia del Mercato Nuovo]], Florence]]

In the 15th century, it would not be surprising for Florentine scholars, who were part of the elite, to view the uprising negatively. [[Leonardo Bruni]] regarded the uprising as a mob out of control, whose members viciously looted and murdered the innocent.<ref name=plebian />{{rp|737}} He viewed this event as a historical cautionary tale, which presented the horrendous consequence when rabbles managed to seize control from the ruling class.<ref name=bruni />

In the 16th century, [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] harbored a somewhat different view than Bruni. Although he echoed Bruni's perspective, also referring to them as the mob, the rabbles, preoccupied by fear and hatred, he was more favorable than Bruni in viewing the event as a whole. According to Machiavelli, the revolt was a social phenomenon between one group of people, who were determined to obtain freedom, while the other determined to abolish it.<ref>Leobovici, Martine. "From Fight to Debate: Machiavelli and the Revolt of the Ciompi." ''Philosophy and Social Criticism'' 28.6 (2002): 647–660: 647.</ref>

In the 19th century, however, historians began to show sympathy to the Ciompi. Romantic historians had a tendency to interpret history as an epic tale between the evil and good, and this applied to the Ciompi Rebellion. Romantic historians regarded Michele di Lando, the leader of the rebellion, as a hero to the people who fought against their ruthless oppressors.<ref>Ferruci, Francesco. "Italian Romanticism: Myth vs. History." ''MLN'' 98.1 (1983): 111–117: 113.</ref> In the late nineteenth century, a sculpture of the popular leader Michele di Lando was placed in a niche on the façade of the [[Loggia del Mercato Nuovo]]. [[Marxist]] historians also sympathized with the Ciompi artisans, viewing them as the early [[proletariat]], who tried to overthrow the oppressive bourgeoisies.<ref name=lantschner>Lantschner, Patrick. "The Ciompi Revolution Constructed: Modern Historians and the Nineteenth-Century Paradigm of Revolution." ''Annali di Storia di Firenze'' 4 (2011): 277–297.</ref>{{rp|286}}

Recent histories treat the conflict as a lens reflecting the issues of Florentine society in the late 14th century, and also as a catalyst for Florence's period politics.<ref name=bruni /> Moreover, to them, the rebellion is a lens that reflects history as an ever changing entity, as historians living in different times have different "presents", and one's present dictates how one views the past.<ref name=lantschner />{{rp|289}}