[1] Villari, _Life of Savonarola_, vol. i. p. 259, may be consulted
concerning the further distinction of Benefiziati, Statuali,
Aggravezzati, at Florence. See also Varchi, vol. i. pp. 165-70.
Consult Appendix ii.
[2] It must be mentioned that a provision for admitting deserving
individuals to citizenship formed part of the Florentine
Constitution of 1495. The principle was not, however, recognized at
large by the republics.
[3] On the Government of Siena (vol. i. p. 351 of his collected
works): 'I say not all the inhabitants of the state, but all those
who have rank; that is, who have acquired, either in their own
persons or through their ancestors, the right of taking magistracy,
in short those who are participes imperandi et parendi.' What has
already been said in Chapter II. about the origin of the Italian
Republics will explain this definition of burghership.
[4] It would be very interesting to trace in detail the influence of
Aristotle's Politics upon the practical and theoretical statists of
the Renaissance. The whole of Giannotti's works; the discourses of
de' Pazzi, Vettori, Acciaiuoli, and the two Guicciardini on the
State of Florence (_Arch. St. It._ vol. i.); and Machiavelli's
_Discorso sul Reggimento di Firenze_, addressed to Leo X.,
illustrate in general the working of Aristotelian ideas. At
Florence, in 1495, Savonarola urged his Constitution on the burghers
by appeals to Aristotle's doctrine and to the example of Venice [see
Segni, p.
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