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Cerchi

In Vieri dei Cerchi
…compromise position toward the democratic Ordinances of Justice passed in 1293, leaning toward their acceptance, while Donati wanted them repealed. Creating a schism in the Guelf party, they became heads of parties that took their names from factions in neighbouring Pistoia, where Florence was enforcing a five-year truce, the Cerchi…
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Florence

In Florence: The early period
…adopted a constitution called the Ordinances of Justice, which barred both the nobility and labourers from political power. It also provided for frequent changes of office to ensure that no group or individual could get control of the state; thus, the nine priors who constituted the Signoria (the governmental body)…
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In Italy: The popolo and the formation of the signorie in central and northern Italy
…in January 1293, by the Ordinances of Justice, it declared that the members of 152 powerful families were “magnates” and, as such, excluded from personal participation in government and subject to particular disadvantages in law vis-à-vis non-magnates.
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In Italy: Florence in the 14th century
…came in 1293 with the Ordinances of Justice. Though modified somewhat two years later, they preserved a system in which sovereignty explicitly rested with the popolo, an elite class drawn from the seven major guilds, or arti maggiori—that is, the judges and notaries, the Calimala (bankers and international traders in…
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Giano

In Giano della Bella
…as the promulgator of the Ordinances of Justice (January 1293), the basis of the constitution of Florence.
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Giano della Bella

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Giano della Bella

Italian leader

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Born:: c. 1240, Florence? [Italy]

Died:: c. 1305, France

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Giano della Bella (born c. 1240, Florence? [Italy]—died c. 1305, France) was a wealthy and aristocratic Florentine citizen who was the leader of a “popular” movement in the 1290s and is known as the promulgator of the Ordinances of Justice (January 1293), the basis of the constitution of Florence.

A member of the powerful Calimala guild of merchants and bankers, Giano abandoned his own “magnate” class of established wealth to head the popular faction in 1292–93. The Ordinances of Justice, drawn up at his instigation, attacked the privileges of the magnates and gave the minor guilds a share in the government. Not himself a member of the priorate (executive body) that passed the ordinances, Giano served in the subsequent one (Feb. 15, 1293) that implemented them. Although his two-month term expired in April 1293, Giano continued to exercise indirect control over the government in the following two years, arousing the hostility of the magnates, who started a whispering campaign against him. In January 1295, a case tried under the Ordinances of Justice involving the murder of a commoner by a noble, Corso Donati, led to a mob attack on the palace of the podestà (chief magistrate). A new priorate elected the following month accused Giano of causing the disorder. Refusing to appear before the priorate, Giano left Florence. He was immediately condemned, under his own Ordinances of Justice, to death and confiscation of goods. He died an exile in France some 10 years later.

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