CULTURAL OVERLAY AND THE FACE OF THE CITY

The tragic stories of Boccaccio's Day Four implicitly contrast the calculating culture of mercantile Tuscany, as in the tale of Lisabetta, and the passionate but no less harsh world, evoked in the other tales, of chivalry and the aristocratic court. Though in Florence the values of the mercantile elite sometimes collided with the aristocratic concern with honor, this did not inhibit the association of the “bourgeois” city and its government with chivalric forms of self-representation, especially on ritual occasions. Wishing to maintain some hold on power, on the other hand, certain feudal (“magnate”) clans passed themselves off as popolani, some even giving up traditional coats of arms for less provocative heraldic and other forms of self-identification.

This complex history is variously inscribed in the city. Stern palaces lined the streets of late-medieval Florence, though the display of precious and colorful cloths on festivals, especially St. John's Day, temporarily transformed the face of the city. The culture of public architectural austerity recalls Dante's famous lament for an idealized lost world, submerged by courtly fashion and self indulgence: “Florence within its ancient circle … remained in peace, modest and restrained. There were no necklaces, no crowns, no fancy dresses, no girdle that caught the gaze more than the person” (italics mine). Dante's concern with transparency, that appearance should match essence, resonates with the long history of sumptuary legislation in Florence and the generally conservative practices of architectural self-representation.