Salvestro de' Medici elected Gonfaloniere 1389

Piero de' Medici (il Gottoso) born 1421 Purchase of Leghorn by Florence Giovanni de' Medici elected Gonfaloniere Spedale degli Innocenti commenced 1424

Francesco Valori elected Gonfaloniere Piero attempted to return to Florence 1498 Savonarola burnt 1499 Marsilio Ficino died Amerigo Vespucci reached America 1503

Elected Prior in 1304, he was chosen as Gonfaloniere di Giustizia in 1314, and, between these dates, in 1311, Ser Teghia de' Sizi, his mother's brother, made him his heir, and gave him, besides full money-bags, much valuable property and ecclesiastical patronage.

He was probably a descendant of Bonagiunto, a son of Ardingo de' Medici, who was a violent enemy of the Ghibellines, and Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, in 1296 and 1307, and brother of Francesco, Captain of Pistoja in 1338, and one of the principal participants in the expulsion of the hated Duke.

The Popolo Minuto, thoroughly alarmed at this menace of liberty and popular government, appointed leaders, who approached Cavaliere Salvestro, in 1370, when he held the supreme office of Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, to safeguard the interests of the tradespeople and lower classes.

As Gonfaloniere he summoned a Parliament of representatives of all parties and classes at the Palazzo Vecchio, with a view to the composition of differences and the maintenance of public order.

"Evviva il Gonfaloniere!"

Acting upon his advice, terms were arranged with the revolutionaries, and Michaele Landoa common woolcarder by trade, but a born leader of menwas elected Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, and a new government was set up.

In 1421 Messer Giovanni de' Medici was elected Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, as the representative of the middle classes, and in opposition to Messeri Rinaldo degli Albizzi and Niccolo da Uzzano, the Ghibelline nominees.

In 1441 he was Gonfaloniere di Giustizia.

Piero served the supreme office of Gonfaloniere in 1462.

In the year of Lorenzo's succession to the place of Capo della Repubblica, he obtained by bribery the high office of Gonfaloniere di Giustizia as a set-off, but, by an inconsistency as unexpected as it was transparent, he accepted, on vacating office, a knighthood at the hands of his rival.

Directly they saw Giuliano struck to the ground, they made all haste to the Palazzo Vecchio, and demanded an interview with Messer Cesare de' Petrucci, the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, who had been detained by urgent matters in the Courts.

Salviati said he was the bearer of his family's greetings to the Gonfaloniere, and also of a private Brief to him from the Pope.

The object, of course, of the Archbishop and those with him was to seize the person of the Gonfaloniere and possess themselves of the Banner of

Noting that the Salviati did not leave the palace, and that the guards had been withdrawn from the gate and every door was bolted, the populace broke into the building, rescued the Gonfaloniere, and the Signori with him, and seized the persons of the intruders.

His part was to await news from Salviati that he had seized the Gonfaloniere and the palace, and then to ride fully armed with a retinue of mercenaries and Montesicco's bodyguard of the Cardinal to the Piazza della Signoria.

He spoke of the execution of the Archbishop as "a foul murder caused by the tyranny of the Medici," and he put a price upon the head of Cesare de' Petrucci, the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia!

After Savonarola's death in 1498, Piero de' Soderini was placed at the head of the Government as Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, whilst Piero's brother, Cardinal Giovanni, took up the leadership of his discredited party.

Giulio was preconised Cardinal, Giuliano appointed Gonfaloniere of the Papal army, and Lorenzo became the virtual Head of the Florentine Republic.

The office of Gonfaloniere di Giustizia was abolished, and the Signoria restricted in their powers as merely consultative authorities.

They debated as to who would be chosen Gonfaloniere, and whether for life or not.

Signori al tempo di Giuliano Salviati, Gonfaloniere di Justitia."

Macchiavelli mentions Bartolomeo Valori among the Cittadini d' autorita, and, according to Nardi, he was Gonfaloniere in the first two months of the years 1402, 1408, and 1420.