The Ciompi Revolt and

Southern Italy
HIST 3335 - Renaissance & Reformation
Our (Intended Plan For Today)
1. Finish up lecture from Tuesday.
2. Talk about Decameron Presentations for next week
3. Talk about our readings
4. More lecture!
The Ciompi Revolt – 1378-1382
“There was no end or measure to the unbridled desire of the lawless rabble, who . . . lusted after the property of
rich and honored men, and thought of nothing but robbery, slaughter and oppression.”

15th century historian Leonardo Bruni

Who are the Ciompi?
Technically, the Ciompi are the wool carders - people who untangle wool into long,
straight fibers.

A heterogeneous group consisting of workers along the various steps of cloth

manufacture, the Ciompi included both skilled and unskilled workers as well as
small artisans who owned their own equipment and operated their own shops. What
united them was their subordinate position in the production process for all of them
depended on the merchants for their often unsteady employment. The precarious
living and working conditions of the clothworkers, especially during the economic
downturns, meant they made up to 50% of the Florentine poor - the populo minuto.
Who are these Ciompi?
- Textile workers are sotto posti (“the under-people ”), they are not officially members of a
guild but are subject to disciplinary action from the wool guild. At the same time, based on
tax documents from 1378 textile workers are in the top 10-20% of the tax bracket.
- The condition of the workers is not good, they often need to borrow money and we know that
the people doing the lending are merciless, and we have records of lenders going so far as
to repossess the beds of the people who owe them money.
- Often it is the employers who are lending their workers money to buy tools to do their
work.
- Also the wool guild kept meticulous watch over every aspect of production and loved to levy
fines on the sotto posti.
- Basically all of the obligations none of the protections and benefits.
- Wage-laborers were forbidden by the city from associating
The Florentine Guilds
- Greater guilds (merchants, bankers, industrialists)
vs. Lesser guilds (artisans and small shopkeepers)
- In 1343 the lesser guilds managed to get into the
government but for 35 years there’s tension
between the democratic (lesser guilds) and
oligarchic (greater guilds)
- In the 1340s the textile workers spent a lot of time
agitating to have their own guild separate from the
owners of the textile businesses
- Of 14,000 people working in textiles in Florence,
only 200 are members of guild Arta della Lana – the
wool guild
New Money vs. Old Money
- There were two groups of the wealthy in Florence, the gente nuova ('new
men') a class of mainly immigrants with no aristocratic background who grew
their wealth from trade. The other wealthy group was the “oligarchy,” the
members of the greater guilds who used their association with the Guelph
political faction to solidify political control.
- The gente nuova were generally allied with the arti minori, the minor guilds
and the popolo minuto, wage-laborers who had come from the country to the
city looking for work.
A timeline of the revolt

- June 1378: Armed workers – the Ciompi – attack government buildings,

basically a riot. The government tries to stall by saying they’ll pass around
petitions and talks, but it basically is a stall hoping everything will just go
away. It won’t.
- July 1378: A worker riot happens again. The Ciompi and sotto posti storm
government buildings and proclaim a new Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, or
internal security minister. They also publicly hang the public executioner.
Basically, the goal was to insist that the ciompi and sotto posti get a guild.
- Reform rather than revolution.
A timeline of the revolt

A government under Michele di Lando is created. But

overall the new government is timid and weak in the
face of established power structures. Michele di
Lando works to try and defang any of the more
radical or egalitarian demands of the Ciompi in order
to keep the status quo.
A timeline of the revolt
- August 1378: unhappy with the lack of movement, the Ciompi gather shouting
“long live the populo minuto” and demand resignation of Michele di Lando’s
government. They are attacked by members of the guilds as well as by
“reformist” members of the Ciompi
- di Lando’s government lasts until 1382, during which period the Oligarchs of
the Greater Guilds retake control of the city.
Ok, let’s talk about Decameron Presentations
What is the format of our Decameron Presentations?

You’re going to choose a story in the Decameron that looks interesting and read it.

Then, you’re going to produce a 6-8 minute presentation. What should your
presentation include?
- A summary of the story you read.
- Your thoughts about what we as historians should understand about
Renaissance society based on Boccaccio’s writings.
- Where you see connections to our readings or lectures.
Connections
- We want to try and relate what we read in the Decameron to what we have
read in our assigned readings or talked about in our lectures. This means you
should have citations!

- If you want to cite a reading: (Title of text, Page number)

- If you want to cite a lecture: (Date of lecture, Slide number)
- If you don’t have any citations, it will be very important to justify why.

Concerns? Contact Dr. Gruman ASAP.

Grading our Presentations

Presentations will be worth 100 points. Here’s the breakdown:

- 30 points from your peer reviews
- Three other people evaluating your presentation on a scale of 1-10
- 30 points from your practice audio
- This is a completion score, either you turn it in on time or you don’t.
Please please please turn it in on time.
- 40 points from your Powerpoint.
- I won’t be able to watch everyone’s presentations, so it is important to
make the mastery of your material clear in your presentation.
Is the quality of your peer review is below the standards of our class, that may be reflected in my evaluation of your presentation.

I do not expect this to be an issue, because I believe in all of you and your capabilities.
Decameron Presentation Timeline

Wednesday, October 5th by 11:59pm

- Upload an audio recording of you practicing your presentation in full.
- Mistakes and errors totally ok!
- Upload a copy of your presentation slide deck to a discussion board on our
Blackboard site.

Thursday, October 6th

- Small group presentations in class

Friday, October 7th 11:59pm

- Submit peer reviews on Blackboard
Do we need to adjust the deadline for peer-reviews?
Do you have questions or concerns? Do you want help? That’s my job. Talk to me and we’ll figure it out.

tgruman@angelo.edu
Talking about reading!

Step 1: Small Groups!

Step 2: As a group decide on the 2-3 key takeaways from Chapter 2, and the 2-3
key takeaways from Chapter 6.
- How long do we need for this?

Step 3: Write your ideas on the board.

Step 4: Look at what other people write on the board. As a class, we’re going to
decide on four takeaways for each chapter. Be prepared to justify why or why not
an entry deserves to make the cut.
- If you are not contributing, I may call on you.
Pizza pie, oh my!
(Southern Italy)
Ok, so what the heck is going on in southern Italy?
Sicilian Beginnings
- Germans, Muslims, Byzantine Greeks (Eastern Roman Empire) and Southern
Italians all fighting for control of Sicily.
- Between 999-1139, increasing numbers of Norman adventurers (basically,
vikings a generation removed) come to Sicily, looking to establish themselves.
- William II “The Good” Rules from 1166-1189. He dies without an heir.
- In 1185 William’s aunt Constance marries Henry VI, Holy Roman Empire
(German-ish)
- Constance and Henry’s son Frederick becomes King of Sicily in 1198.
- He passes a number of repressive measures against Muslim population in Sicily, leading to a
number of rebellions and conflicts. Muslim population is expelled from Sicily in 1224.
- Because Frederick is the Holy Roman Emperor, he is involved in the fight
between the Pope and everybody else.
- 1266: The Battle of Benevento.
The Battle of Benevento - Germans right, French left
- William II “The Good” Rules from 1166-1189. He dies without an heir.
- In 1185 William’s aunt Constance marries Henry VI, Holy Roman Empire
(German-ish)
- Constance and Henry’s son Frederick becomes King of Sicily in 1198.
- He passes a number of repressive measures against Muslim population in Sicily, leading to a
number of rebellions and conflicts. Muslim population is expelled from Sicily in 1224.
- Because Frederick is the Holy Roman Emperor, he is involved in the fight
between the Pope and everybody else.
- 1266: The Battle of Benevento. The Pope gets the King of France to march to
southern Italy and take control of the territory. The King of France is now also
the King of Sicily.
The Sicilian Vespers! Easter, 1282

Turns out: the people in Sicily don't like the French king.

Turns out: the French soldiers aren’t great at integrating into the community and
mostly just want to steal stuff and sexually assault women.

Turns out: people will riot if this is the case.

Turns out: basically every French person on the island (including monks!) will be
butchered by the Sicilians.
The Two Sicilies
- The rebels go to the pope asking for him to back them, so they can create a
bunch of self-governing communities. Pope won’t do it.
- The Sicilians go to King Peter III of Aragon and ask him to be king. He’s such
a nice guy, he says “sure.”
- Now there are two Sicilies! The Spanish Sicily-Sicily, and the French Southern
Italy-Sicily.
So what’s going on in the Kingdom of Naples?

- Queen Joanna sides with French-aligned Pope

Clement in 1378 as part of the schism we talked
about Tuesday.
- In response, Pope Urban excommunicates Joanna
and says that Charles of Durazzo (major city in
present-day Albania in the north Adriatic) is now the
rightful ruler.
- Charles takes over Kingdom of Naples, has Joanna strangled.
- But there’s a problem: right before Charles captured
Joanna, she named Louis of Anjou, son of the French
king as her heir.
Next Time: Fight Fight Fight!