[1100] G. Villani, viii. 122, xi. 23. The former were not received in Florence, the latter were welcomed all the more readily.
[1101] Corio, fol. 281. Leon. Aretinus, Hist. Flor. lib. xii. (at the beginning) mentions a sudden revival called forth by the processions of the ‘dealbati’ from the Alps to Lucca, Florence, and still farther.
[1102] Pilgrimages to distant places had already become very rare. Those of the princes of the House of Este to Jerusalem, St. Jago, and Vienne are enumerated in Murat. xxiv. col. 182, 187, 190, 279. For that of Rinaldo Albizzi to the Holy Land, see Macchiavelli, Stor. Fior. l. v. Here, too, the desire of fame is sometimes the motive. The chronicler Giov. Cavalcanti (Ist. Fiorentine, ed. Polidori, ii. 478) says of Lionardo Fescobaldi, who wanted to go with a companion (about the year 1400) to the Holy Sepulchre: ‘Stimarono di eternarsi nella mente degli uomini futuri.’
[1103] Bursellis, Annal. Bon. in Murat. xxiii. col. 890.
[1104] Allegretto, in Murat. xxiii. col. 855 sqq. The report had got about that it had rained blood outside the gate. All rushed forth, yet ‘gli uomini di guidizio non lo credono.’
[1105] Burigozzo, Arch. Stor. iii. 486. For the misery which then prevailed in Lombardy, Galeazzo Capello (De Rebus nuper in Italia Gestis) is the best authority. Milan suffered hardly less than Rome did in the sack of 1527.
[1106] It was also called ‘l’arca del testimonio,’ and people told how it was ‘conzado’ (constructed) ‘con gran misterio.’
[1107] Diario Ferrarese, in Murat. xxiv. col. 317, 322, 323, 326, 386, 401.
[1108] ‘Ad uno santo homo o santa donna,’ says the chronicle. Married men were forbidden to keep concubines.
[1109] The sermon was especially addressed to them; after it a Jew was baptised, ‘ma non di quelli’ adds the annalist, ‘che erano stati a udire la predica.’