How One Wool Workers' Revolt Took Over Florence – Ciompi 1378

How one wool workers' revolt took over Florence: in the summer of 1378 the Ciompi Revolt put the poorest working men of a wealthy republic in charge of its government. This is the story of how they did it, and why they lost it within weeks. Florence grew rich on woollen cloth, yet of roughly 14,000 wool workers only about 200 belonged to the Arte della Lana, the guild that ruled their working lives. After the Black Death, decades of debt and the costly War of the Eight Saints against Pope Gregory XI, the city's rulers turned on each other: the Guelph Party against Salvestro de' Medici. In July 1378 the guildless workers walked through the opening. Palaces burned, the priors abandoned the Palazzo della Signoria, and a wool comber named Michele di Lando was acclaimed Gonfaloniere of Justice. Three new guilds brought some 13,000 men into politics. Then the employers kept the workshops shut, the coalition split, and on 31 August the Piazza della Signoria became a battlefield. We follow the chronicles of Stefani and Acciaioli, Machiavelli's later verdict, and what historians still argue about. 0:00 Wool, Fire, Betrayal 0:59 The City Built on Wool 2:28 Workers Without a Voice 4:24 The Rulers Turn on Each Other 9:17 The July Uprising Begins 12:59 A Wool Comber Takes the Palace 15:18 Workers in Power 19:21 The Revolution Splits 23:19 Bloodshed in the Piazza 27:31 Hero or Traitor? Sources: Niccolò Machiavelli, History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy, Book III (Project Gutenberg) – https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2464/2464-... Alex Kitchel, "The Ciompi Revolt of 1378: Socio-Political Constraints and Economic Demands of Workers in Renaissance Florence," Hanover Historical Review (2018), quoting the chronicles of Stefani, Acciaioli and the First Anonymous (trans. Kantor and Green) – https://history.hanover.edu/hhr/18/HHR2018... "Michele di Lando," Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Treccani) – https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/miche... "The Ciompi Revolt and the Missing Revolution (1378)," Global History Dialogues – https://globalhistorydialogues.org/stories... "Revolt of the Ciompi," Connexions library (cites Brucker 1968, Cohn 2006) – https://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/... "Tumulto dei Ciompi," reference article (built on Rodolico, Rutenburg, Trexler, Franceschi, Barbero) – https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumulto_dei_... "Ciompi Revolt," reference article – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciompi_Revolt "War of the Eight Saints," reference article – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_E... "Salvestro de' Medici," reference article – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvestro_de... "Arte della Lana," reference article – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte_della_Lana Further reading: John M. Najemy, A History of Florence 1200–1575 (2006); Samuel K. Cohn Jr., Lust for Liberty (2006); Richard C. Trexler, "Follow the Flag: The Ciompi Revolt Seen from the Streets" (1984); Gene A. Brucker, "The Revolt of the Ciompi," in Florentine Studies (1968) Maps: drawn by Wars in Ink · base data Natural Earth (public domain) · terrain AWS Terrain Tiles · Illustrations: original artwork created for this channel (AI-assisted) · Archival art: Wikimedia Commons (public domain and CC0) · Music: YouTube Audio Library #history #documentary #medievalhistory