Florence

1917

Florida

(it was in this square Savonarola was burned
in 1498); the Ufnzi Palace (1560-74), contain-
ing the National Library, a picture gallery,
the central archives of Tuscany, and the post
office; the archaeological museum, which con-
tains notable Etruscan collections; the na-
tional museum of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, sheltered in the Bargello (i3th
century), the ancient chief law court of the
republic.

Florence ranks as the intellectual capital of
Italy, a position it owes not only to the natural
gifts of its inhabitants, but also to the memory
of its greatest citizen, Dante, and to the fact
of its being the seat of the (national) Ac-
cademia della Crusca, and the vigorous Insti-
tute for Advanced Studies, which virtually
fulfils the offices of a university.

Florence was made a Roman 'colomV under
Sulla but not until the time of Charlemagne
did she rise out of obscurity. After the death
of the Countess Matilda, 1115, she began first
to assert her independence and during many
years there was strife between two warring
factions, the Guelfs and the GhibelHnes. The
Black Death swept Florence in 1348, destroy-
ing 100,000 inhabitants. From 1434 the fam-
ily of the Medici asserted their power and
under Lorenzo de* Medici Florence was the
center of the Renaissance. Savonarola belong,
to the last decade of the isth century. In
1530 the city became the capital of the grand-
duchy of Tuscany. In 1859 she was united to
the kingdom of Italy and from 1865 until the
conquest of Rome in 1870 served as the capital
of the kingdom.

Among the most distinguished natives of
Florence are Dante, Boccaccio, Cimabue, the
Gaddis, the Lippis, Della Robbia, Donatello,
Machiavelli, Ghirlandajo, Orcagna, Andrea del
Sarto, Ghiberti, Benvenuto Cellini, Lully,
Cherubim, Amerigo Vespucci, and Guicciar-
dinL In the English cemetery are buried Mrs.
Browning, Landor, Clough, and Theodore
Parker; p. 355,000.

Bibliography.—Hutton's Literary Land-
marks of Florence; Oliphant's Makers of Flor-
ence; Horsburgh's Lorenzo the Magnificent and
Florence in Her Golden Age (1908); Vernon's
In and Out of Florence (1910); Lucas' A Wan-
derer in Florence (1912); Allen's Florence
(1912); Lacy's With Dante in Modern Florence
(1912); Grierson's Things Seen in Florence
(1922); Roth's The Last Florentine Republic
(1925); Brenton's The Golden, Age of the Med-
ici (1925)-

Florence, city, Alabama., It is the seat of
the State Normal College and the Burrill

Normal School for nejrrncs. A few miles above
are the Muscle Shoals. The military road con-
structed by Andrtr.v Jackson runs through the
city, and is one of its important streets; p.
15'045-
Florence of Worcester (d. niS), old Eng-
lish chronicler and monk who spent nearly the
whole of his life in the monastery of Worcester.
His Chronicon begins from earliest times, and
comes down to 1107. Prior to his own age his
work is simply a compilation from the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle, Bede, and other historians,
but from 1082 to 1107 he writes of contem-
porary events and from that date until 1141
his work was continued by his brethren in the
monastery.
Flores, department, Uruguay. The capital
is Trinidad; p. 26,371.
Flores, an island of the Azores in the dis-
trict of Horta. Off Flores, in 1591, occurred
the famous sea fight between the Revenge,
commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and sev-
eral large Spanish ships; p. 10,000.
Flores, Venancio (iSoq-68), Spanish-
American soldier, was bom in Paysandu,
Uruguay. He became leader of the ^Colorados,'
the party of revolt. Several times he atcempted
unsuccessfully to seize the presidency of
Uruguay.
Florets, the little individual flowers thai
make up the more dense inflorescences, as in
the capitula of daisies or dandelions.
Florian, Jean Pierre Claris de (1755-94),
French novelist, was born near Paris. He was
a relative of Voltaire by whom he was some-
what influenced. His fame rests on his Fables
(1792), which take rank among the best in the
language, being characterized by aptness, pi-
quancy, and point.
Floricans, East Indian birds, nearly allied
to the bustard, which are greatly relished as
food, and which are also hunted for the sake
of sport.
Floriculture, the cultivation of flowers and
decorative plants for aesthetic purposes.
Florida (popularly called the 'Peninsula
State*), the most southerly State of the United
States. The southern part is marked by large
cypress swamps and everglades. See EVER-
GLADES. The central portion is noted for its
immense number of lakes. Lake Okeechobee
is the largest in the State and one of the largest
wholly within the United States.
Of the rivers, the most important is the St
Johns, navigable for nearly 250 m. There are
about 1,150 in. of sea coast, more than half
being on the Gulf of Mexico. On the east coast
are the harbors of Fernandina, Jacksonville,