Lando’s Ciompi Demand Justice

Michele di Lando, Gonfaloniere of Justice

Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the entire world. But back in 1378, it was a mess.

Florence was a minor village back during Roman times, but it grew to be a major town, and then a dominant city because it was the leader in premium woolen cloth. Wool was the top commodity, kinda the oil of the medieval world, and Florence was at the center of the cloth trade.

Most of Europe was ruled by a feudal hierarchy, with the nobility running the show, ruling over the peasants. Florence went its own way. The wealthy merchants nudged aside the nobles and took over the town’s government. They abolished serfdom to free up laborers toiling in the fields so they could grind it out in the wool trade instead.

In 1293, the town leaders created the constitution of Florence, the Ordinances of Justice, which is a pretty cool name for a bunch of rules. The O-of-J forbade nobles from holding office and put the guilds in charge of the city. A committee of nine priors would run Florence, drawing its members from the seven major guilds and the fourteen minor guilds. Unskilled workers were not in a guild so were left out.

This was more oligarchy than democracy, but power was more distributed in Florence than just about anywhere else in feudal Europe. Only the wealthy were invited to the party. The poor laborers still had no say in how things were run. And don’t feel too bad for the nobles, they still got to be rich and just hang out.

So Florence was just bumping along, making money hand over fist, when outta nowhere, they caught a small case of The Plague in 1348. More than half its population died. This was on top of the collapse of the Bardi and Peruzzi banks when King Edward III of England didn’t pay back the loans he took out to fight France. Then in 1375, Florence went to war with the pope. All this was bad for business.

In the summer of 1378, the Ciompi, unskilled woolworkers, decided that they were tired of sweating it out for low wages and being excluded from the guild system. So, they rose up in the Ciompi Revolt. At first, they asked nicely, presenting petitions to the Signoria, executive council of Florence. That didn’t get them very far, so the Ciompi stormed the Palazzo Vecchio and took over the government.

Now the Ciompi had a guild of their own. One of their leaders, Michele di Lando, a foreman in a cloth factory, was made Gonfaloniere of Justice (Standard-Bearer of Justice), which is way cooler than any title you’ve ever had. Lando was the poorest person to serve on the Signoria.

While wealthy merchants were technically peasants (because they were neither nobility nor clergy and there were only three options) they clearly saw themselves as above the rabble. Now, di Lando, one of the rabble, sat next to them on the council. This would not do.

This is a different Lando, but he was also a capable city administrator 

After a while, the old city bosses got sick of this little experiment in medieval democracy. When a large group of the Ciompi jammed into the Piazza della Signoria, the forces of the 21 top guilds stormed in, booted them out, and retook the town.

After 1382, a group of wealthy and influential old families took over the show and set up an oligarchy, scooping up all the wealth for themselves, with only a few crumbs trickling down. It didn’t go as badly for the peasants as the French Jacquerie or the English Peasants’ Revolt, but regular peasants wouldn’t find themselves back in the voting booth anytime soon.

And what happened to the new ruling class in Florence? Fifty years later, the oligarchs would be overthrown, paving the way for the wealthiest man in Europe, Cosimo de’ Medici, to take over Florence. And he served his pasta with a side dish of Renaissance. Buon appetito!

How is decision-making authority distributed in your organization?

There are infinite permutations that have been tried since the first caveman committee meeting, but they break down into three main categories: The One, The Few, The Many.

The One

A strong executive can act decisively, pointing the direction for all the others to follow. It’s great if they’re great. But when the person at the top is the only one that can make a decision, and everything has to be run up the chain to The Boss, not only does it slow everything down to a crawl, but you lose all the insight and expertise of everyone else in the organization.

The Few

A committee can be an effective way to integrate diverse perspectives. The group can find tradeoffs and sand down rough edges of new ideas. But if everyone has to put their stamp on the idea or if rival factions form, speed can slow to a glacial pace. Even worse, if no one takes responsibility, they might kick the can down the road indefinitely.

The Many

Having everyone involved in a decision can result in greater buy-in once the decision is made. You get to have everyone’s perspective, which can surface unobvious ideas. But it only takes one knucklehead to derail the discussion or one holdout to torpedo any real progress. When there’s no one in charge and anyone can veto, you are doomed.

There is no perfect way. Depending on the decision that needs to be made, the organizational dynamic, and the specific challenge, you have to go with whatever is most effective. Or just hide out in the breakroom searching for leftover catering and hope it all works out.