CIOMPI REVOLT

(1378)

   The Ciompi were day laborers who worked in Florence in the wool cloth industry. In 1378, they revolted for not being allowed to form a guild and hence were being deprived of political representation. They forced the government to grant them guild status and to enact concessions that improved their living conditions. For a few weeks, Florence experienced a true democracy that granted its fair share to the working class, but the enactments were cancelled when the city's guilds pulled together to bring back the old order. Though the effects of the Ciompi Revolt were short lived, it helped consolidate the oligarchic political system of the Albizzi and later the Medici in Florence.