Among the most famous of the Italian states at this period was Florence; and its fame was founded, not on arms, but on literature. Like the other Italian cities, however, it owed its first elevation to the commercial industry of its inhabitants. There was a curious division of the Florentine citizens, subsisting about the beginning of the thirteenth century, into companies or _arts_. These were at first twelve――seven called the greater arts, and five the lesser; but the latter were gradually increased to fourteen. The seven greater arts were those of lawyers and notaries, of dealers in foreign cloth (called sometimes _calimala_), of bankers or moneychangers, of woolen-drapers, of physicians and druggists, or dealers in silk, and of furriers. The inferior arts were those of retailers of cloth, butchers, smiths, shoemakers, and builders. It was in the thirteenth century that Florence became a republic, and it maintained its independence for two hundred years. In the beginning of the fifteenth century it became peculiarly distinguished by the revival of Grecian literature and the cultivation of the fine arts. Cosmo de Medici, who lived a citizen of Florence at this time, and was known by the name of the Grand Duke of Tuscany――descended from a long line of ancestors, whose wealth had been honorably acquired in the prosecution of the _greater arts_――possessed more riches than any king in Europe, and laid out more money on works of learning, taste, and charity, than all the princes of his age. The same liberality and munificence distinguished his family for several generations.
The commercial success of the states of Italy induced the inhabitants of northern Europe to attempt similar enterprises. In the thirteenth century the seaports on the Baltic were trading with France and Britain, and with the Mediterranean. The commercial laws of Oleron and Wisbuy (on the Baltic) regulated for many ages the trade of Europe. To protect their trade from piracy, Lubec, Hamburg, and most of the northern seaports, joined in a confederacy, under certain general regulations, termed the _League of the Hanse Towns_; a union so beneficial in its nature, and so formidable in point of strength, as to have its alliance courted by the predominant powers of Europe. ‘For the trade of the Hanse Towns with the southern kingdoms, Bruges on the coast of Flanders was found a convenient entrepôt, and thither the Mediterranean merchants brought the commodities of India and the Levant, to exchange for the produce and manufactures of the north. The Flemings now began to encourage trade and manufactures, which thence spread to the Brabanters; but their growth being checked by the impolitic sovereigns of those provinces, they found a more favorable field in England, which was destined thence to derive the great source of its national opulence.’