men brought up to trade, they followed the usages and example of others.

Thus the arms of Italy were either in the hands of the lesser princes,
or of men who possessed no state; for the minor princes did not adopt
the practice of arms from any desire of glory, but for the acquisition
of either property or safety. The others (those who possessed no state)
being bred to arms from their infancy, were acquainted with no other
art, and pursued war for emolument, or to confer honor upon themselves.
The most noticed among the latter were Carmignola, Francesco Sforza,
Niccolo Piccinino the pupil of Braccio, Agnolo della Pergola, Lorenzo
di Micheletto Attenduli, il Tartaglia, Giacopaccio, Cecolini da Perugia,
Niccolo da Tolentino, Guido Torello, Antonia dal Ponte ad Era, and many
others. With these, were those lords of whom I have before spoken, to
which may be added the barons of Rome, the Colonnesi and the Orsini,
with other lords and gentlemen of the kingdoms of Naples and Lombardy,
who, being constantly in arms, had such an understanding among
themselves, and so contrived to accommodate things to their own
convenience, that of those who were at war, most commonly both
sides were losers; and they had made the practice of arms so totally
ridiculous, that the most ordinary leader, possessed of true valor,
would have covered these men with disgrace, whom, with so little
prudence, Italy honored.

With these idle princes and such contemptible arms, my history must,
therefore, be filled; to which, before I descend, it will be necessary,
as was at first proposed, to speak of the origin of Florence, that it
may be clearly understood what was the state of the city in those times,
and by what means, through the labours of a thousand years, she became
so imbecile.