'You may still trace the place where the Bottega and Court of the Calimale stood in Mercato Nuovo, near where the Via Porta Rossa now enters the present Via Calzaioli. Here, the new council of thirty-six of the best citizens, burghers, and artisans, with a few trusted members of the nobility, met every day to settle the affairs of the State. Dante has branded these two warrior works as hypcrites, but, as Capponi says, from this Bottega issued at once and almost spontaneously teh Republic of Florence'

Edmund G. GARDNER [19o2] The Story of Florence, London: J.M. Dent, p.26