In like manner they employed their wealth upon the development of arts and industries.

The great age of Florentine painting is indissolubly connected with the memories of Casa Medici.

Rome owes her magnificence to the despotic Popes.

Even the pottery of Gubbio was a creation of the ducal house of Urbino.
After the death of Henry VII.

and the beginning of the Papal exile at Avignon, the Guelf party became the rallying-point of municipal independence, with its headquarters in Florence.