Yet abundant proofs can be furnished from the chronicles of burghs which owed material splendor to their despots, confirming the censure of Villani.

Matarazzo, for example, whose sympathy with the house of Baglioni is so striking, and who exults in the distinction they conferred upon Perugia, writes no less bitterly concerning the pernicious effects of their misgovernment.[1] It is to be noticed that Villani and Matarazzo agree about the special evils brought upon the populations by their tyrants.

Lust and violence take the first place.
Next comes extortion; then the protection of the lawless and the criminal against the better sort of citizens.

But the Florentine, with intellectual acumen, lays his finger on one of the chief vices of their rule.

They retard the development of mental greatness in their states, and check the growth of men of genius.