And though great families like the Rothschilds in the most recent days have successfully asserted the aristocracy of wealth acquired by usury, it still remains a surprising fact that the daughter of the mediaeval bankers should have given a monarch to the French in the sixteenth century.
[1] _Sulle azioni del Ferruccio_, vol.i.p.

44.

The report of Marco Foscari on the state of Florence, already quoted more than once, contains a curious aristocratic comment upon the shop-life of illustrious Florentine citizens.

See Appendix ii.

Even Piero de' Medici refused a Neapolitan fief on the ground that he was a tradesman.
A very lively picture of the modes of life and the habits of mind peculiar to the Italian burgher may be gained by the perusal of Agnolo Pandolfini's treatise, _Del Governo della Famiglia_.