ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dottore Guido Pampaloni, of the Archivio di Stato in Florence, has been a friend and guide to the wondrous riches of the archives. Without his generous assistance important runs of documents would have gone unnoticed. Miss Marianna Hassol, my editor at The Johns Hopkins Press, has been more helpful with her buon senso than any sequence of documents. Much gratitude for her good counsel. Last, thanks to my friend Jack P. Greene who made our stay at The Johns Hopkins University so pleasurable while this book was being written.

Marvin B. Becker

University of Rochester