Lucio Spini is a notabilissimo of Florence of the Spini house, bankers to the English, who arbitrates property inspections for the gonfalonier and is denounced by some as impious.
| Type | Character |
| Spanish entry | Lucio Spini |
Description
He limps, with a finely carved wooden cane with a silver handle. His black tunics are reinforced with sewn hard leather, as light armor. He carries two daggers, used “more defensively than offensively”. He opens any dealing by declaring friendship (“we are friends”).
Role
The gonfalonier trusts him to arbitrate property inspections as a neutral party; in Lucio’s words, “I am Lucio Spini… that is why I trust my judgment.”
His house has money and contacts abroad as bankers to the English, and trains woodsmen of the contado of Pistoia, men “with black hoods”, to work in the forests.
A divided house
Some Spini hold positions in the city; others are exiles, among them the uncle of one of the band’s companions, given as Jerry Spini, though other records write, with doubt, Gianni Spini. Lucio arbitrates for the gonfalonier while his kin appear on the lists of banishment.
Some hold him “an impious man”, cursed and bound for hell; within his house he is called “possibly the paladin” of the Spini.
Conflicting accounts
- The uncle’s exile may set Lucio against that branch of the family, or the two may be one network working on both sides.
Open questions
- The cause of his limp, his face, age and voice are unrecorded.
- Where he lives, what the inspections decide, and what forest work the hooded woodsmen do are not stated.
- The companion’s name, and whether “Jerry” or “Gianni” is correct, are unknown.
- Who called him impious, and why, is not recorded.