IN THE LEGEND

The creation of the Misericordie (Mercies) comes traditionally with the foundation of the Misericordia of Florence by the Domenicanian Pietro from Verona, which is dated 1244 (being lost the original documents, the foundation date was detected on the base of subsequent files).

But a different popular tradition (parallel to the previous one), says that the Company was started by a porter of the Arte della Lana (Wool Art), Piero of Luca Borsi.

Piero, son of Luca Borsi, following what the legend says, was an old man who worked in Florence, as a porter for the powerful Wool Art. The wool clothes trading was very flourishing, and the exchange of the goods, entrusted to the porters, was a very heavy job, so that often in order to get relief, men used to drink wine.

A group of porters, included Piero, had the habit to pluck up their strength between a journey and the other, in the Buca degli Adimari (Hole of the Adimaris), a wine shop near the Cathedral.

The arguments among his colleagues were inevitable and frequent. Maybe because of the tiredness, maybe because of the wine, surely because of their ignorance, Piero's friends usually cursed God.

Piero who was a very devoted man, kept on telling them off, but he had no results.

So he had the idea of creating a "bill": whenever anybody cursed God, he had to pay a sum of money.

The proposal was accepted, but, it is very probable that the curses didn't decrease, therefore after some time, the sum of money, composed by the bill payments, became a considerable one.

Piero, then, thought that if he couldn't stop the curses of his friends, then he could let them pay a sum for their bad words .

He suggested to buy with that money, six baskets (called "zane"), to bring on their shoulders, so that they could bring the ill people of the city to the workhouse, when they could be cured. His companions accepted, and they established a reward for every journey they were going to make.

So, following the people's feeling, the Misericordia was created.

The first written version of this story was included in the "Storia della Compagnia della Misericordia" ("History of the Misericordia Company"), written by Placido Landini in 1779, on the base of previous files.

This legendary and popular reconstruction has been time and again met with the criticism of some historians which has come out under certain circumstances, since the end of the XIX century: it underlined the incongruousness and the impossibility to find the documents written in gothic mentioned by Placido Landini, and it claimed the person of Pietro from Verona as the official founder, a figure who was also more in accordance with the Sacred Institution than the cursers' one.

But the popular Legend of Piero of Luca Borsi still has a great success among the brothers of the several Misericordie, so that since then, they have spread all over Italy and all over the world: it is worth to wonder the motivations.

Even though their aims are sacred, the Misericordie collect together ordinary people, with their mistakes and their weakness, and the message of the Legend speaks to their heart deeply, more than the example of Saint Pietro from Verona's life.

Going over carefully to the ancient popular Legend, we can notice surprisingly, that it's very modern, full of inspirations and food for thoughts, almost like the Manifest of the Association.

What about the porters who funded deliberately the bill for their mistakes and the idea of the service to their fellowmen as penalty? Aren't they similar to those Brothers who find in the service the solution to their sins?

What about Piero himself, who tried to correct his colleagues, addressing their energies towards the good? Isn't it the behaviour required to the responsible men of the Misericordie?

The popular tradition (but maybe, here it's the case to speak about "Wisdom"), seemed to have drawn, unconsciously, through the metaphor of the Legend, the point of what participating to the experience of the Misericordie means.

This is why the Legend still lives, notwithstanding everything and everybody.