How seriously did the leading families of Florence in this period attempt to govern in the general interest of the population of their city?

Giovanni Villani's chronicle of Florentine history, written before the Black Death, contains a famous chapter entitled 'On the Greatness and State and Magnificence of the Commune of Florence.' The statistics he includes in this chapter place Florence among the five most populous cities in Europe in 1338; only Paris, Venice, Milan, and Naples were larger in size. Florence was also one of Europe's wealthiest cities, in a large part due to the production and sale …

… - oligarchic in nature or not - attempted to govern with the general interest of Florentines in mind. Bibliography A. Brown, The Medici in Florence: the Exercise and Language of Power (1992) G. Brucker, Florentine Politics and Society: 1343-1378 (Princeton 1962) G. Brucker, Renaissance Florence (1969) G. Brucker ed., The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study, (1971) J.R. Hale, Florence and the Medici: the Pattern of Control (1977) G. Homes, Europe: Hierarchy and Revolt 1320-1450, second edition (2000)