Note *296 — Chapter XXXVII
Reading edition
As usual, Machiavelli is right. If the proveditori had so bad an influence (and it was doubtless bad) the results should have been earlier seen, for it was an old custom with that Republic. Francesco Maria, whom Dennistoun rates so highly as a soldier, as we have seen, was not more harassed by these spies than his forerunners, Carmagnuola Colleoni and Sigismondo Malatesta. The custom rose out of the decision to employ no citizen as a captain-general. Nor was Venice alone in this practice; Siena and Florence followed it too on occasions.