As in other Italian city-states, a fierce rivalry existed in Verona between both sides. Supporters of the pope, called Guelphs, and partisans of the emperor, called Ghibellines, grappled for control. They also fought deadly battles over the most petty of differences. Blood was spilled over trivial issues such as the proper method of eating garlic and the viability of wearing a feather in the left rather than the right side of the cap. Famed Italian poet Francesco Petrarch lamented this sad state of relations:
O my own Italy!-though words are vain
The mortal wounds to close
Innumerable that thy bosom stain
Yet it may soothe my pain
To sing of Tiber's woes
And Arno's wrongs, as on Po's saddened shore
Mournful I wander, and my numbers pour.
(Durant, p. 45)
The bubonic plague. In 1348 the bubonic plague ravaged Europe. In Italy an estimated onethird of the population died from the disease. The plague sparked a cycle of famine and epidemic that lasted through the end of the century. It contributed to social instability that led to one hundred years of unending warfare and continual upheaval among Italy's citizens. Overcrowding in cities such as Venice, whose population by 1422 approached 200,000, led to fierce competition for few natural resources, further igniting the turmoil that already raged because of political and religious differences.
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