Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In central Italy, the act of placing in a purse or sack (borsa) the names of candidates for certain municipal offices, to be afterward selected by lot. According to Sismondi, this method is still in use.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Taking advice from the ruin of their enemies, they considered that to allow the great offices to be filled by mere chance of drawing, did not afford the government sufficient security, they therefore resolved that the magistrates possessing the power of life and death should always be chosen from among the leaders of their own party, and therefore that the Accoppiatori, or persons selected for the imborsation of the new Squittini, with the Signory who had to retire from office, should make the new appointments.

    The History of Florence 2003

  • Taking advice from the ruin of their enemies, they considered that to allow the great offices to be filled by mere chance of drawing, did not afford the government sufficient security, they therefore resolved that the magistrates possessing the power of life and death should always be chosen from among the leaders of their own party, and therefore that the _Accoppiatori_, or persons selected for the imborsation of the new Squittini, with the Signory who had to retire from office, should make the new appointments.

    History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy Niccol�� Machiavelli 1498

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