(Ital Neri) -- in Pistoia in the later thirteenth century, the name of a party, adopted in Florence after 1293 for a faction of the local Guelphs, originally headed by Corso Donati, which became dominant in the commune Opposed to the Whites
Mutes at funerals, who wore a black cloak; sometimes called the Black Guards I do pray ye To give me leave to live a little longer You stand about me like my Blacks Beaumont and Fletcher: Mons Thomas, iii 1