Chapter VII: Preface (7)

Your Magnificence commanded me to send you news of your Magnificent Lorenzo every eight days. I now begin to recount the first week. As you will have heard from Francesco Nori and Gugliemo de’ Pazzi, after leaving you in the early morning we arrived at Prato during the cool. He dined with the Protonotary of the Medici, together with the Podestà of the place, his own people and Giuliano. There was some wind when we left about the 20th hour [4 P.M.], and he reached Pistoja on Friday evening, being met by several citizens of the town. He dismounted at the Bishop’s palace, as a messenger had said that Monsignore expected him. Having saluted the Bishop he went, while the luggage was being unloaded, to visit the two governors (_Rettori_), the Captain and the Podestà of the town, who were all invited by the Bishop to keep him company at supper. Four citizens came on behalf of the Priors to excuse themselves in the name of the townspeople, that on account of his unexpected arrival they had not, &c. &c., and begged him with affectionate words that on his return, &c. On Saturday he mounted at nine in the morning, and dined at Pescia with the governor, Baptista Nasi, there being no better inn; the heads of the Commune came to pay their respects, and presented wine, marzipan (cakes made with sweet almonds), and corn, and some private citizens did the same. After resting in the house of the Grand Master of Altopascio, who had accompanied him for dinner, he left at 20 of the clock, and met several chief citizens who had come to do him honour in their houses. Passing through Lucca at 23 of the clock, he dismounted at the inn della Corona,[142] outside the town on the Pisan road, intending to leave the next morning (Sunday). But after supper came six citizens of Lucca, with torches and servants of the Signoria, and finding Lorenzo on the square in the cool receiving visits from private acquaintances Paolo Trenta and Piero Guidiccioni addressed him, complaining that he had not deigned to dismount in a city where he was so welcome and had such influence, but had gone outside, and then in a long oration they prayed him to wait until the Signoria had, &c. &c. Lorenzo replied that to see them, whom he reverenced as fathers, gave him patience to undertake these visits, and perceiving that he was expected to reply in person he would put off his departure until after dinner, and next morning would come and demonstrate his affection towards the Signoria. Messer Niccolò da Noceto, Paolo di Poggio, and many other citizens came on Sunday morning to fetch him, and placing him first in their midst, and then Bernardo Rucellai, and then the Chancellor, they accompanied him to mass in the chapel of the Volto Santo, and then to the Signoria, where he spoke so fluently and so well that he drew to himself the hearts of all the people. When he returned presents began to arrive, torches, large and small, marzipan, boxes of sweetmeats, and wine. He thanked, bestowed gifts, kept a few of the gentlemen to dinner, spread out his silver, and as some showed symptoms of moving the wind having risen, he left before the time fixed; yet many of the citizens rode after him, and insisted on accompanying him and talking much. On the way he rested at Chiesa, Mazzarosa, and Capezzano, all very pretty places. At Pietrasanta he arrived at 23 of the clock, and lodged at the inn of the Campana outside, for it is an untrustworthy town; S. George had not much faith in S. Zita.[143] But the governor, who is a gentleman from Fiesco, sent to offer to pay his respects, and to do anything in his power. He saw him, thanked, and then, accompanied by all those men who could not take their eyes off him, supped with some of the citizens under an arbour; the place is beautiful with the sea in front and fertile plains behind. At 8 of the clock he mounted and rode sixteen miles most gaily. Under Monte Tignoso he met an envoy of the Magnificent Marquess of Fosdinovo, who invited him in the name of his master, and at Lavenza, or a little before reaching Luni, the Marquess Gabriello himself, who conducted him to his house at Sarzana. On dismounting he visited the governor who rules here for the Florentines, then we dined, and after resting a little went to see Sarzanella, which seen from the castle seemed to him a good purchase.[144] When he had supped he went to visit Messer Francesco, ducal Cameriere, who lives out of the town, and finding him ill provided for supper, he supplied him bountifully. To-morrow he goes to dine at Villa Franca, and in the evening will be at Pontremoli. The journey has been so arranged that he will be at Milan on Saturday, and after fulfilling his Magnificent father’s commission he will return at once to you who are the only one he regrets being absent from. He is very well and gay, and so is Bernardo.[145] Tell Nannina this. Our party is as when we left all good friends and obedient; we have had no drawbacks, for not even a nail is wanting. We have had no delays or frauds. All goes well and happily: please God we shall find you the same, to whom we all commend ourselves.--The 18th day of July 1469.[146]

Lorenzo de’ Medici _to his wife_ Clarice

I have arrived here safely and am well. I am sure this will please thee more than any other news save that of my return, judging by my own feelings of longing for thee and for home. Make much of Piero, Mona Contessina, and Mona Lucrezia; I shall hasten to finish here and return to thee, for it seems to me a thousand years since I saw thee. Pray to God for me, and if thou wantest aught from here let me know, so be I have not already left Milan.--July 22, 1469.

Thy Lorenzo de’ Medici.[147]

In Lorenzo’s _Ricordi_ he writes: “In the month of July MCDLXIX I went to Milan at the request of the most illustrious Duke Galeazzo to stand godfather, as proxy for Piero our father, to his first-born child. I was received with much honour, more so than the others who came for the same purpose, although they were persons more worthy than I. We paid our duty to the Duchess by presenting her with a necklace of gold with a large diamond, which cost near 2000 ducats. The consequence was that the said Lord desired that I should stand godfather to all his children.”[148]

Lorenzo de’ Medici, _from Monza_, _to his father_ Piero _in Florence_

Being here at Monza with His Excellency, he wishes me to write to you about sending aid to Arimino, and begs you to arrange that Signor Roberto [Malatesta] with his troop should join the Duke of Urbino. As I know that Messer Luigi is writing fully about this I say no more, and all being in his hands I should not have mentioned it but for His Lordship’s orders. You will see what I write to Sagromora about being careful of your own person, so that nothing unforeseen should happen. It is well to give ear to all, though I do not think the danger is as great as it seems. Still it is better to be prudent, and to imagine danger may be greater than it really is.

I have taken leave of His Excellency, and this evening go to Milan, where I shall spend all to-morrow. On Monday, if it pleases God, I leave by way of Genoa, as after talking to His Lordship he thought it a good plan. I expect to stay two or three days in Genoa and to be with you on the 13th or at the latest the 14th of August. Meanwhile I commend myself to you.--Moncia [Monza], July 28, 1469.

Your Lorenzo.[149]

In the autumn of 1469 Piero de’ Medici was very ill, partly no doubt from anxiety about the state of Florence, “grievously troubled by her own citizens.” He summoned the chief burghers to his bedside, reproached them in the bitter words cited by Machiavelli, and threatened that he would cause them to repent. Fair words in plenty they gave him, but never changed their evil courses. “Whereupon,” continues Machiavelli, “Piero called Agnolo Acciaiuoli secretly to Caffagiuolo and conferred at length with him about the condition of the city. There is no doubt that had he not been prevented by death he would have reinstated all those who had been banished in order to put a stop to the robbery of the others. But death put an end to these most praiseworthy intentions. Tormented by increasing infirmity and anguish of mind, he died in the fifty-third year of his age. His country could not fully recognise his worth and his goodness, because until nearly the end of his life he was associated with his father Cosimo, and the few years during which he survived him were passed in civil contests and constant illness.” Piero died at Careggi on December 2, 1469, and was buried in S. Lorenzo, near his father.

_In the Museo Giovio (Villa Soave, Como)._]

FOOTNOTES:

[87] _Delle Istorie Fiorentine_, Niccolò Machiavelli, pp. 410 _et seq._ Milano, 1823.

[88] _Cosmi Vita_, op. cit. ii. 286.

[89] This document is undated, but was in all probability given in 1464.

[90] _Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita_, Angelo Fabronio, ii. 117. Pisis, 1784.

[91] Palatina Codex 204. The volume bound in white vellum contains 622 pages. There is no title-page. Lorenzo’s letter occupies the first six and a half pages, and without any division or new paragraph follows the Life of Dante by Boccaccio, in the same handwriting. At page 63 the writing changes and continues the same for forty pages. The poems were evidently copied by various scribes, as the writing so often differs.

[92] Codex 2723. A far smaller volume in modern wooden binding. The title-page is: _Rime del Poliziano, di Lorenzo de’ Medici, di Dante e d’altri_. The famous letter begins on page 71 (really 142, as only the right-hand page is numbered) and above it is written in a different and more modern hand in red ink, _Epistola di M. Angelo Poliziano al S. Federigo insieme con raccolto volgare mandatogli dal Magco. Lorenzo_. The same scribe has written the names of the various poets in the margin of the letter where they are mentioned in red ink. The Life of Dante by Boccaccio and many of the poems that are in the Palatina Codex are wanting. At page 78 (_i.e._ 156) the handwriting changes, and at the end of the volume is inserted a Latin autograph letter from Poliziano to Philippu Beroaldus. In 1814 the Abbate Vincenzo Nannucci and Luigi Ciampolini published a collection of Poliziano’s poems and at the end printed Lorenzo’s letter, attributing it to Poliziano. They were evidently misled by the anonymous annotator of this codex. The attribution to Poliziano is absurd, as he was then barely fourteen years of age, and only knew Lorenzo in 1470, when he sent him a translation of part of the Iliad (see p. 157).

[93] _Renaissance in Italy_, J. A. Symonds, iv. 323. Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1898.

[94] Manager of the Medici Bank at Milan.

[95] Ippolita Maria, daughter of Francesco Sforza, was married by proxy to the Duke of Calabria, eldest son of King Ferrante of Naples.

[96] Gugliemo de’ Pazzi, husband of Piero’s daughter Bianca.

[97] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xx. No. 12.

[98] The address is torn, and there only remains:

... entio de Medicis
... ediolani.

(_Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza. 20, No. 157.)

[99] Don Federigo and his sister-in-law, Ippolita Maria.

[100] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xx. No. 15.

[101] A long balustrade of stone raised several feet above the Piazza, with steps leading up to it, which once occupied the front of the Palazzo Vecchio to the left of the door. The erection was decreed on May 27, 1323, of “_unam nobilem, pulchram et decentem arengheriam, in muris seu juxta muros Palatii Populi in eo loco seu parte dicti palati ubi videbitur officia dominorum priorum_.”

[102] Luigi Pulci was born in Florence on August 15, 1432, of Jacopo Pulci and Brigida de’ Bardi. His brothers Luca and Bernardo were also poets. and Bernardo’s wife Antonia was a poetess of some repute. Luca went into trade but failed, and died in gaol in 1470, leaving his widow and children dependent on his brothers. Luigi, an intimate friend of the Medici family, wrote _La Giostra_ (sometimes attributed to his brother Luca) to celebrate the tournament held by Lorenzo de’ Medici in honour of the marriage of Braccio Martelli, but really of Lucrezia Donati just before his marriage with Clarice Orsini. The poem _Driades_ was first published under the pseudonym of Lucio Pulcro in Florence in 1479, but the later editions bear his name. His greatest work, less read than it deserves, _Morgante Maggiore_, was, as Mr. Armstrong says, a growth rather than a composition. Stanzas were recited at table, and Lucrezia de’ Medici urged him to collect them into an epic poem. Besides being a poet, Luigi Pulci was an acute and clever politician, often employed by Lorenzo in missions to foreign courts. He died in 1484, probably at Padua whilst on the road to Venice.

[103] _Lettere di Luigi Pulci a Lorenzo il Magnifico_, Nelle Nozze della Volpe Zambrini, p. 6. Salvatore Bonghi, Lucca, 1868.

[104] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 47.

[105] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 49.

[106] Ibid., ii. 36.

[107] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 36.

[108] Probably Tanai, son of Vieri de’ Medici.

[109] _Lettere di Luigi Pulci_, op. cit., p. 26. The _Palle_ are the balls in the Medici arms, and the people saluted the Medici by shouting “_Palle, Palle_.”

[110] Her own daughters.

[111] _Tre Letter di Lucrezia Tornabuoni a Piero de’ Medici_, Ricordo di Nozze, Cesare Guasti. Firenze, 1859.

[112] Gentile Becchi, tutor to Lorenzo and Giuliano, afterwards Bishop of Arezzo.

[113] _Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Donna di Piero de’ Medici_, Studio da G. Levantini-Pieroni. Firenze, 1888.

[114] _Arch. Med. Miscellanea_, p. 6.

[115] Illegible.

[116] _Lucrezia Tornabuoni_, &c., _op. cit._

[117] Ibid., Filza lxxx.

[118] Daughter of Agnolo Acciaiuoli, married to Pier Francesco de’ Medici.

[119] _Archivio_, &c., Filza xxi. No. 55.

[120] _Lucrezia Tornabuoni_, &c., _op. cit._

[121] Luigi Pulci’s brother.

[122] In the Mugello where Luigi Pulci owned a small property.

[123] _Lettere di Luigi Pulci_, op. cit. 31.

[124] Ibid.

[125] _Tre Lettere di Lucrezia_, &c., _op. cit._

[126] _Tre Lettere di Lucrezia Tornabuoni_, op. cit.

[127] _La Fidanzata di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, per nozze Bondi-Levi. Isidoro Del Lungo, 8th July 1897.

[128] _La Giostra di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, erroneously attributed by many writers to his brother Luca.

[129] _Tre Lettere di Lucrezia_, &c., _op. cit._ Rinaldo Orsini was afterwards Archbishop of Florence.

[130] Ibid.

[131] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., vol. ii. p. 39.

[132] A Tuscan white wine still much prized.

[133] Donatello’s David. It was placed in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio after the expulsion of Piero de’ Medici in 1494 and is now in the Bargello.

[134] _Tela di Renza_, or _Rensa_, so-called because it came from Rheims in France.

[135] The illegitimate son of Cosimo, canon of the cathedral of Florence.

[136] Gentile Becchi of Urbino, tutor to Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, afterwards Bishop of Arezzo.

[137] _Delle Nozze di Lorenzo de’ Medici con Clarice Orsini nel 1469. Informazione di Piero Parenti Fiorentino_, per le Nozze di Florestano ed Elisa dei Conti di Larderel. In Firenze, 1870.

[138] _Donne Medicee avanti il Principato_, Berta Felice, Rassegna Nazionale.

[139] A. Fabronio, _Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita_, Annotationes et Monumenta, p. 45. Pisis, 1784.

In _Memoirs of Dukes of Urbino_, by J. Dennistoun, vol. i. p. 186, is the following passage: “Federigo’s [of Urbino] condotta in the papal service had just expired, leaving him free to consult the dictates of policy, his views as to which were stated in an appeal to Pietro de’ Medici on behalf of Rimini, in words which may almost be deemed prophetic. ‘I am constrained to believe that the Pontiff and the Venetian Signory intend to occupy Rimini and all Romagna, and eventually Bologna too. Rimini once lost, the rest will readily follow, and your lordship and the league may easily suppose where Bologna and Imola would then be. Those who will not resist such projects at first may have afterwards to pay a hundredfold, and God grant that it be to good purpose.’” Edited by Edward Hutton. John Lane, London, 1909.

It is a curious coincidence that Bentivoglio and Federigo of Urbino should use almost identical words, unless Dennistoun has made a mistake about the writer.

[140] _Non fare tante melarancie_ (Not make so many oranges): an old proverb.

[141] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Avi, No. i. 474.

[142] The inn still exists.

[143] S. George is the patron saint of Pietrasanta, S. Zita a favourite saint in Lucca.

[144] Sarzana and Sarzanella had been bought the year before by Piero de’ Medici from Lodovico di Campo Fregoso. They were valuable to Florence as Sarzana commanded the direct road from Milan to Florence which near there lay between the mountains and the sea. An invasion from the north was thus rendered difficult, while an attack on Lucca could be carried out without fear of her allies being able to come swiftly to her help. Sarzanella, the fine fortress built by the great Lucchese Ghibelline, Castruccio Castrocane, in its turn commanded Sarzana.

[145] Bernardo Rucellai, husband of Lorenzo’s sister Nannina.

[146] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 54.

[147] Ibid., ii. 56.

[148] See p. 153, Lorenzo’s _Ricordi_.

[149] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza. vii. No. 411.

LORENZO DI PIERO DE’ MEDICI

(1450-1492)

Lorenzo de’ Medici, whose wonderful personality still has the power to excite bitter hatred and an almost passionate admiration, was a marvellously many-sided man. Marsilio Ficino said he possessed the three endowments called “graces” by Orpheus, splendour, light-heartedness, and rejuvenescence--splendour of intellect, light-heartedness in resolution, and a continual renewal of youth in person and in fortune. He was not twenty-one when his father died, worn out by bodily suffering, but Lorenzo had been his right hand for years, had been sent to represent him at foreign courts, and had seen more of the world than most men of double his age. He and his younger brother Giuliano received the education of princes rather than of the sons of a merchant. Gentile Becchi of Urbino, a man of unblemished life and considerable learning, was their tutor, Landino taught them Italian literature, Argyropoulos Greek, and Marsilio Ficino Platonic philosophy. They had also evidently been taught good manners, as Cambi, who never misses an opportunity to decry the Medici, tells us that when Lorenzo was with a citizen older than himself he always gave him the place of honour on his right. Above all, the two lads had the example and the teaching of their mother Lucrezia, a woman of strong good sense and genuine piety, who possessed a sunny nature, that rare gift humour, and a marked poetical temperament. From early childhood she sent Lorenzo to the meetings of the confraternity of S. Paolo, where men met for vigil and prayer, and after the services Messer Gentile by her orders made him distribute alms to the poor. When the boy was thirteen Gentile wrote to his father: “Lorenzo is well, your absence is ever before him. We are well advanced in Ovid and also in Justinian, four books of history and fables. You need not ask how he delights in these studies. His conduct is excellent, and he is very obedient.”

After Piero’s death Lucrezia, who had always been her husband’s trusted helpmate, became the counsellor to whom Lorenzo turned for help, consolation, and advice. He also had the good fortune to have a wise and capable man by his side, Tommaso Soderini, husband of his mother’s sister, Dianora Tornabuoni. Soderini’s influence was considerable, and he used it to induce his fellow-citizens to confirm Lorenzo in the pre-eminent though entirely unofficial position held by his grandfather and his father. There was hardly a dissentient voice when the chief citizens of Florence came to the Medici palace and begged him to take charge of the city as they had done.

Niccolò Valori describes Lorenzo as “above the common stature, with broad shoulders, solidly built, robust, and second to none in agility. Although nature had acted towards him like a stepmother with regard to his personal appearance, in all things connected with the mind she had been a loving mother. His complexion was swarthy, and although his face was not handsome, it was so full of dignity as to command respect. He was short-sighted, his nose was flattened, and he had no sense of smell. This did not trouble him. He was wont to say that he was grateful to nature, disagreeable things being more common than agreeable ones to so delicate a sense.”

Lorenzo was much inferior to his grandfather Cosimo in commercial talent, but he was a genius, and as Symonds writes, “possessed of one of those rare natures, fitted to comprehend all knowledge and to sympathise with the most diverse forms of life. While he never for a moment relaxed his hold on politics, among philosophers he passed as a sage, among men of letters for an original and graceful poet, among scholars for a Grecian, sensitive to every nicety of Attic idiom, among artists for an amateur gifted with refined discernment and consummate taste. Pleasure-seekers knew in him the libertine, who jousted with the boldest, danced and masqueraded with the merriest, sought adventures in the streets at night, and joined the people in their May-day games and Carnival festivities. The pious extolled him as an author of devotional lauds and mystery plays, a profound theologian, a critic of sermons. He was no less famous for his jokes and repartees than for his pithy apothegms and maxims, as good a judge of cattle as of statues, as much at home in the bosom of his family as in the riot of an orgy, as ready to discourse on Plato as to plan a campaign or to plot the death of a dangerous citizen.”[150]

A philosopher, a diplomatist, a “Pagan much inclined to the worship of Venus,” as Machiavelli tells us, a Christian as shown in his _Laudi_ and his _Capitoli_, evidently written _con amore_, a staunch friend, generous and kind, yet he is generally accused of having ordered the sack of Volterra--now, however, proved to have been instigated by the mercenaries engaged to defend the town--and of causing his opponents to be tortured and executed. The indelible stain on Lorenzo’s fair name is his interference with the deposits in the _Monte_.[151] Cambi, who it must be remembered was no friend of the Medici, writes: “On the 13th August 1490 seventeen so-called Reformers were created by the authority of the Signory, the Colleges of the Council, of the People, and of the Commune, the Council of the One Hundred, the officers of the _Monte_, and the whole _Popolo_ of Florence. Under pretext of revising the coinage and the duties they altered the entries of all monies received for the use of the State for the benefit of Lorenzo de’ Medici, who needed money in order to make his son Messer Giovanni a cardinal, which he did. And it was done with the money of the Commune. Counting what they gave him after he became a cardinal, it cost the Commune 10,000 scudi in gold. From the poor dowers of the married maidens and of those about to be married they deducted by means of taxes and the reduction of all future interest 3/4 per cent. of the interest, so that what should have given 3 per cent. they lowered to 1-1/2 per cent., and even that was not paid.... Thus few maidens married, and those few only by dint of money. Even then the permission of Lorenzo de’ Medici was necessary. Let every one therefore consider what it means to create tyrants in the city, to make a Balia and to call a parliament.”[152]

It was fortunate for the Italian language that the young Lorenzo fell under the influence of Leon Battista Alberti, who asserted that “though the ancient tongue has undisputed authority because so many learned men have employed it, the like honour will certainly be paid to our language to-day if men of culture take the pains to purify and polish it.” The revival of classical learning had almost arrested the study of Italian. In spite of the example of Dante and Boccaccio, Latin was the patrician and literary language, and even when men of letters used the vulgar tongue they interlarded it with Latin. Poliziano’s letters are a case in point. The example of Lorenzo altered all this. In his letter to Federigo of Naples (p. 88) he passes extraordinarily acute criticism on the old Italian poets, and in his Commentary, which takes up ninety-three double pages in the Aldine edition of his poems, he predicts a glorious future to the language used by Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. “Men and practice,” he says, “have rather been wanting to the language than the language to the men.” Muratori, treating of the poetry of the fifteenth century, gives the palm to Lorenzo, and Carducci declares him to be little if at all inferior to Poliziano and Pulci.

Incessantly occupied in preserving the balance of power in Italy, yet in his short life of forty-two years he wrote an amount of poetry, and good poetry, which would do credit to a man whose whole life is dedicated to literature. Treated as an equal by popes and princes--the King of France doffed his cap to his ambassadors and called him “my beloved cousin”--he was at home with the artisan and the peasant, whose tastes he to a certain degree shared, and whose characters he so perfectly understood and describes. In _La Nencia da Barberino_, that gayest of gay poems overflowing with _la joie de vivre_, often imitated but never surpassed, Vallera, the shy love-sick peasant, sings the praises of his Nencia, who, with her pretty ways and soft words, her eyes as black as coal, and her fair curly hair, would bear away the palm among a thousand city maidens. Such a dancer too. She bounds like a young goat, whirls like the wheel of a mill and then curtsies, no Florentine lady can do it better. He offers to buy her a paper cornet full of rouge or powder, or pins, or a necklace of those little red buttons [coral] when he goes to Florence, for he would draw the marrow from his bones to give her pleasure. Could he put his heart into her hands it would cry “_Nencia, Nencia bella_,” if she cut it with a knife. But Nencia flirts with other swains, his sighs are full of tears, he waits for her to come with her sheep when he drives his heifers to pasture, and the cruel girl turns back.[153]

Lorenzo’s love of the country, of country life, and of animals, is shown in _Ambra_ and _La Caccia col Falcone_. The former is an allegorical description of a flood which swept away an island at Lorenzo’s favourite villa, Poggio a Caiano. Winter is approaching. Only the bay, the myrtle, and the prickly juniper, shine among the bare trees, while the few birds take refuge in the cypresses. The olives on a southern slope sway, now green now silver white, to the breeze. The cranes print varied and beautiful lines on the sky, and Lorenzo notes how the leader cedes his place, when tired, to one of those in the rear. The eagle slowly circles in the air, a menace to all smaller fowl. Zephyr has fled to Cyprus, where he dances with the lazy flowers among the green grass. Boreas drives the mists down from the Alps, and the river, writhing like a serpent in the valley, gathers his tributaries. With strange sounds he rises. The yellow foam is tossed into the air as the wicked turbid stream rolls stone upon stone, and dashing against the dykes, overwhelms Ambra, “beloved of Lorenzo.” The terrified peasants take refuge on the roofs of their cottages, and watch their poor riches being swept away. Then comes the more artificial and well-worn tale of the lovely nymph Ambra pursued by the river god Ombrone, her prayer to the chaste goddess, and her farewell to Lorenzo as she is turned to stone.

_La Caccia col Falcone_ is a graphic account of the sport Lorenzo loved. Falcons, dogs, and men are drawn with facile pen by a man who delighted in country life and open air.

_Selve d’Amore_ is a lover’s complaint on the absence of his lady. Jealousy, Hope, and the Age of Gold, which existed before the opening of Pandora’s box, are described. He invokes his mistress in these beautiful lines beginning:

“O vaghi occhi amorosi,”

and at last she appears, Beauty on her right hand, Love on her left.

This is, however, not the place to describe Lorenzo’s poems, the fine _Altercazione_, a Platonic dialogue; the _Capitoli_, or _I Beoni_. His _Ballate_, _Canzone di Ballo_, and _Canzone Carnescialeschi_, which represent the popular, often very licentious poetry of the streets, are known to all Italian scholars. Il Lasca (A. Grazzini), after describing the masqueraders parading the streets with _Trionfi_, allegorical or mythological cars, and _Carri_ filled with men representing various trades, each one preceded and followed by its special attendants singing and dancing, and many masqued horsemen, says: “The Magnificent Lorenzo invented this manner of celebrating the festival. Formerly men dressed up as women went about the streets singing and dancing, imitating the maidens who thus greeted the month of May. The Magnificent, finding it was always the same thing, imagined to change not only the songs but the whole representation and the words, writing songs with varied metres, and causing new and different airs to be written. The first of these masquerades was performed by men who sold sugar-plums and _berriquocoli_ (small cakes), and the music, for three voices, was written by a certain Arrigo Tedesco,[154] head of the choir of S. Giovanni, a musician of great repute in those days.”

The most beautiful of Lorenzo’s carnival songs is _Il Trionfo di Bacco e Arianne_, beginning:

“Quant’ è bella giovanezza
Che si fugge tuttavia.”

Lorenzo’s sonnets are many, and some are worthy to rank with those of the most famous poets; indeed Muratori, in the specimens of perfect poetry appended to his treatise, cites four of them, together with the finest of Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and other great poets. In the _Laudi_, and the sacred play _S. Giovanni e Paolo_, can be traced Lorenzo’s early bringing up under his mother, herself no mean poetess, and the good Bishop Gentile. The play was written in later life for his children who acted it. It is said that Lorenzo himself took the part of Constantine. Already ill, and oppressed with cares, the Emperor’s address to his sons describing the duties of a ruler, and the lines

“Spesso chi chiama Costantin felice
Sta meglio assai di me e’l ver non dice,”

have a sad autobiographical ring.

Lorenzo, the one great statesman of Italy, had no easy part to play. As prudent as he was dexterous, the preservation of peace in Italy was his constant aim, to be attained by a maintenance of the balance of power so that no one State should become pre-eminent. His violent and unscrupulous enemy Sixtus IV. used every arm against him. When assassination failed he tried excommunication, and the laying of Florence under an interdict. The Florentines answered by appointing twelve citizens as a bodyguard to Lorenzo, and bidding the clergy to celebrate the sacraments. His sagacity, not only as a Tuscan but an Italian, was shown by the able way in which he traversed French schemes for interfering in Italy, although the fortune of his house was largely dependent on the well-being of the bank at Lyons. So quietly and unostentatiously was this done that French ambassadors were instructed to act according to his advice, and he became the intermediary between Rome and Paris.[155] “Lorenzo,” writes Dr. Creighton, “had striven to identify the Medici family with Florence, and had been himself the representative and expression of the desires and aspirations of Florentine life and culture. He had also learned that the existence of Italy depended upon the maintenance of internal peace, and his efforts for that end had, for the last ten years of his life, been unceasing. His early experience had taught him how difficult was the position which he had to maintain, that of chief citizen of a free city, whose fortunes and whose very existence depended on exercising absolute power without seeming to do so. It is easy to accuse him of insidiously destroying Florentine liberty; but the policy of Sixtus IV. left him no choice between such a course and retirement from Florence, and he may be pardoned if he doubted whether his abdication would conduce to the welfare of the city. He has been accused of abetting the moral enervation and corruption of his people; but the causes of this corruption are to be found in the general character of Italian life, and Lorenzo did no more than follow the prevailing fashion in lending his refinement to give expression to the popular taste. Lorenzo did what all Italian statesmen were doing; he identified his city for good and ill with his own house. He worked craftily and insidiously, not by open violence, and in the midst of his self-seeking he retained the large views of a statesman and embodied the culture of his age.”[156]

The Marquess Gino Capponi in his History of Florence writes: “The Medici palace was a museum, a school, and a place of meeting for all the learned men who flocked thither, from it proceeded grave counsel and intellectual teaching as well as shows and festivals, and a general corruption of manners. Two popes passed their childhood there, and the Platonic Academy, intended to raise the standard of life and thought, was founded within its walls. Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, one of the greatest men of his time, were constant visitors. There the first chips flew off the marble under the chisel of Michelangelo, and there Luigi Pulci read the Morgante aloud. Such exuberance of life, such magnificence, such gaiety, has probably never been witnessed in any other age, and the name of Lorenzo towers above it all.”[157]

Ricordi of Lorenzo the Magnificent, son of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici

A brief narrative of the course of my life and of some other important things worthy of remembrance for the guidance and information of those who will succeed me, and especially for my sons. Begun this day, the 15th March 1472.

I find from the books of Piero our father that I was born on January 1, 1449 [1450]. By our mother Maria Lucrezia di Francesco Tornabuoni our father had seven children, four male and three female, of whom four are still alive. They are Giuliano my brother, aged ... and myself, aged twenty-four, Bianca, wife of Gugliemo de’ Pazzi, and Nannina, wife of Bernardo Rucellai.

Giovanni d’ Averardo, surnamed Bicci, de’ Medici, our great-grandfather, died on the 20th February 1428, at the fourth hour of the night. He would not make a will, and left property to the amount of 179,221 scudi _di suggello_, as appears in a record in the handwriting of Cosimo our grandfather in his red leather book on page 7. The said Giovanni lived sixty-eight years, and left two sons, Cosimo our grandfather, then about forty, and Lorenzo, aged thirty.

Lorenzo had one son, Pier Francesco, born on ... 1430, who is still alive.

Cosimo had two sons, our father Piero, born ... and our uncle Giovanni, born ... On September ... 1433 our grandfather Cosimo was imprisoned in the Palace, and in danger of losing his head. On September 9th he was banished to Padua, together with his brother Lorenzo, a sentence confirmed by the Balìa of 1433 on the 11th, and on the 16th December he was permitted to reside anywhere in the Venetian territory, but not nearer to Florence than Padua.

On September 29, 1434, the Council of the Balìa revoked the sentence of exile, to the great joy of the whole city and of almost all Italy, and here [in Florence] he lived until his last day as head of the government of our Republic.

Lorenzo de’ Medici, brother of Cosimo our grandfather, quitted this life at Careggi on September 20, 1440, aged about forty-six, at the fourth hour of the night, and would not make a will; Pier Francesco, his son, was his sole heir. The property amounted to 235,137 scudi _di suggello_, as appears in the said book kept by Cosimo on page 13, which amount Cosimo kept for the use and benefit of the said Pier Francesco, and for Piero and Giovanni, his own sons, until they were of proper age, as appears in the books of the said Cosimo, wherein is a detailed account of all.

On December ... 1451 the said Pier Francesco being of age, we divided the property according to the arbitration of Messer Mannello degl’ Strozzi, Bernardo de’ Medici, Alamanno Salviati, Messer Carlo Marsuppino, Amerigo Cavalcanti, and Giovanni Serristori, by whom a liberal half of our possessions was assigned to him, giving him the advantage over us and the best things. The deed was drawn up by Ser Antonio Pugi, notary, and at the same time we gave him an interest of one-third in our business, whereby he gained much more than we did as he had no expenses.

Giovanni, our uncle (_et hujus quidem ingenio et virtute, plurimum confidebat Cosmus, qua propter ejus interitu maxime doluit_), died on November 1, 1463, in our house in Florence, without making a will, because he had no children and was under parental tutelage. But all his last wishes were faithfully carried out. By Maria Ginevra degl’ Alessandri he had a son named Cosimo, who died in November 1461, at about the age of nine.

Cosimo our grandfather, a man of exceeding wisdom, died at Careggi on August 1, 1464, being much debilitated by old age and by gout, to the great grief not only of ourselves and of the whole city but of all Italy, because he was most famous and adorned with many singular virtues. He died in the highest position any Florentine citizen ever attained at any period, and was buried in S. Lorenzo. He refused to make a will and forbade all pomp at his funeral. Nevertheless all the Italian princes sent to do him honour and to condole with us on his death; among others H.M. the King of France commanded that he should be honoured with his banner, but out of respect for his wishes our father would not allow it. By public decree he was named Pater Patriæ, and the decree and the letters patent are in our house. After his death much sedition arose in the city, especially was our father persecuted out of envy. From this sprang the parliament and the change of government in 1466, when Messer Agnolo Acciaiuoli, Messer Diotisalvi, Niccolò Soderini, and others were exiled, and the State was reformed.

In the year 1465 H.M. King Louis of France, out of regard for the friendship between our grandfather, our father, and the House of France, decorated our escutcheon with three Lilies d’or on a field azure, which we carry at present. We have the patents with the royal seal attached, which was approved and confirmed in the Palace with nine beans [votes].

In July 1467 came the Duke Galeazzo of Milan. He was fighting against Bartolomeo of Bergamo in the Romagna, who was vexing our State. By his own wish he lodged in our house, although the Signory had prepared everything for him in S. Maria Novella.

In February or in March of the same year Sarzana, Sarzanelle, and Castelnuovo were bought by the aid of our father Piero from M. Lorenzo and M. Tommasino da Campofregoso; notwithstanding that we were engaged in hot war the payment was made by Francesco Sassetti, our confidential agent, at that time one of the managers of the _Monte_.

I, Lorenzo, took to wife Clarice, daughter of the Lord Jacopo Orsini, or rather she was given (_i.e._ betrothed) to me in December 1468, and the marriage was celebrated in our house on June 4, 1469. Till now I have by her two children, a girl called Lucrezia, of ... years, and a boy named Piero, of ... months. Clarice is again with child. God preserve her to us for many years and guard us from all evil. Twin boys were born prematurely at about five or six months old, they lived long enough to be baptized.

In July 1469 I went to Milan at the request of the Illustrious Duke Galeazzo to stand godfather as proxy for Piero our father to his first-born child. I was received with much honour, more so than the others who came for the same purpose, although they were persons more worthy than I. We paid our duty to the Duchess by presenting her with a necklace of gold with a large diamond, which cost near 2000 ducats. The consequence was that the said Lord desired that I should stand godfather to all his children.

To do as others had done I held a joust in the Piazza S. Croce at great expense and with great pomp. I find we spent about 10,000 ducats _di suggello_, and although I was not highly versed in the use of weapons and the delivery of blows, the first prize was given to me; a helmet fashioned of silver, with Mars as the crest.

Piero, our father, departed this life on July 2nd, aged ... having been much tormented with gout. He would not make a will, but we drew up an inventory and found we possessed 237,988 scudi, as is recorded by me in a large green book bound in kid. He was buried in S. Lorenzo, and we are still at work to make his and his brother Giovanni’s tomb as worthy to receive his bones as we can. God have mercy on their souls. He was much mourned by the whole city, being an upright man and exceedingly kindly. The princes of Italy, especially the principal ones, sent letters and envoys to condole with us and offer us their help for our defence.

The second day after his death, although I, Lorenzo, was very young, being twenty years of age, the principal men of the city and of the State came to us in our house to condole with us on our loss and to encourage me to take charge of the city and of the State, as my grandfather and my father had done. This I did, though on account of my youth and the great responsibility and perils arising therefrom, with great reluctance, solely for the safety of our friends and of our possessions. For it is ill living in Florence for the rich unless they rule the State. Till now we have succeeded with honour and renown, which I attribute not to prudence but to the grace of God and the good conduct of my predecessors.

I find that from 1434 till now we have spent large sums of money, as appear in a small quarto note-book of the said year to the end of 1471. Incredible are the sums written down. They amount to 663,755 florins for alms, buildings, and taxes, let alone other expenses. But I do not regret this, for though many would consider it better to have a part of that sum in their purse, I consider that it gave great honour to our State, and I think the money was well expended, and am well pleased.

In the month of September 1471 I was elected to go as ambassador for the coronation of Pope Sixtus, and was treated with great honour. I brought back the two antique marble heads, portraits of Augustus and Agrippa, given to me by the said Pope Sixtus, and also our cup of chalcedony incised, and many other cameos which I then bought.

The following adjunct is written on the fly-leaf of a small codex in the archive in Florence without any date, but probably in 1483-5, containing a list of letters written by Lorenzo to various people, and above is written _Ricordi di Lorenzo de’ Medici_. All the first part is in a codex in the Nazionale Library, a copy of Lorenzo’s _Ricordi_, the original of which seems no longer to exist. It differs somewhat from the version given by Roscoe, which he says was in Lorenzo’s own handwriting.

On the 19th day of September [1483] came the news that the King of France by his own free will had given to our Giovanni the Abbey of Fonte Dolce. On the 31st we heard from Rome that the Pope had ratified this and declared him capable of holding benefices, being seven years of age, and had created him a Protonotary. On the 1st June our Giovanni came from Poggio [a Caiano] and I with him. On his arrival he was confirmed by our Monsignore of Arezzo [Gentile Becchi] who gave him the tonsure, and thereafter he was called Messer Giovanni. These ceremonies took place in our own chapel, and in the evening we returned to Poggio. On the 8th June Jacopino, the courier from France, arrived about twelve of the clock with letters from the king, who has bestowed on our Messer Giovanni the Archbishopric of Aix en Provence, and after vespers the man was despatched to Rome about this business, with letters from the King of France to the Pope and the Cardinal of Macon, and to Count Girolamo, to whom we sent at the same hour letters by the courier Zenino to Forlì. God grant that all will be well.

On the 11th Zenino returned from the Count with letters for the Pope and the Cardinal of S. Giorgio, and we forwarded them to Rome by the Milan post. God grant that all will be well. On the same day after Mass in the chapel the daughters and sons of the house were confirmed, with the exception of Messer Giovanni.

On the 15th, at six in the evening, came letters from Rome saying that the Pope raised difficulties about giving the archbishopric to Messer Giovanni on account of his youth, and the courier was at once sent on to the King of France.

On the 20th came news from Lionetto that the Archbishop was not dead.

On March 1, 1484 (1485), the Abbot of Pasignano died and we at once sent off an express messenger to Messer Giovanni d’Antonio Vespucci, our ambassador at Rome, to do all he could to obtain this abbey for our Messer Giovanni. On the 2nd we took possession of the estate under the seal of the Signoria, by reason of the reservation made by Pope Sixtus to our Messer Giovanni, confirmed by Innocent during the visit of our Piero to Rome to do obeisance.[158]

Agnolo Poliziano _to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici

Magnificent Lorenzo, to whom heaven has given charge of the city and the State, first citizen of Florence, doubly crowned with bays lately for war in S. Croce amid the acclamations of the people [alluding to the tournament] and for poetry on account of the sweetness of your verses, give ear to me who drinking at Greek sources am striving to set Homer into Latin metre. This second book which I have translated (you know we have the first by Messer Carlo d’ Arezzo)[159] comes to you and timidly crosses your threshold. If you welcome it I propose to offer to you all the Iliad. It rests with you, who can, to help the poet. I desire no other muse or other Gods but only you; by your help I can do that of which the ancients would not have been ashamed. May it please you therefore at your leisure to give audience to Homer. The young translator, if assailed by a Zoilus, commends himself to you.--Your servant,

Agnolo Poliziano, 1470.[160]

Lorenzo, poet and fine critic, at once sent for the youth, installed him in his palace in Via Larga and bade him continue his work. This is the first letter Poliziano wrote to Lorenzo.[161]

The following letter to Contessina, Lorenzo’s grandmother, written in 1471 when Lorenzo and five other eminent Florentine citizens went to Rome to pay their respects to the newly elected Pontiff, shows how men turned to the Medici for aid, and that the women of the family had more influence than is generally supposed. Sixtus IV. named Lorenzo treasurer to the Holy See and gave him the two busts mentioned in his _Ricordi_. He was also able to buy many fine medals, cameos, &c., as the Pope knew nothing and cared less about art, and only thought of turning the collection made by Paul II. into money. It was probably during this visit that the nomination of Giuliano de’ Medici to the cardinalate was broached, and Sixtus and Lorenzo, who were afterwards implacable foes, parted the best of friends.

The next letter is from the poet Luigi Pulci who was sent to treat with King Ferrante about establishing a branch of the Medici bank at Naples, but in order not to arouse the jealousy of the Duke of Milan he ostensibly went to get fine horses. The King gave him two for Lorenzo, but turned a deaf ear to the gentle hints about allowing Garetto, probably a stud groom, to enter Lorenzo’s service. Soon after Pulci’s return he accompanied Clarice to Rome for the marriage of one of her brothers, which was however put off.

A. Alexander di Conio _to_ Contessina de’ Medici

Magnificent and noble Lady,--It is a usual thing when in need to address those in whom one has firm faith. Having therefore heard that the Magnificent Lorenzo has been named ambassador to His Sanctity our Holy Father, and having two sons of nearly the same age who are only desirous to do what is pleasing to you, I send one to you, praying with all my heart that it may please him to take the lad with him as his page, or attendant, or relation, or in any position he chooses. And as there is no recommendation like a mother’s I send him to you, beseeching you in God’s name to arrange that he should, if possible, take him instead of some stranger. If he be already provided, then may it please you to give him to your Giuliano or to whomso else you think fit, so that he may acquire some knowledge by your help, for he is apt: if he remains here he will learn nothing. I grieve to give you so much trouble, but I grieve more to see him anxious to learn and not to be able to help him, save through your being moved to take compassion on him. I beg you for the love of God not to abandon him, for he has a good nature and a desire to do well, and God in His grace will repay you for me. I know you are aware of my condition and so do not recall it to you; have no regard for his nobility, if you cannot place him as I said, he will always be well pleased. I give him to you entirely, and as you would accept a dog as a gift you can accept a human creature who is more faithful. I entreat you to deal with him in every way according to your wishes.

May God Almighty preserve and keep you in happiness.--In Conio, on the 2nd day of September 1471.

A. Alexander di Conio.

Luigi Pulci _to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici _at Florence_