Chapter V: M. filius Petru de Medicis.242 (6)

[161] Agnolo Poliziano, born in 1454, was the son of Benedetto de’ Cini, commonly called Ambrogini, a lawyer. He dropped his family name and took that of Poliziano from his native town Montepulciano (Mons Politianus). His father was murdered when he was a child of eight and he was sent to Florence to live with an uncle, Cino di Mattei, a poor man who lived near Piazza S. Spirito in Via Saturno. Poliziano studied rhetoric under Cristofero, Landino, and Andronico, philosophy under Argyropoulos and Marsilio Ficino, in the Florentine Studio from his fifteenth to his twentieth year. Lorenzo de’ Medici, after reading his translation of Homer, provided for his education, and he became one of Lorenzo’s most intimate friends, tutor to his children and his librarian. Poliziano took his degree as Doctor of Law, and entering the Church was made a Canon of the cathedral of Florence. He wrote scholia and notes to Ovid, Catullus, Statius, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and the _Historicæ Augustæ_; translated the History of Herodian, the Manuel of Epictetus, the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, some Dialogues of Plato, and other works from Greek into Latin. His _Miscellanea_, published in Florence in 1489, were arranged for the press at Lorenzo’s request. Poliziano’s Italian poetry, particularly the _Stanze per la Giostra_, or Tournament, of Giuliano de’ Medici is beautiful, and his _Sylvæ_, odes, epigrams, and other short Latin poems are celebrated. He also wrote _Panepistemon_, a category of the various branches of knowledge, and when quite a lad the _Orfeo_, one of the earliest Italian operas. So popular was the _Orfeo_ that it was printed either separately or with the _Stanze_ twenty times between 1494 and 1541, and thirteen times between 1541 and 1565. For the use of the common people a redaction in octave stanzas was published in Florence in 1558 called _La Historia e Favola d’Orfeo alla dolce lira_. The last reprint was in 1860.

[162] Horses Lorenzo may have seen when he was at Naples in 1468.

[163] Bernardo and Luca were brothers of Luigi Pulci.

[164] Brother-in-law of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

[165] _Lettere di Luigi Pulci_, op. cit. 47.

[166] _Donne Medicee_, op. cit.

[167] A castle and townlet belonging to the Orsini.

[168] Directors of feasts. _Festaiuoli_ still go about in the villages in Tuscany to collect money for processions and church festivals.

[169] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 27.

[170] This and the letters from the Cardinal of Pavia (pp. 167-171) relate to Lorenzo’s desire that his brother Giuliano should be created a cardinal in order to have a voice in the Consistory. What he was unable to achieve for his brother he afterwards obtained for his son Giovanni.

[171] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 62.

[172] The _catasto_ of 1427 was a register or list of all who were bound to pay taxes to the Commune of Florence. It runs: “1. Ten officials are to be appointed to compile the register. 2. All families liable to be taxed are to be inscribed in four books; their number, ages, health, capacity, and occupation. 3. All their possessions, movable and immovable, are to be inscribed, whether within the confines of the State or abroad, monies in existence, or what is owing to them, their slaves and whatever belongs to them. 4. In the same way other partial _catasti_ shall be drawn up, as of peasants, universities, and guilds, foreigners and other persons not generally liable to be taxed. 5. The income of each separate possession is to be noted, so that the capital value may be ascertained, and 100 florins shall be taken as the valuation for every 7 florins of income. 6. From such valuation shall be deducted the inherent expenses, rent of houses, of shops, the price of horses for personal use, and 2 florins per head. 7. The net income being thus reduced, 10 golden soldi are to be paid on every 100 golden florins, equal to the tenth part of a percentage at 5 per cent. 8. On every person deducted as above, between eighteen years of age and sixty, an arbitrary tax shall be imposed, not to exceed 2 florins. 9. It is left to the discretion of the officials, in case no surplus remains after the above deductions, to impose a tax to be arranged with the persons taxed. 10. Whoso declares a false income shall have his possessions confiscated. 11. Should any contention arise the decision of the officials is final; they may not diminish the amount of the tax, save for the repayment of a dower, until the new _catasto_, without the approbation of the Great Council, but they may augment it. 12. The _catasto_ is to be corrected and compiled anew every three years. 13. All taxes are henceforward to be regulated by the _catasto_.” _Osservatore Fiorentino_, i. 91. Signor A. Rabbini, _Dell’ accertamento catastale_, &c., defines the _catasto_ as at present existing as “a public document serving as an absolutely legal and fundamental base for the imposition of taxes on landed property and a guide in judicial or administrative procedure involving the settlement of questions regarding landed property and the rights and obligations of the owners thereof.”

[173] Luca Landucci in his Diary (1450-1516) notes: “On June 18, 1472, came a horseman with the olive branch [from Volterra] announcing the capitulation; the people and their property to be respected. Great was the rejoicing. But when we entered the city one of their officers, a Venetian, shouted “Pillage,” and our men began to pillage and we could not stop them or observe the articles of capitulation. The Count Federigo d’Urbino caused the Venetian and a Sienese to be hung.” _Diario Fiorentino di Luca Landucci._ Firenze, 1883. See also _La Vita Italiano nel Rinascimenta, Lorenzo de’ Medici_, E. Masi, i. 31. Milano, 1893.

[174] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 63.

[175] Francesco Filelfo, born at Tolentino in 1398, was a famous classical scholar. He studied at Padua, was sent as Secretary of Legation to Constantinople by the Signoria of Venice, and afterwards taught Greek in Venice, Bologna, Florence, &c. When Cosimo de’ Medici was imprisoned he urged the Signoria to put him to death and poured out abominable accusations against him and his friends in the _Book of Exile_. Poggio replied, accusing Filelfo of the most heinous crimes, and the war of words went on for years. When Cosimo returned to Florence Filelfo fled to Milan and allied himself with Albizzi and the other exiles, but soon made abject advances to Cosimo, which were treated with silent disdain. After Cosimo’s death he sent humble letters to Lorenzo and his brother and wrote _Cosmias_, a poem in praise of the man he had abused. Lorenzo at length allowed him to return to Florence where he died in 1481. He was mean, arrogant, and intensely vain.

[176] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 75.

[177] Filippo de’ Medici.

[178] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 58.

[179] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 59.

[180] The prison at Florence.

[181] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxix. No. 675.

[182] Lorenzo’s sister married to Gugliemo de’ Pazzi.

[183] A piece torn out of the letter.

[184] Lorenzo’s sister married to Bernardo Rucellai.

[185] Probably a slave.

[186] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxix. No. 822.

[187] Born in Florence of poor parents named della Badessa, Matteo, as was often done in the fifteenth century, adopted his father’s Christian name and became Matteo Franco. As a lad he entered the church, and some of his first efforts in poetry are sonnets addressed to the Archbishop of Florence begging in the name of S. Peter for a cloak. He made friends with Angelo Poliziano who probably introduced him to the Medici. Witty, clever, kind-hearted, Matteo soon became indispensable to Lorenzo, who speaks of him as “among the first and best-loved creatures of my house.” He repaid Lorenzo’s affection tenfold by his devotion to his daughter Maddalena, whom he accompanied to Rome when she married Francesco Cibo. Even Lorenzo’s wife Clarice, always ill at ease among her husband’s brilliant friends and at first suspicious of Matteo’s tongue, soon discovered his many excellent qualities, and he became her treasurer, her almoner, and at length her attorney. He taught all Lorenzo’s children to read, and in one of his sonnets feelingly describes the trouble they gave him. Until lately it was supposed that Luigi Pulci and Matteo Franco were really friends, and only wrote the ferocious and biting sonnets which amused all Florence to each other to amuse Lorenzo, but Signor Volpi proves, I think, that their animosity was real and that Matteo often had the best in the war of words.

[188] Vermicelli.

[189] _Un Cortigiano di Lorenzo il Magnifico_, G. Volpi, Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, xvii. fasc. 50-51.

[190] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxx. No. 394.

[191] _Sylvia hortensis_ or garden warbler.

[192] A famous cook.

[193] A sweet dish.

[194] _Michelangelo Buonarroti, Quellen und Forschungen zu seiner Geschichte und Kunst_, Karl Frey, i. 77. Berlin, 1907. Bertoldo di Giovanni was born between 1410-1420, and two days after his death Bartolommeo Dati wrote: “Bertoldo, an admirable sculptor and medallist, who made many fine works and was always with the Magnificent Lorenzo, has died after two days’ illness at Poggio a Caiano (December 28, 1491). He is a great loss and much regretted by Lorenzo, for in all Tuscany and perhaps in all Italy there is none other of such talent and worth.”

[195] _Renaissance in Italy_, J. A. Symonds, iv. 354. Smith, Elder & Co., 1898.

[196] An instrument used in falconry, made of leather and feathers in the shape of a wing.

[197] Giovanni (afterwards Pope Leo X.) was born on the 11th December.

[198] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., di Angelo Ambrogini Poliziano, Isidoro Del Lungo. Barbera, Firenze, 1867.

[199] Ibid., _op. cit._

[200] _Del Bagno a Morba_, Ricordi Storici e Letterari, Luigi Righetti. Roma.

[201] The Duchess of Ferrara, wife of Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, and daughter of Ferrante I., King of Naples. She passed through Pisa on her way to Naples to attend her father’s marriage with Giovanna d’Aragona.

[202] The meaning of this word is obscure. Some suggest that it is a kind of fish, others that it is the name of a wine. I think Lucrezia jokingly asked her son to send her some cool sea-wind. The peasants still call the west wind which blows from the sea _marino_.

[203] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxiv. No. 133.

[204] _Affetti di Famiglia nel Quattrocento_, Gugliemo Volpi, Vita Nuova, No. 503.

[205] _Prose Volgari_, &c., _op. cit._

[206] Son of her daughter Nannina, wife of Bernardo Rucellai.

[207] _Del Bagno a Morba_, op. cit.

[208] Ibid.

[209] Lucrezia de’ Medici had just bought Bagno a Morba from the Commune of Florence.

[210] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza lxxxv. No. 203.

[211] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxiv. No. 312.

[212] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. p. 168.

[213] _Le Vite de’ piu eccelenti Pittori_, &c., Giorgio Vasari, iii. 374. Sansoni, Firenze, 1878.

[214] Philippe de Comines, who writes: “I remained about a year in Florence and her territory as the guest of the Florentines, who treated me well, better even on the last day of my visit than on the first.”--_Memoires de Messire Philippe de Comines, Seigneur d’Argenton_, i. 395. Brusselle, 1723.

[215] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 119.

[216] _Congiura de’ Pazzi_, narrata in Latino da A. Poliziano volgarizzate con sue note e illustrazioni da Anicio Bonucci, p. 119. Le Monnier, Firenze, 1856.

[217] Lorenzo’s uncle by marriage, sent on a special mission to Milan and to Venice.

[218] The young Cardinal was set at liberty on June 5th, and went for a few days to the Servite monastery in the SS. Annunziata. From there he wrote to the Pope expressing deep gratitude to the Signoria and to Lorenzo de’ Medici for the kind treatment he had received, and bitterly lamented that His Holiness had not acceded to his prayer that the interdict should be taken off. On June 12th he left for Siena, and an old chronicler writes that he was still under the influence of great terror and seemed to feel the rope round his neck. If at the time of the assassination he had not been well guarded the exasperated populace would probably have torn him to pieces.

[219] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 404.

[220] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 404.

[221] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. xi. 131.

[222] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 175.

[223] Philippe de Comines.

[224] Philippe de Comines.

[225] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 187.

[226] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 413.

[227] A piece torn out of the letter.

[228] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxi. No. 31.

[229] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 131.

[230] The address on outside of sheet is: Magnifico Hieronimo Morelli, Oratori florentino, patri meo. (_Arch. Med. ante Principatum_, Filza 124, No. 2.)

[231] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza cxxiv. No. 2.

[232] After the Pazzi conspiracy the Republic engaged in war with Sixtus IV. and the King of Naples. The Pope excommunicated Florence, as he declared out of hatred of the Medici, whose exile he demanded. The Signoria answered by appointing twelve trusty men to be Lorenzo’s bodyguard. “Then,” writes Ammirato, “they obtained the opinion of Bartolommeo Sozzino (probably what Poliziano refers to), Francesco Aretino, Lancillotto Decio, Bulgarino, Andrea Panormita, Pier Filippo Cornio and other masters of canon law and theology, who advised that notwithstanding the Pope’s censures, by whom they had been excommunicated, they, by appealing to the future Council, might cause Divine service to be celebrated in their city,” which was done.

[233] This is one of several letters alluding to Clarice’s dislike of him.

[234] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 183.

[235] Matteo Franco, chaplain and devoted adherent of Lorenzo.

[236] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 59.

[237] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 61.

[238] Ercole d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, who had been named Captain of the Florentine troops.

[239] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 184.

[240] _Prose Volgari inedite_, op. cit. p. 64.

[241] The grammar of Theodoro Gaza, a Greek, was the favourite one in those days.

[242] _Letterine d’un Bambino Fiorentino_, Nozze Bemporad-Vita. Firenze, 1887. Ediz. di 150 esemplari.

[243] _Vita Nuova_, op. cit. No. x. p. 2, Gugliemo Volpi.

[244] A saying still used when a child cries.

[245] Probably Gentile Becchi, Bishop of Arezzo.

[246] _Prose Volgari inedite_, op cit. p. 67.

[247] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 132.

[248] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 186.

[249] _Letterine d’un Bambino Fiorentino_, op. cit.

[250] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 70.

[251] Martino della Comedia, tutor to the Tornabuoni children, took Poliziano’s place for a while after he had been dismissed by Madonna Clarice.

[252] _Letterine d’un Bambino Fiorentino_, op. cit. The letter is undated, but on it is written, “From Piero de’ Medici, 26th May 1479.”

[253] _Laurentius Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 288.

[254] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxvii. No. 389.

[255] _Letterine d’un Bambino Fiorentino_, op. cit.

[256] _Letterine d’un Bambino Fiorentino_, op. cit.

[257] Ibid.

[258] In the Val di Sieve, not far from Cafaggiuolo.

[259] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 199.

[260] _Affetti di Famiglia_, &c., _op. cit._

[261] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxx. No. 70.

[262] Married to Bernardo Rucellai.

[263] The paper is torn.

[264] _Carteggio Medicis_, Filza di documenti fuori posto, No. 73.

[265] Lucrezia, to whom Poliziano grudges the title of madonna, was Lorenzo’s daughter, afterwards the wife of Jacopo Salviati. She was much attached to her grandmother Lucrezia.

[266] Bernardo Michelozzi, son of the great architect and sculptor, brother of Lorenzo’s chancellor. He was known as Bernardo Rhetor on account of his learning and eloquence. Giovanni de’ Medici, afterwards Leo X., to whom he was tutor, made him Cameriere segreto, and in 1516 Bishop of Forlì, and allowed him to assume the name and the arms of the house of Medici.

[267] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ 72.

[268] Philippe de Comines.

[269] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 196.

[270] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza vii. No. 369.

[271] _Vita di Filippo Strozzi il Vecchio scritta da Lorenzo suo figlio_, Giuseppe Bini e Pietro Bigazzi, p. 55. Florence, 1851.

[272] Muratori, ix. 533.

[273] _Lettere e Notizie di Lorenzo de’ Medici._ From the Archivio Palatino of Modena, published in a pamphlet by Antonio Cappelli. (This letter has been published before but not correctly.)

[274] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 200.

[275] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 202 _et seq._

[276] Ibid. ii. 204.

[277] Cooked cheese.

[278] Three hectolitres.

[279] Letter torn.

[280] Ten hectolitres.

[281] _Carte Medicee_, &c., Filza xxxiv. No. 320.

[282] _Vita Laurentii Medicis_, op. cit. ii. 223.

[283] The fall of Otranto mentioned in this letter was such a godsend to Lorenzo that he was suspected of being in league with the Turk. It forced the King of Naples to recall his son, the Duke of Calabria, from Siena, where he had aided the nobles to overthrow the popular government, and the Pope to cancel the interdict and make peace with Florence. In November an embassy, with old Luigi Guicciardini at its head, went to Rome and were solemnly reprimanded by Sixtus and then blessed. The only condition he imposed was the equipment of fifteen galleys to serve against the Turk.

[284] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxiv. No. 367.

[285] _Lucrezia Tornabuoni_, op. cit.

[286] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza, No. 43, inside No. 150.

[287] Giovanni Albino, a Neapolitan, historian and politician, and a great friend of Lorenzo.

[288] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 216.

[289] _Lettere e Notizie di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, Archivio Palatina di Modena, published in a pamphlet by Antonio Cappelli.

[290] Bernardo Bandini was one of the men who assassinated Giuliano de’ Medici in the cathedral of Florence. He fled to Constantinople and was arrested by permission of the Sultan through the agency of Frescobaldi, Florentine ambassador to the Porte.

[291] Count Girolamo Riario, the Pope’s nephew, was implicated in the Pazzi conspiracy to murder the two brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici.

[292] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., _op cit._, Arch. Pal. di Modena.

[293] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[294] Ibid.

[295] Ibid.

[296] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 236.

[297] Andrea Zuccalmaglio, Archbishop of Krain.

[298] An old Italian dance.

[299] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 227.

[300] _Laurentius Medicis Vita_, ii. 229.

[301] _Lorenzo de Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 232.

[302] Guicciardini throws some doubt on Riario’s presence.

[303] For a full account of the Ferrarese war see _Lorenzo de’ Medici_, Alfred von Reumont, ii. 249 _et seq._; _A History of the Papacy_, &c., Dr. Creighton, iv. 100 _et seq._; _Lorenzo de’ Medici_, &c., E. Armstrong, M.A, 182 _et seq._

[304] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 298.

[305] Bartolommeo Scala, born at Colle 1430, was the son of a miller. “I came to the Republic,” he wrote, “bare of all things, a mere beggar, of the lowest birth, without money, rank, connections, or kindred. Cosimo, the Father of his country, raised me up by receiving me into his family.” He became Chancellor of Florence and is known for his feud with Poliziano.

[306] O lovely maiden.

[307] Thou art as fair as the light of the sun.

[308] _Arch. di Stato Carte Strozziane_, Filza cxxxviii. No. 57.

[309] _Arch._ &c., Carte Strozziane, Filza cxxxviii. No. 58.

[310] The abbey of Fonte Doulce, bestowed by the King of France on Giovanni de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s second son, which gift the Pope hesitated to confirm on account of the child’s youth.

[311] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 256.

[312] Lorenzo’s sister, married to Gugliemo de’ Pazzi.

[313] A piece of letter torn out.

[314] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxxix. No. 84.

[315] Lorenzo and his wife were coming from Bagno a Morba; he went to Pisa, and she came home to Florence.

[316] A favourite groom of Lorenzo de’ Medici, mentioned also in _La Caccia al Falcone_.

[317] Lorenzo de’ Medici’s sister, married to Bernardo Rucellai.

[318] Paper-mills were flourishing at Colle in the second half of the fifteenth century. See _Dizionario della Toscana_, E. Repetti, _i._ 758.

[319] A much-prized white Tuscan wine.

[320] The two future Popes, Leo X. and Clement VII. Giulio was the illegitimate son of Giuliano, Lorenzo’s brother, murdered in the Pazzi conspiracy. Lorenzo’s second son, Giovanni, destined for the Church, had received the tonsure at seven years old, and was always spoken of as Messer Giovanni.

[321] The Squarcialupi, surnamed degli Organi, great musicians of the fifteenth century.

[322] The boy’s play upon words is not easy to understand, it may mean a Catalonian.

[323] _Un Viaggio di Clarice Orsini de’ Medici_, &c., Scelta di Curiosità Letterarie inedite o rare, Gaetano Romagnoli. Bologna, 1868.

[324] This codex had belonged to Battista Guarino and was highly valued and jealously guarded. The Duke refused to send it to Florence but allowed Lorenzo to have it copied by a Greek scribe he sent to Ferrara. Three years later Lorenzo asked the Duke to lend for a few days the translation of the book by Dione Cassio (Dionysius Cassius) made for the Duke by Niccolò Leoniceno. Again afraid to trust the manuscript out of his hands, he had a copy made in all haste by divers scribes, and sent it as a present to Lorenzo, on the condition that he was neither to lend it nor to allow it to be published. The translation was printed for the first time in Venice in 1532, the Greek original in Paris in 1548.

[325] _Lettere_, &c., Arch. Palatina di Modena, _op. cit._

[326] _Lettere e Notizie_, Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[327] Ibid, p. 291.

[328] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[329] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 176.

[330] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[331] Ibid.

[332] Ibid.

[333] Ibid.

[334] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[335] Ibid.

[336] Pietro Leoni was Lorenzo de’ Medici’s physician, and either drowned himself or was thrown into a well near Careggi when Lorenzo died.

[337] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[338] Ferdinand, or Ferrante, King of Naples.

[339] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[340] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[341] Alfonso, son of the King of Naples.

[342] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[343] Ibid.

[344] _Lettere di Lorenzo il Magnifico al Sommo Pontefice Innocenzo VIII._, Canonico D. Moreni. Firenze, 1830.

[345] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[346] Ibid.

[347] Count Girolamo Riario, nephew of the late Pope Sixtus, cruel and despotic, had been murdered by his subjects, and his wife Caterina, an illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Sforza, taken prisoner with her three sons. The castle of Ravaldino which commanded the town still held out, and the insurgents allowed her to go to the commandant on the pretence that she would induce him to surrender, leaving her children as hostages in their hands. Once inside the castle she defied the people, and when they threatened to kill her children replied, according to Guicciardini, “Are you not fools, cannot you see that I can have others?” Milanese troops were sent by Lodovico Sforza and the little boys were saved.

[348] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[349] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ p. 74.

[350] _Arch. Stor. Ital._, Serie terza, ix. 48, Parte I.

[351] _Vita e Fatti d’Innocenzo VIII._, Scritta per Messer Francesco Serdonati, fiorentino, &c. Milano, Ferrario, 1829, 59 _et seq._

[352] Ten years before Girolamo Riario had taken Piancaldoli from Florence during the war between Sixtus and Lorenzo. Lodovico Sforza was furious at this success of the Florentine arms, but could do nothing.

[353] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[354] The Manfredi were lords of Faenza, which was under the protection of Florence. Galeotto Manfredi had been murdered by his jealous wife, Francesca Bentivoglio, and the citizens, afraid to lose their freedom, had taken her, and her father who had come from Bologna to her assistance, prisoners, and slain the Milanese general sent by Sforza. Lorenzo took the part of the murdered man’s young son Astorre, and Giovanni Bentivoglio was kept a prisoner for some weeks at Modigliana, while his daughter Francesca was sent to Bologna to her mother.

[355] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op cit._

[356] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[357] Ibid.

[358] Clarice was consumptive.

[359] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[360] _Lettere di Lorenzo de’ Medici a Innocenzo VIII._, op. cit. 18.

[361] _Lettere_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[362] Ibid.

[363] _Lettere_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[364] Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, married his cousin, Isabella of Naples, daughter of Alfonso, Duke of Calabria. Lorenzo de’ Medici was ill, so Piero, his son, met the Duchess at Leghorn, and then went to Milan to attend the marriage festivities.

[365] Florentine ambassador to Milan.

[366] Piero de’ Medici’s device, invented by Poliziano, was a _broncone_ or bough (in Nestor’s drawing it looks more like a hurdle) in flames, with the motto, _In Viridi Teneras Flamma Medúlas Exudit_, signifying that his love was so strenuous and incomparable that it would even set fire to green wood. _Histoire des Hommes Illustres de la Maison de Medici._ Jean Nestor, 1564.

[367] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 296.

[368] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 394.

[369] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., ii. 300.

[370] _Lettere di Lorenzo a Innocenzo VIII._, op. cit. 14.

[371] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[372] Ibid.

[373] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. de Modena, _op. cit._

[374] Ibid.

[375] Francesco Cibò, the Pope’s son, married to Maddalena de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s daughter.

[376] _Lettere di Lorenzo a Innocenzo VIII._, op. cit.

[377] _Lettere e Notizie_, Arch. Pal. di Modena, p. 315.

[378] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 293.

[379] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxiv. No. 502.

[380] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 292.

[381] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 157. (The date is uncertain, as there is a blot of ink on the figure 8. A rough copy in Lorenzo’s handwriting.)

[382] _Laurentii Medicis Vita, &c._, _op. cit._ ii. 344.

[383] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xviii. No. 19.

[384] Ibid., xliii. No. 139.

[385] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xli. No. 531.

[386] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 293. (By some mistake Fabroni gives the date as August 1492. Lorenzo died on April 8 of that year.) During a visit to Rome in 1486 Pico della Mirandola had promulgated nine hundred theses on theology, philosophy, magic, and the Cabbalah, which he offered to maintain in public disputation. Heresies contained in them were pointed out by his enemies and Innocent VIII. issued a Brief against those considered as dangerous. Pico fled to France and published an apology protesting his orthodoxy, but it was only by Lorenzo’s influence that the Pope was induced to suspend proceedings. Pico then returned to Florence and Lorenzo, as this and the two former letters show, pressed the Pope hard to grant his friend a full pardon.

[387] _Laurentii Medicis Vita, &c._, ii. 365 _et seq._

[388] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 142 (draft of letter in Lorenzo’s handwriting without date).

[389] A Greek scribe employed by Lorenzo in copying.

[390] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ 78.

[391] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 90.

[392] _Acqua arzente_ in modern Italian is the name given to water with nitrous acid in it and is used to clean silver. It is poisonous. Piero Leoni evidently suspected something wrong (perhaps poisonous) in a certain water which had been recommended to Lorenzo. He advises him to go back to his old waters until he analyses the new water.

[393] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 91.

[394] _Un Cortigiano di Lorenzo il Magnifico_, Gugliemo Volpi. Estratto del Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, 1891, xvii. 229.

[395] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[396] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[397] Ibid.

[398] Ibid.

[399] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._

[400] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 308 _et seq._

[401] Paper torn.

[402] _Life of Leo X._, W. Roscoe, Appendix i. 408. H. G. Bohn, London, 1853.

[403] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. i. 199 _et seq._

[404] _Epistola di Fra Placido Cinozzi_ in _Scelta di Prediche e Scritti di Fra Girolamo Savonarola, con nuovi documenti intorno alla sua vita_, P. Villari e E. Casanuova. G. C. Sansoni, Firenze, 1898, p. 16. The _Biographia Latina_ of Savonarola follows Cinozzi’s account, citing Fra Silvestro and Fra Domenico, an ardent adherent of Savonarola, as authorities. The same story, with additions, is given by the biographers of Savonarola, Pico della Mirandola (a nephew of Lorenzo’s friend) and Burlamacchi. “There is,” says Creighton, “no evidence that Pico, the earliest of them, had written his book before 1520; whether Burlamacchi wrote independently or merely re-edited Pico is a question open to discussion.”

[405] Dei gives wrong dates. Lorenzo was born on January 1, 1449 (1450).

[406] _Archivio Storico Italiano_, Serie v. Tomo iv., Dispensa 5 e 6 del 1889, p. 258.

INDEX

A

Acciaiuoli, Agnolo, 19, 57; reason of his hatred of the Medici, 83, 84; letter from, to Piero de’ Medici, 105; secretly recalled by Piero de’ Medici, 142; 153

Alamanni, Piero, Florentine ambassador at Rome; letter to, from Lorenzo de’ Medici on Giovanni’s nomination to the Cardinalate, 303

Alberti, Alberto de’, letter from, to Giovanni de’ Medici on the state of Rome, 47

Albino, Giovanni, letter to, from Lorenzo de’ Medici, 240

Albizzi, Rinaldo degl’, 13, 19, 20, 26, 28

Aldrovandini, Guidone, Ferrarese ambassador to Florence, letter from, to the Duke Ercole d’Este, 274; letter to, from the Duke, 276; letter from, to the Duke about Lorenzo de’ Medici and the state of Florence, 277, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 294, 295, 297, 298

Alum, monopoly of, given to the Medici, 98; 104, 306

Ammanati, Jacopo, Cardinal of Pavia, 163; letters from, to Lorenzo de’ Medici on the Cardinalate for Giuliano, 167, 168

Ammirato, Scipione, quoted, 7

Angoulême, Marguerite d’, Queen of Navarre, 114

Antonino, Archbishop, on slavery, 29

Aragona, Don Federigo d’, meets Lorenzo de’ Medici at Pisa, 87; letter to, from Lorenzo de’ Medici on the old Tuscan poets, 88; 94_n_, 146

---- Cardinal d’, 259, 260, 263

Artimino, Papinio di, letters to Lucrezia de’ Medici on the Turkish army in Apulia, 237, 238

Avogarius, Doctor Petrus Bonus, letter from, to Lorenzo de’ Medici, 301

B

Baccio, Ugolino, 245; letters from, to Lorenzo de’ Medici about the Archbishop of Krain, 247, 249, 252; 274; letter to, from Lorenzo de’ Medici, 278; 314, 316

Baldovinetti, quoted, on slaves, 30

Basel, Œcumenical Council of, transferred to Ferrara and Florence, 41, 42; Archbishop of Krain at, 247, 249, 252

Becchi, Gentile, of Urbino (Bishop of Arezzo), 111, 133; letter from, to Clarice de’ Medici describing Lorenzo’s journey to Milan, 138; 143, 155, 170, 214

Bentivoglio, Giovanni di, letter from, to Piero de’ Medici about the League against Venice and the Pope, 135; letter to, from Lorenzo de’ Medici, 202