Chapter V (2)

[134] The history of the conspiracy, in Machiavelli, b. vii., entirely reverses the chronology of the occurrences, excepting the speeches and letters, which correspond but little to the reality. Jacopo Pitti _Istoria fiorentina_, p. 19, _seq._, gives a clear narrative of the proceedings. G. M. Banto, in his third book, is diffuse and tedious with his imaginary speeches. The version of Cardinal Ammanati in the _Rerum suo tempore gestarum Commentarii_, Milan, 1506, is to be consulted. Scipione Ammirato gives in his twenty-third book, as usual, a useful but very dry relation. The remarkable letters and other writings of the Acciaiuoli and Neroni, as well as the letters of King Ferrante’s private secretary, Antonello Petrucci, to Lorenzo, November 10, 1466 (see Fabroni as above, ii. 28-38), reveal the persons and circumstances better than the declamations of antiquated historians. The conspiracy in itself would scarcely justify a detailed account if it did not afford so clear a view of the manœuvres of the political parties in Florence at that time.

[135] Fabroni as above, ii. 38.

[136] Both letters, see Desjardins as above, p. 141 _seq._

[137] Fabroni as above.

[138] Letter of January 10, 1467, to the ambassadors Antonio Ridolfi and Giovanni Canigiani; see Desjardins, as above, p. 144.

[139] Instruction for Fr. Nori, do. p. 147.

[140] Diotisalvi to Pigello, Malpaga, October 8, 1466; see Fabroni as above, ii. 38.

[141] _Inferno_, xxvii. 37. The translation of Philalethe gives in the historical sketch appended to this canto a careful view of the confused condition of the Romagna in Dante’s days. We have in the continuation of Litta’s work by L. Passerini the genealogies of most of the great families of Romagna, the Malatesta, Ordelaffi, Manfredi, and Da Polenta.

[142] Instead of the exceedingly numerous works on the history of Ferrara, only Litta’s _Genealogy_ will be quoted here.

[143] R. Reposati _Della Zecca di Gubbio_, Bologna, 1772. James Dennistoun, _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_, London, 1851. F. Ugolino _Storia dei Conti e Duchi d’Urbino_, Flor. 1859.

[144] N. Ratti _Della Famiglia Sforza_, i. 144 _seq._; Litta, _Sforza Family_.

[145] Fabroni, _Cosm. Med. Vita_, ii. 169.

[146] Giovanni Gozzadini, _Memorie per la Vita di Giovanni II. Bentivoglio_, Bologna, 1839.

[147] The most abundant material for the history of the war and peace of 1467-68 is afforded by Fr. Trinchera, _Codice Aragonese_, i. (Naples 1866), which contains King Ferrante’s correspondence. S. Romanin, _Storia di Venezia_, b. xi. (vol. iv.) gives the account, having used D. Malipiero’s _Annali, Veneti_ i.

[148] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cv.

[149] Malipiero as above, p. 215.

[150] Compiègne, September 18, 1468; see Desjardins as above, p. 151.

[151] Guichenon in his _Histoire de la maison de Savoye_ rather doubts the strange fact, contrary to Corio. See Muratori, _Annali_, 1468.

[152] Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, p. 228.

[153] The inscription reads:

‘Detisalvio . Neronis . f . equiti. floren. viro. integerr. qui. domi. forisq. multa. pro. rep. optime. gessit. patriae. libertatem. vehementer. amavit. demum. inter. fortunæ. procellas. summa. cum. laude. vixit. ann. LXXXI. mens. VI. dies XII. filii. unanimes. patri. pient se. et. b. m. pos. obiit. anno Christi MCCCCLXXXIIIIII. kl. Aug.’

In an elegy to Lorenzo de’ Medici, probably written after the end of the Colleonic war, Angelo Poliziano (_Prose volgari inedite_, &c., p. 219) refers to this man’s fate:

‘Diotisalvi left in hasty flight his home; Pining in exile now, he mourns the slow-footed time.’

[154] Cronachetta Volterrana as above, p. 326. Pecori, _Storia di San Gemignano_, Flor. 1853, p. 242.

[155] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cviii.

[156] L. Pulci, _Lettere_, p. 31.

[157] See A. Cappelli, _Lettere di Lorenzo de’ Medici conservate nell’Archivio palatino di Modena in Atti e Memorie delle R. R. Deputationi di storia pratria per le provincie Modenesi Parmensi_, i. 249.

[158] Purgatorio xxv. 13. Par. iii. 46.

[159] _Ricordi d’una giostra fatta a Firenze a dì 7 Febbraio_ 1481 (1469), after a Magliabechi MS. printed by P. Fanfani in _Il Borghini_, vol. ii. (Flor. 1864) pp. 473-483, 533-542. Tournaments were also publicly proclaimed, as at the carnival, 1467, at Perugia. See _Giornale d’erudizione artistica_, ii. 208.

[160] In the elegy to Lorenzo mentioned above (p. 260), Politian alludes to the tournament, which is also sung by Ugolino Vieri (Verino).

[161] See Litta, _Fam. Orsini_, table ix. xxiii. In San Salvator in lauro at Rome, where Latino Orsini lies buried (his monument belongs to the seventeenth century) the beautiful monument of Clarice’s mother is to be seen, with a statue of her reposing in death, and beneath, Magdalena Ursina pudicitiæ exemplum; in the niches, statuettes of the Madonna, St. Benedict (missing), and St. Scholastica; above, the Orsini arms, with the inscription:

Ranaldus. Vrsin. archiepus. florent. parenti. b. m. pientiss. p.

For illustration see Litta.

[162] _Tre lettere di Lucrezia Tornabuoni a Piero de’ Medici ed altre lettere di vari concernenti al matrimonio di Lorenzo il Magnifico con Clarice Orsini._ (After the MSS. of the Flor. Archives edited by Cesare Gnasti), Florence, 1859.

[163] The persons named in the letter are: Giovanni Tornabuoni; Cardinal Latino Orsini, also called Monsignore, the title (Illustrissimo e Reverendissimo Monsignore) which the cardinals bore to the times of Urban VIII.; Clarice’s two brothers—Orso (called Organtino, who married a Savelli), and Rinaldo (afterwards Archbishop of Florence); Clarice’s uncle Lorenzo, lord of Monterotondo; her uncles Latino, Giovanni, Archbishop of Irani and Abbot of Farsa, Napoleon, lord of Bracciano, and Roberto, mentioned above. Of the three young girls mentioned, Maria can only be Piero’s natural daughter, the wife of Leonetto de Rossi and mother of Luigi de Rossi, created a cardinal by Leo X.; Bianca is the wife of Guglielmo de’ Pazzi. Who Lucrezia is, is obscure. Guasti (as above, p. 10) is mistaken in thinking all three to be daughters of Piero and Lucrezia. In the _Ricordo_ quoted by him (Fabroni, _Laur. Med. Vita_, ii. 9), Lorenzo only mentions Bianca and Nannina Rucellai.

[164] Guasti, as above, 12.

[165] Guasti, as above, p. 12.

[166] Fabroni, as above, ii. 39.

[167] The different letters, see Guasti, as above, pp. 14-16.

[168] The description of the marriage in _Delle Nozze di Lorenzo de’ Medici con Clarice Orsini nel_ 1469 _informazione di Piero Parenti Fiorentino_, Flor. 1870. The writer says at the beginning that he has the details from Cosimo Bartoli, one of the speakers at the festivities. The Magliabechi MS., from which the writing is taken (Strozzi MSS. xxv. cod. 574), mentions no author; the list of the MSS., however, gives Piero, the son of Marco Parenti, the author of a chronicle which has remained in MS., which will again be mentioned. A similarity between the writings of the latter and this ‘Information’ would be hard to discover, however. The opinion of the unmentioned editor, that the report was addressed to Filippo Strozzi the elder then in Naples, has slight foundation.

[169] This valuable little book is enumerated as No. 27 in the inventory of valuables found in Lorenzo’s house after his death.

[170] A letter written from Careggi on July 13 by Piero to his wife, who was in town, and which is difficult to understand on account of allusions to unknown circumstances, arouses the suspicion that Piero was not quite pleased with this embassy. ‘Tu sai che mal volentieri decti licentia a Lorenzo per molti rispecti et maxime per non fare dimostratione di questa mandata. Di a Lorenzo che non esca dello ordine in cosa alcuna e non faccia tante melarancie non essendo imbasciadore ch’io non determino che paperi menino a bere l’oche’ (_Med. Arch._).

[171] Fabroni, as above, ii. 53.

[172] As above, p. 56.

[173] Vasari in Verrocchio’s _Life_, as above, v. 142. _Monuments sépulcraux_, Plate XIV.

[174] Fabroni, as above, ii. 42.

[175] _Storia Fiorentina_, chap. ii.

[176] ‘Discorso di Alessandro de’ Pazzi al cardinale Giulio de’ Medici’ (Pope Clement VII.) anno 1522 in the supplement to Jacopo Pitti’s _Istoria Fiorentina_ (_Arch. stor. Ital._ i. Flor. 1842), p. 420 _seq._, and Introduction to the same by Gino Capponi, 413 _seq._

[177] Del Reggimento di Firenze, libri ii. In the _Opere inedite_, ii. Flor. 1858, 1-234.

[178] Beside Machiavelli, Gio. Mich. Bruto has this story in his book, and according to custom made Piero deliver a speech to his partisans, filling many pages (‘Ita ad illos loquutus fertur,’ i. 380 _seq._). But this author cannot be considered as an authority. A better one is Vespasiano da Bisticci, who, however, limits the project of recall to Agnolo Acciaiuoli. The Neapolitan ambassador, Marino Tomacelli, is said to have been present at Piero’s interview with the heads of the party.

[179] Despatch of King Ferrante to Antonio Cicinello and Marino Tomacelli, February 26, 1467; see Trinchera (as above), 65.

[180] Despatch of August 14: Trinchera, 209.

[181] Del Reggimento di Firenze, as above, 34, 64, 97.

[182] Niccolo Roberti to Duke Borso, Florence, December 4, 1469; see Cappelli, as above, i. 250. ‘I quali due ultime (i.e. Pitti and Martelli) soggiunsero che si aveva a riconoscere uno signore e superiore che avesse unanime a trattare tutte le cose occorrenti concernenti lo Stato di questa eccelsa Signoria.’

[183] Guicciardini, _Storia Fiorentina_, chap. ii. Machiavelli has embellished the story in his fashion, and spoken of Lorenzo and Giuliano as being present at the consultation, which is very unlikely. Roscoe, chap, iii., has been led by this incongruous statement and Lorenzo’s notices to believe the whole affair to be fictitious. On the day after the consultation they went to the Medici.

[184] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cxiii. cxiv. cxviii.; Guicciardini, _Storia Fiorentina_, chap. iii.

[185] Fabroni, as above, ii. 47.

[186] _The Medicean Archives_ (divisione avanti il principato), contain an endless series of letters from princes and great men, which afford a proof of the widely-spread and intimate connections of Lorenzo and his family.

[187] Luigi Pulci, _Lettere_, p. 38, and later.

[188] Bern, _Corio_, b. vi. chap. ii. Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cxv. cxvi. L. Pulci, _Lettere_, p. 51 (Letter from Naples, March 19). G. Tommasi, _Sommario della Storia di Lucca_, Flor. 1847 (vol. x. of the _Arch. Stor. Ital_.) 336.

[189] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cxxii. The king is called ‘Re di Dacia o signore di Norvecia.’ Beneath the arch of the Porta San Gallo, we read on a marble tablet a remembrance of a successor of Christiern, King Frederick IV., who visited Venice and Florence in 1708, and had great pleasure in contemplating the treasures of art. The Medici, whom his predecessors had seen rise so brilliantly, were then almost extinct.

[190] L. Pulci, _Lettere_, p. 96 (Letter of June 16, 1475).

[191] Fabroni, as above, ii. 66 _seq._ Desjardins, 161 _seq._ The Dauphin, afterwards King Charles VIII. was born in 1470, Beatrice of Aragon in 1457. In 1476 she married Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary.

[192] L. Pulci, as above, p. 63 (Fuligno, May 20, 1472).

[193] _Med. Arch. Filza_, 34.

[194] Cosimo Rucellai, Bernardo’s son and Lucrezia’s grandson; born 1468, died 1495. The marriage with Madonna Argentina, daughter of Gabriel Malaspina, Marchesa of Fosdinovo, took place only in 1492. (The widow married Piero Soderini, later Gonfaloniere for life.) The expression ‘nuova di zecca,’ or ‘zecca al gitto’ for unexpected news, is still used in Tuscany at the present day.

[195] L. Pulci, as above, p. 83.

[196] When Muratori, in vol. xxiii. of the _Scriptores rer. Ital._, printed the Commentariolus de bello Volaterrano, a. 1472, by Antonio Ivano (Hyvaniss) of Sarzana, then Chancellor of Volterra, he remarks with his usual insight how cautiously one must proceed in employing this apologetic official account, evidently ordered in Florence, of a man not well spoken of. (Ivano came to Florence in March, 1473, as ambassador from Sarzana; see Gaye, _Carteggio inedito_, vol. i. p. 251. There is a description by him of the ruins of Luni.) The anonymous ‘Cronachetta Volterrana’ already quoted, which M. Tabarrini gives in the _Arch. Stor. Ital._, App. vol. iii., is also favourable to the Florentines. Machiavelli and G. M. Bruto, who copied from him, have an account not only insufficient but incorrect, in respect to the causes which led to the quarrel; Alamanno Rinuccini, as above, s. cxx., has only short notices of the war; Scipione Ammirato has no desire of agreeing with Machiavelli. How Raffael Maffei (Volterranus) regarded the matter is shown by his ‘Comment. Urb.’ and the whole of his proceedings towards the Medici. Stan. Gatteschi has in his translation of Bruto (vol. ii. p. 90, _seq._) investigated the origin of the whole conflict with the help of documents. The name of Lorenzo de’ Medici is not to be found in the contract which mentions the members of the trading company, but in the contemporary ‘Ricordi’ of Zaccharia Zucchi (see Fabroni, as above, vol. ii. p. 62). Francesco Guicciardini (_Stor. Fior._ chap, iii.), who had the traditions of his own house at his disposal, although he remarks that the fact was unknown to him, also speaks of Lorenzo’s selfish intentions in the affair, and how he oppressed the Volterrans, because he feared a diminution of their general respect if he did not succeed in his purpose. Louis XI.’s letter to the Florentines of June 3O, wherein he complains of the silence of the Republic about the Volterran affairs, is in Desjardins, as above, p. 157; the letter from the Signori of July 1, p. 58; and the answer to the first of July 30, p. 160.

[197] Fabroni, as above, vol ii. p. 63.

[198] Lorenzo to Sixtus IV., November 21, 1472. See Fabroni, vol. ii. p. 61 (Quello che essa ha a me tanto liberalmente in questa causa promessa). The letters of Cardinal Ammanati from 1473, idem. pp. 58-61.

[199] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cxxi., cxxii.; _Cronaca di Notar. Giacomo_, p. 126. Angelo Politiano refers to the presence of Eleonore in his beautiful elegy on the death of Albiera degli Albizzi—_Prose volgari inedite_, &c., p. 140. (‘Cum celebres linquens Sirenum nomine muros—Herculeumque petens regia nata torum,’ &c.)

[200] _Med. Arch._

[201] See Cappelli, as above, p. 251.

[202] L. Passerini, _Manfredi Family_. Ratti, _Della Famiglia Sforza_, vol. ii. p. 35, _seq._

[203] Litta, _Vitelli Family_. A. Fabretti, _Capitani venturieri dell’Umbria_, vol. iii. p. 37, _seq._ Roberto Orsi, _De obsidione Tifernatum Città di Castello_, 1538, reprinted by D. M. Manni in vol. ii. of J. M. Tartini’s Supplements to the Muratori Collection.

[204] June 28, 1474: Fabroni, as above, vol. ii. p. 105.

[205] Florence, December 25, 1475. See D. Moreni, _Lettere di Lorenzo il Magnifico al S. P. Innocenzo VIII._ Flor., 1830, p. 1, _seq._ The letter addressed to Sixtus IV. is here incomprehensibly referred to his successor.

[206] _Ricordi_, s. cxxiii. cxxiv.

[207] _Chronicle of Piero di Marco Parenti_, MS. of the Magliabechiana; _Letter of Angelo Poliziano to Madonna Lucrezia de’ Medici_ of May 31, 1477, in Poliziano’s _Prose Volgari Inedite_, &c. p. 49.

[208] _Cronaca di Notar Giacomo_, pp. 134-137.

[209] The date results from Morelli’s _Chronicle_. See T. Dellungo in G. Carducci’s edition of Poliziano’s _Italian Poems_, Flor. 1863, p. xxvii. Piero de’ Medici mentions the desire of his younger son in a letter to Lorenzo, then at Milan, Fabroni, _l.c._ vol. ii. p. 52.

[210] Vasari, vol. x. p. 293. C. Quarti, _Le Ville Bandinelli a Pizzidimonte, in Belle Arti Opuscoli descritivi e biografici_, Florence 1874, p. 345, &c.

[211] _Ricordi_, s. cxxv.

[212] L. Pulci, l. c. p. 99.

[213] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, s. cxxvi.

[214] Rome, Oct. 15, 1474, _Med. Arch._

[215] ‘Ad Franciscum Salviatum,’ 1473, in the _Prose Volgari_, &c. p. 113. He calls him ‘dulcis Salviate,’ and says ‘Parva peto, dare magna soles; da parva petenti.’

[216] Niccolò Bendedei to Ercole d’Este. See A. Cappelli. l. c. p. 252.

[217] _Chronicles_ of Giovanni di Juzzo, in the _Cronache e Statuti della Città di Viterbo_, ed. Ignazio Ciampi, Flor. 1872, p. 414. Fabretti, _Capitani dell’Umbria_, vol. ii. p. 307.

[218] Sixtus IV. to Federigo di Montefeltro, Rome, June 9, 1477. (_Arch. of Urbino_, in the Tuscan Central Arch., Cl. I. Div. G., Filza, 104.)

[219] Malavolti, _Historia di Siena_, part iii. book 4, p. 71.

[220] _Med. Arch._, Filza 34.

[221] Fabroni, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 106.

[222] A 1. c. p. 160.

[223] Guicciardini, _Storia Fior._, p. 34, and _Ricordi di Famiglia_. Jacopo de’ Pazzi’s letters to Lorenzo, Fabroni, 1. cit. vol. ii. p. 104.

[224] Fabroni, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 105.

[225] The confession of Giovan Batista da Montesecco, in the _Excusatio Florentinorum_, drawn up by the Chancellor Bartolommeo Scala in Fabroni, vol. ii. p. 167, gives the clearest insight into the course of the conspiracy, and the measure of Pope Sixtus IV’s. share in it. We have not the least ground to doubt the truth of the statements contained in this document. The best-known contemporary account of the occurrences is Angelo Poliziano’s _De Coniuratione Pactiana Commentarius_, printed in the year of the conspiracy, and extremely rare, reprinted in the edition of Poliziano’s works which appeared at Bâle, 1553, and then carefully re-edited, with many valuable additions by Giovanni Adimari. A translation made, as it seems, after the middle of the sixteenth century, was printed in the _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., di Angelo Poliziano, Flor. 1867, pp. 87-105. There was no lack of later translation. The relation of the facts is undoubtedly correct; the opinions regarding the acting persons are those of a partizan. The later ones follow that of Poliziano in all essentials, whom, however, G. M. Bruto rightly accuses of partizanship. The best and most reliable representation, according to the documents, is that in Scipione Ammirato, in the twenty-fourth book of his Florentine History, printed separately with remarks, Flor. 1826. Fabroni, as usual, has selected the most important from the documentary materials, as far as they were at his disposal in Florence.

[226] _Med. Archiv._

[227] Rome, January 15, 1478. (The delivery of the letter followed on the 22nd, according to Lorenzo.) _Med. Arch._

[228] _Med. Archiv._

[229] List of Filippo Strozzi after a Riccardi MS. in _Vita di Filippo Strozzi il vecchio, scritta da Lorenzo suo figlio, per cura di Giuseppe Bini e Pietro Bigazzi_. Flor. 1851, p. 55, _seq._

[230] Piero di Marco Parenti, _Flor. Hist._ MS. of the Magliabechiana. See above, p. 277.

[231] Filippo Strozzi relates that Nori was slain by the side of Giuliano.

[232] Concerning the different sentences pronounced on command of the Magnifici Octoviri from April 28 to May 18 and August 3rd, 1478, see _Sententiæ Dni. Matthæi de Toscanis de Mediolano Potestatis_, Florentiæ, 1477-1478, from the Strozzi MSS. G. Adimari, l. c. pp. 136-155. A less correct list of those executed and killed after a Magliabechian MS. in the Appendix to the separate imprint of Scip. Ammirato’s Report, pp. 86-88. On June 9, 1478, Sforza degli Oddi wrote to Lorenzo to recommend to him Madonna Andrea, widow of Messer Gentile de Graziani, a Peruginese emigrant, who had perished in the tumult (_Med. Arch._, Filza 36, see _Cronache di Perugia_, vol. ii. p. 589).

[233] Letter of May 22, 1478, _Med. Arch._

[234] Fabroni, p. 111. (Ex cod. 170, _Provision. Reip. Flor._).

[235] See book v. The palace in the Borgo degli Albizzi, belonging to a branch of the family in the present day, with the large garden, whose portal in the Via dell’Orinolo was ascribed to Donatello, has lately disappeared in building the National Bank.

[236] Vasari’s assertion that these libellous pictures are by the hand of Andrea del Castagno arises from an anachronism.

[237] Vasari, in the _Life of Verrocchio_, vol. v. p. 152. According to this description, one might suppose that the figures were still existing at Vasari’s time. Other Medicean portraits (Voti), in the Annunziata were destroyed after the revolution of 1527.

[238] Letter to Gio. Lanfredini of August 18, 1487, _Med. Archiv._ The priorate of Capua came later to Leone Strozzi, the son of Filippo and Clarice de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s granddaughter.

[239] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p.

[240] Fabroni, l. c., ii. 116.

[241] Romanin, iv. 389.

[242] In the document, _Synodus florentina_, cap. ix.

[243] Allegretto Allegretti, _Diarj Senesi_; Muratori, _R. It. Scr._, xxiii. col. 784.

[244] Bull, see Rainaldi, _Annales Eccl._, x. 582 _et seq._, and Fabroni, l. c. ii. 121 _et seq._

[245] Rome, June 1478, _Med. Arch._

[246] _Instructio pro. R. Card. Mantuano_, &c. Copy without date. MSS. Capponi, cod. xxii. cat. no. 1230.

[247] Letter of the Doge Andrea Vendramin. Capponi MSS. cod. cccxiii.

[248] Romanin, l. c., iv. 390.

[249] _Cronaca di Notar Giacomo_, pp. 128-132. The statement of Barante (_Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne_, ‘Charles the Bold,’ b. iv.), that Campobasso came to France with the Anjou prince, is erroneous according to this. The condottiere belonged to the Aragonese party. In Naples the defeat at Nancy was ascribed to his treason, _Cronaca_, 1. c. p. 133.

[250] _Idem_, p. 129.

[251] See first, Fabroni, p. 119; also Desjardins, p. 171; French, in Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Lettres et Négociations de Philippe de Commines_, i. 173.

[252] The documents relative to Commines’ mission. See Kervyn de Lettenhove, i. 173-182.

[253] Florence, June 19, 1478. See Fabroni, p. 132.

[254] Kervyn de Lettenhove, iii. 11.

[255] _Mémoires_, vi. chap. v.

[256] _Archives of Urbino (Tuscan. Central Arch.)_, class i. div. iv. 104.

[257] Brief of Sixtus IV. to the parish of Perugia, Rome, June 10, 1478, in the _Cronache e Storie di Perugia_, ii. 580.

[258] _Divine Comedy_, Purg. xiv. 48.

[259] _Divine Comedy, Inferno_, xxix. 46.

[260] The best details of the campaign of 1478-9 are given in Allegretti’s _Diarj Senesi Sanesi_, 1. c., 784-797.

[261] Rainaldi, _Ann. Eccl._, 1. c., p. 585.

[262] Roscoe, _Illustrations_, Doc. v., Heidelberg edit., iv. 199.

[263] Fabroni, ii. 136-166. See above, p. 387.

[264] Letter of July 25, 1478, in Fabroni, ii. 130.

[265] G. M. Canale, _Nuova Istoria della Republica di Genova_, iv. 212.

[266] Rosmini, _Istoria di Gian Jacopo Trivulzio_, Mil. 1815, i. 31 _seq._; ii. 31 _seq._

[267] Rainaldi, _Ann. Eccl._, 1. c., p. 591; Kervyn de Lettenhove, 1. c., iii. 12.

[268] Kervyn de Lettenhove, l. c., i. 185.

[269] _Mémoires_, 1, vi. chap. 5.

[270] Warrant of Louis XI. for Lorenzo de’ Medici and Commines, July 13, 1478. Warrant for Commines to grant the investiture of the same date, in Kervyn de Lettenhove, i. 185-188. Despatches of the Milanese ambassadors at Florence, &c., ib. iii. 13-29.

[271] Ib., 1. c., pp. 190, 191.

[272] Letter of the Signoria, August 23, 1478; Desjardins, 1. c., p. 172; Kervyn de Lettenhove (French), i. 190; Letter of Lorenzo in Kervyn, p. 191. When Commines says in his memoirs, ‘Je demourai au dit lieu de Florence un an, ou dans leurs territoires,’ this is incorrect. He did not arrive at Turin much before the middle of June; went from thence to Milan, Florence, and Rome; and at the beginning of October was again in Lyons.

[273] Letter of Louis XI. to Lorenzo de’ Medici, November 1, 1478, and instructions for the ambassadors, from the Medici Archives, Desjardins, 1. c., vol. i. pp. 174-184.

[274] Rainaldi, _Ann. Eccl._, l. c., pp. 588-590.

[275] Malipiero, _Annali Veniti_, i. 247; Romanin, l. c., iv. 391

[276] The demand that the caricature of the Archbishop of Pisa should be erased is dated February 9, 1479. Gaye, 1. c., p. 574.

[277] Romanin, 1. c., iv. 382.

[278] Notices of the treaties in Rome from the documents of the Medicean Archives, Desjardins, 1. c., i. 184-186; Scip. Ammirato, 1. c., pp. 131-136; Rainaldi, _Ann. Eccl._ x. 587 _seq._

[279] _Cronache Ec._ di Viterbo, p. 420 _seq._

[280] Scipione Ammirato, book xxiv. Pezzana, _Storia di Parma_, iv. 86-128.

[281] Vincenzo Acciaiuoli, _Vita di Piero Capponi_, in the _Arch. Stor. Ital._, iv. pt. 2, p. 17. Tommasi, _Storia di Lucca_, p. 338.

[282] Rosmini, _Storia di Milano_, iii. 82. Pezzana, 1. c. p. 144 _seq_.

[283] Despatches of December 30, 1478, January 13, and July 18, 1479, in _Kervyn de Lettenhore_, l. c. i. 232, 239, 271.

[284] Despatches of Visconti and Cagnola, Orleans, September 1, 1479, l. c. p. 283 _seq._

[285] Letter of Antonio Pucci to Lorenzo de’ Medici, Flor. June 18, 1479; see Fabroni, l. c. p. 199.

[286] _Med. Arch._

[287] D. Malipiero, l. c. i. 482.

[288] _Mémoires_, 1. vii. c. 2.

[289] _Cronache Milanesi_, pp. 186, 187.

[290] Molini (G. Capponi), _Documenti di Storia Italiana_, Flor. 1836, i. 297.

[291] _Instructio D. Nicolai Martelli ituri ad Laur. Medicem_, see Fabroni, l. c. ii. 189 seq. ‘Inter os et offam multa accidere possent.’ ‘Jactet aleam.’

[292] Pier Filippo Pandolfini to the Magistracy of Ten, Milan, November 22, 1479. Fabroni, pp. 196-199.

[293] See above, Bk. 3, ch. i. Filippo says: ‘Che totalmentegli si rimetteva nelle braccia e che in quello modo Sua Maestà lo volessi o grande o basso dentro o fuori, era contento, di modo che S. M. rendesse pacie alla città e le terre tolte.’—_Idem._ l. c. p. 58.

[294] Guicciardini, _Storia Fiorentina_, cap. vi.

[295] The danger which Lorenzo de’ Medici exposed himself to has been made much greater in later times than it really was. Jacopo Pitti (l. c. p. 25) says clearly that safety had been promised him both by the king and the pope (?); but it was believed that he gave himself into Ferrante’s power unconditionally (liberamente), in order to increase the fame of the latter and the splendour of his own patriotism. The danger lay less in what might happen at Naples than what might occur at Florence from a longer absence. Guicciardini hints at this (p. 59). Confidence shown in a man like the king was never without danger however.

[296] _Lettere de’ Principi_ (Venet. edit. 1581), i. 3. Translated by Roscoe, i. 221.

[297] _Lettere di Lorenzo de’ Medici_ from the Modena Archives, edited by A. Cappelli. _Atti e Memorie della R. Diputazione di Storia patria per le prov. Modenesi e Parmensi_, i. 230.

[298] Malavotti, _Historia di Sienna_, part iii. p. 176.

[299] B. Scala’s Letter (see Fabroni, p. 205) has the date of December 5, which must be a mistake, as the Signoria was first informed on the 7th.

[300] Lorenzo de’ Medici to the Ferrarese ambassador Antonio Montecatino, Pisa, December 10; see Cappelli, l. c. p. 240.

[301] _Cronaca di Notar Giacomo_, p. 145.

[302] Fabroni, i. 103 _seq._, has an address to the king spoken by Lorenzo, evidently a later oratorical production.

[303] Guicciardini, l. c. chap. vi. p. 58.

[304] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 201, 202. Agnolo della Stufa to Lorenzo de’ Medici, January 4, 1480; _Idem._ pp. 207-210.

[305] Carlo Visconti to the regency at Milan, Tours, January 30, 1480; see Kervyn de Lettenhove, i. 318.

[306] Guicciardini, l. c.

[307] Bart. Scala to Lorenzo de’ Medici, January 12, 1480; see Fabroni, l. c. ii. 202-204.

[308] Lorenzo de’ Medici to the Ten, Naples, January 3, 1480; Fabroni, l. c. ii. 206.

[309] Capponi MSS. xxii. p. 68 _seq._ (_Catalogo_, No. 1212). The date is wanting in the copy; but the instruction must be of 1459, as this year is spoken of as the present one.

[310] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 207-210.

[311] Letter of Ippolita Maria, Castel Capuano, July 3, 1480; Fabroni, 1. c. ii. 223.

[312] (Ratti) _Della Famiglia Sforza_, ii. 11. See above, p. x. Lascaris’ Greek grammar, dedicated to Ippolita, appeared at Milan 1476.

[313] Diarium Parmense, see Muratori, _R. It. Scr._ vol. xxiii. col. 335.

[314] Alamanno Rinuccini, l. c. s. cxxxi.

[315] Agnolo della Stufa, l. c.

[316] Ercole d’Este to Ant. Montecatini, March 19, 1480; see Cappelli, l. c. p. 253.

[317] Jacobi Volaterrani, _Diarium Rom._, ad. a. 1479 (1480); see Muratori, _R. It. Scr._ vol. xxiii. col. 100.

[318] Ferrante to Lorenzo, Castelnuovo, March 1, 1480; Fabroni, ii. 213-216.

[319] Jacobi Volat. _Diar._, 1. c.

[320] Ercole d’Este to Ant. Montecatini, April 20, 1480; Cappelli, 1. c. p. 253.

[321] _Cronaca di Notar. Giacomo_, p. 146.

[322] Angelo di Costanzo mentions the suspicion in his History of Naples; but an author of the second half of the sixteenth century is no authority. That Lorenzo, in a letter to Albino, the Duke of Calabria’s secretary, who entertained the same suspicion (see Fabroni, l. c. ii. 216), rejoices over Alfonso’s success and speaks of _cani Turchi_, proves as little on the other side.

[323] See Fabroni, l. c. ii. 217.

[324] Jac. Volaterr, l. c. pp. 113, 118.

[325] _Regola del Governo di Cura Familiare del B. Giovanni Dominici_, pubbl. da Donato Salvi, Flor., 1860.

[326] L. Mehus, _Epistola di M. Lapo da Castiglionchio_, Bologna, 1653. Fr. Bocchi, _Elogia_, in G. E. Galletti’s edit. of Philippi Villani, _Liber de civitatis Florentiæ famosis civibus, et de Florentinorum Litteratura principes fere synchroni Scriptores_, Flor. 1847, pp. 9, 12.

[327] In the decree of August 27 (Gaye, l. c. i. 573) we read: ‘Cogitantes magnifici viri priores artium et vexillifer virtutem supremam, vitam sinceram, mores honestos et in omnibus exemplares, religionis integritatem, doctrinam sanctam utilem et decoram, ac vere sancte et summæ eloquentiæ vas habundans venerabilis et omni tempore cum laude memorandi magistri Loysii de Marsiliis de Florentiæ’, &c.

[328] The students were then placed on an equal footing with the burghers by law, ‘tractentur ut cives populares.’ See Gaye, l. c. i. 461; Prezziner, _Storia del Pubblico Studio di Firenze_, Flor. 1810, i. 3; Fabroni, _Historia Academiæ Pisanæ_, i. 46.

[329] Extract of the decree of August 7, 1348, _apud_ Gaye, 1.c. p. 499.

[330] L. Mehus, _Ambrosii Traversarii_, &c.; _Latinæ Epistolæ accedit eiusdem Ambrosii vita_, &c., Flor. 1759, i. 356.

[331] G. Shepherd, _Vita di Poggio Bracciolini, trad. da T. Tonelli_, Flor. 1825. The numerous corrections and additions made by the translator of the English work which appeared in 1802 are based on careful investigation. Tonelli arranged later a complete edition of Poggio’s letters, the first volume of which appeared at Florence in 1831 (_Poggii Epistolæ ed. a Th. Tonellio_), the second long after the editor’s death, while the third is still wanting.

[332] Mehus, _Ambr. Travers. Epist._ i. 178.

[333] Savigny, _History of Roman Law_, &c., iii. 583 and elsewhere. A. Kirchhoff, the manuscript collector of the Middle Ages, in Naumann’s _Serapeum_, 1852, p. 17 _seq._ Fr. Bonaini, _I libri, gli Stazionari, i Peciari, i Copisti_, &c., in the _Giornale Stor. degli Archiv. Tosc_. iv. 97 _seq._ The price of the _Corpus Juris_, from the legacy _quondam Cristofani judicis_, amounted to 112 Sienese liri.

[334] _Lettere della B. Chiara Gambacorta Pisana_ (edited by Cesare Guasti), Pisa, 1871.

[335] _Commissioni_, i. 86.

[336] _Lettere della B. Chiara Gambacorta_, p. 59.

[337] Marco Foscarini, _Dei Veneziani raccoglitori di Codici_, in the Appendix to his _Storia Arcana_, Flor. 1843, vol. v. of the _Archiv. Storico Italiano_.

[338] Gayo, l. c. i. 533.

[339] Information respecting Leonardo Bruni has been collected by C. Monzani: _Leonardo Bruni Aretino_, in the _Archivio Stor. Ital._, series ii. vol. v. (reprinted in _Istoria Fiorentina di Leon. Aretino, tradotta in volgare da Donato Acciaiuoli_, Flor. 1861). L. Mehus’ edition of the letters appeared at Flor. 1741. The literary Academy of Arezzo planned (Flor. 1856) a reprint of the Florentine history which had first appeared in 1610, with Acciaiuoli’s version opposite, which, completed in 1473, had been published at Venice three years later, while the original remained so long inedited.

[340] With a Latin translation by B. Moneta, Flor. 1755; German by C. F. Neumann, Frankfort, 1822; and new revision of the text by L. W. Hasper, Leipsig, 1841.

[341] Gaye, 1. c. i. 545, 554, 560.

[342] Fabroni, _Magni Cosmi Med. Vita_, ii. 217.

[343] L. Mehus, _Ambrosii Traversarii_, &c.; _Latinæ Epistolæ_, &c.

[344] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 240.

[345] Vespasiano da Bisticci, 1. c. p. 439. Letters of Nicholas V. to Marsuppini and the Signoria, October 24, 1452, p. 441.

[346] Detailed Latin biography by Naldo Naldi, Muratori, _Scr. r. Ital._ vol. xx.; Vespasiano da Bisticci, 1. c. p. 444 _seq._ For the introduction to the latter by Bernardo del Nero, with a short outline and list of Manetti’s writings, as well as an Italian extract from Naldi by one of the Ricci family, see Galletti, 1. c. p. 129 _seq._ Compare _Apostolo Zeno Dissertaz._, Voss, i. 170 _seq._

[347] The original of the _Statuta Populi et Communis Florentiæ_ is to be found, with the MSS. of numerous other statutes, in the Florentine archives; printed in three volumes, said to be at Freiburg, 1778-83. See Lami, _Antichità Toscane_, i. 522, and N. Salvetti, _Antiquitates Florentinæ jurisprudentiam Etruriæ illustrantes_, Flor. 1777.

[348] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 283.

[349] _Tractatus quo concluditur: Nullam Gentilium scientiam chatolicæ fidei christianæ esse contrariam_, addressed to Malatesta de’ Malatesti by Pesaro as umpire, Rinaldo is termed therein, ‘Nobilis florentinus juvenis Rainaldus domini Masii de Albicis de Florentia.’ There is a tract by the same author, _De electione medici ad nobilem florentinum juvenem Cosmum Johannis Bitii de Medicis_; see _Commissioni di R. d. A_. iii. 601 _seq._; Mehus, 1. c. p. 394.

[350] On the sonnet generally ascribed to Burchiello, ‘O umil popol mio, tu non ti avvedi,’ see _Commissioni_, iii. 647.

[351] Rosmini, _Vita di Francesco Filelfo da Tolentino_, Milan, 1808, i. 35.

[352] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 69.

[353] Phil. _Sat._ ii. 3; iv. 1; Shepherd, l. c. i. 238. Rosmini, p. 75, has no desire to dwell on revolting subjects.

[354] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 246.

[355] L. Mehus, l. c. p. 18; Poggio, _Opera_, p. 278.

[356] _Epist. I._ iii. 29 (in Tonelli’s edit. i. 269).

[357] _Idem._, iv. 16, 17 (i. 333, 339).

[358] Shepherd, l. c. i. 155, 222.

[359] Tiraboschi, _Stor._ lett. vi. 1 (vol. vii.), p. 263. A. Peruzzi, in Hercolani’s _Biografie d’illustri Piceni_, i. 27, very superficial. L. Mehus’ edition of _Kyriaci Anconitani Itinerarium_, Flor. 1742, is insufficient; information about him has been carefully collected in the preface and in Traversari’s life. For the opinion of Alberto degli Alberti respecting the state of Rome in Pope Eugenius IV.’s time in a letter to Giovanni de’ Medici, Cosimo’s son, see Fabroni, 1. c. ii. 165.

[360] Vespasiano da Bisticci, 1. c. p. 511; G. Cantalamessa, Hercolani, i. 117 _seq._

[361] G. Voigt, _Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums_, p. 361.

[362] Mehus, 1. c. ii. 335.

[363] Apostolo Zeno, 1. c. i. 318; Fabroni, 1. c. i. 136, ii. 223.

[364] _Histor. de var. Fort._ p.92; Traversari, _Epist._ v. 10 (ii. 245).

[365] Fr. Schulze, _Geschichte der Philosophie der Renaissance_, i. Jena, 1874.

[366] Gio. Corsi, _Marsilii Ficini Vita_, with introduction and notes by A. M. Bandini, Pisa, 1771; reprinted by Galletti Philippi Villani, _Liber_, &c., pp. 183-214. L. Galeotti, _Saggio intorno alla vita e agli scritti di M. F._ in the _Arch. Stor. Ital._, series ii., ix. 2, 25 _seq._ (A careful collection of Ficino’s opinions, especially on religion and particularly from his letters.) Edit. of the Works, Basle, 1576, with twelve books of letters in vol. i. There is an Italian translation of the letters, _Lettere di M. F., tradotte per M. Felice, Figliucci Senese_, Venice, 1556. Ficino composed his commentary to Plato’s Banquet and his book on the Christian religion in Italian also. Edit. of the first, Flor. 1544; the second, Flor. 1568 (Gamba, _Testi di Lingua_, 1097, 1098).

[367] M. Ficino, _Epistolæ_, book i.; see vol. i. p. 192; vol. ii. p. 29 _seq._

[368] In Lord Vernon’s illustrated edition of the _Inferno_ there is a representation of Landino’s grave and the body.

[369] A. M. Bandini, _Specimen literaturæ Florentinæ sæculi XV._ Flor. 1748 (_History and Monuments of the Florentine Literature of the second half of the Fifteenth Century_, in the form of a biography of Landino); see vol. ii. p. 40 _seq._

[370] _Ad Jacobum Salvettum de laudibus M. Cosmi_, Bandini, i. 102.

[371] _Lettere di Sant’Antonino_, Flor. 1859, pp. 126, 193. On the embassies to Rome entrusted to the Archbishop in the years 1455 and 1458: _Due Legazioni al Sommo Pontefice per il Comune di Firenze, presedute da Sant’Antonino arcivescovo_ (edited by Cesare Guasti), Flor. 1857. Of the works of the Saint, for which see Brunet’s _Manuel bibliographique_, i. 330, we need only mention here, _Opera a ben vivere di S. A., messa a luce con altri suoi ammaestramenti e una giunta di antiche orazioni Toscane, da Fr. Palermo_, Flor. 1858.

[372] L. c. p. 193.

[373] Fabroni, l. c.

[374] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 291.

[375] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 482.

[376] Gaye, l. c. i. 545; see above, p. 528.

[377] Shepherd, l. c. i. 255.

[378] _Idem._ p. 261.

[379] Vespasiano da Bisticci, pp. 210, 213, 402.

[380] ‘Protonotaio apostolico inghilese,’ ‘Messer Andrea Ols,’ l. c. p. 238.

[381] See vol. ii. pp. 141, 142.

[382] Inscription:

SOCIETATI MEDICEÆ APUD DEUM FRATRES ET STUDIOSI OMNES LINGUIS ANIMISQUE FAVERE TENEMUR QUOD SUA IMPENSA LOCUM BIBLIOTHECÆ OMNI CULTU ET ORNATU JOANNE LANFREDINO SOCIO FACIUNDUM CURAVIT.

The bitter words in the sonnet mentioned on page 451, after the recall of the decree of 1434, ‘del tuo gran tesoro—ti vota sempre, e empie a Marco il seno,’ refer to Cosimo’s munificence at Venice.

[383] Plan of San Marco in (Aurelio Gotti’s) _le Gallerie de Firenze_.

[384] Mehus, _Ambr. Trav. Epist._ i. 63.

[385] ‘Ex hereditate doctissimi viri Nicolai de Nicolis de Florentia.’ These and similar words we read in the MSS. also.

[386] ‘Inventarium Nicolai p. v. quod ipso composuit ad instantiam Cosmæ de Medicis ut ab ipso Cosma audivi die xii Nov. 1463. Ego frater Leonardus Ser. Uberti de Florentia ord. præd.’ &c. MSS. of the same library. See Mehus, _Traversari_, i. 65, where are a number of details respecting the history of the Collection partly from Fra Roberto Ubaldini’s _Annales Marciani_.

[387] ‘Liber Colucii Pierii de Salutatis cancellarii florentini Liber Cosmæ Johannis de Medicis de Florentia.’ Such is the inscription on such Codices.

[388] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 382.

[389] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 252.

[390] (N. Anziani) _Della Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana in Firenze_, Flor. 1872, pp. 4, 6, 22, 24.

[391] In a MS. of the Epistles of St. Paul (Codd. Fiesolani Laur. cod. v.) we read the following inscription: Magnifici viri Cosmae de Medicis ingens liberalitas, eximia virtus et charitas prope singularis ex omni parte sese ostendit. Sacras has ædificavit ædes, his religiosis viris canonicis regularibus quæ ad usum vitæ necessaria erant paravit, postremo illis has epistolas Pauli dono dedit ut nihil relinqueretur quod esset ab illis ulterius expetendum. Adsit igitur clementissimus Deus et benedicat ei omnibus diebus vitæ suæ. Ex hereditate Joannis filii sui.’

In a MS. of the works of the Fathers of the Church (cod. lv.) we find: ‘Has Sanctorum Patrum Collationes quas Joannes Cassianus luculentissime edidit Magnificus Cosmus Medices viginti aureis emit et huic Divi Bartholomæi fesulano monasterio quod a fundamentis erexit sua pietate dedit anno MCCCCLXII. Inter orandum eius animæ memores estote. Timotheus Veronensis.’ In the Cod. lxxii.: ‘In hoc volumine quisquis legendo profecerit Petro Mediceo Cosmi filio acceptum referri debebit qui eximiam patris pietatem atque religionem prosequutus hoc ipso multisque aliis præclarissimis libris bibliothecam istam ornavit, cui æternum munus cumulatamque mercedem reddat Deus opt. max.’ In the cod. clvii.: ‘Laurentius Medices Petri filius eiusque virtutis et gloriæ æmulator felicissimus codicem hunc illustri suo nomine ab auctore dicatum huic preciosæ librorum supellectili avita paternaque magnificentia ac liberalitate institutæ addendum merito duxit ut et eam hoc munere locupletiorem ornatioremque redderet et opus eius scriptorisque nomine insigne ipsa quoque sede illustrius fieret ac multorum ingeniis deserviret. Orato itaque lector ut gloria et divitiæ sint in domo eius justitia eius et maneat in sæculum sæculi.’

[392] _Descrizione del palazzo d’Urbino in versi e prose di Bernardino Baldi_, Flor. 1859.

[393] Vespasiano da Bisticci in the _Life of Federigo_, l. c. 94 _seq._ The inventory of the library of Urbino by Federigo Veterano in the _Giornale stor. degli Arch. tosc._ vi. and vii.

[394] _Giorn. stor. degli Arch. tosc._ ii. 240.

[395] _Med. Arch._ _passim_.

[396] _Vite di illustri Italiani_ (_Arch. stor. Ital._ iv.) i. 305. Many portions of Vespasiano’s Correspondence are found in the Laurentian library.

[397] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l.c. p. 99.

[398] Poliziano, _Prose volgari inedite_, &c. p. 83. ‘Recentes enim mendosique sunt libri.’

[399] Mehus, _Traversari_, p. 67.

[400] See A. Bartoli in his preface to the Florentine edition of the _Biographies_, where an extract is given from the registers of the heirs of Filippo di Leonardo da Bisticci (Vespasiano’s father) of the year 1430, which answers Mehus’ and Cardinal Mai’s doubts regarding the name.

[401] Colomb de Batines, _Bibliografia Dantesca_, ii. 62; (L. Passerini) _Cenni storico-bibliografici della R. Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze_, Flor. 1872, p. 23.

[402] Batines, l. c. ii. 41, 42; Mehus, _Traversari_, p. 180.

[403] Mehus, l. c. p. 320.

[404] Shepherd, l. c. ii. 45.

[405] _Vite di illustri Italiani_, i. 306.

[406] The Medicean Archives, filza xlvi., contains the following letter of Bessarion (B. episcopus Sabin. card. patr. Constant. Nicænus sedis apost. legatus) to Lorenzo de’ Medici: ‘Illustrious and noble lord, dear friend,—The bookseller, Vespasiano di Filippo, whom we mentioned shortly before at the close of a letter addressed to you, has now sent us information about the works of Augustine that he had written for us, with an estimate of the expense with which we are entirely satisfied. He writes us he has divided the work in question into nine volumes, with miniatures, bindings, and all that belongs to it. One volume is wanting to complete the collection, respecting which he writes that he will hasten to finish it, which we also desire. For payment he has still to receive eighty-seven ducats, besides the four hundred which your bank has accredited to him in our name. We request you to pay him this remainder and to place it to our account. Take the books to yourself and keep them in a suitable place till we write to you about them. May it be well with your Magnificence! Frascati, May 23, 1472.’ The learned ecclesiastic perhaps never saw the books, for he died on November 19 of the same year. The copy is in the Marciana, where, however, only seven volumes are found. It is decorated with Bessarion’s arms, and in the fourth volume we find the name of the copyist, Francesco degli Ugolini, Fiorentino, 1471. G. Valentinelli speaks of this manuscript in his catalogue of the MSS. of the Marciana, ii. 30.

[407] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. pp. 113, 217, 403. See above, p. 469, ii. Bk. iv. pt. 3. c. 6.

[408] ‘Vespasiano cartolare’ was buried in Sta. Croce on July 27, 1498. _Giornale Sior. degli Arch. Tosc._ ii. 241. On the first Florentine printers see ii. 133 _seq._

[409] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 99.

[410] L. Passerini, _Gli Alberti di Firenze_, i. 87 _seq._ Madonna Bartolommea, the daughter of Tommaso degli Obizzi, of a distinguished family of Northern Italy, a general of Pope Urban V. and the King of Italy, and first Italian knight of the Garter, married Antonio degli Alberti in 1390, and died about 1426.

[411] _Opere volgari di Leon Bat. Alberti, pubbl. da Anicio Bonucci_, vol. ii. Flor. 1844. A portion of this work has been repeatedly printed under the title _Trattato del Governo della Famiglia_, as a work of Agnolo Pandolfini, of which we have spoken above (p. 467; see Gamba’s _Testi di Lingua,_ 700, 701) a question of authorship, the discussion of which can have no place here, and which was lately revived in the introduction to _Il Padre di Famiglia, dialogo di L. B. Alberti rimesso in luce sopra un nuovo codice palatino da Fr. Palermo_, Florence 1871.

[412] _Orazione facta per Cristoforo Landino da Pratovecchio, ec._; see Fr. Corrazzini, _Miscellanea di cose inedite o rare_. Flor. 1853, p. 125 _seq._

[413] L. B. Alberti, _Opere volgari_, i. pp. xvii.-xix., clvii.-ccxxxiv., where these sorry productions are given.

[414] A. M. Biscioni has collected a considerable number of these writings in the _Lettere di Santi e Beati Fiorentini_, Flor. 1736. C. Guasti’s edition of the _Lettere della B. Chiara Gambacorti_ has been mentioned above. He also printed in his _Miscellanea Pratese_, No. 5, the touching letter of Sister Costanza Ciaparelli on the death of Feo Belcari’s daughter (Prato, 1861). For more on Feo. Belcari’s letters, see back. The letters of the two St. Caterinas of Siena and de’ Ricci lie beyond the scope of the present work.

[415] D. M. Manni, _Sigilli antichi_, xix. 127; xx. 39. Poccianti: _Chronicon rerum s. ord. Servorum B. M. Virginis_, Flor. 1569, p. 3. In Florence there are still a few memorials of the Laudesi. On the Cathedral (formerly Sta. Reparata) is an inscription on the side turned towards the Campanile: ‘S. Societatis Laudensium B. M. Virginis qui congregantur in ecclesia Ste. Reparate, anno Dom. MCCCX. de mense Novemb.’ (see _Firenze, antica e moderna illustrata_, ii. 112). In Via dello Pappe, now Via Folco Portinari: ‘Questa casa è de la compagnia de Laudesi di Sancta Maria che si raguna in Sancta Liperata.’ The chapel of the Laudesi of Sta. Croce was where the splendid Niccolini chapel began to be built in 1585 (F. Moisè, _Santa Croce di Firenze_ p. 198). In the _Decameron_ (Giorn. vii. Nov. 1) the Laudesi of Sta. Maria Novella and their good-natured superintendent, Gianni Lottaringhi, is mentioned (D. M. Manni, _Istoria del Decamerone_, p. 460; Fr. Sansovino, in his edition of the _Decameron_, Ven. 1549); see Fr. Cionacci, _Rime sacre di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, 2nd edit. Bergamo, 1760, p. xxi.

[416] _Laudi spirituali del Bianco da Siena povero Gesuato del sec. XIV._ (edited by Telesforo Bini), Lucca, 1851. Feo Belcari’s _Vita del B. Giovanni Columbini et di alcuni Jesuati_, composed in 1448, but first printed towards 1480 (Gamba, _Testi di lingua_, 100 _seq._). On the Jesuates, G. B. Uccelli, _I Convento di S. Giusto alla mura e i Gesuati_, Flor. 1865; see ii. 163. The order was dissolved in 1668 by Pope Clement IX.

[417] The most perfect collection of Lauds, especially of the fourteenth century, including Belcari, Lorenzo de’ Medici and his mother, &c., is called _Laude spirituali di Feo Belcari, di Lorenzo de’ Medici, di Francesco d’Albizzo, di Castellano Castellani, e di altri, comprese nelle quattro più antiche raccolte, con alcune inedite e con nuove illustrazioni_ (by G. C. Galletti), Florence 1863, with woodcuts. On the older editions, see Gamba, _Testi di Lingua_, 105 _seq._, 576 _seq._ The hymns of Ugo Panziera were printed by P. Fanfani in the translation of Ozanam’s _Poëtes Franciscains_, Prato, 1854, and C. Guasti, _I Cantici spirituali del B. Ugo Panziera da Prato de’ Frati Minori_, Prato 1861 (_Miscellanea Pratese_, No. iii.). Another collection of hymns to the Virgin and the Saints, edited by Eug. Cecconi: _Laudi di una Compagnia fiorentina del secolo XIV_, Florence 1870.

[418] D. Moreni, _Lettere di Feo Belcari_, Flor. 1825. The most complete account of the mysteries, in the literature of which Feo Belcari takes an important place, is given by Colombs de Batines, _Bibliografia delle antiche rappresentazioni italiane sacre e profane stampate nei secoli XV e XIV_ in P. Fanfani’s _Etruria_, ii. (Flor. 1852), 193. A copious collection of these mysteries was published by Alessandro d’Ancona: _Sacre Rappresentazioni dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI_, Flor. 1872, three vols.; see J. L. Klein, _Geschichte der Drama_, iv. Leipsig, 1866.

[419] See Mazzuchelli, _Scrittori d’Italia_, vol. ii. div. ii. p. 860 _seq._ for list of his writings.

[420] Florence, November 1, 1530, in G. Milanesi’s edition of the _Varchi_.

[421] In _San Marco_. Inscription of the two graves:—

JOANNES IACET HIC MIRANDULA CETERA NORUNT ET TAGUS ET GANGES FORSAN ET ANTIPODES. OBITT AN. SAL. MCCCCLXXXXIV. VIXIT AN. XXXIII. HIERONYMUS BENIVENIUS NE DISIUNCTUS POST MORTEM LOCUS OSSA TENERET QUORUM IN VITA ANIMOS CONJUNXIT AMOR HAC HUMO SUPPOSITA PONENDUM CUR. OBIIT AN. MDILII. VIXIT AN. LXXXIX.

[422] See the oldest edition of the _Laudi di Feo Belcari_, Florence 1485, printed three years after Lucrezia’s death, and Fr. Cionacci’s _Rime sacre di Lorenzo de’ Medici unitamente a quelle di Madonna Lucrezia sua madre_, Flor. 1680 and Bergamo 1760, as well as the Galletti collection before mentioned. Crescimbeni (_Della volgar poesia_, ii. 277) is inclined to place Lucrezia above most, if not all, poets of her time; but Crescimbeni is a weak critic. The _Lauds_ begin: (I.) ‘Ecco ’l Messia’ (resembling the ‘Venite adoremus’ of the Church); (II.) ‘Venite pastori’; (III.) ‘Contempla le mie pene o peccatore;’ (IV.) ‘Ecco il Re forte;’ (V.) ‘Vien il messagio;’ (VI.) ‘Ben venga Osanna.’

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:

—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.