Chapter XXXIII: Appendix: III (1)

LORENZO’S LAST HOURS.

_Book VI. Chapter VIII._

THE interview of Savonarola and Lorenzo de’ Medici has given rise to a controversy which has never been definitively settled. The account of the monk’s biographers, Giovan Francesco Pico and Pacifico Burlamachi, cannot be reconciled with that given in Politian’s letter above referred to. This last has the air of containing a mitigated version of the facts, intended to efface the bad impression made by current reports of the matter; and the third exhortation put into the monk’s mouth by Politian—‘that he should endure death with patience’—sounds almost like a commonplace, considering the gravity of the moment and the characters of the interlocutors. C. F. Meier, in his History of Savonarola (p. 52, &c.), and Villari, in ‘La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola’ (i. 136), accept the version given by the Ferrarese monk’s earliest biographers, and Villari tries to establish it by a long note (p. 155-158). But this version contains great improbabilities. How should the dying man, who had just received the viaticum, make another confession? And what could Savonarola have meant by his famous third demand—what practical use or effect could he expect from it, or from the possible assent of the dying man? The story looks like an invention of the after-days of excitement. The doubts as to the authenticity of the books of Burlamachi and Pico, which, it is suspected, were fabricated in the convent of San Marco and adorned with these authors’ names, are of little consequence in this connection, as in any case the tradition was doubtless current among Savonarola’s contemporaries.

Bartolommeo Cerretani gives, in the third book of his MS. chronicle, the following account of Lorenzo’s last hours:—‘April 7, about the fifth hour, Lorenzo received the Lord’s Supper. As his illness was making such rapid progress, Messer Pier Leoni, otherwise an excellent physician, lost heart; other doctors were at once sent for, but it was too late. Feeling his end approaching, the sick man sent for his eldest son Piero, gave him divers exhortations, and then sent him away. About the twentieth hour he began to cry out: “I am dying and there is none to help me!” All hastened to him. He said he wanted to get up a little, and had himself lifted out of bed, but only to be laid down immediately. The pains were so violent that he lost consciousness. Those standing round him began to weep, for they thought he was dead. A Camaldulensian who was present took off his spectacles, and holding them to his mouth perceived that he still breathed. A restorative was given him and he came to himself. Then he called for his son again and spoke to him softly, so that none of the others heard. After that his condition rapidly grew worse, so that he gave up the ghost on the 8th, about the fourth hour of the evening, in the arms of a valet.’

The doctor who, though a learned man, certainly seems to have blundered in his judgment as to Lorenzo’s illness, put an end to his life next morning as has been related above (p. 461), by jumping into the well at the Martelli villa at San Gervasio before Porta Pinti.

Sannazzaro’s poem in terza rima (in Roscoe, Ap. lxxviii.) on the death of Piero Leoni attributes it to the instigation of Piero de’ Medici. The fragment beginning: ‘Fu trovato essere stato gettato in un pozzo’ &c., published in Fabroni (l. c. ii. 397) as being from some anonymous author in the Magliabecchiana, is borrowed from the Ricordi of Alamanno Rinuccini (p. cxlvi). Petrus Crinitus and Valerianus (De literatorum infelicitate) take it for granted that the doctor in his agitation took his own life; and Cerretani certainly indicates that Leoni, who a short time before had been in good hopes, lost his head. He states, moreover, that the Medici’s grooms threatened the life of the physician, who was, therefore, taken to San Gervasio, and that the report of his death by the violence of others was immediately spread, but was unfounded. Burcard in his defective report (p. 175) alludes to Piero de’ Medici’s complaint by saying that the fatal termination of the illness was to be attributed to wrong medical treatment, and raises a supposition that at Rome there was believed to have been a murder.

In May, Demetrius Chalcondylas wrote from Milan to Marcello Virgilio Adriani: ‘Thou hast announced to me two sad events; the flash of lightning which has struck the principal church of the city, occasioned so much ruin, and presaged so great evils; and the death of Lorenzo, the most famous man of our time, who was distinguished in so many ways. His decease causes me deep sorrow, not merely on account of the loss, which touches us all in no slight degree, but also on account of what I personally lose, who have always found him a kind patron. And to all this is added the sad and fearful death of Piero Leoni, which has shocked me more than anything for a long time past. Believe me, Marcello, this end casts a shadow over Lorenzo’s death, and is a dishonour to the family and to the whole city. For although thou, like others, writest that he threw himself into the well, yet it is difficult to convince thoughtful people that such a wise and learned man, who, as thou thyself also tellest me, treated Lorenzo in his illness with so much care, could have been seized with such madness as to choose so shameful a death.’ (Bandini, Collectio, &c., p. 22).

In Fabroni, l. c., and Roscoe, ‘Life of Leo X.’ (Ap. No. xxii.) will be found the letters written by Cardinal Giovanni to his brother after their father’s death. The first may be given here. The original is in the curious mixture of Latin and Italian sentences which was then still in vogue.

‘My beloved brother, now the only support of our house. What shall I write to thee, when only tears are left me? For when I consider that our father of blessed memory is taken from us, I am nearer weeping than speaking. What a father! None was kinder than he to his children; of this facts are witness. Therefore it is no wonder that I lament and can find no rest; and my only consolation is that I have thee, my brother, in our father’s place. It is for thee to command, for me to obey, and thy commands will always give me the greatest pleasure. Try me; nothing shall find me backward. But I beg thee, my Piero, be towards all, especially towards thine own people, as I wish thee, beneficent, kind, courteous, gracious; thereby all is obtained, all is preserved. Not because I mistrust thee do I remind thee of this, but because it is my duty. I am consoled and sustained by the concourse of mourners to our house, the universal sympathy, the mourning of the whole city, and other things which help to alleviate sorrow. But what consoles me above all is that I have thee, whom I trust more than my words are able to express. As to what thou wishest arranged with his Holiness, nothing has been done, as it seemed better to take another way, on which the ambassador will report to thee, and which seems as if it must lead more easily to the object. Rome, April 12, 1492.’

THE END.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] The collection of Italian poetry made by Lorenzo de’ Medici for Don Federigo is to be found—not, indeed, in the original, which was lost probably during the French invasion of Naples in 1495—but in a copy made either at the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century, and now in the Florentine National Library (Magliabecchi), to which it passed with the Palatine MSS. (Fr. Palermo, _I manoscritti Palatini di Firenze_, Flor. 1853 _seq._; i. 353 _seq._). This MS. belonged to Marco Foscarini, with whose library it went in 1800 to Vienna, and later to the Archduke, afterwards Grand Duke, Leopold, when he collected and published the poems of Lorenzo (_Opere di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, Florence, 1825, 4 vols. i. p. xxvi., where occur also Apostolo Zeno’s remarks on the MS. in question). On the MSS. and printed copies of Lorenzo’s poems, compare the same edition, i. p. xiii.-xlv., and Gamba, _Testi di Lingua_, pp. 648-660. For a complete critically revised text much is still wanting, even after the splendid edition of 1825, which came out under the auspices of the della Crusca Academy. A large and well-arranged selection, _Poesie di Lorenzo de’ Medici_, Flor. 1859, has an introduction by Giosuè Carducci, which has been a guide to much of what is said here of Lorenzo as a poet.

The letter of Lorenzo to Don Federigo, from which extracts are given above, is among the Riccardi MSS., No. 2723, under the name of Poliziano, and was published under that name in the edition of the _Rime_ by V. Manucci and L. Ciampolini, Flor. 1814. The mistake is palpable; Poliziano’s age and the agreement with Lorenzo’s views in the commentary on his poems, show it as clearly as do the historical allusions.

[2] Cf. Carducci’s edition of the _Poesie di Lor. de’ Med._, p. 54 _seq._, and Fabroni, _supra_, p. 10.

[3] Herr von Reumont here gives two or three specimens of Lorenzo’s sonnets translated into German verse. It is not attempted to retranslate these, but the English reader in search of examples of the poet’s style is referred to Roscoe’s _Lorenzo de’ Medici_, ii., iii., v.—_Note by Translator._

[4] ‘Il montanino ha scarpe grosse e cervello fino.’ The fullest collection of _rispetti_ and other Tuscan popular songs is that of G. Tigri, _Canti popolari Toscani_, first published at Florence in 1856, and reprinted several times since. The reproach against the ‘Wunderhorn’ has been repeated in this case, and indeed not without reason.

[5] Tommaso Lancillotto’s _Chronicle_ in the _Cronache inedite Modenesi_, pp. 8, 9. _Poesie musicali dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI, tratte da vari codici per cura di Ant. Cappelli_, Bologna 1869. Cf. the last story of the fifth day of the _Decameron_.

[6] _Oratio christiani gregis ad pastorem Xistum_, Epist. 1. vi. 1. Cf. _supra_, i. 440.

[7] _Lettere di Marsilio Ficino_, i. 66 _seq._

[8] Inscription on the monument in Sta. Maria del Fiore:

EN HOSPES HIC EST MARSILIUS SOPHIÆ PATER,
PLATONICUM QUI DOGMA CULPA TEMPORUM
SITU OBRUTUM ILLUSTRANS, ET ATTICUM DECUS
SERVANS, LATIO DEDIT FORES PRIMUS SACRAS,
DIVINO APERIENS MENTIS ACTUS NUMINE.
VIXIT BEATUS ANTE COSMI MUNERE
LAURIQUE MEDICI NUNC REVIXIT PUBLICO.
S. P. Q. F.
ANNO MXDXI.

[9] See a remarkable letter to Lorenzo, dated 1475, in which he speaks of the neglected muses, in Bandini, _Collectio veterum monumentorum_, p. 1.

[10] In his poem of _Xandra_, book ii. Cf. Bandini, _Specimen litt._, i. 124.

[11] The copy of _Christophori Landini Florentini ad illustrem Fridericim principem Urbinatem Disputationum Camaldulensiam libri IV._, now in the Laurentian library, was written by Pietro Cennini, son of Bernardo, the first Florentine printer, finished at the end of spring, and collated with the original. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 188 _seq._ (see also p. 3 _seq._ as to the meeting and the persons present). The first edition is said (_ibid._ p. 192) to have been printed in 1475(?) and a second at Strasburg in 1508. It was translated into Italian by Antonio Cambini, a literary man much employed by Lorenzo and also in the service of his son the Cardinal. He was also in communication with the Este family, and afterwards attached himself to Savonarola, at whose fall his house was burnt down. (Cf. Cappelli, l. c. p. 309; Villari, _Storia di G. Savonarola_, ii. 388.)

[12] Manni, _Istoria del Decamerone_, pt. i. chap. xxix.

[13] Mehus, _Traversari_, p. 178.

[14] Mehus, l. c. p. 176.

[15] ‘Che ‘l Dante io leggeva per mio piacere e per fare cosa grata alla vostra inclyta città.’ Milan, May 29, 1473, in Fabroni, _Laur. Med. Vita_, ii. 76.

[16] On the various editions of the old biographies of Dante, see G. C. Galletti in _Phil. Villani liber_, &c., where Villani, Leon. Bruni, and Giann. Manetti are printed, the last with Melius’ notes for his edition, Flor. 1747. The MS. of G. M. Filelfo in the Laurentiana was published by D. Morini, Flor. 1826.

[17] Vide section iii. chap. iii.

[18] For the numerous bibliographical works on the history of Dante and his writings, we can only give a general reference to the _Bibliografia Dantesca_ of Colomb de Batines and the _Enciclopedia Dantesca_ of Ferrazzi.

[19] According to the colophon, the printing was finished on August 30, 1481. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 131, 140-143; Colomb de Batines, l. c. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 43; Marsilio’s Address, Bandini, pp. 132-134; Batines, pp. 43, 44. The Magliabecchian copy has been lately rebound, and not in very good taste.

[20] _Paradiso_, xxv. 7. Girol. Benivieni, _Cantico in laude di Dante Alighieri_, in _Works_, Venice 1522. Cf. Bandini, ii. 134-136. The latter part of the poem, from the line ‘La patria, che a me madre, a Te noverca,’ refers to the above-quoted lines of Dante. The restoration of citizen rights to the poet’s great-great-grandson, who bore his name, and who was a friend of Poliziano (_Letter to Lorenzo_, Flor. June 5, 1490, in the _Prose volgari_, &c., p. 76), did not take place till 1496, and was paid for! (Gaye, l. c. p. 584.)

[21] Isidoro del Lungo, _Un documento Dantesco, Arch. Stor. Ital._, series iii. vol. xix. p. 4.

[22] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 499 _seq._ Palmieri’s Latin biography of the grand seneschal was translated into Italian by a relative of the latter, Donato Acciaiuolo.

[23] On the _Giostra_, see above, i. 264 _seq._, and Salvator Bongi’s oft-mentioned edition of the _Lettere di Luigi Pulci_. A new edition of _Ciriffo Calvaneo_, with full bibliographical references by S. L. G. Audin, appeared at Florence in 1834.

[24] L. Ranke’s academical treatise, _Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie_, Berlin, 1837, contains an excellent account of the elements and the development of the romantic epopee. The last edition of _Morgante_, which was first printed at Venice in 1481 and at Florence in the following year (Gamba, _Testi di Lingua_, p. 241 _seq._) is that by P. Sermolli, published at Florence a few years ago. The oldest impression of the _Reali di Francia_ is that published at Modena in 1491, ten years after Pulci’s poem.

[25] L. Pulci, _Lettere_, p. 38. Cf. _supra_, i. 313.

[26] February 1, 1468. L. Pulci, _Lettere_, p. 8.

[27] A petition of his widow, July 14, 1485, states that he had been dead more than eight months. Cf. _Lettere_, pp. 10, 102, 114.

[28] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 98.

[29] Isidoro del Lungo, _La patria e gli antenati d’Angelo Poliziano_ in _Arch. Stor. Ital._, series iii. vol. xi. p. 9 _seq._ Id. _Uno Scolare dello studio fiorentino nel sec. XV_, in the _Nuova Antologia_, x. 215, _seq._ Fr. Otto Mencke’s _Historia Vitæ, etc. Ang. Pol._, Leipzig, 1736, will always be valuable as a careful collection of literary and critical materials. _Opera Ang. Politiani_, Flor. 1499. _Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Ang. Ambrogini Pol., illustrate da Giosuè Carducci_, Flor. 1863. _Prose volgari e Poesie latine e greche di A. A. P. raccolte da Isidoro del Lungo_, Flor. 1867.

[30] _Prose volgari_, p. 109.

[31] Ibid. p. 248.

[32] See _Prose volgare_, p. 481: ‘O cui tyrrheni florentia signa leonis.’

[33] _Epistolæ_, viii. 6, 7.

[34] See the poems addressed to Cardinal Riario in the _Prose volgare_, pp. 111-114. Cf. _supra_, i. 346.

[35] These four books were printed by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the second volume of the _Spicilegium Romanum_, from two MSS. in the Vatican, and thence in the _Prose volgare_, pp. 431-523. The MSS. came to the Vatican from Fulvio Orsini. The one on parchment, with the Medici arms on a red leather binding, is the copy of books ii. and iii., presented by the author to Lorenzo. The other contains books iv. and v., apparently in Poliziano’s handwriting and without a dedication.

[36] There has been much question as to the relation between the original ‘Orfeo,’ which the author wanted to destroy, and the later one, which was turned into a tragedy in several acts. The latter was published in 1776 by Ireneo Affò, with a detailed introduction and _excursus_; and in 1812 Vincenzo Ranucci wrote some extensive philological observations upon it which were reprinted in the Carducci edition, pp. 113-188. The question which has lately been raised as to Poliziano’s authorship of this second version must be left for decision to the poet’s biographers. There is a prospect of a detailed account of his life by I. del Lungo.

[37] It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin, _Prose volgare_, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’]

[38] Laurus, the poetical name by which the poets of the time distinguished Lorenzo.

[39] Roscoe’s translation.

[40] ‘In violas a Venere mea dono acceptas,’ in _Prose volgare_, p. 238; Carducci, p. cviii. Agnolo Firenzuola and Giulio Perticari have translated this elegy in very different styles. Cf. _supra_, p. 15.

[41] The diploma (with a wrong date) was printed from the archiepiscopal archives of Florence in Bandini, l. c. i. 188.

[42] _Prose volgare_, pp. 285-427.

[43] _Epist._ l. x. 14.

[44] _Prælectio in Priora Aristotelis analytica cui titulus Lamia. La Strega, prelezione alle Priora d’Aristotile nello studio Fiorentino l’anno 1483 per Ang. Ambr. Poliziano volgar. da Isidori del Lungo_, Flor. 1864. The immediate neighbourhood of Fiesole, where Poliziano was so thoroughly at home, still recalls the witch-traditions of the middle ages. The subterranean chambers of the Roman theatre (unhappily in great part destroyed) on the northern slope of the hill are called by the people the Witches’ grottos—(Buche delle Fate); they are not far from the stone grotto on the eastern slope, the Fonte Soterra, which is always full of cool water, and the Latomie, which Brunelleschi opened for the purposes of his wonderful buildings (Fr. Inghirami, _Memorie storiche per servire di guida all’Osservatore in Fiesole_, Fiesole 1839), p. 60 _seq._

[45] The translation appeared at Rome in 1493. The dedication to the Pope and his Brief are in book viii. of the _Epistolæ_. The poem ‘Herodianus in laudem traductoris sui,’ is in _Prose volgare_, etc., p. 264.

[46] _Letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici_, June 5, 1490, _ibid._ p. 76.

[47] _Letter to Piero de’ Medici_, Florence, May 23, 1494, _ibid._ p. 84.

[48] Poliziano’s _Letters to Madonna Clarice_ (cf. vol. ii. book vi. ch. iii.) are in I. del Lungo, _Prose volgare_, p. 45 _seq._, and also his letters from Pistoja, Caffagiuolo, Careggi, and Fiesole, to Lorenzo and his mother, some of which had already been printed by Fabroni.

[49] Poliziano afterwards sent the ode also to Lorenzo.

[50] The graceful description of the view of Florence and its neighbourhood from Fiesole (‘Talia Fœsuleo lentus meditabar in antro Rure suburbano Medicum) stands at the end of the poem of Rusticus, which bears the date 1483, but its origin is probably connected with the time referred to above.

[51] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 288.

[52] Fiesole, May 21 and July 18, 1479, in _Prose volgari_, pp. 71-74. Several Latin epigrams to Lorenzo (_ibid._ pp. 123, 124) are of this period.

[53] _Prose volgari_, p. 127 (‘O ego quam cupio reducis contingere dextram’).

[54] Latini dettati a Piero de’ Medici, 1481, _ibid._ pp. 17-41.

[55] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 280.

[56] _Epist._ xii. 7.

[57] D. M. Manni, _Bartholomei Scalæ Collensis vita_, Flor. 1768. Scala’s _Florentine History_, now completely forgotten, appeared at Rome in 1677. The Laurentiana contains a MS. collection of letters, poems, &c., by him, to and on Cosimo the elder, and dedicated to Lorenzo (cf. Moreni, _Bibliographia_, ii. 321).

[58] Ang. Pol. _Epist._ xii. 17.

[59] Accolti (on whom cf. Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 442 _seq._) died in 1466, aged 51; the seals were not delivered to Scala till March 1473, so they must have been put into commission (Manni, l. c. 15). Accolti’s dialogue, _De præstantia virorum sui ævi_, which, in spite of the many reservations made by the author from personal motives, will deserve regard as the work of a man in high position, was first printed by Ben. Bacchini, Parma, 1689, and later by Galletti in _Philippi Villani Liber_, p. 97 _seq._

[60] A. M. Bandini, _Lettere Fiesolane_, Flor. 1776, p. 30.

[61] A. Guidoni to Duke Ercole II., April 1486, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 281.

[62] Ang. Pol. _Epist._ xii. 17-19.

[63] ‘Ad Bartholomæum Scalam’ in the _Prose volgari_, p. 273.

[64] In the _Epigrammata Græca_. Cf. _Prose volgari_, p. 199 _seq._

[65] ‘Quæris quid mihi de tuo Marullo,’ in the _Prose volgari_, p. 124; ‘Quod plura Venerem tuus Marullus, _ibid._ p. 125.

[66] ‘Invectiva in Mabilium,’ _ibid._ p. 131 _seq._ The poems of Marullus were printed at Florence in 1497.

[67] F. Fossi, _Monumenta ad Alamanni Rinuccini vitam contexandam_, &c., Flor. 1791. G. Aiazzi, in _Ricordi storici di Filippo Rinuccini_, p. 139 _seq._

[68] Anton. Francesco Gori has added to a MS. commentary on Rucellai’s treatise _De Urbe Roma_ (in the Marucelliana at Florence) a life of the author. Cf. L. Passerini, _Genealogia ec. della Famiglia Rucellai_, p. 122 _seq._ Bernardo was born 1488, died 1514.

[69] L. Passerini, _Degli Orti Oricellarj_, in the _Curiosità_, p. 56 _seq._ The house, built on the ground bought from Nannina de’ Medici in 1482, was begun about the end of the century. It passed, with the beautiful gardens, to Bianca Cappello; it now, after many changes, belongs to a Countess Orloff.

[70] ‘Bernardo Bembo veneto oratori viro undecumque elegantissimo.’ In the _Prose volgari_, p. 251. The copy of Landino’s _Xandra_, once sent by him to Bembo, is in the Vatican library. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 164 _seq._

[71] Foscarini, l. c. 267.

[72] Inscription on his tomb in Sta. Maria del Popolo:

BARBARIEM HERMOLEOS LATIO QUI DEPULIT OMNEM
BARBARUS HIC SITUS EST UTRAQUE LINGUA OEMIT
URBS VENETUM VITAM MORTEM DEDIT INCLYTA ROMA
NON POTUIT NASCI NOBILIUSQUE MORI.

[73] Florence, May 10, 1490. Fabroni, l. c. ii. 377.

[74] Gaye, l. c. i. 294.

[75] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 284; also in _Prose volgari_, p. 78 _seq._

[76] Piero Alamanni to Lorenzo, Rome, May 14, 1491; in Fabroni, l. c. p. 379.

[77] L. Geiger, _Johann Reuchlin_ (Leipzig, 1871), p. 163 _seq._

[78] In A. Cappelli, l. c. p. 282. Domenico Berti, _Cenni e documenti intorno a Giovanni Pico della Mirandola_, in the _Rivista contemporanea_, vol. xvi., Turin, 1859. The reports sent to Lorenzo during his stay at the baths, quoted here from the Medicean archives, agree substantially with the accounts given by Guidoni.

[79] In Cappelli, l. c. p. 303. The date of the _Apology_ seems to be really wrong. In the register of Lorenzo’s correspondence (_Ricordi di lettere scripti per Lor. de’ Med._) in the Florentine archives, we find notice of a letter written as late as February 12, 1488, ‘al conte della Mirandola, ringraziandolo dell’Apologia mandate,’ letter enclosed to Lorenzo Spinelli, one of the Medicean agents in France.

[80] _Med. Arch._, Filza 57.

[81] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 291. Some of the following extracts are in the same; some, unpublished, in the _Med. Arch._

[82] A. Guidoni, Flor. September 25, 1488, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 303.

[83] _Epist._ lib. i. 4. _Epigramm. Græca_, lib. iii. in _Prose volgari_, p. 218.

[84] _Disputationum de Astrologia_, lib. xii. _Epigramm. Græca_, xlix. l. c. p. 214.

[85] Speech on accepting the office of Capitano del popolo, from L. B. Alberti’s papers, in Bonucci, _Opere di L. B. A._, vol. i. p. xlii.

[86] G. Perticaro, _Intorno la morte di Pandolfo Collenuccio_, in his _Opere_, Bologna, 1839, ii. 52 _seq._

[87] Cf. Ben. Varchi’s remarks upon Naldi in _Prose volgari inedite_, p. 122.

[88] It is not intended in the present work to go into the details of these mostly uninteresting poetical productions. Bandini has noticed many of them in the catalogue of the Laurentiana; Roscoe has filled many pages with quotations and bibliographical notices; to add to them would be easy but useless.

[89] The _Dieci di Balia_, Florence, January 14, 1432, in Fabroni, _Cosmi Med. Vita_, ii. 8.

[90] Guicciardini, _Del reggimento di Firenze_, p. 209.

[91] Fabroni, _Historia Academiæ Pisanæ_, i. 109 _seq._; _Laur. Med. Vita_, i. 49. Many other references to the University, _ibid._ ii. 74 _seq._ Carlo de’ Massimi, _Carmen heroicum ad Laurentium Medicem de studio per eumden Pisis innovato_, from a Laurentian MS., in Bandini, _Laur. Cat._, vol. iii., and Roscoe, iii. 237 _seq._ (No. lviii.)

[92] Fabroni, _Laur. Med. Vita_, ii. 77.

[93] Rosmini, _Vita di Fr. Filelfo_, ii 191.

[94] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 75, 76.

[95] Camillo Massimo, _Sopra una inedita medaglia di Francesco Massimo dottore in legge e cavaliere_, Rome, 1860. Francesco Massimo was elected Podestà of Siena in 1477, but could not assume the office owing to the death of his father. That he was in Florence in 1488-89, engaged in affairs of state, is shown by the following letter from Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini at Rome: ‘Messer Francesco Massimi is going back, having gained the approval of the whole city as well as my own. He has in truth conducted himself so well that I have thought good to recommend him to his Holiness and to the Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. I do the same to you, and beg you to bear witness that his conduct could not have been more praiseworthy. In consideration of his good offices I shall be glad if you will introduce him wherever it may be agreeable to him.’ Florence, March 13, 1489 (_Med. Arch._ Filza 59).

[96] The _Annales suorum temporum_ were printed by Gio. Lami in the _Catalogus codd. MSS. bibl. Riccard._, Livorno, 1756; and again by Galletti, in _Phil. Villani liber_, &c., p. 151 _seq._ According to a letter of Fonti to Lorenzo, he once intended writing a history of the Medici. He praised the chief scholars of his time in a pretty epigram, _ibid._ p. 153.

[97] Gaye, l. c. i. 273.

[98] _Med. Arch._, Filza 59.

[99] Venice, June 20, 1491, in _Prose volgari_, p. 78.

[100] The letters are in Poliziano’s _Epistolæ_, book xi.

[101] A. M. Bandini, _Ragionamento istorico sulle collazione delle Pandette, ec._, Livorno 1762, The copy of the Pandects marked with Poliziano’s collations is preserved in the Laurentianæ. Bandini also speaks of it in the fourth volume of the _Catalogue of Latin MSS._ See Th. Mommsen’s introduction to his critical edition of the _Digestum_.

[102] F. Fantozzi, _Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini_, Florence, 1839. G. Ottino, _Di Bernardo Cennini e dell’arte della stampa in Firenze_, Florence, 1871. When the first Florentine printer had been almost forgotten for 400 years, the present generation, on occasion of the fourth centenary of his work, has raised a monument to him in San Lorenzo—where he lies buried—placed a memorial tablet on the site of his workshop, and given his name to a street.

[103] ‘Ad lectorem. Florentiæ, VII. Idus Novembres, MCCCCLXXI. Bernardus Cennnius (_sic_) aurifer omnium iudicio præstantissimus: et Dominicus eius F. egregiæ indolis adolescens: expressis ante calibe caracteribus et deinde fusis literis volumen hoc primum impresserunt. Petrus Cenninus Bernardi eiusdem F. quanta potuit cura et diligentia emendavit ut cernis. Florentinis ingeniis nil ardui est.’

[104] P. Vinc. Fineschi, _Notizie istoriche sopra la stamperia di [S. Jacopo di] Ripoli_, Flor. 1761. D. Moreni in the _Novelle letterarie Fiorentine_ of 1791, and F. Fossi in the _Catalogo delle antiche edizioni della B. Magliabechiana_, vol. iii., have collected other information concerning the works of this printing establishment amounting to eighty-six in number, among which, curiously enough, a _Decameron_ is included.

[105] Enea Piccolomini, _Delle condizioni e delle vicende della libreria Medicea privata_, in the _Arch. Star. Ital._, series iii. vols. xix. and xx. N. Anziani, _Della Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana_, Flor. 1872.

[106] Targioni-Tozzetti, _Notizie sulla storia delle scienze fisiche in Toscana_ (ed. by Fr. Palermo), Flor. 1853, pp. 60, 61.

[107] _Med. Arch._

[108] Fabroni, l. c. i. 153; ii. 286.

[109] _Ibid._ i. 163.

[110] Cappelli, l. c. The MS. was by Battista Guarino. The translation was first printed at Venice in 1532, the original at Paris in 1548.

[111] _Prose volgari_, p. 78.

[112] This poetess, of a Milanese family, was born at Venice about 1465, and is supposed to have died in 1558. Politian (_Epist._ l. iii. 17) addresses her: ‘O decus Italiæ virgo.’

[113] Florence, May 8, 1490, in Fabroni, l. c. ii. 287.

[114] Vasari’s _Life of Fra Giocondo_ (ix. 155 _seq._) is very imperfect and leaves room for further study. On Giocondo’s works in his own city see G. Orti Manara, _Dei lavori architettonici di Fra Giocondo in Verona_, Ver., 1853. On his collection of inscriptions see G. B. de Rossi, _I Fasti municipali di Venosa restituite alla sincera lezione_, Rome 1853. (From vol. cxxxiii. of the _Giornale Arcadico_.) According to the _Novelle letterarie di Firenze_ for the year 1771, p. 725, the Medicean copy was sent to Pope Clement XIV., but has never been seen either in the Vatican archives or the library. On the other copies, and the second collection, differing from the first in some respects, less numerous, and dedicated to Ludovico de Agnellis, Archbishop of Cosenza, cf. De Rossi, p. 7 _seq._ The dedication—‘Laurentio Medici Fr. Io. Jucundus S. P. D.’—is in Fabroni, ii. 279 _seq._ It ends: ‘Vale feliciter humani generis amor et deliciæ.’

[115] _Med. Arch._

[116] Epist. ad J. Bracciolini, l. i. Prolegom. ad Platonis convivium.

[117] The work of the Sicilian Jesuit, P. Leonardo Ximenes, _Del vecchio e nuovo Gnomone fiorentino_, Flor. 1757, contains the history and explanation of the scientific value of the famous meridian, and of the more ancient mathematical and astronomical works in Tuscany.

[118] This controversy has never rested from the time of Angelo Maria Bandini, who published in 1755 the _Vita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci gentiluomo fiorentino_, down to our own days, which have witnessed a new defence of the Florentine’s claims by the Brazilian, F. A. de Varnhagen. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to the facts published by Oscar Peschel in the _Zeitalter der Entdeckungen_, p. 305 _seq._, and in an essay on Amerigo in the periodical _Das Ausland_ (No. 32, 1858). Vespucci’s well-known work on his second journey (Bandini, p. 64) is addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the son of Pier Francesco.

[119] Cianfogni, _Memorie istoriche della basilica di S. Lorenzo_ (Flor. 1804), p. 228. On Brunelleschi, cf. i. 71 _seq._

[120] D. Moreni, _Continuazione delle Memorie della basilica di San Lorenzo_ (Flor. 1816), i. 6 _seq._

[121] The dedication (to Piero de’ Medici) of a treatise on Architecture by Antonio Averlino, called Filarete (see below, p. 135), shows that the Church had not been rebuilt in 1460: ‘Resta ancora la chiesa a rinovare.’ The resemblance of its architecture to that of the chapel of the Madonna de’ Voti, afterwards dell’Incoronata, in the cathedral of Mantua, always regarded as a work of Leon Bat. Alberti, awakens a suspicion that he may have been concerned in the building at Fiesole. Cf. Gaye, l. c. i. 200 _seq._; 263. Vasari, _Life of Filarete_, iii. 290.

[122] D. Moreni, _Notizie istoriche dei Contorni di Firenze_, iii. 93 _seq._ Cf. i. 576 _seq._

[123] The Silvestrine was a branch of the Vallombrosan order, named after its founder Silvestro Gozzolini.

[124] Cf. i. 574-576.

[125] Vasari, _Life of Michelozzo_, iii. 277-279. V. Marchese, _Memorie dei Pittori ec. Domenicani_, i. 278 _seq._ _Id._, _San Marco convento dei Frati Predicatori_ (Flor. 1853), p. 75 _seq._ The inscription in the church, dated 1442, which speaks of ‘magnificis sumptibus v. cl. Cosmi Medicis,’ &c., is in Vasari, p. 279.

[126] A. Zobi, _Memorie storico-artistiche relative alla Cappella della SS. Annunziata_ (Flor. 1837), p. 14 _seq._ Fr. Bocchi, _Della immagine miracolosa della SS. Nunziata_ (Flor. 1592, new ed. 1852). Inscription: ‘Petrus Med. Cosmi Joann. filius sacellum marmoreum voto suscepto animo libens d. d. Anno 1448. Idib. Martii.’ Another inscription on the cornice: ‘Piero di Cosimo de Medici fece fare questa hopera et Pagno di Lapo di Fiesole fu el maestro chella fè MCCCCLII.’ From this it certainly looks questionable whether Michelozzo furnished the designs, as Pagno also executed larger works. Inscription relating to the consecration: ‘Mariæ glorioss. virg. Guilelmus Cardinalis Rotomagensis cum superni in terris nuntii munere fungeretur legati ratus officium et innumeris miraculis locique religione motus hanc Annunciatæ aram summa cum celebritate ac solenni pompa sacravit MCCCCLII., VIII. Kalen. Januar.’

[127] Berti, _Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte_ (Flor. 1850), p. 54 _seq._ On June 10, 1448, Piero de’ Medici was allowed to place his arms on the tabernacle on condition that those of the Guild should have the highest place.

[128] C. Guasti, l. c. Doc. 290, p. 201. Brunelleschi was buried in the cathedral. The epitaph is by Carlo Marsuppini: ‘D. S. Quantum Philippus architectus arte Dædalea valuerit cum huius celeberrimi templi mira testudo tum plures aliæ divino ingenio ab eo adiuventæ machinæ documento esse possunt quapropter ob eximias sui animi dotes singularesque virtutes XV. Kal. Maias anno MCCCCXLVI. eius b. m. corpus in hac humo supposita grata patria sepeliri iussit.’

[129] Round the altar is the following inscription: ‘Ædem hanc sanctissime Andrea tibi Pactii dedicarunt ut cum te immortalis Deus hominum constituerit piscatorem locus sit in quem suos Franciscus ad tua possit retia convocare.’ By Franciscus is doubtless meant the saint to whose order the convent belonged, and not, as Richa and Moisè suppose, Francesco de’ Pazzi, Andrea’s grandson. A letter of indulgence from Card. Pietro Riario, October 8, 1473, speaks of Jacopo de’ Pazzi as the founder.

[130] The history of the building of the Pitti palace has never been thoroughly cleared up.

[131] Inscription:

JOHANNES RUCELLARIUS PAULI FILIUS INDE
SALUTEM SUAM PRECARETUR UNDE OMNIUM
CUM CHRISTO FACTA EST RESURRECTIO SACELLUM
HOC AD INSTAR HYEROSOLIMITANI SEPULCRI
FACIUNDUM CURAVIT MCCCCLXVII.

[132] Documents on the building (1471), in Gaye, l. c. p. 225 _seq._ Vasari, iv. 59.

[133] The price was 150 gold florins; Gaye, l. c. p. 572. The statue was removed when Duke Cosimo erected the fountain adorned with Verrocchio’s Boy, and is now in the national museum in the Palace of the Podestà.

[134] ‘Exemplum sal. pub. cives posuere MCCCCXCV.’ This inscription can have nothing to do with the driving out of the Duke of Athens, as Moisè (_Palazzo de’ Priori_, p. 166) imagines. The group occupied the place which was assigned in 1504 to Michel Angelo’s ‘David,’ and has stood since then on the side of the Loggia de’ Lanzi towards the Uffizi. Vasari (l. c. p. 251) wrongly thinks it was executed for the Signoria.

[135] L. c. p. 250.

[136] Mantua, November 7, 1458. Cf. Braghirolli, in the _Giornale di erudizione artistica_ (of Perugia), ii. 4 _seq._

[137] Vasari, l. c. pp. 264, 266. Fabroni, l. c. p. 159. According to Vasari, Donatello died on December 13, 1466; according to the contemporary M. Palmieri (_De Temporibus_), in 1468. In the crypt of S. Lorenzo, near the tombs of the Medici, is the following later inscription: ‘Donatellus restituta antiqua sculpendi cælandiq. arte celeberrimus Mediceis principibus summis bonarum artium patronis apprime carus qui ut vivum suspexere mortuo etiam sepulcrum loco sibi proximiore constituerunt obiit idibus Decembris an. sal. MCCCCLXIV. æt. suæ LXXXIII.’

[138] On Francesco Livi, cf. Gaye, l. c. ii. 441 _seq._ On Ser Guasparre, see Rumohr, _Ital. Forschungen_, ii. 377 _seq._; G. Milanesi, _Documenti dell’arte Sanese_, ii. 194 _seq._ On the Jesuates, cf. i. 596, 597, and L. Fanfani, _Memorie di Sta. Maria del Pontenuovo_ (Pisa 1871), p. 124 _seq._

[139] These basso-rilievos, removed from the cathedral when the organs were modernised, are now in the museum of the Palazzo del Podestà.

[140] _Metropolitana Fiorentina_, tables xxxiii.-xxxvi.

[141] Transferred from San Pancrazio to the church of San Francesco di Paola before the Porta Romana; _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate lvii.

[142] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plates lvi., xli., xxi.

[143] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate xxxvi. Inscription:

SISTE VIDES MAGNUM QUÆ SERVANT MARMORA VATEM
INGENIO CUIUS NON SATIS ORBIS ERAT
QUÆ NATURA POLUS QUÆ MOS FERAT OMNIA NOVIT
KAROLUS ÆTATIS GLORIA MAGNA SUÆ
AUSONLÆ ET GRAJÆ CRINES NUNC SOLVITE MUSÆ
OCCIDIT HEU VESTRI FAMA DECUSQUE CHORI.

[144] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plates l., xxxi. Inscription:

POSTQUAM LEONARDUS E VITA MIGRAVIT HISTORIA LUGET ELOQUENTIA MUTA EST FERTURQUE MUSAS TUM GRAIAS TUM LATINAS LACRIMAS TENERE NON POTUISSE.

[145] Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 157. Vasari mentions the modelling in Verrocchio, v. 152. Brunelleschi’s cast is in the building-office of Sta. Maria del Fiore (_Opera del Duomo_).

[146] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate lvi. Vasari, vol. iv. p. 218. Berti, p. 70.

[147] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate lv.

[148] C. Pini, _La Scrittura di artisti Italiani_, cf. _supra_, p. 163.

[149] Executed in 1436; a pendant to the equestrian figure of Niccolò Maruzzi of Tolentino (d. 1434) by Andrea dal Castagno. The improper introduction of these equestrian figures into churches paved the way for similar monuments in marble, such as may be seen especially in Venice. In the cathedral of Florence was a complete figure of Piero Farnese on a mule, as he rode to a fight with the Pisans in 1363.

[150] In this place, where we are concerned chiefly with the position of the Medici in connection with the development of art, we cannot refer in detail to the literature, which has been much enriched of late years by Gastano Milanesi’s researches among the archives, on the Tuscan painters of the early quattrocento (_Giornale storico degli Archivi Toscani_, vols. iv. and vi., and reprinted in _Sulla storia dell’arte Toscana_, Siena 1873), made use of by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in their _History of Painting in Italy_.

[151] C. Pini, _Scrittura di Artisti_.

[152] This is not the place to refer in detail to the confused notices in the Italian art-historians. Vasari mentions these works, among others, in his Introduction, l. c. i. 63.

[153] Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, p. 251.

[154] Fabroni, l. c. ii. 231. It is doubtful whether the sums given at the end of the inventory are to be added up together, or whether the last represents the sum total.

[155] Letter to Giovanni de’ Medici, Bruges, June 22, 1488; in Gaye, l. c. p. 158.

[156] Gaye, l. c. p. 163.

[157] Gaye, l. c. p. 160.

[158] Gaye, l. c. p. 136.

[159] _Ibid._ p. 192.

[160] Gaye, l. c. pp. 141, 175, 180. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 64, 65.

[161] Complete edition by Gaetano and Carlo Milanese, _Il Libro dell’arte o Trattato della Pittura_ (Flor. 1859). There is a German translation, _Das Buch von der Kunst_, &c., by Albert Ilg (Vienna, 1871). The general supposition, from Baldinucci down to Tambroni, the first editor of the treatise (Rome, 1821), viz., that Cennini wrote it in 1437 in the Stinche prison, is derived from a gloss to the Laurentian MS. which proceeds from the copyist instead of referring to the author. The same postil gave rise to the statement that a fresco in Giotto’s style, representing the driving out of the Duke of Athens, and brought to light at the demolition of the prison, was painted by Cennini. (Fr. Bacchi, _Illustratore Fiorentino_, pt. v., Flor. 1839).

[162] The second commentary, with the notices of modern art, is printed in Cicognara’s _Storia della Scultura_, vol. iv., and more readably, together with some extracts from the third, in Lemonnier’s edition of _Vasari_, vol. i. pp. v.-xxxv.

[163] On Filarete’s treatise and the two dedications, cf. Vasari, iii. 290, 291, and Gaye, i. 200-206, where will be found the dedication to Fr. Sforza. (Cf. _supra_, p. 122.) Filarete gives us a foretaste of the art-phraseology of Federigo Zuccaro. For the rest, he says to Sforza: ‘If my book is not elegant, take it as the work, not of an orator nor of a Vitruvius, but of thy master-builder who cast the doors of St. Peter’s.’

[164] N. Valori, l. c. p. 176.

[165] Vasari, viii. 267. On the design of Andrea, see Waagen, _Kunstwerk und Künstler in England_, i. 244. Cf. _posf_, p. 197 _seq._

[166] Pini, _Scrittura d’Artisti_. Cf. A. v. Zahn, _Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft_, iv. 367.

[167] Vasari, _Life of Giuliano_, iv. 1 _seq._ Gaye, l. c. in annis 1478, 1480, 1481.

[168] A. Rossi, in the _Giornale di erudiz. artist._, 1872, p. 97. Inscription: ‘Opus Juliani Maiani et Dominici Taxi, Florentini, MCCCCLXXXXI.’

[169] C. Milanesi, in the _Giorn. stor. degli Arch. Tosc._, iii. 233, 234. Letters dated Rome, February 1-20, 1478. In consequence of the Cardinal’s death in the summer of 1479, the building remained unfinished.

[170] Urbino, June 18, 1481. Gaye, l. c. p. 274.

[171] S. Volpicelli, _Descrizione storica di alcuni principali edificii della città di Napoli_ (Naples 1850), p. 1 _seq._

[172] Gaye, l. c. p. 300 (undated).

[173] _Vita di Fil. Strozzi il vecchio_, p. 22 _seq._ (Cf. i. 395.) Cf. also, Gaye, l. c. p. 354 _seq._, where are also notices by Luca Landucci, an apothecary, on the beginning and progress of the work, and Filippo’s will. Vasari treats at length of the palace and of the smith Caparri in his _Life of Cronaca_, viii. 116 _seq._

[174] Gaye, l. c. _ibid._ A letter from Lorenzo, December 16, 1490, to Francesco Gonzaga, in which he asks for leave of absence for Luca Fancelli. Whether the latter went to Naples is uncertain; Francesco di Giorgio was there for some time between February and May 1491.

[175] Among Sangallo’s drawings in the Barberiniana at Rome. Gaye, l. c. p. 301. Vasari, vii. 212, 213.

[176] A. v. Zahn, _Notizie artistiche tratte dall’Archivio segreto Vaticano, Arch. stor. Ital._, ser. iii. vi. 171.

[177] A. Guglielmotti, _Della rocca d’Ostia e delle condizioni dell’architettura militare in Italia prima della calata di Carlo VIII._ (Rome 1862). C. Ravioli, _Notizie sopra i lavori di architettura militare dei nove da Sangallo_ (Rome 1863).

[178] The circumstance that the name Sangallo is to be found as early as 1485 (notes to Vasari, l. c. p. 214) hardly tells against the truth of this story, as the building was probably begun long before. The appearance of the name in the collection of the Barberini drawings, begun in 1465, dates from a later time.

[179] The Gondi Palace was finished in 1874, if not after the original design, at least in the style of the part previously existing.

[180] From a drawing of Bernardino Poccetti and other documents in the _Metropolitana Fior. Illustr._, plate xiv.

[181] In the commentary on Vasari, vii. 243. Francesco Albertini mentions in his _Memoriale_ (see Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ii. 436) Lorenzo’s intention of finishing the façade (‘la quale Lorenzo de’ Medici voleva levare e riducerla a perfectione’) and his plan.

[182] The façade now displays the naked rough brick wall.

[183] Richa, ix. 11, _et seq._ Gaye, l. c., p. 570. Cf. i. 319.

[184] Gaye, l. c. ii. 450. Pini, _Scrittura d’Artisti_.

[185] Description by Poliziano in a letter to Francesco della Casa, _Epist._ l. iv. ep. 8. D. M. Manni, _De Florentinis inventis_ (Ferrara, 1730), c. 29. Cancellieri, _Le nuove Campane di Campidoglio_ (Rome, 1806), p. 8. Albertini mentions the clock in the Palace of the Signoria in 1510; it was probably taken there in 1495.

[186] Gaye, l. c. p. 254.

[187] There is great confusion in Vasari, viii. 115, _et seq._ The commentary begins its continuous dates only in 1495, chiefly from Gaye.

[188] Moreni, _Contorni di Firenze_, v. 6, _et seq._ The chronology here is very confused; it is no better in Moisè’s _Sta. Croce_, p. 90. The bells of San Marco were hung in the belfry in 1498.

[189] Diary of Luca Landini, in Vasari, l. c. p. 121.

[190] Fr. Albertini, l. c., p. 442.

[191] Cf. A. v. Zahn’s _Jahrbücher_, vi. p. 136.

[192] Florence, February 13, 1498, in Gaye, l. c., p. 340.

[193] The monument of Sixtus IV. was finished in 1493 for Card. Giuliano della Rovere (Julius II.). That of Innocent VIII. must not be judged from its present mutilated condition.

[194] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate iv. Inscription (by Poliziano):

ILLE EGO SUM PER QUEM PICTURA EXTINCTA REVIXIT CUI QUAM RECTA MANUS TAM FUIT ET FACILIS NATURÆ DEERAT NOSTRÆ QUOD DEFUIT ARTI PLUS LICUIT NULLI PINGERE NEC MELIUS MIRARIS TURREM EGREGIAM SACRO ÆRE SONANTEM HÆC QUOQUE DE MODULO CREVIT AD ASTRA MEO DENIQUE SUM IOCTUS QUID OPUS FUIT ILLA REFERRE HOC NOMEN LONGI CARMINIS INSTAR ERAT OB. AN. MCCCXXXVI. CIVES POS. B. M. MCCCCLXXXX.

[195] Del Migliore, l. c., p. 36. Richa, vi. 121. _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate vi. Inscription (attributed to Lorenzo):

MULTUM PROFECTO DEBET MUSICA ANTONIO SQUARCIALUPO ORGANISTE IS ENIM ITA ARTI GRATIAM CONIUNXIT UT QUARTAM SIBI VID ERENTUR CHARITES MUSICAM ASCIVISSE SO ROREM FLORENTINA CIVITAS ORATI ANIMI OFFICIUM RATA EIUS MEMORIAM PROPAGARE CUIUS MANUS SEPE MORTALES IN DULCEM AD MIRATIONEM ADDUXERAT CIVI SUO MONU MENTUM POSUIT.

[196] Engraved in seven plates by G. P. Lasinio (Flor. 1823). Mellini’s bust is in the Uffizi collection.

[197] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate liii.

[198] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate xxiv. Inscription: ‘Bernardo Junio eq^{ti} Flor^{no} pu^{aes} concordiæ. semper. auctori. et. civi. vere. populari. pii. fratres. fratri. de. se. deq. rep^{ea} opt^{o} merito. posuerunt.—Vixit ann. LXVIIII. men. VI. di. XII. Obiit ann. MCCCCLXVI. Opus Mini.—Cf. i. 145.

[199] _Paradiso_, xvi. 127. _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate xxiv.

[200] _Monuments sépulcraux_, plate xlv. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 230.

[201] Represented in Cicognara, vol. ii. plate xv.

[202] Plates and details in Cicognara, Litta, and Colas’ _Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique_. See Vasari’s _Life of Pisanello_, ii. 152, _et seq._ On Guazzalotti, see Julius Friedländer (Berlin, 1857), trans. by Cesare Guasti (Prato, 1862), with notes and documents, among which is a letter from Guazzalotti to Lorenzo, dated September 11, 1478.

[203] V. da Bisticci, l. c., p. 476.

[204] Vasari, l. c., iii. 112. On the Medicean treasures. Cf. _ante_, p. 132.

[205] Vasari, _Life of Valerio Vicentino_, ix. 236, _et seq._ G. Pelli, in his _Saggio istorico della R. Galeria di Firenze_ (Flor. 1779), i. 8, _et seq._, ii. 9, _et seq._, gives some account of the Medici collections. In the Museum of Naples alone (formerly in the palace of Capodimonte) are preserved more than twenty cameos with Lorenzo’s name, and a great number of gems set as rings. They came from a Bourbon-Parma inheritance, many of the family treasures having passed, through Margaret of Austria, wife of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici, to her son by her second marriage, Alessandro Farnese, and, at the extinction of the Farnese family, to the Spanish Bourbons. The question whether all the stones marked with Lorenzo’s name or with the initials L. M. are modern, or whether the name or initials were also engraved on antique gems to indicate the owner, cannot be discussed here. The epigram:

COELATUM ARGENTO VEL FULVO QUIDQUID IN AURO EST ÆDIBUS HOC LAURENS VIDIMUS ESSE TUIS, &C.

is in Bandini’s Catalogue of the Laurentian MSS., iii. 545.

[206] Perfetti, _Galeria dell’Accad. delle b. Arti_ (Flor. 1845). The collection in the Academy contains many important works of this period.

[207] Now in the English National Gallery. Outline in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 132.

[208] Cf. _ante_, p. 40. Engraving in the _Metropolitana fior. illustr._, plate xxxvii. Remarks in Gaye, l. c., ii. 5. Cf. _ibid._, i. 563.

[209] Vasari, iv. 102, 103.

[210] Vasari, v. 115.

[211] _Galeria dell Acc. delle B. A._, engraved by F. Livy.

[212] Lucrezia Tornabuoni Medici, in the Berlin Museum (No. 81), wrongly described as the wife of Lorenzo, a mistake repeated in Crowe and Cavalcaselle (l. c., p. 173) from Vasari, but corrected in Lemonnier’s edition, l. c, p. 121. The Bella Simonetta is in the Pitti Palace; there is an engraving by L. Calamatta in his work on the Bardi gallery.

[213] Cf. i. 405. G. Milanesi, _Sulla Storia dell’Arte Toscana_, p. 292. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (iii. 159) strangely see in this commission a proof of the estimation in which Botticelli was held as an artist. These pictures of shame, with which tardy debtors were also punished, _e.g._ Ranuccio Farnese in 1425 (Gaye, l. c., i. 550) were not much relished by artists, and seem to have been only executed at a high price; in this case it was forty florins. Andrea del Castagno, to whom Vasari erroneously attributed these paintings, which were executed more than forty years after his death, received from a similar commission in 1445 the surname ‘degli Impiccati,’ which poor Andrea del Sarto seems to have likewise dreaded during the siege in 1530.

[214] Contract dated April 21, 1487 (remarkable for the reservations on the part of the employer), in Lorenzo Strozzi’s _Vita di Filippo Strozzi il Vecchio_, p. 60, _et seq._

[215] Now in the Uffizi. Gaye, in the _Kunstblatt_, 1836, No. 90, and Carteggio, i. 579-581.

[216] Engraved in Litta, _Fam. Medici_.

[217] The fresco in Sant’Ambrogio is dated, not 1465, as it was read by Rumohr (_Ital. Forsch._, ii. 262), on the picture, which is much blackened and varnished, but 1486, according to G. Milanesi, in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, l. c., p. 291.

[218] An. MCCCCLXXXX., quo pulcherrima civitas opibus victoriis artibus ædificiisque nobilis copia salubritate pace perfruebatur.

[219] Father Della Valle gave the various names in a note to Vasari (also in Lemonnier’s edition, v. 76) from documents in the Tornabuoni family. On the female portraits, cf. Palmerini, _Opere d’intaglio del cav. Raff. Morghen_ (Pisa, 1824), p. 108 _et seq._

[220] The ‘Education of Pan’, formerly in the Corsi Palace, is now in the Berlin Museum. Sketch in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iv. 5.

[221] Miniature painting can only be treated of very briefly here. The editors of Lemonnier’s _Vasari_ have added much information to the biographies of Fra Angelico (iv. 25, _et seq._), Don Bartolommeo (v. 44, _et seq._ [on Attavante, _see_ p. 55]), Gherardo (_ibid._ p. 60, _et seq._), &c., and furnished materials valuable for a history of Florentine and Sienese art, in a detailed commentary (vi. 159-351). On the Dominicans, cf. V. Marchese, _Memorie_, i. 171-210. In the same author’s work on San Marco are drawings of two miniatures by Fra Benedetto. The passages referring to the treasures of Urbino, Upper Italy, &c., may be passed over here.

[222] Vasari, iv. 105; v. 60, 83; vi. 167; xi. 286.

[223] xii. 11. Cf. _Life of Torrigiano_, vii. 204, and of Michel Angelo, xii. 157.

[224] The old tradition which has come down to our own days, which derives the Buonarotti Simoni from the Counts of Canossa (and which was believed in the family itself in Michelangelo’s days, as must be concluded from Ascanio Condivi’s words in his biography, published during the artist’s lifetime), rests on no historical foundation. Cf. G. Campori, _Catalogo degli artisti sc. negli Stati Estensi_ (Modena 1855), p. 100 _et seq._ The noble family of Buonarotti has of late years become extinct in Florence. Lodovico, Michelangelo’s father, was already connected with the Medici when holding an official post in the Casentino, where his son was born within view of the great mountain of Alvernia—the _crudo sasso_ of the _Divine Comedy_.

[225] G. Milanesi, _Documenti inediti riguardanti Leonardo da Vinci_, in the _Arch. stor. Ital._, ser. iii. xvi. 219.

[226] Ant. Montecatino to Ercole d’Este (Flor., December 17, 1482), in Cappelli, l. c. p. 265.

[227] Provisioni della Republica fiorentina dei 10 e 19 Aprile 1480, per la formazione dell’ordine dei Settanta, in the Appendix to Jacopo Pitti, l. c. p. 313 _et seq._, with Gino Capponi’s introduction. Cf. Cambia, l. c. ii. 1 _et seq._, for the names of the Signori, the colleges, the original thirty and the two hundred and ten citizens entrusted with the election business. A. Rinuccini, _Ricordi_, p. cxxi. _et seq._; J. Pitti, p. 25; Fr. Guicciardini, p. 61.

[228] Cf. _ante_, vol. i. bk. ii. ch. 4.

[229] L. c. p. 174.

[230] _Ricordi_, l. c. p. cxxxv.

[231] Canestrini, l. c. p. 237 _et seq._

[232] Bartolommeo Signippi, chancellor of the Ferrarese embassy, to Ant. Montecatino, Flor. June 3 and 6; Montecatino to Ercole d’Este, June 9, 1481, in Cappelli, l. c. pp. 253-255.

[233] Ercole d’Este to Ant. Montecatino, Ferrara, January 10, 1482, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 259.

[234] For a detailed account of the ceremony, see Ant. Montecatino to Ercole d’Este, Flor., October 2, 3, 8, 1481, in Cappelli, l. c. pp. 255-258.

[235] Marin Sanuto, _Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara nel 1482_. (Venice 1829, ed. by Leonardo Manin). Sanuto was an eye-witness of the events of the war. Many details are given by Malipiero, who took part in the naval war. Romanin, book xi. ch. 4 (iv. 401 _et seq._).

[236] Fac. Volaterr., l. c. col. 173.

[237] Godefroy, _Histoire de Charles VIII._ (Paris 1684). Documents, p. 312. C. de Cherrier, _Histoire de Charles VIII._ (Par. 1868), i. 32. U. Legeay, _Histoire de Louis XI._ (Paris 1874), ii. 444. [Very meagre with regard to Louis’ Italian transactions].

[238] For details of the battle of Campomorto (S. Pietro in Formis), see the Roman diaries and Montecatino’s reports to Ercole d’Este in Cappelli, l. c. p. 260 _et seq._

[239] Gino Capponi, _Storia della Republica Fiorentina_ (Flor. 1874), ii. 149.