[1]Vasari, in Michelozzo’s Life (Vite, Lemonnier’s edition, Flor. 1846, ff., iii. p. 271); and in Brunelleschi’s Life, a. a. O., p. 228. Michelozzo was born about the year 1391. It is generally understood that the building of the Palace took place before Cosimo’s exile, and they quote from Migliore (Firenze Illustrata, Flor. 1684, p. 198 ff.), which specifies ‘circa all’Anno 1430.’ There is no foundation for this statement. Moreover, Michelozzo was not in Florence in the year supposed (Fantozzi,Guida di Firenze, Flor. 1842, p. 457).[2]Vasari in the Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, a. a. O., ii. p. 225. The house came afterwards to the Ughi family. At present it is all built round, even the adjoining Lorenzi Palace, which up to our day preserved its ancient, solemn aspect.[3]Ordinamenta justitiæ communis et populi Florentiæ anni1293, a Francisco Bonainio edita, in Archivio Storico Italiano, serie ii. i. p. 1-93 [1855]. C. Hegel,Die Ordnungen der Gerechtigkeit in der Florentinischen Republik, Erlangen 1867. Compare P. Capei, Arch. Stor. Ital. ser. iii. vii. p. 132.[4]Fr. Bonaini,Della Parte Guelfa in Firenze, in Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani (Flor. 1857), ii. p. 171, 257; iii. p. 77, 167; iv. p. 3. Unfortunately this laborious work remains incomplete. The oldest constitution of the Capitani and the Guelf party was in 1335, and is printed in Bonaini, i. p. 1-41. The office was in existence up to the year 1769.[5]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 92, 93.[6]G. Canestrini,La Scienza e l’Arte di Stato desunta dagli Atti Officiali della Repubblica Florentina e dei Medici. Parte 1, L’imposta sulla ricchezza mobile e immobile. Florenz. 1862. No more has appeared of this work, which was to be the economical and administrative history of the Republic and of the first Medici period. The first part treats of theEstimo, of theCadastre, and of theDecimaof 1494. Cf. L. Banchi in the Archivio Stor. Ital., serie iii. i. p. 90 (G. F. Pagnini).Della Decima e delle altre gravezze imposte dal Commune di Firenze(Lucca, 1763) has in its first volume, p. 10, a short account of Florentine taxation, up to the introduction of thedecima(p. 214-231.—Provision of May 22, 1427, for the formation of thecadastre).[7]The Peruzzi in 1325 were an instance of this.Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri di Firenze.Flor. 1868, p. 197.[8]Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, at the end of book xiii. (Edit. Arbib. Flor. 1844, iii. p. 36.)[9]‘Ipse quidem nescit si fructus sequetur, vel non; sed, auditis aliis civibus, idem secutus est.’ ‘Consulta’ of May 12, 1427, by P. Berti, Nuovi documenti intorno al Catasto florentino, in theGiorn. Stor. degli archivi Toscani, iv. 32. Giovanni Cavalcanti (Storia Fiorentina, Flor. 1838, i. 196.)—a contemporary, who has left us the most lifelike description of that period, but who must be used with great caution on account of his decided and enthusiastic party views—has been followed by all later writers in his opinion of the Medici. At the head of these is Machiavelli, who took him as the principal source of information for those times.[10]Gio. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 262.[11]Domenico Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della Basilica di S. Lorenzo. Flor. 1816, i. p. 27.[12]Monuments Sépulcraux de Toscane, Flor. 1821. Table xiii. The inscription is as follows:‘Cosmus et Laurentius de Medicis v. d. Joanni Averardi f. et Picardæ Adovardi f. carissimis parentibus hoc Sepulchrū faciendum curarunt. Obiit autem Johannes x. Kl. Martias MCCCCXXVIII. Picarda vero xiii. Kl. Maias quinquennio post e vita migravit.Si merita in patriam, si gloria, sanguis et omniLarga manus nigra libera morte forent,Viveret heu patriæ casta cum coniuge felixAuxilium miseris portus et aura suis;Omnia sed quando superantur morte, Johannes,Hoc mausoleo tuque Picarda iaces,Ergo senex mœret, invenis, puer, omnis et ætas,Orba parente suo patria mœsta gemit.[13]G. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 269.[14]The xv. and xvi. cantos ofIl Paradisocontain eloquent descriptions of historical importance, to the explanation of which the translation of Philalethes has contributed valuable materials.[15]G. F. Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte, Flor. 1850. The MSS. of Bishop Hildebrand of the year 1013 show that the reconstruction of the church had already begun at that time.[16]V. Marchese,Memorie dei più insigni pittori, scultori, e architetti Domenicani. Flor. 1845. I. p. 44 ff. F. Moisè,Santa Croce di Firenze, Flor. 1845. I. p. 42et seq.[17]L. Passerini,La Loggia di Or San Michele, l. c. p. 113 ff.[18]Regesta florentina internam Reipublicæ historiam spectantia ab a.MCCXXV,ad a.MD., by Gaye, Carteggio inedito d’Artisti, i. 413et seq.[19]M. Rastrelli,Illustrazione istorica del Palazzo della Signoria. Flor. 1792. F. Moisè,Illustrazione storico-artistica del Palazzo de’ Priori. Flor. 1843.[20]Fr. Becchi,Sulle Stinche di Firenze, in Illustratore fiorentino. Flor. 1840.[21]Inferno xix. 17 (‘in my beautiful San Giovanni’). Purgatory xii. 100. Even with the present transformation of the hillside a great flight of steps is to be seen hard by.[22]Concerning the various kinds of themacigni(Dante uses the expression,Infernoxv. 63, speaking of the obdurate nature of the Florentines of his time), thepietra forte,pietra fina,serena,bigia, see Targioni,Viaggi per la Toscana, i. p. 18et seq.[23]The opinion expressed in the book of the Carmelite, P. Fr. M. Soldini—Delle eccellenze e grandezze della nazione fiorentina(Flor. 1780),—respecting the palace Tosinghi on the old market-place, destroyed, according to Gio. Villani, in the party wars of the middle of the 13th century, is, no doubt, a modern conjecture.[24]Gaye, l. c. p. 498 (Anno 1344).[25]Baldinucci, Professori del disegno (D. M. Manni’s Ausg.), vol. i. p. 24, Gaye l. c. p. 483.[26]G. Masselli and G. P. Lasinio,Il Tabernacolo della Madonna d’Orsanmichele: Flor. 1851.[27]L. Passerini,La Loggetta del Bigallo, l. c. p. 89et seq.[28]Benedetto Dei, in Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, book ix. (ii. p. 116), names twenty-one loggias on private houses in the latter half of the 15th century. Lastro,Osservatore Fiorentino(published Flor. 1821), iii. p. 203et seq.[29]Cronaca di Matteo Villani, book vii. chap. 41.[30]L. Passerini,La Loggia della Signorial. c. p. 99. Gaye l. c. p. 527.[31]Passerini l. c.; after him Il. Semper in A. v. Zahn’sFine Arts Annals, iii. p. 35-37. The tradition respecting Orcagna is in Lemonnier’sVasari, ii. p. 130.[32]G. Aiazzi ‘Illustrazione della Capella gentilizia dellaFamiglia Rinuccini,’ in theRicordi di Filippo Rinuccini: Flor. 1840, p. 304-327.[33]Gaye l. c. p. 536.[34]C. Guasti,La Cupola di Sta. Maria del Fiore: Flor. 1857, p. 9, 37, 89.[35]Plan and sketch in theOsservatore Fiorentino, ii. p. 167.[36]Book of Statutes, part vii. book 4.[37]Inscription on the back: ‘Clarissimi viri Cosmas et Laurentius fratres neglectas diu Sanctorum reliquias martyrum religioso studio ac fidelissima pietate suis sumptibus æneis loculis condendas colendasque curarunt.’ Figured in theMonuments Sépulcraux, Tablexx. In the time of the French invasion broken up and destined to be melted down, but rescued and restored, and now in the National Museum in the Palace of the Podestà.[38]Pagnini,Della decima, etc., ii. p. 80. S. L. Peruzzi, p. 61.Osservatore fiorentino, iii. p. 185, vi. p. 157.[39]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 93.[40]P. Berti,Documenti riguardanti il commercio dei Fiorentini in Francia nei secoli xiii. e xiv.in theGiornale storico degli Arch. Tosc.i. pp. 163, 217. The most abundant material is contained in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti’sPratica della Mercatura, 14th century, and Pagnini, iii.[41]Osservatore fiorentino, iv. p. 124. F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Flor. 1839, p. 33. Fantozzi regards the Calimaruzza as the former Via Francesca, where the magazines of foreign cloth were, and the Calimala as the place for the sale of the native fabrics.[42]G. Gargioli,L’Arte della Seta in Firenze trattato del secoloxv., Flor. 1868. The lists from 1225 to 1337 are printed p. 282-290. L. Venturi,Filippo Matteoni(the biography of one of the most intelligent silk-weavers of our time), in verse and prose, Flor. 1871, p. 321. S. Bongi,Della Mercatura dei Lucchesi nei sec.xiii. e xiv.Osservatore fior.iv. p. 103; vi. p. 36. Peruzzi, p. 36, where there are also the portraits of a crimson-dyer and a silk-spinner, after a MS. in the Laurentiana.[43]L’Inferno, xvii. 43. Compare E. Morpurgo,I prestatori di denaro al tempo di Dante, inDante e Padua, Studj storico-critici, Padua, 1865, p. 193.[44]Divine Comedy, ‘Paradise,’ xix. 119.[45]Kervyn de Lettenhove,Les Argentiers Florentins, in theBulletins de l’Académie r. de Belgique, 1861, pp. 295-312. Compare also his treatise,Recherches sur la part que l’ordre de Citeaux et le Comte de Flandre prirent à la lutte de Boniface VIII. et de Philippe le Bel, in theMémoiresof the same Academy, xxviii. On the Franzesi family see Repetti,Dizionario della Toscana, article ‘Figline, Staggia.’[46]Vol. x. chap. 88.[47]Fr. Balducci Pegolotti, in Pagnini, p. 198.[48]Bartolommeo Cerretani, in FabroniM. Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 63. Concerning this still unprinted chronicler, see Moreni,Bibliografia della Toscana, i. 249.[49]Del Migliore, p. 6. See Gaye, p. 424.[50]Extracts in Gaye, in the registers.[51]Paradisoxv. 97.Purgat.xvi. 117.[52]L. Mehus:Ambrosii Traversarii Epistolæ et Orationes. Flor. 1759, ccclxxiv.[53]On the Bardi see Ademollo,Marietta de Ricci, 2nd edit. by L. Passerini, Flor, 1815, iii. 1135.[54]‘Io confesso—che il concilio non è per me. Ma che debbo fare, se haggio uno fato che mi ci tira?’—Luca della Robbia,Vita di Bartolommeo Valori, in theArch. Stor. Ital.iv. part i. 262.[55]Documenti relativi alla liberazione dalla prigionia di Giovanni XXIII., in theArch. Stor. Ital.429. Writings of Averardo di Medici to Michele Cossa, Flor. Dec. 31, 1419. Fabroni as above, ii. 11.[56]Ciacconio:Historia Pontificum, etc., Rome, 1677, ii. 795, and theMonuments sépulcraux, plate xi., give an illustration. From Michelozzo’s Survey-Declaration in Gaye, as above, 117, we see that the monument was still unfinished in 1427, and the price agreed upon had been 800 florins.[57]L. Passerini:Gli Alberti di Firenze, Flor. 1870, i. 118; ii. 227.[58]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il comune di Firenze dal 1399 al 1433. Edited by Cesare Guasti. 3 vols. Flor. 1867-73.[59]Gio. Cavalcanti, 319:Albizzi Family. See Ademollo, as above, ii. 695.Genealogij, by Gius. Ajazzi, MS. in possession of the author.[60]Niccolò’s conversation with Niccolò Barbadoro, in Cavalcanti as above, p. 380 (copied, with alterations, by Machiavelli in the 4th book of theFlorentine Hist.), gives the best insight into the feelings of the party.[61]Vasari:Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, ii. p. 229. The building of the Sapienza already begun, served later as a cage for lions, and is now employed as an educational institution.[62]Vasari: Life of Masaccio, vol. iii. p. 160.[63]Vitæ CIII. Virorum Illustrium qui sæculo xv. extiterunt, auctore coævo Vespasiano Florentino. (In theSpicilegium Romanum, edited by Cardinal Angelo Mai.) Rome, 1839, reprint.Vite di nomini illustri del secolo xv.scritte da Vespasiano da Bisticci, stampate nuovamente da Adolfo Bartoli. Flor. 1859.Palla di Noferi Strozzi, p. 271. Messer Leonardo is Leonardo Bruni.[64]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 278.[65]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 507.[66]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 320-327.[67]Fabroni as above, i. 27; ii. 31, 58.[68]L. Passerini:Genealogia e storia della famiglia Guadagni, Flor. 1874, p. 52.[69]Cosimo’s own memoranda, Fabroni as above, ii. 96, which give no information as to the grounds and form of the action, must be compared with Cavalcanti’s relation, 507, which supplied Machiavelli with his materials. The protocols of the Signory give no information as to these proceedings.[70]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 558, 610.[71]Storia Fiorentina dai tempi di Cosimo de’ Medici a quelli del gonfaloniere Soderini.Flor. 1859. Vol. i. of theOpere inedite di Fr. Guicciardini, illustrate da G. Canestrini, p. 4.[72]‘Fermare lo Stato’—to give a settled form to a Government, introduced by the sovereign or a political party. ‘Stato’ means in this case the rule with which they exercise it.[73]I Capitoli del Comune di Firenze Inventario e Regesto, i. Flor. 1866.[74]Published by D. M. Manni, Flor. 1720. Constantine Höfler has in his history of King Rupert (Freiburg, 1861) placed the activity of Buonaccorso Pitti in its right light.[75]Printed by D. M. Manni Cronachette Antiche, Florence, 1733. The history of the conquest of Pisa, printed there likewise, is probably by his son Neri.[76]Storia Fiorentina, chap. i.[77]P. Litta:Genealogy of the Acciaiuoli. L. Taufani:Nicola Acciaiuoli, Florence, 1863. Gaye has published in theCarteggio inedita d’Artisti, i. 57-69, the remarkable letters of the seneschal for the years 1355-56, on the building of the Certosa. Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 351 (on Agnolo Acciaiuoli).[78]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 332. Angiolo Segni:Vita di Donato Acciaiuoli, edited by Tommaso Tonelli, Florence, 1841.[79]Franc. Guicciardini:Recordi di Famiglia, in hisOpere inedite, x.[80]Description and narrative which Vespasiano da Bisticci, 525, gives of Alessandra de Bardi Strozzi and her sad fate, give a deep insight into the miseries of this time.[81]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 651, 669.[82]Commissioni, iii. 672, 677.[83]Idem, 680.[84]Vespasiano de Bisticci as above, 417.[85]L. Basserini:Baldaccio da Anghiari, in theArch. Stor. Ital., 3, iii. 131, 166. The author is of the opinion that the connections of Baldaccio to the Pope Gregory IV., still residing in Florence, were the cause of the Medicean party wishing to get rid of him.[86]Gio. Cavalcanti, I. c. ii. 195.[87]Register of 1458, Canestrini, as above, 168. Progressive scale,id.213.[88]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, ii. 210.[89]Etiam nobis esset reputatio et utilitas si Papa hic veniret. Rinaldo degli Albizzi,Commissioni, iii. 589.[90]C. Milanesi, ‘Osservazioni intorno agli esemplari del decreto d’unione della chiesa Greca con la Latina che si conservano nella biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana o nell’Archivio di Stato,’ with Greek and Latin text of the decree of union, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. tosc.i. 196-225. This is not the place to refer to the newest historico-critical literature on this subject.[91]Fabroni as above, ii. 163.[92]Life of Eugenius IV.as above, 16.[93]Life of Agnolo Acciaiuolias above, p. 357.[94]Giannone,Storia civile del Regno di Napoli, book xxvi. chap. 2.[95]Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal 1282 al 1460, colla continuazione di Alamanno e Neri suoi figli fino al 1506 per cura di G. Aiazzi, Flor. 1840, lxxxix.[96]Letter of Pius II., and his answer, in Fabroni, ii. 254.[97]Document of the purchase of the ‘sclava,’ twenty-two years old, for the price of 60 ducats, Fabroni, ii. 214.[98]Fabroni as above, ii. 251.[99]Idem, 253.[100]The list of the masses ordered by Piero de’ Medici after his father’s death, and the grants for mourning habits to the members and servants of his family, among them five chamber-women and four maids (schiave), are given by Fabroni, ii. 254.[101]M. Ficino,Epistol.i. 85.[102]Fabroni, ii. 257.[103]Litta, ‘Family Tornabuoni,’ in theFamiglie celebri Ital., Ademollo as above, iv. 1200. The Tornabuoni became extinct in 1635, and the name and inheritance of the Tornaquinci, extinct in 1790, passed to the branch of the Medici which is still flourishing in Florence.[104]January 1, 1448, after Florentine style (annus ab incarnatione,i.e.from March 25), is the same day 1449.[105]Laurentii Medicis Vita, per Nicolaum Valorium edita ad Leonem X.P.M. First printed by L. Mehus after a Laurentian MS., Flor. 1749; more recently in Philippi VillaniLiber de civitatis Florentiæ famosis civibus et de Florentinorum litteratura principes fere synchroni scriptores. Ed. G. C. Galletti. Flor. 1847, p. 161. An Italian translation had already appeared, Flor. 1568. Niccolò Valori was a pupil of Marsilio Ficino, and a member of the Platonic Academy.[106]On Gentile of Urbino, as he was commonly called, see A. M. Bandini,Specimen literaturæ Florentinæ, sæc. xv., Flor. 1752, i. 182; ii. 111. Desjardins-Canestrini,Négotiations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, Paris 1859, i. 317.Embassy of Becchi and Piero Soderini to King Charles VIII., 1493,idem, 321-365.Address to Pope Innocent VIII. on occasion of the Neapolitan war of the Barons, 1485, p. 205-214. Gentile, bishop of Arezzo 1473, died April 19, 1497.[107]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Magnif. Vita, Pisa, 1784, ii. 9.[108]N. Valori as above, 166.[109]Politian,Conjuratio Pactiana, at the end.[110]Litta,Family Pazzi, Ademollo, as above, iv. 1228.[111]As above, 372.[112]For documents referring to the embassy, see Desjardins, as above, 109, 135.[113]Vespasiano, as above, 375.[114]L. Passerini,Genealogia e storia della famiglia Rucellai, Flor. 1861.[115]L. Passerini,Genealogy of the Soderini, continuation of Litta’sFamiglie celebri.[116]Vasari,Life of Donatello, iii. 250. For illustration see Litta.[117]Cronica di Napoli di Notar Giacomo, pubbl. da P. Garzilli, Naples, 1845, p. 100. Giovan. Pietro Cagnola,Storia di Milano(‘Cronache Milanesi,’ in theArch. stor. ital.iii. Flor. 1842), informs us (p. 170) of Don Federigo’s arrival and the causes of the delay of the wedding, which was connected with Jacopo Piccinino’s affairs (see below, p. 219). Ippolita arrived on September 14 at Naples, after having waited two months in Siena, till her father permitted her to proceed. (Cronica di Notar Giacomo, 112; Cagnola, 171.)[118]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcv.[119]Luigi Pulci’s letter, see Roscoe, App. ix., but more correct in theLettere di Luigi Pulci a Lorenzo il Magnifico e ad altri(edited by Salvatore Bongi), Lucca, 1868, p. 1. There are various notices of the writer here, but unfortunately no notes to the letters, which are often unintelligible, and will probably remain so, in spite of all notes, with regard to various persons mentioned.[120]Fabroni, l. e., ii. 51seq.[121]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcvi.[122]Fabroni as above, ii. 47; letter of March 22,idem, 49.[123]Desjardins as above, 136-141.[124]Guicciardini, in whom the traditions of grandfather and granduncle are united in cap. ii. of theStoria fiorentina, p. 18; Machiavelli, who, in consequence of the death of Girolamo, his ancestor in Cosimo’s time, could not be very favourable to Luca Pitti and his adherents, in book vii. of his history. G. M. Bruto,Florentinæ historiæ, book ii.[125]On this affair, which has never been fully cleared up, see Ricotti,Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura, iii. 191, where the judgment of contemporaries is referred to; and Canestrini,Documenti per servire alla storia della Milizia italiana, Flor. 1851 (Arch. stor. ital.xv.), series lxxviii. 179-184, where the letters of Francesco Sforza and the King are to be found.[126]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, p. 360.[127]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcix.[128]Lettera di Jacopo Acciaiuoli ad Agnolo, Naples, September 6, 1466. See Fabroni as above, ii. 28. The time of Lorenzo’s journey cannot be precisely fixed, but it must have taken place before or towards the middle of August, for the later events leave no time. Jacopo writes: ‘Lorenzo di Piero fu quà. Il S. Rè li fece carezze assai.’[129]Paradiso, xv. 109.[130]Francis Joseph Sloane, who died in 1871. The villa passed by inheritance to the Russian family Boutourlin.[131]The name Camaldoli, which is borne in Florence by two districts of the city inhabited by the poorer classes—that of San Frediano and that behind San Lorenzo—is derived from the Camaldulensian church of San Salvatore, pulled down in 1529, which stood near the city walls on the left bank of the Arno. To the district of San Lorenzo the name was transferred from the other behind Sta. Croce, and at Porta San Niccolò there are other districts so named.[132]The prevailing opinion among the opponents of the Medici of the events of 1466 is expressed decidedly in the notices of Alamanno Rinuccini, who continued those of his father Filippo from the year 1460, as above, coll. xcix.[133]Cronachetta Volterrana di autore anomino del 1362 al 1478, given by M. Tabarrini in theArch. Stor. Ital.App. iii. 317.[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 PittiIstoria 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 theRerum 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. 141seq.[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’sGenealogywill be quoted here.[143]R. ReposatiDella Zecca di Gubbio, Bologna, 1772. James Dennistoun,Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, London, 1851. F. UgolinoStoria dei Conti e Duchi d’Urbino, Flor. 1859.[144]N. RattiDella Famiglia Sforza, i. 144seq.; 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’sAnnali, Venetii.[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 hisHistoire de la maison de Savoyerather 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 Febbraio1481 (1469), after a Magliabechi MS. printed by P. Fanfani inIl Borghini, vol. ii. (Flor. 1864) pp. 473-483, 533-542. Tournaments were also publicly proclaimed, as at the carnival, 1467, at Perugia. SeeGiornale 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 theRicordoquoted 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 inDelle Nozze di Lorenzo de’ Medici con Clarice Orsini nel1469informazione 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’sLife, 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’sIstoria Fiorentina(Arch. stor. Ital.i. Flor. 1842), p. 420seq., and Introduction to the same by Gino Capponi, 413seq.[177]Del Reggimento di Firenze, libri ii. In theOpere 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. 380seq.). 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 theArch. 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. 66seq.Desjardins, 161seq.The Dauphin, afterwards King Charles VIII. was born in 1470, Beatrice of Aragon in 1457. In 1476 she married Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary.
[1]Vasari, in Michelozzo’s Life (Vite, Lemonnier’s edition, Flor. 1846, ff., iii. p. 271); and in Brunelleschi’s Life, a. a. O., p. 228. Michelozzo was born about the year 1391. It is generally understood that the building of the Palace took place before Cosimo’s exile, and they quote from Migliore (Firenze Illustrata, Flor. 1684, p. 198 ff.), which specifies ‘circa all’Anno 1430.’ There is no foundation for this statement. Moreover, Michelozzo was not in Florence in the year supposed (Fantozzi,Guida di Firenze, Flor. 1842, p. 457).[2]Vasari in the Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, a. a. O., ii. p. 225. The house came afterwards to the Ughi family. At present it is all built round, even the adjoining Lorenzi Palace, which up to our day preserved its ancient, solemn aspect.[3]Ordinamenta justitiæ communis et populi Florentiæ anni1293, a Francisco Bonainio edita, in Archivio Storico Italiano, serie ii. i. p. 1-93 [1855]. C. Hegel,Die Ordnungen der Gerechtigkeit in der Florentinischen Republik, Erlangen 1867. Compare P. Capei, Arch. Stor. Ital. ser. iii. vii. p. 132.[4]Fr. Bonaini,Della Parte Guelfa in Firenze, in Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani (Flor. 1857), ii. p. 171, 257; iii. p. 77, 167; iv. p. 3. Unfortunately this laborious work remains incomplete. The oldest constitution of the Capitani and the Guelf party was in 1335, and is printed in Bonaini, i. p. 1-41. The office was in existence up to the year 1769.[5]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 92, 93.[6]G. Canestrini,La Scienza e l’Arte di Stato desunta dagli Atti Officiali della Repubblica Florentina e dei Medici. Parte 1, L’imposta sulla ricchezza mobile e immobile. Florenz. 1862. No more has appeared of this work, which was to be the economical and administrative history of the Republic and of the first Medici period. The first part treats of theEstimo, of theCadastre, and of theDecimaof 1494. Cf. L. Banchi in the Archivio Stor. Ital., serie iii. i. p. 90 (G. F. Pagnini).Della Decima e delle altre gravezze imposte dal Commune di Firenze(Lucca, 1763) has in its first volume, p. 10, a short account of Florentine taxation, up to the introduction of thedecima(p. 214-231.—Provision of May 22, 1427, for the formation of thecadastre).[7]The Peruzzi in 1325 were an instance of this.Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri di Firenze.Flor. 1868, p. 197.[8]Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, at the end of book xiii. (Edit. Arbib. Flor. 1844, iii. p. 36.)[9]‘Ipse quidem nescit si fructus sequetur, vel non; sed, auditis aliis civibus, idem secutus est.’ ‘Consulta’ of May 12, 1427, by P. Berti, Nuovi documenti intorno al Catasto florentino, in theGiorn. Stor. degli archivi Toscani, iv. 32. Giovanni Cavalcanti (Storia Fiorentina, Flor. 1838, i. 196.)—a contemporary, who has left us the most lifelike description of that period, but who must be used with great caution on account of his decided and enthusiastic party views—has been followed by all later writers in his opinion of the Medici. At the head of these is Machiavelli, who took him as the principal source of information for those times.[10]Gio. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 262.[11]Domenico Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della Basilica di S. Lorenzo. Flor. 1816, i. p. 27.[12]Monuments Sépulcraux de Toscane, Flor. 1821. Table xiii. The inscription is as follows:‘Cosmus et Laurentius de Medicis v. d. Joanni Averardi f. et Picardæ Adovardi f. carissimis parentibus hoc Sepulchrū faciendum curarunt. Obiit autem Johannes x. Kl. Martias MCCCCXXVIII. Picarda vero xiii. Kl. Maias quinquennio post e vita migravit.Si merita in patriam, si gloria, sanguis et omniLarga manus nigra libera morte forent,Viveret heu patriæ casta cum coniuge felixAuxilium miseris portus et aura suis;Omnia sed quando superantur morte, Johannes,Hoc mausoleo tuque Picarda iaces,Ergo senex mœret, invenis, puer, omnis et ætas,Orba parente suo patria mœsta gemit.[13]G. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 269.[14]The xv. and xvi. cantos ofIl Paradisocontain eloquent descriptions of historical importance, to the explanation of which the translation of Philalethes has contributed valuable materials.[15]G. F. Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte, Flor. 1850. The MSS. of Bishop Hildebrand of the year 1013 show that the reconstruction of the church had already begun at that time.[16]V. Marchese,Memorie dei più insigni pittori, scultori, e architetti Domenicani. Flor. 1845. I. p. 44 ff. F. Moisè,Santa Croce di Firenze, Flor. 1845. I. p. 42et seq.[17]L. Passerini,La Loggia di Or San Michele, l. c. p. 113 ff.[18]Regesta florentina internam Reipublicæ historiam spectantia ab a.MCCXXV,ad a.MD., by Gaye, Carteggio inedito d’Artisti, i. 413et seq.[19]M. Rastrelli,Illustrazione istorica del Palazzo della Signoria. Flor. 1792. F. Moisè,Illustrazione storico-artistica del Palazzo de’ Priori. Flor. 1843.[20]Fr. Becchi,Sulle Stinche di Firenze, in Illustratore fiorentino. Flor. 1840.[21]Inferno xix. 17 (‘in my beautiful San Giovanni’). Purgatory xii. 100. Even with the present transformation of the hillside a great flight of steps is to be seen hard by.[22]Concerning the various kinds of themacigni(Dante uses the expression,Infernoxv. 63, speaking of the obdurate nature of the Florentines of his time), thepietra forte,pietra fina,serena,bigia, see Targioni,Viaggi per la Toscana, i. p. 18et seq.[23]The opinion expressed in the book of the Carmelite, P. Fr. M. Soldini—Delle eccellenze e grandezze della nazione fiorentina(Flor. 1780),—respecting the palace Tosinghi on the old market-place, destroyed, according to Gio. Villani, in the party wars of the middle of the 13th century, is, no doubt, a modern conjecture.[24]Gaye, l. c. p. 498 (Anno 1344).[25]Baldinucci, Professori del disegno (D. M. Manni’s Ausg.), vol. i. p. 24, Gaye l. c. p. 483.[26]G. Masselli and G. P. Lasinio,Il Tabernacolo della Madonna d’Orsanmichele: Flor. 1851.[27]L. Passerini,La Loggetta del Bigallo, l. c. p. 89et seq.[28]Benedetto Dei, in Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, book ix. (ii. p. 116), names twenty-one loggias on private houses in the latter half of the 15th century. Lastro,Osservatore Fiorentino(published Flor. 1821), iii. p. 203et seq.[29]Cronaca di Matteo Villani, book vii. chap. 41.[30]L. Passerini,La Loggia della Signorial. c. p. 99. Gaye l. c. p. 527.[31]Passerini l. c.; after him Il. Semper in A. v. Zahn’sFine Arts Annals, iii. p. 35-37. The tradition respecting Orcagna is in Lemonnier’sVasari, ii. p. 130.[32]G. Aiazzi ‘Illustrazione della Capella gentilizia dellaFamiglia Rinuccini,’ in theRicordi di Filippo Rinuccini: Flor. 1840, p. 304-327.[33]Gaye l. c. p. 536.[34]C. Guasti,La Cupola di Sta. Maria del Fiore: Flor. 1857, p. 9, 37, 89.[35]Plan and sketch in theOsservatore Fiorentino, ii. p. 167.[36]Book of Statutes, part vii. book 4.[37]Inscription on the back: ‘Clarissimi viri Cosmas et Laurentius fratres neglectas diu Sanctorum reliquias martyrum religioso studio ac fidelissima pietate suis sumptibus æneis loculis condendas colendasque curarunt.’ Figured in theMonuments Sépulcraux, Tablexx. In the time of the French invasion broken up and destined to be melted down, but rescued and restored, and now in the National Museum in the Palace of the Podestà.[38]Pagnini,Della decima, etc., ii. p. 80. S. L. Peruzzi, p. 61.Osservatore fiorentino, iii. p. 185, vi. p. 157.[39]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 93.[40]P. Berti,Documenti riguardanti il commercio dei Fiorentini in Francia nei secoli xiii. e xiv.in theGiornale storico degli Arch. Tosc.i. pp. 163, 217. The most abundant material is contained in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti’sPratica della Mercatura, 14th century, and Pagnini, iii.[41]Osservatore fiorentino, iv. p. 124. F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Flor. 1839, p. 33. Fantozzi regards the Calimaruzza as the former Via Francesca, where the magazines of foreign cloth were, and the Calimala as the place for the sale of the native fabrics.[42]G. Gargioli,L’Arte della Seta in Firenze trattato del secoloxv., Flor. 1868. The lists from 1225 to 1337 are printed p. 282-290. L. Venturi,Filippo Matteoni(the biography of one of the most intelligent silk-weavers of our time), in verse and prose, Flor. 1871, p. 321. S. Bongi,Della Mercatura dei Lucchesi nei sec.xiii. e xiv.Osservatore fior.iv. p. 103; vi. p. 36. Peruzzi, p. 36, where there are also the portraits of a crimson-dyer and a silk-spinner, after a MS. in the Laurentiana.[43]L’Inferno, xvii. 43. Compare E. Morpurgo,I prestatori di denaro al tempo di Dante, inDante e Padua, Studj storico-critici, Padua, 1865, p. 193.[44]Divine Comedy, ‘Paradise,’ xix. 119.[45]Kervyn de Lettenhove,Les Argentiers Florentins, in theBulletins de l’Académie r. de Belgique, 1861, pp. 295-312. Compare also his treatise,Recherches sur la part que l’ordre de Citeaux et le Comte de Flandre prirent à la lutte de Boniface VIII. et de Philippe le Bel, in theMémoiresof the same Academy, xxviii. On the Franzesi family see Repetti,Dizionario della Toscana, article ‘Figline, Staggia.’[46]Vol. x. chap. 88.[47]Fr. Balducci Pegolotti, in Pagnini, p. 198.[48]Bartolommeo Cerretani, in FabroniM. Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 63. Concerning this still unprinted chronicler, see Moreni,Bibliografia della Toscana, i. 249.[49]Del Migliore, p. 6. See Gaye, p. 424.[50]Extracts in Gaye, in the registers.[51]Paradisoxv. 97.Purgat.xvi. 117.[52]L. Mehus:Ambrosii Traversarii Epistolæ et Orationes. Flor. 1759, ccclxxiv.[53]On the Bardi see Ademollo,Marietta de Ricci, 2nd edit. by L. Passerini, Flor, 1815, iii. 1135.[54]‘Io confesso—che il concilio non è per me. Ma che debbo fare, se haggio uno fato che mi ci tira?’—Luca della Robbia,Vita di Bartolommeo Valori, in theArch. Stor. Ital.iv. part i. 262.[55]Documenti relativi alla liberazione dalla prigionia di Giovanni XXIII., in theArch. Stor. Ital.429. Writings of Averardo di Medici to Michele Cossa, Flor. Dec. 31, 1419. Fabroni as above, ii. 11.[56]Ciacconio:Historia Pontificum, etc., Rome, 1677, ii. 795, and theMonuments sépulcraux, plate xi., give an illustration. From Michelozzo’s Survey-Declaration in Gaye, as above, 117, we see that the monument was still unfinished in 1427, and the price agreed upon had been 800 florins.[57]L. Passerini:Gli Alberti di Firenze, Flor. 1870, i. 118; ii. 227.[58]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il comune di Firenze dal 1399 al 1433. Edited by Cesare Guasti. 3 vols. Flor. 1867-73.[59]Gio. Cavalcanti, 319:Albizzi Family. See Ademollo, as above, ii. 695.Genealogij, by Gius. Ajazzi, MS. in possession of the author.[60]Niccolò’s conversation with Niccolò Barbadoro, in Cavalcanti as above, p. 380 (copied, with alterations, by Machiavelli in the 4th book of theFlorentine Hist.), gives the best insight into the feelings of the party.[61]Vasari:Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, ii. p. 229. The building of the Sapienza already begun, served later as a cage for lions, and is now employed as an educational institution.[62]Vasari: Life of Masaccio, vol. iii. p. 160.[63]Vitæ CIII. Virorum Illustrium qui sæculo xv. extiterunt, auctore coævo Vespasiano Florentino. (In theSpicilegium Romanum, edited by Cardinal Angelo Mai.) Rome, 1839, reprint.Vite di nomini illustri del secolo xv.scritte da Vespasiano da Bisticci, stampate nuovamente da Adolfo Bartoli. Flor. 1859.Palla di Noferi Strozzi, p. 271. Messer Leonardo is Leonardo Bruni.[64]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 278.[65]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 507.[66]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 320-327.[67]Fabroni as above, i. 27; ii. 31, 58.[68]L. Passerini:Genealogia e storia della famiglia Guadagni, Flor. 1874, p. 52.[69]Cosimo’s own memoranda, Fabroni as above, ii. 96, which give no information as to the grounds and form of the action, must be compared with Cavalcanti’s relation, 507, which supplied Machiavelli with his materials. The protocols of the Signory give no information as to these proceedings.[70]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 558, 610.[71]Storia Fiorentina dai tempi di Cosimo de’ Medici a quelli del gonfaloniere Soderini.Flor. 1859. Vol. i. of theOpere inedite di Fr. Guicciardini, illustrate da G. Canestrini, p. 4.[72]‘Fermare lo Stato’—to give a settled form to a Government, introduced by the sovereign or a political party. ‘Stato’ means in this case the rule with which they exercise it.[73]I Capitoli del Comune di Firenze Inventario e Regesto, i. Flor. 1866.[74]Published by D. M. Manni, Flor. 1720. Constantine Höfler has in his history of King Rupert (Freiburg, 1861) placed the activity of Buonaccorso Pitti in its right light.[75]Printed by D. M. Manni Cronachette Antiche, Florence, 1733. The history of the conquest of Pisa, printed there likewise, is probably by his son Neri.[76]Storia Fiorentina, chap. i.[77]P. Litta:Genealogy of the Acciaiuoli. L. Taufani:Nicola Acciaiuoli, Florence, 1863. Gaye has published in theCarteggio inedita d’Artisti, i. 57-69, the remarkable letters of the seneschal for the years 1355-56, on the building of the Certosa. Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 351 (on Agnolo Acciaiuoli).[78]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 332. Angiolo Segni:Vita di Donato Acciaiuoli, edited by Tommaso Tonelli, Florence, 1841.[79]Franc. Guicciardini:Recordi di Famiglia, in hisOpere inedite, x.[80]Description and narrative which Vespasiano da Bisticci, 525, gives of Alessandra de Bardi Strozzi and her sad fate, give a deep insight into the miseries of this time.[81]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 651, 669.[82]Commissioni, iii. 672, 677.[83]Idem, 680.[84]Vespasiano de Bisticci as above, 417.[85]L. Basserini:Baldaccio da Anghiari, in theArch. Stor. Ital., 3, iii. 131, 166. The author is of the opinion that the connections of Baldaccio to the Pope Gregory IV., still residing in Florence, were the cause of the Medicean party wishing to get rid of him.[86]Gio. Cavalcanti, I. c. ii. 195.[87]Register of 1458, Canestrini, as above, 168. Progressive scale,id.213.[88]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, ii. 210.[89]Etiam nobis esset reputatio et utilitas si Papa hic veniret. Rinaldo degli Albizzi,Commissioni, iii. 589.[90]C. Milanesi, ‘Osservazioni intorno agli esemplari del decreto d’unione della chiesa Greca con la Latina che si conservano nella biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana o nell’Archivio di Stato,’ with Greek and Latin text of the decree of union, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. tosc.i. 196-225. This is not the place to refer to the newest historico-critical literature on this subject.[91]Fabroni as above, ii. 163.[92]Life of Eugenius IV.as above, 16.[93]Life of Agnolo Acciaiuolias above, p. 357.[94]Giannone,Storia civile del Regno di Napoli, book xxvi. chap. 2.[95]Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal 1282 al 1460, colla continuazione di Alamanno e Neri suoi figli fino al 1506 per cura di G. Aiazzi, Flor. 1840, lxxxix.[96]Letter of Pius II., and his answer, in Fabroni, ii. 254.[97]Document of the purchase of the ‘sclava,’ twenty-two years old, for the price of 60 ducats, Fabroni, ii. 214.[98]Fabroni as above, ii. 251.[99]Idem, 253.[100]The list of the masses ordered by Piero de’ Medici after his father’s death, and the grants for mourning habits to the members and servants of his family, among them five chamber-women and four maids (schiave), are given by Fabroni, ii. 254.[101]M. Ficino,Epistol.i. 85.[102]Fabroni, ii. 257.[103]Litta, ‘Family Tornabuoni,’ in theFamiglie celebri Ital., Ademollo as above, iv. 1200. The Tornabuoni became extinct in 1635, and the name and inheritance of the Tornaquinci, extinct in 1790, passed to the branch of the Medici which is still flourishing in Florence.[104]January 1, 1448, after Florentine style (annus ab incarnatione,i.e.from March 25), is the same day 1449.[105]Laurentii Medicis Vita, per Nicolaum Valorium edita ad Leonem X.P.M. First printed by L. Mehus after a Laurentian MS., Flor. 1749; more recently in Philippi VillaniLiber de civitatis Florentiæ famosis civibus et de Florentinorum litteratura principes fere synchroni scriptores. Ed. G. C. Galletti. Flor. 1847, p. 161. An Italian translation had already appeared, Flor. 1568. Niccolò Valori was a pupil of Marsilio Ficino, and a member of the Platonic Academy.[106]On Gentile of Urbino, as he was commonly called, see A. M. Bandini,Specimen literaturæ Florentinæ, sæc. xv., Flor. 1752, i. 182; ii. 111. Desjardins-Canestrini,Négotiations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, Paris 1859, i. 317.Embassy of Becchi and Piero Soderini to King Charles VIII., 1493,idem, 321-365.Address to Pope Innocent VIII. on occasion of the Neapolitan war of the Barons, 1485, p. 205-214. Gentile, bishop of Arezzo 1473, died April 19, 1497.[107]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Magnif. Vita, Pisa, 1784, ii. 9.[108]N. Valori as above, 166.[109]Politian,Conjuratio Pactiana, at the end.[110]Litta,Family Pazzi, Ademollo, as above, iv. 1228.[111]As above, 372.[112]For documents referring to the embassy, see Desjardins, as above, 109, 135.[113]Vespasiano, as above, 375.[114]L. Passerini,Genealogia e storia della famiglia Rucellai, Flor. 1861.[115]L. Passerini,Genealogy of the Soderini, continuation of Litta’sFamiglie celebri.[116]Vasari,Life of Donatello, iii. 250. For illustration see Litta.[117]Cronica di Napoli di Notar Giacomo, pubbl. da P. Garzilli, Naples, 1845, p. 100. Giovan. Pietro Cagnola,Storia di Milano(‘Cronache Milanesi,’ in theArch. stor. ital.iii. Flor. 1842), informs us (p. 170) of Don Federigo’s arrival and the causes of the delay of the wedding, which was connected with Jacopo Piccinino’s affairs (see below, p. 219). Ippolita arrived on September 14 at Naples, after having waited two months in Siena, till her father permitted her to proceed. (Cronica di Notar Giacomo, 112; Cagnola, 171.)[118]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcv.[119]Luigi Pulci’s letter, see Roscoe, App. ix., but more correct in theLettere di Luigi Pulci a Lorenzo il Magnifico e ad altri(edited by Salvatore Bongi), Lucca, 1868, p. 1. There are various notices of the writer here, but unfortunately no notes to the letters, which are often unintelligible, and will probably remain so, in spite of all notes, with regard to various persons mentioned.[120]Fabroni, l. e., ii. 51seq.[121]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcvi.[122]Fabroni as above, ii. 47; letter of March 22,idem, 49.[123]Desjardins as above, 136-141.[124]Guicciardini, in whom the traditions of grandfather and granduncle are united in cap. ii. of theStoria fiorentina, p. 18; Machiavelli, who, in consequence of the death of Girolamo, his ancestor in Cosimo’s time, could not be very favourable to Luca Pitti and his adherents, in book vii. of his history. G. M. Bruto,Florentinæ historiæ, book ii.[125]On this affair, which has never been fully cleared up, see Ricotti,Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura, iii. 191, where the judgment of contemporaries is referred to; and Canestrini,Documenti per servire alla storia della Milizia italiana, Flor. 1851 (Arch. stor. ital.xv.), series lxxviii. 179-184, where the letters of Francesco Sforza and the King are to be found.[126]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, p. 360.[127]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcix.[128]Lettera di Jacopo Acciaiuoli ad Agnolo, Naples, September 6, 1466. See Fabroni as above, ii. 28. The time of Lorenzo’s journey cannot be precisely fixed, but it must have taken place before or towards the middle of August, for the later events leave no time. Jacopo writes: ‘Lorenzo di Piero fu quà. Il S. Rè li fece carezze assai.’[129]Paradiso, xv. 109.[130]Francis Joseph Sloane, who died in 1871. The villa passed by inheritance to the Russian family Boutourlin.[131]The name Camaldoli, which is borne in Florence by two districts of the city inhabited by the poorer classes—that of San Frediano and that behind San Lorenzo—is derived from the Camaldulensian church of San Salvatore, pulled down in 1529, which stood near the city walls on the left bank of the Arno. To the district of San Lorenzo the name was transferred from the other behind Sta. Croce, and at Porta San Niccolò there are other districts so named.[132]The prevailing opinion among the opponents of the Medici of the events of 1466 is expressed decidedly in the notices of Alamanno Rinuccini, who continued those of his father Filippo from the year 1460, as above, coll. xcix.[133]Cronachetta Volterrana di autore anomino del 1362 al 1478, given by M. Tabarrini in theArch. Stor. Ital.App. iii. 317.[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 PittiIstoria 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 theRerum 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. 141seq.[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’sGenealogywill be quoted here.[143]R. ReposatiDella Zecca di Gubbio, Bologna, 1772. James Dennistoun,Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, London, 1851. F. UgolinoStoria dei Conti e Duchi d’Urbino, Flor. 1859.[144]N. RattiDella Famiglia Sforza, i. 144seq.; 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’sAnnali, Venetii.[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 hisHistoire de la maison de Savoyerather 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 Febbraio1481 (1469), after a Magliabechi MS. printed by P. Fanfani inIl Borghini, vol. ii. (Flor. 1864) pp. 473-483, 533-542. Tournaments were also publicly proclaimed, as at the carnival, 1467, at Perugia. SeeGiornale 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 theRicordoquoted 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 inDelle Nozze di Lorenzo de’ Medici con Clarice Orsini nel1469informazione 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’sLife, 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’sIstoria Fiorentina(Arch. stor. Ital.i. Flor. 1842), p. 420seq., and Introduction to the same by Gino Capponi, 413seq.[177]Del Reggimento di Firenze, libri ii. In theOpere 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. 380seq.). 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 theArch. 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. 66seq.Desjardins, 161seq.The Dauphin, afterwards King Charles VIII. was born in 1470, Beatrice of Aragon in 1457. In 1476 she married Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary.
[1]Vasari, in Michelozzo’s Life (Vite, Lemonnier’s edition, Flor. 1846, ff., iii. p. 271); and in Brunelleschi’s Life, a. a. O., p. 228. Michelozzo was born about the year 1391. It is generally understood that the building of the Palace took place before Cosimo’s exile, and they quote from Migliore (Firenze Illustrata, Flor. 1684, p. 198 ff.), which specifies ‘circa all’Anno 1430.’ There is no foundation for this statement. Moreover, Michelozzo was not in Florence in the year supposed (Fantozzi,Guida di Firenze, Flor. 1842, p. 457).[2]Vasari in the Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, a. a. O., ii. p. 225. The house came afterwards to the Ughi family. At present it is all built round, even the adjoining Lorenzi Palace, which up to our day preserved its ancient, solemn aspect.[3]Ordinamenta justitiæ communis et populi Florentiæ anni1293, a Francisco Bonainio edita, in Archivio Storico Italiano, serie ii. i. p. 1-93 [1855]. C. Hegel,Die Ordnungen der Gerechtigkeit in der Florentinischen Republik, Erlangen 1867. Compare P. Capei, Arch. Stor. Ital. ser. iii. vii. p. 132.[4]Fr. Bonaini,Della Parte Guelfa in Firenze, in Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani (Flor. 1857), ii. p. 171, 257; iii. p. 77, 167; iv. p. 3. Unfortunately this laborious work remains incomplete. The oldest constitution of the Capitani and the Guelf party was in 1335, and is printed in Bonaini, i. p. 1-41. The office was in existence up to the year 1769.[5]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 92, 93.[6]G. Canestrini,La Scienza e l’Arte di Stato desunta dagli Atti Officiali della Repubblica Florentina e dei Medici. Parte 1, L’imposta sulla ricchezza mobile e immobile. Florenz. 1862. No more has appeared of this work, which was to be the economical and administrative history of the Republic and of the first Medici period. The first part treats of theEstimo, of theCadastre, and of theDecimaof 1494. Cf. L. Banchi in the Archivio Stor. Ital., serie iii. i. p. 90 (G. F. Pagnini).Della Decima e delle altre gravezze imposte dal Commune di Firenze(Lucca, 1763) has in its first volume, p. 10, a short account of Florentine taxation, up to the introduction of thedecima(p. 214-231.—Provision of May 22, 1427, for the formation of thecadastre).[7]The Peruzzi in 1325 were an instance of this.Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri di Firenze.Flor. 1868, p. 197.[8]Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, at the end of book xiii. (Edit. Arbib. Flor. 1844, iii. p. 36.)[9]‘Ipse quidem nescit si fructus sequetur, vel non; sed, auditis aliis civibus, idem secutus est.’ ‘Consulta’ of May 12, 1427, by P. Berti, Nuovi documenti intorno al Catasto florentino, in theGiorn. Stor. degli archivi Toscani, iv. 32. Giovanni Cavalcanti (Storia Fiorentina, Flor. 1838, i. 196.)—a contemporary, who has left us the most lifelike description of that period, but who must be used with great caution on account of his decided and enthusiastic party views—has been followed by all later writers in his opinion of the Medici. At the head of these is Machiavelli, who took him as the principal source of information for those times.[10]Gio. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 262.[11]Domenico Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della Basilica di S. Lorenzo. Flor. 1816, i. p. 27.[12]Monuments Sépulcraux de Toscane, Flor. 1821. Table xiii. The inscription is as follows:‘Cosmus et Laurentius de Medicis v. d. Joanni Averardi f. et Picardæ Adovardi f. carissimis parentibus hoc Sepulchrū faciendum curarunt. Obiit autem Johannes x. Kl. Martias MCCCCXXVIII. Picarda vero xiii. Kl. Maias quinquennio post e vita migravit.Si merita in patriam, si gloria, sanguis et omniLarga manus nigra libera morte forent,Viveret heu patriæ casta cum coniuge felixAuxilium miseris portus et aura suis;Omnia sed quando superantur morte, Johannes,Hoc mausoleo tuque Picarda iaces,Ergo senex mœret, invenis, puer, omnis et ætas,Orba parente suo patria mœsta gemit.[13]G. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 269.[14]The xv. and xvi. cantos ofIl Paradisocontain eloquent descriptions of historical importance, to the explanation of which the translation of Philalethes has contributed valuable materials.[15]G. F. Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte, Flor. 1850. The MSS. of Bishop Hildebrand of the year 1013 show that the reconstruction of the church had already begun at that time.[16]V. Marchese,Memorie dei più insigni pittori, scultori, e architetti Domenicani. Flor. 1845. I. p. 44 ff. F. Moisè,Santa Croce di Firenze, Flor. 1845. I. p. 42et seq.[17]L. Passerini,La Loggia di Or San Michele, l. c. p. 113 ff.[18]Regesta florentina internam Reipublicæ historiam spectantia ab a.MCCXXV,ad a.MD., by Gaye, Carteggio inedito d’Artisti, i. 413et seq.[19]M. Rastrelli,Illustrazione istorica del Palazzo della Signoria. Flor. 1792. F. Moisè,Illustrazione storico-artistica del Palazzo de’ Priori. Flor. 1843.[20]Fr. Becchi,Sulle Stinche di Firenze, in Illustratore fiorentino. Flor. 1840.[21]Inferno xix. 17 (‘in my beautiful San Giovanni’). Purgatory xii. 100. Even with the present transformation of the hillside a great flight of steps is to be seen hard by.[22]Concerning the various kinds of themacigni(Dante uses the expression,Infernoxv. 63, speaking of the obdurate nature of the Florentines of his time), thepietra forte,pietra fina,serena,bigia, see Targioni,Viaggi per la Toscana, i. p. 18et seq.[23]The opinion expressed in the book of the Carmelite, P. Fr. M. Soldini—Delle eccellenze e grandezze della nazione fiorentina(Flor. 1780),—respecting the palace Tosinghi on the old market-place, destroyed, according to Gio. Villani, in the party wars of the middle of the 13th century, is, no doubt, a modern conjecture.[24]Gaye, l. c. p. 498 (Anno 1344).[25]Baldinucci, Professori del disegno (D. M. Manni’s Ausg.), vol. i. p. 24, Gaye l. c. p. 483.[26]G. Masselli and G. P. Lasinio,Il Tabernacolo della Madonna d’Orsanmichele: Flor. 1851.[27]L. Passerini,La Loggetta del Bigallo, l. c. p. 89et seq.[28]Benedetto Dei, in Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, book ix. (ii. p. 116), names twenty-one loggias on private houses in the latter half of the 15th century. Lastro,Osservatore Fiorentino(published Flor. 1821), iii. p. 203et seq.[29]Cronaca di Matteo Villani, book vii. chap. 41.[30]L. Passerini,La Loggia della Signorial. c. p. 99. Gaye l. c. p. 527.[31]Passerini l. c.; after him Il. Semper in A. v. Zahn’sFine Arts Annals, iii. p. 35-37. The tradition respecting Orcagna is in Lemonnier’sVasari, ii. p. 130.[32]G. Aiazzi ‘Illustrazione della Capella gentilizia dellaFamiglia Rinuccini,’ in theRicordi di Filippo Rinuccini: Flor. 1840, p. 304-327.[33]Gaye l. c. p. 536.[34]C. Guasti,La Cupola di Sta. Maria del Fiore: Flor. 1857, p. 9, 37, 89.[35]Plan and sketch in theOsservatore Fiorentino, ii. p. 167.[36]Book of Statutes, part vii. book 4.[37]Inscription on the back: ‘Clarissimi viri Cosmas et Laurentius fratres neglectas diu Sanctorum reliquias martyrum religioso studio ac fidelissima pietate suis sumptibus æneis loculis condendas colendasque curarunt.’ Figured in theMonuments Sépulcraux, Tablexx. In the time of the French invasion broken up and destined to be melted down, but rescued and restored, and now in the National Museum in the Palace of the Podestà.[38]Pagnini,Della decima, etc., ii. p. 80. S. L. Peruzzi, p. 61.Osservatore fiorentino, iii. p. 185, vi. p. 157.[39]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 93.[40]P. Berti,Documenti riguardanti il commercio dei Fiorentini in Francia nei secoli xiii. e xiv.in theGiornale storico degli Arch. Tosc.i. pp. 163, 217. The most abundant material is contained in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti’sPratica della Mercatura, 14th century, and Pagnini, iii.[41]Osservatore fiorentino, iv. p. 124. F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Flor. 1839, p. 33. Fantozzi regards the Calimaruzza as the former Via Francesca, where the magazines of foreign cloth were, and the Calimala as the place for the sale of the native fabrics.[42]G. Gargioli,L’Arte della Seta in Firenze trattato del secoloxv., Flor. 1868. The lists from 1225 to 1337 are printed p. 282-290. L. Venturi,Filippo Matteoni(the biography of one of the most intelligent silk-weavers of our time), in verse and prose, Flor. 1871, p. 321. S. Bongi,Della Mercatura dei Lucchesi nei sec.xiii. e xiv.Osservatore fior.iv. p. 103; vi. p. 36. Peruzzi, p. 36, where there are also the portraits of a crimson-dyer and a silk-spinner, after a MS. in the Laurentiana.[43]L’Inferno, xvii. 43. Compare E. Morpurgo,I prestatori di denaro al tempo di Dante, inDante e Padua, Studj storico-critici, Padua, 1865, p. 193.[44]Divine Comedy, ‘Paradise,’ xix. 119.[45]Kervyn de Lettenhove,Les Argentiers Florentins, in theBulletins de l’Académie r. de Belgique, 1861, pp. 295-312. Compare also his treatise,Recherches sur la part que l’ordre de Citeaux et le Comte de Flandre prirent à la lutte de Boniface VIII. et de Philippe le Bel, in theMémoiresof the same Academy, xxviii. On the Franzesi family see Repetti,Dizionario della Toscana, article ‘Figline, Staggia.’[46]Vol. x. chap. 88.[47]Fr. Balducci Pegolotti, in Pagnini, p. 198.[48]Bartolommeo Cerretani, in FabroniM. Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 63. Concerning this still unprinted chronicler, see Moreni,Bibliografia della Toscana, i. 249.[49]Del Migliore, p. 6. See Gaye, p. 424.[50]Extracts in Gaye, in the registers.[51]Paradisoxv. 97.Purgat.xvi. 117.[52]L. Mehus:Ambrosii Traversarii Epistolæ et Orationes. Flor. 1759, ccclxxiv.[53]On the Bardi see Ademollo,Marietta de Ricci, 2nd edit. by L. Passerini, Flor, 1815, iii. 1135.[54]‘Io confesso—che il concilio non è per me. Ma che debbo fare, se haggio uno fato che mi ci tira?’—Luca della Robbia,Vita di Bartolommeo Valori, in theArch. Stor. Ital.iv. part i. 262.[55]Documenti relativi alla liberazione dalla prigionia di Giovanni XXIII., in theArch. Stor. Ital.429. Writings of Averardo di Medici to Michele Cossa, Flor. Dec. 31, 1419. Fabroni as above, ii. 11.[56]Ciacconio:Historia Pontificum, etc., Rome, 1677, ii. 795, and theMonuments sépulcraux, plate xi., give an illustration. From Michelozzo’s Survey-Declaration in Gaye, as above, 117, we see that the monument was still unfinished in 1427, and the price agreed upon had been 800 florins.[57]L. Passerini:Gli Alberti di Firenze, Flor. 1870, i. 118; ii. 227.[58]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il comune di Firenze dal 1399 al 1433. Edited by Cesare Guasti. 3 vols. Flor. 1867-73.[59]Gio. Cavalcanti, 319:Albizzi Family. See Ademollo, as above, ii. 695.Genealogij, by Gius. Ajazzi, MS. in possession of the author.[60]Niccolò’s conversation with Niccolò Barbadoro, in Cavalcanti as above, p. 380 (copied, with alterations, by Machiavelli in the 4th book of theFlorentine Hist.), gives the best insight into the feelings of the party.[61]Vasari:Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, ii. p. 229. The building of the Sapienza already begun, served later as a cage for lions, and is now employed as an educational institution.[62]Vasari: Life of Masaccio, vol. iii. p. 160.[63]Vitæ CIII. Virorum Illustrium qui sæculo xv. extiterunt, auctore coævo Vespasiano Florentino. (In theSpicilegium Romanum, edited by Cardinal Angelo Mai.) Rome, 1839, reprint.Vite di nomini illustri del secolo xv.scritte da Vespasiano da Bisticci, stampate nuovamente da Adolfo Bartoli. Flor. 1859.Palla di Noferi Strozzi, p. 271. Messer Leonardo is Leonardo Bruni.[64]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 278.[65]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 507.[66]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 320-327.[67]Fabroni as above, i. 27; ii. 31, 58.[68]L. Passerini:Genealogia e storia della famiglia Guadagni, Flor. 1874, p. 52.[69]Cosimo’s own memoranda, Fabroni as above, ii. 96, which give no information as to the grounds and form of the action, must be compared with Cavalcanti’s relation, 507, which supplied Machiavelli with his materials. The protocols of the Signory give no information as to these proceedings.[70]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 558, 610.[71]Storia Fiorentina dai tempi di Cosimo de’ Medici a quelli del gonfaloniere Soderini.Flor. 1859. Vol. i. of theOpere inedite di Fr. Guicciardini, illustrate da G. Canestrini, p. 4.[72]‘Fermare lo Stato’—to give a settled form to a Government, introduced by the sovereign or a political party. ‘Stato’ means in this case the rule with which they exercise it.[73]I Capitoli del Comune di Firenze Inventario e Regesto, i. Flor. 1866.[74]Published by D. M. Manni, Flor. 1720. Constantine Höfler has in his history of King Rupert (Freiburg, 1861) placed the activity of Buonaccorso Pitti in its right light.[75]Printed by D. M. Manni Cronachette Antiche, Florence, 1733. The history of the conquest of Pisa, printed there likewise, is probably by his son Neri.[76]Storia Fiorentina, chap. i.[77]P. Litta:Genealogy of the Acciaiuoli. L. Taufani:Nicola Acciaiuoli, Florence, 1863. Gaye has published in theCarteggio inedita d’Artisti, i. 57-69, the remarkable letters of the seneschal for the years 1355-56, on the building of the Certosa. Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 351 (on Agnolo Acciaiuoli).[78]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 332. Angiolo Segni:Vita di Donato Acciaiuoli, edited by Tommaso Tonelli, Florence, 1841.[79]Franc. Guicciardini:Recordi di Famiglia, in hisOpere inedite, x.[80]Description and narrative which Vespasiano da Bisticci, 525, gives of Alessandra de Bardi Strozzi and her sad fate, give a deep insight into the miseries of this time.[81]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 651, 669.[82]Commissioni, iii. 672, 677.[83]Idem, 680.[84]Vespasiano de Bisticci as above, 417.[85]L. Basserini:Baldaccio da Anghiari, in theArch. Stor. Ital., 3, iii. 131, 166. The author is of the opinion that the connections of Baldaccio to the Pope Gregory IV., still residing in Florence, were the cause of the Medicean party wishing to get rid of him.[86]Gio. Cavalcanti, I. c. ii. 195.[87]Register of 1458, Canestrini, as above, 168. Progressive scale,id.213.[88]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, ii. 210.[89]Etiam nobis esset reputatio et utilitas si Papa hic veniret. Rinaldo degli Albizzi,Commissioni, iii. 589.[90]C. Milanesi, ‘Osservazioni intorno agli esemplari del decreto d’unione della chiesa Greca con la Latina che si conservano nella biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana o nell’Archivio di Stato,’ with Greek and Latin text of the decree of union, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. tosc.i. 196-225. This is not the place to refer to the newest historico-critical literature on this subject.[91]Fabroni as above, ii. 163.[92]Life of Eugenius IV.as above, 16.[93]Life of Agnolo Acciaiuolias above, p. 357.[94]Giannone,Storia civile del Regno di Napoli, book xxvi. chap. 2.[95]Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal 1282 al 1460, colla continuazione di Alamanno e Neri suoi figli fino al 1506 per cura di G. Aiazzi, Flor. 1840, lxxxix.[96]Letter of Pius II., and his answer, in Fabroni, ii. 254.[97]Document of the purchase of the ‘sclava,’ twenty-two years old, for the price of 60 ducats, Fabroni, ii. 214.[98]Fabroni as above, ii. 251.[99]Idem, 253.[100]The list of the masses ordered by Piero de’ Medici after his father’s death, and the grants for mourning habits to the members and servants of his family, among them five chamber-women and four maids (schiave), are given by Fabroni, ii. 254.[101]M. Ficino,Epistol.i. 85.[102]Fabroni, ii. 257.[103]Litta, ‘Family Tornabuoni,’ in theFamiglie celebri Ital., Ademollo as above, iv. 1200. The Tornabuoni became extinct in 1635, and the name and inheritance of the Tornaquinci, extinct in 1790, passed to the branch of the Medici which is still flourishing in Florence.[104]January 1, 1448, after Florentine style (annus ab incarnatione,i.e.from March 25), is the same day 1449.[105]Laurentii Medicis Vita, per Nicolaum Valorium edita ad Leonem X.P.M. First printed by L. Mehus after a Laurentian MS., Flor. 1749; more recently in Philippi VillaniLiber de civitatis Florentiæ famosis civibus et de Florentinorum litteratura principes fere synchroni scriptores. Ed. G. C. Galletti. Flor. 1847, p. 161. An Italian translation had already appeared, Flor. 1568. Niccolò Valori was a pupil of Marsilio Ficino, and a member of the Platonic Academy.[106]On Gentile of Urbino, as he was commonly called, see A. M. Bandini,Specimen literaturæ Florentinæ, sæc. xv., Flor. 1752, i. 182; ii. 111. Desjardins-Canestrini,Négotiations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, Paris 1859, i. 317.Embassy of Becchi and Piero Soderini to King Charles VIII., 1493,idem, 321-365.Address to Pope Innocent VIII. on occasion of the Neapolitan war of the Barons, 1485, p. 205-214. Gentile, bishop of Arezzo 1473, died April 19, 1497.[107]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Magnif. Vita, Pisa, 1784, ii. 9.[108]N. Valori as above, 166.[109]Politian,Conjuratio Pactiana, at the end.[110]Litta,Family Pazzi, Ademollo, as above, iv. 1228.[111]As above, 372.[112]For documents referring to the embassy, see Desjardins, as above, 109, 135.[113]Vespasiano, as above, 375.[114]L. Passerini,Genealogia e storia della famiglia Rucellai, Flor. 1861.[115]L. Passerini,Genealogy of the Soderini, continuation of Litta’sFamiglie celebri.[116]Vasari,Life of Donatello, iii. 250. For illustration see Litta.[117]Cronica di Napoli di Notar Giacomo, pubbl. da P. Garzilli, Naples, 1845, p. 100. Giovan. Pietro Cagnola,Storia di Milano(‘Cronache Milanesi,’ in theArch. stor. ital.iii. Flor. 1842), informs us (p. 170) of Don Federigo’s arrival and the causes of the delay of the wedding, which was connected with Jacopo Piccinino’s affairs (see below, p. 219). Ippolita arrived on September 14 at Naples, after having waited two months in Siena, till her father permitted her to proceed. (Cronica di Notar Giacomo, 112; Cagnola, 171.)[118]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcv.[119]Luigi Pulci’s letter, see Roscoe, App. ix., but more correct in theLettere di Luigi Pulci a Lorenzo il Magnifico e ad altri(edited by Salvatore Bongi), Lucca, 1868, p. 1. There are various notices of the writer here, but unfortunately no notes to the letters, which are often unintelligible, and will probably remain so, in spite of all notes, with regard to various persons mentioned.[120]Fabroni, l. e., ii. 51seq.[121]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcvi.[122]Fabroni as above, ii. 47; letter of March 22,idem, 49.[123]Desjardins as above, 136-141.[124]Guicciardini, in whom the traditions of grandfather and granduncle are united in cap. ii. of theStoria fiorentina, p. 18; Machiavelli, who, in consequence of the death of Girolamo, his ancestor in Cosimo’s time, could not be very favourable to Luca Pitti and his adherents, in book vii. of his history. G. M. Bruto,Florentinæ historiæ, book ii.[125]On this affair, which has never been fully cleared up, see Ricotti,Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura, iii. 191, where the judgment of contemporaries is referred to; and Canestrini,Documenti per servire alla storia della Milizia italiana, Flor. 1851 (Arch. stor. ital.xv.), series lxxviii. 179-184, where the letters of Francesco Sforza and the King are to be found.[126]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, p. 360.[127]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcix.[128]Lettera di Jacopo Acciaiuoli ad Agnolo, Naples, September 6, 1466. See Fabroni as above, ii. 28. The time of Lorenzo’s journey cannot be precisely fixed, but it must have taken place before or towards the middle of August, for the later events leave no time. Jacopo writes: ‘Lorenzo di Piero fu quà. Il S. Rè li fece carezze assai.’[129]Paradiso, xv. 109.[130]Francis Joseph Sloane, who died in 1871. The villa passed by inheritance to the Russian family Boutourlin.[131]The name Camaldoli, which is borne in Florence by two districts of the city inhabited by the poorer classes—that of San Frediano and that behind San Lorenzo—is derived from the Camaldulensian church of San Salvatore, pulled down in 1529, which stood near the city walls on the left bank of the Arno. To the district of San Lorenzo the name was transferred from the other behind Sta. Croce, and at Porta San Niccolò there are other districts so named.[132]The prevailing opinion among the opponents of the Medici of the events of 1466 is expressed decidedly in the notices of Alamanno Rinuccini, who continued those of his father Filippo from the year 1460, as above, coll. xcix.[133]Cronachetta Volterrana di autore anomino del 1362 al 1478, given by M. Tabarrini in theArch. Stor. Ital.App. iii. 317.[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 PittiIstoria 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 theRerum 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. 141seq.[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’sGenealogywill be quoted here.[143]R. ReposatiDella Zecca di Gubbio, Bologna, 1772. James Dennistoun,Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, London, 1851. F. UgolinoStoria dei Conti e Duchi d’Urbino, Flor. 1859.[144]N. RattiDella Famiglia Sforza, i. 144seq.; 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’sAnnali, Venetii.[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 hisHistoire de la maison de Savoyerather 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 Febbraio1481 (1469), after a Magliabechi MS. printed by P. Fanfani inIl Borghini, vol. ii. (Flor. 1864) pp. 473-483, 533-542. Tournaments were also publicly proclaimed, as at the carnival, 1467, at Perugia. SeeGiornale 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 theRicordoquoted 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 inDelle Nozze di Lorenzo de’ Medici con Clarice Orsini nel1469informazione 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’sLife, 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’sIstoria Fiorentina(Arch. stor. Ital.i. Flor. 1842), p. 420seq., and Introduction to the same by Gino Capponi, 413seq.[177]Del Reggimento di Firenze, libri ii. In theOpere 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. 380seq.). 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 theArch. 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. 66seq.Desjardins, 161seq.The Dauphin, afterwards King Charles VIII. was born in 1470, Beatrice of Aragon in 1457. In 1476 she married Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary.
[1]Vasari, in Michelozzo’s Life (Vite, Lemonnier’s edition, Flor. 1846, ff., iii. p. 271); and in Brunelleschi’s Life, a. a. O., p. 228. Michelozzo was born about the year 1391. It is generally understood that the building of the Palace took place before Cosimo’s exile, and they quote from Migliore (Firenze Illustrata, Flor. 1684, p. 198 ff.), which specifies ‘circa all’Anno 1430.’ There is no foundation for this statement. Moreover, Michelozzo was not in Florence in the year supposed (Fantozzi,Guida di Firenze, Flor. 1842, p. 457).
[2]Vasari in the Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, a. a. O., ii. p. 225. The house came afterwards to the Ughi family. At present it is all built round, even the adjoining Lorenzi Palace, which up to our day preserved its ancient, solemn aspect.
[3]Ordinamenta justitiæ communis et populi Florentiæ anni1293, a Francisco Bonainio edita, in Archivio Storico Italiano, serie ii. i. p. 1-93 [1855]. C. Hegel,Die Ordnungen der Gerechtigkeit in der Florentinischen Republik, Erlangen 1867. Compare P. Capei, Arch. Stor. Ital. ser. iii. vii. p. 132.
[4]Fr. Bonaini,Della Parte Guelfa in Firenze, in Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani (Flor. 1857), ii. p. 171, 257; iii. p. 77, 167; iv. p. 3. Unfortunately this laborious work remains incomplete. The oldest constitution of the Capitani and the Guelf party was in 1335, and is printed in Bonaini, i. p. 1-41. The office was in existence up to the year 1769.
[5]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 92, 93.
[6]G. Canestrini,La Scienza e l’Arte di Stato desunta dagli Atti Officiali della Repubblica Florentina e dei Medici. Parte 1, L’imposta sulla ricchezza mobile e immobile. Florenz. 1862. No more has appeared of this work, which was to be the economical and administrative history of the Republic and of the first Medici period. The first part treats of theEstimo, of theCadastre, and of theDecimaof 1494. Cf. L. Banchi in the Archivio Stor. Ital., serie iii. i. p. 90 (G. F. Pagnini).Della Decima e delle altre gravezze imposte dal Commune di Firenze(Lucca, 1763) has in its first volume, p. 10, a short account of Florentine taxation, up to the introduction of thedecima(p. 214-231.—Provision of May 22, 1427, for the formation of thecadastre).
[7]The Peruzzi in 1325 were an instance of this.Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri di Firenze.Flor. 1868, p. 197.
[8]Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, at the end of book xiii. (Edit. Arbib. Flor. 1844, iii. p. 36.)
[9]‘Ipse quidem nescit si fructus sequetur, vel non; sed, auditis aliis civibus, idem secutus est.’ ‘Consulta’ of May 12, 1427, by P. Berti, Nuovi documenti intorno al Catasto florentino, in theGiorn. Stor. degli archivi Toscani, iv. 32. Giovanni Cavalcanti (Storia Fiorentina, Flor. 1838, i. 196.)—a contemporary, who has left us the most lifelike description of that period, but who must be used with great caution on account of his decided and enthusiastic party views—has been followed by all later writers in his opinion of the Medici. At the head of these is Machiavelli, who took him as the principal source of information for those times.
[10]Gio. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 262.
[11]Domenico Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della Basilica di S. Lorenzo. Flor. 1816, i. p. 27.
[12]Monuments Sépulcraux de Toscane, Flor. 1821. Table xiii. The inscription is as follows:
‘Cosmus et Laurentius de Medicis v. d. Joanni Averardi f. et Picardæ Adovardi f. carissimis parentibus hoc Sepulchrū faciendum curarunt. Obiit autem Johannes x. Kl. Martias MCCCCXXVIII. Picarda vero xiii. Kl. Maias quinquennio post e vita migravit.
Si merita in patriam, si gloria, sanguis et omniLarga manus nigra libera morte forent,Viveret heu patriæ casta cum coniuge felixAuxilium miseris portus et aura suis;Omnia sed quando superantur morte, Johannes,Hoc mausoleo tuque Picarda iaces,Ergo senex mœret, invenis, puer, omnis et ætas,Orba parente suo patria mœsta gemit.
[13]G. Cavalcanti, l. c. p. 269.
[14]The xv. and xvi. cantos ofIl Paradisocontain eloquent descriptions of historical importance, to the explanation of which the translation of Philalethes has contributed valuable materials.
[15]G. F. Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte, Flor. 1850. The MSS. of Bishop Hildebrand of the year 1013 show that the reconstruction of the church had already begun at that time.
[16]V. Marchese,Memorie dei più insigni pittori, scultori, e architetti Domenicani. Flor. 1845. I. p. 44 ff. F. Moisè,Santa Croce di Firenze, Flor. 1845. I. p. 42et seq.
[17]L. Passerini,La Loggia di Or San Michele, l. c. p. 113 ff.
[18]Regesta florentina internam Reipublicæ historiam spectantia ab a.MCCXXV,ad a.MD., by Gaye, Carteggio inedito d’Artisti, i. 413et seq.
[19]M. Rastrelli,Illustrazione istorica del Palazzo della Signoria. Flor. 1792. F. Moisè,Illustrazione storico-artistica del Palazzo de’ Priori. Flor. 1843.
[20]Fr. Becchi,Sulle Stinche di Firenze, in Illustratore fiorentino. Flor. 1840.
[21]Inferno xix. 17 (‘in my beautiful San Giovanni’). Purgatory xii. 100. Even with the present transformation of the hillside a great flight of steps is to be seen hard by.
[22]Concerning the various kinds of themacigni(Dante uses the expression,Infernoxv. 63, speaking of the obdurate nature of the Florentines of his time), thepietra forte,pietra fina,serena,bigia, see Targioni,Viaggi per la Toscana, i. p. 18et seq.
[23]The opinion expressed in the book of the Carmelite, P. Fr. M. Soldini—Delle eccellenze e grandezze della nazione fiorentina(Flor. 1780),—respecting the palace Tosinghi on the old market-place, destroyed, according to Gio. Villani, in the party wars of the middle of the 13th century, is, no doubt, a modern conjecture.
[24]Gaye, l. c. p. 498 (Anno 1344).
[25]Baldinucci, Professori del disegno (D. M. Manni’s Ausg.), vol. i. p. 24, Gaye l. c. p. 483.
[26]G. Masselli and G. P. Lasinio,Il Tabernacolo della Madonna d’Orsanmichele: Flor. 1851.
[27]L. Passerini,La Loggetta del Bigallo, l. c. p. 89et seq.
[28]Benedetto Dei, in Varchi,Storia Fiorentina, book ix. (ii. p. 116), names twenty-one loggias on private houses in the latter half of the 15th century. Lastro,Osservatore Fiorentino(published Flor. 1821), iii. p. 203et seq.
[29]Cronaca di Matteo Villani, book vii. chap. 41.
[30]L. Passerini,La Loggia della Signorial. c. p. 99. Gaye l. c. p. 527.
[31]Passerini l. c.; after him Il. Semper in A. v. Zahn’sFine Arts Annals, iii. p. 35-37. The tradition respecting Orcagna is in Lemonnier’sVasari, ii. p. 130.
[32]G. Aiazzi ‘Illustrazione della Capella gentilizia dellaFamiglia Rinuccini,’ in theRicordi di Filippo Rinuccini: Flor. 1840, p. 304-327.
[33]Gaye l. c. p. 536.
[34]C. Guasti,La Cupola di Sta. Maria del Fiore: Flor. 1857, p. 9, 37, 89.
[35]Plan and sketch in theOsservatore Fiorentino, ii. p. 167.
[36]Book of Statutes, part vii. book 4.
[37]Inscription on the back: ‘Clarissimi viri Cosmas et Laurentius fratres neglectas diu Sanctorum reliquias martyrum religioso studio ac fidelissima pietate suis sumptibus æneis loculis condendas colendasque curarunt.’ Figured in theMonuments Sépulcraux, Tablexx. In the time of the French invasion broken up and destined to be melted down, but rescued and restored, and now in the National Museum in the Palace of the Podestà.
[38]Pagnini,Della decima, etc., ii. p. 80. S. L. Peruzzi, p. 61.Osservatore fiorentino, iii. p. 185, vi. p. 157.
[39]Gio. Villani, xi. chap. 93.
[40]P. Berti,Documenti riguardanti il commercio dei Fiorentini in Francia nei secoli xiii. e xiv.in theGiornale storico degli Arch. Tosc.i. pp. 163, 217. The most abundant material is contained in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti’sPratica della Mercatura, 14th century, and Pagnini, iii.
[41]Osservatore fiorentino, iv. p. 124. F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Flor. 1839, p. 33. Fantozzi regards the Calimaruzza as the former Via Francesca, where the magazines of foreign cloth were, and the Calimala as the place for the sale of the native fabrics.
[42]G. Gargioli,L’Arte della Seta in Firenze trattato del secoloxv., Flor. 1868. The lists from 1225 to 1337 are printed p. 282-290. L. Venturi,Filippo Matteoni(the biography of one of the most intelligent silk-weavers of our time), in verse and prose, Flor. 1871, p. 321. S. Bongi,Della Mercatura dei Lucchesi nei sec.xiii. e xiv.Osservatore fior.iv. p. 103; vi. p. 36. Peruzzi, p. 36, where there are also the portraits of a crimson-dyer and a silk-spinner, after a MS. in the Laurentiana.
[43]L’Inferno, xvii. 43. Compare E. Morpurgo,I prestatori di denaro al tempo di Dante, inDante e Padua, Studj storico-critici, Padua, 1865, p. 193.
[44]Divine Comedy, ‘Paradise,’ xix. 119.
[45]Kervyn de Lettenhove,Les Argentiers Florentins, in theBulletins de l’Académie r. de Belgique, 1861, pp. 295-312. Compare also his treatise,Recherches sur la part que l’ordre de Citeaux et le Comte de Flandre prirent à la lutte de Boniface VIII. et de Philippe le Bel, in theMémoiresof the same Academy, xxviii. On the Franzesi family see Repetti,Dizionario della Toscana, article ‘Figline, Staggia.’
[46]Vol. x. chap. 88.
[47]Fr. Balducci Pegolotti, in Pagnini, p. 198.
[48]Bartolommeo Cerretani, in FabroniM. Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 63. Concerning this still unprinted chronicler, see Moreni,Bibliografia della Toscana, i. 249.
[49]Del Migliore, p. 6. See Gaye, p. 424.
[50]Extracts in Gaye, in the registers.
[51]Paradisoxv. 97.Purgat.xvi. 117.
[52]L. Mehus:Ambrosii Traversarii Epistolæ et Orationes. Flor. 1759, ccclxxiv.
[53]On the Bardi see Ademollo,Marietta de Ricci, 2nd edit. by L. Passerini, Flor, 1815, iii. 1135.
[54]‘Io confesso—che il concilio non è per me. Ma che debbo fare, se haggio uno fato che mi ci tira?’—Luca della Robbia,Vita di Bartolommeo Valori, in theArch. Stor. Ital.iv. part i. 262.
[55]Documenti relativi alla liberazione dalla prigionia di Giovanni XXIII., in theArch. Stor. Ital.429. Writings of Averardo di Medici to Michele Cossa, Flor. Dec. 31, 1419. Fabroni as above, ii. 11.
[56]Ciacconio:Historia Pontificum, etc., Rome, 1677, ii. 795, and theMonuments sépulcraux, plate xi., give an illustration. From Michelozzo’s Survey-Declaration in Gaye, as above, 117, we see that the monument was still unfinished in 1427, and the price agreed upon had been 800 florins.
[57]L. Passerini:Gli Alberti di Firenze, Flor. 1870, i. 118; ii. 227.
[58]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi per il comune di Firenze dal 1399 al 1433. Edited by Cesare Guasti. 3 vols. Flor. 1867-73.
[59]Gio. Cavalcanti, 319:Albizzi Family. See Ademollo, as above, ii. 695.Genealogij, by Gius. Ajazzi, MS. in possession of the author.
[60]Niccolò’s conversation with Niccolò Barbadoro, in Cavalcanti as above, p. 380 (copied, with alterations, by Machiavelli in the 4th book of theFlorentine Hist.), gives the best insight into the feelings of the party.
[61]Vasari:Life of Lorenzo di Bicci, ii. p. 229. The building of the Sapienza already begun, served later as a cage for lions, and is now employed as an educational institution.
[62]Vasari: Life of Masaccio, vol. iii. p. 160.
[63]Vitæ CIII. Virorum Illustrium qui sæculo xv. extiterunt, auctore coævo Vespasiano Florentino. (In theSpicilegium Romanum, edited by Cardinal Angelo Mai.) Rome, 1839, reprint.Vite di nomini illustri del secolo xv.scritte da Vespasiano da Bisticci, stampate nuovamente da Adolfo Bartoli. Flor. 1859.Palla di Noferi Strozzi, p. 271. Messer Leonardo is Leonardo Bruni.
[64]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 278.
[65]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 507.
[66]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 320-327.
[67]Fabroni as above, i. 27; ii. 31, 58.
[68]L. Passerini:Genealogia e storia della famiglia Guadagni, Flor. 1874, p. 52.
[69]Cosimo’s own memoranda, Fabroni as above, ii. 96, which give no information as to the grounds and form of the action, must be compared with Cavalcanti’s relation, 507, which supplied Machiavelli with his materials. The protocols of the Signory give no information as to these proceedings.
[70]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, 558, 610.
[71]Storia Fiorentina dai tempi di Cosimo de’ Medici a quelli del gonfaloniere Soderini.Flor. 1859. Vol. i. of theOpere inedite di Fr. Guicciardini, illustrate da G. Canestrini, p. 4.
[72]‘Fermare lo Stato’—to give a settled form to a Government, introduced by the sovereign or a political party. ‘Stato’ means in this case the rule with which they exercise it.
[73]I Capitoli del Comune di Firenze Inventario e Regesto, i. Flor. 1866.
[74]Published by D. M. Manni, Flor. 1720. Constantine Höfler has in his history of King Rupert (Freiburg, 1861) placed the activity of Buonaccorso Pitti in its right light.
[75]Printed by D. M. Manni Cronachette Antiche, Florence, 1733. The history of the conquest of Pisa, printed there likewise, is probably by his son Neri.
[76]Storia Fiorentina, chap. i.
[77]P. Litta:Genealogy of the Acciaiuoli. L. Taufani:Nicola Acciaiuoli, Florence, 1863. Gaye has published in theCarteggio inedita d’Artisti, i. 57-69, the remarkable letters of the seneschal for the years 1355-56, on the building of the Certosa. Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 351 (on Agnolo Acciaiuoli).
[78]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, 332. Angiolo Segni:Vita di Donato Acciaiuoli, edited by Tommaso Tonelli, Florence, 1841.
[79]Franc. Guicciardini:Recordi di Famiglia, in hisOpere inedite, x.
[80]Description and narrative which Vespasiano da Bisticci, 525, gives of Alessandra de Bardi Strozzi and her sad fate, give a deep insight into the miseries of this time.
[81]Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii. 651, 669.
[82]Commissioni, iii. 672, 677.
[83]Idem, 680.
[84]Vespasiano de Bisticci as above, 417.
[85]L. Basserini:Baldaccio da Anghiari, in theArch. Stor. Ital., 3, iii. 131, 166. The author is of the opinion that the connections of Baldaccio to the Pope Gregory IV., still residing in Florence, were the cause of the Medicean party wishing to get rid of him.
[86]Gio. Cavalcanti, I. c. ii. 195.
[87]Register of 1458, Canestrini, as above, 168. Progressive scale,id.213.
[88]Gio. Cavalcanti as above, ii. 210.
[89]Etiam nobis esset reputatio et utilitas si Papa hic veniret. Rinaldo degli Albizzi,Commissioni, iii. 589.
[90]C. Milanesi, ‘Osservazioni intorno agli esemplari del decreto d’unione della chiesa Greca con la Latina che si conservano nella biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana o nell’Archivio di Stato,’ with Greek and Latin text of the decree of union, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. tosc.i. 196-225. This is not the place to refer to the newest historico-critical literature on this subject.
[91]Fabroni as above, ii. 163.
[92]Life of Eugenius IV.as above, 16.
[93]Life of Agnolo Acciaiuolias above, p. 357.
[94]Giannone,Storia civile del Regno di Napoli, book xxvi. chap. 2.
[95]Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal 1282 al 1460, colla continuazione di Alamanno e Neri suoi figli fino al 1506 per cura di G. Aiazzi, Flor. 1840, lxxxix.
[96]Letter of Pius II., and his answer, in Fabroni, ii. 254.
[97]Document of the purchase of the ‘sclava,’ twenty-two years old, for the price of 60 ducats, Fabroni, ii. 214.
[98]Fabroni as above, ii. 251.
[99]Idem, 253.
[100]The list of the masses ordered by Piero de’ Medici after his father’s death, and the grants for mourning habits to the members and servants of his family, among them five chamber-women and four maids (schiave), are given by Fabroni, ii. 254.
[101]M. Ficino,Epistol.i. 85.
[102]Fabroni, ii. 257.
[103]Litta, ‘Family Tornabuoni,’ in theFamiglie celebri Ital., Ademollo as above, iv. 1200. The Tornabuoni became extinct in 1635, and the name and inheritance of the Tornaquinci, extinct in 1790, passed to the branch of the Medici which is still flourishing in Florence.
[104]January 1, 1448, after Florentine style (annus ab incarnatione,i.e.from March 25), is the same day 1449.
[105]Laurentii Medicis Vita, per Nicolaum Valorium edita ad Leonem X.P.M. First printed by L. Mehus after a Laurentian MS., Flor. 1749; more recently in Philippi VillaniLiber de civitatis Florentiæ famosis civibus et de Florentinorum litteratura principes fere synchroni scriptores. Ed. G. C. Galletti. Flor. 1847, p. 161. An Italian translation had already appeared, Flor. 1568. Niccolò Valori was a pupil of Marsilio Ficino, and a member of the Platonic Academy.
[106]On Gentile of Urbino, as he was commonly called, see A. M. Bandini,Specimen literaturæ Florentinæ, sæc. xv., Flor. 1752, i. 182; ii. 111. Desjardins-Canestrini,Négotiations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, Paris 1859, i. 317.Embassy of Becchi and Piero Soderini to King Charles VIII., 1493,idem, 321-365.Address to Pope Innocent VIII. on occasion of the Neapolitan war of the Barons, 1485, p. 205-214. Gentile, bishop of Arezzo 1473, died April 19, 1497.
[107]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Magnif. Vita, Pisa, 1784, ii. 9.
[108]N. Valori as above, 166.
[109]Politian,Conjuratio Pactiana, at the end.
[110]Litta,Family Pazzi, Ademollo, as above, iv. 1228.
[111]As above, 372.
[112]For documents referring to the embassy, see Desjardins, as above, 109, 135.
[113]Vespasiano, as above, 375.
[114]L. Passerini,Genealogia e storia della famiglia Rucellai, Flor. 1861.
[115]L. Passerini,Genealogy of the Soderini, continuation of Litta’sFamiglie celebri.
[116]Vasari,Life of Donatello, iii. 250. For illustration see Litta.
[117]Cronica di Napoli di Notar Giacomo, pubbl. da P. Garzilli, Naples, 1845, p. 100. Giovan. Pietro Cagnola,Storia di Milano(‘Cronache Milanesi,’ in theArch. stor. ital.iii. Flor. 1842), informs us (p. 170) of Don Federigo’s arrival and the causes of the delay of the wedding, which was connected with Jacopo Piccinino’s affairs (see below, p. 219). Ippolita arrived on September 14 at Naples, after having waited two months in Siena, till her father permitted her to proceed. (Cronica di Notar Giacomo, 112; Cagnola, 171.)
[118]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcv.
[119]Luigi Pulci’s letter, see Roscoe, App. ix., but more correct in theLettere di Luigi Pulci a Lorenzo il Magnifico e ad altri(edited by Salvatore Bongi), Lucca, 1868, p. 1. There are various notices of the writer here, but unfortunately no notes to the letters, which are often unintelligible, and will probably remain so, in spite of all notes, with regard to various persons mentioned.
[120]Fabroni, l. e., ii. 51seq.
[121]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcvi.
[122]Fabroni as above, ii. 47; letter of March 22,idem, 49.
[123]Desjardins as above, 136-141.
[124]Guicciardini, in whom the traditions of grandfather and granduncle are united in cap. ii. of theStoria fiorentina, p. 18; Machiavelli, who, in consequence of the death of Girolamo, his ancestor in Cosimo’s time, could not be very favourable to Luca Pitti and his adherents, in book vii. of his history. G. M. Bruto,Florentinæ historiæ, book ii.
[125]On this affair, which has never been fully cleared up, see Ricotti,Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura, iii. 191, where the judgment of contemporaries is referred to; and Canestrini,Documenti per servire alla storia della Milizia italiana, Flor. 1851 (Arch. stor. ital.xv.), series lxxviii. 179-184, where the letters of Francesco Sforza and the King are to be found.
[126]Vespasiano da Bisticci as above, p. 360.
[127]Rinuccini,Ricordi, xcix.
[128]Lettera di Jacopo Acciaiuoli ad Agnolo, Naples, September 6, 1466. See Fabroni as above, ii. 28. The time of Lorenzo’s journey cannot be precisely fixed, but it must have taken place before or towards the middle of August, for the later events leave no time. Jacopo writes: ‘Lorenzo di Piero fu quà. Il S. Rè li fece carezze assai.’
[129]Paradiso, xv. 109.
[130]Francis Joseph Sloane, who died in 1871. The villa passed by inheritance to the Russian family Boutourlin.
[131]The name Camaldoli, which is borne in Florence by two districts of the city inhabited by the poorer classes—that of San Frediano and that behind San Lorenzo—is derived from the Camaldulensian church of San Salvatore, pulled down in 1529, which stood near the city walls on the left bank of the Arno. To the district of San Lorenzo the name was transferred from the other behind Sta. Croce, and at Porta San Niccolò there are other districts so named.
[132]The prevailing opinion among the opponents of the Medici of the events of 1466 is expressed decidedly in the notices of Alamanno Rinuccini, who continued those of his father Filippo from the year 1460, as above, coll. xcix.
[133]Cronachetta Volterrana di autore anomino del 1362 al 1478, given by M. Tabarrini in theArch. Stor. Ital.App. iii. 317.
[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 PittiIstoria 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 theRerum 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. 141seq.
[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’sGenealogywill be quoted here.
[143]R. ReposatiDella Zecca di Gubbio, Bologna, 1772. James Dennistoun,Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, London, 1851. F. UgolinoStoria dei Conti e Duchi d’Urbino, Flor. 1859.
[144]N. RattiDella Famiglia Sforza, i. 144seq.; 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’sAnnali, Venetii.
[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 hisHistoire de la maison de Savoyerather 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 Febbraio1481 (1469), after a Magliabechi MS. printed by P. Fanfani inIl Borghini, vol. ii. (Flor. 1864) pp. 473-483, 533-542. Tournaments were also publicly proclaimed, as at the carnival, 1467, at Perugia. SeeGiornale 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 theRicordoquoted 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 inDelle Nozze di Lorenzo de’ Medici con Clarice Orsini nel1469informazione 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’sLife, 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’sIstoria Fiorentina(Arch. stor. Ital.i. Flor. 1842), p. 420seq., and Introduction to the same by Gino Capponi, 413seq.
[177]Del Reggimento di Firenze, libri ii. In theOpere 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. 380seq.). 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 theArch. 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. 66seq.Desjardins, 161seq.The Dauphin, afterwards King Charles VIII. was born in 1470, Beatrice of Aragon in 1457. In 1476 she married Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary.