APPENDICES.APPENDIX I.CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.[580]1115.Death of the Countess Matilda. Increased independence of the Tuscan towns.1188.Frederic Barbarossa in Florence.1201.Chiarissimo de’ Medici member of the council of the Florentine Commonwealth.1207.Election of the first Podestà.1215.Beginning of civil feuds.1250.First constitution of the Florentine commonalty of citizens in opposition to the nobility. TheCapitano del Popolo.1260.Battle of Montaperti. Victory of the Ghibelline party.1266.Charles of Anjou. The Ghibellines leave Florence.1282.Origin of the political constitution of the guilds (Priori delle Arti).1293.Reform of the constitution of the guilds.Gonfalonieri di giustizia.Penal laws against the nobility.1294.Building of the Palace of the Commonwealth (Palazzo dei Priori), and of the new Cathedral begun.1312.Siege of Florence by the Emperor Henry VII.1320.Beginning of the war against Castruccio, Lord of Lucca.1336.War against Martino della Scala, Lord of Verona.1342-43.Tyrannical government of Gautier de Brienne, Duke of Athens. Complete downfall of the ancient nobility.1346.Great losses of the Florentine banks.1351.Beginning of the wars against the Visconti of Milan.1362.War with Pisa.1371.Factions of the Albizzi and Ricci. Exclusion of many citizens from office.1375.Beginning of enmity between the Florentines and Pope Gregory XI. (1377, return of the Pope from Avignon to Rome.)1378.Gonfaloniership of Salvestro de’ Medici. Rising and government of the lowest classes (Tumulto dei Ciompi).Ambrogio Traversari born (d. 1439).1379.Execution of Piero degli Albizzi.Filippo Brunelleschi b. (d. 1446).1380.Poggio Bracciolini b. (d. 1459).1381?Lorenzo Ghiberti b. (d. 1455).1382.End of the popular government. Rise of the power of the Albizzi.1386.Donatello b. (d. 1466).1387.Exile of Benedetto degli Alberti and his family. Fra Giovanni of Fiesole b. (d. 1455).1388.Salvestro de’ Medici d.1389.Cosimo de’ Medici b. (d. 1464).1391.Neri Capponi, son of Gino, b. (d. 1457). Michelozzo Michelozzi b. (d. 1472).1393.Tyranny of Maso degli Albizzi. Vieri de’ Medici.1394.Luigi Marsigli d.1396.Emmanuel Chrysoloras called to Florence (d. 1415). Giannozzo Manetti b. (d. 1459).1399.Pilgrimages of the White Penitents. Great mortality. Carlo Marsuppini b. (d. 1453).1400.War with Gian-Galeazzo Visconti (d. 1402). Alliance with King Ruprecht of the Pfalz. Luca della Robbia b. (d. 1482).1401.Masaccio b., at San Giovanni in Val d’Arno (d. 1428).1403.League with Pope Boniface IX. and others against the Visconti.L. Ghiberti receives the commission for the first door of the Baptistery.1404.Beginning of the enterprise against Pisa.1405.Fight for Pisa. Gino Capponi.Matteo Palmieri b. (d. 1475). L. B. Alberti b. (d. 1472).1406.Capture of Pisa.Coluccio Salutati d. (b. 1330).1408.Efforts to restore the unity of the Church.1409.Council of Pisa. (P. Alexander V.)Bernardo Rossellino b. (d. 1464).1410.League with Pope John XXIII. [Baldassar Cossa]. Feo Belcari b. (d. 1484).1411.Treaty with K. Ladislas of Naples. Purchase of Cortona. Establishment of the Council of Two Hundred.1412?Fra Filippo Lippi b. (d. 1469).1414.New treaty with K. Ladislas, and after his death, with his sister Queen Joanna II. Cosimo de’ Medici and John XXII. at Constance.1415.Benedetto Accolti b. (d. 1466).1416.Plague at Florence.Piero de’ Medici b. (d. 1469).1417.Maso degli Albizzi d. His son Rinaldo and Niccolò da Uzzano at the head of the Commonwealth.1419.Pope Martin V. in Florence. Reconciliation and death of John XXII.Archbishopric of Florence. Amerigo Corsini.1420.Filippo Brunelleschi architect of the dome of the Cathedral.Benozzo Gozzoli b. (d. 1498).1421.Purchase of Livorno. Gino Capponi d.1422.Flourishing state of commerce. Relations with the Levant.1423.Beginning of the war with Filippo Maria Visconti.1424.Defeat at Zagonara.Cristoforo Landino b. (d. 1504).1425.Defeat at Anghiari.Lorenzo Ghiberti receives the commission for the second door of the Baptistery.1426.Disputes about taxes and war-imposts. The Albizzi and Giovanni de’ Medici.1427.First register of lands.Antonio Rossellino b. (d. 1478).1428.Peace with F. M. Visconti.Reform of the University. Palla Strozzi.1429.Giovanni de’ Medici d. Revolt of Volterra on account of the introduction of the land-register.Francesco Filelfo in Florence.Antonio Pollaiuolo b. (d. 1498).1430.War with Lucca. The Jews in Florence.Bartolommeo Scala b. (d. 1495).1431.Pope Eugene IV.Luigi Pulci b. (d. 1486).Mino da Fiesole b. (d. 1484).1432.Giuliano da Majano b. (d. 1490.)Niccolò da Uzzano d.K. Sigismund in Italy. (Crowned Emperor 1433).1433.War with Lucca ended by a treaty with Milan.Exile of Cosimo de’ Medici.Marsilio Ficino b. (d. 1499).1434.Recall of Cosimo de’ Medici. Exile of Rinaldo degli Albizzi, Palla Strozzi and their friends. Pope Eugene IV. in Florence. Completion of the dome of the Cathedral.1435.Cosimo de’ Medici Gonfalonier.Andrea del Verrocchio b. (d. 1488).1436.Consecration of the Cathedral by Pope Eugene IV. Convent and library of San Marco. Medici palace.1439.Florentine Council of Union. The Greeks in Florence.1440.War of the Visconti. Battle of Anghiari. End of the dominion of the Guidi in the Casentino.1441.Death of Baldaccio da Anghiari.Pietro Pollaiuolo b. (d. 1489?).? Luca Signorelli b. (d. 1523).1442.Benedetto da Majano b. (d. 1498?).Rinaldo degli Albizzi d., at Ancona.1445.Giuliano Giamberti da Sangallo b. (d. 1516).1446.S. Antonine Archbishop (d. 1459).1447.War in the Chiana valley with Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples. Pope Nicholas V.1449.(January 1) Lorenzo de’ Medici b. (d. 1492).Bernardo Rucellai b. (d. 1514).Domenico Ghirlandajo b. (d. 1494).1450.Dispute with Venice. Francesco Sforza Duke of Milan.1451.Amerigo Vespucci b. (d. 1512).1452.Emperor Frederic III. in Florence. The Neapolitans in the Chiana valley. Leonardo da Vinci b. (d. 1519).1453.Giuliano de’ Medici b. (d. 1478).Girolamo Benevieni b. (d. 1542).1454.Peace of Lodi, between Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples.Angelo Ambrogio Poliziano b. (d. 1494).1455.Intrigues against Cosimo de’ Medici. Luca Pitti. Pope Calixtus III.1456.Johannes Argyropulos called to Florence.1457.Simone Pollaiuolo Cronaca b. (d. 1508).Filippino Lippi b. (d. 1504).1458.Changes in the Constitution by Luca Pitti. Pope Pius II.1459.Pope Pius II. in Florence.Benozzo Gozzoli paints the chapel of the Medici palace.1461.Piero de’ Medici Gonfalonier.1463.Giovanni Pico della Mirandola b. (d. 1494).1464.Cosimo de’ Medici, ‘Pater Patriæ,’ d. Pope Paul II.Marcello Virgilio Adriani b. (d. 1521).1465.Beginning of the Pitti disturbances.1466.Conspiracy of Diotisalvi Neroni, Luca Pitti, and their friends against Piero de’ Medici.1467.War of Colleone.1468.Peace with Venice. Purchase of Sarzana. Tournament and marriage of Lorenzo de’ Medici.1469.Piero de’ Medici d. Authority of Lorenzo. Tommaso Soderini.1470.Attempted revolt at Prato.Bernardo Dovizj of Bibiena b. (d. 1520).1471.Galeazzo Maria Sforza in Florence. Lorenzo de’ Medici at Rome with Pope Sixtus IV. Piero de’ Medici b. (d. 1503). Bernardo Cennini, first Florentine printer.1472.Revolt and conquest of Volterra.1473.Re-opening of the University of Pisa.1474.King Christian of Denmark in Florence.1475.Giovanni de’ Medici [Pope Leo X.] b. (d. 1521). Michelangelo Buonarotti b. (d. 1564). Murder of Galeazzo M. Sforza. Regency of Bona of Savoy.1478.Conspiracy of the Pazzi. Death of Giuliano de’ Medici. War with Rome and Naples. Giulio de’ Medici [Pope Clement VII.] b.1479.Defeat at Poggibonzi. Lorenzo de’ Medici in Naples. Lodovico il Moro regent of Milan.1480.Peace between Florence, Naples, and the Pope. Establishment of the Council of Seventy.1481.Cristoforo Landino’s edition of Dante.1482.Ferrarese war. Francesco Guicciardini b. (d. 1540).1483.Fra Girolamo Savonarola in Florence. King Louis XI. of France d. Charles VIII. king.1484.Peace of Bagnolo. Pope Sixtus IV. d. Innocent VIII. Pope.1485.The Florentines in the Neapolitan barons’ war against the Pope.1486.Peace between the Pope and King Ferrante.1487.Re-capture of Sarzana by the Florentines.1488.Family alliance between the Medici and Innocent VIII. Clarice de’ Medici d. Homer’s works first printed. Convent of San Gallo.Murder of Girolamo Riario and Galeotto Manfredi.1489.Cardinalate of Giovanni de’ Medici.Fra Girolamo Savonarola again at San Marco.Building of the Strozzi palace begun.Benedetto da Majano.1490.New constitutional reform. Lorenzo de’ Medici mediator between Pope Innocent and King Ferrante.Cathedral. Choir of Sta. Maria Novella by Ghirlandajo. Negotiations for completion of the Cathedral façade.1491.Reconciliation between the Pope and Naples.1492.Proclamation of the Cardinalate of Giovanni de’ Medici.Lorenzo de’ Medici d., April 8.APPENDIX II.MEDICI.PAZZI.SODERINI.VISCONTIandSFORZA.APPENDIX III.LORENZO’S LAST HOURS.Book VI. Chapter VIII.Theinterview of Savonarola and Lorenzo de’ Medici has given rise to a controversy which has never been definitively settled. The account of the monk’s biographers, Giovan Francesco Pico and Pacifico Burlamachi, cannot be reconciled with that given in Politian’s letter above referred to. This last has the air of containing a mitigated version of the facts, intended to efface the bad impression made by current reports of the matter; and the third exhortation put into the monk’s mouth by Politian—‘that he should endure death with patience’—sounds almost like a commonplace, considering the gravity of the moment and the characters of the interlocutors. C. F. Meier, in his History of Savonarola (p. 52, &c.), and Villari, in ‘La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola’ (i. 136), accept the version given by the Ferrarese monk’s earliest biographers, and Villari tries to establish it by a long note (p. 155-158). But this version contains great improbabilities. How should the dying man, who had just received the viaticum, make another confession? And what could Savonarola have meant by his famous third demand—what practical use or effect could he expect from it, or from the possible assent of the dying man? The story looks like an invention of the after-days of excitement. The doubts as to the authenticity of the books of Burlamachi and Pico, which, it is suspected, were fabricated in the convent of San Marco and adorned with these authors’ names, are of little consequence in this connection, as in any case the tradition was doubtless current among Savonarola’s contemporaries.Bartolommeo Cerretani gives, in the third book of his MS. chronicle, the following account of Lorenzo’s last hours:—‘April 7, about the fifth hour, Lorenzo received the Lord’s Supper. As his illness was making such rapid progress, Messer Pier Leoni, otherwise an excellent physician, lost heart; other doctors were at once sent for, but it was too late. Feeling his end approaching, the sick man sent for his eldest son Piero, gave him divers exhortations, and then sent him away. About the twentieth hour he began to cry out: “I am dying and there is none to help me!” All hastenedto him. He said he wanted to get up a little, and had himself lifted out of bed, but only to be laid down immediately. The pains were so violent that he lost consciousness. Those standing round him began to weep, for they thought he was dead. A Camaldulensian who was present took off his spectacles, and holding them to his mouth perceived that he still breathed. A restorative was given him and he came to himself. Then he called for his son again and spoke to him softly, so that none of the others heard. After that his condition rapidly grew worse, so that he gave up the ghost on the 8th, about the fourth hour of the evening, in the arms of a valet.’The doctor who, though a learned man, certainly seems to have blundered in his judgment as to Lorenzo’s illness, put an end to his life next morning as has been related above (p. 461), by jumping into the well at the Martelli villa at San Gervasio before Porta Pinti.Sannazzaro’s poem in terza rima (in Roscoe, Ap. lxxviii.) on the death of Piero Leoni attributes it to the instigation of Piero de’ Medici. The fragment beginning: ‘Fu trovato essere stato gettato in un pozzo’ &c., published in Fabroni (l. c. ii. 397) as being from some anonymous author in the Magliabecchiana, is borrowed from the Ricordi of Alamanno Rinuccini (p. cxlvi). Petrus Crinitus and Valerianus (De literatorum infelicitate) take it for granted that the doctor in his agitation took his own life; and Cerretani certainly indicates that Leoni, who a short time before had been in good hopes, lost his head. He states, moreover, that the Medici’s grooms threatened the life of the physician, who was, therefore, taken to San Gervasio, and that the report of his death by the violence of others was immediately spread, but was unfounded. Burcard in his defective report (p. 175) alludes to Piero de’ Medici’s complaint by saying that the fatal termination of the illness was to be attributed to wrong medical treatment, and raises a supposition that at Rome there was believed to have been a murder.In May, Demetrius Chalcondylas wrote from Milan to Marcello Virgilio Adriani: ‘Thou hast announced to me two sad events; the flash of lightning which has struck the principal church of the city, occasioned so much ruin, and presaged so great evils; and the death of Lorenzo, the most famous man of our time, who was distinguished in so many ways. His decease causes me deep sorrow, not merely on account of the loss, which touches us all in no slight degree, but also on account of what I personally lose, who have always found him a kind patron. And to all this is added the sad and fearful death of Piero Leoni, which has shocked me more than anythingfor a long time past. Believe me, Marcello, this end casts a shadow over Lorenzo’s death, and is a dishonour to the family and to the whole city. For although thou, like others, writest that he threw himself into the well, yet it is difficult to convince thoughtful people that such a wise and learned man, who, as thou thyself also tellest me, treated Lorenzo in his illness with so much care, could have been seized with such madness as to choose so shameful a death.’ (Bandini, Collectio, &c., p. 22).In Fabroni, l. c., and Roscoe, ‘Life of Leo X.’ (Ap. No. xxii.) will be found the letters written by Cardinal Giovanni to his brother after their father’s death. The first may be given here. The original is in the curious mixture of Latin and Italian sentences which was then still in vogue.‘My beloved brother, now the only support of our house. What shall I write to thee, when only tears are left me? For when I consider that our father of blessed memory is taken from us, I am nearer weeping than speaking. What a father! None was kinder than he to his children; of this facts are witness. Therefore it is no wonder that I lament and can find no rest; and my only consolation is that I have thee, my brother, in our father’s place. It is for thee to command, for me to obey, and thy commands will always give me the greatest pleasure. Try me; nothing shall find me backward. But I beg thee, my Piero, be towards all, especially towards thine own people, as I wish thee, beneficent, kind, courteous, gracious; thereby all is obtained, all is preserved. Not because I mistrust thee do I remind thee of this, but because it is my duty. I am consoled and sustained by the concourse of mourners to our house, the universal sympathy, the mourning of the whole city, and other things which help to alleviate sorrow. But what consoles me above all is that I have thee, whom I trust more than my words are able to express. As to what thou wishest arranged with his Holiness, nothing has been done, as it seemed better to take another way, on which the ambassador will report to thee, and which seems as if it must lead more easily to the object. Rome, April 12, 1492.’THE END.LONDON: PRINTED BYSPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUAREAND PARLIAMENT STREET
APPENDICES.APPENDIX I.CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.[580]1115.Death of the Countess Matilda. Increased independence of the Tuscan towns.1188.Frederic Barbarossa in Florence.1201.Chiarissimo de’ Medici member of the council of the Florentine Commonwealth.1207.Election of the first Podestà.1215.Beginning of civil feuds.1250.First constitution of the Florentine commonalty of citizens in opposition to the nobility. TheCapitano del Popolo.1260.Battle of Montaperti. Victory of the Ghibelline party.1266.Charles of Anjou. The Ghibellines leave Florence.1282.Origin of the political constitution of the guilds (Priori delle Arti).1293.Reform of the constitution of the guilds.Gonfalonieri di giustizia.Penal laws against the nobility.1294.Building of the Palace of the Commonwealth (Palazzo dei Priori), and of the new Cathedral begun.1312.Siege of Florence by the Emperor Henry VII.1320.Beginning of the war against Castruccio, Lord of Lucca.1336.War against Martino della Scala, Lord of Verona.1342-43.Tyrannical government of Gautier de Brienne, Duke of Athens. Complete downfall of the ancient nobility.1346.Great losses of the Florentine banks.1351.Beginning of the wars against the Visconti of Milan.1362.War with Pisa.1371.Factions of the Albizzi and Ricci. Exclusion of many citizens from office.1375.Beginning of enmity between the Florentines and Pope Gregory XI. (1377, return of the Pope from Avignon to Rome.)1378.Gonfaloniership of Salvestro de’ Medici. Rising and government of the lowest classes (Tumulto dei Ciompi).Ambrogio Traversari born (d. 1439).1379.Execution of Piero degli Albizzi.Filippo Brunelleschi b. (d. 1446).1380.Poggio Bracciolini b. (d. 1459).1381?Lorenzo Ghiberti b. (d. 1455).1382.End of the popular government. Rise of the power of the Albizzi.1386.Donatello b. (d. 1466).1387.Exile of Benedetto degli Alberti and his family. Fra Giovanni of Fiesole b. (d. 1455).1388.Salvestro de’ Medici d.1389.Cosimo de’ Medici b. (d. 1464).1391.Neri Capponi, son of Gino, b. (d. 1457). Michelozzo Michelozzi b. (d. 1472).1393.Tyranny of Maso degli Albizzi. Vieri de’ Medici.1394.Luigi Marsigli d.1396.Emmanuel Chrysoloras called to Florence (d. 1415). Giannozzo Manetti b. (d. 1459).1399.Pilgrimages of the White Penitents. Great mortality. Carlo Marsuppini b. (d. 1453).1400.War with Gian-Galeazzo Visconti (d. 1402). Alliance with King Ruprecht of the Pfalz. Luca della Robbia b. (d. 1482).1401.Masaccio b., at San Giovanni in Val d’Arno (d. 1428).1403.League with Pope Boniface IX. and others against the Visconti.L. Ghiberti receives the commission for the first door of the Baptistery.1404.Beginning of the enterprise against Pisa.1405.Fight for Pisa. Gino Capponi.Matteo Palmieri b. (d. 1475). L. B. Alberti b. (d. 1472).1406.Capture of Pisa.Coluccio Salutati d. (b. 1330).1408.Efforts to restore the unity of the Church.1409.Council of Pisa. (P. Alexander V.)Bernardo Rossellino b. (d. 1464).1410.League with Pope John XXIII. [Baldassar Cossa]. Feo Belcari b. (d. 1484).1411.Treaty with K. Ladislas of Naples. Purchase of Cortona. Establishment of the Council of Two Hundred.1412?Fra Filippo Lippi b. (d. 1469).1414.New treaty with K. Ladislas, and after his death, with his sister Queen Joanna II. Cosimo de’ Medici and John XXII. at Constance.1415.Benedetto Accolti b. (d. 1466).1416.Plague at Florence.Piero de’ Medici b. (d. 1469).1417.Maso degli Albizzi d. His son Rinaldo and Niccolò da Uzzano at the head of the Commonwealth.1419.Pope Martin V. in Florence. Reconciliation and death of John XXII.Archbishopric of Florence. Amerigo Corsini.1420.Filippo Brunelleschi architect of the dome of the Cathedral.Benozzo Gozzoli b. (d. 1498).1421.Purchase of Livorno. Gino Capponi d.1422.Flourishing state of commerce. Relations with the Levant.1423.Beginning of the war with Filippo Maria Visconti.1424.Defeat at Zagonara.Cristoforo Landino b. (d. 1504).1425.Defeat at Anghiari.Lorenzo Ghiberti receives the commission for the second door of the Baptistery.1426.Disputes about taxes and war-imposts. The Albizzi and Giovanni de’ Medici.1427.First register of lands.Antonio Rossellino b. (d. 1478).1428.Peace with F. M. Visconti.Reform of the University. Palla Strozzi.1429.Giovanni de’ Medici d. Revolt of Volterra on account of the introduction of the land-register.Francesco Filelfo in Florence.Antonio Pollaiuolo b. (d. 1498).1430.War with Lucca. The Jews in Florence.Bartolommeo Scala b. (d. 1495).1431.Pope Eugene IV.Luigi Pulci b. (d. 1486).Mino da Fiesole b. (d. 1484).1432.Giuliano da Majano b. (d. 1490.)Niccolò da Uzzano d.K. Sigismund in Italy. (Crowned Emperor 1433).1433.War with Lucca ended by a treaty with Milan.Exile of Cosimo de’ Medici.Marsilio Ficino b. (d. 1499).1434.Recall of Cosimo de’ Medici. Exile of Rinaldo degli Albizzi, Palla Strozzi and their friends. Pope Eugene IV. in Florence. Completion of the dome of the Cathedral.1435.Cosimo de’ Medici Gonfalonier.Andrea del Verrocchio b. (d. 1488).1436.Consecration of the Cathedral by Pope Eugene IV. Convent and library of San Marco. Medici palace.1439.Florentine Council of Union. The Greeks in Florence.1440.War of the Visconti. Battle of Anghiari. End of the dominion of the Guidi in the Casentino.1441.Death of Baldaccio da Anghiari.Pietro Pollaiuolo b. (d. 1489?).? Luca Signorelli b. (d. 1523).1442.Benedetto da Majano b. (d. 1498?).Rinaldo degli Albizzi d., at Ancona.1445.Giuliano Giamberti da Sangallo b. (d. 1516).1446.S. Antonine Archbishop (d. 1459).1447.War in the Chiana valley with Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples. Pope Nicholas V.1449.(January 1) Lorenzo de’ Medici b. (d. 1492).Bernardo Rucellai b. (d. 1514).Domenico Ghirlandajo b. (d. 1494).1450.Dispute with Venice. Francesco Sforza Duke of Milan.1451.Amerigo Vespucci b. (d. 1512).1452.Emperor Frederic III. in Florence. The Neapolitans in the Chiana valley. Leonardo da Vinci b. (d. 1519).1453.Giuliano de’ Medici b. (d. 1478).Girolamo Benevieni b. (d. 1542).1454.Peace of Lodi, between Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples.Angelo Ambrogio Poliziano b. (d. 1494).1455.Intrigues against Cosimo de’ Medici. Luca Pitti. Pope Calixtus III.1456.Johannes Argyropulos called to Florence.1457.Simone Pollaiuolo Cronaca b. (d. 1508).Filippino Lippi b. (d. 1504).1458.Changes in the Constitution by Luca Pitti. Pope Pius II.1459.Pope Pius II. in Florence.Benozzo Gozzoli paints the chapel of the Medici palace.1461.Piero de’ Medici Gonfalonier.1463.Giovanni Pico della Mirandola b. (d. 1494).1464.Cosimo de’ Medici, ‘Pater Patriæ,’ d. Pope Paul II.Marcello Virgilio Adriani b. (d. 1521).1465.Beginning of the Pitti disturbances.1466.Conspiracy of Diotisalvi Neroni, Luca Pitti, and their friends against Piero de’ Medici.1467.War of Colleone.1468.Peace with Venice. Purchase of Sarzana. Tournament and marriage of Lorenzo de’ Medici.1469.Piero de’ Medici d. Authority of Lorenzo. Tommaso Soderini.1470.Attempted revolt at Prato.Bernardo Dovizj of Bibiena b. (d. 1520).1471.Galeazzo Maria Sforza in Florence. Lorenzo de’ Medici at Rome with Pope Sixtus IV. Piero de’ Medici b. (d. 1503). Bernardo Cennini, first Florentine printer.1472.Revolt and conquest of Volterra.1473.Re-opening of the University of Pisa.1474.King Christian of Denmark in Florence.1475.Giovanni de’ Medici [Pope Leo X.] b. (d. 1521). Michelangelo Buonarotti b. (d. 1564). Murder of Galeazzo M. Sforza. Regency of Bona of Savoy.1478.Conspiracy of the Pazzi. Death of Giuliano de’ Medici. War with Rome and Naples. Giulio de’ Medici [Pope Clement VII.] b.1479.Defeat at Poggibonzi. Lorenzo de’ Medici in Naples. Lodovico il Moro regent of Milan.1480.Peace between Florence, Naples, and the Pope. Establishment of the Council of Seventy.1481.Cristoforo Landino’s edition of Dante.1482.Ferrarese war. Francesco Guicciardini b. (d. 1540).1483.Fra Girolamo Savonarola in Florence. King Louis XI. of France d. Charles VIII. king.1484.Peace of Bagnolo. Pope Sixtus IV. d. Innocent VIII. Pope.1485.The Florentines in the Neapolitan barons’ war against the Pope.1486.Peace between the Pope and King Ferrante.1487.Re-capture of Sarzana by the Florentines.1488.Family alliance between the Medici and Innocent VIII. Clarice de’ Medici d. Homer’s works first printed. Convent of San Gallo.Murder of Girolamo Riario and Galeotto Manfredi.1489.Cardinalate of Giovanni de’ Medici.Fra Girolamo Savonarola again at San Marco.Building of the Strozzi palace begun.Benedetto da Majano.1490.New constitutional reform. Lorenzo de’ Medici mediator between Pope Innocent and King Ferrante.Cathedral. Choir of Sta. Maria Novella by Ghirlandajo. Negotiations for completion of the Cathedral façade.1491.Reconciliation between the Pope and Naples.1492.Proclamation of the Cardinalate of Giovanni de’ Medici.Lorenzo de’ Medici d., April 8.APPENDIX II.MEDICI.PAZZI.SODERINI.VISCONTIandSFORZA.APPENDIX III.LORENZO’S LAST HOURS.Book VI. Chapter VIII.Theinterview of Savonarola and Lorenzo de’ Medici has given rise to a controversy which has never been definitively settled. The account of the monk’s biographers, Giovan Francesco Pico and Pacifico Burlamachi, cannot be reconciled with that given in Politian’s letter above referred to. This last has the air of containing a mitigated version of the facts, intended to efface the bad impression made by current reports of the matter; and the third exhortation put into the monk’s mouth by Politian—‘that he should endure death with patience’—sounds almost like a commonplace, considering the gravity of the moment and the characters of the interlocutors. C. F. Meier, in his History of Savonarola (p. 52, &c.), and Villari, in ‘La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola’ (i. 136), accept the version given by the Ferrarese monk’s earliest biographers, and Villari tries to establish it by a long note (p. 155-158). But this version contains great improbabilities. How should the dying man, who had just received the viaticum, make another confession? And what could Savonarola have meant by his famous third demand—what practical use or effect could he expect from it, or from the possible assent of the dying man? The story looks like an invention of the after-days of excitement. The doubts as to the authenticity of the books of Burlamachi and Pico, which, it is suspected, were fabricated in the convent of San Marco and adorned with these authors’ names, are of little consequence in this connection, as in any case the tradition was doubtless current among Savonarola’s contemporaries.Bartolommeo Cerretani gives, in the third book of his MS. chronicle, the following account of Lorenzo’s last hours:—‘April 7, about the fifth hour, Lorenzo received the Lord’s Supper. As his illness was making such rapid progress, Messer Pier Leoni, otherwise an excellent physician, lost heart; other doctors were at once sent for, but it was too late. Feeling his end approaching, the sick man sent for his eldest son Piero, gave him divers exhortations, and then sent him away. About the twentieth hour he began to cry out: “I am dying and there is none to help me!” All hastenedto him. He said he wanted to get up a little, and had himself lifted out of bed, but only to be laid down immediately. The pains were so violent that he lost consciousness. Those standing round him began to weep, for they thought he was dead. A Camaldulensian who was present took off his spectacles, and holding them to his mouth perceived that he still breathed. A restorative was given him and he came to himself. Then he called for his son again and spoke to him softly, so that none of the others heard. After that his condition rapidly grew worse, so that he gave up the ghost on the 8th, about the fourth hour of the evening, in the arms of a valet.’The doctor who, though a learned man, certainly seems to have blundered in his judgment as to Lorenzo’s illness, put an end to his life next morning as has been related above (p. 461), by jumping into the well at the Martelli villa at San Gervasio before Porta Pinti.Sannazzaro’s poem in terza rima (in Roscoe, Ap. lxxviii.) on the death of Piero Leoni attributes it to the instigation of Piero de’ Medici. The fragment beginning: ‘Fu trovato essere stato gettato in un pozzo’ &c., published in Fabroni (l. c. ii. 397) as being from some anonymous author in the Magliabecchiana, is borrowed from the Ricordi of Alamanno Rinuccini (p. cxlvi). Petrus Crinitus and Valerianus (De literatorum infelicitate) take it for granted that the doctor in his agitation took his own life; and Cerretani certainly indicates that Leoni, who a short time before had been in good hopes, lost his head. He states, moreover, that the Medici’s grooms threatened the life of the physician, who was, therefore, taken to San Gervasio, and that the report of his death by the violence of others was immediately spread, but was unfounded. Burcard in his defective report (p. 175) alludes to Piero de’ Medici’s complaint by saying that the fatal termination of the illness was to be attributed to wrong medical treatment, and raises a supposition that at Rome there was believed to have been a murder.In May, Demetrius Chalcondylas wrote from Milan to Marcello Virgilio Adriani: ‘Thou hast announced to me two sad events; the flash of lightning which has struck the principal church of the city, occasioned so much ruin, and presaged so great evils; and the death of Lorenzo, the most famous man of our time, who was distinguished in so many ways. His decease causes me deep sorrow, not merely on account of the loss, which touches us all in no slight degree, but also on account of what I personally lose, who have always found him a kind patron. And to all this is added the sad and fearful death of Piero Leoni, which has shocked me more than anythingfor a long time past. Believe me, Marcello, this end casts a shadow over Lorenzo’s death, and is a dishonour to the family and to the whole city. For although thou, like others, writest that he threw himself into the well, yet it is difficult to convince thoughtful people that such a wise and learned man, who, as thou thyself also tellest me, treated Lorenzo in his illness with so much care, could have been seized with such madness as to choose so shameful a death.’ (Bandini, Collectio, &c., p. 22).In Fabroni, l. c., and Roscoe, ‘Life of Leo X.’ (Ap. No. xxii.) will be found the letters written by Cardinal Giovanni to his brother after their father’s death. The first may be given here. The original is in the curious mixture of Latin and Italian sentences which was then still in vogue.‘My beloved brother, now the only support of our house. What shall I write to thee, when only tears are left me? For when I consider that our father of blessed memory is taken from us, I am nearer weeping than speaking. What a father! None was kinder than he to his children; of this facts are witness. Therefore it is no wonder that I lament and can find no rest; and my only consolation is that I have thee, my brother, in our father’s place. It is for thee to command, for me to obey, and thy commands will always give me the greatest pleasure. Try me; nothing shall find me backward. But I beg thee, my Piero, be towards all, especially towards thine own people, as I wish thee, beneficent, kind, courteous, gracious; thereby all is obtained, all is preserved. Not because I mistrust thee do I remind thee of this, but because it is my duty. I am consoled and sustained by the concourse of mourners to our house, the universal sympathy, the mourning of the whole city, and other things which help to alleviate sorrow. But what consoles me above all is that I have thee, whom I trust more than my words are able to express. As to what thou wishest arranged with his Holiness, nothing has been done, as it seemed better to take another way, on which the ambassador will report to thee, and which seems as if it must lead more easily to the object. Rome, April 12, 1492.’THE END.LONDON: PRINTED BYSPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUAREAND PARLIAMENT STREET
APPENDICES.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.[580]
MEDICI.
PAZZI.
SODERINI.
VISCONTIandSFORZA.
LORENZO’S LAST HOURS.
Book VI. Chapter VIII.
Theinterview of Savonarola and Lorenzo de’ Medici has given rise to a controversy which has never been definitively settled. The account of the monk’s biographers, Giovan Francesco Pico and Pacifico Burlamachi, cannot be reconciled with that given in Politian’s letter above referred to. This last has the air of containing a mitigated version of the facts, intended to efface the bad impression made by current reports of the matter; and the third exhortation put into the monk’s mouth by Politian—‘that he should endure death with patience’—sounds almost like a commonplace, considering the gravity of the moment and the characters of the interlocutors. C. F. Meier, in his History of Savonarola (p. 52, &c.), and Villari, in ‘La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola’ (i. 136), accept the version given by the Ferrarese monk’s earliest biographers, and Villari tries to establish it by a long note (p. 155-158). But this version contains great improbabilities. How should the dying man, who had just received the viaticum, make another confession? And what could Savonarola have meant by his famous third demand—what practical use or effect could he expect from it, or from the possible assent of the dying man? The story looks like an invention of the after-days of excitement. The doubts as to the authenticity of the books of Burlamachi and Pico, which, it is suspected, were fabricated in the convent of San Marco and adorned with these authors’ names, are of little consequence in this connection, as in any case the tradition was doubtless current among Savonarola’s contemporaries.
Bartolommeo Cerretani gives, in the third book of his MS. chronicle, the following account of Lorenzo’s last hours:—‘April 7, about the fifth hour, Lorenzo received the Lord’s Supper. As his illness was making such rapid progress, Messer Pier Leoni, otherwise an excellent physician, lost heart; other doctors were at once sent for, but it was too late. Feeling his end approaching, the sick man sent for his eldest son Piero, gave him divers exhortations, and then sent him away. About the twentieth hour he began to cry out: “I am dying and there is none to help me!” All hastenedto him. He said he wanted to get up a little, and had himself lifted out of bed, but only to be laid down immediately. The pains were so violent that he lost consciousness. Those standing round him began to weep, for they thought he was dead. A Camaldulensian who was present took off his spectacles, and holding them to his mouth perceived that he still breathed. A restorative was given him and he came to himself. Then he called for his son again and spoke to him softly, so that none of the others heard. After that his condition rapidly grew worse, so that he gave up the ghost on the 8th, about the fourth hour of the evening, in the arms of a valet.’
The doctor who, though a learned man, certainly seems to have blundered in his judgment as to Lorenzo’s illness, put an end to his life next morning as has been related above (p. 461), by jumping into the well at the Martelli villa at San Gervasio before Porta Pinti.
Sannazzaro’s poem in terza rima (in Roscoe, Ap. lxxviii.) on the death of Piero Leoni attributes it to the instigation of Piero de’ Medici. The fragment beginning: ‘Fu trovato essere stato gettato in un pozzo’ &c., published in Fabroni (l. c. ii. 397) as being from some anonymous author in the Magliabecchiana, is borrowed from the Ricordi of Alamanno Rinuccini (p. cxlvi). Petrus Crinitus and Valerianus (De literatorum infelicitate) take it for granted that the doctor in his agitation took his own life; and Cerretani certainly indicates that Leoni, who a short time before had been in good hopes, lost his head. He states, moreover, that the Medici’s grooms threatened the life of the physician, who was, therefore, taken to San Gervasio, and that the report of his death by the violence of others was immediately spread, but was unfounded. Burcard in his defective report (p. 175) alludes to Piero de’ Medici’s complaint by saying that the fatal termination of the illness was to be attributed to wrong medical treatment, and raises a supposition that at Rome there was believed to have been a murder.
In May, Demetrius Chalcondylas wrote from Milan to Marcello Virgilio Adriani: ‘Thou hast announced to me two sad events; the flash of lightning which has struck the principal church of the city, occasioned so much ruin, and presaged so great evils; and the death of Lorenzo, the most famous man of our time, who was distinguished in so many ways. His decease causes me deep sorrow, not merely on account of the loss, which touches us all in no slight degree, but also on account of what I personally lose, who have always found him a kind patron. And to all this is added the sad and fearful death of Piero Leoni, which has shocked me more than anythingfor a long time past. Believe me, Marcello, this end casts a shadow over Lorenzo’s death, and is a dishonour to the family and to the whole city. For although thou, like others, writest that he threw himself into the well, yet it is difficult to convince thoughtful people that such a wise and learned man, who, as thou thyself also tellest me, treated Lorenzo in his illness with so much care, could have been seized with such madness as to choose so shameful a death.’ (Bandini, Collectio, &c., p. 22).
In Fabroni, l. c., and Roscoe, ‘Life of Leo X.’ (Ap. No. xxii.) will be found the letters written by Cardinal Giovanni to his brother after their father’s death. The first may be given here. The original is in the curious mixture of Latin and Italian sentences which was then still in vogue.
‘My beloved brother, now the only support of our house. What shall I write to thee, when only tears are left me? For when I consider that our father of blessed memory is taken from us, I am nearer weeping than speaking. What a father! None was kinder than he to his children; of this facts are witness. Therefore it is no wonder that I lament and can find no rest; and my only consolation is that I have thee, my brother, in our father’s place. It is for thee to command, for me to obey, and thy commands will always give me the greatest pleasure. Try me; nothing shall find me backward. But I beg thee, my Piero, be towards all, especially towards thine own people, as I wish thee, beneficent, kind, courteous, gracious; thereby all is obtained, all is preserved. Not because I mistrust thee do I remind thee of this, but because it is my duty. I am consoled and sustained by the concourse of mourners to our house, the universal sympathy, the mourning of the whole city, and other things which help to alleviate sorrow. But what consoles me above all is that I have thee, whom I trust more than my words are able to express. As to what thou wishest arranged with his Holiness, nothing has been done, as it seemed better to take another way, on which the ambassador will report to thee, and which seems as if it must lead more easily to the object. Rome, April 12, 1492.’
THE END.
LONDON: PRINTED BYSPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUAREAND PARLIAMENT STREET