[1]The collection of Italian poetry made by Lorenzo de’ Medici for Don Federigo is to be found—not, indeed, in the original, which was lost probably during the French invasion of Naples in 1495—but in a copy made either at the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century, and now in the Florentine National Library (Magliabecchi), to which it passed with the Palatine MSS. (Fr. Palermo,I manoscritti Palatini di Firenze, Flor. 1853seq.; i. 353seq.). This MS. belonged to Marco Foscarini, with whose library it went in 1800 to Vienna, and later to the Archduke, afterwards Grand Duke, Leopold, when he collected and published the poems of Lorenzo (Opere di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Florence, 1825, 4 vols. i. p. xxvi., where occur also Apostolo Zeno’s remarks on the MS. in question). On the MSS. and printed copies of Lorenzo’s poems, compare the same edition, i. p. xiii.-xlv., and Gamba,Testi di Lingua, pp. 648-660. For a complete critically revised text much is still wanting, even after the splendid edition of 1825, which came out under the auspices of the della Crusca Academy. A large and well-arranged selection,Poesie di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Flor. 1859, has an introduction by Giosuè Carducci, which has been a guide to much of what is said here of Lorenzo as a poet.The letter of Lorenzo to Don Federigo, from which extracts are given above, is among the Riccardi MSS., No. 2723, under the name of Poliziano, and was published under that name in the edition of theRimeby V. Manucci and L. Ciampolini, Flor. 1814. The mistake is palpable; Poliziano’s age and the agreement with Lorenzo’s views in the commentary on his poems, show it as clearly as do the historical allusions.[2]Cf. Carducci’s edition of thePoesie di Lor. de’ Med., p. 54seq., and Fabroni,supra, p. 10.[3]Herr von Reumont here gives two or three specimens of Lorenzo’s sonnets translated into German verse. It is not attempted to retranslate these, but the English reader in search of examples of the poet’s style is referred to Roscoe’sLorenzo de’ Medici, ii., iii., v.—Note by Translator.[4]‘Il montanino ha scarpe grosse e cervello fino.’ The fullest collection ofrispettiand other Tuscan popular songs is that of G. Tigri,Canti popolari Toscani, first published at Florence in 1856, and reprinted several times since. The reproach against the ‘Wunderhorn’ has been repeated in this case, and indeed not without reason.[5]Tommaso Lancillotto’sChroniclein theCronache inedite Modenesi, pp. 8, 9.Poesie musicali dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI, tratte da vari codici per cura di Ant. Cappelli, Bologna 1869. Cf. the last story of the fifth day of theDecameron.[6]Oratio christiani gregis ad pastorem Xistum, Epist. 1. vi. 1. Cf.supra, i. 440.[7]Lettere di Marsilio Ficino, i. 66seq.[8]Inscription on the monument in Sta. Maria del Fiore:EN HOSPES HIC EST MARSILIUS SOPHIÆ PATER,PLATONICUM QUI DOGMA CULPA TEMPORUMSITU OBRUTUM ILLUSTRANS, ET ATTICUM DECUSSERVANS, LATIO DEDIT FORES PRIMUS SACRAS,DIVINO APERIENS MENTIS ACTUS NUMINE.VIXIT BEATUS ANTE COSMI MUNERELAURIQUE MEDICI NUNC REVIXIT PUBLICO.S. P. Q. F.ANNO MXDXI.[9]See a remarkable letter to Lorenzo, dated 1475, in which he speaks of the neglected muses, in Bandini,Collectio veterum monumentorum, p. 1.[10]In his poem ofXandra, book ii. Cf. Bandini,Specimen litt., i. 124.[11]The copy ofChristophori Landini Florentini ad illustrem Fridericim principem Urbinatem Disputationum Camaldulensiam libri IV., now in the Laurentian library, was written by Pietro Cennini, son of Bernardo, the first Florentine printer, finished at the end of spring, and collated with the original. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 188seq.(see also p. 3seq.as to the meeting and the persons present). The first edition is said (ibid.p. 192) to have been printed in 1475(?) and a second at Strasburg in 1508. It was translated into Italian by Antonio Cambini, a literary man much employed by Lorenzo and also in the service of his son the Cardinal. He was also in communication with the Este family, and afterwards attached himself to Savonarola, at whose fall his house was burnt down. (Cf. Cappelli, l. c. p. 309; Villari,Storia di G. Savonarola, ii. 388.)[12]Manni,Istoria del Decamerone, pt. i. chap. xxix.[13]Mehus,Traversari, p. 178.[14]Mehus, l. c. p. 176.[15]‘Che ‘l Dante io leggeva per mio piacere e per fare cosa grata alla vostra inclyta città.’ Milan, May 29, 1473, in Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 76.[16]On the various editions of the old biographies of Dante, see G. C. Galletti inPhil. Villani liber, &c., where Villani, Leon. Bruni, and Giann. Manetti are printed, the last with Melius’ notes for his edition, Flor. 1747. The MS. of G. M. Filelfo in the Laurentiana was published by D. Morini, Flor. 1826.[17]Vide section iii. chap. iii.[18]For the numerous bibliographical works on the history of Dante and his writings, we can only give a general reference to theBibliografia Dantescaof Colomb de Batines and theEnciclopedia Dantescaof Ferrazzi.[19]According to the colophon, the printing was finished on August 30, 1481. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 131, 140-143; Colomb de Batines, l. c. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 43; Marsilio’s Address, Bandini, pp. 132-134; Batines, pp. 43, 44. The Magliabecchian copy has been lately rebound, and not in very good taste.[20]Paradiso, xxv. 7. Girol. Benivieni,Cantico in laude di Dante Alighieri, inWorks, Venice 1522. Cf. Bandini, ii. 134-136. The latter part of the poem, from the line ‘La patria, che a me madre, a Te noverca,’ refers to the above-quoted lines of Dante. The restoration of citizen rights to the poet’s great-great-grandson, who bore his name, and who was a friend of Poliziano (Letter to Lorenzo, Flor. June 5, 1490, in theProse volgari, &c., p. 76), did not take place till 1496, and was paid for! (Gaye, l. c. p. 584.)[21]Isidoro del Lungo,Un documento Dantesco, Arch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xix. p. 4.[22]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 499seq.Palmieri’s Latin biography of the grand seneschal was translated into Italian by a relative of the latter, Donato Acciaiuolo.[23]On theGiostra, see above, i. 264seq., and Salvator Bongi’s oft-mentioned edition of theLettere di Luigi Pulci. A new edition ofCiriffo Calvaneo, with full bibliographical references by S. L. G. Audin, appeared at Florence in 1834.[24]L. Ranke’s academical treatise,Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie, Berlin, 1837, contains an excellent account of the elements and the development of the romantic epopee. The last edition ofMorgante, which was first printed at Venice in 1481 and at Florence in the following year (Gamba,Testi di Lingua, p. 241seq.) is that by P. Sermolli, published at Florence a few years ago. The oldest impression of theReali di Franciais that published at Modena in 1491, ten years after Pulci’s poem.[25]L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 38. Cf.supra, i. 313.[26]February 1, 1468. L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 8.[27]A petition of his widow, July 14, 1485, states that he had been dead more than eight months. Cf.Lettere, pp. 10, 102, 114.[28]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 98.[29]Isidoro del Lungo,La patria e gli antenati d’Angelo PolizianoinArch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xi. p. 9seq.Id.Uno Scolare dello studio fiorentino nel sec. XV, in theNuova Antologia, x. 215,seq.Fr. Otto Mencke’sHistoria Vitæ, etc. Ang. Pol., Leipzig, 1736, will always be valuable as a careful collection of literary and critical materials.Opera Ang. Politiani, Flor. 1499.Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Ang. Ambrogini Pol., illustrate da Giosuè Carducci, Flor. 1863.Prose volgari e Poesie latine e greche di A. A. P. raccolte da Isidoro del Lungo, Flor. 1867.[30]Prose volgari, p. 109.[31]Ibid. p. 248.[32]SeeProse volgare, p. 481: ‘O cui tyrrheni florentia signa leonis.’[33]Epistolæ, viii. 6, 7.[34]See the poems addressed to Cardinal Riario in theProse volgare, pp. 111-114. Cf.supra, i. 346.[35]These four books were printed by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the second volume of theSpicilegium Romanum, from two MSS. in the Vatican, and thence in theProse volgare, pp. 431-523. The MSS. came to the Vatican from Fulvio Orsini. The one on parchment, with the Medici arms on a red leather binding, is the copy of books ii. and iii., presented by the author to Lorenzo. The other contains books iv. and v., apparently in Poliziano’s handwriting and without a dedication.[36]There has been much question as to the relation between the original ‘Orfeo,’ which the author wanted to destroy, and the later one, which was turned into a tragedy in several acts. The latter was published in 1776 by Ireneo Affò, with a detailed introduction andexcursus; and in 1812 Vincenzo Ranucci wrote some extensive philological observations upon it which were reprinted in the Carducci edition, pp. 113-188. The question which has lately been raised as to Poliziano’s authorship of this second version must be left for decision to the poet’s biographers. There is a prospect of a detailed account of his life by I. del Lungo.[37]It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin,Prose volgare, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’][38]Laurus, the poetical name by which the poets of the time distinguished Lorenzo.[39]Roscoe’s translation.[40]‘In violas a Venere mea dono acceptas,’ inProse volgare, p. 238; Carducci, p. cviii. Agnolo Firenzuola and Giulio Perticari have translated this elegy in very different styles. Cf.supra, p. 15.[41]The diploma (with a wrong date) was printed from the archiepiscopal archives of Florence in Bandini, l. c. i. 188.[42]Prose volgare, pp. 285-427.[43]Epist.l. x. 14.[44]Prælectio in Priora Aristotelis analytica cui titulus Lamia. La Strega, prelezione alle Priora d’Aristotile nello studio Fiorentino l’anno 1483 per Ang. Ambr. Poliziano volgar. da Isidori del Lungo, Flor. 1864. The immediate neighbourhood of Fiesole, where Poliziano was so thoroughly at home, still recalls the witch-traditions of the middle ages. The subterranean chambers of the Roman theatre (unhappily in great part destroyed) on the northern slope of the hill are called by the people the Witches’ grottos—(Buche delle Fate); they are not far from the stone grotto on the eastern slope, the Fonte Soterra, which is always full of cool water, and the Latomie, which Brunelleschi opened for the purposes of his wonderful buildings (Fr. Inghirami,Memorie storiche per servire di guida all’Osservatore in Fiesole, Fiesole 1839), p. 60seq.[45]The translation appeared at Rome in 1493. The dedication to the Pope and his Brief are in book viii. of theEpistolæ. The poem ‘Herodianus in laudem traductoris sui,’ is inProse volgare, etc., p. 264.[46]Letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici, June 5, 1490,ibid.p. 76.[47]Letter to Piero de’ Medici, Florence, May 23, 1494,ibid.p. 84.[48]Poliziano’sLetters to Madonna Clarice(cf. vol. ii. book vi. ch. iii.) are in I. del Lungo,Prose volgare, p. 45seq., and also his letters from Pistoja, Caffagiuolo, Careggi, and Fiesole, to Lorenzo and his mother, some of which had already been printed by Fabroni.[49]Poliziano afterwards sent the ode also to Lorenzo.[50]The graceful description of the view of Florence and its neighbourhood from Fiesole (‘Talia Fœsuleo lentus meditabar in antro Rure suburbano Medicum) stands at the end of the poem of Rusticus, which bears the date 1483, but its origin is probably connected with the time referred to above.[51]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 288.[52]Fiesole, May 21 and July 18, 1479, inProse volgari, pp. 71-74. Several Latin epigrams to Lorenzo (ibid.pp. 123, 124) are of this period.[53]Prose volgari, p. 127 (‘O ego quam cupio reducis contingere dextram’).[54]Latini dettati a Piero de’ Medici, 1481,ibid.pp. 17-41.[55]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 280.[56]Epist.xii. 7.[57]D. M. Manni,Bartholomei Scalæ Collensis vita, Flor. 1768. Scala’sFlorentine History, now completely forgotten, appeared at Rome in 1677. The Laurentiana contains a MS. collection of letters, poems, &c., by him, to and on Cosimo the elder, and dedicated to Lorenzo (cf. Moreni,Bibliographia, ii. 321).[58]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17.[59]Accolti (on whom cf. Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 442seq.) died in 1466, aged 51; the seals were not delivered to Scala till March 1473, so they must have been put into commission (Manni, l. c. 15). Accolti’s dialogue,De præstantia virorum sui ævi, which, in spite of the many reservations made by the author from personal motives, will deserve regard as the work of a man in high position, was first printed by Ben. Bacchini, Parma, 1689, and later by Galletti inPhilippi Villani Liber, p. 97seq.[60]A. M. Bandini,Lettere Fiesolane, Flor. 1776, p. 30.[61]A. Guidoni to Duke Ercole II., April 1486, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 281.[62]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17-19.[63]‘Ad Bartholomæum Scalam’ in theProse volgari, p. 273.[64]In theEpigrammata Græca. Cf.Prose volgari, p. 199seq.[65]‘Quæris quid mihi de tuo Marullo,’ in theProse volgari, p. 124; ‘Quod plura Venerem tuus Marullus,ibid.p. 125.[66]‘Invectiva in Mabilium,’ibid.p. 131seq.The poems of Marullus were printed at Florence in 1497.[67]F. Fossi,Monumenta ad Alamanni Rinuccini vitam contexandam, &c., Flor. 1791. G. Aiazzi, inRicordi storici di Filippo Rinuccini, p. 139seq.[68]Anton. Francesco Gori has added to a MS. commentary on Rucellai’s treatiseDe Urbe Roma(in the Marucelliana at Florence) a life of the author. Cf. L. Passerini,Genealogia ec. della Famiglia Rucellai, p. 122seq.Bernardo was born 1488, died 1514.[69]L. Passerini,Degli Orti Oricellarj, in theCuriosità, p. 56seq.The house, built on the ground bought from Nannina de’ Medici in 1482, was begun about the end of the century. It passed, with the beautiful gardens, to Bianca Cappello; it now, after many changes, belongs to a Countess Orloff.[70]‘Bernardo Bembo veneto oratori viro undecumque elegantissimo.’ In theProse volgari, p. 251. The copy of Landino’sXandra, once sent by him to Bembo, is in the Vatican library. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 164seq.[71]Foscarini, l. c. 267.[72]Inscription on his tomb in Sta. Maria del Popolo:BARBARIEM HERMOLEOS LATIO QUI DEPULIT OMNEMBARBARUS HIC SITUS EST UTRAQUE LINGUA OEMITURBS VENETUM VITAM MORTEM DEDIT INCLYTA ROMANON POTUIT NASCI NOBILIUSQUE MORI.[73]Florence, May 10, 1490. Fabroni, l. c. ii. 377.[74]Gaye, l. c. i. 294.[75]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 284; also inProse volgari, p. 78seq.[76]Piero Alamanni to Lorenzo, Rome, May 14, 1491; in Fabroni, l. c. p. 379.[77]L. Geiger,Johann Reuchlin(Leipzig, 1871), p. 163seq.[78]In A. Cappelli, l. c. p. 282. Domenico Berti,Cenni e documenti intorno a Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in theRivista contemporanea, vol. xvi., Turin, 1859. The reports sent to Lorenzo during his stay at the baths, quoted here from the Medicean archives, agree substantially with the accounts given by Guidoni.[79]In Cappelli, l. c. p. 303. The date of theApologyseems to be really wrong. In the register of Lorenzo’s correspondence (Ricordi di lettere scripti per Lor. de’ Med.) in the Florentine archives, we find notice of a letter written as late as February 12, 1488, ‘al conte della Mirandola, ringraziandolo dell’Apologia mandate,’ letter enclosed to Lorenzo Spinelli, one of the Medicean agents in France.[80]Med. Arch., Filza 57.[81]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 291. Some of the following extracts are in the same; some, unpublished, in theMed. Arch.[82]A. Guidoni, Flor. September 25, 1488, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 303.[83]Epist.lib. i. 4.Epigramm. Græca, lib. iii. inProse volgari, p. 218.[84]Disputationum de Astrologia, lib. xii.Epigramm. Græca, xlix. l. c. p. 214.[85]Speech on accepting the office of Capitano del popolo, from L. B. Alberti’s papers, in Bonucci,Opere di L. B. A., vol. i. p. xlii.[86]G. Perticaro,Intorno la morte di Pandolfo Collenuccio, in hisOpere, Bologna, 1839, ii. 52seq.[87]Cf. Ben. Varchi’s remarks upon Naldi inProse volgari inedite, p. 122.[88]It is not intended in the present work to go into the details of these mostly uninteresting poetical productions. Bandini has noticed many of them in the catalogue of the Laurentiana; Roscoe has filled many pages with quotations and bibliographical notices; to add to them would be easy but useless.[89]TheDieci di Balia, Florence, January 14, 1432, in Fabroni,Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 8.[90]Guicciardini,Del reggimento di Firenze, p. 209.[91]Fabroni,Historia Academiæ Pisanæ, i. 109seq.;Laur. Med. Vita, i. 49. Many other references to the University,ibid.ii. 74seq.Carlo de’ Massimi,Carmen heroicum ad Laurentium Medicem de studio per eumden Pisis innovato, from a Laurentian MS., in Bandini,Laur. Cat., vol. iii., and Roscoe, iii. 237seq.(No. lviii.)[92]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 77.[93]Rosmini,Vita di Fr. Filelfo, ii 191.[94]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 75, 76.[95]Camillo Massimo,Sopra una inedita medaglia di Francesco Massimo dottore in legge e cavaliere, Rome, 1860. Francesco Massimo was elected Podestà of Siena in 1477, but could not assume the office owing to the death of his father. That he was in Florence in 1488-89, engaged in affairs of state, is shown by the following letter from Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini at Rome: ‘Messer Francesco Massimi is going back, having gained the approval of the whole city as well as my own. He has in truth conducted himself so well that I have thought good to recommend him to his Holiness and to the Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. I do the same to you, and beg you to bear witness that his conduct could not have been more praiseworthy. In consideration of his good offices I shall be glad if you will introduce him wherever it may be agreeable to him.’ Florence, March 13, 1489 (Med. Arch.Filza 59).[96]TheAnnales suorum temporumwere printed by Gio. Lami in theCatalogus codd. MSS. bibl. Riccard., Livorno, 1756; and again by Galletti, inPhil. Villani liber, &c., p. 151seq.According to a letter of Fonti to Lorenzo, he once intended writing a history of the Medici. He praised the chief scholars of his time in a pretty epigram,ibid.p. 153.[97]Gaye, l. c. i. 273.[98]Med. Arch., Filza 59.[99]Venice, June 20, 1491, inProse volgari, p. 78.[100]The letters are in Poliziano’sEpistolæ, book xi.[101]A. M. Bandini,Ragionamento istorico sulle collazione delle Pandette, ec., Livorno 1762, The copy of the Pandects marked with Poliziano’s collations is preserved in the Laurentianæ. Bandini also speaks of it in the fourth volume of theCatalogue of Latin MSS.See Th. Mommsen’s introduction to his critical edition of theDigestum.[102]F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Florence, 1839. G. Ottino,Di Bernardo Cennini e dell’arte della stampa in Firenze, Florence, 1871. When the first Florentine printer had been almost forgotten for 400 years, the present generation, on occasion of the fourth centenary of his work, has raised a monument to him in San Lorenzo—where he lies buried—placed a memorial tablet on the site of his workshop, and given his name to a street.[103]‘Ad lectorem. Florentiæ,VII. Idus Novembres,MCCCCLXXI. Bernardus Cennnius (sic) aurifer omnium iudicio præstantissimus: et Dominicus eius F. egregiæ indolis adolescens: expressis ante calibe caracteribus et deinde fusis literis volumen hoc primum impresserunt. Petrus Cenninus Bernardi eiusdem F. quanta potuit cura et diligentia emendavit ut cernis. Florentinis ingeniis nil ardui est.’[104]P. Vinc. Fineschi,Notizie istoriche sopra la stamperia di [S. Jacopo di] Ripoli, Flor. 1761. D. Moreni in theNovelle letterarie Fiorentineof 1791, and F. Fossi in theCatalogo delle antiche edizioni della B. Magliabechiana, vol. iii., have collected other information concerning the works of this printing establishment amounting to eighty-six in number, among which, curiously enough, aDecameronis included.[105]Enea Piccolomini,Delle condizioni e delle vicende della libreria Medicea privata, in theArch. Star. Ital., series iii. vols. xix. and xx. N. Anziani,Della Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Flor. 1872.[106]Targioni-Tozzetti,Notizie sulla storia delle scienze fisiche in Toscana(ed. by Fr. Palermo), Flor. 1853, pp. 60, 61.[107]Med. Arch.[108]Fabroni, l. c. i. 153; ii. 286.[109]Ibid.i. 163.[110]Cappelli, l. c. The MS. was by Battista Guarino. The translation was first printed at Venice in 1532, the original at Paris in 1548.[111]Prose volgari, p. 78.[112]This poetess, of a Milanese family, was born at Venice about 1465, and is supposed to have died in 1558. Politian (Epist.l. iii. 17) addresses her: ‘O decus Italiæ virgo.’[113]Florence, May 8, 1490, in Fabroni, l. c. ii. 287.[114]Vasari’sLife of Fra Giocondo(ix. 155seq.) is very imperfect and leaves room for further study. On Giocondo’s works in his own city see G. Orti Manara,Dei lavori architettonici di Fra Giocondo in Verona, Ver., 1853. On his collection of inscriptions see G. B. de Rossi,I Fasti municipali di Venosa restituite alla sincera lezione, Rome 1853. (From vol. cxxxiii. of theGiornale Arcadico.) According to theNovelle letterarie di Firenzefor the year 1771, p. 725, the Medicean copy was sent to Pope Clement XIV., but has never been seen either in the Vatican archives or the library. On the other copies, and the second collection, differing from the first in some respects, less numerous, and dedicated to Ludovico de Agnellis, Archbishop of Cosenza, cf. De Rossi, p. 7seq.The dedication—‘Laurentio Medici Fr. Io. Jucundus S. P. D.’—is in Fabroni, ii. 279seq.It ends: ‘Vale feliciter humani generis amor et deliciæ.’[115]Med. Arch.[116]Epist. ad J. Bracciolini, l. i. Prolegom. ad Platonis convivium.[117]The work of the Sicilian Jesuit, P. Leonardo Ximenes,Del vecchio e nuovo Gnomone fiorentino, Flor. 1757, contains the history and explanation of the scientific value of the famous meridian, and of the more ancient mathematical and astronomical works in Tuscany.[118]This controversy has never rested from the time of Angelo Maria Bandini, who published in 1755 theVita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci gentiluomo fiorentino, down to our own days, which have witnessed a new defence of the Florentine’s claims by the Brazilian, F. A. de Varnhagen. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to the facts published by Oscar Peschel in theZeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 305seq., and in an essay on Amerigo in the periodicalDas Ausland(No. 32, 1858). Vespucci’s well-known work on his second journey (Bandini, p. 64) is addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the son of Pier Francesco.[119]Cianfogni,Memorie istoriche della basilica di S. Lorenzo(Flor. 1804), p. 228. On Brunelleschi, cf. i. 71seq.[120]D. Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della basilica di San Lorenzo(Flor. 1816), i. 6seq.[121]The dedication (to Piero de’ Medici) of a treatise on Architecture by Antonio Averlino, called Filarete (see below, p. 135), shows that the Church had not been rebuilt in 1460: ‘Resta ancora la chiesa a rinovare.’ The resemblance of its architecture to that of the chapel of the Madonna de’ Voti, afterwards dell’Incoronata, in the cathedral of Mantua, always regarded as a work of Leon Bat. Alberti, awakens a suspicion that he may have been concerned in the building at Fiesole. Cf. Gaye, l. c. i. 200seq.; 263. Vasari,Life of Filarete, iii. 290.[122]D. Moreni,Notizie istoriche dei Contorni di Firenze, iii. 93seq.Cf. i. 576seq.[123]The Silvestrine was a branch of the Vallombrosan order, named after its founder Silvestro Gozzolini.[124]Cf. i. 574-576.[125]Vasari,Life of Michelozzo, iii. 277-279. V. Marchese,Memorie dei Pittori ec. Domenicani, i. 278seq.Id.,San Marco convento dei Frati Predicatori(Flor. 1853), p. 75seq.The inscription in the church, dated 1442, which speaks of ‘magnificis sumptibus v. cl. Cosmi Medicis,’ &c., is in Vasari, p. 279.[126]A. Zobi,Memorie storico-artistiche relative alla Cappella della SS. Annunziata(Flor. 1837), p. 14seq.Fr. Bocchi,Della immagine miracolosa della SS. Nunziata(Flor. 1592, new ed. 1852). Inscription: ‘Petrus Med. Cosmi Joann. filius sacellum marmoreum voto suscepto animo libens d. d. Anno 1448. Idib. Martii.’ Another inscription on the cornice: ‘Piero di Cosimo de Medici fece fare questa hopera et Pagno di Lapo di Fiesole fu el maestro chella fèmcccclii.’ From this it certainly looks questionable whether Michelozzo furnished the designs, as Pagno also executed larger works. Inscription relating to the consecration: ‘Mariæ glorioss. virg. Guilelmus Cardinalis Rotomagensis cum superni in terris nuntii munere fungeretur legati ratus officium et innumeris miraculis locique religione motus hanc Annunciatæ aram summa cum celebritate ac solenni pompa sacravitmcccclii.,viii. Kalen. Januar.’[127]Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte(Flor. 1850), p. 54seq.On June 10, 1448, Piero de’ Medici was allowed to place his arms on the tabernacle on condition that those of the Guild should have the highest place.[128]C. Guasti, l. c. Doc. 290, p. 201. Brunelleschi was buried in the cathedral. The epitaph is by Carlo Marsuppini: ‘D. S. Quantum Philippus architectus arte Dædalea valuerit cum huius celeberrimi templi mira testudo tum plures aliæ divino ingenio ab eo adiuventæ machinæ documento esse possunt quapropter ob eximias sui animi dotes singularesque virtutesxv.Kal. Maias annomccccxlvi.eius b. m. corpus in hac humo supposita grata patria sepeliri iussit.’[129]Round the altar is the following inscription: ‘Ædem hanc sanctissime Andrea tibi Pactii dedicarunt ut cum te immortalis Deus hominum constituerit piscatorem locus sit in quem suos Franciscus ad tua possit retia convocare.’ By Franciscus is doubtless meant the saint to whose order the convent belonged, and not, as Richa and Moisè suppose, Francesco de’ Pazzi, Andrea’s grandson. A letter of indulgence from Card. Pietro Riario, October 8, 1473, speaks of Jacopo de’ Pazzi as the founder.[130]The history of the building of the Pitti palace has never been thoroughly cleared up.[131]Inscription:JOHANNES RUCELLARIUS PAULI FILIUS INDESALUTEM SUAM PRECARETUR UNDE OMNIUMCUM CHRISTO FACTA EST RESURRECTIO SACELLUMHOC AD INSTAR HYEROSOLIMITANI SEPULCRIFACIUNDUM CURAVIT MCCCCLXVII.[132]Documents on the building (1471), in Gaye, l. c. p. 225seq.Vasari, iv. 59.[133]The price was 150 gold florins; Gaye, l. c. p. 572. The statue was removed when Duke Cosimo erected the fountain adorned with Verrocchio’s Boy, and is now in the national museum in the Palace of the Podestà.[134]‘Exemplum sal. pub. cives posuereMCCCCXCV.’ This inscription can have nothing to do with the driving out of the Duke of Athens, as Moisè (Palazzo de’ Priori, p. 166) imagines. The group occupied the place which was assigned in 1504 to Michel Angelo’s ‘David,’ and has stood since then on the side of the Loggia de’ Lanzi towards the Uffizi. Vasari (l. c. p. 251) wrongly thinks it was executed for the Signoria.[135]L. c. p. 250.[136]Mantua, November 7, 1458. Cf. Braghirolli, in theGiornale di erudizione artistica(of Perugia), ii. 4seq.[137]Vasari, l. c. pp. 264, 266. Fabroni, l. c. p. 159. According to Vasari, Donatello died on December 13, 1466; according to the contemporary M. Palmieri (De Temporibus), in 1468. In the crypt of S. Lorenzo, near the tombs of the Medici, is the following later inscription: ‘Donatellus restituta antiqua sculpendi cælandiq. arte celeberrimus Mediceis principibus summis bonarum artium patronis apprime carus qui ut vivum suspexere mortuo etiam sepulcrum loco sibi proximiore constituerunt obiit idibus Decembris an. sal.MCCCCLXIV.æt. suæLXXXIII.’[138]On Francesco Livi, cf. Gaye, l. c. ii. 441seq.On Ser Guasparre, see Rumohr,Ital. Forschungen, ii. 377seq.; G. Milanesi,Documenti dell’arte Sanese, ii. 194seq.On the Jesuates, cf. i. 596, 597, and L. Fanfani,Memorie di Sta. Maria del Pontenuovo(Pisa 1871), p. 124seq.[139]These basso-rilievos, removed from the cathedral when the organs were modernised, are now in the museum of the Palazzo del Podestà.[140]Metropolitana Fiorentina, tables xxxiii.-xxxvi.[141]Transferred from San Pancrazio to the church of San Francesco di Paola before the Porta Romana;Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvii.[142]Monuments sépulcraux, plates lvi., xli., xxi.[143]Monuments sépulcraux, plate xxxvi. Inscription:SISTE VIDES MAGNUM QUÆ SERVANT MARMORA VATEMINGENIO CUIUS NON SATIS ORBIS ERATQUÆ NATURA POLUS QUÆ MOS FERAT OMNIA NOVITKAROLUS ÆTATIS GLORIA MAGNA SUÆAUSONLÆ ET GRAJÆ CRINES NUNC SOLVITE MUSÆOCCIDIT HEU VESTRI FAMA DECUSQUE CHORI.[144]Monuments sépulcraux, plates l., xxxi. Inscription:POSTQUAM LEONARDUS E VITA MIGRAVIT HISTORIA LUGETELOQUENTIA MUTA EST FERTURQUE MUSAS TUMGRAIAS TUM LATINAS LACRIMAS TENERE NON POTUISSE.[145]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 157. Vasari mentions the modelling in Verrocchio, v. 152. Brunelleschi’s cast is in the building-office of Sta. Maria del Fiore (Opera del Duomo).[146]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvi. Vasari, vol. iv. p. 218. Berti, p. 70.[147]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lv.[148]C. Pini,La Scrittura di artisti Italiani, cf.supra, p. 163.[149]Executed in 1436; a pendant to the equestrian figure of Niccolò Maruzzi of Tolentino (d. 1434) by Andrea dal Castagno. The improper introduction of these equestrian figures into churches paved the way for similar monuments in marble, such as may be seen especially in Venice. In the cathedral of Florence was a complete figure of Piero Farnese on a mule, as he rode to a fight with the Pisans in 1363.[150]In this place, where we are concerned chiefly with the position of the Medici in connection with the development of art, we cannot refer in detail to the literature, which has been much enriched of late years by Gastano Milanesi’s researches among the archives, on the Tuscan painters of the early quattrocento (Giornale storico degli Archivi Toscani, vols. iv. and vi., and reprinted inSulla storia dell’arte Toscana, Siena 1873), made use of by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in theirHistory of Painting in Italy.[151]C. Pini,Scrittura di Artisti.[152]This is not the place to refer in detail to the confused notices in the Italian art-historians. Vasari mentions these works, among others, in his Introduction, l. c. i. 63.[153]Rinuccini,Ricordi, p. 251.[154]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 231. It is doubtful whether the sums given at the end of the inventory are to be added up together, or whether the last represents the sum total.[155]Letter to Giovanni de’ Medici, Bruges, June 22, 1488; in Gaye, l. c. p. 158.[156]Gaye, l. c. p. 163.[157]Gaye, l. c. p. 160.[158]Gaye, l. c. p. 136.[159]Ibid.p. 192.[160]Gaye, l. c. pp. 141, 175, 180. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 64, 65.[161]Complete edition by Gaetano and Carlo Milanese,Il Libro dell’arte o Trattato della Pittura(Flor. 1859). There is a German translation,Das Buch von der Kunst, &c., by Albert Ilg (Vienna, 1871). The general supposition, from Baldinucci down to Tambroni, the first editor of the treatise (Rome, 1821), viz., that Cennini wrote it in 1437 in the Stinche prison, is derived from a gloss to the Laurentian MS. which proceeds from the copyist instead of referring to the author. The same postil gave rise to the statement that a fresco in Giotto’s style, representing the driving out of the Duke of Athens, and brought to light at the demolition of the prison, was painted by Cennini. (Fr. Bacchi,Illustratore Fiorentino, pt. v., Flor. 1839).[162]The second commentary, with the notices of modern art, is printed in Cicognara’sStoria della Scultura, vol. iv., and more readably, together with some extracts from the third, in Lemonnier’s edition ofVasari, vol. i. pp. v.-xxxv.[163]On Filarete’s treatise and the two dedications, cf. Vasari, iii. 290, 291, and Gaye, i. 200-206, where will be found the dedication to Fr. Sforza. (Cf.supra, p. 122.) Filarete gives us a foretaste of the art-phraseology of Federigo Zuccaro. For the rest, he says to Sforza: ‘If my book is not elegant, take it as the work, not of an orator nor of a Vitruvius, but of thy master-builder who cast the doors of St. Peter’s.’[164]N. Valori, l. c. p. 176.[165]Vasari, viii. 267. On the design of Andrea, see Waagen,Kunstwerk und Künstler in England, i. 244. Cf.posf, p. 197seq.[166]Pini,Scrittura d’Artisti. Cf. A. v. Zahn,Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, iv. 367.[167]Vasari,Life of Giuliano, iv. 1seq.Gaye, l. c. in annis 1478, 1480, 1481.[168]A. Rossi, in theGiornale di erudiz. artist., 1872, p. 97. Inscription: ‘Opus Juliani Maiani et Dominici Taxi, Florentini,mcccclxxxxi.’[169]C. Milanesi, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. Tosc., iii. 233, 234. Letters dated Rome, February 1-20, 1478. In consequence of the Cardinal’s death in the summer of 1479, the building remained unfinished.[170]Urbino, June 18, 1481. Gaye, l. c. p. 274.[171]S. Volpicelli,Descrizione storica di alcuni principali edificii della città di Napoli(Naples 1850), p. 1seq.[172]Gaye, l. c. p. 300 (undated).[173]Vita di Fil. Strozzi il vecchio, p. 22seq.(Cf. i. 395.) Cf. also, Gaye, l. c. p. 354seq., where are also notices by Luca Landucci, an apothecary, on the beginning and progress of the work, and Filippo’s will. Vasari treats at length of the palace and of the smith Caparri in hisLife of Cronaca, viii. 116seq.[174]Gaye, l. c.ibid.A letter from Lorenzo, December 16, 1490, to Francesco Gonzaga, in which he asks for leave of absence for Luca Fancelli. Whether the latter went to Naples is uncertain; Francesco di Giorgio was there for some time between February and May 1491.[175]Among Sangallo’s drawings in the Barberiniana at Rome. Gaye, l. c. p. 301. Vasari, vii. 212, 213.[176]A. v. Zahn,Notizie artistiche tratte dall’Archivio segreto Vaticano, Arch. stor. Ital., ser. iii. vi. 171.
[1]The collection of Italian poetry made by Lorenzo de’ Medici for Don Federigo is to be found—not, indeed, in the original, which was lost probably during the French invasion of Naples in 1495—but in a copy made either at the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century, and now in the Florentine National Library (Magliabecchi), to which it passed with the Palatine MSS. (Fr. Palermo,I manoscritti Palatini di Firenze, Flor. 1853seq.; i. 353seq.). This MS. belonged to Marco Foscarini, with whose library it went in 1800 to Vienna, and later to the Archduke, afterwards Grand Duke, Leopold, when he collected and published the poems of Lorenzo (Opere di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Florence, 1825, 4 vols. i. p. xxvi., where occur also Apostolo Zeno’s remarks on the MS. in question). On the MSS. and printed copies of Lorenzo’s poems, compare the same edition, i. p. xiii.-xlv., and Gamba,Testi di Lingua, pp. 648-660. For a complete critically revised text much is still wanting, even after the splendid edition of 1825, which came out under the auspices of the della Crusca Academy. A large and well-arranged selection,Poesie di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Flor. 1859, has an introduction by Giosuè Carducci, which has been a guide to much of what is said here of Lorenzo as a poet.The letter of Lorenzo to Don Federigo, from which extracts are given above, is among the Riccardi MSS., No. 2723, under the name of Poliziano, and was published under that name in the edition of theRimeby V. Manucci and L. Ciampolini, Flor. 1814. The mistake is palpable; Poliziano’s age and the agreement with Lorenzo’s views in the commentary on his poems, show it as clearly as do the historical allusions.[2]Cf. Carducci’s edition of thePoesie di Lor. de’ Med., p. 54seq., and Fabroni,supra, p. 10.[3]Herr von Reumont here gives two or three specimens of Lorenzo’s sonnets translated into German verse. It is not attempted to retranslate these, but the English reader in search of examples of the poet’s style is referred to Roscoe’sLorenzo de’ Medici, ii., iii., v.—Note by Translator.[4]‘Il montanino ha scarpe grosse e cervello fino.’ The fullest collection ofrispettiand other Tuscan popular songs is that of G. Tigri,Canti popolari Toscani, first published at Florence in 1856, and reprinted several times since. The reproach against the ‘Wunderhorn’ has been repeated in this case, and indeed not without reason.[5]Tommaso Lancillotto’sChroniclein theCronache inedite Modenesi, pp. 8, 9.Poesie musicali dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI, tratte da vari codici per cura di Ant. Cappelli, Bologna 1869. Cf. the last story of the fifth day of theDecameron.[6]Oratio christiani gregis ad pastorem Xistum, Epist. 1. vi. 1. Cf.supra, i. 440.[7]Lettere di Marsilio Ficino, i. 66seq.[8]Inscription on the monument in Sta. Maria del Fiore:EN HOSPES HIC EST MARSILIUS SOPHIÆ PATER,PLATONICUM QUI DOGMA CULPA TEMPORUMSITU OBRUTUM ILLUSTRANS, ET ATTICUM DECUSSERVANS, LATIO DEDIT FORES PRIMUS SACRAS,DIVINO APERIENS MENTIS ACTUS NUMINE.VIXIT BEATUS ANTE COSMI MUNERELAURIQUE MEDICI NUNC REVIXIT PUBLICO.S. P. Q. F.ANNO MXDXI.[9]See a remarkable letter to Lorenzo, dated 1475, in which he speaks of the neglected muses, in Bandini,Collectio veterum monumentorum, p. 1.[10]In his poem ofXandra, book ii. Cf. Bandini,Specimen litt., i. 124.[11]The copy ofChristophori Landini Florentini ad illustrem Fridericim principem Urbinatem Disputationum Camaldulensiam libri IV., now in the Laurentian library, was written by Pietro Cennini, son of Bernardo, the first Florentine printer, finished at the end of spring, and collated with the original. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 188seq.(see also p. 3seq.as to the meeting and the persons present). The first edition is said (ibid.p. 192) to have been printed in 1475(?) and a second at Strasburg in 1508. It was translated into Italian by Antonio Cambini, a literary man much employed by Lorenzo and also in the service of his son the Cardinal. He was also in communication with the Este family, and afterwards attached himself to Savonarola, at whose fall his house was burnt down. (Cf. Cappelli, l. c. p. 309; Villari,Storia di G. Savonarola, ii. 388.)[12]Manni,Istoria del Decamerone, pt. i. chap. xxix.[13]Mehus,Traversari, p. 178.[14]Mehus, l. c. p. 176.[15]‘Che ‘l Dante io leggeva per mio piacere e per fare cosa grata alla vostra inclyta città.’ Milan, May 29, 1473, in Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 76.[16]On the various editions of the old biographies of Dante, see G. C. Galletti inPhil. Villani liber, &c., where Villani, Leon. Bruni, and Giann. Manetti are printed, the last with Melius’ notes for his edition, Flor. 1747. The MS. of G. M. Filelfo in the Laurentiana was published by D. Morini, Flor. 1826.[17]Vide section iii. chap. iii.[18]For the numerous bibliographical works on the history of Dante and his writings, we can only give a general reference to theBibliografia Dantescaof Colomb de Batines and theEnciclopedia Dantescaof Ferrazzi.[19]According to the colophon, the printing was finished on August 30, 1481. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 131, 140-143; Colomb de Batines, l. c. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 43; Marsilio’s Address, Bandini, pp. 132-134; Batines, pp. 43, 44. The Magliabecchian copy has been lately rebound, and not in very good taste.[20]Paradiso, xxv. 7. Girol. Benivieni,Cantico in laude di Dante Alighieri, inWorks, Venice 1522. Cf. Bandini, ii. 134-136. The latter part of the poem, from the line ‘La patria, che a me madre, a Te noverca,’ refers to the above-quoted lines of Dante. The restoration of citizen rights to the poet’s great-great-grandson, who bore his name, and who was a friend of Poliziano (Letter to Lorenzo, Flor. June 5, 1490, in theProse volgari, &c., p. 76), did not take place till 1496, and was paid for! (Gaye, l. c. p. 584.)[21]Isidoro del Lungo,Un documento Dantesco, Arch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xix. p. 4.[22]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 499seq.Palmieri’s Latin biography of the grand seneschal was translated into Italian by a relative of the latter, Donato Acciaiuolo.[23]On theGiostra, see above, i. 264seq., and Salvator Bongi’s oft-mentioned edition of theLettere di Luigi Pulci. A new edition ofCiriffo Calvaneo, with full bibliographical references by S. L. G. Audin, appeared at Florence in 1834.[24]L. Ranke’s academical treatise,Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie, Berlin, 1837, contains an excellent account of the elements and the development of the romantic epopee. The last edition ofMorgante, which was first printed at Venice in 1481 and at Florence in the following year (Gamba,Testi di Lingua, p. 241seq.) is that by P. Sermolli, published at Florence a few years ago. The oldest impression of theReali di Franciais that published at Modena in 1491, ten years after Pulci’s poem.[25]L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 38. Cf.supra, i. 313.[26]February 1, 1468. L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 8.[27]A petition of his widow, July 14, 1485, states that he had been dead more than eight months. Cf.Lettere, pp. 10, 102, 114.[28]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 98.[29]Isidoro del Lungo,La patria e gli antenati d’Angelo PolizianoinArch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xi. p. 9seq.Id.Uno Scolare dello studio fiorentino nel sec. XV, in theNuova Antologia, x. 215,seq.Fr. Otto Mencke’sHistoria Vitæ, etc. Ang. Pol., Leipzig, 1736, will always be valuable as a careful collection of literary and critical materials.Opera Ang. Politiani, Flor. 1499.Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Ang. Ambrogini Pol., illustrate da Giosuè Carducci, Flor. 1863.Prose volgari e Poesie latine e greche di A. A. P. raccolte da Isidoro del Lungo, Flor. 1867.[30]Prose volgari, p. 109.[31]Ibid. p. 248.[32]SeeProse volgare, p. 481: ‘O cui tyrrheni florentia signa leonis.’[33]Epistolæ, viii. 6, 7.[34]See the poems addressed to Cardinal Riario in theProse volgare, pp. 111-114. Cf.supra, i. 346.[35]These four books were printed by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the second volume of theSpicilegium Romanum, from two MSS. in the Vatican, and thence in theProse volgare, pp. 431-523. The MSS. came to the Vatican from Fulvio Orsini. The one on parchment, with the Medici arms on a red leather binding, is the copy of books ii. and iii., presented by the author to Lorenzo. The other contains books iv. and v., apparently in Poliziano’s handwriting and without a dedication.[36]There has been much question as to the relation between the original ‘Orfeo,’ which the author wanted to destroy, and the later one, which was turned into a tragedy in several acts. The latter was published in 1776 by Ireneo Affò, with a detailed introduction andexcursus; and in 1812 Vincenzo Ranucci wrote some extensive philological observations upon it which were reprinted in the Carducci edition, pp. 113-188. The question which has lately been raised as to Poliziano’s authorship of this second version must be left for decision to the poet’s biographers. There is a prospect of a detailed account of his life by I. del Lungo.[37]It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin,Prose volgare, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’][38]Laurus, the poetical name by which the poets of the time distinguished Lorenzo.[39]Roscoe’s translation.[40]‘In violas a Venere mea dono acceptas,’ inProse volgare, p. 238; Carducci, p. cviii. Agnolo Firenzuola and Giulio Perticari have translated this elegy in very different styles. Cf.supra, p. 15.[41]The diploma (with a wrong date) was printed from the archiepiscopal archives of Florence in Bandini, l. c. i. 188.[42]Prose volgare, pp. 285-427.[43]Epist.l. x. 14.[44]Prælectio in Priora Aristotelis analytica cui titulus Lamia. La Strega, prelezione alle Priora d’Aristotile nello studio Fiorentino l’anno 1483 per Ang. Ambr. Poliziano volgar. da Isidori del Lungo, Flor. 1864. The immediate neighbourhood of Fiesole, where Poliziano was so thoroughly at home, still recalls the witch-traditions of the middle ages. The subterranean chambers of the Roman theatre (unhappily in great part destroyed) on the northern slope of the hill are called by the people the Witches’ grottos—(Buche delle Fate); they are not far from the stone grotto on the eastern slope, the Fonte Soterra, which is always full of cool water, and the Latomie, which Brunelleschi opened for the purposes of his wonderful buildings (Fr. Inghirami,Memorie storiche per servire di guida all’Osservatore in Fiesole, Fiesole 1839), p. 60seq.[45]The translation appeared at Rome in 1493. The dedication to the Pope and his Brief are in book viii. of theEpistolæ. The poem ‘Herodianus in laudem traductoris sui,’ is inProse volgare, etc., p. 264.[46]Letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici, June 5, 1490,ibid.p. 76.[47]Letter to Piero de’ Medici, Florence, May 23, 1494,ibid.p. 84.[48]Poliziano’sLetters to Madonna Clarice(cf. vol. ii. book vi. ch. iii.) are in I. del Lungo,Prose volgare, p. 45seq., and also his letters from Pistoja, Caffagiuolo, Careggi, and Fiesole, to Lorenzo and his mother, some of which had already been printed by Fabroni.[49]Poliziano afterwards sent the ode also to Lorenzo.[50]The graceful description of the view of Florence and its neighbourhood from Fiesole (‘Talia Fœsuleo lentus meditabar in antro Rure suburbano Medicum) stands at the end of the poem of Rusticus, which bears the date 1483, but its origin is probably connected with the time referred to above.[51]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 288.[52]Fiesole, May 21 and July 18, 1479, inProse volgari, pp. 71-74. Several Latin epigrams to Lorenzo (ibid.pp. 123, 124) are of this period.[53]Prose volgari, p. 127 (‘O ego quam cupio reducis contingere dextram’).[54]Latini dettati a Piero de’ Medici, 1481,ibid.pp. 17-41.[55]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 280.[56]Epist.xii. 7.[57]D. M. Manni,Bartholomei Scalæ Collensis vita, Flor. 1768. Scala’sFlorentine History, now completely forgotten, appeared at Rome in 1677. The Laurentiana contains a MS. collection of letters, poems, &c., by him, to and on Cosimo the elder, and dedicated to Lorenzo (cf. Moreni,Bibliographia, ii. 321).[58]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17.[59]Accolti (on whom cf. Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 442seq.) died in 1466, aged 51; the seals were not delivered to Scala till March 1473, so they must have been put into commission (Manni, l. c. 15). Accolti’s dialogue,De præstantia virorum sui ævi, which, in spite of the many reservations made by the author from personal motives, will deserve regard as the work of a man in high position, was first printed by Ben. Bacchini, Parma, 1689, and later by Galletti inPhilippi Villani Liber, p. 97seq.[60]A. M. Bandini,Lettere Fiesolane, Flor. 1776, p. 30.[61]A. Guidoni to Duke Ercole II., April 1486, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 281.[62]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17-19.[63]‘Ad Bartholomæum Scalam’ in theProse volgari, p. 273.[64]In theEpigrammata Græca. Cf.Prose volgari, p. 199seq.[65]‘Quæris quid mihi de tuo Marullo,’ in theProse volgari, p. 124; ‘Quod plura Venerem tuus Marullus,ibid.p. 125.[66]‘Invectiva in Mabilium,’ibid.p. 131seq.The poems of Marullus were printed at Florence in 1497.[67]F. Fossi,Monumenta ad Alamanni Rinuccini vitam contexandam, &c., Flor. 1791. G. Aiazzi, inRicordi storici di Filippo Rinuccini, p. 139seq.[68]Anton. Francesco Gori has added to a MS. commentary on Rucellai’s treatiseDe Urbe Roma(in the Marucelliana at Florence) a life of the author. Cf. L. Passerini,Genealogia ec. della Famiglia Rucellai, p. 122seq.Bernardo was born 1488, died 1514.[69]L. Passerini,Degli Orti Oricellarj, in theCuriosità, p. 56seq.The house, built on the ground bought from Nannina de’ Medici in 1482, was begun about the end of the century. It passed, with the beautiful gardens, to Bianca Cappello; it now, after many changes, belongs to a Countess Orloff.[70]‘Bernardo Bembo veneto oratori viro undecumque elegantissimo.’ In theProse volgari, p. 251. The copy of Landino’sXandra, once sent by him to Bembo, is in the Vatican library. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 164seq.[71]Foscarini, l. c. 267.[72]Inscription on his tomb in Sta. Maria del Popolo:BARBARIEM HERMOLEOS LATIO QUI DEPULIT OMNEMBARBARUS HIC SITUS EST UTRAQUE LINGUA OEMITURBS VENETUM VITAM MORTEM DEDIT INCLYTA ROMANON POTUIT NASCI NOBILIUSQUE MORI.[73]Florence, May 10, 1490. Fabroni, l. c. ii. 377.[74]Gaye, l. c. i. 294.[75]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 284; also inProse volgari, p. 78seq.[76]Piero Alamanni to Lorenzo, Rome, May 14, 1491; in Fabroni, l. c. p. 379.[77]L. Geiger,Johann Reuchlin(Leipzig, 1871), p. 163seq.[78]In A. Cappelli, l. c. p. 282. Domenico Berti,Cenni e documenti intorno a Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in theRivista contemporanea, vol. xvi., Turin, 1859. The reports sent to Lorenzo during his stay at the baths, quoted here from the Medicean archives, agree substantially with the accounts given by Guidoni.[79]In Cappelli, l. c. p. 303. The date of theApologyseems to be really wrong. In the register of Lorenzo’s correspondence (Ricordi di lettere scripti per Lor. de’ Med.) in the Florentine archives, we find notice of a letter written as late as February 12, 1488, ‘al conte della Mirandola, ringraziandolo dell’Apologia mandate,’ letter enclosed to Lorenzo Spinelli, one of the Medicean agents in France.[80]Med. Arch., Filza 57.[81]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 291. Some of the following extracts are in the same; some, unpublished, in theMed. Arch.[82]A. Guidoni, Flor. September 25, 1488, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 303.[83]Epist.lib. i. 4.Epigramm. Græca, lib. iii. inProse volgari, p. 218.[84]Disputationum de Astrologia, lib. xii.Epigramm. Græca, xlix. l. c. p. 214.[85]Speech on accepting the office of Capitano del popolo, from L. B. Alberti’s papers, in Bonucci,Opere di L. B. A., vol. i. p. xlii.[86]G. Perticaro,Intorno la morte di Pandolfo Collenuccio, in hisOpere, Bologna, 1839, ii. 52seq.[87]Cf. Ben. Varchi’s remarks upon Naldi inProse volgari inedite, p. 122.[88]It is not intended in the present work to go into the details of these mostly uninteresting poetical productions. Bandini has noticed many of them in the catalogue of the Laurentiana; Roscoe has filled many pages with quotations and bibliographical notices; to add to them would be easy but useless.[89]TheDieci di Balia, Florence, January 14, 1432, in Fabroni,Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 8.[90]Guicciardini,Del reggimento di Firenze, p. 209.[91]Fabroni,Historia Academiæ Pisanæ, i. 109seq.;Laur. Med. Vita, i. 49. Many other references to the University,ibid.ii. 74seq.Carlo de’ Massimi,Carmen heroicum ad Laurentium Medicem de studio per eumden Pisis innovato, from a Laurentian MS., in Bandini,Laur. Cat., vol. iii., and Roscoe, iii. 237seq.(No. lviii.)[92]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 77.[93]Rosmini,Vita di Fr. Filelfo, ii 191.[94]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 75, 76.[95]Camillo Massimo,Sopra una inedita medaglia di Francesco Massimo dottore in legge e cavaliere, Rome, 1860. Francesco Massimo was elected Podestà of Siena in 1477, but could not assume the office owing to the death of his father. That he was in Florence in 1488-89, engaged in affairs of state, is shown by the following letter from Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini at Rome: ‘Messer Francesco Massimi is going back, having gained the approval of the whole city as well as my own. He has in truth conducted himself so well that I have thought good to recommend him to his Holiness and to the Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. I do the same to you, and beg you to bear witness that his conduct could not have been more praiseworthy. In consideration of his good offices I shall be glad if you will introduce him wherever it may be agreeable to him.’ Florence, March 13, 1489 (Med. Arch.Filza 59).[96]TheAnnales suorum temporumwere printed by Gio. Lami in theCatalogus codd. MSS. bibl. Riccard., Livorno, 1756; and again by Galletti, inPhil. Villani liber, &c., p. 151seq.According to a letter of Fonti to Lorenzo, he once intended writing a history of the Medici. He praised the chief scholars of his time in a pretty epigram,ibid.p. 153.[97]Gaye, l. c. i. 273.[98]Med. Arch., Filza 59.[99]Venice, June 20, 1491, inProse volgari, p. 78.[100]The letters are in Poliziano’sEpistolæ, book xi.[101]A. M. Bandini,Ragionamento istorico sulle collazione delle Pandette, ec., Livorno 1762, The copy of the Pandects marked with Poliziano’s collations is preserved in the Laurentianæ. Bandini also speaks of it in the fourth volume of theCatalogue of Latin MSS.See Th. Mommsen’s introduction to his critical edition of theDigestum.[102]F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Florence, 1839. G. Ottino,Di Bernardo Cennini e dell’arte della stampa in Firenze, Florence, 1871. When the first Florentine printer had been almost forgotten for 400 years, the present generation, on occasion of the fourth centenary of his work, has raised a monument to him in San Lorenzo—where he lies buried—placed a memorial tablet on the site of his workshop, and given his name to a street.[103]‘Ad lectorem. Florentiæ,VII. Idus Novembres,MCCCCLXXI. Bernardus Cennnius (sic) aurifer omnium iudicio præstantissimus: et Dominicus eius F. egregiæ indolis adolescens: expressis ante calibe caracteribus et deinde fusis literis volumen hoc primum impresserunt. Petrus Cenninus Bernardi eiusdem F. quanta potuit cura et diligentia emendavit ut cernis. Florentinis ingeniis nil ardui est.’[104]P. Vinc. Fineschi,Notizie istoriche sopra la stamperia di [S. Jacopo di] Ripoli, Flor. 1761. D. Moreni in theNovelle letterarie Fiorentineof 1791, and F. Fossi in theCatalogo delle antiche edizioni della B. Magliabechiana, vol. iii., have collected other information concerning the works of this printing establishment amounting to eighty-six in number, among which, curiously enough, aDecameronis included.[105]Enea Piccolomini,Delle condizioni e delle vicende della libreria Medicea privata, in theArch. Star. Ital., series iii. vols. xix. and xx. N. Anziani,Della Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Flor. 1872.[106]Targioni-Tozzetti,Notizie sulla storia delle scienze fisiche in Toscana(ed. by Fr. Palermo), Flor. 1853, pp. 60, 61.[107]Med. Arch.[108]Fabroni, l. c. i. 153; ii. 286.[109]Ibid.i. 163.[110]Cappelli, l. c. The MS. was by Battista Guarino. The translation was first printed at Venice in 1532, the original at Paris in 1548.[111]Prose volgari, p. 78.[112]This poetess, of a Milanese family, was born at Venice about 1465, and is supposed to have died in 1558. Politian (Epist.l. iii. 17) addresses her: ‘O decus Italiæ virgo.’[113]Florence, May 8, 1490, in Fabroni, l. c. ii. 287.[114]Vasari’sLife of Fra Giocondo(ix. 155seq.) is very imperfect and leaves room for further study. On Giocondo’s works in his own city see G. Orti Manara,Dei lavori architettonici di Fra Giocondo in Verona, Ver., 1853. On his collection of inscriptions see G. B. de Rossi,I Fasti municipali di Venosa restituite alla sincera lezione, Rome 1853. (From vol. cxxxiii. of theGiornale Arcadico.) According to theNovelle letterarie di Firenzefor the year 1771, p. 725, the Medicean copy was sent to Pope Clement XIV., but has never been seen either in the Vatican archives or the library. On the other copies, and the second collection, differing from the first in some respects, less numerous, and dedicated to Ludovico de Agnellis, Archbishop of Cosenza, cf. De Rossi, p. 7seq.The dedication—‘Laurentio Medici Fr. Io. Jucundus S. P. D.’—is in Fabroni, ii. 279seq.It ends: ‘Vale feliciter humani generis amor et deliciæ.’[115]Med. Arch.[116]Epist. ad J. Bracciolini, l. i. Prolegom. ad Platonis convivium.[117]The work of the Sicilian Jesuit, P. Leonardo Ximenes,Del vecchio e nuovo Gnomone fiorentino, Flor. 1757, contains the history and explanation of the scientific value of the famous meridian, and of the more ancient mathematical and astronomical works in Tuscany.[118]This controversy has never rested from the time of Angelo Maria Bandini, who published in 1755 theVita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci gentiluomo fiorentino, down to our own days, which have witnessed a new defence of the Florentine’s claims by the Brazilian, F. A. de Varnhagen. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to the facts published by Oscar Peschel in theZeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 305seq., and in an essay on Amerigo in the periodicalDas Ausland(No. 32, 1858). Vespucci’s well-known work on his second journey (Bandini, p. 64) is addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the son of Pier Francesco.[119]Cianfogni,Memorie istoriche della basilica di S. Lorenzo(Flor. 1804), p. 228. On Brunelleschi, cf. i. 71seq.[120]D. Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della basilica di San Lorenzo(Flor. 1816), i. 6seq.[121]The dedication (to Piero de’ Medici) of a treatise on Architecture by Antonio Averlino, called Filarete (see below, p. 135), shows that the Church had not been rebuilt in 1460: ‘Resta ancora la chiesa a rinovare.’ The resemblance of its architecture to that of the chapel of the Madonna de’ Voti, afterwards dell’Incoronata, in the cathedral of Mantua, always regarded as a work of Leon Bat. Alberti, awakens a suspicion that he may have been concerned in the building at Fiesole. Cf. Gaye, l. c. i. 200seq.; 263. Vasari,Life of Filarete, iii. 290.[122]D. Moreni,Notizie istoriche dei Contorni di Firenze, iii. 93seq.Cf. i. 576seq.[123]The Silvestrine was a branch of the Vallombrosan order, named after its founder Silvestro Gozzolini.[124]Cf. i. 574-576.[125]Vasari,Life of Michelozzo, iii. 277-279. V. Marchese,Memorie dei Pittori ec. Domenicani, i. 278seq.Id.,San Marco convento dei Frati Predicatori(Flor. 1853), p. 75seq.The inscription in the church, dated 1442, which speaks of ‘magnificis sumptibus v. cl. Cosmi Medicis,’ &c., is in Vasari, p. 279.[126]A. Zobi,Memorie storico-artistiche relative alla Cappella della SS. Annunziata(Flor. 1837), p. 14seq.Fr. Bocchi,Della immagine miracolosa della SS. Nunziata(Flor. 1592, new ed. 1852). Inscription: ‘Petrus Med. Cosmi Joann. filius sacellum marmoreum voto suscepto animo libens d. d. Anno 1448. Idib. Martii.’ Another inscription on the cornice: ‘Piero di Cosimo de Medici fece fare questa hopera et Pagno di Lapo di Fiesole fu el maestro chella fèmcccclii.’ From this it certainly looks questionable whether Michelozzo furnished the designs, as Pagno also executed larger works. Inscription relating to the consecration: ‘Mariæ glorioss. virg. Guilelmus Cardinalis Rotomagensis cum superni in terris nuntii munere fungeretur legati ratus officium et innumeris miraculis locique religione motus hanc Annunciatæ aram summa cum celebritate ac solenni pompa sacravitmcccclii.,viii. Kalen. Januar.’[127]Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte(Flor. 1850), p. 54seq.On June 10, 1448, Piero de’ Medici was allowed to place his arms on the tabernacle on condition that those of the Guild should have the highest place.[128]C. Guasti, l. c. Doc. 290, p. 201. Brunelleschi was buried in the cathedral. The epitaph is by Carlo Marsuppini: ‘D. S. Quantum Philippus architectus arte Dædalea valuerit cum huius celeberrimi templi mira testudo tum plures aliæ divino ingenio ab eo adiuventæ machinæ documento esse possunt quapropter ob eximias sui animi dotes singularesque virtutesxv.Kal. Maias annomccccxlvi.eius b. m. corpus in hac humo supposita grata patria sepeliri iussit.’[129]Round the altar is the following inscription: ‘Ædem hanc sanctissime Andrea tibi Pactii dedicarunt ut cum te immortalis Deus hominum constituerit piscatorem locus sit in quem suos Franciscus ad tua possit retia convocare.’ By Franciscus is doubtless meant the saint to whose order the convent belonged, and not, as Richa and Moisè suppose, Francesco de’ Pazzi, Andrea’s grandson. A letter of indulgence from Card. Pietro Riario, October 8, 1473, speaks of Jacopo de’ Pazzi as the founder.[130]The history of the building of the Pitti palace has never been thoroughly cleared up.[131]Inscription:JOHANNES RUCELLARIUS PAULI FILIUS INDESALUTEM SUAM PRECARETUR UNDE OMNIUMCUM CHRISTO FACTA EST RESURRECTIO SACELLUMHOC AD INSTAR HYEROSOLIMITANI SEPULCRIFACIUNDUM CURAVIT MCCCCLXVII.[132]Documents on the building (1471), in Gaye, l. c. p. 225seq.Vasari, iv. 59.[133]The price was 150 gold florins; Gaye, l. c. p. 572. The statue was removed when Duke Cosimo erected the fountain adorned with Verrocchio’s Boy, and is now in the national museum in the Palace of the Podestà.[134]‘Exemplum sal. pub. cives posuereMCCCCXCV.’ This inscription can have nothing to do with the driving out of the Duke of Athens, as Moisè (Palazzo de’ Priori, p. 166) imagines. The group occupied the place which was assigned in 1504 to Michel Angelo’s ‘David,’ and has stood since then on the side of the Loggia de’ Lanzi towards the Uffizi. Vasari (l. c. p. 251) wrongly thinks it was executed for the Signoria.[135]L. c. p. 250.[136]Mantua, November 7, 1458. Cf. Braghirolli, in theGiornale di erudizione artistica(of Perugia), ii. 4seq.[137]Vasari, l. c. pp. 264, 266. Fabroni, l. c. p. 159. According to Vasari, Donatello died on December 13, 1466; according to the contemporary M. Palmieri (De Temporibus), in 1468. In the crypt of S. Lorenzo, near the tombs of the Medici, is the following later inscription: ‘Donatellus restituta antiqua sculpendi cælandiq. arte celeberrimus Mediceis principibus summis bonarum artium patronis apprime carus qui ut vivum suspexere mortuo etiam sepulcrum loco sibi proximiore constituerunt obiit idibus Decembris an. sal.MCCCCLXIV.æt. suæLXXXIII.’[138]On Francesco Livi, cf. Gaye, l. c. ii. 441seq.On Ser Guasparre, see Rumohr,Ital. Forschungen, ii. 377seq.; G. Milanesi,Documenti dell’arte Sanese, ii. 194seq.On the Jesuates, cf. i. 596, 597, and L. Fanfani,Memorie di Sta. Maria del Pontenuovo(Pisa 1871), p. 124seq.[139]These basso-rilievos, removed from the cathedral when the organs were modernised, are now in the museum of the Palazzo del Podestà.[140]Metropolitana Fiorentina, tables xxxiii.-xxxvi.[141]Transferred from San Pancrazio to the church of San Francesco di Paola before the Porta Romana;Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvii.[142]Monuments sépulcraux, plates lvi., xli., xxi.[143]Monuments sépulcraux, plate xxxvi. Inscription:SISTE VIDES MAGNUM QUÆ SERVANT MARMORA VATEMINGENIO CUIUS NON SATIS ORBIS ERATQUÆ NATURA POLUS QUÆ MOS FERAT OMNIA NOVITKAROLUS ÆTATIS GLORIA MAGNA SUÆAUSONLÆ ET GRAJÆ CRINES NUNC SOLVITE MUSÆOCCIDIT HEU VESTRI FAMA DECUSQUE CHORI.[144]Monuments sépulcraux, plates l., xxxi. Inscription:POSTQUAM LEONARDUS E VITA MIGRAVIT HISTORIA LUGETELOQUENTIA MUTA EST FERTURQUE MUSAS TUMGRAIAS TUM LATINAS LACRIMAS TENERE NON POTUISSE.[145]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 157. Vasari mentions the modelling in Verrocchio, v. 152. Brunelleschi’s cast is in the building-office of Sta. Maria del Fiore (Opera del Duomo).[146]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvi. Vasari, vol. iv. p. 218. Berti, p. 70.[147]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lv.[148]C. Pini,La Scrittura di artisti Italiani, cf.supra, p. 163.[149]Executed in 1436; a pendant to the equestrian figure of Niccolò Maruzzi of Tolentino (d. 1434) by Andrea dal Castagno. The improper introduction of these equestrian figures into churches paved the way for similar monuments in marble, such as may be seen especially in Venice. In the cathedral of Florence was a complete figure of Piero Farnese on a mule, as he rode to a fight with the Pisans in 1363.[150]In this place, where we are concerned chiefly with the position of the Medici in connection with the development of art, we cannot refer in detail to the literature, which has been much enriched of late years by Gastano Milanesi’s researches among the archives, on the Tuscan painters of the early quattrocento (Giornale storico degli Archivi Toscani, vols. iv. and vi., and reprinted inSulla storia dell’arte Toscana, Siena 1873), made use of by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in theirHistory of Painting in Italy.[151]C. Pini,Scrittura di Artisti.[152]This is not the place to refer in detail to the confused notices in the Italian art-historians. Vasari mentions these works, among others, in his Introduction, l. c. i. 63.[153]Rinuccini,Ricordi, p. 251.[154]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 231. It is doubtful whether the sums given at the end of the inventory are to be added up together, or whether the last represents the sum total.[155]Letter to Giovanni de’ Medici, Bruges, June 22, 1488; in Gaye, l. c. p. 158.[156]Gaye, l. c. p. 163.[157]Gaye, l. c. p. 160.[158]Gaye, l. c. p. 136.[159]Ibid.p. 192.[160]Gaye, l. c. pp. 141, 175, 180. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 64, 65.[161]Complete edition by Gaetano and Carlo Milanese,Il Libro dell’arte o Trattato della Pittura(Flor. 1859). There is a German translation,Das Buch von der Kunst, &c., by Albert Ilg (Vienna, 1871). The general supposition, from Baldinucci down to Tambroni, the first editor of the treatise (Rome, 1821), viz., that Cennini wrote it in 1437 in the Stinche prison, is derived from a gloss to the Laurentian MS. which proceeds from the copyist instead of referring to the author. The same postil gave rise to the statement that a fresco in Giotto’s style, representing the driving out of the Duke of Athens, and brought to light at the demolition of the prison, was painted by Cennini. (Fr. Bacchi,Illustratore Fiorentino, pt. v., Flor. 1839).[162]The second commentary, with the notices of modern art, is printed in Cicognara’sStoria della Scultura, vol. iv., and more readably, together with some extracts from the third, in Lemonnier’s edition ofVasari, vol. i. pp. v.-xxxv.[163]On Filarete’s treatise and the two dedications, cf. Vasari, iii. 290, 291, and Gaye, i. 200-206, where will be found the dedication to Fr. Sforza. (Cf.supra, p. 122.) Filarete gives us a foretaste of the art-phraseology of Federigo Zuccaro. For the rest, he says to Sforza: ‘If my book is not elegant, take it as the work, not of an orator nor of a Vitruvius, but of thy master-builder who cast the doors of St. Peter’s.’[164]N. Valori, l. c. p. 176.[165]Vasari, viii. 267. On the design of Andrea, see Waagen,Kunstwerk und Künstler in England, i. 244. Cf.posf, p. 197seq.[166]Pini,Scrittura d’Artisti. Cf. A. v. Zahn,Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, iv. 367.[167]Vasari,Life of Giuliano, iv. 1seq.Gaye, l. c. in annis 1478, 1480, 1481.[168]A. Rossi, in theGiornale di erudiz. artist., 1872, p. 97. Inscription: ‘Opus Juliani Maiani et Dominici Taxi, Florentini,mcccclxxxxi.’[169]C. Milanesi, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. Tosc., iii. 233, 234. Letters dated Rome, February 1-20, 1478. In consequence of the Cardinal’s death in the summer of 1479, the building remained unfinished.[170]Urbino, June 18, 1481. Gaye, l. c. p. 274.[171]S. Volpicelli,Descrizione storica di alcuni principali edificii della città di Napoli(Naples 1850), p. 1seq.[172]Gaye, l. c. p. 300 (undated).[173]Vita di Fil. Strozzi il vecchio, p. 22seq.(Cf. i. 395.) Cf. also, Gaye, l. c. p. 354seq., where are also notices by Luca Landucci, an apothecary, on the beginning and progress of the work, and Filippo’s will. Vasari treats at length of the palace and of the smith Caparri in hisLife of Cronaca, viii. 116seq.[174]Gaye, l. c.ibid.A letter from Lorenzo, December 16, 1490, to Francesco Gonzaga, in which he asks for leave of absence for Luca Fancelli. Whether the latter went to Naples is uncertain; Francesco di Giorgio was there for some time between February and May 1491.[175]Among Sangallo’s drawings in the Barberiniana at Rome. Gaye, l. c. p. 301. Vasari, vii. 212, 213.[176]A. v. Zahn,Notizie artistiche tratte dall’Archivio segreto Vaticano, Arch. stor. Ital., ser. iii. vi. 171.
[1]The collection of Italian poetry made by Lorenzo de’ Medici for Don Federigo is to be found—not, indeed, in the original, which was lost probably during the French invasion of Naples in 1495—but in a copy made either at the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century, and now in the Florentine National Library (Magliabecchi), to which it passed with the Palatine MSS. (Fr. Palermo,I manoscritti Palatini di Firenze, Flor. 1853seq.; i. 353seq.). This MS. belonged to Marco Foscarini, with whose library it went in 1800 to Vienna, and later to the Archduke, afterwards Grand Duke, Leopold, when he collected and published the poems of Lorenzo (Opere di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Florence, 1825, 4 vols. i. p. xxvi., where occur also Apostolo Zeno’s remarks on the MS. in question). On the MSS. and printed copies of Lorenzo’s poems, compare the same edition, i. p. xiii.-xlv., and Gamba,Testi di Lingua, pp. 648-660. For a complete critically revised text much is still wanting, even after the splendid edition of 1825, which came out under the auspices of the della Crusca Academy. A large and well-arranged selection,Poesie di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Flor. 1859, has an introduction by Giosuè Carducci, which has been a guide to much of what is said here of Lorenzo as a poet.The letter of Lorenzo to Don Federigo, from which extracts are given above, is among the Riccardi MSS., No. 2723, under the name of Poliziano, and was published under that name in the edition of theRimeby V. Manucci and L. Ciampolini, Flor. 1814. The mistake is palpable; Poliziano’s age and the agreement with Lorenzo’s views in the commentary on his poems, show it as clearly as do the historical allusions.[2]Cf. Carducci’s edition of thePoesie di Lor. de’ Med., p. 54seq., and Fabroni,supra, p. 10.[3]Herr von Reumont here gives two or three specimens of Lorenzo’s sonnets translated into German verse. It is not attempted to retranslate these, but the English reader in search of examples of the poet’s style is referred to Roscoe’sLorenzo de’ Medici, ii., iii., v.—Note by Translator.[4]‘Il montanino ha scarpe grosse e cervello fino.’ The fullest collection ofrispettiand other Tuscan popular songs is that of G. Tigri,Canti popolari Toscani, first published at Florence in 1856, and reprinted several times since. The reproach against the ‘Wunderhorn’ has been repeated in this case, and indeed not without reason.[5]Tommaso Lancillotto’sChroniclein theCronache inedite Modenesi, pp. 8, 9.Poesie musicali dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI, tratte da vari codici per cura di Ant. Cappelli, Bologna 1869. Cf. the last story of the fifth day of theDecameron.[6]Oratio christiani gregis ad pastorem Xistum, Epist. 1. vi. 1. Cf.supra, i. 440.[7]Lettere di Marsilio Ficino, i. 66seq.[8]Inscription on the monument in Sta. Maria del Fiore:EN HOSPES HIC EST MARSILIUS SOPHIÆ PATER,PLATONICUM QUI DOGMA CULPA TEMPORUMSITU OBRUTUM ILLUSTRANS, ET ATTICUM DECUSSERVANS, LATIO DEDIT FORES PRIMUS SACRAS,DIVINO APERIENS MENTIS ACTUS NUMINE.VIXIT BEATUS ANTE COSMI MUNERELAURIQUE MEDICI NUNC REVIXIT PUBLICO.S. P. Q. F.ANNO MXDXI.[9]See a remarkable letter to Lorenzo, dated 1475, in which he speaks of the neglected muses, in Bandini,Collectio veterum monumentorum, p. 1.[10]In his poem ofXandra, book ii. Cf. Bandini,Specimen litt., i. 124.[11]The copy ofChristophori Landini Florentini ad illustrem Fridericim principem Urbinatem Disputationum Camaldulensiam libri IV., now in the Laurentian library, was written by Pietro Cennini, son of Bernardo, the first Florentine printer, finished at the end of spring, and collated with the original. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 188seq.(see also p. 3seq.as to the meeting and the persons present). The first edition is said (ibid.p. 192) to have been printed in 1475(?) and a second at Strasburg in 1508. It was translated into Italian by Antonio Cambini, a literary man much employed by Lorenzo and also in the service of his son the Cardinal. He was also in communication with the Este family, and afterwards attached himself to Savonarola, at whose fall his house was burnt down. (Cf. Cappelli, l. c. p. 309; Villari,Storia di G. Savonarola, ii. 388.)[12]Manni,Istoria del Decamerone, pt. i. chap. xxix.[13]Mehus,Traversari, p. 178.[14]Mehus, l. c. p. 176.[15]‘Che ‘l Dante io leggeva per mio piacere e per fare cosa grata alla vostra inclyta città.’ Milan, May 29, 1473, in Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 76.[16]On the various editions of the old biographies of Dante, see G. C. Galletti inPhil. Villani liber, &c., where Villani, Leon. Bruni, and Giann. Manetti are printed, the last with Melius’ notes for his edition, Flor. 1747. The MS. of G. M. Filelfo in the Laurentiana was published by D. Morini, Flor. 1826.[17]Vide section iii. chap. iii.[18]For the numerous bibliographical works on the history of Dante and his writings, we can only give a general reference to theBibliografia Dantescaof Colomb de Batines and theEnciclopedia Dantescaof Ferrazzi.[19]According to the colophon, the printing was finished on August 30, 1481. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 131, 140-143; Colomb de Batines, l. c. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 43; Marsilio’s Address, Bandini, pp. 132-134; Batines, pp. 43, 44. The Magliabecchian copy has been lately rebound, and not in very good taste.[20]Paradiso, xxv. 7. Girol. Benivieni,Cantico in laude di Dante Alighieri, inWorks, Venice 1522. Cf. Bandini, ii. 134-136. The latter part of the poem, from the line ‘La patria, che a me madre, a Te noverca,’ refers to the above-quoted lines of Dante. The restoration of citizen rights to the poet’s great-great-grandson, who bore his name, and who was a friend of Poliziano (Letter to Lorenzo, Flor. June 5, 1490, in theProse volgari, &c., p. 76), did not take place till 1496, and was paid for! (Gaye, l. c. p. 584.)[21]Isidoro del Lungo,Un documento Dantesco, Arch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xix. p. 4.[22]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 499seq.Palmieri’s Latin biography of the grand seneschal was translated into Italian by a relative of the latter, Donato Acciaiuolo.[23]On theGiostra, see above, i. 264seq., and Salvator Bongi’s oft-mentioned edition of theLettere di Luigi Pulci. A new edition ofCiriffo Calvaneo, with full bibliographical references by S. L. G. Audin, appeared at Florence in 1834.[24]L. Ranke’s academical treatise,Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie, Berlin, 1837, contains an excellent account of the elements and the development of the romantic epopee. The last edition ofMorgante, which was first printed at Venice in 1481 and at Florence in the following year (Gamba,Testi di Lingua, p. 241seq.) is that by P. Sermolli, published at Florence a few years ago. The oldest impression of theReali di Franciais that published at Modena in 1491, ten years after Pulci’s poem.[25]L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 38. Cf.supra, i. 313.[26]February 1, 1468. L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 8.[27]A petition of his widow, July 14, 1485, states that he had been dead more than eight months. Cf.Lettere, pp. 10, 102, 114.[28]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 98.[29]Isidoro del Lungo,La patria e gli antenati d’Angelo PolizianoinArch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xi. p. 9seq.Id.Uno Scolare dello studio fiorentino nel sec. XV, in theNuova Antologia, x. 215,seq.Fr. Otto Mencke’sHistoria Vitæ, etc. Ang. Pol., Leipzig, 1736, will always be valuable as a careful collection of literary and critical materials.Opera Ang. Politiani, Flor. 1499.Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Ang. Ambrogini Pol., illustrate da Giosuè Carducci, Flor. 1863.Prose volgari e Poesie latine e greche di A. A. P. raccolte da Isidoro del Lungo, Flor. 1867.[30]Prose volgari, p. 109.[31]Ibid. p. 248.[32]SeeProse volgare, p. 481: ‘O cui tyrrheni florentia signa leonis.’[33]Epistolæ, viii. 6, 7.[34]See the poems addressed to Cardinal Riario in theProse volgare, pp. 111-114. Cf.supra, i. 346.[35]These four books were printed by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the second volume of theSpicilegium Romanum, from two MSS. in the Vatican, and thence in theProse volgare, pp. 431-523. The MSS. came to the Vatican from Fulvio Orsini. The one on parchment, with the Medici arms on a red leather binding, is the copy of books ii. and iii., presented by the author to Lorenzo. The other contains books iv. and v., apparently in Poliziano’s handwriting and without a dedication.[36]There has been much question as to the relation between the original ‘Orfeo,’ which the author wanted to destroy, and the later one, which was turned into a tragedy in several acts. The latter was published in 1776 by Ireneo Affò, with a detailed introduction andexcursus; and in 1812 Vincenzo Ranucci wrote some extensive philological observations upon it which were reprinted in the Carducci edition, pp. 113-188. The question which has lately been raised as to Poliziano’s authorship of this second version must be left for decision to the poet’s biographers. There is a prospect of a detailed account of his life by I. del Lungo.[37]It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin,Prose volgare, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’][38]Laurus, the poetical name by which the poets of the time distinguished Lorenzo.[39]Roscoe’s translation.[40]‘In violas a Venere mea dono acceptas,’ inProse volgare, p. 238; Carducci, p. cviii. Agnolo Firenzuola and Giulio Perticari have translated this elegy in very different styles. Cf.supra, p. 15.[41]The diploma (with a wrong date) was printed from the archiepiscopal archives of Florence in Bandini, l. c. i. 188.[42]Prose volgare, pp. 285-427.[43]Epist.l. x. 14.[44]Prælectio in Priora Aristotelis analytica cui titulus Lamia. La Strega, prelezione alle Priora d’Aristotile nello studio Fiorentino l’anno 1483 per Ang. Ambr. Poliziano volgar. da Isidori del Lungo, Flor. 1864. The immediate neighbourhood of Fiesole, where Poliziano was so thoroughly at home, still recalls the witch-traditions of the middle ages. The subterranean chambers of the Roman theatre (unhappily in great part destroyed) on the northern slope of the hill are called by the people the Witches’ grottos—(Buche delle Fate); they are not far from the stone grotto on the eastern slope, the Fonte Soterra, which is always full of cool water, and the Latomie, which Brunelleschi opened for the purposes of his wonderful buildings (Fr. Inghirami,Memorie storiche per servire di guida all’Osservatore in Fiesole, Fiesole 1839), p. 60seq.[45]The translation appeared at Rome in 1493. The dedication to the Pope and his Brief are in book viii. of theEpistolæ. The poem ‘Herodianus in laudem traductoris sui,’ is inProse volgare, etc., p. 264.[46]Letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici, June 5, 1490,ibid.p. 76.[47]Letter to Piero de’ Medici, Florence, May 23, 1494,ibid.p. 84.[48]Poliziano’sLetters to Madonna Clarice(cf. vol. ii. book vi. ch. iii.) are in I. del Lungo,Prose volgare, p. 45seq., and also his letters from Pistoja, Caffagiuolo, Careggi, and Fiesole, to Lorenzo and his mother, some of which had already been printed by Fabroni.[49]Poliziano afterwards sent the ode also to Lorenzo.[50]The graceful description of the view of Florence and its neighbourhood from Fiesole (‘Talia Fœsuleo lentus meditabar in antro Rure suburbano Medicum) stands at the end of the poem of Rusticus, which bears the date 1483, but its origin is probably connected with the time referred to above.[51]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 288.[52]Fiesole, May 21 and July 18, 1479, inProse volgari, pp. 71-74. Several Latin epigrams to Lorenzo (ibid.pp. 123, 124) are of this period.[53]Prose volgari, p. 127 (‘O ego quam cupio reducis contingere dextram’).[54]Latini dettati a Piero de’ Medici, 1481,ibid.pp. 17-41.[55]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 280.[56]Epist.xii. 7.[57]D. M. Manni,Bartholomei Scalæ Collensis vita, Flor. 1768. Scala’sFlorentine History, now completely forgotten, appeared at Rome in 1677. The Laurentiana contains a MS. collection of letters, poems, &c., by him, to and on Cosimo the elder, and dedicated to Lorenzo (cf. Moreni,Bibliographia, ii. 321).[58]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17.[59]Accolti (on whom cf. Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 442seq.) died in 1466, aged 51; the seals were not delivered to Scala till March 1473, so they must have been put into commission (Manni, l. c. 15). Accolti’s dialogue,De præstantia virorum sui ævi, which, in spite of the many reservations made by the author from personal motives, will deserve regard as the work of a man in high position, was first printed by Ben. Bacchini, Parma, 1689, and later by Galletti inPhilippi Villani Liber, p. 97seq.[60]A. M. Bandini,Lettere Fiesolane, Flor. 1776, p. 30.[61]A. Guidoni to Duke Ercole II., April 1486, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 281.[62]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17-19.[63]‘Ad Bartholomæum Scalam’ in theProse volgari, p. 273.[64]In theEpigrammata Græca. Cf.Prose volgari, p. 199seq.[65]‘Quæris quid mihi de tuo Marullo,’ in theProse volgari, p. 124; ‘Quod plura Venerem tuus Marullus,ibid.p. 125.[66]‘Invectiva in Mabilium,’ibid.p. 131seq.The poems of Marullus were printed at Florence in 1497.[67]F. Fossi,Monumenta ad Alamanni Rinuccini vitam contexandam, &c., Flor. 1791. G. Aiazzi, inRicordi storici di Filippo Rinuccini, p. 139seq.[68]Anton. Francesco Gori has added to a MS. commentary on Rucellai’s treatiseDe Urbe Roma(in the Marucelliana at Florence) a life of the author. Cf. L. Passerini,Genealogia ec. della Famiglia Rucellai, p. 122seq.Bernardo was born 1488, died 1514.[69]L. Passerini,Degli Orti Oricellarj, in theCuriosità, p. 56seq.The house, built on the ground bought from Nannina de’ Medici in 1482, was begun about the end of the century. It passed, with the beautiful gardens, to Bianca Cappello; it now, after many changes, belongs to a Countess Orloff.[70]‘Bernardo Bembo veneto oratori viro undecumque elegantissimo.’ In theProse volgari, p. 251. The copy of Landino’sXandra, once sent by him to Bembo, is in the Vatican library. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 164seq.[71]Foscarini, l. c. 267.[72]Inscription on his tomb in Sta. Maria del Popolo:BARBARIEM HERMOLEOS LATIO QUI DEPULIT OMNEMBARBARUS HIC SITUS EST UTRAQUE LINGUA OEMITURBS VENETUM VITAM MORTEM DEDIT INCLYTA ROMANON POTUIT NASCI NOBILIUSQUE MORI.[73]Florence, May 10, 1490. Fabroni, l. c. ii. 377.[74]Gaye, l. c. i. 294.[75]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 284; also inProse volgari, p. 78seq.[76]Piero Alamanni to Lorenzo, Rome, May 14, 1491; in Fabroni, l. c. p. 379.[77]L. Geiger,Johann Reuchlin(Leipzig, 1871), p. 163seq.[78]In A. Cappelli, l. c. p. 282. Domenico Berti,Cenni e documenti intorno a Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in theRivista contemporanea, vol. xvi., Turin, 1859. The reports sent to Lorenzo during his stay at the baths, quoted here from the Medicean archives, agree substantially with the accounts given by Guidoni.[79]In Cappelli, l. c. p. 303. The date of theApologyseems to be really wrong. In the register of Lorenzo’s correspondence (Ricordi di lettere scripti per Lor. de’ Med.) in the Florentine archives, we find notice of a letter written as late as February 12, 1488, ‘al conte della Mirandola, ringraziandolo dell’Apologia mandate,’ letter enclosed to Lorenzo Spinelli, one of the Medicean agents in France.[80]Med. Arch., Filza 57.[81]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 291. Some of the following extracts are in the same; some, unpublished, in theMed. Arch.[82]A. Guidoni, Flor. September 25, 1488, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 303.[83]Epist.lib. i. 4.Epigramm. Græca, lib. iii. inProse volgari, p. 218.[84]Disputationum de Astrologia, lib. xii.Epigramm. Græca, xlix. l. c. p. 214.[85]Speech on accepting the office of Capitano del popolo, from L. B. Alberti’s papers, in Bonucci,Opere di L. B. A., vol. i. p. xlii.[86]G. Perticaro,Intorno la morte di Pandolfo Collenuccio, in hisOpere, Bologna, 1839, ii. 52seq.[87]Cf. Ben. Varchi’s remarks upon Naldi inProse volgari inedite, p. 122.[88]It is not intended in the present work to go into the details of these mostly uninteresting poetical productions. Bandini has noticed many of them in the catalogue of the Laurentiana; Roscoe has filled many pages with quotations and bibliographical notices; to add to them would be easy but useless.[89]TheDieci di Balia, Florence, January 14, 1432, in Fabroni,Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 8.[90]Guicciardini,Del reggimento di Firenze, p. 209.[91]Fabroni,Historia Academiæ Pisanæ, i. 109seq.;Laur. Med. Vita, i. 49. Many other references to the University,ibid.ii. 74seq.Carlo de’ Massimi,Carmen heroicum ad Laurentium Medicem de studio per eumden Pisis innovato, from a Laurentian MS., in Bandini,Laur. Cat., vol. iii., and Roscoe, iii. 237seq.(No. lviii.)[92]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 77.[93]Rosmini,Vita di Fr. Filelfo, ii 191.[94]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 75, 76.[95]Camillo Massimo,Sopra una inedita medaglia di Francesco Massimo dottore in legge e cavaliere, Rome, 1860. Francesco Massimo was elected Podestà of Siena in 1477, but could not assume the office owing to the death of his father. That he was in Florence in 1488-89, engaged in affairs of state, is shown by the following letter from Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini at Rome: ‘Messer Francesco Massimi is going back, having gained the approval of the whole city as well as my own. He has in truth conducted himself so well that I have thought good to recommend him to his Holiness and to the Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. I do the same to you, and beg you to bear witness that his conduct could not have been more praiseworthy. In consideration of his good offices I shall be glad if you will introduce him wherever it may be agreeable to him.’ Florence, March 13, 1489 (Med. Arch.Filza 59).[96]TheAnnales suorum temporumwere printed by Gio. Lami in theCatalogus codd. MSS. bibl. Riccard., Livorno, 1756; and again by Galletti, inPhil. Villani liber, &c., p. 151seq.According to a letter of Fonti to Lorenzo, he once intended writing a history of the Medici. He praised the chief scholars of his time in a pretty epigram,ibid.p. 153.[97]Gaye, l. c. i. 273.[98]Med. Arch., Filza 59.[99]Venice, June 20, 1491, inProse volgari, p. 78.[100]The letters are in Poliziano’sEpistolæ, book xi.[101]A. M. Bandini,Ragionamento istorico sulle collazione delle Pandette, ec., Livorno 1762, The copy of the Pandects marked with Poliziano’s collations is preserved in the Laurentianæ. Bandini also speaks of it in the fourth volume of theCatalogue of Latin MSS.See Th. Mommsen’s introduction to his critical edition of theDigestum.[102]F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Florence, 1839. G. Ottino,Di Bernardo Cennini e dell’arte della stampa in Firenze, Florence, 1871. When the first Florentine printer had been almost forgotten for 400 years, the present generation, on occasion of the fourth centenary of his work, has raised a monument to him in San Lorenzo—where he lies buried—placed a memorial tablet on the site of his workshop, and given his name to a street.[103]‘Ad lectorem. Florentiæ,VII. Idus Novembres,MCCCCLXXI. Bernardus Cennnius (sic) aurifer omnium iudicio præstantissimus: et Dominicus eius F. egregiæ indolis adolescens: expressis ante calibe caracteribus et deinde fusis literis volumen hoc primum impresserunt. Petrus Cenninus Bernardi eiusdem F. quanta potuit cura et diligentia emendavit ut cernis. Florentinis ingeniis nil ardui est.’[104]P. Vinc. Fineschi,Notizie istoriche sopra la stamperia di [S. Jacopo di] Ripoli, Flor. 1761. D. Moreni in theNovelle letterarie Fiorentineof 1791, and F. Fossi in theCatalogo delle antiche edizioni della B. Magliabechiana, vol. iii., have collected other information concerning the works of this printing establishment amounting to eighty-six in number, among which, curiously enough, aDecameronis included.[105]Enea Piccolomini,Delle condizioni e delle vicende della libreria Medicea privata, in theArch. Star. Ital., series iii. vols. xix. and xx. N. Anziani,Della Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Flor. 1872.[106]Targioni-Tozzetti,Notizie sulla storia delle scienze fisiche in Toscana(ed. by Fr. Palermo), Flor. 1853, pp. 60, 61.[107]Med. Arch.[108]Fabroni, l. c. i. 153; ii. 286.[109]Ibid.i. 163.[110]Cappelli, l. c. The MS. was by Battista Guarino. The translation was first printed at Venice in 1532, the original at Paris in 1548.[111]Prose volgari, p. 78.[112]This poetess, of a Milanese family, was born at Venice about 1465, and is supposed to have died in 1558. Politian (Epist.l. iii. 17) addresses her: ‘O decus Italiæ virgo.’[113]Florence, May 8, 1490, in Fabroni, l. c. ii. 287.[114]Vasari’sLife of Fra Giocondo(ix. 155seq.) is very imperfect and leaves room for further study. On Giocondo’s works in his own city see G. Orti Manara,Dei lavori architettonici di Fra Giocondo in Verona, Ver., 1853. On his collection of inscriptions see G. B. de Rossi,I Fasti municipali di Venosa restituite alla sincera lezione, Rome 1853. (From vol. cxxxiii. of theGiornale Arcadico.) According to theNovelle letterarie di Firenzefor the year 1771, p. 725, the Medicean copy was sent to Pope Clement XIV., but has never been seen either in the Vatican archives or the library. On the other copies, and the second collection, differing from the first in some respects, less numerous, and dedicated to Ludovico de Agnellis, Archbishop of Cosenza, cf. De Rossi, p. 7seq.The dedication—‘Laurentio Medici Fr. Io. Jucundus S. P. D.’—is in Fabroni, ii. 279seq.It ends: ‘Vale feliciter humani generis amor et deliciæ.’[115]Med. Arch.[116]Epist. ad J. Bracciolini, l. i. Prolegom. ad Platonis convivium.[117]The work of the Sicilian Jesuit, P. Leonardo Ximenes,Del vecchio e nuovo Gnomone fiorentino, Flor. 1757, contains the history and explanation of the scientific value of the famous meridian, and of the more ancient mathematical and astronomical works in Tuscany.[118]This controversy has never rested from the time of Angelo Maria Bandini, who published in 1755 theVita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci gentiluomo fiorentino, down to our own days, which have witnessed a new defence of the Florentine’s claims by the Brazilian, F. A. de Varnhagen. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to the facts published by Oscar Peschel in theZeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 305seq., and in an essay on Amerigo in the periodicalDas Ausland(No. 32, 1858). Vespucci’s well-known work on his second journey (Bandini, p. 64) is addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the son of Pier Francesco.[119]Cianfogni,Memorie istoriche della basilica di S. Lorenzo(Flor. 1804), p. 228. On Brunelleschi, cf. i. 71seq.[120]D. Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della basilica di San Lorenzo(Flor. 1816), i. 6seq.[121]The dedication (to Piero de’ Medici) of a treatise on Architecture by Antonio Averlino, called Filarete (see below, p. 135), shows that the Church had not been rebuilt in 1460: ‘Resta ancora la chiesa a rinovare.’ The resemblance of its architecture to that of the chapel of the Madonna de’ Voti, afterwards dell’Incoronata, in the cathedral of Mantua, always regarded as a work of Leon Bat. Alberti, awakens a suspicion that he may have been concerned in the building at Fiesole. Cf. Gaye, l. c. i. 200seq.; 263. Vasari,Life of Filarete, iii. 290.[122]D. Moreni,Notizie istoriche dei Contorni di Firenze, iii. 93seq.Cf. i. 576seq.[123]The Silvestrine was a branch of the Vallombrosan order, named after its founder Silvestro Gozzolini.[124]Cf. i. 574-576.[125]Vasari,Life of Michelozzo, iii. 277-279. V. Marchese,Memorie dei Pittori ec. Domenicani, i. 278seq.Id.,San Marco convento dei Frati Predicatori(Flor. 1853), p. 75seq.The inscription in the church, dated 1442, which speaks of ‘magnificis sumptibus v. cl. Cosmi Medicis,’ &c., is in Vasari, p. 279.[126]A. Zobi,Memorie storico-artistiche relative alla Cappella della SS. Annunziata(Flor. 1837), p. 14seq.Fr. Bocchi,Della immagine miracolosa della SS. Nunziata(Flor. 1592, new ed. 1852). Inscription: ‘Petrus Med. Cosmi Joann. filius sacellum marmoreum voto suscepto animo libens d. d. Anno 1448. Idib. Martii.’ Another inscription on the cornice: ‘Piero di Cosimo de Medici fece fare questa hopera et Pagno di Lapo di Fiesole fu el maestro chella fèmcccclii.’ From this it certainly looks questionable whether Michelozzo furnished the designs, as Pagno also executed larger works. Inscription relating to the consecration: ‘Mariæ glorioss. virg. Guilelmus Cardinalis Rotomagensis cum superni in terris nuntii munere fungeretur legati ratus officium et innumeris miraculis locique religione motus hanc Annunciatæ aram summa cum celebritate ac solenni pompa sacravitmcccclii.,viii. Kalen. Januar.’[127]Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte(Flor. 1850), p. 54seq.On June 10, 1448, Piero de’ Medici was allowed to place his arms on the tabernacle on condition that those of the Guild should have the highest place.[128]C. Guasti, l. c. Doc. 290, p. 201. Brunelleschi was buried in the cathedral. The epitaph is by Carlo Marsuppini: ‘D. S. Quantum Philippus architectus arte Dædalea valuerit cum huius celeberrimi templi mira testudo tum plures aliæ divino ingenio ab eo adiuventæ machinæ documento esse possunt quapropter ob eximias sui animi dotes singularesque virtutesxv.Kal. Maias annomccccxlvi.eius b. m. corpus in hac humo supposita grata patria sepeliri iussit.’[129]Round the altar is the following inscription: ‘Ædem hanc sanctissime Andrea tibi Pactii dedicarunt ut cum te immortalis Deus hominum constituerit piscatorem locus sit in quem suos Franciscus ad tua possit retia convocare.’ By Franciscus is doubtless meant the saint to whose order the convent belonged, and not, as Richa and Moisè suppose, Francesco de’ Pazzi, Andrea’s grandson. A letter of indulgence from Card. Pietro Riario, October 8, 1473, speaks of Jacopo de’ Pazzi as the founder.[130]The history of the building of the Pitti palace has never been thoroughly cleared up.[131]Inscription:JOHANNES RUCELLARIUS PAULI FILIUS INDESALUTEM SUAM PRECARETUR UNDE OMNIUMCUM CHRISTO FACTA EST RESURRECTIO SACELLUMHOC AD INSTAR HYEROSOLIMITANI SEPULCRIFACIUNDUM CURAVIT MCCCCLXVII.[132]Documents on the building (1471), in Gaye, l. c. p. 225seq.Vasari, iv. 59.[133]The price was 150 gold florins; Gaye, l. c. p. 572. The statue was removed when Duke Cosimo erected the fountain adorned with Verrocchio’s Boy, and is now in the national museum in the Palace of the Podestà.[134]‘Exemplum sal. pub. cives posuereMCCCCXCV.’ This inscription can have nothing to do with the driving out of the Duke of Athens, as Moisè (Palazzo de’ Priori, p. 166) imagines. The group occupied the place which was assigned in 1504 to Michel Angelo’s ‘David,’ and has stood since then on the side of the Loggia de’ Lanzi towards the Uffizi. Vasari (l. c. p. 251) wrongly thinks it was executed for the Signoria.[135]L. c. p. 250.[136]Mantua, November 7, 1458. Cf. Braghirolli, in theGiornale di erudizione artistica(of Perugia), ii. 4seq.[137]Vasari, l. c. pp. 264, 266. Fabroni, l. c. p. 159. According to Vasari, Donatello died on December 13, 1466; according to the contemporary M. Palmieri (De Temporibus), in 1468. In the crypt of S. Lorenzo, near the tombs of the Medici, is the following later inscription: ‘Donatellus restituta antiqua sculpendi cælandiq. arte celeberrimus Mediceis principibus summis bonarum artium patronis apprime carus qui ut vivum suspexere mortuo etiam sepulcrum loco sibi proximiore constituerunt obiit idibus Decembris an. sal.MCCCCLXIV.æt. suæLXXXIII.’[138]On Francesco Livi, cf. Gaye, l. c. ii. 441seq.On Ser Guasparre, see Rumohr,Ital. Forschungen, ii. 377seq.; G. Milanesi,Documenti dell’arte Sanese, ii. 194seq.On the Jesuates, cf. i. 596, 597, and L. Fanfani,Memorie di Sta. Maria del Pontenuovo(Pisa 1871), p. 124seq.[139]These basso-rilievos, removed from the cathedral when the organs were modernised, are now in the museum of the Palazzo del Podestà.[140]Metropolitana Fiorentina, tables xxxiii.-xxxvi.[141]Transferred from San Pancrazio to the church of San Francesco di Paola before the Porta Romana;Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvii.[142]Monuments sépulcraux, plates lvi., xli., xxi.[143]Monuments sépulcraux, plate xxxvi. Inscription:SISTE VIDES MAGNUM QUÆ SERVANT MARMORA VATEMINGENIO CUIUS NON SATIS ORBIS ERATQUÆ NATURA POLUS QUÆ MOS FERAT OMNIA NOVITKAROLUS ÆTATIS GLORIA MAGNA SUÆAUSONLÆ ET GRAJÆ CRINES NUNC SOLVITE MUSÆOCCIDIT HEU VESTRI FAMA DECUSQUE CHORI.[144]Monuments sépulcraux, plates l., xxxi. Inscription:POSTQUAM LEONARDUS E VITA MIGRAVIT HISTORIA LUGETELOQUENTIA MUTA EST FERTURQUE MUSAS TUMGRAIAS TUM LATINAS LACRIMAS TENERE NON POTUISSE.[145]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 157. Vasari mentions the modelling in Verrocchio, v. 152. Brunelleschi’s cast is in the building-office of Sta. Maria del Fiore (Opera del Duomo).[146]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvi. Vasari, vol. iv. p. 218. Berti, p. 70.[147]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lv.[148]C. Pini,La Scrittura di artisti Italiani, cf.supra, p. 163.[149]Executed in 1436; a pendant to the equestrian figure of Niccolò Maruzzi of Tolentino (d. 1434) by Andrea dal Castagno. The improper introduction of these equestrian figures into churches paved the way for similar monuments in marble, such as may be seen especially in Venice. In the cathedral of Florence was a complete figure of Piero Farnese on a mule, as he rode to a fight with the Pisans in 1363.[150]In this place, where we are concerned chiefly with the position of the Medici in connection with the development of art, we cannot refer in detail to the literature, which has been much enriched of late years by Gastano Milanesi’s researches among the archives, on the Tuscan painters of the early quattrocento (Giornale storico degli Archivi Toscani, vols. iv. and vi., and reprinted inSulla storia dell’arte Toscana, Siena 1873), made use of by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in theirHistory of Painting in Italy.[151]C. Pini,Scrittura di Artisti.[152]This is not the place to refer in detail to the confused notices in the Italian art-historians. Vasari mentions these works, among others, in his Introduction, l. c. i. 63.[153]Rinuccini,Ricordi, p. 251.[154]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 231. It is doubtful whether the sums given at the end of the inventory are to be added up together, or whether the last represents the sum total.[155]Letter to Giovanni de’ Medici, Bruges, June 22, 1488; in Gaye, l. c. p. 158.[156]Gaye, l. c. p. 163.[157]Gaye, l. c. p. 160.[158]Gaye, l. c. p. 136.[159]Ibid.p. 192.[160]Gaye, l. c. pp. 141, 175, 180. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 64, 65.[161]Complete edition by Gaetano and Carlo Milanese,Il Libro dell’arte o Trattato della Pittura(Flor. 1859). There is a German translation,Das Buch von der Kunst, &c., by Albert Ilg (Vienna, 1871). The general supposition, from Baldinucci down to Tambroni, the first editor of the treatise (Rome, 1821), viz., that Cennini wrote it in 1437 in the Stinche prison, is derived from a gloss to the Laurentian MS. which proceeds from the copyist instead of referring to the author. The same postil gave rise to the statement that a fresco in Giotto’s style, representing the driving out of the Duke of Athens, and brought to light at the demolition of the prison, was painted by Cennini. (Fr. Bacchi,Illustratore Fiorentino, pt. v., Flor. 1839).[162]The second commentary, with the notices of modern art, is printed in Cicognara’sStoria della Scultura, vol. iv., and more readably, together with some extracts from the third, in Lemonnier’s edition ofVasari, vol. i. pp. v.-xxxv.[163]On Filarete’s treatise and the two dedications, cf. Vasari, iii. 290, 291, and Gaye, i. 200-206, where will be found the dedication to Fr. Sforza. (Cf.supra, p. 122.) Filarete gives us a foretaste of the art-phraseology of Federigo Zuccaro. For the rest, he says to Sforza: ‘If my book is not elegant, take it as the work, not of an orator nor of a Vitruvius, but of thy master-builder who cast the doors of St. Peter’s.’[164]N. Valori, l. c. p. 176.[165]Vasari, viii. 267. On the design of Andrea, see Waagen,Kunstwerk und Künstler in England, i. 244. Cf.posf, p. 197seq.[166]Pini,Scrittura d’Artisti. Cf. A. v. Zahn,Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, iv. 367.[167]Vasari,Life of Giuliano, iv. 1seq.Gaye, l. c. in annis 1478, 1480, 1481.[168]A. Rossi, in theGiornale di erudiz. artist., 1872, p. 97. Inscription: ‘Opus Juliani Maiani et Dominici Taxi, Florentini,mcccclxxxxi.’[169]C. Milanesi, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. Tosc., iii. 233, 234. Letters dated Rome, February 1-20, 1478. In consequence of the Cardinal’s death in the summer of 1479, the building remained unfinished.[170]Urbino, June 18, 1481. Gaye, l. c. p. 274.[171]S. Volpicelli,Descrizione storica di alcuni principali edificii della città di Napoli(Naples 1850), p. 1seq.[172]Gaye, l. c. p. 300 (undated).[173]Vita di Fil. Strozzi il vecchio, p. 22seq.(Cf. i. 395.) Cf. also, Gaye, l. c. p. 354seq., where are also notices by Luca Landucci, an apothecary, on the beginning and progress of the work, and Filippo’s will. Vasari treats at length of the palace and of the smith Caparri in hisLife of Cronaca, viii. 116seq.[174]Gaye, l. c.ibid.A letter from Lorenzo, December 16, 1490, to Francesco Gonzaga, in which he asks for leave of absence for Luca Fancelli. Whether the latter went to Naples is uncertain; Francesco di Giorgio was there for some time between February and May 1491.[175]Among Sangallo’s drawings in the Barberiniana at Rome. Gaye, l. c. p. 301. Vasari, vii. 212, 213.[176]A. v. Zahn,Notizie artistiche tratte dall’Archivio segreto Vaticano, Arch. stor. Ital., ser. iii. vi. 171.
[1]The collection of Italian poetry made by Lorenzo de’ Medici for Don Federigo is to be found—not, indeed, in the original, which was lost probably during the French invasion of Naples in 1495—but in a copy made either at the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century, and now in the Florentine National Library (Magliabecchi), to which it passed with the Palatine MSS. (Fr. Palermo,I manoscritti Palatini di Firenze, Flor. 1853seq.; i. 353seq.). This MS. belonged to Marco Foscarini, with whose library it went in 1800 to Vienna, and later to the Archduke, afterwards Grand Duke, Leopold, when he collected and published the poems of Lorenzo (Opere di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Florence, 1825, 4 vols. i. p. xxvi., where occur also Apostolo Zeno’s remarks on the MS. in question). On the MSS. and printed copies of Lorenzo’s poems, compare the same edition, i. p. xiii.-xlv., and Gamba,Testi di Lingua, pp. 648-660. For a complete critically revised text much is still wanting, even after the splendid edition of 1825, which came out under the auspices of the della Crusca Academy. A large and well-arranged selection,Poesie di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Flor. 1859, has an introduction by Giosuè Carducci, which has been a guide to much of what is said here of Lorenzo as a poet.
The letter of Lorenzo to Don Federigo, from which extracts are given above, is among the Riccardi MSS., No. 2723, under the name of Poliziano, and was published under that name in the edition of theRimeby V. Manucci and L. Ciampolini, Flor. 1814. The mistake is palpable; Poliziano’s age and the agreement with Lorenzo’s views in the commentary on his poems, show it as clearly as do the historical allusions.
[2]Cf. Carducci’s edition of thePoesie di Lor. de’ Med., p. 54seq., and Fabroni,supra, p. 10.
[3]Herr von Reumont here gives two or three specimens of Lorenzo’s sonnets translated into German verse. It is not attempted to retranslate these, but the English reader in search of examples of the poet’s style is referred to Roscoe’sLorenzo de’ Medici, ii., iii., v.—Note by Translator.
[4]‘Il montanino ha scarpe grosse e cervello fino.’ The fullest collection ofrispettiand other Tuscan popular songs is that of G. Tigri,Canti popolari Toscani, first published at Florence in 1856, and reprinted several times since. The reproach against the ‘Wunderhorn’ has been repeated in this case, and indeed not without reason.
[5]Tommaso Lancillotto’sChroniclein theCronache inedite Modenesi, pp. 8, 9.Poesie musicali dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI, tratte da vari codici per cura di Ant. Cappelli, Bologna 1869. Cf. the last story of the fifth day of theDecameron.
[6]Oratio christiani gregis ad pastorem Xistum, Epist. 1. vi. 1. Cf.supra, i. 440.
[7]Lettere di Marsilio Ficino, i. 66seq.
[8]Inscription on the monument in Sta. Maria del Fiore:
EN HOSPES HIC EST MARSILIUS SOPHIÆ PATER,PLATONICUM QUI DOGMA CULPA TEMPORUMSITU OBRUTUM ILLUSTRANS, ET ATTICUM DECUSSERVANS, LATIO DEDIT FORES PRIMUS SACRAS,DIVINO APERIENS MENTIS ACTUS NUMINE.VIXIT BEATUS ANTE COSMI MUNERELAURIQUE MEDICI NUNC REVIXIT PUBLICO.S. P. Q. F.ANNO MXDXI.
[9]See a remarkable letter to Lorenzo, dated 1475, in which he speaks of the neglected muses, in Bandini,Collectio veterum monumentorum, p. 1.
[10]In his poem ofXandra, book ii. Cf. Bandini,Specimen litt., i. 124.
[11]The copy ofChristophori Landini Florentini ad illustrem Fridericim principem Urbinatem Disputationum Camaldulensiam libri IV., now in the Laurentian library, was written by Pietro Cennini, son of Bernardo, the first Florentine printer, finished at the end of spring, and collated with the original. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 188seq.(see also p. 3seq.as to the meeting and the persons present). The first edition is said (ibid.p. 192) to have been printed in 1475(?) and a second at Strasburg in 1508. It was translated into Italian by Antonio Cambini, a literary man much employed by Lorenzo and also in the service of his son the Cardinal. He was also in communication with the Este family, and afterwards attached himself to Savonarola, at whose fall his house was burnt down. (Cf. Cappelli, l. c. p. 309; Villari,Storia di G. Savonarola, ii. 388.)
[12]Manni,Istoria del Decamerone, pt. i. chap. xxix.
[13]Mehus,Traversari, p. 178.
[14]Mehus, l. c. p. 176.
[15]‘Che ‘l Dante io leggeva per mio piacere e per fare cosa grata alla vostra inclyta città.’ Milan, May 29, 1473, in Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 76.
[16]On the various editions of the old biographies of Dante, see G. C. Galletti inPhil. Villani liber, &c., where Villani, Leon. Bruni, and Giann. Manetti are printed, the last with Melius’ notes for his edition, Flor. 1747. The MS. of G. M. Filelfo in the Laurentiana was published by D. Morini, Flor. 1826.
[17]Vide section iii. chap. iii.
[18]For the numerous bibliographical works on the history of Dante and his writings, we can only give a general reference to theBibliografia Dantescaof Colomb de Batines and theEnciclopedia Dantescaof Ferrazzi.
[19]According to the colophon, the printing was finished on August 30, 1481. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 131, 140-143; Colomb de Batines, l. c. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 43; Marsilio’s Address, Bandini, pp. 132-134; Batines, pp. 43, 44. The Magliabecchian copy has been lately rebound, and not in very good taste.
[20]Paradiso, xxv. 7. Girol. Benivieni,Cantico in laude di Dante Alighieri, inWorks, Venice 1522. Cf. Bandini, ii. 134-136. The latter part of the poem, from the line ‘La patria, che a me madre, a Te noverca,’ refers to the above-quoted lines of Dante. The restoration of citizen rights to the poet’s great-great-grandson, who bore his name, and who was a friend of Poliziano (Letter to Lorenzo, Flor. June 5, 1490, in theProse volgari, &c., p. 76), did not take place till 1496, and was paid for! (Gaye, l. c. p. 584.)
[21]Isidoro del Lungo,Un documento Dantesco, Arch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xix. p. 4.
[22]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 499seq.Palmieri’s Latin biography of the grand seneschal was translated into Italian by a relative of the latter, Donato Acciaiuolo.
[23]On theGiostra, see above, i. 264seq., and Salvator Bongi’s oft-mentioned edition of theLettere di Luigi Pulci. A new edition ofCiriffo Calvaneo, with full bibliographical references by S. L. G. Audin, appeared at Florence in 1834.
[24]L. Ranke’s academical treatise,Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie, Berlin, 1837, contains an excellent account of the elements and the development of the romantic epopee. The last edition ofMorgante, which was first printed at Venice in 1481 and at Florence in the following year (Gamba,Testi di Lingua, p. 241seq.) is that by P. Sermolli, published at Florence a few years ago. The oldest impression of theReali di Franciais that published at Modena in 1491, ten years after Pulci’s poem.
[25]L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 38. Cf.supra, i. 313.
[26]February 1, 1468. L. Pulci,Lettere, p. 8.
[27]A petition of his widow, July 14, 1485, states that he had been dead more than eight months. Cf.Lettere, pp. 10, 102, 114.
[28]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 98.
[29]Isidoro del Lungo,La patria e gli antenati d’Angelo PolizianoinArch. Stor. Ital., series iii. vol. xi. p. 9seq.Id.Uno Scolare dello studio fiorentino nel sec. XV, in theNuova Antologia, x. 215,seq.Fr. Otto Mencke’sHistoria Vitæ, etc. Ang. Pol., Leipzig, 1736, will always be valuable as a careful collection of literary and critical materials.Opera Ang. Politiani, Flor. 1499.Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Ang. Ambrogini Pol., illustrate da Giosuè Carducci, Flor. 1863.Prose volgari e Poesie latine e greche di A. A. P. raccolte da Isidoro del Lungo, Flor. 1867.
[30]Prose volgari, p. 109.
[31]Ibid. p. 248.
[32]SeeProse volgare, p. 481: ‘O cui tyrrheni florentia signa leonis.’
[33]Epistolæ, viii. 6, 7.
[34]See the poems addressed to Cardinal Riario in theProse volgare, pp. 111-114. Cf.supra, i. 346.
[35]These four books were printed by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the second volume of theSpicilegium Romanum, from two MSS. in the Vatican, and thence in theProse volgare, pp. 431-523. The MSS. came to the Vatican from Fulvio Orsini. The one on parchment, with the Medici arms on a red leather binding, is the copy of books ii. and iii., presented by the author to Lorenzo. The other contains books iv. and v., apparently in Poliziano’s handwriting and without a dedication.
[36]There has been much question as to the relation between the original ‘Orfeo,’ which the author wanted to destroy, and the later one, which was turned into a tragedy in several acts. The latter was published in 1776 by Ireneo Affò, with a detailed introduction andexcursus; and in 1812 Vincenzo Ranucci wrote some extensive philological observations upon it which were reprinted in the Carducci edition, pp. 113-188. The question which has lately been raised as to Poliziano’s authorship of this second version must be left for decision to the poet’s biographers. There is a prospect of a detailed account of his life by I. del Lungo.
[37]It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin,Prose volgare, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’]
[38]Laurus, the poetical name by which the poets of the time distinguished Lorenzo.
[39]Roscoe’s translation.
[40]‘In violas a Venere mea dono acceptas,’ inProse volgare, p. 238; Carducci, p. cviii. Agnolo Firenzuola and Giulio Perticari have translated this elegy in very different styles. Cf.supra, p. 15.
[41]The diploma (with a wrong date) was printed from the archiepiscopal archives of Florence in Bandini, l. c. i. 188.
[42]Prose volgare, pp. 285-427.
[43]Epist.l. x. 14.
[44]Prælectio in Priora Aristotelis analytica cui titulus Lamia. La Strega, prelezione alle Priora d’Aristotile nello studio Fiorentino l’anno 1483 per Ang. Ambr. Poliziano volgar. da Isidori del Lungo, Flor. 1864. The immediate neighbourhood of Fiesole, where Poliziano was so thoroughly at home, still recalls the witch-traditions of the middle ages. The subterranean chambers of the Roman theatre (unhappily in great part destroyed) on the northern slope of the hill are called by the people the Witches’ grottos—(Buche delle Fate); they are not far from the stone grotto on the eastern slope, the Fonte Soterra, which is always full of cool water, and the Latomie, which Brunelleschi opened for the purposes of his wonderful buildings (Fr. Inghirami,Memorie storiche per servire di guida all’Osservatore in Fiesole, Fiesole 1839), p. 60seq.
[45]The translation appeared at Rome in 1493. The dedication to the Pope and his Brief are in book viii. of theEpistolæ. The poem ‘Herodianus in laudem traductoris sui,’ is inProse volgare, etc., p. 264.
[46]Letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici, June 5, 1490,ibid.p. 76.
[47]Letter to Piero de’ Medici, Florence, May 23, 1494,ibid.p. 84.
[48]Poliziano’sLetters to Madonna Clarice(cf. vol. ii. book vi. ch. iii.) are in I. del Lungo,Prose volgare, p. 45seq., and also his letters from Pistoja, Caffagiuolo, Careggi, and Fiesole, to Lorenzo and his mother, some of which had already been printed by Fabroni.
[49]Poliziano afterwards sent the ode also to Lorenzo.
[50]The graceful description of the view of Florence and its neighbourhood from Fiesole (‘Talia Fœsuleo lentus meditabar in antro Rure suburbano Medicum) stands at the end of the poem of Rusticus, which bears the date 1483, but its origin is probably connected with the time referred to above.
[51]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 288.
[52]Fiesole, May 21 and July 18, 1479, inProse volgari, pp. 71-74. Several Latin epigrams to Lorenzo (ibid.pp. 123, 124) are of this period.
[53]Prose volgari, p. 127 (‘O ego quam cupio reducis contingere dextram’).
[54]Latini dettati a Piero de’ Medici, 1481,ibid.pp. 17-41.
[55]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 280.
[56]Epist.xii. 7.
[57]D. M. Manni,Bartholomei Scalæ Collensis vita, Flor. 1768. Scala’sFlorentine History, now completely forgotten, appeared at Rome in 1677. The Laurentiana contains a MS. collection of letters, poems, &c., by him, to and on Cosimo the elder, and dedicated to Lorenzo (cf. Moreni,Bibliographia, ii. 321).
[58]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17.
[59]Accolti (on whom cf. Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 442seq.) died in 1466, aged 51; the seals were not delivered to Scala till March 1473, so they must have been put into commission (Manni, l. c. 15). Accolti’s dialogue,De præstantia virorum sui ævi, which, in spite of the many reservations made by the author from personal motives, will deserve regard as the work of a man in high position, was first printed by Ben. Bacchini, Parma, 1689, and later by Galletti inPhilippi Villani Liber, p. 97seq.
[60]A. M. Bandini,Lettere Fiesolane, Flor. 1776, p. 30.
[61]A. Guidoni to Duke Ercole II., April 1486, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 281.
[62]Ang. Pol.Epist.xii. 17-19.
[63]‘Ad Bartholomæum Scalam’ in theProse volgari, p. 273.
[64]In theEpigrammata Græca. Cf.Prose volgari, p. 199seq.
[65]‘Quæris quid mihi de tuo Marullo,’ in theProse volgari, p. 124; ‘Quod plura Venerem tuus Marullus,ibid.p. 125.
[66]‘Invectiva in Mabilium,’ibid.p. 131seq.The poems of Marullus were printed at Florence in 1497.
[67]F. Fossi,Monumenta ad Alamanni Rinuccini vitam contexandam, &c., Flor. 1791. G. Aiazzi, inRicordi storici di Filippo Rinuccini, p. 139seq.
[68]Anton. Francesco Gori has added to a MS. commentary on Rucellai’s treatiseDe Urbe Roma(in the Marucelliana at Florence) a life of the author. Cf. L. Passerini,Genealogia ec. della Famiglia Rucellai, p. 122seq.Bernardo was born 1488, died 1514.
[69]L. Passerini,Degli Orti Oricellarj, in theCuriosità, p. 56seq.The house, built on the ground bought from Nannina de’ Medici in 1482, was begun about the end of the century. It passed, with the beautiful gardens, to Bianca Cappello; it now, after many changes, belongs to a Countess Orloff.
[70]‘Bernardo Bembo veneto oratori viro undecumque elegantissimo.’ In theProse volgari, p. 251. The copy of Landino’sXandra, once sent by him to Bembo, is in the Vatican library. Cf. Bandini, l. c. ii. 164seq.
[71]Foscarini, l. c. 267.
[72]Inscription on his tomb in Sta. Maria del Popolo:
BARBARIEM HERMOLEOS LATIO QUI DEPULIT OMNEMBARBARUS HIC SITUS EST UTRAQUE LINGUA OEMITURBS VENETUM VITAM MORTEM DEDIT INCLYTA ROMANON POTUIT NASCI NOBILIUSQUE MORI.
[73]Florence, May 10, 1490. Fabroni, l. c. ii. 377.
[74]Gaye, l. c. i. 294.
[75]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 284; also inProse volgari, p. 78seq.
[76]Piero Alamanni to Lorenzo, Rome, May 14, 1491; in Fabroni, l. c. p. 379.
[77]L. Geiger,Johann Reuchlin(Leipzig, 1871), p. 163seq.
[78]In A. Cappelli, l. c. p. 282. Domenico Berti,Cenni e documenti intorno a Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in theRivista contemporanea, vol. xvi., Turin, 1859. The reports sent to Lorenzo during his stay at the baths, quoted here from the Medicean archives, agree substantially with the accounts given by Guidoni.
[79]In Cappelli, l. c. p. 303. The date of theApologyseems to be really wrong. In the register of Lorenzo’s correspondence (Ricordi di lettere scripti per Lor. de’ Med.) in the Florentine archives, we find notice of a letter written as late as February 12, 1488, ‘al conte della Mirandola, ringraziandolo dell’Apologia mandate,’ letter enclosed to Lorenzo Spinelli, one of the Medicean agents in France.
[80]Med. Arch., Filza 57.
[81]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 291. Some of the following extracts are in the same; some, unpublished, in theMed. Arch.
[82]A. Guidoni, Flor. September 25, 1488, in Cappelli, l. c. p. 303.
[83]Epist.lib. i. 4.Epigramm. Græca, lib. iii. inProse volgari, p. 218.
[84]Disputationum de Astrologia, lib. xii.Epigramm. Græca, xlix. l. c. p. 214.
[85]Speech on accepting the office of Capitano del popolo, from L. B. Alberti’s papers, in Bonucci,Opere di L. B. A., vol. i. p. xlii.
[86]G. Perticaro,Intorno la morte di Pandolfo Collenuccio, in hisOpere, Bologna, 1839, ii. 52seq.
[87]Cf. Ben. Varchi’s remarks upon Naldi inProse volgari inedite, p. 122.
[88]It is not intended in the present work to go into the details of these mostly uninteresting poetical productions. Bandini has noticed many of them in the catalogue of the Laurentiana; Roscoe has filled many pages with quotations and bibliographical notices; to add to them would be easy but useless.
[89]TheDieci di Balia, Florence, January 14, 1432, in Fabroni,Cosmi Med. Vita, ii. 8.
[90]Guicciardini,Del reggimento di Firenze, p. 209.
[91]Fabroni,Historia Academiæ Pisanæ, i. 109seq.;Laur. Med. Vita, i. 49. Many other references to the University,ibid.ii. 74seq.Carlo de’ Massimi,Carmen heroicum ad Laurentium Medicem de studio per eumden Pisis innovato, from a Laurentian MS., in Bandini,Laur. Cat., vol. iii., and Roscoe, iii. 237seq.(No. lviii.)
[92]Fabroni,Laur. Med. Vita, ii. 77.
[93]Rosmini,Vita di Fr. Filelfo, ii 191.
[94]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 75, 76.
[95]Camillo Massimo,Sopra una inedita medaglia di Francesco Massimo dottore in legge e cavaliere, Rome, 1860. Francesco Massimo was elected Podestà of Siena in 1477, but could not assume the office owing to the death of his father. That he was in Florence in 1488-89, engaged in affairs of state, is shown by the following letter from Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini at Rome: ‘Messer Francesco Massimi is going back, having gained the approval of the whole city as well as my own. He has in truth conducted himself so well that I have thought good to recommend him to his Holiness and to the Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. I do the same to you, and beg you to bear witness that his conduct could not have been more praiseworthy. In consideration of his good offices I shall be glad if you will introduce him wherever it may be agreeable to him.’ Florence, March 13, 1489 (Med. Arch.Filza 59).
[96]TheAnnales suorum temporumwere printed by Gio. Lami in theCatalogus codd. MSS. bibl. Riccard., Livorno, 1756; and again by Galletti, inPhil. Villani liber, &c., p. 151seq.According to a letter of Fonti to Lorenzo, he once intended writing a history of the Medici. He praised the chief scholars of his time in a pretty epigram,ibid.p. 153.
[97]Gaye, l. c. i. 273.
[98]Med. Arch., Filza 59.
[99]Venice, June 20, 1491, inProse volgari, p. 78.
[100]The letters are in Poliziano’sEpistolæ, book xi.
[101]A. M. Bandini,Ragionamento istorico sulle collazione delle Pandette, ec., Livorno 1762, The copy of the Pandects marked with Poliziano’s collations is preserved in the Laurentianæ. Bandini also speaks of it in the fourth volume of theCatalogue of Latin MSS.See Th. Mommsen’s introduction to his critical edition of theDigestum.
[102]F. Fantozzi,Notizie biografiche di Bernardo Cennini, Florence, 1839. G. Ottino,Di Bernardo Cennini e dell’arte della stampa in Firenze, Florence, 1871. When the first Florentine printer had been almost forgotten for 400 years, the present generation, on occasion of the fourth centenary of his work, has raised a monument to him in San Lorenzo—where he lies buried—placed a memorial tablet on the site of his workshop, and given his name to a street.
[103]‘Ad lectorem. Florentiæ,VII. Idus Novembres,MCCCCLXXI. Bernardus Cennnius (sic) aurifer omnium iudicio præstantissimus: et Dominicus eius F. egregiæ indolis adolescens: expressis ante calibe caracteribus et deinde fusis literis volumen hoc primum impresserunt. Petrus Cenninus Bernardi eiusdem F. quanta potuit cura et diligentia emendavit ut cernis. Florentinis ingeniis nil ardui est.’
[104]P. Vinc. Fineschi,Notizie istoriche sopra la stamperia di [S. Jacopo di] Ripoli, Flor. 1761. D. Moreni in theNovelle letterarie Fiorentineof 1791, and F. Fossi in theCatalogo delle antiche edizioni della B. Magliabechiana, vol. iii., have collected other information concerning the works of this printing establishment amounting to eighty-six in number, among which, curiously enough, aDecameronis included.
[105]Enea Piccolomini,Delle condizioni e delle vicende della libreria Medicea privata, in theArch. Star. Ital., series iii. vols. xix. and xx. N. Anziani,Della Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Flor. 1872.
[106]Targioni-Tozzetti,Notizie sulla storia delle scienze fisiche in Toscana(ed. by Fr. Palermo), Flor. 1853, pp. 60, 61.
[107]Med. Arch.
[108]Fabroni, l. c. i. 153; ii. 286.
[109]Ibid.i. 163.
[110]Cappelli, l. c. The MS. was by Battista Guarino. The translation was first printed at Venice in 1532, the original at Paris in 1548.
[111]Prose volgari, p. 78.
[112]This poetess, of a Milanese family, was born at Venice about 1465, and is supposed to have died in 1558. Politian (Epist.l. iii. 17) addresses her: ‘O decus Italiæ virgo.’
[113]Florence, May 8, 1490, in Fabroni, l. c. ii. 287.
[114]Vasari’sLife of Fra Giocondo(ix. 155seq.) is very imperfect and leaves room for further study. On Giocondo’s works in his own city see G. Orti Manara,Dei lavori architettonici di Fra Giocondo in Verona, Ver., 1853. On his collection of inscriptions see G. B. de Rossi,I Fasti municipali di Venosa restituite alla sincera lezione, Rome 1853. (From vol. cxxxiii. of theGiornale Arcadico.) According to theNovelle letterarie di Firenzefor the year 1771, p. 725, the Medicean copy was sent to Pope Clement XIV., but has never been seen either in the Vatican archives or the library. On the other copies, and the second collection, differing from the first in some respects, less numerous, and dedicated to Ludovico de Agnellis, Archbishop of Cosenza, cf. De Rossi, p. 7seq.The dedication—‘Laurentio Medici Fr. Io. Jucundus S. P. D.’—is in Fabroni, ii. 279seq.It ends: ‘Vale feliciter humani generis amor et deliciæ.’
[115]Med. Arch.
[116]Epist. ad J. Bracciolini, l. i. Prolegom. ad Platonis convivium.
[117]The work of the Sicilian Jesuit, P. Leonardo Ximenes,Del vecchio e nuovo Gnomone fiorentino, Flor. 1757, contains the history and explanation of the scientific value of the famous meridian, and of the more ancient mathematical and astronomical works in Tuscany.
[118]This controversy has never rested from the time of Angelo Maria Bandini, who published in 1755 theVita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci gentiluomo fiorentino, down to our own days, which have witnessed a new defence of the Florentine’s claims by the Brazilian, F. A. de Varnhagen. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to the facts published by Oscar Peschel in theZeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 305seq., and in an essay on Amerigo in the periodicalDas Ausland(No. 32, 1858). Vespucci’s well-known work on his second journey (Bandini, p. 64) is addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the son of Pier Francesco.
[119]Cianfogni,Memorie istoriche della basilica di S. Lorenzo(Flor. 1804), p. 228. On Brunelleschi, cf. i. 71seq.
[120]D. Moreni,Continuazione delle Memorie della basilica di San Lorenzo(Flor. 1816), i. 6seq.
[121]The dedication (to Piero de’ Medici) of a treatise on Architecture by Antonio Averlino, called Filarete (see below, p. 135), shows that the Church had not been rebuilt in 1460: ‘Resta ancora la chiesa a rinovare.’ The resemblance of its architecture to that of the chapel of the Madonna de’ Voti, afterwards dell’Incoronata, in the cathedral of Mantua, always regarded as a work of Leon Bat. Alberti, awakens a suspicion that he may have been concerned in the building at Fiesole. Cf. Gaye, l. c. i. 200seq.; 263. Vasari,Life of Filarete, iii. 290.
[122]D. Moreni,Notizie istoriche dei Contorni di Firenze, iii. 93seq.Cf. i. 576seq.
[123]The Silvestrine was a branch of the Vallombrosan order, named after its founder Silvestro Gozzolini.
[124]Cf. i. 574-576.
[125]Vasari,Life of Michelozzo, iii. 277-279. V. Marchese,Memorie dei Pittori ec. Domenicani, i. 278seq.Id.,San Marco convento dei Frati Predicatori(Flor. 1853), p. 75seq.The inscription in the church, dated 1442, which speaks of ‘magnificis sumptibus v. cl. Cosmi Medicis,’ &c., is in Vasari, p. 279.
[126]A. Zobi,Memorie storico-artistiche relative alla Cappella della SS. Annunziata(Flor. 1837), p. 14seq.Fr. Bocchi,Della immagine miracolosa della SS. Nunziata(Flor. 1592, new ed. 1852). Inscription: ‘Petrus Med. Cosmi Joann. filius sacellum marmoreum voto suscepto animo libens d. d. Anno 1448. Idib. Martii.’ Another inscription on the cornice: ‘Piero di Cosimo de Medici fece fare questa hopera et Pagno di Lapo di Fiesole fu el maestro chella fèmcccclii.’ From this it certainly looks questionable whether Michelozzo furnished the designs, as Pagno also executed larger works. Inscription relating to the consecration: ‘Mariæ glorioss. virg. Guilelmus Cardinalis Rotomagensis cum superni in terris nuntii munere fungeretur legati ratus officium et innumeris miraculis locique religione motus hanc Annunciatæ aram summa cum celebritate ac solenni pompa sacravitmcccclii.,viii. Kalen. Januar.’
[127]Berti,Cenni storico-artistici di S. Miniato al Monte(Flor. 1850), p. 54seq.On June 10, 1448, Piero de’ Medici was allowed to place his arms on the tabernacle on condition that those of the Guild should have the highest place.
[128]C. Guasti, l. c. Doc. 290, p. 201. Brunelleschi was buried in the cathedral. The epitaph is by Carlo Marsuppini: ‘D. S. Quantum Philippus architectus arte Dædalea valuerit cum huius celeberrimi templi mira testudo tum plures aliæ divino ingenio ab eo adiuventæ machinæ documento esse possunt quapropter ob eximias sui animi dotes singularesque virtutesxv.Kal. Maias annomccccxlvi.eius b. m. corpus in hac humo supposita grata patria sepeliri iussit.’
[129]Round the altar is the following inscription: ‘Ædem hanc sanctissime Andrea tibi Pactii dedicarunt ut cum te immortalis Deus hominum constituerit piscatorem locus sit in quem suos Franciscus ad tua possit retia convocare.’ By Franciscus is doubtless meant the saint to whose order the convent belonged, and not, as Richa and Moisè suppose, Francesco de’ Pazzi, Andrea’s grandson. A letter of indulgence from Card. Pietro Riario, October 8, 1473, speaks of Jacopo de’ Pazzi as the founder.
[130]The history of the building of the Pitti palace has never been thoroughly cleared up.
[131]Inscription:
JOHANNES RUCELLARIUS PAULI FILIUS INDESALUTEM SUAM PRECARETUR UNDE OMNIUMCUM CHRISTO FACTA EST RESURRECTIO SACELLUMHOC AD INSTAR HYEROSOLIMITANI SEPULCRIFACIUNDUM CURAVIT MCCCCLXVII.
[132]Documents on the building (1471), in Gaye, l. c. p. 225seq.Vasari, iv. 59.
[133]The price was 150 gold florins; Gaye, l. c. p. 572. The statue was removed when Duke Cosimo erected the fountain adorned with Verrocchio’s Boy, and is now in the national museum in the Palace of the Podestà.
[134]‘Exemplum sal. pub. cives posuereMCCCCXCV.’ This inscription can have nothing to do with the driving out of the Duke of Athens, as Moisè (Palazzo de’ Priori, p. 166) imagines. The group occupied the place which was assigned in 1504 to Michel Angelo’s ‘David,’ and has stood since then on the side of the Loggia de’ Lanzi towards the Uffizi. Vasari (l. c. p. 251) wrongly thinks it was executed for the Signoria.
[135]L. c. p. 250.
[136]Mantua, November 7, 1458. Cf. Braghirolli, in theGiornale di erudizione artistica(of Perugia), ii. 4seq.
[137]Vasari, l. c. pp. 264, 266. Fabroni, l. c. p. 159. According to Vasari, Donatello died on December 13, 1466; according to the contemporary M. Palmieri (De Temporibus), in 1468. In the crypt of S. Lorenzo, near the tombs of the Medici, is the following later inscription: ‘Donatellus restituta antiqua sculpendi cælandiq. arte celeberrimus Mediceis principibus summis bonarum artium patronis apprime carus qui ut vivum suspexere mortuo etiam sepulcrum loco sibi proximiore constituerunt obiit idibus Decembris an. sal.MCCCCLXIV.æt. suæLXXXIII.’
[138]On Francesco Livi, cf. Gaye, l. c. ii. 441seq.On Ser Guasparre, see Rumohr,Ital. Forschungen, ii. 377seq.; G. Milanesi,Documenti dell’arte Sanese, ii. 194seq.On the Jesuates, cf. i. 596, 597, and L. Fanfani,Memorie di Sta. Maria del Pontenuovo(Pisa 1871), p. 124seq.
[139]These basso-rilievos, removed from the cathedral when the organs were modernised, are now in the museum of the Palazzo del Podestà.
[140]Metropolitana Fiorentina, tables xxxiii.-xxxvi.
[141]Transferred from San Pancrazio to the church of San Francesco di Paola before the Porta Romana;Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvii.
[142]Monuments sépulcraux, plates lvi., xli., xxi.
[143]Monuments sépulcraux, plate xxxvi. Inscription:
SISTE VIDES MAGNUM QUÆ SERVANT MARMORA VATEMINGENIO CUIUS NON SATIS ORBIS ERATQUÆ NATURA POLUS QUÆ MOS FERAT OMNIA NOVITKAROLUS ÆTATIS GLORIA MAGNA SUÆAUSONLÆ ET GRAJÆ CRINES NUNC SOLVITE MUSÆOCCIDIT HEU VESTRI FAMA DECUSQUE CHORI.
[144]Monuments sépulcraux, plates l., xxxi. Inscription:
POSTQUAM LEONARDUS E VITA MIGRAVIT HISTORIA LUGETELOQUENTIA MUTA EST FERTURQUE MUSAS TUMGRAIAS TUM LATINAS LACRIMAS TENERE NON POTUISSE.
[145]Vespasiano da Bisticci, l. c. p. 157. Vasari mentions the modelling in Verrocchio, v. 152. Brunelleschi’s cast is in the building-office of Sta. Maria del Fiore (Opera del Duomo).
[146]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lvi. Vasari, vol. iv. p. 218. Berti, p. 70.
[147]Monuments sépulcraux, plate lv.
[148]C. Pini,La Scrittura di artisti Italiani, cf.supra, p. 163.
[149]Executed in 1436; a pendant to the equestrian figure of Niccolò Maruzzi of Tolentino (d. 1434) by Andrea dal Castagno. The improper introduction of these equestrian figures into churches paved the way for similar monuments in marble, such as may be seen especially in Venice. In the cathedral of Florence was a complete figure of Piero Farnese on a mule, as he rode to a fight with the Pisans in 1363.
[150]In this place, where we are concerned chiefly with the position of the Medici in connection with the development of art, we cannot refer in detail to the literature, which has been much enriched of late years by Gastano Milanesi’s researches among the archives, on the Tuscan painters of the early quattrocento (Giornale storico degli Archivi Toscani, vols. iv. and vi., and reprinted inSulla storia dell’arte Toscana, Siena 1873), made use of by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in theirHistory of Painting in Italy.
[151]C. Pini,Scrittura di Artisti.
[152]This is not the place to refer in detail to the confused notices in the Italian art-historians. Vasari mentions these works, among others, in his Introduction, l. c. i. 63.
[153]Rinuccini,Ricordi, p. 251.
[154]Fabroni, l. c. ii. 231. It is doubtful whether the sums given at the end of the inventory are to be added up together, or whether the last represents the sum total.
[155]Letter to Giovanni de’ Medici, Bruges, June 22, 1488; in Gaye, l. c. p. 158.
[156]Gaye, l. c. p. 163.
[157]Gaye, l. c. p. 160.
[158]Gaye, l. c. p. 136.
[159]Ibid.p. 192.
[160]Gaye, l. c. pp. 141, 175, 180. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 64, 65.
[161]Complete edition by Gaetano and Carlo Milanese,Il Libro dell’arte o Trattato della Pittura(Flor. 1859). There is a German translation,Das Buch von der Kunst, &c., by Albert Ilg (Vienna, 1871). The general supposition, from Baldinucci down to Tambroni, the first editor of the treatise (Rome, 1821), viz., that Cennini wrote it in 1437 in the Stinche prison, is derived from a gloss to the Laurentian MS. which proceeds from the copyist instead of referring to the author. The same postil gave rise to the statement that a fresco in Giotto’s style, representing the driving out of the Duke of Athens, and brought to light at the demolition of the prison, was painted by Cennini. (Fr. Bacchi,Illustratore Fiorentino, pt. v., Flor. 1839).
[162]The second commentary, with the notices of modern art, is printed in Cicognara’sStoria della Scultura, vol. iv., and more readably, together with some extracts from the third, in Lemonnier’s edition ofVasari, vol. i. pp. v.-xxxv.
[163]On Filarete’s treatise and the two dedications, cf. Vasari, iii. 290, 291, and Gaye, i. 200-206, where will be found the dedication to Fr. Sforza. (Cf.supra, p. 122.) Filarete gives us a foretaste of the art-phraseology of Federigo Zuccaro. For the rest, he says to Sforza: ‘If my book is not elegant, take it as the work, not of an orator nor of a Vitruvius, but of thy master-builder who cast the doors of St. Peter’s.’
[164]N. Valori, l. c. p. 176.
[165]Vasari, viii. 267. On the design of Andrea, see Waagen,Kunstwerk und Künstler in England, i. 244. Cf.posf, p. 197seq.
[166]Pini,Scrittura d’Artisti. Cf. A. v. Zahn,Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, iv. 367.
[167]Vasari,Life of Giuliano, iv. 1seq.Gaye, l. c. in annis 1478, 1480, 1481.
[168]A. Rossi, in theGiornale di erudiz. artist., 1872, p. 97. Inscription: ‘Opus Juliani Maiani et Dominici Taxi, Florentini,mcccclxxxxi.’
[169]C. Milanesi, in theGiorn. stor. degli Arch. Tosc., iii. 233, 234. Letters dated Rome, February 1-20, 1478. In consequence of the Cardinal’s death in the summer of 1479, the building remained unfinished.
[170]Urbino, June 18, 1481. Gaye, l. c. p. 274.
[171]S. Volpicelli,Descrizione storica di alcuni principali edificii della città di Napoli(Naples 1850), p. 1seq.
[172]Gaye, l. c. p. 300 (undated).
[173]Vita di Fil. Strozzi il vecchio, p. 22seq.(Cf. i. 395.) Cf. also, Gaye, l. c. p. 354seq., where are also notices by Luca Landucci, an apothecary, on the beginning and progress of the work, and Filippo’s will. Vasari treats at length of the palace and of the smith Caparri in hisLife of Cronaca, viii. 116seq.
[174]Gaye, l. c.ibid.A letter from Lorenzo, December 16, 1490, to Francesco Gonzaga, in which he asks for leave of absence for Luca Fancelli. Whether the latter went to Naples is uncertain; Francesco di Giorgio was there for some time between February and May 1491.
[175]Among Sangallo’s drawings in the Barberiniana at Rome. Gaye, l. c. p. 301. Vasari, vii. 212, 213.
[176]A. v. Zahn,Notizie artistiche tratte dall’Archivio segreto Vaticano, Arch. stor. Ital., ser. iii. vi. 171.