Chapter 21

[107]Burigozzo, in theArchiv. Stor.iii. p. 432.[108]Discorsi, i. 17, on Milan after the death of Filippo Visconti.[109]De Incert. et Vanitate Scientiar.cap. 55.[110]Prato,Archiv. Stor.iii. p. 241.[111]De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, l. ii. cap. 15.[112]Discorsi, iii. 6; comp.Storie Fiorent.l. viii. The description of conspiracies has been a favourite theme of Italian writers from a very remote period. Luitprand (of Cremona,Mon. Germ., ss. iii. 264-363) gives us a few, which are more circumstantial than those of any other contemporary writer of the tenth century; in the eleventh the deliverance of Messina from the Saracens, accomplished by calling in Norman Roger (Baluz.Miscell.i. p. 184), gives occasion to a characteristic narrative of this kind (1060); we need hardly speak of the dramatic colouring given to the stories of the Sicilian Vespers (1282). The same tendency is well known in the Greek writers.[113]Corio, fol. 333. For what follows, ibid. fol. 305, 422 sqq. 440.[114]So in the quotations from Gallus, in Sismondi, xi. 93. For the whole subject see Reumont,Lorenzo dei Medici, pp. 387-97, especially 396.[115]Corio, fol. 422. Allegretto,Diari Sanesi, in Murat. xxiii. col. 777. See above, p. 41.[116]The enthusiasm with which the Florentine Alamanno Rinuccini (b. 1419) speaks in hisRicordi(ed. by G. Aiazzi, Florence, 1840) of murderers and their deeds is very remarkable. For a contemporary, though not Italian, apology for tyrannicide, see Kervyn de Lettenhove,Jean sans Peur et l’Apologie du Tyrannicide, in theBulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles, xi. (1861), pp. 558-71. A century later opinion in Italy had changed altogether. See the condemnation of Lampugnani’s deed in Egnatius,De Exemplis Ill. Vir., Ven. fol. 99b; comp. also 318b.Petr. Crinitus, also (De honestâ disciplinâ, Paris, 1510, fol. 134b), writes a poemDe virtute Jo. Andr. Lamponiani tyrannicidæ, in which Lampugnani’s deed is highly praised, and he himself is represented as a worthy companion of Brutus.Comp. also the Latin poem:Bonini Mombritii poetæ Mediol. trenodiæ in funere illustrissimi D. Gal. Marie Sfor(2 Books—Milan, 1504), edited by Ascalon Vallis (sic), who in his dedication to the jurist Jac. Balsamus praises the poet and names other poems equally worthy to be printed. In this work, in which Megæra and Mars, Calliope and the poet, appear as interlocutors, the assassin—not Lampugnano, but a man from a humble family of artisans—is severely blamed, and he with his fellow conspirators are treated as ordinary criminals; they are charged with high treason on account of a projected alliance with Charles of Burgundy. No less than ten prognostics of the death of Duke Galeazzo are enumerated. The murder of the Prince, and the punishment of the assassin are vividly described; the close consists of pious consolations addressed to the widowed Princess, and of religious meditations.[117]‘Con studiare el Catalinario,’ says Allegretto. Comp. (in Corio) a sentence like the following in the desposition of Olgiati: ‘Quisque nostrum magis socios potissime et infinitos alios sollicitare, infestare, alter alteri benevolos se facere cœpit. Aliquid aliquibus parum donare: simul magis noctu edere, bibere, vigilare, nostra omnia bona polliceri,’ etc.[118]Vasari, iii. 251, note toV. di Donatello.[119]It now has been removed to a newly constructed building.[120]Inferno, xxxiv. 64.[121]Related by a hearer, Luca della Robbia,Archiv. Stor.i. 273. Comp. Paul. Jovius,Vita Leonis X.iii. in theViri Illustres.[122]First printed in 1723, as appendix to Varchi’s History, then in Roscoe,Vita di Lorenzo de’ Medici, vol. iv. app. 12, and often besides. Comp. Reumont,Gesch. Toscana’s seit dem Ende des Florent. Freistaates, Gotha, 1876, i. p. 67, note. See also the report in theLettere de’ Principi(ed. Venez. 1577), iii. fol. 162 sqq.[123]On the latter point see Jac. Nardi,Vita di Ant. Giacomini, Lucca (1818), p. 18.[124]‘Genethliacum Venetæ urbis,’ in theCarminaof Ant. Sabellicus. The 25th of March was chosen ‘essendo il cielo in singolar disposizione, si come da gli astronomi è stato calcolato più volte.’ Comp. Sansovino,Venezia città nobilissima e singolare, descritta in 14 libri, Venezia, 1581, fol. 203. For the whole chapter seeJohannis Baptistæ Egnatii viri doctissimi de exemplis Illustrium Virorum Venetæ civitatis atque aliarum gentium, Paris, 1554. The eldest Venetian chronicler, Joh. Diaconi,Chron. Venetumin Pertz,Monum.S.S. vii. pp. 5, 6, places the occupation of the islands in the time of the Lombards and the foundation of the Rialto later.[125]‘De Venetæ urbis apparatu panagiricum carmen quod oraculum inscribitur.’[126]The whole quarter was altered in the reconstructions of the sixteenth century.[127]BenedictusCarol. VIII.in Eccard,Scriptores, ii. col. 1597, 1601, 1621. In theChron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 26, the political virtues of the Venetians are enumerated: ‘bontà, innocenza, zelo di carità, pietà, misericordia.’[128]Many of the nobles cropped their hair. SeeErasmi Colloquia, ed. Tiguri, a. 1553: miles et carthusianus.[129]Epistolæ, lib. v. fol. 28.[130]Malipiero,Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor.vii. i. pp. 377, 431, 481, 493, 530; ii. pp. 661, 668, 679.Chron. Venetum, in Muratori, xxiv. col. 57.Diario Ferrarese, ib. col. 240. See alsoDispacci di Antonio Giustiniani(Flor. 1876), i. p. 392.[131]Malipiero, in theArchiv. Stor.vii. ii. p. 691. Comp. 694, 713, and i. 535.[132]Marin Sanudo,Vite dei Duchi, Murat. xxii. col. 1194.[133]Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 105.[134]Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 123 sqq. and Malipiero, l. c. vii. i. pp. 175, 187 sqq. relate the significant fall of the Admiral Antonio Grimani, who, when accused on account of his refusal to surrender the command in chief to another, himself put irons on his feet before his arrival at Venice, and presented himself in this condition to the Senate. For him and his future lot, see Egnatius, fol. 183asqq., 198bsqq.[135]Chron. Ven.l. c. col. 166.[136]Malipiero, l. c. vii. i. 349. For other lists of the same kind see Marin Sanudo,Vite dei Duchi, Murat. xxii. col. 990 (year 1426), col. 1088 (year 1440), in Corio, fol. 435-438 (1483), in GuazzoHistorie, fol. 151 sqq.[137]Guicciardini (Ricordi, n. 150) is one of the first to remark that the passion for vengeance can drown the clearest voice of self-interest.[138]Malipiero, l. c. vii. i., p. 328.[139]The statistical view of Milan, in the ‘Manipulus Florum’ (in Murat. xi. 711 sqq.) for the year 1288, is important, though not extensive. It includes house-doors, population, men of military age, ‘loggie’ of the nobles, wells, bakeries, wine-shops, butchers’-shops, fishmongers, the consumption of corn, dogs, birds of chase, the price of salt, wood, hay, and wines; also the judges, notaries, doctors, schoolmasters, copying clerks, armourers, smiths, hospitals, monasteries, endowments, and religious corporations. A list perhaps still older is found in the ‘Liber de magnalibus Mediolani,’ inHeinr. de Hervordia, ed. Potthast, p. 165. See also the statistical account of Asti about the year 1250 in Ogerius Alpherius (Alfieri),De Gestis Astensium, Histor. patr. Monumenta, Scriptorum, tom. iii. col. 684. sqq.[140]Especially Marin Sanudo, in theVite dei Duchi di Venezia, Murat. xxii.passim.[141]See for the marked difference between Venice and Florence, an important pamphlet addressed 1472 to Lorenzo de’ Medici by certain Venetians, and the answer to it by Benedetto Dei, in Paganini,Della Decima, Florence, 1763, iii. pp. 135 sqq.[142]In Sanudo, l. c. col. 958. What relates to trade is extracted in Scherer,Allgem. Gesch. des Welthandels, i. 326, note.[143]Here all the houses, not merely those owned by the state, are meant. The latter, however, sometimes yielded enormous rents. See Vasari, xiii. 83. V. d. Jac. Sansovino.[144]See Sanudo, col. 963. In the same place a list of the incomes of the other Italian and European powers is given. An estimate for 1490 is to be found, col. 1245 sqq.[145]This dislike seems to have amounted to positive hatred in Paul II. who called the humanists one and all heretics. Platina,Vita Pauli, ii. p. 323. See also for the subject in general, Voigt,Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums, Berlin, 1859, pp. 207-213. The neglect of the sciences is given as a reason for the flourishing condition of Venice by Lil. Greg. Giraldus,Opera, ii. p. 439.[146]Sanudo, l. c. col. 1167.[147]Sansovina,Venezia, lib. xiii. It contains the biographies of the Doges in chronological order, and, following these lives one by one (regularly from the year 1312, under the headingScrittori Veneti), short notices of contemporary writers.[148]Venice was then one of the chief seats of the Petrarchists. See G. Crespan,Del Petrarchismo, inPetrarca e Venezia, 1874, pp. 187-253.[149]See Heinric. de Hervordia ad a. 1293, p. 213, ed. Potthast, who says: ‘The Venetians wished to obtain the body of Jacob of Forli from the inhabitants of that place, as many miracles were wrought by it. They promised many things in return, among others to bear all the expense of canonising the defunct, but without obtaining their request.’[150]Sanudo, l. c. col. 1158, 1171, 1177. When the body of St. Luke was brought from Bosnia, a dispute arose with the Benedictines of S. Giustina at Padua, who claimed to possess it already, and the Pope had to decide between the two parties. Comp. Guicciardini,Ricordi, n. 401.[151]Sansovino,Venezia, lib. xii. ‘dell’andate publiche del principe.’ Egnatius, fol. 50a. For the dread felt at the papal interdict see Egnatius, fol. 12asqq.[152]G. Villani, viii. 36. The year 1300 is also a fixed date in theDivine Comedy.[153]Stated about 1470 inVespas. Fiorent.p. 554.[154]The passage which followed in former editions referring to theChronicle of Dino Compagniis here omitted, since the genuineness of theChroniclehas been disproved by Paul Scheffer-Boichhorst (Florentiner Studien, Leipzig, 1874, pp. 45-210), and the disproof maintained (Die Chronik des D. C., Leipzig, 1875) against a distinguished authority (C. Hegel,Die Chronik des D. C., Versuch einer Rettung, Leipzig, 1875). Scheffer’s view is generally received in Germany (see W. Bernhardi,Der Stand der Dino-Frage, Hist. Zeitschr. N.F., 1877, bd. i.), and even Hegel assumes that the text as we have it is a later manipulation of an unfinished work of Dino. Even in Italy, though the majority of scholars have wished to ignore this critical onslaught, as they have done other earlier ones of the same kind, some voices have been raised to recognise the spuriousness of the document. (See especially P. Fanfani in his periodicalIl Borghini, and in the bookDino Campagni Vendicato, Milano, 1875). On the earliest Florentine histories in general see Hartwig,Forschungen, Marburg, 1876, and C. Hegel in H. von Sybel’sHistorischer Zeitschrift, b. xxxv. Since then Isidore del Lungo, who with remarkable decision asserts its genuineness, has completed his great edition of Dino, and furnished it with a detailed introduction:Dino Campagni e la sua cronaca, 2 vols. Firenze, 1879-80. A manuscript of the history, dating back to the beginning of the fifteenth century, and consequently earlier than all the hitherto known references and editions, has been lately found. In consequence of the discovery of this MS. and of the researches undertaken by C. Hegel, and especially of the evidence that the style of the work does not differ from that of the fourteenth century, the prevailing view of the subject is essentially this, that the Chronicle contains an important kernel, which is genuine, which, however, perhaps even in the fourteenth century, was remodelled on the ground-plan of Villani’s Chronicle. Comp. Gaspary,Geschichte der italienischen Literatur. Berlin, 1885, i. pp. 361-9, 531 sqq.[155]Purgatorio, vi. at the end.[156]De Monarchia, i. 1. (New critical edition by Witte, Halle, 1863, 71; German translation by O. Hubatsch, Berlin, 1872).[157]Dantis Alligherii Epistolæ, cum notis C. Witte, Padua, 1827. He wished to keep the Pope as well as the Emperor always in Italy. See his letter, p. 35, during the conclave of Carpentras, 1314. On the first letter seeVitæ Nuova, cap. 31, andEpist.p. 9.[158]Giov. Villani, xi. 20. Comp. Matt. Villani, ix. 93, who says that John XXII. ‘astuto in tutte sue cose e massime in fare il danaio,’ left behind him 18 million florins in cash and 6 millions in jewels.[159]See for this and similar facts Giov. Villani, xi. 87, xii. 54. He lost his own money in the crash and was imprisoned for debt. See also Kervyn de Lettenhove,L’Europe au Siècle de Philippe le Bel, Les Argentiers FlorentinsinBulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles(1861), vol. xii. pp. 123 sqq.[160]Giov. Villani, xi. 92, 93. In Macchiavelli,Stor. Fiorent.lib. ii. cap. 42, we read that 96,000 persons died of the plague in 1348.[161]The priest put aside a black bean for every boy and a white one for every girl. This was the only means of registration.[162]There was already a permanent fire brigade in Florence.[163]Matteo Villani, iii. 106.[164]Matteo Villani, i. 2-7, comp. 58. The best authority for the plague itself is the famous description by Boccaccio at the beginning of theDecameron.[165]Giov. Villani, x. 164.[166]Ex Annalibus Ceretani, in Fabroni,Magni Cormi Vita, Adnot. 34. vol. ii. p. 63.[167]Ricordiof Lorenzo, in Fabroni.Laur. Med. Magnifici Vita, Adnot. 2 and 25. Paul. Jovius,Elogia, pp. 131 sqq. Cosmus.[168]Given by Benedetto Dei, in the passage quoted above (p. 70, note 1). It must be remembered that the account was intended to serve as a warning to assailants. For the whole subject see Reumont,Lor. dei Medici, ii. p. 419. The financial project of a certain Ludovico Ghetti, with important facts, is given in Roscoe,Vita di Lor. Med.ii. Append, i.[169]E. g. in theArch. Stor.iv.(?) See as a contrast the very simple ledger of Ott. Nuland, 1455-1462 (Stuttg. 1843), and for a rather later period the day-book of Lukas Rem, 1494-1541, ed. by B. Greiff, Augsb., 1861.[170]Libri,Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques, ii. 163 sqq.[171]Varchi,Stor. Fiorent.iii. p. 56 and sqq. up to the end of the 9th book. Some obviously erroneous figures are probably no more than clerical or typographical blunders.[172]In respect of prices and of wealth in Italy, I am only able, in default of further means of investigation, to bring together some scattered facts, which I have picked up here and there. Obvious exaggerations must be put aside. The gold coins which are worth referring to are the ducat, the sequin, the ‘fiorino d’oro,’ and the ‘scudo d’oro.’ The value of all is nearly the same, 11 to 12 francs of our money.In Venice, for example, the Doge Andrea Vendramin (1476) with 170,000 ducats passed for an exceedingly rich man (Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 666. The confiscated fortune of Colleoni amounted to 216,000 florins, l. c. p. 244.About 1460 the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ludovico Patavino, with 200,000 ducats, was called ‘perhaps the richest of all Italians.’ (Gasp. VeroneusVita Pauli II., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1027.) Elsewhere fabulous statements.Antonio Grimani paid 30,000 ducats for his son’s election as Cardinal. His ready money alone was put at 100,000 ducats. (Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 125.)For notices as to the grain in commerce and on the market at Venice, see in particular Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 709 sqq. Date 1498.In 1522 it is no longer Venice, but Genoa, next to Rome, which ranks as the richest city in Italy (only credible on the authority of Francesco. Vettori. See his history in theArchiv. Stor.Append. tom. vi. p. 343). Bandello,parteii.novello34 and 42, names as the richest Genoese merchant of his time Ansaldo Grimaldi.Between 1400 and 1580 Franc. Sansovino assumes a depreciation of 50 per cent. in the value of money. (Venezia, fol. 151 bis.)In Lombardy it is believed that the relation between the price of corn about the middle of the fifteenth and that at the middle of the present century is as 3 to 8. (Sacco di Piacenza, inArchiv. Stor.Append. tom. v. Note of editor Scarabelli.)At Ferrara there were people at the time of Duke Borso with 50,000 to 60,000 ducats (Diario Ferrarese, Murat. xxiv. col. 207, 214, 218; an extravagant statement, col. 187). In Florence the data are exceptional and do not justify a conclusion as to averages. Of this kind are the loans to foreign princes, in which the names of one or two houses only appear, but which were in fact the work of great companies. So too the enormous fines levied on defeated parties; we read, e.g. that from 1430 to 1453 seventy-seven families paid 4,875,000 gold florins (Varchi, iii. p. 115 sqq.), and that Giannozzo Mannetti alone, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, was forced to pay a sum of 135,000 gold florins, and was reduced thereby to beggary (Reumont, i. 157).The fortune of Giovanni Medici amounted at his death (1428) to 179,221 gold florins, but the latter alone of his two sons Cosimo and Lorenzo left at his death (1440) as much as 235,137 (Fabroni,Laur. Med.Adnot. 2). Cosimo’s son Piero left (1469) 237,982 scudi (Reumont,Lorenzo de’ Medici, i. 286).It is a proof of the general activity of trade that the forty-four goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio paid in the fourteenth century a rent of 800 florins to the Government (Vasari, ii. 114,Vita di Taddeo Gaddi). The diary of Buonaccorso Pitti (in Delécluze,Florence et ses Vicissitudes, vol. ii.) is full of figures, which, however, only prove in general the high price of commodities and the low value of money.For Rome, the income of the Curia, which was derived from all Europe, gives us no criterion; nor are statements about papal treasures and the fortunes of cardinals very trustworthy. The well-known banker Agostino Chigi left (1520) a fortune of in all 800,000 ducats (Lettere Pittoriche, i. Append. 48).During the high prices of the year 1505 the value of thestaro ferrarrese del grano, which commonly weighed from 68 to 70 pounds (German), rose to 1⅓ ducats. Thesemolaorremolowas sold atventi soldi lo staro; in the following fruitful years thestarofetched sixsoldi. Bonaventura Pistofilo, p. 494. At Ferrara the rent of a house yearly in 1455 was 25Lire; comp.Atti e memorie, Parma, vi. 250; see 265 sqq. for a documentary statement of the prices which were paid to artists and amanuenses.From the inventory of the Medici (extracts in Muntz,Prècurseurs, 158 sqq.) it appears that the jewels were valued at 12,205 ducats; the rings at 1,792; the pearls (apparently distinguished from other jewels, S.G.C.M.) at 3,512; the medallions, cameos and mosaics at 2,579; the vases at 4,850; the reliquaries and the like at 3,600; the library at 2,700; the silver at 7,000. Giov. Rucellai reckons that in 1473(?) he has paid 60,000 gold florins in taxes, 10,000 for the dowries of his five daughters, 2,000 for the improvement of the church of Santa Maria Novella. In 1474 he lost 20,000 gold florins through the intrigues of an enemy. (Autografo dallo Tibaldone di G.R., Florence, 1872). The marriage of Barnardo Rucellai with Nannina, the sister of Lorenzo de’ Medici, cost 3,686 florins (Muntz,Précurseurs, 244, i).[173]So far as Cosimo (1433-1465) and his grandson Lorenzo Magnifico (d. 1492) are concerned, the author refrains from any criticism on their internal policy. The exaltation of both, particularly of Lorenzo, by William Roscoe (Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, called the Magnificent, 1st ed. Liverpool, 1795; 10th ed. London, 1851), seems to have been a principal cause of the reaction of feeling against them. This reaction appeared first in Sismondi (Hist. des Rép. Italiennes, xi.), in reply to whose strictures, sometimes unreasonably severe, Roscoe again came forward (Illustrations, Historical and Critical, of the Life of Lor. d. Med., London, 1822); later in Gino Capponi (Archiv. Stor. Ital.i. (1842), pp. 315 sqq.), who afterwards (Storia della Rep. di Firenze, 2 vols. Florence, 1875) gave further proofs and explanations of his judgment. See also the work of Von Reumont (Lor. d. Med. il Magn.), 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874, distinguished no less by the judicial calmness of its views than by the mastery it displays of the extensive materials used. See also A. Castelman:Les Medicis, 2 vols. Paris, 1879. The subject here is only casually touched upon. Comp. two works of B. Buser (Leipzig, 1879) devoted to the home and foreign policy of the Medici. (1)Die Beziehungen der Medicus zu Frankreich.1434-1494, &c. (2)Lorenzo de’ Medici als italienischen Staatsman, &c., 2nd ed., 1883.[174]Franc. Burlamacchi, father of the head of the Lucchese Protestants, Michele B. SeeArch. Stor. Ital.ser. i. tom. x., pp. 435-599; Documenti, pp. 146 sqq.; further Carlo Minutoli,Storia di Fr. B., Lucca, 1844, and the important additions of Leone del Prete in theGiornale Storico degli Archiv. Toscani, iv. (1860), pp. 309 sqq. It is well known how Milan, by its hard treatment of the neighbouring cities from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, prepared the way for the foundation of a great despotic state. Even at the time of the extinction of the Visconti in 1447, Milan frustrated the deliverance of Upper Italy, principally through not accepting the plan of a confederation of equal cities. Comp. Corio, fol. 358 sqq.[175]On the third Sunday in Advent, 1494, Savonarola preached as follows on the method of bringing about a new constitution: The sixteen companies of the city were each to work out a plan, the Gonfalonieri to choose the four best of these, and the Signory to name the best of all on the reduced list. Things, however, took a different turn, under the influence indeed of the preacher himself. See P. Villari,Savonarola. Besides this sermon, S. had written a remarkableTrattato circa il regimento di Ferenze(reprinted at Lucca, 1817).[176]The latter first in 1527, after the expulsion of the Medici. See Varchi, i. 121, &c.[177]Macchiavelli,Storie Fior.l. iii. cap. 1: ‘Un Savio dator di leggi,’ could save Florence.[178]Varchi,Stor. Fior.i. p. 210.[179]‘Discorso sopra il riformar lo Stato di Firenze,’ in theOpere Minori, p. 207.[180]The same view, doubtless borrowed from here, occurs in Montesquieu.[181]Belonging to a rather later period (1532?). Compare the opinion of Guicciardini, terrible in its frankness, on the condition and inevitable organisation of the Medicean party.Lettere di Principi, iii. fol. 124, (ediz. Venez. 1577).[182]Æn. Sylvii,Apologia ad Martinum Mayer, p. 701. To the same effect Macchiavelli,Discorsi, i. 55, and elsewhere.[183]How strangely modern half-culture affected political life is shown by the party struggles of 1535. Della Valle,Lettere Sanesi, iii. p. 317. A number of small shopkeepers, excited by the study of Livy and of Macchiavelli’sDiscorsi, call in all seriousness for tribunes of the people and other Roman magistrates against the misgovernment of the nobles and the official classes.[184]Piero Valeriano,De Infelicitate Literator., speaking of Bartolommeo della Rovere. (The work of P. V. written 1527 is quoted according to the edition by Menken,Analecta de Calamitate Literatorum, Leipz. 1707.) The passage here meant can only be that at p. 384, from which we cannot infer what is stated in the text, but in which we read that B. d. R. wished to make his son abandon a taste for study which he had conceived and put him into business.[185]Senarega,De reb. Genuens, in Murat. xxiv. col. 548. For the insecurity of the time see esp. col. 519, 525, 528, &c. For the frank language of the envoy on the occasion of the surrender of the state to Francesco Sforza (1464), when the envoy told him that Genoa surrendered in the hope of now living safely and comfortably, see Cagnola,Archiv. Stor.iii. p. 165 sqq. The figures of the Archbishop, Doge, Corsair, and (later) Cardinal Paolo Fregoso form a notable contrast to the general picture of the condition of Italy.[186]So Varchi, at a much later time.Stor. Fiorent.i. 57.[187]Galeazzo Maria Sforza, indeed, declared the contrary (1467) to the Venetian agent, namely, that Venetian subjects had offered to join him in making war on Venice; but this is only vapouring. Comp. Malipiero,Annali Veneti, Archiv. Stor.vii. i. p. 216 sqq. On every occasion cities and villages voluntarily surrendered to Venice, chiefly, it is true, those that escaped from the hands of some despot, while Florence had to keep down the neighbouring republics, which were used to independence, by force of arms, as Guicciardini (Ricordi, n. 29) observes.[188]Most strongly, perhaps, in an instruction to the ambassadors going to Charles VII. in the year 1452. (See Fabroni,Cosmus, Adnot. 107, fol. ii. pp. 200 sqq.) The Florentine envoys were instructed to remind the king of the centuries of friendly relations which had subsisted between France and their native city, and to recall to him that Charles the Great had delivered Florence and Italy from the barbarians (Lombards), and that Charles I. and the Romish Church were ‘fondatori della parte Guelfa. Il qual fundamento fa cagione della ruina della contraria parte e introdusse lo stato di felicità, in che noi siamo.’ When the young Lorenzo visited the Duke of Anjou, then staying at Florence, he put on a French dress. Fabroni, ii. p. 9.[189]Comines,Charles VIII.chap. x. The French were considered ‘comme saints.’ Comp. chap. 17;Chron. Venetum, in Murat. xxiv. col. 5, 10, 14, 15; Matarazzo,Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor.xvi. ii. p. 23, not to speak of countless other proofs. See especially the documents in Desjardins, op. cit. p. 127, note 1.[190]Pii II. Commentarii, x. p. 492.[191]Gingins,Dépêches des Ambassadeurs Milanais,etc.i. pp. 26, 153, 279, 283, 285, 327, 331, 345, 359; ii. pp. 29, 37, 101, 217, 306. Charles once spoke of giving Milan to the young Duke of Orleans.[192]Niccolò Valori,Vita di Lorenzo, Flor. 1568. Italian translation of the Latin original, first printed in 1749 (later in Galletti,Phil. Villani, Liber de Civit. Flor. famosis Civibus, Florence, 1847, pp. 161-183; passage here referred to p. 171). It must not, however, be forgotten that this earliest biography, written soon after the death of Lorenzo, is a flattering rather than a faithful portrait, and that the words here attributed to Lorenzo are not mentioned by the French reporter, and can, in fact, hardly have been uttered. Comines, who was commissioned by Louis XI. to go to Rome and Florence, says (Mémoires, l. vi. chap. 5): ‘I could not offer him an army, and had nothing with me but my suite.’ (Comp. Reumont,Lorenzo, i. p. 197, 429; ii. 598). In a letter from Florence to Louis XI. we read (Aug. 23, 1478: ‘Omnis spes nostra reposita est in favoribus suæ majestatis.’ A. Desjardins,Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane(Paris, 1859), i. p. 173. Similarly Lorenzo himself in Kervyn de Lettenhove,Lettres et Négotiations de Philippe de Comines, i. p. 190. Lorenzo, we see, is in fact the one who humbly begs for help, not who proudly declines it.Dr. Geiger in his appendix maintains that Dr. Burchhardt’s view as to Lorenzo’s national Italian policy is not borne out by evidence. Into this discussion the translator cannot enter. It would need strong proof to convince him that the masterly historical perception of Dr. Burchhardt was in error as to a subject which he has studied with minute care. In an age when diplomatic lying and political treachery were matters of course, documentary evidence loses much of its weight, and cannot be taken without qualification as representing the real feelings of the persons concerned, who fenced, turned about, and lied, first on one side and then on another, with an agility surprising to those accustomed to live among truth-telling people (S.G.C.M.)Authorities quoted by Dr. Geiger are: Reumont,Lorenzo, 2nd ed., i. 310; ii. 450. Desjardins:Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane(Paris, 1859), i. 173. Kervyn de Lettenhove,Lettres et Négociations de Philippe de Comines, i. 180.[193]Fabroni,Laurentius Magnificus, Adnot. 205 sqq. In one of his Briefs it was said literally, ‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo;’ but it is to be hoped that he did not allude to the Turks. (Villari,Storia di Savonarola, ii. p. 48 of the ‘Documenti.’)

[107]Burigozzo, in theArchiv. Stor.iii. p. 432.

[108]Discorsi, i. 17, on Milan after the death of Filippo Visconti.

[109]De Incert. et Vanitate Scientiar.cap. 55.

[110]Prato,Archiv. Stor.iii. p. 241.

[111]De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, l. ii. cap. 15.

[112]Discorsi, iii. 6; comp.Storie Fiorent.l. viii. The description of conspiracies has been a favourite theme of Italian writers from a very remote period. Luitprand (of Cremona,Mon. Germ., ss. iii. 264-363) gives us a few, which are more circumstantial than those of any other contemporary writer of the tenth century; in the eleventh the deliverance of Messina from the Saracens, accomplished by calling in Norman Roger (Baluz.Miscell.i. p. 184), gives occasion to a characteristic narrative of this kind (1060); we need hardly speak of the dramatic colouring given to the stories of the Sicilian Vespers (1282). The same tendency is well known in the Greek writers.

[113]Corio, fol. 333. For what follows, ibid. fol. 305, 422 sqq. 440.

[114]So in the quotations from Gallus, in Sismondi, xi. 93. For the whole subject see Reumont,Lorenzo dei Medici, pp. 387-97, especially 396.

[115]Corio, fol. 422. Allegretto,Diari Sanesi, in Murat. xxiii. col. 777. See above, p. 41.

[116]The enthusiasm with which the Florentine Alamanno Rinuccini (b. 1419) speaks in hisRicordi(ed. by G. Aiazzi, Florence, 1840) of murderers and their deeds is very remarkable. For a contemporary, though not Italian, apology for tyrannicide, see Kervyn de Lettenhove,Jean sans Peur et l’Apologie du Tyrannicide, in theBulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles, xi. (1861), pp. 558-71. A century later opinion in Italy had changed altogether. See the condemnation of Lampugnani’s deed in Egnatius,De Exemplis Ill. Vir., Ven. fol. 99b; comp. also 318b.Petr. Crinitus, also (De honestâ disciplinâ, Paris, 1510, fol. 134b), writes a poemDe virtute Jo. Andr. Lamponiani tyrannicidæ, in which Lampugnani’s deed is highly praised, and he himself is represented as a worthy companion of Brutus.Comp. also the Latin poem:Bonini Mombritii poetæ Mediol. trenodiæ in funere illustrissimi D. Gal. Marie Sfor(2 Books—Milan, 1504), edited by Ascalon Vallis (sic), who in his dedication to the jurist Jac. Balsamus praises the poet and names other poems equally worthy to be printed. In this work, in which Megæra and Mars, Calliope and the poet, appear as interlocutors, the assassin—not Lampugnano, but a man from a humble family of artisans—is severely blamed, and he with his fellow conspirators are treated as ordinary criminals; they are charged with high treason on account of a projected alliance with Charles of Burgundy. No less than ten prognostics of the death of Duke Galeazzo are enumerated. The murder of the Prince, and the punishment of the assassin are vividly described; the close consists of pious consolations addressed to the widowed Princess, and of religious meditations.

Petr. Crinitus, also (De honestâ disciplinâ, Paris, 1510, fol. 134b), writes a poemDe virtute Jo. Andr. Lamponiani tyrannicidæ, in which Lampugnani’s deed is highly praised, and he himself is represented as a worthy companion of Brutus.

Comp. also the Latin poem:Bonini Mombritii poetæ Mediol. trenodiæ in funere illustrissimi D. Gal. Marie Sfor(2 Books—Milan, 1504), edited by Ascalon Vallis (sic), who in his dedication to the jurist Jac. Balsamus praises the poet and names other poems equally worthy to be printed. In this work, in which Megæra and Mars, Calliope and the poet, appear as interlocutors, the assassin—not Lampugnano, but a man from a humble family of artisans—is severely blamed, and he with his fellow conspirators are treated as ordinary criminals; they are charged with high treason on account of a projected alliance with Charles of Burgundy. No less than ten prognostics of the death of Duke Galeazzo are enumerated. The murder of the Prince, and the punishment of the assassin are vividly described; the close consists of pious consolations addressed to the widowed Princess, and of religious meditations.

[117]‘Con studiare el Catalinario,’ says Allegretto. Comp. (in Corio) a sentence like the following in the desposition of Olgiati: ‘Quisque nostrum magis socios potissime et infinitos alios sollicitare, infestare, alter alteri benevolos se facere cœpit. Aliquid aliquibus parum donare: simul magis noctu edere, bibere, vigilare, nostra omnia bona polliceri,’ etc.

[118]Vasari, iii. 251, note toV. di Donatello.

[119]It now has been removed to a newly constructed building.

[120]Inferno, xxxiv. 64.

[121]Related by a hearer, Luca della Robbia,Archiv. Stor.i. 273. Comp. Paul. Jovius,Vita Leonis X.iii. in theViri Illustres.

[122]First printed in 1723, as appendix to Varchi’s History, then in Roscoe,Vita di Lorenzo de’ Medici, vol. iv. app. 12, and often besides. Comp. Reumont,Gesch. Toscana’s seit dem Ende des Florent. Freistaates, Gotha, 1876, i. p. 67, note. See also the report in theLettere de’ Principi(ed. Venez. 1577), iii. fol. 162 sqq.

[123]On the latter point see Jac. Nardi,Vita di Ant. Giacomini, Lucca (1818), p. 18.

[124]‘Genethliacum Venetæ urbis,’ in theCarminaof Ant. Sabellicus. The 25th of March was chosen ‘essendo il cielo in singolar disposizione, si come da gli astronomi è stato calcolato più volte.’ Comp. Sansovino,Venezia città nobilissima e singolare, descritta in 14 libri, Venezia, 1581, fol. 203. For the whole chapter seeJohannis Baptistæ Egnatii viri doctissimi de exemplis Illustrium Virorum Venetæ civitatis atque aliarum gentium, Paris, 1554. The eldest Venetian chronicler, Joh. Diaconi,Chron. Venetumin Pertz,Monum.S.S. vii. pp. 5, 6, places the occupation of the islands in the time of the Lombards and the foundation of the Rialto later.

[125]‘De Venetæ urbis apparatu panagiricum carmen quod oraculum inscribitur.’

[126]The whole quarter was altered in the reconstructions of the sixteenth century.

[127]BenedictusCarol. VIII.in Eccard,Scriptores, ii. col. 1597, 1601, 1621. In theChron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 26, the political virtues of the Venetians are enumerated: ‘bontà, innocenza, zelo di carità, pietà, misericordia.’

[128]Many of the nobles cropped their hair. SeeErasmi Colloquia, ed. Tiguri, a. 1553: miles et carthusianus.

[129]Epistolæ, lib. v. fol. 28.

[130]Malipiero,Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor.vii. i. pp. 377, 431, 481, 493, 530; ii. pp. 661, 668, 679.Chron. Venetum, in Muratori, xxiv. col. 57.Diario Ferrarese, ib. col. 240. See alsoDispacci di Antonio Giustiniani(Flor. 1876), i. p. 392.

[131]Malipiero, in theArchiv. Stor.vii. ii. p. 691. Comp. 694, 713, and i. 535.

[132]Marin Sanudo,Vite dei Duchi, Murat. xxii. col. 1194.

[133]Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 105.

[134]Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 123 sqq. and Malipiero, l. c. vii. i. pp. 175, 187 sqq. relate the significant fall of the Admiral Antonio Grimani, who, when accused on account of his refusal to surrender the command in chief to another, himself put irons on his feet before his arrival at Venice, and presented himself in this condition to the Senate. For him and his future lot, see Egnatius, fol. 183asqq., 198bsqq.

[135]Chron. Ven.l. c. col. 166.

[136]Malipiero, l. c. vii. i. 349. For other lists of the same kind see Marin Sanudo,Vite dei Duchi, Murat. xxii. col. 990 (year 1426), col. 1088 (year 1440), in Corio, fol. 435-438 (1483), in GuazzoHistorie, fol. 151 sqq.

[137]Guicciardini (Ricordi, n. 150) is one of the first to remark that the passion for vengeance can drown the clearest voice of self-interest.

[138]Malipiero, l. c. vii. i., p. 328.

[139]The statistical view of Milan, in the ‘Manipulus Florum’ (in Murat. xi. 711 sqq.) for the year 1288, is important, though not extensive. It includes house-doors, population, men of military age, ‘loggie’ of the nobles, wells, bakeries, wine-shops, butchers’-shops, fishmongers, the consumption of corn, dogs, birds of chase, the price of salt, wood, hay, and wines; also the judges, notaries, doctors, schoolmasters, copying clerks, armourers, smiths, hospitals, monasteries, endowments, and religious corporations. A list perhaps still older is found in the ‘Liber de magnalibus Mediolani,’ inHeinr. de Hervordia, ed. Potthast, p. 165. See also the statistical account of Asti about the year 1250 in Ogerius Alpherius (Alfieri),De Gestis Astensium, Histor. patr. Monumenta, Scriptorum, tom. iii. col. 684. sqq.

[140]Especially Marin Sanudo, in theVite dei Duchi di Venezia, Murat. xxii.passim.

[141]See for the marked difference between Venice and Florence, an important pamphlet addressed 1472 to Lorenzo de’ Medici by certain Venetians, and the answer to it by Benedetto Dei, in Paganini,Della Decima, Florence, 1763, iii. pp. 135 sqq.

[142]In Sanudo, l. c. col. 958. What relates to trade is extracted in Scherer,Allgem. Gesch. des Welthandels, i. 326, note.

[143]Here all the houses, not merely those owned by the state, are meant. The latter, however, sometimes yielded enormous rents. See Vasari, xiii. 83. V. d. Jac. Sansovino.

[144]See Sanudo, col. 963. In the same place a list of the incomes of the other Italian and European powers is given. An estimate for 1490 is to be found, col. 1245 sqq.

[145]This dislike seems to have amounted to positive hatred in Paul II. who called the humanists one and all heretics. Platina,Vita Pauli, ii. p. 323. See also for the subject in general, Voigt,Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums, Berlin, 1859, pp. 207-213. The neglect of the sciences is given as a reason for the flourishing condition of Venice by Lil. Greg. Giraldus,Opera, ii. p. 439.

[146]Sanudo, l. c. col. 1167.

[147]Sansovina,Venezia, lib. xiii. It contains the biographies of the Doges in chronological order, and, following these lives one by one (regularly from the year 1312, under the headingScrittori Veneti), short notices of contemporary writers.

[148]Venice was then one of the chief seats of the Petrarchists. See G. Crespan,Del Petrarchismo, inPetrarca e Venezia, 1874, pp. 187-253.

[149]See Heinric. de Hervordia ad a. 1293, p. 213, ed. Potthast, who says: ‘The Venetians wished to obtain the body of Jacob of Forli from the inhabitants of that place, as many miracles were wrought by it. They promised many things in return, among others to bear all the expense of canonising the defunct, but without obtaining their request.’

[150]Sanudo, l. c. col. 1158, 1171, 1177. When the body of St. Luke was brought from Bosnia, a dispute arose with the Benedictines of S. Giustina at Padua, who claimed to possess it already, and the Pope had to decide between the two parties. Comp. Guicciardini,Ricordi, n. 401.

[151]Sansovino,Venezia, lib. xii. ‘dell’andate publiche del principe.’ Egnatius, fol. 50a. For the dread felt at the papal interdict see Egnatius, fol. 12asqq.

[152]G. Villani, viii. 36. The year 1300 is also a fixed date in theDivine Comedy.

[153]Stated about 1470 inVespas. Fiorent.p. 554.

[154]The passage which followed in former editions referring to theChronicle of Dino Compagniis here omitted, since the genuineness of theChroniclehas been disproved by Paul Scheffer-Boichhorst (Florentiner Studien, Leipzig, 1874, pp. 45-210), and the disproof maintained (Die Chronik des D. C., Leipzig, 1875) against a distinguished authority (C. Hegel,Die Chronik des D. C., Versuch einer Rettung, Leipzig, 1875). Scheffer’s view is generally received in Germany (see W. Bernhardi,Der Stand der Dino-Frage, Hist. Zeitschr. N.F., 1877, bd. i.), and even Hegel assumes that the text as we have it is a later manipulation of an unfinished work of Dino. Even in Italy, though the majority of scholars have wished to ignore this critical onslaught, as they have done other earlier ones of the same kind, some voices have been raised to recognise the spuriousness of the document. (See especially P. Fanfani in his periodicalIl Borghini, and in the bookDino Campagni Vendicato, Milano, 1875). On the earliest Florentine histories in general see Hartwig,Forschungen, Marburg, 1876, and C. Hegel in H. von Sybel’sHistorischer Zeitschrift, b. xxxv. Since then Isidore del Lungo, who with remarkable decision asserts its genuineness, has completed his great edition of Dino, and furnished it with a detailed introduction:Dino Campagni e la sua cronaca, 2 vols. Firenze, 1879-80. A manuscript of the history, dating back to the beginning of the fifteenth century, and consequently earlier than all the hitherto known references and editions, has been lately found. In consequence of the discovery of this MS. and of the researches undertaken by C. Hegel, and especially of the evidence that the style of the work does not differ from that of the fourteenth century, the prevailing view of the subject is essentially this, that the Chronicle contains an important kernel, which is genuine, which, however, perhaps even in the fourteenth century, was remodelled on the ground-plan of Villani’s Chronicle. Comp. Gaspary,Geschichte der italienischen Literatur. Berlin, 1885, i. pp. 361-9, 531 sqq.

[155]Purgatorio, vi. at the end.

[156]De Monarchia, i. 1. (New critical edition by Witte, Halle, 1863, 71; German translation by O. Hubatsch, Berlin, 1872).

[157]Dantis Alligherii Epistolæ, cum notis C. Witte, Padua, 1827. He wished to keep the Pope as well as the Emperor always in Italy. See his letter, p. 35, during the conclave of Carpentras, 1314. On the first letter seeVitæ Nuova, cap. 31, andEpist.p. 9.

[158]Giov. Villani, xi. 20. Comp. Matt. Villani, ix. 93, who says that John XXII. ‘astuto in tutte sue cose e massime in fare il danaio,’ left behind him 18 million florins in cash and 6 millions in jewels.

[159]See for this and similar facts Giov. Villani, xi. 87, xii. 54. He lost his own money in the crash and was imprisoned for debt. See also Kervyn de Lettenhove,L’Europe au Siècle de Philippe le Bel, Les Argentiers FlorentinsinBulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles(1861), vol. xii. pp. 123 sqq.

[160]Giov. Villani, xi. 92, 93. In Macchiavelli,Stor. Fiorent.lib. ii. cap. 42, we read that 96,000 persons died of the plague in 1348.

[161]The priest put aside a black bean for every boy and a white one for every girl. This was the only means of registration.

[162]There was already a permanent fire brigade in Florence.

[163]Matteo Villani, iii. 106.

[164]Matteo Villani, i. 2-7, comp. 58. The best authority for the plague itself is the famous description by Boccaccio at the beginning of theDecameron.

[165]Giov. Villani, x. 164.

[166]Ex Annalibus Ceretani, in Fabroni,Magni Cormi Vita, Adnot. 34. vol. ii. p. 63.

[167]Ricordiof Lorenzo, in Fabroni.Laur. Med. Magnifici Vita, Adnot. 2 and 25. Paul. Jovius,Elogia, pp. 131 sqq. Cosmus.

[168]Given by Benedetto Dei, in the passage quoted above (p. 70, note 1). It must be remembered that the account was intended to serve as a warning to assailants. For the whole subject see Reumont,Lor. dei Medici, ii. p. 419. The financial project of a certain Ludovico Ghetti, with important facts, is given in Roscoe,Vita di Lor. Med.ii. Append, i.

[169]E. g. in theArch. Stor.iv.(?) See as a contrast the very simple ledger of Ott. Nuland, 1455-1462 (Stuttg. 1843), and for a rather later period the day-book of Lukas Rem, 1494-1541, ed. by B. Greiff, Augsb., 1861.

[170]Libri,Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques, ii. 163 sqq.

[171]Varchi,Stor. Fiorent.iii. p. 56 and sqq. up to the end of the 9th book. Some obviously erroneous figures are probably no more than clerical or typographical blunders.

[172]In respect of prices and of wealth in Italy, I am only able, in default of further means of investigation, to bring together some scattered facts, which I have picked up here and there. Obvious exaggerations must be put aside. The gold coins which are worth referring to are the ducat, the sequin, the ‘fiorino d’oro,’ and the ‘scudo d’oro.’ The value of all is nearly the same, 11 to 12 francs of our money.In Venice, for example, the Doge Andrea Vendramin (1476) with 170,000 ducats passed for an exceedingly rich man (Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 666. The confiscated fortune of Colleoni amounted to 216,000 florins, l. c. p. 244.About 1460 the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ludovico Patavino, with 200,000 ducats, was called ‘perhaps the richest of all Italians.’ (Gasp. VeroneusVita Pauli II., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1027.) Elsewhere fabulous statements.Antonio Grimani paid 30,000 ducats for his son’s election as Cardinal. His ready money alone was put at 100,000 ducats. (Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 125.)For notices as to the grain in commerce and on the market at Venice, see in particular Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 709 sqq. Date 1498.In 1522 it is no longer Venice, but Genoa, next to Rome, which ranks as the richest city in Italy (only credible on the authority of Francesco. Vettori. See his history in theArchiv. Stor.Append. tom. vi. p. 343). Bandello,parteii.novello34 and 42, names as the richest Genoese merchant of his time Ansaldo Grimaldi.Between 1400 and 1580 Franc. Sansovino assumes a depreciation of 50 per cent. in the value of money. (Venezia, fol. 151 bis.)In Lombardy it is believed that the relation between the price of corn about the middle of the fifteenth and that at the middle of the present century is as 3 to 8. (Sacco di Piacenza, inArchiv. Stor.Append. tom. v. Note of editor Scarabelli.)At Ferrara there were people at the time of Duke Borso with 50,000 to 60,000 ducats (Diario Ferrarese, Murat. xxiv. col. 207, 214, 218; an extravagant statement, col. 187). In Florence the data are exceptional and do not justify a conclusion as to averages. Of this kind are the loans to foreign princes, in which the names of one or two houses only appear, but which were in fact the work of great companies. So too the enormous fines levied on defeated parties; we read, e.g. that from 1430 to 1453 seventy-seven families paid 4,875,000 gold florins (Varchi, iii. p. 115 sqq.), and that Giannozzo Mannetti alone, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, was forced to pay a sum of 135,000 gold florins, and was reduced thereby to beggary (Reumont, i. 157).The fortune of Giovanni Medici amounted at his death (1428) to 179,221 gold florins, but the latter alone of his two sons Cosimo and Lorenzo left at his death (1440) as much as 235,137 (Fabroni,Laur. Med.Adnot. 2). Cosimo’s son Piero left (1469) 237,982 scudi (Reumont,Lorenzo de’ Medici, i. 286).It is a proof of the general activity of trade that the forty-four goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio paid in the fourteenth century a rent of 800 florins to the Government (Vasari, ii. 114,Vita di Taddeo Gaddi). The diary of Buonaccorso Pitti (in Delécluze,Florence et ses Vicissitudes, vol. ii.) is full of figures, which, however, only prove in general the high price of commodities and the low value of money.For Rome, the income of the Curia, which was derived from all Europe, gives us no criterion; nor are statements about papal treasures and the fortunes of cardinals very trustworthy. The well-known banker Agostino Chigi left (1520) a fortune of in all 800,000 ducats (Lettere Pittoriche, i. Append. 48).During the high prices of the year 1505 the value of thestaro ferrarrese del grano, which commonly weighed from 68 to 70 pounds (German), rose to 1⅓ ducats. Thesemolaorremolowas sold atventi soldi lo staro; in the following fruitful years thestarofetched sixsoldi. Bonaventura Pistofilo, p. 494. At Ferrara the rent of a house yearly in 1455 was 25Lire; comp.Atti e memorie, Parma, vi. 250; see 265 sqq. for a documentary statement of the prices which were paid to artists and amanuenses.From the inventory of the Medici (extracts in Muntz,Prècurseurs, 158 sqq.) it appears that the jewels were valued at 12,205 ducats; the rings at 1,792; the pearls (apparently distinguished from other jewels, S.G.C.M.) at 3,512; the medallions, cameos and mosaics at 2,579; the vases at 4,850; the reliquaries and the like at 3,600; the library at 2,700; the silver at 7,000. Giov. Rucellai reckons that in 1473(?) he has paid 60,000 gold florins in taxes, 10,000 for the dowries of his five daughters, 2,000 for the improvement of the church of Santa Maria Novella. In 1474 he lost 20,000 gold florins through the intrigues of an enemy. (Autografo dallo Tibaldone di G.R., Florence, 1872). The marriage of Barnardo Rucellai with Nannina, the sister of Lorenzo de’ Medici, cost 3,686 florins (Muntz,Précurseurs, 244, i).

In Venice, for example, the Doge Andrea Vendramin (1476) with 170,000 ducats passed for an exceedingly rich man (Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 666. The confiscated fortune of Colleoni amounted to 216,000 florins, l. c. p. 244.

About 1460 the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ludovico Patavino, with 200,000 ducats, was called ‘perhaps the richest of all Italians.’ (Gasp. VeroneusVita Pauli II., in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1027.) Elsewhere fabulous statements.

Antonio Grimani paid 30,000 ducats for his son’s election as Cardinal. His ready money alone was put at 100,000 ducats. (Chron. Venetum, Murat. xxiv. col. 125.)

For notices as to the grain in commerce and on the market at Venice, see in particular Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 709 sqq. Date 1498.

In 1522 it is no longer Venice, but Genoa, next to Rome, which ranks as the richest city in Italy (only credible on the authority of Francesco. Vettori. See his history in theArchiv. Stor.Append. tom. vi. p. 343). Bandello,parteii.novello34 and 42, names as the richest Genoese merchant of his time Ansaldo Grimaldi.

Between 1400 and 1580 Franc. Sansovino assumes a depreciation of 50 per cent. in the value of money. (Venezia, fol. 151 bis.)

In Lombardy it is believed that the relation between the price of corn about the middle of the fifteenth and that at the middle of the present century is as 3 to 8. (Sacco di Piacenza, inArchiv. Stor.Append. tom. v. Note of editor Scarabelli.)

At Ferrara there were people at the time of Duke Borso with 50,000 to 60,000 ducats (Diario Ferrarese, Murat. xxiv. col. 207, 214, 218; an extravagant statement, col. 187). In Florence the data are exceptional and do not justify a conclusion as to averages. Of this kind are the loans to foreign princes, in which the names of one or two houses only appear, but which were in fact the work of great companies. So too the enormous fines levied on defeated parties; we read, e.g. that from 1430 to 1453 seventy-seven families paid 4,875,000 gold florins (Varchi, iii. p. 115 sqq.), and that Giannozzo Mannetti alone, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, was forced to pay a sum of 135,000 gold florins, and was reduced thereby to beggary (Reumont, i. 157).

The fortune of Giovanni Medici amounted at his death (1428) to 179,221 gold florins, but the latter alone of his two sons Cosimo and Lorenzo left at his death (1440) as much as 235,137 (Fabroni,Laur. Med.Adnot. 2). Cosimo’s son Piero left (1469) 237,982 scudi (Reumont,Lorenzo de’ Medici, i. 286).

It is a proof of the general activity of trade that the forty-four goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio paid in the fourteenth century a rent of 800 florins to the Government (Vasari, ii. 114,Vita di Taddeo Gaddi). The diary of Buonaccorso Pitti (in Delécluze,Florence et ses Vicissitudes, vol. ii.) is full of figures, which, however, only prove in general the high price of commodities and the low value of money.

For Rome, the income of the Curia, which was derived from all Europe, gives us no criterion; nor are statements about papal treasures and the fortunes of cardinals very trustworthy. The well-known banker Agostino Chigi left (1520) a fortune of in all 800,000 ducats (Lettere Pittoriche, i. Append. 48).

During the high prices of the year 1505 the value of thestaro ferrarrese del grano, which commonly weighed from 68 to 70 pounds (German), rose to 1⅓ ducats. Thesemolaorremolowas sold atventi soldi lo staro; in the following fruitful years thestarofetched sixsoldi. Bonaventura Pistofilo, p. 494. At Ferrara the rent of a house yearly in 1455 was 25Lire; comp.Atti e memorie, Parma, vi. 250; see 265 sqq. for a documentary statement of the prices which were paid to artists and amanuenses.

From the inventory of the Medici (extracts in Muntz,Prècurseurs, 158 sqq.) it appears that the jewels were valued at 12,205 ducats; the rings at 1,792; the pearls (apparently distinguished from other jewels, S.G.C.M.) at 3,512; the medallions, cameos and mosaics at 2,579; the vases at 4,850; the reliquaries and the like at 3,600; the library at 2,700; the silver at 7,000. Giov. Rucellai reckons that in 1473(?) he has paid 60,000 gold florins in taxes, 10,000 for the dowries of his five daughters, 2,000 for the improvement of the church of Santa Maria Novella. In 1474 he lost 20,000 gold florins through the intrigues of an enemy. (Autografo dallo Tibaldone di G.R., Florence, 1872). The marriage of Barnardo Rucellai with Nannina, the sister of Lorenzo de’ Medici, cost 3,686 florins (Muntz,Précurseurs, 244, i).

[173]So far as Cosimo (1433-1465) and his grandson Lorenzo Magnifico (d. 1492) are concerned, the author refrains from any criticism on their internal policy. The exaltation of both, particularly of Lorenzo, by William Roscoe (Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, called the Magnificent, 1st ed. Liverpool, 1795; 10th ed. London, 1851), seems to have been a principal cause of the reaction of feeling against them. This reaction appeared first in Sismondi (Hist. des Rép. Italiennes, xi.), in reply to whose strictures, sometimes unreasonably severe, Roscoe again came forward (Illustrations, Historical and Critical, of the Life of Lor. d. Med., London, 1822); later in Gino Capponi (Archiv. Stor. Ital.i. (1842), pp. 315 sqq.), who afterwards (Storia della Rep. di Firenze, 2 vols. Florence, 1875) gave further proofs and explanations of his judgment. See also the work of Von Reumont (Lor. d. Med. il Magn.), 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874, distinguished no less by the judicial calmness of its views than by the mastery it displays of the extensive materials used. See also A. Castelman:Les Medicis, 2 vols. Paris, 1879. The subject here is only casually touched upon. Comp. two works of B. Buser (Leipzig, 1879) devoted to the home and foreign policy of the Medici. (1)Die Beziehungen der Medicus zu Frankreich.1434-1494, &c. (2)Lorenzo de’ Medici als italienischen Staatsman, &c., 2nd ed., 1883.

[174]Franc. Burlamacchi, father of the head of the Lucchese Protestants, Michele B. SeeArch. Stor. Ital.ser. i. tom. x., pp. 435-599; Documenti, pp. 146 sqq.; further Carlo Minutoli,Storia di Fr. B., Lucca, 1844, and the important additions of Leone del Prete in theGiornale Storico degli Archiv. Toscani, iv. (1860), pp. 309 sqq. It is well known how Milan, by its hard treatment of the neighbouring cities from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, prepared the way for the foundation of a great despotic state. Even at the time of the extinction of the Visconti in 1447, Milan frustrated the deliverance of Upper Italy, principally through not accepting the plan of a confederation of equal cities. Comp. Corio, fol. 358 sqq.

[175]On the third Sunday in Advent, 1494, Savonarola preached as follows on the method of bringing about a new constitution: The sixteen companies of the city were each to work out a plan, the Gonfalonieri to choose the four best of these, and the Signory to name the best of all on the reduced list. Things, however, took a different turn, under the influence indeed of the preacher himself. See P. Villari,Savonarola. Besides this sermon, S. had written a remarkableTrattato circa il regimento di Ferenze(reprinted at Lucca, 1817).

[176]The latter first in 1527, after the expulsion of the Medici. See Varchi, i. 121, &c.

[177]Macchiavelli,Storie Fior.l. iii. cap. 1: ‘Un Savio dator di leggi,’ could save Florence.

[178]Varchi,Stor. Fior.i. p. 210.

[179]‘Discorso sopra il riformar lo Stato di Firenze,’ in theOpere Minori, p. 207.

[180]The same view, doubtless borrowed from here, occurs in Montesquieu.

[181]Belonging to a rather later period (1532?). Compare the opinion of Guicciardini, terrible in its frankness, on the condition and inevitable organisation of the Medicean party.Lettere di Principi, iii. fol. 124, (ediz. Venez. 1577).

[182]Æn. Sylvii,Apologia ad Martinum Mayer, p. 701. To the same effect Macchiavelli,Discorsi, i. 55, and elsewhere.

[183]How strangely modern half-culture affected political life is shown by the party struggles of 1535. Della Valle,Lettere Sanesi, iii. p. 317. A number of small shopkeepers, excited by the study of Livy and of Macchiavelli’sDiscorsi, call in all seriousness for tribunes of the people and other Roman magistrates against the misgovernment of the nobles and the official classes.

[184]Piero Valeriano,De Infelicitate Literator., speaking of Bartolommeo della Rovere. (The work of P. V. written 1527 is quoted according to the edition by Menken,Analecta de Calamitate Literatorum, Leipz. 1707.) The passage here meant can only be that at p. 384, from which we cannot infer what is stated in the text, but in which we read that B. d. R. wished to make his son abandon a taste for study which he had conceived and put him into business.

[185]Senarega,De reb. Genuens, in Murat. xxiv. col. 548. For the insecurity of the time see esp. col. 519, 525, 528, &c. For the frank language of the envoy on the occasion of the surrender of the state to Francesco Sforza (1464), when the envoy told him that Genoa surrendered in the hope of now living safely and comfortably, see Cagnola,Archiv. Stor.iii. p. 165 sqq. The figures of the Archbishop, Doge, Corsair, and (later) Cardinal Paolo Fregoso form a notable contrast to the general picture of the condition of Italy.

[186]So Varchi, at a much later time.Stor. Fiorent.i. 57.

[187]Galeazzo Maria Sforza, indeed, declared the contrary (1467) to the Venetian agent, namely, that Venetian subjects had offered to join him in making war on Venice; but this is only vapouring. Comp. Malipiero,Annali Veneti, Archiv. Stor.vii. i. p. 216 sqq. On every occasion cities and villages voluntarily surrendered to Venice, chiefly, it is true, those that escaped from the hands of some despot, while Florence had to keep down the neighbouring republics, which were used to independence, by force of arms, as Guicciardini (Ricordi, n. 29) observes.

[188]Most strongly, perhaps, in an instruction to the ambassadors going to Charles VII. in the year 1452. (See Fabroni,Cosmus, Adnot. 107, fol. ii. pp. 200 sqq.) The Florentine envoys were instructed to remind the king of the centuries of friendly relations which had subsisted between France and their native city, and to recall to him that Charles the Great had delivered Florence and Italy from the barbarians (Lombards), and that Charles I. and the Romish Church were ‘fondatori della parte Guelfa. Il qual fundamento fa cagione della ruina della contraria parte e introdusse lo stato di felicità, in che noi siamo.’ When the young Lorenzo visited the Duke of Anjou, then staying at Florence, he put on a French dress. Fabroni, ii. p. 9.

[189]Comines,Charles VIII.chap. x. The French were considered ‘comme saints.’ Comp. chap. 17;Chron. Venetum, in Murat. xxiv. col. 5, 10, 14, 15; Matarazzo,Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor.xvi. ii. p. 23, not to speak of countless other proofs. See especially the documents in Desjardins, op. cit. p. 127, note 1.

[190]Pii II. Commentarii, x. p. 492.

[191]Gingins,Dépêches des Ambassadeurs Milanais,etc.i. pp. 26, 153, 279, 283, 285, 327, 331, 345, 359; ii. pp. 29, 37, 101, 217, 306. Charles once spoke of giving Milan to the young Duke of Orleans.

[192]Niccolò Valori,Vita di Lorenzo, Flor. 1568. Italian translation of the Latin original, first printed in 1749 (later in Galletti,Phil. Villani, Liber de Civit. Flor. famosis Civibus, Florence, 1847, pp. 161-183; passage here referred to p. 171). It must not, however, be forgotten that this earliest biography, written soon after the death of Lorenzo, is a flattering rather than a faithful portrait, and that the words here attributed to Lorenzo are not mentioned by the French reporter, and can, in fact, hardly have been uttered. Comines, who was commissioned by Louis XI. to go to Rome and Florence, says (Mémoires, l. vi. chap. 5): ‘I could not offer him an army, and had nothing with me but my suite.’ (Comp. Reumont,Lorenzo, i. p. 197, 429; ii. 598). In a letter from Florence to Louis XI. we read (Aug. 23, 1478: ‘Omnis spes nostra reposita est in favoribus suæ majestatis.’ A. Desjardins,Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane(Paris, 1859), i. p. 173. Similarly Lorenzo himself in Kervyn de Lettenhove,Lettres et Négotiations de Philippe de Comines, i. p. 190. Lorenzo, we see, is in fact the one who humbly begs for help, not who proudly declines it.Dr. Geiger in his appendix maintains that Dr. Burchhardt’s view as to Lorenzo’s national Italian policy is not borne out by evidence. Into this discussion the translator cannot enter. It would need strong proof to convince him that the masterly historical perception of Dr. Burchhardt was in error as to a subject which he has studied with minute care. In an age when diplomatic lying and political treachery were matters of course, documentary evidence loses much of its weight, and cannot be taken without qualification as representing the real feelings of the persons concerned, who fenced, turned about, and lied, first on one side and then on another, with an agility surprising to those accustomed to live among truth-telling people (S.G.C.M.)Authorities quoted by Dr. Geiger are: Reumont,Lorenzo, 2nd ed., i. 310; ii. 450. Desjardins:Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane(Paris, 1859), i. 173. Kervyn de Lettenhove,Lettres et Négociations de Philippe de Comines, i. 180.

Dr. Geiger in his appendix maintains that Dr. Burchhardt’s view as to Lorenzo’s national Italian policy is not borne out by evidence. Into this discussion the translator cannot enter. It would need strong proof to convince him that the masterly historical perception of Dr. Burchhardt was in error as to a subject which he has studied with minute care. In an age when diplomatic lying and political treachery were matters of course, documentary evidence loses much of its weight, and cannot be taken without qualification as representing the real feelings of the persons concerned, who fenced, turned about, and lied, first on one side and then on another, with an agility surprising to those accustomed to live among truth-telling people (S.G.C.M.)

Authorities quoted by Dr. Geiger are: Reumont,Lorenzo, 2nd ed., i. 310; ii. 450. Desjardins:Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane(Paris, 1859), i. 173. Kervyn de Lettenhove,Lettres et Négociations de Philippe de Comines, i. 180.

[193]Fabroni,Laurentius Magnificus, Adnot. 205 sqq. In one of his Briefs it was said literally, ‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo;’ but it is to be hoped that he did not allude to the Turks. (Villari,Storia di Savonarola, ii. p. 48 of the ‘Documenti.’)

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