LORENZO 
 
 THE MAGNIFICENT 
 
<' Laurens, haud ultima Phoebi 
 
 Gloria, jactatis Laurens fida anchora Musis." 
 
 Angelo Poliziano {^usticus) 
 
MEDICI PORTRAITS, REPRODUCED FROM LITTA 
 
 I. COSIMO, BY PONTORMO— UFFIZI GALLERY 
 
 II. LORENZO, BY (;. VASARI. UFFIZI GALLERY 
 
 III. CARLO, SON OF COSIMO I APOSTOLIC PROTONOTARY AND PROVOST OF PRATO. 
 
 UY FRA FILIPFO I.IPl'I — PRATO CATHEDRAL 
 
 IV. HIPFOLITO, CARDINAL. REPUTED SON OF GIULIANO, D. OF NEMOURS. 
 
 BY TITIAN — PlTTl GALLERY 
 
LORENZO 
 THE MAGNIFICENT 
 
 AND FLORENCE IN HER GOLDEN AGE 
 
 BY 
 
 E. L. S. HORSBURGH, B.A. 
 
 LATE EXHIBITIONER OF QUEKN's COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 AUTHOR OF " SAVONAROLA," " WATERLOO " 
 
 WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS 
 AND TWO MAPS 
 
 New York : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 London: METHUEN & CO. 
 1908 
 
First Published in igo8 
 
 THE GETTY RESEARGH 
 INSTITUTE LIBWVroC 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS book has been written for those who will read 
 it whoever they may be, though the writer is not 
 without hope that serious students of the Italian 
 Renaissance will find it — or parts of it — not wholly 
 unworthy of their attention. 
 
 I am well aware that there are works of great excellence 
 upon Lorenzo dei Medici already open to the English 
 reader. None the less I will venture to make an effort to 
 justify the appearance of another. 
 
 Of existing works in English there are three which may 
 claim to be classics — Mr. Roscoe's life of Lorenzo dei Medici ; 
 the English translation of Baron von Reumont's elaborate 
 study ; and Mr. Armstrong's monograph. 
 
 Roscoe's book, written nearly a century ago, can never 
 be entirely superseded. It retains, moreover, among its 
 many excellences, the prestige attaching to the work of a 
 pioneer. But in the course of a century much fresh light 
 has been thrown on Lorenzo's work and character. Baron 
 von Reumont, therefore, supplied a pressing need by the 
 publication of his volumes, based on most minute, careful 
 and conscientious researches. Almost every available 
 document and source was ransacked by Von Reumont to 
 provide material for his book, and, since his researches were 
 completed, comparatively little that is fresh has come to 
 light. 
 
 But it must be confessed that the English translation of 
 Von Reumont's Lorenzo is — to put it frankly — unreadable. 
 However much it may be a treasure to the student, to the 
 general reader it is a terror. It is full of inaccuracies and 
 almost wholly lacking in style. It can only be regarded as 
 a misfortune that a book which is so keen and fine a study 
 
vi 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of Humanism should, in its English dress, be wanting in 
 those humanistic quahties, which, had they been present, 
 could scarcely have failed to bring Lorenzo home to every 
 student of character and to every lover of Florence. To 
 re-translate Von Reumont in an interesting way would be 
 in itself no small literary service. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong's monograph is a book differing in scope 
 and kind from the productions of Roscoe and Von Reumont. 
 In it we have, from the hand of an acknowledged master, 
 a briUiant impressionist sketch of Lorenzo's character and 
 career. The hero is thrown up in strong relief against a 
 background of deep, though unobtrusive erudition, painted 
 from the fullest knowledge of all the varied aspects- 
 political, constitutional, literary, philosophic, artistic— of 
 the period which he dominated. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong's book has been in a sense my despair, 
 for he may seem to have done for Lorenzo all that needed 
 to be done— all that could be done— in a supremely able way. 
 
 Yet Mr. Armstrong himself was one of the first to spur me 
 on to accomplish this work which is now presented to the 
 public. The thirty years of continuous friendship which 
 has existed between us, and the grateful memories of a 
 pupil for his tutor, afford sufficient assurance that it is only 
 in a spirit of admiring humihty that I venture upon ground 
 already trodden by him. 
 
 There are, however, reasons which lead me to hope that 
 this book will to some extent supplement not only Mr. 
 Armstrong's monograph, but also the works of Roscoe and 
 Von Reumont. 
 
 For the more I studied Lorenzo the more I became 
 impressed with the quality of his work as a poet. Roscoe 
 told us much of this, and Armstrong knows all, but, as far 
 as I am aware, no writer in English has yet attempted an 
 analysis and critical estimate of Lorenzo's poetic achieve- 
 ment on a scale adequate to his merit. Vernon Lee in her 
 Euphorion, Symonds in his "Renaissance in Italy", have 
 done much to stimulate an appetite, but the scope of their 
 work scarcely afforded them the opportunity to satisfy it. 
 
 In successive chapters I have reviewed Lorenzo's poetry. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Vll 
 
 in the hope that Nencia, Ambra, Corinto aiid the CafitoU, 
 by becoming better known, may inspire the sense of 
 appreciation, occasionally rising to enthusiasm, which they 
 have aroused in me. 
 
 It was necessary for my purpose to extract, somewhat 
 generously, illustrative passages, and these passages I have 
 given in the original. Each passage is accompanied by a 
 translation, for which, except in one or two specified cases, 
 I am responsible. As I can make no pretensions to be a 
 poet, I cannot hope that my efforts have truly caught the 
 spirit and brio of Lorenzo's muse. The only merit that I 
 can claim for them is that, in so far as I could make them 
 so, the translations are faithful and literal. 
 
 Though a full harvest has already been reaped from the 
 documents and authorities which supply the material for 
 our knowledge of Lorenzo as a statesman, yet I have perhaps 
 been able to glean here and there some trifles which may 
 serve to enhance the interest of Lorenzo's story. My 
 narrative is based throughout upon original texts and 
 original authorities which I have been able to study at 
 leisure in the quiet atmosphere of the noble library founded 
 by Mrs. John Rylands at Manchester. In that temple of 
 peace which receives the student, dizzy with the roar of 
 Deansgate, into a Gothic shrine dedicated to the service of 
 scholarship and reflection, I have spent many of the happiest 
 hours of my life. 
 
 There are to be found not only inestimable treasures 
 which quicken the pulses of virtuosi and collectors, but all 
 the apparatus of sound learning, and all the comfort in 
 acquiring it which the heart of a scholar can desire. 
 
 Manchester has long been known, to those who know her, 
 as a city pre-eminent for her enthusiasm for the things 
 of the spirit. Permeated as she may be with the passion 
 of commercialism, yet she has . never lacked those who have 
 been able to impress upon her corporate life a sense of the 
 dignity of Art, the glory of literature, and the nobility of 
 the service of man. Her galleries, her public libraries, 
 the social effort of her worthiest sons and daughters, have 
 been for years her speaking testimony to the truth that 
 
viii 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 man, even in Manchester, does not live by bread alone. 
 Now, in her Rylands Library, she challenges the attention 
 of scholars, wherever they may be throughout the world. 
 Now she may dare to aspire to a scholastic reputation 
 akin to that enjoyed by an Oxford or a Cambridge. 
 
 I have been permitted to lay a few of the rarities of the 
 library under contribution for the purpose of illustrating 
 this book. 
 
 My warmest thanks are due to The Provost of 
 Queen's College, Oxford, for his kindly encouragement ; 
 — to Mr. Henry Guppy, Librarian of the Rylands 
 Library, who has seemed to take a positive pleasure in 
 satisfying my every want, at whatever cost of trouble to 
 himself ; — to Mr. Frederick B. Miles of New York, President 
 of the American Society for the extension of University 
 Teaching, whose special skill in verse translation has given 
 peculiar value to his criticisms on my verses ; — to the 
 proprietors of the rights in Botticelli's illustrations of Dante 
 for permission to reproduce the illustration of Canto X 
 of the " Inferno " ; — and to my publishers, who, without 
 a murmur, have permitted me to extend the scope of this book 
 far beyond the limits which they originally assigned to it. 
 
 Even so I fear that I can make no claim to completeness. 
 There will be found only a few brief and casual references 
 to the Art of Florence in Lorenzo's day, though I have 
 lived for long under its spell. My original intentions have 
 been modified by exigencies of space, and even more so by 
 the contemplation of the many recent works on Florentine 
 Art which, for the time, have exhausted the subject. Want 
 of space again has combined with a sense of my own in- 
 competence as a philosopher to debar me from giving that 
 prominence to the Neo Platonic revival which its interest 
 and importance merit. 
 
 E. L. S. H. 
 
 St. Helens, 
 
 Isle of Wight, 
 1908. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE STATE OF ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 A. Venice — Milan — Naples 
 Venice— Milan— Naples— Claims of the Papacy on Naples— The House 
 of Suabia in Naples— Frederick II.— Naples and Henry III. of England 
 —Charles of Anjou— Conflicting claims of Anjou and Aragon to 
 Naples— Reign of the Angevin queen Giovanna I. in Naples— Charles 
 of Durazzo secures the crown of Naples— Renewed rivalry between 
 Houses of Aragon and Anjou— Alphonso of Aragon gains the crown 
 of Naples — Ferrante succeeds to the crown of Naples — Claims of 
 the French kings to Naples P- ^ 
 
 B. The Papacy 
 
 The Papacy in the fifteenth century— The Papacy in relation to its tem- 
 poral power— The great Schism of the West, 1 378-141 7— The Papacy 
 after the Schism— Eugenius IV.— The Conciliar spirit— Nicolas V. 
 —Extinction of the Conciliar spirit— Policy of Nicolas V.— Papal 
 policy in regard to the States of the Church— Advantages attachmg 
 to the Papacy from its dual position— Disadvantages— Papal nepotism 
 —The Papacy and the Italian Powers— Florence— Venice— Milan— 
 The Italian Powers and the Turks— The Popes and Prince Djem p. 16 
 
 C. Florence 
 
 Geographical and political position of Florence— Her attitude towards 
 Italian questions— Conditions governing the development of Florence 
 —Tendencies towards despotism in Florence before the Medici— 
 Rise of Florence— Beginnings of a Constitution— Florence and the 
 Guelph and Ghibelline contest— Florence divided by internal factions 
 —Florence commends herself to Charles of Anjou— Reorganisation 
 of the Constitution, 1 267— Gradation of class in Florence— Attempts 
 to exclude the nobility from power— The Signoria established— 
 Giano della Bella's " Ordinances "—Neri and Bianchi factions- 
 Reorganisation of the Constitution, 1328— Tyranny of the Duke of 
 Athens— His expulsion— Defeat of the nobles— Revision of the 
 Constitution— Rise of a burgher aristocracy— The Albizzi— Fresh 
 divisions consequent on war with Pope Gregory XI.— Opposition of 
 the Signoria and Parte Guelfa— Revolt of the Ciompi— Michele di 
 Lando— The Albizzi recover control of the State, 1 381— The Medici 
 and the Albizzi— Character of the Albizzi government— Impending 
 crisis between Albizzi and Medici . . • • • P- 3° 
 
 ix 
 
X 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY TO THE DEATH 
 OF COSIMO 
 
 Giovanni dei Medici, great-grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent- 
 Giovanni's relations with the Albizzi— Cosimo dei Medici— Rivalries 
 between Cosimo and the Albizzi— Banishment of Cosimo— His recall ; 
 fall of the Albizzi — Supremacy of Cosimo— Character of his ascen- 
 dency — His methods of government — His foreign policy— The Milanese 
 alliance — Abortive opposition to Cosimo, 1455 — Luca Pitii— Coup 
 d'etat oi 14^,8 — Death of Cosimo, 1464 . . . . p. 57 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 COSIMO DEI MEDICI AND THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 
 
 Incongruities of Cosimo's character— Character of the Florentines— 
 Sympathy of Florence with Humanism— Effects of commerce on 
 national character— Spiritual life and aspirations of Cosimo— Cosimo 
 and the cult of Plato— Florence and the Revival of Learning- 
 Francesco Petrarch— Revival of Greek— Meanings and implications 
 of Humanism— Recovery of ancient MSS.— Professors of Greek in 
 Florence — Foundation of academies — Humanism in relation to 
 Christianity — Harmony between Cosimo and Florentine ideals — 
 Cosimo as a collector of books — Efforts to reconcile Platonism and 
 Christianity — Gemisthos Plethon — Ambrogio Traversari . p. 75 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI— EARLY YEARS OF LORENZO 
 
 Lorenzo's birth and parentage— Lucrezia Tornabuoni— Lorenzo's educa- 
 tion—Educational system of Vittorino da Feltre — Lorenzo's character 
 and appearance— Early initiation into public life — The Medici and 
 the Triple Alliance— Crisis caused by the death of Francesco Sforza, 
 1466— The Pitti conspiracy— Luca Pitti— Diotisalvi Neroni— Niccolo 
 Soderini — Agnolo Acciaiuoli — Lorenzo secures support of Ferrante 
 
 of Naples — The conspirators secure the aid of foreign Powers 
 
 Lorenzo and the conspiracy — Collapse of the conspiracy— Its effect 
 on the Medici power . . . . , , . p. 94 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE COLLEONIC WAR— LORENZO, POET AND LOVER- - 
 LAST DAYS OF PIERO 
 
 Despair of the Pitti exiles— The exiles stir up war against Florence— 
 Bartolommeo Colleone— Attitude of Venice— The Colleonic war- 
 Alliances and counter-alliances— Romagna chosen as the seat of war 
 —Dilatory conduct of the war— Combat at Molinella— Dissatisfaction 
 m Florence— Intervention of Louis XI. of France— End of the Col. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xi 
 
 Iconic war— Literary work of Lorenzo, 1 467-1 469— The sonnets and 
 " Commentario " — Biographical interest of the " Commentario " — 
 Lucrezia Donati— Lorenzo's tournament, 1469— Marriage of Lorenzo 
 to Clarice Orsini, December 1468— Lucrezia Tomabuoni on Clarice 
 Orsini— Conclusion of the marriage negotiations— Marriage celebra- 
 tions—Lorenzo's mission to Milan, 1469— Dissatisfaction of Piero 
 
 Florence intervenes on behalf of Roberto Malatesta of Rimini — 
 
 Death of Piero dei Medici — His character . . . . p. no 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT, 1469-1472 
 
 Lorenzo invited to assume the headship of the State— Position of Giuliano 
 in the Government— Nature of Lorenzo's authority— Anomalies in 
 Lorenzo's position— First actions of Lorenzo as Head of the State — 
 Constitutional machinery of Lorenzo's government— The Bardi con- 
 spiracy at Prato— Lorenzo's Foreign policy— Galeazzo Sforza of 
 Milan visits Florence— Attitude of Ferrante of Naples— Death of 
 Pope Paul XL, 147 1— Accession of Pope Sixtus IV.— His character 
 — Relations between Lorenzo and the Pope . . . p. 1 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA 
 
 Geographical and political position of Volterra— Discovery of alum mines 
 near Volterra— Lorenzo's alleged partnership in the Alum Company 
 —Dispute between the company and the citizens— Attitude of Florence 
 in regard to the dispute— Disturbances in Volterra— Their effect on 
 Florence— Lorenzo insists on prompt intervention— Conduct of the 
 war against Volterra— Sack of Volterra— Personal action of Lorenzo 
 towards the ruined city P- I49 
 
 CHAPTER Vn 
 
 EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 Lorenzo's relations with Foreign powers— Louis XI. of France— Lorenzo 
 negotiates a Franco-Neapolitan marriage— Pope Sixtus IV. — State 
 of rest in the affairs of Italy— Beginnings of the alienation of the 
 Pope from Lorenzo— Papal policy in Romagna— The Pope and 
 Ferrante of Naples— Florence draws towards Venice— Sixtus IV. and 
 his nephews— The Pope detaches the Duke of Urbino from Florence 
 —Question of Imola— Sixtus IV. transfers his account from the 
 Medici to the Pazzi bank— The Pope, Lorenzo, and Citta di Castello 
 — Salviati appointed Archbishop of Pisa— Opposition of Lorenzo to 
 Salviati— Lorenzo and Carlo Fortebraccio— Resentment of Sixtus IV. 
 against Lorenzo— Venice takes the place of Naples in the Triple 
 Alliance— Assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza— Far-reachmg 
 consequences of Sforza's death— Distractions in the government of 
 Milan— Attitude of Lorenzo towards the situation in Milan— Ludovico 
 Sforza assumes the government of Milan . . • . p. 161 
 
xii 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY— THE PLOT, AND THE MEN 
 WHO HATCHED IT 
 
 The Pazzi family — Causes of their animosity against Lorenzo — Political 
 grievances — Private grievances — The Borromeo inheritance — Giro- 
 lamo Riario thinks himself thwarted by Lorenzo — Girolamo ap- 
 proaches Francesco di Pazzi— Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa— Jacopo 
 di Pazzi — His original attitude towards the conspiracy — Services of 
 Battista di Montesecco enlisted — Interview between Girolamo and 
 Montesecco — Montesecco engaged to secure foreign aid — Montesecco's 
 interview with Lorenzo — Interview with Jacopo di Pazzi — Monte- 
 secco relates the story of his interview with the Pope — Jacopo joins 
 the conspiracy — Extent to which the Pope was implicated in the 
 conspiracy — Difficulties of the conspirators as to means to accomplish 
 their ends — The conspirators in Rome — Lorenzo invited to Rome — 
 Ringleaders of the conspiracy in Florence — Accomplices . p. 183 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 
 
 Cardinal Raffaelle Sansoni made a catspaw for the conspirators — The 
 conspiracy culminates on Sunday. April 26, 1478 — In the Duomo — 
 Montesecco's place as chief assassin taken by two priests — Lorenzo 
 and Giuliano come to the Duomo — Assassination of Giuliano — 
 Lorenzo is wounded and escapes — Salviati attempts to seize the 
 Palazzo Publico— Jacopo dei Pazzi fails to raise the mob and escapes 
 — Summary vengeance executed on the conspirators — Botticelli's 
 frescoes on the Palazzo Publico — Bandini escapes to Constantinople, 
 but is extradited and executed — Punishment of the Pazzi family — 
 Capture and execution of Jacopo — Montesecco writes a confession 
 and is executed— Release of Raffaelle Sansoni — Retirement of the 
 foreign troops from before Florence — General grief for Giuliano 
 — His character — Ferocious decree against the name of Pazzi p. 199 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 DIPLOMATIC WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 Reception of the news at Foreign Courts— Rage of Girolamo— Riario 
 
 and the Pope — Insult to the Florentine ambassador at Rome 
 
 Sixtus IV, issues a Brief of Excommunication against Florence 
 
 General preparations for hostilities — The " Brief Answer " to a 
 Papal letter— Letter of the Signoria to the Pope — Danger to the 
 Pope from the possible intervention of France — Attitude of Louis XI. 
 towards the Papacy— Louis XI. sends Philip de Commines to Italy 
 — Commines in Florence — Attitude of Lorenzo towards French 
 
CONTENTS Xlll 
 
 intervention— Letter to Sixtus purporting to come from the Floren- 
 tine Synod— Bartolommeo Scala's " Excusatio Fiorentinorum — 
 Sixtus declares that he is at war only with Lorenzo— Weakness of 
 the Triple Alliance at this juncture— Letter of Sixtus to the Duke 
 of Urbino— Urbino's hostility to Lorenzo— Lorenzo submits hi^ 
 cause to the Florentines— Lorenzo's measures of self-defence p» 21 5 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 Ferrante decides to support the Fope-The Papal forces take the field 
 —followed by those of Florence— Ercole d'Este made generalissimo 
 of the allied forces supporting Florence— Comparison of the rival 
 forces— Operations of the campaign of 1478— Ferrante creates a 
 diversion in Genoa against Milan— Florentine diplomacy and projects 
 -Action of Louis XL— Obduracy of the Pope-The Pope, urged by 
 foreign powers, temporises— Failure of the efEorts for peace— Guerilla 
 operations of the Sforza brothers-The Campaign of 1479-Malatesta 
 and Cortebraccio defeat the Papal force at La Magione-Duke of 
 Calabria surprises the Florentine Camp at Poggio Impenale— Calabria 
 besieges Colle— Situation of Florence and Lorenzo at the end of the 
 campaign-Ludovico Sforza gains control over Milan— Lorenzo 
 negotiates with Ludovico Sforza— Lorenzo's project of visitmg Naples 
 —Lorenzo leaves Florence for Naples— Reception of Lorenzo by 
 Ferrante— Lorenzo's arguments to Ferrante— Hesitation of Ferrante 
 —Conduct of Lorenzo in Naples— Ferrante comes to terms with 
 Lorenzo— Remaining difficulties ended by the descent of the Turks 
 upon Italy— Lorenzo suspected of calling in the Turks— Florentine 
 embassy of apology to Sixtus IV.-Botticelli's "Pallas and the 
 Centaur " P' 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 NATURE AND BASIS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 
 General position of Lorenzo towards the Florentine Constitution-Lorenzo 
 strengthens his personal power-Formation of the Council of Seventy 
 IpSnctions of^the Council of Seventy-Committe^ withm the 
 Council-Machinery for constructing the Council of Seventy-The 
 Consiglio Maggiore-Later modifications of the Council of Seventy 
 -Sorenzo's system of Taxation and Finance-Corruptions of adminis- 
 tration-Lorenzo's private use of public ^^''^-^'Z'''^^ fj^^^ 
 lation of the Monte delle Doti-Lorenzo as a man J^^^^^^^^ 
 Lorenzo's encouragement of trade and commerce-AfEair of the 
 Bartolini Bank-Administration of justice-Private methods of 
 influence and control— Lorenzo's interference m marriages . p. 257 
 
xiv 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 
 
 Lorenzo's Italian policy— His aims— (i.) to recover Sarzana • (ii.) to 
 girdle Florence with small friendly States; (iii.) to maintain the 
 peace of Italy— Difficulties of maintaining a balance of power in 
 Italy— The Turks evacuate Otranto— The Frescobaldi Conspiracy, 
 May 148 1 — The Conspiracy consolidates Lorenzo's position— Venice 
 declares war on Ferrara : alliances and counter-alliances of the 
 Italian States— Archbishop of Carniola threatens a General Council 
 — Sixtus IV. abandons Venice — Congress of Cremona, February, 1483 
 
 — Venice detaches Ludovico Sforza from the League Peace of 
 
 Bagnolo, August 1484— Death of Sixtus IV.— Disappointment of 
 Florence at the terms of the Peace— Election of Innocent VIII. as 
 Pope— Character of Innocent VIII.— Embassy of Piero dei Medici 
 to congratulate the Pope— Lorenzo seeks to regain Sarzana— Capture 
 of Pietra Santa — Lucca demands the cession of Pietra Santa- 
 Beginning of the Barons' war in Naples — Innocent and Ferrante 
 — Ferrante seeks the support of Lorenzo— Lorenzo secures the support 
 of Florence for Ferrante— Confusion created by the Barons' war- 
 Lorenzo influences the Pope to abandon the war with Naples— Inno- 
 cent makes peace, but Lorenzo is practically ignored — Vigorous 
 prosecution of the Siege of Sarzana— Lorenzo at the siege of Sarzana 
 —Rejoicings in Florence— Boccalino Guzzoni of Osimo, i486— 
 Lorenzo mediates between the Pope and Boccalino — Marriage of 
 Lorenzo's daughter to the Pope's son, 1487— Assassination of Giro- 
 lamo Riario, April 1488— Heroism of Caterina Sforza— Alleged 
 complicity of Lorenzo in the murder of Riario— Ottaviano Riario 
 
 established in the government of Forli — Recovery of Piancaldoli 
 
 Disturbances in Faenza— Murder of Galeotto Manfredi by his wife, 
 Francesca Bentivoglio, May 1488— Lorenzo's apprehensions of the 
 hostility of Bologna— Lorenzo establishes the government of the 
 Baglioni in Perugia— Summary and criticism of Lorenzo's Italian 
 PO^cy p. 280 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 
 
 Lorenzo's care for his family— His mother— His wife Clarice— Love for 
 his children— Piero dei Medici— Giuliano, Duke of Nemours— Mar- 
 riages of his daughters— Giovanni dei Medici (Leo X.)— His eccle- 
 siastical preferments— Giovanni's Cardinalate— Rejoicings in Florence 
 over Giovanni's Cardinalate— Giovanni in Rome— Lorenzo's letter 
 to Giovanni— Lorenzo's difficulties with the Pope and Naples- 
 Strained relations between Innocent and Ferrante— Lorenzo mediates 
 between the Pope and Ferrante— Threatened intervention of France 
 m Naples— Lorenzo's interest in the fortunes of his son-in-law Fran- 
 ceschetto Cibo— Varied interests of Lorenzo— Savonarola and Lorenzo 
 — Fra Mariano— Flourishing state of Florence in Lorenzo's last years 
 —Troubles in Florence— Embassy from the Soldan of Egypt— 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 XV 
 
 Deceptive appearances of security in Italy and Florence — Demora- 
 lising influences of wealth and luxury in Florence — General aspect 
 of affairs in 1492— If France came into Italy, Spain was not likely 
 to hold aloof P- 3i7 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 LORENZO'S LAST BAYS— VENIT SUM MA DIES ET 
 INELUCTABILE TEMPUS 
 
 Crisis in Lorenzo's health, 1492 — Poliziano's account of Lorenzo's last 
 illness — Lorenzo's physicians — Savonarola visits Lorenzo on his 
 death-bed— Poliziano's version— Death of Lorenzo, April 8, 1492 — 
 Savonarola and Lorenzo ; another version — Contemporary accounts, 
 other than Poliziano's — Origins and criticisms of the Savonarola 
 story — Portents which signalised Lorenzo's death — Suicide of Piero 
 Leoni — Lorenzo's funeral and last resting-place — Decree of the 
 Signoria, eulogising Lorenzo and conferring the government on 
 Piero P- 347 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LORENZO IN RELATION TO THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 
 
 Lorenzo the embodiment of Renaissance tendencies — Renaissance and 
 mediaeval ideals contrasted — Impulses which gave force and meaning 
 to the Renaissance — The revival of ancient learning — Lorenzo as a 
 type of some of the best impulses of the Renaissance — Character and 
 quality of his Humanism — Motives of Lorenzo's Humanism — Study 
 of Greek in Florence — Purpose animating Lorenzo as a collector of 
 antiques — Lorenzo as a patron of Literature — The cult of Plato — 
 Landino's " Disputationes Camaldulenses " — Publication of Lan- 
 dino's edition of Dante's " Divine Comedy " — Lorenzo and the 
 University of Pisa— Difficulties with the Pisan Professors — Barto- 
 lommeo Sozzini — Lorenzo and the Platonic Academy — Platonic 
 studies of Marsilio Ficino . . . . • • • P- 359 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 LORENZO AS PROSE WRITER AND POET— THE " COMMEN- 
 TARIO " SONNETS, AND PASTORALS 
 
 Decline of vernacular literature — Survival of the vernacular in the songs 
 of the people — Lorenzo's services to Literature — Revival of the 
 vernacular — Leo Battista Alberti — Lorenzo's defence of the ver- 
 nacular — Lorenzo's " Commentario " — Lorenzo as a critic of Italian 
 literature— The Sonnets — Origin of the Sonnets — Lorenzo's defence 
 of the Sonnet form— Qualities of Lorenzo's Sonnets— Muratori on 
 Lorenzo's poetry — Lorenzo's poetic versatility — Lorenzo's dangerous 
 facility in versification — The Selve d'Amore — Love, Beauty, and 
 Mv Ladv — The Selve and Poliziano's La Giostra — Ambra — Corinto 
 ^ p. 378 
 
xvi 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LORENZO AS POET (continued)— NENCI A DA BARBERINO AND 
 
 THE CANT I 
 
 Analysis and criticism of Nencia da Barbarino — The Canzone on 
 Nencia's death — The Canti a Ballo — Connection of the Canti with 
 old popular Florentine songs — Moral influences of the Canti — The 
 Canti Carnascialeschi— Selections from the Canti a Ballo — Carnival 
 songs in their relation to carnival celebrations — II Lasca — The revel 
 of Bacchus and Ariadne ....... p. 403 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LORENZO AS POET {continued)—S AT IRICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL 
 SACRED AND MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 
 
 / Beoni or The Drinkers — Impulses of Lorenzo's religious poetry — L'Alter- 
 cazione — The CapitoH— The Lauds — 5S. Giovanni e Paolo — Amori di 
 Venere e Marte — The Caccia col Falcone — Pico della Mirandola on 
 Lorenzo's poetry — Comparison with Dante and Petrarch — General 
 estimate of Lorenzo as Poet — Importance of Lorenzo's poetry in 
 relation to his character . . . . . . .p. 424 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 LIFE AND MANNERS IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 
 
 Character of the Florentines as determined by the conditions of life 
 
 Commercial and industrial activities of the city — Lorenzo as a citizen 
 
 — Standard of education in Florence — Simplicity of private life 
 
 Masculine costume in Florence — The condition of women — Woman 
 in the family — Anomalies in the position of the wife — Lorenzo's 
 intrigue with Bartolommea de' Nasi — Female costume — The feminine 
 toilet— Florentine games— Horse-racing— The game of Calcio— Love 
 of country life — Lorenzo at his villas . . . . .p. 445 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 EPILOGUE— STATE OF FLORENCE AND ITALY AFTER 
 THE DEATH OF LORENZO 
 Calamities of Italy and of the House of Medici following Lorenzo's death 
 —Could he have averted them ?— French claims to Milan and Naples 
 —Charles VIII. of France— Charles VIII. incited to invade Italy 
 — Rule of Piero dei Medici in Florence — Piero reverses Lorenzo's 
 foreign policy— Piero seeks to propitiate Charles VIII.— Florence 
 repudiates Piero's terms : expulsion of the Medici — Charles VIII. at 
 
 Pisa and at Florence — Treaty between Charles and Florence Charles 
 
 VIII. occupies Naples— Intervention of Ferdinand of Aragon— 
 Italian League against the French : retreat of Charles from Naples 
 — Louis XII. prosecutes his claim to Milan, and to Naples Partition 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xvii 
 
 Treaty of Granada between Louis and Ferdinand — Dual occupation 
 of Naples by Louis and Ferdinand — Disputes between France and 
 Aragon in Naples — The Spaniards expel the French from Naples 
 — Death of Piero dei Medici at the Garigliano — Changes in the Papacy : 
 accession of Julius II., 1503 — Julius II. aims at the expulsion of the 
 French from Milan — Battle of Ravenna : death of Gaston de Foix — 
 The French withdraw from Milan — Florence and her French alliance 
 — Julius II. determines to re-establish the Medici in Florence — The 
 Medici restored by the aid of a Spanish army, 1512 — Giovanni and 
 Giuliano dei Medici — Rapid changes of personality in the Medici 
 Government — Florence ready to rise against her Medici rulers— Italy 
 in relation to the European situation in 1525 — Charles V., the Emperor, 
 defeats Francis I. at Pavia — The Imperial troops march on Rome 
 — Reconciliation between the Emperor and Pope Clement VII. — 
 Siege and fall of Florence — Could Lorenzo have saved Italy ?— Some 
 contemporary judgments — The true causes of Italy's subjection to 
 the foreigner ......... p. 463 
 
 Index . i i < . i i ^ i > i p. 479 
 
 Genealogical Tables 
 
 i. The Visconti Family . . . . . . . p. 7 
 
 ii. The Medici Family p. 478 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Medici Portraits Frontispiece 
 
 Reproduced from Litt^ 
 Botticelli's illustration for Dante's " Inferno," Canto X. 40 
 Portrait of Cosimo dei Medici 74 
 
 Detail from Benozzo Gozzoli's Adoration of the Magi in the 
 
 Palazzo Riccardi, Florence 
 First page of Boccaccio's " Decameron." published by 
 
 Valdarfer, 1471 84 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent 98 
 
 From the painting by Giorgio Vasari, Uffizi Gallery, Florence 
 Portrait of Lorenzo dei Medici as a youth 124 
 
 Detail from Benozzo Gozzoli's Adoration of the Magi in the 
 
 Palazzo Riccardi, Florence 
 
 Pope Sixtus IV. 146 
 Detail from the painting by Melozzo da Forli in the Pinacoteca 
 Vaticana, Rome 
 
 PiETRO and GlROLAMO RiARIO 1 68 
 
 Detail from the painting by Melozzo da ForU in the Pinacoteca 
 Vaticana, Rome 
 
 Galeazzo Maria Sforza i8o 
 From the painting by Antonio del PoUaiuolo in the Uffizi 
 Gallery, Florence 
 
 Torso of the Figure of Mercury 202 
 
 Detail from Botticelli's Spring in the Accademia, Florence 
 Medici Medals 212 
 
 Reproduced from Litta 
 LuDovico Sforza il Moro 246 
 
 From the painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Ambro- 
 
 siana at Milan 
 
 Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino 286 
 From the painting by Piero di Francesca in the Uffizi Gallery, 
 Florence 
 
 Caterina Sforza 310 
 From the painting by Marco Palmezzani in the Pinacoteca 
 Communale at Forli 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS xix 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 First Page of Christoforo Landing's edition of Dante's 
 
 " Divine Cgmdey," Florence, 1481 370 
 The last Page of Marsilio Ficino's Treatise " De Sole," 
 
 published by Antonio Mischomini, 1483 376 
 Possible Portrait of Simonetta Cattoneo 384 
 
 Detail from Botticelli's Venus rising from the Sea in the Ufiizi 
 
 Gallery, Florence 
 
 Ambra 398 
 
 Reproduced from Roscoe's " Supplementary Illustrations " 
 Portraits by Lorenzino Lippi of three Members of the 
 
 YOUNGER branch OF THE MeDICI FaMILY 444 
 
 After the painting in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence 
 Caparra's Lantern, Palazzo Strozzi. Florence 448 
 Giovanna degli Albizzi 452 
 
 Panel portrait by Domenico Ghirlandajo. By kind permission 
 
 of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan 
 A young Florentine Girl 454 
 
 Detail from Domenico Ghirlandajo' s fresco of the Birth of 
 
 St. John the Baptist In Sta. Maria Novella, Florence 
 LuDOVici Tornabuoni 456 
 
 Detail from Domenico Ghirlandajo's fresco of the Birth of 
 
 the Virgin in Sta. Maria Novella, Florence 
 PiERO DEI Medici, eldest son of Lorenzo 458 
 
 From the painting by Bronzino in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence 
 
 MAPS , 
 
 I. The Territorial Power of the Papacy 
 
 II. Campaigns of 1478-1480 
 
 31 
 
 237 
 
LORENZO 
 
 THE MAGNIFICENT 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE STATE OF ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 A. VENICE— MILAN— NAPLES 
 
 Venice — Milan — Naples — Claims of the Papacy on Naples — The House 
 of Suabia in Naples — Frederick II. — Naples and Henry III. of England — 
 Charles of Anjou — Conflicting claims of Anjou and Aragon to Naples — 
 Reign of the Angevin queen Giovanna I. in Naples — Charles of Durazzo 
 secures the crown of Naples — Renewed rivalry between Houses of Aragon 
 and Anjou — Alphonso of Aragon gains the crown of Naples — Ferrante 
 succeeds to the crown of Naples — Claims of the French kings to Naples. 
 
 HE tortuous policy and diplomatic falsities of Italian 
 
 statesmen of the Renaissance are not necessarily 
 evidence of an abnormal superfluity of naughtiness in those 
 statesmen. Their poHcy and their diplomacy alike are the 
 reflection of the political conditions at that time existing in 
 Italy. In times that were distracted and out of joint, no 
 State and no statesman could have survived who sought 
 to mould their statecraft on the principles of the Decalogue. 
 An adequate comprehension of the men who directed 
 Italian politics during the last half of the fifteenth century 
 is impossible without a close and connected study of the 
 complicated relations existing between State and State in 
 Italy, and of the almost equally complicated conditions 
 which existed within each State individually. Thus any 
 estimate of the life, character, and policy of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent must rest largely upon his work as a prince 
 and ruler in Florence, work which was determined not 
 only by the internal conditions prevailing in Florence itself. 
 
 A 
 
2 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 but by her relations to her neighbour States, and by 
 the activities and ambitions of the World-Powers of the 
 time. 
 
 The latter half of the fifteenth century marks the period 
 when the energies of Western Europe were largely absorbed 
 in the task of formulating and realising the principles of 
 self-contained and consolidated national life. We see the 
 process of nation-making vigorously in action in England, 
 in France, and in Spain. Edward IV. and the Tudors in 
 England, Louis XI. and his successors in France, Ferdinand 
 the Catholic and Isabella in Spain were, each and all, in 
 their respective dominions, engaged in work of the same 
 order. They acted not so much from conscious intention 
 as under the influence of irresistible tendency and the com- 
 pelling spirit of the age. From this movement towards 
 nationahty, however, Italy stood deliberately and con- 
 sciously aloof. Her aspirations turned rather to the 
 development of the individual than to the development 
 of the nation. The preservation of the distinctive features 
 of her Communes seemed to her of more importance than 
 the unification of her geographical area. To be a 
 Florentine, a Venetian, or a Roman was more than to be 
 an Italian. 
 
 Yet Italy had not surrendered a national ideal without 
 many struggles, nor could she wholly escape from the 
 tendencies of the age. The aspirations of Dante's " De 
 Monarchia " still find an echo, two hundred years later, 
 in Macchiavelli's " Prince." Cesare Borgia was perhaps 
 trying to effect in a practical way what Henry of Luxem- 
 burg only dreamed of as an idealist. The whole policy of 
 Robert the Wise of Naples was directed towards the unifi- 
 cation of Italy under the dominion of his House. The 
 Visconti, operating from Milan and the North, contemplated 
 the realisation of a similar purpose. But circumstances 
 were too strong for such ambitions. The tradition of the 
 Roman Empire had accustomed Italians to regard them- 
 selves as superior to the trammels of a narrow national 
 existence. The World-Power of the Papacy in the domain 
 of spiritual affairs made it difficult, if not impossible, for 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 3 
 
 the Papacy to accommodate itself to the idea of a supreme 
 temporal Power in Italy other than itself. No Italian State 
 would have consented to the establishment of a universal 
 temporal sovereignty in Italy vested in the Popes, nor 
 could there have been any guarantee for the perma- 
 nence or effectiveness of such a sovereignty, had it been 
 established. 
 
 Thus Italians, in their several States and Communes, 
 were thrown back upon themselves. The swelling tide of 
 nationality passed by them to wash other shores. Italy 
 was content to be politically a chaos, if intellectually she 
 might rule the world. 
 
 Such efforts, however, as in the past Italy had made 
 towards consoHdation had, in the fifteenth century, assumed 
 forms of definite achievement. Five Governments now 
 stood out from the rest, occupying almost the position of 
 Great Powers in Italy, the smaller communities having 
 been absorbed by them, or being in rapid process of absorp- 
 tion. Venice and Milan in the north, Florence and the 
 States of the Church in the centre, the kingdom of Naples 
 in the south, these States now practically partitioned Italy 
 between them. In a measure independent and self-con- 
 tained, yet they were for the most part intimately associated 
 by the ties of common and contrary interests. Naples 
 and Milan, however, though they made so brave a show, 
 were doomed to fatal weakness and instability by claims 
 upon them from outside which might at any time be 
 asserted and might very possibly be enforced. 
 
 I. 
 
 Of these five Powers by far the most stable, the wealthiest, 
 and the most considered was Venice. Her geographical 
 position had proved favourable to the extension of her 
 territories and influence in directions where Italian rivalry 
 was scarcely to be feared. She had carried her dominion 
 over the Adriatic, and established it over the eastern coast- 
 line of that sea, over the Morea, Cyprus, Candia, Negro- 
 ponte, and many of the smaller islands of the Grecian 
 
4 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Archipelago. Her fleets patrolled the Dardanelles and the 
 Black Sea. Her argosies with portly sail ventured far, 
 eastward and westward, and Venice became the depot for 
 the trade of the known world. Not content with holding 
 the gorgeous East in fee, Venice prosecuted her conquests 
 beyond the westward limits of her lagoons, and established 
 herself as a territorial Power upon the mainland of Italy. 
 Padua, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo were successively forced 
 to own her sway, and by 1454 the River Adda formed the 
 boundary westward of the Venetian dominions. To the 
 south she had secured Ravenna, and in the War of Ferrara, 
 in 1 48 1, it seemed to be her purpose, by the acquisition 
 of Ferrara, to consoUdate her possessions south of the 
 River Po. 
 
 The circumstances in which Venice had acquired her 
 maritime and territorial influence had not been entirely 
 of her own choice and making. Nature had prescribed to 
 her her influence in the East, though her own efforts had 
 established it. Self-preservation had compelled her to make 
 good her insular position when it was menaced from Padua, 
 from Verona, or from Milan. But a certain aloofness on 
 the part of Venice from the common concerns of Italian 
 life, her hard, dry, persistent prosecution of her own ends 
 without regard, as it seemed, to any of those prejudices 
 or restraints which were operative elsewhere, created the 
 general impression that in the game of Italian politics she 
 played for her own hand alone : there was an uneasy sus- 
 picion that she would never relax her zeal for dominion 
 until she had secured the sovereignty of the whole of Italy. 
 That this suspicion was less than just to Venice did not 
 mitigate its force, though in a war of recrimination she could 
 raise a powerful voice. She could point to sixteen years of 
 constant warfare against the advancing power of the Turks 
 (1463-1479), to the fact that she had entered upon that war 
 relying on the faith of Papal representations and on the 
 security of European support, but that she had been forced 
 to bear the ruinous burden of it single-handed. If at last 
 she made peace with the victorious Sultan from sheer 
 inability to support her burden any longer, she cannot 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 5 
 
 therefore be justly accused of opening the way to Italy for 
 the Turkish forces. Yet when Otranto fell, in 1480, this 
 was the accusation brought against her. Suspicions were 
 deepened when she refused to make common cause with 
 the Italian States against the Turks, and utilised the ad- 
 vantages of her own position to begin a war of aggression 
 against Ferrara. 
 
 The fatal blow to Venetian supremacy and Venetian 
 pride came, not from Italy, but from an unsuspected and 
 far-off quarter. The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and the rounding of that cape by Vasco da Gama, opened 
 out the Atlantic as a waterway to the East. The monopoly 
 of the Adriatic and of the Mediterranean was gone, and the 
 decline of Venice, the great monopolist, followed as a 
 natural consequence. But these events belong rather to 
 the sixteenth than to the fifteenth century. In the days 
 when Lorenzo ruled at Florence, Venice, though in straits 
 with the Turks, displayed towards Italy an arrogant and 
 haughty front. She was the great enigma, the incalculable 
 element in Italian politics, except that men were persuaded 
 that, whatever her action, it would be dictated solely by 
 self-interest and the spirit of aggrandisement. 
 
 IL 
 
 In close proximity to Venice, and frequently in deadly 
 rivalry with her, was the State of Milan. Originally a lief 
 of the Empire, the Imperial Vicars had at last succeeded in 
 obtaining over Milan a practically independent sovereignty. 
 By letters patent from the Emperor Wenceslaus in 1395 
 Milan was created a Duchy for Gian Galeazzo of the ancient 
 House of Visconti. This was but the recognition of the 
 fact that the Visconti had now become masters, not of Milan 
 only, but of a vast extent of surrounding territory. Gian 
 Galeazzo had carried his victorious arms eastward as far 
 as Verona. To the south, Pisa, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, 
 Bologna, Spoleto fell before him. Visions of himself as 
 King of Italy rose before his eyes. He even went so far as 
 to demand the title from the existing Pope. By his wife 
 
6 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Isabella of France Gian Galeazzo had an only daughter, 
 Valentina. Her he betrothed to Louis, Duke of Orleans, 
 brother of the French king Charles VI. From this marriage 
 there arose the claim of the House of Orleans to Milan 
 which was ultimately to be the source of so many woes 
 ahke to Italy and to France. By his second wife, Caterina 
 Visconti, Gian Galeazzo had two sons, Giovanni Maria, who 
 succeeded him in 1402, and Filipo Maria, the last of the 
 Visconti, who succeeded his brother in 1412. The reign of 
 this prince is marked by the wars between Milan and Venice 
 which resulted in those accessions to the Venetian territory 
 which have already been referred to. 
 
 The miHtary adventures of Filipo Maria led him to seek 
 the assistance of Francesco Sforza, the most skilful and 
 powerful of those mercenary captains of the time whose 
 arms were at the disposal of the highest bidder. The 
 services rendered by Sforza to the Visconti were so great as 
 to make him indispensable. The auxihary began to show 
 himself more powerful than his employer. There was the 
 constant danger that if Sforza were not satisfied he would 
 transfer his own brilhant talent and his fighting strength 
 to the side of the enemies of Milan. 
 
 To avert this contingency Filipo Maria gave to Francesco 
 the hand of his illegitimate daughter Bianca, his only child. 
 Thus, through his wife, Sforza could put forward formidable 
 claims of his own to succeed to the Duchy of Milan, claims 
 which when backed by the practical argument of irresistible 
 miHtary force were not Ukely to be denied. He was, 
 however, a prudent and deep-scheming man, who knew 
 well how to bide his time and catch the favourable moment. 
 When, on the death of Duke FiHpo Maria in 1447, Milan 
 declared herself a republic, Sforza apparently acquiesced in 
 the arrangement. He accepted the position of Captain- 
 General of the Milanese forces, and, while moulding events, 
 seemed only to wait upon them. Three years later the 
 pear was ripe, and Sforza only had to pluck it. In 1450 he 
 possessed himself without a blow of the sovereignty of Milan, 
 and estabUshed the House of a peasant adventurer in the 
 proud seats of the Visconti. 
 
Galeazzo I. 
 1322-1328 
 I 
 
 Azzo, 
 1328-1339 
 
 Matteo Visconti 
 1295-1322 
 
 i 
 
 Lucchino, 
 1 339-1 349 
 
 Giovanni, 
 Cardinal 
 1 349-1 354 
 
 Matteo 
 1354-1355 
 
 Bemabo 
 1 354-1385 
 
 Stefano 
 
 Galeazzo II. 
 1 354-1 378 
 
 Caterina — m. (ii) Gian Galeazzo- w. (i) Isabella 
 I 1 378-1402 I 
 
 Philip VI. of Valois 
 1328-1350 
 
 John of Valois 
 
 Giovanni Maria 
 1402-1412 
 
 Francesco Sforza 
 
 Filipo Maria 
 
 t 
 
 m. — Bianca 
 
 Valentina = Louis, D. of Orleans 
 
 Charles 
 Duke of Orleans 
 
 Charles V. 
 
 Louis XII. 
 
 Charies VI. 
 I 
 
 Charles VII. 
 
 Louis XI. 
 
 I 
 
 Charles VIII. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 7 
 
 This steadfast, silent, implacable advance towards an 
 end long foreseen, remorselessly pursued, and victoriously 
 achieved, has won for Sforza the admiration of Macchiavelli, 
 He is an example held up before the eyes of princes for 
 their edification and imitation. Princes, says Macchiavelli, 
 should lay the foundations of any new power they may 
 seek to acquire long before they strike the blow which will 
 acquire it. " Francesco, by suitable measures, being en- 
 dowed with great qualities, from a private citizen became 
 Duke of Milan. He had spent a thousand toils to gain the 
 position, but once gained, he maintained it with little 
 difficulty." This was true, but Macchiavelli was to live to 
 see the fatal weakness of the Sforza position. It rested 
 ultimately on nothing but force, and superior force would 
 overthrow it. The French claim to Milan, through Valentina 
 Visconti, was in abeyance, but it was not forgotten. It 
 could be held in terrorem over the Sforza dukes by any 
 enemies to whom they were opposed, and it offered to their 
 political opponents the fatal inducement to summon the 
 French into Italy to assert and make good their hereditary 
 rights in Milan. 
 
 In 1466 Francesco Sforza died, and was succeeded by his 
 son Galeazzo Maria. Galeazzo plays an important part in 
 the diplomacy of Lorenzo dei Medici, and, worthless as was 
 his personal character, yet he stood as a sort of guarantee 
 for the peace of Italy. The dramatic circumstances of his 
 assassination in 1476 mark a crisis in the history of the 
 country. " To-day," said Pope Sixtus, ** the peace of Italy 
 is dead." The Pontiff himself could scarcely have known 
 how true a word he spoke, Galeazzo Maria left a young 
 son, Gian Galeazzo II., and a bevy of ambitious brothers, 
 intent only upon their own aggrandisement, and upon 
 wresting aU authority from the hands of their sister-in- 
 law who was Regent for her youthful son. Of these 
 brothers, Ludovico, popularly known as II Moro, was the 
 most aspiring, the most unscrupulous, and for a time the 
 most successful. 
 
 Favoured by circumstances, he secured the guardian- 
 ship of his nephew, kept him studiously in retirement. 
 
8 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and usurped the sovereignty of Milan. But the action of 
 Ludovico only made the Sforza tenure in Milan still more 
 precarious and uncertain, Ludovico's whole policy was 
 necessarily directed to maintaining himself, and he could 
 stand only so long as he was supported. Supposing himself 
 to be a master in statecraft, he set in motion all the appa- 
 ratus of falsehood, fraud, and chicanery which passed for 
 statecraft in Italy in those days ; and at last he found 
 himself caught in his own toils. In an incautious moment 
 he had permitted his nephew, the young Duke Gian Galeazzo, 
 to marry Isabella, the daughter of Alphonso, heir to the 
 kingdom of Naples. Ludovico's own sister, Hippolita, was 
 Isabella's mother. Thus he had to fear the intervention 
 of Naples in assertion of the rights of his nephew, and in 
 his diplomatic relations with Naples he found himself 
 constantly hampered by the irregularity of his personal 
 position. It was of course an easy expedient for Ludovico 
 to make counter-play with the claims which France possessed 
 to the Neapolitan kingdom, but the game was dangerous 
 in the extreme. While prosecuting one claim in Italy, 
 France might think it well at the same time to prosecute 
 another. By calling in the French in order to distract the 
 attention of Naples from himself, he ran the risk of 
 attracting very forcibly the attention of France to the 
 desirability of ousting Ludovico and estabhshing her own 
 sovereignty over Milan. 
 
 III. 
 
 The question of the French claims upon Naples involves 
 a survey of what Bishop Creighton calls a " dreary and 
 complicated history." Of the complications there can be 
 no doubt, but if only it be possible to find a clue to guide us 
 through a labyrinth of genealogical involutions and inter- 
 national pretensions, the history of Naples from the days of 
 Frederick II. to the coming of Charles VIII. of France (1494) 
 supplies abundant elements of drama and romance. Though 
 the story is somewhat long for an introductory chapter, 
 yet the relations between Naples and Lorenzo dei Medici 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 9 
 
 were so intimate and important, and, moreover, without a 
 clear knowledge of the situation in Naples, so difficult to 
 understand, that proportion will not be violated if some 
 considerable space is given to the presentment of the broad 
 outlines of the story. 
 
 The Neapolitan kingdom was originally established by 
 Norman adventurers out of territories which they had 
 wrested from the Saracens. War against the infidel was 
 holy war, carried on under the aegis and sanction of Holy 
 Church. The victorious Normans regularised their position 
 in Naples by securing Papal recognition for their tenure of 
 it. The Popes accordingly claimed to be the suzerains of 
 Naples, and whoever held it, held it, according to Papal 
 theory, as a vassal of the Holy See. This condition is constant 
 throughout the period with which we are concerned, and 
 is the first perplexing element in the situation which it is 
 necessary to have constantly in mind. 
 
 Naples passed in due course from the Normans to the 
 House of Suabia, and under its most brilliant representative, 
 the Emperor Frederick II., Naples and Sicily became his 
 chief paradise of delights, that corner of his dominions 
 which he most loved ; on which he lavished all his care. The 
 bitter enmity between Frederick II. and the Papacy affords 
 the chief dramatic interest of his brilliant reign, and it was 
 a natural consequence of that enmity that the Popes, mindful 
 of their sovereign rights over Naples, should look outside the 
 line of Frederick for some suitable ruler for the Papal fief. 
 
 It is at this point that the crown of Naples and Sicily 
 became mixed up with our English history. The realm 
 was offered by Pope Innocent IV. to Richard of Cornwall, 
 brother of the English king Henry III. ; though refused 
 by Richard, it was accepted by Henry on behalf of his own 
 son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster. 
 
 Thus Henry was made the cat's-paw of Papal ambition. 
 He permitted the country to be drained by ruinous exactions, 
 extorted to support a wild-cat scheme of adventure in which 
 his subjects could feel no interest ; thus he precipitated 
 the Barons' War, and came within an ace of losing his own 
 kingdom. 
 
10 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 A more promising opportunity for Papal action was 
 afforded by events which followed the death of Conrad, the 
 son and successor of Frederick II. Even in Conrad's life- 
 time his authority had been maintained chiefly through the 
 strength, vigour, and brilliant qualities of his illegitimate 
 brother Manfred. When, in 1254, Conrad was succeeded 
 by his son Conradin, a child not three years old, the actual 
 government fell naturally to Manfred, who became the 
 avowed head of the anti-Papal or Ghibelline party in Italy. 
 
 Successive Popes by this time had realised that nothing 
 more was to be got from England. Nor was the Papacy 
 strong enough to enforce its own assertion that Naples had 
 reverted, as a lapsed fief, to the Holy See. At this juncture 
 recourse was had to France, and the crown of Naples and 
 Sicily was offered by Pope Urban IV. to the brother of St. 
 Louis, Charles of Anjou. 
 
 It was in 1265 that Charles of Anjou came to Italy to win 
 from Manfred the kingdom with which the Papacy had 
 endowed him. Guelph and Ghibelline stood facing each 
 other, for once the recognised symbols of an intelligible 
 antagonism. On the fatal field of Benevento Manfred fell, 
 (1266). Two years later the chivalrous, gallant young Con- 
 radin became a prisoner in the hands of Charles, and was 
 barbarously executed. The House of Suabia had fallen. 
 The House of Anjou was established upon the throne of 
 Naples. 
 
 But though the last legitimate scion of the House of 
 Suabia had been cut off, the independent claims of the 
 House of Manfred were not extinguished, Manfred's 
 daughter Constance had married Peter III. of Aragon, and 
 through her the Aragonese sovereigns could stiU assert a 
 claim to the crowns of Naples and Sicily. The Aragonese 
 claim on Naples was strengthened when Sicily revolted 
 against the tyranny of Charles of Anjou. The Sicilian 
 Vespers in 1282 sounded the knell of French domination in 
 the island. An appeal was made to Aragon to assume the 
 sovereignty of Sicily. An Aragonese dynasty ruled there 
 independently for more than a century, when Sicily became 
 incorporated into the kingdom of Aragon. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 II 
 
 Meanwhile the fortunes of the House of Anjou in Naples 
 had been subjected to many changes and vicissitudes. The 
 ramifications of the family almost defy analysis, and test 
 beyond endurance even the strongest memory. Conflicting 
 claims to the throne of Naples arose among the Angevins 
 themselves, and a crisis ensued upon the death of Robert 
 the Wise when his direct heir proved to be a woman, whose 
 rights, apart from the question of sex, were by no means 
 unimpeachable. 
 
 For forty years, however, Giovanna I. maintained herself 
 precariously upon the throne, but upon her death, in 1382, 
 she left everything in a welter of confusion. Though four 
 times married, she left no children to succeed her, and 
 during the later years of her reign she had kept Naples agog 
 by her ever-shifting dispositions in regard to the succession. 
 
 The claims of the two great Houses of Durazzo and Tarento, 
 which sprang from two brothers of Robert the Wise, seemed 
 to be concentrated in the person of Charles of Durazzo, who 
 regarded himself as Giovanna's heir. Indeed, he endeavoured 
 to anticipate his succession by an expedition in quest of 
 the Neapolitan throne during Giovanna's lifetime. The 
 queen retaliated by adopting as her heir and successor 
 Louis of Anjou, Count of Provence and brother of the 
 reigning King of France, Charles V. (1380). By this time 
 the great Schism in the Papacy had begun, and the rival 
 Popes of Rome and Avignon fought one another through 
 the medium of Naples. Each Pope simultaneously claimed 
 to be the suzerain of the kingdom, and to possess the 
 ultimate rights over the disposal of it. 
 
 The expedition of Charles of Durazzo was under 
 the immediate sanction of the Roman Pope, Urban VI. 
 Clement VII. at Avignon was equally active in support of 
 the queen and of Louis of Anjou. The success of Charles, 
 which was consoHdated by the murder of Giovanna in 1382, 
 was followed by his assumption of the crown under the 
 title of Charles III., and he was able to transmit his 
 kingdom to his two children in succession, Ladislas, who 
 died without issue in 1414, and Giovanna II., who died 
 without issue in 1435. 
 
12 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 The situation was now much what it had been in the 
 time of Giovanna I. No one knew who was to succeed, 
 and the queen herself had covered the tracks with astonish- 
 ing and truly feminine ingenuity. She was a woman of 
 infamous character, and on her caprices and gallantries 
 age seemed to have no effect. Foremost and most in- 
 fluential among her various favourites was Giovanni Carra- 
 cioli. By his insolence and self-seeking he succeeded in 
 alienating from Giovanna the support of Sforza Attendolo, 
 foremost among the Condottieri leaders, and one of the most 
 remarkable men at that time in Italy. 
 
 Sforza's natural course, in opposing Carracioli and the 
 queen, was to attach himself to the cause of Louis of Anjou, 
 who maintained the claims of his grandfather to the throne 
 of Naples. In her straits Giovanna looked around for 
 assistance, and bethought herself of the House of Aragon 
 and its claims to Naples, which were certainly equally valid 
 with those of Anjou. If Alphonso V. of Aragon would now 
 come to her help she would adopt him as her heir, and upon 
 her death he would succeed to the Neapolitan crown. The 
 bait was irresistible : Alphonso threw himself with vigour 
 into the contest. But it was not long before the capricious 
 queen grew frightened by the resolute character of her ally. 
 Dissatisfaction and distrust arose on each side ; when 
 Alphonso attempted to anticipate his fortunes by seizing 
 Carracioli and making himself master of the queen herself 
 Giovanna retorted by disinheriting Alphonso and adopting 
 Louis of Anjou as heir to her crown. 
 
 Thus it was that on Giovanna's death the Houses of 
 Aragon and Anjou stood facing one another in deadly 
 rivalry for the possession of Naples. Louis of Anjou was 
 now dead, but on his death the queen had recognised his 
 brother Rene as her heir, and, under the terms of her will, 
 Rene promptly asserted his rights. The Pope in the mean- 
 time insisted that, in default of lineal successors, Naples 
 had reverted to the Holy See. Angevin claims, Aragonese 
 claims. Papal claims, all stand out prominently and in 
 opposition at the same time. Alphonso was the claimant 
 who best knew how to take occasion by the hand. He was 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 able to turn even his defeats to his advantage. Taken 
 prisoner by the Genoese, and committed to the custody of 
 FiUpo Maria Visconti as overlord of Genoa, he succeeded 
 in persuading Visconti that the interests of Milan required 
 that the French should be kept out of Italy. With the 
 House of Aragon in possession of Naples, in close alliance 
 with Milan, the key to the situation in Italy would be in 
 the hands of the Milanese duke. The personal fascinations 
 of Alphonso were as powerful as his arguments. An 
 alhance was formed between Filipo Maria and his prisoner, 
 and in due course Alphonso V. of Aragon became Alphonso I. 
 of Naples. 
 
 But the triumph of the House of Aragon in Naples by no 
 means implied any abandonment of their claims on the 
 part of its rivals. Rene of Provence still continued to style 
 himself King of Naples — his son, John of Anjou, was known 
 as the Duke of Calabria, the title usually borne by the 
 heir-apparent to the Neapolitan throne. The Papacy, not 
 strong enough to enforce its own independent claims, could 
 make the situation dangerous and precarious for every one 
 else. Thus Naples became the most important piece upon 
 the political chessboard. If France should prove trouble- 
 some, an immediate and obvious retort was to support the 
 Aragonese dynasty. If Naples should show herself aggressive 
 or refractory, she could be brought to heel by the threat 
 of enforcing French claims. 
 
 Alphonso found his position difficult notwithstanding 
 [ his eminent capacity and brilliant gifts. Upon his death 
 i it seemed likely that confusion would be worse confounded, 
 for there was no legitimate heir of his body to succeed him. 
 All his political efforts therefore had been directed to securing 
 the succession to Naples for his illegitimate son Ferdinand, 
 known commonly as Ferrante ; but, notwithstanding the 
 laxity of view which prevailed in Italy on the subject of 
 legitimacy, the fact of Ferrante's birth, taken in conjunction 
 with the general weakness of the Aragonese position in 
 Naples, contributed still further to complicate conditions 
 which were already sufficiently tangled, 
 i In 1458 Alphonso died, and his kingdoms of Aragon and 
 
14 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Sicily passed to his brother, John II. There was no question 
 of Ferrante succeeding there, although his father had been 
 able to induce successive Popes to recognise his legitimacy, 
 and this recognition, if it had been anything more than 
 nominal, would have entitled him to succeed to all the 
 possessions of Alphonso. But the action of the Popes in 
 regard to the matter must only be taken as an expression 
 of their weakness at the moment and their need of Alphonso's 
 support. Eugenius IV. had his own troubles with the Council 
 of Basle, and Nicolas V. wanted to compose all enmities 
 in order that Christendom might show a united front to 
 the Turks, now masters of Constantinople (1453), and 
 bent upon extending still further their dominion in 
 Europe. 
 
 Ferrante was content to put forward his claims to Naples 
 alone, and was strong enough and astute enough to enforce 
 them. An attempt on the part of John of Anjou to secure 
 the kingdom for his father Ren6 only served to show how 
 incompetent the Angevins were to take advantage of their 
 own successes. Ren6 was fitter for poetry and a quiet life 
 than for the conquest of kingdoms. Pope Calixtus III. 
 was violently hostile to Ferrante, but this was only because 
 he saw an opportunity of conferring the crown of Naples 
 upon one of his own nephews, Pedro Borgia. Fortunately 
 for Ferrante, Calixtus died before he could take any action 
 to effect his purpose. Pope Pius II, took a more reasonable 
 view of the situation. He wanted a king at Naples who 
 would be useful to the Church, and Ferrante was more 
 likely to be useful than the feeble Ren^, than any interloper 
 imposed upon Naples by the Papacy whom nobody at all 
 would recognise. Moreover, Pius II. had deeply at heart 
 his own projects for a general crusade against the Turks. 
 In the circumstances it seemed best to recognise 
 Ferrante's position. Accordingly in 1458 the Pope granted 
 to him the investiture of Naples, " without prejudice to the 
 rights of another," on condition that the king should pay 
 to the Holy See an annual tribute, should withdraw his 
 troops from the States of the Church, and should restore 
 to the Church, either immediately or in due course, those 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 15 
 
 ecclesiastical fiefs which had been granted personally to 
 Alphonso. 
 
 The reign of Ferrante, extending from 1458 to 1494, more 
 than covers the whole political career of Lorenzo dei Medici. 
 It is therefore only necessary, at this point, to note the 
 position of the Angevin claims up to the time of the expe- 
 dition against Naples undertaken by Charles VIII. of France 
 in 1494. 
 
 Ren^ of Provence and Anjou — the father, it may be noted, 
 of Margaret of Anjou, " she- wolf of France," wife of Henry 
 VI. of England — survived his son, the Duke of Calabria, 
 and his grandson. His claims passed to his nephew — 
 Charles, Count of Maine — who died without issue in 1481. 
 By his will he bequeathed his dominions, together with his 
 claims on Naples, to Louis XI. of France. 
 
 This sagacious monarch was glad to get Provence, for 
 thus he was able to round off his work of consolidating the 
 kingdom, but he was content merely to note, as an interesting 
 and picturesque accompaniment to his substantial titles, 
 the pretensions which the crown of France could now put 
 forward to an Italian kingdom. 
 
 His son, Charles VIII., was fired by more romantic 
 ambitions. He determined actively to prosecute his Nea- 
 politan claims. He was, indeed, urged to do so by those 
 Italian statesmen who saw their own advantage in the con- 
 fusions of Italy. In 1494 Charles had completed his plans. 
 The Italian expedition was launched which was to prove 
 the ruin of Italy : which was to prove, it may almost be 
 said, the beginning of the modern world. Incidentally, as 
 a consequence of the expedition, the House of Medici was 
 I overthrown in Florence, and the brief theocracy of Savona- 
 rola was established under the patronage of the French 
 king. Lorenzo himself, fortunate in his death, was spared 
 from being a witness of the destruction of his hopes, the 
 ruin of his policy, and the degradation of his country. He 
 had died in 1492. 
 
i6 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 B. THE PAPACY 
 
 The Papacy in the fifteenth century — The Papacy in relation to its 
 temporal power — The great Schism of the West, 1 378-1417 — The Papacy 
 after the Schism — Eugenius IV. — The Conciliar spirit — Nicolas V. — 
 Extinction of the Conciliar spirit — Policy of Nicolas V. — Papal policy in 
 regard to the States of the Church — Advantages attaching to the Papacy 
 from its dual position — Disadvantages— Papal nepotism — The Papacy 
 and the Italian Powers — Florence — Venice — Milan — The Italian Powers 
 and the Turks — The Popes and Prince Djem. 
 
 The position of the Papacy in the fifteenth century is so 
 anomalous, and the conduct of successive Popes is so at 
 variance with the Christ-Hke character, that it is difficult 
 even for unprejudiced critics to reconcile its pretensions 
 with its actions. The Papacy, however, like all other 
 institutions, must be judged in relation to its historical 
 environment ; so judged, it will be found that the corruption 
 of its ideals and the characters of its representatives were 
 the result of the prevailing conditions rather than of the 
 individual wickedness of the Popes themselves. The 
 times indeed were such, that men of scrupulous and saintly 
 character upon the chair of St. Peter could have brought 
 nothing but ruin to that fabric of Papal power which had 
 been transmitted to them from the past. The question 
 whether that fabric should ever have been reared, whether 
 it was worth transmitting, whether the object should have 
 been, not to preserve it, but to destroy it, is another ques- 
 tion which is not under discussion. The Renaissance Popes 
 found their position defined for them. They had not 
 created it, but they felt themselves bound, to the utmost 
 of their power, to maintain it ; had they not sought to 
 maintain it, they would undoubtedly have lost the respect, 
 and probably the allegiance, of all Christendom. 
 
 The possession of a temporal sovereignty, especially a 
 sovereignty situated in Italy, placed the Papacy in a dilemma. 
 On the one side was its spiritual position, to be enforced by 
 spiritual arms alone. On the other side lay its temporal 
 dominions, exposed to the greedy covetousness of all its 
 neighbours. If these dominions were not to be lost they 
 must be governed by men acting as other men ; by astute 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 politicians ready to match their poHtical sagacity against 
 the most unscrupulous statecraft that the world has ever 
 seen ; by resolute Princes whose business it was to put 
 armies in the field, despatch them to service, and if need be 
 encourage them on campaign ; by men of the world in fact, 
 in contact with the world as it was, not by ascetics and 
 pietists who dreamed of a world as it ought to be. 
 
 , The student of the Papacy is almost compelled to the 
 opinion that the greatest and most fatal of its acquisitions 
 
 ■ was the acquisition of a temporal sovereignty in Italy. He 
 may agree with Dante that the Church had then made to 
 herself a god of silver and of gold, and that the chief difference 
 between the Pope in Dante's day and the idolater was that 
 "he worships one and ye a hundred." 
 
 Ahi, Constantin, di quanto mal fu matre, 
 non la tua conversion, ma quella dote 
 che da ti prese il primo ricco padre. 
 
 Inferno, C. xix. 115.* 
 
 But the fatal gift had been accepted long ago in the dim 
 recesses of time. Territorial sovereignty had become in- 
 
 ' extricably bound up with the very existence of the Papacy 
 as a spiritual force. To the best of Popes, as well as to 
 the worst, it may have seemed the first and most sacred 
 
 I duty at all hazards to maintain it. 
 
 I At the beginning of the fifteenth century the Papacy 
 ^ found itself at the lowest level of its fortunes. The bright- 
 ; ness of its mediaeval glory had long been dimmed ; the 
 splendid visions of a Gregory VII. or an Innocent III. had 
 vanished into the mists. For nearly a century successive 
 Popes had been content to abandon the ideal of universal 
 spiritual dominion over Christendom, to abandon Rome, 
 the fount and seat of their greatness, in order to live at ease 
 in Avignon and enjoy the protection and contemptuous 
 patronage of the Kings of France. 
 
 The return of the Papacy to Rome (1378) was immediately 
 followed by the outbreak of the Great Schism of the West, 
 
 * " Ah, Constantine ! how much evil was born as from a mother, not 
 by reason of thy conversion, but by that gift which the first rich Father 
 took from thee," alluding to the alleged Donation of Constantine the Great 
 of territorial possessions in Italy to the Papacy, 
 i B 
 
i8 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 when first two Popes, and then three, strove each against 
 the other for the allegiance of Europe. One question, when 
 the fifteenth century dawned, engrossed the minds of all 
 serious men. How was the Schism to be healed ? How 
 was the unity of the Christian Church to be asserted ? A 
 General Council of the Universal Latin Church seemed to 
 offer the best hope of a settlement, and the Council of Con- 
 stance (141 5), summoned by the joint authority of the 
 Emperor and one of the contesting Popes, seemed to be 
 the nearest possible approach to a representative ecclesias- 
 tical Parliament. But the theory of the validity of a 
 Universal Council to make and unmake Popes was at 
 variance with the first principle of the Papal monarchy 
 which the Middle Ages had so laboriously constructed — 
 the principle of its complete and unquestioned absolutism. 
 A Pope deriving his position from a Council must acknow- 
 ledge that, as a creature, he was less than his creator, and 
 yet, if he were to be faithful to his trust, he must acknow- 
 ledge his inferiority to no man and no body of men. But 
 the exigencies of the situation did not admit an absolute 
 and purely logical settlement. By a Council only could 
 the Schism be healed, for no man knew who was in truth 
 the rightful Pope. By the vote of the Council of Constance 
 Martin V., of the great House of Colonna, was elected 
 Pope, and was generally acknowledged. But his position 
 was difficult. He must aim at regaining the lost prestige, 
 the lost privileges of the Papacy, and the lost control 
 of the Papal territories in Italy, at a time when every 
 territorial rival was keen to take advantage of the weak- 
 ness of his position. Naples especially had old scores 
 to settle. Martin might flatter himself that he enjoyed 
 the obedience of Christendom, but it was an obedience 
 which he enjoyed indirectly through a Council rather than 
 directly as absolute Pope. Moreover, the Council of Con- 
 stance had taken care not to dissolve without providing 
 for the frequent convocation of future Councils ; and as 
 long as this Conciliar spirit prevailed, no Pope could call 
 himself master in his own house. Respect and true obe- 
 dience would follow only from the possession of absolute 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 power, and that power only would be understood and 
 realised which took the material form of a temporal 
 sovereignty, ready to enter into competition with other 
 temporal sovereigns, and to engage them with their own 
 weapons. 
 
 The truth of this had been sufficiently demonstrated 
 during the Pontificate of Eugenius IV., who succeeded 
 Martin V. Eugenius suffered to the full under the outburst 
 of Conciliar enthusiasm. It was indeed this enthusiasm 
 which proved the salvation of the Papacy, The Council 
 of Basle, summoned in due course in accordance with the 
 decrees of Constance, showed itself extreme, pragmatical, 
 and contumacious. When it went to the length of renewing 
 the Schism by electing a Pope of its own, and deposing 
 Eugenius, it exceeded its mission and lost the popular 
 support of Christendom on which alone it rested. More- 
 over, Eugenius was astute enough to utilise the Concihar 
 spirit to the advantage of the Papacy. He took the wind 
 I out of the sails of the Council of Basle by caUing a Council 
 1 on his own account at Ferrara. Its purpose was inter- 
 i national, and in a sense practical, for the aim of Eugenius 
 j was to see if anything could be done to bring about a recon- 
 ( cihation between the Latin and the Greek Churches. The 
 I business of conciliation on which the Pope was engaged 
 i contrasted favourably with the factious and schismatic 
 I endeavours of the disaffected clique at Basle, which persisted 
 I in caUing itself a Council of the Universal Church. 
 I Though the efforts of the Fathers gathered at Florence 
 1 (the Council was transferred from Ferrara to Florence in 
 1439) were successful only on paper, the terms of union to 
 which the Greeks had consented being emphaticaUy rejected 
 at home, yet the Pope could claim at any rate a nominal 
 triumph, and the attempt itself counted to him for 
 righteousness. 
 
 The reign of Nicolas V., the successor of Eugenius, was 
 not troubled by Councils. Concihar enthusiasm had 
 worked itself out, and Pius II. by 1460, had re-established 
 Papal autocracy on a sufficiently strong basis to issue the 
 Bull Execrahilis, in which he declared that it was an 
 
20 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 execrable abuse, unheard of in ancient times, to appeal to 
 a Council which the Pope had not authorised. Any such 
 appeals, if made, were declared to be invahd ; any one 
 making them was ipso facto excommunicated, together with 
 those who framed or witnessed any document containing 
 such appeals. 
 
 The Bull marks an epoch, not so much because it secured 
 immediate and general recognition— Councils still continued 
 to be used as threats held in tenorem over Popes by their 
 pohtical and spiritual opponents — but because it was an 
 evidence that the assertion of the representative principle 
 in the government of the Church was no longer potent ; 
 that the counter-assertion of Papal absolutism was in a fair 
 way to general recognition. " The Bull of Pius II., though 
 not immediately successful, worked its way into the eccle- 
 siastical system, and became one of the pillars on which 
 the Papal authority rested." * 
 
 There were other ways, besides war against the ConciHar 
 movement, by which the Popes could re-estabUsh their 
 sovereignty and restore the weakened prestige of the Holy 
 See. To secure themselves in Rome, and identify the 
 traditions of Imperial Rome with the splendours of the 
 Papal Court, were projects which would make a strong 
 appeal to the imaginations of men, and at the same time 
 give weight, stability, and consideration to the Papacy 
 itself. 
 
 Something might also be gained by associating the Papacy 
 with the spirit of Humanism and the passion for classical 
 scholarship and antiquity which were the dominant charac- 
 teristics of the Renaissance in Italy. It is thus that the 
 reign of Nicolas V. (1447-1455) assumes a special importance 
 in the Papal history of the fifteenth century. A scholar 
 and a humanist, raised to the highest seat from a position 
 of obscurity, he gave to the world, in his own person, an 
 example of what the forces then at work could do for a 
 man who gave them full scope to act upon him. Rome was 
 dignified and ennobled by the concourse of scholars and 
 artists who gathered around the court of Nicolas and 
 
 * Creighton, " History of the Papacy," iii. 240. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 21 
 
 enjoyed the patronage of a Pope who was himself a scholar 
 and a connoisseur. It is not necessary to suppose that the 
 action of Nicolas V. was governed solely by policy and 
 calculation. He loved art, scholarship, and magnificence 
 for their own sake. But he was also conscious of their 
 political value as instruments whereby to recover for the 
 Papacy its prestige, and few of his successors could afford 
 to be entirely indifferent to the special claims of culture 
 upon the Roman Pontiff. 
 
 In the same manner Nicolas V. devoted himself to the 
 task of making Rome a fitting capital for the Holy See. 
 To make it sanitary, to widen its streets, to adorn it with 
 splendid churches and palaces, became the recognised policy 
 of the Papacy from the time of Nicolas V. If, indeed, the 
 Coliseum became a stone-quarry, and the precious remains 
 of ancient Rome were incorporated into modem structures, 
 this is only one example of many of the strange incongruities 
 and contradictory ideas which characterised even enlightened 
 men in these strange times. The Rome of Leo X. was 
 foreshadowed and prepared by the policy of Nicolas V., of 
 Sixtus IV., of Alexander VI., and Julius II. 
 
 But aU this, important as it was, was of small account 
 if the Popes were not masters over their own territories. 
 Men might entertain an abstract regard for a Pope who was 
 cultured and magnificent, but, when it came to the point, 
 they would only obey a Pope who was strong and had force 
 at his command. In the circumstances it is difficult to see 
 how the Popes of this time could possibly have avoided 
 the policy of straining every nerve to make their sove- 
 reignty effective over the States of the Church. If the 
 necessity of the policy be granted we must accept it, and 
 with it the consequences which it entailed. 
 
 On the field of Italian politics the Pope would find himself 
 on every side surrounded by adversaries. The semi- 
 independent feudatories of the Holy See, who had profited 
 by the distractions of the Papacy to secure to themselves 
 an almost uncontrolled supremacy in their respective 
 States, would oppose to the utmost any attempt to reduce 
 them within the legal limits of their tenure. A vigorous 
 
22 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 policy of Papal self-assertion in Italy would inevitably 
 rouse the suspicions and distrust of the greater Itahan 
 powers, each as jealous of the aggrandisement of others as 
 intent upon aggrandising itself. It would not be sufficient 
 for the Pope to employ mihtary forces and engineer cam- 
 paigns from the recesses of the Vatican. He must himself 
 descend into the arena, and fight among the other gladiators 
 for his own hand. He must be a match for his opponents 
 at their own game, and oppose Itahan statecraft, which 
 was made up of force, fraud, treachery, and Hes, by a state- 
 craft equally subtle and unscrupulous. It was only so 
 that pohtics at this time could be carried on in Italy. It 
 is indeed deplorable that the Vicars of Christ should have 
 been called upon to take part in such a sordid game. 
 But the Renaissance Popes were not responsible for the 
 conditions ; they were only responsible for confronting the 
 conditions with vigour and address. It is a point capable 
 of argument that had they adopted methods in harmony 
 with the sanctity of their position, the ultimate results 
 would have more than justified them. It is conceivable 
 that a regenerated Italy might have arisen, called into 
 being by the spectacle and example of a firm, prudent, and 
 saintly Pope. It is possible that no Reformation would 
 have been needed. But the hard logic of facts seems to 
 show that Popes of good character were out of place at 
 this time — the experiment with Adrian VI. was a hopeless 
 failure — and when we wonder how it was that a particular 
 period gives us a succession of Popes whose characters 
 harmonise only too faithfully with everything that was 
 most corrupt in the Itahan of the time, we have to remember 
 that such men were deliberately chosen as Popes because 
 their characters gave evidence that they were fitted for 
 the work which had to be done. 
 
 In the game of pohtics, as carried on in Italy, the Popes 
 possessed both advantages and disadvantages peculiar to 
 themselves. Their advantage lay in the fact that they 
 possessed, and could simultaneously exercise, both temporal 
 and spiritual weapons. Worsted in the field of battle, they 
 could retahate upon their adversaries by excommunication 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 atid interdict. Even in Italy Papal thunders were not 
 wholly without effect, and outside Italy their force was 
 considerable. Nothing is more remarkable in this sceptical 
 and unchristian age than the mingled contempt and respect 
 with which the Papacy was regarded. Men whose every 
 action in life had stamped them as careless of God or Devil 
 yet could not die happy without the Papal absolution. Men 
 who had given their lives to opposing the poHtical action 
 of the Pontiff were yet impressed by the deepest sense of 
 reverence for his spiritual office. This double character 
 with which the Pope was invested gave him a distinct 
 advantage in times of emergency, and he knew how to 
 make full use of the superstition and creduHty of the 
 day. 
 
 Another advantage of somewhat doubtful efficacy was 
 the Pope's power to bind and loose. It came practically 
 to mean that nothing could bind the Pope. A treaty 
 might be a convenient way of getting out of a difficulty, 
 but, the difficulty once overcome, there was no obligation 
 on the Pope to observe the treaty. And the same latitude 
 which he claimed for himself he could extend to others. 
 A Prince, sheltered behind a Papal Brief, could conscien- 
 tiously excuse himself for breach of faith, however flagrant. 
 Macchiavelli, when instructing his Prince as to how he 
 should keep faith, assures him that pretexts need never be 
 wanting which will justify him in breaking faith when it is 
 expedient to do so. Thus — and this is the disadvantage of 
 the situation — an atmosphere was created of general mis- 
 trust. Nobody put any confidence in anybody, and the 
 most dehberate assurances and the most solemn oaths 
 were only binding as long as it was convenient to observe 
 them. 
 
 The most serious disadvantage in the position of the 
 Papacy is to be found in the tenure by which each Pope 
 held office. He was Pope only for life ; he was elected at 
 an age when it was improbable he would live long : if in 
 the case of Leo X. he was elected when young, this was 
 only because Leo suffered under an incurable disease which, 
 it was thought, must inevitably cut short his life. There 
 
24 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 was no guarantee for continuity of policy from one Pope to 
 another, and hence the Papal government was constantly 
 exposed to individual caprices and violent changes. Mac- 
 chiavelli estimated the Pope's tenure of office at ten years 
 on an average. In the Italian States, on the other hand, 
 the government passed by inheritance ; there was some 
 guarantee for continuity of policy, and while Popes were 
 constantly changing, the temporal despot might Hve for 
 a long term of years. Ferrante of Naples ruled for thirty- 
 six years. During this time he saw the election of five 
 Popes, The government of Lorenzo dei Medici in Florence, 
 begun under Paul II., extended over the Pontificates of 
 Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. Francesco Sforza governed 
 Milan for sixteen years. 
 
 Of this disadvantage the Popes had long been fully 
 sensible. The difficulty lay in finding any remedy for it. 
 The conditions of his election, of his celibacy, and of his 
 office necessarily condemned each Pope to a position of 
 isolation. Thus, the temptation to make as much individual 
 profit as possible out of his brief tenure of power was almost 
 irresistibly strong. Leo X. was only a Httle more frank 
 and a little more cynical than others when he hailed his 
 election with the remark, " Let us enjoy the Papacy, since 
 God has given it to us." 
 
 But if a Pope was precluded from establishing for himself 
 individually a position of territorial power, he might do 
 much during his Pontificate to enrich and aggrandise his 
 family. With many of the Popes of this period it became 
 an object to carve out of the States of the Church princi- 
 palities for scions of their house : the flagrant and unblushing 
 nepotism of Sixtus IV. and Alexander VI. is only an extreme 
 expression of a policy which Popes had followed for centuries. 
 
 It was, moreover, always possible for Popes to deceive 
 themselves that in acting in the interests of their families 
 they were in truth acting in the interests of the Church. 
 If it was a paramount necessity that the rebelHous and semi- 
 independent States of the Church should be reduced to 
 obedience, the Pope must use for this purpose some secular 
 instrument on which he could absolutely rely. He must 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 25 
 
 have some one at his disposal who thoroughly understood 
 and sympathised with his policy, who had some personal 
 interest to gain from it, and who in the field and in the 
 council chamber was a match for the military and political 
 antagonists by whom he was confronted. Where was a 
 Pope to look for such instruments outside his own family ? 
 If he relied upon a Condottieri general there was no guarantee 
 that he would not be betrayed at every turn. He could 
 not rely upon the Italian Great Powers to help him, for 
 their interest lay in keeping the Papacy, as a temporal 
 sovereignty, weak and embarrassed rather than powerful 
 and untrammelled. He could not rely on his own subject 
 Princes, for it was precisely against them that his strokes 
 were aimed. Therefore, if the States of the Church were 
 to be recovered — and that this was a legitimate object of 
 Papal policy is presupposed — the best prospect of success 
 seemed to lie in using all the resources of the Papacy 
 to establish some Papal " nephew " in strong possession 
 over some part of the Papal States. Using what he had 
 gained as a base for further operations, he might end in gain- 
 ing the whole ; owing everything to the Papacy, there was 
 at least a hope that he would respect the source from which 
 he derived aU his power. 
 
 It is improbable that such Popes as Sixtus and Alexander 
 coldly and formally defined the precise motives which 
 governed their policy. The motives under which men act 
 are mixed, and the temperament which can strike an exact 
 balance between considerations of self-interest and public 
 policy is rare. But when such a phenomenon as Papal 
 nepotism is constantly before us at a certain period of history, 
 when we find it practised, to a greater or less degree, by 
 good Popes and bad aUke, it is not sufficient merely to 
 condemn it with disgust and scorn. We must examine it, 
 analyse it, and, so far as is possible, endeavour philosophically 
 to understand it. 
 
 In whatever manner the Papacy might attempt to recover 
 or make good its hold upon its temporal possessions, such 
 attempts were certain to bring it into collision with the 
 other Italian Powers. Florence, for example, whose eastern 
 
26 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 boundary extended to the Papal territory of Romagna, 
 would view with jealousy and distrust any activity, in the 
 neighbourhood of the frontier, designed to strengthen the 
 influence of the Holy See in that quarter. It was the 
 interest of Florence to keep the Papacy fully occupied with 
 its own affairs. It would thus have the less opportunity of 
 interfering in the affairs of Florence. Moreover, in the 
 times of Papal weakness and disorganisation some of the 
 Lords of Romagna had commended themselves to the 
 protection of Florence, and recognised its suzerainty rather 
 than that of the Pope. In Citta di Castello it was the 
 constant policy of Lorenzo dei Medici to support the Vitelli 
 against the pretensions of the Pope ; it was, indeed, partly 
 as a consequence of this support that Lorenzo was brought 
 into violent and dangerous antagonism to Sixtus IV. 
 
 Venice, with its eye directed southward and in actual 
 occupation of Ravenna, was bent upon thwarting the efforts 
 of the Popes to reassert their authority in the north of 
 Romagna, and was intent upon extending its own sovereignty 
 in that quarter. Of all the opponents of the Papacy Venice 
 was perhaps the most dangerous, for it was involved, less 
 than any other Italian Power, in internal and external 
 complications. Therefore it was able to pursue its own 
 course with a more detached, frigid, and inevitable precision 
 than was possible in the case of other States, though this 
 very aloofness from any common interest, and from the 
 troubles which affected other States, might prove as much 
 a source of weakness as of strength. The common appre- 
 hensions of all from Venice might result in rousing common 
 action against her. 
 
 Milan, in her fears of Venice, would be inclined to support 
 the Papacy, while her alliance with Florence, on which the 
 Sforza dynasty depended, would often lead her to oppose 
 it. The Pope could then play against Milan the Orleanist 
 claims to the Duchy, and could neutralise the action of 
 Naples by forwarding the French claim to that kingdom. 
 Everything in Italy was in a state of such delicate balance 
 that the smallest disturbance was liable to create a crisis ; 
 yet at a time when the country was a powder magazine its 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 27 
 
 statesmen, in that contempt which is bred of familiarity 
 with the danger, amused themselves, with fatuous audacity, 
 in playing with the fire which was to destroy them. 
 
 The political career of Lorenzo dei Medici derives much of 
 its interest from the fact that he was the one statesman 
 in Italy who saw something of the trend of things, 
 and who in the main directed his efforts to avert the 
 calamities of Italy which so many of his contemporaries were 
 frivolously and unconsciously precipitating. 
 
 Before passing to a review of the State of Florence up to 
 the time of the accession of Lorenzo to power, it may be 
 well here to note a further complication in Italian politics 
 which affected not the Papacy only, but all the Italian States 
 in the latter half of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The advancing power of the Turks threatened Italy with 
 disaster more sinister and calamitous than any that impended 
 from the intervention of France. The French might be to 
 the Italians barbarians, but they were at least fellow 
 Christians. The infidel Turk brought with him not only fire 
 and sword, but the destruction of the faith and Church of 
 Christendom. The fall of the Eastern Empire by the 
 Turkish capture of Constantinople opened the way for 
 fresh efforts to plant the Moslem banners in the West. At 
 such a time we should expect to see all differences composed, 
 and all Italy united to confront the common enemy of the 
 Christian world. We are able to gauge therefore the folly, 
 frivolity, and irresponsibility which characterised Italian 
 statecraft at this epoch by the fact that, far from any com- 
 bination being effected to resist the Turk, many of the 
 Italian Powers were ready to coquette with the menace of 
 Turkish invasion, and use it to suit the purposes of their 
 individual policy. It was a common thing for an Italian 
 statesman, when hard pressed, to threaten to call in the 
 Turks, and " there was scarcely a government of any con- 
 sequence," says Burckhardt, " which did not conspire against 
 other ItaHan states with Mohammed II. and his successors." 
 Venice, it is true, only made a treaty with the Turks in 1479 
 under the compulsion of sixteen years of continuous and 
 
28 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 ruinous war against them. The Papacy, under Nicolas V., 
 Cahxtus III., and Pius II., did seek to reanimate the 
 crusading spirit and organise a great campaign of resistance. 
 Then Pius II. attempted to effect the conversion of the 
 Turks by argument, and his curious letter to the Sultan 
 which propounds to the Mohammedan ruler the superior 
 advantages of Christianity can still be read. Alexander VI. 
 proceeded to make a treaty with them. The King of 
 Naples encouraged the Turks in their operations against 
 Venice, and Lorenzo dei Medici was credited, though without 
 justification, with inciting the Turks to their attack upon 
 Otranto to serve his own ends. Venice probably did actually 
 incite it, while among the Princelings of Italy there was 
 scarcely one who would have hesitated to call the Turks into 
 the country if his own petty interests of the moment could 
 be advanced thereby. Sigismundo Malatesta of Rimini, 
 Bocalino Guzzoni of Osimo, had no scruples in the matter. 
 Bocalino's negotiations with the Turks are extant, and will 
 be referred to in detail in a subsequent chapter, while the 
 people of Osimo frankly declared that if the choice lay 
 between the domination of the Pope or the Turk, they would 
 prefer that of the Turk. 
 
 But the episode which most completely illustrates the 
 cynicism of the times towards the Turkish danger is the 
 captivity of the Turkish Prince Djem in the hands of suc- 
 cessive Popes, and the utterly shameless proceedings which 
 characterised the transaction. On the death of Mohammed 
 II., the great Sultan, his dominions were contested between 
 his two sons, Bajazet and Djem, with the result that Bajazet 
 defeated his brother, who threw himself upon the protection 
 of the Knights of St. John at Rhodes. The new Sultan was 
 glad to pay a large annual sum to any one who would act as 
 Djem's gaoler and keep him out of the way. Djem there- 
 fore assumed a money value of 45,000 ducats a year, and a 
 general European scramble for the money ensued. Being 
 entrusted by the Knights of Rhodes to the more secure 
 custody of the King of France, Djem was — to use Creighton's 
 phrase — " put up to public auction " among the compe- 
 titors for his maintenance fees. Of the competitors Pope 
 
INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 Innocent VIII. was the highest bidder. A cardinalate for the 
 Grand Master, a dispensation for Anne of Brittany's marriage, 
 were powerful arguments in the Pope's favour. Djem was 
 transferred to the custody of Innocent, and his entry into 
 Rome was a public spectacle. The Sultan, however, did not 
 yet feel quite at ease. Though lavish with his payments 
 to the extent of giving to the Pope three years' salary in 
 advance, still it would prove more convenient for him if so 
 dangerous a hostage for his own good behaviour should 
 opportunely cease to exist. It was well understood that the 
 price which the Sultan was prepared to pay to any one who 
 would finally dispose of Djem was a princely one, and it was 
 with difficulty that he was kept alive. But 45,000 ducats 
 a year while he Uved was better than a lump sum down for 
 poisoning him. Thus Djem survived for a time : a few years 
 later the Pope received, as a mark of the Sultan's favour and 
 gratitude, the Holy Lance— the head of the spear which 
 pierced the side of Christ upon the Cross. Strange and 
 fantastic were the times when the most sacred rehcs became 
 objects of exchange between the representative of the 
 Prophet and the representative of Christ, in order to mark 
 the infidel's appreciation of an infamous service rendered to 
 him by the successor of St. Peter. 
 
 Alexander VI., Innocent's successor, was eventually 
 compelled to part with Djem, and reluctantly to hand him 
 over to Charles VIII. of France. To the pubhc opinion of 
 the time it seemed incredible that Alexander would relinquish 
 so valuable an asset without at any rate making it valueless 
 for anybody else. Dj em's death, therefore, shortly after leav- 
 ing Rome, was generally attributed to the slow poison of the 
 Borgias. Alexander, on the evidence, seems to stand ac- 
 quitted of this crime, but the fact that at the time, and 
 ever since, he has been commonly credited with it, is a 
 commentary upon the estimation in which the Pope was held 
 in his day. 
 
 Thus the Papacy, in the last fifty years of the fifteenth 
 century, shows itself to be the creature of its times. If no 
 worse, it was certainly no better than the secular Italian 
 : governments of the day. The Popes indeed were secula 
 
30 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Princes : they frankly recognised the fact, and acted in 
 accordance with the character. The charge that hes heavy 
 against them is, not that they failed to reach an ideal 
 standard of saintliness and spirituahty, for such a standard 
 would have been entirely out of harmony with the spirit 
 of the age, and could have worked no permanent good, but 
 that, in the prevailing corruption around them, they made 
 no effort to rise superior to it ; that they adapted their own 
 policy to its worst manifestations, and identified the Papacy 
 with all that was most cynical, shameless, and iniquitous in the 
 politics of the time. And so the Papacy of the Renaissance 
 proved itself unfaithful to the mediaeval ideal which dignified 
 the secular policy of a Gregory VII. or an Innocent III. ; 
 so its policy rendered inevitable a Reformation of the Church 
 in its Head and in its members, if the Church as an institution 
 in Christendom was still to survive. 
 
 C. FLORENCE 
 I, 
 
 Geographical and political position of Florence — Her attitude towards 
 Italian questions — Conditions governing the development of Florence 
 — ^Tendencies towards despotism in Florence before the Medici — Rise of 
 Florence — Beginnings of a Constitution — Florence and the Guelph and 
 Ghibelline contest — Florence divided by internal factions — Florence com- 
 mends herself to Charles of Anjou— Reorganisation of the Constitution, 
 1267 — Gradation of class in Florence — Attempts to exclude the nobility 
 from power — The Signoria established — Giano della Bella's " Ordinances " 
 — Neri and Bianchi factions — Reorganisation of the Constitution, 1328 — 
 Tyranny of the Duke of Athens — His expulsion — Defeat of the nobles 
 — Revision of the Constitution — Rise of a burgher aristocracy — The 
 Albizzi — Fresh divisions consequent on war with Pope Gregory XI. — 
 Opposition of the Signoria and Parte Guelfa — Revolt of the Ciompi — 
 Michele di Lando — ^The Albizzi recover control of the State, 1381 — The 
 Medici and the Albizzi— Character of the Albizzi government— Impending 
 crisis between Albizzi and Medici. 
 
 The poHtical relations of Florence with the other Italian 
 Powers, and her own internal condition from 145c to 1500, 
 necessarily form no small part of the subject-matter of any 
 work upon the career of Lorenzo dei Medici. The purpose 
 of an introductory chapter is not to anticipate the pohcy 
 and events which fall naturally into the general narrative, 
 but to indicate the lines, marked out by circumstances and 
 
32 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 her past history, which the policy of Florence would naturally 
 follow, and to trace in broad outline the development of 
 the Florentine State up to the time when it fell binder the 
 control of the Medici family. 
 
 The geographical position of Florence, situated centrally 
 between the four rival Italian States, predestined her to 
 play a mediating part in the contentions and complications 
 in which they were involved. 
 
 More fortunate than Milan to the north and Naples to 
 the south, Florence was not embarrassed by the claims of 
 an ultramontane Power to the sovereignty of her State. 
 But ultramontane claims upon her neighbours could not fail 
 profoundly to influence her own political action. If the 
 French succeeded in establishing themselves in Milan, it was 
 not likely that their ambitions would stop short at that 
 point. Florence would live under the constant apprehension 
 of the advance of a great foreign Power upon her own terri- 
 tories. This danger would exist quite apart from the 
 French claims upon Naples, but taking the Milanese and 
 Neapolitan claims in conjunction, the position of Florence 
 was doubly insecure. Any advance of the French towards 
 Naples must be through Florentine territory, or must at 
 least bring the foreigner into tempting proximity to the 
 frontiers of the State. If the effort were successful, and 
 the King of France should rule in Milan and Naples alike, 
 Florence might soon find herself gromid to powder between 
 the upper and the nether millstone. 
 
 It is true that Florence, as a great Guelphic common- 
 wealth, traditionally based her policy upon friendship with 
 France. But France outside Italy was one thing ; France 
 seated secure at Milan and Naples was quite another. There 
 was small probability, if French ambitions were fully realised, 
 that Florence would be preserved from absorption into the 
 French vortex merely on the strength of old friendship. To 
 keep the French out of Italy was therefore the pohcy 
 naturally marked out for a State situated as was Florence. 
 This could best be done, not by stirring up confusion, and 
 so affording opportunities for foreign intervention, but by 
 maintaining an equilibrium between the existing Italian 
 Powers, by throwing weight now into this scale, now into 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 that, so as to maintain as far as possible the ItaHan status 
 quo, and to enhance her own reputation by the influence 
 which on all sides she was able to exercise. 
 
 Thus when Francesco Sforza succeeded in making himself 
 master of Milan, it was the poHcy of Florence to support 
 him. The Sforza dynasty, as long as it lasted, was a guarantee 
 against the occupation of Milan by the French ; it would 
 act also in restraint of Venice, who had her own ambitions 
 in Lombardy, ambitions which, if she had attained them 
 without the help of Florence, she would undoubtedly have 
 exercised in a spirit of hostility. 
 
 So too in Naples it was to the general interest of Florence 
 to support the Aragonese occupation of that kingdom 
 against the pretensions of France, though, if the King of 
 Naples should at any time adopt a policy of aggression 
 towards Florence, it would be necessary as a matter of 
 course to oppose him by the means most suitable to the 
 purpose. A policy of balance implies many contradictions 
 and apparent incongruities, but in the main the interests 
 of Florence demanded a condition of peace in Italy, not 
 of war, and under Lorenzo for the most part such a 
 condition was maintained. 
 
 But Florence could not be limited exclusively by con- 
 siderations of foreign policy. There were matters of great 
 importance to her which lay outside the Italian claims of 
 France and the conflicting ambitions of the Italian Princes. 
 Her own domestic interests must be subserved, and nothing 
 must be allowed to hamper her legitimate expansion, or 
 neutralise the advantages which at great cost she had gained. 
 
 Florence, from a city, had become a City-State largely 
 under the irresistible compulsion of her commercial interests. 
 At an early stage in her history she had become notable as 
 a centre of commercial activity. Her wool, silk, and leather 
 were not for her own consumption only. They were for 
 the world at large, and it was of paramount importance 
 that she should have free outlets for her products. 
 
 First of all it was of importance to have control over the 
 mouth of the Amo, and to possess a port upon the open sea. 
 The long struggle for the possession of Pisa becomes, in 
 this aspect, a matter of life and death to Florence. But 
 C 
 
34 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 it was also necessary that she should command the Apennine 
 passes through which, to the north and east, all her exports 
 had to go. Enclosed by the mountains on two sides, 
 Florence would have found herself excluded from contact 
 with the outer world unless she gained control over the 
 roads which led to it. The tendency to expand grows by 
 what it feeds upon. Beyond the Apennines to the eastward 
 lay the great high-road which formed one of the main arteries 
 of communication in Italy, and beyond that lay the Adriatic 
 with all the alluring visions of commercial expansion which 
 the possession of an Adriatic port conjured up. Though 
 these visions were never realised, yet they serve to explain 
 the trend of Florentine expansion eastward towards Romagna, 
 where it was brought up short by the Papal suzerainty over 
 that region. On the debatable frontier of Romagna the 
 action of both Florence and the Papacy becomes touchy, 
 irritable, and nervous. Petty disputes and interferences, 
 which seem on their merits to be of no importance, assume 
 serious proportions, and sometimes threaten ruin to the 
 whole fabric of the Florentine State. 
 
 The student of Italian history at this period constantly 
 finds himself baffled by the tremendous consequences which 
 seem to hang upon the merest trifles. But the geographical 
 and commercial position of Florence gives the clue to the 
 mystery. Those things were not trifles on which, indirectly, 
 the commerce, and therefore the existence, of the State 
 depended. 
 
 From the moment therefore when Florence first rose 
 from a position of obscurity to become a thriving commercial 
 town, a definite problem was presented to her for solution : 
 to devise a form of government under which the natural 
 activities of her citizens could be securely exercised, and 
 by which she would be guaranteed against pressure and 
 interference from outside. No form of government would 
 satisfy the liberty-loving Florentines which was not demo- 
 cratic, at any rate in appearance ; but a democratic govern- 
 ment was not the one best fitted in mediaeval Italy to conduct 
 a spirited and independent policy in regard to matters of 
 external politics. The municipal government which suited 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 35 
 
 the City of Florence was not the kind of government which 
 suited a territorial State. Something of civic liberty must 
 be sacrificed if the sovereignty of the State was to be secured. 
 The people of Florence wanted the sovereignty without 
 the sacrifice, and the result was years of constitution-making 
 and civil strife, until at last, in the government of the House 
 of Medici, a tolerably acceptable compromise seemed to 
 have been secured. 
 
 The government of the Medici gave to Florence the forms 
 of republican freedom and democratic independence which 
 were so dear to the hearts of the people : at the same time 
 it gave them security for a continuity in public policy which 
 was of vital necessity in the conduct of diplomatic business 
 and foreign affairs. Florence could pretend not to recognise 
 that she was subject to a despot, when the despot himself 
 was nothing more than a leading citizen living the unosten- 
 tatious life of a wealthy and distinguished burgher. In 
 the hands of such a man her commercial interests were safe, 
 for they were his own ; and by his wealth he could frequently 
 gratify the public passion for ceremony and pageant which 
 was so marked a feature of the Florentine character. If it 
 fell to him to receive distinguished guests in the name of 
 the Republic, and entertain them with lavish hospitality, 
 his temporary assumption of the headship of the State was 
 more than compensated for by the fact that a private person 
 largely defrayed expenses which otherwise the people must 
 have borne. Thus the dignity of the State was maintained, 
 the public pocket was spared, and Florence was grateful 
 on both counts. When, in addition, the Medici despot 
 faithfully and genuinely represented the highest aspirations 
 of the national character, when in a city devoted to art, 
 scholarship, and literature he was the best connoisseur, the 
 best friend of scholars and artists, and in the case of Lorenzo 
 almost, if not quite, the best poet, it is not difficult to under- 
 stand how a practical tyranny should have been almost 
 unconsciously set up over a people passionate for their 
 liberties, how they might still continue to delude themselves 
 that they were free, when by subtle arts their freedom had 
 insidiously been filched from them. 
 
36 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 It only remains, before dealing with the actual despotism 
 of Lorenzo, briefly to state the various stages through which 
 Florence had passed before she developed that particular 
 and peculiar kind of despotism which found its most com- 
 plete expression in the Medici family. 
 
 II. 
 
 Fiorenza mia . . . che fai tanti sottili 
 
 Provvedimenti, che a mezzo novembre 
 
 Non giunge quel che tu d'ottobre fili. 
 Quante volte del tempo che rimembre 
 
 Legge, moneta, officio e costume 
 
 Ha tu mutato, e rinovato membre ! 
 E se ben ti ricordi e vede lume, 
 
 Vedrai te simigliamente a quella inferma, 
 
 Che non puo trovar posa in su le piume, 
 Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma. 
 
 Purgtiiorio, vi. 142. 
 
 Oh my Florence . . . who dost make so many subtle provisions that 
 that which thou spinnest in October reaches not to mid-November. 
 How often in the time that thou rememberest, laws, coinage, offices 
 and customs hast thou changed, and renewed thy members ! And if 
 thou wilt well bethink thee and see clear, thou shalt behold thyself like 
 unto that sick one who can find no rest upon the down, but by turning 
 about shuns her pain. [Wicksteed's Translation.] 
 
 The opinion that Florence, having built up for herself a 
 constitutional system distinguished for democratic inde- 
 pendence and republican freedom, was at last enslaved by 
 the designing arts of unscrupulous Medicean despots, derives 
 no warrant from the history of the rise and development 
 of that State. 
 
 It will be found, on the contrary, that Florence, with 
 strong cravings for what she called liberty, had at no time 
 a sound comprehension of the meaning of the word ; that 
 her conception of liberty was scarcely to be distinguished 
 from Ucence ; that the very elaboration of her constitutional 
 safeguards only conduced to the absence of all real freedom, 
 and that from the earhest times Florence was perpetually 
 subjecting herself to the domination of a master. The 
 processes of constitutional evolution eventually resulted in 
 the estabhshment of a form of despotism which was to her 
 mind. It preserved in a measure the externals of freedom ; 
 it was exercised under the semblance of republican institu- 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 tions ; it did not jar against her history in the past nor 
 against her ideals for the future, but it was none the less a 
 despotism which imposed upon her the strong hand of a 
 master whose autocracy was the sole safeguard for the 
 preservation and for the peace of the State. 
 
 Of this form of despotism the Medici were the last, the 
 most complete, and the most effective representatives. 
 The organisation of their government was not a creation of 
 their own, but an embodiment of past experience. In its 
 architecture we can see the traces of successive constitu- 
 tional styles and various political ideals, the completed 
 edifice exhibiting at last a structure in general harmony 
 with centuries of striving and aspiration. 
 
 The cradle of every people is shrouded by curtains of 
 legend and of fable, and the legendary story of Florence is 
 one of pecuHar fascination. We must, however, pass over 
 the Trojans, Julius Caesar, Rhadagasius, the good Bishop 
 Zenobius, and many others, and come to the time when 
 Florence more definitely emerges into the light of history 
 as a town upon the Arno colonised by settlers from Fiesole, 
 a vigorous centre of commercial activity, owing a general 
 allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor, and, as a part of 
 Tuscany, under the actual government of the Margraves of 
 Tuscany, who ruled either as Imperial Vicars, or as inde- 
 pendent Princes, according as the power of the individual 
 Emperor was weak or strong over his dominions. 
 
 Of the Tuscan Margraves who made a deep and lasting 
 impression upon the City of Florence, the most famous 
 was the Margravine Contessa Matilda, exalted by Dante 
 to be the guardian of his earthly Paradise. Her strong 
 government gave protection under which commerce and 
 the arts of peace could flourish, while her system of exer- 
 cising her own authority through the medium of delegates 
 chosen from the citizens themselves seems to have given 
 to the Florentines their first instincts of self-government 
 and poHtical independence. The seed sown by Matilda fell 
 on favourable soil, for the Florentines were soon to prove 
 themselves, of all the Italian peoples, the most fertile in 
 constitutional expedients, the most restless experimenters 
 in the mysteries of political science. 
 
38 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 The position of Florence towards the great struggle 
 between Popes and Emperors which followed upon Matilda's 
 death was determined by circumstances which may be called 
 local, as much as by those which were of general apphcation 
 to Italy. Florence was of necessity deeply concerned in 
 the result of the contest between imperial rivals for the 
 possession of Matilda's inheritance, for her own position 
 depended on the issue ; locally, however, she was even 
 more concerned by the question which must be decided at 
 home, whether the citizens within her waUs were to be the 
 dominant power over Florence, or the nobles who lived in 
 their strong castles outside. It was a question not only 
 of class but of race. The citizens were in the main of Latin 
 stock ; the nobles of Teutonic origin : thus the struggle 
 between them may be regarded as a survival of the efforts 
 of barbarian invaders against the Roman Empire. The 
 feudal tendencies of the nobles were in sharp contrast with 
 the municipal tendencies of the citizens. The nobles would 
 be inclined to the side of a German feudal Emperor, the 
 citizens to that of the Popes, who professed themselves the 
 friends of municipal liberties. Thus Guelph and Ghibelline 
 came to have a sort of meaning for Florence. They repre- 
 sented different and antagonistic ideals. For the dwellers 
 within the walls Ghibellinism meant a feudal domination 
 in the hands of an alien caste ; Guelphism meant a measure 
 of municipal independence, the control of the City-State 
 by its own pure-blooded Italian citizens. 
 
 But if Ghibellinism meant, as perhaps it did, submission 
 to the imperial sway of an Emperor, Florentine Guelphism 
 by no means meant submission to the imperial sway of a 
 Pope. The ambition of Florence was to be independent 
 of both, and to stand out as a free State governing itself. It 
 was very willing to accept what help the Pope would give 
 towards this end, an end which was more Hkely to be at- 
 tained through the assistance of the Papacy than through 
 the adoption of Ghibelline principles. But the identifi- 
 cation of Florentine Guelphism with the recognition of a 
 Papal temporal supremacy over Florence is altogether 
 mistaken. While always regarding herself as a dutiful 
 daughter of the Church, Florence was ever as ready to rebel 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 against the Papacy as to support it, if it appeared that 
 Papal ambition was aiming at the assertion of sovereign 
 power over her. 
 
 No denunciations of a Pope have been more ferociously 
 outspoken than those levelled against the Vicar of Christ 
 by the Guelphic City of Florence in the times of Sixtus IV. 
 and Alexander VI. This disposition, so marked in their 
 day, to discriminate between the Papacy as a temporal 
 power which was to be resisted, and the Papacy as a spiritual 
 force which was to be respected, makes its appearance very 
 early in the history of Florence. 
 
 At a time when Emperor and Pope were fully occupied 
 by their doubtful and prolonged contest, Florence profited 
 by the distractions of both. She carried on her own struggle 
 against her threatening nobles and forced them to come 
 within the walls. She organised her industrial interests by 
 means of the Guild system, by which the status of the 
 citizen element within the city was strengthened and con- 
 firmed. She enlarged her boundaries by the building of 
 her second walls (1173) ; then, on the basis of this municipal 
 extension, she formulated a constitution, by which the city 
 was to be governed by an executive Council of twelve 
 Consuls (two being chosen from each of the six wards, or 
 sesti, into which the new city was divided) , and a legislative 
 Council of a hundred members, annually elected, and chosen 
 mainly from the industrial Guilds. 
 
 Outside the walls her territories began to extend under 
 the irresistible impulse of commercial requirements. Though 
 Florentine independence was as yet an infant birth, liable 
 constantly to be strangled by Imperial or Papal hands, as 
 the fortunes of the grand struggle swayed this way and 
 that, yet at the beginning of the thirteenth century Florence 
 stood out declared, containing within herself, in embryonic 
 forms, the forces which were ultimately to mould her destiny. 
 She now enjoyed what Dante calls sua postrema pace — her 
 last time of peace. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had Florence begun to display the 
 semblance of a homogeneous State when the city broke 
 into factions whose furious animosities were to have conse- 
 quences reaching far into the future. The romantic story of 
 
40 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 young Buondelmonte is comparatively so near to the time of 
 Dante that we may accept his references to it as giving some 
 guarantee of its- authenticity. Macchiavelli tells us that 
 Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti had betrothed himself to a 
 maiden of the Amidei family, but was enticed from his faith 
 by the extraordinary attractions of a daughter of the House 
 of Donati. Whereupon the Amidei determined on revenge : 
 at a council of their partisans it was resolved to assassinate 
 Buondelmonte on the first suitable occasion. As the young 
 gallant came riding into Florence on Easter Day (1215) he 
 was attacked by the conspirators at the foot of the Ponte 
 Vecchio and slain, close to the statue of Mars which had 
 been set up there. Whereupon the whole city took sides 
 in this family feud, one party supporting the Amidei, 
 another the Buondelmonti, " and as these famihes possessed 
 men and means of defence, they contended with each 
 other for many years without the one being able to 
 destroy the other." The contending parties roughly 
 followed the lines of the Guelph and Ghibelline struggle, the 
 partisans of the Buondelmonti sympathising with Guelph 
 principles, those of the Amidei and Uberti with the policy 
 of the Emperor Frederick II. Thus the distractions of 
 Italy found intense and concentrated expression within 
 the narrow circuit of the walls of Florence. A contest 
 which hitherto had been a contest of principles and 
 political ideals was now embittered by the infusion of 
 frantic personal animosities which two centuries were 
 scarcely sufficient to allay. 
 
 O Buondelmonte, quanto mal fuggisti 
 Le nozze sue per gli altrui conforti ! 
 Molti sarebbon lieti, che son tristi 
 Se Dio t'avesse conceduto ad Ema 
 La prima volta che a citta venisti. 
 
 Paradiso, xvi. 140.* 
 
 " Oh Buondelmonte, how ill didst thou flee its nuptials at the prompting 
 of another ! Joyous had been many who now are sad, had God committed 
 thee to the Ema the first time that thou earnest to the City." [Wick- 
 steed's Translation.'] 
 
 The death of the Emperor Frederick II. marked a crisis 
 in the history of Italy and of Florence. The confusion 
 which followed from the succession of a child to Frederick's 
 
 * See also Inferno, xxviii. 103-111. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 41 
 
 Italian dominions, from the usurpation of Manfred, Frederick's 
 illegitimate son, and from the envenomed controversy 
 between Manfred and the Papac}/, tended to strengthen the 
 Guelph cause in Florence, The constitution was remodelled in 
 the Guelphic interest, and the Ghibelline nobles were expelled 
 from the city. The Ghibelline exiles seized the opportunity 
 offered by the distractions which everywhere prevailed to 
 regain their position. In 1260 they won a great victory over 
 the Florentine Guelphs on the field of Montaperti, near Siena, 
 when " the Arbia ran red with blood," and the conquerors 
 doomed the city to utter destruction. From this fate it was 
 saved by the fiery protest of the great Ghibelline chieftain, 
 Farinata degli Uberti, whose patriotism, even at the expense 
 of his party, has been nobly celebrated by Dante in the 
 tenth canto of his Inferno. Though Florence was saved, 
 yet within her walls the hand of Ghibelline domination lay 
 heavy upon her. When, in 1265, Pope Clement IV., in 
 virtue of his suzerainty over Naples, called in Charles of 
 Anjou, brother of the French king St. Louis, to contest the 
 crown of Naples with Manfred, the Florentine Guelphs 
 rallied to the standard of Charles, and on the fatal field of 
 Benevento helped him to win that victory which brought 
 ruin and death to Manfred and established the House of 
 Anjou in southern Italy. 
 
 The Guelph triumph at Benevento was followed in 
 Florence by a fresh reorganisation of the constitution. An 
 attempt was made to effect a reconciliation between the 
 contending factions. The government was entrusted to 
 two knights of the Order of the Virgin Mary — the frati 
 gaudenti, as they were called — of whom one was a Ghibelline 
 and one a Guelph. They were assisted by thirty-six 
 assessors " from the higher ranks of the people," and by this 
 Macchiavelli means that they were chosen from the members 
 of the great commercial Guilds, not from the noble families. 
 The chief exploit of the new administration was the organisa- 
 tion of the Trade Guilds as separate centres of military force. 
 Each Guild was to have its banner, and to the banner every 
 member of the Guild was to rally in arms when summoned. 
 The effect of the measure was that the Florentine burghers 
 began to realise their military strength, and determined to 
 
 4\ 
 
42 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 use it. The Ghibellines were again expelled or retired into 
 voluntary exile ; while the victorious Guelphs, in order to 
 preserve the authority which they had won, commended 
 Florence to the charge of Charles of Anjou for a hmited 
 term of years. Charles became the first of a succession of 
 foreign rulers to whom Florence submitted herself rather 
 than endure the distractions to which its own civic feuds had 
 given rise. 
 
 The advent of Charles of Anjou, and his Principate over 
 Florence, marks the beginning of that attachment of Florence 
 to France which was for more than two centuries to be a 
 leading principle of Florentine policy. The belief that a 
 combination of the lilies of France with the lilies of Florence 
 would prove irresistible was as strong an article in the 
 political creed of Savonarola at the end of the fifteenth 
 century as in that of the Parte Guelfa towards the end of 
 the thirteenth. A statesman of the calibre of Lorenzo dei 
 Medici might perceive, while keeping on good terms with 
 France, that the aggrandisement of a foreign Power in Italy 
 must lead eventually to the ruin of Italy and Florence alike. 
 But the Florentine Guelphs hailed Charles of Anjou as 
 a Crusader going forth to fight against the powers of 
 darkness, represented by Manfred and the Ghibelline House of 
 Hohenstaufen, and even so the followers of Savonarola hailed 
 Charles VIII. of France as one sent by God to chastise 
 Italy for its sins, and to establish the State of Florence as 
 a fitting seat for the throne of Christ the King. 
 
 In his treatment of Florence Charles of Anjou showed 
 unusual moderation. He permitted the city to govern 
 itself upon the lines already laid down. The constitution 
 was again remodelled, and Guelph ascendency was made 
 complete. The constitution* of 1267 shows in the elabora- 
 
 * Details, especially as to figures, of the constitution of 1267 differ 
 to such an extent in the various authorities that figures must be received 
 with caution. The following outline seems fairly accurately to represent 
 the main facts ; 
 
 i. Twelve Buoniuomini with a two months' tenure of office. Germ 
 of the " Signoria." Assisted by a Council of 100. 
 
 ii. Gapitano del Popolo. Assisted by 
 
 (a) Consiglio del Capitano e Capetudine. Known as the Credenza. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 43 
 
 tion of its machinery of checks and counter-checks the sensi- 
 tive Florentine jealousy of any strong and concentrated autho- 
 rity, a jealousy which was the leading cause of the eventual 
 establishment of such an authority. The executive govern- 
 ment was placed in the hands of four distinct persons, or 
 bodies of persons, each to be assisted by one or more delibera- 
 tive councils. Twelve " " Buoniuomini " — two from each 
 division of the city — were, during their two months' term of 
 office, to be assisted by a council of loo. Legislation initiated 
 by the Buoniuomini, and sanctioned by their Council, was 
 in turn submitted to the Capitano del Popolo and the two 
 advisory Councils attached to his office ; then to the Podesta 
 and two further Councils which were associated with him. 
 Working behind the scenes and pulling all the political wires 
 was the " Parte Guelfa," a secret society operating generally 
 in the Guelph interest — a sort of mediaeval Tammany — 
 which was composed of six " capitani " (though the number 
 was subject to variation) and two Councils. It was not long 
 before the political organisation of the Parte Guelfa, acting 
 under influences so favourable to mystery and sudden 
 coups d'etat, became a despotism, swamping all the flimsy 
 constitutional checks which had been so laboriously estab- 
 lished, and exercising supreme authority in the State. Indeed 
 at all times in Florence, beneath the forms of constitu- 
 tional liberty, there lurked a despotism of some kind ; it 
 
 Consisted of eighty members. The Capetudine were the consuls of 
 the Guilds. 
 
 (6) General Council of 300. A purely popular Council, made up 
 of thirty citizens from each sesto = 180 
 The Credenza = 80 
 
 The Buoniuomini = 12 
 
 iii. The Podesta. A foreigner, appointed periodically, impartially to 
 administer civil and criminal justice. His functions now become more 
 definitely political. Assisted by 
 
 (a) The Consiglio del Podesta, ninety members. 
 \b) The Consiglio del Commune, 300 members (Macchiavelli says 
 120). A mixed Council of nobles and people. 
 
 iv. The Parte Guelfa. Six Capitani, three nobles, three people's 
 representatives . 
 
 Two Councils, at one time acting independently as a secret advisory 
 body to the executive of the Parte Guelfa. at another time acting 
 openly and publicly with the Consiglio del Commune, its members 
 being also members of that body. (Von Reumont.) 
 
 272 according to Macchia- 
 velli. 
 
44 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 was merely a question of the particular shape which that 
 despotism should assume. 
 
 It will be seen that this constitution endeavoured to 
 strike a fairly even balance between the nobles and the 
 burghers, giving to each party its due share of authority. 
 But a division of classes into nobles and burghers by no 
 means represents the intricate ramifications of class interest 
 which disintegrated the State. The key to future dis- 
 sensions can only be found in an understanding of the various 
 sections into which society in Florence was spHt, and the 
 distinct and antagonistic aims which animated each section. 
 The nobles may be regarded as a tolerably homogeneous 
 body, but the burghers were only united by a common 
 hostility to the nobles. The burghers who were members of 
 the seven great Guilds— or Arti Majori— constituted the 
 Popolo Grosso — the fat people — the prosperous, well-to- 
 do commercial men, from whom the merchant princes 
 were to rise. Below them were the members of the fourteen 
 lesser Guilds— the Arti Minori— whose commercial interests 
 were largely dependent on the expenditure of the nobles, 
 who were bitterly jealous of the airs of superiority which the 
 " Majori " assumed towards them, and who were constantly 
 scheming to secure for themselves a greater share in the 
 control of the government. 
 
 At the end of the social scale came the working classes — 
 the Ciompi— unorganised, without any share whatever 
 in poHtical power, separated by a sharp line of cleavage 
 from both the Majori and the Minori, quite apart from 
 the rivalries of the nobles and the " Popolani," for 
 they had little to expect from either party. But as 
 their political intelligence advanced, they were deter- 
 mined to secure for themselves such a share in the 
 government as would put them more on an equality with 
 those who indiscriminately oppressed them, those who, 
 whatever their politics, were united in the determination to 
 keep the lower classes down. 
 
 It was the presence of these conflicting elements in the 
 State which made constitutional government almost an 
 impossibility in Florence. Where there is discord among the 
 
INTRODUCTION 45 
 
 citizens there cannot be harmony in the State. The con- 
 ditions afforded the opportunity to an ambitious and crafty 
 pohtical schemer to impose his own personahty upon a 
 people wearied by perpetual distractions, to conciliate to 
 himself the goodwill of the masses, while allowing their own 
 rivalries to neutralise the opposition of the classes. 
 
 The constitution of 1267 marks a stage in that process of 
 evolution which was to result in the Medician despotism. 
 Succeeding stages become visible in the light of that con- 
 stitution. The first step was to get rid of the nobles. To 
 this end the government in 1282 was placed entirely in the 
 hands of the Guilds. The Priors of the Arti were to take the 
 place of the twelve Buoniuomini, and, to add dignity to their 
 office, they were to be known as Signori ; hence arose the 
 Signoria, with its official residence in the Palazzo Publico, 
 and all the requisite paraphemaha of officers and staff. As 
 no noble would think it compatible with his dignity to be 
 engaged in trade, the effect of these measures was to exclude 
 the nobles altogether from the Signoria : a provision was, 
 however, made which permitted the nobles to enrol them- 
 selves upon the Guild registers : as membership did not 
 necessarily imply the active pursuit of the Guild industry, 
 many of the nobility enrolled themselves without hesitation. 
 
 The contest between nobles and citizens therefore only 
 assumed larger proportions, and the Guild government 
 proved itself insolent and oppressive. The Signoria attached 
 to itself a Gonfalonier of Justice, who was to have at his 
 disposal 1000 armed men, disposed in twenty companies of 
 fifty men each, who must hold themselves in readiness to 
 obey the summons of the Signoria or Capitano del Popolo. 
 Thus the executive had a force at its back which might 
 be used to secure obedience to just authority, or abused by 
 employing it to force arbitrary and oppressive enactments 
 down the throats of the people. The abuse at this time 
 was more conspicuous than the use. The city was in a 
 deplorable condition. Outrages were occurring every day ; 
 life and property were everywhere insecure. These were the 
 circumstances which in 1293 produced the "Ordinances 
 of Justice," with which the name of Giano della Bella is 
 
46 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 conspicuously associated. The chief clause in the Ordinances 
 enacted that a noble must be bond fide engaged in the trade 
 of the Guild of which he was a member : in other words, the 
 nobles must cease to be nobles, and become citizens, or else 
 be entirely excluded from the service of the State.* 
 
 Provision was also made in the Ordinances for the prompt 
 and vigorous punishment of any noble found guilty of the 
 murder or ill-treatment of the common people : the Guild 
 organisation of the city was further strengthened by the 
 definite recognition of the twenty-one Guilds — seven of the 
 greater arts and fourteen of the lesser — and the regulation 
 of their precedence one over the other. 
 
 The strength which Florence derived from the restoration 
 of order and strong government was not destined to be long 
 maintained. What precise political principles underlay the 
 faction fights between the Neri and Bianchi — the Black and 
 White Guelphs — is a question not easy to determine. " It 
 ofttimes happened," says Macchiavelli, " when one of the 
 parties in the State gained the upper hand, it split in two." 
 This is what happened in 1300, when the Black and White 
 feud was imported, like some malignant disease, into 
 Florentine politics. The chroniclers, Dino Compagni and 
 Giovanni Villani, give in detail the story of its origin and the 
 narrative of events, but are silent as to the deeper issues 
 which gave life and sustenance to the contest. Perhaps the 
 fact that the vanquished Whites eventually identified them- 
 selves with the old Ghibellines is an indication that they had 
 shown themselves mistrustful of the growth of the Floren- 
 tine democracy, while the Blacks were on the whole its 
 supporters. But the adhesion of Dante to the Whites, his 
 refusal to identify himself with his fellow exiles when they 
 coalesced with the Ghibellines, and the fact that Corso 
 Donato, the Black leader, married the daughter of one of the 
 foremost among the Ghibelline chieftains, tend to baffle any 
 attempt scientifically to analyse the inner meaning of this 
 disastrous conflict. 
 
 * It is notable that among the few recorded acts of Dante's political 
 life in Florence is his protest against the severity of this enactment, a 
 protest made in 1295 by the poet in his capacity of member of the Consiglio 
 del Commune. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 47 
 
 Its significance in the development of the Florentine 
 State lies in the fact that it emphasises the impotence of the 
 people to govern themselves as an independent Republic. 
 Florence, to save herself from herself, was compelled to 
 commit herself to the protection and government of foreign 
 Princes, who, though they might plunder her, yet afforded 
 a guarantee against those incessant internal distractions 
 which paralysed her beneficent activities. For a period of 
 years the constitution was virtually suspended while Robert 
 the Wise, King of Naples, and afterwards his son, Charles 
 of Calabria, ruled as Lords Paramount in Florence. The 
 death of Charles in 1328, and of the great enemy against 
 whom Florence had been long contending, Castruccio 
 Castracane of Lucca, afforded a brief breathing space in 
 which the experiment of self-government could once more 
 be tried. 
 
 It was determined on this occasion to simplify the con- 
 stitution by abolishing the old elaborate apparatus of 
 Councils attached to each section of the executive. In their 
 place two Councils were established : the Consiglio del 
 Popolo, of 300, under the presidency of the Capitano, and 
 the Consiglio del Commune, of 250, under the presidency of 
 the Podesta. The former retained the characteristic of the 
 old Councils of the Capitano in being confined exclusively 
 to representatives of the people, while nobles and people 
 sat together in the Consiglio del Commune. 
 
 Changes of great future importance were also made in the 
 manner of choosing the incoming Signoria. It had been the 
 practice for the outgoing Signoria to nominate its successors. 
 For this method was substituted the " Squittino," or 
 scrutiny, which meant that the names of all those who were 
 eligible for office, for the next three, four, or five years, were 
 put into a box, and as occasion required a sufficient number 
 of names were impartially drawn out to fill up the vacant 
 offices. The system, which in theory had much to recom- 
 mend it, in practice opened the door to grave abuses, and 
 became an important instrument for forging a despotism 
 over the State. For it was not difficult so to manipulate 
 the names as to ensure that none should find entrance into 
 
48 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the boxes which were not favourable to the government, 
 and to arrange the drawing of the names out of the bag in 
 such a way that those only would come out who would 
 prove the submissive tools of the party in power. Further 
 developments soon followed which tended in the same 
 direction. The government assumed the power to exclude 
 its opponents from public life for a period, or for ever, by 
 issuing its " admonition " against such persons as it deemed 
 guilty of civil or criminal offences. The non-payment of 
 taxes, for example, was rightly regarded as disqualifying 
 the delinquent for public office ; but when taxation itself 
 was used as an instrument of oppression, when a particular 
 individual might be subjected to any monstrous tax which 
 it might please his political opponents to impose, the system 
 of admonitions might easily develop into an engine of private 
 vengeance and public tyranny by which despotism could first 
 establish itself and then render opposition to it impossible. 
 
 Associated with these schemes were the " Parlamento," 
 the " Balia," and the " Accopiatori." 
 
 The Parlamento was a gathering of all citizens who 
 chose to obey the summons of the great bell of Florence to 
 appear in the piazza of the Signoria. To the multitude 
 thus assembled the government could state its proposals, 
 and, if accepted, they at once, by the exercise of the 
 sovereignty of the people, assumed the force of law. The 
 Parlamento was not a new device contrived in the fourteenth 
 century ; it goes back to the beginnings of Florentine 
 history. In theory at any rate the sovereignty of the 
 people had always been an accepted principle in Florence. 
 What was new was the manner in which the Parlamento 
 was engineered to suit the purposes of a party. When a 
 Parlamento was called the piazza was held in force by armed 
 men, and soldiers controlled the avenues which led to it. A 
 government with astute agents and a military force always 
 has the mob at its beck and call. Thus the Florentine 
 Parlamento degenerated into a mere semblance of popular 
 sovereignty. Of all the engines of tyranny, the ugliest and 
 most repulsive are those that masquerade in the garment^ 
 of liberty. 
 
INTRODUCTION 49 
 
 The proposals of the government to the Parlamento 
 were as a rule hmited to the one suggestion that a Balia 
 should be appointed. The Balia was a select committee, 
 nominated by the government and confirmed by the Par- 
 lamento, which was to act as a commission of reform. 
 Under the sanction of public authority it could carry 
 into effect whatever measures the government had pre- 
 viously agreed upon. The Balia, however, usually dele- 
 gated at any rate a portion of its authority to " Accopiatori," 
 whose special function was to nominate the persons 
 eligible for public office and to control the electoral boxes. 
 As these accopiatori frequently retained power for years, 
 long outlasting the Balia which had appointed them, 
 it followed that the pubhc offices were mortgaged before- 
 hand, for a term of years, to those who would prove the 
 obedient creatures of their masters. It was not the Medici 
 who forged these weapons of despotism for Florence ; they 
 were manufactured long before the Medici rose to considera- 
 tion in the State, but, being forged, they were ready for use, 
 and the Medici understood, perhaps better than any others, 
 how most effectively to use them. 
 
 Florence now became involved in wars, of which the main 
 object was the possession of Lucca : her want of success 
 compelled her once more to look abroad for the leadership 
 and enterprise which had proved so lacking at home. She 
 appointed Walter of Brienne, Duke of Athens, generahssimo 
 of her forces, and soon accepted him as her sovereign lord. 
 The Duke, who is represented by contemporary chroniclers 
 and by Macchiavelh as an utterly worthless character, relied 
 upon the support of the lower classes in the State, and they 
 acclaimed him as their Prince for hfe. Once invested with 
 sovereign power, he did not fail frightfully to abuse it. His 
 unmeasured violence ahenated in twelve months all classes 
 in the State. A general rising against him, in which the 
 Medici family took a prominent part, was organised for St. 
 Anne's Day (July 26, 1343). The government of the Duke 
 was overthrown and he himself was ignominiously expelled. 
 St. Anne's Day has been ever since a red-letter day in the 
 Florentine calendar. It is from this time that St. Anne 
 
 D 
 
50 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 begins to appear conspicuously in Florentine art as the 
 protecting saint of the Florentine Repubhc. 
 
 Immediately upon the expulsion of the Duke of Athers the 
 constitution was remodelled, this time in the interests of the 
 nobles. No sooner was this done than " the people begin to 
 regret that for one tyrant put down there had sprung up a 
 hundred." Now was fought a final battle, within the vails, 
 between the Grandi and the Popolo, and it is notable that 
 in the quarter of S. Giovanni it was the Medici who began the 
 attack on behalf of the people. The victory of the p3ople 
 was complete. Whereas after past contests the nobles had 
 succeeded in reasserting themselves, now they were crushed 
 for ever. The long struggle of centuries reaches its cul- 
 mination in the streets of Florence in the autumn of 1343. 
 The pohtical centre of gravity is shifted, and the triumphant 
 people are for the future engaged in furious rivalries between 
 their own contending sections. 
 
 Yet another revision of the constitution followed from the 
 victory of the popular party. Eight Priors were to consdtute 
 the Signoria, of whom two, if not three, were to be taken from 
 the Lesser Guilds. Twelve Buoniuomini elected for three 
 months acted as counsellors to the Signoria, and sixteen 
 Gonfaloniers of the Companies, holding office for four months, 
 were made responsible mainly for the military organisation 
 of the State. The two Grand Councils of 1328 were retained, 
 together with their presiding officers, the Capitano and the 
 Podesta. The chief power, however, was in the hands of the 
 Parte Guelfa, which once more began to exercise a despotism 
 analogous to that of the Duke of Athens. No efforts were 
 for long capable of suppressing a tyranny in Florence ; and 
 those exertions which had been directed against the govern- 
 ment of the Duke were, in the course of a few years, concen- 
 trated against the autocracy of the Parte Guelfa. 
 
 Scarcely was the pohtical power of the nobles extinguished 
 when the city was rent by a new feud. The Albizzi family, 
 which had come to Florence from Arezzo, and had risen by 
 trade and business abihty to affluence and position, found 
 political and commercial rivals in the family of the Ricci. 
 Each was identified with the popolo grosso and repre- 
 
INTRODUCTION 51 
 
 sented the interests of the rich burghers of the Greater 
 Guilds, but each being bent upon its own sovereignty, 
 the Albizzi associated themselves with the Parte Guelfa 
 in order to attain their ends, while the Ricci courted the 
 support of the Lesser Arts. That condition, in fact, was never 
 known in Florence " when none were for a party but all were 
 for the State." In one of the many speeches which Macchia- 
 velli, in his History of Florence, puts into the mouths of some 
 nameless Florentine citizens — speeches which add so much 
 literary adornment to that work, at the expense, it is to be 
 feared, of historical fidelity — he doubtless expresses his own 
 sentiments when the speaker is represented as saying : " Our 
 laws, statutes, and civil ordinances are not, nor have they 
 ever been, estabhshed for the benefit of men in a state of 
 freedom, but according to the wish of the faction which has 
 been uppermost at the time. Hence it follows that when one 
 party is expelled, or one faction extinguished, another 
 immediately arises ; for in a city that is governed by parties 
 rather than by laws, as soon as one becomes dominant, it 
 must of necessity soon divide against itself, for the private 
 methods originally adopted for its defence will now no longer 
 serve to keep it united." 
 
 The situation became still further complicated by a war 
 against the Pope, Gregory XI. The anti-Itahan French 
 policy of the Avignon Popes had roused against them strong 
 ItaHan antipathies, and Florence, notwithstanding her 
 Guelphic proclivities, was at heart essentially Italian. The 
 Parte Guelfa, however, was naturally indisposed to a war 
 which seemed to involve a contradiction of its own principles. 
 War, however, began, and it was determined by the Signoria 
 to entrust the conduct of it to the " Otto di Guerra," a 
 committee of eight, specially appointed for the purpose. 
 The city therefore now became divided between the sup- 
 porters of the Signory and the Eight upon the one hand, and 
 those of the Parte Guelfa on the other. The latter could 
 command such aid as the nobility were still capable of giving, 
 and the support of the popolo grosso and the Albizzi ; on the 
 side of the Signory were ranged the lower orders, the Eight, 
 and the influence of the Ricci, Alberti, and Medici families. 
 
52 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 The most prominent representative of the Medici family 
 at this time was Salvestro, who was Gonfalonier of Justice in 
 1370, and again held that office, despite the efforts of the 
 Albizzi, in 1378. He set himself to curb the power of the 
 Parte Guelfa, especially the abuse of the system of " ad- 
 monitions " by which in a great measure that power was 
 exercised. Thwarted in his efforts by the " Colleges "— 
 that is, by the twelve Buoniuomini and the sixteen Gon- 
 faloniers of the Companies — Salvestro appealed to the 
 people. " Let no one," says Macchiavelh, " when raising popu- 
 lar commotions, imagine he can afterwards control them at 
 his pleasure, or restrain the people from the commission of 
 acts of violence. Salvestro intended to enact his law and 
 compose the city, but it happened otherwise." The 
 lower orders, seething with discontent, conscious of their 
 wrongs, and mindful of their opportunity, now broke loose 
 from all bonds. The revolt of the Ciompi in 1378 anticipated 
 iWts purposes and in its ferocity the almost contemporary 
 rising of the Peasants in England. There is the same cry 
 against the well-to-do : the same assertion of the natural 
 equality of all men, the same demand for higher wages and 
 better conditions of labour. It mattered little to the 
 masses whether nobles or popolo grosso got the upper hand. 
 Whoever was victorious, they were equally oppressed, and 
 now they turned on their oppressors. Bursting into the 
 palace of the Signory, the Ciompi made themselves masters 
 of it, and appointed one of their own number, Michele di 
 Lando, chief magistrate of the city. Michele— a street in 
 Florence still bears his name — was a man of remarkable 
 character. His appearance upon his first entrance on the 
 stage of public life was unpromising. Barefoot, with 
 scarcely any clothes upon him, and with the rabble at his 
 heels, this unkempt and ferocious woolcomber seemed to 
 afford no prospect of statesmanship or moderation in the 
 conduct of affairs. But opportunity and responsibihty 
 combined to convince his fellow citizens of how much worth 
 may he concealed beneath a rough exterior, how much 
 political capacity may reside in the humblest of the people. 
 He showed himself resolute in quelling disturbance from 
 
INTRODUCTION 53 
 
 whatever quarter it might arise ; indeed, the resentments' 
 which he aroused were chiefly on the part of those who 
 thought him too moderate in the constitutional changes 
 which he introduced. Under Michele di Lando the citizens 
 were classified in three divisions — the Greater Guilds, the 
 Lesser Guilds, and the working classes, who were now 
 organised in three new Guilds. The Signoria was to be 
 composed of Guild members in the proportions of two from 
 the Greater Arts, two from the Lesser, and four from the 
 newly formed Trade Unions. Having completed these 
 changes, and having pacified the insurrection, Michele 
 himself seems to have almost entirely withdrawn himself 
 from the stage of political affairs. 
 
 But the settlement which he had effected was destined 
 to be of short duration. Discontent and faction on all sides 
 raised their heads. The excluded nobility were chafing 
 against their exclusion ; the new aristocracy of the Greater 
 Guilds were jealous of the Lesser, which were now in a position 
 of equal political authority. The minor Guilds were jealous 
 alike of those above them and those below, while the masses 
 were intent on maintaining and increasing the share of power 
 which they had won. " Thus sometimes," to quote Macchia- 
 velli again, " the nobles of the people took arms, some- 
 times the major and sometimes the minor trades, and the 
 lowest of the people ; and it often happened that in 
 different parts of the city all were at once in insurrection." 
 
 The result was the fall of the new government in 138 1, 
 and the resumption of power by the burgher aristocracy of 
 the Greater Guilds. This practically meant an oligarchy 
 in the hands of the Albizzi family. Maso degli Albizzi, its 
 representative, brought about the abolition of the new 
 Trade Unions, reduced the political power of the Lesser 
 Arts, and placed a crushing preponderance of pohtical 
 authority in the hands of the seven great Guilds. Some 
 years later (1393) an attempt was made to induce the Medici 
 to take up the popular cause against the Albizzi. A depu- 
 tation of the Lesser Guilds, and of the lower classes, waited 
 upon Vieri dei Medici, who was now the chief representative 
 of the family, to implore him to assume the direction of the 
 
54 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 State. Moved either by prudence or disinclination, Vieri 
 refused their request, and the contest between the two 
 famihes of Albizzi and Medici was postponed for a genera- 
 tion. 
 
 The action of the Medici in the troubled times of the 
 Ciompi revolt and its sequel is significant. It was Salvestro 
 dei Medici who in 1378 called forth the tempest, but in ap- 
 pealing from the Colleges to the Council of the Commune he 
 seems to have had httle, if any, idea that he was opening the 
 flood-gates to an infuriated populace. Doubtless he wel- 
 comed the overthrow of the party to which he was in pohtical 
 antagonism, and cared httle by whose hands it was over- 
 thrown, but he by no means identified himself with mob 
 violence : it is indeed certain that by a section of the mob 
 he was regarded as far too moderate. If he made no 
 attempt to restrain the people, he equally made no attempt 
 to inflame them, nor to profit personally by their action. 
 Indeed, on leaving office he does not appear again in public 
 life, and in 1388 he died. But there can be no doubt that 
 Salvestro deepened the impression that the lower classes, in 
 the time of need, would find in the House of Medici friends 
 and supporters. The creation of such an impression with- 
 out giving, by definite action, any very tangible grounds for 
 it, is altogether characteristic of Medician methods. It is 
 difficult to see with what justice Salvestro and Vieri are 
 regarded as deep political schemers, planning the ruin of 
 the Republic for their own benefit, only waiting till the 
 pear should be ripe. Vieri seems to have been a prudent, 
 modest, and unassuming man. But in less than sixty years 
 from the Ciompi revolt the Medici were at the head of the 
 State, and the action of Salvestro undoubtedly paved the 
 way for the despotism of the family, and suggested the lines 
 on which its despotism should be conducted. 
 
 For the present, however, the Albizzi controlled the sources 
 of power. Their government was that of an oligarchy, 
 resting in the main upon the support of the commercial 
 aristocracy. The government of the Medici which super- 
 seded it was also an oligarchy, but it rested in no small degree 
 upon the support of the lower classes. Each government 
 
INTRODUCTION 55 
 
 displays the tendencies inherent in an oHgarchy, of which the 
 most notable is the tendency to split from within. The oli- 
 garchs begin to quarrel among themselves ; counsel is divided 
 and policy doubtful ; at last they fall before those who have 
 been on the watch to seize their position. The history of 
 Florence during the first thirty years of the fifteenth century 
 is the history of the almost silent, but none the less deadly, 
 rivalry of the two families — the Albizzi distinguished by the 
 dash and daring of their pohcy, by the briUiance of their 
 representatives, the reckless self-confidence which was 
 generated by their success ; the Medici watchful and re- 
 tiring, patient of injuries but never for a moment forgetful, 
 slowly and stealthily undermining, by the arts of wealth and 
 popularity, the structure of pohtical power which their 
 rivals had so elaborately reared. 
 
 The rule of the Albizzi in many respects marks a golden 
 age in Florence. Territories were acquired — such as Pisa — 
 which the Republic for the sake of its commercial interests 
 could scarcely do without. The city grew in dignity and 
 external splendour : a new epoch in Art and Letters began ; 
 the luxuries and amenities of civic life reached a point never 
 hitherto attained. But old evils had not yet worked them- 
 selves out, and already new ones began to appear. It was 
 the Albizzi who set the example, which the Medici were not 
 slow to follow, of using taxation as an instrument for the 
 suppression of their pohtical opponents : complaints were 
 loud, even during the period of their ascendency, against 
 the unfair incidence of taxation to the detriment of the 
 poorer classes. The Albizzi met opposition by vigorous 
 proscription, resorting to exile and " admonitions " whenever 
 individuals showed themselves too formidable. 
 
 But it was their foreign policy which prepared the way for 
 the crisis which eventually overthrew them. Florence 
 found herself constantly involved in wars which may have 
 been necessary, but of which the expense was more sensibly 
 felt than the necessity. War with Gian Galeazzo Visconti 
 could scarcely be avoided if the ambition of the Visconti to 
 be master and King of Italy was to be checked, but it was a 
 war not very gloriously conducted by Florence, and the death 
 
56 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of Galeazzo was certainly fortunate for her. War with 
 Ladislas of Naples did little to thwart his schemes of am- 
 bition. Indeed, it seeemed that it was only his timely 
 death which saved Florence from being annexed to his 
 dominions. " Thus," says Macchiavelli rather unkindly, 
 " death has always been more favourable to the Florentines 
 than any other friend, and more powerful to save them than 
 their own valour," War at a later period with Filipo Maria 
 Visconti resulted in a disastrous defeat for Florence at 
 Zagonara in 1424. War with Lucca, a few years later, was 
 violently opposed, and Rinaldo Albizzi had great difficulty in 
 getting his own way. By conducting it in person he brought 
 upon himself personally the odium which follows military 
 failure and incapacity : when a treaty with Lucca on the 
 basis of the status quo ante had to be patched up in 1433 
 every one felt that a crisis had arisen. Against the Albizzi 
 there stood Cosimo dei Medici ready to assert the claims of 
 his party and family against the ruling House : the Albizzi 
 felt that the time had come when they must destroy or be 
 destroyed. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY TO THE DEATH 
 OF COSIMO 
 
 Giovanni dei Medici, great-grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent — 
 Giovanni's relations with the Albizzi — Cosimo dei Medici — Rivalries 
 between Cosimo and the Albizzi — Banishment of Cosimo — His recall ; 
 fall of the Albizzi — Supremacy of Cosimo — Character of his ascendency 
 — His methods of government — His foreign policy — The Milanese alliance 
 — Abortive opposition to Cosimo, 1455— Luca Pitti— CoMp d'etat of 1458 
 — Death of Cosimo, 1464. 
 
 TN the later years of the fourteenth century the poHtical 
 influence of the House of Medici had been identified 
 with that branch of it from which Salvestro and Vieri were 
 sprung. They, and theirs, were regarded by the Albizzi as 
 their most dangerous rivals, and in the proscriptions by 
 which, from time to time, the Albizzi sought to strengthen 
 their power, the Medici of Salvestro's and Vieri's line suffered 
 severely. 
 
 Another branch of the family, which was represented in 
 Salvestro's days by Averardo Bicci dei Medici, seems to have 
 kept itself aloof from the strife of factions. When poHtical 
 honours and employment came in their way they accepted 
 them, but Averardo Bicci himself was a man more occupied 
 in building up a great commercial business, as trader and 
 banker, than in the strife of parties in the political arena. 
 Thus he and his family escaped notice at a time when the 
 hand of the Albizzi was heavy upon other branches of the 
 Medici House, the ruling oligarchy only awaking to the 
 surprised consciousness of the existence of a competitor 
 when Giovanni dei Medici, Averardo's son, was already one 
 of the most influential men in Florence. 
 
 In Giovanni, as he is represented to us through the chronicles 
 and histories, we are able to detect most of the essential 
 
 S7 
 
58 LORENZO DEI MEDTCI 
 
 traits of the Medici character. As a private man his aptitude 
 for commerce was extraordinary. He amassed enormous 
 wealth, and controlled to so large an extent the money 
 market of Italy that he was able to effect a financial crisis 
 in almost any quarter where it suited him to operate. The 
 ramifications of his banking business extended far beyond 
 the hmits of Italy ; to Constantinople and the Levant in 
 the east ; to France and England in the north and west. 
 In Florence almost every citizen of importance was his 
 chent, and of many of them he was a creditor, while his 
 generosity to the lower classes, whether prompted only by 
 his natural munificence or by nicely calculated pohtical 
 design, gave him a popularity and an influence which could 
 be used on occasion for pohtical purposes. While thus 
 laying the foundations for the ascendency of his House, he 
 was himself a man of singular prudence, distinguished by 
 the moderation of his views, by his conservative tendencies, 
 and by his apparent desire to keep himself outside the 
 contentions which distracted the city as the power of the 
 Albizzi began to wane. By the Albizzi he was regarded as 
 harmless ; as a man who, though not perhaps very well 
 disposed to the ruling oligarchy, was yet intent upon his 
 own affairs, willing to serve the State if called upon to 
 represent it, but not setting himself to seek office nor to 
 use office as a means of disturbing the government. He 
 might even be made to serve a purpose useful to the pre- 
 vailing faction itself. There were malcontents within the 
 ranks of the oligarchy, and they might be brought to heel 
 if it could be shown that they could be dispensed with. 
 Thus when Giovanni became Gonfalonier of Justice in 1421 
 it was with the consent of the party in power, and in spite 
 of the warnings and remonstrances of Niccolo da Uzzano, who 
 was supposed to exercise an influence in the government not 
 inferior to that of Rinaldo degH Albizzi himself. But his 
 protest was of no avail, for his associates were jealous of 
 Uzzano's reputation, and desirous to exalt some person 
 through whom he might be humbled. 
 
 It was the foreign pohcy of the Albizzi which brought 
 Giovanni prominently forward as a political opponent. He 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 59 
 
 disapproved of the war undertaken against Filipo Maria 
 Visconti, but if there was to be war, he thought it should 
 be defensive, not offensive in character. When the ill 
 success of the war placed the Albizzi in desperate straits, 
 Giovanni showed himself hostile to the oppressive taxation 
 to which the people were subjected. He refused to lend 
 himself to Rinaldo's project of reducing the political influence 
 of the Lesser Arts in order to enhance still further the ascen- 
 dency of the Grandi. After the disastrous defeat of the 
 Florentines at Zagonara the influence of Giovanni increased, 
 for the defeat seemed to be the result of a policy which he 
 had opposed. Moreover, his adhesion to a plan of taxation, 
 by which every one was called upon to contribute to the 
 revenue at a fixed rate per cent., stamped him in the opinion 
 of the masses as their friend, as one who maintained and 
 advanced the reputation of the Medici House as the cham- 
 pions of the people. When it was sought to make the new 
 scheme retrospective — for thus, it was urged, it could be 
 shown that heavy arrears of taxation could be proved 
 against the Grandi — Giovanni gave fresh proofs of his 
 moderation and good sense, declaring, according to Macchia- 
 velli, that it was not well to go into things so long past unless 
 to learn something for present guidance : that if in former 
 times the taxation had been unjust, " we ought to be thankful 
 that now we have discovered a means of making it equitable 
 — for he that is content with a moderate victory is always 
 most successful ; those who would do more than conquer, 
 commonly lose." There is the trite, epigrammatic touch here 
 which reminds us of some of Cosimo's recorded sayings, 
 leading us to believe that the words may actually have 
 been spoken by Giovanni. 
 
 Notwithstanding the appeals of his sons, Cosimo and 
 Lorenzo, to take a more decided line, and put himself at 
 the head of a movement against the government, Giovanni 
 refused to take the advantages which his position offered. 
 If the speech which he made to his sons upon his deathbed 
 is authentic, he seems to have desired that they too should 
 follow his example. " I die content, for I leave you rich 
 and weU, and so placed that if you follow the course that 
 
6o 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 I have followed, you will live in Florence respected and in 
 favour with all men. I am cheered by the thought that 
 I have never wilfully offended any, but have sought to do 
 good to all. In State affairs, if you would live in safety, 
 take that share which the laws and your fellow citizens 
 shall think good to bestow upon you ; for what occasions 
 hatred is not that which is given to an individual, but that 
 which an individual has determined to take possession of. 
 Although among so many enemies, and surrounded by so 
 many conflicting interests, I have not only maintained my 
 reputation, but increased it. If you pursue the same course, 
 the same good fortune will attend you." 
 
 Cosimo dei Medici, Giovanni's eldest surviving son, was 
 forty years old at the time of his father's death in 1429. 
 He was a man well versed in public affairs, and thoroughly 
 understood how to conduct the vast private interests which 
 were now committed to his hands. In character and 
 methods he bears a close resemblance to his father, but his 
 ambitions were wider. Not circumstances only but incli- 
 nation urged him to come forward and contend with the 
 falling oligarchy for the possession of Florence. The Medici 
 were the traditional supporters of the populace against the 
 privileged class, and Cosimo was the recognised head of the 
 Medici, the natural leader of all who were opposed to the 
 government. Opportunity for active opposition was not 
 long wanting. In 1430 Rinaldo degli Albizzi plunged 
 Florence into a new war, this time against Lucca, which for 
 years had been a peculiar object of Florentine ambition. 
 The enterprise, however, was recognised as hazardous ; it 
 would cost immense sums, involving still heavier taxation 
 upon a people already heavily taxed. A strong anti-war 
 party arose, and there were divided counsels even among 
 the leaders of the ruling faction. Niccolo da Uzzano himself 
 was one of the most forcible opponents of an adventure 
 which he regarded as being as unjust as it was impolitic. 
 
 Cosimo, on the other hand, seems to have favoured the 
 war. MacchiaveUi's statement to this effect is precise, but 
 Rinaldo degli Albizzi has left it on record that Cosimo only 
 advocated war because he foresaw the issue, and looked 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 6i 
 
 upon war as the most likely means of trapping his rival 
 into his toils. This, however, is to attribute to Cosimo a 
 sagacity and cunning of which even he was scarcely capable. 
 It is the kind of accusation which it is easy to make after 
 the event, but such nice calculations before the event are 
 scarcely credible. What is certain is that Cosimo altogether 
 disapproved of the administration of the war, and that he 
 and his party used the fact that Rinaldo himself was the 
 Florentine Commissary to bring personal accusations against 
 the conduct of the campaign. 
 
 How far Rinaldo was himself responsible for the incom- 
 petence and corruption which characterised the war with 
 Lucca is open to doubt. But as Commissary his efforts were 
 unproductive of success, and he found himself charged with 
 peculation, if not with actual treachery. He was aware 
 that the partisans of the Medici were the source from which 
 these charges arose, and in an evil moment of natural 
 indignation he hurried without leave from his camp to 
 Florence, in order to vindicate his reputation and strengthen 
 the tottering fortunes of his government. He proposed 
 that strong measures should be taken against Cosimo and 
 his party, but was unable to induce Niccolo da Uzzano to 
 support these designs. On the death of Uzzano, Rinaldo 
 felt more free to act, and the war being ended by a treaty 
 which reflected in its terms the unsatisfactory conduct of 
 the enterprise, he felt that no time must be lost. Having 
 secured the co-operation of the Gonfalonier, Bernardo 
 Guadagni, whose term of office was to begin on Sep- 
 tember I, 1433, Cosimo was summoned to attend before 
 the Signoria. 
 
 In spite of warnings he determined to obey the summons, 
 and found himself a prisoner. He owed his Hfe at this 
 crisis to his own judicious use of lavish bribes — though he 
 marvelled that he was able to accomplish so much by what 
 seemed to him a trifling expenditure — and to the dissensions 
 which existed among his enemies. Albizzi and his more 
 resolute supporters were for Cosimo's death ; others were in 
 favour of banishment ; others refused to commit themselves 
 to any opinion. Moderate counsels eventually prevailed : 
 
6^2 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Rinaldo had to be content with a sentence of banishment 
 which condemned Cosimo to ten years' exile at Padua, his 
 brother Lorenzo to five years' exile at Venice, and the chief 
 partisans of the Medici were in varying degrees to share 
 the punishment of their leaders. 
 
 It was, however, only when Cosimo was gone that Florence 
 realised that she had lost an integral element of herself. 
 Cosimo had struck his roots so broadly throughout the City- 
 State that, on his departure, she seemed to wither and 
 decline. " He took a part of Florence with him." Rinaldo, 
 already disgusted by the half-measures which had been 
 adopted, began to make preparations against the reaction 
 which he saw to be inevitable. He reverted to the old 
 proposals that the political influence of the Lesser Arts and 
 lower classes should be diminished, and that power should 
 be concentrated solely in the hands of the Grandi. This 
 poHcy did not commend itself to all his friends, while it 
 roused against him the bitter enmity of the lower orders, 
 whose hearts turned to Cosimo as their natural defender. 
 An alliance between Florence and Venice against Milan 
 only resulted in further military disasters. In August 1434 
 the trend of public feeling was made manifest by the election 
 of a Gonfalonier and Signory who were declared and unani- 
 mous supporters of the Medician party. The time had 
 come for Rinaldo either to accept his own total ruin or to 
 seek to retrieve his position by an appeal to force. He 
 summoned his friends to rally round him in arms : he was 
 himself prepared to make a dash upon the Palazzo, but 
 Palla Strozzi and Giovanni Guicciardini, on whom Rinaldo 
 specially relied, proved cold or faint-hearted : the Signoria 
 plucked up courage, and Rinaldo weakly abandoned arms 
 for negotiations. 
 
 At this time Pope Eugenius IV. was enjoying the hospi- 
 tahty of Florence — that wandering and perturbed spirit for 
 which Rome so seldom afforded a secure resting-place. He 
 offered his services at this juncture as a mediator between 
 the contending parties, and Rinaldo consented to discuss 
 terms with Eugenius in his Papal quarters in Santa Maria 
 Novella. But while they were discussing in Santa Maria, 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 63 
 
 in the Signoria they were acting. A " Parlamento " 
 having been hastily gathered in the Piazza, the Signory 
 received authority to appoint a Balia, which unanimously 
 determined that Cosimo should be recalled and that his 
 place as an exile should be taken by Rinaldo degli Albizzi. 
 The Pope could only condole with Rinaldo upon the harsh- 
 ness of Fortune. He advised him to be patient ; to wait 
 for some favourable turn. Rinaldo's reply shows the 
 bitterness of a man who has been duped. " The distrust 
 of those who should have trusted me, the trust which I 
 have placed in you, these have been my ruin ; but I myself 
 am most to blame in that I supposed that you, who could 
 not maintain yourself in your own city, could maintain 
 me in mine." 
 
 Thus Rinaldo degli Albizzi vanishes from the Florentine 
 stage. A man of aspiring spirit and daring resolution, the 
 fascination of his character still impresses itself upon us 
 through the mists of centuries and the dusty records of his 
 day ; but he was a man unable to infuse into his own par- 
 tisans his own boldness and an unquestioning loyalty, and 
 so,' when Fortune proved fickle, he could rely only upon 
 himself. Aiming at a despotism, he had been successful 
 only in establishing an oligarchy, which collapsed under 
 the pressure of its own divided counsels. 
 
 The victorious Signoria took instant measures for the 
 recall of Cosimo and his friends, anticipating their action 
 by a drastic policy directed against the defeated party. 
 When Cosimo returned he found that his enemies had been 
 already dealt with. Seventy of Rinaldo's principal ad- 
 herents shared the fate of their leader ; there was little left 
 in the way of reprisals and proscriptions for the Medici to 
 do. Cosimo was a man not naturally disposed to violence, 
 nor fond of bloodshed for its own sake, but he was not one 
 who ever shrank from violent methods when they seemed 
 necessary. He was now quite determined not to be sent 
 forth once more upon his travels, but to make his ascendency 
 absolute and final. He proceeded therefore against his 
 fallen rivals with relentless vigour. He knew how to act 
 upon a conviction, which Rinaldo had only expressed, when 
 
64 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 he said that great offenders ought either to be left untouched 
 or utterly destroyed. 
 
 The offending Gonfalonier, Guadagni, under whom 
 Cosimo had been banished, was executed. The unfortunate 
 Albizzi were harried from place to place, the conditions of 
 exile being made as bitter for them as possible. These 
 harsh measures can scarcely be urged in judgment against 
 Cosimo, for they were in the spirit of the times, and Florence 
 had been long accustomed to drastic action in a time of 
 political crisis. 
 
 Compared with the tortures, murders, secret assassina- 
 tions, which were the political weapons in common use at 
 Milan, Naples, or Venice, Cosimo's procedure may be looked 
 upon as mild, but to suppose him incapable of cruelty and 
 ruthlessness is to mistake his character. He did not need 
 a Macchiavelli to teach him that a Prince should know how 
 to use cruelty as well as kindness, but that cruelty, rightly 
 used, is used not for the sake of cruelty, but for the sake 
 of those advantages which cannot be had without it. 
 
 With the return of Cosimo in 1434 the despotism of the 
 House of Medici over Florence was an accomplished fact. 
 It remained, unimpaired and scarcely seriously challenged, 
 until the expulsion of Piero dei Medici in 1494. 
 
 Sixty years tenure of the first position in the State through 
 four successive generations is a pohtical phenomenon in 
 Florence of the first significance. Why did the Medici 
 prevail ? On what foundations was their supremacy reared ? 
 Their supremacy was reared upon political method, upon 
 the power of wealth, and most of all upon a community of 
 sympathy, which was not forced or artificial, between the 
 tastes and habits of the Medici and all the strongest instincts 
 and ideals of the Florentine people. 
 
 These principles apply to the government of Cosimo even 
 more definitely and consistently than to that of Lorenzo. 
 As a pohtical engineer, the grandfather may take precedence 
 over the grandson by right of originahty and first discovery. 
 The originahty of Cosimo, however, does not consist in the 
 invention of pohtical methods hitherto unknown. It was 
 his distinction to employ old methods in a new way, so as 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 65 
 
 to make them effective not only for personal but for public 
 ends. The Medician government, while securing the ascend- 
 ency of a family, at the same time remedied some fatal flaws 
 which had long been conspicuous in the constitutional 
 system of Florence. It provided an executive authority in 
 the State which was independent of the constant changes 
 in personnel which the system involved, and so established 
 a government with which other governments could deal, 
 and afforded a guarantee of permanence and continuity in 
 the domestic and foreign pohcy of the State. Thus, if there 
 was loss to Florence from the despotism of a family, there 
 was also much gain. Her whole history had conclusively 
 shown that to enjoy hberty she needed a master, and in the 
 master hand of the Medici she flourished as never before. 
 The weakness of the situation lay in its want of definition. 
 The Medici had to act as kings while pretending not to be 
 so, a position that required such deHcate handhng that only 
 the most consummate statecraft and tact could maintain 
 it and make it tolerable. 
 
 As we trace the evolution of Florentine politics we arrive 
 at last through successive stages of development and re- 
 action at the ascendency of the Medici. It follows as an 
 inevitable consequence of the conditions, and it gives to 
 Florence the government which she needed and deserved. 
 But it has special and peculiar characteristics of its own, 
 of such a kind that the more the Medician supremacy is 
 examined and understood the more the difficulty is felt of 
 expressing its precise nature by a word or phrase. It is 
 convenient to call it a despotism, for in a sense it was so, 
 and yet Cosimo's most intimate associates would have been 
 surprised at the assertion that the State was under the 
 control of a one-man government. It was in a sense the 
 government of a party, as was the government of the Albizzi, 
 but had it been so described in Cosimo's presence he would 
 have smiled and been silent. It was not the government 
 of a faction, for all, or almost all, sections of the State could 
 regard it as their own, yet the avenues to power were in 
 the hands of a clique, and none but members of the ring 
 exercised any actual control over affairs. 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 If Cosimo was a despot, it was only because he was in- 
 dispensable. Whatever efforts were made after 1434 to 
 loosen his hold and diminish his authority only resulted in 
 making him stronger than before. His opponents were 
 undone by the very success of their opposition. If they 
 chafed under Cosimo, without him they were immediately 
 reduced to impotence and despair. His wealth, and the 
 uses to which he put it, gave to him personally a power of 
 control over individuals and foreign governments against 
 which it was useless to contend. 
 
 But Cosimo was content with the possession of this 
 irresistible influence. He had no desire to stand forth 
 declared as the single and unquestioned autocrat. He was 
 quite satisfied to work through agents and to allow them 
 a certain latitude which almost deceived them into the 
 behef that they were partners with him on equal terms. 
 The government was in the hands of Cosimo's party, but the 
 man who worked the party machine was Cosimo himself. 
 
 Neither was it altogether the government of a faction. 
 This had been the curse of all the previous revolutions in 
 the State which had resulted in imposing successive tyrannies 
 upon it. The ascendency of the Parte Guelfa or of the 
 people, or of the Albizzi, had meant the suppression of 
 everybody else. Cosimo's government was a government 
 for all who would consent to live peaceably under it. He 
 himself had roots among the old nobility, and by relaxing 
 the rigour, at any rate in the case of some noble families, 
 of the restrictive laws against them, he could claim credit 
 for moderation while taking care that the opportunity for 
 exercising pohtical power should never come their way. 
 
 Of all the merchant princes of Florence, Cosimo was the 
 foremost both by virtue of the range of his commercial 
 transactions and the wealth which accrued from them. 
 Thus he was specially fitted to represent the interests of 
 the Greater Guilds. But the Lesser Arts and the lower 
 classes looked to him as their natural and traditional 
 champion. It was from the ranks of these lower classes 
 that he drew some of his most important and influential 
 henchnient 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 67 
 Thus all sections, in a greater or less degree, could regard 
 Cosimo as their friend and could look upon his government 
 as exercised on their behalf. It was in a measure "national" • 
 m Its universality we find its distinction, and some measure 
 of its stabihty and success. 
 
 To a government so nondescript as that of Cosimo 
 three safeguards were essential. First, to exclude absolutely 
 from the Florentme domain all those of any influence who 
 were hkely to oppose it ; then to secure complete control over 
 all appomtments to office ; lastly, to wield all the powers 
 of taxation m such a way as to bring the pressure of the taxes 
 individually to bear upon such persons as might be inclined 
 to be refractory. With these safeguards in his hands 
 Cosimo could afford to live much in the background to 
 pose as the benevolent bourgeois only anxious to place' his 
 poor services, if required, at the disposal of the State • to 
 express unbounded respect for Gonfaloniers, Signoria 'and 
 Councils, seeing that all ahke were his creatures 'who 
 owed their official existence entirely to his consent and 
 goodwill. 
 
 Towards his vanquished rivals Cosimo showed himself 
 stern and unrelenting. Apologists urge that the wholesale 
 proscription of the Albizzi was not his work, and it is true 
 that the Signoria which recalled him in 1434 at the same 
 time issued its decrees of exHe against the fallen party 
 But It was with Cosimo's consent, if not at his instigation 
 that the conditions of their banishment were made intol- 
 erable for them ; that the sentences were renewed upon 
 their expiration, and that the exiles, and all who belonged 
 to them, were eventually driven to despair. It is quite 
 possible that Cosimo was governed here as much by policy 
 as by the spirit of vindictiveness. Florence did undoubtedly 
 need repose from the strife of parties. To exclude the rival 
 party absolutely from its confines, to leave it without hope 
 was perhaps the best way to secure repose. But from 
 being merely exiles these men were driven into being 
 rebels^ They stirred up war against the State, enlisted 
 the efforts of Visconti on their behalf, and it was good 
 fortune rather than good judgment which brought about 
 
68 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 their overthrow at Anghiari (1440). a defeat which finally 
 ruined all their chances of success. 
 
 The power of Cosimo was regularised by a Balia which, 
 upon his return from exile, proceeded to fill the boxes 
 which contained the names of those who were successively 
 to fill the public offices with the names of those only who 
 were known to be Medici partisans. To prevent the 
 possibility of accidents, the names, when occasion required, 
 were not to be drawn by lot, but to be selected by a com- 
 mittee acting in Cosimo's interest. Every five years, until 
 1455, a Balia, appointed for the purpose, confirmed Cosimo's 
 powers, and took the necessary measures to render official 
 opposition impossible. 
 
 Having thus gained the magistracies, it only remained 
 to secure complete control over taxation. Under the 
 Medici a suspect did not find himself confronted by the 
 dagger of an assassin, but by the demand note of the tax- 
 collector. 
 
 The ordinance of 1427 which was passed after the Floren- 
 tine defeat at Zagonara had for its avowed object the 
 equalisation of the incidence of taxation. It sought to 
 put a stop to the use of the taxes as an instrument of pohtical 
 oppression. To this end it was enacted that every one 
 was to pay a fixed rate per cent, upon his property of 
 whatever kind; that every three years a new valuation 
 should be made and the results accurately tabled in the 
 pubhc registers. Under Cosimo this system fell into 
 abeyance. The triennial valuation was neglected, and the 
 government kept the right of assessment in its own hands. 
 Thus by lightening the taxes for some, by paying them for 
 others out of his private purse, by imposing on doubtful 
 friends or declared enemies a crushing and intolerable 
 burden, Cosimo made himself the master of all. " The 
 Medici," says Guicciardini, " never allowed a fixed method 
 and legal distribution of the taxes, but always reserved to 
 themselves the power of bearing heavily on individuals 
 according to their pleasure . . . they made use of the 
 taxes to win the people over, while they set themselves up 
 as lords of all." 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 69 
 
 Securely entrenched behind the magistracies and the 
 taxes, Cosimo had httle to fear from opposition, and could 
 look on with equanimity as events pursued their course. 
 But his career was not altogether untroubled. He had 
 occasionally to remind his own most prominent partisans 
 that they must accept the situation as he defined it, and 
 that any attempt to follow an independent course could 
 only result in their discomfiture. 
 
 After Cosimo, the most prominent man in the city was 
 Neri Capponi. Apart from the reputation which descended 
 to him from his father, Gino, the conqueror of Pisa, Neri 
 himself was a distinguished soldier, who supplied the 
 military buttress which was needed for the edifice of the 
 Medici power. He commanded the Florentine forces at 
 Anghiari, and by his victory there over the Condottiere, 
 Nicolo Piccinino, and the Albizzi rebels, he had materially 
 contributed to the consohdatibn of Cosimo's government. 
 His intimate friend and most trusted captain was Baldaccio 
 d'Anghiari, a soldier of fortune who had served with 
 much distinction in the war against Fihpo Maria Visconti. 
 One day Baldaccio was summoned to the Palazzo by the 
 Gonfalonier under pretext of consulting him on matters 
 connected with his command, but on his arrival he was 
 seized, treacherously murdered, and his body was thrown 
 from the Palace windows into the Piazza below. The 
 motives for this crime are obscure; the compHcity of 
 Cosimo in the deed has not been proved. Macchiavelli 
 describes it as a private act of vengeance on the part of 
 Orlandini, the Gonfalonier, but the circumstance was gen- 
 erally regarded as an indication of the long arm of Cosimo, 
 as designed to convey to Neri Capponi a somewhat gruesome 
 hint that he must confine himself rigidly within his own 
 sphere of action. 
 
 In the domain of foreign poHcy it required aU Cosimo's 
 authority and powers of persuasion to reconcile the people 
 to some failures, such as another unsuccessful war for the 
 acquisition of Lucca, and to a cardinal departure from all 
 Florentine precedent in an alliance with Milan. From 
 1450 the Milanese alliance became the leading principle 
 
70 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of Medician diplomacy ; it was maintained as strenuously 
 by Piero dei Medici and Lorenzo as by Cosimo, who 
 initiated it. 
 
 For years past Florence had been continually engaged 
 in armed opposition to the Visconti, and these hostilities 
 involved a tolerably constant aUiance with Venice, whose 
 territories were even more seriously threatened by the 
 Visconti power. In 1447 Filipo Maria Visconti died. 
 Milan declared itself a republic, but it was obvious that 
 without strong external support this infant republic could 
 not sustain itself against the machinations of Francesco 
 Sforza. Milan naturally looked to her sister republic of 
 Florence to provide the support which was needed, and 
 public feeling in the city set strongly in favour of supplying 
 it. Cosimo thought otherwise. He was convinced that 
 Milan was unfit for repubHcan institutions, and far too 
 weak to defend them. Unless Milan was in the hands of 
 a strong and formidable ruler, the State would inevitably 
 become absorbed by Venice, who would thus consohdate 
 all northern Italy under her sway and completely control 
 all the means of communication by land between the rest 
 of Italy and the outside world. The true pohcy of Florence, 
 therefore, Cosimo urged, was to assist Sforza to instal 
 himself as Duke of Milan. Owing his position to Florentine 
 support, his authority would rest upon Florence and he 
 would be in a measure dependent on her. Florence and 
 Milan in conjunction could effectually check that pohcy 
 of selfish aggrandisement which Venice was supposed 
 invariably to pursue, while Naples, notwithstanding some 
 claim to Milan which the Aragonese House could put 
 forward under the terms of Filipo Visconti's will, was far 
 too much concerned with Aragonese and Angevin rivalries 
 to take a prominent part in general Itahan politics. Thus 
 Florence and Milan, in aUiance, would hold the balance of 
 power in Italy, for the Papacy was still distracted, and a 
 combination of Naples, Venice, and the Papacy would 
 scarcely be a match for Florence and Milan if they stood 
 together. 
 
 These arguments prevailed, and the foundation-stone of 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 
 
 71 
 
 Medician foreign policy was firmly laid by Cosimo. But 
 it was a policy which cannot be said at any time to have 
 roused enthusiasm in Florence. A vigorous effort was made 
 in 1466, upon the death of Francesco Sforza, to break an 
 alliance which had never been popular, and a certain 
 restiveness against Cosimo which is observable in 1455 
 may be in part explained by the dissatisfaction which the 
 Milanese aUiance had created. 
 
 Cosimo's rule had now extended, uninterruptedly and 
 on the whole smoothly, over a period of twenty-one years. 
 Italy was at last at peace, for the Venetians determined 
 to reconcile themselves, at any rate for a time, to Sforza's 
 possession of Milan : Rene of Anjou had shown himself 
 so incapable in prosecuting his claims on Naples that the 
 Florentines concluded that he was scarcely worth supporting. 
 A peace concluded at Lodi in 1454 between Milan and 
 Venice soon developed into a general peace, and, as a pledge 
 of amity and reconciliation, Francesco Sforza gave his 
 daughter Ippolita in marriage to the Duke of Calabria, 
 the grandson of Alfonso of Naples. It was indeed time 
 that Italy should compose her internal dissensions and 
 unite against a common danger. In 1453 the Turkish 
 Sultan, Mohammed II., had captured Constantinople ; 
 the Turks were at the gate of Western Europe. There 
 was a vague sense throughout Christendom that a time of 
 crisis had arisen, but in Italy, as in Europe, there was no 
 sense of the necessity of united effort. The Italian States 
 were more interested in their own affairs than in the distant 
 prospect of a remote danger. Each pursued its own course, 
 regardless of the advent of the Turks, except in so far as 
 they constituted a new piece which might be played in 
 the complex game of Itahan diplomacy. 
 
 In Florence in 1455 some of the principal adherents of 
 Cosimo tardily recognised that they were being reduced to 
 impotence. Thinking to establish an oligarchy in which 
 political power would be shared among the ohgarchs, 
 they discovered that they had set up the rule of a single 
 person by whose authority everything was done. They 
 insisted that the necessity no longer existed for government 
 
72 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 by Balias periodically appointed. They desired to re- 
 establish the old system by which the magistracies were 
 filled by lot and not by selection ; they demanded that the 
 registers on which the taxes were based should be revised 
 in the spirit of the law of 1427. Cosimo did not think it 
 worth while to oppose them, for, the boxes being filled 
 exclusively with the names of his supporters, it made little 
 difference to him whether they were chosen by lot or selection ; 
 while any revision of the taxation registers was likely, as 
 he knew, to bear with special severity on the very men 
 who advocated a re-assessment. Scarcely were the changes 
 made when the authors of them realised their mistakes. 
 Their share of political power diminished while their 
 assessments considerably increased. There was no one to 
 whom they could look to save them from themselves, 
 except Cosimo. In 1458 he was urged by the very men 
 who had sought to limit his power to reassert it in its original 
 form. They suggested a Parlamento, a Balia, and all the 
 apparatus by which Florence was wont to cloak force under 
 constitutional forms. Cosimo refused. He had gone about, 
 says MacchiaveUi, as if he did not observe that anything 
 had happened, and expressed surprise that he should now 
 be asked to sanction measures which were only justified 
 by special circumstances of crisis. He was, however, very 
 far from blind to the situation. He knew that there was 
 need for action if his ascendency was to be preserved, but 
 he preferred to use a cat's-paw to do what was necessary, 
 while he himself remained in the background. In Luca 
 Pitti he had always had in reserve the man who was required 
 for any emergency such as that which had arisen. 
 
 The name of Luca Pitti has become almost a household 
 word, even though only a few have any knowledge of the 
 man. He was the originator of the Pitti Palace, that stately 
 building in Oltrarno whose galleries form the delight of 
 every lover of Art. He was a man of great wealth and 
 wide business connections, and thus his interests were 
 similar to those of Cosimo. He loved popularity and the 
 exercise of power, but his sense of his own importance was 
 such that it could scarcely occur to his mind that his position 
 
RISE OF THE MEDICI ASCENDENCY 73 
 
 in the State was secondary. He would scarcely attempt to 
 be Cosimo's rival, because he failed to recognise that any 
 one could be a rival to him. He was thus a convenient 
 agent for Cosimo, who could employ him to do work which 
 he did not care to do himself. Luca Pitti would find his 
 reward in living broadly in the public eye and concentrating 
 attention upon himself. Cosimo would be satisfied to have 
 the work done, and rather preferred to be behind the scenes 
 so long as he could pull the strings. In 1458 some changes 
 seemed to Cosimo to be certainly desirable. The con- 
 stitutional party which hankered after the system of 1427 
 had grown too powerful, and must be taught a lesson. 
 The lower classes were presuming upon the indulgence 
 which had been shown to them. Some of the principal 
 adherents of the Medici party were suspected of enriching 
 themselves at the pubUc expense. A coup d'etat might 
 prove useful aU round. 
 
 On July I, 1458, Luca Pitti entered upon office as Gon- 
 falonier. His first act was to endeavour to persuade the 
 Signoria and the Colleges to go back on the reforms of 1455. 
 He proposed that the boxes which had then been filled 
 with the names of those eligible for office should be dis- 
 regarded, and that the offices should be filled by selection 
 instead of by lot. His efforts at persuasion proving un- 
 successful, he determined to call a Parlamento, in order to 
 secure from the popular voice the authority which he 
 required. The Parlamento of 1458 is a fair example of the 
 methods of procedure usual on such occasions. Foreign 
 mercenaries overawed the city from outside. A httle 
 army of over 6000 men held the Piazza of the Signory. 
 The Medici partisans in arms blocked all the approaches. 
 Under such conditions of choice Luca Pitti submitted his 
 proposals to the assembled citizens. With one accord 
 they shouted assent, and the proceedings were over. 
 
 The Balia to which the pubhc had delegated its authority 
 had time and a fair field before it. Its tenure of power 
 was for six months, and thus the revolution was secure 
 at any rate for a season. The changes which it effected 
 were considerable, and they profoundly influenced the 
 
74 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 whole future regime of the Medici. The boxes were filled 
 with sufficient names to last for five years. Accopiatori 
 were to select the members of the Signoria for seven years. 
 A Committee of Eight, which in the past, Uke the Ten of 
 War, had occasionally been appointed to assist the govern- 
 ment, was now crystallised into a permanent Commission 
 of " the Eight of Watch and Ward," whose functions were 
 to preside at elections, and take cognisance of offences 
 done against the State. In honour of the greatness of 
 the occasions the Priors of the Signory were no longer to 
 be known as Priors of the Arts, but as Priors of Liberty, 
 while the Gonfalonier's position as chief magistrate was 
 emphasised by assigning to him a central place among his 
 colleagues instead of a place to the side of them as heretofore. 
 
 In addition, a new Council of The Hundred was established 
 which in later days superseded the two Councils of the 
 People and of the Commune. This Council was composed 
 of suitable persons selected by all those who had held the 
 office of Gonfalonier since Cosimo's return in 1434. It 
 was thus entirely in the interest of the ruhng body, and 
 only served to throw a covering of constitutional forms 
 around the naked autocracy which was supreme. 
 
 The work was clinched by the banishment of a number 
 of persons who were on various counts disagreeable to the 
 government. Some of these were corrupt tax-gatherers 
 who deserved their fate, but in the majority of cases the 
 fault of the delinquents lay only in their objections to 
 autocratic control. 
 
 During his remaining years the power of Cosimo was 
 not again questioned. He himself retired still further into 
 the background, leaving the active management of affairs 
 in the hands of those whom he could trust. At the time 
 of the coup d'etat he was nearly seventy years of age, and 
 was a martyr to gout. In 1464 he died, and was hailed 
 by his admiring fellow countrymen as " Pater Patriae." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 COSIMO DEI MEDICI AND THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 
 
 Incongruities of Cosimo's character — Character of the Florentines — 
 Sympathy of Florence with Humanism — Effects of commerce on national 
 character — Spiritual life and aspirations of Cosimo — Cosimo and the cult 
 of Plato — Florence and the Revival of Learning — Francesco Petrarch — 
 Revival of Greek — Meanings and implications of Humanism — Recovery 
 of ancient MSS. — Professors of Greek in Florence — Foundation of acad- 
 emies — Humanism in relation to Christianity — Harmony between Cosimo 
 and Florentine ideals — Cosimo as a collector of books — Efforts to reconcile 
 Platonism and Christianity — Gemisthos Plethon — Ambrogio Traversari. 
 
 IF Cosimo's government and political method are the 
 natural sequence of the complexities and incongruities 
 inherent in the constitutional conditions, the man himself, 
 in an even greater degree, represents the complexities and 
 incongruities which are inherent in the nature of man. 
 The world has not yet decided how far the code of morals 
 which should govern private life is applicable to the 
 necessities of politics and diplomacy. In Cosimo's day the 
 distinction between the two spheres of action was clearly 
 defined and taken for granted. The Prince, as a Prince, 
 must not hesitate to do all those things which were necessary 
 to maintain his position. As a private man he might be 
 what he Mked. Cosimo's character as a private man is not 
 undeserving of the encomiums it has received. Mac- 
 chiavelU can by no means be accused of undue partiahty 
 for the Medici, but he says of Cosimo that he not only 
 surpassed all his contemporaries in wealth and authority, 
 but also in prudence and generosity. " He was generous 
 to his friends, kind to the poor, comprehensive in discourse, 
 cautious in advice, grave and witty in his speech. . . . 
 If, in relating Cosimo's actions, I have rather followed the 
 style of princely biographies than that of sober history, it 
 
 75 
 
76 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 need not furnish occasion for surprise ; for of so extra- 
 ordinary an individual I was compelled to speak with 
 unusual praise." 
 
 Even as a statesman and politician Cosimo might easily 
 have been far worse than he was. Judged by the spirit of 
 his age and by the standard afforded by contemporary 
 rulers, he was in advance of public opinion rather than 
 behind it. The dagger of taxation was certainly more 
 respectable, for constant use, than the dagger of the assassin. 
 A cold and calculating self-interest, which does what is 
 necessary and no more, is almost a virtue compared with 
 the wild, sullen, soulless excesses which mark the public 
 life of a Ferrante of Naples or a Galeazzo Maria Sforza of 
 Milan. Yet it is hard to reconcile Cosimo's political method 
 with spiritual aspirations and a genuine sense of religion, 
 though not more hard than it is to-day to reconcile some 
 of the canons of commerce with the canons of strict rectitude 
 and private honour. To deny spirituality to Cosimo would 
 be to misunderstand him altogether. It was a part of the 
 versatility of the Medici character — a versatility especially 
 conspicuous in Lorenzo — to be genuinely affected by 
 apparently the most contradictory impulses, and frankly 
 to exhibit all the gradations which in each of us connect 
 together the elements of the savage and the saint. It is 
 this frank exhibition of incongruities which gives to the 
 Medici character its pecuhar fascination. To deny the 
 incongruities, to assert that all that was bad in them 
 represents them as they really were, while all that appears 
 good in them was an effect of artifice and hypocrisy, is a 
 confession that a complex character is beyond the reach 
 of our understanding. 
 
 The true secret of the Medici influence over Flcrence is 
 not to be discovered in their poHtical method alone. It 
 lies rather in the perfect harmony which in all things existed 
 between them and the aims, ideas, and aspirations of the 
 Florentine people. The evil and the good in then corre- 
 sponded to the mixed elements of the Florentine character. 
 If their political method was unscrupulous and corrupt, 
 yet it was only a more scientific manifestation of methods 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 
 
 77 
 
 which had been long in use, methods which were regarded 
 as inevitable, and which were thoroughly understood. 
 Other and purer methods must have proved ineffectual for 
 the accomplishment of any purpose at all, because they 
 would have been out of touch with experience and practice. 
 Corruption in political institutions does not imply the 
 general corruption of the people who live under them. 
 Modern America, Walpole's England, Medician Florence, 
 are examples that a nation may be sound, though some 
 features of its government, viewed in the abstract, may 
 seem to be rotten. In Florence the currents of national 
 life flowed on undisturbed by the storms and vicissitudes 
 of political rivalries, and that national life was strenuous, 
 commodious, and aspiring. No mistake can be greater 
 than to regard the Florentines of this epoch as a frivolous, 
 fickle people, ready to surrender their dear inheritance of 
 liberty to the man who would give them festivals and 
 entertainments ; thoughtless of life's problems so long as 
 they could enjoy the carnal and material pleasures which 
 life could afford. The city which had produced Dante 
 did not in two hundred years become utterly unworthy 
 of her greatest son. The Florentines were a people in 
 whom human nature manifested itself in all its many and 
 varied aspects ; qualities in them which debased them to 
 the level of the beasts are found in close association with 
 qualities which drew them near to the nature of the gods. 
 On the whole, they were a sober, striving, industrious race 
 of citizens, engaged from day to day in the work of the day, 
 but with interests not wholly concentrated on the struggle 
 for material subsistence. They had a passion for their 
 city, a sense of their citizenship, a love for what was beautiful, 
 and a critical sense which enabled them to distinguish 
 between false beauty and true ; they had virtues, in fact, 
 which cover much that was degrading and redeem much 
 that was imperfect. Nor is it too much to say that they 
 were on the whole a God-fearing people. At a time when 
 ceremonial observances had almost usurped the place of 
 a religious life, it is astonishing to find in the best thought 
 of Florence at this epoch so deep a sense of the mystery of 
 
78 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 life, so general a perception of the insufficiency of mere 
 convention to satisfy the inmost cravings of the heart. 
 While careful of observances, they were conscious that these 
 in themselves were not enough, and the susceptibility of 
 the Florentines to fall under the spell of deeply religious 
 natures, such as St. Antoninus and Savonarola, is an in- 
 dication that they reahsed their own shortcomings and 
 had an instinct for loftier standards than those which 
 they had actually attained. No ruler could have been 
 acceptable to Florence who was totally lacking in a sense 
 of the inner and higher life. 
 
 The pre-eminence of Florence at this time in philosophy 
 and scholarship is not without connection with the deeper 
 side of the Florentine character. Just as the profound 
 erudition of Dante, and the wide range of his philosophical 
 speculations, were applied by him to the noblest purposes 
 of spiritual life, so the Florentines, in the days of the Medici, 
 regarded the philosophical Renaissance, not as an end in 
 itself, but as a means to a more perfect understanding of 
 the relation between God and man. The study of Plato, 
 the revision of mediaeval views on Aristotle in the light of 
 the authentic text, were more enthusiastically pursued at 
 Florence than elsewhere, and, side by side with the abstract 
 passion for antiquity, there is to be found the constant 
 concrete object of effecting a philosophical reconciliation 
 between the teaching and ideals of Paganism and 
 Christianity. 
 
 It was, however, in the domain of Art that, in the fifteenth 
 century, Florence could claim a supremacy in Italy which 
 was unquestioned. The municipal patriotism of the 
 people had long found expression in beautifying the city 
 by noble public buildings and princely private houses. 
 Architecture called in the services of sculpture tc give 
 finish and decoration to its creations ; the spacious walls 
 of churches and palaces gave scope for the work of the 
 fresco painters. The wealth of Florence brought with it 
 a standard of comfort, a luxury, and a sense of refinement 
 which called into activity the artistic energies of the workers 
 in gold, silver, tapestry, and brocade ; indeed, there was 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 
 
 79 
 
 no department of life in which Art did not have its 
 recognised and appointed place. All the city looked on at 
 the efforts of its artists with the keenest appreciation and 
 with a critical judgment. The inspiration to great work 
 came only indirectly from the encouragement of patrons : 
 their fount and origin were to be found in the national life. 
 Such a city and such a people could not have been wholly 
 given up to corruption. Splendid impulses cannot spring 
 from a soil that is sour and defiled. Only that man or that 
 family could truly represent Florence who shared her 
 enthusiasms and was in perfect sympathy with the intel- 
 lectual and artistic currents of her life. 
 
 But before all things Florence was essentially a com- 
 mercial city. It was its wealth, and the consequences 
 which follow from wealth, which determined the bent of 
 its intellectual and artistic activities. It was the oil of 
 commerce which kept the lamp of culture burning. Thus 
 a statesman in charge of the interests of Florence must 
 direct his domestic and foreign policy to advancing her 
 commercial welfare. He must be able to preserve order 
 and peace within her territories, and without ; he must be 
 alive to every opportunity of acquiring points of vantage, 
 and extending the facilities for easy communication with 
 the world at large. 
 
 If, however, great wealth derived from commerce is 
 capable of bringing to a nation great advantages, it will 
 also impart to the people certain characteristics which are 
 neither amiable nor admirable. It is liable to produce a 
 commercial standard of honour which is quite incompatible 
 with an evangelical standard of conduct. The business of 
 life will largely consist in besting a competitor and ousting 
 rivals from the field. The chivalric qualities of honesty, 
 loyalty, and good faith will tend to fall into the background. 
 Ease and leisure breed luxury, which chiefly seeks full 
 scope for its enjoyment, and insidiously undermines the 
 qualities of grit, self-sacrifice, and humility of spirit, which 
 are the foundation-stones of lofty character. The Floren- 
 tines did not wholly escape from the snares which beset 
 the feet of a wealthy commercial people. The gradations 
 
8o 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 in the social scale revealed from time to time, though 
 unfrequently, an embittered antagonism between capital 
 and labour. The lower classes sought relief from the 
 monotony of their daily toil in sensation and in unwholesome 
 amusement during their hours of leisure. Shows and 
 spectacles devised for their entertainment would not be 
 without effect in extending the popularity and consolidating 
 the influence of an ambitious ruler. Such a ruler indeed, 
 if he was to succeed, must be a man of many parts. He 
 must have assimilated to himself all the elements which 
 made up in combination the Florentine character. The 
 more he was himself the microcosm of the State, the more 
 surely, almost unconsciously, he would direct it to the 
 service of his personal ends. 
 
 The edifice of personal rule in Florence must therefore 
 rest upon sympathy with the many-sided activities, interests, 
 prejudices, and weaknesses of the Florentine people. 
 This sympathy must not be the spurious product of cal- 
 culated artifice, but a genuine and native instinct of the 
 heart. No ruler could have succeeded had he set him.self 
 to exploit the characteristics of the Florentine people for 
 his own benefit. He would have been instantly detected 
 as an impostor. The man who sought to rule in Florence 
 must be a representative and not a tyrant : his ascendency 
 must be the natural and spontaneous expression of the 
 fact that he embodied, in a fuller degree than any other 
 man, the genius of the people. And, above all, he must 
 possess in ample measure the saving grace of tact. He 
 must know how to conceal from a people jealous of their 
 liberties the fact that they were under a master ; to disguise 
 personal rule under the appearance of free institutions. 
 Any ostentatious exhibition of regal splendours or authority 
 would have been fatal to the exercise of power. To the 
 outward view he must be simply the leading citizen in a 
 free city, and the test of his kingcraft lay in the skiU with 
 which he succeeded in maintaining the illusion of liberty 
 in conjunction with the practical exercise of personal 
 sovereignty. 
 
 Such being the conditions under which alone a personal 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 8i 
 
 government could be established in Florence, it remains 
 to see how far the character of Ck)simo dei Medici answered 
 to the conditions. 
 
 The spiritual hfe of Cosimo is not to be gauged merely 
 by the number of churches and religious houses which 
 he built and endowed. The amount which he expended 
 on such external manifestations of his piety was enormous, 
 and in accordance with the spirit of his times he believed 
 that, by such expenditure, he could do something to square 
 his account with God. Lorenzo, in his Ricordi states 
 that between 1434 and 1471, the sum expended in pubHc 
 buildings, works of benevolence, and contributions to the 
 public funds amounted to 663,755 fiorini, or over £330,000. 
 This represents about three and a half millions sterling 
 of money of to-day. " Though many may think it better 
 to have some of this in hand," says Lorenzo artlessly, " I 
 consider such an expense to be a great honour to our posi- 
 tion. The money is well placed, and I am quite content." 
 
 But Cosimo never deluded himself by the supposition 
 that lavish contributions could satisfy all the requirements 
 of his religious Hfe. He recognised that, however much 
 he might do for God by charity and church building, it 
 was but an insignificant return for what God had done for 
 him. " He had never been able," he said, " to lay out so 
 much in the service of God as to find the balance in his 
 own favour." Though the spiritual Hfe of Cosimo finds 
 external reflection in the Church of S. Lorenzo, the Convent 
 of S. Marco, and his hospital for pilgrims at Jerusalem, its 
 inner depths are revealed in those intervals of retirement, 
 when he withdrew himself from the demands of poHtics 
 and commerce to meditate and be stiU, and to enjoy the 
 conversation of the keenest thinkers of his age. At such 
 times this shrewd, hard, somewhat cynical man of affairs 
 became the humble searcher into the truth of things and 
 into the mystery of the world. It was in the study of 
 Plato that he found the fuUest satisfaction for this side of 
 his nature. Though his own knowledge of Greek did not 
 permit him to read Plato in the original, he engaged Marsilio 
 Ficino to make translations, and it was in the conceptions 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 which he derived from Plato rather than from orthodox 
 sources that he found the fullest consolation for the sorrows 
 which he was called upon to endure. Of these sorrows, the 
 most bitter was the death of his son Giovanni at the age 
 of twenty-two. The Pope, Pius II., sent to Cosimo a letter 
 of condolence, to which he repUed in a letter which is extant. 
 " We," he says, " as you so wisely and religiously write, 
 we know nothing. Yet, as to my son Giovanni, I have 
 never thought anything ill done, since he has passed, not 
 from life, but from death to life. For this that we call life 
 is really death. That is true life which is eternal." * 
 
 Though the sentiment to which Cosimo here gives ex- 
 pression may be derived from his Platonic studies, there is 
 the touch of nature in it which makes it akin to every age : 
 Cosimo dei Medici and Shelley meet on common ground. 
 
 Dust to the dust ! but the pure spirit shall flow 
 Back to the burning fountain whence it came, 
 
 A portion of the Eternal, which must glow 
 
 Through time and change, unquenchably the same. 
 
 Peace, peace ! he is not dead, he does not sleep — 
 He hath awakened from the dream of life — 
 
 'Tis we, who, lost in stormy visions, keep 
 With phantoms an unprofitable strife. 
 
 Adonais, 38, 59. 
 
 Though Cosimo was no hypocrite, yet he was not un- 
 conscious of a certain antagonism between his actions as 
 a politician and his aspirations as a private individual. 
 He half recognised that he was trying to lead two lives, 
 one of which was incompatible with the other, but he ex- 
 cused himself on the ground that a statesman is irresistibly 
 compelled by circumstances to many courses which no 
 man in a private station could honestly adopt, and therefore 
 it was necessary that as far as possible these evil deeds 
 should be expiated by works of piety. 
 
 Thus, as we regard the spiritual aspect of Cosimo's 
 character, we are not presented with a picture of the perfect 
 man. There is in him much inconsistency and contra- 
 diction. For this very reason he was intelligible to his 
 
 * See the expression of the same sentiment in Lorenzo's " Commaitary " 
 p. 386 of this book. 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 83 
 
 compatriots, while impressing them as being above, rather 
 than below, the standard of their own spiritual aspirations. 
 
 The cult of Plato, which had in Cosimo an enthusiastic 
 votary, arose as a consequence of the revival of ancient 
 learning, in which Florence from the first had led the way. 
 The spirit of the ancient world, contained within its litera- 
 ture, its art, and its ruins, had ceased to operate upon the 
 mediaeval mind. The Latin language, though in a debased 
 form, survived the collapse of the Roman Empire, and, 
 in Italy at any rate, some knowledge of the works of the 
 principal poets and historians and orators of classical 
 Rome long continued to linger after Rome had fallen. 
 But the ancient Latin authors were read, not in order to 
 obtain light from the civiHsation and culture of the past, 
 nor with any idea of assimilating that culture to the con- 
 ditions of the present. They were read only in relation to 
 mediasvalism ; as affording illustrations and allegories of 
 mediaeval modes of thought. The spirit of antiquity 
 awoke again in Francesco Petrarca of Arezzo, who only 
 failed to be a Florentine because he was a citizen of the 
 world. He felt instinctively that within the hterature of 
 ancient Rome was to be found the talisman which would 
 lead his own world to the enjoyment of all the arts, re- 
 finements, and graces of life; that in the knowledge of 
 the past lay the hope of the future. He saw that the fame 
 of Virgil or Cicero must be undying, and thought, by 
 modelling himself on them^ to secure his own immortality. 
 To recover the purity of the Latin tongue, to cleanse it of 
 barbarisms, to make the old world live again in the heart 
 and thought of man, became with Petrarch a passion. 
 Not content with greedily absorbing whatever of Latin 
 literature still survived, he explored the dusty recesses of 
 monastic hbraries for long-forgotten manuscripts of Latin 
 writers. Thus he recovered much of the Latin classics of 
 which the world for centuries had been in ignorance. 
 Whatever he found, he copied, sometimes with his own 
 hand, and thus secured it for ever. Medals, inscriptions, 
 ancient ruins, everything, however apparently insignificant,' 
 which could throw a gleam of light upon antiquity seemed 
 
84 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 to him of importance. He pursued his self-imposed 
 tasks not in the spirit of an antiquarian, but rather of a 
 prophet, who saw the vision of a nobler, better world 
 resulting from the recovered knowledge of the world which 
 had passed away. The fascination of his personality, the 
 magnetism of his enthusiasm, attracted to him a band of 
 devoted disciples, who carried forward the work in the 
 spirit of the master, knowing no rest until every discover- 
 able scrap of Latin literature which still survived was 
 permanently rescued from oblivion. 
 
 But Petrarch had not been long engaged in his work 
 for the revival of antiquity before he discovered that 
 behind the Hterature and civilisation of Rome, there was 
 a still more potent influence for culture in the literature 
 and civilisation of Greece. A sure instinct rather than 
 personal knowledge led him to divine all that was contained 
 for the future in the restoration of Greek form and Helleric 
 thought. Under Petrarch's influence the Florentire, 
 Giovanni Boccaccio, set himself to do for the Greeks what 
 his master had done for the Latins. Greek scholars ivcm 
 Byzantium were induced to visit Italy, and before the end 
 of the fourteenth century Manuel Chrysoloras was estab- 
 lished in Florence, where his lectures on the language, 
 literature, and philosophy of Greece attracted an enthu- 
 siastic following. Greek scholarship from this time became 
 the passport to high office, wealth, and consideration. 
 Kings, princes, and rich merchants vied with one another 
 in collecting manuscripts from every quarter. The most 
 acceptable present which Cosimo dei Medici could make 
 to Alfonso of Naples was a copy of Livy's History, while 
 the reputed bones of a classic author began to assume a 
 sanctity almost superior to that possessed by the rehcs of 
 orthodox saints. Of four Florentine Chancellors between 
 1427 and 1465, three— Leonardo Bruni Aretino, Carlo 
 Marsuppini, and Poggio Bracciolini— stand successively 
 at the head of the scholarship of their day. The appearance 
 of the great Humanist, Gianozzo Manetti, as Florentne 
 representative before King Alfonso, impressed the monaich 
 so profoundly that " he sat motionless, like a brazen static, 
 
I fino : 
 
 VMANA.COSA.E.LHAVER. 
 
 COM PASSION E. AG LAFFLICTI. 
 [ i ecomc cbca<iciafcunapfoan;iabcnc:adcoloro 
 mafTimamcntce richefto : h'quali gia banno 
 diconforto hauuto mirticri.& hanolo trouiito 
 inalcuno,fraiquali fc alcunomai nbebb(;:ogIi 
 fa caroogia nericiuetcc piacicre:Io lono uno 
 di qucI]j,pc/o cbc dala mia prima giouanc//a 
 adcjucRo tempo: oltra modo cfTcndo ftato accefo da ahiTTimo 
 &! nobileamorc fuorfcpiu afTai cbclamia baffa coditionc no parcbbc, 
 narrandolo lofirichicdefTe.-quatiinquc appo co!oro,cbc difcrcti ci..r,o 
 &alacui notiziaperuennc. loncFulTilodato&damoIco piu reput.iio; 
 Non dimcno^mifu cgh digrandilTima faticha alToP.Virc : ccrcc non 
 per crudcltadcia donna amata: ma perfupcrch/oamorc nela mcnte 
 concicpto dapocbo rcgolato appccito .ilqual ,pcrcio aninno rcgolaco,o 
 coucncuolc terminc milafcia cotcnto flare piu dinoia.cbc dibifogno 
 nocra fpcfTe uohc fentirc mifaccua . Nclacjual noia,tJto rcfriggicno 
 miporfcro ipiacicuoli ragionamcnti dalcuno amicocxic dilcctcuoli 
 facconlolationi cbcio porto Urmiirima oppmione per quclloelTcrc 
 aducnuto,cbe non fia morto. Ma ficomc adcolui piac-juc ilqualc 
 clRndo cgli infinitOjdicdc pcrleggc inconmucabilc adcutrc lecoic 
 mondanc baucrc fine : Umio amore oltrc a.iognalcro fcruetc, c il^uaie 
 nuina !orz.i diproponimcnto o dico:ifcglio,o diucn^.ogna cuidcntc^o 
 pcncolo cbc fcguire nc potclfc baucua poiruto nc rSpcre. ncpicgbarc 
 per femedcfimo improcclTo di'tcmpo fidiminuimguifajchefoio difc 
 ncia mere mia alprcfcntc ma InliiatocjiiclpuctrCjChciifaio diporgicrc 
 adcbi troppo no limcttellc ncfuoi piu ciipi pelagbi nauK.ido: pcrcbc 
 douc faticofo clTcrc folcua ogni afianno. toglcndomi dilccicuolc mi 
 icnto eflcrc rimafu: Ma qnantu.juc cicifau fia Iapcna,nQn pcrcio c 
 lamemoria fuggita de!-cnc!uii gia rcciruoti datimi dacboloro : da' 
 quail perbcniuolenzadaloro ad mc porta ta cranograui lemic faticbc; 
 ncpallcrando mai ficomio credo fcnon pcrmortc : Et pcrcio, cbcla 
 gratitiidincfccudocbio credo fra hltrc uirru c fcmametc dacomedar_, 
 ct ilcontrariodabiafimarc per non parcn'grato^o niccboflclTo^pofto 
 di non iiolcrinqucl pocho cbc per me fipuo incambio dicio,cbcio 
 ncic[;ctti bor.i cbc libero dire mipoffotSi i'c noacoloro cbcme aiuta' 
 rono:Aiqiiali per aducrtura prior fcnnoo per lalorobuona ucnuta 
 
 FIRST PAGE OF BOCCACCIO'S DECAMERON 
 
 PUBLISHED BY VALDARFER, 1471 
 
 From the only perfect copy, presei~ucd in the Ryland's Library, Manchester 
 Most of the copies of this edition are supposed to have perished in Savonarola's bonfire of the Vanities:' 1497 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 85 
 
 and did not even brush away a fly that had settled upon 
 his nose at the beginning of the oration." 
 
 Thus the revival of classical learning assumes various 
 phases. Successive stages of its evolution develop and 
 modify at each stage its scope and purpose. There is 
 first of all the sense of antiquity, and all that it stood for 
 in relation to the modern world. There is the recognition 
 that * " there had been a time when men had used all their 
 faculties of mind and imagination without fear or reproof ; 
 not restricted to certain paths or bound by formulas, but 
 freely seeking for knowledge in every field of speculation, 
 and for beauty in all the reahns of fancy. . . . The 
 Pagan view was now once more proclaimed that man was 
 made, not only to toil and suffer, but to enjoy. 
 It was thus that Humanism first appeared, bringing a 
 claim for the mental freedom of man, and for the full 
 development of his being." Throughout the stages of 
 the revival this influence was more or less constant. A 
 scholarly knowledge of the works of classical writers was 
 sought, not so much as an end in itself, but as a means 
 whereby to re-invest the present with all the graces, re- 
 finements, and intellectual freedom which had characterised 
 the civilisations of the past. The aim of Humanism was 
 to break the fetters which mediseval authority and con- 
 vention had imposed upon the mind of man, and the most 
 potent instrument of emancipation was to be found in the 
 recovery of the classical point of view. 
 
 But the recovery of the point of view could only be 
 effected by the rediscovery of the works of classical writers. 
 This involved a two-fold process. It was necessary that the 
 extant works should be re-read and assimilated in the light of 
 the new inspiration, and it was necessary that all that was 
 lost and forgotten should be diligently sought and made 
 available for the intellectual service of man. Thus it was, as 
 a result of the first process, that Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, and 
 others, whose works, or parts of them, had always survived, 
 now began to be read as literature. The search for alle- 
 gorical meanings began to give way to an intellectual 
 
 * Sir R. C. Jebb in the Cambridge Modem History, vol. i. ch. xvi. 
 
86 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 appreciation of the subject-matter, and an artistic apprecia- 
 tion of literary form. In Italy especially there was the 
 realisation that what was in truth the native language of the 
 country found in the classical Latin writers its most com- 
 plete and its purest form, and there followed the passion 
 to restore that language to all its original purity and force. 
 
 The second process resulted in the appearance of scholar- 
 collectors, who ransacked every obscure recess where 
 classical manuscripts were likely to lurk. Hundreds of 
 works were discovered of which the world had long ceased to 
 have any knowledge ; fresh and abundant stores were pro- 
 vided on which the new inspiration could feed and flourish. 
 Among the most ardent of the collectors were Poggio Brac- 
 ciolini and Francesco Filelfo. The former is distinguished 
 for the surprising number of Latin classics which his inde- 
 fatigable researches restored to the world of scholarship. To 
 him we owe, amongst many others, the " Institutions " of 
 Quintilian in their entirety, Cicero's "Pro Caecina," Silius 
 Italicus and Lucretius, and twelve plays of Plautus. Filelfo's 
 enthusiasm directed him to search for Greek manuscripts in 
 Constantinople itself, and his marriage to the daughter of 
 John Chrysoloras, brother of the famous Florentine teacher, 
 doubtless gave him facilities in his explorations of which he 
 took full advantage. Poggio and Filelfo are only represen- 
 tative of many others— Aurispa, Guarino, Niccolo di Niccoli 
 —who were engaged in the same work. Though much still 
 remained to be gleaned after them, yet by 1450 almost the 
 full range of classical literature was open to the investiga- 
 tions of scholars. 
 
 Mere collection, however, could be of little general value 
 unless accompanied by adequate instruction; nor could 
 instruction be adequate until the critical faculty had assumed 
 power enough to temper indiscriminate enthusiasm. The 
 accumulation of books in a library does not necessarily imply 
 a capacity to discriminate between the literary values of the 
 books themselves. The period of instruction was neces- 
 sarily concurrent with the period of accumulation and 
 enthusiasm. The period of scientific criticism was a later 
 development, which, after producing splendid results, even- 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 87 
 
 tually vapoured out in dilettanteism, in a meaningless 
 passion for form, after the spirit, which gives life to forms, 
 had departed. With this latest phase of the revival we are 
 not however here concerned. The phases of instruction and 
 criticism, in their relation to Florence and Cosimo dei 
 Medici, are notable in the one case for the endowment of 
 professorships, in the other for the foundation of academies. 
 
 In both of these movements Florence led the way. From 
 the time when Manuel Chrysoloras established himself in 
 Florence, and taught Greek there, to the time of Angelo 
 Poliziano, eminent Humanists were never lacking in Florence 
 to expound the works of the classical writers, and stimulate 
 enthusiasm for classical learning. 
 
 At first the supply of native scholars of the Greek language 
 and texts was not sufficient to meet the demand. It was 
 necessary to import eminent Greeks from Constantinople to 
 fill what may be called the Chair of Greek in Florence and 
 other centres of Humanism. They could only be attracted 
 by the promise of large emoluments, and by the prospect of 
 the esteem and consideration in which they would be held. 
 Some great and wealthy patron became therefore almost a 
 necessity, if the Humanistic movement was to flourish in any 
 given locality. Thus in the earlier stages of the revival we 
 see a succession of wandering scholars— of whom the number 
 was largely increased after the fall of Constantinople- 
 moving from one centre, where their stock of classical texts 
 had been exhausted, to another ; everywhere received with 
 honour, and in the enjoyment of princely salaries as long as 
 they could be induced to stay. To the political rivalries of 
 the ItaHan States may be added their rivalry for the posses- 
 sion of some elegant Humanist, whose presence would give 
 pecuhar distinction to that State which was fortunate 
 enough to secure him. 
 
 But the popular methods of exposition which were suitable 
 to a lecture room and a miscellaneous audience were soon 
 found inadequate to the needs of the small residuum of 
 serious scholars. Something else was needed if the highest 
 requirements of scholarship, criticism, and intellectual as- 
 piration were to be satisfied. The foundation of academies 
 
88 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 answered to the need. An academy meant the concourse 
 of a few select, sympathetic souls, who met together from 
 time to time to give free play to the critical faculty or to 
 the intellectual fantasy ; to probe deeper than was possible 
 in a lecture room the problems of scholarship, philosophy, 
 and life suggested by the study of the ancient authors. 
 
 In such symposia every question came under review. 
 Questions of' character and conduct, of the philosophical 
 basis of the Christian faith, of the possible reconcihation of 
 Pagan with Christian modes of thought, questions of 
 classical archaeology and literary form— all were discussed in 
 the free spirit of intellectual emancipation bom of the 
 Revival of Learning ; and perhaps, as in Florence, an academy 
 would maintain the cult of some great Pagan demi-god, such 
 as Plato, and would celebrate him with external ceremonial 
 as well as with inward communings. The lamp before his 
 bust would never be suffered to bum low ; his birthday 
 would be a festal day, an annual season for special homage 
 and devotion. 
 
 The inevitable tendency of such a movement as the 
 Revival of Learning was to exalt the Pagan ideal of life, and 
 to lead men to follow it whithersoever it led. But it was a 
 movement which was not consciously, or necessarily, anti- 
 Christian : most certainly it was not anti-ecclesiastical. 
 The most prominent Humanists of their day, Thomas of 
 Sarzana and iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, became succes- 
 sively Popes Nicolas V. and Pius II., nor in the cultivation 
 of ancient learning could they see anything at variance 
 with the profession and practice of the Christian faith. The 
 Revival of Learning in fact affected individuals individually, 
 but from the aggregate of individuals we can deduce two 
 tendencies, which sometimes unite in the same person, 
 though in the main they are fairly distinct. The one finds 
 in antiquity and in classical scholarship a powerful incentive 
 to break loose from Christian and mediaeval thought and 
 life ; the other leads men to use the new leaming in the 
 interests of Christian scholarship and for the establishment 
 of the faith and ecclesiastical discipline. Though it is mis- 
 leading sharply to discriminate between the Christian and the 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 89 
 
 Pagan Renaissance, especially when dealing with the period 
 of its origins, yet one and the same movement was eventually 
 to produce a school of pure Pagans, such as those who would 
 not read St. Paul's Epistles in the original for fear of spoiling 
 the purity of their style, and a school of Christian scholars, 
 such as Erasmus, who devoted all the resources of their 
 learning to purify the text of the Testaments, the Apocry- 
 phal Books, and the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers, 
 and to place Christianity on a sounder foundation of truth. 
 
 All the characteristics of the Revival of Learning are 
 visible in operation during the age of Cosimo dei Medici. 
 He understood, sympathised with, and gave encouragement 
 to all. Apart from his patriotic desire to see his native city 
 at the head of every movement which could dignify and 
 exalt it, he was himself genuinely inspired by the passion for 
 antiquity. He personally felt the need of that larger, freer 
 intellectual life which at that time could only find its sus- 
 tenance in the productions of the ancient world. The 
 instinct for Plato, which led him, though ignorant of Greek, 
 to absorb all that was possible of the Platonic teaching 
 through the medium of expositions and translations, was 
 not a fashionable affectation. It shows him in complete 
 accord with the Humanistic spirit, and bent upon perfecting 
 the development of his own intellectual hfe. He established 
 Marsilio Ficino, the most celebrated Platonist of his age, in 
 the immediate neighbourhood of his own villa at Careggi : 
 he commissioned him to translate the available works of 
 Plato, and provided the means by which Ficino was able to 
 devote his whole hfe to Platonic study. Though the teach- 
 ing and point of view of Ficino were still largely coloured by 
 mediaeval mysticism and allegory, and though he was lacking 
 in the faculty of criticism and insight into the Greek mind, 
 yet the impulse which he gave to Greek studies in Florence was 
 enormous, and the reciprocal influence of Ficino on Cosimo 
 and of Cosimo upon Ficino, can scarcely be exaggerated. 
 " For Melchisedec," says Ficino, " that great high priest, had 
 but one father and one mother. I, the least of priests, have 
 had two fathers,* Ficino the medico and Cosmo dei Medici. 
 ♦ Ficino was the son of a physician. 
 
90 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Of the one I was born ; of the other I have been born again." 
 In a letter to Lorenzo, written shortly after Cosimo's death, 
 Ficino bears eloquent testimony to his patron's ardour for 
 what he understood to be the philosophy of Plato : " I had, 
 for more than twelve years, philosophic conversation with 
 Cosimo, and he was as acute in disputation as he was wise 
 and vigorous in action. I owe Plato much ; to Cosimo I 
 owe no less. He showed me in practice those virtues which 
 Plato presented to my mind. After he had occupied him- 
 self with philosophy all his life, and in the midst of the 
 gravest matters, he, following the example of Solon, devoted 
 himself more than ever to it in the days when he was passing 
 from darkness into light. For as you know, who were 
 present shortly before his departure, he still read with me 
 Plato's book on ' the Highest Good,' as though he would in 
 reality now go to enjoy that good which he had tasted in 
 conversation." It is easy to see from what sources Lorenzo 
 himself derived the opinion attributed to him by Valori, 
 " that without the Platonic doctrine it was not possible to 
 be a worthy citizen, nor easy to follow the Christian doctrine." 
 
 The same instinct for antiquity which inspired Cosimo 
 as a philosopher inspired him as a collector of books. The 
 collector's passion for the mere accumulation of precious 
 things was not without its influence upon him, but that 
 which in books was most precious to Cosimo was the wisdom 
 which they contained. There was not about him a tinge of 
 that selfishness, that joy in exclusive possession, which so 
 often accompanies the expenditure of the wealthy virtuoso. 
 He made magnificent collections, and he distributed them 
 magnificently. During his exile in Venice he founded there 
 the library of S. Giorgio Maggiore. When that famous 
 collector and most representative Humanist, Niccolo di 
 Niccoli of Florence, had ruined himself in the purchase of 
 manuscripts, Cosimo gave instructions that all Niccolo's 
 pecuniary demands were to be met without question by the 
 Medici Bank. NiccoU at his death bequeathed 800 manu- 
 scripts to Cosimo and other trustees ; and of these 400 were 
 sent by Cosimo to enrich the library of the Medici Convent 
 of S. Marco. He commissioned the Florentine bookseller, 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 
 
 Vespasiano da Bisticci, to employ copyists whose pro- 
 ductions were presented to the monastery at Fiesole which 
 Cosimo had built, and his private collection still remained a 
 splendid one. 
 
 But Cosimo was not contented merely to collect books. 
 He was anxious to secure for Florence the most competent 
 instruction in humane letters. To some of the most 
 prominent Humanistic teachers he was bound by close ties 
 of personal friendship — to Poggio for example. It was by 
 Cosimo's efforts that Florence secured the services of John 
 Argyropoulos, who held the chair of Greek there for fifteen 
 years (1456-1471), The poor and obscure scholar, Thomas 
 of Sarzana, found a kindly patron in Cosimo, who employed 
 him to catalogue the books in the S. Marco library. Pope 
 Nicolas V. the most splendid of Renaissance Pontiffs, never 
 forgot the debt which, as humble Thomas of Sarzana, he 
 owed to his early patron. Cosimo employed in his own 
 service, and as tutors to his sons, the learned Enoch of Ascoli, 
 and Christoforo Landino, the editor of Dante. He was, as 
 has been seen, the intellectual father of Marsilio Ficino. At 
 a time when the Revival of Learning was in its peripatetic 
 stage it was a service of the first importance to attach by 
 permanent ties to Florence the most eminent men in the 
 world of scholarship, and even from passing strangers 
 Cosimo was quick to extract everything which they could 
 give. It was from the visit of the Greek, Gemisthos Plethon, 
 that he derived the idea of founding the Florentine Academy 
 in the interests of philosophy and Platonic studies. 
 Plethon, whose reputation as a Greek scholar and expositor 
 of Plato exceeded that of all other men, came to Florence in 
 1438 in the train of the Greek Emperor, John Palaeologus. 
 His services were required at the Council which Pope 
 Eugenius IV. had summoned to Florence in order to effect, 
 if possible, a reconciliation between the doctrinal differences 
 which separated the Eastern and Western branches of the 
 Catholic Church. Plethon's great age — he had himself 
 been the teacher of Manuel Chrysoloras — his venerable 
 appearance, his reputation for profound learning, made him 
 a conspicuous and interesting figure in the retinue of the 
 
92 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Eastern Emperor. Here was the genius of Greece em- 
 bodied, and inspiration could be drawn as if from its very 
 source. The Hvely fresco of Benozzo Gozzoh in the Medici 
 Palace in the Via Larga enables us to form an idea of the 
 appearance of the strange guests to whom Florence now gave 
 welcome, and of the keen interest which everything about 
 them inspired. Cosimo was strongly attracted to Gemis- 
 thos Plethon and his oracular and authoritative disquisitions 
 on the Platonic system. A fantastical reconciliation between 
 Paganism and Christianity, which the philosopher embodied 
 in a treatise, made him all the more interesting. Cosimo 
 determined to pursue the matter further, and laid the 
 foundation of the Florentine Academy, which was to reach 
 its greatest height of fame in the days of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent. 
 
 No less genuine was the interest shown by the Medici in 
 the labours of those scholars who devoted all the energies of 
 their scholarship to the service of orthodox Christianity, 
 Of these the most representative in Cosimo's day was Fra 
 Ambrogio Traversari, who acquired a sound knowledge of 
 Greek, perhaps as a pupil of Manuel Chrysoloras, and was 
 reckoned the most accomplished Latinist in Florence. 
 Becoming at an early age a brother of the Camaldulese 
 Order, he established in the Convent dei Angioli almost an 
 academy of his own. There were wont to congregate all 
 who were most intent on liberal studies in Florence. 
 Cosimo and his brother Lorenzo were constant visitors, 
 delighting in the theological and philosophical conferences 
 which Ambrogio conducted. He employed his knowledge 
 of Greek chiefly in translating the Greek Fathers of the 
 Church — St. Chrysostom's Homilies on St. Paul, Dionysius 
 the Areopagite, and many others. When Cosimo asked him 
 to translate for his benefit " The Lives of the Philosophers," 
 by Diogenes Laertius, the friar could not refuse his generous 
 benefactor, but he bitterly deplored the loss of time upon a 
 task which would withdraw him from the proper sphere of 
 his labours, and doubted whether the lives of Pagan sages 
 were a fit subject to occupy the attention of a Christian 
 monk. 
 
THE HUMANISTIC REVIVAL 93 
 
 Thus there was no aspect of the Revival of Learning 
 which was unfamihar to Cosimo, no side of it, nor stage of 
 it, with which he was not personally concerned. " If," says 
 Burckhardt, " we seek to analyse the charm which the Medici 
 of the fifteenth century, especially Cosimo and Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, exercised over Florence and all their contem- 
 poraries, we shall find that it lay less in their political 
 capacity than in their leadership of the culture of the age. 
 ... To Cosimo belongs the special glory of recognising in the 
 Platonic philosophy the fairest flowers in the ancient world 
 of thought, of inspiring his friends with the same belief, 
 and thus of fostering within Humanistic circles themselves 
 another and a higher resuscitation of antiquity." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI— EARLY YEARS OF LORENZO 
 
 Lorenzo's birth and parentage — Lucrezia Tornabuoni — Lorenzo's educa- 
 tion — Educational system of Vittorino da Feltre — Lorenzo's character and 
 appearance — Early initiation into public life — The Medici and the Triple 
 Alliance — Crisis caused by the death of Francesco Sforza, 1466 — The Pitti 
 conspiracy — Luca Pitti — Diotisalvi Neroni — Niccolo Soderini — Agnolo 
 Acciaiuoli — Lorenzo secures support of Ferrante of Naples — The con- 
 spirators secure the aid of foreign Powers — Lorenzo and the conspiracy 
 — Collapse of the conspiracy — Its effect on the Medici power. 
 
 "T FIND," says Lorenzo dei Medici in his Ricordi, or brief 
 notes upon events of importance which had happened 
 in his family, " by the books of our father Piero, that I was 
 bom on the first day of January, 1448." Lorenzo, hov/ever, 
 was not, according to the old reckoning of the calendar, a 
 new year child, for the year was timed to begin on March 25. 
 According to the new style, Lorenzo was born on January i, 
 1449. His father, Piero dei Medici, was the elder of Cosimo's 
 two legitimate children, and he was in his thirty-third year 
 at the time of the birth of his eldest son. Though Piero 
 was not unaccustomed to public affairs, yet persistent ill- 
 health had prevented him from taking that prominent 
 position in the State which, as Cosimo's eldest son and 
 representative, was naturally his. " Piero il Gottoso," the 
 name by which he was commonly known, sufficiently 
 indicates the nature of the malady which was the bane of 
 his life. Cosimo, in choosing a wife for his son, had not 
 looked beyond the limits of the city of Florence. Sharing 
 and respecting the prejudices of the people against splendid 
 external alliances, he married Piero to Maria Lucrezia di 
 Francesco Tornabuoni, of the once noble House of Torna- 
 quinci. The Tomaquinci, however, in the fourteenth 
 century had abandoned their nobility and their name, and 
 
 94 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 
 
 95 
 
 as Tomabuoni had descended into the ranks of the Florentine 
 burghers. 
 
 Of all the direct influences which moulded the character 
 of the young Lorenzo, none was more important nor more 
 permanent than the influence of his mother. Though the 
 reputed portrait of her by Botticelli — now at Berlin — is 
 neither a portrait of Lucrezia nor a work by Botticelli, one 
 still pictures her as a woman of great attraction and quiet 
 charm, with grave and steadfast eyes, and ample folds of 
 braided hair. Her outward beauties of face and form were 
 the reflection of the inward graces of her character, which 
 was grave, dignified, and simple. Her intellectual attain- 
 ments conspicuously distinguished her even in that age of 
 highly cultivated and gifted women, and she possessed in 
 no ordinary degree the faculty of inspiration by which she 
 drew forth from others, more richly endowed than herself, 
 the best that was within them. As a good wife and mother 
 she devoted herself to her husband, her children, and her 
 household, but the daily round of domestic cares and social 
 duties was not allowed wholly to absorb her life. She was 
 keenly alive to the intellectual and literary influences which 
 were in motion around her, and was herself considered in 
 her day as a poet of no mean order. Her lyric poems in 
 the vernacular are still spoken of with admiration, but such 
 poetic fame as still remains to her rests chiefly on her poetical 
 renderings of stories from the Apocrypha and the sacred 
 legends. In oUava rima she composed the Life of St. John 
 the Baptist and the Story of Judith, and in terza rima the 
 Story of Esther, the Life of Tobit, and also a Life of the 
 Virgin Mary. The example and encouragement of his 
 mother must necessarily have exercised an important in- 
 fluence upon the poetical efforts of her son Lorenzo. It was 
 she doubtless who stimulated his enthusiasm for the Tuscan, 
 as opposed to the Latin, language, as being fully adequate 
 to the expression of the highest poetic feehng. 
 
 Lucrezia's poetry is mainly inspired by her religious sense- 
 She was a woman of genuine and unaffected piety, which 
 was inward and individual, not to be satisfied merely by 
 formal and external observances. That vein of genuine 
 
96 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 pietistic emotionalism which cannot be ignored in Lorenzo 
 was, as has been seen, in the Medici character, but it was 
 further developed and intensified in him through his mother. 
 
 Poetry and piety, however, were not associated in Lucrezia 
 with mawkishness and incapacity for practical affairs. She 
 was, on the contrary, distinguished by her strong common 
 sense and wide interests. Thus it was that when Lorenzo 
 had grown to man's estate and had assumed the burden of 
 government, Lucrezia remained his constant companion 
 and most confidential adviser. The close and unbroken 
 sympathy which existed between mother and son forms one 
 of the most pleasing traits in the character of each. 
 
 The education of Lorenzo, and of his younger brother 
 GiuUano, born in 1453, was the equal concern of his parents 
 and of his grandfather Cosimo. The old man, after the 
 death of his son Giovanni and his infant son, had now no 
 longer any one to care for except Piero and his children. 
 The Medici Palace in the Via Larga had indeed become, 
 as Cosimo sadly complained, too large a house for so small 
 a family. There was consolation, however, in providing 
 and superintending the education of the grandchildren on 
 whom the hopes of the family rested. They must be 
 equipped at every point for the career which the future 
 held in store for them. 
 
 The most enlightened exposition of the general principles 
 of education which was at the time available was to be 
 found in the precepts and the practice of Vittorino da Feltre 
 of Mantua. Foremost among the scholars and Humanists 
 of his day, he differs from the majority of his brethren in 
 that he sought to rest his immortality not upon his individual 
 achievement, but upon the services which he was able to 
 render, through education, to humanity. Nearly five 
 hundred years ago he recognised, more clearly perhaps 
 than we recognise to-day, that the full and perfected man 
 can only be produced by the full and perfect development 
 of all sides of man's nature. Man to him was a compound 
 of the spiritual, the physical, and the intellectual. To 
 develop exclusively the spiritual nature of man was to turn 
 him into an ascetic and so render him useless for the service 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 97 
 
 of humanity. To develop exclusively his intellectual nature 
 was to turn him into a prig, and so to make him not merely 
 useless, but at the same time insufferable. To care only 
 for his physical nature was to glorify man as an animal, and 
 to ignore the finer qualities which differentiate man from 
 the beasts that perish. In his school at Mantua Vittorino 
 provided a system of education which was equally to be at 
 the command of the rich who could pay for it, and for the 
 poor who could not. On the intellectual side it embraced 
 the highest possible training in liberal studies, in science, 
 mathematics and general culture. On the physical side 
 much attention was given to what we now call " physical 
 training " — to gymnastics, riding, fencing, dancing, and 
 other exercises, by which the bodily graces of man can be 
 brought to their highest perfection. But all that Vittorino 
 did was done in no spirit of paganism or revolt against 
 orthodox religion, but " for the love of God," in whose 
 honour, and for whose glory, the perfecting of man, God's 
 noblest work, was sought. 
 
 Vittorino died in 1446, but his memory lived after him, 
 and the principles of education which he had elaborated 
 became a standard for the times to come. Cosimo dei 
 Medici must have been well acquainted with his aims and 
 method. The education of Lorenzo and Giuliano was 
 conducted on Vittorino's lines. The superintendence of 
 their studies was entrusted to tutors who were among the 
 most eminent scholars of the day — Gentile di Becchi of 
 Urbino, afterwards Bishop of Arezzo, Christoforo Landino, 
 Marsilio Ficino, and John Argyropoulos. In bodily exercises 
 both the young men excelled, Lorenzo in particular 
 acquiring early a passion for horses, and a capacity to sit 
 a horse, which remained with him through life. From the 
 first Lorenzo gave evidence of surprising versatility and 
 powers of mind. Enthusiastic biographers speak of his 
 quickness of intellect as being something " almost divine," 
 and he did indeed give ample proofs that there was scarcely 
 a department of knowledge to which he was a stranger, 
 scarcely a subject in which he was not interested. To a 
 thorough grounding in Latin and Greek, he added an appre- 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 ciation of Dante which he doubtless derived from Landino. 
 In philosophy he acquired everything which Ficino had to 
 teach, and outstripped his master in the range and breadth 
 of his philosophic speculations. But it was Ficino who 
 fitted him to receive those wider impressions which he owed 
 to his familiar intercourse with Poliziano and Pico della 
 Mirandola. At a time when the scientific method had not 
 yet been evolved, when the study of the sciences was 
 clouded by lingering mediaeval superstitions, Lorenzo had 
 nevertheless learned to discard superstitions, to question 
 old authority, to set on one side, as old wives' tales, the 
 fables of astrology and magic, and in medical science to see, 
 in the works of Galen, the most promising starting-point for 
 new and improved methods. 
 
 At an early age he acquired some right to the title of 
 Magnificent by which he is known. We find him indeed 
 addressed as " Magnifico " during his father's lifetime. 
 Though the title was not uncommon, for it was constantly 
 used as an expression of courtesy to eminent men, yet 
 in the case of Lorenzo it had a distinctive appropriateness, 
 for he was accustomed to do magnificent things in a magni- 
 ficent way. Valori's story about the horse which was sent 
 him from Sicily is a case in point. Lorenzo acknowledged 
 the present by sending gifts in return whose value three or 
 four times exceeded that of the horse. Being reproved by 
 his tutor for such lavish acknowledgments, he replied that 
 there was nothing so glorious or so royal as to outdo all 
 men in generosity. In his Ricordi he very simply and 
 naively gives us an instance of the same thing. Having 
 been sent to Milan in 1469 to represent his father at the 
 christening of the infant son of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, " I 
 gave to the Duchess a gold collar with a large diamond 
 which cost 3000 ducats. Whence it followed that the cf ore- 
 said Lord desired that I should stand godfather to aJ his 
 other children." The splendour of Lorenzo's toumanents 
 will be a subject of special reference later. 
 
 Thus Lorenzo grew to manhood, and from contemporary 
 accounts we are able to form a fairly accurate picture of 
 him in our minds, and to reahse certain individual pecu- 
 
LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT 
 
 FKOM THE I'AINTINT, BY GIORGIO VASARI 
 Vjffisi Gallery, Florence 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 
 
 99 
 
 liarities which help to make him human and vivid. " Lor- 
 enzo," says Valori, who was one of his intimates, " was a 
 man rather above middle height, broad in the shoulders, 
 with a body soHd and robust. In agility he was second to 
 none, and though in exterior bodily gifts Nature had proved 
 herself a stepmother to him, yet in inward qualities of the 
 mind she had indeed shown herself a benignant mother. 
 He had an olive complexion, and though his features were 
 deficient in beauty, yet there was a dignity about him 
 which compelled the respect of the beholder. His sight 
 was weak, and his nose stunted {depresso), and he was 
 entirely without the sense of smell. This, however, did not 
 trouble him : on the contrary, he was accustomed to say 
 that he was much indebted to Nature, seeing that there 
 are many more things which offend the sense of smell than 
 things which give pleasure to it." This view was not only 
 philosophical, but in Florence in the fifteenth century it was 
 also probably correct. 
 
 The well-known portrait of Lorenzo by Giorgio Vasari, 
 though not contemporary, corresponds fairly accurately 
 with this picture of him which Valori executed in words. 
 His features and general appearance are also made familiar 
 by numerous medals which in his own day were struck in 
 his honour. Pages of such medals are reproduced in Litta's 
 " Genealogies of Illustrious ItaHan FamiUes." The idea is 
 presented to us of a man somewhat large-built, loosely 
 proportioned, with irregular features. That he was ugly in 
 a marked degree cannot be questioned. All the masculine 
 beauty of the family was monopolised by Giuliano. But 
 Lorenzo possessed that peculiar charm which so often goes 
 with pronounced ugHness. His geniality, his skill in knightly 
 exercises, a bright and fascinating manner, and a power 
 over men which comes unconsciously from sympathy and 
 a desire to understand them, more than redeemed an un- 
 prepossessing exterior. The easy graces of his temperament 
 were at the same time accompanied, as Valori remarks, by 
 a dignity which compelled respect. Familiar as he was, 
 he was not one with whom anybody could take a liberty. 
 Interested in everything, he gave free rein to his many-sided 
 
100 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and apparently contradictory nature, following it whither- 
 soever it should lead him, and sometimes it exalted him to 
 the heights, and sometimes it debased him to the depths. 
 
 Lorenzo's natural precocity was sharpened by accidental 
 circumstances. His grandfather was an old man, and 
 though Head of the State, desirous in his later years of keep- 
 ing in the background. His father was a confirmed invaUd. 
 Thus it fell to Lorenzo, at an early age, to act as the represen- 
 tative of the family. Ceremonial visits, embassies to various 
 Courts, gave him an ease, a familiarity with the world and 
 with men, which, in a mere boy, were extraordinary. His 
 tutor. Gentile di Becchi, tells us of a visit of ceremony which, 
 when little more than a child, he paid on behalf of the 
 family to Duke John of Anjou, who was in Florence prose- 
 cuting his father's, King Rent's, claims to the throne of 
 Naples. " Having assumed," says Gentile, " a French 
 costume, the boy made so charming an appearance that we 
 were immediately surrounded by an immense concourse 
 which followed us to the King's son. The Duke received 
 him as if he were some little Frenchman newly arrived from 
 France, but his gravity belied his costume." In 1465, 
 shortly after Cosimo's death, Lorenzo was despatched by 
 his father to Pisa to give an official welcome to Don Federigo 
 of Aragon. Federigo was traveUing northward from Naples 
 as escort to the fair Hippolita Sforza, whose marriage 
 with Alfonso of Calabria, Federigo's brother and Ferrante's 
 heir, was to cement the newly formed alliance between 
 Milan and Naples. It was on this occasion that Lorenzo 
 formed a close and lasting friendship with the young Nea- 
 politan Prince. He certainly commended himself very 
 favourably to Hippolita also, for at a later date we find her 
 writing charming letters to him, and using the privilege of 
 intimacy to borrow money from him with a confidence and 
 candour which are quite engaging. 
 
 The splendour and assiduity which Lorenzo was encour- 
 aged by his father to display in the matter of the Sforza- 
 Aragonese marriage were prompted not by the passion for 
 ostentation, but by shrewd, cool and calculating pohcy . 
 Piero dei Medici, notwithstanding his feeble health, was as 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 
 
 lOI 
 
 keenly alive as Cosimo had been to the requirements and 
 interests of Florence in her relations with external powers, 
 nor was he less active in advancing them. The Triple 
 Alliance between Milan, Naples and Florence was the key- 
 stone of Piero's foreign policy. By it alone he thought 
 the peace of Italy could be maintained. The task of main- 
 taining it was difficult and delicate, for he had to reconcile 
 his own people to an alliance with the Aragonese, which was 
 opposed to their tradition and their sentiment ; to reconcile 
 them to an alliance with Sforza who bore the appearance 
 of a despot tyrannising over a State which but for him 
 might have been free ; and he had to compose the jealousies 
 and differences which existed between Sforza and Ferrante, 
 differences which were constantly threatening the disruption 
 of the artificial aUiance which held them together. Every 
 effort, therefore, which Piero could put forth was exerted to 
 keep Naples and Milan on good terms, and, being unable 
 to act personally, he relied upon the tact, obedience and 
 good sense of his eldest son to smooth over difficulties, and 
 keep everybody in good temper. Thus under the guise of 
 ceremonial visits, brilliant entertainments, and affable 
 small-talk, Lorenzo was, in fact, engaged in matters of delicate 
 dipLomacy and high politics. His missions to Milan and to 
 Venice in 1465 had their definite political purpose apart from 
 Piero's desire that his son should gain experience in affairs 
 and knowledge of the world. The splendid reception given 
 by Piero, in the name of the State, to Hippohta and her 
 escort, as she made her way to Naples, set the crown upon 
 the efforts of the son to bring to fulfilment the policy of his 
 father. Florence was thus definitely committed to the 
 Triple Alliance ; the Medici stood out before all men as its 
 authors and supporters ; and Hippolita was half-way on 
 her journey to her NeapoUtan home. 
 
 In 1466 Lorenzo was despatched by his father to Rome, 
 wheare the primary purposes of his visit had before long to be 
 subordinated to the one great question — the maintenance 
 of t;he Triple AlHance. Ostensibly Lorenzo went to Rome 
 upoin private business connected with the commercial affairs 
 of the Medici firm. His maternal uncle, Giovanni Toma- 
 
102 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 buoni, was manager of the Medici bank in Rome, and was 
 well versed in all the life of the place. It was essential to 
 the family position in Florence that it should have influential 
 backing in Rome, and Cosimo's relations with the Papacy 
 had always been cordial. He was the first to contemplate 
 the possibility of a Cardinalate for one of his own family, 
 a possibility which in later days Lorenzo was to realise. 
 It was well, on every ground of private and public affairs, 
 that the rising hope of the House of Medici should know 
 his way about in Rome, and should add to his experiences 
 gained in the north some acquaintance with the intricacies 
 of the Papal Curia. 
 
 It was while Lorenzo was thus engaged in Rome that an 
 Italian crisis was precipitated by the death of Francesco 
 Sforza, Duke of Milan. What would happen now to the 
 Triple Alliance ? Would the dynasty of a condottiere 
 adventurer be recognised by the other Powers now that 
 its founder was dead ? Would Florence continue to main- 
 tain relations which by many were regarded as of a personal 
 rather than of a political character ? Francesco Sforza and 
 the House of Sforza were very different things. What 
 would be the effect of Francesco's death upon Ferrante's 
 policy ? Would France prosecute its Orleanist claims upon 
 the Duchy ? These were questions of immediate moment, 
 and Piero saw that not an instant must be lost in solving 
 them, if the peace of Italy was to be preserved. He at 
 once declared himself in favour of Galeazzo Maria, Francesco's 
 eldest son, and endeavoured to secure the recognition of the 
 new Duke by the other Powers. His letters, written to 
 Lorenzo at Rome, give evidence of the anxiety with which 
 he regarded the situation, and of his confidence in his son 
 as one who would be able to influence the Papal policy in 
 favour of the Sforza dynasty. Pope Paul II., though he 
 was a Venetian, was not disposed to lend himself to large 
 schemes of Venetian aggression. Venice herself was too 
 much pressed by the Turks in her Levantine possessions to 
 be able to prosecute big schemes in Lombardy with any 
 chance of success. Louis XI. of France was at enmity 
 with the House of Orleans, and altogether indisposed to aid 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 
 
 103 
 
 it in making good its claims on Milan. Galeazzo Maria 
 himself, at the moment of his father's death, was assisting 
 Louis with Milanese troops against the Duke of Burgundy. 
 All the circumstances, therefore, seemed favourable to the 
 maintenance of the status quo, especially as Ferrante saw in 
 the accession of Galeazzo Maria to Milan all the guarantees 
 for which he had looked when negotiating his aUiance with 
 the dukedom of Francesco. Ferrante, therefore, had no 
 immediate object to serve by refusing to recognise Galeazzo 
 as Duke. 
 
 In Italy generally the crisis which threatened to follow 
 Francesco Sforza's death was of short duration ; everything 
 remained as it was. In Florence, however, it gave rise to 
 events which seriously threatened the Medici ascendency, 
 events which called for the exercise of all the quahties of tact 
 and statecraft with which Piero and Lorenzo were endowed. 
 
 The dissensions which arose in Florence upon the question 
 of the renewal of the Milanese alliance were the symptom 
 rather than the cause of a serious schism which had arisen, 
 since the death of Cosimo, within the inner Medician ring. 
 In the last years of Cosimo himself his power had been 
 exercised indirectly, and from the background : to outward 
 appearance Luca Pitti was the most prominent representa- 
 tive of the party. Among the adherents of Cosimo there 
 were many who regarded him as only primus inter pares, 
 and these resented the idea that Florence was under the 
 government of a single man. Men who had chafed 
 under the ascendency of Cosimo were still less Ukely to 
 admit the claims of Piero to uncontrolled power. Cosimo 
 was a man of immense force of character, with an influence 
 based upon half a century of experience and active service. 
 Piero was an invalid who hved much in retirement, who 
 had taken little part in affairs, and who had the reputa- 
 tion of being weak and inefficient. The death of Cosimo 
 therefore afforded an opportunity for a change. While 
 the general system represented by the Medician oligarchy 
 was to remain, another set of actors was to come forward 
 to play the principal parts. Naturally Luca Pitti thought 
 himself eminently qualified for the chief role. Others, 
 
104 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 though scarcely of this opinion, yet saw that nothing could 
 be done except in conjunction with Luca. Thus an ill- 
 assorted association of Medician malcontents was got 
 together, of which the members were distrustful of one 
 another and animated by differing motives ; yet they 
 were obliged to act together under penalty of not acting 
 at all. Of this association the leading members were Luca 
 Pitti, Diotisalvi Neroni, Niccolo Soderini and Agnolo 
 Acciaiuoli. 
 
 The character of Luca Pitti has been indicated in a pre- 
 vious chapter. He was a man with no fixed or decided 
 views beyond the conviction that if any one was to be 
 supreme in the State it must be himself. He was to prove 
 the evil genius of the movement, for he would not act 
 vigorously himself nor allow others to do so. His fate was 
 to be the most bitter which such a man could be called upon 
 to endure, for after abandoning his associates, he was a 
 witness of their punishment, while he himself was ignored 
 as scarcely worth powder and shot. 
 
 Diotisalvi Neroni had been one of Cosimo's most intimate 
 and trusted advisers. To him, more than to any other, 
 Cosimo had entrusted the fortunes of his son and of his 
 House. Piero leaned upon him and regarded his advice as 
 thoroughly trustworthy. It was upon Neroni's recommenda- 
 tion that Piero determined, on his father's death, to call in 
 the debts due to his firm, with the result that many business 
 houses were paralysed for want of credit, private persons 
 also being seriously embarrassed. Piero's desire to take 
 stock, and see exactly where he stood financially, is intelh- 
 gible, and Neroni may have been perfectly honest in the 
 advice which he gave. But the result of it was seriously 
 to shake the popularity of the Medici. Thus in view of his 
 subsequent conduct it is not surprising that Neroni should 
 have been credited with Mephistophelean designs. His 
 motives throughout the whole affair are obscure, but his 
 action is clear. He allied himself with Luca Pitti and was 
 the moving spirit in the events which followed. 
 
 Niccolo Soderini was a visionary constitutionalist who 
 dreamed of the good old days when Florence was, in his 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 105 
 
 imagination, indeed a Republic, wherein all duly qualified 
 citizens were equals in the conduct of the government. He 
 set before himself no sordid personal ends, but was influenced 
 only by sentiment and pubHc spirit, but he was a man who 
 thought revolutions could be effected by public meetings and 
 fine speeches, and was altogether out of place when drastic 
 action was called for. His brother, Tommaso Soderini, 
 laughed at him and his designs. Through good report and 
 ill Tommaso remained steadfast as the devoted and most 
 influential adherent of the Medici ascendency. 
 
 Agnolo Acciaiuoli had suffered much for the Medici in 
 the far-off days of Cosimo's exile. The proofs he had then 
 given of his attachment remained unquestioned till nearly 
 the end of Cosimo's rule when personal causes produced 
 an estrangement. Macchiavelli says that Agnolo was angry 
 with Cosimo because his son Raffaelo Acciaiuoli had been 
 compelled to restore the large dowry he had received from 
 his wife Alessandra dei Bardi in consequence of his ill- 
 treatment of her. It was thought that he attributed to 
 Cosimo the failure of another son to secure the Archbishopric 
 of Pisa, and was further annoyed by the marriage of 
 Nannina dei Medici, Cosimo's granddaughter, to Bernardo 
 Rucellai instead of to a member of his own family. What- 
 ever the precise reasons, they must be mainly attributed to 
 personal pique. He was not regarded by his fellow con- 
 spirators as altogether safe, nor was he entrusted by them 
 with the full extent of their designs. 
 
 The Pitti, or Neroni, Conspiracy went through the various 
 stages common in past times to such enterprises. There was 
 first the attempt to proceed by constitutional means to a 
 revision of the Constitution ; then the appeal to force and 
 assassination, and lastly, when punishment in the form of 
 proscription and banishment had fallen upon the exiles, 
 there was the endeavour to recover all that had been lost 
 by the assistance of foreign arms. With each of these stages 
 Lorenzo was directly or indirectly connected. Indeed the 
 Pitti conspiracy may be regarded as his first initiation into 
 the intricacies and dangers of Florentine domestic statecraft. 
 After some prehminary mutterings the storm gathered 
 
io6 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 when, on the death of Francesco Sforza, his son, Galeazzo 
 Maria, sought from the Signoria a continuance of the 
 Florentine-Milanese alliance, and a loan of ready money. 
 Piero had no hesitations, for to him the close association 
 between Florence and the Sforzas was the best guarantee for 
 the peace of Italy. But his opponents were averse from 
 renewing an engagement which from the first had been a 
 departure from traditional policy, an engagement which 
 might quite correctly be viewed as a personal relation 
 between Florence and Francesco. They were disinclined to 
 give any money, and on general grounds were opposed to an 
 arrangement which was undoubtedly useful to the Medici 
 as a support to their power, but for that very reason ob- 
 jectionable to those who wanted to overthrow it. The 
 antagonism of interests took shape in the parties of the 
 Mountain and the Plain, so called from Luca Pitti's house 
 being on the slope of S. Giorgio, while the Medici Palace in 
 the Via Larga lay on the level of the river. The strength of 
 the two factions was fairly equal, and foreign Powers were 
 doubtful on which horse to put their m.oney. It was 
 essential that Ferrante should be won over to the Medici 
 side, and therefore Piero determined to despatch Lorenzo 
 to Naples. There the young diplomatist gained a brilliant 
 success, and Ferrante's letter to him of Sept. 1466, when the 
 troubles were over, is eloquent testimony to the strong 
 impression made upon the King's mind by Lorenzo's per- 
 sonal fascinations and diplomatic skill. Having made sure 
 of Ferrante, Lorenzo returned to Florence, and was at the 
 Medici villa of Careggi at the moment when the plans of the 
 conspirators had reached the stage of violence and 
 assassination. 
 
 The constitutional efforts of the Mountain had failed 
 because there was no unity of purpose among the leaders. 
 Niccolo Soderini had become Gonfalonier and had done 
 nothing but discuss. Whatever he proposed proved to be 
 distasteful to one or other of his associates. Six months 
 later an attempt at an accommodation had only proved 
 that along those hues nothing could be done. It was resolved 
 to appeal for assistance outside, and to accomplish a revolu- 
 tion by the support of foreign arms. Bartolommeo Colleone, 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 107 
 
 the Venetian Condottiere, was approached : Borso d'Este of 
 Ferrara contributed the aid of his brother Ercole at the head 
 of an armed force. The party within the City was to arm its 
 adherents, and, in conjunction with the Ferranese contin- 
 gent, overpower the Medici. To clench matters, Piero was 
 to be assassinated. Such was the scheme in outline. But 
 Piero also had his adherents outside. The appeal to foreigners 
 was double-edged, for the Medici could command a far 
 greater measure of sympathy and support from external 
 sources than their opponents. Their influence indeed 
 largely rested upon their foreign relations. The designs of 
 the conspirators, and the hostile movements of Este, became 
 known to Giovanni Bentivoglio of Bologna, who warned 
 Piero of his danger, and thus provided him with a terrible 
 weapon against his adversaries, for he could now accuse them 
 of seeking to disturb the peace of the republic through the 
 agency of foreign armies. Piero determined to lay Benti- 
 voglio's letter before the Signoria, and to counter the hostile 
 preparations of the Mountain by arming his own adherents. 
 
 It was on August 23, 1466, that Piero proposed to be 
 carried in his litter to Florence from Careggi. Valori tells 
 the story of Lorenzo's tact and coolness which saved his 
 father's life on this day. The story must be accepted with 
 caution, but there is sufficient contemporary evidence, 
 over and above that of Valori, to justify us in attaching 
 some general credit to it. It appears that Lorenzo had 
 started from Careggi for Florence early in the morning, 
 while Piero was to follow later. As he rode he became 
 conscious of a number of suspicious persons upon the way, 
 and overheard inquiries as to the whereabouts of his 
 father. He promptly sent back a message that Piero would 
 do well to come to Florence by another route. It was thus 
 that Piero escaped an ambush which had been laid for him 
 in the villa of Giovanni Neroni, Archbishop of Florence, 
 Diotisalvi's brother, which he must have passed had he 
 taken the road originally intended. 
 
 It is difficult to reconcile all this with the equally well- 
 attested fact that Piero had already received fuU disclosures 
 as to the designs of his enemies from Niccolo Fedini, a notary 
 in their confidence who betrayed them, and that the road 
 
io8 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 which Piero was expected to take was neither the nearest nor 
 most natural route from Careggi to Florence. But without 
 the story, it is difficult to account for the hasty flight of the 
 Archbishop, who is only known to have been connected 
 with the conspiracy by his loan of his villa for the 
 purposes of the ambuscade. 
 
 It is at any rate certain that in connection with these 
 events Lorenzo did give signal proofs of courage, coolness 
 and tact. Ferrante's letter of Sept. 28 comes close upon 
 the heels of the events themselves, and in it he makes special 
 reference to the "prudence, manhness, and courage with 
 which you have borne yourself in the reconstitution of the 
 government ... the love which we bear you compels us to 
 pray that you will continue to bring forth such fruits from 
 your worthy exertions as you have already begun to show, 
 so creditable to yourself, so glorious to your Magnificent 
 father, and a source of so much expectation to your City." 
 
 In Florence itself the fortunes of the parties swayed for a 
 few hours in equal balance. Piero was accused of employing 
 Milanese auxiliaries to support his cause, but he could 
 clearly show that he was prompted to this course by the 
 intrigues of his opponents with Colleone and with Este. 
 Each side held its adherents under arms, but the con- 
 spirators were divided and shrank from giving the word, 
 while Piero, who knew that a Signoria favourable to himself 
 would shortly come into office, had no object in precipitating 
 a contest. For twenty-four hours the parties stood facing 
 one another, and at any moment the City might be in the 
 throes of a sanguinary street battle. But Lorenzo was 
 active not only in preparations, but in negotiations. Luca 
 Pitti, it is said, was tempted by a proposal that Lorenzo 
 should marry his daughter. A hollow reconciliation, which 
 only emphasised the weakness of the conspirators, was 
 patched up. The leaders were received by Piero in his 
 bedroom at Careggi, and from his bed he reproached his old 
 friends and associates for their factiousness and ingratitude. 
 Lorenzo reinforced his father by his own persuasive powers, 
 and the Pitti conspiracy melted away. 
 
 The time had now come to take advantage of this abortive 
 revolt in order still further to strengthen the Medici position 
 
RULE OF PIERO DEI MEDICI 109 
 
 and rid the family for ever from those who had been pre- 
 sumptuous enough to question its ascendency. The Sig- 
 noria of September, which was composed of Medici partisans 
 followed the procedure which was usual on such occasions. 
 A Parlamento, assembled in the Piazza of the Signoria, 
 appointed a Balia with full authority for four months. It 
 decreed that for ten years the public offices should be 
 filled not by lot but by selection : the executive authority 
 of the Podesta was strengthened in the Medici interest, and 
 for ten years the special executive committee of Eight was 
 to be invested with extraordinary powers. In other words 
 all the offices of the State were placed for a long term of years 
 at the disposal of the Medici party. 
 
 It now only remained to deal with the heads of the beaten 
 party. Diotisalvi Neroni was banished, never to return, 
 and his brother, the Archbishop, fled to Rome. Niccolo 
 Soderini and his son were banished to Provence for twenty 
 years. Niccolo had anticipated his sentence by a voluntary 
 withdrawal to Venice. Agnolo Acciaiuoli followed his ex. 
 ample. Luca Pitti alone remained. It was felt that the worst 
 punishment which could be inflicted in his case would be to 
 ignore him as a man of no importance. He was accordingly 
 ignored. There was no marriage between his daughter and 
 Lorenzo, but the girl was permitted to marry Giovanni 
 Tornabuoni instead. Luca Pitti found himself shunned 
 and ridiculed by all. " His house," says Macchiavelli, " now 
 presented only a vast solitude where previously crowds of 
 citizens had assembled. In the streets, his friends and 
 relatives, instead of accompanying him, were afraid even to 
 salute him ... the superb edifices which he had begun were 
 abandoned by the builders . . . many who had presented to 
 him articles of value now demanded them back as being 
 only lent, and those who had been wont to extol him as a 
 man of surpassing excellence now termed him violent and 
 ungrateful." 
 
 The Medici knew the difference between appearances and 
 realities. By such simple and ingenious methods they gave 
 an example of how bombast and aspiring incapacity can be 
 reduced to their true dimensions. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE COLLEONIC WAR— LORENZO. POET AND LOVER— 
 
 Despair of the Pitti exiles— The exiles stir up war against Florence— 
 Bartolommeo CoUeone— Attitude of Venice— The CoUeonic war— Alliances 
 
 and counter-alliances — Romagna chosen as the seat of war Dilatory 
 
 conduct of the war— Combat at Molinella— Dissatisfaction in Florence 
 —Intervention of Louis XI. of France— End of the Colleonic war- 
 Literary work of Lorenzo, 1467- 1469— The sonnets and " Commentario " 
 —Biographical interest of the " Commentario "— Lucrezia Donati— 
 Lorenzo's tournament, 1469— Marriage of Lorenzo to Clarice Orsini, 
 December 1468— Lucrezia Tomabuoni on Clarice Orsini— Conclusion of 
 the marriage negotiations— Marriage celebrations— Lorenzo's mission to 
 Milan, 1469— Dissatisfaction of Piero— Florence intervenes on behalf of 
 Roberto Malatesta of Rimini— Death of Piero del Medici— His character. 
 
 ^TpHE year 1466 closed upon the complete triumph of 
 
 A the Medici within the State of Florence. Their 
 opponents were in exile, or reduced to impotence : their 
 authority was guaranteed by a favourable Balia : they had 
 created an impression of moderation in dealing with de- 
 feated foes by their subtle treatment of Luca Pitti, and 
 by balancing the severity shown to his associates by the 
 recall from banishment of some of the families who had 
 been exiled long ago. Leniency and moderation were 
 undoubtedly in the character of Piero, and his reply to 
 Agnolo Acciaiuoli, who appealed to him from Siena on the 
 ground of old association and his tried attachment to 
 Cosimo, may have expressed his real sentiments. "It is 
 in my nature," he said, " willingly to forget, in your case, 
 as in any other, injuries and ill-will against myself . . . 
 I still continue to feel, as a private individual, the obligations 
 under which I rest to you ; but the RepubHc cannot, or 
 ought not, lightly to pardon pubHc injuries contrived 
 against itself, nor can I, nor will I, nor ought I to pardon 
 
 LAST DAYS OF PIERO 
 
 no 
 
THE COLLEONIC WAR 
 
 III 
 
 them." Biographers, Valori and Fabroni, have attributed 
 to Lorenzo some fine sentiments as to the conduct which 
 becomes a victor. "The glory to be derived from par- 
 doning an enemy is no less than that which is gained from 
 conquering him." "He is the true conqueror who does 
 not allow success to inflame his resentment, but rather to 
 assuage it : he is an unjust and unthankful citizen who 
 still has war in his heart even when he has been delivered 
 from war's dangers." 
 
 Probably, however, the judgment of a modern biographer 
 is truer to the mark. "The Medici," says Armstrong, 
 " could, in fact, punish more easily than they could pardon." 
 They held firmly to the opinion that that man is least likely 
 to inflict any injury from whom the power to inflict one has 
 been removed. The Neroni conspirators had proved them- 
 selves a source of imminent danger, and had come very 
 nigh to success. They had failed, and now, woe to the 
 vanquished ! 
 
 The exiles themselves were under no illusions. There 
 was only one way by which they could recover their position, 
 and see their homes again, and that was by enlisting on their 
 behalf the help of foreign Princes. It has been seen that 
 in an early stage of their proceedings they were in nego- 
 tiation with Colleone, and that their coup d'etat in Florence 
 was to be brought off under cover of Este's troops. They 
 would now approach Colleone again, and see how far the 
 political conditions of Italy could be used to serve their 
 purposes. 
 
 Bartolommeo Colleone, whose equestrian statue by 
 Andrea Verrocchio is one of the glories of Venice, was 
 of the old school of condottieri generals whose arms were 
 at the service of the highest bidder. He shared with 
 Federigo of Montefeltro of Urbino the reputation of being 
 at the head of the mercenary business in Italy. Though 
 an old man of seventy-five at this time, he was still sighing 
 for new worlds to conquer. He felt that, at his age, the 
 time was approaching to settle down in some principality 
 which he had carved out of Italy for himself, and to take 
 his place, as Francesco Sforza had done, among the ItaUan 
 
112 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Princes. Though not attached to any one State by ex- 
 clusive ties either of service or country, yet he had been 
 so long in the pay of Venice as to be identified with the 
 interests of that Repubhc, and his birth at Bergamo, in 
 Venetian territory, made him a Venetian by nationality. 
 Restless and ambitious as a young man, but with few years 
 now left to him in which to reahse his hopes, Colleone 
 was just the man to catch at a chance, and the Florentine 
 exiles were able to flatter him that it was in their power to 
 offer him such a chance as he was seeking. 
 
 Moreover, there was a possibility that in securing Colleone 
 they would secure Venice too. If she would not openly 
 acknowledge her veteran commander as acting on her 
 behalf, she might secretly lend countenance to his enterprise, 
 and gain her own advantage from any success which he 
 might obtain. 
 
 Venice, therefore, on all grounds was the most hopeful 
 field for the efforts of the exiles. There, early in 1467, they 
 congregated. They won over Colleone to their views, and 
 he received unofficial but satisfactory assurances that his 
 enterprise would not be unpleasing to the Venetian 
 government. 
 
 The game which Venice now set herself to play was 
 thoroughly characteristic of her. She knew that CoUeone's 
 adventure must result in general disturbance, and thought 
 it probable that, by lying low, she might make her profit 
 out of it. Something, favourable to Venice, was hkely to 
 turn up. Moreover, if things went wrong, she could dis- 
 avow Colleone, and point to her official adhesion to the 
 Italian League as proof of her good intentions. For Piero 
 dei Medici, in answer to the exiles, had been quick to take 
 advantage of his relations with foreign Powers. The Triple 
 Alliance between Florence, Naples and Milan was renewed 
 under the name of " The League for the Peace of Italy." 
 The other Powers were invited to join, Venice among the 
 number. Venice made no difficulty in the matter, and 
 thus at the moment when Italy was about to be plunged 
 into a general war, aU the chief Powers were nominally 
 banded together for the express purpose of maintaining 
 Italian peace. 
 
THE COLLEONIC WAR 
 
 113 
 
 It was shifty and double-dealing policy such as this 
 which made Venice so generally hated in Italy. She 
 had created for herself such a reputation for cynicism 
 and self-seeking that nobody would believe her to be 
 acting honestly, even if her intentions were in fact honest. 
 
 " If," said Galeazzo Maria to the Venetian ambassador, 
 " if you knew how every one is against you, your hair 
 would stand on end. Do you suppose these Italian Powers 
 leagued together really wish each other weU ? Not at aU. 
 What has brought them together is the necessity of pro- 
 tecting themselves against you. You have set everybody 
 by the ears with this CoUeone of yours ; you will see how 
 far it brings you profit. You wiU see aU leagued against 
 you, not here only, but beyond the mountains." 
 
 Galeazzo bluntly expressed the general feeling, though 
 his own poUcy was at times sufficiently like that of Venice 
 to disqualify him for the part of candid friend. But 
 Venice, if she chose, could urge something in excuse. Why 
 should she care about the States of Italy, when they lifted 
 no finger to help her in her time of need ? She had saved 
 Italy by waging war for years single-handed against the 
 Turks. She had been forced to make peace for want of 
 national support, and now she was execrated as a traitor to 
 Italian interests. The fact is, that there was no nationahty, 
 and no sense of national patriotism in Italy at this time. 
 Each State played exclusively for its own hand, and the 
 grievance was that Venice played the game rather more 
 astutely than the other players. 
 
 Apart from the veiled support of Venice, CoUeone could 
 only rely upon the assistance of some of the minor Italian 
 princelets. Este of Ferrara, Alessandro Sforza of Pesaro, 
 brother of Francesco, the Count of Mirandola, the Ordelaffi 
 of Forli, and, eventually, Astorre Manfredi of Faenza, 
 were his most prominent auxiliaries. Florence, on the 
 other hand, could rely upon Ferrante to support the League 
 with an army ; Galeazzo Sforza would send a contingent ; 
 the Bentivogli of Bologna were friendly, and there would 
 be the mercenary force raised by the State itself. 
 
 The Neapolitan troops were under the command of 
 
 H 
 
114 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, Ferrante's son ; Galeazzo Maria 
 commanded his Milanese in person, the Florentine army 
 was entrusted to Roberto da Sanseverino. Over the 
 whole force, as Commander-in-Chief, was set Federigo da 
 Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, whose reputation was equal 
 to that of CoUeone himself. 
 
 Colleone's plan was to attack Florence by way of Romagna. 
 On every ground Romagna was a convenient seat of war, 
 for it was the No Man's Land of Italy, capable of yielding 
 rich prizes to whoever was skilful enough to win them. 
 The Florentine territories extended to the Romagna frontiers, 
 and several of the actual Romagnol lords had commended 
 themselves to the protection of Florence. She therefore 
 was vulnerable from that quarter. The petty lords of the 
 Romagna loved war, for they found they could get more 
 from the sale of their swords than from their tenants who 
 cultivated their lands. Romagna offered to Colleone the 
 best prospect of that principahty on which his heart was 
 set, and Venice, too, had her eye on useful acquisitions 
 in that region. The Pope, as suzerain Lord over Romagna, 
 hoped, whatever happened, that his sovereignty would be 
 more firmly established, and Florence was glad to keep 
 the war away from her own immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 In a war where the interests were so numerous and so 
 diverse, and where on each side generals abounded, it was 
 difficult to secure that singleness of purpose and unity of 
 command which are the first essentials to success in a 
 campaign. It was not long before matters began to drag 
 terribly. The Florentines complained that, while they 
 had to contribute heavily to the expenses, nothing was 
 done to give them any return for their expenditure. The 
 Duke of Calabria was dilatory, and when they should have 
 been fighting, his troops ran away. Galeazzo Sforza, too, 
 by his pretensions, ignorance, and impecuniosity, was found 
 by the Duke of Urbino to be much in the way. Acting on 
 the Duke's representations, a diplomatic invitation was 
 given by the Florentines to Galeazzo to come to Florence. 
 It was pointed out to him that Florence could not expect 
 him to m^ke such sacrifices for her as were entailed by the 
 
THE COLLEONIC WAR 115 
 
 personal conduct of a campaign ; that the affairs of his own 
 Duchy would suffer through his prolonged absence. By 
 these and other artful flatteries he was enticed away, and 
 upon his departure Urbino felt himself more free to act. 
 An affair of outposts at Molinella, July 25, 1467, developed 
 into a general engagement, where CoUeone was worsted and 
 driven from the field. The advantage thus gained was not, 
 however, followed up with vigour ; the war speedily resumed 
 its dilatory and indecisive character. 
 
 Meanwhile at Florence it fell to Lorenzo to represent his 
 father as head of the State, and to take whatever active 
 measures were possible to support the operations at the 
 front. Lorenzo was not a soldier, and had neither taste 
 for, nor knowledge of, the art of war. Moreover, in the 
 critical state of his father's health his place was in the City, 
 not in the camp. He could personally do Httle but im- 
 patiently watch events, make provision for the expenses 
 of the war, reconcile the citizens as best he could to the 
 heavy taxation which it involved, and amuse and detain 
 Galeazzo Sforza, and keep him out of the way. The im- 
 pression created by Galeazzo upon his entry into Florence 
 was not a favourable one. He rode, it is said, into the City 
 flaunting a wide-open empty purse at his belt, as a hint that 
 he expected Florence to fill it. He was a vain, boasting, 
 ostentatious young man, in whom the savage was strongly 
 developed. His luxury, profligacy, and arrogance com- 
 bined to shock all the gravity and sense of propriety which 
 were strong in the Florentine character. He himself was 
 lodged and magnificently entertained by the Medici as 
 their private guest, while his suite was furnished by the 
 Signoria with accommodation in Santa Maria Novella. 
 Every one was glad when the affairs of his own Duchy 
 called Galeazzo home to Milan, so lightening the heavy 
 burden which Florence was called upon to bear in the 
 entertainment of foreign Princes. For, in addition to 
 Galeazzo, the Duke of Calabria was constantly in the City 
 orlits neighbourhood, and he, wherever he was, expected 
 free entertainment on a magnificent scale. Calabria, 
 indeed, made an impression even more unfavourable thaii 
 
ii6 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 that created by Galeazzo Sforza, for he was quite as useless 
 for the purposes of the war— he never met the enemy at any 
 time while it lasted— while in him the haughty insolence of 
 Aragon was combined with a sort of sullen pleasure in 
 ferocious cruelty, which roused the deepest and most 
 universal disgust. 
 
 In due course, after the battle of Molinella, the troops 
 on each side retired into winter quarters, with a comfortable 
 sense that the campaign had been conducted in the grand 
 style, and that nothing had occurred to prevent the war 
 from' being protracted indefinitely. But while nothing 
 was being done in the field of war, diplomacy had not been 
 inactive. A blow fell from beyond the mountains, as 
 Galeazzo Sforza had prophesied, in the shape of a protest 
 by Louis XI. of France against the Venetians and the 
 policy of discord which they were pursuing. The inter- 
 vention of Louis in the interests of peace, Florence, and the 
 Medici, gave definite and concrete evidence of the reality 
 of that friendship for the Medici House which Louis, in the 
 abstract, had so frequently expressed. Already, in 1465, 
 Louis, by letters patent under the Royal Seal, had authorised 
 the introduction of three golden lilies of France upon an 
 azure field into the Medici coat of arms, in recognition, 
 says Lorenzo, " of the intimate relations between our 
 grandfather and father, and the House of France." Louis 
 always spoke of Lorenzo and Giuhano as his " cousins," 
 and his correspondence with Lorenzo is in terms of intimate 
 famiUarity. The traditional pohcy of Florence, ever since 
 the days of Charles of Anjou, was friendship with France, 
 and that pohcy was adhered to as closely by the Medici as 
 it was followed subsequently by Savonarola, the bitterest 
 opponent of their House. 
 
 The intervention of Louis XL with a view to ending the 
 war, though not decisive in itself, yet created an atmosphere 
 favourable for negotiations. The representations of 
 Matthias Corvinus of Hungary that such a war was nothing 
 less than a scandal when the successes of the Turks made 
 unity imperative among all Christian powers, were true and 
 weU-meant, but not so effective as the conviction which 
 
LORENZO, POET AND LOVER 117 
 
 now began to deepen, that nobody had anything to gain 
 by continuing hostihties. Borso d'Este himself, who was 
 in arms with Colleone, thought the time had come for 
 mediation, and offered himself as a mediator. The Pope, 
 however, considered himself as most suited to act in that 
 capacity. Under the auspices of Paul IL terms were 
 arranged. The treaty provided that " the League for the 
 Peace of Italy " was to be maintained, with Venice a party 
 to it. Colleone was to be despatched against the Turks 
 with an enormous salary and compensation for his expenses 
 incurred in the late war. The sum paid him as compensation 
 was to come out of the pockets of Florence, Naples, and 
 Milan. This stipulation, however, was indignantly re- 
 pudiated both by Ferrante and Sforza, the protests soon 
 resulting in a revision of the terms. The definitive treaty 
 of April 1468 marked the complete discomfiture of the 
 opponents of the Medici. Everything was to be as it had been 
 before : Colleone was not mentioned, and the treaty con- 
 tained no stipulation in the interests of the exiles. Thus 
 the Medici triumphed all along the line. Their adversaries 
 had been met at every point : all their schemes, domestic, 
 foreign, constitutional, and revolutionary, had alike com- 
 pletely failed, while for the taxes raised to support the war, 
 Florence, at any rate, had something to show. Piero 
 bought Serrazana and Serrazanello, together with Castel 
 Nuovo, acquisitions which strengthened the communi- 
 cations of Florence with the north, along the west coast road 
 from Pisa to Genoa. These acquisitions, some ten years 
 later, afforded to Lorenzo the rare occasion of conducting 
 in person a military campaign. 
 
 The period of the Colleonic War (1467-1469) is made 
 memorable in the hfe of Lorenzo by the influences of love, 
 poetry and romance which were then operating strongly 
 upon him. His passion found relief in a copious output 
 of sonnets, which were accompanied by a lengthy and 
 elaborate prose commentary, the best thing in vernacular 
 prose which Lorenzo ever did. 
 
 The Commentario is doubtless suggested by Dante's " Vita 
 
ii8 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Nuova," and to some extent follows its lines, though there 
 are marked differences in tone, scope, and point of view. 
 The commentary is so little known to English readers, 
 yet is so well worth knowing, that some details in regard 
 to it are likely to be acceptable. 
 
 Roscoe, in his "Life of Lorenzo," made some excerpts 
 from the Commentario of a purely biographical character, 
 but he included no part of the original among his Ap- 
 pendices. Twenty years after the pubhcation of his book, 
 Roscoe issued a volume of supplementary illustrations, 
 and there he included the first twenty pages of the original, 
 containing all that part of the work in which Lorenzo 
 justifies himself for writing poetry in the vernacular instead 
 of in Latin, and indulges in a disquisition upon love in 
 general, which is deeply coloured throughout by his Platonic 
 studies. But in Aldus' edition of Lorenzo's Poesie Volgari, 
 pubhshed in Venice in 1554, the Commentario extends over 
 ninety-three double pages, of which Roscoe in his " Illus- 
 trations Historical and Critical " gives about one-fifth. 
 
 It must be confessed that, from a modern point of view, 
 Roscoe has extracted the cream of the production. What 
 follows is for the most part a minute relation of the precise 
 circumstances which gave rise to each sonnet which the 
 author composed. Thus, on a sonnet to the eyes and 
 voice of his mistress, he explains that men often desire what 
 is bad for them, and pray for that which will prove their 
 undoing. To gaze at the sun blinds the eyes to the sight 
 of all things, to strain to catch the music of the spheres is 
 an effort which baffles the human ear: even so, to look 
 at her eyes is as looking at the sun ; to hear her voice is 
 as listening to the music of the spheres. There is much 
 of this, and having made my way through it all, I can only 
 express the opinion that Lorenzo's analyses are not more 
 dull than such rhapsodical elaborations in the nature of 
 things must be. But here and there amidst the desert of 
 sentiment there is an oasis of personal and human interest. 
 As an example, he says of the sonnet 
 
 Se tra gli altri sospk ch'escon di fuore 
 Del petto, > ^ ■ -•' 
 
LORENZO, POET AND LOVER 119 
 
 that it was written at a time when he was persecuted by 
 fortune and by men. Yet to relate one's own misfortunes 
 is to incur the charge of pride and vainglory, for when 
 tranquillity comes, a man is apt to attribute the change 
 to his own virtue rather than to fortune which has changed 
 towards him. Doctors will always make out the disease 
 to be much worse than it really is, for if death supervenes, 
 they can lay the blame on the course of nature, while if 
 the patient recovers, then their own care and skill are only 
 the more clearly demonstrated, " My persecutors were 
 most powerful men of great authority and genius. I was 
 a youth and a private citizen without counsel or aid, save 
 such as the divine clemency showed me from day to day. 
 I was in such a state that death would have been grate- 
 ful, — then the thought of my lady drew me from the hands 
 of death 
 
 " Quel viso che col vago suo splendore 
 
 Ha gik gli spirti e le mie forze estorte 
 Pill volte deir avare man di Morte, 
 Ancora aiuta I'alma che non muore ? " 
 
 At another time he draws from Homer the conviction 
 that true happiness is only to be found in the intermixture 
 of evil with good. " For we may read in Homer, that most 
 ancient and excellent poet, how Jove, when he wishes to 
 allot to each man his destiny, places before him two large 
 bowls, one of which is full of evil things alone, in the other, 
 things fortunate and unfortunate are indiscriminately mixed 
 up. When he wishes to allot to any one a caitiff's fate {cattiva 
 sorte),]ie chooses from the bowl which contains ill fortunes 
 alone: but for the happy he chooses from that which contains 
 the mixture, to show that a man cannot be happy unless 
 some element of unhappiness be at the same time present." 
 
 In later chapters I propose to treat at some length 
 Lorenzo's position as poet and thinker. It will then be 
 necessary to refer more fully to the Commentario* At 
 the moment it serves to supply those biographical details 
 for the years now under consideration which, without it, 
 would be wanting, details which are doubtless coloured 
 by the deceptive radiance of a poet's or a lover's fancy, 
 
 * Vide pp. 382 et seq^ 
 
120 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 but which none the less have their kernel of truth, 
 and so serve to shed light on certain sides of Lorenzo's 
 character. 
 
 As a preface to his narrative he introduces a philosophic 
 disquisition upon the beginnings and the ends of things. 
 The end of anything must be the beginning of something 
 else. He will not go so far as to say that the end and the 
 beginning are one and the same thing, as Aristotle avers, 
 but only that the end of one thing is the immediate beginning 
 of another. The beginning of the amorosa vita, the life of a 
 lover, proceeds from death : Homer, Virgil and Dante 
 make their heroes pass through death to life. " The 
 beginning of the true Hfe " — della vera vita, a phrase which 
 marks the connection of his thoughts with the nuova vita 
 of Dante — " is the death of the life which is not true." 
 So it was with him, " for there died in Florence a lady for 
 whom all the City grieved ; for truly she was adorned with 
 beauty and every natural grace. Among her other excellent 
 gifts she possessed a manner so sweet and attractive that 
 all who were brought into association with her believed 
 themselves to be loved by her ; yet none was jealous of 
 her, nor was one jealous of another. Her death aroused 
 universal compassion for her youth and beauty ; beauty 
 which in death seemed more radiant than ever before. 
 Every one desired to celebrate her in verse, or else to accuse 
 in prose the greed and bitterness of death. I, among the 
 number, wrote four sonnets, beginning thus : the first, 
 
 O chiara Stella 
 
 the second, 
 
 Quando il Sol giil daroriente scende 
 
 the third, 
 
 Di vita il dolce lume fuggirei 
 
 A quella vita ch' altri morte appella 
 
 the fourth, 
 
 In qual parte andr5 io, ch' io non ti trovi 
 Trista memoria ? in qual oscuro speco 
 Fuggir5 io che sempre non siL meco 
 
 Trista memoria, ch' al mio mal sol giovi ? 
 
 " The sonnets which follow these are very different. A 
 new argument will appear common to them all, but one 
 
LORENZO, POET AND LOVER 121 
 
 which will only confirm the principle previously asserted 
 that Death is the fitting beginning of the New Life," for 
 after relating how he mourned over the loss of so beautiful a 
 lady, and was looking around him to see if her equal existed 
 anywhere, " in despair," he says, " I gave in our City a 
 public festival, to which everybody went, and I too, against 
 my will, but led as if by destiny, for from such fetes 
 I had long stood aloof. But soon the spirit of the thing, 
 and past memories, made me act like the rest. Among the 
 ladies there was one of extraordinary beauty, so that if her 
 inward graces were equal to the exterior beauties of her 
 form, she would rival and even excel the dead Lady." He 
 tells how he became acquainted with her, the passion which 
 she inspired in him, the perfect correspondence between 
 her person and her mind. " Her beauty was wonderful. 
 She was of suitable height, and her colouring, though pale, 
 in no way sallow. Her complexion was bright without 
 being ruddy, her appearance grave but not proud, sweet 
 and winsome [piacevole] but without levity or any defect. 
 Her eyes were lively but not restless, with no signs of haughti- 
 ness or fickleness ; her whole body so finely proportioned 
 that there was nothing about her which was rough or un- 
 finished, but always dignity in everything which she did. 
 When walking, or dancing, or engaged in those exercises 
 whereby women are wont to train and display their bodily 
 graces, in short, in every movement, she was elegant and 
 bewitching. Her hands were beautiful beyond any that 
 Nature yet had fashioned. Her voice was most sweet, 
 and her conversation was full of keen and excellent judg- 
 ment. Her wit was polished and fine but without offence ; 
 her abilities were marvellous, but she was entirely without 
 pride or presumption. Moreover she had no trace of that 
 defect which is so common in women, and which renders 
 them insupportable, I mean the affectation of understanding 
 everything, the vice, in fact, of the bluestocking. It would 
 be long to tell of all her perfections — a single sentence will 
 suffice, that nothing could be sought for in a beautiful 
 and gentle lady which was not abundantly to be found 
 in her. The dead lady had shone as a star, but she was 
 
122 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the star of Venus which is eclipsed by the Hght of the rising 
 sun." 
 
 l^^llt is thus that Lorenzo celebrates his passion for Lucrezia 
 Donati. Nowhere in his writings has he mentioned her 
 name, but her name is known to us through the tributes of 
 Lorenzo's friends, and from his biographer, Niccolo Valori. 
 To her the batch of sonnets which form the subject-matter 
 of the remainder of the Commentario was written. From 
 them we may judge that though Lucrezia existed in the 
 flesh, and was doubtless of admirable beauty, she was yet 
 to Lorenzo the ideal of a poet's fancy rather than a mortal 
 woman : she was, to the young and ardent poet, what 
 Beatrice was to Dante, what Laura was to Petrarch. 
 
 It seems that he was first attracted to Lucrezia Donati at 
 a tournament, held in 1467, to celebrate the marriage of his 
 friend, Braccio Martelli. Then Lorenzo won a smile from 
 her lips and a wreath of violets from her hand, and vowed 
 that he himself one day would celebrate a tournament in her 
 honour. Two years later the promise was somewhat 
 strangely kept, for on February 7, 1469, Lorenzo held a 
 tournament in the Piazza of S. Croce to celebrate his be- 
 trothal to Clarice Orsini which had been arranged in the 
 previous December. This was the tournament which gave 
 to Luca Pulci the occasion for his Giostra di Lorenzo de 
 Medici, a poem which has its own merits, but which is 
 chiefly memorable as having suggested, if not inspired, the 
 Giostra di GiuUano de' Medici by Angelo Poliziano. 
 
 Lorenzo in his Ricordi, written a few years later, studi- 
 ously suppresses, if he had not forgotten, all the sentimental 
 emotions which were associated in his mind with this tourna- 
 ment. There is not a word about the lady of his heart, or 
 of the lady of his choice, but a bare record which takes 
 special note of the expense incurred. " To follow the 
 fashion, and do as others do, I arranged a Joust on the Piazza 
 of Santa Croce, with great expense and splendour, in which 
 I find we spent about 10,000 fiorini (£5000), and though 
 I was not very valiant in years or blows, the first prize was 
 awarded to me, to wit a helmet, inlaid with silver, with a 
 figure of Mars as a headpiece." 
 
LORENZO, POET AND LOVER 123 
 
 The poem of Luca Pulci, and a detailed contemporary 
 record of the festivities, enable us vividly to realise the 
 spectacular effects which were produced on the Piazza upon 
 this occasion. The lists were prepared with great mag- 
 nificence. Eighteen gallant Knights entered as competitors 
 for the prize. Among them was Guglielmo dei Pazzi, 
 Lorenzo's brother-in-law, Francesco Pazzi, and Jacopo 
 Bracciolini. Of these, ten years later, two were to suffer 
 death, and one exile, as the punishment for conspiracy 
 against the Medici power. In the lists were to be seen also 
 Braccio dei Medici, a kinsman of the brothers, Piero Ves- 
 pucci, and Carlo Borromeo. The poet exhausts his vocabu- 
 lary in describing the splendour of the dress and accoutre- 
 ments of the combatants, and the approach of Lorenzo's 
 procession was received with frantic acclamations. As the 
 whole affair was got up for amusement, and not for serious 
 business, it was perhaps suitable that matters of the ward- 
 robe and stage millinery should take precedence over the 
 armed encounters. We can picture to ourselves a glorified 
 scene from a Lord Mayor's Show, or a spectacular effect 
 at a pantomime. First in the procession marched nine 
 trumpeters heralding Lorenzo's approach ; then three pages 
 of whom one bore the banner of red and white, Lorenzo's 
 ensign. Behind the banner came two Squires in full 
 armour, attached to Lorenzo for the occasion by Federigo 
 of Urbino, and Roberto Sanseverino : then twelve noble- 
 men on horseback immediately preceded Giuliano dei 
 Medici. The general scheme of Giuliano's attire, which was 
 estimated to have cost eight thousand ducat {£^000), may 
 be described as silver and pearl. His tabard was of silver 
 brocade, his silk doublet was embroidered in pearls and 
 silver. His black velvet cap was adorned with three feathers 
 worked in gold thread, and set in pearls and rubies. 
 Giuliano was at this time a very handsome, well-grown boy 
 of fifteen, and he must have presented a splendid and 
 engaging appearance. 
 
 Five mounted pages, preceding a line of fifers and 
 drummers, prepared the spectators for the vision of Lorenzo 
 himself. He came, mounted on a horse presented by 
 
124 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Ferrante of Naples, richly caparisoned in red and white 
 velvet adorned with pearls. Lorenzo wore a surcoat with 
 puffings of red and white silk at the shoulders, and over the 
 surcoat a broad silk scarf embroidered with roses, some 
 fresh, some withered, with the motto, " Le temps revient," 
 picked out upon the scarf in pearls. His black velvet cap 
 was studded with pearls, and from it there sprang a feather 
 of gold thread, spangled with rubies and diamonds, arranged 
 artfully — so as to display to advantage a single pearl of great 
 purity and value. His shield had for its centrepiece the 
 great Medici diamond, " II Libro," estimated to be worth 
 two thousand fiorini, and on the shield was the fleur-de-lys, 
 the three golden hhes of France upon an azure field, which 
 advertised the favour of Louis XI. towards the House of 
 Medici. Ten mounted cavaliers and sixty-four footmen 
 completed Lorenzo's retinue. 
 
 On arrival at the Piazza, Lorenzo dismounted, and 
 changed his silken surcoat for a doublet of Alexandrian 
 velvet, with gold fringes, embroidered with the golden 
 lihes. For his cap he substituted a helmet adorned with 
 three blue feathers, and rode into the lists upon a mag- 
 nificent charger, a token of the friendship of Borso d'Este of 
 Ferrara. First Carlo Borromeo, then in turn Braccio dei 
 Medici, Carlo da Forme, and Benedetto Salutati felt his 
 prowess, and acknowledged him their conqueror. His feats 
 of arms recall to the poet the deeds of Orlando and Achilles. 
 At the end of the day Lorenzo was escorted from the lists, 
 wearing the silver helmet, with the figure of Mars as a 
 headpiece, which was the prize of victory. 
 
 We are not told from whose hands the victor received his 
 guerdon, but it seems to have been generally understood 
 that if Lorenzo was the Mars of the occasion, Lucrezia 
 Donati was the Venus. But just as Mars had his own 
 matrimonial relations which were quite independent of 
 Venus, so Lorenzo's attention was perforce given at 
 this time to his approaching marriage with Clarice 
 Orsini. 
 
 The determination to choose a bride for Lorenzo outside 
 the circle of the great Florentine families was a significant 
 
PORTRAIT OF LORENZO DEI MEDICI AS A YOUTH 
 
 DETAIL FROM BENOZZO GOZZOLl's "ADORATION OF THE MAGI " 
 
 Palazzo Riccardi, Florence 
 
LORENZO, POET AND LOVER 
 
 departure from the traditional policy of the family. Piero 
 seems to have felt that a semi-regal House needed semi- 
 regal connections and external supports ; that the branches 
 of a Medician dynasty must spread out far and wide. 
 
 If a beginning was to be made in dynastic alliances Piero 
 could hardly have done better. The Orsini were one of the 
 oldest, noblest, and most powerful famihes in Italy. Their 
 influence was almost as great in Naples as in Rome and its 
 neighbourhood. They were a family of soldiers, and could 
 thus do something to supply the Medici with an armed force 
 in case of need. One of them, the Cardinal Latino, was 
 influential in the Papal Curia. As to the disappointment and 
 jealous disgust of the Florentines, that would pass ; more- 
 over if a bride had been chosen from among them, the 
 selection could only have pleased one family while offending 
 many. Piero therefore listened gladly to overtures which 
 reached him from the Orsini quarters. In the spring 
 of 1467 Lucrezia, Lorenzo's mother, was in Rome nego- 
 tiating with the Orsini in conjunction with her brother, 
 Giovanni Tomabuoni, the Medici agent in the Imperial 
 City. 
 
 Lucrezia wrote frequent letters to her husband while 
 she was at Rome. From them we can form a picture, by no 
 means unpleasing, of Lorenzo's future wife. " She is," says 
 Lucrezia, " fifteen or sixteen years old, and when I first met 
 her she was dressed in the Roman style, with the handker- 
 
 Genealogy of the Orsini, to illustrate Lorenzo's 
 Marriage 
 
 Orso Orsini, 
 killed at Zagonara, 1424. 
 
 Carlo Orsini of Bracciano. 
 
 Lorenzo of 
 Monterotondo 
 (possessing a 
 half share with 
 his brother 
 Jacopo in 
 Monterotondo). 
 
 Jacopo of Montero- 
 tondo 
 
 I 
 
 Orso Organtini. 
 
 I I I 
 
 Maddalena Roberto Napoleone. 
 m. 
 
 Caterina da Sanseverino, 
 fought for the Florentine 
 league at MolineUa. 
 
 Latino, 
 Cardinal. 
 
 Giovanni, 
 Archb. of 
 Irani. 
 
 I I 
 Rinaldo, Clarice 
 Archb. of m. 
 Florence. Lorenzo dki 
 Medici. 
 
 Piero dei = Alfonsina. 
 Medici. 
 
126 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 chief on her head, and appeared to me very beautiful in this 
 costume, of fair complexion and tall ; but as she was veiled, 
 I could not see her very well." A Uttle later Clarice ap- 
 peared without the handkerchief and without the veil, 
 " and I had an opportunity of looking at her. She is above 
 the middle height, of fair complexion and pleasant manners, 
 and. if less beautiful than our daughters, of great modesty, 
 so that it will be easy to teach her our manners. She is not 
 blonde, for no one is so here, and her thick hair has a reddish 
 tinge. Her face is round in shape, but does not displease 
 me. The neck is beautiful, but rather thin, or, more properly, 
 delicately shaped. She does not bear her head so proudly 
 as our girls do, but inclining a little forward, which I ascribe 
 to the timidity which seems to be a predominant charac- 
 teristic. On the whole the girl seems to be far above the 
 ordinary type, but she is not to be compared to Maria, 
 Lucrezia, and Bianca." The praise here is certainly some- 
 what guarded, and Piero does not seem to have been quite 
 satisfied about the personal qualifications of Clarice. In 
 another letter Lucrezia reassures him. " I believe you will 
 be satisfied, when on my return you hear me state my 
 opinions. You say that I express myself coldly : I do so in 
 order to attain the end more certainly, and I beheve that 
 there is here no marriageable girl more beautiful than she 
 is." 
 
 The great point was that Lorenzo was satisfied. He had 
 already seen Clarice, probably at the time of his embassy 
 to Ferrante of Naples, and perhaps on other occasions. 
 Lucrezia was at ease, because, as she expressly states, " the 
 girl pleases Lorenzo." On both sides there was assiduity 
 in negotiations and arrangements, the length of the pro- 
 ceedings being evidently due to the bride's tender years 
 rather than to reluctance or hesitation on either side. At 
 last, in November 1468, all preliminaries were satisfactorily 
 arranged. On the 27th the Cardinal Latino Orsini wrote a con- 
 gratulatory family letter to Piero, while Filippo dei Medici, 
 Archbishop of Pisa, the representative of Lorenzo and his 
 father, wrote to announce that the marriage contract was in 
 order and accepted. The dowry was but a small one— six 
 
LORENZO, POET AND LOVER 127 
 
 thousand Roman scudi, or about £3000, but, as the Arch- 
 bishop remarked, "you do not need the possessions of 
 others, and yours remain to you." The marriage was indeed 
 rather a condescension on the part of the Orsini, who felt 
 that the Medici were sufficiently honoured by the alHance, 
 and could make but small demands in cash. Far otherwise 
 was it, twenty years later, when the son of this marriage, 
 Piero di Lorenzo dei Medici, went to claim another Orsini 
 bride. Then Lorenzo was the first man in Italy. The 
 most exalted families were proud to be connected with one 
 who was only just less than royal, and the dowry which 
 Alfonsina Orsini brought to Piero was at least double that 
 of his mother, and was popularly reported to be five times 
 greater than it was. In December the marriage between 
 Lorenzo and Clarice was celebrated at Rome. In the 
 absence of the bridegroom, Filippo, the Archbishop, acted 
 as proxy. In May the bride began her journey to Florence ; 
 on June 4, 1469, the wedding took place in Florence. The 
 entry in Lorenzo's Ricordi is rather cold, but exactly 
 expresses the facts. "I, Lorenzo, took Donna Clarice, 
 daughter of Signor Jacopo Orsini to wife, or rather, she was 
 given to me, in December 1468, and the marriage was 
 celebrated in our house on the 4th June, 1469." Lorenzo 
 took his wife, as wives, for dynastic purposes, are wont to be 
 taken, but there are evidences that he soon came to regard 
 her with genuine affection : she became, if not quite the 
 dimidia pars— the half of himself,— at least a considerable 
 part of him, and though she had her own opinions, which 
 were not always his, she proved throughout his life to be 
 a faithful and devoted wife. 
 
 Full details of the marriage festivities were recorded at 
 the time by Piero Parenti, a Florentine. Extensive presents 
 in kind— capons, hens, wax, wine, sweetmeats — were sent 
 from all parts of the Florentine territory, and these good 
 things went to supply a banquet to 800 citizens. In the 
 Medici palace the celebrations, except that they were upon a 
 larger scale, followed the custom of Florentine weddings. 
 There was the strict separation of the sexes, and the classi- 
 fication of the guests according tg age, The bride'? banquet 
 
128 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 in the gardens was attended by thirty-six young married 
 women. In the cloisters surrounding the courtyard 
 Lorenzo entertained seventy of the most considerable male 
 guests Within the house, on the ground floor, thirty-six 
 young people feasted, and here perhaps the sexes were not 
 separated, while on the floor above Lucrezia acted as hostess 
 to forty of the elder married women. The dishes were 
 introduced with much parade of trumpets, stewards, carvers 
 and attendants, but the food itself was simple enough^ 
 Soups meats boiled and roast, cakes, sweetmeats and 
 jellies 'constituted the bill of fare, with ample supphes of the 
 native wines of Italy. The sweetmeats must have been 
 popular if five thousand pounds weight of them were, as is 
 stated really consumed. But the banquetings contmued 
 for several days, and any well-affected citizen was sure of a 
 seat, if not in the Medici palace, then at Messer Carlo dei 
 Medici's house, or at the house of one of the family. Among 
 the presents of rings, brocade, and silver dishes, the gift of 
 Gentile of Urbino, Lorenzo's tutor has received special 
 notice It was an exquisitely illuminated office of the 
 Madonna, in letters of gold upon ultramarine, adorned 
 with paintings in miniature, the whole being bound m 
 crystal and silver. The value of it was estimated at 200 
 
 fiorini (£100). . , , • a 
 
 Thus with feastings and with music, with dancing and 
 with song, with sham fights and mimic sieges were cele- 
 brated the nuptials of Lorenzo and Clarice, and all Florence 
 gathered to wish them happiness and do them honour, 
 though doubtless there were some grumblings that a Medici 
 bride should have been fetched from so far away. 
 
 The marriage festivities were scarcely over before Lorenzo 
 was called upon, on behalf of his father, to undertake a 
 foreign mission. On June 20 the infant son of Galeazzo 
 Sforza and Bona of Savoy was bom, and Piero was invited 
 to stand sponsor to the child. Piero's interest m the 
 Milanese alliance was too personal and keen to permit him to 
 refuse but being too fll to go himself the duty was delegated 
 to Lorenzo. Early in July he left Florence for Milan, attended 
 by his brothers-in-law, by the Chancellor, by Jiii fidus 
 
LAST DAYS OF PIERO 
 
 129 
 
 Achates, Francesco Nori, and his tutor, Gentile d' Urbino. 
 The letters of Gentile to Clarice enable us to follow the 
 embassy from day to day as the Ambassadors travelled 
 to Milan by way of Lucca and the coast route which 
 ran past Pietra Santa and Sarzana. Everywhere Lorenzo 
 was received with acclamation, and was forcibly compelled 
 to yield up the privacy and retirement which he affected or 
 desired to the clamorous demands of hosts who would take 
 no denial. At Lucca he was dragged from his modest 
 lodging without the walls at " The Crown " to a ceremonial 
 Mass, to a pubhc meeting, and to a banquet. At Pietra 
 Santa the news that he was at " The Bell " brought down 
 upon him a pubhc reception, followed by a supper party 
 under the shade of a green arbour overlooking the sea. 
 From Pietra Santa he journeyed to Sarzana which his 
 father had bought for Florence two years before. There 
 he was able to judge for himself of the commercial and 
 strategical value of the new purchase, and he received an 
 impression of its importance which was materially to in- 
 fluence his pohcy at a later day. From Sarzana he rode, 
 by way of PontremoH, to Milan, where on the appointed 
 day he became godfather to the hapless child, Giovanni 
 Galeazzo, on whom Jove bestowed a destiny taken only 
 from the bowl of misfortune. 
 
 It was then that the magnificence of Lorenzo's gifts 
 inspired Sforza with the hope that Lorenzo " would stand 
 godfather to all his other children." 
 
 We have no direct information about the political effects 
 of Lorenzo's mission, but indirectly we can gather that he 
 talked about political affairs in a way that seemed to the 
 prudent Piero neither wise nor discreet. Piero, writing 
 to his wife from Careggi on July 13, rather peevishly requests 
 her to remonstrate with Lorenzo. " You know," he says, 
 " that I gave him permission to go very unwiUingly : tell 
 him to depart in no way from his instructions, and not to 
 indulge in so many fictions. I am quite determined that the 
 goshngs shall not lead the geese to the water." 
 
 As Lorenzo only announced his arrival at Milan in a 
 letter to Clarice on July 22, and could scarcely have arrived 
 
130 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 there at the time when Piero wrote, it is probable that his 
 father took exception not to anything he had done or said 
 at Milan but to his proceedings on the road thither. Perhaps 
 he was a little too expansive in that public speech which 
 he was called upon to make at Lucca, or was not quite 
 diplomatic in his behaviour at Pietra Santa. Though Piero 
 had confessed himself to be "a man without his hands " 
 when Lorenzo was absent from him, yet it is almost grati- 
 fying to find that Lorenzo was no paragon who could never 
 make a mistake. The politician who is so cold and clever 
 as to be incapable of occasionally doing a foolish thing lacks 
 one of the elements which makes for political success. 
 
 At the time of Lorenzo's return from Milan Piero was 
 obviously sinking. More than ever it was necessary for 
 him to commit affairs of State into the hands of his son. 
 A question of great importance for Florence arose in the 
 autumn, which was not settled till some time after Piero's 
 death. It therefore properly belongs to the period of 
 Lorenzo's government. 
 
 On October 9, 1469, Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of 
 Rimini, died leaving no legitimate successor. The Mala- 
 testas held Rimini under the suzerainty of the Pope, and 
 Paul II. thought the time was opportune for resuming the 
 sovereignty over Rimini into his own hands. But his plans 
 were forestalled by Roberto Malatesta, illegitimate son of 
 Sigismondo, who seized the government, and prepared 
 himself to defend it against a Papal attack. The Pope 
 looked to Venice for aid, and concluded an alliance with 
 that Republic. Alessandro Sforza of Pesaro was put at 
 the head of the Papal forces, and a campaign for the posses- 
 sion of Rimini began. Roberto looked around him for 
 allies, and found the Triple Alliance well disposed to thwart 
 any attempts which the Pope or Venice might make to 
 aggrandise themselves in Romagna. Federigo of Urbino, 
 too, was so close a neighbour to Rimini that designs directed 
 against it might easily expand into designs against himself. 
 Accordingly, in answer to the Papal- Venice Alliance, Naples, 
 Florence, Milan and Urbino associated themselves together, 
 and, at the Papal Court, Florence and the Medici were 
 
LAST DAYS OF PIERO 
 
 regarded as the real authors of the league, and the chief 
 contributors of the pecuniary cement by which it was held 
 together. Paul was very angry that his schemes should 
 thus be thwarted, and " even in the Consistory itself," says 
 Fabroni, " he vomited forth contumelies against the Medici 
 brothers." These however were ineffectual to counter- 
 balance the practical consequences of their action. Ales- 
 sandro Sforza was defeated. The further efforts of the 
 Pope to revenge himself upon Ferrante for the aid which 
 Naples had given to Roberto had to be abandoned, for 
 the news that the Turks had taken Negroponte forced upon 
 Italy the consciousness that she must be at peace within 
 herself, if the common danger was to be averted. In 1470 
 a general peace, modelled on the Peace of Lodi of 1454, 
 was negotiated, which offered the illusive hope that not 
 only Italy, but aU Christendom, would lay aside animosities 
 against Christians, and concentrate in opposition to the 
 infidel invaders. 
 
 Florence had only just committed herself to the cause of 
 Roberto Malatesta when Piero dei Medici died on December 
 3, 1469. " He was," says Lorenzo, " much mourned by all 
 the City, for he was an upright man, of the most perfect 
 kindness. We were besieged by the Princes of Italy, 
 especially the chief ones, with letters and embassies, and 
 condolences upon his death, and they offered their own 
 State for our defence." Macchiavelli's testimony to Piero's 
 character corresponds with that of Lorenzo, when he 
 states that Piero was a man of genuine goodness and 
 virtue, but that his qualities were not, in his lifetime, 
 sufficiently appreciated by his fellow citizens, because, 
 up to the age of forty-eight, he was entirely sub- 
 ordinate to Cosimo, and the few years that remained to 
 him after Cosimo's death were spent in civic discord and 
 continual illness. There is, however, abundance of con- 
 temporary evidence to show that the worth of Piero's 
 character was recognised and understood in his own city 
 and in his own day. He exercised upon the foreign policy 
 of the State an influence which was direct, personal and 
 paramount, while in domestic affairs the quality in him 
 
132 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 which made the most impression was his moderation. 
 Though the head of his party, he was sincerely desirous for 
 the general good. If he was severe to political opponents 
 who plotted against his power and his life, it can scarcely 
 be said that his severity was in excess of what the occasion 
 demanded. He was not implacable, as Cosimo was, and 
 the story, which rests on fair authority, that he was pro- 
 posing to recall the exiles who had conspired against him, 
 reflects the general estimate of his character, even if it does 
 not exactly express the facts. Piero's reputation suffered 
 under two disadvantages, one of them affecting him in his 
 own day, and the other in the eyes of posterity. He was 
 so constantly ill that there was a tendency to despise him 
 as being necessarily weak and incompetent, and he had 
 the misfortune to be sandwiched in between a father who 
 completely overshadowed him, and a son whom the world 
 regards as one of the most remarkable men that Italy has 
 produced. 
 
 Piero must have been a man of unusual capacity and 
 strength of character, if, with such disadvantages, he has 
 yet managed to impress himself fairly definitely upon the 
 historical imagination. 
 
 Like Cosimo, he hated ostentation and display, as being 
 alien from his character and contrary to sound policy. His 
 sons respected his wishes in the matter of his funeral, and 
 in the memorial which they erected to his memory. An 
 urn of red porphyry, designed by Andrea Verrocchio, stands 
 in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo. It bears the inscription, 
 " Patri Patruoque," and is the tribute of Lorenzo and 
 Giuliano to the memory of Cosimo's two sons, Piero their 
 father and Giovanni their uncle. " It would not be possible," 
 says Vasari, " to discover a more perfectly executed work, 
 whether cast or chiselled — evincing as it does, great powers 
 of invention, extraordinary judgment and consummate 
 skill." It is indeed a perfect triumph of simplicity and 
 taste. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT, 1469-1472 
 
 Lorenzo invited to assume the headship of the State — Position of 
 Giuliano in the Government — Nature of Lorenzo's authority — Anomalies 
 in Lorenzo's position — First actions of Lorenzo as Head of the State — 
 Constitutional machinery of Lorenzo's government — The Bardi con- 
 spiracy at Prato — Lorenzo's foreign policy — Galeazzo Sforza of Milan 
 visits Florence — Attitude of Ferrante of Naples — Death of Pope Paul II., 
 147 1 — Accession of Pope Sixtus IV. — His character — Relations between 
 Lorenzo and the Pope. 
 
 LORENZO, in his Ricordi, gives a bald account of the 
 circumstances personal to himself which immediately 
 followed Piero's death. " The second day after, when I, 
 Lorenzo, was very young, to wit twenty-one years of age, 
 there came to our house the principal men of the City, and 
 of the State, to express their grief at what had happened 
 and to comfort me. They requested that I would undertake 
 the care of the City and the State as my father and grand- 
 father had done. To this I unwillingly assented, as not 
 being in accord with my age, and a matter of much care 
 and danger ; but I undertook it solely for the preservation 
 of my friends and supporters, since at Florence it is ill 
 living without governmental authority [a Firenze si pud 
 mal vivere senza lo Stato). This, up to the present time, 
 has succeeded with honour and satisfaction, and to the 
 reputation of all, not as a consequence of my prudence, but 
 by the Grace of God, and through the good dispositions of 
 my ancestors." 
 
 In brief personal notices committed to a private diary, 
 Lorenzo was only concerned to record facts which came 
 within his own knowledge and directly affected him. We 
 learn from other sources that the deputation which waited 
 upon him was the result of a meeting of over six hundred 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of the most influential citizens, called by Tommaso Soderini 
 to the Convent of S. Antonio upon the day of Piero's funeral. 
 Soderini, in station, influence and fidelity, was the most 
 prominent member of the Medici party. He was Piero's 
 brother-in-law, having married Dianora Tornabuoni, 
 Lucrezia's sister, and therefore uncle by marriage to Lorenzo 
 and Giuliano. In the days of the Neroni conspiracy he 
 had stood firm by the Medici in opposition to his brother 
 Niccolo, and to him Piero, on his deathbed, had committed 
 the care of his sons. His position as the leading spirit in 
 the Medici ring, his long attachment to it, his ripe ex- 
 perience, marked him out as a man who might himself have 
 assumed the headship of the State upon Piero's death. 
 Various motives, however, led him to the conclusion that 
 the general interest would be best served at this crisis by 
 vesting the government in Lorenzo and his brother. As 
 long as there was a natural head of the Medici family, he 
 must be the political head of the Medici party. Moreover, 
 Lorenzo's youth and inexperience would probably cause 
 him to lean exclusively on Soderini, who would thus enjoy 
 the substance of power, free of the ceremonial and other 
 burdens which its exercise involved. Influenced by these 
 motives, and doubtless by a genuine feeling of loyalty to 
 the r?mily, Soderini strongly urged that Lorenzo and Giu- 
 liano should be invited to assume the position which Cosimo 
 and Piero had enjoyed. There is no record that his pro- 
 position was opposed. It was certainly supported, even 
 by the representatives of Luca Pitti who were present. 
 The absolute necessity that there should be, in the govern- 
 ment of Florence, some one person at its head to ensure 
 continuity in its policy, and stability in its relations with 
 foreign powers, was frankly admitted at the meeting. The 
 Ferrarese ambassador, reporting to his Duke on December 4, 
 states that Messer Gianozzo Pitti and Messer Domenico 
 Martelli expressed the opinion that the State must recognise 
 " one lord and superior," who should be of one mind in 
 directing all the affairs of that illustrious Signoria. 
 
 The deputation was therefore appointed to wait upon 
 Lorenzo in the manner that he has described. 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 135 
 
 In this record of events two considerations call for parti- 
 cular remark. First, that in his own note, Lorenzo makes 
 no mention of a divided tenure of power between himself 
 and Giuliano. He says not a word about Giuliano. And 
 yet the report of Soderini's speech, sent off to Ferrara within 
 twenty-four hours of its delivery, makes it clear that some 
 sort of joint tenure was in the mind of the meeting. All 
 the circumstances, however, make it probable that Giuliano's 
 association with his brother was regarded as one of form 
 and courtesy rather than of practical fact, for Giuliano was 
 but sixteen at the time, and for a few years at any rate his 
 active co-operation in the government was not to be looked 
 for. It was the very fact of Giuliano's youth which made a 
 dual control so nominal as not to be dangerous. It was 
 recognised that there was to be one directing mind, and 
 that mind was to be Lorenzo's. 
 
 Of greater importance is the fact, so constantly ignored, 
 that the power which Lorenzo now assumed was not usurped, 
 or violently snatched by him. It was deliberately vested 
 in him by the act of the ruling class of the Florentine citizens. 
 The view of Lorenzo as a cold and calculating tyrant, who 
 set himself to destroy the liberties of a free republic, is 
 absurdly at variance with the facts of the situation. Lorenzo 
 was invited to occupy a position analogous to that which 
 the head of the Medici family had occupied for thirty-five 
 years, and his situation practically compelled him to accept 
 the invitation. His wealth, influence, and reputation at 
 home and abroad, forbade him to be a private citizen. But 
 if he was to be a public man he must be first or nowhere. 
 For a Medici indeed it must have been ill-living in Florence 
 without the State behind him, for it must be a Medici or 
 another. If another, then Florence could no longer be 
 any place for a Medici. 
 
 Such a government as that to which Lorenzo was called 
 had no fellow in any other European country out of Italy ; 
 in Italy, only that of Bologna can be compared with it. 
 The forms of government were strictly and jealously Re- 
 publican, the predominance of a single person being only 
 recognised under the rose. It was acknowledged that some- 
 
136 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 body must be at the head, but the person tolerated in that 
 position must pretend all the time that he was no more 
 than an influential private citizen. The authority that 
 he exercised, whatever it was, was strictly personal : it 
 could not be transmitted by descent : no civil list was voted 
 for its upkeep : no armed force was ofiicially at its disposal 
 either for purposes of defence or for the conduct of its enter- 
 prises. It rested on nothing but good-will. It had no 
 direct power to initiate legislation, or to veto legislation to 
 which it objected ; yet if the authority of the ruler were 
 repudiated, repudiation meant for him exile certainly, and 
 death possibly. No elaborate etiquette, or system of cere- 
 monial, created around him that atmosphere of divinity 
 that doth hedge a king, and keep him a being apart from 
 the common run of men. A ruler, such as Lorenzo was, 
 had to devise his own sovereignty, and provide his own 
 methods by which it was to be exercised and maintained. 
 Lorenzo is accused of being a skilful manipulator of the 
 political wires, of corrupting the forms of freedom in the 
 interests of despotism, of bhnding the people to their actual 
 dependence by the splendour of his circuses and shows. It 
 could not be otherwise, for government in Florence had to 
 be carried on ; and the kind of government was that which 
 Florence desired and had deliberately chosen for herself. 
 But, while choosing it, she had neglected to provide the 
 necessary constitutional apparatus to give the forms of 
 legaHty and public sanction to its exercise. Therefore those 
 forms had to be surreptitiously and unofficially devised. 
 The manipulation of ballot-boxes, of councils, and committees 
 was indeed a sorry and a sordid business, but it compared 
 favourably with the unabashed methods of tyranny which 
 despots elsewhere were accustomed to practise. It was 
 deplorable that the finances of the State should be mixed up 
 with the ventures of a commercial house, but the line between 
 the private person and the public man was so incapable of 
 exact definition that no one could say precisely what part 
 of Lorenzo's expenditure might justly be debited to the 
 public treasury, and what part of it was private and personal 
 to himself. It would of course be absurd to maintain that 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 137 
 
 Lorenzo never did wrong, and that every detail of his 
 poHtical action was the inevitable consequence of his cir- 
 cumstances. Lorenzo was far too human to be perfect. 
 But no estimate of his sovereignty can be fair which fails 
 to recognise that, from the first, it was imposed upon him, 
 not snatched by lawless and tyrannical hands, and that the 
 anomalous character of that sovereignty compelled the use 
 of anomalous methods, if it was to be profitably and effec- 
 tively exercised. 
 
 Having determined to accept the invitation offered to 
 him, it was of the first importance to take occasion by the 
 hand, and consolidate his authority on the instant of its 
 being conferred upon him : 
 
 Che val signer che obedito non sia 
 
 Da suoi soggetti, e massime alio inizio ? . 
 
 Perche un rettor d'una podasteria 
 
 Ne' primi quattro di fa il suo ofiziOi 
 
 (What is that Prince worth who is not obeyed by his own subjects, 
 especially at the beginning. For the ruler of a government must make 
 his position secure within the first four days. 5 
 
 So wrote Lorenzo, years afterwards, in the morality play 
 — La Rappresentazione di S. Giovanni e S. Paolo * — which he 
 composed for the amusement and edification of his children. 
 In these lines, and in the remarks upon the true ends of 
 government, and the true functions of the governor, which 
 are scattered throughout the piece, Lorenzo draws from his 
 own experience, and expresses in abstract terms the political 
 conceptions or ideals by which, in the exercise of his power, 
 he was himself directed. 
 
 He at once took steps, under the guidance, and with the 
 assistance of Soderini, to ensure that the whole political 
 business of the State should be referred to him and pass 
 through his hands. If he was to represent the government, 
 and be responsible for its external and internal administra- 
 tion, it was necessary that he should be familiar with every 
 detail, and should have a deciding voice in whatever policy 
 might be proposed. This, however, was not enough. There 
 could be no security as long as it was possible for the 
 executive to be in the hands of men not in sympathy with the 
 
 * Vids pp. 433 et seq. 
 
138 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 views of the chief magistrate. A revision of the Constitution 
 was at once set on foot to ensure that no one should hold 
 any office in the State who was not an obedient instrument 
 of the Medici party. And lastly, Lorenzo took steps to 
 counterbalance the influence of powerful party chiefs, such 
 as Soderini, by surrounding himself with advisers who were 
 personally devoted to him, and owing everything to him, 
 in order to avoid the danger of being too much under 
 the influence of a small clique of men to whom he owed 
 everything. 
 
 These measures took time, and could not be accomplished 
 all at once, but the tendency of Lorenzo's policy was obvious 
 from the first. " I believe," said the Ferrarese ambassador, 
 " that, if they guide the bark rightly at the beginning, and 
 while they can influence the election of magistrates, they 
 will reach the desired haven, for, as the philosopher says, 
 ' the beginning is more than a half of the whole.' " 
 
 The constitutional changes which were accomplished in 
 the early years of Lorenzo's reign had but one object in 
 view : to make the executive in all things the mouthpiece 
 of the will of the ruler. To this end a proposal was made 
 by the Signoria which held office in July 1470, that an 
 Electoral College should be formed consisting of those 
 electors who, since the year 1434, had become qualified to 
 elect. Of these, in 1470, forty were still alive. They, 
 together with five other nominated persons, were to consti- 
 tute an electoral body of forty-five. From their number five 
 were to be drawn annually, and this committee of five was to 
 be a board of appointment to all magistracies for the year. 
 
 The proposal was not well received, for the cloven hoof 
 of despotism was a little too plainly visible to suit the sus- 
 ceptibilities of the people. There was much outcry against 
 " the forty-five tyrants," and the scheme was dropped, but 
 six months later, in January 147 1, the power of appointment 
 to magistracies was taken out of the hands of the Council 
 of the Hundred : that power was to reside in the Signoria 
 which should come into office in July, in conjunction with 
 the electors of the current year : their nominations were 
 then to be submitted to the Council of the Hundred which 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 139 
 
 could confirm them by a bare majority. When the time 
 came, however, it was found possible to go still further. In 
 September 1471 a Balia was appointed consisting of forty 
 persons, who were empowered to co-opt two hundred more. 
 The operations of this Balia really decided the forms under 
 which Medician despotism was to be exercised. First it 
 undertook a rigorous scrutiny of the ballot-boxes, so that 
 no name might by any possibility be included whose attach- 
 ment to the Medici was doubtful. The power of appoint- 
 ment was withdrawn from the Council of the Hundred and 
 vested in the forty individuals who originally composed 
 the Balia, assisted by fifty others selected by them. But 
 in return, the legislative authority of the Hundred was 
 largely increased, for it was enacted that all public bills 
 which passed the Hundred thereupon became law, irres- 
 pective of the sanction of the old popular Councils del 
 Popolo, and del Commune. 
 
 These arrangements were to be in force for a period of five 
 years, but they were renewed at the expiration of the first 
 term, and again in 148 1. Thus they constituted the solid 
 foundation on which the ascendency of Lorenzo rested. 
 
 In Florence itself, Lorenzo's accession to power was 
 received with general satisfaction. Whatever suspicion 
 or resentment were in the hearts of some stout old Repub- 
 licans, they found no outward expression. The great 
 body of the citizens was undoubtedly proud of their young 
 and brilliant representative, who seemed to embody aU 
 the finest traditions of the Florentine race and character. 
 But there were restless souls outside who saw, in the change 
 of government, an opportunity of avenging old wrongs, 
 and effecting a revolution in the State. 
 
 Among those who had been condemned to exile for 
 sharing in the Neroni Conspiracy, was the family of the 
 Nardi. Salvestro and Bernardo Nardi had joined the 
 ranks of Bartolommeo CoUeone, and had consequently 
 been declared rebels against the State. Bernardo was a 
 man of restless and aspiring temper, who had already 
 suffered the worst, and consequently had nothing to lose. 
 He thought he saw, in the conditions existing at Prato, 
 
140 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 an opportunity for a venture which might be desperate, 
 but which, at any rate, afforded a chance of rousing a 
 general conflagration in Tuscany. 
 
 Prato lies about ten miles to the north-west of Florence, 
 midway between that City and Pistoia. It had been 
 purchased by Florence from Queen Giovanna of Naples, 
 in 1350, and since that time had enjoyed its own municipal 
 institutions under the superintendence and control of a 
 governor appointed by the Florentine Signoria. Nardi 
 had connections with Prato, and believed the people to be 
 suffering under a sense of injuries received at the hands 
 of Florence, through her governors. If Prato could be 
 seized by a coup de main, and foreign assistance were 
 forthcoming, there was a fair prospect that the town could 
 be made a base for a general movement of insurrection in 
 Tuscany against Florentine domination. Having entered 
 into relations with an influential family in Prato, and 
 having secured, through Diotisalvi Neroni, a doubtful 
 promise of support from Bologna and Ferrara, Bernardo 
 was ready to proceed. He had so skilfully concealed his 
 plans that he had no difficulty, by a ruse, in securing the 
 keys of the Pistoia gate, and in a few moments the Citadel, 
 the governor's palace, the town, and the governor himself 
 were in the hands of the conspirators. It was now, however, 
 that their difficulties began, for the people of Prato utterly 
 failed to understand the meaning of what had taken place, 
 nor did they respond to the cries of Liberty, Freedom, by 
 which Bernardo sought to stir them. The Signoria, con- 
 sisting of eight principal citizens, met to consider the 
 situation. Bernardo eloquently harangued them, declaring 
 that he had no other object than to deliver Prato from 
 slavery, calling to mind their ancient liberties which they 
 had long ceased to enjoy, and reminding them how glorious 
 it would be to secure at once independence for the City 
 and everlasting fame for themselves. 
 
 The Eight, however, were not moved by these exhortations. 
 They drily declared that they were not called upon to 
 express an opinion as to whether Florence was free or not 
 free, but for themselves they desired no other liberty than 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 141 
 
 that which, under Florence, they already enjoyed. Let 
 Bernardo at once liberate the governor, withdraw his men, 
 and retire as quickly as possible from so mad and wicked 
 an enterprise. 
 
 At this juncture Bernardo determined that he would 
 create an impression by hanging the governor from the 
 window of his own palace, and was in the act of doing so 
 when he was induced by the artful persuasions of the 
 captive himself to stay his hand. Cesare Petrucci, 
 Florentine Rector of Prato, now proved himself, not for 
 the last time, to be a man of promptitude and resource. 
 He appears again in a wider sphere, and on a more exalted 
 stage, in Florence in 1478, at the time of the conspiracy of 
 the Pazzi. The same courage and resolution which he ex- 
 hibited then, he showed now in defence of his own life. 
 He represented to Bernardo that by this execution he would 
 only bring upon himself speedy and certain vengeance, 
 whereas, if he issued his orders through the governor, 
 they would be respected, and his designs carried into effect. 
 Bernardo, whose mind, says Macchiavelli, was not fertile 
 in expedients, saw reason in these arguments. He enjoined 
 Petrucci to address the assembled populace from the palace 
 window, and to urge the people to obey Bernardo in all 
 things. 
 
 By this means the governor saved his life, and gained 
 time, which alone was necessary to defeat Bernardo's 
 plans. The citizens, having recovered from their surprise, 
 rallied under the leadership of a Florentine, Giorgio Ginori, 
 a knight of Rhodes, and before assistance could arrive from 
 Florence, the insurrection was at an end. There the Signoria 
 had taken prompt measures. Roberto da San Severino 
 had been placed in command of an adequate force with 
 full instructions for the restoration of order, but he had 
 scarcely moved out beyond the City gates when he was 
 informed that Bernardo was a prisoner, the governor 
 restored, and that order once more prevailed at Prato. 
 Bernardo was executed, and no effort was spared to stamp 
 out in the neighbourhood of Prato whatever seeds of 
 rebellion his enterprise had sown. 
 
142 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 The Nardi insurrection of 1470 is the last flicker of the 
 old spirit of disaffection against the Medici which had 
 produced the Neronic conspiracy three years before. It 
 only served to demonstrate the weakness of their antag- 
 onists, and how barren of effective support the irreconcilables 
 were. Lorenzo derived nothing but benefit from an abortive 
 attempt to dislodge him before he was fairly in the saddle, 
 while the fact that the danger might have been a very real 
 one gave colourable excuse for arbitrary measures within 
 the City and outside it. 
 
 Lorenzo's government enjoyed the advantage of being 
 established and consolidated during one of the rare intervals 
 when general peace prevailed in Italy. This happy state 
 of things cannot be credited to his account, for it was due 
 to the sense of weariness which prolonged and ineffective 
 war produces, and to the necessity for union in the face 
 of Turkish success. But in his first years of power Lorenzo 
 was much occupied in negotiations with the various Italian 
 governments with a view to making permanent the con- 
 ditions of peace which at the moment existed. True to 
 the poHcy of his father and grandfather, he determined in 
 every way to strengthen the triple alliance between Florence, 
 Milan, and Naples. Though willing to be a party to 
 a general Italian league, a scheme on which Paul II. 
 was now much set, yet his adhesion to such a league 
 must be without prejudice to the special ties which bound 
 Florence to Naples and Milan. As long as Venice remained 
 ambitious of further self-aggrandisement, and as long as 
 the Papal policy was subject to constant shifts and variations, 
 no great confidence could be placed in a league to which 
 they were parties. Thus, when Galeazzo Sforza took 
 exception to some of the terms of the proposed general 
 treaty, Lorenzo gave instructions to the Florentine am- 
 bassador not to sign it on behalf of Florence, although 
 the Signoria had already signified its intention to ratify 
 it. To keep on good terms with Sforza was, in Lorenzo's 
 opinion, of far greater importance than to be pledged to 
 a general engagement which depended too much on the 
 notorious caprices of some of the contracting parties. 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 143 
 
 It was in pursuit of this policy that, in the early spring 
 of 1471, Lorenzo magnificently entertained the Duke of 
 Milan in his own house in the Via Larga. Galeazzo Sforza 
 was accompanied by his wife, Bona of Savoy, and the 
 splendour of their train exceeded anything which had 
 hitherto been seen in Italy. A hundred knights in armour 
 and five hundred foot soldiers formed their personal guard. 
 Grooms and kitchen-boys glittered in cloth of silver, velvet 
 or silk, and the costumes of courtiers, chamberlains, and 
 ladies-in-waiting were in an ascending scale of unparalleled 
 magnificence. The long procession, with its two thousand 
 horses, many of them richly caparisoned in gold brocade 
 and embroidery, with its two hundred sumpter-mules, its 
 huntsmen, with their dogs and falcons, its trumpeters, 
 fifers and merry-andrews, might almost have been designed 
 from Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco in Lorenzo's own chapel. 
 
 The suite was entertained at the public cost by the 
 Signoria, but the Duke and Duchess were Lorenzo's personal 
 guests, for it had long been a matter of course that the 
 Medici palace should receive the most illustrious visitors 
 to the City. There Galeazzo spent much time in examining 
 the treasures of art and of antiquity which Lorenzo and 
 his ancestors had collected. He marvelled much at their 
 rarity and beauty, and had the good taste to confess that 
 his own splendours were of small account when compared 
 with the richness of Lorenzo's collections. 
 
 It was the season of Lent, but yet, as Macchiavelli ob- 
 serves, the Milanese, without respect for either God or His 
 Church, ate animal food daily. The City, however, in 
 honour of the occasion, thought it appropriate to present 
 three mystery plays for the entertainment of the Duke in 
 three principal churches. In San FeUce, the Annunciation 
 was dramatically displayed ; in the Carmine, the Ascension ; 
 and in Santo Spirito, the Descent of the Holy Spirit. This 
 last performance was attended by disaster, for some of the 
 woodwork in the church became ignited. The flames spread 
 throughout the interior, and, though Macchiavelli exag- 
 gerates when he says the church was completely destroyed, 
 very serious damage was done. The Duke headed the 
 
144 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 list of subscribers to the restoration fund with a contribution 
 of two thousand fiorini d'oro (;^iooo), but the good citizens 
 of Florence thought the occurrence of evil omen. They 
 looked askance upon the barbaric luxury and godless ways 
 of their Milanese guests, and were of opinion that the 
 disaster at Santo Spirito was a token of Divine displeasure. 
 
 But, in the round of banquets, spectacles, and entertain- 
 ments, Sforza by no means forgot the political purposes 
 of his visit. Apart from conversations with Lorenzo, he 
 had more than one formal interview with the Signoria, 
 and the alliance between the two States was confirmed 
 and established upon the strongest footing. Valori re- 
 marks that a happy combination was now effected between 
 the wealth and ready money of Florence and the superfluous 
 soldiers that Milan was capable of supplying. Men and 
 money together constitute the sinews of war : each could 
 provide what the other wanted : so Milan and Florence 
 in conjunction could not only resist whoever might desire 
 to offend them, but would be able to dictate terms to the 
 whole of Italy. 
 
 Politically, however, the visit of Galeazzo Sforza was 
 not an unmixed success. It did not tend to make the 
 Milanese alliance more popular with the people of Florence, 
 who remained cold to all the spectacular splendours which 
 he presented to them. StiU more important was the 
 suspicious attitude of Ferrante of Naples. 
 
 Lorenzo seems a little to have lost sight of the fact that 
 the policy of his family was based upon a triple, not a 
 dual alliance. Not that he ignored Ferrante, or showed 
 himself indifferent to his friendship. His relations with 
 the Duke of Calabria and Federigo of Aragon continued to 
 be intimate, and the correspondence between Lorenzo and 
 the Neapolitan Court was constant, ranging over every 
 variety of pubiic and personal topics. But he created 
 the impression that the influence of Sforza was the political 
 force,, which chiefly swayed him, and Sforza himself was 
 undoubtedly anxious to make Lorenzo as far as possible 
 dependent solely upon himself. He tried for example, 
 to commit Florence to an attack upon the Appiani of 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 145 
 
 Piombino, well knowing that such an enterprise would be 
 most unpleasing to Ferrante. 
 
 Piombino was a small independent territory in the 
 possession of the Appiani family. It forms a httle peninsula 
 abutting on the northern coast of the island of Elba. The 
 safe harbourage which it afforded to vessels of war, and 
 its strategical position, had already attracted the attention 
 of Alfonso of Naples, Ferrante's predecessor, who declared 
 that that one of the Italian Powers which obtained Piombino 
 could readily secure the mastery over all the rest. It was 
 likely, therefore, that Ferrante would take amiss any 
 attempt on Lorenzo's part to secure to Florence so desirable 
 an acquisition. Lorenzo himself soon discovered that he 
 had made a mistake and withdrew from the enterprise. 
 The matter, indeed, would scarcely be worth notice except 
 as a straw shows the direction of the wind. The estrange- 
 ment between Ferrante and Lorenzo which brought the 
 latter to the verge of ruin at the time of the conspiracy of 
 the Pazzi, was the result of the cumulative effect of a 
 number of small misunderstandings, not singly of much 
 importance, but each tending to produce the impression 
 on Ferrante that Lorenzo valued his Milanese connection 
 more highly than his alliance with Naples. Lorenzo, in 
 fact, during the first ten years of his ascendency, made not 
 a few political and diplomatic mistakes, but he was one 
 who could profit by experience, and the faults of his early 
 period were fully corrected in the years which followed. 
 
 The death of Paul II. in July 1471 had important 
 consequences for the Triple Alliance. The relations between 
 that Pontiff and Ferrante had never been cordial, and 
 latterly had been strained almost to the breaking-point. 
 The accession of a new Pope entirely changed the situation. 
 The questions in dispute between the suzerain and his 
 kingly vassal were satisfactorily adjusted, and a close 
 political and family connection soon sprang up between 
 Ferrante and the Pope. If Lorenzo at any time should 
 have troubles with the Papacy, it was not improbable 
 that Ferrante would be found acting against him, a con- 
 dition of things which in a few years actually arose. But 
 
 K 
 
146 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 at the moment the political sky was bright, and the com- 
 munications between Lorenzo and the Neapolitan Court 
 were of the most cordial and intimate character. 
 
 The Pope who was elected to succeed Paul 11. took the 
 name of Sixtus IV. Francesco of Savona was of obscure 
 origin ; even his family name is not known. At an early 
 age he was committed to the care of the Franciscans, who 
 undertook his education, and he soon displayed considerable 
 aptitude in theology and philosophy. He became attached 
 to the Piedmontese family of Rovere, and from them 
 acquired a name. His reputation for scholarship led to 
 invitations to him from the chief Italian Universities to 
 lecture on the subjects which he had made his own. At 
 Pavia he had among his audience Cardinal Bessarion, 
 greatest among Byzantine Platonists, and the two scholars 
 were soon on terms of intimate familiarity. He rose to 
 the position of General of the Franciscan Order, was made 
 a Cardinal by Paul II., and rose to the Papacy at the age 
 of fifty-seven, largely by virtue of his reputation as a man 
 of character who had proved himself zealous in the cause 
 of learning, theology, and ecclesiastical reform. 
 
 Such was the career of a Pontiff whose quiet and re- 
 spectable antecedents entirely belied the character of his 
 Pontificate. It is not necessary to believe the scandalous 
 accusations which a prejudiced chronicler has brought 
 against his private life. Nemo repent e turpissimus fit. 
 But the public actions of Sixtus are sufficient to show that 
 his elevation to the highest position in Christendom was 
 productive of extraordinary and deplorable effects upon 
 his temper and character. A certain wild savagery about 
 everything which he did seems to argue that irresponsible 
 power unhinged to some extent the faculties of his mind. 
 It is only charitable, in the case of Sixtus, to hope that he 
 was not quite sane. His nepotism was more profligate 
 and unblushing than any that the world up to that time 
 had seen. The objects of his affection, Piero and Girolamo 
 Riario, 'were Italian bravi, — desperadoes of the very worst 
 type, whose excesses brought scandal upon the Papal 
 Chair. His passion for discord was such that it was 
 
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 147 
 
 commonly said that his death was due to the restoration of 
 Italian peace, and he set a precedent for the conduct of 
 the Holy See which his successor, Alexander VL, was too 
 ready to adopt. " Sixtus," says MacchiaveHi, " was the first 
 to show how far a Pope might go, and how much those things 
 which hitherto had been regarded as sinful, lost their iniquity 
 when done by a Pontiff." He became in a few years 
 Lorenzo's implacable foe, and his hatred was destined to 
 carry him to lengths which implicated him in atrocious 
 schemes of assassination, and seriously compromised not 
 only the man, but his sacred office. 
 
 AU this, however, was in the future. The accession of 
 Sixtus gave good hopes to Italy, and to all Christendom, 
 that a man of piety and learning now sat upon the Chair 
 of St. Peter. Florence determined to despatch an embassy 
 to congratulate him, and at the head of it went Lorenzo. 
 He was received with every token of cordiaUty and esteem. 
 The Pope gratified Lorenzo's passion for antiques and works 
 of art by presenting him with the marble busts of Augustus 
 and Agrippa, " and besides I carried off our engraved 
 chalcedony vase, with many other medals and cameos which 
 I bought, the chalcedony vase being among them." Lorenzo 
 was able to turn the visit to account in many ways. Sixtus 
 knew nothing about art, and looked upon the objects of 
 virtu, which Paul II. had got together with so much dis- 
 crimination and connoisseurship, as so many gewgaws to 
 be turned as speedily as possible into cash. Giovanni 
 Tornabuoni was instructed to make a bargain with the 
 Pope, and some of Paul's finest specimens made their way 
 into Lorenzo's cabinets. Sixtus also made the Medici his 
 bankers, and all the vast funds of the Roman See passed 
 through the hands of Giovanni Tornabuoni, Lorenzo's 
 agent and manager in Rome. The alum mines at Tolfa, 
 which had been recently discovered, were leased to the 
 Medici for a heavy annual payment, and thus the practical 
 monopoly of alum passed into their hands. Lorenzo, 
 indeed, was the recipient of so many private and com- 
 mercial favours that he thought the occasion favourable 
 to sound the Pope upon a project which had long been 
 
148 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 entertained by Cosimo, the granting of a Cardinalate to 
 a prominent member of the Medici family. It was suggested 
 to Sixtus that the honour might suitably be conferred on 
 Lorenzo's brother, GiuHano. In making this proposal, 
 it is possible that, apart from the social and political ad- 
 vantage which would accrue to the family from the pos- 
 session of a seat in the Sacred College, Lorenzo was influenced 
 by the desire to bring to an end that partnership in the 
 government of Florence which, if it should ever assume a 
 practical form, might some day prove a source of em- 
 barrassment. Sixtus showed himself at any rate not 
 unwilling to listen to the proposal, and Lorenzo left Rome 
 fully satisfied with the advantageous results which had 
 followed from his mission. 
 
 He was scarcely home again when trouble arose from 
 an unexpected quarter. Early in 1472 an insurrection 
 broke out in Volterra which threatened to develop into a 
 general state of war in Italy. The history of this rebellion, 
 and of the manner in which it was suppressed, opens up a 
 chapter in Lorenzo's career which is ambiguous and per- 
 plexing. The incident, of no great importance in itself, 
 has a bearing upon Lorenzo's character and reputation 
 which magnifies it out of all proportion to its immediate 
 influence upon the course of events. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA * 
 
 Geographical and political position of Volterra — Discovery of alum 
 mines near Volterra — Lorenzo's alleged partnership in the alum Company 
 — Dispute between the company and the citizens — View of Florence in 
 regard to the dispute — Disturbances in Volterra — Attitude of Florence — 
 Lorenzo insists on prompt intervention — Conduct of the war against 
 Volterra — Sack of Volterra — Personal action of Lorenzo towards the 
 ruined city. 
 
 IN the well known, but probably fictitious story of the 
 interview between Savonarola and Lorenzo upon his 
 deathbed, it is related that the dying man unburdened 
 himself to the Friar, declaring that in these last hours three 
 
 * The original and strictly contemporary authorities on the insurrection 
 of Volterra are : 
 
 " Antonii Hyvani Sarazanensis Commentariolus de bello Volterrano, 
 1472," in Muratori, vol. xxiii. 
 
 The anonymous " Cronachetta Volterrana," in Archivio Storico 
 Italiano, vol. iii. (appendix). 
 
 The " Chronicle " of Raffaelle MafEei of Volterra* 
 "Ricordi" of Zaccharia Zucchi: extracts dealing with the Volterra 
 question in Fabroni (appendices). 
 
 Allegretto AUegretti, " Diario Sanese " in Muratori, vol. xxiii. 
 Later authorities : 
 
 Macchiavelli, " History of Florence/' 
 Fr. Guicciardini, ,, ,, 
 
 Scipio Ammirato, ., 
 Modem or comparatively modern authorities : 
 
 Fabroni, Roscoe, Von Reumont. Armstrong. 
 The difficulty of arriving at definite conclusions arises from the fact 
 that the authorities which are strictly contemporary are not free from 
 the suspicion of prejudice and party feeling. Antonio Hyvano, for 
 instance, who was Chancellor of Volterra at the time, and an eye-witness, 
 wrote his narrative at Florence, and, according to Muratori, wrote it 
 to order. 
 
 Raffaelli Maffei, on the other hand, Weis bitterly antagonistic to Florence 
 and to Lorenzo. One of the Maffei was chosen to act as Lorenzo's assassin 
 by the Pazzi conspirators. 
 
 Zaccharia Zucchi' s casual statement that Lorenzo was a partner in 
 
 149 
 
150 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 sins oppressed his conscience, of which one was the sack of 
 Volterra. 
 
 If it be a legend, the legend has its historical value, for it 
 indicates the extent to which the sack of Volterra, twenty 
 years before, had impressed itself upon the public mind. 
 The questions which present themselves are simple ones. 
 Was Lorenzo responsible for the sack of Volterra ? Was 
 the incident in itself of so disgraceful a character as to 
 leave upon his mind a lasting sense of shame and sorrow ? 
 
 The town of Volterra, situated on a lofty eminence 1900 
 feet above the sea, lies midway between Piombino and 
 Florence, thirty miles to the south-west of the latter city. 
 Like Prato, Volterra was commended to Florence, being 
 governed by a Florentine prefect who was changed 
 every six months. His duty was to guard the town, to 
 punish delinquents, and to be present at public discussions, 
 but otherwise Volterra enjoyed self-government under her 
 own elected magistrates, the suzerainty of Florence being 
 only recognised through the prefect, and the payment of an 
 annual tribute. 
 
 The Volterrans had proved themselves from early times 
 to be a turbulent and high-spirited people, torn by internal 
 feuds, and threatened by external foes. Moved, in 1361, by 
 sheer weariness of never-ending discords, they, to defend 
 themselves against themselves, voluntarily commended 
 themselves to Florence. Having done so they constantly 
 chafed at the restraints thus imposed upon them, and 
 as constantly broke out into rebelHon. The rising in 1472 
 was the fifth attempt, in little more than a hundred years, 
 on the part of the Volterrans to assert their independence of 
 a yoke which they had imposed upon themselves. It was 
 not unnatural therefore that the Florentines should have 
 thought that the time was opportune to put an end, once 
 
 the alum firm is not supported by any other authority, but in view of 
 the Medici monopoly of alum, the statement is not improbable. 
 
 Allegretto Allegretti is impartial, but he says little about Lorenzo's 
 share in the matter. 
 
 Personally, I do not know any good reasons for doubting that Antonio 
 Hy vano's narrative in the main represents the facts, and my account is largely 
 based upon it. The " Cronachetta Volterrana " in the main supports him. 
 
THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA 151 
 
 and for all, to a long-continued state of turbulence and dis- 
 affection. Volterra had proved herself incapable of inde- 
 pendence. If she must be dependent, Florence, owing to the 
 geographical position of the town, could not afford that any 
 other Power than herself should exercise authority there. 
 
 A few miles to the south of Volterra lies the hill of Castel- 
 nuovo, in which deposits of alum had long been known to 
 exist. The alum mines had indeed from time to time been 
 worked, though without any great commercial success. 
 The mines lay neglected, and they brought in no profit to 
 any one. In 1471 a certain Benuccio Capaccio of Siena 
 requested from the public authorities of Volterra a faculty 
 to mine alum in their territories. He proposed to form a 
 company, and to pay an annual rental to the town in 
 return for the concession. The Signoria and the Colleges 
 met to consider the proposal, to which only a slight opposi- 
 tion was offered. The company was accordingly floated, some 
 of the members being Florentines, some Sienese, and two 
 were Volterrans, Benedicto Riccobaldi and Paolo Inghirami. 
 
 Our estimate of the proceedings which follow, and of the 
 case as a whole, must be governed by the initial question — 
 Was Lorenzo one of the Florentine partners in this Com- 
 pany ? If he was, then any personal action that he might 
 take laid him under suspicion of directing public policy in 
 the interest of his private commercial advantage. If he was 
 not, then his policy, even if mistaken, cannot be said to 
 have been prompted by motives of self-interest. 
 
 Zaccharia Zucchi, who was, however, a Volterran, states 
 that Lorenzo was a partner, and Guicciardini, though not 
 precise in his particulars, states that Lorenzo had a personal 
 interest in the mines. In view of the fact that alum was 
 practically a Medici monopoly, and that Lorenzo had just 
 entered into an expensive agreement with the Pope as to 
 the working of the alum mines at Tolfa, it is certainly not 
 unlikely that he would secure a controlling influence over 
 mines which were close at hand, and which might, if uncon- 
 trolled by him, open up alum to trade competition. But, 
 on the other hand, his name does not appear upon the list of 
 shareholders ; Antonio Hyvano, and the " Cronachetta 
 
152 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Volterrana " are in agreement in exonerating Lorenzo from 
 the charge of self-interest, and the venture itself did not 
 prove commercially sound. The mines soon proved not 
 to be worth the cost of working. Lorenzo may have been 
 shrewd enough to keep out of a concern which he knew 
 would soon cease to be profitable. 
 
 Where the evidence is thus conflicting it is impossible to 
 feel any certainty, but the weight and quality of the evidence 
 in Lorenzo's favour seems to be at least equal to that of any 
 that can be urged against him. 
 
 No sooner was the concession granted than the Volterrans 
 began to exclaim against the alienation of valuble public 
 property from the municipality into the hands of private 
 persons. Forgetful of the fact that the public had hitherto 
 got nothing from the mines, whereas now an annual rental 
 was being paid to the State, they cried out that the con- 
 cession was illegal, that it had been obtained under false 
 pretences, and that Inghirami and the rest were bent upon 
 enriching themselves at the expense of the public revenues. 
 
 The company, in order to avoid disturbance and ill-feeling, 
 offered to pay a higher rent, and a committee was appointed 
 to consider this proposal which eventually reported in a 
 sense adverse to the concessionnaires. Whereupon they 
 determined to refer the matter to Florence. But before 
 anything could be done there the popular leaders in Volterra 
 stirred up the common people to take affairs into their own 
 hands. The alum mines were declared to be the property 
 of the town ; armed peasants descended upon the mines, 
 and the Company's workmen were driven away. The result 
 was a fresh appeal to the suzerain authority of Florence. 
 
 At this juncture, we are told, the general state of unrest 
 was further intensified by the appearance of a comet, which 
 struck the beholders with horror, for it was the most certain 
 indication of calamities in store. The Volterran astrologers 
 prophesied evil things. 
 
 In Florence the affair was looked upon seriously as touch- 
 ing the sovereign authority of the Republic over its de- 
 pendency. Her imperial rights must first of all be enforced 
 and recognised, and these rights, it was asserted, included the 
 
THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA 153 
 
 possession of whatever nature or man had concealed within 
 Volterran soil, such as treasure, statues, mineral deposits, 
 as soon as such might be discovered. The mines therefore 
 were restored to the concessionaires, and a Florentine 
 commissioner was despatched to see that the decision of the 
 Signoria was respected. 
 
 At Volterra in the meantime successive Florentine prefects 
 were not inactive. One of these prefects despatched four of 
 the principal agitators to Florence as pledges for the good 
 behaviour of the town, and his successor sent several more. 
 Inghirami and Riccobaldi, the Volterran partners in the 
 Company, also made their way to Florence and clamoured 
 loudly for the full recognition of their rights. As long as 
 Inghirami remained in Florence a truculent attitude towards 
 his fellow citizens was safe enough, but upon his return to 
 Volterra he was an object of general hatred. To secure 
 himself he employed a band of armed men as a bodyguard ; 
 whereupon the Volterrans accused him of a plot against 
 their Hberties. The atmosphere in fact was full of 
 suspicions, and eventually a rumour reached Inghirami that 
 there was a plot to assassinate him as he left the Church of the 
 Virgin. He therefore sought protection in the palace of the 
 Prefect, who, seeing that matters were rapidly becoming 
 dangerous, made an appeal to the citizens to rally to the 
 support of his authority. But the opponents of Inghirami 
 and the Company were in no mood for compromise. The 
 old turbulent spirit of Volterra was now aflame. The time 
 seemed to be favourable for repudiating altogether the 
 suzerainty of Florence, and hoisting the banner of inde- 
 pendence. A furious encounter in the streets between the 
 revolters and the adherents of the Company ended in the 
 complete discomfiture of the latter. The victors appealed 
 to the peasants, provided them with arms, and promised 
 them remission of their debts if they would rally to the 
 cause of rebellion. The Prefect was thoroughly intimidated, 
 and eventually offered to give up Inghirami if security were 
 given for the safety of his life. The Volterran Signoria 
 summoned the Prefect to appear before them to discuss the 
 situation, an invitation which he thought it prudent to 
 
154 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 accept. During his absence the Palace of the Prefect was 
 rushed by the mob. Inghirami was discovered in hiding, 
 and smoked out "by an admixture of fire, smoke and 
 sulphur." His dead body was thrown from the Palace 
 windows into the square below. 
 
 Some of his adherents were more fortunate. One, Barto- 
 lommeo Minuccio, effected his escape in disguise. Giovanni 
 Inghirami, Paolo's brother, sought refuge on the tower of 
 the Palace, where he was a mark for the arrows of the rioters 
 below. On securing guarantees that his life would be 
 spared he capitulated, descending from the tower by a 
 rope, only to be immediately handed over to the safe 
 custody of the City marshal. Blasio Liscio hid himself in 
 the recesses of a chimney, where he made a vow that, if he 
 escaped, he would go on pilgrimage to the shrine of Our 
 Lady of Loretto. Fortune favoured him and the vow was 
 duly redeemed. The alum mines were once more resumed 
 into the hands of the municipaHty, and a Committee of Ten, 
 with plenary powers, was appointed to secure the rights of 
 the town from further infringement. 
 
 These details give an idea of the lengths to which in- 
 surrection had gone in Volterra before Florence took action. 
 The news produced a profound agitation in Florence. Her 
 honour as well as her authority were compromised if cold- 
 blooded murder of citizens under Florentine protection were 
 to go unpunished. Popular indignation was high against 
 Volterra, to be still further intensified by the arrival of a 
 deputation from the Committee of Ten charged to convey 
 to the Signoria the terms which Volterra was prepared to 
 accept. If Florence would excuse the m.urders which had 
 been committed, on the ground that the victims were 
 Volterrans, and not Florentines ; if the hostages were 
 restored, and the alum mines recognised as municipal 
 property, then Volterra would resume her allegiance, and 
 things should be as they were. Such proposals seemed to 
 the Signoria to add insolence to rebellion, but the attitude 
 of Volterra was so formidable, her position was so impreg- 
 nable, and her appeal for foreign aid was so Ukely to be 
 successful, that it was resolved to proceed with caution. 
 
THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA 155 
 
 Antonio Ridolfi was despatched to the town on a mission 
 of concihation, but the Volterrans would listen to nothing 
 as long as their hostages were retained in Florence, Ridolfi 
 returned to Florence having effected nothing, and Piero 
 Malgonella was appointed Prefect with full powers. 
 
 In the meantime in Florence grave differences of opinion 
 existed as to the proper course to pursue. The real danger 
 lay not so much in the revolt itself as in the amount of 
 external support which Volterra might succeed in obtaining. 
 Would the Triple AUiance stand the strain of the temptation 
 now offered to Milan, or to Naples, or to the Pope, or to all 
 of them together, to aggrandise themselves at the expense 
 of a neighbour ? Italian alliances, with whatever assevera- 
 tions of eternal friendship they might be cemented, were 
 apt to last so long as was convenient and no longer. 
 
 Tommasso Soderini was all for caution. " Better," he said, 
 " a lean peace than a fat victory." Was it wise or reasonable 
 to kindle a flame which might bum up their own dwelling ? 
 He recommended that the submission of Volterra should be 
 accepted on whatever terms it was offered. 
 
 It was at this point that Lorenzo came prominently and 
 personally forward upon the scene. He strongly opposed 
 the opinion of Soderini. Volterra was in open revolt against 
 the authority of Florence and was intriguing with foreign 
 Powers. This therefore was not a time for weakness or 
 hesitation. The merits of the original dispute had sunk 
 into a secondary place. The paramount duty of the moment 
 was to take effective measures to assert the supremacy of 
 the suzerain State over a rebellious dependency, lest, by the 
 example of Volterra, other dependencies should be led to 
 rebel. The Volterrans must first of all give in their un- 
 conditional surrender ; if they refused, it must be extorted 
 from them by force of arms. As to Soderini's fears from 
 the action of foreign Powers, the bold course must be the 
 safe one ; the surest guarantee against their hostility was 
 to show that Florence was strong, and could protect her 
 own just rights. 
 
 These arguments prevailed and Florence prepared for 
 war. The responsibility for the war unquestionably lies 
 
156 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 with Lorenzo. But for him a compromise would have been 
 effected on the terms proposed by Soderini. The occasion 
 therefore is notable, apart from the military consequences 
 which followed, in that it marks the point when Lorenzo 
 definitely stood forth as master, and finally shook himself 
 free from the leading-strings by which Soderini and the 
 older Medician adherents had sought to guide him. * 
 
 When once war was declared, Florence determined to 
 neglect no means to bring it to a prompt and successful 
 issue. The usual Ten of War became the Twenty of War, and 
 of these Lorenzo was one. An army of about 5500 men was 
 assembled under the command of Federigo of Urbino. 
 From the State dowry fund 100,000 fiorini d'oro (£50,000) 
 
 * The narrative of Hyvano presents the facts in another light. He 
 brings Lorenzo on the scene earher, and declares that he summoned the 
 Volterran hostages to the Sacristy of Santa Reparata and there addressed 
 them in conciliatory terms, pointing out that Volterra had nothing but 
 servitude to expect from any other foreign Power, but that Florence had 
 always permitted to her the enjoyment of local self-government. On 
 Lorenzo's porposal Jacopo Acconcio, one of the Volterran Ten, came to 
 Florence, where he was informed that the hostages would be released, and 
 that no penalties would be exacted if Volterra would formally appoint 
 ambassadors and despatch them to Florence to acknowledge their faults 
 and openly to ask pardon for them. Two individuals, the names not 
 being specified, would be exempted from this indemnity. Acconcio's 
 report only increased suspicion at Volterra, whereupon four of the hostages 
 offered to go on parole to explain at home exactly what the Florentine 
 proposals were. In the meantime at Volterra things were going from 
 bad to worse. Help was sought from Ferrante, Venice, Piombino and 
 Siena. The town fell much into the hands of a certain Gigantino, a 
 poverty-stricken and impudent tavern keeper of low extraction. One 
 of the exiles of the Neroni conspiracy, Geri, a Florentine, did what he could 
 to fan the flame of sedition. A general assembly of the people was called 
 by the Priors, when Gabrielo Riccobaldi ventured to point out that Florence 
 had won the day against all the power of Filippo Maria Visconti and 
 Alfonso I. of Naples. What chance, therefore, would Volterra have 
 against her ? Riccobaldi was threatened with death if he used such 
 arguments. A hearing was refused to the four hostages from Florence, 
 who threw in their lot with their fellow citizens, broke their parole, and 
 refused to return. Letters were intercepted which showed that the 
 hostages still remaining in Florence were being urged to seek means of 
 escape. Whereupon they were put under close guard in the Palazzo 
 Publico, and war was declared by Florence against Volterra. 
 
 Hyvano says nothing about the opposition between Soderini and Lorenzo. 
 He represents the declaration of war as the direct consequence of the 
 contumacy of the Volterrans, in spite of Lorenzo's conciliatory assurances. 
 As I cannot find any support for this part of Hyvano's Commentary, and 
 as some of the statements contained in it are at variance with other accounts, 
 I do not incorporate them into my relation. 
 
THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA 157 
 
 were borrowed for expenses, and two Florentine com- 
 missaries, Buongianni Gianfigliazzi and Jacopo Guicciardini, 
 were appointed to act with Federigo. Galeazzo Sforza, far 
 from assisting the Volterrans, sent 600 men to act against 
 them, and other overtures to foreign Powers only resulted 
 in some slight assistance being sent to them from Piombino 
 and Siena. 
 
 Deprived of effective external support, the hope of Volterra 
 lay in the strong natural position of the place. But Federigo, 
 acting with promptitude and resolution, brought up his 
 forces to the front and captured a commanding position 
 from which he could bombard the town. Within, every- 
 thing was in a state of panic and confusion. Divided 
 counsels, jealousies among the leaders, distrust on the part 
 of the people, gave rise to shifting measures, and to occasional 
 outbreaks of ferocious savagery on the part of the mob. 
 The troops were without pay ; desertions were constant, 
 and the generals commanded no confidence. It seemed 
 likely that the mob would soon gain the upper hand, when a 
 general massacre of the principal citizens was to be ex- 
 pected. In the circumstances the Signory of Volterra 
 resolved to treat with Federigo, but while negotiations were 
 in progress a certain Volterran Constable, named II Venezio, 
 who was on guard upon the walls, admitted the Milanese 
 troops through a breach in the immediate neighbourhood 
 of the Church of S. Andrea, and in the course of the night 
 of June 17, the whole of Federigo's army made its way into 
 the town. 
 
 The troops soon showed a disposition to get out of hand. 
 The Milanese auxiliaries, under the guidance of II Venezio, 
 proceeded to sack the town, and Urbino's men could not be 
 restrained from following suit. The Duke himself appears 
 to have done everything possible to save the city and its 
 inhabitants from plunder and outrage. He issued a pro- 
 clamation that every soldier found within the city after 
 nightfall should be put to death. He seized II Venezio the 
 ringleader, and had him hanged there and then. But all his 
 efforts were insufficient to prevent Volterra from falling 
 into the hands of a brutal undisciplined soldiery, who 
 
158 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 inflicted unspeakable horrors upon the inhabitants md 
 brought devastation upon the town. An earthquake, or 
 more probably a landslip caused by heavy rains, addec to 
 the miseries of the situation, though Nature could do but 
 little to increase the desolation created by the hand of n.an. 
 Yet the Volterrans must have been a light-hearted people. 
 Even in the midst of such widespread ruin, and so mach 
 personal suffering, they could not refrain, says Hyvano, fiom 
 laughing at an old man, Jacopo Bardino, wise in council, 
 who had kept himself aloof from the contending factions. 
 Bardino, amid the universal wreck, was heard loudly com- 
 plaining that he had lost his hens and his little waterpots. 
 
 The Florentines were determined to reap the full advan- 
 tages of their victory. A new and commanding fortress 
 was built upon the ruins of the Church of S. Pietro and the 
 bishop's Palace. The privileges of self-government vi'ere 
 taken away from Volterra ; the ringleaders in the dis- 
 turbance were banished ; the mines were restored to the 
 Company, and all mineral rights in the Volterran territory 
 were definitely resumed by Florence. Care was taken that 
 Volterra should not have a chance of revolting again. This 
 done, Lorenzo could afford to exhibit his private feeling in 
 regard to the incidents which had attended the capture of 
 Volterra. Money was at once sent from Florence to the 
 ruined city to meet the immediate necessities of the popula- 
 tion. Two thousand fiorini d'oro were contributed in the 
 name of the Signoria. Lorenzo himself went to Volterra, 
 not to glory in its devastation, but to administer succour 
 and consolation to the distressed. Though he was per- 
 sonally free from the smallest responsibility for the actual sack 
 of Volterra, and for the atrocities which had there been done, 
 yet the war policy was in a very direct way his policy, and 
 indirectly this slur upon the good name of Florence had 
 come as a consequence of it. He may well have felt there- 
 fore that it became him to do what he could to repair the 
 evil which had been done, to mitigate the impression of 
 wanton cruelty which had been created in the public mind, 
 and to clear his own mind of any qualms which the effects 
 of his public policy may have produced in him. If the 
 
THE INSURRECTION OF VOLTERRA 159 
 
 sack of Volterra continued to Lorenzo's dying day to lie 
 heavy upon his conscience, — a very doubtful assumption, — 
 the fact seems only to indicate a conscientious sensitiveness 
 far more delicate and susceptible than is to be found in any 
 ruler in Europe in that day. 
 
 Biographers are commonly reputed to be hero- worshippers, 
 and indeed there must be a tendency, under the attraction of 
 the personaUty of the individual whom the biographer has 
 set himself to reconstruct, to adopt the most charitable view 
 of his actions. But in these days, when history has taken 
 her place among the sciences, when nothing is allowed to 
 pass which has not the authority of a creditable document 
 behind it, the cry is all for impartiaUty. But impartiaUty 
 itself may take upon itself the form of partiality, inasmuch 
 as the bare record derived from documents may often give a 
 barren and misleading view of events from the fact that 
 motives have been left out of consideration. The state- 
 ment that all history is psychology is only an epigrammatic 
 exaggeration of a truth which the historian must not ignore 
 — that the actions of men must be judged in the light 
 afforded by their general character. 
 
 Thus in criticising the action of Lorenzo towards Volterra, 
 a biographer, so sane, sober and fair-minded as is Von Reu- 
 mont, seems to have confused two issues. Because Lorenzo 
 was responsible for the war, therefore he was responsible for 
 the operations of that war. The sack of Volterra lies at 
 his door because he advocated measures of stringency 
 against her. It is the case of Warren Hastings and the 
 Rohillas over again. 
 
 But from the circumstances of the case there is at least 
 much to be said in favour of the policy for which Lorenzo 
 argued, and for which he was responsible. It is no reflection 
 on his private character that he should have entertained the 
 opinion that the supreme authority of Florence must be 
 vindicated. The position of her other dependencies, the 
 attitude of Foreign powers, the situation of Florence herself, 
 all alike confirmed him in this opinion, and it is as likely to 
 have been right as wrong. But to hold this opinion does not 
 imply that he approved of ruthless and barbarous outrage 
 
i6o LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 done upon a captured city, or that he was in any way a 
 consenting party to such excesses. Psychology suggests the 
 question — Was Lorenzo the kind of man to sanction and take 
 dehght in such deeds as were enacted in Volterra upon the 
 night of its capture ? 
 
 If it can be shown that his public policy was dictated by 
 private, personal and sordid ends, that he made war upon 
 Volterra because of a question of alum in which he was 
 commercially interested, there may be a doubt about the 
 answer. It is however extremely doubtful if he was con- 
 nected with the alum Company : it is certain that his whole 
 career was conspicuously free from those brutalities which 
 commonly marked the rulers of his day, nor is it denied that he 
 did what he could individually to alleviate the sufferings 
 which his general had been unable to prevent. It is true 
 that the Duke of Urbino was flattered and rewarded, and 
 that Lorenzo, in common with all Florence, rejoiced over his 
 victory. But Urbino was honoured for taking a rebellious 
 town ; not for sacking it, an outrage which occurred in 
 spite of him, and one which was as uncongenial to all we 
 know of him as it was uncongenial to Lorenzo himself. 
 
 Volterrans themselves were scarcely in a position to dis- 
 criminate. It was enough for them that pitiless ruin had 
 been brought upon them as a consequence of a policy which 
 was peculiarly Lorenzo's. It was in human nature that 
 they should hold him responsible, and that he should have 
 been pursued with unrelenting enmity by individual Vol- 
 terrans. The case is complicated, and authorities speak 
 with an uncertain voice, but on a review of all the circum- 
 stances we are justified in regarding with grave doubts the 
 story that upon his deathbed Lorenzo declared to Savonarola 
 that the Sack of Volterra was one of the three sins which lay 
 most heavily upon his conscience. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 Lorenzo's relations with Foreign powers — Louis XI. of France — Lorenzo 
 negotiates a Franco-Neapolitan marriage — Pope Sixtus IV. — State of 
 rest in the affairs of Italy — Beginnings of the alienation of the Pope from 
 Lorenzo — Papal policy in Romagna — The Pope and Ferrante of Naples 
 — Florence draws towards Venice — Sixtus IV. and his nephews — The 
 Pope detaches the Duke of Urbino from Florence — Question of Imola — 
 Sixtus IV. transfers his account from the Medici to the Pazzi bank — The 
 Pope, Lorenzo, and Citta di Castello — Salviati appointed Archbishop of 
 Pisa — Opposition of Lorenzo to Salviati — Lorenzo and Carlo Fortebraccio 
 — Resentment of Sixtus IV. against Lorenzo — Venice takes the place of 
 Naples in the Triple Alliance — Assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza — 
 Far-reaching consequences of Sforza's death — Distractions in the govern- 
 ment of Milan — Attitude of Lorenzo towards the situation in Milan — 
 Ludovico Sforza assumes the government of Milan. 
 
 IN Lorenzo's Italy the Volterran episode aroused only a 
 passing interest. It was a rain-cloud in a summer 
 sky, which passed and was forgotten. None, unless he 
 were a Volterran, dreamed that Lorenzo had permanently 
 sullied his reputation by his action in the matter. On the 
 contrary, he was thought to have done well, and his repu- 
 tation and credit seemed to gain enhancement every 
 day. From his extensive correspondence with foreign 
 Princes, and the manifold and strange favours which they 
 asked of him, we are able to gain a clear idea of the extent 
 of the consideration in which he was everywhere held, 
 of the intimacy, on terms of complete equaUty which existed 
 between him and his fellow sovereigns in Italy, and even 
 beyond the mountains. 
 
 His relations with Galeazzo Maria Sforza have been 
 noted in connection with Sforza's visit to Florence in 147 1, 
 but they were maintained by constant letters which passed 
 between them, written in a strain of close and friendly 
 
 familiarity. 
 
 r 161 
 
l62 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 With the NeapoHtan Court Lorenzo was in constant 
 communication. The letters which passed between Lorenzo 
 and the Duke of Calabria and his brother, Federigo of 
 Aragon, were the outward tokens of their private friendship, 
 but Ferrante's official despatches were scarcely less warm 
 and intimate. When Lorenzo received, and splendidly 
 entertained, Ferrante's daughter, Leonora, being on her 
 way to Ferrara in 1473 to become the bride of Ercole d'Este, 
 the King writes : " We must express our unbounded 
 gratitude for this, and though the love we bore you seemed 
 as if it could be little if at all increased, we assure you it 
 has been increased in such a manner that we shall ever be 
 under an obligation to you. We shall endeavour in time 
 to prove our gratitude for the pleasure you have given 
 us." The Duchess of Calabria, Lorenzo's old friend, 
 HippoUta Sforza, finds herself in 1474 greatly embarrassed 
 for the want of 2000 ducats, applies to him for the loan of 
 that sum on the security of her jewellery, and vows, on the 
 faith of a loyal lady, that the loan shall be punctually 
 repaid. Federigo of Urbino, the Gonzaghi of Mantua, the 
 Estes of Ferrara, the King of England, Edward IV., the 
 King of Aragon, all address themselves to Lorenzo, for, 
 as Ferrante said in a letter of 1476, "if we wish to obtain 
 any kind of favour from the Illustrious Republic, we desire 
 no other mediator or representative than your Magnificence, 
 for your great authority is known to us, and we have had 
 experience how readily you fulfil our wishes." 
 
 But the most striking proof of the estimation in which 
 Lorenzo was held abroad is to be found in the letter 
 addressed to him. by Louis XL of France on June 19, 1473, 
 and in the correspondence to which that letter gave rise. 
 
 After expressing the pleasure with which he has recently 
 heard that everything is going well with Lorenzo, Louis 
 opens out to him a project of the very first political sig- 
 nificance, and begs his good offices in forwarding and 
 negotiating it, Louis has heard that Ferrante is proposing 
 to marry his eldest daughter to the Duke of Savoy. How 
 much better it would be if he were to marry her to the 
 Dauphin. This would put a check upon the Angevin 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 163 
 
 claims in Naples, would result in a close offensive and 
 defensive alliance between Naples and France, and would 
 be of service to Louis in his quarrel with the King of Aragon. 
 The King refrains from mentioning that point which prob- 
 ably he had most in mind, that the proposed alliance would 
 detach Ferrante from the Duke of Burgundy, who was 
 Louis's most formidable opponent. In diplomacy it is 
 often wise to be silent on the subject of the particular 
 advantage which it is sought to secure. 
 
 The purpose of the King of France in writing to Lorenzo 
 was not merely to give him confidential information, but 
 to enlist his good offices in negotiating the matter with 
 Ferrante. He leaves it to Lorenzo to arrange the amount 
 of the dowry, and begs him to send to the French Court 
 a special ambassador commissioned to deal with the King 
 personally, and with the King alone. Such an ambassador 
 must be careful to have no conferences " with the magnates 
 and Princes of the blood." It would be useful to Louis 
 to have such a man about him, not merely in relation to 
 this particular matter, but in order to expedite the numerous 
 other affairs which might from time to time arise between 
 him and Lorenzo. And, lastly, would Lorenzo send him 
 a dog : one would be sufficient if it were a fine big one. 
 He has heard of Lorenzo's dogs, and would be glad of one 
 to keep constantly about him. 
 
 The familiar terms of this letter, and the importance 
 of its substance, must have been highly flattering to 
 Lorenzo. He lost no time in executing the King's com- 
 mission. 
 
 Agostino Bihotti was despatched to Naples bearing a 
 copy of Louis's letter, together with letters from Lorenzo 
 in which he urged the King's proposals upon Ferrante. 
 On August 9 the latter despatched his reply from Castel 
 Nuovo. He begins with warm compliments and assurances 
 to Lorenzo. He feels much honoured by the French King's 
 proposals. But it is quite impossible to accept them, for 
 he is already under obligations to the King of Aragon and 
 to the Duke of Burgundy, which he cannot in honour 
 forego. If Louis would hve in peace with Aragon and 
 
i64 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Burgundy, things would be different, but till that happy 
 consummation is arrived at, the claims of honour are more 
 to Ferrante than life itself. 
 
 Perhaps this Pecksniffian strain was as suitable as any 
 other to apply to fantastic propositions which can have 
 had but little meaning or sincerity behind them. But we 
 are only concerned with the policy of Louis and Ferrante 
 in so far as Lorenzo was associated with it. The interest 
 of the correspondence lies for us in the light which it throws 
 upon Lorenzo's standing in the eyes of foreign potentates, 
 and in the fact that it indicates that he had not sought in 
 vain to base his own position upon an intimate understanding 
 with the French King. 
 
 With the Pope, too, everything was going well for Lorenzo. 
 It was true that Giuliano had not yet got his Cardinal's 
 hat, but when Sixtus IV. made his first creation of Cardinals 
 on December 15, 1471, only two hats were given, and these 
 only to members of the Pope's immediate family, Pietro 
 Riario and Giuliano della Rovere. There was no need, 
 therefore, for Lorenzo to be disquieted. But, as the months 
 went by, he thought it weU to remind the Pope of the 
 hopes which, when in Rome, he had been permitted to 
 cherish. In a letter of November 21, 1472, he addresses 
 the Pope as " most blessed and holy father " and begs him 
 to add this favour, the greatest and most inextinguishable 
 of all, to the many other obligations already received from 
 him — " and at your feet, I commend with all humility 
 myself and my affairs." 
 
 The Pope addressed his reply to the Signoria in gracious 
 terms. He acknowledged the justice of the claim of 
 Florence to a seat in the College, regretted the inevitable 
 delay, and bade the Signoria to rest assured that at the 
 next creation, when the just demands of others were being 
 satisfied, " we shall have regard to your Republic also, 
 especially if it approves of our choice." 
 
 It was certainly disturbing that a second creation of 
 Cardinals should have been made on May 7, 1473, without 
 any Medici being included in the number, but there were 
 undoubted difficulties. Giuliano was a layman ; he was 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 165 
 
 not yet twenty, and Lorenzo could have no just cause 
 of complaint if he were kept waiting a little longer. 
 
 Thus at the beginning of 1474 Lorenzo's sky was quite 
 unclouded. His own position was established and re- 
 cognised in Florence and outside. He was on good terms 
 with everybody, and Italy was at peace. " There are no 
 politics here," writes one of his correspondents to Ercole 
 d'Este ; " the only news is that Lorenzo has lost two 
 falcons." In this year he received a visit of ceremony 
 from the grave, long-bearded, and unpretentious King 
 Christian of Denmark. The simpHcity of his retinue and 
 of his manners contrasted with the barbaric profusion 
 which had marked the visit of Galeazzo of Milan. The 
 sight which pleased Christian most in Florence was the 
 collection of Greek manuscripts, including the manuscripts 
 of the Gospels, which had been brought to Florence from 
 Constantinople. " These," said the old King, " are the 
 true treasures of Princes." 
 
 It was at this time that Lorenzo was much occupied 
 with poetry, philosophy, and schemes of education, nor 
 was he neglectful of the popular demand for amusement. 
 In 1475 Giuliano's tournament rivalled the splendours of 
 that given by his brother some years before, but of all its 
 splendours the greatest was PoHziano's poem of La Giostra, 
 which influenced profoundly the poetry and art of the 
 Renaissance. A few months later Lorenzo was at Pisa» 
 residing there, in his house in the town, for a considerable 
 period, while he supervised the reconstruction of the 
 University of Pisa. These peaceful and intellectual 
 activities wiU be treated in detail in subsequent chapters, 
 which will present Lorenzo as a man of thought. Here, 
 where we are concerned with him as a man of action, they 
 are mentioned with a view to their chronological connec- 
 tion with events in Lorenzo's career, and as indications 
 of the quiet political waters in which his bark was now 
 sailing. 
 
 But, though he knew it not, the great crisis of Lorenzo's 
 life was approaching with footsteps which, if slow, were 
 certain. The Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 was not a bolt from 
 
i66 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the blue. It was the cubnination of a series of circumstances 
 which, operating over several years, resulted in the com- 
 plete estrangement of Lorenzo from the Pope, from Ferrante 
 of Naples, and from some of his own prominent adherents 
 in Florence. 
 
 A number of particular causes can be shown to have 
 contributed to the alienation of Sixtus IV. from Lorenzo. 
 But all these can be reduced to one general and governing 
 cause — the opposition between the political interests of 
 Florence and the poHtical designs of the Supreme Pontiff. 
 
 Sixtus had not long been Pope when he discovered that, 
 if the Papacy was to be respected, it must strike out a new 
 line for itself. It must attract attention through the 
 personality of its head, and must know how to inspire fear 
 if it would command obedience. It must have agents 
 personally devoted to its interests, and these were scarcely 
 to be found outside the circle of the Pope's immediate 
 family. To exalt his own family, to carve out principalities 
 for Riarios and Roveres from those territories which 
 nominally at least were under the suzerainty of the Papal 
 See, became the dominating passion of Sixtus's hfe. He 
 may have deluded himself at the outset that he was actuated 
 only by the laudable desire of vindicating the rights of the 
 Church over her own. It was not long, however, before 
 the private interests of his family gained entire possession 
 of him, and the whole public poUcy of the Holy See was 
 frankly directed by the dictates of private and personal 
 ambition. 
 
 The district of Romagna naturally suggested itself as 
 the most suitable to serve the purposes of the new policy. 
 There the Papal claims to suzerainty were definite and could 
 most easily be enforced. But the territories of Florence 
 extended to the frontiers of Romagna, and even beyond 
 them, for several of the petty lords of the Romagna had 
 commended themselves to Florence, and lived under her 
 protection. It was impossible that Florence could regard 
 without apprehension the extension of the territorial 
 influence of the Pope towards her own borders. The 
 designs of Sixtus, therefore, must inevitably bring him 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 167 
 
 into conflict with the leading principles of Florentine 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Sixtus, moreover, was not slow to realise that his chances 
 of success in Romagna would be increased if he were on 
 good terms with Naples. Previous Popes had constantly 
 found themselves thwarted by the action of the Neapolitan 
 sovereigns. The question of the Papal suzerainty over 
 Naples, of the tribute which was to be paid in recognition 
 of it, had long kept Naples and the Papacy in a state of 
 agitation and warfare. Sixtus determined to put an end 
 to this state of things by getting Ferrante on his side. He 
 agreed that the Papal suzerainty would be adequately 
 recognised by an annual gift from Ferrante of two white 
 horses. In every way Sixtus strove to detach the King 
 from the Triple Alliance and to attach him firmly to himself. 
 It was impossible for Florence to look on unmoved while 
 the delicate balance of power in Italy was thus being thrown 
 out of gear. She must take steps to redress it by sub- 
 stituting Venice for Naples in the Triple Alliance. Thus 
 the ultimate result of the Papal policy was that the three 
 northern powers, Venice, Milan, and Florence stood out in 
 hardly concealed antagonism to the designs of Naples and 
 the Papacy. Wherever he turned Sixtus found opposition, 
 and in every case it was found that this opposition was 
 engineered in Florence. Lorenzo stood out before the world 
 as the representative of Florence, and upon Lorenzo per- 
 sonally the hatred of Sixtus in the end came to be 
 concentrated. 
 
 It was therefore as the consequence of general principles 
 rather than of particular incidents that the estrangement 
 between Lorenzo and his former friends, Sixtus and Ferrante, 
 came about. But each particular incident, as it arose, 
 would have a cumulative force finally gathering sufficient 
 volume to drive the Pope to violent action. The storm 
 was gathering during the years 1474-1478, and eventually 
 burst upon Lorenzo's head in the form of the Pazzi conspiracy. 
 
 During the first few years of the Pontificate of Sixtus 
 he was content that the policy of the Papacy should run 
 on the old lines. He busied himself with crusading projects ; 
 
i68 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 despatched embassies to various European sovereigns in 
 the hope of stimulating their zeal, and soon contemplated 
 a General Council, whereby Christendom might show 
 itself unanimous in prosecuting a Holy War against the 
 Turks. He thus, as Creighton says, showed himself ready 
 " to give a fair trial to the old poHtical traditions of the 
 Papacy before entering upon a new sphere of action. He 
 paused to justify in his own eyes the transition from a 
 Franciscan reformer to an Itahan prince." There was 
 nothing to prevent the Franciscan reformer being on good 
 terms with Lorenzo, but as soon as the Itahan prince, 
 filled to the full with the Italian spirit, and bent upon 
 displaying his prowess upon the arena of Itahan politics, 
 disclosed himself in the person of the Supreme Pontiff, he 
 became a secular rival, hke any other. If his secular 
 projects clashed with those of Lorenzo, friendly relations 
 between Florence and the Papacy became at once impossible. 
 
 Sixtus soon discovered that nothing in the way of co- 
 operation and support was to^be expected from Christendom. 
 The Papacy could exercise no influence on the old lines. 
 It must therefore try what could be done on new lines. 
 Sixtus determined that he would impress himself on the 
 imagination of Italy in a manner that Italy could under- 
 stand. A Pope with all the sanctities of his office hanging 
 around him, backed by the secure possession of a strong 
 territorial sovereignty, would be in a position to command 
 respect, not in Italy only, but in Christendom at large. 
 
 The agents of his new pohcy were ready to his hand. 
 Papal nephews abounded, and through them he determined 
 to act. Already in 1471 he had elevated two of them to 
 the Cardinalate, Pietro Riario, son of his sister lolanda, 
 and Giuliano della Rovere, son of his brother Raffaelle. 
 On Pietro Riario he let loose all the passion and extra\^a- 
 gance of his affections. This hitherto obscure young 
 man of five-and-twenty, suddenly found himself in the 
 possession of enormous revenues derived from abbeys, 
 patriarchates, bishoprics, and archbishoprics. Entirely 
 deficient in the strength of character which would have 
 assisted him to support this sudden freak of fortune, Pietro's 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 169 
 
 head was turned ; his luxury, profusion and profligacy 
 became a public scandal in Rome and throughout Italy. 
 Pietro's wild excesses were not, however, a matter of political 
 importance until they became associated with the Pope's 
 political schemes. But in the summer of 1473 it fell to 
 him to entertain Leonora of Aragon, Ferrante's daughter, 
 and Pietro's banquet, given in her honour, has become 
 historical. By such means the Pope signified his departure 
 from the NeapoHtan policy of his predecessors, and his 
 resolution to bind Naples and the Papacy together by close 
 ties of poHtical and private friendship. 
 
 Fresh evidence of this policy was given when the Pope 
 married his nephew, Leonardo della Rovere, to another of 
 Ferrante's illegitimate daughters. Thus early it should 
 have been clear to Lorenzo that the Pope was designing 
 to undermine the Triple Alliance, and that Papal assurances 
 of goodwill must be received with caution. 
 
 Lorenzo, however, offered no objections when, on the 
 death of Giovanni Neroni, the Archbishopric of Florence 
 was added to the number of Pietro's preferments. The 
 new Archbishop was received in Florence with acclamations 
 and festivities. Thence he made his way to Milan, where 
 he held close conference with Galeazzo Sforza. They 
 seem to have concocted between them magnificent schemes, 
 that Galeazzo should become King of Lombardy and Pietro 
 Pope, but these schemes, and any alarms Lorenzo might 
 have felt in regard to them, were summarily ended by the 
 death of Pietro in 1474. 
 
 The Pope for a time was inconsolable, but he remembered 
 that Pietro had a brother, Girolamo Riario, and upon him 
 Sixtus now lavished all, and more than all, the affection 
 which he had felt for Pietro. Girolamo was not an eccle- 
 siastic, nor was it possible to launch him upon the seas of 
 ecclesiastical wealth. Through Girolamo it was now 
 possible for the Pope to begin to lay the foundations of a 
 secular sovereignty in Italy, and to establish his family 
 in the position of ItaHan Princes. 
 
 In 1474 a step in this direction was taken which was 
 destined to have important consequences in the future. 
 
170 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Another Rovere nephew, Giovanni, was married to the 
 daughter of Federigo of Urbino. In course of time the 
 Duchy of Urbino descended to Francesco Maria della 
 Rovere, the son of this marriage. 
 
 Of more immediate importance was the influence of the 
 marriage upon Federigo of Urbino himself. It has seen 
 seen that he had constantly acted as generalissimo of the 
 armies of Florence. In the Colleonic War, in the afairs 
 of Rimini and Volterra, Urbino had commanded the 
 Florentine troops, and was generally regarded as per- 
 manently attached to the fortunes of the Republic. Sictus 
 determined to detach him from this connection, and .n a 
 little while Urbino is to be found in command of the Pipal 
 armies in opposition to the Florentine troops which had 
 so often served under his banner. 
 
 For Girolamo in the meantime a beginning was n.ade 
 by the acquisition of Imola. This was the transaction 
 which first brought Sixtus and Lorenzo into direct antag- 
 onism, for Florence had a very strong desire to secure 
 Imola for herself. Its position, beyond the Apeniine 
 Chain, not very far from the Adriatic coast, made it a very 
 desirable station for the conduct of Florentine trade "vith 
 the East, while, in the hands of an unfriendly power, Inola 
 might be used as a formidable obstacle to the commercial 
 interests of Florence. Continuous feuds in the Manfredi 
 family, who had long ruled in Imola, resulted, in 1472, in 
 the territory passing into the hands of the Duke of Milan, 
 and from him the Florentines tried to purchase it. But 
 the Pope was beforehand with them. His objections to 
 the extension of Florentine interests in Romagna were as 
 strong, and as valid, as the objections which Florence 
 entertained against the extension of Papal interests in 
 that quarter. The mission of Pietro Riario to Milan was 
 doubtless connected with the Pope's projects upon Imola, 
 projects for which he had already secured the sanction of 
 Ferrante of Naples. It was eventually arranged, much 
 to the chagrin of Florence, that the Pope should buy Imola 
 for 40,000 ducats, that it should be handed over in 
 sovereignty to Girolamo Riario, and that he should marry 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 171 
 
 Caterina Sforza, an illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo 
 Maria. 
 
 This arrangement hit Florence severely. Imola was 
 lost to her. The Pope had established his secular power 
 in close proximity to her borders, and her friendship for 
 Sforza, which had entailed much sacrifice, had proved in- 
 sufficient to induce Galeazzo to accede to her wishes, or to 
 prevent him from showing favour to the wishes of the Pope. 
 The alliance between Girolamo and Caterina was of bad omen. 
 
 It is therefore not surprising that Lorenzo should have 
 put forth his utmost endeavours to thwart the arrangement 
 which had been made. It might still be possible to raise 
 such financial obstacles that the Pope would not be able 
 to find the purchase-money for Imola. The Pope's funds 
 were in the hands of the Medici bank at Rome, and thus 
 difficulties could be put in the way when so large a lump 
 sum was required. At this juncture the rival bankers, 
 the Pazzi, came forward, and undertook to negotiate the 
 business. Sixtus transferred his account from the Medici 
 to the Pazzi bank, and began to regard Lorenzo with 
 feelings of violent animosity. Thus the case of Imola has 
 a double bearing on the Pazzi conspiracy. It marks the 
 beginnings of personal rivalry between the Pazzi and the 
 Medici, and also the beginnings of hostiUty between Lorenzo 
 and the Pope. 
 
 The difficulties with Sixtus were intensified by the sus- 
 picion that Girolamo Riario would not be contented by 
 the acquisition of Imola, but that his eyes were fixed upon 
 the lordship over Forli and Faenza also. If his schemes 
 should be realised, the position of Florence in the Romagna 
 would be seriously compromised ; in any event it was 
 necessary to oppose, whenever possible, the further ex- 
 tension of direct Papal influence in that region and else- 
 where. An opportunity offered when Sixtus determined 
 to intervene in the affairs of Citta di Castello. 
 
 This town lay on the frontiers of Tuscany and Umbria, 
 in close proximity to the Florentine outpost, Borgo San 
 Sepolcro. The lordship over Cittk di Castello was in the 
 hands of Niccolo Vitelli, but the Vitelli had for some years 
 
172 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 been confronted with formidable rivals in the Giustini 
 family. The broils between the two families had led to 
 constant agitation and violence in the town, and when at 
 last Niccolo Vitelli gained the upper hand, Lorenzo Giustini 
 carried his complaints and his claims to the Pope. Sixtus 
 could put forward plausible excuses drawn from the past 
 history of the town to justify his interference. He could 
 represent his intervention as being in the interests of law, 
 order, and good government. But Citta di Castello would 
 also be a useful addition to Girolamo's possessions, and 
 the Pope was suspected of the intention to hand the place 
 over to him. Florence at any rate was seriously alarmed 
 for Borgo San Sepolcro, and as the Pope prosecuted his 
 enterprise against Niccolo Vitelli with vigour, Florence 
 organised a force of 6000 men to safeguard her interests 
 in that neighbourhood. The Pope took this demonstration 
 as directed against himself, and accused the Signoria of 
 levying troops for the purpose of supporting Vitelli against 
 his lawful suzerain. It was a further grievance that when 
 Vitelli was at length compelled to surrender, he was able 
 to secure such terms that it was said that the conquered, 
 not the conquerors, had dictated them. None the less, 
 Niccolo was compelled to leave Citta di Castello, being 
 then hospitably received by Florence and allowed to find 
 a safe retreat within her territories. It was in vain for 
 Lorenzo to protest to Sixtus that all that had been done 
 was in protection of the legitimate interests of Florence ; 
 that he reckoned the goodwill of the Pope among his most 
 precious treasures which he had no desire to lose " for the 
 sake of Messer Niccolo or any one else." Sixtus remained 
 convinced that Florence had done everything in her power 
 to thwart him, and Florence on her part, says Valori, began 
 to look askance on Papal schemes, to withdraw from the 
 Pope the honours which were his due, and to exclude him 
 from all her secrets. 
 
 An opportunity soon presented itself to Sixtus to mark 
 his displeasure in a manner peculiarly galling to Lorenzo. 
 In 1474 Filippo dei Medici, Archbishop of Pisa, died, and 
 the Pope conferred the vacant see upon Francesco Salviati. 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 173 
 
 For reasons not known Lorenzo regarded this man as 
 unsuitable to hold ecclesiastical authority within the 
 territories of Florence. Only a few months earlier he had 
 successfully thwarted Salviati's ambition to become Arch- 
 bishop of Florence, the see being secured on the death of 
 Pietro Riario, by Lorenzo's brother-in-law, Rinaldo Orsini. 
 In the case of the Archbishopric of Pisa, Lorenzo was not 
 so fortunate. Salviati secured the appointment in the face 
 of an assurance that the Pope had previously given, through 
 Cardinal Jacopo Ticino, that no Bishop or Archbishop 
 should be instituted to any see within the territories of 
 the Republic unless he had been nominated and found fit 
 by the supreme magistracy. It was probably on the 
 strength of this assurance that Lorenzo, though unable 
 to prevent Salviati's appointment, nevertheless was able 
 to withhold from him possession of the Archbishopric for 
 a period of three years. Salviati remained in Rome, 
 seething with indignation, and glad, when the time arrived, 
 to embrace any schemes which offered him a prospect of 
 securing vengeance for his wrongs. 
 
 Yet a further cause of complaint was Lorenzo's action, 
 or reputed action, in the matter of Carlo Fortebraccio. 
 This man was a somewhat eccentric condottiere in the 
 pay of Venice, who conceived that through his father, 
 Braccio the Great, he had claims upon the lordship of 
 Perugia. In 1477 he determined to prosecute these claims, 
 and raised a private expedition for the purpose. The Pope 
 subsequently accused Lorenzo of having aided and abetted 
 Carlo in this freebooting enterprise, but the truth seems 
 to be that Carlo's failure before Perugia was chiefly due 
 to the action of Florence, who urgently counselled him to 
 withdraw. Carlo, however, was determined not to go 
 back empty-handed. He made an aggressive descent 
 upon the territories of Siena, whose inveterate enmity to 
 Florence made her at all times ready to believe that any 
 designs against her were prompted from that quarter. 
 Siena appealed against Fortebraccio's raid to the Pope 
 and to Ferrante, at the same time making strong repre- 
 sentations to Florence that she should call the freebooter 
 
174 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 off. Florence retorted that Fortebraccio's enterprises were 
 no affair of hers, and that she was in no way responsible for 
 them, and was most anxious that he should desist from them. 
 
 The affair now took a very serious turn which threatened 
 to disturb the general peace of Italy. The Pope was 
 thoroughly roused by Fortebraccio's audacity, was con- 
 vinced that Florence was his accomplice, and shrewdly 
 suspected that, behind the scenes, Venice was pulling the 
 strings and seeking to pick up an advantage from any 
 successes which Carlo might gain. An opportunity was 
 offered to Sixtus to try the effect of his own diplomatic 
 arrangements, and to give proof to the northern powers 
 that his alliance with Ferrante and Urbino was a factor 
 with which they must reckon. He put an army into the 
 field against Fortebraccio commanded by Federigo of 
 Urbino, and Ferrante sent Neapolitan troops to support 
 him. Urbino laid siege to the Castle of Montone, near 
 Perugia, which in a month was compelled to surrender. 
 It seemed as if a state of war would soon become general 
 between the chief ItaUan powers. At this juncture, 
 Florence, by urgent representations, induced Fortebraccio 
 to withdraw, and revert to his old position in the service 
 of Venice. He complained loudly against the Florentines, 
 and declared that, by their unwillingness to support him, 
 they had deprived him of glory, and themselves of a most 
 valuable acquisition. The Sienese, on the other hand, were 
 bitterly indignant against Florence, believing that Forte- 
 braccio's unprovoked attack could only have been made 
 on the strength of covert assurances of Florentine co- 
 operation and goodwill. They were not in the least grateful 
 to Florence for having obliged Carlo to retire, for, says 
 Macchiavelli, " they considered themselves under no ob- 
 ligation to those who had delivered them from an evil 
 to which they had first exposed them." 
 
 The Florentines, then, were in bad odour all round, and 
 Von Reumont thinks that they had only their own 
 duplicity to thank for it. It is difficult to know what were 
 exactly the facts in the case. If we are to believe the 
 Florentines, they were not only totally innocent of con- 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 175 
 
 niving at Fortebraccio's raid, but it was entirely through 
 them that he had twice been induced to stay his hand, 
 first from Perugia, and then from Siena. The Pope and 
 the Sienese were equally convinced that Florence was at 
 the bottom of the whole affair ; and in the Brief of Sixtus, 
 issued in June 1478, after the Pazzi Conspiracy — a Brief 
 in which he pronounces an interdict against Florence, and 
 summarises all his many griefs against Lorenzo — the charge 
 that Lorenzo had endangered the peace of Italy by his 
 encouragement of Fortebraccio, comes second on the list. 
 The Sienese are prejudiced witnesses, and their charges 
 against Florence are balanced by the conviction of Carlo 
 that he only failed because Florence would not help him. 
 The passion and fury of the Pope against Lorenzo, after 
 the Pazzi conspiracy, amounted almost to a maniacal 
 obsession, which certainly discounts the value of his 
 assertions. On the other hand, the suspicions against Florence 
 were almost universal, and the fact that Venice was ready 
 to testify to her integrity only tended to deepen them. 
 Falstaff needs a better security than Bardolph. Venice 
 was herself so much an adept at fishing in troubled waters 
 that feUow feeling for an imitator might in this case have 
 made her kind. 
 
 Leaving the question of the actual guilt or innocence 
 of Florence in doubt, this much at any rate is certain, 
 that, with or without just cause, the antagonism of the 
 Pope to Lorenzo was intensified by the incidents which 
 attended the raids of Carlo Fortebraccio. 
 
 Concurrently with the course of events in Romagna and 
 in Umbria, the Pope was drawing closer the ties between 
 himself and Ferrante. It was undoubtedly Ferrante's 
 first interest to be on good terms with his suzerain. His 
 own tenure of Naples was precarious. Powerful and 
 discontented barons were ever watchful for an opportunity 
 to rise against him, and abundant opportunities had been 
 offered to them by the constant struggle between the 
 Neapolitan Kings and the Holy See. To end that struggle, 
 and settle the question of tribute on nominal terms, were 
 advantages sq great that Ferrante cannot be blamed for 
 
176 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 attaching himself to Sixtus at the expense of his alliance 
 with Lorenzo. Of course it was necessary to find pretexts, 
 and they were not difficult to find. Lorenzo was allowing 
 himself to fall too exclusively under the influence of Galeazzo 
 Sforza. Their dual alliance was tending to crowd Ferrante 
 out of the Triple Alliance. Lorenzo was making overtures 
 to Venice, and friendship for Venice could not exist side 
 by side with loyalty to the interests of Naples. Lorenzo 
 was trying, at Piombino and in Romagna, to upset the 
 balance of power which he professed himself so anxious to 
 preserve. Lorenzo might have retorted that in proportion 
 as Ferrante drew away from him, it was necessary to be 
 prepared with alternative arrangements. It is difficult 
 to decide what was cause and what was effect. But it may 
 be admitted that, in the exuberance of youth and the 
 confidence of power, Lorenzo was trying to do too much. 
 He was not yet by any means the consummate statesman, 
 but was learning by experience, in this stage of his career, 
 those lessons in statecraft which in a later period he 
 practised with so much faciUty and success. 
 
 At the same time, as he watched the growing friendship 
 between Ferrante and the Pope, it became obvious to him 
 that, if the balance of the Italian States — the cardinal 
 point in Medici policy — was to be maintained, he must 
 look about him to find an alliance which would counter- 
 balance the possible defection of Naples. Venice was 
 ready to fill the vacant place. In September 1474, the 
 Triple Allaince between Florence, Milan, and Venice was 
 proclaimed, for purposes of common defence. In order to 
 show that the new league had no aggressive intentions, 
 but was only anxious for the public peace, room was left 
 for the Pope and Ferrante to join the combination if they 
 cared to do so. Their reply, however, was formally to 
 ratify their own alliance. The foes of the one were to be 
 the foes of the other, and their association was for mutual 
 protection and support. Ferrante, early in 1475, paid a 
 State visit to Rome, where he was splendidly received by 
 the Pope, and lodged in the Vatican. 
 
 But though the fact that there were two Leagues facing 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 177 
 
 one another in Italy was ominous ; though the opportunity 
 of consohdating these Leagues into one had been dedined, 
 yet there was no declaration of hostilities, the relations 
 between Ferrante and Lorenzo still remaining of a most 
 cordial character. So long as no war broke out there was 
 no occasion for any coldness. When in 1477 Ferrante 
 determined to marry again, Lorenzo received, and splendidly 
 entertained, at Pisa, the Duke of Calabria, who was on his 
 way to fetch the bride. Outwardly, the political sky was 
 fair everywhere in Italy : but an event had already 
 occurred, at the end of the year 1476, which led the Pope, 
 when he heard of it to exclaim, " To-day the peace of Italy 
 is dead." On St. Stephen's Day, December 26, Galeazzo 
 Maria Sforza was assassinated in the Church of St. Stephen 
 at Milan. 
 
 The event made a tremendous appeal to the Italian 
 imagination, and revived the fashion in dramatic assassi- 
 nations. Among the pupils of Cola Montano, the most 
 distinguished Humanist in Milan, were three young Milanese 
 noblemen, Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani, Carlo Visconti, 
 and Girolamo Olgiati. From their tutor they learned 
 much of the virtues of a republican government, and were 
 fortified in hatred of despots and love of liberty by copious 
 examples drawn from the ancient world of Sparta, Athens, 
 and Rome. Montano does not seem to have refrained 
 from pointing his remarks by direct allusions to the existing 
 government in Milan. " He discussed with them," says 
 Macchiavelli, " the faults of their Prince ; the wretched 
 state of his subjects, and so worked upon their minds as 
 to induce them to bind themselves by oath to destroy the 
 Duke as soon as they were old enough to make the attempt." 
 Montano is scathingly dismissed by Armstrong as " one of 
 the cowardly literary agitators who never dare face the 
 deeds to which they drive their scholars." Under the 
 spell of his glowing periods, assassination took the appear- 
 ance of antique virtue. Immortal glory was to be won by 
 following in the steps of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. 
 
 If it be possible for the conduct of a tyrant to justify 
 tyrannicide, Galeazzo had gone to lengths of public and 
 
 M 
 
178 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 private immorality such as made him worthy of his fate. 
 He is an example of the man of the Renaissance who 
 combined some taste and love of learning with odious 
 vices and eccentric cruelty. Corio, in his " History of Milan," 
 cites examples of his revolting lusts, and of his ferocious 
 and sanguinary nature. Each of Montano's young pupils, 
 according to Macchiavelli, had his own private wrongs 
 to avenge : and, in the case of Carlo Visconti it was the 
 honour of his own sister which he was called upon to vin- 
 dicate. Having decided that the deed should be done, 
 they determined, by careful preparation, to do it success- 
 fully. They met frequently, and rehearsed the murder 
 by assuming in turn different attitudes, and striking each 
 other with sheathed daggers, their blows being regulated 
 by the position of the one who acted the part of victim. 
 Much consideration was given to the question of time and 
 place. To assassinate the Duke privately would be to 
 rob the deed of half its effect, and, moreover, would be 
 difficult, for he was carefully guarded. Some public 
 festival, or ceremonial occasion, when crowds would be 
 gathered together, and when sympathisers would be at 
 hand, seemed to offer the most favourable and dramatic 
 opportunity. It was the custom of the Duke, on St. 
 Stephen's Day, to go in great solemnity to the Church 
 dedicated to the Saint. On that day, therefore, the oppor- 
 tunity should be seized. The three conspirators, having 
 urged upon their friends to be at hand, but without dis- 
 closing their project, betook themselves to the Church. 
 Having heard Mass together, they gathered before a statue 
 of St. Ambrose, and invoked the patron saint of their 
 City and its Uberties to witness the purity of their motives, 
 and to give favourable assistance to their enterprise. They 
 then took up their positions at the entrance to the Church. 
 
 In the meantime, according to the accounts of con- 
 temporaries who loved to colour events with a touch of 
 the miraculous, Galeazzo was haunted by strange omens 
 of his approaching death. It was, indeed, not unnatural, 
 when the deed was done, that people should have had in 
 mind the death of Caesar. It is related that the Duke, 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 179 
 
 having put on a cuirass, in a fatal moment took it off again 
 for some trifling cause : that he proposed not to go to the 
 church but to hear Mass in his private chapel ; that, in 
 the absence of a priest, he changed his mind, but before 
 setting forth, called his little children to him, and embraced 
 them with unusual warmth. As he approached the en- 
 trance Lampugnani and Olgiati advanced towards him as 
 if to clear the way for him, and the former, faUing on his 
 knee before the Duke, under pretence of presenting a 
 petition, struck him two blows in front, quickly followed 
 by similar blows from the dagger of Olgiati. The Duke 
 staggered forward, affording an opportunity to Visconti 
 to stab him from behind in the shoulder and the spine. 
 The Duke fell ejaculating the name of the Virgin. Great 
 confusion immediately arose, but the thing had been done 
 so suddenly and so rapidly that few knew what had actually 
 taken place. No cries of Liberty, Republic, were raised. The 
 assassination fell flat, and the assassins sought their own 
 safety by mingling with the crowd within the church. Lam- 
 pugnani, however, had been recognised by one of the Duke's 
 attendants. Seeking to save himself among the women, he 
 stumbled over their voluminous trains and was cut down. 
 Visconti escaped for the moment, but soon shared the fate 
 of his companion. Girolamo Olgiati passed quietly out of 
 the church, and made his way home, where through the 
 good offices of his mother he lay concealed for two days. 
 Bitterly disappointed that no general rising on behalf of 
 freedom had followed the Duke's assassination, he sought 
 greater safety in flight, was discovered and handed over to 
 justice. He found consolation for his tortures in the 
 recollection of his deed. In the agonies of death he main- 
 tained his fortitude by the reflection that though death is 
 bitter, fame is everlasting, and that the memory of his 
 act would remain for ever. [Mors acerba, fama perpetua, 
 stahit vetus memoria facti.) 
 
 Throughout Italy the feeling was entertained, and 
 commonly expressed, that the assassins of Galeazzo Maria 
 had done a glorious thing. They had signalised in a striking 
 way their own individuality and this was of more con- 
 
i8o LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 sequence than the death of a despot. Italy lived under 
 despots, and could not do without them, but was none the 
 less glad when any one of them came to a violent end. 
 The political consequences of the murder lay hidden in the 
 future, and there were few who cared to trouble about 
 them. The Pope was shrewd enough to see that " the 
 peace of Italy was dead," but neither he, nor any other, 
 could foresee that from that day dates the decay of Italian 
 independence. Galeazzo's successor was destined to call 
 the French into Italy in order to preserve his own doubtful 
 sovereignty in Milan, and with the advent of the French 
 the days of Italian independence were numbered. 
 
 But Lorenzo fully realised that for him a serious crisis 
 had arisen. He had lost an ally who was strong and firmly 
 established, while conditions had arisen which would throw 
 the government of Milan for a time at any rate into the 
 melting-pot. 
 
 Galeazzo Maria left behind him a son seven years old, 
 and a band of turbulent and ambitious brothers. The 
 widowed Duchess, Bona of Savoy, immediately took steps 
 to secure the Regency on behalf of her son Giovanni, but, 
 in face of the intrigues of her brothers-in-law, her task was 
 difficult, for they were determined that the Regency should 
 be in the hands of one of themselves. Whichever party 
 triumphed in the end, Milan must endure for several years 
 the weakness and the risks involved in the government of a 
 minor. Milan, instead of being, as hitherto, the support on 
 which Lorenzo could chiefly rely, was now likely, whatever 
 government ultimately prevailed there, to need from Lorenzo 
 all the support which he could afford her, 
 
 Lorenzo therefore had carefully to consider his proper 
 line of action. In any event a close friendship with Milan 
 must be maintained, for that was the keystone of Medici 
 foreign policy. The best course was to be prepared for 
 anything which might happen ; to support the government 
 of the Duchess, seeing that it was established, and at the 
 same time to keep as far as possible on good terms with 
 the brothers, in case they might at any time prevail Such 
 a policy exposed Lorenzo to the charge of double-dealing. 
 
EVENTS LEADING TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY i8i 
 
 and was certainly liable to be misunderstood. A year or 
 two later the Duke of Urbino roundly accused Lorenzo of 
 neither desiring nor seeking the peace and safety of Milan, 
 and expressed his agreement with the opinion which had 
 been expressed that Lorenzo " had sinned against the Holy 
 Ghost and doubted the mercy of God." 
 
 These, however, were the exaggerated statements of 
 political prejudice, and they show no comprehension of 
 Lorenzo's difficulties. At a time of confusion, when the 
 foundations of his traditional policy were in danger of 
 being uprooted, he had to do the best he could for himself, 
 and no course seemed to offer better prospects than to be 
 prepared for any event in Milan. 
 
 Immediately on receipt of the news of the Duke's 
 assassination Lorenzo despatched Luigi Guicciardini to 
 Milan, soon to be followed by Tommasso Soderini, in order 
 to convey his assurances of support to the Duchess, and to 
 maintain the good relations between the two governments. 
 Much was to be hoped from the fact that Cecco Simoneta, 
 the chief minister of the late Duke, had firmly attached 
 himself to the side of the Duchess-Regent. So long as he 
 remained in power, there was a guarantee for the continuity 
 of Milanese policy, and a formidable obstacle opposed to 
 the ambitions of the Sforza brothers. Two of them, Sforza, 
 Duke of Bari, and Ludovico, known as II Moro, had been 
 banished by Galeazzo to France. They now returned 
 and were joined by two other brothers, Ottaviano, and 
 Ascanio, a churchman, subsequently one of the most 
 influential members of the College of Cardinals. 
 
 Simoneta endeavoured to conciliate them by offices, 
 dignities and wealth, but they soon took advantage of a 
 revolt in Genoa against the authority of Milan to show 
 their hand. Holding high commands in the Milanese 
 army which was operating in Genoa, they stirred up sedition 
 among the soldiers, sought to win the army to their side, 
 and organised a rising in Milan. These intrigues were 
 discovered, and Ottaviano, seeking refuge in flight, was 
 drowned in the waters of the Adda. The other three were 
 sent into exile. 
 
l82 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 To Ludovico Pisa was allotted as his place of banishment, 
 and he was thus in the territories of Florence. There 
 Lorenzo extended to him every kindness and consideration, 
 treatment which Ludovico did not forget in the days of 
 his power, when Lorenzo needed assistance from him. 
 Sforza, Duke of Bari, found his way to Naples, where he 
 exerted himself to stir up Ferrante against the Duchess- 
 Regent. Ascanio betook himself to Perugia. The state 
 of general war in Italy which followed as a consequence 
 of the Pazzi Conspiracy, provided the brothers with fresh 
 opportunities of prosecuting their ambitions. By the 
 death of the Duke of Bari, however, Ludovico was left the 
 sole secular representative of the pretensions of the brothers. 
 In an evil moment, yielding to the persuasions of the Duke 
 of Ferrara, the Duchess-Regent made overtures of recon- 
 cihation to Ludovico and Ascanio. They were accepted, 
 and the result corresponded with the anticipations of 
 Simoneta, who warned the Duchess that Ludovico's recall 
 could only mean " that from you wiU be taken all influence 
 and reputation, and from me, Hfe." In September 1479 
 Ludovico Sforza entered Milan, and from this moment, 
 under the pretence of acting for his nephew, he became 
 for all practical purposes, the reigning Duke. 
 
 Such were the political results which followed directly 
 in Milan from the assassination of Galeazzo Maria. In 
 Florence, little more than a year later, a scheme of 
 assassination on a more extensive and even more dramatic 
 scale was brought to a head. From it Lorenzo barely 
 escaped with his Hfe, and his brother GiuUano fell, murdered 
 even before the horns of the altar. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY *— THE PLOT. AND THE MAN 
 WHO HATCHED IT 
 
 The Pazzi family — Causes of their animosity against Lorenzo — Political 
 grievances — Private grievances — The Borromeo inheritance — Girolamo 
 Riario thinks himself thwarted by Lorenzo — Girolamo approaches Fran- 
 cesco di Pazzi — Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa — Jacopo di Pazzi — His 
 original attitude towards the conspiracy — Services of Battista di Monte- 
 secco enlisted — Interview between Girolamo and Montesecco — Montesecco 
 engaged to secure foreign aid — Montesecco's interview with Lorenzo — 
 Interview with Jacopo di Pazzi — Montesecco relates the story of his 
 interview with the Pope — Jacopo joins the conspiracy — Extent to which 
 the Pope was implicated in the conspiracy — Difficulties of the conspirators 
 as to means to accomplish their ends — The conspirators in Rome — Lorenzo 
 invited to Rome — Ringleaders of the conspiracy in Florence — Accomplices. 
 
 THE family of Pazzi which gave its name to the remark- 
 able conspiracy of 1478 was of great antiquity, of high 
 estimation in Florence, and closely connected by marriage 
 with Lorenzo and Giuliano dei Medici. One of the great 
 solemnities of Florence, the procession of the Carro dei 
 Pazzi, derived its origin from the tradition that Pazzo dei 
 
 * The chief contemporary authorities for the Pazzi conspiracy are : 
 
 (i) The Confession of Giovanni Battista di Montesecco, circulated by 
 the Florentine Chancellor, Bartolommeo Scala, in his " Excusatio Fioren- 
 tinorum," August 10, 1478. 
 
 {2] " Angeli Poliziani conjurationis Pactionae, anni 1478, Commen- 
 tarium." The edition which I have chiefly used " nunc primum inlus- 
 tratum cura et studio Joannis Adimari documentis, figuris, notis Neapoli, 
 1769," contains, in addition to Poliziano's Commentary, every available 
 reference to the conspiracy drawn from contemporary sources, such as 
 despatches from ambassadors, extracts from historians, &c. 
 
 (3] The Pope's Brief of Excommunication, dated June i, 1478. 
 
 (4) Reply of the Signoria to the Papal Brief, July 21, 1478 — given in 
 Roscoe's supplementary illustrations. 
 
 (5) Letter purporting to speak for the Florentine synod, July 23, 1478. 
 (6] Other letters, by the Pope, Lorenzo, and others, and diplomatic 
 
 despatches. 
 
 (7] Works of contemporary, or quasi-contemporary, historians — 
 Macchiavelli, Valori, Guicciardini, Amirato and others, 
 
 183 
 
i84 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Pazzi, at the time of Godfrey de Bouillon's Crusade, brought 
 back from Jerusalem the sacred stone — a fragment of the 
 tomb of Christ — from which, on Easter-eve, the sparks 
 were struck which lighted the Colombina. The Colombina 
 was a firework, shaped like a dove which, when ignited, 
 carried the fire from the stone upon the High Altar of the 
 Duomo to the Pazzi car, which stood, stored with fireworks, 
 upon the Piazza del Duomo, between the Cathedral and 
 the Baptistery. At the touch Florence was bathed in the 
 sacred fire. This august ceremony would alone have made 
 the name of Pazzi a household word in Florence, but later 
 descendants had still further ennobled it. Andrea dei Pazzi 
 was a contemporary of Cosimo dei Medici, the friend and 
 agent of King Rene of Provence, from whom he received 
 the dignity of knighthood. Under Cosimo's regime the 
 family repudiated its nobility and became enrolled among 
 the burghers, thus becoming qualified for pohtical office. 
 Piero dei Pazzi, Andrea's son, yielding to the influence of 
 Niccolo Niccoli, devoted himself to humanistic studies, 
 became the glass of fashion, the darling of Florence. To 
 great accomplishments he added business capacity of a 
 high order. His great wealth enabled him to gratify to 
 the full his tastes as a man of culture and his passion for 
 liberality and magnificence. His friendly relations with 
 the Medici are attested by the marriage of his nephew, 
 Guglielmo, to Bianca, daughter of Piero dei Medici, and 
 sister of Lorenzo. The Pazzi, in fact, were within the inner 
 ring of powerful Medici adherents, and seemed, and indeed 
 for some time were, devoted to the interests of the Medici 
 ascendancy. 
 
 The Pazzi and the Medici were, it is true, commercial 
 rivals. At Rome particularly the Pazzi Bank, under the 
 management of Francesco dei Pazzi, was a hot competitor 
 against the Medici Bank under Giovanni Tornabuoni. This 
 competition assumed the form of personal antagonism in 
 1474 when the Pazzi advanced to the Pope the purchase- 
 money for Imola in the face of Lorenzo's efforts to thwart 
 the Papal pohcy by raising financial difficulties. The strain 
 doubtless became more acute when vSixtus deprived the 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 185 
 
 Medici of the advantage of being the Papal bankers, and 
 conferred it upon the Pazzi. But this state of tension 
 reflected certain private and pubHc grievances under which 
 Francesco Pazzi, and possibly other members of the family, 
 beUeved themselves to be suffering. 
 
 The anomalous and undefined position which Lorenzo 
 held in the government of Florence rendered him liable 
 at all times to incur the jealousy and discontent of powerful 
 families, which, though attached generally to the Medician 
 system, yet were of opinion that the system itself implied 
 an oligarchy, and not the supremacy of a single individual. 
 Lorenzo's view on the contrary was that the will of one 
 man must ultimately prevail, and thus all his measures 
 were directed to securing the final voice in the dis- 
 position of affairs. Thinking it dangerous to himself and 
 to the State to permit any real authority to remain in 
 the hands of those who were not entirely dependent on 
 himself, it is certainly probable that he sought to depress 
 the pohtical influence of great famihes which might possibly 
 stand out as rivals for power. Acting on this principle, 
 Lorenzo was careful to prevent any of the great offices of 
 State from falling into the hands of the Pazzi, and therefore, 
 says Macchiavelh, the Pazzi were angry, in that their claims 
 to pohtical distinction, however strong, were invariably set 
 aside, and Lorenzo feared the Pazzi in proportion to the 
 anger which his own conduct had aroused. 
 
 Contemporary authorities, however, differ so much in 
 accordance with their private and political prejudices that 
 it is not easy to be sure of the actual facts of the case. 
 Poliziano, in opposition to Macchiavelli, declares that the 
 Pazzi family were universally unpopular by reason of their 
 insolence and avarice, that Jacopo Pazzi, the head of the 
 house, sweated his workpeople and frequently did not pay 
 them at all, and therefore that he was generally hated, nor 
 had he, nor his ancestors, at any time enjoyed any popularity 
 in Florence. If this be true it would scarcely have been 
 worth Lorenzo's while to take any particular care to ex- 
 clude the family from the exercise of political power. 
 
 In the case of Francesco Pazzi, Jacopo's nephew, Poh- 
 
i86 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 ziano admits that " being a man of great arrogance and 
 pretensions," he never could understand why the Medici 
 were preferred to himself, that he lost no opportunity of 
 traducing them, and that he lived chiefly at Rome because 
 there was no room for him in Florence while the Medici 
 were there. 
 
 There can be no reasonable doubt that political motives 
 played some part in producing the animosity of the Pazzi 
 towards the Medici, but private grievances were probably 
 more powerful incentives. 
 
 Of these by far the most important was the question of 
 an inheritance of which the Pazzi believed themselves to 
 have been deprived by the direct and interested action of 
 Lorenzo. Macchiavelli has told us that a man is more 
 affected by the loss of his patrimonial estate than by that 
 of his paternal relative. Financial quarrels between people 
 closely related are often the most deadly of all. 
 
 Giovanni dei Pazzi, Francesco's brother, was married to 
 Beatrice Borromeo. As her father, Giovanni Borromeo, 
 died leaving no will, his property should have passed to her 
 in accordance with the existing law. Her claims, however, 
 were contested by Borromeo's nephews who were close 
 friends of the Medici. By the action of Lorenzo, as it is 
 said, a retrospective law of intestacy was passed in 1476, 
 under which the claims of females to the property of a 
 father who had died intestate were set aside, the estate 
 passing to male collaterals. Nardi, in his ' ' Storia Fiorentina," 
 comments severely upon the circumstances under which this 
 law was passed, being as he says, " a law made for the 
 occasion, and applying to the past, contrary to custom, 
 and to the just tenor of laws, which should apply to 
 the future." Nardi therefore corroborates Macchiavelli's 
 account of the affair. Guicciardini is equally precise. 
 
 Roscoe, however, maintains that the law was passed 
 more than ten years before, in the time of Piero dei Medici, 
 when Lorenzo was absent from Florence, when, moreover, 
 he was not in a position, had he been at home, to exercise 
 any material influence upon legislation. In support of 
 this assertion, Roscoe brings forward a letter written to 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 187 
 
 Lorenzo by Luigi Pulci on April 22, 1465. In this letter, 
 however, though there is an obscure allusion to the Bor- 
 romei, there is nothing which can lead us to suppose that 
 Luigi Pulci is referring to any intestacy law which had been 
 passed in opposition to the interests of any member of the 
 family. This letter being the only proof which Roscoe can 
 bring forward in exoneration of Lorenzo, the defence falls 
 to the ground. It was so much in accordance with Lorenzo's 
 policy to intervene in private matters — questions of in- 
 heritance, marriage and the like — that his interference in a 
 case of this kind is, on the face of it, probable. Macchia- 
 velli's statement is precise that, not only did the Pazzi 
 recognise the hand of Lorenzo in this act of injustice, but 
 that even Giuliano dei Medici thought his brother was going 
 too far, and expressed his fears that by grasping at too much 
 they might lose all. 
 
 Whatever the causes of their enmity, however, it is un- 
 likely that the Pazzi would have carried animosity to the 
 point of conspiracy and assassination unless they had been 
 goaded by a stimulus applied from without. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the true villain of the piece 
 was Girolamo Riario, the Pope's nephew. He had already 
 secured the lordship over Imola, and was anxious to extend 
 his sovereignty in the directions of Forli and Faenza. The 
 serious illness of Carlo Manfredi of Faenza seemed to offer 
 favourable opportunities. Manfredi already felt himself to 
 have been grossly injured by Riario in the matter of Imola, 
 of which he had been dispossessed, and his personal interest 
 in keeping Riario out of Faenza harmonised with the public 
 interest of Florence to prevent any further extensions of 
 the Papal Power in Romagna. Riario therefore, identify- 
 ing Florence with Lorenzo, regarded him as a personal 
 enemy and the chief obstacle in the way of his ambitions. 
 To get rid of the Medici altogether, and effect a complete 
 revolution in the government of Florence, seemed to him 
 the best way of accomplishing his own projects. Being, 
 moreover, well aware of the sentiments of Francesco dei 
 Pazzi towards Lorenzo, Riario saw in him a convenient 
 instrument to serve his purposes. 
 
i88 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 The various grievances which the Pope had against 
 Lorenzo have already been seen. A revolution in Florence, 
 resulting in the overthrow of the Medici, was a prospect 
 which could not fail to be congenial to him. But how far 
 he would approve of extreme measures involving the violent 
 removal, perhaps the death, of Lorenzo and Giuliano, was 
 another question. Riario felt the necessity of proceeding 
 cautiously. 
 
 His first step was to approach Francesco dei Pazzi, who, 
 burning with resentment against Lorenzo, jumped at the 
 opportunity of associating so powerful a man as Riario 
 with his undefined schemes against the Medici ascendency. 
 While Girolamo was in fact using him, it is quite possible 
 that Francesco imagined he was using Girolamo. They 
 determined to work together, each for his own purposes, 
 while pretending to serve a common cause : they were soon 
 deep in schemes by which they might attain their ends. 
 
 It was speedily clear that their enterprise, must be two- 
 fold in its character. They must get rid of the Medici, and 
 thus the assassination of the tv/o brothers was one part of 
 the scheme. But this in itself was not enough. To effect 
 a revolution in the State it was necessary that they should 
 be in a position to support assassination by the assistance 
 of an armed force operating against Florence from without, 
 at the moment when the city was thrown into confusion, 
 was least expecting an attack, and was least prepared to 
 meet it. 
 
 This twofold scheme involved a double set of agents, one 
 to organise the murders, the other to muster the foreign 
 levies. Thus it became necessary to seek numerous accom- 
 plices. One was ready to hand in Rome in the person of 
 Francesco Salviati, the aggrieved Archbishop of Pisa. 
 
 Poliziano's picture of Salviati is a black one. He describes 
 him as a man, " as Gods and men well know," who was 
 ignorant of and despised all law, human and divine ; a man 
 of infamous character, stained with every crime, sunk in 
 luxury and profligacy, a gambler and a sycophant, but bold, 
 prompt, cunning and insolent. At an earlier period, how- 
 ever, Poliziano had himself covered Salviati with slavish 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 adulation, and the opinion which he subsequently enter- 
 tained of the Archbishop was coloured by the part which 
 Salviati played in the conspiracy. 
 
 No sooner was the Archbishop approached than he threw 
 himself eagerly into the schemes of Girolamo and Francesco, 
 and his conduct throughout the business rather bears out 
 the estimate of him which Poliziano has given. 
 
 These three held secret interviews in Rome, where they 
 agreed that nothing could be done in the way of assassination 
 without the co-operation of Jacopo dei Pazzi in Florence, 
 nor could anything be done in the way of a revolution 
 without the consent and co-operation of the Pope. 
 
 When first the enterprise was broached to Jacopo he gave 
 no encouragement, declaring that nothing but evil to 
 themselves was likely to result. Though by no means 
 friendly to the Medici ascendency, yet he was on good terms 
 with Lorenzo, as is shown by letters, written in 1474, in 
 which Pazzi expresses his indebtedness to Lorenzo for favours 
 received, and his hopes that a good understanding may be 
 maintained between them. There is nothing to show that 
 he was animated by anything Hke the blind resentment 
 which actuated Francesco. He was, moreover, by this 
 time an old man, and though still a desperate gambler 
 who could not keep his temper when he lost, he wanted to 
 live a quiet life, and was shrewd enough to know that public 
 feeling in Florence would be altogether against any project 
 of removing the Medici brothers. The thing in fact, in his 
 opinion, could not be done, and therefore it should not be 
 attempted. He was averse from the plan even if there were 
 any reasonable chances of success, but in his opinion there 
 were no such chances. 
 
 The principals at Rome, therefore, resolved to hasten 
 those proceedings which aimed at the enlistment of foreign 
 levies, believing that, if they could show to Jacopo the cer- 
 tainty of strong military support from outside, he would 
 be convinced that the plan was feasible, and therefore 
 would personally support it. 
 
 To this end the conspirators approached Giovanni Battista 
 di Montesecco, a condottiere in the Papal service, who had 
 
190 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 had much experience in war ; a plain blunt man, who, though 
 he would not shrink from murder if it came in the way of duty, 
 yet had no love of murder for the sake of it : he was by no 
 means a professional cut-throat, but a man of some family 
 and distinction, possessing the military virtues of prompti- 
 tude, courage, and decision in a marked degree. This at 
 any rate is the impression conveyed by his lengthy and 
 circumstantial " Confession," which is quite an unstudied 
 document, conveying the impression of truth by its simplicity 
 and directness. 
 
 The task of sounding Montesecco was undertaken by 
 Francesco Pazzi and the Archbishop. Having heard their 
 proposals he declared that he was in the service of the Pope 
 and Count Girolamo, and therefore was not in a position 
 to give his assistance to any private and unofficial enterprise. 
 The reply was that they were acting in the interest of the 
 Pope and the Count, and they explained to him that the 
 Count's projects were constantly thwarted by Lorenzo's 
 hostihty ; that as long as Lorenzo lived, Girolamo's govern- 
 ment " was not worth a bean." At Montesecco's request 
 they detailed the reasons of this hostility, and in the end 
 the soldier agreed that he would act in the matter in accord- 
 ance with Girolamo's instructions. 
 
 On a later day Montesecco was summoned by the Count 
 into his chamber whither the Archbishop had preceded him. 
 Girolamo asked for his opinion upon the project which the 
 Archbishop had unfolded, but Montesecco refused to give 
 any opinion until he knew the means that they proposed to 
 adopt. Both of them then waxed eloquent upon the male- 
 volence of Lorenzo towards them, upon the many injuries 
 they had received at his hands. Montesecco, however, 
 drew a clear distinction between their grievances and the 
 methods by which they might be redressed. He would say 
 nothing till their plans were definitely laid before him. 
 They then declared that the only means possible were to 
 assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano, supporting the act of 
 murder by gathering men-at-arms who should secure the 
 city as soon as the deed was done. By these means a 
 successful revolution could be carried out in Florence, and, 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 191 
 
 to quiet his scruples, Montesecco was assured that the 
 Medici rule was uncongenial ; that the Pazzi and the Sal- 
 viati had such influence and popularity that they could 
 draw half Florence after them, and that Montesecco therefore 
 had no cause to shrink from assisting an enterprise the success 
 of which would be welcomed by the Florentines themselves. 
 
 Montesecco knew Httle about politics, but what he now 
 heard by no means tallied with his previous impressions. 
 He had always understood that Lorenzo had a great following 
 in Florence, and that those who would oppose him were 
 putting their hands to what he called " a big affair." 
 
 " My Lords," he said, "look to what you do, for Florence 
 is a big affair." 
 
 Upon this, the Count and the Archbishop in turn assured 
 him that he was mistaken. If the Medici were dead, every 
 one in Florence would lift up hands of gratitude to Heaven, 
 for they were held in much ill-will, " We know," said the 
 Archbishop, " the position of affairs in Florence a great deal 
 better than you do : there is no more doubt that the thing 
 will succeed than that we are here. The first essential is 
 to secure Messer Jacopo dei Pazzi who at present is colder 
 than a block of ice : when we have him, the thing is done." 
 
 Montesecco's next inquiries were as to the attitude of the 
 Pope. He was primarily the servant of the Pope and would 
 do nothing without full assurances of the Pope's sanction. 
 They declared that the Pope desired this more than any 
 one else : that Lorenzo had incurred the full measure of 
 his ill-will, and that Sixtus moreover would certainly be 
 ready to approve of anything which the Count and the 
 Archbishop desired. They had already spoken to the Pope 
 and made sure of him, but they would go further and 
 arrange an interview, when Montesecco should hear from 
 the Pope's own mouth his views and wishes in regard to the 
 project. With these assurances Montesecco expressed 
 himself content, and pending the promised interview, was 
 prepared to go forward with the scheme for securing the 
 necessary military forces. 
 
 Among the mercenary Captains who were at that time 
 in the service, or at the disposal, of Girolamo Riario were 
 
192 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Gian Francesco Gonzaga of Tolentino, Napoleone Orsini, 
 and Lorenzo Giustini of Citta di Castello, the rival of the 
 Vitelli, and therefore the natural enemy of Lorenzo dei 
 Medici. It was arranged that Napoleone should march his 
 contingent into Todi and Perugia ; Giustini should hold 
 himself in readiness in his own city, and Gian Francesco in 
 the neighbourhood of Imola. Montesecco was commissioned 
 to go into Romagna in order to superintend these dispositions. 
 At the same time he was entrusted by Girolamo with a 
 mission to Lorenzo himself in Florence with the object 
 apparently of putting him completely off his guard by 
 treacherous assurances of the Count's goodwill and affection. 
 
 Montesecco gives a particular account of his interview 
 with Lorenzo. He appeared dressed in mourning for the 
 loss of an Orsini relative, and Montesecco was surprised at 
 the warm and friendly expressions which he used in speaking 
 of Riario. No father, no brother could have spoken of him 
 with more affection, " so that I began to wonder, after what 
 I had heard from others, at finding him so well disposed." 
 Lorenzo rode back to town v/ith Montesecco— the interview 
 took place in the villa of Caffagiuolo — engaging him in 
 familiar and friendly conversation. The soldier felt that 
 the job he had undertaken would go much against the grain. 
 
 In Florence Montesecco took up his quarters in the Inn 
 della Campagna, and there he had a private interview with 
 Jacopo dei Pazzi. Having read the letters of credit ad- 
 dressed to him by Riario and the Archbishop, Jacopo im- 
 patiently declared that he wished to hear no more about 
 the matter. ** They are going to break their necks," he 
 said. " I understand our affairs here better than they do. 
 I do not wish to listen to you." At this point Montesecco 
 introduced the name of the Pope, and related what had 
 occurred when he met the Pope in company with Riario 
 and the Archbishop. This part of his relation therefore 
 has a pecuHar interest, for it is the chief source from which 
 we can form an opinion as to the Pope's complicity in the 
 details of the conspiracy, 
 
 Sixtus assured Montesecco, according to the latter's state- 
 ment to Jacopo, that it would be agreeable to him that 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 193 
 
 " this matter of Florence " should be taken speedily in hand, 
 " this matter " having at this point a clear reference to 
 the accomplishment of a revolution in Florence by means 
 of foreign troops. But the Pope would have no assassina- 
 tions. He did not wish the death of any one. " ' But, 
 said Montesecco, ' this matter. Holy Father, may turn out 
 ill without the death of Lorenzo and Giuliano, and perhaps 
 of others.' His Hohness rephed, ' I do not wish the death 
 of any one on any account since it is not in accord with our 
 Office to consent to the death of any one. Though Lorenzo 
 is a villain, and conducts himself ill towards us, yet we do 
 not on any account desire his death, but only a change in 
 the government.' The Count replied, ' All that we can do 
 shall be done that this may not happen : but should it 
 happen. Your Holiness will pardon him who did it ? ' The 
 Pope rephed to the Count, ' You are a beast. I tell you 
 I do not desire the death of any one, but only a change in 
 the government. And I say to you, Gian Battista, that I 
 strongly desire that a change should take place in the govern- 
 ment of Florence, and that it should be removed from the 
 hands of Lorenzo, who is a villain and a caitiff, who does 
 not esteem us. From the moment that he be out of Florence 
 we could do whatever we wish with that State, and that 
 would be very pleasing to us.' The Count and the Arch- 
 bishop then said, ' Your Holiness speaks true. Be content 
 therefore that we shall do everything possible to effect this 
 end.' ' I tell you,' rephed the Pope, ' I will not have it. 
 Go, and do what you wish, provided there be no killing.' 
 With this we rose up from before his presence, and His 
 Holiness ended by saying that he would be content to give 
 every assistance by way of men-at-arms or otherwise as 
 might be necessary.' The Archbishop thereupon brought 
 the interview to an end by saying, ' Holy Father, be content 
 that we should steer this ship, and that we will steer it well.' 
 And our Lord said, ' I am content.' Thereupon the Count, 
 the Archbishop, and Montesecco withdrew into Riario's 
 private room where details were discussed between them, 
 the conclusion ultimately arrived at being that without the 
 death of Lorenzo and Giuliano the thing could by no means 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 be done, and " though this would be to do ill, yet great 
 affairs could not be carried out in any other way. " 
 
 The impression left upon Jacopo dei Pazzi's mind by this 
 narrative was that the enterprise had the Pope's tacit 
 approval, and that by means of foreign troops it might be 
 carried to a successful issue. From an opponent of the 
 scheme Jacopo became an energetic, if tardy supporter. 
 Several authorities agree that this change of view was the 
 consequence of his conviction that the Pope was on the 
 side of the conspiracy. Sixtus was prepared to support it 
 actively with troops, and would turn a blind eye to murder, 
 if murder should be found to be necessary. And this 
 opinion corresponded with the subsequent facts. When 
 assassination had done its work, the Pope, far from repudiat- 
 ing thfe conspirators, only showed himself indignant against 
 Florence which had punished the assassins. 
 
 Every reader of Montesecco's Confession must draw his 
 own conclusion as to the attitude and conduct of Sixtus. 
 Some wiU find in it convincing proof that the Pope was not 
 only not an accomplice in an assassination, but had ex- 
 pressly forbidden his friends to compromise the good name 
 of the Papacy by an act of murder. Others will find a 
 tacit sanction conveyed under terms of protest and re- 
 pudiation, Sixtus sufficiently knowing the character of his 
 nephew to be aware that Riario was not the man to stick at 
 trifles. That the Pope covered his tracks, and left a way 
 open subsequently to dissociate himself from the violent 
 courses which were adopted, is undoubtedly true. That 
 he really believed the revolution could take place, and the 
 removal of the Medici brothers from the government be 
 accomplished without bloodshed is to credit Sixtus with 
 more innocence and ignorance of the men and of the times 
 than he can justly claim. The Pope may have imagined 
 that he had saved his face but " a jury, it is to be feared 
 would find Sixtus, in spite of his protestations, guilty as an 
 accessory before the fact." From this sane conclusion of 
 Armstrong it is not easy to find a way of escape. 
 
 Montesecco was quite capable of arranging all matters 
 connected with the raising of foreign troops, but for the 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 195 
 
 work of organising the details of the assassination it was 
 felt that the presence of the Archbishop in Florence was 
 imperatively required. The difRculties to be overcome 
 were serious. Both the brothers must be despatched, 
 for it was useless to kill one without the other ; but the 
 opportunities for catching two men unawares are rare, and 
 moreover the double murder required the services of several 
 accomplices. Jacopo dei Pazzi urged that the deed must be 
 done out of doors, and that each must be dealt with separately, 
 though as far as possible simultaneously. There was a 
 scheme afoot for the marriage of GiuHano to a daughter of 
 Appiani of Piombino. One or other of the brothers would 
 be going to Piombino to negotiate the terms, and a favourable 
 chance would thus be offered, but as long as the two young 
 Medici remained together in Florence, in Jacopo's opinion, 
 no success was possible. Francesco on the contrary thought 
 that they might be despatched together if only a time and 
 place were selected when they would be least suspecting 
 danger : in church for instance, or when they were playing 
 cards. All that was needed, he said, was the mind to do the 
 deed. 
 
 In any event the first thing to do was to get the Arch- 
 bishop to Florence, so that he might give good speed to 
 everything, and assist operations by his advice. Monte- 
 secco therefore went to Rome, where he related to Riario 
 and the Archbishop all that had occurred. Salviati found 
 the necessary excuse for a visit to Florence in the illness of 
 Carlo Manfredi of Faenza. He could plausibly urge as a 
 pretext that he wished to discuss with Lorenzo the affairs 
 of Faenza in the event of Manfredi's death. Montesecco 
 made his way to Imola to organise the military supports, and 
 to give instructions as to the movements of the mercenaries. 
 This done, he returned to Florence and had another 
 interview with Jacopo and Francesco Pazzi in their villa 
 at Montughi where he urged upon them the need for 
 expedition if the movements of the troops were to coincide 
 with the work which had to be done within the walls of 
 Florence. They declared that their zeal required no spur 
 but rather a bridle, but none the less, being unable at the 
 
196 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 moment to devise means to execute their purpose, they 
 recommended that for a time the mihtary movements 
 should be suspended until a favourable opportunity should 
 arise. This was done, and for a time the business was 
 dropped. 
 
 The scene now changes again to Rome where, in the 
 early days of 1478, the heads of the conspiracy were gathered 
 together. The Captains of the mercenaries, Montesecco, 
 Riario, Francesco Pazzi, were all there. Riario hit upon 
 the expedient of inviting Lorenzo to Rome in order that he 
 might have the opportunity of discussing with the Pope the 
 various points at issue between Sixtus and himself. " I do 
 not in the least doubt," says Riario in his letter to Lorenzo of 
 January 15, " that the Holy Father will receive you with 
 joy, while I, from the affection which I owe you from our 
 friendly relations together, would behave so as fully to 
 satisfy your Magnificence, and all grievances which may 
 have arisen will disappear." 
 
 In the expectation that Lorenzo would accept this 
 friendly invitation, Riario assured Montesecco that the 
 affair was in train. Lorenzo would come at Easter and 
 would not be suffered to return. " Will you kill him ? " 
 asked Montesecco. " Assuredly," replied the Count : "I 
 do not wish that anything unpleasant should happen to any 
 one here, but before he departs things must be so arranged 
 that they shall turn out well." " Does our Lord (the Pope) 
 know of this ? " " Certainly," he replied. " Diavolo," I 
 said ; " it is a great thing that he should have consented." 
 " Do you not know," added the Count, " that he will let us do 
 whatever we wish ? It is sufficient that the thing should 
 turn out well." 
 
 Lorenzo however did not come to Rome, and it was 
 necessary to fall back upon the original project of bringing 
 the matter to an issue in Florence. Speed was now essential, 
 for so many people had been admitted into the secret that 
 there was danger that the conspiracy would leak out. 
 Montesecco once more made his military arrangements, and 
 the Archbishop in the meantime was active in Florence. 
 
 The heads of the conspiracy in Florence itself were seven 
 
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 197 
 
 in number, reinforced by a few others who took a more or 
 less active part in it. Of the original seven the three most 
 prominent ringleaders were the Archbishop himself, and 
 Jacopo and Francesco Pazzi. With them were associated 
 two more Salviatis— one a brother of the Archbishop, and 
 the other a kinsman. Each ol them bore the name of 
 Jacopo. The sixth was Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini, a son 
 of the- famous Humanist who had been so closely attached 
 to the Medici interest, and had received so many obligations 
 from the family. Jacopo Bracciolini himself was a scholar 
 of no mean attainments, remarkable, says Poliziano, for his 
 eloquence and his knowledge of history, but a vain man 
 who had squandered an ample patrimony and was deeply 
 in debt. He had a passion for thinking evil of all men, 
 and the Archbishop found in him a ready tool. The seventh 
 was Bernardo Bandini, a man who, like Poggio, had dissi- 
 pated his fortune, and had become an adventurer ready to 
 seek his profit fronv any desperate enterprise. The savage 
 ferocity which he displayed at the moment of action seems 
 to justify the estimate of his general character which 
 Poliziano has given to the world. 
 
 In addition to the seven there was Montesecco, who, 
 having completed his arrangements, was now in Florence, and 
 two priests who associated themselves with the enterprise. 
 Of these Antonio Maffei di Volterra acted a part in this 
 brutal business which may ahnost be called respectable in 
 that he was a Volterran, and imagined that he had the 
 wrongs of his country to avenge upon Lorenzo. The other, 
 Stefano da Bagnone, was a retainer of Jacopo Pazzi, occupy- 
 ing in his house the position of tutor to Jacopo's natural 
 daughter. 
 
 There were two other members of the Pazzi family 
 who shared the punishment which fell upon the house, 
 but whose complicity in the conspiracy was doubtful. 
 Renato dei Pazzi, son of Piero, was a scholar and 
 something of a recluse, who certainly kept himself aloof 
 from any active participation in the plot, though it is 
 possible that he tacitly acquiesced in it. 
 
 Guglielmo dei Pazzi was Francesco's brother, and 
 
LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Lorenzo's brother-in-law. For years he had been intimately 
 associated with the tournaments and festivities in which 
 the Medici delighted, and was generally regarded as one of 
 the family. The position was certainly a painful one which 
 compelled him to take sides against his own family or that 
 of his wife. Poliziano speaks of him as trying to sit on two 
 seats at once. Such an endeavour was not unnatural in 
 the circumstances, and PoHziano's intimate knowledge of 
 the man justifies us in accepting his opinion of Guglielmo's 
 attitude. It is true that a friend and hanger-on of Gughelmo, 
 Napoleone Francesi, was reputed to be among the number 
 of the conspirators, but Poliziano declares that he took not 
 the least part in the business. 
 
 THE PAZZI FAMILY 
 Andrea dei Pazzi m. Caterina Salviati. 
 
 Piero dei P. * Jacopo dei P. Antonio 
 I m. 
 
 ^ I I I I I I I Cosa di Alessandri. 
 
 Antonio. Gio- An- Nic- Gal- Leo- Re- 
 Bhp. of vanni. drea. colo, eotto. nardo. nato.* 
 
 Mela- 
 
 tensis. 
 
 ♦Guglielmo Giovanni Francesco.* 
 m. Bianca m. Beatrice 
 dei Medici. Borromeo. 
 
 The star marks the four members of the family who were implicated 
 in the conspiracy. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 
 
 Cardinal Raffaelle Sansoni made a catspaw for the conspirators — The 
 conspiracy culminates on Sunday, April 26, 1478 — In the Duomo — 
 Montesecco's place as chief assassin taken by two priests — Lorenzo and 
 Giuliano come to the Duomo — Assassination of Giuliano — Lorenzo is 
 wounded and escapes — Salviati attempts to seize the Palazzo Publico — 
 Jacopo dei Pazzi fails to raise the mob and escapes— Summary vengeance 
 executed on the conspirators — Botticelli's frescoes on the Palazzo Publico 
 — Bandini escapes to Constantinople, but is extradited and executed — 
 Punishment of the Pazzi family — Capture and execution of Jacopo — 
 Montesecco writes a confession and is executed — Release of Raffaelle 
 Sansoni — Retirement of the Foreign troops from before Florence — General 
 grief for Giuliano — His character — Ferocious decree against the name of 
 Pazzi. 
 
 EVERYTHING was now ready except a plan of action, 
 but this must speedily be found if the plot was to 
 remain secret. The effort to separate the brothers had 
 failed, so they must be taken together. Francesco Pazzi's 
 suggestion that a banquet, festival, or ecclesiastical solemnity 
 would offer the best opportunity was, for want of a better, 
 the plan which held the field. Such a plan was hkely to 
 be materially assisted by the presence in Florence of some 
 distinguished person in whose honour the Medici would 
 exercise their well-known talent for hospitaUty and 
 splendour. Girolamo Riario determined to make use of his 
 young nephew, Raffaelle Sansoni, for this purpose, a youth 
 of seventeen who had recently been created a Cardinal by 
 his great-uncle, the Pope. The young Cardinal was pursuing 
 his studies at Lorenzo's new Academy at Pisa : from Pisa he 
 was summoned to Florence to be the guest of the Pazzi at 
 their Montughi villa. 
 
 Everything turned out according to expectations. Not a 
 whisper of the conspiracy had reached Lorenzo. The 
 letters which came to him from the young Cardinal were 
 
 199 
 
200 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of a most friendly character, and an invitation that he would 
 visit Lorenzo and Giuliano at their Fiesole villa foUowec in 
 due course. 
 
 On the appointed day Lorenzo rode from Florence to 
 Fiesole, accompanied by his son Piero, and by Poliziano, 
 but not by Giuliano. Giulano was ill and compelled to 
 remain at home. The conspirators found their calculations 
 upset once more. But they were immediately prepared 
 with another scheme, exactly the same in character, end 
 only involving a change in venue. The Cardinal, either on 
 his own initiative or instructed by his mentors, expressed a 
 strong desire to see the treasures of the Medici Palace in the 
 Via Larga. He proposed Sunday, April 26, as a suitable 
 day, when he would not only visit the Medici but also 
 celebrate High Mass in the Duomo. This arrangement 
 doubled the chances, for should the conspirators fail at the 
 banquet, they might redeem their failure in the Cathedral. 
 
 It was the Sunday before Ascension Day. High Mass 
 was to be celebrated with great solemnity, and splendid 
 preparations had been made at the Medici Palace to do 
 honour to the Cardinal. Invitations to a banquet had been 
 issued to the ambassadors of Naples, Milan, Ferrara, and 
 to a distinguished company. At the last moment GiuHano 
 sent word that he scarcely felt well enough to appear at a 
 banquet, but would not fail to meet his guests in the Cathe- 
 dral. A hurried conversation among the conspirators 
 resulted in the determination to strike during the Celebra- 
 tion. No moment could be more favourable, for then the 
 brothers, being least likely to suspect danger, could most 
 certainly be taken unawares. 
 
 The parts were rapidly allotted. Francesco Pazzi andl 
 Bernardo Bandini were to be responsible for GiuHano : the; 
 Archbishop with his relatives and Poggio were to seize the 
 Palazzo Publico, and rouse the city as soon as the deed 
 was done. The murder of Lorenzo was entrusted to the; 
 professional hands of Montesecco, for this was the most im- 
 portant item on the programme. Here however an obstacle 
 quite unforeseen, and out of all calculation, presented itself. 
 Montesecco flatly refused to do murder in a church. At a 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 201 
 
 banquet he had no scruples, and though he had no grudge 
 against Lorenzo, yet, as a soldier, Montesecco must obey his 
 superiors : if assassination came within his duties he was 
 prepared to go through with it in the recognised manner. 
 But as a faithful son of the Church he was not prepared to 
 commit sacrilege, nor could any claims of duty impose such a 
 crime upon him. 
 
 At this juncture the two priests, Maffei of Volterra and 
 Stefano da Bagnone, stepped into the breach. They offered 
 themselves as Lorenzo's assassins, for, being priests, they 
 were accustomed to churches, and famiharity made them 
 less susceptible to these mysterious influences which a lay- 
 man might naturally feel. There was no alternative but to 
 accept their offer, for it solved the difficulty as to the church, 
 but while doing so, it created another ; for, being priests, 
 Maffei and Stefano were possibly unskilled assassins, as 
 indeed the event proved. 
 
 On the Sunday morning the Cardmal Raffaelle rode into 
 Florence and dismounted before the Medici Palace, where 
 everything was in readiness for his reception. He was 
 conducted upstairs to his apartments that he might change 
 his dress and put on his ecclesiastical vestments. At the 
 ioot of the staircase Lorenzo received him, and, accompanied 
 by the Archbishop, they proceeded to the Duomo. At the 
 door the Archbishop, who had other work to do, excused 
 himself and Lorenzo conducted the Cardinal to the choir, 
 wlhere he took his place before the High Altar. Lorenzo 
 joined his friends in the ambulatory, a wide passage leading 
 ro)und the choir, from which it was separated by Ghiberti's 
 w^ooden screen work. All the conspirators appointed to do 
 the work of assassination were at hand, and there was a 
 very large congregation. Suddenly it was perceived that 
 Giuliano was not present. Francesco Pazzi and Bandini 
 thereupon hastened to the Palace to fetch him, and with 
 some difficulty persuaded him to come with them. He 
 was to all appearances quite unarmed, but the two traitors 
 alffectionately passed their arms around him to make sure 
 that he was not wearing a shirt of mail beneath his clothing, 
 ome of them jocosely remarking that he seemed to have 
 
202 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 grown quite fat during his illness. On arrival at the Cathe- 
 dral Giuliano made his way into the ambulatory, attended 
 by a servant, the band of conspirators specially attached to 
 him pressing close upon him. He took up his position on the 
 southern side, close to the chapel of the Santa Croce, being 
 separated from his brother by the full width of the choir. 
 
 It is not certain what precise signal the assassins had 
 agreed upon for the work to be begun. Some say the bell 
 which rang at the moment when the Host was elevated was 
 the signal. One authority says the Host had already been 
 elevated. Valori and the Florentine Chancellor say that 
 the moment chosen was when the Priest was breaking the 
 Eucharistic wafer, others, when the Priest was himself 
 receiving the elements; Poliziano states that the Priest 
 had already communicated. Whatever may have been the 
 precise moment, when it arrived Bandini drove his dagger 
 with all his force into Giuliano's side with the cry, " Take 
 that, traitor ! " The stricken man reeled full against Fran- 
 cesco Pazzi, recovered himself, and staggered a few paces 
 forward. Then he was set upon by Francesco with such 
 fury that the assassin either wounded himself, or was 
 seriously wounded, in the thigh in the melee which followed. 
 Giuliano fell pierced by nineteen wounds. His servants in 
 horror fled at the first sign of the onset. 
 
 On the other side of the choir the two priests were neither 
 so expeditious nor so successful. At the given moment 
 Maffei raised his dagger, and, to steady himself, or make 
 more sure of his aim, placed his hand upon Lorenzo's shoulder. 
 Instantly turning round Lorenzo saw the blow just about to 
 fall upon his throat. With extraordinary promptitude, and 
 with a presence of mind which must have been instinctive, 
 he wound his mantle around his left arm as he Hfted it to ward 
 off the stroke, which only inflicted a sHght wound in the neck. 
 Drawing his sword he leaped over the wooden screen into 
 the choir, and rushing across it in front of the High Alt ar, 
 where stood the trembhng Cardinal, he made for the doo»r 
 behind it which led into the new Sacristy. 
 
 But Bandini and Francesco had seen what had happened!. 
 Leaving the mutilated body of Giuliano they dashed int<o 
 
TORSO OF THE FIGURE OF MERCURY 
 
 DETAIL FROM BOTTICELLl'S " SPRING" 
 
 /« the Accademia, Florence 
 The figure almost certainly represents Giuliano dei Medici 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 203 
 
 the choir to intercept Lorenzo's flight. By this time how- 
 ever a body of faithful friends had gathered round him, and 
 two of them interposed to protect their patron. Francesco 
 Nori, one of Lorenzo's business agents, and a most faithful 
 friend, was stabbed where he stood. Lorenzo Cavalcanti 
 received a dagger wound in the arm. But the moment's 
 delay had been sufficient. Lorenzo reached the Sacristy. 
 Poliziano and the others slammed its brazen gates in the 
 face of his pursuers, whereupon Francesco and Bandini 
 sought refuge in flight. 
 
 Within the Church aU was wonder and confusion. Only 
 those who were close to the choir were aware of the true 
 facts. The congregation gathered in the nave imagined 
 that the Dome had fallen in. Amid the general clamour 
 the voice of Gughelmo dei Pazzi could be heard protesting 
 his innocence. In the midst of the tumult the Cardinal was 
 conducted to a place of safety inside the old Sacristy situated 
 on the other side of the Altar, 
 
 In the meantime within the new Sacristy, Lorenzo and his 
 little group of followers were in a state of terrible suspense. 
 No one knew that the noise in the Church did not mean that 
 the whole edifice was in the hands of the enemy. Moreover 
 there was the fear that the dagger which had struck Lorenzo 
 was poisoned. Antonio Ridolfi came forward to suck the 
 wound, while Stefano della Stufa climbed up the ladders 
 which led into the organ loft, where from a window he was 
 able to look down into the Church. There he saw the body of 
 Guiliano lying where it had fallen, and was able to satisfy 
 himself that those still in the Church were friends. He 
 returned to find Lorenzo anxiously inquiring as to the fate 
 of his brother, and indignantly protesting against so base 
 and sacrilegious an attack. The Sacristy doors were opened. 
 A friendly wall closed around Lorenzo, and he was conducted 
 in safety to his house, care being taken that he should not 
 pass the spot where Giuliano lay. 
 
 An immense crowd gathered immediately around Lorenzo's 
 palace intent on assuring itself that he was safe. Every 
 one had snatched up arms, boys, youths, old men, men 
 sacred and profane, for to defend the Medici seemed to be 
 
204 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 defending the public safety. So reports Poliziano, and with 
 all aUowances made for his partiality, it is clear that the con- 
 spirators soon became convinced that their hopes of support 
 withm the city were not to be realised. " Are these " said 
 Montesecco grimly, " the voices of Lorenzo's enemies who 
 the conspirators assured us, would immediately take up 
 arms on the first show of resistance to his power ? " 
 
 But even while Lorenzo, with his neck in bandages, was 
 appeanng on a balcony, striving to reassure and pacify the 
 mob, rumours were heard that stirring events were being 
 enacted m the Palazzo Publico, and the excited crowd 
 surged off to the Piazza of the Signoria. 
 
 The Archbishop, Salviati, having taken leave of Lorenzo 
 and the Cardinal at the Cathedral doors, collected his 
 subordmates and put himself at the head of some twenty 
 Perugian desperadoes who had been imported into Florence 
 to support the plot. Making his way to the Palazzo PubHco 
 balviati sent a message to the Gonfalonier, Cesare Petrucci' 
 that he had urgent news to communicate on behalf of the 
 Pope Petrucci, who was at dinner, gave orders that the 
 Archbishop should be admitted : he was conducted to the 
 reception room, while the Perugians filed into the office of the 
 Florentme Secretary to await Salviati's signal for action, 
 bmall bands also occupied other rooms in the Palazzo the 
 anned forces of the Archbishop being thus spht up 'into 
 what Pohziano calls " several small rivulets " The Arch- 
 bishop himself awaited the Gonfalonier in the reception 
 room, while his relatives, with Jacopo Poggio and one or two 
 others, remained without. On his arrival Salviati, in tones 
 which he strove to make calm and official, began to explain 
 the pretended business on which he had come, but he was 
 trembling with excitement and his utterances were thick 
 and confused. Petrucci, who was an old hand at revolia- 
 tions,~he had given proofs of his coolness at Prato some 
 years before,— began to grow suspicious, and caUed the 
 guard. The Archbishop rushed from the room, caUing to 
 his men-at-arms that the moment had now arrived. No 
 support came however, and nothing was heard within the 
 several rooms but wild clamour, and loud hammerings 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 205 
 
 against the closed doors. Petrucci, on entering office, had 
 fitted the doors of the Palazzo with special catches which 
 made it impossible to open them from inside unless the 
 secret of the mechanism was known. The men-at-arms 
 therefore found themselves prisoners instead of attackers, 
 and the Archbishop was left dependent upon himself and 
 his little band of fellow conspirators, the Salviati and Jacopo 
 Poggio. The latter, making a rush at the Gonfalonier, was 
 seized by the hair and thrown to the ground. Then, 
 loudly calling upon the guard, Petrucci, and the other 
 members of the Signoria , made their way up the staircase to 
 the topmost tower of the Palazzo, snatching up weapons as 
 they went. Petrucci himself, armed with a cooking-spit, 
 courageously held the door of the Tower, until the Signorial 
 Guard, hurrying to his assistance, quickly succeeded in 
 taking the Archbishop and all his followers into safe custody. 
 The mob too had now appeared upon the scene prepared to 
 take an active part in the fearful work of vengeance which 
 followed. The Perugians and the other men-at-arms were cut 
 down where they stood : bleeding heads stuck on lances were 
 soon being carried about the city, and under the windows of 
 the Medici Palace. 
 
 In the meantime, Jacopo Pazzi, who had witnessed m the 
 Cathedral the failure of the attempt on Torenzo, gave way 
 to despair. He beat his head with both his hands and 
 made his way to his own house where he fell upon the 
 ground in a state of abject dejection. But, rousing himself, 
 and feeling that a challenge must be thrown out agamst 
 Fortune, he gathered round him a few of his personal 
 adherents, and rode to the Piazza of the Signoria, uttering 
 cries of " Liberty ! Liberty ! " Answering cries of " Palle, 
 Palle ! The Medici, The Medici ! Down with traitors ! " 
 were supported by showers of stones hurled down upon 
 Jacopo and his train from the Tower of the Palazzo. The 
 only hope of safety was in flight, if flight were still possible. 
 
 Jacopo, successful in escaping from the mob, returned 
 to his own house, where Francesco dei Pazzi was lying in 
 concealment, his wounded thigh making it impossible for 
 him to move. An hour or two later Jacopo made his way 
 
206 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 through the Santa Croce gate, and escaped into the open 
 country. 
 
 While these events were in progress, news had reached 
 the Palazzo and the Piazza that Giuliano had been mur- 
 dered in the Duomo. At once it was determined to execute 
 summary vengeance on those who were already in the hands 
 of justice. A part of the mob hurried to the Pazzi Palace 
 in search of Francesco, who was dragged, naked and bleeding, 
 to the Palazzo. A rope was fixed around the neck of 
 Jacopo Poggio, and he was thrown from one of the windows, 
 his body .dangling against the Palace waUs at a height 
 above the heads of the crowd. Francesco was next thrown 
 out, and from the same window hung suspended the body 
 of Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa. It was, says Poliziano, a 
 wondrous thing, but known to everybody, that, as he hung, 
 impelled either by chance or rage, he fixed his teeth ki 
 Francesco's body, his eyes rolling wide open, in fury and 
 despair. The Archbishop's two relatives were strangled 
 before they were thrown out. It was at this moment that 
 Poliziano, all being quiet in the Via Larga, himself entered 
 the square, and saw the bodies hanging, saw many others 
 foully mutilated, witnessed much horrible jesting on the part 
 of the mob, and many other detestable things. 
 
 The impression left upon the public mind by these sum- 
 mary and awful punishments was not one of horror or regret 
 or shame. The terrible vengeance which the people had 
 taken upon traitors seemed to them rather to be worthy 
 of permanent commemoration. In the very year of the 
 conspiracy, the Signoria commissioned Sandro Botticelli 
 to paint upon the fa9ade of the Palazzo a representation 
 of the scene. He executed the task with so much skill 
 and fideUty to truth that the beholder might imagine that 
 he still saw the bodies dangling from the windows, that he 
 was a witness of their last agonies, as they convulsively 
 jerked, with rolling and despairing eyes, above the heads 
 of the yelling and brutal crowd. " The work," says Vasari, 
 who erroneously attributes it to Andrea del Castagno,' 
 "was, indeed, a perfect wonder {uno stupor e). It would' 
 not be possible adequately to describe the art and judgment 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 
 
 207 
 
 displayed in these figures, hung up in the strangest 
 attitudes, which were infinitely varied and exceedingly 
 fine." The figures represented were those of Jacopo, 
 Francesco, and Renato dei Pazzi, Salviati and his two 
 kinsmen, Bernardo Bandini, hanging by the neck, and 
 Napoleone Francesi by the foot. Beneath them Lorenzo 
 caused to be inscribed suitable epitaphs, that on Bandini 
 running thus : 
 
 Son Bernardo Bandini, un nuovo Giuda* 
 Traditore micidiale a chiesa io fui, 
 Ribello per aspettare morte piil cruda.* 
 
 It was not, however, until the following year that Bandini 
 in his own person expiated his crimes. In the first confusion 
 caused by the murders, he succeeded in making his way 
 into the tower of the Cathedral, where he lay hidden for 
 some time. Choosing a favourable moment, he made his 
 escape, and sought a permanent refuge in Constantinople. 
 The Sultan, Mohammed II., desirous of testifying at the 
 same time his detestation of the crime and his goodwill 
 towards Lorenzo, informed the Signoria of Bandini's 
 presence in the Ottoman Capital. Antonio dei Medici, 
 a distant connection of Lorenzo's, was despatched to 
 Constantinople to convey to the Sultan the thanks of the 
 RepubHc, and to bring back Bandini in chains. The 
 punishment of the other conspirators who survived the 
 fatal day was much more speedy. The two priests, who 
 had instantly fled upon their failure to kill Lorenzo, sought 
 refuge in the Benedictine Abbey of Florence, where for 
 two days they escaped observation. Then their hiding- 
 place became known, and the mob flocked to the Abbey 
 clamouring for the surrender of the criminals. They were 
 seized, brutafly mutilated, and then despatched. 
 
 Napoleone Francesi, through the assistance of Piero 
 Vespucci, effected his escape. He was the only one of the 
 
 * "I am Bernardo Bandini, another Judas. A murderous traitor in 
 a church was I. A rebel doomed to await a death even more hard " — i.e., 
 harder than the death Bandini had inflicted on Giuhano. 
 
 The authority which estabhshes the claims of Botticelli to be the painter 
 of the fa9ade is that of th^ Anonimo Gaddiano. 
 
208 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 principals who was so fortunate. Punishment indeed 
 fell heavily on many who had taken no part, at least no 
 active part, in the plot. This was especially the case with 
 the members of the Pazzi family. All of them indiscrim- 
 inately were held in strong suspicion, which was strengthened 
 by their flight, or efforts at concealment. Renato dei 
 Pazzi, with two of his brothers, was taken in the Mugello. 
 Giovanni dei Pazzi was found hidden in a garden adjoining 
 his house. Renato was executed, but the others were con- 
 demned to a term of imprisonment. Guglielmo, Lorenzo's 
 brother-in-law, was, on the intercession of his wife, sentenced 
 only to a period of exile. 
 
 But the fate which appealed most strongly to the popular 
 imagination was that of Jacopo. He, as has been seen, 
 escaped into the open country and was making his way 
 into Romagna. At the village of Castagno he was recog- 
 nised and detained. With a knowledge of the fate which 
 awaited him in Florence, he implored his captors to kill 
 him. For reply he was struck down by a violent blow 
 from the hand of a peasant — one Alessandro — making 
 resistance and flight impossible. He was handed over to 
 the Signoria, and hung from the windows of the Palazzo. 
 Before his death, says Poliziano, he made a full confession, 
 not extracted from him by torture, and though so near his 
 death, he retained to the end his furious and rabid dis- 
 position, for he died devoting his shade to the powers of 
 evil. It is thus that Poliziano garnishes the squalid and 
 awful tragedy of Jacopo which was yet to follow. 
 
 The body of Jacopo had been buried in Santa Croce, 
 but the city being visited by heavy and persistent rains, 
 the people declared that this was the judgment of Heaven 
 upon them for suffering a murderer, such as Jacopo, to 
 rest in sacred soil. The mob disinterred the body and 
 buried it in an apple orchard, but not content, tbey dis- 
 interred it again, and dragged the decomposing fabric of 
 a man through the streets of the city, amusing themselves 
 with horrible and gruesome frolics. They propped the 
 body up against the door of the Pazzi Palace, using the head 
 of the dead man as a knocker. Tired at last of such sport, 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 209 
 
 the remains were thrown into the Amo. Once more 
 they were dragged ashore and subjected to further in- 
 dignities, until at last all that was left of what had once 
 been Jacopo dei Pazzi was allowed to float down into the 
 open sea. 
 
 A few days elapsed before the capture of the condottiere 
 Montesecco. He was seized, when attempting to fly, 
 upon May i, and now the Signoria felt that they had 
 all the threads of the conspiracy in their hands. Monte- 
 secco was subjected to the most exacting interrogatories, 
 and at last he dictated and signed the confession from 
 which so much of our knowledge of the plot is derived. 
 The value of Montesecco's evidence lay in the light which 
 it threw upon the action of the Roman confederates of the 
 conspirators— of Girolamo Riario and the Pope— and full 
 use was made of his revelations when they were pub- 
 lished broadcast through Christendom in answer to the 
 fulminations of Sixtus against Florence. When his con- 
 fession was signed and duly attested, Montesecco, on May 4, 
 was beheaded in the courtyard of the Podesta's Palace. 
 
 The work of vengeance was by no means limited to the 
 chief actors in the plot. In addition to the principals and 
 their men-at-arms, suspicion fell on many others, who to 
 the number of nearly a hundred persons were handed 
 over to execution. Of these, many doubtless were entirely 
 innocent. There was no need for Lorenzo to take any 
 part in this work. Indeed, he strove to restrain the violence 
 of his partisans, declaring that he had more to fear from 
 the zeal of his friends than from the daggers of his assassins. 
 
 In one case, however, he insisted on making his influence 
 felt on the side of moderation. The young Cardinal, 
 Raffaelle Sansoni, whom we are justified in regarding as 
 the unconscious tool of desperate men, having been con- 
 ducted to a place of safety, was put under a strong guard. 
 The populace clamoured for his death, and the guard was 
 as much needed for his protection as to keep him under 
 observation. From April 26 to June 5 the Cardinal 
 remained a prisoner, and during this time urgent re- 
 presentations regarding his safety reached Florence from 
 
210 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Rome, from Naples and from Venice. At last it was 
 determined to set him free, for the Signoria was convinced 
 of his innocence. Before he left Florence he addressed a 
 letter to the Pope from the cloisters of S. Annunciata, in 
 which he declared that the government, and especially 
 Lorenzo, had treated him with the greatest kindness, and 
 he begged Sixtus to withdraw from the position of hostility 
 which he had adopted towards them. 
 
 It was said that to his dying day the Cardinal Raffaelle 
 never lost the deathly pallor which the scenes of which he 
 had been a witness on that fatal Sunday had imprinted on 
 his face. 
 
 After the first excitement was over Lorenzo, with the 
 practised eye of a statesman, saw that he had nothing to 
 fear in Florence. Scarcely any Florentines had joined a 
 conspiracy which was engineered and conducted from Rome. 
 Far from doing him an injury at home, the abortive attempt 
 upon his life, and the dastardly and sacrilegious murder 
 of his brother, had roused to boiling-point the enthusiasm 
 of the people. Now he was left to rule alone, almost as he 
 would, the acknowledged lord of the city and of the hearts 
 of the people. It was from outside that the danger threat- 
 ened. Lorenzo marked with concern the support which 
 the conspirators had reckoned upon from foreign troops, 
 nor could he rest until he knew precisely how far the Italian 
 Powers had been consenting parties to the enterprise, nor 
 until every alien mercenary had quitted Florentine territory. 
 
 For the moment he had every reason for reassurance 
 and congratulation. That part of the plot which depended 
 upon troops supplied by Lorenzo's external enemies had 
 collapsed as completely as the efforts of the conspirators 
 within the city. It is true that Gian Francesco da Tolentino 
 and Lorenzo Giustini had been faithful to their engagement. 
 The former at the head of a thousand men had advanced 
 from Imola, the latter from Citta di Castello. On the 
 morning of the fatal Sunday, both were within a march 
 of Florence, and each began to move upon the city, the one 
 from the Mugello, the other from the neighbourhood of 
 Siena. But a,t the same time the friends of Lorenzo were 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 2ii 
 
 not inactive. Giovanni Bentivoglio marched a force from 
 Bologna into the Mugello to observe the movements of 
 Tolentmo. and to intercept any attempt upon Florence. 
 When therefore the news reached them that within the 
 city the plot had failed and that the plotters had been 
 summarily executed, ToUentino and Giustini withdrew 
 their forces and made their way back again whence they 
 came. Though thus reheved from immediate anxiety 
 Lorenzo took full advantage of the mihtary support suppHed 
 by his friend BentivogHo. Within the city the guards at 
 the gates were doubled, and ample supplies of provisions were 
 stored as a precaution against possible trouble in the future. 
 
 In Florence itself the people were torn between two 
 conflicting emotions. They rejoiced abundantly over 
 Lorenzo's safety, but they mourned with no less sincerity 
 the untimely taking off of the gallant Giuliano. Giuliano 
 had endeared himself to all classes by his athletic frame, 
 his handsome face, and his unaffected manners. In ap- 
 j pearance he presented a great contrast to his brother 
 I being tall, well set-up, and admirably proportioned. His 
 I black hair and eyes, his keen gaze, his olive complexion, 
 and his skill m every form of manly exercise, were known 
 to every one, and in a time of luxury and self-indulgence 
 he was conspicuous for his simphcity and frugality. Nor 
 did he neglect the cultivation of his mind : in art he was a 
 connoisseur, a lover of music and poetry— indeed some poems 
 of his own composition were not altogether without merit. 
 He had filled an anomalous and difficult position in the 
 government with tact and prudence, and was bound to 
 his brother by the closest ties of confidence and affection. 
 
 Such is the picture which Pohziano presents of his young 
 pupil and patron in the closing passages of his "Conju- 
 ratio Pactionis." Existing portraits of Giuliano tend to 
 confirm Poliziano's accuracy, and the hthe figure of Mercury in 
 BotticeUi's " Primavera " is an ideahsation of manly beauty 
 derived from Giuhano. Of his mental attainments no one 
 was more quahfied to speak than Poliziano, whose testimony 
 to the wonderful devotion of the two brothers is not con- 
 fined to an obituary eulogy, but had previously been the 
 
212 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 subject of an eight-line elegiac epigram. His funeral, 
 upon Ascension Day, was a solemnity in which the whole 
 city took part. The young men, his companions in tourna- 
 ments and sports, were conspicuous in their mourning 
 and unaffected grief around the grave of one who had no 
 private enemies. His body was laid in the same porphyry 
 sarcophagus which his own filial piety had raised in honour 
 of his father and his uncle, and all Florence long cherished 
 his memory. 
 
 Shortly after GiuHano's death Lorenzo was informed that 
 he had left a son. The boy, under the name of Giulio, was 
 taken by Lorenzo into his house and educated with his own 
 children. Giuho adopted an ecclesiastical career ; in 1513 
 he was legitimised by Leo X., and made a Cardinal. Ten 
 years later he became Pope under the title of Clement VII. 
 
 The memory of the conspiracy was perpetuated by two 
 further acts, one of a pubhc, the other of a private character. 
 Though the ringleaders were dead, and such of the Pazzi 
 as still survived were in exile, or in close custody in the 
 prisons of Volterra, the Signoria decreed that the very 
 name of the family should be blotted out for ever. It 
 was an offence even to pronounce it : whoever should marry 
 into it was thereby excluded from public office, and wherever 
 its coat-of-arms should be found, it was to be erased. The 
 solemnity of the Carro di Pazzi was to lose its name : the 
 property of the family was confiscated. 
 
 This decree, promulgated within a month of the 
 assassination, is an eloquent commentary upon the horror 
 which the deed inspired, but, as it went beyond all reason, 
 it was found impossible to execute it in all its particulars. 
 The Pazzi dolphins survive to this day on buildings which 
 are still in the hands of the family, and the Carro di Pazzi 
 remains a household word in Florence. But the depression 
 and degradation of the House of Pazzi was none the less 
 complete. Socially and politically it was utterly crushed, 
 no single element of power or consideration being left to 
 it which would enable it for generations again to Hft up 
 its head. 
 
 In striking contrast to this ferocious decree is the action 
 
MEDICI xMEDALS, REPRODUCED FROM LITTA 
 
 IZO— PROBABLY -lO COMMEMORATE THE FEACE OF 1480 
 
 IZO AND GIUUANO-TO COMMEMORATE THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 3) MED(ICEO)- UT LAURUS SEMPER LAURENTI FAMA VIREBIT" 
 
 f!^^"^ "'"^^ SERVATOS."-,N REFHRKNCE TO THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY OR w. 
 
 NO, D. OF NEMOURS. " DUCE VIRTUTE COMITE FORTUNA." 15 .3. TO ' CELEB 
 iHE RETURN OF GIOVANNI AND OIULIANO, LORENZo's SONS, TO fIorfNCE 
 
 z^.::;^''^::^:^]^^^::;:^ - captain-oeneral oi 
 
 TuKl'I^'Lt^^o' "'-'^^'^^^^ ™- ASSASSINATION BY LORENZIX, 
 
THE PLOT IN EXECUTION 213 
 
 of Lorenzo's private friends who desired at once to testify 
 their devotion, and commemorate in permanent form his 
 preservation. Three figures of Lorenzo, modelled in wax, 
 under the superintendence of Verrocchio, were executed 
 in a manner so perfect and natural that Vasari, who appears 
 to have seen them, declares that they no longer seemed to 
 be figures in wax, but Hving men. One of these represented 
 Lorenzo as he appeared at the window before the anxious 
 crowd with his neck in bandages. This was set up in the 
 convent church of the Nuns of Chiarito in the Via di San Gallo. 
 where it stood before the miraculous crucifix. The second 
 was presented to the Church of S. Annunciata, where it 
 stood " over the small door where the wax lights are sold." 
 In this Lorenzo is dressed in the flowing gown of the Flor- 
 entine citizen. The third was sent to the Church of Santa 
 Maria degli Angeli at Assisi— in token of the services which 
 Lorenzo had rendered to the township— where it stood 
 before the image of the Madonna. By votive tablets men 
 marked their gratitude to Heaven for Lorenzo's preser- 
 vation. By summary and barbarous punishments they 
 displayed their horror at so great a crime. 
 
 Even in days when assassination was practised as a fine 
 art, in days when men sought eternal renown from some 
 desperate and startling individual deed of villainy, the 
 Pazzi conspirators found scanty apologists. There 'were 
 few who talked of Brutus, Harmodius. Aristogeiton and 
 the rest as men talked when Galeazzo Sforza was murdered. 
 There was an almost universal sense that the deed of the 
 Pazzi had put them outside the pale of human sympathy, 
 had stamped them as savage beasts rather than as men! 
 This feeling was not produced by the conviction that the 
 conspiracy had no political justification, or that it was 
 dictated by private and personal resentments masquerading 
 in the garments of liberty and republican independence. 
 It was the time and place chosen for the assault, and the 
 innocence of the victim, which, by the violence of their 
 appeal to the imagination, did outrage to the hearts of 
 men. Lorenzo, and Giuliano too, might have been 
 assassinated in a legitimate way, and many would have 
 
214 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 applauded the deed. Men could tolerate treachery, and 
 indeed, rather admired it, if it were ingeniously and subtly 
 contrived, but it was not the business of priests to defile 
 the holy place with blood ; there could be no excuse for 
 bungling assassins who used the most sacred mysteries as 
 instruments wherewith to desecrate the very horns of the 
 altar. 
 
 Abortive conspiracies have always proved the strongest 
 props of tyranny. The Pazzi conspiracy, as Armstrong 
 says, made the fortune of Lorenzo. Before it, his personal 
 government over Florence was strong : after it, it became 
 absolute and unquestioned. It is true that for nearly 
 two years after his escape the waves of Fortune were to 
 roll heavily over him. The malignity of external enemies 
 brought him well-nigh to ruin, but he knew how to make 
 the crisis of his fate the moment of his triumph. When 
 once the storm-clouds passed, the full radiance of the sun 
 of prosperity shone around his head. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 DIPLOMATIC WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 Reception of the news at Foreign Courts — Rage of Girolamo — Riario 
 and the Pope — Insult to the Florentine ambassador at Rome — Sixtus IV. 
 issues a Brief of Excommunication against Florence — General preparations 
 for hostilities — The " Brief Answer " to a Papal letter — Letter of the 
 Signoria to the Pope — Danger to the Pope from the possible intervention 
 of France — Attitude of Louis XI. towards the Papacy — Louis XL sends 
 Philip de Commines to Italy — Commines in Florence — Attitude of Lorenzo 
 towards French intervention — Letter to Sixtus purporting to come from 
 the Florentine Synod — Bartolommeo Scala's " Excusatio Fiorentinorum " — 
 Sixtus declares that he is at war only with Lorenzo — Weakness of the 
 Triple Alliance at this juncture — Letter of Sixtus to the Duke of Urbino 
 — Urbino 's hostility to Lorenzo — Lorenzo submits his cause to the Floren- 
 tines — Lorenzo's measures of self-defence. 
 
 HE news of the Pazzi conspiracy and of its immediate 
 
 1- issue spread with wonderful rapidity throughout the 
 length and breadth of Europe. In little more than forty- 
 eight hours Venice was not only apprised of the course of 
 events, but, through her Doge, had forwarded to the Floren- 
 tine Signoria a letter of condolence, in which the Doge spoke 
 not for himself alone, but to some extent for Milan also. It 
 seemed as if the two parties to the alliance with Florence 
 were going to stand strongly by her in the event of any 
 further hostile action on the part of the Pope or of Ferrante. 
 In little more than a fortnight the news had reached Louis XI. 
 who wrote to the Signoria, on May 12, expressing his 
 horror at the crime, and his intention of sending a special 
 ambassador to Italy to act with and for Lorenzo in every 
 way possible. England, Hungary, Spain, the Emperor, 
 the Turkish Sultan, were speedily informed, and it was 
 universally felt that out of a personal incident which had 
 occurred in Florence, a crisis had arisen in which all Italy, 
 and perhaps Christendom itself, was deeply involved. 
 Everything depended on the attitude of Sixtus. Would 
 
2l6 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 he accept his failure, and disown the murderous deeds of his 
 agents, or baffled of revolution, would he seek by diplomacy, 
 ecclesiastical weapons, and force of arms to accomplish in 
 the face of day that which treachery and secret assassination 
 had failed to effect ? 
 
 As the conspiracy was reaching its climax Girolamo 
 Riario in Rome was in a state of eager expectancy. When 
 he learned the issue he was divided between consternation 
 and fury. The Pope felt himself to be compromised, and, 
 acting upon his first impulse, he wrote to the Signoria in 
 suitable terms, deploring the murder of Giuliano, and 
 lamenting the outrage done to Florence and Lorenzo. This 
 was, however, but a momentary attitude. The influence 
 of his nephew and his own passionate nature soon blinded 
 him to every interest but his own. He saw the ruin of his 
 hopes, the position of Lorenzo still more firmly established, 
 the summary vengeance done by Florence upon the persons 
 of ecclesiastics, and the imprisonment, as he considered it, 
 of a Cardinal Prince of the Church. He determined that, 
 though foiled for the moment, he would prosecute his plans 
 against Florence with all the energy of his fiery tempera- 
 ment, and not shrink before the threats of foreign sovereigns, 
 or the prospect of universal war in Italy, if only in the end 
 he could have his way. 
 
 The rage and fury of Riario anticipated and exceeded 
 that of his uncle. Immediately on receipt of the news from 
 Florence, he proceeded with three hundred halberdiers to 
 the house of the Florentine ambassador in Rome, Donato 
 Acciaiuoli. Donato was haled through the streets of Rome, 
 surrounded by men-at-arms, loudly protesting against the 
 enormity of this outrage done upon the inviolable person of 
 an ambassador. He claimed immediate audience with the 
 Pope, whose first intentions were to commit Acciaiuoli to 
 the prisons of S. Angelo, but the protests of the ambassadors 
 of Venice and Milan, who declared that they would stand 
 by their colleague and share his fate, brought Sixtus to 
 reason. He swore that he was not a party to Riario's 
 violence, and dismissed Acciaiuoli to his own residence. 
 In the meantime the Florentine Signoria had issued orders 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 217 
 
 to its citizens domiciled in Rome to leave the city and 
 return forthwith to Florence. To prevent such a disloca- 
 tion of finance and commerce — for the chief bankers and 
 merchants in Rome were Florentines — Sixtus gave orders 
 that they should be imprisoned. But Florence held the 
 Cardinal as a hostage, so the Pope was compelled to give 
 way and liberate his captives. But he did not await the 
 actual release of the Cardinal before showing his hand to 
 Florence and the world. On June i— the Cardinal did 
 not leave the Palazzo Publico till the 5th — Sixtus pubhshed 
 I a Bull of Excommunication against Lorenzo, and placed 
 I Florence and its dependencies under an Interdict. 
 { It is this document which gives us the clearest idea of 
 the Pope's frame of mind and point of view. It is skilfully 
 contrived, and ingeniously evades the question of Papal 
 responsibihty for the crime done by the conspirators in 
 Florence. It opens in uncompromising fashion by a long 
 relation of all the many grievances which the Pope had 
 suffered at the hands of " that son of iniquity and foster- 
 child of perdition, Lorenzo dei Medici, and some other 
 citizens of Florence, his accomplices and abettors." 
 
 The cases of Niccolo Vitelli, of Carlo Fortebraccio, of 
 Salviati and his Pisan archbishopric are detailed at length. 
 It is a charge against Lorenzo that " with neck erect and 
 a heart as hard as Pharaoh's," he has prevented travellers, 
 supplies, and pilgrims from coming into Rome. " Where- 
 fore We, following the example of our Saviour, whose 
 property is always to have mercy and to spare " determined 
 to put up with these wrongs and to await Lorenzo's repent- 
 ance, but the very reverse of what was expected had hap- 
 pened. For Lorenzo, in order to open out a wider sphere 
 for himself, had caused himself to be elected as one of the 
 Eight. Whereupon Lorenzo and his accompHces, " kindled 
 with madness, torn by diabolical suggestions, and led Hke dogs 
 to savage madness, and, in order that their lusts being at 
 last satisfied, they might the more disgracefully rage against 
 ecclesiastical persons {Pwh dolor et inauditum scelus I), laid 
 violent hands upon the said Archbishop, detained him 
 prisoner for several hours, hung him on a Sunday from the 
 
2l8 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 windows of the Palazzo, and then cut the rope that his body 
 might fall to the ground. Moreover, they laid violent tands 
 on Raffaelle, Cardinal of S. Giorgio, attacked him in the 
 Duomo where he was officiating on Sunday, kept him in 
 custody, denied him his freedom, and pertinaciously refused 
 to set him at liberty." 
 
 This Papal version of the Pazzi conspiracy, which Dmits 
 everything which it is unpleasant to recall, is more credit- 
 able to the Pope's ingenuity than to his veracity. After 
 recapitulating all these atrocities done by Lorenzo and his 
 accomplices, sentence follows in due course. " Loienzo, 
 the Priors of Liberty, the Gonfalonier, the Eight, are pro- 
 nounced to be culpable, sacrilegious, excommunicate, an- 
 athematised, infamous, unworthy of trust and incapable 
 of making a will : all their property is to revert to the Church, 
 their houses are to be levelled to the ground, that their 
 habitations may be desolate and that none may dwell 
 therein. Let everlasting ruin witness their everlasting 
 disgrace." 
 
 Interdict was also pronounced against the city if, \vithin 
 a month, it did not bring the offenders to punishmen:. It 
 was to be stripped of its Archiepiscopal and Pontifical 
 dignities, and its neighbouring dependencies and dioceses, 
 such as Fiesole and Pistoia, were to share the full severity 
 of the penalties imposed upon Florence. 
 
 The promulgation of this sentence was immediately 
 followed by a war of words which was carried on ccncur- 
 rently with active preparations on both sides for war of a 
 sterner kind. On June 13, Florence appointed the Ten of 
 War — Lorenzo being one — to organise the forces of the 
 Republic against impending invasion. An embassy from 
 Ferrante of Naples arrived in Florence, demanding the 
 expulsion of Lorenzo from the State, thus giving clear proof 
 that the King intended to be true to his newly formed 
 alliance with Sixtus. As early as May 12, the Duke of 
 Calabria, Ferrante's son, had reached Rome in order to 
 confer with the Pope as to military preparations. By the 
 beginning of July the Neapolitan troops were in the field, 
 and on the eleventh the Duke of Calabria's army was already 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSlPIRACY 219 
 
 in Florentine territory, encamped in the neighbourhood of 
 Montepulciano. On that day the Duke's trumpeter arrived 
 in Florence, carrying his master's defiance to the Repubhc, 
 and with it a letter from the Pope, written a few days before, 
 in which the Pontiff's grievances against Florence and 
 Lorenzo were stated anew and in even more forcible terms. 
 This letter, rather than the Papal Bull of June i, seems to 
 have been the signal for that epistolary retaliation on the 
 part of Florence which does much to redeem the dulness 
 of the miUtary campaign. 
 
 The general purport of the Pope's letter can be derived 
 from the " Brief Answer " which was promptly returned.* 
 
 " Your Holiness writes to us," say the compilers of this 
 response, " that you are only waging war against our State 
 to free it from a tyrant. We are thankful for your paternal 
 love, and for the consolation your letter affords to this people. 
 It is a people which has ever been on the side of the Church, 
 and has been the first in professions of obedience to your 
 Holiness. It could not therefore without sorrow behold 
 an army of the Shepherd entering its territories (even while 
 the Turk was on the threshold of Italy), ravaging its crops, 
 seizing its towns, and carrying off its maidens and its shrines 
 as booty." With biting irony the writers declare that now 
 they know it is the Pope's love, and not his hatred, which 
 has brought this war upon them, they only grieve that 
 they were not earlier made aware of this. The Pope and 
 Lorenzo are making one and the same demand : the Pope 
 that Lorenzo may be banished ; Lorenzo that he may be 
 sent into exile if the interests of the Repubhc require it. 
 Arms are not required to settle a dispute where both parties 
 are already agreed. All that is asked is that the exile of 
 Lorenzo shall be shown to be for the advantage of the State. 
 To this end let an assessor be appointed to consider and 
 weigh the charges against him, so that in casting out a 
 tyrant neither the Pope nor the Florentines shall prove 
 
 • The document, " Pro dominis Responsio brevi," given by Fabroni, 
 bears no date, but from its contents, it can, I think, with reasonable 
 certainty be attributed to the week July 13-20, 1478. It clearly follows 
 the irruption of hostile troops upon Florentine territory. 
 
220 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDlCl 
 
 themselves tyrants. This will be the wise course for the 
 Pope himself to adopt, for he, as well as Lorenzo, labours 
 under suspicion, for since the men who slew Giuliano in a 
 church, and wounded Lorenzo, sit on the seats of the Papacy, 
 there is some ground for the suspicion that this war is under- 
 taken rather to finish the work which was then begun than 
 to liberate the State. In any event there will be no in- 
 justice if this proposed course is adopted, and " we, on 
 behalf of our fellow citizens, are as much prepared to yield 
 nothing to injustice as we are prepared to refuse nothing 
 to justice whose ministers here alone we are." 
 
 On July 21, perhaps as a consequence of this letter, the 
 Papal Bull of Excommunication and Interdict was enforced 
 in terms of even greater severity, and on the same day the 
 Signoria addressed another letter to the Pope. In this 
 there is no tone of irony but the plainest of plain speaking. 
 The Pope has no right to demand the expulsion of Lorenzo. 
 He puts forward as a pretext for his request that he only 
 desires the good of the Christian religion and the liberty of 
 Florence. But in making such a request, he shows himself 
 a foe to the first of aU the liberties of the city — the liberty 
 to manage her own affairs and do as she thinks fit. The 
 Pope avers that Lorenzo is a tyrant, " but we and our 
 people, have proved him to be, and with one voice acclaim 
 him, the defender of our liberties ; we are prepared to 
 sacrifice everything for his safety, which is the undoubted 
 guarantee for the safety and liberty of the State. Your 
 charges move our laughter, for you wish us to drive out a 
 man who has in no way degenerated from his illustrious 
 ancestors, Cosimo and Piero, a man who in regard to our 
 liberties has proved their best friend ; a man to whom no 
 one of our fellow citizens is to be preferred for true religion, 
 worship of God, charity and piety." Perhaps, the writers 
 continue, the true grounds of the Papal censures may be 
 expressed in very different terms. Perhaps they rest on 
 the fact that Lorenzo preserved the young Cardinal whom 
 he is now accused of attacking and detaining : that when 
 his brother Giuliano fell a victim to assassins, he himself 
 escaped. " Had he permitted himself to be slaughtered by 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 these most atrocious satellites whom you despatched hither, 
 had we failed to recover our Palazzo Publico, the citadel 
 of our liberties, from the hands of your traitors, had we 
 delivered up ourselves, our magistrates, and our citizens to 
 you to be assassinated, then there would be no cause of 
 contention between us." 
 
 And who is the true enemy of the Christian faith ? Is it 
 
 f not rather he, who, sitting in the seat of Christ, makes war 
 against Christian men ; allies himself with the King of 
 Naples who, if report speaks true, has come to terms with 
 the common enemy of all Christians, and disunites Italy at 
 the moment when the haughty and victorious infidel Turk 
 
 ; is knocking at her gates ? " But since you have sat in 
 that Holy Seat, it is known to all how your office has been 
 employed. It is too well known who is the real enemy of 
 the public good. 
 
 " Put on then a better mind. Remember your office, 
 and the Vicariate of Christ. Remember that the Keys 
 were not given you for such uses. Indeed we fear lest in 
 our own time that saying of the Gospel shall be fulfilled — 
 ' He will miserably destroy the wicked, and his vineyard 
 shall another take.' " 
 
 The letter ends with the declaration that Florence "will 
 resolutely defend her liberties, trusting in Christ who knows 
 the justice of her cause, and who does not desert those who 
 trust in Him ; trusting in her allies who regard her cause 
 as their own ; especially trusting in the most Christian King, 
 Louis of France, who has ever been the patron and protector 
 of the Florentine State." 
 
 Remarkable as this letter is throughout for the audacity 
 
 f; of its language, the real sting of it, for Sixtus, lay in its 
 Concluding reference. He was not likely to be much affected 
 by any personal charges brought against his character and 
 conduct. These things were the commonplaces of literary, 
 epistolary, and political controversy, to which Italy had long 
 been accustomed. But the intervention of the King of 
 France on behalf of Florence might prove a serious matter, 
 and it was a fact that Louis was moving. It has been seen 
 that so early as May 12, Louis had written to the Signoria, 
 
222 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and, mindful of the French HUes which the Medici, by his 
 letters patent, bore upon their coat of arms, the King 
 declared that his own honour was as much at stake as that 
 of Florence — that the Medici were his relations, friends and 
 allies, and that the murder of Giuliano, " his cousin," was 
 equivalent to an attempt upon his own person. Lorenzo's 
 reply to this letter is dated June 19, and in it he pathetically 
 declares that, as God is his witness, his only crime against 
 the Pope, of which he is conscious, is that he is still alive ; 
 that he did not suffer himself to be massacred. This is his 
 fault, and for this alone he is being exterminated and ex- 
 communicated. He writes to Louis as to "a pious father," 
 though well knowing that by no arts of word or deed 
 can he express his sense of the love and benevolence which 
 Louis has shown to so insignificant a servitor {in humilem 
 servulum). 
 
 Much indeed was to be hoped for from the friendship of 
 the French King. The relations of Louis to the Papacy 
 were strangely independent when viewed in the light of the 
 grovelling superstition of which the King was personally the 
 victim. But Louis drew a clear and sharp line of distinction 
 between the Papacy as a political power bent upon its 
 territorial aggrandisement, and the Pope as spiritual Father 
 of Christendom. Louis was hampered by no sense of in- 
 consistency between opposition to the Pope on his temporal 
 side, and abject submission to his spiritual claims. He. 
 respected the office, but that did not necessarily imply 
 respect for the man who held it. 
 
 French Kings in the past had put themselves at the head 
 of the Conciliar movement in Christendom. If Sixtus 
 abused his powers Louis might revive the demand for a 
 General Council, and not rest content until he had secured 
 the election of a Pope who was ready to do his bidding. If 
 Lorenzo had not much to expect from the active assistance 
 of French troops, Louis might prove himself a disturbing 
 element calculated to bring the Pope to a more reasonable 
 and conciliatory frame of mind. 
 
 The first actions of the King of France corresponded with 
 the vigour and friendliness of his language. He despatched 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 223 
 
 a special ambassador to Italy whose mission was to support 
 Lorenzo and to threaten the Pope, and he selected for this 
 office Philip de Commines, the lord of Argenton, one of his 
 most trusted and sagacious counsellors. Commines arrived 
 in Italy by the middle of June by way of Turin, where he 
 was received by the Duchess of Savoy, Louis's sister, who 
 promised him the support of three hundred men in his efforts 
 on behalf of Lorenzo. He secured also three hundred men 
 from Milan, and by the end of the month, or the beginning 
 of July, he was in Florence. Having met there with a 
 splendid reception from the city and from Lorenzo, he 
 proceeded to Rome where his coming was anticipated with 
 grave apprehension. Ammanati, Cardinal of Pavia, de- 
 spatched a warning letter to the Pope in which he assured 
 Sixtus, of his certain knowledge, that Commines was in- 
 structed to withdraw the allegiance of France from the Pope, 
 and to appeal to a General Council, unless the censures 
 against Florence were revoked, the conspirators against the 
 Medici punished, and the war abandoned. Commines arrived 
 in Rome about July 11, accompanied by the Florentine 
 commissioner, Guid' Antonio Vespucci. He remained there 
 for nearly a fortnight, but unfortunately in his " Memoirs " 
 he is entirely silent about this visit to Rome, nor does he 
 say a word as to the nature or progress of his negotiations. 
 It is clear that he failed to make any impression on the 
 Pope, who probably was well aware that the King of France 
 was only making a demonstration which he had no intention 
 of following up by force of arms or by ecclesiastical schism. 
 At any rate the war was not stopped, nor were the censures 
 upon Florence removed. 
 
 On July 25, Commines was again in Florence where he 
 was treated, he says, with even more civility than before. 
 Presents were showered upon him from all quarters : fifty- 
 five pounds' weight of silver plate from the Signoria, gifts 
 from other sources to the value of four or five hundred ducats, 
 and jewels from Lorenzo to the value of three hundred. 
 In such fashion did Florence show her gratitude for the 
 sympathy of Louis, and her Kvely expectation of greater 
 benefits to come. Moral support was not without its worth, 
 
224 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 but effective material support was still in the future. 
 " The King's favourable inclination towards them," says 
 Commines, " was in some measure serviceable to them, but 
 not so much so as I could have wished, for I had no army 
 with which to reinforce them beyond my own retinue." 
 For the present at any rate Florence would have to 
 depend, in conducting the war, upon herself and her Italian 
 allies. 
 
 If Louis had meant serious business there was a method 
 ready to hand by which he could effectually intervene in 
 Italian affairs in the interests not only of Lorenzo, but of 
 himself. This was to revive the Angevin claims to the 
 crown of Naples — claims which by this time had passed 
 from the House of Anjou into the hands of Louis himself. 
 This, however, was a venture to which Louis did not care 
 to commit himself, and it is doubtful if Lorenzo would have 
 consented to call the French definitely into Italy to establish 
 themselves there as an Italian Power. He was willing 
 enough to receive an auxiliary force from France, if it could 
 be had, but a French invasion of Italy was another matter. 
 
 Valori in his " Life of Lorenzo " relates some remarks of 
 his hero upon the unity of Italy. " United Italy," he said, 
 " could successfully oppose any attempt upon her from 
 beyond the mountains, but divided against herself she could 
 not endure, but would fall a ready victim to the aggression 
 of an ultramontane Power. For this reason he refused to 
 call in the assistance of the King of France in his war with 
 the Pope, declaring that there was nothing on earth which 
 could justify the adoption of methods, which, while securing 
 his personal safety, might lead to the ruin of Italy. Far 
 better would it be to pray to God that it might never enter 
 the head of the King of France to try an experiment with 
 his forces in Italy, since, against such an attempt there 
 could be no remedy." 
 
 Valori probably wrote this passage under the direct 
 influence of Charles VIII. 's Itahan expedition of 1494, and 
 we may suspect that he relates what Lorenzo ought to have 
 said rather than what he did say. But it is creditable to 
 Lorenzo that in a time of the most severe stress and personal 
 danger, there is not a whisper that he attempted to rouse 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 225 
 
 Louis to assert his Neapolitan claims, or that, Hke Ludovico 
 Moro in later times, he courted an Italian invasion merely 
 to serve his own personal interests. 
 
 Just as Commines was returning from Rome to Florence, 
 the Florentine clergy determined to take action on the 
 Pope's attitude towards the city and towards Lorenzo. 
 An extremely lengthy and vituperative document was drawn 
 up on July 23, which purported to embody the views of an 
 ecclesiastical synod which had met "in our Cathedral 
 Church of Santa Reparata." The authenticity of the 
 manifesto, as having in fact emanated from a clerical synod, 
 has been much disputed, for it is full of the language of 
 unmeasured abuse against the Pope, attacking his private 
 character even more vigorously than his public action. 
 But that such a manifesto was drawn up is certain, and 
 the autograph leads to the conclusion that it was the work 
 of Gentile of Urbino, Bishop of Arezzo, Lorenzo's old tutor 
 and close confidant. If it be merely a personal ebullition 
 on the part of Gentile, without any other authority than 
 his own, the document can have httle value, but as such a 
 supposition argues a degree of audacity and falsehood on 
 the part of the Bishop which is scarcely credible, it may be 
 assumed that he spoke in the name of some at least of his 
 clerical brethren who may have met informally, not officially 
 as a synod, in the Duomo. The document itself was dis- 
 covered in the Medici archives, and not among the public 
 records of the city or of the cathedral, and it is to such an 
 extent tainted by suspicion that its content must be received 
 with caution. It is immensely long, occupying thirty pages 
 in Fabroni's Appendices, and it covers the ground already 
 taken up by the Signoria in a rambling style of contumely 
 and abuse which in a measure defeats its own purpose. 
 Sixtus was probably not much disturbed by uncompli- 
 mentary epithets and wild personal charges, but the allusion 
 to the Council of Basle, and the possibility that some of 
 the clergy would be found on the side of those who were 
 threatening him with a General Council, must have gone 
 home to the Pope. 
 
 Of far greater importance to Sixtus and to the world at 
 large was the official manifesto drawn up for the Signoria 
 
 / 
 
226 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 on August 10 by Bartolommeo Scala, the Florentine 
 Chancellor. It is addressed to all whom it may concem, 
 and it puts the case, from a Florentine point of view, ably, 
 temperately and conclusively. Its object is to show the 
 nature of the conspiracy against Florence, the share which 
 the Pope took in it, and to appeal to foreign powers to 
 support the Republic which had been so infamously used 
 and was now so unjustifiably attacked. With these ends 
 in view, Scala embodied in the document almost the full 
 text of Montesecco's confession, from which our detailed 
 knowledge of the engineering of the plot is mainly derived. 
 He then proceeds to a brief narrative of what actually 
 occurred in Florence on April 26. He touches on the 
 fact that the troops sent to support the revolution were 
 mercenaries in the pay of Sixtus. He denies the assertion 
 of the Pope that the Cardinal RaffaeUe Riario was attacked, 
 declaring that it was chiefly owing to Lorenzo's efforts 
 that he was preserved safe and inviolate. "And now," says 
 Scala indignantly, " we are put under interdict and separation 
 from the communion of faithful men. That which treachery 
 could not effect is now to be achieved by ecclesiastical 
 censures, and force of arms. War is carried on against us 
 by Sixtus, Pontifex Maximus, and other illustrious persons 
 who guide the rudder of the Church, for no other reason 
 than that we have not allowed ourselves to be slaughtered, 
 and that we have defended our Palazzo, our City, and 
 our liberties, which are dearer to us than Hfe itself. Thus 
 a mighty army, in the service of the High Priest of all 
 Christians, swoops down upon a most religious people, 
 always most observant of respect towards that very Pontiff. 
 It devastates our land ; it gives over men and women, 
 and things sacred and profane, to military licence. Good 
 God ! How long wilt Thou endure such iniquity ? When 
 wilt Thou take pity on Thy labouring flock, and re-establish 
 Thy people ? To thee also, to thee we fly, most serene 
 and ever august Emperor. Remember, we pray you, your 
 most faithful City of Florence, and this people ever devoted 
 here to your most sacred Imperial Majesty. In us, unless 
 we deceive ourselves, the whole cause of Christendom is 
 at stake, for as long as Sixtus carries on his wars, it is 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 227 
 
 beset with manifest peril, while victorious and most power- 
 ful enemies insolently rage upon the Italian threshold. 
 Thou also, Louis, unconquerable and most Christian King 
 of France, now must thou rouse thy valour, and succour 
 the affairs of harassed Christians. And if other Princes 
 also and Christian people do not do the same, we are driven 
 to doubt for the state of the Christian world. Come, 
 then ! It concerns you all. Rise up now, and undertake 
 a matter which is common to all, and consult in common, 
 together with Christ, our best and greatest Redeemer, 
 who assuredly will not desert His own cause." 
 
 The Pope, however, had been careful to spike the heaviest 
 of Scala's rhetorical guns before they were fired. From 
 the first he continued to insist that he had no quarrel with 
 Florence, but only with Lorenzo, and that if Lorenzo were 
 given up, hostilities would immediately cease. The Pope's 
 ally, Ferrante, repeated the tale, and through his am- 
 bassadors demanded the explusion of Lorenzo from the 
 State. In the face of the Papal Bull the contention was 
 hard to maintain, for the Papal denunciations were launched 
 not against Lorenzo only, but against the Priors, the Eight 
 — in fact, against all the principal official representatives 
 of the State. War against the government of Florence 
 could be nothing else than war against Florence. The 
 Pope none the less insisted upon his original assertion that 
 his enmity was directed against an individual, and thus 
 the allies of Florence could plausibly excuse themselves 
 on the pretext that they were pledged to assist the State, 
 not to take part in a private quarrel. 
 
 This was convenient for a power like Venice which was 
 always glad to shuffle out of engagements not likely to be 
 profitable. It is true that in the first flush of the conspiracy 
 Venice had taken a strong line, and had declared that the 
 Pope's pretence could deceive nobody. " We all know 
 perfectly well that this attack is not only upon Lorenzo, 
 but upon the government of Florence, which it is sought 
 to overthrow together with that of the whole of Italy," 
 But brave words counted for little unless they were backed 
 by solid support, and the amount of such support actually 
 contributed by Venice for the conduct of the campaign 
 
228 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 was but small. Nobody, it is true, was deceived by the 
 Pope's sophisms, but they were none the less useful as a 
 cover for apathy and slackness on the part of lukewarm 
 friends of the Republic. 
 
 The Pope, moreover, had chosen his moment well, for 
 he was strong in his aUiance with Naples just at the time 
 when the Triple Alliance between Florence, Milan, and 
 Venice was weakest for the purposes of joint action. That 
 diplomatic instrument which the Medici had forged with 
 so much patience, care, and labour, proved itself, by the 
 accident of circumstances, to be of least value at a moment 
 of crisis when it was most needed. Various causes rendered 
 Milan incapable of affording any very material assistance 
 to Lorenzo in his time of need. The government of Milan 
 was too weak, and too much occupied at home, to be in a 
 position to send strong forces to assist an ally. The restless 
 Sforza brothers were continually on the watch to take 
 advantage of the Regent and her Minister, Simonetta, while 
 Ferrante still further increased their embarrassments by 
 stirring up an insurrection in Genoa against Milanese 
 supremacy. The Medici had built up their alliance with 
 Milan on the supposition that they were connecting them- 
 selves with a strong and estabhshed State. It was certainly 
 unlucky for Lorenzo that Milan should be distracted by 
 internal and external troubles at the very moment when 
 he most needed her support. The minor Itahan States 
 were only likely to assist Florence just so long as it was 
 their interest to do so, and as for the Ultramontane Powers, 
 little beyond moral and diplomatic assistance was to be 
 expected from them. In the circumstances, it soon became 
 clear that Florence would have to rely mainly upon her 
 own exertions, and a heterogeneous army and a divided 
 command promised ill for any decisive success against a 
 combination so powerful as that of Naples and the Pope. 
 
 The Pope's position of material advantage did not, how- 
 ever, blind him to the damaging effect which had been 
 produced by the publication to the world of the letters 
 despatched to him from Florence. He felt it necessary 
 to discount in every possible way the effect of the revelations 
 which they contained. In addition to his Bulls, he wrote, 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 229 
 
 on July 25, a letter to his Captain-General, the Duke of 
 Urbino, commenting on the personal charges made against 
 himself in the letter of the Signoria despatched on the 
 2ist from Florence. He is far from being frightened, he 
 says, by charges drawn up in disparagement of Christ and 
 His unworthy Vicar : he can only imagine that God has 
 deprived the writers of reason in punishment for their 
 sins. All his hopes are in God, for it is His honour and 
 glory which are at stake. All his intentions are right and 
 just, for he has no quarrel with any one but that ungrateful, 
 excommunicate, and heretic son of iniquity, Lorenzo. He 
 demands justice upon Lorenzo's iniquities from a just God, 
 and from Urbino, who is to regard himself as God's minister, 
 appointed to avenge the injuries which Lorenzo, unjustly 
 and without cause, has done against God and His Church, 
 for his ingratitude has dried up the fountains of infinite 
 forbearance even at their source. The Pope has himself 
 written to France, to Venice, and to others, and his Bull, 
 published to all the world, will have sufficiently justified 
 him. But even should everything go wrong, he will rejoice 
 to die a martyr, and to endure every form of persecution 
 for God and His Church, of which he is the unworthy Head. 
 He ends by suggesting that Urbino himself should write 
 to the King of England — Urbino was a Knight of the 
 Garter, and had influence with Edward IV. — and that 
 Ferrante should write to his friends, especially to the 
 King of France. 
 
 Urbino was as ready to support the Pope by his diplomacy 
 as by his military science. A letter * of his, addressed to his 
 agent in Milan, is extant, in which he directed that every 
 effort should be made to detach Milan from the Triple 
 Alliance and to attach her to Naples and the Pope. He 
 
 ♦ The Pope's letter to Urbino is an interesting specimen of the language 
 current at the time. Letters and despatches were constantly written 
 in an amalgam of Latin and the vernacular, and the writers slide from 
 one to the other just as the fancy takes them. It was a time of transition, 
 when each language was in common use among educated people. Each 
 was used indifferently, and often both were used together — e.g., Sixtus to 
 Urbino : "La lettera dei Fiorentini fatta con tanto dispregio di Christo 
 e '1 suo indigno Vicario non terruit nos sed fecit nos cogitare che Dio li ha 
 tolta I'intelletto e lo sentimento per punirli dei suoi peccati. Speremo in 
 Dio de cujus honore et gloria agitur, &c." 
 
230 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 endeavoured to trade upon the old jealousies between 
 Milan and Venice, pointing out that Lorenzo was a thorough 
 Venetian, and had " thrown himself into the arms of the 
 Venetians." It is in this letter that Urbino states his 
 suspicion that Lorenzo, by his political action " has sinned 
 against the Holy Ghost "—a curious example of the strange 
 manner in which at that time even high-minded and en- 
 lightened men, like Urbino, felt no hesitation or scruple 
 in using the holiest mysteries of their religious faith in 
 the service of their secular aims. The touch must have 
 delighted Sixtus, for it showed Urbino to be an apt pupil 
 in the school of Papal diplomacy. 
 
 The effort, however, was fruitless. Milan remained 
 true to her engagements, although, as has been seen, her 
 own situation precluded the possibility of much effective 
 assistance to the cause of her Florentine ally. 
 
 Lorenzo, on his part, sought the earliest opportunity to 
 make what profit he could out of the Pope's declarations. 
 If the war was indeed a personal matter, then Florence, 
 by engaging in it, and continuing in it, would prove that she 
 identified Lorenzo with herself. It would now be patent 
 to all the world, according to the Pope's contention, that 
 Lorenzo was in fact Florence, and that his ascendency 
 was regarded at home as essential to the preservation and 
 well-being of the State. On the receipt, therefore, of the 
 Papal letter of July 7, Lorenzo called a meeting of the 
 principal citizens, and placed himself absolutely at their 
 disposal. They could immediately purchase peace by 
 consenting to his banishment or death. He, for his part, 
 was ready to endure either, if thereby he could serve his 
 country. If, on the other hand, they thought he could 
 serve it better by remaining alive and in Florence, then his 
 life, his property, and everything which was his, were dedi- 
 cated to their service. For reply he was assured that all 
 Florence regarded his cause as her own, and in view of the 
 peculiar dangers to which he was exposed a special guard 
 was allotted to him for his personal protection. Giacopo 
 dei Alessandri declared that they were unanimous that 
 under no circumstances must Lorenzo desert them : they 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 231 
 
 recognised that not their liberty alone, but everything dear 
 and holy to men were in the first instance referable to him 
 Let him take heart, therefore, and be assured of the affection 
 and support of his fellow citizens. 
 
 The meeting was called in circumstances which strongly 
 appealed to the emotions of the Florentine people. Lorenzo 
 closed it by a highly emotional reference to his wife and 
 young children. He had already sent them, under the 
 escort of Poliziano, to a safe distance from the seat of 
 danger, but he declared that he had removed them far from 
 the prevailing rage only that any blow in store might fall 
 upon his head alone ; yet in defence of Florence he was 
 willing to offer them up also as sweet victims upon the altar 
 of his country's freedom. 
 
 Thus enthusiasm was roused to the fever-point, but 
 Lorenzo well knew that enthusiasm is evanescent unless 
 it is supported by hope and definite success. The war had 
 scarcely begun, and every State plunges into war amid the 
 acclamations of the people. It was when the financial 
 pressure of it should begin to be felt, when disaster should 
 come, that danger would begin to threaten the individual 
 for whom it was being waged. Lorenzo, while rejoicing in 
 the confidence and love of his fellow citizens, did not 
 deceive himself that his troubles were over. He knew that 
 the crisis of his fate was yet to come. 
 
 The next step was to place the matter of the Papal 
 Interdict before legal experts, and secure their opinion as 
 to whether it was valid and must be observed. It was held 
 that Florence, by appealing to a General Council, had 
 intimated that she disputed the validity of Decrees issued 
 by the existing Pope, and that therefore the celebration 
 of the rites and services of the Church need not be suspended 
 in the Florentine territory. Savonarola, twenty years 
 later, was not without legal precedents to support his own 
 line of action. Having thus neutralised, as far as possible, 
 the effects of the spiritual weapons employed by the Pope, 
 it remained to perfect the preparations in the field, and 
 oppose to the temporal forces at the Pope's command a 
 vigorous and organised resistance. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 Ferrante decides to support the Pope— The Papal forces take the field 
 — followed by those of Florence — Ercole d'Este made generalissimo of the 
 allied forces supporting Florence — Comparison of the rival forces — 
 Operations of the campaign of 1478 — Ferrante creates a diversion in Genoa 
 against Milan — Florentine diplomacy and projects — Action of Louis XI. 
 — Obduracy of the Pope— The Pope, urged by foreign powers, temporises 
 —Failure of the efforts for peace— Guerilla operations of the Sforza 
 brothers — The Campaign of 1479 — Malatesta and Fortebraccio defeat the 
 Papal force at La Magione — Duke of Calabria surprises the Florentine 
 Camp at Poggio Imperiale— Calabria besieges CoUe— Situation of Florence 
 and Lorenzo at the end of the campaign — Ludovico Sforza gains control 
 over Milan — Lorenzo negotiates with Ludovico Sforza — Lorenzo's project 
 of visiting Naples — Lorenzo leaves Florence for Naples — Reception of 
 Lorenzo by Ferrante — Lorenzo's arguments to Ferrante — Hesitation of 
 Ferrante — Conduct of Lorenzo in Naples — Ferrante comes to terms with 
 Lorenzo— Remaining difficulties ended by the descent of the Turks upon 
 Italy— Lorenzo suspected of calling in the Turks— Florentine embassy 
 of apology to Sixtus IV.— Botticelli's " Pallas and the Centaur." 
 
 'HE war of recrimination and diplomacy was not 
 
 allowed to absorb the energies of the combatants 
 to the exclusion of active military measures for the conduct 
 of a campaign. The advantages, however great, which 
 the Pope might hope to gain from memoriahsing Christen- 
 dom were small as compared with those to be expected from 
 prompt and vigorous action in the field. Such action, 
 however, was necessarily contingent upon the attitude of 
 Ferrante of Naples. Would he be true to his newly formed 
 alliance with Sixtus, and so justify the Pope's departure 
 from the traditional Papal pohcy towards Naples ? Or 
 would he, ignoring the leniency and spirit of concihation 
 which Sixtus had exhibited, remain true to the ties of old 
 friendship which had bound him and Lorenzo so closely 
 together ? 
 
 Ferrante's decision was not for a moment in doubt. 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 233 
 
 Though there is no evidence to show that he was in any 
 way privy to the conspiracy of the Pazzi, yet he was not 
 a man to be shocked by such an enterprise, or to care very 
 much whether the Pope was an accomphce or not. The 
 only considerations which weighed with him were those of 
 self-interest, and he determined forthwith that more was 
 to be gained by supporting the Pope than by opposing 
 him. He had his own ambitions in Tuscany, which were 
 more likely to be realised if Lorenzo were out of the way. 
 Tn alliance with the Pope and the Sienese there was a fair 
 chance of being able to use the Sienese territory as a base foi 
 operations against Florence and Tuscany, which might result 
 in the re-establishment of the old Neapolitan over-lordship 
 over that region, whereas an alliance with Lorenzo, involving 
 as it did the adhesion of Naples to the Northern League, could 
 only cut the ground from under any schemes of territorial 
 aggrandisement in Italy which Ferrante might entertain. 
 
 In little more than a fortnight after the murder of Giuhano, 
 the Duke of Calabria, Ferrante's son, was in Rome, carrying 
 to the Pope assurances of the King's goodwill, and dis- 
 cussing a plan of campaign. In two months' time the 
 Neapolitan forces were not only in readiness, but had 
 actually crossed the Florentine frontier and were encamped 
 a httle to the south of the town of Monte Pulciano. They 
 were led by the Duke of Calabria in person, while the 
 command of the Papal troops was entrusted to Federigo 
 of Urbino, who also occupied the position of generalissimo 
 of the combined armies. 
 
 Nor was Florence behindhand in counter-preparations. 
 She was able to collect an imposing array of generals whose 
 names sound formidable to-day, but in 1478 most of them 
 had still their reputations to make. At that time there was 
 no individual among them who stood out conspicuous for 
 his proved ability and commanding talent. Niccolo Orsini, 
 Count of Pitighano and Rodolfo Gonzaga of Mantua were 
 chosen as divisional commanders by the Signoria. Gian 
 Giacopo Trivulzio and Count Alberto Visconti were at the head 
 of the Milanese contingent : Carlo Fortebraccio of Montone, 
 Deifobo of Anguillara, and Galeotto Pico della Mirandola 
 
234 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 came in the service of Venice to the help of her ally. But 
 the pressing need was for a Commander-in-chief under 
 whom all these subordinate generals would cheerfully 
 serve, one who could give cohesion to the miscellaneous 
 forces, and unity of purpose to their tactics in the field. 
 The choice of a generalissimo eventually fell on Ercole 
 d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. But, though appointed on 
 August 10, it was not until the end of September that 
 Ercole assumed the command, for the stars had first to be 
 consulted, and it was declared that their combinations 
 would not prove propitious until September 27. In 
 war success or failure frequently depends on the right use 
 of hours and minutes : a delay of seven weeks at the begin- 
 ning of the campaign, on account of unfavourable astral 
 conjunctions, did not give promise of that vigour and 
 promptitude on the part of Este by which alone success 
 was to be obtained. On other grounds the choice was not 
 altogether a happy one. Ercole d'Este was Ferrante's 
 son-in-law; the Duke of Calabria, his rival in the field, 
 was his brother-in-law. At a time when the family counted 
 for so much in Italy it seemed to the Venetians highly 
 impolitic to appoint to the supreme command a man whose 
 private connections bound him so closely to the enemy. 
 The Venetian protest, however, was disregarded, and upon 
 the propitious day the baton of command was entrusted 
 to Este by the hand of Lorenzo himself. 
 
 The forces which Florence, by strenuous exertion and 
 heavy taxation, was able to put into the field were perhaps 
 numerically a match for the 5000 men under Urbino and 
 Calabria, but, according to Trivulzio, they resembled 
 Falstaff's ragged army rather than an effective and dis- 
 ciplined force. They were ill-equipped, ill-drilled, ill- 
 provisioned. They were deficient in siege-artillery and 
 in engineers : the contractors were corrupt and thought of 
 nothing but lining their own pockets at the expense of the 
 troops : the military operations were continually hampered 
 by the presence of two civilian commissaries who acted 
 in the interests of Florence, while two more represented 
 those of Venice. What rendered these conditions still 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 235 
 
 more unfavourable was the contrast presented by the 
 appearance of the enemy. Calabria's Neapolitan troops 
 specially impressed De Commines, who, having visited both 
 camps, could only express his astonishment that the Flor- 
 entines were not utterly ruined in this war. Calabria and 
 Urbino worked well together when engaged in operations 
 in common, while, when acting in isolation, the army of 
 each was subject to a single will, and was not therefore 
 affected by the jealousies and disagreements of rival com- 
 manders which wrought such havoc in the opposing camp. 
 The campaign of 1478 extended from the middle of July 
 until November, when the troops on both sides retired 
 into their winter quarters. At its close the Florentines had 
 every reason to feel thankful that they had come through 
 it with so little damage done. The Duke of Calabria, 
 advancing from Monte Pulciano, marched northward, and 
 seemed to threaten Arezzo ; but wheeHng sharply to the 
 left, he determined to march on Florence under the friendly 
 cover of Siena, seized the towns of Radda and Castellina, 
 and prepared to attack Poggibonsi. A Httle to the north 
 of that town the Florentines had formed an entrenched 
 camp at Poggio Imperiale, where they were able to make 
 so brave a show that Calabria thought it prudent to make 
 sure of his communications. From Poggibonsi he retraced 
 his steps to the Chiana Valley and laid siege to San Sevmo. 
 The apathy and incompetence of Ercole d'Este were proof 
 against all the exhortations of the Signoria and the Florentine 
 Commissaries. Instead of. marching to the relief of San 
 Sevino, Este agreed to Calabria's suggestion of a truce for 
 a few days, and, when the truce was ended, San Sevino 
 immediately fell. It was now November, and in accordance 
 with the military custom of the times the armies withdrew 
 into their winter quarters. 
 
 While the Duke of Calabria was thus conducting the 
 operations of the main campaign, his father, the King of 
 Naples, was successfully effecting a diversion in another 
 quarter. Genoa had always been restive under the sway 
 of Milan, and now the distractions in the Milanese Govern- 
 ment offered a favourable opportunity for revolt. Stimu- 
 
236 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 lated by the intrigues of Ferrante, Genoa declared herself a 
 Republic, with the result that the Duchess-Regent of Milan 
 was compelled to withdraw a portion of her troops which 
 were serving in Tuscany in order to reassert her authority 
 over her rebellious vassal. The Sforza brothers and their 
 cousin, Roberto Sanseverino, seized the opportunity to 
 foment trouble and add to the embarrassment of the Regent, 
 who felt the hand of Ferrante behind every difficulty as it 
 arose. It was recognised by the Florentines that Httle 
 more was to be expected from the active co-operation of 
 Milan, while Venice was at best a lukewarm ally. The 
 campaign of 1478 therefore closed with prospects far darker 
 for Florence than the record of military events would imply. 
 Deprived of effective assistance from her allies, cursed by an 
 incompetent and apathetic commander, hampered by 
 divided counsels and rivalries among her subordinate 
 generals, threatened by disaffection in some of her own 
 dependencies, and by active hostiUties on the part of some 
 of her smaller neighbours, Florence could only look forward 
 to the future with gloomy apprehension. 
 
 The winter season however afforded an opportunity of 
 effecting by diplomacy what she had failed to accomplish 
 in arms. Special envoys were sent to Venice and to Milan 
 to represent the situation and urge the necessity for greater 
 efforts, if the independence of Florence, and indeed of Italy, 
 was to be preserved. The task of conciliating Lucca and 
 holding that fiery Httle republic in check was entrusted to 
 Piero Capponi, who barely escaped with his Ufe from the 
 fury of the populace against Florence. There was some 
 talk of reviving the Angevin claims to Naples, and so keep- 
 ing Ferrante fully employed at home, of a naval expedition 
 against Naples, of an offensive campaign conducted against the 
 Pope in his own territories of Romagna. None of these plans, 
 however, were feasible if Florence was not strongly supported 
 by her alHes, and it was soon evident that no such support 
 would be rendered. Venice did not care to commit herself 
 at the moment to a war in Romagna, while the Pope, by 
 calling in the Swiss to ravage the northern territories of 
 Milan, finally put an end to the possibility of aid from that 
 
238 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 quarter. The last hope for Florence lay in the friendship of 
 Louis XI. of France, who, though so far he had given no 
 material support, had from the first espoused the cause of 
 Florence, and had consistently employed all the resources 
 of diplomacy on her behalf. " To-day, as always," writes 
 Lorenzo to Louis in August, " I think I shall need the assis- 
 tance, favour, and protection of your Majesty, to whom I 
 shall turn in confidence for all that concerns me as to my 
 lord, protector and patron, my hope and my refuge." 
 
 Short of military aid Louis had certainly been active on 
 the side of Florence and Lorenzo. He had forbidden the 
 exportation of money to Rome : he constantly held over 
 Sixtus the threat of a General Council, and he tried to 
 frighten Ferrante by talk about the French claims to 
 Naples. In November, when hostilities were si;spended, 
 Louis took a definite step towards securing a general peace 
 in Italy. A special embassy was despatched to Rome to 
 urge on Sixtus the imperative necessity of the union of 
 Christendom against the ever-increasing danger from the 
 Turks. Combined resistance was impossible as long as the 
 Pope was the storm-centre of Italy. Let him abandon the 
 war, restore peace to the country, and call a Council for the 
 purpose of xmiting all Christian men together against the 
 common foe. Let the questions in dispute between Sixtus 
 and Lorenzo be submitted to investigation and arbitration, 
 and especially let Lorenzo's side of the case be heard. Louis 
 on his part was a faithful son of the Church, who only 
 desired that the Church should do justice, fulfil her mission 
 as the upholder of Christian peace, as the protagonist of war 
 against the infidel. At any rate let active hostilities remain 
 suspended under a flag of truce until the representations of the 
 French King had been reasonably considered. 
 
 These proposals, which were skilfully tuned to the notes of 
 moderation and reasonableness, were laid before the Pope 
 in January 1479 the six French envoys. Sixtus in reply 
 renewed his complaints against Lorenzo, and denied the right 
 of the French King to intervene. He declared that arbitration 
 might rather tend to prolong war than to promote peace 
 where there was no common ground of agreement between 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 the parties, and that no sufficient reasons existed for 
 summoning a General Council. There was, he said, one 
 simple road to peace, and that was that Lorenzo should 
 confess his guilt and submit to the punishment which it 
 involved. If Lorenzo would do this, all other points at 
 issue could promptly be composed. 
 
 The demands for peace, however, initiated by Louis were 
 now strongly supported from other quarters. An embassy 
 from Edward IV. of England arrived in Rome in the early 
 spring with a mission similar in purport to that of France. 
 It was rumoured in Rome that Louis intended to caU a 
 Council on his own part if the Pope, within a month, did not 
 show himself amenable to reason. The ambassadors of 
 Florence, Milan, and Venice declared that their States would 
 support a Council so summoned, Venice being foremost in 
 protest against the irreconcilable attitude of the Pope. In 
 the circumstances Sixtus thought it prudent to temporise. 
 A commission of Cardinals was appointed to investigate the 
 whole case. Early in April the Interdict against Florence 
 was suspended, and there was to be a truce to hostilities 
 while these negotiations were in progress. In due course 
 the Papal terms of accommodation were formulated. As 
 soon as they were made known it was obvious that the only 
 intention of Sixtus was to gain time in which to tide over a 
 period of disagreeable pressure. The question of the provo- 
 cation which Florence had received was ignored. She must 
 acknowledge her sins, her sacrilegious violence against 
 ecclesiastical persons, and must make atonement : Botti- 
 celli's pictures upon the Palazzo must be erased : Niccolo 
 Vitelli must be expelled from the territories of Florence : 
 Borgo San Sepolcro and other fortresses on the Romagna 
 frontier must be surrendered to the Pope : Florence must 
 compensate the Pope and his ally for their expenses in- 
 curred in the war, and must never again make war upon the 
 territories of the Holy See. Such terms were only drawn 
 up to be rejected. There was only one of them to which 
 Florence would consent, and that was the erasure of the 
 pictures. Everything else was held by Florence to be im- 
 possible, and in this opinion her allies concurred. 
 
240 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Sixtus now made another cunning move. He called the 
 ambassadors of Venice, Milan, and Florence to a consulta- 
 tion, and inquired if they would forthwith, upon the con- 
 clusion of peace, turn their arms against the Turk. Venice 
 was compelled to declare that having waged war single- 
 handed against the Turks for many years, she had now 
 concluded an agreement with the Sultan, and intended to be 
 true to that agreement, Sixtus would hear no more. The 
 Conference broke up, and the ambassadors withdrew from 
 Rome with solemn protests against the implacability of 
 Sixtus and with appeals to a General Council. 
 
 There was now obviously no alternative but to continue 
 the war. Formal hostihties therefore between the armies 
 in the Chiana valley began at the end of April, In another 
 quarter, however, informal miUtary operations had been in 
 progress during the time of truce. The Sforza brothers, 
 the Duke of Bari and Ludovico II Moro, had taken the field 
 as free lances, as early as the month of February. They 
 sought to gain their own advantage from the troubled times 
 by stirring up insurrections in Milan against the Regent, by 
 stimulating disaffection in adjacent districts, and by 
 attracting pubhc attention to themselves by the dash and 
 daring of their exploits. A demonstration before the town 
 of Pisa, which resulted in the general pillage of the country 
 round, proved to Florence how formidable these irregular 
 guerillas might prove if adequately supported. The Duke 
 of Ferrara was hastily summoned from Poggio Imperiale 
 with a portion of his forces to restore order, and expel the 
 Sforzas from their position. 
 
 This operation was scarcely completed when the period 
 of truce expired and the regular campaign of 1479 began 
 between the armies in the Chiana Valley. The main idea of 
 the Florentines in this campaign was to act on the defensive, 
 in such a manner as to protect themselves at all points 
 against the approach of the enemy to the city. But these 
 defensive movements might be assisted by offensive opera- 
 tions upon the enemy's flank and rear, the district around 
 Perugia offering favourable chances for a diversion. Thus 
 in the campaign of 1479 we find two spheres of action, at a 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 241 
 
 considerable distance one from the other, the one in and 
 about Poggio Imperiale, the other in the neighbourhood of 
 Lake Thrasimene. Apart from mihtary considerations 
 some such plan was rendered imperatively necessary by the 
 inveterate jealousies between the commanders, which now 
 broke out with greater rancour than before. The cause of 
 Florence had been greatly strengthened by the defection of 
 Roberto Malatesta from the Pope's side. As a condottiere 
 general he was regarded as almost the equal of Urbino him- 
 self, and his acceptance of a command in the Florentine 
 army was some set-off against the incompetence of the Duke 
 of Ferrara. But Malatesta was at enmity with Costanzo 
 Sforza, who in this campaign accepted the pay of Florence, 
 and the dissensions between them rendered it impossible for 
 them to act together. Carlo Fortebraccio also, whose 
 services were requisitioned from Venice, was the hereditary 
 foe of the Sforzas. Amid all these private enmities there 
 was grave danger that the hostilities of the commanders 
 would prove more formidable to Florence than the opera- 
 tions of the enemy. It was therefore arranged that Mala- 
 testa and Fortebraccio should take charge of the contem- 
 plated movements in Perugia, while Sforza remained with 
 the defensive forces gathered at Poggio Imperiale. 
 
 Before Fortebraccio could revive his family claims upon 
 Perugia he died, but his place was taken by his son Bern- 
 ardino. A Papal force, under the Prefect of Rome, was 
 despatched to defend Perugia, and to protect the flank of 
 Calabria's army in the Chiana Valley. This force was en- 
 countered by Malatesta and Bernardino at La Magione, a 
 little to the east of Lake Thrasimene, where it was completely 
 defeated. The successful generals, however, failed to follow 
 up their success, while the blunderings and quarrels at the 
 front neutralised the advantage which had been gained on 
 the rear. It was indeed a fatal thing for Florence to gain a 
 victory, for at once disputes arose among the conquerors as 
 to the spoils. Plunder was more of an object than politics, 
 and of the plunder each mercenary freebooter was deter- 
 mined to have the lion's share. 
 Macchiavelli deduces from this war some of his most 
 0 
 
242 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 cogent examples of the worthlessness of mercenary troops, 
 for it was on such troops that Florence was now solely 
 dependent. One advantage however followed from the 
 quarrels among the leaders. The feud between Ercole 
 d'Este and the Marquis of Mantua reached a point where 
 it became impossible for them to act together. 
 
 A fresh outbreak of the Sforza brothers in the neighbour- 
 hood of Parma made it necessary for D'Este to march with a 
 portion of his troops to protect the eastern frontier, while 
 the Marquis of Mantua was despatched to co-operate with 
 Malatesta's division. Sigismondo d'Este took his brother's 
 place at Poggio Imperiale, and it was left to him and Cos- 
 tanza Sforza, with reduced forces, to maintain the position 
 against the Duke of Calabria. 
 
 The particular quarrels which led to these dispositions 
 originated in a small success gained by the main army over 
 the Sienese town of Casole. The Florentine troops, issuing 
 forth from Poggio Imperiale, stormed the place and took it, 
 but little or no attempt was made to follow up this advan- 
 tage. The result rather was to make the army over-con- 
 fident, slack, and careless, at the very moment when the 
 diminution in its strength should have made it most alert. 
 Calabria saw his opportunity for a surprise attack upon the 
 enemies' quarters. Exhibiting for once a genuine military 
 instinct, he concentrated all his available forces at Chiusi, 
 reached Siena by rapid and secret marches, and feU upon the 
 entrenched camp at Poggio Imperiale on September 7. 
 The Florentine army fled in panic, and was only redeemed 
 from utter disgrace by the heroism of Costanzo Sforza who 
 succeeded in rallying a part of the broken forces at Casciano. 
 With these he turned upon his pursuers, made their leader, 
 Giacopo Appiani, his prisoner, and saved the Florentine 
 gonfalon from capture. Calabria thought enough had been 
 done. His momentary flash of inspiration was exhausted. 
 Instead of brushing Costanzo Sforza aside and making 
 straight for Florence, which was but eight miles distant from 
 Casciano, he determined to make everything safe in his 
 rear before advancing further. Accordingly he sat down 
 before the fortified town of Colle. 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 243 
 
 The siege of Colle proved a protracted undertaking. For 
 two months the town offered a splendid resistance to all 
 Calabria's efforts. The time occupied by the operation was 
 sufficient to deprive Calabria of practically all the advantage 
 he had gained. Florence put herself in a state of defence. 
 Sforza, on the side of Siena, Malatesta, on that of Arezzo, 
 provided for the security of the capital against a surprise. 
 The heroic defence of Colle breathed inspiration into the 
 Florentine cause, while outlying townships, such as San 
 Gemignano, showed a spirit of gallantry and devotion in 
 striking contrast to the apathy and ineptitude which had 
 characterised the operations of the regular forces. When 
 Colle at last fell, on November 14, Calabria was in no position 
 to continue the campaign. He was glad to offer a truce and 
 to retire to Siena where, in winter quarters, he could refresh 
 and recruit his army, while making ready for a new cam- 
 paign in the Spring. 
 
 It was a true instinct which led Lorenzo to propose that 
 the citizenship of Florence should be conferred on the Priors 
 of Colle in recognition of its gallant defence. Had Colle 
 fallen without resistance Lorenzo must almost certainly 
 have fallen with it. In war, time is everything, and Colle 
 provided Lorenzo with time in which to devise and carry 
 into execution a scheme, from which he hoped to gain the 
 peace of Italy and the security of his own government in 
 Florence. 
 
 Although at the close of the campaign of 1479 the situa- 
 tion for Florence was improved, it was still almost desperate. 
 The expenses of the war were ruinous and all classes were 
 loud in complaint. However great the devotion of the City 
 to Lorenzo might be when Florence was under the impulse 
 of a cowardly and brutal attack upon his person, yet it was 
 not likely to remain proof against the repeated assertion 
 that aU the misery, privation, and suspense which Florence 
 was called upon to endure could be ended in a moment if she 
 would abandon Lorenzo's cause. To organise a new cam- 
 paign was practically impossible in the existing state of 
 the finances, while even could it be done, the conduct of the 
 previous campaigns offered no promise of ultimate success. 
 
244 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 The plague too was raging in the City, and all the enthusiasm 
 inspired by the attempt of the Pazzi had evaporated under 
 the stress of pestilence, famine and disaster. Lorenzo was 
 quick to mark the signs of the times and read his own 
 destruction in the gloomy faces which everywhere surrounded 
 him. He became convinced that only by some dramatic 
 and personal stroke could he retrieve his fortunes, if indeed 
 they were still to be retrieved. He decided to take his fate 
 into his own hands, and win or lose all, by a voluntary 
 surrender of himself into the power of Ferrante, the least 
 implacable of his many foes. He would thus clear himself 
 of the reproach that Florence was being sacrificed to the 
 interests of an individual : he would put to a decisive test 
 the assertions that the war was not being waged against 
 Florence, but against himself. By his own sacrifice Florence 
 would be saved, and in secret he cherished the hope that in 
 sacrifice he would find salvation ; that, by the exercise of 
 his own fascinations and diplomatic arts, he could work 
 upon Ferrante to renew his old friendship and alliance, and 
 restore peace to Italy on terms honourable to Florence and 
 to Lorenzo at once. 
 
 The secret history of Lorenzo's resolve is now tolerably 
 clear. Among other circumstances, it was dependent upon 
 events which had recently taken place in Milan. There, by 
 a strange turn of fortune, Ludovico Sforza had become 
 practically supreme. His ambitions had been served by 
 the death of his brother, the Duke of Bari, which left Ludo- 
 vico the sole secular survivor of Francesco Sforza's sons. In 
 the war he had accomplished several brilliant achievements 
 which captivated the imagination of the people of Milan. 
 His latest and most brilliant exploit, the descent of the Cento 
 Croci pass onto Tortona, had so much impressed the Duke of 
 Ferrara, who had been detached from Poggio Imperiale to 
 cope with him, that the Duke became convinced that tran- 
 quillity in Milan could never be secured until Ludovico's 
 restless spirit was quieted by his readmission to the privileges 
 and position of a Milanese prince. Ferrara therefore urged 
 upon the Duchess-Regent that she should compose the 
 quarrel with Ludovico and recall him. In spite of the 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 245 
 
 remonstrances and prophetic warnings of her counsellor, 
 Simonetta, she determined to follow Ferrara's advice. 
 Ludovico's banishment was revoked, and he entered Milan 
 amid the acclamations of the people on September 7. 
 From this moment the authority of the Duchess passed 
 away. Simonetta was dismissed and imprisoned, and 
 Ludovico Sforza, in the name of his nephew, ruled in 
 Milan as its supreme Lord. 
 
 A change of such importance in the government of Milan 
 could not fail profoundly to affect the fortunes of Lorenzo. 
 A friendly State which had been too weak and distracted 
 to render him any effectual assistance was now in the hands 
 of no ordinary man, whose friendship or enmity might 
 decide the destiny of Florence and Lorenzo. To secure 
 Ludovico as a friend was Lorenzo's first concern, though the 
 chances of success seemed small. Ludovico had taken an 
 active part in the war against Lorenzo : he was connected 
 with Ferrante through his sister Hippolita : he seemed to 
 have more to gain from an alliance with victorious Naples 
 than with humiliated Florence. But possibly these Nea- 
 politan predilections might prove the very instruments to 
 serve Lorenzo's purpose, if he could himself effect a recon- 
 ciliation with Ferrante. An alliance to which Milan, 
 Naples and Florence were parties would restore the balance of 
 power in Italy, checkmate the Pope, and make the restora- 
 tion of general peace inevitable. 
 
 From the moment, therefore, of Ludovico's recall, 
 Lorenzo entered into correspondence with him and used 
 every effort to secure his support and goodwill. In a letter 
 of September 17, Ludovico made use of encouraging and 
 polite assurances. Lorenzo might dispose of him, whatever 
 events might arise, and use his resources as his own. Words 
 like these, however, meant little or nothing unless they 
 were accompanied by active support. On September 25 
 Lorenzo wrote to his ambassador, Girolamo Morelli, at 
 Milan, a letter which shows his clear appreciation of the 
 situation. If the integrity and independence of Florence 
 were regarded by Ludovico as of importance to himself, 
 he must take measures to maintain them or they would be 
 
246 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 lost. If any Italian Power were allowed to aggrandise 
 herself at the expense of Florence, Milan would feel the 
 effect, which could not fail to be disastrous. The traditional 
 pohcy of Ludovico's father was based on the conviction 
 that Milan and Florence must stand or fall together. 
 " Impress this truth on Lord Ludovico, that our position 
 here will be strong or weak at his lordship's will. If he 
 should do nothing, he will give the reins of Italy into the 
 hands of others, while now they are in his own." 
 
 In this same letter there is a sentence which has a direct 
 reference to Lorenzo's idea of an accommodation with 
 Ferrante. He tells Morelli that for many months past he 
 has received friendly words from the Duke of Calabria, 
 and much encouragement " to throw myself into the King's 
 arms." From this it would appear that Lorenzo's resolve 
 to go to Naples was no sudden impulse, but a scheme 
 suggested from Naples itself, giving promise of a friendly 
 reception there and of a favourable issue. That this was 
 the true state of the case is made more apparent by a 
 despatch from MoreUi to Lorenzo of November 12, which 
 seems to be a reply to Lorenzo's letter of September 25. 
 The ambassador makes known the mind of Ludovico, 
 who was strongly of opinion that Lorenzo should at once 
 come to terms with Ferrante. Reasonable proposals 
 would not be rejected in that quarter, especially if they 
 came speedily. " Inter os et offam multa accidere possent. 
 Jactet aleam." " Between cup and lip many things may 
 happen. Let him throw the die." A few days later 
 Ludovico was even more explicit. He could, he said, be 
 of Uttle material service to Lorenzo : the state of affairs in 
 Milan did not admit of active assistance, but he would 
 wiUingly use his good offices with the King of Naples, and 
 do his utmost byway of mediation, to effect a reconciliation. 
 Within a few hours of this declaration the Duke of Calabria 
 proposed the truce, and Lorenzo could have little doubt 
 that Ludovico's advice had been given after consultation 
 with Ferrante, and that the King on his part was willing 
 to smooth the path for negotiations. 
 
 On November 24 Filipo Strozzi left Florence as a 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 247 
 
 special envoy from Lorenzo to Ferrante. On his arrival 
 he delivered his message, which was to the effect that 
 Lorenzo placed himself in the King's hands. He would 
 willingly agree to whatsoever Ferrante should decide 
 upon, provided peace were restored and the Florentine 
 towns which Calabria had taken were given back. To 
 Strozzi's astonishment Ferrante replied that from informa- 
 tion he had received he was expecting Lorenzo to arrive in 
 person, and that matters might remain in abeyance until 
 he came. Lorenzo's fixed determination to come himself 
 to Naples was therefore arrived at between the middle and 
 the end of November, and there was a just sufficient under- 
 standing with Ferrante beforehand to give assurance that 
 his visit would not be unacceptable, nor his proposals 
 unfavourably prejudged. 
 
 One main object with Lorenzo was to make his departure 
 as dramatic as possible, that it might appeal to the emotions 
 of the Florentine people. The impression it was designed 
 to produce on them was that for their sake he was volun- 
 tarily surrendering himself into the hands of his implacable 
 foe, being willing to endure banishmnt, imprisonment, 
 death itself, if only he could preserve Florence from im- 
 pending disasters. Accordingly he made his arrangements 
 with secrecy, and only consulted a very few of his most 
 intimate and prudent friends. Having entrusted the 
 government to Tomaso Soderini, on December i, 1479, 
 he set out by way of S. Miniato to Pisa, where he proposed 
 to take ship to Naples. On the 5th he received a private 
 letter from the Chancellor, Bartolommeo Scala, who related 
 the impression which his departure had created upon the 
 people. They all applauded him, and believed that his 
 mission would be a success, for they rather remembered 
 the close ties of friendship which had bound Ferrante to 
 Florence in the past than the recent enmity which had 
 resulted in war. In any event, Scala assured Lorenzo, he 
 had done right, for the people were bent on peace, and 
 could endure the miseries of war and taxation no longer. 
 Should he be successful in negotiating an honourable peace, 
 then he would return totus aureus — all golden. Every- 
 
248 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 body placed the highest hopes in his prudence and 
 authority. 
 
 On the 7th, Lorenzo addressed an affecting letter to the 
 Signoria, explaining the grounds of the action on which 
 he had resolved. " I am content," he said, " to take this 
 risk, seeing that it is possible that the only aim of our enemies 
 is my destruction. Just as this war was begun in the blood 
 of my brother and myself, so now, by my means it may be 
 concluded. All I desire is that my life, my death, my 
 prosperity, my misfortunes, may contribute to the welfare 
 of my native land." When this letter, says Valori, was 
 read, it was received with various opinions, but there was 
 not one who could refrain from tears at the thought of 
 Lorenzo thus ready to sacrifice himself for his city and his 
 fellow countrymen. 
 
 The Signoria, after due deliberation, approved of Lorenzo's 
 course, and proceeded to regularise his mission by appointing 
 him a special ambassador to the Court of Naples with full 
 powers to negotiate a peace. His official credentials reached 
 him at Pisa before he sailed ; indeed, in the early part of 
 January le constantly received from the Ten letters of 
 instruction and recommendation. The common view of 
 Lorenzo as acting in this affair quite independently, and 
 staking all his fortunes on the hazard of a die, requires 
 modification in the light of the despatches, letters, and 
 negotiations which preceded and attended his resolve. 
 
 The passage from Pisa to Naples was a favourable one, 
 and Lorenzo drew happy auguries from the condition of 
 the elements. " See," he said, " how Heaven smiles upon 
 our undertaking. Let us pluck up courage, and cast aside 
 all fears." Upon his arrival in the Bay, he found a splendid 
 reception awaiting him. The populace had flocked to the quays 
 to catch a glimpse of the hero who, in the eyes of his admirers, 
 had surpassed all private men by his virtue, dignity, and 
 fortune, and had become the equal of the greatest Kings. 
 
 Ferrante had commissioned his son Federigo and his 
 grandson Ferdinand, to receive, on his behalf, his illus- 
 trious guest, to whom a palace was assigned as a residence. 
 So favourable was his reception that the Venetians grew 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 249 
 
 suspicious, and openly declared that the whole affair had 
 been arranged beforehand between Lorenzo and the King ; 
 that the appearance of improvisation was only a blind to 
 conceal a secret agreement by which Naples was to be 
 substituted for Venice in the Triple Alliance. This opinion 
 however, went beyond the facts. Lorenzo had still much 
 to do, and deep anxieties to endure, before he could con- 
 gratulate himself either on his safety or success. Ferrante's 
 mind was by no means made up beforehand, though he was 
 willing to listen to what Lorenzo had to say. The ultimate 
 issue remained for many weeks in doubt. Under a smiling 
 countenance Lorenzo cloaked the heaviness of his heart. 
 By day, and before the eyes of men, says one who was with 
 him, he was all affability and confidence, but at night he 
 lay awake bemoaning with tears his own fate and that of 
 his city. 
 
 All Lorenzo's diplomacy was directed to convincing 
 Ferrante that his interests lay in an alhance with Florence 
 rather than with the Pope. Fabroni seems to have invented 
 the elaborate speech in which he makes Lorenzo detail his 
 arguments to Ferrante, but it is not difficult to surmise 
 the Hne which his arguments must have taken. He would 
 urge the instability of the Papal policy, and the Papal 
 tenure ; the nature of the Papal claims to suzerainty over 
 Naples, which had been suspended not by the Papacy as 
 an institution, but by Sixtus as an individual ; that Sixtus 
 was already old, and that there was no guarantee for the 
 policy of his successor ; that the Pope was the enemy of 
 the peace of Italy at a time when the interests of Naples, 
 of Italy, of all Christendom, were bound up in peace ; that 
 Riario's ambition knew no bounds, and that his influence 
 over Sixtus was paramount. Any day the Angevin claims 
 on Naples might be revived and supported by the Pope. 
 No reliance was to be placed on Venice, who would not 
 hesitate to sacrifice Naples if thereby her own ends could 
 be served. Already the relations which existed between 
 Naples and Milan were friendly, and an alliance with 
 Florence would involve an alliance with Milan. Ludovico 
 was interested equally with Ferrante in keeping the French 
 
250 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 out of Italy : a combination of the three powers, Naples, 
 Milan, and Florence, would be a sure guarantee for the peace 
 of Italy, and for the security in their respective governments 
 of Medici, Sforza, and Ferrante alike. In no other alUance 
 was such a guarantee and security to be looked for. 
 
 Arguments such as these, advanced with all the force, 
 eloquence, and personal fascination which Lorenzo had at 
 command, could not fail powerfully to impress Ferrante. 
 He could scarcely forget the close friendship and genuine 
 admiration which, until quite recently, had bound him to 
 Lorenzo, nor were the intimate relations between Lorenzo 
 and some members of Ferrante's immediate family without 
 their effect. 
 
 But all the argument was by no means on Lorenzo's 
 side. There were personal considerations and motives of 
 public poHcy which told heavily against him. The Duke 
 of Calabria was by no means in favour of an accommodation. 
 He had conducted the war, had captured the Florentine 
 towns, and was strongly disinclined to give them up. He 
 had his own designs on Tuscany, which must come to 
 nothing if Naples and Florence joined in an aUiance. 
 Moreover, there were grave dangers in breaking with the 
 Pope, who might, in revenge, revive his own and the Angevin 
 claims in Naples in their most offensive and aggressive 
 form : the prospect of Venice, as a really active enemy, 
 was alarming, and Venice had already begun to show her 
 teeth. 
 
 While Ferrante was in this position of doubt and hesitation, 
 he was beset by the ambassadors of all the parties chiefly 
 interested in his decision. The Pope, at the first rumour 
 of a possible accommodation between Lorenzo and Ferrante, 
 took serious alarm, and used every effort to keep the King 
 true to the cause of the Holy See. His ambassadors recapitu- 
 lated in detail the original objects for which the war had been 
 undertaken. They urged that no change had taken place in 
 the situation, and that not without gross inconsistency 
 could Ferrante now make a friend of the man against whom 
 he had just expended so much blood and treasure. If, 
 however, terms were to be arranged, it was the Pope who 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 
 
 251 
 
 should arrange them. Lorenzo should have come to him, 
 who was the most grievously injured party, and Sixtus 
 insistently demanded that Lorenzo should be sent from 
 Naples to Rome, where, if anywhere, terms of peace could 
 most suitably be made. 
 
 An earnest of Ferrante's ultimate decision was given by 
 his flat refusal to accede to this last demand. Whatever 
 happened, he would not send Lorenzo to Rome. But if 
 this decision was encouraging to Lorenzo, other circum- 
 stances were in the last degree depressing. He learned 
 that the Genoese had taken advantage of the troubled 
 situation in Florence to make an attack upon Sarzana, his 
 father's recent and most prized acquisition, and had made 
 themselves masters of the place. What rendered the event 
 particularly disquieting was the suspicion that the secret 
 force behind the Genoese was the hand of the Duke of 
 Calabria. If this indeed were so, it was to be feared that 
 Ferrante was playing a double game, amusing Florence 
 with hopes of peace, while he played upon her weakness 
 by seizing her territories. It is little wonder that Lorenzo 
 was sad at nights. 
 
 But the more his fortunes trembled in the balance, the 
 more it was necessary for him to put a good face on the 
 situation, and to exercise his own unrivalled quahties of 
 persuasion and charm. In Naples he made himself im- 
 mensely popular. He was not content to limit his attentions 
 to the royal family and the Court. He identified himself 
 as far as possible with the Neapolitan people. He indulged 
 in lavish expenditure, now making provision for dowering 
 poor girls, now buying out galley slaves from their condition 
 of servitude. Valori says he remembers hearing from Paolo 
 Antonio Soderini what amount Lorenzo actually spent 
 while in Naples, but that he does not dare to write it. The 
 reward came at last. In February matters advanced so 
 far that he was able to count with certainty upon Ferrante. 
 The rough draft of a treaty had been drawn up and agreed 
 upon before the end of the month. Nothing remained but 
 to arrange details and put the treaty into final form. Lorenzo 
 felt that his mission was accompUshed, and that his cause 
 
252 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 was won. He took ship from Naples to Livomo, thence to 
 Pisa, and by the middle of March was back again in Florence, 
 received by the people as the saviour of his country with 
 the wildest manifestations of delight. 
 
 But the terms of the treaty had yet to be made pubHc. 
 When they were known enthusiasm became tempered by 
 some dissatisfaction and complaint. But Florence could 
 not expect — though she did expect it — to wage unsuccessful 
 war without suffering from it. In the circumstances, the 
 terms were not unduly severe. 
 
 Florence was to ask the Pope's pardon for her offences. 
 The Pazzi conspirators, who were confined in the prisons 
 of Volterra, were to be released. The expenses incurred 
 by the Duke of Calabria in the war were to be paid, and 
 the fortresses which he had taken were to remain at the 
 discretion of Ferrante, to be giyen up or retained as he 
 might determine. Florence, however, was to be at liberty 
 to recover Sarzana from the Genoese if she could, and the 
 Princes of Romagna who had espoused the cause of Florence 
 against the Pope were to be guaranteed against the resent- 
 ment of the Pontiff. Subject to these conditions, a firm 
 alliance was to exist between Florence and Naples, and 
 whoever made war upon one of the allies was to be regarded 
 as the common enemy of both. 
 
 But though peace was thus concluded between Florence 
 and Naples, Lorenzo's difficulties had not entirely dis- 
 appeared. The Pope still remained obdurate, and Venice 
 promptly took the place of Naples in the Papal League. 
 The Duke of Calabria showed no disposition to quit his 
 quarters in Siena; on the contrary, he was suspected of 
 engineering a revolution there with the object of securing 
 for himself the lordship of the city. The captured towns 
 remained in the hands of Naples, and Sarzana in those 
 of the Genoese. Florence seemed to be almost as much 
 threatened by the restoration of peace as she had been 
 during the active operations of war. At this moment a 
 bolt from the blue changed the face of affairs in Italy, and 
 finally rescued Lorenzo from his difficulties A Turkish 
 squadron, having failed in an attack upon Rhodes, resolved 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 253 
 
 to cover the failure by a descent on the shores of Italy. 
 At the end of July seven thousand Turks, under the com- 
 mand of Keduk Achmet, landed in Apulia, laid siege to 
 Otranto, and took it. The slaughter of the people in the 
 neighbourhood, and the fate of the defenders of Otranto, 
 opened the eyes of Italy to what the Turkish danger really 
 meant. At last it was realised that the Turks were not a 
 diplomatic fiction but a terrible reaHty ; that this was no 
 time for ItaHans to be fighting against Italians. In little 
 more than a week after the landing of the Turks the 
 Duke of Calabria had quitted Siena, his Tuscan ambitions 
 extinguished for ever. The Pope had no alternative but to 
 forego his rage against Lorenzo, in return for such an 
 apology as Florence chose to give. Ferrante showed 
 himself generous and forbearing as to the restitution of 
 the captured fortresses. He could scarcely act otherwise 
 when barbarian invaders were ravaging his own kingdom. 
 Florence at last enjoyed a peace which was not incompatible 
 with her honour, and all the credit went to Lorenzo, who, 
 at the risk of hfe and fortune, had watched over and pre- 
 served the destinies of the State. From this time, until 
 his death twelve years later, he enjoyed a supremacy which 
 was never seriously questioned, though to the Florentines 
 the despotism of Lorenzo was not a despotism. It was a 
 voluntary surrender of power into the hands of the man, 
 who, at a crisis of their fortunes, had been willing to surrender 
 all on their behalf. 
 
 It is not surprising that an event so opportune and 
 propitious to Lorenzo as the Turkish invasion should have 
 been attributed by some to his own machinations. His 
 good relations with the Turkish Sultan had been very 
 recently proved by the surrender of Bernardo Bandini into 
 his hands, an acknowledgment of Lorenzo's influence which 
 had impressed itself on the imagination of Italy. Such 
 an amazing turn of fortune for Lorenzo could scarcely, it 
 was thought, be the result of coincidence. But if Ferrante, 
 who was chiefly affected by the Turkish inroad, had believed 
 in Lorenzo's responsibility for it, it is incredible that 
 the good relations between them would have remained 
 
254 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 undisturbed. In the lack of definite evidence it can only be 
 said that it was natural that Lorenzo should have been 
 suspected, but improbable that suspicion was justified by 
 his action. 
 
 It only remained to fulfil that clause in the treaty -which 
 committed the Florentines to an apology and due sub- 
 mission to the Pope. An imposing embassy of twelve 
 principal citizens was despatched to Rome, though no 
 attention was paid to the Pope's demand that Lorenzo 
 should form one of the ambassadors. At its head was 
 Francesco Soderini, Bishop of Volterra, accompanied 
 among others by Antonio dei Medici, Giovanni Tornabuoni, 
 Luigi Guicciardini and Guidantonio Vespucci. The terms 
 of apology were ingeniously framed. The ambassadors 
 were to admit that the Republic might have committed 
 many errors, both of a public and private nature, of which, 
 owing to his divine wisdom, the Pope had better knowledge 
 than the Republic itself could have. Whatever errors had 
 been done, Florence, through her most illustrious sons, 
 acknowledged them and humbly asked for pardon, at the 
 same time commending the city and its citizens to the 
 future favour and protection of the Pontiff. Not a word 
 was said about the specific causes of the quarrel. The 
 political griefs of Sixtus against Florence were ignored : 
 not a word was said about injuries and violence done 
 upon ecclesiastical persons : no mention was made of an 
 indemnity, nor of any personal humiliation to which Lorenzo 
 was to submit himself. Everything was vague, perfunctory, 
 and almost ironical in the apology actually tendered, but 
 everything was splendid and imposing in the manner in 
 which the tender was made. On December 3, the am- 
 bassadors were received by Sixtus before the bronze gates 
 of the central nave of St. Peter's. The Pope was seated 
 upon an extemporised throne gorgeously hung with purple 
 silk, and a great concourse of dignitaries and officials 
 attended him. The ambassadors approached, and falling 
 on their knees acknowledged their offences through the 
 mouth of Luigi Guicciardini, who implored the Pope's 
 forgiveness. The noise made by the crowd of spectators 
 
WAR OF THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY 255 
 
 rendered Guicciardini's remarks inaudible, but as the 
 proceedings were purely formal this was of no consequence. 
 The Pope on his part then spoke a few words of reproof. 
 Then touching each of the ambassadors with a penitent's 
 staff, in token that the interdict was removed and that they 
 were forgiven, the Pope pronounced his blessing ; the 
 brazen gates were opened, and high mass was celebrated 
 within the choir to mark the complete reconciliation between 
 the Holy See and its once rebellious, but now repentant, 
 children. The ambassadors, however, were not permitted 
 to depart without an unpleasant reminder that Sixtus 
 expected that their contrition should take a tangible form. 
 Florence must bear her share in the crusade against the 
 Turks, and for this purpose must contribute at her own 
 expense fifteen galleys fully equipped. In the existing 
 state of her finances this was a burden which Florence 
 could ill support. There was, however, consolation in the 
 fact that the condition was one which would take time to 
 fulfil, and between its imposition and its fulfilment many 
 things might happen. 
 
 So Florence gave herself up to rejoicing. Strong in her 
 alliance, her lost territories recovered or about to be restored, 
 reconciled to the Church, and in secure possession of her 
 most illustrious son, she soon ceased to remember her former 
 state of humiliation and distress. A prosperous and peace- 
 ful epoch seemed now to be before her. Lorenzo, from the 
 scapegoat, was converted into the hero. " All men," says 
 Macchiavelli, " praised him extravagantly, declaring that by 
 his prudence he had recovered in peace all that adverse 
 fortune had taken from them in war ; that by his discretion 
 and judgment he had done more than the enemy with all 
 the force of arms which they could command." 
 
 A splendid memorial of this great crisis in Lorenzo's life, 
 and of its triumphant issue, was executed by Sandro 
 Botticelli. His picture of Pallas and the Centaur — only 
 recently rescued from obscurity and oblivion — represents 
 the Goddess of Wisdom subjugating by her touch the forces 
 of sedition, anarchy, and war, embodied in the figure of 
 the Centaur. Olive branches are wreathed about her head 
 
256 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and form the embroideries of her closely-fitting tunic. 
 The Medici balls, continually repeated, form the adornments 
 of the skirt, and the listless grasp in which the centaur 
 holds his weapon is in strong contrast to the firm and 
 resolute poise of the great axe-head lance which she controls 
 with such easy grace. In the background the sea and a 
 low range of hills symbolise Lorenzo's journey to Naples, 
 while a single vessel in the middle distance rides at anchor 
 upon untroubled waters, having reached at last the desired 
 haven. No allegory could more fitly or beautifully render 
 the aspect in which Lorenzo presented himself to his friends 
 at the moment when the greatest crisis of his life had passed, 
 and when the greatest period of his career was just about 
 to begin. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 NATURE AND BASIS OP LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 
 
 General position of Lorenzo towards the Florentine Constitution — 
 Lorenzo strengthens his personal power — Formation of the Council of 
 Seventy — Functions of the Council of Seventy — Committees within the 
 Council — Machinery for constructing the Council of Seventy — The Con- 
 siglio Maggiore— Later modifications of the CouncU of Seventy— Lorenzo's 
 system of Taxation and Finance — Corruptions of administration — Lorenzo's 
 private use of public funds— Lorenzo's manipulation of the Monte delle 
 Doti — Lorenzo as a man of business — Lorenzo's encouragement of trade 
 and commerce — Affair of the Bartolini Bank — Administration of justice 
 — Private methods of influence and control — Lorenzo's interference in 
 marriages. 
 
 LMOST all the dramatic sensation of Lorenzo's career is 
 
 crowded into the one brief period which produced the 
 Pazzi Conspiracy and the military, political, and diplomatic 
 crises to which it gave rise. From 1480, when Florence and 
 Lorenzo were reconciled to the Pope and to Ferrante, to 
 1492, when Lorenzo died, there are few, if any, "great 
 events" to record, though the time is full of events of 
 great importance. To the casual observer Florence seemed 
 to be enjoying that happiness which comes from having 
 no history. The real interest of Lorenzo's life during its 
 last twelve years hes within him rather than in moving 
 incidents with which he was externally associated. The 
 interest is intellectual and spiritual rather than annalistic. 
 
 But though this is so, no student of Lorenzo's career 
 can afford to ignore the constitutional and diplomatic 
 problems by which he was continually confronted during 
 the time when his position seemed to be unchallenged, and 
 his personal government most unquestioned and secure. 
 These problems were not separate nor dissociated : they 
 were inextricably intermingled and closely related. In 
 other words Lorenzo's position in Florence and consequently 
 R 257 
 
258 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 all his actions, were determined by circumstances which 
 were external and internal. His diplomacy can only be 
 judged in the light of his domestic policy ; his domestic 
 policy in the light of his diplomacy. 
 
 The purposes of clearness and convenience will, however, 
 best be served by applying this chapter to an exposition 
 and estimate of his government at home, devoting the suc- 
 ceeding chapter to a similar examination of his policy 
 abroad. Such a separatist method has disadvantages, but 
 is not necessarily fatal to a just comprehension of the 
 political unity of Lorenzo's government as a whole. 
 
 When we examine the nature and bases of Lorenzo's 
 absolutism we are confronted at the outset with a fact of 
 primary importance, the fact that absolutism, in some form, 
 stood between Florence and destruction. Her previous 
 history has sufficiently disclosed that Florence never was, 
 in any modern sense of the words, either a republic or a 
 democracy ; that her people were, and always had been, 
 unfit for that liberty which implies complete self-govern- 
 ment ; and that, surrounded as she was by grasping and 
 unscrupulous neighbours, her civic independence and 
 territorial power could only be preserved by strong, efficient 
 administration and control. To obtain her ultimate 
 advantages she had involuntarily, and half unconsciously, 
 surrendered from time to time her original ideal of demo- 
 cratic republicanism, and had allowed herself to fall into 
 the power of those whom she deemed most fitted to preserve 
 her. Tyrants, demagogues, oligarchs, families had in the 
 long procession of years, risen up and successively held 
 sway. At last the control of the Medici family was accepted 
 as being on the whole the best suited to her genius and her 
 necessities. Lorenzo was no strong man armed who invaded 
 the chosen home of Liberty in Italy and expelled her by 
 force. He was a man called by circumstances and the 
 people, to occupy the first position in the State, which he 
 must fill or another must have arisen to fill it. The only 
 question was on what terms, and under what conditions, 
 should the man who was called to be monarch over Florence 
 exercise his monarchy. To this question Florence was 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 259 
 
 never prepared to give a practical and logical answer. She 
 established a monarch on condition that she was allowed 
 to pretend that she enjoyed all the advantages of republican 
 freedom and institutions. She recognised that a one-man 
 rule was essential, but studiously denied to that one man 
 the apparatus of government which his position demanded. 
 The whole condition was one of make-believe and pretence 
 at a time when sincerity and energy were imperatively 
 required. It was not the fault of Lorenzo if he was ever 
 seeking to harmonise the facts of life with the constitutional 
 fictions by which he was continually hampered. It was 
 the fault of Florence that she desired to enjoy concurrently 
 the advantages of monarchy and republicanism, having 
 proved herself unfitted for true republicanism, while making 
 monarchy impossible by insisting upon the retention of the 
 forms and shows of a republican constitution. All the 
 manipulations of the political machine, the wirepullings, 
 the finesse, the corruption, which are laid to Lorenzo's 
 charge were the outcome of the strange and anomalous 
 conditions. No man could have satisfied the prime require- 
 ments of Florence except one who was a master in the arts 
 of political manipulation. He must maintain the delusion 
 of freedom while at the same time exercising the powers 
 of an autocrat. He must retain forms of government which 
 were obsolete while adapting his government to the actual 
 conditions of the times. He must at one and the same 
 moment be a monarch and a private person, a citizen and 
 a prince, a burgher-merchant and the chief representative 
 of the State. He must bear the full weight of responsibility, 
 but he must be prepared to find himself without even an 
 office in the government. He must fashion all the political 
 bricks and compact them into a secure edifice of rule, but 
 any demand for constitutional straw might be construed as 
 high treason, as evidence of a fell design to uproot the 
 liberties of his country. 
 
 " It is ill Hving in Florence," said Lorenzo, " without 
 control of the government " {Senza lo Stato). He applies 
 the remark not to any man in the abstract but to himself 
 and his family. Circumstances had so fashioned it that 
 
26o 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 he had to control the government or go under. The law 
 of self-preservation compelled him to preserve not his 
 position as a citizen, but his position as first citizen. If he 
 was not to be first citizen he must yield the place to another 
 better fitted to fill it, and then Florence could no longer be 
 for him. There was no room in Florence for Lorenzo dei 
 Medici as a private person. No other government could be 
 secure as long as he remained a centre around which memory 
 could gather. Therefore he was compelled by the irresistible 
 impulse of facts to seek to consolidate and render effective 
 a position which was as anomalous as it was inevitable ; 
 to wield the substance of monarchical power under the 
 outward seeming of republican institutions. 
 
 Lorenzo's constitutional departures must be read in the 
 light of these considerations. He was no abstract political 
 thinker who set himself to fashion or modify a constitution 
 in accordance with speculative and theoretical ideas of 
 government. He was a practical man faced by the actualities 
 of an existing situation. The problem for him was to bring a 
 constitution which postulated imaginary conditions into 
 harmony with the real necessities of an existing state of things. 
 
 Any measures which he might take would naturally 
 have for their object the strengthening of the position of 
 the responsible head of the State. He was the Head of 
 the State, and therefore it can be argued that his policy 
 was governed by his personal ambition and directed towards 
 the consolidation of his own despotism. The real motives 
 which prompt individual action can seldom be accurately 
 and precisely determined. Moreover man's motives are 
 so mixed and incongruous that it is impossible to assign 
 to any one motive its proper and peculiar weight and value 
 in influencing conduct. It would be absurd to deny that 
 in seeking to strengthen his own power Lorenzo was prompted 
 by personal ambition. But it would be equally absurd to 
 ignore that there were good grounds on which Lorenzo 
 might base the belief that his power, and the stability of 
 Florence, were one ; that in serving the interests of his own 
 rule he was best providing for the welfare of the State. 
 
 The effects upon Florence of his twelve years of ascen- 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 261 
 
 dency, the consequences which followed for Italy and 
 Florence alike when his hand was removed from the helm, 
 are indications, if not proofs, that Lorenzo was right in 
 thinking that the peace and security of his State and of his 
 country depended on the degree of influence and authority 
 which he could succeed in securing to himself. At the 
 same time it was necessary studiously to humour the pre- 
 judices and delusions of the Florentines as to their consti- 
 tutional position. A naked and declared despotism would 
 have defeated the object in view. The problem therefore 
 was to establish under existing constitutional forms and 
 safeguards a strong personal government, which should be 
 a guarantee to Florence of her own internal prosperity and 
 welfare, which should safeguard her external interests, 
 which should ensure continuity and consistency of policy 
 amid the constant changes in the personnel of her executive 
 officers, and should provide her with a stable and effective 
 representative to take his place on equal terms of diplomacy and 
 ceremonial among the other Prince-governed Itahan States. 
 
 In 1480 the events of the past two years had impressed 
 upon Lorenzo a deepened sense of the vicissitudes of Fortune, 
 of the necessity of a firmer hold upon the reins of govern- 
 ment. He had barely survived an appaUing crisis which 
 had well-nigh overwhelmed Florence and himself together. 
 His position, his courage, and his initiative would scarcely 
 have saved him without the accident of the Turkish raid 
 on Otranto. He had not failed to mark the ominous 
 murmurs which rose against himself when Florence was 
 hard pressed, nor was he ignorant of the smothered dis- 
 satisfaction which lay beneath the rejoicings which hailed 
 the return of peace. He had no desire to go on his travels 
 again or to find himself at the mercy of a foreign foe or 
 a chance majority. A reorganisation of the government 
 which should secure his own complete control of it was now 
 the first necessity. It seemed to him that this could best 
 be done by retaining for the old Councils all their nominal 
 authority while entrusting all the real power to a body 
 entirely dependent on or devoted to himself. 
 
 This body took shape in a Council of Seventy, the members 
 
262 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of which held office for Hfe. It is true that pubHc opinion 
 was at first soothed by assigning a limit of five years to 
 the duration of this Council, but the provision was not 
 intended to be observed and it was inoperative. Of these 
 seventy members thirty were nominated by the existing 
 Signoria, and the first function of the Thirty was to fill up 
 the vacant places by choosing forty persons to complete 
 the Council. Any vacancies which might occur were to be 
 filled up by co-optation on condition that two thirds of the 
 members were present to co-opt, and that the successful 
 candidate or candidates were chosen by a majority of two- 
 thirds of those present. Other stipulations regulating the 
 composition of this Council were — that of the Forty, each 
 member must have reached the age of forty : that no two- 
 members of the same family could be chosen to a seat 
 among the Forty : that if a family was already represented 
 on the Thirty that family could not also be represented on the 
 Forty : that the full Council of Seventy should represent the 
 Greater and the Lesser Arts in the proportions of three-fourths 
 and one-fourth respectively : that the members of the Greater 
 Arts must have qualified for the office of Gonfalonier of 
 Justice, and that no member could vote, though he could 
 sit and speak, until his taxes were paid in full. The Gon- 
 falonier of the Republic was an ex-opcio member, and any 
 Gonfalonier of Justice might, as a recognition of special 
 abiUty or service, be added to the Council provided that 
 the conditions as to famihes were not infringed. 
 
 When we pass from the composition to the functions of 
 the Council of Seventy we find that it was, in a word, a 
 permanent executive with far-reaching powers. It con- 
 trolled appointments to the Signoria, assuming to itself 
 the duty, which heretofore had been exercised by the Acco- 
 piatori, of supervising the electoral boxes. By this means 
 those alone became eligible for the highest magistracies in 
 the State who were agreeable to the Council of Seventy. 
 Two days before the election to the Signoria took place, 
 the names proposed for the various offices were subjected to 
 a rigid scrutiny, time being thus afforded to get rid of any 
 possible opponent of the party in power. As the complete 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 263 
 
 Council of Seventy might prove a rather cumbersome 
 instrument for dehcate manipulations it was divided into 
 two sections, each of thirty-five members. Each section 
 acted alone, and in turn for twelve months, care being taken 
 that each section should consist of the full complement of 
 thirty-five persons whatever the actual number composing the 
 Council of Seventy might be. Thus from the fact that seventy 
 was the nominal rather than the actual number, a few members 
 might chance to sit continuously instead of biennially. 
 
 Not content with controUing the executive government 
 by packing the Signoria with its partisans, the Seventy 
 constructed a paramount inner executive ring composed 
 of its own members. This body took the form of two 
 Committees, the Otto di Pratica or the Eight, chosen every 
 six months from the Seventy, who, during their period of 
 office, controlled all foreign affairs, and the Twelve Pro- 
 curators of the Commune, chosen in the same manner and 
 for the same period, to control all home affairs. The 
 members of these Committees were not re-eligible when 
 their six months' term was up ; consequently every member 
 of the Seventy in the course of a few years had gained 
 personal and practical experience in the intimate conduct 
 of affairs. The Signoria itself was reduced to the position 
 of executor of the will of the Committees. Every measure 
 of the Signoria must be submitted to the appropriate 
 Committee, which either gave its sanction, or referred the 
 matter to the general body of the Seventy, whose decision 
 was binding on the Signoria. Every act of government, 
 financial, legislative, or diplomatic, must first be approved 
 by a two-thirds majority of the Seventy sitting in conclave, 
 two-thirds of the members at least being present. When 
 so sanctioned, but only then, the measure was allowed to 
 proceed,* on the old accustomed course, through the Signoria, 
 the Colleges, and the successive Councils of the People, 
 the Commune and the Hundred. 
 
 The Council of Seventy was not the arbitrary creation 
 of a despotic individual or a servile Signoria. The methods 
 by which it was called into being are almost as significant 
 ♦ For the old legislative methods, see pp. 43. 43 note. 
 
264 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and worthy of attention as the Council itself. A temporary, 
 but very highly elaborated, piece of machinery was erected 
 to construct a governmental system which was destined to 
 outlast Lorenzo. Although the nucleus of the Seventy— the 
 first thirty members— was called into being by the existing 
 Signoria, its authority to act was conferred upon it by a 
 Balia summoned ad hoc. The usual procedure of a Parla- 
 mento, however, was not followed on this occasion, popular 
 sanction being supplied by a Bill carried through all its 
 stages in the usual manner. The object of the Bill was to 
 establish a new College, which for the moment should 
 supersede all existing Colleges or Councils ; to revise the 
 Constitution; to take charge of the electoral machinery, 
 and to make such positive changes as circumstances seemed 
 to require. The new College was to consist in the first place 
 of^ thirty members chosen by the Signora. From these 
 thirty a larger and more popular body was to spring, which 
 in a sense would absorb the thirty. But from the fact 
 that they were the first to be chosen, and that from them 
 the larger body sprang, the Thirty constituted an inner 
 ring or Committee, which may almost be dignified by the 
 name of a separate and controlling Council. 
 
 The Thirty, in conjunction with the Signoria, were to 
 nominate a Board of two hundred and ten members, each 
 member being over thirty years of age and fully qualified 
 for office. For the purposes of the elections for November 
 1480, forty-eight persons, elected in that month, were to 
 be associated with the two hundred and ten, the whole 
 body, with the Signoria and the Colleges, constituting a 
 Grand Council, or Consigho Maggiore,* for the purposes 
 
 * Composition of the Consiglio Maggiore : 
 I Gonfalonier of the Republic "i 
 
 8 Priors of Liberty jconstituting the Signoria. 
 
 12 Buonuomini ■» 
 
 16 Gonfaloniers of Companies j^^onstitutmg the Colleges. 
 The 30 originally nominated by the Signoria. 
 ,,210 nominated by the 30. 
 
 48 co-opted by the 210 and the 30. 
 „ 40 soon added to the original 30. 
 
 Total, 365. These last, the 40 and the 30, survive as the Council of 
 Seventy. 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 265 
 
 aforesaid. This Grand Council, although recruited by 
 nomination, selection, and office, yet possessed a certain 
 representative character. It probably represented Florence 
 more accurately than the British Parliament represented 
 this country before 1832. The proportion of members to 
 total population was as i to 247. The Greater and the 
 Lesser Arts were represented in the usual proportions of 
 three fourths to one fourth ; each of the four quarters into 
 which Florence was divided was represented with tolerable 
 equality, and no more than three members of the same 
 family might be chosen on the Two Hundred and Ten and 
 the Thirty. An exception was indeed made in the case of 
 two families which cannot now be identified, no restrictions of 
 age or number were to apply in their particular case. But the 
 general provision as to age, as to families, as to a two-thirds 
 quorum and a two-thirds majority, afforded security against 
 despotic tyranny and dictation, while giving to the delibera- 
 tions and decisions of this Council a legislative authority which 
 was more than respectable. That it was not necessarily a 
 picked body of Lorenzo's partisans is proved by the fact 
 that Rinuccini, personally ill-disposed to Lorenzo, and a 
 sour critic of the Medician regime, was himself a member 
 of the Two Hundred and Ten. If, as is probable, the 
 Council reinforced its deliberations by consultation with 
 prominent citizens outside, its great and permanent work, 
 the formation of the Council of Seventy, may be regarded 
 as an expression of the real and felt needs of Florence, 
 rather than as a slavish abandonment of aU liberty into 
 the hands of a single man. This was an age when all the 
 tendencies were in favour of the concentration of power in 
 the hands of an absolute ruler. When we trace the develop- 
 ment of these tendencies in England, in France, in Spain, in 
 the Italian despotisms, and in Florence, we may conclude 
 that Florence cut out a road to absolutism by methods which 
 were comparatively moderate and representative. The 
 executive government received a much-needed accession of 
 strength, "while .the ascendency which the Council of Seventy 
 secured was rather that of a party than of an individual. 
 It remained for the genius of an individual to adapt the 
 
266 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 party machinery to his personal ends, a task which Lorenzo 
 could perform, as Armstrong says, because he was an 
 incomparable party chief. Most of all, the revised Constitution, 
 by the principle of Ufe membership of a controlling Senate, 
 gave to Florentine institutions that stabihty and consistency 
 which was unattainable under a system of capricious Balks. 
 But while doing so, the Constitution still retained much of 
 its old democratic form. It saved the susceptibilities of 
 the people while rectifying much that had been amiss in 
 the old order of things. 
 
 The new experiment was found on the whole to work 
 satisfactorily and for ten years no further changes were made. 
 Then Lorenzo seems to have become suspicious that the 
 operations of so large a body in electoral affairs might result 
 in the return of an unfavourable Signoria. In 1490 the 
 election of the Signoria was once more entrusted to Acco- 
 piatori appointed for the purpose, and a small Committee 
 of Seventeen, on which Lorenzo had a place, was entrusted 
 with full powers to revise and reform the whole system of 
 elections and finance. It is possible that at this time he 
 thought the occasion favourable for a more definite advance 
 towards a declared and recognised monarchical position. 
 Rumour has it that he proposed to himself to become 
 Gonfalonier for Ufe. Poliziano, on the other hand, definitely 
 states that Lorenzo contemplated retirement from public 
 life in favour of his son Piero. It is unnecessary to lay 
 much stress on unconfirmed reports as to his intentions, 
 but if he had become Gonfalonier for Hfe he would only 
 have anticipated by a few years the actual course of events. 
 Florence was ripe for an officially recognised permanent 
 President or First Consul, as may be seen by the election of 
 Piero Soderini to that office after the fall of Savonarola. 
 Florence was fond of looking to Venice for constitutional 
 models ; both the Council of Seventy in 1480 and Savona- 
 rola's Grand Council of 1495, were based on Venetian 
 precedents. It would only have been carrying imitation a 
 little further if Lorenzo had become Doge of Florence. 
 Any such plans however, if he entertained them, were cut 
 short by his death in the early part of 1492. Had he lived 
 they might have been realised. 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 267 
 
 The constitutional basis of his government having been 
 firmly established, Lorenzo applied himself vigorously to 
 questions of taxation and finance. Taxation from Cosimo's 
 time had been the Medici substitute for the dagger. Op- 
 ponents were crushed out financially where elsewhere they 
 disappeared bodily. Lorenzo retained in his own hands a 
 weapon which was convenient, bloodless, and effective. 
 But it is due to him to say that he made no such cruel 
 and vindictive use of it as Cosimo had made, and that he 
 took some steps to put the general system of taxation 
 upon a fixed and definite basis. His fundamental principle 
 was that taxation should be graduated, and fall mainly 
 on the land. By this means he could reheve trade and 
 commerce of burdens which hampered their expansion, while 
 making the State mainly dependent on revenues which 
 could be easily assessed and collected. He caused a 
 valuation of all land in Florentine territory to be made, and 
 assigned ten per cent, of the total value to the State 
 Exchequer. This amount was raised by a graduated land 
 tax, rising from seven to twenty-two per cent., according to 
 the' value of the amount held. The revenue derived from 
 land was supplemented by a graduated poll-tax, the scale 
 of gradation being from li to 4^ florins, and, later on, a 
 graduated tax was imposed on movables and earnings. 
 
 In the collection of taxes, however, much would depend 
 upon the ofiicials. In a small community of less than a 
 hundred thousand souls, the collectors must have had a 
 more intimate personal knowledge of the means' and poHtical 
 opinions of the individual taxpayer than can be possible 
 in large and thickly populated States. The coUectors 
 themselves would be amenable to governmental influence, 
 and would therefore be under a strong temptation to gain 
 favour by the discretion which they displayed in dealing 
 out leniency to friends of the administration and severity 
 to those who opposed or failed to support it. 
 
 Still, on the whole, Lorenzo's system of finance, on its 
 constructive side, as far as it is based on general principles 
 of taxation, bears favourable comparison with systems in 
 operation elsewhere. It is the working of the system in its 
 details, in relation especially to expenditure rather than 
 
268 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 to collection, which lays it open to criticism and censure. 
 He is accused of making money by the sale of State offices, 
 of corrupting government officials, of diverting public fuiids 
 to his own uses, and, generally, of making Httle or no 
 distinction between his private resources and the revenues 
 of the State. 
 
 The multipHcation of small offices at the disposal of the 
 Government was undoubtedly an instrument by which 
 the Medici attached to themselves the services and support 
 of a Uttle army of civil servants. So subtle and easy a 
 method must not be credited to the evil genius of any 
 individual. Everywhere the practice had prevailed for 
 centuries before Lorenzo was bom, a practice which con- 
 tinued to prevail for centuries after his death. In England 
 Burke protested against the abuse, and partially reformed 
 it, towards the close of the eighteenth century. In Florence 
 in the fifteenth century the passion for office, which was 
 a pecuHar characteristic of the people, practically forced 
 upon any Government the necessity of seeking means to 
 gratify that passion. Unless v/e are to judge Lorenzo by 
 ideal standards, which have no application to his age, we 
 can scarcely blame him in this matter. But Nardi has a 
 graver and more specific charge to bring against him. " He 
 was accustomed," says Nardi, " to borrow a thousand florins 
 from each of the principal financial Secretaries of the 
 Commune"— in other words, each succeeding Secretary 
 paid a thousand florins for his office—" which sum, as the 
 Secretary was nearing the term of his office, he made good 
 from his successor, from whom in turn Lorenzo borrowed 
 again. There was a secret book containing the details 
 of these transactions, but upon the fall of the Medici in 
 1494, this book could not be found, and it was believed 
 to have been suppressed by the principal actors in that 
 revolution." The answer to this charge, if indeed there is 
 an answer, is bound up in the further accusation that 
 Lorenzo applied the public funds to his private uses. 
 
 The testimony of Nardi, who was an austere Republican, 
 and therefore no friend to the Medician government, is 
 here corroborated by that of Valori, one of Lorenzo's intimate 
 friends, and his warm admirer. " He now began," Nardi 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 269 
 
 says, speaking of the period around 1480, " to make use of 
 the pubhc funds without any contrariety so as in this way 
 to remedy his own disorders, which were very great through 
 the enormous public and private expenses incurred in past 
 wars." " He had to provide," says Valori, " for his private 
 disorders with public money, not wishing to break faith 
 with those to whom the Medici firms were under obligations." 
 
 The line of defence is suggested in both of these statements. 
 Lorenzo's affairs, says Nardi, were in disorder because of 
 the vast expenses incurred in wars. He could not permit, 
 says Valori, the credit of the Medici to fall, How far did 
 the credit of the Medici affect the stability of the State ? 
 When we take note of the cosmopolitan character of their 
 banking business ; when we remember that half the govern- 
 ments of Europe were their creditors ; that there was 
 scarcely a prominent citizen in Florence who was not 
 under obligations to them ; that the strings of Florentine 
 diplomacy were in a large measure attached to the private 
 business of an individual, we must admit that Lorenzo 
 had some justification for the belief that the interests of 
 the State were bound up in the interests of his firm. Florence 
 had derived such enormous advantages from the financial 
 pressure which the Medici, as private bankers, had been 
 able to exercise on foreign governments, that it might seem 
 not unreasonable, in times of stress, that Florence, as a 
 government, should pay something for her privileges. 
 The old question— Did Lorenzo rule in the interest of Florence 
 or of himself?— can never definitely be answered. The 
 answer depends as much on the temperament of the 
 questioner as on facts. But if, as is probable, Lorenzo 
 believed that his own interest and that of Florence were 
 one and the same, that no clear line of demarcation could 
 be drawn between them, he could justify himself without 
 recourse to casuistical sophistries. He could sincerely beheve 
 that any measures taken for the support of his financial credit 
 were measures which coincided with the public welfare. 
 
 The charge must also be examined, if it cannot be met, 
 from another point of view. If, for argument's sake, it be 
 admitted that Lorenzo did not sufficiently discriminate 
 between public and private money, the question remains 
 
270 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 — Did Florence at any time during his regime make a nicer 
 or more conscientious discrimination ? Florence wanted 
 aU the luxury and advantage of a monarchy without paying 
 for it, without providing the machinery for its maintenance. 
 In modem monarchies, a Civil List, amply sufficient for 
 the dignity and needs of the monarch, is provided at the 
 expense of the public revenue. In Florence, Lorenzo's 
 anomalous position as a private citizen, somehow invested 
 with the dignity of Head of the State, produced a corre- 
 sponding financial anomaly. In all State ceremonial he 
 was required to take the lead. He was expected, as a 
 matter of course, to entertain splendidly royal or dis- 
 tinguished visitors who came to Florence for their pleasure 
 or diplomatic business. No allowances from the pubHc 
 funds were made to him for these purposes. It was at 
 his own expense that he was required to perform absolutely 
 necessary pubhc services. When, therefore, he struck a 
 balance between what the State owed to him, and what 
 he owed to the State, it was not unnatural that he should 
 conclude that the debt was not all on one side ; that if 
 there was Httle discrimination on the one part there need 
 not be very much discrimination on the other. The fact is 
 that Lorenzo is so modem, he is so nearly in touch with the 
 thought and standards of to-day that we almost instinctively 
 judge him from the point of view of to-day. We apply 
 to him an ideal of conduct which we should never dream 
 of applying to Tudors, or even to Bourbons. If we find 
 his rule oppressive here, his finance corrupt there, his 
 administration of justice contaminated in this instance, his 
 morals faulty in that, we are apt to feel that he has forfeited 
 his claim to statesmanship and character. Critics of 
 Lorenzo are constantly forgetful of the conditions of govern- 
 ment and hfe which existed in his day. It is the highest 
 testimony to the real greatness of Lorenzo that he should 
 be so judged— that we are not content to paUiate in him 
 faults which in other mlers of the time we readily condone. 
 Lorenzo is one of the few men in history for whom the world 
 has never been ready to admit the extenuating plea of 
 circumstances and environment. It is instinctively felt that 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 271 
 
 he had the higher Hght, and that where he sinned, he sinned 
 against that light. 
 
 It is difficult precisely to determine how Lorenzo's 
 financial operations were regarded by the public in his own 
 day. We have the contemporary testimony of grumblers 
 like Rinuccini, and the almost contemporary opinions of a 
 critic like Guicciardini. The one condemns unreservedly : 
 the other is guarded, but admits that Medician finance 
 contrasted favourably with the methods adopted by 
 Savonarola's Republic. i 
 There can however be no doubt whatever as to the 
 unpopularity which attended Lorenzo's dealings with the 
 Dower Fund. Here he touched Florentine public feeling 
 at its tenderest point. Yet even here the common charge 
 against him bears little resemblance to the facts of the case. 
 Put in simple terms, the charge is that he appropriated 
 to his private use the dowers of Florentine girls. The 
 fact is that he introduced considerable alterations into the 
 system which had hithertog ovemed the payment of dowries. 
 
 The Monte delle Doti was a State deposit bank established 
 in 1424, to deal with the problem created by the accumu- 
 lation of pubUc debt. The creditors of the State were 
 allotted shares in the bank to the extent of their claims, a 
 portion of the shares being regarded as a State Insurance 
 for securing dowries for the sons or daughters of the holders. 
 The scheme met the needs of the time and was extended 
 to any persons who cared to pay the required premium. 
 In 1468 sons were excluded from the benefits of the Fund, 
 which was now reserved for daughters only. The Insurer 
 might put down a lump sum, or, apparently, might pay 
 an annual premium. At the end of a fixed term of years a 
 dowry corresponding to the contribution was paid, or the 
 sum might be left in the hands of the bank at 5 per cent 
 interest. This part of the scheme resembles our own 
 system of Consols. In 1485 a change of system was intro- 
 duced. Only one-fifth of the total sum due from the bank 
 was to be paid in cash. The remaining four-fifths were to 
 remain in its hands bearing interest at 7 per cent. The 
 Funds, in fact, were made partially irredeemable. In 
 
272 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 1491 the rate of interest was, according to Varchi, reduced 
 from 7 per cent, to 3 per cent., an operation resembling 
 the conversion of the National Debt. 
 
 The transaction therefore will not bear the construction 
 which has commonly been placed upon it. The dowry Fund 
 was not sacrilegiously invaded for the benefit of Lorenzo's 
 pocket. It was a readjustment by the State in its own 
 interest of the affairs of a State Bank or Insurance Office. 
 The reduction in the rate of interest was an advantage to 
 all who did not hold stock in the Monte, while the conver- 
 sion of redeemable into partially irredeemable securities 
 enhanced the public credit. But none the less the transaction 
 was financially and socially a mistake. As almost every- 
 body held an insurance in the Monte and counted on full 
 payment after the lapse of a given time, there were few 
 who did not feel a personal sense of having been robbed 
 when only a fifth of their legitimate expectations were 
 realised in cash. The pill was scarcely sugared by the 
 payment of 7 per cent, on the four-fifths of a man's property 
 which, for all practical purposes, had thus been appropriated. 
 Economies at the expense of pubhc content are poor econo- 
 mies. They are luxuries too expensive to be indulged in. More 
 especially was this the case when all the marriageable 
 daughters, and all their fathers, were smarting under a 
 sense of financial injury, while they were looking in vain 
 for eligible marriages which previously could have been 
 effected without difficulty. There is no doubt that marriages 
 were hampered by the operations on the Monte of 1485, and 
 the social and family life of Florence was thus nearly affected. 
 
 It is frequently said that Lorenzo, unhke his grandfather, 
 was a bad man of business, and by his extravagance and 
 mismanagement came well-nigh to ruining the princely 
 fabric of commerce which Cosimo had reared. It is added 
 that he eventually abandoned all connection with commercial 
 and banking interests and devoted himself exclusively to 
 agriculture. The statement seems to be originally based 
 on a misconstrued passage in Valori, who says that " at 
 this time {circa 1480) he complained of his agents, who in 
 such a time of crisis hampered him. From this time he 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 273 
 
 conceived a strong objection to mercantile business, 
 declaring that it not only exposed a man to the risks of 
 Fortune, but to the inconstancy and perfidy of agents;" 
 therefore he determined to acquire and work large landed 
 estates. This does not imply that his agricultural operations 
 were carried on to the exclusion of his business as banker 
 and merchant. Valori's statement is simply that he was 
 not always well served by his agents abroad. This is true. 
 The Medici banking houses in Lyons, Bruges, and Rome 
 went through their periods of crisis, but Lorenzo's constant 
 correspondence with his agent, Sassetti, at Lyons, and the 
 revived prosperity of his commercial enterprises there and 
 in Rome, are evidences that his devotion to agriculture 
 did not interfere with his close attention to the commercial 
 sources from whence his revenues were derived. His 
 political duties were so arduous that it is almost incredible 
 that he should have found the time to attend to so many 
 private interests as well, but he was a voracious worker who 
 could crowd into an hour what to most men would have 
 been the business of a day. He possessed, too, the enviable 
 knack of being able to concentrate his whole thought on 
 each successive question presented to him as it came to 
 hand, then to dismiss it wholly from his mind, and with it 
 all thought and all anxiety about material affairs. His 
 business done, he could throw himself, as if without a care, 
 into the pursuit of sport, or philosophy, or hterature, or art.' 
 His genius ran the whole gamut of human Hfe. In the domain 
 of practical affairs, of physical recreation, or of abstract 
 thought, he was equally at home and equally a master. 
 
 Never was Florence so prosperous commercially as in 
 the later years of Lorenzo's regime. As peace became 
 more secure, the weight of taxation decreased, until, in 
 1492, the proceeds of direct taxation were no more than 
 they had been in 1470. In the cloth industry alone, in a 
 single year, 14,000 pieces woven from Spanish wool, and 
 5000 pieces woven from English wool, were exported and 
 sold for 594,000 gold fiorini. Lorenzo regarded a large 
 export trade as an index of the prosperity of the State. 
 He encouraged in every way the expansion of commercial 
 s 
 
LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 enterprise, himself took shares in many concerns, and gave 
 an enormous impetus to the Florentine shipping trade. 
 Whereas heretofore export was a government monopoly, 
 seeing that all exports had to be carried in ships owned by 
 the government, Lorenzo abolished this restriction. He 
 urged upon the great merchants the importance of building 
 their own ships, and trading freely where they Hked. State 
 control of such an industry as shipping, in Lorenzo's opinion, 
 only tended to restrict trade and encourage inefficiency. 
 Although we can scarcely credit him with a grasp upon 
 the modem economic doctrine of the balance of exports 
 and imports, yet in the particular case of the woollen and 
 silk trades— the staple industries of Florence— he recognised 
 that they mainly depended on raw material imported from 
 abroad. The working up of the raw material into the 
 finished article, and its re-exportation, provided the Floren- 
 tines with a considerable portion of their wealth. Under 
 the impulsion of his economic views, Lorenzo made Pisa 
 in a measure a free port, and, by an economic pohcy based 
 upon the principle of free trade, he enormously extended 
 the commercial activities of the Florentine State. There 
 was no question to which Lorenzo devoted himself more 
 assiduously than to the development of trade. He effected 
 a commercial treaty with Egypt, maintained a close com- 
 mercial intercourse with the Turks, and sent forth consular 
 agents to distant lands with a commission to protect 
 Florentine trading interests and to report on the best means 
 by which they might be further extended. It will indeed 
 be found that economic rather than political considerations 
 lay at the root of all his efforts for the preservation and 
 extension of Florentine territory. Influence in Romagna 
 was essential if Florence was to have access to the Adriatic. 
 Sarzana and Pietra Santa controlled the main line of com- 
 munication to the north. Siena barred the convenient 
 approaches to the south. Pisa was the keystone of the 
 prosperity and commercial independence of Florence. 
 Perhaps Lorenzo was scarcely conscious of the real nature 
 of the influences which prompted his political action. 
 The potency of the economic impulse in human affairs is 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 275 
 
 only now beginning to be realised. But his personal 
 assiduity m seeking by every means to conciliate the sus- 
 ceptibilities of Pisa, to attach her through the heart rather 
 than through compulsion to Florentine control, is sig- 
 nificant. He had a house there in which he constantly 
 resided for months together. He sought to dignify and 
 exalt her by reconstructing her University and liberally 
 endowing it from his own and the public funds. It was 
 the special function of one of the Florentine " Consuls of 
 the Sea " to devote his energies to the task of enhancing 
 the commercial activities and prosperity of Pisa. 
 
 The keen interest which Lorenzo took in the development 
 of commercial enterprises other than his own has exposed 
 him to some misunderstanding and adverse criticism. 
 Thus he has been accused of embezzling the pay of the 
 soldiers engaged in the war of the Pazzi conspiracy because 
 he was a shareholder in the Bartolini bank, which secured 
 the business of paying the troops on terms of an eight per cent 
 commission on all the money thus expended. Even in our 
 own days army contractors have been known to charge 
 a hundred per cent, commission on the supply of food to 
 the troops. But in the case in point there is no suspicion 
 of any corrupt practice. No business firm in the world 
 would undertake a war contract for nothing. The charge 
 IS therefore narrowed down to a question of the amount of 
 commission charged. When the State funds stood at from 
 5 to 7 per cent., an eight per cent, commission can, in a 
 private firm, scarcely be regarded as excessive. 
 
 It is of course true that Lorenzo's commercial transactions 
 were not carried on in the spirit of pure philanthropy. 
 He did not lend his name to many merchants, and go 
 partners with them in their ventures without any thought 
 of profiting by their success. To suppose this is to demand 
 of Lorenzo a standard of disinterestedness which no one 
 even to-day, would dream of applying to a man of business! 
 His aim was to encourage the development of trade and 
 commerce, and he was naturally not averse from reaping 
 his own advantage from the success of his policy. 
 
 In the administration of justice Lorenzo's government 
 
276 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 did not fall below the standard of the times. In moments 
 of strong political excitement, Florence rose up and 
 executed a sort of wild justice of her own, as in the case of 
 the Pazzi conspirators, but in quiet times within the city 
 the governmental writ ran fairly smoothly. An organised 
 police system afforded a guarantee for life and property. 
 Stringent laws governing the operations of trade and com- 
 merce were demanded and were enforced. But in the outlying 
 territory justice had to take her chance, and frequently 
 failed to find it. Where the population was wild and 
 lawless, where mountainous regions afforded security to 
 evil-doers, and where the punishment of one involved 
 perhaps a whole family or clan, the government had to 
 execute justice as it could. Pohtical exigencies often 
 overrode the strict requirements of the law. It might 
 be safer to allow a notorious criminal to escape, or even to 
 advance him to a position of responsibiUty, than by punish- 
 ment to rouse the whole countryside and excite a movement 
 of disaffection which there was no organised force to suppress. 
 Respect for law and order arises from the fear of punishment 
 rather than from any abstract reverence for law. The 
 administration of justice was effective in Florence because 
 there the machinery existed to enforce the decrees of justice. 
 In the country the machinery was inefficient, and the 
 natural consequences followed. 
 
 Although behind constitutional forms, commercial 
 activities, and fiscal systems, the personality of Lorenzo 
 can be felt as a decisive influence, it is in matters more 
 intimately identified with the visible social Hfe of Florence 
 that Lorenzo, as an individual, exhibited the far-reaching 
 sweep of his personal power. The success and permanence 
 of his despotism depended on the man rather than upon 
 institutions. When the man was removed, the system 
 which he stood for speedily collapsed. In the exercise 
 of personal authority he displays the weaknesses of human 
 nature side by side with its great possibilities. By an 
 elaborated system of espionage he made himself acquainted 
 with every fluctuating breath of popular opinion: in his 
 diplomacy he would often employ a secret agent to supervise 
 and report upon the action of the accredited representative 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 277 
 
 of the government. He took care to advance men devoted 
 to himself, and he chose some of his most confidential 
 servants from the ranks of the lower classes. By this 
 means he elevated to important positions some men of 
 undoubted talent who, without him, might never have 
 had a chance to display it. Others were servile creatures 
 of his own whose chief recommendation was their sub- 
 servience. Dependent as he ultimately was upon an 
 aristocratic oligarchy, he felt a sense of security in having 
 roots among the plebeians, and he liked to have his finger 
 on the pulse of life, in all its forms, in Florence. It is said 
 that he corrupted the Florentine populace by shows and 
 spectacles, devised with diaboHcal intent to divert their 
 minds from the spectacle of their own subjection. His 
 devotion to public entertainments on a lavish scale cannot 
 be doubted, but it is as probable that the impulse came as 
 much from his own nature as from pohtical design. He 
 took a genuine delight in tournaments, carnival festivities, 
 in every form of spectacular display. The taste for this 
 kind of thing was in the Florentine blood. Lorenzo was 
 not guilty of any new or corrupting inventions. He gave 
 direction, organisation, and more artistic effect to forms 
 of amusement which, time out of mind, had been part of 
 the national hfe. That, in doing so, he strengthened his 
 own pohtical influence need not be denied, nor need we 
 suppose that Lorenzo was oblivious of pohtical advantages 
 thus secured ; but the student of Lorenzo's character will 
 probably conclude that he would equally have indulged 
 his taste even if nothing but his private enjoyment had 
 been gained by indulging it. 
 
 The personal intervention of the ruler in the private 
 affairs of the family is a phenomenon so unfamiliar to 
 English ideas, that we at once associate it with a most 
 odious form of tyranny. We cannot understand how 
 Florence could tolerate Lorenzo's interference in the matter 
 of marriages. Our complete freedom of choice in taking 
 a wife is only hmited by legislative enactment in the case 
 of royal personages, and by the Table of Affinities. There 
 we stop, justifying such a limitation by considerations 
 of political and social well-being. Lorenzo went 
 
278 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 further, and practically regulated all marriages to which 
 any social or political importance could be attached. In 
 doing so he undoubtedly went beyond public opinion, for 
 many and bitter complaints against him were heard at 
 the time, and have been heard ever since. Taken in con- 
 junction with the obstacles imposed upon marriage by the 
 reorganisation of the Monte delle Doti it is difficult, as 
 Armstrong says, " to ascribe his interference in middle- 
 class matrimony to anything but an abnormal interest in 
 the subject, or a diseased craving for personal influence." 
 
 Yet when we consider the pecuhar closeness of the family 
 association in Florence, the matter is capable of some 
 explanation. The family was a political and social unit, 
 each member being supposed politically to act with the rest. 
 It would have proved inconvenient, if not dangerous, to 
 permit marriages irrespective of the ties of pohtical party. 
 By exercising a discretion in such matters, Lorenzo might 
 reconcile opponents, and strengthen the ties which already 
 bound supporters to his government. 
 
 But though Lorenzo could justify to himself his inter- 
 vention on grounds of pohtical prudence, such interference 
 as he exercised cannot be commended as sound statesman- 
 ship. Marriage was regarded in Florence as so essential 
 that any artificial restrictions imposed upon it seemed to 
 be a crime against society. What Lorenzo had to gain in 
 security was not equivalent to what he stood to lose in 
 pubhc estimation. The very fact that to this day his 
 manipulation of the marriage market is the best known 
 incident of his rule is not due solely to the prejudice and 
 misconception of foreign critics, but can be traced to the 
 antagonism which his action aroused in Florence at the time. 
 
 Lorenzo, in seeking to serve party ends in this matter of 
 marriages, probably defeated the purpose which he had in 
 view. But it was scarcely possible for him in any matter 
 to neglect party considerations. For his government was 
 a party government of which he was the head and director. 
 However supreme he might be, he could only exercise his 
 supremacy through the forms of the constitution, and 
 could only retain his position by the goodwill of his sup- 
 porters. He was not a soldier, the adored chief of a devoted 
 
NATURE OF LORENZO'S GOVERNMENT 279 
 
 army, a victorious general who could impose his rule by 
 military force. He knew nothing of the operations of war, 
 and had scarcely a soldier at his disposal. His dependence 
 was upon himself, and upon the elaboration of the party 
 machine. He must make himself acceptable to as many 
 as possible, but those who refused to support him must be 
 rendered powerless to oppose him. He is accused of stifling 
 opposition, and excluding from political power every one 
 who was not an adherent. The charge is not strictly true, 
 as has been seen in the case of Rinuccini, but it fairly 
 represents the facts. It would indeed have been extra- 
 ordinary had he acted otherwise. Under the system of 
 party the opposition is excluded from place and power. 
 It was so in Florence as it is now in England. But the 
 difference between Florence and England lay in the fact 
 that in Florence the opposition never got a chance unless it 
 could engineer a successful revolution. The party in power 
 was there until another party arose powerful enough to 
 dislodge it, when the new practitioners followed the old 
 methods in their turn. The idea of a continuous con- 
 stitutional struggle between "His Majesty's Government" 
 and " His Majesty's Opposition," decided periodically by 
 the expression of the people's will, is a modern idea. 
 Lorenzo's rule may rather be compared with the long 
 domination of the Whigs in England in the eighteenth 
 century, or of the Tories in the nineteenth up to the time 
 of the first Reform Bill. 
 
 It has been seen that the basis of Lorenzo's supremacy 
 rested first of all upon his own personality : then upon a 
 reorganisation of the government, which secured him 
 against serious opposition : upon his financial credit and 
 control over taxation : upon his sympathy with the com- 
 mercial needs of Florence : upon his capacity to identify 
 himself with the common life of the people. But to these 
 sources of influence he brought a powerful reinforcement in 
 the personal consideration in which he was held by external 
 rulers, in the pressure which he was able to bring to bear 
 upon the general pohtics of Italy. Lorenzo as the mediator of 
 Italian peace will form the subject of the succeeding chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 
 
 Lorenzo's Italian policy — His aims: (i.) to recover Sarzana ; (ii.) to 
 girdle Florence with small friendly States ; (iii.) to maintain the peace 
 of Italy — Difficulties of maintaining a balance of power in Italy — The 
 Turks evacuate Otranto — The Frescobaldi Conspiracy, May 148 1 — The 
 Conspiracy consolidates Lorenzo's position — Venice declares war on 
 Ferrara : alliances and counter-alliances of the Italian States — Archbishop 
 of Carniola threatens a General Council — Sixtus IV. abandons Venice — 
 Congress of Cremona, February 1483 — Venice detaches Ludovico Sforza 
 from the League — Peace of Bagnolo, August 1484 — Death of Sixtus IV. — 
 Disappointment of Florence at the terms of the Peace — Election of Innocent 
 VIII. as Pope — Character of Innocent VIII. — Embassy of Piero dei Medici 
 to congratulate the Pope — Lorenzo seeks to regain Sarzana — Capture of 
 Pietra Santa — Lucca demands the cession of Pietra Santa — Beginning of 
 the Barons' War in Naples — Innocent and Ferrante — Ferrante seeks the 
 support of Lorenzo — Lorenzo secures the support of Florence for Ferrante 
 — Confusion created by the Barons' War — Lorenzo influences the Pope 
 to abandon the war with Naples — Innocent makes peace, but Lorenzo is 
 practically ignored — Vigorous prosecution of the Siege of Sarzana — 
 Lorenzo at the siege of Sarzana — Rejoicings in Florence — Boccalino 
 Guzzoni of Osimo, i486 — Lorenzo mediates between the Pope and Bocca- 
 lino — Marriage of Lorenzo's daughter to the Pope's son, 1487 — Assassina- 
 tion of Girolamo Riario, April 1488 — Heroism of Caterina Sforza — Alleged 
 complicity of Lorenzo in the murder of Riario — Ottaviano Riario estab- 
 lished in the government of Forli — Recovery of Piancaldoli — Disturbances 
 in Faenza — Murder of Galeotto Manfredi by his wife, Francesca Benti- 
 voglio, May 1488 — Lorenzo's apprehensions of the hostility of Bologna — 
 Lorenzo establishes the government of the Baglioni in Perugia — Summary 
 and criticism of Lorenzo's Italian policy. 
 
 THE part which Lorenzo was called upon to play on 
 the wider fields of Italian politics was conditioned 
 by the immediate and internal needs of Florence, but 
 even more by his instinct for what was necessary if Florence 
 was to maintain her position in Italy as a free and in- 
 dependent State. He was essentially a statesman with 
 broad views and with an outlook upon the future. His 
 action in detail was relative to his poUcy as a whole : and 
 only as a whole can it be judged at its true value. He 
 
 280 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 281 
 
 deemed it, for example, of the first importance that Florence 
 should be girded on all sides by a cordon of friendly little 
 principalities, or governments, attached to Florence by 
 ties of gratitude and dependence, and acting as buffers 
 against the ambitions of the larger powers. It was, of 
 course, equally essential that Florence should enjoy secure 
 possession over territories which were legitimately her own. 
 
 Thus his foreign poHcy, in 1480, was, in the first instance, 
 dictated by his desire to recover Sarzana, which had been 
 bought and paid for, only to be snatched away during a 
 period of truce. This natural desire to regain his own, 
 whatever might be its precise value, was reinforced by his 
 sense of the importance of Sarzana as controUing Florentine 
 communications with the north. In the hands of Genoa 
 or Milan, Sarzana must be a constant menace to the com- 
 merce and political security of Florence. Thus every 
 consideration of policy impelled Lorenzo to undertake its 
 recovery. 
 
 On the east and south he equally saw the necessity of 
 establishing outposts of Florentine influence. Ferrara, 
 Bologna, Faenza, Citta di Castello, Perugia, Siena, Rimini,' 
 were territories to which Florence made no claim, but they 
 were tempting baits to every ambitious Power. It was 
 necessary, in Lorenzo's judgment, to spare no effort to 
 secure them from absorption by any one of the great Italian 
 Powers, and to attach them, by the ties of gratitude and 
 dependence, to the interests of Florence. What seems, 
 therefore, on the face of it, to be continual interference by 
 Lorenzo in affairs which did not concern him, becomes, on 
 a proper view, a fundamental principle of his statesmanship. 
 His diplomatic success in the prosecution of his states- 
 manship is attested by the skill with which he accomplished 
 his object without fatally embroiUng himself with the very 
 Powers whose schemes of aggrandisement he was thwarting. 
 
 Indeed, Lorenzo's minor policy towards frontier towns 
 and small outlying principalities was determined by the 
 larger question of his relation to the great Powers of Italy 
 and to Italy itself. His cardinal aim being to preserve 
 the integrity and independence of Florence, he felt that 
 
282 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the best interests of Florence were bound up in the pre- 
 servation of a general peace in Italy. As a good Florentine, 
 he strove for ItaHan peace, and, as a good Italian, he strove 
 no less e^»nestly for this end. The political atmospheie 
 in Italy was electric with the possibilities of future trouble. 
 At any moment she was liable to invasion by barbarians 
 from beyond the Alps, or by infidels from beyond the 
 Adriatic. If Italy was to defend herself from the dangers 
 which threatened from beyond her borders, she must be 
 at peace within herself. The French claims on Milan and 
 Naples were only sleeping. They were, indeed, only half 
 asleep, and might at any moment be awakened to active 
 and vigorous life. If these claims should be pushed to the 
 point of action no man could foretell the issue. It might 
 well be that Italy would become the battle-ground of 
 strangers, and fall a prey to the victor. No less appalHng 
 was the prospect of a Turkish invasion. 
 
 And yet Lorenzo saw the statesmen of Italy, with these 
 possibilities of rain before their eyes, coquetting with the 
 danger, and blindly using Turks and French ahke as con- 
 venient pieces in the game of cut-throat diplomacy and 
 petty intrigue to which all their energies were devoted. 
 
 Failing the preservation of Itahan peace, Lorenzo must 
 work for the maintenance of a balance of power in Italy. 
 Where each was ambitious, and greedy for the possessions 
 of another, the best hope lay in a system of combination 
 by which all might be held in restraint, by which at least 
 no one Power should be allowed to aggrandise itself at the 
 expense of any of the rest. This poHcy found definite 
 expression in 1480 in the existence of the Triple Alliance 
 between Florence, Milan, and Naples, to which the counter- 
 league of Venice and the Papacy was a rejoinder. 
 
 Lorenzo had learned by dire experience what the enmity 
 of the Papacy was capable of effecting, but none the less 
 the schemes of Sixtus for the aggrandisement of Girolamo 
 Riario in Romagna must be thwarted. Lorenzo's minor 
 pohcy forced this necessity absolutely upon him. The 
 same experience had taught him how little he could rely 
 on the fidelity of Naples, and yet Ferrante must be preserved 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 283 
 
 from the Papacy on the one hand and from the French upon 
 the other. The dictates of his larger poHcy made friendship 
 with Naples essential. Ludovico Sforza was a slippery 
 intriguer, seeking no one's interest but his own, but he must 
 be kept true to Lorenzo's league, or he would assuredly 
 join the other. Venice extended greedy eyes down the 
 whole coast-line of the Adriatic, and Florence, Milan and 
 Naples in combination were scarcely strong enough to 
 restrain her. At the same time, while balancing the 
 ambitions of the rest, Lorenzo had to keep his own eyes open, 
 watching every opportunity for consoKdating the territories 
 of Florence, and for taking advantage of the passing 
 moment. He thus exposed himself to the charge of being 
 himself the mischief maker, jeopardising the deHcate 
 balance, and the peace, of Italy by his own schemes of 
 territorial expansion. 
 
 On every hand Lorenzo's task was difficult and delicate. 
 The diplomatic history of 1480 to 1490 is a record of his 
 efforts, and, on the whole, a record of his success. 
 
 Two incidents, the one of Italian, the other of local, 
 importance, tended, at the outset of Lorenzo's new career, 
 to relieve the political tension in Italy, and to fortify his 
 position as Head of the State. The evacuation of Otranto 
 in September 1481, cleared Italy of the Turks: the Fres- 
 cobaldi conspiracy in Florence in May of the same year 
 resulted in giving to Lorenzo a declared status which 
 enhanced his authority as Mediator of Italian peace. 
 
 The disappearance of the Turkish danger, at the moment 
 when it had become most actual and threatening, seemed 
 to the imagination of the time to prove the existence of a 
 special Providence presiding over the destinies of Italy. 
 Having surprised Otranto by an unexpected raid, the 
 Turkish commander determined to make good his advanced 
 position. The weak defences of the place were so strength- 
 ened as to make it unassailable. The Turks were in 
 possession of an impregnable base from which to direct, 
 under the security of sea-power, operations at will against the 
 whole peninsula. The Sultan, at the head of large forces, 
 was in movement, intent on consolidating his new position 
 
284 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 in the Mediterranean, as a preliminary to following up the 
 success of his army in Italy. But the death of Mahomet II., 
 in May 1481, changed the face of affairs. His two sons, 
 Bajazet and Djem, set up their rival claims to the vacant 
 throne. A civil war between the two competitors con- 
 centrated upon internal dissensions all that energy which, 
 imder Mahomet 11. , had been devoted to external expansion. 
 Schemes of further aggrandisement in Italy must for the 
 time be abandoned in favour of vigorous efforts to re-establish 
 the integrity of the Turkish Empire. The Turks recognised 
 that Otranto was an outpost too far removed from the 
 scene of practical politics to be any longer an object of 
 primary consideration. 
 
 Thus it was that, in September, Otranto capitulated to 
 the Duke of Calabria, who signalised his success by enlisting 
 many of its infidel defenders in his own ranks. 
 
 An opportunity was now offered to the ItaHan Powers, 
 by uniting in a common effort, to strike a blow against the 
 Turks from which they might never recover, a blow that 
 might free Christendom for long, perhaps for ever, from 
 the Turkish menace. But the ItaHan Powers lived only 
 for the moment, not for the future, or the ultimate good 
 of the world. In a spirit of childish irresponsibility they 
 assured themselves that in the disappearance of an immediate 
 danger, all dangers had vanished. No longer influenced 
 by Turkish pressure, ItaHan statesmen only saw, in the 
 altered conditions, a more favourable opportunity for 
 prosecuting their own petty personal schemes. The Pope was 
 more intent on his nephew's principaHty than upon organising 
 a Crusade. The Turkish occupation of Otranto became a 
 nine days' wonder, and Italian affairs relapsed into their 
 old course of greedy self-seeking and miserable intrigue. 
 
 In the same month which saw the death of Mahomet II., 
 (May 1481) a conspiracy was hatched in Florence for the 
 assassination of Lorenzo. 
 
 Giovanni Battista Frescobaldi, lately Florentine consul 
 at Constantinople, had given evidences, in that capacity, 
 of pecuHar zeal for Lorenzo's interests. He had been 
 much concerned in securing from the Sultan the extradition 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 285 
 
 of Bandini, who, after the Pazzi conspiracy, had succeeded 
 in escaping the summary vengeance which fell upon his 
 accompUces. In the general execution of his duties in 
 Constantinople, Frescobaldi had shown himself active and 
 capable, but for some reason, probably connected with 
 money which he claimed as his due but which was withheld, 
 he became impressed with a sense of personal grievance 
 against Lorenzo, and looked about him for means to secure 
 revenge. 
 
 The plot, in which Girolamo Riario was believed to have 
 a hand, was hatched in Rome, and doubtless represented 
 to some extent the poHtical animosities of some of Lorenzo's 
 public enemies, but its execution was left in the hands of 
 adventurers who had nothing but their own private ends 
 to serve. Amoretto Baldovinetti was a desperado in the 
 service of Riario. Antonio and Francesco Balducci were 
 poor and in debt. They joined the conspiracy, though 
 they gave but a half-hearted adhesion to Frescobaldi's 
 projects. Various schemes were proposed, and the con- 
 spirators were for some time in doubt between poison and 
 the dagger. Before they could proceed to the execution 
 of their plans, these were discovered, and they themselves 
 were in close custody. The political significance of the affair 
 lies, not in the attempt, but in the punishment which the 
 Government decided to inflict. The conspirators, on the 
 ground of their intention, were condemned to death, although 
 they had not proceeded to the point of executing their 
 designs. Legally, the conspirators had not actually com- 
 mitted a crime which involved a capital sentence. But 
 the intention to commit such a crime was now declared 
 to be in itself sufficient to justify a charge of high treason 
 against the State. All the plotters, except Francesco 
 Balducci, who escaped, were hanged from the windows of 
 the Palazzo del Capitano, and from henceforth it was 
 established law that any designs against Lorenzo's person, 
 whether successful or not, carried with them the penalties 
 of high treason. Lorenzo's exceptional position in Florence 
 was thus legally and officially recognised. A body-guard 
 was assigned to him by the Signoria, and he stood forth. 
 
286 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 before all Italy and the world, as the accredited, and almost 
 princely representative of the Florentine State. 
 
 Scarcely had the Turks evacuated Otranto, when the 
 Italian Powers stood confronting one another in active 
 warfare. Venice, always intent upon the extension of her 
 territory, took advantage of a dispute with the Duke of 
 Ferrara, on the subject of her salt monopoly, to declare 
 war upon the Duke. Sixtus IV., equally intent upon the 
 advancement of Girolamo Riario, thought he saw an 
 opportunity, by co-operating with Venice, of gaining some 
 accession of territory for his nephew. Girolamo had 
 already profited by recent distractions in Italy to the extent 
 of becoming master of Forh. Forh, in conjunction with 
 Imola, gave him a substantial base for further operations 
 in Papal Romagna. In September 1481, Girolamo was 
 in Venice, where he was given a reception, which, according 
 to the report of Lorenzo's agent, was more splendid than 
 ever before was given to any one by that Republic. In 
 view of the almost certain understanding existing between 
 Venice and the Papacy, Naples, Milan, and Florence deter- 
 mined to stand together. The smaller Princes of Italy 
 ranged themselves on one side or the other. The Duke of 
 Calabria moved with his forces, which included the Turkish 
 contingent from Otranto, to the support of his brother-in- 
 law, the Duke of Ferrara. 
 
 To test the attitude and intentions of the Pope, Calabria 
 demanded a free passage for his army through the Pipal 
 territories : when this was refused, all parties knew where 
 they stood. The Neapolitan troops held Rome in a state 
 of siege, while Roberto Malatesta, the Venetian captain- 
 general, was diverted from his attack on Ferrara to go to 
 the assistance of the Pontiff. The troops of Florence, 
 under the command of Costanzo Sforza, operated arcund 
 Cittei di Castello, where they succeeded in reinstating in 
 the government of that place Niccolo ViteUi, whom the 
 Pope regarded with peculiar aversion. The Duke of 
 Urbino, with the troops of Milan, endeavoured unsuccess- 
 fully to cope with the Venetians in the neighbourhood of 
 Ferrara. Girolamo Riario, utterly devoid of mili'.ary 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 287 
 
 capacity, sought only to use each succeeding event to secure 
 his own profit. The whole of Italy was aflame, and each 
 contending Power, regardless of ultimate consequences, 
 seized any means to hand from which advantage was to 
 be gained. Thus Sixtus appealed to France to intervene, 
 and dangled the tempting bait of Naples before the eyes of 
 Louis XI. The old King was too shrewd to be caught by 
 the attractions of Italian adventure, but it was not the 
 fault of Sixtus if the ruin of Italy by the hands of strangers 
 was not accomplished in his own day. The obvious retort 
 to the unpatriotic poUcy of the Pope was to revive the idea 
 of a General Council. Circumstances had arisen which 
 seemed to offer a fair prospect of thus harassing him. 
 
 A certain prelate, Andrea Zuccahnaglio, Archbishop of 
 Camiola, had come to Rome as an emissary from the 
 Emperor Frederick III. His conduct at last aroused the 
 resentment of the Pope, who confined the Archbishop in 
 the Castle of S. Angelo. Upon his release, he betook 
 himself in high dudgeon to Switzerland. At Basle, he 
 assumed the title of Cardinal, declared that he was 
 acting as the accredited agent of the Emperor, and sum- 
 moned on his own authority a General Council. It is 
 evidence of the electrical conditions prevaihng in Italy, 
 that this madcap venture — it is probable that the Arch- 
 bishop was, as his secretary said, " touched in his brain, 
 and not master of himself " [cerebro laesus, non sui compos] — 
 should have been taken seriously. But, from the point of 
 view of the Pope's enemies, something might come of it, 
 absurd as it was. Sixtus undoubtedly was really alarmed. 
 Lorenzo despatched his confidential friend, Bacio Ugolino, 
 to Basle to observe and report upon the situation. Milan 
 sent an envoy, and although it was eventually determined 
 that no political capital could be made out of the schemes 
 of a harebrained and irresponsible Archbishop, yet his 
 fantastic proceedings were not without effect. The mere 
 whisper of a General Council caused the Pope to tremble. 
 With extraordinary celerity Sixtus executed a complete 
 volte face. He withdrew from his coalition with Venice, 
 made peace with Naples, joined the League of Florence, 
 
288 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Milan, and Naples, and then proceeded to excommunicate 
 Venice for still continuing a war which Venice had entered 
 upon in conjunction with Sixtus himself. 
 
 The Pope's change of policy may seem the more extra- 
 ordinary in view of the military success which had attended 
 his arms. In August 1482, the Duke of Calabria was 
 totally defeated by Roberto Malatetsa at Campo Morto. 
 The Venetian general, Roberto Sanseverino, had secured so 
 strong a position round Ferrara that Ercole d'Este was only 
 restrained by the urgent remonstrances of Lorenzo's envoy 
 from abandoning his Duchy. Girolamo Riario, it is true, 
 had been thwarted by Lorenzo in his attempts upon Citti 
 di Castello and upon Rimini. But, on the whole, things 
 were going well with the Papal cause, and something 
 more than the demonstration of a half-witted priest 
 should have been needed to divert Sixtus from his original 
 purpose. 
 
 Other causes, in fact, besides the threat of a Council, 
 operated upon the Pope to induce him to abandon his 
 quondam ally and to join the League of its opponents. 
 Venice was proving too successful. If Ferrara fell, it was 
 extremely unlikely that Venice would relinquish her prize 
 in favour of Riario or any other. The Pope's eyes were 
 at last, by the agency of Giuliano della Rovere,* opened 
 to the fact that, in assisting Venice, he was supporting the 
 very Power from whose passion for territorial aggrandise- 
 ment he had most to dread. He had no object in assisting 
 Venice other than the enrichment of his nephew. Once 
 convinced that he was only working for the enrichment of 
 Venice herself, Sixtus could use the threat of a General 
 Council a sa convenient pretext for breaking with his ally, 
 and seeking to dictate to her terms of peace. 
 
 By the terms of the agreement made by the Pope with 
 
 * Valori declares that it was Lorenzo who convinced the Pope that he 
 was only aiding Venice to become the master of Italy. To Lorenzo's 
 representations the Pope is reported to have replied " We have always 
 desired the friendship of Lorenzo on account of his singular virtues, but 
 up to now our destinies have been averse and have separated and disjoined 
 us. Now I shall see that saying verified which says that wisdom conquers 
 the influence and inclination of the stars." 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 289 
 
 Florence, Milan, and Naples, it was arranged that a Congress 
 should meet at Cremona to discuss and compose all out 
 standing questions. The Congress met in February 1483, 
 and on the part of Florence, Lorenzo acted as pleni- 
 potentiary. There were gathered Ludovico and Ascanio 
 Sforza on behalf of Milan, Riario, and the Cardinal- 
 Legate Gonzaga of Mantua on behalf of the Pope, the 
 Duke of Calabria acting for Naples, together with some 
 minor princes, Giovanni Bentivoglio of Bologna, Ercole 
 d'Este of Ferrara, and Ludovico and Federigo Gonzaga. 
 Lorenzo was seriously warned by Louis XI. of France not 
 to trust himself to the hands of Girolamo Riario. Had he 
 been consulted, wrote the King, he would have advised 
 Lorenzo not to go, but to send a messenger with excuses. 
 " As, however, you have consented to go, I must leave the 
 rest to you, and trust in God that all may go as you wish." 
 In less than a month Lorenzo was back again, having 
 received no hurt. 
 
 The business of the Congress resolved itself into a deter- 
 mination to press Venice so hard as to compel her to make 
 peace and enter the General League. Throughout the year 
 1483 hostilities proceeded with varying fortunes, until at 
 last the pressure of her foes threatened Venice with serious 
 disaster. In her extremity Venice resorted to the old 
 device of endeavouring to revive the French claims to 
 Naples and Milan. To this threat the Alhed Powers retorted 
 by threatening Venice with the Turks. Nowhere was there 
 any true sense of Italian patriotism, or any realisation of 
 what calling the foreigner into Italy might involve, except 
 in Lorenzo, and even he would probably have felt no com- 
 punction in using the Turks as a stick to beat Venice, if 
 their operations could be confined to the Venetian territories 
 in the Mediterranean. 
 
 Lorenzo's way to an Italian peace lay through the conduct 
 of successful war. Venice must be forced into peace 
 through disasters suffered in war, Venice saw a more 
 convenient way in detaching Ludovico Sforza from the 
 League. The relations existing between Ludovico and 
 Lorenzo were by no means cordial, nor was Ludovico the 
 T 
 
290 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 man to support a cause for a moment longer than his own 
 interests required. 
 
 The Venetians represented to Ludovico that by his 
 aUiance with Naples he was jeopardising his own position. 
 His ward, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, was now of an age to 
 assume the government of Milan, and was, moreover, 
 betrothed to Calabria's daughter. Was it likely that 
 Calabria would continue zealous in the cause of Ludovico, 
 when by doing so he was injuring the prospects of his future 
 son-in-law ? To such representations the Venetians added 
 a powerful argument in the shape of 60,000 ducats, which 
 speedily effected Ludovico's complete conversion. He 
 announced his readiness to negotiate. Without Milan, Naples 
 and Florence would not continue the war. They therefore 
 reluctantly associated themselves with Ludovico's proposals, 
 and in August (8th) 1484 peace was signed at Bagnolo. 
 
 Philip de Commines laconically summarises his im- 
 pressions of the Peace of Bagnolo. " When," he says, 
 " the Venetians were almost conquered, or at least in very 
 low estate, with their treasury exhausted, and several of 
 their towns lost, Ludovico made an honourable and 
 advantageous peace for them, by which all was to be restored 
 to everybody, except the poor Duke of Ferrara, who had 
 begun the war at the instigation of Ludovico and Ferrante, 
 whose daughter the Duke had married. ... It is 
 reported that Ludovico had 60,000 ducats for his pains. 
 Whether this is true or not I cannot say, but I know the 
 Duke of Ferrara was himself of that opinion." 
 
 As the peace of Bagnolo was being signed, the Pope, 
 Sixtus IV., lay upon his death-bed. It was said at the 
 time that he died of it. A pithy epigram expressed the 
 popular estimation of his character. 
 
 Sistere qui nuUo potuit cum foedere Sixtus, 
 Audito tan turn nomine pacis obit.* 
 
 " I rather believe, however," says Valori, " that, being 
 an old man of seventy, he succumbed to Nature." Sixtus 
 
 * " Sixtus, who could not exist in company with any treaty, died of the 
 mere whisper of the word Peace." The pun on Sixtus and Sistere does not 
 lend itself very suitably to translation. 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 291 
 
 died on August 12, 1484, of an attack of gout which 
 overtook him a week before the Peace of Bagnolo was signed. 
 But there can be no doubt that the course of events bitterly 
 chagrined him. He had tried by his own tergiversation 
 to force a peace on Venice, and had failed. When peace 
 was eventually concluded he was not consulted. " You 
 bring," he said to the messengers who brought the news 
 to his dying bed, " a peace fuU of disgrace and confusion. 
 I can never accept it." The next day he was dead. 
 
 Panegyrists of Lorenzo, like Valori and Fabroni, attribute 
 to him an influence in securing the peace of Bagnolo, which 
 facts scarcely seem to warrant. It was the action of 
 Ludovico Sforza which, in spite of Lorenzo, forced on the 
 allies an unacceptable treaty. The Florenti|)ies had spent 
 much on the war, and had gained no substantial return. 
 The question, vital to them, of the restoration of Sarzana, 
 was not even mentioned in the terms of the treaty. The 
 attempt to cripple Venice had resulted in Venice regaining 
 everything she had lost, and retaining her original claims 
 on Ferrara in the matter of the salt monopoly. It was 
 rather indirectly than directly that Lorenzo's diplomacy 
 had resulted in advantage to Florence. He had put a 
 spoke in Girolamo Riario's wheel. He had thwarted him 
 in Rimini, Pesaro, and Citt^ di Castello. In the latter 
 place he had secured a predominant influence through the 
 re-establishment of Niccolo Vitelh, and yet had succeeded 
 in reconcihng Vitelli to the Pope. He had engineered a 
 revolution in Siena which resulted in the overthrow of the 
 aristocratic anti-Florentine party, and the formation of a 
 democratic government friendly to Florence. But, while 
 these were very definite advantages, the part which Lorenzo 
 actually played in the restoration of Italian peace scarcely 
 entitled him, in 1484, to be regarded, as Fabroni claims, 
 as the arbitrator of Italian affairs. Though Florence had 
 cause to rejoice at the termination of the war, she had little 
 cause to congratulate herself on any specific benefits which 
 she had derived directly from the Peace of Bagnolo itself. 
 
 It was perhaps impossible for Lorenzo to make his 
 influence in Italy effectual and paramount as long as 
 
292 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Sixtus IV. lived. Italy scarcely afforded room for the two 
 men to act upon the same stage. The violent and capricious 
 nature of Sixtus, the infatuation which Girolamo Riario 
 exercised upon him, the frank submission of his spiritual 
 functions to his secular and personal ends, made him the 
 storm-centre of Italy, the indeterminate factor in its affairs. 
 Instinctively he recognised in Lorenzo a man formed by 
 the nature of things to be his opponent, and he did not 
 hesitate seriously to compromise his own character in his 
 passionate efforts to remove an obstacle from his path. 
 He failed, and the fact that he failed, in spite of the resources 
 at his command, is strong testimony to Lorenzo's capacity. 
 Foiled in his purpose of destroying him, Sixtus came to 
 regard Lorenzo as a man to be used. More was to be got 
 by being on Lorenzo's side than against him, even if a 
 few grudging concessions were necessary to secure this 
 advantage. Lorenzo cleverly used his opportunity, and 
 obtained all that was possible, though this was not much. 
 With the death of Sixtus the wide field of Papal influence 
 was open to Lorenzo for the exercise of his diplomatic 
 talents. It now became his chief object to work through 
 the Papacy instead of in spite of it or against it. 
 
 Lorenzo therefore was keenly interested in the election 
 of Sixtus's successor. He was able to exercise little or no 
 influence in the Conclave. He could only anxiously await 
 the report of his agents at Rome. On August 29, 
 Guidantonio Vespucci was able to inform Lorenzo that on 
 that day the Cardinals had elected as Pope Giovanni Battista 
 Cibo, a Genoese. He was, said Vespucci, a man of humane 
 and kindly disposition, with not much experience of. affairs, 
 nor much given to literature, and yet not wholly ignorant. 
 He was a man to be counselled rather than one who could 
 give counsel to others. Next day, Lorenzo's brother-in- 
 law, Raynaldo Orsini, Archbishop of Florence, reported 
 very favourably of the new Pope's disposition towards 
 Florence and towards Lorenzo. A gossipy letter from 
 Luigi Lotti contains information about the election : how 
 Cardinal Borgia was so certain that he would himself be 
 chosen that he had taken the precaution, which proved 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 293 
 
 superfluous, to add two bastions to his Roman palace, to 
 prevent its being sacked, according to the usual custom, 
 as soon as he became Pope. Lotti was of opinion that the 
 new Pontiff would prove " a good, quiet Pope, and keep 
 clear of all strife." but that this would depend upon the 
 nature of the influences exercised upon him. Lorenzo 
 was doubly reassured when he heard from Pier Filippo 
 Pandolfini, the official ambassador of Florence at Rome, 
 that he had seen the Pope, who desired Lorenzo to know 
 that there never was a Pope so favourable to his House as 
 he, and that he proposed to order his Pontificate in accordance 
 with Lorenzo's recommendation and advice. 
 
 The new Pope, who assumed the title of Innocent VIIL, 
 owed his election to the fact that he was an easy-living 
 unambitious Prelate, who had not rendered himself con- 
 spicuous during his Cardinalate, nor obnoxious to any 
 particular interest or individual. He had been, even in those 
 days, somewhat remarkable for his amours, nor had he made 
 any effort to disguise them. It was thought peculiar that 
 he recognised his children, of whom he had a number, as 
 his sons and daughters, instead of veiling his relationship 
 in the euphuism of nephews and nieces. This eccentricity 
 exposed him to some sharp epigrams, but nobody regarded 
 his private life as seriously unfitting him for the highest office 
 in the Church. He had reached the age of fifty- two, and his 
 age, disposition, and previous record seemed to promise a 
 cessation of that policy of turbulence and adventure which 
 had characterised the reign of his predecessor. 
 
 In due course, a splendid embassy was despatched from 
 Florence to carry the congratulations of the Republic to 
 the new Pope. Included among the envoys was Piero dei 
 Medici, Lorenzo's eldest son, a youth of fourteen, for whose 
 guidance the careful father drew up elaborate instructions. 
 Piero was to make himself master of all matters of ceremony 
 and etiquette : he must be careful to conduct himself 
 gravely, discreetly, and politely towards his equals in rank. 
 He must not seek to take precedence over any one older 
 than himself, for " though you are my son, you are no 
 other than a citizen of Florence." If opportunity occurred, 
 
294 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Piero was to commend to the favourable notice of the Pope 
 his younger brother, Giovanni, and to assure the Cardinals 
 of Lorenzo's devotion to their interests. In all things he 
 was to be guided by the advice of his uncles, the Archbishop 
 of Florence and Giovanni Tomabuoni. And, finally, " you 
 are to declare to his Holiness my firm resolve not to swerve 
 from his commands, for my natural reverence for the 
 Apostolic See is increased by that which I feel towards 
 the person of the Holy Father, to whom our House has long 
 been under obligations. I have experienced what dis- 
 advantages were brought upon me by the loss of the late 
 Pope's favour, although I believe I suffered many per- 
 secutions without fault of my own, and more on account 
 of the sins of others, than through any misconduct of my 
 own towards him. But I leave this to the judgment of 
 others. However it may be, my resolution is fixed, not 
 only never to offend his Holiness, but day and night to 
 meditate on what may be plesaing to him." 
 
 These instructions are of rather special interest as an 
 indication of Lorenzo's character and political aims. They 
 show that the future of the child, Giovanni, was already 
 very close to his heart, and that a close connection, political 
 and perhaps personal, between the Medici and the Papacy 
 was a project which for the future he would pursue. The 
 care and shrewd wisdom with which the instructions were 
 drawn up anticipate the famous letter to his son, Giovanni, 
 when at last he was invested with the Cardinalate ; they 
 show also the close attention to matters of small detail 
 which is a characteristic of all Lorenzo's diplomatic corre- 
 spondence. We may moreover judge from the instructions 
 that, though Piero was but a boy, his father had a clear 
 insight into his character. If Piero had only grasped the 
 principle underlying his father's hint that, though he was a 
 Medici, he was only a Florentine citizen like the rest, the 
 ignominious fall of the House of Medici in 1494 might have 
 been postponed beyond Piero's lifetime. 
 
 The first advantage which Lorenzo proposed to take 
 from the favourable dispositions of Innocent was to push 
 the siege of Sarzana, and, if possible, to secure, from the 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 293 
 
 fact of the Pope being a Genoese, his friendly mediation 
 with Genoa for the restoration of the place. In connection 
 with the struggle for Sarzana, a new development had 
 recently taken place. 
 
 An important convoy of supplies had been despatched 
 from Pisa, under a weak escort, for the use of the Florentine 
 forces engaged around Sarzana. The convoy followed 
 the coast road, through Pietra Santa, a town about twenty 
 miles to the north of Pisa, where it was attacked and its 
 escort routed. The position of Pietra Santa, astride the 
 northern road, made its occupation of even more im- 
 portance than that of Sarzana, but no pretext had arisen 
 which could justify an attack upon it. That pretext was 
 now supplied by the action of its garrison. An incident 
 so convenient to the requirements of Florence naturally 
 gave rise to the opinion that the tempting convoy, the weak 
 escort, were an ingenious ruse on the part of the Florentines, 
 designed, as Macchiavelli says, to tempt the people of 
 Pietra Santa, by the richness of the booty and the absence 
 of risk, to attack. " The plan succeeded according to 
 expectations, for the inhabitants of Pietra Santa, attracted 
 by the rich prize, took possession of it." Ammirato, 
 however, expressly traverses the statement of Macchiavelli, 
 and exonerates Florence from any Macchiavellian intention. 
 Whatever the truth may be, Florence now saw before her 
 the clear duty of punishing Pietra Santa, which was 
 immediately subjected to a vigorous siege. The Florentine 
 Commissaries, Bongianni Gianfigliazzi and Antonio Pucci, 
 spurred on the troops to heroic efforts. Lowborn as he 
 was, such was Pucci's power of rousing enthusiasm, that 
 the mercenaries, to quote a contemporary, would have 
 marched straight to hell in the service of Florence. Lorenzo 
 himself came to the scene of action, and his presence 
 roused in each man the spirit of energy and emulation. 
 The exploits of a certain " valorous and ponderous cavalier," 
 nicknamed El Balotta, or " Boiled Chestnut," aroused 
 Lorenzo's peculiar admiration. Pietra Santa fell, and the 
 heartfelt rejoicings in Florence were only marred by the 
 heavy cost of victory. Malaria had proved an enemy 
 
296 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 more deadly than the defenders of the town. Both the 
 gallant commissaries succumbed to it, and their loss was 
 mourned by the whole city. Now, as heretofore, Lorenzo 
 sufficiently vindicated his personal courage by his cheerful 
 presence in the midst of pestilence whose ravages were 
 more to be dreaded than those of war. It was not his 
 business to fight, but to inspire, and where his inspii tion 
 could best be appHed, there he was found to apply it. 
 
 Florence had scarcely realised her enjoyment in her new 
 acquisition when she was embarrassed by a demand from 
 Lucca that Pietra Santa should be handed over to her. 
 It was, said the Lucchese, an outpost of their own, gained 
 by their ancestors and long held by them. The circum- 
 stances attending the attack on Pietra Santa did not 
 necessarily justify the retention of the place by Florence, 
 yet to surrender it to Lucca would be to take the bit from 
 the mouth of Lucca and place it in her own. For it was 
 against Lucca in a particular degree that Pietra Santa was 
 a safeguard. That boisterous little republic, which refused 
 to be subdued, which as resolutely refused to be friendly, was 
 effectually bridled as long as Pietra Santa was safe in the 
 hands of Florence. To surrender it on demand would be 
 sheer madness. For the moment the difficulty could be 
 shelved by a temporising policy. When Sarzana fell, then 
 would be the time to deal with the question of the Lunigiana 
 as a whole. 
 
 Immediately upon the fall of Pietra Santa, Lorenzo was 
 compelled, by an acute attack of gout, to withdraw to the 
 baths of San Filippo, Vigorous and strongly-knit as was 
 his frame, keen as was his wholesome passion for outdoor 
 exercise, Lorenzo from his boyhood had been a martyr to 
 gout, comphcated at times by stomachic disorders. He 
 was continually obliged to retire from the stress of public 
 affairs in order to take the waters at Poretta, Bagno a 
 Morba, Vignone or San Filippo. From them he gained 
 some temporary relief, but before he reached the age of 
 forty his constitution was hopelessly undermined : he was, 
 moreover, far too busy to devote the requisite care to the 
 restoration of his health. He had scarcely now retired 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 297 
 
 to San Filippo when he was recalled to Florence by the 
 urgency of public affairs. Troubles had arisen from a new 
 quarter, which made the presence of Lorenzo in Florence 
 indispensable if his whole foreign poUcy was not to suffer 
 shipwreck in the storm to which renewed dissensions 
 between Naples and the Papacy had given rise. 
 
 The long contest between rival claimants to the throne 
 of Naples, had given to the Neapolitan Barons a power 
 which was often decisive in the affairs of the kingdom. 
 It had been the consistent pohcy of Ferrante to depress 
 the power of the Barons, and by a mixture of craft, force, 
 and dissimulation he had so crippled them that they saw 
 themselves in danger of being reduced to impotence. Their 
 natural court of appeal against their king and overlord 
 was the Papacy, which claimed suzerainty over Naples. 
 Already, in the Ufetime of Sixtus, the Neapolitan Barons 
 had received encouragement from the Pope and Girolamo 
 Riario to embarrass Ferrante by the assertion of their 
 own rights. The new Pope, Innocent VIII., was much 
 under the influence of Giuliano della Rovere, whose pohcy 
 was identified with the interests of France. He would 
 have been glad to see the French claims pressed against 
 Ferrante. He was strongly opposed to the lenient action 
 of Sixtus in regard to the tribute due to the Papacy from 
 the King of Naples, and he vigorously urged Innocent to 
 revert to the former conditions. Instead of the yearly 
 tribute of a white palfrey, let Innocent insist upon Ferrante 
 paying the substantial tribute in cash which previous Popes 
 had received in recognition of their sovereignty. Ferrante, 
 moreover, was constantly setting the Church at defiance 
 by taxing the clergy at will, and filling up benefices as he 
 would, without reference to Rome. Let Innocent use the 
 discontent of Ferrante's Barons as a means to assert his 
 own position as Lord paramount over Naples, and to force 
 Ferrante to respect the rights of the Church. 
 
 At the same time, the Barons themselves were stirring 
 up Innocent to action. They represented that the tyranny 
 of Ferrante in his government was unbearable. They 
 complained of the insupportable cruelty and arrogance of 
 
298 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 his son and heir, the Duke of Calabria, who even now in 
 defiance of law and justice, had seized and imprisoned 
 the Count of Montorio, and had done grievous wrong to 
 other Neapolitan nobles. Innocent was inclined to listen 
 favourably to these demands for his support. He intimated 
 to Ferrante that the annual white palfrey would no longer 
 be received in Heu of the former cash tribute. Moreover, 
 when Aquila and Salerno revolted from Ferrante and set 
 up the standard of the Church, the Pope, far from repudiating 
 their action, approved it, and began active preparations 
 for a war with Naples. 
 
 Ferrante was now seriously alarmed. He disclaimed 
 all intention of acting in a manner injurious to the rights 
 of the Papacy or of the Church. He sent his son, the 
 Cardinal of Aragon, to negotiate with Innocent, but the 
 Cardinal had scarcely arrived in Rome when he died. The 
 usual rumours were immediately afloat that he had been 
 poisoned. Ferrante saw that he must be prepared for 
 active hostilities and must seek allies. He turned naturally 
 to Florence and to Milan, co-members v/ith Naples in the 
 Triple Alliance. Giovanni Albino was despatched as his 
 confidential agent to negotiate with Lorenzo and with 
 Ludovico Sforza. " Tell Lorenzo " — so ran Ferrante's 
 instructions—" that we turn to him as to the best friend 
 we have in Italy, one for whom, in case of need, we would 
 risk our State, our children, and our own person. Beg 
 him not to leave us in the lurch." 
 
 Lorenzo was placed in a position of painful embarrass- 
 ment. To oppose Innocent was the very policy which he 
 was genuinely anxious to avoid ; yet to permit Ferrante 
 to be overthrown would be tantamount to an invitation 
 to France to possess herself of Naples. " This disturbance," 
 says Valori, " and the beginnings of the ruin of Italy which 
 it involved, powerfully moved Lorenzo's mind, for he saw 
 all Italy once more to be in peril, and his policy of balance 
 rendered of none effect." Nor was Lorenzo ignorant that 
 Ferrante had, in a measure, brought his trouble upon himself. 
 He well knew the character of Calabria, and the severity 
 of Ferrante's rule. In a letter to Albino he says that he is 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 299 
 
 grieved to hear of the reputation for cruelty borne by the 
 Duke of Calabria, however undeserved it may be. His 
 advice is that taxes which are intolerable to the people 
 should be removed, " for it is better to have one carlino 
 with peace and love, than ten with discontent and anger, 
 for men's minds are more easily won by kindness than 
 severity, a principle which is of universal appKcation." 
 At the same time he assured Ferrante of his support, and 
 undertook to answer for Ludovico also. The King in reply 
 expressed his gratitude, thanked Lorenzo for his good 
 advice, while declaring himself not quite able to understand 
 the grounds on which such counsels were tendered. Lorenzo, 
 however, had got his shot in, and Ferrante was only displaying 
 his usual craft in pretending that it had missed. 
 
 Lorenzo, as has been seen, was at the baths when this 
 new trouble arose. In his absence Florence was by no means 
 inclined to commit herself to the support of Ferrante. 
 The Florentines most cordially hated the Duke of Calabria, 
 for his hand had been heavy in the Pazzi war, and, since 
 then, his insolence, arrogance, and bad taste had still further 
 intensified their animosity. Why should Florence be 
 dragged into opposition to the Papacy, of which she was 
 the traditional supporter, on behalf of a dynasty which it 
 had been her tradition to oppose ; on behalf of individual 
 Princes for whom she had no affection ? Lorenzo at San 
 Filippo was made aware of the current opinion in the City. 
 He hastened home, and made a powerful appeal on behalf 
 of the poUcy which he deemed essential. He passed over 
 the ominous murmurs that he was always committing 
 Florence to some war or other in which she had no concern 
 except to act as paymaster. He pointed out that what 
 was now at stake was the whole future of Italy and of 
 Florence. In supporting Ferrante, Florence would not be 
 supporting a cause extraneous from her own interests. 
 " Whoever opposes me, whoever he may be, let him be set 
 down as an enemy of his country." Valori, in reporting 
 the speech, says that he founds his report on the notes of 
 one who was actually present, and that such was the force 
 of Lorenzo's arguments and eloquence that he secured 
 
300 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the unanimous adhesion of the Council to his proposals. 
 Ludovico Sforza also was ready with fair promises, if only 
 Florence could be made to bear the brunt of the exposes 
 and the fighting. Lorenzo had to pretend to be satsfied 
 with Ludovico's assurances. He had to keep a Irave 
 heart, and put the best face he could upon a gloomy and 
 threatening situation. 
 
 All the elements of intrigue, disruption, and confision 
 were now again let loose in Italy. The Pope looked to 
 Fench intervention as his best weapon against Fernnte. 
 The College of Cardinals was divided between France and 
 Naples, each party using any means to hand to inflience 
 the weak Pope in its favour. The Roman Barons, heided 
 by Virginio Orsini, embraced the cause of Ferrante, and 
 welcomed an occasion to reduce Rome to anarchy. Veiice, 
 like Ludovico Sforza, wanted to pick up any advantages 
 which were to be dervied from the situation without paying 
 for them. By detaching her general, Roberto Sanseverino, 
 to the Pope's service, Venice stood to gain if the Pope won, 
 but was not seriously committed if he lost. Lorenzo, iitent 
 on preserving Naples for Ferrante, was none the less keenly 
 desirous to avoid any definite rupture with the Pope, The 
 Duke of Calabria, in command of the Neapolitan forces, 
 exhibited once again his total lack of military capa:ity. 
 Early in i486 he placed his troops in such an unfavourable 
 position that he determined to abandon them, and seek to 
 win, by aj personal interview with Lorenzo and Ludovico, 
 the advantages which he had utterly failed to gain in war. 
 Lorenzo roundly declined to see the Duke. Though the 
 ally of Naples, he could scarcely fail to share the general 
 feeling of satisfaction which prevailed in Florence that this 
 man should now himself experience something of the ad- 
 versity and shame which he had brought upon the city 
 and upon Lorenzo. To all the entreaties of the Duke, the 
 Signoria replied that he could not at the time be received 
 in Florence, but that Piero Capponi would wait on him as 
 Florentine commissioner, to be followed shortly by Pan- 
 dolfini and Giovanni Serristori, who were empowered to 
 treat with the Duke on all necessary matters. 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 301 
 
 Lorenzo in the meantime appears to have been in 
 constant communication with Innocent. It is not therefore 
 surprising that he should have incurred the charge of bad 
 faith. But all his interests were bound up in peace. He 
 had not entered upon the war for the sake of war, but to 
 preserve the integrity of Italy, which could best be pre- 
 served by an Italian peace. He was not necessarily a 
 traitor to Ferrante because he was constantly urging peace 
 on Innocent. He represented to the Pope that he could 
 scarcely hope to win : he insinuated doubts as to the 
 fidelity of Sanseverino, the Papal commander, and he 
 pointed out that, if the Pope should win, his success would 
 amount to nothing, for the Italian Powers would never 
 permit the Papacy to rule in Naples. In the Consistory, 
 Ascanio Sforza, speaking for his brother Ludovico, backed 
 up these representations. The Vice-Chancellor, Borgia, 
 was on the same side : Giuliano della Rovere was away on 
 a mission, so Innocent for the time was emancipated from 
 his sway. Venice, through fear of French intervention, 
 had now openly espoused Ferrante's cause. Everything 
 contributed to shake the resolution of an irresolute and 
 incapable Pontiff. The Spanish ambassador at Rome 
 seized the psychological moment to offer his mediation, 
 and in August i486 peace between the Papacy and Naples 
 was signed. 
 
 The terms of the peace offered, on paper, the prospect of 
 permanent concord. Ferrante was to acknowledge the 
 Papal suzerainty over Naples, to pay the cash tribute 
 demanded, and to receive into favour such of his revolting 
 Barons as tendered their allegiance to him. But in reality 
 the value of the Treaty was dependent on the good faith 
 of Ferrante in observing the conditions, and on the power 
 of the other contracting parties to enforce them. To 
 Lorenzo and Ludovico was allotted the thankless task of 
 guaranteeing the observance of the conditions. It was 
 not long before Ferrante, with the blandest assurances of 
 obligation and goodwill, gave proof that he proposed to 
 follow his own course as circumstances, not treaties, might 
 dictate it. 
 
LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Lorenzo was in no mood to interfere. Once again, as 
 in the case of the Ferrara war, he had been the most active 
 worker in the cause of pacification, yet others had entered 
 into his labours and reaped the reward of them. In the 
 final arrangements he had not been consulted ; his agent 
 Piero Capponi, had been almost ignored by the contracting 
 parties, and the question of the recovery of Sarzana had 
 not been mentioned. Lorenzo's relations with Ludovico, 
 were moreover at this time far from cordial. It seemed 
 that Milan was merely using Florence for its own advantages, 
 arrogantly pursuing its selfish policy of provincialism, and 
 yet daring to claim a right of supervision over every act 
 which Florence deemed needful on her own behalf. " Milan 
 and the Lord Ludovico," wrote Lorenzo, " seem to forget 
 that this city calls herself a city of freedom. She would 
 be in a sorry plight indeed if she could not send a man on 
 an unofficial mission without taking advice from Milan 
 about it." It was obvious that not much was to be ex- 
 pected from the cordial co-operation of Florence and Milan 
 as guarantors of the Papal-Neapolitan Treaty. 
 
 In the meantime, on the side of Sarzana, things looked 
 a little more promising. Though the claims of Florence 
 had been ignored in the Treaty, yet, now that peace was 
 restored, some efforts were made by the Pope, and by 
 others, to bring the weary and protracted struggle to an 
 end. But all efforts to bend the obstinacy of the Genoese 
 proved ineffectual, and Lorenzo, assured of a free hand, and 
 with the support of one or two of the minor principalities 
 such as Piombino, Mirandola, and Faenza, determined 
 that the year 1487 should not pass without bringing the 
 affair to a decisive and final issue. At this point he 
 experienced a stroke of good fortune in the headstrong action 
 of the Genoese troops in Sarzana. A httle to the east of 
 the town lay the fortress of Sarzanello, in the hands of the 
 Florentines. It was a strong position, and its occupation 
 gave great advantages to the besiegers in their operations 
 against the town. The Genoese in Sarzana determined, 
 by a sudden rush, to make themselves masters of the place. 
 In March 1487 the attacl^ was dehvered. Though the 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 303 
 
 attacking forces established themselves close under the walls, 
 and employed an elaborate system of mines against the 
 fortress, its Florentine defenders bravely held out, the 
 chief effect of this diversion being to nerve Florence to that 
 decisive effort which the situation demanded. Strong 
 reinforcements were sent out for the defence of Sarzanello, 
 and its Genoese besiegers were driven back. The siege of 
 Sarzana was vigorously pressed. 
 
 Early in June Lorenzo himself arrived upon the scene of 
 action, and his presence stimulated the troops to further 
 exertions. A grand attack in force was arranged for the 
 2ist, but the defenders were now reduced to the last 
 extremity. As, on the appointed day, the storming party 
 advanced under the walls of the town, the white flag of 
 surrender was run up upon the walls. After seven years of 
 continued strife, the Florentine lilies waved once more 
 over Sarzana. Lorenzo himself superintended the entry 
 of his troops into the town. He did not want a repetition 
 of the Volterra scandals. The clemency extended to the 
 garrison and the inhabitants was in sharp contrast to the 
 pillage and destruction meted out to the Volterrans. Only 
 a few names were excepted from a general amnesty. Lorenzo 
 had himself learned, and now practised, the lesson which 
 he had sought to teach Ferrante, that "men's minds are 
 more easily influenced and won by kindness than by severity, 
 and this is a principle of universal application." 
 
 None of Lorenzo's achievements in the field of action 
 brought him more reputation among his own people than 
 the recovery of Sarzana. It was attributed, in chief 
 measure, to his personal efforts, and he personally reaped 
 the chief reward. In Italy, too, the exploit enhanced his 
 reputation. From henceforth he was felt to be a force to 
 be reckoned with in arms a§ well as in diplomacy, and the 
 cause of Italian peace was proportionately strengthened. 
 " After this," says Ammirato, " the Republic rested, with 
 great reputation to Lorenzo, from all troubles. The ItaHan 
 Princes also enjoyed peace, together with Florence, so that, 
 being free from all disturbances without, and everything 
 being quiet at home, Florence altogether gave herself up 
 
304 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 to the arts and conveniences of peace, seeking to gather 
 thither men of letters, to accumulate books, to adorn the 
 city, to make the country fruitful : she devoted hersdf in 
 short to all those arts and pursuits which caused that age 
 to be esteemed happy." 
 
 Then dawned that Golden Age which Lorenzo sings and 
 idealises in his Selve d'amore, when this earth became a 
 sweet spot, a Paradise below ; a time when golden peace 
 held sway, and Saturn's just rule was as yet unimpaired : 
 an age when men were ruled by love, but not by passion, 
 nor were they cursed by jealousies and vain expectations 
 of unprofitable gain, nor by the frenzy of desire to know 
 too much. 
 
 Lorenzo, however, was not privileged to enjoy that 
 complete quietude which, in his poetry, he regards as 
 constituting the highest happiness of man. In the midst 
 of the events connected with the closing episodes of the 
 Barons' War and the capture of Sarzana, he was called upon 
 to intervene in an affair with which Florence was very 
 indirectly concerned, but which closely touched Lorenzo's 
 policy in relation to the Papacy. To be on good terms 
 with Innocent, to make the Medician influence paramount 
 over him, and to gain a firm footing for a member of the 
 Medici House in the counsels of the Papacy, were objects 
 on which now Lorenzo was mainly bent. 
 
 An opportunity for doing the Pope a service arose in 
 connection with the affairs of the little town of Osimo, 
 situated about ten miles south of Ancona, at the same 
 distance from the Adriatic coast. Osimo was directly 
 subject to Papal sovereignty, but the rule of the Pope was 
 not relished, the inhabitants being ready to seize any 
 favourable chance for revolt. In the spring of i486, when 
 Innocent was fully occupied with the conduct of the war 
 with Naples, a certain Boccalino Guzzone, a prominent 
 citizen of the place, and possibly the Papal governor, under 
 pretext that sums due to him from the Papacy had not 
 
 * For the story of Boccalino of Osimo, v. Rosmini, Vita di Gian Giacopo 
 Trivulzio. In the second volume there are twenty-five pages of con- 
 temporary documents on the Osimo affair, 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 305 
 
 been paid, rose in rebellion, slew three of the principal 
 adherents of the Pope, and by sheer audacity made himself 
 master of the town. 
 
 The Powers leagued against Innocent watched these 
 proceedings with interest, for though Boccalino was nothmg 
 but an unscrupulous freebooter, playing for his own hand, 
 he might be used as a convenient tool in the interests of 
 the League. Boccalino, however, had not revolted against 
 the Papacy in order to become the creature of the League. 
 He wanted nothing less than an independent sovereignty 
 over Osimo, and to secure this he was ready to sacrifice 
 every Italian interest. He declared in the name of the 
 people that it would be preferable to accept the rule of 
 the Turks than any longer to be subject to the Papacy. 
 This declaration he followed up in practical fashion by 
 making definite overtures to the Sultan. He instructed 
 his agent to present himself to Bajazet " as his most faithful 
 servant and slave," to assure him that Boccalino himself 
 had no other desire than to be regarded as " the slave and 
 servant of His Majesty " ; that, in view of the distracted 
 condition of Italy under the tyranny of despots, the people 
 looked for no other refuge than the Sultan, nor had they 
 any other hope but in him. With the help of a Turkish 
 army of 10,000 men Bajazet could easily make himself 
 master of the March of Ancona, indeed of all Italy. If 
 the assistance demanded were forthcoming, Boccalino would 
 answer for success, upon his own head. 
 
 The agent deputed by Boccalino to the Sultan was inter- 
 cepted on NeapoKtan territory, and his despatches were 
 found upon him. Their contents aroused general con- 
 sternation. Most of the ItaHan Powers had in their turn 
 coquetted with the Turks, and had not hesitated to threaten 
 a Turkish invasion where the threat seemed Hkely to serve 
 a purpose. Now they found an obscure individual from 
 the recesses of some remote township presuming to ape 
 their example, not hesitating, for his own petty ends, to 
 bring the whirlwind upon Italy. Boccalino's instructions, 
 to his agent were communicated to Milan, Florence, and 
 the Papacy, and Giuliano deUa Rovere was promptly 
 u 
 
3o6 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 despatched, as Papal Legate, to carry on the siege of Osimo. 
 Later the Pope engaged the future Marshal of France, the 
 Milanese General, Gian Giacopo Trivulzio, to command his 
 forces. Trivulzio pressed the siege, but Ludovico Sforza 
 made things as difficult for him as possible, and at a critical 
 moment the Milanese squadrons deserted. 
 
 In the meantime, Lorenzo, who had already made an 
 unsuccessful effort to mediate, was appealed to by Boccalino 
 himself to use his good offices. Gentile, Bishop of Arezzo, 
 Lorenzo's old tutor and confidant, was sent to Osimo. A 
 little later Francesco Gaddi came thither from Florence. 
 The representations of these envoys, coupled with Trivulzio's 
 military preparations, resulted in the capitulation of Osimo 
 on condition of a pardon for its inhabitants. From Osimo 
 the Florentine agent journeyed to Rome, where he was 
 influential in arranging terms of pacification. Boccalino 
 must surrender his claim to the lordship of Osimo, and 
 withdraw altogether from the Papal territories. In return 
 he was to be paid 7000 ducats, and to be allowed to settle 
 down in Florence or where he would. In Florence Boccalino 
 became quite a personage, clamoured loud when his hush- 
 money was not paid, and got it by his clamours. He was 
 offered a position in the Florentine army, and had he known 
 his own good, might have established himself comfortably 
 for hfe. But he wandered away to Milan, where he soon 
 fell a victim to the wiles of Ludovico Sforza. The charge 
 against Lorenzo, originally brought by Muratori, and 
 accepted as true by Sismondi, that he procured or connived 
 at the murder of BoccaHno seems to rest on no contemporary 
 evidence. The commission of gratuitous and needless 
 crimes was not in Lorenzo's nature, nor is it easy to see 
 that there was any sufficient motive in this case impelling 
 him to such action. The whole episode of Boccalino of 
 Osimo would be without importance were it not for the 
 light which it throws upon the disjointed and unnatural 
 conditions prevailing in Italy at the time. The cynical 
 indifference to every instinct of Italian patriotism, the 
 reckless self-seeking which characterised Italy's pubHc 
 men, the mihtary inefficiency which could permit an 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 307 
 
 adventurer to hold out for more than a year against a 
 combination of Italian Powers, and then get off, scot-free, 
 with 7000 ducats for his pains, are a proof that Italy was 
 rotten through and through. Her ultimate fate at the 
 hands of France and Spain is foreshadowed in the proceedings 
 which centred around the person of Boccalino Guzzone. 
 
 Lorenzo's good offices in the affair of Osimo were doubtless 
 rendered the more readily inasmuch as a close family 
 connection was about to bind him nearly to Innocent VIII. 
 
 Among the Pope's numerous children, was a son, Frances- 
 chetto Cibo, who in 1487 was a man nearing forty, somewhat 
 dull, heavy, and uninteresting, but none the less, as the 
 Pope's son, an eligible parti. In the Medici family, as 
 indeed in all Florentine families, marriages were arranged 
 as matters of convenience. Lorenzo was only acting in 
 accordance with prevailing usage when he disposed of his 
 sons and daughters in matrimony with a view to politics 
 or the interests of his House. His second daughter, 
 Maddalena, was still little more than a child, but her tender 
 age was not regarded as an obstacle to her betrothal to 
 Franceschetto. The affair was arranged in Rome by 
 Lanfredini, the Florentine ambassador and Lorenzo's 
 confidential friend, whose diplomacy was so expeditious 
 that before the end of March the marriage contract was 
 drawn up and the betrothal pubhcly announced. Lorenzo 
 had been careful previously to sound the views of Ferrante 
 and Ludovico, and made it certain that no opposition would 
 come from his allies. Ferrante was assured that in forming 
 this aUiance Lorenzo had no intention of loosening the ties 
 which bound him to Naples. "I have never," he said, 
 "been so exclusively or passionately interested in my 
 own private affairs as to forget public honour or what 
 becomes an honest and straightforward man. I believe 
 the King considers me as such, and he may be sure that if 
 the Pope should intend anything that might disturb peace, 
 I should be the first to resist him ... I think I have 
 with some sacrifice of trouble, care, and money, sufficiently 
 proved my devotion to the King's interests to enable him 
 to be sure that I shall not let slip the substance for the 
 
3o8 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 shadow." Ferrante, on his part, was profuse in his con- 
 gratulations to Lorenzo on an event " as Ukely to prove 
 useful to us as to him." Nothing now stood in the way 
 of the marriage except the youthfulness of the bride. In 
 the autumn, however, Maddalena, accompanied by her 
 mother, her brother Piero, her brother-in-law, Jacopo 
 Salviati, and Gentile, Bishop of Arezzo, set out for Rome, 
 where in January 1488 the marriage was solemnised. 
 Lorenzo had some little difficulty in providing the ready 
 money, 4000 ducats, which had been stipulated as Mad- 
 dalena's dowry. In a famihar letter to Lanfredim he 
 explains that he has " so many holes to fiU up " that cash 
 is scarce, a condition with which rich men are constantly 
 familiar. But four thousand ducats, partly paid up, was 
 not the extent of Lorenzo's generosity to his daughter. 
 He bought the county of Anguillara for Franceschetto ; 
 in addition, the Pazzi Palace in Florence, the Pazzi Villa at 
 Montughi, together with Lorenzo's own estate at Spedaletto, 
 eventuaUy passed, through his wife, Maddalena, into the 
 hands of the Pope's son. By this alliance the way was 
 made smoother for Lorenzo's darling project— a Cardinal's 
 hat for his son Giovanni. 
 
 But in the meantime another scion of the Papacy was 
 exercising the minds of Innocent and Lorenzo. Since the 
 death of Sixtus IV., Girolamo Riario's wings had been 
 clipped. There was no longer any prospect of extending 
 his dominions, but he was clever enough to keep tight hold 
 of what he already possessed. He was favoured by the 
 dissensions which broke out in Italy soon after Innocents 
 accession, dissensions which prevented the Papacy and 
 Florence alike from taking active measures against him. 
 With Riario money was the prime necessity, for he was 
 not inclined to diminish his scale of expenditure even 
 though he could count no longer on the resources of the 
 Papacy. His hand, therefore, was heavy upon Imola 
 and Forli: his taste for splendour and fine buildings 
 drove him to excessive taxation, and his disposition 
 inclined him to cruelty and despotic sway. In Forli the 
 memory of the dispossessed Ordelafh still contmued to 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 309 
 
 linger. Everywhere Riario was confronted with disaffection, 
 and that he continued to rule was mainly due to the support 
 of Ludovico Sforza, whose niece, Caterina, he had married. 
 
 In April 1488 a conspiracy was hatched against him 
 on a scale which admitted of secrecy and despatch. His 
 captain of the guard, Cecco dell' Orso, impelled by his 
 private grievances, associated with himself two accomplices, 
 Ludovico Pansecco and Matteo da Roncho. Being with 
 him in his room, as Riario was looking down out of his 
 window upon the throng in the Piazza below, the conspirators 
 caught him laughing and unawares, riddled him with blows, 
 and threw his body out upon the pavement. Thus this 
 cut-throat adventurer at last met the fate which ten years 
 before he had designed for Lorenzo. As his mangled body 
 lay quivering on the stones, the cry of Liberty was raised. 
 The conspirators incited the people to throw off Riario's 
 yoke. Those who were suspected of being his partisans 
 were struck down as soon as found. 
 
 The insurgents gained possession of Caterina Sforza, the 
 wife of the murdered man, and of her three sons ; a rush 
 was made for the Castle of Ravaldino which commanded 
 the town. Caterina then showed that dauntless mettle 
 which has gained her immortality among the Amazons of 
 Italy. Under the pretence that she alone could induce 
 the Castellan to surrender the Citadel without a struggle, 
 she was permitted by the insurgents to pass within the 
 gates, leaving her children as hostages behind her. Once 
 within the fortress, she ran up upon the walls the Sforza 
 banner, and defied the people to do their worst. When 
 threatened with the instant death of her children she 
 replied with a characteristic gesture of defiance that she 
 remained to raise up others in their place. To her own 
 audacity, and the divided counsels of the rebels, she owed 
 the preservation of her sons. She knew that the forces 
 of her friends would soon be hurrying to her support. 
 Milanese troops were quickly on the scene despatched by 
 Ludovico Sforza; Bentivogli of Bologna and Galeotto 
 della Mirandola brought their contingents. Among the 
 rebels discouragement soon succeeded confidence, and the 
 
310 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 strength they might have derived from union was sapped 
 by divisions, hesitations, and doubts* 
 
 On all hands it was felt that Lorenzo was the arbiter of 
 a situation which, in some quarters, he was suspected of 
 having provoked. To the ItaUan mind it seemed only 
 natural and fitting that Lorenzo should secretly have 
 engineered the assassination of Riario, the man who for 
 years had been the enemy of his House, had slain his brother, 
 had devised the murder of Lorenzo himself, and had let 
 loose the avalanche of war and destruction upon Florence. 
 Riario's assassins themselves doubtless reckoned on the 
 countenance of Lorenzo for their deed, not necessarily 
 because he was privy to their designs, but because, m the 
 nature of things, he was, in their opinion, likely to approve 
 it. On April 19, five days after Riario's murder, two of 
 the conspirators, Ludovico Pansecco and Cecco d'Orso, 
 wrote to Lorenzo, giving the reasons which had prompted 
 their action, and congratulating him upon the removal of 
 the man from whom so many injuries had been received. 
 This letter constitutes the sole ground for the charge that 
 Lorenzo was an accomplice before the fact in the assassi- 
 nation of Riario. The tone and tenor of it, however, are 
 against this conclusion. The writers assume his approval 
 
 • The story of Caterina and the Castle of Ravaldino. as related in the 
 text, is evidently the story which captivated the imagination of Italy. 
 It is related by Guicciardini in his More di Recreazione , and by Macchia- 
 velli who was well acquainted with Caterina Sforza. Gmcciardini goes 
 so far as to quote her actual words, when threatened with the death of 
 her children " E non vi pari egli. stolti, ch'io abbia le forme da fame 
 
 '^^ofunt" Pasolini, however, in his work on Caterina Sforza. rejects the 
 story as being merely a portion of the romantic legend which grew around 
 Caterina in her lifetime. He brings forward the evidence of eye-witnesses 
 of the proceedings in and around the castle to prove that it was the Cas- 
 tellan, not Caterina, who defied the insurgents. Caterma herself bemg 
 asleep at the time in a remote room in the Castle. 
 
 Pasolini also insists that Lorenzo dei Medici had been for years the 
 moving spirit in all conspiracies and risings against Girolamo Riario. and 
 that he was the true instigator of Riario's assassination. Where however. 
 Pasolini advances proofs, as against bare assertions, the proofs seem to 
 amount only to this— that everybody supposed, m view of Riario s share 
 in the Pazzi conspiracy, that Lorenzo must necessarily have been behmd 
 every movement adverse to him. A belief based on general grounds is 
 not/however, evidence of Lorenzo's individual conduct on a particular 
 occasion. 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 311 
 
 from the nature of the case : there is not a word to indicate 
 that he had previously been consulted, or that there was 
 any collusion between him and them. 
 
 Now that the deed was done, the success or failure of the 
 revolution in ForH depended on Lorenzo's action. He was 
 bound to take a course, for the insurgents had made a 
 definite appeal to him, but he felt that his course must be 
 determined by the actual facts of the situation. It was 
 impossible in any event that Forli could fall to Florence. 
 Was it better that the place should be in the hands of a 
 revolutionary government under the nominal control of 
 the Papacy, or that it should still be retained as a small 
 semi-independent principality in the hands of Riario's 
 heir ? 
 
 The forces of Ludovico Sforza and of Bentivoglio, both 
 of them allies of Florence, were already on the spot in the 
 interest of the young Ottaviano Riario, Girolamo's son. 
 Any intervention in opposition to his succession would mean 
 war with Milan and Bologna. Circumstances left no room 
 for doubt or hesitation. Before the month of April was 
 out, Ottaviano Riario was acknowledged as Prince of Forh 
 and Imola, the government, on behalf of the child, being 
 vested in his mother, Caterina Sforza, as Regent. 
 
 Lorenzo, however, seized the opportunity of recovering 
 Piancaldoli, which ten years before Girolamo had filched 
 from Florence under cover of the war between Pope Sixtus 
 and Lorenzo. Florentine forces now occupied the town, 
 and Florence was at last in secure possession of all that 
 the Pazzi War had cost her. The acquisition, however, 
 was greeted by violent protests from Ludovico Sforza, 
 which Lorenzo was strong enough to ignore. They served, 
 however, to show once more that his alHance with Ludovico 
 was grounded on slippery foundations, and that the most 
 insignificant incident might at any time prove fatal to the 
 delicate balance which held the affairs of Italy in 
 equilibrium. 
 
 The jealousies and difficulties arising out of events in 
 Forli had scarcely been composed, when a domestic tragedy 
 occurred in Faenza which directly touched Lorenzo's good 
 
312 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 relations with Bologna, and indirectly threatened the 
 peace of Italy. 
 
 The small principality of Faenza, lying midway between 
 Forli and Imola, was in the hands of the Manfredi family, 
 but Faenza had commended herself to Florence, the govern- 
 ment of the Manfredi being exercised under Florentine 
 supervision and control. Galeotto Manfredi, the ruling 
 Prince, was married to Francesca Bentivoglio, a marriage 
 which had been arranged under Lorenzo's good auspices, 
 for he was equally associated with both parties by ties of 
 friendly relationship. The union, after promising well, 
 turned out unhappily. Francesca was jealous and tactless, 
 and Galeotto was too susceptible to the charms of ladies 
 other than his wife. Domestic discord reached the point of 
 a political crisis when Francesca appealed to her father. 
 
 In response Giovanni Bentivoglio marched against 
 Faenza, secured possession of Francesca, and carried her 
 home to Bologna. The lady had continually confided to 
 Lorenzo her domestic griefs, and now, as the friend of all 
 parties, he consented, on the representations of Galeotto, 
 to intervene. A reconcihation was patched up, and 
 Francesca returned to Faenza and to her husband. But 
 she had by no means laid aside her resentment. Incited 
 by past memories or fresh outrages, she formed a plan for 
 assassinating Galeotto, which she carried out with diabolical 
 intensity. Under pretence of being ill she summoned him 
 to her room where he was set upon by assassins whom she 
 had concealed beneath her bed. Galeotto defended himself 
 with so much energy and success that the plot was in 
 danger of failure, when Francesca came from her bed to 
 the aid of the murderers, and slew her husband with her 
 own hand. 
 
 She then betook herself to the Castle, where she awaited 
 the arrival of her father to her support. The citizens, fearing 
 that Bentivoglio's presence in their city threatened them 
 with the loss of their liberties, rose against him, slew the 
 Milanese General, Bergomino, whose troops had joined 
 the Bolognese, and Bentivoglio himself was made prisoner. 
 
 The crisis made some definite action on the part of 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 313 
 
 Lorenzo inevitable. The responsibilities of Florence 
 towards Faenza were direct, but the good understanding 
 which had always existed between the Medici and the 
 Bentivogli made the situation awkward. Any course of 
 action was almost sure to cause trouble. Lorenzo, however, 
 acted with vigour and decision. He declared for young 
 Astorre Manfredi, son of the murdered Galeotto. His 
 government in Faenza was guaranteed by Florence, and 
 Bentivoglio was kept a prisoner at Modigliana, on Florentine 
 soil, until the excitement in Faenza should have quieted 
 down. Francesca herself was entrusted to the guardianship 
 of her mother at Bologna. 
 
 These dispositions were satisfactory as far as they con- 
 cerned Faenza, but they only gave rise to apprehensions 
 of fresh trouble from Bologna. Bentivogho had powerful 
 and influential advocates in Ludovico, Ferrante, and others, 
 and the Bolognese themselves threatened hostilities against 
 Florence on behalf of their imprisoned Prince. Lorenzo 
 however, refused to be intimidated. Having taken his 
 course, he resolutely adhered to the cause of young Astorre 
 Manfredi, retaining Bentivoglio a prisoner until affairs in 
 Faenza had quieted down. Then he summoned the prisoner 
 to attend him at Caffagiuolo, and, after a friendly interview, 
 restored Bentivoglio to Bologna. He felt compelled to 
 negative the request that Francesca should be allowed to 
 return to Faenza, but he carried his desire for an accom- 
 modation so far as to intercede with the Pope on her behalf. 
 Early in January 1489, Lorenzo informed Lanfredini at 
 Rome that Giovanni Bentivoglio was very insistent that 
 he should use his influence with Innocent to secure abso- 
 lution for her crime, seeing that Giovanni had an idea of 
 marrying her again, or, failing that, of making her a nun. 
 The atrocious circumstances and nature of her crime do 
 not seem to have seriously prejudiced her in the eyes of 
 Lorenzo, her father, or any one else. Assassination had 
 come to be regarded in Italy as a fine art, and that the 
 successful assassin should be a woman only added romance 
 and artistic finish to the exploit. 
 
 In districts less intimately connected with the interests 
 
314 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of Florence than Forli and Faenza, Lorenzo was caLed 
 upon to exercise his influence. The city of Perugia vas 
 nominally under Papal control, but in fact the supremacy 
 was contested between the two families of Oddi and Baglicni. 
 These factions raged so furiously in Perugia that govern- 
 ment ceased to exist : all the efforts of the Pope to assert 
 his authority and restore order were ineffectual. Lorerzo 
 looked upon Perugia as of great importance to Floren:e, 
 and desired to see stable government estabUshed there in 
 the hands of some family under obligations to himself. 
 He greatly feared the preponderating influence of either 
 the Papacy or Naples in a town so adjacent to the Florentine 
 frontiers, and hoped, by siding with the Baglioni, to 
 establish a practically independent government holding 
 power by virtue of his own support. Finding the Baglioni 
 already intriguing with the King of Naples, Lorenzo deter- 
 mined to step in and supplant him. Recognising, as he 
 said to Lanfredini, that " the Baglioni would give them- 
 selves not merely to the King but to the Devil," he considered 
 that it would be well that they should give themselves to 
 him. Largely by Lorenzo's influence the Oddi were driven 
 into exile, the Baglioni became for the time supreme, the 
 Papal control over Perugia being even more nominal than 
 before. 
 
 Lorenzo's whole policy towards Florentine dependencies, 
 and the small outlying communes or principalities, was 
 animated by one fixed principle. His aim was to con- 
 solidate the territory which properly belonged to Florence, 
 and to surround that territory in a ring fence of small 
 friendly States more or less under his own immediate 
 influence and control. On this principle he made his great 
 effort for the recovery of Sarzana, and took the opportunity 
 offered for regaining Piancaldoli. Thus he intervened in 
 Faenza, Forli, Citta di Castello, Perugia, Siena, Lucca, and 
 sought, as Ludovico Sforza said, " to transform defences 
 made of glass into defences of iron." In pursuing this 
 policy he was beset with difficulties on all sides, and had 
 to pick his path with wary, delicate steps. He had no 
 army, but sought to attach to his own interests the chief 
 
LORENZO AS AN ITALIAN STATESMAN 315 
 
 mercenary corps in Italy. His aims were not very 
 intelligently understood even by his own people ; consequently 
 he had to educate and persuade the Florentines to a com- 
 prehension of their own interests. Wherever he thought 
 it necessary to intervene, he was brought up sharp against 
 the counter-interests of one or other of the major Powers, 
 and had so to steer his course as to gain his ends without 
 fatally damaging his system of inter-State alliances on 
 which the peace of Italy rested. He had to contend with 
 the jealousy and unblushing self-seeking of Ludovico 
 Sforza, with the vacillating, forcible-feeble political efforts 
 of Innocent, with the shifty, treacherous Ferrante, who 
 was tiever so dangerous as when his professions of friendship 
 were most profuse. 
 
 Judged in the light of the difficulties which beset it, 
 Lorenzo's policy may be pronounced a success. He gave 
 to Florence that form of liberty which alone she understood 
 — freedom from outside interferences, freedom to pursue 
 at home her own commercial, social, and artistic bent. 
 While ever intent upon the integrity and honour of his own 
 State, he skilfully saved the susceptibilities of his jealous 
 and touchy allies. More than any other Italian statesman 
 of his day, he looked beyond the immediate and petty 
 interests of the moment to the requirements of Italy as a 
 country. He was an Italian even more than a Florentine 
 statesman, and, as such, he surveyed the field of affairs, 
 Italian, Ultramontane, Florentine, as one field on which he 
 m'ght work to the common welfare of Florence, of Italy, 
 and of the world. It would be absurd to claim for him 
 that he never made mistakes, that he never deviated from 
 the course which he had set, that he never subordinated 
 large public interests to the requirements of personal or 
 provinicial interests. A man so impressionable, so versatile, 
 so human as Lorenzo could scarcely confine himself rigidly 
 within the limits of a fixed idea. His motives cannot be 
 reduced to uniformity, nor his actions harmonised at every 
 point with the single standard of public good. But when 
 we estimate him in relation to his times, to his contem- 
 poraries, and to his achievements, Lorenzo stands out as 
 
3i6 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 more truly the representative of what was best in ItaHan 
 statesmanship than any other. This is no modem dis- 
 covery, but was recognised at the time by panegyrists, 
 like Valori, by austere repubhcans, Hke Nardi, by philosophic 
 historians, like Guicciardini, and even by Macchiavelli. 
 Nardi, perhaps, most forcibly expresses the view of thinking 
 men of the succeeding generation, when he admits that 
 Lorenzo " towards the end of his life left so fixed an opinion 
 of his prudence in the minds of men, that even now it may 
 be believed that, had he lived, those disasters which dis- 
 turbed Italy almost immediately after his death would not 
 have come to pass." " It must be confessed," says 
 Guicciardini, " that, under Lorenzo, Florence was not 
 free, but never was there a despot more pleasing or better 
 than he. From his inclinations and natural disposition 
 infinite good resulted, as well as some evils which are 
 inherent in any form of despotism. But these evils were 
 not excessive, but limited as far as the necessities of the 
 situation would permit. The inconveniences of his govern- 
 ment in relation to liberty of judgment and opinion were 
 very few. To some men, who were kept under, his death 
 was pleasing, but to those who were of the government, it 
 was a source of grief, for they knew not where to look, in 
 the changed conditions, to find a Head who could succeed 
 him." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 
 
 Lorenzo's care for his family— His mother— His wife Clarice— Love 
 for his children— Piero dei Medici— Giuliano, Duke of Nemours— Marriages 
 of his daughters — Giovanni dei Medici (Leo X.)— His ecclesiastical prefer- 
 ments—Giovanni's Cardinalate— Rejoicings in Florence over Giovanni's 
 Cardinalate— Giovanni in Rome— Lorenzo's letter to Giovanni— Lorenzo's 
 difficulties with the Pope and Naples— Strained relations between Innocent 
 and Ferrante — Lorenzo mediates between the Pope and Ferrante— 
 Threatened intervention of France in Naples— Lorenzo's interest in the 
 fortunes of his son-in-law, Franceschetto Cib5— Varied interests of Lorenzo 
 —Savonarola and Lorenzo— Fra Mariano— Flourishing state of Florence 
 in Lorenzo's last years— Troubles in Florence— Embassy from the Soldan 
 of Egypt — Deceptive appearances of security in Italy and Florence — 
 Demoralising influences of wealth and luxury in Florence — General aspect of 
 affairs in 1492— If France came into Italy, Spain was not likely to hold aloof. 
 
 AMID all the intricacies of diplomacy, and amid the 
 responsibilities of domestic government, Lorenzo 
 found time to live a full and rounded life. He was one of 
 those who thought that nothing which touched humanity 
 was alien from himself, and he himself may almost be said 
 to have touched humanity at every point. No strict 
 separation can be made between his public and his private 
 life, for many of the joys of the latter were associated with 
 his position as a public man. Yet it may be surmised that 
 he was really happiest, most natural, most himself, in those 
 intervals of leisure from State affairs when he could disport 
 himself with his children or in the chase ; when he could try 
 the paces of a new horse, or rejoice in the flight of a favourite 
 falcon. No less was it happiness to him to retire to some 
 secluded haunt, among " the streamlets which from the 
 green hills descend into the Arno," or by the side of Ombrone 
 falhng in cascades, where he would meditate a poem, or 
 resolve a problem in philosophy, or, better still, be content 
 merely to be filled with the sweet influences of Nature in 
 
 317 
 
3i8 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 that spirit of wise passiveness which seeks no further end 
 than to enjoy. No less keen was his dehght in the sciety 
 of his friends, who were one in the common tie of devotion 
 and admiration which bound them to Lorenzo, but who 
 otherwise were men with strange diversities of chancter 
 and intellectual gifts. The bite and sparkle of Pulci'i wit 
 called forth from Lorenzo its correspondent repirtee. 
 The elegance of Poliziano's scholarship, the charm and jrace 
 of his poetry, were matched by the scholarship and p)etry 
 of Lorenzo. MarsiHo Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Chisto- 
 foro Landino were critics, Platonists, philosophers who 
 were thought almost to have scaled the heights to vhich 
 the human intellect could aspire, but in criticism and 
 philosophy they regarded Lorenzo not only as their e^ual, 
 but as one to whose inspiration they owed much of /vhat 
 was best in themselves. 
 
 No man could vie with him as a connoisseur, and his taste 
 in art was catholic. Paintings, sculptures, bronzes, ^ems, 
 majolica, books, he collected them all and understood then all. 
 There was nothing in Lorenzo of the vulgar passion fo: the 
 unappreciative accumulation of expensive and unattaiiable 
 things. He gathered beautiful things around him because 
 he loved them, not merely because they gratified the ser.se of 
 exclusive possession. He enjoyed, in a higher degree than 
 most men, the critical feehng for pure beauty, and with 
 it he had the magnetic faculty of drawing out from artists 
 who worked for him the highest beauty of which they 
 were capable. The daily life of a man so versatile, so 
 keenly interested in all things, as was Lorenzo, could have 
 had no monotonj^. He was able to draw from -within 
 himself material which would suffice most men for the 
 purposes of complete existence, and to these resources he 
 added the activities, cares, and joys which came to him 
 from the external world. He lived out to the full each 
 hour of every day in his comparatively brief span of years, 
 and at forty-three he had tasted almost all that life has to 
 give. 
 
 It is not, however, the purpose of this chapter to review 
 the many-sided activities of Lorenzo's career. His 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 319 
 
 intellectual achievements will be treated later. Here we 
 are concerned with the events of his closing years which 
 may appropriately be connected with his life as head of a 
 family. 
 
 Care for the interests of the family was the ruling principle 
 in every Florentine household. Much may be said for 
 Armstrong's contention that it was the family, more than 
 the individual, that the Renaissance developed and exalted. 
 All political and social life in Florence centred round the 
 family. There might, or might not, be a strong sense of 
 family affection. There was invariably a strong sense of 
 family honour, and a conviction that the advancement of 
 the family could best be secured by a close union of aU its 
 members. Among the ruling classes in Italy it was in a 
 special degree a principle that the stability of their rule 
 could best be guaranteed by family alliances, and much 
 of Lorenzo's policy was directed to this end. 
 
 But to this materialistic view of the political uses to 
 which his children could be put Lorenzo added a genuine, 
 and altogether human, affection for them. The picture of 
 Lorenzo in his home presents him, on the whole, in a very 
 pleasing and engaging light. 
 
 Lorenzo's family circle included, until her death in 1473, 
 his grandmother, " The Madonna Contessina," Cosimo's 
 widow, and his mother, Lucrezia Tomabuoni, who remained, 
 till 1482, to be the mainstay and confidante of her illustrious 
 son. Everything which is known of Lucrezia proves her 
 to have been a woman not only of exceptional attainments, 
 but of lofty character and sweet graces of disposition. 
 Much of what was best in Lorenzo came to him from his 
 mother. From her he inherited that irresistible personal 
 charm which was his peculiar gift, and that spirituality 
 which much worldliness and many weaknesses could not 
 entirely overcloud. His passion for poetry, for music, and 
 for beauty in all things, was a debt that he owed chiefly 
 to her, and the intimate relations of confidence and affection 
 which at all times bound mother and son together show 
 an affinity of spirit between them which the stress and 
 exigencies of public Ufe could do nothing to estrange. To 
 
320 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 her he was ever her " suavissimus fiUus," her dearest son. 
 To him she was, as he wrote on the day of her death, " my 
 only refuge amid my many cares and difiiculties ; the only 
 helper who could aid and counsel me in my many troubles 
 . , . I have not enough strength of mind to bear this 
 calamity with calmness. I pray God to send me composure 
 and comfort, and to grant peace and blessedness to her 
 soul." 
 
 It is clear, not only from Lorenzo's words, but from the 
 whole tenor of his married life, that there was no such 
 close confidence and communion between him and his 
 wife, Clarice Orsini, as existed between himself and his 
 mother. The marriage in the first instance was a mere 
 manage de convenance, and it has been seen that, at the 
 time, Lorenzo was deeply under the influence of a romantic 
 passion. But, though no ideal union of kindred souls, the 
 marriage was far from turning out unhappily. Clarice was 
 a good mother. Lorenzo, it must be confessed, was only 
 an indifferent husband. The public opinion of the time 
 sanctioned considerable licence, and in this respect Lorenzo 
 was not superior to his age. Clarice does not appear to 
 have created scenes when Lorenzo's relations with other 
 ladies became too open and notorious, but the sense that 
 she was insufficient for him precluded the possibility of 
 perfect sympathy between them. Intellectually Clarice 
 was not distinguished. She gives the impression of a certain 
 prim sourness of disposition which must at times have been 
 depressing to Lorenzo's mercurial soul. She was lacking 
 in that supreme gift of the Gods — imagination — and was 
 therefore unable to picture to herself the position and 
 point of view of other people. Lorenzo she understood 
 tolerably, and knew something of how he was to be humoured 
 and won, but with others her Orsini pride stood in the 
 way ; she thought it scarcely worth her while to conciliate 
 where she could compel. Lorenzo did not show his usual 
 judgment of character in appointing Angelo Poliziano to be 
 the frequent attendant upon his wife. She knew nothing of 
 philosophers and literary men — at all times an irritahile genus. 
 Neither Poliziano's views for the education of her children, 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 321 
 
 nor his easy manners altogether squared with her notions 
 of the fitness of things. Complaints from the lady, pro- 
 testations from the philosopher, constantly poured in upon 
 Lorenzo, who at last recognised his error. The situation 
 was obviously hopeless when the mother insisted that her 
 son should read the Psalter at the moment when the tutor 
 was proposing that he should read Plato. Poliziano was 
 for a time withdrawn into the retirement of a villa at Fiesole, 
 while the instruction of the young Piero was entrusted to 
 other hands. 
 
 The harsh traits of Clarice's character were in part 
 redeemed by not a few sound and excellent qualities. It 
 required no little tact to maintain with dignity and self- 
 respect a position which Lorenzo's own conduct too often 
 made difficult and equivocal. That on the whole his 
 household was unclouded by domestic discords is a testimony 
 to her good nature and to his own powers of conciliation 
 and charm. As a mother she was devoted, if not always 
 quite wise, and the peculiar tenderness of her attachment 
 to her daughter Maddalena, whom Lorenzo describes as 
 her mother's occhio del capo — the eye within her head — 
 shows a depth and intensity in her nature which belies 
 some seeming coldness. Lorenzo was not himself ignorant 
 of her real worth. Clarice died on July 30, 1488, and her 
 husband, in a letter to the Pope, mourned her loss in the 
 unaffected accents of genuine sorrow. For nineteen years 
 they had shared life together, and had tasted together of 
 its joys and griefs. A daughter, Luigia, had been taken 
 from him a short time before, and now that her mother 
 had followed her to the tomb, Lorenzo felt that " the limit 
 is passed. I can find no comfort or rest for my deep sorrow. 
 I pray the Lord God to give me peace, and trust that in 
 His Goodness, He will spare me any more such trials as 
 have visited me lately." 
 
 Lorenzo's grief for Clarice was doubtless accentuated by 
 the circumstances attending her death. She had been ill 
 for some weeks ; and it was obvious that she could not 
 recover, but nobody expected that the end would come 
 so soon. Lorenzo was himself ill, and after some delay 
 
 X 
 
322 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 caused by the state of his wife's health, he felt sufficiently 
 reassured to withdraw from Florence for a time to take 
 the medicinal waters at Filetta. Clarice died, in his absence, 
 nine days later. A charge of callousness and indifference 
 has been brought against him in that, at such a time, he 
 should have left his wife alone to die. But it is clear that 
 death came at the last with startling suddenness, cheating 
 the calculations of all who were best quaUfied to judge of 
 Clarice's condition. 
 
 Lorenzo's family consisted of three sons, four daughters, 
 and the young Giulio, his brother Giuliano's son. To all 
 alike he was bound by the tenderest ties of attachment and 
 sympathy. Among his children he threw off all restraint, 
 and one of the most pleasing pictures of him has been 
 unconsciously drawn by Macchiavelli, who notes with 
 surprise that so eminent a man should have condescended 
 to romps in the nursery. " He was frequently seen playing 
 with his children, and sharing in their infantine amuse- 
 ments, so that whoever considers this union in him of 
 gravity and levity will discover qualities combined in him 
 which almost seem contradictory and incompatible." 
 The childish letters which from time to time he received 
 from his eldest son, Piero, are evidence of the terms of 
 playful intimacy on which father and son stood. In days 
 when formality and etiquette were the rules of the house- 
 hold, it is charming to find Lorenzo anticipating those 
 relations of friendship and confidence which only in our 
 own day have begun to be common between parents and 
 children. 
 
 As they grew older, he called upon the resources of his 
 own mind to provide them with amusement and edification. 
 For his children he wrote his MoraUty Play, S. Giovanni 
 e S. Paolo, allotting the characters among them, and 
 himself taking a part. He devoted peculiar care to their 
 education, choosing teachers from his own immediate 
 circle of intimate friends. Piero's reports of his progress 
 in Latin and Greek were eagerly looked for and gave the 
 father the keenest pleasure. In the case of children, too, 
 he held by his dictum that more is to be got from love 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 323 
 
 than from severity. " If the. wild beasts love their young," 
 he once wrote, "what should be our indulgence towards 
 our children, and if all who are engaged in the service of 
 the State are dear to us, how dear should be the teacher 
 of our children, for their exertions are not limited by the 
 fleeting moment: their counsels, teaching, and virtue are 
 the foundation of our authority in the family and the 
 State." 
 
 The eldest son, Piero, destined to bring to ruin that 
 edifice of power which his ancestors had so carefully reared, 
 grew up into a man endowed with many gifts of understanding. 
 If we could beheve the eulogy of Poliziano, we should 
 be justified in regarding him as the epitome of all the 
 excellences of all his ancestors combined. But, in fact, his 
 character was marred by a strain of arrogance, mingled 
 with frivolous irresponsibiHty, which proved fatal to the 
 interests of his House. Lorenzo marked with growing 
 anxiety the headstrong wilfulness of the youth who was 
 destined to succeed him. Though at times he talked of 
 retiring from public life in favour of his son, and doubtless 
 hoped in all sincerity that a sense of responsibihty would 
 temper and restrain the waywardness and passion which 
 he deplored, yet he was conscious that he was leaving one 
 to come after him whose lack of tact, strenuousness, and 
 sympathy made him unfitted to carry on the traditions of 
 his House. Following the example of his own father, 
 Lorenzo strove early to initiate the boy in the arts and 
 practices of public life. Missions of ceremonial, such as 
 the visit to Innocent VIII. at Rome, were followed by 
 missions of State, such as the embassy to Milan on the 
 occasion of Galeazzo Sforza's marriage, but Piero never 
 could learn the first lesson in Statecraft which Lorenzo 
 taught him — that " though you are my son, you are only 
 a simple Florentine citizen like any other," and his failure 
 to grasp this elementary truth was in large part the cause 
 of his ultimate downfall. 
 
 Giuliano, Lorenzo's third son, afterwards Duke of Nemours, 
 who sits, and will ever sit, as the sculptured embodiment 
 of the active fife in Michelangelo's masterpiece in the 
 
324 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 San Lorenzo sacristy, is only an indistinct and chidish 
 figure during his father's lifetime. He was, says Faboni, 
 of weak health, or rather of no health at all, but it vould 
 seem that the brightness and gaiety of his disposition 
 triumphed over his bodily frailties. Lorenzo called him 
 " the good boy of the family," and there seems to tiave 
 been nothing of the petulant sick child about him. ?iero 
 charmingly describes his brothers and sisters in one d his 
 letters to his father, managing to hit them off in a fev gay 
 sentences. " GiuHano does nothing but laugh all day. 
 Lucrezia sews, sings, and reads : Maddalena goes knocking 
 her head against the walls, but does not hurt herself: 
 Luigia can already say several little sentences : Contfssina 
 is making a great noise all over the house." There s no 
 mention of Giovanni, the second son, who was pro]>ably 
 away pursuing his studies at Pisa, so for the momeit he 
 may be passed over in favour of his sisters of whom Piero 
 has given us a glimpse. 
 
 It is no derogation from Lorenzo's parental affections 
 to admit that he regarded his children not only as his 
 children, but as pieces in the political game. Through them 
 he could cement alliances which would strengthet his 
 position both at home and abroad. For Piero he arranged 
 a marriage with a daughter of the Orsini House, thus 
 strengthening with that powerful family the good relations 
 which his own marriage with Clarice Orsini had begun. His 
 daughter Maddalena was used, as has been seen, to ass)ciate 
 him stiU more closely with Pope Innocent. The marriages 
 of his other daughters were designed to serve his erds in 
 Florence rather than the purposes of his foreign policy. 
 Lucrezia, the eldest, was married to Jacopo Salviati, a 
 relative of that Archbishop of Pisa who had been foremost 
 among the engineers of the Pazzi conspiracy. Thus 
 Lorenzo hoped to bury the last enmities aroused by the 
 conspiracy, and to attach the Salviati family to himself. 
 From this union sprang the line of Medician Grand Dukes 
 of Tuscany, headed by Duke Cosimo, Lucrezia's grandson. 
 
 Luigia was betrothed to Giovanni dei Medici, a member 
 of the younger branch of the family, in the hope that the 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 325 
 
 connection between the two branches might become more 
 intimate and friendly, but Luigia died before the marriage 
 could take place. Contessina became the wife of Piero 
 Ridolfi. Thus another of the great Florentine families was 
 attached by close personal ties to the House of Medici. 
 
 Of all his children, the one on whom Lorenzo's highest 
 hopes were set was Giovanni, his second son. If Giuliano 
 was the good boy, Giovanni was the wise boy of the family, 
 and Lorenzo's dispositions for the youth's education and 
 career seem to have been based upon a prophetic foresight 
 of the great future which was in store for him. Ever since 
 the days of Cosimo it had been a fixed idea of Medician 
 policy that the family should be represented in the highest 
 councils of the Church, and Giovanni was dedicated to the 
 Cardinalate from his earliest years. Through him Lorenzo 
 sought to make his influence over Innocent VIII. supreme. 
 It would be indeed a proof of the supremacy of that influence 
 if the Pope could be induced to do an unprecedented thing 
 in conferring the red hat upon a mere boy. The Church 
 had come to be regarded as a secular Principality like any 
 other, except that its dignities were not hereditary. To 
 secure those dignities, and the powers which they carried 
 with them, became the passion of every Italian ruler. 
 There was no sense of their spiritual, but only of their 
 temporal, significance. The qualifications of the individual 
 holder were of little importance. The office absorbed the 
 man, and it was the office which was valuable to the political 
 interests of the reigning Houses. The Church was looked 
 upon as a profession, where, if the cards were skilfully 
 played, great prizes from the first were to be won. The 
 inner life of the spirit, which is alone the religious life, was 
 not concerned, except in a formal and perfunctory manner, 
 with the outward organisation of the Church. Lorenzo 
 cannot be accused of irreligion because he sought to obtain 
 in his own interests these secular advantages which the 
 Church, as an Italian principality, put within his grasp. 
 So, too, he saw no impropriety in loading a child in the 
 nursery with rich benefices. Abbacies, Bishoprics, Arch- 
 bishoprics, and the like. They were, in his view, the 
 
326 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 adornments of an ecclesiastical position, the substantiil 
 benefits which the profession of Church dignitary offered 
 to those who were powerful enough to secure them. Tie 
 actual duties which these exalted stations involved woad 
 be performed, not by their child-occupants, but by deputies 
 competent to perform them. What matter, then, if the weallh 
 and dignity were enjoyed by those who were marked out ^.o 
 enjoy them ? Such reasoning seems specious and sophisticil 
 now, but it may be questioned if, in those days, men ev^r 
 paused to reason upon the matter. The evil was so rooted 
 in the conditions of the time that it was not regarded as 
 an evil. To affect scruples about that which was a matter 
 of course would have seemed ridiculous and eccentric. To 
 throw away advantages, sanctioned by public opinion, for 
 the sake of some unintelligible scruple, would have appeared 
 mere madness in any Italian Prince of that time. 
 
 Lorenzo was rather more, not less, scrupulous than his 
 contemporaries in his efforts for his son's preferment. He 
 took most anxious care that Giovanni should be fitted, as 
 far as training and education could fit him, for his high 
 and responsible offices. He was, moreover, laudably 
 solicitous as to the character and qualifications df those 
 who for a time were to act as his son's deputies. He was 
 familiar enough with ecclesiastical scandals to wish to avoid 
 any imputation of scandal in his own family. It did not 
 occur to him that there was any scandal in his son being 
 Abbot of Fonte-Dolce, and Prior of Passignano, before he 
 was eight. At the same age the Archbishopric of Aix was 
 conferred upon Giovanni by Louis XL, but it was unfortu- 
 nately discovered later that the see was not vacant, the Arch- 
 bishop being still ahve. From King Ferrante Giovanni 
 received the Abbacy of Monte Cassino at the age of eleven, 
 and at about the same time, that of Santa Maria di Mira- 
 mondo from Ludovico Sforza. 
 
 These and many other preferments were, however, only 
 preliminaries to the grand prize which Lorenzo, now that 
 Innocent was Pope, saw to be within his grasp. His heart 
 was set upon a Cardinal's hat, and, before Giovanni was 
 J:welve, his father W9,s modelling his policy at Rome with 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 327 
 
 a view to that object. He urged upon his ambassador, 
 Lanfredini, the necessity of bringing pressure to bear upon 
 Innocent. He wrote to the Pope himself. He exerted 
 all his influence in the College of Cardinals. He was painfully- 
 conscious of the necessity of haste, for he was not deceived 
 as to the state of his own health, and Innocent was alarmingly 
 subject to attacks of serious illness. At last, after much 
 hesitation the Pope allowed himself to be persuaded. In 
 March 1489, when Giovanni was not yet fourteen, the boy's 
 name was included in a list of promotions, with the proviso 
 that, under pain of excommunication, the nomination was 
 not to be made pubHc until after a lapse of three years. 
 Nevertheless, Lorenzo heard the news on the day of the 
 appointment, and in Florence the tidings were the signal 
 for general rejoicings. The ambassadors who were in the 
 city crowded to the Palace in the Via Larga to offer their 
 congratulations, for it was generally felt abroad and at 
 home that Lorenzo's consideration had been enormously 
 enhanced. This Cardinalate was a shining proof of his 
 influence over the Pope. The man who had the Pope in 
 his pocket was the man to conciliate and to use. 
 
 In the meantime, Giovanni himself was sent to the 
 University of Pisa to fit himself for his high position by 
 the study of law, philosophy, and humane letters. He 
 appUed himself strenuously to his studies, and at the 
 University and elsewhere he bore himself with a dignity 
 and decorum which were surprising in a youth of his years. 
 Lorenzo could see no reason why the boy's assumption 
 of his office should be deferred : his impatience was 
 increased a thousandfold when he learned that in the autumn 
 of 1490 the Pope had been seized with a fit of apoplexy, 
 and was lying at the point of death. When at last Innocent 
 became convalescent, he became at the same time annoyed 
 by the constant appeals to reconsider his determination. 
 Lorenzo had to possess his soul in patience until the full 
 three years were out, when, to the very day, the ceremonies 
 of initiation were begun. He was only just in time. Thirty 
 days later Lorenzo himself died ; little more than three 
 months elapsed before Innocent followed him to the grave. 
 
328 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Two letters written at the time are of peculiar interest. 
 One from Piero Delfini, General of the Camaldulenses, to a 
 friend is dated March ii, 1492, wherein, " tumultuario stylo 
 ac currente calamo," he gives a lively account of the pro- 
 ceedings in Florence in celebration of Giovanni's Cardinalate. 
 In a sequel he relates the story of Giovanni's journey to 
 Rome and of his reception there. The other letter is from 
 Lorenzo to his son, giving his last admonitions as to the 
 conduct and bearing of the young Cardinal at Rome. 
 
 It was at the Abbey Church of Fiesole, on March 9, 
 1492, that Giovanni was inducted into the Cardinalate by 
 Matteo Bossi the Prior. Shortly after the ceremony, a 
 procession was formed, and, in splendid state, Giovanni 
 was conducted to the city through the Porta San Gallo. 
 There, says Delfini, the whole city, nay the whole terri- 
 tory, was gathered together, as one man, from which it 
 may be judged how earnestly this dignity had been desired 
 for one of the citizens of Florence. The procession first 
 moved to the Annunciata, where Giovanni engaged in prayer, 
 then to the Palazzo Publico, that he might receive the 
 greetings of the Signoria ; then to the Medici palace. 
 There Lorenzo was waiting to receive his son, who, to his 
 father's eyes, had " grown and changed since yesterday," 
 It was scarcely possible to move in the neighbourhood of 
 the Via Larga, the crowd being so dense notwithstanding 
 the heavy clouds and continual rain. To-day, says Delfini, 
 (March 11) mass was celebrated in the Cathedral, and it 
 was just as if the Pope himself had been present, so 
 splendidly were all things conducted. The crowd was 
 again enormous : there was such rejoicing, and such a 
 throng, as would lead you to suppose that not one single 
 person had remained at home. " And so I pray that this 
 dignity may be prosperous and happy for him ; that he 
 may prove a column of strength to the tottering Church. 
 For his safety you will pray, and will, in my name, command 
 prayers to be offered up for him." 
 
 The sequel, written on April 7th, describes in detail 
 the journey to Rome. Delfini tells of all the receptions 
 which Giovanni met with on the way ; of his entry into 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 329 
 
 Rome, and his admission to the Papal presence. He 
 comments on the shocking state of the weather, which 
 seemed to reach a culminating point of atrocity as the 
 company left the Vatican. There were such sheets of 
 rain that everybody was not only wet to the skin, but in 
 danger of being washed away altogether. He is warm in 
 his admiration of Giovanni's conduct and bearing. He 
 can scarcely understand how such a " fuerulus " could 
 adapt himself so readily, and so becomingly, to the situation. 
 All men marvelled at the maturity of his mind, at the charm 
 of his manners, which impressed everybody favourably. 
 
 The letter written by Lorenzo to his son at Rome has 
 been so often quoted that it may seem superfluous to do 
 more than allude to it here. Roscoe gives the original in 
 his Appendices, and translates it in his text. Armstrong 
 finds in it the first draft of the recommendations of Polonius 
 to Laertes, and is almost more amused with its senten- 
 tiousness than impressed with its wisdom. 
 
 But it is a letter so entirely characteristic of Lorenzo 
 that a knowledge of its content is indispensable to a correct 
 view of him. It is, moreover, almost the last important 
 communication to which he put his hand. It is his final 
 word on life, and how to live it. 
 
 He begins by impressing on Giovanni that he owes this, 
 the greatest dignity which his family has ever enjoyed, 
 to no merit of his own, but to God alone. It behoves him, 
 therefore, to express in all his actions his gratitude to that 
 Divine Power to whose service he had from his earliest 
 years been dedicated. The best thanks which he can 
 render to God are those which take definite form in a saintly, 
 exemplary, and honourable life. 
 
 At Rome he must recognise that he is living in the sink 
 of all evils. He must therefore be on his guard against 
 those who would corrupt him, realising that he will be 
 exposed to the jealousies of some, and the vicious example 
 of others ; that it is upon himself, rather than upon the 
 example of his colleagues in the Sacred College, that he 
 must depend if he is to escape the many temptations by 
 which he will be beset. He must, however, in his conduct. 
 
330 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 practise that supreme virtue which resides in the happy 
 mean. Let there be no affectation of an excess of austerity 
 and seriousness foreign to his real character, for the im- 
 putation of hypocrisy is as much ,to be avoided as Scylla 
 and Charybdis. 
 
 If only all the Cardinals were good men, then the world 
 would always be blest with good Popes, and all Christendom 
 would prosper. Be therefore such a Cardinal that, if all 
 the others were like you, we might confidently look forward 
 to this universal blessing. In your conversation with the 
 Cardinals, observe a fitting deference and respect, but in 
 all your decisions be governed by your own reason, not 
 impelled by the persuasions of others. For a time, however, 
 it will be better for you rather to listen to others than to 
 speak much yourself. 
 
 You are from this day wholly dedicated to the service of 
 God and the Church. You must therefore place the interests 
 of the Church above all earthly things. But even with 
 this reserve, opportunities will not be wanting to you to 
 be of service to this city and to your House. You must 
 be the good sound chain which finks the Church and this 
 city together, for the House and the city are one {la casa 
 ne va colla cittd). But it must be a fundamental principle 
 with you that whatever you do, the Church comes first. 
 
 In your household and manner of fife, you should tune 
 your behaviour by the note of moderation. A good stable, 
 and a well-ordered and refined household are to be preferred 
 before pomp and display. Silk and jewels are only on 
 rare occasions suitable to your position. Much more 
 desirable is the distinction which comes from possessing a 
 few rare antiques and fine books. It is better to be the 
 host than the guest, though here again moderation must 
 be observed. Eat plain food and take plenty of exercise ; 
 and do not think that all is done because you have attained 
 a secure position of eminence. Be ever on your guard 
 against being unworthy of it. One rule above all others 
 I recommend to you, and that is, to get up early in the 
 morning, for not only does this practice materially conduce 
 to health, but it simplifies the whole business of the day. 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 331 
 
 Before you go to bed at night consider well what you have 
 got to do next day, so that nothing can take you unawares. 
 In the Consistory, adapt your remarks, when they are 
 required, to the wishes of His Hohness, seeing that at 
 present you are very young, and have little experience. 
 Do not be importunate in your requests to him, for he is 
 naturally inclined to grant the most to those who are not 
 for ever dinning things into his ears. Take care not to 
 weary him, but when you approach him, let it be with 
 pleasant things, for it is in his nature to be pleased when 
 requests are put before him in a modest and respectful way. 
 
 This paraphrase is sufficiently faithful to give an idea 
 of the style and content of Lorenzo's admonitions. The 
 intermixture of worldly wisdom with a genuine sense of 
 what constitutes a high standard of living makes his letter 
 perhaps the most interesting document which Lorenzo 
 ever penned. For there cannot be a doubt that here we 
 have the man himself. There is not a trace of any affec- 
 tation of virtue which the writer did not himself feel. It 
 is evidently so that Lorenzo himself would have wished 
 to behave had he been in his son's position. It is equally 
 free from any impossible counsels of perfection such as 
 Lorenzo could easily have given. He had his moments 
 of spiritual ecstacy, but he had no desire that his son should 
 attempt to govern his life by the standard of a fleeting 
 moment, but that he should recognise those fixed principles 
 of conduct which could be daily applied, and permanently 
 maintained. 
 
 But while Giovanni's Cardinalate was the sign and seal 
 of Lorenzo's successful diplomacy at Rome, he had had a 
 hard and troublous course to run before he reached that 
 goal. His estimate of the Pope's character as sketched in 
 the letter to Giovanni was correct as far as it went, but 
 there were other sides of that character with which Lorenzo 
 was only too familiar. 
 
 For the last five years of his life Lorenzo was almost 
 continuously engaged in attempts to keep the peace between 
 the Pope and the King of Naples. As the ally of both 
 Lorenzo was the natural mediator between them, but the 
 
332 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 vacillation of Innocent, the faithlessness of Ferrante, 
 made the task of mediation thankless and exasperating. 
 Scarcely had the treaty been signed which closed the 
 Barons' War in i486, when Ferrante repudiated its terms. 
 In defiance of the Treaty, he dealt with his Barons as he 
 would ; he ignored the Pope in the matter of ecclesiatical 
 preferments within his dominions, and kept on offering 
 the white palfrey by way of tribute in lieu of the cash 
 he had undertaken to pay. Even Innocent's phlegmatic 
 temper was at times roused to spasmodic bursts of energy 
 by the King's contemptuous double dealing, and the Pope 
 looked about him for means to bring his vassal to de- 
 struction or submission. He had recently experienced, 
 both in the late war, and in the affair of Osimo, some con- 
 sideration from Venice, and a Venetian-Papal alliance 
 seemed to promise well. Accordingly, on his own initiative, 
 and regardless of the interests of Florence and Milan, the 
 Pope entered into a league with Venice in 1487. In this 
 policy Lorenzo saw the ruin of all his hopes and plans. A 
 general war in Italy became inevitable if the Pope cast in 
 his lot with Venice against Ferrante and his allies. Such 
 a war could scarcely fail to result in foreign intervention, 
 and in any case there was an end of all the hopes for his 
 House which Lorenzo based upon the Papacy. " I can 
 believe anything of this Pope," he exclaimed bitterly to 
 the Ferrarese ambassador. " The States of the Church 
 have always been the ruin of Italy, for their rulers are 
 ignorant of the art of government, and so bring danger on 
 every side." He declared passionately that he still hoped 
 to see the day when the King of France would be Lord 
 over all Italy, " from which you may see," the ambassador 
 wrote to his Prince, " how greatly His Magnificence is put 
 out." He declared that his desire was to bury himself 
 for six months in some retired spot where no breath of 
 Italian politics could reach his ears. 
 
 But Lorenzo's practical and resourceful mind soon 
 triumphed over momentary fits of petulant exasperation. 
 He set himself to remedy evils, not to inveigh against the 
 Fates which brought them. He redoubled his efforts to 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 333 
 
 be of use to the Pope ; he played upon the feelings of a 
 fond father by suggesting a brilliant match— the hand of 
 his own daughter— for the Pope's son. He induced the 
 Pope to see that Florence, not Venice, was his best friend. 
 The facile Pontiff was beguiled by these arts, and Florence 
 took the place of Venice in the Papal league. 
 
 But these tergiversations on the part of Innocent were 
 no remedy for the evils which threatened from a rupture 
 between Naples and the Papacy. Lorenzo gained enhanced 
 influence as a mediator, but even his influence seemed 
 insufficient to bend the Pope's resolution. A Papal nuncio 
 was despatched to Naples carrying Innocent's ultimatum, 
 but Ferrante only deigned to grant the ambassador a few 
 moments, as the King was mounting his horse to go hunting. 
 Ferrante knew quite well that Innocent had neither the 
 money nor the men required for an effective war; if the 
 Pope was determined to push matters to extremes, so much 
 the worse for him and the better for Ferrante. As to the 
 threat of calling the French into Naples, the King had 
 heard it so often that he had come to despise it. 
 
 Innocent, on his part, was at times conscious of his own 
 unpreparedness, and thus we find him, according to his 
 varying moods, torn this way and that, now all energy and 
 resolution, now all hesitation and depression. There were 
 times when the weapons of interdict and excommunication 
 appealed to the Pope as arguments against which Ferrante 
 could not possibly hold out. There were times when he 
 realised that people were no longer frightened by ecclesiastical 
 bogeys, and that interdicts, without force behind them, 
 were only a confession of impotence, while appeals to a 
 General CouncU against the Papacy were stUl to be dreaded 
 Trivulzio, who was in Rome after his pacification of Osimo, 
 expressed his opinion of the Pope in vigorous terms. " He 
 is full of greed, cowardice, and baseness, like a common 
 knave : were there not men to inspire him with some spirit 
 he would bolt like a rabbit to its hole, and grovel like any 
 dastard." Trivulzio scarcely understood the Pope's 
 difficulties, but he formed a tolerable estimate of Innocent's 
 character. 
 
334 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Lorenzo in the meantime was bringing all possible 
 friendly pressure to bear upon Innocent and Ferrante 
 alike. He urged on the King the vital importance of 
 being true to his engagements, and impressed upon him 
 that he could not expect support if he were manifestly the 
 aggressor. At the same time, he was against any pre- 
 cipitate action by the Pope, and disapproved of what 
 had already been done. " I fear," he wrote to Lanfredini 
 (Sept. 1488) "that people will think it meal out of my 
 tub, though you know that the Pope has acted not only 
 without me, but against my advice." In a long series 
 of important dcFpatches he put before the Pope exactly 
 what the situation was, and the line of policy which 
 it imperatively prescribed. He must not yield any of 
 his just rights, but he must carefully avoid being the 
 first to have recourse to arms. To just rights, pacifically 
 insisted upon, Ferrante would have to yield, for public 
 opinion in Italy would be against him if he did not. 
 War would settle nothing but the question who was 
 materially the stronger. The Pope might compromise 
 somewhat in the matter of the tribute, and Ferrante 
 would probably respond in his turn to the spirit of 
 compromise. " For we are not in a fit condition for 
 making war. The States of the Church least of all can 
 sustain such a shock." At a later date he instructs 
 Lanfredini to point out that Ferrante was ready and 
 inclined to act on the aggressive, while the Pope was 
 utterly unprepared. " In fact, his affairs are in such 
 disorder that a most disastrous war may arise out of 
 this." 
 
 Such a war was, in fact, on the point of arising. 
 Notwithstanding Lorenzo's representations, in June 
 1489, the Pope appointed Niccolo Orsini, Count of 
 Pittigliano, Captain General of the forces of the Church, 
 and was once more looking to Venice to support him.' 
 But now he was anxious that Lorenzo himself should 
 be the intermediary between himself and Venice, a 
 proposal which Lorenzo declined. He scarcely needed 
 the information which afterwards reached him " that 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 335 
 
 the Venetians detest your name more than Satan detests 
 the Cross." He was convinced that " no real trust is 
 to be placed in those people, and this office of negotiator, 
 which would be a distinction for me, would scarcely 
 answer the purposes of his Holiness." He also knew 
 well " that my Lord Ludovico can be a turncoat upon 
 occasion, and may very likely have private aims " 
 which this quarrel between Naples and the Papacy might 
 serve. Therefore Lorenzo looked upon the scheme of a 
 quadruple alliance against Naples as chimerical. Venice 
 and Milan would only come in to serve their own pur- 
 poses, and there was the danger of Florence and the 
 Papacy standing alone. He again strongly urged the 
 virtues of compromise, adding a thoroughly Medician 
 touch when he says, " As to spiritual questions at issue 
 an arrangement will be easy, for the King will hardly 
 raise difficulties where nothing but promises are required. 
 When it comes to keeping those promises they must just 
 wink at one another, as all Popes and all Kings have 
 been accustomed to do." 
 
 At last, when Italy was on the very verge of war, 
 and Innocent had been worked up by Ferrante to an 
 unwonted pitch of excitement and resolution, matters 
 took a favourable turn. Ferrante's contumacy had been 
 based throughout upon the supposition that the Pope 
 was powerless to injure him. An Italian war could 
 scarcely fail to turn out to his advantage. As to France, 
 she was too much engrossed in her own affairs to revive 
 her Neapolitan claims. But, under the Regency of 
 Anne of Beaujeu, France had become consolidated. 
 The internal troubles caused by the action of the great 
 feudatories of the Crown had been composed : brilliant 
 schemes of foreign enterprise were beginning to dazzle 
 the fancy of the young King, Charles VIII. The pro- 
 posed marriage between Charles and Anne of Brittany 
 required on both sides a Papal dispensation, and Innocent 
 was only prepared to be complacent in return for definite 
 support. Ferrante at last realised that his position 
 had become serious. He dreaded a French invasion 
 
336 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 because it might be fatal to him. Lorenzo dreaded it 
 because it might be fatal to the integrity of Italy. 
 Under the influence of his own fears, and Lorenzo's 
 persistent solicitations, Ferrante at last was induced 
 to listen to reason. In February 1492 Lorenzo's years 
 of effort were crowned by substantial success. Peace was 
 concluded between Naples and the Papacy, cemented by 
 a marriage between Ferrante's grandson, the Marquis 
 of Gerace, and the Pope's granddaughter. The fatal 
 results which none the less followed from Ferrante's 
 duplicity and egotism Lorenzo did not live to see. 
 
 In the midst of all his anxious diplomacy as a mediator 
 Lorenzo did not lose sight of his own interests at the 
 Papal Court. Apart from his efforts on behalf of his 
 son Giovanni, he was continually urging upon the Pope 
 the claims of his son-in-law, Franceschetto, The only 
 material advantage, he declared, which a Pope could 
 carry away from his Papacy was the provision which 
 he secured out of it for his own family, and seeing that 
 the average duration of the Pontificate was but ten years, 
 it behoved Innocent to lose no time in establishing his 
 son upon a satisfactory footing, Franceschetto himself 
 was no less insistent, but Innocent was rather slow to 
 move. " Like the ox," said his son, " he needs the goad," 
 The Pope did not add unblushing nepotism to his defects 
 of character, for he seems to have felt genuine scruples 
 of conscience as to using the Papacy for the advance- 
 ment of his son. The sententious lectures of Lorenzo 
 passed unheeded, and Franceschetto's personal grumblings 
 were equally unsuccessful. He had to be content with 
 his Governorship of Rome, the title of Captain General 
 of the Papal forces, a title disrespectfully characterised 
 by Lorenzo as " mere smoke," and his fief of Anguillara. 
 It was left for Lorenzo himself to provide more per- 
 manently and substantially for his daughter's fortunes. 
 
 Apart from his interest in Franceschetto's advance- 
 ment, Lorenzo was not much in sympathy with his 
 son-in-law, who had little sense of his position as a 
 public man. He lounged through life as a spendthrift. 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 337 
 
 a gambler, a dull, uninteresting person without the 
 gaiety and charm even of his own vices. In the Medici 
 household Franceschetto was bored, and out of his 
 element. He knew nothing about plain living and high 
 thinking, whereas Lorenzo governed his life by these 
 principles. As the representative of the State or as a 
 private host, Lorenzo was splendid and lavish in his 
 hospitality, but as a private person, living the life of 
 the family, he liked simple food and simple ways. The 
 advice which he gave to his son was based on his own 
 experience and practice, that plain dishes, plenty of 
 exercise, and early rising provide some guarantee for a 
 healthy and useful life. 
 
 Lorenzo was essentially a busy man, and it was only 
 by close observance of his own rules that he could keep 
 pace with all the interests and all the affairs which 
 claimed his attention, or were dear to his heart. He 
 was an indefatigable correspondent. The twenty-seven 
 letters which he wrote with his own hand on the day of 
 his mother's death are only an example of his epistolatory 
 activities. His private pursuits as virtuoso, poet, phil- 
 osopher, and critic were as near to him as his public 
 duties, and he put his whole heart into everything that 
 he did. The extent of his influence, or at any rate the 
 general belief in it, is attested by the innumerable 
 requests which reached him daily from all sorts and 
 conditions of people. He was the good fairy who, by 
 the passes of his magic wand, could smooth the way to 
 the enjoyment of Cardinalates, Archbishoprics, gems, 
 books, pictures, loans, horses, and every other kind of 
 pleasant things, and he seems to have found time to 
 give ear to everybody. He was, moreover, himself a 
 landowner on a very large scale, and devoted much 
 personal attention to the development and adornment 
 of his estates. And yet he was a man who, without 
 all these extraneous resources, could have drawn the 
 materials for a happy life from within himself. He 
 loved his moments of retirement, when, in the congenial 
 solitude of his own society, or in a small circle of intimate 
 
 Y 
 
338 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 friends, he could commune with his own soul and probe 
 the hidden mysteries of things. There was not the gulf 
 between him and Savonarola which Savonarola imagined 
 to exist, but the prophet only saw in Lorenzo the public 
 man who had corrupted the public liberties. He knew 
 nothing of Lorenzo the mystic, the poet, the Platonist, 
 nothing, in fact, of that part of Lorenzo's being which 
 was in closest affinity with his own. 
 
 It was in 1490 that Savonarola returned to Florence 
 to take up his old position as lector in the Dominican 
 and Medician convent of San Marco. The story that 
 he owed his recall to the personal influence of Lorenzo 
 has been discredited, and should be received with caution, 
 but Lorenzo can scarcely have been ignorant of the 
 sensation which the Friar's sermons had created at San 
 Gemignano and elsewhere. It is certainly probable 
 that he Uked to feel that so celebrated a preacher was 
 now attached to Florence, and to a convent which was 
 in a special degree associated with the Medici family. 
 But when Savonarola began to preach politics, to claim 
 the gift of prophecy, to become a centre of sensationaliEim 
 in Florence, there is no doubt that Lorenzo was offended 
 as a political ruler and as a man of taste. As a political 
 ruler he had no mind for politics in the pulpit. It 
 was doubtless with his authority that a deputation of 
 five conspicuous members of the Medici party waited 
 on Savonarola to counsel greater moderation and dis- 
 cretion. As a man of taste, Lorenzo was not attracted 
 by Savonarola's style or methods. He preferred form 
 and elegance to enthusiasm which he thought to be 
 misplaced, and it must be admitted that, when Savon- 
 arola was not carried away by enthusiasm, he was dull. 
 " Father," said one of his own admirers to him, " your 
 delivery lacks attraction, especially when one is led 
 daily to make a comparison between you and Era 
 Mariano." 
 
 Fra Mariano da Genazzano, an Augustinian, was 
 Lorenzo's favourite preacher, a man whose character 
 has rather suffered at the hands of Savonarola's pane- 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 339 
 
 gyrists. Fra Mariano, it is urged, must have been a 
 worldly, smooth, time-serving man, or he would not 
 have opposed Savonarola and been regarded by him as 
 an antagonist. But Poliziano, in one of his letters, 
 draws a vivid and pleasing picture of the man, especially 
 praising him for his morals and his moderation. " I 
 never knew a man," says Poliziano, " at once more 
 attractive and more cautious. He does not repel 
 by immoderate severity, nor deceive by exaggerated 
 indulgence. In the pulpit he is a severe censor, but out 
 of it he indulges in winning and friendly discourse." 
 Not only Poliziano and Lorenzo, but that greatest 
 prodigy of his age, Pico della Mirandola, delighted 
 in his discourse. Lorenzo testified his respect and 
 appreciation for Fra Mariano by building and equipping 
 a convent for him just outside the Porta San Gallo. 
 Fra Mariano and Savonarola may be said to represent 
 respectively the classic and the romantic style of preaching, 
 and Lorenzo would not have been Lorenzo had he not 
 preferred the former. 
 
 But the antagonism between the two Friars reached 
 deeper than a mere question of stylistic method. They 
 were the expression of the rivalry existing between 
 two great religious Orders, the Augustinians and the 
 Dominicans — each striving to gain supremacy over the 
 public mind, each standing for different views on doctrine 
 and on life. The influence of this rivalry upon Savona- 
 rola's fortunes and ultimate fall has been too much 
 neglected in estimating the causes of his eventual over- 
 throw. From the very beginning of his public career 
 in Florence we find in operation the forces of monastic 
 jealousy and distrust which reached a climax in the 
 challenge and the ordeal, and to these forces, as well 
 as to Papal and political intrigues, the Savonarola 
 tragedy was due. 
 
 It is improbable that Lorenzo took any personal 
 interest in the domestic quarrels of the two Orders. 
 His munificence to San Marco shows him no enemy to 
 the Dominicans, and his favours extended to Fra 
 
340 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Mariano reached beyond the recipient to his Order. 
 Lorenzo probably regarded both the monks as good 
 men, but one of them happened to be his friend, while 
 the other assumed a somewhat ungracious attitude of 
 aloofness and reserve. His relations with Fra Mariano 
 were intimate and unrestrained. Savonarola would 
 not allow any relations of civility, far less of friendliness, 
 to exist. Upon appointment as Prior of San Marco 
 (July 1491) he studiously ignored Lorenzo, who was 
 the special patron of the convent, and seemed to think 
 that any courtesy shown would imply that Lorenzo, 
 not God, had made him Prior. Every effort made by 
 Lorenzo to be ordinarily polite was looked on with 
 suspicion, or taken amiss. To some, such conduct is 
 a proof of Savonarola's heroic independence of spirit, 
 which was proof against all the fascinating arts of a 
 despotic and corrupting tyrant. To others, it indicates 
 something a little feminine and small in Savonarola's 
 character which does not dignify, but rather detracts 
 from its quality. That Lorenzo could see beneath a 
 somewhat rough and forbidding surface the purifying 
 fires which burned at the heart of the monk is undoubted. 
 He distrusted him as a prophet, and could not get really 
 to know him as a man, but he recognised in him a 
 good and faithful servant of a Power which was higher 
 than his own, and it was the benediction of the great 
 Dominican which soothed the closing moments of his 
 life. 
 
 For Florence the last years of Lorenzo's regime mark 
 the culminating-point of her prosperity. Her successful 
 pursuit of material well-being afforded the means and 
 the leisure which the cultivation of the inward life of 
 art, beauty, and refinement require. Trained through 
 long centuries in the traditions of culture, Florence, 
 under Lorenzo, saw the realisation of her ideals. To 
 her, as a centre, all that was best in the world of the 
 spirit seemed naturally to gravitate, and from her, the 
 heat of her own enthusiasms radiated throughout Italy. 
 She had secured stable government without the total 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 
 
 341 
 
 sacrifice of those democratic forms in which she delighted : 
 at the cost of some surrender of liberty within, she 
 enjoyed complete freedom from interference from without, 
 " The city," says Guicciardini, speaking of these years, 
 " was in perfect peace. The citizens in whose hands 
 rested the administration of affairs, held firmly together ; 
 the government, carried on and supported by them, 
 was so powerful that no one dared to gainsay it. The 
 people were daily entertained with festivals and novelties ; 
 trade and business were at the height of prosperity. 
 Men of talent found their proper place in the great 
 liberality with which the arts and sciences were pro- 
 moted, and those who practised them were honoured. 
 This city, quiet and peaceful at home, enjoyed also 
 great consideration abroad, because she had a govern- 
 ment whose head had full authority ; because she 
 had lately extended her dominions, had been mainly 
 instrumental in preserving Ferrara and King Ferrante, 
 because she had complete control over the Pope, and 
 because, in conjunction with Naples and Milan, she 
 in a measure kept all Italy in equilibrium." 
 
 There were occasional troubles as a matter of course. 
 It had proved a difficult and anxious task to secure 
 by her diplomacy the advantages which Guicciardini 
 enumerates. At home the wheels of the party govern- 
 ment did not always run perfectly smoothly. When 
 Neri Cambi, the Gonfalonier in 1488, ventured, on his 
 own authority, and that of his Signoria, to exclude 
 certain persons from office, it was necessary to cancel 
 the decision, and to degrade the man, lest one day the 
 whole party should be subjected to a Hke procedure. 
 A reconstitution of the party machine in 1490 removed 
 from the Council of Seventy the duty of superintending 
 elections to the various offices, and bestowed it once 
 more upon a small Committee of Accopiaiori in which 
 Lorenzo was included. There was some very justifiable 
 grumbling when the Government, having called in the 
 coins, the black quattrini, which served as the people's 
 small change, again brought them into circulation. 
 
342 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 side by side with the new coins of slightly higher value 
 which had been issued in substitution, at the same 
 time enacting that the State would receive as payment 
 only the new coins, A government which claims to 
 pay in depreciated money, but will only be paid in sound 
 money, cannot complain if it loses thereby some part 
 of its popularity. " No act of Lorenzo's government," 
 says Armstrong, " caused greater dissatisfaction among 
 the people than this paltry swindle." which was so 
 paltry as to be scarcely consistent with Lorenzo's 
 character. The chief sufferers by the fraud were the 
 very people whom Lorenzo has been accused of 
 debauching by spectacles and shows. It would be a 
 curious commentary on human nature if the man, 
 who with one hand lavished money for the entertainment 
 of the masses, should have thought it worth while to 
 filch their petty savings with the other for the sake of 
 the trifling advantage which the public exchequer would 
 derive. 
 
 One very innocent spectacle which delighted the 
 Florentines in the autumn of 1487 was the arrival of 
 an embassy from the Sultan of Egypt, bringing strange 
 gifts for the Signoria and rich presents for Lorenzo. 
 Malphet, the principal ambassador, visited the Signoria, 
 preceded by a giraffe and a lion, which were the offerings 
 of his master to the State. The giraffe became at once 
 " the most popular character in Florence," to use 
 Armstrong's phrase, and was so coveted by the Regent 
 of France that she was prepared to grant political favours 
 in return for possessing it. The Via di Leone, behind 
 the Palazzo Vecchio, still celebrates the spot where the 
 lion was first caged, and all Florence rejoiced in this 
 breathing embodiment of the emblem of the State. 
 The gifts to Lorenzo included a beautiful bay horse, 
 long-tailed, long-eared sheep of various colours, of 
 aloe wood as much as a man could carry, eleven horns 
 of civet, and great porcelain vases of exquisite work- 
 manship, the like of which had never before been seen. 
 Every item of the present was minutely described to 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 343 
 
 Clarice, who was absent in Rome, by Lorenzo's secretary, 
 and Lorenzo himself acknowledged these rare acquisi- 
 tions by gifts, including a bed, calculated to rouse a 
 corresponding interest and curiosity in Cairo. 
 
 What lay behind these offerings was, however, of 
 more importance than the offerings themselves. The 
 Egyptian embassy marked the formal ratification of a 
 commercial treaty between Egypt and Florence by which 
 extensive trade privileges were secured. There was 
 indeed, says Fabroni, no country, and no known con- 
 tinent, into which the goods of Florence did not penetrate ; 
 everywhere Florentine agents were active in stimulating 
 old markets, or in the pursuit of new ones. 
 
 But though upon the surface Florence appeared to 
 be in the enjoyment of enduring stability and prosperity, 
 signs were not wanting, to the reflective mind, of evil 
 days in store, Savonarola did not need to be a prophet 
 in order to foretell the probability of woes to come. 
 The weakness of Lorenzo's system of government lay 
 in the fact that it afforded no guarantee of permanence. 
 Everything depended so much on his guiding hand 
 that, if it were removed, the ship of State would hardly 
 be saved from destruction. There was no possible 
 successor who could equal him, either in grasp of the 
 complexities of the situation outside, or in management 
 of the delicate machinery by which he maintained his 
 anomalous position at home. It was a case of " after 
 him, the Deluge," and within two years of his death the 
 waters were let loose upon the earth. The Medici system, 
 being based on the unrecognised government of a single 
 person, had no solid foundations to rest upon. In the 
 hands of a weak or incapable representative it must 
 necessarily collapse like a house of sand. Despotism might 
 be the ideal form of government, if only the permanent 
 efficiency of the despot could be ensured. The superiority 
 of a constitutional government over an autocracy does 
 not lie in its perfection, but in the fact that its mistakes 
 can peacefully be rectified, whereas the mistakes of a despot 
 can only be corrected by revolution. For nearly sixty 
 
344 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 years the House of Medici had been happy in its repre- 
 sentatives, and it had flourished exceedingly. It could 
 not survive for two years in the hands of a reckless and 
 incompetent administrator. Revolution alone could over- 
 throw it, and in the turmoils of revolution it disappeared. 
 
 But the hidden dangers which threatened Florence were 
 not those alone which were incidental to a government rest- 
 ing too exclusively upon the personality of an individual. 
 The very prosperity which she enjoyed under Lorenzo was 
 a symptom of a diseased State. The pursuit of wealth, 
 ease, and luxury became the main purpose of life to all 
 classes of the population. That government was con- 
 sidered to be the best which ministered most effectively to 
 material interests, and with the exaltation of material 
 interests public spirit and political ideals declined. That 
 modest standard of comfort which had satisfied their 
 ancestors, no longer was sufficient for the Florentine masses, 
 and the rise in the standard of comfort was coincident 
 with the growth of indifference to every aspect of govern- 
 ment other than its economic aspect. A people which is 
 hurrying to be rich, bent exclusively upon the one object 
 is, as Guicciardini remarks, ill fitted to uphold public 
 liberty. " The hunger for riches makes them follow their 
 own private interests without any regard or consideration 
 for the public honour and glory." Not that Florence lost 
 altogether that spirit of sobriety, gravity, and earnestness 
 of which Dante was the highest expression. The 
 renaissance of Dante in the Medician age is itself significant 
 of the sense which still survived that man cannot live by 
 bread alone. The moral and political revival for which 
 Savonarola strove did not derive its impulse merely from 
 the passion and enthusiasm of an individual. Lorenzo 
 and Savonarola each played upon the Florentines as upon 
 an instrument, but while the one was usually content to 
 strike those coarser strings which gave forth the music of 
 the flesh, the other touched the finer chords which responded 
 in music of the spirit. The revolution which resulted in 
 the autocracy of Savonarola is a striking commentary on 
 the weakness inherent in Lorenzo's system. It lacked 
 
LORENZO AND HIS FAMILY 345 
 
 stability, and therefore could easily be overthrown : it too 
 much ignored the spiritual element in the people, and there- 
 fore could not permanently satisfy them. 
 
 But the troubles of the House of Medici lay in the future. 
 At the beginning of 1492, Lorenzo could look around him 
 and feel a sense of satisfaction in the work of his hands. 
 He had secured his dearest object in Giovanni's Cardinalate. 
 At home Florence was prosperous and peaceful. Abroad 
 Lorenzo's alliances were firmer based than at any previous 
 period. The tortuous and intriguing Ludovico Sforza had 
 come to recognise his own interest in more genuine and 
 cordial relations with Florence. The long threatened 
 rupture between the Pope and Ferrante had been averted 
 largely in consequence of Lorenzo's wisdom and patience. 
 The Pope was in the hollow of Lorenzo's hand. In 
 France the Regent was his friend, ready to be guided by 
 his advice, for Lorenzo had most skilfully managed to 
 retain excellent relations with France while thwarting in 
 every way French ambitions in Italy. 
 
 It was true that the situation between Milan and Naples 
 was strained almost to the breaking-point. The young 
 Duke Sforza had married Isabella, daughter of Alfonso, 
 the heir to the Neapohtan throne. Though of an age to 
 assume the government of Milan, he was jealously excluded 
 from all power by Ludovico, and there was constant danger 
 that Alfonso would yield to the soHcitations of his daughter, 
 and make war upon Ludovico in the interest of his son-in- 
 law. If this happened, Ludovico's obvious retort would 
 be to call the French into Italy in prosecution of their 
 claims on Naples. As a counter-move the House of Orleans 
 might be stimulated to assert its claims upon Milan. If 
 France came into Italy, Spain was not Hkely to hold aloof. 
 A spirit of patriotism and forbearance was essential if 
 Italy was to be saved from subversion at the hands of the 
 foreigner, but patriotism was a word which had lost its 
 meaning, and forbearance was only known in the guise of 
 personal interest. Italy, in 1492, was trembling on the 
 brink of ruin, but it had been threatened so long that it 
 had ceased to fear, or even to recognise, its peril. Lorenzo 
 
346 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 alone among Italian statesmen had directed all his energies 
 to averting the disasters which he saw to be impending, 
 and somewhat improved relations between Naples and 
 Ludovico in 1492 offered hopes that his efforts had not 
 been in vain. 
 
 Lorenzo perhaps was happy in the time of his death. 
 His own fortunes were at their height, and a deceptive 
 peace lulled Italy into a sense of security. He did not 
 live long enough to know that the French King had actually 
 formulated his claims to Naples at the Papal Court, and 
 was only awaiting a favourable opportunity to enforce 
 them. At the moment of Lorenzo's death the long- 
 threatened storm was ready to burst upon the land, and 
 even his diplomatic skill could have availed but little to 
 temper or to avert it. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 LORENZO'S LAST BAYS— VENIT SUM MA DIES ET 
 INELUCTABILE TEMPUS 
 
 Crisis in Lorenzo's health, 1492 — Poliziano's account of Lorenzo's last 
 illness — Lorenzo's physicians — Savonarola visits Lorenzo on his death- 
 bed — Poliziano's version— Death of Lorenzo, April 8, 1492— Savonarola 
 and Lorenzo ; another version — Contemporary accounts, other than 
 Poliziano's — Origins and criticisms of the Savonarola storji- — Portents 
 which signalised Lorenzo's death — Suicide of Piero Leoni— Lorenzo's 
 funeral and last resting-place— Decree of the Signoria, eulogising Lorenzo 
 and conferring the government on Piero. 
 
 LORENZO throughout his life had suffered acutely from 
 gout, which at last seems to have taken possession 
 of his whole system. From his feet it ascended until it 
 affected every part of his body. The various water-cures 
 which from time to time he underwent, while they served 
 to mitigate his pains, produced no radical effect upon the 
 disease itself. During the last year of his life he was ill 
 continually, losing for a time the use of his legs, and being 
 compelled in a large measure to neglect all pubHc business. 
 Early in 1492 his condition became critical, though his 
 occasional raUies deceived his doctors, who insisted that 
 he was not suffering from any mortal disease. Good hopes 
 were entertained of his ultimate recovery, but Lorenzo 
 himself seems to have been under no delusions as to his 
 state. " I entrust my son to you," he said to Filipo Valori, 
 who was accompanying Giovanni to Rome. " As for me, 
 you will see me no more." About two months before 
 death actually occurred his case became complicated by 
 an attack of fever, which, to use Poliziano's phrase, " ate 
 away the whole man," attacking not only " the arteries 
 and veins, but the limbs, intestines, nerves, bones, and 
 marrow." It was during a slight rally between the 12th 
 
 347 
 
348 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and the 2ist of March that he wrote his famous letter of 
 advice to his son. It was the last word of a man who had 
 lived his life to one who was just beginning it. On the 
 2ist he was removed from Florence to his villa at Careggi, 
 where his father and grandfather had died. Early in 
 April he totally collapsed ; — " concidit iotus," says Poliziano. 
 The painful task of telling him that there was no hope for 
 him fell to his sister, Bianca, wife of Guglielmo di Pazzi, 
 who, with his daughter Lucrezia, had accompanied him 
 from Florence to Careggi. 
 
 Our detailed knowledge of the last hours of the Hfe of 
 Lorenzo dei Medici is derived from a letter written by 
 Angelo Poliziano to his friend Jacopo Antiquario of Perugia. 
 Poliziano's narrative, though a very studied composition, 
 is of high authority, for the writer was in constant attend- 
 ance at Lorenzo's bedside, and he speaks of what he actually 
 saw and heard. Except on one point, the visit of Savonarola, 
 the accuracy of Poliziano's relation has not been questioned. 
 Moreover, the writer himself is careful to discriminate 
 between what he himself witnessed, and v/hat he only 
 received from hearsay. It is, therefore, on Poliziano's 
 letter as the chief authority that the following account of 
 Lorenzo's death is based. 
 
 As soon as the dying man learned that he was beyond 
 human aid, he centred aU his thought upon securing some 
 doctor of the soul to whom he might confess, and from 
 whom he might receive absolution. In the middle of the 
 night, as he was lying quietly meditating, it was announced 
 to him that a priest was in attendance, ready to administer 
 the last sacramental rites. Lorenzo insisted on rising 
 from his bed in spite of all protests. Having been dressed 
 by his attendants, he was supported into the presence of 
 the priest, and at once humbly prostrated himself before 
 the sacred elements. Yielding to the exhortations of the 
 priest he was induced to retire to his bed, and after many 
 protests, consented there to receive the Holy Sacrament, 
 and absolution for his sins. AU who had been present 
 then withdrew, with the exception of his son, Piero, to 
 whom, as Poliziano has heard, he addressed these words. 
 " The citizens will doubtless recognise you, my Piero, as 
 
LORENZO'S LAST DAYS 
 
 349 
 
 my successor, nor do I doubt that you will obtain the same 
 authority as I myself have exercised. But since the 
 collective State is a body with many heads, remember 
 always to follow that course which appears to be the most 
 honourable, and study rather the good of all than individual 
 and particular interests." He then gave instructions as to 
 his funeral, enjoining on Piero that there should be no 
 ostentation or display, but that he should be buried in a 
 manner suitable to a private citizen. 
 
 In the meantime, another physician, Lazaro of Pavia, 
 had arrived from Milan to consult with Pier Leone, Lorenzo's 
 doctor, who had charge of the case. Lazaro prescribed 
 a concoction of crushed pearls and precious gems. As 
 the compound was being prepared, Lorenzo inquired of 
 Poliziano, who was again in the room, what the man was 
 doing. In excited and eager tones he hailed the draught, 
 seizing Poliziano's hands in his own and gazing intently upon 
 the face of his friend. Poliziano, overcome with emotion, 
 turned away his face to hide his tears, and as speedily as 
 possible retired to his own room to give free vent to a 
 sorrow he could no longer restrain. Having recovered 
 some composure, he returned to the bedside of his friend, 
 who asked where Pico della Mirandola was, and why he 
 did not come to see him. Poliziano replied that Pico 
 doubtless feared that his presence at such a time would 
 be burdensome, but that he should be summoned from 
 the city. Upon his arrival Lorenzo greeted Pico warmly, 
 begging him to forgive the trouble which a dying man 
 was causing. In accents becoming every moment more 
 indistinct, he talked on many things to both his friends, 
 pathetically remarking that he would have wished to be 
 spared a little longer that he might complete the library 
 which he had been collecting for Pico's use. 
 
 The visit of Pico was immediately succeeded by the arrival 
 of Savonarola. He would scarcely have come had he not been 
 summoned, though there is no authentic record, other than 
 Cinozzi, that a summons had been sent.* The Dominican 
 exhorted the dying man to keep the Faith, to which Lorenzo 
 
 * Cinozzi says that Lorenzo " mando pereldettoP. f. leronimo," but 
 it is Cinozzi's narrative which is itself under suspicion. 
 
350 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 replied that he held it unshaken. He was then bidden, if he 
 lived, to regulate his life as virtuously as possible ; if he was 
 called upon to die, to submit to death with an equal mind. 
 " If it is the will of God," replied Lorenzo, " nothing can 
 be pleasanter to me than death." Savonarola was now 
 retiring, when Lorenzo called out, " Alas, Father ! your 
 benediction before you go." As the monk prayed with 
 him and exhorted him, Lorenzo responded to the prayers 
 and exhortations, unmoved by the sobs and tears of his 
 friends, which could no longer be restrained. The grief 
 was such that " you might have thought each one of us 
 was doomed to die, except Lorenzo." He alone remained 
 composed, and cheerful, in the complete possession of his 
 faculties, noting at times the assiduity of the doctors who 
 hovered around him " so that they might appear to be 
 doing something," taking the food they offered, and 
 assuring them that it tasted as food usually tastes to a dying 
 man, humouring them rather for the sake of soothing their 
 feelings than from any hope of alleviating his own sufferings. 
 
 Feeling death to be rapidly approaching, he called his 
 relatives and friends to his side, embracing them all, and 
 begging forgiveness for any offence or impatience of which 
 in the course of his illness he might have been guilty. This 
 done, he composed himself to die. He desired that the 
 Gospel should be read to him, and as he listened to the 
 story of the last scenes in the life of Christ, he signified by 
 the movement of his lips that he was capable of following 
 it. When, through exhaustion, he could move his lips no 
 longer, he raised his languid eyes from time to time, or 
 worked his fingers as a sign that he was still conscious. 
 At the last, some one brought a silver crucifix and held 
 it close to his face. The dying fires of life flickered for a 
 moment. Lorenzo kissed the crucifix with passion, and 
 as he kissed it again and again, the feeble flame died away 
 and was extinguished. 
 
 Another account of Lorenzo's death, differing in some 
 important particulars from that of Poliziano, became 
 current within a few years of the event, though exactly 
 when it became current cannot be accurately determined. 
 
LORENZO'S LAST DAYS 
 
 351 
 
 According to Savonarola's biographers, Lorenzo's last 
 hours were spent in an access of terror at the approach of 
 death, of remorse for heinous sins of which he was fully 
 conscious. His thoughts turned to the monk who had so 
 sternly resisted all his blandishments, of whose independence 
 of spirit he had had such convincing proofs. To him he 
 would now pour out his soul and receive absolution from 
 the only honest friar he had known. It js said that Savona- 
 rola raised objections, and was at first averse from obeying 
 the call, but upon assurance that his presence was earnestly 
 desired, and that Lorenzo would fulfil any conditions 
 which might be imposed, he agreed to go. He found 
 Lorenzo in acute mental distress, suffering under a general 
 sense of his sins, and of three sins which in a special degree 
 weighed upon his conscience. These were his responsibility 
 for the sack of Volterra, his action in regard to the dowry 
 Fund, and the bloody punishment inflicted on the Pazzi 
 conspirators. As he confessed, the monk repeated the 
 words, " God is gracious, God is merciful." Before granting 
 absolution, Savonarola imposed three conditions — that 
 Lorenzo should repent and have a lively sense of God's 
 mercy : that he should restore, or cause to be restored, 
 all that he had unjustly gained : that he should give back 
 liberty to Florence. To the first two conditions Lorenzo 
 signified his consent. On hearing the third he angrily 
 turned his back upon the Friar without speaking. Savona- 
 rola at once retired from the room, leaving Lorenzo 
 unabsolved. After a few hours he died, unshriven, tortured 
 to the last by the horror which comes from a sense of sins 
 unrepented and unforgiven. 
 
 Such is the story, which is important enough to entitle 
 it to critical investigation. Though it is possible to reconcile 
 large parts of it with Poliziano's narrative, yet as a whole 
 it throws around Lorenzo's death-bed an atmosphere of 
 which there is not a trace in Poliziano's account. In the 
 one relation the note is that of terror and despair ; in the 
 other, of composure, dignity, and assurance of Divine 
 mercy. It is scarcely too much to say that between the 
 two versions Lorenzo's whole character lies at stake. 
 
352 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Lorenzo's death occurred on April 8, 1492. In the 
 chronicle of Bartolommeo Cerretani, which notes events 
 from day to day, under April 7 there is this entry, " About 
 the fifth hour Lorenzo received the Lord's Supper." He 
 adds other details which supplement but do not contradict 
 Poliziano, as, for example, that about the twentieth hour 
 Lorenzo cried out, " I am dying, and there is none to help 
 me " : that when attendants hurried to him he begged to 
 be raised a little in his bed : that he swooned away through 
 excess of pain, and that a Camaldulensian friar only gained 
 assurance that he was not dead by taking off his spectacles 
 and holding them to the dying man's mouth. 
 
 Within a week of Lorenzo's death, Benedetto Dei de- 
 scribed the event to a friend. " He died so nobly, with all 
 the patience, the reverence, the recognition of God, which 
 the best of holy men and a soul divine could show, with 
 words upon his lips so kind that he seemed a new St. Jerome." 
 We do not know where Benedetto got his information, 
 but he relates that account which was current immediately 
 after death took place. 
 
 Poliziano's letter to Jacopo Antiquario is dated from 
 Fiesole, May 18, 1492. It was therefore written about six 
 weeks after the event. It elaborates, from the point of view 
 of one who was present, the statements of Benedetto Dei. 
 
 Thus from various independent sources of unquestioned 
 authenticity we have, from within a week to six weeks 
 after Lorenzo's death accounts which agree with one another, 
 and not one of them lends the smallest countenance to the 
 sensational narrative of Savonarola's biographers. 
 
 The witnesses on the other side are Cinozzi, who pro- 
 fesses to have received his version from Fra Silvestro, one 
 of Savonarola's principal lieutenants. Cinozzi's account 
 is followed by the Biographia Latina of Savonarola, which 
 cites Fra Silvestro again as its authority and also Fra 
 Domenico, a man even more intimately associated with 
 Savonarola than Silvestro. The same story appears in 
 the biographies of Pico della Mirandola, nephew of Lorenzo's 
 friend, an ardent Savonarolist, and of P. Burlamacchi. 
 
 In regard to the biographies of Pico and Burlamacchi, 
 
LORENZO'S LAST DAYS 
 
 353 
 
 they have not, in any strict sense, a contemporary authority. 
 We do not know if they are independent of one another, or 
 if Burlamacchi only re-edited Pico's work. Pico was the 
 earher of the two, and there is no evidence, says Creighton, 
 that he wrote his book before 1520. In any case, it is 
 evident that these writers merely present the story which 
 was current in Savonarolist circles — the story which, in the 
 first instance, came from Cinozzi and the Biographia Latina. 
 
 The authority on which this story rests is therefore that 
 of Fra Silvestro, and perhaps, in a lesser degree, of Fra 
 Domenico. But it is obvious that their authority in itself 
 cannot weigh against that of Poliziano, for he was present 
 and they were not. But behind them, as the ultimate 
 authority on which they rest, is Savonarola himself, for 
 from him alone could they have obtained the facts. And 
 Savonarola, like Poliziano, was present in Lorenzo's room 
 for some time as he lay dying. The question, therefore, 
 narrows itself down to two points. Are we to believe 
 that his two lieutenants accurately represent Savonarola's 
 version of what occurred ? Is the version in itself credible ? 
 
 It may seem ungenerous to refer to the confessions made, 
 under torture, by Silvestro and Domenico, at the time of 
 Savonarola's fall, but in view of the admissions then made, 
 as to the origin and nature of the Friars' visions — ad- 
 missions which, from their very unconsciousness of anything 
 like fraud, bear unmistakable marks of truth — it is impossible 
 to regard them as unimpeachable witnesses. Moreover, 
 if we believe them, we must believe at the same time that 
 Savonarola violated the secrets of the confessional, and 
 related to others what had been revealed to him under the 
 most solemn seal of confidence. The more we know of 
 Savonarola, the less likely is it that he could have com- 
 mitted so heinous a breach of professional honour. The 
 Friars* votaries did not see that in exalting Lorenzo's 
 dying agonies of unrepentant remorse they were blackening 
 the character of their own master.* 
 
 * Lorenzo's remains rested for a while at S. Marco — Savonarola's 
 Convent — before being interred in S. Lorenzo. Would Savonarola have 
 permitted this if he had just before refused absolution to Lorenzo ? 
 Z 
 
354 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 But, apart from the question of its authenticity, the 
 story is not credible in itself. Those who are familiar 
 with death-beds know that mental agonies, and the con- 
 sciousness of the horrors of death, are extremely rare. At 
 the moment when the claims of religion and the mystery 
 of death are popularly supposed to be most active, as a 
 fact they are most dormant. It is but very seldom that 
 there is any clear intellectual appreciation of the actual 
 conditions. Death when it comes very near is usually 
 without terrors and without remorse. But even if 
 Lorenzo's case be an exception to the general rule the 
 story still remains incredible. It is incredible that amid 
 all the sins of a by no means blameless life Lorenzo 
 should have had upon his conscience only those for which 
 which he was not responsible. The Sack of Volterra 
 was not his doing. The punishment of the Pazzi con- 
 spirators, caught redhanded in an atrocious act of 
 assassination, was the work not of Lorenzo, but of the 
 citizens of Florence. His efforts were directed rather to 
 check than to stimulate their fury. There remains only 
 the matter of the dowry money, and it is highly improbable 
 that a conversion of the public funds should have weighed 
 with such intensity upon his soul. 
 
 Again, Savonarola's three conditions were either common- 
 place or impossible. How could the Friar have seriously 
 demanded, or Lorenzo seriously rejected, the condition 
 that he should restore liberty to Florence ? What liberty 
 had Lorenzo taken away ? What liberty had Florence 
 ever enjoyed ? How was it possible, in any case, for 
 Lorenzo on his death-bed to restore it ? 
 
 A main point in the story is that Savonarola departed 
 leaving Lorenzo unabsolved. But Cerretani and Poliziano 
 are specific in their statements that Lorenzo had received 
 the Viaticum — that is, that he had already confessed 
 and received absolution — before Savonarola's arrival. The 
 contention that he was dissatisfied, and required further 
 confession and absolution at Savonarola's hands is so 
 entirely contrary to the theory and practice of Catholic 
 doctrine that it may be dismissed as involving insurmountable 
 
LORENZO'S LAST DAYS 
 
 355 
 
 difficulties. And when, against a doubtful and almost 
 impossible story, we can set the detailed relation of an 
 eye-witness of the incidents which marked Lorenzo's last 
 hours, a relation which is particular on the subject of 
 Savonarola's visit, a relation which, except on the single 
 point of Savonarola's visit, has never been challenged, we 
 are justified in setting aside, as inventions created by the 
 Savonarola legend, the coloured and sensational accounts 
 which the adherents of the Friar in later times handed 
 down. 
 
 The fact is that, at the time of Lorenzo's death, Savonarola 
 had not yet become an important person. He became so 
 later, and was especially identified with opposition to the 
 Medici regime. What more natural than that ardent 
 partisans should ante-date his influence, and seek to show 
 the man who became the greatest antagonist of the 
 Medician system in the sharpest contrast with its greatest 
 representative ? 
 
 The death of Lorenzo, according to popular report, was 
 attended by wonders and portents suitable to the occasion : 
 
 When beggars die there are no comets seen. 
 
 The Heavens themselves blaze forth the death of Princes. 
 
 Though it was an age of intellectual emancipation, it 
 was equally an age of creduUty and superstition. Lorenzo's 
 career would have seemed incomplete and singular if 
 prodigies had not accompanied its untimely close. 
 
 Valori is careful to confine himself to those wonders 
 which he himself saw, or which were related to him by 
 persons worthy of credit. Poliziano tells of prodigies 
 which actually occurred, and of others which rested upon 
 popular report. 
 
 Three days before Lorenzo's death a woman attending 
 service in Santa Maria Novella suddenly rose from her 
 place, and ran about wildly, crying in awe-inspiring accents, 
 " Alas, citizens ! do you not see the raging bull which with 
 flaming horns is casting this mighty temple to the ground ? " 
 Marsilio Ficino, whose mind was as receptive to supersti- 
 tion as to Plato, beheld in his garden ghosts of wondrous 
 
356 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 stature contending with one another, and heard terrible 
 and confused voices. Fiery Hghts blazed in the sky over 
 the Villa Careggi, and shot across the space which separates 
 Fiesole from San Lorenzo. A star of unusual brightness 
 illuminated the heavens while Lorenzo lay dying, being 
 extinguished at the moment of his death. The lantern 
 of the Duomo was struck by lightning, and one of the balls 
 upon its summit fell crashing to the earth. The lions in 
 the Via di Leone fought with one another — an unprecedented 
 thing — so that some were killed in their fierce contests. 
 Twin lights flamed over Arezzo, and a she-wolf howled 
 beneath its walls. 
 
 It was thus that the event appealed to the imagination 
 of men. They felt that the earth had lost one who was 
 not fashioned in a mould of common clay. All Nature 
 therefore must be in unison in mourning him, who, though 
 one of Nature's products, was as far beyond her normal 
 efforts as these prodigies exceeded her normal operations. 
 
 The atmosphere of prodigy and portent which over- 
 spread Lorenzo's death was intensified by the tragic fate 
 of Piero Leoni, his friend and domestic physician. Leoni 
 to the last had declared that Lorenzo's illness was not 
 mortal, the fatal issue alone convincing him of his error. 
 His treatment of the case had not been approved by his 
 Milanese colleague, and the event seemed to justify a 
 charge of professional incompetence. He immediately 
 withdrew from Careggi to the villa of Francesco Martelli 
 at San Gervasio, where next morning he was found drowned 
 in a well within the grounds. 
 
 A case of temporary insanity ending in suicide was 
 magnified by rumour and suspicion into a murder. It 
 was said that Leoni had poisoned Lorenzo ; that Piero dei 
 Medici had had Leoni done to death. Every explanation 
 seemed credible except a simple one, and there were many 
 who reckoned the physician's death among the uncanny 
 portents which signalised the passing of Lorenzo. 
 
 Lorenzo's funeral was simple, in accordance with his 
 own instructions. His remains were conveyed to the 
 Convent of San Marco — where, had he died unabsolved, 
 
LORENZO'S LAST DAYS 
 
 357 
 
 Savonarola would scarcely have received them — and thence 
 they were carried to the Medici Church of San Lorenzo. 
 There they were deposited in the Old Sacristy, in the same 
 sarcophagus of porphyry which the filial piety of himself 
 and his brother had fashioned for their father and their 
 grandfather. Sixty-seven years later they were removed 
 to the Old Sacristy, and laid in a nameless vault beneath 
 Michelangelo's statue of the Madonna. In 1895, in the 
 presence of the Itahan minister of Pubhc Instruction and 
 of Professor Villari, the vault was opened, when the coffins 
 of Giuliano and Lorenzo were found superimposed. Their 
 bones were then transferred to the sarcophagus in which 
 they had originally been placed, and there they now rest. 
 
 The unaffected grief of all classes in the State at Lorenzo's 
 loss testified more eloquently than funeral pomp and 
 splendour could do to the place which he had won for 
 himself in the hearts of his countrymen. Three days after 
 his death a unique tribute was offered to his memory. 
 By a decree of the Signoria and the Councils it was decided 
 by a majority of nearly eight to one " that whereas the 
 memory of Lorenzo needs no outward adornments . . . 
 it has been determined to transfer to Piero, the eldest son 
 of the deceased, the heir of his father's dignity, and the 
 successor to his fame, the public honour due to his father 
 and his ancestors." The succession of Piero was to be 
 regarded as "a pubhc testimonial of gratitude to the 
 memory of so great a man, in order that virtue may not 
 be unhonoured among the Florentines, and that in days 
 to come others may be incited to serve the commonwealth 
 with might and wisdom." The preamble of this decree 
 recites the public virtues of Lorenzo. Thus we are able to 
 gather from it those quahties and actions of his which had 
 especially impressed the imagination of his fellow citizens. 
 He is praised because he subordinated personal interest 
 to the advantage of the common weal ; because by good 
 laws he secured public order ; because he brought to an 
 end a dangerous war, and recovered the places which had 
 been lost to the enemy, but most of all because, " following 
 the rare examples furnished by antiquity, he, for the safety 
 
358 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of the people and for the freedom of the country, gave 
 himself up into the power of his enemies, and, kindled with 
 love for his native land, averted the general danger by 
 drawing it particularly upon himself." 
 
 Truth may out even in official eulogies. From this one 
 it is at least clear that a lapse of twelve years had not 
 obliterated the memory of Lorenzo's famous exploit of 
 1480. The voluntary surrender of himself into the hands 
 of Ferrante proved to be the strongest foundation of his 
 subsequent supremacy. It was Ferrante himself who, in 
 1492, pronounced Lorenzo's most fitting epitaph. " His 
 Hfe has been long enough for his own deathless fame, but 
 too short for Italy. May God grant, now that he is dead, 
 that men will not attempt that which, while he was alive, 
 they did not dare to do." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LORENZO IN RELATION TO THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 
 
 Lorenzo the embodiment of Renaissance tendencies— Renaissance and 
 mediaeval ideals contrasted— Impulses which gave force and meaning to 
 the Renaissance— The revival of ancient learning— Lorenzo as a type of 
 some of the best impulses of the Renaissance— Character and quality of 
 his Humanism— Motives of Lorenzo's Humanism— Study of Greek m 
 Florence— Purpose animating Lorenzo as a collector of antiques— Lorenzo 
 as a patron of Literature— The cult of Plato— Landino's " Disputationes 
 Camaldulenses "—Publication of Landino's edition of Dante's " Divme 
 Comedy "—Lorenzo and the University of Pisa— Difficulties with the 
 Pisan Professors— Bartolommeo Sozzini— Lorenzo and the Platonic 
 Academy — Platonic studies of Marsilio Ficino. 
 
 IF Lorenzo's activities had been confined to the world 
 of Itahan politics and diplomacy he would still stand 
 out among historical personages as a foremost figure. He 
 marks the moment when Florence reached her zenith which 
 was the moment when she was on the eve of poHtical eclipse. 
 According to the view entertained of him, he will by some 
 be regarded as in a large measure the fashioner of her great- 
 ness, by others as the architect of her ruin. As an historical 
 problem Lorenzo refuses to be ignored. 
 
 But the range and scope of his activities extended far 
 beyond the world of political life. Outside that world, 
 and wholly removed from it, there existed for him another 
 world in which he loved to dwell, secure from material cares, 
 in the full enjoyment of his manifold intellectual interests. 
 
 The fascination which he exercised on all who knew him 
 best arose not so much from a sense of his statesmanship, 
 as from a truly marvellous versatiUty which gave to him 
 a point of contact and a genuine sympathy with men 
 separated from one another by the widest diversity of 
 pursuits, interests, and ideals. At a time when the individual 
 intellect was strongly asserting itself against the restrictions 
 
 359 
 
36o LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of convention and authority, Lorenzo, as an intellectual 
 prodigy, seemed to overtop all his contemporaries. In 
 literature, art, scholarship, philosophy, he appeared to his 
 own age as the embodiment of all that was highest in the 
 thought and aspiration of the time, while in the domain 
 of positive personal achievement, his reputation as foremost 
 among the poets and men of letters in Italy was firmly 
 established in his own day. This contemporary estimate 
 of his capacities the progress of the centuries has tended to 
 confirm. 
 
 To a man of undoubted genius and catholic taste the 
 mtellectual revolution which was in movement around him 
 could not fail to make an irresistible appeal. Almost 
 unconsciously he was caught up and hurried along by the 
 spirit of his times, and the fact that his own intellectual 
 enthusiasm was without the smallest tincture of affectation 
 or pretence stamped him as the most genuine, as he was the 
 most universal representative of that spirit. It is scarcely 
 to use the language of hyperbole to say that the movement 
 which we call the Renaissance was, in the person of Lorenzo 
 dei Medici, embodied in an individual, so fully and completely 
 does he exhibit its many sides, its many interests, and its 
 many contradictions. 
 
 The Renaissance is not to be identified with a specific 
 period of time, nor with a specific series of events, nor even 
 with novel ideas upon the functions of art, literature, and 
 learning. The Renaissance stands for an intellectual 
 tendency. It marks a point when a slow and gradual 
 process of mental evolution culminated in a new conception 
 of hfe. Mediaeval dogmatism and ecclesiastical authority 
 had thrown fetters around the mind of man, compelling 
 it to move within a narrow and confined circle of ideas, 
 This sphere, within which man might exercise the faculties 
 of his judgment and his reason, was rigidly prescribed. All 
 the energies of mediaeval thinkers were concentrated upon 
 the task, not of enlarging the circle within which their 
 intellect could freely play, but of reducing all knowledge 
 within the restricted limits which authority had imposed. 
 For such a task extraordinary qualities of mind were 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 361 
 
 required. There is about the mediceval Schoolmen something 
 of the pathos which attaches to a chained giant. Endowed 
 with vast intellectual powers, they were without adequate 
 scope for the full and free exercise of those powers. By a 
 thousand ingenious involutions the Schoolmen turn upon 
 themselves, wind in and out through intricate labyrinths 
 of philosophy and logic, only in the end to reach the pre- 
 scribed and inevitable goal, the reconciliation of all the 
 problems of life to the restricted preconceptions which 
 mediaeval authority had sanctioned. 
 
 It is not to disparage the Schoolmen to say that their 
 work was necessarily controlled by the limitations of their 
 times. Among them there were men of the loftiest genius 
 and the most profound erudition. They too had glimpses 
 beyond the boundaries of their intellectual horizon into the 
 new world of fact and speculation which the Renaissance 
 was to disclose in all its fulness to the mind of man. But, 
 terrified by the vision, the Schoolmen shrank back into 
 themselves, leaving, however, a mass of half unconscious 
 suggestions to inspire the researches of a later day. 
 
 Thus the spirit which animated the mediaeval world was, 
 speaking generally, that of submission to constituted and 
 received authority. The animating spirit of the Renais- 
 sance was that of free inquiry. Men revolted against the 
 fetters which medisevalism had imposed upon the free 
 exercise of their intellectual faculties : they claimed the 
 full rights of the individual man, as a rational thinking 
 being, to carry his speculations wheresoever they might 
 lead him. Existing standards of truth were revised in this 
 new spirit of free inquiry. Facts were challenged to justify 
 themselves as facts under the test of experiment and increas- 
 ing knowledge. Men now dared to say " I do not know " 
 to questions which had been regarded as irrevocably settled, 
 and in saying it, they formulated the fundamental principle 
 of the scientific method on which the advancement of truth 
 depends. 
 
 The concrete facts which we associate with the Renais- 
 sance Age — the discovery of a new world, the discovery of 
 the laws which govern the solar system of the universe, the 
 
362 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 invention of printing, the revived use of the compass, the 
 rediscovery of the scope and purpose of Art, the movement 
 which culminated in the Reformation, the scientific, and 
 pseudo-scientific speculations of Paracelsus, the anatomical 
 investigations of Michelangelo and Vesalius, the discovery 
 of the circulation of the blood by Harvey, the new philo- 
 sophy of Bacon — these, and many others, are not to be 
 regarded as phenomena appearing in isolation, disconnected 
 from one another. All have their origin in one and the 
 same impulse acting upon the mind of man, the impulse 
 towards free and independent inquiry without regard to the 
 standards and conventions which medisevalism had formu- 
 lated and imposed. 
 
 We must therefore, if we would understand, the Renais- 
 sance, disentangle it from its accidents. We must recognise 
 it as being in its essence the working within the mind of a 
 new spirit which in due course manifested itself in various 
 forms of definite and concrete achievement. 
 
 A striking manifestation of Renaissance energy, and at 
 the same time, its most potent stimulus, was the Revival 
 of Classical Literature. In the study of the great master- 
 pieces of Greece and Rome men were able to recall and 
 realise an existing system of civilisation which had given 
 free and unfettered scope to the development and expression 
 of the human mind. As a result of this freedom the ancient 
 world had produced an Art, a philosophy, an ideal of govern- 
 ment, a system of law, a literature, which far surpassed in 
 loftiness of conception, and perfection of execution, the 
 corresponding achievement of succeeding ages. The Pagan 
 world had even evolved a standard of conduct far purer and 
 more lofty than any commonly practised by men under 
 the influence of Christian ideals. Why should not all that 
 was best in the civilisation of the past be assimilated and 
 incorporated into the civilisation of the present ? Must 
 there not be some means by which the lofty teachings of 
 Pagan philosophy could be harmonised with the new revela- 
 tion which Christianity had given to the world ? Across 
 the long vista of barren centuries men saw, in the civilisation 
 of the past, their natural heritage from which they had beem 
 long excluded ; now they resolved to enter in and to enjoy 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 363 
 
 it. They resolved to build up life afresh, upon a new 
 foundation of beauty, joy, and intellectual emancipation. 
 From the joy of living they had been in a large measure shut 
 out by the ascetic ideal of hfe which had dominated the 
 middle ages. Now they would enjoy in full measure all 
 the good gifts of that Divine Intelligence which had created 
 a world so full of beauty, which had created man so full of 
 infinite possibilities. 
 
 Thus the Revival of ancient learning was much more than 
 the cult of ancient hterature. It was the recognition of a 
 new principle by which life was to be governed. It was 
 the adoption of a new attitude towards Man, towards Nature, 
 and towards God. 
 
 Lorenzo dei Medici represents, more completely perhaps 
 than any other individual in his own day, these aspirations 
 of the Renaissance Age. He was also in a measure free 
 from some of the abuses which were incident to them. 
 Among the Humanists there were many who forgot the 
 spirit of the new gospel through too rigid an adhesion to the 
 letter of it. A barren and soul-destroying passion for exact 
 scholarship and purity of literary style produced a school 
 of pedantry, imitation, and stylistic affectation which made 
 the new Humanist too often nothing but old Schoolman 
 writ large. The sense of the thing said was lost in the 
 straining after the form in which to say it. Not a word 
 must be admitted into Latin compositions which had not 
 Cicero's authority behind it. St. Paul's epistles must not 
 be read in the original lest the inelegancies of his Greek 
 might prove injurious to the reader's style.* Philology was 
 mistaken for literature, and the teachings of ancient philo- 
 sophy were lost in an empty enthusiasm for the rhetoric in 
 which they were conveyed. 
 
 Lorenzo's Humanism was of a type more robust and 
 pnictical. Scarcely yielding in elegance of style to the most 
 accomplished Latinist of his day, yet he regarded Latin, as 
 he regarded all language, simply as a medium for the expres- 
 sion of ideas. He was one of the first to appreciate and to 
 
 The authority which attaches this dictum to Cardinal Bembo has 
 been impugned. Prof. Sandys regards it as " an unfounded fabrication." 
 V. "Scottish Historical Review," No. i8, p. 223. 
 
364 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 extol the scope and harmony of his native Tuscan, and, 
 with all his passion for antiquity, his own contributions to 
 literature were written almost exclusively in his native tongue. 
 Greek to him was not a mere distinctive accomplishment, 
 but the key to the treasury of ancient thought. He did not 
 read Plato for the purpose of aesthetic gratification, but for 
 what Plato could tell him as to how life should be lived. He 
 loved Plato because, as he was wont to say, " without a 
 knowledge of his teaching it was impossible to be a good 
 citizen, and not easy to follow the Christian doctrine." 
 
 Lorenzo's Humanism is refreshing because it was based 
 on the conviction that in the master productions of the past 
 there was much which vitally touched the needs of the 
 present. He read them not as exercises in elegant diction, 
 or as advertisements of his own erudition, but as the works 
 of men, who, being dead, still lived to direct and encourage 
 the pursuit of beauty and truth. In his view philosophy 
 was nothing unless it was " fruit bearing " in its effects upon 
 life, and he was wont, says Fabroni, " to grieve that there 
 were so many at that time who, puffed up by arrogance, 
 thought they knew much because they could repeat by heart 
 a few tags drawn from the old philosophers, not understand- 
 ing that it is the function of philosophy to examine things, 
 not to weigh words, although elegance in style can do much 
 to adorn philosophy and make it attractive." There is an 
 interesting analogy between the views here attributed to 
 Lorenzo and those which were held and expressed by his 
 friend and fellow scholar, Pico della Mirandola. In a letter 
 to Ermolao Barbaro, Pico, justifying his own absorption 
 in the writings of the Schoolmen, declares that such studies 
 are essential to one who would know the truth of things. 
 He quotes the old adage, " Sileni Alcibiadis "—afterwards 
 turned to such excellent account by Erasmus— which teaches 
 that those things are often most precious which in the opinion 
 of fools are of no value. Thus philosophy is to be distin- 
 guished from rhetoric, for philosophy is the pursuit of truth, 
 while rhetoric is merely the pursuit of effect. It is for this 
 reason that Plato's republic is administered by philosophers, 
 while rhetoricians are banished from it altogether. " I 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 365 
 
 confess myself provoked at our modern grammaticasters, 
 men who, if they can trace two words only to their origin 
 fancy that all learning centres in themselves, and affect to 
 speak with contempt of our scholastic moralists." 
 
 It was this conviction that all learning is ultimately 
 valuable for its effect upon life which gives to Lorenzo's 
 Humanism that healthiness and virility which were too 
 frequently wanting in the culture of his age. 
 
 At all points in Lorenzo's active career we are confronted 
 with the difficulty of determining how far he was influenced 
 by individual and abstract considerations, and how far the 
 question of his position and public policy intruded itself 
 into his actions as a private man. Was it pure enthusiasm 
 for scholarship, or his desire to associate the distinctive 
 glories of Florence with his own name which inspired his 
 effort to attract to Florence all that was best and most 
 distinguished in the culture of the time ? There was in 
 Lorenzo such a complete harmony between his private 
 tastes and his sense of what was required by his public 
 station that a precise discrimination becomes impossible. 
 But he could not have been indifferent to the reputation 
 which he and his City would gain in common if Florence 
 were recognised as the focus of intellectual and artistic 
 life in Italy, as the centre from which culture radiated 
 throughout the land. 
 
 Whatever may have been the motive, Lorenzo spared 
 no exertions to make Florence in every way the acknow- 
 ledged capital of the abstract world of ideas. Under his 
 auspices professors of Greek were brought to Florence and 
 publicly taught there. Argyropoulos, Calcondylas, Lascaris, 
 Andronicos of Thessalonica, these, and other Byzantine 
 Greeks, transmitted to Florentine scholars all their own erudi- 
 tion, so that Angelo Poliziano, at the age of sixteen, could 
 translate four books of Homer's " IKad " into Latin, and 
 earn for himself the title of " Homericus Juvenis." In 
 his preface Poliziano eulogises the position of Florence in 
 relation to Greek studies. " Greek learning, long extinct 
 even in Greece itself, has come to life and lives again in 
 Florence. There Greek literature is taught and learned, 
 
366 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 so that Athens, root and branch, has been transported 
 thither, there to make her abode — not Athens in ruins and 
 in the hands of barbarians, but Athens as she was, with her 
 breathing spirit and her very soil." 
 
 It was to assist the prosecution of classical studies generally 
 as much as to gratify his personal taste, that Lorenzo made 
 his splendid collections of books, medals, inscriptions, and 
 antiquities. Apart altogether from their artistic and 
 antiquarian value, he valued these acquisitions as aids to 
 a vivid realisation of actual life as it had been lived in the 
 past. He had agents everywhere specially commissioned 
 to secure for him whatever was of interest, and " you would 
 have said they were dogs of the chase, so did they scent out 
 and investigate everything ; and anything that was rare, 
 by some means they found it." Some of Poliziano's letters 
 to Lorenzo give a lively account of his book-hunting expedi- 
 tions on his patron's behalf to Ferrara, Padua, Venice and 
 elsewhere. If a book could not be procured, it could be 
 copied. Lorenzo employed a little army of copyists, and 
 moreover permitted his own books to be copied for the benefit 
 of others, thus enriching his own library, and making it 
 serviceable to the libraries of others. Federigo of Urbino, 
 and Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, vied with Lorenzo 
 in their zeal as collectors, and were indebted to him for 
 many a transcript. He sent Giovanni Giocondo to Rome 
 to collect inscriptions among the ruins of the ancient City, 
 a search which was rewarded by no less than two thousand 
 inscriptions. In a letter written from Rome, Giocondo 
 deplores the cynical vandalism which he found rampant 
 there. By a strange paradox, the Romans, in an age of 
 classical enthusiasm, often showed themselves indifferent 
 to the memorials of classical antiquity which still remained 
 among them. " What is in the Flaminian Circus to-day 
 you will find to-morrow on the Tarpeian rock : marbles 
 and bronze tablets are being smashed and left to perish. I 
 have in memory many things which I myself saw, but I 
 pass them over lest I bring tears to my eyes and yours, for 
 you of all men are most observant of antiquity : precious 
 relics so torn up from their very roots that not only is no 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 367 
 
 bit of them left, but it is not even known where once the 
 were." 
 
 It was in the service of Lorenzo that Giovanni Lascaris 
 travelled in the East and recovered two hundred Greek 
 manuscripts, eighty of which up to that time had been 
 unknown. With some of these Lascaris was returning to 
 Florence in 1492, at the moment when Lorenzo's Hfe was 
 fast ebbing. Upon his death-bed Lorenzo lamented that 
 he could not live long enough to see and to enjoy such 
 precious treasures. He was a man who took the cause of 
 learning close to his heart and spared no effort to encourage 
 and advance it. The collections which he formed were 
 cherished by him for the uses to which they could be put. 
 His antiques were arranged in his gardens of San Marco so 
 as to form a school of art for rising genius. His library was 
 at the service of all scholars, and it was his peculiar delight 
 to form libraries for friends, like Pico, or for institutions, 
 like San Marco or the Convent of Fiesole, to which he was 
 bound by family ties. The books which he contributed 
 to San Marco are still distinguishable by the Medici badge 
 of a laurel tree, and by the word " semper " stamped upon 
 them. 
 
 The patronage which Lorenzo extended to men of letters 
 was marked by the same judicious discrimination which 
 characterised him as a collector. As a patron he made it 
 his special aim never to patronise. Men of genius, he said, 
 required to be humoured, and he regarded it as his function 
 to humour them in such a way as to bring out of them the 
 best effort of which they were capable. From him sprang 
 the inspiration which prompted much of the Hterary achieve- 
 ment of his day, and from him came the money without 
 which achievement would often have been impossible. When 
 Giovanni Tomabuoni in Rome wrote of Matteo Palmieri's 
 labours in translating Herodotus, Lorenzo regarded it as 
 a privilege to be permitted to assist him. Poliziano's transla- 
 tion of Herodian, of the Pandects, of parts of Galen, were 
 prompted or encouraged by Lorenzo, whose catholicity of 
 taste is shown by the multiplicity and diversity of the tasks 
 which he imposed upon his friend. His remarks upon the 
 
368 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 need for a manual of architecture inspired Leo Battista 
 Alberti to produce an extensive work upon the subject, 
 while he was as alive to the claims of natural science as to 
 those of scholarship and the fine Arts. At a time when 
 the path of scientific progress was beset and hampered by 
 every form of superstition and gross credulity, Lorenzo 
 had a vision of the open road beyond, when the science of 
 medicine should be based upon experiment, and the science 
 of astronomy should be purged of astrological quackery. 
 It was in the belief that the primary essential to scientific 
 advance was that men should first of all Unlearn before they 
 could begin to learn, that, through Poliziano, he made the 
 work of Galen accessible to the modem world. He thus 
 sent medical science back to its original source and fountain- 
 head. In the same spirit he rallied Ficino upon his naive 
 belief in the influence of the stars, but the old philosopher was 
 never more than half converted from the error of his ways. 
 
 Yet Lorenzo was not himself exempt from the spirit of 
 mysticism which infused so much of the scholarship of the 
 time. The cult of Plato which found outward expression 
 in Platonic banquets on the presumed birthday of the 
 philosopher, in the lamp kept ever burning before his bust, 
 lent itself to extravagancies of fancy which had filtered 
 down from Alexandrian days. The doctrine of Plato that 
 man may attain to ultimate perfection if he will concentrate 
 all his energies on the cultivation of his spiritual nature, 
 that man can only reach the highest level of his possibilities 
 by abstaining altogether from intercourse with worldly 
 things, led to the conclusion that those men who seemed 
 to have attained the highest must necessarily have been 
 the apostles of the contemplative life. Thus there was 
 forced upon much of the work of the great writers of 
 antiquity a mystical and allegorical interpretation which 
 was quite foreign to it. Virgil, for example, throughout the 
 middle ages had been regarded as more a prophet and 
 mystery man than as a poet, and this view of Virgil, as being, 
 like his own Sibyl, something more than human, as a half- 
 inspired seer to whom the vision of a new dispensation 
 had been dimly revealed, persisted to Renaissance times. 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 369 
 
 Cristoforo Landino, in his Disputationes Camaldulenses has 
 given a charming account of a discussion in Lorenzo's 
 presence between many eminent scholars upon the true 
 inwardness of Virgil's poetry. Landino tells how Lorenzo 
 and his brother Giuliano withdrew to the Camaldulensian 
 Convent of the Angeh on the wooded heights of Casentino, 
 in company with Ficino, Alberti, and other scholarly 
 friends. There for a few days they enjoyed the hospitahty 
 of the good Abbot Mariotto AUegri. Much of each day was 
 spent beneath the shadow of great trees, where a spring 
 babbled hard by. Lying there, amid such scenes as Virgil 
 loved, and beneath the shade of his spreading beech, it was 
 natural that the poetry of Virgil should suggest itself as a 
 subject for conversation. Leo Battista Alberti took up 
 his parable and contended, from an examination of the 
 iEneid, that Virgil was to be regarded as a philosopher 
 first, and only secondarily as a poet ; for beneath the surface 
 of his text, and beyond its obvious sense, there lurked a 
 wealth of allegorical and philosophical meaning from which 
 the initiated could deduce the harmony between the teaching 
 of Virgil and of Plato. 
 
 On another day the conversation turned exclusively on 
 Plato, and Alberti, who is made the prolocutor of the 
 assembly, expounded Plato's doctrine of the contemplative 
 life, spent in the pursuit of truth, as being the only true life 
 towards which man should strive. He began by an extrava- 
 gant eulogy upon Lorenzo, who could scarcely have been 
 twenty at the time, declaring that his virtues were such 
 that they gave evidence of divine rather than of human 
 origin. His prudence and courage were equal to any 
 undertaking however momentous. His moderation was 
 proof against all the intoxications of fortune. Alberti then 
 urged upon Lorenzo the virtue of Plato's teaching, insisting 
 that he who is to rule men must of all others take advantage 
 of opportunities to withdraw from time to time from the 
 active pressure of affairs, and devote himself to quietness, 
 contemplation, and the renewal of his spirit. Carried 
 onward by his enthusiasm, Alberti proceeded to the full 
 length of the Platonic doctrine, and argued that man could 
 2 A 
 
370 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 not hope to reach perfection as long as he allowed the things 
 of the world to divert him in any degree from the develop- 
 ment of his spiritual and intellectual faculties. At this 
 point Lorenzo interposed with a question. What would 
 happen to communities if all the best men withdrew them- 
 selves wholly from the duties of government ? Would it 
 not follow that States would have to be ruled by worse 
 men ? Alberti somewhat weakly rephes that the best men 
 could still assist government by their advice ; and so by 
 their counsel, if not by their actions, be of service to the 
 State. Whether the worse men, on whom rested aU the 
 responsibiUty, were likely to be influenced by the best men 
 who studiously held aloof from responsibility, was a question 
 which Alberti conveniently ignored. 
 
 Landino's Disputationes form one of the most charm- 
 ing contributions to our knowledge of the life and thought 
 of his times. He brings us within the magic circle of Lorenzo 
 and his friends so that we can imagine ourselves to be sharing 
 in their woodland recreations, and listening to their animated 
 discourse. The author invests his distinguished pupil with 
 a living personality as well as with a bright intelligence, 
 and from intimate knowledge of Lorenzo's character antici- 
 pates for him an illustrious career. 
 
 It is through Cristoforo Landino that we become associated 
 with another manifestation of Lorenzo's intellectual interest. 
 In 1481 there appeared the Florentine Editio princeps of 
 Dante's " Divine Comedy," with commentaries by Landino 
 and twenty wood-cut engravings illustrating the Inferno.* 
 Florence had proved somewhat tardy in recognising the 
 transcendent merit of her greatest citizen. Already nine 
 editions of Dante had been issued from the printing presses 
 of other towns before Landino's work appeared. But its 
 appearance marks the full renaissance of Dante. He now 
 took his unchallenged place among the great classics of the 
 world, recognised as being worthy of all the patient study 
 which was being lavished on Plato, or Virgil, or Homer. 
 
 Though Landino's work was not dedicated to Lorenzo, 
 
 * The Rylands Library at Manchester contains the only copy of Landino's 
 ' Dante " which has all th? woodcutsj 
 
tfCANTO PRIMO DELLA PRIMA CANTICA O VERO 
 COMEDIA DEL DIVINO POETA FIORENTINO 
 DANTHE ALEGHIERI : CAPITOLO PRIMO : 
 
 1 IP 
 
 'abbiamo mmcononfci^cntc biiiudet 
 _ pocta ct eUitolo deilibro ct chc coh {n po 
 Hi ctiam quiio fia uctuJtact anucha quaco 
 nobi Ic ct uam quanio unle ei tcconda ui doc 
 tniu. Quanto fia efticacc a muoucrc Ibjunanc 
 m£u;et quicodilccti og^i liberal ir Igr^o. Ne 
 giudicammo da taccrc quanto m U dmitu dtfa 
 plina lu ftacalacxccllcnaadclloincpgno del 
 noHro pocca. Inchc Gfono Ibto piu bncnc cbc 
 forfc non ii conucrcbbcxonfidcri cbi Iccgc cbc 
 lanumcrofa ct quafi infinuacopia dellcrofc del 
 le quaU c ncccOano tractare nuficrza ncn uolc 
 do cbcl uokjmc crcCca Topra mode ; a tnciilcare 
 ctininlupparc piutofto chcorplicare: ct difte 
 dcrc moUecofc ct ir.axmic quelle k quali qnido 
 ben taccfli non pcrc nc reltcra cbfciira b eypo 
 
 M.mro.uipcr.mafckaobfcu« t^'^^^^.tnti^on^c^tSt".; 
 
 die ladtriaauuera imarnta (ibalToingcgnoincdifipodogii.diaoxhcha 
 
 Ec k^iianto aciirc quale era c/ cofa dura uendc inicforquanto fia ct Uprofcndita ci ua 
 
 dtafduafeluaggiaecafpraet forte nradelUdoctnnaiCtbexccllcntiactdiumita 
 
 c!k ncl pcnficr rmuoua lapaura dcnomgcenoddnoftro tofano:<rc horcnuno 
 
 ^ r , , r poeca; nonUpcrfuadacftcquclto pnnapio 
 
 Tanto era amara dicpocho cpiii morte dclpnir.o canto dcbba per fiibhir.itaccgronde 
 
 ma per tractar del ben chio ui crouai zicllcrpari allaftupcndadoctrinadclltcliofc 
 
 diro dellalrre ccfe duo uho fccrte fcguitar.o:pcr<>ccr ccni induftn-.i mticfti 
 
 Inonfobenndircd^m.cucntrai ghcrcn-ochc,allcconc!-olcnfonrcchfccoque 
 
 J, , , uomczoddc3inino:ftchcccfafyalelu,iDichc 
 
 tantera pien dilonr.o inlu qud pimCTO „cggo ncn p-.cccla d.ffcrcrtia cficrc flau tra 
 
 cbe laiierare ma abbandonal glinccrprcr.ctoipofitcndiqucflac.nnticn.lm 
 Mapoi d io fill appii 
 b ouc tcrmmaua qiiclla iialle 
 
 c dtm colic giUdCO P'''" '^"^ 3It^llni diccnc: ck il mrzo dcUa u 
 
 Kin- ana c cl fonno mcfTi ;acdo da!b fentcntia 
 
 dariflCEcIcdiccndoUii nel'cthica nctiiinndifTc 
 rcnria cHcre tra frbci ;ct mfin ncib mcta dclla 
 (lit.-i per ci-t '.enocci chc foro l3n~cra del tempo 
 cndiiccnofcnnoiecdaqtiellc n.iOic cKc ne bene 
 nenulc fcnnrpoOinmo. It-^-erfVe iicplicno que 
 iti : &c el pccca pcncha c\ me-o dclU nit.i per la 
 noctc ; ct b-octc pcUcnnc :.id nctire f!-e qticfto 
 poema non fiaaltrocK: un.^iufici.^ chce^iap 
 panic donnrdo per laqii.ViC H:bbc cor^itcc del 
 Ic ccfe d^litn dcfcriprc t qticfte trc ccmedic. Di 
 ccno adijq'/e cb€ liii imita Icanni aiangclifta cl 
 fu.i'.c dormc3oroprac!pcctodicKn'f>crcdcmpt,'rcbGbbet:incncdc!!ecbofccel£rtc:oucrairctc 
 pcncri lanoctc dimoflnindo lui hiiicrL- ran-, ndato clfuo po:ma dincctc nella quale racccpjcdofi 
 Isninio infcmcdefimo ct abfokicndort ct !iber.indofi da ocni fura mcctomtcnda. Ma bent he tale 
 fcntcnaa qiiaif i al pocM infcnicdimcno lep.irolc non h dimcftronc fcnon cc tanto obfaita ambt 
 giita;chenonpircdcgna dc!Uelep,anci3 Ji tanto pocta Pnmapcrcbcncnfcgiiicacbe bcncbcnellc 
 rctiolurioni dclten-po t.mtofp.itioocaipin Icncai qiianto c di :pcrqueRo diccndoio fcnpfi dinoc 
 tc ftntcnda io fcnpfi ncl nicrro de!'a mia ecaiperchc et ncl pnncipio ct nclfinc dclla eta Kimnna fo 
 no lenocti cbome ncl mcio ct fimibncntc e di . II pcrche per lamcdcfi ma rapjonc fi potrcbbc fare 
 tale intcrprcntionc pel di cK>mc pCTbnoCTc. Altridiceno clic nolle pelmczo del camino intcndc 
 re cbc nebr.czo ddlcta dctte prinrip:o nlfuo pocma . Ma non e unamedfima opinione dclfmiine 
 °ftraeta :p:r cbc diuctfi foiptcri diuer&mcmc fcntono, Anflonk nd fuo dc rcpublica 
 
 die miiaiiea dipaur olcor r ompimcto 
 Guardai inalro ec iiidi Icfuc fpal'c 
 opwTfe g-.a dctaggi delpiancca 
 f he niena driao alrriii per ogni ca!!e 
 Alihor 111 lapaura un podio cjucra 
 die nellago del diuor mcra diirata 
 lanofte duo pafTai con tawa pieti 
 
 FIRST PAGE OF CHRISTOFORO LANDING'S EDITION OF DANTE S 
 DIVINE COMEDY 
 
 FLORENCE, I481 
 WITH INITIAL AND DRAWING TO ILLUSTRATE CANTO I 
 77izs is the first editioii of Dante fiyoiiiLrrd ti, nin,-^,,^, -ri 
 Ma7tchester, from iv/nc/i thi, itxte The copy, in the Ryla,id's Library. 
 
 Twenty iulJlra-tion " ^ " " '""I"'- " "nly copy containin.r the 
 
 Full title: Coiiimeiilo di ChriKtnPlioro T niidiun r:,n, „,,)■' „ ^ , ^ 
 Ali^hieri Poeta F.orentino per Xicl Jo £ ore,X^^^^^ ^iTfi^T,. "S""'" , ^omedia di Dante 
 A Dixxx Da<rosto MD.CCCC.LXX.XI ^'"'i'"' f'^ Lorenz dell' Al/ema.i^na^ 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 371 
 
 but to Federigo of Urbino, Lorenzo fully shared his master's 
 enthusiasm. In his Commentary upon his own sonnets, 
 when urging the virtues of the language of Tuscany as 
 capable of expressing with dignity and perfection the highest 
 and most complex thought, he cites Dante, Petrarch and 
 Boccaccio " who in their grave and sweetest verses, and in 
 their prose, have given the clearest evidence that every 
 shade of meaning can be expressed in this language." Any 
 reader of the Divine Comedy, he further adds, will find in 
 it the three quahties of style which orators have praised — 
 the humble, the lofty, and the style which is intermediate 
 between them. In Dante alone, are they united. To find 
 them in Greek and Latin writers it is necessary to go not 
 to any one author but to many. 
 
 Lorenzo's own poetry frequently follows Dante in form, 
 and though in his Beoni he did not abstain from some- 
 thing approaching to a parody of the " Divine Comedy," 
 yet his admiration for Dante, and the influence of Dante 
 upon him, are continually apparent. 
 
 In 1476 Lorenzo vainly negotiated with the Venetian 
 government for the restoration of Dante's remains to 
 Florence, nor could it have been without his consent and 
 willing co-operation that, after the appearance of Landino's 
 edition, the Signoria annulled the decrees which had deprived 
 the Poet of his citizenship, and placed his laurel-crowned 
 statue in the Baptistery of S. Giovanni. 
 
 Among the many services which Lorenzo rendered to the 
 cause of learning, the reconstitution of the Academy, or 
 University, at Pisa, must take an honoured place, though 
 in this case he was certainly influenced by political motives 
 acting in combination with his zeal for scholarship. The 
 ancient city of Pisa, the key to the Amo, had, after fierce 
 contentions, fallen under the domination of Florence early 
 in the fifteenth century. But the memory of her days of 
 independence continued to survive, and Pisa chafed against 
 the chains which bound her. It seemed impossible for 
 Florence and Pisa to intermingle, for each was separated 
 from the other by barriers of passionate resentment and 
 deep-rooted distrust, which neither time nor diplomacy 
 
372 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 could mitigate or heal. In such a case Macchiavelli ad\dsed 
 his Prince that the only safe policy was to destroy utterly 
 the subject people, for where hberty has once existed it can 
 never be destroyed : the name of Liberty will still survive 
 its ruin, and for all time prove a rallying cry for those who 
 would restore it. It is instructive to note that nearly forty 
 years before MacchiaveUi was born the Florentines practi- 
 cally adopted his policy in their treatment of Pisa. They 
 came to the conclusion, expressed in a despatch to their 
 Commissioner, that " there was but one way effectually 
 to secure the town, and that was to empty it altogether of 
 citizens and peasants." The plan was carried into effect. 
 The commercial prosperity of the city was ruined, and her 
 untilled fields were fruitful only as a source ot malarial 
 pestilence. 
 
 Lorenzo, upon his accession to power, determined to act 
 towards Pisa in the spirit of his declared conviction that 
 men are more easily influenced and won by kindness than 
 by severity. Recognising, as he did, the economic necessity 
 of Pisa to Florence, he determined, without in any way 
 relaxing his hold, to endeavour by conciliation to win Pisa 
 to a willing allegiance. He himself had a house there and 
 estates in the neighbourhood. He is found continually 
 residing there for months in succession, inspired by the hope 
 that his own personal fascinations and goodwill might effect 
 much towards healing Pisa's wounded spirit. With this 
 object prominently before his mind, Lorenzo in 1472 restored 
 the University of Pisa, and incorporated it with the University 
 of Florence. The same Statutes were to apply to both. 
 They were to be two branches of a common stem, but each 
 with its separate and distinctive functions. The energies 
 of Pisa were to be devoted to the faculty of Law, while at 
 Florence Philosophy and Humane Letters were to be the 
 principal subjects of study. 
 
 The scheme encountered obstacles from plague and from 
 war, and in the years which immediately followed its 
 estabhshment the University of Pisa tended to drift hither 
 and thither. At last University buildings were provided 
 by the munificence of Lorenzo, and an annual endowment 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 373 
 
 of 6000 florins was provided from the public treasury. 
 Sixtus IV. was induced to sanction a tax upon ecclesiastical 
 revenues for the benefit of the new academy, and pending 
 its collection Lorenzo advanced the money. The chief 
 difficulty was now with the Professors. 
 
 The leading jurisconsults of the time appear to have been 
 men as remarkable for the acerbity of their characters as 
 for their legal erudition. Filelfo, Filippo and Lancilotto 
 Tristano, Bartolommeo Sozzini are alike in this, that 
 they were all equally impossible to deal with. Filippo 
 Tristano was continually wandering away and being 
 recovered, but " neither gifts nor kindness could soften 01 
 assuage the man's wrath, rashness and incohstancy." But 
 of all the Pisan Professors employed by Lorenzo the most 
 refractory was Bartolommeo Sozzini, whose career illus- 
 trates certain characteristics not infrequently found in the 
 Humanists of this age. They have been justly praised as 
 men of great attainments, of deep enthusiasm, while their 
 work as pioneers of scholarship entitles them to the gratitude 
 of posterity. But they were endowed as fully as other men 
 with the frailties of nature, and, to know them as a class, 
 it is necessary to recognise their defects while in no way 
 disparaging their services. 
 
 Bartolommeo Sozzini of Siena was about six and thirty 
 at the time of his appointment to a Professorship at Pisa. 
 Already he had built up a reputation throughout Italy as 
 among the most profound and briUiant legists of his time. 
 Lorenzo, " always striving to catch vagabond celebrities 
 wherever he could find them," was successful in securing 
 Sozzini for the chair of Canon and Roman Law at Pisa. He 
 at once became remarkable for the energy which he threw 
 into his lectures, and for the vivacity of his controversial 
 methods. Lorenzo was himself often an interested auditor 
 of the academic encounters between Sozzini and Jason 
 Mainon, an oracle of jurisprudence, of no less renown than 
 Sozzini himself. The Professor did not confine his counsels 
 exclusively to the sphere of academic learning, but showed 
 his practical sense of the limitations of law when he recom- 
 mended a dagger as the best argument against a dun. He 
 
374 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 was indeed a man distinguished by the insolence, rashness, 
 and audacity of his character. He was always flushed with 
 a sense oi his own importance, and imagined that his 
 eminerice in the world of abstract law ought to secure him 
 immunity from the consequences of unlawful and anti- 
 social actions. Sozzini had only been two years at Pisa 
 when the Signoria complained to Lorenzo of the Professor's 
 insolence to one of their number, but the competition for 
 his services was so keen that much had to be overlooked 
 in order to retain him at Pisa. Venice at last succeeded in 
 tempting him away, and he made preparations to leave, 
 though he had quite recently renewed his agreement with 
 the University for another term of years. Among his 
 preparations was the collection of many valuable books 
 and effects, the property of the University, which Sozzini 
 appropriated and concealed in wine jars. His thefts were 
 detected and he was sent to Florence, where he lay for some 
 time under the death penalty, but was saved by the plead- 
 ings of Lorenzo, who urged his extraordinary merits as a 
 scholar in palhation for his delinquencies as a man. He 
 was not only pardoned but restored to the chair of Roman 
 Law at Pisa, where, for an annual salary of a thousand fiorini, 
 he remained for three years. Venice, however, had by 
 no means abandoned the hope of obtaining him : his native 
 Siena, too, was making strenuous efforts to secure him, but 
 at the moment when rival towns were contesting for the 
 honour of his presence, a fresh escapade brought him once 
 more within the meshes of Florentine justice, and he was 
 imprisoned in the Stinche by Lorenzo's orders. From his 
 prison Sozzini put forth a complaint that he, a man so cele- 
 brated, should be confined in so vile a place. Lorenzo's 
 reply was addressed to the Professor's philosophy. It is 
 not, said Lorenzo, the place nor the punishment, which 
 makes a man infamous, but the cause which has led to the 
 imposition of such a punishment. The soHcitations of the 
 prisoner were reinforced, however, by the intercession of 
 the Pope. Innocent, in a letter to Lorenzo, commended 
 Sozzini to his consideration, with the result that the prisoner 
 was set free. The disgrace which he had suffered seems in 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 375 
 
 no way to have injured the demand for him. He retired 
 to Siena, though he had promised to go to Venice, and an 
 animated contest, almost leading to hostiUties, arose for 
 the possession of him. At last he returned to Pisa, where, 
 after Lorenzo's death and the expulsion of Piero, he stimu- 
 lated the Pisans to revolt against Florence. Until his death 
 in 1507, he remained the bitter enemy of that family and 
 of that RepubHc whose chief fault towards him had been 
 that of seeking to rescue him from himself. 
 
 Sozzini is but a type of the arrogance, unscrupulousness, 
 and moral obliquity which mingle not infrequently in the 
 Humanists with fine quaUties of taste, enthusiasm and 
 learning. But this base alloy was no necessary and 
 inevitable component of the Humanistic character. If there 
 were many like Sozzini there were many like MarsiUo Ficino, 
 or Pico della Mirandola, men on whose character scholarship 
 acted as an ennobling and purifying influence. On the 
 whole Humanism was justified of her children. If, instead 
 of exalting the Humanists as heroes, we are content to 
 regard them as men, they will be found not to fall short of 
 other men in the average standard of conduct which they 
 present to the world. 
 
 Ficino, Pico, PoUziano were so closely bound to Lorenzo 
 by the ties of intimate friendship that only by far exceed- 
 ing the limits of my space would it be possible to do 
 justice to their association. Here the name of Marsilio 
 Ficino is introduced only to suggest a further service 
 which Lorenzo rendered to the cause of scholarship and 
 philosophy. Under Ficino's auspices he carried the Platonic 
 Academy of Florence far beyond the point to which his 
 grandfather, Cosimo, had brought it. 
 
 The Renaissance was essentially the age of Academies, 
 which were associations of select men who gathered together 
 from time to time to advance in common some special intellec- 
 tual interest. Sometimes such coteries would arise out of the 
 relations existing between a master and his disciples. The 
 Academy at Rome, for example, imder Pomponius Laetus, 
 was such an assembly. Sometimes they would be brought 
 into existence by the initiative and encouragement of a 
 
376 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Prince or patron who sought to use the prevaihng passion 
 for culture for the exaltation of his city or of himself. But 
 in the case of Cosimo dei Medici he was undoubtedly animated 
 by a genuine enthusiasm for Plato when he sought to 
 revive, on the banks of the Amo, memories of " those groves 
 of Academe," where Plato first unfolded his message to the 
 world. The Council of Florence, which had met in 1439 to 
 reconcile the differences between the Greek and Latin 
 Churches, stimulated in many minds the desire to find some 
 common ground where Greek and Christian philosophy could 
 unite. Even the little that at the time was known of Plato 
 was sufficient to proclaim the transcendentalism of his 
 dectrine ; a further knowledge of his principles seemed 
 likely to show fundamental agreement between the spirit 
 of Plato and of Christ. 
 
 To gain this more extended knowledge was the first and 
 most pressing need. In Marsilio Ficino, Cosimo, by a happy 
 intuition, divined a man who could be permanently dedi- 
 cated to the service of the Platonic doctrine. Though little 
 more than a youth, Ficino was selected by Cosimo to guide 
 the discussions of the Academy, Around him the members 
 gathered as around a master, first learning what it was that 
 Plato had taught, and then discussing the problems of life, 
 and death, and duty in the light of the new teaching. But 
 the master himself, when the Academy was founded, had 
 himself almost everything to learn. Cosimo took Ficino 
 under his charge, established him in a secluded residence 
 near the Medici ViHa Careggi, and set him to translate Plato. 
 From time to time results of Ficino's patient industry 
 appeared in the form of a Latin translation of this Dialogue 
 or of that. At last in 1491, twenty-seven years after the 
 death of his first patron, there appeared from the press of 
 Bernardino di Choris of Venice, the first complete printed 
 translation of Plato, from the hand of Marsilio Ficino, with 
 a preface addressed to Lorenzo celebrating the relations of 
 the author with Lorenzo himself, with Piero his father, and 
 with Cosimo. 
 
 In the meantime under Lorenzo the Academy had been 
 revived, and its sphere of operations extended. The discus- 
 
Nonulla Arhenagot-f (Jc j-efuftectibne. 
 
 QiiondiePlatoms hbros lecognofdtalicubi/alie 
 nis manibus forte contaminatos: diftinguirqj 
 mCapita:&:longionbus argumcnds comenta 
 riiscfilluftrar. 
 
 Impreffic cxarchetypo Antonms Mifchomi 
 nus Florent!i^AnnoSaIuris.M.CGCC 
 LXXXXULPridLekalFebmarias. 
 
 THE LAST PAGE OF MARSILIO FICINO S TREATISE " D£ SOLE'' 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ANTONIO MISCHOMINI, 1483 
 MS. Znni'taUo,!^^^'"'''^'' ^"'^u"- Ms plate is taken, contains at the foot 0/ the last page the followui.r 
 
 - Hunc Ubellum ego Gabriel f.unganus .tr Fiorrnt,., n.onachus ordiuis oamaldnlen suon emi VI 7 >v//rf/v 
 T-7. ■ , - , "P'^'''"^i'^</"as labore „„-o „t,,,u- in.in^tJia a,au,si7-i" ' 
 
 This httlebook /, Gabvielo lungano of Florence, a n/onk of, he Can.alfnlcnsian onlcr hon.ht for ,iyteen fence 
 «"t of money which I liave a.iiuired by my oion lahonr ayui indnsiry^ ' ' 
 
LORENZO AND THE RENAISSANCE 377 
 
 sions would sometimes run over from Plato to the Divine 
 Comedy of Dante, the systematic study of the great poet 
 and philosopher of Italy coming to take its place side by 
 side with that of the philosopher of Greece. Whatever the 
 subject Lorenzo was recognised and acknowledged as a 
 master. Of all the brilliant men who composed the Academy 
 there was not one who excelled him in versatility of talent, 
 and few who were his superiors in accurate scholarship, or 
 in depth and range of thought. Fortunately Lorenzo has left 
 sufficient evidences of his intellectual quality to enable us to 
 judge of him for ourselves. We are not therefore compelled 
 blindly to accept a verdict which we might suspect to be 
 prompted by flattery, or fulsome subservience. Great as 
 were the services which directly and indirectly he rendered 
 to the cause of scholarship and learning, his definite and 
 personal achievement as a man of letters remains to stamp 
 him as perhaps the most commanding and original genius 
 of his age. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 LORENZO AS PROSE WRITER AND POET— THE "COMMEN- 
 
 Decline of vernacular literature — Survival of the vernacular in the 
 songs of the people — Lorenzo's services to Literature — Revival of the 
 vernacular — Leo Battista Alberti — Lorenzo's defence of the vernacular — 
 Lorenzo's " Commentario " — Lorenzo as a critic of Italian literature — 
 The Sonnets — Origin of the Sonnets — Lorenzo's defence of the Sonnet 
 form — Qualities of Lorenzo's Sonnets — Muratori on Lorenzo's poetry — 
 Lorenzo's poetic versatility — Lorenzo's dangerous facility in versification 
 — The Selve d'Amore — Love, Beauty, and My Lady — ^The Selve and 
 Poliziano's La Giostra — Ambra — Corinto, 
 
 HE revival of classical learning rudely interrupted 
 
 that development of vernacular Italian literature 
 which the work of Dante, of Petrarch, and of Boccaccio 
 shows to have been in progress. The best intellect of Italy 
 now became absorbed in the recovery of a past literature, 
 not in the development of a present one. The present, 
 indeed, seemed but poorly furnished either with a language 
 or an inspiration such as could vitalise, much less im- 
 mortalise, any literary product. It was felt that every- 
 thing worth saying had already been said by the ancients, 
 and had, moreover, been clothed with such perfections of 
 form and diction, that a vernacular like the Tuscan, which 
 itself was but a dialect, was for any lofty purpose of literature 
 inadequate and unworthy. There was scarcely a self- 
 respecting man of letters, who had a reputation to gain, 
 or to lose, who dreamed of entrusting to the Tuscan ver- 
 nacular anything but the careless and ephemeral trifles of 
 the moment, which, being of no value, it was of no 
 importance to preserve. 
 
 Of the sterility, pedantry, and unprofitable imitation to 
 which this slavery to classical forms gave rise it is not here 
 
 TARIO " SONNETS. AND PASTORALS 
 
 378 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 379 
 
 necessary to speak. One inevitable result however was 
 in a peculiar degree fatal to Italian literature, depriving 
 it of vitality and putting it out of relation to life. It ceased 
 to draw its strength and virtue from close contact with the 
 spirit and aspirations of the people. A sharp line of 
 cleavage began to separate the intellectuals from the public. 
 Scholars became a new aristocracy, with all that contempt 
 which caste feels for the vulgar. Literature became the 
 hall-mark ol the few ; it was no longer the highest expression 
 of national tastes and enthusiasms. It became an em- 
 bellishment to the art of life in proportion as it ceased to 
 be an emanation from the practice of living. A coterie of 
 virtuosi monopolised all culture within itself, and felt its 
 chief distinction to consist in its superior exclusiveness and 
 isolation from all contact with the common herd. 
 
 The language itself which Dante had moulded, which 
 Petrarch had adorned, became in danger of degenerating 
 into a barbarous amalgam. When men of letters con- 
 descended to use the vernacular they did not scruple 
 indiscriminately to interlard it with Latin, until, as we read 
 the letters and despatches of the period, we are almost 
 in doubt whether Italy possessed a distinctive language of 
 her own. Within an exclusive circle, which set the tone 
 of literary elegance and taste, Latin became the native 
 tongue of thought and of expression, while the Tuscan 
 assumed a secondary place. It could not be entirely 
 neglected or abandoned, for Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio 
 had produced acknowledged masterpieces which ranked 
 with the masterpieces of antiquity. They had, however, 
 it was thought, exhausted its possibilities : they had, 
 perhaps, jeopardised their own fame, in that the Divine 
 Comedy, the Sonnets, and the Decameron had not been 
 written in Latin. 
 
 In the meantime, however, the national life of the people 
 was in active and continuous movement. Men still lived, 
 and loved, and mourned, and jested. The tragedy and 
 the comedy of existence, its small daily joys and griefs, 
 its aspirations and its failures, called for expression, nor 
 would they be denied. If the giants of literature turned 
 
38o 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 aside in contempt from the demands of the everyday world 
 as being beneath their notice, smaller men were there ready 
 to answer to the call, and to supply with ballad, story, or 
 hymn the popular demand. A humble literature of the 
 street, homestead, and countryside, unfettered because 
 unnoticed, and rejoicing in its freedom, never ceased to 
 find a lowly inspiration in the dances and dehghts of the 
 common people. 
 
 Whenever a man of genius should arise endowed with 
 the spirit of sympathy and observation, with eyes to see 
 the truth and beauty which lie concealed beneath familiar 
 forms of things, then there would be before him the double 
 task of linking life to literature, and of interpreting the 
 new world revealed in antiquity in the light of the strivings 
 and aspirations of the actual world of his day. 
 
 Such a man was Lorenzo dei Medici. The versatility of 
 his genius brought him into touch with life at all points. 
 He was amply, if not richly, endowed with the poetic 
 faculty, and, as a poet, he was able to tune his lyre at will 
 to the deepest note of philosophic speculation, or to the 
 severe melody of the Sonnet, or to the lightest refrain of 
 rustic lovesong or carnival revel. 
 
 Lorenzo's services to literature are that he brought poetry 
 once more into touch with the realities of things ; that he 
 raised to the dignity of literature the artless compositions 
 of the crowd by incorporating the spirit and kernel of 
 such compositions into masterpieces of his own produc- 
 tion ; and that he restored the Tuscan language indis- 
 putably and permanently to its proper place as a fit medium 
 for all forms of thought, however complex and however 
 lofty. 
 
 In his efforts on behalf of the Tuscan vernacular it is 
 probable that Lorenzo was influenced and stimulated by 
 the example and the previous endeavours of Leo Battista 
 Alberti. Alberti, by reason of his age, reputation, and 
 achievement was, in his day, the acknowledged oracle of 
 culture and scholarship in Florence. It has been seen that 
 in the Disputationes Camaldulenses the part of Prolocutor in 
 the discussions is assigned to him, and he is represented as 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 381 
 
 at once the panegyrist and mentor of Lorenzo and Giuliano. 
 The influence of such a man upon the impressionable and 
 receptive mind of such a youth as Lorenzo must have been 
 great, and it is, therefore, no strained supposition to imagine 
 him as instiUing into his pupil his own views upon the 
 subject of language. 
 
 These views Alberti had already given to the world in 
 his "Treatise on the Family," where, in the preface to the 
 third book, he justifies his use of the vernacular, and pro- 
 phesies for it a future. Even, he says, if men of learning 
 boast of the authority possessed by the Latin language 
 on the ground that so many learned men have used it, 
 " the like honour will certainly be paid to our language of 
 to-day, if m.en of culture take the pains to purify and 
 polish it." He saw that if ancient Rome — antiquo nostra 
 imperio amplissimo — had her own great destinies to 
 accomplish, so Italy, Italia nobilissima, capo e arce di tutto 
 funiverso mondo, had equally her own peculiar mission to 
 fulfil. The Italian must realise his ancient birthright 
 bequeathed to him by the Roman, but he must realise it 
 in his own way, and use it not as a memory but as a 
 possession. 
 
 Thus, as early as 1434, if as is probable, Alberti's Trattato 
 is of that date, one great Humanist was already protesting 
 against humanistic pedantry and affectation. He stands 
 out as the champion of the Lingua Toscana, though his 
 Tuscan is of the schools rather than of hfe. The seed of 
 a linguistic revival was sown by Alberti ; the fruits were 
 gathered by that brilliant galaxy of native Tuscan writers, 
 Lorenzo dei Medici, Macchiavelli, Angelo Poliziano and 
 Guicciardini. 
 
 Of these, the first place may be assigned to Lorenzo, 
 inasmuch as, from his position and his example, he was 
 fitted to exercise the most powerful influence. He was 
 not only in himself a man of brilliant attainments, but he 
 had it in his power to set a fashion. Men would, if need 
 be, have written in Chaldaic to please Lorenzo. His 
 advocacy, therefore, of the use of the vernacular assumes 
 an importance over and above its intrinsic value. 
 
382 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 In a prose commentary * attached to a sheaf of his own 
 Sonnets, Lorenzo shows an intimate famiharity with, and 
 a virile command over, his own language. The treatise 
 is an ambitious Hterary effort, consisting as it does of 
 ninety-three double pages of Aldus's type, and containing 
 between forty and fifty thousand words. Had Dante 
 never written the Vita Nuova it is improbable that Lorenzo's 
 Commentary would have been composed, for though the 
 scope of it is different from that of Dante's work, though 
 as a spiritual revelation it stands upon a far lower plane, 
 the original suggestive influence of Dante is clearly marked. 
 
 Lorenzo begins by explaining why he has the presumption 
 to suppose his own Sonnets are worthy of any illustrative 
 commentary. He thinks such a commentary may be 
 useful to those who care to read his poetry, but, apart from 
 this, he desires to justify himself in the eyes of those who 
 may consider the composition of ephemeral and trifling 
 love poems to be a misuse of that valuable time which, 
 from his position, he owes to public duty : lastly, he wishes 
 to reply to the possible objection that he has written in 
 the vernacular, which, " according to the opinion of some, 
 is not fitted for, nor worthy of, any excellent matter or 
 subject." A thing, however, does not become less worthy 
 by becoming more common : on the contrary, the more 
 universal and communicable anything becomes, the more 
 it approaches to the Platonic conception of " the highest 
 good." Now a thing cannot attain to the highest without 
 reaching the infinite, and nothing can be called infinite 
 but that which is common to all things. 
 
 Having thus satisfied the learned taste of the day with 
 a few Platonic tags, Lorenzo proceeds to lay down clearly 
 and concisely the conditions which give dignity and per- 
 fection to any idiom or language. They are these (i) : That 
 it shall be copious and abundant, and fit adequately to 
 
 * The Cotnmenio di Lorenzo dei Medici sopra alcuni de' suoi Sonetti was 
 first included in an edition of his poems printed by Aldus, 1554. It has 
 not, I believe, been since reprinted in full. Roscoe, in his " Illustrations," 
 prints a small portion of it. All that part of it, however, where Lorenzo 
 discourses on his sonnets in the style of Dante's Vita Nuova is still inac- 
 cessible to English readers. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 383 
 
 express the sense and concept of the mind. Judged thus 
 Greek is a more perfect language than Latin, Latin than 
 Hebrew, (ii) That it shall be sweet and harmonious. 
 
 (iii) That it shall have been used as a medium for great 
 literature, which he explains as meaning the treatment of 
 " things subtle, grave, and necessary to human life." 
 
 (iv) That it shall have evolved from a dialect into a language. 
 These four conditions the Tuscan language has fulfilled. 
 
 The use of it by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio is a proof 
 that every shade of meaning can be expressed in this 
 language. In harmony and sweetness Petrarch has shown 
 that it is the equal, if not the superior, of Latin, for 
 Petrarch's Sonnets and Canzoni are superior to anything of 
 the kind by Ovid, Catullus, Propertius or any other Latin 
 writer, while the Sonnets and Canzoni of Dante reach to such 
 heights of gravity, subtlety, and pure beauty that they 
 have no rivals anywhere. As for Boccaccio, his invention, 
 copiousness, and eloquence are beyond compare. The 
 range and diversity of that author's purpose requires a 
 language of extraordinary reach and flexibiUty. It must 
 be capable of expressing every phase of feeling from ex- 
 altation to vulgarity : love, hate, fear, hope, all the emotions 
 which are common to men, have to be rendered through 
 language, not as primary impulses, but complicated with 
 innumerable wiles, and with much perverted ingenuity. 
 In the hands of Boccaccio, Tuscan has stood his severest 
 tests ; henceforth, therefore, no one can doubt that no lan- 
 guage is fitter for full and complete expression than our own. 
 
 Having still further fortified his position by adducing 
 in proof the poetry of Guido Cavalcanti, whose ballads 
 and sonnets show the quahties of gravity and sweetness 
 in perfect accord, Lorenzo sums up his arguments : "Let 
 us conclude, then, that men and practice have been wanting 
 to the language rather than that the language has been 
 wanting to the men and what they had to say. Whatever 
 are, or may seem to be, the proper glories of language, 
 these seem to me to be abundantly present in our own. In 
 view of what has already been written in this language, 
 especially by Dante, it appears to me to be useful and 
 
384 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 indeed necessary that his writings should be read ; and 
 things shall still be written in this language subtle, and 
 important, and worthy of being read, the more so as at 
 present it is in its infancy. In its youth and adult age it 
 may still take on new perfections, more especially if success 
 and extension attend the government of Florence, as we 
 ought to hope, and for this end every good citizen should 
 strive with all his might." 
 
 Lorenzo's detractors will smile at this concluding charac- 
 teristic touch. If the Italian language is to flourish the 
 rule of the Medici must flourish in Italy. The passage will 
 doubtless bear this free translation, for it assuredly expresses 
 Lorenzo's conviction that his House stood for a great deal 
 more than himself. 
 
 That part of the " Commentary " which has been para- 
 phrased or translated above has an interest beyond its 
 special purpose. Lorenzo, the advocate, is revealed as 
 the critic. His love of Italian, and his confidence in its 
 future, is based upon a real and living knowledge of its 
 actual achievements, for it is evident that he had made 
 the work of Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Boccaccio a 
 part of his being. His estimate is based on close familiarity 
 and fine judgment. He shows a catholic spirit of appre- 
 ciation which claims to examine and think for itself, scorning 
 the sickly affectations of those virtuosi who could see 
 nothing good except at a distance of a thousand years. 
 
 If we exclude his diplomatic despatches and his corre- 
 spondence the " Commentary " is Lorenzo's sole important 
 contribution to Italian prose literature. It will be con- 
 venient, therefore, while treating it in relation to the 
 revival of the language, to consider it as a whole. 
 
 Its autobiographical interest has already been noted.* 
 He traces the genesis of his Sonnets from the death of the 
 beautiful lady — probably Simonetta Cattaneo — " for whom 
 aU Florence grieved." He, like every one else, felt con- 
 strained to celebrate her charms and virtues, or to accuse 
 the greed and bitterness of Death. Thus he composed 
 four sonnets which express, with Petrarchian eloquence 
 * See pp. 1 18-122. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 385 
 
 and in accents of graceful melancholy, the sentiments which 
 he felt to be proper to the occasion. It would be clear, 
 without his subsequent acknowledgment, that he was not 
 moved from the depths of his inward being to these com- 
 positions. The requirements of his poetry demand the 
 expression of his grief. It is not his grief which compels 
 the poetic expression of it. But the sonnet* 
 
 O chiara Stella, che co'raggi tuoi 
 Togli all'altre vicine stelle il lume, 
 
 is an example selected almost at random from the collec- 
 tion to serve as an illustration of Lorenzo's feeling and 
 method. Artificial as it is, yet it challenges comparison 
 with kindred outpourings from Keats and Bums. We 
 instinctively feel that productions separated from one 
 
 * O chiara Stella, che co'raggi tuoi 
 
 Togli all'altre vicine stelle il lume, 
 
 Perche splendi assai pii del tuo costume ? 
 
 Perche con Febo ancor contender vuoi ? 
 Forse i begli occhi qual ha tolto a noi 
 
 Morte crudel, ch'ormai troppo presume, 
 
 Accolti hai in te : adorna del lor lume 
 
 II suo bel carro a Febo chieder puoi. 
 Presto, o nuova Stella che tu sia i 
 
 Che di splendor novello adorni il cielo, 
 
 Chiamata esaudi, O Nume, i voti nostri. 
 Leva dello splendor tuo tanta via 
 
 Che agli occhi ch' han d'etemo pianto zelo 
 
 Senz' altra offension lieta ti mostri. 
 
 Translation 
 
 Bright shining Star ! Thy radiance in the sky 
 Dost rob the neighbouring stars of all their light. 
 Why art thou with unwonted splendour bright ? 
 
 Why with great Phoebus dost thou dare to vie ? 
 
 Perchance those eyes which Death so cruelly — 
 Too daring Death — has ravished from our sight. 
 Have given to thee the glory of that light 
 
 Which can the chariot of the Sun defy. 
 
 Oh new-created Star, if star thou art, 
 
 That Heaven with new-born splendours dost adorn, 
 I call on thee I Oh Goddess, quickly hear ! 
 
 Of thine own glory grant me now a part 
 
 To fire these eyes, with endless weeping worn. 
 With something of thy light that they can bear. 
 
 1 Variation : o che tu sia. 
 
 2B 
 
386 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 another by more than three centuries, yet stand together 
 on a common plane of feeling. We are conscious that 
 Lorenzo refuses to be estimated by anything less than an 
 absolute standard of art, and, recognising this, we 
 recognise his claim to a place among the world's poets. 
 
 The conceit of this sonnet lies in the fancy that a bright 
 star is shining with an unwonted effulgence. Its light 
 absorbs that of its neighbour stars, and vies with the light 
 of the sun. Is it that it has received into itself the light 
 which once shone in the bright eyes of her whom Death so 
 cruelly has snatched away ? 
 
 Presto, o nuova Stella, o che tu sia, 
 Che di splendor novello adomo il cielo, 
 Chiamata esaudi, O Nume, i voti nostri. 
 
 We have not here the languorous voluptuousness of Keats' 
 sonnet. There is no image which approaches the solemn 
 splendour of 
 
 The moving waters at their priestlike task 
 Of cold ablution round Earth's human shores. 
 
 We have not here the pathos and the passion which animates 
 the invocation of Burns : 
 
 Thou lingering star with lessening ray 
 That lovest to greet the early morn. 
 Again thou usherest in the day 
 My Mary from my soul was torn. 
 
 But there is grace, delicacy of touch, refinement of fancy. 
 From few sonnets can more be expected or secured. 
 
 The death of this beautiful lady, so tunefully lamented, 
 proved however for Lorenzo not the end but the beginning 
 of his amorosa vita. Launching forth into an elaborate 
 Platonic disquisition, he modifies the Aristotelian pro- 
 position that the end and the beginning are one and the 
 same by the assertion that the end of one thing must be 
 the immediate source of beginning for another. So death, 
 which seems to be the end, is in truth the beginning of a 
 new life. " // pHncipio della vita vera e la morte della vita 
 non vera.'''' The beginning of the true life is the death 
 of the life that is not true. Thus it was with him ; for as 
 he mourned the loss of her whose beauty had added lustre 
 to the stars, he was led by the impulse of his despair to 
 
LORENZO AS POET ANt) WRITER 387 
 
 seek if such another existed anywhere in the world. Destiny 
 led him, like another Romeo, against his will, to a public 
 festival, where he saw that lady of surpassing beauty, 
 with the vision of whom his true life of love began. Lucrezia 
 Donati, for it was she, though Lorenzo nowhere speaks of 
 her by name, inspired every ecstasy, image, and shade of 
 feeHng which find expression in the Sonnets which follow. 
 Her angelical vision, he tells us, gave rise in him to such 
 hopes, fears, and hesitations that the intensity of his 
 emotions produced a sort of f aintness accompanied by coagu- 
 lation of the blood.* His swoons and ecstasies, as here 
 detailed, have the true oriental and Shelleyan character. 
 As he looks into her eyes he is blasted with excess of light ; 
 as she speaks he believes himself to be listening to the 
 music of the spheres. All these sensations, and many 
 more, he strives to embody in his Sonnets : he relates in 
 detail the particular motive, incident, or occasion which 
 inspires each of them in turn. The style of these comment- 
 aries is, here and there, such that they repay the reader for 
 his toil. It may indeed be said with confidence that these 
 prefaces are not more dull than such elaborations must 
 necessarily be. The thread of a love sonnet is, as a rule, 
 too slender to support a lengthy disquisition which shall 
 be interesting, in explanation of its genesis and meaning. 
 
 Before touching on the sonnets themselves it will be well 
 to notice that part of the " Commentario " which Lorenzo 
 devotes to criticism of the Sonnet as a form of poetic art. 
 Here, where he is writing as a critic and a craftsman, he shows 
 himself acute and is consistently interesting. He defends the 
 Sonnet as being certainly not inferior to other measures ; 
 — indeed, from the excessive difficulty of writing a good 
 sonnet he argues that the Sonnet form may claim superiority 
 to many. Its brevity requires that no single word in it 
 shall be any other than the inevitable word : thus it 
 imposes upon the poet that discipline and restraint which 
 art requires. It is analogous to the epigram, being dependent 
 
 * Quando io son la dove sia 
 Quel angelico, altero e dolce volto, 
 II freddo sangue intorno al cor accolto 
 
 Lascia senza color la faccia mia. 
 
388 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 like the epigram, upon the acumen of its composer and 
 his dexterity in style. It is fitted to express grave and 
 elevated thoughts as well as those which are light and 
 trivial. The essential is that the whole sonnet should be 
 built up on some one acute and graceful conception, being 
 content to illustrate that, fitly, poetically, and without 
 harshness or obscurity. There is, moreover, the question 
 of the rhyme. How many helle sentenze, beautiful con- 
 ceptions, says Lorenzo pathetically, have come to nothing 
 owing to this difficulty of rhyme. Every one who has 
 tried will bear witness to this. A sonneteer it is true, may 
 fashion the sense of his sonnet to fit the rhyme, but there 
 is a vast difference between forcing rhyme into the service 
 of the poet's thought, and accommodating his thought 
 to the exigencies of rhyme. Latin metres are not thus 
 hampered by rhyme : poetry, therefore, in the vernacular 
 is confronted by difficulties which are absent from Latin 
 composition ; of all forms in the vernacular thatTof the 
 sonnet is the most difficult to bring to perfection ; therefore 
 it should be esteemed above all others. " From this it is 
 not to be inferred that I think my sonnets have attained 
 to that perfection which belongs properly to such a form 
 of verse. For me, it is sufficient to have made an attempt, 
 and if I have not added to its perfections, or driven the 
 chariot of the sun, yet let it be to me in place of praise that 
 I have been ardent in my endeavours even though my 
 strength has been insufficient for so great an enterprise." 
 
 Thus modestly, and on the whole justly, has Lorenzo 
 estimated the value of his work as a sonneteer. 
 
 A man who feels as I do that there are scarcely a dozen 
 sonnets in his own language, excluding those by Shakspeare, 
 which it was worth while to have written, is obviously not 
 quahfied to pass judgment on a mass of sonnets written 
 over four hundred years ago in Italian. If Dr. Johnson's 
 aphorism be accepted, that sonnets are to poetry what 
 carving heads out of cherry-stones is to art, then the task 
 of criticising Lorenzo's Sonnets becomes superfluous. Yet 
 in justice to this product of his poetic activity, the sennets 
 must not be dismissed without reference to those qualities 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 389 
 
 in them which a foreigner can detect, nor without some 
 testimonies from his own countrymen in support of their 
 many excellences. 
 
 If Lorenzo has carved heads out of cherry-stones he has 
 the merit of having carved them well. He has the dehcacy 
 of touch essential for the filigree effects he aims at. There 
 is scarcely a sonnet which is altogether commonplace, 
 while not infrequently there comes a little flash of 
 inspiration which shines with the unmistakable light of true 
 poetry. He celebrates the eyes of his mistress, her handj 
 her gait, and mien ; he seeks to exhibit the effects of her 
 charms by the influences which they unconsciously exercise 
 not upon himself alone, but on the fair face of Nature 
 around her. Wherever his lady has turned her eyes, there 
 no other sun is needed, but the earth puts forth her beauties 
 at the bidding of the new Flora, and new flowers of a thou- 
 sand colours spring up. The fresh purple violets take on 
 a richer hue when her white hand has plucked them. " Her 
 feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies rosy 
 
 — whenever a March wind sighs, 
 He sets the jewel- print of your feet 
 In violets blue as your eyes — 
 
 are images borrowed unconsciously by Tennyson from 
 Laurentian poetry. By images such as these Lorenzo is 
 brought into intimate contact with natural beauty, with 
 the simple charms of flowers and streams. The streams, 
 as they run, softly murmur the name of his mistress ; 
 the clear surfaces of their waters are mirrors of her beauty, 
 but in the midst of poetic affectations he is not unmindful 
 that flowers and streams, the oak tree and the stars, are 
 lovely in and for themselves. He feels within himself their 
 influences, and responds to their appeal. He is indeed a 
 better poet of Nature than of love. Love in Lorenzo's 
 Sonnets is largely conventional. He manipulates the 
 passion for the purposes of his art ; he is not possessed 
 by it to the absorption of his whole being. But the 
 genuine ring of that sonnet is unmistakable in which he 
 leaves to those who love them the delights of pomp and 
 circumstance. For him — 
 
390 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Un verde praticel pien di bei fiori, 
 Un rivolo, che I'herba intorno bagni 
 Un'angeletto, che d'Amor si lagni, 
 Acqueta molto meglio i nostri ardori. 
 
 (A meadow green of beauteous flowers full, 
 A streamlet which the herbage bathes around ; 
 An angel form, all languishing with love ; — 
 These better answer to my fond desires.) 
 
 He is not indifferent to the " one fair spirit for his minister " 
 — qualche leggiadra ninfa paurosa — but she is an adjunct 
 to the landscape. He forgets to feel that without her 
 presence all beauty would be lacking to the world. 
 
 With but an imperfect knowledge of Lorenzo's Sonnets 
 I feel it to be perhaps presumption to have said this little 
 about them. But the impressions which I have endeavoured 
 to convey are on the surface of them, and will have been 
 felt by all who have read them. The deliberate judgment 
 of a competent fellow countryman is, however, testimony 
 of weight. In support of whatever admiration I feel I 
 bring forward the treatise, " Of Perfect Poetry," by Muratori. 
 Early in this work (Bk. i. c. 3) the author considers the 
 state of poetry in Italy in the fifteenth century. After 
 citing Benivieni, Pohziano, Boiardo and others as main- 
 taining the reputation of vernacular poetry in their time, 
 he gives the pride of place to Lorenzo. " Especially Lorenzo 
 dei Medici," he says. " Although he does not attain to 
 complete perfection, yet I find in him such noble and 
 beautiful Platonic imagery, and so much poetic taste, that 
 assuredly he surpasses in this respect (pregio) many other 
 famous poets of our language. Had his life been prolonged, 
 and had he been less engaged by the cares of his family 
 and of the State I do not hesitate to say that this age 
 also would have had its Petrarch." In the specimens of 
 perfect poetry which Muratori appends to his treatise he 
 places four of Lorenzo's Sonnets side by side with the 
 masterpieces of Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, Tasso, Filicaia 
 and Chiabrera. 
 
 The qualities which distinguish Lorenzo's Sonnets are 
 common to his poetry as a whole : neatness in workman- 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 391 
 
 ship, grace of diction, genuine love of Nature, and a poet's 
 observation of it. But from the Sonnets alone we can 
 derive little conception of the amazing fertility and versa- 
 tility of his poetic genius. It may almost be said of him : 
 " Nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit ; nihil tetigit 
 quod non omavit." He experiments with metre, and is 
 not afraid to sound the whole gamut of emotion from the 
 profoundest mysteries of man's spiritual being to the lightest 
 wanton catch for dance or carnival. Whatever the theme 
 there is no sense of the virtuoso straining for unfamiliar 
 experiences which he may render precious by his verse. 
 Always there is a genuine ring of sincerity in Lorenzo's 
 poetry, in this sense, that each poem clearly reflects an 
 aspect of the man himself. He surrenders himself to the 
 mood of the moment, is absorbed by it, and gives spontaneous 
 expression to it in some form of literary art. Perhaps he 
 is least original in his Sonnets, Canzoni and Canzonets, for 
 there he had Petrarch most in mind, and theme and treat- 
 ment were in some measure prescribed. But when his 
 theme is satire, as in some of his Capitoli, or philosophy, as 
 in L'AUercazioni, or the loves of a rustic swain as in Nencia, 
 when he touches the rude elements of drama, as in I Amori 
 di Venere e di Marie, or in his morality play of SS. Giovanni 
 e Paolo, he is bound by no precedents, but he creates them. 
 He has something to say, and has his own way of saying it 
 regardless of the schools. He sings mostly because he must. 
 There is little evidence of laboured effort. The very ease 
 with which his thoughts adapted themselves to versification 
 was indeed a snare in the path of a man whose aim was a 
 place among great poets. The marvel is that effusions 
 easily thrown off in the scant leisure of a life of incessant 
 political activity should be so good. What a man can do 
 with little trouble he is not apt to do well, but genius could 
 supply for Lorenzo what the most laborious cares may fail 
 to effect for men less richly endowed. 
 
 Poliziano in his Nutricia has celebrated in a passage, 
 which has the true classical ring, the chief productions of 
 Lorenzo's muse. As he goes through the long catalogue 
 he is filled with amazement, that work of so much variety 
 
392 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 and such excellence should be the pastime of a statesman 
 engaged in the anxious conduct of affairs. 
 
 Quodque alii studiumque vocant, durumqu* laborem. 
 Hie tibi ludus erit : Fessus civilit)us actis 
 Hue is emeritas aeuens ad carmina vires.' 
 Felix ingenio, felix cui pectore tantas 
 Instaurare viees, cui fas tarn magna capaci 
 Alternate animo, et varias tibi nectere curas.* 
 
 This is a fine and true tribute to Lorenzo's Muse. Things 
 gay and grave, things sacred and things profane ; themes 
 philosophic and themes amorous ; satire and lyric song ; 
 drama and sonnet ; hymns carnal and spiritual ; such is the 
 medley of Lorenzo's poetic output. It is the work of a man 
 of undoubted genius, a man interested in everything, fond 
 of experiment, endowed with the eye and ear of a true 
 artist, but possessed of a too fatal facihty of expression in 
 metre and in rhyme. Some perverse god had lavished on 
 him the fatal gift of improvisation, and it proved too often 
 an enemy to inspiration. Such was his ease that, after a 
 philosophic discussion in the Academy, he could turn the whole 
 discussion into verse, and found the exercise useful for clearing 
 his ideas and impressing the substance of the debate upon 
 his memory. There is scarcely a poem by Lorenzo where 
 we have not a sense of some fine things finely seen and said, 
 but there is also often a sense of too much said which did 
 not need saying. We are reading the efforts of a verse 
 writer rather than receiving the message of a poet. Had 
 Lorenzo been less fluent his place among the poets would 
 have been higher. From this criticism, however, " Nencia 
 di Barherino " must at once be excepted. This is a gem 
 of purest ray, worthy of a place in any poet's crown. But 
 " Nencia " will find her place a httle later in this survey of 
 Lorenzo's poetic work. 
 
 Some of Lorenzo's most ambitious efforts were expended 
 upon poems, written in ottava or terza rima, in which the 
 
 * " And that which others call toil and severe labour will be a pastime 
 to you, when, weary with cares of State, you tune your genius to song : 
 H appy man, to whom the gods have given the faculty to renovate your 
 heart by such divers interests, to alternate such great themes in your 
 capacious mind, and to bind yourself about with such varied activities." 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 393 
 
 eclogues of Virgil and the metamorphoses of Ovid lend a 
 colour to much which is individual and original in the poet 
 himself. This group includes the " Selve d' Amove," 
 " Amhra," and some of the Capitoli, or eclogues, such as 
 the " Corinto." 
 
 The " Selve d'Amore," as the name implies, are scrap- 
 books, or miscellanies, of love. In them, under the pretext 
 of a love passion, the poet expatiates at large upon such 
 images as present themselves to his view. The more impor- 
 tant of the two poems which go by the name of " Selve " 
 presents to us a lover who complains of the absence of his 
 mistress. He calls upon her bright eyes, upon his own 
 destiny, upon love, and upon Nature to take pity on his 
 case ; soon he pictures to himself her return. At once the 
 whole face of Nature changes ; visions of beauty are every- 
 where which take shape in visible forms of beauty. The 
 dry and empty boughs become clothed with new leaves, 
 the flowers spring up, the birds sing, the bees and ants 
 pursue their busy toils, and the shepherds drive their flocks 
 to their mountain pasturage. Here Lorenzo introduces 
 into the midst of all these conventional prettinesses a 
 genuine poetic touch in the picture of the little lamb trotting 
 in its mother's tracks ; of the shepherd who carries a new- 
 born lamb lovingly in his arms, while the faithful dog is 
 escort to them all. 
 
 L'agnel, trottando pur la materna orma * 
 Segue ; e alcun che pur or ora nacque, 
 L'amorevol pastore in braccio porta : 
 II fido cane a tutti fa la scorta» 
 
 (The little lamb trots in his mother's tracks. 
 Another that is now but newly bom 
 The tender shepherd carries in his arms. 
 The faithful dog is escort to them all.) 
 
 At last when all Nature and mythology have felt her 
 benign influences, the loved one herself comes to her lover's 
 home — " Felice casa ! bench6 aliquanto umile." Beauty, 
 grace, and all the virtues now adorn it. All would be well 
 but for the presence in an obscure comer of an old woman. 
 
394 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 a malignant goddess with a hundred eyes, a hundred ears. 
 This is Jealousy, the poem proceeding to trace through many 
 stanzas, her origin, lineage and qualities. Bom of Chaos, 
 nurtured by Pluto, she makes mortal men feel what pains 
 are endured in the dark, sunless realms below. She feeds 
 on empty shadows and sad thoughts, but she has her uses, 
 in that she provides occasion to Lorenzo for a finished 
 Virgilian portrait. We have, through the medium of verse, 
 just that realisation and personification of an abstract 
 quality which Botticelli renders through painting in his 
 " Calumny of Apelles." But in Lorenzo's poem the portrait 
 does not seem to be truly in the picture. It is not an essential 
 element in the composition, incorporated into its unity, as 
 are the figures in Botticelli's work. It is indeed but one of 
 the scraps in a book of miscellanies, and from it we turn over 
 to another. Through some stanzas which display the 
 ecstasies of the lover, and a fine portrait of Hope to balance 
 that of Jealousy, we are brought by easy stages to a descrip- 
 tion of the Age of Gold which flourished in the days before 
 Pandora's box was opened. 
 
 Lorenzo's picture of The Golden Age strikes the modern 
 reader in the same way as a performance of Hamlet impressed 
 Partridge. It seems to be made up of famihar quotations. 
 But though the fancy was old as Virgil and Ovid, Lorenzo, 
 in the modern world, was first in the field. Subsequent 
 writers have owed as much to him as he owed to writers 
 who preceded him. If it was Montaigne who gave to 
 Shakespeare the model for Gonzalo's Utopia in The Tempest* 
 it might well have been from Lorenzo that Montaigne him- 
 self borrowed. In that quiet golden time when Saturn 
 reigned with just sway, every desire was held in even 
 balance between satisfaction and restraint ; thine and 
 
 * Cf. Tempest, Act II. s. i. 159 ; 
 
 All things in common Nature should produce 
 Without sweat or endeavour • * « 
 
 but Nature should bring forth 
 Of its own kind all foison, all abundance 
 To feed my innocent people. 
 I would with such perfection govern, Sir 
 To excel the golden age. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 395 
 
 mine were words unknown. The liberal earth provided all 
 things in common for the service of all without compulsion 
 from spade or plough. Of its own accord sprang up 
 the corn and all the varied fruits ; Nature was clothed 
 upon with sweet shrubs and flowers which never had to fear 
 the ravages of hail or sun. The streams, running sweet 
 and clean and joyous, then quenched the modest thirst of 
 man. 
 
 In several stanzas the state of things existing in the animal 
 world is then displayed. Lions and tigers bore the outward 
 semblance of such beasts, but were tame as the coneys. 
 The wolf lay down with the sheep, for then he was not fierce 
 nor she timid. Examples are multiplied from every sphere 
 of Nature, and always the images are happy, and the observa- 
 tion sympathetic. But there is too much the sense of read- 
 ing a rhymed catalogue of the contents of a menagerie. It 
 is distinctly a relief to get away from the animals, which in 
 the golden world cease to be the animals we know, to the 
 contemplation of the state of man under the supposed 
 conditions. 
 
 The use of metals was entirely unknown, and so man 
 was free from the greed of gold. Iron was not forged into 
 weapons of war, nor into bits and curbs for the horses. The 
 memory of man was not perpetuated in bronze, nor was 
 there any thirst for mortal glory. No Argos ploughed the 
 sea in fruitless quests, for with the seashore the world was 
 thought to end. Man himself, untouched by envy, hatred, 
 hope or pain, passed his hfe without passion and without 
 employment, without preferences and without curiosity. 
 These somewhat dubious advantages are imagined by 
 Lorenzo in order to point the contrast between an ideal and 
 an actual state. Then the intellect of man was assimilated 
 to his aspiration, his will to his capacity for understanding. 
 He was content to know from God that which he was able 
 to comprehend, nor was he ever seeking out with useless 
 care the causes of things which Nature has hidden from our 
 view. These golden times have passed. To-day man is 
 cursed with the desire to know too much. There is a happy 
 mean between ignorance and knowledge, but the presump- 
 
396 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 tion which is born of intellect forbids us to be satisfied with 
 it. Man now prays Heaven that he may see all things 
 clearly, or else not see at all. 
 
 The poem closes with some stanzas of fine rhapsody in 
 which the lover invokes his mistress. If the winged god 
 will only restore her to him, then he will ask no more, nor 
 envy the fabled age of gold, nor Paradise, nor any other 
 thing. 
 
 O vaghi occhi amorosi 
 
 Che'n questo e'n quel bel viso 
 
 Quando mirate fiso 
 
 Vedrete mille belezze diverse. 
 
 Mentre vi sono ascosi 
 Questi dua vaghi lumi 
 Stolto alcun non presumi 
 Aver veduto la bellezza intera. 
 
 Qui S la belta vera 
 
 Tulta accolta ia un volto 
 
 Quinci I'esempio ban tolto 
 
 L'altre ch' in varie cose son disperse. 
 
 Chi questa belta mira 
 
 Di etemo e dolce amor sempre sospira. 
 
 Translation 
 
 Oh bright, love-laden eyes 
 That light with love a face divine. 
 Ye who shall gaze therein shall see 
 A thousand shapes of beauty shincr 
 
 If that the glory shall be hid 
 Of those twin lamps which shine so bright, 
 Fool would be he that then should claim 
 True beauty to have known aright^ 
 
 Here only is true beauty found. 
 All wholly blent in one sweet face 
 For other things of beauty take 
 Their glory only from her graces 
 
 He who shall once that beauty prove 
 Must ever sigh for sweet eternal love^ 
 
 Suddenly, in the midst of his darkness, a radiant vision 
 bursts upon him. It is she ! 
 
 Ecco il mio Sol vien del monte fuora I 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 397 
 
 He sees the light which radiates from her, he feels its heat. 
 The light is Beauty ; the heat is the heat of Love. His lady 
 comes, attended by Beauty on her right hand, and Love on 
 her left. The three beauteous figures advance. Love, 
 Beauty, and My Lady, like a group of Botticelh's Graces, 
 in rhythmic movement singing together sweet melodies 
 unheard. It is the music of the spheres to which worldly 
 ears are not attuned, but it is caught up in the heart of the 
 lover, and this was the song they sang : 
 
 Qui 6 la belti vera, 
 
 Tulta accolta in un volto 
 
 Quinci I'esempio han tolto 
 
 L'altre ch' in varie cose son disperse 
 
 Chi questa belta mira 
 
 Di eterno e dolce amor sempre sospira. 
 
 Such is Lorenzo's " Selve d'Amore." Graceful, correct, 
 tinged with imagination, and not without touches of genuine 
 poetic beauty, yet it has too much of the cold precision of 
 an academic exercise. Another poet of Lorenzo's day sang 
 of the Realms of Love.* When we turn from the " Selve 
 d'Amore " to Poliziano's " Giostra " we have Lorenzo's 
 theme lit up with the warmth and magic radiance of genuine 
 inspiration. It would be unkind to think, with Armstrong, 
 that Poliziano tuned his note to Lorenzo's lyre so that the 
 world at last might hear the full richness of its melody. The 
 Giostra is too spontaneous to have been written with a 
 purpose, least of all with a malevolent purpose. But in the 
 fancied realms of Poliziano's imagination there is that which 
 is lacking to Lorenzo's Age of Gold. Under the wand of the 
 magician the hard, ghttering, polished outlines become 
 suffused with a sunset glow, and melt into fairyland. For 
 a moment the world of the poet's fancy becomes for us the 
 real world in which we Hve : it is no longer an impossible 
 world of which we coldly read. 
 
 * It is from Poliziano's La Giostra that Botticelli received the inspira- 
 tion for two, if not three, of his greatest works — The Birth of Venus, the 
 Primavera, and perhaps the Mars and Venus in the National Gallery. 
 The Birth of Venus must be based on stanzas lOO, loi ; the Primavera on 
 scattered passages throughout the poem. The Mars and Venus may be 
 suggested by stanzas 122, 123. I must dismiss the temptation to quote. 
 
398 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Lorenzo's poem " Ambra " does not appear in the Aldine 
 edition of his poems pubHshed in 1554. The manuscript 
 was disinterred from the Laurentian Library at the instance 
 of Mr. Roscoe, and was first published by him. No question 
 as to its authenticity has, I beheve, arisen in the century 
 and more which has elapsed since its publication. The 
 hand that wrote the Selve d'Amore seems indeed plainly 
 visible in Ambra* Lorenzo here relates a metamorphosis, 
 after Ovid's manner, in order to give a poetic origin and 
 colour to his villa at Poggio a Caiano, situated on a rocky 
 eminence rising from the waters of the Ombrone River. 
 Ambra is a beauteous nymph loved alike by the shepherd 
 Lauro and the goddess Diana. Her, as she bathed in the 
 clear waters of the stream, the river god Ombrone, son of 
 the Apennines, beheld, and he pursued her. The nymph 
 fled before him, " her fears adding wings to her white feet," 
 until she reached the spot where Ombrone and Arno meet. 
 There Ombrone calls upon his brother Arno to stay her 
 further flight, but the nymph in despair invokes Diana who 
 transforms her into a rock. The poem opens with a descrip- 
 tion of winter in which the poet expatiates at will. The 
 leafless, birdless trees, save for one secret bird that lurks 
 amid the cypress, the long nights which are each a hundred 
 years to the watcher, but so short to the lover, the long 
 flight of the screaming cranes, the snowy garlands which 
 crown the mountain tops, the howling winds, the floods let 
 loose, all these images, and many another, le^d up to the 
 River Ombrone, which, in flood, girds round the rocky 
 eminence of Ambra, converting it into an island. Thus 
 Lorenzo reaches the point and here his mythical fancy can 
 play upon the loves of Ambra and Ombrone. All is finished 
 and graceful, and the flying Dryad becomes a visible thing 
 as she darts from the grasp of the river god leaving a tress 
 of her hair in his hand, as a fish darts from the descending 
 net leaving some scales behind. The stanza which contains 
 
 * Mr. Roscoe, in his Illustrations to his " Life of Lorenzo," published 
 in folio, 1822, gives an engraving of the story of Ambra and Ombrone as 
 cut in relief upon an amber flask which belonged to Lorenzo. The sugges- 
 tion of the poem may hg,y9 come from this flask. I am glad to be able to 
 reproduce it here, 
 
AM BRA 
 
 REPRODUCED FROM ROSCOe'S " SUPPLEMENTARY ILLUSTRATIONS" 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 399 
 
 the nymph's prayer to Diana, the Casta Dea, will illustrate 
 as well as another the form and spirit of the poem : 
 
 Diana bella, questo petto casto 
 Non macul5 giammai folle disio, 
 Guardalo or tu, perch'io Ninfa non basto 
 A duo nemici, e I'uno e I'altro Dio. 
 Col desio del morir m'6 sol rimasto 
 Al core il casto amor di Lauro mio ; 
 Portate, o venti, questa voce estrema 
 A Lauro mio, che la mia morte gema. 
 
 (Beauteous Diana I shall it not avail 
 
 That never spot has stained this breast of mine ? 
 
 Protect me. I, a Nymph, cannot prevail 
 Against two foes, and each of them Divine. 
 
 Now as I die, no fears of death assail 
 Save for the love I bear Lorenzo mine. 
 
 Carry, oh winds, to him my latest breath. 
 
 That he a little while shall mourn my death.) 
 
 Lorenzo's Capitolo, or Eclogue, which may be entitled 
 Corinto, sings the shepherd-song of love once more, not 
 in ottava rima as in the Selve, but in terza rima. In his 
 pastoral eclogues, and in his Capitoli generally, Lorenzo 
 shows an easy facility in manipulating Dante's metre, and 
 even employs it as a medium for satire. 
 
 In the opening stanzas of Corinto the poet throws around 
 the poem the atmosphere of night, under the full, steely 
 stillness of a briUiant moon. All things on earth were now 
 at rest, save the shepherd Corinto, who, for love of Galatea, 
 chanted his moan among the beech trees. " O Galatea, 
 why do you hold in such despite the shepherd Corinto, 
 who loves you so ? " His plaints go all unheard He 
 will therefore give them form, and send them forth, as 
 verses, to the winds that they may carry them to his way- 
 ward mistress. So far the poem promises to run on the 
 conventional hues of pastoral rhapsody, but now it takes 
 a happy turn, and becomes an inspiration for many a poet 
 and painter of the future. There is all the dehcacy and 
 colour of a Watteau in Corinto's vision of Galatea as she 
 dances in the glade to the tune of his shepherd's pipe, or 
 as, when weary, lying beneath the oak, he pelts her with 
 
400 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 flowers of a thousand hues, and crowns her laughing beauty 
 with garlands : 
 
 Quante ghirlande sopra i bei crin d'oro 
 
 Farei miste di frondi e di fioretti 1 
 
 Tu vinceresti ogni bellezza loro. 
 II mormorio de' chiari ruscelletti 
 
 Responderebbe alia nostra dolcezza, 
 
 E'l canto di amorosi augelletti. 
 
 (And many a mingled garland would I twine 
 Of leaves and flowers to crown thy golden head. 
 
 But all their beauties fain must yield to thine. 
 The rivulet murmuring in its crystal bed 
 
 Would answer low to all our sweet delights 
 
 By songs of amorous birds accompanied.) 
 
 He pictures her as she bounds along, so swift and light 
 that she can skim the surface of the waters nor wet her 
 feet. He sees her image reflected in the clear fountain, 
 but as he moves to gaze more nearly it is gone. He can 
 see only the image of himself, poor substitute for that of 
 Galatea. Yet it affords a pretext to Corinto to dwell on 
 his own qualities. If not of beauty, they are qualities of 
 strength and manly daring. He does not fear to encounter 
 the bull and take it by its horns, nor to contend with the 
 rabid bear. With a bow in his hand he would not shrink 
 from a contest with Diana herself. With him Galatea 
 shall have flocks and herds, fresh milk and strawberries, 
 and honey made from the labours of countless bees, honey 
 which Olympian ambrosia cannot surpass. Will she not 
 relent ? Will she ever join so much cruelty to so much 
 beauty ? If it prove so, then Corinto can take but one 
 comfort, that beauty is a thing that fades. Thus Lorenzo 
 reaches the passage * for which, one might almost suppose, 
 
 * Mr. Roscoe has translated the passage from Corinto about the roses 
 in his " Illustrations," p. 68. A much more adequate and literal transla- 
 tion has been made by J. A. Symonds, Renaissance, Italn. Liter., Pt. I., 
 p. 376. His translation of the stanza which immedately follows runs thus — 
 Thus I beheld the roses dawn and die 
 And one short hour their loveliness consume. 
 But while I watched those languid petals lie 
 Colourless on cold earth, I could but think 
 How vain a thing is youthful bravery. 
 ***** 
 Pluck the rose, therefore, maiden, while 'tis May ! 
 Symonds also translates a ballad by Poliziano and compares it with 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 401 
 
 the whole poem was written, the passage about the roses 
 which bloom only so soon to die : 
 
 Cosi le vidi nascere e morire 
 
 E passar lor vaghezza in men d'un 'ora. 
 
 Quando languenti e pallide vidi ire 
 
 Le foglie a terra, allor mi venne a mente 
 
 Che vana cosa d il giovenil fiorire. 
 
 And from this reflection Corinto draws and points the 
 moral : 
 
 Cogli la rosa, o Ninfa, quando 6 il tempo. 
 Gather the rose, sweet nymph, while yet there is time. 
 
 The rose-bloom which falls upon its close, and the insets 
 of poetic painting which we find in Corinto, distinguish 
 
 this of Lorenzo. Using Symonds's translation in both cases, I place the 
 few lines in which the theme is in both poems the same opposite one another ; 
 
 Lorenzo. Capitolo " Corinto " 
 Red and white roses bloomed upon 
 the spray ; 
 One opened, leaf by leaf, to greet 
 the mom, 
 Shyly at first, then in sweet dis- 
 array ; 
 
 Another, yet a youngling, newly 
 bom. 
 
 Scarce struggled from the bud, 
 
 and there were some 
 Whose petals closed them from 
 the air forlorn ; 
 Another fell, and showered the 
 grass with bloom ; 
 (Then as above.) 
 
 POLIZIANO. 
 
 Ballata. 
 Maidens, one 
 
 I went a-roammg, 
 
 bright day. 
 In a fair garden in mid-month of 
 
 May. 
 
 I gazed and gazed. Hard task it 
 
 were to tell 
 How lovely were the roses in that 
 
 hour 
 
 One was but peeping from her ver- 
 dant shell. 
 And some were faded, some were 
 scarce in flower. 
 
 For when the full rose quits her 
 tender sheath 
 When she is sweetest and most 
 
 fair to see. 
 Then is the time to place her in 
 
 thy wreath 
 Before her beauty and her fresh- 
 ness flee. 
 Gather ye therefore roses with 
 great glee, 
 Sweet girls, or e'er their perfume 
 
 pass away. 
 I went a-roaming, Maidens, one 
 
 bright day 
 In a fair garden in mid-month of 
 May. 
 
 Poliziano, says Symonds, might almost have written his ballad " to 
 show the world the difference between true poetry and what is only very 
 like it." 
 
 2C 
 
402 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 it favourably from conventional pastoral. It may indeed 
 be doubted if Pope, apart from his Messiah, ever composed 
 a pastoral which is on a level with this of Lorenzo. But 
 it has many touches of conventionality about it. The 
 distressed shepherd apostrophises his wayward Galatea in 
 those strains of elegant fancy which pastoral poetry demands, 
 but which are in demand nowhere else. Lorenzo could 
 not himself have been blind to the artificiality and thinness 
 of this kind of composition, nor to the fact that Virgil had 
 done it once and for all, leaving no further scope for pastoral 
 outside a schoolboy's exercise. 
 
 Perhaps it was with some such feeling, and as a parody 
 upon himself, that he wrote his masterpiece, Nencia da 
 Barberino. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LORENZO AS POET (continued)— NE NCI A DA BARBERINO AND 
 
 THE CANT I 
 
 Analysis and criticism of Nencia da Barbarino — The Canzone on 
 Nencia's death — The Canti a Ballo — Connection of the Canti with old 
 popular Florentine songs — Moral influences of the Canti — The Canti Car- 
 nascialeschi — Selections from the Canti a Ballo — Carnival songs in their 
 relation to carnival celebrations — II Lasca — ^The revel of Bacchus and 
 Ariadne. 
 
 TN Nencia* we have the old theme presented in a novel 
 dress. A lover celebrates his absent mistress, and 
 laments her coldness, He exhausts all his arts to cajole 
 her to be kind. But the lover, Vallera, is a peasant, whose 
 arts are only those of the peasant, while Nencia is a wayward 
 beauty among the country lasses, who yet knows how to 
 play the part of My Lady Disdain with the best. Lorenzo 
 adapts his language to suit his characters. Nencia provides 
 the first example of a poet of acknowledged reputation 
 using the lingua rustica as a medium the most proper to 
 express the sentiment of rustic lovers. The high-flown 
 images and elaborate myth which are the conventions of 
 pastoral poetry, in Nencia give place to Nature unaffected 
 and unadorned. Lorenzo recognises with amusement that 
 all the world is kin ; that greasy shepherds and bedizened, 
 red-cheeked country wenches are distinguished only by 
 externals from the superfine world of culture or of fancy. 
 He writes Nencia doubtless as a satire, his first object 
 seeming to be to raise a laugh against people so absurd as 
 his Nencia and Vallera, but it is clear that he ends by 
 
 * Nencia da Barberino, first published in a collection of Canzone a Ballo 
 composte dal Magnifico Lorenzo dei Medici e da M. Agnolo Poliziano, ed 
 altri autori insieme con la Nencia da Barberino, e la Beca di Dicomano 
 composte dal medisimo Lorenzo. Florence, ist ed. 1562, 2nd ed. " Nuova- 
 mente Ricorrette," 1568. The Beca di Dicomano is, however, by Luigi 
 Pulci. 
 
 403 
 
404 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 falling under the spell of his own creation, and becomes 
 himself half in love with his froward, bright-eyed rustic 
 beauty. He carries her beyond the limits of the piece 
 which bears her name, for in one of the most winning and 
 pathetic of his Canzone a Ballo he tells again her simple 
 charms and mourns her untimely death. 
 
 The charm of the Nencia da Barberino lies in the admirable 
 adaptation of the language to the character of the rustic 
 lover ; in the ingenuity which attributes to him just such 
 images, persuasives, and invocations as he would naturally 
 use ; and in the effects of genuine poetry which the author 
 is able to produce by an unaffected simplicity, a simplicity 
 so unstudied that it attains almost to the highest point 
 to which art can aspire — ^the point where " Art itself is 
 Nature." 
 
 Vallera bums with love, and fain must sing of her who 
 wastes his heart away. In beauty she has no equal, and 
 with each glance of her eyes she throws a torch of love at 
 you. Nowhere, in city or in hamlet, has he seen any one who 
 can vie with her. Appropriately, therefore, at this point 
 he devotes a stanza to a catalogue of all the townships and 
 villages he knows. 
 
 But never have I seen a girl so sweet 
 Nor one so properly and well set up. 
 Her two eyes seem to make it holiday 
 Whene'er she lifts them or she looks at you. 
 And just between, her shapely nose, as if 
 Bored deftly with a little auger, rests. 
 
 Her coral lips, her two rows of teeth, whiter than those 
 of any horse, her cheeks which vie with crystal without 
 the aid of paint or patches, pass under review. 
 
 Ed in quel mezzo ell' 6 come una rosa 
 Nel mondo non fu mai si bella cosa. 
 
 (What with them all she's fair as "any rose. 
 In all the world nothing's so fair as she.) 
 
 He indeed may think himself lucky who secures such a 
 prize ; he may hold himself consoled for everything, with 
 no desire unfulfilled, who is privileged at last to hold 
 Nencia in his arms. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 405 
 
 Morbida e bianca, che pare un sugnaccio. 
 Piu bianca se' che il fior de la farina; 
 
 (She's white and soft just like a skin of lard. 
 Whiter than is the flour from the corn.) 
 
 But though her eyes are so bright she has a heart of 
 flint, and is ever surrounded by a troop of lovers on whom 
 in turn she throws the favour of a glance, so that Vallera's 
 brain reels within his head. 
 
 Her appearance when she goes to mass on Sunday morning 
 with her cloak of dommaschino and her bright-coloured 
 petticoat is nothing less than distracting. There is no one 
 to beat her in making things, whether her labours be in the 
 fields or at the spinning-wheel, or in weaving baskets. 
 In short 
 
 Ed 6 piu tenerella che un ghiaccio, 
 Morbida e dolce, che pare un migliaccio. 
 
 (More delicate than ice upon a pool, 
 
 With the sweet yielding softness of a pudding.) 
 
 Nencia has so bewitched him that he has become good 
 for nothing. He can scarcely wield his mattock, nor 
 swallow a morsel. She has bound him with a hundred 
 withes ; he cannot sleep at nights, and makes himself a 
 nuisance to his people. This very night has seemed a 
 thousand years to him, so that long before day he rose, 
 and stood for an hour and a half beneath the portico of 
 the baker's shop to think on Nencia. She has indeed 
 every perfection : she is well-proportioned and he recalls 
 a fresh charm in the dimple on her chin 
 
 Che rimbellisce tutfa sua figura, 
 (Which spreads its beauties over all her face,) 
 
 but he can think for the moment on no other particular 
 on which he has not already dwelt. He is forced back 
 upon recapitulation : 
 
 Credo che la formasse la Natura 
 Morbida e bianca, tan to appariscente, 
 Che la trafigge il cuore a molta gente. 
 
4o6 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 (For Nature, I believe, created her 
 
 So soft and white, so elegant, that she 
 
 Might pierce the heart of every one she meets.) 
 
 He has a bunch of holly for her with red berries, just 
 gathered from the tree, but she has become too much of a 
 fine lady to receive it ; he can get no answers from her, 
 either good or ill. And yet all yesterday he watched for 
 her, though all in vain. What happiness to see her tending 
 her flocks or descending with her pitcher into the stream ! 
 what joy to think of that April when he first fell beneath 
 her charms as he saw her gathering a salad ! " O Nenciozza 
 mia. I would go where the cattle drink, to the pool where 
 I might see you as you ford the stream, and there, seated 
 on the ground, await you as you cross. And, Nenciozza 
 mia, I am going on Sunday as far as Florence to sell that 
 bundle of faggots which yesterday I cut while the cattle 
 grazed. I can buy something there for you : face paint, 
 for instance, or a little paper full of bismuth, or a farthing's 
 worth of pins and needles." 
 
 The vision of Nencia thus tricked out in all the spoils 
 of the capital suggests to her ardent swain charms and 
 graces in her which so far he has overlooked. He re- 
 members how lightly she dances, skipping like a young 
 goat, revolving smoothly as a mill-wheel, or touching in 
 turn each little shoe with her hand : 
 
 Ella S direttamente ballerina, 
 Ch' ella si lancia come una capretta, 
 E gira piu che ruota di mulina, 
 E dassi delle man nella scarpetta 
 
 (And as a dancer there is none to touch her, 
 She skips about like any little goat. 
 The mill-wheel cannot twirl as fast as she, 
 And with her hand she strikes her little shoe.) 
 
 And, in setting to partners, 
 
 Ella fa le piii belle riverenze 
 Che 'gnuna cittadina di Firenze. 
 
 (She makes a prettier curtsey, too, by far 
 Than any lady of the City can.) 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 Why is there not some little defect which it is in Vallera's 
 power to remedy ? Just a clasp for her gown, a few hooks 
 or buttons, or a band for her tresses. Does she wish for a 
 coral necklace with a pendant ? He will buy it, only she 
 must say if she would like the beads to be large or small. 
 He will do anything for her ; throw himself into the Sieve, 
 beat his head against the wall. She has only to put him 
 to the proof, and he will not be found wanting. He has 
 not been blind to the attentions which others have been 
 paying to her. Let her take heed, for he is a formidable 
 person, who will not spare his hand. 
 
 But Vallera is evidently as amiable as he is strong, for 
 the thought of rivals only stimulates him to fresh efforts 
 to apprise his Nencia's charms. He is, however, driven 
 to repetition once more : for the moment he can only assert 
 that 
 
 A prettier thing than is my Nencia 
 
 And one more charming could you nowhere find. 
 
 He adds, however, as supplementary attractions, that she 
 is " grossoccia," well set-up, and full of fun : she gives 
 new life to every festivity with her song, and leads the 
 dance with a majesty which is all her own. He tries, for 
 a stanza, to match these graces by his own accomplishments, 
 but he is forced back on Nencia, and enlists all his resources 
 of agricultural comparison to paint her worthily : 
 
 Tu se' pill bella che Madonna Lapa, 
 E se' pii bianca ch' una madia vecchia 
 Piacimi piu ch' a le mosche la sapa, 
 E piCi che fichi fiori alia Forfecchia : 
 Tu se' piii bella che '1 fior de la rapa, 
 E se' pii dolce che '1 mel della pecchia 
 Vorreiti dare in una gota un bacio, 
 Che' saporita piil che non 6 il cacio. 
 
 Translation, 
 Prettier you are than is Madonna Lapa, 
 And whiter far than well-used kneading trough : 
 You please me more than wine sauce pleases flies. 
 And more by far than young figs please the grub. 
 Fairer than flowers of radishes are you ; 
 Sweeter than honey from the honey bee ; 
 Would you but kiss me once upon the cheek, 
 There'd be more savour in it than in cheese. 
 
4o8 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 For more than half an hour he had waited for her by 
 the ford while her wethers were crossing, but she was not 
 there. " What were you doing, Nencia, that you did not 
 come out ? " And now he must go : he hears Mona Masa 
 calling him to bring in the cattle to their stalls. He will 
 go, but he leaves his heart behind with Nencia : 
 
 Nenciozza mia, debe non ti dubitare 
 Che I'amor ch' io ti porto si 6 tale 
 Che quando avessi mal, Nenciozza mia. 
 Con la mia lingua te lo leveria. 
 
 (O Nencia mine, you mustn't ever doubt 
 That I have really such a love for you 
 That should you ever, Nencia mine, be ill 
 With my own tongue I'd lick that ill away.) 
 
 But will she not one day go with him to the spot he 
 knows close by, where, screened in a valley from the sun's 
 rays, she may lift her veil that he may see 
 
 II tuo bel viso tanto bello 
 Al qual risponden tutti gli suoi membri 
 Si che a un' angioletta tu m'assembri. 
 
 (Her so beauteous face 
 To which all else about her so replies 
 That she a little angel seems to me.) 
 
 He has found a bird's nest in the wood full of little ones, 
 the prettiest little birds you ever saw. He is keeping them 
 for her, and to-morrow he will bring her a pancake ; and 
 when she hears his bagpipe, she will know it is Vallera 
 coming, and be able to get her neighbours out of the way. 
 N6ncia need not think of him as rough and unshorn. In 
 a silk jerkin and stockings d, la mode he is much mistaken 
 if she would not take him for a well-to-do citizen. He has 
 a shockhead of hair, it is true, because he can't afford more 
 than a soldino for the barber, but if only he could count upon 
 his reward from Nencia he would have his hair cut much 
 oftener. 
 
 Already Vallera has claimed her from her parents, but 
 Beco has put him off and Beca has seemed unwilling. He 
 means to carry off his Nencia some day, oppose him who 
 will, but it is Beca^ he knows, who i§ the real trouble, 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 409 
 
 Che il diavol se la possa scorticare. 
 
 (The Devil strip the hide from off her back !) 
 
 This aspiration suggests to him a new vision of his Nencia 
 as she hurries away to the festival, adorned like a pearl, 
 with six rings on her fingers, fresh rouged and painted, 
 and generally arranged to kill. Oh, Nencia, if you only 
 knew the love I bear you, and the sorrow I feel which sets 
 all my teeth on edge ! if you only knew, your heart would 
 chide you ; you would leave all your other followers, and 
 would love your Vallera alone. Yesterday, when you 
 came back from church looking so pretty, you quite dazzled 
 me. And just as you came to that field you tripped up 
 the least little bit, and I was by you in a moment, but 
 you gave me only a sidelong smile and just an arch glance 
 and ran away. Oh, Nencia ! 
 
 Quando te veggo cosi colorita 
 Starei un anno senza manicare 
 Sol per vederti sempre si pulita 
 S'io ti potessi allora favellare 
 Sarei contento sempre a la mia vita 
 S'io ti ticassi un miccinin la mano 
 Mi parre d'esser d'oro a mano a mano. 
 
 (When I behold you, Nencia, blushing so 
 I'd gladly go a year without my food. 
 Only to see you ever thus bedecked. 
 Could I but then have had some talk with you 
 Then I should live contented all my life. 
 Could I have given your hand one little touch, 
 It would have seemed a golden touch for me.) 
 
 Most girls would think themselves lucky to have a young 
 man passably well set-up {un damerino si d'assai), but 
 Nencia reduces Vallera to distraction. He loves her more 
 than the moth loves the candle, more than the toper loves 
 the tavern. 
 
 O povero Vallera sventurato ! 
 Ben t'hai perduto il tempo e la fatica. 
 Soleva de la Nencia essere amato 
 Ed or m'e diventata gran nemica. 
 
 (Luckless Vallera, you have lost your time 
 Onge Nencia loved you, now she is your foe.) 
 
410 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Nencia, you treat me ill, but if I could, without pain, 
 cut myself in two, I would do so, that you might see for 
 yourself if Nencia is not written on my heart. If you 
 were to touch it, it would cry out Nencia. Ah, well ! I see 
 the cattle by their stalls. I must take care that through 
 my fooling here, none of them are left behind at pasture. 
 I hear Mona Masa calling me. " All right ! I'm coming 
 as fast as I can. There's Nanni, now, who wants me to 
 help her mix the must." 
 
 The Nencia in the original has, in great part, been made 
 accessible to English readers by Mr. Roscoe, but no English 
 translation of it, as far as I am aware, has been made. I 
 have therefore ventured, in paraphrase and translation, to 
 give a somewhat full rendering, though I am conscious 
 that through dialectical and other difficulties, such a 
 rendering by me can, of necessity, but imperfectly convey 
 the spirit and the naivete of the composition.* 
 
 In a Canzone Lorenzo calls on every tender heart to make 
 lament " for that fair lily which has drooped and withered." 
 The accursed malice of the plague has cut her down. She 
 wiU sing no more, nor deck herself out. Nencia is dead 
 and has finished her course. She had a hundred adorers, 
 and eyes whose glances caught you in their toils. She had 
 as many little hooks and eyes about her as there are thorns 
 in a blackberry bush. And now her Vallera is as one 
 distraught. The cattle are out in the pastures, and each 
 one of them does as it likes. But sorrowing will not restore 
 her : " so go forth, little ballad, and carry what solace you 
 can to every tender heart." 
 
 Nencia is not a mere poetic fiction, an Amaryllis, or a 
 Galatea. She is a reality of flesh and blood, the scornful rustic 
 
 * At the time when my study of Nencia da Barberino was finished I 
 was ignorant — though it is with shame I make the confession — of Vernon 
 Lee's essay in her Euphorion, entitled " The Outdoor Poetry." Several 
 pages of that essay are devoted to Nencia, which the author regards as 
 " certainly Lorenzo's masterpiece." 
 
 She also dwells much more fully than I have done upon the descriptive 
 introduction with which his Antbra begins, and notes its extraordinary 
 power as a realisation of the effects of Nature which he describes. Ambra 
 is undoubtedly of greater importance than my brief references to it would 
 imply. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 411 
 
 beauty of the farmyard. It was Lorenzo who first added her 
 portrait, drawn from the Hfe, to the gallery of poetic art. 
 
 The edition of the Canzone a Ballo (which includes 
 Nencia, and an imitation by Luigi Pulci entitled La Beca 
 da Dicomano) contains 148 lyrical pieces stated on the title- 
 page to be from the hands of Lorenzo, Poliziano, and others 
 The authorship is not distinguished in the case of any one 
 of the poems, and there is thus the possibility of attributing 
 to Lorenzo work which is not his. Some of the Canzone 
 were written for the dances and songs of the Florentine girls, 
 many of them being set to music as part songs by Heinrich 
 Isaak. It is, however, difficult to see, in the case of many 
 of them, how they could have served a collective purpose. 
 
 Such songs naturally lent themselves to metrical experi- 
 ment, and in not a few cases the happiest success has been 
 attained. We could wish to be able positively to assign to 
 Lorenzo the dance-song which sings of the shepherdess in 
 such tripping measure that the heart dances to the music of 
 the words. It is to be feared, however, that the witchery 
 of PoHziano too clearly pervades it, though the fear may 
 do an injustice to Lorenzo. The following extract will 
 show the metre, style, and quality of the lyric : 
 
 La pastorella si leva per tempo 
 Menando le caprette a pascer fora 
 Di fora, fora. La traditora 
 Co' suoi bei occhi la m'innamora 
 E fa di mezza notte apparir giorao. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Poi si straccia e si lava il suo bel viso 
 La man, la gamba e il suo pulito petto 
 Pulito petto. Con gran diletto 
 Con bianco aspetto 
 
 Che ride intomo intomo 6 le campagne. 
 
 E qualche volta canta una canzona, 
 Che le peccore ballano e gli agnelletti, 
 E gl' agnelletti fanno scambietti, 
 Cosi le capre, con gli capretti, 
 E tutti fanno a gara, 6 le lor danze. 
 
 • ♦ • 
 
 Poi la sera ritorna alia sua stanza 
 Con la vincastra in mano 
 Disciuta e scalza, disciuta e scalza 
 Ride e saltella per ogni balza; 
 Cosi la pastorella si passa il tempo. 
 
412 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Translation. 
 The shepherd maid gets up betimes 
 Leading her flocks afield to graze ; 
 Afield to graze. Ah, what a blaze 
 Fires in my heart from the bewitching gaze 
 Of those bright eyes which make of midnight day ! 
 
 * » • * » 
 
 She combs her hair and laves her beauteous face, 
 Her hand, her leg, her bosom smooth and white. 
 So smooth and white : with what delight 
 
 Her aspect bright. 
 With smiles irradiates all the country round. 
 
 And all the while she sings a little song ; 
 Her flocks and lambkins dance in fellowship. 
 Merrily playful lambkins skip, 
 And all the goats and kids together trip 
 All, all together join the emulous dance. 
 
 * » * « » 
 
 And then at eventide homeward she comes ; 
 With shepherd's crook lightly she makes her way. 
 With tumbled frock, barefoot, with tumbled frock. 
 Laughing she goes, leaping from rock to rock. 
 'Tis so the shepherd maid beguiles her day. 
 
 A criticism of the Canti a Ballo which shall be radical and 
 scientific is rendered difficult for want of accurate know- 
 ledge of the actual songs of the people on which the Canti are 
 based. It may be that, although adaptations, the Canti 
 of Lorenzo and Poliziano are so suffused with the art and 
 personality of their authors as to be entitled to the rank 
 of original compositions. Just as the genius of Bums has 
 absorbed into itself all the previous efforts of popular 
 Scotch song-makers, so to the rough and worthless ditties 
 of the mob Poliziano and Lorenzo may have given form, 
 substance, and lyric grace. But from the known character 
 of the comxmonalty of Florence, from her democratic pursuit 
 and criticism of the fine arts, from the absence of abrupt 
 distinctions between classes, and from the popular religious 
 poetry of the city, we may infer with equal probabiUty that 
 the models upon which Lorenzo and his associates worked 
 were but httle inferior to their finished productions. It 
 is unlikely that compositions essentially different in style, 
 content, and metre from those to which the populace was 
 accustomed would at once have superseded in popular 
 favour the old songs which were the expression of the 
 
L0REN20 AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 413 
 
 popular heart. In the absence of proof to the contrary, 
 it may be reasonably maintained that the Canti a Ballo 
 only apply rather more art, rather more point, and rather 
 more melody to compositions of which the general tenor 
 was already fixed and stereotyped. 
 
 The practical application of these conjectures becomes 
 apparent when we examine the Canti from the point of 
 view of metre and of morals. By far the greater proportion 
 of them are written in a short four-Mne stanza in which the 
 first and fourth lines rhyme, the two intervening lines 
 rhyming with one another, or else the common alternation 
 of first rhyming with third, and second with fourth is 
 adopted, or some variation of these. It is probable that 
 this metre adapted itself more easily to the figure of the 
 dance which was most in favour among the people. Other 
 dance figures required other metres, and so it was rather 
 the dances which decided the form of the Canti, than the 
 Canti which prescribed the form of the dances. 
 
 To what extent these songs are in their metrical arrange- 
 ment original it is impossible to determine. 
 
 Equally impossible is it to determine the precise trend 
 of their moral tendencies. Were they in advance of the 
 moral tone of their models, or were they an artistic crystal- 
 hsation of the most lascivious proclivities of the vulgar ? 
 Was it Lorenzo's dehberate object to use higher forms of 
 art for the purpose of deeper debasement, or was it his aim 
 to improve the popular taste by the refinements of literary 
 artistry ? If the Canti a Ballo, immoral as many of them 
 are, are yet less gross and carnal than the songs which they 
 superseded, it follows that Lorenzo to that extent is a 
 reformer, not a corrupter of the people. 
 
 He is accused roundly of pandering to the worst passions 
 and instincts of the crowd that he might thereby increase 
 his own political influence. "This strange man," says 
 Symonds, " made his very sensuality subserve his state- 
 craft." This may have been so, but it would be difficult 
 to prove the charge. The study of Lorenzo's character 
 seems rather to point to a man whose poetic diversions 
 were not governed by any other principles than the desire 
 
414 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 to express himself, and he expressed all sides of his complex 
 nature without reticence and without reserve. The carnal 
 and the spiritual within him were equally himself, and 
 demanded equal expression. When under the sway of 
 the carnal he feels no shame ; when under the impulse of 
 the spiritual he feels no unearthly exaltation. Too practical 
 to be absorbed by any abstract ideal, as a poet he misses 
 greatness at almost every point, but, endowed with an 
 infinite capacity to enjoy all things, he can, by his facility, 
 and by his intellect, give distinction to everything which 
 he touches. 
 
 But, it may be urged, the tendency of Lorenzo's 
 lascivious verse is not to be judged by the Canti a Ballo alone, 
 where, as is possible, he refines upon, rather than debases, 
 the popular poetry of the streets. He must be judged by 
 his Canti Carnascialeschi, or Carnival Songs, composed for 
 those carnival festivities of which he was the inventor. 
 Having it in his power, it is said, as the initiator of a new 
 form of amusement, to give to it what tone he chose, he 
 deliberately adopted the tone most calculated to debase 
 and enervate the character. The accusation, in as far as 
 it is directed against the pervading tone of the Carnival 
 Songs, cannot be gainsaid. In them, as in not a few of 
 the Canti a Ballo, libidinous innuendo and phallic obscenity 
 seem to supply the purpose for which they were written. 
 It is, however, sufficiently obvious that the taste for this 
 kind of thing was not created by Lorenzo. It would be 
 absurd to imagine the Florentines as models of modesty 
 in their carnival celebrations until Lorenzo debauched 
 them. The fact probably is that no songs composed for 
 the occasion would have stood a chance of popular success 
 unless they had conformed to the popular taste. I would 
 suggest that it is in the Canti Carnascialeschi that we 
 approach nearest to the spirit of the street songs in which 
 Florence delighted until the Canti a Ballo gave more refine- 
 ment and polish to her taste. The popular balladmonger 
 must not be too far away from his public if he wishes to 
 remain popular. Lorenzo, in his poetic relaxations, seems 
 sublimely unconscious of a mission. His merit lies in his 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 415 
 
 spontaneity, in his artless expression of the passing mood. 
 To credit him, in the case of any of his compositions, with 
 a deliberate and designing purpose, either to corrupt or to 
 elevate, is, I think, to misunderstand the man, and to 
 misread his effusions. The charge against Lorenzo is that, 
 endowed with briUiant talents, and with a position of 
 unexampled influence in the State, he prostituted his 
 talents, and used his influence, with cold and Satanic 
 malignity, to debase his people. But the man's nature, and 
 the productions of it, seem to me alike to belie the spirit 
 of unimpassioned calculation which the charge postulates. 
 The great deficiency of Lorenzo's mercurial disposition 
 was that he insufficiently realised the responsibilities which 
 his situation imposed even on his lighter and most 
 unguarded moments. The reproach against him is, I would 
 suggest, not that he inaugurated an epoch of corruption, 
 but that he was content to take things as he found them, 
 seeking only to brighten, with a few added rays of art, 
 conditions which he had it in his power in a measure to 
 ennoble and transform. 
 
 Turning from these general considerations to survey 
 the Canti a Ballo as a whole, the doubt as to their exact 
 authorship precludes us from assigning with certainty any 
 one of them to Lorenzo. Even the charming Canzonette, 
 Benvenga Maggio, is no longer admitted without question 
 to be his. It may even be, as Mr. Symonds points out, 
 that some of the most characteristic of the Canti are the 
 genuine old popular songs of Florence, altogether untouched 
 by Medician versifiers, which have by natural right of 
 excellence found their way into the first printed collections 
 of such songs. From immemorial times the youths and 
 maidens of Florence had gone out on May morning to 
 celebrate the dawn, and sing of Prima vera and the coming 
 of the God of Love. 
 
 Ben venga Maggio 
 E'l gonfalon selvaggio 1 
 Ma chi h quel che vola ? 
 fi; I'Angiolel d'Amore, 
 Che viene a fare honore 
 Con voi donzelle al Maggio. 
 
4i6 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 (But who is this in winged flight ? 
 The Angel bird, the God of Love, 
 Who comes with you, fair girls, to prove 
 His homage to the sweet May Day.) 
 
 Laughing he comes, with roses and lilies twined around 
 his head 
 
 Ben venga il peregrino ; 
 Amor che ne commandi. 
 Che al suo amante il crino 
 Ogni bella ingrillandi 
 Che le zittelle e grandi 
 S'innamoran di Maggio. 
 
 (Blithe Pilgrim, welcome ! Love divine 
 
 To Thy commands we bow. 
 And so let each fair maiden twine 
 
 Wreaths for her lover's brow. 
 Let young and old rejoice to-day 
 
 In the sweet influence of May.) 
 
 A pretty canzone (No. 98) sings of a fair lady to whom 
 the blackbird sang all night so that she could not sleep. 
 She rose and went into her garden beneath the flowering 
 almond tree. There came the bird from his sheltering 
 tree and perched upon her shoulder. He sang his love 
 into her ear, but all in vain, for the fair one knew not the 
 language of the birds. 
 
 Another (No. 120) sings of the shepherdesses of the 
 highlands, and of the simple life which it is their delight 
 to lead. Who are they, so lightsome, fair and glad, 
 who seem like angels though so poorly clad ? They 
 come from the high mountains where they tend their 
 sheep. 
 
 Ricchezza non cerciam ne pid ventura 
 Se non be' fiori, e facciam grillandelle. 
 
 (We seek no other wealth nor happier lot 
 
 Than the fair flowers and garlands green can give.) 
 
 Two canzone (Nos. 125, 148) are included in various 
 editions of Angelo Poliziano's " Poesie" — one, contrived 
 in a short, lilting measure of irregular rhyme, sings the 
 charms of "La Bnmettina mia ; " the other reminds an 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 417 
 
 unkind mistress that youth soon passes, happiness is short- 
 hved : 
 
 Nulla cosa 6 si fallace 
 Quanto il tempo giovenile. 
 Pero rendi oggi mai pace 
 Al tuo servo tanto umile ; 
 Non suol mai 'n un cor gentile 
 Com' el tuo, regnare asprezza, 
 
 (Alas ! how quickly pass away 
 
 Those days of youth we have to live 
 
 Grant to thy humble slave to-day 
 That peace 'tis thine alone to give^ 
 
 Nor can unkindness long contrive 
 
 In heart so sweet as thine to reign.) 
 
 From work thus dehcate and embroidered, we turn to 
 a Canto (No. 14) chanted by a vendor of cosmetics who 
 invites fair ladies to visit his establishment. He has a 
 stock of excessively fine material for cochineal water, and 
 sweet alum, and alum of the rocks for the complexion. 
 Sublimates and fraxinella, fior di pietra and jessamine, 
 orange-flower water and bean flower to beautify the cheeks, 
 as well as water for the same purpose distilled from snails 
 and crabs — all these he has, and — 
 
 Chi si lava ben con ella. 
 La sua faccia fa lustrare. 
 
 (Whoever washes well with them 
 Adds a new lustre to her face.) 
 
 As an antidote to the seductions of the lady-beautifier 
 a Canto (No. 15) follows, urging girls to abstain from 
 artificial aids to beauty. In language which is plain to 
 the point of rudeness the poet unconsciously proves that 
 women at all times, and in all ages, have been intrinsically 
 the same : 
 
 Voi dovete considerare 
 
 Che gli 6 peccato mortale 
 A volervi contraffare 
 
 Vostra faccia naturale. 
 
 (And, ladies, you must well reflect 
 
 That this is mortal sin, 
 To seek unnatural efifect 
 
 On your own natural skin.) 
 
 You think, he says, that you make yourselves more beautiful 
 with all your paints and unguents. You make yourselves 
 
 2D 
 
4i8 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 so obnoxious that no one but a fool would come near you. 
 Your silver, sublimates, and lead make you look like piebald 
 dogs. When you go out walking your shoes have heels 
 a span high to make you look taller than you are, and 
 whether it be winter or summer is nothing to you, so long 
 as you are in the fashion. 
 
 A metrical variation is introduced into the lyric " Angiola 
 tu mi fai " by adding to each four-line stanza a few lines 
 of chorus with an effect of dancing rhythm which is pleasing ; 
 
 Angiola tu mi fai 
 Cantando a te venire, 
 E bellezza c'hai 
 Non te le posse dire. 
 (Cher.) Fior di bonta e d'honestsL 
 
 Tu se' piu bella donna che sia in questa cittei. 
 
 0 labro di corallo ! 
 Zucchero di mangiare, 
 
 E d'oro e di christallo ' 
 Ch' io vorrei baciare 
 (Chor.) Fior di bonta e d'honesta 
 
 Ama Chi t'ama, e chi non t'ama, lassa. 
 
 (Angel ! you compel me singing to come to thee ; 
 
 1 can never tell thee all thy beauty is to me. 
 Flower of purity and grace ! 
 
 No lady is so fair as thou in all the place. 
 
 O lovely lips coralline ! to taste them would be bliss ! 
 All golden and crystalline ! How I should love to kiss ! 
 Flower of grace and purity 
 
 He only knows of love, who loving, loves but thee.) 
 
 The examples chosen to illustrate the Canti a Ballo are 
 a proof that they are not all given over to licence and 
 innuendo. Without having made an exact computation, 
 I can state in general terms that half of them are free from 
 prurient suggestion. Of those of which this cannot be said 
 it is very difficult for a foreigner to judge, for the language 
 of innuendo is sometimes veiled even to a native. The 
 reader, however, cannot fail to be struck with the constant 
 repetition of the same set of ideas and images. There is 
 no great fertihty of invention, and the sensual appeal is 
 rudimentary. Suited, doubtless, to the rustic tastes of 
 the crowd, these licentious songs soon pall. They ignore 
 so much more than they recognise, and try to make of 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 419 
 
 animal gratification a source of permanent satisfaction 
 which it is not capable of affording. Even if this chapter 
 were the fit place for perfectly unreserved criticism, I 
 should not, as far as I understand this class of Canti, consider 
 them worthy, on the score of literary merit, Of more than 
 passing mention. 
 
 Among the Canti a Ballo is to be found a mutilated 
 version of the most famous of Lorenzo's Carnival Songs — 
 the chorus and dance of Bacchus and Ariadne. The 
 compiler of the Canti, however, had the complete song at 
 his disposal, for it was printed by II Lasca in 1559.* 
 
 II Lasca, proprietor of an apothecary's shop in Florence, 
 in the sixteenth century, and himself the author of Carnival 
 Songs, did well to collect all that he could secure of the 
 Carnival Songs of the past, for they throw a light upon 
 the festal life of Florence such as no other source can 
 supply. In his dedication to Duke Francesco dei Medici, 
 II Lasca declares that Lorenzo was the originator " of this 
 manner of celebrating the festival," and that, in the case 
 of the songs attributed to Lorenzo in his collection, it may 
 be confidently taken that they were his, whereas in the 
 majority of cases the songs have long lost their authors, 
 nor has the most dihgent search been able to recover them. 
 We have, therefore, II Lasca's guarantee that Lorenzo himself 
 composed the " Tnonfo di Bacco e d'Ananna," and also 
 Canti for the ohve-oil makers, for the young wives and old 
 husbands, for the gold-thread makers, the pastry-cooks, 
 and a few more. 
 
 From II Lasca himself and from the preface addressed 
 to the reader by the editor of the second edition t of II Lasca's 
 work, we get some information as to these carnival cele- 
 brations. Processions paraded the streets of the city in 
 which elaborately decorated cars formed the principal 
 attraction. On some of the cars masquers represented 
 the legends of old mythology, or some allegorical abstractions 
 such as the Winds, the Planets, the Elements, or Death. 
 
 * Tutti i Trionfi, Carri, Mascherate 6 canti carnascialeschi andati per 
 Firenze dal tempo dei Magnifico Lorenzo Vecchio dei Medici. In Fiorenza, 
 mdlviiii. 
 
 f Published in " Cosmopoli," 1750. 
 
420 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Interspersed among the Trionfi, as these allegorical or 
 mythological cars were called, came the Carri, bearing 
 representatives of every form of trade, Art, or .business, 
 the occupants exhibiting every variety of quaint imper- 
 sonation. Tortoiseshell cats. Nymphs, Nuns, Jewellers, 
 Tinkers, Frog-catchers, Hermits, Muleteers— these are but 
 a few, selected at random, of the carnival cars. In front 
 of each car moved its own body of attendants, dancing, 
 rejoicing, singing, the songs and dances being suited to the 
 impersonations, and being known respectively as Trionfi, 
 Carri, and Canti. The songs were set originally to three 
 voices, " the first song thus sung being that of the pastry 
 and sweet makers, arranged by a certain Arrigo Tedesco,* 
 at that time master of music at S. Giovanni, and held in 
 the greatest reputation." From this original setting the 
 songs developed into an arrangement for four, eight, twelve 
 and even fifteen voices. The best artists did not think it 
 beneath their dignity to undertake the decoration and 
 scenic arrangement of the cars. At the appointed hour, 
 which was after the midday meal, " they went forth, the 
 celebrations lasting until three or four hours of the night, 
 attended by a very numerous following of masqued men 
 on horseback, richly clad, sometimes exceeding three 
 hundred in number, and as many on foot with blazing 
 torches which made night as brilliant as the day." f " You 
 could not see, nor tell of anything," says II Lasca, " more 
 pleasant nor more delightful." It is, perhaps, some carnival 
 vision that Titian catches and retains in his " Bacchus and 
 Ariadne," or Guido Reni in his RospigUosi "Aurora." 
 On through the streets the mad procession makes its way, 
 beneath triumphal arches and the plaudits of thronged 
 balconies and windows. Flowers and sweetmeats fall upon 
 the path. This is the wine of Hfe which intoxicates the 
 blood leaving man defenceless against the Circeian sorceress. 
 The songs ring out in the rich trebles of the women, and 
 
 * I.e., Heinrich Isaak, the Bohemian composer, whose influence on 
 secular and religious music in his day is a link in the chain which binds 
 the Renaissance and the Reformation together. 
 
 t Symonds, Renaissance, vol. iv. p. 388, gives this passage as II Lasca's. 
 It is from the Preface of the 1750 edition. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 421 
 
 the measured cadences of the men, only broken in upon 
 by roars of merriment as the point of some lascivious 
 innuendo is received with rapturous applause. On through 
 the narrow windings of the old city, with fresh spectators 
 blocking every doorway — on across the Porta Sta. Trinita — 
 through Oltramo to the riverside once more — on over the 
 Ponte Vecchio into the great city square, until at last the 
 cavalcade halts beside Ghiberti's Gates, and beneath the 
 shadows of Brunelleschi's dome. On another day the 
 bells of the Campanile proclaim to a sober and attentive 
 people that there is another life than this. If amid the 
 wild din of carnival revelry they could be heard, the cadence 
 of their chime would seem to blend and keep time with the 
 note of universal orgy which now breaks the stillness of 
 the night with the refrain : 
 
 Quant' ^ bella giovinezza 
 
 Che si fugge tuttavia : 
 
 Chi vuol' esser lieto, sia, 
 
 Di doman non c'e certezza. 
 Quest' 6 Bacco e Arianna 
 Belli, e I'un dell' altro ardenti ; 
 Perche '1 tempo fugge e 'nganna, 
 Sempre insieme stan contenti. 
 Queste Ninfe, e altre genti 
 Sono allegre tuttavia : 
 
 Chi vuol esser lieto sia, 
 
 Di doman non c' 6 certezza. 
 * • * 
 
 Donne e giovanetti Amanti 
 Viva Bacco e viva Amore ! 
 Ciascun suoni, balli e canti, 
 Arda di dolcezza il core. 
 Non fatica, non dolore. 
 Quel che ha esser convien sia. 
 
 Chi vuol esser lieto sia,- 
 
 Di doman non c' d certezza 
 
 Quant' 6 bella giovinezza 
 
 Che si fugge tuttavia* 
 
 * Fair is youth and void of sorrow 
 
 And it hourly flies away, — [ 
 
 Youths and maids enjoy to-day ; 
 Naught ye know about to-morrow* 
 This is Bacchus and the bright 
 
 Ariadne, lovers true ; 
 They, in flying times despite. 
 
 Each with each find pleasure new. 
 
 * Symonds' translation. 
 
422 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 These their Nymphs and all their crew 
 
 Keep perpetual holiday. 
 
 Youths and maids, enjoy to-day ; 
 Naught ye know about to-morrow. 
 
 * * << 
 
 Ladies and gay lovers young 1 
 
 Long live Bacchus, live Desire ! 
 Dance and play, let songs be sung. 
 
 Let sweet love your bosoms fire 
 In the future come what may ! 
 
 Youths and maids enjoy to-day ; 
 
 Naught ye know about to-morrow. 
 
 Fair is youth and void of sorrow, 
 But it hourly flies away. 
 
 There is no other of Lorenzo's Carnival Songs which has 
 the swing and cadence of Bacchus and Ariadne. The 
 sentiment reappears, tuned to a more sober note, in his 
 Trionfo dei sette Pianeti* in which the Planets exhort fair 
 ladies to follow the star of Venus : 
 
 Horsu seguiam questa stella benigna 
 
 O Donne vaghi, 6 Giovinetti addorni; 
 Tutti vi chiama la bella Ciprigna 
 A spender lietamenti i vostri giorni 
 Senz' aspettar che '1 dolce tempo tomi 
 Che come fugge un tratto, mai non riede. 
 II dolce tempo ancor tutti ne invita 
 Cacciare i pensier tristi, e van dolori ; 
 Mentre che dura questa breve vita 
 Ciascun s'allegri, e ciascun s'innamori. 
 
 * In the anonymous Canto dei DisamoraU there is a stanza which forms 
 a link in the endless chain from " Varium et mutabile semper Femina," 
 to " Woman, uncertain, coy, and hard to please." 
 
 La Donna e varia, e mobil per natura, 
 
 Superba, vana e ingrata ; 
 
 Poco la vita d'altri 6 '1 suo honor cura ; 
 
 Quand' e punto infiammata. 
 
 Segue chi fuggi, e chi I'ha sempre amata 
 
 Ha in odio e lo rifiuta 
 
 E con Fortuna muta 
 
 Nuovo Amedore, e '1 vecchio lascia a piede. 
 
 (Woman ha,, ever been by Nature framed 
 
 Changing, inconstant, thankless, proud and vain. 
 She, when her passions are at all inflamed 
 
 Recks not of honour nor the lives of men. 
 Loves him who scorns her, but her faithful swain 
 She hates and spurns away — 
 Some new love every day 
 From Fortune's wheel, and let the old love go.) 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 423 
 
 (Follow the course of that benignant star 
 
 Oh ladies fair, oh youths in glad array ; 
 For love's sweet goddess calls you from afar 
 
 With joy and gladness to beguile your day : 
 Nor wait upon the time which fleets away, 
 Gone in a moment never to return. 
 
 Now the sweet time is here, and bids us all 
 To drive away sad thoughts, griefs that are vain. 
 
 While this brief life is ours, obey the call 
 Which bids us to rejoice, and love, and love again.) 
 
 Turning over the pages which contain these old Carnival 
 Songs there is the temptation to linger perhaps unduly 
 over compositions which have sunk into almost total 
 oblivion, but which entered into the very heart of the life 
 of their time. 
 
 Neither their Uterary nor their moral value can be ranked 
 as high. Lorenzo's personal contributions to them were 
 perhaps but few ; though the spirit which pervades them 
 all is his. It is the spirit of the " dolce tempo," of the 
 sweet season of youth and carnival joys, a time of 
 emancipation from all responsibiUties and all restraint. 
 Enjoy to-day, and when to-morrow comes it will be to-day : 
 
 Oggi siam, giovanni e vecchi, 
 Lieti ognun, femmine e maschi, 
 Facciam festa tuttavia. 
 . Chi vuol esser lieto sia 
 
 Di doman non c' d certezza. 
 
 (Young and old together playing. 
 Boys and girls, be blithe as air. 
 Every sorry thought forswear ! 
 Keep perpetual holiday. 
 
 Youths and maids enjoy to-day ; 
 
 Naught ye know about to-morrow.) 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LORENZO AS POET (continuedj—SATIRICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, 
 SACRED AND MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 
 
 I Beoni or The Drinkers— Impulses of Lorenzo's religious poetry— 
 L Altercazione-The Capitoli-The LaudsSS. Giovanni e Paolo— Amori 
 d% Venere e M arte— The Caccia col Falcone— ^ico della Mirandola on 
 Lorenzo s poetry— Comparison with Dante and Petrarch— General esti- 
 Ss character ""^^ ^ Poet— Importance of Lorenzo's poetry in relation to 
 
 ^npHE mood which prompted Lorenzo to write his Cawjfj is 
 ^ one that can be understood and realised by the most 
 superficial observer of his character. What freakish twist 
 m him gave rise to " I Beoni " it is difficult to divine. 
 
 " / Beoni," * or the Drinkers, is an unfinished satire in nine 
 Capitoli, and is, says Roscoe, " perhaps the earliest produc- 
 tion that properly ranks under this title." The piece is 
 written in Dante's Terza rima, nor can there be a doubt that 
 it is intended as a parody upon the Divine Comedy. At 
 the same time it is a satire directed against excessive 
 dnnkmg. It thus equally pours ridicule on things in their 
 nature contradictory and opposed— on drinking, and on 
 Dante. Yet Lorenzo was a genuine student, and a declared 
 lover of Dante, " in whose single person," he wrote, " were 
 perfectly assimilated all those qualities of poetry which must 
 be sought for singly in Greek and Latin poets." / Beoni 
 therefore as a psychological product is curious and baffling, 
 more interesting perhaps as a problem than as a work of 
 literary art. Possibly it is not consciously animated by any 
 moral purpose whatever, being only the outcome of a cold, 
 cynical, Satanic mood, in which everything would seem 
 detestable if the power to laugh at everything did not still 
 survive. The good, the bad, the debased are ahke surveyed 
 
 ♦ // Simposio ossiano I Beoni. first published 1568— to be found in 
 yoeste del Magmfico Lorenzo dei Medici. London, i8oi. 
 
 424 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 425 
 
 with a smile of Mephistophelean scorn : Dante and Virgil, 
 Bartolino and Nastagio, are reduced to the common 
 denominator of man's corrupt and mortal nature. 
 
 The machinery of the poem is simple. Lorenzo, as he 
 enters Florence one day through the Faenza gate, meets a 
 great throng of people, among whom he recognises his friend 
 Bartolino. He is informed that they are all going to Ponte a 
 Rifrede where Giannesi has just broached a barrel of wine, 
 an event 
 
 che presti facci i lenti piedi. 
 
 (Which quickly gives the laggard footsteps wings.) 
 
 Lorenzo, with Bartolino as his guide, mingles among the 
 crowd, noting with much sardonic humour the qualities of 
 some individuals composing it. Among the company there 
 are three priests, of whom one, with a fatuous smile and 
 pointed nose, 
 
 Ha fatto anche del ber sue Paradiso. 
 (Has made of drink the Paradise he loves.) 
 
 He meets Adovardo, and hails him, but Adovardo protests 
 that he is Adovardo no longer but simply Thirst, embodied in 
 a human form. This metamorphosis, however, has not 
 deprived Adovardo of his reasoning faculties, for he proceeds 
 to discourse on thirst, as the most singular gift given by God 
 to men. Now says Averardo if drinking abolishes thirst, 
 which is held so sweet a thing, why then drinking must be 
 bad. But it is otherwise. Far from satiating Us thirst, 
 drinking only the more invigorates it. 
 
 E come Anteo le sue forze riprende ^ 
 Cadendo in terra, come si favella \ I 
 
 La sate mia dal ber pia sete prende. ^ 
 
 (For as Antaeus, so the story goes. 
 
 Renewed his strength by falling on the ground. 
 
 So does my thirst from drink fresh thirst derive.) 
 
 The parish-priest, Arlotto, in Capitolo viii., is drawn in an 
 amusing way. He has lost his thirst, but sets off in vigorous 
 search of it, armed with dry meat, a herring, a piece of 
 cheese, and four anchovies tied by a shoelace. 
 
426 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 And now the whole company was assembled at midday by 
 the bridge, thick as grass in a meadow. All sorts and con- 
 ditions of men were there ; maimed, halt, men with blood- 
 • shot eyes, men with sore legs, men with faces rubicund as 
 the cherubim.* But before the wine begins to flow the satire 
 breaks off abruptly, and Lorenzo apparently never resumed it. 
 
 / Beoni was, if Valori is to be believed, a mere improvisa- 
 tion, the creation of a passing mood. It shows humorous 
 observation and touches of keen wit, but they scarcely 
 redeem it from the dulness of bad taste of which a modern 
 reader is chiefly conscious as he reads it. 
 
 One passage in the Beoni is pecuharly offensive as intro- 
 ducing into the besotted atmosphere of low debauchery and 
 depraved humanity the most solemn and tremendous 
 moment in the history of the Christian world. We may well 
 think that a man is indeed lost to all sense of reverence and 
 the fitness of things who can write of a drunkard : 
 
 II terzo, che tu vedi, ch'6 gia quici, 
 
 Pur di teologia ha qualche inizio, 
 
 E dottorossi per mezzo d'amici ■ 
 
 Ed ha apparato, che '1 maggior supplizio 
 
 Che avesse in terra il nostro Salvatore 
 
 £ quando in su la croce e' disse : Stio. 
 
 Merely to quote the stanzas, which I prefer to leave un- 
 translated, seems an insult to the reader which demands 
 an apology. My apology is that we must try to understand 
 Lorenzo as he was. There must be no turning of tigers 
 into cats. Here is a man who did not shrink from a blasphemj' 
 for the sake of a joke, a blasphemy not uttered in private, 
 but given forth to the world in what purported to be a work 
 of imaginative art. The same man was the author of the 
 Alter cazione, of the Capitoli, the Lauds, and of the morality 
 play 55. Giovanni e Paolo. The inventor of perhaps the 
 most revolting conceit in literature is the man whose last 
 word to the world of letters is the expression of the conviction 
 of his inmost soul, contained in the closing lines of 55. 
 Giovanni e Paolo. 
 
 * I visi rossi come cherubim. Cf. Chaucer, " a fyre-redde, cherubynes 
 face." 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 427 
 
 Fallace vita ! o nostra vana cura ! 
 
 Lo spirto 6 gik fuor del mio petto spinto. 
 
 0 Cristo Galileo, tu hai pur vinto ! 
 
 (How life deceives ! how vain are all our cares 1 
 
 Even now the vital spirit quits my frame. 
 
 Oh, Christ of Galilee ! Thou hast indeed prevaUed.) 
 
 For we must recognise the religious, sacred, and philosophical 
 compositions of Lorenzo as being in every sense as much 
 representative of him as his lyrics, pastorals, satires, and 
 lascivious songs. The varying moods of the moment made 
 up the man. It is indeed probable that the mood which 
 led him to philosophic contemplation and genuine religious 
 feeling was more constant in him than any other. Towards 
 the mystery of man, his place and function here, Lorenzo's 
 attitude was one of reverent and, sometimes, impassioned 
 inquiry. No man was more conscious than he of that 
 Divine element which finds its place in man side by side 
 with the element of the ape and tiger. Being conscious of 
 it, he sought to assimilate his own Httle spark of the god- 
 head with its universal source. Placed in daily relation 
 with the corruptions which stained the official practice and 
 profession of religion, he sometimes could not restrain the 
 note of cynical scorn. Placed as ruler over a people he 
 knew the pohtical value of religion organised as a system of 
 poHty, yet he was also able to give to the doctrines of the 
 orthodox and accepted creed a personal intellectual assent. 
 Lorenzo was a Catholic by conviction as well as by policy. 
 It never could have occurred to him to be anything else. 
 But beyond the formal acceptance of a creed and an eccle- 
 siastical system there was the spiritual aspiration of the man 
 which called out for a satisfaction which neither creeds 
 nor systems could wholly give. Lorenzo's religious poetry 
 is the expression of this aspiration and is a measure of his 
 sense of that infinite Mystery which we call Life. It was a 
 mood of deep seriousness which prompted V Alter cazione 
 the Capitoli, and his sacred Lauds. 
 
 L AUercazione is a Platonic dialogue, in six Capitoli ; in 
 which three persons take part. Lorenzo himself is the 
 " Narrator and Interlocutor; " the others are the shepherd, 
 Alfeo, and Marsilio Ficino. 
 
428 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Lorenzo represents himself as wearied with civil tempests, 
 and desirous to enjoy that free, placid, and untroubled life 
 which alone constitutes the Httle of good which life provides. 
 And so — 
 
 Per levar da mia fragil natura 
 Mille pensier che fan la mente lassa, 
 Lassai '1 bel cerchio delle patrie mura. 
 
 (From my enfeebled being to disperse 
 
 Those thousand thoughts that weary out the mind, 
 
 I left the circle of my native walls.) 
 
 He comes to a retired and shady recess, where the cool 
 stream bubbles by. There he meets the shepherd, Alfeo, who 
 is astonished that he should have left the splendours of the 
 city, and should be " better-pleased by the rough path." 
 Lorenzo expatiates on the delights of the pastoral Hfe, 
 declaring that true happiness may in such a life best be 
 found. Alfeo dilates upon its hardships; the conclusion 
 being eventually reached that their common discontent is 
 the lot of all. At this moment Marsilio appears. He 
 expresses his surprise at sight of Lorenzo — 
 
 Chi di lasciar tua patria ti consiglia ? 
 Tu sal che peso alle tue spalle danno, 
 Le pubbliche faccende e la famiglia. ' 
 
 (Who is it bids you leave your native town ? 
 Seeing that upon your shoulders rests the care 
 Of all the public and the private weal.) 
 
 Lorenzo implores Marsilio to tell them wherein true Felicity 
 consists, and where it may be found. Marsiho consents, 
 and expounds the Platonic doctrine of happiness. It is 
 not to be found in any earthly avocation, for it is not con- 
 nected with the earth. It consists in the knowledge and 
 contemplation of God. Our mortal vista is so narrow that 
 full knowledge of God is impossible to man, but He must be 
 approached through the combined operations of man's 
 intellect and of man's yearnings. But he who seeks to 
 understand God will never know Him as he will know Him 
 who is merely content to love Him. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 429 
 
 L'anima che a conoscer Dio 6 intenta 
 In lungo tempo fa poco profitto : 
 Quella che I'ama, presto assai contenta. 
 
 * * * ♦ 
 
 Amor ne da I'etema nostra pace, 
 Amor vera salute intera e certa. 
 
 (The soul that is intent on knowing God 
 
 Profiteth not by long-protracted search, 
 
 For he who loves Him soon finds true content. 
 
 'Tis Love that gives us our Eternal peace ; 
 
 Love our salvation, certain, true, complete.) ' 
 
 The piece closes with a " Prayer to the Eternal Light," that 
 it will illuminate Lorenzo's darkness. Oh true Light! 
 shining and most pure, I pray that my dull vision be purged 
 of darkness and become most clear, that I may see thy pure 
 divine light. Oh sole Strength ! lofty and supernal, stretch 
 out thy supporting hand to my tottering love. Oh sole 
 Fount of Holy Water, quench my thirst, that thirst which 
 much oppresses me. Oh Highest and Eternal Good, 
 wretched is the man, more than the beasts that perish, that 
 wills not to enjoy thy native land. Oh Redeemer of the 
 world ! true refuge and only salvation, who savest all 
 beneath thy government ! Oh Good of Good ! Virtue of every 
 Virtue ! I know that thou hast given me Eternity, that I 
 be not worse than the beasts that perish. Even as our 
 intellect answereth to Thine, and thy InteUigence lights us 
 to lofty and profound things, so Thy Hfe wishes to have 
 its part in ours : 
 
 Recrea quos creasti, O Bene amplissimo, 
 
 Aiuta noi, perchs di te sol nati 
 
 Siam, padre omnipotente e clementissimo. 
 
 (O amplest Good ! Thy creatures recreate ! 
 Help us ! From Thee alone we take our being, 
 Father Omnipotent and most merciful.) 
 
 Pity the soul that is within me, the soul that is Thy 
 Daughter, corrupted, sick, far from her celestial home, 
 condemned to exile in this dark and gloomy wood. Raise 
 from ray soul whatever disjoins her from Thee, pity her 
 dolorous plaint which wrings her heart for love of her 
 native country. 
 
430 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Ov' e la patria ivi e vero riposo : 
 
 Ov' e il padre e la patria posa il figlio ; 
 
 Qui e Ben sommo. vero e copioso. 
 
 (The Fatherland is where true rest doth dwell. 
 
 Father and Fatherland : therein the son 
 
 Can find his peace. There is the Highest Good.) 
 
 Therefore from the beginning to my supreme end may my 
 soul hve for Thee alone : in Thy Light may it shine, when 
 my day is done. Make us to love Thine infinite Beauty ; 
 take away the fears which rack the heart, and Thee, O 
 Highest good, may we enjoy, ever greedy of Thee, ever 
 content with Thee. 
 
 Throughout U AUercazione there runs a tone of lofty and 
 sustained eloquence which rises once or twice to true poetry. 
 If it seems more surprisingly tuned to the modern note 
 than is usual with Lorenzo's work, that is because its subject- 
 matter is the universal problem, old, and for ever new. 
 There are stanzas in U AUercazione which Shelley might not 
 have been ashamed to incorporate into Adonais. The 
 image of the soul, as the daughter of God, condemned for a 
 time to exile within a mortal prison house, is as finely worked 
 out as in any modern reproduction of the fancy. The 
 charm of the landscape background to what may be called 
 an intellectual vision is not only pleasing in itself but 
 appropriate, contrasting as it does in its quiet beauty with 
 the figure in the foreground of a man gloomy, State-weary, 
 satiated with all that the world has to give, calling out from 
 the troubled deeps of his mind for that peace which love of 
 the highest alone can secure. 
 
 In his Capitolo, " Destati pigro ingegno," * he communes 
 further with his own heart, calhng upon his sluggish mind to 
 rouse itself from that sleep which seems to cover the eyes of 
 the mind as with a veil, so that they cannot see the truth. 
 Awake : my mortal Genius ! recognise how every action 
 that you prompt is useless, vain, delusive, from the time 
 that passion has triumphed over reason. Think of the 
 deceiving joys which come from what the world calls Honour, 
 Utility, Pleasure. 
 
 ♦ Trajislated by Roscoe in Pope's couplet. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 43i 
 
 Pensa alia dignit^L del tuo intelletto ; 
 Non dato per seguir cosa mortale 
 Ma perche havesti il cielo per suo objetto. 
 
 (Weigh well the worth of intellectual gifts, 
 Not given to pursue the things of earth ' 
 But to attain Heaven as the final goal.) 
 
 Recognise what joys and consolations might indeed have 
 been yours if false joys, vain hopes had not deluded you. 
 The winds of vain hope, vain joy, shortlived good, and 
 present evil strike on our frail back and would engulf it. 
 
 Se gratia divina non s'abonda. 
 
 (Did Grace Divine not everywhere abound.) 
 
 Our desires, the more they have, the more they ask ; and 
 seeing that they have no end they have no peace. Their 
 ! paths are numberless and lead in different ways, but the 
 I path of reason is one only ; thus it is that it is found with so 
 much difficulty. Oh Soul of mine ! Look up to the Sun 
 on high which sheds its bright beams around you. Leave 
 I the trodden tracks, and turn your eyes to whatsoever things 
 I are eternal and lovely, the more lovely in that they are rare. 
 Follow not false beauty, which obscures the path which 
 leads to the stars. That man is blind indeed who cannot 
 distinguish between the splendour of the sunlight and the 
 false and flickering flame of a torch. 
 
 Of like tone are five Capitoli first printed in the Aldine 
 edition of 1554, the first being especially noteworthy as a 
 recognition of the orderly Providence of God in the dis- 
 position of the universe, and of all the elements and forces 
 contained within it. In a catastrophic and superstitious 
 age, which regarded events as running at all hazards, con- 
 trolled by malevolent or benignant caprice, it is a notable 
 sign that Lorenzo, in an invocation to God, should hail Him 
 as 
 
 Bellissimo architetto, e il mondo bello 
 Fingendo primo ne I'etema mente, 
 Fatt' hai questo a I'imagini di quello ; 
 Ciascuna parte perfetta esistentej 
 
432 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Tu gli elementi a proprio loco mandi, 
 Legandogli con tal proportione, 
 Che I'un da I'altro non disgiungi o spandi; 
 Tra '1 foco e' 1 ghiaccio fai cognatione, 
 Cosi temperi insieme il moUe e'l duro. 
 Da te fatti contrarii hanno unione. 
 
 (Supremest architect, who first didst frair« 
 A vision in thine own eternal mind 
 Of this fair world, and then didst fashion it 
 To suit the vision, perfect, every part. 
 At Thy command the elements perform 
 K Each its allotted task, each bound to eaci 
 
 ; In harmony and due proportion linked. 
 
 Thou didst create both fire and frost akin. 
 Thou didst attemper rough to smooth, and make 
 Divine agreement in things contrary.) 
 
 Lorenzo's Lauds are probably early productions. His 
 mother was a lover of hymns, and herself composed them. 
 For her, and to please her, we can concei\^ of Lorenzo 
 composing similar songs in his youthful dajs. For they 
 were songs, like the Carnival Canti, written to be set to 
 music, or else were adapted to existing popular tunes. In 
 the edition of Lorenzo's poetry of 1763 the tmes to which 
 they were sung are stated, and among them most of the 
 favourites appear. The Devil was not to hava all the best 
 tunes to himself. In their structure, the Lauds are certainly 
 reminiscent of the carnival songs themselves, and we may 
 suspect that, with these models before him, Savonarola 
 was not called upon to be original in fitting his Piagnone 
 words to Camascialeschi airs. 
 
 Lorenzo's third Laud — Poich' io gusfai, Gesu, la tua 
 dolcezze (Since, Jesus, I have tasted all Thy sweetness—) 
 gives perhaps the best example of the tone of devotion which 
 pervades them, and of happy phrasing. He sings of His 
 loving kindness, who 
 
 Che per dar vita a 'Figli a te dai morte, 
 
 E per farmi divin se* fatto umano ,1 
 
 Preso hai di servo condizione e sorte. 
 
 Perch' io servo non sia, o viva in vano. 
 
 (Didst deign to die that we. Thy sons, might live, 
 To be a man that I might be divine ; 
 Didst not refuse to make Thyself a slave 
 That I might not be bond, nor live in vait.) 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 
 
 In another Lorenzo chides his malignant and hard heart, 
 *' fount of every evil imagining " ; in another he exalts the 
 beauty and sweetness of the Virgin. In another God 
 addresses the Sinner, in another the Sinners make their 
 supplication to God. The Lauds present to us a new and 
 a curious aspect of Florentine life and manners as we picture 
 the crowd parading the streets in procession, chanting 
 
 * Ecco '1 Messia, 
 Ecco '1 Messia, 
 E la madre Maria, 
 
 to the tune of Ben Venga Maggio, or 
 
 lo son quel misere ingrato 
 Peccator, c' 6 tanto errato. 
 
 (A miserable sinner I, 
 
 A thankless wanderer ; hear my cry !) 
 
 to the strain of Lorenzo's Cicale — 
 
 Donne siam, come vedete 
 FanciuUette vaghe e liete. 
 
 (Ladies are we as you see. 
 Fair and joyful girls are we.) 
 
 La Rappresentazione di SS. Giovanni e Paolo "j" is a morality 
 play composed by Lorenzo in the later years of his life for 
 the amusement and edification of his children. It was 
 set to music by Heinrich Isaak. Lorenzo is supposed 
 himself to have played a part in it. He may have 
 doubled the parts of Constantine and Julian, who equally 
 represent the cares of sovereignty, and express views, 
 consonant with what we may suppose to be Lorenzo's views, 
 on the nature and functions of government. 
 
 The play is constructed in the form which is common in 
 the Moralities of the period. It is a strange jumble of parts 
 and events, its unity of action being obscured by the multi- 
 plication of characters and what seems to be the irrelevance of 
 their remarks. But the central conception which governs 
 
 * Laud composed by Lorenzo's mother, 
 
 t Not the apostles, S. John and S. Paul, but two saints, bearing their 
 names, martyred in Rome under Julian the Apostate. Various editions 
 of the play were published in Florence and elsewhere before the end of 
 the fifteenth century, biit they are not dated. 
 2E 
 
434 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the piece as a whole finds definite expression in the last line 
 — 0 Cristo Galileo, tu hai pur vinto — (0 Christ of Galilee, 
 verily Thou has conquered). The action :s governed 
 throughout by the attitude of the characters towards the 
 new religion, which finds a curious representative in Con- 
 stantine ; a convinced opponent, but ultimate Confessor, in 
 Julian the Apostate. 
 The episodes are : 
 
 [a) The heahng of Costanza, Constantine's daughter, 
 of her leprosy by St. Agnes. 
 
 (6) The demand by Gallicano, Captain of Constantine's 
 armies, for Costanza's hand in marriage, a demand comph- 
 cated by Costanza's vows of chastity, and Constantine's 
 fear of giving ofence to his Commander-in-Chief by a 
 refusal. 
 
 (c) The despatch of Gallicano against the Dacians, accom- 
 panied by Saint Giovanni and Saint Paolo as hostages for 
 the Emperor's good faith : the Dacian campaign, the rout 
 of the Imperial army, the miraculous restoration of the 
 fight by the intervention of the two saints, and Gallicano's 
 consequent conversion to Christianity. 
 
 {d) The return of Gallicano, who determines to retire 
 from the world, thus solving the difficulties of Costanza ; 
 and the abdication of Constantine in favour of his son. 
 
 {e) The succession of Constantino : his trcubled reign, 
 due as he believes to the toleration of the Christian faith : 
 the deposition of Constantino, and the accession of Julian 
 the Apostate. 
 
 (/) The persecutions of Juhan, in which Saints Paolo and 
 Giovanni fall victims ; the supplication of St. Basil to the 
 Virgin : she raises St. Mercurius from the grave to be the 
 instrument of God's judgment upon Juhan. The death of 
 JuHan at the hand of St. Mercurius, and the Emperor's 
 dying recognition that his death is Heaven's visitation upon 
 him for his enmity to the Christian faith. 
 
 The character of Constantine is drawn by Lorenzo with 
 unconscious irony, for the Emperor is made to act, not in 
 accordance with any ideal principles befitting a Christian 
 prince, but as Italian princes of the Renaissance were accus- 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 433 
 
 tomed to act. Intrigue, perfidy, and double-dealing were 
 the natural resources to which any ruler instinctively turned 
 in a case of difficulty. Thus Constantine is totally un- 
 conscious that there is anything questionable in the conduct 
 which he pursues. Yet to flatter Gallicano before his face, 
 and to express lively gratification at the prospect of having 
 him for a son-in-law, seemed to Constantine in no way 
 inconsistent with cursing him behind his back, nor with 
 plans devised, in collusion with his daughter, for sending 
 GalHcano upon a dangerous campaign, from which there 
 were good chances that he would never return. Thus, 
 remarks Constantine naively, Honour and Gallicano will at 
 one and the same time be satisfied, especially Honour — il 
 qual drieto si tira ogn'altra cosa — (which takes precedence 
 of every other thing). 
 
 Incidentally Costanza, who has contrived this ingenious 
 scheme to get rid of Gallicano, converts his daughters to 
 Christianity, and they consecrate their virgin lives to 
 God. 
 
 Yet Constantine is full of excellent sentiments upon the 
 duties and responsibiUties of a ruler. A ruler should consult 
 the good of all : if he would correct the faults of others he 
 must first correct his own ; as he would wish his people to 
 live so must he live himself — 
 
 Perch e lo esempio al popol molto vale — 
 E quel che far il Signer, fanno poi molti, 
 Che nel Signer son tutti gli occhi volti. 
 
 (For much are subjects by example moved* 
 
 As acts the Ruler, so the many act : 
 
 For on the Ruler all men's eyes are turned.) 
 
 The Ruler must know how to hold an even balance : he 
 must disdain at once avarice and luxury ; he must be 
 affabil, dolce e grato, and the servant of those he serves. 
 How little do his subjects know 
 
 Quanto affanno e doglia 
 
 Da il regno di che avete tanta voglia. 
 
 (What cares and griefs 
 
 Come from that crown which men so much desire.) 
 
436 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 There may be a personal touch in a passage which occurs 
 in the episode of the rebeUion under Constantine. His 
 brothers are killed while engaged in an endeavour to suppress 
 the troubles, and Constantine is in despair, until a Comforter 
 points out that perhaps it is all for the best. His brothers, 
 had they survived, might have proved a source of danger 
 to him, for — 
 
 .... nascer suole 
 
 Discordia tra fratei molte fiate. 
 
 Forse che la Fortuna te gli ha tolti 
 
 Acciocche in te sol sia quel ch' era in molti. 
 
 (For between brothers discords oft arise. 
 
 Perchance the Fate was kind that robbed thee of them, 
 
 Seeing that on thee alone the duty falls 
 
 Which others inconveniently would have shared.) 
 
 Was Lorenzo thinking of Giuliano, and of the possibilities 
 which might have arisen had Giuliano not fallen in the 
 Pazzi conspiracy ? 
 
 Julian the Apostate carries further the views, which it is 
 assumed are Lorenzo's, upon the functions of a Ruler. It 
 is into the mouth of Julian that he puts the opinion that 
 a ruler is useless who cannot, from the very beginning, 
 enforce obedience from his subjects. " For the ruler of a 
 State should know how to establish himself in his office in 
 the first four days of his government." 
 
 It is the duty of the Prince, if grain is scarce, to see to it 
 that his subjects do not die of hunger : he must supply the 
 needs of the poor, and not accumulate riches for himself : 
 
 La Signoria, la roba delio Impero 
 Gia non 6 sua, anzi del popolo tutto. 
 E benchd del Signor paia lo'ntero 
 Non 6, nd '1 posseder, n6 I'usufrutto 
 Ma distributore e '1 Signor vero. 
 
 (The government, and the imperial sway 
 Are not his own by any right divine : 
 They are but symbols of the people's will. 
 To outward view he is the Lord of all 
 Yet he is Lord indeed who is content 
 To administer a delegated power. 
 Nor claims possession, usufruct, or right.) 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 437 
 
 Lorenzo has so little of the dramatic faculty that he can 
 infuse no distinctive individuality into any of his characters. 
 They represent different points of view, but that is all. It 
 is for this reason that we can receive the abstract statements 
 and opinions which appear in the piece as representing the 
 sentiments of Lorenzo himself. Judged in this light the 
 Rappresentazione becomes to some extent a commentary 
 on Lorenzo's ideals of government. It was so that he him- 
 self desired to rule, even though ideals and practice did not 
 always harmonise. It is curious that, at the moment when 
 absolutism was becoming an accomplished fact throughout 
 Western Europe, the underlying sentiment of Lorenzo's 
 morality play and Fortescue's Treatise on the Monarchy 
 in England, should have been, in many particulars, one 
 and the same. 
 
 Of interest, too, are some passages in Lorenzo's play 
 which indicate his emancipation from the superstitions 
 of his time. His old tutor, Ficino, had not been able to 
 instil into his pupil his own notions upon astrology, visions 
 and apparitions, and the government of affairs by the con- 
 junction of the stars. When the astrologers report to Julian 
 that the omens are unfavourable, he replies that these astro- 
 logical predictions are tutte dance, which can scarcely be 
 translated otherwise than " all humbug." " The King 
 and the wise man are above the stars. The favourable 
 moments, the auspicious hours, are those which the happy 
 man chooses for himself." In another passage there is a 
 reference to 
 
 Fallace visione 
 
 Che spesso son del Diavol tentazione, 
 (Deceiving visions — 
 
 So often but temptations of the Devil — ) 
 
 a passage which recalls Hamlet and his fears lest that which 
 he has seen may be the Devil. 
 
 SS. Giovanni e Paolo is not the only example of dramatic, 
 or semi-dramatic composition from Lorenzo's hand. His 
 fragment, entitled Amori di Venere e Marie, introduces the 
 Gods and Goddesses, Venus, Mars, Vulcan, ApoUo, as person- 
 
438 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 ages who are differentiated by experience rather than by 
 character. Vulcan's complaint that it is not enough that 
 he should have been turned out of Heaven, but that every 
 god conspires to do him an injury, produces the effect of 
 humour that was intended. Venus's invocation to Mars 
 shows her voluptuous passion. ApoUo's moralisings stamp 
 him as a prig and a spoilsport ; but they are in no proper 
 sense dramatic characters. We know something of Ihem 
 from what they say : we know nothing of them from any- 
 thing they do. 
 
 Lorenzo's breaks new ground in his Caccia col Fakone. 
 His own passion for outdoor sports is here brought into 
 association with his facility as a versifier. He tells of a 
 day in the country spent in the sport of falconry. He 
 describes the rising of the day, the east all touched with red, 
 while the mountain tops gleamed all of gold. The hav^^kers 
 are early astir making preparation against the arrivil of 
 their masters. The dogs, each called by his own name, 
 gather to the cry, and soon a brilliant company assembles ; 
 the dogs draw the covers — Tiray buon can, su, lira su, cam- 
 mina — the game is put up, the hawks and falcons flash apon 
 their prey ; two hawkers have a violent quarrel over the 
 behaviour of their respective birds, but are eventaaUy 
 reconciled. All smacks of health, enjoyment, and the open 
 air. The Caccia is the work of a man who might never 
 have seen a despatch box, never known what it was to have 
 an ache in his shoulders, nor ever have had a thought beyond 
 his dogs, his birds and the open country. Whatever be the 
 interest of the moment, to Lorenzo that interest becomes 
 all in all. 
 
 Thus from sonnet and canzonet, through pastoral ideal and 
 pastoral rustical, through the lyric melodies of the dance 
 and carnival orgy, through bestial satire and the healthy 
 chant of the open air, we have followed the course of Lorenzo's 
 poetic muse to the solemn heights of philosophic aspiration, 
 and of sacred songs of praise. In this universal c.iorus 
 of poetic sound perhaps the note that last lingers is the 
 note of the poet of love, a plangent strain of Petranh.ian 
 lament : 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 439 
 
 * Tu hai la vita, e la mia morte in mano, 
 
 Vivo contento, s' io ti parlo un poco ; 
 
 Se non, morte me ancide a mano a mano. 
 Fa almen, s' io moro, dell' estremo foco 
 
 La mia ossa infelice sieno estorte, 
 
 E poste in qualche abietto, e picciol loco. 
 Non vi sia scritto chi della mia morte 
 
 Fussi cagion, che ti saria gravezza ; 
 
 Basta I'uma di fuor stampata porte 
 " Troppo in lui amor, troppo in altrui durezza." 
 
 (My Life, my Death are both in thrall to thee. 
 
 'Tis life to speak to thee one little word ; 
 That word denied, Death wounds me fatally. 
 
 Then should I die, one boon at least afford ; 
 Rescue my luckless ashes from my pyre ; 
 
 Let them in some neglected spot be stored : 
 Nor be it there inscribed by whose desire 
 
 I met my death. Bear thou no grief for me. 
 Enough one line — 'tis all my bones require, 
 
 " Too much, alas ! he loved ; alas I too hard was she.") 
 
 Contemporary estimates of Lorenzo's qualities as a poet 
 have been regarded merely as expressions of the extravagant 
 partiality of his friends. There is indeed a touch of courtly 
 adulation in Marsilio Ficino's assertion that Lorenzo received 
 " from Pallas his wisdom, from Juno his capacity for rule, 
 and from Venus his graces, his poesy, and his music." The 
 well-known eulogy of Pico della Mirandola is as flattering, 
 and more precise, for Pico compares Lorenzo, as a poet, to 
 Petrarch and Dante, nor does he hesitate to express his 
 own preference for Lorenzo. This dictum has only served to 
 cover its author and Lorenzo equally with ridicule, and to 
 depreciate Pico's taste and Lorenzo's merit. When examined, 
 however, in relation to its context, Pico's verdict is found 
 to be entitled to consideration, even though it be rejected 
 as extravagant. It is contained in a long and elaborate 
 letter written to Lorenzo in acknowledgment of the receipt 
 of some of his poems. Pico declares that he has read them 
 with interest, and thinks that Lorenzo may care to know his 
 deliberate and well-found opinion of them. What he chiefly 
 admires is the grace and rhythm of his style and versification. 
 " Who in reading your poems will not be conscious of the 
 rhythmic dance of the Graces ; nor do I know any ancient 
 
 * Concluding lines of Lorenzo's Elegia. 
 
440 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 writer whom in this kind of eloquence you have not far sur- 
 passed." Pico's comparison therefore is between Lorenzo's 
 work, and work of a similar kind done by Dante and 
 Petrarch ; it is essentially a comparison of styles, rather 
 than of poetic substance. He finds in Dante an archaic 
 style, which, judged by any absolute standard, must fail to 
 please. Dante's style is not infrequently " horridus, asfer, 
 et strigosus,^^ whereas the distinction of Lorenzo's style lies 
 in its grace and melody. Pico is not, he tells us, one of those 
 critics who, in comparing the rival merits of two writers, 
 counts the years which separate them as a convincing proof 
 of superior excellence in the earlier writer. Many critics 
 praise the ancients and declare that they alone are to be 
 read with reverence ; but this is because they cannot read 
 the work of contemporaries without envy. Judged solely 
 in relation to an abstract conception of what style should be, 
 the superiority of Lorenzo's over Dante's would be denied 
 by few. When judged in relation to the conditions, the work 
 of Lorenzo has this advantage over Dante that, whereas 
 Dante was professionally a poet and nothing else, Lorenzo 
 is a man immersed in the practical affairs of life. " The one 
 produced his poems in retreat and quietude, in the tranquillity 
 of secluded study. But you have sung to us when most 
 deeply engaged in civil tumults and the din of the senate 
 house, amid the clamours of the forum, the most anxious 
 cares, and the most boisterous tempests. To the one the 
 Muses were the ordinary and chief business of life.* To 
 you they afford but some sportive relaxation from your 
 cares. To the one poetry was m the highest degree a labour. 
 To you when wearied out with labour it has been a solace." 
 
 Petrarch, too, must yield to Lorenzo in that he is too 
 much of a colourist in words, who by sheer beauty of word- 
 painting gives a fictitious value to things of little worth. 
 He is at once too sweet, too diffuse, too studied. Lorenzo, 
 on the other hand, has a vivacity and spontaneity which 
 appeal directly to the heart. There is no straining after 
 
 * " lUis erant Musae ordinarium negotium et principale : tibi ludus et a 
 curis quaedam relaxatio. lUis summa defatigatio, tibi defatigato otium." 
 Pico to Lorenzo, Idibus Julii, 1484. Cf. Poliziano, ante p. 392. 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 441 
 
 effects, nor parade of literary craft. From Petrarch much 
 might be cut away to the improvement of what is left, but 
 in Lorenzo there is nothing redundant. " He who takes 
 aways from you mutilates you : who takes from Petrarch 
 trims and enhances him," 
 
 Thus it will be seen that Pico della Mirandola's judgment 
 was something more than a few sentences of random flattery. 
 It was a reasoned opinion, upon a matter of literary artistry 
 and craftsmanship, formed as the result of a critical analysis 
 of the ingredients of the respective styles of Dante, Petrarch 
 and Lorenzo. His taste may be faulty and his reasoning 
 unconvincing, but there is no reason to think that his prefer- 
 ence was not sincere, or that it was based only on a superficial 
 knowledge of the artistic merits of the two poets to whom 
 Lorenzo was preferred. The superfine taste of an age 
 devoted to form would naturally and deliberately incline 
 to elegance and pohsh rather than to depth and intensity. 
 However valueless as criticism, Pico's strictures and pane- 
 gyrics alike acquire interest when we regard them as a 
 reflection of the spirit of his time. 
 
 It is of course obvious that no comparison really lies 
 between Lorenzo and Dante as poets. It is true that both 
 wrote love sonnets, and that Lorenzo's Commentary upon 
 his own Sonnets is an imitation of the form of the " Viia 
 Nuova." But Lorenzo nowhere challenges The Divine 
 Comedy, but moves in a poetic orbit infinitely distant from 
 Dante's ethereal course. Lorenzo's whole soul was never 
 surrendered to a great conception, which it was his life- 
 work to reveal to the world. Poetry to him was merely a 
 relaxation from the pressure of material affairs. He wrote 
 poetry, not to secure immortality, but to give pleasure to 
 himself and his immediate circle of friends. These verses 
 of occasion, however, were done so well, his sportive fancy 
 touched so many points of human interest, that Lorenzo 
 takes rank as an Italian poet whose work, within its limits, 
 may challenge comparison with similar work executed by 
 any other. He has a fluent and happy command of a 
 language which he did much to dignify and rescue from neglect 
 and debasement. Gifted with extraordinary versatility 
 
442 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 he took an interest in everything, and his facile gift of 
 versification enabled him to express his interests in poetic 
 form. Nothing left him indifferent or untouched ; each new 
 fancy, emotion, or experience promptly found an appropriate 
 poetic embodiment in sonnet or satire, in pastoral or 
 lyric-song. Thus his poetry is indeed himself, nor can he 
 be known as he really was only from the study of diplo- 
 matic despatches, and official records. Nencia da Barberino 
 is as much a part of the man himself as his influence over 
 the government of Florence ; indeed we shall the better 
 understand his government if we realise him as the author 
 of Nencia. As he was in his poetry so he was in his govern- 
 ment, sometimes cold and cynical, sometimes impassioned 
 and impulsive ; now gratifying the worst passions of his 
 animal nature, now rising to lofty heights of self-criticism 
 and moral enthusiasm ; at one time careless how much 
 he might corrupt, at another time intent on edification and 
 spiritual exaltation. Between these extremes there is a 
 not infrequent mood of plodding industry and mediocre 
 talent which finds expression in his government in humdrum 
 details of administration, in his poetry in imitation, and in 
 the banalities of the conventional versifier. It is perhaps 
 conceivable that in his public life a man can pursue exclusively 
 a poHcy of cold and crafty calculation, while in his private 
 diversions he can show himself genial, human, and dis- 
 interested, but Lorenzo's character, though rare, was none 
 the less transparent. His was no dual personality. He 
 was a stone cut with many facets, essentially one, but 
 catching and flashing back all the light and life which was 
 around him. He stretched out both hands to grasp what- 
 ever experience the world had to afford, and gave it again 
 to the world individualised and interpreted in poetic forms 
 of art. 
 
 There is only one poem which can be called a masterpiece, 
 and that is Nencia. Lorenzo was the first to see the grace, 
 the humour, and the charm which can reside in boorish 
 rustics, and to feel the touch of nature which makes kin the 
 humanity of prince and peasant. He is the discoverer and 
 pioneer in a new territory into which art bad not yet pene- 
 
LORENZO AS POET AND WRITER 443 
 
 rated, and he occupied it by natural right, not of priority 
 )nly, but of superior excellence over every other competitor. 
 :n the higher realms of imaginative poetry he was out- 
 stripped by Pohziano, who instinctively feels the influences 
 Df Nature when Lorenzo can seldom do more than observe 
 md note them. In lyrics, excellent as some of Lorenzo's 
 lyrics are, Poliziano again takes the palm, but no contem- 
 porary writer aspired to Lorenzo's range, or achieved 
 excellence in so many forms, phases, and moods of poetry. 
 His diction, if it lacks inspiration, is always elegant and 
 refined, and if the cadences fall upon the ear with some sense 
 of monotony and repetition, it is rather in the structure of 
 the language than in Lorenzo's want of command over it 
 that the explanation must be sought. His images 
 presented themselves in clear rehef before his own eye, and 
 then he expressed them simply and directly. He seldom 
 sought to deck out poverty of thought and immature con- 
 ceptions in the garments of trope and rhetoric, but he knew 
 : what he felt, and conveyed his feehng in words which 
 adequately represent it. He was sensitive to beauty, and 
 saw it everywhere around him, but he viewed Nature from 
 without, and recorded his impressions rather than gave 
 spontaneous utterance to the passion which consumed him 
 within. We are sometimes conscious of poetic artifice 
 where Lorenzo would have us conscious of the intensity of 
 his emotions. 
 
 But in his poetry, as in his pubhc Hfe, Lorenzo suffers 
 from the standard by which he has forced us to estimate 
 him. The critic finds himself continually forgetting that 
 Lorenzo belonged to an age which is very remote. The 
 historian demands of Lorenzo the statesman virtues which 
 statesmen could not, at the time, possess. The critic 
 demands of Lorenzo the poet quahties which would not be 
 looked for in Dryden or Pope. In an epoch which in its 
 literature was imitative and artificial, which made of form 
 and style the supreme tests of merit, it was much that 
 Lorenzo should have exhibited such powers of initiative 
 and originality : that he should have been conscious of the 
 spirit of beauty in the common things of the world around 
 
444 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 him, and that he should have inspired his contemporaries 
 with his own abounding sense of love and of enjoyment. 
 
 Though Lorenzo can make no claim to a place amongst 
 the few great poets of the world, yet he cannot be ignored. 
 He stands out as one who, by his example and his en- 
 couragement, did much to purify the Tuscan dialect, and 
 redeem it for the highest uses of artistic expression. Nor 
 can his poetry fail to interest if it be read as the work of 
 a man who has left to the world a poetic record, in 
 graceful and pleasing forms, of his own many-sided and 
 incongruous personaHty. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 LIFE AND MANNERS IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 
 
 ' Character of the Florentmes as determined by the conditions of life — 
 k)mmercial and industrial activities of the city— Lorenzo as a citizeii— 
 standard of education in Florence— SimpUcity of private life— Masculine 
 ©stume in Florence — The condition of women — Woman in the family 
 —Anomalies in the position of the wife— Lorenzo's intrigue with Barto- 
 ommea de' Nasi— Female costume— The feminine toilet— Florentme 
 fames— Horseracing— The game of Calcio— Love of country life— Lorenzo 
 it his villas. 
 
 THE distinction which Lorenzo enjoyed among his 
 fellow citizens corresponded to the superiority 
 ivhich Florence in the fifteenth century could claim over 
 svery other Italian State. Though many of the vices 
 which generally prevailed in Italy— vices to which, in a 
 measure, the Renaissance had given birth— were by no 
 means absent from Florence, yet there they flourished in 
 mitigated or more refined forms, while from some of the 
 worst vices of the age Florence was comparatively free. 
 The Florentines were distignuished by a solidity, earnestness, 
 and depth of character which were lacking to the Neapolitans 
 or the Milanese. The exclusive dependence of Florence 
 for her prosperity upon commercial enterprise and 
 industrial activity tended to produce those regular and 
 settled habits of life which are favourable to the develop- 
 ment at least of negative, if not of positive, virtues. In 
 a thriving and busy manufacturing town, where every one, 
 whatever his quahty, was engaged in some active business, 
 the humdrum affairs of daily Hfe absorbed a great part of 
 those energies which elsewhere were expended in violence 
 and rapine. The accumulation of wealth monopolised the 
 energies of the great industrial captains : the provision 
 
 445 
 
446 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of an adequate livelihood was a task sufficient to occupy 
 the general mass of the people. Though it was possible 
 for a few great families to acquire enormous wealth, yet 
 no sharp line of cleavage can be said to have separated 
 capital and labour. An idle, capitalistic caste existing on 
 the production of exploited labour was practically unknown. 
 Everybody, whether he were millionaire or artisan, was 
 actively employed, while, with a few exceptions, wealth 
 was distributed in such a manner as to produce no sense 
 of glaring inequality in its distribution. Each individual 
 citizen was an integral part in the industrial machine, and 
 had his own economic value. Thus in Florence human 
 life came to be regarded with more respect than elsewhere. 
 In times of political or social agitation it is true that the 
 ferocity which is inherent in the Italian character found 
 full vent in Florence. When the popular fury was aroused 
 the objects of it could expect short shrift. There were 
 times when a horrible access of cannibalistic passion seized 
 upon the mob, as in the days of the Ciompi revolt, and of 
 the Pazzi conspiracy. The final scenes in the life of Savona- 
 rola afford sufficient evidence that only a very thin veneer 
 of civilisation and refinement separated the Florentine 
 from the savage. But in quiet times life was more secure 
 in Florence than in Rome or Naples. The dagger of the 
 assassin was not a recognised instrument of diplomacy 
 and statesmanship, and its use, when employed by the 
 Pazzi, was furiously resented. Where, everywhere else 
 in Italy, public opinion was on the side of the murderer, 
 in Florence public opinion was, on the whole, against him. 
 Wild and sanguinary vendettas, pursued with every device 
 of atrocious ingenuity continued to be common in Italy 
 when in Florence they had become rare. The exigencies 
 of a more highly developed social Hfe had tended to teach 
 the Florentine that the security of the individual had a 
 safer guarantee in law than in defiance of it. Putting 
 aside, therefore, as exceptional, the gusty outbreaks of 
 occasional passion, Florence in the days of Lorenzo presented 
 many of the aspects of a modem centre of industry. 
 
 The population of the city which in 1300, according to 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 
 
 447 
 
 Villani, numbered 90,000, in Lorenzo's time (1478 circa) 
 was but a little over 70,000. The Black Death of 1348 had 
 killed off about one half of the inhabitants, and in the 
 century which followed the rate of increase was slow. In 
 wealth, however, Florence was easily first among the 
 Italian cities. Benedetto Dei, in his Chronicle which 
 covers the years of 1470-1492, gives some interesting 
 statistics as to the flourishing state of Florentine commerce 
 in his day, and he challenges Venice, or any other city, to 
 produce such proofs of prosperity as Florence could give. 
 " Fiorentia beUa," he declares, " had 270 factories of the 
 woollen-guild situated between the Via Maggio in S. Martino 
 and the Via Pelagio. Florentine stuffs were exported to 
 Rome, Naples, Sicily, to every part of Italy in fact, and to 
 the East. Eighty-three silk factories manufactured silk, 
 cloth, gold brocade, velvet, satin, damask and taffeta. 
 Thirty-three banks conducted the financial affairs of the 
 Republic. There were thirty-two warehouses for the 
 wholesale supply of various kinds of cloth ; eighty-four 
 workshops for cabinet-making and inlaid work ; forty-four 
 for workers in gold and silver, not including thirty which 
 were exclusively devoted to the manufacture of gold and 
 silver thread and models in wax. Fifty-four workshops 
 were necessary for the supply of worked stone, marbles, 
 intaglios, and reliefs. Sixty-six shops, attached to the 
 Guild of the Medici e Speziali, dispensed fancy articles of 
 every description. Hats, paper, cutlery, books, veils, 
 perfumes, tennis bats and masks are but a few of the mis- 
 cellaneous articles included in the general term " speziali," 
 which also covered the hairdressers and barbers. Seventy 
 butchers' shops were required for the needs of the people, 
 as well as eight shops of the " Pollaiuoli," or poulterers and 
 game-dealers upon a large scale, who also sold wines of 
 various brands, one white wine in particular being of such 
 excellence that, in Benedetto's opinion, it was capable of 
 waking the dead. The city also could boast of thirty-five 
 Knights of the Golden Spur, knights that is to say, who 
 had won their honours from Popes or Kings in circumstances 
 of peculiar dignity or merit, forming a caste altogether 
 
448 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 apart from the cavalieri di popolo, whose titles were a 
 recompense for ordinary official services. 
 
 In a small community thus actively employed there was 
 not therefore much room for class distinctions. Moreover, 
 the spirit of the people was genuinely democratic, each 
 man mixing with his fellows on terms of easy familiarity 
 which expressed the sense of equality which prevailed. 
 Lorenzo himself was Lorenzo to whoever chose to call him 
 so. Niccolo Grosso, the eccentric blacksmith who raised 
 his work in iron to the dignity of an art — ^he wrought the 
 fanali, or lanterns, of the Palazzo Strozzi — would give no 
 precedence to Lorenzo's orders over those of humbler men. 
 One of Grosso's peculiarities, Vasari * tells us, was that he 
 would never execute any commission until he had received 
 a payment in advance {sempre voleva I'arra). Whereupon 
 Lorenzo nicknamed him Caparra, and by this name he 
 became universally known. Desiring to make a present 
 of some of Grosso's ironwork to a distinguished foreigner, 
 Lorenzo went in person to Caparra' s workshop to beg him 
 to serve him quickly. The smith's hands were at the time 
 full of work which he had engaged to do for poor people 
 who had already paid him for it. Therefore he was deaf 
 to all Lorenzo's entreaties, saying that he could not oblige 
 him until he had served his poor customers first " for they 
 had come to the shop before him, and that he esteemed 
 their money at the same value as that of Lorenzo." 
 
 Where Lorenzo recognised a touch of genius he knew 
 nothing about distinctions of rank or fortune. Artists, he 
 said, are not like other men : " genius has to be humoured." 
 When some one in his presence was commenting adversely 
 on the manners and habits of the great organist, Squarcia- 
 lupi, Lorenzo rebuked the critic : "If you could only know 
 what it is to excel in any of the sciences or arts, and generally 
 in all, you would speak of Squarcialupi with more modesty 
 and more affection." Valori, who tells this story, declares 
 that this was essentially Lorenzo's function as a patron of 
 the arts — not so much to reward genius as to defend genius 
 against the attacks of smaller men. 
 
 * Vasari, Vita del Cronaca. 
 
CAPARRA'S LANTERN 
 
 PALAZZO STROZZI, PLORENCE 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 449 
 
 Lorenzo's urbanity, however, was not reserved exclusively 
 for men of genius or talent or for his friends. The man 
 who led the mad processions of the carnival revellers could 
 scarcely have been haughty and inaccessible towards the 
 public at any time. His affabihty is so commonly recognised 
 that it has been used as a charge against him. It was but 
 a means, it is said, towards a political end, and that end 
 was tyranny. The fact is that Lorenzo's attitude towards 
 his fellow citizens of whatever degree is only typical of the 
 manners which commonly prevailed. Feudalism as a social 
 force was as lacking in Florence as feudalism was missing 
 from her political organisation. 
 
 Nor were such distinctions of wealth or occupation as 
 existed emphasised by the fact that education was the 
 peculiar privilege of the few. If Villani's statement be 
 true that in his time from 8000 to 10,000 children were 
 being educated in the elementary schools of the city, we 
 are justified in assuming that educational facilities had 
 increased rather than diminished in the course of nearly 
 two centuries. Everybody in Florence was educated up 
 to a point, and the intellectual faculties of the people 
 were keen, alert, and to some extent trained. The sense of 
 beauty was a native possession of high and low alike. The 
 eye for form, and line, and texture was not confined to the 
 producers and purchasers of works of high art. Art entered 
 into the life of the people, and displayed itself as much 
 in a street lamp or a kitchen utensil as on the walls of 
 Sta. Maria Novella or the niches of Or San Michele. Every 
 Florentine was instinctively a critic of art, and the artistic 
 Renaissance found the breath of its life in popular ap- 
 preciation. The legend of Cimabue's Madonna, transported 
 amid the rejoicings of the populace through the Borgo 
 Allegro to its resting-place in Sta. Maria Novella, may be 
 only a legend, but its mere existence as a legend is a com- 
 mentary upon the widespread influence which art exercised 
 over all ranks of society. Poverty could not complain of 
 lack of opportunity, for the opportunity of rising to the 
 highest ranks in art, scholarship, or literature was open to 
 any one, however poor, who had talent and perseverance. 
 2 F 
 
450 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 There was no necessity for any Giotto to be lost among 
 the hill-shepherds. The conditions tended, therefore, to 
 make the democratic spirit real and integral in the Florentine 
 character, to produce easy and equal relations between 
 man and man, whatever artificial separation of position, or 
 means, might exist between them. 
 
 Life, too, was led simply by all. The Florentines ate to live. 
 Few of them, if any, lived to eat. We read of magnificent 
 and sumptuous entertainments, and here and there a 
 Florentine of this age would seek to emulate the gastronomic 
 barbarities of a Pietro Riario, but distinction must be 
 made between official entertainments, of which the purpose 
 was to show to strangers the quality of Florentine hospitality, 
 and the accustomed everyday life of the people. None 
 could excel Lorenzo in the magnificence and sumptuousness 
 of the feasts which he gave to ambassadors and princes, 
 but in his own household he practised the simple life on 
 one or two dishes of plain fare. SimpUcity being the rule, 
 families were not stirred by the spirit of emulation to 
 outdo their neighbours in extravagance or display. Floren- 
 tine households were not, as a rule, blessed with a super- 
 abundance of wealth, and where there was such wealth 
 there was not the inclination to spend it on the luxuries of 
 the table. What we call good form rather prescribed that 
 where money could be spared it should be devoted to the 
 adornment of the city. The Guilds thought more of their 
 niches in Or San Michele than of municipal banquets, and 
 private persons preferred to employ Masaccio or Ghirlandajo 
 to adorn a chapel than to expend their superfluous wealth 
 on the pleasures of the moment. If Lorenzo ever took 
 a meal with Caparra he probably fared nearly as well as 
 in his own mansion in the Via Larga. 
 
 Neither were distinctions of class invidiously emphasised 
 by distinctions of costume. Croakers there were who de- 
 plored the good old times which existed, they said, before 
 the Duke of Athens came to corrupt the ancient simpHcity 
 of Florentine manners. But a jerkin buckled in at the waist, 
 tightly-fitting hose, a long cloak, and some form of head- 
 dress continued to be the ordinary costume of a Florentine 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 451 
 
 burgher throughout the fifteenth century. There was not 
 necessarily any marked distinction in dress between the 
 artisan and his employer, between the agricultural labourer, 
 and the owner of the estate on which he laboured. 
 
 In Botticelli's picture of the " Adoration of the Magi " 
 (painted for the Lami chapel of Sta. Maria NoveUa, but 
 now in the Uffizi), which is full of Medician portraits, the 
 artist himself, who stands on the right, is clothed in a long 
 cloak which Dante might have worn, and the spectators, 
 as a body, exhibit no extravagances in the style or fashion 
 of their dress. A distinction must again be drawn between 
 ceremonial occasions and the custom of everyday life. 
 The Florentines had a simple, childish delight in spectacular 
 splendours, and rejoiced in every opportunity offered for 
 its gratification. When Lorenzo organised a show he 
 considered the money well spent which was devoted to 
 magnificent effects of costume and trappings, but we should 
 be wrong to infer from the accounts which we read of his 
 tournaments that he habitually went about in gold and 
 silver brocade. There was, however, no drab uniformity 
 of cut or colour. The doublet and hose, the buskins and 
 the headdress, lent themselves to gay and varied effects 
 of colour, and the more splendid the dye the more expensive 
 was the stuff. Young gallants loved to disport themselves 
 in contrasts of cardinal red, purple, orange, or lavender, 
 but the fashions and tastes of the rich descended by easy 
 stages to the masses, while a man could still pursue his 
 daily course, clad in the sombre cloak affected by his an- 
 cestors, without attracting remark by the strangeness of 
 his attire. The Florentine, in fact, in the matter of costume, 
 claimed his freedom as an individual to dress himself in 
 accordance with his taste. There was no conventional 
 standard of characterless monotony in dress to which 
 every one was compelled by public opinion to submit. It 
 was thus possible for luxury and extravagance to assume 
 a thousand forms in the trappings of individual men, but 
 where no special costume was stereotyped, no one in any 
 class of society could be considered odd if in his clothing 
 he did not conform to a pattern. 
 
452 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Before dealing with the question of dress in relation to 
 women, it will be well to consider the general position of 
 women in the Florentine community. " We must," says 
 Burckhardt, " keep before our minds the fact that women 
 stood on a footing of perfect equality with men." This is 
 true in so far as it applies to the general estimation in which 
 women were held, and to the equal opportunities which 
 they, especially if they were married, enjoyed with men for 
 the development of their faculties to the highest possible point. 
 The scheme of education which was deemed proper for 
 men was deemed equally proper for women, the humanistic 
 enthusiasm of the Renaissance extending to the careful 
 training of women in Latin, and even in Greek literature. 
 Women, in fact, were supposed to be fitted to share all 
 the intellectual privileges of men. Not a few of the famous 
 women of this epoch are conspicuous for their virile quahties. 
 Caterina Sforza could sustain the great crisis of her fortunes 
 with manly fortitude and splendid intrepidity, and, though 
 regarded as the " prima donna dTtaha," she is but a type 
 and exemplar of many women of her time. But the general 
 position of women is to be estimated, not in relation to 
 exceptional individuals, but to the life of the family, and 
 here the great distinction meets us between the unmarried 
 girl and the married woman. The unmarried girl, though 
 carefully trained and educated, was kept very much in 
 seclusion, nor did she begin to enjoy the full privileges of 
 her sex until she had come out in the world in the capacity 
 of wife. As such she took her place in the household and 
 in society on an equal footing with her husband, and " strove 
 naturally, no less than the man, after a characteristic and 
 complete individuahty." In conversation her opinion was 
 given as freely, and was regarded with as much respect, 
 as that of any man, and in those formal discussions in 
 which the Florentines loved to engage she took her turn 
 with the men as president of debate. She was supposed 
 to be sufficiently conversant with the world not to be 
 shocked when questionable anecdotes and allusions were 
 current, and, from the time of Boccaccio onward, she was 
 capable of contributing her own share to this form of 
 
GIOVANNA DEGLI ALBIZZl 
 
 PANEL I'ORTRAIT BV DOMRNICO GHIKLAXDAJO 
 
 [Xow in the possession of Mr, y. Pierfoiiil Morgan] 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 453 
 
 entertainment. Women certainly could not have been 
 prudes in those days, but there was often, in what would 
 now be considered their immodesty, a frankness and un- 
 consciousness of evil which disarm censure, for there was 
 no consciousness of evil where no evil was felt, intended, or 
 recognised. The sphere of woman was within the family 
 and the social circle, and it was her business to make a 
 part of the life which was around her. 
 
 The social and intellectual freedom enjoyed by women 
 does not seem to have proved hostile to the cultivation of 
 domestic virtues. A woman was supposed to be a good 
 housewife, and to understand the management of her 
 children and her servants. In his Trattato del Governo 
 della Famiglia, Leo Battista Alberti, using Agnolo Pandolfini 
 as his mouthpiece, insists strongly on the domestic re- 
 sponsibilities which lie upon the mistress of the household. 
 It was one of the first duties of the husband, in a well- 
 regulated family, to train and encourage his wife in all the 
 arts of management and domestic economy. In Lucrezia 
 Tomabuoni, Lorenzo's mother, we see a woman who must 
 have represented almost perfectly the Florentine ideal of 
 what a woman should be. Thoroughly capable in the 
 ordering of her establishment, she was equally capable in 
 the training of her children. Her intellectual gifts enabled 
 her to keep in touch with all the varied interests of her 
 brilliant son, and he found in her his best and most constant 
 adviser even upon political questions. She was not without 
 some literary talent of her own, and her sacred songs are 
 extant to prove the range and depth of her piety. The 
 correspondence between Alessandra Strozzi and her exiled 
 son is a further proof of the close ties of interest and affection 
 which bound mothers and sons together. 
 
 But, at the same time, in the society of the Renaissance, 
 the married woman was exposed to peculiar temptations 
 which it was scarcely expected that she would resist. The 
 love intrigues of Italy centre around her rather than around 
 the unmarried girl. It was almost a part of the Itahan 
 code of morals that a man should have a mistress as well 
 as a wife. Marriages were so much a matter of convenience, 
 
454 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 dowry, or family considerations, that the wife was neither 
 supposed, nor did she expect, to be the exclusive object of 
 her husband's affections. As the head of his household 
 she was to be received without demur when given to him 
 in marriage ; she was to be treated by him in his home 
 with aU the outward forms of deference and respect. But 
 it was understood that his passion was probably reserved for 
 another. The highest gratifications of physical desire, the 
 loftiest ecstasies of spiritual communion, must find satis- 
 faction in the kindred being of one who was not his wife, 
 but the wife of some other man. 
 
 Yet there must be no scandal, or the situation might 
 weU prove dangerous. Outraged husbands had little scruple 
 in punishing the proclaimed infidelity of a wife. Offended 
 wives frequently contrived startling schemes of vengeance 
 to redress their wrongs. But beneath the rose much was 
 tolerated as a matter of course, so long as neither husband 
 nor wife was brought to open shame. Thus the woman 
 became the focus of every variety of ingenious intrigue, 
 and in her turn could often show that she too was an 
 adept in the arts of deception. To regard all means as 
 legitimate if only the end was achieved was an ingrained 
 trait of Itahan character, and to succeed by the exercise 
 of superior arts of cunning and ingenuity gave to success a 
 special and peculiar zest. The novellists, from Boccaccio 
 onwards, are evidence that all classes of society were equally 
 contaminated by the vice of conjugal infidelity. The wives 
 of artisans and peasants were as fair game to their admirers 
 as Bartolommea dei Nasi to Lorenzo dei Medici. 
 
 Lorenzo but followed the prevailing fashion in his intrigue 
 with Bartolommea. She was the wife of Donato Benci, a 
 woman, says Guicciardini, who was by no means beautiful, 
 but with a style and grace of her own (maniera e gentile). 
 Such was Lorenzo's infatuation that he would ride out 
 under cover of night to her villa, with Luigi della Stufa and 
 his kinsman, Medici " II Butta," as his companions, and 
 *' behaved himself in such a way as would have demeaned 
 any striphng." The lady did not like his friends, so to 
 content her he despatched them on embassies — Luigi to 
 
A YOUNG FLORENTINE GIRL 
 
 DETAIL FROM DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJo's FRESCO OF THE " BIRTH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST' 
 
 /)/ Sta Maria Novella, Florence 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 455 
 
 the Soldan and " II Butta " to the Grand Turk. His 
 amours did not end with Bartolommea, if Guicciardini is 
 to be beheved, for he tells us that Lorenzo was much ad- 
 dicted to illicit loves, which were in some degree responsible 
 for his premature death. Yet Lorenzo was a fond father, 
 and the evidence that he regarded his wife Clarice with 
 affection and respect is too strong to be ignored. The fact 
 is that the peculiarities of Italian social life are scarcely to 
 be comprehended by the Northern mind. The passion of 
 every Italian was to realise himself completely. It was 
 natural to him to seek, where he could find it, for that 
 feminine counterpart of himself who should consummate 
 his perfect self-reaHsation. Thus a man might be the 
 adorer of two or more women widely differing in character 
 and attractions. In one he might find the complement to his 
 physical nature : in another that perfect communion of soul 
 which could satisfy the highest aspirations of his best self. 
 
 In Renaissance Florence, as at all times and in all places, 
 woman laid herself out to attract and captivate. Judging, 
 however, from contemporary portraits, the dominant cha- 
 racteristic of feminine costume was the appearance of 
 simplicity which it presented. This cult of simphcity was 
 not, however, inconsistent with richness and splendour in 
 particular effects. The quality of the brocades, the slashings 
 of the sleeves and bodice, the loopings of the robe beneath 
 the breasts and around the waist, all lent themselves to 
 setting forth the figure to the best and most expensive 
 advantage. But an almost equally effective general im- 
 pression could be produced by simple materials and an 
 unambitious style. The ladies who represent their period 
 and their class in Ghirlandajo's " Birth of the Virgin " in 
 Sta. Maria Novella, are not indebted for their grace to 
 extravagances of costume. In the so-caUed Botticelli 
 portrait of La Bella Simonetta in the Pitti the dress is 
 almost aggressive in its plainness. The bodice is cut low 
 upon the shoulders and square across the chest. It is 
 altogether without decorative embroideries, and is simply 
 fastened down the front by plain slashings. It is gathered 
 in at the waist by a band of stuff or silk which conceals 
 
456 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 the gathers of the simple skirt, which falls to the feet. 
 The hair falls on each side of the face in masses below the 
 ears, and then is gathered behind the head in a knot, and 
 covered by a sort of hood or cap. Sometimes, as in the 
 portrait of a Medici lady, at Frankfort, a richly-embroidered 
 under-vest, edged with fine lace, and cut square upon the 
 chest, is almost concealed by the equivalent of a modem 
 blouse, full-breasted and full-sleeved. The hair, richly 
 adorned with pearls, and crowned by an aigrette, hangs 
 free, in studied coils, upon the neck and shoulders, except 
 for two long and splendid plaits which are brought forward, 
 one over each shoulder, and arranged and fixed so as to 
 define the line of the blouse as it slopes to meet the vest. 
 The effect of costume in this picture is rich and splendid. 
 Everything has been elaborately studied and is in perfect 
 taste, but the dress itself is quite simple. As at all times, 
 the individuality of the wearer was of more account than 
 what was worn, and in Florence ample scope was allowed 
 for individuality to women as well as to men. 
 
 There were other means, apart from clothing, lace, chains, 
 jewels, and the like, by which women sought to charm. 
 The use of cosmetics and false hair was universal. The 
 Apothecaries held equal rank with the Doctors in the 
 major Guild of the " Medici e Speciali," and their shops 
 were full of engaging trifles calculated to please the fancy 
 of the fair sex. There were paints for the face, delicate 
 washes, innumerable perfumes, to which the Italians were 
 passionately attached. A lady's toilet was at least as 
 elaborate as that of Pope's Belinda. First came the process 
 of washing, for it is gratifying to note that the Florentines 
 attached great importance to personal cleanliness, being 
 regarded as the cleanest people in Italy. The first care, on 
 waking, of the shepherdess in Poliziano's lyric is to wash 
 " il suo bel viso, la man, la gamba e il pulito petto." The 
 arrangement of the hair next demanded attention, the 
 most studious arts being employed to secure a pleasing 
 effect of colour and of unstudied simplicity. Assiduous 
 brushings, combings, crimpings, dyeings prepared the 
 way for the intermixture of coils of false hair with the 
 natural product of the head, the ultimate result being 
 
LUDOVICA TORNABUONI 
 
 DETAIL FROM DOMENICO GHIRI.ANDAJo's FRESCO OF THE " BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN" 
 
 Sta Maria Novella, Florence 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 457 
 
 frequently a single thick plait which hung down behind 
 the back. Or else it was simply parted, and allowed to 
 fall at will over the neck and shoulders, as in Leonardo's 
 Mona Lisa. There was, however, no stereotyped coiffure. 
 Each lady arranged her hair as best suited herself. 
 
 After the hair came the face, which was treated with 
 various cosmetics, the eyes, the eyelids, the cheeks, the 
 lips, the teeth, having their own appropriate and special em- 
 bellishment. No sense of shame attached to these appli- 
 cations, for they were not used with a view to correcting 
 the deficiencies of nature, but to supplementing nature by 
 extraneous charms. The paint stood out thick and glistening, 
 being purposely designed to produce effects of form and 
 colour which were not natural. This rage for artificial 
 beauties extended to all classes. Nencia, if only she will 
 be kind to Vallera, shall shine resplendent in bismuth and 
 sublimate of lead like the best lady in the land. There 
 were doubtless many women who refrained from these 
 practices, or who indulged in them only on exceptional 
 occasions, but the literature of the time affords abundant 
 proof of their prevalence, and of the powerlessness of 
 masculine satire effectually to put an end to them. 
 
 The full extravagances of meretricious adornments 
 were, however, reserved for some festival or gala day, a 
 horse-race, or a tournament, or a game of " Calcio " in 
 the Piazza of Sta. Croce. The Florentines loved sports 
 and games for their own sake, but also for the opportunities 
 for spectacle and display which they afforded. Then the 
 men would don their most splendid attire, the ladies would 
 apply their most luscious paints, and the prize of victory, 
 to be received from the hands of the fairest of the fair, was 
 contended for amid the plaudits of the assembled city. 
 Ecclesiastical festivals, such as St. John's Day, St. Peter's 
 Day, and certain red-letter days in the history of the re- 
 public, afforded occasions for games and sports upon a 
 grand scale. Having devoted the morning to the exercises 
 of religion, the Florentines would in the afternoon indulge 
 their national passion for horse-racing,* known as " Palio," 
 
 * The course extended from the Porta alia Croce, through the city, 
 to the Porta al Prato. 
 
458 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 from the piece of brocade given as a prize. The Via del 
 Corso still commemorates these contests, which date back 
 to the thirteenth century. There was seldom a race in 
 Lorenzo's time in which a horse of his was not running, for 
 he was unaffectedly an enthusiast for the sport as well as 
 an ardent lover of horses. Even a manuscript or a precious 
 vase could hardly please him more than the receipt of a 
 beautiful horse as a present from some royal or princely 
 friend. His own stud was famed throughout Italy, and a 
 horse from Lorenzo's stables was recognised everj^where as 
 a princely gift. His own special favourite was Morello — 
 a very dark bay Barbary — invincible in the races, and so 
 attached to Lorenzo that, as Poliziano assured Valori, he 
 would, if ill or wearied by the race, refuse food from any 
 hand but that of his master, nor did he ever fail to recognise 
 Lorenzo's approach by shrill neighs of delight. 
 
 Or, if there was no racing, there was " Calcio," a game 
 played originally in the neighbourhood of Ognissanti until 
 it was relegated, by the gradual expansion of the city, to 
 the Piazza of Sta. Croce. It was a game played with a 
 ball under rules which sometimes suggest our own Rugby 
 Football, and sometimes tennis. An oblong resembling 
 an immense lawn -tennis court was marked out in the square, 
 one side of it being known as the muro, the other as the 
 fossa. The players, twenty-seven on each side, stood 
 confronted in positions definitely assigned to them. A 
 line across the centre of the court separated the sides. 
 Fifteen players on each side were posted close to the line, 
 arranged in three divisions, right, left, and centre, there 
 being five players in each division. These were known as 
 the runners. Immediately behind them stood five Scon- 
 ciatori, covering the width of the parallelogram, each 
 having his own special territory to guard, and each dis- 
 tinguished by a special name which marked his position. 
 Behind the Sconciatori stood the Datori, or Servers, in two 
 rows, one behind the other, the first consisting of four 
 Datori, the second of three. To each of these his own 
 particular name and sphere of action was assigned. The 
 genersd arrangement was obviously designed so that each 
 
AUnari 
 
 PIERO DEI MEDICI, ELDEST SON OF LORENZO 
 
 FROM IHK PAINTING BY BNONZINO 
 Uffi!:i Gallery, Floren.e 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 459 
 
 successive line of players should cover the gaps in the line 
 in front. When all was ready the ball was set in motion, 
 and was apparently kicked or thrown from hand to hand, 
 as occasion might demand, but I have been unable to 
 grasp the precise play of the game. Play was limited to 
 a fixed time, and that side was the winner which most often 
 gained " Caccia," or " Chace," or which had "proved 
 itself superior by reason of faults." The game was evidently 
 a skilful one and very fast. Piero dei Medici, Lorenzo's son, 
 was a noted expert. It aroused unbounded enthusiasm, some- 
 times attracting, so it is said, as many as 40,000 spectators.* 
 
 * In an old print in the British Museum, 1494, reproduced in Edgcumbe 
 Staley's Guilds of Florence, the game is shown as taking place within an 
 oval, not a parallelogram. The particulars which I have given are taken 
 from a copy in the Rylands Library of a book published in Florence in 
 1688 — Memorie del Calcio Fiorentino, tratta da diverse Scritture, e dedicate 
 all' AUezza Serenissime di Ferdinando, Principe di Toscana, e Violante 
 Beatrice di Baviera. The book contains the rules of the game and a 
 diagram of the positions, with names of players. " From the 6th day of 
 January, throughout the Carnival, let the time be devoted to the exercises 
 of Calcio. Every day, towards evening, at the sound of trumpets, the 
 players shall take the field." AUessandro Adimari is quoted as the author 
 of a eulogy of the game, entitled Calliope. Calcio, he says, is a symbol 
 of life itself : the veritable model of the contrast which all men feel to 
 exist between true and false happiness ; for the more a man hits the globe, 
 the more is he victor over it. (" The globe " is here used in the double 
 sense of the world, and the calcio ball.) Then follows a sonnet based on 
 this conceit, initiated by two passages of Scripture : 
 
 Praterit figura hujus mundi. — i Cor. vii. 31. 
 A micitia hujus mundi inamicitia est Dei. — Jac. iv. 4. 
 
 Questo globo, entro informe e bel di fuore, 
 E del mondo il model voto al contento. 
 Seguiam tutti un Pallon, ch' e pien di vento, 
 Da cui si tragge sol polve e sudore. 
 Ecco uno avido il cerca, altri I'attende, 
 Un lo spinge, un I'inalza, altri I'atterra. 
 Poscia offeso e quel piu che piu lo prende. 
 Oh Giuoco, orma del vero, ognun fa guerra 
 Con quest' orbe mortal, ma chi I'intende 
 Li di de' calci, e via lo caccia in terra. 
 (This sphere, formless within, solbeautiful without,is the model of the world. 
 We all follow a ball which is full of wind, and dust and sweat is our 
 only reward. 
 
 Lo ! here a greedy one who seeks it, others await it. One kicks it about, 
 
 another raises it aloft, others strike it to earth. The more he takes 
 
 hold of it, the more a man is injured. 
 Oh game, which art the symbol of truth. Every one makes war with 
 
 this mortal globe of ours, but he who understands it gives it kicks, 
 
 and straightway chaces it to earth.) 
 
460 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Another favourite game, of which I have not yet been 
 fortunate enough to secure any full particulars, was " Maglio." 
 The Via del Maglio still testifies to its popularity. The 
 principle of it appears to have been similar to that of Calcio, 
 but the ball was propelled, not by the hand or foot of the 
 player, but with a wooden hammer weighted with iron. 
 Hockey, perhaps, is the English game which most resembles 
 it, though there may have been in the game a stroke 
 analogous to the drive in golf. 
 
 Such were the sports which, interspersed with tourna- 
 ments, mummings, masquerades, and mystery plays, be- 
 guiled the inhabitants of the city in their hours of leisure. 
 But whatever the attractions of the town, the charms of 
 country life were fully appreciated. It was the custom of 
 those who could afford the luxury to spend much of their 
 time at their country villas. It is a proof of the security 
 for life and property which existed in the fifteenth century 
 that so many of the richest citizens of Florence could venture 
 to sink large sums of money in building splendid villas, some 
 of them in the heart of the country, leaving them and their 
 rich contents comparatively unprotected during a grea 
 portion of the year. Nor did the owners apparently antici- 
 pate any accidents from the violence of footpads and brigands 
 while making their way to and fro between the villa and the 
 city. All the guarantees required for a refined, commo- 
 dious, and varied life were enjoyed by the Florentines in the 
 times of the Medici. Thus there sprang up, on the road 
 leading to Prato, in and about Fiesole, in the valleys of the 
 Greve and the Ema, country houses adorning the most 
 picturesque situations, built and equipped in a style of 
 modem elegance and comfort. There the jaded man of 
 business could find relaxation, and profit also, in the cultiva- 
 tion of his fields and garden, in looking after his farm, his 
 fish-ponds and his game preserves. There he could enjoy the 
 pleasures of hawking, the country sport which of all others 
 exercised the greatest fascination at this time. There, too, 
 the lover of Nature could content himself with the con- 
 templation of all her varied beauties, in the sound of the 
 running stream, in the ever-changing colour of the foliage. 
 
LIFE IN LORENZO'S FLORENCE 461 
 
 in the song of birds and in the opening bud. For, since 
 the time of Petrarch, the feeling for Nature had been con- 
 tinually growing. The literature of the time gives evidence 
 that there was a real and genuine appreciation of simple 
 beauty. The affectation of emotions not felt is incident to a 
 condition of society in which conventionality decrees that 
 certain emotions shall be felt. In Florence the leaders of 
 fashion and of opinion were themselves the men most 
 susceptible to the influences of Nature and to the delights of 
 rural life. There was no call upon them to affect an enthu- 
 siasm which they did not feel, for no one was thought the 
 worse of who did not feel it. The various influences which 
 gave rise to this love of life in the country are summarised by 
 Alberti, who, in his Treatise on the Family, makes Pandolfini 
 say : " The villa is always true and kind : if you dwell in it 
 at the right time of the year and with love, it will not only 
 satisfy you, but add reward to reward. In spring the green 
 trees and the song of birds will make you joyful and hopeful ; 
 in autumn a moderate exertion will bring forth fruit a 
 hundred-fold : all through the year melancholy will be 
 banished from you." 
 
 However numerous and diverse the attractions of country 
 life, Lorenzo felt the influences of them aU. Just as a per- 
 manent existence away from the busy world of affairs would 
 have been intolerable to him, so at times his whole nature 
 craved for retirement and complete change of pursuits. 
 He loved the country as a lover of beauty, and found in it 
 a principal source of his poetic inspiration. He loved the 
 relaxation which country sports afforded, and was as enthu- 
 siastic for his dogs, his horses, and his falcons as for his 
 vases, manuscripts, and antiques. He loved building, and his 
 villas gave him an excuse to gratify his constructive tastes. 
 But perhaps he loved agriculture, farming, and the laying out 
 of his estates as much as all these things. For commerce 
 he had small hking and perhaps but Httle aptitude, but his 
 interest in the land was unbounded, and he showed re- 
 markable capacity in working and developing it to the best 
 advantage. He was never tired of accumulating landed 
 estates, and then setting about to improve them. He was 
 
462 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 learned in drainage, breeds of stock, tree-planting and land- 
 scape gardening. He procured from Sicily a breed of golden 
 pheasants for his estate at Poggio a Cajano, where also he 
 bred large quantities of silkworms for commercial purposes. 
 He was interested in pigs, importing a specially fine breed of 
 these animals from Calabria, as well as rabbits from Spain. 
 His cows were noted throughout the country, and they were 
 highly valued by the people, for Lorenzo was able to give to 
 Florence a native cheese which supplanted the imported 
 Lombard cheese which alone had been available until his 
 day. AU the interests which absorb the country gentleman 
 and large landed proprietor of to-day were strong in Lorenzo, 
 but, unlike many country squires, he was interested in every- 
 thing else as well. To-day it is a deer-hunt, or a hawking 
 party ; to-morrow a stroll beneath the spreading trees in deep 
 Platonic converse with Ficino, Poliziano, and Pico della 
 Mirandola. Now he retires to some secluded glen, where 
 the inspiration of the spot finds expression in a sonnet or 
 canzone ; now he is deeply engaged with bailiffs and land 
 stewards, discussing breeds, improvements, fertilisers, and 
 the price of sheep. And in the evenings it is his delight to 
 play with the children, or to talk with Piero, when he has 
 grown up, about his stables and his stud, or to examine some 
 new treasure of art which has reached him as a present from 
 Ferrante or Ludovico Sforza, or to pore over some precious 
 manuscript which Lascaris has brought home from the East. 
 
 Unburdened for a brief interval from the cares of state, 
 and the sorry business of political wire-pulling, Lorenzo 
 might well feel sometimes that this was the life which alone 
 was worth living. Doubtless he was sincere at the moment 
 when he said that it was his purpose to retire from public life, 
 and to devolve upon Piero the cares of government. 
 
 Such thoughts, however, were but the impulses of the 
 fleeting hour. Before him, across the valley, wrapped in the 
 folds of Amo, lay the city which had him in thrall. He 
 must control it, or lose all that life had to give. Let him 
 to-day indulge his day-dream, for to-morrow the stem 
 business of the workaday world must shatter the iUusive 
 fabric of his dreams. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 EPILOGUE 
 
 STATE OF FLORENCE AND ITALY AFTER THE DEATH 
 OF LORENZO 
 
 Calamities of Italy and of the House of Medici following Lorenzo's death 
 —Could he have averted them ?— French claims to Milan and Naples- 
 Charles VIII. of France— Charles VIII. incited to invade Italy— Rule of 
 Piero dei Medici in Florence— Piero reverses Lorenzo's foreign policy 
 — Piero seeks to propitiate Charles VIII.— Florence repudiates Piero's 
 terms • expulsion of the Medici— Charles VIII. at Pisa and at Florence- 
 Treaty between Charles and Florence— Charles VIII. occupies Naples- 
 Intervention of Ferdinand of Aragon— Italian League against the French : 
 retreat of Charles from Naples— Louis XII. prosecutes his claim to Milan 
 and to Naples— Partition Treaty of Granada between Louis and Ferdinand 
 —Dual occupation of Naples by Louis and Ferdinand— Disputes between 
 France and Aragon in Naples— The Spaniards expel the French from Naples— 
 Death of Piero dei Medici at the Garigliano— Changes in the Papacy : acces- 
 sion of Julius II.. 1503— Julius II. aims at the expulsion of the French from 
 Milan— Battle of Ravenna : death of Gaston de Foix— The French with- 
 draw from Milan— Florence and her French alliance— Julius II. determines 
 to re-establish the Medici in Florence— The Medici restored by the aid of 
 a Spanish army, 1512— Giovanni and Giuliano dei Medici— Rapid changes 
 of personality in the Medici Government— Florence ready to rise against her 
 Medici rulers— Italy in relation to the European situation m 1 525— Charles V., 
 the Emperor, defeats Francis I. at Pavia— The Imperial troops march on 
 Rome— Reconciliation between the Emperor and Pope Clement VII.— 
 Siege and fall of Florence— Could Lorenzo have saved Italy ?— Some con- 
 temporary judgments— The true causes of Italy's subjection to the foreigner. 
 
 THE contrast between the golden days of the House of 
 Medici under its most briUiant representative and the 
 disaster and ruin which so speedily overwhehned it after 
 Lorenzo's death affords a text for the moralist upon the 
 mutability of human affairs. But it was not the fortunes 
 of the House of Medici alone which suffered ecUpse when 
 Lorenzo's hand ceased to guide them. He had not been 
 dead three years before the storms and tempest which long 
 had threatened Italy burst in full force upon her, and the 
 Italy that had been, ceased to be. She became the prey 
 
 463 
 
464 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of the invader, and foreign barbarians disputed for her spoils. 
 Florence herself was caught up in the whirl and turmoil of the 
 tremendous forces, now let loose, which she was powerless 
 to control, and after many vicissitudes and much heroic 
 struggle, at last sank exhausted into the grip of a despotism 
 imposed upon her from without. 
 
 The history of Italy and of Florence in the years which 
 foUowed the death of Lorenzo would lie altogether outside 
 the scope and purpose of this volume were it not for the 
 reflections which that history suggests upon the character 
 and aims of Lorenzo's government. Had he lived, could he 
 have averted the catastrophe ? If he could not altogether 
 have averted it, could he have controlled it, or at least 
 directed it into less devastating channels ? These are 
 questions which naturally arise out of any investigation of 
 Lorenzo's government, influence, and policy ; questions 
 which can only be approached in the light of some knowledge 
 of the course of events which followed after his death. 
 
 In the Introductory chapters of this book I endeavoured 
 to make clear the nature of the claims of France upon Milan, 
 and also upon Naples, and the effect which those claims 
 necessarily exercised upon the internal policy of Italy. 
 Since the death of the Count of Maine the claim to Naples 
 had become vested directly in the French crown, represented 
 at this time, 1492, by King Charles VIII. The claim to 
 Milan was asserted by the House of Orleans, represented 
 by Louis, Duke of Orleans, a distant cousin of Charles, a 
 Prince with fair prospects of succeeding to the French throne. 
 It was significant that in 1491 Charles VIII. and the Duke of 
 Orleans were reconciled, after an estrangement which had 
 kept the latter a prisoner for several years. 
 
 At the time of his father's death and his own accession 
 Charles VIII. was a boy of thirteen. For several years the 
 country was administered on his behalf with great prudence 
 and discretion by his sister, Anne of Beaujeu. Troubles in 
 Brittany, and the general conditions prevailing in the realm, 
 kept her away from any schemes of adventure in Italy, 
 but by 1491 Brittany was pacified, Charles had assumed 
 into his own hands the reins of government, and was burning 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 465 
 
 ing to signalise his reign by some brilliant achievement. 
 Incentives were not wanting to induce him to turn his eyes 
 to Naples where he might not only gain a crown, but unseat 
 a Pope, and pave the way for a new Crusade. 
 
 It has been seen that the prospect of a French invasion of 
 Italy had been for years made use of by Italian statesmen 
 as a piece to play in the game of politics and diplomacy. 
 At this moment, 1492, from four separate quarters, the French 
 King was being urged by Italians to undertake an Italian 
 expedition. Ferrante's revolted barons had naturally 
 looked to France to support them against a king whom 
 with some justice they could represent as a tyrant and a 
 usurper. Venice, engaged almost single-handed in a contest 
 with the rest of the Italian Powers, saw in a French invasion 
 an instrument to serve her purpose. Ludovico Sforza 
 supposed that by allying himself with France, and by sup- 
 porting the designs of Charles upon Naples, he could divert 
 the French attack from his own dominions. Cardinal della 
 Rovere in his hatred of the new pope, Alexander VI., looked 
 to Charles to call a General Council, depose Alexander, and 
 place the Church and the Papacy upon a sound foundation. 
 Moved by influences so many and so varied, Charles made 
 his preparations, cleared his ground for action, and in 
 January 1494 dismissed the Neapolitan ambassadors from 
 his Court. 
 
 The Italian expedition of Charles VIII. in 1494 found 
 Italy in no position to resist it. " Charles," as Macchiavelli 
 said, " conquered Italy with a piece of chalk." * The balance 
 of power in the Peninsula which Lorenzo had so delicately 
 poised and adjusted had almost lost its equilibrium before 
 his death. Upon the succession of his son, Piero, it fell 
 altogether out of gear. 
 
 Piero was a man, not without intellectual attainments, 
 but with little of the grasp and command over public affairs 
 which his father had possessed. He was never really liked 
 in Florence, where he was regarded by the citizens, jealous 
 
 * I.e., it was only necessary to mark out with a piece of chalk the 
 quarters which Charles proposed to occupy in the Italian cities through 
 which he passed. 
 - 2G 
 
466 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of the purity of their race, as only half a Medici, and scarcely 
 half a Florentine. He was so closely connected, through 
 his mother Clarice, and his wife Alfonsina, with the Orsini 
 family that he was believed to be swayed by them rather 
 than by the interests of Florence. He bore himself with all 
 the pride and arrogance of a Roman noble rather than with 
 the decorum prompted by the sense that he was, as 
 Lorenzo reminded him, " but a simple Florentine citizen like 
 any other." His brawls and excesses shocked the Florentine 
 sense of propriety. Armstrong bluntly characterises him 
 as " a brutal athlete, who, in Guicciardini's phrase, had found 
 himself at the death of a man or two by night." 
 
 Piero however was not without a policy, for which, 
 though it ended in disaster, something may be said. The 
 aim of Lorenzo, it has been seen, was to cultivate the best 
 relations with France while straining every nerve to keep 
 the French out of Italy. Now the French were coming. 
 Lorenzo's pohcy had broken down. Would it not be better 
 therefore so to adjust the Florentine alliances that Florence 
 might be closely joined with those Italian Powers who could 
 most effectually resist the French invasion ? To maintain 
 the alliance with Milan was tantamount to sharing with 
 Milan the responsibility for caUing in the French. To break 
 with Milan and join Naples seemed to offer some guarantee 
 of effective resistance to them. Piero's pohcy is intelligible 
 even if it was mistaken ; even if it was entered upon under 
 the impulsion of his Orsini relatives rather than of his 
 reasoned consideration for the best interests of the State. 
 
 Thus when Charles descended upon Italy he found Florence 
 closely ahied to the very enemy he had come to overthrow. 
 He found his path blocked by the hostility of that State on 
 whose friendship all the precedents of the past had entitled 
 him to count. It was necessary, before he could continue 
 his advance, to lay formal siege to the Florentine fortress of 
 Sarzana. 
 
 At this point Piero lost his nerve. Beheving resistance to 
 Charles to be impossible, he resolved to revert to the 
 traditional policy of his House, and to seek to reconcile 
 himself to Charles by the most abject submission. On his 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 467 
 
 own initiative, while the siege of Sarzana was in progress, 
 he hurried to the camp of the French King, and there he 
 surrendered into the hands of Charles, not Sarzana only, 
 but Pietra Santa, Pisa, and Leghorn. Florence, in indigna- 
 tion, repudiated Piero's action. On his return to the city 
 he was refused admission to the Palace of the Signoria, the 
 citizens revolted against his government, and he, together 
 with his brother the Cardinal, sought their safety in flight. 
 
 Thus on November 9, 1494, were the Medici expelled from 
 that city which they had controlled for sixty years. The 
 mistakes and folly of one man had overthrown that elaborate 
 structure which four generations of his ancestors had so 
 elaborately reared. But none of them had had to face an 
 irresistible foreign invasion. In justice to Piero it must be 
 admitted that he had to confront a situation which might 
 have baffled the political genius of Lorenzo or of Cosimo. 
 
 On the day that Piero fled from Florence Charles VIII. 
 was at Pisa. There he was welcomed as the Deliverer who 
 had come to rescue Pisa from its Florentine chains, and to 
 restore its cherished, unforgotten freedom. Encouraged by 
 the vague assurances of the French King the Pisans pro- 
 claimed their independence, and shook off the yoke of 
 Florence under which they had chafed for nearly a century. 
 For fifteen years the Pisans maintained the struggle against 
 all the efforts and resources which Florence could command 
 against her. At last in 1509 Pisa was compelled to own 
 herself conquered and to submit. 
 
 Charles, in the meantime, having left a small garrison 
 behind him in Pisa, moved on towards Florence where he 
 arrived on November 17. He had already been hailed by Savo- 
 narola as the one sent by God to effect the regeneration of Italy, 
 and this view of himself, as one commissioned from on high 
 to accomplish the purposes of a Divine Providence, impressed 
 itself equally upon the political and religious sense of Charles. 
 But whereas Savonarola insisted that Florence was the chosen 
 City of God, and therefore was exempt from the chastise- 
 ment which Charles was appointed to inflict upon Italy, 
 Charles was determined that Florence should pay heavily 
 for his protection. He must retain in his own hands her 
 
468 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 fortresses and dependencies which Piero had surrendered, 
 and must receive in addition a large sum of money. The 
 stormy negotiations which followed gave occasion to Piero 
 Capponi to immortalise himself as a Florentine patriot, but 
 in spite of his threat that the city would ring her bells at the 
 first sound of the French trumpets, Charles got almost all 
 that he had asked for. Florence had to be content that he 
 left her free to work out her own future. The King did not 
 insist on the restoration of the Medici, nor did he officially 
 identify himself with the revolt of Pisa, but he insisted on 
 the money and the fortresses. A treaty was arranged and 
 signed, and, on November 30, Charles marched from Florence 
 towards Rome. 
 
 The subsequent effects upon Florence of the French 
 expedition are involved in the general confusion to which 
 that expedition gave rise. Charles VIII. opened the flood- 
 gates and at once the waters were poured forth upon the 
 land. The day of her visitation had now come. The 
 country which for centuries had been the battle-ground of 
 rival states and factions became for more than thirty years 
 the battle-ground of ahen nations. The sack of Rome in 
 1527, followed by the establishment of the despotism of 
 Medician Grand Dukes over Tuscany, marks the climax of 
 that Itahan tragedy which opened with the French 
 expedition of 1494. 
 
 Having concluded an arrangement with Pope Alexander 
 VI., Charles quitted Rome on January 28, 1495, in order to 
 carry out his primary object — the acquisition of the crown 
 of Naples. Already the King of Naples, Alfonso II., who as 
 Duke of Calabria had played so large a part on the Itahan 
 stage in Lorenzo's days — had abdicated his throne in favour 
 of his son Ferrantino. The change however could not 
 obhterate the memory of Alfonso's ferocities and crimes. 
 The Neapolitan fortresses which did not tamely surrender 
 were taken by assault. Ferrantino, without the whole- 
 hearted support of his subjects and the great barons of the 
 realm, was powerless to resist. On February 22, Charles 
 rode into Naples as a conqueror, and the crown won two 
 hundred and thirty years before by Charles of Anjou was 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 469 
 
 once again in the possession of a representative of his 
 House. 
 
 The success of Charles however was short-lived. He had 
 gained Naples almost without a "blow, and almost without a 
 blow he lost it. Ferdinand of Aragon had marked with 
 alarm the triumphant progress of the French. Allied by ties 
 of kinship to the Aragonese dynasty in Naples, Ferdinand 
 had none the less permitted Charles VUL to purchase his 
 neutrality in respect of French projects in Italy, but when 
 Charles was once fairly on the march for Naples, Ferdinand 
 determined to intervene, alleging as a pretext the burden- 
 some conditions which Charles had imposed on the Holy 
 See. None knew so weU as the most Catholic King how to 
 cloak any breach of faith in the garments of piety. He 
 placed an army on the Liri River to observe Charles, while 
 he despatched Gonzalo de Cordova to Sicily that he might be 
 conveniently posted to intervene on the mainland. 
 
 In the meantime difficulties from other quarters were accu- 
 mulating upon the head of Charles. He saw the prospect 
 of his communications being cut and his line of retreat 
 endangered by a League of the Italian Powers against him, 
 headed by the Pope and engineered by Ludovico Sforza. 
 To this league all the Italian States, except Florence, were 
 parties. Charles saw that no time was to be lost if he was 
 to effect his own return to France. Leaving one half of his 
 army to secure his new conquest, he set forth from Naples 
 with the rest on May 21, 1495. At Fornovo, about 15 miles 
 to the south-west of Parma, almost at the junction of the 
 Taro and Ceno Rivers, he encountered the army of the 
 League and defeated it. After three months sojourn 
 at Asti Charles recrossed the Alps, with nothing but barren 
 glory to recompense him for the toils and expenses of his 
 expedition. 
 
 For the departure of Charles from Naples had been the 
 signal for an immediate rising of the Neapolitans against the 
 French garrison. Ferrantino issued from his retreat at Ischia, 
 and, aided by Gonzalo, quickly secured the surrender of the 
 French commander, Montpensier. Seventeen months after 
 the triumphal entry of Charles VIII. into Naples not a trace 
 
470 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 of his brief sovereignty remained save the slaughter and 
 desolation which followed in his train. 
 
 The death of Charles VIII. in 1498 placed the crown of 
 France on the head of the Duke of Orleans who ascended 
 the throne as Louis XIL His Itahan interests were doubly 
 strong, for not only did he inherit the claims of the French 
 crown to Naples, but he himself, as the representative of 
 the Orleans House, stood for the claims of that House to 
 the Duchy of Milan. Louis XII, now determined to 
 enforce these latter claims against Ludovico Sforza, and 
 accommodated his international diplomacy to the require- 
 ments of a Milanese expedition. Venice joined with 
 Louis in a partition treaty by which the domains of Ludo- 
 vico were to be shared between her and France. Ludovico 
 fled, was restored, but was finally overwhelmed at Novara. 
 He was himself taken, and for the rest of his life this brilliant 
 schemer expiated his countless intrigues and treacheries 
 in a French prison. 
 
 Louis XII, was now free to prosecute once more the 
 claims of France to Naples, The difficulties of the enter- 
 prise, in face of the rival claims and strategical advantages 
 of Ferdinand of Aragon, were, however, so apparent that the 
 French King resolved, by sacrificing a part of his Neapolitan 
 dominions, to make his tenure of the rest secure. In 
 November 1500, the Treaty of Grenada, between Louis XII. 
 and Ferdinand, provided for a joint expedition for the 
 conquest of Naples, and for the partition of the kingdom 
 between the contracting powers. The new King, Federigo, 
 (for Ferrantino had died in 1496) was in no position to 
 withstand the attack of France and Aragon in combination. 
 The siege and capture of Capua, which was sacked with 
 merciless ferocity, was a warning of the fate which awaited 
 resistance. Naples submitted to her invaders, and France 
 and Aragon proceeded to consolidate their power in their 
 respective portions of the kingdom. 
 
 A dual occupation is always apt to be dangerous unless 
 a precise understanding has first been arrived at as to the 
 exact limits of the sphere of each contracting party. The 
 Treaty of Granada provided in a general way that France 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 471 
 
 was to have Naples and the adjacent territory while Aragon 
 was to rule in Apulia and Calabria. What was Apulia ? 
 Did it include the Capitanata ? And was the BasiHcata, 
 interposed between Apulia and Calabria, to be reckoned 
 as included in those Provinces, or as a part of the French 
 domain ? The Treaty left these questions undecided. 
 Ambiguities took the place of certainty on points of vital 
 importance, if permanent agreement and friendly relations 
 were to exist between two jealous Powers established side 
 by side in a newly conquered country. Troubles in regard 
 to the disputed territories immediately arose, and these 
 troubles soon deepened into active and declared hostilities. 
 Within a few months of their joint conquest France and 
 Aragon were flying at one another's throats for exclusive 
 possession. 
 
 The fortunes of Aragon were sustained in the Neapolitan 
 territory by Gonzalo de Cordova who routed the inefficient 
 French generals opposed to him at Cerignola. Louis XII. 
 planned a great campaign which was to retrieve his fortunes 
 in Naples, but his army, as it advanced, was caught on 
 the Garigliano by Gonzalo who completely defeated it. 
 The battle was in a true sense decisive, for in the red waters 
 of the Garigliano were swept away for ever the long-drawn 
 hopes of French dominion in Naples. 
 
 In the same waters perished at the same time Piero del 
 Medici, the author of the ruin which had overtaken the 
 splendid edifice of power which his father, Lorenzo, had 
 so laboriously raised. He had accompanied the French 
 advance, and had borne his part in the battle. Carried 
 away in the confusion of defeat, Piero sought to secure 
 his safety by crossing the Garigliano in an open boat, but 
 in mid-stream the boat was swamped and Piero was 
 drowned (1503). He left one son, Lorenzo, a boy of eleven 
 at the time of his father's death, destined at a later date to 
 represent the new-gained supremacy of his family over 
 Florence, and it is his brooding image, carved by the hand 
 of Michelangelo, which sits, as the personification of the 
 mysteries and vast solitudes of thought, amid the sombre 
 glories of the Sacristy of San Lorenzo. 
 
472 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 While the final contest between . France and Spain for 
 the possession of Naples was in progress the Papacy had 
 twice changed hands. The death of Alexander VI. in 
 August 1503, was followed by the election of Francesco 
 Piccolomini as Pope with the title of Pius III. In less 
 than four weeks the new Pope died, and was succeeded by 
 Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who ascended the Pontifical 
 throne as Julius II. The accession of Julius marked a 
 change in the character, and perhaps in the aims, of the 
 Papacy. To recover the States of the Church, not for his 
 family but for the Holy See, became the consuming object 
 of his ambition. Master of his own, he would thus be in 
 a situation to proceed further, and to consolidate his position 
 as an Italian sovereign by the expulsion of all foreigners 
 from Italy. Skilfully taking advantage of the jealousies 
 and apprehensions which Venice, by her grasping spirit 
 of self-aggrandisement, had gathered around herself, Julius 
 formed the League of Cambray against Venice, and under 
 cover of it pursued with resistless energy and impulsive 
 ardour the first of his great designs. Having used the 
 French to secure his own immediate ends, Julius, having 
 attained them, threw over his instruments, effected a 
 peace with Venice, and inaugurated a Holy League for 
 the purpose of driving the French out of Italy. To this 
 Holy League the Pope secured the adhesion of England, 
 Spain and Venice. Henry VIII. was to attack France 
 near at home, while the allied forces in Italy, under the 
 command of the Spaniard, Ramon de Cardona, were to 
 operate against the French forces in that country. 
 
 The brilliant and meteoric genius of the young general, 
 Gaston de Foix, has thrown a glory around the last efforts 
 of France to retain her position in Northern Italy. By a 
 series of brilliant movements he forced De Cardona to take 
 position at Ravenna (April 11, 15 12) where the French 
 gained a complete victory over the combined Italian and 
 Spanish forces. The rash impetuosity of the youthful 
 commander in following up the pursuit resulted for the 
 French in a greater disaster than would have been their 
 defeat in the battle. 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 473 
 
 Gaston was killed, and with his loss, and that of his 
 immediate subordinates, AUegre and Lautrec, the command 
 devolved upon La Palisse, who was incompetent to follow 
 up victory, to enforce discipline, or to initiate a policy. 
 At the moment when Julius supposed that all was lost, he 
 was, in fact, within reach of his goal. The subsequent 
 operations of the French were aimless and desultory, and 
 by the summer of 1512 they had withdrawn beyond the 
 Alps. 
 
 Among the fugitives from the field of Ravenna was 
 Giovanni dei Medici, the Cardinal who had been deputed 
 by Julius to act as his legate with the allied forces. He 
 was taken prisoner, but succeeded later in effecting his 
 escape, and so was ready to play his part in the movement 
 against Florence upon which Julius was now bent. 
 
 Through good and evil report Florence had remained 
 firm in her alhance with France. The Republic, whether 
 guided by the counsels of Savonarola, or of Piero Soderini, 
 was constant in the belief that the cause of France was 
 the cause of Florence. Since Savonarola's death in 1498, 
 the forms of republican government which he had advocated, 
 had been on the whole maintained, but for greater security, 
 and to ensure continuity in policy and diplomacy, Piero 
 Soderini had been appointed Gonfalonier for his life. Thus 
 Soderini and the French aUiance stood between Florence 
 and the restoration of the Medici. 
 
 At the time therefore when the French abandoned Italy, 
 Florence stood in isolation, and Soderini was weak. The 
 opportunity for forcing Florence to take her proper place 
 among the ItaUan States in opposition to the foreigner, and to 
 punish her for the part which she had played towards foreign 
 invasion since 1494, when she expelled the Medici and 
 welcomed Charles VIII., impressed Julius as too good to 
 be lost. To him the best guarantee for the future seemed 
 to rest upon the restoration of the Medici rSgime. 
 
 Accordingly, a detachment of Ramon de Cardona's 
 army moved towards Florence in August I512. The 
 Cardinal, Giovanni, and his brother GiuHano, were with 
 the Spanish general, ready to profit at the moment by any 
 
474 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 military or diplomatic success. The Florentines, challenged 
 to dismiss Soderini and to admit the Medici, gallantly 
 declared their resolution to maintain the existing order. 
 Whereupon de Cardona laid siege to Prato, and sacked 
 it with every accompaniment of horror and barbarity on 
 August 29. It was thus that the sons of Lorenzo at 
 last secured their readmission, as the ruling family, into 
 the city which Cosimo and Lorenzo had made indeed 
 " the fifth element," the centre and focus of Italian life. 
 But they entered, not accompanied by the acclamations 
 of their fellow citizens, welcoming in their return the revival 
 of the Golden Age. The cries which seemed to greet them 
 were but the ghostly echo of the shrieks and groans of the 
 victims of the sack of Prato still ringing horribly in their 
 ears. 
 
 The ruling spirit in the new order of things at Florence 
 was the Cardinal Giovanni dei Medici, It was under his 
 auspices that the Republican constitution was displaced to 
 make way for the old familiar Medician arrangements 
 which established despotism under popular forms. 
 
 The character of Giuliano was mild and complacent, and 
 he was content to be a figure-head under the guidance 
 and control of his astute and intriguing brother. Scarcely, 
 however, were the Medici fixed in the saddle before the 
 Papacy was again vacant. In February 1513, Julius II. 
 died, and Giovanni dei Medici was elected Pope in his 
 place, with the title of Leo X. His elevation necessitated 
 rearrangements in the government of Florence. Giuliano 
 was withdrawn, the control being placed in the hands of 
 the young Lorenzo, whose position was before long 
 enhanced by the acquisition of the Duchy of Urbino. The 
 Rovere family, which had held Urbino in the interests of 
 Julius, now gave way to Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, who 
 held it in the interest of the Medici Pope. In 1519, Lorenzo 
 died, having bequeathed to futurity a daughter, for ever 
 notorious as Catherine dei Medici of France. Upon his 
 death the administration of Florence was conducted by 
 Cardinal Giulio, the illegitimate son of Giuliano, the great 
 Lorenzo's brother who had fallen a victim of the Pazzi 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 475 
 
 conspiracy. Once more, however, a Papal vacancy dis- 
 turbed the situation in Florence. In 1523, on the death 
 of Pope Adrian VI., who had succeeded Leo X. two years 
 before, Giulio dei Medici became Pope and assumed the 
 name of Clement VIL Two Medici bastards were now 
 imposed upon Florence, Hippolito, the reputed son of 
 Giuliano, and Alessandro, reputed son of Lorenzo. To 
 such base-born representatives the elder branch of the 
 House of Medici had at last fallen, but the spirit of the 
 family was not, however, yet dead. 
 
 Clarice, daughter of Piero, wife of Filippo Strozzi, found 
 in the republican aspirations and in the generous soul of 
 her husband an instrument ready to be used for over- 
 throwing a despotism which shamed her family and degraded 
 the State, while the younger branch of the family now 
 possessed in Giovanni dei Medici " of the Black Bands " 
 a representative fitted alike by fame and talents to assert 
 his claims against bastard interlopers. 
 
 Thus, on the accession of Clement VIL, the situation in 
 Florence foreboded revolutionary changes. The atmosphere 
 was indeed electrical throughout Christendom. Germany 
 was aflame with the fire kindled by Luther. In England 
 Henry VIII. was already beginning to regard the loss of 
 so many of his children as the judgment of God upon 
 his guilty marriage with his brother's wife. Francis I. of 
 France had already sought to retrieve the position of France 
 in Lombardy, and was preparing for a final effort. The 
 Emperor, Charles V., strong in the possession of the Empire, 
 of Spain, and of the Spanish Kingdom of Naples, was 
 indispensable to the Papacy in its struggle with Luther 
 and his princely supporters in Germany. This was the 
 moment, incautiously chosen by Clement to break away 
 from his league with Charles, and to throw in his fortunes 
 with Francis I. At the fatal battle of Pavia, 1525, the 
 forces of France were routed by the Imperial troops, and 
 Francis 1. himself became the prisoner of Charles V. But 
 the motley army of the Emperor, under the Constable 
 Bourbon, was thoroughly out of hand. Mutinies for 
 arrears of pay, or at least for a small instalment, were 
 
476 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 constant. At Rome there was a perfidious Pope and un- 
 limited wealth, and the cry arose " To Rome ! " There 
 followed, in 1527, the Sack of Rome by the troops of Bourbon, 
 the Pope being reduced to the position of a prisoner in 
 the Castle of S. Angelo. 
 
 The Pope's extremity seemed to Florence to be her 
 opportunity. While the Imperial forces were revelling in 
 the blood and plunder of Rome, Florence threw off the 
 bastard yoke of the Medici princelets, and once more 
 declared herself a Republic. The reconciliation between 
 Pope and Emperor was bought, as a part of the price, by 
 the final destruction of the liberties of Florence. The 
 Imperial army laid siege to Florence in October 1529, 
 in obedience to the terms arranged between Clement 
 and Charles. For more than ten months the siege was 
 sustained with heroic energies by the Florentine people. 
 Michelangelo, from his work in planning fortifications and 
 organising resistance, could snatch only brief intervals 
 for the sculptures in San Lorenzo on which he imprinted 
 all the turmoil of his mighty soul. At last, in August 1530, 
 betrayed by their own general, the Florentines capitulated 
 to the Imperial troops, and the spirit of her liberty took 
 wing and vanished away. The rule of Alessandro — 
 Hippolito was dead, murdered, it was thought by Alessandro 
 himself — was reimposed upon the State, and his position 
 was recognised by the title of Duke of Florence. When, in 
 1537, Alessandro was assassinated by his kinsman Lorenzino, 
 Cosimo, son of Giovanni of the Black Bands, representing 
 the younger line of the House of Medici, became lord of 
 Florence, only to absorb her in a brief period into the 
 Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with himself as first Grand Duke. 
 
 Such were the vicissitudes which followed for Italy and 
 for Florence within the brief period of less than half a 
 century which followed the death of Lorenzo the Mag- 
 nificent. Could he, had his life been prolonged, have 
 stayed the tempest and controlled the storm ? Doubtless 
 the memory of his greatness cast a glamour around his 
 name, and gave rise to a Laurentian legend in which Lorenzo 
 loomed large as a great compelling figure who, but for his 
 
STATE OF ITALY AFTER LORENZO'S DEATH 477 
 
 premature death, might have saved Italy and Florence 
 alike. 
 
 The contrast between what had been, and what was, 
 sufficed in itself to suggest that the ruin of Italy was in 
 some way linked with the loss of Lorenzo's controlling 
 hand. " Such an opinion of his prudence," says Nardi, 
 " did he leave upon the minds of men, that one may even 
 now beheve that, had he lived, those troubles which after 
 his death threw Italy into confusion would not have arisen." 
 " While he lived," says Valori, " Italy was quiet and tran- 
 quil, and after his death was all in confusion and per- 
 turbation, as if her security depended upon Lorenzo's 
 life." A century after his death, Trojano Boccalini, writing, . 
 under the guise of allegory, upon the state of Europe in 
 his time, imagines the great Powers of Europe agreeing to 
 take measures to secure the general tranquillity by weighing 
 each other, curtailing where one was found to be too strong, 
 adding where another was found to be too weak, with a 
 view to striking a just and even balance. " On this occasion 
 many men of distinguished genius were proposed for the 
 honourable office of weighing those different States, but 
 it appeared that for upwards of a hundred years that office 
 had been filled by the great family of Medici, and especially 
 by the great Lorenzo. So, by the common consent of all, 
 that office was bestowed upon him." 
 
 But these flattering judgments are based upon the 
 attraction exercised by a great personality rather than 
 upon a severe and scientific estimate of the position as it 
 was. Even admitting, though the admission is based 
 only on surmise, that the prolongation of Lorenzo's life 
 might have maintained a mitigating and assuaging 
 influence upon the rush of events, yet those events them- 
 selves would have happened without regard to Lorenzo's 
 existence. The plans of Charles VIII. for an invasion of 
 Naples were in movement before Lorenzo died, and were 
 matured without reference to Lorenzo or to Florence. 
 The shadow of Neapolitan resentment rested upon Ludovico 
 Sforza as the natural result of his own conduct, and Lorenzo 
 could hav« done Httle to disperse it. It is improbable 
 
478 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 that in the face of the French invasion Lorenzo would 
 have shown the vacillation and craven spirit displayed 
 by his son Piero, but he could not have checked it, nor 
 averted the consequences, so full of moment for Italy and 
 for Florence, which followed from it. The corruption of 
 Italy, the utter want of a national and patriotic spirit in 
 its rulers, the enervating influences of luxury which had 
 brought about the decline of the military spirit, while 
 leaving Italy the prey of greedy, soulless mercenaries, were 
 evils rooted in the heart of things, sins which called aloud 
 for that punishment which the exertions of no individual 
 could have had power to avert. " If the salt have lost 
 his savour wherewith shall it be salted ? " 
 
 It is to the credit of Lorenzo that, with his hand upon 
 the flood-gates, and with many temptations to open them, 
 he should yet have kept them closed ; that he should have 
 used his friendship with France to keep Italy free from 
 the foot of the stranger rather than to invite her inter- 
 vention ; that he should have devoted his political hfe to 
 the maintenance of such a balance among the conflicting 
 States of Italy as would best secure the common safety of 
 them all : in fact that while he lived Italy was for the 
 Italians. 
 
 No figure in her history has quite his fascinations. His 
 virtues trod hard upon the heels of his vices, and his vices 
 however great, were seldom contemptible. " Good and 
 evil lie close together," says Lord Acton. " Seek no 
 artistic unity in character." In Lorenzo Nature displayed 
 herself in all her mixed elements of glory and decay. " What 
 a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how in- 
 finite in faculty ! in form and moving how express and 
 admirable,"— and yet " quintessence of dust that delights 
 us not ! " 
 
Giambuono. (Legendary character, and his sons) 
 
 I 
 
 Buonagiunta 
 
 Chiarissimo 
 
 I 
 
 Filippo 
 
 Ranieri 
 
 * Averardo, lived about 1280; 
 He is historical. History of Medici 
 family begins with him; 
 
 * Averardo 
 I 
 
 Averardo 
 m. Mandina di Argucci 
 
 Chiarissimo 
 m. Ugolinetta 
 I 
 
 Lippo 
 
 GENEALOGY OF THE MEDICI 
 FAMILY 
 
 (ADAPTED FROM COUNT POMPEI LITTA'S 
 FAMIGLIE CELEB RE ITALIANE) 
 
 Giovenco 
 
 Giuliano 
 
 I 
 
 Antonio 
 j 
 
 Giovenco 
 
 Salvestro Chiarissimo 
 tn, Lisa di Sinabaldo Donati 
 
 I 
 
 Averardo Bicci, tn. 
 (a) Giovanna di Lotto 
 (b) Giacoma di Francesco Spini 
 
 I 
 
 tn. Giovanni Bicci 
 Piccarda Bueri 
 
 Bonino 
 (Gonfalonier) 
 
 Alamanno 
 
 Cambio 
 
 Andrea Salvestro 
 
 Gonfalonier, 1370^ 
 m. 1378) 
 Baxtolommea Altoviti 
 
 Bartolommeo 
 
 Vieri (invited by the people to assume 
 m. the government) 
 
 Bice Strozzi 
 
 I 
 
 Giovenco 
 
 I 
 
 Francesco, 
 i.e., Fra Francesco 
 dei Medici, 
 an adherent of 
 Savonarola, and 
 an inmate of 
 S. Marco 
 
 Cambio 
 
 Nicolo 
 
 Antonio 
 d. 1398 
 
 Damiano 
 d. 1390 
 
 COSIMO 
 
 tn. 
 
 Comtessa di Giov. 
 
 Bardi 
 
 Lorenzo 
 m. 
 
 Ginevra Cavalcanti 
 
 Vieri 
 Gonfalonier, 
 1498 
 
 Carlo 
 
 Apostolic Protonotary, 
 d. 1492 
 
 Piero Giovanni 
 m. d. 1463 
 
 Lucrezia Tornabuoni I 
 
 Pier Francesco 
 tn. Laodamia Acciaiuoli 
 
 Maddalena Vieri 
 (entrusted by | 
 Lorenzo with the Filippo, 
 
 care of his daughter, Archb. of Pisa 
 Maddaleqji) 
 
 
 Cosimo, 
 
 
 d. 1461 
 
 Giuliano 
 
 I 
 
 Giulio 
 (Pope Clement VI L) 
 
 Maria 
 m. 
 
 Lionotto di Rossi 
 I 
 
 Cardinal di Rossi 
 
 Bianca 
 m. 
 
 Guglielmo di Pazzi 
 I 
 
 Alessandro 
 
 Cosimo di Pazzi, 
 Archb. of 
 Florence 
 
 Nanina 
 m. 
 
 Bernardo Rucellai 
 
 I 
 
 Giovanni Rucellai 
 (author of 
 Rosmunda) 
 
 Lorenzo 
 il Magnifico 
 m. 
 Clarice 
 Orsini 
 
 Lorenzo " popolano " 
 m. 
 
 Semiramide di Appiana 
 I 
 
 Pier Francesco 
 m. 
 
 Maria Soderini 
 
 Giovanni. Luigia 
 Pope Leo X 
 
 Lucrezia 
 tn. 
 
 Giacomo Salviati 
 
 Maria Salviati 
 m. 
 
 Giovanni di Medici 
 " delle Bande Neri " 
 
 Cosimo, Duke 
 
 Giuliano, D. de 
 Nemours, 
 tn. 
 
 Filiberta of 
 Savoy 
 
 i 
 
 Ippolito 
 Asdrubale 
 
 Contessina 
 tn. 
 
 Piero Ridolfi 
 
 ! 
 
 Cardinal Ridolfi 
 Bishop of Orvieto 
 
 Giuliano 
 
 Lorenzino 
 (murderer of 
 D. Alessandro) 
 
 Giovanni 
 m. 
 
 Caterina Sforza 
 
 I 
 
 Giovanni 
 "delle Bande Neri" 
 tn. Maria Salviati 
 I 
 
 Cosimo I., Duke of 
 Tuscany 
 tn. 
 
 Eleanora of Toledo 
 
 Maddalena Piero 
 m. m. 
 Franceschetto Cibo Alfonsina Orsini 
 
 Maria 
 
 Clarice 
 tn. 
 
 Filippo Strozzi 
 
 Lorenzo 
 m. 
 
 Madeline de Tour 
 
 Ferdinando I. 
 Grand Duke 
 
 I 
 
 Cosimo II. 
 
 ! 
 
 Ferdinando II. 
 
 I 
 
 Cosimo III. 
 
 Francesco 
 m. 
 
 Joan of Austria 
 
 I 
 
 Marie dei Medici 
 tn. 
 
 Henry IV. of 
 France 
 
 Catherine dei Medici 
 tn. Henry II. of France 
 
 Alessandro, Duke 
 
I 
 
 i;>i k<i> 
 \u Jos.', 
 
 '<> 1 <:}>i.ii30''S'.- . 
 
INDEX 
 
 AcciAiuoLi, Agnolo, 104, 105, 109, 
 110 
 Donate, 216 
 Raffaelo, 105 
 
 Academy, the Florentine, 87. 91, 92, 
 375-376, 392 
 
 Acconcio, Jacopo, i$6n. 
 
 Accopiatori, 48, 49, 74, 262, 266, 341 
 
 Achmet, Kecluk, 253 
 
 Acton, Lord, 478 
 
 Adda, R., 181 
 
 Adimari, Ales, 459 «. 
 
 Adrian VI., 22, 475 
 
 Alberti, Leo Bat, 368 ; on Virgil, 
 369 ss. ; on the revival of 
 Tuscan, 380 ; his Trattato, 
 381, 453, 461 
 
 Albino, 298 
 
 Albizzi, Maso degli, 53 
 
 Rinaldo, 56 ; opposed by 
 Giovanni dei Medici, 59 ; 
 and by Cosimo, 60 ; conducts 
 war with Lucca, 61 ; re- 
 models constitution, 62 ; fall 
 of, 63 
 
 Alessandra dei Bardi, 105 
 Alessandro, Giacopo, 230 
 Alexander VI., 21, 25, 28, 29, 465, 
 
 468, 471 — and see Borgia, 
 
 Card. 
 
 Alfonso of Aragon [I. of Naples], 
 13, 14, 71, 84, 145 
 
 Alfonso II. of Naples, 468 — see 
 Calabria, D. of 
 
 Amgre, 473 
 
 AUegri, Mariotto, 369 
 
 AUegretti, Allegretto, 149 n. 
 
 Alliance, Florence and Naples, of 
 1479, 252 
 The Triple, 10 1, 112; Lorenzo's 
 adhesion to, 142 ; Papacy 
 and, 145, 167 ; Ferrante 
 and, 176, 228, 229, 245, 249, 
 250, 282, 286, 288, 298, 333 
 
 Ambra, 393, 398-399, 410 «. — and 
 see Lorenzo dei Medici, 
 poems of 
 
 Amidei, the, 40 
 
 Ammanati, Card, of Pavia, 223 
 Ammirato, Scipio, quoted, 295, 303 
 Ammoniti, 55 
 
 Andronicus of Thessalonica, 365 
 Anghiari, battle of, 68, 69 
 
 Baldaccio d', 69 
 Anguillara, Deifobo of, 233 
 
 Duchy of, purchased, 308, 336 
 Anjou, House of, in Naples, 10, 11, 
 13. 41 
 
 Anne of Beaujeu, 335, 464 
 
 Brittany, 29, 335 
 Antiquario, Jacopo, Poliziano's 
 
 letter to, 348 
 Antoninus, St., 78 
 " Apelles," Botticelli's " Calumny 
 of," 394 
 
 Appiani, the, of Piombino, 144, 195 
 Giacopo, 242 
 
 Aquila, 298 
 
 Aragon, Card, of, 298 
 
 House of, in Naples, 13 
 King of, 162, 163, 469, 470 
 
 Arezzo, 50, 235, 243, 356 
 
 Argyropoulos, John, 91, 97, 365 
 
 Armstrong, E., quoted, iii, 117, 
 214, 266, 278. 319, 329, 342, 
 466 
 
 Assisi, 6 
 
 Asti, 469 
 
 Athens, Duke of, 49, 50, 450 
 Avignon, 12, 18 
 
 Bacon, Fr., 362 
 
 Baglioni, of Perugia, 314 — see 
 Perugia 
 
 Bagnone, Stefano da, 197, 201, 207 
 Bagnolo, Peace of, 290, 291 
 Bajazet, Sultan, 28, 284, 305 
 Baldovinetti, Amoretto, 285 
 Balducci, Antonio, 285 
 
 Francesco, 285 
 Balia, 48, 49 ; confirms Cosimo'a 
 power, 68 
 
 B. of 1458, 73 ; of 1466, 109 ; 
 of 147 1. 139 
 
48o 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 " Balotta, El." 295 
 Bandini, Bernardo, 197 ss., 253, 
 28s 
 
 Barbaro, Ermolao, 364 
 Bardino, Jacopo, 168 
 Barons' War, England. 10 
 
 Naples — see Naples 
 Bartolini bank, 275 
 Basle, 287 
 
 Council of, 14. 19, 225 
 Beaujeu, Anne of — see Anne 
 Bella. Giov. della. 45 
 Benci, Donato, 454 
 Benevento, battle of — 11, 41 
 Bentivoglio, Giovanni. 107, 113, 
 210, 289, 309. 312, 313 
 
 Francesca, 312-313 
 " Beoni I.," 371, 424-426 — see 
 
 Lorenzo dei Med., poetry of 
 Bergomino, 312 
 Bessarion, Card., 146 
 Bianca — see Visconti 
 Bianchi e Nere, 46 
 Biliotti, Agostino, 163 
 Bisticci, Vesp. da, 90 
 Black Death, The, 447 
 Boccaccio, Giov., 84. 378, 383-384, 
 454 
 
 Boccalini, Trojano, 477 
 Boccalino Guzzone — see Guzzone 
 Bologna, 6, 135, 281, 311, 312 
 Borgia, Cesare, 2 ; Pedro, 15 
 
 Card.. 292. 301 
 Borromeo. Beatrice, 186 
 
 Giov., 186 
 Botticelli. Sandro. 206. 211, 239, 
 
 255. 394. 397 and 451. 455 
 Bourbon, Constable, 475 
 Bracciolini. Poggio, 84, 86, 91 
 
 Jacopo, 123, 197, 206 
 Brienne, Walter of — see Athens D. of 
 Bruni, Leonardo, 84 
 " Bull of Execrabilis," 20 
 Buondelmonti, 40 
 Burckhardt, quoted, 28, 93, 94, 452 
 Burgundy, D. of. 163 
 Burlamacchi, 352 ss. 
 Burns, Rob., 386 
 
 Caffagiuolo, Villa of, 192. 313 
 Calabria, Alfonso, D. of — and see 
 
 Alfonso II., 8, 71, 100, 114. 
 
 115. 116. 162, 177. 218, 233, 
 
 234. 243. 246, 250, 252, 286. 
 
 288, 289, 298. 300. 468 
 Calabria, Charles, D. of, 47 
 Calcio, game of, 457, 458, 459 
 
 and n. 
 Calcondylas, 365 
 C^ilixtus m.. Pope, IS, 28 
 
 Camaldulenses, 328 — and see " Dis- 
 
 putationes " 
 Cambi, Neri. 341 
 Cambray, League of. 472 
 Campaigns of 1478, 1479, 235 ss., 
 
 240 
 
 Campo morto, battle of. 288 
 Canti Carnascialeschi, 414. 419-423 
 
 — and see Lorenzo dei Medici, 
 
 poems 
 
 Canzone a Ballo, 403 411-419 
 Capaccio, Benuccio, 152 
 Caparra, Niccolo Grosso, 448, 450 
 Cape of Good Hope, 5 
 Capua, 470 
 
 Cardona. Ramon de. 472-474 
 Careggi. Villa of. 89, 106. 107, 108, 
 
 348. 356, 376 
 Carniola, Archb. of. 287 
 Carnival, at Florence, 419-421 
 Carracioli, Giov., 12, 13 
 Casciano, 242 
 Casole. 242 
 Castagno. 208 
 
 Andrea del, 206 
 Castelnuovo, 151 
 Castracani, Castruccio, 47 
 Cattaneo, Simonetta — see Simonetta 
 Cavalcanti, Guido, 283-284, 390 
 
 Lorenzo. 203 
 Cento Croci. pass of. 244 
 Cerignola. 471 
 
 Cerretani, quoted. 352. 354 
 Charles, of Anjou, 10, 11, 41, 42, 
 
 468 
 
 VI. of France, 6 
 
 VIII. of France, 9, 15, 16. 29. 
 42. 224, 235 ; Italian ex- 
 pedition of, 464-470, 477 
 V. Emperor, 475 
 of Calabria — see Calabria 
 C. of Maine, 1 5 
 Chiana Valley, 235. 240 
 Chiusi. 242 
 
 Choris, Bernardino di, 376 
 Christian. K. of Denmark, 165 
 Chrysoloras, Giov., 86 
 
 Manuel. 84. 87. 91 
 Cib6, Giov. Bat.— see Innocent VIII. 
 
 Franceschetto. 307. 336-354 
 Cimabue. 449 
 Cinozzi. Era Placido, 352 
 Ciompi. revolt of. 44. 52, 446 
 Citta di Castello, 26. 171, 172, 192, 
 210, 281. 286. 288, 291, 314 
 Clement IV.. Pope, 41 
 
 VII. , Pope at Avignon, 12 
 VII., Pope (Giulio dei Medici) 
 
 212. 475 
 CoUe, siege of, 242, 243 
 
INDEX 
 
 Colleges, the — see Florentine Con- 
 stitutions 
 
 Colleone, Bartolommeo, 107, iii ss. 
 
 Colleonic War, the, 110-117 
 
 Colonna, House of, 18 
 
 Commentario, Lorenzo's, on his 
 Sonnets, 117 ss., 371 ; an- 
 alysis of, 382 S5. 
 
 Commines, Ph. de, ambassador to 
 Italy, 223, 235, 290 
 
 Conrad, 10 
 
 Conradin, 10 
 
 Consiglio Maggiore, 264 and n. 
 Constance, daughter of Manfred 1 1 . 
 
 Council of, 18, 19 
 Constantinople, 14, 27, 71, 87, 285 
 Constitutional changes of 1480, 
 
 262 ss — and see Florentine 
 
 Constitutions 
 Contessina Bardi, 319 
 Cordova, Gonsalvo de, 469, 470 
 " Corinto," Lorenzo's poem of, 
 
 393, 399-402 
 Corio, Storia di Milano, 178 
 Correspondence, Pazzi conspiracy, 
 
 219-230 
 
 Creighton, Bp., quoted, 9, 29, 168, 
 353 
 
 Cremona, Congress of, 289 
 
 Dante, 17, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41. 46 
 and n., 78, 117, 344 ; 
 Landino's Edition of, 370 ; 
 Lorenzo and, 371, 377, 378, 
 382, 383 ; and Lorenzo's 
 Beoni, 424 ; Pico on, 439-441 
 
 Dei, Benedetto, 352, 447 
 
 Delfini, Piero, 328 
 
 Disputationes Camaldulenses, 369 
 ss., 380 
 
 Djem, 28, 29, 284 
 
 Domenico, Fra., 352, 353 
 
 Donati, Lucrezia, 121, 122, 387 
 
 Durazzo, Charles of, 12 
 
 Edmund, E., of Lancaster, 10 
 Edward IV. of England, 2, 162, 
 229, 239 
 
 Education of women in Florence, 452 
 Egypt, Lorenzo's relations with, 
 
 274. 342, 343 
 Enoch of Ascoli, 91 
 Erasmus, 364 
 
 Este, Borso, D., of Ferrara, 113, 117 
 Ercole, D., of Ferrara, 162, 
 165 ; made generalissimo of 
 Florentine forces, 234 ; his 
 campaign. 235 ss., 242, 244 ; 
 War with Venice, 286-288, 
 289, 290 
 2H 
 
 E^te — continued 
 
 Sigismondo, 242 
 Eugenius IV., Pope, 14, 19 ; and 
 
 Rinaldo degli Albizzi, 62, 
 
 63. 91 
 
 " Euphorion," Vernon Lee's, 410 n. 
 " Excusatio Fiorentinorum," 183, 
 226 
 
 Fabroni, quoted, in, 131, 219, 225, 
 249, 291, 324, 343, 364 
 
 Faenza, 171, 187, 302, 311, 312, 314 
 
 Farinata, Uberti d, 41 
 
 Fedini, Niccolo, 107 
 
 Feltre, Vittorino da, his system of 
 education, 96, 97 
 
 Ferdinand the Catholic, 2, 469, 470 
 
 Ferrante, King of Naples — and see 
 Naples, 13, 15, 24, 103, 106, 
 108 ; Lorenzo alienates, 144 ; 
 Papal policy towards, 145, 
 162 ; and Sixtus IV., 167 ; 
 Siena appeals to, 173, 182, 
 218, 227 ; joins Sixtus IV. 
 against Florence, 232 ss. ; 
 rouses Genoa, 235 ; Lorenzo 
 seeks to propitiate, 244 ; 
 receives Lorenzo at Naples, 
 246 ss. ; and Barons' War, 
 
 297, 332 ; and Innocent VI 1 1., 
 
 298, 332-336 ; letters of 
 
 299, 358, 301. 307. 326 
 Ferrantino, K. of Naples, 468-470 
 Ferrara — and see Este, Council of 
 
 19 ; war with Venice, 281, 
 286 
 
 Ficino, Marsilio, 81, 89; relations 
 with Cosimo dei Medici, 89, 
 90, 376 ; tutor to Lorenzo, 
 97, 98, 318, 355, 368 ; and 
 Plato, 375, 376; and 
 Lorenzo's " Altercazione," 
 427-428,437; and Lorenzo's 
 poetry, 439, 462 
 
 Fiesole, convent of, 90, 218, 328, 367 
 Medici villa at, 321 
 
 Figliazzi, Bongianni, 295 
 
 Filelfo, Francesco, 86, 373 
 
 Filetta, 322 
 
 Florence, growth and policy of, 
 30-56 ; guilds and commerce 
 of, 39, 273 ; population and 
 industry of, 446-447 ; and 
 the House of Medici, 258- 
 260, 269, 270, 341, 343-344; 
 expels Piero dei Medici, 467 ; 
 policy of, towards Papacy, 
 26, 34, 38, 39 ; and France, 
 32, 42 ; and Humanism, 
 365 ss. ; council of, T9, 376; 
 
482 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Florence — continued 
 
 re-establishes Republic, 476 ; 
 siege of, 476 ; carnival at, 
 419 ss. 
 
 Florentine constitutions, of 1267, 
 42 and n., 45 ; of 1293, 45 ; 
 of 1328, 47 ; of 1343, so ; 
 of 1458, 73-74 ; of 1470, 158; 
 of 1480, 262-266 ; of 1490, 
 266 
 
 Florentines, character of, 77, 445 
 
 ss. ; costume of, 45 1 ss. 
 Foix, Gaston de, 472 
 Fonte Dolci, 326 
 Forli, 171, 187, 308, 311, 314 
 Fornovo, battle of, 469 
 Fortebraccio, Carlo, 173 ss., 217, 
 
 233. 241 
 Bernardino, 241 
 Fortescue, Sir John, 437 
 Francesi, Napoleone, 198, 207 
 Frati Gaudenti, the, 41 
 Frederick II., Emperor, 9, 10, 40 
 
 III., Emperor, 287 
 French claims in Italy, 6, 8, 14, 
 
 32, 224, 236-237, 249, 282, 
 
 289, 300, 335-336, 345-346, 
 
 464 ss. 
 
 Frescobaldi, conspiracy, 283, 284 ss. 
 
 Galen, 367, 368 
 Garigliano, battle of, 471 
 Gemignano, San, 338 
 Genazzano, Fra Mariano da, 338, 
 339 
 
 Gentile di Becchi, Bp. of Arezzo, 
 
 tutor to Lorenzo, 97, 100, 
 
 129, 225, 308 
 Genoa, revolts against Milan, 228 
 
 235. 295 
 Gerace, Marquis of, 336 
 Ghibellines, 10, 38, 40, 41 
 Ghirlandajo, Domenico, 450, 455 
 Gianfigliazzi, Buongianni, 157 
 Gigantino, i$6n. 
 Ginori, Giorgio, 141 
 Giocondo, Giov., 366 
 Giorgio, San, Maggiore, library of, 
 
 founded by Cosimo dei M. 
 
 at Venice, 90 
 " Giostra, La," 16$, 397 
 Giotto, 450 
 
 Giovanna I. of Naples, 11, 12, 140 
 
 II. of Naples,! 12, 13 
 Giustini, Lorenzo, of C. di Castello, 
 
 172, 192, 210 
 Golden Age, the, 304, 394- 
 395 
 
 Gonfalonier — see Florentine Con- 
 stitutions 
 
 Gonzagha of Mantua, 162 ; of 
 Tolentino, 192, 210 
 Ridolfo, 233, 242 
 Ludovico, 289 
 Federigo, 289 
 Cardinal, 289 
 Gozzoli, Benozzo, 92, 143 
 Greek scholarship, 84 
 Greek and Latin Churches, 19 
 Gregory VII., Pope, 18, 30 
 
 XI., Pope. Florence at war 
 with, 51 
 Grenada, Treaty of, 470, 471 
 Grosso, Niccolo — see Caparra 
 Guadagni, Bernardo, 61, 64 
 Guelphs, 38, 40, 41 
 Guelfa, la Parte, 42, 43 and 50, 
 
 51. 52. 66 
 Guicciardini, Francesco, quoted, 
 68, 271, 310, 316. 341. 344, 
 454. 455, 466 
 Jacopo, 157 
 Ludovico, 289 
 Luigi, 254 
 Guilds of Florence, 41, 44, 45, 46, 
 
 53 — and see Florence 
 Guzzone, Boccalino, 28, 304 ss. 
 
 Harvey, 362 
 
 Henry III. of England, 10 ; VI, of 
 England, 15 ; VIII. of 
 England, 472, 475 
 of Luxemburg, 3 
 
 Herodian, 367 
 
 Herodotus, 367 
 
 Holy Lance, the, 29 
 
 Holy League, the, 472 
 
 Humanism, 78 ss., 363 ss. 
 
 Humanists, character of, 375 
 
 Hyvani, Antonio, Commentary o 
 149 w. and ss. 
 
 Imola, 170, 171, 184, 187, 210, 308 
 Inghirami, Paolo, 151 ss. 
 
 Giovanni, 154 
 Innocent III., Pope. 18, 30 
 
 IV., Pope, 10 
 
 VIII., Pope, 24, 29 ; election 
 of. 292 ss. ; character of 
 293 ; and Naples, 297, 323 ; 
 and Giovanni dei M.'s 
 Cardinalate, 325, ss. ; and 
 Ferrante, 332-336 ; and 
 Francesch. Cib6, 336 ; and 
 Sozzini, 374 
 
 Invasion, Charles VIII.' s, of Italy, 
 465 ss. 
 
 Isaak, Heinrich, 420 
 
 Isabella, of Castile, 2 ; of France, 
 wife of Gian Galeazzo Vis- 
 
INDEX 
 
 483 
 
 Isabella — continued 
 
 conti, 6 ; of Naples, wife of 
 Gian Galeazzo Sforza, 8, 345 
 
 John of Aragon, D. of Calabria, 
 
 13, 14, IS, 100 
 John II., K. of Aragon, 14 
 Johnson, Dr. 388 
 
 Julius II., Pope, 21, 472, 473, 474 
 Justice, Florentine administration 
 of, 276 ss. 
 Ordinances of— see della Bella 
 
 Keats, John, 386 
 Knighthood, Florentine, 447-448 
 Knights of St. John, 29 
 of Rhodes, 29 
 
 Ladislas, K. of Naples, 12, $6 
 
 Laetus, Pomponius, 375 
 
 Lampugnani, Giov., 177 ss. 
 
 Land Tax in Florence, 267 
 
 Landino, Christoforo, tutor to 
 Lorenzo, 91, 97, 3^8 ; his 
 Disputationes Carnal, 369 ; 
 his edition of Dante, 370 
 
 Lando, Michele di, 52, 53 
 
 Lanfredini, 313, 314, 334 
 
 Language, the Tuscan, 378 ss. 
 
 Lasca II, 419, 420 
 
 Lascar is, 365, 367. 462 
 
 Lautrec, 473 
 
 Lazaro of Pavia, 349 
 
 Lee, Vernon — see " Euphorion" 
 
 Leghorn, 467 
 
 Leo X., Pope, 21, 24, 212, 474, 475 
 — and see Giovanni dei Medici 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. 457 
 
 Leone, Pier, 349, 356 
 
 Leonora of Aragon, 162, 169 
 
 Liri R., 469 
 
 Liscio, Blasio, 154 
 
 Literature, Italian, and the classical 
 Revival, 378 ss. 
 
 Lodi, Peace of, 71 
 
 Loretto, Shrine of, 1 54 
 
 Lotti, Luigi, 292, 293 
 
 Louis, of Anjou, 12 ; Saint, 10, 41 ; 
 D. of Orleans, brother of 
 Charles VI., 6 ; D. of Orleans 
 (Louis XII.), 464. 469 
 XI. of France, 2, 15, 102 ; 
 intervenes in the CoUeonic 
 War, 116; letter of, to 
 Lorenzo in 1473, 162 ; and 
 the Pazzi consp., 215, 221 j 
 action after Pazzi consp., 
 221-224, 227, 238 ; sends 
 embassy to Sixtus IV„ 238, 
 287, 289, 326 
 
 Lucca, 49, 56, 129, 236, 296, 314 
 Luther, 475 
 
 Macchiavelli, quoted, "Prince," 
 3, 7, 23, 64 ; Hisi. of Flor.- &c., 
 41. 46, 49, 51, 52. 53. 56. 
 59, 60, 69, 72 ; on Cosimo, 
 75, 105, 109 ; on Piero, 131, 
 141, 143 ; on Sixtus IV., 147, 
 177, i8s, 187, 241, 25s, 295, 
 310, 316. 322, 372, 465 
 
 MafEei, Raf., Chronicle of 149 n. 
 Antonio, 197, 201, 202, 207 
 
 Maglio, 460 
 
 Maine, C. of, 15, 464 
 
 Mainon, Jason, 373 
 
 Malatesta, Sigismondo, 28, 130 
 
 Roberto, 130, 241, 243, 286, 
 287 
 
 Malgonella, Piero, 155 
 Malphet, 342 
 Manfred, 10, 11, 41 
 Manfredi, the, of Faenza, 113, 170, 
 312 
 
 Carlo, 187, 19s 
 
 Galeotto, 312 
 
 Astorre, 313 
 Manetti, Gianozzo, 84 
 Mantua — see Gonzagha 
 Marco, San, 338-340, 3S3. 3S6, 3^7 
 Mariano — see Genazzaro 
 Margaret of Anjou, 15 
 Marriage in Florence, 277-278, 
 
 453-454 , 
 Marsuppini, Carlo, 84 
 Martelli, Braccio, 122 
 Martin V., Pope, 18. 19 
 Masaccio, 450 
 Matilda, Countess, 37, 38 
 Medici e Speciali, guild of, 447, 45^5 
 Medici, Alessandro, 475, 476 
 
 Antonio, 207, 254 
 
 Averardo di Bicci, 57 
 
 Bianca, 184, 348 
 
 Braccio, 123 
 
 Catherine of France, 474 
 Clarice Orsini di — see Orsini 
 Clarice di Piero, 475 
 Cosimo, Grand Duke, 324, 476 
 Cosimo di Giovanni, 56, 59 ; 
 opposes the Albizzi, 60, 61 ; 
 banished, 61 , 62 ; recalled, 63 ; 
 government of, 64-74, 79, 
 80 ; foreign policy of, 69-7 1 ; 
 and Luca Pitti, 72-74 ; as 
 Humanist, 78, 81^93 ; death 
 of, 74 ; character of, 75 ; 
 and his sons, 96, 272 ; and 
 Platonic studies, 89, 90, 
 I 375-376 
 
484 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Medici, Cosimo — continued 
 Contessina, 324, 325 
 Filippo, Archb. of Pisa, 126, 
 
 127, 172 
 Giovanni delle Bande Neri, 47 5 
 Giovanni di Bicci, 57-60 
 Giovanni di Cosimo, 96 
 Giovanni di Lorenzo, Card. — 
 and see Leo. X., 294, 324, 
 325 ss., 336, 345, 347, 473 
 Giovanni di Pierfrancesco, 324 
 Giuliano, D. de Nemours, 323, 
 
 324, 473, 474 
 Guiliano di Piero, 96, 99, 123, 
 125, 148, 164, 187 ; Pazzi 
 conspiracy against, 188 ss., 
 195 ; death of, 202 ; char- 
 acter of, 211, 436, 474 
 Giulio, Card. — and see Clement 
 
 VII., 212, 474 
 Hippolito, 475, 476 
 " II Butta," 454 
 Lorenzo di Giovanni, 59, 62 
 Lorenzo di Piero, D. of Urbino, 
 
 471. 474 
 Lorenzo di Viexo, passim, 15, 16, 
 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 42, 90 ; 
 birth of, 94 ; education of, 
 97 ; appearance of, 99 ; 
 political braining of, 100, loi; 
 and Pitti consp., 105-109 ; 
 marriage, 124 ss. ; embassy 
 to Milan, 128 ; assumes 
 the government, 133 ss. ; 
 character of government, 
 136, 257-279, 267, 273 55. ; 
 foreign affairs, 280-316; 
 Nardi consp. against, 139- 
 142 ; and Piombino, 145 ; 
 and Volterra, 155-161, 351 ; 
 and assassination of Galeazzo 
 M. Sforza, 180 ss. ; and 
 Sixtus IV., 147 ; negotiates 
 for a Cardinalate, 148 ; 
 friendship for, and alienation 
 from Sixtus IV., 164 ss., 
 172, 217, 292 ; and Louis XL, 
 162, ss. — and see Louis XI. ; 
 visits Naples, 246 5S. ; and 
 Ludovico Sforza, 182, 245 55., 
 289, 302, 311 ; and the 
 Pazzi conspiracy, 186 ss., 
 183-214; and the Pazzi 
 war, 243 ss. ; and the Turks, 
 253 ; and the Frescobaldi 
 conspiracy, 285 ; and the 
 Barons' War, Naples, 298, 
 299 ; and Innocent VIII., 
 301, 332 ; and assassination 
 of Girol Riario, 310 and n. ; 
 
 Medici, Lorenzo di Piero — continued 
 and Faenza, 313 ; and his 
 family, 317-346; letter to 
 son Giovanni, 328, 329 ss. ; 
 general position of, 1492, 
 345-346 ; last days and 
 death of, 347-350 ; and the 
 French invasion, 476 ss. ; 
 his love of the country, 461, 
 462 ; his relation to Renais- 
 sance culture, 359 ; intellec- 
 tual life of, 369 ss. ; " Dis- 
 putat. Carnal," 369, 370 ; 
 and Dante, 371, 382, 384, 
 439-441 ; and the Univ. of 
 Pisa, 371 ss. ; and the 
 Platonic Academy, 375, 376 ; 
 and the Tuscan language, 
 380 ss. ; his poetry, 378- 
 444 ; his place in literature, 
 380 ss., 391, 441-444 ; his 
 sonnets and commentary, 
 1 17-122, 384-391; Corinto, 
 393 ; Capitoli, 391, 427, 
 430, 431 ; Ambra, 398, 
 399; L' Altercazione, 391, 
 426, 427-430 ; Nencia da 
 Barberino, 391, 392, 402, 
 403-411, 442; Amori di 
 Venere, &c., 391, 437, 438 ; 
 Selve d' A more, 393 ss. • 
 Canzone a hallo, 403 n., 411- 
 419; Canti Carnascialeschi, 
 419-423 ; / Beoni, 424-426; 
 Lauds, 427, 432-433 ; SS. 
 Giovanni e Paolo, 434-437 ; 
 Caccia col Falcone, 438 ; 
 Elegia, 439 
 Lorenzino, 476 
 Lucretia dei Lorenzo, 348 
 Luigia dei Lorenzo, 321, 324, 
 325 
 
 Maddalena dei Lorenzo, 307, 
 
 308, 321, 324 
 Nannina, 105 
 
 Piero dei Cosimo, rule of, 94- 
 109 ; and the Triple Alliance, 
 loi, 102 ; and the Pitti 
 conspiracy, 104-109 ; and 
 Lorenzo's marriage, 125 ; 
 death of, 131 ; and chau-acter, 
 132 
 
 Piero dei Lorenzo, 64, 70, 293, 
 308, 321, 322, 323, 324, 348, 
 349, 356, 357, 459. 462. 465, 
 ss., 471, 477 
 
 Salvestro, 52, 54, 57 
 
 Vieri dei, 53, 54, 57 
 Michelangelo, 323, 357. 362. 471, 
 476 
 
INDEX 
 
 485 
 
 Milan, Introd. 6-9, 27 ; claims of 
 H. of Orleans to, 6 ; position 
 of in 1478, 228, 244 ; Piero 
 breaks with, 466-— and see 
 Sforza 
 Minuccio, Bart., 154 
 Miramondo, 326 
 Mirandola, Count of, 113, 302 
 Galeotto Pico of, 233, 309 
 Gian Pico of, 352 
 Giov. Pico della, 98, 316, 347, 
 364. 367. 37 S. 462 ; on 
 Lorenzo's poetry, 439-441 
 Modigliana, 313 
 
 Mohammed II., Sultan, 28, 71, 
 
 207, 283, 284 
 Molinella, battle of, 115 
 Montaigne and Lorenzo, 394 
 Montano, Cola, 177 
 Montaperti, battle of, 41 
 Monte Casino, 326 
 Monte delle Dote, 271, 272, 279 
 Montefeltro— see Urbino 
 Montepulciano, 219, 233, 235 
 Montesecco, Giov. Bat. da, 183 «. ; 
 
 and the Pazzi consp. 189 s.s. ; 
 
 confession of, 190 ss. 209 
 Montone, castle of, 174 
 Montorio, C. of, 298 
 Montpensier, 469 
 Montughi, villa of, 199, 308 
 Morelli, Girol, 245, 246 
 Morello, 458 
 
 Moro, Ludovico il — see Ludovico 
 Sforza 
 
 Muratori, on Lorenzo's poetry, 390 
 
 Naples, French claims to, 4 ; 
 Introd. 9-16 ; Papal claims 
 on, 167 ; Barons* War in, 
 297 ss. ; and Innocent VIII., 
 331-336 ; Lorenzo's visit 
 to, 246 ss. ; submits to 
 Charles VIII., 468, 477 
 Nardi, conspiracy, the, 1 39-141 
 Nardi's Storia Florentina quoted, 
 
 268, 269, 316, 477 
 Nasi, Bartolommea di, 454, 455 
 Nationality, want of in Italy, 2 
 Negroponte, taken by the Turks, 131 
 Nencia da Barberino — see Lorenzo's 
 
 poetry 
 Neri e Bianchi, 46 
 Neroni, Diotisalvi, 104, 109, 140 
 
 Giovanni, 107, 109, 169 
 Niccolo di Niccoli, 86, 90, 1 84 
 Nicolas v.. Pope, 14, 20, 21, 28 
 Nori, Francesco, 129, 203 
 Norman, settlers in Naples, 9 
 Nutricia, Poliziano's, 391, 392 
 
 Oddi, the, of Perugia, 314 
 Olgiati, Girol, 177 ss. 
 Ombrone, R., 398 
 Ordelafa, of Forli. 113, 308 
 Ordinances of Justice, of 1 293, 45, 46 
 Orsini, pedigree, 125 
 
 Clarice, 122, 124, 320-322, 343, 
 455, 466 
 
 Alfonsina, 127 
 
 Napoleone, 192 
 
 Niccolo, 233, 334 
 
 Rinaldo, 173, 292, 294 
 
 Latino, Card., 125, 126 
 
 Virginio, 300 
 Orso, Cecco del', 309, 310 
 Osimo, 28, 304, 332, 333 — and see 
 
 Guzzone 
 Otranto, 5, 253, 261, 283, 284 
 Otto di Pratica, 263 
 
 Palaeologus, John, Emp., 91 
 
 Palazzo Publico, 45, 200, 204, 328 
 
 Palio, 458 
 
 Palisse, La, 473 
 
 Palmieri, Matteo, 367 
 
 Pandolfini, Pier Filip, 293, 300 
 Agnolo, 453, 461 
 
 Pansecco, Ludovico, 309, 310 
 
 Papacy, the, general policy of, 
 Introd., 16-30, 2 ; Papal 
 sovereignty over Naples, 9, 
 13 ; French claims in Italy, 
 27 — and see Popes 
 
 Parenti's account of Lorenzo's 
 wedding, 1 27 
 
 Parlamento, 48 ; recalls Cosimo, 
 63 ; after Pitti consp., 109 — 
 and see Flor. Constns. 
 
 Parma, 242 
 
 Pasolino, Count, 310 n. 
 Passignano, 326 
 
 Paul II., Pope, 24, 102, 117. 130, 
 
 14s, 146, 147 
 Pavia, battle of, 475 
 Pazzi, the bank, 171, 184 
 Carro dei, 183, 184, 212 
 family, genealogy of, 198 
 conspiracy, 149 n. ; events 
 preliminary to, 161-182 ; 
 history of, 183-214 
 Andrea, 184 
 Francesco, 123, 184 ss. 
 Giovanni, 186, 208 
 Guglielmo, 123, 184, 197, 203, 
 348 
 
 Jacopo, 185, 189 ss. 
 Piero, 184 
 
 Renato, 197, 207, 208 
 Peace of Lodi, 71 ; of 1470, 131 ; of 
 i486, 301 ; of 1492, 336 
 
486 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICl 
 
 Perugia, 6, 173, 182, 192, 240, 281, 
 
 313 — and see Fortebraccio 
 Pesaro, 291 — and see Sforza of 
 Peter III., K. of Aragon, 11 
 Petrarch and the revival of learning, 
 
 83. 378. 383. 384. 390. 391. 
 
 439-440. 461 
 Petrucci, Cesare, 141, 204 ss. 
 Piancaldoli, 311 
 Piccinino, Niccolo, 69 
 Piccolomini, Mn. Sylvius — see Pius 
 
 II. 
 
 Francesco, Pope — see Pius III. 
 Pico della Mirandola— see Mirandola 
 Pietra Santa, 129, 274, 295-296, 467 
 Piombino, 145, 176, 302 
 Pisa, 6 ; acquired by Flor., 55, 274, 
 371 
 
 University of, 165, 199, 240, 
 
 275. 327, 371. 372. 467 
 Pistoia, 218 
 
 Pitti, Luca, used by Cosimo dei M., 
 72,74; conspiracy of, 103-109 
 
 Pius II., Pope, 15, 20, 28, 82 
 III., Pope, 473 
 
 Plato, 81-83, 88, ISO, 364, 367 ; 
 and Virgil, 369 ; first trans- 
 lation of, 376 
 
 Plethon, Gemisthus, 91, 92 
 
 Poggibonsi, 235 
 
 Poggio a Caiano, villa of, 398 
 
 Imperiale, 235, 240, 241, 242, 
 244 
 
 see Bracciolini 
 
 Poliziano, Angelo, and Pazzi consp., 
 183-214 passim: his Con- 
 juratio PacHonis, 183, &c., 
 266, 318, 320, 323. 339, 347 ; 
 letter to Jac. Antiq., 348 ss. ; 
 and Greek learning, 365-366, 
 375. 391. 462 ; his La 
 Giostra, 397 ; Ballata, 400, 
 401 n.; Canzone a ballo, 411, 
 416, 443 
 
 Pontremoli, 129 
 
 Prato, 140, 474 
 
 Provence, 15 
 
 Pucci, Antonio, 295 
 
 Pulci, Luigi, 187, 318, 403 n., 411 
 
 Pulci, Luca, 122, 123 
 
 QuATTRiNi, 341, 342 
 Quintilian's Institutions, 86 
 
 Radda, 235 
 
 Ravaldino, castle of, 309, 310 and n. 
 Ravenna, 26, 472 
 Renaissance, 360 ss. 
 Rene of Anjou, 13, 14, 15, 71, 100, 
 184 
 
 Reni, Guido, 420 
 Rhodes, 252 
 
 Riaxio, Girolamo, 146, 149 ; gains 
 Imola, 1 70 ; marries Caterina 
 Sforza, 171 ; and the Pazzi 
 consp., 187 ss., 216, 282, 
 285, 286, 288, 289 ; death 
 oi, 308, 309 — and see Sixtus 
 IV. 
 
 Giovanni, of Forli, 3 1 1 
 Pietro, Card., 146, 168, 169 
 
 170, 173, 450 
 
 Rafiaelle Sansoni, Card., 199, 
 201, 209, 210, 217, 218, 226 
 Ricci, the, 50, 51 
 Riccobaldi, Benedicto, 151 ss. 
 
 Gabrielo, 156 n. 
 Richard of Cornwall, 10 
 Ridolfi, Antonio, 155, 203 
 
 Piero, 325 
 Rimini, 281, 288, 291 — and see 
 
 Malatesta 
 Rinuccini, 265, 271, 279 
 Robert, the wise, K. of Naples, 2, 
 
 II, 12, 47 
 Romagna, 26, 34, 114, 166, 170, 
 
 171, 187, 236, 274, 282 
 Rome, Popes return to, 18 ; sack 
 
 of, .^76, and passim 
 Roncho, Matteo, 309 
 Roscoe, quoted, 48, 186, 329, 382 
 398 and «., 400, 410, 424 
 Revere, 146 ; Giuliano della — and 
 see Julius II., Pope, 164, 
 168, 288, 297, 305, 465, 472 
 Francesco Maria della, 1 79 
 Giovanni, 170 
 Leonardo della, 169 
 Rylands' Library, Manchester, 
 459 n., and illustrations 
 
 Salerno, 298 
 
 Salviati, Francesco, Archb. of Pisa, 
 
 172, 173 ; and the Pazzi 
 consp. 188 ss., 217 
 
 Jacopo, 197 
 
 Jacopo, 308, 324 
 Sansoni — see Riario 
 Sanseverino, Rob da, 114, 141, 236, 
 
 288, 300, 301 
 San Sevino, 235 
 
 Santo Spirito, Church of, 43, 44 
 Sarzana, Thomas of — see Nicolas V. 
 acquired by Piero, 117, 129, 
 251,252, 274, 281, 291,294- 
 295 ; siege of, 302 ss., 314, 
 466 
 
 Sarzanella, 117, 302, 303 
 Sassetti, 273 
 
 Savona, Francesco of — see Sixtus IV. 
 
INDEX 
 
 487 
 
 Savoaarola, 16, 42, 78, 149, 160. 
 
 231, 266, 338. 339, 340, 343. 
 
 344, 348, 349 ss., 467, 473 
 Savoy, Bona of, D. of Milan, 98, 
 
 128, 143, 180, 236, 244 
 Scala, Bart., 183, 202. 226, 247 
 Schism, the Great, 12, 18 
 Schoolmen, the, 361 
 Serristori, Giov., 300 
 Selve d' A more — see Lorenzo's 
 
 poems 
 
 Seventy, The Council of, 262-264, 
 341 
 
 Sforza, Attendolo, 12 
 
 Alessandro of Pesaro, 113, 130 
 Ascanio, Card., 181, 182, 287, 
 301 
 
 Caterina, 171, 309, 3io«., 311, 
 
 Costanzo, 241, 242, 243, 286 
 Dukeof Bari, 181, 182, 240, 244 
 Francesco, secures D. of Milan, 
 
 6, 24, 70, 71 ; death of, 102, 
 
 246 
 
 Galeazzo Maria, 8, 98, 102, 103, 
 106, 113, 114 ; entertained 
 at Flor., IIS, 142, 143, 144; 
 receives P. Riario, 169 ; 
 assassination of, 177 ss. 
 Gian Galeazzo II., 8, 181, 345 
 Hippolita, 8, 71, 100, loi, 162, 
 24s 
 
 Ludovico, II More, D. of Milan, 
 8, 181, 182, 240; gains 
 Milan, 244 ss,, 283 ; allies 
 with Venice, 290 ; and the 
 Peace of Bagnolo, 291 ; and 
 Barons' War, 300 ; and 
 Lorenzo dei M., 302, 306, 
 311. 335. 345 ; and his 
 nephew, Gian Galeaz, 345 ; 
 invites French into Italy, 
 465, 469. 477 
 Ottaviano, 181 
 
 Shelley, 82, 430 
 
 Sicilian Vespers, 1 1 
 
 Sicily, II 
 
 Siena, 6, 173, 274, 281, 291. 314, 374 
 Signoria, 263, 300, 328, 341 — and 
 
 see Flor. Constn. 
 Silvestro, Fra., 352, 353 
 Simonetta, la Bella, 384, 455 
 Cecco, 181, 182, 228, 244 
 Sixtus IV.. Pope, Francesco of 
 Savona, 8, 21, 24, 25, 26 ; 
 elected Pope, 146 ; character 
 of, 164 ; alienation from 
 Lorenzo, 166 ss. ; gains D. 
 of Urbino, 170 ; allies with 
 Ferrante, 169, 174-175 ; 
 
 Sixtus IV — continued 
 
 and Pazzi consp., 191, ss., 
 216 ; and Louis XL, 238 ; 
 and Ferrante, 250, 251 ; 
 makes peace with Flor. 254, 
 ss., 282 ; joins Venice against 
 Ferrara, 286 ; withdraws 
 from Venice, 287 ; death of, 
 290, 291 ; and Lorenzo, 292 
 
 Soderini, Niccolo, 104, 105, 106, 109 
 Paolo Ant., 251 
 Pietro, 266, 473, 474 
 Tommaso, 134, 137, 155 
 
 Sonnets — see Lorenzo's poetry 
 
 Sozzini, Bart., Prof, of law at Pisa, 
 373 
 
 Spedaletto, Lorenzo's estate of, 308 
 Spoleto, 6 
 
 Squarcialupi, Ant., 448 
 Squittino, 47 
 
 SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Lorenzo's 
 Morality Play — see Lorenzo's 
 poetry 
 Stinche, prison, 374 
 Strozzi, Alessandra, 453 
 
 Filipo, 246, 475 
 Strozzi-Palazzo, 448 
 Stufa, Stefano della, 203 
 
 Luigi, 454 
 Suabia, H. of, 10 
 
 Swiss, called in by Sixtus IV., 
 
 236 
 
 Symonds, J. A.. 400, 401 413, 
 420 n. 
 
 Taxation under the Medici, 68, 267 
 Tempest, The, Shakespeare, 394 
 Tennyson, Alf., analogies with 
 
 Lorenzo's poetry, 359 
 Thrasimene, L., 241 
 Titian, 420 
 Todi, 192 
 Tolentino, 192 
 
 Tolfa, alum mines of, 147, 151 
 Tornabuoni, Lucrezia, mother of 
 Lorenzo, 94 ; character of, 
 95 ; influence on Lorenzo. 
 95. 96, 319 ; negotiates 
 Lorenzo's marriage, 125, 126; 
 death of, 320 ; Giovanni, 102, 
 125, 147, 254, 294. 367.453; 
 Dianora, 134 
 Trattato della Famiglia, 381 — see 
 Alberti 
 
 Traversari, Ambrogio, as Humanist, 
 92 
 
 Treaty of Naples, Lorenzo and 
 Ferrante, 251, 252, 332 — see 
 Peace of 
 
 Tristano, Filip add Lancilotto, 373 
 
488 
 
 LORENZO DEI MEDICI 
 
 Trivulzio, Gian Giacopo, 233, 234, 
 304 n., 306, 333 
 
 Turks, the, 5, 14, 15 ; and the 
 Papacy, 27-30 ; influence 
 of on Italian politics, 28, 
 71, 240 ; invade Otranto, 
 252-253, 282-284, 289 ; B. 
 Guzzone and the, 305 ss. 
 
 Tuscan, revival of the language, 
 379 ss- 
 
 Ugolino, Baccio, 287 
 
 Urban IV., Pope, 10 ; Urban VI., 
 Pope, 12 
 
 Urbino, Duchy of, 170, 474 
 
 Federigo da Montefeltre, D. of, 
 III, 114, 130; commands 
 Florentine forces against 
 Volterra, 156 ss., 162, 170, 
 174, 181 ; Pope's letter to, 
 229, 233, 286, 366 
 
 Uzzano, Niccolo di, 58-60, 61 
 
 Vallera — see Lorenzo's poetry, 
 
 Nencia da B. 
 Valori, Filip, 347 
 
 Valori's Life of Lorenzo, quoted, 
 98, 99, III, 122, 144, 172, 202, 
 224, 248, 251, 268, 269, 272, 
 288 n., 290, 291, 298, 299, 316, 
 355. 426, 448 
 
 Varchi, 272 
 
 Vasari, Giorgio, 99, 206, 213, 448 
 Vasco da Gama, 5 
 Venezio, II, 157 
 
 Venice, her territorial power, Introd., 
 
 4, 5, 6 ; suspicions of her 
 policy, 5, 70, 174, 283, 300, 
 472 ; and French claims in 
 Italy, 289 ; and the Turks, 
 
 5, 26, 102 ; and the Colleonic 
 War, 112, ss. ; Lorenzo 
 draws towards, 175 ; and 
 Pazzi consp., 215, 227; 
 protests against D. of 
 
 Venice — continued 
 
 Ferrara as generalissimo, 249; 
 suspects Lorenzo and Fer- 
 rante, 249 ; joins Sixtus IV., 
 252 ; declares war on 
 Ferrara, 286 ss. ; Papal 
 fears of, 288 ; leagues with 
 Innocent VIII., 332 ; and 
 Lorenzo, 335 ; and the 
 French invasion, 465 ; and 
 Bart., Sozzini, 374 
 
 Verrocchio, Andrea, 132, 213 
 
 Vesalius, 362 
 
 Vespucci, Piero, 123, 207 
 
 Guid' Antonio, 223, 254, 292 
 
 Villa, life at, 460 
 
 Villani, 447, 449 
 
 Villari, 357 
 
 Virgil, 367, 369 
 
 Visconti, the — and see Milan, 2, 5, 6 
 Bianca, wife of Francesco 
 
 Sforza, 6 
 Carlo, 177 ss. 
 
 Caterina, wife of Gian Galeaz. 
 Vise, 6 
 
 Filippo Maria, 6, 1 3, 56, 59, 70 
 Gian Galeazzo, 5, 6 
 Giovanni Maria, 6 
 Valentina, 6 
 Alberto, Count, 233 
 Vitelli, the, and Niccolo, of C. di 
 Castello, 26, 171, 172, 217, 
 239, 286, 291 
 Volterra, 148, 351, 354; insurrection 
 
 of, 149-160 
 Volterrana Chronachetta, 149 n. ss. 
 
 Watteau, 399 
 
 Women, position of, in Florence, 
 452 ; dress of, 455 ss. 
 
 Zagonara, battle of, 56, 59, 68 
 Zucalmaglio, Andrea — and see 
 
 Carniola, 287 
 Zucchi Zaccharia, 149 «., 151 
 
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