House of Medici

“ Their pictures, according to the usage of the age, full of portraits, perpetually presented to the people likenesses of the Medici, and often in the characters of the Magi royally robed, the sceptre firmly held in the gripe of the Medici, to prepare the public eye gradually for what it was soon to witness, the firm establishment of sovereignty in that House. The competition of rival citizens, and still more the wide-extended influence of religion, diffused Taste and beckoned Talent to Florence as to [172] its centre, from every part of Italy. ”

“ Now either he or another will go to you with this: because I wish to know how you and Lorenzo are, and the others. I beg of you to write and tell me. We, by God’s grace, are all quite well but in the water above our heads. We remain all day in the house, and nothing gladdens us so much as letters and news from you all. I commend myself to you.—Cafaggiuolo, December 16, 1478. [243]
Agnolo Poliziano to Lucrezia de’ Medici ”

“ Also a palace with a courtyard, an orchard and a well, in the parish of S. Lorenzo of Florence, in Via Larga di S. Marco. The confines are first the said street; secondly the sons of Tantini with a common wall between us, saving that what is above their roof belongs to us and to Baglo di Dante, with the wall of our courtyard below; the third is the inn of the Cock, now the property of Niccolò di Cristofano di Geri Gazza, &c.; the fourth is the palace of Andrea Franceschi and Francesco di Biccio de’ Medici. A house is annexed to this palace.... ”

“ I am certain that our citizens will unite to protect their liberty, so that by the grace of God it will be defended as was always done by our fathers. I go full of hope, and with no other object than the good of the city, and I pray God to give me grace to perform what is the duty of every man towards his country. I commend myself humbly to Your Excellencies of the Signoria.—From San Miniato on the 7th day of December 1479. Your Excellencies’ Servant,
Laurentius de Medicis. [272]
Lorenzo de’ Medici to Antonio Montecatino, Ambassador to Florence of the Duke of Ferrara ”

“ Everything in this enchanting sight was then fresh and splendid; the halls of the Villa Medici, which at present only echo to the steps of a few French students or English travelers, were then the bustling and splendid residence of the old intriguing Cardinal Carlo de Medici, called the Cardinal of Tuscany, whose followers and faction were perpetually going to and fro, mingling their showy uniforms and liveries with the sober vestments of the neighboring monks of the convent della Trinità! ”

“ There is here what is called a Hospice, or Convent of religious Franciscans, for the entertainment of the converts, or persecuted Christians in Nubia, when they can find them. This institution I speak of at large in the sequel. One of the last princes of the house of Medicis, all patrons of learning, proposed to furnish them with a compleat observatory, with the most perfect and expensive instruments; but they 99 refused them, from a scruple least it would give umbrage to the natives. ”

“ In the wide court-like space between the wings is a fine old white marble fountain that never plays. Its dusty idleness completes the general air of abandonment. Chancing on such a cluster of objects in Italy—glancing at them in a certain light and a certain mood—I get (perhaps on too easy terms, you may think) a sense of history that takes away my breath. Generations of Medici have stood at these closed windows, embroidered and brocaded according to their period, and held fetes champetres and floral games on the greensward, beneath the mouldering hemicycle. And the Medici were great people! ”

“ A few weeks after his wedding Lorenzo had to leave his bride and undertake an embassy to Milan. A son had been born on June 20th to Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, and Piero de’ Medici was asked to stand sponsor to the child. He was too ill to travel, and “somewhat unwillingly,” he confesses, sent Lorenzo to act as his proxy. The embassy went by Prato, Pistoja, Lucca, and Pietrasanta to Sarzana, which town and district had been recently purchased by Pietro and added to the Florentine dominions. ”

“ The blessing in Rome is not that this or that or the other isolated object is so very unsurpassable; but that the general air so contributes to interest, to impressions that are not as any other impressions anywhere in the world. And from this general air the Villa Medici has distilled an essence of its own--walled it in and made it delightfully private. The great façade on the gardens is like an enormous rococo clock-face all incrusted with images and arabesques and tablets. ”

“ The Marquess Gino Capponi in his History of Florence writes: “The Medici palace was a museum, a school, and a place of meeting for all the learned men who flocked thither, from it proceeded grave counsel and intellectual teaching as well as shows and festivals, and a general corruption of manners. Two popes passed their childhood there, and the Platonic Academy, intended to raise the standard of life and thought, was founded within its walls. Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, one of the greatest men of his time, were constant visitors. ”

“ An enraged mob of citizens rushed pell-mell into the Via Larga, sacked the Palazzo Medici, and scattered the treasures which Piero and Lorenzo had gathered together. The streets were strewn with costly furniture, carpets and tapestry, and priceless works of art were either burnt or broken in pieces. ”

“ Leo X. He accordingly removed to Rome, leaving his brother Giuliano with his nephew Lorenzo in Florence, and accompanied by his cousin Giulio, who was a natural son of the Giuliano murdered in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and was soon destined to be a cardinal and ultimately a pope. Meanwhile his kinsmen in Florence continued to govern that city by means of a balía. And thus, being masters of the whole of central Italy, the Medici enjoyed great authority throughout the country and their ambition plumed itself for still higher flights. ”

“ Perhaps no family was quite so unpopular in Florence. Their traditions were aristocratic, whilst the Medici were champions of the people.
This distinction was referred to by Madonna Alessandra Macinghi di Matteo degli Strozzi, in one of her letters to her son Filippo, at Naples. “I must bid you remember,” she wrote, “that those who are upon the side of the Medici have always done well, whilst those who belong to the Pazzi, the contrary. So I pray you be on your guard.” ”

“ He is very well and gay, and so is Bernardo. [145] Tell Nannina this. Our party is as when we left all good friends and obedient; we have had no drawbacks, for not even a nail is wanting. We have had no delays or frauds. All goes well and happily: please God we shall find you the same, to whom we all commend ourselves.—The 18th day of July 1469. [146]
Lorenzo de’ Medici to his wife Clarice
I have arrived here safely and am well. ”

“ Truly it has been well said that at forty years of age every man is either a fool or a physician.
I have another legend of the Medici, in which it is declared that their armorial symbol is a key, and in which they are spoken of as wicked and cruel. It is as follows:
I Medici.
“The Palazzo Medici is situated in the Borgo degli Albizzi, and this palace is called by the people I Visacchi (i.e., figures or faces) , because there are to be seen in it many figures of people who were when alive all witches and wizards, but who now live a life in death in stone. ”

“ Ferdinando, born 1549, was now wearing the Cardinal’s red hat, which hapless young Garzia’s hunting-knife had caused to fall from his brother Giovanni’s head in the Maremma. Ambitious, jealous, but, perhaps, less depraved than his father, the Cardinal de’ Medici made no secret of his dislike of his brother Francesco and his innamorata, Bianca Buonaventuri. ”

“ Giuliano dei Medici had died during Leo’s reign, in 1516, without having ever done anything worthy of record. He was the husband of Philiberta of Savoy, was duke of Nemours, and left a natural son, Ippolito dei Medici (1511–1535) , who afterwards became a cardinal. Lorenzo, being of more ambitious temper, was by no means content to remain at the head of the Florence government hampered by many restrictions imposed by republican institutions, and subject to the incessant control of the pope. ”

“ The murder of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, had further complicated matters. Girolamo Riario was astute enough to realise that if the Pope died, the change of government in Milan might expose him to the resentment of Florence, and determined to try and overthrow the Medici. Francesco de’ Pazzi and Archbishop Salviati were easily persuaded to join, but shrewd old Jacopo de’ Pazzi, who lived in Florence and knew the hold the Medici had over the people, gave them no encouragement. ”

“ Such was our greatness that it used to be said, ‘Thou art like one of the Medici,’ and every man feared us; even now when a citizen does an injury to another or abuses him, they say, ‘If he did thus to a Medici what would happen?’ Our family is still powerful in the State by reason of many friends and much riches, please God preserve it all to us. ”

“ Recalled to Rome on the death of Leo X., he left Cardinal Silvio Passerini of Cortona his deputy: a man useful as a tool but of no ability or judgment. Adrian VI., who succeeded to the Papacy, was a weak pontiff, and Rome became a hot-bed of intrigue and villainy.
A plot to assassinate Cardinal de’ Medici failed, and, in 1523, he was, after many weeks of wrangling, elected Pope, with the title of Clement VII. In the Vatican, that “refuge for bastards and foundlings,” room was found for two boys, cousins, each the offspring of a Medici father, but illegitimate. ”

“ Many a book has been written about the Medici; yet how little has been said about the private lives of the founders of that wonderful family which rose from prosperous middle-class condition to take its place among the sovereign houses of Europe, to seat its daughters on the throne of the Queen-consorts of France, and its sons on the Chair of St. Peter? Their rival capitalists north of the Alps climbed high in those days when the gulf was dug deep between nobles and all who were below them in the social scale. ”

“ And this is the reason that women who have spent their lives in the practice of laborious virtues stand fluttering with delight in that dark Medicean bedchamber. "Blois is the most interesting of all the châteaux," said one of them to me;—she looked as if she could not even tell a lie;—"you see the very bed in which Catherine de Medici died." And I thought of the Florentine children at the altar steps. ”

“ One pities them both. Clarice, already far gone in consumption, was irritable and anxious about her husband, whose attitude towards the Holy See she, with her education, could not approve; while Poliziano, used to the brilliant talk in the Medici palace, where he measured his wit with Luigi Pulci, Matteo Franco, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, &c., and Lorenzo himself, was bored to death and always longing to be back in Florence. ”

“ After the Pazzi conspiracy the Republic engaged in war with Sixtus IV. and the King of Naples. The Pope excommunicated Florence, as he declared out of hatred of the Medici, whose exile he demanded. The Signoria answered by appointing twelve trusty men to be Lorenzo’s bodyguard. ”

“ You may think how I love him; particularly when his joyous neighs resound and rejoice all the neighbourhood. I owe you and I send you many thanks for such a fine gift, and I shall try and repay you by becoming what you wish. Of this be sure. I promise you that I shall try with all my heart. We are all well, and we all long for your arrival. God save you.—1479. [257]
Your son Piero at Gagliano. [258]
Antonio Pucci to Lorenzo de’ Medici at Cafaggiuolo
Magnifice Frater honorande,—That priest from Imola has been interrogated. ”

“ Piero de’ Medici to his son Lorenzo at Milan
I have thy letter of May 2nd from Venice, saying thou wert to leave the next day. Alessandro wrote on the 3rd and told me of thy departure, and of what thou didst at Ferrara to please the Duke, and of thy visits at Venice to the Doge and other gentlemen, all of which I approve and commend, and I think thou hast paid nearly all necessary visits. Thou wilt have received my letter of the 4th telling thee what conduct to pursue, all of which remember; in a word, it is necessary for thee now to be a man and not a boy ”

“ Time and the schools have taught us the meretricious value of traditions, [143] but even stripped of all glamour the Della Robbia frieze is unique as an architectural feature, and peculiarly appropriate to the building it adorns. It consists of seven panels, representing the temporal works of mercy as performed by the good brothers of the hospital; between them are figures representing the Virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, and Justice; below appear medallions of the arms of the city, of the hospital (the sprouting root) , and the Medici shield ”

“ Leaving Cafaggiuolo, where the lad slept, he entered Florence on 17th April 1459, and dismounted at the Medici palace. Next day Messer Galeazzo visited the Signoria, who made him sit in their midst and offered him their services. “I thank you for your greeting,” answered the young Count, “and beg you to command me and to dispose of all I possess. For you I will abandon any enterprise, and serve you against any power.” ”

“ With her freedom of action absolutely curtailed, and her complete isolation from her family, the gay and attractive mistress of Castello and of the Medici Palace at Pisa, with countless admirers and many lovers, was indeed an object of sympathetic commiseration. To be sure, the Cavaliere made ample provision for his wife’s maintenance, appointed a small suite of attendants, and permitted her to carry with her many cherished bits of furniture and bric-à-brac. ”