Lives of the early Medici

by Unknown

PREFACE

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. The Fuggers made many alliances with the German and Bohemian nobles, and the Welsers had the unheard-of glory of mating one of their daughters with the Emperor of Germany; does not the Philipine-Welser Strasse in Augsburg commemorate to this day the renown of the match? But neither had the fortune to found a dynasty as did the Medici. They are so inseparably connected with the history of their native city that the biographies have insensibly become sketches of Florentine, even of European history. The men and women have disappeared, and we see instead the dexterous manipulators of tortuous Italian diplomacy, or the splendid patrons of art and literature during the best period of the Renaissance. Yet, in our day, we sometimes like to turn aside from the stage life to learn about the vie intime of personages who have become historical. We are curious about their doings within the home circle, about their private loves and hates, whether they were good or bad husbands and wives, parents and children. The simpler human interests attract us.

This book attempts to supply such details. It is founded on letters, for the most part private, of Medici men, women, and children, and their friends, written during those decades when the family was being moulded for the great European destiny which lay hidden in the future before it. In these old-world epistles Contessina artlessly displays her household economies, Lucrezia reveals her fondness for bathing, Clarice quarrels with no less a tutor than the celebrated Poliziano about the lessons he gave to her children, and the child Piero tells his father how he has studied hard, even writing in Latin, “in order to give a more literary tone to my letters,” and proudly and persistently demands the pony promised as a reward for diligence.

The materials have been gathered from many a quarter. Angelo Fabroni’s ponderous tomes, Magni Cosmi Medicei Vita and Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita; the Histories of Florence by Giovanni Cavalcanti, Giovanni Cambi, and Niccolὸ Machiavelli; rare pamphlets, published in small editions of twenty-five or a hundred copies, by Italian men of letters in honour of the marriage of some friend, which are a mine of wealth; and last, but not least, the Florentine Archives. Most of the letters from the Archivio Medicei ante Principato have never been published before, much less translated; others are given here in full, which have hitherto seen the light only in very fragmentary form. The volume can therefore claim to contain a great deal of thoroughly original matter. In them it will be seen that well-born or important men and women were addressed as Your Magnificence, and written to and spoken of as The Magnificent. It was, therefore, no special title bestowed on Lorenzo de’ Medici, but suiting so well with his character and whole personality it has become, as it were, his property.

My best thanks are due to Cavaliere Angelo Bruschi, librarian of the Marucelliana Library in Florence, without whose valid assistance and advice I should have had great difficulty in collecting the letters; to Dr. Dorini of the Florentine Archives, whose aid was invaluable in helping me to decipher the almost illegible manuscripts; and to Signor Gugliemo Volpi, several of whose pamphlets and articles are quoted. I must also thank the Baroness Mollinary of Como for so kindly having photographed for me her most interesting early portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent, never before published; and Dr. Giovanni Poggi, director of the Bargello in Florence, for giving me the photograph of Lorenzo’s portrait at Poggio a Caiano. The Baroness Mollinary’s picture is one of the many that belonged to her ancestor Paolo Giovio, and bears a strong resemblance to the fine miniature of Lorenzo, the property of M. Prosper Villon, reproduced in Le Musée de Portraits de Paul Jove by M. Eugène Muntz, in which, however, Lorenzo looks rather older. Both show the same humorous, kindly face, with a strong mouth, determined jaw, and fine eyes. In the miniature the head and shoulders are against and under a baldaquin, on each side of which is a small bit of landscape. Below is inscribed Laur M P P and the Medici arms (with six balls), surmounted by Lorenzo’s device, three ostrich feathers, white, green, and red (faith, hope, and charity), while a floating ribbon behind bears his motto Semper. The portrait at Poggio a Caiano is perhaps by Alessandro Allori, therefore of course not contemporary; it may be a copy of an older and lost picture. I must also express my great gratitude to the Rev. Principal Lindsay of Glasgow for kind help and criticism during the progress of my work.

The portrait of Piero de’ Medici in the chapel of the Riccardi palace, by Benozzo Gozzoli, has been given sometimes as that of his father Cosimo, or even of his son Lorenzo. But if the bust by Mino da Fiesole, in the Bargello, represents Piero, then he is the man grasping his horse’s mane with one hand as he rides by the side of his father Cosimo, who, as we know, generally rode a mule.

JANET ROSS.