This was soon discovered. Lorenzo the Magnificent had been scarcely two years and a half in his grave, and his sons had not yet found time to raise a monument to his memory, when the stately edifice of which Giovanni d’Averardo had laid the foundation-stone, which Cosimo had built up, and Piero and Lorenzo enlarged and adorned, crumbled to pieces. On November 9, 1494, Luca Corsini, one of the Priori, shut the gate of the palace of the Signoria in the face of Piero de’ Medici, on his return from the French camp at Sarzana, and thus gave the signal for a great change in the destinies of the commonwealth. Lorenzo’s son and successor had neither his father’s sagacity and experience, nor his father’s authority with the great men nor the attachment of the people, to help him. In the long-threatened division which brought down France to interfere in the dynastic troubles of Italy, he first made common cause with the house of Aragon against the Moro and the French king, and then, as soon as the latter, having crossed the Alps without obstacle, was threatening Florence, the young man lost his head and his courage, and without a shadow of right delivered up the fortresses of the state, Sarzana, Pietrasanta, Pisa, Livorno, to the foreigner. As soon as the old cry of ‘People and liberty!’ was raised in a burst of anger at this unheard-of proceeding, Piero mounted his horse and was glad when he found himself safe on the road to Bologna, whither he was followed by his brothers and those of his adherents who were most deeply compromised, while the mob was sacking the Medici palace and the houses of the most detested tools of their financial administration. Thus in a moment a revolution was accomplished which created a new popular state, under the eyes of a foreign sovereign. That same November 9 Charles VIII. entered Pisa, where the rising against Florence began, and a week later he was in the palace in the Via Larga. This state lasted, amid the greatest internal and external difficulties, for nearly eighteen years, and then gave way to a new Medicean supremacy, which after another three years’ interruption, brought about by similar extraneous circumstances, formed itself into an hereditary autocracy, lasting till, after the lapse of two full centuries, the altered family died out in the altered country, and was mourned even then, when but little was left of the qualities which had lent it so much splendour.

Lorenzo’s friends and adherents met with various fates. Of the heads of the party, now left to their own resources, some attained influence and power in the new commonwealth; others came to a bloody end. Of the friends who stood round his death-bed, one, Angelo Poliziano, did not live to see the catastrophe that befell the once splendid house. He was taken away on September 24, 1494; and the evil reports which his life, notwithstanding all his high intellectual gifts, had in some measure called forth, did not spare him even in death. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola died on the day of the French king’s entry, and the comforter of his last moments was the man whom Lorenzo, too, had summoned in the hour of death—the Predicant monk of Ferrara who was destined to stir Florence to her deepest depths, and to die amid the flames lighted by his own hand. Marsilio Ficino and Cristoforo Landino were doomed to witness the misfortunes of the family to whom they owed everything and were attached by hereditary affection, and to survive the execution of many friends, and the dispersion of the rich treasures of art and learning which adorned the house in which they had been born and grown up. Of the younger members of the circle, some spent eighteen years in exile and vicissitude, to come back at last and sun themselves in the splendour, brilliant indeed but fleeting, of the pontificate of Leo X. Then the seeds of literature and art sown in the days of Lorenzo, sprang up in the works of Ariosto and Machiavelli, of Raphael and Michelangelo; but the political edifice, whose chief pillar he had been, and the national polity were irrecoverably destroyed; Italy had become the whole world’s battle-field; Lombardy was subject to the French, Naples to the Spaniards; the crowd of dynasties in Romagna had been swept away by the flood; while of those who had once held in their control the weal and woe of the peninsula, Ferrante and Alfonso of Aragon had died in distress and remorse, and Lodovico il Moro had ended his days in a French prison.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.[580]

1115.Death of the Countess Matilda. Increased independence of the Tuscan towns.
1188.Frederic Barbarossa in Florence.
1201.Chiarissimo de’ Medici member of the council of the Florentine Commonwealth.
1207.Election of the first Podestà.
1215.Beginning of civil feuds.
1250.First constitution of the Florentine commonalty of citizens in opposition to the nobility. The Capitano del Popolo.
1260.Battle of Montaperti. Victory of the Ghibelline party.
1266.Charles of Anjou. The Ghibellines leave Florence.
1282.Origin of the political constitution of the guilds (Priori delle Arti).
1293.Reform of the constitution of the guilds. Gonfalonieri di giustizia. Penal laws against the nobility.
1294.Building of the Palace of the Commonwealth (Palazzo dei Priori), and of the new Cathedral begun.
1312.Siege of Florence by the Emperor Henry VII.
1320.Beginning of the war against Castruccio, Lord of Lucca.
1336.War against Martino della Scala, Lord of Verona.
1342-43.Tyrannical government of Gautier de Brienne, Duke of Athens. Complete downfall of the ancient nobility.
1346.Great losses of the Florentine banks.
1351.Beginning of the wars against the Visconti of Milan.
1362.War with Pisa.
1371.Factions of the Albizzi and Ricci. Exclusion of many citizens from office.
1375.Beginning of enmity between the Florentines and Pope Gregory XI. (1377, return of the Pope from Avignon to Rome.)
1378.Gonfaloniership of Salvestro de’ Medici. Rising and government of the lowest classes (Tumulto dei Ciompi).
Ambrogio Traversari born (d. 1439).
1379.Execution of Piero degli Albizzi.
Filippo Brunelleschi b. (d. 1446).
1380.Poggio Bracciolini b. (d. 1459).
1381?Lorenzo Ghiberti b. (d. 1455).
1382.End of the popular government. Rise of the power of the Albizzi.
1386.Donatello b. (d. 1466).
1387.Exile of Benedetto degli Alberti and his family. Fra Giovanni of Fiesole b. (d. 1455).
1388.Salvestro de’ Medici d.
1389.Cosimo de’ Medici b. (d. 1464).
1391.Neri Capponi, son of Gino, b. (d. 1457). Michelozzo Michelozzi b. (d. 1472).
1393.Tyranny of Maso degli Albizzi. Vieri de’ Medici.
1394.Luigi Marsigli d.
1396.Emmanuel Chrysoloras called to Florence (d. 1415). Giannozzo Manetti b. (d. 1459).
1399.Pilgrimages of the White Penitents. Great mortality. Carlo Marsuppini b. (d. 1453).
1400.War with Gian-Galeazzo Visconti (d. 1402). Alliance with King Ruprecht of the Pfalz. Luca della Robbia b. (d. 1482).
1401.Masaccio b., at San Giovanni in Val d’Arno (d. 1428).
1403.League with Pope Boniface IX. and others against the Visconti.
L. Ghiberti receives the commission for the first door of the Baptistery.
1404.Beginning of the enterprise against Pisa.
1405.Fight for Pisa. Gino Capponi.
Matteo Palmieri b. (d. 1475). L. B. Alberti b. (d. 1472).
1406.Capture of Pisa.
Coluccio Salutati d. (b. 1330).
1408.Efforts to restore the unity of the Church.
1409.Council of Pisa. (P. Alexander V.)
Bernardo Rossellino b. (d. 1464).
1410.League with Pope John XXIII. [Baldassar Cossa]. Feo Belcari b. (d. 1484).
1411.Treaty with K. Ladislas of Naples. Purchase of Cortona. Establishment of the Council of Two Hundred.
1412?Fra Filippo Lippi b. (d. 1469).
1414.New treaty with K. Ladislas, and after his death, with his sister Queen Joanna II. Cosimo de’ Medici and John XXII. at Constance.
1415.Benedetto Accolti b. (d. 1466).
1416.Plague at Florence.
Piero de’ Medici b. (d. 1469).
1417.Maso degli Albizzi d. His son Rinaldo and Niccolò da Uzzano at the head of the Commonwealth.
1419.Pope Martin V. in Florence. Reconciliation and death of John XXII.
Archbishopric of Florence. Amerigo Corsini.
1420.Filippo Brunelleschi architect of the dome of the Cathedral.
Benozzo Gozzoli b. (d. 1498).
1421.Purchase of Livorno. Gino Capponi d.
1422.Flourishing state of commerce. Relations with the Levant.
1423.Beginning of the war with Filippo Maria Visconti.
1424.Defeat at Zagonara.
Cristoforo Landino b. (d. 1504).
1425.Defeat at Anghiari.
Lorenzo Ghiberti receives the commission for the second door of the Baptistery.
1426.Disputes about taxes and war-imposts. The Albizzi and Giovanni de’ Medici.
1427.First register of lands.
Antonio Rossellino b. (d. 1478).
1428.Peace with F. M. Visconti.
Reform of the University. Palla Strozzi.
1429.Giovanni de’ Medici d. Revolt of Volterra on account of the introduction of the land-register.
Francesco Filelfo in Florence.
Antonio Pollaiuolo b. (d. 1498).
1430.War with Lucca. The Jews in Florence.
Bartolommeo Scala b. (d. 1495).
1431.Pope Eugene IV.
Luigi Pulci b. (d. 1486).
Mino da Fiesole b. (d. 1484).
1432.Giuliano da Majano b. (d. 1490.)
Niccolò da Uzzano d.
K. Sigismund in Italy. (Crowned Emperor 1433).
1433.War with Lucca ended by a treaty with Milan.
Exile of Cosimo de’ Medici.
Marsilio Ficino b. (d. 1499).
1434.Recall of Cosimo de’ Medici. Exile of Rinaldo degli Albizzi, Palla Strozzi and their friends. Pope Eugene IV. in Florence. Completion of the dome of the Cathedral.
1435.Cosimo de’ Medici Gonfalonier.
Andrea del Verrocchio b. (d. 1488).
1436.Consecration of the Cathedral by Pope Eugene IV. Convent and library of San Marco. Medici palace.
1439.Florentine Council of Union. The Greeks in Florence.
1440.War of the Visconti. Battle of Anghiari. End of the dominion of the Guidi in the Casentino.
1441.Death of Baldaccio da Anghiari.
Pietro Pollaiuolo b. (d. 1489?).
? Luca Signorelli b. (d. 1523).
1442.Benedetto da Majano b. (d. 1498?).
Rinaldo degli Albizzi d., at Ancona.
1445.Giuliano Giamberti da Sangallo b. (d. 1516).
1446.S. Antonine Archbishop (d. 1459).
1447.War in the Chiana valley with Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples. Pope Nicholas V.
1449.(January 1) Lorenzo de’ Medici b. (d. 1492).
Bernardo Rucellai b. (d. 1514).
Domenico Ghirlandajo b. (d. 1494).
1450.Dispute with Venice. Francesco Sforza Duke of Milan.
1451.Amerigo Vespucci b. (d. 1512).
1452.Emperor Frederic III. in Florence. The Neapolitans in the Chiana valley. Leonardo da Vinci b. (d. 1519).
1453.Giuliano de’ Medici b. (d. 1478).
Girolamo Benevieni b. (d. 1542).
1454.Peace of Lodi, between Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples.
Angelo Ambrogio Poliziano b. (d. 1494).
1455.Intrigues against Cosimo de’ Medici. Luca Pitti. Pope Calixtus III.
1456.Johannes Argyropulos called to Florence.
1457.Simone Pollaiuolo Cronaca b. (d. 1508).
Filippino Lippi b. (d. 1504).
1458.Changes in the Constitution by Luca Pitti. Pope Pius II.
1459.Pope Pius II. in Florence.
Benozzo Gozzoli paints the chapel of the Medici palace.
1461.Piero de’ Medici Gonfalonier.
1463.Giovanni Pico della Mirandola b. (d. 1494).
1464.Cosimo de’ Medici, ‘Pater Patriæ,’ d. Pope Paul II.
Marcello Virgilio Adriani b. (d. 1521).
1465.Beginning of the Pitti disturbances.
1466.Conspiracy of Diotisalvi Neroni, Luca Pitti, and their friends against Piero de’ Medici.
1467.War of Colleone.
1468.Peace with Venice. Purchase of Sarzana. Tournament and marriage of Lorenzo de’ Medici.
1469.Piero de’ Medici d. Authority of Lorenzo. Tommaso Soderini.
1470.Attempted revolt at Prato.
Bernardo Dovizj of Bibiena b. (d. 1520).
1471.Galeazzo Maria Sforza in Florence. Lorenzo de’ Medici at Rome with Pope Sixtus IV. Piero de’ Medici b. (d. 1503). Bernardo Cennini, first Florentine printer.
1472.Revolt and conquest of Volterra.
1473.Re-opening of the University of Pisa.
1474.King Christian of Denmark in Florence.
1475.Giovanni de’ Medici [Pope Leo X.] b. (d. 1521). Michelangelo Buonarotti b. (d. 1564). Murder of Galeazzo M. Sforza. Regency of Bona of Savoy.
1478.Conspiracy of the Pazzi. Death of Giuliano de’ Medici. War with Rome and Naples. Giulio de’ Medici [Pope Clement VII.] b.
1479.Defeat at Poggibonzi. Lorenzo de’ Medici in Naples. Lodovico il Moro regent of Milan.
1480.Peace between Florence, Naples, and the Pope. Establishment of the Council of Seventy.
1481.Cristoforo Landino’s edition of Dante.
1482.Ferrarese war. Francesco Guicciardini b. (d. 1540).
1483.Fra Girolamo Savonarola in Florence. King Louis XI. of France d. Charles VIII. king.
1484.Peace of Bagnolo. Pope Sixtus IV. d. Innocent VIII. Pope.
1485.The Florentines in the Neapolitan barons’ war against the Pope.
1486.Peace between the Pope and King Ferrante.
1487.Re-capture of Sarzana by the Florentines.
1488.Family alliance between the Medici and Innocent VIII. Clarice de’ Medici d. Homer’s works first printed. Convent of San Gallo.
Murder of Girolamo Riario and Galeotto Manfredi.
1489.Cardinalate of Giovanni de’ Medici.
Fra Girolamo Savonarola again at San Marco.
Building of the Strozzi palace begun.
Benedetto da Majano.
1490.New constitutional reform. Lorenzo de’ Medici mediator between Pope Innocent and King Ferrante.
Cathedral. Choir of Sta. Maria Novella by Ghirlandajo. Negotiations for completion of the Cathedral façade.
1491.Reconciliation between the Pope and Naples.
1492.Proclamation of the Cardinalate of Giovanni de’ Medici.
Lorenzo de’ Medici d., April 8.