[217] A passage in the Della Tranquillità dell'Animo (Op. Volg. i. 35), shows how Alberti had lived into the conception of cosmopolitan citizenship. It may be compared with another in the Teogenio (op. cit. iii. 194) wher he argues that love for one's country, even without residence in it, satisfies the definition of a citizen.
[218] Op. cit. ii. 215-221.
[219] Such phrases as i nostri maggiori patrizii in Roma (i. 37), la quasi dovuta a noi per le nostre virtù da tutte le genti riverenzia e obbedienzia (ii. 218), nostri ottimi passati Itali debellarono e sotto averono tutte le genti (ii. 9), might be culled in plenty. Alberti shows how deep was the Latin idealism of the Renaissance, and how impossible it would have been for the Italians to found their national self-consciousness on aught but a recovery of the past.
[220] Especially the fine passage beginning, "Quello imperio maraviglioso senza termini, quel dominio di tutte le genti acquistato con nostri latini auspici, ottenuto colla nostra industria, amplificato con nostre armi latine" (ii. 8); and the apostrophe, "E tu, Italia nobilissima, capo e arce di tutto l'universo mondo" (ib. 13).
[221] An example of servile submission to classical authority might be chosen from Alberti's discourse on Friendship (Famiglia, lib. iv. op. cit. ii. 415), where he adduces Sylla and Mark Antony in contradiction to his general doctrine that only upright conversation among friends can lead to mutual profit.
[222] Alberti's loss of training in the vernacular is noticed by his anonymous biographer (op. cit. i. xciv.). It will be observed by students of his writings that he does not speak of la nostra italiana but la nostra toscana (ii. 221). Again (iv. 12) in lingua toscana is the phrase used in his dedication of the Essay on Painting to Brunelleschi.
[223] The anonymous biographer says: "Scripsit præterea et affinium suorum gratia, ut linguæ latinæ ignaris prodesset, patrio sermone annum ante trigesimum ætatis suæ etruscos libros, primum, secundum, ac tertium de Familia, quos Romæ die nonagesimo quam inchoârat, absolvit; sed inelimatos et asperos neque usquequaquam etruscos ... post annos tres, quam primos ediderat, quartum librum ingratis protulit" (op. cit. i. xciv. c.). It appears from a reference in Book ii. (op. cit. ii. xxviii.) that the Treatise was still in process of composition after 1438; and there are strong reasons for believing that Book iii., as it is now numbered, was written separately and after the rest of the dialogue.
[224] Note especially the passage in Book iii., op. cit. ii. 256, et seq.
[225] There is, I think, good reason to believe the testimony of the anonymous biographer, who says this Treatise was written before Alberti's thirtieth year; and if he returned to Florence in 1434, we must take the date of his birth about 1404. The scene of the Tranquillità dell'Animo is laid in the Duomo at Florence; we may therefore believe it to have been a later work, and its allusions to the Famiglia are, in my opinion, trustworthy.
[226] The pedigree prefixed to the Dialogue in Bonucci's edition would help the student in his task. I will here cite the principal passages of importance I have noticed. In volume ii. p. 102, we find a list of the Alberti remarkable for literary, scientific, artistic, and ecclesiastical distinctions. On p. 124 we read of their dispersion over the Levant, Greece, Spain, France, England, Belgium, Germany, and the chief Italian towns. Their misfortunes in exile are touchingly alluded to with a sobriety of phrase that dignifies the grief it veils, in the noble passage beginning with p. 256. Their ancient splendor in the tournaments and games of Florence, when the people seemed to have eyes only for men of the Alberti blood, is described on p. 228; their palaces and country houses on p. 279. A list of the knights, generals, and great lawyers of the Casa Alberti is given at p. 346. The honesty of their commercial dealings and their reputation for probity form the themes of a valuable digression, pp. 204-206, where we learn the extent of their trade and the magnitude of their contributions to the State-expenses. On p. 210 there is a statement that this house alone imported from Flanders enough wool to supply the cloth-trade, not only of Florence, but also of the larger part of Tuscany. The losses of a great commercial family are reckoned on p. 357; while p. 400 supplies the story of one vast loan of 80,000 golden florins advanced by Ricciardo degli Alberti to Pope John. The friendship of Piero degli Alberti contracted with Filippo Maria Visconti and King Ladislaus of Naples is described in the autobiographical discourse introduced at pp. 386-399. This episode is very precious for explaining the relation between Italian princes and the merchants who resided at their courts. Their servant Buto, p. 375, should not be omitted from the picture; nor should the autobiographical narrative given by Giannozzo of his relation to his wife (pp. 320-328) be neglected, since this carries us into the very center of a Florentine home. The moral tone, the political feeling, and the domestic habits of the house in general must be studied in the description of the Casa, Bottega, and Villa, the discourses on education, and the discussion of public and domestic duties. The commercial aristocracy of Florence lives before us in this Treatise. We learn from it to know exactly what the men who sustained the liberties of Italy against the tyrants of Milan thought and felt, at a period of history when the old fabric of medieval ideas had broken down, but when the new Italy of the Renaissance had not yet been fully formed. If, in addition to the Trattato della Famiglia, the letters addressed by Alessandra Macinghi degli Strozzi to her children in exile be included in such a study, a vivid picture might be formed of the domestic life of a Florentine family.[A] These letters were written from Florence to sons of the Casa Strozzi at Naples, Bruges, and elsewhere between the years 1447 and 1465. They contain minute information about expenditure, taxation, dress, marriages, friendships, and all the public and personal relations of a noble Florentine family. Much, moreover, can be gathered from them concerning the footing of the members of the circle in exile. The private ricordi of heads of families, portions of which have been already published from the archives of the Medici and Strozzi, if more fully investigated, would complete this interesting picture in many of its important details.