Agnolo Poliziano to Lorenzo de’ Medici
Magnifice Domine mi,—We arrived safely at Acquapendente yester evening at 8 o’clock, I wrote to you also from Montepulciano. To-morrow we leave for Viterbo. We are all in high spirits and find good cheer, and all along the road we pick up new tunes and May songs, which seem to me more original here than elsewhere, alla Romanesca, vel nota ipsa vel argumento. I commend myself to Your Magnificence.—Acquapendente, May 2, 1488. Your Magnificence’s servant,
Ang. Politianus.[349]
Poliziano accompanied Piero de’ Medici to Rome to meet his bride Alfonsina Orsini, to whom he had been married by proxy at Naples in February the year before. His mother Clarice, who was very ill, had been in Rome since November hoping, as consumptive people do, that the milder air would cure her. With her had gone her favourite daughter, “the eye of her head,” Maddalena, affianced to the Pope’s illegitimate son Francesco Cibò. Piero and his wife, Clarice and Maddalena, all returned together to Florence, Lorenzo having begged the Pope and Cibò to allow Maddalena to come with her sick mother. With her, when she went to Rome, he had sent Matteo Franco, “one of the dearest creatures of my house,” he calls him, to keep the young girl company, and to look after her. How well the humorous, kindly priest fulfilled his trust, how cordially he disliked both Genoese and Romans, and how he longed for the brilliant society of the Medici palace is shown in the following letter. Cibò, a gambler, ignorant and stupid, had sense enough to recognise how invaluable Franco was, and although he raised no objection to Maddalena’s going with her mother, he refused to part with Franco.
Matteo Franco, from Stigliano, to Ser Piero Dovizi da Bibbiena, Chancellor to Lorenzo de’ Medici, at Florence
O revered, sweet, and good brother mine, where art thou at this moment? what art thou doing? art thou well? Hast thou so soon forgotten thy Franco who eating or sleeping only dreams of his dear soul Ser Piero? This I will never believe, far rather would I imagine that thou art hurt because I have written so seldom; that thou art sorry because I am not near thee, thy companions and affairs; and above all that thou art sorry because thou dost not see the expected fruit of thy kind and loving sowing, of thy many heartfelt letters in my favour, of all the kind things said about me to my lord and of thy expectation founded on the esteem and love thou bearest me. All this gladdens and yet distresses me; gladdens me because I rejoice in possessing so good and true a friend; distresses me when I think that all thy trouble has been in vain by no fault of mine. But, sweet Ser Piero, do not lose faith in me, as I do not lose it in thee, good will come of it all.
Thou must know that till now we have come out of all with honour, id est thy Franco, as Franco, towards his masters, towards thee, and towards himself, has done well despite of malignant, venomous and treacherous, envious, &c. I came, and on the road and whilst in Rome, with all the love and economy I was able to employ was so useful to my masters that they showed their appreciation by words and deeds many times; particularly when I stood aloof and they tried others. Of the money received by me for the expenses, my enemies twice carefully dissected, like anatomists, my accounts, shop by shop, day by day, entry by entry; and everything was in such order that calumny had a fall, and they were laughed at and put to shame. Thus my affection, fidelity, and diligence were established and talked of publicly by them as I heard privately, so that I pardon all. When I made up the final balance only twenty-eight lire were missing, which must have been forgotten by the man who buys retail. This would be of small account if I had not lost so much in brains, soul, and body, instead of only twenty-eight lire, in all these devilries and persecutions, &c., so that I even once cursed both thee and Lorenzo who sent me into this hell. But God has helped us, for of a certain Lorenzo, thou, and my own good intentions, could not have a bad ending.
All this, my Ser Piero, must be a comfort to thee as it is to me. Also I cannot describe the kindness and love shown to me by Madonna Clarice, twice or thrice she even said that the Count showed small discretion in taking me from her, exclaiming: “See how I am left, I will not allow any man to have the spending of my money but Franco; and I will eat nothing but what has passed through his hands; we never intended to give Franco to him in order that he might be buried alive in a wood, he would be far more useful to Madonna Maddalena and to his house if he were here at hand, &c.” She talked of this a hundred times and has already sent for me twice since I have been at these baths, and kept me two or three days until his Lordship drove me back to the baths.
It was rumoured that Maddalena was to go to Florence with Alfonsina and a list was drawn up of things she was going to ask of the Count for her journey; among others she desired:
“As chaplain I wish for Franco.