Lorenzo de’ Medici to Pope Innocent VIII.
My ambassador has written to tell me that at last by the kindness of Your Holiness the contract of the alum works has been awarded to me, for this I owe infinite thanks to Your Holiness who has thus added another to the many obligations I already owe, and hope to enjoy in the future from the liberality and kindness of Your Beatitude. I am exceedingly grateful for and pleased by the paternal charity shown to me every day by Your Holiness, and should be yet more happy did I not hear that Your Holiness has been suffering from gout and slight fever. Although the attack is not a severe one, still, depending as I do on Your Holiness, and Your Holiness’ life being of such importance, I cannot but feel uneasy even at a small indisposition, particularly as these attacks come oftener than one could wish. Your Holiness can rest assured that even as S. Francis by reason of his stigmate felt the pain of the wounds of Jesus Christ, thus do I feel every pain and ill suffered by Your Holiness in my own person and am much molested thereby. Among other things the condition of our Ser Francesco[375] touches me deeply, as well as that of other dependants of Your Holiness, who by reason of the uprightness and honesty of Your Beatitude may be said to be still fasting and to have had but a small share of the great good fortune which our Lord God has so worthily bestowed on Your Holiness. Should anything happen to Your Holiness, quod absit, the sepulchre will open also for them. Although I feel compassion for them all I am more moved by what ought to touch Your Holiness more nearly than myself, and that is the sad condition of poor Ser Francesco, who in the five years of the pontificate of Your Holiness has never yet had anything he can call his own. Your Holiness is the best judge of what support he enjoys in the Sacred College and what office, dignity or means, he has to enable him to live, even poorly. If Your Holiness studies the lives of other Popes you will see that there are but few who during five years of pontifical rule, and some in even less time, have not manifested their intention of acting as a Pope, and have not shown the respect for honesty and uprightness displayed by Your Holiness, which is justified before God and man. But speaking as a devoted servant, this honesty might now be imputed and attributed to another motive. Maybe I appear presumptuous, but zeal and the duty I owe to Your Holiness so touch my conscience that I must speak thus openly and remind Your Holiness that all men are mortal, and that a Pope is what he wills to be; he cannot leave the Papacy as a heritage and can only call his own the honours, the glory and the benefits, he gives to his family. The prudence, experience and long acquaintance Your Sanctity has of a court, will I am sure without words from me, recall to Your Holiness what always happens to the fortune and inheritance of popes, and seeing that Ser Francesco and the others of Your Holiness’ family are as yet not to be envied but rather merit compassion, Your Sanctity ought to follow the example of Your Holiness’ predecessors and place them in such a position that they should have no need of others, particularly as whatever is bestowed on them does not diminish the substance of Your Holiness and is not lost or thrown away. Briefly, with all humility, I entreat Your Sanctity at last to begin and act as a Pope with regard to the family of Your Holiness and not to trust so much in posterity and good health, which can only retard the fulfilment of what Your Holiness intends to do for them. Delay might perhaps prevent this being accomplished. Especially do I recommend Your and my Ser Francesco and the Lady Maddalena, who pray that God may grant Your Holiness a long life in order that their affairs may be properly adjusted, and when better arranged they will give thanks to God and to Your Holiness, and have reason to remember and to bless the day when Your Sanctity was called to the honours and dignity of the pontificate. It is time, Holy Father, to liberate these Holy Fathers from limbo, so that it may not happen to them as to the Jews who awaited the Messiah. I beg Your Holiness’ pardon with all humility and reverence for this my presumption only caused by reasons which I am sure Your Holiness will appreciate, and I place myself humbly at Your most holy feet.—1489. Humilis Servitor,
Laurentius de Medicis.[376]
A Manager of the Medici Bank to the Duke Ercole d’Este
To the Illustrious Duke Ercole, &c.
According to the usual custom and rule we advise you that to-day the Magnificent Lorenzo has lent Pope Innocent 100,000 ducats for a year; one-third in cash, one-third in silk goods, and one-third in woollen cloth. As surety he has two-tenths on the stipends of all newly appointed priests, 70,000 ducats, and for the rest he will hold Città di Castello until entirely repaid.
I give you another piece of news: Pope Innocent has given the Magnificent Lorenzo 30,000 cántara of alum at 1 ducat the cántaro as payment of what was owing to him by Pope Sixtus, the 40,000 he received for the war, which is good news.—Florence, 1489. Your servant and particular partisan,
B. Des. of the Medici Bank.[377]
It appears that Lorenzo’s share in the bank was one-half, the other half belonged to various partners. The Duke of Ferrara wrote on the 20th December 1489 to Giuliano Gondi announcing that he had arranged a marriage for his daughter Isabella with the Marquess of Mantua on the 16th February 1490, and begged for a spinel ruby which was in pawn for 4000 ducats with the Magnificent Lorenzo & Co. in order to wear it during the festivities. He also wrote to Lorenzo asking that the ruby might be sent, saying that he could not pay the money at that moment. But Lorenzo answered that he could only promise for the half as the other belonged to various merchants. So the Duke again wrote to Gondi and asked him to go surety for him for 2000 ducats repayable in April 1492, guaranteed on the salt mines of Modena, &c. Lorenzo was also a partner in the bank at Lyons with Francesco Sassetti and others, of which the manager was Leonetto de’ Rossi, husband of Maria de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s sister. Machiavelli’s statement that Lorenzo had nothing to do with the bank is contradicted by the above letter.
Lorenzo de’ Medici to Giovanni Lanfredini, Florentine Ambassador at Rome