During the last days I have written thee several letters, but have only had one from thee from Modena. We have heard of thy arrival at Milan, and of the great honours paid thee by the Duke, at which I am well pleased.

I expect to hear from thee how things passed.

As I told thee, and as I have written to thee, I do not at all desire that thou shouldest go further in order to accompany the Duke of Calabria. We should lose more here than we should gain there by this. Thou hast already done quite enough by accompanying him hitherto, without going any further, and next month thou must return here. No more at present. Christ guard thee.—Florence, July 28, 1455.

Cosimo de’ Medici.[66]

Lucrezia de’ Medici (from Careggi or Cafaggiuolo) to her husband Piero at Florence

This day I received thy letter, which is most dear to me as telling how thou art. I see that by the grace of God riding has not been too irksome to thee, of which I am glad. Mona Contessina told me the same, and that thou hast been received with great demonstrations of affection. Truly, as thou sayest, we have much to thank God for. So I beg thee to bear gladly a little discomfort, for these things are not accomplished without some fatigue. I see all the family is well, which is a great consolation to hear, and I thank thee. I beg that, as we are not coming there, thou wilt return as soon as thou canst, for it seems to us a thousand years since we saw thee, particularly to Giuliano. Lorenzo is learning the verses his master there gave him and then teaches them to Giuliano. No more at present. Commend me to Cosimo and to Mona Contessina. We are all well. Christ guard thee.—28th February 1457 (1458).

Thy Lucrezia.[67]

The entry into Florence of Galeazzo Maria, Count of Pavia, son of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, is described in a curious poem written in 1459 by an unknown author.[68] Leaving Cafaggiuolo, where the lad slept, he entered Florence on 17th April 1459, and dismounted at the Medici palace. Next day Messer Galeazzo visited the Signoria, who made him sit in their midst and offered him their services. “I thank you for your greeting,” answered the young Count, “and beg you to command me and to dispose of all I possess. For you I will abandon any enterprise, and serve you against any power.” Then with a prayer to God to grant them happiness and long lives the lad of fifteen added: “I beg you to pardon my youth if, from want of knowledge, I have not spoken aright in your presence; remember I am but a boy. I commend you to Christ our Lord.” From his letters to his father we get a glimpse of the home life of Cosimo. He writes that even the ladies of the family helped to entertain him, and he was charmed with the playing of one of Piero’s daughters on the “organo di cave.” At a dinner at Careggi he notes that Giovanni, Cosimo’s second son, did not sit at table, but acted as a kind of steward, and saw that every one was properly served. After dinner a poet improvised verses in honour of the guest. “Certes, Lucian or Dante could have done no better,” he remarks. Then they danced, Piero’s wife Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Giovanni’s Maria Ginevra degl’ Alessandri, and a daughter of the Strozzi, held to be the handsomest maiden in Florence, and some peasant girls.

Two days later came Pope Pius II. on his way to the Congress he had summoned at Mantua to arrange for another crusade. He was received with great honour, and young Sforza made an oration, kneeling in the dust before the Pope. Then Pius seated himself on a gestatory chair and was borne into the city on the shoulders of the lords of Faenza, Rimini, Carpi, and Forli, instead of riding on a mule, which was the usual practice. “This,” observes Cambi, “was a proof of pride, not of holiness.” The old chronicler then describes a tournament in the Piazza S. Croce “for the temporal lords, but many ecclesiastics also went. And on 29th April there was a ball in the Mercato Nuovo, which was enclosed with a stockade surrounded by seats covered with tapestry. Sixty young Florentine gentlemen, who were expert dancers, richly adorned with pearls and jewels, and many pretty maidens and girls who were good dancers, danced; and they changed their dresses several times. All the ambassadors were there and some of the cardinals, and it was calculated that in the seats, in the houses round, and on foot, there were more than 60,000 persons. There was also a great hunt in the Piazza de’ Signori, which was closed all round with a stockade, and inside were turned loose two lions, two horses, four bulls, two young buffaloes, a cow and a calf, a wild boar, a giraffe, with twenty men and a large ball of wood, so made that a man could stand upright inside and roll it about in order to exasperate the animals. But the loud shouts of the people so frightened the lions that they were as though stupefied, many men broke into the enclosure and the lions were as lambs among them. The preparations had been great, and the expense large, but the pleasure given was small.”[69]

Contessina de’ Medici to her son Piero at Venice