Poliziano describes the agony of suspense of the small group in the new sacristy, who thought the church was in the hands of the Pazzi. “Some feared that the priest’s dagger was poisoned, and Lorenzo’s friend, Antonio Ridolfi, a most excellent youth, sucked the wound in his neck. Lorenzo, however, gave no heed to it, continually repeating, ‘Is Giuliano safe?’ Then came sharp knocks at the door. ‘We are friends, we are relations. Let Lorenzo come out ere the enemy gains a foothold.’ We were undecided, and shouted, ‘Enemies or friends? Is Giuliano safe?’ No answer was given. Then Sigismondo Della Stufa, devoted to Lorenzo since his boyhood, climbed up the ladders into the organ loft, looked down into the church, and saw the dead body of Giuliano. He recognised those below as friends, and shouted to us to open the door. Closing around Lorenzo we led him, so that he should not come past the dead body, to his house.”
How the Archbishop of Pisa, the Pazzi, and Jacopo Bracciolini were hung from the windows of the Palace of the Signoria, and how the people hunted their adherents through the streets, shouting, “Palle! Palle! down with the traitors and cut them to pieces,” is a matter of history. Montesecco lay in hiding for some days, and before he was beheaded in the Palazzo del Podestà, dictated and signed the confession which throws full light on the participation of Sixtus IV. and his nephew Girolamo Riario in the plot.
On Ascension Day Giuliano was buried in S. Lorenzo, amid the grief of the people whose darling he was. “He was tall,” writes Poliziano, “broad-shouldered, wide-chested, with well-developed and strong arms, a small waist, powerful thighs, and well-made legs; black, sparkling eyes, a dark complexion, with thick black hair falling on to his shoulders. A fine rider, jouster, and dancer, an excellent wrestler and runner, passionately devoted to the chase, submitting patiently to want of sleep, to hunger, and to thirst, which he often endured for a whole day. Magnanimous, steady, pious, and without vice, he delighted in music, painting, and everything connected with art. He liked poetry, and wrote some good verse in the vulgar tongue. He spoke well, but was reserved and not quick-witted; yet he enjoyed a good joke, and sometimes made one. Liars he hated and those who nursed vengeance. In dress he was not extravagant, but always neat and well-clothed. Serious, handsome, and dignified, he was most courteous and kind-hearted. He adored and revered his brother, while his courage and high spirits endeared him to the people.”
Vasari tells in his Life of Verrocchio of three waxen images of Lorenzo, the size of life, made by order of his friends and relations to commemorate his escape from the dagger of the assassin by Arsino, a celebrated worker in wax, with the help and after the designs of Verrocchio. “The skeleton inside was of wood, as has been said elsewhere, with a framework of split canes covered with waxed cloth in handsome folds, so well arranged that nothing better or more lifelike can be imagined. The heads, hands, and feet were made of thicker wax, hollow inside and copied from life, painted in oils, and ornamented with hair and other necessary things, so natural and so well made, that they seemed living men and not waxen images, as can be seen in any of these three. One of them is in the church of the nuns of Chiarito in Via S. Gallo in front of the miraculous crucifix. This figure is clothed in the very dress Lorenzo wore when, with his neck bandaged, he showed himself at the window of his house to the people, who had rushed there to see whether he was alive, as they hoped, or to avenge him if dead. The second figure of Lorenzo is clothed in the lucco, the ordinary dress of the Florentines, and is in the church of the Servites of the Annunziata above the smaller door, beside which is the table where candles are sold. The third was sent to S. Maria degl’ Angeli at Assisi and placed in front of the Madonna, where, as has been already said, Lorenzo de’ Medici caused the road which goes from S. Maria to the gate of Assisi and leads to S. Francesco to be laid down in bricks, and at the same time restored the fountains built by his grandfather Cosimo at the same place.”[213]
Louis XI., King of France, to the Florentine Republic
Beloved and great Friends,—We have just heard of the great and inhuman outrage, opprobrium and injury, which not long ago has been committed against your Seigneury, against the persons of our most dear and beloved cousins Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, their friends, relations, servants, and adherents, by those of the Pazzi Bank and their dependants; and of the death of our said cousin Giuliano de’ Medici, whereby we have been and are as much grieved as though it had happened to ourselves. Now as your honour and our own has been so gravely offended, and as the Medici are our relations and allies, and as we regard this outrage and the death of our cousin Giuliano as though it had happened to our own person, and therefore consider the Pazzi guilty of læsæ Majestatis, we cannot permit this deed to go unpunished; we desire with all our heart that adequate punishment should follow as an example to others. We have therefore decided to send to your Excellencies our well-beloved and faithful Councillor and Chamberlain, Messire d’Argenton,[214] Seneschal of our province of Poitou, who is one of the men in whom we have the utmost confidence, to inform you at length of our wishes; he will tell you more about this matter. We beg you to place the same trust in him and the same belief in his words as you would in ours, it is for this that we send him. I pray God, beloved and great friends, to keep and to guard you.—12th May 1478.[215]
Louis XI. to Pope Sixtus IV.
Copy of our Letter sent to the Pope
Most Holy Father,—We have been fully informed that wantonly by the hands of Count Girolamo, of one of your nephews recently promoted to the dignity of the Cardinalate, of the Archbishop of Pisa, and of members of the Pazzi family and their adherents, an outrage, insult, and personal attack has been made on the person of our dear friend Lorenzo de’ Medici and on Giuliano his brother. That the said Giuliano and others, his friends, have been killed, murdered, and assassinated in a church in Florence, in which we have been. We are deeply grieved and still more astonished that such an outrage should have been committed against one of such a House as is that of the Medici; renowned in the whole world, and known as belonging to the Church and filling high offices, such as that of Cardinal and Archbishop, and in the precincts of a Church, a sacred place dedicated to God. Therefore, Holy Father, we are much displeased at so abominable a sin and outrage, which we regard as even more grave than if it had been done to our own person, or to the person of one nearly related to us, and we hold that your and our honour has been most deeply offended. On account of the special love we have always borne, and bear, to the said Lorenzo our cousin and to all of his House, and of the great friendship, cemented by loyalty, oaths, and alliance, which in past times existed, and exists at present, between our predecessors, ourselves, and the city of Florence, we most affectionately supplicate and pray Your Holiness that for love of us as well as for love of our Holy Mother Church, in order that others should not go unpunished, amends shall be made for this crime by punishing the delinquents, and all who have aided and participated, in such way that it may be an example for all men to remember, and that greater ills shall not arise. Otherwise, by virtue of the said alliance and confederation existing between us and the said Florentines, and on account of the love we bear to our said cousin, we have determined to declare against all those who are implicated and not to allow this thing to go unpunished. We pray the Blessed Son of God that Your Holiness may long be spared to rule our Holy Mother Church.[216]
Lorenzo de’ Medici to Tommaso Soderini at Milan[217]