Messer Salvi di Maestro Guglielmo di Forese di Gottifredo, of great
reputation in Florence towards the end of the thirteenth century.
His two sons, Cambio and Lotto, both became Priors of the city,
and altogether the Salviati had sixty-three Priors and twenty-one
Gonfaloniers in their family. A grandson of Lotto, named Forese, was
extremely popular, and distinguished himself first as a diplomatist
and afterwards as Captain-General of the Tuscan Romagna in 1397; and
his descendants served the Republic with honour as soldiers or as
envoys and ambassadors. The only one of the family whose name is still
a by-word in Florence was Giuliano, son of Francesco Salviati and
Laudomia de’ Medici. One of the first to incite the mob to plunder
the Medici palaces and deface their arms when driven from Florence in
1527, he afterwards became the boon companion of the dissolute Duke
Alessandro, and he it was who insulted Luisa Strozzi at a masked ball
and paid for it by being maimed for life by her brother; whilst his
wife was always supposed to have been instrumental in poisoning the
beautiful and virtuous woman who had resented the infamous behaviour of
the Duke and of Salviati. Fortunately that branch of the family ended
with his daughter. A very different man was his cousin Jacopo Salviati,
married to Lucrezia, daughter to Lorenzo the Magnificent and sister to
Leo X, with whom Jacopo was a favourite. He was the one man amongst
the envoys from Florence who dared to raise his voice at the court
of Clement VII, against creating the bastard Alessandro de’ Medici
absolute Lord of Florence, and against building the great fortress
of San Giovanni, now called Fortezza da Basso, to dominate the town.
Setting forth how at the death of Leo X, the citizens of Florence had
preserved the State for the Medici, he contended that the best and
surest fortress was the love of the people, who are content when food
is abundant and justice properly administered. And when Filippo Strozzi
argued against him Jacopo turned round saying, “Filippo, either you
speak not your thoughts, or if you think as you speak you think amiss”;
then as though gifted with the spirit of prophecy he continued, “God
grant that in advocating the building of this fortress Filippo is not
preparing his own grave.” “For these words,” as Varchi who describes
the scene writes, “the Pope called him no more to council, and those
citizens who once bore him on the palms of their hands avoided him ...
and his dependants who had received favours from him turned away when
they saw him in the distance.”
Maria, daughter of Jacopo Salviati, married Giovanni de’ Medici
surnamed Delle Bande Nere, and was the mother of Cosimo I, to whom she
in vain preached moderation and respect for the law. Three of her
brothers joined the anti-Medicean faction and were implicated in every
attempt to dethrone their nephew; but Messer Alamanno, the youngest,
was one of the most trusted counsellors of the two Dukes Alessandro
and Cosimo and left enormous wealth to his son Jacopo. Clement VIII,
created Lorenzo Salviati, Jacopo’s son, a Marquis after he had bought
the castles and lands of Giuliano and Rocca Massima, and Urban VIII,
made his grandson Jacopo, who married Donna Veronica Cybo, daughter of
the Prince of Massa, Duke of Giuliano. The following account of the
marriage by a contemporary was, according to that excellent Italian
fashion, privately printed in honour of a marriage some thirty years
ago. I have translated the whole letter for the curious insight it
gives into the manners of that day.
“Being sure of giving Your Excellency agreeable tidings, I send a
detailed account of the marriage of my Lord the Duke of Salviati and of
my Lady Donna Veronica, which causes the people the more joy that my
Lords the Prince and the Princess are so gratified thereat.
“My Lord the Duke was to be in Massa on the 27th and sent one of
his gentlemen on the day before to announce his arrival; he sent
to the Duchess his wife four most beautiful dresses with jewels to
match; one was white, one of flax-flower blue, one turquoise and one
crimson, all enriched with gold and as yet uncut. At the same time
I was sent by Their Excellencies to meet the Lord Duke and kiss his
hands. We arrived at sundown at Massa, and at Salto della Cervia the
Lord Marquis of Carrara,[60] accompanied by many gentlemen and 100
archibusiers of Massa on horseback, met H.E., and soon afterwards the
Prince himself with many gentlemen and 80 archibusiers of Carrara and
his usual bodyguard came in sight. When we reached Nostra Signora del
Monte the salvos of artillery from the castle began which made a fine
effect, as besides the heavy artillery, which Y.E. knows of, and the
200 spingards, the Prince had placed 500 musketeers, who repeated the
salvos, and thus the castle seemed no less terrific than pleasing.
“When we reached the palace the Duke retired to his apartments and sent
to ask permission of the Prince, my master, to present some flowers
he had brought from Florence to his bride; these were enclosed in a
gilt enamelled glove box, and in other velvet cases were a ring with a
splendid diamond, a necklace of very large diamonds, a jewel of large
diamonds with a feather also of diamonds and a large pearl at the tip;
these, with the chain of diamonds which the Duke had already sent with
his portrait in a jewelled box, certainly were worth more than 15000
scudi. That same evening my comedy was acted and proved a success.
The wedding was on Monday morning, and when the bride and bridegroom
left the palace and entered the Piazza a squadron of 1000 musketeers
fired a salute, which was repeated at the bestowal of the ring and when
they returned to the palace. The ring was splendid, my Lord Duke not
permitting that the one sent before the marriage should be used, but
this other special one. The Duchess was attired most richly in white,
adorned with the jewels given to her the day before. My Lord Duke was
habited in blue, but the extreme richness of the suit rendered it
useless and of such weight that it could only be worn for a few hours
and he was begged by all to change. If the first was rich the second
was not less elegant, and every day H.E. wore a new suit each one more
beautiful than the last; and he bestowed one on that silly buffoon of
a doctor, who was present at all the marriage feasts, of cloth of gold
embroidered also in gold, and the said doctor made a good meal one
morning, filling himself with doubloons and zecchins given him by all
the Seigneury who were at table.
“On the night of the marriage there was a splendid entertainment;
seventy-four ladies were there unmasked and forty-eight came masked,
divided in companies of six, variously costumed in appropriate and
pleasing dresses. Although the room was large four rows of seats were
none too many and all passed with great order and contentment. Next day
at a game my Lord Duke gave, with a pretty pretext, a bottle containing
500 zecchins to the bride. That and the following days were spent in
feasting and festivity, and for an improvised masquerade the Duke
caused a hat to be made for my Lady Duchess with a rich garland of
diamonds and under the brim he placed a very large diamond worth 14000
scudi. The Duke asked to see the castle and was received with much
honour, and left a good present to each soldier and bombardier and a
chain worth 100 scudi to the Castellan.
“The charitable gifts to convents and other institutions are also
worthy of note, amounting to some hundreds of scudi. On the palace
guard and the company of archibusiers which accompanied him to the
confines of Tuscany with my Lord the Prince, he also bestowed largesse.
Not only has he given to all but he also caused his bride to give to
many; among others to her sister-in-law Princess Fulvia[61] she gave
two of those dress-lengths sent to her by the Duke and the others she
left to Donna Placidia, her sister. The Duke has bestowed many chains,
besides presents in money, to the officers and to many others; and
the Prince, my master, has at his request condoned many punishments,
pardoned many exiles and released all the prisoners who were in the
castle when he visited it. The Prince also insisted on giving a horse
which once belonged to the Duke, and has been cured of vicious tricks
so as now to be most pleasant to ride, back to him, and with it another
which he thought the Duke admired. Also knowing his love of pictures
my master gave him one by Raffaelle d’Urbino, besides hounds and a
body-slave who waited on him here. The Princess, my mistress, gave him
most finely worked linen shirts, and Don Alessandro an archibuse of
perfect workmanship and great beauty.
“To sum up, my Lord the Duke has been pleased with Massa and Massa
pleased with my Lord Duke, as he is open-handed and of exquisite tact
in all his dealings. All thought the Duchess very handsome as is but
natural, she being of this house and sister to Princess Maria;[62] and
I hope Tuscany will be no less satisfied with the Duchess Salviati than
is Lombardy with the Princess della Mirandola. God preserve them both
in the prosperity which he has granted them.
“Bride and bridegroom took their departure on Friday morning in the
Duke’s travelling carriage, which is so splendid that it would be
sumptuous in a city; and were followed also by the lettiga (litter
carried by mules), with velvet lining and golden fringes, columns of
silver and beautiful carving; on a par with the magnificence of all
else. Twelve grooms there were in livery and many gentlemen of goodly
presence. Having thus satisfied my desire to serve Y.E. in a way that
I know to be pleasing unto you, I kiss your hands, wishing you every
felicity.
“GIULIO BEGGIO. Massa, 5th March 1628.”[63]
* * * * *
The glowing description of Donna Veronica given by the obsequious
courtier of the house of Massa was not ratified by Florentine opinion.
One old writer declares: “Donna Veronica was endowed with but small
beauty, but _per contra_ with a most violent and imperious temper and
a jealous disposition. Her husband, poor man, had small joy with her.”
Duke Jacopo Salviata, handsome, gallant and accomplished, a brave
soldier and an elegant poet, soon found his loveless life hard to bear,
and some eight years after his marriage met (for her misfortune) the
beautiful woman popularly called “the fair Cherubim” from her silken,
wavy, golden hair and her exquisite colouring. The following account
by an anonymous writer of the time, existing in manuscript in the
Marucelliana library at Florence, tells the tragic tale graphically,
and has, I believe, never been published.
“All know of how much perfidy and cruelty a woman is capable when moved
by a spirit of vengeance, particularly when roused thereto by offended
love. I have often heard recounted a case which happened in the city
of Florence, and will describe it as far as my feeble memory permits.
There was in Florence a gentleman of the old and honourable family of
the Canaccj named Giustino, well-known to me and to many still alive.
He was considered a man of but small sense because, having several
grown-up children by a first wife and being near seventy years of age,
he took as his second wife a young girl called Caterina, inferior to
himself in rank but endowed with marvellous beauty, daughter to a
dyer from the Casentino. Now Giustino was also the ugliest, the most
tiresome and the dirtiest man then in Florence, which encouraged many
to solicit the good graces of Caterina who, though apparently leading a
modest life, at length they said listened to Lorenzo da Jacopo Serzelli
and to Vincenzio Carlini, a young Florentine who has now changed his
habit and way of life, being the head of that hospital commonly called
Bonifazio. There were also two youths, familiars of Jacopo Salviati
Duke of Giuliano the greatest personage for birth, enormous wealth and
other admirable qualities in the city of Florence, always excepting
the Princes of the ruling house, who a few years before had taken to
wife Donna Veronica daughter to Don Carlo Cybo, Prince of Massa and
Carrara. This lady had not much beauty, but such pride and conceit that
the Duke was driven to seek for comfort elsewhere. Once introduced to
Caterina, the Duke, not to excite the suspicions of his wife, excused
his occasional absences by an obligation to attend one of those
Confraternities which meet only at night, and in Florence are called
_Bucche_ (Holes), this one was named after St Anthony and situated in
Pinti near Santa Maria Maddalena; and leaving it at a late hour he
went to Caterina’s house in Via de’ Pilastri near S. Ambrogio. But he
could not prevent this reaching the ears of the Duchess, who with other
qualities possessed that of jealousy in a superlative degree.
“It was rumoured, but I do not know if it be true, that the Duchess
entered San Pier Maggiore one morning where was Caterina whom she
knew well by sight, and as though by chance Donna Veronica placed
herself by her side and in a few words bade her never again speak to
her husband under pain of her dire displeasure. And Caterina replied,
perchance with more arrogance and spirit than became her condition,
thus increasing the ire of the Duchess and ensuring her own ruin.
The Duke’s love grew every day and the Duchess determined to cut the
thread; rumour has it that she tried to poison Caterina, but failing,
determined to take vengeance in another way; and she did it with such
cruelty and barbarity that one may rightly say it was done according to
Genoese fashion, and it was as follows:—
“She contrived, according to what was said at the time and it seems
to be truth, to get hold of the brothers Bartolomeo and Francesco,
sons of Giustino Canaccj, youths of about twenty-four or twenty-five,
who though they did not inhabit, yet frequented their step-mother’s
house; and after much talk representing to them how her licentious
life brought ignominy on themselves and their posterity and that as
persons of birth and consideration it behoved them to free themselves
of her presence, she promised if they would do this not only to give
them every help but such protection as would save them from any peril,
and as they were poor she also promised to grant them a life-long
allowance. I am by no means certain that the Duchess spake thus to
both, or only to Bartolomeo the elder brother, who as we shall see
was present at the misdeed and paid the penalty. It was said that the
brothers, or the one, as it may have been, at first refused, but the
offers being at length accompanied by threats they agreed to introduce
into their step-mother’s house those persons chosen by the Duchess to
work their vengeance (which was in truth her own) on poor Caterina.
Some imagined that one of the reasons which led Bartolomeo to assist
in the murder of his step-mother was her rejection of his love. Now as
such things have occurred I do not absolutely deny that it may have
been so, but it seems unlikely to me that Bartolomeo would have been
received in his father’s house, also people would have talked much
about it and I never remember to have heard it mentioned. Anyhow the
Duchess got four assassins from Massa, and they entered one by one into
the city so as to avoid observation and suspicion and were kept by her
until the time was ripe for effecting her abominable project, which
was not until the night of 31st December 1638, and was in this guise.
At about three hours of the night Bartolomeo Canaccj, accompanied by
the aforesaid bandits who stood at the opposite side of the street in
the shade, knocked at his step-mother’s door; her maid looked out of
the window and asked who was there, and on his answering _friends_ she
recognised his voice and drew the cord of the latch; when Bartolomeo
and the assassins rushed up the stairs with such fury that Lorenzo
Serzelli and Messer Vincenzio Carlini, who were talking with Caterina,
suspected some evil thing and springing to their feet had hardly time
to fly by another staircase on to the roof, whence they escaped to a
neighbouring house, before the ruffians with naked swords in their
hands appeared at the door. Poor Caterina was then murdered by these
infamous executors of the barbarous cruelty of the Duchess, together
with her maid probably to prevent her from giving evidence. After which
the bodies of these two most unfortunate women were cut into pieces,
carried silently out of the house and put into a carriage; parts of the
bodies were thrown down a well at the corner of Via de’ Pentolini and
Piazza Sant’ Ambrogio, others were thrown into the Arno and found next
day, all save the head of poor Caterina which those murderers carried
to the Duchess for the full execution of this Tragedy as shall be
hereafter set forth.
“All these particulars were seen by Carlini and Serzelli, who with
hot haste had left the house where they had taken refuge and knocked
at one opposite to Caterina’s where lived a well-known woman commonly
called Aunt Nannina, because three of the most famous courtezans of our
day were her nieces. The door was at once opened to them, and from a
slit in the window of an upstairs room they saw and heard what I have
related.
“Now the Duchess, by one of her waiting-women, was used to send to the
Duke’s room on Sundays and other holidays a silver basin covered with
a fair cloth, containing collars, cuffs and such-like things which the
Duke was wont to change on those days. But on this the 1st of January,
a day sacred to Christians because on it is celebrated the circumcision
of Our Lord and also because according to the rites of the Roman Church
it is the beginning of the year, the present sent was of a different
nature. Taking the head of poor Caterina, which though bloodless and
cold yet preserved the beauty which had been the cause of her death,
the Duchess placed it in the basin, covered it with the usual cloth and
sent it by her waiting-woman, who knew nought of the business, into the
Duke’s room. When he rose and lifted the cloth to take his clean linen,
let his horror be pictured when he saw such a pitiful sight. It is not
my intention to describe here the lamentations, the sorrow, the anguish
and the tears shed over the lifeless head of his love; they can be
better imagined than writ with a pen. Knowing full well that his wife
had done this deed he would have no more of her, and for many a long
year refused to be where she was. When she came to Florence, he left
for one of his villas, or for Rome where he had large estates; and if
she went to a villa or to Rome, incontinently he returned to Florence.
“But to return to our lamentable story. When the murder was known next
day and the bodies of the unfortunate women were recognised, Giustino
Canaccj, the husband of Caterina, and Bartolomeo and Francesco his
sons were seized and imprisoned together with another son, whose name
I forget, with his wife and an unmarried daughter of the said Giustino
and one married to Luigi Tedaldi as well as Luigi himself. But against
those scoundrels who committed the murder, either because the court
had no knowledge of them, or because they had taken refuge in flight,
or for some other occult reason, no steps were taken, nor against
their principal; so true is the common saying that justice acts only
against the poor, and that laws are like cobwebs, which catch flies
and such small creatures while large ones tear and break them. Of
the above-named prisoners, Giustino, his daughters, his step-son and
the other son with his wife were liberated after a time as innocent;
but Bartolomeo and Francesco were kept in prison and subjected to
torture. Francesco, either really innocent and not present at the
murder, or more prudent, or perchance more fortunate, confessed nothing
and after many months was set free; but Bartolomeo, they say, whether
truly or not will never be known, confessed to have aided in this
terrible affair and on the ... of 1639 was beheaded in the doorway of
the Bargello. Small applause did justice get for this execution, good
citizens being scandalized that the less guilty one who had been, as we
say, dragged into the business by the hair of his head and was known to
have been a poor wretch of small wit, and thought to have been tortured
into saying more than he knew, should suffer capital punishment; while
the real delinquent, the principal and head of it all, received no
punishment save perchance from her own conscience and sense of shame.
It is true, and it was said at the time, that Madame Christine of
Lorraine, grandmother to the Grand Duke Ferdinando II, a princess
of great learning, good and pious, and very zealous in the cause of
justice, horrified by so atrocious a deed wished to have the Duchess
arrested; but as soon as the murder had been committed she fled to her
villa of S. Cerbone, and warned of her danger left for Rome; so justice
contented itself with exiling her, but the sentence was soon commuted.
“Such was the end of the barbarity and cruelty of Duchess Veronica
which I have described at length, not from any love of evil-speaking,
but from the desire to enlighten posterity. The more so that it was
said that justice, if it merits the name, in order to save the great
bore heavy on the weak and, as we say, to throw dust in the eyes of
the public, drew up two statements, one true which remained hid, one
false which was published to the world. Let those who read these my
recollections remember that our proverbs are always apt, and that whoso
forgathers with great people is the last at table and the first at the
gallows.”
* * * * *
Cardinal Gregorio, the last of this branch of the Salviati, left his
villa in 1794 to his niece Anna, married to Prince Borghese. Her two
sons Prince Cammillo Borghese and Prince Don Francesco Aldobrandino
inherited it at her death in 1809, and the three sons of the latter,
Prince Marc’ Antonio Borghese, Prince Cammillo Aldobrandini and Duke
Scipione Salviati sold it to Mr Vansittart in 1844. Later the old
place once more changed hands and became the property of the Duke of
Candia, better known as Mario, whose glorious voice, charming and
courtly manners and great personal beauty will be remembered by many
of my readers. When Garibaldi was in Florence he paid a visit to Mario
and Grisi, and a remarkably ill-painted picture still hanging in the
corridor of Villa Salviati commemorates the scene. M. Hagermann, a
Swede, bought the villa from Mario, and his heirs have lately sold it
to Signor Turri.
[Illustration: (Drawing of Villa)]
FOOTNOTES:
[60] Eldest son of the Prince of Massa, of whom Donna Veronica was the
fourteenth child.
[61] Daughter of Alessandro I, Duke of Mirandola, married to Alberico,
brother to Veronica.
[62] Married in 1626 to Galeotto, son of Alessandro I, Duke of
Mirandola.
[63] Le Nozze di Jacopo Salviati con Veronica Cybo, descritte da un
contemporaneo, MDCXXVII. In Lucca co’ Torchi di B. Canovetti, 1871.
Al Conte Ottavio Sardi nel Giorno delle sue Nozze con la Nobile
Donzella Olimpia Fatinelli offre congratulandosi Giovanni Sforza, VII
Settembre MDCCCLXXI.
[Illustration: (Drawing looking up at hills)]
VILLA DI FONT’ ALL’ ERTA
The name of this whole district is Camerata, derived, says Salvini,
from “camere” or deposits for water-conduits. Villani thinks Fiesole
had two suburbs—Villa Arpina and Villa Camarti—the latter being the
scattered village now called Camerata; but Boccaccio recounts that long
before Fiesole was built or thought of, the forests which clothed the
hills around were the favourite hunting-grounds of the fair goddess
Diana. He describes her crinkly golden hair, tall, lithe figure,
beautiful eyes and face “shining like the sun,” when in the month of
May she met her nymphs—
“By the fair waters of a limpid Fount
With flowers and grasses ever freshly decked,
Still welling from the foot of Cecer’s mount,
Just where from midday Throne with rays direct
The Sun looks down....”[64]
“This,” writes Roberto Gherardi, “is the fountain now called Font’
all’ Erta, at the foot of Monte Ceceri looking due south, below the
villa of the Signori Pitti-Gaddi; of which one can only now see some
pieces of wall, and some ruins and vestiges in the public road at the
beginning of the slope; but the people are still alive who assure me
that about the year 1710 the course of the water which came from
a tank a little above and from other springs near by, was deviated
because it chilled the land below and damaged the crops of the podere.
At the time of our Boccaccio I find that this podere with Houses,
Tanks, &c., extending to the end of the plain of San Gervasio, was sold
on the 5th June 1370 by Giovanni di Agostino degli Asini to Messer
Bonifazio Lupo, Marquis of Soragona and a Knight of Parma, who at
that time was admitted a citizen of Florence. Being moved by a spirit
of much-to-be-praised piety and a feeling of gratitude towards the
Florentine Republic, he obtained from the same on the 20th December
1377, as is stated by Ammirato in his XIII. book, permission to found
the hospital in Via San Gallo of the said city, called precisely
Bonifazio from the name of so pious a benefactor.”[65]
[Illustration: COSIMO I, DE’ MEDICI.
By PIETRO POLO GALEOTTI.
(_Villa di Pelraja_).]
[Illustration: ALESSANDRO DE’ MEDICI.
By DOMENICO DI POLO.
(_Villa di Cafagginolo_).]
[Illustration: FERDINANDO I, AND CHRISTINE OF LORRAINE.
By MAZZAFERRI.
(_Villa di Pratolino_).]
When Florence became the capital of Italy the old Via di Font’ all’
Erta was done away with and a broad boulevard took its place. Remains
of an old water-conduit and cistern of Roman work were unearthed below
the tank mentioned by Roberto Gherardi; a rusty sacrificial knife, some
human bones and a few bits of Roman pottery were also found near by. On
moonlight nights “the White Spectre,” as the peasants call it, a dim
form—a cloud of white mist—floated hither and thither over the spot,
but the uneasy spirit has not been seen since the new road was made.