_From a Print by Raffaelle Morghen, after a Picture by G. Vasari._
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London. Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
]
To this beneficent administration the aspiring Cosmo had long offered a
troublesome opposition; and he now succeeded in ensnaring it into a
ruinous war with Lucca, by which he obtained the double object of
destroying its popularity, and of employing considerable sums of money
with unusual profit. But the reverses of the republic were attributed to
a treasonable correspondence between him and the enemy, and in 1433 he
was seized and condemned to ten years’ banishment, having averted
capital punishment by a timely bribe. The absence of a citizen who spent
more than a great king in acts of piety, benevolence, and liberality,
was, however, severely felt in the small city of Florence, and the
intelligence of the honours he received everywhere in his exile raised
him still more in public estimation. The number of his friends
increased, indeed, so rapidly, that at the September elections in the
following year they completely defeated the ruling party, and chose a
set of magistrates by whom he was immediately recalled. This event,
erroneously considered as a victory of the people over an aristocracy,
was, properly speaking, a triumph of the populace over the more educated
classes of the community, and it proved fatal to the republic. Placed by
fame, wealth, and talent, at an immeasurable elevation above the obscure
materials of his faction, from the moment of his return to that of his
death, August, 1464, Cosmo exercised such an influence in the state,
that, though he seldom filled any ostensible office, he governed it with
absolute authority by means of persons wholly subservient to his will.
But, under the pretence of maintaining peace and tranquillity, he
superseded its free institutions by a junto invested with dictatorial
power; he caused an alarming number of the most respectable citizens to
be banished, ruined by confiscation, or even put to death, on the
slightest suspicion that by their wealth or connexions they might oppose
his schemes of ambition; and he laboured with indefatigable zeal to
enslave his own confiding countrymen, not only by spreading secret
corruption at home, but also by changing the foreign policy of his
predecessors, and helping his great friend, Francesco Sforza, and other
usurpers, to crush the liberties of neighbouring states.
Cosmo is nevertheless entitled to the grateful recollections of
posterity for the efficient patronage he afforded learning and the arts,
though he evidently carried it to excess as a means of promoting his
political designs. He was profuse of favours and pensions to all who
cultivated literature or philosophy with success; he bought at enormous
prices whatever manuscripts or masterpieces of art his agents could
collect in Europe or Asia; he ornamented Florence and its environs with
splendid palaces, churches, convents, and public libraries. He died in
the seventy-fifth year of his age, just after a decree of the senate had
honoured him with the title of Father of his country, which was
subsequently inscribed on his tomb.
Lorenzo de Medici, the subject of the present memoir, was born at
Florence on the 1st of January, 1448. His father was Piero, the son and
successor of Cosmo: his mother, Lucretia Tornabuoni, a lady of some
repute, both as a patroness of learning and as a poetess. He had
scarcely left the nursery when he acquired the first rudiments of
knowledge under the care and tuition of Gentile d’Urbino, afterwards
Bishop of Arezzo. Cristoforo Landino was next engaged to direct his
education; and Argyropylus taught him the Greek language and the
Aristotelian philosophy, whilst Marsilio Ficino instilled into his
youthful mind the precepts and doctrines of Plato. The rapidity of his
proficiency was equal to the celebrity of his masters, and to the
indications of talent that he had given in childhood. Piero, who was
prevented by a precarious state of health from attending regularly to
business, rejoiced at the prospect of soon having in his own son a
strenuous and trusty coadjutor; and on the death of Cosmo, the domestic
education of Lorenzo being completed, he sent him to visit the principal
courts of Italy, in order to initiate him into political life, and to
afford him an opportunity of forming such personal connexions as might
advance the interests of the family. Piero pretended to succeed to
Cosmo’s authority, as if it had been a part of his patrimony; but the
Florentine statesmen, who thought themselves superior to him in age,
capacities, and public services, disdained to pay him the same deference
they had shown the more eminent abilities of his father. Besides, Cosmo
had taken especial care to conciliate the esteem and affection of his
countrymen. He had never refused gifts, loans, or credit to any of the
citizens, and never raised his manners or his domestic establishment
above the simplicity of common life. But Piero seemed to have no regard
for the feelings of others: he ruined several merchants by attempting to
withdraw considerable capital from commerce; he allowed his subordinate
agents to make a most profligate and corrupt monopoly of government; and
he shocked the republican notions of his countrymen by seeking to marry
Lorenzo into a princely family. These causes of discontent arrayed
against him a formidable party, under the direction of Agnolo
Acciajuoli, Niccolo Soderini, and Luca Pitti, the founder of the
magnificent palace, now the residence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. A
parliament of the people rejected Piero’s proposition of re-appointing
the dictatorial junto, whose power expired in September, 1465. His cause
was evidently lost, had his enemies continued firmly united; but the
defection of the unprincipled Luca Pitti enabled him to recover his
authority, which he soon secured by banishing his opponents, and by
investing five of his dependants with the right of choosing the
magistracy. Lorenzo is said on this occasion to have been of great
assistance to his father; and a letter of Ferdinand, King of Naples, is
still extant, in which that perfidious monarch congratulates him on the
active part he had taken in the triumph, and in the consequent
curtailment of popular rights.
The populace of Florence were now entertained with splendid festivals,
and with two tournaments, in which Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano bore
away the prizes. These tournaments form an epoch in the history of
literature; the victory of Lorenzo having been commemorated by the
verses of Luca Pulci, and that of Giuliano, by a poem of Politian, which
restored Italian poetry to its former splendour. About this period,
1468, Lorenzo became enamoured, or rather fancied himself enamoured, of
a lady whom he described as prodigiously endowed with all the charms of
her sex, and he strove to immortalize his love in song. But, whether
real or supposed, his passion did not prevent him from marrying Clarice
Orsini, of the famous Roman family of that name. The nuptials were
celebrated on the 4th of June, 1469, on a scale of royal magnificence.
The death of Piero, which happened about the end of the same year, was
not followed by any interruption of public tranquillity. The republicans
were now either old or in exile; the rising generation grew up with
principles of obedience to the Medici; and Lorenzo was easily
acknowledged as the chief of the state. An attempt at revolution was
made a few months afterwards at Prato, by Bernardo Nardi and some other
Florentine exiles; but the complete inertness of the inhabitants
rendered it unsuccessful. Nardi and six of his accomplices were executed
at Florence; the remainder at Prato. Surrounded by a host of poets,
philosophers, and artists, Lorenzo, however, left the republic under the
misgovernment of its former rulers, whilst he gave himself up to the
avocations of youth, and indulged an extraordinary taste for pompous
shows and effeminate indulgence, which had a most pernicious influence
on the morals of his fellow-citizens. The ostentatious visit which his
infamous friend Galeazzo Sforza paid him in 1471, with a court sadly
celebrated for its corruption and profligacy, is lamented by historians
as one of the greatest disasters that befell the republic.
Lorenzo went soon afterwards on a deputation to Rome, for the purpose of
congratulating Sixtus IV. on his elevation to the papal chair. He met
with the kindest reception; was made treasurer of the Holy See, and
honoured with other favours; but he could not obtain a cardinal’s hat
for his brother Giuliano. Accustomed to have his wishes readily
gratified, he could not brook the refusal, and he sought his revenge in
constantly thwarting the Pope in his politics, whether they tended to
the advancement of his nephews, or to the liberty and independence of
Italy. A disagreement, which arose in 1472, between the city of Volterra
and the republic of Florence, afforded another instance of the
peremptoriness of his character. He, at first, made some endeavours to
convince the inhabitants of Volterra of their imprudence; but finding
that the exasperated citizens rejected his advice, he prevailed on the
Florentine government to repress them by force, though his uncle Tomaso
Soderini and other statesmen of more experience strongly recommended
conciliatory measures. An army was accordingly sent under the command of
the Count of Urbino, which, after obtaining admission into the
unfortunate city by capitulation, despoiled and plundered its
inhabitants for a whole day.
Though, on his first succeeding to his father, Lorenzo did not attempt
to exercise the sovereign authority in person, he assumed it by degrees,
in proportion as he advanced in manhood; and he even became so jealous
of all those from whom any rivalry might be feared, that he depressed
them to the utmost of his power. His brother, less ambitious and less
arrogant than himself, tried to stop him in his tyrannical career; but
Giuliano was five years younger: his representations had no effect; and
these vexatious proceedings gave origin to the conspiracy of the Pazzi.
The parties engaged in this famous attempt were several members of the
distinguished family of the Pazzi, whom Lorenzo had injured in their
interests as well as in their feelings; Girolamo Riario, a nephew of the
Pope, whose hatred he had excited by continual opposition to his
designs; Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa, whom he had prevented
from taking possession of his see; and several other individuals of
inferior note, who were either moved by private or public wrongs. After
vain endeavours to seize the two brothers together, the conspirators
resolved to execute their enterprize in the cathedral of Florence, on
the 26th of April, 1478, in the course of a religious ceremony at which
they were both to be present. At the moment that the priest raised the
host, and all the congregation bowed down their heads, Giuliano fell
under the dagger of Bernardo Bandini, whilst Lorenzo was so fortunate as
to escape, and shut himself up in the sacristy until his friends came to
his assistance. A simultaneous attack on the palace of government failed
of success, and the Archbishop Salviati, who had directed it, was hung
out of the palace windows in his prelatical robes. All those who were
implicated in the conspiracy, or connected in any way with the
conspirators, were immediately put to death. Lorenzo exerted all his
influence to obtain those who had taken refuge abroad; and his wrath was
not appeased until the blood of two hundred citizens was shed. The Pope
pronounced a sentence of excommunication against him and the chief
magistrates for having hanged an archbishop; and sent a crusade of
almost all Italy against the republic, requiring that its leaders should
be given up to suffer for their scandalous misdemeanour. The superior
forces of the enemy ravaged the Florentine territory with impunity: the
people began to murmur against a war in which they were involved for the
sake of an individual; and Lorenzo could not but see that his situation
became every day more critical and alarming. But having been confidently
apprized that Ferdinand was disposed to a reconciliation with him, he
took the resolution of going to Naples, as ambassador of the republic,
in the hope of detaching the King from the league, and of inducing him
to negotiate a peace with the Pope. Through his eloquence and his gold,
he was successful in his mission; and after three months’ absence, at
the beginning of March, 1480, he returned to Florence, where he was
received with the greatest applause and exultation by the populace, to
whom the dangers incurred by him in his embassy had been artfully
exaggerated.
This ebullition of popular favour encouraged Lorenzo to complete the
consolidation of his power by fresh encroachments on the rights of his
countrymen. In 1481 another plot was formed against him; but his
watchful agents discovered it, and Battista Frescobaldi, with two of his
accomplices, were hanged. Tranquil and secure at home, as well as
peaceful and respected abroad, he now diverted his mind from public
business to literary leisure, and spent his time in the society of men
of talent, in philosophical studies, and in poetical composition. But
his rational enjoyments had a short duration. Early in 1492 he was
attacked by a slow fever, which, combined with his hereditary
complaints, warned him of his approaching end. Having sent to request
the attendance of the famous Savonarola, to whom he was desirous of
making his confession, the austere Dominican readily complied with his
wish, but declared he could not absolve him unless he restored to his
fellow-citizens the rights of which he had despoiled them. To such a
reparation Lorenzo would not consent; and he died without obtaining the
absolution he had invoked. Piero, the eldest of his three sons, was
deprived of the sovereignty in consequence of the reaction that the
eloquent sermons of Savonarola produced in the morals of Florence.
Giovanni, whom Innocent VIII., by a prostitution of ecclesiastical
honours unprecedented in the annals of the church, had raised to the
Cardinalship at the early age of thirteen, became Pope under the name of
Leo X., and gave rise to the Reformation by his extreme profligacy and
extravagance; and Giuliano, who afterwards allied himself by marriage to
the royal House of France, was elevated to the dignity of Duke of
Nemours.
Lorenzo de Medici has been extolled with immoderate applause as a poet,
a patron of learning, and a statesman. His voluminous poetical
compositions, embracing subjects of love, rural life, philosophy,
religious enthusiasm, and coarse licentiousness, exhibit an uncommon
versatility of genius, a rich imagination, and a remarkable purity of
language; but in spite of the exaggerated eulogies lavished on them by
his own flatterers and by those of his dependants, they never obtained
any popularity, and are now nearly buried in oblivion. His efforts for
the diffusion of knowledge and taste shine more conspicuous; in this
laudable course he followed the traces of Cosmo and of his father. It
is, however, impossible to conceive any strong reverence or respect for
his memory without forgetting his political conduct, which is far from
deserving any praise.
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
_Engraved by E. Scriven._