1351-1352
TWO EMBASSIES
Boccaccio did well to be anxious. The greed of the Visconti, the
venality and indifference of the Pope, threatened the very liberty of
Tuscany, and though Boccaccio had till now held no permanent public
office in Florence, we have seen him as a witness to the donation
of Prato, as ambassador for the Republic in Romagna, and as its
representative offering Petrarch a chair in the new university. He
was now to be entrusted with a more delicate and serious mission.
But first, on his return from Padua in January-February, 1351, he
became one of the Camarlinghi del Comune.[419] During the remainder
of that year we seem to see him quietly at work in Florence,[420]
most probably on the _Decameron_, and then suddenly in December he
was called upon to go on a mission to Ludwig of Brandenburg, Count
of Tyrol.[421] Florence was tired of appealing to the Pope always
in vain and had at last looked for another champion against the
Visconti. Deserted by the Church, at war with the Visconti, Florence
had either to submit or to find a way out for herself, and with her
usual astuteness she hoped to achieve the latter by calling to her
aid the excommunicated Ludwig. The moment was well chosen. Ludwig was
just reconciled with Charles IV, King of the Romans, the greatest
enemy of his house. He was poor and in need of money, little loved
in his own country, and not indisposed to try any adventure that
offered. So Boccaccio set out. The letters given to him December
12, 1351, were directed to Conrad, Duke of Teck, who had already
visited Florence in 1341, and to Ludwig himself.[422] We know,
however, nothing personal to Boccaccio with regard to this mission.
In fact save that it was so far successful that Ludwig sent Diapoldo
Katzensteiner to Florence to continue the overtures we know little
about it at all. Katzensteiner's pretensions, however, proved to be
such that the Florentines would not accept them, and communications
were broken off.[423] That was in March, 1352. On May 1 a new project
was on foot. Florence decided to call the prospective Emperor Charles
IV, the grandson of her old enemy Henry VII, into Italy to her
assistance.[424]
That a Guelf republic should turn for assistance to the head of
the Ghibelline cause seems perhaps more strange than in fact it
was. Guelf and Ghibelline had become mere names beneath which local
jealousies hid and flourished, caring nothing for the greater but
less real quarrel between Empire and Papacy. Charles, however, was to
fail Florence; for at the last moment he withdrew from the treaty,
fearing to leave Germany; when he did descend later, things had
so far improved for her that she was anything but glad to see him
especially when she was forced to remember that it was she who had
called him there. After these two failures Florence was compelled to
make terms with the Visconti at Sarzana in April, 1353, promising
not to interfere in Lombardy or Bologna, while Visconti for his part
undertook not to molest Tuscany.[425] But by this treaty the Visconti
gained a recognition of their hold in Bologna from the only power
that wished to dispute it. They profited too by the peace, extending
their dominion in Northern Italy. In this, though fortune favoured
them, they began to threaten others who had looked on with composure
when they were busy with Tuscany. Among these were the Venetians,
who made an alliance with Mantua, Verona, Ferrara, and Padua, and
were soon trying to persuade Florence, Siena, and Perugia to join
them.[426] Nor did they stop there, for in December, 1353, they too
tried to interest Charles IV in Italian affairs. When it was seen
that Charles was likely to listen to the Venetians the Visconti too
sent ambassadors to him, nor was the Papacy slow to make friends.
[Illustration: THE PALACE OF THE POPES AT AVIGNON]
In 1352 Clement VI had died, and in his stead Innocent VI reigned
in Avignon. He was determined to assert his claims in Italy, and
especially in the Romagna, and to this end despatched Cardinal
Albornoz, the redoubtable Spaniard, to bring the unruly barons
of that region to order. The whole situation was delicate and
complicated. Florence was in a particularly difficult position. She
had called Charles into Italy without the Pope's leave--she, the
head of the Guelf cause. He had not come. Now when she no longer
wanted him he seemed to be coming in spite of her and with the Pope's
goodwill. She seems to have doubted the reality of that, as well
she might. Moreover, though she and her allies would have been glad
enough to join the Venetians, the situation was too complicated for
hurried action, especially as a treaty only two years old bound them
not to interfere in Lombardy and Bologna so long as they were left
alone.
Charles's own position can have been not less difficult. Now that he
seemed really eager to enter Italy, both sides seemed eager for him
to do so. Should he enter Italy as the "Imperatore de' Preti," and so
make sure of a coronation, or descend as the avenger of the imperial
claims? He hesitated. In these circumstances it seemed to the
Florentines that there was but one thing to do--to inform themselves
of the real intentions of the Pope, and when these were known, to
decide on a course of action. In these very delicate missions his
countrymen again had recourse to Boccaccio. He set out on April 28,
1354.[427] His instructions were to find out whether the Emperor
was coming into Italy with consent of His Holiness, to speak of the
loyalty of Florence to the Holy See, and to protest her willingness
to do whatever the Pope desired. At the same time he had to obtain
at least this, that the Pope should exert himself to save the honour
and independence of the republic. Again, if the Pope pretended that
heknew nothing of the advent of Charles, but asked the intentions of
Florence in case he should enter Italy, Boccaccio was instructed to
say that he was only sent to ask the intentions of His Holiness. In
any case he was to return as quickly as possible.
The Pope's answer seems to have been far from clear. Boccaccio
returned, but a few months later Dietifeci di Michele was sent as
ambassador to Avignon with almost the same instructions and with the
same object in view.
Can it be that Florence really did not understand the situation as
we see it, or was that situation in reality very dangerous to her
liberty? It is difficult to understand how she can have failed to
see that the Pope had already won. It was obvious that he had come
to some arrangement with Charles, which proved to be that the Church
would crown him on condition that he only spent the day of his
incoronation in Rome and respected the sovereignty of the Pope in the
states of the Church. Moreover, if this were not enough, as Florence
knew, the presence of Albornoz in Romagna had already drawn the teeth
of the Visconti so far as they were dangerous to Tuscany. However,
it seems to have been in considerable fear and perplexity that she
saw Charles enter Padua early in November, 1354. Now if ever, some
thought doubtless, the White Guelf ideal was to be realised. Among
these idealists was, alas, Petrarch, whose hymn, not long written
perhaps, _Italia Mia_, surely dreamed of quite another king than a
German prince. Boccaccio was, as I think, better advised. In his
seventh Eclogue he mercilessly ridicules Charles, who in fact, though
not maybe in seeming, was the instrument of the Pope. He entered
Italy by the Pope's leave. Padua received him with honour, but Cane
della Scala of Verona clanged to his gates, and the Visconti with
bared teeth waited to see what he would do. He went to Mantua and
Gonzaga received him well. There he expected the ambassador of
Tuscany, but as the Pope's friend the Ghibellines knew him not, they
smiled bitterly at the "Priests' Emperor," only Pisa pathetically
stretching out her hands to Cæsar's ghost, while, as claimant of the
imperial title the Guelf republics would have none of him. Florence
need have had no fear, the Church had out-manœuvred her enemies as in
old time.
Charles, however, was not contemptible. Simple German as he was,
he soon grasped the situation. He made friends in some sort with
Visconti, and in this doubtless Petrarch, who had urged him on, was
able to assist him. From them he received the iron crown, though not
indeed at Monza, but in Milan, in the church of S. Ambrogio, and at
their hands. That must have been a remarkable and unhappy time for
the King of the Romans, in spite of Petrarch's talk and friendship.
Presently he set out for Pisa and so to Rome, where he received the
imperial crown on April 4, 1355, and, returning to Pisa, as though
in irony of Petrarch's enthusiastic politics, crowned the grammarian
Zanobi da Strada poet laureate. Yet this was surely but a German
joke. As for Florence, still trembling it seems, she took as firm a
stand as she could, and asked only the protection and friendship of
the Emperor, offering no homage or subordination. The Sienese, on
the other hand, in spite of their treaty with Florence, offered him
their lordship. Others followed their example, and Pisa was filled
with Ghibellines claiming the destruction of Florence, the head and
front of the Guelf faction. Charles, however, refused to adventure.
He demanded from Florence only money, as a fine, by paying which she
was to be restored to his favour, and that her magistrates should be
called Vicars of the Empire. She forfeited nothing of her liberty and
none of her privileges as a free republic. Yet at first she refused
to acquiesce. It was only after an infinite number of explanations
that she was brought to consent. Indeed, we read that the "very
notary who read out the deed broke down, and the Senate was so
affected that it dissolved. On the next day the Act was rejected
seven times before it was passed. The bells were the only merry folk
in Florence, so jealous were her citizens of the liberty of their
state."
FOOTNOTES:
[419] Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 258. I quote the document.
_Camarlinghi del Comune_ Quad. 75 and 76 Gennaio-Febbraio 1350-1.
"In dei nomine amen. Hic est liber sive quaternus In se continens
solutiones factas tempore Religiosorum virorum fratris Benedicti
caccini et fratris Iacopi Iohannis de ordine fratrum sancti marci de
flor. Et discretorum virorum domini Iohannis Bocchaccij de Certaldo
pro quarterio S^i Spiritus et Pauli Neri de bordonibus pro quarterio
S^e Marie novelle laicorum, civium florentinorum, camerariorum camere
comunis florentie pro duobus mensibus initiatis die primo mensis
Ianuarij Millesimo trecentesimo quinquagesimo [1351, n.s.] Ind iiij,"
etc. etc.
[420] In May, as we have seen, he was inscribed in the Arte dei
Giudici e Notai. Cf. _supra_, p. 145, n. 4.
[421] Cf. HORTIS, _Boccaccio Ambasciatore_, _cit._, p. 8, n. 4, and
Docs. 2, 3, 4, 5.
[422] Cf. HORTIS, _op. cit._, p. 9. n. 1. BALDELLI, _op. cit._, pp.
112-13, and WITTE are wrong in supposing Ludwig to be Ludovico il
Romano, as Hortis shows.
[423] Florence broke off communications after consulting Siena and
Perugia. Cf. _Arch. Stor. Ital._, Ser. I. App. VII, p. 389.
[424] Cf. _Arch. Stor. Ital._, _u.s._, p. 389.
[425] Cf. MATTEO VILLANI, Lib. IV. In July (see letter quoted
_supra_) we know Boccaccio to have been in Ravenna. He says to
Petrarch, "Pridie quidem IIII ydus julii forte Ravennam urbem
petebam, visitaturus civitatis Principem et ut ferebat iter Livii
forum intravi...." He arrived, then, on July 12, and it was a
friend he met in Forlì (Livii) who told him that Petrarch had
entered the service of the Visconti. He reproaches him, as we have
seen. Nelli, whom he here calls Simonides, was also in Ravenna. He
upbraids Petrarch, as we have seen, in allegory, asking how Sylvanus
(Petrarch) can desert and betray the nymph Amaryllis (Italy) and go
over to the oppressor Egon (Visconti), the false priest of Pan (the
Pope), a monster of crime. Cf. CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 47.
[426] See docs. cited in _Arch. Stor. Ital._, _u.s._, pp. 392-4.
[427] Baldelli, Hortis, Landau, and Koerting are all in agreement
that this mission took place in April, 1354, not April, 1353. The
instructions of the Republic, which I quote _infra_, were published
by Canestrini in _Arch. St. It., u.s._, p. 393, but under the
erroneous date of April 30, 1353. In April, 1353, Charles was not
about to set out.
The letter of instruction is as follows:--
"Nota agendorum in Romana Curia cum domino Summo Pontifice, pro
parte suorum et Ecclesie devotorum, Priorum artium et Vexillifero
Iustitie Populi et Comunis Florentie, et ipsius Comunis per providum
virum dominum Iohannem Bocchaccii de Certaldo, ambaxiatorum Comunis
predicti.
"Primo quidem, idem orator eosdem Priores et Vexilliferum et Comune,
ea qua videntur, prelatione debita et devota, Sanctitati Apostolice
humiliter commendabit.
"Secundo, narrabit Sanctitati Sue quod Illustris Romanorum et
Boemie Rex, per suas licteras, et nuncios Comuni Florentino et eius
Regiminibus, advenctum suum ad partes Italicas fiendum in proximo
nuntiavit: que annuntiatio miranda venit auditui predictorum, pro eo
quod, nunquid descendat de Summi Pontificis conscientia vel non, in
Comuni Florentie non est clarum. Quod Comune, devotum Sancte Romane
Ecclesie intendens, ut consuevit, hactenus a Sancta Matre Ecclesia,
in nichilo deviare, certiorari cupit die Apostolica conscientia ut
in agendis procedat cauctius, et suis possit, favore apostolico,
negotiis providere. Cuius Summi Pontificis si responsum fuerit, se
et Ecclesiam Romanam de eiusdem Imperatori descensu esse contentos,
tunc subiungat supplicando, quod Populum et Comune Florentie
dignetur recommendatos habere tamquam devotos Ecclesie et Apostolice
Sanctitatis, ut in devotione solita possint idem Comune et populus
erga Sanctam Matrem Ecclesiam libere conservari.
"Si vero idem dominus Summus Pontifex eiusdem discensus diceret se
conscium non esse, et vellet de intentione Comunis Florentie ab eodem
oratore perquirere; dicat se non habere mandatum, nisi sciscitandi
Summi Pontificis voluntatem.
"Et qualequale precisum et finale responsum ad promissa datum fuerit
per Apostolicam Sanctitatem, idem ambaxiator festinis gressibus
revertatur.
"Insuper, exposita eidem Sanctitati devotione qua floruerunt hactenus
nobiles de Malatestis de Arimino ... Ceterum, dominum Clarum de
Peruzziis, episcopum Feretranum et Sancti Leonis....
"Particulam quoque, que advenctus Romani Regis in Ytaliam agit
seperius mentionem, nulli pandat orator affatus, nisi quatenus
iusserit deliberatio Apostolice Sanctitatis."
The entry in the Libri d' uscita della Camera dei Camerlinghi del
Comune--Quaderno del Marzo-Aprile, 1354, under date April 29, is
given by CRESCINI as follows:--
"Domino Iohanni del Boccaccio
Bernardo Cambi.
honorabilibus popularibus civibus Florentinis ambaxiatoribus
electis ad eundum pro dicto Comuni ad dominum summum pontificem,
cum ambaxiata eisdem per dominos priores et vexilliferum Imponenda,
pro eorum et cujusque ipsorum salario quadragintaquinque dierum
Initiandorum ea die qua iter arripient de civitate Florentie ad
eundum pro dicto Comuni in ambaxiatam predictam, ad rationem:
librarum quatuor et solidorum decem flor. parv., cum tribus equis
pro dicto domino Iohanne; et solidorum viginti flor. parv. cum uno
equo pro dicto Bernardo, per diem quamlibet, vigore electionis
de eis facte per dictos dominos priores et vexilliferum Iustitie
cum deliberatione et consensu officij Gonfaloneriorum sotietatis
populi, et duodecim bonorum virorum dicti Comunis; ac etiam vigore
provisionis et stantiamenti facti per dictos dominos priores et
vexilliferum Iustitie una cum off^o duodecim bonorum virorum
dicti Comunis, publicati et scripti per ser Puccinum ser Lapi
notarium, scribam officij dictorum priorum et vexilliferi et vigore
apodixe transmisse per dictos dominos priores et vexilliferum per
dictum ser Puccinum notarium, in summam inter ambos ... libro
ducentasquadraginta septem, solidos decem fl. parv."