helpmate, became the counsellor to whom Lorenzo turned for help,
consolation, and advice. He also had the good fortune to have a wise
and capable man by his side, Tommaso Soderini, husband of his mother’s
sister, Dianora Tornabuoni. Soderini’s influence was considerable, and
he used it to induce his fellow-citizens to confirm Lorenzo in the
pre-eminent though entirely unofficial position held by his grandfather
and his father. There was hardly a dissentient voice when the chief
citizens of Florence came to the Medici palace and begged him to take
charge of the city as they had done.
Niccolò Valori describes Lorenzo as “above the common stature, with
broad shoulders, solidly built, robust, and second to none in agility.
Although nature had acted towards him like a stepmother with regard
to his personal appearance, in all things connected with the mind she
had been a loving mother. His complexion was swarthy, and although
his face was not handsome, it was so full of dignity as to command
respect. He was short-sighted, his nose was flattened, and he had no
sense of smell. This did not trouble him. He was wont to say that he
was grateful to nature, disagreeable things being more common than
agreeable ones to so delicate a sense.”
Lorenzo was much inferior to his grandfather Cosimo in commercial
talent, but he was a genius, and as Symonds writes, “possessed of
one of those rare natures, fitted to comprehend all knowledge and to
sympathise with the most diverse forms of life. While he never for a
moment relaxed his hold on politics, among philosophers he passed as
a sage, among men of letters for an original and graceful poet, among
scholars for a Grecian, sensitive to every nicety of Attic idiom, among
artists for an amateur gifted with refined discernment and consummate
taste. Pleasure-seekers knew in him the libertine, who jousted with the
boldest, danced and masqueraded with the merriest, sought adventures in
the streets at night, and joined the people in their May-day games and
Carnival festivities. The pious extolled him as an author of devotional
lauds and mystery plays, a profound theologian, a critic of sermons.
He was no less famous for his jokes and repartees than for his pithy
apothegms and maxims, as good a judge of cattle as of statues, as much
at home in the bosom of his family as in the riot of an orgy, as ready
to discourse on Plato as to plan a campaign or to plot the death of a
dangerous citizen.”[150]
A philosopher, a diplomatist, a “Pagan much inclined to the worship of
Venus,” as Machiavelli tells us, a Christian as shown in his _Laudi_
and his _Capitoli_, evidently written _con amore_, a staunch friend,
generous and kind, yet he is generally accused of having ordered the
sack of Volterra--now, however, proved to have been instigated by the
mercenaries engaged to defend the town--and of causing his opponents to
be tortured and executed. The indelible stain on Lorenzo’s fair name is
his interference with the deposits in the _Monte_.[151] Cambi, who it
must be remembered was no friend of the Medici, writes: “On the 13th
August 1490 seventeen so-called Reformers were created by the authority
of the Signory, the Colleges of the Council, of the People, and of the
Commune, the Council of the One Hundred, the officers of the _Monte_,
and the whole _Popolo_ of Florence. Under pretext of revising the
coinage and the duties they altered the entries of all monies received
for the use of the State for the benefit of Lorenzo de’ Medici, who
needed money in order to make his son Messer Giovanni a cardinal, which
he did. And it was done with the money of the Commune. Counting what
they gave him after he became a cardinal, it cost the Commune 10,000
scudi in gold. From the poor dowers of the married maidens and of those
about to be married they deducted by means of taxes and the reduction
of all future interest 3/4 per cent. of the interest, so that what
should have given 3 per cent. they lowered to 1-1/2 per cent., and even
that was not paid.... Thus few maidens married, and those few only
by dint of money. Even then the permission of Lorenzo de’ Medici was
necessary. Let every one therefore consider what it means to create
tyrants in the city, to make a Balia and to call a parliament.”[152]
It was fortunate for the Italian language that the young Lorenzo fell
under the influence of Leon Battista Alberti, who asserted that “though
the ancient tongue has undisputed authority because so many learned
men have employed it, the like honour will certainly be paid to our
language to-day if men of culture take the pains to purify and polish
it.” The revival of classical learning had almost arrested the study
of Italian. In spite of the example of Dante and Boccaccio, Latin was
the patrician and literary language, and even when men of letters used
the vulgar tongue they interlarded it with Latin. Poliziano’s letters
are a case in point. The example of Lorenzo altered all this. In his
letter to Federigo of Naples (p. 88) he passes extraordinarily acute
criticism on the old Italian poets, and in his Commentary, which takes
up ninety-three double pages in the Aldine edition of his poems, he
predicts a glorious future to the language used by Dante, Cavalcanti,
Petrarch, and Boccaccio. “Men and practice,” he says, “have rather
been wanting to the language than the language to the men.” Muratori,
treating of the poetry of the fifteenth century, gives the palm to
Lorenzo, and Carducci declares him to be little if at all inferior to
Poliziano and Pulci.
Incessantly occupied in preserving the balance of power in Italy, yet
in his short life of forty-two years he wrote an amount of poetry,
and good poetry, which would do credit to a man whose whole life is
dedicated to literature. Treated as an equal by popes and princes--the
King of France doffed his cap to his ambassadors and called him “my
beloved cousin”--he was at home with the artisan and the peasant,
whose tastes he to a certain degree shared, and whose characters he
so perfectly understood and describes. In _La Nencia da Barberino_,
that gayest of gay poems overflowing with _la joie de vivre_, often
imitated but never surpassed, Vallera, the shy love-sick peasant, sings
the praises of his Nencia, who, with her pretty ways and soft words,
her eyes as black as coal, and her fair curly hair, would bear away
the palm among a thousand city maidens. Such a dancer too. She bounds
like a young goat, whirls like the wheel of a mill and then curtsies,
no Florentine lady can do it better. He offers to buy her a paper
cornet full of rouge or powder, or pins, or a necklace of those little
red buttons [coral] when he goes to Florence, for he would draw the
marrow from his bones to give her pleasure. Could he put his heart
into her hands it would cry “_Nencia, Nencia bella_,” if she cut it
with a knife. But Nencia flirts with other swains, his sighs are full
of tears, he waits for her to come with her sheep when he drives his
heifers to pasture, and the cruel girl turns back.[153]
Lorenzo’s love of the country, of country life, and of animals,
is shown in _Ambra_ and _La Caccia col Falcone_. The former is an
allegorical description of a flood which swept away an island at
Lorenzo’s favourite villa, Poggio a Caiano. Winter is approaching. Only
the bay, the myrtle, and the prickly juniper, shine among the bare
trees, while the few birds take refuge in the cypresses. The olives
on a southern slope sway, now green now silver white, to the breeze.
The cranes print varied and beautiful lines on the sky, and Lorenzo
notes how the leader cedes his place, when tired, to one of those in
the rear. The eagle slowly circles in the air, a menace to all smaller
fowl. Zephyr has fled to Cyprus, where he dances with the lazy flowers
among the green grass. Boreas drives the mists down from the Alps,
and the river, writhing like a serpent in the valley, gathers his
tributaries. With strange sounds he rises. The yellow foam is tossed
into the air as the wicked turbid stream rolls stone upon stone, and
dashing against the dykes, overwhelms Ambra, “beloved of Lorenzo.”
The terrified peasants take refuge on the roofs of their cottages,
and watch their poor riches being swept away. Then comes the more
artificial and well-worn tale of the lovely nymph Ambra pursued by the
river god Ombrone, her prayer to the chaste goddess, and her farewell
to Lorenzo as she is turned to stone.
_La Caccia col Falcone_ is a graphic account of the sport Lorenzo
loved. Falcons, dogs, and men are drawn with facile pen by a man who
delighted in country life and open air.
_Selve d’Amore_ is a lover’s complaint on the absence of his lady.
Jealousy, Hope, and the Age of Gold, which existed before the opening
of Pandora’s box, are described. He invokes his mistress in these
beautiful lines beginning:
“O vaghi occhi amorosi,”
and at last she appears, Beauty on her right hand, Love on her left.
This is, however, not the place to describe Lorenzo’s poems, the fine
_Altercazione_, a Platonic dialogue; the _Capitoli_, or _I Beoni_. His
_Ballate_, _Canzone di Ballo_, and _Canzone Carnescialeschi_, which
represent the popular, often very licentious poetry of the streets, are
known to all Italian scholars. Il Lasca (A. Grazzini), after describing
the masqueraders parading the streets with _Trionfi_, allegorical or
mythological cars, and _Carri_ filled with men representing various
trades, each one preceded and followed by its special attendants
singing and dancing, and many masqued horsemen, says: “The Magnificent
Lorenzo invented this manner of celebrating the festival. Formerly
men dressed up as women went about the streets singing and dancing,
imitating the maidens who thus greeted the month of May. The
Magnificent, finding it was always the same thing, imagined to change
not only the songs but the whole representation and the words, writing
songs with varied metres, and causing new and different airs to be
written. The first of these masquerades was performed by men who sold
sugar-plums and _berriquocoli_ (small cakes), and the music, for three
voices, was written by a certain Arrigo Tedesco,[154] head of the choir
of S. Giovanni, a musician of great repute in those days.”
The most beautiful of Lorenzo’s carnival songs is _Il Trionfo di Bacco
e Arianne_, beginning:
“Quant’ è bella giovanezza
Che si fugge tuttavia.”
Lorenzo’s sonnets are many, and some are worthy to rank with those of
the most famous poets; indeed Muratori, in the specimens of perfect
poetry appended to his treatise, cites four of them, together with
the finest of Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and other great poets. In
the _Laudi_, and the sacred play _S. Giovanni e Paolo_, can be traced
Lorenzo’s early bringing up under his mother, herself no mean poetess,
and the good Bishop Gentile. The play was written in later life for his
children who acted it. It is said that Lorenzo himself took the part
of Constantine. Already ill, and oppressed with cares, the Emperor’s
address to his sons describing the duties of a ruler, and the lines
“Spesso chi chiama Costantin felice
Sta meglio assai di me e’l ver non dice,”
have a sad autobiographical ring.
Lorenzo, the one great statesman of Italy, had no easy part to play.
As prudent as he was dexterous, the preservation of peace in Italy
was his constant aim, to be attained by a maintenance of the balance
of power so that no one State should become pre-eminent. His violent
and unscrupulous enemy Sixtus IV. used every arm against him. When
assassination failed he tried excommunication, and the laying of
Florence under an interdict. The Florentines answered by appointing
twelve citizens as a bodyguard to Lorenzo, and bidding the clergy to
celebrate the sacraments. His sagacity, not only as a Tuscan but an
Italian, was shown by the able way in which he traversed French schemes
for interfering in Italy, although the fortune of his house was largely
dependent on the well-being of the bank at Lyons. So quietly and
unostentatiously was this done that French ambassadors were instructed
to act according to his advice, and he became the intermediary between
Rome and Paris.[155] “Lorenzo,” writes Dr. Creighton, “had striven
to identify the Medici family with Florence, and had been himself
the representative and expression of the desires and aspirations of
Florentine life and culture. He had also learned that the existence
of Italy depended upon the maintenance of internal peace, and his
efforts for that end had, for the last ten years of his life, been
unceasing. His early experience had taught him how difficult was the
position which he had to maintain, that of chief citizen of a free
city, whose fortunes and whose very existence depended on exercising
absolute power without seeming to do so. It is easy to accuse him of
insidiously destroying Florentine liberty; but the policy of Sixtus IV.
left him no choice between such a course and retirement from Florence,
and he may be pardoned if he doubted whether his abdication would
conduce to the welfare of the city. He has been accused of abetting the
moral enervation and corruption of his people; but the causes of this
corruption are to be found in the general character of Italian life,
and Lorenzo did no more than follow the prevailing fashion in lending
his refinement to give expression to the popular taste. Lorenzo did
what all Italian statesmen were doing; he identified his city for good
and ill with his own house. He worked craftily and insidiously, not by
open violence, and in the midst of his self-seeking he retained the
large views of a statesman and embodied the culture of his age.”[156]
The Marquess Gino Capponi in his History of Florence writes: “The
Medici palace was a museum, a school, and a place of meeting for all
the learned men who flocked thither, from it proceeded grave counsel
and intellectual teaching as well as shows and festivals, and a general
corruption of manners. Two popes passed their childhood there, and the
Platonic Academy, intended to raise the standard of life and thought,
was founded within its walls. Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, one
of the greatest men of his time, were constant visitors. There the
first chips flew off the marble under the chisel of Michelangelo, and
there Luigi Pulci read the Morgante aloud. Such exuberance of life,
such magnificence, such gaiety, has probably never been witnessed in
any other age, and the name of Lorenzo towers above it all.”[157]
Ricordi of Lorenzo the Magnificent, son of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici
A brief narrative of the course of my life and of some other important
things worthy of remembrance for the guidance and information of
those who will succeed me, and especially for my sons. Begun this day,
the 15th March 1472.
I find from the books of Piero our father that I was born on January
1, 1449 [1450]. By our mother Maria Lucrezia di Francesco Tornabuoni
our father had seven children, four male and three female, of whom
four are still alive. They are Giuliano my brother, aged ... and
myself, aged twenty-four, Bianca, wife of Gugliemo de’ Pazzi, and
Nannina, wife of Bernardo Rucellai.
Giovanni d’ Averardo, surnamed Bicci, de’ Medici, our
great-grandfather, died on the 20th February 1428, at the fourth
hour of the night. He would not make a will, and left property to
the amount of 179,221 scudi _di suggello_, as appears in a record in
the handwriting of Cosimo our grandfather in his red leather book on
page 7. The said Giovanni lived sixty-eight years, and left two sons,
Cosimo our grandfather, then about forty, and Lorenzo, aged thirty.
Lorenzo had one son, Pier Francesco, born on ... 1430, who is still
alive.
Cosimo had two sons, our father Piero, born ... and our uncle
Giovanni, born ... On September ... 1433 our grandfather Cosimo
was imprisoned in the Palace, and in danger of losing his head. On
September 9th he was banished to Padua, together with his brother
Lorenzo, a sentence confirmed by the Balìa of 1433 on the 11th, and on
the 16th December he was permitted to reside anywhere in the Venetian
territory, but not nearer to Florence than Padua.
On September 29, 1434, the Council of the Balìa revoked the sentence
of exile, to the great joy of the whole city and of almost all Italy,
and here [in Florence] he lived until his last day as head of the
government of our Republic.
Lorenzo de’ Medici, brother of Cosimo our grandfather, quitted this
life at Careggi on September 20, 1440, aged about forty-six, at the
fourth hour of the night, and would not make a will; Pier Francesco,
his son, was his sole heir. The property amounted to 235,137 scudi
_di suggello_, as appears in the said book kept by Cosimo on page 13,
which amount Cosimo kept for the use and benefit of the said Pier
Francesco, and for Piero and Giovanni, his own sons, until they were
of proper age, as appears in the books of the said Cosimo, wherein is
a detailed account of all.
On December ... 1451 the said Pier Francesco being of age, we
divided the property according to the arbitration of Messer Mannello
degl’ Strozzi, Bernardo de’ Medici, Alamanno Salviati, Messer Carlo
Marsuppino, Amerigo Cavalcanti, and Giovanni Serristori, by whom a
liberal half of our possessions was assigned to him, giving him the
advantage over us and the best things. The deed was drawn up by Ser
Antonio Pugi, notary, and at the same time we gave him an interest of
one-third in our business, whereby he gained much more than we did as
he had no expenses.
Giovanni, our uncle (_et hujus quidem ingenio et virtute, plurimum
confidebat Cosmus, qua propter ejus interitu maxime doluit_), died on
November 1, 1463, in our house in Florence, without making a will,
because he had no children and was under parental tutelage. But all
his last wishes were faithfully carried out. By Maria Ginevra degl’
Alessandri he had a son named Cosimo, who died in November 1461, at
about the age of nine.
Cosimo our grandfather, a man of exceeding wisdom, died at Careggi
on August 1, 1464, being much debilitated by old age and by gout, to
the great grief not only of ourselves and of the whole city but of
all Italy, because he was most famous and adorned with many singular
virtues. He died in the highest position any Florentine citizen ever
attained at any period, and was buried in S. Lorenzo. He refused to
make a will and forbade all pomp at his funeral. Nevertheless all
the Italian princes sent to do him honour and to condole with us
on his death; among others H.M. the King of France commanded that
he should be honoured with his banner, but out of respect for his
wishes our father would not allow it. By public decree he was named
Pater Patriæ, and the decree and the letters patent are in our house.
After his death much sedition arose in the city, especially was our
father persecuted out of envy. From this sprang the parliament and the
change of government in 1466, when Messer Agnolo Acciaiuoli, Messer
Diotisalvi, Niccolò Soderini, and others were exiled, and the State
was reformed.
In the year 1465 H.M. King Louis of France, out of regard for the
friendship between our grandfather, our father, and the House of
France, decorated our escutcheon with three Lilies d’or on a field
azure, which we carry at present. We have the patents with the royal
seal attached, which was approved and confirmed in the Palace with
nine beans [votes].
In July 1467 came the Duke Galeazzo of Milan. He was fighting against
Bartolomeo of Bergamo in the Romagna, who was vexing our State. By his
own wish he lodged in our house, although the Signory had prepared
everything for him in S. Maria Novella.
In February or in March of the same year Sarzana, Sarzanelle, and
Castelnuovo were bought by the aid of our father Piero from M. Lorenzo
and M. Tommasino da Campofregoso; notwithstanding that we were
engaged in hot war the payment was made by Francesco Sassetti, our
confidential agent, at that time one of the managers of the _Monte_.
I, Lorenzo, took to wife Clarice, daughter of the Lord Jacopo Orsini,
or rather she was given (_i.e._ betrothed) to me in December 1468, and
the marriage was celebrated in our house on June 4, 1469. Till now I
have by her two children, a girl called Lucrezia, of ... years, and
a boy named Piero, of ... months. Clarice is again with child. God
preserve her to us for many years and guard us from all evil. Twin
boys were born prematurely at about five or six months old, they lived
long enough to be baptized.
In July 1469 I went to Milan at the request of the Illustrious Duke
Galeazzo to stand godfather as proxy for Piero our father to his
first-born child. I was received with much honour, more so than the
others who came for the same purpose, although they were persons more
worthy than I. We paid our duty to the Duchess by presenting her with
a necklace of gold with a large diamond, which cost near 2000 ducats.
The consequence was that the said Lord desired that I should stand
godfather to all his children.
To do as others had done I held a joust in the Piazza S. Croce at
great expense and with great pomp. I find we spent about 10,000 ducats
_di suggello_, and although I was not highly versed in the use of
weapons and the delivery of blows, the first prize was given to me; a
helmet fashioned of silver, with Mars as the crest.
Piero, our father, departed this life on July 2nd, aged ... having
been much tormented with gout. He would not make a will, but we drew
up an inventory and found we possessed 237,988 scudi, as is recorded
by me in a large green book bound in kid. He was buried in S. Lorenzo,
and we are still at work to make his and his brother Giovanni’s tomb
as worthy to receive his bones as we can. God have mercy on their
souls. He was much mourned by the whole city, being an upright man and
exceedingly kindly. The princes of Italy, especially the principal
ones, sent letters and envoys to condole with us and offer us their
help for our defence.
The second day after his death, although I, Lorenzo, was very young,
being twenty years of age, the principal men of the city and of the
State came to us in our house to condole with us on our loss and
to encourage me to take charge of the city and of the State, as my
grandfather and my father had done. This I did, though on account of
my youth and the great responsibility and perils arising therefrom,
with great reluctance, solely for the safety of our friends and of our
possessions. For it is ill living in Florence for the rich unless they
rule the State. Till now we have succeeded with honour and renown,
which I attribute not to prudence but to the grace of God and the good
conduct of my predecessors.
I find that from 1434 till now we have spent large sums of money, as
appear in a small quarto note-book of the said year to the end of
1471. Incredible are the sums written down. They amount to 663,755
florins for alms, buildings, and taxes, let alone other expenses. But
I do not regret this, for though many would consider it better to
have a part of that sum in their purse, I consider that it gave great
honour to our State, and I think the money was well expended, and am
well pleased.
In the month of September 1471 I was elected to go as ambassador for
the coronation of Pope Sixtus, and was treated with great honour. I
brought back the two antique marble heads, portraits of Augustus and
Agrippa, given to me by the said Pope Sixtus, and also our cup of
chalcedony incised, and many other cameos which I then bought.
The following adjunct is written on the fly-leaf of a small codex in
the archive in Florence without any date, but probably in 1483-5,
containing a list of letters written by Lorenzo to various people, and
above is written _Ricordi di Lorenzo de’ Medici_. All the first part
is in a codex in the Nazionale Library, a copy of Lorenzo’s _Ricordi_,
the original of which seems no longer to exist. It differs somewhat
from the version given by Roscoe, which he says was in Lorenzo’s own
handwriting.