_Lung’Arno Acciaiuoli. No. 4._
In 1109 Guigliarello Acciaiuoli came from Brescia, where his family
had made a fortune by working in steel (acciaio)--hence their name.
He bought many houses in Borgo S.S. Apostoli and a domain in the
Val di Pesa, where he built a tower which was still standing in
1588 when Giovambattista Ubaldini wrote the _Origine della Famiglia
Acciaiuoli_. True to the Guelph traditions the family brought with
them from Brescia, Leone Acciaiuoli was forced to fly from Florence
after the Ghibelline victory at Montaperti in 1260 and his palace was
destroyed. On the return to power of the White, or Guelph, party,
Dardano Acciaiuoli became Gonfalonier of Justice, and was afterwards
sent with full powers from the Signoria of Florence, “considering his
great prudence and legal knowledge,” as Captain of the People to rule
Pistoja. When in 1282 the government of Florence was changed and the
Priors were instituted, Riccomanni degl’Acciaiuoli, doctor of law, was
elected Prior of his _Sesto_ of the city. He founded a great bank, or
commercial company, with branches in many parts of Italy, in France,
England, Greece, Africa and Asia, and sent Acciaiuolo Acciaiuoli to
manage the branch at Naples. There he became the trusted friend and
counsellor of King Robert, who made him a Baron, gave him great
estates in Apulia and the lordship of Prato in Tuscany with the title
of royal Vicario. His far more famous son Niccola, was born in 1310 at
Monte Guffoni in the Val di Pesa, and married before he was eighteen.
Three years later he took his father’s place at Naples, and being
remarkable for personal beauty, dignified in manner and gifted with a
brilliant intelligence, he soon attained such favour at court that when
the Prince of Taranto died in 1332, his widow appointed him, by the
advice of her brother-in-law King Robert, guardian of her three young
sons and of the principality. Evil tongues whispered that his good
looks had much to do with this nomination. Six years later Niccola went
to Greece, taking Louis, the eldest of Catherine’s sons, with him and
succeeded in making him the real, instead of only the titular, Prince
of Acchaia. On the death of King Robert, leaving the Kingdom to his
niece Joan, married to the coarse and illiterate Andrew of Hungary,
Niccola and Prince Louis returned to Naples. Joan fell in love with
her young cousin, and one morning Andrew was found strangled in his
bed. Acciaiuoli, who was supposed to have aided in the murder, became
all-powerful when the Queen married Louis of Taranto, and was created
Grand Seneschal of the Kingdom, Count of Melfi, etc. He acquired very
large possessions in Apulia, Sicily and Greece, and was made Count
of Malta and Gozzo, a title he ceded to his son Angiolo during his
lifetime. On the occasion of his going to Avignon as ambassador, Pope
Innocent VI. gave him the Golden Rose (the first time a private person
had been thus honoured), created him a Senator of Rome, Count of the
Campagna and Rector of the ecclesiastical patrimony. He next sent him
as envoy to Bernabo Visconti at Milan to claim the restitution of
Bologna. Finding Bernabo obdurate, Acciaiuoli led the Papal troops
against Bologna and installed the Legate there in triumph. He did not
forget his own country, for it is to him that we owe the magnificent
convent of the Certosa near Florence, where his eldest son, Lorenzo,
as handsome and as gifted as his father, was buried in great state in
1354. He also built the villa of Monte Guffone, of which only the shell
remains showing how beautiful it once was,[1] and the great Acciaiuoli
palace on the Lung’Arno of the same name, adjoining those of other
members of the family. As Orcagna was the architect employed at the
Certosa he may also have designed Niccola’s fine town house. A cousin
of his, Messer Dardano Acciaiuoli, built the church of S. Niccolò in
Via della Scala and commissioned Spinello, who, as Vasari tells us,
was then (1334) beginning to be known as a good painter, to fresco the
whole church with stories from the life of S. Niccolò of Bari. The
church was demolished but some of the frescoes are still to be seen in
the pharmacy of Sta. Maria Novella.
The Grand Seneschal Niccola Acciaiuoli is described by Matteo Palmieri
as being “of more than the ordinary height, lithe, strong, of noble
and pleasing presence, with a certain vivacity and gaiety which
rendered him a most agreeable companion. His hair was auburn, his
eyes large and brilliant, his aspect kindly and smiling; broad in
the chest and well made, he used his left hand as dexterously as his
right. He dressed well, and when attending any solemn function always
wore silk or brocade and had a large following, not, as he was wont
to say, for himself, but for the honour of his King. A great lover of
arms and of horses, of which he sought to have the best that could be
procured, he would, after breaking them in, give them as presents,
with magnificent saddles and bridles, to the great personages of the
Kingdom. Naturally inclined towards good and noble deeds he was liberal
even to prodigality. Many times he risked, not only his patrimony, but
his own and his son’s lives in the service of the King. He pardoned
far oftener than he avenged evil done to himself. He was sober in
eating and drinking, but his table was magnificently furnished for
his friends and when he gave public entertainments, as often happened
when he returned to visit his own country, where he was received with
the highest honours and would give balls, games and other festivals.
He led a pure and religious life, observing the fasts ordained by the
Church so strictly that on fast days he only ate one piece of dry bread
and drank pure water.... His life was a prosperous one, and though
he worked hard and suffered infinite privations both by day and by
night, he was seldom ill. He died at Naples on November 8, 1365, being
fifty-six years of age.”
Of his fine palace there is a delightful description in, I should
think, one of the first guide-books written about Florence:--
“In Borgo S.S. Apostoli in the houses of the Acciaiuoli are many
statues and many pictures of the greatest beauty by famous artists;
more especially in the house of Alessandro are there many things of
rare worth. For there is a writing-room adorned with pictures and
fine statues, and among them are the twelve Emperors by Giambologna,
of such beauty that they are admired beyond measure by artificers who
can appreciate them. Besides this there is a garden on strong arches
about fifteen braccia high, in a street close to the Arno and looking
due south, where the air is soft and pleasant. There in pots and on
espaliers are such delightful greenery and fruits, such as lemons
and pomegranates, that although the space is not really large, yet
the delight it gives is so great that it appears so. Above this, and
behind, rising yet higher, is another terrace filled with similar
trees; it is marvellous to see the quantity of fruit produced and what
good condition it is in. Above, and still farther back is yet another
terrace, more than thirty braccia from the ground and the view thence
is so beautiful that the soul is rejoiced; wherever a man turns he
enjoys the sweet air, full of the perfume of fruit and of flowers
which are ever abundant according to their season. Water is lifted by
ingenious devices from below up to the third floor garden, so that the
moisture when dried up by the heat can be quickly restored. In the
lower garden is a beautiful fountain of Carrara marble ornamented with
lovely statues. A room, of large dimensions, opens on to this garden,
with a fine ceiling and more than thirty portraits of the principal
ladies of our city who are famed for their beauty. The pictures, by
well-known artists, are highly praised for their execution and their
admirable likenesses.”[2]
Niccola Acciaiuoli bequeathed his castles and lands in Greece to Neri,
his nephew and adopted son, who after conquering Thebes and the whole
of Boeota drove the Spaniards out of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and
Megara. The Acciaiuoli ruled Greece for nearly a hundred years, until
Mahomet II. took the country and strangled Duke Lionardo. Vespasiano
da Bisticci, in his _Life of Neri_, declares that “others may go about
begging nobility for their family, the Acciaiuoli have enough and to
spare. They are allied to all the principal houses of the kingdom
[Naples]; to the Prince of Taranto and to other lords through the
marriages of their women; among them Madonna Andrea degl’ Acciaiuoli,
Countess of Altavilla, a woman of singular renown to whom Messer
Giovanni Boccaccio sent the book of _Illustrious Women_, she being
possessed of such high authority.”
Many were the Gonfaloniers, Priors and ambassadors, the Acciaiuoli gave
to Florence. Donato, whose mother was a daughter of Palla Strozzi,
inherited his grandfather’s love of letters, and when ambassador
to France presented King Louis XI. with the lives of Charlemagne,
Scipio and Hannibal, written by himself. He also wrote commentaries
on Aristotle’s Ethics, Politics and Physics. He died at Milan whilst
on an embassy to the Duke and his body was brought to Florence where
Cristofano Landini read the funeral oration in the Duomo. The Republic
dowered his two daughters and named Lorenzo de’ Medici and three
other citizens guardians of the young sons. One of them, “the prudent
and well-endowed” Ruberto, was sent on an embassy to Louis XII., who
bestowed on him and his descendants the privilege of adding a Lily of
France, surmounted by a royal crown, to his arms. A descendant and a
namesake of his is the hero of one of the saddest and most romantic
stories of the seventeenth century. Handsome and brave like all
his race, the son of Donato Acciaiuoli had long admired Elisabetta
Mormorai, wife of Giulio Berardi, and on her husband’s death they
agreed to marry. But his uncle the Cardinal had decided that his
good-looking nephew was to make an alliance which might be of use to
him in his designs upon the Papal chair. So he induced the Grand Duke
Cosimo III. to forbid the marriage and to order Elisabetta to enter a
convent. Ruberto immediately contracted a canonical marriage with her
by letter, and fled to Milan where he published it. At the same time he
demanded justice from the Grand Duke, the Archbishop, the Cardinal and
his own father. The validity of the marriage was upheld in Lombardy,
in Florence it was declared to be a mere engagement and not binding,
and the lady was removed from her convent and shut up in a fortress. On
the death of the Pope in 1691 Ruberto wrote to the assembled cardinals
imploring them, and the future Pope, to do him justice. All Italy
was interested in the fate of the lovers and the Cardinal Acciaiuoli
tried to throw all the blame on his relations. The Grand Duke set
Elisabetta free and she joined her husband at Venice, where Cosimo was
openly accused of arbitrary and unjust conduct, and of truckling to the
private spite of the Cardinal. He thereupon made formal application
to the Republic to deliver up Acciaiuoli and his wife on the plea of
_lèse majesté_. They fled, but were followed by his emissaries and
taken into custody at Trent disguised as friars. Ruberto Acciaiuoli was
condemned to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Volterra and to
the loss of his patrimony, whilst to Elisabetta was offered the choice
of repudiating her marriage or of being confined in the women’s part
of the same prison. In the hopes of mitigating the severity of her
husband’s sentence she chose the former, and died of grief a few months
later.
[Illustration: TOWER OF THE ALBERTI.]
The family were supposed to be extinct in 1760, but at this date
Senhor De Vasconcellos came from Madeira and proved his descent from
an Acciaiuoli who had settled in the island at the end of the XVth
century. He married the orphan daughter of the last of the Florentine
Acciaiuoli and took her name, but the family came to an end when
Monsignore Filippo, a learned prelate, died at Venice in 1834.