_Via della Forca. No. 8._
The Martelli descend from an ancient family who owned the castle of
Stabbiello in the Val di Sieve, one of whom, Martello, came to Florence
early in the XIVth century, and from him they took their name. From
what Migliore writes, their houses were in Via degl’ Spadai (of the
armourers), but as they became more numerous and powerful the name
of the street was changed to Via de’ Martelli.[47] When the present
palace was built, or by whom, is not known.
Ruberto de’ Martelli, a rich Florentine banker, was created a Count
Palatine by the Emperor Paleologus in 1439; some years later Nicholas
V. made him Depositary of the Apostolic Chamber, and in 1455 the
Republic of Florence sent him to Rome to assist at the Conclave
which elected Pope Calistus III. But his name is better known as the
patron and friend of Donatello, whom he took into his house as a lad
and brought up. “The Martelli have,” writes Vasari, in his life of
Donatello, “many objects in marble and in bronze, amongst others a
David three braccie high, and many other things, most liberally given
by Donatello in attestation of the service and love he bore them; more
especially a S. Giovanni, a statue in marble of three braccie high,
all finished by him, a most rare piece, now in the house of the heirs
of Ruberto Martelli, who made it an heirloom, ordering that it should
never be pawned, sold, or given away.” Domenico, brother to Ruberto,
was a friend of Cosimo the Elder, who employed him in many embassies,
and in 1476 he was Gonfalonier of Justice, one of the nine the family
gave to Florence, besides thirty Priors. His son Braccio was among the
first of the adherents of the Medici to turn against them when Piero
fled the city. He then became one of the _Dieci di Guerra_, in 1495
he was Commissary of the war against Siena, and later of the siege of
Pisa. Pietro, his son, a munificent patron of men of letters, had a
considerable reputation as a mathematician. His cousin Lodovico was a
poet, whose tragedy _Tullia_ is said to have been admired. If true,
it only shows that people had more patience in those days, and were
content to listen to speeches of intolerable length and tedium. He led
the band of Florentine scholars who impugned the genuineness of Dante’s
_De Eloquio_, found and published by Trissino. Another Lodovico was the
hero of the duel with Giovanni Bandini, fought at Poggio Imperiale in
the presence of the Prince of Orange in 1530, so minutely described by
Varchi.[48] Lodovico died of his wounds, and his portrait was placed in
the Uffizi gallery amongst other patriots, though patriotism had little
to do with the duel, which was fought for love of Marietta de’ Ricci.
Camilla Martelli had the misfortune to attract the notice of the Grand
Duke Cosimo I., who was induced by Pius V. to marry her in 1560, thus
legitimating their daughter Virginia. He soon afterwards retired to the
Villa di Castello, virtually abdicating in favour of his son Francesco,
who inherited the cruelty and the vices of his father without his
ability. The years Camilla spent at Castello with Cosimo can hardly
have been happy, but after his death her life was a miserable one; shut
up as a prisoner in a convent, out of which she only emerged for a few
hours to assist at her daughter’s wedding with the Duke of Modena in
1586, she died, worn out with grief, four years later. Several of the
Martelli entered the Church. Francesco became Patriarch of Jerusalem
in 1698 and died a Cardinal, and Giuseppe was Archbishop of Florence
in 1732. He belonged to the Academy of the Crusca, and was a great
collector of books. The Martelli still live in the old family palace,
and possess Donatello’s works.