_Via della Vigna Nuova. No. 20._
Tradition says that the ancestor of the noble house of Rucellai was
a Messer Ferro, who came from Brittany with an Emperor, and took up
his abode at Campi, near Florence, where the family still own a fine
villa. But according to Count Passerini,[83] an acknowledged authority,
the real founder was Alamanno di Monte, a rich cloth merchant who,
whilst travelling in the Levant about 1250, observed that a beautiful
violet dye was extracted from the herb Oricella (_Lichen Rocella_
of Linnæus); he introduced it into Florence, and from it the family
took their name. Bernardo, his grandson, commonly called Naddo di
Giunta, was Prior in 1302, the first of eighty-five the Rucellai gave
to Florence; six years later he was Gonfalonier of Justice, and after
him thirteen others of the family filled that important post. He
built the chapel of Sta. Caterina, in Sta. Maria Novella, in which is
the stately Madonna, said by Vasari to have been painted by Cimabue,
whose triumphant progress through Florence he describes so vividly.
Bencivenni, his son, generally known as Cenni di Naddo, played an
important part in the faction fights between the Whites and the Blacks,
and was six times elected a Prior of his native city. When Gonfalonier
of Justice in 1328 he raised 60,000 golden florins to continue the
war against Castruccio Castrocane, and by his energy and acumen saved
Florence from falling into the clutches of the house of Anjou. After
the city, owing to the incapacity of Malatesta da Rimini, General of
the Florentine army, was seized by the Duke of Athens, Bencivenni’s son
Naddo was beheaded, and he only saved his own life by taking refuge
as a novice in the Dominican monastery of Sta. Maria Novella until
the city had thrown off the yoke of the tyrant. Bencivenni was a man
of large views and great prudence, he defended the people against the
nobles and was so trusted by them that it was a common saying when a
man was condemned to death, “God can save thee, or Cenni di Naddo.” The
Rucellai then lived near the Piazza Vecchia di Sta. Maria Novella, and
the Via di Cenni is supposed to take its name from him. Andrea, another
of Naddo’s sons, having no taste for commerce, took service in France,
where he was knighted, and fought in the wars against England. When
eventually he returned to Florence he was made Castellano of Carmignano
and the adjacent strong places guarding the Pisan and Lucchese
frontiers. A few days before his death he determined to knight his
two sons, Albizzo and Francesco; and as five marriages were to take
place in the Rucellai family, he gave a splendid entertainment for the
seven events in the cloisters of Sta. Maria Novella, which for a whole
week resounded with music and dancing, singing and feasting. “Never,”
says an old chronicler, “was so magnificent a sight.”
[Illustration: PALAZZO RUCELLAI.]
Berlinghieri, his nephew, usually called Bingeri di Naddo, was a
gallant soldier, to whom the town of Siena granted the right to quarter
her arms, a white lion on a red ground, with his own, as a reward
for his services against the Tolomei. Paolo, son of Bingeri, when
Gonfalonier of Justice in 1364, promulgated a law against the excessive
luxury of dress indulged in by the Florentine ladies, and augmented
the sum set apart every year by the Commune for the completion of
Giotto’s beautiful campanile. He left his second wife, Caterina
Pandolfini, with four young boys and little to live on. A descendant
of his, Francesco Rucellai, who wrote in the XVIIth century describes
Giovanni, the eldest, as “a man of singular goodness and well grounded
in literature. He began his commercial life under the auspices of
Messer Palla Strozzi, a man famed for his great learning, nobility
and immense riches. Palla seeing Giovanni’s excellent character and
keen intelligence, and loving him as a son, determined to give him
his daughter to wife, and he did it in this wise. Giovanni usually
accompanied Messer Palla every morning at dinner-time, after work was
over, as far as his house, and one day, when as usual he asked leave
to go to his own people, Messer Palla told him to enter his house, and
calling Jacopa, his daughter, told Giovanni to take the girl’s hand
because he intended that she should be his wife. The said Jacopa when
her father called her had just washed her hair, and did not wish to
appear before a stranger in undress, so her mother made excuses for
her; but Messer Palla insisted on being obeyed, saying in the presence
of his family that the young man brought by him was to be her husband.
In 1427 the marriage took place, when Giovanni became the partner of
Messer Palla in his commerce and participated in the great gains made
by the house of Strozzi, so that in time he became very rich.”
In 1456 Giovanni obliged his eldest son, Pandolfo, to marry
Caterina, daughter of Buonaccorso Pitti. Even as a child Pandolfo
was extraordinarily religious and had set his heart on entering the
Church; but he was a good husband and father, and showed great ability
in banking affairs and in the various high offices he filled. After
his wife’s death, when his children were grown up and no longer needed
him, he received the habit of S. Dominic at the hands of Savonarola,
to whom he was devoted. Owing to the exile of Messer Palla Strozzi,
Francesco Rucellai tells us that “Giovanni was out of favour, and for
twenty years was looked upon with suspicion by the party of Cosimo the
Elder, the ruler. So he was obliged to be careful, as people tried to
stir up accusations against him. But real goodness is above malice
and suspicion, and Giovanni preferred to suffer for the peace of the
Republic rather than harm his beloved country by attempting to change
the government for the benefit of Messer Palla and himself. Thus he
gave no hold to his enemies, and Cosimo, astonished, desired to have
him as a friend and relation. So in 1461 he gave Nannina, daughter of
his son Piero, to Giovanni’s second son Bernardo, a lad younger than
the bride.”
It is to Giovanni that we owe the lovely Palazzo Rucellai still
inhabited by the family, which was built by his intimate friend Leon
Battista Alberti, as well as the exquisite loggia opposite. In 1450
the palace was finished, and Neri di Bicci notes in his _Ricordi_: “In
1455 I painted for Giovanni Rucellai in his house five arches of sham
perspective, a coat-of-arms in high relief with a helmet, and two
half-length figures, a lady and a serving-man, in fresco.”
In the loggia of the Rucellai, now defaced by being turned into a
post-office, the marriages of three of Giovanni’s five daughters were
arranged on the same day “to his great content.” The citizens of
Florence used to meet and discuss their affairs under these loggie, and
after the introduction of the game of chess from the East, such large
sums of money were lost at dice, draughts and chess, that a law was
passed forbidding any games to be played in courtyards, porticoes, or
loggie. Sacchetti[84] describes how “while seated in a loggia a most
notable citizen of Florence, named Guido de’ Cavalcanti, was intent on
a game of chess, a boy, playing with other children at ball, or with
a top, as is their habit, often came near to him with such noise as
boys usually make, and being pushed by a companion against the said
Guido, he, perchance being worsted at the game, rose furiously and
struck the boy saying: ‘Go and play elsewhere,’ and then continued his
game. This angered the boy, who, crying and shaking his head, still
loitered around muttering: ‘I will repay thee,’ and having a nail from
a horseshoe he returned with the others to where Guido was playing, and
with a stone in his hand went behind him and began to hammer on the
bench at first softly, and at long intervals, and then quickly, and
more impetuously, so that he caused Guido to turn round and say: ‘Dost
thou desire more? It were better for thee to go home. What art thou
hammering with that stone?’ The boy answered, ‘I am only straightening
this nail.’ So Guido turned again to the board and continued his game.
Little by little the boy, always hammering with the stone, stole nigh
to where a fold of Guido’s tunic, or the trimming thereof, fell on to
the bench, and holding the stone with one hand and the nail with the
other, he drove it through the said fold, hitting harder and harder so
that it should be firm and fast, with the intent that the said Guido
should be driven to rise. And it came to pass as the boy desired.
Guido, sick to death of the hammering rose quickly in great anger, the
boy ran away, and Guido remained fastened to the bench by his tunic.”
Monsignore V. Borghini (MSS. Magliabechiana) mentions that fifteen
loggie existed in Florence when he wrote, and traces of some of them
may still be distinguished. One belonging to the Agolanti, opposite
the Ghetto, was so celebrated in olden times as a place for arranging
marriages, that the street corner was commonly called “del Parentado,”
and people said that beneath that loggia you might be sure “di non far
casaccia,” _i. e._, not to make an unsuitable alliance.
Not satisfied with building a palace, Giovanni also occupied himself
with churches, for Vasari writes: “Wishing to ornament the façade of
Sta. Maria Novella in marble at his own expense, Giovanni di Paolo
Rucellai consulted with Leon Battista, his intimate friend, and having
obtained, not only advice, but a design from him, resolved to do the
work in order to leave a memorial of himself, and it was finished,
to the great satisfaction of all, in 1477.” The Rucellai were always
great patrons of the church of Sta. Maria Novella. Albizzo di Naddo di
Giunta left in 1334 one hundred and sixty florins to build a tomb for
himself outside the chapel of All Saints and to pay for the painting
of the chapel itself. It was restored a hundred years later by Andrea
Rucellai, whose name can still be traced on the marble stoop at the
door. Another of the family, Gugliemo, gave the marble pulpit designed
by Brunelleschi, and beneath it he made a vault, in which he was buried
in 1477. He was so rich that he owned a large fleet of ships and was
deputed by the Republic to receive Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, when
he came to Florence. The indolence his brother Piero, Gonfalonier of
Justice in 1455, became proverbial. No letter was ever read or answered
by him, and Lorenzo the Magnificent, when he did not wish to reply to
any document used to say, “I shall do as did Piero di Cardinale.”
Giuliano Bugiardini painted the martyrdom of S. Catherine for the
altar of the chapel of the same name in Sta. Maria Novella for Palla
Rucellai. “He kept it twelve years,” writes Vasari, “and in all
that time never could finish it, as he lacked the invention and the
knowledge for representing the various incidents that occurred in that
martyrdom; and as he was always changing, trying how to arrange the
wheels and how to represent the lightning, and the fire that burned
them, he undid one day what he had done the day before.... Palla, who
often asked him to finish the picture, at length bethought him to
take Michelangelo to see it, and Bugiardini told him with how much
labour he had painted the lightning, which falling from heaven had
shattered the wheels and killed those who turned them; and the sun,
which shining from a cloud liberates S. Catherine from death. He then
begged Michelangelo, who could not control his laughter on hearing
the woes of poor Bugiardini, to tell him how _he_ would arrange eight
or ten principal figures in the foreground of the picture; a row of
soldiers on guard who, in the act of escaping, fall down wounded and
killed; because he did not know how to fore-shorten them in such way
as to get them all into so restricted a space. So Buonarroti, out of
complaisance, and having compassion on the poor man, took a piece of
charcoal and sketched a row of marvellous naked figures, fore-shortened
in various attitudes, some falling back and others forward, both dead
and wounded, drawn with the knowledge and the excellence which pertains
to Michelangelo.”
A curious book by Giovanni called _Il Zibaldone Quaresimale_ has
never been published in its entirety, but an account of it, and
various extracts are given by Marcotti.[85] It begins: “This book has
been planned and written by me Giovanni di Pagholo di Messer Pagholo
Rucellai, merchant and citizen of Florence in the year 1459, in the
castle of Sancto Gemignano where I am with all my family, having fled
from the plague in my city of Florence. In it I have begun to instruct
and inform my sons Pandolfo and Bernardo of many things that I think
may be useful to them. It will be a salad of various herbs according to
the understanding of the reader.”
There is a little of everything in the _Zibaldone_, town gossip,
reflections on the commercial superiority of Venice, copies of letters,
philosophical discussions, quotations from Aristotle, Boethius, Dante,
S. Bernard and Seneca, followed by moral and religious maxims taken
from sermons, an account of his forbears and their doings, excellent
advice as how to bring up children, and a description of his various
buildings. Near the end of the book his reasons for being thankful to
God, are so typical of a Florentine of the fifteenth century that I
give them in full:
“First I thank him for having given me life and made me a rational and
an immortal creature, for he might as easily have made me a mortal
beast without intelligence.
“Secondly I must thank him for causing me to be born in a place where
the true faith exists, that is in Christendom, and I must add in the
midst of the faith, that is near Rome, the residence of our Holy Lord
Pope and of his honourable brethren the cardinals, representing Christ
with the apostles; for he might have caused me to be born a Turk, a
Moor, or a barbarian, in which case I should have been irremediably
lost.
“Next I thank him for being born in Italy, which is the most worthy
and the noblest portion of all Christendom, and in the province
of Tuscany, which is reputed as amongst the worthiest provinces of
Italy and in which is part of the city of Rome which once dominated
the world: and in addition to have caused me to be born in the city
of Florence, which is reputed the most worthy and the most beautiful
birthplace there is, not only in Christendom but in the whole world.
“Then I thank him for causing me to live many years in perfect health,
for I am sixty years of age and do not think that in all my life I
spent a month in the house on account of illness, and it seems to me
that health is the greatest grace that one can receive.
“And then I thank him for the good fortune he has conceded to me in
my business, for I have increased and multiplied exceedingly the
small substance that was left to me, so that I find myself to-day
with considerable riches, fine prospects, great credit and a good
reputation. And not only has he conceded unto me grace in acquiring,
but also in spending these riches well, which is not a less virtue. And
I consider that having spent my riches well does me more honour than
having made them, and gives me more satisfaction, particularly with
regard to the buildings I have made; my house in Florence, my place at
Quaracchi,[86] the façade of the church of Sta. Maria Novella and the
loggia which is begun opposite my house, and also the chapel of the
Holy Sepulchre, like to that at Jerusalem of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
made in S. Pancrazio, and the hangings of golden brocade for the same
church.
“Also I have to thank him for causing me to be born of a good face,
that is of noble blood with high connections, and for giving me a fine
family, that is seven children, two male and five female, all of whom
have married into noble houses.
“Also I have to thank him for being born in the present time, which
all competent persons say is, and will be regarded as, the finest
period of our city since it was created, for the reasons that are set
forth in this book; and more particularly for living in the time of
the magnificent citizen Cosimo de’ Medici, who was and is so rich, has
so much knowledge and tact, so high a reputation and so numerous a
following, both outside and within the city, that in all Christendom
there has never lived such a citizen or one with so many good qualities
as have been and are in him; and among other graces vouchsafed to me
by God is that he has made me a relation of the said Cosimo, because
Nannina his grandchild, daughter of Piero his son, is the wife of
Bernardo my son, to whom was born on the 1st June, 1468, a son named
Cosimo.
“Also I thank him for many other benefits and gifts too numerous to
recount. Then I must thank him for guarding and defending me from many
evils and annoyances and adversities which I might have had and have
not had.
“Also I thank him for granting my desire of seeing our city at peace
in my day without any fear of war, for ten or more years, from 1454 to
1464, during which time I experienced perfect tranquillity of mind, and
reflected on the great anguish we endured in past times by reason of
wars and fear of wars.
“Also I thank him for an admirable mother he gave me, named Caterina,
who having four male children when our father, Pagolo, died, and being
nineteen years of age, would not abandon us, but strenuously resisted
the wishes of her mother and her brothers that she should marry again;
and he left her with me for a long time, as she lived more than eighty
years and was a great consolation to me.
“Also I thank him for the most worthy wife he gave me named Jacopa,
daughter to Messer Palla di Nofri Strozzi, who was a most dear wife to
me by reason of her great love for me and the good rule she kept in
our house and family; she was given to me for a long time as she lived
about fifty-five years, passing from this life on the 24th April, 1468,
and this I consider the greatest loss that I ever had or could have.”
The marriage of Giovanni’s son Bernardo with the fascinating Nannina
de’ Medici, sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was celebrated with
extraordinary magnificence. The whole street and the loggia, which was
enlarged for the occasion so as to cover the small triangular square
in front of the palace, were hung with blue cloth and decorated with
garlands of flowers and leaves. A stand, raised a foot and a half from
the ground, was erected, and for three days every Florentine of note
was entertained at the bridal feast, eating, drinking, dancing and
listening to music. 1,004 wax candles were made on purpose to burn for
twelve hours each, and 3,686 golden florins were spent by Giovanni in
honour of his Medici daughter-in-law.
Bernardo was a man of inordinate ambition, and when Piero de’ Medici
refused to listen to his advice, he became one of the most violent of
his antagonists. In 1502 he strenuously advocated the appointment of a
Gonfalonier for life, hoping the choice would fall upon himself: but
when Piero Soderini was elected, he again joined the Medicean party,
and the plot against Soderini was hatched in the Oricellari gardens.
He is described by contemporaries as difficult to get on with. He
scouted every plan that did not originate with himself, decried every
form of government because he was not the chosen head, and was swayed
by personal dislikes and a passion for popularity. But if he failed
as a statesman his learning was undeniable. The oration _de auxilio
Typhernatibus adferendo_, to induce the Florentines to succour Città di
Castello, was published in London in 1733 as a model of elegant Latin,
and at the same time his _de Bello Gallico_, which Erasmus declares
might have been written by Sallust, went into a second edition.
Muratori has published his _de Urbe Roma_, which is highly praised as a
description of ancient Rome.
The celebrated Platonic Academy, instituted by Cosimo the Elder, met in
the Rucellai gardens during the exile of its founder, whence its name
of Academia degl’Orti Oricellari.
Of the six children of Bernardo Rucellai and Nannina de’ Medici two
merit especial mention: Palla, who took the lead in turning the
Gonfalonier Piero Soderini out of the Palazzo della Signoria, and
thus paved the way for the return of the Medici to Florence; and
then repenting of having placed his country under such tyranny,
voted against the election of Cosimo I. to the throne, and is said
to have been poisoned by him; and the more famous Giovanni, author
of _Rosmunda_, _Oreste_, and _Le Api_. Giovanni, born in 1457, had
Francesco da Diacceto as his master in philosophy and literature, and
he was brought up with his cousin, Giovanni de’ Medici, afterwards Leo
X., Bibbiena and Machiavelli, in the society of such men as Poliziano,
Marsilio Ficino, the Pulci and Pico della Mirandola. Palla and Giovanni
were sent to France to finish their education, and a charming letter
written from Avignon by the latter is still extant.[87] “I seem to be
in the Promised Land,” exclaims the young Florentine, “abounding in
every good thing that can be desired in this world. Among others I
find myself opposite a house which is intimately connected with that
of Madonna Laura of Petrarch. And there, amidst other noble ladies,
is one whose like mine eyes have never beheld; verily nothing save
the name is lacking in her, so that the sonnets should hit the mark.
And if, on my return, I appear to thee another Petrarch, do not be
astonished, for love is the cause of all things; and if God (_ut
Platoni placet_) _non est mirandum_ if it works miracles. Also here
kisses are allowed, as glances are at home, only I find they have a
far sweeter flavour than in other places. Her name, to tell thee all,
is Anna, and had I more time I would send thee something to prove what
I have told thee. I have seen the effigy of Madonna Laura, which is
indeed most beautiful, and worthy to be loved by such a man as was
Petrarch. I wished to have her copied from the picture to send thee;
but there is not to be found a man capable of doing it in the way I
desire. Still I hope to send thee a sketch if fate so wills it. I have
already learned to say _nani_ and _oi_ (yes and no), and I can give a
kiss without smacking my lips.” When Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope,
young Giovanni Rucellai followed him to Rome and entered the Church. He
was for some time Papal Nuncio in France and afterwards Clement VII.
made him Castellano of S. Angelo.
Giovanni Rucellai’s _Rosmunda_ shares with the _Sofonisba_ of Trissino
the glory of being the first Italian tragedy. It depicts the well-known
story of Alboin, who turned the skull of his wife’s father into a
wine-cup, out of which he forces her to drink. When Giovanni died in
1526 he bequeathed to his brother Palla and to his friend Trissino a
poem on bees. An eyewitness related to Scipione Ammirato how “these
two friends when together in a room would jump upon a bench, declaim
passages out of their tragedies, and then call upon the audience
to decide which was the best. In one of these contests Rucellai
inadvertently got upon the bench with his braces undone, and Trissino
in a loud voice exclaimed: ‘Now see the man who would contend with me!
Like a child he does not know how to fasten his braces.’” The _Api_
was published in 1539, and Trissino undertook to see his friend’s work
through the press. “It is,” writes Symonds, “no mere translation from
Virgil; and though the higher qualities of variety, invention and
imagination were denied to Rucellai, though he can show no passages
of pathos to compete with the ‘Corycius senex,’ of humour to approach
the battle of the hives, no episode, it need hardly be said, to match
with ‘Pastor Aristaeus,’ still his modest poem is a monument of pure
taste and classical correctness. It is the work of a ripe scholar and a
melodious versifier, if not of a great singer; and its diction belongs
to the best period of polite Italian.”
Giovan Battista, great-grandson of Pandolfo, a favourite of Cosimo
I., acted as one of the Captains in the game of calcio, celebrated
in the annals of Florence for its magnificence, which was played in
honour of the marriage of Cosimo’s son Francesco de’ Medici by the
young Florentine nobles. Giovanni, his grandson, studied mathematics
under Galileo at Pisa, and was a remarkable linguist; like so many of
his family he was a fine musician and a good artist. He gave wonderful
_feste_, what we should now call garden parties, at Il Pratello, the
Rucellai villa near Campi, sending _tessere_ with one of the many
emblems of the family to his guests, instead of invitations. By the
kindness of the Countess Edith Rucellai I am enabled here to reproduce
one with the emblem adopted by Bernardo after his marriage with Nannina
de’ Medici--the Medicean ring and three ostrich feathers, white, green
and red, denoting faith, charity and hope. Other emblems used by the
family, such as a compass, a cupid, a peacock and poppies, are to be
seen on the municipal palaces in towns where the Rucellai were Vicarii
or Governors for Florence, on the façade of Sta. Maria Novella, of the
Rucellai palace, and of their loggia. The oldest, Fortune standing in
a ship and holding up a sail to catch the wind, alludes to the great
commercial gains which had enriched the house.
[Illustration]
Francesco Rucellai, a cousin of Giovanni Battista, from whom the
present branch of the family descends, began life as a page to the
Grand Duke Ferdinando II., and was Vicario of the Upper Val d’Arno in
1658. A man of considerable culture, and gifted with charming manners,
he was made a member of all the learned academies of Florence, and
wrote a history of his native town in nine large volumes and one of his
own family, from which I have quoted. His grandson Giulio studied law
at Pisa in 1736, and became a Senator and legal adviser to the Grand
Duke Giovan Gastone, last of the Medici. Enlightened, patriotic and
liberal, he determined to curb the power of the clergy and to abolish
the Inquisition. Several times the Pope demanded the dismissal of so
obnoxious a minister, and when Francis I. of Lorraine became the ruler
of Tuscany he renewed his request. But Rucellai was too necessary a
man. He steadily withstood the pretensions of Clement XII. to nominate
bishops, a right that had been exercised by the Grand Dukes for two
hundred years; and at length, after the well-known case of the poet
Tommaso Crudeli, the last inmate of the prisons of the Inquisition in
Tuscany, he succeeded in suppressing the tribunal. Soon afterwards
he framed a law obliging the clergy to contribute their quota to the
general taxation, and on the 2nd March, 1769, by his advice, the Grand
Duke Pietro Leopoldo proclaimed the celebrated law against mortmain.
Ten years later the right of asylum, that fertile source of scandal and
incentive to crime, was done away with, the jurisdiction of the bishops
was limited to purely spiritual matters and, in order to protect young
girls from being forced to enter a convent against their will, no woman
under thirty was allowed to take the vows. The large sums arising from
the sale of suppressed convents Rucellai used in founding schools for
poor girls.
He adopted his orphan nephew Giovanni Pietro, who became a member of
various Florentine academies, was an admirable musician, and painted
well in _tempera_. Count Cosimo Rucellai has a curious collection of
small family portraits which were probably copied by Giovanni from old
frescoes and pictures which no longer exist.