(NOW A SCHOOL OF THE SCOLOPI FRIARS)
_Via del Corso. No. 4._
Jacopo Salviati bought the house of Folco de’ Portinari, where Beatrice
was born, together with several others, and where they stood he built a
large palace. This great and powerful family descended from a doctor,
Messer Salvi, whose son Cambio was the first of sixty-three Priors and
of twenty-one Gonfaloniers of Justice of his house. Lotto, another
son, was a great jurist, and his descendant Jacopo Salviati played an
important part in Florence in the XVth century. After subduing the
Counts Guidi and the Ubertini in 1404 he was solemnly knighted by the
Signoria, became Commissary of the Pisan war, and his name appears in
every embassy of that time. Bernardo, his son, was father of Francesco
the Archbishop of Pisa who joined in the Pazzi conspiracy against
Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, and was hung from a window of the
Palazzo Vecchio (see p. 373). His grandson Jacopo, husband of Lucrezia
de’ Medici, daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was the only man who
dared raise his voice at the court of Clement VII. against creating the
bastard Alessandro de’ Medici Lord of Florence, and against building
the fortress of S. Giovanni. It was then that he uttered the prophetic
words, “God grant that Filippo [Strozzi] in advocating the building of
this fortress is not digging his own grave.” A cousin of his married
Laudomia de’ Medici, and their son Giuliano, after insulting the name
of his mother’s family and helping the mob to destroy their arms in
1527, became the intimate associate of the Duke Alessandro, and is
famous, or rather infamous, for his behaviour to Luisa Strozzi (see p.
335).
Maria Salviati, a daughter of Jacopo, married Giovanni de’ Medici delle
Bande Nere, and their son Cosimo, afterwards Duke of Florence, was born
in her father’s palace. There is a tradition that Giovanni ordered
the child to be thrown from a first floor window into the courtyard,
where he caught him in his arms, and foretold that the boy would
become a great man because he showed no fear. Maria’s brother Alamanno
left a very large fortune, and his descendant Jacopo was created Duke
of Giuliano by Urban VIII., and for his sins married Veronica Cybo,
daughter of the Duke of Massa and Carrara. “Donna Veronica was endowed
with but small beauty,” writes a contemporary, “but _per contra_ with
a most violent and imperious temper and a jealous disposition. Her
husband, poor man, had small joy with her.” Duke Jacopo, handsome,
gay, an elegant poet and a gallant soldier, met the beautiful Caterina
Canacci, surnamed “the fair Cherubim” on account of her golden hair
and wonderful colouring, and fell desperately in love with her (see p.
62). The Duchess’ vengeance was a terrible one, and only her high birth
saved her from condign punishment. The Salviati family is extinct, and
their title is borne by a younger member of the princely family of
the Borghese of Rome, one of whom married Anna Maria, only daughter
of Duke Averardo Salviati, about 1790. The palace was bought by the
Da Cepperello family, and now belongs to the Scolopi friars, who have
their school there.
[Illustration: PALAZZO SAN CLEMENTE.]