_Piazza degl’ Strozzi, No. 4; and Via Tornabuoni._
The descent of the Strozzi family is traced like one of those old
Tuscan towns which claim Noah or Hercules as their founder by an old
chronicler, Lotto Fiesolano, who in his History of Florence says: “We
cannot pass over in silence what our ancestors have so well described
and what is so worthy to be remembered; _i. e._ that before the Arno
was ennobled by the wonderful walls of the Florentine city, the Strozzi
already existed. They took their origin from a noble and illustrious
cavalier who sprang from the antique race of Arcady, and bore as
his emblem a half moon.[89] When fighting, with his strong hand he
throttled (strozzò) his enemy. The Etruscans in consequence renamed the
family and from that famous father the Strozzi took their name. After
Fluentia was built they were made citizens of the town, and aided by
that house Fluentia enlarged her frontiers.”
[Illustration: PALAZZO STROZZI.]
The real progenitor of the house of Strozzi was however an Ubertino who
lived early in the XIIth century. He had two sons, Strozza, and Geri
who was killed in the battle of Montaperti. Amongst the descendants
of the latter were Tito Vespasiano, and Lucia (the mother of Matteo
Bojardo, author of _Orlando Innamorato_), they were born at Ferrara,
where their father, an exile, had entered the service of the Duke.
Tito was the favourite pupil of Guarino Veronese, and his name as an
elegant Latin poet stood so high that Aldus Manutius collected and
published his works. His son, Ercole, was also well known as a writer
of Latin verse, and only became a convert to the use of the vulgar
tongue owing to his friendship with Bembo. He was one of the wits and
scholars who formed the brilliant court of Lucrezia Borgia after she
became Duchess of Ferrara. But one June night the poet was found dead,
pierced with twenty-two wounds, and as no judicial enquiry was made,
rumour accused both the Duke and the Duchess of the deed. Alfonso,
out of jealousy of his wife, whose praises Ercole sang in impassioned
verses; Lucrezia, because her poet had recently married Barbara,
widow of Ercole Bentivoglio. Ciriaco, one of Geri’s many descendants,
travelled for some years in the East, and on his return to Florence
took his degree as Doctor of Law and opened a school for the teaching
of Greek and peripatetic philosophy. In 1535 he was invited to teach
in the University of Bologna, and afterwards Cosimo I. summoned him to
Pisa. His name, now forgotten, was once lauded to the skies for his
attempt to complete the Politics of Aristotle by writing the two lost
books. The work was published in Florence in 1563, and a translation
appeared in Paris in 1600, as well as an introduction to Aristotle’s
Ethics. The gentle fair-faced Maddalena Doni, painted by Raphael, was
another descendant of Geri Strozzi, and Caterina, the nun who left the
celebrated Strozzi library to the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1786
was the last of this line.
Strozza, son of Ubertino, who fought at Montaperti in 1260, was among
those who signed the peace between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. One
of his sons, Pagno, was the first Gonfalonier of Justice of sixteen of
his house in 1297, when the foundations of the Palazzo Vecchio were
laid, and no less than ninety-four of the family were Priors. Lapo,
another son, Gonfalonier in 1309, was the father of Palla Strozzi,
one of the twelve ambassadors sent by different potentates to Rome to
assist at the coronation of Pope Boniface XIII. who, when he heard
that they all came from Florence, remarked that the Florentines
were the fifth element.[90] Palla’s son, Francesco, distinguished
himself by defeating the Pontifical Legate, Cardinal del Poggetto, at
Ferrara and was received with high honour on his return to Florence.
He filled various important posts under the Republic, and was the
ninth Gonfalonier the Strozzi gave to Florence. From him descended
the well-known Palla Strozzi, one of the great merchant princes of
Florence. In the _catasto_ of 1427 his property was valued at one-fifth
more than that of Giovanni de’ Medici. Born in 1372, his name is
included in every embassy between 1410 and 1434 and to him together
with Coluccio de’ Salutati was due the establishment of a Greek chair
in the University of Florence. Vespasiano tells us that he sent to
Greece for countless volumes. The _Lives_ of Plutarch, the works of
Plato and the _Cosmography_ of Ptolemy, he got from Constantinople,
while the _Politics_ of Aristotle were unknown in Italy until he
obtained them. I cannot do better than quote J. A. Symonds’ words about
this most pathetic and dignified figure in Florentine history. “Palla
degl’ Strozzi devoted his leisure and his energies to the improvement
of the _Studio Pubblico_ at Florence, giving it that character of
humane culture which it retained throughout the age of the Renaissance.
To him, again, belongs the glory of having first collected books for
the express purpose of founding a public library. This project had
occupied the mind of Petrarch, and its utility had been recognized by
Colluccio de’ Salutati, but no one had as yet arisen to accomplish
it. Being passionately fond of literature, Messer Palla always kept
copyists in his own house and outside it, of the best who were in
Florence, both for Greek and Latin books; and all the books he could
find he purchased, on all subjects, being minded to found a most noble
library in Santa Trinita because it was in the centre of Florence, a
site of great convenience to everybody (Vespasiano).”
During the struggle for supremacy between Rinaldo degl’Albizzi and
Cosimo de’ Medici, Palla degl’ Strozzi, “who was,” writes Machiavelli,
“a peaceful man, well-mannered and kindly, better fitted for a
life of study than for keeping a party in check and averting civil
discord,” tried to preserve a neutral attitude. But the presence of so
enlightened and rich a citizen seemed dangerous to the Medicean party,
and after the return of Cosimo de’ Medici from exile in 1434 he was
banished to Padua, where he died, separated from his children, who
shared the same fate in other parts of Italy. The wonderful bust of his
daughter Marietta by “il bravo Desider si dolce e bello,” as Raphael’s
father called Desiderio da Settignano, is one of the treasures of the
Palazzo Strozzi. His cousin Matteo, married to Alessandra Macinghi,
was exiled at the same time, and the Strozzi property having been
confiscated, she was left in dire poverty with six small children.
After her husband’s death at Pesaro, she sent her eldest boy, Filippo,
to an old family friend who had a house of business in Palermo. She
must have been a lovable, courageous, and sensible woman, judging by
her letters.[91] When the last boy left her she wrote to Filippo: “I
have no treasure but you my three sons, and for your welfare I have
sent you from me, one after the other, without a thought of my own
happiness.” When Filippo set up on his own account at Naples she longed
to join him, but thought it wiser to stay in Florence and work for the
possible restoration of her children to their native city. Charming
are her descriptions of the various girls she proposes to her son as
suitable wives; they pass before one like a procession out of the
frescoes of the XVth century.
Of Filippo’s life at Naples, where he made a large fortune and became a
favourite with the King, who eventually obtained his recall from exile
from Lorenzo de’ Medici, we have an account by his son, who writes: “He
lived well, but not magnificently ... entertaining rarely, but when he
did, splendidly and with great ceremony, being served by the youths in
his house, who were nearly all Strozzi, as he preferred to benefit his
own blood rather than strangers. Ofttimes there were eighteen at his
table, and he cared for their honour and advancement as though they
had been his sons. It can truthfully be said that all the riches of
the house of Strozzi of that time are due to him.... Near to the city
of Naples he had a Masseria, or farm ... and he took such delight in
it that he often worked with his own hands, and gathered from it the
rarest and finest fruits.... He enriched his native State with many
noble plants, introducing the ‘gentile’ fig, and artichokes, which had
never been brought to these parts [Florence] before.... In stature
Filippo was above the common, good-looking, alert, lithe and well
made, fearing neither cold nor heat, hunger nor thirst. So kind was
he of heart that when any of his partners, relations, or friends fell
out (a thing that often happened, as their number was considerable),
they came to him as head of the family, and he always reconciled them,
often giving, in addition to his time and trouble, whatever he saw
was needful to facilitate peace. He visited friends or relations in
adversity or sickness, comforting and aiding them with all necessaries,
so that his presence was often of more use to such persons than any
other comfort or medicine. In short, he seemed made by nature not less
to dispense his riches usefully, than to accumulate them.”
In 1466 his sentence of exile was cancelled, and he once more beheld
his native city, where he married the beautiful Fiametta degl’
Adimari, one of the girls described by his mother, by whom he had a
son, Alfonso, and two daughters. After her death he married Selvaggia,
daughter of Bartolomeo Gianfigliazzi, who bore him three daughters and
two sons; Lorenzo, writer of the records of his father and of other
members of his family, and Giovanbattista, who by his mother’s desire
took his father’s name, Filippo, after his death.
In the Strozzi archives is the contract between Filippo Lippi and
Filippo degl’ Strozzi for the painting of the chapel which Strozzi had
bought from the decayed family of Boni in Sta. Maria Novella, showing
the shrewd man of business, who was determined to have his money’s
worth: