Vie più m’incresce di me e mio fratello
Veder l’un traditore, l’altro ingrato,
Che veder te di signoria cacciato.
[66] _Il Palazzo del Podestà._ Illustrazione Storica di Giovan Battista
Uccelli. Firenze, 1865.
[67] In large characters was written:
“Superbo, avaro, traditor, bugiardo,
Lussurioso, ingrato e pien d’inganni,
Son Bonnaccorso di Lapo Giovanni.”
[68] In one of these the Podestà, Fulchieri da Calvoli, cruelly
tortured those of the Bianchi who fell into his hands, before they were
beheaded in the courtyard.
“Their flesh, yet living, sets he up to sale,
Then like an aged beast, to slaughter dooms.
Many of life he reaves, himself of worth
And goodly estimation.”
_Dante Purg._, Canto XIV, Cary’s trans.
All instruments of torture found in these chambers were burnt in the
courtyard by the orders of the Grand Duke Leopoldo when he abolished
the Inquisition.
[69] _Descrizione dei Delinquenti condannati a morte in Firenze._
Firenze, MDCCCI.
[70] See _Archivio Storico Italiano, T. I._ Firenze. G. P. Vieusseux,
Editore, 1842.
[71] In the archives are the sentences pronounced by the various
Signori which are too characteristic to omit.
“13th Feb., 1529. Alessandro Corsini continues in his evil courses;
a rebel he is, and a rebel he may remain; and that he should serve
as an example to all, it is ordered, as he has no house which can
be destroyed, that he be painted as a traitor on the palace of the
Podestà, so that others may learn from him.
“3rd March, 1529. In the name of God I judge that Taddeo Guiducci
be condemned as a rebel, and all his goods be confiscated according
to law, and as he has no house of his own in Florence which can be
destroyed, he is to be painted on the palace of the Podestà by the side
of Alessandro Corsini, and in the same manner as the said Alessandro.
“10th March, 1529. As to the complaint against Pierfrancesco Ridolfi
which to-day has come before us, I decide that, as a most virulent
enemy of his city, and an enemy of our Holy liberty, as he has always
been, he be condemned as a rebel, with all the pains and penalties
pertaining unto rebels, as far as the law allows, and that, within
fifteen days, he be painted hanging by one foot, alongside of Taddeo
Guiducci, on the palace of the Podestà, as a traitor to his country.”
[72] Opus cit.
[73] See _Jahrbuch d. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen_, 1903. Heft. IV.
(Fabriczy, Giuliano da Majano in Siena.)
[74] Milan was famed for the construction of these “carrette,” which
were much used there.
[75] _Istoria di Firenze._ By the Marquess Gino Capponi.
[76] _Storia d’Alessandro de’ Medici._ Abate Modesto Rastrelli.
Firenze. MDCCLXXXI.
[77] See _Miscellanea Fiorentina_. Anno I, No. 12, 1886.
[78] See _Cronachette Storiche Fiorentine_. Pierfilippo Covoni.
Firenze, 1894.
[79] At the end of the XVIIIth century her tomb was still pointed out,
and del Migliore says that before the vault was restored after it
became the property of the Bracci family, the initials “G. A.” were
visible on one of the stones.
[80] More likely because it adjoins the chapel of the Misericodia.
[81] _a Storia di Ginevra Amieri che fu sepolta viva in Firenze._ Pisa.
Nistri.
[82] _Renaissance in Italy._ J. A. Symonds. Vol. iv, p. 216, second
edition, 1898.
[83] _Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Rucellai._ Luigi Passerini. M
Callini e C. 1861.
[84] Novella, 68.
[85] _Un Mercante Fiorentino e la Sua Famiglia, nel Secolo XV._ G.
Marcotti. G. Barbèra. Firenze. 1881.
[86] The name is said to be derived from _chiare acque_ (limpid waters)
as mentioned by Bernardo’s son Giovanni in his poem _Le Api_, when he
begs his friend Trissino to listen:
“A l’umil suon de le forate canne,
Che nate sono in mezzo a le chiare acque
Che Quaracchi oggi il vulgo chiama.”
(To the soft rustle of the hollow canes, which have their birth in the
clear waters called now Quaracchi by the common herd.)
[87] See _Le Opere di Giovanni Rucellai per cura di Guido Mazzoni_.
Bologna. N. Zanichelli. 1887.
[88] _Cronaca di Firenze di Donato Velluti._ Dall’anno MCCC. in circa
fino al MCCCLX. In Firenze. Presso D. M. Manni. MDCCXXXI.
[89] The Strozzi arms are three half moons.
[90] The conversation between the Pope and the prelates in the
Consistory was as follows. The Pope asked: “Qualis Civitas est
Florentia. Et quia interrogatio ipsius non dirigebatur ad aliquem
in spetiali, idcirco nullus respondebat. Tandem post tertiam
interrogationem, turbatus quia nullus ei respondebat dixit: Nisi mihi
respondeatis, omnes vos poni faciam in multa, sive in carcerem. Tunc
Cardinalis Hispanus respondit dicens: Domine, Civitas Florentina est
una bona Civitas. Cui Papa Bonifatius ait: O male Hispane, quid est hoc
quod dicis? Imo est melior civitas totius Mundi. Nonne qui nutriunt
nos, et regunt, et gubernant Curiam nostram, sunt Florentini? Etiam
totum Mundum videntur regere et gubernare. Nam omnes Ambaxiatores,
qui istis temporibus ad nos per Reges, Barones, et comunitates sunt
directi, Florentini fuerunt.... Et ideo cum Florentini regant et
gubernent totum Mundum, videntur mihi quod ipsi sint Quintum elementum.”
[91] _Lettere di una Gentildonna Fiorentina._ Publicate da Cesare
Guasti Firenze. G. C. Sansoni. 1877.
[92] _i. e._ of perfect alloy and weight. A fiorino was worth about
6_s._
[93] The only place where pure and good ultramarine could be bought.
[94] _Raccolta Delle Migliori Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze._
Disegnate e Descritte da R. ed. E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo, architetti.
Firenze. G. Ferroni. 1876.
[95] He wanted to pull down all the houses to the north and make a fine
square as far as S. Michele Bertelde; and to the south a garden, which
was to have extended to the Via Porta Rossa.
[96] Carriages were only introduced into Florence about 1534. See p.
173.
[97] Archivio Strozzi. Filza IX. A. No. 4.
[98] _Le Famiglie Celebre Italiane, del Conte Pompeo Litta._ Vol. V.
[99] _Giuliano da Majano in Siena._ Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen
Kunstsamlungen. 1903. P. 333.
[100] Magliabechiana Library.
[101] Le Bellezze della Città di Firenze. Gio. Cinelli. Firenze. 1677.
[102] _Le Migliore Fabbriche_, etc., opus cit.
[103] It remained untouched until 1410 when the right hand aisle was
demolished and the left hand one ceded to a _Compagnia_. In 1561
the priest’s house, the campanile, the cemetery and the loggia were
destroyed by Cosimo I., when he built the Uffizi, but the small nave
continued to be used as a church until 1743, when it was suppressed and
used for the archives of the tribunal.
[104] _Illustrazione Istorica del Palazzo della Signoria_, etc. Modesto
Rastrelli Firenze. 1792. presso Ant. Gius. Pagani e C. p. 52.
[105] or “rostrum,” derived from the word _arringare_--to harangue.
[106] In old times the Florentines had an almost superstitious
admiration for the lion, emblem of the Republic. The Marzocco, as the
stone lion of Florence was called, was set above the door, on the four
corners, and on the ringhiera of the Palazzo Vecchio, this last was
decorated with a golden crown on solemn festivals. The live beasts were
kept behind the palace (the Via de’ Leoni still marks the place), and
there they remained until Duke Cosimo I. removed them to the Piazza San
Marco. Great was the rejoicing in the city when a lioness had cubs;
Villani notes the birth of two in 1331 on the day of S. Jacob, in July;
and a few years later of six, which he records as a glory for the city
and a sign of prosperity for the Commune. Another old chronicler, Paolo
Minerbetti, relates how “in 1391 there was much discord and a great
battle among the lions, and a lioness who had cubs every year was
killed, which was regarded as of evil augury by the citizens.”
[107] See _Die Loggia dei Lanzi zu Florenz_. Eine quellenkritische
Untersuchung von Dr. Carl Frey. Berlin. Wilhelm Hertz. 1885.
[108] The chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio is painted by
Rodolfo Ghirlandajo, who, as Vasari writes, “made in the centre of
the ceiling the Holy Trinity, and in the other divisions some angel
boys holding the instruments of the Passion, and heads of the twelve
Apostles; in the corners he painted the Evangelists, and at the end the
angel Gabriel kneeling before the Virgin. In some of the landscapes he
figured the Piazza of the Annunziata in Florence, as far as the church
of S. Marco.”
[109] By Verrocchio, now in the Bargello.
[110] _The Life of Benvenuto Cellini._ Translated by J. A. Symonds. 2nd
edition, p. 220. Vol. 2. John C. Nimmo. 1888.
[111] Signor Iodico Del Badia, in a note to his edition of Luca
Landucci’s _Diary_, writes: “Out of devotion it was the custom for
illustrious Florentines and also strangers of rank, such as popes,
cardinals, princes, condottieri, etc., to put their own portrait made
in wax of the size of life in this church. These were placed on shelves
constructed on purpose. But in 1448 these were full, so the waxen
images were hung by ropes from the ceiling. If by chance one of them
fell down it was looked upon as an evil augury for the person or for
his family. When political passions ran high the dominant party removed
the portraits of their antagonists.”
Varchi also mentions that in 1527 certain youths “entered one morning
very early into the church of the Annunziata, and cast down the waxen
images of Pope Leo and Pope Clement; and after inflicting many wounds
upon them, they carried them off; which deed was severely, and to my
thinking justly, blamed by good and prudent men.”
[112] First published in the _Miscellanea Fiorentina_. No. 9.
September, 1886.
[113] He built the Loggia of the Mercato Nuovo.
[114] _Raccolta di Lettere sulla Pittura, Scultura ed Architettura._
Scritte da’ piu celebri personaggi dei secoli XV. XVI. e XVII.
Publicata da M. Gio. Bottari. Vol. 3. Milano. Giovanni Silvestri.
MDCCXXII.
[115] _Miscellanea Fiorentina di Erudizione e Storia._ By Signor Iodico
Del Badia. No. 1. p. 4.
[116] Dieu-Donné.