Lorenzo the Magnificent
The struggle in which Dante had played a leading part did not cease for
many years after the poet had died in exile. The Florentines proved
themselves so unable to rule their own city that they had to admit
foreign control and bow before the Lords Paramount who came from
Naples. The last of these died in 1328 and was succeeded by the Duke
of Athens. This tyrant roused the old spirit of the people which had
asserted its independence in former days. He was driven out of
Florence on Saint Anne's Day, July 26th of 1343, and the anniversary of
that brave fight for liberty was celebrated henceforth with loud
rejoicing.
The _Ciompi_, or working-classes, rose in 1378 and demanded higher
wages. They had been grievously oppressed by the nobles, and were
encouraged by a general spirit of revolt which affected the peasantry
of Europe. They were strong enough in Florence to set up a new
government with one of their own rank as chief magistrate. But
democracy did not enjoy a lengthy rule and the rich merchant-class came
into power. Such families as the Albizzi and Medici were well able to
buy the favour of the people.
There had been a tradition that the Florentine banking-house of Medici
were on the popular side in those struggles which rent Florence. They
were certainly born leaders {31} and understood very thoroughly the
nature of their turbulent fellow-citizens. They gained influence
steadily during the sway of their rivals, the illustrious Albizzi.
When Cosimo dei Medici had been banished, it was significant that the
same convention of the people which recalled him should send Rinaldo
degli Albizzi into exile.
Cosimo dei Medici rid himself of enemies by the unscrupulous method of
his predecessors, driving outside the walls the followers of any party
that opposed him. He had determined to control the Florentines so
cleverly that they should not realize his tyranny. He was quite
willing to spend the hoards of his ancestors on the adornment of the
state he governed, and, among other things, he built the famous convent
of St Mark. Fra Angelico, the painter-monk, was given the work of
covering its white walls with the frescoes in which the monks delighted.
Cosimo gained thereby the reputation of liberality and gracious
interest in the development of genius. The monk had devoted his time
before this to the illuminations of manuscripts, and was delighted to
work for the glory of God in such a way that all the convent might
behold it. He wished for neither profit not praise for himself, but he
knew that his beautiful vision would be inherited by his Church, and
that they might inspire others of his brethren.
The Golden Age of Italian art was in its heyday under Cosimo dei
Medici. Painters and architects had not been disturbed by the tumults
that drew the rival factions from their daily labours. They had been
constructing marvellous edifices in Florence even during the time when
party feeling ran so high that it would have sacrificed the very
existence of the city to its rancours. {32} The noble Cathedral had
begun to rise before Dante had been banished, but there was no belfry
till 1334 when Giotto laid the foundation-stone of the _Campanile_,
whence the bells would ring through many centuries. The artist had
completed his masterpiece in 1387, two years before the birth of
Cosimo. It was an incentive to patriotic Florentines to add to the
noble buildings of their city. The Church of San Lorenzo owed its
existence to the House of Medici, which appealed to the people by
lavish appreciation of all genius.
Cosimo was a scholar and welcomed the learned Greeks who fled from
Constantinople when that city was taken by the Turks in 1453. He
founded a Platonic Academy in Florence so that his guests were able to
discuss philosophy at leisure. He professed to find consolation for
all the misfortunes of his life in the writings of the Greek Plato, and
read them rather ostentatiously in hours of bereavement. He collected
as many classical manuscripts as his agents could discover on their
journeys throughout Europe, and had these translated for the benefit of
scholars. He had been in the habit of conciliating Alfonso of Naples
by a present of gold and jewels, but as soon as a copy of Livy, the
Latin historian, came to his hand, he sent the priceless treasure to
his ally, knowing that the Neapolitan prince had an enormous reverence
for learning. Cosimo, in truth, never coveted such finds for his own
private use, but was always generous in exhibiting them at public
libraries. He bought works of art to encourage the ingenuity of
Florentine craftsmen, and would pay a high price for any new design,
because he liked to think that his benevolence added to the welfare of
the city.
Cosimo protected the commercial interests of Florence, identifying them
with his own. He knew that peace {33} was essential to the foreign
trade, and tried to keep on friendly terms with the neighbours whose
hostility would have destroyed it. He lived with simplicity in private
life, but he needed wealth to maintain his position as patron of art
and the New Learning; nor did he grudge the money which was scattered
profusely to provide the gorgeous spectacles, beloved by the unlearned.
He knew that nothing would rob the Florentines so easily of their
ancient love of liberty as the experience of sensuous delights, in
which all southern races find some satisfaction. He entertained the
guests of the Republic with magnificence, that they might be impressed
by the security of his unlawful government.
Lorenzo, the grandson of Cosimo dei Medici, carried on his policy. It
had been successful, for the Florentines of their own accord put
themselves beneath the sway of a second tyrant.
"Poets of every kind, gentle and simple, with golden cithern and with
rustic lute, came from every quarter to animate the suppers of the
Magnifico; whosoever sang of arms, of love, of saints, of fools, was
welcome, or he who, drinking and joking, kept the company amused. . . .
And in order that the people might not be excluded from this new
beatitude (a thing which was important to the Magnifico), he composed
and set in order many mythological representations, triumphal cars,
dances, and every kind of festal celebration, to solace and delight
them; and thus he succeeded in banishing from their souls any
recollection of their ancient greatness, in making them insensible to
the ills of the country, in disfranchising and debasing them by means
of temporal ease and intoxication of the senses."
Lorenzo the Magnificent was endowed with charms {34} that were
naturally potent with a beauty-loving people. He had been very
carefully trained by the prudent Cosimo, so that he excelled in
physical exercises and could also claim a place among the most
intellectual in Florence. Although singularly ill-favoured, he had
personal qualities which attracted men and women. He spared no pains
to array himself with splendour whenever he appeared in public. At
tournaments he wore a costume ornamented with gold and silver thread,
and displayed the great Medicean diamond--_Il Libro_--on his shield,
which bore the _fleur-de-lis_ of France in token of the friendship
between the Medici and that nation. The sound of drums and fifes
heralded the approach of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and cheers acclaimed
him victor when he left the field bearing the coveted silver helmet as
a trophy.
Lorenzo worshipped a lady who had given him a bunch of violets as a
token, according to the laws of chivalry. He wrote sonnets in honour
of Lucrezia Donati, but he was not free to marry her, the great house
of Medici looking higher than her family. The bride, chosen for the
honour of mating with the ruler of Florence, was a Roman lady of such
noble birth that it was not considered essential that she should bring
a substantial dowry. Clarice Orsini was dazzled at her wedding-feast
by the voluptuous splendour of the family which she entered.
The ceremony took place at Florence in 1469 and afforded an excuse for
lavish hospitality. The bride received her own guests in the garden of
the villa where she was to reign as mistress. Young married women
surrounded her, admiring the costliness of her clothing and preening
themselves in the rich attire which they had assumed for this great
occasion. In an upper {35} room of the villa the bridegroom's mother
welcomed her own friends of mature years, and listened indulgently to
the sounds of mirth that floated upward from the cloisters of the
courtyard. Lorenzo sat there with the great Florentines who had
assembled to honour his betrothal. The feast was served with solemnity
at variance with the wit and laughter that were characteristic of the
gallant company. The blare of trumpets heralded the arrival of dishes,
which were generally simple. The stewards and carvers bowed low as
they served the meats; their task was far from light since abundance
was the rule of the house of Medici. No less than five thousand pounds
of sweetmeats had been provided for the wedding, but it must be
remembered that the banquets went on continuously for several days, and
the humblest citizen could present himself at the hospitable boards of
the bridegroom and his kinsfolk. The country-folk had sent the usual
gifts, of fat hens and capons, and were greeted with a welcome as
gracious as that bestowed on the guests whose offerings were rings or
brocades or costly illuminated manuscripts.
After his marriage, Lorenzo was called upon to undertake a foreign
mission. He travelled to Milan and there stood sponsor to the child of
the reigning Duke, Galeazzo Sforza, in order to cement an alliance. He
gave a gold collar, studded with diamonds, to the Duchess of Milan, and
answered as became him when she was led to express the hope that he
would be godfather to all her children! It was Lorenzo's duty to act
as host when the Duke of Milan came to visit Florence. He was not
dismayed by the long train of attendants which followed the Duke, for
he knew that these richly-dressed warriors might be bribed to {36}
fight for his State if he conciliated their master. There were
citizens in Florence, however, who shrank from the barbaric ostentation
of their ally. They looked upon a fire which broke out in a church as
a divine denunciation of the mystery play performed in honour of their
guests, and were openly relieved to shut their gates upon the Duke of
Milan and his proud forces.
Lorenzo betrayed no weakness when the town of Volterra revolted against
Florence, which exercised the rights of a protector. He punished the
inhabitants very cruelly, banishing all the leaders of the revolt and
taking away the Volterran privilege of self-government. His enemies
hinted that he behaved despotically in order to secure certain mineral
rights in this territory, and held him responsible for the sack of
Volterra, though he asserted that he had gone to offer help to such of
the inhabitants as had lost everything.
But the war of the Pazzi conspiracy was the true test of the strength
of Medicean government. It succeeded a time of high prosperity in
Florence, when her ruler was honoured by the recognition of many
foreign powers, and felt his position so secure that he might safely
devote much leisure to the congenial study of poetry and philosophy.
Between the years 1474-8 Lorenzo had managed to incur the jealous
hatred of Pope Sixtus IV, who was determined to become the greatest
power in Christendom. This Pontiff skilfully detached Naples from her
alliance with Florence and Milan by promising to be content with a
nominal tribute of two white horses every year instead of the handsome
annual sum she had usually exacted from this vassal. He congratulated
himself especially on this stroke of policy, because he believed Venice
to be too selfish as a commercial State {37} to combine with her
Italian neighbours and so form another Triple Alliance. He then
proceeded to win over the Duke of Urbino, who had been the leader of
the Florentine army. He also thwarted the ambition of Florentine trade
by purchasing the tower of Imola from Milan. The Medici, coveting the
bargain for their traffic with the East, were too indignant to advance
the money which, as bankers to the Papacy, they should have supplied.
They preferred to see their rivals, the great Roman banking-house of
the Pazzi, accommodating the Pope, even though this might mean a fatal
blow to their supremacy.
Lorenzo's hopes of a strong coalition against his foe were destroyed by
the assassination of Sforza of Milan in 1474. The Duke was murdered in
the church of St Stephen by three young nobles who had personal
injuries to avenge and were also inspired by an ardent desire for
republican liberty. The Pope exclaimed, when he heard the news, that
the peace of Italy was banished by this act of lawlessness. Lorenzo,
disapproving of all outbreaks against tyranny, promised to support the
widowed Duchess of Milan. The control he exercised during her brief
régime came to an end in 1479 with the usurpation of Ludovico, her
Moorish brother-in-law.
Then Riario, the Pope's nephew, saw that the time was ripe for a
conspiracy against the Medici which might deprive them of their power
in Italy. He allied himself closely with Francesco dei Pazzi, who was
anxious for the aggrandisement of his own family. His name had long
been famous in Florence, every good citizen watching the ancient _Carro
dei Pazzi_ which was borne in procession at Easter-tide. The car was
stored with fireworks set alight by means {38} of the Colombina (Dove)
bringing a spark struck from a stone fragment of Christ's tomb. The
citizens could not forget the origin of the sacred flame, for they had
all heard in youth the story of the return of a crusading member of the
Pazzi house with that precious relic.
The two conspirators hoped to bring a foreign army against Florence
and, therefore, gained the aid of Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa. The
Pope bade them do as they wished, "provided that there be no killing."
In reality, he was aware that a plot to assassinate both Lorenzo dei
Medici and his brother, Giuliano, was on foot, but considered that it
would degrade his holy office if he spoke of it.
It was necessary for their first plan that Lorenzo should be lured to
Rome where the conspirators had assembled, but he refused an invitation
to confer with the Pope about their differences and a new plan had to
be substituted. Accordingly the nephew of Riario, Cardinal Raffaelle
Sansoni, expressed a keen desire to view the treasures of the Medici
household, and was welcomed as a guest by Florence. He attended mass
in the Cathedral which was to be the scene of the assassination, since
Lorenzo and his brother were certain to attend it. Two priests offered
to perform the deed of sacrilege from which the original assassin
recoiled. They hated Lorenzo for his treatment of Volterra, and drove
him behind the gates of the new sacristy. Giuliano was slain at the
very altar, his body being pierced with no less than nineteen wounds,
but Lorenzo escaped to mourn the fate of the handsome noble brother who
had been a model for Botticelli's famous "Primavera."
He heard the citizens cry, "Down with traitors! The Medici! The
Medici!" and resolved to move {39} them to a desperate vengeance on the
Pazzi. The Archbishop of Pisa was hanged from the window of a palace,
while a fellow-conspirator was hurled to the ground from the same
building. This gruesome scene was painted to gratify the avengers of
Giuliano.
Florence was enthusiastic in defence of her remaining tyrant. He was
depicted by Botticelli in an attitude of triumph over the triple forces
of anarchy, warfare and sedition. All the family of Pazzi were
condemned as traitors. Their coat of arms was erased by Lorenzo's
adherents wherever it was discovered.
Henceforth, Lorenzo exercised supreme control over his native city. He
won Naples to a new alliance by a diplomatic visit that proved his
skill in foreign negotiations. The gifts that came to him from strange
lands were presented, in reality, to the master of the Florentine
"republic." Egypt sent a lion and a giraffe, which were welcomed as
wonders of the East even by those who did not appreciate the fact that
they showed a desire to trade. It was easy soon to find new markets
for the rich burghers whose class was in complete ascendancy over the
ancient nobles.
Lorenzo was seized with mortal sickness in the early spring of 1492,
and found no comfort in philosophy. He drank from a golden cup which
was supposed to revive the dying when it held a draught, strangely
concocted from precious pearls according to some Eastern fancy. But
the sick man found nothing of avail in his hour of death except a visit
from an honest monk he had seen many times in the cloisters of San
Marco.
Savonarola came to the bedside of the magnificent pagan and demanded
three things as the price of absolution. Lorenzo was to believe in the
mercy of God, to {40} restore all that he had wrongfully acquired, and
to agree to popular government being restored to Florence. The third
condition was too hard, for Lorenzo would not own himself a tyrant. He
turned his face to the wall in bitterness of spirit, and the monk
withdrew leaving him unshriven.
The sack of Volterra, and the murder of innocent kinsfolk of the Pazzi
who had been involved in the great conspiracy haunted Lorenzo as he
passed from life in the prime of manhood and glorious achievements. He
would have mourned for the commerce of his city if he had known that in
the same year of 1492 the discovery of America would be made, through
which the Atlantic Ocean was to become the highway of commerce,
reducing to sad inferiority the ports of the Mediterranean.
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