Death in Florence: the Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City
Page 48
10. ‘In the event that …’: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.150, where n.2 gives full details of the original source in the Florentine archives.
21: Ordeal by Fire
1. ‘I cannot be sure whether …’: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, pp.152–3. See Esortazione fatta al popolo in San Marco il di 7 Aprile 1498, which is included at the end of his Prediche sopra l’Esodo (Sermons on Exodus)
2. ‘And then came the Dominicans …’: Landucci, Diario, p.169
3. ‘of fiery red velvet’: cited in Martines, Savonarola, p.226, giving as his original source Parenti, Storie fiorentine (Schnitzer), p.257
4. ‘engaged in an extraordinary …’: ibid.
5. ‘The Franciscans were afraid …’: Guicciardini, Opere, Vol. I, p.150
6. ‘was most wicked’ et seq.: cited in Martines, Savonarola, p.228
7. ‘The patience of the multitude …’ et seq.: see Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, pp.157–8. This account makes use of the detailed descriptions in Lorenzo Violi, Le giornate, ed. G. C. Carfagnini (Florence, 1986) and Fra Benedetto [of Florence] Luschino, Vulnera diligentis, ed. S. dall’Aglio (Florence, 2002), as well as Burlamacchi, Savonarola, while others such as Landucci also confirm these events. Fra Benedetto and Violi confirm Salviati’s threatening words. These several descriptions vary in minor details, especially with regard to the order of some events, but Villari’s would seem to be the most considered and vivid summary.
22: The Siege of San Marco
1. ‘the benches were already …’: cited in Martines, Savonarola, p.232, giving Cerretani as his source
2. ‘began to strike the backs …’: Landucci, Diario, p.170
3. ‘Let’s get the Friar …’: many contemporary sources record variations of these cries: see, for instance, Landucci, Diario, p.170; Burlamacchi, Savonarola, p.156
4. ‘making it impossible …’ et seq.: Landucci, Diario, p.170
5. ‘Twelve breastplates …’: see Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.ccxxxiii
6. ‘rebuffed with every villainy …’: cited in Martines, Savonarola, p.234, giving as his source Parenti, Savonarola (Schnitzer), p.265
7. ‘Let me go forth …’ et seq.: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, pp.166–7, using as his sources the original documents printed at the end of Vol. II, in this case Documento XXVIII, especially those sections relating to Fra Silvestre on p.ccxx et seq. and Alessandro Pucci on p.cclxxiij [sic] et seq. These are largely confirmed by Burlamacchi and other contemporaries.
8. ‘got out of San Marco secretly …’ et seq.: Landucci, Diario, pp.170–1
9. ‘It was an extraordinary sight …’ et seq.: see Villari, La Storia …Savonarola, Vol. II, p.166. Here, and in the following description, Villari has conflated a number of contemporary reports, relying heavily upon that of Fra Benedetto, who was one of the armed monks.
10. ‘Every word that I have …’: Fra Benedetto Luschino, Cedrus Libani, ed. P. V. Marchese, Archivo Storico Italiano, App. VII (Florence, 1849), pp.82–6
11. ‘Should not the shepherd …’: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.175, giving his contemporary sources as Burlamacchi, Violi and Fra Benedetto (who was present at the time)
12. ‘We agree to hand over …’: cited in Seward, Savonarola, p.245, giving as his source Burlamacchi, Savonarola (Lucca, 1764), p.144
13. ‘Behold the true …’ et seq.: ibid.
23: Trial and Torture
1. ‘People laid down …’ et seq.: Landucci, Diario, pp.171–2
2. ‘At the ninth hour …’: Landucci, Diario, p.172
3. ‘It gave us the greatest pleasure …’: Gherardi, Nuovi documenti, p.231
4. ‘Regarding my aim …’ et seq.: cited in Martines, Savonarola, p.250. One of the corrupted versions of Ser Ceccone’s transcript was printed as I processi di Girolamo Savonarola (Florence, 1498). This was republished in Florence in 2001 under the editorship of Ida G. Rao et al.
5. ‘I strongly …’: cited in Seward, Savonarola, p.250
6. ‘No, I did not …’: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, pp.195–6, giving as his source Document XXVI of the end of the same volume, which contains what purported to be an entire printed version of Savonarola’s interrogations, now and later.
7. ‘for the sake …’: see Seward, Savonarola, p.251, paraphrasing the original text
8. ‘I intended to …’ et seq.: see above, and other sources such as Martines, etc.
9. ‘formalise and set …’: cited in Savonarola, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. I, p-374
10. ‘If you publish …’ et seq.: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. 1, p.374, giving as his source Burlamacchi, Savonarola (1937 edn), p.171. See n.47 in Vol.2, p.645 for Ridolfi’s comments.
11. ‘The protocol of …’ et seq.: Landucci, Diario, p.173
12. ‘without torture or …’: I processi … (ed. Rao), p.25
13. ‘The frate was …’: Landucci, Diario, p.174
14. ‘in some places there …’: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. I, p.378, giving as his orginal source his own edition of the trials: I processi del Savonarola, ed. R. Ridolfi, in La Bibliofilia Vol. XLVI (1944), p.30
15. ‘consecrated the bread …’ et seq.: I processi … (ed. Rao), p.25
16. ‘My intention, as I have said …’: ibid., p.27
17. ‘It was not my intention …’: ibid., pp.28–9
18. ‘In the certainty …’ et seq.: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.207. The complete deposition of Fra Domenico’s trial can be found at the end of Vol. II as Document XXVII.
19. ‘I have always thought …’: cited in Seward, Savonarola, p.252
20. ‘the true document …’: Villari in La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.cxcix. Villari gives the sources of these documents in note 1 for each of them.
21. ‘When they read …’: ibid., pp.205–6
22. ‘on twenty or twenty-five …’: ibid., p.210, giving as his source the deposition of Fra Silvestro’s trial which is printed at the back of this volume as Document XXVIII
23. ‘Not only ourselves …’: ibid., p.213. The Latin original of this letter can be found in F.-T. Perrens, Jérome Savonarole d’après les documents originaux et avec des pièces justificatives en grande partie inédites (Paris, 1856), Document XVII
24. ‘All the citizens arrested …’ et seq.: Landucci, Diario, p.174
25. ‘both on account of the way …’: cited in Villari, Savonarola (trans. L. Villari), Vol. II, p.399–400, giving as his original source Florentine Archives, Register, Sheet 86 t. This also appears in Lupi, Nuovi Documenti.
24: Judgement
1. ‘Unfortunate am I …’: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. I, pp.385–6
2. ‘Miserere mei …’: Psalm 51, v.1
3. ‘Verily I say …’: Mark, Ch. 14, v.30
4. ‘But these questions …’: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. I, pp.385–6
5. ‘extraordinary fortune’ et seq.: Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. II, p. 650 n.8
6. ‘An exposicyon after …’: see British Library, catalogue no. c.52, f.16.(2.)
7. ‘Death to the friar!’ et seq.: these words appear in varying forms in the main biographies, such as Villari and Ridolfi, citing as their original source Burlamacchi, Savonarola, p.154
8. ‘observed how [Savonarola] would …’: see Seward, Savonarola, p.251
9. ‘Remolino ordered that …’ et seq.: see Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p. clxxxvij et seq. Amongst the documents printed at the back of Vol. II is the complete transcript of Savonarola’s third trial, which runs from p.clxxxiv to p.cxcviij. Slightly differing versions of this transcript appear in I processi … (ed. Ridolfi) pp.3–41, and the modern version in I processi … (ed. Rao), of which I have also made use
10. ‘such things as Ser Ceccone …’: Ridolfi, Vita … Sa
vonarola, Vol. I, p.391
11. ‘for history rarely produces …’ et seq.: see Burlamacchi, Savonarola, pp.151–2. Indicatively there is no remaining original document of this meeting in the Florentine archives.
12. ‘Sandro, do you want …’: see Doc. 13 (b) in Lightbown, Botticelli, Vol. I, pp.169–70: original source Estratto della Cronaca di Simone Filipepei, which is in the Archivo Segreto Vaticano, Politicorum, XLVII, fol. 338 et seq.
13. ‘when his trial …’ et seq.: I processi … (ed. Rao), p.43
14. ‘If this friar …’ et seq.: cited in Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.234, giving as his original source Burlamacchi, Savonarola, p.154
15. ‘He confesses to inciting citizens …’ et seq.: this report was signed by both Torriani and Remolino, but is generally accepted as being written, at least for the most part, by Remolino. Versions of this entire report to Alexander VI, which differ in medieval Latin spelling and details of text, can be found in A. G. Rudelbach, Savonarola und seine Zeit (Hamburg, 1835), pp.494–7, and Fra Karl Meier, Girolamo Savonarola aus grossen Theils handschriftlichen Quellen (Berlin, 1836), pp.389–91. My citations are selected from the beginning of the latter.
16. ‘as heretics and schismatics …’: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. I, p.293, giving as his original source the document appended to the end of the third trial: see Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, p.cxcviij
17. ‘22 May. It was decided …’: Landucci, Diario, p.176
25: Hanged and Burned
1. ‘Collect up from my cell …’: Burlamacchi, Savonarola, p.155
2. ‘I hear that you have …’ et seq.: ibid., pp.156–7
3. ‘The account of his last …’: Roberto Ridolfi, ‘Savonarola’ entry, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2002 edn), Vol. X, p.485
4. ‘It was already well …’ et seq.: Villari, La Storia … Savonarola, Vol. II, pp.238–9. The source of the story and the quote are Burlamacchi, Savonarola, pp.157 and 193.
5. ‘do not seem credible …’: ibid., p.239 n.1
6. ‘A multitude of people …’: Guicciardini, Opere (Bari, 1929), Vol. I, p.298
7. ‘the ceremonies lasted …’: cited in Martines, Savonarola, p.274, giving as his contemporary source Piero Vaglienti, Storia dei sui tempi 1492–1514 ed. G. Berti et al. (Pisa, 1982), p.48
8. ‘I separate you from …’ et seq.: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. 1, p.400. The initial incident is recorded in slightly differing forms by several contemporary sources, such as Iacopo Nardi, Istorie di Firenze, 2 vols, ed. A. Gelli (Florence, 1848), Vol. I, p.136, and Simone Filipepi, Estratto della Cronaca, in P. Villari and E. Casanova, Scelta di prediche e scritti di fra Girolamo Savonarola (Florence, 1898), p.504 et seq.
9. ‘They were robed in all …’: et seq.: Landucci, Diario, p.177
10. ‘Savonarola, now is …’: cited in Ridolfi, Vita … Savonarola, Vol. I, p.402
11. ‘there not being …’ et seq.: Landucci, Diario, pp.177–8
12. ‘which he suffered …’: Guicciardini, Opere (Bari, 1929), Vol. I, p.298
13. ‘Now at last …’: Burlamacchi, Savonarola, pp.161–2
14. A miracle …’: Burlamacchi, Savonarola, p.162
Aftermath
1. ‘everyone had began …’: Landucci, Diario, p.181
2. ‘As an old man …’: Vasari, Le Vite, Vol. I, pp.869, 871
Bibliography
Cecilia M. Ady, Lorenzo dei Meici and Renaissance Italy (London, 1960)
Archivo Segreto Vaticano, Politicorum
Ascanio Condivi, Vita di Michelangelo (Milan, 1928)
Domenico Benivieni, Tratto … in defensione … Ieronimo da Ferrara (Florence, 1496)
John S. C. Bridge, A History of France from the Death of Louis XI, Vol. II, ‘The Reign of Charles VIII
Gene Brucker, Renaissance Florence (New York, 1968)
Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of Renaissance Italy, trans. Middlemore (London, 1990)
Jakob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1926 Leipzig edn)
Burlamacchi, Vita del P. F. Girolamo Savonarola (Lucca, 1764)
Pacifico Burlamacchi, La Vita del Beato Geronimo Savonarola (Florence, 1937 edn)
Antonio Capelli, Fra Girolamo Savonarola e notizie intorno al suo tempo, in Atti della Deputatzione di Storia Patri per le provincie Modensi e Parmensi, Vol. IV (1868)
Giovanni Cavalcanti, Istorie Fiorentine (Florence, 1838)
Lettres de Charles VIII, ed. P. Pélicier (Paris, 1930)
Jean Cluzel, Anne de France (Paris, 2002)
Codice Magliabechiano (Florentine Archives)
Philippe de Commynes, Mémoires, ed. J. Calmette & C. Durville (Paris, 1925)
Mémoires de Philippe de Commynes, ed. Mlle Dupont (Paris, 1843)
Chanoine Pierre-Marie Cordier, Jean Pic de la Mirandole (Paris, 1957)
Dante Aligheri, Hell, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers (Harmondsworth, 2001 edn)
Jean Delameau, L’Alun de Rome XVe–XIXe siècle (Paris, 1962),
Charles Dickens, American Notes and Pictures from Italy (London, 1908)
Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money (London, 2008)
Marsilio Ficino The Antichrist Girolamo of Ferrara … ed. & intro. Volkhard Wels (Texas, 2006)
Marsilio Ficino, Opera, ed. A. H. Petri (Basle, 1576)
Consulte e pratiche della republica fiorentina, 1498–1505, ed. Denis Fachard, 2 vols (Geneva, 1993)
Edmund Gardner, Dukes and Poets in Ferrara (London, 1904)
Eugenio Garin, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Vita e Dottrina (Florence, 1936)
Alessandro Gherardi, Nuovi documenti e studi intorno a Girolamo Savonarola (Florence, 1887)
Francesco Guicciardini, Opere (Milan, 1998)
Francesco Guicciardini, Storie fiorentine, ed. Roberto Palmarocchi (Bari, 1931)
John S. Harford, The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarotti (London, 1857)
Christopher Hibbert, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici (London, 1985)
Michael Holroyd, Michael Angelo Buonarotti (which contains in translation The Life of Michelangelo by Ascanio Condivi) (London, 1911)
E. L. S. Horsborough, Girolamo Savonarola (London, 1911)
Domenico Malipiero, Annali Veneti (Florence, 1843 edn)
F. W. Kent, Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence (Baltimore, 2004)
Luca Landucci, Diario fiorentino dal 1450 al 1516 (Florence, 1883)
Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary from 1450 to 1516, trans. Alice Jervis (London, 1927)
Ronald Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, 2 vols. (London, 1978)
Herbert Lucas, Fra Girolamo Savonarola (London, 1906)
Lucian, Works: Loeb edition in 8 vols., Greek with facing-page translation into English by A. M. Harmon (London, 1913)
Clementi Lupi, Nuovi Documenti inorno a fra Girolamo Savonarola, Archivo Storico Italiano (Florence, 1842)
Fra Benedetto Luschino, Cedrus Libani, ed. P. V. Marchese, Archivo Storico Italiano, App. VII (Florence, 1849)
Fra Benedetto [of Florence] Luschino, Vulnera diligentis, ed. S. dall’Aglio (Florence, 2002)
Niccolò Machiavelli, Istorie fiorentine (Florence, 1971)
Niccolò Machiavelli, Discorsi (Florence, 1971)
Niccolò Machiavelli, Opere, ed. F. Flora (Rome, 1949–50)
Michael Mallett, The Borgias (London, 1969)
Domenico Malipiero, Annali Veneti (Florence, 1843 edn)
Lauro Martines April Blood (London, 2003)
Lauro Martines, Scourge and Fire: Savonarola and Renaissance Italy (London, 2006) Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita (Adnotationes et Monumento), 2 vols. (Pisa, 1784)
The Autobiography of Lorenzo de’ Medici: A commentary on my sonnets, ed. and trans. James Wyatt Cook (Binghampton, 1995)
Lorenzo de’ Medici, Opere, ed. A. Simioni (Bari, 1914), Vol II, Canti Carnascialeschi
Lives of the Early Medici: As told in their correspondence, trans. & ed. Janet Ross (London, 1910)
Fra Karl Meier, Girolamo Savonarola aus grossen Theils handschriftlichen Quellen (Berlin, 1836)
Stanley Meltzoff, Botticelli, Signorelli and Savonarola (Florence, 1987)
Iacopo Nardi, Istorie di Firenze, 2 vols. ed. A. Gelli (Florence, 1848)
Piero Parenti, Storie fiorentine, ed. A. Matucci (Florence, 1994)
Tim Parks, Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence (London, 2006)
F.-T. Perrens Jérome Savonarole d’après les documents originaux et avec des pièces justificatives en grande partie inédites (Paris, 1856)
Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Vita R. P. Fr Hieronimi Savonarolae Ferrarensis Ord. Praedicatorum, ed. J. Quétif (Paris, 1674)
Giovanni Pico della Miradola, Conclusiones sive Theses DCCCC (Geneva, 1973)
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: His life by his nephew Giovanni Francesco Pico translated from the Latin by Sir Thomas More (London, 1890 edn)
Pius II, Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope, trans. F. Gragg (New York, 1959)
A. Politian [Poliziano], Prose volgari inedited e poesie …, ed. I. Del Lungo (Florence, 1867)
Angelo Poliziano, Letters, ed. & trans. by Shane Butler (London, 2006)
Angelo Poliziano, Stanze Cominciate per la Giostra di Giuliano de’ Medici (Turin, 1954)
James Reston Jnr., Dogs of God (New York, 2005)
Roberto Ridolfi, Studi Savonaroliani (Florence, 1935)
Roberto Ridolfi, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola, 2 vols. (Florence, 1974)
Rivista Contemporanea Vols. XVI–XVII (Turin, 1859)
Raymond de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494 (Harvard, 1963)
William Roscoe, The Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici (London, 1865)
Hugh Ross Williamson, Lorenzo the Magnificent (London, 1974)
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. J. Craig Vols. 3 & 7
A. G. Rudelbach, Savonarola und seine Zeit (Hamburg, 1835)
Girolamo Savonarola, A Guide to Righteous Living and Other Works, trans. Eisenbichler (Toronto, 2003)