Magnifico
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Balìa: a special committee invested with extraordinary powers in times of crisis. Balìe were normally created by means of a parlamento (see below) called to give their approval to government reforms. The parlamento of September 1466, for instance, approved the Balìa dominated by Piero de’ Medici that purged most of the opponents of the regime (see below).
The Dieci di Balìa (the Ten of War): a special committee appointed in times of war and given almost dictatorial powers. Lorenzo maneuvered to have himself appointed to this all-important committee during the Pazzi war.
The Otto di Guardia (The Eight of Security): the feared committee in charge of state security charged with rooting out treason and political sedition.
Parlamento: assembly of all the citizens of Florence in the Piazza della Signoria called in moments of gravest danger to the state.
Medici innovations: The following are the major “reforms” initiated by the Medici that helped strengthen their grip on power:
Accoppiatori—Usually five in number, the Accoppiatori had the crucial task of sifting through the names of candidates who had been successful during the squittino, selecting only those deemed reliable friends of the regime. Originally convened only in moments of gravest crisis, they became an almost permanent feature of the Medici regime.
The One Hundred—Created by Cosimo de’ Medici as part of the reforms of 1458, the One Hundred included the most important members of the regime. Many of the responsibilities previously given to the more democratic councils of the People and the Commune were given to this compact body dominated by Medici allies.
The Seventy—A committee created by Lorenzo in 1480 to streamline the government and place power in fewer, more reliable hands. Important legislation proposed by the Signoria now had to be approved by the Seventy. The Seventy also took over from the Accoppiatori in selecting candidates for the Signoria by hand.
Reggimento (the regime)—the name given by Florentines to the small number of men who wielded real power in the government, regardless of who was actually seated in office. Throughout the era the reggimento consisted for the most part of Medici loyalists, though occasionally, as in 1466, the regime itself could split along party lines.
NOTES
CHAPTER I: THE ROAD FROM CAREGGI
“There is in my opinion”: Brucker, Florence: The Golden Age, 10–11.
“nature had been a step-mother to him”: Valori, 30–31.
“cold men”: Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 155.
“did not have much confidence”: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories,VII, 5, 281.
“those who have”: Filarete, XXV.
“First stop”: Chamberlin, “Everyday Life in Renaissance Times,” p. 71.
rare gemstones: Filarete, XXV, 319–21.
“[E]very day seems a year”: Ross, Lives of the Early Medici (hereafter Lives), 108.
“with infinite longing”: Ibid., 119.
“You will have received my letter of the 4th”: Ibid., 94.
“I wrote to you two days ago”: Lorenzo de’ Medici (hereafter Lorenzo), Lettere, I, no. 7, 15.
“Piero was dismayed” Machiavelli, Florentine Histories,VII, 13, 291–92.
“with whom I spoke”: Lorenzo, Lettere, I, no. 9, 19.
“Three times I read this”: Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence, 431.
charismatic center: Ibid., 419ff.
“Thus it was arranged”: Parenti, Ricordi Storici, 123.
“And returning to the arrival of Lorenzo”: Rochon, 108.
“[Piero] did not, to be sure”: Francesco Guicciardini, History of Florence, 13.
lessening the chances of a violent clash breaking out between their armed supporters: Phillips, 246.
on the rebound: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VII, 15.
“[I]n order to better conceal”: Ibid.
his onetime colleague had at least flirted with the opposition: Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 163.
“great goodwill among the people”: Ibid., 107.
“the citizenry would like greater liberty”: Ibid., 161.
“Cosimo and his men”: Ibid., 152.
“[s]ince his own ambition”: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VII, 11; Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 159.
“[It was] caused in large part”: Francesco Guicciardini, History of Florence, 15.
“Yesterday I went to my estate at Careggi”: Ficino, Letters, I, 1.
“received letters from the regime in Bologna”: Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 184–85.
“every day meets M. Luca”: Ibid., 177.
“man of fine physique”: Pius II, 114.
“Piero be removed from the city.”: Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 184.
“the marquis of Ferrara”: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VII, 15.
he dashed off an urgent letter to Sforza: Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 184–85.
“upon receiving this”: Black, “Piero de’ Medici and Arezzo,” Piero de’ Medici, “il Gottoso,”(1416–1469), 26.
It is a puzzle: Andre Rochon is among those who doubt that Lorenzo played a prominent role in saving his father’s life (see La Jeunesse de Laurent des Medicis, especially 82–84), arguing that Medici propagandists would surely have played it up. Their reticence, however, is understandable, since Lorenzo’s glory was won at the expense of his father.
[I]t was through the sound judgment of Lorenzo: Valori, 31.
“[W]hen Piero went off to Careggi”: Francesco Guicciardini, History of Florence, 17. Marco Parenti, who believed the whole incident was an elaborate deception, confirms that whatever took place occurred at “Sto. Antonio del Vescovo.” Phillips, 192.
“and thanks to God”: Lorenzo, Lettere, II, 413.
“new Dietisalvis”: Ibid., 276.
I was approaching town along the road: Lorenzo de’ Medici, Selected Poems and Prose, 43–44.
“Above all else”: Dale Kent, The Rise of the Medici Faction, 17.
CHAPTER II: FAMILY PORTRAIT
Accompanying the proud father: For a complete list of those in attendance, see Trexler, “Lorenzo de’ Medici and Savonarola, Martyrs for Florence,” Renaissance Quarterly, especially Appendix 1.
“are mean in giving alms”: Lowe, “A Matter of Piety or of Family Tradition and Custom?” Piero de’ Medici, “Il Gottoso,” (1416–1469), 56.
“the reputation of the said Mag.co Lorenzo”: Ferrarese ambassador, December 1482, Bullard, 46.
“Thus, while still only a youth”: Valori, 27.
“Be chary of frequenting the Palace”: Ross, Lives, 6.
“the first palace”: Vasari, I, 379.
more than twenty buildings were razed: Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence, 16.
“Spending a lot and making a big impression”: Ibid., 77.
“affords an opportunity for the exercise of virtue”: Gage, 55.
“everyone [in Florence] seems bred to the cultivation of profit”: Alberti, The Family in Renaissance Florence, I, 56–57.
over thirty fine palaces: Dei, 35r.
“[T]he popolani of the quarter of San Giovanni:” Villani, Nuova Cronica, XIII, xxi.
“Such was our greatness”: Ross, Lives, 3.
tax roll of 1427: Herlihy, Klapisch-Zuber, Litchfield, and Molho, Online Catasto of 1427. Version 1.3 (www.stg.brown.edu/projects/catasto/main.php). This database, compiled from information contained in the 1427 tax roll and maintained by Brown University, is an invaluable resource for those interested in fifteenth-century Florence, as is the related Online Tratte of Office Holders, 1282–1532, which contains a searchable database of officeholders for those years.
“he would make no will”: Ross, Lives, 74.
“There are fifty mouths to feed”: Dale Kent, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance, 319.
“So much a slave was he”: Vasari, I, 437.
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“If I do not frequent your house”: Dale Kent, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance, 24.
“Cosimo de’ Medici”: Rochon, 48.
“This evening I received your letter”: Maguire, 66–7.
A letter from Contessina to Giovanni: Ibid., 50.
“seem too good for Cafaggiuolo”: Ibid., 57.
The wolf retreated to its wilderness: Lorenzo de’ Medici, Selected Poems and Prose, “The Partridge Hunt,” 31.
“Honor does not reside in the woods”: Dale Kent, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance, 92.
moved probably sometime in 1458: F. W. Kent, Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence, 27.
“Too large a house”: Ross Williamson, 59.
“obliged to leave”: Dale Kent, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance, 306.
He has himself carried into a studio: Filarete, XXV, 319–21.
“[T]he aforesaid count”: Niccolò de’ Carissimi da Parma, in Hatfield, “Some Unknown Descriptions of the Palazzo Medici,” Art Bulletin, Appendix 2, 246.
“nothing in the world”: Dale Kent, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance, 240.
smeared with blood: Guido Cavalcanti, Istorie Fiorentine, in ibid., 223.
“This morning I had a letter”: Chambers, 96.
“The beauty and grace of objects”: Pier Paolo Vergerio, On Noble Behavior, 1404, in Baxandall, 34.
“Although we do not have the expertise”: Dale Kent, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance, 279.
Luca Pitti, Niccolò Soderini, and Dietisalvi Neroni: See Acidini Luchinat, The Chapel of the Magi: Benozzo Gozzoli’s Frescoes in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi Florence, for the identification of portraits in the Medici chapel.
the Dodici Buonuomini: For a searchable database of the offices held by various members of the Medici family, see the Online Tratte of Office Holders, 1282–1532.
“When you are made uncomfortable by the heat”: Ackerman, 76–77.
“to make him suck well”: Maguire, 37.
“[A]s God created Cosimo”: Ficino, Letters, 86, 108.
“Be old beyond your years”: Ross, Lives, 103.
“My Lord and Master”: Maguire, 63.
“I write to you several letters”: Ibid., 68–69.
“Have faith and obey the doctors”: Ibid., 82.
“You are well read”: Rochon, 23–24.
“[e]verywhere you could hear instruments”: Lucrezia Tornabuoni de’ Medici, “The Story of Queen Esther,” Sacred Narratives, 173.
“reduced Florence to the lowest level of repute”: Ibid., 35.
What part of the state: Ibid., 32.
CHAPTER III: MASTER OF CEREMONY
“[s]ixty young Florentine gentlemen”: Ross, Lives, 62.
“The preparations had been great”: Pius II, 109.
“They spent very little”: Ibid., 109–10.
“Every warrior wears a helmet”: Luchinat, 126.
“He for many reasons has great power”: Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence, 227.
“In Florence the citizens love equality”: Reumont, 241.
“surrounded by a crowd of children”: Gentile Becchi to Piero de’ Medici, June 3, 1454, Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence, 429.
“Lord of the Baths”: F. W. Kent, “The Young Lorenzo,” in Lorenzo the Magnificent, 7.
“I do not know of riches”: Lorenzo, Selected Poems and Prose, “The Supreme Good,” lines 45–51.
“some solitary and shaded place”: Lorenzo de’ Medici, Commento de’ Miei Sonetti, 4.
“my most dear friend”: Lorenzo, Lettere, I, 4.
“who wishes to be named notary”: Ibid., I, 5.
“to look after our affairs”: Ibid. I, 7.
“You have arrived at Milan later than I thought”: Ross, Lives, 93.
to name but one menu: Ibid., 269.
“Yesterday after leaving Florence”: Poliziano to Clarice de’ Medici, April 8, 1476, ibid., 178.
“I have the feeling that the days of Cicero”: Manchester, A World Lit only by Fire, 105.
One day it happened that Nicolao Nicoli: da Bisticci, 310.
“Do not ask how he enjoys his present studies”: Maguire, 201.
“Wonders are many on earth”: Davies, 117.
“O great and wonderful happiness”: Pico della Mirandola, On the Dignity of Man, 5.
“The nutriment of every art is honor”: Lorenzo to don Federigo, Ross, 88.
“Lorenzo is learning the verses”: February 1457, ibid., 60.
“other self, both in nature and in will”: Ficino to Giuliano de’ Medici Ficino, Letters, no. 61, 80.
no better or closer friend: Rochon, 28.
“he is always wanting to win”: F. W. Kent, Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence, 129–30.
“thinking to achieve more”: Ibid., 62.
“[Cosimo] was just as sharp”: Ficino to Lorenzo, Ficino, Letters, no. 86, 108.
“[Lorenzo] was so devoted to religion”: Valori, 25.
“The soul is only avid for the good”: Lorenzo, Selected Poems and Prose, “The Supreme Good,” lines 79–80.
“Do not meddle with priests”: Holmes, 19.
“Let him pass”: Luchinat, 369.
“growing rapidly in all directions”: Alessandro Martelli to Piero de’ Medici, May 4, 1465, Kent, “The Young Lorenzo,” Lorenzo the Magnificent, 10.
“Our Lord the King”: Ross, Lives, 159.
from any hand but his: Valori, 85.
“Lorenzo was of above average height”: Ibid., 29.
“for this he was much obliged to nature”: Ibid., 30.
“showed himself in a temper”: Lorenzo, Lettere, I, 177.
“My dear Lorenzo”: Braccio Martelli to Lorenzo, March 1466, in Rochon, 125.
“You don’t make your sons work in a shop”: Rocke, 135.
“because when they are younger”: Rochon, 127.
“going out at night wenching”: Becchi to Lorenzo, January 29, 1471, in Rochon, 128.
“If you were with me”: Luigi Pulci to Lorenzo, April 1465, Pulci, Lettere, I.
“Thus, considering both his voluptuous life”: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, viii, 36.
“he who lies the best is happiest”: Lorenzo, Selected Poems and Prose, “The Supreme Good,” line 64.
“Our Maeceneas”: Benedetto Coluccio, 1468; Kent, “The Young Lorenzo,” in Lorenzo the Magnificent, 3.
“As I have not had money to spend”: Pulci, Lettere, XIV.
“Short in stature”: Giovanni Corsi, in Ficino, Letters, no. 26.
“Now if you are not sorry for this”: Lorenzo to Ficino, ibid., no. 23.
“Who would have believed it?”: Lorenzo to Ficino, ibid., no. 28.
“I was indeed delighted with your letter”: Lorenzo to Ficino, ibid., no 84.
“[I]n the last years of his life”: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VII, 7.
“Mourning accords not with your age”: Ross, Lives, 64–65.
“When we are going to our country-house”: Maguire, 56.
“[Cosimo] began to recount all his past life”: Ross, Lives, 75.
“I record that on the 1st August 1464”: Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo Avanti il Principato, filza 163, 2 recto.
“these were vain hopes”: Tranchedini to Francesco Sforza, July 12, 1464, in Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 155.
CHAPTER IV: HOPE OF THE CITY
twenty-five braccie of cloth: Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo Avanti il Principato, filza 163, 3 verso.
It details such trivial expenditures: Ibid., filza 163.
“this death has given many of the citizens”: Alessandra Strozzi, Selected Letters, no. 19, September 15, 1464.
“despite this, upon his death”: Parenti, Ricordi Storici, 117.
possibly on the advice of Dietisalvi Neroni: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VII, 10.
; “to be buried without pomp or show”: Ross, Lives, 75.
Machiavelli later claimed that all the citizens: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VII, 7.
On the second day of August 1464: Parenti, Ricordi Storici, 57.
“[Cosimo] refused to make a will”: Ross, Lives, 152–53.
“the hope of the city”: Brown, Bartolomeo Scala, 41.
“the absent senator”: Ibid., 48.
“I have consulted with the citizens”: Ross, Lives, 94–95. May 11, 1465.
“Lorenzo was young”: Commines, II, 393.
“youthful virtue”: Ficino, Letters, no. 29.
“[H]e delighted in facetious and pungent men”: Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VIII, 36.
“Perhaps it is better to have a pretty wife”: Strozzi, Letters, no. 44. Alessandra Strozzi to Filippo degli Strozzi, March 29, 1465.
“was worthy of being included”: Valori, 24.
“No one even of his enemies”: Francesco Guicciardini, History of Florence, IX.
“Lorenzo was endowed by nature”: Rinuccini, Ricardi Storici, cxlvii.
“[T]he tyrant needs to show himself superior”: Davie, Half-serious Rhymes, 113.
“is not to exceed his orders in any way”: Lettere, I, 41.
Neroni in particular was engaged: See Lorenzo, Lettere, I, 14–15, for a discussion of Dietisalvi Neroni’s intrigues.
“you should regard yourself”: Lorenzo, Lettere, I, 15. Piero to Lorenzo, May 11, 1465.
“do not spare any expense”: Ibid.
“very well-disposed towards our city”: Lorenzo, Lettere, I, 7.
“I do not know how I can begin to thank”: Lorenzo, Lettere, I, no. 10. Lorenzo to Bianca Maria and Galeazzo Maria Sforza.
CHAPTER V: DEVIL’S PARADISE
“be the death of the city”: Rubinstein, Government of Florence Under the Medici, 160.