and convents, not merely in town and country, but even in distant lands. On account of his wisdom he enjoyed the respect and confidence of all the lords and powers of Italy, and of foreign countries. All honourable offices in the city were bestowed on him; he would undertake none abroad. The most honourable embassies fell to him. He enriched many citizens by his mercantile connections, not to mention the great fortune which he left, for he was a merchant as skilful as he was successful. He died at our house in Careggi, after having received all the sacraments of the holy Church with piety and reverence. He would not make a will, but left everything at my free disposal. On the following day he was interred in the church of San Lorenzo, in the vault previously chosen by him, without pomp of burial, in the presence of the canons and priests of the aforesaid church, and the regular canons of Fiesole, with neither more nor fewer tapers than are used at ordinary obsequies, as he had commanded with his last words, saying, one should give alms during life, then they were of more use than after death. I did what was my duty, and gave the orders for alms-giving and Divine worship, as my books will show.’[100]
Marsilio Ficino, the confidant of the family for four generations, and witness of Cosimo’s last days, wrote the following to the grandson of the latter, and his own pupil, Lorenzo, then sixteen years of age:[101] ‘A man intelligent above all others, pious before God, just and high-minded towards his fellow-men, moderate in everything that concerned himself, active in his private affairs, but still more careful and prudent in public ones. He did not live for himself alone, but for the service of God and his country. None surpassed him in humility or magnanimity. More than twelve years I had philosophic conversations with him, and he was as acute in disputation as he was wise and strong in action. I owe Plato much, to Cosimo I owe no less. He showed me in practice those virtues which Plato presented to my mind. He was as covetous of time as Midas of gold; he measured days and hours, and complained even of the loss of minutes. After he had occupied himself with philosophy all his life, and in the midst of the gravest matters, he devoted himself, after Solon’s example, more than ever to it in the days when he was passing from darkness to light. For as you know, who were present shortly before his departure, he still read with me Plato’s book “On the One Reason of Things and Highest Good,” as though he would in reality now go to enjoy the good which he had tasted in conversation.’
The Signoria ordered a commission of ten citizens, Luca Pitti at their head, to make a proposal as to the manner in which the State could honour the memory of Cosimo de’ Medici, and express its gratitude. Donato Acciaiuoli made a speech, in which the determination to grant him the title of father of his country was announced.[102] In San Lorenzo, before the high altar, above the place in the crypt where stands the tomb inscribed with his name, the words may be read on the marble pavement:
COSMUS MEDICES
HIC SITUS EST
DECRETO PUBLICO
PATER PATRIÆ.
VIXIT ANNOS LXXV. MENSES III.
DIES XX.
SECOND BOOK.
PIERO DE’ MEDICI.
FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT.
CHAPTER I.
PIERO DE’ MEDICI, HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
At the death of Cosimo de’ Medici, his descendants, besides his natural son Carlo, who once more entered the ecclesiastical order, consisted of Piero, surnamed the Gouty (il Gottoso), and his four children. Piero was born in 1416, and was now forty-eight years old. He was a youth when the swift change of fortune in his father’s life took place, which, at first threatening his house with ruin, had suddenly raised it to supreme power, and his manhood passed during the envied but not seriously disputed exercise of that power. His health was feeble, yet this did not hinder him from undertaking various civil offices, and may, perhaps, have been of service to him by covering his mediocre character and intellect, and enabling him to preserve that middle course which is so difficult for the head of a party filled with great and ambitious men. He was a sensible, quiet man, experienced in business, with a sound judgment and far more kindliness of heart and sincerity than his father, but without his political acuteness, knowledge of men, and talent for steering safely among the numerous rocks that beset his position.
A clever wife stood beside him. At a time when Florence had no lack of distinguished women, Lucrezia, the daughter of Francesco Tornabuoni, surpassed most in intellectual gifts and domestic virtues. Her family was a branch of an ancient and noble Florentine race, which, since the democratic reforms of 1293, had been excluded from holding civic offices, yet without losing importance. Like many others, Simon Tornaquinci, a hundred years later, had altered his coat-of-arms, enrolled himself among the plebeian families under the name of Tornabuoni, and attached himself to the Medicean party, in which his son Francesco took a not unimportant position. Tornaquinci and Tornabuoni possessed considerable landed property in the western part of Florence. A gate of the second wall, since called San Pancrazio, was once named after the former, and a street still bears the name of the latter.[103] Lucrezia de’ Medici never experienced the anguish of exile; neither, separated from an exiled husband, had she to remain at the head of a ruined household, like so many noble ladies in those days of magnificence so often changing into misery. She beheld three generations in the possession of power, with its charge of care and sorrow. While conducting her household, which never lost its simple character, she paid homage to the muse in lyric poems and translations of Biblical histories. We shall speak later of her intercourse with Luigi Pulci (whom she encouraged to complete his poem on the legends of Charlemagne), with Politian and others. Lucrezia possessed great influence over her eldest son, whose youth she guided, and she lived to enjoy the period of his highest greatness.
Lucrezia gave birth to seven children, four of whom, two sons and two daughters, survived. Lorenzo was born January 1, 1449.[104] Nature had given him strength, but not beauty. To judge from his exterior, one might have prophesied him a long life, but not a brilliant one. He was above the middle height, broad-chested, powerfully built, and agile of limb. His features were, however, unpleasing; the sight weak, the nose flattened, the chin sharp, with a pale complexion. He was entirely destitute of the sense of smell, and his voice was harsh.[105] These natural defects he conquered with equal skill and perseverance, but the advantages of his bodily health and strength did not last long. His early education was confided to Gentile de’ Becchi of Urbino, afterwards canon at Florence and Pisa, and finally Bishop of Arezzo, a man of great ability and deeply attached to the family, an attachment which, at an important epoch in the life of his pupil and in Florentine history, led him to exaggerations which did not suit the ecclesiastical dignity.
Cosimo had attracted Gentile[106] and entrusted him with the education of his grandson. This learned man, who was connected with the most famous scholars of his time, such as Francesco Filelfo, Marsilio Ficino, Cardinal Ammanati, Giovan. Antonio Campano, Politian, and others, certainly spared no pains in the education of the richly-gifted boy. Under his guidance and that of Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, and John Argyropulos, one of the Greek fugitives received by Cosimo, the youth amassed an amount of knowledge not often possessed even at that time, when learned culture was so general among the rich. He developed his excellent talents in many directions. A letter addressed by his tutor to Piero de’ Medici, June 3, 1454,[107] with its assertion that the boy of sixteen excited the admiration of the whole city, is a pattern of that courtly style which began to be practised by the dependants of powerful families. It is worth mentioning here, because it speaks of a visit the boy paid to the Duke John of Anjou, who was then staying in Florence. ‘On the day before your departure, Lorenzo assumed the French costume, which suited him so well that we had scarcely set out when we were surrounded by a crowd of children and adults, who followed us on the way to King René’s son, whom we intended to visit. The Duke received him with great pleasure, as if he had been a little Frenchman fresh from his native