Magnifico (62 page)

“I do not believe that your relations”:
Rochon, 96.

“The Graces and Venus chose Alda’s beautiful eyes”:
Beccadelli,
The Hermaphrodite,
I, xvi

the bridle alone required 168 pounds of silver:
Davie,
Half-Serious Rhymes,
100.

“To do as others do”:
Ross, 154.

“one can interpret them as meaning”:
Pulci,
Stanze sur la Giostra di Lorenzo de’ Medici,
LXV.

Seeing this his famous father: Ibid., CXLIII.

“carried on his helm both honor and victory”:
Ibid, CLVIII.

“to be youth”:
Ibid., CLV.

“A few days ago I heard”:
Ross,
Lives,
126.

“Most magnificent consort”:
Ibid., 125.

“[A]nd although I was not highly versed”:
Ibid., 155.

CHAPTER VIII: A WEDDING AND A FUNERAL

“For in starkest winter”:
Poliziano,
Stanze per la hostra di Giuliano di Medici,
II,vii.

“Handsome Julio”:
Ibid., II, x–xi.

“How beautiful is youth”: gioventù to uomo fatto:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renaissance Florence
. See especially 387–99 for an illuminating discussion of Florentine attitudes toward the young.

“I know not where I shall begin”:
Reumont, 234.

“touched one another’s bare leg”:
Lubkin, 49.

“How glad I should be to see you”:
Maguire, 139.

“Calves 150”:
Ross,
Lives,
129–34.

“In the house here”:
Ibid., 132.

“
She doesn’t want to go”:
Alessandra Strozzi,
Selected Letters,
no. 34, May 8, 1469. Fiametta, it turns out, did attend, since her presence among the thirty young matrons accompanying Clarice to the
Palazzo Medici
is recorded by the anonymous chronicler.

“Cosimo Bartoli, one of the principal”:
Ross,
Lives,
131.

a charming rustic dance:
Ibid., 61.

“It would be a burden”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
III, 404.

“too insolent and haughty”:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renassance Florence,
462.

I would never have believed:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VII, 24.

“Until now, no mortal”:
Pernis and Adams, 27.

the secret backing of the duke of Urbino:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, 44.

a policy of appeasement:
Ibid., I, 48.

“of the enemies of Piero”:
Ibid., I, 49.

“to live in a manner”:
Ibid.

Piero was losing his grip:
Ibid. Sacramoro to Galeazzo Maria, October 25, 1469, in which he reports that Piero used “very strange words.”

“will show himself to be of a different nature”:
Ibid., I, 50.

“I would like to declare myself”:
Ibid., I, no. 22. Lorenzo to Galeazzo Maria, December 1, 1469.

“My Most Illustrious Lord”:
Ibid., I, no. 23. Lorenzo to Galeazzo Maria, December 2, 1469.

“[W]hile certain of having here”:
Ibid., I, no. 22. Lorenzo to Galeazzo Maria, December 1, 1469.

“I can report”:
Ibid., I, 51.

“all business will once again return”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
198. Niccolò Roberti to Borso d’Este, December 4, 1469.

the marriage of his son Piero:
Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
177–78. The marriage allied the Soderini with Gabriele Malaspina, Marquis of Fosdinovo, whose ambitions in northwest Tuscany often clashed with those of Milan.

“well respected but of varying views”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, 52.

“At the twenty-third-and-a-half hour”:
Sorzano, “Lorenzo il Magnifico alla morte del padre e il suo primo balzo verso la
Signoria
,”
Archivio Storico Italiano,
45. Sacramoro to Galeazzo, December 2, 1469.

“Messer
Tommaso Soderini took the word as eldest”:
Reumont, 246–47. Niccolò Roberti to Borso d’Este, December 4, 1469.

“work together for the good of the state”
:Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, 52.

“The common people don’t believe”:
Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
180. Sacramoro to Galeazzo Maria, December 1, 1469.

“leaders, knights and citizens”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, 59.

The second day after [my father’s] death:
Ross,
Lives,
150–56.

“When shall we find another so reasonable”:
Reumont, 240.

little of the emotional turmoil of the moment:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, especially letters no. 25 (to Guglielmo Paleologo) and no. 26 (to Otto Niccolini) for the most timely expressions of his feelings.

wept openly on his way back from church:
Parenti,
Lettere.
The preceding account of Piero’s funeral comes largely from Parenti’s letter to Filippo Strozzi begun December 3, 1469, but apparently continued over the course of the next few days.

CHAPTER IX: MASTER OF THE SHOP

But if [philosophy] be an occupation:
Roscoe,
Life of Lorenzo de Medici,
99.

“It does amaze me greatly, though”:
Lorenzo,
Selected Poems and Prose,
“The Supreme Good,” II, lines 40–51.

“It was merely a ceremony”:
Parenti,
Lettere,
no. 75. To Filippo Strozzi, December 3, 1469.

“Some say that this city is taking a republican path”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
45.

“They are agreed that the private affairs”:
Reumont, 248–49. Niccolò Roberti to Borso d’Este, December 4, 1469.

“one lord and superior”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
200.

“the stupid crazy mob”:
Kent,
Rise of the Medici Faction,
7.

“Our intention was to remove the city”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
Dialogue on the Government of Florence,
18.

“I have enjoyed a very long friendship”:
Rochon, 227.

“in another gain something better”:
Dale Kent,
Rise of the Medici Faction,
115.

“Among other things I told Lorenzo”:
Sorzano, “Lorenzo il Magnifico alla Morte del Padre e il Suo Primo Balzo Verso la
Signoria
,” Archivio Storico Italiano, 45, 50. Sacramoro to Galeazzo Maria, December 15, 1469.

“follow his grandfather’s example”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
204. Sacramoro to Galeazzo Maria, July 3, 1470.

“master of the shop”:
See F.W.Kent, “Patron-Client Networks in Renaissance Florence,” in
Lorenzo de Medici: New Perspectives,
for a discussion of the sources and limitations of Lorenzo’s authority.Benedetto Dei was one of those who employed the phrase
“maestro della bottega”
to describe Lorenzo’s role.

“Today the proposal went before the Signoria”:
Sorzano, “Lorenzo il Magnifico alla Morte del Padre e il Suo Primo Balzo Verso la
Signoria
,”
Archivio Storico Italiano,
49.

withdrew his delegates from the conference:
See Lorenzo to Otto Niccolini, March 24, 1469, in
Lettere,
I, no. 39.

the Neapolitans followed suit:
See ibid., I, 126.

Soderini’s interests were not necessarily his own:
Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
192. Sacramoro to Galeazzo Maria, June 4, 1470.

“honey in his mouth and a knife in his belt”:
Alessandra Strozzi,
Selected Letters,
87.

banishing his chief opponents from Florence:
Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
186.

including the Milanese ambassador:
Ibid., 184–85.

to prevent them from bolting the alliance:
Ibid., 188–89.

“found the letter already completed”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, 131.

“Let us abide by [the King’s] advice”:
Ibid.

“upset and desperate”:
Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
192. To the duke, Sacramoro wrote that Tommaso’s intention was to “beat Lorenzo over the head and deprive him of the benevolence of Your Highness, in order to be able to manage him in his own way.”
Lettere
i, 132.

until
after
it had heard from the Duke:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, no. 46. To Agnolo della Stufa, May 21, 1470.

Soderini’s bank account:
See Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
194.

the streets were illuminated by dozens of bonfires:
Ibid., no. 58.

“all lords and worthy persons”:
Lubkin, 99–100.

According to Francesco Guicciardini:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
24.

Lorenzo and his partisans were shut out:
Clarke,
The Soderini and the Medici,
191.

“If I understand matters correctly”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
204. For a complete discussion of electoral reform under Lorenzo see 199–263.

a margin of only two votes:
Ibid., 206–7.

“In this way the Signoria”:
Ibid., 207. Sacramoro to Galeazzo Maria, January 9, 1471.

“arrange and correct many things in the city”:
Ibid., 208.

“things have come to such a pass”:
Alison Brown,
Bartolomeo Scala,
68.

CHAPTER X: FAT VICTORY

“ready and a spirited young man”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VII, 25.

“long live the people of Florence and liberty!”:
Rinuccini,
Ricordi Storici,
CXII.

mass executions in the squares of Florence and Prato:
Landucci, 9.

frantic discussions in the
palazzo
:
see Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, no. 52, for a discussion of Lorenzo’s sometimes rocky relations with the city of Prato. Lorenzo’s authority increased after the failure of the rebellion.

Inghirami and his colleagues were Medici clients:
On September 1, 1466, for example, the Volterran faction headed by Inghirami received orders from Piero to hurry “with as many soldiers as possible for the salvation of His Magnificence in Florence and of his state”(see Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, 548).