Magnifico (66 page)

“Lorenzo declares (and it makes me laugh)”:
Ross,
Lives,
273.

“made the whole city want to throw up”:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renaissance Florence,
461.

“Piero has not seemed to me the person”:
Hook, 163.

an extended bout of depression in the summer of 1483:
Brown, “Lorenzo and Guicciardini,” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
292.

“We promised in the prologue”:
Lorenzo,
Commento De’ Miei Sonetti,
XI.

“[T]oday, the Magnificent Lorenzo didn’t leave his house”:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renaissance Florence,
445.

“In order to prevent the return of these pains”:
Ross,
Lives,
302. Petrus Bonus Avogarius to Lorenzo, February 11, 1489.

“in order to cure himself and to restore his health”:
Hook, 162.

“my having been ill these days”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
86.

“he wanted to have a say in everything”:
Butters, “Lorenzo and Machiavelli,” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
279.

“Still burdened with tears and sorrow”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
VI, no. 567. Lorenzo to Ercole d’Este, March 25, 1482.

“to seem older in appearance”:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renaissance Florence,
439.

“behaving disgracefully with women”:
Brown, “Lorenzo and Guicciardini” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
292.

“Being then placed by Fortune”:
Lorenzo,
Commento De’ Miei Sonetti,
XI.

“His last love, which lasted for many years”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
IX.

three new plots on his life were uncovered:
See Landucci, 31–34.

stopped using the familiar
tu
:
See de Roover, 220.

“the first list was drawn up by Lorenzo and
Ser
Giovanni alone”:
See Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
Appendix XI, where he reproduces Guicciardini’s account in full.

il padrone,
the boss:
See Brown, “Lorenzo and Guicciardini” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
289. This was a term used by Lorenzo’s supporter Bernardo del Nero, according to Guicciardini in his
Dialogue on the Government of Florence.

“That office had been created long ago”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
V.

Luca Landucci records the hanging:
See Landucci, 12 and 27.

[Lorenzo] offered them consoling words:
Martines,
April Blood,
221–22.

“condemned by the Committee of the Eight”:
Rinuccini, “Dialogue on Liberty,” in
Humanism and Liberty,
206.

“It occurred to me to reveal”:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renaissance Florence,
448.

“In making marriages”:
Dale Kent,
Rise of the Medici Faction in Florence,
50.

it was Lorenzo who made the arrangements:
See Brown, “Lorenzo and Guicciardini,” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
291.

“No one so much as moves”:
Hook, 155.

“narrow seas and storms of civic life”:
Lorenzo,
Commento De’ Miei Sonetti,
73.

“Get these petitioners off my back”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
80.

“For when the arms of Italy”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VIII, 36.

CHAPTER XIX: THE GARDEN AND THE GROVE

“Ort[us] L[aurentii] de medicis”:
See Elam, “Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Sculpture Garden,” in
Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz
36 (1992): 41–84, where she marshals copious evidence to prove the existence of Lorenzo’s garden.

“stayed as a young man”:
Ibid., 42.

Now that the boy [Michelangelo] was drawing one thing:
Condivi,
The Life of Michelangelo,
10.

“this Tuscan tongue”:
Ross,
Lives,
88. Lorenzo to Don Federigo of Naples.

universally regarded as an authority on all matters aesthetic:
See, for instance, F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
1 and 101–4, for his role as artistic arbiter.

“very great architectural expertise”:
Ibid., 102. The story that Lorenzo himself submitted a design is apparently in error.

“quality and that manner and form”:
Ibid., 104.

“And when he went to race at Siena”:
Landucci, 42.

Those who love these pretty nymphs: Lorenzo, “The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne,” in
Selected Poems and Prose,
162.

mined by writers like Poliziano:
See Cheney, 69–83.

“Piero—Enclosed is a letter from Baccio”:
Ross,
Lives,
317.

“I have received the cameo”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
34.

celebrations held in honor of the philosopher’s birthday:
Ibid., 31.

Recent scholarship has thrown cold water:
See Hankins, “The Myth of the Platonic Academy of Florence,”
Renaissance Quarterly
44 (1991): 429–75. See also Ficino’s letter to Jacopo Bracciolini, in Ficino,
Letters,
no. 107.

Plato, the father of philosophers:
Ficino,
Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love,
Introduction. Some believe this particular scene is an invention since it only appears in the second edition of the book, but it certainly reflects Lorenzo’s interest in Plato and the many conversations the two engaged in while neighbors at Careggi.

“is the first step on the staircase of love”:
Hook, 143.

For while the soul is bound in carnal bonds: Lorenzo, “The Supreme Good,” IV.

O’ God, o’ greatest Good:
Lorenzo,
Laude,
1–3, in
Selected Writings,
155.

“[The ruler] will not, indeed, consider himself”:
Ficino,
Letters,
no. 95.

The majesty of our imperial throne:
The Martyrdom of Saints John and Paul,
133, in
Selected Writings,
217.

“I have gone over in my mind many times”:
Field, 73.

he was roughed up by Girolamo Riario’s soldiers:
See Bisticci, “Life of Donato Acciaiuoli.”

“[T]he truth is that I cannot peacefully tolerate”:
Rinuccini, “Dialogue on Liberty,” in
Humanism and Liberty,
222.

Lured on, escorted by the sweetest thoughts: Lorenzo, “The Supreme Good,” I, lines 1–3, 7–15.

“To rule is wearisome, a bitter feat”:
Lorenzo,
The Martyrdom of Saints John and Paul,
98, in
Selected Writings,
237.

as if he had been a member of his own family:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
59.

One day, [Michelangelo] was examining:
Condivi, 12.

[Lorenzo] arranged that Michelangelo be given a good room:
Ibid., 13.

no surer sign that one was thought a part of the family:
See Ross,
Lives,
293.

listed among those of the household waiters:
See Draper,
Bertoldo di Giovanni,
15.

“Recognizing in Michelangelo a superior spirit”:
Condivi, 14–15.

Lorenzo had amassed one of the greatest collections of manuscripts:
Hook, 127.

“Wandering beyond the limits of his own property”:
Ackerman, 77.

“The Count della Mirandola is here”:
Ross,
Lives,
310. Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini, June 19, 1489.

“among the first and best-loved creatures of my house”:
Ibid., 173.

“louse clinging to the Medici balls”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
90.

“I should be glad not to be turned into ridicule”:
Ross, 219. Clarice to Lorenzo, May 28, 1479.

“I will not allow any man to have the spending of my money”:
Maguire, 183.

“were it not for Matteo Franco”:
Ficino,
Letters,
no. 73.

“to achieve even more than Cosimo and Piero”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
62.

monuments in brick and stone would be all that was left:
See Bisticci, 223.

grandiose gestures that smacked of princely ambition?:
See F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
48.

“prized it so much”:
Ibid. 37.

“in the manner of his ancestors”:
Elam, “Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Urban Development of Renaissance Florence,” in
Art History
i, no. i (March 1978.)

the construction of two new roads lined with new housing:
See ibid. for a full discussion of this little known project.

“embellishment to the city”:
Ibid., 44. Giovanni Cambi.

“Lorenzo de’ Medici [is] paying the lion’s share”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
98.

For this convent models were made:
Vasari, “Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo,”
Lives of the Artists,
700.

Fled is the time of year: Lorenzo, “Ambra,” I, i, in
Selected Poems and Prose.

“I do not approve of turrets and crenellations”:
Alberti,
On the Art of Building in Ten Books,
IX, 4.

remained nervous about the lack of adequate means of defense:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
125.

“I have learned that when [the saplings] are tender and young”:
Ibid., 117.

“I don’t dare contradict him”:
Ibid., 131.

CHAPTER XX: THE CARDINAL AND THE PREACHER

“This is an age of gold”:
Schevill,
History of Florence,
416.

many reproached Lorenzo for his apparent callousness:
See Ross,
Lives,
296.

“If you should hear Lorenzo blamed”:
Ross Williamson, 205.

Too often I am obliged to trouble and worry:
Ross,
Lives,
296–97. Lorenzo to Innocent VIII, July 31, 1488.