Section 20 of the Medici. Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Dick Bourgeois Doyle. The Medici. Volume 1 by G. F. Young. Chapter 9. Lorenzo the Magnificent. Born 1449, ruled 1469 to 1492, died 1492. The last 14 years of his rule, 1478 to 1492. Sixtus IV was furious at the failure of the conspiracy. It added fuel to the flame that Florence should have dared to hang his subordinate, the Archbishop Salviati, and put to death his hired agents, Monteseco and his companions. He promptly declared war against Florence and induced the King of Naples and other states to join him. He confiscated the Medici Bank in Rome and sent an envoy to the Florentine state to demand that Lorenzo should be surrendered to his vengeance. The reply of the senioria is significant. You say that Lorenzo was a tyrant and commandist to expel him, but how are we free if thus compelled to obey your commands?  But the Pope did more than declare war. He excommunicated the entire Tuscan state. The document drawn up by Sixtus IV on this occasion is a curiosity in this kind of literature. In it, he anathematized not only Lorenzo, whom he styled the child of iniquity and the nursing of perdition, but also the gonfalonieri and all the members of the senioria of Florence. The complete unrighteousness of the act is manifest. Because his criminal attempt had failed and because the government of a neighboring state had executed those who had murdered their ruler's brother, attempted to murder himself and endeavored treacherously to seize their country, therefore the people of that country were to be visited with a penalty in spiritual affairs. It was a travesty of the whole meaning of excommunication. Thus was the greater part of Italy, stirred up to attack Lorenzo, who justly remarked that his only fault was that he had not been murdered. But the temper of the Florentines was so thoroughly roused, no submission was thought of, and Florence prepared herself for a serious war against the whole power which the Pope was able to bring to bear. And here occurred a remarkable incident. Interesting is showing how the temper of men's minds was changing and as a forerunner of the Reformation, now fast approaching in the next generation. At a period on which we are now entering corruption and vice, we're being spread over Europe from Rome as a center. The church at large cried out against it, but none could see from whence any reform could come. Thus we find a preacher of the Order of Saint Dominic, preaching in the year 1484 saying, the world cries out for a council, but how can one be obtained in the present state of the heads of the church? No human power avails any longer to reform the church through a council and God himself must come to our aid in some way unknown to us. But in a way undreamt of by the preacher, that aid was already on the road. The new learning was slowly but surely leading men up to that great movement which was to reform the church. Writings of the long past unearthed chiefly through the labors of the Medici and the cause of learning were beginning to be the common property of all men and the result was like a revelation to the men of that age. They learned when and how the claims of the papacy had originated, how often and how effectively they had in the early centuries been repudiated by the church and how those claims themselves had gradually become far more wide and sweeping in character than when at first tentatively put forward and how in many instances they had only made their way owing to the political circumstances of Europe. But men learned more than even this. As these researchers of scholars into the writings of the past preceded, it began to be seen that an immense falsehood had been perpetrated.  In the latter half of the 15th century, men gradually learned that whereas these papal claims had for centuries been based upon three great historical documents, these were all of them from end to end colossal forgeries concocted in the Roman Curia during the darkness of the eighth and ninth centuries. The forged donation of Constantine, the forged donation of Pepin, and that which has obtained in history the name the forged decretals, all three now acknowledged by all Europe including the Church of Rome itself to have been what the scholars of the Renaissance found them out to be, forgeries. None in fact possessed of any scholarship could read them without at once seeing that they were so, their historical errors and inconsistencies being so gross. But they had sufficed for their purpose during an illiterate age. This huge fraud had misled the whole of Western Europe from the eighth to the fifteenth century and the entire papal edifice was erected there on. And then, says the modern historian, came a scholar of the Renaissance, Laurentius Vara, and uttered a few words of caustic comment and pricked the bubble which had befooled the world for seven centuries and the gin shrank back into the bottle and was hurled into the depths of the sea. It was as though, nay, far more than as though, Magna Sharda was found to be a forgery. The pricking of this great bubble joined to all the other knowledge which the new learning supplied was bound when time elapsed for the information to spread over the countries of Northern Europe to bring about the Reformation. For as soon as it became known to most educated men that the entire papal claim was based upon a colossal fraud, the revolt of other national churches from the usurped supremacy of the Church of Rome was a certainty. But that time was not yet. As yet, we are only at the stage when these things are becoming known to a considerable number of men in Tuscany and at an incident which was but a local and temporary forerunner of the Great Convulsion. It is an incident little known, but whose importance is shown by the strenuous effort subsequently made by the Church of Rome to destroy all trace of it. On receipt of the Pope's bull of excommunication, the whole of the Tuscan bishops assembled in council in the Cathedral of Florence justified the action of the state and not only appealed to a general council against the interdict, but excommunicated the Pope. Nor was there anything irregular in this action of the Church of Tuscany. It was an action which went back to the times when, had any bishop acted as sixth as the fourth had done, the churches of other parts of Christendom would have refused to hold communion with him or with his church until it had purged itself of such a bishop. And it was only from the long ignorance which had reigned in these matters that the bold action of the Church of Tuscany took men's breath away. And if we inquire where the Tuscan Church got the idea of action, which had been unknown in Europe for more than eight centuries, the answer is plain. It was undoubtedly Tuscany's new learning which emboldened the Church of Tuscany to take the course it did, strong in the knowledge that it was on solid ground in taking action which any appeal to the early centuries of the life of the Catholic Church would substantiate. But the Church of Tuscany did not stop here. It made use of the newly discovered art of printing and printed its sentence of excommunication of the Pope in distributed copies thereof to other national churches of Europe. This to a world accustomed to tremble at a Pope's censures seemed a still more terrible act of lawlessness, but nothing daunted Tuscany. The whole of the clergy held with their bishops and the papal excommunication was treated as a dead letter throughout that state. In the war which followed Florence was greatly overmatched. She had to face a powerful combination including not only Rome and Naples but also both of her two ancient rivals, Siana and Luca. Besides Urbino and other minor states, the Pope exerting all his power to make all states join him. Florence was repeatedly defeated in the field and lost town after town. At length, after nearly two years fighting, the position being most gloomy, Lorenzo took a remarkable step. Leaving the conduct of affairs in the hands of the gun Falloniere, Tomasso Sodorini, he set out by himself for Naples to try diplomacy instead of force of arms, thus putting himself into the hands of his enemy in the hope of thereby saving his country. It was a dangerous step for the Pope was as vindictive as ever and all knew the unreliable character of King Parante of Naples. On his way to Pisa, Lorenzo wrote to the Signoria explaining his object thus. In the dangerous circumstances in which our city is placed, it was more necessary to act than to deliberate. I therefore mean, with your permission, to proceed directly to Naples, conceiving that as I am the person chiefly aimed at by our enemies, I may by delivering myself into their hands perhaps be the means of restoring peace to my fellow citizens. In reply, he received from the Signoria a letter conferring on him official authority to negotiate with the King of Naples. Sailing from the little port of Vada in the Marama, Lorenzo reached Naples on the 18th of December. There is charm of manner combined with the masterly sketch which he set before the King of the politics of Italy, showing him the precariousness of Ludovico's forces position at Milan, the unreliability of Venice, the changing policy of the papacy, which varied with each new Pope, and that the friendship of none was so valuable to him as that of Florence. So works so great a change that the enmity of King Ferrante was turned into friendship. Lorenzo returned in triumph to Florence in March 1480 with a perfect ovation, the people embracing each other for joy. The citizens declaring that his tact and personal influence have proved stronger than all the military forests of the enemy, and that all that had been lost in the war had been recovered by his wisdom and judgment. The Pope raged furiously and did his utmost to continue the war, but one ally after another withdrew from him, and eventually he had to give in, remove his interdict, and make peace with Florence. This return in triumph ringing peace with honor where all had been so gloomy when he went away was always considered by the Florentines the chief event of Lorenzo's life, and just as Botticelli had immortalized the Rosiata joys of those earlier years before the tragedy of the papacy conspiracy put an end to them and brought storm and trouble, so now the same painter immortalized the triumph of the sterner years. This Botticelli, always allegorical, does by his picture of palace of doing the centaur, now in the Petite Palace, one of the most admired of his pictures. The centaur, emblem of crime and war, and typifying the iniquitous papacy conspiracy and the unrighteous war brought upon Florence as its result, cowers before the victorious goddess of wisdom, who, with Lorenzo's private crest of the interlaced diamond rings covering her dress and wreathed with laurel, turns her back on the bay of Naples and setting her face towards the hill country of Tuscany leads the spirit of war captive, thus representing the triumph of wisdom and peace in the person of Lorenzo and the honor accorded to him by a grateful country. In this manner did Lorenzo weather the storm which came upon him when he was 30 years old through the double trial of the formidable conspiracy to murder him and the disastrous war which grew out of it. We get a glimpse of how severely he had tried him from his words when apologizing for turning to literature as a relaxation amidst of much trouble of mind. He writes, I shall therefore only say that my sufferings have been very severe, the authors of them having been men of great authority and talents and fully determined to accomplish by every means in their power my total ruin. Whilst I, on the other hand, having nothing to oppose to these formidable enemies but youth and inexperience, saving indeed the assistance which I received from the divine goodness was reduced to such an extreme of misfortune that I had at one and the same time to labor under the excommunication of my soul and the dispersion of my property, to contend with endeavors to divest me of my authority in the state, to meet attempts to introduce discord into my family and to sustain frequent plots to deprive me of my life, in so much that I should at one time have thought death itself a less evil than those with which I had to contend. In this unfortunate situation it is surely not to be wondered at if I endeavored to alleviate my anxiety by turning to more agreeable subjects of meditation. This great diplomatic victory was the turning point in Lorenzo's career. Up to this time he had not gained the autocratic power which he sought, but from this moment it was entirely his. The Florentines were ready to accord any honor to the man who had first defended their country from seizure by an unscrupulous Roman despot and from subjugation to the latter's tyrannical rule. And then, though overmatched in strength, had foiled all that enemy's attacks and restored peace without any loss of territory. Lorenzo might undoubtedly, if he would, at this juncture have made himself sovereign ruler of Florence in name as well as in fact. But he knew his countrymen too well to do so, knowing that all his popularity would wane if he adopted that position. And he had the wisdom to be content with the power without the insignia of sovereignty. The kind of rule which he established, that combination of an autocracy with a democracy, will always be held in disfavor by political theorists, but the practical results proved its entire correctness. The prosperity and power of Florence went up with a bound. Every state desired alliance with her, while foreign courts eagerly sought Lorenzo's advice and assistance. Even the sultan was impressed by his importance and sent him costly presents, among other things, a giraffe, which must have been somewhat of an embarrassment in Florence. At the same time, Florence's commerce immensely increased. Her ships, built in her port of Pisa, trading to the Black Sea, Asia Minor, Africa, Spain, England, France and Flanders. And with the spread of her commerce increased also her influence as the center of art and learning. The pride which the Florentines took in all of this is brought home to us when we find Giovanni Ruccelli in detailing in his memoirs a long list of personal benefits for which he desires to offer up thanks to the Almighty, amongst them thanking God that he was a native of Florence, the greatest city in the world and lived in the days of the magnificent Medici. End of section 20. Section 21 of the Medici, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Dick Bourgeois Doyle, the Medici. Volume 1 by G. F. Young. During the first 11 years of Lorenzo's rule, the chief events in other countries were as follows. In France, from 1468 to 1477, Louis XI was mainly occupied in a long struggle with Charles the Bold, the great Duke of Burgundy. The latter was in every way the reverse of his mean and crafty antagonist and a far nobler spirit. While his wise reforms for the good of his country and his strong and enlightened government made him the leading ruler of his time. The struggle between him and Louis XI continued with varying success until 1477 Charles the Bold was killed at the Battle of Nancy. He left an only child, Mary of Burgundy, who inherited all her father's immense territories. Meanwhile, Louis XI, having exterminated all the greater nobles in France, had destroyed the feudal system in that country and in its place had established a standing army. This was the first standing army created in Europe and its possession in an age when nothing of the kind existed in any other country greatly increased Louis XI's strength. In Germany, the emperor Frederick III succeeded in 1477 in arranging a marriage between his son Maximilian Archduke of Austria and Mary of Burgundy, the sole heiress of Charles the Bold, by which Austria gained an accession of territory extending from Holland to Switzerland. This marriage caused a great change in the state of Europe to its due, the rise of the house of Austria, and we are told it begins the era of the larger politics of modern times. In this matter, Louis XI entirely overreached himself. The rich and extensive territories which Mary of Burgundy inherited stretched along the most exposed frontier of France. By a continued course of elaborate intrigues, Louis, while amusing the young Duchess with a proposal for a marriage with his son, the Dauphin, which he never intended to carry out, sent troops into her country, corrupted its leading men, and then betrayed them to execution, played everyone faults in turn, and was rapidly seizing her whole territory. To save themselves from him, the states of Flanders secretly negotiated with the emperor for the above marriage, which between their young sovereign, Mary, and his son, and in 1478, six months after her father's death, Mary of Burgundy gave herself in all her wide territories to the young Maximilian, and Louis XI, to his great disgust, had to discourage. In England, the wars of the roses still continued, debarring that country from taking any part in the politics of Europe. In Spain in 1469, the year that Lorenzo's rule in Florence began, took place the marriage between Ferdinand, King of Aragon, and Isabella, Queen of Castile. Whereby, for the first time, Spain entered as one country into European politics, this marriage uniting the northern half of that country, though the Moors still held the southern portion. In Milan, after the death in 1476 of the Duke Galliazzo Sforza, his Duchess, Bonad of Savoy, governed for a time on behalf of her son. In 1480, however, her late husband's brother, Ludovico Sforza, commonly known as Il Moro, owing to his swarthy complexion, managed to banish her, placed her 12-year-old son, Gian Galliazzo, on the throne and proceeded to govern in his name. And as Il Moro failed to continue the policy of his father and brother in maintaining a close friendship with Florence, this made a material difference to Lorenzo the Magnificent and his labors to preserve the balance of power in Italy. In southern Italy, in 1480, just after Lorenzo had concluded his treaty of peace with Naples, Muhammad II, who after his capture in Constantinople in 1453 had subdued in succession Serbia, Bosnia, Albania and Greece, proceeded to extend his conquests to Italy and attacked and captured Autranto, massacring the inhabitants. This capture of Autranto by the Turks created great consternation in Italy and was a principal inducement to Sixtus IV to conclude the peace with Florence already noted. Florence agreed to maintain a fleet of 15 galleys for employment against the Turks until they should be expelled from Italy. For the next four years after his peace with Naples and the Pope, Lorenzo was continuously occupied in striving to create a general peace in Italy. Sixtus IV still endeavoring to seize upon various states for his nephew, Girolamo, kept Italy in a constant state of war in which Milan, Venice, Ferrara and Naples were all involved. But Lorenzo succeeded in keeping Florence out of it, though for some time his laborers to bring all states to peace were without success. In 1482, Lorenzo's mother, Crecia Tornoboni, died. She had lived to see her elder son's triumph over the cruel enemies who had slain her younger son and to witness the former's growing power as the needle of the Italian compass. In the many troubles and anxieties of the previous four years, Lorenzo had received much counsel and support from her, and he felt her death greatly. Speaking of it, he says, I have lost not only my mother, but my one refuge from many of my troubles, a comfort in my laborers, and one who saved me from many of those laborers. In 1488, Lorenzo's second son Giovanni, though only seven years old, was admitted to minor orders with a view to training him for high office in the church. And at the same time, Louis XI, with whom Lorenzo's influence had now become great, conferred on Giovanni, in accordance with the bad, though not infrequent, custom of the age, the archbishopric of Axon Parallels. It's curious and illustrative of the prevailing views on such points in reading Lorenzo's own account of the matter in his memoirs to note how he evidently saw nothing incongruous in the matter. He says, On the 19th of May, we received the intelligence that the king of France had presented to my son, Giovanni, the abbey of Font de Dolce. On the 31st, we heard from Rome that the pope had confirmed the grant and had rendered him capable of holding it a benefit he being now seven years old. On the 1st of June, Giovanni accompanied me from Poggio Cayano to Florence, where he was confirmed by the bishop of Arezzo in the chapel of our family and received the tansura and from thence forth was called Messiere Giovanni. The next day, we returned to Poggio. On the 8th, June, arrived advices from the king of France that he had conferred upon Messiere Giovanni the Archbishopric of Axon Provence. In 1484, all states except the pope being weary of the war, Lorenzo's efforts were at length successful and a peace was concluded at Bagnolo between Naples, Milan and Venice. The news of it greatly enraged Sixtus IV, who was then seriously ill. We are told that on hearing of it he became speechless with fury and it has been said, owing to this cause on the following day to the relief of all of Italy, he died. He was succeeded by Innocent VIII, Giambattista Sibo, and this caused a great improvement in Lorenzo's position. For whereas Sixtus IV had been the bitter enemy of the Medici, with Innocent VIII it was exactly the reverse. He was much impressed with the political influence of Lorenzo and considered it very desirable to keep on good terms with the powerful ruler of Tuscany, a policy which he steadily maintained throughout his eight years, a pontificate. In 1481, the United Power historical of Italy, with the kings of Aragon of Portugal, and of Hungary was put forth to retake Atranto from the Turks. And upon the receipt of news, while the siege was proceeding of the death of Mohammed II, Atranto capitulated. In Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella began in 1481 to drive out the Moors from the southern half of the country, a war which was to last for the next 11 years. In England in 1488, Edward IV died, the boy, Edward V was murdered by his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the latter became king. Two years later, Richard III was himself killed at the battle of Bosworth and Henry VII gained the throne putting an end to the long period of civil war which England had endured for 30 years. In France, Louis XIV also died in 1488 and was succeeded by his son, Charles VIII. The latter was a boy of 13 of weak health and small capacity. Louis XI, however, when dying and trusted to his eldest daughter, Anne of Beaujeu, married to the Duke of Bourbon, the guardianship of her young brother and the rule of the kingdom during his minority. And for the next nine years, she governed in his name. She displayed a high intelligence and many remarkable qualities. Her nobility of character, justice and prudence, the overcoming of the ill will of her brother, the opposition of the French nobles and the schemes of Maximilien of Austria, obtaining for her the name of Madame Lagrand. Under her wise methods of government, the prosperity of France greatly increased while it was she who enabled Henry VII to gain the throne of England. From the year 1480, Lorenzo the Magnificent remained for the rest of his life undisturbed by dissensions in Florence and was able to devote himself especially after the general peace in Italy brought about in 1484 to those arts of peace which were so much more congenial to him than war. Not that his beloved studies were neglected even in the midst of war or the most pressing anxieties. In a letter to Fikino he says When my mind is disturbed with the tumult of public business and my ears are stunned with the clamors of turbulent citizens how would it be possible for me to support such contentions unless I found a relaxation in learning? Amirato says Being now completely free from foreign disturbances and having perfect quiet at home, he devoted himself to the pleasures and elegancies of peace occupying himself in the patronage of literature in book collecting and beautifying the city and bringing into cultivation the surrounding country and in all those pursuits and studies which have made that age remarkable. And notwithstanding all the accusations of despotism made against Lorenzo, it is impossible not to notice that at no other time in Florence's history was she not only so respected abroad but also so peaceful prosperous and contented at home which clearly shows that the form of government established by him was that which ensured the maximum of happiness to the greatest number. It has also been remarked that the civil equality to which we are accustomed in modern states but which was quite unknown to the Europe of that age was by no means unknown to Tuscany in the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent which seems sufficiently to show that any despotism on his part could scarcely have been a very stringent character nor did political affairs, literature and art absorb the whole of Lorenzo's attention for under his rule all industries, commerce and public works made enormous progress and in after times the Florentines always look back to the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent as the happiest and most prosperous period of their history, nor was this confined only to Florence. Guicci Ardini commences his celebrated history with the remark that the time of Lorenzo was a season prosperous beyond any other which Italy had experienced during the long course of a thousand years and after a long panagoric on its then happy state says that this was by general consent ascribed to the industry and virtue of Lorenzo de Medici. At the same time in the wider field of European politics Lorenzo became recognized by all sovereigns as the leading man in Italy and in the Florentines archives may be seen letters to him from Henry the Seventh of England and Louis 11th of France in which both of them address him as an equal and in the style of a reigning monarch. But the task of maintaining the peace of Italy which had devolved upon Lorenzo was one which taxed all his powers and it is hard to understand how he found time as he did for all those pursuits which Amirato mentions Naples, the Pope, and Milan were only kept from war with the greatest difficulty. Nor was this all. Among the smaller states there existed a chronic condition of feud which required incessant watchfulness on Lorenzo's part in order by skillful intervention to prevent it from developing into actual war. He watched over the smallest matters in the politics of other states which might affect, however remotely the welfare of Florence. Conflicting interests, mutual distrust, and veiled animosity made Italian politics of that time a perfect labyrinth of intrigue. And nowhere is the consummate statesmanship of Lorenzo more apparent than in those portions of his correspondence showing the masterly manner in which he dealt with the complex situations called forth by these conditions and demonstrating the successful results which he achieved. But all this was not done without a strain upon his powers of mind and body which told severely upon him so that we can well understand the wish that he expressed that he could bury himself for six months in some place where no rumor of Italian affairs can reach his ears. In 1484 Florence was drawn into a desultory war with Genoa and took Pietrasanta. And in 1487 Lorenzo himself conducted an expedition against Sarzana which had been captured from Florence during the war of 1478 to 1480 and retook that town. An act which still further increased his popularity as the loss of Sarzana had been deeply felt by the Florentines. In August 1487 while Lorenzo was absent at the Baths of Filetta whether he had gone owing to his increasing attacks of gout his wife, Clarice J died at 34. She died somewhat suddenly and he heard of her death before he knew she was ill. In 1488 Pope Innocent VIII impressed with Lorenzo's growing importance desired a marriage between one of his sons, Francesco Sibo, and one of Lorenzo's daughters. A significant sign of the extent to which this citizen family were rising worldly estimation. Lorenzo gave him his eldest daughter, Medellina. They were married on the 20th of January 1488. An episode in connection with this marriage gives us a glimpse of the simplicity of the domestic life in the Medici Palace. It is related that when Francesco Sibo came with a very grand retinue from Rome for this marriage he and his suite were splendidly lodged and luxuriously maintained in a separate palace. But after three days, Sibo himself went to stay at the Medici Palace with his future father-in-law. There, astonished at the simple style of living, so different from what he had been accustomed to in the papal palace at Rome as well as from that which his own retinue were receiving elsewhere he thought that an insult was being put upon him. It was then explained to him that it was no insult but the very reverse that the luxurious entertainment was kept for those who were guests, but that now he was admitted. No longer as a guest but as one of the family. In the same year Lorenzo married on the 22nd of May 1488 his eldest son Pietro then 17 to Alfonsina Orsini another of the same proud Roman family from whom his own wife had come. Judging from their after results as represented in Clarice Orsini's son Pietro and Alfonsina Orsini's son Lorenzo these two Roman marriages were not at all advantageous to the Medici family. End of section 21 section 22 of the Medici, volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Dick Bourgeois The Medici, volume 1 by GF Young In 1489 Lorenzo attained a desire which he had much at heart. Though only 40 his health was already failing from hereditary gout his eldest son Pietro showed signs of a careless and arrogant disposition which did not promise well for his success as a ruler of Florence. Lorenzo was therefore anxious to create a second stop to the family fortunes so that if Pietro should fail Giovanni, his second son might be able to retrieve the failure. If he could get the latter made a cardinal the family wealth and influence would probably eventually carry him to the papal throne when the family fortunes would be assured. It was therefore a great satisfaction to Lorenzo when by his influence with innocent the eighth he in this year though Giovanni was only 13 succeeded in getting the latter created a cardinal the youngest there had ever been. In 1490 there began in Florence the preaching of the man who was in a few years to become the chief power among Florentines Savonarola, a native of Ferrara had taken up as a special mission the task of recalling the inhabitants of the cities of Italy from their luxurious and profligate ways. He had preached this message first at Florence an important city at that time in Italy but unable to get the Florentines to listen to his exhortations he had departed for several years to preach the same message at Brescia, Reggio, Genoa and other places. And it was Lorenzo who in this year 1490 recalled him to preach again his message of reform in Florence and this fact should be born in mind as counterbalancing the baseless statements so often made as to Lorenzo having led the Florentines into profligacy. Nor even when Savonarola's preaching was aimed against himself did Lorenzo resent it preaching against the prevailing licentiousness of the times Savonarola and predicting the downfall of the various states of Italy before a foreign conqueror unless a general reformation of morals took place included among the dynasties who were thus to fall not only the king of Naples, this force of Milan the Estae of Ferrara and the occupant of the papal throne but also the Medici at Florence. Yet Lorenzo showed no resentment and took no steps to stop his preaching. Though his paramount influence with Pope Innocent VIII would have enabled him at any moment to procure Savonarola's removal. In the following year Lorenzo gave a further example of worthy command over himself. In that year Savonarola was elected prior to the Monastery of San Marco. The monastery, which had been entirely built and endowed by the Medici. It was consequently customary for the prior on being elected to pay a complimentary visit to the head of the Medici family. Yet when Savonarola deeming this a worldly and unseemly custom, declined to observe it. Lorenzo treated this discourtesy with dignified forbearance, only saying with a smile, see now here is a stranger who has come into my house and will not deign even to visit me. Nevertheless he showed good will to the prior, often attended his services and gave as liberally as here to for to San Marco. During these two years, 1490 and 1491, Lorenzo was greatly harassed by the quarrel between the King of Naples and the Pope and by the strenuous labor it involved on his part to keep them from coming to an open rupture. King Ferrante persistently evaded compliance with the terms of the treaty which he had made with the Pope in 1486 and Lorenzo had to exert all his powers of persuasion with Innocent VIII to prevent him from endeavoring to enforce it. At length however, in February 1492, Lorenzo's efforts to bring them to a better understanding were successful and they agreed to a mutual settlement of their differences which set this matter at last at rest. This completed Lorenzo's work for the maintenance of peace in Italy. He had in 22 years perfected that which his grandfather had begun and created between Venice, Milan, the Pope and Naples a firm balance of power which so long as his influence watched over it would keep Italy at peace. But Lorenzo had done more than this and to protect Florence from the miseries of war had created a more permanent safeguard, one undreamt of by Cosimo. Instead of the chronic enmity with her neighbors which had hitherto always been Florence's condition, Lorenzo a master in conciliatory action had in the course of 22 years gradually established friendly relations with Siena, Luca, Bologna, Fenza, Ferrara, Rimini, Perugia and City de Castello. Thus encircling Florence with a ring of friendly states and a more lasting guarantee for her peace than even a general balance of power. These achievements had brought Italy to the condition referred to by Gicci Ardini as the most prosperous experienced for a thousand years and had made Lorenzo recognized even beyond the Alps as the leading statesman of his age. But Lorenzo the Magnificent has a greater claim to fame than any which is derived from his achievements in the political sphere. It is in the domain of learning and art that his chief honor will ever rest and the former especially was the main interest of his life. However much controversy may rage around the deeds of the Medici there is one cause in regard to which it will be difficult to deny that they have deserved unstinted honor and gratitude from Europe at large. That of the resuscitation of learning. And in particular for their rescue at great cost to themselves of a mass of invaluable literary treasures belonging to the classic age just in time before the spread of Turkish misrule over all the eastern countries of Europe after the fall of Constantinople had time to work its natural effects. For a very few decades of Turkish dominion over these countries would have caused all those treasures to disappear forever carried out by four generations there were in this matter two stages. The time of Lorenzo notwithstanding all the enthusiasm of the brilliant Coterie he gathered around him can scarcely be called a time of learning such as that which followed in the time of Leo the 10th Erasmus and Scallagers. It was too early for that result. In the case of the first three of the four generations the resuscitation of learning has referenced to the splendid work done in unearthing and making known the materials by which alone later generations were enabled to become times of learning. Cosimo, Piero and Lorenzo did this portion of the work. It remained for Lorenzo's son Leo the 10th to conduct his age to the further step of becoming a time of learning through the labors of those who had gone before. The assistance which Lorenzo gave to this work was unbounded. In large as had been the amounts which his father and grandfather had given to this subject that which Lorenzo gave was still larger. It has been computed that in the 35 years from the recall of Cosimo in 1434 to the death of Piero in 1469 the family over and above what they spent in the search for and rescue of manuscripts from the east had given from their private fortune for the public benefit in the shape of institutions to assist learning in similar objects a sum equal in our present money to nearly 3 million pounds sterling. To this Lorenzo's own expenditure on the same object has to be added and some idea of its extent may be foreign from the amount which he gave annually for books alone. Mr. Walter Scave says Allowing for the difference in the value of money Lorenzo's annual expenditures for books alone amounted to from 65,000 pounds to 75,000 pounds sterling. He sent the celebrated Giovanni Lascaris twice to the Orient for the express purpose of discovering and purchasing ancient manuscripts. On a second voyage Lascaris brought back 200 Greek works as many as 80 of which were not up to that time even known. But this was only one item in the process. Not only had such manuscript books to be searched for in eastern countries but to be of any use in the spread of learning copies of them had to be multiplied and so an army of copyists were maintained by Lorenzo for this purpose and kept constantly at work. Then again there were colleges and other similar institutions to be founded for the assistance of those who had the scholar's instinct but could not afford the necessary books or the expense of their own maintenance while studying. Among other institutions of this kind Lorenzo founded the University of Pisa which by his liberality to it he made the most celebrated University of that time in Europe except that at Florence. When he was only 23 during the time when he and Giovanni were chiefly renowned for their splendid pageants and festivities he went at the latter end of 1472 to Pisa to found this university and stayed there a long time employed on this work himself taking the direction of the new university. The state gave an annual grant to it of 6000 Florence but as this was all together inadequate Lorenzo gave to supplement it more than double that amount out of his private fortune and by this means obtained for its professors some of the most eminent scholars of the age. But his work at Florence in this direction was still greater. It was at Florence in the cause of the Greek language and literature that the labors of Lorenzo on behalf of learning culminated. Roscoe tells us that while the University of Pisa was for the study of the Latin language in those branches of science of which it was the principal vehicle it was at Florence only in all of Italy that the Greek language was taught and that there was established a public academy for Greek by means of which the knowledge of the Greek tongue was extended not only through all the rest of Italy but through France, Spain, Germany and England from all which countries numerous students attended at Florence who defused the learning they had acquired there throughout Europe. To this Greek academy at Florence Lorenzo gave lavishly and for its welfare labored persistently. Establishing as its professors such celebrated men as the eminent Johannes Agoropoulos, Theodorus Gaza, Demetrius, Chalcon Bialis and others. The celebrated William Grotjen after words professor of Greek at Oxford and Thomas Lunacer the first English scholars who learned Greek acquired it at Florence under these great teachers all this gives us an idea of how great was the cost of such work as the resuscitation of learning and when joined to Lorenzo's large expenditure on the encouragement of art and on state expenses other than those for which he was reimbursed it caused even the Medici wealth to be heavily reduced so that Lorenzo the Magnificent died a very much poorer man than his father but it was money well spent in his own speech on becoming head of the family made in reference to the large amount which his father and grandfather had drawn out of the family funds to spend on works of public utility may be made applicable to himself some would perhaps think it would be more desirable to have a part of it in their purse but I can see of it to have been spent to the great advantage of the public and I am therefore perfectly satisfied and to the very last Lorenzo's ardor in this cause of spreading a knowledge of learning remained unabated the ruling passion strong in death gained another example in his case as the tool closest of his friends Angelo Poliziano and Pico della Merandola stood weeping by his bedside as he breathed his last his dying words were I wish the death had spared me till I had completed your libraries but Lorenzo's insistence to the cause of learning did not end here or with help which he shared with his father and grandfather the honor which literary men gave to him was not merely that given to a great patron whose wealth was ever at the service of learning but was an even greater degree the honor paid to one who was himself an author of literary work leader in their own sphere is only in recent years that has become appreciated how high is the place taken by Lorenzo in this respect modern opinion however credits him with having more of the poetic spirit than any other man of his time and with having been the leading poetic influence of his age that's the most recent authority on the subject says his Lorenzo's Sonnet's and Ode's Kanzoni are of the finer quality than any similar verse since the death of Petra and one seems to catch in them at times an echo of the less highly finished but also less self-conscious work of the pre Pertarchi in age the Dolce Stilnovo of the expiring 13th century both he and his friend Polizian had felt something of the invigorating influence of the DC Florentine folk songs and if Lorenzo had lived free from the entanglements of politics and statecraft the course of the Cinque Cento poetry might have taken another turn unfortunately the fashion was left to be set by the courtly poets by whom it was led downwards to the depths of the Sei Santismo with its conceits its false taste its insincere sentiment and general lack of all masculine quality all of Lorenzo's efforts as a writer would employ to put an end to the depreciation of the Italian tongue as compared with Latin. As a boy of 17 he had declared his belief that this was practicable in a remarkable letter written by him in 1466 to his friend Federico of Naples he defended what was then the vulgar tongue declaring that the Tuscan language possessed all the necessary qualifications for literary use and proving his point by examples from Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio and he urged that the language of Tuscany so graceful in its youth might be made to attain still greater perfection in its maturity if only the Florentines would earnestly strive to this end all his writings were intended to assist this object and it is chiefly due to these efforts of his that the Italian language occupies the position it now does instead of the lower plane on which he lived in his day. Lorenzo's poetical writing covered a wide range. He was a devoted lover of nature and of country life and all of his best works deal in some form or another with such topics. He wrote the well-known Poem of the Ambra, a mythological poem on the building of his much loved villa at Poggio Acaiano a poem being named after a little island in the adjacent stream of the Ambrone and being a description of the joys of the country life and of the delightful springtime in Tuscany. The caccia col falcone, the doings of a hawking party la nenzia da barbarino on Tuscany peasant life which Simon styles a masterpiece of true genius and humor. Bayonne, a burlesque and many other poems also numerous sonnets and love songs, poems of his youth mostly inspired by his romantic but unimpassioned love for La Creccia Donati. Nothing came amiss to his muse. He could write with equalies, pastoral and devotional poetry, sonnets and carnival ditties, hunting songs and poems on stars and flowers and all showing true poetical feeling. Lorenzo's writings occupied so largely with that country life of which he was so fond open up the pleasantest side of his character. While here we have the satisfaction of being on ground where controversy cannot enter since whatever a man's writings show of himself is definite and incontrovertible. Speaking of how Lorenzo's love of nature and sympathy with the feelings and life of the country people show themselves in his poetry, Mr. Armstrong says as follows as examples of this may be taken the stages in the rosebud's life from his poem Corinto or a wider theme the annual migration of the flocks to the upland pastures. The flocks pass bleeding up the mountain paths, the young lambs trotting in their mother's steps. The one just newly born is carried in the shepherd's arms while his fellow bears a lame sheep upon his shoulders. A third peasant is riding the mare with full carrying the posts and nets to guard the flocks from wolves. The dog runs to and fro proud of his post as escort to the party. Then comes a little touch of nature unidealized. The flock is shut within the nets the shepherds fall to their meal of milk, rolls and biscuits and then fall furiously asleep and snore all night. Equally well can the poet describe a winter scene the crackling of leaves beneath the hunter's feet his quarry vainly seeking to hide its tracks the fir tree standing green against the white mountains or bending its branches beneath its load of snow the laurel standing young and joyous amid the dry leafless trees the solitary bird that still finds a hiding place in the stout cypress which is doing battle with the winds the olive grove on a balmy sunny shore whose leaves show green or silver according to the setting of the wind Lorenzo finds his materials the troubles of life as in its joys he enters keenly into the sufferings of the peasant and of animals he describes one of the woodland fires common in mountain districts a chance spark of the flint catching the dry leaves and then spreading to the brushwood and then gaining on ancient oak and illyx destroying the shadowy forest homes the pleasant nests the lairs where generations of wild things have stalled themselves and then the wild route of terror-stricken creatures bellowing and shrieking down the echoing dale at another time we see the ombronae in flood and its turbid yellow waters grinding stone on stone bearing along the plain its mountain spoil of trunk and bow the peasant's wife is just in time to free with trembling hand the cattle from the stall she carries picka back her weeping little son behind her the elder daughter with the poor household store the old shed floats bobbing on the water's crest it is the close observance of nature which makes Lorenzo's poetry ever fresh whether he is describing ants or bees or a line of cranes stretching across the sky towards a sunny spot or the hunted deer taking its last desperate leap in the straining eyes of the baffled dogs or the oxen struggling with their load dogs or the tired bird falling into the sea because it fears to light upon a ship end of section 22 section 23 of the Medici volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dick Bourgeois Doyle the Medici the F-Young everyone who is conversant with a sportsman's life will feel how these writings of Lorenzo call up scene after scene which has come before his own eyes in the wildlife of the mountains how he is brought in sympathy with the writer and how none but a man who was an ardent lover of nature, of animals and of the country people could observe and write like this but no picture of Lorenzo magnificent would be complete without notice of that brilliant inner circle of literary men who were his closest friends among these the chief were Polizian who before he was 18 was already renowned for his translation of the Iliad into Latin at 26 was lecturing to students from all countries in Europe on the Greek and Latin classics and who though he died at 39 was the greatest poet of his time Maxilio Ficino who born in 1433 and trained by Cosimo Patria translated Plato and many other works of the ancient writers into Latin and became head of the Platonic Academy Luigi Pulci who celebrated epic poem Il Morgante Maggiore is said to have been written at the request of Lucretia Turna Buoni Lorenzo's mother and Pico Count of Mirandola the most brilliant of the whole band and celebrated throughout Europe young, handsome, clever, lofty and character with graceful bearing and golden hair knowing 22 languages including Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldea and whose many attainments were the marvel of mankind he was the most distinguished literary man of the age who rested in the laurel Lorenzo to him we are told all knowledge and all religions were a revelation of God Savona Rola revered his memory and in his triumphous churus written after Pico's death declares that by a reason of his loftiness of intellect and the sublimity of his doctrine he should be numbered among the miracles of God and nature Sir Thomas Moore translated his letters and held him to be a saint Lorenzo's two closest friends Polizian and Pico della Mirandola both died soon after him Polizian at the age of 39 Pico at that of 31 both of them dying in 1494 to the above four must also be added the celebrated scholar Christoforo Landino who in his disputations first published about 1475 relates certain notable discussions of this group of brilliant intellects which took place when on one occasion they were gathered at Camal Doli and Vespastiano da Bistici the last of the master copyists and the first of modern booksellers the largest employer of professional copyists in Europe whose book The Lives of illustrious men is a mine of information regarding many important historical characters of the time written by one who knew them personally such were some of the men who were the chief lights in that distinguished society which Lorenzo the Magnificent created around him a literary coterie probably the most brilliant in intellect which has ever been gathered together at one time and place a coterie whose mission was the spread of a new culture and the effect of whose achievements was destined to be widely felt when we turn to the subject of art we find Lorenzo's encouragement no less great except in the difference created by the fact that he was not himself an artist he more than doubled the art collections of the Medici Palace and there was scarcely a contemporary painter or sculptor who was not assisted by him while to his liberal patronage he added a universally valued critical knowledge the unerring taste in art which the Medici as a family possessed is evidenced by the fact that no painter or sculpture of that age is to be found whose work is recognized now as of high excellence yet who was not appreciated by the Medici they never made a mistake in such matters to this unerring taste on their part Florence owes it that while the art collections of Rome accumulated by the popes are greater in quantity those of Florence almost entirely the private collections of the Medici surpassed those of Rome in quality and no member of this family possessed this sound critical knowledge an infallible taste to so great a degree as Lorenzo the Magnificent as had been in the case with his father Piero the leading artists of the day did most of their work for him and nearly every work of eminence in painting or sculpture belonging to Lorenzo's time remaining in Florence was commissioned by him Verrocchio did almost all his work for him that sculpture is graceful tomb in San Lorenzo over Lorenzo's father and uncle his bronze David and his fountain of the boy with a dolphin were all executed for Lorenzo Botticelli he made his family painter as well as friend and all the pictures of Botticelli's second period were painted for him it was Lorenzo who caused Ghirlandaio's frescoes Santa Maria Novella and Santa Trinita to be painted and it was he who selected and sent Leonardo da Vinci to Milan to become Ilmoro's great painter among others he also gave commissions to Filippino Lippi Signorelli Baldovinetti Benedetto da Maggiano Andrea da Castaño and Pola Giulio the Medici Palace became Simon says a museum at that period unique in Europe considering the number and value of its art treasures and these he made available to all young artists for purposes of study they're being at that time no school for sculpture Lorenzo formed one in his garden near San Marco collected their casts from many antique statues place the school in charge of Donatello's pupil Bertoldo and invited all young sculptors to study there among those who did were Lorenzo di Credi Michelangelo and many others afterwards famous Vasari says that every young man who studied in this garden distinguished himself Lorenzo had an ego lie for detecting genius and when Michelangelo was 15 years old Lorenzo chanceing to see in his garden the mask of a grinning fawn which the boy had sculptured made him an inmate of the Medici Palace where he was treated as one of the family and Vasari says was given an allowance of five ducats a month and resided there for four years which if the case would mean until the Medici family were driven into exile in 1494 and it was an important time for such encouragement to art for the Renaissance in art was now approaching the full blaze of its zenith every one of the great masters except Tinto Retto was living in the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent and although these Luiini from Bartolo Mayo Michelangelo Giorgioni Titian Palma Vecchio Sodoma Andreo del Sarto and Raphael were as yet children the following were all at work Ferochio Botticelli Gelandayo Perugino Leonardo da Vinci Filippino Olipi and Lorenzo di Credi besides the Bellini and Carpaccio at Venice Martegna and Matua Francia at Bologna and Pinterugcio at Perugia Verochio the true I whose real name was Andrea di Cione was the chief pupil of Donatello he executed many works for Lorenzo the Magnificent but whether owing to the subsequent commotions when the Medici were driven out in their palace plundered or other cause very few of his works remain among these are his tomb of Giovanni and Piero de Medici in San Lorenzo his bronze statue of David now in the Bargello Museum the group of Christ and St. Thomas or San Michele which has been said to be the most beautiful head of Christ ever executed and his fountain the boy with the dolphin made for Lorenzo's villa at Carregi and now in the courtyard of the Palazzo Becchio one writer calls this statue the little boy who forever flits across the court while the dolphin struggles in his arms whose pressure sends the water spurting from its nostrils and Perkin says like a sunbeam which has found its way into these gloomy precincts it brightens them by its presence Verrocchio's last work was the splendid equestrian statue in bronze of Colione in Venice the second equestrian statue executed since the times of ancient Rome and superior to that of Gattamelata by Donatello at Padua Verrocchio only lived to complete the model in clay of both the horse and man and the casting was completed by Leopardi still less of Verrocchio's work as a painter remains besides the baptism of Christ now in the Academia only one other of his pictures is in existence that of the Madonna adoring the infant child attained by Ruskin in 1878 from the Manfredi palace in Venice where it had been apparently overlooked and now in the Ruskin Museum at Sheffield but Verrocchio's chief fame as a painter is that he was the master of Lorenzo di Credi and Leonardo da Vinci Verrocchio died in 1488 when to the graver atmosphere of the time of Piero Il Gattoso there succeeded all the season the beautiful joy and light hardness which marked the first nine years of the rule of Lorenzo the Magnificent this change in the spirit of the time caused a corresponding change in Botticelli's painting so that we find him painting in his second period all those pictures which are so permeated with the spirit of that time to these have been added in the latter half of this period of his painting his fresco pictures at Rome the chief pictures of Botticelli's second period of Venus, Mars and Venus the return of spring and palace subduing the centaur pictures in which contemporary events are memorialized under the symbolism of classic myths clothed in a 15th century dress we've already seen how the first three of these refer to the tournament of 1475 to the brighter era which Lorenzo had inaugurated and to his work in the domain of literature and how the fourth refers to the deliverance of Florence by Lorenzo from war and peril following the Patsy conspiracy soon after the war was ended Botticelli was summoned in 1481 by Pope Sixtus to Rome to assist with Barogino and Ghirlandaio in painting the celebrated series of frescoes covering the walls of the newly erected Sistine Chapel his portions of this work consist of the frescoes representing the early life the destruction of Cora the purification of the leper the temptation of Christ and the portraits of the seven martyred bishops of Rome these important frescoes gained Botticelli added renown and he returned to Florence with a great reputation for the next few years he was in consequence in great request among the owners of important villas near Florence all desiring to have frescoes painted by him in their villas amongst others he painted at this time for Lorenzo Tornabuoni an important series of frescoes in the villa of the Tornabuoni family now Villa Lemmi at Rifredi representing events in the history of the family also a series of frescoes in the villa of Castello painted for Giovanni de Piero Francesco of the younger branch of the Medici family then came the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent and the expulsion shortly afterwards of the Medici Buccicelli found himself in a Florence the whole atmosphere of which was completely changed under the influence of Savonarola so again Buccicelli's style changes and we have the pictures of his third period which will best be considered in connection with the events which caused the entire change in the life of Florence as in Cosmos day so also was it in that of Lorenzo there could scarcely be a greater contrast than exists between two chief painters of his time Botticelli and Guerlendial the former so full of that spirit of speaking to the mind through the eye that every one of his pictures is replete with deep and original thoughts a lighter absolutely without a vestige of this power Guerlendial those drawing and coloring are perfect is constantly called commonplace and prosaic while it is even been said of him now withstanding all his powers of technique that he is without the art faculty and this feeling regarding his work is undoubtedly caused by this entire absence in him of imagination and originality of thought thus in his pictures we find our attention ever drawn to the accessories of the subject rather than to the subject itself while all such accessories he is a most careful and prosaically accurate delineator but each of the great masters has his own excellence and Guerlendial lies in this very direction Ruskin being noticeably without the historic faculty could see no excellence in Guerlendial and severely condemns his work on all occasions calling it the mere handicraft of the mechanic but those who are interested in what the men and women of this time in Florence looked like can forgive Guerlendial his want of the art faculty for the sake of the results on the historic side results which had he not given them to us we should have looked for in vain elsewhere Guerlendial's want of originality led him to be a most careful copyist in every direction to which he turned his powers and as he introduced into his pictures on religious subjects representations of the persons of note around him carried out with a careful accuracy which rendered him quite incapable of flattering them together with many details of everyday life in Florence we obtained from him a valuable record of the appearance and manner of life of men and women of the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent in this way Guerlendial gives us in his frescoes in the choir of Santa Maria Novella portraits of Polizian Marsilio Ficcini Cristoforo Landino and Dmitrius Chalcandales of the painters Baldo Vinedi Maina Ardi Guerlendomself and his brother of the bankers Sassetti and Ridolfi and the members of the Torna Buoni family of the reigning Florentine beauty of the day Giovanna de Gli Albizzi who in 1486 married Lorenzo Torna Buoni of the well-known dealer in arms and armor Nicolo Capara and others again in his frescoes in the church of Santa Tornita we have portraits of Maso de Gli Albizzi Palastrosi Annolo Acia Giulli and of Lorenzo himself and in the church of Agnissanti in his fresco of the Vespucci family he has given us a portrait painted about 1474 of Amerigo Vespucci who gave his name to America Guerlendio's best picture is the adoration of the shepherds painted for the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Tornita and now in the Accademia della Bella Ardi Guerlendio died in 1494 and is buried in Santa Maria Novella in Lorenzo's time the four principal villas, villas possessed by the Medici were the Villa the Medici Villa at Fiesole the Villa Caffa Giolo in the valley of the Mugello originally built by Cosimo and largely added to by Lorenzo and the Villa at Poggio a Cayano about 12 miles to the northwest of Florence built by Lorenzo end of section 23 section 24 of the Medici volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dick Bourgeois Doyle the Medici, volume 1 by G.F. Young Lorenzo only lived for two months after affecting the reconciliation between the king of Naples and the Pope he had for years suffered his father and his grandfather from gout and all through the year of 1491 his health was rapidly failing in consequence he had began to entrust part of the public affairs to his eldest son Pietro in giving the latter advice regarding his future conduct as head of the state Lorenzo specially warned him never to forget that his position was simply that of a citizen of Florence telling him that his own success had been mainly due to his uniformed care on this point in February 1492 Lorenzo's attacks became so severe that he was unable to attend any business early in March the three years expired during which his son Giovanni's appointment as a cardinal was to be kept secret and it was publicly announced he was formally invested with his new rank at the badia yes or le and a grand banquet was given at the Medici palace in honor of the occasion but Lorenzo was only able to be carried in on a litter to see the brilliant company assembled to do honor to his son Giovanni now 16 had forthwith to leave for Rome to take his seat in the sacred college and on the 12th of March he left Florence for the papal city nine days later Lorenzo had himself carried to Careggi and prepared gathering around him several of his closest friends and making them read to him portions of his favorite authors from his deathbed he wrote to Giovanni a long letter of advice and farewell this letter to his son is a very remarkable one striking as it is for its evidence of calm equanimity and mental vigor unimpaired even by severe illness and approaching death it is yet more so for the light rose on Lorenzo's character for to a large extent it contradicts forcibly the view of him which a long succession of writers resolutely biased against him and have made the prevailing one not remarkable perhaps had it emanated from some other source it is so to us solely because of the false impression of the man which has been given to us Lorenzo died on the 9th of April 1492 at the age of 43 at his villa of Careggi that much loved home of his leisure hours where Plato and Homer, Virgil and Horace had been worshiped and the muses revered his two closest friends, Polizian and Picodella Milrandola were with him to the last as his end approached he sent for a priest who administered to him the last sacrament he got out of bed to receive it but was too weak and had to lie down again he had already sent to ask Savonarola to come to him and it says much for Lorenzo that he should have desired an interview with the uncompromising friar after it was over a crucifix was held before Lorenzo he raised himself up to kiss it fell back and died there are two very different accounts of what took place at the interview with Savonarola on one hand we have the account written at the time by Polizian who was present and who simply states that Savonarola exhorted Lorenzo to hold fast to the faith to resolve to amend his life if spared and to meet death if it was so to be with fortitude and that he prayed with him and gave him his blessing the other account which appeared long afterwards is the well known story that Lorenzo confessed to Savonarola three sins which lay heavy on his conscience the sack of Volterra the bloodshed after the Patsy conspiracy and the misappropriation to his own use of some of the Dower fund that Savonarola required from him a promise to restore the money thus misappropriated to which it is said Lorenzo assented that Savonarola then required that he should restore the liberties of Florence to which Lorenzo made no reply and that thereupon Savonarola left him unabsolved this picturesque story bears on its face evidence of its falsity it did not appear until 50 years after Lorenzo and Savonarola were both dead and admittedly rests on hearsay evidence whereas Polizian wrote as an eye witness and within a few weeks of the event supposing this story true that it must have been related to Savonarola or by Savonarola for it expressly states that none other was present when Lorenzo made his confession Berlamacci who put it forward declared that he had the story from Savonarola's own lips but says Bishop Creighton we may be pardoned for sparing Savonarola's fame the supposition that he made political capital for his own glorification out of the secrets of the confessional still less probable is it that the tale was revealed by Lorenzo in an agony of remorse after Savonarola's departure and just before his death moreover a still more conclusive fact has failed to be observed namely that no matter what may or may not be the truth about them the three things represented as weighing on Lorenzo's conscience could not have done so from Lorenzo's point of view for the sack of Volterra he was so responsible and it made such efforts to ameliorate the sufferings caused that he could not have felt the matter weighing on his conscience for the slaughtering connection with the Patsy conspiracy he was not only not responsible but had remonstrated with the infuriated people against it and had saved some of those implicated in the crime well as regards to the Dower Fund the charge would for the reasons already stated have appeared to him and still more so since Lorenzo's just dealing in all money matters is very noticeable not only just but liberal dealing in money matters was a marked feature of this character the so-called misappropriation has been explained above but in this connection it may be remarked that when four years afterwards Savonarola was himself the ruling power in Florence exactly the same use or misappropriation of the money of this Dower Fund this continued which completely stultifies any such charge especially applicable to Lorenzo lastly the final request attributed to Savonarola would have meant the return to a state of things which to Lorenzo represented everything most harmful to Florence's welfare well it is inconceivable that Savonarola should have required from the dying man that which he was in any case at that moment powerless to perform this story has probably played a greater part in creating the mental picture generally formed of Lorenzo the magnificent than any of the authenticated facts of his life the artifice of pretending that certain things weighed on his conscience is a much more effective way of instilling in us a belief that he had been guilty of those things than a plain statement to that effect would have been the story has had a great vogue both on account of its sensational character and of the opportunity it furnishes for calaminating the Medici but since the careful analysis of it made by Bishop Creighton its complete mendacity has been fully established Roscoe's remark is justified a story that exhibits evident symptoms of that party spirit which did not arise in Florence until after the death of Lorenzo and which is entirely contradictory to the account left by Polizian written before the motives for misrepresentation existed is rendered deserving of notice only by the necessity of its refutation Lorenzo the Magnificent and Clarice Arsini had seven children Pietro who succeeded his father Giovanni afterwards Pope Leo the Tenth Giuliano afterwards Duke de Namur, Magdalena who married Francesco Sibo Lucretia who married Giacopo Salviati Maria who died unmarried in 1487 Contesina who married Pietro Redolfi LaGracia's husband was a great grandson of Giacopo Salviati who was Cosimo's friend and was a cousin of the Archbishop Salviati hung in the Pazzi conspiracy Lorenzo made the match to re-establish cordial relations between his family and their old friends and Salviati. In appearance Lorenzo the Magnificent was unprepossessing. At the same time the portrait of him by Vasari painted more than 50 years after Lorenzo's death by a man who never saw him would seem not to give a true likeness of him it neither accords with the descriptions of his appearance given by contemporary writers nor with the portraits of him on medallions by contemporary medallists and would almost seem intended to degrade his memory by giving him a sinister appearance as possible surrounding him with the attributes of a buffoon. Nicola Valori speaking of Lorenzo's appearance says he was above the common stature, broad-shouldered and solidly built and second to none in athletic exercises. His complexion was dark and although his face was not handsome it was so full of dignity as to compel respect. It is well known that medallions are as a rule much more reliable than painted portraits and the two which exist of Lorenzo by the celebrated contemporary medallists Bertoldo and Polo Giuloolo show a plain but very powerful face with something of the look of his father Piero Il Cotoso. The portraits on these medallions also receive strong corroboration from the terracotta cast of Lorenzo's face taken after his death and now the property of the Societa della Columbaria so that we may conclude that these portraits and not Viseri's picture give us the true representation of Lorenzo. Speaking of the concentrated power of his face Miss Crutwell says in the best portraits that exist of him that of the Patsy Medal and the superb death mask of the confraternity of the Columbaria the face with its compressed lips and brow and powerful jaw might serve as the embodiment of physical and intellectual force. If however Lorenzo's outward appearance assisted him little his manner more than restored the balance is said to have been so extraordinarily fascinating that it caused his plain face and harsh voice to be entirely forgotten. The statement of contemporary writers is fully borne out by various episodes in Lorenzo's life which make it evident that he had an unfailing power of charming all both high and low who were brought in contact with him. Speaking of Lorenzo in his social capacity Mr. Armstrong says of his qualities as a host and companion there can be no question he was the soul of courtesy and kindness always ready to aid talent, to oblige a friend to grant a petition to perpetrate a job to be buttonholed in the public street the simplicity and friendliness of his letters to his ambassadors fully account for the devotion with which they served him for scholars and artists he kept open house whoever came first, whatever his age or rank took his seat at the host's side his conversation as his character had the fascination of variety at times his tongue had a rough edge to a cousin who boasted of his copious supply of water at his villa he says then you might well afford to keep cleaner hands to a Sienese who condoled with him on his indifferent eyesight and added the air of Florence was bad for the sight Lorenzo retorts and that of Siena for the brain to one who adversely criticized the character of the musician Squarchia Lupo Lorenzo said, if you know how hard it is to obtain perfection in any art you would overlook shortcomings his achievements have already been detailed but that a man who died at the age of 43 should have been able to do all that he did in raising Florence so high in political power and commercial prosperity and maintaining peace of Italy and converting chronic enmity with surrounding states into friendship in making the Tuscan language the general language of Italy by his works as an author in carrying forward to so great an extent the resuscitation of learning and in helping so large the advancement of art is extraordinary it did in very truth require that enduring indomitable strength which he symbolized by his crest of the three diamond rings to achieve such results in so comparatively short a life Lorenzo the Magnificent has been acknowledged by the united voice of Europe to have been one of the most remarkable men who ever held the rule of a state and his character has always interested mankind though perhaps it is only in these days that his greatness in a larger sphere has come to be fully appreciated he was a leader in an age which abounded with great men and he has been recognized as being one of the chief inspiring forces of the 15th century he is the most important man of all those whose story we are following and it is therefore worthwhile to examine that much debated character in more detail than can be devoted to others the violently contradictory opinions common in regard to the Medici culminate in the case of Lorenzo the Magnificent with writers belonging to the one camp he has every virtue with those belonging to the other every vice with the former all his actions are attributed to the noblest motives with the latter even the most ordinary actions are in order to show base motives distorted until they result in statements which are glaringly incompatible apart however from this point another difficulty lies in the versatility of his character a quality of many sidedness which he shared with many of his family but which was especially prominent in him speaking of this characteristic in Lorenzo and the difficulty which it creates Armstrong says as follows it is the prize or the penalty of a versatile receptive nature to be regarded as a mystery the slower mind cannot follow with sufficient speed the workings of so sensitive an instrument though the eye marks the multiplicity of results reality is that the action and reaction of circumstances in character are peculiarly rapid but the observer believes that the outward manifestations are artificial and dramatic having little relation to the inner life this forms a real difficulty in the appreciation of the southern European character by Anglo-Saxons who are seldom genuinely versatile they have an inborn deep-seated distrust for such natures the few English public men for instance who have been so gifted have been regarded at the best as problems but more often as imposters or as characters abnormally weak and changeable is that Lorenzo the Magnificent has been so often called a mystery really however there has seldom been a nature less mysterious he was completely natural singularly open to the influence of circumstances as his intellect was versatile so his character was receptive he possessed in abundance that quality of give and take that power of impressing others and of receiving their impression that gift of simpatia which to the Italian expresses so much more than its English representative Lorenzo was equally natural and unaffected whether he were planning a comic novelty for the carnival or critically examining the last manuscript that his agents had brought or forwarded from Greece or elsewhere at table he would give grave advice to young Michelangelo throw a rhyme or epigram across the board to Pulci or discuss the problem of unity in plurality with Marcilio Vicino he would give audience to an ambassador or a horse trainer or a popular preacher hold a party caucus in via larga attend a critical meeting of the government and then ride off to Corregi or Cayano to play with his children arise with the lark to ride two hounds or fly his favorite falcons Lorenzo's versatility is the frequent theme even of his contemporary countryman a lover of the country rather than of the town whenever he could he would escape to Poggio Cayano or more distant villas he was fond of the country people their manners their songs and their pleasures his family life was extremely simple he romped with his children joined in their music wrote a religious play for them to act in Lorenzo's career it is impossible to draw hard and fast line between diplomacy and politics art and literature religion and philosophy domesticity and public life country sports and city functions it is difficult to analyze so manifold a character end of section 24 section 25 of the Medici volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dick Bourgeois Doyle the Medici volume 1 by G.F. Young among the charges which at a later age found to make against Lorenzo that of profligacy and of corrupting the Florentines gives most evidence of the virulent partisan spirit which has been mentioned owing to the entire want of ground for the accusation so far as his private character is concerned no facts have been brought forward to support the charge judged by the standard of his day he was not an immoral man his conduct and respect was superior to that of contemporary sovereigns our own in England not accepted it is also noticeable that no illegitimate children are ascribed to him almost a unique instance in that age but it is in his public capacity that the charge is chiefly made alleging that he debased the popular taste by the introduction of licentiousness into art and literature an accusation utterly without foundation and leveled against one most of whose poetry was of an elevating character in support of this charge his carnival songs are often cited but here again the standard of the age must determine the point and judged by that standard the verdict will be conclusive nothing can be said against Lorenzo's poetry in this respect which cannot be said with much greater force against for instance Shakespeare Roscoe remarks in the poem of brandolini the attention of Lorenzo to the dictates of morality is the particular subject of praise and that by a contemporary writer had the conduct of Lorenzo been notoriously licentious such praise would have been the severest satire the accusation that the profligacy of the time among the Florentines is to be laid on Lorenzo's shoulders receives strong contradiction from the contemporary records of Milan, Venice, Ferrara, Mantua and many other capital cities of Italy since we find there at this period exactly the same state of things and the same tendency to sensuous amusements and licentiousness replacing a severer style of life it was a general result of the bursting forth of the renaissance and had no special manifestation in Florence in fact rather the reverse Lorenzo as regarded his own private life was better than his time while the idea that a ruler should endeavor to elevate his people was one which did not dawn on Europe till many generations later and it's not likely that it ever crossed his mind by other writers again this corruption that the Florentines has declared to consist in the deterioration from their former strength of character and the charge which these writers make against Lorenzo is that of having exercised and enfeebling influence but we do not find this supposed enfeeblement borne out by the history of the time or find that the Florentines at the end of Lorenzo's rule any feebler in character then at its commencement and not quail before the threats of Charles VIII showed itself no less strong than that which in 1478 braved the wrath of Sixtus IV it was another kind of enfeeblement of which after the exile of the Medici the Florentines had to complain that due to their own faction fighting and not to any action on the part of Lorenzo another charge which shows no less animus is that which asserts that Lorenzo enriched himself at the expense of the public funds various circumstances afforded opportunity for this charge not only was Lorenzo expected to provide royal hospitality in the Medici palace to distinguished visitors to Florence expenditure which was seldom refunded to him by the state but also he frequently had to advance from the Medici bank the war expenses of the state and this was sometimes refunded he had also in the conduct of foreign affairs constantly to disperse large sums as secret subsidies to foreign states these sums were either advanced or reimbursed to him by the state but the secret nature of their expenditure naturally left it open to anyone to suggest that he spent the money on himself those to whom a react of the Medici has an evil aspect have not failed to take advantage of such an opportunity and that secret service money is a regular item of expenditure of every modern government and is necessarily never accounted for by the high official to whom its expenditure is entrusted hence we find these transactions called peculation and embezzlement on Lorenzo's part such a charge made against one who had spent his private funds on the public behalf to so large an extent that even the immense fortune left him by his father was severely reduced thereby gives us a measure of the length to which the partisan spirit against the Medici can go at a meeting held three days after Lorenzo's funeral the senior media officially placed it on record that he always subordinated his own interest to the advantage and benefit of the community shrank neither from trouble nor danger for the good of the state and its freedom and devoted to that object all his thoughts and powers were ordered by excellent laws are we then on the one hand to hold this as the correct view of Lorenzo's character and conduct and that Hallam Burkhart and Gregorovius are right or on the other hand was Lorenzo a usurper who aimed only at his own interest and embezzled the public money one in whom the enslavement of Florence was the hard work of his manhood and one who for this end deliberately led the Florentines into proflicacy as alleged by Cisimondi, Perens, Simmons, Villari, and Trollope examining the conflicting evidence and more particularly the facts of Lorenzo's life omitted by all it would appear that the charge of being a usurper cannot be maintained especially in the face of the high authority of Hallam that the charge of having enslaved or made himself a tyrant over Florence is utterly irreconcilable with the fact that he had no military force and that his power rested solely on the will of the people that the charge of embezzlement is for the reasons already given one which only prejudice can assert and that the charge of proflicacy of debasing the public taste by introducing licentiousness into art and letters is without an atom of foundation but after all the best evidence as to which side in this controversy is furnished by the people of Florence themselves those who lived under Lorenzo's rule and who if his actions were such as his detractors have asserted had to bear the results of them did the Florentines as a whole during his lifetime regard Lorenzo with pride and approbation and sorrow for his death as a national loss or did they look upon that death as a joyful release to them from the tyranny of a usurper who held the monies of the state and enriched himself at their expense it is incontestable that the former and not the latter was the view they held and the evidence which such a fact supplies is absolutely conclusive upon the whole matter Lorenzo's funeral was in accordance with his own instructions an un ostentatious one he was buried like his great-grandfather and father in the old sacristy in San Lorenzo in the tomb with his brother Juliano from thence however his and Juliano's remains were 67 years afterwards removed to the new sacristy which had by that time been added to the church Lorenzo and Juliano lie buried under the end wall of this sacristy that opposite to the altar it is however strange to record that no monument marks the grave of the great Lorenzo the Magnificent while we see that the absence of such a monument actually in course of time caused a doubt as to where he was buried Michelangelo was to have executed a monument for his tomb but left Florence without doing so and so matters have remained ever since probably this is chiefly because none have since liked to propose the erection of a monument which by its situation would challenge comparison with the only two other tombs in the chapel the masterpieces of Michelangelo no doubt the difficulty is a considerable one at the same time it seems from a national point of view a great pity that it should not work such a result if one may venture to suggest possibly the difficulty might be met by placing on the wall over the tomb a large black marble slab perfectly plain with simply the name Lorenzo Il Magnifico on it and the year of birth and death without any other words it would rely for impressiveness solely on its size massiveness and absolute plainness such a monument would avoid all clashing with Michelangelo's masterpieces while it would be in accord with Lorenzo's own sentiments shown in the instructions as to his funeral as well as with the spirit of those earlier generations of the Medici to which these two brothers belonged Mr. Armstrong's words on the absence of any monument in Florence to Lorenzo the Magnificent are as follows Florence has not repaid the generous recognition to Lorenzo which he himself gave to others with or without her wish the fame of the Medici will forever be linked with hers in Lorenzo's own words the house goes with the state after 400 years she might well lay the ghost if such there be of political antipathy to honor with a fitting monument the most national, the most gifted representative of that many-sided culture for which the city of the Arnold is still famous several important events in the history of Europe took place in the same year as the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent Spain the consolidation of Spain begun in 1469 by the marriage of Ferdinand King of Aragon with Isabella Queen of Castile was in 1492 completed Ferdinand and Isabella joint sovereigns after having between the years 1474 and 1481 created peace in order in their previously troubled dominion resumed in the latter year the war against the Moors their arms met with a wonderful succession of victories and at length in 1492 after 11 years of war Granada which had been the Moorish capital for 250 years was taken the Mohammedan power in Spain was ended and they were driven out after 800 years of occupation in the same year there also took place the discovery of America by Columbus under the auspices of Ferdinand and Isabella which added still further to the glory of the reign into the power of Spain the year 1492 was truly a great one for Spain Rome in the same year two months after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent Pope Innocent the 8th also died he was succeeded by the notorious Spaniard Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander the 6th this guy's Giovanni did Medici to return to Florence he being one of the Cardinals who had voted against Rodrigo Borgia's election and all these having to fly from Rome in this year Charles the 8th having attained the age of 22 took over the government of the kingdom from his capable sister and began to form projects which were heir long to issue in an invasion of Italy destined to usher in a new era in international politics End of section 25