Part 24

When Giulio de’ Medici, the illegitimate son of Giuliano, ascended the papal throne as Clement VII., Filippo Strozzi hastened to Rome to congratulate his wife’s kinsman, and to beg for a cardinal’s hat for his eldest son Piero. Not long afterwards the Pope was forced to take refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo, and had to sue for peace with Charles V. A hostage was demanded, and Filippo, sorely against his will, was chosen and went as a prisoner to Naples with Don Ugo di Moncada. Needless to say Clement kept none of his promises and Filippo was in some danger of losing his head. A shift in politics saved him just as his wife Clarice reached Rome, where she spoke some hard words to the Pope. Soon afterwards Clement for the second time sought refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo and Rome was sacked by the Constable de Bourbon. “Never,” writes old Varchi, “was chastisement so tremendous inflicted, nor was it ever more richly deserved.” Filippo and his wife left two days before the catastrophe for Civitavecchia and sailed for Pisa, where messengers met them from the Cardinal of Cortona, who was governing Florence for the Medici, and from Niccolò Capponi, brother-in-law of Filippo and head of the anti-Medicean party. Strozzi had need of all his prudence and astuteness at this juncture. Clarice urged him to proceed at once to Florence, where his influence would be supreme on whichever side he chose to use it. After much pondering he decided to send her to “try the difficult ford” as his brother Lorenzo puts it, and Clarice, who had always been he continues, “high-spirited even beyond what was prudent,” started for Florence at once. Her first interview was with Niccolò Capponi and others of the “Ottimati” or patrician party, to whom she promised her husband’s and her own help in expelling her kinsmen the Medici. She was then carried in her litter to the Palazzo Medici (now Palazzo Riccardi), where the Cardinal Ridolfi and young Ippolito de’ Medici met her on the staircase and conducted her into the room next the chapel where sat the Cardinal-Governor. He rose to salute her and, as Varchi writes, she said to him: “Ah Monsignore, Monsignore, whither have you led us. Does it seem to you that your past and present conduct is in any way similar to that practised by my ancestors?” After setting forth how they had always obeyed the will of the people, she turned to the two lads, Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici, and advised them to think of their own safety, for which she naturally felt more anxiety than the cardinal.

Two days later prudent Filippo Strozzi entered Florence; many of his relations and friends met him at the city gate and escorted him to his palace, which was crowded by anxious citizens eager to know what he would do. After long consultation he decided to go at once to the Palazzo Medici and advise the Cardinal to leave the city with Ippolito and Alessandro. On the 17th May, 1527, he and Niccolò Capponi rode with them, through a threatening crowd, down the Via Larga (now Via Cavour) to the city gate, and Filippo accompanied them ten miles further to their villa of Poggio a Cajano.

A year later he lost his wife and not liking the condition of things in Florence went to Lyons, where he had a large commerce in silk. One of his daughters had married Luigi Capponi and is described by Varchi as being “not less honest and virtuous than beautiful, noble and of most engaging manners.” She was invited to a masked ball given in honour of the marriage of Guglielmo Martelli to Marietta Nasi, where the Duke Alessandro and his courtiers were disguised as nuns. Among them was Giuliano Salviati, “a man,” writes Varchi, “of abominable life and ill fame. His wife bore an evil reputation and he, desiring that others should be like her, accosted Luisa at the ball and said some words, with actions worthy of himself but certes not of her; whereupon she, being virtuous and of high spirit, with haughty speech and scornful demeanour, repulsed him. But in the morning, when the entertainment which had lasted until daylight was over and Luisa wished to mount her horse,[96] he, being impudent and shameless, pressed forward to aid her repeating the words and the actions of the night before; and with most angry scorn she replied to him as he deserved. The affair passed, and would perhaps have had no consequences, had Giuliano been satisfied with using discourtesy towards a gentlewoman such as she was, and not openly boasted of his behaviour....”

It was customary on every Friday in March for people to go up to S. Miniato to obtain pardon for their sins, and Luisa’s brother Leone Strozzi, Prior of Capua, Giuliano Salviati and other young nobles, stood watching the ladies come out of the church. As Luisa passed Giuliano made some insolent remarks, so the Prior said: “Giuliano, you perhaps do not know that she is my sister;” whereupon Giuliano repeated his insulting words. On the following night, as Salviati was returning on horseback from the Palazzo Medici, he was assaulted by three strangers and wounded in the face and on the leg, so that he was lame ever after. Duke Alessandro was furious, and gave orders that the assassins must be discovered. Suspicion, of course, fell on the Strozzi. Piero, Leone the Prior, and two of their friends were arrested, and there was a question of putting them to the torture; but Clement VII. interfered, and ordered that nothing more should be done. Piero Strozzi and his brothers, knowing their lives were in danger, took horse and went to Rome. Meanwhile Luisa, who had remained in Florence with her husband, supped joyously one night, as the old chronicler Segni reports, with her sister Maria, wife of Lorenzo Ridolfi. A few hours afterwards she died in excruciating agony, and her body turned black. Her relations insisted on a post mortem examination, and the doctors declared that she had died from the effect of some virulent poison. Varchi more than hints that her own family were the culprits, out of fear that the Duke, “by means of some treachery or fraud, purposed to stain the honour of their family in the person of Luisa.” But Segni and others agree that, having repulsed the Duke Alessandro, as she had done Salviati, his infamous wife poisoned her by the Duke’s orders. Not long after the death of the beautiful Luisa, her father and her brothers were declared rebels and outlaws by the Duke Alessandro. The sentence was confirmed by his successor Cosimo I. because Lorenzino de’ Medici, after he had murdered his cousin the Duke Alessandro, fled to Venice where Filippo Strozzi hailed him as a second Brutus.

The exiles invaded Tuscany, but were beaten; Strozzi was made prisoner at Montemurlo, together with Bacio Valori, and they were taken to Florence mounted on miserable peasants’ horses in August, 1537. Filippo was immured in the fortress of S. Giovan Battista (now Fortezza del Basso), for which but four years before he had advanced the funds to Clement VII. He was put on the rack, but no avowal of guilt was wrung from him; so his friend Giuliano Gondi was tortured, and his confession--or what purported to be his confession--was sent to the Emperor Charles V. and an order obtained from him to give up Filippo Strozzi to the Duke Cosimo. On the morning of the 18th December, 1538, he was found dead in his prison, but how he came by his death was never known. The anonymous writer who finished the biography begun by his brother Lorenzo, states as a fact that he killed himself with a sword left by chance by one of his guards, and gives a document which he says was found in the prison in his handwriting. Three contemporary chroniclers state that he was beheaded, and Segni adds: “His body was never seen; nor was it ever known where he was buried.” It was generally believed that he had killed himself when he knew that he was to be delivered into the hands of the executioner. Signor Bigazzi gives a facsimile of two epitaphs in Filippo’s handwriting, one to be used “In my own country, if in these times it shall be permitted,” consisting of these few proud words:

PHILIPPO STROZZAE.

Satis hoc; caetera norunt omnes;

the other, also in Latin, “for a cenotaph in some foreign city,” gives us his opinion of himself.

“To Filippo Strozzi, by far the most illustrious of all Tuscans in nobility, learning and wealth; who, when Rome was sacked by the Imperial forces, and Pope Clement was besieged therein, restored his country, then reduced to base slavery, to liberty. Ten years afterwards, when again opposing resuscitated despotism, he was taken prisoner at the castle of Montemurlo, and soon after cruelly put to death. His seven surviving sons placed this monument to his memory amid the tears of all good men. The tyrant did not blush to buy his blood at a vast price, for he could find no means of remaining in security while so powerful an enemy lived. But Liberty, knowing well that all her hopes fell with him, willed to be buried in the same tomb. Pour forth then, stranger, abundant tears if the Florentine Republic is aught to thee; for thou wilt never have cause to mourn the loss of a greater citizen. He lived forty-eight years, ... months, ... days. His last words were, ‘It is sweet to die by whatsoever death for one’s country.’”

Filippo’s supposed will was commonly reported to have been written by Pierfrancesco of Prato, who had been tutor to Duke Cosimo, and was devoted to his interests.

The anonymous writer before mentioned gives the following description of the great banker: “Filippo was tall of stature, and of a cheerful and pleasing countenance; sallow of complexion, agile, and made more for a life of action than for one of repose. No one was more agreeable in manner, in gesture, deed and word; he was extremely affable, almost always smiling when he first met people. His step was extraordinarily rapid, and when his friends remarked upon it he would say nothing was so irksome to him as loss of time, and that he did not see why, when he could go quickly from place to place, he should go slowly. When he could pass a day according to his fancy he was wont to divide it into three portions; one he gave to his studies, one to his private concerns, and one to his pleasures.... He was more inclined to pleasure than was perhaps fitting, not only from inclination, but to adapt himself to the wishes of his superiors and friends. When he was at any public or private assembly where there were ladies, he would lightly fall in love, for he was much inclined to the society of women; attaching himself rather to those remarkable for elegance and grace of manner than to those who were merely beautiful in feature. He was exceedingly fond of music, sang well and accurately, and was not ashamed to sing the penitential psalms at night in public together with his brother Lorenzo and others such on holidays. He took much pleasure also in composing in our own tongue both in prose and verse, as may be seen by the translations and madrigals of his which are sung at the present day. He was sumptuous in dress; as much so as any other man in the city. He delighted in travel, and in seeing new manners and people, but his many and various affairs did not permit him to indulge this desire. To sum up his character in one word, those who were acquainted with literature thought that he had never given his attention to other things; while those who had business relations with him, and knew in how masterly a fashion he conducted his affairs, could not easily be persuaded that he ever attended to other matters; whilst those who knew him as a man of pleasure could scarcely believe that he found time for aught else.”

Filippo’s son, Piero Strozzi, went to Barcelona to plead the cause of the exiles before Charles V., and after their disastrous defeat at Montemurlo and his father’s murder, entered the service of Francis I., who created him Lord of Belleville and a knight of S. Michael. When the Marquess Del Vasto was beaten by the Conte d’Enghien in 1544 at Ceresole, Piero Strozzi attempted to seize Milan. Failing in this, he crossed the Po at Piacenza, and fought his way down to Serravalle, but had to retire into Piedmont, where he besieged and took the town of Alba. He was recalled to France in 1545, when he fought against the English, and the following year he joined the Protestant army in Germany against Charles V. Later he took part with the Duc de Guise in defending Metz, when besieged by the Emperor. On the Sienese appealing to Francis I. for help against Duke Cosimo I. backed by Charles V., Strozzi rushed to their assistance armed with full powers from the King, who made him a Marshal of France. When Siena was forced to capitulate Piero, who knew that Duke Cosimo had offered a large reward for his head, fled in disguise, but returned to Italy in 1556, sent by Henry II. to the aid of Pope Paul IV. against the Emperor. After the battle of St. Quintin in the Netherlands, where the Spaniards gained a decisive victory, Strozzi was recalled to France, and assisted at the taking of Calais by the Duc de Guise. Two years later he was killed at the siege of Thionville.

His brother Leone, Prior of Capua, went to Malta, where he became a Knight of the Order and Captain of the galleys. He fought with distinction under Andrea Doria, and in 1541 entered the service of Francis I., whose rivalry with the Emperor Charles V., patron of the Medici, gave him hopes of revenging the murder of his father and of liberating Tuscany from the yoke of a family he hated. In 1547 Leone fought against England, and is said to have been the first European admiral to sail through the Straits of Gibraltar. Four years later after vainly trying to force Andrea Doria to fight, he drove his fleet from the coasts of France, and setting sail for Barcelona, captured several of the enemy’s ships within sight of shore. Discovering that the Connetable Anne de Montmorency was intriguing against him, Leone sent back his standard to the King and, breaking the chains which closed the port of Marseilles, sailed back to Malta, where he planned the fortifications of S. Elmo and S. Michael. When the Sienese rose against Cosimo I. he re-entered the service of France and, summoned by his brother Piero, preceded the fleet with three swift galleys and landed at Scarlino on the coast of Tuscany, where he was killed whilst reconnoitring.

The noble palace belongs to Prince Piero Strozzi, head of the family; as in 1568 Cosimo I. restored to the Cardinal Lorenzo Strozzi and his nephew Leone the half of the building confiscated by the State when Filippo Strozzi rebelled.[97]

PALAZZO DELLO STROZZINO

_Piazza Strozzi. No. 9._

According to Litta this beautiful little palace was built in 1450 by Agnolo degl’ Strozzi, son of Palla, surnamed Novello to distinguish him from his father Palla, who died as Captain of the Guelph Party in 1377.[98] This statement is confirmed by an entry in the Dei MS. in the State archives, kindly communicated to me by Dr. G. Gronau, which runs: “1450. Agnolo, son of Messer Palla [Novello], who was son of Messer Palla, built the palace on the square of the Strozzi, called ‘of the three doors.’” Palla Novella was sent to Martin V. in 1423 to ask for aid against the Duke of Milan who had taken Forli. But the Pope, who had never forgotten the mocking rhyme of the Florentine street-boys, refused, and Palla went to Naples, where he obtained the promise of ships. On his return he was made Commissary of War. It must have been about this time that he bought the Gondi houses and tower adjoining Sta. Maria Ughi, for he was despatched on an embassy to Savoy soon afterwards, and being waylaid on his return by Visconti was imprisoned in Milan until the peace of Ferrara in 1428. His absence, and the high rate of exchange consequent on the war, caused his bank to fail; and he came back a sadly impoverished man. He must, however, have kept the Gondi houses and re-made a certain fortune, as Herr v. Fabriczy cites an entry in the _catasto_ of 1451 in the State archives: “All the houses mentioned on the opposite page have been incorporated into one house for my own usage,” and this is confirmed by a marginal note of a clerk of the _catasto_. “All these houses are being arranged for him [Palla] to dwell in, as Nicholo di Ciennj saw them being demolished in order to make one house.”[99]

Michelozzi is generally credited with having designed the palace, but Herr v. Fabriczy and Herr v. Geymüller agree in attributing the beautiful courtyard and the upper floor to another hand, probably Giuliano da Majano. When Michelozzi left Florence in 1460 nothing is more likely than that he charged his friend and pupil Giuliano to finish the building, which, according to the _catasto_ was done in 1469. I have entered into these details because it has long been a vexed question as to who built one of the most beautiful palaces in Florence, now fast falling into ruin. For many years it was the property of the Commune and has now been sold to Signor Chiari.

PALAZZO DELLA STUFA

_Piazza S. Lorenzo. No. 5._

The architect of the sombre Della Stufa palace is unknown, and the loggia on the top has been walled up, which spoils its appearance. Tradition says that a Lottario, or Lotteringo, came from Lorraine with the Emperor Otho III. about 998, and gave the name of Lotteringhi to his descendants, afterwards called Della Stufa because their house was built on the site of the ancient Roman baths (stufe). Lotteringo Della Stufa was one of the seven founders of the Servite Order, of which he became the General after the death of Filippo Benizzi in 1285. Ten years later the Commune, at his request, opened the Porta di Servi near the S.S. Annunziata, so that the peasants outside the walls could more easily come and pray at the Virgin’s shrine. He was beatified, as was Girolamo, a Franciscan monk of exemplary piety a century later. Ugo, knight of the Golden Spur and a learned jurist, after being many times an ambassador to popes, princes, and other republics, put himself at the head of the People when they rose against the nobles in 1343, and three years later was sent by the Republic to Avignon to remonstrate with Clement VI. about the arrogance of the Inquisitor. His son, Giovenco, was one of the Ten of War in 1399, another, Ugo, after being Captain of Arezzo and Vicario of the Val d’Arno, was sent in 1408 as Captain to Pisa, where he made himself so popular that when he left the Pisans gave him a splendid banner with the arms of the town, and begged that he might be sent the following year as their Podestà. He founded and endowed the church of Monte Asinario (commonly called Senario) near Florence. His nephew, Angelo, must have had a fluent tongue, as his name perpetually occurs as ambassador of the Republic. At Milan in 1476 the Duke made him a knight of the Golden Spur, and when he died four years later in Florence, his funeral, at the public expense, was attended by the Gonfalonier and the Priors. The Della Stufa were always adherents of the Medici, and Lorenzo sent Ugo’s son, Luigi, to thank the Soldan of Babylon for various gifts and animals. The latter are mentioned by Tribaldo de’ Rossi in his _Ricordanzi_.[100] “I record how in 1488 was presented to Lorenzo de’ Medici from the Soldan of Babylon a giraffe; brought by an ambassador, a man of high position and a great lord of that country; and with the giraffe were goats and sheep.... The giraffe was seven braccie high, with feet like an ox; it was a gentle beast and one of those Turcomans led it about; it was shown in the country round and in many convents. Lorenzo put it in the Pope’s stables in Via della Scala, and in winter it had a deep bed of straw and a fire was often kindled near, as it dreaded the cold. It ate of everything, and when it could would put its head into the baskets of the peasants; it took apples from the hand of a child, so tame was it. The ambassador stayed some months and the Commune gave him many presents. The giraffe died in January, and its skin was preserved; every one was sorry because it was a beautiful beast.” In a grotto in the garden of the Villa di Castello its effigy in coloured marbles still exists.

On Luigi Della Stufa’s return from the East he was made Commissary of War at Castrocara, and in 1513 he was sent to Rome to congratulate Leo X. on his accession to the Papal throne, and was knighted with great honour. But when Leo came to Florence in 1433 “he was much displeased and annoyed,” writes Varchi, “with Messer Luigi, an intimate friend of the family, who on going to salute him in the name of the city with other ambassadors, showed him, as is reported, a loaf of white bread such as is sold by the bakers for four quattrini, assuring him that it only cost two. What is certain is that when this was known in Florence the boys, as is their custom, made a song about him, and none could stop their singing these words, put into rhyme by themselves, in all the streets:

“Messer Luigi Della Stufa Ha fitto il capo in una buca, Il qual non ne puo uscire, Se il gran non val tre lire.”

(Messer Luigi Della Stufa Has put his head into a hole, Out of which it can’t be drawn, Until wheat costs three lire.)

His son, Prinzivallo, was the man who fired off an arquebuse at Clarice degl’Strozzi when she went to protest against the bad government of the Cardinal Passerini, and advised him and the two young Medici to leave Florence. He was imprisoned during the siege, but when the city capitulated was one of the five citizens named to examine the fortifications, and afterwards became a Senator. The Grand Duke Ferdinando II. made Pandolfo Della Stufa Marquess of Calcione in 1632, an estate purchased by one of his ancestors from the Republic of Siena. The old palace belongs to the present Marquess Della Stufa.

PALAZZO TORRIGIANI

_Piazza de’ Mozzi. No. 6._

The Torrigiani were vintners of Lamporecchio, and came to Florence in the XIVth century, where they made a considerable fortune by trade. The family then lived in the centre of Florence, and the fine old building, now the Hotel Porta Rossa, was one of their palaces. The present Palazzo Torrigiani was left to them by the Baron Gerbone Del Nero, a relation, in 1816, when the loggia at the top was walled up and turned into rooms, which has spoiled the façade. It was built by Tommaso Del Nero in the XVIth century after his own design, and he must have been a man of some genius, as he is said to have painted the decorations of the interior of his palace with his own hands, as well as designing it. He also founded the Academy of the _Alterati_, the precursor of that of the Crusca, which first met in his house. His ancestor, Bernardo Del Nero, was thrice Gonfalonier of Justice, and in 1483 Commissary-General of War in the Lunigiana against Costanzo Sforza. The following year he drove the Genoese out of Vada. His fate was a sad one, as after his third term of office as Gonfalonier in 1497, he was accused of conspiring in favour of the Medici and beheaded in the courtyard of the Palazzo del Podestà when he was seventy-two years of age.