Chapter 93

its genuineness, has completed his great edition of Dino, and furnished it with a detailed introduction: _Dino Campagni e la sua cronaca_, 2 vols. Firenze, 1879-80. A manuscript of the history, dating back to the beginning of the fifteenth century, and consequently earlier than all the hitherto known references and editions, has been lately found. In consequence of the discovery of this MS. and of the researches undertaken by C. Hegel, and especially of the evidence that the style of the work does not differ from that of the fourteenth century, the prevailing view of the subject is essentially this, that the Chronicle contains an important kernel, which is genuine, which, however, perhaps even in the fourteenth century, was remodelled on the ground-plan of Villani’s Chronicle. Comp. Gaspary, _Geschichte der italienischen Literatur_. Berlin, 1885, i. pp. 361-9, 531 sqq.

[155] _Purgatorio_, vi. at the end.

[156] _De Monarchia_, i. 1. (New critical edition by Witte, Halle, 1863, 71; German translation by O. Hubatsch, Berlin, 1872).

[157] _Dantis Alligherii Epistolæ_, cum notis C. Witte, Padua, 1827. He wished to keep the Pope as well as the Emperor always in Italy. See his letter, p. 35, during the conclave of Carpentras, 1314. On the first letter see _Vitæ Nuova_, cap. 31, and _Epist._ p. 9.

[158] Giov. Villani, xi. 20. Comp. Matt. Villani, ix. 93, who says that John XXII. ‘astuto in tutte sue cose e massime in fare il danaio,’ left behind him 18 million florins in cash and 6 millions in jewels.

[159] See for this and similar facts Giov. Villani, xi. 87, xii. 54. He lost his own money in the crash and was imprisoned for debt. See also Kervyn de Lettenhove, _L’Europe au Siècle de Philippe le Bel, Les Argentiers Florentins_ in _Bulletin de l’Académie de Bruxelles_ (1861), vol. xii. pp. 123 sqq.

[160] Giov. Villani, xi. 92, 93. In Macchiavelli, _Stor. Fiorent._ lib. ii. cap. 42, we read that 96,000 persons died of the plague in 1348.

[161] The priest put aside a black bean for every boy and a white one for every girl. This was the only means of registration.

[162] There was already a permanent fire brigade in Florence.

[163] Matteo Villani, iii. 106.

[164] Matteo Villani, i. 2-7, comp. 58. The best authority for the plague itself is the famous description by Boccaccio at the beginning of the _Decameron_.

[165] Giov. Villani, x. 164.

[166] _Ex Annalibus Ceretani_, in Fabroni, _Magni Cormi Vita_, Adnot. 34. vol. ii. p. 63.

[167] _Ricordi_ of Lorenzo, in Fabroni. _Laur. Med. Magnifici Vita_, Adnot. 2 and 25. Paul. Jovius, _Elogia_, pp. 131 sqq. Cosmus.

[168] Given by Benedetto Dei, in the passage quoted above (p. 70, note 1). It must be remembered that the account was intended to serve as a warning to assailants. For the whole subject see Reumont, _Lor. dei Medici_, ii. p. 419. The financial project of a certain Ludovico Ghetti, with important facts, is given in Roscoe, _Vita di Lor. Med._ ii. Append, i.

[169] E. g. in the _Arch. Stor._ iv.(?) See as a contrast the very simple ledger of Ott. Nuland, 1455-1462 (Stuttg. 1843), and for a rather later period the day-book of Lukas Rem, 1494-1541, ed. by B. Greiff, Augsb., 1861.

[170] Libri, _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques_, ii. 163 sqq.

[171] Varchi, _Stor. Fiorent._ iii. p. 56 and sqq. up to the end of the 9th book. Some obviously erroneous figures are probably no more than clerical or typographical blunders.

[172] In respect of prices and of wealth in Italy, I am only able, in default of further means of investigation, to bring together some scattered facts, which I have picked up here and there. Obvious exaggerations must be put aside. The gold coins which are worth referring to are the ducat, the sequin, the ‘fiorino d’oro,’ and the ‘scudo d’oro.’ The value of all is nearly the same, 11 to 12 francs of our money.

In Venice, for example, the Doge Andrea Vendramin (1476) with 170,000 ducats passed for an exceedingly rich man (Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 666. The confiscated fortune of Colleoni amounted to 216,000 florins, l. c. p. 244.

About 1460 the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ludovico Patavino, with 200,000 ducats, was called ‘perhaps the richest of all Italians.’ (Gasp. Veroneus _Vita Pauli II._, in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1027.) Elsewhere fabulous statements.

Antonio Grimani paid 30,000 ducats for his son’s election as Cardinal. His ready money alone was put at 100,000 ducats. (_Chron. Venetum_, Murat. xxiv. col. 125.)

For notices as to the grain in commerce and on the market at Venice, see in particular Malipiero, l. c. vii. ii. p. 709 sqq. Date 1498.

In 1522 it is no longer Venice, but Genoa, next to Rome, which ranks as the richest city in Italy (only credible on the authority of Francesco. Vettori. See his history in the _Archiv. Stor._ Append. tom. vi. p. 343). Bandello, _parte_ ii. _novello_ 34 and 42, names as the richest Genoese merchant of his time Ansaldo Grimaldi.

Between 1400 and 1580 Franc. Sansovino assumes a depreciation of 50 per cent. in the value of money. (_Venezia_, fol. 151 bis.)

In Lombardy it is believed that the relation between the price of corn about the middle of the fifteenth and that at the middle of the present century is as 3 to 8. (Sacco di Piacenza, in _Archiv. Stor._ Append. tom. v. Note of editor Scarabelli.)

At Ferrara there were people at the time of Duke Borso with 50,000 to 60,000 ducats (_Diario Ferrarese_, Murat. xxiv. col. 207, 214, 218; an extravagant statement, col. 187). In Florence the data are exceptional and do not justify a conclusion as to averages. Of this kind are the loans to foreign princes, in which the names of one or two houses only appear, but which were in fact the work of great companies. So too the enormous fines levied on defeated parties; we read, e.g. that from 1430 to 1453 seventy-seven families paid 4,875,000 gold florins (Varchi, iii. p. 115 sqq.), and that Giannozzo Mannetti alone, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, was forced to pay a sum of 135,000 gold florins, and was reduced thereby to beggary (Reumont, i. 157).

The fortune of Giovanni Medici amounted at his death (1428) to 179,221 gold florins, but the latter alone of his two sons Cosimo and Lorenzo left at his death (1440) as much as 235,137 (Fabroni, _Laur. Med._ Adnot. 2). Cosimo’s son Piero left (1469) 237,982 scudi (Reumont, _Lorenzo de’ Medici_, i. 286).

It is a proof of the general activity of trade that the forty-four goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio paid in the fourteenth century a rent of 800 florins to the Government (Vasari, ii. 114, _Vita di Taddeo Gaddi_). The diary of Buonaccorso Pitti (in Delécluze, _Florence et ses Vicissitudes_, vol. ii.) is full of figures, which, however, only prove in general the high price of commodities and the low value of money.

For Rome, the income of the Curia, which was derived from all Europe, gives us no criterion; nor are statements about papal treasures and the fortunes of cardinals very trustworthy. The well-known banker Agostino Chigi left (1520) a fortune of in all 800,000 ducats (_Lettere Pittoriche_, i. Append. 48).

During the high prices of the year 1505 the value of the _staro ferrarrese del grano_, which commonly weighed from 68 to 70 pounds (German), rose to 1⅓ ducats. The _semola_ or _remolo_ was sold at _venti soldi lo staro_; in the following fruitful years the _staro_ fetched six _soldi_. Bonaventura Pistofilo, p. 494. At Ferrara the rent of a house yearly in 1455 was 25 _Lire_; comp. _Atti e memorie_, Parma, vi. 250; see 265 sqq. for a documentary statement of the prices which were paid to artists and amanuenses.

From the inventory of the Medici (extracts in Muntz, _Prècurseurs_, 158 sqq.) it appears that the jewels were valued at 12,205 ducats; the rings at 1,792; the pearls (apparently distinguished from other jewels, S.G.C.M.) at 3,512; the medallions, cameos and mosaics at 2,579; the vases at 4,850; the reliquaries and the like at 3,600; the library at 2,700; the silver at 7,000. Giov. Rucellai reckons that in 1473(?) he has paid 60,000 gold florins in taxes, 10,000 for the dowries of his five daughters, 2,000 for the improvement of the church of Santa Maria Novella. In 1474 he lost 20,000 gold florins through the intrigues of an enemy. (_Autografo dallo Tibaldone di G.R._, Florence, 1872). The marriage of Barnardo Rucellai with Nannina, the sister of Lorenzo de’ Medici, cost 3,686 florins (Muntz, _Précurseurs_, 244, i).

[173] So far as Cosimo (1433-1465) and his grandson Lorenzo Magnifico (d. 1492) are concerned, the author refrains from any criticism on their internal policy. The exaltation of both, particularly of Lorenzo, by William Roscoe (_Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, called the Magnificent_, 1st ed. Liverpool, 1795; 10th ed. London, 1851), seems to have been a principal cause of the reaction of feeling against them. This reaction appeared first in Sismondi (_Hist. des Rép. Italiennes_, xi.), in reply to whose strictures, sometimes unreasonably severe, Roscoe again came forward (_Illustrations, Historical and Critical, of the Life of Lor. d. Med._, London, 1822); later in Gino Capponi (_Archiv. Stor. Ital._ i. (1842), pp. 315 sqq.), who afterwards (_Storia della Rep. di Firenze_, 2 vols. Florence, 1875) gave further proofs and explanations of his judgment. See also the work of Von Reumont (_Lor. d. Med. il Magn._), 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874, distinguished no less by the judicial calmness of its views than by the mastery it displays of the extensive materials used. See also A. Castelman: _Les Medicis_, 2 vols. Paris, 1879. The subject here is only casually touched upon. Comp. two works of B. Buser (Leipzig, 1879) devoted to the home and foreign policy of the Medici. (1) _Die Beziehungen der Medicus zu Frankreich._ 1434-1494, &c. (2) _Lorenzo de’ Medici als italienischen Staatsman_, &c., 2nd ed., 1883.

[174] Franc. Burlamacchi, father of the head of the Lucchese Protestants, Michele B. See _Arch. Stor. Ital._ ser. i. tom. x., pp. 435-599; Documenti, pp. 146 sqq.; further Carlo Minutoli, _Storia di Fr. B._, Lucca, 1844, and the important additions of Leone del Prete in the _Giornale Storico degli Archiv. Toscani_, iv. (1860), pp. 309 sqq. It is well known how Milan, by its hard treatment of the neighbouring cities from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, prepared the way for the foundation of a great despotic state. Even at the time of the extinction of the Visconti in 1447, Milan frustrated the deliverance of Upper Italy, principally through not accepting the plan of a confederation of equal cities. Comp. Corio, fol. 358 sqq.

[175] On the third Sunday in Advent, 1494, Savonarola preached as follows on the method of bringing about a new constitution: The sixteen companies of the city were each to work out a plan, the Gonfalonieri to choose the four best of these, and the Signory to name the best of all on the reduced list. Things, however, took a different turn, under the influence indeed of the preacher himself. See P. Villari, _Savonarola_. Besides this sermon, S. had written a remarkable _Trattato circa il regimento di Ferenze_ (reprinted at Lucca, 1817).

[176] The latter first in 1527, after the expulsion of the Medici. See Varchi, i. 121, &c.

[177] Macchiavelli, _Storie Fior._ l. iii. cap. 1: ‘Un Savio dator di leggi,’ could save Florence.

[178] Varchi, _Stor. Fior._ i. p. 210.

[179] ‘Discorso sopra il riformar lo Stato di Firenze,’ in the _Opere Minori_, p. 207.

[180] The same view, doubtless borrowed from here, occurs in Montesquieu.

[181] Belonging to a rather later period (1532?). Compare the opinion of Guicciardini, terrible in its frankness, on the condition and inevitable organisation of the Medicean party. _Lettere di Principi_, iii. fol. 124, (ediz. Venez. 1577).

[182] Æn. Sylvii, _Apologia ad Martinum Mayer_, p. 701. To the same effect Macchiavelli, _Discorsi_, i. 55, and elsewhere.

[183] How strangely modern half-culture affected political life is shown by the party struggles of 1535. Della Valle, _Lettere Sanesi_, iii. p. 317. A number of small shopkeepers, excited by the study of Livy and of Macchiavelli’s _Discorsi_, call in all seriousness for tribunes of the people and other Roman magistrates against the misgovernment of the nobles and the official classes.

[184] Piero Valeriano, _De Infelicitate Literator._, speaking of Bartolommeo della Rovere. (The work of P. V. written 1527 is quoted according to the edition by Menken, _Analecta de Calamitate Literatorum_, Leipz. 1707.) The passage here meant can only be that at p. 384, from which we cannot infer what is stated in the text, but in which we read that B. d. R. wished to make his son abandon a taste for study which he had conceived and put him into business.

[185] Senarega, _De reb. Genuens_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 548. For the insecurity of the time see esp. col. 519, 525, 528, &c. For the frank language of the envoy on the occasion of the surrender of the state to Francesco Sforza (1464), when the envoy told him that Genoa surrendered in the hope of now living safely and comfortably, see Cagnola, _Archiv. Stor._ iii. p. 165 sqq. The figures of the Archbishop, Doge, Corsair, and (later) Cardinal Paolo Fregoso form a notable contrast to the general picture of the condition of Italy.

[186] So Varchi, at a much later time. _Stor. Fiorent._ i. 57.

[187] Galeazzo Maria Sforza, indeed, declared the contrary (1467) to the Venetian agent, namely, that Venetian subjects had offered to join him in making war on Venice; but this is only vapouring. Comp. Malipiero, _Annali Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. p. 216 sqq. On every occasion cities and villages voluntarily surrendered to Venice, chiefly, it is true, those that escaped from the hands of some despot, while Florence had to keep down the neighbouring republics, which were used to independence, by force of arms, as Guicciardini (_Ricordi_, n. 29) observes.

[188] Most strongly, perhaps, in an instruction to the ambassadors going to Charles VII. in the year 1452. (See Fabroni, _Cosmus_, Adnot. 107, fol. ii. pp. 200 sqq.) The Florentine envoys were instructed to remind the king of the centuries of friendly relations which had subsisted between France and their native city, and to recall to him that Charles the Great had delivered Florence and Italy from the barbarians (Lombards), and that Charles I. and the Romish Church were ‘fondatori della parte Guelfa. Il qual fundamento fa cagione della ruina della contraria parte e introdusse lo stato di felicità, in che noi siamo.’ When the young Lorenzo visited the Duke of Anjou, then staying at Florence, he put on a French dress. Fabroni, ii. p. 9.

[189] Comines, _Charles VIII._ chap. x. The French were considered ‘comme saints.’ Comp. chap. 17; _Chron. Venetum_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 5, 10, 14, 15; Matarazzo, _Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor._ xvi. ii. p. 23, not to speak of countless other proofs. See especially the documents in Desjardins, op. cit. p. 127, note 1.

[190] _Pii II. Commentarii_, x. p. 492.

[191] Gingins, _Dépêches des Ambassadeurs Milanais_, _etc._ i. pp. 26, 153, 279, 283, 285, 327, 331, 345, 359; ii. pp. 29, 37, 101, 217, 306. Charles once spoke of giving Milan to the young Duke of Orleans.

[192] Niccolò Valori, _Vita di Lorenzo_, Flor. 1568. Italian translation of the Latin original, first printed in 1749 (later in Galletti, _Phil. Villani, Liber de Civit. Flor. famosis Civibus_, Florence, 1847, pp. 161-183; passage here referred to p. 171). It must not, however, be forgotten that this earliest biography, written soon after the death of Lorenzo, is a flattering rather than a faithful portrait, and that the words here attributed to Lorenzo are not mentioned by the French reporter, and can, in fact, hardly have been uttered. Comines, who was commissioned by Louis XI. to go to Rome and Florence, says (_Mémoires_, l. vi. chap. 5): ‘I could not offer him an army, and had nothing with me but my suite.’ (Comp. Reumont, _Lorenzo_, i. p. 197, 429; ii. 598). In a letter from Florence to Louis XI. we read (Aug. 23, 1478: ‘Omnis spes nostra reposita est in favoribus suæ majestatis.’ A. Desjardins, _Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane_ (Paris, 1859), i. p. 173. Similarly Lorenzo himself in Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Lettres et Négotiations de Philippe de Comines_, i. p. 190. Lorenzo, we see, is in fact the one who humbly begs for help, not who proudly declines it.

Dr. Geiger in his appendix maintains that Dr. Burchhardt’s view as to Lorenzo’s national Italian policy is not borne out by evidence. Into this discussion the translator cannot enter. It would need strong proof to convince him that the masterly historical perception of Dr. Burchhardt was in error as to a subject which he has studied with minute care. In an age when diplomatic lying and political treachery were matters of course, documentary evidence loses much of its weight, and cannot be taken without qualification as representing the real feelings of the persons concerned, who fenced, turned about, and lied, first on one side and then on another, with an agility surprising to those accustomed to live among truth-telling people (S.G.C.M.)

Authorities quoted by Dr. Geiger are: Reumont, _Lorenzo_, 2nd ed., i. 310; ii. 450. Desjardins: _Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane_ (Paris, 1859), i. 173. Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Lettres et Négociations de Philippe de Comines_, i. 180.

[193] Fabroni, _Laurentius Magnificus_, Adnot. 205 sqq. In one of his Briefs it was said literally, ‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo;’ but it is to be hoped that he did not allude to the Turks. (Villari, _Storia di Savonarola_, ii. p. 48 of the ‘Documenti.’)

[194] E.g. Jovian. Pontan. in his _Charon_. In the dialogue between Æcus, Minos, and Mercurius (_Op._ ed. Bas. ii. p. 1167) the first says: ‘Vel quod haud multis post sæculis futurum auguror, ut Italia, cujus intestina te odia male habent Minos, in unius redacta ditionem resumat imperii majestatem.’ And in reply to Mercury’s warning against the Turks, Æcus answers: ‘Quamquam timenda hæc sunt, tamen si vetera respicimus, non ab Asia aut Græcia, verum a Gallis Germanisque timendum Italiæ semper fuit.’

[195] Comines, _Charles VIII._, chap. 7. How Alfonso once tried in time of war to seize his opponents at a conference, is told by Nantiporto, in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1073. He was a genuine predecessor of Cæsar Borgia.

[196] _Pii II. Commentarii_, x. p. 492. See a letter of Malatesta in which he recommends to Mohammed II. a portrait-painter, Matteo Passo of Verona, and announces the despatch of a book on the art of war, probably in the year 1463, in Baluz. _Miscell._ iii. 113. What Galeazzo Maria of Milan told in 1467 to a Venetian envoy, namely, that he and his allies would join with the Turks to destroy Venice, was said merely by way of threat. Comp. Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor._ vii. i. p. 222. For Boccalino, see page 36.

[197] Porzio, _Congiura dei Baroni_, l. i. p. 5. That Lorenzo, as Porzio hints, really had a hand in it, is not credible. On the other hand, it seems only too certain that Venice prompted the Sultan to the deed. See Romanin, _Storia Documentata di Venezia_, lib. xi. cap. 3. After Otranto was taken, Vespasiano Bisticci uttered his ‘Lamento d’Italia, _Archiv. Stor. Ital._ iv. pp. 452 sqq.

[198] _Chron. Venet._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 14 and 76.

[199] Malipiero, l. c. p. 565, 568.

[200] Trithem. _Annales Hirsaug_, ad. a. 1490, tom. ii. pp. 535 sqq.

[201] Malipiero, l. c. 161; comp. p. 152. For the surrender of Djem to Charles VIII. see p. 145, from which it is clear that a connection of the most shameful kind existed between Alexander and Bajazet, even if the documents in Burcardus be spurious. See on the subject Ranke, _Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber_, 2 Auflage, Leipzig, 1874, p. 99, and Gregorovius, bd. vii. 353, note 1. _Ibid._ p. 353, note 2, a declaration of the Pope that he was not allied with the Turks.

[202] Bapt. Mantuanus, _De Calamitatibus Temporum_, at the end of the second book, in the song of the Nereid Doris to the Turkish fleet.

[203] Tommaso Gar, _Relaz. della Corte di Roma_, i. p. 55.

[204] Ranke, _Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker_. The opinion of Michelet (_Reforme_, p. 467), that the Turks would have adopted Western civilisation in Italy, does not satisfy me. This mission of Spain is hinted at, perhaps for the first time, in the speech delivered by Fedra Inghirami in 1510 before Julius II., at the celebration of the capture of Bugia by the fleet of Ferdinand the Catholic. See _Anecdota Litteraria_, ii. p. 419.

[205] Among others Corio, fol. 333. Jov. Pontanus, in his treatise, _De Liberalitate_, cap. 28, considers the free dismissal of Alfonso as a proof of the ‘liberalitas’ of Filippo Maria. (See above, p. 38, note 1.) Compare the line of conduct adopted with regard to Sforza, fol. 329.

[206] Nic. Valori, _Vita di Lorenzo_; Paul Jovius, _Vita Leonis X._ l.