Magnifico (61 page)

“everyone knows that Florence has turned towards Venice”:
Ibid.

“So you intend, finally”:
Pulci,
Lettere di Luigi Pulci,
II. Luigi Pulci to Lorenzo, February 1, 1466.

no end of worry:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo Avanti il Principato, filza 34, no. 147. Giovanni Tornabuoni, May 17, 1477, on the difficulty of making good on bad debts.

“Pope Paul’s head is empty”:
Rendina, 421.

“that sink of all iniquities”:
Ross,
Lives,
332. Lorenzo to Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, March 1492.

“You may turn all the pages of history”:
Bracciolini, “The Ruins of Rome,” in
The Portable Renaissance Reader,
380.

at least pleasant associations:
Ross, 108–11. See Lucrezia to Piero, March 27 and April 1, 1467.

“I am in such affliction”:
Ross,
Lives,
102. Piero to Lorenzo March 15, 1466.

“put an end to all playing on instruments”:
Ibid.

“the King took Lorenzo by the arm”:
Rochon, 107. Becchi to Piero, April 14, 1466.

“I spoke with him”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, no. 9.

“love which we bear”:
Ibid., 20.

“well-disposed towards his state”:
Rochon, 107. Sacramoro da Rimini to Lorenzo, May 6, 1466.

one hundred troops to the Medici cause:
Black, “Piero de’ Medici and Arezzo,” in
Piero il Gottoso,
25–27.

Strong anti-Medici sentiment:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
177–78.

CHAPTER VI: GAMES OF FORTUNE

“vile rabbit”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
155.

“There were three chiefs”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
125.

“unified more by a common hatred”:
Rochon, 80.

“Nicodemo [Tranchedini], well schooled in these arts”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
125.

“And thus there arose two fortresses”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
125.

“around the 22nd hour”:
Ibid., 124.

“in the midst of a great multitude of armed men”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
293.

would tear him limb from limb:
Ibid.

“The plebs, thirsting after novelty”:
Valori, 31–32.

“While things were in such a state”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
126–27.

“very cowardly”:
Ibid., 127.

“With this money he showed great liberality”:
Ibid., 125.

“
Messer
Luca,
messer
Dietisalvi and
messer
Agnolo”:
Ibid.

Messer
Antonio Ridolfi, one of Piero’s friends:
Ibid., 127.

Now Piero’s foresight:
Ibid., 127–28.

“Better a city”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VII, 6.

“That same morning”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
127–28.

“before the drawing for the Signoria”:
Rinuccini,
Ricordi Storici,
CI.

“a sensible man and a good man”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
128.

Piero persuaded his newfound allies:
Clarke, “A Sienese Note on 1466,” in
Florence and Italy: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Nicolai Rubinstein,
50.

“excused himself because of his illness”:
Rinuccini,
Ricordi Storici,
CI.

“In not coming, [Piero] showed his arrogance”:
Ibid.

“expel from Florence all the soldiers”:
Ibid.

“the soul of a tyrant”:
Ibid.

“In part through persuasive words”:
Valori, 31–32.

“
Messer
Luca had a daughter of tender age”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
130.

“declaring himself ready to live or die with me”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
186.

“very submissive words”:
Ibid., 192.

“if Piero had not held them back”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VII, 16.

“To establish the peace of the city”:
Brown, “Piero’s Infirmity,” in
Piero il Gottoso,
18.

“so many soldiers in one place”:
Clarke, “A Sienese Note on 1466,” in
Florence and Italy: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Nicolai Rubinstein,
49.

“it was approved with excited and loud voices”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
132.

“I knew that in an instant I had lost honor”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
188–89.

“after the failure of the plot”:
Landucci, 8.

“little torture”:
Rubinstein, “La Confessione di Francesco Neroni”
Archivio Storico Italiano,
380.

“Unlike his father Cosimo”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
17.

“From vileness or because he had been corrupted”:
Rinuccini,
Ricordi Storici,
CIV.

“He remained cold and alone at home”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
141.

“I am laughing at the games of fortune”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VII, 18.

“Pietro de’ Medici, son of Cosimo”:
Lucrezia Tornabuoni,
Sacred Narratives,
47.

“most honorable and famous young son Lorenzo”:
Alison Brown, “Piero’s Infirmity,” in
Piero il Gottoso,
14.

“Already we loved you on account of your excellent qualities”:
Reumont, I, 197.

CHAPTER VII: LORD OF THE JOUST

“[Piero] was crippled with gout like his father”:
Parenti,
Ricordi Storici,
58.

“Magnificent Lord”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, no. 14, March 21, 1468.

“I have received your letters both thick and thin”:
Ibid., no. 16, September 13, 1468.

“[Lorenzo] is of such a nature”:
Alison Brown,
Bartolomeo Scala,
61. Sacramoro da Rimini to Galcazzo Maria Sforza.

“I shall be as a man without hands”:
Ross,
Lives,
94. Piero to Lorenzo, May 4, 1465.

“The enduring and intimate good will”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, no. 13, March 10, 1468.

“Lorenzo demonstrates that he has thought things out”:
Sorzano, “Lorenzo il Magnifico alla Morte del Padre e il Suo Primo Balzo Verso la
Signoria
,”
Archivio Storico Italiano,
42–77. These remarks were made in September 1469, when Milan was unhappy with Piero’s policies and looking toward Lorenzo as an alternative.

“[He] who want[s] a son”:
Chambers, “Spas in the Italian Renaissance,” in
Reconsidering the Renaissance,
9.

“are all dreams”:
Ross,
Lives,
116. Piero to Lucrezia, October 1, 1467.

“There [at the baths] you risk unnecessary peril”:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo Avanti il Principato, filza XX, 339. In Martelli’s “Giacoppo” (
Interpres,
104), the date given is September 26, 1466, but this is almost certainly an error. While the date on the original document is illegible, two letters by Lorenzo to his mother in Bagno a Morba confirm her presence at the baths in the fall of 1467 and his intention of visiting her there. (See letters 11 and 12 in Lorenzo,
Lettere,
I, the first dated September 19, in which he writes, “I had hoped to be there already days ago…” and the second, from October 4, in which he says, “I do not think I shall be able, as I had wished, to return to see you there…”)

“Let search who will for pomp”: Lorenzo,
il Commento de’ Miei Sonetti,
Sonnet 21.

And where is Pulci: Lorenzo, “The Partridge Hunt,”
Selected Poems and Prose.

“to prove the dignity of our language”:
Lorenzo,
il Commento de’ Miei Sonetti,
46.

“honor, according to the philosophers”:
Ibid., 51.

“At the end of the volume”:
Ross,
Lives,
92.

“because you have a quite complete understanding”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
1.

Whilst Arno, winding through the mild domain: Roscoe,
Life of Lorenzo de Medici,
236.

O sleep most tranquil: Lorenzo,
Commento de’ miei,
sonnet 20.

“I could easily be thought”:
Ibid., 31.

“[H]aving in my youth”:
Ibid., 42.

“He seemed to be two men”: The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance.

“one might see in him”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VIII, 36.

“He was libidinous”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
ix, 6.

We also have some beanpods, long: Lorenzo,
Selected Poems and Prose,
159.

Soon autumn comes: Ross Williamson, 104.

repay what had been borrowed:
See, for example, de Roover, 204.

“On the way to S. Peter”:
Ross,
Lives,
108–9.

“You say I write coldly about her”:
Ibid., 110.

“O that the marriage bond”:
Roscoe, 232.

“I, Lorenzo, took to wife Clarice”:
Ross,
Lives,
152.

“the city no longer included him as a citizen”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VII, 2.

“their pleasure is not to be described”:
Ross,
Lives,
121.

“Not a day passes”:
Ibid., 122.

“Magnificent consort, greetings”:
Ibid., 123

“she told me you were evidently extremely occupied”:
Ibid.

Lorenzo, laughing, donned his helm: Pulci,
Stanze sur la Giostra di Lorenzo de’ Medici,
c.

“the blond Elena”:
Beccadelli,
The Hermaphrodite,
xxxvii.

“and as you know”:
Martelli, “Il ‘Giacoppo’ di Lorenzo,” 105.