Magnifico (65 page)

CHAPTER XVII: NEAPOLITAN GAMBIT

“The Count went to Donato’s house”:
Bisticci, 287. For Acciaiuoli’s experience in Rome in the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy, see also Margery Ganz’s “Donato Acciaiuoli and the Medici: A Strategy for Survival in ‘400 Florence,” in
Rinascimento,
2nd ser., 22 (1982): especially 62–65.

“
He addressed the pope and complained bitterly”:
Bisticci, 287–88.

“more dead than alive from the terror”:
Pastor, 317.

“that son of iniquity and foster-child of perdition”:
Ross Williamson, 177.

he had no quarrel with the people of Florence:
Valori, 58.

“For we make war on no one”:
Ross,
Lives,
206.

“All citizens must place the common before the private good”:
Hook, 105.

“Your Holiness says you are only waging war”:
Ross Williamson, 178.

We and the people have proved”:
Ibid., 178–79.

“holds for certain”:
“Assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza” in
Violence and Civic Disorder in Italian Cities,
101.

forces of the pope and the king of Naples were poised:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
III, 64–65, and Ross,
Lives,
194–98.

“one body, with one mind”:
Hook, 107.

instigated by agents of King Ferrante:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
III, 131.

“It is necessary that this Senate bestir itself”:
Ibid., III, no. 291. Lorenzo to Giovanni Lanfredini, June 20, 1478.

“I do not know what hope I can have”:
Hook, 110.

a formal declaration of war to the
Signoria: See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
III, 127–32 (especially note 13, 131). Lorenzo to Girolamo Morelli, July 15, 1478.

a wave of refugees fleeing toward the capital:
See Landucci, 21.

“pillaging and working great havoc”:
Ibid., 21.

“The rule for our Italian soldiers seems to be this”:
Ibid., 22.

while he haggled over his fee:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
III. Lorenzo to Girolamo Morelli, August 20 and August 21, 1478, 175–85, and to Ercole d’Este, August 27, 1478.

“The Florentine troops passed in such a wretched state”:
Reumont, 367.

he toiled late into the night over his philosophical studies:
See Toscani, “Lorenzo, the Religious Poet,” in
Lorenzo de’ Medici: New Perspectives,
86.

“For the love of God, Girolamo”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, no. 434.

“tell[ing] us that the king and the Holy Father”:
Landucci, 21.

“The Duke of Urbino is said to have quipped”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
43–44.

“And at this Christmas-time”:
Landucci, 26.

“many fine palaces belonging to citizens”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
79.

“I remain in the house [at Cafaggiolo]”:
Ross,
Lives,
214. Poliziano to Lucrezia Tornabuoni.

“there is nothing but bare walls”:
Maguire, 166.

“I thought I would come this evening”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, no. 414.

“The news I have received from Naples”:
Ibid., III, 143–44. Lorenzo to Girolamo Morelli July 25, 1478.

he tried to borrow from her an additional 30,000 to 40,000 ducats:
Ibid., III.

teetering on the brink of bankruptcy:
Hook, 108.

“without the sanction of any law and without authority”:
De Roover, 367.

“the money that Lorenzo drew from public funds”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
Dialogue on the Government of Florence,
71.

but this offer led to nothing:
See Hook, 110.

“I hear the plague is committing more ravages in Florence”:
Ross,
Lives,
218. Clarice to Lorenzo May 28, 1479.

“To make matters worse, the plague continues to spread”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, no. 407. Lorenzo to Girolamo Morelli, June 23, 1479.

“I have written you a long discourse”:
Ibid., IV, 204.

“The citizens accused one another freely and without respect”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VIII, 17.

“You have taken a decision that will take my life”:
Ibid., VIII, 19.

“I cannot believe that the Lord Lodovico”:
Ross,
Lives,
227. Lorenzo to Girolamo Morelli, September 11, 1479.

“Most Illustrious My Lords”:
Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, no. 444. Lorenzo to the
Signoria
of Florence, December 7, 1479.

“regarded as too bold and rash a decision”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
IX.

laying the groundwork for months:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, 391–400, for a full discussion of the negotiations leading up to his journey.

The situation of affairs appeared serious to all:
Reumont, 397–98.

“I have received many friendly words”:
Ibid., 392.

“received and honored with as much dignity as possible”:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, 273.

“He greeted me most graciously”:
Ibid., IV, 274. Lorenzo to the
Dieci di Balia,
December 22, 1479.

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

“Your letter of the 18th rejoiced us all”:
Ross,
Lives,
232. Bartolomeo Scala to Lorenzo.

while not jeopardizing his relations with the pope:
See Lorenzo,
Lettere,
IV, 275. See also ibid., IV, no. 447, for attempts by Rome to scuttle the peace deal.

“We made a virtue of necessity”:
Reumont, 407–8.

“Lorenzo’s confederate”:
Ross,
Lives,
236.

“The present letter will not be one of those”:
Ibid., 411.

“[Y]our family are all well”:
Hook, 115.

“the length of these negotiations”:
Ibid.

“We are all hoping against hope”:
Ross,
Lives,
234–35. Bartolomeo Scala to Lorenzo, January 15, 1480.

“so that you never saw”:
Hook, 116.

“young and old, noble and commoner”:
Valori, 68.

“Lorenzo arrived from Livorno”:
Landucci, 29.

“The ratification of the peace arrived in the night”:
Ibid., 29.

CHAPTER XVIII: THE SHADOW LIFTS

“In Rome the alarm was as great”:
Pastor, IV, 334–35.

“If the faithful, especially the Italians”:
Ibid., IV, 335–36.

could no longer pursue his vendetta against Lorenzo:
See Ross,
Lives,
237.

“a great miracle”:
Landucci, 30.

Sixtus bestowed his blessing:
See Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VIII, 21.

“Florence’s top man”:
F. W. Kent,
Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence,
81.

“When I go more than ten miles out of the city”:
Martines,
April Blood,
245–46.

a special committee of 240 prominent citizens:
See Rinuccini,
Ricordi Storici,
CXXXII.

largely excluding the “new men”:
See Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
226–32.

“the members of the new body”:
Hook, 153. Giovanni Cambi.

“removed every liberty from the people”:
Rinuccini,
Ricordi Storici,
CXXXII.

“they refashioned the government in such a way”:
Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici,
231.

had reconstituted the old league with Venice and Siena:
See Landucci, 29.

“to satisfy my debt it seemed best”:
Breisach, 282.

As followers of the Orsini, the Colonna, and the della Valle clashed in the streets of Rome:
See Landucci, 34.

“for Girolamo’s ambitions”:
Breisach, 50.

“In the Pope’s antechambers”:
Pastor, IV, 356–57. Sigismondo de’ Conti.

“your presence is very necessary here”:
Hook, 160. Bartolomeo Scala.

“Various were the opinions”:
Valori, 74.

the “fulcrum” of Italy:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
IX.

to settle their dynastic rivalries:
For a modern corrective to Guicciardini’s overstatements, see Mallett, “Diplomacy and War in Later Fifteenth-Century Italy,” in
Art and Politics in Renaissance Italy,
135–58.

“Italy was preserved in this happy state”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Italy,
I, i.

the best informed of European leaders:
See Mallett, “Diplomacy and War in Later Fifteenth-Century Italy,” in
Art and Politics in Renaissance Italy,
135–58.

“not only do I want your prompt assistance in this”:
Bullard,
Lorenzo il Magnifico,
23.

“I believe I have the reputation”:
Bullard, “Lorenzo and Patterns of Diplomatic Discourse,” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
267.

the foremost statesman of the age:
See Francesco Guicciardini,
History of Florence,
IX. See also Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories,
VIII, 36.

“honorably received as a man of merit”:
Landucci, 36.

came to nothing:
See Brown, “Lorenzo and Guicciardini,” in
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
284.

“Many were afflicted”:
Landucci, 39.

“Up to this time we have carried”:
Pastor, IV, 387.

“Nothing could daunt the ferocious Sixtus”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
The History of Florence,
VII.

Sixtus, at last you’re dead: Rendina, 427.

One must give praise, my fellow Romans: Ibid., 429.

“[Y]ou will inform His Holiness”:
Ross,
Lives,
262.

“Be careful not to take precedence”:
Ibid., 261.

“What could one hope for from Piero?”:
Trexler,
Public Life in Renaissance Florence,
462.