Cosimo was the most renowned and illustrious citizen outside of the military profession who ever lived, not only in Florence but in every other city of which we have a record; for he not only surpassed all of his contemporaries in wealth and authority but also in generosity and prudence; and among those qualities which contributed to make him the prince of his native land, the most important were his generosity and his magnificence. His generosity was even more evident after his death, when his son Piero took stock of his assets, for there was no citizen of any standing in the city who had not borrowed a large sum of money from Cosimo; many times he would assist a nobleman when he heard of his need without even being asked to do so. He showed his magnificence through the many public buildings he constructed. He not only restored but completely rebuilt the monasteries and churches of San Marco and San Lorenzo, the convent of Santa Verdiana in Florence and San Giacomo, the abbey in the hills of Fiesole, and a church of the minor friars in the Mugello. Besides all this, he had altars and splendid chapels built in Santa Croce, in the Servi, in the Angioli, and in San Miniato, and he filled them all with vestments and everything necessary for the adornment of divine services. To these sacred buildings were added his private homes: one in the city (an appropriate place for such a citizen) and four outside it, at Careggi, Fiesole, Cafaggiuolo, and Trebbio—all kingly palaces and not the type for private citizens. And since he was not satisfied with the reputation the magnificence of his buildings had won him in Italy, he had a lodging for sick and poor pilgrims built in Jerusalem. He spent an enormous amount of money on all these buildings. And although his private homes, and all his other works and actions, were of a princely nature—for he alone was prince in Florence—nevertheless everything was tempered by his prudence, so that he never presumed to rise above the status of a public citizen: in his conversation, his servants, his traveling, his mode of life, and in his relations he was always similar to the average citizen; for he knew that a constant display of pomp causes more envy among men than those actions tempered with honesty and lack of ostentation. Obliged to find wives for his sons, he did not seek princes for relatives. He married Giovanni to Cornelia degli Alessandri and Piero to Lucrezia de’ Tornabuoni; of the grandchildren born to Piero, he married Bianca to Guglielmo de’ Pazzi and Nannina to Bernardo Rucellai. No other man in his time, either in states ruled by princes or in republics, equaled him in intelligence. This is why, during so many changes of Fortune and in such an unstable city with its whimsical populace, he was able to hold control of the government for thirty-one years. For, being very prudent, he recognized problems from a distance and consequently had time either to keep them from growing or to prepare himself so that they might not harm him if they did grow. In this manner, he not only surpassed the ambition of his fellow citizens but also that of many princes; he did so with so much success and prudence that anyone who became his ally or an ally of his native city ended up as either equal or superior to his enemies, whereas anyone who opposed him either lost his time, his money, or his state. The Venetians can testify to this, for they were always superior to Duke Filippo Sforza when they were allied with Cosimo against him, but without his support they were always defeated, first by Duke Filippo and later by Duke Francesco. When they joined forces with King Alfonso of Naples against the Republic of Florence, Cosimo emptied Naples and Venice of money with his credit; they were thus forced to accept a peace agreement that he decided to concede to them. Therefore, the problems that Cosimo experienced both inside and outside the city brought glory to him and injury to his enemies; internal strife always increased his power in Florence, and external struggles always increased his strength and reputation. He added to the domain of his republic Borgo San Sepolcro, Montedoglio, Casentino, and Val di Bagno. And so, his ability and good fortune destroyed all his enemies and exalted his friends.
CHAPTER 6
He was born in 1389 on the feast day of St. Cosimo and St. Damian. His early life was full of trials—as his exile, imprisonment, and near death demonstrate. From the Council of Constance, where he had gone with Pope John, he was forced to flee in disguise, after the Pope’s fall, in order to save his life. But after he had passed the age of forty, he lived happily; not only those who supported him in public enterprises but also those who administered his riches throughout Europe participated in his success. From this contact many Florentine families became excessively rich, as happened to the Tornabuoni, the Benci, the Portinari, and the Sassetti. Besides these people, all those who depended upon his advice and his fortune grew rich; and although he constantly spent money on the building of churches and for charitable causes, he used to complain to his friends at times that he was never able to spend so much for the honor of God that he might be able to find Him in his account books as a debtor. He was of middle stature, with an olive complexion and a venerable aspect. He was not learned, but he was very eloquent and gifted, with a natural prudence. He was therefore generous to his friends, compassionate to the poor, sharp in conversation, cautious in advice, quick in his executions, and witty and serious in his sayings and replies. Messer Rinaldo degli Albizzi, in the first days of his exile, sent him a message declaring that the hen was hatching an egg, to which Cosimo replied that it could hardly hatch outside of its nest. And to other rebels who made him understand that they were still awake he quipped that he believed them, since he had robbed them of their sleep. When Pope Pius called forth the princes for an attack on the Turks, Cosimo said of the Pope that he was an old man who was undertaking a young man’s task. To the Venetian ambassadors who came with King Alfonso’s envoy to complain of the republic he showed his uncovered head, asking them what color it was. When they responded, “White,” he replied: “It will not be long before your senators have hair as white as mine.” A few hours before his death, his wife asked him why he kept his eyes closed, to which he answered: “In order to get used to it.” After his return from exile, some citizens said of him that he was ruining the city and was acting against God by banishing so many men of quality. He replied that it was better to damage a city than to lose it; that a length of rose-colored cloth was sufficient to make a gentleman; and that states were not held with rosary beads in hand. These remarks gave his enemies an opportunity to accuse him of being a man who loved himself more than his native city and this world more than the next. One could cite many other witty remarks of his, but they would be superfluous. Cosimo was also an admirer and a patron of learned men; because of this, he brought to Florence Argyropoulos, a very learned Greek of the time, so that young Florentines could learn the Greek language as well as other subjects from him. He nurtured in his own home Marsilio Ficino, second father of the Platonic philosophy, whom he dearly loved. In order that Ficino might more comfortably pursue his studies and Cosimo might be able to visit him with greater ease, he gave him some property near his own at Careggi. Therefore, his wisdom, his riches, his way of life, and his good fortune made him feared and loved by the citizens of Florence and exceptionally respected by the princes not only of Italy but of all Europe. Because of this, he left such a foundation tc his heirs that they were able to equal him in ability and to surpass him in good fortune. That authority which Cosimo had enjoyed in Florence they were able to possess not only in that city but in all of Christendom. Nevertheless, in the final years of his life he experienced very great sorrows, for, of his two sons, Piero and Giovanni, the latter, on whom he most relied, died, and the former was sickly and, as a result of the weakness of his body, poorly suited for either public affairs or business. After the death of his son, he had himself carried about the house and would say with a sigh: “This is too large a house for so small a family.” The greatness of his spirit was also tried by the fact that he felt he had not increased Florentine dominions by any honorable acquisition. He was even more upset because he believed that he had been tricked by Francesco Sforza, for when he was count he had promised Cosimo that when he had taken control of Milan he would attack Lucca for the Florentines. This di
d not happen, for Sforza changed his mind with his change in fortune, and after becoming Duke of Milan he wished to enjoy that rank with the peace that he had gained in war; he therefore did not wish to undertake either Cosimo’s campaign or that of anyone else. While he was Duke, he waged only those wars which were necessary for his own defense. This was a cause of great annoyance to Cosimo, since it appeared to him that he had expended effort and expense to produce an ungrateful, unfaithful man. Besides this, he felt that because of his illness he could not devote his former energies to public and private affairs. He saw both going to ruin because the city was being destroyed by its citizens and his possessions were being used up by his employees and his sons. All these matters made his last years unsettling ones. Nevertheless, he died with a great reputation, both within Florence and elsewhere. On his death, all of the citizens and all of the Christian princes mourned with Piero, his son. He was accompanied to his grave with the greatest of ceremony by all of the citizens and was buried in San Lorenzo. Inscribed on his tomb by public decree were the words: “Father of the Country.” If, in describing the deeds of Cosimo, I have imitated those who write about the lives of princes rather than those who write about general history, it need not cause any amazement, for as he was such an extraordinary man in our city’s history, I felt compelled to praise him in this unusual way.
BOOK VIII
CHAPTER 36 [MACHIAVELLI’S ESTIMATION OF LORENZO IL MAGNIFICO]
When the War of Sarzana had ended, the Florentines experienced a period of great prosperity which lasted until 1492, when Lorenzo de’ Medici died: for Lorenzo, whose authority and good sense had brought about the end of the wars in Italy, had turned his mind to his own greatness and to that of his city. He married off Piero, his firstborn, to Alfonsina, the daughter of the knight Orsini; then he had his second son, Giovanni, raised to the rank of cardinal. This was most remarkable and without precedent, for he was promoted to such a rank even before he reached the age of fourteen: this was the ladder that would raise his house to the skies, as actually happened in the following years. As for his third son, Giuliano, because of his youth and the short time Lorenzo lived he could not provide him with any extraordinary fortune. Of his daughters, the first he married to Jacopo Salviati, the second to Francesco Cibo, the third to Piero Ridolfi; the fourth, whom he had married to Giovanni de’ Medici to keep the family unified, died. In his private business affairs he was extremely unlucky. In large measure, his personal property was lost as a result of the poor management of his administrators, who ran his affairs as if they were princes and not private citizens. As a result, his native city was constrained to grant him a subsidy consisting of a large sum of money. Thus, in order not to tempt Fortune further, he abandoned mercantile investments and turned to landed property as a sounder and more stable form of wealth. He purchased property in the regions around Prato, Pisa, and the Pesa Valley, which was more fitting for a king than a private citizen in terms of its financial return and the quality and magnificence of its buildings.
After this, he turned his attention to beautifying and enlarging his city. Where there were open areas without buildings he ordered the construction of new streets filled with new buildings. As a result, the city became larger and more beautiful. He fortified the castle of Firenzuola, in the middle of the mountains toward Bologna, so that people in his state might live in tranquillity and security and his enemies could be repulsed or fought off at a distance. Toward Siena he began the foundations of Poggio Imperiale, which was to be made very strong. Toward Genoa he blocked off the enemy’s approach through the acquisition of Pietrasanta and Sarzana. Then, by means of subsidies and supplies he kept his friends, the Baglioni and the Vitelli, in power in Perugia and Città di Castello; he himself controlled the government of Faenza. All these policies provided strong defenses for his city. In these times of peace he always kept the city in a constant state of feasting; tournaments and representations of historical deeds or triumphs were often presented there. His goal was to keep the city content, the people united, and the nobility respected. He greatly loved any man who was outstanding in his profession, and he favored men of letters: Messer Agnolo da Montepulciano, Messer Cristoforo Landino, and Messer Demetrius the Greek bear witness to this fact. This was why Count Giovanni della Mirandola, a man who was almost divine, forsook all the other regions of Europe he had visited and, moved by Lorenzo’s generosity, made his home in Florence. Lorenzo took great pleasure in architecture, music, and poetry; many poetic works still exist which were not only written but also commented upon by him. And in order that the young people of Florence might be able to train themselves in the study of the humanities, he opened a center in the city of Pisa where the most excellent men in all of Italy were brought. He built a monastery near Florence for Friar Mariano da Ghinazzano, of the Order of St. Augustine, since he was such an excellent preacher.
Lorenzo was particularly dear to Fortune and to God; because of this, all his undertakings reached a successful conclusion, while those of his enemies ended unhappily; for, besides the Pazzi conspiracy, Battista Frescobaldi tried to kill him in the Carmine church and Badinotto di Pistoia attempted to do so in his villa at Pistoia. Each of these men, together with their co-conspirators, suffered a most just punishment for their evil plans. Lorenzo’s manner of living, his wisdom, and his good fortune were admired and recognized not only by Italian princes but also by those far away from Italy. Matthew, King of Hungary, sent him many indications of the love he bore for him; the Sultan sent his envoys laden with gifts; the Grand Turk placed in his hands the murderer of his brother, Bernardo Bandini. Such things made him very respected in Italy. His prestige increased each day as a result of his prudence, for he was eloquent and witty in discussing matters, wise in resolving problems, and quick and courageous in the execution of his policies. Nor can one point to any vices that might stain such great virtues, although he was extremely given over to affairs of love, delighted in being around men who were quick and witty, and enjoyed childish games which were not appropriate for a man of his station; he was often observed joining in the games of his daughters and his sons. When one considered both his frivolous side and his serious side, one saw in him two different persons, joined in an almost impossible union. The last years of his life were full of difficulties caused by the illness which afflicted him seriously, for he was plagued by intolerable stomach pains; they attacked him with such severity that he died of them in April 1492, at the age of forty-four. Never did a man die, either in Florence or in all of Italy who had such a reputation for wisdom or who was so deeply mourned by his native city. And since his death would bring about great disasters, the heavens produced many obvious signs, among them a lightning bolt which struck the highest point of the Church of Santa Reparata so violently that a large part of the steeple collapsed, to the great surprise and amazement of everyone. All the citizens and all the princes of Italy mourned his passing; this was clearly demonstrated, for there was no one who did not send envoys to express his grief. And the events that took place after his death showed that they had good reason to be sorrowful, for, with Italy deprived of his advice, those who remained could find no way to satisfy or check the ambition of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. No sooner had Lorenzo died than Lodovico’s ambition caused evil seeds to grow which no man alive could destroy, and which, after a short time, began and still continue to grow into the destruction of Italy.
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The Portable Machiavelli Page 57
