Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (vol. 1 of 2)
By Reumont, Alfred von
Classic work by Reumont, Alfred von.
Table of Contents
THE HOUSE AND FAMILY OF THE MEDICI. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FLORENTINE DEMOCRACY. PAGE The Ho...
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. RULE OF THE ALBIZZI. GIOVANNI AND AVERARDO DE’ MEDICI. Origin and Arms of the Medici—Public Affairs in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century—Mista...
THE CITY OF FLORENCE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Situation and Origin of Florence—Roman Times and the Early Part of the Middle Ages—Florence before and in the...
INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND LIFE. The great Guilds and their Position—Guild of Woollen-weavers (Arte della Lana)—Guild of Cloth Merchants (Catimala)—Guild of Silk-weavers (Arte d...
THE ALBIZZI AND COSIMO DE’ MEDICI. Cosimo de’ Medici in his Youth—Countess of Bardi and her Family—The Medici and Pope John XXIII.—Death of John XXIII. in Florence—Public Ac...
SUPREMACY OF COSIMO DE’ MEDICI TO THE REFORM OF LUCCA PITTI. Pope Eugene in Florence—Political Positions on Cosimo’s return Home—Antecedents of the Medici Party—Lucca Pitti—...
FOREIGN AFFAIRS. PEACE AND WAR. COUNCIL OF UNION. War with Milan and Naples—Filippo Maria Visconti and Alfonso of Naples—End of the Visconti—Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan—...
LAST DAYS OF COSIMO DE MEDICI. Cosimo in Advanced Age—Death of his Brother Lorenzo—His sons Piero and Giovanni—Piero’s Marriage to Lucrezia Tornabuoni—Death of Giovanni—Pier...
PIERO DE’ MEDICI, HIS RELATIONS AND FRIENDS. Piero de’ Medici and his Family—Lucrezia Tornabuoni de’ Medici—Lorenzo de’ Medici—Lorenzo’s Education—Gentile de’ Becchi of Urbi...
LORENZO’S YOUTH. CONSPIRACY OF DIOTISALVI NERONI AND HIS COMPANIONS. Meeting of Lorenzo de’ Medici with Federigo d’Aragona, younger Son of King Ferrante of Naples—Florence i...
FOREIGN AFFAIRS. FRANCE, VENICE, THE ROMAGNA. THE WAR OF COLLEONE. The Medici after the Neroni Conspiracy—King Ferrante to Lorenzo—Louis XI. of France and the Medici—The F...
LATTER DAYS OF PIERO DE’ MEDICI. LORENZO’S MARRIAGE. Battle near Rimini—Robert Malatesta—Finances of Florence—Purchase of Sarzano—Gay Life amid Financial Difficulties—Positi...
EVENTS AT HOME AND ABROAD DURING THE FIRST YEARS OF LORENZO’S SUPREMACY. Nature and Form of the Medici Rule—The Heads of the Medici Party after Piero’s death—Tommaso Soderin...
POSITION AND RELATIONS OF THE MEDICI. Splendour of the Medici Family—Their Position at Home and their Connections Abroad—The Royal Family of Naples—Ippolita Maria, Duchess o...
LORENZO DE’ MEDICI IN ROME. PRATO AND VOLTERRA. Accession of Sixtus IV. to the Papal Chair—Congratulatory Embassy from Florence—Lorenzo accompanies it—Disposition of the new...
POPE SIXTUS IV., KING FERRANTE, AND THE MEDICI. Feelings of Sixtus IV. towards the Medici—Plan for obtaining the Cardinalate for Giuliano—Cardinal Pietro Riario, Archbishop ...
MILAN, GENOA, AND SIENA. Cheerful Life in Florence—Tournament of Giuliano de’ Medici—Death of Galeazzo Maria Sforza—Exertions of Florence on behalf of the Duchess Bona—Rober...
PAZZI CONSPIRACY. State of Affairs at Home and Abroad—Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Pazzi—Causes of Enmity—Attitude of Sixtus IV. and Girolamo Riario towards the Medici—The Plo...
ALLIANCES AND COUNTER-ALLIANCES. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONFLICT. Dangerous Position and Measures of Precaution—Donato Acciaiuoli in Rome—The Florentines and the Papacy—Demands ...
CAMPAIGN OF 1478. Allies and Opponents of the Florentines—The Duke of Urbino on Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Political Situation of Milan and Venice—Florentine Preparations—Th...
LOUIS XI. AND SIXTUS IV. SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. Philip de Commines on the Condition of Florence—His Second Residence in Florence and Milan—Louis XI. and Italian Affairs—Fre...
FLORENCE AND HER ALLIES. LODOVICO IL MORO. Unfavourable Condition of Florence—Lorenzo’s Position—King Louis XI. and Italian Intrigues—Negotiations between King and Pope—Nece...
LORENZO DE’ MEDICI IN NAPLES. PEACE WITH KING AND POPE. Lorenzo’s Arrival in Naples—Lorenzo and King Ferrante—Impression produced in Florence by his Decision and the Variety...
BEGINNINGS OF HUMANISM. COLUCCIO SALUTATI AND POGGIO BRACCIOLINI. THE BOOK TRADE. Contrast between Mediæval Culture and Humanism—Character and Significance of Humanism—Flore...
LEONARDO BRUNI AND THE FLORENTINE HUMANISTS. FRANCESCO FILELFO. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI. Leonardo Bruni Aretino—Ambrogio Traversari—The Camaldula Convent of the Angeli—Niccolò Nic...
THE COUNCIL OF UNION AND PLATONISM. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI’S LATER YEARS. Pope Eugene IV. and the Papal Court in Florence—The Greeks in Florence—Gemisto’s Plethon—Origin of the ...
LIBRARIES AND THE BOOK TRADE. VESPASIANO DA BISTICCI. Cosimo de’ Medici’s Library Establishments—San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice—Library of the San Marco Convent—The Niccolo ...
LITERATURE OF THE VULGAR TONGUE. POPULAR AND SACRED POETRY OF THE PEOPLE. The Italian Language and Literature at the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century—Fra Giovanni de’ Medi...
THE HOUSE AND FAMILY OF THE MEDICI—DEVELOPMENT OF THE FLORENTINE DEMOCRACY. AT the entrance of the Via Larga in Florence there rises to view, at the corner of one of the cross str...
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY—RULE OF THE ALBIZZI—GIOVANNO D’AVERARDO DE’ MEDICI. THE sanguinary conflict of Campaldino was fought, in 1289, in the plain on the Arno which is overlooked ...
THE CITY OF FLORENCE UP TO THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. DURING the two centuries that laid the foundation of the power of the Medici the city of Florence had reached th...
INDUSTRY, TRADE, AND LIFE IN FLORENCE. THE large sums which were continually expended by the Government as well as the citizens of Florence, from the middle of the thirteenth cent...
THE ALBIZZI AND COSIMO DE’ MEDICI. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI was a man of mature age when his father died. Born on September 27, 1389, the day of the saints Cosmo and Damian, he was chris...
SUPREMACY OF COSIMO DE’ MEDICI UP TO LUCA PITTI’S REFORM OF THE ADMINISTRATION. THE time at which Cosimo de’ Medici attained to a position in his native town, such as a citizen ha...
FOREIGN RELATIONS. WAR AND PEACE. COUNCIL OF UNION. WHILE these things were going on at home, the exigencies of war for many years made serious demands on the State and its resour...
COSIMO DE’ MEDICI’S LAST DAYS. AS the year 1464 approached, Cosimo de’ Medici’s life drew to a close. He had long suffered from gout, which now became more violent, and attacked m...
PIERO DE’ MEDICI, HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS. AT the death of Cosimo de’ Medici, his descendants, besides his natural son Carlo, who once more entered the ecclesiastical order, consis...
LORENZO’S YOUTH. CONSPIRACY OF DIOTISALVI NERONI AND HIS COMPANIONS. LORENZO DE’ MEDICI grew up. He was seventeen years old when his father sent him to Pisa to welcome Don Federig...
FOREIGN AFFAIRS. FRANCE, VENICE, ROMAGNA. WAR AGAINST COLLEONE. LIKE every unsuccessful conspiracy, this also contributed to strengthen the power of those whom it was intended to ...
PIERO DE’ MEDICI’S LATER LIFE. LORENZO’S MARRIAGE. AFTER the Colleonic war the Republic had peace for a time. For though she took an auxiliary part in the contest for Rimini, whic...
HOME AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN THE EARLY YEARS OF LORENZO’S GOVERNMENT. ‘ON the second day after my father’s death,’ so we read in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s memoirs, ‘the most distinguish...
POSITION AND CONNECTIONS OF THE MEDICI. THE house of Medici seemed to be blind to the gravity of the situation, to judge by their outward behaviour. The days were passed when an e...
LORENZO DE’ MEDICI IN ROME—PRATO AND VOLTERRA. WE must now return to the events belonging to the summer of 1471. A fortnight after the death of Pope Paul II. the Cardinal of S. Pi...
POPE SIXTUS IV., KING FERRANTE, AND THE MEDICI. POPE SIXTUS IV. was disposed most favourably towards the Medici at the beginning of his reign. We have heard in Lorenzo’s own words...
MILAN, GENOA, AND SIENA. DURING these events, which, however, promised no quiet time, the inhabitants of Florence had lived for long years as merrily as if their state and all Ita...
THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY. AS the year 1478 approached, suspense became intense, in consequence of the events already described, and a political entanglement of some kind became more a...
ALLIANCES AND COUNTER ALLIANCES. PREPARATION FOR THE CONFLICT. IN the speech which he addressed to the people after the murder of his brother, Lorenzo alluded to the danger then t...
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1478. WHEN the Florentines saw that war was inevitable, they appointed, on June 13, the magistracy usual in such cases, the Ten of War, among whom, beside Lorenzo ...
LOUIS XI. AND SIXTUS IV. SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. PHILIPPE DE COMMINES returned to Florence after a short, and, as we must suppose, fruitless residence in Rome. That he returned th...
FLORENCE AND HER ALLIES. LODOVICO IL MORO. THE moment for decision had arrived. It was acknowledged in Florence that matters must come to a crisis one way or the other. A consider...
LORENZO DE’ MEDICI IN NAPLES. PEACE WITH THE KING AND WITH THE POPE. ON the evening of December 10 two Neapolitan galleys arrived at the little port of Vada, not far from the mout...
COMMENCEMENT OF HUMANISM. COLUCCIO SALUTATI AND POGGIO BRACCIOLINI. THE BOOK TRADE. DURING the first half of the fifteenth century the great revolution was accomplished which intr...
LEONARDO BRUNI ARETINO AND THE FLORENTINE HUMANISTS. FRANCESCO FILELFO. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI. NEXT to Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni and Ambrogio Traversari were those who did mo...
THE COUNCIL OF UNION AND PLATONISM. COSIMO DE’ MEDICI’S LATER YEARS. LEARNED studies were at their height in Florence when Pope Eugenius IV. arrived on June 23, 1434, and soon aft...
LIBRARIES AND THE BOOK TRADE. VESPASIANO DA BISTICCI. WHILE such a busy life was developed under the influence and continual encouragement of Cosimo de’ Medici, the two great coll...
LITERATURE OF THE VULGAR TONGUE. POPULAR AND SACRED POETRY. THE period succeeding Petrarca and Boccaccio gave indications that the spirit of poetry was extinguished for some time ...