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Hibbert - The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici

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At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the familys huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florences slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.

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PENGUIN BOOKS

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE

HOUSE OF MEDICI

Christopher Hibbert was born in Leicestershire in 1924 and educated at Radley and Oriel College, Oxford. He served as an infantry officer during the war, was twice wounded and was awarded the Military Cross in 1945. Described in the New Statesman as a pearl of biographers, he is, in the words of The Times Educational Supplement, perhaps the most gifted popular historian we have. His many highly acclaimed books include the following titles, most of which are published by Penguin: The Destruction of Lord Raglan (which won the Heinemann Award for Literature in 1962), London: The Biography of a City, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, The Great Mutiny: India 1857, The French Revolution, Garibaldi and His Enemies, Rome: The Biography of a City, Elizabeth I: A Personal History of the Virgin Queen, Florence: The Biography of a City, Nelson: A Personal History, George III: A Personal History and The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill 1650 1744.

Christopher Hibbert is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Hon. D. Litt. of Leicester University. He is married with two sons and a daughter, and lives in Henley-on-Thames.

CHRISTOPHER HIBBERT

THE RISE
AND FALL OF
THE HOUSE
OF
MEDICI

Picture 1

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

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Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

www.penguin.com

First published by Allen Lane 1974
Published in Penguin Books 1979
34

Copyright Christopher Hibbert, 1974
All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-192714-5

FOR EVE WEISS

AND IN MEMORY OF

ROBERTO

CONTENTS

FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES
A Florentine who is not a merchant enjoys no esteem whatever

THE RISE OF THE MEDICI
Always keep out of the public eye

ENEMIES OF THE ALBIZZI
He has emblazoned even the monks privies with his balls

EXILES AND MASTERS
He is King in all but name

ARCHBISHOPS AND ARCHITECTS
Never shall I be able to give God enough to set him down in my books as a debtor

WAR AND PEACE
Rencine? Rencine? Where is Rencine?

ARTISTS AND MOURNERS
Too large a house now for so small a family

PIERO THE GOUTY
When it is a matter of acquiring worthy or strange objects he does not look at the price

THE YOUNG LORENZO
A naturally joyful nature

THE POPE AND THE PAZZI
Do what you wish provided there be no killing

THE SAVIOUR OF FLORENCE
That son of iniquity and foster-child of perdition

THE NEEDLE OF THE ITALIAN COMPASS
If Florence was to have a tyrant,
she could never have found a better or more delightful one

LORENZO: PATRON, COLLECTOR AND POET
He had a full understanding of such and all other things

PIERO DI LORENZO DE MEDICI AND THE FRIDA FROM FERRARA
Behold! It is the Lord God who is leading on these armies

THE EXCOMMUNICANT
Someone has his seat in Hell already

RETURN OF THE MEDICI
The town of Prato was sacked, not without some bloodshed

PAPA LEONE!
God has given us the Papacy. Let us enjoy it!

THE MARCH ON ROME
To teach the Pope a lesson he would never forget

SIEGE AND MURDER
Mild measures are useless

DUKE COSIMO I
There is little joy to be discerned in the faces of the people

THE HEIRS OF COSIMO
Such entertainments have never been seen before

FERDINANDO II AND THE FRENCH PRINCESS
It is her usual conceit to say that she has married beneath her

THE LAST OF THE MEDICI
Florence is much sunk from what it was

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Maps and Genealogical Tables by Leo Vernon

AUTHORS NOTE

A LTHOUGH THERE are very many books on the lives and times of the Medici, not since the appearance of Colonel G.F. Youngs two-volume work in 1909 has there been a full-length study in English devoted to the history of the whole family from the rise of the Medici bank in the late fourteenth century under the guidance of Giovanni di Bicci de Medici to the death of the last of the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Gian Gastone, in 1737. This book is an attempt to supply such a study and to offer a reliable alternative, based on the fruits of modern research, to Colonel Youngs work, which Ferdinand Schevill has described as the subjective divagations of a sentimentalist with a mind above history.

I cannot pretend to be an expert in any of the wide-ranging fields covered in the book; and I am, of course, deeply indebted to those writers and scholars upon whose publications I have been able to rely. I would like to mention in particular Sir Harold Acton, Miss Eve Borsook, Professor Eric Cochrane, Mr Vincent Cronin, Professor J.R. Hale, Dr George Holmes, Professor Lauro Martines, Marchesa Iris Origo, Marchese Ridolfi, Professor Raymond de Roover, Professor Nicolai Rubinstein and Mr Ferdinand Schevill. I am also extremely grateful to Dr Brian Moloney of the Department of Italian in the University of Leeds and to Dr George Holmes of St Catherines College, Oxford, for having read the book in proof and for having made several valuable suggestions for its improvement. Parts of the book have also been read by Signor Fabio Naldi who has been good enough to place his wide knowledge of Tuscan topography and architecture at my disposal. For their great kindness and help when I was working in Florence I want to thank Signorina Patrizia Naldi and the staffs of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale and of the Museo di Firenze ComEra.

For their help in a variety of other ways I am much indebted to Dr Roberto Bruni, Mrs Maurice Hill, Mrs Geraldine Norman, Conte Francesco Papafava, Mrs John Rae, Mrs Joan St George Saunders, Mr Meaburn Staniland and the staffs of the British Museum, the London Library and the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Finally I want to say how grateful I am, once again, to my friends Mr Hamish Francis and Mr George Walker for having read the proofs, and to my wife for having compiled the index.

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