MEDICI, is the name of an illustrious family in Florence, which contributed more than perhaps any other family whatever to the revival of letters in Europe. To trace this family from its origin, or even to give biographical sketches of all the great men whom it produced, would occupy by far too great a part of our work; for, during some centuries, almost every individual of the house of Medici was distinguished among his contemporaries. That house, after having rendered itself memorable in the annals of Florence, for opposing the encroachments of the nobles on the liberties of the people, had lost much of its influence under the aristocratic government of the Albizzi, when it was raised to a rank superior to what it had ever held, by
Giovanni de MEDICI, who was born in the year 1360. This man determined to restore his family to splendour; but, conscious of his critical situation, surrounded as he was by powerful rivals and enemies, he affected rather a secure privacy than a dangerous popularity. Even when raised to the office of gonfalonier, or generalissimo of the republic, he carefully avoided any desire of partaking in the magistracy, and seemed to be entirely engrossed by merchandize, which he extended from the East throughout Europe. This conduct, as on one hand it threw his enemies off their guard, on the other, enabled him to acquire an immense fortune, of which he made a proper disposition amongst all ranks of people.
Many, even of the ruling party, either gained by his liberality, or pleased with his amiable and retired conduct, proposed to the seignior to admit him into the magistracy; and though the proposal met with great opposition, it was carried in the affirmative.
It was by rashly declaring for the plebeians against the nobles that an ancestor of Giovanni's had lost to his family their rank in the state. Giovanni, resolving not to split on the same rock, continued to affect privacy and retirement, accepting any office in the state with the utmost appearance of reluctance, and never attending at the Palazzo, unless particularly sent for by the seignior. Rising by these means in the esteem of the people, his enemies became, of course, unpopular; and having obtained a decided superiority over his opponents, he now ventured to procure, that those taxes which the nobles had exacted with the utmost severity and partiality from the people alone, should be levied upon
Medici. upon the two first orders, in common with the plebeians; and that a law should be ordained, by which personal property might be taxed.
The nobles seeing, with the deepest concern, their consequence so sensibly wounded, and their power so much diminished, held several consultations in private how they might effect his ruin; but their want of unanimity prevented any thing decisive from being carried into execution. The people, alarmed for the safety of their leader and patron, offered him the sovereignty, which his relations and friends urged him to accept; but this his prudence forbade him to take, as with the title of lord he would have gained also that of tyrant. Thus, by his singular prudence, he died possessed of all the power of the state, with the affection of being the most disinterested citizen in the commonwealth. His death happened in the year 1428.
Giovanni was graceful in his person, and his affability to all established his character for moderation. His extensive knowledge and pleasantry made his company eagerly sought. As all his actions were placid and serene, he was not in want of that trumpet of sedition, popular declamation, which he never attempted. Much to his honour, his elevation was not procured even by the banishment of a single individual; a circumstance until then unknown in Florence, where every new administration was marked with the ruin of families, and by scaffolds stained with blood.
"The maxims (says Mr Roscoe) which, uniformly pursued, raised the house of Medici to the splendour which it afterwards enjoyed, are to be found in the charge given by this venerable old man, on his death-bed, to his two sons Cosmo and Lorenzo. 'I feel (said he) that I have lived the time prescribed me. I die content, leaving you, my sons, in affluence and in health, and in such a station, that, whilst you follow my example, you may live in your native place honoured and respected. Nothing affords me more pleasure than the reflection, that my conduct has given offence to no one; but that, on the contrary, I have endeavoured to serve all persons to the best of my abilities. I advise you to do the same. With respect to the honours of the state, if you would live with security, accept only such as are bestowed on you by the laws, and the favour of your fellow-citizens; for it is the exercise of that power which is obtained by violence, and not of that which is voluntarily given, that occasions hatred and contention."
Medici (Cosmo de), the eldest son of the preceding, was born in 1389. During the life-time of his father, he had engaged himself deeply, not only in the extensive commerce by which the family had acquired its wealth, but in the weightier matters of government. When Giovanni died he was in the prime of life; and though his complexion was swarthy, he had an agreeable person, was well made, of a proper stature, and in conversation united a happy intermixture of gravity with occasional sallies of pleasantry and repartee. His conduct was uniformly marked by urbanity and kindness to the superior ranks of his fellow-citizens, and by a constant attention to the interests and the wants of the lower class, whom he relieved with unbounded generosity. By these means he acquired numerous and zealous partizans of every denomination; but he rather considered them as pledges for the continuance of the
power which he possessed, than as instruments to be employed in extending it to the ruin and subjugation of the state. An interchange of reciprocal good offices was the only tie by which the Florentines and the Medici were bound; and perhaps the long continuance of this connection may be attributed to the very circumstance of its being in the power of either of the parties at any time to have dissolved it.
But the prudence and moderation of Cosmo could not repress the ambitious designs of those rival families, who wished to possess or to share his authority. In the year 1433, Rinaldo de Albizzi, at the head of a powerful party, carried the appointment of the magistracy. At that time Cosmo had withdrawn to his seat in the country, to avoid the disturbances which he saw likely to ensue; but at the request of his friends he returned to Florence, where he was led to expect such a union of parties, as might at least preserve the peace of the city. No sooner did he make his appearance in the palace, where his presence had been requested, on pretence of his being intended to share in the administration of the republic, than he was seized upon by his adversaries, and committed to prison.
The conspirators were divided in their opinions as to the disposal of their prisoner. Most of them inclined to follow the advice of Peruzzi, who recommended taking him off by poison. Cosmo, confined in the Alberzettino, a room in one of the turrets of the Palazzo, could hear this dreadful consultation, which was determining, not in what manner he should be tried, but in what manner he should be put to death; and finding that he was to die by an infusion of poison secretly administered to him, a small portion of bread was the only food which he thought proper to take.
Cosmo lived in this manner four days; and, shut up from all his kindred and friends, he soon expected to be numbered with the dead; but here, as it sometimes happens, he found relief where least expected, from the man who had been engaged to take him off. Malavolta, the keeper of the prison, either from compunction, dissatisfaction, or the youth and misfortunes of the illustrious sufferer, relented; and instead of pursuing any criminal intentions against the life of Cosmo, after upbraiding him with entertaining so unworthy an opinion of him, declared that his fears were entirely groundless. To convince him of this, he sat down, and partook of every thing the prisoner chose to eat of. The expressions of gratitude, together with his most engaging manners, and great promises, entirely won Malavolta, who, to ingratiate himself still farther in the good opinion of Cosmo, invited Fargaccio, the most celebrated wit in Florence, to dine with him the next day, from the idea that his sprightly mirth would contribute to lighten his misfortunes.
In the mean time, his brother Lorenzo, and his cousin Averardo, having raised a considerable body of men in Romagna and other neighbouring districts, and being joined by the commander of the troops of the republic, approached towards Florence to his relief. The apprehension, however, that the life of Cosmo might be endangered, if they should proceed to open violence, induced them to abandon their enterprise. At length Rinaldo and his adherents obtained a decree of the magistracy, by which Cosmo was banished to Padua for ten years, his brother to Venice for five years; and fe-
several of their relations and adherents shared the same fate.
Cosmo received this determination of his judges with a composure that gained him the compassion and the admiration of many of his most inveterate enemies. He would gladly have left the city pursuant to his sentence; but he was detained by his enemies till their authority should be established: and it was not till he thought of bribing the gonfalonier, and another creature of Rinaldo's, that he was privately taken from his confinement, and conducted out of Florence.
Padua, to which he was confined by his sentence, was in the dominions of Venice; but before he could reach that place, he received a deputation from the senate, the purport of which was to condole with him for his misfortunes, and to promise him their protection and assistance in whatever he should desire. He experienced the treatment of a prince rather than that of an exile. Nor were that wife people without good reasons for such a conduct. Venice had long regarded Florence as her rival in commerce, and hoped, by conferring upon Cosmo the most flattering distinctions, to prevail upon him to reside there in future; prudently supposing, that the manufactures of Florence, and the great commerce the Medici had carried on throughout Italy, and extended far beyond it to the wealthiest kingdoms in Europe, would become their own by enrolling him amongst their subjects.
The readiness with which Cosmo had given way to the temporary clamour raised against him, and the reluctance which he had shewn to renew those encounters which had so often deluged the streets of Florence with blood, gained him new friends, even during his exile. The utmost exertions of his antagonists could not long prevent the choice of such magistrates as were known to be attached to the cause of the Medici; and no sooner did they enter on their office, than Cosmo and his brother were recalled, and Rinaldo with his adherents were compelled to quit the city. This event took place about a year after the banishment of Cosmo.
The subsequent conduct of this great man (for great all allow him to have been) has been painted in different colours by different writers. Mr Noble, after Machiavel, compares his cruelties to his fallen foes with those of Sylla and Octavius to the partizans of Marius and Brutus; whilst Roscoe represents his conduct as in a high degree amiable and generous. It appears to us evident, from his own words, that he had exercised some cruelties on his exiled enemies; for when one of them wrote to him, that "the hen was hatching," he replied, "She will have but a bad time of it, so far from her nest." When some other exiles acquainted him that "they were not asleep," he answered, "he could easily believe that, for he thought he had spoiled their sleeping." At another time, some of the citizens remonstrated with him upon the odiousness of his conduct in banishing so many persons; telling him, "the republic would be extremely weakened, and God offended, by the expulsion of so many good and pious men as he was sending into banishment." His answer was, "It would be better for the republic to be weakened than utterly ruined; that two or three yards of fine cloth make many a one look like a good man; but that states were not to be governed or maintained by counting a string of beads, and mumbling over a few Pater nosters."