FLORENCE 335 the Medici, and it was said of him that, if Cosiino was the wealthiest man, Neri was the wisest in Florence ; but the death of Capponi in 1457 left the Medici without a rival. The death of Cosimo s favourite son Giovanni in 1463 cast a gloom over the few remaining months of his own life, for his surviving son Pietro was a man enfeebled by disease. At the death of Pietro in 1469, his young son Lorenzo relates how the principal men of the city and of the state came to their house to condole with them on their loss, and to encourage him to take on himself the care of the city and government, as his grandfather and father had done. In 1470 Lorenzo was created syndic, and the next year he entertained with the utmost magnificence Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan. In 1472 Volterra was added to the Florentine dominions. Such horrible atro cities were committed during the siege and sack of this city, that the crime lay heavy on Lorenzo s conscience in his dying hour. In the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 Lorenzo narrowly escaped with his life, whilst his brother Giovanni was murdered before the altar of the cathedral. The con spirators were put to death with great barbarity, and Lorenzo s popularity rose higher than ever. Surrounded by men of genius and learning whom his wealth could buy, or the charms of his manners and accomplishments could attract, Lorenzo added to the honours of his native city by reviving Greek taste and culture. The appearance of Girolamo Savonarola, or the "Frate," as he was called in Florence, awoke a new spirit. His denunciation of the immoral lives of the citizens, and of books and works of art which tended to lower rather than exalt human nature, including the writings of Lorenzo himself, were listened to by crowded audiences. Such was his influence that even Lorenzo, when on his death-bed in 1492, sent for the "Frate" to receive his confession, and grant him absolution. That absolution Savonarola refused, unless Lorenzo repented of his usurpations, and promised to restore a free government to Florence ; but to this Lorenzo would not consent, and he died unshriven. The dawn of art and literature in the 13th century had attained its greatest brilliancy in the 14tli and 15th. Before the Medici had risen to -power, the city had been embellished by the works of Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Andrea Castagno, Donatello, and Desidedo di Settignano ; Ghiberti had designed his Gates of Paradise for the baptistry ; Brunelleschi had added a cupola to the cathedral ; and Maso Finiguerra had led by his niello work to the discovery of copperplate engraving. It was in the 15th century that Bernardo Cennini introduced the art of printing into Florence. Filippino Lippi, Fra Bartolommeo and his friend Mariotto Albertinelli, Baccio d Agnolo, Baklovinetti, Sandro Botticelli, the Ghirlandai, the Peselli, Benedetto da Rovezzano and Benedetto da Majano, Mino da Fiesole, Andrea Verocchio, and Leonardo da Vinci were the precursors, and some of them the con temporaries, of Michelangelo, the glory of his fellow citizens. With Andrea del Sarto and Raphael who, though from Urbino, painted some of his finest works in Florence painting reached its highest perfection. Among the men of literature were Boccaccio, Guicciardini, Macchiavelli, Polizianp, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola. Lorenzo s eldest son Piero succeeded to his honours ; his second son Giovanni, already a cardinal, became afterwards Leo X., and his youngest son Giuliano, duke of Nemours, perhaps the only virtuous man among the Medici, died young. When Charles VIII. of France was invited by Lodovico il Mom, lord of Milan, into Italy, Piero de Medici, to con ciliate the goodwill of the French king, visited him in his camp, and offered to yield the fortresses of Tuscany into his hands. On Piero s return to Florence he found himself condemned as a traitor, and had to escape from the city, followed by the rest of his family. Charles VIII. entered Florence in 1494, intending to restore the Medici, but the signory refused to comply with his request, and when the king, affecting to play the part of a conqueror in a vanquished city, dictated terms which he expected the Florentines to accept, Piero Capponi, one of that family of staunch republicans, tore the obnoxious paper in his presence. Charles angrily declared he would summon his troops by the call of the trumpet. " And we," replied Capponi, " will sound our bells" the old war signal of the Florentines. Charles was forced to yield, but still lingered in Florence, until Savonarola, whose courage and sacred character appear to have overawed even this proud monarch, went to him and bade him begone. The influence of the " Frate " daily increased as well as the number of his followers ; and eager to restore a free constitution to Florence, which he believed could only exist with virtue in her citizens, he persuaded ths signory to call a grand council or parliament of the people. Charles VIII. had restored independence to Pisa, but the Florentines were eager to recover possession of that city, and since Pisa was the ally of Pope Alexander VI., the Borgia of infamous memory, and the greatest enemy of Savonarola, the "Frate" sanctioned the act. Piero Capponi perished during the course of this short war, and the Medici made a fresh attempt to re-enter Florence. The tide of popular favour was turning against Savonarola ; step by step he lost ground with the people, till after a violent tumultuary attack on his convent of St Mark in 1498, he was dragged to prison, torture, and execution. Early in the 16th century Louis XII. of France having entered Italy to claim the duchy of Milan, by right of his grandmother Valentina, a Milanese princess, Pope Julius II., who had placed himself at the head of the league to drive him from the country, insisted on the Florentines joining the enemies of the French king and recalling the Medici. Piero had met his death by accidentnl drowning, but his son Lorenzo, duke of Urbino, returned to Florence, and after a short life of vicious indulgence, died in 1519, leaving an infant daughter, Catharine, afterwards married to Henry II. of France. Two illegitimate scions of the family, Ippolito and Alexander, now occupied the Medici palace in Florence. Clement VII., also a Medici, who had succeeded Pope Julius, was at this time besieged in his castle of St Angel o by the Constable Bourbon, general of the emperor Charles V.; and in the year 1527 Rome was taken and sacked, to the consternation of all Europe, whilst the party in Florence hostile to the Medici alone perceived a gleam of hope in the destruction of a Medicean pope. Niccolo Capponi, a weak though amiable man, was the leader of this party, and Clarice, the sister of Lorenzo of Urbino and wife of Filippo Strozzi, one of the most unprincipled of Florentine citizens, appealed to Niccolo for aid to drive out of Florence the two youths Ippolito and Alexander, whom she refused to accept as belonging to her family. Meantime Clement had been reconciled to the emperor, and both approached Florence with a large army. After enduring all the protracted sufferings of a siege, and after the gallant but vain attempts of the patriot Feruccio to relieve his fellow citizens, Florence fell by treachery into the hands of the enemy; the Medici entered the city in triumph, and Alexander was created its duke (1530). Ippolito died by poison, administered, it is supposed, by his cousin Alexander, who, after a reign rendered detestable by his vices, was murdered in his bed by his cousin Lorenzino, in 1537. Cosimo de Medici, son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, a brave soldier and captain of mercenary troops, and descended from Lorenzo the brother of Cosimo the " father of his country," succeeded to the dukedom.
