The Tragedies of the Medici

The Tragedies of the Medici

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Title: The Tragedies of the Medici
Author: Edgcumbe Staley
Release Date: January 30, 2004 [EBook #10877]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE TRAGEDIES OF THE MEDICI
BY EDGCUMBE STALEY
AUTHOR OF "THE GUILDS OF FLORENCE," "RAPHAEL," "FRA ANGELICO," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED

TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER THOMAS STALEY

PREFACE
When Alexandre Dumas wrote his _Crimes of the Borgias_--and other "Crimes"--he fully intended to compile a companion volume, treating of episodes in the great family of the Medici. With this project in view, he collected much material, and actually published, tentatively, two interesting brochures: _Une Ann��e �� Florence_--in 1841, and _Les Galeries de Florence_--in 1842.
Nothing, however, came of his more ambitious "idea," and, until to-day, no one has taken in hand to write The Tragedies of the Medici. My attention was first directed to the omission during the preparation of my _Guilds of Florence_, published in 1906; and I determined to address myself to the forging of that lurid link in the catena of Florentine romance.
In the following pages my readers will see that I have entirely departed from the conventional conceits of the ordinary historian. I have sought to set out the whole truth--not a garbled version--whilst I have fearlessly added decorative features where facts were absent or were too prosaic.
The short "Introduction," dealing with the rise and progress of the house of Medici, will be useful to my public, and the "Chart of the Tragedies" will assist students and others in their appreciation of my enterprise--it is my own compilation and as complete as possible.
The "Bibliography" will help serious readers to a wider reading of my authorities, and the Illustrations--the best procurable--will fix in all my readers' minds something of the actual personalities of my "Tyrants" and my "Victims."
EDGCUMBE STALEY.

CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
_The Pazzi Conspiracy_--Lorenzo, "_Il Magnifico_"--Giuliano, "_Il Pensieroso_".

CHAPTER II
_The First Tyrannicide_--Ippolito, "_Il Cardinale_"--Alessandro, "_Il Negro_"--Lorenzino, "_Il Terribile_".

CHAPTER III
_A Father's Vengeance_--Maria, Giovanni, and Garzia de' Medici--Malatesta de' Malatesti.

CHAPTER IV
_Three Murdered Princesses_--Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara and Creole de' Contrari--Eleanora Garzia, wife of Piero de Medici, Alessandro Gaci, and Bernardino degl' Antinori--Isabella, Duchess of Bracciano--Troilo d'Orsini and Lelio Torello.

CHAPTER V
_True and False Lovers_--Francesco, "_Il Virtuoso_"--Bianca Cappello, "_La Figlia di Venezia_"--Pietro Buonaventuri--Cassandra de' Borghiani--Pellegrina Buonaventuri, wife of Ulisse Bentivoglio--Antonio Riario.

CHAPTER VI
_Pathetic Victims of Fateful Passion_--Eleanora degli Albizzi and Sforza Almeni--Cammilla de' Martelli--Virginia de' Medici e d'Este--Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
CHART OF THE TRAGEDIES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Bianca Cappello-Buonaventuri Giovanni d'Averardo de' Medici "Journey of the Magi" (Medici) "Adoration of the Magi" (Medici) Lucrezia de' Medici Lorenzo Il Magnifico Giuliano Il Pensieroso Ippolito--Cardinal Alessandro--First Duke of Florence Giovanni--"Delle Bande Nere" Eleanora de' Medici Maria Lucrezia de' Medici Giovanni--Cardinal Garzia de' Medici Lucrezia--Duchess of Ferrara Eleanora--Wife of Piero de' Medici Piero de' Medici Isabella--Duchess of Bracciano Francesco--Grand Duke of Tuscany Giovanna de' Medici Don Antonio "de' Medici" Pellegrina Buonaventuri-Bentivoglio Cosimo I--"Tyrant of Tyrants" Cammilla de' Medici Ferdinando de' Medici--Cardinal

INTRODUCTION
The origin of the Medici family is lost in the mists of the Middle Ages, and, only here and there, can the historian gain glimpses of the lives of early forbears. Still, there is sufficient data, to be had for the digging, upon which to transcribe, inferentially at least, an interesting narrative.
Away towards the end of the twelfth century,--exact dates are wholly beside the mark--there dwelt, under the shadow of one of the rugged castles of the robber-captains of the Mugello in Tuscany, a hard-working and trustworthy bonds-man--one Chiarissimo--"Old Honesty," as we may call him. He was married to an excellent helpmeet, and was by his lord permitted to till a small piece of land and rear his family.
In addition to intelligence in agriculture, it would seem that he, or perhaps his wife, possessed some knowledge of the virtues of roots and herbs, for, in one corner of his _podere_, he had a garden of "simples." The few peaceable inhabitants of that warlike valley, and also many a wounded man-at-arms, sought "Old Honesty" and his wise mate for what we now call "kitchen remedies."
Those, indeed, were happy days with respect to suffering human nature. "Kill or Cure" might have been the character of the healing art, but certainly specialists had not invented our appendicitis and other fashionable twentieth-century physical fashions! A little medical knowledge sufficed, and decoctions, pillules, poultices, and bleedings made up the simple pharmacopoeia.
All the same, the satirical rhyme, which an old chronicler put into the mouths of many a despairing patient, in later days, may have been true