Medici Sentence Examples

Charles took Florence and the Medici family under his protection and promised to punish all enemies of the Catholic faith.

Cardinal Bessarion became his disciple; he produced a great impression upon Cosimo de' Medici; and though not himself making any very important contribution to the study of Plato, he effectually shook the exclusive domination which Aristotle had exercised overEuropean thought for eight centuries.

Marie de' Medici had turned against her "ungrateful" minister with a hatred intensified, it is said, by unrequited passion.

At his death in 1519 Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (son of the Giuliano murdered in the Pazzi conspiracy) took charge of the government; he met with some opposition and had to play off the Ottimati against the Piagnoni, but he did not rule badly and maintained at all events the outward forms of freedom.

In return for this he was made Count Palatine, with the right to call himself by the name Medici.

About 1583 Antonio took this son to France, where he became a page in the service of Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II.

Peter Bayle is severe on certain historical inaccuracies of Davila, and it is true that Davila must be read with due remembrance of the fact that he was not only a Catholic but the especial protege of Catherine de' Medici, but it is not to be forgotten that Bayle was as strongly Protestant.

The new duke of Urbino was the Lorenzo de' Medici to whom Machiavelli addressed The Prince.

Shortly after he came into possession of large estates left by Catherine de' Medici, from one of which he took his title of count of Auvergne.

Thus he gave to his undeserving son Franceschetto several towns near Rome and married him to the daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici.

It has a fine Renaissance facade, constructed about 1500 by Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici (afterwards Pope Leo X.), and some good terra cottas by the Della Robbia.

Thus was elaborated the type of despot which attained completeness in Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Lorenzo de Medici.

When the Visconti dynasty ended by the dukes death in 1447, he pretended to espouse the cause of the Milanese republic, which was then re-established; but he played his cards so subtly as to make himself, by the help of Cosimo de Medici in Florence, duke de facto if not de jure.

It was led by the Medici, who sided with the common people, and increased their political importance by the accumulation and wise employment of vast commercial wealth.

In 1433 the Albizzi and the Medici came to open strife.

Cosimo de Medici, the chief of the opposition, was exiled to Venice.

Their career of conquest, and their new policy of forming Italian alliances and entering into the management of Italian affairs were confirmed by the long dogeship of Francesco Foscari (1423-1457), who must rank with Alfonso, Cosimo de Medici, Francesco Sforza and Nicholas V., as a joint-founder of confederated Italy.

The Medici became yearly more indispensable to Florence, the Bentivogli more autocratic in Bologna, the Baglioni in Perugia; and even Siena was ruled by the Petrucci.

During the following fourteen years of his brilliant career he made himself absolute master of Florence, and so modified her institutions that the Medici were henceforth necessary to the state.

The king of Naples was his natural enemy, and he had cause to suspect that Piero de Medici might abandon his alliance.

He crossed the Alps in 1495, passed through Lombardy, entered Tuscany, freed Pisa from the yoke of Florence, witnessed the expulsion of the Medici, marched to Naples and was crowned tliereall this without striking a blow.

As a consequence of the battle of Ravenna, the Medici returned in 1512 to Florence.

As an immediate result of this catastrophe, Florence shook off the Medici, and established a republic. But Clement, having made peace with the emperor, turned the remnants of the army which had sacked Rome against his native city.

The marquessate of Mantua was made a duchy; and Florence was secured, as we have seen, to the Medici.

He hoped to secure this duchy for his son, Don Carlos; and Elisabetta further brought with her a claim to the grand-duchy of Tuscany, which would soon become vacant by the death of Gian Gaston.e de Medici.

The duke Antonio Farnese acreS died ill 1731; the grand-duke Gian Gastone de Medici died in 737.

Buffon's opinion is, in fact, a sort of combination of views, essentially similar to those of Bonnet, with others, somewhat similar to those of the " Medici " whom Harvey condemns.

Thus while among his own colleagues he seemed merely a hypocritical and arrogant priest, in his relations with his brother humanists, such as Cosimo de Medici, he appeared as the student of classical antiquities and especially of Greek theological authors.

Such figurines are in a sense the prototypes of the Venus of Medici.

When the Medici again definitely became masters of Florence in 1530, Nardi was exiled from the city and his property confiscated.

But Henry and Marguerite still continued friends; she still bore the title of queen; she visited Marie de' Medici on equal terms; and the king frequently consulted her on important affairs, though his somewhat parsimonious spirit was grieved by her extravagance.

His father, a physician of some eminence, settled in Florence, and attached himself to the person of Cosimo de' Medici.

This was shortly followed by the translation of Plotinus into Latin, and by a voluminous commentary, the former finished in 1486, the latter in 1491, and both published at the cost of Lorenzo de' Medici just one month after his death.

For his old patrons of the house of Medici Ficino always cherished sentiments of the liveliest gratitude.

A characteristic proof of his attachment to the house of Medici was furnished by a yearly custom which he practised at his farm at Montevecchio.

He used to invite the contadini who had served Cosimo to a banquet on the day of Saints Cosimo and Damiano (the patron saints of the Medici), and entertained them with music and singing.

After the reconciliation of Louis with his mother, Marie de' Medici, through his agency, he was appointed a councillor of state, but had to resign this office, owing to his Austrian policy, which was opposed by Richelieu.

He became famous as a teacher of Greek letters and the Platonic philosophy; in 1463 he was made professor at Padua, and in 1479 he was summoned by Lorenzo de' Medici to Florence to fill the professorship vacated by John Argyropoulos.

During the domination of this man (who, like Lorenzo de' Medici, was surnamed "the Magnificent") Siena enjoyed many years of splendour and prosperity.

Pandolfo had not the qualities required to found a dynasty such as that of the Medici.

And finally by an agreement with Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Florence, the Spaniards were sent away on the 5th August 1552 and the Sienese took possession of their fortress.

In this he attracted the favourable attention of Marie de' Medici, the queen-mother, and was chosen at its close to present the address of the clergy embodying its petitions and resolutions.

Then, as he had incurred too much of the odium of a creature of Concini to hope for royal favour, he resigned himself to the post of chief adviser to Marie de' Medici in her exile at Blois.

His rank in the church was due to his skill in intrigue with Marie de' Medici.

He furnished Marie de' Medici with political ideas and acute criticisms of the king's ministry, especially of the Brularts.

The family was one of those which had been introduced into France by Catherine de' Medici, but it acquired great estates in Brittany and became connected with the noblest houses of the kingdom.

Upon his return to Genoa he organized, with Bertani, Bixio, Medici and Garibaldi, the expedition of the Thousand, and overcoming by a stratagem the hesitation of Garibaldi, secured the departure of the expedition on the 5th of May 1860.

Among others we may mention the Palazzo Vecchio, formerly the seat of the government of the Republic and now the town hall, the Palazzo Riccardi, the residence of the Medici and now the prefecture, the palaces of the Strozzi, Antinori (one of the most perfect specimens of Florentine quattrocento architecture), Corsini, Davanzati, Pitti (the royal palace), 4c. The palace of the Arte della Lana or gild of wool merchants, tastefully and intelligently restored, is the headquarters of the Dante Society.

The Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, founded in 1571, has its origin in the library of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, and was enlarged by Piero, Giovanni and above all by Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The original Studio Fiorentino was founded in the 14th century, and acquired considerable fame as a centre of learning under the Medici, enhanced by the presence in Florence of many learned Greeks who had fled from Constantinople after its capture by the Turks (1453).

Salvestro de' Medici, who had always opposed the parte, having been elected gonfaloniere in spite of its intrigues, proposed a law for the abolition of the admonitions, which was eventually passed (June 18, 1378), but the people had been aroused, and desired to break the power of the parte for good.

He remained master of Florence for one day, during which he reformed the constitution, probably with the help of Salvestro de' Medici.

In 1421 Giovanni de' Medici was elected gonfaloniere of justice, an event which marks the beginning of that wealthy family's power.

In 1421 Filippo Maria Visconti, who had succeeded in reconquering most of Lombardy, seized Forli; this induced the Florentines to declare war on him, as they regarded his New war approach as a menace to their territory in spite of the with the opposition of the peace party led by Giovanni de' Visconti Medici.

The catasto was largely the work of Giovanni de' Medici, who greatly increased his popularity thereby.

The mismanagement of the campaign brought about a quarrel between the aristocratic party, led by Rinaldo degli Albizzi, and the popular party, led by Giovanni de' Medici's son Cosimo (1389-1464), although both had agreed to the war before it began.

Rinaldo was determined to break the Medici party, and succeeded in getting Cosimo exiled.

The Albizzi tried to strengthen their position by conferring exceptional powers on the capitano del popolo and by juggling with the election bags, but the Medici still had a great hold on the populace.

On the 6th of October 1434 Cosimo returned to Florence, and for the next three centuries the history of the city is identified with that of the house of Medici.'

He was received with enthusiasm on returning to Florence and became absolute master ' The history of Florence from 1434 to 1737 will be found in greater detail in the article Medici, save for the periods from 1494 to 1512 and from 1527 to 1530, during which the republic was restored.

When the king began to hint at the recall of Piero de' Medici, whose envoys had gained his ear, the signory ordered the citizens to be ready to fly to arms. The proposal was dropped, but Charles demanded an immense sum of money before he would leave the city; long discussions followed, and when at last he presented an insolent ultimatum the syndics refused to accept it.

The king, realizing what street fighting in Florence would mean, at once came to terms; he contented himself with 120,000 florins, agreeing to assume the title of "Protector and Restorer of the liberty of Florence," and to give up the fortresses he had taken within two years, unless his expedition to Naples should be concluded sooner; the Medici were to remain banished, but the price on their heads was withdrawn.

It was now intended to re-establish the government on the basis of the old republican institutions, but it was found that sixty years of Medici rule had reduced them to mere shadows, and the condition of the government, largely controlled by a balia of 20 accoppiatori and frequently disturbed by the summoning of the parlamento, was utterly chaotic. Consequently men talked of nothing save of changing the constitution, but unfortunately there was no longer an upper class accustomed to public affairs, while the lower class was thoroughly demoralized.

But in spite of Savonarola's popularity there was a party called the Bigi (greys) who intrigued secretly in favour of the return of the Medici, while the men of wealth, called the Arrabbiati, although they hated the Medici, were even more openly opposed to the actual regime and desired to set up an aristocratic oligarchy.

On his way back he passed through Florence, and, although the republic had refused to join the league, it believed itself in danger, as Piero de' Medici was in the king's train.

Savonarola was again sent to the French camp, and his eloquence turned the king from any idea he may have had of reinstating the Medici.

Italy, Piero de' Medici, encouraged by the league, enlisted a number of mercenaries and marched on Florence, but the citizens, fired by Savonarola's enthusiasm, flew to arms and prepared for an energetic resistance; owing to Piero's incapacity and the exhaustion of his funds the expedition came to nothing.

New Medici plots having been discovered, Bernardo del Nero and other prominent citizens were tried and put to death; but the party hostile to Savonarola gained ground and had the support of the Franciscans, who were hostile to the Dominican order.

Cesare Borgia, who had seized many cities in Romagna, suddenly demanded the reinstatement of the Medici in Florence, and the danger was only warded off by appointing him captain-general of the Florentine forces at a large salary (1501).

A Spanish army under Raymundo de Cardona and accompanied by Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici and his brother Giuliano entered the republic's territory and demanded ioo,000 florins, the dismissal of Soderini, and the readmission of the Medici.

On the 1st of September 1512 Retur e Medici G i ul i ano and Giovanni de' Medici, and their nephew (1512).

In 1513, on the death of Julius II., Giovanni de' Medici was elected pope as Leo X., an event which greatly enhanced the importance of the house.

When Filippo Strozzi, and above Second all his wife, threw their influence in the scales against expulsion the Medici, and the magistrates declared for their ex of the pulsion from power, Passerini, Ippolito and Alessandro Medici left Florence (17th of May 1527).

Francesco Carducci was elected gonfaloniere in his place, and on the 29th of June 1529 the pope and the emperor concluded a treaty by which the latter agreed to re-establish the Medici in Florence.

The Medici dynasty ruled in Tuscany until the death of Gian Gastone in 1737, when the grand-duchy was assigned to Francis, duke of Lorraine.

By the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, seeds were sent from the Peninsula to the queen, Catherine de' Medici.

The Medici pursued a humaner course.

The Medici, however, remained well disposed towards the city.

Under the succeeding Medici, Pisa's fortunes steadily declined.

The famous Pico della Mirandola was particularly impressed by the friar's attainments, and is said to have urged Lorenzo de' Medici to recall him from Lombardy.

As the convent had been rebuilt by Cosimo, and enriched by the bounty of the Medici, it was considered the duty of the new superior to present his homage to Lorenzo.

In April 1492 Lorenzo de' Medici was on his death-bed at Careggi.

It was probably the noise of these sermons that caused the friar's temporary removal from Florence at the instance of Piero de' Medici.

Piero de' Medici, made alliance with the Neapolitan sovereign whose kingdom was claimed by Charles.

Piero Capponi's declaration that "it was time to put an end to this baby government" was the sole weapon needed to depose Piero de' Medici.

After seventy years' subjection to the Medici Florence had forgotten the art of self-government, and felt the need of a strong guiding hand.

On the contrary, so great was his respect for both that, when there was a question of selling the Medici library to pay that family's debts, he saved the collection at the expense of the convent purse.

Piero de' Medici's fresh attempt to re-enter Florence failed; nevertheless his followers continued their intrigues, and party spirit increased in virulence.

This silence proved fatal to his popularity with moderate men, gave new adherents to the Arrabbiati, and whetted the fury of the pope, Sforza and all potentates well disposed to the Medici faction.

The prisoners were conveyed to the Palazzo Vecchio, and Savonarola was lodged in the tower cell which had once harboured Cosimo de' Medici.

In 1533 his father married him to Catherine de' Medici, from which match, as he said, Francis hoped to gain great advantage, even though it might be somewhat of a misalliance.

In conjunction with Cardinal Giulio de' Medici in the conclave of 1521-1522, he secured the election of Adrian Dedel, bishop of Tortosa, as Adrian VI.

The year of Charles VIII.'s invasion and of the Medici's expulsion from Florence (1494) saw Machiavelli's first entrance into public life.

The cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who was present at the battle of Ravenna, brought a Spanish army into Tuscany.

Florence, in extreme terror, deposed the gonfalonier, and opened her gates to the princes of the house of Medici.

He showed no repugnance to a change of masters, and began to make overtures to the Medici.

Machiavelli had taken no share in that feeble attempt against the Medici, but his name was found upon a memorandum dropped by Boscoli.

He was racked, and only released upon Giovanni de' Medici's election to the papacy in March 1513.

He wrote to Vettori on the subject, and Giuliano de' Medici, duke of Nemours, seemed to him the proper person.

The Medici, as yet at' all events, could not employ Machiavelli, and had not in themselves the stuff to found Italian kingdoms.

In the same year, 1520, Machiavelli, at the instance of the cardinal Giulio de' Medici, received commission from the officers of the Studio pubblico to write a history of Florence.

It is not so much a chronicle of Florentine affairs, from the commencement of modern history to the death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492, as a critique of that chronicle from the point of view adopted by Machiavelli in his former writing5,.

It would seem that from the date of Machiavelli's discourse to Leo on the government of Florence the Medici had taken him into consideration.

In her taste for art and her love of magnificence and luxury, Catherine was a true Medici; her banquets at Fontainebleau in 1564 were famous for their sumptuousness.

He used his influence over the king in the court intrigues against the queen-mother Marie de Medici and her favourite Concini.

In 1619 he negotiated the treaty of Angouleme by which Marie de Medici was accorded complete liberty.

In 1606 he was vicar-general of the congregation of France, and received from Marie de' Medici the revenues of the sees of Lombez and Saintes.

He was well known to and favoured by both Catherine de' Medici and the Guises, and was very soon released.

He regained his ascendancy over the king, punished his enemies and forced Marie de' Medici and Gaston of Orleans to sue for pardon.

He was among the defenders of the city during the siege of 1530, but subsequently joined the Medici party and was appointed professor of rhetoric at the university.

On the death of Henry, Conde returned to France, and intrigued against the regent, Marie de' Medici; but he was seized, and imprisoned for three years (1616-1619).

The former citadel (now gaol), built by the Pisans, was demolished and re-erected by Lorenzo de' Medici.

As a pupil of the famous Pomponius Laetus, and, subsequently, as a member of the circle of Cosmo de' Medici, he received a finished education.

Another generation passed, and the scholars of the East and West met at the council of Florence (1439) One of the envoys of the Greeks, Gemistus Pletho, then inspired Cosimo dei Medici with the thought of founding an academy for the study of Plato.

Catherine de' Medici was greatly incensed at this affront, and took her revenge by having the constable disgraced on the death of Henry II.

She retained her influence in the reign of Henry IV., conveyed the bodies of Catherine de' Medici and Henry III.

It was formerly the property of Catherine de' Medici, and was probably brought syri.

Among his publications are Characters and Characteristics of William Law (1893); Bunyan Characters (3 vols., 1894); Samuel Rutherford (1894); An Appreciation of Jacob Behmen (1895) Lancelot Andrewes and his Private Devotions (1895); Bible Characters (7 vols., 1897); Santa Teresa (1897); Father John of Cronstadt (1898); An Appreciation of Browne's Religio Medici (1898); Cardinal Newman, An Appreciation (1901).

With the rise of the Medici came a rapid increase of prosperity; Cosmo, Francis and Ferdinand erected fortifications and harbour works, warehouses and churches, with equal liberality, and the last especially gave a stimulus to trade by inviting "men of the East and the West, Spanish and Portuguese, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Hebrews, Turks, Moors, Armenians, Persians and others," to settle and traffic in the city, as it became in 1606.

His feud with Lorenzo de' Medici culminated in the Pazzi conspiracy, the tragic sequel to which was the assassination of Giuliano de' Medici (April 26, 1478).

By a wonderful dispensation the successor to this scion of the Medici was Adrian VI.

After the fall of the French dominion in Italy he made his peace with the emperor at Barcelona (June 29, 1529); in return for which he received the assistance of Charles in re-establishing the rule of the Medici in Florence.

Even in the reign of the two Medici popes the way which was to lead to better things had been silently paved within the Church.

In 1856 he was elected member of the Accademia della Crusca, in which capacity he took part in the compilation of its famous but still unfinished dictionary, and two years later was appointed assistant keeper of the Tuscan archives, in Florence; then he took charge of the famous Medici archives, whence he collected a vast body of material on the history of Italian art, not all of which is yet published.

In 1581 Mary accepted the advice of Catherine de' Medici and Henry III.

He failed to understand the great spiritual movement which was convulsing the Church; and instead of bending his mind to the problem of the Reformation, he from the first subordinated the cause of Catholicism and of the world to his interests as an Italian prince and a Medici.

On the 9th of June 1531 an agreement was signed for the marriage of Henry of Orleans with Catherine de' Medici; but it was not till October 1533 that Clement met Francis at Marseilles, the wedding being celebrated on the 27th.

In the choir the heart of Marie de' Medici is buried; and in the adjoining side-chapels are monuments of the founder and other archbishops of Cologne, and the shrine of the Three Kings, which is adorned with gold and precious stones.

After this it rose rapidly into importance as a manufacturing and commercial town, becoming, after Nuremberg, the centre of the trade between Italy and the north of Europe; its merchant princes, the Fuggers and Welsers, rivalled the Medici of Florence; but the alterations produced in the currents of trade by the discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries occasioned a great decline.

His widow followed the fortunes of Marie de' Medici, from whom she received many marks of favour, and was secretly married to Francois de Bassompierre, who joined her in conspiring against Cardinal Richelieu.

All these works are later than the altarpiece which Angelico painted (as before mentioned) for the choir connected with this convent, and which is now in the academy of Florence; it represents the Virgin with Saints Cosmas and Damian (the patrons of the Medici family), Dominic, Peter, Francis, Mark, John Evangelist and Stephen; the pediment illustrated the lives of Cosmas and Damian, but it has long been severed from the main subject.

Whole volumes might be devoted to the magnificent works in bronze produced by the Florentine artists of this century, works such as the baptistery gates by Ghiberti, the statues of Verrocchio, Donatello and many others, the bronze screen in Prato cathedral by Simone, brother of Donatello, in 1444-1461, and the screen and bronze ornaments of the tomb of Piero and Giovanni dei Medici in San Lorenzo, Florence, by Verrocchio, in 1472.

When Sixtus threatened Florence after the Pazzi conspiracy, 1478, Louis aided Lorenzo dei Medici to form an alliance with Naples, which forced the papacy to come to terms. More than any other king of France, Louis XI.

On the 23rd the Austrians entered Naples, followed soon afterwards by the king; every vestige of freedom was suppressed, the reactionary Medici ministry appointed, and the inevitable state trials instituted with the usual harvest of executions and imprisonment.

In July further reinforcements of volunteers under Cosenz and Medici, assisted by Cavour, arrived at Palermo with a good supply of arms furnished by subscription in northern Italy.

It was in the year parting the two centuries (1600) that he presented to Marie de' Medici an ode of welcome, the first of his remarkable poems. But four or five years more passed before his fortune, which had hitherto been indifferent, turned.

The beautiful Consolation a Duperier, in which occurs the famous line Et, rose, elle a vecu ce que vivent les roses the odes to Marie de' Medici and to Louis XIII., and a few other pieces comprise all that is really worth remembering of him.

Even when in the second half of the 15th century the Medici in Florence attained to power, the form at least of a republic was still maintained, and not till 1J31 did one of them, supported by Charles V., assume the ducal title.

It was not till after a rising of the lowest order of all, the industrial labourers, had been suppressed in 1378 (tumulto dei Ciompi, the wool-combers), that quieter times ensued under the wise leadership, first of the Albizzi and finally of the Medici.

His conduct upon that legation was afterwards severely criticized; for his political antagonists accused him of betraying the true interests of the commonwealth, and using his influence for the restoration of the exiled house of Medici to power.

When, therefore, he returned to inhabit Florence in 1534, he did so as the creature of the dissolute Alessandro de' Medici.

After the murder of Duke Alessandro in 1537, Guicciardini espoused the cause of Cosimo de' Medici, a boy addicted to field sports, and unused to the game of statecraft.

Two great scholars, Lorenzo de' Medici and Politian, had already returned to the practice of Italian poetry.

The five great powers, held in equilibrium by Lorenzo de' Medici, dreamed that the peninsula could be maintained in statu quo by diplomacy.

Following the example of Pomponio Leto in Rome and of Cosimo de' Medici at Florence, Pontano founded an academy for the meetings of learned and distinguished men.

In 1576 and 1588 Henry III., king of France, chose Blois as the meeting-place of the statesgeneral, and in the latter year he brought about the murders of Henry, duke of Guise, and his brother, Louis, archbishop of Reims and cardinal, in the château, where their deaths were shortly followed by that of the queen-mother, Catherine de' Medici.

From 1617 to 1619 Marie de' Medici, wife of King Henry IV., exiled from the court, lived at the château, which was soon afterwards given by Louis XIII.

It was initiated by Queen Catherine de' Medici, regent during the minority of her son Charles IX.

His notices of ancient sculpture and its various styles appeared as an appendix to the Saggio di lingua Etrusca, and arose out of his minute study of the treasures then added to the Florentine collection from the Villa Medici.

Fenelon was continued in his office, but he was recalled in 1575 when Catherine de' Medici wished to bring about a marriage between Elizabeth and the duke of Alencon, and thought that another ambassador would have a better chance of success in the negotiation.

Tentative and hardly serious claims were also put forward by Pope Gregory XIII., as ex officio heir-general to a cardinal, and by Catherine de' Medici, as a descendant of Alphonso III.

His next production was his Miseries of the Princes of the House of Medici (Amsterdam, 1638).

But in 1512 the Medici with the help of a Spanish army returned to Florence, deposed Soderini and drove him into exile.

In that city Ser Piero followed his profession with success, as notary to many of the chief families in the city, including the Medici, and afterwards to the signory or governing council of the state.

The antiques of the Medici gardens seem to have had little influence on him beyond that of generally stimulating his passion for perfection.

Soon after that prince had firmly established his power as nominal guardian and protector of his nephew Gian Galeazzo but really as usurping ruler of the state, he revived a project previously mooted for the erection of an equestrian monument in honour of the founder of his house's greatness, Francesco Sforza, and consulted Lorenzo dei Medici on the choice of an artist.

Isabella Gonzaga again begged, in an autograph letter, that she might have a painting by his hand, but her request was put off; he did her, however, one small service by examining and reporting on some jewelled vases, formerly the property of Lorenzo de' Medici, which had been offered her.

Within a few months the ageing master uprooted himself from Milan, and moved with his chattels and retinue of pupils to Rome, into the service of the house that first befriended him, the Medici.

Leonardo's special friend at the papal court was the pope's youngest brother, Giuliano de' Medici, a youth who combined dissipated habits with thoughtful culture and a genuine interest in arts and sciences.

A portrait of a Florentine lady, said to have been painted for Giuliano de' Medici and seen afterwards in France, may also have been done at Rome; or may what we learn of this be only a confused account of the Monna Lisa?

But he showed the cardinal three pictures, the portrait of a Florentine lady done for Giuliano de' Medici (the Gioconda ?), the Virgin in the lap of St Anne (the Louvre picture; finished at Florence or Milan 1507-1513?), and a youthful John the Baptist.

Cosimo de' Medici, hearing of his embarrassment, redeemed the MSS.

By Marie de' Medici he had Louis, later Louis XIII.; Gaston, duke of Orleans; Elizabeth, who married Philip IV.

Sixtus was cognisant of the conspiracy of the Pazzi, plotted (1478) by his nephew, Cardinal Riario, against Lorenzo de' Medici.

Fortunately for Elizabeth, Francis died in 1560, and the French government passed into the hands of Catherine de Medici, who had no cause to love her daughter-in-law and the Guises.

At first he seems to have lived with the Florentine scholars on tolerably good terms; but his temper was so arrogant that Cosimo de' Medici's friends were not long able to put up with him.

His life, he asserted, had been already once attempted by a cut-throat in the pay of the Medici; and now he readily accepted an invitation from the state of Siena.

Years had healed the breach between him and the Medicean family; and on the occasion of the Pazzi conspiracy against the life of Lorenzo de' Medici, he had sent violent letters of abuse to his papal patron Sixtus, denouncing his participation in a plot so dangerous to the security of Italy.

The Venetian government made every effort to have Bianca arrested and brought back, but the grand duke Cosimo de' Medici intervened in her favour and she was left unmolested.

He was well received by Catherine de' Medici, who had a claim of her own on the crown of Portugal, and looked upon him as a convenient instrument to be used against Philip II.

Elizabeth favoured him for much the same reasons as Catherine de' Medici.

Catherine de Medici, an inveterate match- and the maker, and also uneasy at Philip II.s increasing Nether- power, made advances to Jeanne, proposing to marry lands, her own daughter,Marguerite deValois,to Jeannes son, Henry of Navarre, now chief of the Huguenot party.

Catherine de Medici soon perceived that the massacre of St Bartholomew had settled nothing.

Marie de being a minor, Marie de Medici induced the parlement Medici.

Instead of weakening this aristocratic agitation by the see-saw policy of Catherine de Medici, Marie could invent no other device than to despoil the royal treasure by distributing places and money to the chiefs of both parties.

After this double victory Marie de Medici could at last undertake the famous journey to Bordeaux and consummate the Spanish marriages.

Richelieu had appeared behind Marie de Medici; Albert de Luynes rose behind Louis XIII., the neglected child whom he had contrived to amuse.

Whilst others were triumphing openly, Mazarin, in the shadow and silence of the interregnum, had kept watch upon the heart of the queen; and when the old party of Marie de Medici and Anne of Austria wished to come back into power, to impose a general peace, and to substitute for the Protestant alliances an understanding with Spain, the arrest of Francois de Vendme, duke of Beaufort, and the exile of other important nobles proved to the great families that their hour had gone by (September 1643).

Under a series of degenerate Medici the history of Tuscany is certainly not a splendid record, and few events of importance occurred save court scandals.

Marie Louise ruled with ' The history of Tuscany from 1530 to 1737 is given in greater detail under Medici.

He seems, in addition, to have compromised his position with the grandducal family by the imprudent candour with which he condemned a machine for clearing the port of Leghorn, invented by Giovanni de' Medici, an illegitimate son of Cosmo I.

Galileo remained in the custody of the Inquisition from the 21st to the 24th of June, on which day he was relegated to the Villa Medici on the Trinita de' Mc,nti.

The influence of the Medici made astrologers popular in France.

He was accustomed in after life to ascribe most of his progress to the teaching of two amongst them, Zenobio de' Medici and Servanzio Mini.

This wellknown Byzantine philosopher was the diffuser of Platonism in Florence during the time of Cosimo de' Medici, and had faith in the revival of paganism.

This and other attempts to regain political control of Florence were frustrated, until a bloodless revolution permitted the return of the Medici on the 14th of September 1512.

She was born on the 28th of August 1619, in the prison of Vincennes, into which her father and mother had been thrown for opposition to Marshal D'Ancre, the favourite of Marie de' Medici, who was then regent in the minority of Louis XIII.

Humbly born, he had been tutor in the house of the Albizzi, and afterwards librarian of the Medici at Florence, where he imbibed the politics together with the culture of the Renaissance, Soon after assuming the tiara, he found himself without a rival in the church; for the schism ended by Felix V.s resignation in 1449.

Harvey proceeds to contrast this view with that of the " Medici," or followers of Hippocrates and Galen, who, " badly philosophizing," imagined that the brain, the heart, and the liver were simultaneously first generated in the form of vesicles; and, at the same time, while expressing his agreement with Aristotle in the principle of epigenesis, he maintains that it is the blood which is the primal generative part, and not, as Aristotle thought, the heart.

On the history of Florence and of Tuscany he wrote Tavole cronologiclze e sincrone della storia fiorentina (1841; Supplement, 1875); Geschichte Toscanas seit dem Ende des florentinischen Freistaats (Gotha, 1876-77); and Lorenzo de' Medici (Leipzig, 1874, and again 1883).

Those famous festivals in which Lorenzo de' Medici delighted had indeed a pagan tone appropriate to the sentiment of the Renaissance; nor were all the worshippers of the Athenian sage so true to Christianity as his devoted student.

There he lived in discreet, if melancholy retirement, writing "A Defence of the Main Principles of the Catholic Faith," and had apparently little hope of a further political career when the escape of Marie de' Medici from Blois, on the 2 2nd of February 1619, again opened paths for his ambition.

Owing to a variety of causes an enmity arose between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV., and the latter, if not an accomplice, at all events had knowledge of the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici (1478).

The expulsion of of the the Medici produced some disorder, but Piero Capponi and other prominent citizens succeeded in (1494).

The city was given over to Pope Clement, who, disregarding the terms of the capitulation, had Carducci and Girolami (the last gonfaloniere) hanged, and established Alessandro de' Medici, the natural son of Lorenzo, duke of Urbino, as head of the republic on the 5th of July 1531.

This order played a noble part in the protection of Tuscan commerce, by fighting the Barbary pirates and establishing the prestige of the grand-ducal navy (see Medici).

Many adherents of the late prince came over to his side, disgusted by the violence and incompetency of Piero de' Medici's rule.

His letters on public affairs in Italy and Europe, especially those which he meant Vettori to communicate to the Medici at Rome, are marked by extraordinary fineness of perception, combined, as usual in his case, with philosophical breadth.

By playing off one against the other he succeeded in holding both in suspense, and induced them to conclude agreements safeguarding the pope and the Medici.

Debauchery of all kinds, and murder in all forms, were the daily matter of excitement or of jest to the brilliant circle which revolved around Queen Catherine de' Medici.

In 1576 and 1588 Henry III., king of France, chose Blois as the meeting-place of the statesgeneral, and in the latter year he brought about the murders of Henry, duke of Guise, and his brother, Louis, archbishop of Reims and cardinal, in the château, where their deaths were shortly followed by that of the queen-mother, Catherine de' Medici.

From 1617 to 1619 Marie de' Medici, wife of King Henry IV., exiled from the court, lived at the château, which was soon afterwards given by Louis XIII.

They were referenced in a 1451 letter from Ardouino da Baesse of Ferra to Piero di Cosimo de' Medici of Florence.

Then in 1533, Catherine de' Medici, the Queen of France, commissioned a pair of shoes with a heel higher than the toe, and suddenly the pump was fashionable.

His marriage in March 1518 was arranged by the pope with Madeleine la Tour d'Auvergne, a royal princess of France, whose daughter was the Catherine de' Medici celebrated in French history.

He was successively councillor of the parlement of Grenoble, secretary to the king, almoner to Marie de' Medici, abbot of Aulnay and finally, in 1606, bishop of Sees.

Alessandro de Medici was placed there with the title of duke of Civit di Penna; and, on his murder in 1537, Cosimo de Medici, of the younger branch of the ruling house, was made duke.