Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/293

* MEDICI. 265 MEDICI. mental culture. He iisseiubled about him learned men of every nation, and gave lilieral support to numerous Greek scholars; and by his foundation of an academy for the study of the philosophy of I'lato, and of a library of Greek, Latin, and Oriental manuscripts, he inaugurated a new era in modern learning and art. But, though he re- tained the forms of the Republic, and nominally confided the executive authority to a gonfaloniere and eight priori or senators, he totally extin- guished the freedom of Florence. His grandson, LoHEXZo the Magnificent (144!)-92), became the virtual head of the Flor- entine State in 14G!). In 1478 the conspiracy of the I'azzi nearly succeeded in overthrowing the Medici. Lorenzo's brother Giuliano was slain, and he himself barely escaped. ' The result of the conspiracy was to give Lorenzo a firmer hold upon the State. He pursued with signal ijuecess the policy of his famil}', which was to win the favor of the lower classes, and thereby make absolute their own power. He encouraged liter- ature and the arts, employed learned men to collect choice books and antiquities for him from every part of the known world, estalilished print- ing presses in his dominions, founded academics for the study of classical learning, and filled his gardens with collections of the renuiins of ancient art. When, however, his munificence and conciliatory manners had gained for him the allcction of the higher and the devotion of the lower classes, he lost no time in breaking down the forms of constitutional independence that he and his predecessors had hitherto suf- fered to exist. Some few Florentines, alarmed at the progress of the voluptuous refinement, which was smothering every spark of personal inde- pendence, tried to stem the current of corruption by an ascetic severity of morals, which gained for them the name of pirignotti. or weepers. Fore- most among them was the Dominican friar Gi- rolanio Savonarola ( q.v. ), whose eloquent ap- peals to the people in favor of a popular and democratic form of government and a life of asceticism threatened for a time the overthrow of the Medici. Lorenzo achieved some reputation in belles-lettres. We have from him jioems of many kinds, l3'ric, nmral, dramatic, and descrip- tive. His Canzoni and Honrtii are love poems, to which he added ,a prose conniientary. A true feeling for nature appears in the Caccia col fnl- coiir. and a rather pleasing picture of rural life is to be found in his Xencia da Barbcriiio. A dramatic composition of a kind held in favor at the time is the t'diiprrsentdzione di Santi Giovan- ni e I'uolo (i)crfornied in 1489). Like so many wrilers of the period, he cultivated the form of the hnlUita or dance-song. He wrote also a num- ber (if (inti cannisrifilrfichi or carnival songs. The religious spirit prevails in his l.aiidi -ipiri- tuitli. His love poetiy is the best of all that he produced, and the most distinctive characteristic in it is the note of melancholy. PiETRo (born in 1471), who succeeded his father liOrenzo in 1492. possessed neither capacity nor prudence; and in the troubles which the am- bition of her princes and the undue use of the temporal power of the popes broiight upon Italy, by plunging her into civil and foreign war. he showed himself treacherous and vacillating, alike to friends and foes. When Charles VIII. of France, in 1494. marched into Italy in order to achieve the conquest of Naples, Pietro, in hopes of conciliating the powerful invader, has- tened to meet the troops on their entrance into the dominions of Florence, and surrendered to Charles the fortresses of Leghorn and I'isa, which constituted the keys of the Republic. The magistrates and peoi)le, incensed at his perlidy, drove him from Florence, and formally deposed the family of Medici from all participation in (iarigliano in 1503 while fighting in the French ranks. In 1.512 the Jledici were reinstated in Florence, and the elevation of Giovanni de' Medici to the Papal chair, under the title of Leo X. (1513-21), completed the restorSition of the fam- ily to their former splendor. The accession of Giulio de' Medici to the pontificate as Clement VII. (1523-34), the marriage of Catharine, the granddaughter of Pietro, to Henry II. of France in 1533, and the military power of the cadet branch (descended from a younger brother of the 'Father of his Country') widened the role which the Medici were enabled to play. Expelled from Florence in 1527, they were re- instated, and this time permanently, in 1530, by the combined forces of the Emperor Charles '. and Pope Clement VII. The Florentines were forced to accept as their ruler a worthless prince, Alessandro de' Medici, a natural son of Lorenzo II. (the father of Catharine), who in 1532 was invested with the ducal dignity. On his death by assassination without direct heirs, in 1537, Cosimo I., the descendant of a collateral branch, was raised to the ducal chair. Cosimo, known as the Great, possessed the astuteness of character, the love of elegance, and taste for literature that had dis- tinguished his great ancestors ; but none of their fraidc and generous spirit. He founded the academies of painting and of fine arts, made collections of paintings and statuary, published magnificent editions of his own works and those of others, and encouraged trade, for the )notection of which he institutecl the ecclesiastical Order of Saint Stephen. He was implacable in his enmity, and did not scruple to extirpate utterly the race of the Strozzi (q.v.), the hereditary foes of his house. His acquisition of Siena gained for him in 1569 the title of Cirand Duke of Tuscany from Pius V. He died in 1574, leaving enormous wealth and regal power to his descendants, who, through- out the next half century, maintained the literary and artistic fame of their family. In the seven- teenth century the race rapidly degenerated, and after several of its representatives had sufi'ered themselves to be made the tools of Spanish and Austrian ambition, the dynasty of the Medici became extinct with (iiovanni Gastone. who died in 1737. In accordance with the stipulation of the Peace of Vienna, the Grand Duchy of Tus- cany passed to the House of Lorraine. The name of the Jledici family was kept alive by a house whieli pretended io have emanated from it in the thirteenth century, and which accpiired the Prin- cipality of Ottajano toward the end of the six- teenth century. To this house belonged Luigi de' Medici ( 17C>n-1830). Duke of Sarto. known as the Chevalier de' Medici. He was a minister of Ferdinand I. and Francis I. of the Two Sicilies, and died while visiting Madrid in 1830. Consult: Fabroni, Vita Magni Cosmi Mrdicci (Pisa. 1788-89) ; Armengaud. "Cosme des Mcdicis et sa correspondance inedite," in the Comptcs reiidus de I'ucadimiv des sciences morales et philosophiques (Paris, 1876) ; Galluzi,
 * )Ower. i'ietro lost his life in the l)altle of the