LORENZO DE’ MEDICI
VOL. I.
THE MAGNIFICENT
BY
ALFRED VON REUMONT
TRANSLATED from THE GERMAN by ROBERT HARRISON
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1876
[All rights reserved]
TO
CINO CAPPONI
THE HISTORIAN OF HIS NATIVE CITY
WITH
RESPECTFUL HOMAGE AND
FRIENDSHIP
I am bound to confess that it has been no easy task tointerpret for English readers the admirable biography ofLorenzo which Herr von Reumont has given to the world.His extraordinary talent for research seems to have spentitself freely over every scrap of paper or parchmentwritten or printed on the subject of the Medici and theirtimes that has come within his reach. If these volumesconvey to their readers the vivid impression of theMedicean age which may be derived from the originalwork my humble but laborious duty will not have beenundertaken in vain.
R. H.
London Library: June 1876.
The second half of the fifteenth century exhibits, in thedevelopment of the Renaissance in Italy, the singularspectacle of a transformation of the modern world underthe influence of ancient classical culture in conjunctionwith the opening out of a new intellectual horizon. Ina state the importance of which cannot be measured byits circumference or material strength, we see a strugglebetween form and spirit among a community that hadstood there alone from the Middle Ages. This strugglewas the exciting cause of a new growth, of the productionof fresh branches and new foliage on a tree that hadbecome incurably rotten and hollow. The Christianworld has only once taken up a position like this in thefruitful interpenetration and transmutation of real and idealelements. It shows us a man, the product and consummationof these circumstances and conditions, at once thechild and the pioneer of his age, an age which was filledwith the most joyous and elevated existence both inmaterial and spiritual things. A man like him could onlybe born and grow up under such circumstances, in the[x]ferment and strife of events and of the moral forces of thetime. Family and civic influence as well as the temperof the people and of the century contributed to thisresult.
A justly popular life of Lorenzo [by Roscoe] waswritten when the knowledge of Italian history waslimited and its sources confused and difficult of access.If a similar attempt is now made eighty years later, it isunder altered circumstances and with expectations greatlyenhanced. The supply of original materials, then verysmall, however skilfully arranged, has increased in our