A FLORENTINE FAMILY.* Tim family of the Lanfredini took a
continuous if not con- spicuous part in the life of Florence for five hundred years— from 1200 to the death of the last member of the family in 1741. The part that the Lanfredini played has left traces on the records of the city which show them to have been solid citizens and bankers devoted to the interests of the Medici, and at times acting for them as diplomatists or administrators in outlying portions of Florentine territory. Knowing as much as we do it is tantalizing not to be able to approach nearer and get a glimpse of the personality of some of these people. In this their chronicler (Mr. Mansfield) has failed, presumably from want of documentary material. So we have to be content with a vast number of details of Florentine history in which the Lanfredini must have been concerned, though we know this more from inference than direct state- ment. Of their patronage of the arts certain evidence remains, not only in the decorations of the family palazzo on the Arno, but by the discovery a few years ago of a very remarkable fresco rescued from under the whitewash at the Villa at Arcetri. This fresco is all that remains of a frieze of dancing figures of boys and girls by Antonio Pollaiuolo. A portrait in the Uffizi Gallery by the same painter's brother Piero is iden- tified by Mr. Mansfield as Orsino Lanfredini by its likeness to a fresco in the family home which resembles the portrait in the gallery.
The manner in which this history has been carried out is not very satisfactory ; a large number of minute historical facts are thrown before the reader, but not sufficiently organized to be intelligible. Nor do the inordinate number of footnotes of great length, and the unnecessary use of the historic present, bring us relief. These things make the book some- what difficult to read. Nevertheless it is worth while to make the effort for the picture obtained of the Quatrocento, for that is the period which occupies most of the book.
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