THE MEDICI.*
"Or making many books there is no end": especially, one might add, books about Florence and the Floreutines. From Dante onwards the literature about them has never ceased to accumulate, and the Medici have received constant attention from historians and biographers. These attentions have not all been flattering or favourable; and no family, except the Julian Caesars, has been calumniated so grossly and per- sistently in its individual members. And yet their story as a whole ha,s never been written, "either in Italian or English." So says Colonel Young in his preface; and he haa aimed at supplying the deficiency. The results of his labour are the two handsome and most interesting volumes which are the subject of this review.
Colonel Young's biographies amount to more than eleven hundred pages; but no reader need be alarmed, for not one of them is either superfluous or dull. The Medici occupy, he says, "a larger place in history than was probably ever taken by any other- family." This praise may appear extravagant, and yet it is within the facts. "From simple bankers and merchants they rose, i1i spite of much opposition and many vicissitudes, until they became the most powerful family in Europe, and indeed until there was a Medici on the throne of nearly every principal country." This, of course, is true, not directly, but through marriages; and we do not always remember that Marie de' Medici transmitted the qualities of her race to all the- descendants of Louis XIU. and of Charles I. But higher than these Royal splendours, or even than the Papal rank, of the Medici is "their patronage of Learning and Art. In this domain the Medici have never been approached by any other among the rulers of mankind." But there is more to their credit than even this; for in personal gifts and in scholarship some of the Medici have won a high place, not only among rulers, but among learned men; and in the 'case of one of them, Lorenze the biagnificent, his gifts and abeoMplish,ments amount to genius. He was a leader in an age which abounded with great men. He was one of the chief inspiring forces of an age which is second to none in the history of modern Europe. It might be added that, in another ;sphere, Catherine , de' Medici, can, at , any rate, hold her own even among. the. gigantic figures of the sixteenth century. In painting, in sculpture, in architecture, in learning ancl,scholarship, the very greatest mines of Italy "fiteMedki. 33-1 Colonel t+. F.IMMg„ LeAdon: John hin.r7q;
[865. net] .. :
are Connected with the Medici. The two genuine Medici Popes, Leo X. and Clement VII., are implicated, both unhappily, with the history of the Reformation. Under one of them a large part of Germany, and wider the other England, was separated from the- Roman See; and that dubious Medici, Pins IV.
has given his name to the creed which is a standing proof that Roman Catholicism is newer, narrower, and lower than the old'Latin Christianity, that it is merely one of the many sects which originated in the quarrels of the sixteenth century. And some of the later Medici, as Colonel Young points out, are honourably connected with science, as their predecessors were with art and literature, through their patronage and protection of Galileo. Certainly as we look back we must agree with Colonel Young when he says that
"owing to an exceptional many-sidedness they touched life at so many points. In statesmanship and financial capacity; in learning and artistic taste, in civil •aduaraatration and sympathy with the feelings of the people, in knowledge of commerce and agriculture, in all these different directions did the Medici evince an unusual ability. And this was joined to qualities of courtesy, agreeableness of manner, absence of arrogance, and a free and generous disposi- tion, which much enhanced their power of influencing those with whom they were brought in contact."
Their long history may be traoed vaguely to the beginning
of the thirteenth century, when one of them owned houses in the Mercato Vecchio ; but their 'definite action on public affairs begins with Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360-1428), the father of Cosimo, who became the Father of his country.
Colonel Young has written fourteen biographies of the elder line, which ended with Catherine de' Medici, so far as Florence is concerned; and he gives fourteen biographiesof the younger branch, which ended with - Anna Maria Ludbvica, Electress Palatine, who died in 1743. Besides these twenty-eight per- sonages, of whom nearly all were rulers, many other persons connected with the family, either by blood or by marriage, are described, especially Lorenzo's mother and Giuliano, his faseinating'brother; Catherine Sforza, the heroic mother of Giovanni delle Sande Nere, and his admirable wife, Maria Salviati, a granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and mother of the first Grand Duke, who thus united the claims and talents of both branches ; and not least the romantic and beautiful Bianca Capello, the Grand Duchess of Francis I. We may say at once without any reserva- tion that all these biographies, almost bewildering in their variety and multiplicity, are presented with remarkable skill, with unusual charm and clearness, and with unfailing interest. Colonel Young's gallery of portraits is a wonderful achieve- ment: They are models in that kind of writing, and we hope they may be copied, as they deserve, because sketches of this class, and of this excellence, are very rare in our current literature. Colonel Young has realised his subjects, and therefore he enables us to know them, and not only to know, but to understand, because he is sympathetic in his treatment and admirably simple in his presentation. Both in his criticism and in his 'construction he has mastered the art of concealing his art. Nothing could seem easier or simpler than these finished little sketches. They have all the perfection and the apparent simplicity of an engraved gem, which fills the admirer with delight; but let him try to copy the model and he will soon be given over to despair. We wish that many modern Lives could be reduced to the scale in which Colonel Young has written, at any rate as a start. If they would not bear that treatment, it would be a sign that they
were undeserving of a larger one. Our gratitude is also due to Mr. Murray for the generous allowance of ninety-nine plates, most of them portraits, with which the two volumes are enriched. They add a definiteness to the vivid impression
Which is always conveyed by Colonel Young's biographies. The size and clearness of the type should not be omitted from our grateful commendations of both author and publisher ; and we hope these charming and deeply interesting volumes may have all the success which their high merits deserve.
As we should imagine from Colonel Young's very skilful biographies, his taste in art is good and sure. All that he has to say in such matters is sensible and interesting, and he conveys a great amount of information in an unobtrusive and a charming way. In dealing with his predecessors and with later evidence he exercises a very sane and searching criti- cism. His methods of judging, so far as he shows .them, inspire confidence in his capacity and integrity as a biographer. Not that Colonel Young is faultless as an historian or as a writer. Who bit? After our liberal praises, we may be allowed
to notice a few -very trivial -defects. • -Indeed, ...we :owe' thie much to all serious readers, and we hope Our' vigilance, Which is probably not exhaustive, may be useful solar writ goes to a second edition of this admirable and deserving work. In Vol. I., p. 109, it is said that Henry VI. of England: died in 1461; but it is not so. His- reign ended in that year; and Louis XI. is exactly conterminous with Edward IV. (1461,83h but Henry lived on to be restored by Warwick and Clarence, and he did not die until after the battles of BernetandTewkeshnry in 1471. Louis XI. is said, again (p. 153), to ha.ve" entirely destroyed the power of the nobles." He weakened it, eertainly ; but it was able to give France a century of war, until' it was curbed by Richelieu. France was not really one and indivisible till the victories of the Revolution. p. 194 " spines " is evidently a misprint for "pines" and' owls. 329 the jingle" claim to fame" should have been avoided: It it doubtful, perhaps, whether the excommunication -of SitturrIV. by the Tuscan Bishops is a genuine document It marlie; of course, and it would be-justified by earlier precedinite bttt it readS more like the composition of a Humanist- than-the pit= duction of a Synod. Colonel Young's. caleulation of money` values seems to us invariably too small: It-- is an obscure and a complex though an interesting subject; and perhaps sixteenkh-century prices may' be multiplied' by' twelve, or even by fifteen, to bring them to cur own. ctitrent values. On p. 390 Castiglione's "poem II' Cortigiano " is spoken of ; and this is a really serious error, since that exquisite composition is one of the Italian prose classics. In Vol. II., p. 8, " Vandemont " eland& be-" Vaude- mont," and on p. 40 " Mayence " should be " Maymme." The Jesuits were not founded in 1560 (p. 346), hat in-1540 ; at least that is the date of their approval by pair fir 'Pile work done by Florentines at Delhi in the seventeenth century is not "the first evidence in India of a Western hand anti brain guiding Eastern tastea " 424), for there are 't .raeen of Grecian art which take us back possibly to the age of the Ptolemies, that family which perhaps of all others' coinee nearest to the Medici. Such, then, are Colonel roting'i few and trifling blemishes, which are only worth enumerating because his whole work is so excellent.
"Happy is he who knows the causes of things," says Virgil. Happy certainly is he who really knows the age of Cosimo Pater Patriae and of Lorenzo the Magnificent. It is. difficult to believe that such men and such an age have actually existed. The fifteenth century is the cause of most good things that the modern world possesses, and it still exists as an inspiration and a refreshment for those who can escape into it from our dreary realities.
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