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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Few are the records in the Florentine archives which allow us to reconstruct the life and activities of the merchant and humanist Marco Parenti. Few documents have been found regarding his dealings in the silk business, and those touching on his interests in letters and philosophy are more laudatory than substantial. Marco was deeply interested in the intellectual movements of his time. He participated in Landino's Disputationes Camaldulenses as one of the Aristotelians, and also was a member of the Chorus Achademiae Florentinae established by Alamanno Rinuccini in the mid-1450's. He was known for his erudition by humanists much more illustrious than he. Leon Battista Alberti was Marco's close friend, even employing him as his business manager.
1 Important details for the life of Marco Parenti can be found in negli Strozzi, Alessandra Macinghi, Lettere di una gentildonna fiorentina aifigliuoli esuli, ed. Cesare Guasti (1877; rpt. Florence, 1972)Google Scholar, p. 10, n. A; Torre, Arnaldo della, Storia dell'accademia platonica di Firenze (Florence, 1902), pp. 320–322 Google Scholar; Cosenza, Mario E., Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists (Boston, 1962)Google Scholar, III, 2603.
2 Delia Torre, p. 321.
3 For this academy see della Torre (pp. 321, 581) and Giustiniani, Vito R., Alamanno Rinuccini 1426-1499, (Cologne, 1965), pp. 19–20 Google Scholar.
4 Cosenza (p. 2603) collects the various praises of Marco by such humanists as Donato Acciaiuoli, Benedetto Coluccio da Pistoia, and Philelpho.
5 Girolamo Mancini (Vita di Leon Battista Alberti, 2nd ed. [Florence, 1911], pp. 258, n. 2; 259; 414, n. 3; 451, n. 1) lists several contacts between Alberti and Marco Parenti. Marco was Alberti's procurator from September 12,1447, until December 29,1462, and a general acquittance of their common business affairs took place on October 14, 1468; Archivio di Stato, Florence (henceforth referred to as ASF), Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 56v. The Parenti also became related to the Alberti by the marriage of Marco's daughter, Marietta, to Tomaso di Francesco di Giannozo degli Alberti on February 15,1474 (1475 m.s.); ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 72. Alessandro Parronchi will be publishing several notarial documents relating to the business dealings between Marco and Alberti.
6 Grayson, Cecil, Opuscoli inediti di Leon Battista Alberti (Florence, 1954)Google Scholar, p. 18.
7 Vespasiano da Bisticci (Vite di uomini illustri del secolo XV, ed. Erhard Aeschlimann and Paolo d'Ancona [Milan, 1951], p. 432) describes Marco as litterato e con buona notizia di filosofia naturale. In Marco's single known account book in the Florentine State Archives there are two references to books relating to Vespasiano. On March 6, 1451 (m.s.), Marco paid Matteo di Giovanni Grimaldi for miniating a pair of Cicero's epistles, which he then had bound by Vespasiano; ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 23v. On December 24, 1458, Vespasiano was debited thirty soldi for part of the Physics of Aristotle translated by John Argyropoulos, which Vespasiano was having copied for Marco, an order that was later cancelled; ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 47. Vespasiano was also a godfather to Marco's son, Giovanni Parente Parenti, born on June 17, 1463, and who later died on September 7, 1463; ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 57v.
8 ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 68v. In 1489 Lorenzo de’ Medici's son, Piero, became a godfather to Piero di Marco Parenti's son, Francesco Antonio, born on September 17; ASF, Strozziane II, ljbis, fol. 78v. A list of the numerous public offices held by Marco Parenti is given in ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fol. 80v.
9 Alessandra Macinghi negli Strozzi, p. 12, n. E. For other letters of Marco, see those published by Guasti in the above edition of Alessandra's letters.
10 Delia Torre (p. 320) was the first to underline this fact concerning the existing Parenti letters.
11 ASF, Strozziane V, 1249, unnumbered insert; our document 1. Dott. Gino Corti has been extremely helpful in checking my transcription of this letter.
12 For Marco Parenti as a patron of Domenico Veneziano, see now Wohl, Hellmut, ‘Domenico Veneziano Studies: the Sant'Egidio and Parenti Documents,’ Burlington Magazine, 113 (1971), 638–641 Google Scholar. Besides the belt mentioned in the letter, Marco's account book mentions several other items in silver, ivory, and intarsia provided by Marco to Filippo Strozzi in Naples; ASF, Strozziane II, 17bis, fols. 26v, 61v. Borsook, , ‘Documenti relativi alle cappelle di Lecceto e delle Selve di Filippo Strozzi,’ Antichita Viva, 9 (1970)Google Scholar, 4, has published important new documents describing Marco's involvement with the great lettuccio that Filippo was having made for the King of Naples by Benedetto da Maiano.
13 ASF, Strozziane II, lybis, fol. 21v; our document 2.
14 For the moon in the form of Diana see Hind, A. M., Early Italian Engraving: A Critical Catalogue (London, 1938)Google Scholar, Am.7, a and b. The seated king and the angel connected with a circle are both illustrated in the Tarocchi playing-card series; A. M. Hind, E.I. 8, a and b, and E.1.48 and 49. de Tervarent, Guy, Attributs et symboles dans Vart profane 1450-1600 (Geneva, 1959), pp. 64 Google Scholar, 149, discusses the circle and the figure of Diana with her attributes.
15 Marco's use of the word divisa is an early example of the phenomenon of emblems which witnessed a rapid growth toward the end of the fifteenth century. Praz, Mario, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1964)Google Scholar, pp. 6of., has discussed this topic in depth.
16 According to Filippo's father, Matteo di Simone Strozzi, Filippo was born on July 4, 1428; ASF, Strozziane V, 11, fol. 92 v. Pampaloni, Guido, Palazzo Strozzi (Rome, 1963), p- 29 Google Scholar, and Goldthwaite, Richard, Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence (Princeton, 1968)Google Scholar, pp. 52f., provide background material for Filippo's youth with further sources.
17 Vasari, Giorgio, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori, ed. Gaetano Milanesi (Florence, 1878)Google Scholar, III, 289.
18 Krautheimer, Richard, Lorenzo Ghiberti, 2nd ed. (Princeton, 1970), p. 118 Google Scholar, n. 10, discusses this very problematical question.
19 Vasari-Milanesi, II, 256.
20 Krautheimer, p. 118, n. 10.
21 Milanesi (Vasari-Milanesi, III, 289, n. 2) connects, without publishing his evidence, Giuliano di Giovanni da Poggibonsi with the Gucci family, also from Poggibonsi. If true, Marco Parenti may have introduced Filippo Strozzi to the work of Bernardo di Guccio, also mentioned by Milanesi in the note cited. According to innumerable documents in the Strozzi account books which I hope to pubhsh in the future, Bernardo di Guccio became Filippo Strozzi's primary goldsmith.
