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A Newly Discovered Chronicle by Marco Parenti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Mark Phillips
Mark Phillips*
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
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Extract

Among the manuscripts of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence there is a copy of an extensive eyewitness account of Florentine politics in the 1460's which appears to have been overlooked by historians of Florentine politics and historiography. Catalogued as Magliabecchi xxv, 272, it is described as an anonymous sixteenth-century manuscript containing ‘Diverse notizie istoriche d'Italia, delle potenze che la dominavano nel 1464 e delle cose seguite in Firenze contro la fazione de’ Medici fino al 1467.’ Although the manuscript is not a fifteenth-century autograph, there can be little doubt as to the authenticity of its contents. Not only does it contain a considerable amount of specific information that could only come from a firsthand source, but several self-references make it apparent that it is the work of the silk merchant and humanist Marco Parenti.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Summer 1978 , pp. 153 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1978

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References

The research on which this paper is based was made possible by grants from the Villa I Tatti and the Canada Council. I also wish to thank Professors F. Gilbert, A. Molho, N. Rubinstein, and R. Hatfield for their help and criticism. I intend to follow this preliminary paper with an edition of the text and a fuller commentary.

1 While describing the manuscript as the work of an anonymous author the catalogue notes that ‘l’autore dice che era cognato di Filippo Strozzi gran mercante in Napoli.’ The manuscript is said to contain 79 pages; in fact, it contains 107 pages since die first 51 pages were paginated and the remainder were foliated. To avoid confusion I shall give my references as though it were paginated consistendy. The provenance of the manuscript is given as Gaddi 323.

2 G. Aiazzi, ed., Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal 1282 al 1460 colla continuazione di Alamanno e Neri stioi figli fino al 1560. On the anti-Medicean opposition, see Pampaloni, G., ‘Fermenti di riforme democratiche nella Firenze medicea del “400,“’ Archivio Storico Italiano, 99 (1961), 11–62 Google Scholar, and Rubinstein, N. ‘La confessione di Francesco Neroni e la congiura anti medicea del 1466’, Archivio Storico Italiano, 106 (1968), 373–387 Google Scholar. And more generally on the politics of this period, see Rubinstein, N., The Government of Florence under the Medici (Oxford, 1966)Google Scholar.

3 Magliabecchi xxv, 272, p. 26: ‘A me ne pare havere e* sofficientissimi testimoni, et degnissimi di fede, Filippo Strozzi mio cognato gran mercante et accetissimo al re… . ‘ A few lines further on the author writes, ‘questo mi disse alia sua ritornata in firenze come cosa mirabile e fuori della commune opinione.’ The Strozzi were exiled until 1466, at which time Filippo returned to Florence and married, though his permanent return to the city was not until 1470. Thus the reference dates the chronicle after 1466. On Filippo Strozzi, see Goldthwaite, R., Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence (Princeton, 1968), pp. 55ffGoogle Scholar. A further indication of the dating of this work is a reference to the wedding of Lorenzo to an Orsini, an event which took place in 1469 (see p. 96). It is clear, therefore, that major portions of the text were composed a few years after the events, though the author himself says that he began the work with the death of Cosimo in 1464 (see below, n. 10).

4 Magliabecchi xxv, 272, p. 93: ‘a me suo cognato come più fidato parente… .’ Parentis position as an intermediary here is an indication that he had kept his anti-Medicean feelings well covered, or that perhaps there was a hardening of his position between the time of these events and the time of composition.

5 Guasti, C., ed., Lettere di una gentildonna fiorentina del secolo XV ai figliuoli esuli (Firenze 1877)Google Scholar.

6 Magliabecchi xxv, 272, p. 61: ‘Io trovandomi proposto de’ signori… .’

7 The list of priors for March and April 1454 can be found in the chronicle of Giovanni Cambi, who took his information from the priorista of Pietribuoni:

Filippo di Piero di Iacopo Magli

Agostino di Iacopo d'Agostino Martini

Mauro di Salvestro di Lodovico Cessini

Niccolaio di Lionardo Ciacchi, Baiaio

Luca di Salvi di Stefano Stefani, Coltellinaio

Piero di Iacopo di Francesco Neretti

Marco di Parente di Giovanni Parenti

Domenico d'Antonio di Bartolommeo Bruni

Manno di Temperano di Manno Temperani, Gonf. di Giust.

Giovanni Cambi, Istorie, Delizie degli eruditi toscani, ed.

Ildefonso di San Luigi (Firenze, 1786), xx, 326.

A list of the offices held by Marco, including the priorate, though without dates, can be found in Marco's Ricordanze. It is in the hand of his son, Piero. A.S.F. Carte Strozziane, 17 bis, fol. 80v. Alessandra Strozzi, Filippo's younger sister, married Giovanni di Donato Bonsi. Filippo himself was married twice, first to Fiametta Adimari, and later to Selvaggia de Gianfigliazzi (cf. Goldthwaite, Private Wealth, p. 30).

8 On Parenti, see Guasti, Lettere di una gentildonna. On his humanist connections, see Martines, L., The Social World of the Florentine Humanists (Princeton, 1963), p. 346 Google Scholar. See also Cosenza, Mario, Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists (Boston, 1963), III, 2603 Google Scholar. Both Martines and Cosenza need to be corrected on the issue of Parenti's supposed lack of participation in high communal office. See also Wohl, Hellmut, ‘Domenico Veneziano Studies: the Sant’ Egidio and Parenti Documents,’ Burlington Magazine, 113 (1971). 638–641 Google Scholar; and Sale, J. R., ‘An Iconographic Program by Marco Parenti,’ Renaissance Quarterly, 27 (1974), 293–299 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Ricordi storici, ed. Aiazzi, p. 102. Rubinstein, citing Rinuccini, says that the existence of a secret agreement between the two leaders is confirmed by a letter of Piero's in which he refers to having been visited by Pitti with his offer of support on Sept. 1. A visit on the 29th is also attested to by a separate document. Presumably the personal confrontation of the two men was the capstone of the settlement negotiated by Sassetti as recounted by Parenti (see Rubinstein, Government, pp. 162-163). Gino Capponi states, unfortunately without citing a source, that Pitti was lured out of opposition by the promise of great favor and the possibility of a marriage with Lorenzo (see Capponi, Gino, Storia della Repubblica di Firenze [Florence, 1875], II, 87 Google Scholar). Beneddeto Dei, in his much briefer treatment of these events, refers to an embassy sent by Piero to Luca consisting of Francesco Sassetti and Ser Niccolo di Michele di Feo Dini, ‘e quello si ragionassino insieme non si s a … . ‘ Benedetto Dei, Cronica, A.S.F. Manoscritti, 119, fol. 26.

10 Magliabecchi xxv, 272, pp. 69-70. ‘Seguìne quel che nel principio de’ nostri ricordi habbiamo narrato in questo libro, che da la morte di Cosimo incominciammo stimando per l'avenire havere a scrivere fatti di città libera, et di cittadini da diventare buoni stracchi dalla servitù de’ tempi passati, et non mi riuscendo, aspettavo pure tempo, che venissi questa libertà, che appressandosi, et nonne agiugnendovi in tutto rovinò, mi invilì l'animo, et la difficultà del sapere il vero per i segreti che riteneva a se chi governava, mi ritrasse dalla diligenza, et pensiero havevo fatto. Et però tali ricordi sono misti, di molta negligenza, et non continovati in tutte le cose occorse; Benchè dove più, et dove meno secondo e’ tempi.’

11 Ibid., p. 57: ‘che per migliore modo di vivere, et più pace d'Italia e’ fussi bene di spegnere la tirannia di milano, et fare surgere una terza libertà potente già cominciata, et fussi terza tra noi, et Vinitiani, et come lo spatio tra firenze, et Vinegia, et da Vinegia a Milano, et da Milano a Firenze, è quasi equedistante in forma di triangolo, così in ogni canto come un’ capo fussi una città potente, a tenere ritta in pie la pace di Italia contrapesando sempre la terza alle due che si volessinoopporre.’Parenti's consciousness of the unity of space in Italy is particularly striking when placed against the habit of vernacular chroniclers (including at times Parenti himself) of introducing non-Florentine events by noting the reception in Florence of the news rather than the occurrence itself.

12 Ibid., pp. 90-92 and 100-101. The list of the dimensions of the Duomo is also to be found in the chronicle of Benedetto Dei, for example.

13 Ibid., pp. 40-41: considering his low birth, the succession of Francesco Sforza to the Duchy of Milan is an ‘exempla memorabile’ of virtue and good fortune.