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The Return of the Native: Filippo Strozzi and Medicean Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Heather Gregory
Heather Gregory*
Affiliation:
University of New England, Australia
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Extract

The fortunes and misfortunes of the Strozzi lineage in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries have recently received considerable attention from historians. This has in general been focused on two men, Filippo di Matteo Strozzi (1428-1491) and his son, Filippo di Filippo (1489-1538). The career of Filippo il vecchio as man of business and Renaissance builder has been examined in considerable detail by Richard Goldthwaite, who has characterized him as independent, determined and ambitious, and as possessing a sense of grandeur “which went beyond the bounds to which most Florentine patricians confined themselves.” He considered that Filippo's absence from the “innumerable” offices with which most men of his status in Florence occupied themselves, should perhaps be attributed to the “lordly indifference of the returned exile,” and to the realism of a pragmatist not deluded by the republican facade maintained by the Medicean regime.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , Spring 1985 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1985

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References

1 Goldthwaite, Richard A., Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence: A Study of Four Families (Princeton, 1968)Google Scholar: the chapters devoted to the Strozzi deal with these men and their immediate relations and antecedents; Bullard, Melissa M., Filippo Strozzi and the Medici: Favor and Finance in Sixteenth Century Florence and Rome (Cambridge, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bullard, , “Marriage Politics and the Family in Florence: the Strozzi-Medici Alliance of 1508,” American Historical Review, 84 (1979), 668–687 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also two unpublished Ph.D. dissertations, Sale, J. R., “The Strozzi Chapel by Filippo Lippi in Santa Maria Novella” (University of Pennsylvania, 1976)Google Scholar, and Gregory, Heather J., “A Florentine Family in Crisis: the Strozzi in the Fifteenth Century,” (London University, 1980)Google Scholar. I would like to thank James Belshaw, Bill Kent and John Knott for their comments on the first draft of this article, and also Prof. Richard Goldthwaite for his generous encouragement and criticism. My research on the Strozzi owes much to the help and encouragement of Prof. Nicolai Rubinstein and F. W. Kent.

2 Private Wealth, p. 67. See also Goldthwaite, , “The Florentine Palace as Domestic Architecture,” American Historical Review, 77 (1972), 977–1012 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “The Building of the Strozzi Palace: the Construction Industry in Renaissance Florence,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 10 (1973), 99-135.

3 Goldthwaite, Richard A., The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History (Baltimore, 1980), p. 112 Google Scholar. This view of Filippo's building has been questioned by Kent, F. W., “ ‘Più superba de’ quella de’ Lorenzo’: Courtly and Family Interest in the Building of Filippo Strozzi's Palace,” Renaissance Quarterly, 30 (1977), 311-23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for more general family or lineage considerations on patronage, see Kent, F. W., Household and Lineage in Renaissance Florence: The Family Life of the Capponi, Ginori and Rucellai (Princeton, 1977), pp. 227 Google Scholar ff.

4 In addition to the many letters both to and from Filippo in the Archivio di Stato, Florence, Carte Strozziane (henceforth CS) ser. 3, CS ser. 5, filze 17, 22, and 14 constitute his personal accounts and extensive ricordanze from Dec. I, 1466, until his death. Unless otherwise indicated, all archival references are to the Archivio di Stato, Florence.

5 Strozzi, L., Vita di Filippo Strozzi il Vecchio scritta da Lorenzo suo figlio, ed. G. Bini and P. Bigazzi (Florence, 1851)Google Scholar.

6 Otto di Guardia e Balia, 224, fol 49V; Gregory, “A Florentine Family in Crisis,” p. 212.

7 CX, ser. 5, 12, fol. 25.

8 Kent, Dale V.. The Rise of the Medici: Faction in Florence, 1426-1434 (Oxford, 1978), P. 357.Google Scholar The tutori appointed by Matteo for his sons correspond closely with what Kent has called the “Strozzi neighbourhood circle“; ibid., p. 138.

9 Only four Strozzi were actually exiled: Kent, D., The Rise of the Medici, p. 357 Google Scholar.

10 CS, ser. 3, 180, fol. 58; Jacopo di Lionardo Strozzi to Alessandra Strozzi, Valencia, 31 March 1441. This letter makes it clear that Filippo left Florence only after a place had been arranged for him in his cousins’ bank, disproving the story of his son, Lorenzo (followed by Goldthwaite, Private Wealth, p. 53) that he first spent some time with a friend of his father, Matteo di Giorgio Brandolini, in Palermo.

11 Macinghi-Strozzi, Alessandra, Lettere di una gentildonna fiorentina, ed. Guasti, C. (Florence, 1877), pp. 143, 147-50Google Scholar. (Henceforth cited as Guasti, ed., Lettere).

12 CS, ser. 3, 180, fol. 58; “you have made a wise decision, because there he would be lost, but here there is a good prospect for him.“

13 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 29, Filippo Strozzi to Alessandra Strozzi, Valencia, 14 August 1446: “all our opportunities, it seems to me, are outside [of Florence]. But I judge that if in space of time things should improve there, and we are successful in the struggle, I would consider returning. But I doubt that will happen in our time.“

14 CS, ser. 3, 180, fol 5; Filippo Strozzi to Alessandra Strozzi, Barcelona, 19 March 1445: “although I know there's no need, but more to remind them frequently about you and my brothers, as you know we have no hope in the world if not from them.“

15 CS ser. 3, 131, fol. 29. “You wrote to me that Filippo wasn't happy about me, something which amazed me, because I know he wishes me well. I know this because he has told me that in his will, if he dies without sons, he has left me a good part of his estate… . They are doing excellent business, and need lots of juniors, and they would sooner trust their own than strangers. And then they also want to advance me in the business, because they think that when they are old, Lorenzo and I will run the business for them, because there are few they trust more than us.“

16 Niccolò did not, however, bequeath to Filippo half his estate, as Goldthwaite suggests: Private Wealth, p. 57. Niccolò's will, dated 18 Sept. 1468, is CS, ser. 5, 1162, no. 8: the relevant passage was published by C. Guasti, Lettere, pp. xxxi-xxxii. Niccolò left his nephew Lionardo di Jacopo Strozzi his universal heir, and failing him or his direct male heirs, Filippo and Lorenzo di Matteo Strozzi were jointly to inherit half the estate, with Bettino d’ Antonio Ricasoli (son of Niccolò's sister Gostanza) inheriting the other half.

17 CS. ser. 3, 131, fol. 29: “Niccolù has wanted to keep me by his side because having brought me up from a little boy, he says he also wants to bring me up as an adult, so that whatever good or bad qualities I may have, no one else will be responsible but him.”

18 CS, ser. 3, 145, fol. 21, Filippo Strozzi to Matteo Strozzi, Naples, 19 August 1449: “This will be a great set-back for us, because he was the first of us to go into business, where it is up to us to follow his lead.“

19 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 29: “because I still have the idea of rebuilding our lineage.” Marco Parenti, Filippo's brother-in-law, used a similar formulation to express his regret at the death of Filippo di Lionardo: it was “di gran danno non solamente da rilevare la chasa vostra… . CS, ser. 3, 249, fol. 106, Marco Parenti to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 19 Sept. 1449.

20 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 29: “you may guess how much they're thinking of returning [to Florence].“

21 Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 38–39 Google Scholar, 43: “the most beautiful house in the quarter.” This house was eventually purchased by Filippo in 1477, as part of the site of the future palace; CS, ser. 5, 22, fol. 104. On Alessandra see Martines, Lauro, “A Way of Looking at Women In Renaissance Florence,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 4 (1974), 15–28 Google Scholar.

22 Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, p. 39 Google Scholar: “I do not speak for myself, who have only a short time to live, but for you, or for those who will follow you.“

23 Priorista Mariani, Tomo 1, fol. 95r: his nephew, Benedetto di Francesco Strozzi, was prior in 1482.

24 Eg. CS, ser. 3, 180, fol. 53, 24 April 1450, in which he urged Filippo to revive the parentado which existed between the Strozzi and the Pandolfini with Messer Giannozo Pandolfini, who had been appointed Florentine ambassador to Naples.

25 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 28: Antonio Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 8 April 1446: ‘because there is no more notable man in Italy today.“

26 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 28: on this ceremony see also Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 168 Google Scholar, 174-76 (1462), and CS, ser. 5, 22, fol. 108 (1473).

27 On this question of kinship and political allegiance, see Kent, F. W., Household and Lineage in Renaissance Florence, pp. 214-15Google Scholar.

28 Guasti, C., Lettere, pp. 97–98 Google Scholar: “that I am in this position has greatly pleased and pleases everyone of the lineage, because it seems to them that they will yet have a part in this regime. And in truth they have good reason, as this ice is beginning to break.“

29 Rubinstein, Nicolai, The Government of Florence under the Medici (London, 1966), pp. 109-10Google Scholar.

30 C. Guasti, ed., Lettere, pp. xxxiii-xxxiv: “because it is the will of those who govern, and because I am certain they have done it solely for the peace and well-being of the whole city… . “

31 Ibid.: “neither has it lessened the love I have for my native city.“

32 This note is unsigned, but autograph, undated; CS, ser. 3, 180, vol. 59: “I have taken this [sentence] with resignation and have decided to behave the same as I did in the past, or better if possible.“

33 Priore Pandolfini wrote to Filippo, 16 Nov. 1465, that “questo gonfalonier [Niccolò Soderini] è in oppenione di fare che chi non ha fatto errore non sia punito, e che chi estato, sia ristituito;” CS, ser. 3, 178, fol. 38.

34 CS, ser. 3, 249, fol. 177: Marco Parenti to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 12 Nov. 1465: “the secret friendship which you have with all the important men.“

35 CS, ser. 3, 178, fol. 14: Agnolo Acciaiuoli to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 9 Nov. 1465: “I want to do as much as I can for the welfare of the city, which is a paradise inhabited by devils.“

36 Rubinstein, N., Government of Florence, pp. 165-66Google Scholar; Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 581-82Google Scholar.

37 A letter of Piero de’ Medici of 31 May 1465 to Ferdinand expresses his regret that “quello richiedete, non è in mia potestà;” Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 413-15Google Scholar.

38 Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 412-13Google Scholar; letter of 4 May 1465.

39 Ibid., p. 413: “you have obliged Lorenzo and me to be your slaves for the rest of our lives; it rests with you to raise or lower us as you will, like the least important boys you might have.“

40 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 159: Piero de’ Medici to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 20 July 1465: “and it is my intention for the future to restore you and to write to you and to do the other things which friendship and benevolence require.“

41 For Palla's life in exile, see Gregory, “A Florentine Family in Crisis,” pp. 222-46.

42 Bisticci, Vespasiano da, La Vite, ed. Greco, A. (2 vols.; Florence, 1970 and 1976), II, 161-64Google Scholar.

43 Biblioteca Riccardiana 4009 (unfoliated) Giovanfrancesco Strozzi to Francesco Caccini, Ferrara, 18 Oct. 1453: “thus they come, for their labour and obedience, after nineteen years, to ruin and defeat.” “None will return [to Florence] except when this regime wishes it, a regime which reexiles and torments and afflicts the minds of the afflicted even more than they were already, and most of all because they have been and are most obedient, and will be, even unto death. It saddens me because of our aged father, who in these his last years has had his tears renewed by fresh sorrows.“

44 See e.g. the two letters of Bardo and Lorenzo di Lorenzo di Messer Palla Strozzi, of 1466 and 1479, to Lorenzo de’ Medici, Archivio Medkeo, MAP 20, fol. 244, 3 Nov. 1466 and MAP, 37, fol. 9, 8 Jan. 1479.

45 CS, ser. 3, 247, fol. 17: Filippo Strozzi to Lorenzo Strozzi, Florence, 12 May 1475. “We have been very joyful at the recovery of your Carlo. May God preserve them [their sons] because we have need of them. We have so few of them… .“

46 On this see F. W. Kent, “ ‘Più superba de’ quella de’ Lorenzo,’ “ 312-14, and below.

47 Otto di Guardia e Balia, 224, fol. 146; Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 351-52Google Scholar.

48 Guasti, , Lettere, pp. 594-95Google Scholar: “moreover, it will displease Piero and the others of the regime, even though he has said yes, and we will realise this at the next scrutiny, but you more than me.“

49 CS, ser. 3, 131, fol. 194: Lorenzo Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, 21 March 1469: “la chasa non potrebbe andare meglio, e atuerebbe [sic] ongni nostro sospetto.“

50 CS, ser. 3, 139, fol. 45: Giovanni Strozzi to Michele Strozzi, Ferrara, 25 Feb. 1497: “during Lorenzo's time, if six or eight Strozzi were seen together, he would have clamped down on us at once.“

51 CS, ser. 3, 139, fol. 50: Giovanni Strozzi to Michele Strozzi, Ferrara, 24 Feb. 1497: “make sure that Ercole is visited by all the Strozzi, it's not like it was in Lorenzo's day, when you couldn't visit and show that you were one of the lineage.“

52 ser. 5, 22, fol. 93: “I note that on the twentieth of September 1466 I was restored, and so was Lorenzo my [brother], together with many others, and that we were able to hold offices.“

53 ser. 5, 22, fol. 93: CS ser. 5, 41, fol. 153: he refers to the “arte de’ merchatante” but this must be the cambio.

54 CS, ser. 5, 22, fol. 93: “I and Lorenzo and Alfonso were put to the vote as non veduti for the priorate, and I was told that only I had won. Then I was told not.“

55 CS, ser. 5, 41, fol. 153: Tratte 203 (unfol.). He was drawn on 28 Oct. for the months of Nov. and Dec. 1494.

56 Rubinstein, N., Government of Florence, p. 319 Google Scholar.

57 CS, ser. 5, 41, fol. 153. “On this day they began in the palace the scrutiny for the priorate, and our gonfalone was the first which went to the vote. My name went in the third bag, as I had not been seen [veduto] previously, and thus I sent Alfonso and Lorenzo my sons, and Charlo and Matteo di Lorenzo [his nephews]. The accoppiatori had decided that no names of minors under twenty in this bag should be put to the vote, and Lorenzo de’ Medici, one of the accoppiatori, sympathizing with me about this, gave it that each prior could nominate two such minors, and the accoppiatori the same. So Lorenzo Carducci, one of the accoppiatori, nominated Alfonso and Lorenzo, and Taddeo Gaddi, one of the priors, nominated Carlo and Matteo. I was told by a friend, and one who had good reason to know, that I and Alfonso and Carlo were victorious, and this I believe.” On Lorenzo de’ Medici as accoppiatore in this scrutiny, see’ Rubinstein, Nicolai, Government of Florence, p. 319 Google Scholar.

58 Only five Strozzi were veduti for the tre maggiori while this scrutiny was current: Filippo, his son Alfonso, Strozza di Messer Marcello Strozzi and Francesco and Antonio di Vanni Strozzi; by comparison there had been thirteen veduti from the 1465 scrutiny and eight from that of 1471: Tratte 202 and 203 (unfoliated).

59 On this informal “leadership” of large lineages, see Kent, F. W., Household and Lineage in Renaissance Florence, pp. 245-46Google Scholar. It is clear that, despite the “friendship” between Filippo and Lorenzo de’ Medici, there was also tension and some sense of competition. On Lorenzo's possible jealousy of Filippo's palace-building plans, see F. W. Kent, “ ‘Piu superba de’ quella de’ Lorenzo,’ “ 316-17.

60 CS, ser. 5, 22, fol. 108, Lorenzo Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Naples, 31 Dec. 1478 (copy in Filippo's hand): “I will be rejoicing about this office of yours, and I am happy for you about it. And it seems to me that our relations and friends should do the same, and for forty-four years we have not been in a similar position. It is a great step, and gives hope of other things, for you and for others.“

61 CS, ser. 5, 41, fol. 160: “it has given me pleasure, because no one of our lineage has held this office for fifty years.”

62 CS, ser. 5, 41, fol. 162. There are similar records for the birth of Lucrezia in 1487, while he was a member of the mercanzia and for that of Giovambattista (Filippo il giovane) in 1489, while he was a consul of the merchants’ guild.

63 CS, ser. 3, III, fol. 52: Agnolo Strozzi to Messer Palla Novello Strozzi, Cortona, 22 May, 1438, “remaining outside [those qualified to hold office] you and yours remain like a cancelled zero.“

64 Perosa, A., ed., Giovanni Rucellai ed il suo Zibaldone, Vol. 1, Il Zibaldone Quaresimale (London, 1960), pp. 3–5 Google Scholar; however as he here admitted, Giovanni himself did not really follow this rule. On the relationship of this and other passages of Giovanni's Zibaldone to the pseudo-Pandolfini Trattato del Govemo della Famiglia and to Alberti's Delia Famiglia see Perosa, p. 139 ff.

65 Goldthwaite, , Private Wealth, pp. 70–71 Google Scholar, provides some examples of Filippo's employment of his younger kinsmen, although noting that most or all were employed in strictly junior and subordinate positions.

66 CS, ser. 3, 131, fols. 88 and 91: Girolamo Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 24 Sept. and 3 Nov. 1459.

67 Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, pp. 266 Google Scholar, 271: “as you wanted a boy from the lineage… . “

68 Strozzi, L., Vita di Filippo Strozzi, p. 15 Google Scholar.

69 Guasti, C., ed., Lettere, p. 408 Google Scholar: “you have so many [boys] it will seem like a school, and you will need a master for them.“

70 Catasto 1013 (1480), fol. 218: “I do nothing, and I am waiting to die.”

71 Guasti, C., Lettere, pp. 282, 292Google Scholar.

72 E.g. his employment of Lionardo di Benedetto Strozzi, who came from one of the lineage's most prosperous branches; see e.g. CS, ser. 3, 145, fol. 66: Lionardo Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Florence, 27 Jan. 1473.

73 CS, ser. 3, 133, fol. 40; Messer Lorenzo Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Ferrara, 1 Oct. 1475: “the dishonour and shame of all our lineage.” See also fol. 35, Roberto Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Ferrara, 6 June 1475.

74 CS, ser. 5, 22, fol. 96.

75 Ibid.: “either for his soul, or for his honour or that of the lineage, according to how we think best.“

76 CS, ser. 3, 133, fol. 71, Messer Michele Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, Ferrara, 10 Nov. 1477: “the lady of the signore of Pesaro asked my wife if I were one of those Strozzi and of that lineage that were at Naples, and she said that you are many wellbred men of good reputation, and you are much loved, and have great credit with his majesty the King, so that you give honour to all the Strozzi lineage, and we are all indebted to you.“

77 Otto di Guardia e Balia, 224, fol. 153.

78 CS, ser. 3, 247, fol. 22, Filippo Strozzi to Lorenzo Strozzi, Florence, 22 May 1475: “Begni degli Strozzi is dead, and yesterday we buried him. It has been a loss, because in truth he was a good man, and left a good reputation behind him. And I, together with the others, mourn him, because he wished me well, and we ran well together in harness.“

79 Several of the properties acquired to clear the site for the palace were purchased during the 1470s; see CS, ser. 5, 41, fol. 179: “Nota di tutti i siti comprati per edifichare la mia casa grande.” From a passage in an autograph copy of the will of Filippo's brother Lorenzo (who died in 1479) it seems clear that Filippo already planned a new chapel in S.M. Novella: “et lascio che in caxo Filippo mio fratello si contenti di comprare o di nuovo murare una capella in Santa Maria Novella o in che altra chiesa paressi alui, per noi e nostri discendenti,” that 500 florins of his estate should be devoted to masses to be said in it; CS, ser. 3, 106, fol. 225. On this chapel see J. R. Sale, “The Strozzi Chapel by Filippo Lippi,” and E. Borsook, “Documents for Filippo Strozzi's Chapel in S. M. Novella and Other Related Papers,” Burlington Magazine, 112 (1970), 737-46, 800-804. By 1477, Filippo had acquired patronage rights in the chapels at Lecceto and Le Selve: see Borsook, E., “Documenti relativi alle cappelle di Lecceto e delle Selve di Filippo Strozzi,” Antichità Viva, 9 (1970), 3–22 Google Scholar.

80 CS, ser. 3, 247, fol. 84, Filippo Strozzi to Lorenzo Strozzi, Florence, 6 Feb. 1478: “to leave the great profits to those who need them more than we do.“

81 CS, ser. 3, 247, fol. 25, Filippo Strozzi to Lorenzo Strozzi, Florence, 13 Nov. 1477: “there seems to me to be a great difference between him and me. Nevertheless I believe I live more happily, in my position, than he does. I have less favour and also fewer burdens… . This place is full of envy, and it doesn't matter a great deal who is believed to be wealthy, not because there may not be many richer, but I am contented to acquire less… . But I want to say this, that from the Medici outwards, there is no one in business who is happier than we are.“