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A19774
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A suruey of the great dukes state of Tuscany In the yeare of our Lord 1596.
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Dallington, Robert, 1561-1637.
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1605
(1605)
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STC 6201; ESTC S109213
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56,057
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78
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Saluiati and Pazzi gouerned the State of Florence with all wisdome grauitie and moderation without respect of any particular aduancement of his house but onely of the weale publick To him had all the States and Princes of Italy recourse in all their matters of controuersie to be ended and of counsell to be guided insomuch as in his dayes Florence seemed another Delphos and he another Oracle as he would were all officers chosen all families preferred and all common actions of the State carried So that as in Genoa the Adorni and Fregosi were by the people exalted to curbe the vnbrideled insolencies of the Colore Nobile as in Siena the Petrucci were made great to restraine the disordered humours of some aspiring Citizens as in Perugia the Baglioni were aduanced to empeach the proud desseignes of the Raspanti of whose proceedings the Citty grew iealous and as in Bologna the Bentiuogli were preferred to extraordinarie honours authoritie through the hate they bore their Nobles So likewise the first raising of this familie Medici was their plausible carriage towards the meaner and baseâ— rancke of Citizens by whom they were chosen for a head against the greater and more powerfull sort And not contented with this prehemenencie their desires rested not vntill as in the person of Alexander shall appeare one of their house came to be Duke of so great a State brother to a King of France and sonne in law to an Emperour So ordinary and naturall a thing it is in the minde of man in matter of ambition and greatnesse to keepe no mediocrity that when yee giue him the authority and commaund ouer few and in small matters he cannot list his vast thoughts within the limits prescribed but is so carried beyond himselfe with a desire to rule as without consideration either of vertue by which or of friends by whom he was aduanced he is violently driuen with the streame of that his ambitious passion to oppresse aswell those by whose meanes as those for whose cause he was at first aduanced Which ambitious humour of raigning though it raigned not in this good Lorenzo who with the reputation of a great wise man and no lesse good Cittizen dyed in the yeare 1492. with whom saith Guicciardine dyed the glory and peace of Italy yet it made the way to those garboiles and troubles which his childrens greatnesse by his desert and aspiring minds by their owne corruption dâ—d afterwards cause in Florence For leauing behind him three sonnes Piero Giouanni and Guigliano the first succeeded his father but not with like moderation in that authoritie wherin his fathers vertues left him in but asserting a lordly superiority and sole gouernment and as my Author saith Con consiglio dirittamehie contrario à consigli paterni ne communicato â—o cittadini principali with a counsell quite contrary to that of his father and kept still secret from the chiefe Cittizens he sought to carry all matters after the vnbrideled sway of his owne affections so greatly to the dislike of the Citizens and to the preiudice of their liberty as â—e with his brothers were worthily banished who after many attempts to be reimpatriate yet still repulsed were notwithstanding at the last by the meanes of Ferdinando King of Aragon and Naples restored I meane the two younger brothers for Piero was now dead ripigliando quell antica grandezza de Medicima gouuernandola puâ— imperiosamente e con arbitâ—io pui assoluto di quello che'st soleua taking vpon theÌ„ againe the former greatnes of the Medici carrying it more lordly and with a more peremptory swinge then they were wont Guicciard lib. 11. car 318. This restoring of the Medici subiection of the Cittie was in the yeare 1512. after they had beene eighteene yeares banished in which lordly course of carrying theÌ„selues they continued fifteene yeares till 1527. when Clement the Pope being in dangerat Rome fled into the Castle S. Angelo the Florentines taking aduantage of the time attempted the recouering of their liberty Howbeit at the Popes instance the Emperour Charles the fift made Alexander Medices Prior perpetuall And after in 35. as hath beene before said speaking of his Stile hauing matched in the house of Austria he created him duke causing an emblematical statue to be made of Brasle in the chiefe Piazza of the towne with this inscription in the name of the Emperour Te filsi si quâ—â— Leserat vltor ero My Sonne I will reuenge thee if any dare to hurt thee as a threat to the Citty if they offered to recouer their liberty This Alexander fyrst Duke of Florence being murdered by his cosen Lorenzo and hauing no issue the gouerment fell to Cosmo son to Giouanni de Medici Maria Saluiati heire in the next line Father to this great duke that now liueth to whom by the death of his elder brother FraÌ„cesco this state is deuolued Concerning his Court it is the generall opinion that it is greater then of a Duke lesse then of a King which compared with other Dukes of Italy is true howbeit if it be considered either what number of persons are therein or what prouision there is made I thinke it may hardly compare with the houses of the Nobility of England comprehending in this nuÌ„ber none but such as liue and haue their dyet in Court whereof there be very few For this Court doth yeeld two sorts of courtiers della bocca della Casa of the mouth and of the house that is of such as feede there and of such as retaine onely Of the first sort is the great Duke himselfe the Duke Bracciano their Dutchesses their children and some few seruants besides to the number as I haue creadibly heard not aboue foure and twenty of the other sort are other officers of Court which notwithstanding liue at their owne priuate tables as Monsignior Puteo Archbishop of Pisa and thereto his Highnesse by whose counsell he is especially aduised Il Signior Piero Vsimbaldi il signior Caualliere Conciâ—o il Signior Beliario Vinta il Signior Caualliere Serguidi il signior Piero Conti his Secretaries diuers others his officers To these if we adde Don Giouanni Don Antonio both Medici the one his brother the other his Nephue illigitimate Il signior Camillo del Monte generall of the foot Il signior Conte Gherardesca Collonell of the horse Il signior Francesco Montauti generall of his gallies besides the Lâ—arant ' Otto diuers others Countes and Nobles of Florence you shall see a very honourable and noble presence The order of this discourse requireth that in this place I briefly aduertise of the order of San Stephano whereof his highnesse is grand-master which was first instituted by Cosmo his father and confirmed by Pius Quintus But because the ordinances statutes therof be very many aswell concerning the inuestiture as degradation for that there is a booke written thereof intitled della Religione di san Stephano I
and King of Aragon to enter into a confederation with the Florentines and to re-inuest them of Pisa inferring that by this meanes the French forces might be diuerted which otherwise with the helpe of this state being seated in the middest of Italy might effect matters of preiudiciall consequent to all three so fitly stands it either to dispeople the enimies forces or to reinforce their owne And therefore Guiccardine very iudicially determineth that it was a powerfull estate rather per l'opportunità del cito che per la grandezza del Dominio by the fitnesse of the scituation then by the greatnesse of the Dominion But if we define the middest of Italy in an Arithmeticall proportion that is the center equally distant from both extreams it will appeare to be true which Pliny and Varro report confirmed also by Leander Albertâ— concerning Lago di pâ—e del luco which Taciâ—us in his first booke calleth Lacus Velnius in Sabina which they hold to be the middest of Italy Concerning the Riuers of worth there be few of name many for the Italian hath a name for euery ditch whereof if we allow them not Tiber Arno is their chiefe This Riuer was so named by Hercule Lybicus whose surnames were Libarno that is the Lyon of Lybia and Musarno that is the learned and valiant for Ar in the Arabian tongue signifies a Lyon He was the sonne of Osyris and Isis called Iupiter and Iuno by the Greekes and grand-childe of Ianus called by the Greekes Ogyger and by the Chaldeans and Hebrews Noah wherevpon stand the Citties of Florence and Pisa Serchio which runneth by Lucca Ombrone by Pistoia Bisentio by Prato Chiana which passeth by the vale of Arezzo and falleth into the Arno Mognâ—ne which runneth neere Ciuita vecchia into the Sea Fiero which deuideth the great Dukes state and the Popes towards the Tuscan sea Paglia which deuides those two states towards the Appenninâ—â— ouer which we passe by a bridge built by Gregory the 13. in our iourney from Florence to Rome betweene Rodicofany and Aquapendente that belonging to the great Duke this to the Pope True it is that Guicciardini in the 4. booke of his History and namely in that part of the booke which by order of th'inquisition is left out of all alowed copies because in this place though himselfe were the Popes creature and had great charge vnder him yet he fully learnedly and truly sheweth how by little and little and by bad meanes the Church grew to her greatnesse how she came not onely to quit her obedience to the empire but to haue also a power and stroke in the election of the Emperour himselfe not onely to make the Pope gouernour of Rome but to incroach also vpon the Territories and Citties of Romagna the Marquisate of Ancina the Dutchie of Spoletum and Beneuentum the superiority ouer the kingdome of Naples and the possession of that part of Tuscany now called the Patrimony of S. Peter he I say diuideth the Popes state in this Country from the rest of Tuscany thus Eterminata dal torrente di Pescia dal Castello di San Luirico nel Conâ—ado di Siena da vna banda dall altra dal Mare di sotto dal fuime di Teuere that is it is limited on the one side with the Riuer Pescia and the Castell Saint Luirick in the territories of Siena and on the other with the Riuer Tyber and the Tyrrhene Sea But I rather tie my selfe to the former limits for that the Paglia is farre beyond Saint Luirick whether the great Dukes state now reacheth There is also Câ—cina which riseth a little aboue the Cittie of Massa and so passing along the Countrey of Volterra fulleth into the Sea with many such other which in England we rather call Brookes or Riuerets for of all these there are few sit either for burthen or Boate in Summer except the Arno yet heere often times scarce water for a Mill as by their deuises at Florence to penne it vp appeareth The reasons that the waters of this State are so small be two the former is the violence of their downefall from the hilles the better is because their heads are so neare to the Sea as they cannot haue space to be enlarged by the receipt of other lesser Brookes by which meanes onely all Riuers grow great as namely the Rheine and Danowe whereof this last hath from his head which is in the Forrest Nera to the Mare Maggiore where he payeth his tribute aboue two thousand miles and receaueth into his bed by the way three score nauigable Riuers The Lakes in this State are neither many nor great nothing so faire or fruitfull as those of Lombardy namely Lago di Garda Lago d Iseâ— Lago d Como and Lago Maggiore the chiefe in Tuscany are these Lago di Trasimenâ— vnder the Pope who letteth it out to diuers Farmers for ten thousand Duckets the yeare which haue the fishing whereof it is very fruitfull and yeeldeth them also no little gaine The profit which the Duke of Ferrara raised by the Lake of Comacchiâ— who they say in Venice made thereof yearely foure-score thousand Duckets makes this more probable But this Lake of Trasimene now called Lago di Perugia is much more renowned for the notable ouerthrow giuen there by Hanniball to the Romaines neare wherevnto is that faire plaine called Ossaia of the bones of the dead there flaine by the rashnesse of C. Flaminius the Consul as Polibius in his third booke Liny in his two and twentith and Plutarcke in the life of Haniball auowe The other memorable blow giuen them if it be not here impertinent to remember was that at Canne in Puglia called by Liuâ—e in his twentie and one booke Caâ—nusium where was slaine P. Emilius the Consul L Acilius and L Furuis Bibaâ—ulus the Quaestors one and twentie Tribunes of Souldiers fourescore Senators fortie thousand foote two thousand and seauen hundred horse all Romaines and as many Anuiliaries as Plutarch in the liues of Hanniball and Scipio and Solinus Italicus in his ninth booke confesse There are diuers Lakes betweene Pisa and Liuorne but small and of no name There are more not farre from the Cittie Colle Laego di Bolsena called by ancient writers Lacus Vulsiniensium Lâ—go di Bassanello anciently called Lacus Vadeâ—onius where the Romaines vtterly subdued the Tuscans Lago di Bracciane called formerly Lacus Sabbatinus Lago di Vicco called by Virgill in his seauenth Aenead and Siluius Italicus in his eight booke Lâ—cus Cimini of the Mountaine so called standing betweene this Lake and the Cittie of Viterbo Lago di Montâ— Rosa not large but deepe neere Rome with few others The Plaines are also few for they before are allowed but one fourth part the chiefe are these That of Florence wherein liue aboue two hundred thousand persons that neere Arezzo called Vald ' Arno because the Riuer passeth by it the most fruitfull that of Pisa the most lowe and