Free Magnifico by Miles J. Unger Page A

twelve youths from the best families—including the sons of Puccio Pucci and Averardo Portinari (both families involved in running the Medici bank), two members of the Pazzi clan, and Lorenzo Neroni, son of Dietisalvi. Each of these brave young knights, dressed in matching uniforms of the lord they served, was attended by an army of pages and servants, again in matching livery bearing the red balls of the Medici crest. *
    “Palle! Palle!” A roar of approval from the crowd announced the arrival of Lorenzo himself, sumptuously attired and mounted proudly atop a snow-white charger. Behind him came the final treat, an elaborately decorated carriage symbolizing—in the best tradition of courtly chivalry—the Triumph of Love.
    As the column made its way south along the Via Larga, each adolescent boy preened like a fashion model on a runway. “Every warrior wears a helmet surrounded by a headdress in the form of a garland, beautifully decorated with silver, and with golden feathers rising from it, shining like a star,” wrote one bedazzled spectator. They proceeded as far as the baptistery before reversing course and coming to a halt beneath the walls of the Medici palace. Here the assembled dignitaries were treated to a thrilling spectacle as the young men, their armor gleaming in the torchlight, demonstrated their equestrian skill, charging with gold-tipped lances like fierce warriors. At least for this one night, these sons of bankers and merchants were transformed into daring knights who, judging by the splendor of their outfits if not their martial prowess, seemed fit to take their place alongside Charlemagne, Roland, and their brave companions. As always, the Medici had spared no expense, outfitting the entire entourage in the costliest garments and providing the riders with the finest mounts. There was no doubt among the assembled crowd to whom this night belonged: “He for many reasons has great power,” wrote one eyewitness,
    Since his family can do much,
    Son of Piero and grandson of Cosimo.
    Thus these genteel youths made him signore [lord]….
    Whence he wanted to show everyone
    That they were all subject to one signore .
    Now that genuine youth moves
    Upon a horse marvelously ornate,
    Everyone watches what he does….
    His dress surpasses easily that of
    All those of whom we’ve spoken,
    And well he shows that he is signore .
    There is something faintly ridiculous about these merchants’ sons dressing up as chivalrous knights, but beneath the empty pomp more important business was being transacted. On the most obvious level, those who belonged to Lorenzo’s brigade and who wore the livery of his family were declaring their fealty as surely as any knight kneeling before his king. Lorenzo, holding high the baton of the signore, accepted their declaration of loyalty with a calm sense of superiority as befitted a feudal lord.
    Indeed, the festivities of April 1459 capped a decade-long public relations campaign that had begun with Lorenzo’s baptism on the Feast of the Epiphany. From the moment of Lorenzo’s birth the Medici were engaged in a continual and delicate process of seduction in which the young boy was presented to the people as both the paragon of the virtuous citizen, a Florentine born and bred of a respectable merchant family, and as a charismatic leader, destined to hold the fate of a nation in his hands. Finding precisely the right balance between the two was difficult, since, as Francesco Guicciardini noted, “In Florence the citizens love equality by nature, and yield unwillingly when they should acknowledge anyone as their superior.” To a people steeped in republican traditions, jealous of rank and ready to cut down to size anyone who sought to raise himself too high above his fellow citizens, Lorenzo was something new. He was, to use an anachronistic term, a celebrity, a child star paraded about the city in fine clothes and the center of attention on many public occasions.
    Lorenzo was