The Palace Read online

  PART I Prologue

  Laurenzo di Piero

  de' Medici,

  called Il Magnifico

  Quant 'e bella giovinezza

  Che si fugge tuttavia.

  Chi vuol esser lieto, sia;

  Di doman non c'ee certezza

  How beautiful a thing is youth

  Which so completely flees us.

  Whoever desires to be merry, let him;

  For tomorrow is never certain.

  -Laurenzo de' Medici

  Text of a document confirming the sale of land filed with la Signoria in Fiorenza on November 5, 1490:

  Know by this statement and testimony that I, Giovanni Baptiste Andreo di Massimo Corsarrio, merchant of the city of Fiorenza and citizen of the Repubblica, freely, on this day, have transferred all claim to land owned by me beyond the grounds of SS. Annunziata near the wall of the city to the alchemist Francesco Ragoczy da San Germano for the sum of six hundred fifty fiorini d'or.

  It is further stipulated that neither I nor my heirs nor debtors may lay any title or claim to this land, and that it is the property of said Francesco Ragoczy da San Germano until such time as he, his heirs or debtors dispose of it under the rights and obligations of the laws of la Repubblica.

  Francesco Ragoczy da San Germano declares that it is his intention to build a palazzo in the Genovese style on this land, and to that end has hired my own builders to do the work, in accordance with the regulations of the Arte, and to that end has deposited with me four cut diamonds valued by Tommaso Doatti Capella, the jewel merchant, at one thousand four hundred fiorini d'or, against payment of wages to the builders for construction of the palazzo, which shall begin immediately.

  All conditions of transfer being satisfactorily met, this testament is to be regarded as complete and final.

  Sworn to this day, the Feast of San Zachario, in Fiorenza, in 1490

  Giovanni Baptiste Andreo di Massimo Corsarrio, cloth merchant, Fiorenzeno his seal, a blue hand upraised on a field of red and white lozenges

  Francesco Ragoczy da San Germano, alchemist, stragnero his seal, the eclipse on a field of silver

  witnesses:

  Tommaso Doatti Capella, jewel merchant, Veronese

  Laurenzo di Piero de' Medici, banker, Fiorenzeno