FLORENTINE FAIIILY IN CRISIS: THE STROZZI IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Heather Jean Gregory. Submitted for the degree f Ph.D., University of London. Westfield College. - 2 - UNIVERSITY OF LONDON fbstract of thesi8 Heather Jean GREGORY A FLORENTINE FAMILY IN CRISIS: the Strozzi in the Fifteenth Century. Ph.D. In 1434 the Strozzi lineage had held a leading position in Florentine society and government for at least one hundred and fifty years, and was one of the largest and wealthiest of the city's patrician lineages. The records of the catasto of 1427 and of the scrutiny of 1433 are used to give a profile of the dominant social, economic and political position of the Strozzi before the advent of Medicean dominance. Their record of electoral success, and the political and cultural leadership of influential and respected men such as Palla di Nofri and Matteo di Simone, with other factors, put the Strozzi amongst the greatest enemies of the victorious riedicean regime of late 1434. The effects of political opposition and exile on the lineage are examined both directly, through records of office- holding, and indirectly through such indicators as marriage alliances and household wealth. The two most prominent lines of the Strozzi were exiled after 1434. Palla di Nofri's life and preoccupations in his Paduan exile are examined, together with the lives of his Sons; none of these Strozzi ever returned to Florence, pursued as they were by the enmity of the Medicean regime. The very different careers of Filippo di rlatteo and his brother Lorenzo are also examined: how they succeeded in founding a lucrative bank in Naples, and in returning to Florence to 'rebuild' (rifare) the position of the Strozzi lineage there. The final decades of the century saw the Strozzi in an economically more secure position, due substantially to the efforts of Filippo. Except f or a very small number of its members admitted into the regime, most of the lineage is here shown to have remained excluded from significant political office until after the fall of the Medici regime in 1494. -3- CONTENTS Introduction page 8 Chapter 1 The Strozzi Lineage in Florence, 1427-1469: P Profile. I The Florentine lineage 28 ii The branches 34 iii The households 37 iv The neighbourhood 49 v The domestic economies. 61 Chapter 2 Marriage and the Lineage. 1 Marriage and the concept of parentado 94 ii Choosing marriage partners: whom did the Strozzi marry? 97 iii Choosing marriage partners: the children of Palla di Nofri 102 iv Marriage, politics, and the closer kinsmen 110 v Dowries 122 Chapter 3 Politics and the Lineage. i The political life of the lineage: the scrutiny of 1433 140 ii The political life of the lineage: after 1434 154 Chapter 4, part 1 The Exiles: Filippo Strozzi i Departure 184 Ii Florentine Connections 193 iii Return 202 part 2 The Exiles: Palla Strozzi I Events 222 ii Ideas 232 Chapter 5 The 'Rebuilding' of the Lineage: the Strozzi after 1470 i Filippo Strozzi in Florence, 1470-1491 258 ii Filippo and the Strozzi lineage 267 iii The other exiles 274 iv Conclusion 281 -4- LIST OF TBLE5 Chapter 1 Figure 1 Sites owned by Pleaser Palla di Nofri page 54 Strozzi in 1427 Table 1 !verage household size 73 Table 2 marriage: analysis by ages 74 Table 3 Types of households 75 Table 4 Wealth rating: 1427 76 Table 5 Wealth rating: 1469 78 Chapter 2 Table 1 Fifteenth century Strozzi marriages and 128 dowries Chapter 3 Table 1 Strozzi successful in 1433: by electoral 172 categories Table 2 Strozzi successful in fifteenth century 173 scrutinies Chapter 4 Table 1 Lineage members referred to by Rlessandra 209 Macinghi-Strozzi Table 2 Simplified genealogy of those Strozzi in 211 Table 1 Chapter 5 Table I Wealth rating: 1480 289 -5- ABBREVIATIONS USED IN MANUSCRIPT CITATIONS A.S.F. Archivio di Stato, Firenze CS. Carte Strozziane Cat. Archivio del Catasto M.A.P. Archivio Mediceo, avanti ii principato M.S.S. Manoscritti B.N.F. Biblioteca Nazionale, Firenze Bib. Ricc. Biblioteca Riccardiana, Firenze. A.S. Ferr Archivio di Stato, Ferrara A.B. or Arch. Bent Archlvio Bentivoglio Short titles of works, including printed sources, frequently cited: L.W. Belle A Renaissance Patrician: Palla di Nofri Strozzi, Ph.D, 1975, The University of Rochester A Renaissance Patrician A. de la Mare 'Messer Piero Strozzi, a Florentine Priest and Scribe' in A.S. Osley (ed.) Essays Presented to Alfred Fairbanks on his Seventieth Birthday, London, 1975, pp. 55-68 'Messer Piero Strozzi' R.A. Goldthwaite Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence: A Study of Four Families, Princeton, 1968. Private Wealth -6- 0. V. Kent 'The Florentine "Reggirnento" in the Fifteenth Century', Renaissance Quarterly, 28, 1975, pp.578-638 'Florentine Reggimento' F.bJ. Kent Household and Lineage in Renaissance Florence: The Family Life of the Capponi, Ginori and Rucellai, Princeton, 1977 Household and Lineage P. Litta Celebri Famiglie Italiane, 11 Volumes, Milan, Turin, 1819-1899; continued by L. Passerini, F. Odorici and F. Stefani. Volume 4 contains the genealogy of the Strozzi lineage, 'Strozzi di Firenze', 22 tables. 'Strozzi di jerze Alessandra Mac- inghi-Strozzi Lettere di una gentildonna fiorentina del secolo XV si figliuoli esuli, ed. C. Guasti, Florence, 1877 Strozzi Letters. Where reference is made to Guasti's Introduction or annotations, his name is given before this short title. A. Perosa (ed) Giovanni Rucellal ed 11 suo Zibaldone, Vol. 1, London, 1960 Zibaldone N. Rubjnstejn The Government of Florence under the 1'ledici, l434-14g4, Oxford, 1966 Government of Florence Lorenzo Strozzi Vita di Filippo Strozzi ii Vecchio scritta da Lorenzo suo f'iglio, ed. G. Bini and P. Bigazzi, Florence, 1851 Vita di Filippo Le Vite degli uomini illustri della casa Strozzi ed. P. Strornboli, Florence, 1892 Le Ulte degli Strozzi Vespasiano da Le Vite, ad. A. Greco, 2 Volumes, Florence, 1970 and Bisticci 1976. All references are to Vol. 2. La Vite -7- MCKNDWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was researched and largely written while I was the holder of a Commonwealth Scholarship; I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude for that award, and to thank its administrators at the Issociation of Commonwealth Universities in London for their help and cheerful tolerance of my vagaries. I received a great deal of help from other scholars in the archives in Florence; I would like to thank Professor Richard Trexler, Nargery Ganz and Sharon Strocchia for drawing my attention to various Strozzi materials. I would also like to thank Mark Phillips for showing me his as yet unpublished edition of Marco Parenti's chronicle, and Marion Murphy for the use of her unpublished map of Lion rosso and its occupants (on which Figure 1, Ch. 1 is partly based). I would specially like to thank Elaine Rosenthal for help of many kinds during my research, and Michael O'Higgins I' or all his help also. Thank you as well to Dale Kent for lots of aid given both in the archives and after, and to Bill Kent not only for help at every stage, and his generosity in sharing with me his own knowledge of the Strozzi, but also because without his encouragement I would probably not have begun this task. Finally, I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor Nicolai Rubin8tein, for his invariable kindness in directing my research, and for the advice which saved me from many more mistakes; I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to benefit by the example of his great erudition in the service of Florentine history. -B- INTRODUCTION: From the establishment of' the government of the priors of the guilds in the late thirteenth century, until the final demise of the Florentine republic nearly 300 years later, the Strozzi were continuously one of the most important, powerful and wealthy of Florentine families. As one of their most distinguished historians, Richard Goldthwaite, has remarked, 1 the Strozzi considerably preceded the Medici in rising to political prominence in Florence, and in the sixteenth century were to pose the most serious threat to the formal establishment of' Medicean rule. It might be added that during the first period of' Pledicean dominance in the fifteenth century, they regarded the Strozzi with the utmost seriousness as a likely source of powerful opposition. This is a study of' the Strozzi lineage in that "middle" century, the fifteenth, and of' the crisis which accompanied their transformation from being one of the wealthiest and politically most successful families in the ruling Florentine oligarchy, 2 to that of opposition, exclusion from political life, end exile. It is a study which will seek to combine the descrip-. tion and analysis of' one lineage, the largest family group which in the fifteenth century still constituted the main "building block" of Florentine aristocratic society, 3 with an investigation of the ways in which, over a number of decades, its members reacted to the pressure of political events, and whether the nature of' the bonds which united them were changed or weakened by these events. A very large body of' evidence (particularly in the form of private letters) relating to the Strozzi in the fifteenth century exists in the Archjjjo di Stato in Florence, and in other Italian archives. This evidence has until recently lain virtually untouched when it could have been used to make a valuable contribution to the recent debate on the nature of the Florentine family in the fifteenth century. The ques- tion of the degree to which the wider family or lineage remained for Florentine patricians a focus of loyalty and affections, and a source of political solidarity and economic and psychic support, an intermediate -9- and mediating body between the individual and the civic community, has flOW, I believe, largely been answered.