It was day, and on one day in July it rose to gan with the manservant Piccino, about pared the way for the evolution of what | No one weeps for the dead." we moderns call individualism. By all an awful visitation; children died, of these signs and tokens we recognize friends, neighbors, and relations fell the character of the men and the life of victims; there was no longer any the Renaissance. The affection for a means of recording even the names of common country and even family was the dead. The number of victims who weakened by an acute craving for pleas-were struck down in the summer alone ure; incredulity, scepticism, and sen- reached the figure of one hundred per suality threatened to obtain the upper hand. After the passing away of the dread terrors of the plague, these generations must almost have wondered to find themselves alive. From the great beginning of the mortality of 1348 to the early years of the fifteenth century, the chroniclers register no less than six such epidemics, though some were of comparatively minor deadliness. By consulting the books of death preserved in the archives of the Grascia, it is possible to ascertain that from the 1st of May to the 18th of September, 1400, there occurred no fewer than 10,908 deaths, of which the greater part were children. Of the plague of 1348, besides the classical and splendid descrip- Those who could ran away to Arezzo, tion of Boccaccio, we can discover vivid Bologna, Romagna, or any city or counand sad records amid the family chron- try where they thought they would be icles in the diaries and memoranda of safe. It was the rule to go to any place the day. It must have been a despair- where the plague had already been. ing and awe-inspiring sight. Giovanni Remedies against the mysterious sickMorelli tells us how in one hour a ness there seemed to be none. Morelli friend or neighbor was laughing and lays down some rules that to-day would joking, and the next he was dead. be called hygienic : People fell down dead in the streets and at their benches; fell down dead when alone, without the help or comfort of a human being. Many went mad and threw themselves into the wells or the Arno, or from out their windows, driven to this by great sorrow or panic or fear. Many and many died unseen, many were buried before the breath had left their bodies. One might see the cross-bearing priests who had gone to fetch a corpse take up two or three on their way to the church. It is calculated that in Florence alone two-thirds of the population died that is, eighteen thousand persons. Of the epidemic of 1400 a detailed description is given in a letter of Ser Lapo Mazzei: "Here shops are hardly open any more; the masters are not at their desks; the police, the justice is without superiors. The pestilence of 1348 was caused by a terrible famine. The year before, it happened that in Florence there was great hunger; we lived on herbs and reeds, and very bad they were; all the country was full of people, who went about feeding on grass like beasts. The corpses were dis posed of in any mode, and there was no help for this. This chronicler counsels people to keep themselves in good condition; to be careful to eat well and avoid damp; to spend generously and without stint or economy; to refrain from melancholy and gloom; not to think of dull, sorrowful things; to play, ride, amuse themselves, be happy. The survivors from the scourge must have quickly accustomed themselves to the tenor of the new life, once the danger was over. One result of the plague forerunner of Casanova; like him, journeying continually in the quality of merchant and political agent, diplomat and professional gambler, finding competitors only among princes like the Dukes of Brabant, Bavaria, and Savoy. This was the father of that Lucca Pitti who in riches and magnificence rivalled the Medici, and tried in all things to vie with Cosimo. was the institution of processions of | Mazzei. Others, like Buonaccorso Pitti, "white penitents," resembling those furnish us with the type of a man of which in the previous century traversed the Renaissance who had no fixed resiall Europe under the name of "The dence; who wandered over the world Company of the Crushed." Folk left tormented with inner restlessness; who their homes in crowds, both men and gambled, lost, and traded; who medwomen, laymen and ecclesiastics, all dled with commerce and politics, just mingling together, dressed in white like an adventurer of the eighteenth cloaks which covered their faces, and century, like to Benvenuto Cellini, but wearing a crucifix as their badge. They without his art and with far less intelliwalked in procession from place to gence. A curious strange type this place, singing lauds and supplicating Pitti, who seemed as though bitten by "Misericordia" in loud voices; at a tarantula, living by his wits, the intinight they lay in the open air, and only mate of Charles VI., of dukes and asked for bread and water. The people princes, who for a wager with the girl of the cities they visited caught their he loved rode straight away to Rome fervor, and went in like order to visit without stopping; a great dancer, an other towns. On the appearance of inveterate gambler, a brave and loyal these pious pilgrims every one was cavalier, who in time rose to the highmoved to repentance; enmities were est offices. Burckhardt calls him a laid aside, discordant factions were pacified, and the cities were filled with sanctity. Some vicious persons in Florence sought to profit by this agitation, and liberate the prisoners, but fortunately they were hindered. Francesco Datini, a merchant from Prato and a great benefactor to his town, though otherwise a man of dubious morality, who ill-treated his wife and openly preferred his slave in her presence, also went on pilgrimage in August, 1399, dressed in white linen and barefooted, together with his family, friends, and neighbors. They were twelve in all, and had with them two horses and a mule. On these beasts they put two trunks in which were boxes filled with all manner of good things to eatcheese of every kind, fresh bread and biscuits, plain and sweet tarts, and other such tit-bits of daily life so much so that the beasts were quite overladen with the burden of the victuals. This pilgrimage lasted ten days, and went as far as Arezzo. Wherever they passed they bought eatables. This making of pilgrimage on horseback, well supplied with food, was certainly a gay and comfortable way of doing penance. The more intelligent and incredulous barely respected the outward forms of religion. Datini, for example, only feared the upbraidings and reproaches of his friend and spiritual mentor Ser Lapo The merchants, grown immeasurably rich, thanks to their traffic, their journeys, their visits to the factories established in all the commercial centres and ports of Europe, had developed into bankers and money-lenders, feeling the times to be ripe when they could tranquilly enjoy the fruits of their exertions. Florence, like a lovely, prosperous maiden of good parts and abundant dowry, the factions quieted that had quarrelled concerning her, closed her eyes under the shade of the Mediceau laurels, dazzled by the magnificence with which, woman-like, she had allowed herself to be conquered. Now that the family had acquired property, they sought to found houses, they looked out for suitable marriages, which were discussed as though they were political alliances. Alessandra Macinghi degli Strozzi went to mass every morning in Santa Reparata to sit behind the girls whom she would like her son Filippo to marry, and with the eye of a future mother-in-law studied, examined, criti- | the province of Tuscany, which is the cised, and wrote about them to her son most highly respected amid the provas though the matter in hand were a inces of Italy, and, above all, in the city bargain about a horse. It is true that of Florence, reputed the noblest and Alessandra, to our mind, has been too most beautiful city, not only in Christenmuch exalted and praised; she must dom, but in the whole universal world; have had the heart of a merchant, not and finally, for living in the present that of a woman. That she laid hands age, held to be, by those who know, upon her slaves she frankly confesses the greatest that our city has ever herself. This, however, was the cus-seen since it was founded, as well as for tom of the day; it was perhaps easy to living in the time of the magnificent lose one's temper with those Russians citizen Cosimo dei Medici." He also and Tartars. But concerning her char- expresses his gratitude to Heaven for ity, we have stumbled on a curious having granted him the favor of becomdocument. It regards two old people, ing allied to this great man, through only survivors of a family of laborers. the marriage of his son Bernardo with "Piero and Monna Cilia are both alive Nannina, daughter of Piero and niece and infirm. I have overflowed the field of Cosimo —a splendid connection, of for next year, and as I must put it in which Rucellai was justly proud. order, these two old people, if they In those days, without fear of the do not die, must go and beg. Heaven sumptuary laws now fallen into disuse, will provide." Nor is this a passing Florence celebrated the nuptial feast of thought; it was a firm resolve. In a her great families with all the splendor letter written a few months later we she could muster. The wedding of read: "Piero is still alive" (Heaven had already provided for Monna Cilia, it seems), so he must put up with it, and go away and beg. It would be best, of course, if Heaven would take him." Evidently it was not possible to combine good farming with a good heart, and this little incident probably reflects very truly the sentiments of the age in which they were uttered. Baccio Adimari and Lisa Ricasoli, which took place in 1420, is represented in a well-known old picture that hangs in the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. We see the happy couple and their friends dancing to the accompaniment of trumpets and fifes under a striped awning of variegated colors. This marriage, and that of the Rucellai and Medici, furnish us with a graphic picture of life in those days. Fortunately, too, the great old man, in his zibaldone, has embalmed a record of the latter festivity in a description full But some of those who had increased and multiplied their means showed nobler sentiments and finer feelings. In Giovanni Rucellai we see the perfect type of the Florentine who appreciated of loving remembrance, which has the dignity of the new state in which fortune had placed him; for not only had he the gift of making money, he also understood how to spend it well, no less a virtue. "I think," he writes, in his zibaldone, "that it has brought me more honor to have spent well than earned well, and brought more contentment to my spirit, especially the work that I have done in my house." He thanks Heaven for having made him "a rational beinga Christian and not a Turk, Moor, or Tartar; and for having been born in Italy, which is the most worthy and noble portion of Christendom, and in 4226 become a precious document for the student of the manners and customs of the day. Gilded by the flaming sun of June, green festoons swung proudly across the street which was the scene of the wedding, festoons that brought into high relief the shields which ornamented the house fronts, and which were quartered half with the arms of the Medici, and half with those of the Rucellai. The rude stones of the palace façade, which Giovanni Rucellai's generosity had caused him to rebuild some years before, choosing as its architect Leon Battista Alberti, acquired a new aspect thus decked with bright awnings and festoons that hung from | pared by the fair hands of some gentle the Doric pilasters of the first floor, nun. There advanced slowly, shaking and over the Corinthian pilasters of the its leafy head as it stood on the cart second and third. Opposite the palace, drawn by panting oxen, a splendidl in the little piazza in front of the Log- olive-tree from Carmignano, as well as gia, had been erected a platform in the young oaks procured from the villa shape of a triangle; this was covered at Sesto, not to mention the flowers over to defend it from the sun by a that glad season gave in such profucanopy of blue cloth adorned with sion. The presents worthy of those wreaths, between which peeped the who sent them enhanced the magnififreshest roses. Below on the wooden cence of the feast, testifying to the love planks were laid tapestries, and precious and reverence the donors bore towards tapestries also covered the benches these two illustrious families about to placed round for the convenience of be allied by these nuptials. Thus by those who waited. The ends of the this marriage old Giovanni Rucellai did great blue velarium hung down here away with all suspicion of being an and there to the ground like to aerial enemy to the Medici faction, which columns. On one side of that great had grown stronger in Florence since tent there was a large sideboard on the exile of Cosimo. It was a connecwhich glittered silver vessels and dishes tion planned with much judgment, and wrought by the best gold and silver- which brought as much honor to his smiths in Florence. The richness of family as the façade of Santa Maria these adornments presaged the magnifi- Novella which he caused Alberti to cence of the banquet that was prepar- build, the chapel of San Pancrazio, the ing. The kitchen had been placed in Palace, and the beautiful Corinthian the street by the side of the palace, Loggia in Via della Vigna. That mawhere, counting cooks and underlings, jestic old man, with high, open forefifty persons were at work. The noise head, aquiline nose, piercing blue eyes. was great; Via della Vigna was crowded that still look out at us from an old with people from one end to the other. portrait, had a subtle wit. His thick The men who had decked the façade black hair fell in close curls on to his were succeeded by the servants who shoulders, a long, wavy beard rested. carried the presents from friends, cli- on his breast, preserving a few gold ents, and relations; peasants, garden- threads mixed with the grey of years; ers, and shop-people brought victuals; his fresh coloring denotes a vigorous pipers and trumpeters were preparing old age. We see him seated in a large. their music, and the young cavaliers armchair covered with fringed crimson were making ready for the tilts. That velvet embossed with gold. He wears Sunday, June 8, 1460, soon after dawn, a dark green tunic covered by a purple the crowd began to arrive from all sides gown with turnovers of crimson velvet; at the palace where the wedding was to his upward-looking eyes have a fartake place. There also came, welcome away gaze, as though he were thinking and promising sight to the curious, of things not of this world. The right quartered bullocks, casks of Greek hand, adorned with a ring set with a wine, and as many capons as could large diamond, rests heavily on the arm hang on a staff borne on the shoulders of the chair; the left, which is open, of two stout peasants; bars of buffalo- points to a handsomely bound mancheese, turkeys in pairs, barrels of ordi- uscript, the title of which is "Delle nary wine and choice sweet wine, Antichità." Beside it are a few open baskets full of pomegranates, hampers letters with the address, "To the Illusof large sea-fish, crates of little silver- trissimo Signor Giovanni Rucellai.” scaled fish from the Arno, birds, hares, Behind a dark curtain against a blue cream-cheese packed in fresh green background are painted, with much care rushes, baskets full of sweetmeats, tarts, and diligence the works he had exeand other delicate confectionery pre-cuted in stone and marble, the front of come " Santa Maria Novella, the chapel of San | sand francs an immense sum in those Pancrazio, the Palace, and the Loggia. days. There had been bought seventy Thus the picture sums up both the man bushels of bread, twenty-eight hundred and his glory, the rich merchant who white loaves, four thousand wafers, had become related to Cosimo di Gio- fifty barrels of sweet white wine, fifteen vanni dei Medici. hundred pair of poultry, fifteen hunGiovanna dei Medici came to her dred eggs, four calves, twenty large wedding accompanied, as was the cus- basins of galantine; twelve cataste of tom, by four cavaliers chosen from wood were burnt in the kitchen fires, among the elders of the city Messer Verily it seemed the reign of abunManno Temperani, Messer Carlo Pan- dance. On Tuesday evening some cavdolfini, Messer Giovannozzo Pitti, and aliers invited to the wedding performed Messer Tommaso Soderini. "I will jousts, moving from the Rucellai Pal, was written on certain cards ace up to the Tornaquinci, and afterwhich were hung on the benches cov-wards in the Via Larga under the ered with arras and placed under the Medici Palace. The bride received gay pavilion; and the bride did come, from her different relations no fewer and on that platform, made soft with than twenty rings, and six more from rich carpets, the guests danced and the bridegroom-two when he fetched played, waiting for the dinners and her, two for the espousals, and two on suppers. There came to the wedding the morning they exchanged rings. fifty gentlewomen richly dressed, and From Bernardo she received one hunfifty gentle youths in beautiful cos-dred florins, and some other coin, with tumes. The gaieties lasted from Sun- which she made herself two handsome day morning to Tuesday evening, and dresses, one of white velvet richly there were meals twice a day. Usually trimmed with pearls, silk, and gold, there were asked to each meal fifty per- with open sleeves lined with pure white sons, including relations, friends, and fur; one of zetani, a stuff of very thick the chief citizens; so that at the first silk, trimmed with pearls, and the table there were, counting the women sleeves lined with ermine. She had and girls of the house, trumpeters and also a gown of white damask, brocaded pipers, about one hundred and seventy with gold flowers, the sleeves trimmed persons; at the second and third tables with pearls; another of silk with crim-the so-called low tables there sat a son, gold, and brocaded sleeves, belarge number of persons. At one meal sides other dresses and over-dresses, they amounted to five hundred. The so-called giornee. Among the jewels dishes, those prescribed by custom, given her was a rich necklet of diawere exquisite and abundant. On monds, rubies, and pearls, which was Sunday morning they had boiled capons worth one hundred thousand gold florand tongue, a. roast of meat, and an-ins, a pin for her hair, a necklace of other of sinall chickens garnished with pearls with a large pointed diamond, a sugar and rose-water; in the evening hood embroidered with pearls, a net galantine, roast meat, and chickens for her hair, also worked with pearls, with fritters. Monday morning, blanc-The dowry, which to-day would seem manger, boiled capons with sausages modest, was sixty thousand francs, inand roast chickens; in the evening the cluding the trousseau, in which was usual courses, with tarts of sugar and included a pair of chests, with richly aimonds. On Tuesday morning, roast worked edges, and several long dresses meat and quails; in the evening the of different shapes for every-day wear, usual roast and galantine. At the re-made of fine stuffs embroidered, also a freshments there appeared twenty con- lawn shift fashioned out of material fectioners, who distributed a profusion that came from Rheims, a hood of crimof caramels made of pine-seeds. The son cloth wrought with pearls, two caps expenses of these banquets amounted with silver, pearls, and diamonds, a to above one hundred and fifty thou- little illuminated missal with silver |