from his native place, and retreated to Ve- CHAP. nice". The distress and devastation which the X. inhabitants ▾ Condivi relates an extraordinary story respecting Piero de' Medici, communicated to him by Michelagnolo, who had, it seems, formed an intimacy with one Cardiere, an improvvisatore, that frequented the house of Lorenzo, and amused his evenings with singing to the lute. Soon after the death of Lorenzo, Cardiere informed Michelagnolo, that Lorenzo had appeared to him, habited only in a black and ragged mantle thrown over his naked limbs, and had ordered him to acquaint Piero de' Medici, that he would in a short time be banished from Florence. Cardiere, who seems judiciously to have feared the resentment of the living more than that of the dead, declined the office; but soon afterwards Lorenzo entering his chamber at midnight, awoke him, and reproaching him with his inattention, gave him a violent blow on the cheek. Having communicated this second visit to his friend, who advised him no longer to delay his errand, he set out for Careggi, where Piero then resided; but meeting him with his attendants about midway between that place and Florence, he there delivered his message, to the great amusement of Piero and his followers; one of whom, Bernardo Divizio, afterwards Cardinal da Bibbiena, sarcastically asked him, Whether, if Lorenzo had been desirous of giving information to his son, it was likely he would have preferred such a messenger to a personal communication? The biographer adds, with great solemnity, "La vision del Cardiere, o delusion diabolica, o predi"zion divina, o forte immaginazione, ch' ella si fosse, "si verificò."-But the awful spectre is now before me-I see the terrified musician start from his slumbers; his left X. CHA P. inhabitants of Italy experienced for a scries of years after this event, have afforded a subject upon which their historians have dwelt with melancholy accuracy. Amidst these disasters, there is perhaps no circumstance that so forcibly excites the regret of the friends of letters, as the plundering of the palace of the Medici, and the dispersion of that invaluable library, whose origin and progress have before been traced. The French troops that had entered the city of Florence without opposition, led the way to this sacrilegious deed, in the perpetration of which they were joined by the Florentines themselves, who openly carried off, or secretly purloined, whatever they could discover that was interesting, rare, or valuable. Besides the numerous manuscripts in almost every language, the depredators seized, with contentious avidity, the many inestimable specimens of the arts with which the house of the Medici abounded, and which had long rendered it left hand grasps his beloved lyre, whilst, with his right thrown over his head, he attempts to shroud himself from the looks of Lorenzo, who, with a countenance more in sorrow than in anger, points out to him his destined mission. To realize this scene so as to give it interest and effect, required the glowing imagination and the animated pencil of a FUSELI. X. it the admiration of strangers, and the chief c h a p. ornament of the city. Exquisite pieces of ancient sculpture, vases, cameos, and gems of various kinds, more estimable for their workmanship than for their native value, shared in the general ruin; and all that the assiduity and the riches of Lorenzo and his ancestors had been able to accumulate in half a century, was dissipated or demolished in a day". The w The destruction of this invaluable collection is pathetically related by Bernardo Rucellai. "Hic me "studium charitasque litterarum antiquitatis admonet, " ut non possim non deplorare inter subitas fundatissimæ "familiæ ruinas, Mediceam bibliothecam, insignesque "thesauros, quorum pars a Gallis, pars a paucis e "nostris, rem turpissimam honesta specie prætenden❝tibus, furacissime subrepta sunt. Non cum jam"pridem gens Medicea floreret omnibus copiis, terra, "marique cuncta exquirere, dum sibi Græcarum, Lati"narumque litterarum monumenta, toreumata, gemmas, "margaritas, aliaque hujuscemodi opera, natura simul "et antiquo artificio conspicua compararent," &c. "Testimonio sunt litteræ gemmis ipsis incise Laurentii, 66 nomen præferentes, quas ille sibi familiæque suæ pro"spiciens scalpendas curavit, futurum ad posteros regii "splendoris monumentum," &c. "Hæc omnia magno "conquisita studio, summisque parta opibus, et ad "multum ævi in deliciis habita, quibus nihil nobilius, "nihil Florentiæ quod magis visendum putaretur, uno "puncto temporis in prædam cessere; tanta Gallorum "avaritia, СНАР. X. Death of Barbaro. The same reverse of fortune that overwhelmed the political labours of Lorenzo, that rendered his descendants fugitives, and dispersed his effects, seemed to extend to his friends and associates, almost all of whom unhappily perished within a short interval after his death, although in the common course of nature they might have expected a longer life. The first of these eminent men was Ermolao Barbaro, of whose friendly intercourse with Lorenzo many testimonies remain, and who died of the plague in the year 1493, when only thirty-nine years of age. This event was succeeded by the death of "avaritia, perfidiaque nostrorum fuit." De bello Ital. The life and learned labours of Ermolao have afforded a subject of much discussion to Vossius, Bayle, and others, and have been considered with particular accuracy of Pico of Mirandula, who in his thirty-second c HAP. year fell a victim to his avidity for science, and X. has Pico of Mirandula. accuracy by Apostolo Zeno, Dissert. Voss. v. ii. p. 348. & seq. His first work was a treatise De Cælibatu, which he wrote at eighteen years of age. His Castigationes Pliniane entitle him to rank with the most successful restorers of learning. Politiano denominates him Hermolaus Barbarus barbarie hostis acerrimus. Miscel. cap. xc. Being on an embassy to Rome in the year 1491, Innocent VIII. conferred on him the high dignity of Patriarch of Aquileja, which he accepted without regarding the decree of the Venetian government, which directed that none of their ministers at the court of Rome should receive any ecclesiastical preferment without the consent of the council. His father, who held the second office in the state, is said to have died of chagrin, because he could not prevail upon his countrymen to approve the preferment of his son. But Ermolao availed himself of his dismission from publick business, to return with greater earnestness to his studies, and in two years wrote more than he had done for twenty years preceding. In his last sickness at Rome, Pico of Mirandula sent him a remedy for the cure of the plague, composed of the oil of scorpions, the tongues of asps, &c. "Ut nihil fieri posset contra pestilentem "morbum commodius aut presentius." Crin. de honest. discip. lib. i. c. 7. But this grand panacea arrived too late. "Egli non è da tacersi," says Apostolo Zeno, "un 66 gran fregio di questo valente uomo, ed è, che visse, e "morì vergine.” Which information is confirmed by the authority of Piero Dolfini, who, in a letter to Ugolino Verini asserts, QUOD ABSQUE ULLA CARNIS CONTAGIONE VIXERIT. Diss. Voss. ii. p. 385. A very particular account |