most
honourable places, as being the most worthy of honour, were painted the
captains of armies and those who had acquired illustrious renown and
immortal fame by valour of the body and mind together. Among these, as
the first and perhaps the most honourable, could be seen on horseback,
like many others, the glorious Signor Giovanni de' Medici portrayed from
life, that rare master of Italian military discipline, and the
illustrious father of the great Cosimo whom we honour as our excellent
and most valorous Duke; and with him Filippo Spano, terror of the
barbarous Turks, and M. Farinata degli Uberti, great-hearted saviour of
his native Florence. There, also, was M. Buonaguisa della Pressa, who,
at the head of the valiant youth of Florence, winning the first and
glorious mural crown at Damiata, acquired so great a name; and the
Admiral Federigo Folchi, Knight of Rhodes, who with his two sons and
eight nephews performed so many deeds of prowess against the Saracens.
There were M. Nanni Strozzi, M. Manno Donati, Meo Altoviti, and
Bernardo Ubaldini, called Della Carda, father of Federigo, Duke of
Urbino, that most excellent captain of our times. There, likewise, was
the Great Constable, M. Niccola Acciaiuoli, he who it may be said
preserved for Queen Joanna and King Louis, his Sovereigns, the troubled
kingdom of Naples, and who always bore himself both there and in Sicily
with such loyalty and valour. There were another Giovanni de' Medici and
Giovanni Bisdomini, most illustrious in the wars with the Visconti, and
the unfortunate but valorous Francesco Ferrucci; and among those more
ancient were M. Forese Adimari, M. Corso Donati, M. Vieri de' Cerchi, M.
Bindaccio da Ricasoli, and M. Luca da Panzano. Among the commissaries,
not less faithfully portrayed from life, could be seen there Gino
Capponi, with Neri his son, and Piero his grand-nephew, he who, tearing
so boldly the insolent proposals of Charles VIII, King of France, to his
immortal honour, caused the voice of a Capon (Cappon), as the witty poet
said so well, to sound so nobly among so many Cocks (Galli). There were
Bernardetto de' Medici, Luca di Maso degli Albizzi, Tommaso di M. Guido,
now called Del Palagio, Piero Vettori, so celebrated in the wars with
the Aragonese, and the so greatly and so rightly renowned Antonio
Giacomini, with M. Antonio Ridolfi and many others of this and other
orders, who would make too long a story. All these appeared to be filled
with j