tinari, agent of the Medici in Bruges.
In the same sala are two Memlings (703, 778), and a Roger van der Weyden
(795). Two Holbeins, the Richard Southwell (765), and Sir Thomas More
(799), are in the German room; while Duerer's noble and lovely Adoration
of the Magi (1141) is still in the Tribuna, and his portrait of his
Father (766) is with the other German pictures in the German room. Some
too eloquent works of Rubens hang apart, while here and there you may
see a Vandyck--Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart (1523), for instance,
or Jean de Montfort (1115), a little pensive and proud amid the
splendour of Italy.

XXIV. FLORENCE

THE PITTI GALLERY

During the last years of Cosimo de' Medici, Luca Pitti, that rare old
knight, sometime Gonfaloniere of Justice, thought to possess himself of
the state of Florence, and to this end, besides creating a new Balia
against the wishes of Cosimo, distributed, as it is said, some 20,000
ducats in one day, so that the whole city came after him in flocks, and
not Cosimo, but he, was looked upon as the governor of Florence. "So
foolish was he in his own conceit, that he began two stately and
magnificent houses," Machiavelli tells us, "one in Florence, the other
at Rusciano, not more than a mile away: but that in Florence was greater
and more splendid than the house of any other private citizen
whatsoever. To finish this latter, he baulked no extraordinary way, for
not only the citizens and better sort presented him and furnished him
with what was necessary for it, but the common people gave him all of
their assistance; besides, all that were banished or guilty of murder,
felony, or any other thing which exposed them to punishment, had
sanctuary at that house provided they would give him their labour."

Now, when Cosimo was dead, and Piero de' Medici the head of that family,
Niccolo Soderini was made Gonfaloniere of Justice, and thinking to
secure the liberty of the city he began many good things, but perfected
nothing, so that he left that office with less honour than he entered
into it. This fortified Piero's party exceedingly, so that his enemies
began to resent it and work together to consider how they might kill
him, for in supporting Galeazzo Maria Sforza to the Dukedom of
Milan--which his father Francesco, just dead, had stolen for
himself--they saw, or thought they saw, the way in which Piero would
deal if he could with Florence. Thus the Mountain, as the party of his