Naples, for the purpose of defending himself before the Emperor Charles V., who was then on his return from Tunis, against the calumnies with which he had been assailed by some of the Florentine citizens;[1] and having not only done this most successfully, but also obtained from his Majesty the Signora Margherita of Austria, his daughter, to wife,[2] he wrote to Florence, commanding that four men should be selected from the principal citizens, by whom decorations of the utmost splendour and magnificence should be ordered and arranged for all parts of the city, which his Excellency desired to have adorned in a manner suitable to the due reception of the Emperor, who was then about to visit Florence. On this occasion I had myself, by commission from his Excellency, to distribute the labours, and was instructed to communicate with the four distinguished citizens above-mentioned, who were Giovanni Corsi, Luigi Guicciardini, Palla Rucellai, and Alessandro Corsini; I therefore gave the more important and difficult preparations for that festival to Tribolo: these consisted principally in four large statues, the first representing Hercules in the act of slaying the Hydra, the height was six braccia, the figure standing wholly detached and being silvered over; this was placed in that angle of the Piazza di San Felice which is at the end of the Yia Maggio, and had the following inscription written in silver letters on the pedestal.
Ut Hercules labore et aerumnis monstra edomuit, ita Caesar virtute et dementia, hostibus victis seu placatis, pacem Orbi terrarum et quietem restituit.
- ↑ Muratori, Annali d’ Italia, anno 1535, makes it obvious that Alessandro was not “calumniated,’5 although the Florentines did complain to the Emperor of his unbridled licentiousness and invasion of their privileges.
- ↑ “The Duke,” observes Muratori, ut supra, “the Duke replied to the accusations of the Florentines as he best could, and whether it were that the gold which he expended among the imperial ministers produced- its accustomed effect, or that the Emperor, having the prospect of a new war in Italy before him, thought it best to have in Florence one sole ruler obedient to his will, than the union of many heads ever at variance one with another, but more avowedly disposed towards the French than towards himself, as the Florentines notoriously were; certain it is, that the Emperor decided in favour of the Duke, whom he acknowledged as Signor of Florence. He also gave him his illegitimate daughter—the so often betrothed Margherita—for his wife, but with certain conditions, whereby the Emperor obtained a large sum of money from the Duke.”
