Excerpt from Catalogue of the Medici Archives, Consisting of Rare Autograph Letters, Records and Documents, 1084-1770: Including One Hundred and Sixty-Six Holograph Letters of Lorenzo the Magnificent

It will be noticed that almost all of Lorenzo's letters now before us are addressed to Pietro Alamanni, Florentine ambassador at Milan, and afterwards at Rome and Naples. The other papers composing the section whose presence here we have to explain are letters received by Lorenzo and sent on by him to Alamanni for reference, copies of Lorenzo's instructions to other ambassadors or of their despatches to him, the Florentine government's instructions to Alamanni, Alamanni's letter-books, and a few letters from Lorenzo to the Pope and other persons, which are probably duplicates. Lorenzo frequently wrote two copies of letters, and sent them by different routes for greater security. When both copies reached the ambassador he delivered one and kept the other.

These papers were plainly the part of Alamanni's embassy-archives dating from the years May 1489 - April 1492. A modern diplomatist would not be allowed to take such documents home with him when he retired, but usage in these matters was different four centuries ago, and ambassadors treated official correspondence that remained in their hands as their own private property. Many instances might be mentioned, but perhaps the celebrated collection at Besancon, in which hundreds of signed letters from the Emperor Charles V. Have found a place because the ambassadors, members and connexions of the Granville family, to whom they were addressed, did not return them to the Imperial chancery, may suffice to Show that the practice was general.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.