FRANCESCO GUICCIARDINI. -(1483-1540.)

Francesco Guicciardini is the classic historian of Florence during the Medici age, and whatever may be thought of his work, as a well-informed contemporary and a writer of calm and moderate judgment he occupies a prominent place among the Florentine celebrities of his time.

He was born in Florence on March 6, 1483, his parents being Piero and Simony Gianfigliazzi, and he came of a noble and illustrious family. Marcilio Ficino stood sponsor for him, and after a studious career as a boy, he was sent by his father, at the age of twenty, to Ferrara, in order that he might be kept out of the political quarrels which were constantly occurring in his native town. From the University of Ferrara he went to that of Padua, and after studying law there he returned to Florence, and was appointed in October, 1505, to a professorship. He did not devote his whole time to the law, in which he soon acquired no little celebrity, though he made a brilliant debut at the bar and secured plenty of practice. It was upon the 14th of January, 1507, that he was affianced to Maria di Alamanno Salviati. His influence was so great that in the course of this same year the corporation of merchants appointed him consul, but he could not accept the post, as the law required that the holder of it must be thirty years of age. Henceforward, corporations, societies, charities, and religious communities sought his advice, but an unexpected event suddenly caused him to transfer his attention from civil to political affairs.

This occurred during the Holy Alliance between the Pope, the King of Aragon, England, the Swiss, and the Venetians, Julius II. being very anxious that the Florentines, who were on friendly terms with Louis XII of France, should join it. The Florentines were much embarrassed what to do, for they did not wish to offend either Louis XIL or the King of Aragon. Eventually it was resolved to send an embassy to King Ferdinand at Burgos, and Guicciardini was selected on the 17th of October, 1511. Upon the 19th of January following he started on his mission, his natural hesitation being overcome by his father, who pointed out to him what a great distinction it was for him to be employed in such a capacity at his age.

The year 1513 was marked by the grave events which followed the fall of the French in Italy after the victory of Ravenna, ten times more costly than a defeat, and on the 2d of September the Medici re-entered Florence in triumph. The Florentine Republic ceased to exist, and the only ambassador whose post was a permanent one was Jacopo Salviati, the resident Minister at the Vatican. Guicciardini asked to be recalled, and it was while waiting permission to demand a farewell audience of the King that he indited his " Ricordi autobiografici."

In October, 1513, he left Burgos for Florence, where he arrived on the 5th of January following, and in August of that year he was appointed one of the eight members of the Balia. His father had died in the meanwhile, and the sad news was brought to him at Piacenza. After being for some time under suspicion, and having been refused all part in public affairs by Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, he succeeded in so completely allaying all distrust, that the latter, when starting on his campaign in Lombardy, appointed Guicciardini a member of the Council of Signori who were to act as regents during his two months' absence.

From this time forth he spent his whole life in the service of the Government, and in 1515 he was sent to Cortona out of compliment to Leo X., who stopped there on his way to meet Francois I., King of France, at Bologna. After this mission was over he was appointed Consistorial Advocate, and then Governor of Modena and Reggio, whence he was sent to Parma, and made Commissary General of the Papal army. During the war between Francois I. and Charles V., Guicciardini was employed to relieve the Milan exiles and to raise an army corps for the recovery of the duchy. An opportunity was afforded him of showing his abilities as a soldier, for the brother of Marshal Lautrec, who commanded the French, having tried to take Reggio by surprise, he forestalled the attack, and recalling Guido Rangone, who had been sent with his troops to Modena, frustrated the plan.

The two pontiffs who succeeded Leo X. confirmed him in his appointments, and Clement VII. made him President of the Romagna and Lieutenant-General of the Pontifical army, with authority over the Duke of Urbino himself.

The entrance of the Constable de Bourbon into Rome, and the sack of the city by his troops, regarded as the greatest humiliation since the barbaric invasion, brought Guicciardini into disgrace, for Pope Clement VII., who was a prisoner in the mole of Hadrian, reproached him for not having staved off defeat. He accordingly withdrew into complete seclusion at Finocchieto, and wrote a Dialogue in which he confessed his errors and came to the conclusion that " human prudence is blind, and that we are in God's hands."

His disgrace was not of long duration. The Peace of Barcelona, signed by Clement VII. and Charles V., gave peace to Italy at the expense of Florence. Guicciardini was made Governor of Bologna, and at the Pope's death he took service under the Medici, urging Duke Alexander to crush the democratic element in the city. The dagger of Lorenzino, however, brought that prince's career to an early close, and the younger branch came to power with Cosimo I. Guicciardini, whose ambition grew by what it fed on, attempted to obtain a mastery over the young prince, but the latter, wily, like most of his race, availed himself of Guicciardini's advice to get rid of his enemies, and then cast him aside as a useless and possibly dangerous instrument.

Guicciardini withdrew in humiliation to his villa at Arcetri, and it was there that he wrote his " History of Italy, " dying, a year afterwards at the age of fifty-seven (May 27, 1540).

This history is his greatest work, and though the merits of it have been appraised in very different terms, M. Thiers, in his " History of the Consulate and the Empire," says of him that " he has related the events of his day, nearly all of which came under his own observation, with such a graphic pen, and with such profound judgment, that his history deserves a place among the most enduring monuments of human genius."

There are, however, many imperfections in his works, for if he is superior to Machiavelli as regards profundity of judgment and eloquence, he is inferior to him as regards the arrangement and style of writing. Like Machiavelli, he has left " Discourses on the First Decade of Livy," and he also wrote " Discourses upon the Changes and Reforms of the Governments of Florence," in which he displayed political sagacity of the highest kind.

His Carteggio, or collection of correspondence during his mission to Spain, his governorship of Modena., Parma, and Reggio, and his presidency of the Romagna; is remarkable for the profundity of judgment to which it testifies. He was Republican in theory, and to judge by his writings possessed a filial affection for Florence that caused his heart to bleed for her while she was in the hands of the stranger. He cordially detested the priesthood and its influence, but by a singular anomaly he was the friend of princes and tyrants, and while denouncing the priests as impostors, he was the willing servitor of pontiffs. His political conduct was at total variance with his doctrines, and we must infer that he was consumed by ambition and the love of power. One of his dreams -was an Italian federation under the supremacy of Florence, and Machiavelli, with his keen insight into the future, had also anticipated the now realized unity of the Peninsula. Francesco Guieciardini left no children, but he had a brother Lodovico who settled at Antwerp, where he married and had a son, also named Lodovico, who wrote the history of the Netherlands.

This Lodovico died in 1589, and his works, written in Italian, have been translated into German, Flemish, and French, among their a "Description of the Netherlands," and "Commentaries upon the Events of Europe, and of the Netherlands in. Particular, from 1529 to 1560." He had not the keen vision of his uncle, but his works are regarded as standard ones by the Dutch.