COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
M. M. NEWELL

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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To

Frances Cecilia Newell

WE DEDICATE THIS BOOK

[vii]

PREFATORY NOTE

HY the Medici family assumed the well-known device of red balls ona field of gold, is one of the vexed questions of heraldic history.Some hold that as the saints, Cosmo and Damian, who appear so often inthe votive pictures of the Medici, were also patron saints of medicineand surgery, and because the name of the family signifies physicians,the balls may suggest pills (palle). Others think that a cluster ofballs, formerly the sign of money-lenders, was adopted as a device byGiovanni de' Medici, founder of the greater branch of the illustrioushouse, who as a banker attained great wealth and influence. As theMedici identified themselves with the trading interests and governmentof Florence, and were connected with several noble Florentine families,their coat of arms became familiar throughout all that extensiveterritory subject to Florence in the fifteenth century. With its variednumber of balls, or quartered with other arms, as charged with the royal lily of[viii]France, or surmounted by the keys of St. Peter and apontiff's tiara, it greets the traveller at every turn, notonly on palaces and city gates, but on illuminatedmanuscripts and choir books, on the covers of mediævalledgers, and terra-cotta wine jars.

Thus the title of "Medici Balls" has been given tothe following record of seven little journeys in Tuscanyby the authors, who in all their travels, even inlanes and modest farm-houses, have found themselvesunder the ægis of the powerful banker-princes ofFlorence. The shield, bearing seven red balls ona field of gold, represents the arms of Piero de' Medici,and the period when Medicean supremacy was at itsheight; in the sequence of balls employed by the variousmembers of the family, it serves to connect theeight balls displayed on the arms of Cosimo, PaterPatriæ, the munificent financier, with the six balls ofLorenzo the Magnificent, in whom the glory and renownof the family culminated.

CONTENTS