Apology for a Murder by Lorenzino De' Medici

Author:Lorenzino De' Medici
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2019-03-05T09:19:35+00:00

The Death of

Lorenzino de’ Medici

An Account Written in His Own Hand

by Captain Francesco Bibboni

I was just back from Germany, where I’d been a soldier in the pay of the Emperor, when who should I meet but Bebo da Volterra in Vicenza. He was staying at Messer Antonio da Roma’s, a gent from that town, since he’d made quite a few enemies; and this Messer Antonio was really rather pleased to see me, and asked me to stay with him.

Meanwhile, a certain Messer Francesco Manente, another gent from Vicenza, got himself mixed up in a real nasty spat with certain members of the Guarzi family and the Luschi family, all of them from Vicenza; they’d been at daggers drawn for several years, with many killings, among both the families of those who’d started the quarrel and the followers of the two parties. So this Messer Francesco asked my friend Messer Antonio where I was living, and would he be prepared to lend him my services for a day. Since he was such a close friend of his, Messer Antonio could hardly refuse. So Bebo and I went with the aforesaid gent to a village called Celsano, where both parties had property, and they all kept men at home ready for action, so that not a day went by without them heading out into open country to settle their differences with cold steel. So there were always men getting killed or wounded.

So, one day, the men in our party made up their minds to attack the opposite party at home, where we killed two of them; and the rest, five of them, shut themselves up in a neighbouring room and barricaded themselves in. We nabbed all their harquebuses and other weapons, and they had no choice but to abandon the villa and skip off to Vicenza. And soon this nasty state of hostilities was replaced by a nice long period of peace and quiet.

Then Bebo took himself off to Padua with the rector of the university, a Milanese chap, and after a while that same rector went off to Milan, taking Bebo with him.

I stayed on in Vicenza with Messer Galeazzo della Seta, since, despite peace breaking out all over, he was still a bit leery; anyway, I was there about ten months, and then I had to go back to Messer Antonio da Roma’s. He had seven brothers. They were all pretty chummy with me and suggested I face life’s little ups and down with them – on condition that if there was ever any chance of war breaking out, and I fancied a piece of the action, they promised to provide me with twenty-five scudi, weapons and a horse, and the return fare – so long as I was still in one piece, of course. And if I didn’t fancy going, the same deal anyway.

Anyway, like I said, Bebo was in Milan, and Messer Francesco Vinta of Volterra happened to be there as ambassador of the Duke of Florence.* Francesco spotted Bebo there and asked him what he was up to in Milan.

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