Savonarola From the statue by E. Pazzi, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

CHAPTER II The Duomo II: Its Associations Dante's pictureSir John HawkwoodAncestor and DescendantThe Pazzi ConspiracySqueamish MonteseccoGiuliano de' Medici diesLorenzo's escapeVengeance on the PazziBotticelli's cartoonHigh MassLuca della RobbiaMichelangelo nearing the endThe Miracles of ZenobiusEast and West meet in splendourMarsilio Ficino and the New LearningBeautiful glass.

I have often attended High Mass in this Duomo choirthe theatre of the Pazzi tragedybut never without thinking of that scene.

In S. Maria Novella is that crucifix in wood which he carved for his friend Donatello, but his only other sculptured work in Florence is the door of his beautiful Pazzi chapel in the cloisters of S. Croce.

Every palace has beautiful stone-work and an escutcheon which often only a master could executeas Donatello devised that for the Palazzo Pazzi in the Borgo degli Albizzi.

On the other side of this case is the medal commemorating the Pazzi conspiracy.

magnanimousThe gifted AlbertiDesiderio's great tombThe sacristyThe Medici chapelThe Pazzi chapelOld Jacopo desecratedA Restoration.

This pretty relief was commissioned as a family memorial by that Francesco Nori, the close friend of Lorenzo de' Medici, who was killed in the Duomo during the Pazzi conspiracy in his effort to save Lorenzo from the assassins.

Brunelleschi is also the designer of the Pazzi chapel in the first cloisters.

Old Jacopo Pazzi, the head of the family at the time of the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici, after being hanged from a window of the Palazzo Vecchio, was buried here.

Old Jacopo Pazzi, the head of the family at the time of the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici, after being hanged from a window of the Palazzo Vecchio, was buried here.

A mob therefore rushed to S. Croce, broke open his tomb and dragged his body through the streets, stopping on their way at the Pazzi palace to knock on the door with his skull.

Vasari is less to be trusted in his dates and facts in his memoir of Andrea del Castagno than anywhere else; for he states that he commemorated the failure of the Pazzi Conspiracy (which occurred twenty years after his death), and accuses him not only of murdering his fellow-painter Domenico Veneziano but confessing to the crime; the best answer to which allegation is that Domenico survived Andrea by four years.

These promises were (1) to repent of all his sins, and in particular of the sack of Volterra, of the alleged theft of public dowry funds and of the implacable punishment of the Pazzi conspirators; (2) to restore all property of which he had become possessed by unjust means; and (3) to give back to Florence her liberty.

Opposite is a magnificent doorway designed by Donatello for the Pazzi garden.

Continuing along the Via della Colonna, we come, on the right, at No. 8, to the convent of S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, which is now a barracks but keeps sacred one room in which Perugino painted a crucifixion, his masterpiece in fresco.

S. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, a member of the same family that plotted against the Medici and owned the sacred flints, was born in 1566, and, says Miss Dunbar, "showed extraordinary piety from a very tender age".

To many Florentines its principal importance is its custody of the Pazzi flints for the igniting of the sacred fire which in turn ignites the famous Carro.

The little chapel next the choir on the right is that of Filippo Strozzi the elder who was one of the witnesses of the Pazzi outrage in the Duomo in 1478.

Let the Pazzi Chapel at S. Croce and the Spanish Chapel here have fees, if you like; but the cloisters should be open to all.

Giuliano's Tournament 1478 Pazzi Conspiracy Giuliano murdered 1479

He expressed his keen sorrow for the deaths of the Pazzi and Salviati, his "devoted sons and trusty counsellors."

Thus ended the terrible "Conspiracy of the Pazzi.

It is said that when his wife's kinsman, Alamanno de' Pazzi, ventured to congratulate him at his house in the Via Maggio, he found the place gaily decorated, and musicians playing before the door!

Madonna Costanza de' Pazzi and eight other noble ladies were attached to her suite, with five Gentlemen of Honour and several domestics.