a sufficient proof, who, while in league with him
against Duke Filippo were always victorious, but apart from him were
always conquered; first by Filippo and then by Francesco. When they
joined Alfonso against the Florentine republic, Cosmo, by his commercial
credit, so drained Naples and Venice of money, that they were glad to
obtain peace upon any terms it was thought proper to grant. Whatever
difficulties he had to contend with, whether within the city or without,
he brought to a happy issue, at once glorious to himself and destructive
to his enemies; so that civil discord strengthened his government in
Florence, and war increased his power and reputation abroad. He added
to the Florentine dominions, the Borgo of St. Sepolcro, Montedoglio, the
Casentino and Val di Bagno. His virtue and good fortune overcame all his
enemies and exalted his friends. He was born in the year 1389, on the
day of the saints Cosmo and Damiano. His earlier years were full of
trouble, as his exile, captivity, and personal danger fully testify;
and having gone to the council of Constance, with Pope John, in order to
save his life, after the ruin of the latter, he was obliged to escape in
disguise. But after the age of forty, he enjoyed the greatest felicity;
and not only those who assisted him in public business, but his
agents who conducted his commercial speculations throughout Europe,
participated in his prosperity. Hence many enormous fortunes took their
origin in different families of Florence, as in that of the Tornabuoni,
the Benci, the Portinari, and the Sassetti. Besides these, all who
depended upon his advice and patronage became rich; and, though he
was constantly expending money in building churches, and in charitable
purposes, he sometimes complained to his friends that he had never been
able to lay out so much in the service of God as to find the balance in
his own favor, intimating that all he had done or could do, was still
unequal to what the Almighty had done for him. He was of middle stature,
olive complexion, and venerable aspect; not learned but exceedingly
eloquent, endowed with great natural capacity, generous to his friends,
kind to the poor, comprehensive in discourse, cautious in advising,
and in his speeches and replies, grave and witty. When Rinaldo degli
Albizzi, at the beginning of his exile, sent to him to say, "the hen had
laid," he replied, "she did ill to lay so far from the nest." Some other
of the rebels gave