-who
was a delicate lad--better far than that of Florence; it was sedative
and not so rigorous in winter as that of the higher Val d'Arno. Then,
too, they were there within easy reach of their favourite seaside
residence, Livorno, in whose harbour rode constantly galleons of war
from Spain flying the Duchess' own dear country's ensign.

Cosimo and his family of course had many other distractions from the
affairs of State. In addition to his attainments as a chemist, in which
science he especially interested his eldest son, Francesco, he excelled
in his knowledge of botany. With passionate devotion to an attractive
subject he taught his children the nature and the use of all growing
things. At the Pitti Palace he had his laboratories.

Printing and the printing-press found in Cosimo an ardent patron. Away
in the grounds of the Casino di Cosimo--"_Il Padre della Patria"--within
the confines of the monastery of San Marco, he printed, bound, and
published, literary works of all kinds. Torrentino, Paolo Giovio,
Scipione Ammirato, Benedetto Vasari, Filippo de' Nerli, Vincenzio
Borghini, and many other writers, printers, and critics, collectors,
forgathered at the Ducal studios.

Architecture and the embellishment of the city had also Cosimo's active
sympathy: piazzas, bridges, fountains, statues, still bear the marks of
his supervision. Benvenuto Cellini, Michael Angelo Buonarroti, Baccio
Bandinelli, Giovanni da Bologna, Bernardo Buonlatenti, Francesco
Ferrucci, Tribolo, Giorgio Vasari, were among his proteges and personal
friends.

In all these enterprises he shared his pleasures with his sons, and so
the years passed on with rays of brilliant sunshine piercing the clouds
of darkling deeds. Alexandre Dumas has well summed up the character of
Cosimo de' Medici: "He had," he says, "all the vices which rendered his
private life sombre, and all the virtues which made his life in public
renowned for splendour; whilst his family experienced unexampled
misfortune, his people rejoiced in prosperity and gladness."

Perhaps in the delights of music and dancing and in the invigorating
exercises of the chase, Cosimo found his best-loved relaxation. No
Florentine valued more thoroughly, and shared more frequently than he,
in the layman's privilege of assisting in the choir of the Duomo at the
singing of the "Hours." Musical reunions in the gardens of the Pitti
Palace were of constant recurrence, where he and his children danced and