1469 - Marriage of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Clarice Orsini 
- Event:
- Marriage of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Clarice Orsini
- Protagonists :
- Lorenzo il Magnifico; Clarice Orsini; Lucrezia Tornabuoni; Piero il Gottoso; Giuliano di Piero.
- Epoch, date:
-
1469, 4 June
- Description and history :
-
On 4 June 1469 Palazzo Medici was the focus of an important family event: the marriage of Lorenzo, son of Piero il Gottoso and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, to Clarice Orsini. The event was celebrated just a few months after the joust in Piazza Santa Croce, at which Lorenzo had dedicated his victory to Lucrezia Donati.
The wedding with Clarice, a member of the nobility of the papal court, had been arranged thanks to the help of Lucrezia’s brother, Giovanni Tornabuoni, director of the Medici bank in Rome. Lucrezia herself had gone specially to the papal city to meet and get to know her future daughter-in-law, and thus to give her consent. On this occasion she transmitted her impressions to Piero, who had been detained in Florence by illness: the girl was reported to have a full, pale face and reddish hair; her manners appeared gentle, although not as “courteous as our own daughters”; her hips were narrow, and her chest appeared to be “of good quality”, even though the Roman fashion imposed gowns that were too high-necked to be able to see it. Afterwards Lorenzo joined his mother to become acquainted with his bride and draw up the marriage contract, in which a dowry of 6,000 florins was established.
Clarice arrived in Florence on horseback, accompanied by Giuliano, Lorenzo’s brother, with a retinue of fifty knights. A huge crowd turned out in the streets and squares of the city to welcome her, as well as numerous guests in Palazzo Medici, where the windows were hung with branches of olive as a sign of joy.
The wedding was celebrated in San Lorenzo. The bride brought with her a small Book of Hours with gold writing on ultramarine pages and bound in crystal and silver, given to her by Gentile Becchi.
No expense was spared in the celebrations. For the five banquets that continued over three days, 150 calves and 4,000 capons had been procured, and many kegs of wine from Italy and abroad. Over the festivities 17 tons of sweetmeats and sugared almonds were consumed. The magnificent tables were set up in the garden and courtyard of the palazzo. The banquets were attended, among others, by fifty young ladies seated at the table of Clarice, set beneath the loggia in the garden; the older ladies instead sat with Lucrezia in the upper balcony. The young ladies and gentlemen enlivened the feasts with dancing. Copper goblets holding wines of various kinds were placed in the garden around the pedestal of Donatello’s David, set in the centre.
A play was also performed in the garden, and a battle was staged in the road, while allegorical floats with drapery and flowers paraded along the streets.
Piero il Gottoso had achieved an important result through this wedding of his eldest son: Clarice brought to the family a rich dowry, and above all a precious alliance with the intricate papal circles. Unfortunately, Piero did not live to see this match bear its fruits, since he died at the end of the year.
informazioni generali - apparati e documentazione
