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tranquillity , and protection , united as in a centre ,, the principal manufactures of Italy . '' He also mentions the trade which flourished with the East Indies , America , Brazil , and particularly with Portugal , China , apd Spain . The Grand Duke not only encouraged commerce by the laws and by his assistance , but also by his example . He left his family in a most prosperous state , and the same authority adds , " Ma quello
che piil considerarsi a vantaggio del successore era lo stato di forza di ricchezza di attivita e di splendore in cui lasciava il dominio del Gran Ducato . "—( Galluzzi Hist . Del G . D . di Toscana . Vol . II , c . 3 , pp . 180 , 220 . ) In short , the estimate given of Cosmo by his modern historian might very fairly be designated as " by M . de Sismondi versus his own Authorities . " The learning and accomplished knowledge possessed by Cosmo in arts , sciences , and literature , and his consummate
comprehension and masterly conduct in ' politics , are admitted by all contemporaries and by all historians . His patronage of men of genius , learning , and talent , in all their various departments , is equally well known . He might liot at all times have satisfied the magniloquent self-love of Benvenuto Cellini . But this must have been a difficult ta ^ k .
Nevertheless , the complaints of Benvenuto against him , are interspersed with yet stronger expressions of gratitude and arabesque admiration . His subsequent conduct towards the men of superior attainments who had joined the party of
Lorenzino and Strozzi , was the opposite of vindictive . He besought them to return , and offered them his patronage . The accomplished scholar , Benedetto Varehi , was one of those who returned ; but so far was he from disguising the principles which had attached him to the cause of Lorenzino and Strozzi , that in his memoirs , written in Florence during
the reign of Cosmo , and almost under his eye , he says , in allusion to the banished Republicans , that " the exiles considered the assassin of Alessandro as a second Brutus . Many writers composed poems in his praise , in which they made very free with Alessandro ' s successor ; and the author of this history
was one of those who signalized themselves most amongst them / ' If this displayed a noble courage in Varchi , surely there was magnanimity in Cosmo , who could show favour to the writer , very unlike the character of a despot . " La connoissance , " says Moreri , * qu'il avait acquise dans les sciences fut cause qu ' il airna les savans , et qu'il les atti ^ a aupart de lui . " . Mark Noble , in his ' Memoirs of the Illustrious House of Medici , ' observes that , " Amidst all the scenes of war in which Cosmo was engaged ; all the expenses he incurred in purchasing such ample territories , he was not unmindful of beautifying and adorning his capital , in patronizing the fine arts , and those that excelled in them ;
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€ o $ mo de \ Medici . 245
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1837, page 245, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1830/page/55/
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