Cosimo had such an affection for Tommaso, one of the descendants of the Baroncelli, that he insisted on his living in the Medici palace in Via Larga (now palazzo Riccardi, Via Cavour). When in 1569 Pius V gave the Duke Cosimo I, in spite of strenuous opposition on the part of the Emperor Maximilian, the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, Tommaso Baroncelli rode out to meet him on his return from the coronation at Rome. “Such was his joy,” writes Cosimo Baroncelli (son of Tommaso) in a manuscript history of his family, “on seeing that great Prince his most gracious Lord, that he fainted and would have fallen from his horse if the attendants had not quickly supported him and lifted him from the saddle. They placed him on a low wall near the fountain of San Gaggio where he died, to the very great grief of H.H. and of the whole court; he being singularly beloved for his kind and courteous manners. He died in the year 1569 on the 21st March, the day of St Benedict the Abbot.” There is a tradition that a duel took place close to the villa in 1312 between four Florentines and four Germans during the siege of Florence by the Emperor Henry VII, but the one between Lodovico Martelli and Giovanni Bandini is historical and has been minutely described by Varchi. “Lodovico di Giovan Francesco Martelli, a youth of great courage, having a secret enmity against Giovanni Bandini, seized a favourable occasion of fighting and if necessary dying, for the love of his city; he sent him a challenge, written by Messer Salvestro Aldobrandini, setting forth that he (Bandini) and all Florentines serving in the enemy’s ranks were traitors to their country, and that he was ready to prove this in the lists fighting hand to hand, leaving the choice of place, of arms and whether on foot or on horseback to him.... Giovanni, who lacked not courage and abounded in wit, tried to evade fighting in so bad a cause, and replied with more prudence than truth, that he was in the enemy’s camp to visit certain friends and not to fight against his country which he loved as well as anyone. This, whether true or false, ought to have sufficed Lodovico; but he being desirous at all costs to cross swords with Giovanni replied in such manner, that not to fail in the honour of a gentleman, on which he particularly prided himself, Giovanni was obliged to accept; it was arranged that each should choose a companion. Giovanni ... chose Bertino di Carlo Aldobrandini, a youth whose beard had but just begun to sprout ... Lodovico chose Dante di Guido da Castiglione, who accepted the risk solely for love of his country.