In the autumn of 1469 Piero de’ Medici was very ill, partly no doubt from anxiety about the state of Florence, “grievously troubled by her own citizens.” He summoned the chief burghers to his bedside, reproached them in the bitter words cited by Machiavelli, and threatened that he would cause them to repent. Fair words in plenty they gave him, but never changed their evil courses. “Whereupon,” continues Machiavelli, “Piero called Agnolo Acciaiuoli secretly to Caffagiuolo and conferred at length with him about the condition of the city. There is no doubt that had he not been prevented by death he would have reinstated all those who had been banished in order to put a stop to the robbery of the others. But death put an end to these most praiseworthy intentions. Tormented by increasing infirmity and anguish of mind, he died in the fifty-third year of his age. His country could not fully recognise his worth and his goodness, because until nearly the end of his life he was associated with his father Cosimo, and the few years during which he survived him were passed in civil contests and constant illness.” Piero died at Careggi on December 2, 1469, and was buried in S. Lorenzo, near his father. [Illustration: LORENZO DI PIERO DE’ MEDICI. _In the Museo Giovio (Villa Soave, Como)._] FOOTNOTES: [87] _Delle Istorie Fiorentine_, Niccolò Machiavelli, pp. 410 _et seq._ Milano, 1823. [88] _Cosmi Vita_, op. cit. ii. 286. [89] This document is undated, but was in all probability given in 1464. [90] _Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita_, Angelo Fabronio, ii. 117. Pisis, 1784. [91] Palatina Codex 204. The volume bound in white vellum contains 622 pages. There is no title-page. Lorenzo’s letter occupies the first six and a half pages, and without any division or new paragraph follows the Life of Dante by Boccaccio, in the same handwriting. At page 63 the writing changes and continues the same for forty pages. The poems were evidently copied by various scribes, as the writing so often differs.