On the 19th day of September [1483] came the news that the King of France by his own free will had given to our Giovanni the Abbey of Fonte Dolce. On the 31st we heard from Rome that the Pope had ratified this and declared him capable of holding benefices, being seven years of age, and had created him a Protonotary. On the 1st June our Giovanni came from Poggio [a Caiano] and I with him. On his arrival he was confirmed by our Monsignore of Arezzo [Gentile Becchi] who gave him the tonsure, and thereafter he was called Messer Giovanni. These ceremonies took place in our own chapel, and in the evening we returned to Poggio. On the 8th June Jacopino, the courier from France, arrived about twelve of the clock with letters from the king, who has bestowed on our Messer Giovanni the Archbishopric of Aix en Provence, and after vespers the man was despatched to Rome about this business, with letters from the King of France to the Pope and the Cardinal of Macon, and to Count Girolamo, to whom we sent at the same hour letters by the courier Zenino to Forlì. God grant that all will be well. On the 11th Zenino returned from the Count with letters for the Pope and the Cardinal of S. Giorgio, and we forwarded them to Rome by the Milan post. God grant that all will be well. On the same day after Mass in the chapel the daughters and sons of the house were confirmed, with the exception of Messer Giovanni. On the 15th, at six in the evening, came letters from Rome saying that the Pope raised difficulties about giving the archbishopric to Messer Giovanni on account of his youth, and the courier was at once sent on to the King of France. On the 20th came news from Lionetto that the Archbishop was not dead. On March 1, 1484 (1485), the Abbot of Pasignano died and we at once sent off an express messenger to Messer Giovanni d’Antonio Vespucci, our ambassador at Rome, to do all he could to obtain this abbey for our Messer Giovanni. On the 2nd we took possession of the estate under the seal of the Signoria, by reason of the reservation made by Pope Sixtus to our Messer Giovanni, confirmed by Innocent during the visit of our Piero to Rome to do obeisance.[158] Agnolo Poliziano _to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici