This book attempts to supply such details. It is founded on letters, for the most part private, of Medici men, women, and children, and their friends, written during those decades when the family was being moulded for the great European destiny which lay hidden in the future before it. In these old-world epistles Contessina artlessly displays her household economies, Lucrezia reveals her fondness for bathing, Clarice quarrels with no less a tutor than the celebrated Poliziano about the lessons he gave to her children, and the child Piero tells his father how he has studied hard, even writing in Latin, “in order to give a more literary tone to my letters,” and proudly and persistently demands the pony promised as a reward for diligence. The materials have been gathered from many a quarter. Angelo Fabroni’s ponderous tomes, _Magni Cosmi Medicei Vita_ and _Laurentii Medicis Magnifici Vita_; the Histories of Florence by Giovanni Cavalcanti, Giovanni Cambi, and Niccolὸ Machiavelli; rare pamphlets, published in small editions of twenty-five or a hundred copies, by Italian men of letters in honour of the marriage of some friend, which are a mine of wealth; and last, but not least, the Florentine Archives. Most of the letters from the _Archivio Medicei ante Principato_ have never been published before, much less translated; others are given here in full, which have hitherto seen the light only in very fragmentary form. The volume can therefore claim to contain a great deal of thoroughly original matter. In them it will be seen that well-born or important men and women were addressed as Your Magnificence, and written to and spoken of as The Magnificent. It was, therefore, no special title bestowed on Lorenzo de’ Medici, but suiting so well with his character and whole personality it has become, as it were, his property.