[366] Piero de’ Medici’s device, invented by Poliziano, was a _broncone_ or bough (in Nestor’s drawing it looks more like a hurdle) in flames, with the motto, _In Viridi Teneras Flamma Medúlas Exudit_, signifying that his love was so strenuous and incomparable that it would even set fire to green wood. _Histoire des Hommes Illustres de la Maison de Medici._ Jean Nestor, 1564. [367] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 296. [368] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 394. [369] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., ii. 300. [370] _Lettere di Lorenzo a Innocenzo VIII._, op. cit. 14. [371] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. di Modena, _op. cit._ [372] Ibid. [373] _Lettere e Notizie_, &c., Arch. Pal. de Modena, _op. cit._ [374] Ibid. [375] Francesco Cibò, the Pope’s son, married to Maddalena de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s daughter. [376] _Lettere di Lorenzo a Innocenzo VIII._, op. cit. [377] _Lettere e Notizie_, Arch. Pal. di Modena, p. 315. [378] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 293. [379] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xxiv. No. 502. [380] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 292. [381] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 157. (The date is uncertain, as there is a blot of ink on the figure 8. A rough copy in Lorenzo’s handwriting.) [382] _Laurentii Medicis Vita, &c._, _op. cit._ ii. 344. [383] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xviii. No. 19. [384] Ibid., xliii. No. 139. [385] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xli. No. 531. [386] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 293. (By some mistake Fabroni gives the date as August 1492. Lorenzo died on April 8 of that year.) During a visit to Rome in 1486 Pico della Mirandola had promulgated nine hundred theses on theology, philosophy, magic, and the Cabbalah, which he offered to maintain in public disputation. Heresies contained in them were pointed out by his enemies and Innocent VIII. issued a Brief against those considered as dangerous. Pico fled to France and published an apology protesting his orthodoxy, but it was only by Lorenzo’s influence that the Pope was induced to suspend proceedings. Pico then returned to Florence and Lorenzo, as this and the two former letters show, pressed the Pope hard to grant his friend a full pardon. [387] _Laurentii Medicis Vita, &c._, ii. 365 _et seq._ [388] _Arch. Med. ante Prin._, Filza xliii. No. 142 (draft of letter in Lorenzo’s handwriting without date). [389] A Greek scribe employed by Lorenzo in copying. [390] _Prose Volgari inedite_, &c., _op. cit._ 78. [391] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, &c., _op. cit._ ii. 90. [392] _Acqua arzente_ in modern Italian is the name given to water with nitrous acid in it and is used to clean silver. It is poisonous. Piero Leoni evidently suspected something wrong (perhaps poisonous) in a certain water which had been recommended to Lorenzo. He advises him to go back to his old waters until he analyses the new water. [393] _Laurentii Medicis Vita_, op. cit. ii. 91.