This day I received thy letter, which is most dear to me as telling how thou art. I see that by the grace of God riding has not been too irksome to thee, of which I am glad. Mona Contessina told me the same, and that thou hast been received with great demonstrations of affection. Truly, as thou sayest, we have much to thank God for. So I beg thee to bear gladly a little discomfort, for these things are not accomplished without some fatigue. I see all the family is well, which is a great consolation to hear, and I thank thee. I beg that, as we are not coming there, thou wilt return as soon as thou canst, for it seems to us a thousand years since we saw thee, particularly to Giuliano. Lorenzo is learning the verses his master there gave him and then teaches them to Giuliano. No more at present. Commend me to Cosimo and to Mona Contessina. We are all well. Christ guard thee.--28th February 1457 (1458). Thy Lucrezia.[67] The entry into Florence of Galeazzo Maria, Count of Pavia, son of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, is described in a curious poem written in 1459 by an unknown author.[68] Leaving Cafaggiuolo, where the lad slept, he entered Florence on 17th April 1459, and dismounted at the Medici palace. Next day Messer Galeazzo visited the Signoria, who made him sit in their midst and offered him their services. “I thank you for your greeting,” answered the young Count, “and beg you to command me and to dispose of all I possess. For you I will abandon any enterprise, and serve you against any power.” Then with a prayer to God to grant them happiness and long lives the lad of fifteen added: “I beg you to pardon my youth if, from want of knowledge, I have not spoken aright in your presence; remember I am but a boy. I commend you to Christ our Lord.” From his letters to his father we get a glimpse of the home life of Cosimo. He writes that even the ladies of the family helped to entertain him, and he was charmed with the playing of one of Piero’s daughters on the “organo di cave.” At a dinner at Careggi he notes that Giovanni, Cosimo’s second son, did not sit at table, but acted as a kind of steward, and saw that every one was properly served. After dinner a poet improvised verses in honour of the guest. “Certes, Lucian or Dante could have done no better,” he remarks. Then they danced, Piero’s wife Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Giovanni’s Maria Ginevra degl’ Alessandri, and a daughter of the Strozzi, held to be the handsomest maiden in Florence, and some peasant girls.