of the woods in the neighbourhood of the latter. Nor far from thence he enlarged the villa of Trebbio, the castellated building of which reminds us of Cosimo, the first Grand Duke, who resided there in his youth. In Assisi he enlarged the cloister of St. Francis, and had the road paved which leads up to the town from the church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli, lying at the foot of the hill. This church, the large marble fountain of which he caused to be built by Michelozzo for the benefit of the pilgrims, still bears his name and arms. The palace in Milan, presented to him by Francesco Sforza, he caused to be rebuilt by Michelozzo, and painted by Vicenzo Zoppa and others. He restored the collegium built by a Florentine cardinal for his countrymen in Paris. In Jerusalem he erected a pilgrims’ house for the Florentines on the spot where, according to tradition, the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles, and where a building stood, which he restored by appointing regular payments for its maintenance. He used to say that whatever he had given to God, he in his balance of accounts had never found Him to be his debtor. His connection with artists and scholars will be mentioned when we come to the description of his extraordinary services to art and his active interest in learning. Such was Cosimo de’ Medici—certainly, with all his faults, a remarkable man, who more than anyone contributed to keep alive not only the forms, but much of the spirit of civil equality and dignity, after it had become impossible to avoid a party government, leading sooner or later to the preponderance of one family. A spirit, which lay at all events in the character of the people, but also in the character of a race which had sprung from the people, which at last attained to power, and even in arbitrary times, preserved something of that which distinguishes it from other princely families. The people, those who disliked Cosimo not excepted, observed with anxiety his increasing ill-health. They said to each other that his influential adherents were infinitely inferior to him in goodness, consideration, and prudence, and feared that his son would not be able to restrain them. In the spring of 1464 he caused himself to be brought, with much suffering, to Careggi, where his wife and son were with him. When Francesco Sforza heard of his condition, he sent him a skilful physician, who, however, could effect as little as the others. On July 26, Piero de’ Medici addressed the following letter to his two sons, who were residing at Cafaggiuolo:[98] ‘The day before yesterday I gave you news of Cosimo’s increasing illness, which, as it seems to me, is exhausting his strength. He himself feels it, so that on Tuesday evening he would have no one but Monna Contessina and myself in his room. He began to speak of his own life, then passed to the government of the city, family, his trade connections, and the state of his property. At last he came