Bianca Cappello-Buonaventuri Giovanni d'Averardo de' Medici "Journey of the Magi" (Medici) "Adoration of the Magi" (Medici) Lucrezia de' Medici Lorenzo Il Magnifico Giuliano Il Pensieroso Ippolito--Cardinal Alessandro--First Duke of Florence Giovanni--"Delle Bande Nere" Eleanora de' Medici Maria Lucrezia de' Medici Giovanni--Cardinal Garzia de' Medici Lucrezia--Duchess of Ferrara Eleanora--Wife of Piero de' Medici Piero de' Medici Isabella--Duchess of Bracciano Francesco--Grand Duke of Tuscany Giovanna de' Medici Don Antonio "de' Medici" Pellegrina Buonaventuri-Bentivoglio Cosimo I--"Tyrant of Tyrants" Cammilla de' Medici Ferdinando de' Medici--Cardinal INTRODUCTION The origin of the Medici family is lost in the mists of the Middle Ages, and, only here and there, can the historian gain glimpses of the lives of early forbears. Still, there is sufficient data, to be had for the digging, upon which to transcribe, inferentially at least, an interesting narrative. Away towards the end of the twelfth century,--exact dates are wholly beside the mark--there dwelt, under the shadow of one of the rugged castles of the robber-captains of the Mugello in Tuscany, a hard-working and trustworthy bonds-man--one Chiarissimo--"Old Honesty," as we may call him. He was married to an excellent helpmeet, and was by his lord permitted to till a small piece of land and rear his family. In addition to intelligence in agriculture, it would seem that he, or perhaps his wife, possessed some knowledge of the virtues of roots and herbs, for, in one corner of his _podere_, he had a garden of "simples." The few peaceable inhabitants of that warlike valley, and also many a wounded man-at-arms, sought "Old Honesty" and his wise mate for what we now call "kitchen remedies." Those, indeed, were happy days with respect to suffering human nature. "Kill or Cure" might have been the character of the healing art, but certainly specialists had not invented our appendicitis and other fashionable twentieth-century physical fashions! A little medical knowledge sufficed, and decoctions, pillules, poultices, and bleedings made up the simple pharmacopoeia. All the same, the satirical rhyme, which an old chronicler put into the mouths of many a despairing patient, in later days, may have been true also of "Old Honesty" and his nostrums: "There's not a herb nor a root Nor any remedy to boot Which can stave death off by a foot!" Of that good couple's family only one name has been preserved--Gianbuono, "Good John." Passerini says he was a priest--probably he means a hermit. Anyhow, he acquired more property in the Valle della Sieve and founded a church--Santa Maria dell' Assunta--possibly the enlargement of his cell--upon Monte Senario, between the valley of the Arno and that of the Sieve.