. . . of tuberculosis, at the age of only 34, on July 30, 1488. Her grieving husband Lorenzo wrote the following to Pope Innocent VIII:
Sanctissime ac Beatissime Pater post Pedum oscula Beatorum Vestrorum
Too often am I obliged to trouble and worry Your Beatitude with accidents sent by fortune and divine interposition, which as they are not to be resisted must be borne with patience. But the death of Clarice, which has just occurred, my most dear and beloved wife, has been and is so prejudicial, so great a loss, and such a grief to me for many reasons, that it has exhausted my patience and my power of enduring anguish, and the persecution of fortune, which I did not think would have made me suffer thus. The deprivation of such habitual and such sweet company has filled my cup and has made me so miserable that I can find no peace. Nought is left but to pray God that He may give me peace, and I have faith that in His infinite love He will alleviate my sorrow and not overwhelm me with so many disasters as I have endured during these last year. I humbly beg your Beatitude with all my heart to pray for me as I know how efficacious are such prayers. I commend myself and place myself at Your Holy Feet.----Filetta, July 31, 1488. Your devoted servant, Laurentius de Medicis.
I've posted a view of the interior of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medici family church. There's no mention that I can find of whether or not Clarice is buried in either the Old Sacristry or the New Sacristry, but I would like to think that at least there was a service for her in this beautiful church, designed by Brunelleschi.
I've posted a view of the interior of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medici family church. There's no mention that I can find of whether or not Clarice is buried in either the Old Sacristry or the New Sacristry, but I would like to think that at least there was a service for her in this beautiful church, designed by Brunelleschi.
some thoughts-
ReplyDeleteOld Sacristy highly unlikely, although when Giuliano was killed his remains were held there temporaily.
But in addition to their early 15th century ownership of the old sacristy , the medici also had a chapel space in the transept near the old sac however I do not recall who was buried there.
the new sacristry did not exist in 1488, but by the early 90s Lorenzo de’ Medici was already financing work on extending the below-ground (crypt) space in an area of the transept that is near the present new sacristy. It was to be a burial site for him and Giuliano. I believe he and Giuliano are now buried below the entrance area to the new sacristy. no tomb was ever built .
the answer is probably out there. perhaps a in a ‘sepoltuario’, a list of who is buried in a particular church.
Further reading in The Lives of the Early Medici, by Janet Ross, reveals that Clarice was buried the day she died, and there was a service for her three days later "as was the custom," according to a letter from Aldrovandini, Ambassador to the Republic of Florence to Duke Ercole d' Este. The ambassador also wrote that Lorenzo stayed at Filetta, where he was taking a cure, and it was Piero, their oldest son who received the condolence calls from visitors at the Medici Palazzo.
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