Another Orsini Marries into the Medici Family, 1488

Lorenzo di Medici and Clarice Orsini had ten children, including their oldest son, Piero de Lorenzo de Medici, called "the Unfortunate," because of the events he allowed to unfold after his father's death.

But that is skipping ahead of the date, 1488, when Piero married Alfonsina Orsini, who was 16 at the time, and the daughter of Roberto Orsini, Conte Tagliacozzo, and Catherine San Severino.   While Piero may be called "the Unfortunate," it was a fortunate  marriage for the Medici family (and the city of Florence) because decades later  Alfonsina would serve as Regent.

The portrait above, by Botticelli, is currently in the inventory of the Palazzo Pitti.  To my knowledge it has not been on display in recent years.  But just as there is renewed interest in Anna Luisa de Medici (and that's skipping centuries ahead) currently, perhaps there will come a time when some curator decides to do an exhibition on the Medici wives.

Lorenzo's Last Mistress

Francesco Guicciardini said that when he was forty Lorenzo who 'was licentious and very amorous,' fell desperately in love with Bartolommea dei Nasi, the wife of Donato Benci, and spent night after night with her at her country villa, returning to Florence just before dawn.  "Although she was not shapely, she was courteous and well-mannered."

Guicciardini further comments, "It is absurd to consider so important a man, with his reputation and judiciousness should, at the age of forty, be so taken with a woman who was not beautiful and already advanced in years."  Bartolommea was thirty at the time.

While the above portrait is not Bartolommea (it's Portrait of a Woman Inspired by Lucretia, by Lorenzo Lotto, c. 1553), I'd like to think that she might have looked something like this, beautiful in spite of her size and years.  

"Guicciardini gave credence to the report that the fatal illness of Lorenzo was brought on by the exposure to which Lorenzo subjected himself in following up his love intrigue with Bartolommea de' Nasi, the wife of Donato Benci, a lady who was neither young nor beautiful but of much distinction in manner and intelligence.  In order to save the reputation of the lady, who lived near her villa in the country during the winter months, Lorenzo, then a widower, visited her regularly after nightfall and returned to Florence in the morning.  He was accompanied on these occasions by a portion of that body-guard, with some of whom he was always surrounded after the conspiracy of the Pazzi.  Two of them having complained of their hard service, the lady contrived o get them sent away in disgrace on distant embassies.  'A mad thing'..., says Guicciardini, 'was it, if we consider that a man of such greatness, reputation, and prudence---of forty years of age---should e so captivated by a lady, not beautiful and full of years, as to be brought to do things which would have misbecome any boy.'"  (Smith, 1876, p. 134)

And then Clarice died . . .

. . . 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.