The government which Lorenzo, afterwards Duke of Urbino, now established in Florence is very favorably described by Vettori.[3] ’Lorenzo, though still a young man, applied himself with great attention to the business of the city, providing that equal justice should be administered to all, that the public moneys should be levied and spent with frugality, and that disputes should be settled to the satisfaction of all parties.  His rule was tolerated, because, while the revenues were large and the expenses small, the citizens were not troubled with taxes; and this is the chief way to please a people, seeing their affection for a prince is measured by the good they get from him.  Taking this opinion of Lorenzo, it is possible for Vettori in another place to say of him that ’he governed Florence like a citizen;’[4] and on the occasion of his death in 1520, he passes what amounts to a panegyric on his character.  ’His death was a misfortune for Florence, which it would be difficult to describe.  Though young, he had the qualities of virtuous maturity.  He bore a real affection toward the citizens, was parsimonious of the moneys of the Commune, prodigal of his own; while a foe to vice, he was not too severe on those who erred.  Though he began his military life at twenty-three, he always bore the cuirass of a man at arms upon his shoulders day and night on active service.  He slept very little, was sober in his diet, temperate in love.  The Florentines did not love him, because it is not possible for men used to freedom to love a ruler; but he, for his part, had not sought the office which was thrust upon him by the will of others.  Madonna Alfonsina, his mother, brought unpopularity upon him; for she was avaricious, and the Florentines, who noticed every detail, thought her grasping:  and though he wanted to restrain her, he found himself unable to do so through the high esteem in which he held her.  Maddalena, his wife, died six days before him, after giving birth to a daughter Catherine.’  This is the, no doubt, highly favorable portrait of the man to whom Machiavelli dedicated his Principe.  The somewhat negative good qualities of Lorenzo, his prudence and parsimony, his freedom from despotic ambition, and dislike of dangerous service, combined with his deference to the powerful members of his own family, are very unlike Machiavelli’s ideal of the founder of a state.  Cesare Borgia was almost the exact opposite.  The impression produced by Vettori’s panegyric is further confirmed by what he says about Lorenzo’s disinclination to undertake the Duchy of Urbino.[5]

    [1] P. 297.

    [2] P. 300.

    [3] Ibid.

    [4] P. 306.

    [5] P. 321.  See too p. 307.