Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-07
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Booklouer.

enterprise In Italy of the Middle Ages,
is in no degree lessened by Col. G.
F.. Young's volume history, "The
Medici," but the opprobrium attach
ed to their names by some chroniclers
because of their supposed usurpation
and tyranny is combated very sue
cessfully. Col. Young charges Clio
vanm Cavalcanti. who lived during
the middle of the fifteenth century
and wrote history of his time, with
being the "chief mine" whence state
ments against the Medici of that
period have been drawn. Later his
torians have repeated his statements,
not taking the trouble to look for
proof, and have enlarged upon them.
Cavalcanti is the only historian of
his time who accuses Cosimo, Pater
Patriae, Of instigating the murder
of Baldaccio d'Anghiari. commander OF
the Florentine Infantry, and Col.
Young says: There is not a particle
of evidence that Cosimo had anything
to do with it," Col. Young says that
when he began his study of the Medici
he was entirely imbued with the time
honored theory" that they were the
craftiest and most INSCRIPTIONS of
despots and were pre-eminent in crime,
but he was brought by degrees to
a very different opinion when he found
that admitted facts refused over and
over again to square with the view
of this family usually presented to
US SO in this work he attempts
to detail the admitted facts of their
lives and to leave these to large
extent to speak for themselves. He
does no whitewashing, but prefers
tn ind hn mi
ages have a right to be judged, "by
their acknowledged deeds, rather than
by comments thereon which, emanat-
ing from writer's violently biased
against them, are found uniformly at
tributing good actions to ignOble
motives, or distorting those actions
until they become full of impossible
tiles" The result is picture of the
Medici not only as the richest and
most powerful family of their times,
but also as far above the average III
patriotism, civic pride, magnanimity,
generosity and self-restraint. Elk
amples of these qualities are to be
found in abundance. When Cosimo
returned to power in 1434, after his
exile from Florence, none of those
who had attempted TO take his life
and ruin his family were put to death,
though such vengeance would have
been quite usual. Piero put down
an armed rebellion without the loss
of a single life and turned his enemies
into friends. Lorenzo saved the life OF
Cardinal Riario, who had just attempt
ed to murder him. Col. Young calls
attention to the fact that the his
tory of the Medici family embraces
10 generations, and out of this num-
Der there are no less than 10 genera
lions to whom no such crimes tmur-
ders) have been even attributed. IL
is not until we reach the seventh
generation that we have the first muir
der committed by a Medici, and even
that was committed by one who had
no legitimate right to the name;
while it is not until we reach the
eighth and ninth generations that we
meet with that series of these &C.
cusations which has been the main
cause of the reputation which mas
been given to the family He ASKS
if it is customary to stigmatlze the
whole line of sovereigns of England
because out of 10 generations may
have committed murders.
Any history Of the Medici must OF
necessity include much of the history
of Europe during the fifteenth, SIN
teenth and seventeenth centuries.
and especially the history of the
Renaissance. During that important
period the transition occurred from
the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.
Feudalisn gave place to nationaiism;
power shifted from Italy to France,
Germany and England; the Turks
replaced the Christians at Con-
stantinople; the Moors were expelled
from Spain; new world was
discovered in America; the Reforma-
ton, or Protestant revolution, start
ed in Germany and spread TO other
countries. One of the most remark
able phenomena of a remarkable
period was the rise of the Medicl
from comparative bourgeois oDscurlty
to so high an eminence. From
simple bankers and merchants they
rose. in spite of much opposition and
many vicissitudes until they became
the most powerful family in Europe.
and, indeed, until there was a Medici
on the throne of nearly every prin-
cipal country" Col. Young gives
several points of view from which
the Medici were pre- eminent: 1.
Their important place in history
makes their story at times almost
that of Europe. 2. They were the
chief patrons of learning and art in
all history. g. The two popes most
prominent in the reformation, Leo x
and Clement VII, were Medici. 4.
owing to exceptional many sided
ness. they touched life at almost all
points-statesmansh civil admins
tration. finance, commerce, agricul-
ture, sympathy with the common
people, religion, art, letters. Col
Young begins with Giovanni di Bicci
Q360.142Sl, father of the famous
branch of the Medici, patron of
Brunelleschi. and founder of the
Founding Hospital of Florence. and
traces the history of this great
family through Cosimo Pater Pat
riae, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Pietro
the Unfortunate, Giuliano, and all the
succeeding and collateral Medici
There is especially full discussion OF
the Medici popes and of Catherine
de Medici, who made the history OF
France for q number of years. A
genealogical tree of the Medici is ap-
pended to the second volume.
A soil novel by a young writer who
is following the traditions of Hardy
and perhaps more nearly of Sheila
Kaye-Smith. is Winter Wheat" by
Almey st. John Adcock. The back
ground is Buckinghamshire. The al
most inevitable tragedy of human
life, earlier or later, sudden OF
prolonged, is the underlying theme
Human beings are the sport OF
chance or fate and in the grue
some game are used as instru
ments for each others misery. Sc
! Nancy F'allow, weak and oolorless
but still capable of soul-devourine
love, is the victim of her own emo
lions and of the selfishness of those
she loves. First she lavishes her love
on a bullying man, then on her owl
| unworthy son. OF the various per
| sons in the novel, none seem to be
able to attain happiness for them