Letter 16: From Alessandra Strozzi To Filippo Strozzi, In Naples: March 22, 1464

A letter from the house of Strozzi and the pen of Alessandra (1406-71), the mother to her elder son, Filippo (1428-91). It was the son that kept the letters received from his mother. He had been sent to Naples in the 1440's after Cosimo d'Medici had banned several members of his rival's house. There, in Naples Filippo had become a successful banker, wholesale merchant and eventually a statesman.

In 1464 his mother Alessandra sent him this letter (excerpted here) along with a young relative 'from a poorer branch of the family'.

"In the name of God, 22 March 1464.

I wrote to you on the 15th, by Francesco di Sandro Strozzi. I didn't answer yours of the 6th because I didn't have time; I'll answer in this letter.

Francesco will have arrived there by now, and you'll get a good look at him and see whether he looks like Nofri [Filippo's younger brother], which I don't think he does.  I've told him he has me to thank for his position with you and that if he does well, I will get the credit because I asked you to take him on. And if he doesn't behave well, I told him you will blame me but that it would be his loss and shame and he would be sent back here. He told me he meant to do me credit, and all the others as well. I'll be more than pleased if he does."

Along with this bit of matronly encouragement, couched in threat of punishment, four florins were sent as well. These, for the youth's expenses on the way to Naples, he would have to account to Filippo, when he got there.

"I do ask you to look after him, because his father has entrusted him to me; I said if he does well his deeds will speak for themselves."

It was fairly common for poorer families to send offspring to familial concerns in the cities, to learn a trade or find other suitable education or employment and hopeful advancement. Indeed, this seems to be one of those archetypal lives, one taken afar by circumstances, that populate any age. This trip to Naples made more sense even for a youth as young as fourteen, since the Strozzi name was stll currently out of favor - after twenty years - in Florence.

On Filippo's own reputation, his mother was watchful, if disdainful of the source of the current rumor, left unsaid.

"About the accusation I said had been made about you ... we have to keep in mind where it comes from, and I certainly hope that it's all lies, rather than the truth. If anyone says something which isn't true, may God let them see the light; we should be sorry for anyone like that. The truth always has its place. Do try to do the right and as you say, be sure of not doing wrong by anyone because you'll offend God, who sits in judgement over us. Our life in this world is so short we have to try to make sure we live in peace in the next life, which lasts forever.... the Bible says: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I know you already know what I am telling you, but I'm reminding you about it because you're my flesh and blood.... you should always do the right thing, in spite of the words of slanderers, and look after your immortal soul...."

Later:

"The plague has started up again here, but only a little and only among the laboring people. We keep a close eye on it and don't hear anything about it for fifteen days or so, but then it turns up again among the lower-class people. And while there's some risk involved in staying here, the citizens are staying, all the same. After Easter I'm sure everyone who has a country house in a healthy district will go and stay there. So we'll see what happens."

Alessandra names a couple places she could go if the plague returned again in Florence. News in Florence would be sent out all spring in her name as well as her thoughts on all manner of subjects.
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translated with notes by Heather Gregory: Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi : Bilingual Edition, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997