Letter 16: From Alessandra to Filippo (Con't): Money & Glasses, March 1464

Alessanadra Strozzi continues her letter and gives an example of what she thought about money to her son Filippo. Two pieces of land had been sold, she said, and the receipt of the money was sent to his father's cousin Niccolo Strozzi, in Rome, whom Filippo had over the years worked for in both Naples and Bruges.

"It is the 23rd [of March] now, and your letter of the 10th has arrived. I will answer as I need to. You heard about the sale of the two pieces of land and about the money I sent back to Niccolo: well today I've heard a letter from Rome saying that he'll do whatever you want with the money, and Niccolo says he's already written to you about it. You say I don't have to make excuses for taking whatever money I need but that I should spend it more usefully. To which I say that I wrote to you at the very least to give you something to read, but in particular to tell you what I wanted to do with the money, so you wouldn't think I'd spent it on something else. I want you to know that if I die I won't have any cash in my coffers, because I will have spent it on my soul instead, which is the most useful thing I have. I'm careful not to spend money badly or uselessly, so there's nothing else to be said about it. I'll go on doing what I think is best, both for me and you."

She also tells him, according to our translator and editor here Heather Greggory, that she's glad Filippo carried out the terms of his brother and, her son's will, that she is expecting a delivery of flax sent by him and that spectacles had been bought and were to be sent to him.

"They bought the spectacles today, and they're sending them to you in Rome by the servant who takes Niccolo Strozzi's letters, so do be sure to collect them. Nothing else occurs to me for now. Do keep me in your thoughts; may God keep you from all harm. From your Alessandra Strozzi in Florence."

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translated with notes by Heather Gregory: Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi : Bilingual Edition, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997