Letter 17: From Alessandra Strozzi to Filippo Strozzi, News In Florence: April 7, 1464

The following letter excerpt from mother to son reveals more still of the extent that she would go to accept her far off son's apparent premarital behaviour. She even lays out a course where he might be able to advance his own education. If he were able to see it as such. Filippo was thirty-five years old and a successful unmarried banker who had taken a slave as a mistress, named Marina. A couple youths of the family had arrived, one Francesco in Naples, and one Tommaso in Florence.

Our translator and editor here Heather Gregory, tells us that Tommaso Ginori was a nephew of Niccolo Strozzi and an employee of Filippo there in Naples at this time. He had gone to Florence and visited Alessandra for Easter, 1464. He had spokne with her about the affairs of Filippo and she felt motivated to tell him what she thought in this candid way.

"Tommaso ... came on Easter Day and told me ... about Marina and how well she looks after you. Hearing such things I find it easy to understand why you want to put off getting married for a year and why they're so slow at finding you a wife. You behave like a man who wants to put off dying or paying his debts for as long as he can. At the moment you've only got one woman in the house and you're well looked after, but when you get married there'll be lots of them and you wonder how you'll get on. So it seems to me you're wise to take your time, as you must make up your mind eventually. I talked to Tommaso about several things which I've had on my mind, but I don't know what will come of it."

How would he prepare to provide for a house full of women?  Amply, as it turns out. Alessandra turns to the news again. There was plague, nearby, but not for 'the well to do'. She asks about the money sent to Niccolo and the spectacles sent for a friend of Filippo. A marriage of a Strozzi daughter to a d'Medici banker who had just returned to Florence seems unlikely. A shipwreck off Flanders [today's Holland] where many people and goods were lost was news in Florence. News that Alessandra thought would be news in Naples, as well. Expecting Lorenzo Strozzi to arrive by sea at some future point, she wishes his safe arrival.
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translated with notes by Heather Gregory: Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi : Bilingual Edition, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997