"There's no doubt that this death has given many of the citizens some new ideas about how the land should be governed, but so far nothing much has been heard, partly because it's so recent and partly because Dietisalvi has been sick. I haven't heard anything except that they are expecting to enjoy themselves."
This letter is dated September 15, 1464 and Cosimo died on the first of August. According to our translator's notes, Dietisalvi's last name was Neroni and had previously been a supporter of Cosimo. In time he would lead an opposition against Cosimo's son Piero. Dietisalvi, our translator tells us, would be exiled in 1466. Gregory also notes, it was the opponents of Piero that were the ones 'enjoying themselves.'
The very next thing Alessandra Strozzi mentions in the letter to her son is her son's concerns.
"So far as your affairs are concerned and those of others in your position, it's not being discussed, so you've done the right thing not to write to anyone about it.. There was no need for me to stay in Florence on that account, because I would have been looking the plague in the face while a good twenty people were dying of it a day."Alessandra's son Filippo was a banker working in Naples in competition to the Medici banking interests. To whatever degree Filippo was or was not involved in these things, this matter, of course was about politics and power as well. In Naples, in Florence, to competitors and supporters all this information would be worked over and every possible outcome and course of action needed to be discussed and held close. Until the right moment. Alessandra understood all this and thus her prudent advice.
But her admission that she was not in Florence with all this going on may show she was merely not in any loop of communication. It was common for the wealthy to retire in the summer heat to country homes and avoid the disease that could still ravage a city. The plague had many reoccurrences in these decades. It was also common to receive guests while being a guest at a friends' house. This is how Alessandra comes to conclude people weren't talking about these weighty issues in the late summer of 1464.
"If I'd heard the slightest hint of a discussion of this matter, but no one mentioned it. The citizens are in the country because of the plague, and no one feels like discussing it much. But by All Saints' or therabouts we should hear something."She tells him not to worry about her or how people on her end of matters will deal with things. She seems almost too insistent not to worry about her.
"You needn't doubt that when we hear something we'll talk to whoever, wherever we need to, and we won't fail to make use of our friends and relations, either from lack of money or from not wanting to, and we won't forget anything. But first we're waiting to hear what's being said about it and to get some idea what those in charge might be thinking.... Dietislavi has been sick ... and doesn't carry too much weight. Your Messer A isn't as well placed as you think he is...".In a careful warning, she tells her son the supposed leaders may not be so. But she remains hopeful about the political system in Florence noting the 'good Signoria', 'experienced priors' and a seemingly weak man currently stationed as Gonfalonier of Justice. By this time both of these had become relatively weak institutions, corrupted by money. This seems for Alessandra not such a bad thing if they have to wait longer for a decision. She encouraged Filippo to be in contact with Giovanni Bonsi and Tomasso Davizzi.
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from pp. 119-21, translated with notes by Heather Gregory: Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi : Bilingual Edition, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997
