Francesco Vettori

Francesco Vettori (* 1474 in Florence , † 1539 ibid) was a Florentine statesman .

Life

Opposition under Piero Soderini (until 1512)

Vettori rose to the government after the expulsion of the Medici in 1494 and became a member of the government council in 1503. In the years after 1502, however, the Vettori were more against the rule established in Florence under the gonfaloniere Piero Soderini, who was appointed to his office for life . The main factor that determined the opposition of the Florence oligarchy was the unfulfilled hope that the bearer of the top office would, after years of disorder, involve the leading families in rule and not - as Soderini did - with the popular assembly and with the help of rising stars they rule. Incidentally, through their mother, Francesco and his brother Paolo were two nephews of Bernardo Rucellai, who represented this opposition .

In the summer of 1507 the opposition pushed through his posting to the Diet of Constance , which thwarted the unofficial embassy of Soderini's follower Niccolò Machiavelli . Nevertheless, the beginning of the lifelong friendship between the two Florentines dates to this time, so Machiavelli had to set out on the pretext of verbal communication and joined in January 1508 at a meeting of the Tyrolean estates. Together they testified to the early summer of 1508 the fight of Maximilian I against the Venetians and the failure of the planned Italian move to the Alps. While Machiavelli made his way back to Florence in June of that year, Vettori stayed in Germany until the spring of 1509.

When Soderini was about to be deposed in the late summer of 1512 because, after the collapse of the French protecting power, the Spaniards under Ramón de Cardona advanced into Tuscany and aimed at the repatriation of the Medici, Francesco Vettori played a key role in the rescue of the Gonfaloniere : in this respect the brother Paolo was one of the conspirators who dared the coup d'état on August 31, the less partisan Francesco was called to mediate. Then, on the night of August 31st to September 1st, he was charged with securing Piero Soderini with a few escorts out of Florence and in the direction of the Sienese.

Medici party man (from 1512)

After the return of the Medici, Francesco Vettori was the official ambassador of the Republic of Florence to Rome from January 1513 to May 1515, but led a shadowy existence: the fate of his hometown and the pontificate of Leo X de 'Medici rested in the hands of a family. The disgraced Niccolò Machiavelli hoped through him in vain for the favor of the new rulers. In addition, the correspondence between him and Vettori provides, for example, information about the assessment of the political situation in the time before the reconquest of Lombardy by the French under Francis I.

In the summer of 1515 Vettori was the war commissioner of the Florentine troops at the side of the younger Lorenzo de 'Medici . Until 1518 he was envoy to France and played a key role in the negotiations that cemented the new alliance of the Medici and the French and led to the younger Lorenzo's marriage to Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne .
In the period after the fall of the Medici in 1527, Vettori was again ambassador to Rome in 1529 . It is also documented in some writings within the constitutional discourse of the Republic of Florence.

Among the more important writings by Francesco Vettori there is a. a. the Viaggio in Alamagna , his travel description and portrait of the Germans, which he wrote in retrospect of his legation of 1507/08. He described the history of Italy for the years from 1511 to 1527 in his Sommario delle cose di Italia and, influencing European events, brought it to the events in the vicinity of the Sacco di Roma .

swell

• Enrico Niccolini (Ed.): Francesco Vettori. Scritti storici e politici, Bari 1972.

literature

• Volker Reinhardt : Francesco Vettori (1474–1539) - The game of power ; Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007 ISBN 978-3-8353-0198-6
• Albert Meier: "Tutto il mondo è ciurmeria". Francesco Vettori and his 'Viaggio in Alamagna' (1507/08). In: Locher, Elmar (ed.): Between languages ​​and cultures: The critical word. Festschrift for Italo Michele Battafarano. Würzburg 2016, pp. 247-259.