An imagined gathering
1490 · Florence, Italy
Lorenzo gathers Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza in Florence to talk about patronage, the balance of power, and the price of holding a state together.
Lorenzo has come from the gardens of San Marco, where the young sculptors he supports are at work among the antique marbles, and he brings the smell of the workshop with him. Machiavelli, then a junior clerk, has been invited for his sharp eye; Caterina Sforza has ridden over from the Romagna and is amused to find herself the only ruler at the table.
The talk begins with art and turns, as it always does, to power. Lorenzo explains how Florence is kept quiet through loans and favours rather than force; Caterina describes the walls of Forlì and the business of holding a city that does not love you. Machiavelli says little and remembers everything. They eat pasta in broth, a roasted pheasant, and a green salad, and end with cheese, honey, and a glass of sweet wine.
Host: Lorenzo de' Medici
Niccolò Machiavelli — A young Florentine clerk, watching how power is actually held.
Caterina Sforza — Countess of Forlì and Imola, in Florence on family business.
First course
a period dish
a period dish
Cheese
a period dish
Drink
a period dish
Lorenzo de' Medici
The Italian practice of playing the great powers against one another so that no single state could dominate the peninsula.
Cosimo de' Medici
The Medici habit of spending banking fortunes on churches, libraries, and artists — and the political return they expected on the investment.
Lorenzo de' Medici
The courts of fifteenth-century Italy as centers of learning, display, and political theatre.
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.