TRANSLATION:
At last I have arrived in Paris but I have not yet been able to get through to His Majesty [Emperor Charles V]. This was due to problems with the horses. Also, there was no way that I could organize lodgings, since I have no orders to that effect and I would hate to find myself sleeping in the street like some post rider who carries the mail. The biggest obstacle, however, is that His Majesty [Emperor Charles V] and also the King [François I] don't want to hear any serious matters, as I have ascertained from various sources. Therefore, I am prepared to wait for him [Charles V] here, where I will have a good chance of presenting myself or at least a better chance than anywhere else along the route of his journey. During such time as I am unable to take care of business, I will concentrate on seeing the city, the arches and other decorations, and then finally the entrance of Caesar [Charles V] for whom they have ordered many honors, festivities, jousts and other entertainments. Here as apparently elsewhere in his journey, they have commanded that those in His Majesty's retinue are not to pay for anything, though they are in fact rather few in number, not exceeding four hundred horses. Your Lordship shouldn't imagine that the arches here are of the beauty and grace that you have seen there [in Italy], most recently for the arrival of the Duchess [Eleonora di Toledo de' Medici] or previously for the entrance of Caesar [Charles V]. The ones here are very simple and uncouth, with only the Imperial eagle painted on them, without any other devices or inscriptions. The coat of arms, however, is executed diligently and in my opinion it is only necessary to honor the emblem of the Empire, not of Spain and Austria. I expect that the other entertainments will be as splendid and pompous as befit so great and opulent a realm, with those of the ladies surpassing all others. It seems to me that these French women are truly sweet and courteous, though Your Lordship should not complain if you find that they rather cling to you. Yesterday evening, I dined with a brother-in-law of Bartolomeo Panciatichi, as well as his attractive wife and various damsels, passing the time in a most convivial manner though I was often impeded by not knowing the langugage.

TEXT:
Sono di poi comparso a Parigi ne per anchora ho potuto penetrare a S. M.tà per difficultà de cavalli, per non vi essere modo di alloggiare, trovandomi io senza ordine alchuno come accade a chi corre la posta, et rincresciermi il dormire nel mezzo della strada, et principalmente per non volere quella M.tà [Imperatore Carlo V] insieme con el Re [François I] udire ragionmamento d'alcuna faccenda come per molte mi sono certificato. Però ho pensato di espetterla [Carlo V] qui dove ragionevolmente se ha havere commodità di presentarsi et se non qui non in altro locho per questo camino. Quando non habbi facultà di farci faccenda alchuna, attenderò a vedere la Città, li Archi, et altri ornamentj et finalmente l'entrata di Caesare [Carlo V] per la quale si ordinano assai similj honori, feste, giostre et altri trattenimenti, oltre all'essere comandato che dalli homini di S. M.tà non sia preso nulla per loro spesa, come dicano ancora essersi fatto per tutto il camino benché sono non molti non passando il numero di quattrocento cavalli. Non pensi V. S.ria che li archi sieno di quella bellezza et gra[zia] che l'ha visto costà, o ultimamente nella venuta della S.ra Duchessa [Eleonora di Toledo de' Medici] o prima nell'entrata di Caesare, perchè sono molto semplici et sgarbati et solamente ci è dipinta l'Aquila Imperiale sanza altra sorte di Brevi o d'Inventione. Il che quanto all'arme, è fatto industriosamente, non ci volendo secondo il juditio mio honorare altro che il segno dell'Imperio, non di Spagna o Austria. Li altri trattenimentj penso sieno per essere splendidi et pomposi come conviene alla grandezza et opulentia di questo regno, et sopratutto quelli delle dame habbino ad avanzare ogni altro, che veramente in queste franzese mi par si trovi assai cortesia et dolcezza. Però V. S.ria non se ne dolga se si sono troppo appicchate seco. Io hiersera fui a cena con un cognato di Bart.o Panciatichi dove era una sua bella moglie e altre donzelle che mi fecero passare assai allegramente el tempo, anchor che mi trovassi spesso impacciato, non havendo la lingua[…]

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
At the time of this letter, Cosimo I de' Medici was only twenty and had been ruler of Florence for less than three years. The writer Agnolo Niccolini and the recipient Ugolino Grifoni were two of the chief architects of his state policy, helping him maintain a grasp on power through an ingenious mixture of tenacity and improvisation.

European politics could then be characterized as a three-way tug-of-war between the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the French King François I and Pope Paul III Farnese. In that era of super-power realpolitik, seeming bubble states like Medici Florence could appear and disappear overnight. Though Agnolo Niccolini was Cosimo I's senior diplomat, we see him relegated to the horde of supernumerary hangers-on scrambling for a moment of the Emperor's valuable time.

Though Charles V had asserted Cosimo's right to rule after the assassination of his cousin Duke Alessandro de' Medici in January 1537, the Emperor shrewdly left most of the specifics unresolved and kept them dangling over Cosimo's head. Meanwhile, the French King was aiding and abetting Cosimo's bitterest Florentine adversaries and the Pope was scheming to annex Florence (and any other available Italian real estate) for his own rapacious nephews.

Since Cosimo's fledgling regime was on the verge of bankruptcy, he desperately needed to settle the estate of his predecessor Duke Alessandro. This inheritance was claimed in full by the widow Margherita of Austria, who was also the illegitimate daughter of Charles V and the very recent wife of papal nephew Ottavio Farnese. As Niccolini implied in his letter, he had already journeyed from Rome to Genoa to Paris in hope of laying this matter on the table. He was fated to trail the Emperor as far as Ghent (and wait out the bloody revolt of that city in February 1540) without reaching a definitive conclusion.

The populous and flourishing city of Paris probably seemed both sophisticated and provincial to a cultivated Tuscan like Niccolini, with its slapdash festive architecture and coquettish women of good family. The Panciatichi, a great Florentine banking dynasty long established in France, appear to have gone thoroughly native in this regard.