WHAT'S YOUR POISON?

Duke Cosimo de'Medici declines to assist in the poisoning of Piero Strozzi.

Presented by: Bruce Edelstein, Medici Archive Project Researcher

DOCUMENT CITATION:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 10, fol. 400.
(Entry 5407 in the "Documentary Sources" database.)

TRANSLATION:

[...] In regard to that man who offered to poison Piero Strozzi's water or wine, impelling you to send a courier here [to Florence] to obtain a recipe from us, we inform you that we have never looked into such matters nor authorized others to do so. This is not our custom and even if we should wish such a thing, we would have no idea to whom we might turn in this city. And should such an occurence [Piero Strozzi's poisoning] come to pass, we think it best that neither you nor I be the source. However, if that person you mention really is inclined to carry out his plan […] he might find that Apollonius [of Citium] gives some recipes. In any case, we do not know where to obtain such things, nor have we any interest in doing so, since we find such matters excessively horrid [...]

TEXT:

[...] Circa quello che s'è offerto d'avelenare [avvelenare] Piero Strozzi nell'acqua et nel vino, per il quale effetto havete expedito qua il corriero per havere la compositione da noi, vi diciamo che noi non habiamo mai atteso a simili cose, nè [cancelled: consentimo mai che] ^consentito ad^ altri [cancelled: per ordine nostro] ^che^ ci attendesse. Non è nostra professione, et quando volessimo una simil cosa in questa città certo noi non sapremmo da chi cavarla. Et per ogni caso che ne potessi succedere, ci pare bene che la non [cancelled: debba] ^dovesse^ uscire nè dalle mani [cancelled: di] sua [cancelled: Ill.ma S.] nè mia, ma se colui è disposto far lo effetto [...] forse Apollonio [Apollonius of Citium] ne debbe havere qualche ricetta. Insomma, noi non sapremmo donde haverne, et ci piace anco non ne voler cercare, sendo cose da noi molto al'horride [...]

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

In the winter of 1548, there can have been few people whom Cosimo de'Medici would have liked better to see dead than Piero Strozzi. Since Cosimo's accession to the throne in 1537, the greatest threat to his security was posed by the underground network of Florentine republicans living in exile, largely in Sienese territory and in Rome. The most visible and powerful of these "fuorusciti" was Piero Strozzi. Piero's father Filippo Strozzi had been captured by Cosimo's forces at the Battle of Montemurlo in 1537 but committed suicide rather than abandon the Republican cause. Piero managed to escape, finding refuge first in Edirne (Adrianople) and then in France, where he obtained the support of the French crown for the anti-Medicean faction.

By 1548, Francesco Vinta had already served for two years as the Medici Agent in Milan and his family was firmly established in the ducal administration in Florence. From the present letter, it emerges that an obliging if anonymous individual offered to resolve the Piero Strozzi problem and Vinta jumped at the chance of doing his master so useful a service. Duke Cosimo, however, was more circumspect--for reasons that we can only deduce. It is worth noting that Vinta did not bother to put his homicidal letter in code, a glaring oversight since the post was often lost, stolen or tampered with. Cosimo, in any case, seemed keen to cultivate deniability. He pleaded ignorance and abhorence of toxicological matters, even though Florence and Pisa were renowned centers of medical, alchemical and pharmacological research. Eventually, he referred his correspondent to Apollonius of Citium, an ancient Greek medical authority.

Piero Strozzi lived to fight another day, reappearing in Tuscany a few years later as leader of the French forces arrayed against Duke Cosimo in the Sienese War. Recalled to France, he died of wounds incurred in battle at Thionville, in Lorraine, in 1558.