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The Borgherini Enigma Page: 20 / 179tranquil grandeur wide open spaces, monumental temples in ideal settings; he painted inprincely glory. Bachiacca, one of his most gifted students, is a street-brawler!’Pierfrancesco hurt in a few places too, but he had escaped the least harmed. He was dead-beat,though. He slumped at the table in front of Granacci and rinsed his mouth. Contrary toGranacci, he felt elated. He had been in his first tavern-fight! He heard his father always shoutthat his son was a milk-boy, a mother’s baby, who shied away from any, slightest violence.Now, he had actually fought in a tavern! True, he had not terraced many opposers, but he hadbeen at the centre of the brawl. He would not dare to tell to his father Salvi where he had beenthat night, but he had not fled disgracefully, and if Bachiacca was now sleeping in his cot, thatwas not to a little due to him, Pierfrancesco. Pierfrancesco grinned and drank the fresh, coolwater to spit the dust of the tavern-floor from his crusted lips. Granacci just continued to gruntand dug his head in his hands.Pierfrancesco looked at the white linen rectangle that stood against the wall. He gathered hiscourage and last energy to tear away the linen, but he let the picture where it was. He lookedat the girl and followed her traits with his eyes, as if he were caressing her face. He studiedthe portrait, for he wanted to remember the face. He was convinced he was in love with thegirl. He had first thought he was a fool, and then he convinced himself he did not know at allwhat love meant, but finally he was sure that - because he just could not forget the face - thismust be love. The maiden smiled like a Madonna and her eyes caught his, straight on, as ever.‘I am going to find you,’ he said boldly to the picture, inebriated by his experience in thetavern, ‘and I will make you fall in love with me, and then we will marry and have children.And I will keep you in my palace and all Florence will bow to you when we organise feasts,and Florence will be envious of your beauty. What do I care that you are a princess! Nobodystops a Borgherini from getting what he wants, and certainly not Pierfrancesco deiBorgherini! I will show father; to hell with who he wants me to marry. I want this one!’Pierfrancesco lifted his cup and said health to the picture. He chuckled. He would not have theaudacity even to go up to the girl when he met her, and tell her something funny to start aconversation. He would never dare approach such a beauty alone. He was only havingillusions about the girl.Granacci watched his young friend with awe and surprise, without being noticed byPierfrancesco, and only heard the words.‘Oh no, more trouble coming!’ he sighed, and that was his only comment for the rest of thenight.In the early morning, Granacci and Pierfrancesco supported each other and walked arms-overshouldersto the Borgherini palace in the Borgo Santi Apostoli. Pierfrancesco had to shout andbang on the wooden panels before the massive doors of the Borgherini manor creaked open.Granacci refused to stay and pass the night in the palace. He rambled along to his own house.Copyright © René Dewil Version 2 Number of words: 108230 July 2009
The Borgherini Enigma Page: 21 / 179Chapter Two. Early September 1512. Margherita AcciaiuoliA very bright, still warm sun dawned over Florence. The city was at feast. Giulianode’Medici, the thirty-three year old son of Lorenzo Il Magnifico and brother to thirty-sevenyear old Cardinal Giovanni de’Medici, the confident of Pope Julius II, staged a pageant tocelebrate the return of the Medici to power. Cardinal Giovanni had led the Papal armies of theHoly League against the French, and maybe not defeated them, but at the least chased themback north. Prato had fallen to the Cardinal and the atrocities that befell that town hadinstantly sobered the Florentine republican Gonfaloniere-for-life, Piero Soderini, to surrenderthe town to Giovanni de’Medici. The great bell in the tower of the Signoria, the ‘Vacca,’ thecow, had sound its moaning, mooing tunes over the city. Piero Soderini fled to VenetianRagusa, and offered the town of Florence, without the least drop of blood, to CardinalGiovanni. Therefore, Cardinal Giovanni could now ride into Florence and receive a plauditfrom the people, as if Florence had finally been saved from all sorts of calamitous andmalignant governments.The Cardinal would ride on a white horse, accompanied by his friend and cousin Giuliode’Medici, only three years his younger. Giulio was the son of Lorenzo Il Magnifico’sbeloved and heroic brother Giuliano, who had been killed in the Duomo when the Medicibrothers had been cowardly attacked by hired assassins in the ill-fated Pazzi conspiracy.Giulio was in fact Giuliano’s illegitimate son by his father’s mistress Fioretta Gorini, but stillCardinal Giovanni’s cousin and confident. Giulio was already Archbishop of Florence.Lorenzo de’Medici, called Lorenzino, a youth of about twenty years old, would be in towntoo. He was the son of the deceased Piero the Gouty, eldest son of Lorenzo Il Magnifico andLorenzo’s erstwhile successor. Lorenzino was thus a nephew to the powerful CardinalGiovanni.Cardinal Giovanni and Archbishop Giulio would ride from the Via Larga to the Piazza dellaSignoria, followed by Giuliano and Lorenzino. Giuliano de’Medici was already theuncrowned ruler of Florence by the grace of the cardinal and the Pope. The Medici wouldparade and triumph in the city, and delight the people, the wealthy and the poor, the noblemenand the city-dwellers, with the festivities prepared by Giuliano in honour of the divine victor,Cardinal Giovanni. There would be stalls with free drinks of wine in the Via Larga near thePalazzo Medici, and dancing in the Piazza San Lorenzo, before the Medici family church.Giuliano de’Medici ruled Florence in the name of his brother, Cardinal Giovanni. Of course,the elected Signoria, the Priors of the town, would govern over Florence. The Gonfaloniere diGiustizia, the Standard-Bearer of Justice, would head the city, but the men elected to theSignoria would all be supporters of the Medici, so that no decision would be made in Florencewithout the advice and consent of Giuliano.Pierfrancesco had not dared to leave the palace of his father on the days following the tavernbrawl. He was too frightened to meet the Spanish Neapolitans head on again. This day,however, his father had whipped him out, so Pierfrancesco had sent word to Granacci.Pierfrancesco’s new friend came to the Borgherini palace, and both strolled into the centre ofFlorence. Pierfrancesco insisted they pick up Bachiacca, though Granacci feared the youngpainter would provoke yet another fight. Pierfrancesco had to dress in his gaudy Borgherinioutfit, in the red-and-yellow colours, a large Borgherini badge stitched on his breast jacket,Copyright © René Dewil Version 2 Number of words: 108230 July 2009
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