withered up, with a pallid face and palsied frame, with great restless,
staring eyes. He perpetually tossed his head about from side to side, as
though afflicted with St Vitus' dance. Giacopo was unmarried, a
libertine, notorious as a gambler and a blasphemer, a spendthrift, and
jealous--beyond bounds--of the popularity and pre-eminence of Piero and
Lorenzo de' Medici. He was pointed at as the most immoral man in
Florence. In the year of Lorenzo's succession to the place of _Capo
della Repubblica_, he obtained by bribery the high office of
_Gonfaloniere di Giustizia_ as a set-off, but, by an inconsistency as
unexpected as it was transparent, he accepted, on vacating office, a
knighthood at the hands of his rival.

Cavaliere Giacopo's relations with Lorenzo were fairly cordial,
outwardly at least, for as late as 1474, when at Avignon, he wrote
several letters to him, full of grateful expressions for favours
received and of wishes for a continuance of a good understanding. None
of Cavaliere Giacopo's illegitimate children arrived at maturity, and,
on account of the failure of his elder brother's sons to achieve
distinction, the proud banner of the family was clutched by the hands of
the four boys of the youngest of Messer Andrea's sons--Guglielmo,
Antonio, Giovanni, and Francesco. Their mother was Cosa degli
Alessandri, a granddaughter of Alessandro degli Albizzi, who first
adopted the new surname.

The brothers were very wealthy, they had amassed large fortunes in
commerce, and their houses extended for a considerable distance along
that most fashionable of streets--the Borgo degli Albizzi. The Palazzo
de' Pazzi doubtless was commenced by their grandfather, whose emblem--a
ship--is among the architectural enrichments. The building was finished
by their uncle, Giacopo--it is in the Via del Proconsolo.