THE CERTOSA OF FLORENCE 



in his will he remembers his mother long dead, and 

 appoints masses to be said for her soul. As long as 

 his father lived he paid him the most dutiful attention, 

 and on his death caused his remains to be interred in 

 the chapel reserved for his own sepulchre at the 

 Certosa, where Niccolo's sister Lapa, for whom he 

 had an especial fondness, is also buried. With the 

 same faithfulness he clung to everything belonging 

 to his early days, and in one of his later letters he stops 

 in the details of business to tell his kinsman to buy 

 back the houses of the Acciaiuoli at Monte Gufoni 

 which had passed into other hands, " if they are not 

 too dear," since he would, if possible, erect a chapel 

 on the spot where he was born. 



All through his life he retained the beauty of 

 countenance and majesty of bearing which distin- 

 guished him as a youth. Fair-haired and of tall 

 stature, with a broad, serene brow and a peculiar 

 brightness in his eye, his presence commanded re- 

 spect and inspired even his enemies with awe. In 

 the corrupt court to which he came while yet a youth, 

 he remained untainted by the evil influences around 

 him, and, Sismondi tells us, preserved the purity of 

 republican morals. The exalted station which he 

 occupied rendered him naturally the object of envy 

 and calumny, but he recked little of the ill-will shown 

 him, and treated slander with the scorn it deserved. 



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