CHAPTER IV.

PIERO DE’ MEDICI’S LATER LIFE. LORENZO’S MARRIAGE. AFTER the Colleonic war the Republic had peace for a time. For though she took an auxiliary part in the contest for Rimini, which broke out in 1469, her affairs were little influenced by it, and her territory not even touched. Sigismondo Malatesta, who had just been in negotiation with the _condottiere_ of Bergamo, but had held aloof from the strife and entered the Papal service, died on October 9, 1468. When we review the variety of events that followed close upon…