Florence was not only the home of the de' Medici bank, the financial center of Europe, but also after the accession of the current patriarch, Lorenzo de' Medici, who was known as the 'Great Lorenzo', he spent a large amount of money to strongly support the development of art and public undertakings in Florence, making the whole city immersed in art and a relatively extravagant lifestyle. However, he was not very enthusiastic about his own industry. Not only did the family business shrink significantly, but several de' Medici chain banks in Florence and other cities were also closed. As a result, other family banks quickly rose, and the banking industry in Florence could be said to be in full bloom.
According to Ricardo, more than a decade ago, there was an Auditore International Bank in Florence, which had close ties with the de' Medici bank and often had cooperative dealings. The bank's operator was named Giovanni Auditore, a nobleman from the town of Monteriggioni near Siena.
The name Giovanni is extremely common in Italy. Joya has encountered at least twenty Giovannis over the years, so to distinguish them, she usually mentally adds a number after hearing someone introduce themselves as Giovanni, such as when Ricardo mentioned Giovanni Auditore, Joya silently acknowledged it in her mind.
Yes, Giovanni551.
"But, these past couple of days when I went out, it seems I haven't seen the Auditore International Bank nearby." Joya said.
"You haven't really been out of the house for many days, have you?" Ricardo said with a smile.
Joya touched her nose, she couldn't say that she had been wandering around at night these days, even though she had just arrived in Florence and was not very familiar with the architecture and streets of the city, and was worried that she would go too far and not be able to find her way back, so she had only been active within a range of one kilometer.
"Even if you go out every day, you won't be able to see it anymore." Ricardo tapped his fork on the plate, "There is no more Auditore Bank."
"Did it go bankrupt?"
Since it is a business, there must be prosperity, and there must also be decline. She actually sees it quite clearly. After all, the Medici family had several banks go bankrupt under Lorenzo's management.
"No," sighed Ricardo, as if reminiscing the past, "Ten years ago, Giovanni Auditore was accused of treason by the then Gonfalonier Uberto. He, along with his two sons, were hanged at the Lords' Square. And the Auditore Bank, naturally, no longer exists." Joya's hand trembled, nearly causing the food on her fork to fall back onto the plate.
And when Ricardo said that, Ciro, who had been standing behind Ricardo, also said, "I have a memory of that too, I was still young back then, and my father took me to Lords'
Square heard Uberto's judgment of the Auditore family, and at the time Giovanni refused to plead guilty before the execution, but Uberto did not give him a chance to explain, and immediately ordered the execution.
Lisa, who was standing next to him, was a bit surprised: "You are still so young, has your father already taken you to the execution site?"
Ciro shrugged his shoulders, not even knowing why his father had left such an early psychological shadow on his young mind.
But Ricardo was not angry at the two servants' interruption, and only said: "That is indeed the case, and two years later, after the Mass of the Holy Blood, Mr. Lorenzo de' Medici also exonerated the Auditore family, proving that this family had not committed the crime of treason."
Joya nodded.
I'm not familiar with the details of the Auditore family, but I do have some knowledge of the bloody mass that Ricardo mentioned.
The two parties in this incident were the Pazzi family and the de' Medici family. The Pazzi family was unwilling to let the de' Medici family hold the actual ruling power in Florence, so they conspired to assassinate Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano during the Easter Mass at the Florence Cathedral. Giuliano was killed in the assassination attempt, while the wounded Lorenzo took refuge in a sacred relic room and narrowly escaped.
And then, the angry citizens of Florence seized and executed several members of the Pazzi family who had plotted and participated in this assassination, hanging them in front of the lord's palace. The renowned painter Botticelli also depicted this scene on the walls of the town hall.
The brushstrokes are said to be delicate and highly realistic.
Joya did have some interest, but it was too hot during the day, and when she opened the window, she was deterred by the spaghetti that were drying in the streets, alleys, and terraces and shining in the sunlight. And at night, she did not dare to go too far. So since coming to Florence, she has not yet had the chance to visit the bloody masterpiece that Lucrezia's favorite and Arturo's secret love interest, the great painter, painted on the government walls.
The conspiracy and rebellion of the Pazzi family was also related to Pope Sixtus IV at the time, but Joya was in the Vatican then, and the cardinals were extremely secretive about it, only vaguely mentioning it and thinking that she was too young to understand.
After understanding some basic information about the noble family of Florence from several years ago, Joya asked, "So, the person you mentioned earlier who used to climb the walls in Florence, who was that? Is there a connection to the Auditore family?"
She asked urgently, which was quite different from the mild and distant attitude when she first arrived in Florence. The three servants were a bit strange, but Ricardo just smiled and said, "Of course it's related, that person is the son of Giovanni Auditore."
"Auditore's son?" Joya paused, then became dejected again, "He must have passed away already."
Several years ago, Giovanni Auditore and his two sons were executed by hanging in the Lords' Square, since they were Giovanni Auditore's sons, this person must have passed away a long time ago. No wonder Ricardo said that Florence has not seen people who can climb walls and roofs for a long time.
Joya has been in this world for fifteen years, from a troubled face to a calm one, and then to complete adaptation, the things that belong to her are being gradually erased by this era. Only on that night, using her still immature body, she climbed up the tower of the Orsini Palace, and then collapsed exhausted on the hay stack on the roof, panting heavily, did she truly feel that she was still herself.
She really wants to meet someone who shares the same hobbies as her, someone who can jump and soar through the skies of the city together with her.
When she learned from Ricardo's mouth that Florence had such a person, she almost could not wait to ask about the details of this person, and she listened to Ricardo tell a story from more than a decade ago without blinking.
If Rodrigo were here, he would be surprised and unfamiliar with his daughter, who always wears a polite smile on her face and never reveals any other emotions that could be considered intense.
Ricardo, who was sitting across from her, observed the changes in her expression, then chuckled and said, "This person is not dead."
He furrowed his brow, his eyes filled with obvious suspicion: "Escaped from the gallows?"
This is more amazing than a witch escaping from the execution pyre. Could this person be a male witch?
After encountering vampires and vampire hunters, Joya began to view the world through the lens of a medieval magical world. If one day Rodrigo told her that a dragon lived on Vesuvius Caldera and that he needed to steal a fair maiden from the Vatican to be its bride, she would not be surprised.
Faced with Joya's questions, Ricardo only shook his head: "The ones who were executed together with Giovanni Auditore in Lords' Square were his elder son and younger son. And his second son - the protagonist we're discussing this time - had already fled with his mother and sister to somewhere else before that."
Joya: "........You just didn't mention that he has a second son."
"I didn't say that all of his sons were executed." Ricardo smiled, his eyes slightly narrowed, with a slightly drooping eye corner, making him look more thick-skinned and honest. At this point, Joya had already realized that Rodrigo's saying "you can't judge a person by their appearance" made a lot of sense.
The elder and younger sons of the Auditore family loved to run around the streets and alleys of Florence since they were very young, much to the distress of the citizens. As they grew older, their running was no longer limited to the ground. "At night, the people sleeping on the top floor can often hear the sound of tiles on the ceiling, and needless to say, it is surely the work of those two brothers," said Ricardo, raising his right index finger.
Joya imagined the carefree young men running on the red roofs of Florence, having just conquered the dome of a high cathedral and were excited about it, while the citizens of Florence were unable to catch up but were jumping with anger behind them. This scene was very interesting and also had a touch of warmth, so she also laughed with Ricardo.
However, the laughter between the two did not last long. Ricardo withdrew his hand, sat up straight, and sighed, "When the guards went to the Auditore estate to arrest people, this younger son happened to be out on business, and he narrowly escaped. When he saw his family again, it was at the execution site, where he watched his family members being hanged. Fortunately, he was eventually able to elude the pursuers who had come to hunt him down, thanks to the skill that had once made countless Florentine citizens despair."
"And then?"Joya asked.
"Later on..." Ricardo squinted his eyes and said, "After a while, the Holy Cross Church held an exhibition of Verrocchio's new works, and Uberto also attended this grand event. While he was holding a glass of wine and talking with the city officials, a young man in a white cloak descended from the sky and struck him down with a hidden blade. Amidst the panic and screams at the scene, he pulled down his cloak and shouted, 'I am Ezio Auditore, the Auditore family still has me, the Auditore have not perished.'"
