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53-602: At a palace at the site, Lorenzo di Medici had used structures as a school and academy of arts (the Accademia degli Orti Medicei ), where the likes of Pico della Mirandola , Lorenzo de Credi , Francesco Granacci , and Michelangelo frequented. When Piero de Medici was exiled in 1494, the villa was sacked. In 1568–1574, the Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his potential half-brother Don Antonio de Medici commissioned Bernardo Buontalenti , to reconstruct

106-648: A Decima, near Pontassieve . Sixtus IV reacted strongly to the death of Salviati: with a bull of 1 June 1478 he excommunicated Lorenzo, his supporters and all members of the current and preceding administration of the city. On 20 June he placed Florence under interdict , forbidding Mass and communion . By July troops of the Kingdom of Naples under the command of Alfonso of Aragon , and others from Urbino under Federico da Montefeltro , had begun to make attacks on Florentine territory. Lorenzo took an unorthodox course of action: he sailed to Naples and put himself in

159-491: A monopoly against the Turkish-derived goods by prohibiting trade in alum with infidels. When they realized the value of the alum mine, the people of Volterra wanted its revenues for their municipal funds rather than having it enter the pockets of their Florentine backers. Thus began an insurrection and secession from Florence, which involved putting to death several opposing citizens. Lorenzo sent mercenaries to suppress

212-670: A part of that sum in their purse, I consider it to have been a great honour to our state, and I think the money was well-expended and I am well-pleased. From 1479 Lorenzo became a permanent member of the committee supervising the rebuild of the signoria in Florence. He created a court of artists in his sculpture garden at San Marco which allowed him to exert 'enormous influence on the selection of artists on public projects'. Lorenzo married Clarice Orsini on 7 February 1469. The marriage in person took place in Florence on 4 June 1469. She

265-503: A prisoner of the king for several months, ultimately resolved the crisis. That success enabled Lorenzo to secure constitutional changes within the government of the Florentine Republic that further enhanced his own power. Thereafter, Lorenzo, like his grandfather Cosimo de' Medici , pursued a policy of maintaining peace, balancing power between the northern Italian states and keeping major European states such as France and

318-518: A relative of the Pazzi family and friend of Francesco de' Pazzi , who later in 1474 was appointed archbishop of Pisa . The appointment was contested by the Florentines on the grounds that they had not given their assent. Girolamo Riario, Francesco Salviati and Francesco de' Pazzi put together a plan to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. Pope Sixtus was approached for his support. He made

371-483: A role in bringing Savonarola to Florence. Lorenzo died during the late night of 8 April 1492, at the longtime family villa of Careggi . Savonarola visited Lorenzo on his deathbed. The rumour that Savonarola damned Lorenzo on his deathbed has been refuted in Roberto Ridolfi 's book Vita di Girolamo Savonarola . Letters written by witnesses to Lorenzo's death report that he died peacefully after listening to

424-500: A stepmother to him in regards to his personal appearance, although she had acted as a loving mother in all things concocted with the mind. His complexion was dark, and although his face was not handsome it was so full of dignity as to compel respect." Lorenzo, groomed for power, assumed a leading role in the state upon the death of his father in 1469, when he was 20. Already drained by his grandfather's building projects and constantly stressed by mismanagement, wars, and political expenses,

477-416: A substantial part of the cost was obtained from the Pazzi bank. A further source of friction between Lorenzo and Sixtus was the status of the archbishopric of Florence , left vacant by the death of Pietro Riario in 1474. Lorenzo managed to obtain the appointment of his brother-in-law, Rinaldo Orsini  [ it ] , to the post. Among the possible candidates for the position was Francesco Salviati ,

530-526: A very carefully worded statement in which he said that in the terms of his holy office he was unable to sanction killing. He made it clear that it would be of great benefit to the papacy to have the Medici removed from their position of power in Florence, and that he would deal kindly with anyone who did this. He instructed the men to do what they deemed necessary to achieve this aim, and said that he would give them whatever support he could. An encrypted letter in

583-418: A very large portion of his fortune on government and philanthropy, for example as a patron of the arts and financier of public works. Lorenzo's father, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici , was equally at the centre of Florentine civic life, chiefly as an art patron and collector, while Lorenzo's uncle, Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici , took care of the family's business interests. Lorenzo's mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni ,

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636-561: The Gospel of the day. Many signs and portents were claimed to have taken place at the moment of his death, including the dome of Florence Cathedral being struck by lightning, ghosts appearing, and the lions kept at Via Leone fighting one another. The Signoria and councils of Florence issued a decree: Whereas the foremost man of all this city, the lately deceased Lorenzo de' Medici, did, during his whole life, neglect no opportunity of protecting, increasing, adorning and raising this city, but

689-785: The Holy Roman Empire out of Italy. Lorenzo maintained good relations with Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire , as the Florentine maritime trade with the Ottomans was a major source of wealth for the Medici. Efforts to acquire revenue from the mining of alum in Tuscany unfortunately marred Lorenzo's reputation. Alum had been discovered by local citizens of Volterra , who turned to Florence to get backing to exploit this important natural resource. A key commodity in

742-594: The Palio , a horse race in Siena . In 1469, aged 20, he won first prize in a jousting tournament sponsored by the Medici. The joust was the subject of a poem written by Luigi Pulci. Niccolò Machiavelli also wrote of the occasion, perhaps sarcastically, that he won "not by way of favour, but by his own valour and skill in arms". He carried a banner painted by Verrocchio , and his horse was named Morello di Vento. Piero sent Lorenzo on many important diplomatic missions when he

795-520: The da Montefeltro family, dukes of Urbino . For Girolamo Riario , also a layman – and who may in fact have been his son rather than his nephew – he arranged to buy Imola , a small town in Romagna , with the aim of establishing a new papal state in that area. Imola lay on the trade route between Florence and Venice. Lorenzo de' Medici had arranged in May 1473 to buy it from Galeazzo Maria Sforza ,

848-529: The duke of Milan , for 100,000 fiorini d'oro , but Sforza subsequently agreed to sell it instead to Sixtus for 40,000 ducats , provided that his illegitimate daughter Caterina Sforza was married to Riario. This purchase was to have been financed by the Medici bank, but Lorenzo refused, causing a rift with Sixtus and the termination of the appointment of the Medici as bankers to the Camera Apostolica . The pope negotiated with other bankers, and

901-438: The 15th-century Renaissance . Although Lorenzo did not commission many works himself, he helped these artists to secure commissions from other patrons. Michelangelo lived with Lorenzo and his family for three years, dining at the family table and participating in discussions led by Marsilio Ficino . Lorenzo was an artist and wrote poetry in his native Tuscan . In his poetry, he celebrates life while acknowledging with melancholy

954-716: The Casino Mediceo di San Marco is home of the School of Transnational Governance, part of the European University Institute . The exterior walls, windows, and portals are decorated with a whimsical array of eccentricities, a defining feature of Mannerist architecture. 43°46′45″N 11°15′31″E  /  43.7791°N 11.2587°E  / 43.7791; 11.2587 Lorenzo di Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici ( Italian: [loˈrɛntso de ˈmɛːditʃi] ), known as Lorenzo

1007-405: The Florentine government. Salviati acted with the blessing of his patron Pope Sixtus IV . Giuliano was killed, brutally stabbed to death, but Lorenzo escaped with only a minor wound to the neck, having been defended by the poet Poliziano and the banker Francesco Nori , the latter of whom was killed in the attack. News of the conspiracy spread throughout Florence, and it was brutally put down by

1060-732: The Magnificent ( Italian : Lorenzo il Magnifico ; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic , and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lorenzo held the balance of power within the Italic League , an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with

1113-490: The Medici as the Pazzi had hoped they would. He was captured and, with Francesco de' Pazzi and several others, was hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria. Many of the conspirators, as well as many people accused of being conspirators, were killed; more than thirty died on the day of the attack. Most were soon caught and summarily executed. Renato de' Pazzi was lynched and hanged. Jacopo de' Pazzi , head of

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1166-526: The archives of the Ubaldini family, discovered and decoded in 2004, shows that Federico da Montefeltro was deeply embroiled in the conspiracy and had committed to position 600 troops outside Florence, waiting for the right moment. The attack took place on the morning of Sunday, 26 April 1478, during High Mass at the Duomo of Florence . Unusually, Lorenzo and Giuliano were both present, and were attacked at

1219-585: The assets of the Medici Bank were reduced seriously during the course of Lorenzo's lifetime. Lorenzo, like his grandfather, father, and son, ruled Florence indirectly through surrogates in the city councils by means of payoffs and strategic marriages until 1490. Rival Florentine families inevitably harboured resentments over the Medicis' dominance, and enemies of the Medici remained a factor in Florentine life long after Lorenzo's passing. The most notable of

1272-660: The chapel with paintings depicting the Life of San Giuseppe (restored in 1967). Inside the palazzo, don Antonio created a research laboratory, known as the Fonderia, and assembled various scholars interested in chemical and alchemy. The library is now hosted by the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (BNCF). After the Medici, the building played various roles, barracks, customs house, ministry of finances, finally court of appeals until 2012. Since 2017,

1325-505: The city's first hereditary duke. Pazzi conspiracy The Pazzi conspiracy ( Italian : Congiura dei Pazzi ) was a failed plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence . On 26 April 1478 there was an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano . Lorenzo was wounded but survived; Giuliano

1378-528: The commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Cosimo Rosselli from Rome to paint murals in the Sistine Chapel , a move that has been interpreted as sealing the alliance between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV. In 1471, Lorenzo calculated that his family had spent some 663,000 florins (about US$ 460 million today) on charity, buildings and taxes since 1434. He wrote, I do not regret this for though many would consider it better to have

1431-577: The commonwealth with might and wisdom. Lorenzo was buried with his brother Giuliano in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in the red porphyry sarcophagus designed for Piero and Giovanni de' Medici, not, as might be expected, in the New Sacristy , designed by Michelangelo. The latter holds the two monumental tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano's less known namesakes: Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino , and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours . According to Williamson and others,

1484-712: The day of the attack, and 20 October 1478, a total of eighty people were executed. Bandini dei Baroncelli, who had escaped to Constantinople , was arrested and returned in fetters by the Sultan Mehmed II , and – still in Turkish clothing – was hanged from a window of the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo on 29 December 1479. There were three further executions on 6 June 1481. The Pazzi were banished from Florence, and their lands and property confiscated. Their name and their coat of arms were perpetually suppressed:

1537-400: The development of humanism through his circle of scholarly friends, including the philosophers Marsilio Ficino , Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola . They studied Greek philosophers and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity. Apart from a personal interest, Lorenzo also used the Florentine milieu of fine arts for his diplomatic efforts. An example includes

1590-541: The entire Florentine city-state under interdict . When these moves had little effect, Sixtus formed a military alliance with King Ferdinand I of Naples , whose son, Alfonso, Duke of Calabria , led an invasion of the Florentine Republic, still ruled by Lorenzo. Lorenzo rallied the citizens. However, with little support from the traditional Medici allies in Bologna and Milan , the war dragged on, and only diplomacy by Lorenzo, who personally traveled to Naples and became

1643-414: The family, escaped from Florence but was caught and brought back. He was tortured, then hanged from the Palazzo della Signoria next to the decomposing corpse of Salviati. He was buried at Santa Croce , but the body was dug up and thrown into a ditch. It was then dragged through the streets and propped up at the door of Palazzo Pazzi , where the rotting head was mockingly used as a door-knocker. From there it

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1696-640: The fragility and instability of the human condition, particularly in his later works. Love, feasts and light dominate his verse. Cosimo had started the collection of books that became the Medici Library (also called the Laurentian Library ), and Lorenzo expanded it. Lorenzo's agents retrieved from the East large numbers of classical works, and he employed a large workshop to copy his books and disseminate their content across Europe. He supported

1749-510: The glassmaking, tanning and textile industries, alum was available from only a few sources under the control of the Ottomans and monopolized by Genoa before the discovery of alum sources in Italy at Tolfa . First the Roman Curia in 1462, and then Lorenzo and the Medici Bank less than a year later, got involved in backing the mining operation, with the pope taking a two-ducat commission for each cantar quintal of alum retrieved and ensuring

1802-412: The hands of the king, Ferdinand I , who interceded on his behalf with the pope, though without success. The events of the Pazzi conspiracy affected the developments of the Medici regime in two ways: they convinced the supporters of the Medici that a greater concentration of political power was desirable and they strengthened the hand of Lorenzo de' Medici, who had demonstrated his ability in conducting

1855-592: The mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo . On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother Giuliano

1908-413: The name was erased from public registers, and all buildings and streets carrying it were renamed; their shield with its dolphins was everywhere obliterated. Anyone named Pazzi had to take a new name; anyone married to a Pazzi was barred from public office. Guglielmo de' Pazzi, husband of Lorenzo's sister Bianca, was placed under house arrest, and later forbidden to enter the city; he went to live at Torre

1961-535: The palace as a casino, a city villa , as it was sited at the Gardens of San Marco. Gherardo Silvani may also have played a role in the design. The palace was planned as a laboratory for scientific experimentation, in 1588 it became the seat of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure . On the death of Francesco I, in 1587 the palazzo was inherited by Antonio who took up residence here in 1597, commissioning numerous works for

2014-411: The papacy as Pope Clement VII . During Lorenzo's tenure, several branches of the family bank collapsed because of bad loans, and in later years he got into financial difficulties and resorted to misappropriating trust and state funds. Toward the end of Lorenzo's life, Florence came under the influence of Savonarola , who believed Christians had strayed too far into Greco-Roman culture. Lorenzo played

2067-498: The populace through such measures as the lynching of the archbishop of Pisa and members of the Pazzi family who were involved in the conspiracy. In the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy and the punishment of supporters of Pope Sixtus IV, the Medici and Florence earned the wrath of the Holy See , which seized all the Medici assets that Sixtus could find, excommunicated Lorenzo and the entire government of Florence, and ultimately put

2120-409: The revolt by force, and the mercenaries ultimately sacked the city. Lorenzo hurried to Volterra to make amends, but the incident would remain a dark stain on his record. Lorenzo's court included artists such as Piero and Antonio del Pollaiuolo , Andrea del Verrocchio , Leonardo da Vinci , Sandro Botticelli , Domenico Ghirlandaio and Michelangelo Buonarroti , who were instrumental in achieving

2173-460: The rival families was the Pazzi , who nearly brought Lorenzo's reign to an end. On Sunday, 26 April 1478, in an incident known as the Pazzi conspiracy , a group headed by Girolamo Riario , Francesco de' Pazzi , and Francesco Salviati (the archbishop of Pisa), attacked Lorenzo and his brother and co-ruler Giuliano in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in an attempt to seize control of

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2226-406: The rooms and garden which hosted sculptural groups by Giambologna . The palace has been frescoed (1621–1623) by teams of artists including Anastasio Fontebuoni , Michelangelo Cinganelli , Fabrizio Boschi , Matteo Rosselli , Ottavio Vannini , Bartolomeo Salvestrini , Giovanni Battista Vanni , Jacopo Confortini , Domenico Pugliani and Jacopo Vignali . Filippo Tarchiani , in 1623, decorated

2279-406: The same time. Lorenzo was attacked by two of Jacopo Pazzi's men, but managed to escape to the sacristy , and thence to his home. Giuliano was killed by Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli and Francesco de' Pazzi . Francesco Salviati, with a number of Jacopo Pazzi's men, went to the Palazzo della Signoria and attempted to take control of it, but was unsuccessful – the Florentines did not rise against

2332-703: The statues of the lesser Lorenzo and Giuliano were carved by Michelangelo to incorporate the essence of the famous men. In 1559, the bodies of Lorenzo de' Medici ("the Magnificent") and his brother Giuliano were interred in the New Sacristy in an unmarked tomb beneath Michelangelo's statue of the Madonna. Medical researchers have suggested that Lorenzo may have suffered from acromegaly , a rare disorder that results from excessive secretion of growth hormone, based on interpretation of his reported symptoms, and later analysis of his skeleton and death mask. Lorenzo's heir

2385-540: Was a daughter of Giacomo Orsini , Lord of Monterotondo and Bracciano by his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini. Clarice and Lorenzo had 10 children, all except Contessina Antonia born in Florence: Lorenzo adopted his nephew Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici (1478–1534), the illegitimate son of his slain brother Giuliano . In 1523, after serving four years as ruler of Florence, Giulio ascended to

2438-655: Was a writer of sonnets and a friend to poets and philosophers of the Medici Academy . She became her son's advisor after the deaths of his father and uncle. Lorenzo, considered the most promising of the five children of Piero and Lucrezia, was tutored by a diplomat and bishop, Gentile de' Becchi , and the humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino , and he was trained in Greek by pivotal Renaissance scholar John Argyropoulos . With his brother Giuliano , he participated in jousting , hawking , hunting, and horse breeding for

2491-482: Was always ready with counsel, authority and painstaking, in thought and deed; shrank from neither trouble nor danger for the good of the state and its freedom.... it has seemed good to the Senate and people of Florence.... to establish a public testimonial of gratitude to the memory of such a man, in order that virtue might not be unhonoured among Florentines, and that, in days to come, other citizens may be incited to serve

2544-633: Was assassinated. The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among the various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence . Lorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo de' Medici , was the first member of the Medici family to lead the Republic of Florence and run the Medici Bank simultaneously. As one of the wealthiest men in Europe, the elder Cosimo spent

2597-440: Was both wealthy and powerful and at once set about giving power and wealth to his nephews of the della Rovere and Riario families. Within months of his election, he had made Giuliano della Rovere (the future pope Julius II) and Pietro Riario both cardinals and bishops ; four other nephews were also made cardinals. He made Giovanni della Rovere , who was not a priest, prefect of Rome , and arranged for him to marry into

2650-549: Was his eldest son, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici , known as "Piero the Unfortunate". In 1494, he squandered his father's patrimony and brought down the Medici dynasty in Florence. His second son, Giovanni, who became Pope Leo X , retook the city in 1512 with the aid of a Spanish army. In 1531, Lorenzo's nephew Giulio di Giuliano – whom Lorenzo had raised as his own son and who in 1523 became Pope Clement VII – formalized Medici rule of Florence by installing Alessandro de' Medici

2703-467: Was killed. In the aftermath of the plot many of the conspirators – and others accused of being conspirators – were executed, some by hanging from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria ; there were some eighty executions in all. The surviving Pazzi family members were banished from Florence. Francesco della Rovere , who came from a poor family in Liguria , was elected pope in 1471. As Sixtus IV, he

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2756-549: Was still a youth, including trips to Rome to meet the pope and other important religious and political figures. Lorenzo was described as rather plain of appearance and of average height, having a broad frame and short legs, dark hair and eyes, a squashed nose, short-sighted eyes and a harsh voice. Giuliano, on the other hand, was regarded as handsome and a "golden boy", and was used as a model by Botticelli in his painting of Mars and Venus . Even Lorenzo's close friend Niccolo Valori described him as homely, saying, "nature had been

2809-451: Was thrown into the Arno ; children fished it out and hung it from a willow tree, flogged it, and then threw it back into the river. Lorenzo did manage to save the nephew of Sixtus IV, Cardinal Raffaele Riario , who was almost certainly an innocent pawn of the conspirators, as well as two relatives of the conspirators. The main conspirators were hunted down throughout Italy. Between 26 April,

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