Historical Figure
Lorenzo de' Medici
1492–1519
Lord of Florence from 1469 to 1492
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Biography
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was an Italian statesman, 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 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 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.
Timeline
The story of Lorenzo de' Medici, told in moments.
The Medici returned to Florence after 18 years of exile, restored by a Spanish army. Lorenzo's uncle Giovanni, soon to become Pope Leo X, pulled the strings.
Became Duke of Urbino after Pope Leo X waged a brief war to seize the duchy from its previous ruler. Lorenzo led the campaign himself and was wounded by an arquebus shot during the siege.
Machiavelli dedicated The Prince to him. The book was likely written for his uncle Giuliano, who'd died. Lorenzo may never have read it. He was more interested in hunting and parties.
His wife Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne gave birth to their daughter Catherine. Both parents would be dead within weeks. Catherine grew up to become Queen of France.
In Their Own Words (2)
The Time returns.
Personal motto, in Del Lungo and Steegman (1907) p. 192, 1907
That I might take part in everything, and bear me like the rest, I did tilt in the Piazza of Santa Croce—which tilting occasioned an outlay of ten thousand florins—and although I was very vigorous neither of my years nor of blows, yet was the first prize awarded unto me, namely, a helmet adorned with silver and having a figure of Mars for the crest.
On the jousting tournament held in the Piazza Santa Croce on 7 February 1468, in Lorenzo's Ricordi (c. 1483–5), reported in Isidoro Del Lungo, Women of Florence, tr. Mary C. Steegmann (London: Chatto and Windus, 1907) p. 190, 1468
Artifacts (15)
Grabmal des Lorenzo de'Medici, Herzog von Urbino, Lorenzo de Medici
https://d-nb.info/gnd/118582143
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