Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici

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Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici
Medici
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1482)​
IssuePierfrancesco the Younger
Averardo de' Medici
Laudomia de' Medici
Ginevra de' Medici
Vincenzo de' Medici
FatherPierfrancesco the Elder
MotherLaudomia Acciaioli

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici (4 August 1463 – 20 May 1503), nicknamed the Popolano, was an Italian banker and politician, the brother of Giovanni il Popolano. He belonged to the junior (or "Popolani") branch of the House of Medici of Florence.

Biography

Lorenzo was born in

Acciaioli. Relations between the senior Medici branch and the younger "Popolani" branch had been tense since the 1440s, and Pierfrancesco had tried to shield his sons from the influence of the senior branch.[1] But Lorenzo and Giovanni were still boys when their father Pierfrancesco died in 1476, and they promptly came under the tutelage of their older cousin, Lorenzo (il Magnifico), the effective ruler of Florence. Facing financial difficulties after 1478, Lorenzo il Magnifico plundered the Popolani boys' inheritance with "forced loans".[1]
By the time they came of age, they claimed Lorenzo il Magnifico owed them over 100,000 ducats (il Magnifico eventually repaid a little over half of that in 1485).

Nonetheless, Lorenzo il Magnifico ensured his ward obtained the best education that could be bought at the time. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco studied under notable Florentine Renaissance humanists

Botticelli
.

Pallas Athene Taming a Centaur.
Allegory of Spring
.
The Birth of Venus
.

In 1482, Lorenzo il Magnifico arranged for the marriage between the young Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and

The Birth of Venus, one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance
.

Lorenzo di Pierfranceso was the proprietor of the

Villa di Castello, acquired in 1477 on the instructions of Lorenzo il Magnifico. In 1483, he was dispatched as the Florentine ambassador to Paris, to witness the coronation of Charles VIII of France
.

Quarrels over the inheritance lingered. The rupture with Lorenzo il Magnifico came to a head in October 1484, when the strongman secured the erasure of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's name from the lists of persons eligible for election to the Florentine political institutions. As part of the settlement in 1485, which involved outside arbitration, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and his brother Giovanni il Popolano received the Medici family property of

Mugello region
. Nonetheless, it was clear that Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco would have to shelve any public office or political ambitions during il Magnifico's rule.

When Lorenzo il Magnifico died (1492), Lorenzo and Giovanni sided against the il Magnifico's son,

Cafaggiolo
.

He was overshadowed by

Savonarola, but after the latter's death it was rumoured he would receive the effective personal rule of the Republic; however, he refused. In 1501, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco was suspected of a plot with Cesare Borgia
to favour the latter in the conquest of the city, but the accusations were never confirmed. He died in Florence in 1503.

His grandson

Cosimo I de' Medici
.

References

  1. ^ a b Brown, A. (1993) The Medici in Florence: the exercise and language of power. Florence: Olschki

Further reading

  • Dall'Aglio, Stefano. "Solving a Renaissance Murder Mystery." History Today (Feb 2020) 70#2 pp 38–49.
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