Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici | |
---|---|
Careggi, Republic of Florence | |
Noble family | Medici |
Spouse(s) | Clarice Orsini |
Issue |
|
Father | Piero the Gouty |
Mother | Lucrezia Tornabuoni |
Signature |
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Italian:
Youth
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, Cosimo spent a very large portion of his fortune on government and philanthropy, for example as a patron of the arts and financier of public works.[7] 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, was a writer of sonnets and a friend to poets and philosophers of the Medici Academy.[8] She became her son's advisor after the deaths of his father and uncle.[7]
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,[9] and he was trained in Greek by John Argyropoulos.[10] With his brother Giuliano, he participated in jousting, hawking, hunting, and horse breeding for 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.[11] 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".[12] He carried a banner painted by Verrocchio, and his horse was named Morello di Vento.[13][14]
Piero sent Lorenzo on many important diplomatic missions when he was still a youth, including trips to Rome to meet the pope and other important religious and political figures.[15]
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
Politics
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, the assets of the Medici Bank reduced seriously during the course of Lorenzo's lifetime.[18]
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.[19][20] 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.[19] The most notable of the rival families was the Pazzi, who nearly brought Lorenzo's reign to an end.[21]
On Sunday, 26 April 1478, in an incident known as the
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 the entire Florentine city-state under interdict.[24] 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.[25]
Lorenzo rallied the citizens. However, with little support from the traditional Medici allies in Bologna and Milan,[21] the war dragged on, and only diplomacy by Lorenzo, who personally traveled to Naples and became 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.[19]
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 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.[26]
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 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 a monopoly against the Turkish-derived goods by prohibiting trade in alum with infidels.[27] 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 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.[28][29]
Patronage
Lorenzo's court included artists such as
Lorenzo was an artist and wrote poetry in his native Tuscan. In his poetry, he celebrates life while acknowledging with melancholy the fragility and instability of the human condition, particularly in his later works. Love, feasts and light dominate his verse.[30]
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 the development of humanism through his circle of scholarly friends, including the philosophers Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.[31] They studied Greek philosophers and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity.
Apart from a personal interest, Lorenzo also used the Florentine
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 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.[32]
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'.[33]
Marriage and children
Lorenzo married Clarice Orsini on 7 February 1469.[34] The marriage in person took place in Florence on 4 June 1469. She 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:
- Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany), and Francesca Salviati (mother of Pope Leo XI)
- Male twins who died after birth (March 1471)[citation needed]
- Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici (1472–1503),[35] called "the Unfortunate", was ruler of Florence after his father's death; grandfather of Catherine de' Medici, queen of France
- Maria Maddalena Romola de' Medici (1473–1528) married Franceschetto Cybo (illegitimate son of Pope Innocent VIII) on 25 February 1487 and had seven children
- Contessina Beatrice de' Medici, died shortly after her birth on 23 September 1474[36]
- Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (1475–1521),[35] ascended to the papacy as Leo X in 1513[37]
- Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano, but died young
- Contessina Antonia Romola de' Medici (1478–1515),[35] born in Pistoia, married Piero Ridolfi (1467–1525) in 1494 and had five children, including Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi
- Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici (1479–1516)[35] was created Duke of Nemours in 1515 by Francis I of France
Lorenzo adopted his nephew
Later years, death, and legacy
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
Lorenzo died during the late night of 8 April 1492, at the longtime family
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 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 the commonwealth with might and wisdom.[43]
Lorenzo was buried with his brother Giuliano in the
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.[45]
Lorenzo's heir was his eldest son,
In popular culture
- Lorenzo de' Medici is depicted as a teenager in
- Lorenzo de' Medici appears as a supporting character to the protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, after they help foil the Pazzi conspirators in Assassin's Creed II.[49]
- Lorenzo de' Medici is portrayed by Elliot Cowan in the 2013 TV series Da Vinci's Demons.[50]
- Lorenzo de' Medici is portrayed by Daniel Sharman in the TV series Medici: The Magnificent.[51]
References
- Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 10 May 2018.).
- Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
- ISBN 9781847656872.
- Kenneth E. Behring. 2008. Archived from the originalon 27 September 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
- )
- S2CID 144626626.
- ^ ISBN 07181 12040.
- )
- ^ Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 67
- ^ Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance. The Story of Civilization. Vol. 5. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 110.
- .
- ^ Machiavelli, Niccolò (1906). The Florentine History. Vol. 2. London: Archibald Constable and Co. Limited. p. 169.
- OCLC 26718982.
- ^ Christopher Hibbert, chapter 9
- ^ Niccolò Machiavelli, History of Florence, Book VIII, Chap. 7.
- ^ Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 70
- ^ Janet Ross. "Florentine Palaces & Their Stories". 14 August 2016. Page 250.
- ^ Walter, Ingeborg (2013). "Lorenzo der Prächtige: Mäzen, Schöngeist und Tyrann" [Lorenzo the Magnificent: Patron, Aesthete and Tyrant]. Damals (in German). Vol. 45, no. 3. p. 32.
- ^ a b c Reinhardt, Volker (2013). "Die langsame Aushöhlung der Republik" [The Slow and Steady Erosion of the Republic]. Damals (in German). Vol. 45, no. 3. pp. 16–23.
- Twayne Publishers. p. 8.
- ^ ISBN 0-8028-6348-5.
- ^ Jensen, De Lamar (1992). Renaissance Europe: Age of Recovery and Reconciliation. Lexington, Mass: D.C. Heath and Company. p. 80.
- ^ Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance. The Story of Civilization. Vol. 5. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 125.
- ISBN 1-4042-0315-X.
- ^ Martines, Lauro (2003). April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Oxford University Press.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 978-1-84212-442-0.
- ^ de Roover, Raymond (1963). The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494. Harvard University Press. pp. 152–154.
- ^ Machiavelli, Niccolò (1906). The Florentine History. Vol. 2. London: Archibald Constable and Co. Limited. pp. 197–198.
- ^ Durant, Will (1953). The Renaissance. The Story of Civilization. Vol. 5. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 112.
- Lorenzo di Medici- Lydia Ugolini; Lecture (1985); Audio
- ^ a b Schmidt, Eike D. (2013). "Mäzene auf den Spuren der Antike" [Patrons in the footsteps of Antiquity]. Damals (in German). 45 (3): 36–43.
- Harper & Row. p. 27.
- ^ E. B. Fryde, Humanism and Renaissance Historiography (London, 1983), 137
- OCLC 61130758.
- ^ ISBN 0754607771.
- ^ Wheeler, Greg (9 July 2020). "Piero de Medici (the Unfortunate) Timeline 1472-1503". TheTimelineGeek. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
- ^ J.N.D. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (Oxford 1986), p. 256.
- ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Clement VII". www.newadvent.org.
- ^ Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (New Haven, 2011) Chap. 5: The Magnificent Lorenzo
- ISBN 9782856538739.
- ISBN 9780313305887.
- ^ Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 268.
- ^ Williamson, pp. 268–9
- ^ a b Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 270-80
- S2CID 38097951.
- ^ "History of the Medici". History World.
- ^ "Alessandro de' Medici (1510–1537) • BlackPast". 9 December 2007.
- ^ "Leonardo: Colin Ryan plays Lorenzo". BBC. 28 March 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
- ^ Kelly, Andy (9 March 2017). "Revisiting the renaissance with Assassin's Creed 2". PC Gamer. Future US, Inc. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
- ^ Truitt, Brian (19 March 2014). "Who's who in 'Da Vinci's Demons' Season 2". USA Today. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
- Penske Business Media, LLC.Retrieved 11 August 2017.
Further reading
- Lorenzo de' Medici, The Complete Literary Works, edited and translated by Guido A. Guarino (New York: Italica Press, 2016).
- Miles J. Unger, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici (Simon and Schuster 2008) is a vividly colorful biography of this true "renaissance man", the uncrowned ruler of Florence during its golden age.
- André Chastel, Art et Humanisme à Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique (Paris, 1959).
- Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (Morrow-Quill, 1980) is a highly readable, non-scholarly general history of the family, and covers Lorenzo's life in some detail.
- F. W. Kent, Lorenzo de' Medici and the Art of Magnificence (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History) (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) A summary of 40 years of research with a specific theme of Il Magnifico's relationship with the visual arts.
- Peter Barenboim, Michelangelo Drawings – Key to the Medici Chapel Interpretation (Moscow, Letny Sad, 2006) ISBN 5-98856-016-4, is a new interpretation of Lorenzo the Magnificent' image in the Medici Chapel.
- Barenboim P. D. / Peter Barenboim. (2017). "The Mouse that Michelangelo Did Carve in the Medici Chapel: An Oriental Comment to the Famous Article of Erwin Panofsky".
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - Barenboim, Peter (with Heath, Arthur). 500 years of the New Sacristy: Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel, LOOM, Moscow, 2019. ISBN 978-5-906072-42-9
- Williamson, Hugh Ross, Lorenzo the Magnificent. Michael Joseph, London. (1974) ISBN 0-7181-1204-0
- Parks, Tim, Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence (W. W. Norton & Company 2005) ISBN 0393328457, is a mixture of history and finance, documenting the logistics of Lorenzo and the Medici Banks
- Historical novels
- Robin Maxwell, Signora da Vinci (NAL Trade, 2009), a novel that follows Leonardo da Vinci's mother, Caterina, as she travels to Florence to be with her son.
External links
- Lorenzo de' Medici as patron
- "Info Please | Lorenzo De' Medici"
- Works by Lorenzo de' Medici at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)