Medici, Lorenzo de' (1449–1492)

Lorenzo il Magnifico, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruled the Italian city of Florence as a patron of artists, writers, and humanists. During his reign, the city saw a rebirth of the arts and scholarship that is known as the Renaissance.

The scion of a wealthy family of bankers, he was the grandson of Cosimo de' Medici, the first of the Medici to rule Florence. Lorenzo's father Piero de' Medici il Gottoso (the Gouty) was a collector of ancient works and contemporary art; his mother Lucrezi Tornabuoni was an amateur poet. His parents gave Lorenzo a thorough education in ancient Greek and Latin, and the classical authors. At the age of seventeen he married Clarice Orsini, a member of a wealthy and influential Roman family. On the death of Piero de' Medici in 1469, Lorenzo became head of the family and, with his brother Giuliano serving as his co ruler, the leading citizen of Florence.

One of Lorenzo's first achievements was to affirm the handling of the papal finances by the Medici bank. But the great wealth and influence of the Medici family were cause for grave alarm for Pope Sixtus IV, who sought to extend the papal territories northward to the frontier of Tuscany. Over the next few years, the pope formed an alliance with the Pazzi clan, rivals of the Medici. On April 26, 1478, a few of the Pazzi and their hangers-on attacked Lorenzo and his brother, Giuliano, during Mass in the cathedral of Florence. Although Lorenzo escaped his would-be assassins, Giuliano was stabbed to death. The pope then excommunicated Lorenzo and put the city of Florence under an interdict, forbidding the Florentines to celebrate Mass.

At the pope's urging, King Ferdinand I of Naples then ordered an assault on Florence. In response, Lorenzo courageously sailed to Naples and negotiated directly with the king. Persuaded by his adversary's bold actions, Ferdinand made a truce with Florence, and both Naples and Florence were spared a costly war. Eventually the pope also ended hostilities, and Lorenzo emerged as the most influential ruler in northern Italy.

Lorenzo passed a new constitution for the city in 1480, establishing a council of seventy leading citizens who would govern the city for life. He brought the leading artists of Italy, including Domenico Ghirlandaio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Andrea del Verrochio, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti, as well as the scholars Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola to his splendid court. He expanded his family's splendid library by sending agents through southern and eastern Europe in search of unknown ancient manuscripts, which became the foundation of Florence's famous Laurentian Library. As copies of these books traveled through Italy and Europe, they played a vital role in the spread of classical learning and humanism that was the foundation of the Renaissance.

Lorenzo staged great festivals, processions, and entertainments for the citizens of Florence. Early in his reign, he ensured the city's grain supply during a famine, an action that won over the population to enthusiastically support him. Nevertheless, he was careless with money, and his expensive tastes and desire for fine art and spectacle drained the treasuries of both his family and city. In addition, a backlash arrived with Girolamo Savonarola, a fiery Dominican monk who bitterly condemned the lavish and decadent tastes of the Florentines and conducted public burnings of art and books in the city's central square.

After the death of Lorenzo, the truce he had arranged among the city-states of northern Italy soon gave way. The peninsula again fell into violent squabbling and became prey to foreign rulers, including the king of France, who invaded Italy in 1494. His son Giovanni was elected Pope Leo X, and his nephew Giulio, the son of Giuliano, was Pope Clement VII.

See Also: Medici, Cosimo de'; Michelangelo Buonarroti; Pazzi Conspiracy