Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici
Portrait by Agnolo Bronzino at the Uffizi, Florence
Lord of Florence
Reign2 December 1469 – 8 April 1492
PredecessorPiero the Gouty
SuccessorPiero the Unfortunate
Full name
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici
Known for
  • Political leadership
  • banking
  • patronage of the arts
Born1 January 1449[1]
Florence, Republic of Florence
Died8 April 1492 (aged 43)
Careggi, Republic of Florence
Noble familyMedici
Spouse(s)Clarice Orsini
Issue
FatherPiero the Gouty
MotherLucrezia Tornabuoni
Signature

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Italian: [loˈrɛntso de ˈmɛːditʃi]), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Italian: Lorenzo il Magnifico; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492),[2] was an Italian statesman, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy.[3][4][5] 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.[6] 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.

  1. ^ 1448 according to the calendar then in use in Florence, where the new year would commence on 25 March (Picotti, Giovanni Battista (1934). "Medici, Lorenzo de', detto il Magnifico". Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 10 May 2018.).
  2. ^ Picotti, Giovanni Battista (1934). "Medici, Lorenzo de', detto il Magnifico". Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  3. ^ Parks, Tim (2008). "Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence". The Art Book. 12 (4). New York: W.W. Norton & Co: 288. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8357.2005.00614.x. ISBN 9781847656872.
  4. ^ "Fact about Lorenzo de' Medici". 100 Leaders in world history. Kenneth E. Behring. 2008. Archived from the original on 27 September 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
  5. ^ Kent, F. W. (1 February 2007). Lorenzo De' Medici and the Art of Magnificence. The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History. USA: JHU Press. pp. 110–112. ISBN 978-0801886270.
  6. ^ Brucker, Gene (21 March 2005). Living on the Edge in Leonardo's Florence. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 14–15. doi:10.1177/02656914080380030604. ISBN 9780520930995. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt1ppkqw. S2CID 144626626.