Lorenzo de' Medici

Italian statesman

• Born: January 1, 1449
• Birthplace: Florence (now in Italy)
• Died: April 8, 1492
• Place of death: Careggi, near Florence (now in Italy)

Florence’s Lorenzo de’ Medici was the most important statesman in Italy during the latter part of the fifteenth century. Lorenzo was also a noted banker, poet, and patron of the arts, and he epitomized the concept of the Renaissance man.

Early Life

Lorenzo de’ Medici (loh-REHNT-soh day MEHD-ee-chee) was born in Florence. His father, Piero, died at age fifty-three in 1469. Lorenzo’s grandfather, Cosimo, building on the accomplishments of his father, Giovanni, had established himself as the most powerful individual in the Florentine republic. Medici influence resulted in the wealth accumulated through banking activities. Financial abilities were joined to political talents and ambitions, which made them the most formidable nonroyal family in fifteenth century Europe.

The Medicis were not unique. By the 1400’s, there were other influential families in Florence whose wealth and power also came from banking and commerce. Although a republic, Florence was not a democracy; political rights came from membership in the various guilds that had evolved in the later Middle Ages. At the apex were a small number of Florentines, and it was this wealthy oligarchy that controlled the government. All offices were constitutionally open to all guild members, but through various techniques it was possible to manipulate the system. In Renaissance Florence, however, life was more than simply wealth and power for their own sakes. Civic responsibilities went together with political ambition; one was expected to provide public buildings, sponsor schools, or be a patron of the arts. Participation in politics was also expected, as the Medicis well understood, and other Florentine families matched them in wealth and ambition.

In addition to his banking and political responsibilities, Piero, Lorenzo’s father, was a patron of the sculptor Donatello and the painter Sandro Botticelli. Lorenzo’s mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was a poet of note. Privately tutored, Lorenzo received a Humanist education through the Latin and Greek classics. Education was not merely intellectual: The body and spirit were equally important. He played the lyre, sang his own songs, and wrote his own verse. He rode well and was an accomplished athlete, and he enjoyed talking to both peasants and popes. Piero arranged for Lorenzo’s marriage to Clarice Orsini, from an aristocratic Roman family; political and economic considerations were more important than love. Lorenzo was not handsome, with his dark complexion, irregular features, jutting chin, and misshapen nose that denied him a sense of smell. Yet he had a brilliant mind and a charismatic personality.

Life’s Work

Lorenzo was only twenty when Piero died. Given his age, he was reluctant to assume the various political and economic responsibilities, but it was impossible for him not to do so. As he himself noted, it did not bode well for someone of wealth to evade his civic obligations. The same techniques that the Medicis had used to gain influence at the expense of others could equally be used against them; if they wished to maintain their position, they had to participate in the political arena. Not only had Lorenzo been trained by scholars, but also he had been sent on several diplomatic missions before Piero’s death. At that time, modifications were made in the Florentine constitution that assured the continued primacy of the Medici party, both for Lorenzo and for those other oligarchs who had attached their ambitions to the Medici banner. Nevertheless, Florence remained officially a republic and Lorenzo ostensibly a private citizen.

During Lorenzo’s lifetime, the Medici banks continued to be influential throughout Europe, but less so than earlier. Lorenzo was not particularly interested in banking. Over time, the Medicis became relatively less powerful in banking matters as other cities and nations of Europe rose to positions of power. During Lorenzo’s era, his resources were occasionally put under pressure and he was accused of manipulating the economy of Florence to the benefit of the Medicis. Lorenzo could argue that his position, unofficial as it was, benefited all Florentines and that he deserved to be recompensed. Given the nature of Florentine politics, it was perhaps impossible to separate Lorenzo’s private needs from the republic’s welfare.

Other Italian city-states and European nations were accustomed to dealing with the head of the Medici family directly instead of through the official Florentine government. Lorenzo’s position of primacy was never officially avowed: He remained merely a citizen, although the most important citizen. While Lorenzo was the unquestioned leader of a banking and merchant oligarchy, he did not always enjoy absolute freedom to commit his city to a particular course of action, freedom such as the hereditary dukes of Milan or the popes in Rome exercised.

The Medicis had a close relationship with the kings of France: Louis XI had granted Piero the right to incorporate the three lilies of the French royal house of Valois onto the Medici arms. Lorenzo realized, however, that it was necessary to keep that large kingdom’s military might out of Italy. The peninsula was divided by various mini-states and their rivalries. To the south lay the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, and to the east, the Republic of Venice. To balance those powers, the Medicis relied on an alliance with the dukes of Milan.

In 1471, Francesco della Rovere ascended the papal throne as Pope Sixtus IV . Initially, the relationship between Sixtus and Lorenzo was cordial, but within a few years it soured. The pope had a large family to support, and Lorenzo feared that those needs threatened the security of Florence and of the Medicis. For several decades, the Medicis had been the papal bankers, a connection that was beneficial to both parties, but when Sixtus requested a loan to purchase Imola for one of his nephews, a city Lorenzo considered to be within the Florentine sphere of influence, Lorenzo refused. Sixtus ended the papal connection with the Medici bank and turned to another Florentine banking family, the Pazzis.

The Pazzis, though connected to the Medicis through marriage, were political and economic rivals. In addition to the Imola loan, other issues combined that led to a plot, known as the Pazzi conspiracy, to remove the Medicis from power. Sixtus stated that while he wished the Medicis to be gone, he did not want it accomplished by murder. It is doubtful, however, that Sixtus truly believed that such an end could be attained without violence. The other conspirators turned to assassination.

The conspirators struck on a Sunday in April, 1478, during the High Mass in the cathedral of Florence. They were partially successful: Giuliano, Lorenzo’s brother, was stabbed to death. Lorenzo, however, though injured, survived. Florence rallied to Lorenzo. Most of the conspirators, including leading members of the Pazzi family, were quickly seized and brutally executed. Sixtus responded by accusing Lorenzo and Florence of murder. Lorenzo was excommunicated from the Church, and Florence was placed under an interdict. Because of the animosity toward Sixtus, however, the churches of Florence remained open.

Sixtus also declared war on Florence. As a result of the assassination of its duke, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Milan was of no assistance to Florence, and with King Ferrante of Naples allied to the Papacy, with an economic downturn in part caused by the military situation, and with the onset of plague, life in Florence soon became very difficult. Finally, in an act of calculated courage, Lorenzo journeyed to Naples and placed himself in the hands of Ferrante. Although he had some indication that Naples might be willing to agree to a treaty with Florence, Lorenzo’s action was still a gamble. A treaty was agreed to, and Lorenzo was returned to Florence as a hero.

Afterward, Lorenzo took an even greater interest in public affairs. His power in Florence increased, although constitutionally he was still only a private citizen. In 1484, Sixtus died, and his successor, Innocent VIII , developed a close relationship with Lorenzo, sealed with the marriage of one of Lorenzo’s daughters to one of Innocent’s sons. Lorenzo also concerned himself with the relations of the other Italian states, and until his death, major conflict was avoided. To what degree his policies were responsible for peace is impossible to ascertain, but Lorenzo received the credit. As Scipio Ammirato noted, Florence

remained free of all troubles, to the great reputation of Lorenzo. The Italian princes also enjoyed peace, so that, with everything quiet beyond her frontier and with no disturbances at home, Florence . . . gave herself up to the arts and pleasures of peace.

The arts and pleasures of peace were an integral part of Lorenzo’s life and character. He arranged festivals and took part in jousts. He was a patron as well as a colleague of various writers and artists, including Michelangelo. He himself was a poet of considerable ability and a supporter of the Universities of Florence and Pisa. Suitably, on his deathbed, one of his last statements was to express regret that he was not going to live to assist in completing a friend’s library.

Significance

Lorenzo de’ Medici died in the spring of 1492 at Careggi, one of the family’s villas outside Florence. Inheriting his father’s medical maladies, Lorenzo in his last years suffered increasingly from gout and other illnesses. He was only forty-three. Shortly before his death, Lorenzo received Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk who had earlier become a notable figure in Florentine life for his vehement condemnations of Renaissance society in general and Lorenzo in particular. Within two years, Savonarola became the ruler of Florence. Lorenzo’s son, Piero, had neither his father’s abilities nor his luck, and the Medicis were forced into exile.

Yet Medici wealth and influence were not extinguished. Just before Lorenzo’s death, one of his sons, Giovanni, age sixteen, had become a cardinal in the Catholic Church. In 1512, the Medicis returned to Florence from exile, and in the following year, Giovanni was elected pope as Leo X . He died in 1521, and after a brief hiatus his cousin, Giulio, the illegitimate son of Lorenzo’s brother, ascended the papal throne as Clement VII . In 1533, Clement performed the marriage of Catherine de Médicis to the son of King Francis I of France. She became one of the most powerful women of the sixteenth century. In Florence, the Medicis became hereditary dukes. The republic was over.

Lorenzo was a controversial figure in his own era and has remained so ever since. His status is suggested by the epithet that frequently accompanies his name: Il Magnifico (the Magnificent). During his era that appellation was used as an honorary title for various Florentine officials; in time, however, it was applied only to Lorenzo. Fifteenth century Florence epitomizes the civilization of the Renaissance, and Lorenzo the Magnificent remains inseparable from the history of that civilization and that city. His reputation has fluctuated; he has been praised for qualities he perhaps did not possess, and he has been condemned for activities that were not within his responsibility. One of his critics was his fellow Florentine, the historian Francesco Guicciardini, an avid republican in ideology. Still, even Guicciardini had to admit that if Florence was not free under Lorenzo, “it would have been impossible for it to have had a better or more pleasing tyrant.”

Bibliography

Ady, Cecilia M. Lorenzo dei Medici and Renaissance Italy. London: English Universities Press, 1970. There has been no major biography of Lorenzo in English in recent decades; Ady’s work is the most satisfactory substitute.

Hale, J. R. Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977. This study of the Medicis traces the family from its earliest days through its decline in the eighteenth century. Hale places Lorenzo within the overall context of Florentine politics.

Hibbert, Christopher. The House of the Medici: Its Rise and Fall. New York: William Morrow, 1975. The author is a prominent narrative historian who has written many works on English and Italian subjects. A well-written survey of the Medicis.

Mallett, Michael, and Nicholas Mann, eds. Lorenzo the Magnificent: Culture and Politics. London: Warburg Institute, University of London, 1996. Anthology of papers presented at a colloquium marking the five hundredth anniversary of Lorenzo’s death. Covers the arts, politics and social history, and public spectacle at the heart of Lorenzo’s rule. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Marchand, Eckart, and Alison Wright, eds. With and Without the Medici: Studies in Tuscan Art and Patronage, 1434-1530. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1998. Anthology of essays on Renaissance art and the Medici family. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, and index.

Martines, Lauro. April Blood: The Plot Against the Medici. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Somewhat revisionist view of the assassination of Lorenzo’s brother and Lorenzo’s subsequent crackdown. Argues that the plot was a reaction to the Medici’s corruption and that Lorenzo’s over-reaction harmed his family’s reputation with the citizens of Florence and helped to bring about the Medicis’ eventual downfall. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, index.

Medici, Lorenzo de’. The Autobiography of Lorenzo de’ Medici the Magnificent: A Commentary on My Sonnets Together with the Text of “Il comento” in the Critical Edition of Tiziano Zanato. Translated by James Wyatt Cook. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1995. Modern edition of Lorenzo’s autobiography. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Pulci, Luca. “Lorenzo the Magnificent’s Utopian State.” In Images of Quattrocento Florence: Selected Writings in Literature, History, and Art, edited by Stefano Ugo Baldassarri and Arielle Saiber. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000. A study of the goals and vicissitudes of Lorenzo’s political machinations.

Rowdon, Maurice. Lorenzo the Magnificent. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1974. This brief work traces the story of the Medicis through the fifteenth century to Lorenzo’s death in 1492. The author tells the tale adequately and is especially helpful on the broad economic issues affecting the Medicis. Includes many illustrations.

Williamson, Hugh Ross. Lorenzo the Magnificent. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974. This volume is similar to Rowdon’s work although somewhat more extensive. Like Rowdon, Williamson recites the history of Lorenzo and his family. Includes illustrations.