Lorenzo de' Medici Timeline

Lorenzo the Magnificent, otherwise known as Lorenzo il Magnifico, born in 1449 in Florence, Italy became the father of what we know as the Italian Renaissance. Florence became the center of flourishing new forms of art and the battle against secular ideals. “He was the most important citizen of Florence in what is generally considered that city’s most important hour; the historian Francesco Guicciardini was to write of Lorenzo and of his grandfather Cosimo that both were so eminent in virtue and fortune that perhaps since the fall of Rome Italy has had no private citizen to be compared with them.” As the Renaissance was being born in the mid 15th century Lorenzo was foremost in the majority of intellectual movements. The most important battles of this era were between the established church and the writers at the time. The Renaissance man. The Italian Renaissance was a period in which previous values were questioned and ultimately overthrown. Just as we enjoy living in a world where reason is the ultimate center of thought, the Renaissance thinkers sought to create an environment where blind faith and obedience cease to provide spiritual peace. Previous to the birth of such thought in the Italian renaissance (and soon after) people lived in fear of the church and for fear of their immortal souls. The word of the priests at the time led many to lead complacent lives pre-arranged and in well-directed order. “The spirit which animated the medieval world was that of submission to authority. The inspiring certainty of the Renaissance was that of ‘free enquiry’, the use of individual judgment, the worth and dignity of conviction freely reached.” It was with Lorenzo de’Medici that the Renaissance reached its height and it was during his era that the use of Latin decreased and the ‘vulgar’ form of Latin developed into the vernacular and is now known as what we refer to as Italian. Lorenzo was the kind of person who with a name like Il Magnifico we can only imagine was greatly skilled in leadership. He had a penchant for poetry, ranging from the sacred to the profane, he was both sentimental and sporting, philosophic and rustic, blended with the hardness of a politician and the technical skills of a banker.

1449

When Lorenzo de’Medici was born, on the first day of the year 1449, the city of Florence was a center of intense cultural and intellectual activity. Having a few years back been subject to minor riots by wool combers against the oligarchy and the decimation of the Black Plague the city had recovered and become quite a center of intellectual activity. Building on the achievements of Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch in the fourteenth century, Florence had maintained its place in history as an advanced society. In 1402 Florence had resisted an attempt by Milan to incorporate the city into its empire and left the populace with a sense of Florentine solidarity.

1459

This year Lorenzo de’Medici involved himself in a procession of Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s visit to Florence. Galeazzo Maria Sforza was the duke of Milan at the time, a city that rivaled Florence, and he is ‘famous for his lust, cruelty and tyranny’. Sforza was also known for being a patron of music, among others Flemish singers came to sing in his chapel and often wrote secular music. In the early years Sforza ruled Milan jointly with his mother but later his ruthless character pushed him to oust her from the city. Despite being a patron to the arts his cruelty became evident when he executed a poacher by forcing him to eat an entire hare with fur intact, nailed a man alive to his coffin and punished a priest who was contradictory to him by starving him to death. He also was known as a womanizer who allegedly passed his women on to his courtiers when he was finished with them. It is also said he raped the wives and daughters of several nobles of Milan and took pleasure in devising tortures and enjoyed pulling apart the limbs of his enemies with his own hands. Sforza was consequently assassinated by Milanese nobles in a church the day after Christmas. Some interesting details surrounding this mans death are that within a few minutes of the assassination of Sforza the killers escaped save the mastermind of the debacle who fell into a crowd of a mob which dragged him through the streets, ‘slashing and beating at it and in the end, hanging it upside down outside his house. The beheaded corpse was cut down the next day and, in an act of symbolism, the ‘sinning’ right hand was removed, burnt and put on display.’ <ref nam"a3">Martines, Lauro (2003). April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Oxford UP.

1464

The patriarch of the de’Medici family dies leaving Piero di Cosimo de’Medici in charge. Piero, Lorenzo de’Medici’s father, is also known as Piero the Gouty due to an intense affliction of gout apparently a hereditary trait of the family. He was so badly crippled that he was able to use only his tongue. His most notable achievement was in 1466 when he detected a plot to overthrow his rule and had himself born on a litter to Florence where he defeated his enemies. Piero was born in Florence in 1416 and eventually married Lucrezia Tornabouni, the mother of Lorenzo and a reputed ancient Florentine nobility. His brother Giovanni was originally slated to become the essential inheritor of Florence after Cosimos death however he died before Cosimo leaving Piero sole executor. After taking over the bank of Medici from Cosimo he called up many long standing debts and loans driving many merchants to bankruptcy and making many enemies for the family. An attempted coup by several nobles in Florence assisted by an opposing family, the Duke of Este, was foiled by his son Lorenzo when he discovered a roadblock set up by assassins for his father. In 1467 Piero was involved in a war against Venice in which the combined forces of Florence, Naples, Papal States and Milan, defeated the Venetian army. Piero di Cosimo de’Medici died in 1469 due to gout and lung disease and is buried in the Church of San Lorenzo with his brother Giovanni.

1465

Represents the Medici at the marriage in Milan of Ippolita Sforza and Alfonso of Aragon, the Duke of Calabria. Lorenzo attends the marriage of Ippolita Sforza to Alfonso of Aragon, truly a wedding of luxurious proportions. Ippolita was the sister of the previously mentioned Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the notorious Duke of Milan who enjoyed torturing with his own hands. After marrying Alfonso of Aragon he quickly ascended to the throne of Naples, however she was not named Queen because she had died before his ascendancy. She was actually well versed in Greek and philosophy and wrote many letters. Interestingly she is renowned for being very beautiful and there are many paintings representing her in court.

1466

Visits Ferdinand of Aragon in Naples; begins active participation in public affairs in Florence. The ruler of Spain at the time was Ferdinand II ‘el catolico’ of Aragon, husband of Isabella, the famed couple who sent Colombus on his voyage to the Americas. He also instituted a law which expelled Jews from most of Spain during his rule and forced all Muslims in Spain during that time to convert to Christianity or be exiled or killed. The Spanish Inquisition was in full swing at the time and those Jews or Muslims who tried to hide were captured by Inquisitors and forced to eat pork. In fact Ferdinand II or Aragon is reputed to be the main architect behind the Inquisition itself and is said to have burned over 10000 Arabic manuscripts and converted many mosques to churches. The rest of his life is split between power struggles over seas with Italian states and is punctuated by the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire being abdicated to him making him Imperator Constantinopolitus.

1469

February 7, Lorenzo is awarded first place in a tourney in honor of Lucrezia Donati; June 4, he marries Clarice Orsini; December 2 , his father dies, and two days later he accepts the charge of head of the Florentine state. 1469 became a very important year for the man who birthed Renaissance thought with his marriage and late in the year his succession to the position as leader of Florentine power. This year Lorenzo attended a tourney in which he received a medal with his image uniquely engraved upon it. “It gives the compressed ugly features of the great statesman and patron of art, a heritage of his family, with a fidelity that borders on brutality. The reverse show Florentia personified with the lily in her hand under an olive tree, the symbol of peace… added to where possible greater ugliness, his features have something unbridled about them; the head is covered with a fantastic helmet. We know that in a tournament in 1469, given in honour of Lucrezia Donati, Lorenzo won a silver helmet surmounted by the figure of Mars as the prize of victory.” Lorenzo’s father, at the time financial ruler of Florence dies leaving him in charge of the estate. The banker’s life proved at this time to be much more interesting than in our present time with Lorenzo eventually becoming the most powerful man in Florence and surrounding cities, rivaled in power only by the Pope. “We have Lorenzo’s own account of what followed: ‘On the second day after my father’s death although I, Lorenzo, was very young, only in my twenty-first year, leading men of the City and the State came to our house to condole with me and with my brother, Giuliano, on our loss and to persuade me to take myself the care of the City and the State, as my father and grandfather had done.’” Lorenzo became First Citizen of Florence as a man in his early twenties. He was well prepared for such an endeavor though having been asked to take his fathers place during his long fight with gout and other symptoms, and is reputed to have handled his duties well. “Even though the way he rose to be First Citizen was not strictly constitutional, Lorenzo certainly did not usurp his new rank. The Florentines, judging with shrewd realism the situation in which they found themselves, realized that this was no time for constitutional niceties and possible discord. The danger that confronted them was that of finding themselves again under the sway of the old aristocratic factions which ultimately would bring ruin to the Republic and perhaps even cause it to fall victim to a foreign power. Florence that might have repulsed Lorenzo with the greatest ease, called on him instead to seize the reins of government. And his first nine years of rule proved to be years of joy and laughter, a time when the bright side of life dispelled all shadows and each day seemed happier than the last, despite poetic sighs and tears. The State waxed stronger and more prosperous, music was encouraged, art protected, poets were supported and inspired.” This all happened in a world where a man from Venice called Pietro Barbo reigns as Pope Paul II, a man who is described as “a cruel and unrelenting persecutor of men of science and letters, who exhibited, in inflicting them suffering, a constancy and resolution which might have raised them to the rank of martyrs.”.

1471

Birth of his first child, Piero; attends coronation of Pope Sixtus IV in Rome. Born in Florence, Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici was the eldest son of Lorenzo and Clarice Orisini and became the older brother of Pope Leo X. He was very well educated and slated to succeed his father as lord but was held back by “his feeble, arrogant and undisciplined character”. He did however take over as leader of Florence in 1492 after his father’s death which led to a collapse of his state when King Charles VIII of France crossed the Alps with an army intending to take the reign of Naples on which he boasted hereditary rights. After conquering Milan Charles moved towards Naples but the path crossed Tuscany a region of which the Florentine state included at the time. Piero quickly conceded Florence and was exiled and a member of the Medici family was not to rule Florence until 1512. Pope Sixtus IV was coronated also this year which Lorenzo was to attend. The two proved to have somewhat of a strained relationship as history shows us that Sixtus IV was cognizant of the conspiracy to assassinate Lorenzo de’ Medici later on. However Sixtus IV is not only recognized for this shortcoming or his failed war against the Turks, he is also known for having established the University of Copenhagen in 1475. In spite of several wars on mainland Italy he started he did manage to suppress abuses in the Spanish Inquisition, constructed the Sistine Chapel and the Sistine Bridge.

1472

Provides for the reopening of the University of Pisa; Volterra revolts against Florence, and is sacked by mercenary troops. This year was the culmination of a battle between mercenaries hired by both Volterra and the Florentine State over some supposed alum mines near Volterra. Alum at this time was essential to fix colors to cotton, and without alum the whole trade of Tuscany would have been jeopardized. The wool had previously come from the east in Constantinople, the capital of the Turk empire, which was at war with the Papal States in essence creating a war of west versus east ideologies. “Just as in the twentieth century industries all over the world are thirsty for oil, so in Lorenzo’s time, textile manufacturers and particularly the Woolmasters of Florence, were frantic for alum.” As Florence is situated North of Volterra and the Papal States are South of Volterra it left the city with its alum mines in between two massive States, who both held massive interest in securing said mines. Florentine merchants had become deeply involved with owners of the mines in Volterra and attempted to purchase them outright but were ran out of town and executed when the citizens found out they were trying to sell the mine. Volterra, with the Popes backing, found new courage to remain independent owners of their mines, fruitful or not. The merchants of Florence are now starving for alum to support their main export but “despite the urgency of the situation, the Florentines were divided. The woolmerchants, fearing that an expedition against Volterra would endanger their slender surplus of alum, were for appeasement; others were for the use of force. It was at this moment that Lorenzo came to the decision, the consequences of which would be with him for life, would lead to his being wounded by a Volterran in a Pope-inspired conspiracy, would destroy the serenity of the cultured Court he had created, would cause Renaissance writers to slide from their places of men of authority down to the role of courtiers. The decision was: raise an army and march on Volterra.

1474

Beginning of hostilities between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV; establishment of the alliance between Milan, Venice, and Florence. With the invasion of Volterra by mercenaries under the pay of Lorenzo de’Medici, Il Magnifico sealed his fate. Unwittingly creating an enemy for his power, Lorenzo was approached one day by his children’s tutor, Poliziano, a man of incredible renown for his knowledge of classics. “Il Magnifico, raised from slumber, still dazed and wanting to go back to bed, may have had it on the tip of his tongue to assure Poliziano that he would always take care of his needs but the memory of Poliziano’s sensitivity on the subject pulled him up short. He sent a messenger posthaste to Rome to do as Poliziano wanted. But the clouds of Sixtus IV’s hatred for Lorenzo were already gathering. Less than ten months hence it would break in the open and assassins would try to kill Lorenzo in Florence cathedral with the Pope’s concurrence.”

1478

The Conspiracy of the Pazzi results in the death of Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano, and in the consolidation of Lorenzo’s own power in Florence. The Pope places the city under an interdiction and enlists the aid of the king of Naples against Florence. La congiura dei Pazzi, or, the conspiracy of the pazzi, was a Pope inspired assassination attempt on not only Lorenzo de’Medici, but his family as well. The conspiracy seems to have begun from economic motives chiefly the possession of the town of Imola, which lies as the most direct route to the sea from Florence to Venice, an important trade route with the East at the time. Lorenzo was compelled to purchase this land at once from the previous owner, the Duke of Milan, before the Pope or any other rivals could acquire it. He made an offer of 20000 ducats to the Duke who was short of money from the many wars he fought and the sale was accepted. Once Imola had become property of the Florentine Republic, trouble began. “Pope Sixtus IV, ostensibly bent on making noblemen of his nephews, had long intended that his sister’s son Girolamo Riario, should become Lord of Imola. This he gave as his pretext for wanting possession of the town at all costs and in a heart-rending letter to the Duke of Milan, he adjured Galeazzo Maria “by all that is holy” to rescind the agreement he had concluded with Lorenzo.” The Duke of Milan agreed, but the price for the Pope was now 40000 ducats for the city. The Pope turned to the Medici bank in Rome and attempted to borrow the money from them, which of course they refused so the Pope went to the rival bankers, the Pazzi. After receiving the money the Pope then purchased Imola out from under Lorenzo which left the Florentine Republic in a dire situation, being without a route to the sea. Without taking a war to the Pope Lorenzo attacked his rivals, the Pazzi which led the rival family to develop a strong hatred for the Medici and eventually conspire to [...] them. The Pazzi family, with help from mercenaries, led an attack on Easter Day this year at the service in Florence cathedral. Unsuccessful, the conspirators lay hanged in the courtyard by the end of the day.

1480

Lorenzo’s bold visit to King Ferdinand in Naples achieves an accord; at the end of the year, the Pope lifts the interdiction against Florence. King Ferdinand had entered into an alliance with the Pope against the Florentine Republic with the hopes that the assassination would be successful. Having been unsuccessful, Lorenzo sought a way to drive a stake between two allies, the Pope and Naples, by arranging a peace with King Ferdinand of Naples and met with success. While only demanding the release of some Pazzi family members and the retension of the Duke of Calabria position to Ferdinands son at a salary of 60000 florins a year, peace was concluded. An interdiction at this time period refers to a sort of ecclesiastical penalty. The interdiction forbids the receiving of any sacraments of the church, therefore banning public worship in the area at the time. Besides being a way to influence economically the interests of the church of church leaders there are several other reasons for receiving an interdiction such as committing the crime of ‘simony’, or paying for a holy office, physical violence against a bishop or public incitement against the church.

1482

His mother Lucrezia dies. Lucrezia Tournabuoni was a reputed noblewoman of Florence who married Lorenzo de’Medici’s father Piero when she was 19 and he 28. “Before his death Piero had assigned to his wife the right to distribute as charity the income from some of the Medici properties, an unusual role for a non-royal woman. With this and with her influence over the young Lorenzo, Tornabouni became a powerful person. She also became involved in business, investing her own capital in real estate projects and financing small traders and artisans. Her profit went in large measure to charity, most frequently to help the powerless--- nuns in poor convents, girls in need of a marriage dowry, the lower ranks of the clergy. Such gifts had the effect of expanding the Medici’s political base, but there is no evidence that they were made cynically; Tornabouni’s letters indicate that she truly believed that what was good for the Medici was good for Florence and her territories.”

1484

Peace is concluded; Pico della Mirandola arrives in Florence. With the war between Italian city-states coming to an end it seems justified that Pico della Mirandola should arrive in Florence. Dubbed the manifesto of humanism, Pico’s “Oration on the Dignity of Man” remaps the human landscape to center all attention on human capacity and human perspective.

1486

Lorenzo attains preeminence in Italian affairs through his role in negotiations after the “Baron’s War” with the new Pope Innocent VIII. A self proclaimed “baron’s war” broke out between several baron’s in Italy at the time, forcing the Pope to assert his dominion over political affairs. Having been scarred by the events preceding him with Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII attempted to restore the papacy and was supported by leading barons. Lorenzo de’Medici was influential in negotiating deals between warring factions. Pope Innocent VIII, born Giovanni Battista Cibo, is well known for many exploits but particularly for being the earliest recorded case of blood transfusion. While on his deathbed he was given the blood of his three youngest boys who died in the process.

1488

His daughter Maddalena is married to Franceschetto Cibo, son of Innocent VIII; his wife Clarice dies. Lorenzo had been known for his penchant for festivals, and the marriage of his daughter to the son of the Pope was certainly a good excuse for one. “The Medici, prominent in the evolution of all the arts in Florence, were also interested in the feste or public celebrations, that part of the cultural life of the city in which the populace was most directly involved. Lorenzo in particular showed a great interest in them, to the point of drawing Savonarola’s direct accusation that ‘he occupies the populace with spectacles and celebrations, so that it will think of itself, and not of him.’… some scholars have suggested that his play was composed for the celebration of the marriage of his daughter Maddalena to Franceschetto Cibo.” Maddalena, an educated woman because of the teachings of the humanist Poliziano, is most famously known for her brother who became Pope Leo X. Francheschetto Cibo is reputed to have only married Maddalena for political reasons and had a strong affinity for card playing.

1489

Savonarola is recalled to Florence. Girolamo Savonarola is known to be a strong critic of Lorenzo de’Medici, going so far as to label him a tyrant and compare him to many fascist leaders in history. Dubbed a theologian, he studied Thomas Aquinas and disgusted by the many excesses of life in the Middle Ages he withdrew into religious fervor and seclusion. “In 1475 he entered a Dominican monastery at Bologna. After living quietly there for 6 years, Savonarola transferred to the convent of S. Marco in Florence and began preaching in the church of S. Lorenzo. His style, laden with scholastic didacticism, was not appealing, and few came to hear him. In 1486, however, while preaching in Lombardy, he shed all syllogisms and circumlocutions and began to speak directly, simply, and passionately of the wrath of God. His popularity as a preacher grew immensely. Savonarola’s fame spread to Florence as he prophesied the doom of all tyrants who then prevailed in the world. In 1490, through the influence of Pico della Mirandola, he was called back to Florence and in July 1491 became prior of S. Marco. All the while he thundered against the vanity of the humanists and the viciousness of the clergy. Because he spared no one, Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of Florence, urged him to bridle his tongue. He would not yield, and in April 1492 Savonarola refused to grant Lorenzo absolution because the ruler would not give liberty to the Florentines.” A great mouthpiece for extreme conservatism, Savonarola fought to change people’s opinions and lifestyles. “Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) the religious reformer who preached an end to the worldly splendor of Florence in the late fifteenth century, was among the first and most vehement.” After Lorenzo’s death, his son Piero took throne, and Savonarola grew to the most powerful position of authority in the city before dying in 1498.

1490

Lorenzo concerns himself with the acquisition of a great library, aided by Pico and Poliziano. Being a scholar and poet himself Lorenzo began acquisition of a huge library of Renaissance texts and manuscripts. His father had originally started the collection which Lorenzo expanded on. “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.” The library is a famous repository built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze. The library was never completed in Lorenzo's lifetime because of his death in two years after his acquisition. The structure itself is renowned for being planned and built by Michelangelo Buonarroti in the style of ‘Mannerism’.

1492

1492 His son, Giovanni, the future Pope Leo X, is officially named cardinal. On April 8, Lorenzo dies at Careggi. Six months before Colombus made his famous voyage to the Americas, Lorenzo de'Medici dies. "At length, Lorenzo's life began to dreaw to a close. He had suffered long from gout, and withdrew himself from state affairs, living chiefly in his villas or in baths, where he sought alleviation from his pain. Assisted by the learned scholars Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, in whose conversations he delighted, he gave the education of a statesman to his sons Giuliano and Pietro, to make them worthy of their inheritance. It is said that at the close of his life he sent for the great preacher and reformer [Girolamo] Savonarola, to ask pardon for his sins, but Savonarola refused to give it unless he granted liberty to Florence. He died at his villa at Careggi on April 6, 1492, forty-four years old, and three weeks later Pope Innocent followed him to the grave. Two Popes, Leo X. and CLement VII, sprang from his house, and two French kings took their wives from the Medici family."