Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici was born in Florence in 1449, the grandson of Cosimo, and was educated by the humanists his grandfather had gathered. He took charge of the family's affairs in his twenties and soon became the leading figure in a city that called itself a republic.

In 1478 a conspiracy by the Pazzi family and their allies killed his brother Giuliano and nearly killed Lorenzo himself in the cathedral; the reprisals that followed secured his power for good. He survived the crisis by a mixture of nerve, patronage, and an alliance with the papacy that he later had to repair.

As a statesman he worked to keep the Italian powers in balance, and as a patron he supported Botticelli, Michelangelo, and the young scholars of the Platonic Academy. He wrote poetry in the Tuscan vernacular and spent freely on festivals and buildings, so that his city became the model of the Renaissance court. He died in 1492, and the peace he had maintained did not long outlast him.

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