Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici, called The Magnificent (1449-1492), Italian banker and statesman, who was a leading patron of art and scholarship during the Renaissance.

Lorenzo was born in Florence on January 1, 1449, the son of Piero de' Medici, and on his father's death he assumed the direction of the Medici bank, as well as de facto rule of the Florentine republic. He was more successful as a politician and art connoisseur than as a financier, and his family's riches suffered from the expense of his government. Lorenzo married into the noble Orsini family but ruled initially without altering the old republican institutions, and he remained officially a private citizen. His popular, efficient government of the city and its dependencies was marred only by his approval of a brutal sack (1472) of the rebellious town of Volterra.

In 1478 members of the Pazzi family tried to assassinate Lorenzo, and in the aftermath of that affair the Medici punished some supporters of Pope Sixtus IV implicated in the plot. The pope, backed by Naples, then declared war on Florence. Pursuing the family policy of promoting peace among the Italian states, Lorenzo ended the war by personal diplomacy. This further increased his popularity with the Florentines and enabled him to secure constitutional changes that enhanced his power. His last years were devoted to establishing the careers of his children and guarding the peace.

Himself a gifted poet, Lorenzo gathered at his court the leading artists and intellectuals of his day. Among those who enjoyed his patronage were the painters Botticelli and Michelangelo, the philosophers Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and the humanist poet Angelo Poliziano (Politian). Lorenzo died at Careggi on April 9, 1492.