Lorenzo de' Medici

Clarice Orsini, his future wife, was the daughter of Jacopo Orsini and his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini. The family, based in Rome, was wealthy and belonged to the nobility of the papal court. In an effort to douse the rising hostility between the papacy and the progressive Florence and more importantly, raise their own social status, the Medicis found the perfect prospects for a bride in Clarice.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni travelled to Rome to meet the Orsinis, where her brother Giovanni Tornabuoni, the director of the Roman branch of the Medici Bank, served as the mediator. She questioned Clarice thoroughly. Her inspection, which would seem quite intrusive by modern standards but were quite common back then, must have satisfied her, because she wrote a glowing review of their potential daughter-in-law in a letter to her husband.

Soon after, Lorenzo himself went to Rome and met Clarice. When he gave his approval, the negotiations for the marriage contract began, which would protract for almost a year. Finally, an agreement was reached, and among other details, a dowry of 6,000 florins was stipulated. Lorenzo wed Clarice by proxy on February 7, 1469 and in person on June 4.

Lorenzo was born on January 1, 1449, in the powerful and wealthy Florentine branch of the Medici family. His parents were Piero di Cosimo de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. He had four siblings: sisters Maria, Bianca, and Lucrezia, and brother Giuliano.

His grandfather, Cosimo de’ Medici was a man of vision and aptitude, being the first in his family to helm both the Medici Bank and Florentine government together. His rule was supplemented by his great wealth, a sizeable portion of which was used for administrative purposes and philanthropic initiatives, as well as for endorsing the development of arts and culture in the city state. It made him incredibly popular and consolidated his family’s position.

During his father’s tenure, Piero de Medici, also known as Piero the Gouty, did not actively take part in the governance, both for the lack of interest and poor health, and was content as a patron and collector of arts. His wife, Lucrezia, wrote sonnets and promoted poetry and philosophical discussions. Piero’s brother, Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici was named their father’s executor but unfortunately predeceased Cosimo. In 1461, Piero became the last Medici to be elected as the Gonfaloniere of Justice.

Lorenzo was said to be an exceptionally intelligent, curious, and witty youth with a refined taste in humanities and culture. The brightest amongst his generation of Medicis, his family made sure that his education augmented his inherent acumen. He was taught by the humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino and the bishop and diplomat Gentile de' Becchi. The émigré Greek scholar and philosopher John Argyropoulos trained him in Greek.

Lorenzo and Giuliano regularly took part in jousting tournaments, hawking and hunting excursions. They bred horses for races such as Palio de Siena.

Cosimo passed away in 1464, and two years after that, Lorenzo entered politics at the age of 16. Piero wisely employed his son’s cunning and wisdom for diplomacy, sending him to meet the Pope and other contemporary European leaders. After his father’s death on December 2, 1469, Lorenzo took the helm of Medici family and ran Florence with the help of Giuliano and Lucrezia as advisors.

Like the rest of his family, Lorenzo did not rule directly but through surrogates in the city council. The greatest criticism levelled against him was that he was virtually a despot and while Florence thrived in his reign, people did not have the merest of political freedom. It inevitably garnered him the resentment from the rival Florentine families who felt they had little to no actual power in the city state.

Alum was an important commodity in several industries like glass-making, tanning, and textile, and most of its sources were in areas under Ottoman control. So when it was discovered in Volterra, the people of the city sought the backing of the Medici Bank. Lorenzo got involved in the city’s mining effort in 1462 or 1463.

But the Volterrans, soon realising the value of the alum mine, organised a rebellion and secession from their Florentine patrons. An infuriated Lorenzo sent an army of mercenaries to the city, who promptly ransacked it. Recognizing his mistake, he rushed to Volterra to correct it, but it would remain the greatest folly of his career.

The leading rivals of the Medicis in Florence were the Pazzi family. On April 26, 1478, Lorenzo and Giuliano were attacked in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore by a group led by Francesco de' Pazzi, Girolamo Riario, and Francesco Salviati, the Archbishop of Pisa, with encouragement from Pope Sixtus IV himself. The incident came to be known as the ‘Pazzi Conspiracy’.

Lorenzo hosted some of the most important and influential artists of his age at his court, including Pollaiuolo brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Andrea del Verrocchio. Michelangelo stayed at the Medici household for five years, dining with Lorenzo and his family and taking part in discourses led by Marsilio Ficino.

The Medici library, now known as the Laurentian Library, started from Cosimo’s personal book collection. Lorenzo expanded its cache, sending his agents to retrieve old manuscripts and books. He had them copied and distributed all across Europe. A renowned humanist, Lorenzo was a patron of philosophers who sought to combine Plato’s teachings with Christianity.

A poet in his own right, his works in his native Tuscan celebrated life, love, feasts, and light. He would often turn melancholic in his writings, musing about the fragility and instability of human condition.

Following the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him, Lorenzo spent a huge portion of his fortune on charity, buildings, and taxes, which, in aggregate from 1434 to 1471, amounted to about 663,000 florins. He did not regret it, considering “the money was well-expended”.