Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was an Italian statesman, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lorenzo held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother Giuliano was assassinated. The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among the various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.
The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually in trade until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe in the 1400s and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century.
Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker and intermarriage with other rich and powerful families. He was a patron of arts, learning, and architecture. He spent over 600,000 gold florins on art and culture, including Donatello's David, the first freestanding nude male sculpture since antiquity.
The Pazzi were a powerful family in the Republic of Florence. Their main trade during the fifteenth century was banking. In the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, members of the family were banished from Florence and their property was confiscated; the family name and coat-of-arms were permanently suppressed by order of the Signoria.
Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, called Piero the Fatuous or Piero the Unfortunate, was the lord of Florence from 1492 until his exile in 1494.
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici was an Italian banker and founder of the Medici Bank. While other members of the Medici family, such as Chiarissimo di Giambuono de' Medici, who served in the Signoria of Florence in 1401, and Salvestro de' Medici, who was implicated in the Ciompi Revolt of 1378, are of historical interest, it was Giovanni's founding of the family bank that truly initiated the family's rise to power in Florence. He was the father of Cosimo de' Medici and of Lorenzo the Elder; grandfather of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici; great-grandfather of Lorenzo de' Medici ; and the great-great-great-grandfather of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
The Republic of Florence, known officially as the Florentine Republic, was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Florence in Tuscany, Italy. The republic originated in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon the death of Matilda of Tuscany, who controlled vast territories that included Florence. The Florentines formed a commune in his successors' place. The republic was ruled by a council known as the Signoria of Florence. The signoria was chosen by the gonfaloniere, who was elected every two months by Florentine guild members.
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, known as Piero the Gouty, was the de facto ruler of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance.
Giuliano de' Medici was the second son of Piero de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brother's image as the "patron of the arts" with his own image as the handsome, sporting "golden boy". He was killed in a plot known as the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478.
The Pazzi conspiracy was a failed plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence.
Girolamo Riario was Lord of Imola and Forlì. He served as Captain General of the Church under his uncle Pope Sixtus IV. He was one of the organisers of the failed 1478 Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici family, the rulers of Florence, and was assassinated 10 years later by members of the Forlivese Orsi family.
Francesco Salviati was the archbishop of Pisa from 1474 to 1478. He was one of the organisers of the Pazzi conspiracy, a plot to displace the Medici family as rulers of the Florentine Republic; he was executed after the failure of the plot.
Clarice Orsini (1453–1488) was the daughter of Jacopo Orsini, and his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini both from the Orsini family, a great Roman noble house and was the wife of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Lucrezia Maria Romola de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman, the eldest daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici and Clarice Orsini and mother of Maria Salviati and Giovanni Salviati. Her portrait was considered as the baby Jesus in Our Lady of the Magnificat of Sandro Botticelli.
Contessina de' Bardi, was an Italian noblewoman from the House of Bardi. Her marriage into the House of Medici provided her husband's family with much needed nobility, prestige, and military support as they established their power in Florence.
Lucrezia Tornabuoni was an Italian noblewoman, wife of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, de facto Lord of Florence and his political adviser. Lucrezia had significant political influence during the rule of her husband and then of her son Lorenzo the Magnificent, investing in several institutions and improving relationships to support the needs of the poor. She was also a patroness of the arts who wrote several poems and plays.
Gentile de' Becchi was an Italian bishop, diplomat, orator and writer. He was a member of the Platonic Academy of the Medici of Florence and tutor of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his son Giovanni de' Medici, later Pope Leo X. Of his writings there exist many letters, poems in Latin, and prayers which are praised by historian Cecil Grayson as his finest works.
Bianca Maria di Piero de' Medici was a member of the de' Medici family, de facto rulers of Florence in the late 15th century. She was the daughter of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and sister of Lorenzo de' Medici, who succeeded his father in that position. She married Guglielmo de' Pazzi, a member of the Pazzi family. She was a musician, and played the organ for Pope Pius II and the future Pope Alexander VI in 1460; she was a landowner.
Contessina Antonia Romola di Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman, ninth child and fifth and last daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Lord of Florence, and his wife Clarice Orsini. She was the wife of the Florentine Piero Ridolfi, later made Count Palatine by her elder brother Pope Leo X. She was also cousin of Pope Clement VII.
Guglielmo di Antonio de' Pazzi, Lord of Civitella was an Italian nobleman, banker and politician from the Republic of Florence. He was also husband of Bianca de' Medici, sister of the Lord of Florence Lorenzo the Magnificent.
