Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"When Lorenzo de' Medici died on May 9, 1492, at the age of forty-three, his passing marked the last great phase of Florence's cultural leadership of the Italian Renaissance. . . . A poet, aesthete, banker, and political fixer, he presided over a period of peace and high culture. . . . After Lorenzo's death, religious orthodoxy soon held sway thanks to Savonarola. Within two years Charles VIII, King of France, had invaded and the Palazzio Medici was sacked." [Furtado: 1001 Days]