Lorenzo the Magnificent

Reference

Picture; [Wikipedia];

Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia

"[He] was an Italian statesman, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy.. . . As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. He held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian peninsula for decades . . ." [Wikipedia] Giovanni di Bicci (1360-1429) was the great-grandfather, Cosimo (1389-1464) the grandfather, and Piero the Gouty (1416-1469) the father of Lorenzo. [Unger: Magnifico, p. 450] "Lorenzo's heir was his eldest son, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, known as "'Piero the Unfortunate'. In 1494, he squandered his father's patrimony and brought down the Medici dynasty in Florence. His second son, Giovanni, who became Pope Leo X, retook the city in 1512 with the aid of a Spanish army. In 1529, Lorenzo's nephew Giulio – whom Lorenzo had raised as his own son and then reigned as Pope Clement VII – formalized Medici rule of Florence by installing Alessandro de' Medici as the city's first hereditary duke." [Wikipedia]