Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici

Portrait of Giovanni il Popolano, detail from Adoration of the Magi by Filippino Lippi ( Uffizi Gallery ).

Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici (born October 21, 1467 in Florence , † September 14, 1498 in Santa Maria in Bagno ), called Il Popolano since 1494 , was a member of the younger line of the Medici . He married Caterina Sforza (1463-1509) in September 1497 , their son was the later Condottiere Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498-1526).

Life

origin

Giovanni was the second son of Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo de 'Medici (1430-1476 / 77) and his wife Laudomia, a daughter of Agnolo Acciaioli († after 1467), born in Florence.

The family of Giovanni's mother belonged to the nobility of Florence, a branch of the Acciaioli ruled the Duchy of Athens from 1388 to 1460 . Agnolo Acciaioli was business partner and political ally of Giovanni di Bicci de 'Medici (1360–1429) and later also supported his son Cosimo (1389–1464). However, in 1466 he led the revolt of the Florentine patriciate against the rule of Piero di Cosimo de 'Medici and after his failure in 1467 was banished from Florence for life.

Giovanni's father Pierfrancesco, who sympathized with the frondeurs of 1466, was the only son of Lorenzo di Giovanni de 'Medici (1395-1440) and his wife Ginevra Cavalcanti, who came from the Florentine patriciate. Lorenzo di Giovanni was the younger son of Giovanni di Bicci and the younger brother of Cosimo the Elder and founded the younger line of the Medici.

Giovanni's older brother was Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici (1463–1503).

The tutelage of Lorenzo the Magnificent

Pierfrancesco de 'Medici regulated shortly before his death († 1476/77) in his will that after his death the brothers Lorenzo il Magnifico (1449–1492) and Giuliano di Piero de' Medici (1453–1478) from the older line of the Medici Received guardianship over his underage sons Lorenzo and Giovanni. Lorenzo the Magnificent took over the administration of their inheritance and brought the orphaned relatives a good education. Her teachers included the important Italian humanists Angelo Poliziano and Marsilio Ficino .

Lorenzo the Magnificent had already borrowed large sums of money from Pierfrancesco, which he had not yet paid back when he died. The Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 brought Lorenzo further financial difficulties that he could only overcome by accessing the fortunes of Pierfrancesco's sons. He later forced his wards to provide him with additional sizable amounts of cash. In 1480 the Magnificent owed the brothers Lorenzo and Giovanni tens of thousands of Fiorini. Their financial situation was now also precarious, they could not pay their taxes. However, tax debts in Florence led to exclusion from all public offices and thus to the loss of political power. Ultimately, this led to the rift between Pierfrancesco's sons and their guardian.

In 1484 Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco sued Lorenzo the Magnificent for the surrender of the inherited property. A year later a comparison was made. The court's arbitration forced the Magnificent to leave his property in the Mugello to the sons of Pierfrancesco as compensation for his debts. Lorenzo the Magnificent tried to overcome the family quarrel and therefore engaged his daughter Luisa to Giovanni in 1487. But Giovanni's bride died a few months later, the relationship between Lorenzo the Magnificent and Pierfrancesco's sons remained broken.

Il Popolano

After the death of their former guardian († April 8, 1492), Lorenzo and Giovanni openly confessed against the new ruler of Florence Piero de 'Medici (1472-1503). In the spring of 1494 there was a final break between Giovanni and Piero. Giovanni was courting a young woman who Piero had also chosen as his favorite. Piero publicly slapped Giovanni because of this and then accused him of being an ally of the French King Charles VIII, who was invading Italy . As a result, Giovanni had to fear for his life - since these allegations were viewed as treason against the Republic of Florence - he fled Florence with his brother and his supporters and joined the French army.

There Lorenzo and Giovanni changed their family name to Popolani , which means 'the folks' or 'well-disposed towards the people'. This name change was intended on the one hand to document their ties to the people and on the other hand their distance from the Medici politics. After the French invasion of Florence and the fall of Piero in November 1494, Lorenzo and Giovanni voted for the exile Piero and his brothers Giovanni (1475–1521) - who later became Pope Leo X - and Giuliano di Lorenzo de 'Medici (1479– 1516) - the future Duke of Nemours - from Florence.

Charles VIII appointed Giovanni Maître d'Hôtel and granted him a handsome pension. Giovanni therefore preferred to withdraw to his estates, enjoy his wealth and keep away from republican politics. He withdrew from the work of Savonarola (1452–1498), devoted himself to his business in Romagna and began to support the painter Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) financially. Botticelli, who became a religious fanatic under Savanorola's influence and almost gave up painting out of religious conviction, would probably have starved to death without Giovanni's help. The ingenious creator of works such as Allegory of Spring , The Birth of Venus or Venus and Mars remained financially dependent on the Popolani branch of the Medici until his death.

The love for Catarina Sforza

In the summer of 1496, the Republic of Florence expected a bad harvest. The authorities, but also speculators, began to buy up grain. As a result of the troubled political situation, the Florentine government did not want to risk starving its population and therefore appointed Giovanni de 'Medici as the official commissioner for the purchase of grain.

Giovanni arrived in Forlì in August 1496 and began to negotiate the purchase of wheat with Caterina Sforza, the mistress of Forli and Imola , whom he had met a few weeks earlier in Rome. He achieved that between December 1496 and May 1497 over a thousand tons were delivered from Forli and Imola to Florence. Caterina was initially reluctant to deliver such large quantities to Florence, as the wheat yields in Romagna were not so high that a famine in the coming year could be completely ruled out. But the countess, widowed twice (and mother of seven), quickly took a liking to the handsome, charming and intelligent ambassador of the Republic of Florence and a few days after his arrival in Forli were Caterina - who was maliciously said that she feared nothing more than a cold bed - and Giovanni are lovers.

The love affair could not be kept secret for long. Florence was delighted, the city granted Caterina citizenship - this was a prerequisite for her later marriage to the Florentine citizen Giovanni de 'Medici - and granted her eldest son Ottaviano Riario (* 1479) a handsome fee as a mercenary leader in the service of the republic. The Pope, Alexander VI. (1431–1503), did not react in 1497 to the connection between the Sforza and the Medici. Venice was shocked, however. A connection between the warlike “tigress” and the wealthy Giovanni de 'Medici was seen as a threat to the hegemonic claims of the Serenissima in northern Italy. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro (1452-1508), became concerned and sent his ambassador Tranchedini to Forli to get more information. Caterina had to assure her uncle Ludovico in writing that her loyalty to Milan and the Sforzas was unclouded and that her relationship with Giovanni was only based on business principles.

However, she determined her pregnancy in August 1497 and then secretly married Giovanni de 'Medici in September 1497. The mistress of Forli and Imola, however, denied their third marriage in public, which is why the tricked Milanese ambassador Tranchedini later wrote angrily to Ludovico il Moro: "Cursed be those who trust a man, but even more who trust a woman." (Quote from Klaus Schelle, Die Sforzas , p. 210: Maledictus homo, qui confidit in homini et maxime in muliere. )

On April 6, 1498, Caterina Sforza gave birth to her youngest (and Giovanni's only) son, whom she named Ludovico. With this choice of name she wanted to publicly show her solidarity with the Duke of Milan, whose military and political help she would soon need. Cesare Borgia (1475–1507), son of Pope Alexander VI, began to besiege Forli in the summer of 1498. Ludovico il Moro then commissioned his condottiere Gaspare Sanseverino (1458-1519), called il Fracassa , to provide military support to Caterina.

Giovanni suffered a severe attack of gout (a hereditary condition of the Medici) in August 1498 and, on the advice of his doctors, who diagnosed his disease as not life-threatening, traveled to San Pietro in Bagno, a well-known seaside resort, to find relief. There Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici, known as il Popolano , died unexpectedly in the late evening hours of September 14, 1498.

epilogue

The grieving widow Caterina had coins minted with the inscription Caterina Sfortia Medices in honor of her deceased husband , thus demonstrating her connection to Giovanni. She renamed her son Ludovico Giovanni. He was later to become the last important condottiere of the Italian Renaissance under the name of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere.

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici argued with Caterina over his brother's inheritance. Caterina eventually got the villa from Castello, but a little later Lorenzo kidnapped her son Giovanni. But Caterina managed to buy her son out. She then hid Giovanni for fear of further stalking and finally gave him into the hands of others for security reasons. After her death (1509) Giovanni grew up in the house of Lucrezia (1470–1553), the eldest daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Jacopo Salviati (1461–1533). In 1516 he married Maria Salviati (1499–1543), a daughter of his foster parents, and became the father of the later first Grand Duke of Tuscany , Cosimo I de 'Medici (1519–1574).

literature

• Franco Cesati: The Medici. The story of a European dynasty . La Mandragora, 1999, ISBN 88-85957-39-0 .
• James Cleugh: The Medici. Power and splendor of a European family . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-155-4 .
• Hubert Fink: Machiavelli . Droemer-Knaur, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-426-02400-4 .
• Klaus Schelle: The Sforza. Peasants, condottieri, dukes. The history of the renaissance family. Magnus-Verlag, Essen 1980, ISBN 3-88400-099-3 .
• Ingeborg Walter : The splendid one. Lorenzo de 'Medici and his time . Piper, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-492-24204-9 .