Lorenzino de 'Medici

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici called Lorenzino ( little Lorenzo ) or Lorenzaccio ( bad Lorenzo ) (born March 23, 1514 in Florence , † February 26, 1548 in Venice ) from the younger branch of the Medici ruling in Florence was the son of Pierfrancesco de 'Medici and Maria Soderini.

On January 6, 1537, he murdered his relative Alessandro de 'Medici , who ruled in Florence from 1523 to 1527 and again from 1531 , which was celebrated as a tyrannicide by the pro-Republic party in his hometown , even if this last rebellion of republican sentiments was also a reaction of one of his Vanity afflicted can be seen after Alessandro had intended as his successor not his closest relative in the male line, Lorenzino, but a more distant one, namely Cosimo de 'Medici, the later Grand Duke Cosimo I (1519–1574).

Lorenzino tried two years later (1539) in his work Apologia , in which he used Machiavelli's thoughts , to justify rhetorically brilliantly.

It can be assumed that his assassination was commissioned by Cosimo I eleven years after the murder of Alessandro.

The murder generated a lasting echo in art:

• Michelangelo created a Brutus bust around 1540 based on the deed;
• Vittorio Alfieri wrote an epic in 1789 : L'Etruria vendicata ;
• Alfred de Musset wrote a drama in 1834 : Lorenzaccio .

Text output

• Emilio Faccioli (ed.): Lorenzino de 'Medici: Aridosia. Einaudi, Torino 1974 (edition of the comedy Aridosia written by Lorenzino )

literature

• Marcello Vannucci: Lorenzaccio. Lorenzino de 'Medici , Rome 1984.
• Elisabetta Stumpo:  Medici, Lorenzo de '(Lorenzino). In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 73:  Meda-Messadaglia. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2009.

Web links

Commons : Lorenzino de 'Medici  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about Lorenzino de 'Medici in the catalog of the German National Library