Lorenzo di Giovanni de 'Medici

Lorenzo di Giovanni de 'Medici (also called Lorenzo the Elder ; * around 1395; † September 23, 1440 in Careggi ) was a banker from Florence .

Lorenzo's parents were Giovanni di Bicci de 'Medici , the progenitor of the Medici family , and his wife Piccarda de' Bueri. His older brother Cosimo de 'Medici founded the Medici di Cafaggiolo branch, who ruled Florence with one interruption until 1537. The younger Medici line of the Popolani descends from Lorenzo , from which the Grand Dukes of Tuscany later emerged. He was married to Ginevra Cavalcanti and had two sons with her, Francesco and Pierfrancesco de 'Medici the elder (1430-1476).

In public, Lorenzo, who was mainly responsible for the business of the Medici Bank founded by his father, was very reserved compared to his brother Cosimo. He took over again important tasks for his hometown Florence in 1429, he traveled as ambassador to Venice , in 1431 the newly elected Pope Eugenius IV. To Rome and in 1438 by Ferrara to convince the Pope of it, the Council of Basel / Ferrara / Florence after Relocate Florence. In 1431 Lorenzo was also elected to the influential Council of Ten.

When his brother Cosimo was first imprisoned in 1433 and then banished from Florence, Lorenzo tried to raise an army to support him, but eventually accompanied him into exile in Venice. As early as 1434 they returned to Florence together, where Cosimo now took over power. Lorenzo went to Rome the following year as custodian of the Holy See's income . He died in 1440, like his brother and his grandson Lorenzo after him, in the Medici Villa in Careggi near Florence and was buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo .

Web links

• Short biography (Italian)