yr8_LorenzotheMagnificent

=**__Hi I’m Lorenzo de' Medici, and this is my life.__**= I was born in January 1st, 1449 and died in 9 April 1492. I was an Italian statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. I ruled Florentine with my younger brother, Giuliano, in 1469, but after he was assassinated in 1478, I became a sole ruler. I was also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Lorenzo il Magnifico). I was a diplomat, politician, and patron of scholars, artists, and poets. My life coincided with the high point of the early Italian Renaissance; my death marked the end of the Golden Age of Florence. The fragile peace I helped maintain between the various Italian states collapsed with my death; and two years later the French invasion of 1494 began nearly 400 years of foreign occupation of the Italian peninsula. My greatest contribution to history was my passion of arts. I contributed more than anyone to the flowering of Florentine genius in the late 15th century, supporting such giants as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Lorenzo treated the artists under my protection with respect. In 1485, Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar from the convent of San Marco began to scare the Florentines with sermons accusing my family of ruining the state and squandering the wealth of the people. These accusations undermined my support among the people of Florence. Nevertheless, when I died, there was an outpouring of grief in the city I married Clarice Orsini on February 7, 1469. She was a daughter of Giacomo Orsini, Lord of Monterotondo and Bracciano. We had nine children. Our first was Lucrezia de' Medici born August 4, 1470, She married Giacomo Salviati and they had a daughter Francesca Salviati who was the mother to Pope Leo XI. Our fifth was Maddalena de' Medici born in July 25, 1473, she married Franceschetto Cybo the illegitimate son of Pope Innocent VIII. Two of my sons later became powerful popes. My second son, Giovanni, became Pope Leo X he was born in December 11, 1475 and December 1, 1521, and my adopted son Giulio who was the illegitimate son of my slain brother Giuliano and Giulio became Pope Clement VII. Luisa de' Medici was born in 1477, died in 1488, she was betrothed to her cousin Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano. Contessina de' Medici born in 1478 and died 1515 and she was married Piero Ridolfi. Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, he was born in March 12, 1479 and died March 17, 1516. My first son and my political heir, Piero 'the Unfortunate', squandered my patrimony and brought down my empire in Florence but his brother Giovanni, restored it, but it was only made wholly secure again on the accession of a distant relative from a branch line of the family, Cosimo I de' Medici. I was considered the brightest of the five children. I was tutored by Gentile Becchi, a diplomat. I partook in jousting, hawking, hunting, and breeding horses for the palio, a horse race in Siena. I had my own horse named Morello. My father sent me on many important diplomatic missions when I was still young. These included trips to Rome to meet with the pope and other important religious and political figures.

**__This is my family.__**
My grandfather, Cosimo de Medici, became the first of the Medici to combine running the bank with leading the Republic in both government and philanthropy, spending an enormous portion of his fortune (he was one of the wealthiest men in all of Europe) on art and public works. My father, Piero 'the Gouty' de' Medici, was also at the center of Florentine life, and extremely active as a patron and collector. My mother Lucrezia Tornabuoni was also a dilettante poet and friend to figures like Luigi Pulci or Agnolo Poliziano. And my wife and my children.

**__What i did in the Renaissance[[image:http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/6/64/250px-Lorenzo_de'_Medici-ritratto.jpg width="190" height="244" align="right"]]__**
My court included artists such as Piero and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi, and Michelangelo Buonarroti who were involved in the 15th century Renaissance. Although I did not commission many works myself, I helped those secure commissions from other patrons. Michelangelo lived with me and my family for several years, dining at my family table and attending meetings of the Neo-Platonic Academy. I was an artist of some note myself, writing poetry in his native Tuscan. In my poetry I celebrate life even while—particularly in my later works—acknowledging with melancholy the fragility and instability of the human condition. Love, feasts and light dominate my verse. Cosimo had started the collection of books which became the Medici Library (also called the Laurentian Library) and I expanded it. My agents retrieved from the East large numbers of classical works, and I employed a large workshop to copy my books and disseminate their content across Europe. I supported the development of humanism through my circle of scholarly friends who studied Greek philosophers, and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity; among this group were the philosophers Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

By Laura Topp