Florentine Renaissance
Dear Mom,
Giuliano de’ Medici is dead. It was an assassination, well attempted I should say, for the great Lorenzo de’ Medici survived. Remember the Pazzi family I told you about a while back, the rivals to the Medici’s? Well, they just took their chance at the throne. See once Cosimo de’ Medici, the grandfather of Lorenzo and Giuliano, died in 1464, he passed the well-established Medici Bank to his son, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici.(1) With the Bank in complete turmoil, Piero was obligated to call in all the loans his father let go unpaid. Within days, the Florentine governing body was forced to pay their loans back, leaving them bankrupt, distraught, and desperate. This tension and Piero’s gout issues led to Piero’s death and Lorenzo's succession in 1469. The only problem was Lorenzo was a mere twenty years old, and families in Florence had grown an extreme distaste for the Medici rule.(2) With Lorenzo at the helm, the Pazzi’s believed this was their time to strike. Consisting of three main members, Jacopo de’Pazzi and his two young nephews, Guglielmo and Francesco, they used their employment by the Papacy to achieve unlimited credit with the Medici Bank. The word around Florence is that Lorenzo rigged the election of Florence's highest office against the rivaling Pazzi’s.(3)
1. Christopher Hibbert, House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999), 137.
2. Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 81-3.
3. Hibbert, House of Medici, 256.
With anger in their heart and vengeance on their mind, the Pazzi’s traveled all the way from Florence to Rome to meet Pope Sixtus IV. A nepotist in his own right, he approved the assassination of both Medici brothers as if the plan was his own. Lorenzo’s account was to be audited, and he was to be assassinated.(4) The first assassination attempt was on an Easter trip to Rome, but the Magnificent never showed. The second attempt was at a dinner in Lorenzo’s villa, but this time Giuliano didn’t show.(5) As a result, the plot was pushed back until Easter Sunday at the Florence Cathedral. On this day, the bleak gray walls of the Cathedral reflected the sunlight with a certain reciprocity. The dome was vaulted just like Filippo Brunelleschi had wanted and the crowning lantern directed me toward the Tusacan style doors.(6) As I entered, my ears were serenaded with the purity of hymns, and I overheard conversations of communion. The monumental clock frescoed by Paolo Uccello ushered me right to mass where Lorenzo and Guiliano were.(7) Surrounded by white muslin walls and a small candle, I sat amongst other catholics. With communion over and the brothers twenty feet apart, the signal was made. “Ahh, ughh, arrr” (stabbing sounds) let out a startled Guliano. Bernardo Baroncelli’s knife made contact and next came Francesco de’ Pazzi! “Cskkk”, “uzhhh”, “ufgg”...one stab wound, then two, then three. “Raarr”, “Ayett”, “Uhkk”...eighteen stab wounds later.(8) The Church was in upheaval as everyone scurried around. The metallic scent of blood plagued the room, as piles started to form. To the left, Lorenzo stood with friends completely ignorant of his brother’s slaying. In the blink of an eye, two priests pulled knives from their robes on the unsuspecting Magnificent. The first barely missed his throat and grazed his neck. Thinking fast, Lorenzo’s friend pulled him into the church’s scarcity with other Medici members.(9)
4. Martines, April Blood, 94.
5. Hibbert, House of Medici, 212.
6. Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists, eds. and trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella, Peter
Bondanella (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 222.
7. Gustina Scaglia, "Building the Cathedral in Florence," Scientific American 264, no. 1 (1991): 69, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24936755.
8. Angelo Poliziano, The Pazzi Conspiracy, trans. Elizabeth B. Welles (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), https://www.scribd.com/document/463804746/Poliziano-The-Pazzi-Conspiracy.
9. Angelo Poliziano, The Pazzi Conspiracy, trans. Elizabeth B. Welles (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), https://www.scribd.com/document/463804746/Poliziano-The-Pazzi-Conspiracy.
The last thing I saw before running for my own life was Lorenzo beaming at the crimson red shirt of his brother. It was almost as if he was looking through the body, through his soul, and into a future full of revenge. The battle for Florence had just begun. It was going to either be the Pazzi’s or the Medici’s. The people were dependent on it and the city’s rebirth was too.
Austin Lester
7 chapters
16 Nov 2023
Pazzi Conspiracy
Florence Cathedral
Dear Mom,
Giuliano de’ Medici is dead. It was an assassination, well attempted I should say, for the great Lorenzo de’ Medici survived. Remember the Pazzi family I told you about a while back, the rivals to the Medici’s? Well, they just took their chance at the throne. See once Cosimo de’ Medici, the grandfather of Lorenzo and Giuliano, died in 1464, he passed the well-established Medici Bank to his son, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici.(1) With the Bank in complete turmoil, Piero was obligated to call in all the loans his father let go unpaid. Within days, the Florentine governing body was forced to pay their loans back, leaving them bankrupt, distraught, and desperate. This tension and Piero’s gout issues led to Piero’s death and Lorenzo's succession in 1469. The only problem was Lorenzo was a mere twenty years old, and families in Florence had grown an extreme distaste for the Medici rule.(2) With Lorenzo at the helm, the Pazzi’s believed this was their time to strike. Consisting of three main members, Jacopo de’Pazzi and his two young nephews, Guglielmo and Francesco, they used their employment by the Papacy to achieve unlimited credit with the Medici Bank. The word around Florence is that Lorenzo rigged the election of Florence's highest office against the rivaling Pazzi’s.(3)
1. Christopher Hibbert, House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999), 137.
2. Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 81-3.
3. Hibbert, House of Medici, 256.
With anger in their heart and vengeance on their mind, the Pazzi’s traveled all the way from Florence to Rome to meet Pope Sixtus IV. A nepotist in his own right, he approved the assassination of both Medici brothers as if the plan was his own. Lorenzo’s account was to be audited, and he was to be assassinated.(4) The first assassination attempt was on an Easter trip to Rome, but the Magnificent never showed. The second attempt was at a dinner in Lorenzo’s villa, but this time Giuliano didn’t show.(5) As a result, the plot was pushed back until Easter Sunday at the Florence Cathedral. On this day, the bleak gray walls of the Cathedral reflected the sunlight with a certain reciprocity. The dome was vaulted just like Filippo Brunelleschi had wanted and the crowning lantern directed me toward the Tusacan style doors.(6) As I entered, my ears were serenaded with the purity of hymns, and I overheard conversations of communion. The monumental clock frescoed by Paolo Uccello ushered me right to mass where Lorenzo and Guiliano were.(7) Surrounded by white muslin walls and a small candle, I sat amongst other catholics. With communion over and the brothers twenty feet apart, the signal was made. “Ahh, ughh, arrr” (stabbing sounds) let out a startled Guliano. Bernardo Baroncelli’s knife made contact and next came Francesco de’ Pazzi! “Cskkk”, “uzhhh”, “ufgg”...one stab wound, then two, then three. “Raarr”, “Ayett”, “Uhkk”...eighteen stab wounds later.(8) The Church was in upheaval as everyone scurried around. The metallic scent of blood plagued the room, as piles started to form. To the left, Lorenzo stood with friends completely ignorant of his brother’s slaying. In the blink of an eye, two priests pulled knives from their robes on the unsuspecting Magnificent. The first barely missed his throat and grazed his neck. Thinking fast, Lorenzo’s friend pulled him into the church’s scarcity with other Medici members.(9)
4. Martines, April Blood, 94.
5. Hibbert, House of Medici, 212.
6. Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists, eds. and trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella, Peter
Bondanella (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 222.
7. Gustina Scaglia, "Building the Cathedral in Florence," Scientific American 264, no. 1 (1991): 69, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24936755.
8. Angelo Poliziano, The Pazzi Conspiracy, trans. Elizabeth B. Welles (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), https://www.scribd.com/document/463804746/Poliziano-The-Pazzi-Conspiracy.
9. Angelo Poliziano, The Pazzi Conspiracy, trans. Elizabeth B. Welles (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), https://www.scribd.com/document/463804746/Poliziano-The-Pazzi-Conspiracy.
The last thing I saw before running for my own life was Lorenzo beaming at the crimson red shirt of his brother. It was almost as if he was looking through the body, through his soul, and into a future full of revenge. The battle for Florence had just begun. It was going to either be the Pazzi’s or the Medici’s. The people were dependent on it and the city’s rebirth was too.
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