Lorenzo de' Medici
'''Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici
(), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent''' (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''
de facto'' ruler of the
Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of
Renaissance culture in Italy. Lorenzo held the balance of power within the
Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the
Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as
Botticelli and
Michelangelo. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the
Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother
Giuliano was assassinated. The
Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among the various
Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the
Medici Chapel in
Florence.
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