Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/356

 MEDICI ceived shelter in the house of Lorenzo. Ban- dim took refuge in Constantinople; but the sultan ordered him to be sent in chains to Florence, because of the respect which he had for Lorenzo. The pope issued a bull excom- municating Lorenzo and the magistrates, and suspending the entire Florentine clergy, on account of the execution of the archbishop. He also, in conjunction with the king of Na- ples, made open war upon the republic, offer- ing, however, to conclude peace on condition that Lorenzo should be banished from Flor- ence, or delivered into their hands. As the resources of Florence were inadequate for a long contest with two such powerful enemies, Lorenzo, perceiving that the war was waged against him personally, took the extraordinary resolution of going to Naples, where through his personal influence, in spite of the utmost efforts of the pope, in the course of three months he converted the king from an enemy to a warm friend, and returned to Florence, bringing with him a treaty of alliance with Naples. Peace with the pope soon followed. Lorenzo now began to take measures for se- curing the peace of Italy by establishing a bal- ance of power in the peninsula, of which Flor- ence was to be the political centre. He also persuaded the people to agree to the institution of a permanent senate, nominated by himself, to govern the republic, instead of the demo- cratic councils to whom the supreme power had been previously intrusted. A second at- tempt to assassinate him was made in a church in 1481. The assassins were seized before they could execute their purpose, and henceforth Lorenzo surrounded himself with a body guard. Sixtus IV. died in 1484, and was succeeded by Innocent VIII., who was friendly to Lorenzo, and in a short time made him his most inti- mate confidant, opening to the Medici the dignities and emoluments of the church, by which the family afterward so much prof- ited. The alliance of the pontiff augmented still more the influence of Lorenzo in Italy, which was now in a more prosperous condition than it had been for centuries, while Florence itself had reached the highest pitch of power and opulence to which it ever attained. Lo- renzo's attention to public affairs had obliged him to neglect his own, and he became so in- volved by expenditures for political purposes that in 1490 the republic granted him an al- lowance to pay his debts, so large that, accord- ing to Hallam, she " disgracefully screened the bankruptcy of the Medici by her own." At this time he abandoned commerce, which his family had pursued for so many generations. In the beginning of 1492 he was attacked by a strange species of fever which baffled the skill of the physicians, and of which he died, April 8. He left three sons: Pietro, the eldest; Giovan- ni, the second, who became a cardinal at the age of 13, and afterward pope as Leo X. ; and Giuliano, the youngest, who became duke of Nemours. Lorenzo was eminent not only as a statesman, but as a poet and scholar. Among his intimate friends were the poets Poliziano and Pulci. He was a munificent patron of authors and artists, and spent vast sums in erecting public edifices and establishing schools and libraries. He reestablished the university of Pisa, and greatly enlarged the famous Lau- rentian library at Florence, which derives its name from him, and which was founded by his grandfather Cosmo. The Opere di Lorenzo de> Medici, detto il Magnifico, were published un- der the auspices of Leopold II., grand duke of Tuscany (4 vols., Florence, 1826). See Ros- coe, "Life of Lorenzo de' Medici " (2 vols. 4to, London, 1796 ; best ed. in " Bohn's Standard Library," 1851), and Alfred von Reumont, Lo- renzo de 1 Medici, il Magnifico, und seine Zeit (2 vols., Leipsic, 1874). PIETRO IL, his son and successor, born Feb. 15, 1471, had much of the talent without the prudence of his fa- ther. His ambition and temerity involved Florence in war with Charles VIII. of France, and led to his own expulsion from the city in 1494, and to the occupation of Florence by the French army shortly afterward. After an ex- ile of ten years, during which he made repeat- ed though futile attempts to regain his author- ity, he entered the service of France, and per- ished at the great defeat of the French army by Gonsalvo de Cordova on the banks of the Garigliano, Dec. 29, 1503, being drowned in the river. By his death his second brother, Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, became the head of the family. In 1512, partly by policy, partly by force, he effected the restoration of the Medici to Florence, and shortly afterward was himself elected pope. (See LEO X.) He intrusted the direction of Florentine affairs to his younger brother GIULIANO, who, having more taste and capacity for literature than for politics, soon resigned his authority into the hands of his nephew Lorenzo, the son of the Pietro who perished in the Garigliano, and re- tiring to Rome became commander-in-chief of the papal troops. Having married Filiberta of Savoy, of the house of Bourbon, he was made duke of Nemours by Francis I. of France. He died in Florence, March 17, 1516. Giuliano left a natural son, IPPOLITO, born in 1511, who was expelled with the whole house of Me- dici from Florence (1527), on the discomfiture of the holy league formed by Pope Clement VII. against Charles V. He became a cardinal, and his immense revenue enabled him, with- out territories and without subjects, to main- tain at Bologna a court far more splendid than that of any Italian potentate. He was, says Roscoe, " at once the patron, the companion, and the rival of all the poets, the musicians, and the wits of his time. His associates and at- tendants, all of whom could boast of some pe- culiar merit or distinction which had entitled them to his notice, generally formed a body of 300 persons." He was poisoned by a domes- tic, Aug. 3, 1535. LORENZO IL, born Sept. 13, 1492, after the resignation of Giuliano,