Renaissance Florence was dominated by the powerful Medici family. In this video, we learn about Lorenzo de’Medici, known as “the Magnificent,” who was the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic in the late fifteenth century. Shown in a terracotta portrait bust created in the early sixteenth century, Lorenzo was a savvy politician, a poet, a scholar, and one of Italy’s most influential patrons of art and architecture.

Speaker: Dr. Heather Graham

CHAPTERS

0:00 Il Magnifico

0:39 Who was Lorenzo the Magnificent?

0:44 Medici power in fifteenth-century Florence

1:28 Lorenzo inherits

2:02 Surviving the Pazzi Conspiracy

2:30 Presenting as a republican citizen rather than a prince

3:09 Lorenzo as patron

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