"Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici"
by Miles J. Unger
Simon & Schuster, 513 pp., $32
After finishing Miles Unger's dazzling new biography of Lorenzo de' Medici, my head was filled with myriad impressions of this book, but none more striking than this: Five centuries ago, at the height of the Italian Renaissance, the famed Florentine leader helped foster a remarkable flowering of art, architecture, literature and intellectual life that remains nearly unparalleled in history.
From the first sentence, "Magnifico" transports the reader to 15th-century Florence, a place of matchless splendor, both natural and man-made. Unger, a contributing writer on art for The New York Times, mines a rich lode of sources that include government records; historical accounts; diaries; and Lorenzo's own memoirs, letters and poems. The result is an indelible personal profile and an enthralling account of both the glories and brutality of the era.
Lorenzo was the third generation of Medicis to rule Florence, after his grandfather, Cosimo, and father, Piero. Groomed for power from an early age, Lorenzo was just 20 years old when his father died, but he already had considerable experience. As a teenager, he had led several diplomatic missions to neighboring city states.
Italy in the late 1400s was divided into variously allied city states: Florence, Milan and Venice in the north; the Papal Territory (including Rome) in the central area of the country; and Naples and Sicily in the southeast. The Medicis rose to power on the strength of their financial prowess, eventually becoming bankers to the pope and Italy's most prominent families. Lorenzo and his forebears ruled by fiat under the aegis of a quasi-democratic government. The Medicis, Lorenzo in particular, became adept at political maneuvering, manipulating, arm-twisting and bribery.
The rivalries inside and outside Florence were fierce and volatile. On Easter Sunday in April 1478, members of the rival Pazzi family, backed by Pope Sixtus IV, attempted a coup, attacking Lorenzo and his brother, Giuliano, in the cathedral of Florence (the Duomo). Giuliano was killed, but Lorenzo escaped with a flesh wound. The city erupted in an orgy of violence. Mobs of Medici supporters hunted down the conspirators and delivered violent revenge. Prisoners were torn limb from limb, their body parts impaled and displayed on lances. Others, including the Archbishop of Pisa, were hanged from the high walls of the famed Palazzo della Signora.
The pope, predictably incensed, persuaded the king of Naples to declare war against Florence and its allies. In perhaps his most brilliant diplomatic move, Lorenzo traveled to Naples and used his native charm and powers of persuasion to negotiate an end to the war.
Besides his diplomatic genius, Lorenzo was a legendary cultivator of the arts. Although he didn't directly commission a large amount of artwork, he encouraged and inspired artists, who often took up residence at his house. Among them were da Vinci, Botticelli and a young Michelangelo.
Unger is a writer in complete control of his material, combining scholarship, astute analysis and an eye for tantalizing detail, as in this description of the Duomo on the morning of the coup attempt: "The cathedral of Florence rises from the crowded alleyway of the quarter of San Giovanni in muscular ripples like a great and gentle beast."
Sentences like that distinguish "Magnifico" from the conventional history text and make for a reading experience that can be exhilarating.
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