Lorenzo the Magnificent remains one of the most fascinating figures of the Italian Renaissance. Informal ruler of the city-state of Florence during one of the most critical periods in Italian history, head of a major European bank, innovative landowner and farmer, patron of architects, artists, writers, scholars and musicians as well as being himself a gifted poet, philosopher and musician, his life touched every aspect of contemporary culture. For this reason he was probably the most representative figure of his generation, a true ‘Renaissance man’. It is in such a context that he is portrayed in this new biography which, making use of recent advances in our knowledge of fifteenth-century Florence, sees Lorenzo as a person both acted upon by and contributing to the movement of history and the evolution of Renaissance civilization. In this study, Lorenzo’s life is portrayed as a unified whole; Lorenzo the politician is not separated from Lorenzo the writer, Lorenzo the patron, or Lorenzo the family-man since all these aspects of his life inter-connected and affected each other. Lorenzo’s weaknesses and mistakes are given consideration, alongside his strengths and achievements, in order to portray a real man rather than a hero or a villain. Lorenzo’s own somewhat enigmatic personality and the ambiguous position he occupied in Florence, have always tended to make him the object of passionate controversy. By showing how limited Lorenzo’s room for manoeuvre was, how the historical situation often determined his actions, the author creates a portrait of a great man different from that of previous biographers, and attempts to resolve at least some of the differences between scholars which, in the past, have obscured our understanding of Lorenzo’s historical significance.

Judith Hook

Lorenzo de' Medici: an historical biography