Miles Unger's biography of this complex figure draws on primary research in Italian sources and on his intimate knowledge of Florence, where he lived for several years."--BOOK JACKET.

"An inventory of the private possessions of Lorenzo il Magnifico de' Medici, head of the ruling Medici family during the apogee of the Florentine Renaissance"--Provided by publisher.

"The first English translation of the complete literary works of Lorenzo de' Medici (1 January 1449-9 April 1492), Italian statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Comprises love poems, comic poems, short stories, and philosophical and devotional works, including one play"--

"Historian F.W. Kent offers a new look at Lorenzo's relationship to the arts, aesthetics, collecting, and building - especially in the context of his role as the political boss (maestro della bottega) of republican Florence and a leading player in Renaissance Italian diplomacy. Kent's approach reveals Lorenzo's activities as an art patron as far more extensive and creative than previously thought. Known as "the Magnificent," Lorenzo was broadly interested in the arts and supported efforts to beautify Florence and the many Medici lands and palaces. His expertise was well regarded by guildsmen and artists, who often turned to him for advice as well as for patronage.

Lorenzo de' Medici was twenty-one when he took over the government of Florence in 1469. By the age of sixteen he was already an able diplomat, following the example and training of his father and grandfather, and as head of the Medici family, he became a first-class party chief as well as the most princely patron of art and thought in Christendom. Although he had virtually no physical charm, he had immense influence over people, and at the crisis of his career he saved both the Florentine state and himself by a master-stroke of personal diplomacy. He survived an assassination attempt in which his brother died, only to grow old with gout before he was thirty-eight and be crippled by the time of his death, five years later. The grief of the people of Florence was almost hysterical when the news was broken to them; to them, as to us, Lorenzo was a figure not easily matched, let alone surpassed. The author, Maurice Rowdon, looks anew at Lorenzo the man and places him in the Italy and Europe of his day. - Jacket flap.

Presents the life and accomplishments of the fifteenth-century ruler of Florence who was renowned for his passion for the arts, and who sponsored Michelangelo.

Essays taking up themes that have resonated through Professor Koenigsberger's lectures, seminars and public writings.