Lorenzo de' Medici

: The exact same full name was also carried by his grandson Lorenzo (1492 - 1519), Duke of Urbino, with whom he is sometimes confused.

Lorenzo and the Renaissance

Another of Lorenzo's successes was in the fields of art and learning; he gathered at his court the leading artists and intellectuals of his day.

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His support for artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea del Verrocchio and Michelangelo Buonarroti was instrumental in the development of Florence as the epicenter of 15th century Renaissance Europe. Although his financial straits made it impossible for him to commission many works himself, he saw to it that they received commissions from other patrons. He was an artist of some note himself, writing poetry in his native Tuscan.

Related Topics:
Leonardo da Vinci - Donatello - Sandro Botticelli - Domenico Ghirlandaio - Andrea del Verrocchio - Michelangelo Buonarroti - 15th century - Renaissance - Tuscan

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He also started the collection of books which became the Medici Library, and his agents retrieved from the East large numbers of previously unknown classical works, and he employed a large workshop to copy his books and diffuse their content across Europe. He supported the development of humanism through his circle of scholarly friends who studied Greek philosophers, and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity; among this group were the philosophers Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and the humanist poet Angelo Poliziano.

Related Topics:
Medici Library - Humanism - Plato - Christianity - Marsilio Ficino - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola - Angelo Poliziano

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