The duke's assassin: exile and death of Lorenzino de' Medici

321 Pages·2016·2.335 MB·English

by  Dall'Aglio, Stefano;House of Medici;Medici, Lorenzino de';Weinstein, Donald

The Duke’s Assassin
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The Duke’s
Assassin
Exile and Death of
Lorenzino de’ Medici
Stefano Dall’Aglio
Translated by Donald Weinstein
New Haven & London
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Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of
Philip Hamilton McMillan of the Class of 1894, Yale College.
English translation © 2015 by Yale University.
First published as L’assassino del Duca: Esilio e morte di Lorenzino de’ Medici,
by Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki (Florence, Italy: 2011).
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond
that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers
for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business,
or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. offi ce) or
[email protected] (U.K. offi ce).
Set in Bulmer type by Newgen North America.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dall’Aglio, Stefano, 1970–
[Assassino del duca. English]
The duke’s assassin : exile and death of Lorenzino de’ Medici / Stefano Dall’Aglio ;
translated by Donald Weinstein.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-300-18978-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Medici, Lorenzino de’, 1514–1548—Death. 2. Nobility—Italy—Florence—Biography.
3. Florence (Italy)—History—1421–1737. 4. Medici, House of. I. Weinstein, Donald,
1926– translator. II. Title.
dg738.14.m4d3513 2015
945'.51107092—dc23
2014035952
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction xi
chapter one
The Eleven-Year Exile 1
1. Death in Florence 3
2. After the Crime 12
3. Mirandola and the Apologia 25
4. In the Shadow of the Crescent 39
5. Between Lyons, Paris, and Saintes 56
6. Among the Plots of the Exiles 69
7. Life in Venice 82
8. Between Pope and Emperor 89
9. Twilight 98
chapter two
Anatomy of a Murder 109
1. License to Kill 110
2. Death Plots 122
3. The Turncoat Killer 131
4. The Presumed Culprit 141
5. A Failed Trap 149
6. Death in Venice 159
7. Two Men in Flight 167
8. The Emperor’s Revenge 176
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vi Contents
Epilogue 187
Notes 197
Bibliography 267
Index 289
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Acknowledgments
I undertook and completed this book while I was a Fellow at the Me-
dici Archive Project. This gave me an extraordinary opportunity to carry
out research in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze and to work closely with
the archival documents and with a team of outstanding scholars. My debt
of gratitude to the Project, to the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena,
which funded my fellowship, and to the other Fellows is very great. Among
the latter I want especially to mention Maurizio Arfaioli, Sheila Barker,
Ele na Brizio, Lisa Kaborycha, Roberta Piccinelli, and Julia Vicioso for
their invaluable companionship and assistance. In particular, Maurizio’s
help in transcribing and translating the numerous Spanish documents has
been invaluable. I owe a special acknowledgment to Alessio Assonitis, re-
search director of the Medici Archive Project, who has closely followed the
progress of the book and at every opportunity discussed it with me with
lively interest, generosity, and irony.
The origins of this study go back to the time I was a Fellow at Villa I
Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. That
appointment gave me my fi rst opportunity for continuous work in the Ar-
chivio di Stato di Firenze, where I embarked on the line of research that
eventually led to my encounter with Lorenzino de’ Medici. While it is im-
possible to mention all of them by name, I sincerely wish to thank everyone
who accompanied me on that adventure, including members of the staff
and the other Fellows. Villa I Tatti and the Biblioteca Berenson have con-
tinued to be a reference point for my work in Florence well beyond the year
of my fellowship. I was able to carry on part of my work on this book in
Geneva and Chicago thanks to fellowships from the Institut d’Histoire de
la Réformation and from the Newberry Library.
vii
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viii Acknowledgments
To Paolo Simoncelli I owe a great debt, not only because he has fol-
lowed this work with attention and readiness to help, including a reading
of the entire manuscript, but also because my research for it follows in the
path of his studies on sixteenth-century Florentine republican exiles and
because the passion that inspired me was aroused by his teaching. For read-
ing the entire text, as well as for our pleasant and profi table conversations, I
also thank Vanni Bramanti; without his numerous suggestions this volume
would be quite different.
To Lucie de Los Santos I am indebted for the invitation to the 2008 con-
ference at Lille, “Les exilés italiens à la Renaissance,” where I fi rst presented
the results of my archival research on Lorenzino, reporting the discovery of
his letters, and where I was able to test my ideas before a group of brilliant
scholars. Very useful also was the exchange of views, ideas, and information
related to my paper on Lorenzino’s death, which I presented in Los Angeles
in 2009 at the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America. I
should also note that two small parts of my book have already been published
elsewhere (“Il presunto colpevole: Giovan Francesco Lottini e l’assassinio di
Lorenzino de’ Medici,” Rivista Storica Italiana 121 [2009]: 840–856; “Nota
sulla redazione e sulla datazione dell’Apologia di Lorenzino de’ Medici,”
Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 71 [2009]: 233–241), and for this I
should like to thank Massimo Firpo, Alain Dufour, Max Engamarre, and the
editorial boards and the publishers of both journals.
Michaela Valente has followed this work from its fi rst steps with her
customary generosity and competence, reading part of the manuscript.
With Philippe Canguilhem I have shared archival research and had con-
versations about many of the themes of this book. Among the many other
scholars to whom I owe a debt of gratitude I want to mention Konrad
Eisenbichler, Lorenzo Polizzotto, Piero Scapecchi, and Donald Weinstein,
who for years have followed my research with sensitivity and intelligence
and with whom I have discussed it many times, even at long range. A spe-
cial thanks to Monica Azzolini, precious fountain of inspiration, advice,
and keen observations; her support has helped to make this book better. I
owe her more than I can express in these lines.
I am grateful to the Deputazione di Storia Patria per la Toscana for
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Acknowledgments ix
publishing the Italian edition of this work in the series “Biblioteca Storica
Toscana,” and especially to its president, Giuliano Pinto, who person-
ally undertook to make it possible, as well as to Riccardo Fubini and Rita
Mazzei, who had the patience to read the text for the Deputazione. Publica-
tion of the book has been made possible by funding from the Ente Cassa di
Risparmio di Firenze and the Medici Archive Project. The latter’s contri-
bution was due to the generosity of Connie Milstein and the active interest
of Joanna Milstein and Martha McGeary Snider, of the board of trustees of
the Medici Archive Project. To all three, a deeply felt thank-you.
Lastly, I wish to thank the personnel of the archives and librar-
ies where I have worked, fi rst among them the personnel of the Archivio
di Stato di Firenze, who have kindly helped me through this entire time,
making themselves available to meet all my needs with a generosity and
courtesy that went beyond simple duty. I am unable to close without citing
my brother Paolo, my sister Irene, and, above all, my parents, Giorgio and
Laura, who have always supported and encouraged me, creating the moral
and material conditions that made it possible for me to pursue my scholar-
ship and undertake this project.
florence, July 2010
Post scriptum
My thankfulness to all those who contributed to the Italian edition
remains unchanged. Additionally, I would like to express a deep sense of
gratitude to my friend and mentor Donald Weinstein for being kind enough
to translate my book from Italian into English. I am enormously thankful to
him for believing in this project from the very beginning and for bringing it
to fruition. Without him this edition would not have come to light.
My last words of gratitude go to the anonymous readers, the editorial
staff at Yale University Press—Laura Davulis, Ash Lago, Mary Pasti, and Eva
Skewes—the copy editor, Eliza Childs, and Lucinda Byatt. Their help, sup-
port, and advice at different stages of the production of this volume have been
invaluable.
edinburgh, February 2015
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