Medici Lorenzo de’, also called il Magnifico, Lorenzo the Magnificent, *11 January 1449 Florence, †8 April 1492 Careggi (near Florence), magnate, politician, patron of the arts and literature, poet and singer, son of Piero. He was friends with members of the Florentine Academy — M. Ficino, G. Pico della Mirandola, and A. Poliziano. Among those in the service of Lorenzo de’ Medici were A. Agricola, J. Ghislesin and, for a long time, H. Isaac, who composed the music for Lorenzo’s sacred drama San Giovanni e Paolo and, also to his text, a cycle of carnival songs (now lost) and music for a lament on the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Quis dabit capiti meo aquam (words by A. Poliziano). Contemporary musicians composed frottole, canzoni, and canti carnascialeschi to the poetic texts of Lorenzo de’ Medici.
Literature: L. Parigi Laurentiana. Lorenzo dei Medici cultore della musica, Florence 1954; W.H. Rubsamen The Music for Quant’è bella giovinezza and other Carnival Songs by Lorenzo de’ Medici, in: Art, Science, and History in the Renaissance, ed. C. Singleton, Baltimore 1968; H.W. Kaufmann Music for a Noble Florentine Wedding (1539), in: Words and Music, commemorative book of A.T. Merritta, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 1972.
***
The Medici, House of Medici, an Italian merchant and banking family, from the 16th century a ducal house, initially ruling Florence and later the whole of Tuscany. Under their rule in the 15th century, Florence became the cultural capital of Italy and the birthplace of the Renaissance. The Medici’s patronage played a major role in the development of architecture, sculpture, painting and music, extending throughout Tuscany. There were three lines of the family, two of them — the line descended from Cosimo (1389–1464) and the line of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany beginning with Cosimo’s brother Lorenzo (1395–1440) — played the most important role in the history of Italy.
Literature: A. Solerti Musica, ballo e drammatica alla corte medicea dal 1600 al 1637, Florence 1905, reprint Bologna 1969; G.F. Young The Medici, London 1909, reprint 1930; B. Becherini Relazioni di musici fiamminghi con la corte dei Medici. Nuovi documenti, “La rinascita” IV, 1941; F. Schevill The Medici, New York 1949, reprint 1960; F.A. D’Accone The Singers of San Giovanni in Florence during the 15th Century, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XIV, 1961; M. Fabbri Alessandro Scarlatti e il Principe Ferdinando dei Medici, Florence 1961; A.M. Nagler Theatre Festivals of the M. 1539–1637, New Haven (Connecticut), 1964, reprint 1976; Feste e apparati medicei da Cosimo I a Cosimo II, ed. G. Bartelà, A. Tofani, Florence 1969; F.A. D’Accone The Musical Chapels at the Florentine Cathedral and Baptistry during the First Half of the 16th Century, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXIV, 1971; H.M. Brown Psyche’s Lament. Some Music for the Medici Wedding in 1565, in: Words and Music, commemorative book of A.T. Merritta, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 1972; F. Hammond Musicians at the Medici Court in the Mid-Seventeenth Century and Musical Instruments at the Medici Court in the MidSeventeenth Century, «Analecta Musicologica» XIV, XV, 1974, 1975.
