Lorenzo Il Magnifico died today in 1492


  • On the 9th April 1492 Lorenzo The Magnificent died aged 43.
    He was a Medici, born in Florence when it was fast becoming the Renaissance City. He ruled Florence for 23 years, doing a fine job of diplomacy balancing the differences of the various Italian states and France .He never needed or particularly wanted to personally draw his sword in anger despite attempts on his life. The most famous was the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478 that saw his brother murdered in the Cathedral, but he escaped with his life. The punishment for the conspirators was to be hanged alive from the Palazzo Vecchio(in the film Hannibal II) by their testicals.
    His father and grandfather had made vast amounts of money in banking and had tried to atone by commissioning paintings and sculptures of religious events. Lorenzo was not as wealthy as them, but still patronised artists, including Botticelli, Andrea Del Sarto, Lippi and Verrocchio. He met and helped Leonardo when he was 12 and Michelangelo lived in his house for 4 years.  Lorenzo himself was a poet and philosopher.


  • @wittmann:

    The punishment for the conspirators was to be hanged alive from the Palazzo Vecchio(in the film Hannibal II) by their testicals.

    Back in those days, it seems that one of the skills associated with being a ruler was the talent for coming up with imaginative and spectacular methods of punishing or executing your enemies.  Roald Dahl made a comment along those lines in the mid-60s when he was preparing to write the screenplay for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.  He said the producers of the series explained to him the “formula” he had to apply, one element of which was that the generic “Girl #1” character gets killed one-third of the way into the film, “preferably in an original way.”  Dahl commented, “There aren’t many of those left.”  The producers answered, “You’ll think of something.”


  • Moning and thank you tor reading.
    I thought today’s story needed some sensationalising or it might be a bit mundane or run of the mill.
    Thank you for pointing out my only(I hope) spelling mistake too.
    Do not know why I did not write: balls!


  • By the testicles?  I cannot imagine a worse death…


  • I wonder if you are hanging there thinking: I hope they do not snap. Or are you thinking I hope they do and I tumble 100ft to my death?
    How can you not be on the point of passing out?

    In San Gimignano(near Siena, Tuscany) they have a Torture Museum.
    I love it. One of the first instruments you view is an anal pear.
    I believe it was used on sodomites.
    Of course the Rack was much used here and that was a hell of an instrument.

    I suppose if you ste commiting treason, the lesson is: do not get captured alive!

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