Medici, Lorenzino de'

Medici, Lorenzino de' dā mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], 1515–47, member of the cadet branch of the Medici family. A boon companion of Alessandro de' Medici, he secretly plotted the duke's murder—possibly out of republican convictions. With a hired assassin, he stabbed Alessandro to death (1537) and fled to Venice, where he was eventually assassinated on the orders of Cosimo I de' Medici, the successor to Alessandro. He is the hero of Alfred de Musset's drama, Lorenzaccio (1833).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Italian History: Biographies