Medici, Lorenzo de', detto Lorenzino - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, p. 356

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

MEDICI, LORENZO de', known as LORENZINO. — B. in Firenze on 23 March 1514, d. in Venezia on 26 Feb. 1548. He was the tyrannicide, the killer of his cousin Alessandro (night of 5–6 Jan. 1537), whose companion in vice and go-between in love he had been, perhaps out of calculation. A fugitive in Bologna and, after the defeat of Montemurlo, in Turkey and France, he finally came to Venezia, where he was reached by the assassins of Cosimo I. The Rime are cold and artificial, but the comedy Aridosia is well constructed (although derived from Plauto and Terenzio), with vividly drawn characters and incisive action. Vigorous and thoughtful is the Apologia, in which he defends his conduct with examples from antiquity: prose full of sinew, among the most celebrated in our literature.

BIBL.: Above all, the Apologia enjoyed very wide circulation in manuscripts and printed editions. Among the modern eds.: Opera, edited by C. Teoli (pseudonym of E. Camerini), Milano 1862; Aridosia e Apologia, edited by F. Ravello, Torino 1917; etc. For the figure of Lorenzino, in addition to general and specialized historical studies, the following should be consulted: L. A. Ferrai, L. de' M. e la società cortigiana del Cinquecento, Milano 1891; E. Rho, Lorenzino il tirannicida, Rosenza romanticismo, in Mazzucconi, Lorenzaccio (Italiano Marchetti

vigo 1928; R. Palmarocchi, L. de' M. La cultura, 12 (1933), p. 300 ff.; R. Mazzucconi, Lorenzaccio (L. de' M.), Milano 1937.