Apology for a Murder

by Lorenzino de'Medici, Lorenzino de'Medici, Tim Parks (Foreword)

In 1537, Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence, was brutally stabbed by his cousin Lorenzino. Here, for the first time in English, we can examine the murderer’s own defense of his actions in this jewel of Renaissance rhetoric. In this compelling diatribe, Lorenzino de’ Medici presents himself as worthy of comparison with some of the greatest heroes of classical Greece and Rome, purely motivated by love of liberty. His account, however, is generally assumed to be false, and Lorenzino’s reputation is that of a brutal, amoral thug, the antihero of Alfred de Musset’s drama Lorenzaccio . When the Medici regime was reinstated the same year as Alessandro’s murder, Lorenzino’s own assassination was ordered; here, dramatically paired with the Apology, is the fascinating account of Francesco Bibbone, Lorenzino’s own murderer. Florentine nobleman and dramatist Lorenzino de’ Medici is one of the most notorious figures of Renaissance Italy.

Genres: Classics, Nonfiction, History

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[Sonam Sherpa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of the apology by Lorenzino De Medici was an absolute thriller, really enjoyed it. But, the latter is an absolute waste of time.

[Otto Hahaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A footnote in history, expanded! Lorenzino killed his distant cousin, the tyrant of Florence, and then got later killed himself, for obvious reasons. Here we have Lorenzino explaining why he did what he did (confusing!), and then a hired hit man tells how he killed Lorenzo (not so easy!) in Venice. The hit man story is more entertaining and I really should go through it with the map of Venice and see what happened where.

Some nit-picking: The picture in the back cover is not a picture of Lorenzino ("the little Lorenzo"), but the picture of another earlier Lorenzo (that is why Lorenzino is called Lorenzino, so we would not mix them!). Even I know this and I have just read some travel guides of Florenze...

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a bit of a Medieval Italy fanatic I enjoyed this immensely. It might be as well to call it: "I'm from the powerful Medici family and will do as I please". It took around an hour and a half to read, and is rather different from the average primary source book. Any lawyer should also enjoy it and might even get some pointers on how to justify murder from it. Not that I do that.