Medici, Lorenzino de'

Medici, Lorenzino de' (lōrāntsē'nō dā me'dichē, Ital. mā'dēchē) [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 © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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