“My name is Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Italian: [loˈrɛntso de ˈmɛːditʃi]). I’m known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Italian: Lorenzo il Magnifico; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) I was an Italian statesman, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and I’m the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. I held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and my life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, I’m best known for my sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. On the foreign policy front, I manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, I was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which my brother Giuliano was assassinated. The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that I supported among the various Italian states collapsed with my death. I’m buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.”