Editing Lorenzo de' Medici (section)

==Later years, death, and legacy==
[[File:Lorenzo el Magnífico, por Giorgio Vasari.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A posthumous portrait of Lorenzo by [[Giorgio Vasari]] (16th century)]]

During Lorenzo's tenure, several branches of the family bank collapsed because of bad loans, and in later years he got into financial difficulties and resorted to misappropriating trust and state funds.

Toward the end of Lorenzo's life, Florence came under the influence of [[Girolamo Savonarola]], who believed Christians had strayed too far into Greco-Roman culture. Lorenzo played a role in bringing Savonarola to Florence.<ref>Donald Weinstein, ''Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet'' (New Haven, 2011) Chap. 5: The Magnificent Lorenzo</ref>

Lorenzo died during the late night of 8 April 1492, at the longtime family [[villa]] of [[Careggi]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-XC6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA474 |title=Cuvier's History of the Natural Sciences: Nineteen lessons from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries |first=Georges |last=Cuvier |publisher=Publications scientifiques du Muséum |date=24 October 2019 |page=474 |isbn=9782856538739}}</ref> Savonarola visited Lorenzo on his deathbed. The rumour that Savonarola damned Lorenzo on his deathbed has been refuted in [[Roberto Ridolfi]]'s book ''Vita di Girolamo Savonarola''. Letters written by witnesses to Lorenzo's death report that he died peacefully after listening to the [[Gospel]] of the day.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jDfydG6ReAC&pg=PA347 |title=The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300–1500: A Biographical Dictionary |first=Clayton J. |last=Drees |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2001 |page=347 |isbn=9780313305887}}</ref> Many signs and portents were claimed to have taken place at the moment of his death, including the dome of [[Florence Cathedral]] being struck by lightning, ghosts appearing, and the lions kept at Via Leone fighting one another.<ref>Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 268.</ref>

[[File:Medici - Rappresentazione dei santi Giovanni e Paolo, circa 1485 - 2411117 Scan00017.tif|thumb|upright|''Sacra rappresentazione dei santi Giovanni e Paolo'' ("Holy representation of the Saints John and Paul"), a work by Lorenzo in the later years]]

The Signoria and councils of Florence issued a decree:

{{Blockquote|Whereas the foremost man of all this city, the lately deceased Lorenzo de' Medici, did, during his whole life, neglect no opportunity of protecting, increasing, adorning and raising this city, but was always ready with counsel, authority and painstaking, in thought and deed; shrank from neither trouble nor danger for the good of the state and its freedom.... it has seemed good to the Senate and people of Florence.... to establish a public testimonial of gratitude to the memory of such a man, in order that virtue might not be unhonoured among Florentines, and that, in days to come, other citizens may be incited to serve the commonwealth with might and wisdom.<ref>Williamson, pp. 268–9</ref>}}

Lorenzo was buried with his brother Giuliano in the [[Basilica di San Lorenzo (Florence)|Basilica di San Lorenzo]] in the red [[porphyry (geology)|porphyry]] [[sarcophagus]] designed for Piero and Giovanni de' Medici, not, as might be expected, in the [[Sagrestia Nuova|New Sacristy]], designed by Michelangelo. The latter holds the two monumental tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano's less known namesakes: [[Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino|Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino]], and [[Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours|Giuliano, Duke of Nemours]].<ref name=HRW270>Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 270-80</ref> According to Williamson and others, the statues of the lesser Lorenzo and Giuliano were carved by Michelangelo to incorporate the essence of the famous men. In 1559, the bodies of Lorenzo de' Medici ("the Magnificent") and his brother Giuliano were interred in the New Sacristy in an unmarked tomb beneath Michelangelo's statue of the Madonna.<ref name=HRW270/>

Medical researchers have suggested that Lorenzo may have suffered from [[acromegaly]], a rare disorder that results from excessive secretion of growth hormone, based on interpretation of his reported symptoms, and later analysis of his skeleton and death mask.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31339-9 | title=Acromegaly in Lorenzo the Magnificent, father of the Renaissance | year=2017 | last1=Lippi | first1=Donatella | last2=Charlier | first2=Philippe | last3=Romagnani | first3=Paola | journal=The Lancet | volume=389 | issue=10084 | page=2104 | pmid=28561004 | s2cid=38097951 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

Lorenzo's heir was his eldest son, [[Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici]], known as "Piero the Unfortunate". In 1494, he squandered his father's patrimony and brought down the Medici dynasty in Florence. His second son, Giovanni, who became [[Pope Leo X]], retook the city in 1512 with the aid of a Spanish army.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=gjg|title=History of the Medici|website=History World}}</ref> In 1531, Lorenzo's nephew Giulio di Giuliano – whom Lorenzo had raised as his own son and who in 1523 became [[Pope Clement VII]] – formalized Medici rule of Florence by installing [[Alessandro de' Medici]] the city's first hereditary duke.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/people-global-african-history/de-medici-alessandro-1510-1537/|title=Alessandro de' Medici (1510–1537) {{*}} BlackPast|date=9 December 2007}}</ref>