Nomos 5

Italy. Lorenzino de’ Medici. 1514-1548. Medal (Bronze, 36mm, 26.40 g 6), on the murder of Alessandro de’ Medici on 6 January 1537. Uncertain Tuscan artist: it has been variously attributed to Cavino, Belli and de’Vetri, after 1537. LAVRENTIVS MEDICES Bare-headed and draped bust of Lorenzino to right, in antique style. Rev. VIII.ID.IAN (=The 8th of the Ides of January) Cap of Liberty between two daggers. Attwood 891. Börner 897. A later but very fine cast. Attractively toned. Very fine.

Ex Künker 141, 19 January 2008, 4401.

Lorenzino de’ Medici came from a branch of the Medici family that remained primarily bankers. He grew up with the first duke of Florence, Alessandro de’Medici as well as with Cosimo I. As part of a bizarre plot, Alessandro was enticed into a supposed rendezvous with Lorenzino’s beautiful sister Laudomia, and was there murdered. Lorenzino, who held Brutus as his model, had hoped the city would become a republic again but that never occurred and he was forced to flee. After over ten years of exile Cosimo I’s assassins caught up with him in Venice and killed him in 1548. This medal is directly modeled on the famous Eid. Mar denarius of Brutus, which was struck to honor the murder of Caesar.