Florence. From 1470, but even before that date, Lorenzo the Magnificent, a member of the Medici family, was one of the most active protagonists of the magnificence of the Italian Renaissance. Men of letters and artists found in him an intelligent and receptive patron, so much so that he earned the title of “Magnificent” and “the tipping point.” Among the humanists who frequented his court were Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, Luigi Pulci, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. A man of letters himself, he enriched the family library, sending scholars who frequented his court to research precious manuscripts, both in Italy and abroad. He placed his collection of ancient statues in the Garden of San Marco, which he owned, and there founded an exclusive school for young artists, recognized as the first art academy in Europe, where, among others, a very young Michelangelo studied. A member, from 1470, of the commission charged with renovating the artistic layout of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Operai del Palagio, Lorenzo had direct contact with the greatest painters of the time: Antonio Pollaiolo, Filippino Lippi, and Sandro Botticelli worked for him, as did the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio and the architect Giuliano da Sangallo. Some sheets of the Leonardo manuscripts also show studies for military and engineering consultancy, likely commissioned by Lorenzo.
