The much-feared event of Lorenzo’s death happened on 8 April 1492, heralded ominously by a bolt of lightning striking the cupola of the Duomo in the direction of the Medici palace.1 Piero’s years of apprenticeship were over and everyone awaited his response to the challenges ahead. ‘Who would Piero side with’, Parenti wondered, ‘and how would he be treated, as the boss, the equal or the inferior of the others?’2 Uncertainty about Piero’s reaction to the new, upside-down world that confronted him was widely shared, not least by Lorenzo’s secretary, ser Niccolò Michelozzi, who found himself isolated in Naples as his patron lay dying, consoled only by the letters he received from Florence.