Book contents
- Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
- Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Early Years
- 1 Piero’s Childhood
- 2 Family Backgrounds
- 3 Education under Poliziano’s Tutelage
- 4 Political Tyro at Home and Abroad, 1484–1486
- 5 Marrying into the Roman Aristocracy, 1487–1488
- 6 The Choice of Hercules
- 7 Piero as Lorenzo’s Deputy in 1490
- Part II Between Republicanism and Princely Rule
- Part III Piero in Power
- Part IV Piero in Exile
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - The Choice of Hercules
Between Duty and Pleasure, 1488–1489
from Part I - The Early Years
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2019
- Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
- Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Early Years
- 1 Piero’s Childhood
- 2 Family Backgrounds
- 3 Education under Poliziano’s Tutelage
- 4 Political Tyro at Home and Abroad, 1484–1486
- 5 Marrying into the Roman Aristocracy, 1487–1488
- 6 The Choice of Hercules
- 7 Piero as Lorenzo’s Deputy in 1490
- Part II Between Republicanism and Princely Rule
- Part III Piero in Power
- Part IV Piero in Exile
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The year that followed Piero’s and Maddalena’s high-ranking marriages in 1488 saw Piero faced with a choice between two different ways of life. On one hand, he had to play his part in the civic life of Florence and learn the political role that he would inherit from Lorenzo. On the other, he had been seduced by his reception in Rome and by the courtly pleasures he had experienced there with Franceschetto and his curial friends. Its impact on him became clear when, at the end of that year, he demanded two of Franceschetto’s men to accompany him to Milan for Gian Galeazzo Sforza’s wedding, ‘because here it’s impossible to find men who are their equal’.1 Like Hercules approaching the crossroads as a young man (according to the well-known tale told by Prodicus), he seemed to be faced by a choice between a rocky uphill path and an easy downhill one.2
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020