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[08 Feb 2008|08:58pm] |
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on april 26, 1478, during high mass at the duomo, giuliano de' medici was stabbed 19 times by a gang that included a priest, and bled to death on the cathedral floor. his brother lorenzo escaped with serious, but non life-threatening wounds. he appeared shortly after, locked safely in the sacristy by the humanist poliziano. a coordinated attempt to capture the gonfaloniere and signoria was thwarted when the archbishop and the head of the salviati clan were trapped in a room whose doors had a hidden latch. The coup d'état failed, and the enraged florentines seized and killed the conspirators. jacopo de' pazzi was tossed from a window, finished off by the mob, and dragged naked through the streets and thrown into the arno river. the pazzi family were stripped of their possessions in florence, every vestige of their name effaced. salviati was hanged on the walls of the palazzo della signoria. although lorenzo appealed to the crowd not to exact summary justice, many of the conspirators, as well as many people accused of being conspirators, were killed. lorenzo did manage to save the nephew of sixtus iv, cardinal raffaele riario, who was almost certainly an innocent dupe of the conspirators, as well as two relatives of the conspirators. the main conspirators were hunted down all over italy; a wider retribution by lorenzo, including hundreds of killings, is a myth.
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