Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli (15 January 1420 – 29 December 1479) was a Florentine

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

and a protagonist in the

Pazzi conspiracy The Pazzi conspiracy () was a failed plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence. On 26 April 1478 there was an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother ...

, a plot to remove the

Medici family The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

from power in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Life

Bandini dei Baroncelli was born in Florence on 15 January 1420, the son of Lagia di Gaspare Bonciani and Giovanni di Piero Bandini dei Baroncelli. His father died when he was young – certainly before 1427 – and he was brought up by his mother and his elder brother Giovanni. He became a

. He married Giovanna di Goffredo de Biros, with whom he had a daughter, Beatrice.

The Pazzi Conspiracy

He is remembered principally for his participation in the

Pazzi Conspiracy The Pazzi conspiracy () was a failed plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence. On 26 April 1478 there was an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother ...

, a plot by the

Pazzi The Pazzi were a powerful family in the Republic of Florence. Their main trade during the fifteenth century was banking. In the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, members of the family were banished from Florence and their property was ...

and Salviati families to assassinate

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lore ...

and his younger brother Giuliano. The attempt took place during High Mass in the

Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. The Duomo of Monza, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definitio ...

of Florence on

Easter Sunday Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek language, Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, de ...

, 26 April 1478. Giuliano was stabbed to death by Baroncelli and Franceso de' Pazzi, but Lorenzo was only wounded by the other conspirators and managed to escape; Baroncelli also killed a Medici retainer, Francesco Nori. After the failure of the plot, Baroncelli fled Italy, but was eventually found and arrested in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. Antonio Medici was sent to bring him from Constantinople back to Florence, where Baroncelli still wearing his Turkish robes, was ultimately hanged on 29 December 1479 at the Palazzo del Bargello. Baroncelli's execution was depicted in a macabre sketch drawn by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

while he was in Florence in 1479. With dispassionate integrity, Leonardo had registered the colours of the robes that Baroncelli was wearing at the time of his death in neat

mirror writing Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when reflected in a mirror. It is sometimes used as ...

In culture

Baroncelli appears as a

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

in the opera '' I Medici'' by

Ruggero Leoncavallo Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo (23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera ''Pagliacci'' that remained his lasting co ...

(1893).

References

External links

* 1420 births 1479 deaths Merchants Italian people convicted of murder People executed by Florence People executed by hanging {{Italy-crime-bio-stub