Paolo Antonio Soderini (1448 — after 1500) was a noble Florentine jurist active in the anti-Medicean

Florentine republic The Republic of Florence (; Old Italian: ), known officially as the Florentine Republic, was a Italy in the Middle Ages, medieval and Italian Renaissance, early modern state that was centered on the Italian city-states, Italian city of Florence ...

, who spent some years resident at

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. He was the older brother of the statesman

Piero Soderini Piero di Tommaso Soderini (March 17, 1451 – June 13, 1522), also known as Pier Soderini, was an Italian statesman of the Republic of Florence. Biography Soderini was born in Florence to Tommaso di Lorenzo Soderini, a member of an old family ...

, who was exiled at the return of the Medici in 1512; a third brother was Cardinal

Francesco Soderini Francesco di Tommaso Soderini (10 June 1453 – 17 May 1524) was a major diplomatic and Church figure of Renaissance Italy, and brother of Piero Soderini. He was an adversary of the Medici family. Biography On 27 Mar 1486, he was ordained a prie ...

, bishop of Volterra. Like Piero he had been a pupil of

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neo ...

at his informal "academy", patronized by the

Medici 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 ...

, but when

Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici (15 February 1472 – 28 December 1503), called Piero the Fatuous or Piero the Unfortunate, was the lord of Florence from 1492 until his exile in 1494. Early life Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici was the eldest son of Lor ...

fled from Florence in 1494, he declared at once in favour of the revived Florentine republic and served as Florentine Ambassador to Venice.

Philippe de Commines Philippe de Commines (or de Commynes or "Philippe de Comines"; Latin: ''Philippus Cominaeus''; 1447 – 18 October 1511) was a writer and diplomat in the courts of Burgundy and France. He has been called "the first truly modern writer" (Charles ...

, unsympathetic to his policy, declared him, nevertheless, "one of the wisest statesmen in all Italy". On his return he was elected

gonfaloniere The Gonfalonier (Italian: ''Gonfaloniere'') was the holder of a highly prestigious communal office in medieval and Renaissance Italy, notably in Florence and the Papal States. The name derives from '' gonfalone'' (English: "gonfalon"), the term ...

of justice in 1497. The institution of a Grand Council in republican Florence, on the Venetian model, was largely on his initiative. As republican supporters of

Savonarola Savonarola is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), Italian Dominican friar and reformer * Michele Savonarola (1385–), Italian physician, humanist and historian {{Surname, 2=Italian-la ...

and the populist party, he shared his brother's exile when the radical friar was arrested. In Rome he established himself in a house and garden close to

Castel Sant'Angelo Castel Sant'Angelo ( ), also known as Mausoleum of Hadrian (), is a towering rotunda (cylindrical building) in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. ...

, where he undertook some informal excavations and assembled a notable collection of antiquities, including Roman sculpture (including the ''

Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus ''The Pasquino Group'' (also known as ''Menelaus Carrying the Body of Patroclus'' or ''Ajax Carrying the Body of Achilles'') is a group of marble sculptures that copy a Hellenistic bronze original, dating to ca. 200–150 BCE. At least fifteen Ro ...

'' that passed from his heir to the Medici and can be seen today in

Loggia dei Lanzi file:Firenze, loggia dei lanzi (2020) 01.jpg, 300px, The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on the south corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi, Uffizi Gallery (leading t ...

, Florence) and inscriptions.Anna Maria Riccomini, ''La ruina di sı̀ bela cosa: vicende e trasformazioni del mausoleo di Augusto'', 1996, pp 82-84, 96.

Notes

1448 births 16th-century deaths 15th-century people from the Republic of Florence Italian Renaissance humanists Ambassadors to the Republic of Venice Ambassadors of the Republic of Florence {{Italy-diplomat-stub