Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli

Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli (15 January 1420 – 29 December 1479) was an Italian merchant and one of the instigators of the Pazzi conspiracy, a plot to remove the Medici family from power in Florence.[1]

Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli
Hanging of Bernardo Baroncelli in Florence by Leonardo da Vinci
Born
Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli

15 January 1420
Florence, Republic of Florence
Died29 December 1479(1479-12-29) (aged 59)
Florence, Republic of Florence
Cause of deathHanging
OccupationMerchant
Details
VictimsGiuliano de' Medici
Date26 April 1478
CountryItaly
Location(s)Duomo of Florence
Target(s)Medici
KilledGiuliano de' Medici
InjuredLorenzo de' Medici
WeaponsKnife

On Easter Sunday, 26 April 1478, there was an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano inside the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral during High Mass.[2] Giuliano was stabbed to death by Baroncelli and Franceso de' Pazzi, but Lorenzo was only wounded by the other conspirators and managed to escape.[3] After the failure of the plot, Baroncelli fled Italy, but was eventually found and arrested in Constantinople.[4] Antonio Medici was sent to bring him from Constantinople back to Florence, where Baroncelli was ultimately hanged on 29 December 1479 at the Palazzo del Bargello.[5]

Baroncelli's excution was depicted in a macabre sketch drawn by Leonardo da Vinci while he was in Florence in 1479.[6] 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.

Baroncelli appears as a tenor in Leoncavallo's 1893 opera I Medici[7][8] He also appears as a minor antagonist in the 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II, in which he is depicted as a member of the Templar Order, who within the game's storyline are responsible for the Pazzi conspiracy. Rather than fleeing Italy after the failure of the plot, Baroncelli attempts to hide in San Gimignano, where he is eventually found and assassinated by Ezio Auditore.[9]

References
  1. Pampaloni, Guido (1963). "Bandini dei Baroncelli, Bernardo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 5: Bacca–Baratta (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
  2. Smedley, Edward; James, Hugh James; Rose, Henry John (1845). Encyclopaedia Metropolitana; Or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge on an Original Plan Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings. B. Fellowes. p. 272.
  3. Koestler-Grack, Rachel A. (1974). Joseph, Michael (ed.). Leonardo Da Vinci: Artist, Inventor, and Renaissance Man. Infobase Publishing. p. 152. ISBN 978-0791086261.
  4. Babinger, Franz (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691010781.
  5. Morelli, Giovanni di Jacopo; Morelli, Lionardo di Lorenzo; di San Luigi, Idelfonso (1785). Croniche. Firenze: Gaetano Cambiagi. p. 195.
  6. Popham, A. E. (1946). The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. p. 184.
  7. Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."I Medici, 9 November 1893". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
  8. Farr, Robert J. (August 2010). "Review – Leoncavallo – I Medici". MusicWeb International. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  9. Segers, Andre (3 February 2012). "Assassin's Creed II Walkthrough". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 10 May 2018.


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