“Un altro Lorenzo”: Ippolito de’ Medici tra Firenze e Roma (1511–1535) by Guido Rebecchini (review)

REVIEWS 279 best example of critical strength in literary studies. ROSSELLA PESCATORI, Italian, El Camino College Guido Rebecchini, “Un altro Lorenzo”: Ippolito de’ Medici tra Firenze e Roma (1511–1535) (Venice: Marsilio Editori 2010) 352 pp. Guido Rebecchini’s compelling study provides new insight on the life and collections of Ippolito de’Medici. Despite dying at twenty-four, Ippolito was a cardinal, soldier, and patron of the arts. A member of the senior branch of the Medici family, Ippolito was the grandson of the famous Florentine patron Lorenzo the Magnificent, and nephew of Popes Leo X and Clement VII. He lived during a period of exceptional political volatility that experienced both the Sack of Rome (1527) and the Siege of Florence (1529–1530). In the context of this instability, he became adept at developing contacts to advance his political aspirations. Ultimately, however, it seems these aspirations led to Ippolito’s early demise. Rebecchini, an experienced archivist, who has previously published on private collectors in Mantua, provides extensive documentation for Ippolito’s political endeavors and patronage and thoroughly illuminates Ippolito’s short but significant life. The text is divided into two main parts, and also includes six appendices of document transcriptions discussed in the text, a bibliography, and an index of names. The first part of the text provides a detailed biography of Ippolito. This portion of the text sheds light on Ippolito’s experiences in Florence and Rome, his travels, the members of his circle, and the implications of his family legacy. The second portion of the text examines how Ippolito constructed his public identity at his sumptuous court. Through this division of the text, the reader gains a full picture of Ippolito’s social and political history before approaching the ways in which Ippolito fashioned his identity at court. Comprised of five chapters, the first part begins with the murky circumstances of Ippolito’s birth to Giuliano di Lorenzo de’Medici and Pacifica Brandani in Urbino, his upbringing in the court Pope Leo X, his official entry into Florence in 1524, and his education under Pierio Valeriano. Following Ippolito’s arrival, the extent of his power in the Florentine government is uncertain , but in 1526, when Ippolito was only sixteen, Ercole Gonzaga expressed in a letter that Ippolito possessed the traits to become another Lorenzo the Magnificent. It is this striking quotation that inspired the title of the book. Ippolito’s involvement with the Florentine government was short-lived, and he was made a cardinal by Clement VII in 1529. Rebecchini clarifies that this appointment was not simply a plot by Clement to allow Ippolito’s cousin, Alessandro de’Medici, to become the sole ruler of Florence, as historians have often concluded, but, in fact, the documents show that Clement may have actually preferred Ippolito to his cousin. Connections between Ippolito and Julius Caesar were cultivated around the time he became cardinal and included the development of an emblem of a comet. By 1532, Ippolito political power increased through his appointments as vice chancellor of the Apostolic Camera and papal legate to Hungary. With the election of Pope Paul III, Rebecchini examines a period of increased plotting that appears to have led to Ippolito’s downfall. While Ippolito was in Itri, on his way to Africa to plead his case against Alessandro to Charles V, his soup was poisoned and he died. The final REVIEWS 280 chapter of the first part of the text examines the interrogations and accusations that followed the death, his elaborate funeral, and finally, the dispersal of the members and belongings of his court. With the discussion of Ippolito’s court and his collections at the conclusion of the first part, there is a logical transition to the second part of the text, which considers his court in more detail. The second part is organized thematically, unlike the first part in which information is presented chronologically. The first chapter examines Ippolito’s dress and his abilities to use clothing to alter his persona. Rebecchini discusses the 1532 portrait in which Titian portrayed Ippolito in a decidedly secular fashion with maroon velvet doublet, tight belt and exotic cap. From contemporary descriptions, the author demonstrates that Ippolito...