The Assassination Attempt During High Mass

On 26 April 1478, on a Sunday during High Mass at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, in front of ten thousand people, Francesco Pazzi and Bernardo Baroncelli drove their knives into Giuliano de’ Medici nineteen times and left him bleeding to death on the cathedral floor, while two priests attacked his brother Lorenzo at the altar, and Lorenzo vaulted the chancel rail and locked himself in the sacristy, and outside in the piazza the Pazzi family called for the people of Florence to rise and they refused, and what followed lasted for weeks — the Pazzi conspirators were hunted through the streets and hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria, some already dead, some still alive, and Francesco Pazzi himself was dragged from his sickbed and hanged naked from the window, and Lorenzo had the bodies left to hang until they rotted, and Leonardo da Vinci sketched one of the hanged men from the window as he swung.

Interesting Fact: The conspiracy had the blessing of Pope Sixtus IV, who wanted the Medici removed from Florence. He did not sanction murder — he had simply made clear that he would welcome a change of government and left the method to others. After the plot failed, Lorenzo published the Pope’s letters. Sixtus excommunicated Lorenzo in retaliation and placed all of Florence under interdict — meaning no Florentine could receive the sacraments or be buried in consecrated ground. Florence ignored it. The Pazzi family name was erased from public record — their coats of arms were chiselled off buildings, their name was banned from being spoken, and any Florentine who married a Pazzi woman was barred from public office. Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of the hanged Bernardo Baroncelli still exists. It shows a man in a brown cap, dangling. Leonardo noted the colours of his clothing beside the drawing.

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