One of the Medici was Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy.

Lorenzo was a great patron of art, commissioning works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Botticelli. Lorenzo himself was an accomplished poet and musician, bringing composers and singers to Florence, including Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin, and Heinrich Isaac. By contemporary Florentines, and ever since he was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Lorenzo il Magnifico).