A chonological list of events from around 1450 to 1525! (unfinished)
1460- Girolamo Machiavelli dies in the Lunigiana mountains at age 45 after being arrested and subjected to torture there for attempting to work against the Medici. He was a distant uncle of the more well known Niccolò Machiavelli.
1463- Agnolo Acciaiuoli and Dietisalvi Neroni, Medici agents, turned against Cosimo and his son Piero de' Medici.
August 1, 1464- Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (father of Piero de' Medici and grandfather of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici), leaving his son Piero in charge.
1464 Francesco Salviati moves to Rome, aligning himself with the future Pope Sixtus IV and his nephews.
December 2, 1469- Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (father of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici) dies. This leaves Lorenzo in charge at age 20.
August 25, 1471- Francesco della Rovere is elected pope, is now known as Pope Sixtus IV. He appoints his nephews to cardinal and bishop positions.
1472- A comet is sighted, Lorenzo asks Sixtus IV to nominate his brother Giuliano cardinal
1472- Federico de Montefeltro is hired by Florence as a mercenary for a campaign against Volterra. He is successful and is welcomed into the city of Florence in triumph, and receives full citizenship.
May 1473- Another one of Sixtus’s nephews (or possibly his son), Girolamo Riario, arranges to buy a town called Imola. Lorenzo had previously aimed to buy it, but the person in charge of it sold it to Sixtus instead. The transaction would have been financed by the Medici bank, but Lorenzo refused, causing a rift between the Medici and Pope Sextus. Much of the money was borrowed from the Pazzi bank instead.
July 1473- Lorenzo arranges for his brother-in-law Rinaldo Orsini to the Archbishopric of Florence, instead of Francesco Salviati, part of the Pazzi family, furthering the rift between the Medici and the Pazzi family (and Pope Sixtus)
1474- Federico da Montefeltro is given the title of Duke of Urbino by Pope Sixtus, Francesco Salviati is given the archbishopric of Pisa (Lorenzo opposes this appointment, furthering dissension between him and Sixtus).
1474- Pope Sixtus suspects Lorenzo de’ Medici of preventing him from taking Città di Castello - a town within papal territory ruled by Niccolò Vitelli, who had frequently opposed the pope. The town was later siegeds by Giuliano della Rovere (Sixtus’s nephew) and Federico da Montefeltro.
December 30, 1474- Lorenzo asks Federico de Montefeltro to borrow a horse for the joust, but Montefeltro had already lent it to a member of the Pazzi family.
1475- The Vatican Library is inaugurated and the Sistine bridge is built by Pope Sixtus.
January 1475- Giuliano de’ Medici wins the city joust in Florence.
December 1476- The assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and strongest ally of the Medici by Carlo Visconti, Gerolamo Olgiati, and Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani
June 1476- Francesco Salviati sends one hundred pounds of rotten fish to Lorenzo de’ Medici along with a mocking note.
January 1477- Attempt at assassinating Cicco, the effective regent of Milan (took power after Galeazzo’s death), organized by Galeazzo’s previously exiled brothers, Sforza Maria and Ludovico, upon their return to Milan (the attempt fails).
January 1477- Letter from Cicco to Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Letter thanks them for their condolences regarding Galeazzo’s death and stresses the joint nature of the Medici’s and his own welfare.
January 1477- Cicco sends Lorenzo de’ Medici four falcons, an encoded way of asking protection from Florence. (He imagined that Italy’s prominent military powers would plan on invading the territory, seeing as it was under a crisis of government.)
February 1, 1477- Lorenzo writes to the Medici agent in Rome explaining he does not want Federico da Montefeltro to be in power in Milan because he would replace Medici influence. Instead he sends Ludovico Gonzaga.
February 17, 1477- Lorenzo and Cicco meet to discuss Federico da Montefeltro’s condotta, or hiring contract, the relationship between Lorenzo and Montefeltro having deteriorated over the years after he refused to pay Montefeltro a portion of his back wages, making him send him letters asking for it.
February 24, 1477- the Duchess Bona (Galeazzo’s widow) and Galeazzo’s brothers form an agreement allowing the brothers to live in luxury, while all political power remained with the Duchess and effectively in the hands of Cicco.
March 1477- Lorenzo approves the De testamentis law which took away the Borromei inheritance from the Pazzi family. Marks the breaking point of the Pazzi family with Lorenzo.
late March 1477- Galeazzo’s brothers and Roberto da Sanseverino put down an uprising in Genoa.
April 1477- Federico de Montefeltro sends congratulations to the duchess Bona on putting down Genoa.
April 1477- Galeazzo's brothers and Roberto da Sanseverino attempt to make a coup against Cicco, but he anticipates this, torturing Donato del Conte to get information on the plot.
April 1477- Luigi Pulci returns from Milan to Florence.
May 25, 1477- News of Donato's capture reaches the conspirators, the next day they petition the Duchess for his return.
May 28, 1477- A letter between Lorenzo de' Medici and Roberto da Sanseverino, Sanseverino appologizes for his failure as envoy in Milan, and the next day Lorenzo replies telling him not to do anything too rash. Sanseverino nevertheless vows to have revenge on Cicco.
May/June 1477- Francesco Salviati and Francesco Pazzi introduce to Giovanni Battista (count of Montesecco) the skeleton of a plan for a regime change, that later became the Pazzi conspiracy.
Summer 1477- Giovanni Battista da Montesecco arrives in Florence to familiarize himself with the city, as well as with Lorenzo.
Early August 1477- Federico da Montefeltro leaves Urbino to siege the town of Montone, after its citizens were accused of allying with Carlo of Montone, an anti-church rebel.
Late August 1477- Montesecco leaves Florence after meeting with Francesco de’ Pazzi.
September 17, 1477- Archbishop Salviati arrives at Pisa, after leaving Rome six days earlier.
Late November, 1477- Federico da Montefeltro injures his ankle in what was most likely an accident, as he fell through the cracks on the stairs at the Palazzo of Sigismondo Malatesta, the lord of Rimini. The book “the Montefeltro Conspiracy” by Marcello Simonetta reports that this could have been an attempt on his life, although there are no sources to corroborate this.
June 1477- the Duchess Bona exiles Sforza Maria to Bari, Ludovico to Pisa, and Ascanio to Perugia. Ottaviano (the youngest brother) drowns in a river attempting to escape punishment.
April 26, 1478- Assassination attempt made against Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Lorenzo is wounded but survives. Giuliano dies. Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini and Francesco Salviati are hanged the same day.
April 30, 1478- Funeral for Giuliano
March 4, 1478- Giovanni Battista makes a full confession of the events of the conspiracy before he is beheaded.
June 1, 1478- Sixtus IV attempts to excommunicate Lorenzo de' Medici
April 14, 1488- Girolamo Riario is assassinated by Medici agents.
April 30, 1488- Riario's wife, Caterina Sforza, takes control of Forli, the city where they had been living in that Lorenzo de' Medci attempted to take after Riario's death.