Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici (March 12, 1479 – March 17, 1516) was an Italian nobleman, one of three sons of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Biography

He was born in Florence, Italy. His brothers were Piero and Giovanni de' Medici.

His older brother Piero was briefly the ruler of Florence after Lorenzo's death, until the republican faction drove out the Medici in 1494. Giuliano moved therefore to Venice. The Medici family was restored to power after the Holy League drove the French forces that had supported the Florentine republicans from Italy. This effort was headed by Spain. Giuliano reigned at Florence from 1512 to 1516.

He married Filiberta (1498–1524), a princess of the House of Savoy, on 22 February 1515, at the court of France, thanks to the intercession of his brother Giovanni, now Pope as Leo X, in the same year Francis I of France invested him with the title of Duke of Nemours (which had recently reverted once again to the French crown) on the occasion. The French were also apparently grooming him for the throne of Naples (in which the French maintained a historical interest), when Giuliano died prematurely. He was followed at Florence by his nephew Lorenzo.

Giuliano left a single illegitimate son, Ippolito de' Medici, who became cardinal.

His portrait, painted in Rome by Raphael (a painter favored by Leo), shows Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo behind a curtain. (A studio version is at the Metropolitan Museum.)

Giuliano's tomb in the Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, is ornamented with the Night and Day of Michelangelo, along with a statue of Giuliano by Michelangelo. Due to the identical common name (Giuliano de' Medici) which he shares with his uncle, whose tomb is also in the Medici Chapel, his tomb is often mistaken for that of his uncle.

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