Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

The dome above the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore covers the church where the Florentine bishop celebrated services with the clergy, while city officials and noble families gathered for major Masses. The cathedral's name recalls Holy Mary of the Flower: it joins devotion to the Virgin Mary, the lily on the city's coat of arms, and Florence's old name. Beneath the dome, the choir once separated part of the service from the rest of the space, but it was rebuilt; in the northern Sacristy of the Masses, Luca della Robbia's heavy bronze door survives.

On April twenty-sixth, fourteen seventy-eight, the banker Francesco de' Pazzi and his accomplice Bernardo Bandini came for Giuliano de' Medici. They needed to bring him to a solemn Mass at the cathedral: there, the conspirators planned to kill Giuliano and his elder brother Lorenzo de' Medici at the same time.

The day before, both brothers were to attend a reception at Villa Medici at Fiesole, the town above Florence. Giuliano did not come because he was unwell, and the prepared double murder fell through. The conspirators then moved the attack here. A major city service gave them a rare opportunity to catch the brothers together, among people, at a known moment in advance.

Florence remained a republic, and the Medici did not hold princely titles. Yet their bank, family ties, and supporters on the city councils allowed Lorenzo and Giuliano to shape the most important decisions. The Pazzi maintained another major bank. The rivalry intensified when Lorenzo refused to finance Pope Sixtus the Fourth's purchase of the city of Imola for his nephew. The Pazzi provided the money and gained part of the papal financial business that had previously belonged to the Medici. At the same time, Lorenzo prevented the Pazzi ally Francesco Salviati from taking office as Archbishop of Pisa. The murder of the brothers was meant to open the way for the conspirators to govern the Florentine Republic.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was the cathedral church of the Florentine bishop and a place for citywide services. Its name means “Holy Mary of the Flower”: the cathedral is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, while the flower refers both to the lily on Florence's coat of arms and to the city's own name. The name was officially established in fourteen twelve. At services here, clergy, city officials, and noble families gathered—the very audience the conspirators needed, expecting to bring the citizens over to their side after the murder.

Moving the attack into a consecrated church nearly ruined the plan before the first blow. Lorenzo was to kill Giovanni Battista da Montesecco, an experienced soldier who served the Pazzi allies. Montesecco refused. The sources do not allow us to decide with confidence whether he was stopped by fear of sacrilege or by personal acquaintance with Lorenzo. A replacement had to be found in haste. Two clerics who agreed to take part in the conspiracy but handled weapons poorly were assigned to Lorenzo.

The signal was the elevation of the host—the consecrated bread for communion. When the priest raised it above the altar and the people knelt, Bandini and Francesco de' Pazzi attacked Giuliano near the choir beneath the dome. He received nineteen stab wounds and died on the spot. The two clerics struck Lorenzo, but managed only to wound him in the neck. Francesco Nori, who managed a branch of the Medici bank and accompanied Lorenzo, shielded him with his own body. Bandini killed Nori, while Lorenzo's companions managed to lead the wounded man through the choir into the northern Sacristy of the Masses—a service room where vestments are kept and preparations are made for services. They closed the heavy bronze door behind them.

The citizens did not support the conspirators. Francesco de' Pazzi and Archbishop Salviati were captured and hanged that same day. Montesecco also fell into the hands of his opponents, wrote down a confession, and was beheaded on May fourth. The Pazzi family's property was confiscated, their relatives were exiled, and the city council ordered their coats of arms destroyed and their surname removed from official records. Lorenzo remained the sole head of the Medici family, and after the conspiracy failed, his position in Florence grew stronger.

The choir near which Giuliano died was rebuilt later, and the railings seen by those attending the Mass are no longer there. The Sacristy of the Masses survives. So does the bronze door by Luca della Robbia—the one Lorenzo's companions closed between the wounded Medici and his pursuers.