Lucrezia Tornabuoni De' Medici and the Medici Family in the Fifteenth Century

Book excerpt: Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici and the Medici Family in the Fifteenth Century is a fresh, new biography of a Renaissance woman who lived during the heyday of Medici power. A remarkable person in her own right, the author of religious poems and sacred narratives, as well as an accomplished businesswoman, Lucrezia was the mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the grandmother of two popes, and the great-great grandmother of Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France. This glimpse of her life and times is a window onto the political intrigues and intellectual achievements of Medici Florence.