Lorenzo the Elder

Lorenzo di Giovanni de ' Medici ( also known as Lorenzo the Elder; * um 1395; † September 23, 1440 in Careggi ) was a banker from Florence.

Lorenzo's parents were Giovanni di Bicci de ' Medici the progenitor of the House of Medici, and his wife Piccarda de' Bueri. His older brother Cosimo de ' Medici founded the branch of the family of the Medici di Cafaggiolo, who ruled with an interruption to Florence in 1537. From Lorenzo the younger Medici line of Popolani comes from, later emerged from the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. He was married to Ginevra Cavalcanti and had with her two sons, Francesco and Pierfrancesco de ' Medici the Elder ( 1430-1476 ).

In public, held Lorenzo, who mainly took care of the business founded by his father Medici Bank, compared with his brother Cosimo very back. He took over again important tasks for his hometown of Florence: in 1429 he traveled as an envoy to Venice in 1431 to the newly elected Pope Eugene IV to Rome in 1438 to Ferrara, to convince the Pope of the Council of Basel / Ferrara / Florence Florence lay. 1431 Lorenzo was also elected to the influential Council of Ten.

When his brother Cosimo in 1433 was first imprisoned and then exiled from Florence, Lorenzo tried to set up its support an army, but finally accompanied him into exile in Venice. Already in 1434 they went together back to Florence, where Cosimo now took power. Lorenzo went the following year, as the depositary of the proceeds of the Holy See to Rome. He died in 1440 as his brother and his son Lorenzo to him in the Medici villa in Careggi in Florence and was buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo.