A European Scandal and its Resonances: The Pazzi-Conspiracy as a Media Event and a Lieu de Mémoire

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Tobias Daniels
• Subject Area: Medieval History ; Early Modern History
• Term: from 2016 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 290872843

The 26th April 1478, Giuliano dei Medici was murdered in the Cathedral of Florence, while his brother Lorenzo barely escaped. The assassination marked the climax of a complex intrigue that involved even Pope Sixtus IV and his Nephew Girolamo Riario. In a literary comment, the humanist Angelo Poliziano interpreted it as the Conspiracy of the Pazzi. Under this name the event counts among those episodes of the Italian Renaissance that arouse greatest interest even today. But why did this specific plot become so prominent, while political conspiracies and assassinations were by no means extraordinary instruments of pre-modern policies? An answer to this question must go beyond an analysis of the political developments on the Italian Peninsula and their literary adaptations. What was extraordinary and new, in this case was the immense public reaction caused by the event, and furthermore the dissemination of writings that were grounded in humanistic and doctrinal thought, which were used propagandistically in campaigns and counter-campaigns exploiting the new instrument of the printing press. Furthermore the ensuing struggle for power and justice had consequences on a larger international audience, leading to the intense diplomatic participation from European powers into the efforts to resolve the conflict. Finally, the scandal had long-lasting resonances in European memory culture. These aspects, never before studied comprehensively, are examined in my Habilitationsprojekt by taking up approaches of media-, communication- and reception-history. The research is carried out on the basis of a broad collection of newly found unpublished sources, a corpus to be completed in the course of the project by a complete consultation of the remaining relevant archival material. The goal of my analysis is to show mechanisms of information, propaganda (understood as persuasive communication controlled by a ruler) and international conflict resolution. Moreover my aim is to show the resonances in the long run of a scandalous event of the pre-modern era. According to my theses, those mechanisms contributed to the expansion of a Florentine conflict into an Italian-wide struggle, a scandal on a European scale and in the end into a lieu de mémoire (memory space) which, in the wake of various transformations, continues to craft the image of the Medici-regime, the Papacy and the culture of the Renaissance.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants