A European Scandal and its Resonances: The Pazzi-Conspiracy as a Media Event and a Lieu de Mémoire
Early Modern History
Final Report Abstract
The 26th April 1478, Giuliano de’ 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, were examined in my “Habilitation” by taking up approaches of media-, communication- and reception-history. The research was carried out on the basis of a broad collection of newly found unpublished sources, a corpus to be completed in the course of the project by a complete consultation of the remaining relevant archival material.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 was to show mechanisms of information, propaganda (understood as persuasive communication controlled by a ruler) and international conflict resolution. Moreover my aim was 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 which continues to craft the image of the Medici-regime, the Papacy and the culture of the Renaissance.
Publications
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Einleitung: Das Interdikt in der europäischen Vormoderne zwischen Kirchenrecht, sozialer Alltagspraxis und publizistischer Polemik, in: Das Interdikt, Berlin 2021, S. 7-24
Tobias Daniels, Christian Jaser & Thomas Woelki
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Florenz und das Interdikt 1478-1480, Berlin 2021, S. 429-458
Tobias Daniels
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Die Verschwörung der Pazzi. Ein politischer Skandal und seine europäischen Resonanzen, Stuttgart 2020 (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, 70) (ISBN 978-3-7772-2037-6) [Habilitationsschrift]
Tobias Daniels
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The Sistine Chapel: New sources on its building history and the question of its architect, in: Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana 43 (2017/2018) [2020], S. 131-147
Tobias Daniels
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A Donatello for Rome, a Memling for Florence. The maritime transports of the Sermattei of Florence†. Renaissance Studies, 35(4), 658-674.
Daniels, Tobias & Esch, Arnold
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Das Interdikt in der europäischen Vormoderne. Duncker & Humblot.
Daniels, Tobias; Jaser, Christian & Woelki, Thomas (Eds.)
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Dynamiken der Herabsetzung in humanistischen Kontroversschriften während der Pazzi-Verschwörung, in: Uwe Israel/Marius Kraus/Ludovica Sasso (Hg.), Agonale Invektivität. Konstellationen und Dynamiken der Herabsetzung im italienischen und deutschen Humanismus, Heidelberg 2021 (Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte, 17), S. 81-94
Tobias Daniels
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Die römischen Repertorien. De Gruyter.
Märtl, Claudia; Fees, Irmgard; Rehberg, Andreas & Voigt, Jörg (Eds.)
