MEDICI ASSASSINTION SOLVED

Italian experts puzzled out a bloody crime committed 526 years ago.
The intrigue of a plot conspired against the Medici brothers, Juliano and Lorenzo has been solved. As a result of the plot, Juliano was killed and Lorenzo was saved by a miracle and became the ruler of Florence known by the title Lorenzo the Magnificent.


An assassination upon the Medici brothers was committed on April 26, 1478. It was supposed earlier that Pope Sixtus IV (known as Francesco della Rovere in the world) who stayed on the Saint Peter's throne from 1471 to 1484 was behind the assassination. The pontific wanted to glorify his nephew Girolamo Riario and was considered connected with the assassination as he could benefit from it.

Expert for medieval Italy Marcello Simonetta discovered a coded letter in the municipal library in Urbino, the native place of Raphael, that helped him solve the ancient drama. The researcher decoded the letter and identified the author.

The secret letter contained a well-considered plan of assassination of the Medici brothers; it was addressed to two envoys of Urbino principality at court of Sixtus IV in Rome. The instruction was made up by Duke of Urbino Federico di Montefeltro whom the world knows from the portrait painted by Pierro della Francesca, ITAR-TASS reports.

Marcello Simonetta published the text of the letter in The Italian Historical Archives and caused a sensation in the scientific world. In the above mentioned letter the duke warned that in case of delay "the Pope will face hostility of Florence, Milan and Venice."