For other members of this family and holders of this surname, see Pucci

Pucci

Pucci may refer to:*Members of the Pucci family, a major Florentine political family**Antonio di Puccio Pucci , Florentine politician and architect**Puccio Pucci , Florentine politician, son of Antonio...

.

Lorenzo Pucci (August 18, 1458 - 16 September 1531) was an Italian cardinal and bishop from the Florentine

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 Pucci family. His brother Roberto Pucci

Roberto Pucci

Roberto Pucci was an Italian cardinal from the Florentine noble family of the Pucci.-Life:One of the Medici's keenest supporters, he nevertheless advised Pope Clement VII against starting the siege of Florence in 1529...

 and his nephew Antonio Pucci

Antonio Pucci (cardinal)

Antonio Pucci was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church.Antonio Pucci emanated from the Florentine noble family of Pucci. He was a nephew of Cardinals Roberto Pucci and Lorenzo Pucci....

 also became cardinals.

Biography

Pucci was born in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

.

He began his career as a professor of law at the Studio di Pisa

University of Pisa

The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...

. On becoming a clergyman, he was elected Bishop-Coadjutor of Pistoia in 1509, assuming the diocese in September 1518 but resigning it that November in favour of his nephew Antonio Pucci

Antonio Pucci (cardinal)

Antonio Pucci was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church.Antonio Pucci emanated from the Florentine noble family of Pucci. He was a nephew of Cardinals Roberto Pucci and Lorenzo Pucci....

. He was also bishop-administrator of the diocese of Melfi from 1513 to 1528 and participated in the Fifth Lateran Council.

Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...

 made him a cardinal in the 23 September 1513 consistory (with the titulus of Santi Quattro Coronati

Santi Quattro Coronati

Santi Quattro Coronati is an ancient basilica in Rome, Italy. The church dates back to the 4th century, and is devoted to four anonymous saints and martyrs. The complex of the basilica with its two courtyards, the fortified Cardinal Palace with the St...

) and chose him as his personal secretary, in which role he was sent on several ambassadorial missions, especially to Florence, where the pope wanted gonfaloniere

Gonfaloniere

The Gonfaloniere was a highly prestigious communal post in medieval and Renaissance Italy, notably in Florence and the Papal States. The name derives from gonfalone, the term used for the banners of such communes....

-for-life Piero Soderini

Piero Soderini

Piero di Tommaso Soderini also known as Pier Soderini, was an Italian statesman of the Republic of Florence.-Biography:...

 to retire from office. On 10 August 1521, Leo made Pucci the Commendatore of the monastery of San Giovanni in Fiore

San Giovanni in Fiore

San Giovanni in Fiore is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy.The town originates from the Florense Abbey, built here by the Calabrian monk Joachim of Fiore in 1188.-Notes and references:...

. He also served as administrator of the Diocese of Vannes (1513–1514), of the Archdiocese of Amalfi (in 1516 - 1519), the Diocese of Montefiascone (March - April 1519) and the Diocese of Capaccio (September 1522 - June 1523). From 1514 he was the Holy See's protector of the Poles and from 1520 to 1529 Major Penitentiary

Apostolic Penitentiary

The Apostolic Penitentiary, formerly called the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, is one of the three tribunals of the Roman Curia. The Apostolic Penitentiary is chiefly a tribunal of mercy, responsible for issues relating to the forgiveness of sins in the Catholic Church.The...

. He was a patron of the arts, notably of Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

 and Raphael

Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...

, whilst in 1520 he also became the dedicatee of Erasmus' edition of the Works of St. Cyprian.

Under pope Adrian VI

Pope Adrian VI

Pope Adrian VI , born Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens, served as Pope from 9 January 1522 until his death some 18 months later...

, Pucci was accused of fraud in connection with the sale of indulgences, but he escaped punishment thanks to the intercession of Cardinal Giulio Medici, who after his election to the papacy in 1523 as Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII

Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:...

 cleared Pucci of all charges. In 1526 Clement entered on the War of the League of Cognac

War of the League of Cognac

The War of the League of Cognac was fought between the Habsburg dominions of Charles V—primarily Spain and the Holy Roman Empire—and the League of Cognac, an alliance including France, Pope Clement VII, the Republic of Venice, England, the Duchy of Milan and Republic of Florence.- Prelude :Shocked...

 against Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

, in which Clement was defeated and captured and Rome sacked

Sack of Rome (1527)

The Sack of Rome on 6 May 1527 was a military event carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, then part of the Papal States...

. Upon the post-war rapprochement which Clement and Charles soon reached, Pucci was one of the keenest advocates of quickly reconquering Florence from Republican rebels. He then served as Cardinal-Bishop of Albano (1524) and Palestrina

Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina

thumb|250 px|The Cathedral of Sant'Agapito in Palestrina.The Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina, , is a Roman Catholic suburbicarian diocese centered on the comune of Palestrina in Italy....

 (1524–1531).

He died in Rome on 16 September 1531, shortly after the siege of Florence which definitively restored the Medici to power in Florence.