A Philosopher's Death

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A November 24th, 1494, the nobility of Florence gathered for the funeral of Count Giovanni Picco de la Mirandaula, an aristocrat and philosopher. When he was alive, he was a dazzling figure.

Historian Paul Strathern described him as a "peacock" at six feet tall, always cloaked

in the trendiest fine wool doubleats, with long, Auburn hair down to his shoulders. And Picco had the intellect to match his looks. He could recite Dante's divine comedy backwards by heart. At the age of 20, he had already mastered Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Arabic, and Shaldan, and he went on to write pioneering works of humanist philosophy.

In early November, when he was just 31 years old, Picco de la Mirandaula had suddenly fallen in. He suffered in bed for two weeks, alternating between lucidity and delirium, as he grew more and more fatigued. Picco's illness raised red flags across Europe.

sent over his personal physicians to try and heal the philosopher.

“But by the time the physicians had arrived, it was too late.”

Picco was on his deathbed, in a placid, contemplative mood. "He asked to all his servants forgiveness, if he had ever before that day offended any of them. Thomas More wrote in 1504. During his life, Picco had indulged in the pleasures of his aristocratic intellectual

upbringing, enjoying life outside of Florence, living with a mistress.

But he had always flirted with a more austere godly pat.

It was interesting becoming a Dominican monk. In his final days, he gave all of his possessions to the monastery at San Marco, and he pleaded with his friend the powerful Dominican of Friar, here all of Mosavena Rola, to accept him into the order.

“Savana Rola complied, laying out a Dominican habit over Picco's body, before Picco died”

on November 17. His austere funeral a week later was in keeping with his late-in-life turn to god. Rather than celebrating his intellect or honoring his aristocratic lineage, Savana Rola

dwelled on Picco's salvation.

Savana Rola told the audience, "The soul of Picco could not go to heaven at once. It was subject to a time in the flames of purgatory for certain sins." So since he failed to name, but he reassured the audience that Picco had appeared to him in a dream, saying that he would expiate his sins in purgatory. Picco was buried in San Marco in his habit, next to his friend and collaborator, Onhello

Puletiano, another Italian classical scholar in Florence.

“And oddly enough, Puletiano had died just a few weeks earlier under similar conditions.”

Just like Picco, Puletiano suffered from a mysterious acute illness that killed him quickly. Their deaths seemed so abrupt and untimely that some suspected foul play. After all, Picco and Puletiano had no shortage of enemies. The ensuing investigation into who killed Picco Della-Mirandola, if he had been killed at all, would last over 500 years. I'm Danish Forts, and this is Noble Blood.

When 21-year-old Picco Della-Mirandola arrived in the Florentine court in 1484, he had no idea that he would soon be at the center of a political crisis. He was already a celebrated intellectual across Europe. Famous for his work connecting Christianity, Judaism, and the ancient Greek philosophers. One of his mentors brought him back to the court of Lorenzo de Medici, the leader of the

Republic of Florence and Medici Bank. While in Florence, Picco met Angelo Poletiano, who was the Medici court to poet at the time. Poletiano was dazzled by Picco, but it seems that everyone in Florence was, particularly by Picco's writings on the Greek philosophers.

Lorenzo de Medici, Poletiano, and other Florentine intellectuals had become enamored with the works of Plato. They were particularly interested in how Plato emphasized virtue, love, and individual dignity, suggesting that cultivating these qualities in the earthly world could lead to divine truths. One member of this group, Marcelio Ficino, coined the term platonic love, a term Plato himself

never used, to describe the ideal bond between, specifically, male, friends.

The Medici intellectuals, sharing poetry, and talking about love, couldn't have been more different from the dominant intellectual tradition in schools across Europe at this time. Schoolastic Aristotelianism, where scholars spent their days writing rigorous logical proofs of Christian theology.

While the Florentine set embraced Picco as one of their own, they didn't know that he was not as hostile to scholastic Aristotelianism as he may have seemed. In 1485, Picco wrote in a letter that he had come to Florence not as a, quote, "deserter"

Picco didn't want to be pinned down to any particular intellectual school.

“Find the Medici crowd back, Picco met up with an old acquaintance, Jeromeau 7 Arula, a Dominican”

fryer who hated the platonic humanists in the Medici court. 7 Arula thought that the humanists' encouragement of cultivating virtue and philosophical contemplation on an individual level would turn people away from the church. Picco was not just well-versed in the classics, but also had a deep theological knowledge. He was able to pull from obscure Jewish and Christian texts alike.

7 Arula and Picco spent long hours at the monastery of San Marco, quote, "piously philosophizing."

While these philosophical differences may seem abstract or pedantic, they were slowly

becoming more politically divisive. 7 Arula had a cult-like following for his sharp intellect and his commitment to ascetic life.

“One monk described that he had spent his nights weeping during the night long vigils and hours”

of fervent meditation, even with his eyes swollen from being up all night. He wrote, quote, "His teachings raised men's hearts above all human things." In 7 Arula's weekly sermon across Florence, he railed against the Medici elite, arguing

that the Medici's sponsorship of platonic philosophy, of lavish festivals, and of classical

art and poetry was evidence of the excesses of luxury and pagan moral decay. This struck a nerve. 7 Arula made the Neoplatonists seem elitist and out of touch, since the common people of Florence couldn't spend all day pursuing their own moral education, of course not. They had to work.

“We're a economic anxiety simmered underneath the Medici's seeming abundance, as taxes”

rose, and wealth and equality intensify. 7 Arula blamed the elite for this economic precarity, suggesting that God was punishing Florence for their sins, and Pico was only making things harder for Lorenzo de Medici. In early 1486, Pico had an affair with a young woman named Marguita. The problem was, she already had a husband.

When her husband died, her in-laws compelled her to remarry a local tax official who was a distant relative of Lorenzo de Medici's. In May, Pico and 20 armed men set out towards Marguita's hometown, Arzzo, 40 miles outside of Florence. They met up with Marguita at the city gate and rode off together.

The local authorities chased them down, and a battle ensued killing 15 men. Pico, his secretary and Marguita all managed to escape, but another village detained them and threw them in prison. Lorenzo de Medici was not happy to have to bail Pico out of prison, especially since Pico had humiliated Marguita's fiance, who was a member after all of the Medici family.

Lorenzo declared that Marguita had not been unfaithful and should be returned to her husband, and he ordered Pico to be released. He blamed the entire thing on Pico's secretary. But an even bigger scandal was yet to come. Pico had nearly completed his intellectual opus.

Nine hundred Theses that he claimed answered every question in philosophy and theology. He combined ancient Egyptian Greek, Latin, and Hebrew sources in order to create a universal system of beliefs. Pico even mind alchemy, astrology, and mysticism for metaphysical truths alongside the traditional teachings of the Bible.

He was particularly interested in the Jewish mysticism of the Kabbala, writing, quote, "no science affords a better evidence of Christ's divinity than magic and cabalistic practices." Pico arrived in Rome in November 1486 to publish his 900 Theses and conduct a public debate,

He assumed that his work would be uncontroversial, maintaining that everything he had written

“would be quote-to-approved by the Catholic Church and her chief pastor, Innocent Theoth, and”

quote. As it turns out, Pope Innocent Theoth was not a fan of Pico's project. He thought that Pico's unquestioning citations of the Kabbala, which most Christians at the time considered heresy, was a direct threat to the Church and a challenge to his authority. Pope Innocent Theoth shut down Pico's proposed public debate, and decided that his 900 Theses

were, quote, "heretical rash and likely to give scandal to the faithful."

Pico was determined to defend himself, writing an apology to back up his arguments and

dedicating it to Lorenzo de Medici. But Pico's apology only made things worse.

“In it, he proposed a reading of the Bible, which suggested that humans had free will to pursue”

the lives of their choosing, which stood in direct contrast to the Church's insistence at the time that God was the ultimate authority. Pico escaped Rome and fled to France, and Innocent Theoth called for his arrest. Authorities in France detained Pico for heresy and threw him in prison.

Worse, it's unclear whether Pico had asked Lorenzo de Medici's permission to dedicate his

apology at him, and so Lorenzo had been dragged into the scandal as well, possibly against his will, an international incident involving the Pope. Lorenzo now had to choose whether to let his friend Pico suffer the heresy charges, serious charges since a common punishment for heretics was to burn them at the stake, or to save

“Pico and put his own reputation at risk.”

After days of deliberation, Lorenzo de Medici decided to try and rescue Pico. While this was diplomatically tricky, his friendship with Pope Innocent and the French region slightly improved his chances. Lorenzo requested that Pico be freed, and both Pope Innocent Theoth and the French royalty agreed.

Lorenzo brought Pico back to Florence, and set him up at a villa just north of the city. While Innocent didn't prosecute Pico, he wasn't totally in the clear. The Pope refused to pardon Pico. Lorenzo was now worried that the rest of his intellectual squad of Neoplatonists could be convicted of heresy as well.

Lorenzo realized he could be targeted by the Vatican for his irreverent extravagant festivals, and what historian Paul Strathen called, quote, "his lacks attitudes toward religion." Lorenzo asked Pico for advice, Pico suggested that he hire his old friend, Savenerola, to teach his son Giovanni, which would signal to the church that he Lorenzo was taking Catholicism more seriously.

In 1490, Savenerola agreed to the job. Having from Belonia, back to the monastery in San Marco. After Pico's run-in with the church, he was, quote, "somewhat beaten," as Savenerola put it at the time. Savenerola convinced him to abandon his 900theses and pursue a more godly life.

Pico had given away his villa at Mirandola, and flirted with joining in the footsteps of St. Francis of Asisi, walking barefoot across Italy. He even considered joining the Dominican Order of San Marco. But even as he spent hours arguing with Savenerola about theology, he couldn't quite bring himself to renounce his intellectual and worldly pleasures.

But while Pico was still trying to endure himself to both Savenerola and Lorenzo de Medici simultaneously, their feud had intensified. Lorenzo had supported a rival of Savenerola's frapp Mariano, in giving a sermon taking Savenerola down. Lorenzo, Puliziano, the poet, Pico, and the rest of the Medici intellectual scene attended

His Mariano lambasted Savenerola for being a false prophet aiming to stir the people

of Florence into a rebellion.

“But Mariano took things a little too far, mocking Savenerola's accent, calling him quote,”

"a worm, a snake, a clown who is ignorant of the Bible, and an inept priest who is not even capable of conducting a mass in proper Latin." Next quote, "Pico Lorenzo and Puliziano and the rest of the congregation were horrified at the vitriol." Three days later, Pico Puliziano Lorenzo de Medici and the other Florentine congregants

reconvened to hear Savenerola's response. Unlike Mariano, Savenerola was calm and collected. He complimented Mariano's biblical interpretations and emphasized that they had been cordial in the past. He alleged that someone intervened and convinced Mariano to, quote, "change his mind and attack

him." Even though Savenerola kept things vague, everyone knew this culprit he was alluding to.

“Who had changed Mariano's mind and caused him to attack Savenerola?”

Well, Lorenzo de Medici. Mariano was so devastated by his defeat in the popular forum that he fled to Rome.

Meanwhile Savenerola had never been more popular.

He was elected prior to the monastery of San Marco, because the Medici family built San Marco and even referred to it as their monastery, the newly elected fire was expected to pay a visit to the Medici Palazzo. But Savenerola bulked at that request, saying to his fellow monks, quote, "Who made me prior, God or Lorenzo?"

The monks responded, "God," and Savenerola said, quote, "Thus it is the Lord God who I will think, and he returned to his cell." Even when citizens and allies like Pico warned him about making such a powerful enemy, Savenerola refused to back down.

“He said, quote, "Although I am a mere stranger to this city, Lorenzo is the most powerful”

man in Florence.

It is I who will remain here, and he who will depart.

He will be gone long before me." The prophecy was well timed. Lorenzo's health had been failing as he suffered from congenital gout that left him weak and understandably cranky. It continued to worsen over the rest of the year, and he retired to a villa outside of Florence

to convalesce. By spring of 1492, it seemed the end was near. The city's mascots had mold each other to death in their cave, and later that night a lightning bolt struck the Florence Cathedral, causing pieces of marble to collapse around the building.

These events seemed like catastrophic omens, and even Lorenzo was not immune from superstition. When he heard of the cathedral's collapse, he said, "It means that I shall die." On his deathbed, Lorenzo de Medici had a surprising visitor, Savenerola, while it unclear while Lorenzo had invited his friend of me over, and even less clear why Savenerola accepted it.

Some historians suggest that Pico de la Marindola may have leveraged his friendship with both of them to arrange the meeting. Pico and his friend, the poet, Poliziano, were there for this fateful meeting. Poliziano recalled that Savenerola asked him if he had faith in God and would be willing to renounce his ill-gotten wealth and live a blameless life.

Lorenzo said, "Yes." According to rumor, Lorenzo told Savenerola that his son, Piero, would rule over Florence after his death, and begged Savenerola not to preach against him, Savenerola reluctantly agreed. At the end of his visit, right as Savenerola turned towards the door to leave, Lorenzo asked

him to give him his benediction, and he did. Shortly thereafter, on April 8, 1492, Lorenzo died. Piero took over Florence, and, true to his words, Savenerola did not undermine him in

But Savenerola considered capitalizing on the growing political instability for his own

aims.

“Florence had fallen into financial chaos, late in his life Lorenzo attempted to increase”

taxes. A hugely unpopular move, given the gulf between the Medici's fabulous wealth and the wide spread poverty of the rest of the population. At the time around 30% of the taxable population, which was almost 10,000 people, were so impoverished that they paid no tax at all, while 50% of the working population paid little

more than a floor in each.

Savenerola bulked at the luxury of the Medici lifestyle, and wanted to bring a spirit of austerity

to Florence. Piero was not on the same page. His heresy charges had been all but forgotten, so he returned to writing and even lived with a mistress, an evident sin.

“Even though some sources suggest that Savenerola knew about Pico's sex life, contrary”

to his doctrine and hard-headed nature, it seems that Savenerola just looked the other way when it came to his friend. Savenerola wanted to use his brilliant friend Pico to spread his theological agenda. He had Pico write an anti-astrology screen with a jab that astrologers were so inept that they couldn't even predict the weather.

Bullied by the church and swayed by Savenerola, Pico had abandoned his more forward-thinking Renaissance humanism, and instead started promoting strict obedience to God's authority. Meanwhile, in Milan, a Duke Lorenzo Sforza was suffering a power struggle of his own, as he fought with various aristocrats for control of the region. Sforza asked for support from Charles VIII, the new young King of France, and at that

“time the most powerful nation in Europe.”

In return, Sforza promised to back Charles, if he chose to take control of Naples, because Charles's grandmother's family had had control over the Napoli's territory in 1266, he believed that Naples rightfully belonged to him. In 1494, the King of Naples died, giving Charles the perfect opportunity to invade. With Sforza's backing, he led his army in Milan, aiming to take Naples by force.

Piero de Medici had initially decided to use Florence's resources to defend Naples against Charles. But Piero's reputation was beginning to fall apart. Piero had become infamous for being hot-headed, arrogant, entitled, and done. And his own late father had called him a fool.

Various Florentine officials contrasted Piero with his cousin, apologies another Lorenzo de Medici, who was more moderate and even killed, deeply embedded in civic institutions and educated in humanist philosophy. This cousin Lorenzo had been in contact with the French army and promised to offer them safe passage, even if Piero refused.

And he even agreed to back Charles the eighths invasion financially. Piero, feeling that he had no choice because he was being undermined and possibly served by his cousin, decided to tacitly allow the invasion. At the end of August, 1494, Charles the eighth and an army of 40,000 marched into Tuscany. By September 21st, the citizens of Florence were terrified about the future of their

city. Hundreds of people, including Piero de Medici, crowded into the cathedral to hear Savinerole's latest sermon.

While he never made a direct attack on Piero, Savinerole had apocalyptic warnings about

Florence's future. He castigated the gamblers' blasphemers and sawdemites that would lead to Florence's downfall, saying that the "scourge of God had arrived." Upon hearing those words, Pico de la Mirandola began to shake as the rest of the crowd wept and moaned in hysterics.

the poet, and glow Poliziano, died.

“He had suffered a mysterious illness that took his life in just two weeks.”

Pico had no idea how soon his own death would follow. While Poliziano's sudden death would normally have raised suspicions, the population of Florence was far too preoccupied with a potential French invasion to delve into an investigation about the death of a poet. By the end of September 1494, Piero felt trapped.

Charles the eighths vast army was moving quickly with advanced artillery that could easily destroy Florence's meager defenses. Moreover, all of Florence's allies were aligned with Charles the eighth, but capitulating to the French would humiliate Florence and throw the city into an even deeper crisis. The end of October, Piero went to Charles's camp in Tuscany to negotiate with him, using

“the same diplomatic tactics that his father had pioneered.”

Piero figured that he could allow the French army to pass through Florence in the short-term and regain control over the city after the fact. But he arrived at the camp realizing he was at a huge disadvantage. He had gone alone with no army or political muscle to back him up. Charles had no interest in negotiating with Piero, regarding him as a "nothing" according

to a contemporary. He told Piero that he needed the immediate surrender of the fortresses surrounding Florence for as long as he wanted. Piero, in a shock, agreed immediately and even offered the king 200,000 Florence. When the population of Florence heard what happened, they were incensed.

“Piero's conduct at that meeting seems to confirm the worst rumors about him.”

He acted rashly and unilaterally, capitulating to Charles's demands without consulting any of his advisors, even though Florence was ostensibly a republic. Piero was acting more like a dictator.

Piero finally returned to Florence on November 8th.

The city was silent, with no celebrations welcoming him home. He approached the Piatza de la Senura, which housed the Florentine government, but the main door was slammed in his face. An official shouted him that he could only enter by way of the "Sportello", the tiny side gate intended for servants and delivery boys.

As Piero contemplated what to do, the city's bell rang out. The traditional call alerting citizens to an emergency, a crowd gathered in the Piatza, at first heckling Piero and pelting him with trash and stones. The mob chased him and his men through the city back to the Palazzo Medici. Next day, Piero fled the city.

Over the next week, the city was in chaos. Anticipating the French army's invasion, mobs broke into the Palazzo and burned down registry files to clear their debts. A real fight club move. Meanwhile Pico de la Mirandola had fallen suddenly ill, just like his late friend, Palaziano.

While he continued to attend his friend's 7-year-old as increasingly grim and over-the-top sermons, Pico had been feverish and weak.

Finally, on November 17, he died.

At age 31, the French marched into Florence that very day occupying the city without a fight. The army sacked Florence and left the city in ruins as it continued on to Naples. Pico and Palaziano's deaths seemed to signal the end of the Medici era, and the Renaissance Humanism that had flourished. Though seven-erola buried the two men together in San Marco, he treated their deaths slightly

differently. In his sermons, he portrayed Pico de la Mirandola as a devout Christian and a symbol of the power of repentance. He emphasized that at the end of his life Pico had renounced his philosophical herases and joined the Dominican Order.

While this was technically true, Pico's religious commitments were a bit of wishful thinking

Most historians interpret this late-in-life conversion as a last-minute attempt to get

“in heaven, and probably wouldn't have occurred if Pico wasn't on his deathbed.”

In contrast, Savannah Rola said nothing about Palaziano. San Rola considered Palaziano a friend and had been deeply affected by his death, but the poet was a more controversial figure than Pico was. Unlike the distant and reclusive Pico, Palaziano was known to the public as a teacher, and was more closely associated with Piro de Medici, since he remained on the Medici

payroll long after Lorenzo, the first original Lorenzo's death.

Moreover, Pico's work was dense and difficult to access, given that his 900 theses were banned by the church. While Palaziano's poetry praising the beauty of young boys in the classical style was

“accessible and widely available to the public.”

His poetry and his role as a teacher to the elite sparked rumors that he was sleeping with his male students. He was even arrested on charges of Sodomy before he died, but he didn't end up being charged.

One contemporary said that Palaziano was, quote, "the object of as much infamy and public

the two paration as it is possible for a man to attract." Their different reputations meant that even though Pico and Palaziano were friends who died under almost exactly the same circumstances within weeks of each other, historians viewed their deaths as unrelated. In the late 15th century, Pro-7 Arola Riders interpreted Pico's death as an untimely tragedy,

“while leaving out Palaziano entirely just as 7 Arola had.”

They interpreted these deaths as divine judgments, God's punishment for Florence's sins. And after Savannah Rola's death in 1498, Riders who were against him took almost the opposite perspective, reclaiming Pico as a humanist rather than a converted Christian. Rather than a divine punishment, his death was a tragic symbol of Florence's forward-looking intellectual culture during the Medici era that was being destroyed by the political forces

of the era. It wasn't until the 1580s that more scandalous rumors about Palaziano's death emerged. Early 16th century clerical writers linked Palaziano's death with the rumors about his homosexuality, suggesting that his life of sin and excess led to his demise. Because syphilis spread throughout Europe, clerical historians in the 1580s interpreted

this implication literally, suggesting that maybe Palaziano had died of syphilis. While some poisoning speculations floated around in the years after Pico's death, it wasn't until the mid-16th century that historians made an explicit allegation that Pico was murdered. His writers tended to be anti-Savinarola and accused Savinarola's most extreme followers of assassinating Pico.

The claim was that these religious fanatics, unlike Savinarola himself, saw Pico as a dangerous heretic who could undermine Savinarola's religious authority. On the other hand, if Pico happened to die, it would confirm Savinarola's apocalyptic premonitions, showing up his control over the city. Speculation swirled about both Pico and Palaziano's deaths until 2008, when scientists

exhumed both of their bodies to study the remains. They found high levels of arsenic, mercury, and lead in their bones, suggesting that they may have been poisoned. That said, Pico had higher levels of arsenic in his system than Palaziano did, and arsenic was also used as a medical treatment, leaving it unclear whether they had been poisoned, or whether they were trying to treat an already existing illness.

Still, this new evidence, emerging over 500 years after they had died, linking Pico and

Palaziano's death for the first time, might have confirmed a potential conspiracy.

that Savinarola influenced religious fanatics had poisoned Pico.

They figured that those older historians had blamed the religious devotees out of their own biases and contempt for the preacher, rather than based in any actual evidence. Moreover, Savinarola's followers had a deep respect for Pico, and tended to go after their

“enemies publicly, making a secret poisoning unlikely. Instead, some historians turned their blame”

to Piero de Medici. The head of the Italian National Cultural Committee that commissioned the exclamation said, "combining the result of our analysis with historical documents, which have recently come to light, it seems Piero was the most likely culprit for the assassination order." The committee had added, quote, "it was probably Pico's secretary, who had ministered the poison. In fact, the secretary admitted later that he had given Pico medicine

because he was sick." The head of the committee argued that Piero had paid off the secretary to kill Pico because Pico had chosen to plead the cause of his nemesis, Savinarola. It's not clear that this allegation has a ton of evidence behind it. That new historical document

“that they mentioned was the diary of a Venetian historian from 496, a few years after Pico's death.”

By then, Savinarola had taken control over Florence, while the Medici's were in exile. Still, Savinarola worried that the Medici's would oust him, and so he arrested and executed nobles, whom he suspected were still aligned with the Medici's. One of the men he interrogated was Pico's secretary. The secretary, Christophoro, confessed that he had, quote, "Hastened the death of his master by poisoning, but this Venetian

diarest was not a witness to the confession." So this was just a second-hand rumor.

Moreover, one would think that such a scandalous admission would have made quite the splash in Florence at the time, but no other contemporary sources mentioned it. This story obviously

“would have only helped Savinarola's case. He could have used it to convince the public”

that the Medici's were conspiring against him. They had paid his friend secretary to murder him. Furthermore, it seems that this newly discovered historical document was not so new after all. The Venetian diary had been in print for centuries, and the theory that Piero de Medici had hired Christophoro to kill Pico had been circulating in the historical record since at least 1898. In any case, as one Italian historian Jolo Busy put it, quote, "Pico's death is destined

to remain shrouded in mystery." That's all for the story of Pico de la Merentella, but stick around to hear a bit about the rumored love affair between Pico, Lorenzo de Medici, and Poliziano. Hey, this is Wells Adams with "By Order of the Faithful's Podcast alongside my fellow faithfuls and co-hosts, Tamer Judge, and Dolores Cotania." The three of us have been watching this season of the Traders,

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From a perfect rush to recruitment scandals, what is really going on behind the doors of those sorority houses from Alpha to Omega? We're taking you inside sorority row, including the

“chapter room, as we explore the fellowship in the front of me. Let's get dirty.”

Listen to dirty rush on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We mentioned earlier in this episode that Poliziano had been rumored to have gay affairs with his students, but it wasn't just Poliziano. Rumors of bisexuality followed Lorenzo de Medici and picot de la Mirandola as well. Some even think that picot and Poliziano were a couple. Poliziano wrote picot a poem that said picot was "a hero on whom nature had lavished all the

endowments both of body and mind." Historian Paul Strathern wrote that picot and Lorenzo were certainly bisexual, suggesting that this group of neoplatonist intellectuals may have been more

“than hemplotonic friends. There was certainly a widespread culture of male homosexuality in”

Florence, according to the historian Michael Rock, in Florence every year during the last four decades of the 15th century, an average of some 400 people were implicated and 55 to 60 condemned for Sodomy. It's worth pointing out that accusations of Sodomy were effective political tools that someone could use to ruin an enemy's reputation. All of that said there isn't a lot of evidence to suggest that picot, Lorenzo, or Poliziano were involved with each other. picot, Lorenzo,

and Poliziano saw open expressions of love and admiration as a classical tradition and a natural extension of their platonic ideals. But that argument didn't really land with the church. Many of picot's contemporaries were suspicious of close affectionate relationships between male friends. Unlike Poliziano, rumors about Lorenzo and picot's sexuality didn't emerge until the 20th century. Frustrated with the decadents of the Medici era, many early Catholic historians suggested that

the vibe of the Medici court was too erodically permissive. Stratheron's assertion that picot and Lorenzo were "certainly bisexual" is an outlier. As few other historians have speculated about their

sexuality, outside of the general cultural context. But you never know.

Noble blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grimmin Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah's Wick, Courtney Sender, Amy Height, and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Rima Il Kayali, and executive producers Aaron Manky, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, this is Wells Adams, with by order of the Faithful's podcast alongside my fellow Faithful's and co-hosts, Tamarajudge, and Dolores Catania. The three of us have been watching the season of the traders, and we've been inside that castle, so we have insight unlike many others. This season

number on podcast network, iHeart, follow by order of the Faithful's and start listening on the

“free iHeart Radio app today. Hey everyone, it's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the”

legally-brown-at-podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens.

Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your

“head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers,”

we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to legally

Burnett on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

“When segregation was a law, one mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own rules.”

segregation in the day, integration at night. It was like sippin' on another world. Was he a businessman, a criminal, a hero? Charlie wasn't an example, a pal. They had the crush in. Charlie's place, from Atlas Obscura and visit Mirdle Beach. Listen to Charlie's place on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This isn't iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human