Famed for having killed his cousin Alessandro, the Duke of Florence, in 1537, but also for writing accomplished literary works, including a comedy and several poems, Lorenzino de’ Medici remains one of the most enigmatic figures of Italian literature. In his masterpiece, Apology for a Murder, he reveals the inner motives behind his act, portraying himself as a hero to be numbered alongside the great tyrannicides of ancient Rome and Greece.

Lorenzino himself, in 1548, was murdered by two soldiers hired by Cosimo, Alessandro’s successor as Duke, and this volume includes the dramatic account of his killing by Francesco da Bibbona, one of the assassins, as well as a selection of Lorenzino’s poems, giving a fully rounded image of the antihero of Alfred de Musset’s Lorenzaccio.