Stefano da Bagnone

Stefano was born in 1418 in Bagnone. Having taken his religious vows, he entered the service of Jacopo de' Pazzi, a Florentine banker, as chaplain and tutor to his daughter Caterina.[1]

Of republican and liberal ideas, he was hostile to the government of Lorenzo de' Medici because he considered it tyrannical. For this reason, in April 1478, he agreed to take part in the conspiracy conceived by Jacopo to kill Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano. Initially, the two were to be eliminated during a dinner in their palace by the mercenary Giovanni Battista Montesecco, but Giuliano's absence prevented the project from being carried out.[1][2]

The conspirators then decided to eliminate the Medici brothers during the Easter mass on 26 April 1478, in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. However, Montesecco refused to kill on sacred ground, so the task of killing Lorenzo was entrusted to Stefano, Antonio Maffei and Bernardo Bandini. The three failed, both through inexperience and through the intervention of Francesco Nori, and Lorenzo survived with only a few minor injuries.[1]

Later, Lorenzo turned the crowd against the conspirators, who in a few days were almost all captured and killed. Stefano and Antonio were captured, tried and tortured, having their ears and nose cut off.[3]

On 3 May 1478, after making a complete confession, they were hanged from the windows of Palazzo della Signoria.[1][2]

• Stefano da Bagnone appears in the video game Assassin's Creed II, as one of the victims of the protagonist Ezio Auditore.[4]