Jacopo de’ Pazzi

Jacopo di Andrea de’Pazzi, better known as Jacopo de’Pazzi was a member of the prominent commercial and banking house of Florence, and the participant in the famous, but failed Pazzi Conspiracy that aimed to overthrow the Medici family.

His father, Andrea de Pazzi (1371-1445) is credited for establishing of a prominent and profitable commercial and banking house of the Pazzi. In the time of his death Jacopo was only 12 years old, and his older brothers, Antonio and Piero, take over the management of the family business. They established branch offices in French and Flemish cities, of which the most important were Lyon and Bruges, and consolidated their already existing branches in Italy and Aragon. Under their guidance, Jacopo learned the trades, and since he was unmarried he traveled and represented the family’s interests abroad.

In 1458, the city-state of Florence surveyed the wealth of its inhabitants for tax purposes. Cosimo de’ Medici proved to be the richest citizen with a liability of 576 florins; while Jacopo’s liability amounted one-sixth of Cosimo’s. In the same year, the Pazzi ordered the construction of the family palace that had the purpose to overshadow that of the Medici. In a meantime, Jacopo married Maddalena Serristori, a Florentine noblewoman with whom he had a daughter.

After the death of his brother Piero, Jacopo became the head of the family and its business. His nephews were put in charge for management of the major companies in Rome, Naples, Bruges and Lyon. Jacopo, in turn, administered bank and cloth warehouses in Florence and oversaw smaller branch offices in Marseilles, Valencia and Ragusa.

By the 1470’s the Pazzi were, according to some historians, the wealthiest Florentine family. Jacopo has held several public offices – prior, ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples, Gonfalonier of Justice, and one of the 12 Buonomini in charge for charity funds.

The zenith of power and influence, the Pazzi reached between 1474 and 1476 when they outmaneuvered the Medici and gained papal depository and alum concession in return for a 30,000 ducat loan.

Resentful because of the excessive power of the Medici in life of Florence, he had a place in an attempt of liquidation of Lorenzo de Medici and his brother Giuliano, which become known as the Pazzi Conspiracy. In the events that followed, he was killed like several other family members in a retaliation of the surviving Lorenzo de Medici.