Giuliano de’ Medici (1479–1516), the third son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was a major figure in Renaissance Italy, not least for his role as principal ruler of Florence on behalf of the Medici family from September 1512, when the family returned from eighteen years of exile, until May 1513. Nonetheless, Giuliano had never attracted a monograph, until Jungić (1942–2013) undertook the task. As an art historian, she might have been expected to focus on Giuliano’s close association with Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael. But instead she chose to write a “political biography” (195), not only as a result of Giuliano’s intimate friendship with Machiavelli but also because he was the first dedicatee of The Prince.
In the course of her research, Jungić made some remarkable discoveries. One of Machiavelli’s poems, the capitolo pastorale, “Poscia che a l’ombra, sotto questo alloro,” has long been a puzzle. Scholars have disputed whether...