Lorenzo II, Duke of Urbino

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (September 12, 1519, Florence), Duke of Urbino, grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent; he was ruler of Florence from 1513 to his untimely death from syphilis in 1519. Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince was dedicated to him, as a young ruler who might unite all Italy by expelling the foreign occupiers.

Although his uncle, the Medici Pope Leo X, made "Lorenzino" duke of Urbino, the territory reverted to the Della Rovere family after Lorenzo's death.

As Duke of Urbino, he married Madeleine de la Tour, daughter of the Count of Auvergne, on June 13, 1518; the marriage produced a daughter, Caterina, who was born shortly after his death. She went on to become Catherine de' Medici, the famous queen of Henry II of France, in a marriage arranged by her distant cousin, the Medici pope Pope Clement VII, in his last successful move.

His tomb in the Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo is ornamented with the Twilight and Dawn of Michelangelo, along with a statue of Lorenzo by Michaelangelo. Due to the identical name he shares with his grandfather (they are both Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici), whose tomb is also in the Medici chapel, this tomb is often mistaken for that of his grandfather.