X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Pope Leo X


Andrea Ammonio

On April 12, 1514, he became an English citizen, and in 1515 Pope Leo X appointed him subcollector of papal taxes in England, after Ammonio had conspired against Polydore Vergil for the post.

Battle of Bicocca

Giovanni had been in the Papal service, but reneged on his contract, claiming that it had been made with the recently dead Pope Leo X and not with his successor, Pope Adrian VI.

Battle of Orsha

King Sigismund wrote to the Pope Leo X about a "horde of Muscovites" which counted 80,000 men.

Calera de León

In memory of this miracle the master ordered a temple be built atop the highest mountain, which was elevated to the status of monastery by Pope Leo X in 1514.

John Bradley-West

Bradley's first appearance on television was in the TV drama Borgia where he played a minor role as Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici.


Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

The Medici Pope Leo X gave Michelangelo the commission to design a façade in white Carrara marble in 1518.

Il Sodoma

When Leo X became pope (1513), Sodoma presented him with a picture of the Death of Lucretia (or of Cleopatra, according to some accounts).

Lazarus Spengler

Spengler was one of Luther's supporters mentioned by name in Pope Leo X's bull Exsurge Domine, issued on June 15, 1520, threatening to excommunicate Luther and his followers if they did not submit to the pope.

Pierre Alamire

Manuscripts copied by Alamire can be found in many European libraries, including the Habsburg court library in Vienna, in London (the Henry VIII manuscript), the Vatican (a manuscript for Pope Leo X), Brussels, Munich, and Jena, which has the court books for Frederick III, Elector of Saxony.

Renaissance Papacy

Although Adrian VI said mass every day for the year he was pope, there is no evidence that his two predecessors—Julius II and Leo X—ever celebrated mass at all.


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