Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli (24 April 1453 – 3 May 1479) was a banker of the House of Pazzi who took part in the Pazzi Conspiracy. Baroncelli was in charge of supplying the mercenaries with weapons, and he equipped an entire battalion of men. Baroncelli was gruesomely executed when the conspiracy was crushed.
Biography[]
Baroncelli was an accountant of the Pazzi Bank under Jacopo de Pazzi, and was inducted into the Knights Templar through his connections to the House of Pazzi. He was angered when his cousins were exiled by the Florentines, and he worked for the Templars at night while he worked for the Pazzi bank by day. In 1478 he supplied swords, staves, axes, armor, and bows to the fellow Pazzi Conspiracy members in an assassination attempt on Lorenzo de Medici and his younger brother Giuliano de Medici in front of the whole city at the Sunday services of 26 April 1478 in front of Florence Cathedral. He was a willing blade, and he and Francesco de Pazzi knifed Giuliano De Medici to death. He escaped the scene as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a Medici ally and Assassins Order member, struck out at the twelve Templar mercenaries who tried to kill a wounded Lorenzo.
Death[]
Baroncelli's death
Mario Auditore's scouts found out where Baroncelli was, as he had been extradited from Constantinople back to Italy by Lorenzo de Medici. Baroncelli managed to escape custody and hide somewhere in San Gimignano, Tuscany, and he became very paranoid. Baroncelli devised plans to bribe guards at a watch tower so that he could sleep there, and he planned to keep moving so that Ezio could never find him. However, Ezio managed to locate him, and he mortally wounded him by jumping at him and stabbing him in the back. Baroncelli revealed that the Templars gathered at the Santa Maria Assunta church whenever a meeting was called, and he died in Ezio's arms as Ezio apologized that he had to kill him.