Oh man, how do you solve a 5-centuries-old murder plot?

Todd Hoovler offers a few pointers as Mansfield Middle School students work to determine who was behind an assassination plot in Florence, Italy, in 1478. Students in Skip Fulton’s class also were involved in the exercise this week. Photo by Zach Love

      How’s this for a middle school social studies assignment: Use crime scene investigation techniques to solve a 540-year-old murder mystery – in Italy, no less.

      Teachers Todd Hoovler and Skip Fulton adapted the project from an Internet lesson plan centered on the 1478 attempt to destroy the Medici family in Florence by assassination. The event on Easter Sunday, April 26, 1478, threatened political stability throughout Italy.

      Hoovler set the classroom scene:

      “Mr. Fulton and I are doing what we think will be an awesome lesson,” he said. “We are conducting a CSI investigation into the 1478 attempt to wipe out the Medici family in Florence. We are going to have full-color exhibits, posed corpses (mannequins from the Senior High health tech classroom), testimony by historical figures via video and group interaction.”

      In the 15^th century the Medicis were considered the first family of the Italian Renaissance. The power and influence of Giuliano de’ Medici and his brother Lorenzo dominated commerce, art and religion.

      But the Medicis had enemies, including the rival Pazzi family, Pope Sixtus IV and the Duke of Urbino.

      The Medici brothers were attacked on Easter Sunday during High Mass before a huge crowd. Giuliano was stabbed multiple times and died on the cathedral floor. Lorenzo escaped with serious wounds.

      The coup had failed. Those who committed the attack were tracked down and hanged but the question of who was behind the conspiracy remained unsolved.

      Members of the Pazzi family were directly involved in the attack but had the family conspired with Pope Sixtus IV, who had opposed the Medicis in high-stakes financial matters? Or was the Duke of Urbino involved because of his own political ambitions?

      The assignment for Hoovler’s and Fulton’s students was to search through the online records, examine all available evidence and determine who should be indicted for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy.

      Five centuries later, examination of one of Italy’s most sensational crimes rests in two classrooms at Mansfield Middle School.