THE MEDICI FAMILY
The Medici family of bankers & merchants founded a dynasty that in effect ruled Florence (& later all of Tuscany) for most of the period between 1434 & 1737. The Medicis first arrived in Florence around 1200 from the Mugello region, north of Florence. During the thirteenth century the city of Florence became increasingly famous & prosperous due to its success in the cloth & woolen trade, but also became increasingly divided between those who supported the Pope, the Guelphs, & those who supported the Holy Roman Empire, the Ghibellines. Success in commerce & trade led to the creation of trade guilds, among which was the guild of bankers. The Medicis made their fortune & achieved their status in the banking business & within the greater guilds of Florence. And, for the most part, the Medicis aligned themselves with the interests of the papacy.
The family fortune was established by Giovanni de’Medici (1360-1429) who founded the Medici bank, which was one of the most prosperous and respected institutions in Europe. On his death the business was passed onto his son, Cosimo (1389-1464), also known as Cosimo the Elder, under whose leadership the bank became a network of twenty two branches spreading from London to Naples. (A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double entry bookkeeping system for tracking debits & credits. This system was first used by accountants working for the Medici family in Florence.) There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe at this time. Like his father, Cosimo kept a low profile in politics being gondfalonier (standard bearer of Justice, a position held for just 2 months) only once. However, he did control a large party of supporters & the populace liked him because he was not obviously extravagant & much of his patronage of the arts, as at San Marco & San Lorenzo benefited the public. It is also suggested that as the Medici family were connected to most other elite families of the time through marriages of convenience, partnerships or employment, thus encouraging the rise of the Medici family. Under Cosimo, the Medici became bankers to the Papacy. In 1433 Cosimo was exiled following a plot by the Strozzi, Brancacci & Abizzi families, who complained bitterly that he wielded too much power. Cosimo’s guidance & the stability that his bank gave to the city were greatly missed by the Florentines, however, & a year later he returned in triumph. Cosimo's claim to greatness, however, rests chiefly on his generosity toward artists and scholars. He founded the famous Medici Library and an academy for Greek studies (headed by Marsilio Ficino), built extensively in Florence, and protected such artists as Brunnelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, and Luca della Robbia. He also influenced learning through his support of both humanistic education & the creation of the Europe’s first public library at the monastery of San Marco in Florence. This library was dedicated primarily to housing classical and early Christian manuscripts. It is said that Cosimo’s social equals praised his qualities of magnanimity & the way in which he combined a devotion to learning with an active & conscientious concern for public affairs. His book-collecting enthusiasm can be traced back to at least 1418. Cosimo had two sons, Piero (1416–1469) and Giovanni (1421–1453). Piero suffered throughout his life with a severe case of gout and served as head of the family only briefly (1464–1469) after Cosimo’s death. It was Piero’s son Lorenzo, however, who assumed leadership of the family from 1469 and who came to be called il Magnifico, the magnificent.
Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–1492) was only twenty years old when he assumed his duties as both head of the Medici family and shaper of Florentine policy. Following his grandfather Cosimo’s lead, Lorenzo dedicated himself to assisting the rising generation of young artists and scholars. Indeed Lorenzo was an artist in his own right, and author of poetry and song. The numerous recipients of his patronage were some of the leading creative spirits of the Italian Renaissance, including Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), and Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). As a young man in his teens, Michelangelo actually lived in the Medici house. He later sculpted the Medici tombs and designed the New Sacristy Chapel of San Lorenzo, which houses them. Lorenzo is also credited with establishing internal stability and external diplomacy to secure Florence’s independence. Lorenzo was very capable of leading & ruling a city; however, he neglected the family banking business leading to its ultimate ruin.
To ensure the continuance of his family's success, Lorenzo planned his children's future careers for them. He groomed the headstrong Piero II to follow as his successor in civil leadership; Giovanni (future Pope Leo X) was placed in the church at an early age; and his daughter Maddalena was provided with a sumptuous dowry when she made the politically advantageous marriage to a son of Pope Innocent VIII. There was a conspiracy in 1478 to kill Lorenzo with his brother Giuliano during Easter services, the assassination attempt ending with the death of Giuliano and only injuring Lorenzo (later Giuliano and Lorenzo were buried together in the Medici Chapel). The conspiracy involved the Pazzi and Salviati families, who were both rival banking families seeking to end the Medici influence, the priest presiding over the church services, the Archbishop of Pisa and even Pope Sixtus IV to a degree. The conspirators approached Sixtus IV in the hopes of gaining his approval, (he and the Medici had a long rivalry themselves), which the pope refused to officially give but allowed the plot to proceed nonetheless without interfering, and, after the failed assassination of Lorenzo, also gave dispensation for crimes in the service of the church. After this, Lorenzo adopted his illegitimate son, Giulio de' Medici (1478–1535), the future Pope Clement VII.
Medici power faltered in the 1490s with Lorenzo’s death, leaving the way clear for Girolamo Savonarola, a charismatic monk eventually removed by the papacy in 1498. Lorenzo the Magnificent’s son Piero fled the city during the time of Savonarola. The city once more was a Republic. By 1512, the Medici were back, & Lorenzo the Magnificent’s son Giovanni & his nephew Giulio became Pope as Leo X (1513-21) & Clement VII (1523-34). They were de facto rulers of both Rome & Florence. Also, both patrons of the arts and continued in the family tradition of patronizing artists. Pope Leo X would chiefly commission works from Raphael. Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel just before the pontiff's death in 1534. In 1527-30 the Medici had another period of exile, but then returned to assume near absolute control. The major Medici patron of the C16 was Cosimo I (1519-74), who was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1569, then took control of Tuscany & assumed the title of Grand Duke. He defeated Siena & Pisa early in his reign & dispensed with the last vestiges of republicanism. As a patron of the arts his aim was to create propaganda, glorifying himself as head of State & celebrating the illustrious fifteenth century history of the Medici. His right-hand man in artistic affairs was Giorgio Vasari, painter, architect (the Uffizi was his finest building) & author of The Lives of the Artists (1550), a book that has won him the reputation as the father of art history. Under subsequent Medici leadership Florence gradually lost ground in terms of European importance. The last Medici died in 1737.
In addition to commissions for art and architecture, the Medici were prolific collectors and today their acquisitions form the core of the Uffizi museum in Florence. In architecture, the Medici are responsible for some notable features of Florence; including the Uffizi Gallery, The Boboli Gardens, the Belvedere, the Palazzo Medici & Medici Chapel.
Although none of the Medici themselves were scientists, the family is well known to have been the patrons of the famous Galileo Galilei, who tutored multiple generations of Medici children, and was an important figurehead for his patron's quest for power. Galileo's patronage was eventually abandoned by Ferdinando II, when the Inquisition accused Galileo of heresy. However, the Medici family did afford the scientist a safe haven for many years. Galileo named the four largest moons of Jupiter after four Medici children he tutored, although the names Galileo used are not the names currently used.
You can see the Medici Family tree at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medici_family_tree
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Medici Family Tree, viewed 16 September 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medici_family_tree
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Lorenzo de' Medici, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 28 September 2011,
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Galileo Galilei, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 29 September 2011,
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References
Hale, J.R., c1977, Florence and the Medici, Phoenix Press, London.
Lombardi, Matthew, 2006, Italy, Fodor's, New York.
Strathern, Paul, c2003, The Medici - Godfathers of the Renaissance, Jonathan Cape, London.
Strathern, Paul, c2003, The Medici - Godfathers of the Renaissance, Jonathan Cape, London.
Brion, Marcel, c1969, The Medici - A Great Florentine Family, Elek Books, London.
Acidini, Cristina...[et al.], c2002, The Medici, Michelangelo & the Art of Late Renaissance Florence, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Polastron, Lucien X., c2007, Books on Fire - The Tumultuous Story of the World's Great Libraries, Thames & Hudson, London.
Rice, G., 1996, The Medici Family, Rice, G., viewed 16 September 2011, http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/student_work/florence96/alexc/medici.html
Polastron, Lucien X., c2007, Books on Fire - The Tumultuous Story of the World's Great Libraries, Thames & Hudson, London.
Rice, G., 1996, The Medici Family, Rice, G., viewed 16 September 2011, http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/student_work/florence96/alexc/medici.html
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Cosimo de' Medici, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 28 September 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosimo_de'_Medici
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Lorenzo de' Medici, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 28 September 2011,
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Pope Clement VII, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 28 September 2011,
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, Pope Leo X, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 28 September 2011,
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 2011, House of Medici, Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, viewed 29 September 2011,
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici#cite_note-9
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici#cite_note-9
Medievalists.net, 2011, Medici Power and Patronage under Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent, Medievalists.net, viewed 5 October 2011., http://www.medievalists.net/2011/05/04/medici-power-and-patronage-under-cosimo-the-elder-and-lorenzo-the-magnificent/
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