Immigrants from the countryside, the Medici family amassed wealth and used it to dramatically rise to power in Florence, Italy. The Medici moved to Florence in the twelfth century from the Mugello, an area in northern Tuscany. They joined the moneylending business early and were not particularly wealthy in comparison to established families of the late middle ages. But they were soon some of the richest bankers in Europe and used their money to influence the financial world, patronize flourishing Renaissance art, and transform the political landscape of Florence.
Medici Family Banking Empire
Early modern Florence was an important financial center with many firms specializing in international commerce and banking. The Medici bank became one of the most famous and successful of these institutions, although not the first Florentine bank to amass large amounts of wealth. Early modern Florentine banks were not focused on the needs of local clients, such as accepting deposits and extending loans, although they may have offered these services at their Florentine locations. Instead they chiefly focused on foreign exchange. By establishing branches in major trading centers across Europe, the Medici bank tapped into foreign trade networks and offered exchange and transfer of credit for clients.
The Medici banking success was not immediate. In the early fourteenth century, the Medici were working as local bankers, but it was not until later in the century that Vieri di Cambio opened a bank in Rome to do business for the Catholic Church. In 1 397, his successor, Giovanni di Bicci, transferred the headquarters of his own bank to Florence, where it continued to prosper. During the fifteenth century, Cosimo de’Medici turned Bicci’s bank into the largest in Florence.
In 1466, the Medici bank became involved in the trade of alum, which was essential in the cloth industry of the time. Merchants imported it from the Levant before mines were discovered at Tolfa, north of Rome on the western coast of Italy. The Medici bank was given the papal monopoly over the Tolfa mines. When further sources of alum were discovered on the Italian peninsula, Lorenzo de’ Medici used devious means to suppress these sources of competition, even sending 12,000 soldiers to brutally sack Volterra, a city subject to Florence. In 1476, Sixtus VI shifted the Tolfa alum monopoly to the bank of the rival Pazzi family, but Innocent VIII later restored it to the Medici bank.
Despite its success, the Medici bank began to go downhill in the later fifteenth century due to a combination of outside factors and poor decisions by Medici leaders. There was a diminishing supply of English wool (an important commodity for trade at the time), the Medici traded heavily on equity, and it was common for banks at the time to operate with tenuous cash reserves. By the time Cosimo de’ Medici died in 1464, several branches of the bank were facing financial difficulties and the establishment overall was profiting less. Cosimo’s less-talented successors were unable to stop the nose-dive taken by the bank, possibly because as unofficial rulers of Florence they made decisions that were politically rather than financially advantageous.
In 1478, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici during Sunday mass, successfully killing Giuliano but not Lorenzo. The failure of the plot may have inspired the Medici’s other enemies to take further action to financially harm the bank. By 1494, the bank was virtually bankrupt and Lorenzo’s son, sometimes called “Piero the Unfortunate,” made catastrophic political decisions that led to the Medici’s expulsion from Florence and loss of all their Florentine property.
Medici Family’s Political Control of Florence
The Medici sought influential government positions from the beginning of their time in the Florentine Republic, but they gained more complete control of the city after their success in the financial industry. One of the early Medici, Ardingo de’ Medici, served on the illustrious signoria council at the end of the thirteenth century and his family quickly followed suit. Medici were part of the signoria twenty-eight times over the next fifty years. But this was just the beginning of the Medici family’s influence in politics.
Cosimo de’ Medici, who brought the Medici bank to prominence, used his financial success to gain control of the Florentine Republic. He did not officially make himself a prince because fifteenth-century Florentines were devoted to having a republic and would have revolted. Instead, he used behind-the-scenes negotiation and bribery to control political affairs and elections. The family’s influence was carried on by Cosimo’s son, Piero (r.1464-1469), and grandson, sometimes called “Lorenzo the Magnificent” (r.1469-1492).
From 1492 to 1537, the Medici relationship with Florence was turbulent, as they were banished twice but managed to regain their influence. But the turbulence was followed by the reign of Cosimo I as Grand Duke of Florence beginning in 1537, making Medici control of the city official. The Medici continued ruling as grand dukes until 1737.
Patrons of Art and Science
The Medici also used their wealth to finance the unparalleled flourishing of art and culture in Renaissance Florence. Cosimo de’ Medici was the patron of many artists and architects, including Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Michelozzo di Bartolomeo. He supported Florentine scholars and helped purchase literary and philosophical manuscripts in Latin and Greek. Lorenzo also supported Florentine artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Michelangelo.
He gave more attention to building villas, collecting artifacts such as gems, and commissioning statues, while he continued to grow the family’s collection of books and manuscripts. The Medici rulers of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries carried on this elaborate patronage with vast architectural and landscaping projects, such as the Uffizi and the Boboli Gardens, and by commissioning theatrical and musical productions. Cosimo II de’ Medici supported the development of early modern science, particularly by his support of Galileo Galilei as Court Mathematician and Philosopher.
References
De Roover, Raymond. The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Darr, Alan P. “The Medici and the Legacy of Michelangelo in Late Renaissance Florence: An Introduction.” In The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence, edited by Cristina Acidini Luchinat et al., 1-8. Yale University Press, 2002.
Goldthwaite, Richard A. “The Medici Bank and the World of Florentine Capitalism.” Past and Present 114 (February 1987): 3-31.
Hollingsworth, Mary. The Family Medici: The Hidden History of the Medici Dynasty. New York: Pegasus Books, 2018.
Levack, Brian, Edward Muir, and Meredith Veldman. The West: Encounters and Transformations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Incorporated, 2014.
Further Reading
De Roover, Raymond. The Medici Bank: Its Organization, Management, Operations, and Decline. New York: New York University Press, 1948.
Günster, Andrea and Stephen Martin. “A Holy Alliance: Collusion in the Renaissance Europe Alum Market.” Review of Industrial Organization 47, No. 1 (August 2015): 1-23.
Martines, Lauro. April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
“Medici Family: Italian Family,” Encyclopedia Britannica.