Medici

The Medici were a wealthy and powerful Florentine family who ruled the Italian city of Florence almost without interruption from the 1430s to 1737. While the city was a republic, they exercised power as private citizens, but in 1531 Florence became a duchy and the Medici ruled as Dukes of Florence and later, from 1569, as Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The Medici were generous patrons of learning and the arts, and supported many of the leading thinkers and artists of the Renaissance. Two of the Renaissance popes (Leo X, 1513–21 and Clement VII, 1523–34) were members of the family, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Medici became connected by marriage to many of the royal houses of Europe.

The correct Italian pronunciation of the name 'Medici' puts the stress on the first syllable - MAY-dee-chee, IPA: /ˈmeː dɪ tʃi/ - though many native English speakers stress the second syllable - mi-DEE-chee, IPA: /mə ˈdiː tʃi/. The names of individual members of the family follow the pattern: X de' Medici (e.g., Lorenzo de' Medici) or, more fully: X di Y de' Medici (e.g., Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, i.e., Lorenzo, (the son) of Piero of the (family of the) Medici). The name 'Medici' is the plural of the Italian word medico (with a hard '-c-', unlike the plural), which means 'doctor or physician' - perhaps an indication of the profession followed by some early members of the family.

The wealth of the Medici came from the wool trade and banking: in the fifteenth century the Medici Bank, founded by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360-1429), was the largest bank in Europe. Their immense wealth enabled the Medici to influence appointments to public offices and in this way by the mid-1430s they had become the de facto rulers of Florence - a position they retained during the period when the city was a republic with only two interruptions: in 1494, when the Dominican friar Savonarola established a religious republic in the city, the Medici went into exile and were not permitted to return until 1512; and in 1527 hostility to the family led to a shorter period of exile (1527-1530).

During the fifteenth century the two most distinguished members of the family were Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464, sometimes referred to as Cosimo the Elder) and Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492, grandson of Cosimo the Elder, sometimes known as Lorenzo il magnifico, Lorenzo the Magnificent). Both were men of learning and culture, and it is largely through their patronage of many of the foremost thinkers and artists of the time that Florence became the centre of the Italian Renaissance. Cosimo adopted the philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and commissioned work from the sculptor Donatello (Donato di Niccolò 1386-1466) and the painter Fra Angelico (1387-1455), while Lorenzo, a pupil and close friend of Marsilio Ficino, encouraged the philosophers Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) and Poliziano (Angelo Ambrogini, 1454-1494), assisted the young Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), and was the patron of many artists, among them Filippino Lippi (1457-1504), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1495), and Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510). The two Medici popes of the early sixteenth century - Giovanni de' Medici (1475-1521), who reigned as Pope Leo X (1513-1521), and Giulio de' Medici (1478-1535), who reigned as Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) - were also generous in their patronage of the arts: Giovanni commissioned work from Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio, 1463-1520), and Giulio from Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564).

In the third decade of the sixteenth century much of Italy came under the control of Charles V (1500-1558), who had become Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. In 1527, after his army had occupied Rome, Charles was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Medici pope Clement VII, and it was in return for this coronation and the recognition by Clement of his position in Italy that Charles agreed in 1530 to restore the Medici as rulers of Florence. In the following year Alessandro de' Medici (1510-1537) was created Duke of Florence, and the Medici were made the hereditary rulers of the city, which with its territory was elevated to the status of a Grand Duchy in 1569. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries much of Italy was effectively under the control of various foreign powers and the Medici became connected by marriage with many of the royal houses of Europe. In 1533, for example, Caterina de' Medici (Catherine de Médicis in France) (1519-1589) was married to the second son of Francis I of France, the future Henry II of France; later in the century Francesco de' Medici (1541-1587) married the Archduchess Joanna of Austria, and in 1600 Maria de' Medici, also written (in France) Marie de Médicis (1573-1642) was married to Henry IV of France. He was assassinated the day after her coronation in 1610, on which she became Regent on behalf of her son Louis XIII

During these centuries there were some able and energetic Medici rulers: Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (1519-1574, Cosimo I, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany) established the Florentine navy and built a naval base on the island of Elba; and Ferdinando di Cosimo de' Medici (1549-1609. Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany) drained the Tuscan marshes, built roads in southern Tuscany, and promoted the silk industry. The family also continued to be generous patrons of learning and the arts. Cosimo II (1590-1620), for example, invited the scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) to Florence to live under the protection of the Medici, while Ferdinando I was a patron of the sculptor Giambologna (1529-1608) and of the painter, historian, and architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). The seventeenth century, however, saw a decline in Florence's fortunes: its population decreased, public buildings fell into disrepair, roads were not maintained, the ducal finances deteriorated, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century the duchy was virtually bankrupt. The last of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Gian Gastone di Cosimo de' Medici (1671-1737), an indolent debauchee, died in 1737 without heirs, and the duchy was annexed to the territories of Austria.