Cosimo de' Medici
Encyclopedia
Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was the first of the Medici
political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence
during much of the Italian Renaissance
; also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'" ("il Vecchio") and "Cosimo Pater Patriae" (Latin
: 'father of the nation').
. In 1415 he accompanied the Antipope John XXIII
at the council of Constance
, and in the same year he was named Priore of the Republic. Later he acted frequently as ambassador
, showing a prudence for which he became renowned.
His power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control votes. As Florence was proud of its 'democracy
', he pretended to have little political ambition, and did not often hold public office. Aeneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena
and later Pope Pius II
, said:
"Political questions are settled in [Cosimo's] house. The man he chooses holds office...He it is who decides peace and war...He is king in all but name." Quoted by C.Hibbert in The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, 1974.
In 1433 Cosimo's power over Florence, which he exerted without occupying public office, began to look like a menace to the anti-Medici party, led by figures such as Palla Strozzi
and Rinaldo degli Albizzi
: in September of that year he was imprisoned, accused for the failure of the conquest of Lucca
, but he managed to turn the jail term into one of exile. He went to Padua
and then to Venice
, taking his bank along with him. Prompted by his influence and his money, others followed him: within a year, the flight of capital from Florence was so great that the ban of exile had to be lifted. Cosimo returned a year later in 1434, to greatly influence the government of Florence (especially through the Pitti
and Soderini
families) and to lead by example for the rest of his long life.
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Cosimo's time in exile instilled in him the need to squash the factionalism that resulted in his exile in the first place. In order to do this, Cosimo, with the help of favourable priors in the Signoria, instigated a series of constitutional changes to secure his power through influence.
In the political sphere, Cosimo worked to create peace in Northern Italy through the creation of a balance of power between Florence
, Naples
, Venice
and Milan
during the wars in Lombardy
, and discouraging outside powers (notably the French and the Holy Roman Empire
) from interfering. In 1439 he was also instrumental in convincing pope Eugene IV to move the Ecumenical council
of Ferrara to Florence. The arrival of notable Byzantine
figures from the Empire in the East, including Emperor John VIII Palaiologos
himself, started the boom of culture and arts in the city.
Cosimo was also noted for his patronage of culture and the arts, liberally spending the family fortune (which his astute business sense considerably increased) to enrich Florence. According to Salviati
's Zibaldone, Cosimo stated: "All those things have given me the greatest satisfaction and contentment because they are not only for the honor of God but are likewise for my own remembrance. For fifty years, I have done nothing else but earn money and spend money; and it became clear that spending money gives me greater pleasure than earning it."
He also hired the young Michelozzo Michelozzi to create what is today perhaps the prototypical Florentine palazzo
, the austere and magnificent Palazzo Medici. He was a patron and confidante of Fra Angelico
, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Donatello
, whose famed David and Judith Slaying Holofernes were Medici commissions. Cosimo's patronage enabled the eccentric and bankrupt architect Brunelleschi
to complete the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
(the "Duomo
") which was perhaps his crowning achievement as sponsor.
In the realm of philosophy, Cosimo, influenced by the lectures of Gemistus Pletho
n, established a modern Platonic Academy
in Florence. He appointed Marsilio Ficino
as head of the Academy and commissioned Ficino's Latin translation of the complete works of Plato
(the first ever complete translation). Through Ficino and others associated with the Academy, Cosimo had an inestimable effect on Renaissance intellectual life.
On his death in 1464 at Careggi
, Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero "the Gouty"
, father of Lorenzo the Magnificent or Il Magnifico
. After his death the Signoria
awarded him the title Pater Patriae
, "Father of his Country", an honor once awarded to Cicero
, and had it carved upon his tomb in the Church of San Lorenzo
.
(the daughter of Giovanni, count of Vernio, and Emilia Pannocchieschi). They had two sons:
Cosimo also had an illegitimate son by a Circassian slave; Carlo (c. 1428 - 1492), who became a prelate.
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
during much of the Italian Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
; also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'" ("il Vecchio") and "Cosimo Pater Patriae" (Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
: 'father of the nation').
Biography
Born in Florence, Cosimo inherited both his wealth and his expertise in business from his father, Giovanni di Bicci de' MediciGiovanni di Bicci de' Medici
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici was an Italian banker, the first historically relevant member of Medici family of Florence, and the founder of the Medici bank...
. In 1415 he accompanied the Antipope John XXIII
Antipope John XXIII
Baldassarre Cossa was Pope John XXIII during the Western Schism. The Catholic Church regards him as an antipope.-Biography:...
at the council of Constance
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance is the 15th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Three-Popes Controversy, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining Papal claimants and electing Pope Martin V.The Council also condemned and...
, and in the same year he was named Priore of the Republic. Later he acted frequently as ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
, showing a prudence for which he became renowned.
His power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control votes. As Florence was proud of its 'democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
', he pretended to have little political ambition, and did not often hold public office. Aeneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
and later Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
, said:
"Political questions are settled in [Cosimo's] house. The man he chooses holds office...He it is who decides peace and war...He is king in all but name." Quoted by C.Hibbert in The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, 1974.
In 1433 Cosimo's power over Florence, which he exerted without occupying public office, began to look like a menace to the anti-Medici party, led by figures such as Palla Strozzi
Palla Strozzi
Palla di Onofrio Strozzi was an Italian banker, politician, writer, philosopher and philologist.-Biography:He was born in Florence into the rich family of the Strozzi. He was educated by humanists, learning Greek and Latin, and establishing an important collection of rare books...
and Rinaldo degli Albizzi
Rinaldo degli Albizzi
Rinaldo degli Albizzi was an Italian nobleman, a member of the Florentine family of the Albizzi. Together with Palla Strozzi, he was the main opponent of Cosimo de' Medici's rise in Florence....
: in September of that year he was imprisoned, accused for the failure of the conquest of Lucca
Lucca
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
, but he managed to turn the jail term into one of exile. He went to Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
and then to Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, taking his bank along with him. Prompted by his influence and his money, others followed him: within a year, the flight of capital from Florence was so great that the ban of exile had to be lifted. Cosimo returned a year later in 1434, to greatly influence the government of Florence (especially through the Pitti
Luca Pitti
Luca Pitti was a Florentine banker during the period of the republic presided over by Cosimo de' Medici. He was a loyal friend and servant to the Medici and the republic...
and Soderini
Piero Soderini
Piero di Tommaso Soderini also known as Pier Soderini, was an Italian statesman of the Republic of Florence.-Biography:...
families) and to lead by example for the rest of his long life.
In the political sphere, Cosimo worked to create peace in Northern Italy through the creation of a balance of power between Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
during the wars in Lombardy
Wars in Lombardy
The wars in Lombardy were a series of conflicts fought in central-northern Italy between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, and their different allies. They lasted from 1425 until the signing of the Treaty of Lodi in 1454...
, and discouraging outside powers (notably the French and the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
) from interfering. In 1439 he was also instrumental in convincing pope Eugene IV to move the Ecumenical council
Ecumenical council
An ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice....
of Ferrara to Florence. The arrival of notable Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
figures from the Empire in the East, including Emperor John VIII Palaiologos
John VIII Palaiologos
John VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus , was the penultimate reigning Byzantine Emperor, ruling from 1425 to 1448.-Life:John VIII Palaiologos was the eldest son of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš, the daughter of the Serbian prince Constantine Dragaš...
himself, started the boom of culture and arts in the city.
Cosimo was also noted for his patronage of culture and the arts, liberally spending the family fortune (which his astute business sense considerably increased) to enrich Florence. According to Salviati
Salviati
Salviati may refer to:Families:* The Salviati, a 15th century Florentine-Roman banking family.** In Galileo's Dialogue, Salviati is the character who speaks for him...
's Zibaldone, Cosimo stated: "All those things have given me the greatest satisfaction and contentment because they are not only for the honor of God but are likewise for my own remembrance. For fifty years, I have done nothing else but earn money and spend money; and it became clear that spending money gives me greater pleasure than earning it."
He also hired the young Michelozzo Michelozzi to create what is today perhaps the prototypical Florentine palazzo
Palazzo
Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...
, the austere and magnificent Palazzo Medici. He was a patron and confidante of Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"...
, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Donatello
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
, whose famed David and Judith Slaying Holofernes were Medici commissions. Cosimo's patronage enabled the eccentric and bankrupt architect Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...
to complete the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
Santa Maria del Fiore
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi...
(the "Duomo
Duomo
Duomo is a term for a cathedral church. The formal word for a church that is presently a cathedral is cattedrale; a Duomo may be either a present or a former cathedral . Some, like the Duomo of Monza, have never been cathedrals, although old and important...
") which was perhaps his crowning achievement as sponsor.
In the realm of philosophy, Cosimo, influenced by the lectures of Gemistus Pletho
Gemistus Pletho
Georgius Gemistus — later called Plethon or Pletho — was a Greek scholar of Neoplatonic philosophy. He was one of the chief pioneers of the revival of Greek learning in Western Europe...
n, established a modern Platonic Academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
in Florence. He appointed Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin...
as head of the Academy and commissioned Ficino's Latin translation of the complete works of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
(the first ever complete translation). Through Ficino and others associated with the Academy, Cosimo had an inestimable effect on Renaissance intellectual life.
Villa Medici at Careggi
The Villa Medici at Careggi is a patrician villa in the hills near Florence, Tuscany, central Italy.-History:The villa was among the first of a number of Medici villas, notable as the site of the Platonic academy founded by Cosimo de' Medici, who died at the villa in 1464...
, Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero "the Gouty"
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici , , was the de facto ruler of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance. He was the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giuliano de' Medici-Biography:Piero was born in Florence, the son of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder and Contessina de' Bardi...
, father of Lorenzo the Magnificent or Il Magnifico
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists and poets...
. After his death the Signoria
Signoria of Florence
The Signoria was the government of medieval and renaissance Florence. Its nine members, the Priori, were chosen from the ranks of the guilds of the city: six of them from the major guilds, and two from the minor guilds...
awarded him the title Pater Patriae
Pater Patriae
Pater Patriae , also seen as Parens Patriae, is a Latin honorific meaning "Father of the Country," or more literally, "Father of the Fatherland".- Roman history :...
, "Father of his Country", an honor once awarded to Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, and had it carved upon his tomb in the Church of San Lorenzo
Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze
The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III...
.
Issue
Cosimo married Contessina de' BardiContessina de' Bardi
Contessina de Bardi was born in about 1390 and died in Florence in October 1473.-Di Bardi Family:The family of Contessina de Bardi had been exceptionally rich for some time but, following the collapse of the family bank in 1343, its importance was considerably reduced. They enjoyed some fame as...
(the daughter of Giovanni, count of Vernio, and Emilia Pannocchieschi). They had two sons:
- Piero the GoutyPiero di Cosimo de' MediciPiero di Cosimo de' Medici , , was the de facto ruler of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance. He was the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giuliano de' Medici-Biography:Piero was born in Florence, the son of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder and Contessina de' Bardi...
- Giovanni de' Medici
Cosimo also had an illegitimate son by a Circassian slave; Carlo (c. 1428 - 1492), who became a prelate.
See also
- Republic of FlorenceRepublic of FlorenceThe Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...
- House of Medici
- History of FlorenceHistory of FlorenceFlorence is a major historical city in Italy, distinguished as one of the most outstanding economical, cultural, political and artistic centres in the peninsula from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.-Prehistoric evidence:...
- Lorenzo di Giovanni de' Medici
- Villa Medici at CafaggioloVilla Medici at CafaggioloThe Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo is a villa situated near the Tuscan town of Barberino di Mugello in the valley of the River Sieve, some 25 kilometres north of Florence, central Italy. It was one of the oldest and most favoured of the Medici family estates, having been in the possession of...
Sources
for the Palazzo Medici.- Tim Parks, Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence.
- Jacob Burkhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) 1878.
- William Connell, Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence, 2002.
- Dale Kent, Cosimo De' Medici and the Florentine Renaissance.
- Martin Roberts, Italian Renaissance
- Padgett John F., Ansell Christopher K.,"Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici. 1400-1434", The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 98, No. 6. (May, 1993), pp. 1259–1319.