Cosimo de' Medici

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The Italian merchant prince Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464) was the unofficial and benevolent despot of Florence, contributing much to making it the intellectual and cultural jewel of 15th-century Europe. The dynasty he founded ruled Florence until 1494.

Cosimo de' Medici was born on Sept. 27, 1389, the son of Giovanni de' Medici, who founded the family's legendary fortune, amassing enormous sums in trade and banking. After his father died in 1429, Cosimo continued the family's commercial and financial practices with great success. He brought goods of little weight and high value from the East and lent money to the princely houses of Europe.

Cosimo also adopted the policy, already traditional in his family, of supporting the lesser guilds and the poor against the wealthy aristocracy which ruled the city. These oligarchs became jealous of Cosimo's popularity and fearful of his democratic tendencies. Consequently they sought to destroy him and his family. In 1433, spurred on by Rinaldo degli Albizzi, the most influential of their number, they had Cosimo arrested with the intention of putting him to death. He was exiled instead when, from his place of imprisonment, he succeeded in buying the favor of Bernardo Guadagni, the gonfalonier of justice, for 1,000 ducats (about $25,000).

One year later, in October 1434, the sentence of exile was overturned by a new government favorable to Cosimo, and he returned to the city in triumph. From that time until his death he controlled both the foreign and domestic affairs of Florence, using his prestige and his money to keep his adherents in the government. Cosimo himself took public office only briefly. He believed it prudent to keep the institutions of government intact and to rule quietly, so as not to injure the republican sensibilities of the people.

His despotism established, Cosimo promptly reformed the system of taxation, changing from a fixed income tax to a graduated one. This placed a heavier burden on the wealthy, who grumbled that the Medici tyrant was using the tax as a weapon against them. The middle class and the poorer citizens, who were Cosimo's strength, were delighted and became even more ardent in their support, particularly when they saw that the funds gained through taxation, amplified by substantial contributions from Cosimo's own pocket, were put to use in public projects.

Cosimo employed the architectural skills of Michelozzo to build his palace and, in 1437, the Dominican convent of S. Marco. He commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to restore the church of S. Lorenzo, which was in dire need of repair. The cloisters of Fiesole owe their erection to Cosimo, who added to these monuments of his munificence country villas of contemporary style at both Fiesole and Careggi.

Along with the physical adornment of Florence and its environs, Cosimo provided for its cultural life. He sent his ships to the East to gather the precious manuscripts of ancient writers, and he hired scribes to copy what he could not buy. He added to this growing collection the private library of Niccolò Niccoli, an enthusiastic bibliophile who left his books to Cosimo in gratitude for generous loans which had saved him from financial ruin. These valuable manuscripts were distributed to the monastery of S. Marco in Florence and the abbey at Fiesole, except for some which Cosimo kept in his own home. These collections were open to the public.

The growing accessibility of the materials of scholarship and the persuasion of Greek scholars, to whom he was always a gracious host, inspired Cosimo to found the Platonic Academy, an institution for the translation of Plato's works and the propagation of his ideas. Marsilio Ficino, a humanist of great skill, was made president of the academy in 1458. The patronage of the tyrant did not stop here. His largesse was enjoyed not only by architects and scholars but also by some of the greatest sculptors and painters of the quattrocento, among them Donatello and Fra Filippo Lippi.

In spite of his riches and the lavish entertainments he provided for his guests, Cosimo lived modestly. He ate and drank moderately and simply and worked long, regular hours. He dressed without ostentation and was accessible to the humblest Florentine. His generosity, mildness, and wit were legendary. Upon his death on Aug. 1, 1464, a grateful city decreed that on his tomb should be inscribed the words Pater Patriae (father of his country).

Further Reading

The best biography of Cosimo is still K. Dorothea Ewart Vernon, Cosimo de' Medici (1899). A scholarly treatment of Cosimo is in George Frederick Young, The Medici (1930). A recent history of the Medici which includes a portrait of Cosimo is Marcel Brion, The Medici: A Great Florentine Family (1969), a large-format book rich in color plates. Also very useful on all the Medici is Ferdinand Schevill, History of Florence (1936), also available in a paperback edition (2 vols., 1963).

Additional Sources

Cosimo 'il Vecchio' de' Medici, 1389-1464: essays in commemoration of the 600th anniversary of Cosimo de' Medici's birth: including papers delivered at the Society for Renaissance Studies Sexcentenary Symposium at the Warburg Institute, London, 19 May 1989, Oxford England: Clarendon Press, 1992.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: Italian financier and statesman and friend of the papal court (1389-1464)
  Synonym: Cosimo the Elder

This article is about the founder of the Medici dynasty. For the Grand Duke of Tuscany, see Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Cosimo di Medici
Portrait by Bronzino.
Spouse	Contessina de' Bardi
Issue
Piero the Gouty Giovanni de' Medici Carlo di Cosimo de' Medici (illegitimate)
Noble family	Medici
Father	Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici
Mother	Piccarda Bueri
Born	27 September 1389(1389-09-27) Florence, Republic of Florence
Died	1 August 1464 (aged 74) Careggi, Republic of Florence

Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici (September 27, 1389 – August 1, 1464), was the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during most of the Italian Renaissance; also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'" ("il Vecchio") and "Cosimo Pater Patriae".

Contents 1 Biography 2 Issue 3 See also 4 References 5 Sources 6 External links

Biography

Born in Florence, Cosimo inherited both his wealth and his expertise in business from his father, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici. 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.^[1]

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.

Portrait by Jacopo Pontormo portrait: the laurel branch (il Broncone) was a symbol used also by his heirs.^[2]

Cosimo's time in exile instilled in him the need to quash 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 figures from the Byzantine Empire, 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."^[3]

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. His patronage enabled the eccentric and bankrupt architect Brunelleschi to complete the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, and the dome was perhaps his crowning achievement as sponsor.

In the realm of philosophy, Cosimo, influenced by the lectures of Gemistus Plethon, 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.

The tomb of Cosimo de' Medici in San Lorenzo, Florence.

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.

Issue

Cosimo married Contessina de' Bardi (the daughter of Giovanni, count of Vernio, and Emilia Pannocchieschi). They had two sons:

• Piero the Gouty
• 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 Florence
• House of Medici
• History of Florence
• Lorenzo di Giovanni de' Medici

References

1. ^ Italian Renaissance by Martin Roberts, Longman 1992
2. ^ After the return of the Medici in 1512, Lorenzo di Piero formed a compagnia for carnival 1513, and called it Broncone; the Pontormo portrait was commissioned by Goro Gheri, Lorenzo's scretary. Shearman, John (November 1962). "Pontormo and Andrea Del Sarto, 1513". The Burlington Magazine 104 (716): 450, 478-483. 
3. ^ Taylor, F.H. (1948). The taste of angels, a history of art collecting from Rameses to Napoleon. Boston: Little, Brown. pp. 65-66. 

Sources

• Guerrieri, Francesco; Patrizia Fabbri, (photography Stefano Giraldi (1996). Palaces of Florence. Rizzoli.  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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cosimo de' Medici

• "PBS Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

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