The palaces of Medici power

Overview

The Medici were a family of great bankers (they worked for the popes, for the lord of Milan, Francesco Sforza and the king of England, Edward IV), who, for several centuries, monopolised Florentine politics. In particular, they established de facto rule during one of the city’s most extraordinary periods of splendour, the Renaissance (between 1400 – 1500 CE). They contributed with their work as patrons to redefine the face of Florence, which is still admirable today. Among the most significant exponents, we can mention Giovanni di Bicci, who established the de Medici bank and started the business Cosimo Il Vecchio, Lorenzo the Magnificent. They commissioned the greatest artists of the time, such as Donatello, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Brunelleschi, to build their private residences and also remarkable public buildings, for example, Brunelleschi’s completion of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, the restoration of the former convent of the Dominican friars, now the Museo di San Marco, and the founding of the first public library, in San Marco, now the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, by Michelangelo. This tour is structured in two phases: the first focuses on the palaces that have been the family’s residence throughout their history and which have often maintained an essential role for the city; the second part, on the other hand, will discover what monuments, buildings and structures the family has helped to build for the city, how they have shaped its physiognomy, even 

present.

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