Giovanni di Bicci (1360–1429) is the first member of the family who created a dense network of merchants around him and his family. Members of the Medici family were the protagonists of Florentine life long before their dynasty passed into history. The Signoria, comprised of nobles, important burghers, and intellectuals, was the oligarchic institution that ran the Florentine republic. In 1348, the year of the terrible Black Death, one of the Medici was Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, one of the citizens selected who formed the government, or Signoria. At the end of thirteenth century, two members of the family (Scolaio and Gano) were part of the Guelph party, the same family as Dante Alighieri. Historical chronicles recount that they went to live at the Old Market (in the area close to Piazza della Repubblica) and easily mingled with the underworld there.Īs many as five death sentences were reported out of respect of the Medici family! In a deed dated 1201, a man named Giambuono is considered to be the historical founder of the family. Medici is the Italian word for doctors.Īs often happened, the Medici went into Florence in search of fortune, and we must say that they found it! Almost immediately they were enrolled in the guild of doctors and apothecaries. The founder of the family would be Medico di Potrone, who lived around the year 1000 and was a doctor by profession. The earliest origins of this family are difficult to track because the Medici later tried to ennoble their lineage by inventing legends and stories. The earliest records we have of the Medici family tell us that they came from the Mugello valley and arrived in Florence around 1200. The last Medici ruler, Gian Gastone, died without a male heir in 1737, ending the family dynasty after almost three centuries and beginning the long European reign of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family. The Medici produced four popes (Leo X, Clement VII, Pius IV, and Leon XI), and their genes have been passed through many of Europe’s royal families.
Beginning in 1434 with the rise to power of Cosimo de’ Medici (or Cosimo the Elder), the family’s support of the arts and humanities transformed Florence into the cradle of the Renaissance, a cultural flowering rivaled only by that of ancient Greece. They first attained wealth and political power in Florence through their success in commerce and banking. The Medici family, also known as the House of Medici, was the Italian family that ruled Florence, and later Tuscany, during most of the period from 1434 to 1737, except for two brief intervals (from 1494 to 1512, and from 1527 to 1530).
2 The Medici dynasty: origins and history.
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