Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici was given the title Pater Patriae of Italy at his death and was also known as the primus inter pares. He was the founder of the Medici dynasty, who were during the Renaissance the de facto rulers of Florence. Even though Cosimo Medici was a powerful man, he was not an official ruler. Medici’s government also consisted of a council who would many times resist the laws that Medici put forth. This paper will look at the accomplishments of Cosimo di Medici.
Cosimo di Medici was born on the 10th of April, 1389 in Florence. His parents were Giovanni di Bicci de Medici and Piccardo de’ Bueri. He also had a twin brother Damiano, who died as an infant. They were named after the saints Damian and Cosmas and later Cosimo would celebrate his birthday in September on their feast day which was the 27th. (Burckhardt pg. 900). There was also a brother, who was six years younger named Lorenzo (Burckhardt pg. 900).
Cosimo’s father, who founded the Medici Dynasty was a banker who eventually opened up his own bank, The Medici Bank in 1397 (Burckhardt pg. 900). This would prove to be quite profitable for the Medici family as it was the source of the family’s fortune. The Medici Bank eventually opened branches in Geneva, Naples, Rome and Venice. Rome was the busiest bank and the most profitable. This was in part because the branch acted as the Pope’s depositario generale. (Burckhardt pg. 900). The position meant that the bank was paid to take care of the church’s finances. The bishops would be issued a papal license which would allow them to be able to obtain a number of different purchases like spices, and relics. After Cosimo took the bank over he expanded into Avignon, Bruges, London, Lubeck, Milan and Pisa. (Hallam pgs.110-112). Cosimo also loaned money to the royal houses of Europe. With these expansions along with business from the papacy the Medici Bank became the most powerful and respected bank in Europe. (Hallam pgs. 110-112).
Cosimo married Contessina de’ Bardi the daughter of the Count of Vernio in 1415. The marriage was arranged by his father in order to fix relations with the Bardi family. The Bardi family had lost all their money from banking when all the wealthiest banks in Europe collapsed in 1345. Despite the fact that the Bardi’s lost all their money they were still very influential in the financial world. However, the entire Bardi family were not all fans of the marriage as a branch of the family saw themselves as rivals of the Medici clan. (Burckhardt pg. 902). Cosimo and Contessina had two sons Piero, and Giovanni. Cosimo also had an illegitimate son by a slave named Carlo de’ Medici. Carlo would later become a prelate. When Cosimo died in 1464 he was succeeded by his son Piero, who was the father of Lorenzo. Lorenzo was known as Il Magnifico or Lorenzo the Magnificent. Cosimo was given the title of Pater Patriae at his death by the Signoria. The title had previously been given to Cicero (Burckhardt, pg. 900).
It is said that is 1415 Cosimo traveled with Antipope John XXIII to the Council of Constance and later that year he was given the title of “Priore of the Republic”. He would act as ambassador for the papacy. The reason for this is because Giovanni had provided Antipope John XXIII the funds he needed to buy his way into the position of cardinal. In order to thank him, John XXIII put the bank in charge of all the papal finances. Due to this the Medici family acquired a great amount of power and influence. They would use this power to threaten to excommunicate people who were defaulting on their loans (Hallam pgs.112-13). However, the power that the bank enjoyed did not last long as John XXIII was removed from power by the Council of Constance. This meant that the Medici Bank no longer had a monopoly on the papal finances. Medici would then pay for the ransom of John XXIII who was accused of being a traitor, pagan, thief and oppressor. (Durant pgs. 365-7)
Giovanni left the bank in 1420 giving it to his sons. When he died in 1429 he left them 179, 221 florins and two-thirds of the profit from the bank and many acres of land that surrounded Florence. (Burckhardt pg. 902). Cosimo had much influence over the country of Florence due to the amount of wealth that he had. However, he did not hold any office as he liked to keep the illusion that he was not buying votes and that the country was a democracy. He was described as such "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.” (Taylor-Fritsch, originally quoted by C. Hibbert in The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici). However, while he may have seemed to be a king in all but name. Cosimo was a rather modest man despite his wealth and the money he spent on entertaining his guests. He worked long hours, dressed in modest clothing, ate and drank simple foods. Most importantly to the people of Florence, he was always accessible to them no matter their station.
Like his father he supported the underprivileged in Florentine society, rather than the wealthy or aristocratic. This caused a lot of contention between him and the oligarchs who ruled the city. This is because they were worried about the power that he had obtained and the fact that he was more democratic in his approach. This caused him to gain many enemies such as the Albizzi family, and Palla Strozzi. The Albizzi and Strozzi families supported the wealthy, while the Medici’s supported the middle class (Burckhardt, pg. 903). This caused him to be imprisoned in 1433 for not capturing Lucca. He ended up getting his sentence turned into exile even though many people wanted him to be executed. (Durant pgs. 192-194). He was able to avoid execution with the assistance of Ambrogio Traversari, who was a monk (Durant pgs. 192-194). Cosimo during his exile would travel between Padua and Venice. He continued his bank on his travels. He had many supporters because he was willing to be exiled rather than to put Florence into another conflict.
Cosimo would end up choosing to live in Venice when Florence refused to lift the banishment. Soon Lorenzo would join him. This soon caused a great number of Florentine citizens to leave Florence for Venice. The migration was so large that Florence was forced to remove Cosimo from exile. Cosimo returned to Florence in 1434 and began influencing the Florentine government once again (Burckhardt, pg. 903). However, he did not care for public office, instead choosing to influence things behind the scenes. He would give Lorenzo a position of ambassador for Florence, which came with the job of dealing with the transfer of the council. Cosimo did not want to take responsibility for the council, as he wanted to concentrate on his role as de facto head of Florence (Burckhardt pg.903).
He did this by adding changes to the Florence’s Constitution that secured his power and ability to influence the region. He also used his money and power to keep individuals who were friendly to his causes in positions of power. Cosimo manufactured an alliance between Milan, Florence, Naples and Venice, by sending Francesco Sforza I to Milan in 1447 after the death of Filippo Maria Visconti who had been Milan’s ruler. This was done in order to prevent Venice from taking the area over, as Venice had an army ready to march on Milan. Sforza was a mercenary who had previously taken lands from the papacy and made himself lord. Sforza wanted to become ruler of Milan and had tried and failed to obtain Visconti’s blessing to marry his daughter Bianca. After Visconti’s death Sforza would go on to marry Bianca in 1441 (Schevill pg. 359). Thus uniting Milan and Florence, along with Venice and Naples. He also made it unappealing for powers outside of Italy to interfere with his actions (Burckhardt pg. 903).
This move was not well liked by the Florentines as they did not like having to pay for Sforza’s rise to power (Schevill pg. 360-62). Nevertheless, this arrangement resulted in almost fifty years of peace and made the Italian Renaissance possible (Durant pg. 76). Cosimo played a major role in getting Pope Eugene IV to agree to move the Ecumenical council to Florence. The arrival of Byzantine figures played an important role in the growth of Greek art and culture in Florence (Durant pg. 78).
Taxation
Outside building libraries and improving the beauty of the city Cosimo worked to reform the system that Florence had in place for taxation (Schevill pg. 362). He changed it from a fixed tax rate to a progressed one. This caused the wealthy to be taxed at a higher rate, which they were not pleased with. Nonetheless the poor and middle class were pleased and increased their support. This was further amplified when Cosimo used the money raised by taxes along with money from his own finances to improve the city (Schevill pgs. 362-3).
Art
During his life Cosimo accomplished many things. Some of the things that he accomplished were the following. He was the patron of the arts during the Renaissance using much of his fortune to beautify the city. Of which he had said "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.” (Taylor pgs. 65-66).
He hired Michelozzo Michelozzi to create the Palazzo Medici which includes the Magi Chapel which was frescoed with portraits of the Medici family dressed as the three wise men. The fresco was done by Benozzo Gozzoli. Cosimo was also the patron of such artists as Donatello, Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi and he commissioned such works as the Santa Maria del Fiore by Brunelleschi and Judith Slaying Holofernes by Donatello (Schevill pg. 364). Donatello would convince Cosimo to obtain ancient relics such as arches, columns, and sarcophagi in order to place them in the gardens of the Medici Palazzo so that artists would be able to study them (Durant pg. 72). He would later commission Michelozzi to build San Marco’s Dominican convent (Taylor Fritsch pgs. 238-9). They reason for this was that Cosimo was both a religious man and he may have had a guilty conscience (Taylor-Fritsch pgs. 238-9).
Libraries
Cosimo was the founder and the sole financial contributor for the first public library in Florence. It was built using Michelozzo designs. Michelozzo had also built a library in Venice during the time Cosimo was exiled there (Schevill pg. 361). At some point Cosimo got involved with the humanist movement. The movement was about people who desired to make a positive impact on society. The library was important to the humanist movement that was taking place in Italy at the time of the Renaissance. The humanists had asked for Cosimo’s assistance in preserving ancient text. This was an endeavor that he heartily supported as he wanted to allow others the opportunity to become familiar with Classical Greek and Roman culture. Soon he began to collect literature from around the Mediterranean.
Cosimo had a friend Niccolo d’ Niccoli who spent much of his time and money collecting books and manuscripts. Eventually when he was broke Cosimo allowed him to borrow any amount of money he would like as long as he promised to leave his collection of books to him (Burckhardt pg. 904). At Niccoli’s death Cosimo inherited 800 manuscripts. (Durant pgs. 76-78). Most of these manuscripts were given to the monastery of San. Marco, and the Fiesole Abbey. The rest remained with Cosimo. In regards to Fiesole Abbey, Cosimo had been told by his book finder Vespasiano to give up the idea of finding and purchasing books as the ones that were worth buying were not easy to obtain (Burckhardt pg. 904). He advised him to use a copyist instead. Cosimo agreed to pay him by the day and Vespasiano hired 45 copyists to work beneath him. They delivered to Cosimo 200 volumes in only twenty-two months (Burckhardt pg. 904).
All of the manuscripts were obtainable to the public. Nevertheless, as most of the populace was illiterate the majority of the people who were reading these manuscripts were the upper class elite (Taylor-Fritsch pg. 237). The library which would later house many volumes of books and manuscripts from various countries was a great benefit to Florentine society because Cosimo along with sixteen other men made it possible for people to be able to borrow the books for free. He used the building of the library to further increase his political influence in the city of Florence (Terry-Fritsch pg. 237-38). Later he would have Michelangelo build Lorenzo II a library in Florence.
After visiting the Byzantine Empire Cosimo became fascinated with the Ancient Greeks and their culture. Cosimo’s fascination with Greek culture would lead to him opening the Platonic Academy. This was a place where Plato’s works and philosophy could be analyzed. The Platonic Academy came about after Cosimo heard the neo-pagan philosopher Gemistus Pletho speak on Plato at the Council of Florence (Schevill pg. 364). He was inspired both by his speeches and his own interest in Greek culture and decided to build a school where the philosophy of Plato could be taught. Besides being taught Platonian philosophy, the young men in attendance would also learn Greek.
Legacy
After Cosimo’s death in 1464, his son Piero took his place as de facto ruler of Florence. Eventually due to the fact that he had really bad gout that caused him to be confined to a bed. The government of Florence had to conduct political meetings from his bedroom. He insisted that people pay loans that were long pass due, which caused many families to go broke and further created a rift with those who were against the Medici’s. When Piero died Lorenzo the Magnificent or Il Magnifico came into power. Like his grandfather he was a patron of the arts. Even though he like his predecessors continued to rule behind the scenes, he was a despot and the people of Florence had very little political freedom. This caused the Medici’s enemies to increase and resulted in the murder of Lorenzo’s brother and co-ruler Giuliano. Giuliano was the father of Giulio di Giuliano de’ Medici, who would later become Pope Clement VII.
In conclusion Cosimo Medici while never officially a ruler of Florence used much of his wealth to influence the government for the betterment of the middle class in Florence. He also used much of his wealth to improve the culture and artistic aspect of the city. This was important due to the Italian Renaissance being identified as being one of the important eras of change in the history of the world. So ultimately his biggest accomplishment was improving the aesthetics of the city of Florence through art and architecture and improving the lives of the middle class by establishing a library.
Works Cited
Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. New York: Harper, 1970. Print.
Durant, Will, and Ariel Durant. The Story of Civilization. Irvine: World Library, 1994. Print.
Hibbert, Christopher. The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall. New York: Morrow, 1975. Print.
Howland, Richard H. "[rezension Von:] Taylor, Francis Henry: The Taste of Angels: A History of Art Collecting from Rameses to Napoleon. - Boston, and 1948. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism / American Society for Aesthetics. Ed. Thomas Munro. (1951) N.p., 74-275. Print.
Schevill, Ferdinand. Medieval and Renaissance Florence. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Print.
Terry-Fritsch, Allie. Florentine Convent as Practiced Place: Cosimo De' Medici, Fra Angelico, and the Public Library of San Marco. Leiden [u.a.: Brill, 2012. Print.
