Summary of Paul Strathern's The Medici

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Medici family was descended from a knight called Averardo, who fought for Charlemagne during his conquest of Lombardy in the eighth century. They came to Florence in the thirteenth century.

#2 The first Medici to be mentioned in the records of Florence is one Chiarissimo, who appears on a legal document dated 1201. The family became money-changers and gradually prospered. By the end of the thirteenth century, they had become one of the better-known business families in the city.

#3 The city of Florence was the main economic power in Europe in the thirteenth century, due to the new growth industry of banking. The setting up of banks in the main trading centers greatly facilitated this burgeoning international trade, and in the process merchant bankers accumulated large assets.

#4 During the fourteenth century, Florence became known for its banking supremacy and the trustworthiness of its bankers. The city’s currency, the florin, became an institution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822526365

IRB Media

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Insights on Paul Strathern's The Medici

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Medici family was descended from a knight called Averardo, who fought for Charlemagne during his conquest of Lombardy in the eighth century. They came to Florence in the thirteenth century.

#2

The first Medici to be mentioned in the records of Florence is one Chiarissimo, who appears on a legal document dated 1201. The family became money-changers and gradually prospered. By the end of the thirteenth century, they had become one of the better-known business families in the city.

#3

The city of Florence was the main economic power in Europe in the thirteenth century, due to the new growth industry of banking. The setting up of banks in the main trading centers greatly facilitated this burgeoning international trade, and in the process merchant bankers accumulated large assets.

#4

During the fourteenth century, Florence became known for its banking supremacy and the trustworthiness of its bankers. The city’s currency, the florin, became an institution.

#5

The first golden age of Florentine culture was from the 1340s to the 1390s, when the city produced three of Italy’s finest writers. However, the economic depression of the early 1340s was followed by the catastrophe of the Black Death in 1347, which killed one-third of Europe’s population.

#6

The Medici family in Florence had expanded to include some twenty or thirty nuclear families. The affiliation of these families was more like a clan, with their own internal rivalries but overall group loyalty. The Medici provided the city with more than just the occasional gonfaloniere.

#7

The ciompi revolt was a brief but violent rebellion against the new guilds, led by the wool merchants. It was suppressed when the mob turned on the leaders, Salvestro de’ Medici and Michele di Lando, and exiled them instead of executing them.

#8

The Medici were a powerful family that ruled Florence, but they were also very corrupt. They were the first clan to achieve any business success that extended beyond the city itself, and they were very loyal to the constitutional government of Florence.

#9

The Medici family fortunes passed to Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, head of the Cafaggiolo branch of the family, in 1360. He was born in 1360, the fourth son of Averardo detto Bicci, who was the owner of a smallholding in Cafaggiolo.

#10

The Medici Bank was founded in 1397, and it was customary for such profits to be withdrawn from the bank so that they could be invested privately by the partners. Giovanni di Bicci bought some farmland near his home village of Cafaggiolo.

#11

The head of the Medici Bank, Giovanni di Bicci, became a prominent figure in Florence. He served on the committee of leading citizens that judged the winner of an international competition to create new bronze doors for the Baptistery in 1401.

#12

The portrait of Giovanni di Bicci by Bronzino in the Medici Museum in Florence is a detailed and perceptive painting, but it was painted more than seventy years after his death, which leaves a question as to its veracity on the physical level.

#13

In 1402, Giovanni di Bicci became prior of the Florentine Arte del Cambio, and he held a seat on the ruling Signoria. His bank in Florence was a distinctly humble affair, apart from its profits.

#14

The Medici Bank was able to establish itself as one of the major commercial institutions in Europe because it handled the finances of the pope. The pope’s revenues came from remittances from the many sees in Europe, and the selling of holy relics and indulgences.

#15

The bank that handled the papal business received a commission, which was a huge annual income. The Rome office of the Medici Bank had attracted trade from cardinals, prelates, and sundry advisers who made it their business to attend the Court of Rome.

#16

The Great Schism was the period when there were three rival claimants to the papal throne: John XXIII, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII. The powerful Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund decided that it