The Medici: A chronology
This Florentine family ran a highly successful business and bank, led a city-state, occupied the Vatican and married into some of the most powerful families in Europe. It also inspired many of the greatest Renaissance artists and supported some of the greatest thinkers and pioneers of the age.
Here is a chronology that provides a framework of all the Medici plans and plots, commissions and omissions, deals and deaths. You will also find pointers on where you can go on the web to find out more about this fascinating family and those associated with it.
1360-1499
1360
Giovanni (di Bicci) de' Medici is born.
The Medici Family
http://galileo.rice.edu/gal/medici.html
Good overview of the family on the Galileo Project website.
The Medici Genealogical Tree
www.mega.it/eng/egui/epo/medalb.htm
A family tree to help you keep track of who's who.
1378
Mid-July-31 August: Salvestro, son of Alamanno de' Medici, joins the common people in the revolt of the ciompi (cloth workers), the largest social upheaval in the history of the Florentine Republic.
1386
Giovanni de' Medici marries Piccarda Bueri.
1389
27 September: Cosimo de' Medici, eldest son of Giovanni de' Medici and Piccarda Bueri, is born.
1393
Giovanni de' Medici, having been a partner in a company headed by his relative Vieri di Cambio de' Medici, now forms his own in Rome, from which most of his enormous wealth would continue to come due to its involvement in papal finances.
1397
Giovanni de' Medici moves his company from Rome to Florence and establishes a bank there.
1402
Giovanni de' Medici opens a branch of his company in Venice.
Florence is surrounded by the army of the Duke of Milan. When he dies in the autumn, the leaderless troops melt away and the city is saved.
Giovanni de' Medici serves as one of the seven priors who comprise most of the Signoria, the chief legislative body of Florence. He is elected again in 1408 and 1411.
1406
Desiring an outlet to the sea via the river Arno, Florence attacks Pisa. During a lengthy siege, 'useless' mouths to be fed – that is, the elderly, women and children – are sent out of the city only to be caught and murdered by the Florentines. Pisa finally surrenders to the Florentines on 9 October.
1410
Ex-pirate Baldassare Cossa is elected Pope John XXIII. However, he is one of the three 'anti-popes', rivals for the papacy, and in 1418, his claim to the title is repudiated. He has been backed by Giovanni de' Medici and Cosimo, and when he is imprisoned, they pay the 35,000-florin ransom. Although they make a loss by backing Cossa (they also pay his debts of 100,000 florins), they gain enormous prestige from playing host to a pontiff, even one whose title is contestable. The Medici also maintain a privileged – and extremely lucrative – position in papal finance for the next half century and more.
1414
Giovanni is appointed one of the 10 war councillors of Florence, a position probably forced on him because of his reputation as a peace-loving and cautious man.
When the papal states are occupied by local barons, Pope Martin V settles in Florence at Santa Maria Novella, to the great profit of the Medici who enter into highly lucrative negotiations with him.
1416
Piero de' Medici is born, second son (and later heir) of Cosimo de' Medici, Giovanni's eldest son.
1419
The Anti-Pope John XXIII dies. Cosimo de' Medici commissions
Donatello and Michelozzo to create his tomb in Florence's Baptistry.
Donatello (1386-1466)
www.artchive.com/artchive/D/donatello.html
An examination of his work plus quite a few reproductions of his sculptures.
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo
www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/m/micheloz/biograph.html
Short biography with links to representative examples of his architecture.
1421
The 61-year-old Giovanni becomes gonfaloniere (standard bearer, a high ceremonial office) of Florence. With seven other families in the city, he commissions Brunelleschi to rebuild the church of San Lorenzo, where the Medici establish their family chapel.
Filippo Brunelleschi
www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Filippo_Brunelleschi.html
Part of the Great Buildings Online site, here is a short biography with links to photographs (including multiple views) of a number of the buildings designed by Brunelleschi.
1427
Giovanni is responsible for the introduction of the catasto, a new system of taxation on declarations of assets, not of income, which is easily disguised. It is a very popular act: as one chronicler puts it, now the common folk have the satisfaction of seeing 'those who previously paid 20 florins now paying 300'. The catasto is abolished in 1494.
1428
Florence's war with Filippo Maria Visconti, signore of Milan, begun in 1423, ends in a truce not a victory. Civil discontent intensifies and two factions form: an oligarchic party led by the Albizzi and Peruzzi families, and a rival group led by Cosimo de' Medici.
1429
28 February: When Giovanni de' Medici dies, he is godfather of 26 branches of the Medici family, and the family itself is the third richest in Florence. He is succeeded by his son Cosimo, later known as 'il Vecchio' (the elder).
1431
Florence goes to war with the tiny republic of Lucca. Although Cosimo is against the war, he is forced into it when it is seen as a matter of honour. It drags on for four years and costs Florence 30 million florins.
1433
November: Rinaldo degli Albizzi demands severe punishment for Cosimo who, he says, is trying to 'raise himself above his neighbours and reduce them to slavery'. Cosimo is imprisoned. Faced with execution, he bribes his way out of jail, and under cover of darkness, he and his family leave Florence.
1434
October: Cosimo's supporters start the rumour that he has left to re-establish his bank in Venice. Worried that they will be robbed of a source of enormous income from which they have benefited, the population welcome Cosimo back with garlands and banners. Some 90 of his political enemies are sentenced to exile and another 80 or so are fined or excluded from office. A new regime under Cosimo gives Florence a remarkably stable government for 60 years.
1436
Cosimo commissions Brunelleschi to build the church of Santo Spirito.
1439
Cosimo hosts in Florence an ecumenical council that is trying to reconcile the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The pope, the patriarch of Constantinople and the emperor of Constantinople, John VIII Palaeologus, are all guests of the Medici. The contacts made with Greek culture during this time are of huge importance for the humanist culture of Florence and Italy as a whole.
1444
Cosimo commissions Michelozzo – instead of the more ostentatious
Brunelleschi – to build the classically styled Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
in the
Via Larga (now Via Cavour). It is completed in 1460.
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/orion/eng/hst/renais/medici.html
Three photographs of the palace.
1449
1 January: Lorenzo de' Medici (later 'il Magnifico') is born, eldest son of Piero de' Medici.
1453
Giuliano de' Medici is born, second son of Piero de' Medici.
1456
Cosimo commissions Alberti to create the facade for the church of Santa Maria Novella. It is finished six years after Cosimo's death.
Leon Battista Alberti
www.mega.it/eng/egui/pers/lbalber.htm
Biography of the philosopher, architect, musician, painter and sculptor, with examples of his buildings.
1458
When Florence seethes with unrest, Cosimo convenes a parlamento, an assembly of the entire political community (dominated by Medici supporters). This approves the creation of an emergency council with extraordinary executive powers. It exiles some dissidents and brings various parts of the administration under tighter control of the executive.
1459
Pope Pius II visits Cosimo, who celebrates the occasion with a magnificent ball: 'Sixty young Florentine men of the best families were chosen for their skill at dancing, decked out in pearls and gems, and danced all day, as did the young ladies and girls who were also chosen for their abilities.' The company also watch fights between exotic animals from the Medici zoo.
1463
Giovanni, Cosimo's eldest son, dies. The sickly Piero now becomes heir.
1464
1 August: Cosimo de' Medici dies. In his last days, he went about with his eyes closed because, he said, he wanted to get used to not seeing the things he loved. He is succeeded by his son Piero de' Medici, later known as 'il Gottoso' (the gouty one).
At the time of Cosimo's death, the branches of the Medici bank in London and Bruges are in great difficulty, having lent money to Edward IV of England and Charles the Bold of Burgundy – neither of them good risks.
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici
www.fact-index.com/p/pi/piero_di_cosimo_de__medici.html
Concise biography of the Gouty One.
1466
Seventeen-year-old Lorenzo foils an ambush against his father Piero, led by a group of rivals called the Poggio. They had tried to destroy the Medici bank, and then tried to lure the Medici into battle with other states. With the Milanese army poised, ready to help him, on the frontier, Piero finally defeats the Poggio, and most are exiled for 20 years.
8 June: Piero's daughter Nannina marries Bernardo Rucellai, bringing him a dowry of 2,500 florins. Some 500 guests dine and dance at the celebrations.
1467
After two years' work, Andrea del Verrocchio finishes Cosimo de' Medici's tomb in the church of San Lorenzo.
Verrocchio
www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/verrocchio.html
Good biography of the artist. As this is part of a website devoted to Leonardo da Vinci (who worked in Verrocchio's workshop for a time), the links between the two men are emphasised.
1469
June: Lorenzo marries the Roman princess Clarice Orsini.
4 November: Piero de' Medici dies and is succeeded by his son
Lorenzo – later called 'il Magnifico' (the Magnificent) – and his younger
brother Giuliano.
Lorenzo de' Medici and Florence in the 15th century
www.vanderbilt.edu/htdocs/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/f98/robing.htm
Essay on the effect Lorenzo had on the history of Florence and of the Renaissance.
1471
Lorenzo and Giuliano hold festivities in honour of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan, which cost 200,000 gold florins.
The Volterra case: The Medici bank furnished the capital to those who were given the concession to exploit alum mines in the independent city of Volterra. When the mines prove a success, the city authorities try to nullify the original contract, which would have hurt the bank's interests. Lorenzo, using the army of the Duke of Urbino, marches on Volterra, which capitulates but is nevertheless sacked and pillaged.
Andrea del Verrocchio completes the tomb of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici that he has been commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent to create in the church of San Lorenzo.
1475
Botticelli paints Allegory of Spring, or The Triumph of Flora for the Medici Villa di Castello.
Sandro Botticelli
www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/botticelli/
Excellent biography and discussion of Botticelli's work, plus a number of examples including the Allegory of Spring.
1475
11 December: Giovanni de' Medici is born, eldest son of Lorenzo de' Medici.
1478
Pope Sixtus IV has become the implacable enemy of the Medici, who oppose his plan to unite Italy under the papal states. He cancels their privileged position in papal finance, then joins with the Florentine Pazzi family, led by Francesco and Jacopo de' Pazzi, to eliminate the two Medici brothers.
26 April: The Pazzi conspiracy: Giuliano de' Medici is assassinated during mass in the Florence's cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Lorenzo is wounded. The common people rise up in support of the Medici: in the 'massacre of the pazzeschi', all the Pazzi conspirators are killed and their corpses dangled from the windows of the Palazzo dei Priori. Jacopo de' Pazzi is so hated that his body is disinterred, carried around the streets of Florence, thrown into the Arno, fished out, hanged again and then thrown in the river for a second time, when it is carried away by the current.
Lorenzo adopts Giuliano's infant bastard son Giulio.
1479
Sixtus IV excommunicates all of Florence because of the massacre, and plans to go to war against the city in alliance with Ferrante of Aragon, King of Naples. In December, Lorenzo goes to Naples and stays until April 1480, when he has changed Ferrante's mind. He returns to Florence in triumph.
Piero de' Medici is born, second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Clarice Orsini.
1484
Sixtus IV dies and is succeeded as pope by Innocent VIII, a friend of the Medici.
1485
The Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, who Lorenzo brought back from exile in Bologna, begins to preach hellfire and damnation. He accuses his benefactor of ruining the state and squandering the people's wealth. These accusations begin to undermine Lorenzo's support among the Florentines, but he does nothing to prevent the friar from preaching.
Lorenzo's son Giovanni, aged 12, is appointed abbot of the monastery at Monte Cassino.
The Medieval Synthesis under Attack:
Savonarola and the Protestant Reformation
www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture5a.html
A 'lecture' on the origins of the Protestant Reformation using the example of Savonarola. Part of Steven Kreis's wonderful History Guide website.
1487
29 July: Lorenzo's wife Clarice dies of tuberculosis.
1488
Michelangelo is adopted by the Medici and brought up with the younger generation.
At the Medici Villa
www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/
SistineChapel/Michelangelo/Michelangelo.html
Written as if by a son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, this tells the story of Michelangelo from the viewpoint of the Medici.
1489
Pope Innocent VIII makes Lorenzo's 14-year-old son Giovanni the youngest cardinal in history.
Paternal Advice to a Cardinal (c. 1491)
www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lorenzomed1.html
Letter written by Lorenzo de' Medici to his son Giovanni (the future Pope Leo X), in which he warns against vice and luxury. Unfortunately, Giovanni did not pay heed ...
1492
9 April: Lorenzo de' Medici dies, turning his face to the wall to avoid the verbal abuse from Savonarola, who commands Lorenzo to confess his sins, indecencies and pride and to give the Florentines back their liberty. As Lorenzo dies, the tower of the church of Santa Reparata is struck by lightning. He is succeeded by his son Piero de' Medici, later known as 'lo Sfortunato', the unfortunate.
At the time of Lorenzo's death, the Medici bank is on the verge of bankruptcy.
1494
After accepting humiliating peace conditions from the French (who have invaded Tuscany, led by Charles VIII), including the loss of Pisa, Piero is driven out of Florence by the mob, the Medici palace is sacked and the Medici bank fails. The French king Charles VIII triumphantly enters the city and lodges in the Medici palace.
A 'dictatorship of God' is proclaimed, and Savonarola becomes increasingly powerful. In the 'bonfire of the vanities', licentious books and works of art are burned, and children are allowed to enter homes and destroy anything they think is evil.
1495
The French leave Florence after attempting unsuccessfully to get the city to make a big contribution to their war chest. They are joined by Piero de' Medici, despite the fact that the rest of Italy has formed an alliance against the common enemy.
1497
Savonarola is excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI.
Caterina Sforza, descendant of the dukes of Milan, marries Giovanni di Piero Francesco de' Medici, a member of a younger branch of the Medici.
1498
On 6 April, Caterina Sforza gives birth to a son, who will be known as Giovanni delle Bande Nere (Giovanni of the Black Bands).
Savonarola is imprisoned, tortured, convicted of heresy and, on 23 May, hanged and burned at the stake. Niccolò Machiavelli witnesses his death and writes: 'Unarmed prophets always come to a sorry end.' A few weeks later, he is chosen to be a segretarius in the office of the Dieci di Balìa, the civic magistracy responsible for diplomacy and military affairs.
Niccolò Machiavelli
www.bbc.co.uk/education/walden/mach_indx.shtml
From the Walden on Villains site (BBC Education), here is a biography, resources, a timeline and a transcript of pundit Brian Walden's take on Machiavelli.
