Cosimo de’ Medici inherited a bank his father Giovanni founded in Florence in 1397. Because the Church condemned usury, the Medici hid interest inside bills of exchange that converted florins in Florence into pounds in London months later. Giovanni lent Baldassare Cossa the money to buy a cardinal’s office, and when Cossa became the antipope John XXIII the Medici won near control of the Roman Curia’s finances. After a church council deposed and jailed him, they paid his ransom and gave him asylum, a loyalty that later won back the papal accounts. Cosimo married Contessina de’ Bardi of a fallen but prestigious banking house, raised an illegitimate son, Carlo, born to a Circassian slave, and with his brother Lorenzo opened branches from London and Bruges to Avignon and Lübeck.
In 1433, after a failed war on Lucca, the Albizzi faction jailed Cosimo in the Palazzo Vecchio and pushed for his death; the monk Ambrogio Traversari helped turn the sentence into exile. Cosimo moved his capital to Venice, Florence’s credit dried up, and in 1434 the city recalled him. For 30 years he ruled without office by paying supporters’ tax debts so their names entered the Signoria’s lottery bags while opponents were taxed out. He financed Francesco Sforza’s seizure of Milan to balance Venice, and spent over 600,000 florins on art and learning. He died at Careggi on August 1, 1464, and was named Pater Patriae on his tomb in San Lorenzo.
- The Medici could threaten defaulting debtors with excommunication while acting for the papacy.
- Cosimo backed Brunelleschi’s dome for the Florence Cathedral and commissioned Donatello’s bronze David.
- Michelozzo designed the Palazzo Medici with a plain fortress exterior and lavish frescoed chapels inside.
- He paid a dead collector’s creditors to acquire 800 manuscripts and opened a library for scholars at San Marco.
- He helped bring the 1439 church council to Florence and commissioned the first complete Latin translation of Plato.
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