Cosimo de' Medici
1389 – 1464 Italian banker, statesman, de facto ruler of Florence
Florentine banker who made the Medici the leading family of Renaissance Florence.
- Religion
- Roman Catholic.
- Affiliations
- Ran the Medici Bank; unofficial ruler of the Republic of Florence; patron of Renaissance art.
He turned the Medici Bank into the largest in Europe and used that wealth to dominate Florentine politics without holding formal office. He was a major patron of Brunelleschi, Donatello and Fra Angelico, earning the posthumous title Pater Patriae.
Connections
- family of Lorenzo de' Medici — His grandfather.
- family of Lorenzo de' Medici — His grandson, who led Florence at its cultural peak.
In the timeline
- 1420 Cosimo de' Medici takes over the family bank central figure
- 1429 Cosimo de' Medici inherits the bank central figure
- 1433 Cosimo de' Medici exiled from Florence central figure
- 1434 Cosimo de' Medici becomes de facto ruler of Florence central figure
- 1460 Corpus Hermeticum reaches Medici Florence mentioned
- 1462 Cosimo de' Medici founds the Platonic Academy central figure
- 1463 Cosimo de' Medici orders Ficino to translate Hermes central figure
- 1463 Ficino translates the Hermetica for the Medici mentioned
- 1464 Cosimo de' Medici dies and is named Father of the Fatherland central figure
- 1464 Death of Cosimo de' Medici central figure
- 1569 Cosimo de' Medici made Grand Duke of Tuscany central figure