The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

In its early years, Islam encouraged philosophical and scientific speculation: to know how the world worked was to know the mind of God.

philosophers, poets, rhetoricians and historians – and these caused some to understand that there had once been an age that far outshone their own, one that emphasised the humanity of humankind, rather than its spirituality.

The University of Pisa, whose scientific reputation throughout Italy was second only to that of Padua, was informed by official decree: 'His Highness [Cosimo III] will allow no professor ... to read or teach, in public or private, by writing or by voice, the philosophy of Democritus, or of atoms, or any saving that of Aristotle.' There was no avoiding this educational censorship, for at the same time a decree was issued forbidding citizens of Tuscany from attending any university beyond its borders, while philosophers and intellectuals who disobeyed this decree were liable to punitive fines or even imprisonment. Gone were the days when the Medici were the patrons of poets and scientists; Florence, once one of the great intellectual and cultural centres of Europe, now sank into repression and ignorance.

Marguérite-Louise surrounded herself with her French servants

he gallantly informed one and all that if Marie had not been his wife

Those who believe they can be certain of salvation because they have bought Indulgences will be eternally damned.

because fortuna is a woman

The second figure who may have spent time living at the Palazzo Medici in his youth was Leonardo da Vinci – though this remains disputed. What is not disputed is the decisive role that Lorenzo de’ Medici played in Leonardo’s early artistic career.

that artists were more than craftsmen; at the same time

Where I am going it will be dark. I want to get used to it.

By the 1450s the Medici Bank had established branches over much of western Europe – from London to Naples

He ordered his bodyguard of 500 armed men to take up strategic positions and occupy the church of San Pier Scheraggio (on the site now occupied by the Uffizi),

Although Giovanni was related to the Spini through his mother

On 1 October 1397 Giovanni established a head office in Florence

the child of iniquity and the suckling of perdition’; this is accompanied by an interdict forbidding the celebration of Mass in any church throughout the entire Florentine Republic.