The silver clasps binding the pages contain rare magic – the same magic that might run through Sylvia’s veins. As able businessmen they made plenty of money, and owned the most important banks in Europe at the time. For instance, in the 1570s Francesco de’ Medici commissioned court artist Jacopo Ligozzi to create naturalistic works on paper to document the plants and animals from the New World entering the court. A family is made up of individuals, and the Medici dynasty is full of characters with interesting and extraordinary lives. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.

My favorite Italian artists are from the 14th century (Lorenzetti, Martini, Giotto), but if I had to choose a fave from the 15th century, Botticelli would win hands down. In Medici, Cosimo visits the Pantheon in Rome, a domed structure built by the Romans 1,500 years earlier. The sanitized version - that they were wise rulers and enlightened patrons of the arts, the fathers of the Renaissance - is a fiction devised by later generations who reinvented their past to create this myth that now has the status of historical fact.Honour’s source for this assertion was Detlef Heikamp’s 1972 Mexico and the Medici, a pioneering text that first brought to light the many Mexican objects in the Medici collection. So if, like me, you are a fan of the work of such 14th-century Florentine masters as Botticelli and Donatello, you’ll be well entertained by Medici. The treasures bequeathed to Florence by the Medici came at a substantial cost to the ordinary citizens of Florence who had no choice but to bear the increasingly heavy tax burdens that also supported the wars and intrigues of this dynasty as they fought to remain in power. The story covers everything from the powers to the dramas to the seemingly endless ambition that this family had. Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections - they may also appear in recommendations and other places.

Born to a dark-skinned maid and Lorenzo II de’ Medici, the illegitimate Alessandro was groomed for power. Strathern also follows the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello; as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola; and the fortunes of those members of the Medici family who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Médicis, who became Queen of France and played a major role in that country through three turbulent reigns.The ratings/reviews displayed here may not be representative of every listing on this page, or of every review for these listings. The Medici court’s collection and representation of the Americas were driven by this new knowledge and a desire to contribute to it. A vivid, dramatic, and authoritative account of perhaps the most influential family in Italian history: the Medici. It either demonstrates a deteriorating memory on my part or is a testament to the quality and entertainment value of the book; I like to think the latter. It has always struck me how any layman is acquainted with the term Renaissance and has heard of artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo, and how the Medicis-whose patronage and sometimes protection, enabled Florence to become the centre of the Renaissance-, are barely discussed.