Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T01:15:54.604Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Family Backgrounds

from Part I - The Early Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2019

Alison Brown
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
Get access

Summary

The social disparity between the Medici and the families they married into was not evident in the children’s early years. The Medici lacked noble status and came originally from the Mugello – the area north of Florence in the foothills of the Apennines, where they always retained possessions. Although some of the family were to be found in Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, they were there as moneylenders, participating in the city’s government as members of the Cambio, or Moneychangers’ Guild. Only a few members of the clan became wealthy – messer Averardo (called Bicci) in the first half of the fourteenth century and Veri di Cambio in the latter half of the century – and despite making good marriages, many of the family retreated to the Mugello after the economic downturn in the mid-fourteenth century. Those who remained became overbearing and litigious, including messer Salvestro de’ Medici, Veri’s cousin, who happened to be Gonfalonier of Justice at the beginning of the Ciompi uprising in 1378. Cosimo and his cousin Averardo descended from two sons of Bicci, Giovanni and his elder brother Francesco. Because Francesco died in 1402 when Giovanni was first elected a prior, Giovanni and his descendants were able to overtake Averardo politically, even though as cousins Averardo and Cosimo remained close allies. Giovanni worked for Veri di Cambio in Rome until 1397, when he returned to Florence to establish his own banking company.1

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Family Backgrounds
  • Alison Brown, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
  • Online publication: 20 December 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108783798.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Family Backgrounds
  • Alison Brown, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
  • Online publication: 20 December 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108783798.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Family Backgrounds
  • Alison Brown, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy
  • Online publication: 20 December 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108783798.004
Available formats
×