COSIMO DE` MEDICIBEGINNINGS

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (27 September

1389 1 August 1464).
Born Sept. 27, 1389, Florence died Aug. 1,
1464, Careggi, near Florence, founder of one
of the main lines of the Medici family that
ruled Florence from 1434 to 1537.
Florence in the time of Cosimo, was
considered the financial capital of the world.
The banks of Florence were the standard to
reach.
The son of Giovanni di Bicci (13601429),
Cosimo was initiated into affairs of high

COSIMO DE` MEDICIBEGINNINGS

He would learn and from his father Giovanni
and upon his death in 1429 would succeed
his
father
with
great
resolve
and
relentlessness.
Because of his father accumulated wealth, he
was certainly the wealthiest man of his time,
not only in terms of bullion (GOLD) but also in
the amount of bank and promissory notes
payable to his bank in Florence and to its
branches operating in all the important
financial markets of Europe.
Cosimo unlike Godric, who abandoned his
business pursuits, would make money and

MEDICI- BANKING
Wars and the need for money by the monarch's in order to keep
the military mite happy and well fed is how the banking
industry in Italy throve.
The banchi grossi was partly owned and run by a dominant
family the Medici's.
This bank was run by the father of Cosimo, Giovanni di Bicci
born in 1360 and considered the richest man in Florence. It was
from there that the Medici family entered into banking and its
fortunes and became established.
The name Medici started to spread in ways across all arenas,
especially the political arena.

MEDICI- BANKING
The War with Milan raged until 1402, at a cost of about 2.5
million florins.
A FLORIN (or flower) = 3.52 grams of 24-karat gold.
Also in rough terms, the gold in a florin was calculated to be
10 days wages of a unskilled laborer, or 3.5 days of a skilled
worker, 4 months rent of a country cottage, or 2 weeks rent
of a city college.
With this said, the war with Milan would have cost 10 x 2.5 =
25 million days of wages for a unskilled laborer OR 13,700
years of rent on a Florentine townhouse.

COSIMO DE` MEDICICONTROVERSY

Cosimos great power alone would have been sufficient to set the
oligarchy (thepersonsorclasssoruling) against him; his popular
policies rendered him completely intolerable (unbearable).
The Albizzi, one of the other leading families at that time, attempted a
coup. In 1431 Cosimo was vacationing when he received a summons to
reply to his indictment for the capital crime of having sought to elevate
himself higher than others.
The Albizzi soon discovered that so wealthy a man could not be
assassinated so easily or sentenced to death.
He was sentenced to banishment for 10 years. Cosimo retired to Padua
and Venice, where he was received like a sovereign (supreme).

COSIMO DE` MEDICIRETURNS

Exactly one year later, a sudden and
unexpected move by the Medici, in which they
doctored elections, gave them back the
signoria (council of government). Cosimo
triumphantly reentered the city; and his
enemies (Rinaldo Albizzi) went into exile, never
to return until his death in 1464. The Medici
principate
(supremepoweroroffice)
had
begun (1434).
He than took power and became the Florences
political, social, cultural, and business leader
for the remaining period of his life.

COSIMO DE` MEDICISALVATION

As Cosimo grew older and he knew his life was coming to an
end, he knew his was on shaky ground and he needed
salvation for all his sins as a usurer.
Usury (a person who lends money at interest) is considered by
Christianity a mortal sin and that any person makes use of it
like banks, would be barred from receiving holy communion.
This troubled the Aging Cosimo and in turn requested and
audience with the Pope Eugene IV and asked him how he
could expiate his professional lifetime of wrong deeds.

COSIMO DE` MEDICICLOSING MOMENTS

The Pope would request that he
reconstruct the Dominican and San
Marco convents and sequentially the
Pope will issue an unprecedented
ecclesiastical order; The usurer Cosimo
de` Medici was henceforth (from this
time fourth) formally absolved of all sins.
Cosimo before laying to rest in August of
1464, spent hundreds of thousands of
florins of his private fortune to building
monasteries, churches and libraries.

COSIMO DE` MEDICI- AFTER

DEATH
After his death by one year, he was given the title of
pater patriae or The Father of his Country.
Cosimo introduced capitalism and being a good thing.
You can have profit while also protecting your soul.
Only three decades after his death the great Medici
bank (banchi grossi) would falter and disappear
altogether.
Cosimo helped to create a society that revolved not
around God but around a society with man at the
center.
After 500 years, power was shifting from the men of
the Church to the men of business.

LESSONS LEARNEDYOUR
THOUGHTS
Did Cosimo de` Medici use his wealth to change public
opinion?
What do you think of the Church and the Popes decision
to absolve any wrong doing of Cosimo?
Is Cosimo any different the Godric?
Should banks be able to work by taking interest from
people?
What is business in your opinion?
Is banking a business?