Cosimo De Medici Essay
The Medici was a well-known family throughout Florence. They were very wealthy and manifested great power. From the year 1434 to the year 1534 we see many changes occur involving this particular family. One sees everything from the reign of Cosimo the Elder to the exile of the Medici from the city to their great return to power in Florence. Lets focus on the years 1434, 1534, and everything that happened in between. Cosimo the Elder was a well-respected man among the Florentines. He came from a family of bankers and quickly became one the most wealthy men in Europe. He created his own political party known as the palleschi and exercised most of his power behind the scenes by putting men from his partisan in the city’s highest positions. In 1444, Cosimo de Medici had Michelozzo build the Medici Palace. Cosimo wanted to be a man of the people so one could find him most nights outside of his palace hoeing his garden that way anyone who wanted to stop and talk to him could. He was also generous in that he would give fathers who could not afford dowries for their daughters the money to do so. Although Cosimo was very much so a people person and very generous and kind, he worried about the state of his soul.
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In 1437, he hired Michelozzo to renovate the monastery at San Marco. He has a library created along with new cells for sleeping. The Dominican friars were so happy with Cosimo’s piety that they give him his own cell where he came after his gardening to sleep, pray, and meditate. This was not the only place of worship though that the Medici were a part of. The church of San Lorenzo was close to the family palace and soon became the family church. This showed the great power, wealth, and social standing of this family. Cosimo died in 1464 and was buried beneath the high altar, and the rule of Florence was taken over by his son
In 1437, he hired Michelozzo to renovate the monastery at San Marco. He has a library created along with new cells for sleeping. The Dominican friars were so happy with Cosimo’s piety that they give him his own cell where he came after his gardening to sleep, pray, and meditate. This was not the only place of worship though that the Medici were a part of. The church of San Lorenzo was close to the family palace and soon became the family church. This showed the great power, wealth, and social standing of this family. Cosimo died in 1464 and was buried beneath the high altar, and the rule of Florence was taken over by his son