MEDICI, FAMIGLIA. — Enriched through commerce and banking, the M. acquired political supremacy in fifteenth-century Firenze, in the form of a veiled lordship. After 1530, this was transformed into an absolute monarchy which governed Toscana, with dynastic succession, for two centuries. The M. gave the Roman Church many bishops and cardinals, and three popes: Leone X, Clemente VII, Leone XI. Pio IV too was a Medici, of the M. di Marignano; but the origins of this family, to which the mother of St. Carlo Borromeo belonged, are obscure, and there is no positive evidence to prove its descent from the same stock as that of the Florentine M.
Of the M. mentioned thus far, there is no certain genealogy. This begins only with the branch known as that of Cafaggiuolo (from the name of one of their estates in the Mugello), whose acknowledged progenitor was AVERARDO, known as Bicci. His son GIOVANNI DI BICCI (1360-1429), one of Italy’s wealthiest bankers, won popular sympathies by his liberality. He built the church of S. Lorenzo and the hospital of the Innocenti; in the Baptistery he had Donatello and Michelozzo erect a tomb for Giovanni XXIII. He had two sons: Cosimo and Lorenzo.
COSIMO, known as the Elder (1389-1464), wrested political supremacy from the Albizzi and established a lordship, concealed by the formal survival of republican institutions. Politics did not cause him to neglect business, and at his death he left the Bank in an exceedingly flourishing condition. Though of limited culture, he protected men of letters and artists, promoted the Florentine Studio, and built villas, palaces, convents, and churches. Relatives of Cosimo were DONATO, bishop of Pistoia, and FILIPPO, bishop of Arezzo and later of Pisa. By Contessina de' Bardi Cosimo had GIOVANNI, who predeceased him, and PIERO, known as the Gouty, who inherited his father’s rank but, because of his weak character and frail health, gravely endangered the family’s authority. A natural son of Cosimo, CARLO (d. 1492), held the provostship of Prato. PIERO and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, a woman celebrated for her strict conduct and profound piety, had GIULIANO, who was killed in 1478, and LORENZO, known as the Magnificent (v.). Giuliano left a son, GIULIO, VIZI (v.). During Lorenzo’s government, the Bank was liquidated, and an attempt was made to preserve the family fortune through landed investments. By Clarice Orsini Lorenzo had seven children. Of the daughters, LUCREZIA, married to Iacopo Salviati, bore MARIA, who married Giovanni delle Bande Nere; MADDALENA had by Franceschetto Cybo INNOCENZO, cardinal and minister to Alessandro and later to Cosimo I, and LORENZO, progenitor of the Cybo-Malaspina. Of the sons, GIOVANNI became Leone X (v.); GIULIANO, duke of Nemours,
The earliest of the M. mentioned in documents is BONAGIUNTA, a witness in an act of 1221. In public life the M. appear toward the end of the fourteenth century with ARDINGO, prior in 1291 and gonfalonier of justice in 1296. In the same period COSTANTINO was bishop of Orvieto, MATTEO of Chiusi. The M. supported the Neri and Corso Donati. GIOVANNI was among those executed by the duke of Athens. Meanwhile, the Medici Bank was widening the scope of its business, expand-
held the government of Florence with Giovanni after the restoration of 1512, and left a natural son, IPPOLITO, who was made cardinal; PIERO, who succeeded his father in the lordship, was expelled in 1494 and, after vain attempts at recovery, died at the battle of the Garigliano (1503). The children of Piero and Alfonsina Orsini were CLARICE, who married Filippo Strozzi, and LORENZO, for whom Leone X secured the Duchy of Urbino. By Maddalena de la Tour d'Auvergne Lorenzo had CATERINA (v.), who married Enrico di Valois and became queen of France. ALESSANDRO is believed to have been a natural son of Lorenzo; appointed duke of Penne, he was given the government of Florence in 1530, married a natural daughter of Carlo V, and was killed in 1537 by his cousin Lorenzino. With Alessandro the direct line of Cosimo the Elder became extinct.
(photo Almari)
MEDICI, FAMIGLIA - Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici - Pater Patrise. Painting by Pontormo from a medal - Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi.
Cosimo I unified the territory through the conquest of Siena, created a fleet that took part in the battle of Lepanto, and established the Order of the Knights of S. Stefano, which for over a century gloriously held its own in the Mediterranean against the Barbary corsairs. Although bound to Spain, Cosimo succeeded through his energy in preserving the greatest autonomy that the conditions of Italy could permit him. In 1569 he received the grand-ducal title from Pius V. TOLEMAIDE. Of the daughters, LUCREZIA married Alfonso II d'Este; ISABELLA, the wife of Paolo Giordano Orsini, was killed by her husband. Of the sons, GIOVANNI, a cardinal, and GARZIA died within a very short time of one another, in 1562, giving rise to an unfounded legend of family tragedies; FRANCESCO I (1541-87), who succeeded his father, possessed neither his intelligence nor his energy. He married Giovanna d'Austria and, after being widowed, Bianca Cappello. Of the daughters of Francesco I, ELEONORA married Vincenzo Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, and MARIA (v.) Henry IV of France.
Francesco I was succeeded by another son of Cosimo I, FERDINANDO I (1551-1609). He, who abandoned the dignity of cardinal to marry Cristina di Lorena, restored the prestige of the Grand Duchy. He maintained friendly relations with Henry IV and played a significant part in his conversion. He built the port of Livorno and protected men of letters and scientists. Of the daughters of Ferdinando I, CATERINA married Ferdinando Gonzaga, while CLAUDIA married Federico Ubaldo della Rovere and, in a second marriage, Leopoldo d'Austria. One son, CARLO, was a cardinal; the other, COSIMO II (1590-1621), succeeded his father. Cosimo II devoted much attention to the navy and the port of Livorno; he protected Galileo; but the decline of the Grand Duchy began with him. Cosimo II and Maria Maddalena d'Austria had the following children: GIOVANNI CARLO, who became a cardinal; MATTIAS, who took part in the Thirty Years' War and the War of Castro; LEOPOLDO, also a cardinal, who promoted scientific studies and founded the Accademia del Cimento; and FERDINANDO II (1610-70), who supported the activities of his brother Leopoldo and sought to revive the country's depressed economy by stimulating commercial exchanges. The son of Ferdinando II and Vittoria della Rovere was COSIMO III (1642-1723).
During the final years of Cosimo III's government, while the wars of succession were preparing radical changes in the political map of Europe, the foreign Chanceries, anticipating the imminent extinction of the M. house, began to regard the Grand Duchy as a bargaining counter in the diplomatic game. The eldest son whom Cosimo III had by Margherita Luisa d'Orléans, FERDINANDO, died before his father. Cosimo's brother, FRANCESCO MARIA, had renounced the purple in order to marry Eleonora Gonzaga, but the marriage remained childless. Thus the Grand Duchy passed to Cosimo's other son, GIANGASTONE (1671-1737), a man of considerable intelligence but indolent character and corrupt habits. Since Giangastone had no children, Cosimo had considered securing the succession for his daughter ANNA MARIA LUISA, the widow of Giovanni Guglielmo, elector palatine; but the powers, even before Giangastone's death, assigned the Grand Duchy first to Carlo di Borbone and then to Stefano di Lorena. After the accession of the Lorrainers, Anna Maria lived in Firenze until 1743, respected by everyone but without any political authority. In 1737, transferring the family possessions to the Lorrainer, she stipulated that the Medici collections could never be taken out of the city.
Other branches of the M. are traced back to a GIOVENCO (d. in the first half of the fourteenth century), who is said to have been the brother of Bicci's father. From one of these branches descended OTTAVIANO (1482-1546), who married Francesca Salviati, the niece of Leo X. Their son, ALESSANDRO, was archbishop of Firenze and Pope Leo XI (1605); from their other son, BERNARDETTO, who acquired the fief of Ottaiano in 1567, descended the princes of Ottaiano and dukes of Sarno. To their lineage belonged that LUIGI M. who was a minister of Ferdinando IV di Borbone.
Another branch, finally, included the blessed FILIPPA (d. in 1488); GULDO, who was archbishop and castellan of Castel S. Angelo during the sack of Rome; GIULIANO, bishop of Pisa (d. in 1636); and RAFFAELE (d. in 1628), who was admiral of the Knights of S. Stefano. This branch, known as that of the marquises of Castellina, a title they already possessed in 1629, still exists and is considered by agnatic descent the legitimate heir of the house. - Vedi tav. XXXIV.