This episode details the establishment of the Medici banking family from humble origins, where they gambled on financing a former pirate Baldassarre Cossa who had ambitions to become Pope— and after he was appointed to the position he granted the Medici family exclusive control of the Papal accounts, making them known as “God’s bankers” and giving them a sudden leap in status.  Also explained is how the family took another gamble and financed the maverick architect Filippo Brunelleschi to construct a dome over the Santa Maria Basilica in Florence using many untested engineering techniques.


Points made in this episode:


— Cosimo de’ Medici was born the son of a local merchant in 1389 with humble beginnings.

— Florence was unlike any other city in Europe at the time, being a powerful trading center in the heart of Tuscany that was the most culturally influential city at the time, where families vied for power.

— The Medici Bank started as a small operation that was run from a back room by the father Giovanni who chose his clients carefully, looking for loyal people who were friends of friends, with his bank growing due to financial caution and aggressive salesmanship.

— Giovanni financially backed the former pirate Baldassarre Cossa who had ambitions to become Pope due to the papacy being up for grabs because of chaos in the Church.  Cossa then ascended to the papacy in 1410, after which he granted the Medici family exclusive control of the Papal accounts, making them known as “Gods Bankers” and giving them a sudden leap in social status.

— For over 100 years the Santa Maria Basilica in Florence was unfinished, needing a dome which the Medicis then commissioned from the maverick architect Filippo Brunelleschi, who resurrected forgotten concepts from the past and successfully finished the cathedral in 1436 using many untested engineering breakthroughs that he invented.

— Giovanni died in 1429, leaving his son Cosimo in power.

— Cosimo was falsely accused of treason and imprisoned by a rival banking family.  He was banished when he was released, but the businesses in the city of Florence ground to a halt due to most of the banking being done with the Medici bank, leading to the people of the city overthrowing the rival family and reinstalling Cosimo in power, making Cosimo essentially the king in everything but name.

— The Medici Bank then greatly expanded internationally and become the most profitable business in Europe, collecting money from every region with the cooperation of the Pope who threatened excommunication to anyone who was slow to pay up, and with the Pope borrowing enough to buy ten palaces.

— Cosimo was not satisfied with just wealth, so he started to commission the finest artists and craftsmen of the age, spending his money in a way that transformed his wealth into prestige and power as a political strategy, making him the most sought after patron in Florence and giving birth to an art market that had no equivalent at the time.

— Cosimo was known for tolerating the eccentricities of his more temperamental artists, which resulted in the creation of many innovative types of artwork.

— News quickly spread of a new “Rome” rising in Florence, bringing a mix of the East and West, with Cosimo financing it all.

— Cosimo died in 1464 and he was declared by the people of Florence to be the “father of the fatherland.”