Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (c. 1360–1429), son of Averardo de' Medici (1320–1363), increased the wealth of the family through the creation of the Medici Bank, and he became one of the richest men in the city of Florence.
Medici family, Italian bourgeois family that ruled Florence and, later, Tuscany during most of the period from 1434 to 1737, except for two brief intervals (from 1494 to 1512 and from 1527 to 1530).
The Medici family, also known as the House of Medici, was a banking and political dynasty during the Renaissance period. By the first half of the 15th century, the family had risen to become the most important house in Florence and Tuscany – a position they would hold for three centuries.
The Medici family, also known as the House of Medici, first attained wealth and political power in Florence, Italy, in the 13th century through its success in commerce and banking.
In the annals of history, few families have left as indelible a mark as the House of Medici. This remarkable banking family rose from obscurity to become the unofficial rulers of Florence, dominating the city‘s political, economic, and cultural life for three centuries.
Beginning in 1434 with the rise to power of Cosimo de’ Medici (or Cosimo the Elder), the family’s support of the arts and humanities transformed Florence into the cradle of the Renaissance, a cultural flowering rivaled only by that of ancient Greece.
From 1434 Cosimo de' Medici is unmistakably the most powerful man in Florence, even though his family's cause has suffered a severe setback in the previous year. In 1433 he is arrested by a rival faction. Bribes and well-placed friends save him from death.