Well, if you're going to talk about the Renaissance, you're going to talk about Cosimo.
The Medici family was a major player in the Florentine Arte della Lana (wool guild) after the Commune revolution. The wool guild made a lot of cash, actually they made a lot of gold. The trading that the Medici family did in the wool guild left them with quite a surplus of the ol' AU. So what's a family to do when they have more money than they can spend in 14th century Europe? Start a bank!
The Medici family quickly became one of, if not the richest family in the world, quickly.
Cosimo de' Medici was the head of the family heading into the 15th century and his city, Florence, knew it. While Florence was a "republic" Cosimo's friends always seemed to overwhelm the voting bags in Florence, and he never had a problem getting anything done. COUGH COUGH.
Aside from some pretty crappy politics, Cosimo really liked learning. He liked reading, he liked art, he liked architecture, he liked beautiful things. Cosmio knew he was essentially a dictator, but he loved his city. He believed in the Humanist movement, and subscribed fully to the newly emerging idea of Neoplatonism.
This dude pretty much funded the Renaissance. He gave Donatello his own villa and was like "hey you, make stuff. we'll overlook the homosexual thing, PLEASE JUST GET TO WORK, YOU'RE AWESOME!" He put up some geeky guy named Ficino to translate ALL OF PLATO and teach people all about him.
Cosimo de' Medici was kind of a crappy dude if you lived in Florence during his time and didn't have loads of cash, but the truth is, the Renaissance doesn't happen without him.
We will be looking at Cosimo and his sons in more detail, so if you're hemorrhaging because I'm not yet talking about his exile, buying the papacy, buying the Spanish army, etc, chill out. It's coming. :)
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