Medici Family History

The Medici family started out as doctors operating in a rural town north of Florence. When Giovanni Di Micci de 'Medici founded the first Medici bank in 1397, it became the most successful bank in Florence and started their rise to power. After his death, the eldest of Giovanni’s two sons, Cosimo, took control of the bank in 1434. Under Cosimo’s leadership the Medici’s managed the wealth of Europe’s royalty and the Medici bank grew into the largest banking house in Europe. Before long they came to have branches in Geneva, London, Naples, Avignon, Bruges, Rome, Venice and Milan and many correspondent banks. While they weren’t great innovators in their banking methods, the Medici’s took advantage of newly developed techniques like double entry book-keeping, book transfers, and bills of exchange. Multiple commercial ventures along with huge gold/cash deposits provided a continuous flow of funds for high interest lending and other services.

The Medici’s aided them by bringing the tithes and taxes due to Rome from the church branches spread across Europe. This partnership proved to be immensely beneficial for the Medicis as more than half of their revenues came from Rome. The Vatican’s reliance on their services granted the Medici’s immense leverage in their dealings with the church and their other clients.

After Cosimo’s death, the family bank struggled to coordinate between its bank branches. The search for a worthy successor to Cosimo also caused a lot of internal strife for the Medici’s and bank operations were neglected as a result. The ensuing disaster caused Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo, to panic and sell the bank to the state ending the Medici’s reign over European