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The family Medici : the hidden history of the Medici dynasty / Mary Hollingsworth.

by Hollingsworth, Mary.

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Pegasus Books Ltd., 2018.

Medici, House of.

Renaissance -- Italy.

Florence (Italy) -- History -- 1421-1737 -- Biography.

Florence (Italy) -- Politics and government -- 1421-1737.

9781681776484 (hc.)

Alternate title:

Hidden history of the Medici dynasty

1st Pegasus Books hardcover ed.

480 p. : col. ill., maps, genealogical tables ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 452-465) and index.

Prologue: A city under siege: 'Florence in ashes rather than under the Medici' -- 1. Migrants: Bonagiunta, Chiarissimo and their descendants, 1216-1348 -- 2. Survivors: Salvestro, Foligno, Bicci and Vieri, 1348-1400 -- 3. The fortune: Giovanni di Bicci, 1400-1425 -- 4. Politics: Giovanni di Bicci, Averardo and Cosimo, 1426-1433 -- 5. For honour and profit: Cosimo the banker, 1434-1450 -- 6. The republican toga: Cosimo the politician, 1451-1464 -- 7. The succession crisis: Piero the Gouty, 1464-1469 -- 8. Youth at the helm: Lorenzo and Giuliano, 1469-1479 -- 9. Pride: Lorenzo the Magnificent, 1480-1492 -- 10. Nemesis: Piero and Cardinal Giovanni, 1492-1503 -- 11. Exile: Cardinal Giovanni, Giulio and Giuliano, 1504-1512 -- 12. Age of gold: Pope Leo X, 1513-1521 -- 13. Age of iron: Pope Clement VII, 1521-1530 -- 14. Imperial poodles: Pope Clement VII, Ippolito, Alessandro and Cosimo, 1531-1543 -- 15. The new Augustus: Cosimo I, 1544-1559 -- 16. Grand Duke: Cosimo I, 1560-1574 -- 17. Adultery: Francesco I and Cardinal Ferdinando, 1574-1587 -- 18. Cardinal to Grand Duke: Ferdinando I, 1587-1609 -- 19. The unlucky prince: Cosimo II, Christine of Lorraine and Maria Magdalena of Austria, 1609-1668 -- 20. Science and religion: Ferdinando II, 1628-1670 -- 21. Vanity: Cosimo III, 1670-1723 -- 22. Extinction: Gian Gastone, 1723-1737 -- Epilogue: Revival.

"Having founded the bank that became the most powerful in Europe in the fifteenth century, the Medici gained massive political power in Florence, raising the city to a peak of cultural achievement and becoming its hereditary dukes. Among their number were no fewer than three popes and a powerful and influential queen of France. Their influence brought about an explosion of Florentine art and architecture - Michelangelo, Donatello, Fra Angelico, and Leonardo were among the artists patronized by the Medici. Thus runs the "accepted view" of the House of Medici. However, Mary Hollingsworth argues that the idea that the Medici were enlightened rulers of the Renaissance is a fiction that has now acquired the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias - tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own. In this dynamic new history, Hollingsworth argues that past narratives have focused on a sanitized view of the Medici - wise rulers, enlightened patrons of the arts, and fathers of the Renaissance - but that "in fact" their past was reinvented in the sixteenth century, mythologized by later generations of Medici who used this as propaganda for their legacy. Hollingsworth's revelatory retelling of the story of the family Medici bridges a fresh and exhilarating new perspective to the story behind the most powerful family of the Italian Renaissance."--From publisher.

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