How The Medici Family Invented The First Bank | How To Get Ahead | Absolute History

[Music] [Applause] Florence birthplace of the Renaissance and home to one of the most famous or infamous families in history the Medici a dynasty of bankers turned Royals the Medici were patrons of the finer things in life painters and sculptors and thinkers flourished at the Florentine Court the Renaissance shrank from the brute strength of medieval days and instead embraced a new refinement and culture it would take a special kind of ruler to marshal such talents a stealthy string-pulling kind of ruler no wonder he's almost slipped through the net of history now you might have heard of Lorenzo the Magnificent or what about the Medici Pope's there were four of them but it was this guy who is the real deal Grand Duke Cosimo the first of Tuscany he was raining at the same time as the far better known Henry the eighth of England but it was Cosimo who wrote the book on how to be a Renaissance Prince he was ruthless and yet at the same time a man of culture Cosimo was arguably the greatest ruler you've never heard of Cosimo became Duke of Florence unexpectedly in 1537 he was a distant cousin of the main branch of the family his ancestors had been patrons of the Arts since the 1400s encouraging the greatest flowering of Western art since classical antiquity but they'd also been a period of terrible artistic destruction driven by religious fervour [Music] if Cosimo was to succeed he had to restore the original ideals of the Renaissance of beauty humanity and learning under Cosimo there will be a new age of portraiture and the nude Florentines would learn to enjoy themselves I tell you what our offices that dole shall be Terrace net in their dress what's this Roberta Wow that is a real minestrone strainer isn't it even in the chivalry of their swordplay Cosimo set out to make Florence the most sophisticated city in Europe but he would also usher in a new age of ambition and intrigue [Music] [Music] the year was 1539 the young Cosimo newly installed on the ducal throne of Florence needed a grand gesture what better way to announce himself and his vision than to throw a lavish party [Music] everyone loves a wedding don't they especially a royal wedding the groom Cosimo de'medici cut a dashing figure at just 20 years old [Applause] his blushing bride Eleonora of Toledo was a 17 year old Spanish princess [Music] [Applause] [Music] the marriage brought cosimo lots of money and glamour but it was also that rare thing a royal love match it was a brilliant start to Cosimo's reign [Music] Eleonora was shown off everywhere in florence the original trophy wife and thousands turned out to see her everywhere she paraded she was serenaded by choirs orchestras volleys of fireworks the thousand strong wedding party included trumpeters scantily clad dancers G au stirs horses decorated in fine harnesses even professional footballers the posh and Becks of the day weren't about to miss this event the party went on for days the pomp and pageantry the feasts and festivities they all sent a message the new court was to be a splendid affair and everyone was invited Florence hadn't seen a party like it for years there was free cake for everybody and the fountains overflowed with wine so loo take [Music] what do you do if you're a Renaissance monarch and you ascend the throne albeit a ducal throne only to find you haven't got a palace to call your own that's easily fixed you just annex the Old Town Hall [Music] painters and decorators from all across the city were called in to transform what had been a slightly dreary Municipal Building into a royal residence that proclaimed a new age this used to be the people's space at the heart of their city now it was the center of Cosimo's court in theory everybody was equal under this massive roof in the old days at least that was the idea but now the new disposition was that one voice and one voice alone mattered the dukes [Music] this great overblown cartoon strip really that's what it is of Cosimo's glory and his righteousness reaches a kind of blasphemous finale with the apotheosis there's the Duke rising up into heaven crowned by Florence the feminine figure representing the city elsewhere in Italy at this time artists who have become world renowned were putting Saints and members of the holy family on the ceiling here it was just a man every wall and ceiling proclaims the absolute prowess of the new monarch Cosimo the brave Cosimo the wise Cosimo the visionary even Cosimo classical hero and everywhere his distinctive coat of arms bears down upon you it cost a fortune but it was cheap at the price to turn a mere man into a monarch perhaps for the first time though certainly not the last a banker was getting well above himself [Music] Cosimo was a monarch in need of some regalia today at the old ducal treasury one splendid surviving piece hints at the magnificence of his crown jewels it's an altarpiece commemorating one of his descendants he's Cosimo the second grandson of the Duke and what his worshiping are the old boys tools of the trade his crown and scepter he's like an operatic tenor Atlas Carla hemming celebrating these baubles they rest on the beautiful red damask drapery of this altar achieved through Jasper fringed with real gold Cosimo the second is wearing his grandfather's official robes and they are brilliantly dazzlingly realized here through enamel chased gold and diamonds [Music] this is how Cosimo would have looked at his most regal his ducal crown was a Renaissance masterpiece [Music] today Florentine Master Goldsmith Paolo panco still marvels at the artistry of his predecessors the ducal crown is no longer with us it's lost but what was it like obviamente La Coruna wave on symbol molten port on table Cosimo Terezin below the patella de vino era naharana episode ship containing mezzo a template so theta Delta shame two PS repeat co-chair Natasha principal a impressed azita that do we feel it apparently the pamela Helena or similar the Great's the prosperity' division and sank a alladhi Bonita I'll chain through camp a jeju-do Fiorentino symbol de la nostra shita majima in Kiruna molto importante Costa zonkey if you were going to make the crown any idea how much it cost just between us hey yo provocative cantare monkey numero delle pietre a contagion Don Valora toile a satyr to montemagno so affirmative air cadet Oh an contagion in Pacific [Music] a Renaissance City was only as great as its art and architecture and Duke Cosimo had a problem Florence's most famous artist Michelangelo had defected to Rome to create such wonders as the world-famous ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Cosimo needed to get Michelangelo back to Florence but it wasn't going to be easy Cosimo had begun writing Michelangelo cringe making Lea heartfelt letters basically fan mail in which he attempted to persuade him to return to Florence in one he says we do exhort and entreat you with all our heart that's the Royal we assuring you that to us it would be most gratifying to see you and he goes on to say you can come and go as you please you can live as you choose for us it would be enough just to have you here for the Duke to woo Michelangelo to get him back into the fold into court well that would really put the froth on his cappuccino some time earlier before Michelangelo left Florence for Rome he'd created the ultimate symbol of the city [Music] powerful but beautiful strong but sensitive David the boy who killed the giant Goliath proclaiming the triumph of the week over the strong now the figure of David stood outside Cosimo's palace a silent and yet nagging reminder of the artist who drew fused to return [Music] Cosimo had to find another sculptor to create a symbol of the new age he chose benvenuto cellini who would use classical mythology as his inspiration [Music] chillie knees monumental Perseus slaying Medusa is a fantastic combination of the elegant the refined and the utterly lurid and gory in the myth the allegory Perseus has brought peace back to Ethiopia by slaying the Gorgon Medusa and this was read in these parts not least by Cosimo and his court as testament and tribute to what he'd done in getting rid of the Republic and replacing it with his dukedom with monarchy shalini really has a field day here representing Perseus as a cold ruthless single-minded mafiosi style killer that in itself a reference to Cosimo's cold-eyed rule it drips with viscera Shalini was really enjoying himself here going for the full Hammer horror not only does her head spew blood and gore but so does her poor severed neck here it's a fountain of innards a bit of a parody or maybe a homage to the Sistine Chapel the last flicker of life in the extended finger there Cosimo was pleased with the Perseus a figure that defined a new identity for the city but when court artists turned their hand to a portrait of Cosimo himself things would go badly wrong down the road at the Bargello Shalini's strapping bust of Cosimo lurks in a neglected corner even today it's strangely unloved [Music] and this is what Shalini came up with a great hunk of bronze and more senses than one you want to wrap it with your knuckles just to hear it clang oh I doubt the curators would appreciate that this is Cosimo yes as Duke of Florence but also a Caesar Cosimo the comic book hero look at the size of the man's pecs he's been spending some time in the gym Eagles tweak at his nipples more than tweak they bite them but does Cosimo start out in pain he certainly doesn't [Music] how good is this piece of work well a courtier of Cosimo's described him in a note in this fashion he said his eye is a large his forehead wide his beard strong and the gaze of his eye will strike terror that's one aspect of Cosimo that shalini has definitely caught here you really wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of him when he was in that mood the only problem was Cosimo hated it perhaps it was a little too lifelike this kind of look would have been fine for the medieval period when a prince could be a barbarian and slake his every desire but it just didn't cut it for the new renaissance era now a ruler would certainly still get his own way but do so without seeming to invest much effort in it without breaking sweat let alone with the eyes popping out of his head [Laughter] [Music] so Cosimo still needed a portrait of himself to help define the age something that would cast him as a great Renaissance monarch strong but just forceful and yet civilized a warrior with a heart it was an artist's nightmare who could pull off such a balancing act the answer lay in the relatively untested skills of an yolo Bronzino now this was a bit more like it here was a painting that Cosimo could live with on his walls and I think you can see why he's still very much in charge he's the ruler and a military ruler at that you can't miss the splendid Armour that Bronzino has rendered here he's actually made him rather slimmer than that Shalini bust which is part of the reason it satisfied the Duke essentially though here is a man who is rational composed in charge if he wants to get even with you he will do it in his own good time revenge a dish in Italy best served cold compared to that Shalini offering this is less psycho more Capo he's a prince of Secrets emerging from the darkness at all events Cosimo was so pleased with this picture he had copies of it made it was his official likeness and you could see it everywhere his writ ran Bronzino became the court artist and the Duke refused to sit even for the mighty Titian this portrait became a powerful template the pose and the look were copied and were updated across the years but were unmistakeably branzinos invention the artist had branded the age of Cosimo [Music] modern Florence still salutes the Renaissance love of naked flesh and as the painter of the age Bronzino couldn't resist indulging in his own flourish of nudity the ancient world of Rome and Greece had celebrated the naked form it's heroes and gods were seldom clothed but for more than a thousand years since the advent of Christianity in fact the naked body spoke of carnality and sin now Bronzino would deliver an image of monarchy quite inconceivable today Bronzino had painted the Duke as you'd never imagine him appearing in a portrait and I think it's the most extraordinary candid intimate picture of a ruler I've ever seen Bronzino depicts Cosimo as Orpheus the hero of a story of passionate undying love and that proved to be prophetic because the Duke and his wife were seldom parted and had an enduring and intense relationship on the one hand this is an enchanting love token an intimate exchange between Cosimo and his wife it's almost as if he'd sent her a selfie not through the medium of an iPad but with the good offices of an old master Bronzino Cosimo here is an ardent young man impatient to get his hands on his new wife at the same time he's an exemplar of the new of modernity of a new wave in art [Music] [Music] renascence life wasn't all spangled parties and old masters there was plenty of room for the dark arts too and nobody understood that side of court life better than niccolò machiavelli in a world still dominated by religion Machiavelli's great work the prince took a long hard look at human nature and decided ambitious men would do better if they were more cynical about the world around them Machiavelli's The Prince is a bracingly unsentimental primer on how to cheat and deceive your way to the top principles were for losers who said to be jettisoned in pursuit of Fame success wealth although his apologists would say he was just describing the way the world was here's what Machiavelli wrote about you and I one can make this generalization about men they're ungrateful fickle liars and deceivers they shun danger and are greedy for profit while you treat them well they are yours [Music] Machiavellian philosophy transported Cosimo from a world of medieval piety to sharp elbowed modern politics and the influence of Machiavelli's thinking is still all around us today you can't help feeling that many politicians and their aides by no means only here in Italy would have been out of business but for this character the patron saint of spin 16th century Florence was a dangerous place the Medici family had many enemies and they'd often been targeted by jealous assassins for the new young ruler it was going to be tough just to stay alive Cosimo was not a man to be trifled with ruthlessness became his metier for instance what was he to do with his cadre of Italian generals could he trust them didn't they Harbor ambitions themselves he simply fired them all and had them replaced with an army of mercenaries three hundred men from Germany in the Low Countries they owed their allegiance to Cosimo and to Cosimo alone it fell to Cosimo's German guard to thwart the many attempts on his life protecting the Duke was no easy feat because his business affairs took him all over the city his would-be assassins were as dastardly as they were persistent snipers laid in wait for him his face towels were impregnated with poison and his enemies even hit him a cob apparatus of spears and swords beneath the waters of the river arno at the very spot where he liked to bathe then one courtier came up with an ingenious solution a secret elevated corridor which allowed Cosimo to move around the city without being seen [Music] he could even look down on his subjects as he went built by architect Giorgio Vasari this astonishing structure still swoops across the river arno an extra story on top of the great Ponte Vecchio bridge as it extends its reach right across the city this is so exciting the Vasari corridor as it's now known is still off-limits to the general public especially the section which crosses the river but I'm getting privileged entry [Music] [Applause] [Music] today it's used as an overflow for the ofit's II art gallery but it's still a private and exclusive vantage point on the city on the other side of the river Cosimo was even able to make his religious observances without leaving the safety of his bespoke walkway [Music] the way Vasari designed the corridor it actually passed through the back of the Santa Felicita church so that Cosimo and his family could come here and attend Mass through this people without the risk of murderers getting to their communion wine a very real danger [Music] with the help of Giorgio Vasari Cosimo had adroitly outsmarted his enemies [Music] Cosimo's court revered classical proportion and symmetry and what was true for buildings and gardens was also true for the human body Renaissance theories of architecture and physical perfection mirrored one another humanity at its most refined was on display but when it came to real-life courtiers Cosimo's favorite didn't quite fit the mold [Music] and here he is the princes favorite familiar morgue ante the dwarf naked and riding a tortoise he seems to be saying nothing to see here just a guy out for a ride on his amphibian deal with it his job essentially was to amuse Cosimo and to make him look good where he was on the short side and carrying a certain amount of heft Cosimo appeared all the taller all the slender er if the Duke went out hunting on a fine stallion poor old morgue ante was bringing up the rear on his tortoise [Music] in Cosimo's day and let's face it until quite recently it was assumed that physical deformity must be mirrored by a weakness in the mind so morgue ante made his living by playing the fool he deliberately lost at cards and his raucous outrageous behavior was the source of great amusement to people at court but like the fool in Shakespeare's Lea morg ante was one of the few people who dared tell the truth to Cosimo morg antes life at court was bittersweet on the one hand he was forced to perform in demeaning entertainments on the other the Juke showered him with gifts including land and houses and then there was the ultimate honor handsome portrait by Cosimo's court painter from Zeno renders morg ante with some dignity here at least compared to that sculpture he's seen as a classical figure he's out hunting he's a man of virility and action this is also a bravura artistic work Bronzino was locked in a furious debate with a man called virtue about which was better painting or sculpture but she said it's got to be sculpture you can see more than one side of a figure at the same time Bronzino said no he said follow the eyes of morgue ante and we can go around and see him looking over his shoulder at us so painting is at least the equal of a marble [Music] more ghonte was such a beloved and treasured figure at the court of kosovo that when he sadly passed away the duke immediately hired a new dwarf and called him morgue ante [Music] the Renaissance elevated hand-to-hand combat into an elegant choreography [Music] gone was the machismo of medieval jousting fights though still deadly were now a courtly dance chief choreographer was Camillo Agrippa author of a treatise on the science of arms published in 1553 and dedicated to Cosimo [Music] master of arms at the academy escy Mystica Luciano Nez is going to put me through my paces a grippers treatise on swordplay demands a core repertoire of moves there are four basic positions all thrusts should be made with a quick wheel like motion [Music] use fancy footwork keep your sword in position and your body out of harm's way [Music] and finally to anticipate your opponent's potentially lethal thrusts keep your eyes firmly fixed on his sword hand I'm getting the hang of this up to a point 7/7 is even a salsa Katie says it's our motto - solo new qu % of Raving cannot work acid cast a glow reveal and started the or indium until I have seen every winter [Music] a hundred miles east of Florence is the city of Urbino it was here that Italy's rulebook of courtly etiquette was written in libro del courtesan oh the book of the courtier it contained handy hints for negotiating the many pitfalls of court life from picking up women to how to crack jokes and in true Italian style how to dress grad C senior there was a simple rule of thumb when it came to snappy dressing in the Renaissance never forget your three ends wave Oh Neto and Nero new neat and above all black [Music] by putting on a small parachute Italian black was sober restrained tasteful except perhaps in one department what's this Roberto this is called Brigade day in Italian and called piece in English costume historian Roberto Orci land Eenie is helping me get to grips with a paradox of Renaissance fashion when chic black was coupled with the attention-seeking codpiece it's a very unmistakable shape Roberta why is that it was a shape of it suggests that the virile ET the the strength of the men back in those Renaissance days Roberto was the codpiece anatomically correct of course not it was a fake they want to appear bigger than they are of course is this a practical thing though Roberta or is it all about male it is showing off and how to mean showing off but they can be used as a pocket for example so you could keep your keys in there or some change and kerchief or something like that so somebody would say where are my keys I think Najera my compass yes and nobody thought it was a bit strange or funny in the old days to be advertising drawing attention to your what should we say your finer parts I think that was normal for the time they they don't see it as we see it as a lady do you regret the passing of the codpiece no it is not because it's very in the same time very indecent indecent don't you think there's a certain comedy about it perhaps it's no I don't think so I think normal pockets better and how do I look in the gear would you say there's not it fitted not so well but you can call her it oh there's more oh okay why not okay no that's I like that it's slightly dressy maybe I don't know yes so when you arrived somewhere and you greeted everybody you would do that and they would immediately see your car keys no okay let's not go there all right thank you very much [Music] limit or not a man of Cosimo's quarters were practically metrosexual they attached huge importance to personal appearance and grooming although we've yet to find firm evidence of moisturizer having said that what I'm doing here now would have been the Natha move to the shaving but a man's very essence was in his beard in England Henry the Eighth offered a tantalizing glimpse of chin Francis the first King of France sported a facial pelmet of man fur and there's something of the knight about the beard of holy roman emperor charles v [Music] barbering was a vital occupation of the Florentine Court Gabrieli Phyllis strew cheese family has been in the beard and wig making game for over 300 years [Music] that is a real minestrone strainer isn't it oh here he is so what style would you call this Kristen is still a uniboob a normality Portobello personally I believe a nice leap importantly becoming table a la se la a little team or he put a mono transmitter adultery Jemmy the Cosmo primaporta bond Alabama multi kamikaze mo to perk you in a bar balloon de mammal to Kurata a per curiam e table on la la grande uka you know Billy Ray luncheon amour de tutti was in Matera lui le artistic a frequent Ivana la corte comb a Michelangelo Vizag on Bologna etc a diva Munna Barbra a lung pero la la Chamba stands at resin data I don't say so the distinction echo what will the different styles hang on hang on I'm sorry easy this Cosimo had a mobile causing [Music] that's got something Roy would you staff my likeness and wizard I feel a bit like a sort of a Alsatian or a Yeti [Music] the term Renaissance man has become shorthand for a particular kind of genius one adept at a variety of disciplines multitasking was a signature of the age marrying the scientific with the artistic inventive men were central to the working of Cosimo's court and one particularly gifted individual seemed to offer more than most bernardo wenter Lenti was the courtier whose gifts just went on giving he actually was that much spotted figure the Renaissance man architect stage designer inventor of Mad self-propelled machines he came up with an incredible edible treat that was bound to tickle the Dukes fancy ice cream in a pre refrigerated age it was nothing short of a miracle and today Paolo pom Posse is still making ice cream to that original recipe mortality from posted a lot a guava unlit Sakura watch Anna starting today mr. machina sale process to the bastards Etzioni Trixie 11 temperature elevator embrava temple to the mission leader Mamata temperatura chellamma Haddad Sione Edisto April Paula mascara Passamaquoddy martini do we have any romantic assume people are driven to the area in the 14th allahu intentionally mediator from aria now Paulo you've got all this Gabon's here if I can use the technical term to make ice cream now what about 1/2 lemon tea it was very primitive back there the main thing with empanadas the mr. Teresa Dora was that mr. machina dilemma there now said and Romano who polakov a below Sinatra okay and she said we need an enabled element I need to know polish you know conserve a sterile on a be very perilous team on a leap anomaly a point in a search on a Michelin Kalapana became a de la Fidele Laura when they leave Sucre linear blingy Art Show chlamydia Khalid Saleh national free do it point Michelle Alana's birthday this but tenders but the end of gelato so far accuracy a okay you soon [Music] man that's good okay almost tastes the snow from the opponents I tell you what Paulo this is the Dolce meter isn't it every Italian city needed the relics the bones of a venerated saint in order to attract pilgrims and hence their cash but the Renaissance was an age when people began to exalt artistic genius almost as much as religious virtue on the 18th of February 1564 Michelangelo the artist who got away died in Rome Cosimo's attempts to get him home had proved hopeless but he wasn't beaten yet at the monastery attached to the Church of the Saints of the Apostles in Rome the monks prepared for the burial of Italy's greatest artist [Music] Buon Giorno Franciscan friar father Maximilian has agreed to talk to me about what happened here Ecole momento de Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti school Torre Victoria architect owes a start of support in questa pass silica de Santi Apostoli McCoy estado rubato type urine teeny in sacred [Music] - henchmen working on the orders of Cosimo had broken into the monastery cloisters to steal a body of Michelangelo before he was even in his grave tell me more about this extraordinary case of it's sort of premature grave roping isn't it when the body was taken away that's quite an event is an event start off our toe in secreto durante la notte marinade bia III Puritanism nu te hono praise o el cor for a Albertina cuando Efrat you know sort of the Revati it's michael angelo garepe you they put Michelangelo's body in a cart along with other bundles and packages and sped off as fast as they could to the gates of Rome hoping the guards would let them through unmolested and they could return in triumph to Florence with the body of that city's most famous son they were lucky and made it home in Florence Cosimo's men were waiting to receive the body now preparations could begin it was quite simply the most extraordinary spectacle this old town had ever seen Michelangelo a genius true but a flesh-and-blood genius after all a man was beatified turned into a saint he became to florence watson Markinson Peter Christ's own apostles were to Venice and Rome it was as though the artist was up there on a par with those disciples he would be interred in the church florence reserves for its greatest heroes santa croce and the tomb itself would be a triumph of florentine art [Music] Michelangelo had defied the Duke in life but it was Cosimo who had the last word the artist was buried here in what amounted to a state funeral the finest talents of the Florentine Academy were entrained to create a tomb worthy of the great man and of the great occasion Bronzino shalini and crucially above all Vasari who designed this extraordinary Sepulcher he wrote that not even a pope or an emperor would get a better send off than florence would mount for michelangelo its prodigal son [Music] the three weeping maidens at the bottom represent a trinity of the great disciplines in which Michelangelo excelled on the left a figure representing the art of painting she's holding a sculpture but she's also holding paintbrushes in her other hand she's going to commit a likeness of that torso to canvas in the middle the figure represents the art the discipline of sculpture she holds a chisel and a block of pure marble and over on the right this figure stands for architecture she's holding what may be a set of plans in one hand and a pair of dividers in the other and above them the great craggy benign figure of Michelangelo himself Vasari was inconsolable at the death of his idol he claims to have witnessed a near miracle when Michelangelo's body was finally returned to the city twenty-five days after his death he said that they found it perfect in every part and so free from any evil odor we were tempted to believe he had merely drifted into a sweet and quiet sleep the canonization of the artist was assured [Music] towards the end of his life the grand duke cut a much diminished figure he'd always been ruthless but that had been tempered by his love of his family however in an annus horribilis a malaria epidemic swept away his wife two of his sons and two of his daughters including his favorite Maria [Music] life no longer held any saver for Cosimo he handed over most of his power to another son and retreated into an unlikely late career as a womanizer or else into the shuttered seclusion of his lonely apartments after a series of debilitating strokes he died in 1574 but the Medici name would live on immortalized forever in the world of astronomy and mathematics [Music] Cosimo liked to keep a pet mathematician at court someone he could consult on rarefied matters like ancient Greek geometry and the movement of heavenly bodies it was all a far cry from the superstition of medieval times the post of numbers man to the Duke would go on to inspire and sustain one of the greatest thinkers in world history Galileo Galilei was just a young boy when Cosimo died but the artistic and intellectual life of the Florentine court under Duke Cosimo had inspired him [Music] the archer tree observatory on the edge of Florence is on the very hillside where Galileo made his observations his discoveries would help to shatter the medieval belief system which insisted that the cosmos revolved around earth that's very pleasing isn't it [Music] today astronomer Paolo taught si enjoys the same view and we're going to spot the Medici constellation that's good it's very clear isn't it did exciting so those are the Medici stars is a try how important was Galileo's discovery of the Medici stars all those years ago the Medici ah see there are like Galileo called them they are the four major satellites of Jupiter Jupiter is the biggest planet of our solar system and now we know today that it has a lot of satellites however four of them are quite prominent and they are the most like our moon just to give you an example so studying the position of these satellites around Jupiter he could tell that they were orbiting Jupiter and this was the main story yes up until that point people believed something else and together it was you know had a revolution around the earth this observation was revolution because for the first time we saw something orbiting around another heavenly body and this was not expected in the history of great scientific breakthroughs where would you put Galileo uncovering the Medici stars he was really in opening the window on a completely new world and this was really the beginning of our modern view of the universe it was a beginning of modern science [Music] heavenly art flourished in an atmosphere of strong government and lavish patronage and the stars smiled on a new kind of artistic outrageousness and absolute rule in 17th century France under the Sun King but that's for next time [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: timeline, medici, house of medici documentary, florence medici family, florence medici history, florence medici palace, medici banking history, medici bank italy, leonardo da vinci, leonardo da vinci documentary, michelangelo, italian artists, italian art, lorenzo de medici dynasty, medici dynasty, italian renaissance, the medici, florence travel, how to get ahead

Id: MAcsj2e8w7w

Length: 59min 19sec (3559 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 11 2020