Lives of the Early Medici: Restored Classics to Go Edition

This volume opens the private life of the Medici dynasty through letters that reveal far more than politics and patronage. From Giovanni de' Medici, called Bicci, to Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo, it traces the family's rise from prosperous Florentine merchants to the guiding force of Renaissance Florence, showing how wealth, public service, and popular favor were carefully cultivated. Alongside civic offices, taxation, exile, rebellion, and diplomacy, the correspondence captures household concerns, affectionate family exchanges, marriages, rivalries, and the ambitions that shaped a powerful house. Richly rooted in archives, portraits, and historical commentary, the book moves from early legends and genealogies to documented history, following figures such as Salvestro, Filigno, and the later Medici generation. Letters from wives, sons, popes, cardinals, envoys, poets, and humanists illuminate a world where family strategy and statecraft are inseparable. Volterra's revolt, Church advancement, courtly patronage, and Lorenzo the Magnificent's cultural brilliance all emerge in vivid detail, making the Medici not only rulers and patrons, but deeply human figures whose personal bonds helped define the Renaissance age. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.