House of Medici
Back to people overviewThe Medici family were the ruling house of Florence for most of the fifteenth century and regained power from 1569-1737, after a period of exile.
The basis of their power lay in the foundation of the Medici bank by Giovanni de' Bicci in 1397. The Medici assumed the title of Dukes of Tuscany from 1530 and by 1532, they had become a hereditary monarchy.
Giovanni's son Cosimo I, was a great patron of the arts, he transformed a room in the Plazzo Vecchio into the ‘Sala delle Carte Geografiche’, which was adorned with fifty-four maps, inspired by Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’. Robert Dudley's 'Dell‘Arcano del Mare’ (1645) was bound for Cardinal Gian Carlo de’ Medici, who was the second son of the dedicatee of the atlas, Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
