Medici and Patronage

Chiarissimo de Medici appears in Florentine records

1201

Anolfo di Cambio's design of Santa Maria del Fiore

1294

Ardingo de Medici becomes gonfaloniere

1296

Guccio de Medici becomes gonfaloniere

1299

Averardo de Medici becomes gonfaloniere

1314

Dante Alighieri completes the Divine Comedy

1320

Banks of Bardi, Peruzzi and Acciaiuoli collapse

1340

Giovanni de Medici leads the war on Lucca

1343

Black Death arrives in Europe

1347

Giovanni Boccaccio completes the Decameron

1353

Giovanni di Bicci de Medici born

1360

Petrarch finishes Il Canzoniere

1374

Filippo Brunelleschi born

1377

Salvestro de Medici becomes gonfaloniere - ciompi revolt

1378

Vieri de Medici takes over the Bank

1388

Cosimo de Medici born

1389

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi born

1396

Medici Bank founded

1397

Giovanni di Bicci serves on a panel to judge a competition to create new bronze doors for the Baptistery

1401

Giovanni de Bicci chose Lorenzo Ghiberti and started the practice of patronage. This also opened his eyes to something greater than finance.

The Medici finance a cloth business

1402

Giovanni di Bicci joins the Guild of Bankers and serves on the Signoria

1402

Giovanni di Bicci befriends Cardinal Baldassare Cossa

1402

Medici become Papal Bankers

1410

Baldassare Cossa became Pope John XXIII, however the Catholic Church regards him as an antipope, as he opposed Pope Gregory XII whom the Catholic Church now recognizes as the rightful successor of Saint Peter.

Council of Constance

1414

The Great Schism was when three people claimed the Papal throne - the Holy Roman Emperor kept this council to decide the Pope. Giovanni sent Cosimo, his son to represent the Medici Bank but the Medici lost the Papal account as Cossa was stripped of the Papacy.

Cosimo de Medici gets a seat in the Signoria

1415

Cosimo marries Contessina - now owns Palazzo Bardi

1416

Piero di Cosimo de Medici is born

1416

Cosimo de Medici gets a seat in the Signoria

1417

Brunelleschi wins the competition for the dome of Santa Maria Del Fiore

1418

Giovanni di Bicci commissions Michelozzo and Donatello to create a tomb for Cossa

1419

This tomb in Baptistery of Florence was one of the earliest examples of the Early Renaissance style.

Giovanni di Bicci forms a public committee to commission the Ospedale degli Innocenti

1419

Starts the Medici-Brunelleschi association. Earliest example of the Early Renaissance style.

Cosimo de Medici and his brother Lorenzo take over the Bank from Giovanni di Bicci

1420

Giovanni di Bicci becomes gonfaloniere

1421

Giovanni di Bicci commissions the rebuilding of the Church of San Lorenzo

1421

Brunelleschi was again commissioned to rebuild this Medici clan traditional church.

Medici Bank become Papal Bankers again

1424

Giovanni di Bicci de Medici dies

1428

Brunelleschi starts designing the renovation of San Spirito

1428

Carlo di Cosimo de Medici, Cosimo's illegitimate son is born

1430

Palazzo Medici commissioned

1430

Cosimo commissions Brunelleschi to create Palazzo Medici, but chooses Michelozzo's more somber design

Cosimo exiled to Venice for five years

1433

Cosimo is called back to Florence

1434

Brunelleschi completes the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore

1436

Cosimo commissions Michelozzo to refurbish the monastery of San Marco

1437

This was a result of the conflict between Cosimo’s faith and his worldly activities had begun to trouble his conscience; and when he was in his early forties he had a private audience with Pope Eugenius IV who suggested that to salve his conscience he could fund the rebuilding of the monastery of San Marco, and Cosimo immediately set Michelozzo to work on this project, one on
which he would eventually spend more than 30,000 florins.

Florence hosts the Ecumenical Council

1439

The Ecumenical Council had been called to settle the differences between the Catholic Church of Rome and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople (also known as Byzantium, now Istanbul). This led the way for scholars of Ancient Greece trapped in Constantinople to come to Florence and spread humanist ideas.

Cosimo commissions the renovation of the church of San Lorenzo

1442

Medici Library founded

1444

Filippo Brunelleschi dies

1446

Lorenzo de Medici 'il magnifico' is born

1449

Leonardo da Vinci born

1452

Ghiberti completes Baptistery doors - 'Gates of Paradise'

1452

Cosimo de Medici dies

1464

Lorenzo marries Clarice Orsini - now links to the Papacy

1469

Piero di Cosimo de Medici dies

1469

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi dies

1472

Michelangelo Buonarroti born

1475

Pazzi conspiracy - Death of Giuliano di Piero de Medici

1478

Francesco de Pazzi, Bernando Bandini, Francesco Salviati, Gian Battista da Montesecco, Girolamo Riario and others planned to kill both the Medici- but Lorenzo escaped and Giulano died. This happened during Easter Mass at the Florence Cathedral.

The Pope attacks Florence and issues a papal bull of excommunication

1479

Lorenzo moves to Pisa and Naples

1480

Lorenzo recommends da Vinci to the Duke of Milan; Leonardo moves to Milan for fifteen years

1482

Girolamo Savonarola comes to Florence

1488

Lorenzo de Medici 'il magnifico' dies

1492

Piero di Lorenzo de Medici takes over the rule of Florence

1492

The people of Florence reject Piero and Piero is banished from Florence

1494

Piero surrendered the city to the French king Charles VIII

Savonarola conducts the 'Bonfire of the Vanities'

1497

Savonarola executed

1498

Michelangelo returns to Florence

1500

Piero di Lorenzo de Medici dies

1503

Cardinal Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici and his cousin Giulio retake Florence

1512

Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici becomes Pope Leo X

1513

Leo X commissions Michelangelo for the facade of San Lorenzo

1518

Leonardo da Vinci dies

1519

Michelangelo starts work on the New Sacristy

1520

Leo X dies

1521

Giulio di Giuliano de Medici becomes Pope Clement VII

1523

Pope Leo X commissions Michelangelo to create the Medici tombs

1527

The Sack of Rome

1527

Medici ousted from Florence yet again

1527

Alessandro de' Medici made Duke of Florence

1530

Caterina de Medici marrie Henri de Valois, French prince

1533

Clement VII dies

1534

Cosimo I Duke of Florence takes over rule of Florence

1537

Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence dies

1537

Cosimo I commissions the Boboli Gardens

1541

Michelangelo Buonarroti dies

1564

Cosimo I commissions the Uffizi

1581

The Medici line ends

1743

Facade of Santa Maria Del Fiore completed with the design of Emilio de Fabris

1887