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Audiobook edition · 15 h 7 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How does a family of bankers become the quiet rulers of a republic?
In Lives of the Early Medici, edited by Janet Ross, the family’s letters bring you into a Florence of guilds, banks and rival households. Money, marriage and friendship shape influence. Letters to relatives and allies reveal how the Medici mix private concerns with public ambition in a city that remains officially a republic.
The correspondence lets you encounter the Medici through their own words, with private talk beside matters of state. The story moves toward Lorenzo de’ Medici, called the Magnificent: patron of poets, artists and scholars, and a hard-headed politician. Alongside diplomacy and rivalry come illness and household concerns, bringing the family behind the power into view.
What you’ll discover
- Bankers in a republic Explore a city where great families compete through wealth, marriage and friendship.
- The family at home Find illness and household concerns beside the business of banking and political influence.
- Lorenzo and his rivals Meet a patron of poets, artists and scholars who also navigates political rivalry.
- Private words, public power Trace how letters between relatives and allies connect family life with political ambition.
- Reading between the lines Consider what each writer chooses to tell a particular reader, and what remains beyond view.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like the Italian Renaissance seen from inside the home, or if letters and diaries draw you more than speeches.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Private letters bring rulers closer
- Quiet usefulness becomes a family strategy
- Cosimo joins banking with cultural influence
- Exile reveals the reach of influence
- Household care supports public power
- Piero inherits power and its dangers
- Marriage joins alliances with personal feeling
- Lorenzo answers danger with personal risk
- Household voices complicate the public story
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Lives of the Early Medici
by Janet Ross (editor) · 1910
A banker's wife frets over a cape and a boy begs for a pony, while politics runs through the Medici letters.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What did the first Medici sound like when nobody was watching? A mother scolds her son for not asking sooner for his lynx-lined cape.
Lives of the Early Medici at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 35 min6 h 45 min fast, 10 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 122,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1910by Janet Ross (editor)
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The Medici begin as guild citizens, not nobles
The book opens with a family whose origins nobody can pin down. Enemies say a charcoal burner started the line. Friends claim descent from Perseus or from a knight who killed a giant for Charlemagne. Even the six red balls on the shield get many explanations.
The documents give a plainer path. By 1291 a Medici, Ardingo, held high office in Florence. A law of 1293 excluded nobles from office, so the family were not old nobility. Salvestro de Medici backed the common guilds in the Ciompi riot of 1378, and the Medici were seen as defenders of ordinary citizens.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Lives of the Early Medici. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/lives-of-the-early-medici.
Lives of the early Medici. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/lives-of-the-early-medici (Original work published 1910)
Lives of the Early Medici. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/lives-of-the-early-medici.
@book{anonymous2026lives,
title = {Lives of the Early Medici},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/lives-of-the-early-medici},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is Lives of the Early Medici about?
It tells the story of the Medici from Giovanni di Bicci through Cosimo, Piero and Lorenzo the Magnificent, using their letters and diaries. It shows how they ran a bank, ruled Florence and raised their families.
Who wrote the letters in this book?
Many are by Cosimo, Contessina, Lucrezia, Piero and Lorenzo. Others come from popes, kings, poets such as Poliziano and Pulci, ambassadors, doctors and children. Janet Ross translated and edited them.
Why was Lorenzo called the Magnificent?
The preface explains that Your Magnificence was a courtesy given to many well-born people. It was no special award. The title fitted Lorenzo so well that it became his own.
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