Florence exiled Cosimo de' Medici, and then its money followed him out
In 1433 Florence's rulers jailed Cosimo de' Medici and then banished him; some rivals wanted him executed. He moved to Venice and took his bank with him. So much capital drained out of Florence after him that within a year the city cancelled his exile, and he spent his last three decades as its ruler in all but name.
Cosimo was born in Florence in 1389 alongside a twin, Damiano, who lived only briefly. The boys were named after Saints Cosmas and Damian, and Cosimo chose to celebrate his birthday on their feast day, 27 September. His father Giovanni founded the Medici Bank in 1397, and in 1410 lent Baldassare Cossa the money to buy a cardinal's post. When Cossa became pope as John XXIII, he rewarded the Medici by putting their bank in charge of papal finances, a privilege lost in 1415 when a church council deposed him and regained after a rival Florentine bank collapsed in 1420.
Rome was where the money was. Of the 179,221 florins Giovanni left in 1429, about two-thirds came from Rome and only a tenth from Florence. Cosimo spread the bank to London, Bruges, Avignon, Lübeck and beyond, so that bishops across Europe could pay church fees at the nearest branch. He married Contessina de' Bardi, linking the family to an old banking dynasty.
Florence prided itself on being a republic, so Cosimo seldom held office and played down his ambitions while using his wealth to steer who sat on the city councils. The future Pope Pius II remarked that political questions were settled in Cosimo's house and that he was king in all but name. Even so, colleagues saw him as first among equals, and the councils often resisted him.
Abroad he backed the condottiere Francesco Sforza in Milan, helping create a balance of power that brought northern Italy nearly half a century of peace. In 1439 he persuaded Pope Eugene IV to move a church council to Florence, bringing a Byzantine emperor and Greek scholars to the city. He spent over 600,000 florins on art and learning, including Donatello's bronze David, and said spending gave him more pleasure than earning. After his death in 1464 the city honoured him as Father of the Fatherland.
Source: Cosimo de' Medici
