From the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, Florence as city, state and duchy, was ruled by the Medici. For more than twelve generations they, governed, intrigued and grew wealthy. At the same time they enriched the City of the Lily with their patronage of art and learning. Among their number were merchants, bankers, politicians, tyrants, assassins, queens, poets, musicians, inventors, popes and diplomats. This course will narrate some of the political, economic and social deeds and misdeeds perpetrated by the various Medici leaders, as well as discuss the dynasty’s major contributions to arts and culture. The achievements sponsored, inspired or actually invented by this extraordinary dynasty range from the invention of the piano to the creation of libraries and the establishment of a ceramics industry.
