
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, who dominated Florence's political and cultural life for three centuries. The House of Medici came to prominence in Italy in the fifteenth century as a result of the wealth they had built up through banking. With the rise of Cosimo de' Medici, they became Florence's most powerful and influential dynasty, effectively controlling the city's government. Their patronage of the arts turned Florence into a leading centre of the Renaissance and the Medici Bank was one of the most successful institutions of its day. As well as producing four popes, members of the House of Medici married into various European royal families.
With:
Evelyn Welch
Robert Black
Catherine Fletcher
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
By BBC Radio 44.5
18311,831 ratings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, who dominated Florence's political and cultural life for three centuries. The House of Medici came to prominence in Italy in the fifteenth century as a result of the wealth they had built up through banking. With the rise of Cosimo de' Medici, they became Florence's most powerful and influential dynasty, effectively controlling the city's government. Their patronage of the arts turned Florence into a leading centre of the Renaissance and the Medici Bank was one of the most successful institutions of its day. As well as producing four popes, members of the House of Medici married into various European royal families.
With:
Evelyn Welch
Robert Black
Catherine Fletcher
Producer: Victoria Brignell.

7,718 Listeners

1,097 Listeners

1,066 Listeners

5,474 Listeners

1,809 Listeners

3,233 Listeners

869 Listeners

608 Listeners

737 Listeners

591 Listeners

282 Listeners

1,784 Listeners

1,043 Listeners

2,078 Listeners

477 Listeners

4,776 Listeners

3,223 Listeners

3,318 Listeners

1,042 Listeners

15,596 Listeners

1,894 Listeners

2,057 Listeners

2,473 Listeners