Accessibility options


Medici family

Medici Family

Noble family that ruled the Italian city-state of Florence from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The Medici arrived in Florence in the 13th century and made their fortune in banking. The first family member to control the city, from 1434 to 1464, was Cosimo de' Medici (‘the Elder’); he and his grandson Lorenzo (‘the Magnificent’), who ruled from 1469 to 1492, made Florence the foremost city-state in Renaissance Italy, and were famed as patrons of the arts and humanist thought. Four Medici were elected pope, and others married into the royal families of Europe.

After a period of exile (1494–1512), the Medici returned to power and ruled first as dukes and later as grand dukes of Tuscany until 1737, when the line of succession died out. Other prominent family members included the 16th-century popes Leo X and Clement VII, and the French queens Catherine de' Medici and Marie de' Medici.

© RM 2009. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.


 
 

Encyclopaedia Search

Click a letter for the index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Or search the encyclopaedia:
 
 
All results tagged with the symbol denotes content that is relevant to the national curriculum

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends


Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

Country Search

 
 

Dictionary search

 
 

Palau Flag

Palau Flag
The disc represents the full moon, traditionally the most auspicious time for work and celebration. The disc is set towards the hoist. Effective date: 1 January 1981.

Health Search

 
 
Search all Diseases Medicines

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

Skip to page content | Text onlyGraphical version of this page

Tiscali Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main navigation, to the page content, or to more links within reference.

web |  shopping |  this site |  video |  local services

Page Footer


Access keys


You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
  • (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
  • (1) Navigate to Home page.
  • (2) Navigate to My email.
  • (3) Navigate to My Account.
  • (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
  • (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
  • (6) Navigate to Members channel.
  • (7) Navigate to Services channel.
  • (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
  • (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
  • ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
  • (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
  • (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
  • (x) Text only version of this page.
Background images used:
furniture images used in the site icons used in the site images used in the header