Known as “il vechio” (“The Elder”) as he lived to the ripe old age of 75, Cosimo de’ Medici turned the Medici Bank from a large, yet humble Florentine bank into one of the largest in Europe, becoming immensely wealthy in the process.
Aside from this, he was also a great patron of the arts – perhaps the greatest of his generation – and the first Medici to enter politics, laying the foundation for later generations to become dukes, monarchs and even popes!
Early Life
Cosimo de’ Medici was born on September 27 1389 in the Republic of Florence. In accordance with the traditions of the time, Cosimo took the full name Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici to distinguish himself from any like-named relatives.
The youngest of twins born to Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, a Florentine banker who’d risen to become the personal banker of the Pope, and his wife, Piccarda Bueri, Cosimo inveritably grew up in the lap of luxury.
Perhaps spurred on by the death of his other son – Cosimo’s twin brother, Damiano – in infancy, Giovanni de’ Medici ensured his son received the finest education available to a young man of the era, with the intention that Cosimo would one day join the family bank Giovanni had established.
Educated by famed humanist Robert de’ Rossi at the Camaldolesi Monastery, Cosimo learned several foreign languages including Latin – Europe’s lingua franca at the time – Greek and Arabic, as well as grammar, rhetoric and art.
