The Medici were a family of farmers who originally came from a town called Cafaggiolo, about fifteen miles north of Florence. We don’t know if they came into a little money, or if they were ruined in farming, but they moved to Florence about the time it became a republic and within a hundred years they were one of the richest families in the city and they were bankers–their business was to lend money. Each generation of Medici became even richer. But in 1389 was born Cosimo de’ Medici, who not only became wealthier than his father, he came to control the city itself. Cosimo was 40 when his father died, and Cosimo was so feared by the other powerful ruling family of Florence, the Albizzi, that they arranged to have Cosimo arrested for trying to put himself above others in the city and mismanagement of the defense of the city, a crime that could have cost him his life, except that he ransomed himself by paying an enormous amount and went into exile for a year.
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