The Medici Podcast

For our 50th episode, I give an overview of how the Medici went from being just one of several powerful banking families to joining the ranks of European royalty and high nobility.

Check out pictures, bibliographies, and more at http://www.medicipodcast.com.

Support the podcast on Patreon 

Just a brief update on the latest way the Worst Summer Of My Life has messed with me and what that means for the podcast along with what's in store with future episodes.

We leave the Medici papacy behind and look at the life and times of Alessandro de' Medici, the first Medici de facto ruler of Florence and (possibly) a black head of state in Renaissance Europe.

The theme music is "La Disperata", composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

Check out pictures, bibliographies, and more at http://www.medicipodcast.com.

Support the podcast on Patreon and check out my blog/newsletter here.

Pope Clement VII sells his soul to Emperor Charles V to get back Florence. Part of the bargain includes Clement essentially signing off on the death warrant of the Republic of Florence.

Lorenzo the Magnificent's granddaughter Clarice triggers a coup in Florence just by berating the man in charge. Meanwhile Pope Clement is driven to hide in a derelict palace in the mountains and receives an unwelcome visitor all the way from England.

The theme music is "La Disperata", composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

Check out pictures, bibliographies, and more at http://www.medicipodcast.com.

Support us at Patreon.

Pope Clement tries once more to loosen Emperor Charles V's grip on Italy, another revolution in Florence is narrowly avoided through one man's incompetence, and the stage is set for one of modern history's most notorious war-time atrocities.

Clement VII brings back the artistic glories of Renaissance Rome, but disaster for himself, his family, and for Rome looms overhead. 

The theme music is "La Disperata", composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

Check out pictures, bibliographies, and more at http://www.medicipodcast.com.

Support us at Patreon.

After Leo X's sudden death, the Medici are briefly out of power in the papacy. In the meantime, Emperor Charles V changes the landscape of European politics by getting elected as Holy Roman Emperor, and the fate of the Medici family is put in the hands of an orphaned, illegitimate son.

Check out images, maps, genealogies, and more at medicipodcast.com.

Support me on Patreon

While Pope Leo works with the artist Raphael toward the preservation of Roman antiquities and tries to steer Italy between the deadly rocks of France, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, a little problem crops up to demand his attention. And that little problem had a name: Martin Luther. 

The theme music is "La Disperata", composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

Check out pictures, bibliographies, and more at the Medici Podcast website.

Support us at Patreon. 

A new Medici is born amidst tragedy, Pope Leo struggles with the threats posed by France, Spain, and the Holy Roman and Ottoman empires and a deadly conspiracy close to home, and an obscure monk and university lecturer in Germany starts to inspire a bit of controversy. 

Pope Leo X goes through his own "annus mirabilis." Meanwhile the next generation of Medici men come into their own: the wannabe aristocrat, Lorenzo "the Younger", and the juvenile delinquent turned freelance mercenary, Giovanni of the Black Bands.

We look at Pope Leo X's reign, from how he got an edition of a pivotal Jewish text dedicated to him to the elaborate practical joke he engineered involving his pet elephant and an old-fashioned Roman triumph. But Leo also has to face the fact that the fate of Europe, especially Italy, now lays in the hands of three young, ambitious, and powerful monarchs.

The unlikely partnership between the bookish, affable Giovanni de' Medici and the rough-and-tumble Pope Julius II will finally bring the Medici back to power and set the stage for Giovanni's turn as Pope Leo X, which would prove to be one of the most consequential papal reigns in history for reasons no one could have predicted.

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

The Catholic Church was once the most important, omnipresent institution in Europe. Before we meet the Medici Popes, we'll delve into what exactly the Church did for the people, from providing early nursing homes to giving people one of the few shots at social mobility, and how powerful the Popes really were.

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

Prof. Alec Ryrie on atheism in the Middle Ages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb5mYqnKFlI  

Still in exile, Piero de' Medici throws himself on the mercy of the new king of France and Cesare Borgia. But will they prove to be reliable friends?

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

This time, we check in on the sons of Pierfrancesco de' Medici, the brothers Popolano, Lorenzo and Giovanni. While Lorenzo tried to play a small, non-partisan role in Florence's new government, Giovanni fell in love with one of the most famous and daring women of the Renaissance.

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

We conclude Savonarola's story by looking at why one of his most fervent followers decided to try to shut up the growing criticism of Savonarola by resorting to an obsolete medieval ritual and how that decision backfired catastrophically. 

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

Savonarola may be enjoying the peak of his influence over Florence, but he's made a relentles enemy who just so happens to be a pope and, worse, a Borgia. Meanwhile, Piero and his supporters spin plots for a Medici restoration.

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com 

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

Charles VIII marches on Naples not knowing a brand-new plague is waiting for him, the Medici adapt to the existence of the new republic in different ways, and Savonarola and his allies in government tighten their grip over Florence, even while Rodrigo Borgia closes in on Florence's popular preacher. 

Check out the website for extra materials and one-time donations: medicipodcast.com
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast

Piero de' Medici is gone, and a new rising star is a hotshot preacher named Girolamo Savonarola. Once an itinerant preacher and lecturer, Savonarola now finds himself hobnobbing with King Charles VIII of France and even having a say in Florence's newly rebuilt, Medici-free republic. 

Piero doesn't get to enjoy being the de facto lord of Florence for long before he has to deal with an impending French invasion of Italy. He decides to imitate his father's boldest move, which would surely work...won't it?

The fourth Medici to come to power as "unofficial lord" of Florence is Lorenzo the Magnificent's son, Piero. Although a strapping, handsome, and popular young man, forces within the regime are already working against him. But the real threat is starting to stir many miles outside of Florence...

An update explaining the brief hiatus and what the planned schedule for the show will be going forward. 

We step back from the Medici to look at Europe as a whole circa 1492. The balance of power is shifting and that means, for Medici and Italy as a whole, the flood is coming. 

The golden age of the Medici's unofficial lordship over Florence is drawing to an end with Lorenzo's death. Here we look back over Lorenzo's legacy as the patron, the politician, and even the embezzler and the human being. Also, what exactly was Lorenzo's contribution to the course of not only Florentine but European history as a whole? 

Lorenzo is at the height of his power and security. However, just behind the scenes, the family bank that caused the Medici to come into power in the first place is slowly but steadily falling apart, thanks to the Ottomans, a squabble between English royals, and, most of all, the ugly realities of politics. 

The Lorenzo we see from his volumnious letters is a man who had a short temper and bouts of depression, but was also capable of tremendous compassion and generosity. Unfortunately, his relationships with his own wife and sons were perhaps less than ideal.

To try to stop a war Florence is badly losing and take some steam out of the Pope's vendetta against him, Lorenzo does something few politicians had done before or since: put himself directly in enemy territory. 

The Pope, his nephew, an archbishop, and a mercenary decide Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano have to die (or at least be overthrown). Unfortunately, the conspiracy develops some hiccups, namely having to send a couple of clergy instead of a mercenary to take down Lorenzo...

Lorenzo resorts to unsavory methods in order to keep the Medici bank afloat. In the meantime, his path crosses with the man who would prove to be his most relentless enemy: Christ's representative on Earth himself. 

Not long after coming to power, Lorenzo de' Medici has to fend off enemies at home and abroad. Unfortunately, in the course of protecting Florence from a crisis that could spiral out of control, Lorenzo sets the stage for a humanitarian disaster. But how much was he really to blame?

Even as a small child, Lorenzo had been thrust into the role of the public face of the Medici regime. Now an adult, Lorenzo's own marriage to a Roman noblewoman from a clan claiming the Emperor Augustus and Julius Caesar as ancestors is a chance for the Medici to ascend even higher. Meanwhile, Piero is finally succumbing to his gout, just when both the domestic and foreign situations are starting to fall apart. 

An update on the show schedule for 10/29 and a thank you to everyone making sure this podcast isn't just me talking to myself.

Piero de' Medici narrowly escaped death or abduction. But did everything happen as Piero and his son Lorenzo said? And just how will the Party of the Hill survive when they apparently bet everything on one scheme? 

Piero de' Medici seems to be enjoying a smooth transition to power, but soon enough a rival political party takes shape on the high ground just across the river from the Palazzo de' Medici. When legal measures fail to dislodge the Medici, the so-called "Party of the Hill" proves itself more than willing to resort to more drastic measures. Meanwhile we get a better look at Piero, the math professor of the Renaissance, and his wife Lucrezia, wife/mother/patron/businesswoman/writer.

At the height of his political power, Cosimo de' Medici is being overwhelmed with illness and personal tragedy. Who will succeed him to his invisible, nameless throne? His son Piero, who unfortunately is a middle-aged man so sick no one thinks he will live for much longer.

For maps, bibliographies, and more, go to medicipodcast.com.

Support the show through Venmo: @ Chad-Denton-15 or https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast.

The theme music is “La Disperata”, composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

Cosimo de' Medici quickly established a regime that operated within Florence's constitution but gave Cosimo an almost unchallenged power over the state. Unfortunately, Cosimo's government was a delicate structure, and the pandemonium of Italian Renaissance politics threatened to bring it all tumbling down. 

For maps, bibliographies, and more, go to medicipodcast.com.

Support the show through Venmo: @ Chad-Denton-15 or https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast.

The theme music is “La Disperata”, composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

With a combination of patience and political maneuvering, Cosimo turns the tables on his enemies and returns to Florence in triumph. His first major act is to host an attempt to reunify the long-divided Greek and Latin churches. It has rather mixed results, but it does make something clear to the rulers of Europe: Cosimo is no longer just a banker.  

For maps, bibliographies, and more, go to medicipodcast.com. 

Support the show through Venmo: @ Chad-Denton-15 or https://www.patreon.com/medicipodcast.

The theme music is “La Disperata”, composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

As soon as he inherits his father's place as head of the rich, international Medici Bank, Cosimo gets a target on his back in a Florence where politics are increasingly molded by the sponsorship of the rich and not by the guilds. The minute he steps on the public arena, not only is Cosimo's political career is in danger, but his very life. 

For the second part of our two-parter on the Renaissance, we look at "the new." We see here how the Renaissance gave us new forms of art, music, and architecture, but also new notions of civility, stricter governments, state censorship, and even the decline of women's political influence.

Check out maps, images, and more: medicipodcast.com/ 

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/chadsdenton 

Drop some change through Venmo: @Chad-Denton-15

In part one of a two parter on the origins of the Renaissance, I discuss how Greek and Roman pagan culture survived the rise of Christianity and its persecution of pagans, why and how a bunch of scholars rediscovered the past, and how in their quest to recreate the virtues of antiquity they and their patrons accidentally ended up creating the modern world. 

He was a political exile who sided with the wrong people at the wrong time and lost the love of his life. Also he was one of the greatest writers in history and got to shape the modern Italian language. 

We close out Season 1, "The Early Medici", with a look at the life and death of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, whose descendants would become the branch of the family we usually mean when we talk about the Medici. Not only is the first prominent member of the family, however, he also founded the dynasty in the sense that he started the tradition of sponsoring forward-thinking artists, writers, and architects and in how his apparent reluctance to be a public figure actually inspired a formula for political success that would carry his descendants to greater heights than even his more ambitious forebears could have imagined. 

We take a step back from the life of Giovanni di Bicci dei Medici to look at banking, commerce, and religious and legal attitudes about usury and luxury in Renaissance Florence. How did the Medici and other Florentine dynasties prosper in banking when loans with interest were considered a grave sin and a form of theft? 

Around the dawn of the fifteenth century, two developments unfolded that would sooner or later change the future of the Medici family forever. In one, Valentina Visconti enters a miserable marriage with a French royal. In the other, Giovanni de Bicci de' Medici takes advantage of Europe being split between two and even three rival popes by (allegedly!) bankrolling the church career of a former soldier who hobnobbed with pirates and robbers that sees him become Pope.

Just a quick update along with a sincere thank you for your support. 

After Salvestro de' Medici helps stoke the flames of revolution, violence breaks out on the streets of Florence and a wool-comber is installed in the highest office of the republic. But who will really benefit from this proletariat revolt in the long term? 

In a time of simmering class tensions and growing exploitation of the poor, Salvestro de' Medici turns against his conservative comrades and declares he's on the side of the downtrodden. On his political agenda? Backing an all-out war against the Pope. 

In the spring of 1348, the Black Death reaches Florence, devastating its population but also clearing new avenues for the non-rich. In the aftermath, a moderately affluent landowner, Salvestro de' Medici, embarks on a political career. Just how far can Salvestro make it, between siding with the conservative establishment against his own family's populist sympathies and the antics of his violently unstable brothers?

In this special tangent episode, I take a step back from Florence and talk about republics in late medieval and Renaissance Italy, particularly how they functioned and what words like "republic" and "democracy" and "rights" meant to people at the time. 

Just giving a little peak behind the curtain and providing a brief update on when new episodes are coming. 

Facing famine, plague, an unending war, and an economic recession, the Florentines resort to handing the keys over to a French nobleman with a glamorous but mostly empty title. Meanwhile the Medici, although still lurking in the shadows from our point of view, manage to establish themselves as populists during the chaos and violence to come. 

Sometime before the dawn of the fourteenth century, a family named the Medici moved from a small village in the Mugello Valley in the Apennines to the bustling city of Florence. Eventually, they became successful bankers and one member was elected to the republic's top office. They also jumped right into the city's latest violent class and factional civil war. 

With Florence free of foreign interference (for once), a medieval "class traitor" spearheaded reforms that severely weakened the nobility's grip on the government and gave a lot of formal power to the city's merchant and artisan guilds. In this episode, I delve into the nuts and bolts of how this guild regime operated. Also, I talk about whether or not we can talk about Florence as part of an "Italian nation", even though a unified Italian nation-state was still about 600 years from being born. 

Starting out as an ill-advised prank at a party, the feud between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines in Florence forever changed the city's history. It would wrap Florence up in the struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, eventually toppling the city's aristocratic republic and creating something rather new in its place, the il primo popolo.  

In our first tangent episode, we spend some time with Liutprand of Cremona, everyone's favorite caustic bishop from the Early Middle Ages. Join us for his account of Queen Willa's disastrous love affair with a well-endowed priest and his ill-fated visit to Constantinople in the time of the Macedonian dynasty. 

Matilda of Tuscany, also known as "The Grand Countess", helped weaken the Holy Roman Empire's grip on northern Italy even further. However, it would be the plucky, self-governing cities of northern Italy who would ultimately give a bloody nose to one of the greatest emperors western Europe ever saw and inaugurate the age of the Italian city-states. We delve into how a European economic boom helped make all this possible, plus some juicy gossip on Matilda's unlucky love life. 

The theme music is "La Disperata", composed by Vincenzo Ruffo (ca. 1510-1587) and performed by Jon Sayles.

In our inaugural episode and the first part of our prelude season, we look at how northern Italy went from being a single kingdom to a region full of small, rival states, a cutthroat environment in which families like the Medici would nonetheless thrive in. Join us as we look at how urban prosperity, a series of invasions, and a scandalous teenage pope all played a part in making northern Italy a shattered and divided kingdom under the weak sovereignty of a faraway emperor.  

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In this no-frills introductory episode, I explain why I want to do a podcast on a family, rather than a nation, a time period, or topic. Also, I explain why the Medici undoubtedly played a role in the modern Western world.