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The Medici

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, who dominated Florence's political and cultural life during the Renaissance.

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
Professor of Renaissance Studies at King's College, University of London

Robert Black
Professor of Renaissance History at the University of Leeds

Catherine Fletcher
Lecturer in Public History at the University of Sheffield

Producer: Victoria Brignell.

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Boxing Day 2013 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

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READING LIST:

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Francesco Guicciardini (trans. Sidney Alexander), The History of Italy (Princeton University Press, 1984)

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J. R. Hale, Florence and the Medici (Phoenix Press, 2001)

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Christopher Hibbert, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici (Penguin, 1979)

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Niccolò Machiavelli (trans. Laura F. Banfield and Harvey C. Mansfield Jr.), Florentine Histories (Princeton University Press, 1990)

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Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici (Pimlico, 2004)

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John M. Najemy, A History of Florence 1200-1575 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008)

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Evelyn Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy (Oxford University Press, 2000)

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Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Melvyn Bragg
Interviewed Guest Evelyn Welch
Interviewed Guest Robert Black
Interviewed Guest Catherine Fletcher
Producer Victoria Brignell

Broadcasts

  • Boxing Day 2013 09:00
  • Boxing Day 2013 21:30

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