Medici Money: Banking, metaphysics and art in fifteenth-century Florence

Page 27: Scala/Art Resource, NY. Uffizi, Florence, Italy. Page 56: Alinari/Art Resource, NY. Baptistery, Florence, Italy. Page 75: Scala/Art Resource, NY. Brancacci Chapel, S. Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy. Page 102: Scala/Art Resource, NY. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy. Page 105: Scala/Art Resource, NY. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy. Page 126: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Museo di S. Marco, Florence, Italy. Page 129: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy. Page 132: Scala/Art Resource, NY. S. Stefano dei Cavalieri, Pisa, Italy. Page 166: Scala/Art Resource, NY. S. Maria Novella, Florence, Italy. Page 191: Samuel H. Kress Collection, Image © 2004 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Page 230: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Narodowe Museum, Gdansk, Poland. Page 237: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Museo di S. Marco, Florence, Italy.

Index

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

abaci, 37

“About Famous Women” (Boccaccio), 55–57

Abraham and Isaac, 8, 13

Acciaiuoli, Agnolo, 154–56, 157, 163, 167, 192

Acciaiuoli, Donato di Neri, 160

Acciaiuoli, Lorenzo, 154

accoppiatori, 139–40, 142, 147, 156, 160, 165, 167, 199–200

accounting:

imaginary currency invented for, 36–37

methods of, 5, 33–34

Achilles, 11–12, 18, 158

Adoration of the Magi (Gozzoli), 128–29, 129, 169

Adoration of the Shepherds (Goes), 178

Agamemnon, 11–12

Agazzari, Filippo degli, 10

Alberti, Leon Battista, 19, 26

Albizzi, Rinaldo degli, 81, 86, 89–91, 104, 116, 154

Cosimo de’ Medici’s exile and, 92–98

exile of, 100

Albizzi family, 73, 77, 78, 81, 118, 120, 137, 139, 141

power struggle between Medici family and, 88–98

Alfonso of Aragon, 141

alum, 22, 39, 188, 192–99, 204, 233

collapse of market in, 197–99

main markets for, 196

Medici bank’s monopoly on, 190, 193, 195–96, 200, 205

sources of, 194–95, 197, 200

uses and importance of, 188, 190, 192, 194

value of market in, 194

Volterra and, 199–203

Ancona, Medici bank branch in, 116, 117

Angel Appearing to Zacharias, The (Ghirlandaio), 168

Angelico, Fra, 124–25, 126, 128, 133

Angevin family, 68, 71, 116, 141, 218

Anghiari, Battle of, 140

Anglo-French War, 112, 114

Anjou, Prince Jean d’, 189

Annunciation (Angelico), 125

Antonio of Florence, Archbishop (later Saint), 24, 33, 63, 109, 123–24, 148, 151, 241

Aragon family, 116

Arena Chapel, 10

aristocracy:

Lorenzo de’ Medici’s aspirations to, 4, 203, 221–22

Medici as, 160–61, 170, 178, 246

see also nobility

Aristotle, 14

Arnolfini, Giovanni, 176

art:

collecting habit and, 5

Cosimo de’ Medici’s commissions in architecture and, 3, 56, 58–59, 62, 84, 104, 105, 108, 121–22, 124–30, 126, 129, 151, 186, 225, 246

humanism’s affect on, 130

Lorenzo de’ Medici’s patronage of, 187

money and political power tied to, 2, 9, 10, 17–19, 124, 158–59, 161

morality and patronage and, 186–88

patrons portrayed in, 125–27, 126, 129–30, 129, 136, 151, 166, 168–70, 178, 211, 230, 231

religion and patronage and, 127–34

religious purpose of, 124–25

Arte di Calimala (Merchants’ Guild), 33, 58

Arte di Cambio, see Exchangers’ Guild

Arte di Por San Maria (Clothmakers’ Guild), 33

astrology, 34, 62

Augustine, Saint, 207

Avignon, 51

Medici bank branch in, 170, 232

Badia di Fiesole, 127

balia, 141, 142, 149, 158, 192, 199

Cosimo de’ Medici exiled by, 95–98

function of, 95–96, 138–39

banca grossa, 32

banche a minuto, 31–34

bank, etymology of term, 29

banking:

by banche a minuto, 31–34

collecting habit and, 5

Cosimo de’ Medici’s love of, 62, 188

currency exchange deals and, 40–46, 91–92, 174

discretionary deposits and, 22–25

distrust of, 2, 89

Florence’s neighborhood for, 29

holding system and, 48–49

Italian monopoly on, 21

language used as camouflage in, 24, 31

moral law and, 11–15

by pawnbrokers, 30–31

political power and, 17

pre-Medici innovations in, 5–6

trade and, 22–23, 39–40, 46–47, 240

Tuscans and, 28

see also accounting

banks, falling trade and failures of, 173

Baptistery, 54, 56, 57–59

Barcelona, 22, 135, 174

Bardi, Alessandro, 168

Bardi, Bartolomeo de’, 83, 111

Bardi, Benedetto di Lippaccio de’, 38, 47

Bardi, Gualterotto de’, 111

Bardi, Ilarione di Lippaccio de’, 39, 47, 52, 83, 111

Bardi, Ubertino de’, 42, 83, 111

Bardi bank, 6, 48, 118

Bardi family, 154, 162

Giovanni de’ Medici and, 6

as partners in Medici bank, 38–39, 83

removed from Medici bank, 111

Baroncelli, Bernardo di Bandini, 214, 216–17, 229

Baroncelli, Pierantonio di Bandini, 214

barons, 49

Bartolomeo, Fra, 237, 238

Basle, 116

Medici bank branch in, 113

Beaufort, Henry, 24

Becchi, Gentile, 188

Benci, Giovanni d’Amerigo, 64, 66, 76–77, 112, 115, 116, 149, 170, 198, 242

Benedict XIII, Pope, 51

Bernardino di Siena, 103, 116, 131

Bernardino of Feltre, 13

Bible, 93

bills of exchange (cambiale), 5–6, 48

description of, 40–41

in exchange deals, 40–46

stare sugli avvisi and, 47