The Family Medici The Hidden History of the Medici Dynasty

Having founded the bank that became the most powerful in Europe in the fifteenth century, the Medici gained massive political power in Florence, raising the city to a peak of cultural achievement and becoming its hereditary dukes. Among their number were no fewer than three popes and a powerful and influential queen of France. The author argues, however, that the idea that the Medici were enlightened rulers of the Renaissance is a fiction that has now acquired the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias-- tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own. In this dynamic new history, Hollingsworth retells the story of the family Medici and brings a fresh and exhilarating new perspective to light.