Jacopo Buonaparte was a friend and advisor to Medici Pope Clement VII.

That same year Beaux was asked to produce a self-portrait for the Medici collection in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Vittoria, last descendant of the della Rovere family ( she was the only child of Federico Ubaldo ), married Ferdinando II de ' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

He was a member of the company of i Gelosi which Henry IV of France summoned to Paris to his bride, the young queen Marie de Medici, thus introducing the commedia dell ' arte style to France.

Florence was home to the Medici, one of history's most important noble families.

Lorenzo de ' Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century.

Cosimo de ' Medici was the first Medici family member to essentially control the city from behind the scenes.

Following the death of Lorenzo de ' Medici in 1492, he was succeeded by his son Piero II.

During Sforza's reign, Florence was under the command of Cosimo de ' Medici and the two rulers became close friends.

The Medici giraffe was a giraffe presented to Lorenzo de ' Medici in 1486.

His father was a devoted adherent of the Medici party, but Luigi, smarting under a supposed injustice, joined with others in an unsuccessful conspiracy against Giulio de ' Medici, afterwards Pope Clement VII.

But in 1482 Leonardo went off to Milan at the behest of Lorenzo de ' Medici in order to win favour with Ludovico il Moro, and the painting was abandoned.

Another often-reproduced drawing is a macabre sketch that was done by Leonardo in Florence in 1479 showing the body of Bernardo Baroncelli, hanged in connection with the murder of Giuliano, brother of Lorenzo de ' Medici, in the Pazzi Conspiracy.

Browne was fascinated by the world of dreams and described his own ability to lucid dream in his Religio Medici: "... yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh my self awake at the conceits thereof ".

Lorenzo de ' Medici ( 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492 ) was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance.

Lorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo de ' Medici, was the first member of the Medici family to combine running the Medici bank with leading the Republic.

Lorenzo's father, Piero ' the Gouty ' de ' Medici, was also at the center of Florentine life, active as an art patron and collector.

Vasari's opinion was that Mariotto was not so well grounded in drawing as Bartolomeo, and he tells that, to improve his hand he had taken to drawing the antiquities in the Medici garden, where he was encouraged by Madonna Alfonsina, the mother of Lorenzo de ' Medici.

In Italy some important sovereign ducal families were the Visconti and the Sforza, who ruled Milan ; the Capece Minutolo in Naples ; the Savoia in Piemonte ; the Medici of Florence ; the Farnese of Parma and Piacenza ; the Cybo-Malaspina of Massa ; the Gonzaga of Mantua ; the Este of Modena and Ferrara.

The extinction of the Medici dynasty and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany's temporary inclusion in the territories of the Austrian crown.

The closest she came to marriage was between 1579 and 1581, when she was courted by Francis, Duke of Anjou, the son of Henry II of France and Catherine de ' Medici.

Clement frequently changed his alliances between the Empire and France, which eventually led him to marry off his first cousin, twice removed, Catherine de ' Medici, to the son of Francis I of France, the future Henry II of France.

The project that was planned by Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany to arrange that prime works of art in the Medici collections on the piano nobile was effected by Francis I of Tuscany, who commissioned from Buontalenti the famous Tribuna degli Uffizi that united a selection of the outstanding masterpieces in the collection in an ensemble that was a star attraction of the Grand Tour.

Francis Stephen was to receive the Grand Duchy of Tuscany upon the death of childless Grand Duke Gian Gastone de ' Medici.

The Lorraine duke Francis Stephen, betrothed to the Emperor's daughter Archduchess Maria Theresa, was compensated with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where the last Medici ruler had recently died without issue.

Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, third son of King Henry II and Catherine de ' Medici, grandson of Francis I of France and Claude of France, and brother of Francis II of France and Charles IX of France.

Henry II and his wife, Catherine de ' Medici, raised their children in Château Amboise along with Mary Stuart, the child Queen of Scotland who had been promised in marriage to the future French Francis II.

By his conduct at the conference with Francis I of France at Marseille he won the favour of Catherine de ' Medici and other influential personages at the French court, who in later days befriended him.

In December 1560 Francis II died, and his mother Catherine de ' Medici became regent for her second son, Charles IX.

Gian Gastone de ' Medici, who died on 9 July 1737, was the second cousin of Francis.

After King Francis ' death they opposed the more tolerant policy of the Regent, Catherine de ' Medici, and their doings provoked the French Wars of Religion.

Clement was imprisoned by Imperial troops, and offered no further resistance to Charles V. With the conclusion of the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, which formally removed Francis from the war, the League collapsed ; Venice made peace with Charles V, while Florence was placed again under the Medici.

The Amboise conspiracy was the conspiracy of Condé and the Huguenots in 1560 against Francis II, Catherine de ' Medici, and the Guises.

On 19 March 1606, the Granduca di Toscana Ferdinando I de ' Medici, in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Saint Francis of Assisi elevated Livorno to the rank of city.

Francis duly succeeded at Gian Gastone's demise, on 9 July 1737, ending almost 300 years of Medici rule over Florence.

Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon ( Hercule François ; 18 March 1555 – 19 June 1584 ), was the youngest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de ' Medici.

Francis Stephen of Lorraine, a cognatic descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family and ascended the throne of his Medicean ancestors.

Gian Gastone, the last Medici, resigned the grand duchy to Francis Stephen of Lorraine.

After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de ' Medici and her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III.

The title was given as a jointure to Catherine de ' Medici in 1559, and as an appanage to her youngest son Francis in 1566.

After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de ' Medici and her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the French Wars of Religion between Huguenots and Catholics ravaged the country.

The painting may have been commissioned by Cosimo I de ' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany or by Francesco Salviati, to be presented by him as a gift to Francis I of France.