In addition, the arts benefited from the patronage of such influential groups as the Medici family of Florence, the Sforza family of Milan and Popes Julius II and Leo X.

After settling in Florence the family enjoyed a relationship with the then ruling Medici family.

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.

A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions.

After their suppression, Florence came under the sway ( 1382 – 1434 ) of the Albizzi family, bitter rivals of the Medici.

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

* 1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.

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

Once Siena had been conquered by Florence under the rule of the Medici family in 1555, Montalcino held out for almost four years, but ultimately fell to the Florentines, under whose control it remained until the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was amalgamated into a united Italy in 1861.

In 1513, Pope Julius II died and his successor Pope Leo X, of the Medici family, commissioned Michelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures.

Apparently not the least embarrassed by this turnabout, the Medici later came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo.

The Medici Chapel has monuments in it dedicated to certain members of the Medici family.

In 1494, Florence restored the republic — expelling the Medici family, who had ruled Florence for some sixty years.

The family recovered this setback under the more friendly Medici popes of the early 16th century.

An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700 ; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698.

Though the work was written for the di Medici family in order to perhaps influence them to free him from exile, Machiavelli supported the Republic of Florence rather than the oligarchy of the di Medici family.

Algardi's first major commission came about in 1634, when Cardinal Ubaldini ( Medici ) contracted for a funeral monument for his great-uncle, Pope Leo XI, the third of the Medici popes, who had reigned for less than a month in 1605.

A copy was also possessed by the Catholic king and emperor Charles V. In France, after an initially mixed reaction, Machiavelli came to be associated with Catherine de ' Medici and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

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.

The political alliance between Francesco Sforza and the Florence of Cosimo de ' Medici bore architectural fruit, as Milanese building came under the influence of Brunelleschian models of Renaissance architecture.

Because of the nature of the hero that it represented, it soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family.

The Medici family were at the time the de facto rulers of Florence: originally bankers, they came to great wealth and power by bankrolling the monarchies of Europe.

His mother, Marie de ' Medici, acted as Regent until Louis XIII came of age at thirteen.

Thereafter, much of his diplomatic work was done in the Italian arena, and he came into contact with Lorenzo de Medici on several occasions.

As shown by his letter of dedication, Machiavelli's work eventually came to be dedicated to Lorenzo di Piero de ' Medici, grandson of " Lorenzo the Magnificent ", and a member of the ruling Florentine Medici family, whose uncle Giovanni became pope Leo X in 1513.

A copy was also possessed by the Catholic king and emperor Charles V. In France, after an initially mixed reaction, Machiavelli came to be associated with Catherine de Medici and the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

The impetus for this revival came in the mid 1400's when Leonardo de Candia Pistoia a Byzantine monk, brought in 1460 the Hermetica manuscript and the 14 books called Corpus Hermeticum to the court of Cosimo de ' Medici, ruler of Florence, who later requested the Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino, a member of the de ' Medici's court, who published a collection of thirteen tractates in 1471, as De potestate et sapientia Dei.

As the papacy fell under the control of the wealthy families, such as the Medici and the Borgias the spirit of Renaissance art and philosophy came to dominate the Vatican.

From the Medici in Florence in 1601 came an over-lifesize marble of Samson and a Philistine by Giovanni da Bologna, presented as a diplomatic gift.

In 1737, the senior branch of the Medici line went extinct and Cortona came under the authority of the House of Lorraine.

When the Florentine Republic fell in 1530, Volterra came under the control of the Medici family and later followed the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

The monks came to France in 1533, joined by the pastry chefs of Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henri II.

The Scagliola technique came into fashion in 17th-century Tuscany as an effective substitute for costly marble inlays, the pietra dura works created for the Medici family in Florence.

It was for Florentine public celebrations that Intermedii came into their own ; several were organised by Machiavelli when he was part of the government of the Republic of Florence in the early 16th century, and the returning Medici adopted a policy of keeping the aristocracy occupied by involving them in productions.

* Fontanelle, a villa near S. Domenico, where St. Aloysius came to live in the hot summer months, when a page at the court of Grand Duke Francesco de ' Medici.

Two of Jacopo's nephews, Pier Antonio Buonaparte and Giovanni Buonaparte, however, took part in the 1527 Medici rebellion, after which they were banished from Florence and later were restored by Alessandro de ' Medici.

Under this perspective the Villa Medici in Fiesole could therefore be considered the " muse " for numerous other buildings, not only in the Florence area, which from the end of the 15th century onwards find inspiration and creative innovation here.

In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Savonarola.

He was Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power.

* 1494 – The Family de ' Medici are expelled from Florence.

A minority ( including Jean-Jacques Rousseau ) could interpret The Prince as a satire meant to be given to the Medici after their recapture of Florence and their subsequent expulsion of Machiavelli from Florence.

Pius IV ( 31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565 ), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 1559 to 1565.

His early career connects itself in some measure with the rise of his elder brother, Gian Giacomo Medici, from the position of a mere bravo to that of Marchese di Marignano.

* List of popes from the Medici family

In 1575, Albert de Gondi, a man from Florence who had come to France with Catherine de ' Medici, bought the seigneury of Versailles.

His mother, Catherine de ' Medici, acts as Regent until Henry arrives from Poland.

Pope Leo XI ( 2 June 1535 – 27 April 1605 ), born Alessandro Ottaviano de ' Medici, was Pope from 1 April 1605 to 27 April of the same year.

* List of popes from the Medici family

Pope Leo X ( 11 December 1475 – 1 December 1521 ), born Giovanni di Lorenzo de ' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521.

* List of popes from the Medici family

The Medici family, in Renaissance Florence, made the first effort to collect art by private patronage, this way artists could be free for the first time from the money given by the Church and Kings ; this citizenship tradition continues today with the work of private art collectors.

Catherine de ' Medici ( Italian: Caterina de ' Medici, 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589 ), daughter of Lorenzo II de ' Medici and of Madeleine de La Tour d ' Auvergne, was a Franco / Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France.