The Medici Quotes

“In its early years, Islam encouraged philosophical and scientific speculation: to know how the world worked was to know the mind of God.”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“philosophers, poets, rhetoricians and historians – and these caused some to understand that there had once been an age that far outshone their own, one that emphasised the humanity of humankind, rather than its spirituality.”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“The University of Pisa, whose scientific reputation throughout Italy was second only to that of Padua, was informed by official decree: 'His Highness [Cosimo III] will allow no professor ... to read or teach, in public or private, by writing or by voice, the philosophy of Democritus, or of atoms, or any saving that of Aristotle.' There was no avoiding this educational censorship, for at the same time a decree was issued forbidding citizens of Tuscany from attending any university beyond its borders, while philosophers and intellectuals who disobeyed this decree were liable to punitive fines or even imprisonment. Gone were the days when the Medici were the patrons of poets and scientists; Florence, once one of the great intellectual and cultural centres of Europe, now sank into repression and ignorance.”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

“As a result”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“By the 1450s the Medici Bank had established branches over much of western Europe – from London to Naples”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“However”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“He ordered his bodyguard of 500 armed men to take up strategic positions and occupy the church of San Pier Scheraggio (on the site now occupied by the Uffizi),”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“Although Giovanni was related to the Spini through his mother”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“at the same time”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“On 1 October 1397 Giovanni established a head office in Florence”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“(Besides being disparaging”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici

“the child of iniquity and the suckling of perdition’; this is accompanied by an interdict forbidding the celebration of Mass in any church throughout the entire Florentine Republic.”
― Paul Strathern, The Medici