In English class, we're studying a poem where Lucrezia De Medici features, and its set in 1564. Being an English teacher, she knows about the background a says the De Medici family was a small unknown family. I have a feeling this is wrong from what I know about the renaissance, but I was wondering if you guys could give me the truth.
Thanks!
We first see members of the Medici family emerging as political actors in the years following the Ciompi revolt (1378-82), but Cosimo di Medici (1434-64) is generally considered the individual who laid the foundation for Medici power in the fifteenth century. His descendent, Cosimo I became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1537.
You are talking about "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning ?
The poem is said to refer to Lucrezia de' Medici, daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence and later Grand Duke of Tuscany.
If it is so, saying that the Medici family at the time was "small and unknown" is frankly far from the truth. Cosimo was not from the main branch of the family, but he even before he become the fuler of Florence he was closely related to some of the most important protagonists of italian history.
He was the son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, a very famous leader of a mercenary company, and his grandfather was a cousin of Lorenzo de Medici, know as Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of Florence and probably the best know statesman in Italy in the fifteenth century.