Hello, I'm Professor Suzanne Ellipscombe, and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit,

the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Berlin to the Aztecs,

from Holbein to the Huguenoes, from Shakespeare to Summarise.

Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and witchcraft.

Not in other words, just the Tud tutors but most definitely dominated the political system. experts in commerce who became rulers of Florence, the

melage he dominated the political and social landscape of Italy

for almost a century through war, exile and assassination.

To tell the story of the exile and assassination.

To tell the story of the Medici you have to begin at the beginning.

So in this, the first of our mini series on the Medici, we go right back to begin our investigation with the

founding of the first Medici bank to figure out how they got all that money

before we trace the extraordinary rise of Cosimo de Medici, a man whose ambition grew an empire. Today I'm joined by Tim Parks, novelist, essayist and translator, whose book Medici Money, Banking, Metaphysics and Art in 15th century Florence Florence excavates the impact of the Medici banking dynasty

on the political and artistic landscape of the Florentine Republic.

I'm Professor Suzanne Lipscomb and this is not just the tutors

from history hit. Tim welcome to not just the Tudors.

Hello yes I'm a bit daunted by the task you given me but we'll see.

Well we're both a bit daunted because this is very much not the tutors, very much in an area where I know very little about it.

So I'm going to be learning just as much as any listener today.

So we're picking up, I I guess at the end of the 14th century, beginning

the 15th century and thinking about the fact that Italy was divided into separate city states which first will have to say each with

their own leaders could you give a sense of what position Florence held in terms of

influence and power prior to the rise of the Medici.

...