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Hello, in 1433, Cosimo Day Medici, one of Florence's wealthiest citizens,

was staying in his country villa just to the north of the city.

His enemies seized power and grasped the opportunity to have a Cosimo arrested on a charge of treason.

He was ordered by the city's chief magistrate to return to Florence,

where he was imprisoned in the dungeon of the town hall.

But there was soon a dramatic reverse in Cosimo's fortunes.

Thanks to judicious bribery, he was released from jail and allowed to go into exile.

Yet within a year, the Medici family was back in control of Florence's government

and Cosimo was able to return jubilently to the city.

For the next three centuries or so, the House of Medici dominated Florence's political and cultural life.

Through their patronage of learning and the arts, Florence developed into one of the great centers of the Renaissance.

Four Medici men became Pope and through strategic marriages, they formed connections with a number of major European royal families.

With me to discuss the Medici are Evelyn Welsh, Professor of Renaissance Studies at King's College London.

Robert Black, Professor of Renaissance History at the University of Leeds

and Catherine Fletcher Lecturer in Public History at the University of Sheffield.

Evelyn Welsh, can you tell us about the origins of the Medici family?

It's Cosimo's father, Giovanni de Bicci, who really establishes the family's fortunes

and makes it the powerhouse that it is.

The family comes from the Mugello, the countryside outside Florence and is very involved in banking.

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