Giovanni de' Medici | |
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![]() Portrait by Agnolo Bronzino | |
Full name | Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici |
Born | 1360 Florence, Republic of Florence |
Died | 20 February 1429 (aged 69) Florence, Republic of Florence |
Noble family | Medici |
Spouse(s) | Piccarda Bueri |
Issue | Cosimo de' Medici Damiano Lorenzo the Elder Antonio |
Father | Averardo de' Medici |
Mother | Jacopa Spini |
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (c. 1360 – February 1429) was an Italian banker and founder of the Medici Bank. While other members of the Medici family, such as Chiarissimo di Giambuono de' Medici, who served in the Signoria of Florence in 1401, and Salvestro de' Medici, who was implicated in the Ciompi Revolt of 1378, are of historical interest, it was Giovanni's founding of the family bank that truly initiated the family's rise to power in Florence.[1] He was the father of Cosimo de' Medici and of Lorenzo the Elder; grandfather of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici; great-grandfather of Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent); and the great-great-great-grandfather of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.[2]