Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Jonathon Keats is a writer and artist who critiques museum exhibits. When Cosimo I de’ Medici became the second duke of Florence, ...

The image of the virile duke dressed in immaculate armor with brilliant crimson trimmings, known as Cosimo I de’ Medici in armour (c. 1545), was replicated widely and has at least 25 versions, ...

While Lorenzo the Magnificent remains the most well-known member of the Medici family thanks to popular biographies and the Netflix series, Duke Cosimo I was the most successful Medici of them all.

A secretive Renaissance-era passageway in Florence connecting the Uffizi Galleries to the Palazzo Pitti, the Medicis’ former residence, has opened to the public for the first time in its nearly ...

Cosimo de’ Medici was the first of the Medici dynasty during the Italian Renaissance. Though he only held public office for a short while, thanks to his immense wealth and effective leadership style, ...

In his 1963 book, 'The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank,' medieval economic historian Raymond de Roover likens the Medici banking dynasty to today's banking fortresses. And it makes sense. The ...

In Medici: Masters of Florence, fans watched Cosimo Medici struggle to balance his vision for Florence, as head of the Florentine Republic, and his empirical bank inheritance from his late father, who ...