Cosimo de' Medici
Florentine banker and ruler, patron of Ficino
- Born
- 1389, Florence
- Died
- 1464, Careggi
- Role
- Banker; de facto ruler of Florence from 1434
- Patronage
- Ficino, Brunelleschi, Donatello
- Commissioned
- Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum
The Florentine banker-statesman who had Ficino translate the Hermetic writings before Plato, shortly before his death.
What is Cosimo de' Medici known for?
Cosimo de' Medici headed the Medici bank and, from 1434 until his death in 1464, was the effective ruler of Florence without holding formal office. He was a major patron of art, architecture and learning, supporting artists such as Donatello and Brunelleschi and collecting classical manuscripts.
He sponsored the young Marsilio Ficino's study of Greek and Plato. When a Greek manuscript of the Corpus Hermeticum arrived in Florence around 1460, the aging Cosimo wanted it translated, and by the traditional account, based on Ficino's own later writings, had Ficino put it ahead of Plato, apparently hoping to read it before he died. Ficino finished in 1463, a year before Cosimo's death. The episode shows how highly Renaissance thinkers valued Hermes Trismegistus, whom they believed to be older than Plato.
Had Ficino set aside Plato to translate the Hermetic writings first.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeHermes Trismegistus
- PersonMarsilio Ficino
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Cosimo de' Medici'Reference
- Rocha Parker and Szönyi, 'Classical and Christian Auctoritas in Marsilio Ficino's preface to the Corpus Hermeticum', Clotho (University of Ljubljana)Reference
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