des Médicis : the Medici, originally merchants and

bankers, famous for their munificence and their patronage of literature and art, became the rulers of Florence in the fifteenth century. The most illustrions members of the family are Cosmo (1389-1464), Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), Lorenzo IL, the father of Catherine de Médicis, queen of France, and Cosmo the Great (1519-1574), the first grand-duke of Tuscany.