Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici: Papal Banking, Stealth Wealth and the Catasto

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Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici was born around 1360 in Florence, and his father Averardo's estate was split among five sons, leaving him little capital. He trained under his uncle Vieri de' Medici, rose to junior partner running the Rome branch, and in 1386 married Piccarda Bueri, whose large dowry gave him seed money. When Vieri retired in 1393 Giovanni took over, and in 1397 he founded the Medici Bank. He set up branches in Venice, Geneva, and Naples run by junior partners who invested their own capital and shared profits, and he joined the Wool and Bankers guilds. In 1414 he backed the papal faction that the Council of Constance confirmed in 1417 with the election of Martin V, and the bank won control of the papal finances.

Since the Church banned interest, the bank earned its profit through bills of exchange, building its margin into currency rates between cities. Giovanni dressed his family like ordinary workers and told his son Cosimo to avoid lawsuits, keep the public calm, and never treat the government palace as his own office. He reluctantly served as prior and in 1421 as gonfaloniere. In 1426 he pushed through the catasto, a wealth tax that shifted the burden onto rich nobles, and in 1427 he blocked oligarchic reforms against the lesser guilds. He handed the bank to Cosimo and Lorenzo around 1420, and when he died in February 1429 at 69, his own catasto filing showed him the second richest man in Florence.

• He paid a 38,000 ducat ransom to free the deposed antipope John XXIII and built his tomb in the Florence Baptistery over papal objections.
• A relative, Salvestro de' Medici, had been implicated in the 1378 uprising of the lower classes.
• Florence chose its ruling Signoria by drawing names from leather bags every two months.
• In 1402 he helped select Lorenzo Ghiberti to make the bronze doors of the Baptistery.
• He paid for Brunelleschi's sacristy at San Lorenzo, with sculpture by Donatello, where he and Piccarda are buried.