Medici
Florentine banking family

During the 14th and 15th centuries, starting with Giovanni di Bicci de M�dicis (1360-1429), they became public benefactors and patrons of the arts. The Medici remained rulers of Tuscany until its cession to Austria in 1737, but after Cosimo I, the Great, achieved little. Francis I (1541-87) began work on what is today the Uffizi gallery. Ferdinand I (1549-1609) developed the port of Livorno (Leghorn), and his daughter Marie de M�dicis married Henri IV of France, while his son and successor Cosimo II (1590-1621) was the patron of Galileo. Both he and his sons, Ferdinand and Leopold, maintained Florence's reputation throughout the first half of the 17th century as a centre for art and learning.