Florence was the city-state ruled or dominated by the Medici during much of the Italian Renaissance.
The Medici were a wealthy Florentine banking family whose political influence grew during the fifteenth century. Cosimo de’ Medici exercised power without formally becoming a monarch, while his grandson Lorenzo de’ Medici, called Lorenzo the Magnificent, became the city’s leading statesman and patron. Their influence was interrupted when the family was expelled and later restored more than once.
Medici patronage supported artists, architects, writers, and scholars, helping make Florence a central Renaissance cultural hub. The family funded or supported figures including Botticelli, Michelangelo, and humanist intellectuals, although patronage was also a tool of political prestige. The Medici later became hereditary rulers of Tuscany, but their Renaissance power began as informal control within the Florentine republic.