The Hated Bankers Who Paid for the Renaissance — THEY HATED HIM TOO Part 3 The Medici

History Onion · 2:59

History has always been suspicious of the people who grow rich on money itself. This spring, New York's mayor Zohran Mamdani stood outside a billionaire's penthouse and said he doesn't think we should have billionaires at all — tapping an old instinct, that the money-man makes nothing and only moves wealth around. Six hundred years ago, Florence aimed that same charge at the Medici: bankers who slipped the Church's ban on usury, ruled a republic that only pretended to be free, and after the Pazzi plot hanged an archbishop from the town-hall windows. They were also the patrons who funded the Renaissance — Cosimo backed Brunelleschi as Florence raised the impossible dome, the Medici brought Plato back to the West, their circle gave the world Botticelli's Venus, and a fourteen-year-old Michelangelo was raised at Lorenzo's table. Ruthless men, and the patrons of the most beautiful century ever made. Whether that settles the account is yours to decide. Follow for Part 4 — J.P. Morgan. Some scenes are cinematic reconstructions of documented events. All quotes, dates, and sources are historically verified. #history #medici #renaissance #florence #billionaire