The Importance of Cosimo de Medici in Library History

Abstract

Cosimo de Medici, the aristocratic banker and statesman who enlivened philanthropy in Renaissance Florence, might have made his greatest contribution to the arts through his patronage of humanist libraries. Cosimo himself accumulated a superb personal collection, but his three major library initiatives were charitable activities and included Italy’s first public library, which made its way to the magnificent library founded generations later by one of his descendants.