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

Meehan, William F.

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Indiana Libraries, Vol. 26, Number 3 15THE IMPORTANCE OF COSIMO DEMEDICI IN LIBRARY HISTORYby William F. Meehan IIIosimo de Medici, the aristocratic bankerand statesman who enlivened philan-thropy in Renaissance Florence, mighthave made his greatest contribution tothe arts through his patronage of human-ist libraries. Cosimo himself accumulated a superbpersonal collection, but his three major library initia-tives were charitable activities and included Italy’s firstpublic library, which made its way to the magnificentlibrary founded generations later by one of his descen-dants.Cosimo’s patronage of libraries flourished when asmall group of Florentine intellectuals leading a revivalof the classical world and litterae humaniores soughthis support. They fostered a milieu that engendered anappreciation for books and learning in the benefactorwho “had a great liking for men of letters and soughttheir company” (da Bisticci, 1926, p. 213). Moreover,the humanist movement was accentuated by the arrivalof connoisseurship, with taste the distinctive purview ofthe humanist scholars (McCarthy, 1963, p. 184).Cosimo “was enchanted with the delightful and culti-vated world of the humanists” (de Hamel, 1994, p. 240)and, starting with the Platonic Academy in Florence,sponsored their endeavors in the renewal of Greek andRoman civilization through its literature.Cosimo was introduced to the initial wave ofhumanists in Florence—among them Poggio Braccioliniand Niccolò Niccoli—by his tutor Roberto Rossi. Theyacquainted Cosimo with the classical world and in-spired in him a fascination with finding, collecting, andstudying its literature. Heartened by the romanticwanderlust of a true bibliophile, the austere bankereven embarked on several journeys in the hunt forbooks, while guaranteeing just about any undertakingthat involved books. He financed trips to nearly everyEuropean town as well as to Syria, Egypt, and Greeceorganized by Poggio, his chief book scout. The intrepidand dependable Poggio famously traversed mountain-ous Europe to unearth treasures in forgotten abbey andcathedral libraries. His “prowlings” at St. Gall, themonastery founded in 612 A.D. in Switzerland, are “thestuff of legend” (Basbanes, 2002, p. 41), while his findsin Germany are “epoch-making” (Holmes, 1969, p.119).When it came to his personal book collection,Cosimo preferred quality over quantity, and he addedto his library wisely. After growing up in a home withonly three books, Cosimo by the age of 30 had as-sembled a library of about 70 exquisite volumes. Thecollection reflected his literary taste and consisted ofclassical texts as well as a mix of secular and sacredworks typical of collections at the time. Setting hislibrary, as well as other Florentine humanist libraries,apart from others in Italy in the first half of the four-teenth century was the accession of Greek texts, whichwere exceedingly scarce at the time but central to theunifying theme of Cosimo’s excellent collection, as wellas a principal scholarly interest of the humanists.Although Cosimo’s library was closed to scholars,he became essential in the effort to revive and study theancients by supporting the most ardent book collectoramong the Florentine humanists: Niccolò. With analmost endless supply of florins from the Medici bank,Niccolò formed an uncommonly large personal libraryof 800 books. He was a collector of such remarkableenthusiasm that he owned multiple copies of severalclassical texts, which he generously circulated forcopying.Niccolò’s taste was exquisite, and he certainly wasthe connoisseur nonpareil among the humanists.Primarily a scribe, his fastidious attention to form wasso unyielding that he copied texts himself instead ofrelying on commissions. It thus was inevitable that hedesired a more pleasing script in his books. In partner-ship with Poggio, Niccolò successfully imitated theearlier Caroline minuscule in creating a new scriptcalled lettera anitca, known today as Roman. They alsoinitiated a style now identified as italic.These innovations in the appearance of a bookcoincided with a larger humanist effort that inspired ashift in the classical text from a purely literary concernwith content to a visual one occupied with appearance.It called for an aesthetic overhaul of the entire book,and the result clearly distinguishes the humanistIndiana Libraries, Vol. 26, Number 316manuscript from other styles. With interlaced whitevine scroll gracefully bordering the attractive script oncreamy white vellum, books in Florentine libraries suchas Cosimo’s and Niccolò’s, to be sure, were more thantexts to be learned; they were (and are) objects tobehold. “Even the smell of a clean humanist book,”observes illuminated manuscript authority Christopherde Hamel, “is strangely seductive” (1994, p. 252).Niccolò and his circle were the heart of Florentinehumanism, so his library was indispensable to theirintellectual life. But Niccolò’s high-minded mission wasto accumulate a library for use not only by scholars butalso by the citizenry. He thus wrote in his will the wishthat his library remain, in perpetuity, a place of generaluse open to a public eager for knowledge, and heentrusted a group, headed by his leading creditorCosimo, with the responsibility of carrying out hisbequest. Cosimo, who had curtailed his personalmanuscript commissions in the mid-1430s, was devot-ing his time to restoring the Dominican convent at SanMarco; when Niccolò died in 1437, Cosimo had theperfect home that would fulfill the bookman’s desire.With Cosimo’s active involvement, San Marcobecame Italy’s first public library. Designed byMichelozzo, it was “a treasure-house” (Ullman &Stadter, 1972, p. 15) and “a miracle of grace and light”(Parks, 2005, p. 124) from the day it opened in 1444.Writes Medicean scholar Dale Kent (2000):It was the library … [in which] the architect’stalents and Cosimo’s style of patronage mosteffectively converged. The library—cool, classical,spare, and graceful … is the architectural masterpiece of San Marco. The austere character of itsdesign mirrored the character of its patron… Thequality of the library also expressed the quality ofMedici literary friendships. Cosimo … was chieflyresponsible for making Niccolò’s legendary classicallibrary the nucleus of his own donation. The librarybecame a gift to the city as well as to the church,since by Niccoli’s wish, his books were to be freelyavailable to all Florentine laymen. (p. 178)Moreover, in designing the library like a basilica butwith medieval library furniture and fittings, “Michelozzosucceeded in creating at the same time the architecturalmodel for the renaissance library and its most effectiverealization. The long narrow hall, divided into threeparts by two rows of plain columns, vaulted andluminous, forms the perfect environment for asceticstudy” (Ullman & Stadter, 1972, p. 5). After the libraryopened, Florence became a popular destination ofRenaissance leading lights from all of Europe, becauseof high regard for the humanists and access to exem-plars in the litterae humaniores. Cosimo continued tosupplement the San Marco collection with books of thehighest significance in all subjects.In the early 1460s, Cosimo also built and furnishedanother convent library at the Badia in Fiesole over-looking Florence. The greater part of the collection wasprovided by Vespasiano’s 45 scribes who, within twoyears, copied nearly 200 manuscripts based on a canonlist prepared at Cosimo’s request by TommasoParentucelli who, later as Pope Nicholas V, founded theVatican Library. Parentucelli’s proposal includedreligious and philosophical works, followed by treatiseson mathematics, and finally the humanities. Furnishingthe library was Vespasiano’s most celebrated commis-sion, which included authority for binding and forfixing chains to the books.Cosimo’s only library endeavor outside Florence, infact his first library, was a gift in return for Venetianhospitality and goodwill. Thankful for the shelterprovided during a short exile, Cosimo built and fur-nished in 1433 a library for the San Giorgio Maggioremonastery in Venice, which Michelozzo also designedin the conventional style. Meanwhile, the parts ofCosimo’s library that did not enrich the San Marcocollection were dispersed to his two sons, Piero andGiovanni, who would pursue book collecting vigorouslyin friendly sibling competition; differing from theirfather’s simple and elegant manuscript style, the sonsincorporated decorative miniatures created by leadingpainters. Over the next century, Medicis intermittentlycontinued to build personal collections of varying sizebut of consistent quality. In 1571, Giulio de Medici, theformer Pope Clement VII, brought together the familycollections and commissioned Michelangelo to design asingle library to house them in Florence.Part of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the MedicianLaurentian Library contains some of the world’s mostspectacular holdings in one of its most celebratedbuildings. Designed by Michelangelo as a monument tothe Medici collections, it is described by historianKonstantinos Staikos (2000) in The Great Libraries:The library is reached by a superb triple stairwaywhose steps, balustrades and curves make it lookmore like a sculpture. It leads up from an entrancehall where pairs of columns stand like sentinels toright and left of harmoniously designed niches. Thelibrary itself is a rectangular room … with two sidewalls in the same style as the walls of the entrancehall but without the columns. Some of the windowsare of stained glass, adorned with heraldic devices… The floor and ceiling are variations on more orless the same design, consisting of garlands andpalmettes framed by the rectangular panels with aconspicuous decorative design of linear andnaturalistic motifs. The floor resembles a preciousnecklace of marble inlaid work, while the ceiling isof natural-colored carved wood. (p. 354)It is the “the most dazzling library” author andbibliophile Nicholas A. Basbanes says he has visited inhis travels (Meehan, 2005, p. 50).Indiana Libraries, Vol. 26, Number 3 17Because the library was closed for nearly 200 years,it lacked a coherent collection development policy. In1751, however, the appointment of its first librarianand the publication of its first catalog resulted innumerous and substantial accessions from families,convents, courts, and even the Italian government.Since then, the guiding principle has been “the posses-sion of books of highly textual or aesthetical quality,”and it remains today “an inexhaustible source” forscholars (Bibliotecae, n.d.). It comprises nine maincollections, one of which is the San Marco Library builtby Cosimo, although much of the original library waslost in an earthquake in 1457. The books owned byMedici family members are classified by their redleather binding embossed with the Medici arms. Withan initial collection of 3,000 manuscripts, the libraryholdings now include 11,000 manuscripts, in additionto 566 incunables and over 1,600 sixteenth-centuryprinted books, as well as ancient forms of the book(Bibliotecae).Shortly after his death in 1464, the people ofFlorence named Cosimo de Medici pater patriae but,according to the Renaissance library scholar Dorothy M.Robothan (1967), he correctly could be called paterbibliothecae (p. 544). This recognition, “Father ofLibraries,” secures a permanent place in library historyfor the benefactor whose magnanimous patronage inRenaissance Florence was beyond compare.REFERENCESBasbanes, N. A. (2002). Patience and Fortitude. NewYork: HarperCollins.Bibliotecae Mediceo Laurenziana (n.d.). RetrievedJanuary 12, 2007, fromhttp://www.bml.firenze.sbn.it/da Bisticci, V. (1926). The Vespasiano memoirs: Lives ofillustrious men of the XV century. (W. George & E.Waters, Trans.). London: George Routledge & Sons.(Original work published 1837.)de Hamel, C. (1994). A history of illuminated manu-scripts (2nd ed.). London: Phaidon.Holmes, G. (1969). The Florentine enlightenment 1400-50. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Kent, D. (2000). Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentinerenaissance: The patron’s oeurve. New Haven andLondon: Yale University Press.McCarthy, M. (1963). The stones of Florence. New York:Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.Meehan, W. F. III. (2006). First impression: An inter-view with author Nicholas A. Basbanes. IndianaLibraries, 25(3), 48-51.Parks, Tim. (2005). Medici money: Banking, metaphys-ics, and art in fifteenth century Florence. New Yorkand London: W.W. Norton & Company.Robathan, D. M. (1967). Libraries of the Italian Renais-sance. In J.W. Thompson (Ed.), The medievallibrary (pp. 509-588). New York and London:Hafner Publishing Company.Staikos, K. (2000). The great libraries: From antiquityto the Renaissance. New Castle, Delaware: OakKnoll Press.Ullman, B. L. & Stadter, P. A. (1972). The public libraryof Renaissance: Niccolò Niccoli, Cosimo de Mediciand the library of San Marco. Padova: EditriceAntenore.ABOUT THE AUTHORWilliam F. Meehan III is senior fellow in rare books inthe Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville.Besides writing descriptive metadata of illuminatedmanuscript leaves, he authors a monthly newslettercolumn, “Cool Things about Cool Books,” whichfeatures Ekstom’s rare book collections. He holds anM.L.S. with a special collections specialization fromIndiana University, in addition to bachelor’s, master’s,and doctoral degrees in English.

The Importance of Cosimo de Medici in Library History

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