Quotes About Cosimo

One of Cosimo's favorite expressions was, Envy is weed that should not be watered.

At the end of 1445, as winter gripped the Tuscan hills, Vespasiano departed for Lucca, forty-five miles to the west of Florence. His bona fides declared him the procuratore, or agent, of Cosimo de' Medici.34 This position was bound to open doors, and he was welcomed into the finest home in Lucca, that of Michele Guinigi.

Besides helping to stock the library in San Marco, Vespasiano received another commission from Cosimo. Most of the codices were to be secured to their desks by chains attached to iron rails

in 1444, Cosimo founded Europe's first public library, the Library of San Marco, and thus began to challenge the Church's long monopoly of learning.