First Among Equals: A Novel Based on the Life of Cosimo de' Medici

Born into privilege at the end of the 1300s in an age of turmoil, Cosimo de' Medici, heir to the Medici banking fortune, grew up surrounded by poverty, corruption, and war. Reserved and soft-spoken yet charismatic and determined, Cosimo vowed to use his wealth for the greater good, manipulating his enemies, courting popes and artists, and becoming the de facto leader of the Florentine Republic, inflaming the oligarchs who schemed to seize the power he almost reluctantly held. A devotee of ...