have sacrificed the very
existence of the city to its rancours. {32} The noble Cathedral had
begun to rise before Dante had been banished, but there was no belfry
till 1334 when Giotto laid the foundation-stone of the _Campanile_,
whence the bells would ring through many centuries. The artist had
completed his masterpiece in 1387, two years before the birth of
Cosimo. It was an incentive to patriotic Florentines to add to the
noble buildings of their city. The Church of San Lorenzo owed its
existence to the House of Medici, which appealed to the people by
lavish appreciation of all genius.

Cosimo was a scholar and welcomed the learned Greeks who fled from
Constantinople when that city was taken by the Turks in 1453. He
founded a Platonic Academy in Florence so that his guests were able to
discuss philosophy at leisure. He professed to find consolation for
all the misfortunes of his life in the writings of the Greek Plato, and
read them rather ostentatiously in hours of bereavement. He collected
as many classical manuscripts as his agents could discover on their
journeys throughout Europe, and had these translated for the benefit of
scholars. He had been in the habit of conciliating Alfonso of Naples
by a present of gold and jewels, but as soon as a copy of Livy, the
Latin historian, came to his hand, he sent the priceless treasure to
his ally, knowing that the Neapolitan prince had an enormous reverence
for learning. Cosimo, in truth, never coveted such finds for his own
private use, but was always generous in exhibiting them at public
libraries. He bought works of art to encourage the ingenuity of
Florentine craftsmen, and would pay a high price for any new design,
because he liked to think that his benevolence added to the welfare of
the city.

Cosimo protected the commercial interests of Florence, identifying them
with his own. He knew that peace {33} was essential to the foreign
trade, and tried to keep on friendly terms with the neighbours whose
hostility would have destroyed it. He lived with simplicity in private
life, but he needed wealth to maintain his position as patron of art
and the New Learning; nor did he grudge the money which was scattered
profusely to provide the gorgeous spectacles, beloved by the unlearned.
He knew that nothing would rob the Florentines so easily of their
ancient love of liberty as the experience of sensuous delights, in
which all southern races find some satisfaction.