The Medici family were successful bankers and at this time in the life of Europe, it had recently come out the Black Death (where a 1/3 of the population of Europe died), people were looking for something else. There began a Humanist ideas – where does the individual human fit in? prior to this the theory people had was to live a good life and you will be rewarded in the afterlife. After the Black Death reign of terror, people were asking where do I fit in? Florence was the place for a variety of reasons and it started with the Medici family for they had wealth. It was easily possible to keep it to the family, but the Medici’s family starting with Cosimo spent time reading philosophy and engaging in artists to reflect the new era. Cosimo was the one who loved reading and collecting books, understanding at the time much of Europe did not read, as his library grew he opened it to the public which brought in more ideas and people to Florence. Eventually he endowed a university in Florence to teach about Humanism. At the same time Cosimo Medici was connected to some of the greatest artists of the time. In many pictures of Florence you will see a large dome over a church, the church is Santa Maria del Fiore and the architect was Brunelleschi who discovered how the Romans did what they did and brought the technique to Florence. Along the way he had to invent new methods and try, but he had a good idea of where he was going and was a friend of Cosimo. When you are on the streets one of the masterpieces is the Lorenzo Ghiberti’s bronze doors on the Baptistery of San Giovanni which took over 20 years to complete – new techniques had to be discovered but when artists saw it, changed their lives to what could be done.

Cosimo passed has beliefs to his sons including Lorenzo who was a patron and friend of Botticelli, Leonard da Vinci and Michelangelo whose art people still love to this day and counting. At his time of the world, the scientist was the artist. The empirical method allowed Leonardo to looking at everything in the world and trying to see how it worked. Machiavelli (author of the Prince) examined politics of the day and maybe still today. The Humanists method started with art, poetry and philosophy and moved into politics and science.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the Renaissance was about seeing the world and the individual differently, in order to happen it needed a patron and the Medici’s were the biggest patron but in a movement there were others. Everyone at one point tries to understand where they fit into it and some will change; some with change it at the borders and others will be content with what is. There is no correct method, but looking at stocks is similar, some you buy for growth; others you buy with income in mind and others will try to find a happy medium which can be dividend stocks – profitable stocks over time leads to higher stock prices and an income (dependable and ideally increasing) which allows you to buy more; be patient and see.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.