He gave Donatello a free hand in sculpture and Fra Lippo Lippi and Fra Angelico in painting.

He distributed altogether in charity and churches four hundred thousand of those golden coins which were invented by Florence and named florins after her--a sum equal to a million pounds of to-day.

In every direction one comes upon traces of his generosity and thoroughness.

After his death it was decided that as Pater Patriae, or Father of his Country, he should be for ever known.
Cosimo died in 1464, leaving an invalid son, Piero, aged forty-eight, known for his almost continuous gout as Il Gottoso.

Giovanni and Cosimo had had to work for their power; Piero stepped naturally into it, although almost immediately he had to deal with a plot--the first for thirty years--to ruin the Medici prestige, the leader of which was that Luca Pitti who began the Pitti palace in order to have a better house than the Medici.