So successful was the bank that under Cosimo de' Medici, who ruled it with an iron rod, the Medici were for a long while put in charge of papal finances.

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Fra Angelico's best-known work is his series of frescoes at San Marco in Florence, the Dominican convent from which he ventured forth under the aegis of his patron and friend, Cosimo de' Medici.

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Cosimo I de' Medici, then the second duke of Florence, purchased the Palazzo Pitti in 1549, and up until the completion of Versailles in Paris in the early 18th Century, Palazzo Pitti was considered the most opulent palace in Europe.

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