Curiosities » Those poor rich

On his return from exile in 1434, Cosimo the Elder of the Medici Family could not forget the Florentine families who had betrayed him and so he sought his revenge but without bloodshed. Cosimo decided to ruin his rivals economically, and the result of this vendetta was that many families who had once been rich aristocrats and bankers found themselves in a position of poverty. Due to their changes in circumstance and ashamed of their change in fortune, many of the families were too embarrassed to ask for, and to go to places where food and money was distributed to the poor. For this reason the Prior of San Marco, S. Antonino Pierozzi, founded the Company of the Goodmen of St Martin, who would collect money for the florentine families too embarassed and ashamed to ask for help. The Oratory or little church was decorated in the 15^th Century by the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio with frescoes depicting, for example, the story of St Martin, who famously divided his cloak to share with a beggar. When money was taken from the Oratory the goodmen would light a candle and place it on the window. For this reason in italian there is the phrase “essere ridotti al lumicino” which means “to be reduced to a candle” to have nothing but a candle.