The Medici family rose from the normal merchant class, to the top of Florence. The first thing they did to get ahead was the wool business. This gave them a lot of money and they gained “friends”. One was the future Pope John. It helped them move up the ranks. Then they created the banking system which had a huge boom. This gave Florence a lot of money and saved merchants or travelers from being shipwrecked or robbed. After that they had tons of money that they willingly sent to tons of art and architecture. This was very important because it added a lot of value to the city of Florence. All of this was grand except the dome built over Santa Maria del Fiore. This completed by Brunelleschi was a project that took several years but, due to the Medici family, it was finished and raised a lot of money for the city of Florence to do things like extra fundraisers or events to help the city even more. The Medici family helped influence and change the Renaissance and made a great bid for power in Florence