The Medici, natives of Mugello, came to Florence where they bought houses and shops in the district of the Mercato Vecchio , the area which once occupied what is now Piazza della Repubblica and the surrounding area.
Towards the mid fourteenth century, having become merchants and bankers of rapidly growing wealth, the Medici began to look for another place to live in a quieter area of the city, although still close to their various business activities. And so they bought a number of adjacent houses on Via Larga (now Via Cavour), the fairly recently constructed road which skirted the eastern border of the gonfalone del Leon d’Oro, the largest of the sixteen districts into which the city had been divided since 1343.

Via Larga was an exceptionally broad and peaceful road, of a residential character. The busy city life gravitated around the main axis of the gonfalone, running parallel to Via Larga, stretching from Borgo San Lorenzo to the city walls at the San Gallo gate in the direction of Mugello. Proceeding from the Duomo towards the walls, the early stretch of this road was lined with wealthy mansions and a few inns, gradually making way for smaller houses and artisan’s workshops and finally for monasteries, hospitals and confraternities in the vicinity of the city gate.