AllMovie

Episode four of The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance is entitled "Power vs. Truth." When Alessandro de' Medici is murdered, his teenaged cousin Cosimo de' Medici II becomes the Duke of Florence and commissions architect Giorgio Vasari to build the Medici family offices. In 1550, Vasari also writes Lives of the Most Imminent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors, considered the primary reference book on Renaissance art history. The Medici also make friends with scientist Galileo Galilei, who further develops the recently invented telescope and becomes a main figure in the birth of astronomy. His beliefs -- especially the idea that the Earth travels around the sun -- aren't in line with the Catholics, so he is forced to go before the leaders in Rome. The Medici turn on him and the Renaissance era fades, paving the way for the Age of Reason. The Medici series was first shown on PBS in February of 2004.