Bartolomeo Panciatichi

His father had financed the conquests of Louis XII of France, and the young Bartolomeo was sent as page to the French court of King Francis I.

Later he studied in Lyon and Padua, leaving the family's commercial activities to his relatives.

Here Panciatichi became attracted to the Protestant movement, and later brought to Florence several books which had been forbidden by the Catholic church.

He was one of the 35 people arrested as heretics in Florence in December 1551-January 1552; Panciatichi was later freed in exchange of a ransom.

After promising he would no more deal with religious matters, he subsequently restarted his political career under the Medici aegis: in 1567 he became senator, in 1568 he was commissar in Pisa and, in 1578, in Pistoia.