Vespasiano, in his Lives of illustrious men of the 15th century described him as rich, handsome, a family man, a scholar, and a great builder and collector.

[4] Despite his abundant wealth, Strozzi lived well beyond his means and had little interest in his family’s banking business, which would help lead to his eventual economic and political downfall in the later half of the 15th century.

[1] In his sixties, together with Rinaldo degli Albizzi, he became the leader of the opposition against Cosimo de' Medici, the man who practically controlled the political power in Florence.

As patron of the arts, he was commissioner of Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration of the Magi in the Strozzi Chapel of Santa Trinita church in Florence.

He is said to have bought manuscripts from Greece, and had translated into Italian, for the Almagest by Claudius Ptolemy; the Lives by Plutarch; works by Plato, and the Politics of Aristotle.