From a small Italian community in 15th century Florence, the Medici family would rise to become one the most powerful dynasties in Europe. Using charm, patronage, skill, duplicity and ruthlessness, they would amass unparalleled wealth and unprecedented power. They would use this power to help ignite the most important cultural and artistic revolution in Western history - the Renaissance. DaVinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli and Galileo all received Medici patronage.

But the force of change the Medici helped unleash would one day topple their ordered world. An epic drama played out in courts, cathedrals and palaces. The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance is both the tale of one family's powerful ambition, and of Europe's tortured struggle to emerge from the Dark Ages.

DVD Time: approx. 220 minutes on one disc