PARIS.- Men of wealth and influence, the Medicis were not just Florentine pharmacists enriched by trade who turned into the bankers of Europe, before becoming its princes. Subtle politicians, these business men were above all fervent humanists. Their enlightened patronage revealed a culture as deep as it was widespread from the 15th through the 18th centuries. The family clan, nearly always united — whether in power or removed from it —, never ceased to surround itself with artists, painters, sculptors, jewelers, musicians, poets and scientists, which they protected rather than just commissioning them. Wishing to renew life via aesthetics and science, the outstanding Florentine family did not quite, in fact, launch the movement of sumptuous patronage that gripped Florence during the Renaissance. But it favored the