ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the combination of Roscoe and Liverpool reinforced among the liberal merchant elite in America the notion that new wealth could and should dignify itself through culture. It focuses on three routes of communication and influence Roscoe and Liverpool enjoyed with early America: increased contact via intensifying commercial ties between Liverpool and the US Atlantic ports; Roscoe's correspondence and his hospitality towards American visitors; and their perceptions of him and his contributions coupled with their desires to emulate Liverpool's example. Roscoe's persuasively constructed portraits led new generations to recognize Florence as the centre of the golden age of Italian culture and the Medici as its prime promoters through their patronage of arts and letters. Roscoe's writings and the compelling example of Liverpool's own Renaissance found fertile soil in America and quickly took root among the newly prosperous urban elite. Roscoe's renown spread beyond the polite society of the cultured elite in America's largest commercial cities.
