 From a minor branch of the Medici family, he gained prominence through his marriage to Francesca Salviati, a granddaughter of Lorenzo de' Medici and Ottaviano's own distant cousin.He held several important positions in Florence, including that of "Gonfaloniere di Giustizia", although now a merely formal one after the suppression of the Republic by the Spanish troops in 1530.He was also Senator from 1532.