The Renaissance Society of America

Friday, March 20, 2009
8:45 – 10:15
Hyatt Century Plaza / Constellation Ballroom II

Perceptions of the Other in the Grand Ducal Medici Archives (1537–1743)
Sponsor: The Medici Archive Project, Inc. (MAP)
Organizer: Alessio Assonitis, The Medici Archive Project

Chair: TBA

Grand Dukes Francesco and Ferdinando de’ Medici and the Americas
Lia Markey, University of Chicago

In the late sixteenth century Grand Dukes Francesco and Ferdinando de’ Medici, like their father Cosimo before them, incorporated the New World in their cultural politics through artistic production, gift exchange and collecting. Both Dukes corresponded with ambassadors and agents in Spain, who provided them with news and goods from the Americas. Yet Francesco and Ferdinando each had very different motivations and methods for including information and objects from the New World into court culture. While Francesco sought to visually document and exchange American flora and fauna, Ferdinando’s interests were more politically motivated and were manifested in public commissions such as paintings, frescoes and courtly ephemera. Through an examination of archival documents, such as letters and inventories, as well as commissioned works of art at the court, this paper will compare the reception of the Americas under the two Grand Dukes and consider their diverse reasons for representing the Americas.

Son of the Sultan?: Jachia ben Mehmet and the Medici Court
Mark Rosen, University of Texas at Dallas

For over a quarter century beginning in 1609, a man claiming to be the son of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet III traveled throughout Europe trying to raise money for an army to challenge his “brother” Ahmed I and his successors. Signing his letters as “Sultan Jachia” (or sometimes “Jahja”), he was baptized at a young age and to the West his challenge to the Ottoman rulers represented the possibility of Christianizing the feared Turks. The Medici court, particularly the Grand Duchesses Christine of Lorraine and Maria Magdalena of Austria, took a special interest in Jachia, receiving him with great ceremony in Florence and sending envoys around Europe to verify his claims. Based on unpublished archival documents, this paper investigates why the Tuscan state was unusually sympathetic to this now-forgotten figure and details the means by which Jachia extracted promises and funding from the Medici.

Perceptions of Africa in the Grand Ducal Medici Archives
Alessio Assonitis, The Medici Archive Project

This paper will explore the vast flow of information from and about Africa that arrived to the Medici court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Though the Medici were not directly involved with the colonization of the African continent, news of these distant lands arrived from merchants, missionaries, and, indirectly, from ambassadors and agents in other European courts. Particular emphasis will be paid to the reception of this news, as well as to aspects dealing with material culture, religious customs, geographical exploration, zoological observations, and economic exploitation.
“You do yet taste some subtilties o' the isle”: Italians’ Observations of England in the Seventeenth Century

Lisa Kaborycha, The Medici Archive Project

The English as viewed through Florentine eyes are revealed to be exotic and unusual creatures in Medici archival documents. The Mediceo del Principato collection contains numerous avvisi news reports, diplomatic correspondence, and travel memoirs written by Florentines in London and sent to the Medici Grand Ducal court, which display an attitude of “otherness” toward the British. In addition to incisive reporting on current events and the public mood in London, these eyewitnesses provide vivid descriptions of English customs. The many comments on foreign attitudes on sexuality and gender difference, public festivities, capital punishment, and religious practice reveal English society during this period as filtered through a critical and particularly Florentine sensibility.

Thursday, March 19, 2009
2:00 – 3:30
Hyatt Century Plaza / Brentwood

Political and Religious Fuoriusciti in Renaissance Europe
Sponsor: The Medici Archive Project, Inc. (MAP)
Organizer: Alessio Assonitis, The Medici Archive Project
Chair: Philippe Canguilhem, Universite de Toulouse-le-Mirail (p.canguilhem@gmail.com)

Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of Sienese Exiles, 1480-1555
Elena Brizio, The Medici Archive Project
This paper will analyze the role of women during the troubled years of the end of the Quattrocento and mid-Cinquecento, a period of political turmoil for the Republic of Siena. What happened to the mothers, wives, and daughters of exiles during these difficult times of sudden political shifts and expulsion of leading groups? Were women considered victims of the consequences of their family's political activities, or rather accomplices of their kin? What happened to a woman if her husband or father died in exile? What were the consequences for the daughter of an exiled man, when the woman was ready for marriage? Using documents from both the Grand Ducal Archives in Florence and the Sienese Archives, this paper will explore the legal, political, institutional, economic, and social role of women who were left in the city to manage their families and offer what help they could to their exiled kin.

From Florence to Europe: Francesco Pucci and the Religious Crisis in the Sixteenth-Century
Giorgio Caravale, Università degli Studi – Roma Tre
The life of the Florentine heretic Francesco Pucci (1543-1597) best illustrates the phenomenon of religious and political fuoriusciti in Renaissance Europe. His roots and humanist formation in Florence provide the key to understanding the reasons for his exile, the legacy of his religious message, and the motives that urged him to return to Rome, where he was put on trial and sent to the stake, three years before Giordano Bruno's execution. Based on new archival material found in the Grand Ducal Archives in Florence, this paper will examine aspects of Pucci's life and exile and attempt to answer a series of questions that relate to his religious concerns. In light of this analysis, general assumptions regarding the role of fuoriusciti and their contribution to the development of Renaissance Europe culture will be addressed.

Anatomy of a Murder: The Death of Lorenzino de' Medici in Venice between Florentine Fuoriusciti, Medicean Spies and Imperial Ambassadors
Stefano Dall'Aglio, The Medici Archive Project
Lorenzino de' Medici, Duke Alessandro de' Medici's assassin, was himself killed in Venice under unclear circumstances in 1548, after an eleven-year-long flight. Unpublished documents from various archives - mostly from the Medici Grand Ducal archives in Florence - shed precious light on the true course of events, uncovering the existence of an international intrigue. New epistolary evidence underscores the innocence of the Medicean agent Giovan Francesco Lottini who, until now, has been considered the mastermind of this homicide, and reveals both the inertia of Cosimo I and the determination of Charles V, father-in-law of the murdered. Plots to assassinate Lorenzino are critical for understanding the dynamics of the Florentine fuoriusciti in Venice, the network of Medici informants, and the interference of Imperial power in Italy.