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The
Scope of Our Work
THE
MEDICI
The Medici family, Grand Dukes & Duchesses
of Tuscany from 1537 to 1743, presided over the most brilliant court
in Europe. Under their guidance, Florence became an international magnet
for painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, scientists and writers.
As inspired patrons, they served as the model for Popes, Kings and Emperors,
setting the standard of courtly magnificence and patronage of the arts
across the continent--from Rome and Naples to Paris, Madrid, London,
Prague and Vienna.
THE
HERITAGE
The heritage of Medici patronage continues to give Florence its unique
character. Scholars, artists, connoisseurs and international tourists
still make the pilgrimage to Florence in order to admire the Uffizi Gallery,
the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, Michelangelo's chapel and library
at San Lorenzo and other monuments of Medici patronage.
THE
ARCHIVE
The archive of the Medici Grand Dukes is one of the greatest yet least
known Medici monuments. Established by Grand Duke Cosimo I in 1569,
it offers the most complete record of any princely regime in Renaissance
and Baroque Europe. Since this Archive consists mostly of letters
(nearly three million filling a full kilometer of shelf-space), it
offers an incomparable panorama of two-hundred years of human history,
as told in the words of the people most immediately involved. However,
this unique documentary resource has never been catalogued and indexed,
nor microfilmed and accessed by electronic means. Only now, with The
Medici Archive Project, is it fulfilling its potential to revolutionize
our understanding of the past.
THE
PROJECT
The
Project has two main initiatives focusing on the Medici Granducal
Archive's chief strengths:
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DOCUMENTARY
SOURCES FOR THE ARTS & HUMANITIES
The Project is bringing the Medici Granducal Archive's unparalleled
resources for the arts and humanities to a broad international public
for the first time, by way of the latest information technology.
Documentary Sources
is now available as a searchable database on the Internet at documents.medici.org.
Open to the general public for a limited time, and thereafter by
subscription, the online system allows users to search for people,
places, topics and document synopsis and extracts in the thousands
of documents indexed by Project researchers, with new information
added every month.
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JEWISH HISTORY, RELIGION & CULTURE
The fate of Tuscan Jewry was closely linked to the fortunes of the
Medici family. The Project has two relevant publications in preparation:
(1) Ippolita Morgese, President of M.A.P. is now curating the critical
edition of Magistrato Supremo 4449 and 4450 in the Florentine State
Archive, a complete scholarly edition of all letters relevant to
Jewish life in the Granducal Period (1537-1743). The Project is
publishing this edition with the title "The Pre-history of
the Florentine Ghetto;" expected publication date is September
2008.
(2)
Carlo Pitti and the Florentine Ghetto: Documents from the Pitti
Archive, by Ippolita Morgese (forthcoming).
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