Highlights from the Mediceo del Principato

No respect
Mike Samuda
November 15, 2007

One of the delights of dipping into the Medici Archives is discovering that our ancestors could be just as irreverent, cynical, critical and downright mean as any twenty-first-century commentator. Two fine examples of scorn, lack of empathy, and disrespect for high office can be read in reports to Prince Francesco, who acted as regent for his father, Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici.

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'Mother' of all wedding gifts
Francesca Funis
October 31, 2007

Archives provide new information about Vasari corridor.

In the spring of 1565, work commenced on the construction of an elevated urban footpath that linked the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti through the unfinished Uffizi in the centre of Florence. The order for this ambitious project had been issued by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. The most daunting aspect was not the proposed length of the project, or the fact that it would have to cross the Arno River, bypass the Mannelli Tower, then cut through the façade of the Santa Felicita Church. By far the greatest challenge was that it had to be completed in less than six months.

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nd architecture library
For the man who has everything
Maurizio Arfaioli
October 18, 2007

One Tunisian cow

Six straw hats

Seven pounds of sausages

One illustrated book on the excellence of women

One short harquebus to go with the longer, more common models

A large basket of undersized asparagus (due to a poor summer in Milan)

Four live pheasants (in fact, three alive and one in critical condition)

Two lionesses plus maintenance manual from the Vatican

A cauliflower of most impressive size

A relic of Saint Cosmas of miraculous protective power

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From granary to grandeur
Maurizio Arfaioli
October 18, 2007

Orsanmichele is a sight to behold

Close to the palace and piazza of the Priors [] is an Oratory of extraordinary beauty, worked entirely in dressed stone and constructed on arched vaults supported by beautifully sculptured piers. On the exterior of the piers are sculpted statues of the saints, some of alabaster and some of bronze of great beauty [] inside the Oratory is [decorated] with marvellous painted figures [] there is also a chapel all sculptured in marble in which is an image of Our Lady to which the populace have the greatest devotion, so that searching throughout the entire world one would not find an equal to her.

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