Highlights from the Mediceo del Principato

Monkey business
Stefano DallAglio
November 29, 2007

Renaissance Tuscany was notorious for its practical jokes and ‘robust’ physical humour. Examples of complicated deceptions designed to confuse, embarrass or bring someone down a notch or two can be found in the tales of Boccaccio, Vasari’s Lives of the Artists and, of course, in the Medici Archives. Depending on whether a joke is experienced from the viewpoint of the practitioner, a bystander or the victim, the very same action can be interpreted as a jolly good wheeze, bullying, or humiliation that verges on torture.

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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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