ABOUT THE MEDICI GRANDUCAL ARCHIVE:
History and Development

In 1569, the thirty-second year of his reign, Grand Duke Cosimo I assigned space in the Palazzo Vecchio for the archive of his family and his state and appointed an archivist to supervise it. By then, the Medici Grand Dukedom had passed the crucial test of survival and Cosimo was eager to consolidate his regime for the generations to come.

During Cosimo's early reign, while he was inventing a new government for a new state, his administration was based on a fluid collaboration between executive secretaries who adapted themselves to the exigencies of the moment and traded assignments back and forth. Since everyone and no one was responsible for everything, the only way to avoid administrative chaos was through meticulous record keeping. From the beginning, every major and minor executive decision was duly noted, every incoming letter was saved and every outgoing letter was copied for the files. This was a revolutionary break-through, in an age when most state business was still enacted through verbal discussions between courtiers and thus left no permanent trace.

Though the Medici granducal administration eventually developed many of the characteristics of a modern bureaucracy, it remained a highly personalized bureaucracy based on families with long-established Medici connections. In determining the meaning of a specific letter or the internal logic of a particular block of correspondence, the key is usually the identity of the writers and recipients, and their relative place in the Medici scheme of things.

Since the Prince was the State, there was no meaningful distinction between public and private matters--nor indeed, between public and private correspondence. Single letters can thus discuss a seemingly limitless range of issues--diplomatic negotiations, recreational hunting and fishing, religious controversies, military strategy, clothing and furnishing, court gossip, food and wine, art commissions, theater and festivals, music and dance...and so forth, running through the full list of human concerns.

Though administrative procedures sometimes changed during the two centuries of Medici rule, the fundamental habits and assumptions remained fixed. Chief among these was the belief that a princely regime should run on paper and that all the paper needed to be preserved. After the extinction of the Medici dynasty in 1743, their archive passed to the succeeding House of Lorraine, then to the Kingdom and finally, Republic of Italy. Through a happy combination of good stewardship and good luck, the Medici Granducal Archive has survived until the present day in the Archivio di State di Firenze, forming the most complete documentary record of any government, state or ruling family in Early Modern Europe.

Though the Medici administration was based in Florence, their network of agents and correspondents extended throughout Tuscany, Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean World. The Medici Granducal Archive therefore offers a sweeping panorama of two hundred years of European history, as well as an inside view of almost every significant event.