Medici Archive Project Fellowships
The Medici Archive Project – Florence, Sep 1, 2025–Jul 20, 2026
Application deadline: Jun 15, 2025
The Medici Archive Project is offering twelve short-term fellowships for graduate, pre-doctoral students, and postdoctoral candidates, working on fields related to early modern Italy (preferably with a specific emphasis on Tuscany or Medici history).
SAMUEL H. KRESS FELLOWSHIPS (2)
Thanks to the continued support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, The Medici Archive Project is offering two fellowships for graduate and/or pre-doctoral students to undertake specialized archival research on-site at the Archivio di Stato as well as other archival collections housed in Florence and across Tuscany.
These fellowships are especially aimed to provide graduate and pre-doctoral students in art and architectural history with the opportunity to examine original source materials, receive scholarly guidance from MAP Staff, present their findings at MAP-sponsored conferences and workshops, and enroll in MAP’s Paleography and Archival Studies Seminar.
Each fellowship will last for an uninterrupted period of three months, taking place at any point between 1 September 2025 and 23 December 2025 (FALL SEMESTER) and 1 January 2026 and 20 July 2026 (SPRING SEMESTER)
Fellows will be asked to participate at academic and scholarly activities (conferences, workshops, lectures) at the Medici Archive Project.
The fellowship stipend is USD 8,000.
Fellows will be responsible for their travel and accommodations in Florence.
Eligible candidates must either have American citizenship or be enrolled in graduate programs at universities in the United States.
EVA SCHLER FELLOWSHIPS (4)
Thanks to the generous gift from Joan A. McClure and Michael L. Schler, in honor of Michael’s late mother Eva, the Medici Archive Project is offering four short-term fellowships for graduate and/or pre-doctoral students of any nationality working on any field related to early modern Italy (preferably with a specific emphasis on Tuscany or Medici history).
This scholarly residence will be of considerable benefit in helping students to gain the necessary skills, experience and confidence to continue independent academic research in their academic specialization. While undertaking research on primary sources in Florence, fellows will benefit from the supervision of the MAP Staff as well as from academics drawn from a variety of disciplines, who are experts in archival research, paleography, and digital humanities. Fellowship recipients will attend the annual MAP Paleography and Archival Studies Seminar.
Each fellowship will last for an uninterrupted period of three months, taking place at any point between 1 September 2025 and 23 December 2025 (FALL SEMESTER) and 1 January 2026 and 20 July 2026 (SPRING SEMESTER).
Fellows will be asked to participate at academic and scholarly activities (conferences, workshops, lectures) at the Medici Archive Project.
The fellowship stipend is USD 8,000.
Fellows will be responsible for their travel and accommodations in Florence.
The fellowships are open to candidates from all nationalities.
BEATRICE SOLOMON FELLOWSHIPS (4)
These four fellowships are especially aimed to provide graduate and/or pre-doctoral students in the field of art history (with a specific focus on women artists or patrons at the time of the Medici) and early modern Italian Jewry with the opportunity to examine/explore original source materials, receive scholarly guidance from MAP Staff, present their findings at MAP-sponsored conferences and workshops, and enroll in MAP’s Paleography and Archival Studies Seminar.
Each fellowship will last for an uninterrupted period of three months, taking place at any point between 1 September 2025 and 23 December 2025 (FALL SEMESTER) and 1 January 2026 and 20 July 2026 (SPRING SEMESTER).
Fellows will be asked to participate at academic and scholarly activities (conferences, workshops, lectures) at the Medici Archive Project.
The fellowship stipend is USD 8,000.
Fellows will be responsible for their travel and accommodations in Florence.
This fellowship is open to scholars of all nationalities.
SAMUEL FREEMAN CHARITABLE TRUST FELLOWSHIPS (2)
Thanks to the support of the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust (SFCT) the Medici Archive Project is offering two short-term fellowships for pre-doctoral students who are in the early stages of their dissertation work, or for postdoctoral candidates who have completed their PhD in the last year or so, in any field of the humanities or social sciences. The SFCT fellowships have been developed to enable students and fellows working on their dissertations or research projects to conduct primary research using the Mediceo del Principato and other collections housed in the Archivio di Stato or in other private Archives in Florence.
This scholarly residence will be of considerable benefit in helping fellows and students to gain the necessary skills, experience and confidence to continue independent academic research in the later stages of their graduate trajectory. Fellowship recipients will attend the annual MAP Archival Studies Seminar.
Each fellowship will last for an uninterrupted period of three months, taking place at any point between 1 September 2025 and 23 December 2025 (FALL SEMESTER) and 1 January 2026 and 20 July 2026 (SPRING SEMESTER).
Fellows will be asked to participate at academic and scholarly activities (conferences, workshops, lectures) at the Medici Archive Project.
The fellowship stipend is USD 8,000.
Fellows will be responsible for their travel and accommodations in Florence.
This fellowship is open to scholars of all nationalities.
APPLICATION PROCESS
There is no application form for the fellowships.
Instead, suitable candidates are invited to send via email to education@medici.org, the following documents in a single PDF by 15 June 2025:
1) A cover letter specifying the selected months for the fellowship.
2) A short essay (no more than two pages) on how the candidate’s project will benefit from archival research.
3) A curriculum vitae.
4) The name and email address of a scholar in the field, preferably the candidate’s supervisor, who can comment on the applicant’s qualifications and the merits of the research proposal (please do not include letters of recommendation with the application).
Applicants are also invited to apply for only one fellowship.
To apply for these fellowships, the following material should be sent electronically to education@medici.org with the heading: SAMUEL H. KRESS FELLOWSHIP 2025; BEATRICE SOLOMON FELLOWSHIP 2025; EVA SCHLER FELLOWSHIP 2025; SAMUEL FREEMAN FELLOWSHIP 2025.
Please do not include supplementary material (publications, papers, syllabi, etc.).
All application material must be submitted in English.
For further information, contact Federico Giglio: education@medici.org.
Although MAP is actively engaged with the digitalization of this vitally significant (yet still only minimally explored) archival collection, we strongly believe in the critical value of direct access to original documents. Most importantly, MAP understands the necessity to open its scholarship and resources to a wider audience. It is for this reason that we provide pre-doctoral and graduate students from diverse disciplines – the next generation of scholars – with the opportunity to have exposure to original source materials. Size, texture, context and the relation of objects on recto and verso of a folio are all elements that are lost through digitization, but that can potentially impact our understanding and interpretation of documents and their content. For this reason, MAP provides fellowships for graduate and pre- doctoral students to join MAP for a set period of time to undertake specialized research on-site at the Archivio di Stato in Florence.
Since 2013, the Medici Archive Project has supported graduate fellows working at the archive. With the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust and the Eva Schler Fund, MAP has assisted doctoral students at every stage of their research: from constructing an interesting and relevant research trajectory in the archives, taking advantage of under-used collections, to seeking out documents to plug holes in a dissertation nearing completion.
Time at the Medici Archive Project offices at the Archivio di Stato offers Fellows various opportunities for professional developments. Of particular note is the potential for establishing important contacts in their fields of interest. Fellows will have numerous opportunities to meet and work with the many international senior scholars who gravitate around MAP.
Fellows have ample time to conduct research for their dissertations and benefit from the supervision of MAP Staff, all of whom are experts in archives, paleography and digital humanities. Our team currently comprises art, military, social and medical historians, all conversant in inter-disciplinary approaches. MAP Staff, with decades of experience assisting graduate students, guide Fellows, not only in their exploration of the Medici Grand Ducal Archives, but also provide them with instruction for using many other archival collections housed in the Archivio di Stato and elsewhere in Florence. In recent years, MAP has supported and promoted the research of graduate fellows through their inclusion in MAP-sponsored panels at international conferences such as the Renaissance Society of America and the Sixteenth Century Society Conference.
With this aim in mind, MAP offers short-term fellowships of around three months to eligible students who demonstrate a need and enthusiasm to engage with archival material in their research. Longer-term fellowships are available as non-stipendiary junior research fellowships.
These calls tend to be made over the winter, with fellowships offered for the spring/summer and fall/winter of the following year.
