The point of departure and thematic node of this series are the history of Medici dynasty and their cultural and political primacy in sixteenth- to eighteenth-century Europe. Significant attention will be paid to those scholarly works that employ the four million letter archive (Mediceo del Principato) of the Medici Grand Dukes (1537-1743). MAP’s mission is to make this vast, largely unpublished archival material available: currently, MAP’s on-line platform “BIA” features over 25,000 transcribed and circa 350,000 digitized letters. In order to further corner the market of archival and Medici studies, this series will also consider manuscripts that have elaborated an early modern topic using significant and original archival sources outside the Mediceo del Principato and in which the Medici—both the merchant/banking family of the Quattrocento and the Grand Ducal dynasty (1537-1743)—are treated less prominently. MAP intends to promote both traditional monographic studies as well as collections of essays. The range of topics includes art history, diplomatic history history of collecting, religious history, history of medicine, history of music, history of science, book history and military history in Renaissance and early modern Europe, with a particular emphasis on Tuscany and Italy.
