Workshop – The Invention of the Medici: Historiographies, Histories, and Stories (1781-2024) – 23-24 January 2025

Experiment at Accademia del Cimento in the Presence of Ferdinando II de' Medici by Gaspero Martellini

23-25 January 2025 

The Medici Archive Project – Palazzo Alberti, Florence

Both the merchant-bankers of the Quattrocento and the grand dukes of the later centuries have been the focus of countless scholarly studies that have shed light on the history and legacy of this dynasty. Thanks to the vastness of the Medici archives, modern historians have been able to make sense of the mechanisms that shaped Medici statecraft, diplomatic engagement, and cultural patronage. Even more extraordinary has been the insight gained into their private lives. The letters which they wrote and received—as well as the ones in which they are prominently featured—provide us with penetrating portraits of their passions and ambitions, their education and scholarship, their desires and taste, their physical maladies and religious observance, and their everyday interactions with each other and with the world inside and outside their palaces and villas. 

Despite the immense corpora of archival records (much of which is now available on-line) regarding the Medici, both academic and popular historiography are plagued by warped, biased, erroneous, and even invented accounts. This workshop aims not only to identify and debunk these “fake stories”, but also to understand how and why they became canonized in mainstream historiographical narratives. We hope to discuss how the Medici were reinvented to serve political agendas; recalibrated to bolster national(istic) historiographical traditions; reintegrated into academic discourse after periods of damnatio memoriae; and ignored or even ghosted for political reasons after centuries of glorification. 

We invite Medici-related proposals for papers addressing topics such as:

  • Jacopo Riguccio Galluzzi
  • The Risorgimento
  • British Historiographical Tradition
  • French Historiographical Tradition
  • The Medici and Pre-Raphaelite & Romantic Painters
  • The Ventennio
  • The Medici in the Era of Political Correctness
  • The Memory of the Dynasty in Tuscan Museums
  • Literary, Operatic, and Cinematic Medici

To be considered, please send the following material by 1 December 2024 to education@medici.org: (1) full name, affiliation and email address; (2) paper title (15-word max); (3) abstract text (200 words max); and (4) short curriculum vitae/bio (200 words max). The workshop will take place in person (and NOT ONLINE) in Florence at the Medici Archive Project, Palazzo Alberti. The preferred conference language is English. Papers should not exceed 20 minutes, better if 15. Selected papers will be included in a volume of essays published with the MAP academic books series with Brepols/Harvey Miller.