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In early January 1669, prince Cosimo de' Medici (1642-1723, Grand Duke of Tuscany 1670-1723) crossed the Portuguese border, with an entourage of more than forty companions. During his short visit to Portugal (from 9 January to 1 March), he established contacts with the high nobles of the Portuguese court and familiarized himself with the political and economic history of Portugal, recently liberated from the Spanish Crown. In the aftermath of this visit, he commissioned fifteen portraits of the generals of the War of Restoration (1640-1668). The present paper will focus on the commissioning of these works, analysing the mediators of this process and the historical and artistic context of the Portuguese 17th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that issues of war and foreign affairs predominate in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories, a work generally taken to be devoted to the internal politics of Florence. The well-known narrative of the rise and fall of Medici rule is in fact driven by a counternarrative of the rise of mercenaries such as Francesco Sforza to the point of becoming the true arbiters of Italian affairs. The Florentine Histories lays out the progressive disarming of Italian powers, details the rise of a corrupt system of foreign affairs dominated by mercenary arms and their attendant papal meddling, and urgently counsels statesmen to arm their cities with arms of their own. Seeking to reframe interpretive approaches in this manner, the article sheds new light on Machiavelli's teaching on the desirability of well-managed domestic discords as they relate to military preparedness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discuses the life and work of Italian Renaissance anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius. In particular, it attempts to reconstruct details of the doctor's time in Pisa, Italy, under sponsorship of Cosimo de' Medici when the doctor conducted basic medical research which the author contends is fundamental to modern medicine.

While Donatello's bronze sculptures of Judith and David are stylistically discrete, and may have been originally created in and for different contexts, they are firmly connected to one another through their content: both figures clearly are characterized as active agents of decapitation. As this article argues, the Medici fostered a familial association with the iconographic, symbolic and practical language of decapitation in Florence since the Albizzi coup of 1433–4, when the family came to be associated with the feast of St John the Baptist's martyrdom, through the placement of the Donatello sculptures in the family palace in the 1460s. Although rarely mentioned in the vast art-historical literature on the Medici, visual allusions to beheadings in paint, performance and sculpture served a rhetorical function in Florence to describe the shifting political status of Cosimo de'Medici and his family. By outlining a cultural map by which this visual rhetoric of decapitation may be charted in relation to the Medici family, this article contributes yet a further layer of meaning to the Donatello sculptures within the larger context of early Medici patronage and politics and offers a new methodological approach for the investigation of early modern Florentine visual culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article profiles Leonardo Bruni, the Chancellor of Florence, Italy in 1434. It examines the Bruni's life and struggle during the Cosimo de' Medici regime and the history of the land itself during his service as chancellor until death in 1444. Several analyses of the scholars related to Bruni's life and ideology is also presented.

Medici patronage of the arts in the fourteenth century has gone largely unstudied. Yet there is a notable paper trail, backed by a small number of sculptural remnants of funerary monuments, indicating that prominent members of the family understood the power of visual imagery for establishing their patrilines as leading families, both within the social hierarchy of Florence and within the Medici "consorteria." These sculptural remains give clear precedent for the early activity of Giovanni di Bicci and Cosimo de' Medici as artistic patrons in the fifteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will explore the relationship between the Medici and their patron saints, and in particular, between Cosimo de' Medici and St Peter Martyr. It will suggest that the choice of St Peter Martyr instead of St Peter Apostle to be the name saint of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici was related to Cosimo's interest in the Observant reform and the Council of Florence. A cult devoted to the Dominican saint, famous for both monastic reform and his conquest of heresy, would benefit both Cosimo de' Medici and the recently installed Observant Dominicans at San Marco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the extent of charity and power in the 15th century Florence, Italy. Numerous examples of the favorable and calculated effects of statesman and personal patron Cosimo de'Medici's personal and artistic patronage on his popular image, influence and reputation; Role played of patronage in the creation of art; Overview of the Florentine piety of de' Medici; Rise and function of saints in Latin Christianity.

Looks into the history of the Banco Mediceo in Milan, Italy. Includes an account of the transfer of the structure in the heart of Milan to Cosimo de'Medici in 1455; Cosimo's efforts to renovate the structure; Filarete's description of Banco Mediceo; Decorative program of the building within; Implications of Medici's patronage considering the iconography of the portal of the Banco Mediceo.

Analyzes the 16th-century frescoes by Agnolo Bronzino at the Chapel of Eleonora de Toledo in Italy, decorated for Cosimo de' Medici in 1540-1545. Factors involved in de' Medici's choice of Moses as the Old Testament subject for the chapel's decoration; Description of the scenes of Moses in the Capella di Eleonora; Information on the 'Crossing of the Red Sea.'

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The article discusses the foundation of the Platonic Academy of Florence by Cosimo de'Medici in Italy. It is noted that de'Medici was inspired to reform the academy in the city based on the lectures of neo-pagan philosopher Gemistus Pletho on Plato. His attraction of Platonic philosophy motivates him to learn the Greek and Plato's works with the help of Marsilio Ficino and Byzantine contacts. However, it argued that the de'Medici's humanists did not mention his intention of reforming the academy, as well as the poem of Amerigo Corsini.

Cosimo de' Medici's great house on the Via Larga in Florence, begun in the mid-1440s, was the model of Early Renaissance palace architecture. By the time he moved into it, however, sometime before 1458, Cosimo's life had nearly run its course. Most of his years had been spent in the house of his father, the casa vecchia of the Medici, also on the Via Larga. Possibly at the same time as the construction of the new palace, this first Medici palace underwent a transformation that united the main house and flanking buildings behind one vast facade. This article seeks to ascertain the precise nature and location of the old Medici complex on the Via Larga through examination of the visual and documentary evidence of the casa vecchia and all adjoining properties. An inventory of the house made in 1418 suggests a tentative reconstruction of the interior of the old palace, while comparison with other 14th-century houses may warrant certain assumptions about its external appearance. It will be seen that a striking similarity exists between the 1418 inventory of parts of the first Medici palace and the order of the palace begun by Cosimo de' Medici in the 1440s. As was usual in Early Renaissance architecture, the components and arrangement of an earlier house became the point of departure for the program and layout of a new house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the constitution granted by the Duke Cosimo de' Medici to the Florentine Accademia del Disegno in Florence, Italy towards the formation of the Academy for visual artists. It discusses how the academy became an instrument that greatly influenced various visual artists. The development and transformation of the academy in establishing academic stability is also given emphasis. Furthermore, it also highlights the struggles and success of the academy in establishing its reputation as a primer school in Italy.

Explores the history of the collection of antiquities by Duke Cosimo de'Medici during the sixteenth century Italy through the correspondence files in the Parma archive. Correspondence that contains information on the finding of 'Hercules'; Importance of correspondence with Cesare Gonzaga.

Provides information on unpublished letters preserved in the Medici archives containing information about Donatello and his contact with the Medici in 1454 and 1455. Letter by Piero di Cosimo de' Medici in Faenza to Sandro, Cosimo de' Medici's factor at Caffaggiuolo; Letter by Giovanni di Luca Rossi in Florence to Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici at Trebbio; Relation of Donatello to the Medici.