Konrad Eisenbichler, ed., The Cultural Politics of Duke Cosimo I de’
Medici (Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2001), xxi + 262pp, 19 b&w
illustrations, ISBN0754602672
Duke of Florence from 1537 and grand duke of Tuscany from 1570, Cosimo
I (1518-1572) has a claim to be among the most successful of all the Medici.
Apart from the creation of the grand duchy, his cultural achievements rival
those of his forebears. He was the patron of writers and artists such as
Benedetto Varchi, Giorgio Vasari, Benvenuto Cellini, and Agnolo
Bronzino. He supported learned academies, ‘encouraging them to discuss,
determine, and develop what would eventually become the national
language of modern Italy’. Yet Cosimo has not received the credit due to
him. This may be for political reasons: ‘... the alleged “destroyer” of
Florentine “liberty” and “republicanism” ... [has been] much maligned,
especially in Italian and English liberal/republican scholarship ...’.
This important collection of fifteen essays seeks to set the record
straight. It aims to reveal ‘Cosimo’s efforts to revitalise his newly acquired
duchy through what can be seen as a cultural politic’. The essays fall into
distinct but related groups. The first group discusses Cosimo’s political
control: his dominance of the old Florentine oligarchy; his influence on the
neighbouring republic of Lucca; and his use of Florentine merchants to
provide intelligence from across Europe. The second group of essays
analyses the construction of the visual image of Cosimo in the Palazzo
Medici, the Palazzo della Signoria, and the Piazza della Signoria. The next
group of essays focuses on the written word: Cosimo’s support of the
printing industry; the use of Dante to promote Florentine language and
culture; Medici patronage of the poet and courtesan Tullia d’Aragona; and
the presentation of the Medici in the poetry of Laura Battifera. The
following two essays examine Cosimo’s control of painters, sculptors, and
architects through the Accademia del Disegno, and his control of disaffected
Florentine nobles through the Accademia del Piano, whose parodic rituals
acted as a political pressure valve. The collection ends with two essays on
tapestries: a discussion of Cosimo’s support of the new industry and an
analysis of the myth of Cosimo as portrayed in a monumental cycle of
tapestries made a century after his death.
The book has one weakness: it does not examine Cosimo’s patronage
of the University of Pisa, which had a key position in his cultural and
political policies. This omission is odd given the editor’s recognition that
Cosimo placed the government bureaucracy ‘in the hands of competent
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individuals drawn from the entire territory and from all ranks of the
educated class’. It is also surprising given the recent work on the University
by scholars such as Rodolfo Del Gratta and Danilo Marrara. Nevertheless,
this book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the history of
Florence or sixteenth-century culture.
Jonathan Davies
University of Warwick
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