Dynastic Conflicts and European Politics in the Transmission of the Medici Inheritance

Abstract

THROUGHOUT THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES , theMedici family used a wide range of means to assert its authority over the Florentine state. Artistic and literary patronage and collecting, in particular, played a key role in the consolidation of the family’s status and power through the formation of a highly prestigious core estate, which we can still partially admire in Florence and many other Tuscan centers. As has been frequently argued, the splendor of the art and palaces that the Medici left behind was aimed precisely at constructing an image of legitimacy and stability that did not in fact exist until the reign of Duke Cosimo I (r. 1537–69). Among the Medici possessions, one group of precious objects, buildings, and lands acquired over time a special value asmarkers of dynastic identity: these were the properties amassed by Cosimo il Vecchio (1389–1464) and especially Lorenzo il Magnifico