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The Medici Archives
April 4, 2001 --
Dr. Edward Goldberg, is the president and
project director of the Medici Archive Project in
Florence, Italy. Dr. Goldberg spends his time sorting through nearly three
million letters, contained in more than half a mile of shelf space. These letters form the bulk of a unique archive that recounts the rule of Italy’s Medici family, the Grand Dukes and Duchesses
of Tuscany.
From 1537 to 1743, the Medici family presided over what's considered the
most brilliant court in Europe, and turned Florence into
an international magnet for painters, sculptors,
architects, musicians, scientists and writers. They
set the standard for the patronage of the arts across
the European continent, and served as the model for
popes, kings and emperors. Their heritage is preserved
in well-known monuments such as the Uffizi Gallery,
the Pitti Palace, and Michelangelo's chapel and
library at San Lorenzo – and in the Medici archive.
Established by Grand Duke Cosimo I in 1569 and
maintained for two hundred years, the archive offers
the most complete record of any princely regime during
Europe’s Renaissance and Baroque periods. But this
record, which was penned by people directly involved
in historic events, had never before been catalogued
or indexed. Now the Medici Archive Project, founded in 1995, is bringing
their voices back to life with the discovery of
letters that speak of political intrigue, religious
tensions and weeks "dedicated to masking, games and
carnival revels."
 Morning Edition host Bob Edwards
talks with Goldberg about the Medici Archive Project,
which aims – letter by letter by letter -- to create
an Internet-accessible database of all the documents,
and to protect the archive by microfilming and
digitizing its contents.
For More Information:
Read one of the letters: Whores, Heretics, Ecclesiastics and Jews.
Visit the Medici Archive Web site
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