Medici Rule Reimagined: Cosimo iii, the Dutch Republic, and Grand Ducal Aspirations for Seventeenth-Century Tuscany (c. 1667–1723)

Abstract

The enticingly modern strain of republicanism that young Prince Cosimo iii de’ Medici (1642–1723) encountered during his two sojourns in the Dutch Republic (1667–1669) proved a forceful means to reimagine Tuscany’s own, administrative past and present. Through comparative analysis of the unpublished travel journal of Medici secretary Apollonio Bassetti (1631–1699) and the diary in verse by court physician Giovanni Andrea Moniglia (1624–1700), we argue that Cosimo iii’s ambitious agenda abroad was influenced predominantly by his desire to implement environmental reform and portray a contrasting socio-political model at home. Cosimo’s own journeys were followed by ongoing transnational exchange, as testified by the court’s efforts to conceptualize a Medici town atlas and cultivate exotic pineapple plants on the Tuscan soil. By importing artefacts and ideas, then, Cosimo iii – just prior to his succession by Gian Gastone (1671–1737), last of the Medici grand dukes – sought to consciously craft the Medici dynasty’s lasting legacy.