Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence <<UUNN>> Rulers & Elites Comparative Studies in Governance Series Editor Jeroen Duindam (Leiden University) Editorial Board Maaike van Berkel (Radboud University Nijmegen) Yingcong Dai (William Paterson University, nj) Jean-Pascal Daloz (University of Strasbourg) Jos Gommans (Leiden University) Jérôme Kerlouégan (University of Oxford) Dariusz Kołodziejczyk (Warsaw University) Metin Kunt (Sabancı University) Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Cardiff University) volume 16 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rule <UN> Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence By Angelica Groom leiden | boston <UN> Cover illustration: Drawing of an imaginary serraglio, in Johannes de Marcanova, Collectio Antiquitatum, 1465, Modena: Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Ms.Lat.992=a.L.5.15, f.38v. Photo: reproduced with kind permission of the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Groom, Angelica, author. Title: Exotic animals in the art and culture of the Medici court in Florence / by Angelica Groom. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2018] | Series: Rulers & elites : comparative studies in governance, ISSN 2211-4610 ; volume 16 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2018031905 (print) | LCCN 2018042974 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004371132 (Ebook) | ISBN 9789004368989 | ISBN (hardback :¬alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Medici, House of. | Wild animal collecting--Italy--Florence--History. | Animals and civilization--Italy--Florence. | Animals--Symbolic aspects--Italy--Florence--History. Classification: LCC DG737.42 (ebook) | LCC DG737.42 .G76 2018 (print) | DDC 945/.51107--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2018031905 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 2211-4610 isbn 978-90-04-36898-9 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-37113-2 (e-book) Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> This book is dedicated to my husband Mike. You have enriched my life! ∵ <UN> Contents Acknowledgements  ix List of Figures  xii Table of the Medici Dynasty  xvii Introduction and Global Perspective of Animal Collecting and Menageries  1 Part 1 Cultural Uses of Animals at the Medici Court 1 Zoological Collecting: Practices of Exchange and Processes of Procurement  37 2 Menageries and Aviaries in Medicean Florence  71 3 The Sport of the Chase: “Exotic Hunts”  112 4 Spectacles of Slaughter and Courtly Pageants: Exotic Beasts as Symbols of Power and Colonial Ambitions  134 Part 2 Exotic Animals in the Art of the Medici Court 5 Animal Imagery in the Service of Political Imaging  165 6 Medici Patronage and Early Modern Naturalism: Tensions between Scientific and Decorative Naturalism  208 7 The Ambrogiana Series of Animal Paintings  233 Conclusion  255 <UN> viii contents Appendices 1 Medici Archive Project Database of Documents Relating to “Exotic and Unusual” Animals  267 2 Transcribed Extract from Vincenzio Follini and Modesto Rastrelli, Firenze antica e moderna illustrata—Describing the Serraglio de leoni near San Marco, in Florence  279 3 Transcribed Extract from Cesare Agolanti’s La Descrizione di Pratolino del Ser.mo Gran Duca di Toscana Poeticamente Descritto da M. Cesare Agolanti Fiorentino  280 4 Transcribed Extract from Gateano Cambiagi’s Descrizione dell’ Imperiale Giardino di Boboli—Describing the Serraglio degli animali rari  281 Bibliography  283 Index  322 <UN> Acknowledgements My curiosity about animals in the cultural setting of the early modern court was inspired long ago, by Antoine Caron’s Fête au Château d’Anet, a small drawing portraying a courtly progress accompanied by numerous rare beasts. The significance of the depicted animals became the focus of investigation in my MA dissertation. Subsequent doctoral studies shifted the spotlight onto the Medici rulers to pursue further research into the relationship be- tween images of rare animals and the roles assigned to them in the cultural life of the Florentine court. I am delighted that Brill are publishing the fruits of my investigation into an area of research that has, and still does, provide endless fascination and interest for me. I am especially grateful to the editorial team at Brill—Ivo Romein, Arjan van Dijk, and Debbie de Wit—whose guidance, professionalism and patience have made the journey towards publication a pleasure. I also wish to thank the anonymous readers of the manuscript for their detailed comments, helpful insights and suggested changes. I am grateful to Jeroen Duindam for his feed- back on the initial book proposal and his recommendation to take a broader overview of animal collecting as a way of setting the scene in the introduc- tion, an approach that has enriched and enhanced this study. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Michelle O’Malley for her scholarly guidance and criti- cal advice, which have contributed to the shaping of the DPhil thesis and this book. Warmest thanks also to Annemarie Jordan Gschwend for the generosity of spirit she has shown in the sharing of knowledge and ideas, as well as for her tireless encouragement. Archives and museums have provided valuable primary material for inves- tigation, and during numerous periods of study in and around Florence my re- search has benefitted from the helpful support and expertise of archivists and librarians at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and the Archivio Storico del Comune di Firenze. Further to this, I wish to pay tribute to the dedicated team of scholars who have contributed to the Medici Archive Project (map), and whose magnificent efforts have facili- tated world-wide, online access to source material for researchers working on the history of the Medici family. I am grateful for the assistance I received from Maria Sframeli and Marta Bezzini at the Polo Museale Fiorentino, and I am especially indebted to Massimo Pivetti and other staff at the Uffizi’s Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe for allowing me to examine at close quarters visual material that was crucial to this study. Grateful thanks also go to the friendly and helpful staff at the Museo Zoologico “La Specola”; the Museo della Natura Morta; the <UN>