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A newly discovered document provides a date for the acquisition of the Niobe sculptures by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici following their discovery in Rome in 1583. It also includes a description of the sculptures and the condition in which they were found. A more accurate description of the sculptures and a clearer reconstruction of the purchase is provided by the newly discovered sale contract between Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici and the brothers Gabriele and Tomaso Tomassini, owners of the vineyard in which the sculptures were excavated. It confirms that Ferdinando bought the statues, not Francesco, as scholars had once believed.12 Furthermore, the contract clarifies the number and identity of the sculptures acquired by the Cardinal and their original state of conservation. Fourteen statues in total, counting the group of the Niobe with her youngest daughter as two figures and including the two torsos of fighting men, were found in the Tomassini vineyard.

Ferdinando I de' Medici promoted extraordinary religious tolerance in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during his reign. His Livornine laws of 1591 and 1593 granted Jews in Pisa and Livorno broad freedoms, rare in sixteenth-century Europe. Newly uncovered archival documents reveal how Ferdinando consistently defied the papacy in defense of his Jewish subjects. This article examines Ferdinando's efforts on behalf of one Jewish merchant named Jacob Esperiel. Ferdinando went to great lengths to protect Esperiel and his family from the Roman Inquisition, yet he was not the first Medici to have a favorable policy toward Jews. Motivated by mercantilism and ragione di stato, the family had welcomed the Jewish community in Florence during the Renaissance. Moreover, this pattern of tolerance endured beyond the Medici; eventually the Grand Duchy of Tuscany would break new ground in human rights as the first European state to ban capital punishment in 1786.

This essay examines performances by singer Vittoria Archilei and actress Isabella Andreini at the 1589 wedding of Ferdinando I de’ Medici. It argues that, in the charged political context of the marriage festivities, Archilei and Andreini evoked for audiences the ancient Roman figure of the sibyl. Specifically, their performances underscored the symbolic Medici identification with Apollo and suggested that the Medici dynasty, whose succession had recently been threatened, was now destined to endure and flourish. In dialogue with existing literature on the Medici wedding, this essay highlights the uncanny vocal effects produced by Andreini’s multilingual mad-scene in La pazzia d’Isabella and Archilei’s singing in the musical interludes. Considering these performances together as components of a single theatrical event, this essay argues that the vocalizations of Vittoria Archilei and Isabella Andreini provided a non-textual mode for the transmission of classical thought (translatio studii) that was essential to Medici political strategy.

Cole reviews Music and wonder at the Medici court: the 1589 interludes for 'La pellegrina' by Nina Treadwell.

\"The Medici Wedding of 1589: Florentine Festival as Theatrum Mundi\" by James W. Saslow is reviewed.

An article for children offers a brief history of the heirs of Lorenzo Medici, known as \"Lorenzo the Magnificent.\" Lorenzo's grandson Cosimo died on Apr 21, 1574 at the age of 55. Cosimo's eldest son Francesco I made few changes during his 13-year rule. Under the guidance of Ferdinand I, Cosimo's fourth son, Tuscany reached the peak of its power and prominence. Ferdinand II, the grandson of Ferdinand I, became grandduke. In 1723, Gian Gastone the grandson of Ferdinand II became the grand duke. His death in 1737 brought an end to Medici rule in Tuscany.

\"The Medici Wedding of 1589: Florentine Festival as 'Theatrum mundi,\" by James M. Saslow, is reviewed.

Strunck reviews La Villa Medicis, vol. 4, Le collezioni del cardinale Ferdinando: I dipinti e le sculture by Alessandro Cecchi and Carlo Gasparri.

Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence, by Lia Markey is reviewed.