I may not have time to reply to all your comments, or reply in full, but please don't imagine that I'm not reading and benefiting! Reading what you write makes it much easier to follow along when I'm reading various books, and then I read those books and come back with things to share. :)
For example, I know I didn't reply in full to your Alessandro de' Medici post, considering I asked you read the book, but I'm now reading a book on the Medici, and I have learned at least one thing relevant to salon!
Anna Maria Luisa, the dowager Palatine Electress who is Gian Gastone's sister, the one that Cosimo tried to make it so she could inherit but everyone said no, and who was the last of the grand ducal line of the Medici (GG died in 1737, she died in 1743), is this author's favorite Medici and gets a whole chapter. And Selena had told us that one of the few things Gian Gastone actually bothered to get involved with when he became Grand Duke, aside from revoking Dad's crazy laws, was to separate Medici property from state property, so he'd have something to leave her.
So what I've learned from this book, which Wikipedia seconds, is that Anna Maria Luisa, was responsible for the Medici family pact. It ensured that all the Medicean art and treasures collected over nearly three centuries of political ascendancy remained in Florence. Cynthia Miller Lawrence, an American art-historian, argues that Anna Maria Luisa thus provisioned for Tuscany's future economy through tourism. Sixteen years after her death, the Uffizi Gallery, built by Cosimo the Great, the founder of the Grand Duchy, was made open to public viewing.
Quote from Wikipedia. The author of the book I'm reading claims that the Lorrainers (FS's agents) came in and promptly illegally took as much of the art as possible to Vienna.
However. I should point out that the author is Lorenzo de' Medici, a modern-day representative of a side branch of the Medici family that did not die out, and his Medici are the Best Family Ever, they do no wrong, and they are far superior to their contemporaries in every possible way.
Selena, do you have a counter perspective on this, or is the illegal seizing and exporting of treasures a thing that FS did the moment he got the chance?
Hilariously, while modern-day Lorenzo de Medici's favorite famous Medici family member is Anna Maria Luisa, he's not a fan of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and only devotes a couple pages to the most famous Medici. He made me laugh when he said, "Look, when you go your whole life hearing, 'Oh, Lorenzo de Medici, like the Magnificent!' you start to think, 'Yes, unfortunately.'"
Lol, you have my sympathy. But not my trust in your scholarship, sir. (I wouldn't have bothered with this book, but it was 1) short, 2) $8 on Kindle, 3) translated into German, and 4) very simple prose, so excellent for German practice while I wait for Horowski's next book to come out. Hopefully on Kindle in the US!!)
Medici digression
For example, I know I didn't reply in full to your Alessandro de' Medici post, considering I asked you read the book, but I'm now reading a book on the Medici, and I have learned at least one thing relevant to salon!
Anna Maria Luisa, the dowager Palatine Electress who is Gian Gastone's sister, the one that Cosimo tried to make it so she could inherit but everyone said no, and who was the last of the grand ducal line of the Medici (GG died in 1737, she died in 1743), is this author's favorite Medici and gets a whole chapter. And Selena had told us that one of the few things Gian Gastone actually bothered to get involved with when he became Grand Duke, aside from revoking Dad's crazy laws, was to separate Medici property from state property, so he'd have something to leave her.
So what I've learned from this book, which Wikipedia seconds, is that Anna Maria Luisa, was responsible for the Medici family pact. It ensured that all the Medicean art and treasures collected over nearly three centuries of political ascendancy remained in Florence. Cynthia Miller Lawrence, an American art-historian, argues that Anna Maria Luisa thus provisioned for Tuscany's future economy through tourism. Sixteen years after her death, the Uffizi Gallery, built by Cosimo the Great, the founder of the Grand Duchy, was made open to public viewing.
Quote from Wikipedia. The author of the book I'm reading claims that the Lorrainers (FS's agents) came in and promptly illegally took as much of the art as possible to Vienna.
However. I should point out that the author is Lorenzo de' Medici, a modern-day representative of a side branch of the Medici family that did not die out, and his Medici are the Best Family Ever, they do no wrong, and they are far superior to their contemporaries in every possible way.
Selena, do you have a counter perspective on this, or is the illegal seizing and exporting of treasures a thing that FS did the moment he got the chance?
Hilariously, while modern-day Lorenzo de Medici's favorite famous Medici family member is Anna Maria Luisa, he's not a fan of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and only devotes a couple pages to the most famous Medici. He made me laugh when he said, "Look, when you go your whole life hearing, 'Oh, Lorenzo de Medici, like the Magnificent!' you start to think, 'Yes, unfortunately.'"
Lol, you have my sympathy. But not my trust in your scholarship, sir. (I wouldn't have bothered with this book, but it was 1) short, 2) $8 on Kindle, 3) translated into German, and 4) very simple prose, so excellent for German practice while I wait for Horowski's next book to come out. Hopefully on Kindle in the US!!)