I really should get around to that FS biography his German wiki entry mentions anyway. And/or to a Leopold biography since you want me to read one anyway,
You should! I was thinking yesterday that one of us should read an FS bio, and since one of us is a whoooole lot better at reading German as well as at writing summaries, we know who the one should be. ;)
And yes, I want to read a Leopold bio, and it's a whole lot easier if you tell me which one is good before I go wrestle with it. :) In the nearer term, an August the Strong bio awaits you!
see also Wilhelmine writing to Fritz that she'd send him so many more things if it weren't for the cost of transport
I was remembering her buddying up to the pope and his minions so she could smuggle antiquities out illegally, yes!
without having any date to back this up, my instinct is to point out that Leopold, who actually lived in Tuscany most of the time for decades before becoming Emperor, would have had far more opportunity and motive to select art treasury to take with him to Vienna than FS, who didn't live in Tuscany and thus would have to rely on minions to make a good selection
I went and reread the passage in question, and with the heavy qualification that the author's not a scholar and not very impressive, he actually says MT got in on the action too, just after she became empress.
It is known that the new Grand Duke did not respect this "family pact" signed in Vienna on October 1737 - three months after Gian Gastone's death and confirmed in her will on April 5, 1739 -. As soon as he was in possession of the property, while Anna Maria Luisa was still alive, and not very discreetly, he began to sell large parts of it. When Maria Theresa became Empress of Austria, she had a large part of the donation transported to Vienna, including the Florentino, the famous Medici diamond, which was considered the largest in the world at the time. This diamond later mysteriously disappeared and was never heard of again. Many of the crown jewels and Anna Maria Luisa's personal jewelry were sold, which also violated the "family pact". After the First World War in 1918, the "Family Pact" signed two centuries earlier in the Treaty of Saint-Germain was declared absolutely valid, and Austria returned the few pieces of jewelry that Anna Maria Luisa had left to Florence. [109] Thanks to information from the Tuscan diplomacy, Anna Maria Luisa had known for a long time that the Lorraine people urgently had large debts to pay and hoped to raise large sums of money by selling the jewels of the Tuscan state and the masterpieces from the art collections. [110 ] Perhaps this is where their contempt for the new rulers stems from: "You can expect little consideration and decency from these greedy people."[111] Weapons collection, the silver, valuable tapestries and paintings. From the window of her apartments in the Pitti Palace, which had been assigned to her by the new Grand Duke, Anna Maria Luisa watched as numerous boxes were carried out of the palace at night. She knew what was happening, just as she knew that her angry protests were of no use. Who would listen to her? She received information from loyal servants that carriages full of Medici treasures made their way to Vienna at night from the Vecchio Palace. At least she managed to inform the French ambassador at the court of Florence about the events. It is only thanks to the intervention of French diplomacy that the old statues were not also transported to Vienna.
Notes 109 and 110 cite S Casciu, A.M.L. de Medici. Note 111 cites a letter from AML to Count Rinuccini.
Re: Medici digression
You should! I was thinking yesterday that one of us should read an FS bio, and since one of us is a whoooole lot better at reading German as well as at writing summaries, we know who the one should be. ;)
And yes, I want to read a Leopold bio, and it's a whole lot easier if you tell me which one is good before I go wrestle with it. :) In the nearer term, an August the Strong bio awaits you!
see also Wilhelmine writing to Fritz that she'd send him so many more things if it weren't for the cost of transport
I was remembering her buddying up to the pope and his minions so she could smuggle antiquities out illegally, yes!
without having any date to back this up, my instinct is to point out that Leopold, who actually lived in Tuscany most of the time for decades before becoming Emperor, would have had far more opportunity and motive to select art treasury to take with him to Vienna than FS, who didn't live in Tuscany and thus would have to rely on minions to make a good selection
I went and reread the passage in question, and with the heavy qualification that the author's not a scholar and not very impressive, he actually says MT got in on the action too, just after she became empress.
Google translated for
It is known that the new Grand Duke did not respect this "family pact" signed in Vienna on October 1737 - three months after Gian Gastone's death and confirmed in her will on April 5, 1739 -. As soon as he was in possession of the property, while Anna Maria Luisa was still alive, and not very discreetly, he began to sell large parts of it. When Maria Theresa became Empress of Austria, she had a large part of the donation transported to Vienna, including the Florentino, the famous Medici diamond, which was considered the largest in the world at the time. This diamond later mysteriously disappeared and was never heard of again. Many of the crown jewels and Anna Maria Luisa's personal jewelry were sold, which also violated the "family pact". After the First World War in 1918, the "Family Pact" signed two centuries earlier in the Treaty of Saint-Germain was declared absolutely valid, and Austria returned the few pieces of jewelry that Anna Maria Luisa had left to Florence. [109] Thanks to information from the Tuscan diplomacy, Anna Maria Luisa had known for a long time that the Lorraine people urgently had large debts to pay and hoped to raise large sums of money by selling the jewels of the Tuscan state and the masterpieces from the art collections. [110 ] Perhaps this is where their contempt for the new rulers stems from: "You can expect little consideration and decency from these greedy people."[111] Weapons collection, the silver, valuable tapestries and paintings. From the window of her apartments in the Pitti Palace, which had been assigned to her by the new Grand Duke, Anna Maria Luisa watched as numerous boxes were carried out of the palace at night. She knew what was happening, just as she knew that her angry protests were of no use. Who would listen to her? She received information from loyal servants that carriages full of Medici treasures made their way to Vienna at night from the Vecchio Palace. At least she managed to inform the French ambassador at the court of Florence about the events. It is only thanks to the intervention of French diplomacy that the old statues were not also transported to Vienna.
Notes 109 and 110 cite S Casciu, A.M.L. de Medici. Note 111 cites a letter from AML to Count Rinuccini.