Book Description

In the early seventeenth century, the Arno River in Florence became the setting for extravagant water festivals with complicated productions of mock naval and land battles that included fantastic pageant ships, imaginative scenery, and impressive fireworks. An investigation of a Medici court diary, festival books, art, and other primary source material reveals a remarkable escalation in scale and sophistication of Florentine water spectacles between 1608 and 1619. The first event was the Argonautica, a naumachia that was staged for the wedding of Cosimo de' Medici and Maria Magdalena of Austria in 1608. Eight additional court-sponsored water festivals, arranged between 1611 and 1619, replaced a simple popular boat race that was held annually for the Feast of San Iacopo. The distinctive nature of these performances suggests a noteworthy effort by Grand Dukes Ferdinando I and Cosimo II to stage and record these festivals for the Florentines, foreign courts, and posterity. No one until now has identified and investigated this unusual cluster of elaborate Arno feste. This study contributes to the debate about the complicated nature of social and cultural intersections and interactions during the early modern period. These river pageants indicate an interest of the sovereign in sponsoring civic entertainments that touched all classes of society, and they created opportunities for elite and popular groups to share an experience in a communal space. Recovered information also adds to the discussion of how early modern rulers appropriated public spaces and civic traditions to assert their power and glorify their images. Grand Dukes Ferdinando I and Cosimo II used these water spectacles to display and promote their authority as well as communicate messages of their maritime and trade interests. These public feste were an effective way to promote and advertise the idea that the ruler and the realm were healthy and indeed thriving. But the river setting was a different kind of festive theater. Its large and fluid field presented unique opportunities and challenges for the organizers and the designers. This investigation provides new information on Florentine court-sponsored civic celebrations and illuminates aspects of the life and reign of Cosimo II, an often overlooked member of the Medici family.