Selected Letters, 1514–1543

The voluminous correspondence of Maria Salviati de’ Medici.

In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in Maria Salviati de’ Medici, specifically in her role in Medici governance and her relationships with other members of the Medici court. Maria Salviati’s surviving correspondence documents a life spent close to the centres of Medici power in Florence and Rome, bearing witness to its failures, resurrection, and eventual triumph. Presented here for the first time in English, this book is a representative sample of Maria’s surviving letters that document her remarkable life through a tumultuous period of Italian Renaissance history.

While she earned the exasperation of some, she gained the respect of many more. Maria ended her life as an influential dowager, a powerful intercessor for local Tuscans of all strata, and a wise elder in Duke Cosimo I’s court.

This is the first critical, analytical, biographical work on Maria Salviati de’ Medici’s life and letter-writing in English.