Islamic Objects in Seventeenth-Century Italy

Ferdinando Cospi, the Bologna Collection and the Medici Court

Gigante, Federica

Explores the history of material exchanges between the Islamic world and Italy in the seventeenth century
Analyses the procurement networks of Islamic artefacts from the Eastern Mediterranean to Florence and Bologna in the seventeenth century
Revisits the history of Italian perceptions of Islamic material culture
Explores for the first time the history of material exchanges between the Islamic world and Italy in the seventeenth century
Draws on unpublished archival sources
Brings together cultural history, political history, economic history and the history of Islamic art
This book reassesses the idea that Islamic objects in seventeenth-century Italy were considered mere curiosities, sparking no cultural or historical interest. It focuses on Italy’s largest collection of Islamic artefacts of the time, assembled by the Medici agent and Bolognese nobleman Ferdinando Cospi in his public gallery: the Cospi Museum. Through an extensive investigation of inventories, letters, and archival documents, the book follows the objects through the various paths which took them from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, through North African cities, to Livorno, Florence and, finally, Bologna. These paths reveal the presence of a network of enslaved Turks, Arab scholars, Egyptian fishermen and Armenian merchants, all responsible for importing both the items and their stories, biographies and anecdotes to Italy. The book thus brings forward to the seventeenth century a phenomenon of cultural inquisition that was thought to start only a century later.