ABSTRACT
When Ferdinando de’ Medici made his triumphal entry into Pisa on 31 March 1588, he had only recently become Grand Duke of Tuscany.1 Significantly, after the funeral of Francesco I in December 1587 and Ferdinando’s proclamation as Grand Duke, Pisa provided the frame for the first important ceremony of his government. When read carefully, Ferdinando’s entry into Pisa confirms the reinforcement of the Tuscan territorial state, combining the necessary theme of the continuity of Medici power with a personal political agenda, almost as a signal of the fact that the Grand Duke had long been preparing for this debut. For Ferdinando, as
1 Exceptionally two printed descriptions were produced on this Pisan entry: Giovanni Cervoni da Colle, Descrizzione de la felicissima entrata del Serenis. D. Ferdinando de’ Medici cardinale, gran duca di Toscana nella città di Pisa. Con tutti gli archi trionfali, portoni, apparati, imprese, e motti, con le loro interpretazioni, e significati; e con le loro composizioni, che ci si son fatte: con le feste, lumi, fuochi artifiziali, et altri segni d’allegrezze (Florence: Giorgio Marescotti, 1588); Francesco Dini da Colle, Trionfi e feste fatte nella città di Pisa. Per l’ enrrata [sic!] fatta in essa dal serenissimo Gran Duca di Toscana, il signore don Ferdinando cardinale Medici (Florence: Francesco Dini da Colle, 1588). Although shorter, Dini’s account is more informative in some notable details. There is an anonymous and incomplete manuscript report: Entrata solenne del G. Duca Ferdinando a Pisa (Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, 6377, fols 61-4), whose central sheets were missing before numbering. See also: Anna Maria Testaverde, ‘Feste medicee: la visita, le nozze e il trionfo’, in Marcello Fagiolo (ed.), La città effimera e l’universo artificiale del giardino (Rome: Officina, 1980), pp. 69-97; Stefano Renzoni, ‘Pisa tra mito e storia nelle feste granducali cinque-seicentesche’, in La festa, la rappresentazione popolare, il lavoro: Momenti della cultura e della tradizione in territorio pisano, XVI-XIX sec. (Pisa: Archivio di Stato, 1984), pp. 59-75, and ‘Documenti’, pp. 76-94; Maria Ines Aliverti, ‘Pisa: la scena urbana’, in Marcello Fagiolo (ed.), Atlante tematico del Barocco in Italia. Le capitali della festa: Italia centrale e meridionale (2 vols, Rome: De Luca, 2007),
had been the case for Cosimo I and Eleonora in Siena (28 November 1560),2 the entry into a subject city could act as a symbolic demonstration of the power of the prince, with the important difference that for Ferdinando the entry into Pisa closely followed his proclamation as his brother’s successor. In his entry into Pisa, having retained the office of cardinal-deacon of the Holy Roman Church, he wore the cardinal’s robes (Fig. 7.1) that he would only cast off at the end of November 1588, and rode under a canopy on the back of a white mule. A few months later, in April 1589, his bride Christine of Lorraine arrived by sea, sailing from Marseilles on the flagship of the Santo Stefano [St Stephen] fleet decorated for the occasion. When she disembarked at Livorno (24 April), she was welcomed by splendid ceremonies in Pisa (24-27 April), and then she was celebrated in the magnificent festivities in Florence in May.3
