ABSTRACT
Although the Medici had been a leading family in Florence since the time of Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464), the uctuations in their fortunes and the non-institutional character of their leadership never allowed the formation of anything like a court. A court in the proper sense only began to develop aer 1537, when Cosimo de’ Medici was elected head of the Florentine Republic. e salary rolls provide evidence that between that date and 1570, when Cosimo was accorded the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, the court had grown to a remarkable size, and continued to increase under the rule of his sons Francesco and Ferdinando. e rst salary rolls (1540-43) record about forty names, while on the accession of Cosimo II, on the death of Ferdinando I (1609), the personnel of the court included 359 functionaries.1 e lists of salariati, however, give only a vague idea of the size of the court. e number immediately appears much larger if you include the families of the salariati, and even larger if you add the great number of people who constantly surrounded the grand dukes without being employed, such as distant relatives, diplomats, merchants, artists, members of the church, military ocers and guests.
