Geeky Italian Renaissance Costume Stuff

While reading Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd Sunday, I was kind of jealous that there wasn't anything similar for Italian costuming. Turns out, there may be something similar after all - The Medici Archive Project - "the chief focus of the Project's activity is the Archive of the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany (1537-1743), housed in the Archivio di Stato in Florence, Italy."

Way neat! It's actually a much larger scope than "Wardrobe Unlock'd", of course...but within the archive is a reference to THE "LIBRO DI RICHORDANZE" OF GUASPARRE LANDINI, records kept by a Florentine silk weaver. Looks like this will be published separately at some point.

The web site may look sparse, but use the site's search engine to yield some interesting things. A search for "silk", for example, pulled up a number of "Topic Reports" - the first one was a 1587 reference (in a letter apparently) to silk flowers:

"Having learned that Grand Duchess Cristina di Lorena
used the silk flower hair ornaments that Duchess of
Mantua Eleonora de' Medici sent her last year,
Eleonora sends Cristina a new sample of silk flowers
and offers to send more if they are to her liking."

I now have a web site to read during my lunch breaks!

Also on the topic of the Medicis - apparently there's a project in the works to exhume some of the de Medicis ( "Renaissance glitterati to be unearthed"); this will be the subject of a Learning Channel documentary.

I found out about both of these great web sites via an Italian costuming e-mail group I belong to. I think this Internet thing may have a couple of uses after all!