Acknowledgements ix
List of Figures xii
Table of the Medici Dynasty xvii
Introduction and Global Perspective of Animal Collecting and Menageries 1
Part 1
Cultural Uses of Animals at the Medici Court
1
Zoological Collecting: Practices of Exchange and Processes of Procurement 37
2
Menageries and Aviaries in Medicean Florence 71
3
The Sport of the Chase: “Exotic Hunts” 112
4
Spectacles of Slaughter and Courtly Pageants: Exotic Beasts as Symbols of Power and Colonial Ambitions 134
Part 2
Exotic Animals in the Art of the Medici Court
5
Animal Imagery in the Service of Political Imaging 165
6
Medici Patronage and Early Modern Naturalism: Tensions between Scientific and Decorative Naturalism 208
7
The Ambrogiana Series of Animal Paintings 233
Conclusion 255
Appendices
1
Medici Archive Project Database of Documents Relating to “Exotic and Unusual” Animals 267
2
Transcribed Extract from Vincenzio Follini and Modesto Rastrelli, Firenze antica e moderna illustrata—Describing the Serraglio de leoni near San Marco, in Florence 279
3
Transcribed Extract from Cesare Agolanti’s La Descrizione di Pratolino del Ser.mo Gran Duca di Toscana Poeticamente Descritto da M. Cesare Agolanti Fiorentino 280
4
Transcribed Extract from Gateano Cambiagi’s Descrizione dell’ Imperiale Giardino di Boboli—Describing the Serraglio degli animali rari 281
Bibliography 283
Index 322