The Medici and the Perception of Africa in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Objects, Maps and Reports

CYCLE: Geopolitics
SPEAKER: Alessio Assonitis (Columbia University of New York)
DATE: October 27, 2025 - 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Parco archeologico del Colosseo, Curia Iulia

The relationship between the Florentine Medici family and sub-Saharan Africa has been little studied by Renaissance historians. Yet the points of contact, connections, and diplomatic, cultural, and artistic exchanges from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century were significant and continuous, though often mediated by intermediaries, merchants, agents, and travelers. From these came to the Medici court news, objects, plants, animals, and other curiosities from remote lands and unknown cultures. This talk aims to shed light on the perception of Africa by the Medici and on how Africa was represented in their collections.

Alessio Assonitis received his Ph.D. in early modern art history from Columbia University in New York in 2003. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Clowes Foundation, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. In 2009 he became Director of the Medici Archive Project (MAP), an American research institute based in Florence. He directs projects funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (USA).
His publications include the monograph Bastiano Mainardi: Painter of Altarpieces in Renaissance Tuscany (Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2011) and the edited volumes The Grand Ducal Medici and Their Archive 1537–1743 (Brepols, 2016) and A Companion to Cosimo I de’ Medici (Brill, 2021).

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