The Medici Archive Project (MAP) is an independent research institute whose aim is to preserve and valorize the archives of the Medici dynasty, which comprise over fifteen million documents (many of them are featured in the MIA DATABASE). MAP also serves as a major academic hub for scholars and students worldwide in the field of Italian Renaissance and early modern studies.
Giorgio Vasari is widely recognized as the model Medici artist and the main actor of Cosimo I’s cultural program. This lecture seeks to challenge both Vasari himself and the image he deliberately constructed of his own life and career by addressing a central question: is it possible to think of Vasari without the Medici? Focusing on a formative yet often overlooked phase of his career (1541–1554), when he worked largely outside Florence and beyond a direct Medici patronage, I will place Vasari within the broader context shaped by political tensions between the Medici and the Florentine exiles, or fuoriusciti. Federico Giglio is Assistant Director at the Medici Archive Project. He received his PhD in History of Art from Sapienza University of Rome in October 2025.
Giorgio Vasari is widely recognized as the model Medici artist and the main actor of Cosimo I’s cultural program. This lecture seeks to challenge both Vasari himself and the image he deliberately constructed of his own life and career by addressing a central question: is it possible to think of Vasari without the Medici? Focusing on a formative yet often overlooked phase of his career (1541–1554), when he worked largely outside Florence and beyond a direct Medici patronage, I will place Vasari within the broader context shaped by political tensions between the Medici and the Florentine exiles, or fuoriusciti. Federico Giglio is Assistant Director at the Medici Archive Project. He received his PhD in History of Art from Sapienza University of Rome in October 2025.
Individuals who join Friends of MAP share in the thrill of historical discovery thanks to special experiences reserved just for them, including the MAP Forum (our online lecture series), and a host of other features such as weekly free lessons in reading Italian documents called “Friday Lunch Letters.”
