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Creation of the Academy by Cosimo di Medici I in Florence

The increasingly grandiose apparatuses for festivals and special occasions became more and more important. They were the means for transfiguring the city's geometric appearance into a symbolic image of the regal power and grandeur of the State. Cosimo de' Medici's move from Palazzo Medici to Palazzo della Signoria was the first in a series of interventions (Uffizi, rebuilding Piazza della Signoria, the Vasari Corridor, etc.) that tended to configure the area of the ducal square as a government area.

The creation of the academies was one of the most obvious manifestations of the cultural policies pursued by Cosimo and his successors; it was a policy aimed at asserting the leading role of Florence and Tuscany. In 1541, imitating the platonic "academy" of the early Medici, Cosimo founded the Accademia Fiorentina (for three months its name had been degli Umili). The academy, dedicated to Letters was directed by Benedetto Varchi and its members included Tribolo, Bronzino and Michelangelo.

In 1547 Eleonora established the literary academy degli Elevati that met in the Ducal Palace. Then in 1563 the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno was created under Cosimo's approval. Vasari was the director and he examined the possibility of using the unfinished Rotonda degli Angeli as the headquarters. The project was never completed and the academy's headquarters were established in the chapel of S. Luca in the SS. Annunziata. For decades painters and sculptors (Vasari, Santi di Tito, etc.) sharing Michelangelo's inspiration, enriched the vast decorative cycle filled with symbolism and allegories aimed at glorifying Cosimo and then his sons, Francesco and Ferdinando.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE
Cosimo's policies of territorial and urban organization required considerable effort in dealing with administrative and management issues. It is in this framework that we see the reforms, launched in 1549, of the former "Magistratura dei Capitani di Parte Guelfa" which was reorganized as a sort of "Ministry of Public Works". This office's archives still contain technical reports signed by architects such as Tribolo, Ammannati, Buontalenti and others, that give just a slight idea of the enormous effort that went into the public administration.

As he pursued his policies of strengthening the internal economy, Cosimo increased the textile trades. In 1564 he founded the tapestry industry and brought a company of weavers from Flanders (Rost and Karcher, etc.); Bronzino did excellent work in this field as well. In the years from 1547-1551 a loggia was built to plans by Giambattista Del Tasso over the site of the Medieval Mercato Nuovo; it was to serve as the central market for silks and gold (today it is the straw market; the straw industry developed in Leghorn during the nineteenth century).

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