In partnership with the the Library and Archive of Santa Maria Novella (Florence), the academic journal Memorie Domenicane, and the Leonine Commission (Paris), the Medici Archive Project is organizing a one-day conference on the relationship between the Medici (both the merchant-bankers of the quattrocento and the grand dukes of the later centuries) and the mendicant order founded by Dominic de Guzmán at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

This conference intends to reassess this complex relationship—sometimes symbiotic, often strained—that indelibly marked the history of Florence. Priority will be given to papers addressing the interpenetration between artistic production and patronage, religious dissent, political crises, book and print history, and humanist and scientific discourse. The organizers invite proposals for 20 minute unpublished papers in English or Italian, which address topics including, but not limited to:

Medici Presence at San Marco
Antonino Pierozzi: Patronage and Canonization
The Medici and Santa Maria Novella
The Medici Library and the Library at San Marco
The Medici and the Observant and Conventual conflict in the Quattrocento
The Studia of Florence and Pisa
Savonarola and Piagnonism
Neo-Piagnonism at the Time of the Medici Grand Dukes
Santa Caterina de' Ricci and the Convent of San Vincenzo in Prato
Cosimo I and the 1545 San Marco Crisis
Medici and Dominican Fonderie in Florence
Egnazio Danti and Mapmaking
The Medici Popes at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome
Plautilla Nelli and Santa Caterina da Siena in Florence
Paupertas, Majestas, and Simplicitas
The Dominicans in Florence during the "Forgotten Centuries"

The conference will take place at Palazzo Alberti in Florence on Friday, 30 January 2025.

To apply: please send a PDF with an abstract (max 250 words) and a short bio (max 100 words) by 15 November 2025 to educationmedici.org.
Successful applicants will be notified on 25 November 2025.