Customer Reviews

The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo: Duchess of Florence and Siena

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Worth every penny if you are at all interested in 16th century Florence and Florentine lifestyle. The only real book on Eleonora di Toledo currently on the market.

Unlike what another reviewer has written, this is not "the only real book on Eleonora di Toledo currently on the market". I'm too fond of the book "Moda a Firenze, Lo stile di Eleonora di Toledo e la sua influenza" to not protest on this. That book was also released in 2004, and concentrates on the Duchess biography and her role as first lady and fashion icon. Stuffed with well researched material, lots of colour photos and also a complete inventory list of the Duchess' wardrobe, I've read the book multiple times and discovers new things every time. And don't be alarmed - the book has both Italian and English text, side by side.

What the reviewer has observed, though, is that books about Eleonora di Toledo are scarce. In fact, there is only one biography written about her these last 500 years - Anna Baia's "Leonora do Toledo, Duchessa di Firenze e di Siena" from 1907. It's both hard to come by and outdated in much of it's info, and that's exactly where Konrad Eisenbichler's "The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence and Siena" scores. The title is a nod to the 1907 biography, but the content is the newest of research done on the Duchess and the world she lived in.

Especially interesting is her patronage and independence concerning artists, which is fleshed out in articles about her private chapel, her apartments in the Palazzo Vecchio and her relationship with the Jesuit order. I also found it interesting to read about just how close and passionate a relationship she and her husband Cosimo I de' Medici seems to have had, as described in the chapter by Mary A. Watt.

Where this book also scores is by including the newest research on the dress the Duchess was buried in, as a sneak preview of the book to-be-released about the Medici burial clothes, and also of posthumous imagery of her. Those are subjects I've rarely seen treated in other books.

The variety of articles put together in one book makes it in some way an uneven book, as different voices get to speak, and as parts of the information is overlapping in each article. But this is nitpicking. Overall I found it highly interesting and well researched, and I also enjoyed reading the newest research done on Eleonora di Toledo and her role within the Medici family. The selection of contributors is also first-rate, and the illustrations, albeit black-and-white, helps underline what the text tells. So yes, definitely recommended, and one of the few books on Eleonora di Toledo that gives an up-to-date impression of her ducal role and her more private nature.