Islamic Objects in Seventeenth-Century Italy

Name: Islamic Objects in Seventeenth-Century Italy
Brand: Edinburgh University Press
Price: 671.25 AUD
Availability: PreOrder

Ferdinando Cospi, the Bologna Collection and the Medici Court

By: Federica Gigante

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Hardcover | 31 October 2025

At a Glance

Format
Hardcover

Dimensions(cm)
24.4 x 17.0

Hardcover

$671.25

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Available: 31st October 2025

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This book reassesses the idea that Islamic objects in seventeenth-century Italy were considered mere curiosities, sparking no cultural or historical interest. It focuses on Italy's largest collection of Islamic artefacts of the time, assembled by the Medici agent and Bolognese nobleman Ferdinando Cospi in his public gallery: the Cospi Museum. Through an extensive investigation of inventories, letters, and archival documents, the book follows the objects through the various paths which took them from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, through North African cities, to Livorno, Florence and, finally, Bologna. These paths reveal the presence of a network of enslaved Turks, Arab scholars, Egyptian fishermen and Armenian merchants, all responsible for importing both the items and their stories, biographies and anecdotes to Italy. The book thus brings forward to the seventeenth century a phenomenon of cultural inquisition that was thought to start only a century later.

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