Pierfrancesco Riccio: The Rise Of A Bureaucrat In The Service Of The Medici Family (1525-44)

This PhD thesis reconstructs the life and career of Pierfrancesco Riccio between 1524 and 1544. A prominent and powerful clergyman, he occupied a unique position in the Florentine chancellery during the first sixteen years of duke Cosimo I de’ Medici’s government. The thesis comprises three sections. The first section focuses on Riccio’s early years in Prato and on his activities in the service of young Cosimo’s parents (the famous condottiere Giovanni de’ Medici of the Black Bands and Maria Salviati) – first as family chaplain, then as tutor of the young boy and finally, after Giovanni’s death, as collaborator of the widowed Maria. The second section focuses on Riccio as a ducal secretary, a position which he held between 1537 and 1544. He entered the Florentine chancellery as soon as Cosimo became duke in 1537 as his personal secretary. Through a thorough investigation of Riccio’s roles in the chancellery and of his involvement in the consolidation of Cosimo’s power, this section illustrates the role of bureaucracy in preventing the Florentine state from falling apart during some of the most tormented years of its early modern history. The third section selects one important aspect of Riccio’s job, focusing on his control of information networks and political communication. At the centre of a network of informers and spies, he controlled the flow of information. His correspondence provides an excellent case study showing how information and political communication were managed in Renaissance Florence. Riccio also acted as an important link in the chain of command starting from the ducal court and involving the chancellery, where decisions were made at a political and administrative level, as well as many peripheral executive outposts. In conclusion, by focusing on Riccio, my research aims to shed light on the political and social life of duke Cosimo’s Florence as seen through the lenses of bureaucracy and early modern governing practices.