Minority and Majority in Medici Tuscany
Paris 27-28 November 2025, Galerie Colbert, salle Jullian, salle Vasari, 2 Rue Vivienne, Paris
Organized by HICSA Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne – The Medici Archive Project
Conference Co-Organizers: Alessio Assonitis and Sefy Hendler
DAY ONE: Thursday 27 November [Salle Jullian]
KEYNOTE LECTURE: 18:00
Kate Lowe (The Warburg Institute)
The Fashion for Black Schiavi and Schiave at the Medici Court
DAY TWO: Friday 28 November [Salle Vasari]
Opening Remarks: 9:30-10:00
Alessio Assonitis (The Medici Archive Project)
Sefy Hendler (HICSA Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
Session One 10:00 - 12:00
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL MINORITIES IN TUSCANY
CHAIR: FIAMMETTA CAMPAGNOLI (UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS 1 PANTHÉON SORBONNE)
Gwladys Le Cuff (Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne - INHA)
Amadeists and the Visual Fortune of the Apocalypsis Nova in Florence: Minority Fratres de Familia, Between Heterodox Dissent and Medici Instrument
Alessio Assonitis (The Medici Archive Project)
The Proliferation of Religious Heterodoxy at the Court of Cosimo I: Printers, Preachers, and Humanists
Piergabriele Mancuso (The Medici Archive Project)
The Medici and the Jews: From the Ghetto of Florence to Global Livorno
Eliah Jaffe (ERC Project FemSMed - Tel Aviv University)
L'intégration d'une esclave dans la communauté juive de Livourne
Discussion
Lunch Break 12:00 - 14:00
Session Two: 14:00 - 15:45
GENDER AND RACE
CHAIR: ANGÈLE TENCE (UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS 1 PANTHÉON SORBONNE)
Benedetta Chizzolini (ERC Project FemSMed - Tel Aviv University)
Female Baptisms and Political Power: The Conversions of Enslaved Women in Medicean Tuscany
Brian Sandberg (Northern Illinois University)
“Sono stati pervertiti da un moro”: Morisco Communities and Ambiguous Identities in Grand Ducal Tuscany
Yasmine Segol (ERC Project FemSMed - Tel Aviv University)
From Florence to the French Court: Caterina de’ Medici’s Enslaved Female Servants
Discussion
Coffee Break: 15:45-16:00
Session Three: 16:00 - 17:45
ARTISTIC MINORITIES/MINORITIES AND THE ARTS
CHAIR: ANTONELLA FENECH (CNRS - CENTRE ANDRÉ CHASTEL)
Rebecca Arnheim (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
More than a Pretty Body: Florentine Garzoni and the Visibility of Working Youth in Renaissance Art
Sefy Hendler (HICSA Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
When Pontormo’s Fresco “Went Up in Smoke”: The Fate of Art Outside Hegemonic Taste
Federico Giglio (Sapienza Università di Roma - The Medici Archive Project)
Vasari, the Lives and the Fuoriusciti
Discussion
KEYNOTE LECTURE 18:00
Tamar Herzig (ERC Project FemSMed - Tel Aviv University)
Female Enslavement and Intercommunal Relations in Grand Ducal Tuscany