Filippo Niccolini as patron of music in early seventeenth-century Florence: connoisseurship, networking, and friendship

Filippo Niccolini (1586–1666) is well known to art historians, but his role as a patron of music in early seventeenth–century Florence has largely been overlooked. An examination of the account books and correspondence preserved in the family’s archives reveals many details about his musical interests. Over many decades he constantly invested in music, regularly organizing musical gatherings in his family palaces, recruiting singers, purchasing or commissioning valuable musical instruments, and training young virtuosos in his service or for the Medici princes. This essay investigates how Niccolini (since his early years in Rome) marked a new path in the patronage strategy of his family through his musical investments and the cultural exchanges between Florence and Rome that he constantly promoted through his friendship with composers and singers. Moreover, the documents presented here shed light on Niccolini’s important role as a cultural mediator and contribute to our understanding of his position in the complex system of relationships between the Medici and the patriciate in early modern Florence