Jesuit Foundations and Medici Power, 1532–1621 focuses on the cooperation between two new foundations, the last Medici state and the Society of Jesus, spanning nearly a century, concentrating on the Jesuit foundations in Florence, Siena, and Montepulciano. As the Medici built and centralized their power in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, they sought to control both the civic and religious behavior of their citizens. They found partners in the Jesuits, whose educational program helped establish social order and maintain religious orthodoxy. Via a detailed investigation of both minor and major Italian Jesuit colleges, and of multiple Medici rulers, Kathleen M. Comerford provides insight into church/state cooperation in an age in which both institutions underwent significant changes.
Kathleen M. Comerford, Ph.D. (1995), University of Wisconsin, is Professor of European Religious History at Georgia Southern University. Her publications on Tuscan religious history include Reforming Priests and Parishes: Tuscan Dioceses in the First Century of Seminary Education (Brill, 2006).
“With this well documented and readable study, Kathleen Comerford […] has added to our understanding of Jesuit educational roles and their partial but almost essential support from some of the Medici family.”
Christopher F. Black, University of Glasgow. In: Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, Vol. 86, Fasc. 172 (2017/II), pp. 564–566.
“Insgesamt liegt eine Forschungs- und Syntheseleistung vor, die künftig nicht nur bei Forschungen zur Jesuitenprovinz Toskana, sondern auch bei bibliotheksgeschichtlichen Analysen zur Gesellschaft Jesu als verlässlicher Ausgangspunkt dienen kann.”
Fabian Fechner, FernUniversität in Hagen. In: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2018), pp. 396–398.
Acknowledgments and Permissions
Technical Considerations
List of Tables and Charts
Introduction
1. The Beginning of the Third Medici Regime (1532–69)
2. The Grand Duchy, Francesco I–Cosimo II (1574–1621)
3. The First Tuscan Jesuits
4. The College in Florence: Opening, Funding, and Relationship to the Medici (1550s–1620s)
5. The Colleges in Siena and Montepulciano (1550s–1620s)
6. The Colleges in Operation (1550s–1620s)
7. Was the Enterprise a Success? (1540–1621)
Appendix 1 Tuscan Jesuits (1540s–1700)
Appendix 2 Tuscan Jesuit College Libraries (1565–78)
Bibliography
Those interested in Catholic Reformation history in the Italian peninsula, anyone interested in early modern European Jesuit history, anyone concerned with the first century of Medici rule in Tuscany.