As many friends and patrons of the Medici Archive Project already know, the Mediceo del Principato archival corpus is composed mostly of correspondence directed to and originating from the grand dukes and duchesses, princes and princesses, secretaries and ministers, agents and ambassadors in Italy and abroad, and letters primarily dealing

The study of history would suggest that while human nature remains fairly constant, attitudes, customs, and institutions change continuously. This certainly rings true in the case of ‘Signora Saltarella’, a leading courtesan in mid-sixteenth-century Florence and Rome.     Marco Bracci, reporting in the Medici Files