Antonio di Francesco I (1576-1621) 
- Name:
- Antonio di Francesco I de’ Medici
- Dates:
-
Florence, 1576 - Florence, 1621
- Places:
- Florence
- Biographical information:
-
The illegitimate son of the Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici and Bianca Cappello, Antonio was born in 1576, before his parents actually married in 1579. It was rumoured that Bianca had in fact passed off as her own the son of a young woman of humble extraction, so as to give Francesco a male heir.Since Francesco had lost the only son born to his first wife, Joanna of Austria, in 1582 at the age of just five, he had a particular predilection for Antonio, whom he hoped perhaps one day to appoint as the heir to the grand ducal throne of Tuscany. In the interim, Antonio was legitimised by his father and by a "royal privilege" drawn up by Philip II of Spain, who in 1583 nominated him Prince of Capistrano.
When both Francesco and Bianca died suddenly in 1587, Francesco’s brother Ferdinando I who succeeded him on the throne, deprived Antonio of the conspicuous inheritance left to him by his father, allowing him to live at the court with all the honours due to a Medici, but nevertheless always depending effectively on the munificence of the grand duke. The son of "wicked Bianca" - as she was known at the time - was thus excluded from all rights to succession to the throne. Rather, as a further guarantee of this, Ferdinando required Antonio to join the Knights of Jerusalem (or the Knights of Malta), the deriving vows making it impossible for him to marry, albeit with the lavish assignation of the office of Prior of the Holy Sepulchre.
Antonio was, however, allowed the use during his lifetime of several of the properties left to him by Francesco: the Casino di San Marco in Florence, and the country Villas of Lappeggi and Marignolle. He resided in Palazzo Pitti, where from 1594 he had a spacious apartment on the second floor, in the right wing flanking the courtyard. In the vast Salone delle Commedie, which was part of this apartment at the time, Antonio hosted magnificent performances, including the famous Euridice by Ottavio Rinuccini, with music by Jacopo Peri, which was performed on 6 October 1600, on the occasion of the celebrations for the marriage of Maria de’ Medici, Antonio’s beloved stepsister.
On his deathbed, Antonio managed to obtain from the Grand Duke Cosimo II the legitimisation of his three illegitimate children, Paolo (1616-1656), Giulio (1617-1670) and Antonfrancesco (1618-1659), who were living at the time in the Casino di San Marco.
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