IL GALEONE LIVORNO: SOGNI DI GLORIA E IMPRESE MANCATE DI FERDINANDO I DE' MEDICI FRA LE INDIE E IL MEDITERRANEO (1606-1608)

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany at the beginning of the 17th century was in a position of subordination to the great maritime states of the time such as Spain and Portugal united, England or the young Dutch Republic, due to its geographical, economic, and military disadvantage. Intending to increase the importance of Tuscany on the international level, Ferdinando I de' Medici replaced the traditional support to Spain with a more independent foreign policy, identifying in the Netherlands a strategic territory from which to draw information and tools functional to his projects of economic expansion and political prestige. The dispatch of his agents and informants to the Dutch Republic was followed by the purchase of the galleon then called "Livorno" in Amsterdam, with the aim of carrying out trade missions in the Indies. The hostility of the Dutch East India Company prompted Ferdinando I to momentarily divert his effort to the Mediterranean, employing the new ship in the failed assault on the island of Cyprus in 1607. The essay analyzes the protagonists and dynamics of this hitherto unknown operation of purchase and use of the galleon Livorno, the symbol of the ambitions of Grand Duke Ferdinando I.