I fiorentini ai Frari: spazio religioso e spazio politico in età moderna

The solemn obsequies celebrated in honour of Cosimo II Medici in the basilica of San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice in 1621, under the auspices of the principal representatives of the Florentine "nation" in Venice, seem to signify the beginning of the abandonment of the sacred spaces conceded for their use since the fifteenth century in the Church of the Frari. This choice, tied up with the reduction in the number of Florentine residents, and especially of merchant-bankers, may indicate a new strategy for financial and social consolidation. Traditionally, in Venice and elsewhere, Florentine merchants did not establish particularly close links with their host cities, where they tended to spend only a few years, living in a close community. Nevertheless, from the 1570s onwards, their financial specialisation (a risky and difficult business) and the growing interest shown by the Venetian patriciate in this type of investment, increased their contacts and business relations with members of the Venetian ruling class. Confronted by a period of crisis in the financial market at the beginning of the 1620s, it is possible that the celebration of the obsequies for Cosimo II in the Dominican church (where the prior was the brother of the Venetian resident in Florence) rather that in the Frari, signalled the start of a strategy to reinforce confidence in the financial stability of the Florentine merchants among the Venetian patriciate.