Today is the birthday, in 1667, of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, last of the Medicis. A patron of the arts, she bequeathed the Medicis’ large art collection, including the contents of the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Medici villas, which she inherited upon her brother Gian Gastone’s death in 1737, and her Palatine treasures to the Tuscan state, on the condition that no part of it could be removed from “the Capital of the grand ducal State….[and from] the succession of His Serene Grand Duke”.
The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de’ Medici and his grandson Lorenzo “the Magnificent” during the first half of the 15th century. The Medici family financed the construction of Saint Peter’s Basilica and Florence Cathedral, and were patrons of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Galileo, and Francesco Redi, among many others in the arts and sciences. They funded the invention of the piano, and arguably that of opera.
Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667-1743), Electress of the Palatinate
Ice Cream!
Parking for fat guys who like to grill…
If famous composers were cats…
On July 24th, 1953, American writer Shirley Jackson responded to a reader who was disappointed by her story “The Lottery”.
KIDS!
Today is the birthday, in 1949, of Eric Carmen, American singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist, who with The Raspberries had the 1972 US No.5 single ‘Go All The Way’ and the 1976 solo US No.2 single, ‘All By Myself’, plus other hits with ‘She Did It’, ‘Hungry Eyes’, and ‘Make Me Lose Control. He died on 11 March 2024 age 74. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ssCL292DQA
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