Maria Maddalena de' Medici (29 June 1600 – 28 December 1633) was a Tuscan princess, the eighth daughter of

Ferdinando I Ferdinando may refer to: Politics * Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1549–1609) * Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670) * Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany (1663–1713), eldest son of Cosimo ...

and

Christina of Lorraine Christina of Lorraine or Christine de Lorraine (16 August 1565 – 19 December 1637) was a member of the House of Lorraine and was the Grand Duchess of Tuscany by marriage. She served as Regent of Tuscany jointly with her daughter-in-law during ...

, making her the sister of Cosimo II.

Life

Born disabled, she was christened at the age of nine. On 24 May 1621, she entered the

Palazzo della Crocetta The National Archaeological Museum of Florence (Italian – Museo archeologico nazionale di Firenze) is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy. It is located at 1 piazza Santissima Annunziata, in the Palazzo della Crocetta (a palace built ...

, attached to the Convento della Crocetta (Convent of the Little Cross, now the National Archaeological Museum), though she never took the monastic vows. When she died, she was buried there.

Aboveground passages

Maria Maddalena had difficulties climbing stairs. The rooms built for her at the monastery by the architect

Giulio Parigi Giulio Parigi (6 April 1571 – 13 July 1635) was an Italian architect and designer. He was the main member of a family of architects and designers working for the Grand Ducal court of the Medici. His father, Alfonso Parigi the Elder, was an ...

were connected by a series of raised passages above street level across which she could move without use of stairs and, as an added bonus, there was no need to cross the uneven and crowded street. Today four arches of one of these passages remain. They resemble covered bridges () or skybridges between upper floors of buildings: * one opposite the

Ospedale degli Innocenti The Ospedale degli Innocenti (;) 'Hospital of the Innocents', also known in old Tuscan dialect as the ''Spedale degli Innocenti'', is a historic building in Florence, Italy. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in ...

, * one above via della Pergola, * one above via Laura (to reach another monastery), and * one into the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata (where, sitting in a small chamber at the end of the passage, she could watch the mass through a grate in the left wall of the nave). In the

was a similar, long elevated corridor, called the , which Maddalena used to move among the remaining first floor rooms. This corridor was reminiscent of the Vasariano.

Life

Aboveground passages

Ancestry

See also