Ferdinand III of Médicis

Ferdinand III of Médicis (August 9th 1663 - October 31st 1713) is the oldest son of the large-duke of Tuscany Cosme III and of Marguerite-Louise of Orleans. To distinguish it from the other members of the House of Médicis bearing the same name, it is often described as " Large-prince ".

The disagreement existing between his/her parents, who leads finally to their separation, leads it to approach more his/her mother: like she, Ferdinand likes the pleasures of society, arts and music (it is itself musician), whereas its relationship with his/her father, deeply religious man and religious bigot, is always tended.

Notorious libertine, during a visit with the Carnival of Venice in 1696, Ferdinand contracts the Syphilis which would have involved its madness then its death, in 1713, before being gone up on the throne. In 1689, it marries Violate-Beatrice of Bavaria, girl of the Prince-voter Ferdinand de Wittelsbach and of Henriette-Adelaide of Savoy, union unhappy which remains without offspring. With died of Cosme III, the younger brother of Ferdinand, Jean-Gaston, is thus the last of the Médicis to be gone up on the throne of Toscane: after him, also remained without heredity, the dynasty éteind and the Grand-duché passes to the hands dukes of Lorraine.

Ferdinand de Médicis is especially known like owner of arts: in its Villa Pratolino (today Villa Demidoff) it made build a theater designed by Antonio Maria Ferri. In the villa of Poggio Caiano it has gathered in only one room called " Delle Gabinetto operates in piccolo di tutti I più celebri pittori" (" Cabinet of small works of all the painters more célèbres"), an extraordinary collection of low-size paintings with at least 174 tables of as many different painters, among whom Albrecht To last, Léonard de Vinci, Raphaël, Rubens, etc

Among the type-setters whom it introduced at the large-ducal court one finds Alessandro Scarlatti and the young person Georg Friedrich Haendel.

In 1688, of passagge with Padoue, it engages with its service, in the capacity as guard of its musical instruments, Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the precursory Fortepiano of the Piano.

Estro Armonico , collection of twelve concertos for string instruments of Antonio Vivaldi (opus 3), left the presses of Estienne Roger in 1711 and which marks a capital date in the history of the European music, is dedicated to the heir to the Grand-duché of Tuscany, Ferdinand III of Médicis .

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