The Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena and the Festival of the Dowry

In 1614, Grand Duchess Maddalena, wife of Grand Duke Cosimo II, led 141 girls in the traditional Dowry Procession after they had attended mass int he church of San Lorenzo in Florence, where each girl was presented with a bag of dowry money, thereby allowing her to marry or enter the church. Like her mother-in-law Dowager Grand Duchess Christina, shown behind her in her widow's weeds, Maria Maddalena led the procession past the Baptistry in front of the Duomo and on to the Hospital of San Paolo, a charitable instituion in piazza Santa Maria Novella. Cosimo II's father, Ferninand I, had taken over the hospital's organisation in 1592, turning it into a home where Florentine citizens could convalesce for three days when they had been released from hospital. Thus the event (and the print) celebrated the two charities sponsored by the Grand Duke. Today San Paolo has become the Museum of the Novecento (Modern Art Museum).

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