Florence's Embassy to the Sultan of Egypt

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Faith and Finance: Felice Brancacci’s Visit to the Sultan and Masaccio’s Tribute Money

   • Mahnaz Yousefzadeh

   Pages 1-40

3. On Translating the Chronicle of Felice di Michele Brancacci’s Visit to Sultan Barsbay

   • Mahnaz Yousefzadeh

   Pages 41-52

4. Chronicle of Felice Brancacci Ambassador with Carlo Federighi to Cairo for the Commune of Florence 1422

   • Mahnaz Yousefzadeh

   Pages 53-89

5. Appendixes

   • Mahnaz Yousefzadeh

   Pages 91-100

6. Back Matter

   Pages 101-104

   PDF

This book is the first English translation of Felice di Michele Brancacci’s diary of his 1422 mission to the court of Sultan Al-Ashraf Seyf-ad-Din Barsbay of Egypt. Following the purchase of Port of Pisa in 1421, and the building of a galley system, Florence went on to assume a more active role in Levant trade, and this rich text recounts the maiden voyage of the Florentine galleys to Egypt. The text portrays the transnational experiences of Brancacci including those between the East and West, Christians and Muslims, and the ancient and modern worlds.  The accompanying critical introduction discusses the unexpected motifs in Brancacci’s voyage, as well as tracing the aftershocks of what was a traumatic Egyptian experience for him.  It shows that this aftershock was then measured, captured, and memorialized in the iconic image of Tribute Money, the fresco he commissioned from Masaccio, on his return to his own world in Florence. 

• Carlo Federighi
• Masaccio’s Tribute Money
• Sultan Barsbay
• Florence
• Pagnini
• Cairo
• Medieval Diaries
• Brancacci Chapel
• Medieval Finance
• Travel Writing

“This brief but rich and speculative book will be of particular interest to art historians who have often pondered the Brancacci Chapel, painted by Masaccio and Masolino, in relation to the life of its owner, Felice Brancacci, Florentine ambassador to Cairo. Felice comes alive in his important chronicle which is carefully glossed by the author, who also offers the reader a bold, new interpretation of Masaccio’s Tribute Money.” (Paul Barolsky, Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia, USA)

• Liberal Studies, New York University, New York, USA

  Mahnaz Yousefzadeh

Mahnaz Yousefzadeh is Professor of Global Liberal Studies at New York University, USA.  She is the author of City and Nation in Italian Unification (2011) and numerous articles on the history of the Early Modern Mediterranean. Her most recent articles are interdisciplinary case studies of Italy’s encounters with Persico-Islamic world during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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