Cosmopolitan Ambition: Niccolò Gaddi’s Global Objects in Early Modern Florence.

Prof Laura Moretti has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for the Academic Year 2026-27 for her project Cosmopolitan Ambition: Niccolò Gaddi’s Global Objects in Early Modern Florence. This offers a micro-historical study of the global objects and naturalia displayed in the soffitta (top floor) of Niccolò Gaddi’s Florentine casa dell'orto, established in the 1570s as a museum prototype. Critically, this space was distinct from the Gaddi’s celebrated art collection and functioned as a platform for social and political assertion. By meticulously curating foreign objects, linking his collection to global, political, and material culture histories, Gaddi leveraged social interactions to assert a cosmopolitan identity and exercised soft power. This interdisciplinary study promises immediate, high-impact outputs: two peer-reviewed articles, a short monograph manuscript, and online content.

For the months of September, October and November 2026, thanks to this grant, Laura will be a guest resident at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut.

You can view the grant as listed on the Leverhulme website.

Image: Jacopo Ligozzi, Turkish costume, ca. 1590. Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe.