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When the future Grand Duke Cosimo III was a child, his parents struggled over the type of education to give him. According to The Last Medici, Ferdinando II wanted him to have the finest “scientific education” possible. While, Vittoria della Rovere was more inclined to a theological education, and eventually won out.

Cosimo’s religious policies as Grand Duke are exemplified in two quotes from the day. His personal secretary wrote in 1691 “By the Serene Master's express command I must inform Your Excellencies that His Highness will allow no professor in his university at Pisa to read or teach, in public or in private, by writing or voice, the philosophy of Democritus, or of atoms, or any save that of Aristotle.”

While Gilbert Burnet wrote in 1685, “[Florence] is much sunk from what it was, for they do not reckon that there are fifty thousand souls in it; the other states, that were once great republic, such as Siena and Pisa, while they retained their liberty, are now shrunk almost into nothing…” and likewise, he states “not a single man in Florence can speak Greek, in contrast to the days of the Republic.”

What if Cosimo III had been given the scientific education his father had insisted on? I think for one it might have decreased the hold over him that Vittoria della Rovere had until she died – leading to (possible) more amicable relations with Marguerite-Louise d’Orléans? Thoughts?
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