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The Splendour of Nannina de’ Medici: A Florentine Wedding That Made History
- Mar 3
- 6 min read
Nannina married the humanist man of letters Bernardo Rucellai on June 8, 1466.
A Florence That Invents Wedding Magnificence
On 8 June 1466, Florence witnessed one of the most extraordinary weddings in its history: the marriage between Nannina de’ Medici, daughter of Piero the Gouty and sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the humanist Bernardo Rucellai. It was not merely the union of two powerful families; it was a public declaration of beauty, prestige and vision.
Reading the chronicles of that wedding today means understanding how deeply the city has always felt the need to tell its story through celebrations. In my work as a floral designer in Florence, I see that day as the illustrious ancestor of many contemporary weddings: the desire to create, for one day only, an entire world of your own.
A Sky of Fabric and Roses Above the City
Decorating a single hall was not enough to celebrate the event. Giovanni Rucellai had a huge triangular platform built – a raised plane that occupied the entire square in front of Palazzo Rucellai, the loggia and Via della Vigna. Above this open‑air stage, a vast canopy of blue cloth was stretched, a fabric “sky” that sheltered guests from the sun and turned the square into a room with a textile vault.
From this ephemeral ceiling hung garlands of greenery and fresh roses, twined around the coats of arms of the Medici and Rucellai families. Imagining today the fragrance of thousands of roses suspended above five hundred guests helps us understand how total the experience was: filtered light, colour, scent, movement. It was an early example of immersive installation, designed to wrap the guests in continuous wonder.
Three Days of Celebration: Dance, Tables and Detail
The wedding celebrations lasted several days, with repeated banquets, young ladies and knights dancing on the platform, and kitchens set up in the streets to feed hundreds of people at each service. The chronicles tell of sumptuous gowns for the donna novella, of precious jewellery and of trousseaux and dowries impressive in both quantity and value: decorated chests, rare fabrics, embroidery in pearls and gold, necklaces, rings, household objects for daily life.
Beyond the numbers, what strikes us is the care with which every gift, every garment and every decorative element was conceived as part of a single narrative: that of a new family born under the sign of abundance and art.
Flowers as Alliance and Allusion
In this context, flowers were far from secondary. Garlands of evergreens evoked the continuity of the lineage and the solidity of the two houses; roses at the centre of the festoons paid homage to Nannina’s beauty and youth. Every botanical element had a precise meaning, intertwined with heraldic colours and emblems.
Today, when we design floral ceilings, garlands of greenery or suspended installations in a Tuscan villa or palazzo, we are unknowingly echoing that ancient gesture: using flowers and foliage to hold together, in a single glance, the story of a place and the story of a couple. Originality does not come from forgetting the past, but from listening to it and translating it.
From a Fifteenth‑Century Chronicle to Your Wedding in Tuscany
Nannina de’ Medici, probably portrayed by Botticelli in the Madonna of the Magnificat, embodies an era in which Florence set the standard for style and scenography. Studying her wedding means understanding that true luxury is not only in the budget, but in the ability to imagine a coherent world around a single “yes”.
In my work at La Bottega dei Fiori, I carry this legacy with me. When I design a wedding – whether in a historic palazzo, under a loggia overlooking the city or in a villa among the hills – I think about how light, flowers, fabrics and architecture can create, for one day, your own personal “Piazza Rucellai under a sky of roses”. Not to imitate the fifteenth century, but to recreate that same sensation of wonder and belonging to a greater story.
If you are dreaming of a wedding scented with Florentine history, without giving up contemporary sensitivity, we can take time to explore it together. I work by appointment in Florence and in key locations across Tuscany, creating bespoke scenography in which every garland, every rose and every detail is conceived as part of a single, unique story.
The new lady received a tip of 100 florins and 100 pairs of fat hands from Bernardo: we gave several servants and friends of the house 70 pairs of uniform-style cloth stockings. The new lady was given rich dresses: one of white velvet embroidered with pearls, silk, and gold, with open sleeves and lined with lattices worth florins, and one of velvet zetani, high and low, with pearls, very rich in fur and a good color, costing 7 florins an arm, with the sleeves lined with ermine. And in addition to the two dresses described above that were made for the new lady, she had a coat of white domaschino brocaded with flowered gold with a pair of sleeves of pearls worth florins.... and another coat of silk with sleeves of crimson gold brocade and many other garments of capes and journées of silk and cloth: she also had a rich necklace with diamonds, rubies and pearls worth 1200 florins - and a shoulder brooch with a large balascio and pearls that cost 1000 florins, and another for the head worth 300 florins, and a necklace of large pearls with a large diamond-pointed pendant worth 200 florins; and a hood embroidered with pearls and a snare of large pearls worth 100 florins and two pairs..."
No less than twenty rings were given to the new woman by various relatives and six by the groom, two when he took her off, two at the wedding, two on the morning that rings are given.
...And finally the dowry and the trousseau. « The dowry was 2500 florins and as many confessed with 2000 florins on the mountain and 500 florins of donora, which donora cost 1500 florins but were largely worth 1200 florins; there were many beautiful and rich donora as will be said below, namely:
1 pair of very rich chests with backs.
1 bundle (2) of purple and pink cloth embroidered with pearls.
1 day (3) of Alexandrian satin embellished with pearls.
1 day of white and crimson dom with fringes and pearls.
1 fly aviary, embroidered sleeves with gold thread.
1 purple gamurra rosina with gold, silver and pearls.
1 Alexandrian zetani coat with brocade sleeves.
1 gamurra (4) of white cloth with sewn sleeves.
1 silk twill with white and red damask sleeves.
1 purple cloth gamurra with silk sleeves and with silver.
1 green and black double-ended twill with small birds.
20 arms of broad-grain Lucca cloth in a piece.
13 towels in one thread and a piece of thin diaper 4 arms of fine Lucca cloth for 1 gamurrino.
1 worked Renso shirt.
1 crimson headboard worked with pearls.
1 hat embroidered with silver and pearls.
1 Alexandrian satin cap embroidered with diamonds.
1 small book of our lady, historiated with silver fittings.
1 child wearing a damask dress embroidered with pearls.» (5)
In addition to this trousseau valued in the dowry, Nannina received a great quantity of things donated that cannot be counted.
That is, 93 arms of rich piece fabrics: "purple and crimson velvet zetani, green brocaded domask, Alexandrian brocaded domask, flattened crimson velvet, crimson satin." And more;
1 1/4 arms of crimson gold brocade.
62 handkerchiefs.
50 women's bandages.
16 shirts and 28 knitted diaper caps.
6 thin (6) renso headboards (7).
4 little bags with tassels.
7 pieces of ribbons of multiple patterns.
12 arms of fine bandages.
2 worked pockets of renso.
2 flower towels.
4 chest towels.
1 pair of Venetian-style pillows.
1 cap and 1 headpiece embroidered with thread gold.
1 floral embroidered hat.
1 silk cap embroidered with silver and pearls.
1 beret and 1 flowered damask cap for the night.
3 velvet and satin hats with pearls.
1 golden silver Virgin Mary.
1 little book of our lady covered in brocade.
1 strand of coral with silver and pearls.
1 crimson brocade belt.
1 silver bag with pearls and buttons, 1 Venetian brocade bag and 1 embroidered Flanders bag.
5 multi-purpose bags with pearls.
4 bag-shaped needles (8) embroidered with pearls.
8 pens (9) of various designs and 1 with pearls.
2 sewing rings, 1 gold and 1 silver.
1 pair of knives and 1 awl supplied in silver.
1 knife and fork supplied in silver.
1 pair of silver chisels and 1 pair of iron chisels.
3 pairs of scissors set in gold.
2 Catalan silk collars.
5 ivory combs of various designs.
1 penman supplied with several things.
4 pairs of gloves of multiple reasons.
From Rucellai, Giovanni, 1475-1525, A Florentine Merchant and His Family in the 15th Century, Florence, Tip. G. Barbèra, 1881
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