Cosimo I’s Self-Made Spy: Information and Misinformation in Sixteenth-Century Venice and Florence

Drawing on newly discovered archival documents, the article unearths the story of Antonio Beghini, a self-made spy operating in Venice for Cosimo I de’ Medici duke of Florence in the mid-sixteenth century. In 1542 Beghini revealed a sensational coup d’état planned by Florentine exiles and French against the Republic of Venice. This was the starting point for a series of vicissitudes that included two imprisonments and encounters with important rulers and diplomats. Beghini’s story allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the murkiest side of Cosimo’s information network and of the troubled community of the Florentine exiles in Venice. This story is also an opportunity to reflect on the problem of misinformation, unreliability, and deception in sixteenth-century Florence and Venice, at a time when the boundary between true and false was much blurrier than it is today.