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A Confession That Changes History: NYU Florence’s Marcello Simonetta Discovers New Twist in Pazzi Conspiracy

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Katie L

A newly found signed confession alters what historians thought they knew about one of history’s greatest conspiracies

Marcello Simonetta, right, narrates a reenactment of the Pazzi Conspiracy at Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio on April 26, 2023, the 500-year anniversary of the event.

Had Antonio Maffei da Volterra successfully assassinated Lorenzo de’ Medici, the course of Italian history would have been altered immensely. The roots of the infamous Pazzi conspiracy to oust the Medici family as rulers of Florence ran deep—everyone from the pope to the king of Naples had a part in it. The failed conspiracy took place over 500 years ago this spring, and today, few people know more about it than NYU Florence instructor Marcello Simonetta. So when he uncovered a confession letter from Antonio Maffei earlier this year, unearthing details never known before of the attempted assassination, Simonetta was astounded.

“I’ve been around these materials for a long time. I know the story quite well. I even wrote a book about it,” says Simonetta. “This confession wasn’t supposed to exist, but it does, and it’s amazing.” Simonetta laughs when he says this, but then notes that distrust is the most important part of being a successful historian. He explains that you have to believe there is more to every story—that the historians who came before you didn’t finish the job and left something more to discover—even when you don’t know what that something is. And in this case, it is a confession letter written and signed by Antonio Maffei shortly before his death.

“It’s the last thing he wrote, because soon after writing the confession, he died,” says Simonetta, who found the confession at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze in a file of poems, wills, and other completely unrelated documents. “Archives are the treasures of our past. If you look close enough, you’ll find things that are unbelievable but true.”

In the confession Maffei shares a timeline for the planned assassination of the Medici brothers (Lorenzo, who was injured, and Guiliano, who did not survive). Unaware of his specific role in the assassination until the day before it happened, he wrote that he arrived in Florence months before April 26, 1478—the day the plot was to be enacted. This information contradicts what writer and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in Florentine Histories, which is considered one of the most accurate accounts of the conspiracy. But just the existence of the confession—that Maffei even had time to write it—debunks the idea that he was beaten and hanged immediately after the attack.

“There are a lot of details about the preparation of the conspiracy, which we didn’t know before,” explains Simonetta. “But the bottom line is we had no idea that Antonio arrived seven months ahead of time. These are all incredible details that make it very real and very human. The failure of the conspiracy is astounding, but also the conspiracy itself, as Machiavelli points out among other things, is extraordinary.”

Simonetta is an expert on Machiavelli and teaches a class about him at NYU Florence. As a matter of fact, Simonetta made the discovery at the same time the class was reading Machiavelli’s On Conspiracies, specifically the section about the Pazzi conspiracy.

Handwritten Italian text on a piece of paper

Antonio Maffei’s confession of the attempted assassination

“The students had read the materials, but they didn’t know there was this new element that had just surfaced from the dust of the past, so I used it in the class,” Simonetta notes. “When I can, I love to use firsthand documents because it makes history so much more alive. And that’s what history is all about. It’s about imagination; without imagination it’s just data. It’s raw data, so who cares? But when history becomes living history, which is a pun—lethal history more than living in this case—it comes alive.”

Simonetta says that having the opportunity to bring history to life for his students has been one of his favorite parts about teaching at NYU Florence. Teaching in the city where these events took place, he adds, brings a dynamic to the classroom experience that is unobtainable anywhere else in the world.

“I’ve taught classes about Machiavelli in the United States, but it’s not the same as going to the Basilica di Santa Croce and seeing his tomb. Or going to the villa where he wrote The Prince,” Simonetta concludes. “It becomes so real: you can touch it, you can feel it exactly as it is. So being here, in Florence, is an enormous plus for my students and for me.”

Written by Kelly McHugh-Stewart

Students Confront the Water Crisis Through Experiential Learning in the Himalayas

Posted on May 23, 2023, modified on May 23, 2023 by Kristin Law

Photograph by Constantinos Sofikitis

All around us, there are signs the world is rapidly warming. But the Himalayas, which experiences floods and avalanches that could plunge the 2.5 billion people who rely on the mountains for freshwater into crisis, is a region under constant threat. Now, as part of NYU Abu Dhabi’s eARThumanities research initiative, the Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water (GEHW) project seeks to address the multitude of challenges the Himalayas encounters due to climate change.

Students hiking in the Haatiban Resort. Photograph by Harry Jang.

This winter two January Term (J Term) classes—The Media, Climate Change and Other Calamities and The Himalayas: Geopolitics and Ecology of Melting Mountains—explored the environmental, geopolitical, and cultural implications of climate change. After learning about the subjects in the classroom, students flew to the Nepal Himalayas to witness these changes directly and begin to work toward solutions.

“The trip itself was the highlight of the J Term because students were asked to travel as scholars and researchers, not as tourists,” says Sophia Kalantzakos, the founder of eARThumanities and Global Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Public Policy. “We had a vast array of different experts who came to speak to us about the issues at hand, but we also wanted the students to fall in love with the mountains and the region. We had an opportunity to use all our senses in ways you’re not able to when stuck in a classroom.”

Four people seated at a table on a stage

A panel at one of the conferences students attended. Photograph by Constantinos Sofikitis.

In Nepal NYU Abu Dhabi students combined scientific research and conferences while also immersing themselves in culture and place. Research affiliate and GEHW founding member Rastraraj Bhandari, NYU Abu Dhabi Class of 2019, adds, “The foundational thing that students were able to gather is how the climate crisis and the water crisis impact every sector and every field. It’s deeply rooted in how we live. Incorporating the humanities into understanding a scientific problem allows us to humanize the crises.”

Two women in head scarves hold up paintings

Students display their paintings at the Taragaon Art Museum. Photograph by Constantinos Sofikitis.

For Sophie Pfisterer, a first-year student interested in film and sustainability, the experience was life-changing. “It was a combination of everything I was interested in, and the trip itself was just incredible because I felt like I connected with one of my passions every day,” she says. One day they visited a farming initiative seeking environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive solutions to improve the quality of life in alpine villages. The next day, they attended a conference with experts including the British ambassador to Nepal, a filmmaker, the CEO of the World Wildlife Fund Nepal, and an ornithologist. “It was this incredible way of learning so much because it meant something to me and I knew I’d use it. That’s different from learning something for a test. With that—once you’re done—you lose that information because it doesn’t mean anything to you.”

Federico Jannelli, a recent graduate who majored in Economics and minored in Arabic, traveled to Nepal to better understand the multidisciplinary ramifications of the crises. “As an Economics major, it was interesting to understand more about the strong economic relationship and financial links between Nepal and the United Arab Emirates,” he explains. “Professor Kalantzakos did a great job linking the concerns of the various stakeholders. She highlighted the need for cooperation. We urgently need to tackle these problems, but the solution isn’t just to have high-ranking diplomats and politicians sit at a roundtable and discuss solutions. We need to involve people who are experiencing the consequences of these crises every day.”

A group poses for the camera with mountains in the background

January Term students and faculty. Photograph by Constantinos Sofikitis.

A Universal Language at Every Age

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Maxine P

Through internships, volunteer opportunities, and class projects, NYU study away students can make a positive impact on the children in their local communities while also gaining valuable, real-world experience they can apply to their future careers.

While studying at NYU Prague last spring, Joey Duke, a junior majoring in Music Education at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, found there is more to his field of study than he could have imagined. Through the class Foundations of Music Education led by Professor Klára Boudalová, he had the opportunity to work with the Prague Symphony Orchestra to help make classical music accessible to children in the Czech Republic.

Seven people pose for a camera on the orchestra stage

Concert planners and participants pose for a photo onstage at Smetana Hall after the orchestra performance. Pictured from left to right are: Jaime Patterson, Jair Gonzales, director Klara Boudalova, Joey Duke, actress Veronika Kubarova, Jahnvi Seshadri, and conductor Jan Kucera.

“We worked on the Orchestr na dotek, which means ‘the orchestra to listen,’” Joey says. After a semester of learning from the orchestra, the class’ final project was to organize an orchestra completely on their own. “It’s their program created just for young audiences, and it was a game changer for me. It showed me there’s a lot more you can do with music education.”

Joey and his classmates “took a part in everything” when it came to creating the orchestra. They chose composers, selected and cut the music, wrote a storyline, and worked with the musicians and performers to ensure the performance went off without a hitch.

“We knew we would be these kids’ first impressions of the composers, and we wanted to make sure we selected the right pieces and cuts,” explains Joey. Their orchestra focused on the works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, which they intertwined with a story about pirates. “The music really couldn’t be more than three minutes at a time, so we had to select the most important parts. That took a lot of score reading and musical knowledge. Then for the story, Debussy features a lot of ocean music and Ravel features a lot of Spanish music, so we were like, ‘We’ve got it! We’re getting on a ship, we’re venturing across the sea, we’re going to islands.’ It was this big, fantastical process, and once we got past the blank canvas, the possibilities were endless.”

Similarly, at NYU Florence, Anika Istok, a junior majoring in Psychology at the College of Arts and Science and minoring in both Italian Studies and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (CAMS), had the chance to connect with children through music.

“Music is so important for kids,” says Anika who spent the fall of 2022 volunteering with NPM Bambini in Movimento, an organization that provides support, therapy, and inclusive recreational activities for children, adolescents, and their families to help improve their health and wellness. “It’s an important way for kids to express themselves, especially if they’re nonverbal, shy, or don’t initiate interactions. It’s amazing because, through something simple like playing our community drum together, they were able to bond in a way that, even with words, you can’t accomplish.”

Photo of Anika wearing an NPM Bambini in Movimento polo shirt

Anika Istok in her NPM Bambini in Movimento shirt

Volunteering with NPM Bambini in Movimento was fulfilling for Anika on multiple levels. It not only advanced her work in psychology and CAMS but also helped her become fluent in Italian. She noted volunteering as part of the culture at NYU Florence, so she knew she would get involved somewhere. Still, it was important for her to find an organization where she could really make an impact, and at NPM Bambini in Movimento, she was able to do just that.

“We weren’t necessarily teaching music; rather, we were experiencing music together,” Anika adds. Anika helped teach two after-school classes, one for children between 2 and 5 and one for children between 6 and 8 years old. “A lot of the kids we worked with had either a disability or some sort of special need, and a lot of them were too young to be in school full time or had some trouble in school. Connecting with them outside of their normal educational environment was really important.”

Both Joey and Anika returned to New York City after their semesters away with newfound knowledge and appreciation for their selected fields of study. “This opportunity showed me that I could not only aspire to do something like this but do it. And then we watched it happen,” says Joey. “At the end of the day, music is who we are as a people. It carries all of our cultural meaning, it carries a message, and for kids to understand the music from where they are is for them to participate in their communities. For me, I realized there’s so much more we can do. That semester really opened my eyes to the impact we can make through music.”

Written by Kelly McHugh-Stewart

For the Love of Art: An NYU Abu Dhabi Student’s Passion for Painting

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Katie L

Roudah Hamad Al Mazrouei

Roudhah Hamad Al Mazrouei, NYU Abu Dhabi Class of 2024, recently won a Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance award and is excited to continue her artistic journey. She paints with a purpose: to find her own signature style. “I’ll keep painting until I find it,” she affirms.

Still, Roudhah has noted the fruits of her hard work (beyond the honor of an award), citing the improvements in her techniques, color mixing, and overall knowledge of color theory. She likes to keep her mind and hands busy, explaining that “it’s like the saying, ‘When a shark stops swimming—it dies.’”

This notion of continuing and moving forward is also evident in her approach to making art—when she’s almost finished a painting, she’s already thinking of her next piece.

Roudhah has always found it fascinating that a single brush stroke can eventually create a beautiful painting. “I also feel like I can express myself more when I create something,” she adds.

The award has only motivated Roudhah to continue striving for excellence and, of course, to continue painting. “I am excited to continue exploring new opportunities and projects, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for my professional and personal growth.”

Also helpful for Roudhah’s motivation and inspiration? NYU Abu Dhabi visiting assistant professor Shaika Rashid Al Mazrou who is one of her favorite Emirati artists. “I love the way she conveys her ideas in these very simplistic abstract sculptures… You would never imagine what tension looks like until after you look at her artwork.”

Repurposed with permission from NYU Abu Dhabi Latest News.

In and of the City: A Conversation with NYU Accra Director Chiké Frankie Edozien

Posted on May 2, 2023, modified on May 2, 2023 by Kristin Law

Prior to his time as the site director of NYU Accra, Chiké Frankie Edozien spent 11 years leading the site’s Reporting Africa program. An award-winning journalist and author, Edozien’s work focuses on government, health, and cultural issues in Africa and across the globe. His memoir, Lives of Great Men: Living and Loving as an African Gay Man, an exploration of the lives of contemporary LGBTQ+ men and women on the African continent and in the diaspora, won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography. His work has appeared in Time and the New York Times, among others, and from 1999 to 2008, he worked as a reporter for the New York Post. In 2017 Edozien was awarded NYU’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, community building, social justice advocacy, and leadership.

When Edozien started his tenure as the NYU Accra director in January 2020, the phrase “in and of the city” inspired his approach to leadership. And even through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has continued to build a bridge between the University and local Ghanaian community, creating an atmosphere of immersive learning for students eager to truly become citizens of the world.

Global Dimensions recently interviewed Edozien about his time leading NYU Accra, his initiative to work closer with the local community, and his hopes for the students he works with.

Interviewer and writer: Kelly McHugh-Stewart

Q: You started as director in 2020, I imagine that was an interesting time to begin a new role, and I’m sure there have been obstacles, but could you start by sharing a few highlights from your time as director thus far?

Chiké Frankie Edozien: Of course. There have been several. I think Go Local is one of the things I enjoyed. That was two semesters of working with students who lived in Ghana but were unable to travel to their NYU home campuses due to the pandemic. During that year in particular, we were able to not just deliver education to students but also show them a Ghana they never knew. It was very gratifying to teach people who were born and bred in Ghana and have them tell us, “We didn’t know about any of this!”

It’s also been really wonderful to revamp some of the courses we offer and try to make sure we are giving students the best academic experience. We’ve updated our food, music, and journalism courses. We also took advantage of the fact that the fall season has a lot of cultural festivals and created arts and humanities courses. We’re not divorced from anything that’s happening in Accra; that’s certainly a highlight for me.

Q: Related to that, tell me about the Labone Dialogues series you established.

CFE: Yes, that has been another highlight. One of the things that is very interesting for me is that, even though we might be the smallest global site, we have a lot going on and we offer a lot to our neighbors. I thought about all the wonderful things we have access to, all the wonderful people who come into contact with our students and into our classrooms, and I wanted to find a way to bring the things we do to the public and provide access for people in the community.

In the last three years, we’ve hosted 10 conversations, and we’ve had wonderful scholars, musicians, and artists here. We’re not just about educating our people, we’re about sharing our resources and encouraging local production of knowledge.

Q: That’s amazing. Can you share a little more about what goes into the Labone Dialogues?

CFE: It starts with some kind of student engagement, which is not open to the public, then there’s a master class for the community to come in, listen, and ask questions. But we also have a craft session for select community members who do not normally have a chance to meet these people NYU has access to. They get to come and work on their craft whether it’s a book, theatre project, or music piece. For us, we think of it as a gift to the community for hosting us in their city, and it has been quite gratifying to be able to share the resources we have with them.

Two people seated onstage in front of an audience having a conversation with microphones

Nigerian writer, Leye Adenle (right), in conversation with Kinna Likimani (left) at a Labone Dialogues community event in February of 2023.

Q: What is unique about NYU Accra and why would you encourage students to spend time studying there?

CFE: NYU Accra is at the center of the world, not just physically but also in terms of the changing world. Ghana is not a developed nation; it is a developing nation. And with that comes a lot of challenges but also a lot of opportunities to do very meaningful work. When we place interns in companies, they are not fetching coffee or making photocopies—they are working on projects. Whether it’s trying to find and deliver vaccines to people, auditing corporations, or sourcing portable water resources, our students have access. I teach journalism and know that, even as a professional journalist, it’s difficult to get an audience with the mayor of a town or the statehouse in the United States, but our journalism students have access to government officials and private businesses. They get answers to their questions.

Our students can also meet ordinary people because we don’t have an NYU bubble here. We really are in and of the city. To have an African experience in your undergraduate years is a wonderful thing, but to be able to do it in a place where you have access to everyone, where almost nothing is beyond your grasp—that’s really quite an experience.

Q: What do you hope students take away from their time in Accra?

CFE: I would like them to really take a bite out of the world. We work very hard to ensure that when a student comes to study in Accra, they’re not just coming to study, they’re really coming to spend a semester in the region. We understand ourselves as NYU Accra, but we also understand ourselves as NYU in Ghana, so we spend a good chunk of the semester showing students all the different experiences and different regions. It’s important to us that our students talk about their time here with a sense of authority—not that they just studied in Accra, but they lived in Ghana, they lived in West Africa, and they understand the nuances. And that’s what we want for them: that they can truly be global citizens.

Q: You recently had a short story, “Krifé,” published in the new book Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices. Congrats!

CFE: I think that came out in January, so it’s very new!

Q: What does “krifé” mean and what is the story about?

CFE: “Krifé” is a colloquial way of referring to a certain kind of folk in Ghana who are very much into their religion. So that work is really an observation about class differences in West Africa, an observation of people who make assumptions about others, while understanding that not everything is as it seems. One advantage of being here is, in everything that I do, I can really observe how contemporary West African society is versus what’s been written about it. It is my hope that by the time I’m finished here, I can do more pieces like that.

Q: What book are you currently reading?

CFE: I just got this book called For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings. It’s by the Kenyan writer Troy Onyango and is a collection that has a razor-like focus on different kinds of East Africans—people who are trans, people whose families might be considered different, people who are going through different things—in contemporary society. I’m very much interested in his take on things. I just started it, but I’m hoping it gives me a better understanding of the region on the other side of us.

Q: Finally, what is one book you’d recommend to a student interested in studying in Accra or someone who simply wants to learn more about the area?

CFE: I recommend a book by Ghanaian writer Esther Armah; it’s called Emotional Justice: A Roadmap for Racial Healing. I like her take because she lives in Ghana, but she also lived and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. There has been a lot of turmoil over the last few years, and one of the things that’s very important for us as scholars and people is to not only look at what’s happened but how we can get past it. How do we move forward? She takes a good look at that, not just from an African perspective, but from the perspective of an African who has been an observer and bystander in the Western world.

And with our young people, it’s really up to us as professors and site directors to make these kinds of books and conversations available so that, in their own time, they can think about them and make the world a better place. For us, that’s very important. At this site in West Africa, we are part of the conversation in a way that works toward healing. So I recommend this book to anyone interested in this region because what happens in the United States is not disconnected from what happens here. We may be far away, but we are connected in more ways than it seems.