The Medici Archive Project, was founded in 1995 "in order to realize the undeveloped potential of the Medici Granducal Archive, housed in the Archivio di Stato in Florence." Its five goals are: "1. To produce DOCUMENTARY SOURCES FOR THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES in the The Medici Granducal Archive: (1537-1743). 2. To document Jewish History, Religion and Culture in the Medici Archive. 3. To document the History of Costume and Textiles in the Medici Archive. 4. To train emerging scholars in the methods and values of archival research. 5. To pioneer technological solutions for archive management and humanities research." In a first phase "this initiative focuses on the Archivio Mediceo del Principato, which contains 6,429 volumes of letters and constitutes the core of the Medici Granducal Archive. When complete (estimated date: 31 December 2004) Documentary Sources for the Arts and Humanities will offer descriptive entries for each volume of documents. These entries will be accessed by four indices: People, Portraits, Places, and Topics. Documentary Sources for the Arts and Humanities will be eventually published as a searchable database on the World Wide Web. While work is in progress, sample reports from of our database will be accessible here at
http://www.medici.org, updated on a quarterly basis."