Born into a prominent Florentine family, Filippo Baldinucci received a Jesuit education and hoped to pursue a religious career. Reluctantly, he abandoned his studies to work for the Medicis, becoming Leopoldo de' Medici's bookkeeper in 1664. He later became a consultant for Leopoldo's drawings collection and gallery of artists' self-portraits. After Leopoldo's death, he served under Cosimo III de'
