Ottaviano de' Medici (born 1957)

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Prince Ottaviano de' Medici di Toscana di Ottajano (born 1957) is an Italian noble from the Ottajano branch of the Medici family. He is the president of the International Medici Association (Associazione Internationale Medicae) and helped found Save Florence, an effort to protect Florence’s cultural heritage.

Historically, after the main Medici Grand Ducal line ended in 1737, the question of Tuscany’s succession was settled by the Treaty of Vienna (1738). The Grand Duchy’s sovereignty passed to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, whose descendants are the recognized heirs to the Grand Ducal throne. Today, two Medici branches survive: Medici Tornaquinci (Marquises of Castellina) and Medici di Ottajano (Princes of Ottajano). Neither branch descends from Cosimo the Elder’s direct Grand Ducal line; both come from collateral lines.

Ottaviano has promoted himself as a claimant to the Medici legacy, but he is not the genealogically senior member of the House of Medici, nor the head of the Ottajano branch. The Ottajano branch is led by Don Giuliano de’ Medici di Ottajano. Additionally, neither Ottaviano nor any member of the Tornaquinci or Ottajano branches is recognized by the Italian state or international authorities as holding dynastic rights to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Ottaviano’s Medici line descends from Ottaviano de' Medici (Gonfaloniere di Giustizia) and his wife Francesca Salviati, parents of Pope Leo XI.