Remembered by his contemporaries as a man of culture and science, he actively participated in the Accademia del Cimento, the first official scientific society in Italy, formed by his younger brother, Leopoldo de' Medici.

[1] His 49-year rule was punctuated by the beginning of Tuscany's long economic decline,[2] which was further exacerbated by his successor, Cosimo III de' Medici.

[3] His two regents arranged a marriage with Vittoria della Rovere, a granddaughter of the last Duke of Urbino, in 1633, in hopes of acquiring the Duchy.

[4] In his seventeenth year, Ferdinando embarked on a tour of Europe, traveling to Rome, Bologna, Ferrara, Venice, and finally Austria and Prague.

The latter was the fruit of a brief reconciliation, as the two became estranged shortly after the birth of Cosimo; Vittoria caught Ferdinando in bed with a page, Count Bruto della Molera.

[13] In 1654, influenced by Galileo Galilei, he is reported to have invented the sealed-glass thermometer by sealing the glass tip of a tube filled to a certain height with colored alcohol.

Small glass bubbles filled with air at varying pressures hovered trapped within the liquid, changing positions as the temperature rose or fell.