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Title: Florentine palaces & their stories

Author: Janet Ross

Illustrator: Adelaide Marchi

Release date: August 21, 2023 [eBook #71464]

Language: English

Original publication: London: J. M. Dent & Co, 1905

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLORENTINE
PALACES & THEIR STORIES ***

Transcriber’s Note
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FLORENTINE
PALACES
AND
THEIR
STORIES
BY

JANET
ROSS

[All Rights Reserved]

PALAZZO ANTINORI. Page 37.

FLORENTINE
PA L A C E S
& THEIR STORIES
BY

JANET ROSS

WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
ADELAIDE MARCHI

1905
LONDON
J. M. DENT & CO.
29 & 30 BEDFORD STREET, W. C.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.

Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
BREAD STREET HILL, E. C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

Dedication
To Cavaliere Angelo Bruschi, Librarian of the Biblioteca Marucelliana,
this book of the Palaces of his native city is dedicated in memory of much
kindness and ever-ready help by
Janet Ross.

LIST OF PALACES
PAGE
PALAZZO ACCIAIUOLI 1
„ ALBERTI 9
„ ALBIZZI 17
„ ALESSANDRI 20
CASTELLO D’ALTAFRONTE 22
PALAZZO ALTOVITI 25
„ ANTELLA, DELL’ 32
„ ANTINORI 37
„ BARDI 39
„ BARTOLINI SALIMBENI 43
„ BARTOLOMMEI 47
„ BORGHESE 52
„ BOUTURLIN 53
„ BUONDELMONTI 54
„ BUONTALENTI, DEL (OR CASINO DI S. MARCO) 60
„ CANACCI 62
„ CANIGIANI 64
„ CAPPONI 70
„ CAPPONI (DELLE ROVINATE) 74
„ CERCHI 75
„ COCCHI 76
„ CORSI SALVIATI 77
„ CORSINI 81
„ DAVANZATI 87
„ DONATI 92
„ FERONI 98
„ RICASOLI FIRIDOLFI 99
„ FOSSI 105

„ FRESCOBALDI 105
„ GHERADESCA 108
„ GIANFIGLIAZZI 108
„ GINORI 110
„ GINORI CONTI 112
„ GINORI-VENTURI 113
„ GIUGNI 115
„ GONDI 116
„ GRIFFONI 121
„ GUADAGNI 123
„ GUICCIARDINI 129
„ LARDEREL 133
„ LEONETTI 135
„ MANNELLI 137
„ MARTELLI 142
„ MONALDI 144
„ MONTALVO, RAMIREZ DI 146
„ MOZZI 151
„ NERLI 155
„ NONFINITO 159
„ PANCIATICHI 160
„ PANDOLFINI 163
„ PAZZI 167
„ PERUZZI 175
„ PICCOLELIS 180
„ PITTI 182
„ PODESTÀ, DEL (BARGELLO) 208
„ PUCCI 234
„ RICCARDI 238
„ RIDOLFI 270
„ RONDINELLI 272
„ RUCELLAI 275
„ SALVIATI 293

„ SAN CLEMENTE 297
„ SERRISTORI 304
„ SODERINI 305
„ SPINI 307
„ STROZZI 316
„ STROZZINO, DELLO 341
„ STUFA, DELLA 342
„ TORRIGIANI 345
„ UGUCCIONE 349
„ VAI 351
„ VECCHIETTI 352
„ VECCHIO 355
„ VITALI 396
„ VIVIANI 397
„ XIMENES D’ARAGONA 398

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PALAZZO ANTINORI Frontispiece.
TOWER OF THE ALBERTI 8
PALAZZO BARTOLINI SALIMBENI. PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI. CORNER
OF PALAZZO SPINI 45
TOWERS OF THE GIROLAMI AND OF THE GHERARDINI 49
COURTYARD OF PALAZZO CANIGIANI 65
COURTYARD OF PALAZZO DAVANZATI 89
TOWER OF THE DONATI 93
DOORWAY OF PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI 104
DOORWAY OF PALAZZO GIUGNI 115
COURTYARD OF PALAZZO GONDI 117
DOORWAY OF PALAZZO GRIFFONI 122
PALAZZO GUADAGNI 125
DOORWAY OF PALAZZO LARDEREL 134
TOWER OF THE MANNELLI 139
PALAZZO MONTALVO 148
WINDOW OF PALAZZO NERLI 155
CORNER OF PALAZZO NONFINITO, WITH COAT OF ARMS OF THE
STROZZI 158
PALAZZO PANDOLFINI 165
COURTYARD OF PALAZZO PAZZI 169
PIAZZA AND ARCO DE’ PERUZZI 177
PALAZZO PITTI 183
PALAZZO DEL PODESTÀ (THE BARGELLO) 209
WINDOW OF PALAZZO PUCCI 235
PALAZZI RICCARDI 239
PALAZZI RUCELLAI 277
PALAZZI SAN CLEMENTE 296

PALAZZI SPINI 309
PALAZZI STROZZI 317
PALAZZI UGUCCIONE 348
COURTYARD OF PALAZZO VECCHIO 354

FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO ACCIAIUOLI

Lung’Arno Acciaiuoli. No. 4.
In 1109 Guigliarello Acciaiuoli came from Brescia, where his family
had made a fortune by working in steel (acciaio)—hence their name. He
bought many houses in Borgo S.S. Apostoli and a domain in the Val di
Pesa, where he built a tower which was still standing in 1588 when
Giovambattista Ubaldini wrote the Origine della Famiglia Acciaiuoli. True
to the Guelph traditions the family brought with them from Brescia, Leone
Acciaiuoli was forced to fly from Florence after the Ghibelline victory at
Montaperti in 1260 and his palace was destroyed. On the return to power of
the White, or Guelph, party, Dardano Acciaiuoli became Gonfalonier of
Justice, and was afterwards sent with full powers from the Signoria of
Florence, “considering his great prudence and legal knowledge,” as Captain
of the People to rule Pistoja. When in 1282 the government of Florence was
changed and the Priors were instituted, Riccomanni degl’Acciaiuoli, doctor
of law, was elected Prior of his Sesto of the city. He founded a great bank,
or commercial company, with branches in many parts of Italy, in France,
England, Greece, Africa and Asia, and sent Acciaiuolo Acciaiuoli to manage
the branch at Naples. There he became the trusted friend and counsellor of
King Robert, who made him a Baron, gave him great estates in Apulia and
the lordship of Prato in Tuscany with the title of royal Vicario. His far more
famous son Niccola, was born in 1310 at Monte Guffoni in the Val di Pesa,
and married before he was eighteen. Three years later he took his father’s
place at Naples, and being remarkable for personal beauty, dignified in
manner and gifted with a brilliant intelligence, he soon attained such favour
at court that when the Prince of Taranto died in 1332, his widow appointed

him, by the advice of her brother-in-law King Robert, guardian of her three
young sons and of the principality. Evil tongues whispered that his good
looks had much to do with this nomination. Six years later Niccola went to
Greece, taking Louis, the eldest of Catherine’s sons, with him and
succeeded in making him the real, instead of only the titular, Prince of
Acchaia. On the death of King Robert, leaving the Kingdom to his niece
Joan, married to the coarse and illiterate Andrew of Hungary, Niccola and
Prince Louis returned to Naples. Joan fell in love with her young cousin,
and one morning Andrew was found strangled in his bed. Acciaiuoli, who
was supposed to have aided in the murder, became all-powerful when the
Queen married Louis of Taranto, and was created Grand Seneschal of the
Kingdom, Count of Melfi, etc. He acquired very large possessions in
Apulia, Sicily and Greece, and was made Count of Malta and Gozzo, a title
he ceded to his son Angiolo during his lifetime. On the occasion of his
going to Avignon as ambassador, Pope Innocent VI. gave him the Golden
Rose (the first time a private person had been thus honoured), created him a
Senator of Rome, Count of the Campagna and Rector of the ecclesiastical
patrimony. He next sent him as envoy to Bernabo Visconti at Milan to claim
the restitution of Bologna. Finding Bernabo obdurate, Acciaiuoli led the
Papal troops against Bologna and installed the Legate there in triumph. He
did not forget his own country, for it is to him that we owe the magnificent
convent of the Certosa near Florence, where his eldest son, Lorenzo, as
handsome and as gifted as his father, was buried in great state in 1354. He
also built the villa of Monte Guffone, of which only the shell remains
1
showing how beautiful it once was, and the great Acciaiuoli palace on the
Lung’Arno of the same name, adjoining those of other members of the
family. As Orcagna was the architect employed at the Certosa he may also
have designed Niccola’s fine town house. A cousin of his, Messer Dardano
Acciaiuoli, built the church of S. Niccolò in Via della Scala and
commissioned Spinello, who, as Vasari tells us, was then (1334) beginning
to be known as a good painter, to fresco the whole church with stories from
the life of S. Niccolò of Bari. The church was demolished but some of the
frescoes are still to be seen in the pharmacy of Sta. Maria Novella.
The Grand Seneschal Niccola Acciaiuoli is described by Matteo
Palmieri as being “of more than the ordinary height, lithe, strong, of noble
and pleasing presence, with a certain vivacity and gaiety which rendered

him a most agreeable companion. His hair was auburn, his eyes large and
brilliant, his aspect kindly and smiling; broad in the chest and well made, he
used his left hand as dexterously as his right. He dressed well, and when
attending any solemn function always wore silk or brocade and had a large
following, not, as he was wont to say, for himself, but for the honour of his
King. A great lover of arms and of horses, of which he sought to have the
best that could be procured, he would, after breaking them in, give them as
presents, with magnificent saddles and bridles, to the great personages of
the Kingdom. Naturally inclined towards good and noble deeds he was
liberal even to prodigality. Many times he risked, not only his patrimony,
but his own and his son’s lives in the service of the King. He pardoned far
oftener than he avenged evil done to himself. He was sober in eating and
drinking, but his table was magnificently furnished for his friends and when
he gave public entertainments, as often happened when he returned to visit
his own country, where he was received with the highest honours and would
give balls, games and other festivals. He led a pure and religious life,
observing the fasts ordained by the Church so strictly that on fast days he
only ate one piece of dry bread and drank pure water.... His life was a
prosperous one, and though he worked hard and suffered infinite privations
both by day and by night, he was seldom ill. He died at Naples on
November 8, 1365, being fifty-six years of age.”
Of his fine palace there is a delightful description in, I should think,
one of the first guide-books written about Florence:—
“In Borgo S.S. Apostoli in the houses of the Acciaiuoli are many
statues and many pictures of the greatest beauty by famous artists; more
especially in the house of Alessandro are there many things of rare worth.
For there is a writing-room adorned with pictures and fine statues, and
among them are the twelve Emperors by Giambologna, of such beauty that
they are admired beyond measure by artificers who can appreciate them.
Besides this there is a garden on strong arches about fifteen braccia high, in
a street close to the Arno and looking due south, where the air is soft and
pleasant. There in pots and on espaliers are such delightful greenery and
fruits, such as lemons and pomegranates, that although the space is not
really large, yet the delight it gives is so great that it appears so. Above this,
and behind, rising yet higher, is another terrace filled with similar trees; it is
marvellous to see the quantity of fruit produced and what good condition it

is in. Above, and still farther back is yet another terrace, more than thirty
braccia from the ground and the view thence is so beautiful that the soul is
rejoiced; wherever a man turns he enjoys the sweet air, full of the perfume
of fruit and of flowers which are ever abundant according to their season.
Water is lifted by ingenious devices from below up to the third floor garden,
so that the moisture when dried up by the heat can be quickly restored. In
the lower garden is a beautiful fountain of Carrara marble ornamented with
lovely statues. A room, of large dimensions, opens on to this garden, with a
fine ceiling and more than thirty portraits of the principal ladies of our city
who are famed for their beauty. The pictures, by well-known artists, are
2
highly praised for their execution and their admirable likenesses.”
Niccola Acciaiuoli bequeathed his castles and lands in Greece to Neri,
his nephew and adopted son, who after conquering Thebes and the whole of
Boeota drove the Spaniards out of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Megara.
The Acciaiuoli ruled Greece for nearly a hundred years, until Mahomet II.
took the country and strangled Duke Lionardo. Vespasiano da Bisticci, in
his Life of Neri, declares that “others may go about begging nobility for
their family, the Acciaiuoli have enough and to spare. They are allied to all
the principal houses of the kingdom [Naples]; to the Prince of Taranto and
to other lords through the marriages of their women; among them Madonna
Andrea degl’ Acciaiuoli, Countess of Altavilla, a woman of singular renown
to whom Messer Giovanni Boccaccio sent the book of Illustrious Women,
she being possessed of such high authority.”
Many were the Gonfaloniers, Priors and ambassadors, the Acciaiuoli
gave to Florence. Donato, whose mother was a daughter of Palla Strozzi,
inherited his grandfather’s love of letters, and when ambassador to France
presented King Louis XI. with the lives of Charlemagne, Scipio and
Hannibal, written by himself. He also wrote commentaries on Aristotle’s
Ethics, Politics and Physics. He died at Milan whilst on an embassy to the
Duke and his body was brought to Florence where Cristofano Landini read
the funeral oration in the Duomo. The Republic dowered his two daughters
and named Lorenzo de’ Medici and three other citizens guardians of the
young sons. One of them, “the prudent and well-endowed” Ruberto, was
sent on an embassy to Louis XII., who bestowed on him and his
descendants the privilege of adding a Lily of France, surmounted by a royal
crown, to his arms. A descendant and a namesake of his is the hero of one

of the saddest and most romantic stories of the seventeenth century.
Handsome and brave like all his race, the son of Donato Acciaiuoli had long
admired Elisabetta Mormorai, wife of Giulio Berardi, and on her husband’s
death they agreed to marry. But his uncle the Cardinal had decided that his
good-looking nephew was to make an alliance which might be of use to him
in his designs upon the Papal chair. So he induced the Grand Duke Cosimo
III. to forbid the marriage and to order Elisabetta to enter a convent.
Ruberto immediately contracted a canonical marriage with her by letter, and
fled to Milan where he published it. At the same time he demanded justice
from the Grand Duke, the Archbishop, the Cardinal and his own father. The
validity of the marriage was upheld in Lombardy, in Florence it was
declared to be a mere engagement and not binding, and the lady was
removed from her convent and shut up in a fortress. On the death of the
Pope in 1691 Ruberto wrote to the assembled cardinals imploring them, and
the future Pope, to do him justice. All Italy was interested in the fate of the
lovers and the Cardinal Acciaiuoli tried to throw all the blame on his
relations. The Grand Duke set Elisabetta free and she joined her husband at
Venice, where Cosimo was openly accused of arbitrary and unjust conduct,
and of truckling to the private spite of the Cardinal. He thereupon made
formal application to the Republic to deliver up Acciaiuoli and his wife on
the plea of lèse majesté. They fled, but were followed by his emissaries and
taken into custody at Trent disguised as friars. Ruberto Acciaiuoli was
condemned to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Volterra and to the
loss of his patrimony, whilst to Elisabetta was offered the choice of
repudiating her marriage or of being confined in the women’s part of the
same prison. In the hopes of mitigating the severity of her husband’s
sentence she chose the former, and died of grief a few months later.

TOWER OF THE ALBERTI.

The family were supposed to be extinct in 1760, but at this date Senhor
De Vasconcellos came from Madeira and proved his descent from an
Acciaiuoli who had settled in the island at the end of the XVth century. He
married the orphan daughter of the last of the Florentine Acciaiuoli and
took her name, but the family came to an end when Monsignore Filippo, a
learned prelate, died at Venice in 1834.

PALAZZO ALBERTI

Via de’ Benci. No. 2.
Varchi tells us that the palaces of the Alberti were built on the site of
those of the ancient family of Quona, near the town gate called after Messer
Ruggieri da Quona. The picturesque little Café delle Colonnine, which in
the XVth century was the workshop of Niccolò Grossi, marks where their
loggia once stood, and the palaces of various members of the family
extended from Piazza Sta. Croce to the river, in what was then the Via
degl’Alberti. On the façade of the palace where Leon Battista Alberti lived,
which was entirely modernized in 1838 by the architect V. Bellini, who then
built the colonnade which divides the garden from the Lung’Arno, are two
engraved marble slabs with plans of what it once was and what it is now.
The great family of the Alberti originally came from Catenaia in the
Casentino, where they owned castles and lands. It is probable that their
arms, four silver chains (catene), joined in the middle by a silver ring, are
derived from the name of their castle. Five different families of Alberti,
with different arms, are mentioned in the annals of Florence; but the Alberti
whose palaces stood near the Ponte alle Grazie, from whom sprang that
many-sided genius Leon Battista, bore the surname of Giudici from an
Alberto who held the office of judge in Florence in the early days of the
XIIIth century, and came, as has already been said, from Catenaia. The
Alberti were always Guelphs, they went into exile after the battle of
Montaperti and their houses were destroyed. Alberto, son of Messer Jacopo,
was a Prior when the first stone of the Palazzo de’ Signori was laid in 1294
(the first of forty-nine of his house), while the number of Alberti who were
prelates, ambassadors, gallant captains and knights of the Golden Spur, is
innumerable. The death of Messer Niccolò degl’ Alberti in 1377, then one
of the most illustrious and one of the richest citizens of Florence, was a
public disaster. He had acquired the name of Father of the Poor and his
funeral was attended by hundreds of families dressed in black, who

mourned their benefactor. Near to his house in Via degl’Alfani (where a
corner is still called Canto alla Catena from his coat of arms) he built, after
the design of Agnolo Gaddi, a hospital called Orbetello for poor old women
and fallen girls.
When in 1380 Giorgio Scali and Tommaso Strozzi attacked the Palazzo
del Podestà and set Giovanni di Cambio free, the Signori thought it was
time, as Machiavelli writes, “to liberate the city from the insolence of
Messer Giorgio and of the mob. But they deemed it necessary to get the
consent of Messer Benedetto Alberti (son of Niccolò). He was an exceeding
rich man, humane, stern, a lover of the liberty of his country and averse to
all tyrannical proceedings; it was therefore not difficult to obtain his
consent to the ruin of Messer Giorgio.... Having ascertained that Messer
Benedetto and the heads of the Guilds would side with them the Signori
armed, and Messer Giorgio was taken while Messer Tommaso fled. The
following day Messer Giorgio, to the terror of his party was beheaded....
Seeing Messer Benedetto Alberti among the armed men, he said: ‘And thou,
Messer Benedetto, allowest that such an injury be done to me, which I,
were I in thy place, would never have permitted to be done to thee? But I
tell thee that to-day is the end of my woes and the beginning of thine own.’”
The Guelphs now ruled supreme. Executions and sentences of exile
against the nobili popolani and the leaders of the people were of daily
occurrence, to the great chagrin of Benedetto who made no secret of his
displeasure. “Therefore the heads of the State,” continues Machiavelli,
“feared him, esteeming him one of the friends of the people, and thinking
he had acquiesced in the death of Messer Giorgio Scali, not because he
disapproved of his conduct, but in order to be the sole leader.” The pomp
and magnificence displayed by the Alberti a few years later, when crowned
with gold, clad in white brocade and mounted on magnificent horses
caparisoned with the same stuff, they rode through the streets of Florence
and held jousts in honour of the acquisition of Arezzo, caused intense envy.
When the name of Magalotti Benedetto’s son-in-law, was drawn from the
borse as Gonfalonier of Justice he was set aside, and Bardo Mancini, an
avowed enemy of the Alberti, was named in his stead. Not many days
afterwards Benedetto was exiled, and with him Cipriano, “a most prudent
citizen.” The former died at Rhodes in 1388, “and his bones,” says
Machiavelli, “were brought to Florence and buried with the greatest honour

by those who had pursued him with calumny and evil during his life.”
When the Albizzi became all-powerful the popolani were persecuted.
Benedetto’s sons were despoiled of their possessions and two were
sentenced to be beheaded if they fell into the hands of the Podestà. Antonio
Alberti was tortured, but escaped with his life and, “in order that the Alberti
should not create disorders every day in the city,” he, his brothers and his
sons were made grandi, which excluded them from holding any office.
Lorenzo, another son of Benedetto, and seven of the family were exiled to
180 miles from Florence and all males above sixteen to 100 miles, under
threat of severe punishment if they approached nearer to the city, or pledged
or sold any of their property. Of course they conspired, and in 1412 every
male, down to the smallest child, was exiled. Any Florentine who dared to
harbour an Alberti was fined, while any who killed one of the hated family
above eighteen years of age within the Florentine territory, received a
recompense and the permission to carry arms. Any citizen marrying an
Alberti or allowing his daughter to do so, was to be fined 1,000 florins;
none were to trade with them, their loggia was destroyed and an inventory
made of their property, which was seized as a guarantee that the exiles
would behave properly. After the taxes had been paid and the dowers of the
girls deducted, the income that remained was doled out to the respective
owners.
Leon Battista tells us that his ancestors met their evil fate courageously;
“meeting often and consulting together with fraternal affection, full of
charity and good offices.... Their number, their intelligence, their assiduity
in making friends by kindliness and giving help to many men, caused them
to be much liked. They despised,” he continues, “the habit common to so
many of saying that it is enough to know how to sign one’s name and to
sum up what is owing.... It became a proverbial saying in Italy when a man
was courteous and well-bred, such a one is as though born and brought up
among the Alberti.... They were merchants, trafficking in noble and honest
merchandize, and no pedlars; dealing in France and England in cloth and
wool, as do the highest and the worthiest men of the city, an occupation that
is good and honourable and he that engages in it is well-considered and
3
respected in the land.” The Alberti had houses of business at Bruges,
Ghent, Brussels and in various French and English towns, as well as in
Greece, Syria, Spain and all the Mediterranean ports. By their rigid integrity

and their refusal to enter into speculative loans as the Bardi, Peruzzi and
others, had done, they augmented their riches even whilst in exile. When
Pope John XXII. called upon them to pay within eight days 80,000 golden
florins deposited in their London bank, Ricciardo Alberti handed the sum to
him in Bologna on the fifth day, it having been sent from Venice by his
brother Lorenzo. Their condition however was a sad one. Fugitives,
scattered over the face of the earth and far from home and friends, their joy
must have been great, when Cosimo de’ Medici on his return to power in
1434 recalled them to Florence. By his influence Alberto Alberti was
created a cardinal, and their name appears constantly in the magistrature
under the Medici.
Lorenzo Alberti, son of Benedetto, seems to have established himself
for a time at Genoa where Leon Battista was born, probably in 1404 (some
give 1398 as the date of his birth and others 1414). He was educated at
Bologna and had a hard struggle after his father’s death in 1421, as the
relations in whose charge he and his brother were left cheated them out of
their patrimony. Brought up for the church, he was ordained a priest and at
twenty became a Canon of the cathedral of Florence. But intense study
brought on a disorder of the nerves which caused loss of memory, and he
applied himself to mathematics and the physical sciences, and adopted
architecture as his profession. He invented several mechanical instruments,
the Reticola de’ dipintori, the Bolide Albertiana and the Camera optica, a
4
precursor of the Camera obscura. His principal prose work is the Trattato
della Famiglia, three books of which are said by the anonymous writer of
his life to have been composed in Rome in ninety days. “Taken in its whole
extent,” remarks J. A. Symonds, “this treatise is the most valuable
document which remains to us from the times of the oligarchy.... From its
pages a tolerably complete history of a great commercial family might be
extracted; and this study would form a valuable commentary on the public
annals of the commonwealth during the earlier portion of the XVth
century.”
Much discussion was aroused, and still continues, about the fourth
book of the Trattato, published by D. M. Manni in 1734 as the work of
Agnolo Pandolfini under the title of Trattato del Governo della Famiglia.
Pandolfini has champions like Signor Virginio Cortesi, who in his Studio
Critico ably pleads his cause. But the Governo della Famiglia is now

generally acknowledged to be by Alberti, in whose Trattato it figures as the
third book, under the name of the Economico, or the Padre della Famiglia.
Professors Alessandro d’Ancona and Orazio Bacci, in their admirable
5
manual of Italian literature write: “It may be considered as definitely
proved that the Governo della Famiglia” (as it is usually called) “is nothing
more than a travestied and altered copy, often not to its advantage, of the
6
third book of the Famiglia written about 1460.” Alberti was a strenuous
advocate for writing in Italian; “I admit willingly,” he says, “that the ancient
Latin tongue is very copious and of a beauty polished to perfection. Yet I do
not see what our Tuscan contains so hateful, that worthy matter, when
conveyed therein, should be displeasing to us.” In the dedication of his
essay on painting to Filippo Brunelleschi the same note is struck with
regard to the arts. After sorrowing over the loss of many arts and sciences
and fearing that Nature is weary and worn out, he exclaims: “But when I
returned from the long exile, in which we of the Alberti have grown old, to
this our mother city which exceeds all others in the beauty of her
monuments, I perceived that many living men, but first of all you, Filippo,
and our dearest friend Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Luca della Robbia and
Masaccio, were not of less account for genius and noble work than any
ancient artist of great fame.” Leon Battista Alberti died in Rome in 1472,
and no stone marks the spot where one of the greatest Florentines lies,
though one of his descendants put up a monument to him in Florence.
“He indeed might serve,” writes Symonds, “as the very type of those
many-sided, precocious and comprehensive men of genius who only existed
in the Renaissance. Physical strength and dexterity were given to him at
birth in measure equal to his mental faculties. It is recorded that he could
jump standing over an upright man, pierce the strongest armour with his
arrows, and so deftly fling a coin that it touched the highest point of a
church or palace roof. The wildest horses are said to have trembled under
him, as though brutes felt, like men, the magnetism of his personality. His
insight into every branch of art was innate. At the age of twenty he
composed the comedy of “Philodoxius” which passed for an antique, and
was published by the Aldi in 1588 as the work of Lepidus Comicus. Of
music, though he had not made it a special study he was a thorough master,
composing melodies that gave delight to scientific judges. He painted
pictures, and wrote three books on painting; practised architecture and

compiled ten books on building. Of his books nothing remains; but the
church of S. Andrea at Mantua, the Palazzo Rucellai at Florence, and the
remodelled Church of S. Francesco at Rimini attest his greatness as an
7
architect.”
The palaces of the Alberti were numerous, and they built or decorated
chapels in the churches of Sta. Croce, the Carmine, S. Miniato al Monte,
degl’Angeli and others. Their villas were superb, especially the Paradiso
8
degl’Alberti, described in one of Giovanni da Prato’s tales. Under the
dynasty of Lorraine eight of the family attained the dignity of Senator, and
in 1758 Giovan-Vincenzio Alberti was created a Count Palatine by the
Emperor Francis. His son, named Leon Battista after his illustrious
ancestor, died in 1836 the last of his race, leaving his name and his property
to Cav. Mario Moriubaldini.

PALAZZO ALBIZZI

Borgo degl’Albizzi. No. 12.
The name of Albizzi appears for the first time in the annals of Florence
in 1251, when Benincasa di Albizzo was an Elder. In 1282 Ser Compagno
was the first of the long list of ninety-eight Priors of the house of Albizzi
who sat in the Palazzo de’ Signori. Piero, the son of Filippo, the first
Gonfalonier of Justice of thirteen the family gave to Florence, became
immensely rich and by his prudence and sagacity obtained such
preponderance in the affairs of the city that he was the recognized head of
the nobili popolani. Acute rivalry between the Ghibelline Albizzi and the
Ricci, who were Guelphs, had always existed; and Uguccione de’ Ricci,
thinking to crush his rivals, advocated the revival of the magistrature of the
Captains of the Guelph party, proposing at the same time that all who
professed themselves Ghibellines should be admonished, i. e. excluded
from all offices of state. Piero di Albizzo, to hide his Ghibelline tendencies,
not only made no opposition, but took a foremost part in the doings of the
tribunal, which became odious to the Florentines under his presidency. The
Ciompi revolt was the direct consequence of the tyranny of the Captains of
the Guelph party, Piero was beheaded and the other members of the Albizzi
family were banished, only to return more powerful when the old system of
government was revived in 1381. According to Passerini it was to the wise
administration of Maso, Piero’s nephew, that the prosperity and the
greatness of Florence, feared and respected by the other Italian Republics,
were due. “He formed political relations apt to preserve the prosperity of
the Republic, built great public edifices, protected nascent studies and arts
and promoted the foundation of the Florentine University, the basis of the
literary glory afterwards culled by the Medici family. The wars against the
Visconti were prosecuted with constancy and without losses; indeed the
state was enlarged, a thing which could not have happened amid such
conflicting opinions as then reigned in Florence, if the man at the head of

9
affairs had not been a politician of the first order.” Maso degl’Albizzi died
in 1417 and his son Rinaldo inherited part of his father’s vast wealth and his
ambition, but not his caution. The oligarchy of the nobili popolani became
odious under his leadership, and the strong party led, but not ostensibly, by
Cosmo de’ Medici, divided the city into two hostile factions. The death of
that wise old citizen Niccolò da Uzzano, who had kept Rinaldo in check
was, writes Machiavelli, “a misfortune for Florence, as Messer Rinaldo,
thinking now to be head of the party, never ceased entreating and worrying
all the citizens he thought might become Gonfaloniers, to rise and liberate
the country from the man destined, through the malignity of some and the
ignorance of the many, to enslave it.” Albizzi’s friend, Bernardo Guadagni,
whose debts he paid in order to enable him to become Gonfalonier of
Justice in September, 1433, confined Cosimo de’ Medici in the Palazzo de’
Signori and then exiled him for ten years. “Meanwhile,” writes Machiavelli,
“in Florence, widowed of a citizen so great and so universally beloved,
everyone was confounded. Conquerors as well as conquered were afeard;”
and Rinaldo and his friends were beginning to realize “that great men
should not be assailed, but so be they are assailed they should be done away
with.” They attempted to retrieve their mistake by proscribing many of
Cosimo’s party, and the government, occupied with private quarrels and
enmities, became futile and uncertain. In September the following year, a
Signoria devoted to the Medici was elected, and Rinaldo degl’Albizzi urged
his party to take up arms. Whereupon the Gonfalonier summoned him and
others of the Grandi to appear before him. Instead of obeying the order they
collected their followers and with a strong armed force invaded the Piazza.
The old palace of the Signori was at once closed and barricaded, and civil
war seemed imminent.
It was averted only by the intervention of Eugenius IV. then living as a
refugee in Florence. He sent Giovanni Vitelleschi, Bishop of Recanati, to
beg Rinaldo degl’Albizzi to come to him and assured him there was no
question of recalling Cosimo de’ Medici, and that if he went quietly home
all would be well. Rinaldo was kept so long that his followers got tired and
dispersed, leaving the Signoria masters of the situation. Sentences of
banishment against Albizzi, his son Ormanno, Ridolfo Peruzzi, Palla
Strozzi and many others of the Grandi were passed, and before they left the
city Eugenius sent once more for Rinaldo and “told him,” writes

Machiavelli, “that he blamed himself for the evil that had befallen him
through trusting his word; exhorting him to have patience and to hope for a
change of fortune. To which Messer Rinaldo replied, the small confidence
shewn by those who ought to have trusted me, and the too great faith I put
in you, have been the ruin of myself, of my party. But above all do I blame
myself for believing that you, who were driven out of your own country,
could keep me in mine. I have had ample experience of the tricks of
Fortune; prosperity I never trusted much, so adversity does not affect me. I
know that when Fortune pleases she will be kinder, but should she continue
unkind, I care not to live in a city where men are above the law. For a
country in which riches and friends can be enjoyed in security, is preferable
to one in which you can easily be deprived of the former, and where your
friends, for fear of losing their all, abandon you in your direst need. It was
ever less hard for discreet and good men to hear tell of their countries’
woes, than to see them, and an honourable rebel is more esteemed than an
enslaved citizen. So, full of ire, he left the Pope, thinking how fruitless his
counsels had been and how cold his friends, and went into exile.” He died
at Ancona in 1452.
His brother Luca, on the contrary, was an ardent adherent of the Medici
and his descendants filled important posts under the Republic. The stern,
grey palace, now divided into many houses, at the eastern end of Borgo
degl’Albizzi, under which passes a small street was, I believe, built by him
for one of his sons. The Albizzi arms, two golden rings one inside the other
under a cross of the Teutonic order, are still to be seen on the façade. The
Marquess Vittorio degl’Albizzi, to whose memory there is an inscription on
the great family palace, was the last of his race.

PALAZZO ALESSANDRI

Borgo degl’Albizzi. No. 15.
In 1372 Alessandro and Bartolomeo degl’Albizzi quarrelled with their
brothers, and obtained the consent of the Signori to take the name of
Alessandri and to adopt another coat of arms. They chose the emblem of the
Guild of Wool to which they belonged, adding a second head to the well-
known lamb. Later the house of Aragon bestowed upon them the privilege
of adding a golden crown and palm leaves to their shield. Twenty-three
Priors and nine Gonfaloniers of Justice of the family sat in the Palazzo de’
Signori and many of them were sent on important embassies. Alessandro
degl’Alessandri was knighted by the Emperor Frederick IV., while his
brother Bartolomeo gained such favour with the King of Naples that he
made him Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1439 the Emperor Paleologus
bestowed the title of Count on one of the Alessandri and some eighty years
later Leo X. created them Counts of the Holy Roman Empire, a title
confirmed by Gregory XVI. in 1845.
On either side of the windows on the upper floor of this palace are still
to be seen the iron cramps which supported the frames on the roofs for
drying cloth, source of the family riches. Part of the palace was burned
during the Ciompi riots while it still belonged to the Albizzi; the side which
was saved is distinguished by the pointed arches of the windows. The
Alessandri were great patrons of horse racing—as racing was understood in
those days—and owned a famous barb “Il Gran Diavolo,” who won for
them many of the magnificent palii of cloth of gold and velvet with which
some of the rooms are hung. The ladies of the family must often have stood
at the windows clapping their hands with delight at the victory of the fiery
black horses which carried their colours, for the winning-post was just
beyond the old palace. The race in Borgo degl’Albizzi on the 24th June, the
day of St. John, patron saint of Florence, is thus described by Goro Dati.
“After dinner when midday had passed and everyone had slept, enjoying

themselves, the women and children go to where the racers, who are to
contend for the Palio, pass through a straight street in the centre of the city
where are the finest houses of the chief citizens; and from one end to the
other the said street is full of flowers, and all the women and the jewels and
the richest ornaments of the city, and great is the rejoicing. Many lords,
cavaliers and foreign gentlemen come every year to see the fine festival,
and the number of people, foreigners and citizens, is incredible, and not to
be believed save by one who has seen them. At the sound of three strokes of
the bell of the Palazzo de’ Signori the horses start, and on the tower are
stationed boys, who by certain signals show to whom belong the horses,
which have come from all parts of Italy and are the most famous Barbary
racers in the world. The winner is he who first reaches the Palio, which is
borne on a four-wheeled triumphal car, with a lion at each corner. So well
are they sculptured that they seem alive. It is drawn by two richly-
caparisoned horses, with the emblems of their Commune. The rich and
large Palio, of two lengths of the finest crimson velvet joined together by
gold insertion a handsbreadth wide, lined with miniver, bordered with
ermine and a gold and silken fringe, altogether cost 300 and more golden
florins. But of late it has been made of brocade woven with gold, most
10
beautiful, and of the value of 600 florins or even more.”
The old palace is still inhabited by the Counts Alessandri.

CASTELLO D’ALTAFRONTE

Piazza de’ Giudicci. No. 1.
In 1180 Schiatta degl’Uberti, whose family had houses and towers near
the present Piazza de’ Giudicci, sold one fourth part, pro indiviso, of the
castle to one of the Altafronte family. The sons of Lottieri d’Altafronte, who
seemed to have been in perpetual need of money, borrowed from various
people, and were at last obliged to sell it, as appears by an act of 1304,
when Cecchino Bardi became “master of a habitation in the parish of S.
Piero Scheraggio, called the castle of Altafronte, surrounded on all sides by
streets.”
In 1333, according to Gaddi, the castle was devastated and ruined,
together with many other houses, by the terrible flood which carried away
the old statue of Mars near the Ponte Vecchio. It must have been at once
restored, as fifteen years later a certain Bencivieni Buonsostegni, to whom
it then belonged, made a will forbidding his descendants to alienate it; in
case they did so it was to go to the Commune. His sons having to pay their
sister’s dower petitioned for leave to sell, which was granted. The
Commune itself may have been the purchaser, as there is a petition from the
Operai, or clerks of the works, of the Duomo, who were obliged to buy
houses and lands in order to continue the building of Sta. Maria del Fiore,
complaining that the 4,500 florins promised to them, had been spent in
rebuilding the walls of the castle of Altafronte, three towers and the Porta
11
d’Arno. It then passed into the possession of the Castellani family, one of
whom left the castle, together with a farm at Rome, to the hospital of Sta.
Maria at Ripoli. But either the family bought it back or the testator could
only leave a part of the great building, as when Matteo Castellani died, and
was buried with the greatest pomp in Sta. Croce in 1429, “his son Francesco
was publicly knighted by the side of his father’s bier; his mourning
habiliments were torn off in the church and, habited as a cavalier, the other
knights of the order accompanied him most honourably to his palace.” Ten

years later Demetrio Paleologo, Despot of the Morea, took up his abode
there when he accompanied his brother the Emperor to the Council of
Florence.
In 1558 the Grand Duke Cosimo I. bought the castle of Altafronte from
the Castellani, and fourteen years later, under the reign of Francesco I., it
became the residence of the Judges of the Ruota, and the shops near by
were turned into offices for the notaries. In 1858 many wretched houses,
with the arms of the judges and the notaries on their façades, which had
sprung up in the Piazza de’ Castellani, were swept away, and two years later
the wall of the Lung’Arno della Borsa was built.
Opposite to the Castello d’Altafronte, which is now part of the National
Library, is a marble slab in the parapet wall of the Arno with an inscription
which often arouses the curiosity of the passers-by.
ossa equi carola capelli
legati veneti
non ingratus herus sonipes memorande sepulcrum
hoc tibi pro meritis haec monumenta dedit
obsessa urbe
m.d.xxx.iii id martii

It marks the grave of the favourite horse of Carlo Cappello, who was
the Venetian ambassador during the siege of Florence in 1529. Varchi says,
“he was most popular in the city and much loved, not only for his many
good qualities, being a man of letters, but also because when Luigi
Alamanni and Zanobi Buondelmonti were declared rebels, on account of
the conspiracy against the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, he gave them
hospitality in his house at Venice; and afterwards, when they had been
imprisoned at Brescia at the request of Pope Clemente, he so managed that
they were set free and sent on their way, the Venetians either not knowing,
or pretending not to know, who they were.”
The horse was buried with his fine velvet housings in the Piazza
d’Arno, close to the old city gate.

PALAZZO ALTOVITI

Borgo degl’Albizzi. No. 18.
This palace was built by Rinaldo degl’Albizzi, Cosimo de’ Medici’s
great rival, next to that of his father, and after his exile it was bought by the
Valori. Taldo de Valore, four times a Prior, and Gonfalonier of Justice in
1340, was the grandfather of the influential citizen Bartolomeo, one of the
Dieci di Guerra, and thrice Gonfalonier. One of his sons, Niccolò, devoted
to the Medici, was elected to the most important offices under the Republic.
Francesco, his grandson, four times Gonfalonier of Justice and ambassador
to various foreign powers, was killed in 1498 when Savonarola, of whom
he was a staunch partisan, was arrested. To Filippo Valori, a friend of
Lorenzo the Magnificent and of all the circle of brilliant men who
surrounded him, we owe the publication of Marsilio Ficino’s translation of
Plato; whilst his son Baccio was “that worst of bad citizens” who conspired
against the liberties of Florence in favour of the Medici, and was then set
aside by the Duke Alesandro. Being, as Varchi writes, “of an unquiet,
prodigal, and rapacious nature and not well off, he could not live as a
gentleman and satisfy his wants, which were infinite, without holding some
high office in the city; so his discontent was extreme.” He joined the party
of the exiles and was taken prisoner together with Filippo Strozzi at
Montemurlo. Bernardo Segni describes how “all the people ran down the
Via Larga to the house of the Medici to see the miserable and affecting sight
of Baccio on a sorry nag, in a rusty coat of mail and without a cap; he who
but a short time before had been so fortunate a Commissary-General at the
camp, and for so many months master in Florence, and afterwards Governor
of various provinces; and Filippo Strozzi, who had been accounted the first
man in Italy and honoured for every great quality, on a similar beast, in a
leathern jerkin and coarse cloth overcoat. It seemed a spiteful, dishonest
trick of fortune. Antonfrancesco degl’Albizzi excited no less compassion.
Of a most noble family and proud by nature, he had ruled Florence like a
Prince, had changed her government, and now was led on foot meanly and

had shameful words cast at him by the onlookers. All dismounted at the
fortunate house of the Medici and were led before the Lord Cosimo, being
vilified and insulted by the sycophants and abettors of the Pallesca
grandeur. Kneeling humbly before the Lord Cosimo and before his mother,
they begged heartily for pardon; he replied in a few quiet words, with an
aspect rather kindly and benign than angry and cruel.... Five were beheaded
on that day [20 August, 1535], to wit Baccio, Filippo his son, Filippo his
nephew, Antonfrancesco degl’Albizzi and Alessandro Rondinelli. Messer
Alessandro Malgonelle, who, being one of the Eight, was present when they
were examined and tortured, with great joyfulness said aloud in public: ‘To-
day we have wrung the necks of four thrushes and of one blackbird; the
blackbird being Rondinelli, who was inferior to the others in birth and
12
riches.’” Niccolò Valori, member of the Platonic Academy, was
Commissary at Pistoja in 1501, and soon afterwards ambassador to Louis
XII. of France, who named him a chamberlain and a councillor. In 1507 he
was sent on an embassy to Ferdinand the Catholic at Naples, and in the
same year became Commissary of the Tuscan Romagna. Five years later he
was accused of conspiring against the Medici together with Boscoli and
Capponi, and sentenced to life-long imprisonment in the tower of Volterra.
His grandson obtained his release by presenting Leo X. with the life of his
father, Lorenzo de’ Medici, written by him.
Baccio Valori, son of Filippo, who perished by the headman’s axe, was
a man of vast culture and a distinguished lawyer. He enlarged the old palace
and collected a magnificent library. In a vellum bound booklet, beautifully
printed in 1604, his son Filippo describes how Baccio, “after enlarging his
house (without departing from the ancient lines), thought well to decorate it
outside with other antiquities befitting both the land of his birth and himself
as a man of letters.” These antiquities are fifteen busts of illustrious
Florentines sculptured in marble in alto-rilievo, and set upon termini. In the
lower row are Accursio, Torrigiano Rustichelli, surnamed de’ Valori,
Marsilio Ficino, Donato Acciaiuoli, and Pier Vettori. In the alcoves between
the first floor windows are Amerigo Vespucci, Leon Battista Alberti,
Francesco Guicciardini, Marcello Adriano, and Vincenzio Borghini. Above
are Dante, Petraca, Boccaccio, Giovanni della Casa, and Luigi Alamanni. In
the corridor, “as being a more honourable place,” observes Filippo, were the
Archbishop S. Antonino, S. Filippo Neri, Maestro Luigi Marsili, Lorenzo il

Magnifico and Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, and a bust of Baccio Valori himself
—the only one left. From the busts on the façade the palace is generally
known in Florence as the Palazzo de’ Visacci, or of the Ugly Faces.
Alessandro, the last of the Valori, died in 1687, and his nephew,
Senator Luigi Guicciardini, inherited the palace. In 1703 he bought two
small houses with stables behind, between it and the great Pazzi palace
(pulled down to build the Banca d’Italia), and in 1723 a large house on the
other side. His only daughter, Virginia, married Giovan Gaetano Altoviti,
who incorporated the houses on either side and renovated the interior of the
palace, which then took his name. The ceilings of two of the rooms were
frescoed by pupils of Luca Giordano, and round the walls of one room are
terra-cotta medallions, portraits of the Altoviti and the Guicciardini. One of
them, wearing the well-known Florentine lucco, represents the great
historian, Francesco Guicciardini.
Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pius II.), on the strength of an inscription said
to have been found at Fiesole which begins: FURIUS CAMILLUS
ALTIVITA—MAGNI FURII CAMILLI NEPOS—assigned a Roman origin
to the Altoviti; but Passerini believes the inscription is a medieval forgery.
The first mention of the family in the Florentine archives is in 1154, when
Corbizzo, son of Gollo, bought a house and a tower in the suburb of S.
Niccolò. His grandson Davanzato purchased an estate at Antella and a
tower in the suburb of S.S. Apostoli, he and his brothers having certain
rights of patronage over the church and the cemetery of S.S. Apostoli.
These rights were contested by the Prior of the church, who challenged
Davanzato to decide the question by a duel; however Honorius III.
interposed and by a decree addressed to the Podestà and the people of
Florence threatened to excommunicate anyone who took up arms. From
Davanzato’s son Altovito, a judge of considerable repute, the family take
their name. The Emperor Frederick II., to whom he was sent on an embassy,
held him in high esteem and knighted him with his own hand in 1227. The
eldest of Altovito’s sons, Guinizzingo, commonly called Tingo, was the first
of a long series of Gonfaloniers of Justice the family gave to Florence, and
during his rule the first stone of Sta. Maria Novella was laid on May 3,
1294. Oddo, another of Altovito’s sons, was a judge like his father and his
name figures often as either ambassador or Elder until after the battle of
Montaperti, at which he was present, his palace and tower were destroyed

13
by the Ghibellines. But when the Guelphs returned to power in 1278, we
find him once more among the Elders, and two years later he was sent to
Pope Nicholas III. to beg him to put an end to the internecine war between
the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Oddo degl’Altoviti took an active part in
the transactions and signed the treaty for the Guelph party in the Mozzi
palace in 1281. He warmly supported the new law that all who aspired to
office under the Republic should belong to a Guild, so the nobles, who were
chiefly Ghibellines, inscribed themselves in the books of the Guilds without
personally exercising any trade, and thus eluded the law. The popolani then
rose, with Giano della Bella at their head, and demanded reform. Oddo
degl’Altoviti and his cousin Palmiere assisted in drawing up the famous
Ordinamenti della Giustizia, the object of which was to exclude the nobles
from power and to ensure the summary and severe punishment of any noble
14
who injured a plebeian. Palmiere was one of the companions of Dante on
an embassy to Boniface VIII. to beg him to try and pacify the citizens of
Florence, and like him died in exile. Oddo’s son Bindo, took an active part
in the government of the city. He was many times a Prior and twice Captain
of War, fighting against Henry VII., and afterwards against Castruccio. At
Altopascio he was made prisoner and only regained his liberty after the
death of the great Lucchese. He was often sent as ambassador to various
Italian cities, but disgraced his name by the ferocity he showed in torturing
the followers of the Duke of Athens in 1343. One of the leaders of the
revolt against the tyrant he was foremost in inciting the people to brutal and
loathsome acts of cruelty. His niece Giovanna, married to Benci
Aldobrandini, deserves mention as a remarkable woman, of such wisdom
and intelligence that the magistrates always consulted her when in any
difficulty. She was simply called “Madonna,” as we might say, “the Lady,”
and the square where her husband’s house stood still bears the name of
Piazza Madonna.
Antonio degl’Altoviti passed nearly all his life at Rome and married a
niece of Innocent VIII., whose banker he was. To him the Pope gave, to the
exclusion of the other branches of the family, the absolute patronage of the
church of S.S. Apostoli, where he was buried in 1508 in the fine tomb
sculptured by Benedetto da Rovezzano for his brother Oddo. Bindo, his
son, who succeeded him in business, made an enormous fortune, and was
the friend of all the great artists of that time. Michelangelo gave him the

cartoon for one of the frescoes of the Sistine chapel, and is said to have
modelled the rare medal showing Bindo Altoviti’s head on one side and one
of his emblems, a woman clinging to a column surrounded by waves, on the
reverse. Raphael painted his portrait as a young man, and executed for him
the Madonna dell’Impanata now in the gallery of the Pitti palace. Bevenuto
15
Cellini modelled and cast his bust in bronze, while Jacopo Sansovino
designed a magnificent fireplace for his palace in Florence, which
Benedetto da Rovezzano decorated with delicate bas-reliefs. Vasari also
worked for him, painting the altar picture in the Altoviti chapel in S. S.
Apostoli and two loggie in his palace at Rome. A violent antagonist of the
Medici he not only expended large sums in aid of the exiles, but sent one of
his sons to fight under Piero Strozzi against Cosimo I. at Siena. Another
son, Antonio, entered the church and was made Archbishop of Florence by
Paul III., very much as an act of hostility towards Cosimo, who retaliated
by sequestering the revenues of the archbishopric and forbidding Altoviti to
enter Tuscany. It was only in 1568, owing to the intervention of Pius V., that
he was at length enabled to take possession of his see. His entrance into the
city and his spiritual marriage with the Abbess of S. Pier Maggiore were
conducted with such solemnity and pomp that Cosimo was profoundly
irritated, and decreed that the ancient ceremony of the mystic nuptials of the
Archbishop and the Abbess should be for ever abolished. Canon Moreni has
published an account by an eyewitness of how the guardians, or patrons, of
the archbishopric, with all the clergy, met Altoviti at the gate of the city
bearing long staves, with green garlands on their heads and gloves on their
hands. One of the Strozzi family led his palfrey and, passing through the
principal streets, the procession went to the church of S. Pier Maggiore
(now destroyed). Dismounting, the Archbishop was conducted to the high
altar, when his palfrey was taken possession of by the Abbess’s factor while
its rich housings fell to the Strozzi. After saying mass the Archbishop
retired to a room prepared for him “where was spread a sumptuous
refection suited to so noble a lord.” He then returned to the church, and
after a brief oration to the assembled nuns wedded the Abbess with a golden
ring. That night he slept in the convent in a magnificent bed, specially
16
prepared by the Abbess, which he took away to his own palace next day.
Giovan Battista degl’Altoviti lived chiefly in Rome and was the
intimate friend of the last scion of the Spanish family of Avila who made

him his heir, with the obligation of adding the name of Avila to his own.
With the death of the Marquess Corbizzo Altoviti-Avila, who left no son,
the ancient family is extinct.
Under a window on the ground floor of the palace is an inscription
recording a miracle performed by S. Zenobius. Here the saint met the
funeral of a young child whose mother, a lady from Gaul, was walking
beside the bier and weeping so bitterly that his heart was touched. Bidding
the men stop and put down the bier, S. Zenobius laid his hands on the dead
child and prayed, and the boy awoke and stretching forth his hand clasped
his mother round the neck. The shrine of the saint at the corner of the
Lambertesca palace is said to have been erected by her.

PALAZZO DELL’ANTELLA

Piazza Sta. Croce. No. 23.
This picturesque palace was built by Giulio Parigi for the Senator
Niccolò dell’Antella, who commissioned thirteen artists to fresco the
17
façade. The upper part was painted in 1619 in fifteen days, as is recorded
on a scroll held by one of the figures, while the lower part was finished the
following year in eight. The frescoes by Giovanni da San Giovanni were
considered the best, i. e. the arms of the Antella family surrounded by three
amorini; the various deities and virtues, amongst which is the figure of an
old man with an owl by his side, the reputed portrait of Donato dell’Antella,
father of the Senator Niccolò; and a Cupid asleep with a swan. The whole
façade is sadly dilapidated, and the frescoes are fast disappearing. Below
the third window on the ground floor is a marble disk, said by some to mark
where the dividing line was drawn across the Piazza when the game of
calcio was played. But, as far as I can understand the extremely technical
account of the game by Count Giovanni de’Bardi, surnamed il Puro in the
18
Academia degl’Alterati, it marks the spot against which the ball was
thrown at the beginning of each game. He describes the Piazza, as fenced in
by posts and rails 2 braccia high; the length of the campo, or field of play,
being 172 braccia, and the width 86. One side of the enclosure was called
the muro, or wall, the other the fossa, or ditch, and in the centre of one side
the six umpires were “on an honourable and elevated seat,” while at either
end stood a pavilion draped with the colours of the players. Of these there
were fifty-four, twenty-seven on either side, dressed in their distinctive
colours, under the command of alfieri, or captains, and divided as follows:
fifteen innanzi, or “forwards,” also called corridori, in three companies of
five each, who followed the ball; five sconciatori, or “half-backs,” whose
duty it was to prevent the innanzi from getting the ball (they often gave
heavy blows, whence their name, from the word sconciare, to injure or
hurt); four datori innanzi, or “three-quarters,” and three datori addietro, or

“full-backs,” a kind of rear-guard to the former. I must refer my readers to
Mr. Heywood’s delightful book Palio and Ponte for a full and vivid account
of the game of calcio, from which I extract the following lines. “The object
of the players was to drive the ball, with feet or fists, over what, for
convenience sake, we may term the enemy’s ‘goal-line,’ although, as a
matter of fact, in the Florentine game there were no goals, the whole line of
posts and rails, at either end of the field of play, being open to attack. In
order to score, it was necessary that the ball should be driven over this line
by a direct punt or a fist blow. This was called a caccia, and the game was
won by the side which gained the greatest number of caccie. The players
were allowed to run with the ball, to kick, strike or throw it; but if, when
thrown or struck with the open hand, it rose above the height of an ordinary
man, this constituted a fallo, or fault; and two falli were equal to a caccia.
There was also a fallo when the ball was driven out of the field of play, on
the side of the Ditch, by a direct punt or fist blow; if, however, it bounced
out off the ground, there was no penalty. After a caccia or two falli had
been scored, ends were changed.” The victors then marched with their
banner proudly displayed, while that of their adversaries was furled and
slanted earthwards. This was a dangerous moment, as the conquered party
sometimes refused to lower their banner, whereupon the others would fall
upon them and tear it to pieces, and men were often severely wounded. The
players were picked men, as “scoundrels are not to be tolerated,” writes the
Count Giovanni, “neither artificers, servants, low-born nor infamous
fellows, but honourable soldiers, gentlemen, lords and princes. Therefore to
play Calcio, gentlemen from eighteen to forty-five years of age shall be
chosen, well-matched, handsome, vigorous, of gallant bearing and of good
repute.... It is not convenient for the player to wear aught save hose and
doublet, a cap and light shoes, because the less he is hampered the more
agile will he be, and the better able to use his limbs and to run swiftly.
Above all should every one be careful to have handsome, elegant and well-
fitting attire.”
Mr. Heywood, in the book I have quoted, scouts the notion that our
national game of football came originally from Italy, where he says it was
unknown before the XVth century. On the contrary, he suggests that the
great English Condottiere, Sir John Hawkwood, may have introduced it into
Florence. But several Italian writers declare that Julius Pollux exactly

describes it in a book he dedicated to the Emperor Commodus, and that it
has existed in Italy from time immemorial.
The game of calcio played in 1529 in order to flout the enemy, and
show how little the Florentines cared for the Prince of Orange, is
celebrated. Trumpeters were stationed on the top of the church of Sta.
Croce, so that their triumphant blasts might be heard by the besiegers,
whose gunners, fortunately for them, were not skilful enough to hit them
from Poggio Imperiale.
Tournaments, jousts, ballets on horseback, masquerades and sham
battles, often took place on the Piazza Sta. Croce. Here the Duke of Athens
was hailed as Lord of Florence by the assembled people, but in the
following year for several days he held grand jousts, and the citizens stood
sullenly aloof. In 1468, when Lorenzo the Magnificent held the lists against
all comers, “great was the concourse of jousters,” writes Niccolò Valori,
“the magnificence of the arms and the wealth of jewels were only surpassed
by the resplendent surcoats and habits of cloth of gold.” Mounted
successively on chargers presented to him by the Duke of Ferrara and the
King of Naples, and wearing armour sent to him by the Duke of Milan,
Lorenzo de’ Medici won the prize of valour. Luca Pulci thus describes the
entry of his friend and patron, and his beautiful banner:—

“E mi parea sentir sonar Miseno
Quando sul campo Lorenzo guignea
Sopra un caval che tremar fe il terreno:
E nel suo bel vesillo si vedea
Di sopra un sole e poi l’arcobalena
Dove a lettere d’oro si leggea
‘LE TEMS REVIENT’ che puo interpretarsi
Tornare il tempo e’ l secol rinnovarsi.”

A little later Poliziano celebrated in glowing lines the tournament held
by Giuliano de’ Medici, but La Giostra was never finished, for when
Giuliano was assassinated Poliziano laid down his pen.

After the death of the last of the family of dell’Antella the old palace
passed to the Biagi, and then to the Della Stufa. It now belongs to Signor
Mariani.

PALAZZO ANTINORI

Piazza S. Gaetano. No. 3.
In 1490 Niccolò degl’Antinori bought this palace from the Boni della
Catena. It is supposed by some to have been built by Baccio d’Agnolo,
whilst others think that Giuliano da San Gallo was the architect on account
of some resemblance with Palazzo Gondi.
The origin of the Antinori is as uncertain as that of their palace, but
they are probably an offshoot of the powerful family of Buondelmonti.
Francesco degl’Antinori was the first of twenty-three Priors of his house in
1351. His eldest great-nephew, Niccolò, bought the Boni palace, while the
second, Bernardo, was the founder of another branch of the family whose
palace is in Via de’ Serragli. Niccolò was four times elected a Prior, in 1498
he was Captain of Arezzo, three years later he was sent to quell a revolt at
Pistoja, and then he was named ambassador at Milan. His sons took
opposite sides in politics; the two eldest, ardent republicans, were banished
when the Medici returned to Florence in 1513, whilst the third, Alessandro,
was created a Senator by the Duke Alessandro. A like honour fell to his son
Sebastiano who was selected by Cosimo I. to revise Boccaccio’s writings.
Alessandro’s other son Lorenzo was a great traveller, a good musician and
an excellent man of business who augmented the family wealth, and his
descendants filled many important posts under the Grand Dukes of
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Tuscany. This fine palace still belongs to the Antinori family.

PALAZZO BARDI

Via de’ Benci. No. 2.
The principal palace of the Bardi family in Via de’ Bardi, where the
beautiful Dianora is supposed to have lived (see p. 57), was bought by the
family of the Tempi, whose name it still bears and for whom it was entirely
altered and modernized by the architect Matteo Nigetti about 1610. Ser
Benedetto di Tempo, notary to the Signoria in 1357, was their ancestor,
several of the family were created Senators, while two became Cardinals.
The Marquess Benedetto Tempi, who died in 1770, was the last of his race,
and the palace now belongs to the Marquess Bargagli; so there is no
representative of the ancient and powerful family of the Bardi in the
Oltrarno. They were lords of the castle of Ruballa near Antella, and took
their name from Pagano di Bardo, who made a donation of land to the
church of Sta. Reparata of Florence in 1112. About that time the family
settled in Florence in the Borgo Pidiglioso and built so many palaces and
strong towers that the street was called Via de’ Bardi. Gualterotto de’ Bardi,
a canon, joined in the crusade of 1215 and, after fighting at Damietta,
became Bishop of Acre. Geri, who bore the standard of the Guelphs at the
battle of Montaperti, was exiled with the rest of his party by the victorious
Ghibellines, and his nephew Roberto, who wrote the life of Filippo Villani,
was Chancellor of the University of Paris for forty years. Another nephew,
Cino, fought by Dante’s side in the battle of Campaldino in 1289, but there
cannot have been much friendship between them, as Cino’s brother was the
husband of Beatrice Portinari. The fortune of their handsome nephew Piero,
Lord of Vernio and of Mangona, was so large that even after the failure of
the great Bardi-Peruzzi bank he was one of the foremost citizens of
Florence, and aroused such jealousy by his riches, valour and remarkable
personal beauty, that he was excluded from all offices. Publicly insulted by
Jacopo Gabrielli, Captain of the Guard instituted by the oligarchy of the
Nobili Popolani to hold the Grandi in check, he plotted with Bardo de’
Frescobaldi, who had also been insulted, to murder the Captain and to

“reform” the city. One of his cousins, terrified at the possible consequences,
secretly revealed the plot to the Signori, who caused the great bell of the
palace to be rung and summoned the people to arms. The Bardi and other
nobles fortified their towers, and civil war would have ensued but for the
intervention of the Podestà, who promised a full pardon for all offences if
the Grandi would lay down their arms. He broke his word, and all the
nobles who had taken part in the conspiracy were banished. They only re-
entered the city after the Duke of Athens became ruler, and a few years later
made themselves so hated that, as Giovanni Villani writes:—
“On the 24th September, 1343, the people rose against the Bardi, Rossi,
Frescobaldi, Mannelli and Nerli, Grandi of the Oltrarno, who at once seized
and held the bridges. The palace of the sons of Messer Vieri de’ Bardi was
strong and the tower well fortified, as was the house of the Mannelli at the
head of the Ponte Vecchio, then built of wood. The people could not pass
over it, nor could they cross the Ponte Rubaconte (now Ponte alle Grazie),
on account of the strength of the palaces of the Bardi of S. Gregorio; so
they left a guard under the houses of the Alberti and also at the Ponte
Vecchio, and then, with many soldiers on horseback, they went to the Ponte
alia Carraja which was guarded by the Nerli. The people of S. Frediano,
Cuculia and the Fondaccio, were however so numerous that before the
others arrived they had stormed the bridge-head and the houses of the Nerli,
who were put to flight. And thus the victorious people passed over the
bridge, and joined those of the Oltrarno and furiously attacked the
Frescobaldi.... The Bardi seeing themselves bereft of any aid from the Rossi
and the Frescobaldi were much alarmed, they nevertheless armed their
barricades and fought in such manner that some were killed and many were
wounded on either side; for the Bardi were well furnished with both horse
and foot and had many mercenaries, so the people tried in vain to force their
stockades. Four companies of those of the Oltrarno were then ordered to
attack them from behind by the hill of S. Giorgio. The Bardi seeing
themselves hotly besieged and assailed on all sides were much afeard, and
began to abandon their barricades on the Piazza or Ponte, which were
guarded by the tower of the Guelph party and by the palace of the sons of
Messer Vieri de’ Bardi, in order to defend themselves against those who
were coming from the cane-brakes of S. Giorgio. Then a certain Strozza, a
German captain, got inside the barricades of the Piazza a Ponte with his
brigade, with great peril to himself on account of the many stones and

bricks which were hurled at him. He rushed to Sta. Maria Sopr’Arno,
followed by the people, and was there joined by those of this side of the
Arno who had crossed the bridge and, surmounting every obstacle on the
other side, had joined with the people of the Oltrarno. They broke down the
resistance and the power of the Bardi who fled to the Borgo S. Niccolò,
imploring their neighbours and the company of the Gonfalone of the Scala,
who had already taken possession of the palaces of the Bardi of S.
Gregorio, to save their palaces from being sacked and burnt, and their lives
from being taken. So the people who were on guard at the head of the
bridge near the houses of the Alberti, saved the Bardi from death, but all
their houses, from Sta. Lucia as far as the Ponte Vecchio, were robbed of
everything by the popolo minuto ... who in their fury, after sacking the
houses set them on fire. Twenty-two rich and splendid palaces and houses
were burnt and it is estimated that the loss was more than 60,000 golden
florins. Thus ended the resistance of the Bardi, in their great pride and
power, against the people.”
Piero scornfully rejected the conditions imposed on the Grandi by the
People and retired to his estate of Vernio where he died in 1345. His sons
Sozzo and Notto were created Imperial Vicarii of the county of Vernio by
the Emperor Charles IV., and the diploma was ratified by the Emperor
Leopoldo in 1697 in favour of their descendants. It was abrogated by the
treaty of Vienna in 1814, when Vernio became an integral portion of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany. As long as Florence had been republican none of
Piero de’ Bardi’s family entered the city, but under Cosimo I. his grandson
Alberto settled there, whose son Pandolfo played the ugly part of confidant
between Francesco de’ Medici and Bianci Cappello, whilst another son was
the Franciscan friar who performed the first (secret) marriage of the Grand
Duke and his mistress only a few days after the death of the Grand Duchess
Joan of Austria. Alberto’s brother Camillo took up his residence in a palace
in Via de’ Benci, bought by his ancestors from the old family of the Busini
in 1482, and here his descendants still live. It is said to have been built by
Brunelleschi and has a pretty courtyard surrounded by an arcade. The
windows of the second floor are untouched, but the mural paintings
(graffite) on the façade, believed to have been the first done in Florence,
have been restored. A grandiloquent inscription records that Giovanni
Bardi, Count of Vernio, founded in the XVIth century the society whose

object was to reform recitative and melody; the first fruits of which were
Dafne, with Peri’s music, and Euridice with music by Caccini.

PALAZZO BARTOLINI SALIMBENI

Piazza Sta. Trinita. No. 8.
In 1516 Messer Lorenzo Bartolini, Apostolic Pro-notary, and his
brother Giovanni, bought five-eighths of a shop from Girolamo Deti, and a
year later several more shops from heirs of other members of the same
family. Two years afterwards garrulous old Giovanni Cambi notes in his
Diary, “at this time Giovanni Bartolini began a small palace at the corner of
Porta Rossa and the Terma, on the Piazza di Sta. Trinita, where was the
tavern of the Camel, and painters, shoemakers and a baker. It will be a great
ornament to the city, as it is in a good position. Some of the shops belonged
to the Soldanieri, who have been for long away from the Florentine
dominion, and now will have more reason than ever to remain abroad, as
the sale was made without their consent.”
The Bartolini took possession of the property, and their pulchrum
edifitium as the notary termed it, was already far advanced when the
Venerable Maestro Berdardino d’Oderigo Soldanieri, a Dominican, arrived
in Florence after a long absence. He lost no time in attacking Bartolini for
having taken unlawful possession of three-eighths of the shop which
belonged to his family, and was appeased with difficulty. However finally
all was arranged and Lorenzo Bartolini took up his abode in the palace in
1521. Baccio d’Agnolo (Baglioni) was the architect, and Vasari tells us,
“this was the first edifice built with square windows having frontispieces,
and of which the columns of the door support the architrave, the frieze, and
the cornice; therefore the Florentines derided these novelties with jibes and
with sonnets, and they hung it about with garlands of boughs as is done in
churches for the festivals, saying that it was more like the façade of a
church than of a palace; so that Baccio was nigh losing his reason: however
knowing that he had followed good examples and that the building was
beautiful, he took heart.” I may add that he revenged himself by inscribing

over the door, CARPERE PROMPTUS QUAM IMITARI, as a lesson to the
people of Florence.
Vasari again mentions this palace in his life of Cronaca, blaming
Baccio for having, “in order to imitate Cronaca, placed a huge antique
cornice, in fact the frontispiece of Montecavallo, on the top of a small and
elegant façade, so that nothing could be worse, and all for lack of
knowledge; it looks like a large hat on a small head.” However he admits
that “nevertheless the building has always been much praised.” It has also
been imitated, for the palace of the Duc de Retz, in the Rue Montmartre in
Paris, is copied from it. The origin of the remarkably pretty friezes which
surround the house under the first and the second floor windows, of three
poppies tied together, and the motto per non dormire, which forms an
architectural ornament, is said to have been a trick attempted on Messer
Bernuccio di Giovanni Salimbeni of Siena, whose descendants came to
Florence and took the name of Bartolini. He was a great silk merchant, and
with other friends passed through Florence every year to go to the fair of
Sinalunga with his Florentine acquaintances. They determined to steal a
march on Messer Bernuccio, and one year mixed poppy juice with the wine
served at the banquet, intending to start at daylight and thus obtain the pick
of the market. But old Salimbeni was warned, and managed to change the
flasks, thus turning the tables on the Florentines to the great advantage of
the Sienese. He then invented the device and the motto, with which his
descendants ornamented their palace.

PALAZZO BARTOLINI SALIMBENI. PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI. CORNER OF
PALAZZO SPINI.

In 1868 the palace was sold to Prince Ercole Pio di Savoia; whose
daughters still own it, and many readers will doubtless remember it as the
old Hôtel du Nord. Inside is a very pretty loggia and the rooms are well-

proportioned. It is sad to see one of the most exquisite buildings in Florence
falling to ruin.
Opposite the palace, on the Piazza di Sta. Trinita, stands the column
described by Evelyn in his Diary as being “of ophite, upon which is a statue
of Justice, with her balance and sword, out of porphyry, and the more
remarkable for being the first which had been carved out of that hard
material, and brought to perfection, after the art had been utterly lost; they
say this was done by hardening the tools in the juice of certain herbs. This
statue was erected on that spot, because there Cosimo was first saluted with
the news of Siena being taken.... Looking at the Justice, in copper, we are
told that the Duke, asking a gentleman how he liked the piece, he answered,
that he liked it very well, but that it stood too high for poor men to come
at.”

PALAZZO BARTOLOMMEI

Via Lambertesca. No. 11.
The old palace of the Lamberteschi, with which the tower of the ancient
family of the Gherardini had been incorporated, was bought in 1640 by
Anton Maria Bartolommei, and to it was added, according to an entry in the
catasto, “in 1824 a building, called the tower of the Girolami, at the corner
of Via Lambertesca and Via Por Santa Maria, bought by the Marquess
Girolamo Bartolommei from the heirs of Count Covoni, whose wife was
the last of the Girolami. According to tradition the progenitor of the
Bartolommei was Marcovaldo, who came into Italy with the Emperor
Frederick I., and was created Marquess of Ancona and Count of Romagna.
His descendant Sigismondo was Captain of War in Perugia in 1358; beaten
by the Pontifical troops, he fled to Florence, where his son Bartolommeo
obtained the citizenship and gave his name to the family. His son Girolamo
was implicated in the conspiracy against the Medici with Orazio Pucci and
Zanobi Girolami, and sentenced to death in contumaciam; another son fled
to Lyons, where he made a large fortune in trade, which eventually came
back to the family. Thus Anton Maria was enabled to buy the palace and
restore the adjoining church of S. Stefano. Girolamo de’ Bartolommei, a
poet of the XVIIth century, was Consul of the Florentine Academy in 1648,
and published two volumes of tragedies, but his best known work is
America, a poem written in honour of Amerigo Vespucci. Mattia, created
Marquess of Montegiove by Fernando II., was ambassador at Paris under
Cosimo III., and from his son descended the late Marquess Ferdinando
Bartolommei, last of the family, who was one of the factors of United
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Italy.
The Gherardini, whose old tower was incorporated in the Lamberteschi
palace, were Guelphs; many of them fought at Montaperti, while eight
signed the peace of the Cardinal Latino in 1280. Andrea Gherardini, one of
the leaders of the White Party, was exiled together with Dante, and his

brother Lotteringo was killed in a street skirmish by adherents of Corso
Donato. They were a fighting race; five of them fell at the battle of
Montecatini in 1315, and the two last scions of the family died in battle, one
in the Seven Years War in Germany, the other in Flanders. Passerini affirms
that a Gherardini went to Ireland in the XIIIth century, and was the
21
progenitor of the great family of the Fitzgeralds.

TOWERS OF THE GIROLAMI AND OF THE GHERARDINI.

The Girolami whose tower adjoins that of the Gherardini claimed S.
Zenobius, Bishop of Florence in the VIth century, as belonging to their
family, and on the 25th May his statue in a niche in the tower used to be
decorated with garlands of flowers, with great ceremony and much blowing

of trumpets. The family possessed the ring of the saint, held in such
estimation as a wonder-working relic that Lorenzo the Magnificent sent it in
1482 to Paris to Louis XI. The king was cured of a severe illness after
touching it, and sent it back in a jewelled box of great value which the
Gherardini sold, and founded a rich canonry in Sta. Maria del Fiore with the
proceeds. In 1523 Raffaello de’ Girolami was Gonfalonier of Justice, and
five years later Commissary of War. Condemned to death after the
capitulation of Florence, the sentence was commuted at the request of Don
Ferrante Gonzaga to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Pisa, where he
was poisoned by order of Pope Clement VII., as soon as the Imperialists left
Tuscany. One of his sons fought as a lad against Cosimo I. at Siena under
Strozzi, and was sentenced to lose his head, but escaped to France. Another
obtained permission to return to Florence after long years of exile, and as
all his estates had been confiscated, left nothing to his son save the family
hatred of the Medici. He joined Orazio Pucci and Girolamo Bartolommei in
conspiring against the Grand Duke, and was condemned to death in
contumaciam. Raffaello de’ Girolami founded the Academy of the Sapienza
in Rome, and became a Cardinal in 1743, and the last of the family died
about forty years later, appointing the sons of his sister, married to Count
Covoni, his heirs.

PALAZZO BORGHESE

Via Ghibellina. No. 110.
This palace is chiefly interesting because part of it (corner of Via de’
Giraldi and Via de’ Pandolfini) was built where once stood the house of
Giovanni and Matteo Villani. The Salviati bought it with some others, and
Silvani erected for them a large palace, which afterwards became the
property of Prince Camillo Borghese. He purchased many adjoining houses,
and enlarged it in 1823, when he must have spent a fortune on the
magnificent internal decorations. It now belongs to the Borghese Club.
The family of the Villani came from Borgo S. Lorenzo in the XIIIth
century, and took their name from Villano, son of Stoldo. Giovanni, the
famous chronicler, was the eldest son of Villano, and superintended the
building of the campanile of the Badia of Florence and of the doors of S.
Giovanni. He was also Master of the Mint, and sat several times as Prior in
the Palazzo de’ Signori. In 1325 he fought at Altopascio, and soon
afterwards was imprisoned for debt as a partner of the Buonaccorsi, whose
bank was ruined by the failure of the Bardi. His delightful Cronica,
picturesque, pure and elegant in style, and wonderfully impartial, has been a
mine of wealth to all students of the history of old Florence. It was
continued, after he died of the plague in 1348, by his brother Matteo, until
he fell a victim to the same malady in 1363. Matteo’s eldest son Filippo
added forty-two chapters to the chronicle, but of very inferior interest,
bringing it down to 1365. He was also the author of a commentary on
Dante, and of Philippi solitarii de origine civitatis Florentiæ, et ejusdem
famosis civibus, which remained in manuscript until 1747, when the second
part, containing the lives of various famous persons, was published. He died
in 1404, and the last descendant of his brother Giovanni in 1617.

PALAZZO BOUTURLIN

Via de’ Servi. No. 15.
Bastiano, son of Zanobi Ciaini, also called Montaguto or Montauto,
from his castle at Santa Maria a Montauto, made a large fortune in trade. In
1540 he bought several houses in the Via de’ Servi, and summoned
Domenico, son of Baccio d’Agnolo (Baglioni), who Vasari declares to have
been an architect of no common merit, “besides carving most excellently in
wood,” to build him a palace. A brother inherited it, who must have had
losses as in 1572 the house was let to Messer Raffaello de’ Medici, a knight
of San Stefano, and four years later was sold to Messer Giovanni Niccolini,
who after his wife’s death was created a Cardinal through the influence of
the Medici.
Giovanni added to the palace, filled it with costly works of art, and
fitted up one room for his fine collection of coins. Beneath the architraves
of two doors on the ground floor, under the loggia, is still to be seen his
name, IOANNES NICOLINUS AUG. CARD. F. As Giovanni Dosio was
the architect employed by him to build the fine Niccolini chapel in Santa
Croce, it is probable that he also made the additions to the palace. Filippo,
his son, again enlarged it, and inscribed the date, A.D. MDCLV. on the
central arch of the gallery above the loggia. About the same time the Grand
Duke created him Marquess of Ponsacco and Camugliano, with remainder
to collateral relations in case he had no children. In 1666 Lorenzo, a
descendant of his great-uncle, inherited the palace, and added to it, as is
shown by the inscription above a door in the courtyard, LAUREN.
NICOLINI. PONTIS. SACCI. MARCHIO. He bought some small houses
and adjoining land to make a garden, and tied up the palace and its contents
upon his heirs male. But his son Filippo left it to his sons in common, and
they sold the old family palace in 1824 to Count Demetrio Bouturlin, Privy
Councillor and Chamberlain to the Emperor of Russia, whose descendants
still own it. In 1854 the façade was plastered from the first floor upwards,

and decorated in graffite, and with paintings. During the few years that
Florence was the capital of Italy, Palazzo Bouturlin was the residence of the
British ambassador, Sir Henry Elliot.

PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI

Piazza Sta. Trinita
Ancestor of the great and powerful family of the Buondelmonti was
Sichelmo, who lived about 905, and whose son Azzo, Lord of Petrojo, was
the grandfather of Giovanni, founder of the Vallombrosan Order. His other
son, Rinieri Pagano, ruled the whole Val di Pesa and from him descended
Uguccione and Rosso, whose feudal castle of Montebuoni was taken and
razed to the ground by order of the Commune of Florence in 1135 at the
instigation, it is said, of the Uberti who were jealous of their power. Half in
derision, half in fear, they were called the Buoni del Monte (Good men of
the Mountain) by travellers who dreaded being waylaid. Uguccione and
Rosso were forced to come and live in Florence, and from Buondelmonte,
son of Uguccione, the family took their name, while Rosso’s son Scolajo,
founded the family of the Scolari.
Buondelmonte’s three sons, all hard fighters, were made knights of the
Golden Spur, and it was the murder of his grandson and namesake by the
Amidei, that plunged Florence into civil war in 1215.
Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti was among the young men invited by
Messer Mazzingo Mazzinghi to a banquet at his castle near Campi, to
celebrate his receiving the honour of knighthood. During dinner the buffoon
of the house snatched a plate from before Uberto Infangati, a friend of
Buondelmonte, who curtly reproved the jester’s insolence. Oddo Fifanti
defended the man, and losing his temper, took the plate from him and
hurled it at Infangati. Young Buondelmonte then rose from the table and
attacked Fifanti with his dagger. Friends made peace between them and a
marriage was arranged between Buondelmonte and a daughter of
Lambertuccio Amidei and of Fifanti’s sister. A few days before the wedding
the bridegroom rode under the windows of the Donati palace and Forese
Donati’s wife, Madonna Gualdrada, called to him and bade him come up.
She laughed him to scorn for a coward, who out of fear of the Uberti and

the Fifanti was going to marry an ugly girl. “All the more do I grieve,” she
added, “because I had intended your old playmate, my daughter, to be your
bride.” Saying this she led him into the next room where her daughter “the
most beautiful maiden in Florence,” writes Villani, sat singing.
Buondelmonte, as the old saying is, “lost his intellect through his eyes,” and
forgetting his plighted word asked for her hand. The wedding was fixed for
the 10th February, the very day he was to have married the daughter of
Lambertuccio Amidei. Furious at the insult offered to their house, the
Amidei summoned their relations to meet in the church of S. Stefano, and
Schiatta degl’Uberti proposed to slice the fair face of young Buondelmonte
and spoil his beauty. But Mosca Lamberti replied in the well-known words:
“Before thou beatest or woundest, dig thine own grave. Give him what he
deserves. A thing finished is done with.” And so his death was determined.
On Easter morn 1315 the handsome young bridegroom, clothed in
white with a garland of flowers on his head, was riding over the Ponte
Vecchio on his favourite white palfrey. As he debouched into Por Sta. Maria
the great doors of the Amidei palace flew open, and the murderers, led by
Schiatta degl’Uberti who gave the first blow and knocked Buondelmonte
off his horse, killed him near the old statue of Mars at the corner of the
bridge. Well may Dante exclaim:

“O Buondelmonti! what ill counselling
Prevail’d on thee to break the plighted bond?
Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice,
Had God to Ema given thee, the first time
Thou near our city camest. But so was doom’d:
Florence! on that maimed stone which guards the bridge,
The victim, when thy peace departed, fell.”
Par. Canto xvi., Cary’s trans.

“This day witnessed the beginning of the destruction of Florence,”
writes an old chronicler. The beautiful young bride, seated on the funeral
car with her dead husband’s head in her lap, went through the streets calling
for vengeance on his murderers. The city was divided into two factions and
Guelphs and Ghibellines flew at each other’s throats. After some years of
incessant strife another marriage was arranged. This time it was the

daughter of a Buondelmonti who wedded an Uberti. But at a banquet in the
same old castle of the Mazzinghi at Campi, a quarrel arose in which
Schiatta degl’Uberti was killed, while Oddo Fifanti had his nose cut off and
his mouth slit from ear to ear. Neri degl’Uberti thereupon sent back his wife
to her father saying he would not beget children from the daughter of a race
of traitors.
The Buondelmonti were all handsome, which probably accounts for the
love stories connected with their name. Not many years passed ere all
Florence was keenly interested in the fate of Ippolito Buondelmonti, the
hero of a manuscript Latin tale and of a ballad printed in the XVIth century.
In the Osservatore Fiorentino the story is told as follows. “Ippolito
Buondelmonti, one of the handsomest and most polite youths of Florence,
saw the young daughter of Amerigo de’ Bardi at the feast of S. Giovanni,
and was seized with such love for the maiden that her grace and beauty
were ever present to him. When he heard who she was, in despite of the
bitter hatred between the two houses, he studied in what way he could
please her, passing often under her windows and following her when she
went out. Then reflecting on the great difficulties arising from the enmity of
their parents, he was the most sorrowful man in the world. At length
consumed by continual grief he became so ill that he lay in bed and no
doctor could discover his malady. His mother, who loved him tenderly,
implored him to say what was the cause of his thus wasting away, and after
long resistance he confessed his love for Dianora de’ Bardi. She, who cared
for nought save to restore her son to life, went to an old friend, Madonna
Contessina, a cousin of the Bardi, who lived in a villa at Montecelli half a
mile from the city, and entreated her so earnestly that at last Contessina
promised to help her.
“It being September a solemn feast was to be celebrated in that district,
and Dianora was invited with many other girls, her friends and relations.
After a joyous midday meal the girls went to repose in various rooms, and
Dianora was led into one where Ippolito had been hid since the day before.
The maiden was much alarmed but he, with submissive and gentle manner,
said he would rather die than cause her any fear, and offered her his dagger
to pierce his heart. The end was that she promised to accept him as her lord
on the condition that everything was to be kept secret from her parents. It
was arranged between them that the next night she would let down a cord

from her window to which he was to attach a silken ladder, and so they
parted. At midnight Ippolito stole cautiously across the Ponte Vecchio with
the ladder hid in his cap, but as he reached Amerigo’s palace in Via de’
Bardi, the Bargello, or head of the police, with his guard, came down the
street from S. Niccolò. Ippolito fled up the Costa, losing his cap as he ran.
As ill-luck would have it another patrol was coming down from the Porta S.
Giorgio and he was seized and taken to the Palazzo del Podestà. To shield
Dianora he declared that he had intended first to rob and then set fire to the
palace of the enemy of his house. The Podestà refused to believe him and
sent for his father, before whom he repeated his words, and the next
morning the banner of Justice on the old palace and the tolling of the great
bell, announced that a culprit had been condemned to death. Ippolito
obtained as a last favour to be led to execution past the palace of the Bardi,
whose pardon he declared he wished to ask, but really in hopes of gazing
once more on the face of his love. Dianora saw him from her window, and
casting aside all maidenly modesty rushed down into the street exclaiming:
“He is my affianced husband and only risked his life out of his great love
for me.” The procession was stopped and word was sent to the Podestà,
who stayed the execution and summoned the lovers and their families
before him. There Dianora pleaded for the life of her lover and for her own
love so successfully, that not only was the marriage allowed, but the Bardi
and the Buondelmonti swore friendship. The whole city rejoiced and
Ippolito and Dianora lived most happily for many years and were the
parents of many children.”
In June 1378, when the Arti, or Guilds, rose against the nobles, and to
the cry of Viva il Popolo sacked and burnt many of the old towers and
palaces, those of the Buondelmonti, which extended from the Piazza Sta.
Trinita some way down the Borgo S.S. Apostoli, were destroyed. The
façade of the present palace, which must have been far more imposing
before the great loggia at the top was bricked up and divided into many
rooms, was frescoed by Jacone early in the XVIth century, with subjects
22
from the life of Pippo Spano, but all traces of his work have perished. The
name of Buondelmonti occurs frequently in the annals of Florence among
her soldiers and her ambassadors, while Esau, son of Manente who married
a sister of the Grand Seneschal Acciaiuoli (see p. 2) and followed his
brother-in-law to Naples where he was made Lord High Chamberlain,

attained the dignity of King of Rumenia and Despot of Arta, but died
childless.
Zanobi Buondelmonti was implicated in the plot to assassinate the
Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, and on hearing of the arrest of Alamanni, one of
the conspirators, he hurried home to conceal himself in one of those secret
hiding places which existed in all large houses. But his wife, with courage
“more worthy of a man than of a woman,” writes Nardi, drove him almost
by force out of the house, gave him all the money she could gather together,
and told him to make haste and cross the frontier. As he left the city he met
the Cardinal returning from his afternoon drive, and barely escaped being
seen by dashing into the shop of a sculptor. He reached the frontier in safety
and went to his friend Ludovico Ariosto, then Podestà of Castelnuovo in the
Ferrara territory, who had always been Buondelmonti’s guest when he came
to Florence. Varchi says that he was also an intimate friend of Machiavelli
“whose virtues he acquired without being tainted by any of his vices.” He
was eventually pardoned, and died with his whole family of the plague at
Barga, where he was Commissary. Andrea, one of the few of the family
who entered the Church, was Archbishop of Florence. The family came to
an end in 1774 when the Senator Francesco Giovacchino de’ Buondelmonti
died, and the palace is now the property of Signor Adami.

PALAZZO DEL BUONTALENTI

(CASINO DI SAN MARCO)
Via Cavour. No. 63.

Ottaviano de’ Medici, whose house adjoined the Orti Medicei, bought,
in order to obtain an exit into Via San Gallo, a house, courtyard and loggia,
from the Compagnia dei Tessitori di Drappi, an offset of the Guild of Silk.
The beautiful loggia in Via San Gallo, which Signor Iodico del Badia
attributes to Giuliano da San Gallo, was walled up, but has recently been
23
opened and well restored. Ottaviano was held in such high esteem by the
Medici family that Clement VII. made him administrator of all their
property in Tuscany, and guardian of the young Duchess Caterina, the
orphan daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, who afterwards became
Queen of France. When Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici were forced to
fly the city in 1527, Ottaviano took up his abode in the great Medici palace,
in order to protect it from being looted. With the accession of Alessandro
his duties ceased as far as the palace and the villas were concerned, but it
was only when Cosimo I. ascended the throne that he was called upon to
hand over the vast territorial possessions. He was found to be a debtor of
5,106 ducats, and in payment of this sum he ceded to the Duke his house
adjoining the Orti Medicei.
When Francesco I. succeeded his father he commissioned Bernardo
Buontalenti to build him a palace in the Orti, where he had a chemical
laboratory and a furnace for smelting different metals in the hopes of
discovering how to make gold, and part of Ottaviano’s house was
incorporated with it. The Grand Duke left the palace to Don Antonio, his
supposed son by Bianca Cappello, and Ferdinando I. confirmed the
donation on the condition that he never married. Don Antonio embellished
the interior, and made a beautiful garden, which he decorated with marble
and bronze statues. He took a great interest in printing and had a private

press, and continued the chemical experiments of the Grand Duke
Francesco. Galileo was a friend of his, and Count Pier Filippo Covoni, to
whose pamphlets we are indebted for the account of this palace, cites
24
several of the Prince’s letters to him. After his death the Casino passed to
the Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici, who employed Matteo Rosselli and other
artists to fresco some of the rooms which he filled with pictures. These were
distributed among the various galleries of Florence by his heir, Cosimo III.;
the statues and busts were sent to the gardens of Boboli, Petraja and
Castello, and the fine cabinets and tapestries were removed to the Pitti
palace. For many years the house remained empty; then it was used as
barracks for the bodyguard of the Grand Duke, and in 1846 it became the
custom house. During the few years that Florence was the capital of United
Italy, the Foreign Office was installed in the Casino, which then assumed
the more serious name of Palazzo del Buontalenti. It now is the seat of the
Court of Appeal, and of the Assize Court.

PALAZZO CANACCI

Piazza S. Biagio. No. 3.
The Canacci came originally from S. Stefano ad Ugnano, and took their
name from a certain Lapo surnamed Canaccio. That they were rich is
proved by their fine old palace, which has just been restored. Ser Giovanni
was notary to the Republic in 1422, but the name of Canacci would have
remained comparatively unknown if the Duke Jacopo Salviati had not fallen
in love with the beautiful wife of Giustino. I cannot do better than tell the
sad tale in the words of an anonymous writer of the time, whose manuscript
is in the Marucelliana library in Florence.
“There was in Florence a gentleman of the old and honourable family
of the Canacci, named Giustino, well known to me and to others still alive.
He was considered a man of but little sense, because having several grown-
up children by a former wife, and being near seventy years of age, he took
to himself a second wife, Caterina, inferior to himself in rank, but endowed
with marvellous beauty. Now Giustino was the ugliest, most tiresome, and
the dirtiest man in Florence, which encouraged many to solicit the good
graces of Caterina, who apparently led a modest life until they say she
listened to Lorenzo Serzelli and Vincenzio Carlini. There were also two
youths, friends of Jacopo Salviati, Duke of Giuliano, the greatest personage
for birth, enormous wealth and other admirable qualities, in the city of
Florence (always excepting the princes of the ruling house), who a few
years before had taken to wife Donna Veronica, daughter to Don Carlo
Cybo, Prince of Massa and Carrara. This lady had not much beauty, but
such pride and conceit that the Duke was driven to seek for comfort
elsewhere.... It was rumoured that the Duchess entered S. Pier Maggiore
one morning, and as though by chance placed herself by the side of
Caterina. In a few words she bade her never again speak to her husband,
and Caterina replied, perchance with more arrogance and spirit than became
her condition, thus increasing the ire of the Duchess and ensuring her own

ruin. The Duke’s love grew every day, and the Duchess determined to cut
the thread. Rumour has it that she tried to poison Caterina, but failed, and
determined to take vengeance in another way. She sent for the brothers
Bartolomeo and Francesco Canacci, youths of about twenty-four or so,
who, though they did not inhabit, yet frequented their father’s house. After
representing to them that Caterina’s licentious life brought ignominy on
themselves and their posterity, and that as persons of birth and
consideration it behoved them to free themselves of her presence, she
promised to give them every help if they would do this, and to protect them
from any future peril.... The Duchess hired four assassins from Massa, who
entered the city one by one to avoid suspicion, and were kept by her until
the time was ripe for effecting her abominable project. On the night of 31st
December, 1638, Bartolomeo Canacci, accompanied by the aforesaid
bandits, who stood at the opposite side of the street in the shade, knocked at
his step-mother’s door. Her maid looked out of the window and asked who
was there, and on his answering friends, recognized his voice, and drew the
cord of the latch. Bartolomeo and the assassins rushed upstairs with such
fury that Serzelli and Carlini, who were sitting with Caterina, suspected
some evil thing and, springing to their feet, fled by another staircase on to
the roof, whence they got into a neighbouring house. Caterina was then
murdered by these infamous executors of the barbarous cruelty of the
Duchess, together with her maid, probably to prevent her giving evidence.
After this the bodies of these two most unfortunate women were cut to
pieces, and carried into a carriage. Parts of the bodies were thrown into a
well, others into the Arno, where they were found the next day, but the head
of Caterina was taken to the Duchess.... On Sundays and holidays she used
to send to the Duke’s room a silver basin covered by a fair cloth, containing
collars, cuffs and such like things. But on this first of January the present
was of a different kind. Taking the head of poor Caterina, which still
preserved the beauty which had been the cause of her death, Donna
Veronica placed it in the basin, covered it with the usual cloth, and sent it by
her waiting-woman, who knew naught of the business, into the Duke’s
room. When he rose and lifted the cloth to take his clean linen, let his horror
be imagined at seeing so pitiful a sight. Knowing full well that his wife had
done this deed, he would have no more of her, and they say he never was
seen to smile again.” The account then describes how Bartolomeo Canacci
was beheaded, while the real assassin, the Duchess, went unpunished, and

ends with the reflection, “Whoso foregathers with great people is the last at
the table and the first at the gallows.”
The last of the Canacci family died in 1777, and the palace now
belongs to the Commune of Florence.

PALAZZO CANIGIANI

Via de’ Bardi. Nos. 22, 24.
This palace consists of two separate houses; the one adjoining the
church of Sta. Lucia was a hospice for pilgrims in 1283, and tradition says
that S. Francis of Assisi and S. Dominick met here; history, however,
affirms that the saints were never together in Florence. More interesting is
the connection of both church and palace with Dante, who is said to have
often dined with the brethren of the Ospizio de’ Pelegrini after hearing mass
in Sta. Lucia on Sundays and holidays. The other palace, with a most
picturesque staircase and a fine well-head, belonged to a branch of the
Bardi family who assumed the name of Ilarione, or Larione. They became
bankrupt, and it was sold to Giovanni Canigiani in 1465; and here the
mother of Petrarch, Eletta Canigiani, is said to have been born. The hospice
had degenerated into two small houses, which also belonged to the Larione,
and were sold at the same time to another of the Canigiani. They were
afterwards rebuilt and made into one house.

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO CANIGIANI.

The tradition is that the Canigiani left Fiesole when the town was
destroyed, and settled in Florence, where they became one of the great
Guelph families; their ancient houses, towers and loggia, were in the Via
de’ Bardi, near the Ponte Vecchio. After the defeat of their party at
Montaperti in 1260, they took refuge in Lucca, until the Guelphs regained
their supremacy in Florence, when twelve of the family became
Gonfaloniers of Justice, and fifty-five were Priors. Messer Piero Canigiani
is mentioned in the Decameron as being Chancellor to the Empress of
Constantinople, and on his return to Italy he filled many important posts.
With the exception of Bernardo, who joined Filippo Strozzi and was
hanged, the Canigiani were devoted adherents of the Medici. Cosimo I.
created a cousin and namesake of Bernardo’s, one of the founders of the
Academia della Crusca, a Senator, and Alessandro Canigiani was made
Archbishop of Aix through the influence of Queen Catherine de’ Medici.
The family became extinct in 1813, when the Giugni succeeded to the name
and estates, and to the fine palaces.

On the wall opposite to the Canigiani palace is an inscription recording
the landslip in Via de’ Bardi, in which Bernardo Buontalenti nearly lost his
life. Twice before the hill had slipped, in 1284 and in 1490, overwhelming
the houses built on the slope of the hill of S. Giorgio. In a manuscript in the
Magliabecchiana library is an account of what happened on the 12th
November, 1547, written probably by one of the Nasi family; perhaps by
Lorenzo Nasi, for whom Raphael painted the Madonna del Cardellino, now
in the Uffizi. The picture is said to have been dug out from under the ruins
of his house.
“I will tell how my house fell, and how we were saved. I rose early as
is my wont, and went into my study. Many years before I had noticed that
the house had somewhat suffered on the side against the hill, but never did I
imagine that there was any danger of its falling. A man from Campiglio was
staying with me, and being ill with fever he could not sleep. All night long
he heard ceilings cracking and bits of mortar falling, so he rose at daybreak,
and seeing certain fissures in the walls, dressed as well as he could and
came to warn me. I, believing that these were old cracks, paid small
attention to him, and continued my writing. But he being alarmed, left the
house. Soon afterwards I heard a great noise, and felt the house tremble,
and I left my room to find out the cause of the noise, when my people told
me that a large stone pilaster at the foot of the stairs was broken, which
alarmed me. Whilst I was thinking what was to be done, and whether we
ought to leave the house, I felt a very great shaking, and saw cracks opening
in the window-sills, doorways and walls. So with great fear I thought only
of saving our lives, and began to shout aloud that every one was to fly with
me. Seizing one child in my arms, taking another by the hand, and giving
others to my people, shouting and calling I ran to the stairs. Some had
already given way, and mortar was falling on all sides. In yet greater terror I
rushed down the stairs and out of the house, and took refuge in Sta. Lucia.
By my side and behind me ran others, and the last one to come was my
wife. I being on the steps of Sta. Lucia, and she still in the street, I caught
her by the arm and helped her to mount the steps of the church. Hardly was
she safe inside when our house fell all at once with such impetus against the
façade of the Canigiani palace and of Sta. Lucia, that I thought the church
and all the houses by the river would have been knocked down. No bit of
wall higher than one foot remained standing; the vaults gave way, and the
houses were ruined to their foundations. Two horses were buried under our

house, and all our clothes, linen, and furniture, of every description. It was
only by the especial grace of God that of the seventeen persons in our house
none were lost. Had we lingered long enough to say a credo, or had Sta.
Lucia been shut, we should all have been killed.”
Only three persons lost their lives in this catastrophe, a fourth, a boy of
eleven, was saved by a beam falling against the wall, under which he
remained unhurt. Baldinucci tells us that “while the child was crying for
help under the ruins, and people were throwing bread and other food down
an aperture, in order to keep him alive while they tried to remove a huge
mass of stones, bricks and wood, a servant of the Duke Cosimo passed by.
Horrified at what he saw, he went to the palace immediately and told his
master. The Duke ordered that every effort should be made to liberate the
wretched boy, and when he was free he took him into his palace, and ever
after protected and aided him.” The boy grew up, and became that excellent
and universal genius Bernardo Buontalenti.

PALAZZO CAPPONI (now FARINOLA)

Via Gino Capponi. No. 29.
Many were the palaces owned by the Capponi family in Florence, now
only two bear their name. One in the Via de’ Bardi belonging to the Counts
Capponi (see p. 71), and this, built by Fontana in 1705 for the Marquess
Alessandro Capponi, the largest private palace in the city, with a handsome
staircase and a fine garden. Here in 1876 died the Marquess Gino Capponi,
one of the makers of United Italy, last of his branch of the family, regretted
by his fellow-citizens, who had a great admiration for his noble character.
His Storia della Republica di Firenze has a world-wide reputation. The
palace now belongs to his daughter, Marchioness Farinola.
The Capponi family is said to have come from Lucca about 1216, and
gave no less than ten Gonfaloniers and fifty-six Priors to the city of their
adoption, in whose history they played an important part. With Gino
Capponi, born in 1364, began a series of remarkable men. Sent by the
Republic of Florence in 1405 to take possession of the citadel of Pisa, and
of her two outlying fortresses, he accomplished his task, and left a garrison
of hired troops in the citadel. Soon after his departure the Pisans rose and
retook the citadel, to the great dismay of the Florentines, who had paid a
goodly sum to Visconti and his French ally for the possession of the prize
they had long coveted. When Pisa appealed to Florence, as a sister
Republic, to return the two fortresses, promising to make good all expenses,
Gino remarks in his Commentary, “With these and like phrases they talked
in such a disgusting manner that every man in Florence determined he
25
would go naked rather than not conquer Pisa.” In March the following
year he and Maso degl’Albizzi were appointed Commissaries of the army
before Pisa, and the famine-stricken city surrendered in October, when Gino
Capponi was named governor. He died in 1451, leaving three sons;
Agostino, from whom descend the branch of the Counts Capponi in Via de’
Bardi; Lorenzo, whose son of the same name established himself in trade at

Lyons, and for his charity and munificence during the famine of 1573 was
called the father of the poor; and the more famous Neri. He and Cosimo de’
Medici were the two most powerful men in Florence. “Neri was the wisest;
the other, Cosimo, was the richest,” writes Cavalcanti. Riches proved to be
of more avail, as Neri’s friend and fellow-soldier, Baldaccio d’Anghiari,
was murdered, probably with the connivance of Cosimo; and his opposition
some years later to the Florentine, or rather Medicean, policy in Lombardy
was useless. His son Piero made a large fortune as a merchant when quite a
young man, and though his family had always belonged to the popular party
as opposed to the Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent entrusted him with
many political missions. In 1494 he sent him as Commissary of the
Republic to the camp of Alfonso of Aragon, who was fighting against the
Pope and the Venetians; the Neapolitan army was in full retreat when the
civilian Capponi placed himself at the head of the troops, rallied them, and
led them to victory. The merchant and the diplomatist showed that he was a
born leader, and when Piero de’ Medici was driven out of Florence, he was
the man to whom her citizens turned. His proud answer to Charles VII. of
France is a matter of history. The King, holding his ultimatum in his hand,
declared that if it was not accepted he would order his trumpets to sound;
whereupon Piero Capponi started forward, and seizing the paper tore it
from top to bottom, exclaiming, “If you sound your trumpets we will ring
our bells.” Those present were aghast, but Capponi knew Charles wanted
money; moreover, Nardi tells us the French were alarmed, as some days
before they had seen what a crowd of resolute, well-armed men, the ringing
of a bell had brought forth. So the King turned off his threat with a bad joke
on Capponi’s name. When Piero Capponi was killed at the head of his men
during the siege of the little village of Sojana, Guicciardini says that many
of the Florentines, whom he had served so well, openly rejoiced because he
was regarded as the head of the party opposed to Savonarola.
His son Niccolò was chief of the Ottimati party, and Baccio Valori
advised the Cardinal Passerini, who governed the city for Clement VII., to
arrest him, but he was afraid. After the flight of the Cardinal with his two
wards, Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici, Niccolò Capponi made a long
speech in the Great Council, but his prudent advice, a reconciliation with
Clement VII. through the intervention of the Emperor Charles V., which
implied the restoration of the Medici as citizens of paramount authority, but
not as absolute rulers, was not taken. In 1527 he was elected Gonfalonier of

Justice, and according to Varchi, the citizens were soon divided into several
parties. The Ottomati, or richer nobility who followed Capponi, the
Popolani, or popular party, some of whom were called Adirati, being
decidedly adverse to Capponi, and the more violent section of the latter, the
Arrabiati, who advocated the destruction, root and branch, of the Medici
and of their adherents. Niccolò had a difficult part to play and his
extraordinary proposal, after reciting nearly word for word a sermon of
Savonarola’s in the Great Council, to proclaim Jesus Christ King of
Florence was probably, as Varchi suggests, a move to gain the support of
the Frateschi, a party of considerable consequence. In spite of many
intrigues he was re-elected Gonfalonier of Justice the following year, “when
it appearing to many, and with reason,” writes Varchi, “that the authority of
the Ten was too great, and therefore dangerous, fifteen citizens of the
greater and five of the lesser Guilds were added to the Great Council.” They
were called the Arroti alla Pratica de’ Dieci, and sat for six months.
Hearing that the Gonfalonier, through Jacopo Salviati, corresponded with
the Pope, a law was enacted, in spite of his protestations that what he did
was for the good of the Republic, that no one, for good or for evil, should
communicate with the Pope. Capponi tendered his resignation, which was
not accepted, and he secretly continued his correspondence with Rome,
which nearly cost him his life. One day in the Council Chamber he dropped
a letter from a friend of Salviati, which was found by a Popolano, a violent
antagonist of his, and in a few hours the city was in an uproar. He was
deposed and imprisoned, and Carducci, an Arrabiato and his personal
enemy, named in his stead. At the end of three days’ imprisonment Niccolò
Capponi was brought before the magistrates, and Varchi describes how he
entered the Council Chamber, “with a black cloak, and his hood thrown
back on his shoulders for greater deference, showing on his usually placid
countenance signs rather of anger than of fear.” His long speech to “the
Magnificent Gonfalonier, the noble Signori, the most honoured magistrates
and citizens, my judges,” is an able piece of special pleading, neither
admitting nor denying his guilt. Varchi declares that the letter, which
contained nothing of very great importance, was not lost by Capponi at all,
but that Francesco Valori dropped it by order of the Pope, who was tired of
Niccolò’s beating about the bush, and wanted to sow discord in the city,
hoping once more to obtain the sovereignty for his family. Anyhow
Capponi was acquitted and must have recovered some of his old popularity,

as in the late autumn he formed part of a deputation to the Emperor at
Genoa to try and soften his heart towards Florence. Charles was civil, but
obdurate; Florence must be reconciled to the Pope, and open her gates to
the Medici. On his way home Capponi met Michelangelo, who was going
to study the fortifications of Ferrara, who told him what a desperate state
Florence was in. Already ill and over-strained, Niccolò Capponi lay down
and died, as the old chroniclers tell us, of grief and despair, in the small
village of Castelnuovo, in the Garfagnana. His nephew Luigi was the
husband of the beautiful Luisa Strozzi who was poisoned probably by the
orders of the Duke Alessandro de’ Medici.
Piero Capponi’s palace in Florence was on the Lung’Arno Guicciardini.

PALAZZO CAPPONI (DELLE ROVINATE)

Via de’ Bardi. No. 28.
In former times the Arno flowed at the foot of this palace, but a large
part of it was cut off to make the Lung’Arno Torrigiani in 1866. It was built
for that wise and honest citizen Niccolò Da Uzzano by Lorenzo de’ Bicci,
and some traces of the ancient architecture can be traced here and there in
the interior. The Da Uzzano were men of note in the time of the Emperor
Henry VII., and for the part they took in the defence of Florence were
placed under the ban of the Empire. Niccolò Da Uzzano, born about 1359,
was thrice Gonfalonier of Justice; as an ardent lover of liberty he opposed,
but without success, the election of Giovanni de’ Medici to this office and
while he lived held the balance of power between Rinaldo degl’Albizzi and
Giovanni’s son, Cosimo the Elder. His famous speech to Niccolò Barbadori,
given by Machiavelli in his Storia di Firenze, is that of a far-seeing
statesman, and shows that the Florentines were right in saying that his death
was a public calamity. His only daughter married a Capponi and the palace
belongs to their descendant Count Luigi Capponi. The surname of “delle
Rovinate,” or the ruined, by which this branch of the family is known, arose
from the landslip nearly opposite the palace (see p. 68). The church of Sta.
Lucia close by bears the same appellation.

PALAZZO CERCHI

Via Condotta
Before the building of the Palazzo de’ Signori in 1292 the Priors met in
the Cerchi palace in Via del Garbo, now divided into many houses. Only
vestiges of their towers, and of their once famous loggia, can still be traced
at the corner of Via de’ Cerchi and Via de’ Cimatori. Piero Monaldi writes
in his manuscript history of the ancient family of the Cerchi that they came
from Acone, “of which place they were lords and also of Ripozzano. In
Florence they owned towers, a loggia and sumptuous palaces, which were
destroyed during the civil strife and discord. A noble race they were, rich
and powerful in the city, with many retainers, munificent and lordly in the
country side. But fate, enemy of their felicity, divided their house in the
time of Pope Boniface VIII. Some became heads of the White party whilst
others remained of the Black, so that they were undone and many of their
records were lost wherein were mentioned numerous honourable lords. But
the fame of Vieri de’ Cerchi remains, one of the greatest knights of his day
and Prince of the White party. When called to Rome by Pope Boniface to
try and pacify the said parties he went thither with many men at arms, all
his own followers, which rather alarmed the Pope. There were also Niccolò
26
Gentile and Borrigiano and all were knights of the Golden Spur.” Vieri
de’ Cerchi was the great antagonist of Corso Donati, head of the Black
party, and “Florence,” writes Giovanni Villani, “was kept in such turmoil
and danger by their enmity, that the city was often in an uproar, and every
one was under arms.”
The palace came into the possession of the Bandini family, and it is
said that the details of the Pazzi conspiracy were arranged here in the time
of Bernardo Bandini [1478], and that his descendant Giovanni betrayed
Florence to the Imperialists by signals from the top of the tower in 1530.

PALAZZO COCCHI

Piazza Sta. Croce. No. 1.
The name of Cocco di Donato occurs among the inhabitants of the
quarter of Sta. Croce in 1328, and his descendants, Borghini and Francesco
Cocchi, having made a large fortune in trade decided to build themselves a
fine house. From the friars of the abbey of Fiesole they bought a house on
the Piazza Sta. Croce and erected the palace we now see, which came into
the possession of Borghini’s nephews after his death in 1474. It has often
been attributed to Baccio d’Agnolo, and Vasari names it amongst the fine
palaces built in Florence after 1470, but does not mention the architect.
Signor Iodico Del Badia believes that part of the original house bought
from the friars was incorporated with the more modern building;
particularly the pilasters up to the spring of the arches, and the jambs in Via
27
de’ Cocchi. These jambs are supposed by some to be portions of the
ancient walls of Florence destroyed in 1078, placed by the Peruzzi at one
end of the street which traversed the old Roman amphitheatre. Cinelli
however declares that the Cocchi bought the palace from the Dei family, for
whom it was built by Raffaello del Bianco on the site of other houses and of
the ancient loggia de’ Risaliti.
In the XVIIth century it was enlarged by the addition of some small
houses in the rear, and remained in the possession of the Cocchi until the
last of the family, Maddalena, married Marchese Pucci. It now belongs to
her grandson Count Agostino Della Seta of Pisa.

PALAZZO CORSI SALVIATI (now VISCONTI
ARCONATI)

Via Tornabuoni. No. 20.
The powerful and rich “consorteria,” or clan, of the Tornaquinci had
their palaces, towers, loggie and shops, where now stands this palace. Their
origin is lost in obscurity, but we know that the Emperor Otho I. allowed
them to erect dams in the bed of the Arno near their houses. When the
second circle of walls was built round Florence the gate, afterwards called
S. Pancrazio, and a square, where now stands the Palazzo Strozzi, bore their
name. Figliocaro Tornaquinci was Consul of the army in 1166 and in 1215,
and his descendants fought at Montaperti on the side of the Guelphs in
1260. They divided into five different families in the XIVth century, of
whom only the head of one branch, Simone, who took the name of
Tornabuoni in 1393, interests us. His son Francesco was Commissary with
the army of Carlo Malatesta and later was sent to Venice, to try and induce
the Venetians to enter Lombardy against the Duke of Milan. A keen man of
business, he stood high in favour with Cosimo de’ Medici and zealously
worked to promote his return from exile in 1434. His daughter Lucrezia
married Piero de’ Medici and their son, Lorenzo the Magnificent, owed
much to her prudence and sagacity and inherited her poetic talent. Giovanni
Tornabuoni, her brother, was treasurer to Sixtus IV. and head of the Medici
bank at Rome, where his wife Francesca died in childbirth in September,
1477, and his letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici shows how deeply he mourned
her. Vasari tells us that having caused a sepulchre to be made to her in the
Minerva “he willed also that Domenico Ghirlandaio should paint the walls
28
of the chapel wherein she was buried.” Giovanni afterwards gave him the
commission to paint the wonderful frescoes in the choir of Sta. Maria
Novella, which we know from the diary of Luca Landucci were begun in
1486 and finished in 1490; not as Vasari states between 1481 and 1485.

Luca Landucci’s son Benedetto, who knew many of the people figured
in the frescoes pointed them out in 1561, when he was eighty-nine years
29
old, to Vincenzio Tornaquinci, who fortunately noted down his words.
Giovanni Tornabuoni is to the right of the great central window, kneeling
bareheaded with his hands crossed over his breast, and opposite to him
kneels his wife Francesca, her hands folded in prayer, with a white kerchief
on her head. Signor E. Ridolfi exposes another of Vasari’s mistakes, which
30
has often been blindly copied without verifying the dates. Vasari states
that “Ginevra de’ Benci, then a beautiful maiden” is one of the women in
the fresco of the Visitation of Our Lady to S. Elizabeth. Ginevra was born in
1557, married to Luigi Niccolini in 1573 and died on the 17th August in the
same year, so she could not have been painted by Ghirlandaio between
1486–1490. The beautiful maiden is Giovanni Tornabuoni’s daughter-in-
law, the lovely and accomplished Giovanna degl’Albizzi, whose marriage
to Lorenzo Tornabuoni was celebrated with such pomp in Florence in 1486.
Two years later Niccolò Fiorentino made six medals of the Tornabuoni
family. Two of Giovanni, one of his son Lorenzo, one of his daughter
Lodovica, and two of his daughter-in-law Giovanna, and the latter
indubitably represent the same person as the slender, swan-necked girl, in a
splendid dress of gold brocade in Ghirlandaio’s fresco. She died, fortunately
for her, before the plot to reinstate Piero de’ Medici was discovered. “On
the 17th August, 1497,” writes Luca Landucci, “the Pratica met, and were
in the palace from morning until midnight; they were more than one
hundred and eighty. And by vote it was determined that they [the accused]
should die, and all they had be confiscated. Five were executed; first
Bernardo del Nero, and then Niccolò Ridolfi, Giovanni Cambi, Gianozzo
Pucci and Lorenzo Tornabuoni, and all the people grieved for them. Every
one wondered that such a thing should be done and could scarcely believe
it. They were executed that very night, and I shed many tears when I saw
the youth Lorenzo on a bier passing Tornaquinci just before daybreak.”
From Niccolò Fiorentino’s medals Signor Ridolfi has been able to
identify the young girl visiting S. Anne as Ludovica, Giovanni Tornabuoni’s
daughter, who was then about thirteen. Like her sister-in-law she is clothed
in gold brocade and has her hair dressed in the same fashion. It seems
impossible that Ghirlandaio did not paint Lucrezia de’ Medici among the
other members of the Tornabuoni family, the more so that he chose for the

subject of his fresco the life of S. John the Baptist, which she had translated
into ottava rima. She died, it is true, three years before he began the work,
but there must have been portraits of her in existence, although none have
come down to us. Even after the death of her husband Piero, Lucrezia
exercised more authority than usually fell to the share of Tuscan women;
both Poliziano and Pulci praise her poetic gifts and Niccolò Valori writes:
“she was very eloquent, as can be seen in her translations into our tongue of
parts of Holy Writ.” He adds: “Lorenzo was most deferential to her, and
after his father’s death loved and honoured her; showing in all his actions
not only the affection borne to a mother, but such respect as is given to a
father; it was hard for any to discern whether he most loved or honoured
her.” Her nephew Lorenzo Tornabuoni was decapitated, and his family
exiled, in 1497, for plotting against the liberty of the Republic in favour of
the Medici. A descendant of his, Niccolò, Bishop of Borgo S. Sepolcro and
ambassador to France towards the end of the XVIth century, introduced the
tobacco plant into Tuscany, which for some time was called “l’erba
Tornabuoni” after him.
Lorenzo Ridolfi bought the Tornabuoni houses and incorporated them
into one large palace in the beginning of the XVIth century, but when he
rebelled and his son was decapitated in 1575, all his estates were
confiscated and the palace became the property of the Cardinal Alessandro
de’ Medici. He sold it to the rich citizen Jacopo Corsi, a friend and protector
of Peri, and here, in a theatre built on purpose, his opera Dafne, with words
by Rinuccini was given for the first time.
The Corsi are said to have come from Dicomano and one of the family
fought under the Ghibelline standard at Montaperti and was exiled in 1268.
Their name first appears in the magistrature of Florence in 1354, when
Bardo Corsi was the first of nine Gonfaloniers of Justice and two years later
the first of twenty-eight Priors of the family. Giovanni, his descendant, was
entrusted by Clement VII. with the care of Alessandro de’ Medici, and with
him, Ippolito and the Cardinal Passerini, he left Florence in 1527. After the
capitulation of the city he was elected Gonfalonier of Justice and showed
great cruelty in sentencing his fellow-citizens who were anti-Medicean. His
brother Bardo made an enormous fortune in trade at Naples, and in 1617
bought the feudal estate of Cajazzo, when Philip of Spain created him a
Marquess with remainder to his nephews, the sons of Jacopo, who

purchased the old Tornabuoni palace. His granddaughter Laura married the
Marquess Salviati and the palace then took the name of Corsi Salviati.
When in 1864 it was decided to widen Via Tornabuoni the façade was
thrown back many feet and the pretty little loggia, built by Cigoli, was
moved from the southern corner of the palace opposite Palazzo Strozzi to
the northern. It now belongs to the Marchioness Visconti Arconati.

PALAZZO CORSINI

Via Parione, No. 7; and Lung’Arno Corsini, No. 10.
The great palace of the Corsini family was built in the XVIIth century
by Ciro Ferri and Pierfrancesco Silvani for the Marquess Filippo Corsini,
where once stood the houses of the Compagni, the Segni and the
Ardinghelli; the last had become the property of the Cardinal Giovan Carlo
de’ Medici, and was sold after his death to pay his debts. The façade and
chief entrance of the palace is in the Via Parione, but in the last century the
terrace joining the two wings was erected in the Lung’Arno Corsini, with a
large gateway into the courtyard, thus the palace now has two façades.
Neri, father of Bonacolto, from whose son Corsini the family took their
name, came from Poggibonsi in the XIIIth century, writes the family
historian Matteo. The ancient house in the Via Maggio, in which S. Andrea
Corsini was born, is now a police station. Corsini’s son Neri was Consul of
the Arte della Lana, or Guild of Wool, in 1270, twenty years later he was
the first of fifty-six Priors of his family, and in 1295 Gonfalonier of Justice,
an honour enjoyed by seven of his descendants. His nephew Tommaso, one
of the greatest jurists of his day, expounded civil law as a young man at the
University of Siena. He served the Florentine Republic in many embassies,
and was successful in promoting treaties of peace with Siena, Perugia and
Arezzo. Appointed to all the highest offices of his native city, he is
mentioned by Villani as a most eloquent orator, whilst his reputation for
honesty stood so high that Queen Joan of Naples named him her proxy for
the sale of Prato to Florence. His last public act was in 1352, when
Gonfalonier of Justice he made peace with the Visconti, and then retired to
the monastery of S. Gaggio, of which he had been the principal founder. He
died in 1366, leaving a large fortune to his sons. They erected in the
adjoining church the fine monument by Orcagna to his memory, now in the
Corsini chapel in S. Spirito.

His eldest son Giovanni, knight of the Order of S. John, sent by the
Grand Master on an embassy to the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, by
his beauty and his engaging manners won the heart of the Empress, and she
persuaded her husband to make him Grand Seneschal of Armenia, in order
to keep him at her court. His cousin and contemporary Matteo records that
he was sent by the Pope and the Emperor jointly as ambassador to the King
of Cyprus, and in 1380 was Governor of the Island of Rhodes. Pietro, the
second son, was Bishop of Florence, but resigned his see on being made a
Cardinal, and used all his influence to make peace between Florence and
Gregory XI., which was at last concluded, chiefly through him, by Urban
VI. Tommaso’s third son Filippo was a great jurist, like his father, and
began his public career at twenty-six as ambassador to Siena, and then to
Antwerp. The Emperor Charles IV. bestowed on him and his heirs after him
the title and the prerogatives of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. When
the Ciompi riots broke out in 1378, Filippo Corsini was nigh losing his life,
his house was sacked and burnt by the mob, and he fled the city until order
was once more re-established. Though five times elected Gonfalonier of
Justice, he was not often in Florence, as the Republic always turned to him
when an ambassador was needed in those troubled times. He died in 1321,
leaving to his children an honoured name and immense riches. The gentle
Andrea, who at fifteen entered a Carmelite monastery, was his cousin. After
taking the vows he was sent for a time to Paris to study theology at the
Sorbonne. When the terrible plague of 1348 devastated Florence, his charity
and devotion to the sick made him so popular that the people of Fiesole
elected him their bishop, a choice ratified by the Pope. He lived for the poor
and for his beloved cathedral, which he restored, and of which he built the
façade, and was beatified soon after his death, and canonized in 1629 by
Urban VIII. His younger brother Matteo went as a lad to London in 1342,
where his uncle was Master of the Mint, and made a considerable fortune in
trade. On returning to Florence twenty years later he began the family
history already mentioned, and wrote the Rosaio della Vita, often quoted in
the Della Crusca dictionary for purity of style.
Amerigo Corsini was the first Archbishop of Florence, as Martin V.
raised the See to an archbishopric during his tenure, and the great dome of
the cathedral was begun [1423] in his lifetime. His brother Bertoldo filled
various high offices under the Republic, and was a devoted adherent of the
Medici; while Luca, Bertoldo’s eldest son, was the Prior whose name is

famous as shutting the door of the Palazzo della Signoria in the face of
Piero de’ Medici after he had ceded Pisa and other towns to Charles VIII. of
France in 1494. Another son, Piero, a gallant soldier and a good engineer,
was Commissary of several of the small wars of the Republic and built the
first fortifications of Leghorn, which withstood all the efforts of the
Emperor Maximilian. Gherardo, another son, was a wealthy wool merchant,
and four times one of the Dieci di Guerra. He became an adherent of the
Medici, and his son Bertoldo was so trusted by the Duke Alessandro that he
made him Governor of the newly-erected fortress of S. Giovanni. After the
murder of the Duke he offered to give up the arms and ammunition to the
people in order to fight for the liberty of the city. Such an offer from a well-
known Pallesco, as the friends of the Medici were called, was regarded with
suspicion, and Bertoldo fell between two stools. Banished as a rebel by the
young Duke Cosimo I. and ruined by the confiscation of all he possessed,
he joined the exiles, fought at Montemurlo, Siena and Orbetello, where he
was taken prisoner and sold to the Duke for 600 scudi. He was decapitated
in March 1555.
With the rich merchant Bartolommeo, elected a Senator in 1601, the
Corsini entered into the ranks of the great landed proprietors. He bought the
large feudal estates of Sismano, Cavigliano and Civitella, in the Roman
States, and many of the fine villas still belonging to the family in Tuscany
were either built or enlarged by him. His nephew Filippo, created Marquess
of Sismano, etc., by Urban VIII. in 1629, was a partner in the Medici bank
at Rome, besides having a rich silk and wool business of his own. He
married Maria Maddalena Machiavelli, a rich heiress, who bought the
house in Via Parione, afterwards incorporated in the large Corsini palace,
where the Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’ Medici had a private theatre, and used
to hold most unclerical orgies. The Grand Duke Ferdinando II. created him
a Senator, and in 1644 made his son Bartolommeo Marquess of Laiatico, a
title still used by the family, as is that of Marquess of Giovagallo, an estate
in the Lunigiana bought by Bartolommeo from the Spanish crown. His son
Filippo was a friend of the young Prince Cosimo de’ Medici, and
accompanied him on a tour through Europe. The description he wrote,
illustrated with water-colour drawings of the principal places they visited, is
in the Laurentian library, and has been translated into English. The large
palace was built by him after the design of Silvani, and the gallery
augmented by the purchase of many fine pictures.

His brother Lorenzo was destined to raise the fortunes of his house still
higher. Elected Pope in 1730, under the name of Clement XII., it is said that
he implored the cardinals to let an old, half-blind man die in peace, and to
choose another pope. Clement XII. began his pontificate by dismissing
Cardinal Coscia, the venal favourite of his predecessor, by reforming the
administration of justice, and by replacing the debased currency by an
emission of new coin. He founded the gallery of the Campidoglio, restored
the Vatican, and built the fountain of Trevi, the façades of S. Giovanni de’
Fiorentini, S. Giovanni in Laterano, and several other churches. But much
of this was done with money derived from the abominable giuoco del lotto,
called by Mocenigo, the Venetian ambassador, “the curse and the ruin of the
people.” It had been abolished by Benedict XIII., when Clement, under the
specious pretext that his subjects would gamble and therefore had better
spend their money at home, restored it. He would have left a greater name
had he shown less partiality to his own family. His two nephews were
summoned to Rome. Bartolommeo was created Prince of Sismano, Duke of
Casigliano, and Captain-General of the Papal Guards; he identified himself
entirely with the Spanish party, seduced by Charles III., who hinted that
Spain would renounce in his favour her claims on Tuscany and Parma if he
aided her in securing the Kingdom of Naples. The Congress of Vienna put
an end to these ambitious projects, and as some consolation he was made
Viceroy of Sicily and a Grandee of Spain. Neri, brought up as a page of
Cosimo III., showed considerable ability in pleading his master’s cause at
various foreign courts, and when the future of Tuscany was discussed at
Cambray in 1723. On his return he was named Captain of the Guards and
when his uncle became Pope, the diplomatist and soldier was suddenly
transformed into a Cardinal. He practically ruled the Papal States, not only
under Clement XII., but under three of his successors. The great Corsini
palace at Rome was built by him, and filled with a fine collection of works
of art. Intensely hostile to the Jesuits, he used all his influence to obtain the
suppression of the Order, but died before the decree against them was
promulgated. An infant of the family was made a Knight of Malta while
still in swaddling clothes and Prior of Pisa at four years old, to the
indignation of the Grand Master of the Order; another was Apostolic pro-
notary while a lad, and a Cardinal at twenty-four.
Prince Tommaso Corsini began life as Chamberlain to the Grand Duke
Pietro Leopoldo, but when Florence was occupied by the French and

“Death to the aristocrats” was the popular cry, he fled to Sicily. When
Tuscany had been transformed into the Kingdom of Etruria he returned, and
became Master of the Household to the Queen Maria Louisa, who sent him
to receive Napoleon I. at Bologna. He impressed the Emperor so favourably
that he made him a Senator and a Count of the Empire, and entrusted him
with the difficult mission of introducing the French code of laws into Rome.
During the exciting days of 1848 he was Senator of Rome, but when Pius
IX. abandoned the popular party, Prince Corsini had to fly for his life, and
only re-entered Rome with the French troops. A man of considerable
culture, he enriched the celebrated library in the palace on the Lungara, and
added many fine pictures to the Corsini galleries in Rome and in Florence.
His brother Don Neri was one of the most popular men in Tuscany. He
advocated her independence at the Congress of Vienna, and obtained the
restitution of most of the art treasures which had been carried away to Paris.
As Minister of the Interior under Ferdinando III., he devoted himself to
ameliorating the condition of the people, made new roads, and gave a great
impulse to the great work of draining the Val di Chiana. A strong free-
trader, he successfully withstood his colleagues who wished to impose a
heavy tax on corn; and imbued with a distrust and dislike of the Jesuits, he
resolutely set his face against their re-admittance into Tuscany. His nephew
and namesake Don Neri, Marquess of Laiatico, was sent as Governor to
Leghorn in 1847, when the city was on the brink of a revolution. By his tact
he succeeded in restoring peace, but the Grand Duke and his counsellors did
not approve of his liberal ideas, and he was recalled. His son Don
Tommaso, the present Prince Corsini, is immensely popular, and by his
learning and kindly hospitality has endeared himself to all his fellow-
citizens.

PALAZZO DAVANZATI

Via Porta Rossa. No. 9.
The stern old Davanzati palace is more like a huge tower intended for
defence than a house to live in. The fine doorway, with Donatello’s
magnificent coat-of-arms high above it, leads into a curiously-shaped
courtyard, from which a covered staircase zigzags from one balcony to
another up to the loggia at the summit. The palazzo is a splendid example of
the architecture of the XIVth century, but who designed it is not known.
Sadly defaced by shops which crowd the ground floor it has an air of
squalor, which, however, does not detract from its massive grandeur. The
Davanzati built their palace on the site of houses and towers which
belonged to the ancient and powerful family of the Bostichi, who had
already fallen from their high estate before Dante wrote. Later, Bernardo
Davanzati, the translator of Tacitus, added their name to his own, and
attempted to claim an illusory descent from them. He might have been
satisfied with going back to his gallant ancestor Davanzato, who fought in
the ranks of the Guelphs at Monteperti in 1260. His son Lottieri was five
times a Prior, thrice one of the Buonomini, and thrice Gonfalonier of his
quarter; while forty-four of the family sat at various times as Priors in the
Palazzo de’ Signori. Niccolò Davanzati founded the beautiful convent of
31
Doccia on the slopes of Fiesole in 1413, and he probably also built this
fine palace.

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO DAVANZATI.

The Davanzati must have been a clear-headed, well-spoken race, as
their name often appears among the ambassadors sent by Florence to other
states. In 1434 Giuliano, the son of Niccolò, “a strong man with a fluent
tongue,” Ammirato calls him, came to great honour. He was Gonfalonier of
Justice when Eugenius III. consecrated the cathedral of Sta. Maria del

Fiore, and during the service the Pope dubbed him a Knight of the Golden
Spur with his own hands. In memory of this a shield with the arms of the
Pope was placed, and still exists, on the central pillar in the courtyard, with
Ex privilegio Eugenii III. D. Julianus Davanzati eques inscribed below the
coat-of-arms. Three of the family—Giovanni, who fought at Poppi against
the Prince of Orange in 1529, his brother Piero, who was one of the Two
Hundred in 1532, and Antonfrancesco, son of Giuliano, who was charged to
provide funds for provisioning the besieged city—were zealous patriots.
The latter was banished and died no one knows where, leaving his wife,
Lucrezia Ginori, with a little son, to whom, perceiving his uncommon
intelligence, “as fertile land left uncultivated produces more weeds than
sterile soil,” she gave an excellent education. Bernardo was put into the
bank when a lad, but devoted all the time he could spare from business to
classical and economic studies, and at eighteen was already a member of
the Academy of Florence.
Grazzini, better known as Lasca, one of the founders of the Academy,
quarrelled with his fellow-academicians and wrote a sarcastic poem, in
which young Bernardo Davanzati is the only member he does not abuse.

“Quel garzonetto non ha’n corpo fiele;
Poi fa si belle e si dotte orazioni,
Che chi non l’ama e ben goffo e crudele.
Calate omai le vele,
O tutti voi dal maggiore al minore,
Che siete dolci e di mezzo sapore.
E se bramate onore,
Fate nell’academia sopratutto
32
Favellar sempre e legger quel bel putto.”

Bernardo Davanzati’s translation of Tacitus is remarkable for conciseness
and force of language, though occasionally lacking in dignity. He also wrote
one of the first treatises on coinage, Della Moneta, another on Tuscan
agriculture, and a history of the separation of England from the Church of
Rome, Storia della Scisma. “He was,” writes Francesco Rondinelli, “of
small stature and dark complexion. His eyes were bright, his hair black, and

he had but little beard. The forehead was furrowed and lined, as were his
cheeks, and his aspect was somewhat stern. In dress he favoured the
parsimony and decorum of ancient times; sober in eating and drinking, curt
and straightforward in speech, for words, like coins, are more esteemed
when they contain large value in a small compass. By some he was called
Peppercorn, it may be from his brown and wrinkled face, but more likely
from the knowledge, sharp wit and learning contained in so small a body.
He was impatient of praise, never esteeming his work perfect. The errors of
others he blamed by silence rather than by correction, and often lamented
that fortune did not favour those honest, good and modest men, who doing
much and asking little, are not appreciated; but rather certain presumptuous
people, who have an excellent opinion of and praise themselves, though
they are of small account. Besides Latin, he knew Greek, and was a good
arithmetician; his judgment was so excellent in all things that he enjoyed
the singular happiness of hearing his works praised during his lifetime. It
was said by a man of great learning that he collected the jewels of
Florentine speech from the pebbles of the Arno, to set in the gold of
Tacitus.”
Bernardo’s grandson and namesake came to an untimely death by
throwing himself off the top of the tower of the old palace into the
courtyard below. The family, by a curious fatality, came to an end by the
death of Carlo Davanzati in 1838, in the same way and at the same spot.
The palace now belongs to Signor Volpi.

PALAZZO DONATI

Piazza S. Piero Maggiore.
But little remains of the many palaces and towers of this once powerful
family. Several stood in the Corso, nearly opposite to those of the Portinari,
where two of their grey towers still frown defiance at passers-by and a
small square bears their name. Here lived Manetto Donati, whose daughter
Gemma became the wife of Dante. Forese Donati was one of the poet’s
dearest friends, whilst his brother Corso, of whom more anon, became his
deadliest enemy. Their sister, the beautiful Piccarda, who took the habit of
S. Clare as a young girl, but was torn from her quiet convent and forced by
Corso Donati to break her vows and marry, is one of the most touching
figures in the Paradiso. Other Donati palaces, amongst them that of the
famous Corso, stood round the church of S. Piero Maggiore founded by the
family in the IXth century. Several of them joined the Crusades and died in
the Holy Land, and many were made Knights of the Golden Spur by the
Emperors Henry II. and Conrad of Swabia. Rivalry had always existed
between the Donati and the Cerchi; it became acute when the Neri, or Black
Party, came from Pistoja to seek aid from Corso Donati, and the Bianchi, or
White Party, turned for help to Vieri de’ Cerchi. “The Priors and other good
citizens,” writes Machiavelli, “feared every hour that they would come to
blows, and the city be divided into two camps. They therefore appealed to
the Pope, praying him to use his authority and put an end to these quarrels
with which they were unable to cope. The Holy Father sent for Messer
Vieri, and commanded him to make peace with the Donati. At this he
expressed astonishment, saying he bore them no malice, and as making
peace implied the existence of war, he could not see why, there being no
war, it should be necessary to make peace. So Messer Vieri returned from
Rome without concluding anything, and the ill-feeling grew apace.... Men
being in this excited state, it happened that the Cerchi and the Donati met at
a funeral service, and from words came to blows; but for the moment the
tumult was appeased. Then the Cerchi decided to attack the Donati, but

were repulsed by the bravery of Messer Corso, and many of their followers
were wounded. The whole city was in a tumult, the Signori and the laws
were trodden under foot by the fury of the more powerful. The Donati and
their party were afraid because they were the weaker, so Messer Corso
summoned the heads of the Blacks and the Captains of the Party, and it was
decided to ask the Pope to send one of royal blood to reform the city,
thinking thereby to break the power of the Whites. The meeting and its
deliberation was notified to the Priors, and magnified by the adverse party
into a plot against liberty. As both sides had armed the Signori, of whom
Dante was one [1301], animated by his advice and tranquil courage, called
the people to arms, and then forced the leaders of the opposite factions to
disarm, and banished Messer Corso Donati with many of the Black Party.”

TOWER OF THE DONATI.

Messer Corso went to Rome and persuaded the Pope to send Charles of
Valois, brother of the King of France, who was on his way to Sicily, to
pacify Florence. After swearing solemnly to preserve peace Charles armed
his followers, and the alarm in the city was not lessened by the arrival of
Corso with all the exiles. The prisons were burst open, the Priors relegated
to private life, and for five days the houses of the White Party were given
up to plunder and arson. A new Signoria was elected, entirely formed of the
Blacks, and Charles named Cante di Gabbrielli, one of his adherents,
Podestà. Proscriptions commenced, and one of the first names on the list
was that of Dante.
Machiavelli describes Corso Donati as “a promoter of every
disagreement and every tumult; all who desired to attain anything
extraordinary turned to him, so that he was hated by many citizens of
repute.... But the authority wielded by him was such that he was feared by
all. To deprive him of the popular favour it was spread about that he sought
to seize the State, to which his magnificent way of living, far beyond the
ordinary, lent colour. After he had taken to wife the daughter of Uguccione
della Faggiuola, head of the Ghibelline and the White Party, and most
powerful in Tuscany, this report gained more credit. The marriage
encouraged his enemies and induced the people to abandon him, and many
joined his adversaries. Their leaders were Rosso della Tosa, Pazzino de’
Pazzi, Geri Spini and Berto Brunelleschi who, with their followers, and a
great concourse of people, went armed to the palace of the Signori. The
Signori ordered Piero Branca, Captain of the People, to accuse Messer
Corso of desiring to make himself tyrant of Florence by the aid of
Uguccione. He was cited to appear, and then condemned as a rebel in
contumaciam, and only two hours elapsed between the accusation and the
condemnation. After the delivery of the sentence the Signori and the
Compagnie of the People, with their banners, went to take him. Messer
Corso, whose courage failed not when he saw himself abandoned by many
and heard of his condemnation, was not abashed by the authority of the
Signori or the number of his assailants, but fortified his houses, hoping to
be able to defend himself until the arrival of Uguccione, to whom he had
sent for help. His houses and the streets near by had been closed by him and
fortified by his adherents, and their defence was so valiant that the people,

although numerous, could not advance. The struggle was great, with dead
and wounded on both sides. Seeing that nothing was to be done in the open
the people took possession of the houses adjoining his and, breaking
through the walls, burst into his house. Finding himself surrounded by
enemies and despairing of victory, or of aid from Uguccione, Messer Corso
decided to try and save his life. Placing himself and Gherardo Bordoni at
the head of some of his strongest and most trusted friends, he charged the
enemy with such impetuosity that they fell back, and fighting he was able to
pass through their ranks and leave the city by the Porta Sta. Croce. Many,
however, pursued him, Gherardo was killed on the banks of the Affrico by
Boccaccio Cavicciulli, whilst some Catalan horsemen, soldiers of the
Signoria, came up with Messer Corso at Rovezzano and took him prisoner.
On the way back to Florence, to avoid meeting his victorious enemies face
to face and being tortured by them, he threw himself off his horse, and thus,
lying on the ground, was killed by one of his captors. The monks of S. Salvi
found his body and buried it without any honours. Such was the end of
Messer Corso, to whom both his country and the Black Party owed much
good and much ill. Had his disposition been of a gentler kind, his memory
would be more honoured.” Dino Compagni says that Corso Donati was ill
and suffering from gout at the time of his flight. “Much talk there was of the
evil manner of his death, according as to whether they were friends or
enemies,” continues the old chronicler, “but to speak truthfully his life was
perilous [for the quiet of Florence] and his death was blameworthy. He was
a knight of great courage and of old name, of gentle blood and well-
mannered, very handsome, even in his old age, finely built, with delicate
features and a pale complexion; a pleasant, wise and ornate speaker, and
always occupied with important affairs, a consort and a friend of great lords
and noble persons, counting many adherents and renowned throughout
Italy. He was an enemy to the people and to popular government, well-
loved by his partisans, but full of evil designs, wicked and astute.”

PALAZZO FERONI (NOW AMERIGHI)

Via de’ Serragli. No. 6.
A peasant named Balducci, from Vinci, was the ancestor of the Feroni
family. One of his descendants, of the name of Ferone, established himself
at Empoli as a dyer, and had dealings with Holland, where his grandson
Francesco Feroni made a large fortune. Prince Cosimo de’ Medici made his
acquaintance during his travels, and when he became Grand Duke
summoned him to Florence, made him a citizen and a Senator, and in 1681
Marquess of Bellavista. He left an enormous fortune to his descendants, one
of whom bought several houses in Via de’ Serragli, and built this large
palace, which the Marquess Ubaldo Feroni enlarged in 1778. It was
afterwards again considerably augmented by the addition of the suppressed
church and monastery of S. Giuseppe, when another entrance into the
spacious courtyard was made from Via S. Frediano. In the same year his
brother the Marquess Alessandro bought the larger half of the ancient
Palazzo Spini, which is sometimes called Feroni. In another palace in the
Via Faenza they had a gallery of pictures, which the last of the family
bequeathed to the city of Florence in 1850.

PALAZZO RICASOLI FIRIDOLFI

Via Maggio. No. 7.
The fine palace now inhabited by the Baroness Ricasoli Firidolfi and
her children was built by the Ridolfi family on the site of houses belonging
to various families, in the XVth century, and bought in 1736 by Maria
Lucrezia Firidolfi for her sons. The architect is unknown, but the palace,
with its fine courtyard, evidently dates from the XVth century. On the first
floor is a tiny chapel, entirely painted in oils by Giorgio Vasari in a manner
very different from his usual style. Above the altar is a marble bas-relief of
the Madonna and Child with S. John, by Rossellini.
The history of this family is a complicated and a curious one. Divided
in the XIIth century into three branches, of which one retained the old name
of Firidolfi, whilst the other two took that of Ricasoli, they were again
reunited after eight hundred years in the person of the late Baron Giovanni
Ricasoli Firidolfi. His mother was the only daughter of the great statesman
Baron Bettino Ricasoli, his father the sole surviving son of Giovanni
Francesco Ricasoli di Meleto, who married the only daughter of the last of
the Firidolfi, whose name he added to his own.
One of those long-bearded northmen (Longobardi), who came into Italy
in the VIth century, is said to have settled in the Mugello. But the first of the
family of whom we have documentary evidence is Geremia, son of
Ildebrando, lord of great estates in the Mugello and of nearly the whole
province of the Chianti, who being old, and without children, made large
donations to the Church. On the death of his first wife he married a young
girl, by whom he had one son, Ridolfo, inscribed among the great Barons of
Tuscany in a deed of 1029. From him the family took the name of Firidolfi
(de filiis Rudolphi). Ranieri Firidolfi fought under Frederick Barbarossa,
and obtained in fief the castles of Campi and of Tornano, and, according to
a tradition in the family, the strong castle of Brolio. This originally
belonged to Bonifazio, Marquess of Tuscany, who in 1009 gave it to the

monks of the Badia of Florence, a donation confirmed by the Emperor
Henry II. in 1012, and by Henry IV. in 1074. Henry VI. not only confirmed
his father’s gifts to Ranieri, but added to them the castles of Moriano and of
Ricasoli, not far from Fiesole, from which the most powerful branch of the
family took its name.
Alberto Ricasoli, Ranieri’s son, served under the Emperor Otho IV.,
who increased the privileges bestowed by former emperors, and in 1230 he
was elected Podestà of Siena. From his sons Ranieri and Ugo descended the
Ricasoli di Meleto of Ponte alla Carraja, and the great baronial family. Ugo
fought in the Guelph ranks at Montaperti, and in revenge the Ghibellines
destroyed his castle of Ricasoli, for which he obtained compensation when
his party returned to power. Bindaccio, his grandson, showed such valour at
the battles of Montecatini and Altopascio that the Bolognese chose him as
their Podestà, and Cardinal Albornoz made him Captain-General of the
Papal forces. One of his sons was a Bishop of Florence, whilst another,
Albertaccio, was so gallant a soldier that at his death in 1335 the Republic
gave him a public funeral, and decreed that his arms, with the banner of the
people and of the Guelph party, should be placed above his tomb in Sta.
Croce.
Ranieri Ricasoli di Meleto, a strong partisan of the Medici, was sent to
Flanders after the Pazzi conspiracy to sequester the monies in their banks in
Bruges, Ghent, etc. He was a very rich merchant, and built the stately old
Ricasoli palace on the Lung’Arno Corsini in 1480, said to have been
designed by Michelozzi (now the Hotel New York). Cinelli describes the
fine collection of pictures, and the beautiful garden and loggia opposite
(where now is the Hotel Bristol), then connected with the palace by a
33
passage under the street. One of Ranieri’s descendants was an intimate
friend of Alfieri, whose tragedy Saul was first acted in the private theatre of
the Ricasoli palace.
Simone Ricasoli, son of Ranieri, was brought up with Lorenzo the
Magnificent, and when the young Cardinal Giovanni, his son, went to
Rome, Lorenzo confided him to the care of his devoted friend. On Giovanni
becoming Pope as Leo X., he summoned another Ricasoli, Antonio, to
direct the iniquitous war which despoiled the Della Rovere of the Duchy of
Urbino in favour of his own nephew Lorenzo de’ Medici. The assault and

capture of the strong fortress of S. Leo was famous in the annals of that
time. In 1526 he was Commissary of the war with Siena, and the defeat of
the Florentine troops was attributed to him; so on the exile of the Medici the
following year he was condemned to death and his estates were forfeited.
He escaped to Rome, and found an asylum with Clement VII. until Florence
was once more ruled by the Medici, when he was created a Senator. After
the battle of Montemurlo he sat as one of the judges, and was distinguished
for the harsh brutality of his sentences on the wretched prisoners. His sons
served Cosimo I. well by sowing discord in Siena, and when the city fell
into the hands of the Duke he rewarded Giulio Ricasoli by restoring to him
the old feudal castles of Trappola, Rocca Guicciarda and Sagona, which the
Florentine Republic had confiscated in 1395. Giulio then reassumed the old
title of Baron, which his ancestors had refused to exchange for the higher
one of Count. The name of Ricasoli is connected with the island of Malta,
as Giovanfrancesco, a knight of the Order, gave such large sums towards
34
building the fortifications that one of the forts was named after him.
The life of Bettino Ricasoli, one of the makers of United Italy, is too
well known to need repetition here, and would take up too much space. “Il
fiero Barone” (the proud, or great, Baron), as the Florentines called him (he
was, I believe, the only Baron of Tuscany), died in an old family palace in
the Via del Cocomero, now, according to the baneful habit they have in
Florence of altering the names of ancient streets, and thus sweeping away
the historical landmarks of the city, the Via Ricasoli.

PALAZZO FOSSI

Via de’ Benci. No. 20.
Nearly all the palaces on the eastern side of Via de’ Benci once
belonged to the Alberti and the street was called after them, until the Benci
crossed the Arno and established themselves here, when it became Via de’
Benci. This palace was bought from Francesco degl’Alberti in 1456 by
Duccio Mellini, whose family were rich bankers and great patrons of the
arts. The fine pulpit in Sta. Croce by Benedetto da Majano was erected by
them. Michelangelo has been named as the architect of the characteristic
and elegant palace, but it bears no resemblance to his handiwork, and
evidently dates from the middle of the XVIth century. It is one of the few
which still preserves, though in a sad state of ruin, a frescoed façade,
painted by Stalf, a Flemish artist, after the designs of Francesco Salviati.
The Mellini sold it in 1634, since when it has changed hands often, and now
belongs to Signor Fossi.

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI.

PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI

Piazza de’ Frescobaldi. No. 1.
Many were the houses belonging to the great family of Frescobaldi in
the Borgo S. Jacopo and in the Via S. Spirito, besides the great palace in the
Piazza de’ Frescobaldi. Opposite to the latter stood one of their towers and
their loggia, of which a capital remains built into the wall of a small house.
Another tower was near the church of S. Jacopo. The old palace in the
Piazza in which Pope Gregory lodged in 1272 was burnt during the popular
rising in 1343, but was rebuilt with greater magnificence. Afterwards it
became a monastery, but when Florence became the capital the monks gave
place to the Admiralty. It is now a communal school, and the fine façade is
fast falling to pieces.
According to Verino, the Frescobaldi came originally from Germany.
They were lords of several castles in the Val di Pesa in very early times, and
their name appears among the first Consuls and Elders of Florence. One of
them, Messer Lamberto di Fresco di Baldo, built the first bridge (of wood)
of Sta. Trinita across the Arno in 1252. His sons Lapo and Neri fought at the
battle of Montaperti on the side of the Guelphs, and their cousin Berto rode
by the side of King Charles of Anjou and bore his banner at the famous
battle of Campaldino in 1282. Three years later Ghino de’ Frescobaldi was
created a Prior, but the power, military fame and riches, of the family
aroused the jealousy of the popular party. As Grandi they were declared
incapable of holding any office, which they bitterly resented; and were
driven to fury by the exile of Teglia de’ Frescobaldi, who had led the
Florentine army to victory in 1303, and was too popular with his soldiers to
please a republican government. Swearing to be revenged, he took service
with Castruccio Castrocane, Lord of Lucca, and attempted to seize
Montelupo and Capraja, while some of his relatives conspired to open the
gates of Florence to her enemy. All those who were implicated in the plot
were banished, and the cruelty and injustice of the newly created

magistrate, “the Preserver of Peace,” drove the Grandi to desperation, and
ended in the revolt of the great Oltrarno families, so graphically described
by Villani (see p. 40). For some hours the Frescobaldi defended their Piazza
and palaces, but were at last forced to capitulate. Their houses and towers
were destroyed, and those members of the family who were not beheaded or
imprisoned, were banished.
There must also be mentioned the poet Dino de’ Frescobaldi, called by
Boccaccio “famosissimo dicitore in rima in Firenze.” The world owes him a
vast debt of gratitude, for he contrived to save the first seven cantos of the
Inferno, when all that belonged to his friend Dante was confiscated, and
sent them after him to the Marchese Malaspina’s castle in the Lunigiana.
Matteo, Dino’s son, was also a poet, and Lionardo, whose interesting
account of his travels in Egypt and the Holy Land in 1383 has been
published, was, it is believed, a descendant of his.
Battista de’ Frescobaldi conspired against Lorenzo the Magnificent and
was beheaded, and his brother Giuliano died by the side of Ferruccio
Ferrucci in the battle of Gavinana. Bartolomeo was so ardent a republican
that he withdrew from the world when the Medici attained to power, but his
descendant Matteo was made a Senator in 1645. The present representative
of the Frescobaldi lives in one of the old family palaces in Via S. Spirito.

PALAZZO GHERADESCA

Borgo Pinti. No. 93.
The historian Bartolommeo Scala, son of a miller of Colle in the Val
d’Elsa, built this palace. Cosimo de’ Medici, and his son Piero after him,
paid for his education, and he became Chancellor of the Republic of
Florence and was Gonfalonier of Justice in 1486. His learning was
undeniable, but Lorenzo the Magnificent evidently was not satisfied with
his Latin style, as he privately made Poliziano correct the despatches and
letters written by Scala in the name of the Republic. At length the
Chancellor suspected who was the real author of the corrections and a
deadly hatred ensued between the two men. The hatred was embittered by
the refusal of Scala’s beautiful and clever daughter Alessandra to listen to
Poliziano, and by her marriage with Michael Tarcagnota, an inferior poet,
but a better-tempered and a better-looking man than the famous Agnolo
Poliziano.
Guido Scala, Bartolommeo’s grandson, died childless in 1581 and left
the palace to Alessandro de’ Medici, Archbishop of Florence, afterwards
Pope Leo XI. It then became the property of the Counts Gheradesca who
laid out a beautiful garden and now it belongs to the Meridionale Railway
Company.

PALAZZO GIANFIGLIAZZI

Via Tornabuoni. No. 1.
The palace, or rather the palaces, of the great family of the
Gianfigliazzi faced the Ponte a Sta. Trinita at the corner of the Lung’Arno
Corsini and the Via Tornabuoni. As Guelphs they were expelled the city
after the battle of Montaperti in 1260, but returned, and three of them
signed the famous peace of 1280. Eight years later their palaces were nearly
destroyed by the terrible flood which did so much damage in Florence. The
palaces Nos. 2 and 4 on the Lung’Arno Corsini also belonged to them; in
the former, with the lion of the Gianfigliazzi carved by Desiderio da
Settignano in the coat of arms on the façade, the great poet Alfieri lived for
some time, and there he died.
At the beginning of the XVth century they bought from the Fastelli the
palace adjoining the church of Sta. Trinita, with a tower which had been
built by the Ruggerini, a Guelph family who were ruined in 1260. The arms
of the three different owners are still on the façade. The loggia of the
Gianfigliazzi, on the opposite side of the church at the corner of the Via di
Parione, was only closed and turned into a shop in 1732.
The Gianfigliazzi descend from a Giovanni son of Azzo (Gianni figlio
d’Azzo), who signed a convention with Siena in 1201. Two of the family
sat in the Council of Elders in 1278 and 1279; a few years later they were
excluded from office as nobles and their name only appears again among
the magistrates of the city after the departure of the tyrant Duke of Athens.
Geri de’ Gianfigliazzi was a poet and a friend of Petrarch; Rinaldo, sent as
Commissary of War against Visconti, was created a Count of the Holy
Roman Empire by the Emperor Robert in 1402; and Bongianni, another
gallant soldier, was publicly knighted by the Signoria in 1467 and died at
the head of his troops under the walls of Pietrasanta. His son Jacopo was
one of the twelve citizens named by Clement VII. to “reform” the State and
elect Alessandro de’ Medici absolute ruler of Florence. Several of the

family were Senators under the Medici, until the family became extinct in
1764.

PALAZZO GINORI

Via de’ Ginori. No. 2.
The Ginori palace once belonged to Bacio Bandinelli who died there in
1559. There is a fine courtyard and the large saloon on the first floor is
handsome; the building has been restored but not much spoiled. The Ginori
descend from a notary who came to Florence from Calenzano, in the Val di
Marino, in 1304, and lived close to the present palace of his descendants.
His son Gino was the first of twenty-six Priors of the family and from him
they took their name. Piero his grandson, the first Gonfalonier of five of his
house in 1423, was an important person in the city and a friend of Giovanni
de’ Medici, with whom he contributed towards the building of S. Lorenzo.
Benvenuto Cellini tells us that for Federigo Ginori, “a young man of a
very lofty spirit,” he made a medal “with Atlas bearing the world upon his
shoulders, and applied to Michelangelo for a design. Michelangelo made
this answer: ‘Go and find out a young goldsmith named Benvenuto; he will
serve you admirably, and certainly he does not stand in need of sketches by
me. However to prevent your thinking that I want to save myself the trouble
of so slight a matter, I will gladly sketch you something; but meanwhile
speak to Benvenuto, and let him make a model, he can then execute the
better of the two designs.’ Federigo Ginori came to me, and told me what he
wanted, adding thereto how Michelangelo had praised me, and how he had
suggested I should make a waxen model while he undertook to supply a
sketch. The words of that great man so heartened me, that I set to work at
once with eagerness ... and when Michelangelo saw it, he praised it to the
skies. This was a figure, as I have said, chiselled on a plate of gold; Atlas
had the heaven upon his back, made out of a crystal ball, engraved with the
zodiac upon a field of lapis-lazuli. The whole composition produced an
indescribably fine effect; and under it ran the legend Summa tulisse
35
juvat.” Federigo was killed during the siege of Florence and his brother
Leonardo, a spendthrift and a gambler, was the husband of the beautiful

Caterina Soderini, whose story is a sad one. Forced by her father to forget
her early love the poet Luigi Alamanni, and married to Leonardo Ginori,
who had to fly to Naples to escape from his creditors, she was exposed to
the persecutions of the Duke Alessandro de’ Medici, and was the innocent
cause of his murder (see p. 263). Her son Bartolommeo, famed for his
strength and great stature, was chosen by Giovan Bologna for the model of
the young man in his group of the rape of the Sabines. From him descended
the Senator Carlo Ginori who founded the well-known china manufactory
at Doccia near Florence in 1740. He chartered a ship for China and she
brought back, not only models and specimens of the various earths used in
making china, but many rare plants and the first gold fish that were seen in
36
Europe. The present Marquess Ginori lives in the old palace, and the
Doccia factory, which has become a Company under the name of Richard
Ginori, still keeps up its reputation.

PALAZZO GINORI CONTI

Via Cavour. No. 7.
From the Riccardi palace to Via Guelfa nearly all the houses once
belonged to various members of the Medici family, who migrated from
their original dwellings in the centre of Florence to settle near S. Lorenzo,
and in this palace, often mentioned as “la casa vecchia” (the old house),
Cosimo the Elder was born. In those days the upper storeys of most of the
buildings projected over the street, supported on brackets of stone or of
wood, until in 1536 peremptory orders were given to demolish all the over-
hanging façades in Via Larga and to rebuild them straight up from the
ground floor, for the entrance into the city of Margarita of Austria, the bride
of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici. The house was sold by Ferdinando II. to
the Ughi, and after changing hands several times was bought by
Giovacchino Rossini, to whose memory an inscription was placed on the
front of the house. It now belongs to Prince Ginori Conti.
The often repeated story that Lorenzino de’ Medici’s house was
destroyed and a street, called the Chiasso del Traditore, made where it
stood, is entirely opposed to all documentary evidence. In 1537 Lorenzino
was condemned as a traitor and according to old custom the front of his
house, or rather of the room in which he murdered his cousin Alessandro,
was torn down. In 1568, 1604 and 1611, when the “old house” and that of
Lorenzino passed from one member of the Medici family to another, the
latter is always mentioned as “partly destroyed.” When the two houses were
sold to Alamanno Ughi in 1646 the description runs: “a large house in Via
Larga, with the destroyed part adjoining the said house and the rooms
which are in the said destroyed part.” The new proprietor let the ground
floor “under the ruined part of the small house” as a shop in 1648, but fifty
years later the shop was turned into stables. It was only in 1736, as we learn
from the Diario of Settimanni, that “Ughi finished restoring his house in
Via Larga adjoining the palace of the Marchese Cosimo Riccardi. This was

the house which belonged to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco di Lorenzo de’
Medici, who exactly two hundred years ago murdered the Duke
Alessandro.... Until this restoration the hole, over sixteen braccie wide,
which had been made in the front of the house was to be seen.” There is no
mention of any street, nor of any prohibition as to building on the site of the
house in which the murder had been committed. Signor Corrazzini however
states that Ughi, having heard a rumour that some such prohibition existed,
petitioned the Grand Duke to affirm that he and his heirs were at liberty to
37
build on the site as they pleased, and this Ferdinando did. The house is
No. 5. Via Cavour, with three windows, wedged in between the Palazzo
Riccardi and the palace of Prince Ginori Conti.

PALAZZO GINORI-VENTURI

Via della Scala. No. 89.
This palace was built by Bernardo Rucellai on the site of an old leper
hospital, and annexed to it were the celebrated Oricellari gardens, meeting
place of the Platonic Academy founded by Cosimo the Elder. Vasari states
that Leon Battista Alberti “designed the house and the garden of the
Rucellai in Via della Scala, the house is built with great knowledge and is
most convenient, having among other things two loggie, one to the south,
the other to the west, both are beautiful.” But Vasari is wrong, as the
gardens were bought and the house was built in 1482, two years after the
death of Alberti. In these gardens Machiavelli read aloud his Discourses on
the First Decade of Livy to the assembled academicians, and Giovanni
Rucellai’s Rosmunda was acted before Leo X. on his first visit to Florence
after his election as pope. When the conspiracy against the Cardinal Giulio
de’ Medici was discovered, in which Machiavelli was implicated, and
which cost two of the members their lives, the Academy was suppressed.
The palace and the gardens were confiscated by the Medici in 1527, but
given back to the Rucellai four years later by the Duke Alessandro. In 1537
Palla Rucellai was despoiled of all his possessions for opposing the election
of Cosimo, son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, to the throne. Palace and
gardens then became the abode, first of Eleonora degl’Albizzi, mistress of
Cosimo I., and afterwards of Bianca Cappello, the account of whose
wonderful entertainment to the Grand Duke Francesco I., her lover, is
38
curious reading. It then passed to the Orsini, and in 1640 became the
property of the Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, whose wild orgies and
bacchanalian feasts made a strange contrast to the philosophical discussions
of the academicians of former days. On the death of the Cardinal, leaving
immense debts, gardens and palace were bought by Ferdinando Ridolfi,
Marquis of Montescudaro. The Strozzi inherited the property, and sold it to
Prince Orloff. It now belongs to the Marquis Ippolito Ginori, whose wife is

a descendant of the original owner, Rucellai; but the Oricellari gardens have
been barbarously cut in two, and their glory has departed.

PALAZZO GIUGNI

Via degl’Alfani.

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO GIUGNI.

Bartolomeo Ammannati built this palace for the rich merchant Simone
da Firenzuola in 1577. He died soon afterwards, leaving a will forbidding
his sons, or their heirs, “to dare, or to presume, either inter vivos, or by last

will or testament for any reason whatever, to sell, give away or alienate, the
said house.” In case his sons had no children the property was to go to the
descendants of his brother Carlo, and failing them, to those of his daughter
Virginia, married to Vincenzio Giugni. None of his sons had any children,
so in 1640 the palace came into the possession of his Giugni grandchildren.
The Giugni claimed descent from Junius Brutus, and were always Guelphs.
The first Prior of fifty they gave to Florence was Ugolino, in 1291, and his
descendant Bernardo, a man of great ability and consummate prudence, was
the chosen spokesman when there was a popular tumult. Messer Galeotto
Giugni, a staunch republican, was exiled, and together with his son,
murdered at Rome by emissaries of Cosimo I. Vincenzio Giugni, husband
of Virginia Firenzuola, became a Senator in 1600, a dignity also conferred
on his son Niccolò, who married Cassandra, the last of the noble house of
Bandini of Rome. The fine collection of ancient statues belonging to her
uncle, Cardinal Ottavio Bandini, was brought to Florence and placed in the
garden of the palace. Cinelli gives an account of them, as well as of the
pictures in the gallery, in his Bellezze della Città di Firenze.
In 1830 the palace was sold to the Della Porta family, who still own it,
and in 1871 it was admirably restored by the architect De Fabris, who
scrupulously avoided adding to, or altering, the work of Ammannati. The
coat-of-arms of the Firenzuola, a tiger girt with a golden girdle and holding
a sickle in his right paw, is on the façade. In the latter half of the last
century Palazzo Giugni was much frequented by English visitors to
Florence, as Mr. Spence, a popular and well-known personage, inhabited
the second floor during the winter.

PALAZZO GONDI

Piazza S. Firenze. No. 1.
The progenitor of the great family of the Gondi, whose descendants
played an important part in French history, was a certain Bellincozzo, who
owned a house and a tower in the XIIth century near Sta. Maria degl’Ughi,
in Florence. One of his descendants, Forte, signed the peace with Genoa in
1201, and from his grandson Gondo the family took their name. Geri de’
Gondi lent money to the Republic of Florence, his name appearing as a
large creditor in 1324, and a few years later that of his son Simone, who
solemnly swore allegiance to the Guelph party in 1351. But seven years
afterwards he was accused of intriguing in favour of the Ghibellines, and he
and his descendants were declared incapable of holding office. This
sentence was annulled in 1438 in favour of his grandson, Simone, who was
elected Gonfalonier of Justice, and lent 8,000 golden florins to the State.
His brother Leonardo sold the old family house and tower near Sta. Maria
degl’Ughi to Palla Novello Strozzi in the XVth century, and in 1488 his son
Giuliano began to build the fine palace in Piazza San Firenze; Giuliano da
San Gallo, with whom he had made a close friendship at Naples, being his
architect. He rendered such services to King Ferdinando of Naples that he
offered him a large pension, but Gondi, being, as the Florentines say, “all of
one piece,” refused, on the plea that no citizen of a free republic should
accept money from a foreign potentate. So Ferdinando’s son, King Alfonso,
bestowed on him the privilege of placing a ducal crown in his coat-of-arms.
Giuliano was twice Gonfalonier of Justice, and died in 1501, before his
magnificent palace was finished.

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO GONDI.

A cousin of his, Giovanbattista Gondi, went to Paris, became a
naturalized French citizen and married a lady-in-waiting of Queen
Catherine. Having no children he adopted his nephew Girolamo, a clever
politician employed by the Queen and her sons after her in various delicate
missions. He received Henri IV. and his bride on their entry into Paris in the
fine Hôtel de Gondi built by him, but which his son Jean Baptiste was
forced to sell. It was bought by the King, who gave it to the Prince de
Condé. He also built a palace in Florence near Sta. Maria Maggiore, which
was sold to the Orlandini. Another Gondi, Alberto, married the gouvernante
of the royal children, widow of the Baron de Retz. A distinguished soldier
he was in such favour at Court that he was sent by Charles IX. as his proxy
to marry Elisabeth of Austria. In 1573 he became a Marshal of France, and
some years later was one of the hundred noblemen of high birth who first
received the Order of St. Esprit. In 1584 he was created Duc de Retz, and
was in command of the troops when Henri IV. entered Paris. His eldest son
Charles, Marquis de Belle-Isle, married the Princesse Antoinette d’Orleans,
daughter of the Duc de Longueville and of the Princesse de Bourbon, and
was killed before Mont St. Michel when only twenty-seven. Another son,
Henri, in whose favour his uncle the Cardinal de Gondi retired, became
Bishop of Paris. The youngest was the first Archbishop of Paris, and his
nephew Jean François Paul, the famous Cardinal de Retz who joined the
ranks of the Fronde after incurring the enmity of Mazarin, succeeded him.
Imprisoned by order of the King in the castle of Nantes, he contrived to
escape to Spain, and embarked on a galley lent to him by the King for
Piombino. After passing some years in Rome he resigned his archbishopric,
and was allowed to return to France in 1662, when the King made him
39
Abbot of St. Denis, where he wrote his well-known memoirs.
But to return to the stately palace in Florence which Giuliano de’ Gondi
began in 1488, and by will charged his sons to finish. The courtyard and the
balustrade of the staircase, decorated with delicate carvings of animals and
foliage, are among the finest things San Gallo ever did. In the large room
upstairs is a handsome wooden ceiling, and a beautiful fireplace with a
frontone, or mantel-front, also by San Gallo, representing the triumph of
Neptune, and two statues of Hercules and of Samson. “It is so richly carved
and so varied in style, and so beautiful,” writes Vasari, “that naught like it
had been seen before, nor one with so many figures.” The old Roman statue

in the palace is mentioned in a letter from Giuliano da San Gallo’s son,
Francesco, to the head of the hospital of the Innocenti. “My father told
Michelangelo that the statue in the house of the Gondi represents a Consul,
and was found when the foundations for the palace of the Guelph party
were being dug, where once existed the baths. He carried it to the Gondi
palace, which he was then building, with the intention of placing it at the
corner in the Piazza. But this was not done, as the palace was not finished.”
The fountain in the courtyard was erected by the descendant and
namesake of Giuliano de’ Gondi, and by special grace he was allowed by
the Grand Duke Ferdinando I. to take water from the fountain in the Piazza
della Signoria. When Florence became the capital of Italy the Via de’ Gondi
was too narrow for the increased traffic, and a large portion of the old
palace was taken off, but the southern façade was admirably rebuilt. The
palace still belongs to the Gondi family.

PALAZZO GRIFFONI (now GATTAI-BUDINI)

Via de’ Servi. No. 57.

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO GRIFFONI.

About 1250 the Servites bought so much more land than was necessary
for their church, convent and orchard, that a large space was left in front of
the church. In winter the mud was knee deep, and in summer the faithful
were enveloped in clouds of dust when they went to mass. So the friars

petitioned the Captains of the Guelph party to make a paved road from the
Via de’ Servi to the S.S. Annunziata. In 1464 the Prior of the Order decided
to sell some of the waste land near the Via de’ Servi, and the first buyer was
Puccio Pucci. He did not carry out the covenants of the sale, and the land
was sold to Roberto de’ Ricci in 1515; some thirty years later his sons ceded
their rights to the brothers Griffoni. Ugolino Griffoni, secretary to
Ramazzotto, the confidential adviser of Cosimo I., held, among other rich
benefices, that of Maestro dell’ Altopascio and had the title of Monsignore
as an Apostolic Pronotary. He, like many of the Duke’s courtiers, called in
Bartolomeo Ammannati as his architect, and the contract between them of
40
4th September 1563 still exists in the State archives. Ten years later the
marble coat-of-arms, which is now on the façade in the Piazza, was placed
above the central window in Via de’ Servi. The balcony was one of the first
works by Gian Bologna, but the palace was only entirely finished in 1772
by Pietro Griffoni.
Cinelli writes in the Bellezze della Città di Firenze, “This beautifully
proportioned and ornate palace, with a fine frieze under windows of the
Doric order, was built by Bernardo Buontalenti;” but he cannot have seen
the above-mentioned contract, nor can Vasari have known of it, as he states
that the architect was Giuliano di Baccio d’Agnolo. This is impossible, as
Giuliano died two years before Ugolino Griffoni demolished the shops
belonging to the first owner of the land. Additional proof that Ammannati
was the architect of the fine palace, one of the few instances in Florence of
an unplastered red brick building, exists in the Riccardiana library, in a
book treating of arithmetic, geometry, etc., in which Ammannati made
architectural sketches. Among them are a sketch of chimney-piece, the plan
of a loggia, and some drawings of doors, all marked “for I’Altopasso.”
In 1800 Gaetano Griffoni sold his family palace to the Marquess
Ferdinando Riccardi at whose death it went to his heir the Marquess
Mannelli (who took the name of Riccardi). He sold it to the Antinori family
in 1847. When, about forty years later, the palace was bought by Cav. Gattai
and his son-in-law Signor Budini, but little remained of the beautiful
friezes; the stone-work of the windows was crumbling away, and the
cornice had not been completed. The palace has been admirably restored by
the architect Boccini, who among other things did away with the shutters,

which disfigured the façade and were destroying the fine ornamentation of
the windows.

PALAZZO GUADAGNI

Piazza S. Spirito. No. 11.
This noble palace, with its arched windows and its beautiful loggia
supported by fine columns, was built for Rinieri Dei towards the end of the
XVth century by Cronaca, on the site of houses belonging to the ancient
family of Bischieri. The lantern at the corner resembles those of the Strozzi
palace, and is probably by the famous Niccolò Grosso, surnamed il Caparra.
The first of the Dei family to attain eminence in Florence were
Giovanni di Deo, one of the twelve Buonomini in 1445, and his brother
Domenico, ambassador to the Court of Naples. Miliano was a Prior in 1743,
and his brother Benedetto went, amongst other places, as ambassador to
Constantinople, where he stayed seven years and was so trusted by the
Sultan that he despatched him on a mission to Damascus. He has left an
interesting chronicle of contemporary events in Florence. The magnificent
palace at the corner of the Piazza S. Spirito was let in 1568 by Rinieri’s son
for two years to Don Garcia di Toledo, brother of Eleonora, wife of Cosimo
I. Giovanni, last of the Dei family, died in 1683, and left his patrimony to
the Buonomini di S. Martino, a confraternity which still exists and does
much good among the poor who are ashamed to beg. They sold the palace
the following year to Donato Guadagni.

PALAZZO GUADAGNI.

41
Progenitor of the Guadagni, according to Passerini, was Guittone, son
of Migliore of S. Martino di Lubaco, a village on the slopes of Monte Croce
in the diocese of Fiesole. The Guadagni arms, a cross edged with thorns,
confirms this, that particular spot being called Croce alla Spina. Ser
Guadagno di Guitto, his descendant, must have attained a foremost position
in Florence, as he was one of the three Priors of Guilds who, together with
the Consuls, ruled the city in 1204, and his son Gianni was an Elder fifty
years later. The Guadagni were Guelphs; and Gianni and his young son
Pierotto fought at Montaperti in 1260, and were exiled with so many of the
other great Florentine families. On the return of his party to power, Pierotto,
who was one of the richest bankers in Florence, was twice elected
Gonfalonier of Justice; but before his death in 1298 the bank failed, and his
palace close to the Duomo, near the old Porta a Balla, was let to Antonio
Orsi, the warlike Bishop of Florence.
The Guadagni seem to have been a hot-headed, quarrelsome race.
Migliorozzo fought with distinction against Henry VII, and again at
Montecatini and at Altopascio. In 1327 he attacked and wounded his cousin
Gherardo, and then attempted to poison him and his wife. The latter died
from the effects of the poisoned cakes, and Migliorozzo was fined and
condemned to lose his right hand and his left foot, but was pardoned at the
intercession of Gherardo. Lapo Guadagni was beheaded in 1344 for
attempting to assassinate his cousin Filippo and killing a priest who
defended him. In 1410 Antonio Guadagni also lost his head for trying to
defraud the Commune of Florence by swearing that a certain Gaspero was
the son of Francesco da Carrara, Lord of Padua, who had been strangled by
the Venetians, to enable him to draw out money deposited by his supposed
father in the Monte.
Bernardo Guadagni is well known as the man whose debts were paid
by Rinaldo degl’Albizzi, in order that he might be elected Gonfalonier of
Justice and sentence Cosimo de’ Medici to exile, who only escaped a worse
fate by bribing the Gonfalonier. Antonio, his son, fought with distinction
against both Visconti and Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, but the return of
Cosimo in 1434 was fatal to all the adherents of the Albizzi. Declared a
rebel for not taking up his residence in Barcelona, to which place he was
exiled for ten years, Antonio was taken prisoner at Fermo in 1436 and
beheaded. The curious thing is that twenty-two years later he was again

condemned to death as a rebel, and the sentence had to be revoked as
impossible of execution against a dead man. A cousin of his, Tommaso,
born in Savoy and married to a Frenchwoman, made so large a fortune by
trade that “riche comme Gadagne” became a proverbial saying in Lyons,
where he built a magnificent hospital and a fine house in the street named
after him. He left his money and many domains to his nephew and
namesake, whose descendants became French citizens with French titles,
Conte de Verdun, Baron de Beauregard, de Champeroux, etc.
Jacopo, a nephew of Tommaso, remained in Italy, and bowed his neck
to the yoke of the Medici. He was made a Senator in 1561 by Cosimo I. and
occupied himself, as did also his two sons, in adorning the Guadagni palace
near the Duomo. His grandson, Pierantonio, began the splendid gallery, the
library and the museum of antiquities, which became famous in the XVIIIth
century and in the beginning of the XIXth, after his father had bought the
splendid old palace of the Dei. Ortensia Guadagni married a nephew of
Pope Leo XI. and after his death became lady-in-waiting to Vittoria della
Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, whose education she had
superintended. Created a Marchioness in her own right, an unheard-of thing
in the Grand Duchy, she was invested with the feudal estate and castle of S.
Leolino del Conte, with the obligation of furnishing sixty-nine soldiers to
the State, and was allowed to leave her title to her brother Tommaso’s eldest
heirs male. He it was who employed Gherardo Silvani to build the palace
which afterwards passed into the possession of the Dukes of San Clemente
(see p. 303), and his son Francesco was a patron of the arts and an intimate
friend of Salvator Rosa. Alessandro, great-nephew of the Tommaso
Guadagno who settled in France, assassinated Andrea Davanzati in 1566,
and was condemned to death in contumaciam. After some years Catherine
de’ Medici obtained his pardon from her uncle the Grand Duke Francesco
I., and he returned to Florence, where he built, after the design of Gherardo
Silvani, says Passerini, a fine palace on the site of the old houses of his
family on the Piazza del Duomo, which now belongs to the Marchese
Strozzi of Mantua. Baldinucci, however, only mentions the coat-of-arms on
the palace as being the handiwork of Silvani. Marquess Neri Guadagni, who
died in 1862, left an only daughter, married to Marchese Dufour Berte,
whose son now owns the great palace in Piazza S. Spirito.

PALAZZO GUICCIARDINI

Via Guicciardini. No. 13.
This gloomy large palace was entirely rebuilt by Gherardo Silvani for
the Guicciardini, “changing it from the old to the modern form and creating
a fine staircase,” writes Baldinucci. It stands on the site of several houses
belonging to the Benizzi, where S. Filippo Benizzi, General of the Servite
Order, who out of humility declined the Papal tiara, was born in 1233.
The Guicciardini came from Poppiana in the Val di Pesa in the XIIth
century, and at once took their place among the rich bankers of Florence.
Forty-four of the family were Priors and sixteen became Gonfaloniers of
Justice, among them Luigi, who was accused of lack of energy at the time
of the Ciompi riots. By a whimsical coincidence the mob insisted on
knighting him in the Piazza della Signoria, whilst his house was being
plundered and burnt. His son Giovanni was Commissary of War with the
army of the League in Lombardy and again at Lucca in 1430, when the
defeat of the Florentine troops was attributed, not only to his want of
prudence, but to his love of gold. He was tried and acquitted; and there is
little doubt the accusation was false, promoted by Cosimo de’ Medici whom
Luigi had always opposed. Piero Guicciardini on the contrary favoured the
ambitious designs of Cosimo, and his son Luigi, when Podestà of Fermo in
1435, captured Antonio Guadagni, the great enemy of the Medici, and sent
him to Florence, where he was beheaded. Some years later Francesco
Sforza made Luigi Podestà of Milan. With the exception of the few months,
during which he was at different epochs Gonfalonier of Justice, most of his
life was spent out of Florence as ambassador to various Italian princes and
towns. His brother Niccolò married the daughter of the famous condottiere
Braccio di Fortebraccio, Lord of Perugia. He was one of the fifteen citizens
elected to govern Florence after the death of Leo X. who were dismissed as
too republican when Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici arrived in the city. Niccolò
was in danger of losing his head after the capitulation of Florence, as he had

been one of the most active of the Dieci di Guerra who conducted the
defence. His son Braccio, taken prisoner at Montemurlo, was condemned to
imprisonment for life in the fortress of Volterra.
The celebrated historian Francesco Guicciardini, nephew to Niccolò,
was born in 1482. At twenty-three he was already so able a lawyer that the
Signoria appointed him to read the Institutes in public; he then began to
practise at the bar and his reputation for eloquence, acumen and gravity,
obtained him the post of ambassador to Ferdinand the Catholic of Aragon,
from whom his enemies say he accepted a bribe. “Certain it is,” writes
Symonds, “that avarice was one of his besetting sins, and that from this
time forward he preferred expediency to justice, and believed in the policy
of supporting force by clever dissimulation.” In 1513 Leo X. came to
Florence, and discerning the ability of Francesco Guicciardini appointed
him Governor of Reggio and Modena, to which Parma was added in 1521.
Two years later Clement VII. made him Viceroy of the Romagna, and in
1527 Lieutenant-General of the Papal army with supreme authority. This,
Passerini declares, was the chief cause of the sack of Rome and the
imprisonment of the Pope, the Duke of Urbino disdaining to take orders
from a mere lawyer. In the same year he fruitlessly strove to uphold the
Medicean cause in Florence, only incurring the hatred of his fellow-citizens
and the bitter reproaches of the Pope, who accused him of want of energy.
Retiring to his villa near Arcetri he began his famous History, but alarmed
at the aspect of things in Florence, he fled to Rome in 1529 and was
declared a rebel. Three years later he returned as one of the twelve
magistrates who “reformed” the city according to the commands of
Clement VII. and the Emperor, “when,” as Varchi tells us, “Messer
Francesco Guicciardini was more cruel and more ferocious than the others”
[in punishing and proscribing the anti-Palleschi citizens]. He was elected to
the Senate of the Eighty, and undertook to defend the cause of the Duke
Alessandro de’ Medici before Charles V. at Naples, “which he did with such
ardour,” writes Bernardo Segni, “confuting the accusations one by one with
42
such contempt ... that the exiles styled him Messer Cerrettieri.” He won
the cause and Alessandro returned to Florence as absolute ruler. After the
murder of the Duke, Guicciardini thought that the young Cosimo would be
easily led, and supported his candidature to the throne with all his might.
But for once the astute lawyer had misjudged his man. Cosimo I. made him

understand that his advice was not wanted and that he intended to be sole
master in Florence, and Pitti writes: “when the Duke Cosimo dismissed him
together with certain of his colleagues his rage was great.... Astonished and
deeply hurt he retired to his villa of Sta. Margarita at Arcetri where, carried
away by anger, he re-wrote much of his History to prove that he did not
belong to the sect of the Palleschi; and where he could, he attempted to
43
show that he was but an instrument of the Republic.” He spent the last
year of his life in writing his famous histories and died, aged 58, on 22nd
May, 1540. Varchi says of him: “Messer Francesco, besides his noble birth,
his riches and his academical degree, and besides having been Governor
and Viceroy for the Pope, was highly esteemed and enjoyed a great
reputation; not only for his knowledge, but for his great practical
acquaintance with the affairs of the world and the actions of men. Of such
he would discourse admirably, and his judgment was sound. But his
conduct did not tally with his speech; being by nature proud and curt, he
was swayed sometimes by ambition, but oftener by avarice, in a manner
unbecoming to a well-bred and modest man.” For an analysis of
Guicciardini’s masterly Istoria d’Italia and Opere Inedite, I cannot do better
than refer my readers to J. A. Symonds’ brilliant pages in the first volume of
his Renaissance in Italy. The actual representative of the family, Count
Guicciardini, descends from a brother of the great historian and lives in the
old palace in which he was born and brought up.

PALAZZO LARDEREL

Via Tornabuoni. No. 19.

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO LARDEREL.

The Giacomini were among the illustrious families in olden days in
Florence, and their coat of arms is still to be seen on an angle of this
beautiful little palace. Messer Gherardo Tebalducci, a prominent citizen in
1280, had several sons, one of whom, for some unknown reason, dropped
the family name and adopted his own Christian name Giacomino as a
surname, which often occurs in the lists of the Priors. Antonio Giacomini
was a brave soldier who in 1498 saved Poppi from falling into the hands of
Alviano, four years later he acted as Commissary-General of the forces in

the war with Pisa and the following year he was sent with 500 men into the
Romagna against the Venetians. In 1504 he again fought the Pisans, seized
Ripafratta and other strong castles, and then marched against his old
antagonist Alviano, who was advancing to the help of Pisa, and routed him
at Campiglia. Jacopo Nardi tells us that notwithstanding such great services
the Republic of Florence let her old servant die in extreme poverty.
The Giacomini were zealous upholders of freedom. Francesco, one of
the Dieci di Guerra in 1529, was so violent in his hatred of the Medici, that
he denounced Carlo Cocchi for saying that it would be better not to expose
the city to the horrors of a siege and to capitulate at once, because after all
she belonged to the Medici. This ill-considered speech cost Cocchi his life.
Another of the Giacomini, taken prisoner at Montemurlo with Filippo
Strozzi, was beheaded in the Bargello.
A branch of the family must however have been fortunate in trade, as
Settimanni notes in his Diary, “on the 10th October, 1580, the beautiful
house of the Giacomini at S. Michele degl’Antinori was begun.” It is
curious that neither he nor any other contemporary writer gives the name of
the architect of the “Palagetto degl’ Giacomini,” as the Florentines lovingly
called the building they admired so much, but it is most probably the work
of Giovanni Battista Dosio of San Gemignano. It remained in the
possession of the family until the death of Lorenzo, last of the Giacomini, in
1764, who left it to his widow for life and then to the Michelozzi Boni.
After passing through various hands the palace was bought in 1839 by
Count F. de Larderel, a Frenchman who made a large fortune in borax at
Volterra, and whose daughter Countess Mirafiore now owns it.

PALAZZO LEONETTI (now DE WITTE)

Lung’Arno Guicciardini. No. 1.
A love-story, ending in a happy marriage, is symbolized in the quaint
ornamentation of the palace. Bernardo Vettori, surnamed “il Biondo” (the
fair-haired) died, leaving his widow Ginevra with one daughter, heiress to a
large fortune. Piero Salviati married the young widow and induced her to
affiance little Maddalena to his own son by a former marriage, but before
Maddalena was of marriageable age her intended husband was killed in
battle. In summer, like most Florentines, the Salviati went to their villa
which was near to one owned by young Lodovico Capponi. He fell
passionately in love with the golden-haired Maddalena, and she with him.
Her step-father opposed the marriage as he wanted to keep her fortune in
his own family, and he had influence enough at court to induce Duke
Cosimo I. to forbid it. In spite of her mother’s entreaties Maddalena was put
into a convent and every effort was made to provoke her lover, whose fiery
temper was well known, into committing some act of violence. Ginevra at
last succeeded in interesting the Duchess Eleonora in her behalf, who asked
Maddalena to stay at the Pitti palace for a few days. Instead of days she
remained months and, by order of the Duke, Lodovico Capponi’s name was
always mentioned with contempt and contumely, while Sigismondo de’
Rossi, a favourite of Cosimo, was lauded to the skies. Lodovico, thus
separated from Maddalena, determined that at any rate he would see her
from afar and took a house belonging to the Gianfigliazzi at Santa Trinita,
from the windows of which he could see the court pass over the bridge. The
Florentines took such interest in the lovers that a crowd always assembled
to watch the stolen glances they exchanged.
The Duchess was touched by the unhappiness and constancy of
Maddalena, and it is supposed that it was by her suggestion that one
morning at daylight an old woman appeared at Capponi’s bedside and bade
him go at once to the palace and fetch Maddalena, and to prepare

everything for the marriage. “In twenty-four hours,” writes an old
chronicler, “Lodovico, among other magnificent things, caused an artist to
paint a splendid and large shield with his arms and those of Maddalena,
surrounded with olive branches and the word OPTATA, a motto of his own
invention much praised for its brevity and its meaning; she being a Vettori,
and peace, symbolized by the olive, following on the victory gained by her
after war.” The wedding was a gay one and the house not being large
enough Piazza Santa Trinita was used as a ball-room. “Comfits fell thick as
hail in spring, and wine flowed like water.” The triumph of true love was
very popular among the nobles, who feared the Duke would interfere in
other marriages had he succeeded in preventing this one.
The lovers went to live in the old Vettori palace and amused themselves
by decorating it in charming and symbolical fashion. Above the two large
windows was inscribed LODOVICUS CAPPONIUS, to show that he was
now the master of the palace and of its mistress, while the olive with the
word OPTATA served as a decoration to the capitals of the pilasters, which
bore at their base the Capponi arms on one side, the Vettori on the other.
The motto OPTATA and the olive branches appeared also on the
ornamented frieze under the first-floor windows, while on the smaller
windows, in lieu of the ornaments generally used, were the arms of the two
44
families.
The name of the architect is unknown, but Bernardo Buontalenti, a
friend of Capponi’s, did other work for him, so he may have aided in
carrying out this memorial of faithful love; although as Signor Iodico Del
45
Badia remarks, nothing in the façade recalls his style. In the large saloon
there is a stone fire-place, decorated with the arms, the motto and the olive
branches, and the whole room is finely frescoed by Bernardo Poccetti with
episodes from the lives of the Capponi family. Lodovico died in 1614, and
by the marriage of his grandson’s daughter, Cassandro Capponi, the palace
went to the Riccardi who sold it in 1803. Since then it has changed hands
several times, and the last owner, Count Leonetti, sold it to M. de Witte.

PALAZZO MANNELLI

Via de’ Bardi. No. 40.
The Mannelli lay claim to be descendants of the great Roman family of
the Manlii. They certainly are among the most ancient families of Florence,
and in old times were known as the Pontigiani, probably because having
built the first wooden Ponte Vecchio they had the right to demand toll, and
were the custodians of the bridge. They also bore the names of Piazzegiani
and of Capo di Ponte, from living close to the Piazza of Sta. Felicita and on
account of the position of their palace, and of their tower which abuts on the
bridge and was built about the XIIth century.
Already a powerful family in 1173 when Mannello di Bellondino was
created a knight of the Golden Spur for services rendered to his native city,
they became yet stronger when his two sons Abate and Rinuccio attained
the position of Elders of the Republic. They were Ghibellines, and
intermarried with the great family of the Uberti. But several of Abate’s sons
went over to the opposite faction, and to the valour of Messer Coppo was
attributed the victory of the Guelphs at the battle of S. Jacopo in the Val di
Serchio in 1256. He and his brother Mannelino fought against their cousins,
sons of Rinuccio, at Montaperti, and had to fly from Florence with the other
Guelph nobles. Six years later the Ghibellines were beaten, and when the
“Peace of the Cardinal Latino” was proclaimed in 1280, members of the
Mannelli family were found in both camps. Among the signatories of the
peace was Lapo, son of Messer Coppo, who had fought gallantly at
Campaldino and was knighted in 1292. He had many sons, all distinguished
soldiers whose names figure in the long list of battles fought during the first
half of the XIVth century. His grandson, Amaretto, was deputed to guard
the Val d’Elsa against the Pisans. Amaretto declared himself a popolano in
1361, and assumed the name of Pontegiani; sixteen years later he was one
of the Buonomini, but being “admonished” by the Captains of the Guelph
party he joined in the Ciompi riots and was knighted by the mob in 1380.

When the nobles returned to power he was exiled, and to while away time
wrote a history of the world. By his wife, Maria Strozzi, he left two sons,
Francesco and Raimondo; the elder, to whom the world owes a large debt of
gratitude, was probably an ecclesiastic. An intimate friend of Boccaccio, he
made a copy of the Decameron which would otherwise have been lost.
Boccaccio left his own manuscript by will to Fra Martino of Signa for his
life, and then to the monastery of S. Spirito in Florence. It is supposed to
have perished either in the fire which destroyed the church in 1471, or more
probably in Savonarola’s bonfire of “obscenities and vanities” in which so
much that was beautiful and precious went into smoke and ashes.
Boccaccio must often have been a guest in the Mannelli palace, and one
regrets that his friend Francesco was not endowed with the pen of a
Boswell, to have preserved for us the personality of Giovanni Boccaccio.
Francesco Mannelli only finished his copy nine years after the death of his
friend; it came into the possession of the Medici, but disappeared, and was
fortunately discovered and bought by Messer Baccio Baldini, doctor to the
Grand Duke Cosimo I. and librarian of the Laurentian library, where it now
is. At the end of the manuscript is written: Qui finisce la decima e ultima
Giornata del libro chiamato Decameron cognominato Principe Galeotto,
Scripto per me Francesco d’Amaretto Mannelli di 13 d’Agosto 1384. Deo
sit laus et gloria, in ecternum ad honorem egregi Simacu Spinis et
beneplacitum, et mandatum.

TOWER OF THE MANNELLI.

Raimondo, his brother, was a sailor, and distinguished himself in an
engagement against Spinola, admiral of the fleet of Filippo Visconti, who
then held Genoa. The allied fleets of Venice and Florence met the enemy off
Rapallo on the 27th August, 1431, but the wind was unfavourable and many
of their ships found great difficulty in getting out of Porto Fino. Raimondo,
seeing his friends hard pressed, urged on his crew with threats, ran down
Spinola’s galley and took him and sixty of his men prisoners. He was
shabbily treated by the Venetian admiral in command, who took, not only
the honour and glory, but the prisoners and consequently their ransom, from
him. Mannelli’s portrait is painted among other seafaring worthies on one
of the ceilings in the Pitti palace. Messer Coppo’s posterity died out in the
XVIIth century, and the present branch of the family descend from his
brother Nerlo, whose son Chele was surnamed Gorget, from his
uncomfortable habit of wearing that part of his armour by day and by night.
He was a good soldier, and at San Casciano killed with his own hand the
leader of a strong body of French troops sent by Henry VII. to raid the
Florentine territory. Jacopo Mannelli took a prominent part in the revolt
against the Duke of Athens, and was named custodian of the bridge of Sta.
Trinita, but one of his descendants, Filippo, a canon of the cathedral,
disgraced the name of Mannelli by revealing the deliberations of the
Council of the Republic to the enemy. He died by the hand of another priest
in 1536.
The old palace and the tower ran great risk of destruction, or at the least
of alteration when Vasari made the corridor between the Pitti palace and the
Uffizi. “In order to make the corridor straight,” writes Mellini, “it was
necessary to pass through the house of the Mannelli by the Ponte Vecchio,
at the end of the Via de’ Bardi; so he [Cosimo I.] sent for the owners of the
said house and asked if they were courteously inclined to permit him to
make the passage. On the plea that it would spoil their house they refused,
and he then placed it as we now see on stone brackets, passing by a sharp
turn round the outside of the house. But he bore them no rancour, saying
46
that every one was master of his own.” Two of the family, Jacopo and his
son Ottavio, were made Senators in the XVIIIth century, and the family still
own and inhabit the palace and the stern old tower which guards the Ponte
Vecchio.

PALAZZO MARTELLI

Via della Forca. No. 8.
The Martelli descend from an ancient family who owned the castle of
Stabbiello in the Val di Sieve, one of whom, Martello, came to Florence
early in the XIVth century, and from him they took their name. From what
Migliore writes, their houses were in Via degl’ Spadai (of the armourers),
but as they became more numerous and powerful the name of the street was
47
changed to Via de’ Martelli. When the present palace was built, or by
whom, is not known.
Ruberto de’ Martelli, a rich Florentine banker, was created a Count
Palatine by the Emperor Paleologus in 1439; some years later Nicholas V.
made him Depositary of the Apostolic Chamber, and in 1455 the Republic
of Florence sent him to Rome to assist at the Conclave which elected Pope
Calistus III. But his name is better known as the patron and friend of
Donatello, whom he took into his house as a lad and brought up. “The
Martelli have,” writes Vasari, in his life of Donatello, “many objects in
marble and in bronze, amongst others a David three braccie high, and many
other things, most liberally given by Donatello in attestation of the service
and love he bore them; more especially a S. Giovanni, a statue in marble of
three braccie high, all finished by him, a most rare piece, now in the house
of the heirs of Ruberto Martelli, who made it an heirloom, ordering that it
should never be pawned, sold, or given away.” Domenico, brother to
Ruberto, was a friend of Cosimo the Elder, who employed him in many
embassies, and in 1476 he was Gonfalonier of Justice, one of the nine the
family gave to Florence, besides thirty Priors. His son Braccio was among
the first of the adherents of the Medici to turn against them when Piero fled
the city. He then became one of the Dieci di Guerra, in 1495 he was
Commissary of the war against Siena, and later of the siege of Pisa. Pietro,
his son, a munificent patron of men of letters, had a considerable reputation
as a mathematician. His cousin Lodovico was a poet, whose tragedy Tullia

is said to have been admired. If true, it only shows that people had more
patience in those days, and were content to listen to speeches of intolerable
length and tedium. He led the band of Florentine scholars who impugned
the genuineness of Dante’s De Eloquio, found and published by Trissino.
Another Lodovico was the hero of the duel with Giovanni Bandini, fought
at Poggio Imperiale in the presence of the Prince of Orange in 1530, so
48
minutely described by Varchi. Lodovico died of his wounds, and his
portrait was placed in the Uffizi gallery amongst other patriots, though
patriotism had little to do with the duel, which was fought for love of
Marietta de’ Ricci.
Camilla Martelli had the misfortune to attract the notice of the Grand
Duke Cosimo I., who was induced by Pius V. to marry her in 1560, thus
legitimating their daughter Virginia. He soon afterwards retired to the Villa
di Castello, virtually abdicating in favour of his son Francesco, who
inherited the cruelty and the vices of his father without his ability. The years
Camilla spent at Castello with Cosimo can hardly have been happy, but
after his death her life was a miserable one; shut up as a prisoner in a
convent, out of which she only emerged for a few hours to assist at her
daughter’s wedding with the Duke of Modena in 1586, she died, worn out
with grief, four years later. Several of the Martelli entered the Church.
Francesco became Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1698 and died a Cardinal, and
Giuseppe was Archbishop of Florence in 1732. He belonged to the
Academy of the Crusca, and was a great collector of books. The Martelli
still live in the old family palace, and possess Donatello’s works.

PALAZZO MONALDI

Via Porta Rossa. No. 20.
The majestic tower of the Monaldi (which has been restored), with part
of the old house attached, stands nearly opposite Palazzo Davanzati. I
cannot do better than tell the history of the family, mentioned by Dante as
among the oldest in Italy, in the words of Piero Monaldi, whose manuscript
history has been kindly lent to me by one of his descendants. “Our family
comes from the Monaldeschi of Orvieto, and took its origin from the Duke
and Baron Monaldo, connected with the famous house of Anjou, who
governed Tuscany for the Emperor Charlemagne. His descendants were
lords of Orvieto and of many other places in the Tuscan land.... Civil
discord between them and the Filippeschi drove Monaldo and his family to
Florence; he settled in the parish of Porta Rossa, and built a tower of square
hewn stone 430 braccie in height. In this spot they had so many houses that
the street was called de’ Monaldi [now Via Monalda]. The houses extended
from the Piazza di Sta. Trinita and Porta Rossa as far as the church of Sta.
Maria Ughi, until in 1346, on the day of S. John the Baptist, they were
nearly destroyed by a very great fire, with the loss of much property, and of
the lives of some of the family, as is related by Giovanni Villani. They were
at once rebuilt, for the said houses are mentioned in the first catasto of the
citizens of Florence as belonging to the sons of Antonio di Guido, who was
an ancestor of mine. I note that as Grandi of the city we had not much to do
with the government, being in opposition to the people; so that when in
1378 the mob became masters, our family was admonished and condemned;
Lipozzo di Mangieri, who was then Podestà of Terra Nuova, being exiled
together with his sons. When the recall of the exiles was talked of in 1395,
we were again admonished and banished, and some went to Pisa and
became citizens of that city, where to this day their ancient monuments can
be seen. Buonfiglio Monaldi, a saintly man, one of the seven founders of
the Servite Order, was of our family; his brother Buonconte, a knight,
captain of Arezzo in 1260, was chosen by Cardinal Latino as one of the

guarantors of the universal peace between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines
in 1280. Ugo, knight of the Golden Spur, was captain of the cavalry of the
King of Hungary, and is mentioned by Verino in his second book, De
Illustratione Urbis Florentie.

Gloria Folcorum Federicus et Impiger Ugo
Pannoni Regis Turmas ductavit equestres
Pluraque Turcarum caepit Castella Monaldus, etc.

His magnificent tomb in Sta. Maria Novella was destroyed when the church
was enlarged, but the old stone of our vault can still be seen in the
pavement, on which is inscribed: Hic jacet [sic] Ossa Nobilis Militis Ugonis
de Monaldis equitis Florentini et eorum Descendentium.
“Piero, my grandfather, was captain under the lord Tommaso de’
Medici. Alessandro was captain in 1530, and took the city of Volterra.
Another was Archbishop of Rieti, but at present there only remain Fra
Francesco, a Cappucin, and Piero di Giovanni, writer of this notice, and of
this family history. Our arms have a white peacock on a red field, emblem
of the city of Orvieto, from whence we came. Some add a silver rose, given
49
by the King of England to Giovanni Monaldi.” The tower of the Monaldi
now belongs to Signor Majolfi.

PALAZZO RAMIREZ DI MONTALVO

Borgo degl’Albizzi. No. 24.
In 1540 a page named Antonio Ramirez di Montalvo came from Spain
in the train of the Cardinal Don Giovanni di Toledo, Bishop of Burgos and
uncle to the Duchess Eleonora, wife of Cosimo I. de’ Medici. The Cardinal
passed some weeks in Florence, and when obliged to proceed to Rome left
the lad Antonio, who was ill, in the charge of the Duchess. She took him
into her service, and the clever young Spaniard gained the good graces of
the Duke, became tutor to the young Prince Francesco de’ Medici, and
married Donna Giovanna di Ghevara, one of the ladies-in-waiting of the
Duchess. In 1568 he bought a house with a tower and a garden, in Borgo
degl’Albizzi, from Giovanni Bonafedi, and afterwards two or three smaller
ones adjoining, and then built the palace we now see. By the Duke’s order
the overseer of the works at the Duomo supplied him with the wood
necessary for the roof, doors, windows, etc., and it appears that Cosimo also
gave considerable sums towards the cost of building. With good reason,
therefore, the grateful Spaniard placed his master’s arms, instead of his
own, on the façade with the inscription:
COSMOS;MAGN;FLOR;ET;SEN;D;II.

PALAZZO MONTALVO.

The palace is decorated in grafite, and on a line with the arms are the
favourite emblems of the Duke, a capricorn, a tortoise with a sail and two

crossed anchors. It has always been attributed to Bartolomeo Ammanati,
though neither Baldinucci nor any other contemporary writers give the
name of the architect. But as Ammanati was at that time (1566–1569)
engaged in rebuilding the bridge of Sta. Trinita, and was Cosimo’s favourite
architect (he built the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti), it is more than probable
that he was also employed by his courtiers. When Cosimo I. instituted the
order of S. Stefano Don Antonio Ramirez di Montalvo was one of the first
knights created, and was given a rich Commenda in perpetuity. The name of
his grand-daughter, Donna Leonora, is well-known in Florence as the
foundress of the convent of Le Quiete, the great school where the daughters
of the nobility are educated by nuns called the Signore della Quiete, all
ladies of good birth who do not take solemn vows. The life of Donna
Leonora, written in 1740, is curious reading. As a baby she reproved her
nurse if she was idle, and as a girl she must have been a trial to her father
confessor from her scruples and incessant fears that everything was a
deadly sin. She had visions, during which Our Lord and the Virgin Mary
talked with her; she predicted the restoration to health, or the death, of
many people and performed many miraculous cures. A singular mixture of
Spanish bigotry and Tuscan common-sense was Donna Leonora. Many of
the rules she laid down for the teaching of the young ladies at Le Quiete
would be considered admirable at the present day. “Let them be trained to
order,” she writes, “and to cleanliness. Teach them to put away their clothes
properly.... Let them not be lazy or negligent, but sprightly and diligent.
They should know how to sweep and clean a room, how to make a bed, to
take charge of the linen and woollen things, and of what pertains to the
furniture of the house. They should learn how to nurse a sick person with
care, according to the doctor’s orders, and how to prepare all kinds of milk
dishes, cordials, candied fruit and sweet pastry. It would be well, too, that
they should know how to sew and wash fine linen, such as is used in a
sacristy. Not that they are to perform such fatiguing duties, save for exercise
and their own pleasure; on the contrary, I desire that they should be served
in seemly fashion, but so that in case of necessity they may be able to direct
how things ought to be done, for that is most necessary for the good ruling
50
of a household.” After all these excellent, but rather commonplace,
precepts, the bewildered reader is suddenly plunged into chapter after
chapter of prophecies made, and miracles worked, by Donna Leonora; the
miracles continued even after her death in 1659. She did, however, good

work in founding the convent of the Signore della Quiete. Her brother, Don
Antonio, died in 1581, and was succeeded by the eldest of his five sons.
According to his friend Vasari, he drew well, and was a munificent patron
of art. The last of the family, another Antonio, inherited the tastes of his
ancestor. He was President of the Academy of Drawing in Florence, and
Director of the Palatine gallery in Palazzo Pitti; it was under him that the
gallery was first thrown open to the public on Sundays and half-holidays in
1833.
In 1739 the palace was let to Baron von Stosch, an antiquary, and a spy
in the service of the English government to watch the doings of the
Pretender. That delightful old gossip, Sir Horace Mann, notes in 1757,
“Baron Stosch is dead at last.... His effects consist only in his Collection,
which is very great, and worth a large sum. It is to be offered to the
Emperor. He has appointed me and Abbé Buonacorsi his executors, and has
left him a picture, and me a cameo, which I might have bought some years
ago for six zecchins.” The palace still belongs to a collateral descendant of
the old Spanish family, the Count Matteucci Montalvo.

PALAZZO MOZZI

Piazza Mozzi. No. 3.
When the second line of walls was built round Florence in 1173, the
Oltrarno consisted of suburbs, and was chiefly inhabited by the poor. But
early in the following century rich and powerful families began to build
their houses and towers there, and among them were the Mozzi.

“Mozorum prisca paucide stirpe superunt
Area sola tenet nomen vicina fluente,”

writes Verino. In 1260 Jacopo di Cambio Mozzi was one of the leaders of
the Florentine army, and after the defeat of the Guelphs the houses and
towers of the Mozzi were sacked and destroyed, for which the city paid
them an indemnity. They then built a palace on the same spot, where they
received Pope Gregory X. and his whole court in magnificent fashion, when
going to the Council of Lyons. All the prelates of distinction who passed
through Florence were guests of the Mozzi, as they, together with the Spini,
were bankers of the Pope, and farmers of the revenues of the Holy See. For
that reason they had houses or correspondents all over the world.
The Pope arrived on the 18th June, 1273, with Charles of Anjou, King
of Naples, and Baldwin of Flanders, who styled himself Emperor of
Constantinople, “and, as the sojourn of Florence pleased them,” writes
Villani, “because of the goodness of the water, the salubrity of the air and
the comfort to be found in the city, they determined to spend the summer
there. The Pope observing that so fine a city suffered by reason of the
parties (for the Ghibellines were in exile), willed that they should return and
make peace with the Guelphs, and it was done. On the 2nd July the said
Pope, with his cardinals, King Charles, the Emperor Baldwin, all the barons
and courtiers, and the Florentine people, collected in the dry bed of the

Arno at the foot of the bridge of Rubaconte [now alle Grazie]; and the
illustrious and great people took their places on huge scaffoldings of wood
which had been erected. And there the Pope judged between the Guelphs
and the Ghibellines, under pain of excommunication to whomsoever did not
obey. He caused the leaders of each party to kiss each other on the mouth
and make peace, and give bail and hostages; and all the castles held by the
Ghibellines were to be given into the hands of King Charles.” The peace
was but short-lived, as the Ghibellines, warned of the evil intentions of the
King towards them, left the city four days later.
Things in Florence went from bad to worse, so that Pope Nicholas III.
was begged to send a legate to promote peace. Once more Palazzo Mozzi
“became a second Rome,” for the Cardinal Fra Latino Frangipani was an
honoured guest there in October 1278. His first task was to reconcile the
Guelphs, who had fallen out among themselves, and then he made peace
between them and the Ghibellines. The “Peace of Cardinal Latino” was
signed, amid general rejoicing, in the Piazza Vecchia of Sta. Maria Novella
in 1280.
In 1314 King Robert of Naples sent his brother Piero, Count of
Gravina, with three hundred horsemen, at the urgent request of the
Florentines, to help them against Uguccione della Fagiuola, whom the
Pisans had taken into their pay. The young Count dismounted at Palazzo
Mozzi in August, and Ammirato describes him as “prudent and discreet. He
showed no sign of the pride and haughtiness of royalty in his dealing with
the citizens, behaving courteously to all.... To these qualities were added the
natural advantages of remarkable beauty both of face and person.” The
Florentines were delighted with him, and his death at the battle of
Montecatini the following year was sincerely mourned. Seven years later
the old palace opened its doors to a very different guest. Walter de Brienne,
Duke of Athens and Count of Lecce, who was to become the hated tyrant of
Florence, stayed there for some time when he first arrived as Vicario of the
Duke of Calabria.
Several of the Mozzi were gallant soldiers, and became knights of the
Golden Spur. Vanni fought against the Pisans in 1292, and three years later
was sent as ambassador to the Pope, to beg him once more to intervene in
the internal dissensions of the city. Luigi Mozzi was amongst those sent to
Venice to negociate a treaty in 1337, and four years later he was one of the

twenty citizens of Florence who treated for the purchase of Lucca.
Afterwards he arranged a league with Siena and Perugia. Marcantonio,
canon of the cathedral of Sta. Maria del Fiore in 1707, a man of
considerable learning, was an “Arcadian,” under the name of Dariseo
Gortinano, and Archconsul of the Academia della Crusca. His brother, Pier-
Giannozzo Mozzi, was created a Count of the Empire by Napoleon I.
It must have been a grandson of Pier-Giannozzo whom Sir Horace
Mann mentions as the friend of the eccentric Lady Orford. She died at Pisa
in 1781, and Mann writes: “Mozzi brought me her writing-box, which I
opened in his presence, and of a lawyer’s, in which I saw a paper sealed
with her seal, and, wrote on the cover by her, ‘A copy of my last will.’...
She has left everything she was possessed of to Mozzi.... He is one of the
most antient families among the nobilità here, and not poor for this country.
She, to be sure, chose him for his beauty, which was then great and in its
prime, but she wished it to be thought that his learning (for which he is
distinguished, and he has just published some approved works on
Mathematicks) biassed her choice.... Mozzi’s attention has been greatly
rewarded.” In 1784 Sir Horace notes that “Florence is much amused by the
marriage of Lady Orford’s old Cicisbeo, Cavaliere Mozzi.”
The old palace and its large garden was sold by the last of the family a
few years ago to the Dowager Princess Carolath Beuthen.

PALAZZO NERLI

Via de’ Servi. No. 10.

WINDOW OF PALAZZO NERLI.

This quaintly shaped palace with a fine courtyard, and ending in a sharp
angle at Via de’ Castellaccio, belonged to the ancient family of the Nerli,
praised by Dante as still living soberly according to the good old fashion.

“... The sons I saw
Of Nerli, and of Vecchio, well content
With unrobed jerkins; and their good dames handling
The spindle and the flax. Oh happy they.”

In the XIth century they had houses and a tower in the centre of old
Florence and took their name from one Nerlo, son of Signorello di Ridolfo
d’Ildebrando di Leone, who lived in 1079. Another Messer Nerlo was
Consul of the city of Florence in 1196 and again in 1202. The Nerli joined
the sect of the Paterines, and when Fra Piero da Verona preached a crusade
against the heretics they fled and took refuge in France. Not being able to
burn the living, the Friar desecrated the family tombs and burnt the corpses
and the bones of their ancestors. The Nerli remained in France for a
hundred and fifty years and must have abjured their heretic faith, as Cosimo
the Elder recalled Francesco de Nerlo to Florence, and caused him to be
made a Popolano and a Prior, the first of his house. His son Tanay became a
man of great consequence in the city, and was one of the chief adversaries
of Savonarola. It was at his instigation that the bell of S. Marco, with which
the friars had summoned the people to their aid when Fra Girolamo was
arrested, was taken to S. Miniato. Tradition says it was never tolled there
but once, and that was for the funeral of Tanay Nerli. One of his sons was a
good Greek scholar to whom we owe the first edition of Homer. Another
son was father to the historian Filippo Nerli (1485–1536), whose
Commentary is a model of pure and elegant Italian, but marred by too great
a partiality to the Medici, to whom he was related through his wife Caterina
Salviati, aunt of Duke Cosimo I. The descendant of another son was
Archbishop of Florence and a Cardinal in 1669. About the same time his
brother, Senator Nerli, bought the estate of Rassina from the Altieri with the
title of Marquess, and one of his sons succeeded his uncle as Archbishop
and as Cardinal. The palace now belongs to Signor Fiaschi Cuccoli.

CORNER OF PALAZZO NONFINITO, WITH COAT OF ARMS OF THE
STROZZI.

PALAZZO NONFINITO

Via Proconsolo. No. 12.
“In 1592,” writes Baldinucci in his life of Matteo Nigetti, “Alessandro
Strozzi bought a house from Camillo de’ Pazzi, that same Camillo who was
father to S. Maria Maddalena, and a small one adjoining with a shop, at
Canto del Papa, so-called in olden times from a family who lived there, but
afterwards called the Canto de’ Pazzi; near to where the first wall of
Florence ended towards the east with the Porta S. Pietro.” They were
bought with the intention of building the fine, but unfinished, palace we
now see, and Alessandro charged Bernardo Buontalenti not only to make
the design but to superintend the work. Nigetti worked under him for seven
years, until the façade as far as the sills of the first floor windows on the
side towards the Duomo was finished. “The kneeling windows and the door
in Borgo degl’Albizzi show how great was the talent of Buontalenti,” says
Vasari; “he only built the first floor of the palace, as a difference arose with
the owner about a certain staircase proposed by Santi di Tito, who did what
little he knew and no more, and the building was then entrusted to other
hands.” Scamozzi the Roman architect was at that time in Florence and
continued the work for Ruberto Strozzi. When he left, Caccini became the
architect and sculptured the fine coat of arms at the corner, shown in the
drawing. After his death Nigetti was once more called in to superintend, and
Cigoli designed the courtyard. The Guasti family bought the palace in the
XVIIth century, and the entrance court, which till then had been open, was
roofed over. With so many architects it seems strange that the palace should
have remained in such a condition as to have merited the special name of
Nonfinito (the Unfinished) in a city where but few of the great buildings are
completed. It is possible that some dispute arose between the Strozzi and
the Salviati, whose palace was opposite, about the height; in which the
latter, connected with the Medici by the marriage of Maria Salviati with
Giovanni delle Bande Nere, would have gained the day.

In 1814 the palace was bought by the Grand Ducal government, and
Fossombroni, the enlightened minister of Fernando III., inhabited it for
some time. It then became the office of the head of the police, and now is
the central telegraph office of Florence.

PALAZZO PANCIATICHI

Via Cavour. No. 2.
This palace was built by Carlo Fontana for the Cardinal Bandino
Panciatichi and is celebrated for its fine staircase, the incline of which is so
gradual that one of the Panciatichi, an officer on the staff of the Arch Duke
of Austria, used to ride upstairs. It was erected on the site of the houses of
the Della Casa family, who would not merit special mention if Monsignore
Giovanni Della Casa, born in 1503, had not belonged to the chief academies
of the day and written Galateo, that elaborate essay on good manners whose
title has passed into a proverb. He was Archbishop of Benevento in 1544
and soon afterwards Nuncio at Venice. The scandal caused by his burlesque
51
poem Capitolo del Forno probably prevented his being made a Cardinal.
The story of the Panciatichi family would be almost a history of
Pistoja, as for more than three centuries the little town was torn to pieces by
the bloody feuds between them and the Cancellieri. According to tradition
they descend from a Roman Consul:

“Et genus et nomen gens haec Panseatica sumpsit
E Pansa eximio Consule magnanimo;
Belligeri Tuscam Pistori venit ad urbem
Cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari,”

wrote Giovanni Navarra in the XVth century; and in public acts and ancient
inscriptions the Panciatichi called themselves Pansea progenies. They were
lords of many strong castles and townlets in the Apennines; amongst others
of San Marcello, which from time immemorial paid them a yearly tribute of
100 lbs. of cheese, 50 loads of beech wood and 3 bushels of chestnuts. The
oldest existing document about the family is dated 1057, and relates to

Pansa, or Pancio, son of Bellino a knight of the Golden Spur who conceded
to the Bishop of Pistoja the right of allowing the friars of S. Salvatore to
collect certain tithes. Infrangilasta Panciatichi went to the crusades in 1190
and was taken prisoner by Saladin, but after some months he escaped and
returned to Pistoja, where in fulfilment of a vow he gave lands to the church
52
of S. Angelo in Gora. The documents relating to his sons Inghiramo and
Lanfranco are curious as showing the feudal rights enjoyed by a great
Ghibelline family. Ridolfo Panciaticho, his sons and his brother Angelo,
were created knights of the Golden Spur in 1329 by the Commune of
Florence, and a few years afterwards the latter was made a citizen. His son
Diliano was ambassador to the Emperor Charles IV., and a descendant of
his, Bartolomeo, was a most successful merchant at Lyons. His son and
namesake, a friend of the artists and men of letters of his day, was himself a
poet. In France, where he was ambassador for some years, he became a
Protestant, and on his return to Florence was imprisoned by the tribunal of
the Inquisition. After suffering torture he publicly abjured in 1552 and was
received again into the Roman Catholic Church after long and wonderful
ceremonies. The portraits of himself and his wife Lucrezia by Bronzino, are
in the Uffizi. His son Carlo, a man of violent temper, was condemned to
death for murdering his servant, but was pardoned by Cosimo I. on the
condition that he married his mistress Eleonora degl’Albizzi, of whom the
Grand Duke was tired after she had borne him a son.
Niccolò Panciatichi, a member of the Academia della Crusca who won
some fame as a writer, inherited the palace from his uncle the Cardinal, and
married the rich heiress Caterina Guicciardini. He increased the fine library,
collected many valuable pictures, and probably placed the Madonna and
Child, of the school of Mino da Fiesole, on the corner of the palace. His
grandson Niccolò was a great botanist (a taste inherited by the Marchioness
Paulucci, his great-granddaughter) and his garden at the Villa La Loggia,
where exotic and rare plants were cultivated with wonderful success, was
celebrated. In 1762 he married Vittoria, the last of the great Portuguese
family of Ximenes d’Aragona, who brought him a large fortune, besides the
Marquisates of Esche in Bavaria, of Saturnia in Southern Italy, a palace in
Florence, etc. The Panciatichi then added her name and her arms to their
own (see p. 398).

PALAZZO PANDOLFINI

Via S. Gallo. No. 74.
This beautiful, but unfinished, palace was begun by a son of Pandolfo
Pandolfini, who went to Naples in 1465 as ambassador of the Florentine
Republic. He was so popular there, and became such a favourite with the
King, that his son Gianozzo, described as a “jocund and liberal man,
honoured by all who knew him,” was made Bishop of Troia. When the
Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope he summoned Gianozzo
Pandolfini to Rome, and created him Governor of Castel Sant’Angelo. But
Florence was the place he loved, and he often came to stay in a house he
had hired in the Via S. Gallo from the monks of Monte Senario. After
improving the house, and turning part of the orchard into a garden, he
wanted to buy it, but the monks refused to sell, alleging that in the orchard
stood an oratory, or small church, which had once formed part of a convent
of Benedictine nuns. Leo X. came to the aid of his friend the Bishop, and by
a Papal Bull, dated 28th May, 1517, followed by a Brieve in Feb. 1520,
conceded to him, and approved of the sale to him, of the house, land and
church, allowing him to suppress and transfer the latter elsewhere if it so
pleased him. The Pope at the same time sent some fine marbles from Rome
to be used in the decoration of the house. Thereupon Bishop Pandolfini
addressed himself to his “most dear friend Raffaello da Urbino,” who, as
Vasari tells us, “made for him a design for the palace he wished to build in
Via S. Gallo, and Giovanfrancesco da San Gallo was sent from Rome to
begin the work, which he did with all possible diligence.”
Bishop Gianozzo died in 1525, so Vasari is in error when he states that
the building, which had been interrupted by the death of the architect and
the siege of Florence in 1530, was continued by him, with Bastiano da San
Gallo, surnamed Aristotle, as his architect. It was most probably Ferrando
Pandolfini, a man of considerable learning, to whom his uncle ceded his
bishopric of Troia, and to whom he also left the palace, who went on with

it, and who caused the inscription to be placed under the cornice,
JANNOCTIUS. PANDOLFINIUS. EPS. TROIANUS. LEONIS. X. ET.
CLEMENTIS. VII. PONT. MAX. BENEFICIIS. AUCTUS. A.
FUNDAMENTIS. EREXIT. AN. SAL. M. D. XX. The original design by
Raphael is said to have been curtailed, so that the part which now consists
of ground-floor rooms, covered by a large terrace, ought to have formed an
integral portion of the edifice. But the building is so beautiful as it stands
that one can hardly regret what was left undone.
The entrance door, the windows, especially those of the first floor,
which are Ionic, while the lower ones are Doric, and the capitals of the
columns surrounding the loggia, are very fine. In 1616 the palace passed to
a descendant of Bishop Gianozzo’s third brother, who finished it and laid
out the garden, which had been neglected. He also dowered the oratory of
S. Silvestro which had been incorporated with the house and not
transferred. Roberto Pandolfini, his nephew, inherited the palace in 1655,
and it is still in the possession of descendants of the family. Count Alessio
Pandolfini restored it in excellent taste in 1875, when the outer door of the
small church, or oratory, was made into a window. Florence owes to
Battista, another brother of Bishop Gianozzo Pandolfini, the fine doorway
of the Badia, which he commissioned Benedetto da Rovezzano to build, and
he also erected the tomb to his grandfather, another Gianozzo Pandolfini, in
the same church.

PALAZZO PANDOLFINI.

PALAZZO PAZZI

Via del Proconsolo. No. 10.
The Pazzi, who claim a Roman descent, came originally from Fiesole,
and were always Guelphs. Excluded by Giano della Bella, in 1292, from all
participation in the government of the city, it was only after Cosimo de’
Medici’s return from exile that Andrea de’ Pazzi became a Prior in 1439;
when Cosimo gave his granddaughter Bianca in marriage to Gugliemo,
Andrea’s grandson. The houses of the various members of the Pazzi family,
who all made large fortunes in trade, once extended for some distance along
both sides of Borgo degl’Albizzi. But when, towards the middle of the
XVth century, the Florentine nobles began to erect palaces in lieu of their
old fortified houses, Messer Andrea de’ Pazzi commissioned Filippo
Brunelleschi, who designed the beautiful chapel for him in the cloister of
Sta. Croce, to build a palace. Poliziano’s statement that Jacopo, Andrea de’
Pazzi’s son, destroyed his father’s house to build this palace, is controverted
by documents found by Signor Iodico Del Badia in the archives of the old
catasti, which show that Jacopo only incorporated an adjoining house he
had bought with the one inherited from his father. The splendid palace
cannot, however, have been completed when Andrea died in 1445, as his
son employed Giuliano da Majano and his brothers to finish it. Another
reason for attributing the building to Messer Andrea de’ Pazzi, and not to
his son Jacopo, is that the sail, an emblem always used for indicating that
the proprietor had made his fortune in trade, is among the ornaments in the
centre of the arches of the windows. On the capitals in the courtyard are the
dolphins, the arms of the Pazzi, and the vase containing the Holy Fire. This,
according to ancient custom, was lit by means of certain stones, brought
from the Holy Sepulchre by Pazzino de’ Pazzi, said to have been the first to
scale the walls of Jerusalem in one of the crusades.
Under Lorenzo il Magnifico the Pazzi found themselves excluded from
office, and their animosity was further aroused by the loss of a lawsuit

involving the large fortune of Giovanni Borromeo, whose only daughter
had married Giovanni de’ Pazzi, Andrea’s nephew. By Florentine law the
daughter should have inherited from her father who died intestate, but it
was assigned to her cousin, Carlo Borromeo. Guicciardini makes Pier
Capponi say, “Tyrants are forced to watch the action of every one, and to
cast down those who seem to them too powerful or too intelligent. Hence
arose the wronging of the Pazzi, by an iniquitous law which deprived them
of the inheritance of the Borromei, and the varied persecutions of the
family, so that desperation drove them into that conspiracy whence came
such infinite evils.” Francesco de’ Pazzi, Giovanni’s brother, described by
Poliziano as “a man of blood who, when he meditated any design, went
straight to his goal, being hindered by no regard for morality, religion,
reputation, or fair fame,” quitted Florence and went to Rome, where the
Pazzi had a banking house. He knew Sixtus IV. and was aware of his hatred
of the Medici, a hatred he gratified by appointing Cardinal Francesco
Salviati, a man of evil reputation and bitterly hostile to Lorenzo, to the See
of Pisa. At Rome Francesco de’ Pazzi became intimate with the Pope’s so-
called nephew, Count Girolamo Riario, Lord of Imola; and Stefano
Infessura, the well-informed Roman diarist, affirms that “these things [i. e.
the murder of the Medici] were ordered by Pope Sixtus, together with the
Count Girolamo and others, in order to take away the dominion from
Lorenzo and to confer it on the Count Girolamo.” The dying confession of
one of their instruments, Giovanbattista di Montesecco, captain in the papal
service, fully confirms this.

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO PAZZI.

Advantage was taken of the presence at Pisa of Riario’s nephew,
Raffaello, who had just been created a Cardinal. He was summoned to
Florence, and Lorenzo, as was his wont, invited him to an entertainment at
the Medici villa at Fiesole. The conspirators then determined to murder the
two brothers, but Giuliano, being ill, did not go, so the attempt was

postponed. Cardinal Raffaello expressing a desire to hear mass in the
cathedral of Florence, Lorenzo invited him to go on Sunday, 26th April, and
to dine at his palace in Via Larga afterwards. The conspirators then settled,
that at the elevation of the Host, when it is customary for all to kneel, the
deed should be done. Their design was nearly frustrated by the refusal of
Captain Montesecco to commit a murder “where Christ would surely see
him.” His place was hastily filled by Stefano da Bagnoni, parish priest of
Montemurlo, and secretary to Jacopo de’ Pazzi, and by Antonio Maffei of
Volterra, an Apostolic notary, who were to kill Lorenzo; while Francesco
de’ Pazzi and one of his braves, Bernardo Bandini, were to fall on Giuliano.
Montesecco’s scruples proved fatal to the success of the plot, as the two
ecclesiastics blundered and only wounded Lorenzo slightly in the neck.
Francesco de’ Pazzi did his work with such fury that he inflicted nineteen
stabs on Giuliano, and wounded himself on the thigh. While this was going
on in the cathedral, the Archbishop Salviati went to the Palazzo della
Signoria, which he intended to seize, while Jacopo de’ Pazzi was to incite
the people to revolt. Cesare Petrucci, the Gonfalonier, a shrewd man
devoted to the Medici, was struck by the Archbishop’s embarrassed manner
and confused speech; so he suddenly left the room, locked the door behind
him and went to look out on the Piazza. There he saw Jacopo de’ Pazzi and
his followers shouting “Liberty! liberty!” and at once ordered the gates of
the palace to be closed. Citizens came running with the news of the
assassination of Giuliano, and without a moment’s hesitation Petrucci
seized the Archbishop and hung him from the column of a window
overlooking the Piazza. Some of his followers, including Jacopo Poggio,
son of the historian, were hung beside their leader, the rest were cut down
on the staircase or in the courtyard. Francesco de’ Pazzi was seized in bed at
his own house, and naked and bleeding from the wound in his thigh was
hung by the side of the Archbishop, in whose shoulder he is said to have
fixed his teeth in his death agony.
Gugliemo Pazzi, who knew of, but did not participate in, the plot, took
refuge from the popular fury in the palace of his brother-in-law Lorenzo de’
Medici. He was banished. Giovanni de’ Pazzi, the husband of the Borromei
heiress, eventually died in prison at Volterra, and the seven sons of
Francesco de’ Pazzi’s brother Piero were either hung, condemned to
perpetual exile, or to imprisonment for life. Jacopo was caught while
crossing the frontier into the Romagna, brought back to Florence, and

executed. His body was laid in the family vault in Sta. Croce, but the mob
disinterred it, dragged it through the streets to his palace and battered the
head against the door, amidst ironical shouts that the master wanted to come
in. At length the body was thrown into the Arno, followed, as it floated
down stream, by a jeering crowd.
In 1498 the fine palace was bought by Francesco Cibo, son of Pope
Innocent VIII. and at his death went to his son Lorenzo, whose wife
Ricciarda Malaspina was one of the many ladies admired by the base-born
Duke Alessandro de’ Medici. Her brother-in-law, the Archbishop of
Marseilles, then determined to murder the Duke. Varchi relates that “when
Alessandro went to the palace he used to sit on a certain chest which was in
the room of the Marchesana, very close to the bed in which she slept. So the
Archbishop planned to fill a similar chest with gunpowder, and to set it in
the place of the one the Duke was wont to use, and it was to be so made that
he might easily set fire to the powder inside when the Duke sat on it. This
he did because it seemed to him that the close friendship and great
familiarity between the Duke and the Marchesana was a matter of reproach
and most shameful. But while all things necessary for carrying out his evil
intent were being prepared, the plot was discovered. He was imprisoned
until the Emperor came to Florence, when he was released and allowed to
go where it best pleased him.”
Some ladies of the Cibo family were the first to introduce carriages into
Florence in 1536, but Tommaso Rinnuccini writes: “They were not
common even in the beginning of the present [XVIIth] century, and many
of the nobility did not use them. Little by little, with the excuse of a
marriage, or other such pretext, many adopted them; some with four, the
richest even with six horses. At first they were small, made of leather both
inside and out, and placed immediately over the axle, so that the movement
was most uncomfortable; then they were hung on straps, to be less rough,
and finally the straps were attached to carved bands of well-tempered steel
which, yielding to any shock, made them still more easy. The handsomest
are of black, or of coloured velvet, with fringes inside and out and the tops
gilt inside. Till the middle of the century some of the richer inhabitants of
the city used a cocchio, which was generally lined with rose-coloured
velvet and covered with purple cloth; on the top were eight gilt-knobs
(pomi), but these have gone entirely out of fashion. In 1672 a style of

carriage, hung on long straps, was introduced from Paris, which swung and
swayed to and fro; they are called poltroncine (small arm-chairs), because
they are so comfortable.... At the time I write a sort of covered chair, placed
on two long poles, has been imported from Paris; in front the poles rest on
the back of a horse, and behind on two wheels, and they swing much. To
this chair has been given the name of calesso, and in 1667 there were
already near a thousand in the city.”
Alberigo Cibo sold the fine old palace in 1593 to Lorenzo Strozzi, in
whose family it remained until bought by the Marquess Niccolò Quaratesi
in 1760. The family came originally from Castello di Quarata, and Vanni
Quaratesi took the side of the people, and was created a knight during the
Ciompi riots. Castello, who held high office at various times in the first half
of the XVth century, is said to have founded the monastery of S. Salvadore
at Monte San Miniato. But dates do not agree, and Signor Passerini is
probably right in suggesting that Castello Quaratesi built a small convent
for the Franciscans at S. Miniato after the “Operai” of S. Croce refused to
allow him to affix his arms on the façade he had intended to build for the
church. He left his large fortune to the College of the Guild of Merchants,
with a special clause recommending the convent to their care, and they
probably carried out his wishes and erected the present church and
conventual buildings, designed by Cronaca towards the end of the XVth
century. The first Quaratesi houses were on the other side of the Arno, near
the church of S. Niccolò, where they lived until the Marquess Niccolò
bought the magnificent Pazzi palace built by Brunelleschi. In 1843 it again
changed hands, and passed into the possession of the Baron de Rast, who
left it by will to a charitable institution in Gotha.
It is curious that the well-known Pazzi arms, the three dolphins, said to
have been carved by Donatello, are still in situ at the corner of Borgo
degl’Albizzi, for a decree of 1478 ordered them to be destroyed all over the
city. It is hardly likely that this shield was replaced after the banishment of
Piero de’ Medici, when the decree permitting the descendants of Andrea de’
Pazzi to again put up their arms was passed, because the palace no longer
belonged to them. It is, however, still called by their name, and the street
corner to this day is known as the “Canto de’ Pazzi.” It is here that the
famous colombina, or dove, beloved by all Florentines, flies on Holy
Saturday along a cord stretched from the door of the Bank of Italy, built on

the site of the greatest of the Pazzi palaces, to the wondrous old painted car,
and sets fire to the squibs and crackers piled high upon it.

PALAZZO PERUZZI

Borgo de’ Greci. No. 10.
The first mention of the Peruzzi family occurs in 1150, when Ubaldino,
son of Peruzzo of the Porta della Pera, appeared as a witness about a
contract with the convent of S. Salvi. At Montaperti the Peruzzi fought on
the side of the Guelphs, when Arnoldo was knighted on the field of battle,
and with the rest of their party were exiled until peace was made between
Ghibellines and Guelphs in 1280. Nine years later the name of Arnoldo’s
son Pacino is mentioned in the archives of the Commune, as receiving rent
for certain prisons in his palace on the site of the old Roman amphitheatre,
where 800 Aretines and Ghibellines taken in the battle of Campaldino were
immured. The name of the street behind S. Firenze, Via di Burella (prison
or den), still records their existence. No doubt these were the dens of the
wild beasts under the ancient amphitheatre in which S. Miniatus was twice
exposed to lions under the Emperor Decius. The circular form can still be
traced in the thick walls of the old Peruzzi houses in the Piazza. In 1293
Pacino appears as a purchaser from the Commune of that part of the old
walls of the second circuit of Florence which stood where now is Via de’
53
Benci and the Arco de’ Peruzzi. Four years later he was one of the nine
Gonfaloniers of Justice of the family, who also had fifty-four Priors. They
were among the richest and most powerful citizens of the XIIIth century,
and when King Robert of Naples came to Florence in 1310 he was lodged
and magnificently entertained for twenty-four days in their palaces in
Piazza de’ Peruzzi. Here was their loggia, used as a kind of private
exchange, to which the Arco de’ Peruzzi may have belonged. It stands either
on the very spot, or at all events close to where once was—
54
“The gateway, named from those of Pera.”
Vasari tells us that Paolo Uccello frescoed the arch “with triangles in
perspective, and on the corners in the square spaces he painted the four

elements, each represented by an appropriate animal. For the earth a mole,
for water a fish, for fire a salamander, and for air a chameleon, which lives
thereon and assumes every colour. As he had never seen a chameleon he
painted a camel with its mouth wide open inhaling the air to fill its lungs.
Showing certes great simplicity.”

PIAZZA AND ARCO DE’ PERUZZI.

Many of the houses on the western side of the Via de’ Benci belonged
to the Peruzzi, others were in Borgo de’ Greci, where the present palace
stands, and in the Via dell’Anguillara, the Via de’ Rustici, etc., the well-
known coat-of-arms with six pears is still to be seen here and there on the
façades. In 1339 the Peruzzi were ruined and forced to sell their lands and
many of their houses. They and their partners the Bardi had lent money to
Edward III. of England, who, owing to his wars with France, was unable to
pay his debts. A decree dated 6th May, 1339, orders the suspension of all
payments to the King’s creditors, “not excepting his well-beloved Bardi and
Peruzzi,” to whom he owed 1,355,000 golden florins. The failure of the
great banking house of Bardi Peruzzi was a calamity from which Florence
did not recover for some time, and Dino Compagni, who suffered severely
himself, exclaims: “O cursed and insatiable avidity, born of the vice of
avarice which reigns amongst our blind and mad citizens who, for the sake
of gaining from those above them, place their own and other people’s
money in their power. For this was lost the strength of our Republic, as but
little wealth remained to our citizens, save to some artificers and money-
lenders who by usury consumed and gathered to themselves the scattered
remnants of the poverty of our citizens.”
The Peruzzi houses must have been used by the Signoria for lodging
distinguished guests, as Villani writes: “On the 10th March [1345] the wife
of the Prince of Taranto, daughter to the Duke of Bourbon, who called
herself Empress of Constantinople without possessing an Empire, passed
through Florence on her way to France. Great honour was paid to her, she
being met and accompanied by many knights and ladies. She dismounted at
the house of the Peruzzi, the Commune paying all the expenses of her
coming and her going and of the two days she stayed in the city;” and
nearly a century later, when the Greek Emperor Paleologus and the
Patriarch came to attend the council of Florence “the whole circuit of the
houses of the Peruzzi were assigned to them as their residence.” It is said
that the street was called Borgo de’ Greci in memory of the Emperor’s visit;
Passerini, however, thinks the name was older, and derived from a family
called Greci, who lived there.
Ridolfo Peruzzi joined Rinaldo degl’Albizzi in opposing the return of
Cosimo the Elder, and, like him, was banished, and all he had confiscated.
He died in exile at Aquila in 1440, and as long as the rule of the Medici

lasted the name of Peruzzi no longer appears among the magistrates of
Florence. Among those of the family who found it impossible to live under
them was Antonio, “a noble citizen of Florence,” writes Vasari, “who went
to Volterra to live more quietly, and there after a time married in 1482, and
in a few years had two children, a son named Baldassare, and a daughter,
Virginia. But it happened that war, persecuting him who sought only peace
and quiet, broke out, and Volterra was sacked; so Antonio was forced to fly
to Siena, where, having lost nearly all he possessed, he lived in poverty.”
Baldassare Peruzzi’s whole life was a perpetual struggle, he was miserably
paid, and his name as painter, architect and decorator, stood higher after his
death than during his life. He died at the age of fifty-eight, probably of
poison.
In the latter half of the last century the name of Ubaldino Peruzzi was a
household word in Florence. An honest politician and a kind man, he had a
great deal of the peculiar Florentine humour and his favourite saying,
“Gente allegra, Iddio l’aiuta,” was typical of the man. His wife was as
popular as himself, and in their old palace in Borgo de’ Greci one was sure
to meet every distinguished Italian and any foreigner of mark who chanced
to be in Florence.

PALAZZO PICCOLELIS

Via de’ Pucci. No. 1.
Towards the end of the XVIIth century Paolo Falconieri built this
palace for the Marquess Lodovico Incontri on the site of houses belonging
to a branch of the Vespucci family. The Incontri were Lords of Acquaviva
near Volterra. Antonio fought at Montaperti, was taken prisoner by the
Ghibellines, but escaped and joined Charles of Anjou at Naples, who
knighted him and gave him the command of 200 horse, when he fought
against Manfred and Corradino. On his return to Volterra he volunteered to
lead his fellow-citizens against the Pisans and was killed in a skirmish near
Pontedera in 1291. Attilio Incontri married the daughter of a courtier of the
Grand Duke Ferdinando I. and settled in Florence, and his son Ferdinando
was made a Senator and Marquess of Monteverdi and Canneto in 1665; his
other son was Lodovico who built the palace which now belongs to the
Marquess Piccolelis.
The Vespucci to whom the original houses belonged came from
Peretola and took their name from Vespuccio, a wine merchant, who was
the first of twenty-five Priors of his house in 1350. Giuliano Vespucci was
Gonfalonier of Justice in 1462, and his son Piero commanded the Florentine
galleys on the coast of Barbary and of Syria. From him no doubt his young
cousin Amerigo, who gave his name to America, heard many seafaring
tales. Born in 1451 and brought up by his uncle, a learned Dominican in S.
Marco to whom Marsilio Ficino entrusted the revision of his Platonic
Theology, Amerigo studied languages, physics and geometry. Admitted to
the Platonic Academy he became intimate with Toscanelli, who expounded
to him his ideas as to the existence of another hemisphere. Amerigo was
manager of the Medici bank at Seville when Columbus made his first
discoveries, and entreated King Ferdinand of Spain to take him into his
service as chief pilot of another expedition. When the news of his
triumphant return after an eighteen month’s voyage reached Florence, the

Signoria ordered his house, now incorporated in the hospital of S. Giovanni
di Dio, in Borgognissanti, to be illuminated for three nights, an honour
rarely accorded by the Commune.

PALAZZO PITTI

Piazza Pitti
55
Buonaccorso Pitti, in his delightful chronicle, tells us that the Pitti,
being Guelphs, were expelled from the castle of Semifonte by the
Ghibellines in 1202, when they divided into three branches. “We of the
third branch,” he writes, “settled at Castelvecchio in the Val di Pesa, where
we bought large and rich estates.... A few years later our ancestors came to
live in Florence, and their first houses were those which now belong to the
Machiavelli in the parish of Sta. Felicita. I have heard tell by Neri, my
father, that one of our ancestors, named Bonsignore, went to the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem and to Sta. Caterina on Mount Sinai; he never came
back, nor is it known where he died. When he left Florence his wife was
with child, and she bore a son who was called Bonsignore after his father.
From him sprang Maffeo, who was a rich, powerful and honourable citizen,
and from the book in which the names of all who have been Priors are
written, it appears he was a Prior in 1283. Maffeo had, amongst others, two
sons; the eldest was Ciore, the second Buonaccorso ... according to reliable
accounts was a good and trustworthy man.... By his wife Monna Giovanna
degl’Infangati he had six sons and three daughters.... Neri his son, our
father, made a very large fortune in the wool trade. I find that every year he
made eleven hundredweight of cloth, most of which was sent to Apulia. He
was most industrious and active in his business, and the French wool that
came into our workshops was turned into perfect cloth. His last building
56
was the Tiratoio, which cost about 3,500 florins. It seems he did not care
about taking office under the Commune, but he was twice Prior. He was a
handsome man, three braccie in height, not fat, but with good bone and
muscle; his hair was reddish, and he was healthy and vigorous and lived
sixty-eight years, may God give him eternal rest. His wife, my mother,
Monna Curradina degl’ Strozzi, was a handsome, clever woman, of dark
complexion; she lived sixty-six years. I, Buonaccorso, married Francesca

degl’Albizzi ... and till now Francesca and I have had eleven children, of
whom seven are alive, Luca, Ruberto, &c., &c.”

PALAZZO PITTI.

Numerous were the adventures of Buonaccorso Pitti. Rich, able and of
fine presence, he was constantly employed on embassies to divers
sovereigns and sister Republics. An inveterate gambler, but with a keen eye
to business, generous to his family and friends, but keeping a minute
account of his daily expenses, well educated, a good Latin scholar, a bad
poet and an amusing boon-companion, Buonaccorso was a typical
Florentine of the XVth century. His son, Luca, born in 1398, founder of the
splendid palace which still bears his name, began his political career when
most lads are still at college, and his enormous wealth gave him
considerable power in his native city.
About 1440 Luca Pitti commissioned the great architect Brunelleschi to
build for him a palace more magnificent than that of the Medici in Via
Larga (now Palazzo Riccardi). “Not only,” writes Machiavelli, “did citizens

and private persons contribute, and aid him with things necessary to the
building, but communes and corporations lent him help.” As Gonfalonier of
Justice he was able to do signal service to Cosimo de’ Medici by causing
Girolamo Machiavelli, Carlo Benizzi and Niccolò Barbadori, who had lifted
up their voices to warn the Florentine citizens against the ambition of the
Medici, to be murdered in prison. Cosimo in return used his influence to
obtain a public decree, ordaining that Luca Pitti should be created a Knight
of the People in S. Giovanni with great pomp; in memory thereof Luca
added the red cross, emblem of the People, to his arms. On the death of
Cosimo, who was succeeded by his infirm and gouty son Piero, Luca
thought his opportunity had come. Together with a far abler man, Diotisalvi
Neroni, he put himself at the head of the anti-Medicean party and Florence
was divided into two camps, the party of the Hill, so-called because Luca’s
palace stood on the highest point of the city; and of the Plain, because the
palace of the Medici was on the flat. But discord soon broke out among the
Hill party, as Luca perceived that if the Medici were beaten Neroni, and not
himself, would be the head of the Republic; so in 1466 he made peace with
Piero de’ Medici after which, as Machiavelli tells us, “friends and relations
avoided saluting him in the streets. The superb edifices begun by him were
abandoned by the builders, the benefits bestowed on him in the past were
changed to injuries, the honours to insults. And many of those who had
freely given something of great value now demanded it back, as having
been merely lent; others who had been wont to praise him to the skies,
blamed him as an ungrateful and violent man. Wherefore too late did he
repent that he had not believed Niccolò Soderini, and sought rather to die
honoured with arms in hand, than live dishonoured amongst his victorious
enemies.”
Brunelleschi’s original design for Palazzo Pitti had only seven windows
to the front, and Herr von Fabriczy in Filippo Brunelleschi Sein Leben und
Seine Werke writes: “The choice of such dimensions (59 metres wide and
38 metres high) shows that he immediately grasped the advantages of a
position on sharply rising ground and knew how to use it as a mighty factor
for the desired effect.... In order to gauge the talent with which Brunelleschi
turned to signal advantage what in other hands would have been a cause of
failure, one need only imagine any one of the Florentine palaces, with the
exception of the Palazzo Vecchio, in the place of the Pitti palace, to realize

what a miserably meagre impression they would make as the crowning
edifice on the summit of the steep hill.”
Vasari tells us “that Brunelleschi began and directed the building up to
the second-floor windows,” so it cannot have been roofed in when Luca’s
descendant Buonaccorso sold the huge unfinished pile to Eleonora of
Toledo, wife of Cosimo I., for 9,000 golden florins (about £5,400) in 1549.
In the following spring Niccolò Braccini, better known by his surname of
Tribolo, began to lay out the adjacent garden, the Grand Duchess having
bought much land to enlarge it. The origin of the name—Boboli—is
unknown. Some say it is an Etruscan word, others that a family called
Borgoli owned the land, which then became commonly known as Bogoli
and, as often happens in Italy, the “g” was changed into a “b.” Or it may be
derived from the Tuscan name of the hoopoe—bubula—which frequents the
garden in spring uttering its weird note hoop, hoop, hoop, among the ilex
groves. However that may be, Tribolo made a wonderful garden that has
been the delight of many generations.
The original plan by Brunelleschi having been lost, the famous
architect Ammannati was called in. He made considerable changes in the
interior, in the windows of the first floor, and, according to an old
manuscript, “finished the façade up to the roof.” He also built the
magnificent courtyard, but did not change the length or the height of the
palace, as is proved by a ground plan drawn twenty-four years after his
death, which shows the front with Brunelleschi’s original seven windows.
“In June, 1566,” writes Agostino Lapi in his Diary, “was begun the splendid
and imperial building of the magnificent Palazzo Pitti of the city of
Florence; that is to say, the new part in the courtyard which is opposite the
convent and the monastery of Sta. Felicita—the façade and all the part
facing the street and S. Spirito being ancient, while the right and left sides
of the courtyard are modern and were begun in this century. Nearly all the
stone, at least all that is of good quality, used for the ‘bozzi’ and the
pilasters and suchlike, was quarried in the courtyard of the palace, the rest
came from the Belvedere and other parts of the garden; so that the stone
which adorns and beautifies the palace was quarried in the courtyard or in
various places in the garden, a thing most convenient for the building. In the
courtyard the old building on the side towards the Porta a S. Pier Gattolini
was demolished. There were many fine rooms in the said courtyard, and a

deep drain more than two feet wide which received all the rain water and
that which came from the kitchens and other places, and passing under the
said palace it carried off all filth.... Maestro Bartolommeo Ammannati, the
principal architect of the new palace, told me that he had found the date of
the commencement of the old building, 1466, carved on a stone.”
In July, 1558, the marriage of Lucrezia de’ Medici, Cosimo’s daughter,
was solemnized in the chapel of the palace. One hundred and ten ladies,
resplendent in brocade dresses and many jewels, were assembled to see the
masquerade in five parts acted by young Florentine nobles. First came
twelve Indians, alarming, but very gorgeous; then twelve Florentines
habited as in ancient times; twelve Greeks in fine armour followed; then
twelve emperors blazing with jewels; finally came twelve pilgrims with
long mantles of cloth of gold, on which were emblazoned cockle shells of
silver, and music proper to the different character of each masquerade was
played by hidden musicians.
Later in the same year, Isabella, the most beautiful of Cosimo’s
daughters, was married to Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. Her
beauty was enhanced by her many talents. She was a good musician; spoke
and wrote elegant Italian, Latin, French and Spanish; was a poetess and an
improvisatrice, and accompanied herself on the lute. Her father doted on
her, and opposed her departure for Rome with her husband. The name of the
beautiful young Duchess was soon coupled with that of Troilo Orsini, her
husband’s cousin, who had been left by him as her guardian. Troilo became
jealous of a handsome page, Lelio Torello, whom he stabbed one night in
the garden. After the death of Cosimo the scandal reached the ears of
Isabella’s husband, who came from Rome, and with the connivance of her
brother, the Grand Duke, strangled her at his villa of Cerreto but a few days
after her brother, Don Pietro, had killed his lovely young Spanish wife at
Cafaggiuolo.
The birth of the only son of Francesco I. and of Joan of Austria,
supposed to have been poisoned a few years later by Bianca Cappello, was
celebrated with great rejoicings; money was showered down among the
crowd from the windows of the Palazzo Pitti, and great butts of wine were
broached on the balustrade of the Palazzo Vecchio. Not only did every man
drink at will, but Settimanni declares that the Via Vachereccia and the
Mercato Nuovo ran with wine as far as the Ponte Vecchio. Poor ugly,

misshapen Joan had no happy life with her Medici husband, who was
completely under the dominion of the handsome and dissolute Bianca
Cappello, to whom he was secretly married in his private chapel very soon
after his wife’s death. A few months later the Venetian Republic proclaimed
Bianca a daughter of Venice, and the marriage was then solemnized with
great pomp in the cathedral, while a tournament was held in the courtyard
of the palace in her honour.
Montaigne, who was in Florence in 1580, notes in his delightful
Journal: “On Sunday I saw the Pitti Palace, and among other things a mule
in marble, which is the effigy of one that is still alive; this honour has been
paid on account of its long services in carrying materials for the building, at
least so says a Latin inscription. We saw in the palace the Chimæra
(antique), which has a head with horns and ears coming out of its shoulders,
and a body like a small lion. On the preceding Saturday the Grand Duke’s
palace was thrown open and filled with peasants, to whom nothing was
closed; they danced in every corner of the large saloon. The concourse of
this class of people is, it seems to me, emblematic of their lost liberty,
which is thus evoked every year during the principal festival of the town”
[24th June, St. John’s Day]. The Grand Duke invited Montaigne to dine at
the palace, and he was evidently astonished at seeing Bianca take the place
of honour above her husband. “This Duchess is handsome,” he writes,
“according to the Italian idea, with an agreeable but imperious countenance,
a coarse figure and breasts to match. She seems to have entirely subjugated
the Prince, and to have had him under her dominion for a long time.”
Torquato Tasso evidently admired the Grand Duchess, to whom he
addressed many madrigals and sonnets, often playing fancifully with her
“bel nome” Bianca, and praising her golden hair.

“Voi rosati e bei labri
E rosate le guancie avete ancora,
Come vermiglio Aurora,
E dorate le chiome
E bianca sete come il vostro nome.”

She must have been kind to the unhappy poet, who wrote, when
sending to her fifty madrigals in manuscript: “Had your Highness not
experienced both good and evil fortune, you would not so well understand
the misfortunes of others.” Her husband, Francesco de’ Medici, however,
declared he did not want a madman at his court; and when Tasso returned to
Florence in 1590 his patroness was dead, and he is described as wandering
about the Palazzo Pitti like a spectre, and the Florentines wrote, actumi est
de eo.
Francesco I. had a particular liking for fountains and grottoes. He
ordered four unfinished colossal statues, rough-hewn out of marble by
Michelangelo, to be used as supports for a mass of rockwork in a grotto
near one of the entrances to the Boboli gardens. These are generally
supposed to be four of the prisoners destined for the tomb of Pope Giulio
II., but according to J. A. Symonds, “this attribution involves considerable
difficulties. In the first place the scale is different, and the stride of one of
them, at any rate, is too wide for the pedestals of that monument. Then their
violent contortions and ponderous adult forms seem to be at variance with
the spirit of the captives.... Their incompleteness baffles criticism; yet we
feel instinctively that they were meant for the open air and for effect at a
considerable distance.”
After the deaths of Francesco I. and of Bianca Cappello within a few
hours of each other at Poggio a Cajano, Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici
succeeded to the throne. Quitting the ecclesiastical state, he married
Christine of Lorraine in 1589, and to amuse his young, good-looking
French wife, gave entertainments which put to shame anything attempted in
our days. Buontalenti, that most ingenious of men, painter, sculptor and
architect, transformed the great courtyard of the Pitti palace into an
amphitheatre covered in with scarlet cloth, and erected a castle on the side
next the garden, while in the middle stood a stockade containing fireworks.
On the firing of a cannon a triumphal car appeared, in which sat a magician
who performed tricks of sleight of hand, and told fortunes to those who
desired. Then followed a huge dragon drawing a chariot in which were the
Duke of Mantua and Don Pietro de’ Medici attended by musicians, who
sang sweet songs in praise of the bride. After them a mountain advanced
without any visible motor power; it opened in front of the Grand Duchess,
and two knights sprang out and challenged the others to mortal combat.

“They fought,” writes Baldinucci, “with lances and then with swords, and
meanwhile appeared the other masquerades, each one more beautiful and
singular than the last. To make our story short, there were fountains, clouds,
forests, shells, images of animals on chariots, ships, rocks, sirens, birds and
elephants of extraordinary size; then came a great mountain, a crocodile and
a conjurer, followed by a triumphal car, in which sat Don Virginio Orsini
with eight nymphs, who offered beautiful vases filled with flowers and a
programme of the festival, to the princes and princesses, the ladies and the
cavaliers. A garden then glided into the amphitheatre, expanding and
advancing without any visible agency, and in a short time admirable
designs, formed out of clumps of myrtle and of box, such as ships, towers
and castles, men, horses, pyramids and the like, were seen, such as we make
of plants in our gardens, while the theatre was filled with sweet melody
from the birds among the trees. Don Virginio descended from his car and
attacked an adversary with his lance, whereupon all the other knights joined
in the fray until separated by the explosion of the fireworks, and this
finished the tournament. It was already four o’clock in the night when the
princes, the noble ladies and the cavaliers, were conducted into the palace
to a sumptuous banquet, and meanwhile the courtyard was filled with most
limpid water to the depth of four feet.... No less than eighteen ships, large
and small, among them a galleon of three decks, arranged themselves in
line of battle. To the sound of drums, pipes, cymbals and other instruments
used in naval warfare, and the firing of cannon, the spectators again took
their seats, wondering exceedingly at the change that had taken place in so
short a time. Thereupon a frigate advanced towards the castle and was
saluted by two cannon shot, when with proper demonstrations of alarm she
fled and returned to the fleet. The Turks sent out four galleys, and then
began a fierce battle, during which fine set pieces of fireworks went off,
burning even in the water. Horrible cries of wounded Turks and
imprecations in the Turkish language were heard, as some fell into the
artificial sea, and fought, whilst swimming, with Christians who had also
lost their footing. Soon the water was covered with disabled ships and men
who, acting their parts well, attempted to save themselves by swimming....
In a short time the Christians were victorious. They set fire to a Turkish
galley, of which the captain, soldiers and crew, with loud cries swam to the
castle, whilst the other ships surrendered. It was pretty to see how the
Christians, withdrawing somewhat after their victory, occupied themselves

in clearing the decks of their ships of broken tackle, and in giving meat and
drink to their crews before advancing in two lines against the castle, firing
so many broadsides that the air was filled with smoke. Casting lines with
hooks at one end, they scaled the walls, and a hand-to-hand struggle took
place ere the Christian soldiers reached the top of the castle, where they
hoisted their flag. Then with joyous music, singing and dancing, the festival
ended only just before the break of day.”
Rejoicings in honour of the marriage continued for a month, during
which time more than two thousand strangers lived at the expense of the
court; nine thousand barrels of wine were emptied, and 6,056 scudi were
spent on sweetmeats. On the 12th June the Grand Duchess Christine
received the homage of the Florentine Senate in the beautiful saloon of the
Nicchie in the Palazzo Pitti, and thus ended the series of her marriage
festivities.
Ferdinando I. found full scope for exercising his love of splendour and
pomp when MM. de Sillery and d’Agincourt came to Florence to ask the
hand of his niece, Maria de’ Medici, for Henry IV. The contract was signed
on the 25th April, 1600, and on the 30th was solemnly announced to the
senate, nobles and principal citizens, in the throne room. The bride, dressed
with extraordinary magnificence, sat on the throne, while the Grand Duke
and Duchess sat below her. After the contract had been read aloud the
Grand Duke rose and, as is quaintly described, “laying aside all air of
majesty and sobbing for joy, was the first to bend the knee and kiss the hem
of his niece’s dress, as Queen of France. After him followed the Grand
Duchess and the dignitaries of the court in their proper order, and then the
whole court, the senate and the nobility, accompanied the Queen in triumph,
amid the acclamations of the people, to the church of the S.S. Annunziata to
give thanks to God.”
Never did the Florentines pass such a summer. Every day brought some
entertainment more magnificent than that of the day before, and the Palazzo
Pitti resounded with music and gaiety. In October arrived the Cardinal
Aldobrandini, sent by the Pope to perform the marriage ceremony. Don
Antonio de’ Medici met him some miles outside the city at the head of five
hundred cavalry, and at the town gate he was received by the Grand Duke
under a velvet baldaquin, who escorted him, walking on his left, to the
palace. Cannon fired, trumpets sounded and people cheered, as the

Cardinal, followed by high dignitaries of the Church and an enormous train
of barons and cavaliers, passed through Florence. On the 5th October
Ferdinando I., as proxy for the King of France, espoused his niece, Maria
de’ Medici, and the inventive talents of Buontalenti and of Giovanni da
Bologna were taxed to the utmost to provide extraordinary and unheard-of
feasts and entertainments. The former painted and arranged the wonderful
scenery for Rinuccini’s Eurydice, which was performed in the big saloon,
with music by Jacopo Peri, the inventor of recitative and the forerunner of
Pergolesi, Jomelli and Cimarosa.
Eight years later the palace witnessed yet more splendid entertainments
in honour of the marriage of Ferdinando’s eldest son Cosimo with Maria
Maddalena of Austria, and but a few months afterwards Ferdinando died,
and his body lay in state in the large hall of the palace.
During the brief reign of Cosimo II., Giulio Parigi, according to
Baldinucci, added to Palazzo Pitti on either side “by a design of regal
magnificence.” He increased Brunelleschi’s façade from seven windows to
thirteen; and his son, Alfonso, who succeeded him as chief architect under
Ferdinando II., again lengthened the palace by two large windows on the
ground floor on either side and five on the first, in which state it remained
for more than a hundred years, as can be seen in the engraving by Zocchi,
done in 1746. It was fortunate that so clever and resourceful a man as
Alfonso Parigi was court architect, for Baldinucci tells us that “about 1640
the façade of the oldest part of the Palazzo Pitti, from the second floor
upwards, was seen to be out of the perpendicular, inclining towards the
Piazza more than 8 inches. This might have been very serious had not
Alfonso with talent, knowledge and prompt courage, suggested a radical
and efficacious remedy, and effected it by drawing back the colossal wall,
faced with huge rustic stones, to its original place; securing it in such
manner that it might never again present so alarming a spectacle, and he did
it in this way. First he bored the wall of the façade in as many places as
were needful for placing certain large iron ties made on purpose by Pietro
Zaballi, a famous worker in iron of that time; these were secured with the
usual bars, only very big and strong, which afterwards were hidden under
the stone facing. He passed the ties under the floors and walls of the
passages and rooms of the said second floor, and at the extremities of these
same ties, at the back of the building, he placed the wonderful instruments

furnished with screws invented by himself. With these, by means of certain
levers, first one and then another was tightened and pulled, so that this great
force was exercised little by little, and always equally. Thus almost
insensibly, with the labour of but few men, the great wall returned to its
place, and to insure it for ever from any new danger the ties were clenched
also in the courtyard.”
About the same time Ferdinando II. ordered Pietro da Cortona and his
scholar Ciro Ferri to fresco the five large rooms on the first floor of the
Palace (now part of the picture gallery). “Each room,” Inghirami tells us,
“was distinguished by the name of a planet, and alluded to the five principal
virtues of his father, the Grand Duke Cosimo II. The first, called Venus,
signified benignity; the second, Apollo, stood for splendour; the third, Mars,
for strong government; the fourth, Jupiter, for regal majesty and the
recompense of merit; the fifth, Saturn, signified prudence and profound
knowledge. In such guise the painter united mythology with history. The
merit of these inventions is due to Michelangelo Buonarroti, a writer of
much merit, surnamed the ‘Younger,’ to distinguish him from the famous
artist of this name, who was his uncle.” In these rooms the Grand Duke
hung his favourite pictures, and ordered the director Puccini to bring several
back from the Uffizi, which had at various times been removed from the
Pitti. Among these were the Madonna della Seggiola, and the portrait of
Leo X. by Raphael. The beautiful Madonna del Granduca, also by Raphael,
was bought by the Grand Duke for 300 zecchins, and the fine pictures
inherited by his wife Vittoria della Rovere from her father, the Duke of
Urbino, increased the treasures of the gallery, which may be said to have
been begun by Ferdinando II.
John Evelyn, who was in Florence in 1644, evidently thought the
lengthening of the Palazzo Pitti an improvement, as he writes in his diary
that it had been “of late greatly beautified by Cosimo with huge stones of
the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, with a terrace at each side having
rustic uncut balustrades, with a fountain that ends in a cascade seen from
the great gate, and so forming a vista to the gardens. Nothing is more
admirable than the vacant staircase, marbles, statues, urns, pictures, court,
grotto, and waterworks. In the quadrangle is a huge jetto of water in a volto
of four faces, with noble statues at each square, especially the Diana of
porphyry above the grotto. We were here showed a prodigious great

loadstone. The garden has every variety, hills, dales, rocks, groves, aviaries,
vivaries, fountains, especially one of five jettos, the middle basin being one
of the longest stones I ever saw. Here is everything to make such a paradise
delightful. In the garden I saw a rose grafted on an orange-tree. There was
much topiary-work, and columns in architecture about the hedges. The
Duke has added an ample laboratory, over against which stands a fort on a
hill, where they told us his treasure is kept. In this palace the Duke
ordinarily resides, living with his Swiss guards, after the frugal Italian way,
and even selling what he can spare of his wines, at the cellar under his very
house, wicker bottles dangling over even the chief entrance into the Palace,
serving for a vintner’s bush.”
In honour of the visit of the Princess Anna de’ Medici with her
husband, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his two brothers, and of
the Duke of Mantua and his wife, who was a Medici, splendid festivals
were given in the Palazzo Pitti, while a ballet on horseback, led by Cosimo,
the youthful heir to the throne, was performed in the amphitheatre in the
Boboli gardens by fifty-two cavaliers magnificently dressed and mounted
on well-broken horses. Little did the spectators think that the young prince,
who made his barb curvet so proudly, would become an odious bigot and
the laughing-stock of Europe, on account of his dissensions with his wife,
Marguerite Louise of Orleans. The old palace has witnessed many strange
scenes, but few stranger than that of a French princess amusing herself by
tickling her cook. Vincenzio Martinelli, in letters written in Italian chiefly to
English friends, and published in London in 1758, gives a curious
description of the tom-boy games of Marguerite Louise. “Cosimo had
obliged the Grand Duchess to send back to France all the gentlemen and
ladies of her court, and only one Frenchman, a cook, remained. The Grand
Duke gave himself up to devotion and solitude and governed his family, as
he did his state, like Tiberius, and allowed his wife no amusement save a
small concert for two or three hours every evening. The Grand Duchess,
who was very young, found these concerts monotonous, or perhaps, being
born in France, did not care for Italian music, so as a diversion she used to
send for her French cook, who came with his long apron and white cap, just
as he was dressed for cooking the dinner. Now this cook either dreaded, or
pretended to dread, being tickled, and the princess, aware of his weakness,
took great pleasure in tickling him, while he made all those contortions,
screams and cries proper to people who cannot bear to be tickled. Thus the

princess tickled the cook, and he defended himself, shouting and running
from one side of the room to the other, which made her laugh immoderately.
When tired of such romps she would take a pillow from her bed and
belabour the cook on the face and on the body, whilst he, shouting aloud,
hid himself now under, now on, the very bed of the princess, where she
continued to beat him, until tired out with laughing and beating she sank
exhausted into a chair. While these games were going on the musicians
stopped their music, and as soon as the princess sat down they
recommenced. This noble amusement continued for some time before the
Grand Duke knew of it; but one evening it happened that the cook was very
drunk, and therefore shouted louder than usual, and the Grand Duke, whose
apartments were five or six rooms distant from those of the Grand Duchess,
heard the noise and went to discover the cause. As he entered the room the
Grand Duchess was just beating her cook with a pillow on the grand-ducal
bed, and the Prince, horrified at so novel a sight, instantly condemned the
cook to the galleys (but I believe he was eventually pardoned), and scolding
the lady with the utmost severity, with a bearing more princely than marital,
he forbad her ever again to indulge in such conduct. The princess resented
being thus taken to task in the presence of the musicians, perchance with
less consideration than she thought due to her high rank, and was
exceedingly angry. After passing the whole night in fury and in tears she
determined to return to France, and sent one of her gentlemen to the Grand
Duke to inform him of her resolution. He, who desired nothing better, as he
feared his family might multiply like that of Priam, coldly replied that the
Grand Duchess had better reflect on the consequences of such a step, which
he would in no way oppose.” It ended by the Grand Duchess returning to
France, leaving two sons and a daughter, who were the last of the great
house of Medici.
After the death of Giovan Gastone in 1738, last surviving son of
Cosimo III., Tuscany was given by the treaty of Vienna to Francesco, Duke
of Lorraine, husband of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, in exchange
for his hereditary estates which were ceded to France. Tuscany was then
governed by regents, and of one of these, Marshal Botta, Sir Horace Mann
writes to his friend Walpole: “He has made sad work in the Palazzo, and in
the garden. His arrangement of the pictures is to make it depend, first upon
the freshness of the gilding upon the frames, and then upon the position of
the figures in each picture, which figures must not turn their back to the

throne. Luther and Calvin, by Giordano, were turned out with a most pious
contempt, as not worthy to stand in the presence of so orthodox a prince as
is coming here. His mother (Maria Theresa) will not permit any picture to
hang in her apartment that shows either a naked leg or arm. This ill agrees
with the Medici taste, or the collection they have left. Imagine that grave
matron (Maria Theresa) running the gauntlet through the gallery. Ah! quelle
horreur!... A famous picture, by Titian, was turned out of the room where
the canopy is, because the figure almost turned its back to it, and none are
to be admitted there but such as respectfully present their faces to it. The
picture of Luther and Calvin was dismissed with a Catholick fury, and, I
fear, will find no better place than in that horrid ill-painted room of Hell, at
the end of the apartment, that the young prince may see how the enemies of
the Church ought to be treated. You will think I exaggerate, but what I have
said is literally and ludicrously true. Botta tells the Florentines who criticise
his operations, that he knows more of architecture and painting than Andrea
del Sarto, or their ancestors who invented their Tuscan Order. Such are his
occupations, for as to government, célà va son train. Nobody interferes, and
nothing can be taxed higher than it is.... The farmers of the revenue, though
Tuscans, are more rigorous than the receivers or collectors used to be under
the Medici, who were indulgent to their subjects, and spent their revenues
amongst them. This will not be the case for some time, though a young
57
prince is coming, for the emperor will still have the principal share.”
Botta had been busy for some time arranging the Palazzo Pitti, which
had been untenanted since the death, in January, 1743, of the Princess
Palatine, last of the Medici. Like all her family she had artistic tastes, and
the Dutch pictures now in the Uffizi were collected by her and left to
Tuscany. Huge pier glasses and Rococo furniture were bought to furnish the
empty rooms on the first floor (where now the picture gallery is), “but,”
writes Mann, “everything is calculated for the Meridian of Germany—nay,
of Muscovy. Stoves and chimneys in every room. For the furniture the gout
is not less Gothick.”
A few days after the marriage of Leopoldo of Austria with Maria
Louisa of Spain, his father died suddenly at Innsbruck, and the fate of
Tuscany was changed. The Emperor Joseph II. ordered his brother
Leopoldo to be proclaimed Grand Duke, instead of Regent, and Mann
writes, “The Florentines seem very sensible of their good fortune in having

a prince again to live among them, after thirty years’ bondage under
unexperienced Lorrain ministers and others, so little fit and desirous to
contribute to their welfare.”...
Though Marshal Botta made “sad work” inside the palace, he
employed a good architect, G. Ruggeri, for the outside, who in 1764 began
the great loggiata, or projecting colonnade, at the north end of the façade,
where now is the entrance to the picture gallery. To him is also due the
credit of taking advantage of the steep slope to create the bastion or terrace,
but of a different shape from what we now see. The corresponding bastion
on the opposite side was added by the Grand Duke Leopoldo I. in 1783
under G. Paoletti, who also designed and half finished the Palazzina della
Meridiana, an adjunct to the Palazzo Pitti on the garden side, where he
cleverly took advantage of the lie of the land to make the entrance on a
level with the second floor of the great palace.
The Palazzo Pitti had already been despoiled of many of its valuable
contents accumulated by the Medici, and Leopoldo I. though an able
administrator and lawgiver, must have been sadly lacking in taste, as during
his reign many of the fine old ceilings were abolished in favour of sham
vaults made of lath and plaster. On succeeding his brother as Emperor of
Austria in 1790, his second son, Ferdinando, was made Grand Duke of
Tuscany, and when General Napoleon Bonaparte came to Florence in 1796,
Ferdinando III. asked him to dine, and received him with almost royal
honours. Not long afterwards General Sérurier occupied Lucca, where he
levied a tax of seven millions, and a few days later he requested the Grand
Duke of Tuscany to supply him with the same amount—but as a loan.
Convinced that it would never be repaid and unwilling to burthen his people
with heavy taxes, Ferdinando III. emptied the coffers of the state, took the
reserve of silver bars from the mint and, to make up the sum, melted down a
quantity of gold vases and plate which he collected from the various grand
ducal villas, and from the Palazzo Pitti.
Three years later the French troops entered Florence with General
Gaulthier at their head. He dismounted at the Palazzo Riccardi, and
immediately sent a company of soldiers with colours flying and band
playing to mount guard at the royal palace. At eight o’clock next morning
the Commissary-General for Tuscany, M. Reinhard, drove to the Palazzo
Pitti and presented his credentials from the Directoire to the Grand Duke

Ferdinando, with an order that he was to leave Tuscany at once. The Grand
Duke met him on the threshold, received the letter, turned on his heel and
re-entered the palace without saying a word. The night was spent in hurried
preparations for departure, and before sunrise next morning a sad little
procession of court coaches left the Palazzo Pitti. That afternoon a tree of
liberty was set up in the Piazza Sta. Croce, and another in the Piazza Sta.
58
Maria Novella, amid the shouts of half drunken French soldiers.
A new kingdom—Etruria—was then created by Napoleon and
bestowed on Don Lodovico of Bourbon, son of the Duke of Parma, married
to a daughter of Charles IV. of Spain. The bridegroom and bride went to
Paris, and were received by the First Consul and his wife Josephine with
great honour. They became so intimate that the young King of Etruria lost
his shyness, and amused the court after dinner by turning somersaults and
playing leap-frog with the officers. Murat, the brilliant husband of Caroline
Bonaparte, Napoleon’s favourite sister, went to Florence in January, 1801,
to prepare for the sovereigns of the new Kingdom of Etruria, which the
Tuscans declined to believe in. Every Friday, when the fattori, country
priests and peasants, came in to the market at Florence (as they do to this
day), they looked to see if the arms of Ferdinando III. were still above the
portal of the Palazzo Vecchio, and returned home declaring that the King of
Etruria was an invention of the French, in order to remain a little longer in
“la bella Firenze.”
The manner of proclaiming the King was original and worthy of his
reputation for turning somersaults. On the evening of the 28th July came
news that the sovereigns were at Parma on their way to Florence. A
serenade was immediately improvised, and Murat was greeted with shouts
of “Viva la Francia, Viva Giovacchino,” to which he answered, “Viva
l’Etruria, Viva il Re d’Etruria.” He then went to the Pergola, where the
favourite Nunziatina Pastori was dancing in a ballet called the “Kingdom of
Terpsichore.” As he entered the royal box she improvised a new pas (no
doubt already carefully rehearsed beforehand), and bounded on to the stage
holding three cards, on which something was written which she carefully
concealed from the public and from her companion, a well-known dancer
named Berti, who represented Mercury. Mercury chased Terpsichore and
when at last he caught her, she drew a dart from his belt and threw it at the
cards she had let fall in her flight. Escaping from Mercury, she seized the

card pierced with his dart and showed it to the house. On it was written Viva
Lodovico I. Re d’Etruria in large letters. She was greeted with tremendous
applause and Murat exclaimed, “Qu’elle est charmante, la petite
Nunziatine, qu’elle est jolie; c’est touchant, n’est ce pas, cette façon
d’annoncer l’arrivée du Roi d’Etrurie.”
At last, on the 10th August, the King and Queen entered Florence in
great state, and greeted their new subjects from the balcony of the Palazzo
Pitti. Soon afterwards Murat and his beautiful wife left with an immense
suite for Bologna, to the delight of the Florentines who hoped to be
delivered from the French occupation which was eating up the country.
The young sovereigns found an exhausted treasury and an
impoverished peasantry, and were forced to make a loan of 800,000 francs
at the enormous interest of 37 per cent., to pay which they pledged the
revenues of the post-office and the custom house. Lodovico had never been
strong. He died in May, 1802, leaving Maria Louisa Regent, who presented
the little King to his subjects from a window of the Palazzo Pitti. In the
autumn Pauline Bonaparte and her husband, Prince Borghese, came to
Florence, and nothing was spoken of but the beauty and grace of the woman
of whom Canova declared “that her figure, the shape of her skull, and the
way her head was set on her shoulders, had never been equalled since the
days of Diana and Calypso.” The Queen of Etruria received her with royal
honours, and memoirs of that time describe her entrance into the throne
room as a wonderful sight. Dressed in flowing white robes and covered
from head to foot with jewels, Pauline slowly walked, or rather glided,
towards fat little Maria Louisa who, weighed down by a heavy black velvet
dress, looked anything but royal. In 1807 the Emperor Napoleon curtly
signified to the Queen that Etruria had ceased to exist, and now formed part
of the French Empire. Her prayers and entreaties were in vain, and on the
10th December again a sad little procession left the palace, escorted by
French cavalry.
General Menou, who now governed Tuscany, made himself ridiculous
by his passion for an awkward and vulgar dancer, to whom, when at last
convinced that dancing was not her strong point, he had singing lessons
given in his apartments in the Pitti palace, at which he assisted. He
ostentatiously attended mass and affected great deference to the clergy, but
his conversion to Islam in Egypt, where he had changed his name to

Abdallah and married a Turkish lady, Zebedeeh el-Bahouad, had made too
great a sensation for his new-born piety to have much effect.
The Emperor’s sister Elisa, married to Felix Baciocchi, who was
already Princess of Piombino, was created Grand Duchess of Tuscany in
March, 1809. She despatched her favourite equerry, Cenami, to Florence
with orders to turn General Menou and his mistress out of the Palazzo Pitti,
and prepare for her arrival. But with Napoleonic impulsiveness she left
Lucca the following evening with her husband, escorted by a few French
soldiers, and at daybreak entered the Palazzo Pitti. The shutters were
thrown open and Elisa walked proudly through the magnificent rooms
which were now to be her home. An officer was sent to order a salvo of
twenty-one cannon to be fired as an intimation to her astonished subjects of
her arrival. That evening she went in state to the Pergola and was
vociferously cheered. Her likeness to the Emperor was remarkable, and she
held herself majestically. “Of all our three sisters,” said Joseph Bonaparte,
“Elisa was the one who, morally and physically, most resembled
Napoleon.”
Elisa soon won the hearts of the people, but many of the aristocracy
and the higher bourgeosie, encouraged by the clergy, held aloof. She was
much annoyed at the position held by the Countess of Albany, who was
treated as the widow of a royal personage, and openly professed Alfieri’s
sentiments about France and encouraged seditious language at her house.
So Elisa privately obtained from Fouché, then head of the police, an order
of banishment against the Countess, and charged General Menou to tell her
of the decree, and to express the sorrow and astonishment of the Grand
Duchess at so stringent a measure. Menou suggested to the Countess to ask
for an audience, which was arranged with some difficulty as she insisted on
being received as the widow of the King of England. She drove up to the
Palazzo Pitti in her state coach, and was conducted through a suite of rooms
into a small boudoir where Elisa, under pretence of sudden indisposition,
lay in bed. She only saluted the Countess, in return for her formal curtseys,
by an inclination of the head, and after listening to her with assumed
interest and sympathy brusquely exclaimed, “Why, dear Countess, was
Alfieri so declared an enemy of France?” “You show me that he was
perfectly right,” answered the Countess of Albany, rising, and turning her
back on the Grand Duchess, she walked out of the room without another

word. Two days later she was exiled, and all Florence took her part. A
magnificent fête was given at the Pitti palace to celebrate the victory of
Wagram. The gardens were illuminated and a balloon, in the shape of the
imperial eagle holding a thunderbolt, was sent up; but the court of the
Grand Duchess was forsaken, and the common people amused themselves
by making a cock drunk and hunting it through the streets.
The disastrous retreat of the Grande Armée from Moscow was followed
by General Nugent’s proclamation to the Italian people, promulgated at
Ravenna on the 10th December, 1813, and the advance of the Neapolitan
troops under Murat, who appeared at the gates of Florence on the 13th
January, 1814. He was received with shouts of joy by the populace, who
rushed to the Palazzo Pitti, and would have forced an entrance but for the
intervention of the Syndic. Like the Queen of Etruria, the Grand Duchess
had to fly, but her escort were forced to draw their swords to protect her
from the mob. In September Ferdinando III. re-entered Florence, to the joy
of the Tuscans, sick to death of foreign rulers, who hoped for a period of
peace and quiet under a prince born in the Pitti palace, whom they regarded
as a Florentine. In 1818 he bought so many pictures at the Gerini sale that
another room, the Hall of the Iliad, frescoed by Sabatelli, was added to the
great Pitti gallery. In 1824 he was succeeded by his son, Leopoldo II., under
whose reign the architect P. Poccianti made great changes in the palace.
Various small rooms were conveted into the fine atrium, or entrance hall,
leading into Ammannati’s superb courtyard, and at an enormous expense
59
the great staircase was built, in lieu of the old, narrow, steep one. The
superb gallery was thrown open to the public on Sundays and holidays in
1833.
Leopoldo was incapable of grasping the new ideas then surging
throughout Italy. Too late he was induced to grant a free constitution,
revolution burst out in Florence, the Republic was proclaimed, and in 1839
the Grand Duke fled, only to be reinstated a few months later. Nine
miserable years of foreign occupation followed, until in 1848 Leopoldo
quitted the Pitti palace by the side gate of the Boboli gardens. Driving out
of the Porta Romana, and round the city walls to the Porta San Gallo, he
went on his way to Vienna. Not a hat was raised as the hated Austrian
passed; in dead silence carriages and escort went by at full gallop, as though
afraid of hostile demonstrations.

Very different was the scene on the 16th April, 1860, when King Victor
Emanuel entered Florence amid such enthusiasm as has seldom been seen.
The closing words of his speech to the parliament a fortnight before had
struck a chord which vibrated in every heart. “La patria, la quale non è piu
l’Italia dei Romani, nè quella del Medio Evo; non deve essere piu il campo
aperto delle ambizione straniere, ma deve esere bensì l’Italia degl’Italiani.”

PALAZZO DEL PODESTÀ (Bargello)

Via Ghibellina.
After the battle of Figline in 1250, when the Guelphs obtained so
decided a victory over the Ghibellines, it was decided to create a Captain of
the People and a Council of Elders; and soon afterwards the erection of a
palace worthy of the new government was decreed. Many houses (built
both of stone and wood), towers, and plots of land were bought, the last
chiefly from the monks of the Badia. The contracts for these still exist,
stating that they were bought a edificatum est pro particula palatium populi
fiorentini, one of the houses belonged to the brothers Riccomanni, and its
tower is the one we still see crowning the fine old building. Another house
belonged to the Boscoli, in which the Captain of the People temporarily
took up his abode. In 1255, as is recorded by an inscription, building was
commenced. According to Vasari the first architect was Arnolfo di Lapo,
but some ten years later the Dominican friars, Fra Sisto da Firenze and Fra
Ristoro da Campo, who together built the church of Sta. Maria Novella,
were called in. Whether the palace was ever inhabited by the Captain of the
People, or when it was finished, is not known, but in 1261 Guido Novello,
the Podestà who ruled the city in the name of King Manfred, was living in
it, and named the street Ghibellina, after his party. By law the Podestà had
to be a “foreigner,” i. e. not a citizen of Florence, or of any town within fifty
miles of Florence, as he might be supposed to be influenced by friendship
or by fear. He remained in office for one year and took precedence of every
one in the city, administering civil and criminal justice, but not interfering
in political matters. In 1282, when the city of Florence was “reformed,” the
Podestà and his councillors met in the loggia which led into the great hall,
so that the heads of the Guilds and the principal citizens could assist at their
deliberations. The first notice we find of any internal decoration being
attempted in the palace of the Commune, as it was then called, where the
Podestà lived, to distinguish it from the palace of the People, the residence
of the Priors, is in 1292, when the painter, Fino di Tedaldo, painted certain

images above the door of the hall and above the judge’s seat. These frescoes
probably perished three years later when, as old Villani tells us, the Podestà
absolved Corso Donati who had been accused of treacherously murdering a
Florentine burgher, an adherent of Simone Galastrone. “No sooner was the
sentence read condemning Messer Simone Galastrone as the perpetrator of
the deed, than the popolo minuto shouted ‘death to the Podestà,’ and rushed
out of the palace crying, ‘To arms, to arms, long live the People.’ Many
seized their weapons, and went to the house of their head man, Giano della
Bella who, they say, sent them with his brother to the palace of the Priors to
follow the Gonfalonier of Justice. But they went not thither, but to the
palace of the Podestà, which the said people furiously assaulted with arms
and arquebuses; they stormed the palace and set fire to the doors thereof,
and entering, they took the Podestà and his followers prisoners and robbed
60
them without shame.” Dino Compagni, who was an eyewitness of the
storming of the palace, however says that the Podestà with his wife, “who
was greatly esteemed in Lombardy, and of wonderful beauty, hearing the
shouts of the mob calling for their death, fled to an adjacent house and were
taken in and hid. The next day the Council met and decided, for the honour
of the city, that what had been stolen from the Podestà should be given back
to him and his salary be paid. This was done, and he departed.” The damage
done was great, and the loss of prestige suffered by the Podestà almost
greater, so the Commune decided to fortify the building. Three rooms for
the use of the judges of the Sestieri of S. Pier Scheraggio, Borgo and the
Oltrarno were added, and a new entrance was constructed on the south side
(Via della Vigna Vecchia) with the Keys, the arms of the Holy See,
sculptured above, those of the house of Anjou immediately beneath them,
the Cross, emblem of the People, to the right, and to the left, the Lily of
Florence. The two empty shields may, Passerini thinks, have borne the arms
of Messer Antonio Galluzzi, who held the office of Podestà while the
repairs were being done. These were probably effaced in obedience to a law
of 1329, forbidding any Podestà, or any Captain, to have his portrait painted
or his arms inscribed in the palace, and ordering any then existing to be
effaced. Paintings of Our Saviour and of the Madonna, the arms of the
Church, of King Charles of Anjou, of the Commune and of the People, were
alone allowed. But a Podestà was allowed to place his arms within the
palace, if they commemorated any notable event, or in the courtyard of the

61
palace, or in the apartments of the tribunals of the Sestieri. Canti de’
Gabrielli of Gubbio was installed as Podestà in 1298 by Charles of Anjou,
and four years later the crier of the Republic called Dante degl’Alighieri to
appear before the Podestà’s court to hear the sentence of banishment with
the loss of all his worldly goods and possessions pronounced against him.

PALAZZO DEL PODESTÀ (THE BARGELLO).

The new fortifications did not prove strong enough to withstand the
furious onslaught of a mob led by the Adimari, which broke into the palace

in 1304, liberated Messer Talamo from prison and forced the Podestà,
Messer Gigliolo de’ Puntagli, of Parma, to fly for his life. The Commune
was then engaged in war, and did not begin to repair the palace until peace
was made with Pisa, thirteen years later. The work must have continued for
two years, as in August, 1319, eighteen golden florins were expended in
order to render the house of the Cerchi a fit habitation for the Count of
Battifolle, Vicario of King Robert of Naples. He only took up his abode in
the Palazzo del Podestà the following year. Even then the masons were still
busy, as in the State archives a deed exists showing that the loggia on the
first floor was then altered to its present form by an architect called Toni di
Giovanni; at all events as far as regards the columns and the pilasters. The
vaulted roof, as Passerini points out, was finished later, during the
tyrannical rule of Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, as his arms are on the
keystones. In 1326 the Duke of Calabria, who had been elected ruler of
Florence after the disastrous defeat of the Florentine arms at Altopascio,
held his court in the renovated palace, until his death, two years later, freed
Florence from his hated rule. The Commune then voted thirty golden florins
to restore the palace to its pristine condition, an additional sum was spent
for desks in the audience chamber, for a rostrum in the great hall and for a
fire-place. But in the terrible conflagration of 28th February, 1332, as
Villani tells us, “the palace of the Podestà caught fire, the entire roof of the
old palace was burnt and two-thirds of the new, from the first vault
upwards. So the Commune ordered that it should be rebuilt and every room
be vaulted up to the very roof.” After fire came water, for in the same year
the Arno rose to an unprecedented height, and devastated the city and the
surrounding country. “The water stood 6 braccie deep in the courtyard,”
reports Villani. Neri di Fioravanti, a skilful architect, whose name often
occurs in the books of the Commune as superintendent of the principal
works of the city, was called in to restore, or rather, to rebuild the palace.
Vasari attributes this work to Agnolo Gaddi, and writes that, “according to
his orders all the rooms in the palace of the Podestà were built with vaults
instead of flat ceilings, so that, besides being more beautiful, they should
not again be exposed to damage from fire as had happened not long before.
And afterwards, by the advice of Agnolo, the battlements we still see were
built round the said palace, of which there had formerly been no trace.” The
name of Gaddi, who was then a mere youth, does not however exist in the

account books of the work done in the palace, only Nerio Fioravantis
magister lapidum et lignaminum, is mentioned.
The reader may have wondered why the frescoes in the chapel of the
palace have not yet been mentioned; “where,” writes Vasari, “Giotto
depicted amongst others, as can be seen to-day, Dante Alighieri, his
contemporary and very great friend, no less famous as a poet than was
Giotto as a painter.” The theory is that Giotto painted the chapel in 1295, or
between 1300 and 1304 when Florence was at peace, thanks to the
mediation of the Pope’s Legate, Cardinal Aquasparta. Now every one
acquainted with Florentine history knows that the city was then in a state of
internecine warfare and that the well-intentioned efforts of the Cardinal
were abortive. The Bianchi were driven out in 1302 when furious faction
fights ensued between the “Grandi” and the “Neri,” or popular party, ending
in the murder of Corso Donati. The Italian translation of the old chronicler
Filippo Villani’s booklet, De origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis
civibus, is often quoted to prove that the portrait of Dante is by Giotto; it
says: “He, [Giotto] painted himself, by the aid of a looking-glass, and his
contemporary the poet Dante Alighieri in the chapel of the palace of the
Podestà, on the wall.” Now the original Latin text runs: pinxit insuper
speculorum suffragio semetipsum sibique contemporaneum Dantem IN
TABULA alteris cappelle palatii potestatis, that is to say, he painted his own
and Dante’s portrait in the altar picture on panel. This picture was still
extant in 1382, as it is mentioned in an inventory then made of the contents
of the palace. Many other cogent reasons, too long to quote here, against the
possibility of the fresco being by Giotto are given by Milanesi, in his notes
to Vasari’s life of Giotto, and both he and Passerini agree that no mural
paintings could have survived the terrible fire which devastated the building
in 1332. The altar picture, on the other hand, must have been saved, or it
would not have been mentioned by Filippo Villani, or be in the inventory.
Signor Milanesi suggests that it was painted about 1326, when large sums
were being spent on the decoration of the palace to fit it for the reception of
the Duke of Calabria, and Florence was beginning to recognize the genius
of the man she had exiled and vilified. Certainly it is unlikely that Giotto,
however great his friendship for Dante may have been, would have painted
the portrait of a condemned exile, as Dante was in 1302, in a picture
destined for an altar in the palace of the chief magistrate of the city. The
frescoes on the east wall of the chapel, divided by a window, represent

Paradise in three divisions. The King standing in front of the almost entirely
repainted effigy of Dante probably represents Robert of Anjou, King of
Naples, and the cardinal on the opposite side of the window, Messer
Bertrando del Poggetto; at his feet a kneeling figure, part of whose face and
head is effaced, may be the Bishop of Florence. The figure beside Dante is
supposed to be his master, Brunetto Latini. Above the entrance door the
wall still bears faint traces of Hell. Episodes from the life of S. Mary
Magdalene are painted on the right hand wall and continued on the opposite
one, where the two windows are divided by a pilaster on which is painted S.
Venantius, whose name is almost illegible. Below is another inscription
62
(with many abbreviations) which indicates the date of the frescoes, as
Messer Fidesmini da Varano was Podestà of Florence in 1337, the year of
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Giotto’s death.
Work was still going on in the palace in 1342 when Baglione Baglioni
was installed as Podestà by Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens and Count
of Lecce, whose arms, a lion with two tails, are still to be traced on the large
windows of the courtyard. When the Florentines rose against the tyrant,
Baglioni fled and took refuge with the Albizzi while the people sacked the
palace, burst open the prisons, made a bonfire of all the archives and carried
off everything that was portable, even the windows. Six citizens were
elected to govern the city in the place of the Podestà, and took up their
abode in the palace. They effaced the Duke’s arms and summoned, writes
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Vasari, Tommaso di Stefano, commonly called Giottino, to paint him and
his followers “in infamous fashion, hanging by the neck,” on one side of the
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tower, with verses descriptive of their evil deeds attached to each figure.
This was not the first time that malefactors were thus held up to public
execration. In 1288 Ciampollo di Cantino and Andrea di Guido Cavalcanti,
whose lives were spared at the intercession of the ambassadors of Siena,
were condemned to lose all their possessions and to be painted on the walls
of the Podestà’s palace. In 1308 Carlo Ternibili of Amelia, who stole the
seal of the Commune, was not only painted on the tower with the seal in his
hand, but on the gates of the town.
In 1345 Neri Fioravanti, with seven maestri under him, one of whom
was Benci di Cione, finished the great Hall of Council, restored various
rooms and the vaultings of others, which were painted by Bartolo di Corso

and Jacopo di Baldo, artists of whom nothing, save their names, is known,
and put battlements round the top of the walls; while the eastern door and
the magnificent staircase, which was only completed in 1367, were begun.
Under the lion at the foot of the staircase are the arms of Baruffaldi de
Griffis, who was Podestà at that time.
Hardly had the palace risen from its ashes when the Ciompi riots broke
out and once more the mob devastated the building. Uccelli gives a curious
extract from an old manuscript written by an eyewitness of the doings on
the 21st July, 1378. “Then the people sent for all the Minor Guilds, some
came, some did not; and when there were about seven thousand men with
arms collected together, they took counsel and decided to do much
mischief. But it pleased God that rain should fall in such abundance that
none could go about the streets. So they remained until the third hour and
then deliberated amongst themselves to attack the Palazzo del Podestà, and
moving all together they went to the said palace and surrounded it. The
followers of the Podestà, who were on the tower, began to throw stones and
hail arrows on the people and the artificers, who then said that if the palace
was not given up to them they would have the blood of all within. Bowmen
climbed up into the campanile of the Badia and shot with arquebuses at the
followers of the Podestà, but little harm did they do; none could get near the
palace by reason of the shower of stones. So the people took tables out of
the taverns and, getting under them, advanced to the door of the said palace
and set fire to it with many faggots. Some citizens, neighbours of the
Podestà, then made signs to him with their hoods not to throw any more
stones, and said that if the palace was given up all the persons therein
should be saved. He answered that he was willing to surrender the palace,
save only the chamber of the Commune. And they replied that they were
content. He descended with his followers in great fear, begging in God’s
name for mercy; the people entered and he left without any harm being
done to him. They went up the tower and there placed the emblem of the
smiths, that is, a pair of pincers; and all the other emblems of the Great
Guilds and of the Minor Guilds were placed in the windows of the palace,
save that of the Guild of Wool. Everything that was in the palace was
thrown out, and every book or written page was burnt. All that day and
night much people remained in the palace for the honour of God, and rich
66
and poor stayed to guard each one the banner of his Guild.”

The great bell La Montanina, which tolled when the Podestà and the
judges administered justice, was injured and had to be re-cast, after which it
rang every evening, to notify that no man could leave his house unarmed or
without a lantern, and also whenever a prisoner was executed. Some two
hundred years later a law was passed that any servant, unless he was with
his master, who was found armed in the streets after the last stroke of the
bell at ten at night in winter, and twelve in summer, should lose his hand.
The law fell into abeyance, but the deep notes of the bell were heard every
night until 1848, when the ringing was abolished. The Podestà of 1457 was
a great admirer of Dante, and in the Magliabechiana library is a copy of the
Divine Comedy, curious as having been written in the old Palazzo. It
belonged to “the noble and illustrious lady Madonna Marina, wife of the
magnificent knight and noble Count Messer Cristofano degli Amieri of
Pesaro, which book the aforesaid M. Cristofano had written in the city of
Fiorenza at the time when he was Podestà of the excellent and noble city of
Fiorenza, where, on account of his good government, he received great
honours.” The honours conferred on him are set forth and the inscription
concludes: “this book the aforesaid M. Cristofano has had written in his
office with great affection for his wife to whom he gave it, and whom he
loves beyond aught else. And it was written by the hand of the worshipful
man maestro Lodovico de Bella, a soldier from Savoy in the city of
Fiorenza. He began to write it on the first day of September, 1457, and
finished it on the sixteenth day of November of the same year.”
That traitor to his country, Ridolfo Varano, Captain-General of the
Republic during the war with Gregory IX., who went over to the Pope, was
also figured, hung by the feet, in 1377, not only on the tower of the palace,
but on the gates of the town. But when peace was made with Urban VI., the
painting was effaced. Eleven years later Bonaccorso di Lapo Giovanni, who
had been three times a Prior and twice Gonfalonier of Justice, intrigued
with Gian Galeazzo Visconti against the Republic, and was condemned to
death in contumaciam. As a warning to all traitors his effigy was painted at
the foot of the tower of the Palazzo del Podestà, hung in chains and
67
surrounded with devils. The old palace must have been covered with these
ghastly frescoes when, at the instigation of Cosimo de’ Medici, Albizzi,
Peruzzi and Strozzi, who had taken up arms to oppose his return to Florence
in 1434, were also gibbeted as traitors to their country. Nearly fifty years

later, after the conspiracy of the Pazzi, Vasari tells us: “the Signori passed a
resolution that the portraits of all those concerned in the conspiracy should
be painted on the façade of the Palazzo del Podestà. The work was offered
to Andrea del Castagno who, as a servant of the house of Medici and much
indebted to them, willingly accepted the commission and performed it so
well that it was a marvel. It is impossible to describe the art and the
judgment displayed in these figures which were nearly the size of life,
hanging by their feet in strange attitudes, all varied and of great beauty. This
work was so pleasing to the whole city, particularly to those who were
learned in the art of painting, that Andrea was ever after called Andrea degli
impiccati (of the hanged), instead of by his own name Andrea del
Castagno.” In 1480, when peace was made with Sixtus IV., these paintings
were effaced, as amongst them were his nephew Girolamo Riario,
Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa, and a priest, Stefano di Bagnone.
Fourteen years later, when the Medici were driven out of Florence, the
portraits of Albizzi, Peruzzi and Strozzi were also destroyed.
In 1502 the powers of the Podestà were curtailed by the institution of a
Council of Justice, the Ruota, which necessitated great changes in the old
palace. Room had to be found for the five judges constituting the council,
and Baccio d’Agnolo and Giuliano da San Gallo were the architects
selected by the Signoria to do the work. They abolished an old staircase
which led up into the great hall (now filled with the works of Donatello)
where the 300 citizens, forming the council of the Commune, used to meet,
and built a new hall of audience looking out on the Piazza S. Apollinare
(now Piazza S. Firenze). Fourteen rooms were decorated by the painters
Agnolo Donnini and Domenico di Marco, while Bernardino of Settignano
sculptured the windows and the doors. The judges’ rooms were on the
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ground floor, near the prisons and the torture chambers. There were also a
few underground cells, and in the courtyard suspected people, whom the
Podestà wished to have under his own eye, were kept, but he could not
detain them more than three days. A chain near the doorway marked the
limit beyond which they were forbidden to go, under pain of severe
punishment. In a curious and rare little pamphlet a list is given of the
malefactors condemned to death in Florence from 1328 to 1759, and their
crimes. Three hundred and three names, many of them of the most
illustrious Florentine families, are set down; some were burnt alive, others

hung and others decapitated. Such names as Alberti, Strozzi, Ridolfi,
Salviati, Vitelli, Soderini, etc., are nearly all followed by the short sentence,
“for affairs of state,” or “for speaking ill of the Republic,” or “for unknown
reasons.” There are also common robbers and thieves and some heretics, the
69
latter were always condemned to the stake. Massimo d’Azeglio has taken
one of the political “delinquents,” Niccolò de Lapo, as the hero of his well-
known novel. But far more interesting is a description by Luca della
Robbia, great-nephew of the famous Luca, of a night he passed in the
Bargello with his friend Pietro Pagolo Boscoli, who was condemned to
death. It is so curious a human document that I have translated the greater
70
part.
“I record how on the 22nd Feb. 1513, Agostino di Bernardo Capponi
and Pietro Pagolo di Giachineotto Boscoli were condemned to death as
conspirators against the house of Medici, for wishing to free the city and to
kill Giuliano, Lorenzo and Messer Giulio. On the evening of Tuesday I,
Luca di Simone di Marco della Robbia, having heard that they were to die
and being impelled by a desire to console Pietro Pagolo, my great friend,
went to the Bargello and remained there the whole night.... At about 2 the
said Boscoli, having supped, was brought with his legs in irons into the
chapel where were the Brethren of the Black Confraternity and others. The
Captain in a low voice, not like one of the vulgar, spoke but two words, so
that few were aware of what he said; until Pagolo exclaimed: Oh, Pietro
Pagolo! Oh, poor Pietro Pagolo, whither hast thou been led! Then I, moved
to great compassion seeing my beloved friend in such agony, as
affectionately as I could, with gestures of sorrow went towards him and
thus saluted him: God preserve thee, dearest of friends. Noli timere eos qui
occidunt corpus, animam autem non possunt occidere. And he, as though he
knew me not, only said: I wish for Fra Zanobi Acciaiuoli, I asked the
Signoria, in case I had to die, to let me have a confessor for four hours and
they promised; see that he comes. And I, comforting him, said he should be
satisfied. Then came news that Fra Zanobi was not in Florence, and he said:
Get me one from there [S. Marco], as I want a learned and a good man. I
answered: Do not fear, it shall be done. And he continued: I have but little
time and I have supped too heartily and of salted things; so that I seem
unable to lift my spirit to God. And louder; God have mercy upon me, they
have given me too much food. Shame on them! Had they told me before

supper, I should have taken but a few mouthfuls. Agostino Capponi, also
heavily ironed, then came up, and thinking Pagolo was lamenting, said: O
Pietro Pagolo, Pietro Pagolo, do you die unwillingly? What are you about?
And he replied: O Agostino, I die willingly, but I grieve for two things: one
is that Anton Serristori and Piero Ridolfi held out to me this morning hopes
of life, and in a manner I believed and clung to this hope; the other is that
they have given me over-much food. How can I turn my heart to God? And
Agostino: Never fear, we will die all the more merrily. Boscoli, sitting
down, then said to me: You see, dear Luca. And I answered: Yes, dear
friend; adding, some time ago I became convinced of a thing which, if you
can sincerely believe, will doubtless aid you to take this step, which is a
terrible one, with less pain. It is that not a leaf falls but by the will of God.
He answered: I certainly believe so. But see, Luca, that I get this confessor,
for time is very short and I have a great load. It is true that I owe no man
anything. Then I: That is good. And he continued: O Luca, I have ever been
ungrateful to God and have offended him in every way; yet I trust in his
mercy. I answered: That is the important thing. Quare igitur tristis est
anima tua, et quare conturbat te? Spera in Deo quoniam adhuc confiteberis
illi, salutare vultus tui, et Deus tuus. Then he said: ’Tis well. And raising
himself from the chair he placed himself on the mattress with his chained
legs, and continued: Since it pleases God that we are to be the first to give
an example to the people, let us begin. But Luca, this confessor? And I: Yes,
but you understand that I am not sure if you can have a friar of S. Marco,
you know they are gravely suspected and I doubt if they will come here. Is
there no one in the Badia you would like? Who is there? he asked. There is
the Abbot, Don Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, I replied, and some others who
are held to be good confessors. Then he said: I need a man who can touch
my heart, see if I can have such a one. Stefano the miniature painter came
up and offered to go to S. Marco, in order that he might be contented; then
another said: Messer Jacopo Manegli is here, you can have him. But with
loud and clear voice he answered: I will not have Messer Jacopo, and
turning to Stefano said: Go to S. Marco and fetch him of Lucca (meaning
Fra Santi). And I added: If he cannot come, bring Fra Serafino (a friar
whose nature I considered was much allied to Boscoli’s). Then addressing
those around he said: I pray you do not confuse my head (for one or another
was ever going up to him), Luca suffices, he knows my character; if I want
anything I can tell him. And taking from his sleeve a paper written by him

in prison for his brothers, he told me to give it to them, saying: All my
wishes are written here. I leave no burthen on any one, save to pray to God
sometimes for me.... Then naming his mother he said: Who will console her
in such affliction? Poor woman, the blow will be a hard one. So I replied:
Pagolo, I have spoken with her. And he: Is it true? Yes, I answered, I have
been there every day since last Sunday, and although the body is weak,
nevertheless the spirit is upheld by God; for you know she is of high
quality. He answered: Yes, truly she is of high quality.... Now Luca, help me
to drive Brutus from my head, that I may die like a good Christian. And I:
That will not be difficult as you desire to die a Christian. Besides you know
these Roman stories are not written simply and nakedly, but dressed out
with much art. He replied: And even if true, what matter they to me as they
do not contain the true faith. And I: See, you have answered and helped
yourself. Luca, he said, do not praise me. And I: I am here to aid you. Tell
me all your wants, with God’s help, I will try to comfort you; and yet, ’tis
you who comfort me. He replied: My intellect, but with difficulty, believes
in the true faith and desires to die like a Christian. But my heart seems hard,
and I cannot explain my thoughts even to myself. And I: I understand; you
desire a tender love of God, with tears and sobs, and that your intellect
should accept the true faith. Then he: Yes, that is so. And I: Pietro Pagolo,
this last is necessary for salvation, but ’tis well also to have the former. You
must force your intellect to submit to the faith; I am sure you will soon find
it needs no forcing, and then tears will come, because you will be helped by
confession, communion, indulgences and the prayers of those around. Fear
not, let all your thoughts be concentrated on God, for does he not say: fili,
præbe mihi cor tuum. Give him your heart and leave the rest in his hands.
He replied: If that be sufficient, I do so; but is it? Adding: Lord, I am thine,
do with me what thou wilt, if only I am pleasing to thee.... O Luca, you
must have known I was lost when you heard I had been seized. And I: You
may believe I knew the danger; I prayed to God for you and shed many
tears. Then I said to myself, if Pagolo saw me he would reprove me, and say
that friendship should not be weak and effeminate. He answered: You know
full well that death has no sting for me, for we must all die; but my Mother
stands ever before me. Am I not even to see my brothers? And I: Christ is
your mother and your brothers according to Scripture.... I have scant time,
Luca, he said, I should need to be for a month with the friars, then might I
become full of faith; but I trust that God will help me this night. Then he

asked for water to quench the thirst arising from the salt food, and drinking
with a good grace, he said: Luca, they put me eight times to torture, and
then I understood that I was lost: nevertheless, thanks to God, I feel no
spark of hatred against any citizen.... I asked him: Shall we say a psalm?
And he: Luca, I can only say paternosters and Ave Maria’s; meaning that he
knew no psalms by heart—and this he said with sorrow. And I: That is the
best prayer there is: say, if it pleases you, a paternoster to yourself. And
with great devotion he did so.... Then to me: Read me the Creed of St.
Athanasius; and when I had found it, he said: It will be better I read it
myself, and holding the booklet between his handcuffs, he read about
twelve verses with such expression that all around cried.... Seeing me cry,
he said: Luca, do not do so, help me this little while, and when I am dead
pray to God for me. And I, restraining my tears as well as I could, said: I
will; and when you are among the Blessed, where I trust surely you will go,
remember me. He answered: I will, adding: What death are we to die? And
I: I know not. He said: God’s will be done, and then suddenly: Luca, I have
a fantastic wish to know when I spoke to you last before I was taken? And
I: It was on Friday evening about 24 o’clock, in the shop of Pier
Guicciardini, and Lorenzo Segni was there. I held your hand awhile,
desiring to accompany you to the Palace whither you were bound, and you
refused. About 2 I think you were taken. He answered: It was then in the
evening? I said: Yes. And he: ’Tis true, I now remember well. Luca, do not
abandon me; you are put to great trouble. I said: Ah, Pietro Pagolo, abandon
you! why am I here? You know the love I have always borne you. And he:
It is reciprocal, and not without reason. ’Tis well, read me a passage, what
you will. So I took S. John, but before I began to read he said: Whenever an
explanation is needed, make it. And I: Pagolo, that is a heavy load for my
shoulders; I have not the knowledge, neither am I well exercised in Holy
Writ. This is no time for ceremony, he answered; do as I tell you, and what
God inspires you say. And thus I began to read, and where I thought well,
God aiding, I spoke, and it seemed to comfort him.... Then reading the
passage where S. Peter denies Jesus, I stopped, and motioned the others to
withdraw a little, and in an undertone said: Pagolo, a man of great worth
was once in the same position as yourself—Savonarola. And he: I
understand you. I continued: Whilst explaining the Misere mei Deus and
meditating over the denial of S. Peter, he obtained faith that God would
pardon him, therefore take you courage and have faith.... And he: Fools that

we are! Lord have mercy on me, for I will follow thee this night as well as I
can. O Luca, these explanations have entered into me. Fra Hieronimo was a
great man; he was learned; but I am not as he. I replied: Here is no question
of learning, only of faith, hope and charity. He was in the midst of religion
in a convent studying the Scriptures, and so it is no great wonder that he
died with discernment. It is enough for you that God gives you grace to take
this step for his honour, that is for the love of him, repenting of your sins....
I was then called away to see the confessor, Fra Cipriano of S. Marco....
Returning to Pagolo I said: The confessor has come. His name is Fra
Cipriano, son of a peasant at Pont’ a Sieve, a learned and a good man; God
has sent him to you, I doubt not he will satisfy you. And he: God be
praised! bring him to me. So Fra Cipriano came to Boscoli, who received
him with every mark of respect; for lying on a mattress, with his legs
manacled and handcuffs on his hands, he raised himself as far as he was
able and uncovered himself with both hands, replying to Fra Cipriano, who
had said God preserve thee beloved brother: And you also, my father, you
are most welcome. Then turning to me: Arrange things a little, so that he
may be as much at ease as possible. And we did so, and then retired a little
so that he might confess in secret.... The Black Brethren now began, as is
their custom, to sing the penitential psalms and to recite; whereupon Pagolo
in a quick, loud voice exclaimed: Fathers and brethren, I dislike such noise,
it much annoys me. I have but a short time: I pray you be silent so that I
may make my confession, your singing disturbs me. If you will pray to God
for me in your hearts, I shall be beholden to you. And Fra Cipriano added:
Yes, pray each one silently, that will be as good and not disturb us.... Pagolo
called me several times during his confession, recalling his life, and once
said: Luca, as a youth I made a vow to go on foot to Santa Maria Impruneta,
which I have not fulfilled. I pray you take my vow on yourself; I impose it
on you jure amicitiæ. I answered: I accept it. Another time he said: Luca, I
commend my Mother to you; be to her a third son. Console her with all
your strength, she needs it; go and visit her often during her life, which will
not be long, for I know she will soon follow me. Go to the house, talk to
her, exhort her to have patience, tell her I die willingly and that she is to
pray to God for me. And I, with tears, promised.... Seeing that preparations
were being made to give him the communion he turned to Fra Cipriano,
saying: Will not the sacrament I am about to take give me greater courage?
You well know that it will, answered the friar; ambulabis in fortitudine cibi

isitus usque ad montem Dei Oreb. And he: I trust so.... The Holy Sacrament
was then brought, and Pagolo exclaimed: O infinite goodness! O boundless
charity! O salvation of the world! Be merciful to me. And the tears
streamed from his eyes with such devotion and tenderness that he seemed a
young girl.... Agnolo, the bookseller, came up afterwards and he said: O my
Agnolo, kiss me. And when Agnolo consoled him with loving words, he
said: Agnolo, I am prepared to die, but I would give myself entirely up to
God and I cannot. I cannot satisfy myself. I wish to meet death without fear
and to attain God with my intellect. Then Agnolo, and Giovanni Covoni
who had joined us, both said: Pagolo, have no fear; have faith and do not
lose yourself in subtleties. The Lord is merciful; give yourself to him, that is
sufficient. I do, he answered, adding: Deus in adjutorium meum intende,
Domine ad adjuvandum me festina. In te, Domine, speravi; non confundar
in æternum. O Giovanni, pray God to give me strength, for the time is
drawing nigh.... Turning to Fra Cipriano, he said: Do not leave me till the
last; aid me to complete the sacrifice; God will repay you for me. And the
friar: Have no fear, my brother. I shall be with thee, and Luca, thy beloved
friend, will also aid thee. So be it, he replied, I entreat thee, Luca. And I:
Eh! we will not fail thee; but put thy hope in God. Viriliter age, confortetur
cor tuum, et sustine Dominum. And the time having come he rose with great
courage, and when one of the police wished to put the cloak on him, he
exclaimed: There is no need for the cloak, and turning to me with a gesture
of affection said: Farewell, and nought else. And the word nigh broke my
heart, I felt such grief; and could only reply: Vale, God is with thee. Thus
we went down, the friar comforting him with verses from the psalms.... And
as he descended the stairs he kept his eyes on the little picture and with
most loving accent said: Lord, thou art my love; I give to thee my heart; I
love thee only and therefore I love all things, for I love all for love of thee.
Here am I, Lord; I come willingly; grant me courage and strength. And this
he said with such tenderness that all who heard were in tears.... And half-
way down the stairs he met the Crucifix of the Brotherhood, and said: What
ought I to do? And the friar replied: This is your captain, who comes to arm
you. Salute him, honour him and pray that he may give you strength. Then
he: Salve Domine Jesu; adoro te in croce pendentem. Let me, I pray thee,
partake of thy passion. True Lord, I beg for peace. And whilst descending
the second flight of steps, he ceased not to pray, saying: In manus tuas,
Domine, commendo spiritum meum. Redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritas....

The head executioner, advancing to blindfold him, asked his pardon and
offered to pray for him, and Pagolo answered: Do what thou hast to do; but
when thou hast placed me on the block let me remain for a short while, and
then finish me; that thou prayest to God for me, I accept.... Before he was
placed on the block he drew himself up very straight and standing firmly
said: I submit myself in the faith of Jesus Christ and desire to die in it; and
although my offences against the divine goodness have been infinite,
nevertheless I hope to be saved through the blood of Christ and by nought
else. As it is pleasing to thee, Jesus mine, that I suffer this death, I accept it
willingly for love of thee, and he knelt down. The executioner, giving him
but a very short reprieve, severed his head at one blow, and for a time his
mouth twitched somewhat. Then Agostino, fervently praying, advanced
with great courage, and the executioner cut off his head with two strokes.
The Brethren then took the body of Boscoli, and his head was like that of an
angel. He was borne to his vault in the Badia, and I begged to be allowed to
carry the head, and it was granted to me. Thus I was able to fulfil the
demands of friendship, and perhaps, or rather certainly, those of patriotism.
He was buried amid the tears of all, many of the monks being present. I saw
Agostino also after death, and his face still bore a sort of sneer. He was
buried in his vault in S. Spirito. God be merciful to them. This is the truth,
in memory thereof I have writ these pages, foolish perhaps, but true....”
Notwithstanding the execution of Boscoli and Capponi, another plot to
assassinate the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici was discovered a few years later.
A French courier was arrested in Florence, and although nothing of a
treasonable nature was found upon him he was condemned to death. A
police spy, dressed as a friar, was sent to hear his last confession, and
learned that the wretched man had a letter, pieces of which were sewn in his
cloak. The courier disappeared, and the letter went to the Cardinal. In the
evening Jacopo Diaceto, already ill looked upon because he frequented the
Rucellai gardens, where the Alamanni, Buondelmonti and others hostile to
the Medicean rule met, was arrested. At the first turn of the rack he
confessed everything, and answered every question. When at the point of
death, Nardi tells us that the poor young fellow begged his confessor, in the
hearing of the Black Brethren, to inform the judges that he had been driven
by fearful torture to inculpate Tommaso Soderini, who was innocent. The
poet Luigi Alamanni was at his villa near Figline, and a friend took horse
and rode hard to warn him of his danger. He got away to Urbino, but his

cousin and namesake, who was at Arezzo, was seized, brought to Florence
and beheaded, together with Jacopo Diaceto, in the courtyard of the
Bargello on 7th June, 1522. Zanobi Buondelmonti escaped, thanks to his
wife’s presence of mind (see p. 59).
During the siege of Florence in 1529, Vasari says, “On the feast of the
Resurrection portraits of three citizens were uncovered on the façade of the
palace of the Podestà; Alessandro di Gherardo Corsini, in mantle and hood;
Taddeo di Francesco Guiducci, blind of one eye, in like dress; and Giorgio
Ridolfi, hung by the leg; and the name of each was written below, with
71
TRAITOR TO HIS COUNTRY added in capital letters.” After the
surrender of the city these were whitewashed over; only the portraits of the
Duke of Athens, of his followers, and of Giovanni Bonaccorso, were left as
a warning to all tyrants and traitors.
In 1574 the Podestà and the judges of the Ruota moved into the old
castle of Altafronte, which Cosimo I. some twenty years before had bought
from the family of the Castellani, and the captain of the city, or head of the
police, called the Bargello, took up his abode in the Palazzo del Podestà.
The fine building was barbarously maltreated. The arcades of the courtyard
and of the beautiful loggia were walled up, and turned into cells, and three
floors, each containing many cells, were put into the magnificent hall. The
same was done in the chapel, where the frescoes disappeared under many
coats of whitewash; the lower floor, being next to the kitchen, was turned
into a pantry, and above were cells. The very name of the palace was lost,
for henceforth it took the name of its new inmate, and was known as the
Bargello. Uccelli says the word is derived from the debased Latin
Barigaldus (Barachel in Spanish), meaning head of the police, princeps
apparitorum. The Roman apparitores were the administrators of justice
who preceded the magistrate, called by the Longobards berrovieri. The
word was shortened, the “e” became an “i,” and thence the familiar Tuscan
appellation of birri, a name of opprobrium given by the criminal classes to
72
the police.
In 1841 an Englishman and an American, Mr. Seymour Kirkup and Mr.
Wilde, applied for permission to uncover the frescoes in the chapel of the
Bargello. After infinite delays the government decided to do the work itself,
but unluckily employed an incompetent artist who “restored” the portrait of

Dante. A nail had been driven into the eye, and when pulled out it brought
away a piece of plaster; this he restored, and then heightened the colour of
the face to suit his own eye, altered the shape of the headdress and changed
the green of the white, red and green dress, into a dingy brown. Mr. Kirkup
fortunately made a tracing and a coloured sketch of the head when it was
first uncovered, which was published by the Arundel Society of London,
and thus a record of the real portrait exists.
In 1847 the people rose against the birri, who had made themselves
odious by their insolence and violence, and would have released the
prisoners in the Bargello if the civic guard had not been called out. Ten
years later the Grand Duke gave orders that the building should be restored,
and all the prisoners removed to the Murate. In 1860 it was finally decreed
that the weatherbeaten, stern old Palazzo del Podestà should be turned into
a national museum.

PALAZZO PUCCI

Via de’ Pucci. No. 4.
The great Pucci palace was built by Paolo Falconieri for Orazio
Roberto Pucci in the middle of the XVIIth century on the site of several old
houses belonging to the family. In 1664 Orazio was created Marquess of
Barsento by the King of Spain, a title still borne by the present
representative of the family. Progenitor of this once powerful house was
Puccio, son of Benintendi, a poet of the XIIIth century. His descendant,
Antonio, inscribed in the Guild of Carpenters, was the first of twenty-nine
Priors the Pucci gave to Florence, but as an ally of the Alberti he was soon
afterwards banished. Puccio Pucci his son, the intimate friend and adviser
of Cosimo the Elder, was Gonfalonier of Justice in 1447. He died two years
later leaving an enormous fortune to his sons, of whom Antonio was several
times Gonfalonier of Justice, and as Commissary-General at the siege of
Pietrasanta distinguished himself by heading the troops at the final assault
and by his care of the wounded soldiers. By his wife, a daughter of the
celebrated Giannozzo Manetti, he left many sons. Giannozzo, the eldest,
was beheaded for conspiring with Bernardo del Nero in 1497 in favour of
the Medici; Puccio married Girolama Farnese, sister of Pope Paul III., and
was distinguished as a jurist; Lorenzo entered the Church, was Bishop of
eight Sees, Archbishop of Amalfi and Chief Penitentiary. Denounced by
Luther for selling indulgences, only the death of Adriano VI. and the
accession of his friend Giulio de’ Medici to the papal chair saved him from
severe punishment. Antonio’s nephew, Pandolfo, was a worthy boon-
companion to the infamous Duke Alessandro. Cosimo I. dismissed him with
ignominy from his court and he then plotted against the Duke’s life, but for
one reason or another did not succeed in accomplishing his purpose. When
the plot was discovered Pandolfo Pucci and his companions were hung
without trial from the iron bars of the windows of the Bargello, in January,
1560.

WINDOW OF PALAZZO PUCCI.

Nearly all Pandolfo’s sons died violent deaths. Orazio, the eldest,
attempted the life of Francesco I. and was hung fifteen years after his father,
at the same window of the Bargello. Another fled to Rome, found favour
with Clement VIII., and was about to be made a Cardinal when he died of
poison, administered by order of the Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. A
third was killed by a madman.
The present branch of the family descend from Saracino, a brother of
Puccio, who also made a large fortune under Cosimo the Elder. One of his
sons, implicated in the Pazzi conspiracy, was hung; another, named Priore,

cautiously kept aloof from politics and occupied himself with commerce.
His descendant, Niccolò inherited the riches of the eldest branch of the
family, married an heiress and left a large fortune to his grandson, who built
the palace, and owned many houses and villas, on which the moor’s head
(the Pucci arms) is to be seen. The Marquess Pucci still inhabits the old
palace.

PALAZZO RICCARDI

Via Cavour. No. 1.
The first of the great house of Medici, according to Passerini, was
Giambuono, an ecclesiastic. He lived in the XIIth century, and his son
Chiarissimo owned houses and a tower in Florence near S. Tommaso.
Admirers of the Medici attributed to them a far more magnificent origin—
Perseus; a Roman Emperor; a learned physician who saved the life of
Charlemagne; or Averardo de’ Medici, a brave knight who slew Mugello, a
giant who was the terror of Tuscany. Their enemies, on the other hand, assert
that the son of a poor charcoal-burner in the Mugello who became a doctor
(medico) was their progenitor, and point to the well-known balls, or pills, on
the Medici arms as confirming their story; whilst to their admirers they
represent golden apples from the gardens of the Hesperides, or dents in
Averardo’s shield, made by the mace of the giant Mugello.

PALAZZO RICCARDI.

The name of Medici occurs occasionally in the early annals of Florence,
but the real history of the family begins with Salvestro. In 1352 he led the
Florentine troops against the Archbishop of Milan, and was knighted on the
field of battle. In 1370 he was Gonfalonier of Justice and again in 1378, in
spite of the efforts of the old nobility and of the Guelph party whose power he
had sought to diminish by a new law. Their opposition to his suggestions

brought about the Ciompi riots, and Salvestro de’ Medici was the first citizen
knighted by the mob on the Piazza della Signoria. His grandson, Giovanni,
born in 1360, became the first banker of Italy, and is described by Machiavelli
as “most kind of heart, not only giving alms to all who begged of him, but
aiding many poor people without being solicited. He was kindly towards all
men, praising the good, and pitying the wicked. Never suing for honours, he
obtained them all. He never went to the palace unless summoned. He loved
peace, and always sought to avoid war. When men fell into trouble he gave
them help, and aided those who had attained prosperity. Hostile to public
peculation, he worked for the common good. As a magistrate he was gracious
in manner, not eloquent, but of extraordinary prudence. Of a melancholy
countenance, yet was he pleasant and witty in conversation. He died rich in
the goods of this world, but richer in good repute and in the good-will of his
fellow-citizens.”
Cosimo de’ Medici, for whom Michelozzo Michelozzi built the great
palace in Via Larga (now Palazzo Riccardi), is described as tall, of dark
complexion and of imposing presence. He applied himself so strenuously to
increase the political power of his house, “that those who had rejoiced,” writes
Machiavelli, “at Giovanni’s death, now regretted it, perceiving what manner
of man Cosimo was. Of consummate prudence, staid, yet agreeable presence,
he was liberal and humane. He never worked against his own party nor
against the State, and was prompt in giving aid to all. His liberality gained
him many partisans among the citizens.”
After his marriage with Contessina, daughter of Giovanni Bardi, Count of
Vernio, he bought and rebuilt the villa of Careggi, and soon afterwards, as
Vasari tells us, charged his intimate friend Michelozzo Michelozzi “to make
the design for the house and palace which is at the corner of Via Larga,
opposite to S. Giovannino; as it seemed to him that the one made, as has been
said elsewhere, by Filippo di Ser Brunelleschi, was too sumptuous and
magnificent, and would rather attract the envy of his fellow-citizens, than add
to the beauty and ornament of the city and to his own convenience. Being
therefore pleased with Michelozzo’s design, he bade him carry it out in the
form we now see.... Michelozzo’s merit is the greater, as this is the first palace
built in Florence in the modern style, containing suites of rooms both useful
and beautiful. The cellars are four braccie below ground and three braccie
above, so as to afford light, and near them are store rooms and pantries. The
ground floor consists of two courtyards with magnificent loggie, out of which

open halls, drawing-rooms, waiting-rooms, studies, bakeries, kitchens, wells,
and commodious public and secret staircases. On the upper floors are
apartments for a family, with every convenience that can serve, not only for a
private citizen, as Cosimo then was, but for a magnificent and powerful king.”
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The palace was begun in 1444, according to Gianozzo di Bernardo Galviati.
A more detailed account of the palace is given in Firenze Antica e
Moderna, where it is described as having “originally been a square building of
the rustic order up to the first floor, with large protruding ‘bozzi.’ The two
upper floors are Doric and Corinthian, with hammered and flattened ‘bozzi.’
The windows have double arches with composite columns in the centre, and
in the triangles are sculptured alternately the Medici arms with seven balls and
the device of Cosimo Pater Patriae, a ring with a diamond encircling two
feathers, to which was added later a third feather and the motto Semper, the
device of the Magnificent Lorenzo. The palace was at first built with four
doors, but only the one in Via Larga was retained, the three others being
turned into kneeling windows designed by Michelangelo. They are said to be
the first made after such fashion in Florence, and are highly praised for their
beauty and good proportions. Before these windows were made the two doors
at the angle, or at all events the one opposite the church of S. Giovannino,
were always open, and led into a large internal loggia, called the Loggia de’
Medici. At the angle of the palace is a magnificent shield containing their well
known arms, with the Lily of France, granted to the Medici by Charles VII.,
on the centre ball. The balls were removed when they were driven out of
Florence in 1527 and the Cross, emblem of the People, put in their stead; but
on the restoration of the family the balls were replaced. Entering the first
courtyard, surrounded with an arcade, are to be seen columns of pietra serena
with composite capitals, and in the frieze are eight medallions of marble
copied from antique cameos and trophies of medals, by that famous artist,
Donatello.”
It will ever remain a mystery why Michelozzi made so small and so dark
a chapel for such a noble palace. It almost seems as if he had forgotten it in
the original plan, and had then placed it where it would not interfere with the
fine suites of rooms. Resting almost entirely on the vaulted rooms of the
ground floor, it is in a corner of the building, and is built of brick. But all the
defects of the architect vanish before the vivid beauty and the grace of
Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescoes.

On either side of the window (enlarged in 1837) in front of which stood
the altar with the picture of the Madonna adoring the Infant Christ, by Filippo
Lippi, now in the Berlin gallery, are groups of adoring angels with peacock
wings, and behind them stand others singing. The landscape is worthy of the
angels. From the flower-spangled grass rise hedges of roses and
pomegranates, huge stone pines and slender cypresses; in the distance are grey
towns with many towers, and in the sky above angels float amongst the
clouds. Brilliantly coloured birds are flying here and there, while others perch
on the ground at the feet of the kneeling angels. The walls of the chapel are
entirely covered with the story of the Magii; only the Kings and their
attendants are portraits of the time and the landscape is purely Tuscan.
The centre figure on the north wall is a handsome, fair-haired youth,
wearing a curious turban-like jewelled crown and riding a high-stepping white
horse on whose gorgeous trappings are embroidered the Medici arms. He is
supposed to be Lorenzo, the darling of his grandfather Cosimo. Behind him
rides his father, Piero, grasping a lock of his horse’s mane with one hand and
attended by a serving-man, evidently a portrait. Cosimo Pater Patriae rides
beside him on a mule, a black slave running at his stirrup. Other members of
the Medici family are no doubt depicted in the train of followers, amongst
whom one discerns the stern, sagacious face of the painter himself, with Opus
Benotii written on his cap. A long line of horse and footmen are seen in the
distance winding down the hills in a rocky landscape with here and there a tall
cypress tree, denuded of its lower branches in the fashion still dear to Tuscan
hearts. A hind is rushing up a slope chased by greyhounds and huntsmen. On
the west wall, opposite the window, is another King on a splendidly
caparisoned white horse, wearing a long green tunic of Oriental cut and a
jewelled crown on his head with the points curving inwards. He is the
Emperor John Paleologus who came to Florence to attend the Council, and
round him are graceful, lithe, young pages on foot, while others follow on
horseback crowned with wreaths of pink roses. The landscape is rocky and
broken, winding roads lead up to fortified hill-towns and castles, and rivers
rush down to the plain. A window has been cut in this wall, but without doing
the irreparable damage committed by the Marchese Francesco Riccardi who,
in order to widen the staircase leading from the courtyard up to the first floor,
cut a corner out of the chapel. Part of the wall was utterly destroyed and the
figure of the third King, the portrait of the Greek Patriarch, is cut in two. His
mule has lost one leg, and the upper part of the fresco on the wall which was
moved forwards is a daub by some inferior artist. Fortunately the lower part

suffered less. The Patriarch wears a crown with high points, and is clothed in a
cassock with a mozzetta of red velvet edged with ermine over his shoulders.
His mule, whose bridle has large golden bosses, holds its head proudly, as
though conscious of the high dignity of its rider. Among the richly dressed
cavaliers in front of him is a gallant lad, with a hunting guepard on a pad
behind him; this is said to be the portrait of Lorenzo’s younger brother
Giuliano, murdered some years later by Francesco de’ Pazzi in the cathedral.
In the distance a long train of baggage animals, horses, mules, donkeys and
camels, are wending their way round the shoulder of a mountain. On each side
of the recess where the altar stood are painted, above the doors of the tiny
sacristies, the ass on one side, the ox on the other, in whose manger the Holy
Infant was laid.

* * * * *
The war with Lucca gave rise to accusations against all who had to do
with it and Florence was divided into two factions, one led by Cosimo de’
Medici, the other by Rinaldo degl’Albizzi, who contrived to get an adherent
of his own elected Gonfalonier of Justice for the months of September and
October in 1433. Cosimo, who had passed the summer at his villa in the
Mugello, “to escape,” as he writes in his diary, “from the contests and
divisions in the city,” was advised by his friends to return. On going to the
Palazzo della Signoria he was seized and imprisoned in the Barberia, a small
room in the tower. Sentenced to banishment he went to Venice, where he
notes: “I was received with more honour and charity than I can describe.” Just
a year later he was recalled from exile. “Seldom has a citizen, returning from
a great victory,” writes Machiavelli, “been greeted by such a concourse of
people, and with such demonstrations of affection, as was Cosimo on his
return from exile; saluted by all as the benefactor of the people and the Father
of his country.” From this time forward, “partly,” as Symonds remarks, “by
his remarkable talent for intrigue, partly by the clever use he made of his vast
wealth, and partly by espousing the plebeian cause, Cosimo de’ Medici
succeeded in monopolizing the government.” Yet while engaged in political
matters Cosimo found time to attend to his business and to correspond with
the managers of his banks, scattered throughout Europe and even in Asia. To
all he gave orders to buy ancient manuscripts on any subject. “Cosimo,”
writes Gibbon, “was the father of a line of princes, whose name and age are
almost synonymous with the restoration of learning; his credit was ennobled
into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he

corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo of Indian spices and
Greek books were often imported in the same vessel.”
A liberal and discerning patron to artists and men of letters, Cosimo
founded libraries in the Badia of Fiesole and in S. Marco; in the latter he had a
cell for his own use. To the Greeks who came to the Council of Florence, or
soon afterwards fled thither when Constantinople was captured by the Turks,
he extended a splendid hospitality in his palace in Via Larga. “To him,”
remarks Burckhardt, “belongs the special glory of recognizing in the Platonic
philosophy the fairest flower of the ancient world of thought, and of inspiring
his friends with the same belief.” While spending his money in a princely
manner on works of art, public libraries and buildings, and in donations to
needy scholars, his home life was perfectly simple. He was an excellent
husband and a kind father, and contemporaries tell us he rose early to prune
his pear trees and plant his vines. His greatest recreation was in the society of
learned men. On feast days Argyropolos, who taught Greek to his son Piero
and afterwards to his grandson Lorenzo, would go with his scholars to the
Palazzo Medici and discuss philosophy. “The great Cosimo,” writes Marsilio
Ficino, “often attended to hear the Greek philosopher Gemisthus Pletho, well
nigh a second Plato, discourse concerning the Platonic mysteries, and so
moved was he by his stirring eloquence that he determined to establish a
Greek academy at the first opportunity. When this project was about to be
carried into effect he selected me, the son of his favourite doctor, to preside
over the important work, though at the time I was little more than a boy.”
Enormous sums were spent by him on building. The convent of S. Marco cost
70,000 golden florins, and his own palace 60,000, so that an army of workmen
obtained employment, whose wages were paid regularly at his banking house
every Saturday.
The death of his second son, Giovanni, was a blow from which Cosimo
did not recover. He lingered for a year, during which his chief solace was in
being read aloud to. “Come to us, Marsilio,” he wrote, “as soon as you can.
Bring with you your translation of Plato, De summo Bono, for I desire nothing
so much as to learn the road which leads to the greatest happiness. Farewell,
come not without thy Orphean lyre.”
Cosimo died on the 1st August, 1464, at Careggi. His funeral was
attended by a huge concourse of people. His fellow-citizens enacted that the
epitaph Cosmus Medice hic situs est decreto publico Pater Patriae should be

engraved on the plain porphyry slab which marks his tomb in front of the
choir in S. Lorenzo.
Piero de’ Medici, a martyr to gout and in bad health, soon felt the weight
of irksome business, as had been predicted by his father, and called in one of
his most trusted friends. The sagacious, far-seeing Cosimo had been singularly
deceived in his estimate of Messer Diotisalvi Neroni, in whom he had
counselled his son to place absolute confidence. Neroni was secretly in league
with Luca Pitti, Agnolo Acciaiuoli and Niccolò Soderini, avowed enemies of
the Medici, and when Piero placed the books containing Cosimo’s business
transactions in his hands, he advised him to call in the debts owing by many
of the chief families of the city. The consequence was the loss of the
popularity and of the affection enjoyed by Cosimo. The projected marriage of
Piero’s son, Lorenzo, to a daughter of the proud Roman house of Orsini,
added fuel to the flame. It was decided to assassinate him on his return from
Careggi, and his life was only saved by the presence of mind of young
Lorenzo. He observed armed men as he rode into town before his father, and
sent a messenger back to tell the bearers of Piero’s litter to take a roundabout
country lane, whilst announcing that his father was but a short way behind
him. The defection of Luca Pitti was a deathblow to the conspiracy and to his
own fortunes. Neroni and Soderini fled to Venice, Agnolo Acciaiuoli to
Naples, whence he wrote to Piero to excuse himself:
“I laugh at the tricks of fortune, and how she turns friends into foes. Thou
may’st recall that when thy father was exiled, thinking more of his disaster
than of mine own peril I lost my country, and was well nigh losing my life.
Never during my friendship with Cosimo did I cease to honour and favour thy
house, neither have I, since his death, had any intention of offending thee. It is
true that thy bad health and the tender age of thy children so alarmed me, that
I thought it were better to give such form to the State that our country should
not fall to ruin after thy death. Hence arose certain events, not directed against
thee, but in favour of Florence, which even if erroneous merit forgetfulness,
on account of my good conscience and my past actions.”
Piero’s answer to this epistle was: “Thy laughter is the reason why I do
not weep; for wert thou laughing at Florence, I should be weeping at Naples. I
admit thy friendship for my father and thou must admit that he repaid thee
well. So thou art more beholden to us than we to thee, as deeds are worth
more than words. Having been thus recompensed for thy good services, thou
canst not wonder at being repaid for evil ones. Love of thy country is no

excuse, as none will believe that the Medici love this city less, or have served
her worse, than the Acciaiuoli. Live therefore in dishonour where thou art, as
thou hast not known how to live with honour here.”
Piero de’ Medici was forty-eight when his father died. He inherited his
love of letters and was of a kindly nature, “it was due to him,” writes
Machiavelli, “that his partisans did not stain their hands with the blood of
their fellow-citizens.” In June, 1469, his son Lorenzo married Clarice Orsini,
and great festivities took place in the Medici palace, soon to be followed by
sounds of mourning, for Piero died in December. “Two days later, the
principal men of the city and of the State,” writes Lorenzo in his Ricordi,
“came to us in our house to condole with us on our loss, and to encourage me
to take charge of the city and of the government, as my grandfather and my
father had done. This I was most unwilling to accept, on account of my youth
and of the great responsibility and peril, yet for the safety of our friends and of
our possessions I did so. For it is ill living for the rich in Florence unless they
rule the State. Until now we have succeeded with honour and renown, which I
attribute, not to prudence, but to the grace of God and the good conduct of my
ancestors.”
Lorenzo was then in his twenty-second year and Giuliano was sixteen.
Few princes of that time had received such an education as the sons of Piero
de’ Medici. Messer Gentile Becchi of Urbino, a man of great learning, pure
life and high moral character, was their tutor, Landino taught them Italian
literature, Argyropolos Greek, and Marsilio Ficino the philosophy of Plato.
Above all Lorenzo had been well trained by his mother, a woman of strong
good sense, a poetess, yet withal an excellent housewife. Niccolò Valori
describes Lorenzo as “above the common stature, broad-shouldered and
solidly built, robust, and second to none in agility. Although nature had been a
step-mother to him with regard to his personal appearance, she had acted as a
loving mother in all things connected with the mind. His complexion was
dark, and although his face was not handsome it was so full of dignity as to
compel respect. He was short-sighted, his nose was flattened and he had no
sense of smell. This did not trouble him and he was wont to say that he was
grateful to nature, disagreeable things being more common than agreeable
ones to so delicate a sense.”
In March, 1471, when Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, with his wife,
paid a visit to Lorenzo, the Medici palace must have been filled to
overflowing. “100 men at arms, 500 infantry, 50 running footmen clothed in

silk and cloth of silver, 50 led ambling palfreys for the use of the Duchess and
50 led war-horses, splendidly caparisoned, for himself; dogs and falcons for
74
the chase and 12 two-wheeled carts, drawn by mules and covered with
embroidered cloth of gold and silver, for the use of the Duchess and her ladies
whilst crossing the Alps; in all the Duke had 2,000 horses,” says an
eyewitness. Magnificent festivities were given every day and to the horror of
the religiously inclined, meat was eaten although it was Lent; so when the
church of S. Spirito was burnt to the ground, owing to the scenery erected for
a sacred play acted before the Duke catching fire, it was looked upon as a
judgment of God.
But Lorenzo loved the society of scholars and artists, and Giovanni Pico
della Mirandola, Leon Battista Alberti, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Marsilio
Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, Cristofano Landino, and Luigi Pulci, who wrote his
Morgante for the amusement of Lorenzo’s mother Lucrezia, and recited it
canto by canto after dinner, were his constant guests in the palace of Via
Larga. In their society he laid aside the statesman and became the discerning
critic and the graceful poet.
The conspiracy of the Pazzi is a matter of history. Attempts to murder the
two Medici brothers had been frustrated by Giuliano’s failing, on account of
illness, to attend banquets, and by Lorenzo giving up his journey to Rome.
But on Sunday, 26th April, 1478, it was arranged that Cardinal Raffaello
Riario, the Pope’s great-nephew, was to attend high mass in the cathedral with
Lorenzo and Giuliano, and afterwards to dine with them. “The church,” writes
Machiavelli, “was filled with people, and divine service had begun, yet
Giuliano had not made his appearance. So Francesco de’ Pazzi, with
Bernardo, who were to murder him, went to his house, and by entreaties and
flattery induced him to go to the Duomo with them. On the way Francesco,
under pretext of caressing him, embraced him with hands and arms to see
whether he wore a cuirass or any other armour.” At the elevation of the Host
Bernardo Bandini plunged his dagger into Giuliano’s breast, who staggered
and fell, upon which Francesco de’ Pazzi stabbed him nineteen times with
such blind fury, that he wounded himself in the thigh. The two priests who had
undertaken to kill Lorenzo, after the refusal of the old soldier, Giovanbattista
Montesecco, to commit a murder “where Christ would be sure to see him,”
were not skilled in the use of the dagger, and Lorenzo was only wounded in
the neck. Bandini, hastening to complete the work, was stopped by Francesco
Nori, a friend of the Medici, whom he stabbed to the heart. Lorenzo took

refuge in the new sacristy, where one of his adherents, fearing the dagger was
poisoned, sucked the wound, and then, surrounded by his friends, Lorenzo
walked to his palace. “By this time,” continues Machiavelli, “the whole city
was under arms.... There was not a citizen who, armed or unarmed, did not go
to the palace of Lorenzo in this time of trouble, to offer to him his person and
his goods; such was the position and the affection that the family had acquired
by their prudence and their liberality.”
In 1487 Lorenzo’s eldest son Piero de’ Medici married Alfonsina Orsini, a
relation of his mother Clarice, and the following year Lorenzo attained a great
object of his ambition. He had carefully educated his second son Giovanni for
the Church, and Pope Innocent VIII., whose son Francesco Cibo had married
Maddalena de’ Medici, made the lad of fourteen a cardinal, “on condition,” as
Giovanni Cambi tells us, “that he was not to wear the hat or the habit for three
years.” In August, 1488, Clarice died, and Lorenzo’s health became more and
more precarious, but in March, 1491, he was well enough to witness the
ceremony of bestowing the cardinal’s hat on his son in the abbey church of
Fiesole. “The Signoria decided,” continues old Cambi, “that for love of
Lorenzo his father, who little by little had made himself the head and the chief
personage of the city, great honour should be paid to him. So it was ordered
that three hundred citizens should go out to meet him, and it was not
necessary to entreat them to do this as was often the case when an ambassador
had to be met. They were all clothed in silk, and counting Giovanni’s own
people, the bishops, clergy and notaries, there were five hundred horsemen,
and on the Sunday morning a solemn mass was said in S. Maria del Fiore.”
The young Cardinal soon afterwards left for Rome, and on the 8th April,
1492, Lorenzo de’ Medici died at Careggi. He was buried in S. Lorenzo, and
no monument marks the last resting-place of one of the most illustrious men
of Florence.
“Lorenzo,” writes Gino Capponi, “represented and united in his own
person a whole century; he wrote sacred hymns and carnival songs, sought the
society of, and listened to, religious men, whilst he led a dissolute life. An
assiduous worker in state affairs, and indefatigable in all things that served his
purpose and augmented his fame, yet he appeared only to care for amusement
and gaiety and the company of witty and brilliant men. He was so constituted
that nothing came amiss to him. The Medici palace was a museum, a school
and a place of meeting for all the learned men who flocked thither, and from it
proceeded grave counsel and intellectual teaching, as well as shows and

festivals and a general corruption of manners. Two popes passed their
childhood there, and the Platonic Academy, intended to raise the standards of
life and thought, was founded within its walls. Poliziano and Giovanni Pico
della Mirandola, one of the greatest men of his time, were constant visitors.
There the first chips flew off the marble under the chisel of Michelangelo, and
there Luigi Pulci read the Morgante aloud. Such exuberance of life, such
magnificence, such gaiety has probably never been witnessed in any other
75
age, and the name of Lorenzo towers above it all.”
Piero de’ Medici was twenty-one when his father died, and was in all
respects different from him. “This is not to be wondered at,” remarks
Guicciardini, “as he was born of a foreign mother, whereby the Florentine
blood got mixed, and he acquired foreign manners and a style too haughty for
our habits of life.” On hearing of the approach of Charles VIII., in 1494, he
quitted Florence in a panic, and rode to Sarzana, where he had an audience of
the King, and granted all his demands. On his return to Florence, he
dismounted at the Palazzo Vecchio, and informed the Signoria that he had
ceded Sarzana, Sarzanella, Pietrasanta, Pisa, Leghorn and Ripafratta to
Charles. Next day he was saluted in the streets with the cry of Popolo!
Libertà! and Giovanni Cambi went home and wrote in his diary: “I note how
on the 9th November, 1494, by the grace of God and of the Virgin Mary, Piero
di Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, the tyrant of his country, was expelled by the
people at the hour of vespers.... The Signoria put the price of 2,000 scudi on
his head and the same on the head of his brother, Messer Giovanni the
Cardinal, and 5,000 if they were taken alive. They fled by the Porta S. Gallo
and went to Bologna, and with them went Ser Piero da Bibbiena, his
chancellor, who was the king of all evil; a vainglorious peasant, and the chief
cause of the ruin of the said Piero.”
The Medici brothers having escaped, the mob wreaked their vengeance
on the valuable contents of the magnificent palace, so that the Signoria were
obliged to borrow or buy furniture in great haste to make it fit to receive
Charles VIII. when he entered Florence on the 19th November. He was
followed by his whole army, “a very grand sight,” exclaims Guicciardini, “but
for which the spectators had small liking, by reason of the dread and the terror
which filled their souls.” It was in the Palazzo Medici that the memorable
scene took place between a plain burgher of the city and the King of France.
The demands made by him were impossible for the Signoria to comply with,
and Pier Capponi was sent to remonstrate. Charles angrily replied that if the

huge sums of money he asked for were not forthcoming, he would command
his trumpets to be sounded. Capponi snatched the paper on which the
conditions were written from his hands, and tore it to pieces, crying, “If you
sound your trumpets, we shall ring our bells.” It was a bold deed, and those
present were astounded at his daring. But the King, who wanted money and
not war, gave way, and covered his discomfiture by a sorry joke on the name
of the Florentine citizen. Ah Ciappon, Ciappon, voi siete un mal ciappon. (Ah
Capon, Capon, you are a bad capon.)
The agreement, signed on the 25th November, stipulated an offensive and
defensive alliance between France and Florence, the payment by the latter of
120,000 golden ducats, the retention by Charles of the citadels, but not of the
towns, of Pisa, Leghorn, Pietrasanta and Sarzana, until the end of his war with
Naples, when they were to revert to Florence. Finding the King showed no
disposition to leave his luxurious quarters on the next day, as the Florentines
had hoped, they sent Savonarola to the Medici palace. He accosted Charles in
these words: “Most Christian Prince, thy delay in going is causing serious
harm to this city and to the enterprize in which thou art engaged. Thou art
losing thy time, forgetful of the task imposed on thee by Providence, to the
grave detriment of thy spiritual welfare and thy worldly renown. Listen,
therefore, to the words of the servant of God. Go on thy way without further
delay; take heed not to bring ruin on this city and on thyself the anger of
God.” Two days later Charles departed, and with him went many of the most
valuable works of art in the palace. De Comines mentions, among other
things, beautiful agate cups, wonderful cameos, and more than 3,000 gold and
silver medals, “more than I thought could have been found in all Italy.”
Courtiers, officers and soldiers, robbed right and left, and quitted the city
laden with spoil. Eight years later Cambi writes in his diary: “On the 8th
January, 1502, came letters saying that Piero was at Gaeta which was held for
the King of France; and the Spaniards beat the French, who put all their
artillery on a ship in which was also Piero de’ Medici, and he was drowned,
thanks be to God.”
The terrible sack of Prato by the Spaniards in 1512, at which the Cardinal
Giovanni de’ Medici assisted, struck terror into the hearts of the Florentines.
They agreed to pay 140,000 ducats to the Spanish Viceroy on condition that
he quitted Tuscany; to allow the Medici to return to Florence in the quality of
private citizens, and to permit them to buy back their private possessions.
Giuliano, the third son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, then entered the city;

“having first doffed his rich Spanish habit and put on a lucco, the everyday
dress of a Florentine burgher. He came in the company of Anton Francesco
degl’Albizzi and dismounted at his palace, that of the Medici being empty and
in a ruinous condition.” But the Medicean party soon found that Giuliano
lacked energy, and Cardinal Giovanni, with Messer Giulio, the illegitimate
son of the murdered Giuliano, came from Campi with four hundred lances,
and took up his abode in the Palazzo Medici with all the state pertaining to a
prince of the Church. His nephew Lorenzo, Piero de’ Medici’s only son, came
with him, and the house of Medici, after an exile of eighteen years, once more
ruled in Florence.
The old palace regained much of its pristine splendour. Festivals and gay
pageants “in order,” writes old Cambi with bitter irony, “to let it be seen that
the city was festively inclined and in a flourishing condition,” succeeded each
other. But there was a strong under-current of hatred, and plots to assassinate
Lorenzo, Giuliano and Giulio de’ Medici, were rife. Whilst the two young
men, Pietro Pagolo Boscoli and Agostino Capponi were lying under sentence
of death in the Bargello (see p. 222), two pageants, rivalling those of the
Magnificent himself, issued on two successive days out of the great door of
the Medici palace. Giuliano had instituted a company of noble youths called,
after the device of Cosimo, the Diamond. Andrea Dazzi, who held the chair of
Greek and Latin literature, was the inventor and poet of Giuliano’s pageant,
while Pontormo painted and decorated the cars. Lorenzo, competing with his
uncle, was the head of a company called Il Broncone, whose emblem was a
withered laurel branch whence sprouted fresh leaves, and for him, Jacopo
Nardi, the historian, invented a pageant symbolizing the Golden Age, for
which Pontormo also painted the cars. “Thus,” exclaims Cambi, “the people
were fed with rubbish and follies, and took no heed to penitence. Yet they had
seen the scourge at Brescia, and again at Prato. They beheld Italy from one
end to the other full of barbarian troops, they perceived that God was
threatening us—ay, even now scourging us, and yet they did worse. Oh! may
God in His mercy not look upon these our sins.”
The election of Giovanni de’ Medici to the papal chair in March, 1513,
was hailed with exultant joy in Florence, and Leo X. did not disappoint the
hopes of his fellow-citizens, or those of his own family. Three out of four new
cardinals created by him were Florentines, one being his cousin Giulio de’
Medici, in despite of the canon law excluding any one of illegitimate birth.
Giuliano, the Pope’s brother, became Captain-General of the Church and

married Filiberta of Savoy, and Leo’s young nephew, Lorenzo, was selected to
govern Florence.
When Leo X. passed through Florence on his way to meet Francis I. at
Bologna, he rested for a day or two in the apartment set aside for the popes in
Sta. Maria Novella, but on his return journey he spent several weeks with his
nephew in the Palazzo Medici. Contemporary chroniclers devote many pages
to describing the magnificence of his reception and the entertainments given
in his honour, amongst them the representation of Rosmunda in the Rucellai
gardens. Splendid were the gifts he bestowed on churches and on private
individuals. To the cathedral he gave “a mitre of great beauty, adorned with
many pearls, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and rubies, worth more than
10,000 ducats, as a mark of the tender affection he bore the church in which
he had been a canon when a little child.” The cathedral chapter was endowed
with the right of legitimatizing children born out of wedlock, the revenue of
the officiating clergy was increased, and indulgences of many days were
granted to the principal altars.
A few days after Leo X. left Florence for Rome, his brother Giuliano
died. He left no children by his wife Filiberta of Savoy and the title of Duc de
Nemours, bestowed on him by Francis I. when he married, lapsed to the
French crown. His illegitimate son, Ippolito, we shall have occasion to
mention hereafter. Lorenzo persuaded his uncle, the Pope, to deprive
Francesco Maria della Rovere of the Duchy of Urbino in his favour, and soon
afterwards married Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne, who died after giving
birth to a daughter, Catherine, destined to become Queen of France. Duke
Lorenzo of Urbino died, worn out by dissipation at the age of twenty-seven,
six days after his young wife; and his only claim to fame is Michelangelo’s
noble statue, Il Pensieroso, above his tomb in the Medici chapel in S.
Lorenzo. The statue of his uncle, Giuliano, who also died before he was thirty,
is opposite to him in the same chapel holding the baton of command as
Gonfalonier of the Church.
With Leo X. died the last legitimate descendant of Cosimo Pater Patriae,
and the Medici palace was inhabited by the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, son of
the Magnificent Lorenzo’s younger brother Giuliano, by a lady of the Gorini
family. He left his mark on the Palazzo by closing the open loggia on the first
floor, where Cosimo had always received the citizens who visited him, thus
turning it into a long gallery. Even the thorough-going old Republican Jacopo
Nardi admits that the Cardinal’s rule was better than any the city had known

for many a long year, and everything went smoothly until in 1522 a plot was
discovered to murder him. Most of the conspirators, belonging to well-known
Florentine families, fled, but young Diaceto and his friend Alamanni were
beheaded. The old Palazzo Medici was too small to contain the crowd of
citizens of all classes who flocked thither to assure the Cardinal of their heart-
felt joy at his escape. According to Ammirato their joy was sincere, for the
city would probably have been attacked by the Imperial forces, which had just
sacked Genoa and would have seized on such a good excuse as the murder of
the Cardinal-Governor to obtain so rich a prize.
In November, 1523, the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici became Pope under
the title of Clement VII. and his election was hailed with demonstrations of
joy in Florence. Ippolito, the handsome illegitimate son of Giuliano, Duc de
Nemours, was sent from Rome under the charge of Silvio Passerini, Cardinal
of Cortona, installed in the Palazzo Medici with great magnificence and,
although he was only thirteen years of age, declared eligible to all offices of
state in the Republic. Alessandro, the reputed son of Lorenzo, Duke of
Urbino, but more probably the child of Clement himself, together with the
young Duchess Catherine, was sent to Poggio a Cajano, a Medici villa about
nine miles out of Florence. The two lads hated one another, so the Pope
thought it best to separate them. Ippolito was handsome, his manners were
engaging and he already had a right royal way of spending money.
Alessandro, commonly supposed to have been the son of a Moorish slave
woman, a report his crisped hair, thick lips and swarthy complexion, tended to
confirm, was ugly, violent in temper and abrupt in manner. The appointment
of Passerini was not a happy one. “Besides being,” writes Varchi, “like most
prelates, extremely avaricious, he had neither the intellect to understand the
Florentine character, nor the judgment to manage it had he understood it.” The
sack of Rome, and the imprisonment of Clement in Castel S. Angelo, offered
too good an opportunity for the Republican party in Florence to lose, and the
dreaded cry of Popolo, Libertà, resounded in the streets. Ridolfi had come
into town with his young pupil Alessandro, and the anxiety of the inmates of
Palazzo Medici was not lessened by a visit from their imperious kinswoman,
Clarice, daughter of Piero de’ Medici, who had just escaped from Rome with
her husband Filippo Strozzi. He followed her to the Palazzo Medici to ask for
information as to how things were in Florence pretending, that having just
arrived, he was ignorant. Ippolito, with the impetuosity of youth, recounted
how ill the city was behaving and then complained bitterly that Madonna
Clarice sided with rebels against her own kith and kin. Strozzi professed great

sorrow for the behaviour of the Florentines, and still greater for that of his
wife, but the fact was, he added with a sigh, that, as a Medici, Clarice was so
superior to himself that he had not such control over her as might be desired.
Nevertheless, as the Cardinal and the two lads still hesitated about following
his advice and quitting the city, he summoned his wife to his help. “Standing
in the long gallery she poured forth,” writes old Segni, “her scorn of the base-
born scions of her family. ‘You show plainly, what is already known, that you
are not of the blood of the Medici. I say this, not only of you, but of Pope
Clement, wrongfully a Pope, and now most righteously a prisoner in S.
Angelo. As for you, leave a house and a city, neither of which are yours by the
right of either birth or of merit. Go, and lose no time.’”
Quitting the Medici palace, the Cardinal and the two lads rode out of the
Porta S. Gallo and for the third time the Medici were exiled, and their noble
palace was attacked by the mob who were with difficulty restrained from
setting it on fire. The arms of the Medici were everywhere defaced and the
waxen counterfeits of the Popes Leo and Clement were torn from their places
in the church of the Annunziata and destroyed (see p. 380).
After the terrible privations suffered by Florence during the siege under
the Prince of Orange, her citizens were fain to bow their necks once more to
the Medicean yoke. In obedience to an order motu proprio, et de plenitudine
potestatis, from Clement VII., they declared that considering the excellent
qualities, life and habits of the Most Illustrious Duke Alessandro de’ Medici,
son of the late Magnificent Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and in recognition of
the many and great benefits received, both spiritual and temporal from the
house of Medici, he was eligible to all offices of State. Ippolito, who had
entered the Church unwillingly, had been made a Cardinal before he was
twenty. “He was handsome and agreeable,” writes Varchi, “with a quick
understanding and gifted with every grace and accomplishment, affable and
pleasant to every man and most liberal towards all who excelled in war or
letters, or in any of the liberal arts.... He knew Latin well, and wrote
gracefully, both in prose and verse, in the Florentine idiom.... It is true that by
nature he was superficial and fickle, and did many things solely out of
vainglory and ambition.... When he understood, or heard from others, that
Pope Clement had decided that the riches and the greatness of the house of
Medici were to be continued by Alessandro and not by himself, a great change
took place in him. He was seized with incredible anger and grief, as it seemed
to him that being older, a nearer relation to the Pope and better endowed by

nature, so rich an inheritance and so brilliant a marriage should rather be his:
either not knowing, or not believing, the secret rumours that Alessandro was
the son of Clement.” He left Rome in haste for Florence with the idea of
seizing the State before Alessandro, who was in Flanders with his future
father-in-law the Emperor, could arrive. The Pope despatched Bacio Valori
after him laden with entreaties and promises, and after passing a few days in
Florence and finding that he had no following, he returned to Rome. On the
4th July, Alessandro, who had been created Duke of Cività di Penna, entered
Florence and dismounted at the Palazzo Medici, where he was received by the
principal citizens.
The exiled Florentines, who were plotting against the stern and dissolute
rule of Alessandro, often met in Filippo Strozzi’s house in Rome, and their
deliberations were always communicated to the Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici.
At last it was decided to send an embassy to Charles V. to complain of the
tyranny of the Duke Alessandro and to expose his evil life. This sealed the fate
of Ippolito. He died of poison in August, 1535, and the man he accused on his
deathbed and who cynically admitted his crime, took refuge in Alessandro’s
house in Via Larga.
Splendid was the reception of the Emperor Charles V. when he entered
Florence on the 24th April, 1536. During the seven days he passed in the
Palazzo Medici grand entertainments were given; but old Varchi complains
that, unlike other Emperors, he bestowed no privileges on the city and left no
memorial of his visit. The old palace witnessed yet grander festivals on the
19th June, for the marriage of the Duke Alessandro with Margaret of Austria,
the illegitimate daughter of Charles V. She came from Naples, accompanied
by the Vice-queen, the Grand Penitentiary Cardinal of Santi Quattro and the
Cardinal Cibo. After the marriage service in S. Lorenzo there was a grand
banquet, to which all the Florentine nobility were invited, and then dancing;
followed by a comedy and a sham fight by torchlight on the Piazza S.
Lorenzo.
The young Duchess, according to a contemporary chronicler, was very
happy, “for the Duke paid her great court and she knew not that he paid even
more to other women of all grades.” Banquets, masked balls and comedies,
were given in the old palace, and one of the constant guests was a cousin of
the Duke’s, a descendant of the younger branch of the Medici family, called
Lorenzo. His father died when he was a child and his mother, Maria Soderini,
devoted herself to his education. Gifted with an excellent memory and good

abilities he learnt with ease; but Varchi describes him as of a restless and
dissatisfied temperament, and fond of low company. Being small and slightly
made he was generally known as Lorenzino, which was changed to
Lorenzaccio, when his real character was known. Of a dark complexion and
melancholy aspect, he dressed carelessly, affected contempt for all who
exposed themselves to danger and openly proclaimed himself a coward. He
made himself necessary to Alessandro, whose inseparable companion he
became, encouraging him in all his vices, which he shared, and amusing him
by his scurrilous wit.
Rastrelli tells us that “on the 5th January, 1536, in carnival time, the Duke
and Lorenzino disguised themselves as mountaineers and on sorry donkeys
rode about the town paying visits to their mistresses and playing practical
jokes. Thus passed the day, and towards evening they returned weary to the
palace and supped together. Then Lorenzino said to his cousin, What shall we
do to-night? and the Duke replied, I shall go to bed for I am tired out.
Whereupon the traitorous Lorenzino whispered something in the Duke’s ear,
who sprang up, went to his room and took a mantle lined with rich fur.
Girding on his sword and putting his dagger in his belt, he left the palace
secretly by the garden wicket, followed by Giomo da Carpi, Unghero, Captain
Giustiniani of Cesena and one of his own body servants. On the Piazza S.
Marco he met Lorenzino who was awaiting him and dismissed his attendants,
and the two cousins returned to Lorenzino’s house. The Duke began to loosen
his belt, but Lorenzino undid it entirely and took from him his sword and
dagger, entangling the belt so dexterously round the handles of both that they
could not be easily drawn. After a while the Duke asked at what hour the
expected lady would arrive, and Lorenzino answered: She waits for me to
fetch her. Go then, said Alessandro, and in order that she may not be
recognized give her my mantle, and as he spoke he began to take it off. But
Lorenzino, who wished him to be wrapped round as far as possible and
impeded in his movements, answered: No, she will know how to disguise
herself properly; and without further ado left the room, taking care so to close
the door that it could only be opened from the outside. The Duke, being very
tired, threw himself on the bed in his mantle and fell asleep.
“The lady in question was Caterina Ginori, sister to Lorenzino’s mother.
She lived close to the back entrance of the Palazzo Medici and was as virtuous
as she was beautiful. But she lived in a poor way, as Leonardo, her husband,
had dissipated his patrimony and was living as an outlaw in Naples. The

Duke, falling in love with her beauty, had asked Lorenzino to help him to
obtain speech of her, and Lorenzino encouraged him in his passion, hoping
thereby to find means to effect his traitorous design. He went straight to the
house of a certain Piero di Gioannabate, surnamed Scoronconcolo, a
quarrelsome man of vile character, devoted to Lorenzino, who by his
influence with the Duke had saved him from execution. Some days before
Lorenzino had said to him: I have an enemy who is always jeering at me and
turning me into ridicule, what can we do? Point him out to me, answered
Scoronconcolo, and if he annoys you again, complain of me and not of him.
Being thus sure of the villain’s courage, Lorenzino said: Pietro, the time has
come for fulfilling the promise you made me; the enemy who continually
derides me is now in my room, let us go and kill him. It is well, replied the
fellow, it is not I that will fail you. At the threshold, fearing he might lose
courage, Lorenzino turned to him and said: You will not fear even if it is a
friend of the Duke’s? Strike hard. Were it the Duke himself I should not fear,
answered Piero. You have guessed aright, said Lorenzino, it is the Duke; he
cannot escape us, let us set to work heartily. For an instant the assassin seemed
to hesitate, but plucking up courage he exclaimed: Here we are, let us proceed
even though it were the devil himself. Entering the room Lorenzino advanced
to the bed whereon the Duke was sleeping profoundly. Raising the curtain he
called in an angered tone: What, Duke, are you asleep? and with a short sword
pierced him in the back. The blade passed through his body, and rising in a
fury the Duke staggered towards the door shouting: Traitor. Then turning his
eyes, still heavy with sleep, he saw Lorenzino and exclaimed: This from thee,
and attempted to defend himself. Lorenzino threw himself upon him and
placed his open hand over his mouth to prevent his cries from being heard,
while his abominable companion gave the Duke Alessandro a stab on the
temple which crushed his left cheek. The bleeding and dying prince seized
Lorenzino’s thumb between his teeth, and the pain caused him to fall on the
top of the Duke; he called to Scoronconcolo for help, who could do nothing
for fear of wounding him instead of the victim. Lorenzino recollecting that he
had a knife in his pocket, took it out with the other hand and opening the blade
with his teeth stabbed the Duke in the throat. Raising the bleeding body from
the floor they placed it on the bed and Lorenzino wrote on a sheet of paper
Vincit amor patriae laudumque immenso cupido, and laid it on the corpse.
Then locking the door they went to the Bishop Angelo Marzi, who kept the
keys of the city gates and was alone authorized to grant permits for post
horses. Knowing the friendship which existed between the Duke and his

cousin, the Bishop never hesitated about giving the permits and the murderers
76
left Florence at once.” There was considerable alarm in the Palazzo Medici
next day when the Duke did not make his appearance. All the houses he was
likely to frequent were searched in vain, and at first it was thought that he had
gone with Lorenzino to Cafaggiuolo.
“Strange noises had been heard,” writes Varchi, “in Lorenzino’s house.
But they excited no suspicion, as for some time he had been in the habit of
taking boon companions to his room, where they made noises as though they
were fighting; rushing about the house, shouting, hit him, kill him, traitor, and
the like. The first to give the alarm was Lorenzino’s servant. He went to
Cardinal Cibo in the palace, who commanded the men to maintain absolute
silence under pain of losing his head, and then ordered the game of Saracino
to be played to amuse the people. To those who inquired for the Duke, he
smilingly answered that being tired he was still in bed.” The news had
however got abroad. “Groups and parties of citizens,” continues Varchi, “were
on the Piazza, and every one spoke out freely as though no doubt existed that
the great Council would at once be summoned. They debated as to who would
be chosen Gonfalonier, and whether for life or not ... and meanwhile the
Forty-eight had been summoned to the Palazzo Medici by the Cardinal, and
were assembled in the large gallery upstairs.” Francesco Guicciardini and
Francesco Vettori proposed Cosimo de’ Medici, son of the famous Giovanni
delle Bande Nere, and of Maria Salviati, as successor to the Duke Alessandro.
“But,” as Varchi observes, “the Forty-eight were of forty-eight different
opinions and so nothing was settled.” Full powers were given to the Cardinal
Cibo to conduct the government of the city for three days, a decision so
unpopular that when the burghers passed the shops of the smaller artisans they
beat their instruments on the counters, shouting: “If you do not know how to,
or cannot, act, call us. We will settle the question.”
“At this moment, when it only needed some one to begin a tumult,”
writes Varchi, “Signor Cosimo arrived in Florence with but a few followers.
As the son of Signor Giovanni, of fair aspect, and having always displayed a
kindly disposition and a good understanding, he was liked by the people and
they acclaimed him as the heir to Duke Alessandro with great affection.
Showing neither grief nor joy, he rode on with a certain air of majesty,
appearing rather to merit the throne than to desire it. Dismounting at the
palace he visited the Cardinal and, first expressing his regret at the death of
the Duke, he then with great tact, inspired either by his own natural prudence,

or having been instructed by others said, that like a good son he had come to
place not only his fortune, but his life, at the service of his country and of its
citizens.” The following morning Cosimo de’ Medici was proclaimed, not
Duke, but Head and Governor of the Florentine Republic.
Cosimo I., though but a lad of nineteen, soon showed that he intended to
be the master. Cardinal Cibo and Francesco Guicciardini, the latter of whom
had been chiefly instrumental in placing him at the head of the Florentine
Republic, were set aside, and in June the following year the Emperor Charles
V. granted him the rank and the title of Duke of Florence. In 1539 he married
Eleonora di Toledo, second daughter of Don Pedro di Toledo the Viceroy of
Naples, and once more the great palace was the scene of splendid festivities. It
was soon afterwards deserted, as Cosimo I., to make it quite plain to his
subjects that the whole government now centered in him alone, decided to
take up his abode in the ancient Palazzo de’ Signori. The Medici palace was
closed and abandoned until the Grand Duke Ferdinando II. sold it to the
Senator Gabriello Riccardi in 1659 for 41,000 scudi, when it became the
Palazzo Riccardi.
The Riccardi added considerably to the building, but care was taken to
preserve the same style of architecture and only a close observer would notice
that the arms of the Riccardi, a key, are in the triangles of the windows,
instead of the Medici balls. The terrace, above which is a fine shield with the
arms of the Riccardi; is often pointed out as occupying the site of the room in
which the murder of the Duke Alessandro took place. But it was built on the
site of a small house adjoining Cosimo’s palace, belonging to the Da Lutiano
family, and Signor Corrazzini suggests that it was made in order to be able to
continue the cornice and the “bozzi” round the corner of the palace, which
would have been impossible had it been attached to the next house. The
internal arrangements of the building were entirely changed, and many rooms
were added at the back, where there is a second courtyard with an entrance
into the Via de’ Ginori. It was then that the architect, G. B. Foggini,
committed the unpardonable vandalism of cutting off a corner of the chapel in
order to widen the chief staircase, and thus destroyed part of Gozzoli’s fresco.
The Riccardi were of German origin. A certain Annichino di Riccardo
came from Cologne and was made a citizen of Florence in 1368. The family
made a large fortune by trade, but their name does not appear in the annals of
the city until Riccardo Riccardi was created a Senator and a Marquis in 1654,
by Ferdinando II. He founded the fine library, still known as the Riccardiana,

and his son, after purchasing the Medici palace, had the great gallery
gorgeously frescoed and decorated by Luca Giordano with the apotheosis of
the Medici family and allegories of the vicissitudes of human life. Francesco
Riccardi married the only daughter and heiress of Vincenzo Capponi, and her
father’s valuable library was added to the one already existing in the palace,
which later was further augmented by Canon Riccardi’s fine collection of
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manuscripts and illuminated missals.
Palazzo Riccardi must have been let to the French government, as in
March, 1799, General Gaulthier had his head-quarters there until the arrival of
M. Reinhard, the Commissary-General. A wondrous ceremony took place in
June in the large room. Orders came from Paris to hold a solemn funeral
service in commemoration of those who had fallen at Rastadt. So all the
officers, municipal councillors and heads of departments met in the Palazzo
Riccardi, which was hung with black and decorated with festoons of cypress.
On a sarcophagus stood the cinerary urn and round it were placed three
crowns of oakleaves with the inscription: “Ils travaillaient pour la paix des
peuples, les tyrans les ont assassinés.” Two tricolour flags draped with crape
were at one end of the room, and a raised stand for the band of the national
guard and the singers had been erected. M. Reinhard then pronounced a
funeral oration and, while the band played a slow and solemn symphony his
wife, dressed in white, with a black scarf across her breast and a crown of
laurel on her head, mounted the steps up to the urn. Dramatically casting her
eyes up to heaven she first embraced it and then scattered flowers over it. The
ceremony ended with the singing of Ça ira and the Marseillaise. Eighteen
months later Joachim Murat, the handsomest man in the French army, entered
Florence at the head of a brilliant staff. Magnificently costumed, and with
highly rouged cheeks, he rode proudly through the city and dismounted at the
Riccardi palace, where General Gaulthier received him at the head of the
staircase. He did not however stay long in the Via Larga, as he found the old
palace too sombre, cold and triste, but requisitioned the Corsini palace where
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his wife, Caroline Bonaparte, soon joined him. The Palazzo Riccardi was
the head-quarters of the civil engineers as long as the French supremacy
lasted. In 1814 it was bought by the Tuscan government, and during the few
years that Florence was the capital of United Italy, it was the seat of the Home
Office. Later the old palace was sold to the Province of Florence and is now
the Prefecture.

PALAZZO RIDOLFI

Via Maggio. No. 13.
From Rodolfo, son of a certain Diotifece who lived at Poppiano in the
Val di Pesa in the XIIIth century, descend the three families of Ridolfi
whose name occurs so frequently in the annals of Florence. The Ridolfi del
Ponte, whose old tower still stands grey and grim opposite to that of the
Mannelli in the Via de’ Bardi; the Ridolfi di Piazza, whose houses were
clustered round the church of S. Felice (Borgo di Piazza was one of the
three borghi, or parishes, of the Oltrarno); and the Ridolfi di Borgo, who
had their houses in the Borgo S. Jacopo. In 1378 the Ridolfi, being
Ghibellines, were expelled the city, and their houses were sacked and burnt;
but three years later they returned to Florence and made a large fortune as
wool merchants. Lorenzo Ridolfi, born in 1362, was a remarkable man. A
great jurist, he expounded canon law at the Studio Fiorentino, attended to
business in his shop in the Via Maggio, was Pro-consul of the Guild of
Wool, four times Gonfalonier of Justice, and was sent (whenever a knotty
question arose) as ambassador of the Republic to popes and foreign
sovereigns. He had four sons, Bernardo, Luigi, Antonio and Giovanni, from
the second of whom descend the present representatives of the family. They
were all Gonfaloniers of Justice, and friends of the Medici; indeed, so
devoted was Antonio, that when Lorenzo the Magnificent was stabbed in
the cathedral on the occasion of the conspiracy of the Pazzi he sucked the
wound, fearing the dagger might have been poisoned. One of Lorenzo
Ridolfi’s grandsons, Giovan Battista, was a gallant soldier, who fought
against Bentivoglio and took him prisoner at Faenza. He was elected
Gonfalonier of Justice for life after Piero Soderini, and opposed the return
of the exiled Piero de’ Medici, whilst another, Niccolò, lost his head in 1497
for conspiring with Bernardo del Nero for his recall. Niccolò bought the
palace in the Via Maggio, which still belongs to the Ridolfi, from the
powerful family of the Corbinelli. The architect is unknown, but it is
evidently of the XIVth century, with its large windows and fine doorway.

The graffite on the façade are of course of a later date. All Niccolò’s
possessions were confiscated when he was beheaded. But on the return of
the Medici to power the estates were given back to his son Piero, husband
of Contessina, daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, whilst the youngest,
Niccolò, was made a Cardinal at twelve years of age, and became
Archbishop of Florence at nineteen. He lived chiefly at Orvieto, where he
kept up a princely establishment, and being intensely hostile to the Duke
Alessandro de’ Medici, his house was the refuge of all the Florentine exiles.
During the conclave of 1550 he died; poisoned, it was said, by the orders of
Cosimo I., who feared he might be elected Pope.
Roberto Ridolfi, head of the banking-house in London, allowed his
religious zeal to get the better of his discretion. He conspired in favour of
Mary Queen of Scots, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but
contrived to escape and took refuge in Rome.
Attached to the Ridolfi palace is another of the XVIth century, which
was built on the site of two houses also belonging to the Corbinelli. Bought
by the Sangaletti in 1583, they were soon afterwards sold to the Zanchini
Da Castiglionichio, who threw them into one, employing, it is said, Santi di
Tito as their architect. The courtyard is of pure XVth century design, and
was probably incorporated with the new palace by the Zanchini, whose
arms are still to be seen on the corner of the palace. Marchese Cosimo
Ridolfi bought it in 1843, and added it to his own.
In the façade of a house nearly opposite the side entrance to the Boboli
gardens in Via Romana is a bas-relief of S. Peter the Apostle seated; at
either end are the old arms of the Ridolfi, and between is the inscription
Hospitium Nobilis Ridolforum Familiae. This is all that remains of a
hospital, which, according to the custom of those days when every great
family had its own small hospital, Piero Ridolfi intended to build. He
bought a house from the Calvacanti, but died in 1349 before he could carry
out his intention. So his nephew Antonio built the hospital, and various
members of the family left considerable sums for its maintenance. It was
suppressed in 1751, and its funds given to the Bigallo.

PALAZZO RONDINELLI

Via della Forca.
The family of the Rondinelli made a large fortune in trade, and owned
several palaces in the old Via de’ Rondinelli (now Via della Forca), and
their coat-of-arms, with six swallows, is still to be seen there on the façade
of a house. They afterwards lived in what is now the Via de’ Rondinelli, and
a palace in the Piazza S. Lorenzo, which was incorporated in the convent of
S. Giovannino, also belonged to them.
The origin of the family is given differently by two old writers. Verino
says:

“Unde sit ignoro, tribuit cui nomen Hirundo:
Est antiqua tamen, carnit nec honore propago.
Ili Fesulis genitam soboles eeu nobilis omnis
Ist Flaminie dicunt ex arcibus ortam,”

while Gamurini declares they had nothing to do with Fiesole, but came
from a castle near Arezzo called Rondine (Swallow). In 1192 a Rondinello
di Ulivieri is mentioned in the records of the Opera del Duomo, and his son,
Spinabello, commonly called Bello di Rondinello, was one of the Elders of
the city who signed the league with Arezzo in Sta. Reparata in 1258. Vieri,
Bello’s son, was the first of thirty-six Priors his family gave to Florence,
and a few years later the first of twelve Gonfaloniers of Justice. The
Rondinelli were Guelphs, and always in the van of every popular
movement, and Michele, who was deputed to buy Lucca of the Scaliger in
1341, became extraordinarily beloved owing to his liberality and kindly
manners, and was one of the leaders of the people when they rose against
the Grandi. Rinaldo, his nephew, was twice sent as ambassador to the
Republic of Lucca to watch the Pisan exiles who were plotting against

Florence. He joined with Giovanni and Cosimo de’ Medici in building S.
Lorenzo, but died before the church was half finished, and left strict orders
in his will that his sons were to continue the work.
Antonio Rondinelli, whose name is linked for ever with that of the
beautiful Ginevra degl’Amieri must, if he and Ginevra are not mere
creations of the popular phantasy, have been a brother of Michele. The
Amieri, one of the proudest and oldest families of Florence, whose
magnificent palaces and towers stood near S. Andrea in the old market
place, were strongly Ghibelline. Scorning an alliance with a Rondinelli, a
Popolano and a Guelph, they forced Ginevra to marry Francesco
degl’Agolanti, whose family was on a par with her own. In vain she tried to
forget the handsome, gentle Antonio. She sickened, and one day fell into a
deep swoon, as dead; her death was attributed to the plague which was then
raging in Florence, and she was hastily buried in the vault of the Amieri
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adjoining the Duomo. In that terrible year (1400) people were often
buried with their jewellery, and thieves, braving the infection, went at night
to rob the corpses. Two of these fellows lifted the stone of the vault. The
fresh air revived Ginevra, who sat up, whereupon the men, thinking she was
a ghost, fled. Ginevra called her women, but to her horror saw she was
surrounded by skeletons, and understood what had happened. Slipping off
the linen bands which tied her hands, she was able to set her feet free. The
moon was full as she climbed the steps out of the vault, and wrapping her
shroud around her she crossed the Piazza, and went down the small street
which has, they say, ever since borne the name of Via della Morte, to her
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husband’s house. Francesco opened the window when she knocked, but
thought that the spirit of his dead wife was asking for suffrages, and
promising to have masses said for the repose of her soul, shut the window.
Ginevra then went on to her father’s house, where her mother sat weeping
by the fireside, and in the old popular ballad in ottava rima by Agotino
Velletti, we read:

“E spaventata e piena di paura
Disse: va in pace, anima benedetta,
Bella figliuola mia, onesta e pura;
E riserro la finestra con fretta.”

Rejected by husband and mother, she turned her steps to the house of her
uncle, who had always loved her, and implored his help, but:

“Fugli risposto: anima benedetta,
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Va, che Dio ti conservi in santa pace.”

Shuddering with cold and misery, in utter despair she thought of Antonio
Rondinelli. After praying under the portico of S. Bartolomeo she hurried to
his door, and crying for aid, fell exhausted to the ground. “Then,” writes
J. A. Symonds, “comes the finest touch in the poem. Antonio knows
Ginevra’s voice; and loving her so tenderly, he hurries with delight to greet
her risen from the grave. He alone has no fear, and no misgiving; for love in
him is stronger than death. At the street door, when he reaches it, he finds
no ghost, but his own dear lady yet alive. She is half frozen and
unconscious, yet her heart still beats. How he calls the women of his
household to attend her, prepares a bed, and feeds her with warm soups and
wine, and how she revives, and how Antonio claims her to be his wife, and
wins his cause against her former bridegroom in the bishop’s court, may be
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read at length in the concluding portion of the tale.”
The Gonfalonier Tommaso di Vieri de’ Rondinelli was so beloved that
on his death, in 1430, the people insisted on giving him a public funeral.
The name of one of his descendants, Giovanni, is known as a poet of some
note. When in 1790 the old family of the Vitelli died out, the Rondinelli
inherited their estates and their name, and I believe the palace in Via della
Stufa, where the last of the Rondinelli died, and which now belongs to his
daughter, was a Palazzo Vitelli.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI

Via della Vigna Nuova. No. 20.
Tradition says that the ancestor of the noble house of Rucellai was a
Messer Ferro, who came from Brittany with an Emperor, and took up his
abode at Campi, near Florence, where the family still own a fine villa. But
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according to Count Passerini, an acknowledged authority, the real founder
was Alamanno di Monte, a rich cloth merchant who, whilst travelling in the
Levant about 1250, observed that a beautiful violet dye was extracted from
the herb Oricella (Lichen Rocella of Linnæus); he introduced it into
Florence, and from it the family took their name. Bernardo, his grandson,
commonly called Naddo di Giunta, was Prior in 1302, the first of eighty-
five the Rucellai gave to Florence; six years later he was Gonfalonier of
Justice, and after him thirteen others of the family filled that important post.
He built the chapel of Sta. Caterina, in Sta. Maria Novella, in which is the
stately Madonna, said by Vasari to have been painted by Cimabue, whose
triumphant progress through Florence he describes so vividly. Bencivenni,
his son, generally known as Cenni di Naddo, played an important part in the
faction fights between the Whites and the Blacks, and was six times elected
a Prior of his native city. When Gonfalonier of Justice in 1328 he raised
60,000 golden florins to continue the war against Castruccio Castrocane,
and by his energy and acumen saved Florence from falling into the clutches
of the house of Anjou. After the city, owing to the incapacity of Malatesta
da Rimini, General of the Florentine army, was seized by the Duke of
Athens, Bencivenni’s son Naddo was beheaded, and he only saved his own
life by taking refuge as a novice in the Dominican monastery of Sta. Maria
Novella until the city had thrown off the yoke of the tyrant. Bencivenni was
a man of large views and great prudence, he defended the people against the
nobles and was so trusted by them that it was a common saying when a man
was condemned to death, “God can save thee, or Cenni di Naddo.” The
Rucellai then lived near the Piazza Vecchia di Sta. Maria Novella, and the

Via di Cenni is supposed to take its name from him. Andrea, another of
Naddo’s sons, having no taste for commerce, took service in France, where
he was knighted, and fought in the wars against England. When eventually
he returned to Florence he was made Castellano of Carmignano and the
adjacent strong places guarding the Pisan and Lucchese frontiers. A few
days before his death he determined to knight his two sons, Albizzo and
Francesco; and as five marriages were to take place in the Rucellai family,
he gave a splendid entertainment for the seven events in the cloisters of Sta.
Maria Novella, which for a whole week resounded with music and dancing,
singing and feasting. “Never,” says an old chronicler, “was so magnificent a
sight.”

PALAZZO RUCELLAI.

Berlinghieri, his nephew, usually called Bingeri di Naddo, was a gallant
soldier, to whom the town of Siena granted the right to quarter her arms, a
white lion on a red ground, with his own, as a reward for his services
against the Tolomei. Paolo, son of Bingeri, when Gonfalonier of Justice in
1364, promulgated a law against the excessive luxury of dress indulged in

by the Florentine ladies, and augmented the sum set apart every year by the
Commune for the completion of Giotto’s beautiful campanile. He left his
second wife, Caterina Pandolfini, with four young boys and little to live on.
A descendant of his, Francesco Rucellai, who wrote in the XVIIth century
describes Giovanni, the eldest, as “a man of singular goodness and well
grounded in literature. He began his commercial life under the auspices of
Messer Palla Strozzi, a man famed for his great learning, nobility and
immense riches. Palla seeing Giovanni’s excellent character and keen
intelligence, and loving him as a son, determined to give him his daughter
to wife, and he did it in this wise. Giovanni usually accompanied Messer
Palla every morning at dinner-time, after work was over, as far as his house,
and one day, when as usual he asked leave to go to his own people, Messer
Palla told him to enter his house, and calling Jacopa, his daughter, told
Giovanni to take the girl’s hand because he intended that she should be his
wife. The said Jacopa when her father called her had just washed her hair,
and did not wish to appear before a stranger in undress, so her mother made
excuses for her; but Messer Palla insisted on being obeyed, saying in the
presence of his family that the young man brought by him was to be her
husband. In 1427 the marriage took place, when Giovanni became the
partner of Messer Palla in his commerce and participated in the great gains
made by the house of Strozzi, so that in time he became very rich.”
In 1456 Giovanni obliged his eldest son, Pandolfo, to marry Caterina,
daughter of Buonaccorso Pitti. Even as a child Pandolfo was extraordinarily
religious and had set his heart on entering the Church; but he was a good
husband and father, and showed great ability in banking affairs and in the
various high offices he filled. After his wife’s death, when his children were
grown up and no longer needed him, he received the habit of S. Dominic at
the hands of Savonarola, to whom he was devoted. Owing to the exile of
Messer Palla Strozzi, Francesco Rucellai tells us that “Giovanni was out of
favour, and for twenty years was looked upon with suspicion by the party of
Cosimo the Elder, the ruler. So he was obliged to be careful, as people tried
to stir up accusations against him. But real goodness is above malice and
suspicion, and Giovanni preferred to suffer for the peace of the Republic
rather than harm his beloved country by attempting to change the
government for the benefit of Messer Palla and himself. Thus he gave no
hold to his enemies, and Cosimo, astonished, desired to have him as a

friend and relation. So in 1461 he gave Nannina, daughter of his son Piero,
to Giovanni’s second son Bernardo, a lad younger than the bride.”
It is to Giovanni that we owe the lovely Palazzo Rucellai still inhabited
by the family, which was built by his intimate friend Leon Battista Alberti,
as well as the exquisite loggia opposite. In 1450 the palace was finished,
and Neri di Bicci notes in his Ricordi: “In 1455 I painted for Giovanni
Rucellai in his house five arches of sham perspective, a coat-of-arms in
high relief with a helmet, and two half-length figures, a lady and a serving-
man, in fresco.”
In the loggia of the Rucellai, now defaced by being turned into a post-
office, the marriages of three of Giovanni’s five daughters were arranged on
the same day “to his great content.” The citizens of Florence used to meet
and discuss their affairs under these loggie, and after the introduction of the
game of chess from the East, such large sums of money were lost at dice,
draughts and chess, that a law was passed forbidding any games to be
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played in courtyards, porticoes, or loggie. Sacchetti describes how “while
seated in a loggia a most notable citizen of Florence, named Guido de’
Cavalcanti, was intent on a game of chess, a boy, playing with other
children at ball, or with a top, as is their habit, often came near to him with
such noise as boys usually make, and being pushed by a companion against
the said Guido, he, perchance being worsted at the game, rose furiously and
struck the boy saying: ‘Go and play elsewhere,’ and then continued his
game. This angered the boy, who, crying and shaking his head, still loitered
around muttering: ‘I will repay thee,’ and having a nail from a horseshoe he
returned with the others to where Guido was playing, and with a stone in his
hand went behind him and began to hammer on the bench at first softly, and
at long intervals, and then quickly, and more impetuously, so that he caused
Guido to turn round and say: ‘Dost thou desire more? It were better for thee
to go home. What art thou hammering with that stone?’ The boy answered,
‘I am only straightening this nail.’ So Guido turned again to the board and
continued his game. Little by little the boy, always hammering with the
stone, stole nigh to where a fold of Guido’s tunic, or the trimming thereof,
fell on to the bench, and holding the stone with one hand and the nail with
the other, he drove it through the said fold, hitting harder and harder so that
it should be firm and fast, with the intent that the said Guido should be
driven to rise. And it came to pass as the boy desired. Guido, sick to death

of the hammering rose quickly in great anger, the boy ran away, and Guido
remained fastened to the bench by his tunic.”
Monsignore V. Borghini (MSS. Magliabechiana) mentions that fifteen
loggie existed in Florence when he wrote, and traces of some of them may
still be distinguished. One belonging to the Agolanti, opposite the Ghetto,
was so celebrated in olden times as a place for arranging marriages, that the
street corner was commonly called “del Parentado,” and people said that
beneath that loggia you might be sure “di non far casaccia,” i. e., not to
make an unsuitable alliance.
Not satisfied with building a palace, Giovanni also occupied himself
with churches, for Vasari writes: “Wishing to ornament the façade of Sta.
Maria Novella in marble at his own expense, Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai
consulted with Leon Battista, his intimate friend, and having obtained, not
only advice, but a design from him, resolved to do the work in order to
leave a memorial of himself, and it was finished, to the great satisfaction of
all, in 1477.” The Rucellai were always great patrons of the church of Sta.
Maria Novella. Albizzo di Naddo di Giunta left in 1334 one hundred and
sixty florins to build a tomb for himself outside the chapel of All Saints and
to pay for the painting of the chapel itself. It was restored a hundred years
later by Andrea Rucellai, whose name can still be traced on the marble
stoop at the door. Another of the family, Gugliemo, gave the marble pulpit
designed by Brunelleschi, and beneath it he made a vault, in which he was
buried in 1477. He was so rich that he owned a large fleet of ships and was
deputed by the Republic to receive Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, when
he came to Florence. The indolence his brother Piero, Gonfalonier of
Justice in 1455, became proverbial. No letter was ever read or answered by
him, and Lorenzo the Magnificent, when he did not wish to reply to any
document used to say, “I shall do as did Piero di Cardinale.”
Giuliano Bugiardini painted the martyrdom of S. Catherine for the altar
of the chapel of the same name in Sta. Maria Novella for Palla Rucellai.
“He kept it twelve years,” writes Vasari, “and in all that time never could
finish it, as he lacked the invention and the knowledge for representing the
various incidents that occurred in that martyrdom; and as he was always
changing, trying how to arrange the wheels and how to represent the
lightning, and the fire that burned them, he undid one day what he had done
the day before.... Palla, who often asked him to finish the picture, at length

bethought him to take Michelangelo to see it, and Bugiardini told him with
how much labour he had painted the lightning, which falling from heaven
had shattered the wheels and killed those who turned them; and the sun,
which shining from a cloud liberates S. Catherine from death. He then
begged Michelangelo, who could not control his laughter on hearing the
woes of poor Bugiardini, to tell him how he would arrange eight or ten
principal figures in the foreground of the picture; a row of soldiers on guard
who, in the act of escaping, fall down wounded and killed; because he did
not know how to fore-shorten them in such way as to get them all into so
restricted a space. So Buonarroti, out of complaisance, and having
compassion on the poor man, took a piece of charcoal and sketched a row
of marvellous naked figures, fore-shortened in various attitudes, some
falling back and others forward, both dead and wounded, drawn with the
knowledge and the excellence which pertains to Michelangelo.”
A curious book by Giovanni called Il Zibaldone Quaresimale has never
been published in its entirety, but an account of it, and various extracts are
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given by Marcotti. It begins: “This book has been planned and written by
me Giovanni di Pagholo di Messer Pagholo Rucellai, merchant and citizen
of Florence in the year 1459, in the castle of Sancto Gemignano where I am
with all my family, having fled from the plague in my city of Florence. In it
I have begun to instruct and inform my sons Pandolfo and Bernardo of
many things that I think may be useful to them. It will be a salad of various
herbs according to the understanding of the reader.”
There is a little of everything in the Zibaldone, town gossip, reflections
on the commercial superiority of Venice, copies of letters, philosophical
discussions, quotations from Aristotle, Boethius, Dante, S. Bernard and
Seneca, followed by moral and religious maxims taken from sermons, an
account of his forbears and their doings, excellent advice as how to bring up
children, and a description of his various buildings. Near the end of the
book his reasons for being thankful to God, are so typical of a Florentine of
the fifteenth century that I give them in full:
“First I thank him for having given me life and made me a rational and
an immortal creature, for he might as easily have made me a mortal beast
without intelligence.

“Secondly I must thank him for causing me to be born in a place where
the true faith exists, that is in Christendom, and I must add in the midst of
the faith, that is near Rome, the residence of our Holy Lord Pope and of his
honourable brethren the cardinals, representing Christ with the apostles; for
he might have caused me to be born a Turk, a Moor, or a barbarian, in
which case I should have been irremediably lost.
“Next I thank him for being born in Italy, which is the most worthy and
the noblest portion of all Christendom, and in the province of Tuscany,
which is reputed as amongst the worthiest provinces of Italy and in which is
part of the city of Rome which once dominated the world: and in addition to
have caused me to be born in the city of Florence, which is reputed the most
worthy and the most beautiful birthplace there is, not only in Christendom
but in the whole world.
“Then I thank him for causing me to live many years in perfect health,
for I am sixty years of age and do not think that in all my life I spent a
month in the house on account of illness, and it seems to me that health is
the greatest grace that one can receive.
“And then I thank him for the good fortune he has conceded to me in
my business, for I have increased and multiplied exceedingly the small
substance that was left to me, so that I find myself to-day with considerable
riches, fine prospects, great credit and a good reputation. And not only has
he conceded unto me grace in acquiring, but also in spending these riches
well, which is not a less virtue. And I consider that having spent my riches
well does me more honour than having made them, and gives me more
satisfaction, particularly with regard to the buildings I have made; my house
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in Florence, my place at Quaracchi, the façade of the church of Sta. Maria
Novella and the loggia which is begun opposite my house, and also the
chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, like to that at Jerusalem of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, made in S. Pancrazio, and the hangings of golden brocade for the
same church.
“Also I have to thank him for causing me to be born of a good face,
that is of noble blood with high connections, and for giving me a fine
family, that is seven children, two male and five female, all of whom have
married into noble houses.

“Also I have to thank him for being born in the present time, which all
competent persons say is, and will be regarded as, the finest period of our
city since it was created, for the reasons that are set forth in this book; and
more particularly for living in the time of the magnificent citizen Cosimo
de’ Medici, who was and is so rich, has so much knowledge and tact, so
high a reputation and so numerous a following, both outside and within the
city, that in all Christendom there has never lived such a citizen or one with
so many good qualities as have been and are in him; and among other
graces vouchsafed to me by God is that he has made me a relation of the
said Cosimo, because Nannina his grandchild, daughter of Piero his son, is
the wife of Bernardo my son, to whom was born on the 1st June, 1468, a
son named Cosimo.
“Also I thank him for many other benefits and gifts too numerous to
recount. Then I must thank him for guarding and defending me from many
evils and annoyances and adversities which I might have had and have not
had.
“Also I thank him for granting my desire of seeing our city at peace in
my day without any fear of war, for ten or more years, from 1454 to 1464,
during which time I experienced perfect tranquillity of mind, and reflected
on the great anguish we endured in past times by reason of wars and fear of
wars.
“Also I thank him for an admirable mother he gave me, named
Caterina, who having four male children when our father, Pagolo, died, and
being nineteen years of age, would not abandon us, but strenuously resisted
the wishes of her mother and her brothers that she should marry again; and
he left her with me for a long time, as she lived more than eighty years and
was a great consolation to me.
“Also I thank him for the most worthy wife he gave me named Jacopa,
daughter to Messer Palla di Nofri Strozzi, who was a most dear wife to me
by reason of her great love for me and the good rule she kept in our house
and family; she was given to me for a long time as she lived about fifty-five
years, passing from this life on the 24th April, 1468, and this I consider the
greatest loss that I ever had or could have.”
The marriage of Giovanni’s son Bernardo with the fascinating Nannina
de’ Medici, sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was celebrated with

extraordinary magnificence. The whole street and the loggia, which was
enlarged for the occasion so as to cover the small triangular square in front
of the palace, were hung with blue cloth and decorated with garlands of
flowers and leaves. A stand, raised a foot and a half from the ground, was
erected, and for three days every Florentine of note was entertained at the
bridal feast, eating, drinking, dancing and listening to music. 1,004 wax
candles were made on purpose to burn for twelve hours each, and 3,686
golden florins were spent by Giovanni in honour of his Medici daughter-in-
law.
Bernardo was a man of inordinate ambition, and when Piero de’ Medici
refused to listen to his advice, he became one of the most violent of his
antagonists. In 1502 he strenuously advocated the appointment of a
Gonfalonier for life, hoping the choice would fall upon himself: but when
Piero Soderini was elected, he again joined the Medicean party, and the plot
against Soderini was hatched in the Oricellari gardens. He is described by
contemporaries as difficult to get on with. He scouted every plan that did
not originate with himself, decried every form of government because he
was not the chosen head, and was swayed by personal dislikes and a
passion for popularity. But if he failed as a statesman his learning was
undeniable. The oration de auxilio Typhernatibus adferendo, to induce the
Florentines to succour Città di Castello, was published in London in 1733
as a model of elegant Latin, and at the same time his de Bello Gallico,
which Erasmus declares might have been written by Sallust, went into a
second edition. Muratori has published his de Urbe Roma, which is highly
praised as a description of ancient Rome.
The celebrated Platonic Academy, instituted by Cosimo the Elder, met
in the Rucellai gardens during the exile of its founder, whence its name of
Academia degl’Orti Oricellari.
Of the six children of Bernardo Rucellai and Nannina de’ Medici two
merit especial mention: Palla, who took the lead in turning the Gonfalonier
Piero Soderini out of the Palazzo della Signoria, and thus paved the way for
the return of the Medici to Florence; and then repenting of having placed
his country under such tyranny, voted against the election of Cosimo I. to
the throne, and is said to have been poisoned by him; and the more famous
Giovanni, author of Rosmunda, Oreste, and Le Api. Giovanni, born in 1457,
had Francesco da Diacceto as his master in philosophy and literature, and

he was brought up with his cousin, Giovanni de’ Medici, afterwards Leo X.,
Bibbiena and Machiavelli, in the society of such men as Poliziano, Marsilio
Ficino, the Pulci and Pico della Mirandola. Palla and Giovanni were sent to
France to finish their education, and a charming letter written from Avignon
87
by the latter is still extant. “I seem to be in the Promised Land,” exclaims
the young Florentine, “abounding in every good thing that can be desired in
this world. Among others I find myself opposite a house which is intimately
connected with that of Madonna Laura of Petrarch. And there, amidst other
noble ladies, is one whose like mine eyes have never beheld; verily nothing
save the name is lacking in her, so that the sonnets should hit the mark. And
if, on my return, I appear to thee another Petrarch, do not be astonished, for
love is the cause of all things; and if God (ut Platoni placet) non est
mirandum if it works miracles. Also here kisses are allowed, as glances are
at home, only I find they have a far sweeter flavour than in other places.
Her name, to tell thee all, is Anna, and had I more time I would send thee
something to prove what I have told thee. I have seen the effigy of
Madonna Laura, which is indeed most beautiful, and worthy to be loved by
such a man as was Petrarch. I wished to have her copied from the picture to
send thee; but there is not to be found a man capable of doing it in the way I
desire. Still I hope to send thee a sketch if fate so wills it. I have already
learned to say nani and oi (yes and no), and I can give a kiss without
smacking my lips.” When Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope, young
Giovanni Rucellai followed him to Rome and entered the Church. He was
for some time Papal Nuncio in France and afterwards Clement VII. made
him Castellano of S. Angelo.
Giovanni Rucellai’s Rosmunda shares with the Sofonisba of Trissino
the glory of being the first Italian tragedy. It depicts the well-known story of
Alboin, who turned the skull of his wife’s father into a wine-cup, out of
which he forces her to drink. When Giovanni died in 1526 he bequeathed to
his brother Palla and to his friend Trissino a poem on bees. An eyewitness
related to Scipione Ammirato how “these two friends when together in a
room would jump upon a bench, declaim passages out of their tragedies,
and then call upon the audience to decide which was the best. In one of
these contests Rucellai inadvertently got upon the bench with his braces
undone, and Trissino in a loud voice exclaimed: ‘Now see the man who
would contend with me! Like a child he does not know how to fasten his

braces.’” The Api was published in 1539, and Trissino undertook to see his
friend’s work through the press. “It is,” writes Symonds, “no mere
translation from Virgil; and though the higher qualities of variety, invention
and imagination were denied to Rucellai, though he can show no passages
of pathos to compete with the ‘Corycius senex,’ of humour to approach the
battle of the hives, no episode, it need hardly be said, to match with ‘Pastor
Aristaeus,’ still his modest poem is a monument of pure taste and classical
correctness. It is the work of a ripe scholar and a melodious versifier, if not
of a great singer; and its diction belongs to the best period of polite Italian.”
Giovan Battista, great-grandson of Pandolfo, a favourite of Cosimo I.,
acted as one of the Captains in the game of calcio, celebrated in the annals
of Florence for its magnificence, which was played in honour of the
marriage of Cosimo’s son Francesco de’ Medici by the young Florentine
nobles. Giovanni, his grandson, studied mathematics under Galileo at Pisa,
and was a remarkable linguist; like so many of his family he was a fine
musician and a good artist. He gave wonderful feste, what we should now
call garden parties, at Il Pratello, the Rucellai villa near Campi, sending
tessere with one of the many emblems of the family to his guests, instead of
invitations. By the kindness of the Countess Edith Rucellai I am enabled
here to reproduce one with the emblem adopted by Bernardo after his
marriage with Nannina de’ Medici—the Medicean ring and three ostrich
feathers, white, green and red, denoting faith, charity and hope. Other
emblems used by the family, such as a compass, a cupid, a peacock and
poppies, are to be seen on the municipal palaces in towns where the
Rucellai were Vicarii or Governors for Florence, on the façade of Sta. Maria
Novella, of the Rucellai palace, and of their loggia. The oldest, Fortune
standing in a ship and holding up a sail to catch the wind, alludes to the
great commercial gains which had enriched the house.

Francesco Rucellai, a cousin of Giovanni Battista, from whom the
present branch of the family descends, began life as a page to the Grand
Duke Ferdinando II., and was Vicario of the Upper Val d’Arno in 1658. A
man of considerable culture, and gifted with charming manners, he was
made a member of all the learned academies of Florence, and wrote a
history of his native town in nine large volumes and one of his own family,
from which I have quoted. His grandson Giulio studied law at Pisa in 1736,
and became a Senator and legal adviser to the Grand Duke Giovan Gastone,
last of the Medici. Enlightened, patriotic and liberal, he determined to curb
the power of the clergy and to abolish the Inquisition. Several times the
Pope demanded the dismissal of so obnoxious a minister, and when Francis
I. of Lorraine became the ruler of Tuscany he renewed his request. But
Rucellai was too necessary a man. He steadily withstood the pretensions of
Clement XII. to nominate bishops, a right that had been exercised by the
Grand Dukes for two hundred years; and at length, after the well-known
case of the poet Tommaso Crudeli, the last inmate of the prisons of the
Inquisition in Tuscany, he succeeded in suppressing the tribunal. Soon

afterwards he framed a law obliging the clergy to contribute their quota to
the general taxation, and on the 2nd March, 1769, by his advice, the Grand
Duke Pietro Leopoldo proclaimed the celebrated law against mortmain. Ten
years later the right of asylum, that fertile source of scandal and incentive to
crime, was done away with, the jurisdiction of the bishops was limited to
purely spiritual matters and, in order to protect young girls from being
forced to enter a convent against their will, no woman under thirty was
allowed to take the vows. The large sums arising from the sale of
suppressed convents Rucellai used in founding schools for poor girls.
He adopted his orphan nephew Giovanni Pietro, who became a member
of various Florentine academies, was an admirable musician, and painted
well in tempera. Count Cosimo Rucellai has a curious collection of small
family portraits which were probably copied by Giovanni from old frescoes
and pictures which no longer exist.

PALAZZO SALVIATI

(NOW A SCHOOL OF THE SCOLOPI FRIARS)
Via del Corso. No. 4.

Jacopo Salviati bought the house of Folco de’ Portinari, where Beatrice
was born, together with several others, and where they stood he built a large
palace. This great and powerful family descended from a doctor, Messer
Salvi, whose son Cambio was the first of sixty-three Priors and of twenty-
one Gonfaloniers of Justice of his house. Lotto, another son, was a great
jurist, and his descendant Jacopo Salviati played an important part in
Florence in the XVth century. After subduing the Counts Guidi and the
Ubertini in 1404 he was solemnly knighted by the Signoria, became
Commissary of the Pisan war, and his name appears in every embassy of
that time. Bernardo, his son, was father of Francesco the Archbishop of Pisa
who joined in the Pazzi conspiracy against Lorenzo and Giuliano de’
Medici, and was hung from a window of the Palazzo Vecchio (see p. 373).
His grandson Jacopo, husband of Lucrezia de’ Medici, daughter of Lorenzo
the Magnificent, was the only man who dared raise his voice at the court of
Clement VII. against creating the bastard Alessandro de’ Medici Lord of
Florence, and against building the fortress of S. Giovanni. It was then that
he uttered the prophetic words, “God grant that Filippo [Strozzi] in
advocating the building of this fortress is not digging his own grave.” A
cousin of his married Laudomia de’ Medici, and their son Giuliano, after
insulting the name of his mother’s family and helping the mob to destroy
their arms in 1527, became the intimate associate of the Duke Alessandro,
and is famous, or rather infamous, for his behaviour to Luisa Strozzi (see p.
335).
Maria Salviati, a daughter of Jacopo, married Giovanni de’ Medici
delle Bande Nere, and their son Cosimo, afterwards Duke of Florence, was
born in her father’s palace. There is a tradition that Giovanni ordered the

child to be thrown from a first floor window into the courtyard, where he
caught him in his arms, and foretold that the boy would become a great man
because he showed no fear. Maria’s brother Alamanno left a very large
fortune, and his descendant Jacopo was created Duke of Giuliano by Urban
VIII., and for his sins married Veronica Cybo, daughter of the Duke of
Massa and Carrara. “Donna Veronica was endowed with but small beauty,”
writes a contemporary, “but per contra with a most violent and imperious
temper and a jealous disposition. Her husband, poor man, had small joy
with her.” Duke Jacopo, handsome, gay, an elegant poet and a gallant
soldier, met the beautiful Caterina Canacci, surnamed “the fair Cherubim”
on account of her golden hair and wonderful colouring, and fell desperately
in love with her (see p. 62). The Duchess’ vengeance was a terrible one, and
only her high birth saved her from condign punishment. The Salviati family
is extinct, and their title is borne by a younger member of the princely
family of the Borghese of Rome, one of whom married Anna Maria, only
daughter of Duke Averardo Salviati, about 1790. The palace was bought by
the Da Cepperello family, and now belongs to the Scolopi friars, who have
their school there.

PALAZZO SAN CLEMENTE.

PALAZZO SAN CLEMENTE

Via Gino Capponi. No. 11.
A palace built by Don Luigi di Toledo was bought by the Guadagni
family in the XVIth century, and Gherardo Silvani was commissioned to
enlarge it, incorporating part of the old palace in the new one. Silvani
succeeded in making a handsome building, and the trim garden with
pleached hedges suits the stately loggie and arched corridors.
This was the house about which the Pretender and Lord Cowper went
to law. That delightful old gossip Sir Horace Mann writes to Walpole in
1776: “The quarrel was about a house, which he [Charles Edward] wanted
to buy; but some obstacles obstructed the conclusion of the bargain. In the
mean time Lady Cowper wanted a more proper house than her own to lay
in; and proposals were made to the proprietor, to have it for a certain
number of months, and he inclined to let it to Lord Cowper. This displeased
the Comte Albanie, and the dispute was carried to a publick tribunal, which
decided in the Comte’s favour. This displeased the Great Duke, who
favoured the Cowpers. In short, the whole town took part in it, but I
dissuaded my Lord from making an appeal to another court, so that the
Albanies now reside in it; though the contract heightened the price
considerably. What the Comte complained of most was, that he should meet
with so rebellious an opposition from one of his own subjects. The ladies
still vye with each other in beauty, so that they can never more be friends.”
The following year Sir Horace again mentions the Pretender: “I have told
you how dangerously ill the Count Albanie has been. His physicians sent to
inform me that a mortification had begun in his legs, that his body was
swelled, and that the affanno was great, so that he thought him to be in the
most imminent danger. This account was sent post to Rome to his brother
and the Countess.... He made a will in a hurry; and it has been said, in joke,
that he has bequeathed his three kingdoms to the son of the Great Duke, in
example of what King Theodore did, by leaving his crown to his

creditors.... I formerly gave you an account of the fracas in the Pretender’s
family, by the elopement of his wife, whom everybody then pitied and
applauded. The tables are now turned. The cat, at last, is out of the bag. The
Cardinal of York’s visit to his brother gave the latter an opportunity to
undeceive him, by proving to him that the complaints laid to his charge, of
ill-using her, were invented to cover a plot formed by Count Alfieri, who
(by working up Tragedies, of which he has wrote many, is most expert,
though he always kept behind the curtain) had imposed upon the Great
Duke, the Pope and the Cardinal, and all those who took her part. All that
he said on that subject, at a time that he thought himself and was supposed
by everybody to be in the most imminent danger, made a great impression
on his brother, who, on his return to Rome, exposed the whole to the Pope,
and obtained an order from him to Count Alfieri to leave the Pope’s state in
fifteen days. Not content with that satisfaction, the imprudent Cardinal (for
a more silly mortal never existed) published the whole of the Countess’s
intrigues with Alfieri. This has exasperated all the Roman Nobility against
the Cardinal, insomuch that, instead of considering the delinquencies of the
parties, their wrath is turned against the publisher of the scandal; and they
compassionate the situation of the disconsolate lady who, I really believe,
will marry the Count a week after she becomes a widow.”
In July the following year Charles Edward acknowledged his natural
daughter by Mrs. Walsingham, under the title of Lady Charlotte Stuart,
Duchess of Albany, and Mann reports: “She is allowed to be of a good
figure, tall, and well made, but that the features of her face resemble too
much those of her father to be handsome. She is gay, lively, very affable,
and has the behaviour of a well-bred Frenchwoman, without assuming the
least distinction among our ladies on account of her new dignity.... The new
Duchess has appeared at the Theatres (which were crowded on her account)
with all her father’s jewels, which are very fine.... Poor Count Albine,”
writes Sir Horace again in December, “decays every day, visibly. His
daughter did well to come in time to reap his succession, for which she will
not wait long. The faculties of his mind are as weak as his body.”
After the death of Charles Edward the palace became the residence of
the British Minister to the Court of Tuscany. Charles Greville, who was in
Florence in 1830, writes: “I breakfasted with Lord Normanby, who has got
a house extending 200 feet in front, court, garden and stables, for about

£280 a year. His house was originally fitted up for the Pretender, and C.R.’s
are still to be seen all over the place.”
The Velluti-Zati, Dukes of San Clemente, to whom the palace now
belongs, descend from one of those great merchant families of Florence
whose members were able to turn their hands and their brains to anything.
The first time the name occurs is early in the XIIIth century when Piero di
Berto, surnamed Velluti, had a cloth factory in Oltrarno, and dealt largely in
wool. His son Buonaccorso fought at Montaperti in 1260, and when he died
thirty-six years later was reputed to be one of the richest merchants in Italy.
He built a palace and a tower, together with factories and houses for his
workpeople, on a podere, or farm, called La Casellina (Via de’ Velluti and
Via de’ Vellutini still mark the site). The Corsini, the Ridolfi and the
Corbinelli built such fine houses near his, that the street was called the Via
Maggiore (afterwards shortened into Via Maggio).
Lippo, Buonaccorso’s son, was the first of twenty-nine Priors of his
house, and many of the Velluti filled important posts under the Republic as
ambassadors to Lucca, Naples and Tunis, and as governors of various
subject towns. One of the most famous of the family, and eminent as a
jurist, was Donato, born in 1313. He filled the important post of
Gonfalonier of Justice several times, was elected advocate of the poor, went
to Bologna as ambassador in 1344, and in the same year was sent to Arezzo
to quell a rebellion that had broken out in that city. A few months later, he
represented the Commune of Florence in negotiating a peace between
Perugia and Siena. Donato Velluti was several times ambassador to various
courts of Europe, and wrote a chronicle which deals chiefly with family
matters. In reading it one gathers how terrible the plague must have been in
those days. Instead of mentioning a year, he perpetually dates events as
“before (or after) the great mortality.” He nearly died of it, and records that
he owed his life to the devotion of his wife Monna Bice de’ Covoni, “for
hardly one in a hundred escaped.” Agnolo degl’Albizzi, husband of his
wife’s sister Monna Ginevra, died of the plague of 1348, and Ginevra of the
next epidemic in 1363. She had been left with four small boys, whose story,
as related by Donato, will give an idea of the greater part of the chronicle.
“Giano, son of the said Monna Ginevra, notwithstanding the sound and
severe whippings received from her, showed signs of being a good-for-
nothing and wicked youth; for his evil conduct his relations put him in

prison some time ago, and there he still is. Paolo, the second son, gave
hopes of becoming a good youth when in the bank of the Covoni, and did
well until he took to running after women and idling about, thus wasting his
time. He has now reformed and is doing well, and will become an honest
man and a good relation. Filippo, the third son, is of no account, neither
good nor bad, and has been made a monk in S. Miniato a Monte, all he was
fit for. Antonio, the youngest boy, will be a good man if he continues as he
88
has begun. He is now in Provence.”
Paolo, a descendant of Donato, carried on the good traditions of his
house, and began a chronicle in 1555, when he was fifty-five years of age.
It gives a curious description of the relations between a merchant and a king
of one of the proudest nations in Europe, and so pleasing a picture of honest
Paolo himself that one is sadly tempted to translate the whole of it. Of his
ancestor Andrea, a son of Donato the jurist, he writes: “He was a most
excellent man, expert in his trade and active, and God-fearing. He always
attended the first mass in S. Spirito and then went about his business in
which he made large profits, as he began to trade after the great mortality of
1448, at which time goods were sold for ready money, so the gains were
large. Piero, his son, preserved, but did not augment his patrimony as he
might have done had he paid attention to the business. Andrea, eldest son of
the said Piero, was tall, well made and of a fine presence, courageous and
very hot-tempered when young, cantankerous and quarrelsome; his mother
and his sister Maria offered up many prayers for him, and as it pleased God
he was seized with a desire to go abroad. He went to Spain with a horse and
nine ducats in his pocket, where he did so well that he left 60,000 ducats....
In Spain he acquired many friends, being serviceable to the great, to his
equals and to those beneath him; lending and giving, and being very liberal.
He was so beloved by the gentlemen and grandees, that no other foreigner
had ever been held in such consideration. King Ferdinand, the Catholic,
when in Valladolid was wont to rise at an early hour, and sometimes went to
mass at the church of S. Francesco next door to Andrea’s house. After
hearing mass the King would ride on his small mule into the entrance hall
of the house and send for Andrea, who came down with his nightcap on his
head, his habit being to go to his study and write for two or three hours, and
then he would dress and brush his hair. The King seeing him thus said:
‘Andrea, is it not shameful that you, being a merchant and having to make

money, should only get up now?’ So he swore upon his life, and such like
modes of speech as they use in Spain, that he had been up for many hours,
and would tell the King all he had written and done. Often the King would
keep him talking thus in private for an hour or more, and when Andrea went
to the palace the King would leave whomsoever he was talking to and come
forward to meet him.” After describing various other members of the family
Paolo continues: “It now remains to say something of myself; but as it is
not fitting that one should speak well or ill of oneself, I leave that to others.
I will only mention that I began to work in the Capponi’s shop when a small
boy. Then, by my uncle’s desire, I went to Lyons and was in the house of
the Panciatichi, and thence to Spain to join my said uncle. He kept me but a
short time with him, sending me to see after his business at Valencia,
Saragossa and Barcelona, and several times I went to the fairs in Castile. I
was three hundred miles away when he died, and as he left all his fortune to
the nephews of his sister, I found myself without money, save the little that
came to me by law from the said uncle’s patrimony.... I repeat that I
remained with little money and the loss of my youth, for I was then thirty-
five. So I bethought me that with what I had to expect and any dower I
might receive, I could live well, and decided to take unto myself a wife. But
it did not turn out as I thought, for my gains were far less than I had
calculated and my expenses much greater than I had imagined, in addition
to which I had to buy much furniture, as I found but little of what had
belonged to my father when I returned from Spain.... I then reasoned with
myself that it would be better to do at once willingly what later I might be
forced to do by want, and earn something by my own work. Our Lord God
opened for me a chance in the bank of Federigo de’ Ricci, not, it is true,
with a large salary, but had I it not to-day I should be, I will not say poor,
because that I am with so many children, but in dire need. God be thanked
for His aid. To go back somewhat, I note that in January, 1547, I took for
my legitimate and beloved wife Francesca Guidetti, who has been good,
and is dearer to me than I can say. Easy tempered and an amusing
companion, she rules our family excellently well; and has always been, and
is, most affectionate to me, for these and other good qualities I love her very
deeply....” Paolo Velluti died in 1562, and the present Dukes of San
Clemente come from his younger brother Raffaello, one of whose
descendants took service in the Spanish army, and settled in Sicily. He made
a large fortune and married Maria Zati, after having bought the estates of

Grottaglia and Galluccio. When the Sicilian family of Zati died out, all their
possessions came to Francesco Velluti, who was born at Galluccio in 1699.
He was made Duke of San Clemente, Marquess of Sta. Maria a Rifesi, etc.,
etc. His son returned to the old cradle of his race, and bought from the
Guadagni the fine palace in the Via Gino Capponi. The present Duke is his
grandson.

PALAZZO SERRISTORI

Via de’ Renai: No. 2.
Of the old Serristori palace but little remains as it was incorporated in
the large new building in 1873. It was chiefly interesting because the arch-
traitor Malatesta Baglioni, who sold Florence to Charles V. and Clement
VII., had his head-quarters there during the siege of 1530.
A certain Ser Ristoro came from Figline in 1384 and became notary to
the Signoria, and from him descend the family of Serristori who gave ten
Gonfaloniers and twenty-seven Priors to Florence. They were staunch
adherents of the Medici until the time of Alessandro, when Francesco and
his sons Gugliemo and Niccolò were exiled as rebels. Niccolò joined
Filippo Strozzi against Cosimo I., was taken prisoner at Montemurlo and
imprisoned for life at Volterra.
The Senator Serristori was Minister for Foreign Affairs under the
Grand Duke Ferdinando III. His son Luigi served for a time in the Russian
army, and afterwards became Governor of Siena, and of Pisa in 1845, when
the last Grand Duke of Tuscany revived in his favour the title of Count
Palatine, bestowed on an ancestor of his in 1439 by the Emperor
Paleologus. His son Alfredo went to Constantinople and acted as adjutant to
Omer Pasha during the Crimean war. In 1858 he filled the same post to
General Cialdini and assisted at the campaigns fought for the Unity of Italy.
He died unmarried and was succeeded by the son of his sister, who took the
name of Serristori.

PALAZZO SODERINI

Piazza Soderini. No. 3.
From the Ponte alla Carraja to the Piazza di Cestello all the houses
along the Lung’Arno once belonged to the Soderini, who came to Florence
in the XIIth century. Ruggiero fought under the Guelph standard at
Montaperti in 1260, and was the first of thirty-two Priors and his grandson
the first of sixteen Gonfaloniers of Justice the family gave to Florence.
Tommaso was twice Gonfalonier of Justice and as one of the leading men
of the Guelph party was exiled after the Ciompi riots. The portrait by
Donatello, of his son Francesco, the great enemy of Cosimo de’ Medici, is
on the façade of Giotto’s campanile.
Niccolò, his nephew, was a great admirer and friend of S. Catherine of
Siena. Whenever she came to Florence, she stayed in his house, and he
bought and arranged for her a tiny house on the Costa di S. Giorgio as a
place of retreat and meditation. He was so popular that when he was elected
Gonfalonier Machiavelli tells us, “it was a marvellous thing to see what a
concourse, not only of honourable citizens but of the people, accompanied
him to the palace; and as he went a crown of olive was placed on his head
to show that on him depended the welfare and the liberty of the country.”
But he accomplished little during his term of office and his anti-Medicean
policy proved his ruin. His brother Tommaso was on the contrary an
intimate friend of Piero de’ Medici. He successfully negotiated the league
between the Duke of Milan and the Republics of Venice and Florence, and
when he went as ambassador to Rome, was knighted with great pomp by
Paul II., who also bestowed on him the privilege of quartering the Papal
Keys and the Triple Tiara in his arms. “Being one of the chief citizens,”
writes Machiavelli, “and much superior to the others, his prudence and
authority was recognized not only in Florence, but by all the princes of
Italy. So that after the death of Piero many citizens came to visit him as the
head of the city, and many princes wrote to him. But he, being prudent and

knowing well his own fortune and that of their house, did not answer the
letters of the princes, and gave the citizens to understand that they should
not come to his house but go to that of the Medici.” He called a meeting of
the chief citizens, to which Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici came, and
after “a long and serious oration on the condition of the city and of Italy,”
he concluded that the two young men must be continued in the position
their forefathers had held. Machiavelli tells us that Lorenzo was governed
very much by the advice of Messer Tommaso, in whose charge he left the
city and the state when he went to Naples in 1479, Soderini being then the
Gonfalonier. He died in 1484 leaving five sons, one of whom, Piero, was
proclaimed Gonfalonier of Justice for life in 1502. He continued
Savonarola’s constitution, but his want of decision caused his downfall.
Giovanni Cambi in his quaint Istorie tells us “that another Gonfalonier was
elected on the 28th September, 1512, because Piero Soderini, out of fear of
the principal citizens who would have no more of him and demanded back
their privileges, left the palace with three youths who had gone there fully
armed, saying that if he did not come with them quietly they would cut him
to pieces. He begged them to spare his life and they granted his request.
Unknown to the Signori, who were then sitting in council, he went with
them, and many citizens accompanied him from the palace as far as the
house of Francesco and Pagholo Vettori. When he arrived at their house
near the Ponte a Sta. Trinita, behind the loggia of the Frescobaldi, he
refused, in his great anguish and fear for his life, to go further, his own
house being at the Ponte alla Carraja near S. Frediano.” Virtù, or strength of
character, was the one quality admired in those days, and Piero being a
simple, good-hearted and not very courageous man, has been branded for
ever as a fool by the biting pen of the famous secretary:

“La notte che morì Pier Soderini,
L’alma n’ando nell’inferno alla bocca;
E Pluto le grido: Anima sciocca,
Che inferno? va’ nel limbo de’ bambini,”

wrote Machiavelli with infinite scorn.

The Soderini palace, after passing through several hands, is now the
property of Signor Schneiderff, and on the garden door is inscribed Jus: ut
pal: flor:, words which have often puzzled passers-by. Passerini suggests
that they were abbreviations of the motto engraved on Piero Soderini’s
private seal ring, Justus ut palma florebit.

PALAZZO SPINI

Via Tornabuoni. No. 2.
According to a genealogy drawn up by one of the Spini in the XVth
century the family descend from Spina Moscardi, who lived in the XIIth
century; and whose ancestor, a Roman soldier, settled in Florence at the
time of the foundation of the city. His sons were Manetti and Ugo, both
knights of the Golden Spur and wealthy merchants. Verini names the Spini
among the great families of Florence.

“Qualis Spinorum fuerit fortuna secundos
Vobis, quæ fuxta sunt alta palatia muros
Testantur genus antiquum Romana propago.”

The houses and towers of both the brothers were partially destroyed by
the Ghibellines in 1260–1266, and the remainder by the terrible flood of
15th December, 1288, when the Gianfigliazzi palace opposite was also
swept away.
The present magnificent pile was erected about 1290 by Manetti’s son,
Ruggieri, commonly called Geri, on the site of the old family palaces. Some
say that Arnolfo di Lapo superintended the building, others that he only
gave the design. Geri Spini, an able and very rich wool merchant, and the
recognized head of the Guelph, or Black, party in Florence, must have been
a remarkable and a many-sided man. Charles of Anjou named him his
representative in Tuscany, he was Commissary of War for his native city,
ambassador to Pope Boniface VIII. and afterwards to Benedict XI., when he
rode into Rome at the head of 150 horsemen, all his own followers. On his
return he was made Captain of Florence and a knight of the Golden Spur.
King Robert of Naples created him Lieutenant-Governor of Arezzo and
other cities, and in addition to all these multifarious duties he, together with

the Mozzi, was banker to the Holy See, and he had to attend to his own
business. He and his wife, Oretta Malespina, “a charming and virtuous
lady,” are both immortalized by Boccaccio in the Decamerone. The story of
the lady depends entirely on its charming and almost untranslatable
language, but that of Messer Geri gives a vivid description of Florentine life
and manners in the XIVth century.

PALAZZO SPINI.

“I tell how Pope Boniface, with whom Messer Geri Spini stood in high
honour, sent to Florence certain noble ambassadors on account of the great
need he was in. They dismounted at the house of Messer Geri, and talking
together of the Pope’s affairs it happened that Messer Geri and these

ambassadors walked out nearly every morning, passing in front of Sta.
Maria Ughi, where Cisti, the baker, had his oven and personally exercised
his art. Although fortune had bestowed on him such a humble calling yet
had she been very kind to him, inasmuch as he had become exceeding rich,
and though he would not change his occupation, he lived splendidly;
having, among other good things, the best red and white wine that were to
be found in Florence or in the country round. Seeing that Messer Geri and
the ambassadors of the Pope passed his door every day and the heat being
great, he bethought him that it would be an act of courtesy to offer them
some of his good white wine to drink. But having regard to his condition
and to that of Messer Geri, it did not appear fitting that the invitation should
come from him, so he cast about for a way of inducing Messer Geri to
invite himself. Always dressed in a jacket of dazzling whiteness and an
apron fresh from the laundry, so that he looked more like a miller than a
baker, every morning he set in front of his door, at the hour when Messer
Geri and the ambassadors were wont to pass, a new copper waterpot, well
tinned, a new earthen vase of Bologna full of his good white wine and two
tumblers, which seemed to be of silver, so bright were they. Then sitting
down he would clear his throat once or twice, and as they passed begin to
sip his wine with such manifest delight that a desire for it would have been
raised in a dead man. Messer Geri saw this for one morning, and for two,
and on the third he said: What is it, Cisti? Is it good? Cisti, rising quickly,
replied: Messere, yes indeed, but how good I could never make you
understand unless you taste it. Messer Geri, in whom either the weather, or
more business than usual, or perchance the tasty sips of Cisti had caused
thirst, turned to the ambassadors, and smiling, said: What say you,
gentlemen, would it not be well if we taste the wine of this good man; most
likely we shall have no cause to repent? And together they went towards
Cisti. He placed a fine bench outside and begged them to be seated, and to
their servants who pushed forward to wash the tumblers he said:
Companions, stand back and leave me to do this work, for I know as well
how to pour out wine as to make bread, and do not you think to have a drop.
Saying this he washed four good new tumblers, had a fresh small earthen
jar of his good white wine brought up, and carefully gave to drink to Messer
Geri and his companions. The wine seemed to them the best they had tasted
for a long, long time, and they praised it mightily, so while the ambassadors
stayed they went nearly every morning together with Messer Geri to drink.

When the time came for their departure Messer Geri gave a fine banquet, to
which he invited many of the most honourable citizens, and he also invited
Cisti, who would not go on any account. So Messer Geri ordered one of his
servants to go for a flask of Cisti’s wine, and to serve half a glass of it to
every guest during the first course. The servant, perchance angered because
he had never been able to taste of the wine, took a large double flask, and
when Cisti saw it he said: My son, Messer Geri has not sent you to me. The
servant affirmed that he had, but not being able to obtain any other reply,
returned to Messer Geri and told him. And Messer Geri said: Return, and
tell him it is so, and if he answers thee in the same fashion, ask him to
whom I send thee. The servant went and said: Of a surety, Cisti, Messer
Geri sends me to thee. Cisti answered: And I am sure, my son, it is not so.
Well then, replied the servant, to whom has he sent me? And Cisti said: To
the Arno. And when the servant brought this reply to Messer Geri the eyes
of his intellect opened and he said to the servant: Let me see what manner
of flask thou hast taken. And when he saw it he said: Cisti was right, and
scolded the man well and made him take a proper flask. When Cisti saw it
he said: Now I know Messer Geri has sent thee, and he filled it joyfully.
And on the same day he filled a small barrel with like wine and causing it to
be carried with all due care to the house of Messer Geri went there and
waited on him, saying: Messere, I would not that you should think that the
large flask of this morning alarmed me. Only it seemed to me that you had
forgotten what I said to you; that this is not everyday wine for a family, and
so I desired to remind you this day. Now as I do not wish to act as your
guardian, I have brought you all the wine to do with as you will. Messer
Geri accepted Cisti’s gift with great joy and rendered him such thanks as
were fitting, and ever after looked upon him as a friend.”
Old Dino Compagni attributes the bitter hatred between the Cerchi and
the Donati, which brought such evils upon Florence, to the direct agency of
the devil, “abettor of all ill; who so arranged that a company of youths who
were riding together after supper one evening on the calends of May,
became so full of pride that they planned to meet with a company of the
Cerchi and use fists and swords against them. On that evening, which is the
renewal of springtide, women are wont to dance with their neighbours. The
young Cerchi met the company of the Donati, amongst whom were Messer
Corso’s nephew, Baldellino de’ Bardi, Piero Spini and others, and they fell
upon the Cerchi with drawn swords. During the encounter Ricoverino de’

Cerchi had his nose cut off by one of the Donati party, said to be Piero
Spini, in whose house they afterwards all took refuge. This stroke was the
destruction of our city, because from it arose great hatred among the
citizens. The Cerchi never said who did it, waiting to take signal
vengeance.” The old chronicler goes on to describe how in 1301, when
Charles of Valois stayed in the Frescobaldi palace in Florence, they and the
Spini fortified their palaces and erected machines on their towers for
throwing stones, so that together they could command Ponte a Sta. Trinita.
Messer Manetto Scali also made warlike preparations on his palace, “so the
Spini, whose large palace was opposite his, increased their fortifications,
knowing how powerful the Scali were. Thereupon the two parties began to
try and deceive each other and mutually made friendly speeches. The Spini
said to the Scali, Now why do we act thus? After all we are friends and
relatives, and all Guelphs; and our only intent is to liberate our necks from
the chain which the people have put upon you and upon us, and then we
shall be more powerful than we are now. Therefore, by God, let us be one,
as we ought to be.”
When later there was discord in Florence because the Ghibellines
wished to send an embassy to salute the Emperor Henry VII. who was at
Pisa, and the Guelphs, with Messer Rossa della Tosa, Messer Pazzino de’
Pazzi, Messer Betto Brunelleschi and Messer Geri Spini at their head,
refused, old Dino finishes his chronicle with an outburst of indignation.
“Oh, iniquitous citizens, who have corrupted and vitiated the whole world
by evil ways and illicit gains. It is you who have introduced every bad
custom into the world, which now begins to revolt against you. The
Emperor, with his army will capture you and destroy your riches on land
and on sea.” But the Emperor soon afterwards died at Buonconvento, so
Dino’s prophecy came to nought.
Doffo Spini was killed at the battle of Montecatini in 1315, and Nepo,
his brother, was foremost among those citizens who expelled the Duke of
Athens, tyrant of Florence. In 1498 another Doffo Spini made himself
conspicuous by his virulent antagonism to Savonarola. He was the leader of
a band of young nobles who called themselves the “Compagnacci,” and
when the ordeal by fire was to take place Doffo, at the head of three
hundred well armed Compagnacci, forced his way into the Piazza della
Signoria in spite of the proclamation that armed men should not enter. Violi

tells us that Doffo Spini often went to Botticelli’s workshop “and frequently
said that they had no intention of making the Franciscan enter the fire, and
of this they had assured him; it sufficed for them that he should continue the
game long enough to enable them to carry out their intention of putting an
end to this business of the Friar.” Doffo was one of the examiners appointed
to conduct the trial of the three friars, but according to the testimony of
Simone Filipepi, Botticelli’s brother, he seems afterwards to have repented
of his persecution of Savonarola.
In 1651 the northern half of the great palace was bought by Niccolò
Guasconi, and after his death it was sold to the Da Bagnano family, from
whom the Marchese Alessandro Feroni bought it in 1768. The other half
remained in the possession of the Spini until the death of the last of the
family, leaving an only daughter married to Gugliemo Del Tovaglia. She
had no children and made Luca Domenico Pitti her heir, whose son Roberto
Pitti Spini sold his half of the palace to the Marchese Francesco Feroni in
1807. The southern façade rose straight from the bed of the Arno and the
street passed under the palace by a long archway. Room after room and
balcony after balcony overhanging the river had been built until the height
reached 60 braccie, and grave fears were entertained for the stability of the
building. So in July, 1823, that side of Palazzo Spini was taken down and
the façade thrown back to admit of the continuation of the Lung’Arno
Acciaiuoli. In 1834 the whole palace was sold to Mde. Hombert, and the
fine old building was turned into an hotel. The Commune of Florence
bought it in 1846, and some years later it was admirably restored.
In the church of Sta. Trinita is a fresco by Domenico Ghirlandajo in
which Palazzo Spini is represented as it was in the XVth century.

PALAZZO STROZZI

Piazza degl’ Strozzi, No. 4; and Via Tornabuoni.
The descent of the Strozzi family is traced like one of those old Tuscan
towns which claim Noah or Hercules as their founder by an old chronicler,
Lotto Fiesolano, who in his History of Florence says: “We cannot pass over
in silence what our ancestors have so well described and what is so worthy
to be remembered; i. e. that before the Arno was ennobled by the wonderful
walls of the Florentine city, the Strozzi already existed. They took their
origin from a noble and illustrious cavalier who sprang from the antique
89
race of Arcady, and bore as his emblem a half moon. When fighting, with
his strong hand he throttled (strozzò) his enemy. The Etruscans in
consequence renamed the family and from that famous father the Strozzi
took their name. After Fluentia was built they were made citizens of the
town, and aided by that house Fluentia enlarged her frontiers.”

PALAZZO STROZZI.

The real progenitor of the house of Strozzi was however an Ubertino
who lived early in the XIIth century. He had two sons, Strozza, and Geri
who was killed in the battle of Montaperti. Amongst the descendants of the
latter were Tito Vespasiano, and Lucia (the mother of Matteo Bojardo,

author of Orlando Innamorato), they were born at Ferrara, where their
father, an exile, had entered the service of the Duke. Tito was the favourite
pupil of Guarino Veronese, and his name as an elegant Latin poet stood so
high that Aldus Manutius collected and published his works. His son,
Ercole, was also well known as a writer of Latin verse, and only became a
convert to the use of the vulgar tongue owing to his friendship with Bembo.
He was one of the wits and scholars who formed the brilliant court of
Lucrezia Borgia after she became Duchess of Ferrara. But one June night
the poet was found dead, pierced with twenty-two wounds, and as no
judicial enquiry was made, rumour accused both the Duke and the Duchess
of the deed. Alfonso, out of jealousy of his wife, whose praises Ercole sang
in impassioned verses; Lucrezia, because her poet had recently married
Barbara, widow of Ercole Bentivoglio. Ciriaco, one of Geri’s many
descendants, travelled for some years in the East, and on his return to
Florence took his degree as Doctor of Law and opened a school for the
teaching of Greek and peripatetic philosophy. In 1535 he was invited to
teach in the University of Bologna, and afterwards Cosimo I. summoned
him to Pisa. His name, now forgotten, was once lauded to the skies for his
attempt to complete the Politics of Aristotle by writing the two lost books.
The work was published in Florence in 1563, and a translation appeared in
Paris in 1600, as well as an introduction to Aristotle’s Ethics. The gentle
fair-faced Maddalena Doni, painted by Raphael, was another descendant of
Geri Strozzi, and Caterina, the nun who left the celebrated Strozzi library to
the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1786 was the last of this line.
Strozza, son of Ubertino, who fought at Montaperti in 1260, was
among those who signed the peace between the Guelphs and the
Ghibellines. One of his sons, Pagno, was the first Gonfalonier of Justice of
sixteen of his house in 1297, when the foundations of the Palazzo Vecchio
were laid, and no less than ninety-four of the family were Priors. Lapo,
another son, Gonfalonier in 1309, was the father of Palla Strozzi, one of the
twelve ambassadors sent by different potentates to Rome to assist at the
coronation of Pope Boniface XIII. who, when he heard that they all came
90
from Florence, remarked that the Florentines were the fifth element.
Palla’s son, Francesco, distinguished himself by defeating the Pontifical
Legate, Cardinal del Poggetto, at Ferrara and was received with high
honour on his return to Florence. He filled various important posts under

the Republic, and was the ninth Gonfalonier the Strozzi gave to Florence.
From him descended the well-known Palla Strozzi, one of the great
merchant princes of Florence. In the catasto of 1427 his property was
valued at one-fifth more than that of Giovanni de’ Medici. Born in 1372, his
name is included in every embassy between 1410 and 1434 and to him
together with Coluccio de’ Salutati was due the establishment of a Greek
chair in the University of Florence. Vespasiano tells us that he sent to
Greece for countless volumes. The Lives of Plutarch, the works of Plato and
the Cosmography of Ptolemy, he got from Constantinople, while the
Politics of Aristotle were unknown in Italy until he obtained them. I cannot
do better than quote J. A. Symonds’ words about this most pathetic and
dignified figure in Florentine history. “Palla degl’ Strozzi devoted his
leisure and his energies to the improvement of the Studio Pubblico at
Florence, giving it that character of humane culture which it retained
throughout the age of the Renaissance. To him, again, belongs the glory of
having first collected books for the express purpose of founding a public
library. This project had occupied the mind of Petrarch, and its utility had
been recognized by Colluccio de’ Salutati, but no one had as yet arisen to
accomplish it. Being passionately fond of literature, Messer Palla always
kept copyists in his own house and outside it, of the best who were in
Florence, both for Greek and Latin books; and all the books he could find
he purchased, on all subjects, being minded to found a most noble library in
Santa Trinita because it was in the centre of Florence, a site of great
convenience to everybody (Vespasiano).”
During the struggle for supremacy between Rinaldo degl’Albizzi and
Cosimo de’ Medici, Palla degl’ Strozzi, “who was,” writes Machiavelli, “a
peaceful man, well-mannered and kindly, better fitted for a life of study
than for keeping a party in check and averting civil discord,” tried to
preserve a neutral attitude. But the presence of so enlightened and rich a
citizen seemed dangerous to the Medicean party, and after the return of
Cosimo de’ Medici from exile in 1434 he was banished to Padua, where he
died, separated from his children, who shared the same fate in other parts of
Italy. The wonderful bust of his daughter Marietta by “il bravo Desider si
dolce e bello,” as Raphael’s father called Desiderio da Settignano, is one of
the treasures of the Palazzo Strozzi. His cousin Matteo, married to
Alessandra Macinghi, was exiled at the same time, and the Strozzi property
having been confiscated, she was left in dire poverty with six small

children. After her husband’s death at Pesaro, she sent her eldest boy,
Filippo, to an old family friend who had a house of business in Palermo.
She must have been a lovable, courageous, and sensible woman, judging by
91
her letters. When the last boy left her she wrote to Filippo: “I have no
treasure but you my three sons, and for your welfare I have sent you from
me, one after the other, without a thought of my own happiness.” When
Filippo set up on his own account at Naples she longed to join him, but
thought it wiser to stay in Florence and work for the possible restoration of
her children to their native city. Charming are her descriptions of the
various girls she proposes to her son as suitable wives; they pass before one
like a procession out of the frescoes of the XVth century.
Of Filippo’s life at Naples, where he made a large fortune and became a
favourite with the King, who eventually obtained his recall from exile from
Lorenzo de’ Medici, we have an account by his son, who writes: “He lived
well, but not magnificently ... entertaining rarely, but when he did,
splendidly and with great ceremony, being served by the youths in his
house, who were nearly all Strozzi, as he preferred to benefit his own blood
rather than strangers. Ofttimes there were eighteen at his table, and he cared
for their honour and advancement as though they had been his sons. It can
truthfully be said that all the riches of the house of Strozzi of that time are
due to him.... Near to the city of Naples he had a Masseria, or farm ... and
he took such delight in it that he often worked with his own hands, and
gathered from it the rarest and finest fruits.... He enriched his native State
with many noble plants, introducing the ‘gentile’ fig, and artichokes, which
had never been brought to these parts [Florence] before.... In stature Filippo
was above the common, good-looking, alert, lithe and well made, fearing
neither cold nor heat, hunger nor thirst. So kind was he of heart that when
any of his partners, relations, or friends fell out (a thing that often
happened, as their number was considerable), they came to him as head of
the family, and he always reconciled them, often giving, in addition to his
time and trouble, whatever he saw was needful to facilitate peace. He
visited friends or relations in adversity or sickness, comforting and aiding
them with all necessaries, so that his presence was often of more use to such
persons than any other comfort or medicine. In short, he seemed made by
nature not less to dispense his riches usefully, than to accumulate them.”