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FLORENTINE

PALACES

AND

THEIR

STORIES

JANET
ROSS

PALAZZO ANTINORI.

Page 37.

FLORENTINE
PALACES

& THEIR STORIES

JANET ROSS

WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS
BY

ADELAIDE MARCHI

I905

LONDON

J. M. DENT & CO.

29 & 30 BEDFORD STREET, WX.

Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
bread street hill, e.c. , and
bungay, suffolk

S^^lSo

H)ebication

To Cavalierc 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

• • • • • J-

• • • • • X /

* • • • • *- w

CASTELLO D'ALTAFRONTE . . . . .22

PALAZZO ALTOVITI . . . . . . 25

PALAZZO

ACCIAIUOLI

ALBERTI .

ALBIZZI

ALESSANDRI

-•)
>>
JJ
J)

55
>5

55
55

J»
JJ
55
»

ANTELLA, DELL . . . . • 32

ANTINORI . 37

BARDI . . . . . -39

BARTOL1NI SALIMBENI .... 43

BARTOLOMMEI . . . . -47

BORGHESE . . . . . 52

BOUTURLIN . . . . . -53

BUONDELMONTI ..... 54

BUONTALENTI, DEL (OR CASINO DI S. MARCO) . 60

CANACCI i . . . . . 62

CANIGIANI . . . . . .64

CAPPONI ...... 70

CAPPONI (delle rovinate) . . . -74

CERCHI ...... 75

COCCHI , . . . . -7^

CORSI SALVIATI . . . . . 77

x LIST OF PALACES

PALAZZO CORSINI

DAVANZATI

DONATI

FERONI

RICASOLI FIRIDOLFI .

FOSSI

FRESCOBALDI .

GHERADESCA

GIANFIGLIAZZI

GINORI

GINORI CONTI

GINORI-VENTURI .

GIUGNI

GONDI

GRIFFONI

GUADAGNI

GUICCIARDINI

LARDEREL

LEONETTI

MANNELLI

MARTELLI

MONALDI .

MONTALVO, RAMIREZ DI

MOZZI

NERLI

NONFINITO

PANCIATICHI

PANDOLFINI

PAZZI

PERUZZI .

PICCOLELIS

PITTI

PAGE

87
92

105

105
108

io8

112

IT3

116

121
123
129

i33

^35

i37
142

144

146

J5i

i59
160

163

167

i75
180

182

PALAZZO

PODESTA, DEL (BARGELLO)

PUCCI

RICCARD1

RIDOLFI ,

RONDINELLI .

RUCELLAI .

SALVIATI

SAN CLEMENTE

SERRISTORI .

SODERINI

SPINI

STROZZI

STROZZINO, DELLO

STUFA, DELLA

TORRIGIANI .

UGUCCIONE

VAI

VECCHIETTI

VECCHIO

VITALI

VIVIANI

5»

XIMENES D'ARAGONA

LIST OF PALACES xi

PAGE

. 208

234

• 238
270

• 272
275

• 293
297

• 3°4
305

• 3°7
316

■ 34i
342

• 345
349

• 351
352

• 355
• • - 396

• 397
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

„ „ „ DAVANZATI ... 89

TOWER OF THE DONATI . . . . -93

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI . . . 104

„ „ ,, GIUGNI. . . . . 115

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO GONDI . . . . 117

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO GRIFFONI . . . .122

PALAZZO GUADAGNI . . . . . . 1 25

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO LARDEREL . . . -134

TOWER OF THE MANNELLI . . . . 1 39

PALAZZO MONTALVO . . . . . I48

WINDOW OF PALAZZO NERLI . . . . 1 55

CORNER OF PALAZZO NONFINITO, WITH COAT OF ARMS OF THE

STROZZI ....... 158

PALAZZO PANDOLFINI . . . . . 165

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO PAZZI . . . . 1 69

PIAZZA AND ARCO DE'PERUZZI . . 177

PALAZZO PITTI . . . . . . .183

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA (THE BARGELLO) . . . 209

235

239

277

WINDOW OF PALAZZO PUCCI ....

PALAZZI RICCARDI ......

RUCELLAI .....

SAN CLEMENTE . . . . .296

SPINI ....... 309

STROZZI . . . . . 317

UGUCCIONE ...... 348

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO VECCHIO . . . 354

FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO ACCIAIUOLI

Lung'Amo Acciaiuoli. No. 4.

In 1 109 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 knowr-
ledge," 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

2 FLORENTINE PALACES

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
13 10 at Monte GufToni 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 prin-
cipality. 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, in-
stead 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 Llun-
gary, 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

PALAZZO ACCIAIUOLI 3

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 re-
mains showing how beautiful it once was,1 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.
Niccolo 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. Niccolo 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 at-
tending 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 wras
liberal even to prodigality. Many times he risked, not
only his patrimony, but his own and his son's lives in the
1 See Flore?itine Villas, Dent and Co., 1902.

4 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Accia-
iuoli 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 wth pictures and fine
statues, and among them are the twelve Emperors by
Giambologna, of such beauty that they are admired be-
yond 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 pro-
duced and what good condition it is in. Above, and still
farther back is yet another terrace, more than thirty

PALAZZO ACCIAIUOLI 5

braccia from the ground and the view thence is so beauti-
ful 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 highly praised for their execution and their admirable
likenesses." x

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 grand-
father's love of letters, and when ambassador to France

1 Le Bellezze della Citta di Fiorenza. Scritte da M. Francesco Bocchi
In Fiorenza. MDXCI.

6 FLORENTINE PALACES

presented King Louis XL with the lives of Charle-
magne, Scipio and Hannibal, written by himself. He
also wrote commentaries on Aristotle's Ethics, Poli-
tics 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 pru-
dent 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 mar-
riage 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

TOWER OF THE ALBERTI.

PALAZZO ALBERT1 9

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 Cardi-
nal. He thereupon made formal application to the
Republic to deliver up Acciaiuoli and his wife on the plea
of Use majeste. They fled, but were followed by his
emissaries and taken into custody at Trent disguised as
friars. Ruberto Acciaiuoli was condemned to imprison-
ment 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 mitigat-
ing the severity of her husband's sentence she chose the
former, and died of grief a few months later.

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 Cafe delle Colonnine, which in the
XVth century was the workshop of Niccolo 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

io FLORENTINE PALACES

the facade 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 XII Ith 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 Niccolo 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
alia 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 Podesta and set Giovanni di
Cambio free, the Signori thought it was time, as Machia-

PALAZZO ALBERTI n

velli 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 Niccolo). 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 dis-
pleasure. " Therefore the heads of the State," continues
Machiavelli, " feared him, esteeming him one of the
friends of the people, and thinking he had acqui-
esced 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 caparis-
oned 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 Maga-
lotti, Benedetto's son-in-law, was drawn from the horse
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

12 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 perse-
cuted. Benedetto's sons were despoiled of their posses-
sions and two were sentenced to be beheaded if they fell
into the hands of the Podesta. 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 lined, 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 to-
gether 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

PALAZZO ALBERTI 13

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
Italv when a man was courteous and well-bred, such a
one is as though born and brought up among the Alberti.
. . . Thev were merchants, trafficking in noble and honest
merchandize, and no pedlars; dealing in France and Eng-
land in cloth and wool, as do the highest and the worthiest
men of the citv, an occupation that is good and honour-
able and he that engages in it is well-considered and
respected in the land." * The Alberti had houses of busi-
ness 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 davs 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, scat-
tered over the face of the earth and far from home and
friends, their jov must have been great, when Cosimo de'
Medici on his return to power in 1434 recalled them to
Florence. Bv his influence Alberto Alberti was created a
cardinal, and their name appears constantly in the magis-
trature under the Medici.

Lorenzo Alberti, son of Benedetto, seems to have estab-
lished himself for a time at Genoa where Leon Battista
was born, probably in 1404 (some sfive 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
142 1, as the relations in whose charge he and his brother

1 Ot>sre Volgare dl Leon Bzttista Alberti. Anicio Bonucci. Firenze.
i843-

i4 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 pro-
fession. He invented several mechanical instruments, the"
Reticola de' dipintori, the Bolide Albertiana and the
Camera optica, a precursor of the Camera obscura.1 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.
V 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 delta
Famiglia. Professors Alessandro d'Ancona and Orazio
Bacci, in their admirable manual of Italian literature2
write : "It may be considered as definitely proved that
the Governo della Famiglia " (as it is usually called) " is

1 See Preface to Oftere Volgare di L. B. Alberti. A. Bonucci.

2 Manuale di Lctteratitra Italia,7ia. Compilato dai Professori Ales-
sandro d'Ancona e Orazio Bacci. Vol. ii p. 75. Firenze. G. Barbera.
1904.

PALAZZO ALBERTI 15

nothing more than a travestied and altered copy, often
not to its advantage, of the third book of the Famiglia
written about 1460." * Alberti was a strenuous advocate
for writing in Italian ; " I admit willingly," he says, M 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.

M He indeed might serve," writes Symonds, " as the
very type of those many-sided, precocious and comprehen-
sive 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

1 This is not the place to enter more fully into the subject ; the reader
can consult J. A. Symonds' Renaissance in Italy ; the Manuale quoted
above ; G. S. Scipioni, L. B. Alberti e A. Pajidolfini; V. Cortesi, men-
tioned in the text ; G. Mancini, Vita di L. B. Alberti ; the Arch. Stor.
Ital. serie iv. xix ; A. Bonucci, Opere Volgare di L.B. Alberti j and many
others.

16 FLORENTINE PALACES

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
architect." 1

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 degl'
Alberti, described in one of Giovanni da Prato's tales.2
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.

1 Renaissance in Italy. J. A. Symonds. Vol. ii, p. 247. Smith Elder
and Co. 1897.

2 See Paradiso degl' 'Alberti Edito da A. Wesselofsky. Bologna . 1 86 7.

PALAZZO ALBIZZI 17

PALAZZO ALBIZZI

Borgo degV 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 Ghibel-
line 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 Cap-
tains of the Guelph party, proposing at the same time that
all who professed themselves Ghibellines should be ad-
monished, 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 power-
ful when the old system of government was revived in
1381. According to Passerini it was to the wise adminis-
tration 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

18 FLORENTINE PALACES

Florentine University, the basis of the literary
glory afterwards culled by the Medici family. The
wars against the Visconti were prosecuted with con-
stancy and without losses ; indeed the state was enlarged,
a thing which could not have happened amid such conflict-
ing opinions as then reigned in Florence, if the man at the.
head of 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 Niccol6 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," wTrites Machiavelli, " in Florence,
widowed of a citizen so great and so universally beloved,
everyone was confounded. Conquerors as well as con-
quered 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 govern-
ment, occupied with private quarrels and enmities, became
futile and uncertain. In September the following year,

1 Marietta de> Ricci. Di A. Ademollo. Con correzione e aggiunte di
Luigi Passerini. Vol. ii, p. 697. Firenze. 1845.

PALAZZO ALBIZZI 19

a Signoria devoted to the Medici was elected, and Rinaldo
degl'Albizzi urged his party to take up arms. Where-
upon 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'AIedici, 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 banish-
ment 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

20 FLORENTINE PALACES

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, think-
ing 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 facade. 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

PALAZZO ALESSANDRI 21

him Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1439 the Emperor
Paleologus bestowed the title of Count on one of the Ales-
sandri 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 sup-
ported 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 " II 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.
11 After dinner when midday had passed and every-
one 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 re-
joicing. 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

22 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Com-
mune. 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 beautiful, and of the value
of 600 florins or even more." *

The old palace is still inhabited by the Counts Ales-
sandri.

CASTELLO D'ALTAFRONTE

Piazza de'Giudicci. No. 1.

In 1 180 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 Scherag-
gio, 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 ter-

1 Istoria di Fire?izc. Di Goro Dati. DalP anno MCCCLXXX all'
anno MCCCCV. con Annotazione. In Firenze MDCCXXXV. Nella
Stamperia di Giuseppe Marmi.

CASTELLO D'ALTAFRONTE 23

rible 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 Alta-
fronte, three towers and the Porta d'Arno.1 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

1 This gate, which was on the bank of the river, was destroyed in i860.
At the same time foundations of massive stone walls were discovered, and
the ancient pavement of the city was found far below the present level.

24 FLORENTINE PALACES

their facades, 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 25

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 Dicci di Guerra, and thrice Gonfalonier. One of his sons,
Niccolo, devoted to the Medici, was elected to the most im-
portant offices under the Republic. Francesco, his grand-
son, four times Gonfalonier of Justice and ambassador to
various foreign powers, was killed in 1498 when Savona-
rola, 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 Ales-
andro. Being, as Varchi writes, "of an unquiet, pro-
digal, 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 Com-
missary-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

26 FLORENTINE PALACES

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
riches.' " l Niccolo Valori, member of the Platonic Acad-
emy, was Commissary at Pistoja in 1501, and soon after-
wards 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

1 Storie Fiorenti?ic di Messer Bernardo Scgni. Dall' Anno MDXXVII
al MDLV. In Augusta. MDCCXX1II.

PALAZZO ALTOVITI 27

headman's axe, was a man of vast culture and a distin-
guished lawyer. He enlarged the old palace and collected
a magnificent library. In a vellum bound booklet, beau-
tifully 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. Anto-
nino, 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 facade 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'ltalia), 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 fres-
coed 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

28 FLORENTINE PALACES

Florentine Jucco, 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 1 154, when Corbizzo, son of Gollo,
bought a house and a tower in the suburb of S. Niccol6.
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 con-
tested by the Prior of the church, who challenged Davan-
zato to decide the question by a duel ; however Honorius
III. interposed and by a decree addressed to the Podesta
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 by the Ghibellines.1
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

1 Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia AUoviii. Luigi Passerini. Firenze.
1871.

PALAZZO ALTOVITI 29

the internecine war between the Guelphs and the Ghibel-
lines. Oddo degl'Altoviti took an active part in the trans-
actions 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 Ghibel-
lines, 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
who injured a plebeian.1 Palmiere was one of the com-
panions 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 magis-
trates 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.

1 See Storia Politico, dei Municipii Italiani. Paolo Emiliani-Giudicci.
Firenze. 1851.

3o FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Cellini modelled
and cast his bust in bronze,1 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 interven-
tion 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
1 Now in the collection of Mrs. Gardiner, Fenway Court, Boston.

. PALAZZO ALTOVITI 31

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 guard-
ians, 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 refec-
tion 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 pre-
pared by the Abbess, which he took away to his own
palace next day.1

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,

1 De Ingressn Antonnii Altovitae Archiepiscopi Florentine, Historico
Descripto Incerti Auctoris. Dominicus Morenius. Florentiae.
MDCCCXV.

32 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Niccol6 dell'Antella, who commissioned
thirteen artists to fresco the facade.1 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 Niccol6; and a
Cupid asleep with a swan. The whole facade 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 drawrn
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, sur-
named il Puro in the Academia degl'Alterati,2 it marks

1 Domenico Passignani, Matteo Rosselli, Ottavio Vannini, Giovanni da
San Giovanni, Fabbrizio Boschi, Michelangelo Cinagelli, Niccodemo
Ferrucci, Andrea del Bello, Michele Buffini, Ton Guerricci, Filippo
Tarchiani, Cosimo Milanesi and Stefano da Quinto.

2 See Memorie del Calcio Florentine). Tratte da diverse Scritture e
dedicate all' Altezze Serenissime di Ferdinando, Principe di Toscana e
Violante Beatrice di Baviera. Firenze. 1688.

PALAZZO DELL'ANTELLA 33

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 miiro, 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,'1
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

34 FLORENTINE PALACES

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, hand-
some, 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 sug-
gests that the great English Condottiere, Sir John Hawk-
wood, 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 Com-

PALAZZO DELL'ANTELLA 35

modus, and that it has existed in Italy from time im-
memorial.

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 Mag-
nificent held the lists against all comers, " great was the
concourse of jousters," writes Niccol6 Valori, "the mag-
nificence 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

6 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Delia
Stufa. It now belongs to Signor Mariani.

PALAZZO ANTINORI 37

PALAZZO ANTINORI

Piazza S. Gaetano. No. 3.

In 1490 Niccold 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'Anti-
nori was the first of twenty-three Priors of his house in
135 1. His eldest great-nephew, Niccol6, bought the Boni
palace, while the second, Bernardo, was the founder of
another branch of the family whose palace is in Via
de'Serragli. Niccolo 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 15 13, 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

8 FLORENTINE PALACES

augmented the family wealth, and his descendants filled
many important posts under the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.1
This fine palace still belongs to the Antinori family.

1 Marietta de Ricci. A. Ademollo. 2 A edizione con correzione e ag-
giunte per cura di Luigi Passerini. Vol. iv. p. 1303. Firenze. 1845.

PALAZZO BARDI 39

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 1 1 12. 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 Monta-
perti, was exiled with the rest of his party by the victorious
Ghibellines, and his nephew Roberto, wTho 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 citi-

4o FLORENTINE PALACES

zens of Florence, and aroused such jealousy by his riches,
valour and remarkable personal beauty, that he was ex-
cluded 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 inter-
vention of the Podesta, 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

PALAZZO BARDI 41

over the bridge, and joined those of the Oltrarno and
furiously atacked 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 Yieri
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. Niccolo, 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

42 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 descend-
ants. 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 con-
fidant 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 mis-
tress 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 sur-
rounded by an arcade. The windows of the second floor
are untouched, but the mural paintings (graffite) on the
facade, 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 43

PALAZZO BARTOLINI SALIMBENI

Piazza Sta. Trinita. No. 8.

In 15 16 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 152 1. 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

44 FLORENTINE PALACES

for the festivals, saying that it was more like the facade 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 facade,
so that nothing could be worse, and all for lack of know-
ledge; it looks like a large hat on a small head." How-
ever he admits that " nevertheless the building has always
been much praised." It has also been imitated, for the
palace of the Due 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.

In 1868 the palace was sold to Prince Ercole Pio di
Savoia; whose daughters still own it, and many readers

PALAZZO BARTOLINI SALIMBENI. PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI. CORNER

OF PALAZZO SPINI.

PALAZZO BARTOLOMMEI 47

will doubtless remember it as the old Hotel 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 familv of the Gherardini had been
incorporated, was bought in 1640 by Anton Maria Bartolom-
mei, and to it was added, according to an entry in the
catasto, " in 1824 a building, called the tower of the Giro-
lami, 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 Sigis-

48 FLORENTINE PALACES

mondo 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 Italy.1

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 13 15, 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
XHIth century, and was the progenitor of the great family
of the Fitzgeralds.3

The Girolami whose tower adjoins that of the Gherardini

1 For an account of the Marquess F. Bartolommei and the bloodless
Florentine revolution, see II Rivolgi?ne?ito Toscano e VAzione Popolare,
by his daughter Signora Matilda Gioli. Firenze. 1905.

2 Marietta de'Ricci, di A. Ademollo. 2 A edizione con correzzioni e
aggiunte per cura di Luigi Passerini. Vol. v., p. 1850. Firenze. 1845.

TOWERS OF THE GIROLAMI AND OF THE GHERARDINI.

PALAZZO BARTOLOMMEI 51

claimed S. Zenobius, Bishop of Florence in the Vlth
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 blow-
ing 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 XL 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 com-
muted at the request of Don Ferrante Gonzaga to imprison-
ment 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.

52 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO BORGHESE

Via Ghibcllina. No. no.

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 XHIth 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 im-
prisoned for debt as a partner of the Buonaccorsi, whose
bank was ruined bv the failure of the Bardi. His delightful
Cronica, picturesque, pure and elegant in style, and won-
derfully 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 Florentice, 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 53

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 Pon-
sacco and Camugliano, with remainder to collateral rela-
tions 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

54 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 de-
scendants still own it. In 1854 tne facade 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 1 135 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 LTguccione, 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

PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI 55

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 Gual-
drada, 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 ioth 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

56 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 earnest. But so was doom'd :
Florence ! on that maimed stone which guards the bridge,
The victim, when thy peace departed, fell."

Par. Canto xvi., Carfs trans.

11 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 Osscrvatore Fiorentino the story
is told as follows. " Ippolito Buondelmonti, one of the

PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI 57

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.

11 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

58 FLORENTINE PALACES

Bargello, or head of the police, with his guard, came
down the street from S. Niccolo. 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
Podesta. To shield Dianora he declared that he had in-
tended first to rob and then set fire to the palace of the
enemy of his house. The Podesta 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 Podesta, 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 Buondel-
monti, which extended from the Piazza Sta. Trinita some
way down the Borgo S.S. Apostoli, were destroyed. The
facade of the present palace, whch 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 sub-

PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI 59

jects from the life of Pippo Spano,1 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 Podesta 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

1 Vasari erroneously says, from the Life of Alexander the Great, Pippo
Spano, or to give him his proper name, Filippo Scolari, was related to
the Buondelmonti (see p. 54). King Sigismund of Hungary discovered
the extraordinary military genius of the Tuscan merchant, and made him
Captain-General of his army. He beat the Turks in twenty pitched
battles, and died in 1426. His tomb existed in the royal mausoleum at
Albareale until destroyed by the Turks in 1543.

60 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 opened and well restored.1
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 pay-
ment of this sum he ceded to the Duke his house adjoining
the Orti Medicei.

1 See Bulletino dclPAssociazio?ie per la Difesa di Firenze. A?itica.
4a Fascicolo, 1904.

PALAZZO DEL BUONTALENTI 61

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 incor-
porated with it. The Grand Duke left the palace to Don
Antonio, his supposed son by Bianca Cappello, and Fer-
dinando 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 several of the Prince's letters to him.1 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 bodvsruard 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.

1 Don Anto?rio de'Medici al Casino di San Marco and 77 Casino di San
Marco. P. F. Covoni, 1892.

62 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO CANACCI

Piazza S. Biagio. No. 3.

The Canacci came originally from S. Stefano ad
Ugnano, and took their name from a certain Lapo sur-
named 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 person-
age 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

PALAZZO CANACCI 63

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 in-
creasing the ire of the Duchess and ensuring her own ruin.
The Duke's love grew every day, and the Duchess deter-
mined to cut the thread. Rumour has it that she tried to
poison Caterina, but failed, and determined to take ven-
geance in another way. She sent for the brothers Barto-
lomeo 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 con-
sideration 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

64 FLORENTINE PALACES

carried into a carriage. Parts of the bodies were thrown
into a well, others into the Arno, where they were found
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 be-
headed, while the real assassin, the Duchess, went un-
punished, and ends with the reflection, " Whoso fore-
gathers with great people is the last at 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

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PALAZZO CANIGIANI 67

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 after-
wards rebuilt and made into one house.

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 men-
tioned 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 Ber-
nardo, 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 in-
scription 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

68 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Cardel-
lino, 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 Cam-
piglio 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

PALAZZO CANIGIANI 69

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 facade
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 re-
mained 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. Baldi-
nucci 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.

7o FLORENTINE PALACES

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
Firense 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 1 2 16, 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 ac-
complished 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 would go naked rather than not
conquer Pisa."1 In March the following year he and

1 Comment arj di Gino Capponi dclP Acquisto ovvero Preset di Pisa.
Vol, 18, Script. Rer. Ital,

PALAZZO CAPPONI 71

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 muni-
ficence 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 mis-
sions. In 1494 he sent him as Commissary of the Re-
public 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 him-
self 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

72 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Niccol6 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, Niccolo
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. Niccolo 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 conse-
quence. In spite of many intrigues he was re-elected Gon-
falonier 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 danger-

PALAZZO CAPPONI 73

ous, fifteen citizens of the greater and five of the lesser
Guilds were added to the Great Council." They were called
the Arroti alia 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 com-
municate with the Pope. Capponi tendered his resigna-
tion, 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
Niccolo 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 Niccol6'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

74 FLORENTINE PALACES

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,
Niccolo Capponi lay down and died, as the old chroniclers
tell us, of grief and despair, in the small village of Castel-
nuovo, 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 Niccol6 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. Niccol6 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 Niccol6 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 des-
cendant Count Luigi Capponi. The surname of " delle

PALAZZO CERCHI 75

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'Ci-
matori. 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 Niccolo
Gentile and Borrigiano and all were knights of the Golden
Spur." x Vieri de'Cerchi was the great antagonist of

1 Istoriadelle Famiglie Fiorenti?ie. Scritta nell' anno 1607 da Piero di
Giovanni Monaldi Cittadino Fiorentino. Tomo Unico. Al Sermo :

76 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 inhabit-
ants of the quarter of Sta. Croce in 1328, and his descend-
ants, 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 de'Cocchi.1 These jambs are supposed by some to be

Ferdinando Gran Duca di Toscana, con l'aggiunta di Monsre. Sommai,
sino all' anno 1620.

1 Raccolta Delle Migliori Fabbriche A?itiche e Modertie di Fire?ize.
Disegnate e Uescritte da R. ed E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo. Architetti.
Firenze. G. Ferroni, 1S76.

PALAZZO CORSI SALVIATI 77

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 RafTaello del Bianco on
the site of other houses and of the ancient loggia de'Risaliti.
In the XVI Ith 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 Delia Seta of Pisa.

PALAZZO CORSI SALVIATI (now VISCONTI

ARCOxNATI)

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 XlVth 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

78 FLORENTINE PALACES

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
of the chapel wherein she was buried." 1 Giovanni after-
wards 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 i486
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 old, to Vincenzio Torna-
quinci, who fortunately noted down his words.3 Gio-
vanni 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 has often been blindly copied without
verifying the dates.3 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.

1 Vasari calls him Francesco Tornabuoni. For a full account of the
much vexed question of this monument see Verrocchio. M. Cruttwell,
Duckworth & Co., London, 1904.

2 Vasari, Vol. III., p. 266 note ; and Manni. Sigilli, xviii., 131.

3 See Archivio Storico Italiano, Serie V., Tom. VI. Giovanna
Tornabuo?ii e Ginevra de? Benci. Dispensa 6a del 1890, p. 432.

PALAZZO CORSI SALVIATI 79

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
i486 — 1490. The beautiful maiden is Giovanni Torna-
buoni's daughter-in-law, the lovely and accomplished
Giovanna degl'Albizzi, whose marriage to Lorenzo Torna-
buoni was celebrated with such pomp in Florence in i486.
Two years later Niccolo 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 Niccolo 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 Niccolo 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

80 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Niccol6 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, Niccol6,
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 Dafnc, 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

PALAZZO CORSINI 81

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 161 7 bought the feudal estate of Cajazzo,
when Philip of Spain created him a Marquess with
remainder to his nephews, the sons of Jacopo, who pur-
chased 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 facade 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 facade 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 facades.

82 FLORENTINE PALACES

Neri, father of Bonacolto, from whose son Corsini the
family took their name, came from Poggibonsi in the
XHIth century, writes the family historian Matteo. The
ancient house in the Via Maggio, in which S. Andrea Cor-
sini 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 Tom-
maso, 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 suc-
cessful 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 as
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, leav-
ing a large fortune to his sons. They erected in the ad-
joining 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 en-
gaging 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

PALAZZO CORSINI 83

Gregory XL, 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 132 1, 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 de-
vastated 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 facade, 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,

84 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Died 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 incor-
porated in the large Corsini palace, where the Cardinal
Giovan Carlo de'Medici had a private theatre, and used to

PALAZZO CORSINI 85

hold most unclerical orgies. The Grand Duke Ferdinando
II. created him a Senator, and in 1644 made his son Barto-
lommeo 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 pontifi-
cate by dismissing Cardinal Coscia, the venal favourite
of his predecessor, by reforming the administration of
justice, and by replacing the debased currency by an emis-
sion of new coin. He founded the gallery of the Campi-
doglio, restored the Vatican, and built the fountain of
Trevi, the facades of S. Giovanni de'Fiorentini, S. Gio-
vanni 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 am-
bassador, " 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 sum-
moned to Rome. Bartolommeo was created Prince of
Sismano, Duke of Casigliano, and Captain-General of the
Papal Guards; he identified himself entirely with the

86 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 influ-
ence 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 indigna-
tion 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 Oueen 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

PALAZZO DAVANZATI 87

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 Con-
gress 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 de-
voted 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 dis-
trust 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 Ross a. 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,

88 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 XlVth
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. Niccolo Davanzati founded the beautiful con-
vent of Doccia on the slopes of Fiesole in 1413,1 and he
probably also built this fine palace.

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 Niccolo, " 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 Eu genii III. D. Julianus Davanzati eques in-
scribed below the coat-of-arms. Three of the family —
Giovanni, who fought at Poppi against the Prince of
1 Now a villa, belonging to Mr. Cannon.

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO DAVANZATI.

PALAZZO DAVANZATI 91

Orange in 1529, his brother Piero, who was one of the
Two Hundred in 1532, and Antonfrancesco, son of Giuli-
ano, 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 unculti-
vated 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 Davan-
zati 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
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, Delia Moneta, another on Tuscan agriculture,
and a history of the separation of England from the Church
of Rome, Storia della Scisma. " He was,' writes Fran-
cesco 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;

1 Lasca. Rime, Vol. 1., p. 113.

g2 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 them-
selves, though they are of small account. Besides Latin,
he knew Greek, and was a good arithmetician ; his judg-
ment 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

— <^U ' ~~^-~A'.Mv'tki

TOWER OF THE DONATI.

PALAZZO DONATI 95

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 Mag-
giore 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'Cer-
chi. " The Priors and other good citizens," writes Machia-
velli, " 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 wrere
unable to cope. The Holy Father sent for Messer Vieri,
and commanded him to make peace with the Donati. At
this he expresed 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 hap-
pened 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

96 FLORENTINE PALACES

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."

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 Gab-
brielli, one of his adherents, Podesta. Proscriptions com-
menced, 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 author-
ity 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 Faggi-

PALAZZO DONATI 97

uola, 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, Cap-
tain 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 assail-
ants, 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,

98 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 com-
plexion ; 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,

PALAZZO RICASOLI F1RIDOLFI 99

and had dealings with Holland, where his grandson Fran-
cesco Feroni made a large fortune. Prince Cosimo de'Me-
dici 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 descend-
ants, one of whom bought several houses in Via de'Ser^
ragli, 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 dif-
ferent 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

ioo FLORENTINE PALACES

one. Divided in the Xllth 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 Vlth 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 Em-
peror Otho IV., who increased the privileges bestowed by
former emperors, and in 1230 he was elected Podesta of
Siena. From his sons Ranieri and Ugo descended the
Ricasoli di Meleto of Ponte alia Carraja, and the great

PALAZZO RICASOLI FIRIDOLFI 101

baronial family. Ugo fought in the Guelph ranks at Mon-
taperti, 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 Podesta, and Car-
dinal 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
passage under the street.1 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
Pooe as Leo X., he summoned another Ricasoli, Antonio,
to direct the iniquitous war which despoiled the Delia
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,
1 Le Bellezze della Citta de Firenze. Cinelli, 1677.

102 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Monte-
murlo 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 Guicci-
arda and Sagona, which the Florentine Republic had con-
fiscated 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 building the
fortifications that one of the forts was named after him.1

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. " II 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.

1 Ge?iealogia e Storia della famiglia Ricasoli. Luigi Passerini.
Firenze, 1861.

1 V.f?if

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* , .1 *

-HttOTO "^CCw^X^.

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI.

PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI 105

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 facade, 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.

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'Fresco-
baldi. Opposite to the latter stood one of their towrers and
their loggia, of which a capital remains built into the wall
of a small house. Another tower was near the church of

106 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 facade 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

PALAZZO FRESCOBALDI 107

family who were not beheaded or imprisoned, were
banished.

There must also be mentioned the poet Dino de'Fresco-
baldi, 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,
iand 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
jGavinana. Bartolomeo was so ardent a republican that
he withdrew from the world when the Medici attained to
ipower, 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.

io8 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 i486. 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 Tomabuoni. 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'x^rno Corsini and the Via Tornabuoni.

PALAZZO GIANFIGLIAZZI 109

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
facade, 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
facade. 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.

no FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Calen-
zano, 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 Gon-
falonier of five of his house in 1423, was an im-
portant 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

PALAZZO GINORI m

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 juvat." 1 Fede-
rigo 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 Europe.2 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.

1 The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by John Adclington Symonds,
Vol. i, p. 113, 2nd edition. John C. Nimmo, London.

2 Marietta de Ricci. Opus cit.

ii2 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO GINORI CONTI

Via Cavonr. 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 facades 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 161 1, 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

PALAZZO GINORI-VENTURI 113

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 Ales-
sandro. . . . 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 build on the site as they pleased, and this
Ferdinando did.1 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 cele-
brated 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

1 See Miscellanea Florentina. II Chiasso del Traditorc, etc. Anno I
No. 12. 1886.

U4 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Rosmtmda 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 dis-
covered, 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 Rucel-
lai 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 won-
derful entertainment to the Grand Duke Francesco I., her
lover, is curious reading.1 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.

1 Cello Malesftlna, Part II. Novella 24.

PALAZZO GIUGNI

ii5

PALAZZO GIUGNI
Via degl'Alfani.

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 pro-
perty was to go to the
descendants of his brother
Carlo, and failing them,
to those of his daughter
Virginia, married to Vin-
cenzio Giugni. None of
his sons had any children,
so in 1640 the palace came
into the possession of his
Giugni grandchildren.
The Giugni claimed de-
scent 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, doorway of palazzo giugni.

u6 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Niccolo, 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 Cittd 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 facade. 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 Xllth century near Sta. Maria degrUghi, 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

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO GONDI.

PALAZZO GONDI 119

creditor in 1324, and a few years later that of his son
Simone, who solemnly swore allegiance to the Guelph
party in 135 1 . 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 grand-
son, 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 i^SSJiis 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 mag-
nificent palace was finished.

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 Hotel 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 Conde.
He also built a palace in Florence near Sta. Maria Mag-
giore, which was sold to the Orlandini. Another Gondi,
Alberto, married the gouvemante 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.

i2o FLORENTINE PALACES

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 re-
ceived the Order of St. Esprit. In 1584 he was created Due
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 Due 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 Francois 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 Abbot
of St. Denis, where he wrote his well-known memoirs.1

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,"
wTrites Vasari, " that naught like it had been seen before,
nor one wTith so many figures." The old Roman statue in

1 For a full account of the Gondi family see Histoi7'e Genealogique de
la Maiso?i de Go/id/, par M. de Corbinelli, a Paris chez Jean-Baptiste
Coignard, Rue St. Jaques, MDCCV. 2 Vols.

PALAZZO GRIFFONI 121

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 de-
scendant and namesake of Giuliano de'Gondi, and by
special grace he was allowed by the Grand Duke Fer-
dinando 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 facade was admirably rebuilt. The palace still
belongs to the Gondi family.

PALAZZO GRIFFONI (now GATTAI-BUDINI)

Via de'Servi. No. 57.

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 en-
veloped 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

122

FLORENTINE PALACES

A Mir'l"

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 Griff-
oni, secretary to Ramaz-
zotto, the confidential ad-
viser of Cosimo I., held,
among other rich bene-
fices, 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 Bar-
tolomeo Ammannati as
his architect, and the con-
tract between them of 4th
September 1563 still ex-
ists in the State archives.1
Ten years later the marble
coat -of -arms, which is
now on the facade 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 Bellezse della Cittd di Firenzc,
11 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

1 See Raccolta delle Migliori Fabbriche A?itichc c Moderne di Fircnze.
Disegnate e Descritte da R. ed E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo. Architetti.
Firenze. G. Ferroni, 1876.

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO GRIFFONI.

PALAZZO GUADAGNI 123

he states that the architect was Giuliano di BacciocTAgnolo.
This is impossible, as Giuliano died two years before Ugo-
lino 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 Ric-
cardi). 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 re-
mained of the beautiful friezes; the stone-work of the win-
dows 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 facade and were destroy-
ing 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
Niccolo Grosso, surnamed il Caparra.

I24 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 con-
temporary 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
Buonuomini 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.

Progenitor of the Guadagni, according to Passerini,1
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 alia
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

1 Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Guadagni. L. Passerini.
Firenze, 1873.

PALAZZO GUADAGNI 127

the old Porta a Balla, was let to Antonio Orsi, the warlike
Bishop of Florence.

The Guadagni seem to have been a hot-headed, quarrel-
some 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 be-
headed. The curious thing is that twenty-two years later
he was again condemned to death as a rebel, and the sen-
tence 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 pro-
verbial saying in Lyons, where he built a magnificent

128 FLORENTINE PALACES

hospital and a fine house in the street named after him.
He left his money and many domains to his nephew and j
namesake, whose descendants became French citizens with
French titles, Conte de Verdun, Baron de Beauregard, de I
Champeroux, etc.

Jacopo, a nephew of Tommaso, remained in Italy, and
bowed his neck to the yoke of the Medici. He was made I
a Senator in 1561 by Cosimo I. and occupied himself, as I
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 antiqui- 1
ties, which became famous in the XVIIIth century and in
the beginning of the XlXth, after his father had bought
the splendid old palace of the Dei. Ortensia Guadagni J
married a nephew of Pope Leo XL and after his death
became lady-in-waiting to Vittoria della Rovere, Grand
Duchess of Tuscany, whose education she had superin-
tended. Created a Marchioness in her own right, an un-
heard-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. Lie 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 L, 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,

PALAZZO GUICCIARDINI 129

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 Xllth 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 wTas 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 Podesta of Fermo in
J435> captured Antonio Guadagni, the great enemy of the

130 FLORENTINE PALACES

Medici, and sent him to Florence, where he was beheaded.
Some years later Francesco Sforza made Luigi Podesta 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 Niccol6
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.
Niccol6 was in danger of losing his head after the capitul-
ation of Florence, as he had been one of the most active
of the Died di Guerra who conducted the defence.
His son Braccio, taken prisoner at Montemurlo, was con-
demned to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Volterra.
The celebrated historian Francesco Guicciardini, nephew
to Niccol6, 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 15 13 Leo X. came to Florence,
and discerning the ability of Francesco Guicciardini ap-
pointed 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

PALAZZO GUICCIARDINI 131

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 Fran-
cesco 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 bv one with such con-
tempt . . . that the exiles styled him Messer Cerrettieri."1
He won the cause and Alessandro returned to Florence
as absolute ruler. After the murder of the Duke, Guicci-
ardini 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 dis-
missed 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 show that he was but an instrument of the
Republic." 2 He spent the last year of his life in writing

1 Cerrettiere Bisdomini, the infamous counsellor of the Duke of Athens,
who was torn to pieces by the people in the Piazza della Signoria.

2 See Apologia d£ Cappucci. Archivio Storico, Vol. IV. part II. p. 329.

n2 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 unbe-
coming to a well-bred and modest man." For an analysis
of Guicciardini's masterly Istoria d'ltalia and Opere
Inedite, I cannot do better than refer my readers to J. A.
Symonds' brilliant pages in the first volume of his Renais-
sance 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 13;

PALAZZO LARDEREL

Via Tornabuoni. No. 19.

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 Dicci 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 for-
tunate in trade, as Settimanni notes in his Diary, " on

134

FLORENTINE PALACES

the ioth October, 1580,
the beautiful house of
the Giacomini at S. Mi-
chele degl' Antinori was
begun." It is curious
that neither he nor any
other contemporary writer
gives the name of the
architect of the " Pala-
getto degl' Giacomini,"
as the Florentines lov-
ingly 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 Gia-
comini, in 1764, who left
it to his widow for life
and then to the Michel-
ozzi 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.

mmwammmm^Bmwmm

DOORWAY OF PALAZZO LARDEREL.

PALAZZO LEONETTI 135

PALAZZO LEOXETTI (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 op-
posed 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 re-
mained 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 Floren-
tines took such interest in the lovers that a crowd alwavs
assembled to watch the stolen glances they exchanged.

136 FLORENTINE PALACES

The Duchess was touched by the unhappiness and con-
stancy 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 families.1

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
1 All these decorations have disappeared.

PALAZZO MANNELLI 137

of faithful love; although as Signor Iodico Del Badia
remarks, nothing in the facade recalls his style.1 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 Xllth 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

1 See Raccolte delle Migliori Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze.
Opus cit,

i38 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 XlVth
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 Buono-
mini, 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 I
that his friend Francesco was not endowed with the pen of
a Boswell, to have preserved for us the personality of Gio-

A.#*«1h I)

TOWER OF THE MANNELLI.

PALAZZO MANNELLI 141

vanni 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 cogno-
minato Principe Galeotto, Scripto per me Francesco
d'Amaretto Mannelli di 13 d'Agosto 1384. Deo sit laus
et gloria, in ecternum ad honor em egregi Simacu Spinis
et beneplacitum, et mandatum.

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, 143 1, but the wind was un-
favourable 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

142 FLORENTINE PALACES

his descendants, Filippo, a canon of the cathedral, dis-
graced 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 destruc-
tion, 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 that every
one was master of his own." l 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 XlVth century,
and from him thev took their name. From what Migliore
writes, their houses were in Via degl' Spadai (of the ar-
mourers), but as they became more numerous and powerful
the name of the street was changed to Via de'Martelli.2

1 Ricordi intorno ai costumi, azione e governo del Serem'ssi'mo Gran
Duca Cosimo.

2 Firenze, Citta, Nobilissima. Illustrata da Ferdinando L. del Mig-
liore. In Firenze. MDCLXXXIV.

PALAZZO MARTELLI 143

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 ad-
herents of the Medici to turn against them when Piero
fled the city. He then became one of the Died di Gnerra,
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 Tiillia 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

144 FLORENTINE PALACES

Poggio Imperiale in the presence of the Prince of Orange
in 1530, so minutely described by Varchi.1 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 Fran-
cesco, who inherited the crueltv 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

1 See Florentine Villas, pp. 42-44. Dent. London, 1902.

PALAZZO MONALDI 145

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 de-
scendants 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 men-
tioned 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 opposi-
tion to the people; so that when in 1378 the mob became
masters, our family was admonished and condemned; Li-
pozzo di Mangieri, who was then Podesta of Terra Nuova,
being exiled together with his sons. When the recall of the
exiles wTas 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 Ghibel-
lines in 1280. L^go, knight of the Golden Spur, was cap-

146 FLORENTINE PALACES

tain of the cavalry of the King of Hungary, and is men-
tioned 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 : Hie 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 by the King of
England to Giovanni Monaldi." 1 The tower of the
Monaldi now belongs to Signor Majolfi.

PALAZZO RAMIREZ DI MONTALVO

Borgo degVAlbizsu 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 pro-

1 Istoria delle Famiglie Florentine. Scritta nell' anno 1607 da Piero di
Giovanni Monaldi, Cittadino Fiorentino. Tomo unico. Al Sermo, Fer-
dinando Gran Duca di Toscana, con l'aggiunta di Monsre. Sommai,
sino all5 anno 1620.

PALAZZO MONTALVO.

PALAZZO MONTALVO 149

ceed 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'Me-
dici, 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 facade with the
inscription : COSMOS ; MAGN ; FLOR ; ET ; SEN ; D ; II.
The palace is decorated in grafite, and on a line with
the arms are the favourite emblems of the Duke, a Capri-
corn, 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 Flor-
ence as the foundress of the convent of Le Ouiete, the
great school where the daughters of the nobility are edu-
cated 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 wras idle, and as a girl

150 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 pro-
perly. . . . 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 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

1 Vita della Venerabile Serva di Dio Donna Leonora Ramirez di
Montalvo etc. etc. In Firenze L Anno MDCCXI.

PALAZZO MOZZI 151

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 anti-
quary, 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 Abbe 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 1 173, 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 in-

152 FLORENTINE PALACES

demnity. 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 corre-
spondents 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, "be-
cause 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

PALAZZO MOZZI 153

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 them-
selves, 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 13 14 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, wmom the Pisans had taken
into their pay. The young Count dismounted at Palazzo
Mozzi in August, and Ammirato describes him as " pru-
dent 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 follow-
ing 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 ambas-
sador 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. Marcan-
tonio, canon of the cathedral of Sta. Maria del Fiore in
1707, a man of considerable learning, was an " Arcadian,"

154 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 :
11 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 nobilita 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 Mathe-
maticks) 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

155

PALAZZO NERLI

Via de'Servi. No. 10.

This quaintly shaped
palace with a fine court-
yard, 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 ac-
cording 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 Xlth century
they had houses and a
tower in the centre of old
Florence and took their
name from one Nerlo,
son of Signorello di Ri-
dolfo d'lldebrando di
Leone, who lived in 1079.
Another Messer Nerlo
was Consul of the city of
Florence in 11 96 and
again in 1202. The Nerli
joined the sect of the

/».Marth

WINDOW OF PALAZZO NERLI.

156 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 re-called
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 descend-
ant 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 159

PALAZZO NONFINITO

Via Proconsolo. No. 12.

11 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 super-
intend the work. Nigetti worked under him for seven
years, until the facade 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 stair-
case 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

160 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 1 8 14 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 Delia Casa family, who
would not merit special mention if Monsignore Giovanni
Delia 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 poem Capitolo del Fomo probably
prevented his being made a Cardinal.1

The story of the Panciatichi family would be almost
a history of Pistoja, as for more than three centuries the

1 See Renaissance in Italy, J. A. Symonds. Vol. v. p. 239. London,
1868.

PALAZZO PANCIATICHI 161

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 ioolbs. 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
of S. Angelo in Gora.1 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 ambas-
sador to the Emperor Charles IV., and a descendant of
his, Bartolomeo, was a most successful merchant at

1 Passerini, from whose Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Pancia-
tichi I have taken most of the facts about the family, cites the deed of 9
June 1 191 : " Infrangilasta quondam Astancolli, Montialtissimo Belgiglio
et Nobilino, a servitio sancti Sepulchri, a Saladino Crucis Christi inimico
capti, de ultra mare reversi, dictam ecclesiam paupertate laborare
videntes, predictum petium terre eidem in potestate dederunt."

1 62 FLORENTINE PALACES

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.

Niccol6 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 Niccolo
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 culti-
vated 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 163

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 asa " 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, wrhich 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, 15 17, 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 LTrbino," 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

1 64 FLORENTINE PALACES

when he states that the building, which had been inter-
rupted 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. FUNDA-
MENTIS. 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 por-
tion 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 in-
corporated 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 PAZZI 167

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 govern-
ment 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, wTho 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 Brunel-
leschi, who designed the beautiful chapel for him in the
cloister of Sta. Croce, to build a palace. Poliziano's state-
ment 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 arch-
ives of the old catasti, which show that Jacopo only incor-
porated 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

1 68 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 intelli-
gent. Llence arose the wronging of the Pazzi, by an iniquit-
ous 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, repu-
tation, 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 in-
timate 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.

PALAZZO PAZZI 171

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 custom-
ary 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 Giuli-
ano. 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 newrs of the assassination of Giuli-

i72 FLORENTINE PALACES

ano, 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 Alessan-
dro 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

PALAZZO PAZZI 173

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 mar-
riage, 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 intro-
duced 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

174 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Niccolo 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 facade 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 recom-
mending the convent to their care, and they probably carried
out his wishes and erected the present church and con-
ventual 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. Niccolo,
where they lived until the Marquess Niccol6 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 banish-
ment 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

PALAZZO PERUZZI 175

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 men-
tioned 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 amphi-
theatre 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 cir-
cuit of Florence which stood where now is Via de'Benci

i;6 FLORENTINE PALACES

and the Arco de'Peruzzi.1 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 XHIth century, and when
King Robert of Naples came to Florence in 13 10 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 —

" The gateway, named from those of Pera." 2

Vasari tells us that Paolo Uccello frescoed the arch
11 with triangles in perspective, and on the corners in the
square spaces he painted the four elements, each repre-
sented by an appropriate animal. For the earth a mole,
for water a fish, for fire a salamander, and for air a chame-
leon, 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."

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 facades. 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

1 See Storia del Commercio e del Banchieri di Firenze, dal Comm. S.
L. Peruzzi. Firenze. 1868.

2 Paradise. Canto XVI, Dante. Cary's translation.

PIAZZA AND ARCO DE'PERUZZL

PALAZZO PERUZZI 179

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, w*ho 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 them-
selves 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 wrere 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, wras ban-
ished, 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 magis-

i8o FLORENTINE PALACES

trates 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 Baldas-
sare, 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'Pacci. No. 1.

Towards the end of the XVIIth century Paolo Falco-
nieri 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

PALAZZO PICCOLELIS 181

of Anjou at Naples, who knighted him and gave him the
command of 200 horse, when he fought against Manfred and
I 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 Monte-
verdi 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 145 1 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 Acad-
emy 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 tri-
umphant 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 ac-
corded by the Commune.

182 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO PITTI

Piazza Pitti

Buonaccorso Pitti, in his delightful chronicle,1
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 work-
shops was turned into perfect cloth. His last building was

1 Cronica di Buonaccorso Pitti, con A?i7iotazio?ie. In Firenze.
MDCCXX, nella Stamperia di Giuseppe Manni.

PALAZZO PITTI 185

the Tiratoio,1 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 Fran-
cesca and I have had eleven children, of whom seven are
alive, Luca, Ruberto, &c, &c."

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 Ric-
cardi). " Not only," writes Machiavelli, " did citizens and
private persons contribute, and aid him with things necess-
ary 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 Niccolo Barbadori, who had
lifted up their voices to warn the Florentine citizens against
1 Where wool is carded, spun and woven.

1 86 FLORENTINE PALACES

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. Where-
fore too late did he repent that he had not believed Niccol5
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 :

11 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

PALAZZO PITTI 187

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 Niccol6 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, w7hich 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 madecrfc
considerable changes in the interior, in the windows of
the first floor, and, according to an old manuscript,
"finished the facade 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

188 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 facade 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 mas-
querade 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.

PALAZZO PITTI 189

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 writh 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 rejoic-
ings ; money wras 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 dis-
solute 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 wras 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

190 FLORENTINE PALACES

delightful Journal: " On Sunday I saw che 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 Chimasra (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 evi-
dently 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 prais-
ing 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

PALAZZO PITTI 191

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 instinct-
ively 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, Car-
dinal 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 any-
thing attempted in our days. Buontalenti, that most in-
genious 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

192 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Bal-
dinucci, " with lances and then with swords, and mean-
while 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 moun-
tain, a crocodile and a conjurer, followed by a triumphal
car, in wrhich sat Don Virginio Orsini with eight nymphs,
who offered beautiful vases filled with flowers and a
programme of the festival, to the princes and prin-
cesses, 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 tourna-
ment. 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 them-
selves 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,

PALAZZO PITTI 193

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 them-
selves in clearing the decks of their ships of broken tackle,
and in giving meat and drink to their crews before ad-
vancing 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'Agin-
court came to Florence to ask the hand of his niece, Maria
de'Medici, for Henry IV. The contract was signed on the

194 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Oueen 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 nobil-
ity, accompanied the Queen in triumph, amid the acclama-
tions 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 Aldo-
brandini, sent by the Pope to perform the marriage cere-
mony. Don Antonio de'Medici met him some miles out-
side 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 entertain-
ments. 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.

PALAZZO PITTI 195

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 facade 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 resource-
ful a man as Alfonso Parigi was court architect, for Bal-
dinucci tells us that "about 1640 the facade 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; secur-
ing 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 facade 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

196 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 improve-
ment, 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

PALAZZO PITTI 197

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 load-
stone. 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 sawT. 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 thev 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 wTith his wife, Marguerite Louise of Orleans.
The old palace has witnessed many strange scenes, but
few stranger than that of a French princess amusing her-

198 FLORENTINE PALACES

self 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 gentle-
men and ladies of her court, and only one Frenchman, a
cook, remained. The Grand Duke gave himself up to de-
votion 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 immoder-
ately. 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

PALAZZO PITTI 199

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 bear-
ing 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, per-
chance 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 re-
turning 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 sur-
viving 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. Tus-
cany 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 anv picture
to hang in her apartment that shows either a naked leg

200 FLORENTINE PALACES

or arm. This ill agrees with the Medici taste, or the col-
lection 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, cela 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 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 Janu-
ary, 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, " every-
thing is calculated for the Meridian of Germany— nay, of

1 Mann and Manners, Vol. II, p. 102.

PALAZZO PITTI 201

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 project-
ing colonnade, at the north end of the facade, 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 Leo-
poldo 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

202 FLORENTINE PALACES

honours. Not long afterwards General Serurier occupied
Lucca, where he levied a tax of seven millions, and a few
days later he requested the Grand Duke of Tuscany to
supplv him with the same amount — but as a loan. Con-
vinced 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. Maria Novella, amid the shouts
of half drunken French soldiers.1

A new kingdom — Etruria — was then created by Napo-
leon 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

1 See Cronachette Storiche Florentine. Pierfilippo Covoni. Firenze,
1894.

PALAZZO PITTI 203

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 Fer-
dinando 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 V 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 impro-
vised 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'Etmria in large letters. She was greeted with tremen-
dous applause and Murat exclaimed, " Qu'elle est char-
mante, la petite Nunziatine, qu'elle est jolie; c'est touchant,

204 FLORENTINE PALACES I

n'est ce pas, cette facon d'annoncer l'arriwe du Roi

d'Etrurie."

At last, on the ioth 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 pei
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 sub-
jects 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 declarec
11 that her figure, the shape of her skull, and the way hei
head was set on her shoulders, had never been equalled
since the days of Diana and Calypso." The Queen oi
Etruria received her with royal honours, and memoirs ol
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 ioth December again aj
sad little procession left the palace, escorted by French
cavalry.

General Menou, who now governed Tuscany, made him-

PALAZZO PITTI 205

self 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 im-
pulsiveness she left Lucca the following evening with her
husband, escorted by a few French soldiers, and at day-
break 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 inti-
mation to her astonished subjects of her arrival. That
evening she went in state to the Pergola and was vocifer-
ously cheered. Her likeness to the Emperor was remark-
able, and she held herself majestically. " Of all our three
sisters," said Joseph Bonaparte, " Elisa was the one wTho,
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 lan-
guage at her house. So Elisa privately obtained from
Fouche, then head of the police, an order of banishment
against the Countess, and charged General Menou to tell

206 FLORENTINE PALACES

her of the decree, and to express the sorrow and astonish-
ment 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 ex-
claimed, " 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 fete
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 for-
saken, and the common people amused themselves by
making a cock drunk and hunting it through the streets.
The disastrous retreat of the Grande Armee from Moscow
was followed by General Nugent's proclamation to the
Italian people, promulgated at Ravenna on the ioth De-
cember, 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

PALAZZO PITTI 207

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, Leo-
poldo II., under whose reign the architect P. Poccianti
made great changes in the palace. Various small rooms
were conveted rinto the fine atrium, or entrance hall, lead-
ing into Ammannati's superb courtyard, and at an enor-
mous expense the great staircase was built, in lieu of the
old, narrow, steep one.1 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, i860,
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 e piu lTtalia dei Romani, ne quella del Medio Evo;
non deve essere piu il campo aperto delle ambizione strani-
ere, ma deve esere bensi lTtalia deglTtaliani."

1 See II Palazzo Pitti. Letturafatta alia Societa Colombaria nell' adu-
nanza del di 6. Marzo, 1887. Prof. Cosimo Conti. Succ. Le Monnier
Firenze, 1887.

208 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA (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 particida fialatium 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 Domin-
ican 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
Podesta 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 Podesta 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 " re-

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA (THE BARGELLO).

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 211

formed," the Podesta 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 Podesta lived, to distin-
guish 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 Podesta
absolved Corso Donati who had been accused of treach-
erously 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 Podesta,' 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 Podesta, 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 Podesta
and his followers prisoners and robbed them without
shame."1 Dino Compagni, who was an eyewitness of the
storming of the palace, however says that the Podesta
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 Podesta should be given back to him and
his salary be paid. This was done, and he departed."
1 Cronaca di Giovanni Villani, lib. 8, cap. 8.

212 FLORENTINE PALACES

The damage done was great, and the loss of prestige suf-
fered by the Podesta 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 con-
structed 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 Podesta while the repairs
were being done. These were probably effaced in obedi-
ence to a law of 1329, forbidding any Podesta, or any
Captain, to have his portrait painted or his arms in-
scribed 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 Podesta was allowed to place his arms within the
palace, if they commemorated any notable event, or in
the courtyard of the palace, or in the apartments of
the tribunals of the Sestieri.1 Canti de'Gabrielli of Gubbio
was installed as Podesta in 1298 by Charles of Anjou,
and four years later the crier of the Republic called Dante
degl* Alighieri to appear before the Podesta's court to
hear the sentence of banishment with the loss of all his
worldly goods and possessions pronounced against him.

The new fortifications did not prove strong enough to
withstand the furious onslaught of a mob led by the Adi-
mari, which broke into the palace in 1304, liberated Messer
Talamo from prison and forced the Podesta, Messer
Gigliolo de'Puntagli, of Parma, to fly for his life. The
Commune was then engaged in war, and did not begin to

1 See Del Pretorio di Firenze. Lezione Academico, etc-, da Luigi
Passerini. 2A edizione. Firenze, 1855. Ricordi e Jouhaud.

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 213

repair the palace until peace was made with Pisa, thirteen
years later. The work must have continued for two years,
as in August, 13 19, 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
Podesta 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 key-
stones. 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
Podesta 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 Fiora-
vanti, 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

2i4 FLORENTINE PALACES

Agnolo Gaddi, and writes that, " according to his orders
all the rooms in the palace of the Podesta 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 after-
wards, 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 men-
tioned.

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 civibiis, 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 Podesta, on
the wall." Now the original Latin text runs: pinxit
insuper speculorum suffragio semetipsiim sibique con-
temporaneum Dantem IN TABULA alteris cappelle palatii

I PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 215

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 possi-
bility 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 begining to recognize
the genius of the man she had exiled and vilified. Cer-
tainly it is unlikely that Giotto, however great his friend-
ship 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 Pog-
getto; 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 con-
tinued 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 in-
scription (with many abbreviations) which indicates the

216 FLORENTINE PALACES

date of the frescoes,1 as Messer Fidesmini da Varano was

Podesta of Florence in 1337, the year of Giotto's death.2

Work was still going on in the palace in 1342 when

Baglione Baglioni was installed as Podesta 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

Podesta, and took up their abode in the palace. They

effaced the Duke's arms and summoned, writes Vasari,

Tommaso di Stefano,3 commonly called Giottino, to paint

him and his followers " in infamous fashion, hanging by

the neck," on one side of the tower, with verses descriptive

of their evil deeds attached to each figure.4

1 Hoc opus factum fuit tempore potestarie mag?iifici et potentis mi lit is
do7ni?ii Fides7nini de Varano civis Camerinensis honorabilis potestatis

. the remainder is wanting.
2

In an article in the Quarterly Review for July, 1904, the following
suggestion is made : " A theory of reconciliation is clearly required, and
easily suggests itself. May not the chapel have been originally decorated
by Giotto, and have sustained, in the fire of 1332, injuries which left
nothing but the main lines of its compositions intact ? May not the date
1337, inscribed on the left wall below the figure of St. Venanzius, refer
to a restoration undertaken, according to the original design, by the
nameless pupil who also painted the miracle of the fallen child ? Such
an explanation receives support from the fact that, on the south wall of
the chapel, the framing is not adapted to the frescoes, and is therefore
hardly likely to be of the same date."

3 Through the kindness of Sir Dominic Colnaghi I am informed that,
" no painter of this name is known to have worked in Florence in the
fourteenth century. Vasari evidently mixed up two painters in one
notice, i.e. Giotto di Maestro Stefano, known as Giottino, and Maso di
Banco. Antonio Billi (libro di Antonio Billi, ed. Frey. p. 14) states that
among his other works Maso di Banco painted the Duke of Athens and
his followers, on the facade of the Palazzo del Podesta."

4 By the effigy of the Duke was :

Avaro, traditore, e poi crudele,
Lussurioso, ingiusto e spergiuro,
Giammai non tenne suo stato secure

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 217

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 Podesta'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;

2. By that of Messer Cerrettieri Visdomini :

Come potevi tu signor durare,
Essendo in vizi et in peccato involto
E me per tuo consiglio avevi tolto.

3. By that of Messer Ranieri di S. Gemignano :

Deh come degnamente mi potevi
Far cavalier ; che tu ed io avari
Siamo e sempre fummo piu che Mida,
Tradendo sempre l'uom che in noi si fida.

4. By that of Messer Gugliemo d'Assisi, Captain of the People :

Tu mi fascesti piii che altr'uom crudele ;
Pero mi grava piu la tua partita,
In quel furore ch'io perdei la vita.

5. By that of his son Gabriel :

Aver padre crudel, m'era diletto

Poi vidi gli occhi suoi in palese insegna ;

E quello avviene a chi male c'insegna.

6. By that of Meliadusse d'Ascoli, Podesta in 1342, who helped to

make the Duke Lord of Florence :
Io porto sotto la lima e la fraude,
E di te m'ingegnai farti signore ;
Or ne se fuor per tuo poco valore.

'. And on a book which Friar Giotto of S. Gemignano holds in his
hand :
Vie piu m'incresce di me e mio fratello
Veder l'un traditore, l'altro ingrato,
Che veder te di signoria cacciato.

218 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Podesta 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 them-
selves to attack the Palazzo del Podesta, and moving all
together they went to the said palace and surrounded it.
The followers of the Podesta, 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 Podesta, 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 Podesta, 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

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 219

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 w'as burnt.
All that day and night much people remained in the
palace for the honour of God, and rich and poor stayed to
guard each one the banner of his Guild."1

The great bell La Montanina, which tolled when the
Podesta 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 Podesta 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 magni-
ficent 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 Podesta 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

1 II Palazzo del Podesta. Illustrazione Storica di Giovan Battista
Uccelli. Firenze, 1865.

220 FLORENTINE PALACES

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., I
who went over to the Pope, was also figured, hung by the ]
feet, in 1377, not only on the tower of the palace, but onj
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 times1
a Prior and twice Gonfalonier of Justice, intrigued with
Gian Galeazzo Visconti against the Republic, and was con-j
demned to death in contumaciam. As a warning to all ;
traitors his effigy was painted at the foot of the tower jj
of the Palazzo del Podesta, hung in chains and surrounded I
with devils.1 The old palace must have been covered I
with these ghastly frescoes when, at the instigation of I
Cosimo de'Medici, Albizzi, Peruzzi and Strozzi, who had I
taken up arms to oppose his return to Florence in 1434, I
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 por- 1
traits of all those concerned in the conspiracy should be :
painted on the facade of the Palazzo del Podesta. The ]
work was offered to Andrea del Castagno who, as a servant I
of the house of Medici and much indebted to them, will- I
ingly accepted the commission and performed it so well j
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

1 In large characters was written :

" Superbo, avaro, traditor, bugiardo,
Lussurioso, ingrato e pien d'inganni,
Son Bonnaccorso di Lapo Giovanni."

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 221

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 Podesta were curtailed by the
institution of a Council of Justice, the Rtiota, 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 ground floor, near the prisons
and the torture chambers.1 There were also a few under-
ground cells, and in the courtyard suspected people, whom

1 In one of these the Podesta, Fulchieri da Calvoli, cruelly tortured
those of the Bianchi who fell into his hands, before they were beheaded
in the courtyard.

"Their flesh, yet living, sets he up to sale,
Then like an aged beast, to slaughter dooms.
Many of life he reaves, himself of worth
And goodly estimation."

Dante Pitrg., Canto XIV, Cary's trans.

All instruments of torture found in these chambers were burnt in the
courtyard by the orders of the Grand Duke Leopoldo when he abolished
the Inquisition.

222 FLORENTINE PALACES

the Podesta 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 punish- 'i
ment. 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 11
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," I
or " for speaking ill of the Republic," or " for unknown]
reasons." There are also common robbers and thieves \
and some heretics, the latter were always condemned to
the stake.1 Massimo d'Azeglio has taken one of the
political "delinquents," Niccol6 de Lapo, as the hero of J
his well-known novel. But far more interesting is a de-
scription 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 part.2

" I record how on the 22nd Feb. 15 13, 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 Bar-
gello and remained there the whole night. . . . At about 2

1 Descrizione dei Delinqucnti conda,7inati a morte in Firenze. Firenze,
MDCCCI.

See Anchivio Storico Italia?io, T. I. Firenze. G. P. Vieusseux,
Editore, 1842.

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 223

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 ex-
claimed : Oh, Pietro Pagolo ! Oh, poor Pietro Pagolo,
whither hast thou been led ! Then I, moved to great com-
passion seeing my beloved friend in such agony, as affec-
tionately 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 Signo'ria, 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 Cap-
poni, 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
Ridoln* 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

224 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 confA
teberis Mi, salutare viiltus tni, et Deus tuns. Then he
said : 'Tis well. And raising himself from the chair he
placed himself on the mattress with his chained legs, and con-
tinued : 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

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 225

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 diffi-
culty, 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, com-
munion, indulgences and the prayers of those around.
Fear not, let all your thoughts be concentrated on God,
for does he not say: fill, prcebe mihi cor tuum. Give

226 FLORENTINE PALACES

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, arid 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

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 227

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, desir-
ing 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

228 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 con-
fessor 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 confes-
sion, 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 amiciticE. 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

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 229

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 subtle-
ties. The Lord is merciful; give yourself to him, that is
sufficient. I do, he answered, adding : Dens in adjutorium
meum intende, Domine ad adjuvanduni vie festina. In te,
D online, speravi; non confundar in cetemum. 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 tnum, et sus-
tine Dominnm. 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

23o FLORENTINE PALACES

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 de-
scended 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

i PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 231

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 de-
mands 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 treason-
able 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 Medi-
cean 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

232 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 facade of the palace of the Podesta;
Alessandro di Gherardo Corsini, in mantle and hood; Tad-
deo 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 TRAITOR TO HIS
COUNTRY added in capital letters." * After the surren-
der 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 tne Podesta 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 Podesta. The fine building was barbarously

1 In the archives are the sentences pronounced by the various Signori
which are too characteristic to omit.

" 13th Feb., 1529. Alessandro Corsini continues in his evil courses ; a
rebel he is, and a rebel he may remain ; and that he should serve as an
example to all, it is ordered, as he has no house which can be destroyed,
that he be painted as a traitor on the palace of the Podesta, so that others
may learn from him.

" 3rd March, 1529. In the name of God I judge that Taddeo Guiducci
be condemned as a rebel, and all his goods be confiscated according to
law, and as he has no house of his own in Florence which can be destroyed,
he is to be painted on the palace of the Podesta by the side of Alessandro
Corsini, and in the same manner as the said Alessandro.

" 10th March, 1529. As to the complaint against Pierfrancesco Ridolfi
which to-day has come before us, I decide that, as a most virulent enemy
of his city, and an enemy of our Holy liberty, as he has always been, he
be condemned as a rebel, with all the pains and penalties pertaining unto
rebels, as far as the law allows, and that, within fifteen days, he be painted
hanging by one foot, alongside of Taddeo Guiducci, on the palace of the
Podesta, as a traitor to his country."

PALAZZO DEL PODESTA 233

maltreated. The arcades of the courtyard and of the beau-
tiful 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 (Bara-
chel in Spanish), meaning head of the police, princeps
apparitorum. The Roman apparitores were the adminis-
trators 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 the police.1

In 1S41 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

1 Opus cit.

234 FLORENTINE PALACES

the Grand Duke gave orders that the building should be
restored, and all the prisoners removed to the Murate. In
i860 it was finally decreed that the weatherbeaten, stern
old Palazzo del Podesta 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 repre-
sentative of the family. Progenitor of this once powerful
house was Puccio, son of Benintendi, a poet of the XHIth
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 enor-
mous 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 Gian-
nozzo 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

hJrUln.liui. . KM '_ -X,«WZK

WINDOW OF PALAZZO PUCCI.

PALAZZO PUCCI 237

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 pun-
ishment. 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.

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 Sara-
cino, 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, Niccolo 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.

238 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO RICCARDI

Via Cavour. No. i.

The first of the great house of Medici, according to
Passerini, was Giambuono, an ecclesiastic. He lived in
the Xllth 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 Hes-
perides, or dents in Averardo's shield, made by the mace of
the giant Mugello.

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

AMinlu

PALAZZO RICCARDI

PALAZZO RICCARDI 241

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 pros-
perity. 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 Gio-
vanni 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 else-
where, 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

242 FLORENTINE PALACES

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." The palace
was begun in 1444, according to Gianozzo di Bernardo
Galviati.1

A more detailed account of the palace is given in

Firense 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 inter-

1 See Jahrbuch d. Preussischen Kimstsammlunge?i, 1903. Heft. IV.
(Fabriczy, Giuliano da Majano in Siena.)

PALAZZO RICCARDI 243

nal 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 wTalls 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.

244 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Paleo-
logus 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

PALAZZO RICCARDI 245

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 bv such a
concourse of people, and with such demonstrations of
affection, as was Cosimo on his return from exile; saluted

246 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 suc-
ceeded 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 Constanti-
nople was captured by the Turks, he extended a splendid
hospitality in his palace in Via Larga. " To him," re-
marks Burckhardt, " belongs the special glory of recog-
nizing 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

PALAZZO RICCARDI 247

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 with-
out 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
hie situs est decreto publico Pater Patriae should be en-
graved 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 Dioti-
salvi Neroni, in whom he had counselled his son to place
absolute confidence. Neroni was secretly in league with
Luca Pitti, Agnolo Acciaiuoli and Niccolo Soderini,

248 FLORENTINE PALACES

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

PALAZZO RICCARDI 249

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 Giuli-
ano 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

250 FLORENTINE PALACES

of strong good sense, a poetess, yet withal an excellent
housewife. Niccolo 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 per-
sonal 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 the chase and 12 two-
wheeled carts,1 drawn by mules and covered with em-
broidered 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. Mag-
nificent 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 Polizi-
ano, Cristofano Landino, and Luigi Pulci, who wrote his

f" * Milan was famed for the construction of these "carrette," which were
much used there.

PALAZZO RICCARDI 251

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. At-
tempts to murder the two Medici brothers had been frus-
trated 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 appear-
ance. 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, em-
braced 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, hasten-
ing 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 Machia-

252 FLORENTINE PALACES

velli, " 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 am-
bition. He had carefully educated his second son Giovanni
for the Church, and Pope Innocent VIII., whose son Fran-
cesco 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 cere-
mony of bestowing the cardinal's hat on his son in the
abbey church of Fiesole. " The Signoria decided," con-
tinues 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.

1 Lorenzo," writes Gino Capponi, " represented and
united in his own person a whole century; he wrote sacred

PALAZZO RICCARDI 253

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 pro-
bably never been witnessed in any other 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, Sarza-
nella, Pietrasanta, Pisa, Leghorn and Ripafratta to Charles.
Next day he was saluted in the streets with the cry of
Popolo! Liberia! and Giovanni Cambi went home and

1 Istoriadi Firetize. By the Marquess Gino Capponi.

254 FLORENTINE PALACES I

wrote in his diary: " I note how on the gth November,
1494, by the grace of God and of the Virgin Mary, Piero
di Lorenzo di Piero de'Medici, the tyrant of his country, j
was expelled by the people at the hour of vespers. . . . I
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 specta-
tors 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 tin mal ciappon.
(Ah Capon, Capon, you are a bad capon.)

The agreement, signed on the 25th November, stipulated

PALAZZO RICCARDI 255

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 disposi-
tion 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, won-
derful cameos, and more than 3,000 gold and silver medals,
11 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 15 12, 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

256 FLORENTINE PALACES

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," suc-
ceeded 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, com-
peting with his uncle, was the head of a company called
77 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

PALAZZO RICCARDI 257

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, 15 13, 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

258 FLORENTINE PALACES j

Filiberta of Savoy and the title of Due de Nemours, be-
stowed 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, // 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 dis-
covered to murder him. Most of the conspirators, belong-
ing 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 pro-
bably have been attacked by the Imperial forces, which had
just sacked Genoa and would have seized on such a good

PALAZZO RICCARDI 259

excuse as the murder of the Cardinal-Governor to obtain
so rich a prize.

In November, 1523, the Cardinal Giulio de'Medici be-
came Pope under the title of Clement VII. and his election
was hailed with demonstrations of joy in Florence. Ippo-
lito, the handsome illegitimate son of Giuliano, Due 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 hand-
some, his manners were engaging and he already had a
right royal way of spending money. Alessandro, com-
monly 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 in-
tellect to understand the Florentine character, nor the judg-
ment 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,
Liberta, 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 bv 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 Pa-
lazzo Medici to ask for information as to how things were

26o FLORENTINE PALACES

in Florence pretending, that having just arrived, he was
ignorant. Ippolito, with the impetuosity of youth, re-
counted 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 follow-
ing 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, ct de plenitudine.
potestatis, from Clement VII., they declared that con-
sidering 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 recogni-

PALAZZO RTCCAKDI 261

tion 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 seiz-
ing 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 Civita 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'

262 FLORENTINE PALACES

Medici. At last it was decided to send an embassy to
Charles V. to complain of the tyranny of the Duke Ales-
sandro 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 ad-
mitted 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. Dur-
ing 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 Peni-
tentiary 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 descend-
ant 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 gen-
erally known as Lorenzino, which was changed to Loren-

PALAZZO RICCARDI 263

zaccio, 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 iUessandro, 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 carni-
val 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

264 FLORENTINE PALACES

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, hop-
ing thereby to find means to effect his traitorous design.
He went straight to the house of a certain Piero di Gio-
annabate, surnamed Scoronconcolo, a quarrelsome man of
vile character, devoted to Lorenzino, who by his influ-
ence 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 Scoron-
concolo, 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 assas-
sin seemed to hesitate, but plucking up courage he ex-
claimed : 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.

PALAZZO RICCARDI 265

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 landtimque
immenso ctipido, 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 left Florence at once." * There was consider-
able 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

1 Storia d? Alessandro de' Medici. Abate Modesto Rastrelli. Firenze.
MDCCLXXXI.

266 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 up-
stairs." 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

PALAZZO RICCARDI 267

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, belong-

268

FLORENTINE PALACES

ing to the Da Lutiano family, and Signor Corrazzini sug-
gests 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 archi-
tect, 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 T368. 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 bv 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
manuscripts and illuminated missals.1

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

1 See Miscellanea Fiorentina. Anno I, No. 12, 1886. .-

PALAZZO RICCARDI 269

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 : "lis travaillaient pour la paix des
peuples, les tyrans les ont assassines." 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 Ca 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 his
wife, Caroline Bonaparte, soon joined him.1 The Palazzo
Riccardi was the head-quarters of the civil engineers as
long as the French supremacy lasted. In 18 14 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.

1 See Cronachctte Storiche Florentine. Pierfilippo Covoni. Firenze,
1894.

2/o FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO RIDOLFI

Via Maggio. No. 13.

From Rodolfo, son of a certain Diotifece who lived at
Poppiano in the Val di Pesa in the XHIth century, descend
the three families of Ridolfi whose name occurs so fre-
quently 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 Fioren-
tino, 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 sove-
reigns. 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

PALAZZO RIDOLFI 271

Piero Soderini, and opposed the return of the exiled Piero
de'Medici, whilst another, Niccol6, lost his head in 1497
for conspiring with Bernardo del Nero for his recall.
Niccolo 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 XlVth century, with its large windows and fine door-
way. The graffite on the facade are of course of a later
date. All Niccolo'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, Niccolo, was made a Cardinal at twelve
years of age, and became Archbishop of Florence at nine-
teen. 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 L, 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 facade of a house nearly opposite the side en-

272 FLORENTINE PALACES

trance 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 1 75 1 , 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'Rondi-
nelli (now Via della Forca), and their coat-of-arms, with six
swallows, is still to be seen there on the facade of a house.
They afterwards lived in what is now the Via de'Rondi-
nelli, 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 nee honore propago.
Hi Fesulis genitam soboles eeu nobilis omnis
1st 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, Spina-

PALAZZO RONDINELLI 273

bello, 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 be-
loved owing to his liberality and kindly manners, and was
one of the leaders of the people when they rose against the
Graiidi. Rinaldo, his nephew, wras twice sent as ambas-
sador to the Republic of Lucca to watch the Pisan exiles
who were plotting against Florence. He joined with Gio-
vanni and Cosimo de'AIedici 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 phan-
tasy, have been a brother of Michele. The Amieri, one of
the proudest and oldest families of Florence, whose mag-
nificent palaces and towers stood near S. Andrea in the old
market place, were strongly Ghibelline. Scorning an alli-
ance 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 adjoin-
ing the Duomo.1 In that terrible year (1400) people were
often buried with their jewellery, and thieves, braving the

1 At the end of the XVI I Ith century her tomb was still pointed out,
and del Migliore says that before the vault was restored after it became
the property of the Bracci family, the initials " G. A." were visible on one
of the stones.

274 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 under-
stood 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
husband's house.1 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 weep-
ing 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,
Va, che Dio ti conservi in santa pace."2

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 cry-
ing 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 ten-
More likely because it adjoins the chapel of the Misericodia.
1 a S tori a di Ginevra Amieri che fu sepolta viva in Fire?ize. Pisa.
Nistri.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 275

derly, 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. Flow 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 read at length in
the concluding portion of the tale." l

The Gonfalonier Tommaso di Vied 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
according to Count Passerini,2 an acknowledged authority,
the real founder was Alamanno di Monte, a rich cloth mer-
chant who, whilst travelling in the Levant about 1250,
observed that a beautiful violet dye was extracted from the

1 Renaissance i?i Italy. J. A. Symonds. Vol. iv, p. 216, second edition,
1898.

2 Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Rucellai. Luigi Passerini. M
Callini e C. 1861.

276 FLORENTINE PALACES

herb Oricella (Lichen Rocella of Linnaeus); 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 Gon-
falonier 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 Gon-
falonier 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, Benci-
venni'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 com-
mon 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 eventu-
ally 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

PALAZZO RUCELLAI.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 279

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,
11 was so magnificent a sight."

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 Gon-
falonier 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 cam-
panile. 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 XVI Ith century
describes Giovanni, the eldest, as " a man of singular good-
ness and well grounded in literature. He began his com-
mercial 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 morn-
ing 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

28o FLORENTINE PALACES

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 hus-
band 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 Rucel-
lai still inhabited by the family, which was built by his
intimate friend Leon Battista Alberti, as well as the ex-
quisite 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,

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 281

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 for-
bidding any ^ames to be 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 com-
panion 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 straight-
ening this nail.' So Guido turned again to the board and
continued his game. Little by little the boy, always ham-
mering 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

1 Novella, 68.

282 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 distin-
guished. 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 : " Wish-
ing to ornament the facade of Sta. Maria Novella in marble
at his own expense, Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai consulted
with Leon Battista, his intimate friend, and having ob-
tained, 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.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 283

The indolence of 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 know-
ledge 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 fore-
ground 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 mar-
vellous naked figures, fore-shortened in various attitudes,
some falling back and others forward, both dead and woun-
ded, drawn w-ith the knowledge and the excellence which
pertains to Michelangelo."

A curious book by Giovanni called // Zibaldone Quare-
siviale has never been published in its entirety, but an ac-

284 FLORENTINE PALACES

count of it, and various extracts are given by Marcotti.1
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. Jt 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 de-
scription 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 :

11 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,

1 Un Mercante Fiorentino e la Sua Famiglia, nel Secolo XV. G.
Marcotti. G. Barbera. Firenze. 1881.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 285

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 in Florence, my
place at Quaracchi,1 the facade 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.

1 The name is said to be derived from chiare acque (limpid waters) as
mentioned by Bernardo's son Giovanni in his poem Le Api, when he begs
his friend Trissino to listen :

" A l'umil suon de le forate canne,
Che nate sono in mezzo a le chiare acque
Che Quaracchi oggi il vulgo chiama."

(To the soft rustle of the hollow canes, which have their birth in the clear
waters called now Quaracchi by the common herd.)

286 FLORENTINE PALACES I

" Also I have to thank him for causing me to be born of
a good race, 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
ist 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 annoy-
ances 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

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 287

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-live 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 fasci-
nating Nannina de'Medici, sister of Lorenzo the Magnifi-
cent, 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 govern-
ment because he was not the chosen head, and was swayed
by personal dislikes and a passion for popularity. But if

288 FLORENTINE PALACES

he failed as a statesman his learning was undeniable. The
oration de auxilio Typhernatibus aclferendo, to induce the
Florentines to succour Citta 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
Apt. 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, after-
wards 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 by the latter is still extant.1 " 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,

1 See Le Opere di Giovanni Rucellai per cura di Guido Mazzoni.
Bologna. N. Zanichelli. 1887.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI 289

is one whose like mine eyes have never beheld ; verily
nothing save the name is lacking in her, so that the son-
nets 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 (tit 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 Castel-
lano 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 twTo 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

290 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Floren-
tine 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 II 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, denot-
ing 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
facade of Sta. Maria Novella, of the Rucellai palace, and

PALAZZO RUCELLAI

291

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 con-

siderable culture, and gifted with charming manners, he
wTas made a member of all the learned academies of Flor-
ence, 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

292 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 293

PALAZZO SALVIATI

(now a school of the scolopi friars)

Via del Cor so. 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, hus-
band 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 build-
ing 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 ms own grave." A cousin of his married Laudo-
mia 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 in-
famous, for his behaviour to Luisa Strozzi (see p. 335).

294 FLORENTINE PALACES

Maria Salviati, a daughter of Jacopo, married Giovanni
de'Medici delle Bande Nere, and their son Cosimo, after-
wards 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, hand-
some, gay, an elegant poet and a gallant soldier, met the
beautiful Caterina Canacci, surnamed " the fair Cheru-
bim " on account of her golden hair and wonderful colour-
ing, 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 297

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 wras 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] wranted 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

298 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Car-
dinal, and all those wTho 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 compassion-
ate 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 acknow-
ledged his natural daughter by Mrs. Walsingham, under

PALAZZO SAN CLEMENTE 299

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 dis-
tinction among our ladies on account of her new dignity.
. . . The new Duchess has appeared at the Theatres
(which were crowded on her account) wTith 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 wrell to come in time to reap his
succession, for which she will not wait long. The facul-
ties of his mind are as wreak 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 mer-
chant 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 XHIth 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

3oo FLORENTINE PALACES

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 import-
ant 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 13 13. He filled the im-
portant post of Gonfalonier of Justice several times, was
elected advocate of the poor, went to Bologna as ambas-
sador 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 mention-
ing 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

PALAZZO SAN CLEMENTE 301

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 has
begun. He is now in Provence."1

Paolo, a descendant of Donato, carried on the good tra-
ditions 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

1 Cronaca di Fireitze di Donato Velluti. Dall' anno MCCC. in circa
fino al MCCCLX. In Firenze. Presso D. M. Manni. MDCCXXXI.

302 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 describ-
ing various other members of the family Paolo con-
tinues : " It now remains to say something of myself; but
as it is not fitting that one should speak well or ill of one-
self, 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, Sara-
gossa 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

PALAZZO SAN CLEMENTE 303

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 Fran-
cesco 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.

304 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 Bag-
lioni, 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 Niccol6 were exiled as rebels.
Niccol6 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 305

PALAZZO SODERINI

Piazza Soderini. No.

From the Ponte alia Carraja to the Piazza di Cestello
all the houses along the Lung'Arno once belonged to the
Soderini, who came to Florence in the Xllth 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 facade of Giotto's campanile.

Niccolo, 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 con-
trary an intimate friend of Piero de'Medici. He success-
fully 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 quarter-
ing the Papal Keys and the Triple Tiara in his arms.
" Being one of the chief citizens," writes Machiavelli,

306 FLORENTINE PALACES

"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 Gon-
falonier. 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, 15 12, 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 alia Carraja near S.

PALAZZO SPINI 307

Frediano." Virtu, 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 mori Pier Soderini,
L'alma n'ando nell'inferno alia bocca ;
E Pluto le grido : Anima sciocca,
CI12 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 Jiis : 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 Tomabuoni. No. 2.

Accordixg to a genealogy drawn up by one of the
Spini in the XVth century the family descend from
Spina Moscardi, who lived in the Xllth 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.

" Oualis Spinorum fuerit fortuna secundos
Vobis, quae fuxta sunt alta palatia muros
Testantur genus antiquum Romana propago."

The houses and towers of both the brothers were parti-
ally destroyed by the Ghibellines in 1 260-1 266, and the
remainder by the terrible flood of 15th December, 1288,

308 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 mer-
chant, 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 repre-
sentative in Tuscany, he was Commissary of War for his
native city, ambassador to Pope Boniface VIII. and after-
wards to Benedict XL, 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 Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Arezzo and other cities, and in addi-
tion 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 de-
pends entirely on its charming and almost untranslatable
language, but that of Messer Geri gives a vivid description
of Florentine life and manners in the XlVth century.

" 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 to-
gether 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

PALAZZO SPINI.

PALAZZO SPINI 311

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 dav 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 water-
pot, 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 busi-
ness 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

312 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 hon-
ourable 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

PALAZZO SPINI 313

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 Gcri 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

314 FLORENTINE PALACES

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 out-
burst 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 con-
spicuous by his virulent antagonism to Savonarola. He
was the leader of a band of young nobles who called them-
selves 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

PALAZZO SPINI 315

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 165 1 the northern half of the great palace was bought
by Niccold Guasconi, and after his death it was sold to
the Da Bagnano family, from whom the Marchese Ales-
sandro 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 facade 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 enter-
tained for the stability of the building. So in July, 1823,
that side of Palazzo Spini was taken down and the facade
thrown back to admit of the continuation of the Lung'Arno
Acciaiuoli. In 1834 tne 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.

316 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO STROZZI

Piazza degV 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 race of Arcady, and bore as his emblem a half
moon.1 When fighting, with his strong hand he throttled
(strozzo) his enemy. The Etruscans in consequence re-
named 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."

The real progenitor of the house of Strozzi was how-
ever an Ubertino who lived early in the Xllth 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
1 The Strozzi arms are three half moons.

PALAZZO STROZZI.

PALAZZO STROZZI 319

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 im-
passioned 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 from Florence, remarked that the Florentines were
the fifth element.1 Palla's son, Francesco, distinguished

1 The conversation between the Pope and the prelates in the Con-
sistory was as follows. The Pope asked : " Qualis Civitas est Florentia.

320 FLORENTINE PALACES

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

Et quia interrogatio ipsius non dirigebatur ad aliquem in spetiali, idcirco
nullus respondebat. Tandem post tertiam interrogationem, turbatus
quia nullus ei respondebat dixit : Nisi mihi respondeatis, omnes vos
poni faciam in multa, sive in carcerem. Tunc Cardinalis Hispanus
respondit dicens : Domine, Civitas Florentina est una bona Civitas.
Cui Papa Bonifatius ait: O male Hispane, quid est hoc quod dicis?
Imo est melior civitas totius Mundi. Nonne qui nutriunt nos, et regunt,
et gubernant Curiam nostram, sunt Florentini ? Etiam totum Mundum
videntur regere et gubernare. Nam omnes Ambaxiatores, qui istis tem-
poribus ad nos per Reges, Barones, et comunitates sunt directi, Florentini
fuerunt. . . Et ideo cum Florentini regant et gubernent totum Mundum,
videntur mihi quod ipsi sint Quintum elementum."

PALAZZO STROZZI 321

no one had as yet arisen to accomplish it. Being passion-
ately 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 her letters.1
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

1 Lettere di u?ta Ge?itildon?ia Fiorenti?ia. Publicate da Cesare Guasti
^irenze. G. C. Sansoni. 1877.

322 FLORENTINE PALACES

thought it wiser to stay in Florence and work for the pos-
sible 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 event-
ually 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 j
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

PALAZZO STROZZI 323

short, he seemed made by nature not less to dispense his
riches usefully, than to accumulate them."

In 1466 his sentence of exile was cancelled, and he once
more beheld his native city, where he married the beautiful
Fiametta degl' Adimari, one of the girls described by his
mother, by whom he had a son, Alfonso, and two
daughters. After her death he married Selvaggia, daughter
of Bartolomeo Gianfigliazzi, who bore him three daughters
and two sons ; Lorenzo, writer of the records of his father
and of other members of his family, and Giovanbattista,
who by his mother's desire took his father's name, Filippo,
after his death.

In the Strozzi archives is the contract between Filippo
Lippi and Filippo degl' Strozzi for the painting of the
chapel which Strozzi had bought from the decayed family
of Boni in Sta. Maria Novella, showing the shrewd man
of business, who was determined to have his money's
worth :

THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF APRIL, 1487.

Let it be known to all that Filippo di Filippo, painter, has engaged
to paint for Filippo di Matteo degl' Strozzi, his chapel in Sta. Maria
Novella, next to the high altar, under the following conditions : In the
ceiling there are to be four figures, either Doctors, or Evangelists, or
others, as the said Strozzi prefers, to be decorated in blue and gold as
richly as can be ; the remainder of the ceiling to be all of blue ultra-
marine of the finest, of the cost of at least 4 "fiorini larghi" the ounce,
and the shafts and capitals are to be adorned with painting and gold,
according to necessity. And on either side there are to be two stories
[paintings] the subjects to be given by the said Filippo Strozzi ; and the
sides of the window, and the pillars, and the arch of the chapel inside
and out, and the coats of arms, are to be ornamented as the said Filippo
orders ; and in every place where it be necessary such gold and ultra-
marine as is called for, shall be used, and every other colour shall be
good and perfect. And the said Filippo di Filippo promises to the said
Strozzi to paint it in fresco and to finish it with all the care and diligence
he is capable of; and all with his own hand, especially the figures.

And it is agreed that the said Filippo is to have for his work, with
painting, colours, azure, scaffoldings, lime, wood and everything else, so
that the said Strozzi shall have no other calls upon him, 300 fiorini di
suggello * paid as follows : 35 fiorini now, when he begins the work,

1 i. e. of perfect alloy and weight. A fiorino was worth about 6s.

324 FLORENTINE PALACES

for the wood, lime, and other necessaries ; the remainder, up to ioo
fiorini, when he desires to go to Venice ;l and the rest from time to time
as he works, but so that 50, or at least 40, fiorini shall remain, which the
said Strozzi promises to pay punctually when he has finished, which he
promises to do by the 1st March, 1480. . .

Lorenzo gives a graphic account of the building of the
great palace in the Life of his father, already quoted.
" Having amplv provided for his successors, and being
more desirous of fame than of riches, seeing no better Or
surer method for transmitting his memory to posterity,
and being naturally inclined towards building, and of no
small intelligence, Filippo determined to raise an edifice
which should perpetuate his name and that of his family
in Italy and abroad. But he was confronted by the great
difficulty that he who governed [Lorenzo de'Medici] might
conceive that another's glory would outshine his; so, fear-
ing to do a thing that might arouse envy, he spread abroad
the rumour that having so many children and so small a
house, he was bound, having begotten them, to provide a
dwelling for them, a thing better done during life than
after death. Thus he began tentatively, discussing first
with masons, then with architects, about the necessity of
having a house. Sometimes he seemed inclined to begin it
at once, then he would appear irresolute and alarmed lest
he should spend in a short time what he had gained in
long years with much toil and industry; astutely hiding
from all his desire and his intention, in order the better to
carry out his design ; declaring always that he only wanted
a comfortable burgher's house, for use and not for show.
But the masons and architects, according to their wont,
enlarged and improved on every plan, which pleased
Filippo, although he feigned anger, saying that they drove
him into what he neither wished nor could accomplish.
Add to this that the ruler desired that the city should be
adorned with every sort qf ornament, thinking that as good

1 The only place where pure and good ultramarine could be bought.

PALAZZO STROZZI 325

and ill depended alone on him, so every beautiful or ugly
thing would also be attributed to him. Aware that so great
and costly a work could not be regulated or calculated with
exactness, he feared that it might not only destroy his
credit, as often happens with merchants, but cause his ruin.
For these reasons he began to interfere, and insisted on
seeing the plans, to which, besides many other expenses,
after due consideration, he added the ' bozzi ' [dressed
blocks of stone with bosses] on the outside. The more
Filippo was encouraged, the more he affected to hold
back; declaring nothing should induce him to add the
1 bozzi,' being unsuited to his condition and too costly, as
he was building for use and not for show, and intended to
arrange many shops under the house as a source of income
for his sons. This was strenuously opposed, the extreme
ugliness being dwelt upon as well as the inconvenience to
those who were to inhabit the palace. Filippo respectfully
demurred, and would occasionally complain to his friends
that he had entered upon an undertaking which he prayed
God might end well, and that he had rather never have
mentioned it than find himself in such a labyrinth. Thus
the more he appeared intent on avoiding expense, in order
to hide the greatness of his designs and the vastness of his
riches, the more he was driven and encouraged to fulfil his
secret desires. By such sagacity and astuteness he attained
what would either have been denied to him, or have caused
him great harm. Most men thought that such a building
would be his ruin before its completion ; but he had
planned to finish it in every detail, year by year out of his
income, without diminishing his capital, and would have
done so if death, which often interrupts magnificent and
great enterprises, had not prevented him."

Part of the Palazzo Strozzi covers what once was the
Piazza de'Tornaquinci, belonging to various families who
had their towers and loggie round it. Without the inter-
vention of Lorenzo de'Medici, Filippo would never have

326 FLORENTINE PALACES

been able to obtain possession of the ground. On the ioth
February, 1489, Giovanni Tornabuoni, Pietro and Barto-
lomeo Popoleschi, Girolamo and Giachinetto Giachinotti,
Giovanni, Piero and Niccolo Tornaquinci ceded all their
rights to the whole, or part, of the said Piazza, to Lorenzo
de'Medici to give, sell, or cede irrevocably to whomsoever
he wished. On the ioth March following Filippo was
authorized to straighten the line of the Piazza, and to
occupy any portions of the streets and small alleys that
might be necessary. He was also permitted to build
11 scdilia," or stone benches, suitable to the building. All
the rights that the Commune might have to the Piazza de'
Tornaquinci were ceded to him. This act was ratified by
the Signori and Collegi of the Republic, and on the ioth
April Lorenzo de'Medici had the deed of gift drawn up by
a notary, on condition that the building should be begun
within a year and continued without intermission under
pain of forfeiture.

On the ioth July the first cartloads of sand and small
stones were thrown into the foundations, and Filippo
writes: "On the 15th July at daylight I began to pull
down the carpenter's shop in the Via Larga de'Torna-
quinci, as a beginning to my work; this spot was pointed
out to me as good by Benedetto Bigliotti, who also advised
that the building should begin on Thursday, the 6th
August when the sun rose above the mountain." This
opinion being ratified by Niccol6 and Antonio Benivieni,
by the Bishop Paganotti and by Marsilio Ficino, all learned
in astrology, the first stone of the foundation was laid by
Filippo in the middle of the arch of the large door in the
Via Larga di Santa Trinita e Tornaquinci (now Via Torna-
buoni), when he placed certain medals under the stone.
Tribaldo de' Rossi, who happened to pass by at that
moment, notes in his Memoirs: " Filippo said to me, take
up a stone and throw it in, and I did so, and then put my
hand into my leathern satchel in his presence and took out

PALAZZO STROZZI 3^7

a ' quattrino vecchio gigliato ' to throw in ; he demurred to
this, but for luck I threw it and he was pleased. Then
leaving, I went to my shop, opposite to Sta. Trinita, and
bethought me that for the memory of the event I would
send for Guarniero, my son, and for Francesca, my
daughter. Tita, our maid, who had come to the shop to
fetch the meat, it being Thursday morning, went for
them, and Nannina, my wife, sent me the two children
well dressed, and I took them to the said foundations.
Raising Guarniero in my arms so that he could look down,
I gave him a ' quattrino gigliato ' and he threw it in, and a
nosegay of damask roses he held in his hand I made him
throw in also, and said to him : ' now thou art to remember
this,' and he answered yes, together with our servant girl
Tita who was there ; Guarniero was exactly four years and
two days old, and Nannina had but a few days before made
him a new overcoat of silk, shot green and yellow, and
thus may it ever be to the glory of God."

In a few days the foundations of the palace on the side
next to the Piazza were rilled in and work had begun, to
the great discomfort of the neighbours ; particularly of the
chemist, Luca Landucci, who notes in his diary: "The
pulling down of houses by great numbers of master-masons
and workmen continues, so that all the streets around are
choked with mountains of stone and lime, and with mules
and donkeys carrying away rubbish and bringing rough
stone. The worst is for the shopkeepers, who are bothered
with dust and the plague of people who stand and look on,
and for those who cannot get past with their laden beasts."
On the 2 1 st August building commenced, and on the 18th
May, 1490, the wall below the " bozzi " was finished on
the side next the Piazza; on the 2nd June a mast, and a
crane for raising the stones, were set up, and six days after-
wards the first of the large " bozzi " was put in its place.
" Every day," writes Rossi, "eight or ten of these were
set," and Landucci the chemist notes, "on the 20th July,

328 FLORENTINE PALACES

the ring at the corner of Tornaquinci, the one with the
serpent or dragon, was put into its place."

On the 1 8th May, 1491, Filippo Strozzi died, and
Rossi writes: "In all the land has arisen great respect
for the beautiful building, and he [Filippo] is held to be
the good man he was. He had begun to put in the irons
of the windows, five were already set in the front and the
others were ready." The day before his death Filippo
made his will, containing most minute directions for finish-
ing pictures and buildings commenced by him, particularly
with regard to the " big house, which not being finished
inside and out according to plan and model, so that both
houses can be inhabited, my heirs are to see that it is
completed ; therefore fifty men at the least, between master-
masons, men, and stone-cutters, are to be kept continually
at work, so that without loss of time it shall be finished at
the latest in the year 1496." Filippo deputes " Messer
Andrea Buondelmonti to hasten matters and to command
everybody, at a salary of 50 ' fiorini larghi ' a year for so
long as he gives his time to the building, but the salary
is to cease in 1496." If not then finished he begs " the
magnificent Lorenzo de'Medici, if then living, and willing
to undertake the charge, to see that it be completed in two
years from that date, and if he be not alive or is unwilling
to accept such charge, then the Consuls of the Guild of
Merchants of Calimala, with two governors of the hospital
of Messer Bonifazio and two elders of the house of Strozzi,
are to have authority to finish it." The will is far too long
to transcribe, but the following clause is too characteristic
to omit. " In order that the said Lorenzo, or the said
Consuls, etc., may see to the work, I direct that between
1496 and 1498, or for whatever less time may be needful to
finish the said house, they be authorized to come once
every fifteen days to dine in the said house, in whatever
part thereof seems to them most honourable and conveni-
ent, at the expense of my heirs, but no dinner is to cost

PALAZZO STROZZI 329

more than fifty lire piccioli." Filippo also forbids his heirs
to sell the house or even to let it, save to a Strozzi. The
two houses mentioned in the will are in reality but the
one palace which was built to serve for two separate
families; a fact often forgotten when the internal arrange-
ments are criticized. Filippo's widow did her utmost to carry
out his wishes. " She was most desirous," writes her son
Lorenzo, "to husband the family wealth for her sons, so
that when the}' attained majority they might not find their
paternal inheritance diminished or the house unfinished."
In the family archives the building may be followed week
by week by payments to the various artisans until 1507
when, writes Giovanni Cambi, " Selvaggia, for account of
her sons, finished her part in obedience to the will, but
Alfonso " [Filippo's son by his first wife] " took no heed
of it and did not hasten to take up his abode in the house.
He began by inhabiting the ground floor and then con-
tinued building little by little for his own need and use,
so that the said building will remain imperfect and do dis-
honour to their father." Lorenzo Strozzi confirms this
when in mentioning the will he adds : " It is as though he
had been prescient that some of them had in their minds
not to carry out what he had ordered. Though on the
palace, that grand and splendid work, he [Alfonso] spent
something, yet he did it unwillingly, and the blame is his
if it is still incomplete."

Signor Iodici Del Badia, in his historical notes to Messer
Mazzanti and Del Lungo's fine work 1 throws doubt on the
accuracy of Vasari in attributing the original design of
the Palazzo Strozzi to Benedetto da Majano. Vasari states
that " Filippo Strozzi summoned Benedetto da Majano,
who made a model, isolated on all sides, and then com-
menced the work, but not according to the plan, as shall

1 Raccolta Delle Miglioi'i Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze.
Disegnate e Descritte da R. ed. E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo, architetti.
Firenze. G. Ferroni. 1876.

330 FLORENTINE PALACES

be explained below,1 because several neighbours declined
to sell their houses. So he began the palace as he best
could, and nearly finished the shell thereof before the death
of the said Filippo : the shell being of the rustic order and
graduated as can be seen. The 'boszi' from the first-
floor windows downwards, as well as the doors, are huge
rustic work, and from the first-floor windows up to the
second-floor they are of lesser rustic work. Now it hap-
pened that at the very time that Benedetto left Florence,
Cronaca returned from Rome, and being recommended to
Filippo, made for him so admirable a design for the court-
yard and for the cornice surrounding the palace outside
that, perceiving the excellence of his talent, Filippo decided
to leave all in his hands, and employed him ever after.
So Cronaca added to the beautiful exterior of the Tuscan
order a most magnificent Corinthian cornice round the top
of the palace up to the roof, of which at present but the
half is finished, of such exceeding beauty that it could not
be improved or anything finer be desired. This cornice was
drawn by Cronaca, who copied and took exact measure-
ments of an ancient cornice at Spoglia Cristo, in Rome,
acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful of the many
existing in that city; it is true that Cronaca enlarged it in
proportion to the palace, so that it might make a suitable
finish, and with its projection a roof, to the said palace.
Thus by his genius he understood how to use the works of
others and made them almost his own, a thing few people
can do; for the difficulty lies not alone in making copies
and drawings of such beautiful things, but in knowing how
to apply them according to necessity, with grace, propor-
tion, and suitability. . . . Now Cronaca executed the said
cornice with consummate art as far as the middle, all around
the palace with label and eggf and on two sides he finished

1 He wanted to pull down all the houses to the north and make a fine
square as far as S. Michele Bertelde ; and to the south a garden, which
was to have extended to the Via Porta Rossa.

PALAZZO STROZZI 331

it, balancing the stones in such guise and so poising and
tying them, that no better building can be seen or one
finished with more care and perfection. Thus also all the
other stones of this palace are so dressed and fitted that
they appear to be of one piece, and not joined together.
And in order that everything might be in unison, he caused
beautiful iron-work to be made for the whole palace, and
for the lanterns that are at the corners ; all done by
Niccol6 Grosso Caparra, a Florentine smith, with extreme
care. Marvellous in these lanterns are the cornices, the
columns, the capitals, and the brackets, wrought in iron
with perfect mastery. Never has any workman of recent
times made objects in iron so large and so complex with
such knowledge and skill."

Other critics had already observed that the name of
Benedetto da Majano, as an architect, appears in con-
nection with no other building, and Signor Del Badia has
found in the Strozzi archives that between Sept. 1489 and
February of the following year, Giuliano da San Gallo
received 115 lire (no small sum in those days) at three
different dates, " for work, and in part for wood, used in
making the working model for building the house;" in
April 1590 " the carpenter Filippo d' Andrea received 9
lire for his trouble and his work on a model of the first
floor of the house;" and in July a quantity of trunks of
lime trees were bought to make " the new model " of 120
large and small columns. The iron cressets also do not
appear to have been exclusively the work of the famous
Caparra, for in the account-books of the family in 149 1,
28 lire are mentioned as paid to Benedetto di Leonardo da
Majano " for a wooden model of the cresset made by order
of the chief," and 13 soldi were reimbursed to Simon del
Pollaiolo which he declares to have paid to Ippolito the
turner for two wooden models of banderai [the iron rings
between the windows].

In 1533 Filippo Strozzi the younger, irritated at seeing

332 FLORENTINE PALACES

his father's great work remain unfinished succeeded, to-
gether with his brother Lorenzo, in inducing their eldest
half-brother Alfonso to finish his part, by offering to
bear one-third of the expense. Two courses of " bozzi "
were wanting, and the cornice. A contract was signed
with stonecutters of Settignano for the cornice, and in
October 1534 another with a master-mason for putting it
up. But the rupture between Filippo and the Duke Ales-
sandro stopped the work, and in August the following year
the contract was dissolved by common consent.

Alfonso died without male heirs and the palace went
to his half-brothers, Lorenzo, from whose Lives of the
Strozzi these facts are quoted, and Filippo, who married
Clarice, daughter of Piero de'Medici and Alfonsina Orsini.
This marriage created a great stir in Florence. The Strozzi
and the Medici had always been rivals, and the Gonfalonier
Piero Soderini denounced the " presumptuous licence and
audacity " of young Filippo in daring to marry the scion
of an exiled house. He was summoned before the Priors
and though he defended himself with great ability was
sentenced to a fine of 500 golden crowns and exiled for
three years. His bride came to live in the palace in
Florence, and by her modest and dignified manners won
all hearts, so after some months her husband was permitted
to return to his native city. A few years later the Medici
were once again rulers of Florence ; Giovanni ascended
the papal chair as Leo X.; and astute Filippo Strozzi at
twenty-two years of age became one of the most influential
men in the city. But his brother lays stress on the fact
that he was not elated by his position for, " if any Floren-
tine saluted him by taking off his hood out of respect,
or called him Messer Filippo, instead of as heretofore plain
Filippo, he would be angry as though he had been abused;
saying he was neither a doctor nor a knight to whom the
title of Messere belonged, but plain Filippo, son of a
citizen and merchant of Florence of the same name."

PALAZZO STROZZI 333

When Lorenzo de'Medici, Duke of Urbino, the nephew
of Pope Leo X., went in 1518 to France to marry Made-
leine de la Tour d'Auvergne, he insisted on his brother-
in-law accompanying him, and Filippo left Palazzo Strozzi
in great state clad in crimson velvet. He was also charged
to represent the Pope as godfather to the son and heir
of Francis I. M. de Fleuranges, who was at Amboise,
describes the festivities as the most splendid that had ever
been seen in France or in Christendom. They lasted for
nearly six weeks and then the Duke and his bride returned
to Florence. Six years later he died and his cousin, the
Cardinal Giulio de'Medici, ruled in Florence.

When Giulio de'Medici, the illegitimate son of Giuliano,
ascended the papal throne as Clement VII., Filippo
Strozzi hastened to Rome to congratulate his wife's kins-
man, and to beg for a cardinal's hat for his eldest son Piero.
Not long afterwards the Pope was forced to take refuge
in Castel Sant'Angelo, and had to sue for peace with
Charles V. A hostage was demanded, and Filippo, sorely
against his will, was chosen and went as a prisoner to
Naples with Don Ugo di Moncada. Needless to say
Clement kept none of his promises and Filippo was in
some danger of losing his head, A shift in politics saved
him just as his wife Clarice reached Rome, where she
spoke some hard words to the Pope. Soon afterwards
Clement for the second time sought refuge in Castel Sant'
Angelo and Rome was sacked by the Constable de Bour-
bon. "Never," writes old Varchi, "was chastisement
so tremendous inflicted, nor was it ever more richly
deserved." Filippo and his wife left two days before the
catastrophe for Civitavecchia and sailed for Pisa, where
messengers met them from the Cardinal of Cortona, who
was governing Florence for the Medici, and from Niccolo
Capponi, brother-in-law of Filippo and head of the anti-
Medicean party. Strozzi had need of all his prudence
and astuteness at this juncture. Clarice urged him to

334 FLORENTINE PALACES

proceed at once to Florence, where his influence would
be supreme on whichever side he chose to use it. After
much pondering he decided to send her to " try the difficult
ford" as his brother Lorenzo puts it, and Clarice, who
had always been he continues, " high-spirited even beyond
what was prudent," started for Florence at once. Her
first interview was with Niccolo Capponi and others of
the " Ottimati " or patrician party, to whom she promised
her husband's and her own help in expelling her kinsmen
the Medici. She was then carried in her litter to the Palazzo
Medici (now Palazzo Riccardi), where the Cardinal Ridolfi
and young Ippolito de'Medici met her on the staircase
and conducted her into the room next the chapel where
sat the Cardinal-Governor. He rose to salute her and, as
Varchi writes, she said to him : " Ah Monsignore, Mon-
signore, whither have you led us. Does it seem to you
that your past and present conduct is in any way similar
to that practised by my ancestors?" After setting forth
how they had always obeyed the will of the people, she
turned to the two lads, Ippolito and Alessandro de'Medici,
and advised them to think of their own safety, for which
she naturally felt more anxiety than the cardinal.

Two days later prudent Filippo Strozzi entered Florence;
many of his relations and friends met him at the city
gate and escorted him to his palace, which was crowded by
anxious citizens eager to know what he would do. After
long consultation he decided to go at once to the Palazzo
Medici and advise the Cardinal to leave the city with
Ippolito and Alessandro. On the 17th May, 1527, he and
Niccolo Capponi rode with them, through a threatening
crowd, down the Via Larga (now Via Cavour) to the city
gate, and Filippo accompanied them ten miles further to
their villa of Poggio a Cajano.

A year later he lost his wife and not liking the condition
of things in Florence went to Lyons, where he had a large
commerce in silk. One of his daughters had married Luigi

PALAZZO STROZZI 335

Capponi and is described by Varchi as being " not less
honest and virtuous than beautiful, noble and of most
engaging manners." She was invited to a masked ball
given in honour of the marriage of Guglielmo Martelli
to Marietta Nasi, where the Duke Alessandro and his
courtiers were disguised as nuns. Among them was
Giuliano Salviati, "a man," writes Varchi, "of abomin-
able life and ill fame. His wife bore an evil reputation
and he, desiring that others should be like her, accosted
Luisa at the ball and said some words, with actions
worthy of himself but certes not of her; whereupon she,
being virtuous and of high spirit, with haughty speech
and scornful demeanour, repulsed him. But in the morn-
ing, when the entertainment which had lasted until day-
light was over and Luisa wished to mount her horse,1 he,
being impudent and shameless, pressed forward to aid her
repeating the words and the actions of the night before;
and with most angry scorn she replied to him as he
deserved. The affair passed, and would perhaps have had
no consequences, had Giuliano been satisfied with using
discourtesy towards a gentlewoman such as she was, and
not openly boasted of his behaviour. ..."

It was customarv on every Friday in March for people
to go up to S. Miniato to obtain pardon for their sins,
and Luisa's brother Leone Strozzi, Prior of Capua, Giuli-
ano Salviati and other young nobles, stood watching the
ladies come out of the church. As Luisa passed Giuliano
made some insolent remarks, so the Prior said: " Giuli-
ano, you perhaps do not know that she is my sister;"
whereupon Giuliano repeated his insulting words. On the
following night, as Salviati was returning on horseback
from the Palazzo Medici, he was assaulted by three
strangers and wounded in the face and on the leg, so that he
was lame ever after. Duke Alessandro was furious, and
gave orders that the assassins must be discovered. Sus-
1 Carriages were only introduced into Florence about 1534. Seep. 173.

336 FLORENTINE PALACES

picion, of course, fell on the Strozzi. Piero, Leone the
Prior, and two of their friends were arrested, and there
was a question of putting them to the torture; but Clement
VII. interfered, and ordered that nothing more should be
done. Piero Strozzi and his brothers, knowing their lives
were in danger, took horse and went to Rome. Meanwhile
Luisa, who had remained in Florence with her husband,
supped joyously one night, as the old chronicler Segni
reports, with her sister Maria, wife of Lorenzo Ridolfi. A
few hours afterwards she died in excruciating agony, and
her body turned black. Her relations insisted on a post
mortem examination, and the doctors declared that she had
died from the effect of some virulent poison. Varchi more
than hints that her own family were the culprits, out of
fear that the Duke, " by means of some treachery or fraud,
purposed to stain the honour of their family in the person
of Luisa." But Segni and others agree that, having re-
pulsed the Duke Alessandro, as she had done Salviati, his
infamous wife poisoned her by the Duke's orders. Not
long after the death of the beautiful Luisa, her father and
her brothers were declared rebels and outlaws by the Duke
Alessandro. The sentence was confirmed by his successor
Cosimo I. because Lorenzino de' Medici, after he had
murdered his cousin the Duke Alessandro, fled to Venice
where Filippo Strozzi hailed him as a second Brutus.

The exiles invaded Tuscany, but were beaten ; Strozzi
was made prisoner at Montemurlo, together with Bacio
Valori, and thev were taken to Florence mounted on miser-
able peasants' horses in August, 1537. Filippo was im-
mured in the fortress of S. Giovan Battista (now Fortezza
del Basso), for which but four years before he had ad-
vanced the funds to Clement VII. He was put on the
rack, but no avowal of guilt was wrung from him ; so his
friend Giuliano Gondi was tortured, and his confession —
or what purported to be his confession — was sent to the
Emperor Charles V. and an order obtained from him to

PALAZZO STROZZI 337

give up Filippo Strozzi to the Duke Cosimo. On the
morning of the 18th December, 1538, he was found dead in
his prison, but how he came by his death was never known.
The anonymous writer who finished the biography begun
bv his brother Lorenzo, states as a fact that he killed him-
self with a sword left by chance by one of his guards, and
gives a document which he says was found in the prison
in his handwriting. Three contemporary chroniclers state
that he was beheaded, and Segni adds: " His body was
never seen; nor was it ever known where he was buried.'"
It was generally believed that he had killed himself when
he knew that he was to be delivered into the hands of the
executioner. Signor Bigazzi gives a facsimile of two
epitaphs in Filippo's handwriting, one to be used " In
my own country, if in these times it shall be permitted,"
consisting of these few proud words :

Philippo Strozzae.
Satis hoc; caetera norunt omnes;

the other, also in Latin, " for a cenotaph in some foreign
city," gives us his opinion of himself.

11 To Filippo Strozzi, by far the most illustrious of all
Tuscans in nobility, learning and wealth ; who, when
Rome was sacked by the Imperial forces, and Pope
Clement was besieged therein, restored his country, then
reduced to base slavery, to liberty. Ten years afterwards,
when again opposing resuscitated despotism, he was taken
prisoner at the castle of Montemurlo, and soon after cruelly
put to death. His seven surviving sons placed this monu-
ment to his memory amid the tears of all good men. The
tyrant did not blush to buy his blood at a vast price, for
he could find no means of remaining in security while so
powerful an enemy lived. But Liberty, knowing well that
all her hopes fell with him, willed to be buried in the same
tomb. Pour forth then, stranger, abundant tears if he

338

FLORENTINE PALACES

Florentine Republic is aught to thee; for thou wilt never
have cause to mourn the loss of a greater citizen. He
lived forty-eight years, . . . months, . . . days. His
last words were, ' It is sweet to die by whatsoever death
for one's country.' "

Filippo's supposed will was commonly reported to have
been written by Pierfrancesco of Prato, who had been
tutor to Duke Cosimo, and was devoted to his interests.

The anonymous writer before mentioned gives the fol-
lowing description of the great banker : " Filippo was tall
of stature, and of a cheerful and pleasing countenance;
sallow of complexion, agile, and made more for a life of
action than for one of repose. No one was more agreeable
in manner, in gesture, deed and word; he was extremely
affable, almost always smiling when he first met people.
His step was extraordinarily rapid, and when his friends
remarked upon it he would say nothing was so irksome
to him as loss of time, and that he did not see why, when
he could go quickly from place to place, he should go
slowly. When he could pass a day according to his fancy
he was wont to divide it into three portions; one he gave
to his studies, one to his private concerns, and one to his
pleasures. . . . He was more inclined to pleasure than
was perhaps fitting, not only from inclination, but to
adapt himself to the wishes of his superiors and friends.
When he was at any public or private assembly where
there were ladies, he would lightly fall in love, for he was
much inclined to the society of women ; attaching himself
rather to those remarkable for elegance and grace of
manner than to those who were merely beautiful in fea-
ture. He was exceedingly fond of music, sang well and
accurately, and was not ashamed to sing the penitential
psalms at night in public together with his brother Lorenzo
and others such on holidays. He took much pleasure also
in composing in our own tongue both in prose and verse,
as may be seen by the translations and madrigals of his

PALAZZO STROZZI 339

which are sung at the present day. He was sumptuous in
dress; as much so as any other man in the city. He de-
lighted in travel, and in seeing new manners and people,
but his many and various affairs did not permit him to
indulge this desire. To sum up his character in one word,
those who were acquainted with literature thought that he
had never given his attention to other things; while those
who had business relations with him, and knew in how
masterly a fashion he conducted his affairs, could not
easily be persuaded that he ever attended to other matters ;
whilst those who knew him as a man of pleasure could
scarcely believe that he found time for aught else."

Filippo's son, Piero Strozzi, went to Barcelona to plead
the cause of the exiles before Charles V., and after their
disastrous defeat at Montemurlo and his father's murder,
entered the service of Francis I., who created him Lord of
Belleville and a knight of S. Michael. When the Mar-
quess Del Vasto was beaten by the Conte d'Enghien in
1544 at Ceresole, Piero Strozzi attempted to seize Milan.
Failing in this, he crossed the Po at Piacenza, and fought
his way down to Serravalle, but had to retire into Pied-
mont, where he besieged and took the town of Alba. He
was recalled to France in 1545, when he fought against
the English, and the following year he joined the Pro-
testant army in Germany against Charles V. Later he
took part with the Due de Guise in defending Metz, when
besieged by the Emperor. On the Sienese appealing to
Francis I. for help against Duke Cosimo I. backed by
Charles V., Strozzi rushed to their assistance armed with
full powers from the King, who made him a Marshal of
France. When Siena was forced to capitulate Piero, who
knew that Duke Cosimo had offered a large reward for his
head, fled in disguise, but returned to Italy in 1556, sent
by Henry II. to the aid of Pope Paul IV. against the
Emperor. After the battle of St. Quintin in the Nether-
lands, where the Spaniards gained a decisive victory,

340 FLORENTINE PALACES

Strozzi was recalled to France, and assisted at the taking
of Calais by the Due de Guise. Two years later he was
killed at the siege of Thionville.

His brother Leone, Prior of Capua, went to Malta,
where he became a Knight of the Order and Captain of
the galleys. He fought with distinction under Andrea
Doria, and in 1541 entered the service of Francis I., whose
rivalry with the Emperor Charles V., patron of the Medici,
gave him hopes of revenging the murder of his father
and of liberating Tuscany from the yoke of a family he
hated. In 1547 Leone fought against England, and is
said to have been the first European admiral to sail
through the Straits of Gibraltar. Four years later after
vainly trying to force Andrea Doria to fight, he drove his
fleet from the coasts of France, and setting sail for Barcelona,
captured several of the enemy's ships within sight of shore.
Discovering that the Connetable Anne de Montmorency
was intriguing against him, Leone sent back his standard
to the King and, breaking the chains which closed the
port of Marseilles, sailed back to Malta, where he planned
the fortifications of S. Elmo and S. Michael. When the
Sienese rose against Cosimo I. he re-entered the service of
France and, summoned by his brother Piero, preceded the
fleet with three swift galleys and landed at Scarlino on the
coast of Tuscany, where he was killed whilst reconnoitring.
The noble palace belongs to Prince Piero Strozzi, head
of the family ; as in 1568 Cosimo I. restored to the Cardinal
Lorenzo Strozzi and his nephew Leone the half of the
building confiscated by the State when Filippo Strozzi
rebelled.1

1 Archivio Strozzi. Filza IX. A. No. 4.

PALAZZO DELLO STROZZINO 341

PALAZZO DELLO STROZZINO

Piazza Strozzi. No. 9.

According to Litta this beautiful little palace was
built in 1450 by Agnolo degl'Strozzi, son of Palla, sur-
named Novello to distinguish him from his father Palla,
who died as Captain of the Guelph Party in 1377.1 This
statement is confirmed by an entry in the Dei MS. in
the State archives, kindly communicated to me by Dr.
G. Gronau, which runs: "1450. Agnolo, son of
Messer Palla [Novello], who was son of Messer Palla, built
the palace on the square of the Strozzi, called ' of the three
doors.' " Palla Novella was sent to Martin V. in 1423 to
ask for aid against the Duke of Milan who had taken Forli.
But the Pope, who had never forgotten the mocking rhyme
of the Florentine street-boys, refused, and Palla went to
Naples, where he obtained the promise of ships. On his
return he was made Commissary of War. It must have
been about this time that he bought the Gondi houses and
tower adjoining Sta. Maria Ughi, for he was despatched
on an embassy to Savoy soon afterwards, and being waylaid
on his return by Visconti was imprisoned in Milan until the
peace of Ferrara in 142S. His absence, and the high rate
of exchange consequent on the war, caused his bank to
fail; and he came back a sadly impoverished man. He
must, however, have kept the Gondi houses and re-made
a certain fortune, as Flerr v. Fabriczy cites an entry in the
catasto of 1451 in the State archives: "All the houses
mentioned on the opposite page have been incorporated
into one house for my own usage," and this is confirmed
by a marginal note of a clerk of the catasto. " All these
houses are being arranged for him [Palla] to dwell in, as

1 Le~_Famiglie Celebre Italiane, del Conte Pompeo Litta. Vol. V.

342 FLORENTINE PALACES

Nicholo di Ciennj saw them being demolished in order to
make one house." 1

Michelozzi is generally credited with having designed
the palace, but Herr v. Fabriczy and'Herr v. Geymliller
agree in attributing the beautiful courtyard and the upper
floor to another hand, probably Giuliano da Majano.
When Michelozzi left Florence in 1460 nothing is more
likely than that he charged his friend and pupil Giuliano
to finish the building, which, according to the catasto
was done in 1469. I have entered into these details because
it has long been a vexed question as to who built one of
the most beautiful palaces in Florence, now fast falling
into ruin. For many years it was the property of the
Commune and has now been sold to Signor Chiari.

PALAZZO DELLA STUFA

Piazza S. Lorenzo. No. 5.

The architect of the sombre Delia Stufa palace is un-
known, and the loggia on the top has been walled up,
which spoils its appearance. Tradition says that a Lot-
tario, or Lotteringo, came from Lorraine with the Emperor
Otho III. about 998, and gave the name of Lotteringhi to
his descendants, afterwards called Delia Stufa because their
house was built on the site of the ancient Roman baths
(stufe). Lotteringo Delia Stufa was one of the seven
founders of the Servite Order, of which he became the Gen-
eral after the death of Filippo Benizzi in 1285. Ten years
later the Commune, at his request, opened the Porta di
Servi near the S.S. Annunziata, so that the peasants out-
side the walls could more easily come and pray at the

1 Giuliano da Majano i?i Siena. Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussischen
Kunstsamlungen. 1903. P. 333.

PALAZZO DELLA STUFA 343

Virgin's shrine. He was beatified, as was Girolamo, a
Franciscan monk of exemplary piety a century later. Ugo,
knight of the Golden Spur and a learned jurist, after being
many times an ambassador to popes, princes, and other
republics, put himself at the head of the People when they
rose against the nobles in 1343, and three years later was
sent by the Republic to Avignon to remonstrate with Cle-
ment VI. about the arrogance of the Inquisitor. His
son, Giovenco, was one of the Ten of War in 1399,
another, Ugo, after being Captain of Arezzo and Vicario
of the Val d'Arno, was sent in 1408 as Captain to Pisa,
where he made himself so popular that when he left the
Pisans gave him a splendid banner with the arms of the
town, and begged that he might be sent the following year
as their Podesta. He founded and endowed the church of
Monte Asinario (commonly called Senario) near Florence.
His nephew, Angelo, must have had a fluent tongue, as
his name perpetually occurs as ambassador of the Republic.
At Milan in 1476 the Duke made him a knight of the
Golden Spur, and when he died four years later in Flor-
ence, his funeral, at the public expense, was attended by
the Gonfalonier and the Priors. The Delia Stufa were
always adherents of the Medici, and Lorenzo sent Ugo's
son, Luigi, to thank the Soldan of Babylon for various
gifts and animals. The latter are mentioned by Tribaldo
de'Rossi in his Ricordanzi.1 " I record how in 1488 was
presented to Lorenzo de'Medici from the Soldan of Baby-
lon a giraffe; brought by an ambassador, a man of high
position and a great lord of that country; and with the
giraffe were goats and sheep. . . . The giraffe was seven
braccie high, with feet like an ox; it was a gentle beast
and one of those Turcomans led it about ; it was shown in
the country round and in many convents. Lorenzo put it
in the Pope's stables in Via della Scala, and in winter it
had a deep bed of straw and a fire was often kindled near,

1 Magliabechiana Library.

344 FLORENTINE PALACES

as it dreaded the cold. It ate of everything, and when it
could would put its head into the baskets of the peasants ;
it took apples from the hand of a child, so tame was it.
The ambassador stayed some months and the Commune
gave him many presents. The giraffe died in January,
and its skin was preserved ; every one was sorry because it
was a beautiful beast." In a grotto in the garden of the
Villa di Castello its effigy in coloured marbles still exists.
On Luigi Delia Stufa's return from the East he wTas
made Commissary of War at Castrocara, and in 15 13 he
was sent to Rome to congratulate Leo X. on his accession
to the Papal throne, and was knighted with great honour.
But when Leo came to Florence in 1433 " he was much
displeased and annoyed," writes Varchi, " with Messer
Luigi, an intimate friend of the -family, who on going to
salute him in the name of the city with other ambassadors,
showed him, as is reported, a loaf of white bread such as
is sold by the bakers for four quattrini, assuring him that
it only cost two. What is certain is that when this was
known in Florence the boys, as is their custom, made a
song about him, and none could stop their singing these
words, put into rhyme by themselves, in all the streets :

" Messer Luigi Delia Stufa
Ha fitto il capo in una buca,
II qual non ne puo uscire,
Se il gran non val tre lire."

(Messer Luigi Delia Stufa
Has put his head into a hole,
Out of which it can't be drawn,
Until wheat costs three lire.)

His son, Prinzivallo, was the man who fired off an
arquebuse at Clarice degl'Strozzi when she went to protest
against the bad government of the Cardinal Passerini, and
advised him and the two young Medici to leave Florence.
He was imprisoned during the siege, but when the city
capitulated was one of the five citizens named to examine
the fortifications, and afterwards became a Senator. The

PALAZZO TORRIGIANI 345

Grand Duke Ferdinando II. made Pandolfo Delia Stufa
Marquess of Calcione in 1632, an estate purchased by one
of his ancestors from the Republic of Siena. The old
palace belongs to the present Marquess Delia Stufa.

PALAZZO TORRIGIANI

Piazza de'Moczi. No. 6.

The Torrigiani were vintners of Lamporecchio, and
came to Florence in the XlVth century, where they made
a considerable fortune by trade. The family then lived
in the centre of Florence, and the fine old building, now
the Hotel Porta Rossa, was one of their palaces. The
present Palazzo Torrigiani was left to them by the Baron
Cerbone Del Nero, a relation, in 18 16, when the loggia at
the top was walled up and turned into rooms, which has
spoiled the facade. It was built by Tommaso Del Nero in
the XVIth century after his own design, and he must
have been a man of some genius, as he is said to have
painted the decorations of the interior of his palace with
his own hands, as well as designing it. He also founded
the Academy of the Alterati, the precursor of that of the
Crusca, which first met in his house. His ancestor, Ber-
nardo Del Nero, was thrice Gonfalonier of Justice, and in
1483 Commissary-General of War in the Lunigiana
against Costanzo Sforza. The following year he drove
the Genoese out of Vada. His fate was a sad one, as after
his third term of office as Gonfalonier in 1497, he was
accused of conspiring in favour of the Medici and beheaded
in the courtyard of the Palazzo del Podesta when he was
seventy-two years of age.

The riches of the Torrigiani family were increased by
the inheritance of the parsimonious Luca, Archbishop for

346 FLORENTINE PALACES

twenty-four years of the rich See of Ravenna and the son
of an heiress. His brother Carlo bought the estate of
Decimo in the Pontifical States, when his son Raffaelo was
created a Marquess by Clement XI. in 1712. Cardinal
Luigi Torrigiani was Secretary of State to Clement XIII.;
his devotion to the Jesuits, and his blind obedience to
their orders, nearly cost the Pope the allegiance of France,
Spain, and Portugal. Dismissed by Clement XIV., he
died in 1777, the last male representative of his house,
leaving his possessions to his sister's second son, Pietro
Guadagni, with the obligation of taking his name. Rich,
and of some consequence in the city, the Marquess Pietro
Torrigiani was arrested by order of the French General
Gauthier, and transported to France with other prominent
citizens. When the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became
the Kingdom of Etruria he returned, and soon afterwards
Etruria ceased to exist, being declared a province of the
French Empire. Napoleon I. named the Marquess a
member of the Council of the Department of the Arno,
made him a Baron, and in 1812 a French citizen, but on
the restoration of the house of Lorraine he resumed his
Italian nationality and was elected a Senator. His son
Luigi was an able administrator and a patron of the arts,
and many of the finest pictures of the Torrigiani gallery
were bought by him. Carlo Torrigiani, his brother, de-
voted himself to ameliorating the condition of the prisons
and to popular education. He started the society for
building blocks of decent houses for small artisans, and
gained the hearts of the Florentines by his fearless charity
during the outbreak of cholera in 1855. An inscription
to his memory was placed by the municipality of Florence
on the facade of his small palace, which now belongs, as
well as the larger one beside it, to his nephewT, the present
Marquess Torrigiani. It was begun by Baccio d'Agnolo
for the Nasi family and finished by his son Domenico.

PALAZZO UGUCCIONE.

PALAZZO UGUCCIONE 349

PALAZZO UGUCCIONE

Piazza della Signoria. No. 6.

The Uguccione are a branch of the old family of Lippi-
Scalandroni, and took their name from Bernardo di Uguc-
cione, who was the first of eleven Priors of his house in
1434. They lived in the quarter of S. Spirito until 1500,
when Buonaccorso Uguccione bought from Taddeo dell'
Antella and his brothers a house in the Val del Garbo
(now Condotta), with an entrance also on the Piazza
della Signoria. After his death his son Giovanni pur-
chased some adjoining houses and built the beautiful little
palace which has been variously attributed to Raphael,
Palladio, and Michelangelo. Raphael is out of the ques-
tion, as he died thirty years before Giovanni thought of
building his house. Cinelli declares that " the facade of
the house of the Uguccione is by Michelangelo and very
beautiful. The cornice is wanting, which was to have
crowned it, and to have rested upon plain but fine corbels;
their very plainness would have given an uncommon
majesty and grandeur, as can be seen by the model which
is in his house." x This model was constructed by Mari-
otto Folfi, surnamed l'Ammogliato, from a design which
Uguccione obtained from Rome, and is mentioned in a
letter from the Commissarv " delle Bande " to Cosimo L,
which proves how the Duke occupied himself with the
small details of the affairs of his subjects. " Giovanni
Uguccione has just left me in great anger about a drawing
for a building which he got from Rome, and which must
be, as far as I can gather, a very splendid thing. He gave
it to Ceccho Allori, a master-mason, to make an estimate
of his part of the work with strict injunctions not to show

1 Le Bellezza della Citta di Firenze. Gio. Cinelli. Firenze. 1677.

350 FLORENTINE PALACES

it to any one. The mason promised to return it in two or
three days, but now declares that he has lost it, which is an
evident falsehood. Giovanni wanted to appeal at once to
the court of the ' Otto,' but I persuaded him to wait a
few days and again try to obtain possession of the draw-
ing by amicable means. This I did because I wished to
refer to Your Highness, and also because the said court
usually only inflicts a fine for the loss of manuscripts, etc.,
if not returned within so many days, which avails but little
against scoundrels, and lastly because I understand that
the architect has no time to make another design." The
Duke, who was extremely eager to beautify the city, wrote
on the margin of the letter, " Let the court send for him
and insist on his finding it." The drawing was eventually
returned to Uguccione, and Folfi, as I have already said,
made the model and superintended the building. Signor
Iodici Del Badia thinks he probably designed the fine coats-
of-arms, emblems, and internal decorations of the palace.1
In a manuscript record belonging to the family, Giovanni
Uguccione is described as " living in great splendour, and
being one of the noblest, richest and wisest citizens of
that time. He was a merchant, but kept no shop. When
he rode out his horse was splendidly caparisoned, a sign
of magnificence, as at that time there were no carnages."

Uguccione evidently knew that he could rely on the in-
terest the Duke took in his beautiful house, for he en-
croached on the rights of his neighbours on either side
in a most high-handed manner. They went to law, but
only obtained a small pecuniary award for the loss of their
sedilia and their light. When the palace was completed
early in 1559 Giovanni begged to be allowed to occupy
part of the Piazza by putting steps outside his door " ac-
cording to the design, and to give greater beauty to the
house." The permission must have been granted, as in
a drawing of the facade by the younger Vasari in the
1 Lc Migliore Fabbriche, etc., opus cit.

PALAZZO VAI 351

Uffizi, there are five steps leading up to the front door.
These have gradually disappeared owing to the rise in
the level of the Piazza. Giovanni Uguccione died in
December, 1559, leaving the house to his widow Nannina,
daughter of Palla Rucellai, and afterwards to his nephews.
Nannina's arms and emblems, the sail and the ring with
three feathers, are sculptured together with his own in the
entrance hall and in one of the ground-floor rooms. Pope
Benedict XIV. bestowed the title of Marquess on Bene-
detto Uguccione in 1749, and the palace still belongs to
his descendants.

PALAZZO VAI

Via Cavour. No. 31.

The old family of Orlandini were the original proprie-
tors of this palace, and traces of the arches of their loggia
are still to be seen. The street corner was called Canto
degl'Orlandini until the palace was sold to Bernardetto
de'Medici, when it took his name, which is inscribed
on an old marble tablet let into the wall. Bernardetto
was descended from Averardo, grandfather of Cosimo the
Elder, and was Gonfalonier of Justice in 1447, and again
in 1455. He was the ancestor of Alessandro, Pope for
twenty-seven days under the name of Leo XL, and of
Bernardetto, married to Giulia, natural daughter of Duke
Alessandro de'AIedici, who bought Ottojano from the
Gonzaga in the Kingdom of Naples. In 1737, his descend-
ant, Prince Giuseppe d'Ottajano, lay claim to the throne
of Tuscany after the death of the last Grand Duke Giovan
Gastone, but his claim was disallowed.

352 FLORENTINE PALACES

PALAZZO VECCHIETTI

Via de'Vecchietti. No. 2.

Although partly rebuilt and modernized traces of
ancient splendour can still be seen in the pretty courtyard
of this palace. Piero de'Monaldi, in his manuscript
history, tells us "the Vecchietti came originally from
Arezzo, they were a powerful family within the first circuit
of the walls of Florence and owned towers, streets and a
piazza, whereon they built the church of S. Donate Two
Gonfalioners of Justice and twenty-four Priors did they
give to the city. Vecchietto, Consul of Florence in
1 128, was of their race, as was also Marsilio, knight of the
Golden Spur, who was then Captain of Arezzo in 1288.
Dante makes honourable mention of them in his Paradiso."

The corner of the Palazzo Vecchietti is called the Canto
de'Diavoli from the tradition that when St. Peter Martyr
preached here one of his violent sermons against the
heretics, a great black horse suddenly appeared and the
crowd fled in dismay before his kicking and rearing, some
even declared that fire came from his nostrils. People
were convinced that it was the devil and hence the name of
the street corner. On the angle of the old palace was
the satyr (now in the Bargello) made by Gian Bologna
for Bernardo de'Vecchietti, who was his patron and friend.
The house now belongs to the family of Del Corona, and
a copy of Donatello's satyr has been placed where the
original once was.

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PALAZZO VECCHIO 355

PALAZZO VECCHIO

" On the 24th February, 1299, the foundations of the
Palazzo de'Priori, for the Commune and the People of
Florence, were laid," writes Giovanni Villani, "the Priors
not feeling themselves in safety where they had hitherto
lived, that is to say in the house of the Cerchi behind the
church of San Procolo." Arnolfo Cambio was the archi-
tect chosen to build the palace, and he took as his model
the one built at Poppi by his father Lapo. Vasari's story
that he could not make it square and straight as he desired,
because the people would not allow him to build where the
houses of those hated Ghibellines the Uberti once stood,
is not borne out by history, for Villani states, and various
documents dating from 1299 to 131 1 confirm his words,
that the site occupied by the houses of the Uberti was made
into a square, so that it might never again be built upon.
Houses of other citizens, such as the Foraboschi and the
Delia Vacca, were bought, and where they stood was erected
the palace. The tower of the Priors still retains the name
of the latter family, one of whom, Falcone Delia Vacca,
was an Elder of the city in 1260, and from it the street
opposite is called Vacchereccia. When in those " good
old times ' Guelphs and Ghibellines, Whites and Blacks,
flew at each other's throats, and the great bell rang to
call the people to arms, the saying was la vacca mugghia
(the cow is lowing).

Vasari's statement that\Arnolfo filled up most of the old
tower to build his own uporfwas disproved in 1814. The
architect del Rosso, in executing some restorations in the
old palace, discovered a small dark room which had been
walled up, and which he surmised, probably correctly, to
have been the famous Alberghettino, or Barberia, where
Cosimo the Elder was immured, and in later days Savon-

356 FLORENTINE PALACES

arola. In one corner of this room is a rectangular opening,
or well, the bottom of which is about ten and a half feet
below the level of the courtyard; various underground
passages, to which access is obtained by a man-hole in the
guard-room, communicate with it and seem to bear out
the old tales of secret trapdoors down which unhappy
prisoners disappeared for ever. Vasari is also wrong in
saying that part of the church of San Piero Scheraggio
was destroyed at the same time, for it was only partially
swept away to widen the street a century later.1

The tallest part of the Palazzo Vecchio with five windows
on the northern side and six on the western (not counting
the modern balcony) crowned with the square, so-called
Guelph battlements, is Arnolfo's original building and his
design was faithfully carried out after his death in 1301.
The tower, so majestic, and at the same time so elegant is
a model of daring and skill, half resting as it does on the
alur, or covered passage, supported by machicolations,
which surrounds the top of the palace. Half-way up the
tower is another alur, adorned with swallow-tailed, or so-
called Ghibelline battlements, whence rise four columns
with Gothic capitals, supporting the battlemented top of
the tower with its golden lion, the emblem of Florence,
as a weathercock. It was not until 1344 that the bell of
the Council, which till then had been suspended on the
battlements of the palace, was hung in the tower, so that
it might be better heard on the opposite side of the Arno.
In its place was put the bell from Vernio, which rang
to warn the guards whenever a fire burst out in the town.
In 1363 the bell of Foiano, taken when the castle was
sacked, was brought to Florence and placed above the

1 It remained untouched until 14 10 when the right hand aisle was
demolished and the left hand one ceded to a Compagnia. In 1561 the
priest's house, the campanile, the cemetery and the loggia were destroyed
by Cosimo I., when he built the Uffizi, but the small nave continued to
be used as a church until 1743, when it was suppressed and used for the
archives of the tribunal.

PALAZZO VECCHTO 357

alur, to tell the merchants that the dinner hour had come.
The big" bell cracked and in 1373 was recast by a certain
Ricco di Lapo, when it was said that it could be heard
for thirteen miles round the city. When the Florentine
arms were victorious, it rang for days in token of triumph,
until Duke Alessandro de'Medici destroyed it in 1532.

The Gonfaloniers and the Priors lived entirely in the
Palazzo Vecchio during the two months they were in
office and were not allowed to go out save on pressing
business affecting the Commune. No one could speak to
them in private, they were forbidden to accept any in-
vitations and no one could dine with them save the notary
of the city; but their dinners, served on silver plate, were
excellent and their wines choice. Rastrelli writes : " Ten
golden florins were assigned each day to the Priors solely
for their food, all other expenses being defrayed by the
Commune of Florence. This sum was for the maintenance
of the Gonfalonier, the Priors, the notary, the nine
donzelli, or office servants, five monks who served the
chapel of the palace, two who had charge of the seal of
the Commune, and the almsgiver and bursar, who were
also monks; there were also the curial notary, two
mazzieri, or mace-bearers, and a cook who was bound to
keep two scullions; two trumpeters and two pifferi, to
play while the Signori were at table, four bell-ringers and
one servant. . . . No man who had been a Gonfalonier
could be arrested until a year had elapsed from the time
of his holding office, save for some very heinous offence, and
he was allowed to carry arms of any kind for the rest of
his life." l In front of the great door of the palace, where
now are the steps and a platform, was the ringhiera,2
erected in 1323, of which one hears so often in the history
of Florence. Here the Podesta harangued the people from

1 Illustrazio?ie Tstorica del Palazzo dell a Stg?ioria, etc. Modesto Ras-
trelli Firenze. 1792. presso Ant. Gius. Pagani e C. p. 52.

2 or " rostrum," derived from the word arringare — to harangue.

358 FLORENTINE PALACES

his bigoncia, or pulpit, and here the Gonfalonier re-
ceived the Standard of the People in state and delivered
batons of command to the various condottieri who served
the Republic. On the ringhiera Walter de Brienne, Duke
of Athens and Count of Lecce, met the Priors on the 8th
September, 1342, when the people and the nobles shouted,
" Let the Duke have command for life, let the Duke be our
lord.'' The latter, gathering round him, forced open the
door of the palace, led him into the apartment of the
Priors and hailed him as ruler. The Priors were relegated
to the Sala delle Armi, the white silken banner with the
red cross of the People was removed, the books containing
the enactments were torn to shreds, and the Duke's flag,
foreign to Florence, was unfurled on the tower, while the
bell of Liberty rang out the Dio laudiamo. Two days
later the Priors were thrust out, and the Palazzo de'Priori
became the Palazzo Ducale.

A council of Wise Men was instituted by the Duke, with
but one Florentine among them, Cerettieri Visdomini, a
man of evil repute ; and soon the growing dissatisfaction of
his subjects made the Duke think about fortifying him-
self in the palace. " He caused," writes Giovanni Villani,
" the antiporta, or fortified porch, in front of the Palace of
the People to be built, and put iron bars in the windows
of the Sala de'Dugento, or Council Chamber, being afraid
and suspicious of the citizens; and ordered that the whole
palace of the Figliuoli Petri, the towers and houses of the
Manieri, of the Mancini and of Bello Alberti, comprising
the ancient citadel, and extending into the piazza, should
be included in the circuit of the said palace. He began to
lay foundations of thick walls, and of towers and barbicans,
to make of the palace a great and strong fortress ; stopping
the work of building the Ponte Vecchio, which was of such
infinite necessity to the Commune of Florence, and taking
from thence hewn stone and timber. He threw down the
houses of San Romolo in order to extend the piazza as far

PALAZZO VECCIIIO 359

as the houses of Garbo . . . and demanded permission
from the papal court to destroy San Piero Scheraggio,
Santa Cecilia, and Santo Romolo, but the Pope refused
his consent. From the citizens he took certain palaces and
houses that stood round about the palace, and lodged in
them his barons and followers without paying any rent."
Vasari, in his life of Andrea Pisani, writes: "Walter,
Duke of Athens and tyrant of the Florentines, made use of
Andrea also in architectural matters, causing him to en-
large the piazza. Opposite to San Piero Scheraggio, he
added the walls, encased with ' boszi,' alongside of the
palace to enlarge it, and in the width of the wall he con-
structed a secret staircase for going up and down without
being seen. In the said facade of ' bozzi ' he made a large
door, which serves to-day for the customs, and above it he
placed his arms, all being done according to the design and
advice of Andrea." The addition made by the Duke of
Athens extends, on the northern side, to the door now
called della Dogana, and his battlements adjoin the machi-
colations which sustain the alur surrounding Arnolfo's
original building. On the southern side, where once stood
S. Piero Scheraggio, and now stands the Ufrizi, can be
seen the door of the old dogana, above which were the
Duke's arms, effaced by order of the magistrates when he
was deposed.

On the 26th July, 1343, the Florentines rose against the
Duke. Armed bands suddenly invaded the streets, waving
banners which had been secretly prepared with the arms of
the People emblazoned upon them, and shouting, " Death
to the Duke and his followers ! Long live the Commune
and Liberty!" They released the prisoners from the
Stinche, forced open the door of the Palazzo del Podesta,
and burnt all the records. Next day the Duke, hoping to
pacify the people, offered the honour of knighthood to one
of their leaders, who disdainfully refused, and told him
he had better haul down his flag and replace the banner of

36o FLORENTINE PALACES

the People on the tower. Meanwhile the allies of Florence
hastened to her aid. Siena sent three hundred horse and
four thousand bowmen, Prato five hundred men-at-arms,
S. Miniato two hundred, while the peasants of the country
round seized what weapons they could and poured into the
city. The Bishop Acciajuoli, the nobles and the popolani
met in Sta. Reparata and elected fourteen citizens, seven
nobles, and seven popolani, giving them full power to
make laws, while six others, three from each caste, were
to keep order and see that violence and robbery should be
severely punished. To save himself the Duke delivered
his chief adviser, Guglielmo d'Assisi, with his young
son, into the hands of the surging multitude in the
Piazza. The lad was torn to pieces first, and then his
father. The old chronicler gives details of this tragedy
too horrible to repeat, and then continues : " On the 3rd
August the Fourteen men of Florence appointed to set
things right in the city went to the Palazzo de'Priori, with
Count Simone and much people, and the Duke ceded the
Lordship, saying he had taken it treacherously, by cunning
and by falsehood, as he should not have done. The said
Duke threw down the baton on the ground, and then picked
it up and gave it to the Fourteen, thus delivering to them
the Lordship for the Commune of Florence, and these
Fourteen were Lords for the Commune, and this was
written down. The Duke quitted his room that very even-
ing, and the Fourteen entered it, and by courtesy he was
allowed to have another room with fifteen of his people.
During the day it was publicly ordered several times that
every man should lay down his arms, the bells of the
Palazzo de'Priori rang joyously, great bonfires were lit
on the palace and in every corner of Florence. In truth it
was a fine festival."

For three days, until the people became quieter, the Duke
remained in the palace, and then left at night with a strong
escort, carrying off all the gold plate which had been made

PALAZZO VECCHIO 361

for him of the value of 30,000 golden florins. When he
got to Poppi he ratified, " but with a very evil grace," the
renunciation of the Lordship of Florence, and by way of
Bologna went to Venice, whence he returned to Apulia.

The Fourteen repealed all the Duke's laws, and with
that odd childishness that sometimes shows itself in the
Florentine character, spent twenty golden florins to have
him and his chief advisers painted " in ignominious
fashion " on the tower of the palace of the Podesta and
elsewhere. The day of S. Anna was decreed a public
festival, and on that day the banners of the Guilds are
still hung round Or San Michele in remembrance of the
deposition of the tyrant of Florence. They also demolished
the fortified porch, built by the Duke in front of the great
door of the palace, and restored the ringhiera. Signor
Gotti, in his exhaustive work on the old palace, thinks that
about the same time the two stone lions, which wTere gilt,
said to have been sculptured by Giovanni de'Nobili, were
placed on either side of the entrance. Matteo Villani speaks
of four others, which the Priors, in 1353, " having little
else to attend to on account of the leisure born of peace,
caused to be carved of granite and gilded at great expense,
and placed on the four corners of the palace of the People
of Florence. This they did for a certain vanity that obtained
at that time, instead of having them cast in bronze and
then gilt, which would have cost but little more than the
granite, would have been beautiful, and have lasted for
many centuries; but small things and great are continually
being spoilt in our city by the avaricious whims of the
citizens." *

Three years later the Signoria decided to build a loggia,"

1 In old times the Florentines had an almost superstitious admiration
for the lion, emblem of the Republic. The Marzocco, as the stone lion
of Florence was called, was set above the door, on the four corners, and
on the ringhiera of the Palazzo Vecchio, this last was decorated with a
golden crown on solemn festivals. The live beasts were kept behind the
palace (the Via de'Leoni still marks the place), and there they remained

362 FLORENTINE PALACES

a necessary adjunct in those days to a palace, on the southern
side of the Piazza where the houses and tower of the Mint
stood. But the project, according to Matteo Villani, met
with considerable opposition among the citizens, who de-
clared that " a loggia was suitable for tyrants, not for the
People," and it remained in abeyance until, owing to in-
cessant rain, the installation of the new Priors on the ist
January, 1374, could not take place on the ringhiera, and
the ceremony was performed in the small church of S.
Piero Scheraggio. The building was then confided to the
^Opera del Duomo, and the Operai named an overseer —
Capudmagister opens Loggie. According to Vasari,
Andrea Orcagna was ordered to make a design, and the
work was given to him. But Dr. Carl Frey, in his critical
and learned work on the Loggia de'Lanzi, writes: " But
can the Loggia be attributed to Orcagna ? When the
building was begun in 1376 Orcagna had already been
dead seven or eight years, so that we can only suppose
that he may have made the design in 1356, when the idea
was first started. Although Orcagna was probably in
Florence about that time there are many reasons against
this. To begin with, the first building was evidently in-
tended to have been far smaller, as in the documents of
1356 the erection of a loggia on ground belonging to the
Commune is mentioned : in domibus comunis predicti
positis prope plateam populi Florentie, que vulgariter
appelhuitur domus della moneta, whereas the resolution
passed in 1374 deals with the acquisition and demolition
of other people's houses, indicating the intention of occu-

until Duke Cosimo I. removed them to the Piazza San Marco. Great
was the rejoicing in the city when a lioness had cubs ; Villani notes the
birth of two in 1331 on the day of S. Jacob, in July ; and a few years
later of six, which he records as a glory for the city and a sign of
prosperity for the Commune. Another old chronicler, Paolo Minerbetti,
relates how "in 1391 there was much discord and a great battle among
the lions, and a lioness who had cubs every year was killed, which was
regarded as of evil augury by the citizens."

PALAZZO VECCHIO 363

pying a larger space. It is evident that as the necessary-
land had not been bought in 1374, nothing had been defin-
itely settled, and there could have been no question of
choosing an architect — a choice which rested with the
Operai — or of a design, to be made by an architect and
then approved by the Operai. . . . Orcagna seems to have
had many enemies in Florence; at least, such is the im-
pression left on one's mind after reading the documents,
for he was not regularly employed on the Duomo, but only
called in consultation with other masters, and although
various committees had approved of his model and design
for the pillars [of the Loggia], in the end the work was
entrusted to Francesco Talenti. This goes to prove that
Orcagna had no hand in designing the Loggia, as it is
hardly likely that the Operai would have permitted a plan
rejected by them to be carried out, or that Simone, Fran-
cesco Talenti's son, would have chosen Orcagna's design
in preference to a better one by his father or by himself.
A comparison between the columns of the Loggia, the
Duomo and the Tabernacolo [Or San Michele] is sufficient.
To all this we need only add the absolute silence of all
contemporary writers, to feel convinced that Orcagna
neither built nor made the design for the Loggia dei
Signori. When the Operai del Duomo undertook the
building of the Loggia, their Capomaestri were Simone
Talenti, son of the famous architect who succeeded Arnolfo
and Giotto as overseer of the building of the Duomo and
of the Campanile; Taddeo di Ristori, who was appointed
overseer of the new building for the month of October;
and Benci di Cioni Dami of Como, who took his place as
Capomaestro of the Duomo." Dr. Carl Frey thinks that
probably the design of the Loggia was made by the three
architects in common, but that the columns and all the
ornamentation are due to Simone Talenti.1

1 See Die Loggia dei Lanzi zu Florenz. Eine quellenkritische Unter-
suchung von Dr. Carl Frey. Berlin. Wilhelm Hertz. 1885.

364 FLORENTINE PALACES

But we must return to the palace and the Priors, who on
the 19th July, 1378, heard that a revolution was to break
" out next day. So they arrested a certain Simoncino, and
the Proposto led him in front of the altar in the chapel *
and interrogated him. Their conversation is given by
Gino Capponi in his history of the Republic. " Simoncino
said, yesterday I was with eleven others in the hospital of
the priests in the Via San Gallo, and having summoned
other minor artisans, we determined that about six to-
morrow a revolution shall begin, as has been ordered by
certain leaders nominated by us some days ago. You must
know, Signore, that our number is infinite, and amongst
us are well-to-do and excellent artificers ; also most of those
who are under police supervision have offered to join us.
And, asked the Proposto, if the people rise, what will they
demand of the Signoria? They will ask that the trades
subject to the Guild of Wool should have their own consuls
and colleges, and they refuse to acknowledge any longer
the officer who worries them with trifles, or to deal with the
master clothiers [maestri lanaiolo] who pay them badly,
and for work worth twelve, only give them eight." Poor
Simoncino was incontinently handed over to the captain,
and, in the cant phrase of that day, " made to sing," i. e.
tortured, until he confessed the name of the leader of the
revolt, Salvestro de' Medici. But his shrieks and groans
were heard by Niccolo degl' Orivoli, who had charge of
the clock in the tower; he rushed into the street shouting,
Wake up, the Signori are making meat," and the people
ran out of their houses ready armed, while the church bells
rang furiously. In a moment the Piazza was invaded by

1 The chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio is painted by Rodolfo
Ghirlandajo, vyho, as Vasari writes, "made in the centre of the ceiling
the Holy Trinity, and in the other divisions some angel boys holding the
instruments of the Passion, and heads of the twelve Apostles ; in the
corners he painted the Evangelists, and at the end the angel Gabriel
kneeling before the Virgin. In some of the landscapes he figured the
Piazza of the Annunziata in Florence, as far as the church of S. Marco."

PALAZZO VECCHIO 365

a crowd shouting for the release of Simoncino and others
who were in prison ; and when their demand was granted
they dispersed, and went through the streets setting fire
to the houses of Luigi Guicciardini, of the Gonfalonier, of
one of the Albizzi, of Simone Peruzzi and of others,
and then to the palace of the Guild of Wool.

This was the famous Ciompi revolt, which but for the
level head and strong will of Michele di Lando, a poor
wool carder, whose father sold earthenware pots and pans,
would have overthrown all law and order in Florence.
When the mob invaded the Palazzo de' Priori, Michele,
who, according to an old chronicler, " was without stock-
ings and had but little on, held the banner of Justice aloft
and turned to the crowd asking what they intended to do.
With one voice they saluted him as Gonfalonier and Lord
of Florence. He accepted the office, and to put an end to
robbery and arson ordered the erection of a gallows and
threatened all disturbers of the peace. . . . Creating new
magistrates, four chosen from the popolo minuto, two
from the major Guilds, and two from the minor, he dis-
missed the Died di Guerra; so that for eighteen hours
Michele may be said to have been absolute master of
Florence. Thinking that the new Gonfalonier favoured
the popolani nobili at their expense, the mob returned to
the piazza shouting and rioting; not being listened to
they went to Sta. Maria Novella and created eight magis-
trates with consuls, so that the majesty of Government
was divided in two. But Michele di Lando would not
suffer such arrogance ; with the weapon he had in his belt
he severely wounded the members of the deputation who
had come to announce that he had been superseded, and
mounting a horse he took armed men and beat the rebels,
thus remaining in peaceful possession of his dignity."
Machiavelli, in his narrative of the Ciompi riots bears
eloquent testimony to the poor wool carder. " The riots
were put down solely by the energy of the Gonfalonier,

366 FLORENTINE PALACES

who far surpassed all other citizens of that time in courage,
prudence, and goodness ; he deserved to be named among
those who have been benefactors of their country."

In September, 1433, the Piazza della Signoria was once
more invaded by an angry crowd of popolani. Their
benefactor and favourite, Cosimo de'Medici, had been
treacherously seized and imprisoned in the small, dark
Alberghettina, or Barberia, in the tower of the palace, and
they feared the Signoria would make away with him. The
great bell rang to summon a parliament, and it is said that
Cosimo heard the crowd below debating as to his fate.
For some days he refused all food fearing poison. He
appears to have had grounds for suspicion, as it is said
that the Captain of the Guard, Federigo de'Malavolti of
Siena, had been asked to do away with him. He not only
refused, but warned his prisoner, and to prove his good
faith tasted everything that was placed before Cosimo, and
thus induced him to eat. Machiavelli relates that one
evening Malavolti brought a facetious and pleasant fellow,
a friend of the Gonfalonier, surnamed il Fargonaccio, to
supper to amuse Cosimo, and then left them alone to-
gether. Cosimo, knowing the man he had to deal with,
gave him a token for the governor of the hospital of Sta.
Maria Nuova, who on receiving it was to give him 1100
ducats, 100 for himself, and 1000 for the Gonfalonier.
Cosimo in his diary remarks : " They were people of small
intelligence, for I would have given them 10,000 or more
to escape from peril."

Thanks to the Gonfalonier and the many friends Cosimo
had in the city and outside, he escaped with his life; but
was condemned to exile for ten years. He was recalled a
year later and received with all honour by the Signoria
in the very palace in which he had been imprisoned. With
him came his friend and favourite architect, Michelozzo
Michelozzi, who had gone with him to Venice, and built
there by his orders the library of S. Giorgio Maggiore.

PALAZZO VECCHIO 367

To him was given the task of restoring the noble old
Palazzo de'Priori, which showed signs of collapsing.
Vasari in his life oCMjchelozzi states that, " several co-
lumns in the courtyard had suffered; either on account of
the great weight they had to bear, or that the foundations
were weak and insufficient, or because they were ill-built
and the stones badly joined. . . . Michelozzi made new
foundations and rebuilt the columns as they now are, hav-
ing first put strong, upright beams of thick wood to sup-
port the curves of the arches, with three-inch boards of
walnut under the vaults, so that the weight which had
rested on the columns was evenly distributed and sus-
tained ; and little by little he took those down which had
been badly put together and rebuilt them with well-
wrought stone, in such guise that the building suffered no
harm and has never moved a hairsbreadth. And in order
to distinguish his columns from the others, he made the
octangular ones in the corners with leaves on the capitals
sculptured in the modern fashion, and some circular ones
which can be well distinguished from the old ones made by
Arnolfo. Afterwards, by the advice of Michelozzi, the
ruler of the city ordered that the weight resting on the
arches of the columns should be diminished, that the
courtyard be rebuilt from the arches upwards, and that
windows of a modern order, like those he had designed for
Cosimo in the courtyard of the Medici palace, should be
made, and the walls ornamented a sgraffio, with the golden
lilies which are still to be seen. All this Michelozzi did
with extreme rapidity, fashioning circular windows, differ-
ent from the others, above the windows of the second floor
in the said courtyard, to give light to some rooms above,
where now is the Hall of the Two Hundred. The third
floor, where the Priors and the Gonfalonier lived, he made
more ornate, and arranged rooms for the Priors on the
side looking towards S. Piero Scheraggio ; till then they
had slept all together in one room. Eight rooms were

368 FLORENTINE PALACES

made for the Priors, and a larger one for the Gonfalonier,
all leading out of a passage with windows on the courtyard,
and above these he made another set of convenient rooms
for the servants of the palace. . . . also rooms for the
office and house servants, trumpeters, pifferi, mace-bearers,
and heralds, and various others necessary for such a palace.
He also made a stone cornice surrounding the courtyard
above the alur, and there he arranged a tank for rain water,
in order to feed provisional fountains when needed.
Michelozzi also adorned the chapel where mass was said,
and made very rich ceilings, painted with golden lilies on
an azure ground, to many rooms near it, and in those
above and below in the palace he made new ceilings,
covering all the old ones, which were according to ancient
fashion. . . . Only one thing the genius of Michelozzi could
jnot overcome, and that was the public staircase, which was
badly designed, built in the wrong place and most
inconvenient, being steep and dark, and made of wood
from the first floor upwards. Still he worked to such
purpose that at the entrance to the courtyard he made an
approach of circular steps and a door with pilasters of
stone, whose beautiful capitals he sculptured with his own
hand, a cornice with double architraves of good design, and
in the frieze were the various arms of the Commune. He
also made stone stairs up to the floor where the Priors
lived, and fortified them at the top and in the middle with
portcullises in case of tumults : and at the top of the stair-
case he made a door which was called la catena, or ' the
barred,' where one of the servants of the magistrates always
stood to shut or to open it, according to the orders of the
master. The tower, which had cracked owing to the weight
of that part which rests obliquely, that is to say on the cor-
bels overlooking the Piazza, he fortified with huge bands
of iron. In short he improved and restored the palace in
such a way that the whole city praised him, and in addition
to other rewards he was appointed to be one of the ' Col-

PALAZZO VECCHIO 369

legio,' magistrates whose office is of the most honourable
in Florence. If I seem to have been too prolix in all this
it must be excused, because having told, in the Life of
Arnolfo, how the palace was first built in 1298, crooked,
lacking every rational measurement, with columns in the
courtyard that did not match, large and small arches,
inconvenient stairs, and dark and ill-proportioned rooms,
it was fitting that I should point out how it was changed
by the genius and judgment of Michelozzi."

About the same time theJTen of Balia, considerato de-
fectu et penuria presentis Palatii circa pannos darazza et
circa gausape sen tovaglias et argentum sen vasa argentea,
et quod multum condecens esset in hajus modi tali Palatio,
voted two thousand golden florins for refurnishing the
palace, and also commissioned Neri di Bicci to paint and
gild the tabernacle in which the celebrated Pandects of
Justinian wrere kept. Neri thus describes his work: "I
undertook to paint and gild for fiorini 56 a tabernacle of
wood made according to ancient fashion, at each side were
columns, above was an architrave, a frieze, a cornice and
a lunette, and below the base was all of fine gold. In the
picture of the said tabernacle I painted Moses and the four
animals of the Evangelists, and in the lunette S. John the
Baptist; round Moses and the animals I put golden lilies,
and inside was the picture, which is to be the front of the
cupboard where the Pandects, and another book which
came from Constantinople, and certain other most rare
things of the Florentine people, are kept, and it is to stand
in the Hall of Audience of the Signori."

In 144 1 the old palace was soiled by the blood of Bal-
daccio d'Anghiari, a gallant soldier in the service of the
Republic, and an intimate friend of Neri Capponi. There-
fore Cosimo de'Medici and all his party hated him, and
according to Machiavelli, decided to do away with a man
whom it was dangerous to keep, and still more dangerous
to dismiss. The Gonfalonier of Justice at that moment

B B

370 FLORENTINE PALACES

was Bartolomeo Orlandini, a man devoted to Cosimo
with a personal grudge against Baldaccio, who had openly
accused him of rank cowardice at Marradi, where he fled
and left the pass open and undefended. One of the prin-
cipal actors in this cold-blooded murder, Francesco di
Tommaso Giovanni, describes the scene in his diary much
as a sportsman would tell how he shot a stag. " On
Tuesday evening, the 5th September, being in the audience
chamber after supper, all of us save Cante (Compagni, one
of the Priors), with cautious words agreed to do whatever
appeared good to the Gonfalonier; the allusions to Bal-
daccio were manifest, but his name was not mentioned
because during the day many of us had talked of doing a
thing, and of him, in such manner that we all understood.
So on Wednesday the 6th, having called the cavalier and
eight soldiers of the Captain of Florence, and shut them
into my room, the Gonfalonier sent for the said Baldaccio,
who was in the Piazza, and he came in about an hour's
time. He and the Gonfalonier being alone in the passage
between the rooms, we caused the soldiers to come into the
small chamber, and I stood at the end of the passage pre-
tending to read letters. When the Gonfalonier made me
a sign I signalled to the soldiers, who instantly threw him
down and bound him as I had commanded. Now Baldaccio,
in the attempt to defend himself and to attack the Gonfalo-
nier, wounded one of the men ; the others, to save them-
selves, wounded him, and then by order of the Gonfalonier
threw him into the Captain's courtyard below, and struck
off his head on the doorstep. The people showed their
satisfaction and praised the deed; but afterwards, as it
had displeased some, they blamed it; however, in the
end it was acknowledged to have been an excellent thing."
One of the people who was " displeased " was Pope
Eugenius IV., who had taken Baldaccio into his service
the day before he was murdered, and who left Florence in
an angry mood.

PALAZZO VECCHIO 371

In 1452, when the members of all the major and minor""
Guilds were admitted to sit in the great council, the Hall,
or Sala de'Dugento, was declared to be too small, but seven-
teen years passed without any decision being taken. It
was then determined to use certain moneys " the Jew Isahac
owes to the Monte, or public pawnshop, for rebuilding the
Council Hall in the Palace of our Magnificent Signori."
This second decision also came to nought, as the money
of Isahac werrtrto- rebuild the walls and castle of Castrocaro.
At last, in 1472, Giuliano di Nardo da Majano and Fran-
cesco di Giovanni, alias Francione, were charged to do the
work. Vasari attributes it to Benedetto da Majario, and in
his life of that artist gives a long description of how he re-
built the Sala__deJD_ugento, and made two rooms above it ;
one called the ClockRoom, because in it was a clock made
by that excellent mechanician Lorenzo della Volpaia, the
other the Audience Hall, with the triumph of Camillus
painted by Salviati, while Domenico and Giuliano, brothers
of Benedetto, made the ceilings. The marble door was
sculptured by Benedetto himself, who " made a figure of
Justice seated, with the sphere of the world in one hand and
a sword in the other, and round the arch is written, Diligete
justitiam qui judicatis terram." The outer door of the
Audience Hall was, according to tradition, a beautiful
wrork. But nothing remains of Benedetto's boys holding
up festoons of flowers. Only the statue of the youthful
S. John, which stood in the centre, is now in the National
Museum in the Bargello. Vasari also attributes to Bene-
detto the wonderful intarsia doors, with Dante on one side
and Petrarch on the other; but the archives show them to
be the work of his brother Giuliano, and of Francione.
The old Palazzo de'Signori was decorated in a strange
and horrible manner in 1478, when, in consequence of the
Pazzi conspiracy, an Archbishop and several nobles, with
priests, men-at-arms and serving-men, were hung round
the outside from the columns of the windows. Filippo

372 FLORENTINE PALACES

Strozzi was in the cathedral when the attempt to murder
the Medici brothers was made, and has left a vivid account
of what he saw. " I note a terrible event which happened
in our city of Florence on the 26th April, 1478, a Sunday
morning. The Very Reverend Messer Raffaello da Saona,
Cardinal of S. Giorgio, nephew of Count Girolamo, a
youth of about nineteen or twenty, had been at Montughi
for about two months in the house of Messer Jacopo de'
Pazzi. He had lately received the cardinal's hat at Pisa,
and his chief adviser was Messer Francesco Salviati the
Archbishop of Pisa. He, with others, instigated Lorenzo
de'Medici to invite him, and he did so for the said Sunday,
and Messer Marino, ambassador of King Ferrando, Messer
Filippo Sagramoro, orator of the Duke of Milan, Messer
Niccolo of Ferrara, and six or seven cavaliers were asked
to meet him. The said Cardinal was in Sta. Maria del
Fiore at mass, and at the words missa este, Ser Stefano da
Bagnone, secretary of Messer Jacopo de'Pazzi, and Messer
Marco Maffei of Volterra, with some armed followers,
assaulted Lorenzo de'Medici; while Francesco de'Pazzi
and Bernardo Bandini fell upon Giuliano, as both were
walking round the choir. Lorenzo saw them, drew his
weapon, and jumped into the choir. Passing in front of
the altar, he entered the new sacristy and ordered the door
to be bolted. There he remained until aid came from his
house, and he only had a wound in the neck, which healed
in a few days. Giuliano, assailed by both Francesco de'
Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini, fled into the choir, and in
front of the chapel of the Cross received ten or twelve such
blows that he fell to the ground dead; they also gave
two blows to Francesco Nori, who was beside Giuliano,
and killed him. Then arose a great tumult in the church.
Messer Bongianni and the other cavaliers with whom I
was talking were all stupefied; one fled here, the other
there, loud shouts filled the church, and one saw arms in
the hands of the adherents of the Pazzi, who made common

PALAZZO VECCHIO 373

cause with them. The Cardinal remained all alone by the
side of the altar until he was conducted by the priests into
the old sacristy, whence he was fetched away by two of the
Eight, with a strong guard, and taken to the Palazzo de'
Priori. During the time all this was happening, the Arch-
bishop of Pisa had gone to the Palazzo under pretence of
visiting the Signoria, and hearing the tumult he tried to
seize the palace. With him were Jacopo his brother, Jacopo
di Jacopo Salviati, Jacopo di Messer Poggio, Perugini and
others. The Signori and their guards defended themselves
and rang the great bell to call the people to arms, and the
citizens rushed into the Piazza and forced open the door
of the palace, which had been bolted on the inside, and
took them all. The instigators of all this are said to have
been Francesco de'Pazzi and the Archbishop of Pisa, to-
gether with Count Girolamo, the Pope's nephew, and
Messer Jacopo de'Pazzi. The latter was in Sta. Maria del
Fiori in the morning with armed followers, and as soon as
the deed was done he returned home, and with some of his
nephews and friends went into the Piazza shouting
' Liberty.' When he came to the door of the palace he was
warned by those on the battlements to withdraw, or stones
would be hurled on him. Seeing that the palace had not
been taken, he returned straight to his house, and with
his followers mounted on horseback rode to the gate of
Sta. Croce. Taking the keys from the citizen who kept
them, he opened the gate and set his people as guards, and
then again returned to his house, where he remained for
about two hours. Finding the city was quiet, and that all
the armed popolani were either at Lorenzo's house or in
the Piazza, he decided to depart, and left by that same gate
with nigh two hundred men. On the same day the Signoria
hung from the windows of the palace the Archbishop of
Pisa, Jacopo di Messer Poggio, and others of good birth,
such as Jacopo, Jacopo Salviati, and several of his friends,
and the servants of the Cardinal, who had gone with him

374 FLORENTINE PALACES

to the palace. They also hung Francesco d'Antonio de'
Pazzi, who was taken in his own house. On Tuesday
Messere Jacopo and Renato de' Pazzi were hung, and Feru-
gini and many others were killed in the palace at the foot
of the staircase. About eighty were killed either in the
Palazzo or in the Palazzo del Podesta. ..."

A great name is associated with this old Florentine
palace — that of Savonarola. When in July, 1495, he
preached a farewell sermon in the Duomo, in the presence
of the Signoria and all the magistrates, he said : " I have
preached to you four things, the fear of God, peace,
the common weal, and the reform of Government, that
is to say, the Great Council. . . . Accelerate the construc-
tion of the Hall of Council by every means in your power;
take, if necessary, the workmen from the Duomo, for their
labour will thus be more acceptable to God. Insist on this
Council, ameliorate it, correct it and let it be the one
hope, the one power of the people." He preached to
willing ears, for Francesco di Domenico, carpenter, and
Simone del Pollaiuolo, had already been chosen by the
Operai of the Palazzo as master-builders. Vasari, who
afterwards re-arranged the great Sala de' Cinquecento as
we now see it, states that it having been determined
"according to the desire of Fra Jeronimo Savonarola,
then a famous preacher, to build the great Hall of Council
in the Palazzo della Signoria of Florence, counsel was
taken of Lionardo da Vinci, of Michelagnolo Buonarroti,
though he was but a youth, of Giuliano da San Gallo, of
Bacio d'Agnolo and of Simone del Pollaiuolo, surnamed
Cronaca, a great friend and follower of Savonarola. After
much dispute they collectively ordered the hall should be
built as it remained until almost entirely remodelled in
our day. The work was entrusted to Cronaca as a com-
petent man, and moreover a friend of the said Fra Jero-
nimo; he did it with great celerity and diligence, showing
especial cleverness in building the roof, for the edifice was

PALAZZO VECCHIO 375

immense. ..." After describing how Cronaca over-
came all the difficulties, and praising him, Vasari con-
demns the hall as being " without light, and in comparison
with its great length and breadth, dwarfed, and far too low,
in short it is all out of proportion." At first the work
went slowly, but after Savonarola's return from Rome,
Cronaca displayed such zeal and energy that the hall was
nearly finished early in 1496; indeed the building made
such extraordinary progress that it was commonly said that
angels had helped him.

The following year the Signori looked down from the
windows of the old palace upon the bonfires, in the Piazza,
of " vanities and obscenities," as playing cards, masks
and dominoes, drawings, pictures, illustrated books and
the like, were called by the partisans of Savonarola, and on
the 20th August he preached before the magistrates and
principal citizens in the great hall. But a few years later
the friar was a prisoner in the old palace, confined in the
small, dark Alberghettino where Cosimo de'Medici had
passed so many anxious weeks. On the evening of Sun-
day, the 8th April, 1498, he was arrested by order of the
Signoria, and with his faithful Fra Domenico passed
through the surging mob which once hung upon his words
and now insulted, taunted and even struck him. Fra
Silvestro had hidden himself when the convent was at-
tacked and was only taken prisoner next day. In the
great hall, built but a few years before by Savonarola's
advice, a few lines of the accusations against him were
read in his absence, the chancellor of the " Otto " declaring
to the people that he had refused to appear because he was
afraid of being stoned. On the 22nd May the Apostolic
Commissaries decided the fate of Fra Girolamo and his
followers. Only one man, Agnolo Niccolini, raised a
warning voice. "This man," he exclaimed, "could not
only give faith anew to the world, in case it died out, but
also science. Keep him in prison if you will ; but let him

376 FLORENTINE PALACES

live and give him leave to write, so that the world may not
lose the fruits of his genius."

In the great hall the three friars met once more after
forty days of rigorous imprisonment and horrible torture,
and next morning Savonarola was allowed to say mass in
the chapel and to communicate himself and his two com-
panions before going to the stake. In the eloquent pages
of Pasquale Villari's Life of Savonarola the reader has this
episode, but it must be added that the " pious women "
mentioned by Luca Landucci in his Diary still have many
imitators, for every year in the Piazza della Signoria there
is a fiorita on the 23rd May in memory of the great friar;
rose leaves are scattered, and garlands are laid, upon the
place of his martyrdom, and many a poor woman kneels
in prayer.

When Michelangelo's statue of David was finished
the question arose where to place it. Giuliano da San
Gallo declared that " seeing the imperfections in the
marble, being friable and corroded, and having been much
rained upon, I do not think that it will be durable; it
should therefore be put under the Loggia de'Signori in
the middle arch of the said Loggia, or under the centre of
the vaulted roof so that one may walk round it; or on one
side in the centre of the wall with a black niche behind it in
the shape of a hood ; for if it is exposed to the rain it will
suffer. It ought to be covered." Others, like Maestro
Francesco, herald of the Signoria, wanted the statue to be
in the open. " I have turned over in my mind," he
writes, " what my judgment suggests to me. There are
two places where such a statue will do well ; the first is
where stands the Judith ; the second is in the centre of
the courtyard of the palace, in the place of the first David j1
for the Judith is a deadly emblem and not a good thing,
as we have the X for our emblem and the Lily. It
is not fitting that the woman should kill the man ; also she

1 By Verrocchio, now in the Bargello.

PALAZZO VECCHIO 377

was set up under an evil constellation, for ever since we
have gone from bad to worse and have lost Pisa. Then the
David in the courtyard is not a perfect figure because his
leg lacks symmetry. Therefore 1 advise putting the statue
in one of these two places, but by preference where stands
the Judith." Michelangelo was of the same opinion, so
his Giant, as the people called it, was set up on the
ringhiera by the entrance door of the Palazzo Vecchio,
and Donatello's statue was moved to the arch of the
Loggia facing the Piazza, where now stands the Rape of
the Sabines. The Judith had been placed on the ringhiera
in 1494 when Piero de'Medici was driven out of Florence
and his possessions, amongst them the statue, confiscated,
not so much as an ornament as to warn the people to main-
tain their liberty and to kill tyrants, as is proved by the
inscription on the pediment : Exemplum Sal. Pub. Cives
posuere. MCCCCXCV.

During the riots which ended in the Medici being again
exiled, a large stone fell from the balustrade of the alur
of the palace upon an arm of Michelangelo's statue and
broke it into three pieces. For several days the fragments
lay on the pavement, until two lads, Giorgio Vasari and
Francesco Salviati, picked them up and took them to
Salviati's father, who sixteen years afterwards gave them
to the Duke Cosimo I. In a letter from a certain Riccio,
of 7th November, 1543, we find that " the people pass their
time in watching the building of a scaffolding round the
giant David. It is put up for the mending of his poor
arm, but many think that his face is to be washed." In
1875 the statue, which showed signs of deterioration was,
after much consideration, removed to the Gallery of the
Belle Arte, where it now is. Michelangelo was to have
made a companion giant for the other side of the door of
the Palazzo Vecchio — Hercules slaying Cacus; but
Clement VII. was persuaded to give the block of marble

3/8 FLORENTINE PALACES

.»-- — ^\

to Baccio Bandinelli, with what result we see at the present

day. That madcap, egoistical, highly-gifted artist, Ben-
venuto Cellini, thus described the statue to Duke Cosimo
in the presence of Bandinelli, to whom he said: "You
must know that it pains me to point out the faults of your
statue ; I shall not, however, utter my own sentiments, but
shall recapitulate what our most virtuous school of Flor-
ence says about it. . . . Well then, this virtuous school
says that if one were to shave the hair of your Hercules,
there would not be skull enough left to hold his brain ; it
says that it is impossible to distinguish whether his features
are those of a man or of something between a lion and an
ox; the face too is turned away from the action of the
figure, and is so badly set upon the neck, with such
poverty of art and so ill a grace, that nothing worse was
ever seen ; his sprawling shoulders are like two pommels
of an ass's pack-saddle ; his breasts and all the muscles of
the body are not portrayed from a man, but from a big
sack full of melons set upright against a wall. The lions
seem to be modelled from a bag of lanky pumpkins; no-
body can tell howT his two legs are attached to that vile
trunk ; it is impossible to say on which leg he stands, or
which he uses to exert his strength; nor does he seem to
be resting upon both, as sculptors who know something of
their art have occasionally set the figure. It is obvious
that the body is leaning forward more than one-third of a
cubit, which alone is the greatest and most insupportable
fault committed by vulgar commonplace pretenders. Con-
cerning the arms, they say that these are both stretched out
without one touch of grace or one real spark of artistic
talent just as if you had never seen a naked model. Again,
the right leg of Hercules and that of Cacus have got one
mass of flesh between them, so that if they were to be
separated, not only one of them, but both together, would
be left without a calf at the point where they are touching.

PALAZZO VECCHIO 379

They say, too, that Hercules has one of his feet under-
ground, while the other seems to be resting on hot coals." *
On either side, nearer the door, were placed two terminal
statues, which are still there; one by Bandinelli is intended
to represent the power and magnanimity of Tuscany, the
other, a woman about to change into a laurel, by Vin-
cenzio de'Rossi, the grace and intellect Tuscany has shown
in the arts. They are commonly called Philomen and
Baucis.

When Piero Soderini was elected Gonfalonier for life in
1502, Landucci notes in his Diary, " For the first time the
wife of the Gonfalonier, by name Madonna Argentina,
went to live in the Palazzo de'Signori. It seemed odd
indeed to see women abiding in the palace." Large sums
were spent in decorations, and Soderini determined that
Leonarclo da Vinci should paint the great Hall of Council.
It seems certain that Leonardo devoted two years to this
work, the beauty of which is minutely described by Vasari,
who says he abandoned it because having attempted to
paint on the wall in oils the colours ran. Michelangelo
was then deputed to paint one side of the hall, and his
cartoon excited extraordinary enthusiasm and admiration
in all who beheld it. Vasari accuses Baccio Bandinelli of
tearing the magnificent drawing to pieces during the riots
of 15 1 2, when the Gonfalonier Soderini was deposed and
the Medici returned to power.

Giuliano de'Medici entered Florence first, he dismounted
at the Albizzi palace, as the family palace in the Via—-
Larga had been sacked when the Medici were driven out.
There he waited until joined by the Cardinal Giovanni,
when they went to the Palazzo de'Signori and established
themselves there as masters. The great bell was rung to
summon the people to a parliament, and at sundown on the
16th September the Signoria assembled on the ringhiera

1 The Life of Be?ivenuto Cellini. Translated by J. A. Symonds. 2nd
edition, p. 220. Vol. 2. John C. Nimmo. 1888.

38o FLORENTINE PALACES

and read the new laws to the people. Landucci notes in
his Diary that "on the 2nd October the Medici caused
their arms to be re-painted on their palace, on the An-
nunziata and in many other places, they also caused the
effigy of the Gonfalonier to be removed out of the S.S.
Annunziata.1"

Not content with abolishing the Great Council and the
Ten of Balia, and nominating their own people to all im-
portant posts, the Cardinal and Giuliano de'Medici in-
stalled a strong guard of Spanish soldiers in the old palace,
and to lodge them the noble hall of the Five Hundred was
ruined. " At this time it pleased the new government,"
writes Landucci, " to destroy the woodwork of the hall of
the Great Council, besides many other beautiful things,
which had been made at enormous outlay. Rooms were
built for the soldiers, and a new entrance was made, which
things were lamented by all Florence; not the change of
government, but the loss of that beautiful woodwork which
had cost so much. It had been a great glory and honour
for the city to have such a splendid residence. When am-
bassadors came to visit the Signoria all who entered were
astounded when they saw such a magnificent palace and
such a multitude of citizens in council." It must however
be said that a hoarding was erected in front of the painting
by Leonardo da Vinci when the hall was turned into

1 Signor Iodico Del Badia, in a note to his edition of Luca Landucci's
Diary, writes : " Out of devotion it was the custom for illustrious Floren-
tines and also strangers of rank, such as popes, cardinals, princes,
condottieri, etc., to put their own portrait made in wax of the size of life
in this church. These were placed on shelves constructed on purpose.
But in 1448 these were full, so the waxen images were hung by ropes
from the ceiling. If by chance one of them fell down it was looked upon
as an evil augury for the person or for his family. When political passions
ran high the dominant party removed the portraits of their antagonists."

Varchi also mentions that in 1527 certain youths "entered one morning
very early into the church of the Annunziata, and cast down the waxen
images of Pope Leo and Pope Clement ; and after inflicting many wounds
upon them, they carried them off"; which deed was severely, and to my
thinking justly, blamed by good and prudent men."

PALAZZO VECCTIIO 381

barracks, so that it might not be spoiled. Seventeen years
later the Medici were again driven out, and again there
was a " tumult " in the Palazzo de'Signori. In a very
long letter ' from that most excellent of men old. Jacopo
Nardi to Benedetto Varchi, who was writing his famous
history, he describes the scenes at which he, as Gonfalonier
of one of the quarters of the town, assisted. After stating
the difficulty he had to reach the palace, he goes on : " I
found a great multitude in council, without order or head,
uncertain what to demand or what to desire, so that they
did nought but shout, etc., as though that constituted a
victory. Meanwhile the Signori were conducted, almost
by force, to their usual seats, jam redacti in ordinem, with
no more reverence than if they had been private persons.
The Gonfalonier did not lose his head, but asked in a loud
voice what they wanted, saying we had met to carry out
their wishes, if they expressed them quietly and without
violence. But the Compagnie, who were always arriving
and entering the Council Hall, did not see what was being
done and by their shouts increased the tumult; so that
the Signori were not heard, nor the Gonfalonier, who
declared that he was ready to propose anything, etc., and
above their heads were a hundred swords and halberds.
I advanced with due obeisance to the Signoria and ad-
dressed the young men, repeating in a loud voice what the
Gonfalonier had proposed for their satisfaction, reproving
those I knew and entreating those who were unknown
to me. So at last some resolutions were put and carried
with shouts by those around, one by one as they were
convinced, and they were inscribed by Giuliano da Ripa,
who was brought up almost by sheer force, for no other
notary could be found in the palace. The resolutions
carried were: that all those who had ^beeri condemned,
exiled, banished (to other towns or to their villas), or im-

1 First published in the Miscellanea Fiorenti?ia. No. 9. September,
1886.

382 FLORENTINE PALACES

prisoned for political offences, should be pardoned and
liberated ; that the government should be what it was in the
dme of Piero Soderini, before 1512; that the great bell
should again be rung for parliaments; and that the exile
of the Medici be proclaimed to the sound of trumpets. I
do not recollect the order in which these were voted on
account of the confusion and the violence of certain youths,
which was so great that, whilst I was in front of the
Signoria, a blow was aimed at the Gonfalonier; the flat of
the sword hit him on the shoulder near the neck, but not
severely, and I put my handkerchief to his neck, fearing
iLwould bleed."

After the departure of the Cardinal of Cortona with
Ippolito and Alessandro de'Medici the great hall of the
Five Hundred was cleared of the barracks erected for the
Spanish soldiers and restored to its proper use. Niccol6
Capponi, head of the ottimati party, was elected Gon-
falonier of Justice and began to treat with the Pope to
gain time, which incensed the popolani, or popular party,
who were already angry because he showed such reverence
for the memory of Savonarola. " At this time," writes
Varchi, " the Gonfalonier, either persuaded by the friars
of S. Marco, with whom he consorted, or more probably
to gain the party of the friars, which was considerable and
of no small reputation, favoured and seconded as much
as he could all that Fra Girolamo had instituted, so that
he was blamed and scoffed at by many. Amongst other
things he repeated almost word for word a sermon of the
friar's, in which he first predicted much evil, and after-
wards much good, to the city of Florence, and at the end
he threw himself on his knees and crying out misericordia
in a loud voice, persuaded the whole council to repeat
misericordia. Not content with this he proposed in the
Great Council that Christ should be accepted as the especial
King of Florence. There were twenty dissentients, and
thinking that no one would ever obliterate it, Capponi had

PALAZZO VECCHIO 383

the following inscription placed above the door of the
palace —

Y.H.S.

CHRISTO REGI SUO DOMINO DOMINANTUM DEO SUMMO OPT-

MAX LIBERATORI MARIAEQUE VIRGINI REGINAE DICAVIT.

AN.SAL.M.D.XXVII.S.P.Q.F.

The curious thing is that Segni gives two other different
inscriptions and that none of the three coincide with the
one still over the door —

REX REGUM ET DOMIXUS DOMINANTIUM, ^

with the monogram Y.H.S. in the centre of a star above.

The old palace saw stormy scenes in 1529 when Niccol5
Capponi was deposed and Francesco Carducci, a leader of
the Arrahmti^or ultra democratic party, was elected Gon-
falonier. Florence, that " most republican of all Re-
publics," stood alone facing the united forces of the Pope
and of Charles V. After a hopeless struggle, which lasted
two years, the Signoria met in the Hall of the Two Hundred "
to hear the death warrant of Florentine liberty. Duke
Alessandro entered in state, and then the envoy of Charles
V. and the Pope's Nuncio took their seats on either side
of the Gonfalonier, the Priors and other magistrates sitting
below them. The envoy preached a homily on the sins
of the Republic and the graciousness and goodness of the
Pope and the Emperor, and then read the Brieve of Charles
V. which all present swore to obey. Meanwhile the
crowd in the Piazza below raised the well-known cry of
Palle .Palle .Eviva i Medici.

Some months later a deputation waited on Alessandro
to announce that a new form of government had been
decided on, " abolishing for ever the rule of the magistrate
created by the people to oppress the nobility, and decreeing
that all power was to reside in the Duke and four of his^
noble councillors." Segni, in his History, tells us that

384 FLORENTINE PALACES

" Alessandro de' Medici, accompanied by his councillors,
one of whom was Filippo Strozzi, and his guard in state,
attended a solemn mass in San Giovanni to give thanks
to God for his Dukedom and for the new form of the
Republic, and then went to the Palace. There the last
Signoria, descending to the ringhiera (Giovanfrancesco
de'Nobili being the Gonfalonier, the last we had), gave
him, what he already possessed, the rank of Lord and
Duke and absolute Prince. And thus amid the shouts
of Pallet Pallet and Duke! Duke! by the people and a
salute of artillery and of fireworks which exploding all
together made the whole air resound, he returned in great
pomp to his house, triumphant over the murdered liberty
of Florence." As already mentioned he broke up the
great bell of the Palazzo Vecchio, " no less good than beauti-
ful," writes Varchi, " which weighed 22,000 lbs. Some
think for coining money, as it was said to have so much
silver that it might serve as alloy for crazie, but this was
not the case." The Florentine merchant Davanzati
records in his diary, " the bell of the Council was taken
from us in order that we should no more hear the sweet
sound of Liberty."

After the murder of Duke Alessandro by his cousin
Lorenzino de'Medici in 1537, the son of Giovanni delle

_ Bande Nere succeeded to the throne as Cosimo I. He

•inhabited the Medici palace in the Via Larga for five years
and then took up his abode in the Palazzo de'Signori,
" where," writes Gianbattista Adriani, " he caused the
rooms which once had been those of the Priors and of the
Gonfaloniers to be arranged in princely fashion . . . and
this he did to show that he was absolute Prince and sole
head of the Government, and to disabuse those who pre-
tended, as some had done, that the government of the city
was a separate thing from that of the Medici family.
Also, as it was necessary to have a guard in the Palace,
the principal seat of the State, he judged it to be safer,

PALAZZO VECCHIO 3S5

less expensive, more dignified and more conducive to

authority to live there." The Duke evidently mistrusted

his subjects and had German soldiers, Lanzknechte, as his

guards. Their quarters were close to the Loggia de'Signori,

in which they lounged during the day and which ever since

has been called the Loggia deJLanzi. Having established

himself in the old palace Cosimo called in Tasso, an

admirable carver in wood and a good architect,1 and

ordered him to add to it by incorporating the two fine

residences of the Captain and the Executor of Justice, and

a large house with a courtyard where the lions were

kept, which were then sent to S. Marco. These orders

were only partially carried out as will be seen later on.

Tasso superintended the works besides carving the windows,

doors, ceilings and cornices, while Vasari, to whom the

Duke took a fancy in 1550 when he presented him with a

copy of his Lives of the Painters, began to paint the rooms.

For the description of all he did I must refer my readers

to his own delightful book, but no wonder he remarked,

after he had raised the roof of the great Hall of the Five

Hundred and, aided by his pupils, frescoed it all over,

rebuilt the staircases, made two floors were originally there

was but one, etc. etc., that Arnolfo, Michelozzo and others,

who had worked at the palace from the beginning would

not recognize it and would think- it was not theirs, but a

new marvel and another edifice. Vasari however omits to

mention that he sacrilegiously destroyed the work of

Leonardo da Vinci. Mr. Berenson has kindly called my

attention to a letter written in 1549 by Anton Francesco

Doni to Alberto Lollio who was going to visit Florence.

Doni gives him excellent advice and after mentioning the

" Giant " by Michelangelo at the door of Palazzo Vecchio,

etc., he continues: "mount then the stairs to the great

hall and carefully consider the group of horses and men

(part of a battlepiece by Leonardo da Vinci), which you will

1 He built the Loggia of the Mercato Nuovo.

386 FLORENTINE PALACES

see to be a miraculous thing." 1 So that Leonardo's
fresco was in existence when Vasari began to paint in the
Palazzo Vecchio.

After the death of Tasso the whole work was confided
, to Vasari, whose task was rendered easier as the Court
moved into the Palazzo Pitti. Bronzino was called in to
decorate the Duchess's former apartments on the second
floor of the old palace. In the chapel he painted three
episodes from the life of Moses and an altarpiece, which
was considered so fine that the Duke sent it as a present
to Granvela in Flanders, and another was painted by
Bronzino, now in the Gallery of the Uffizi.

Among the rooms built by Vasari on the second floor
is a large one which served as a gnardaroba, with cup-
boards all round the walls. It bears the name of Sala del
Mappamondo, from the paintings on the cupboard doors
by Egnazio Danti, a Dominican friar. For eight years he
worked at these curious geographical maps until, for some
unknown reason, he fell into disgrace, when they were
continued, but not finished, by another friar, Don Stefano
Buonsignore. These fifty-three large maps are exceedingly
interesting, and merit more attention than they generally
receive.

For the marriage of Francesco de'Medici to the Arch-
duchess Joan of Austria the old palace was sumptuously
decorated. Round the courtyard, in the centre of which
Cosimo I. had already placed a basin of porphyry with
Verrocchio's exquisite little bronze boy throttling a dol-
phin, were painted views of the principal cities of Austria
by pupils of Vasari in honour of the Princess. At the
same time the columns were encrusted with garlands of
fruit, flowers and leaves, upheld by " putti " and grotesque
masks in stucco. But the greatest work Vasari did for this

1 Raccolta di Lettere sidla Pittura, Scultura ed Architettura. Scritte
da' piu celebri personaggi dei secoli XV. XVI. e XVII. Publicata da
M. Gio. Bottari. Vol. 3. Milano. Giovanni Silvestri. MDCCXXII.

PALAZZO VECCHIO 387

marriage was the corridor connecting the Palazzo Vecchio
with the Palazzo Pitti. On the 12th March, 1565, Messer
Tommaso de'Medici signed a contract, in the Duke's name,
with the master-mason Bernardo d'Antonio, in which the
latter promises to finish a corridor between the two palaces
by September. He obliges himself " to build two arches,
one above the street where is the Dogana to the wall of the
church of S. Piero Scheraggio, the second above the said
church; and another arch at the house of Signor Trajano
Boba, servant of His Excellency ; and along the Lung' Arno
a corridor with arches and pilasters as far as the Ponte
Vecchio, proceeding onwards above the shops and houses
of the said bridge on the side looking towards the Ponte
a Rubaconte, and round the tower of the house of Matteo
Mannelli by means of brackets of stone. From this tower
another arch, spanning the Via de'Bardi, shall repose upon
the tower of the Guelph party opposite the house of the
Mannelli. The corridor is then to follow the small alley
behind the houses facing the principal street, and pass
above the steps of the church of Sta. Felicita, where is to
be built a loggia. Thence the corridor, supported on pilas-
ters along the whole length of the cloisters of the priests
of Sta. Felicita, shall gradually descend to the level of the
garden of the Pitti. The said corridor and its adjuncts are
to be roofed in, the ceilings plastered, whitewashed and
finished, according to the order, design and model, given
from time to time by the magnificent and excellent Master
Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect of the aforesaid most
Illustrious Excellency. The said Messer Tommaso declar-
ing that he binds himself to remove any and every difficulty
that may be thrown in the way of the said Master Bernardo,
especially by the various owners of the houses, above or by
the side of which this corridor is to be built." l

Agostino Lapini records in his diary that the foundations

1 Miscellanea Fiorentina di Erudizione e Storia. By Signor Iodico Del
Badia. No. I. p. 4.

388 FLORENTINE PALACES

of the first pilaster of the corridor were laid on the 19th
March, 1565, and that it was entirely finished by the end
of November, and six years later shops were built [along
the Lung'Arno] in the arches. The passage between the
two galleries was only thrown open to the public in 1866;
and eighteen years later, on the proposal of Prince Corsini,
then Syndic of Florence, the shops under the corridor in
the Via degl' Archibusieri were swept away, to the great
convenience of foot-passengers and the improvement of the
view.

In 1569 the ambition of Cosimo I. was gratified. Pope

ius V. bestowed upon him and his heirs the title of Grand
Duke of Tuscany, and on the 13th December Don Michele
Bonelli, the Pope's nephew, presented the Papal Bull to
him in the Hall of the Five Hundred in the presence of his
sons, the Papal Nuncio, the ambassadors of Ferrara and
Lucca, the Senate of the Forty-eight, the magistrates of the
city, the knights of S. Stefano, the nobles, and the repre-
sentatives of the people. A many-rayed regal crown, with a
red lily, the ancient emblem of Florence, in the centre, as
ordered by the Pope, was placed above the Medici arms all
over the city, and Cosimo's subjects were informed that
henceforth he was to be addressed as " Highness." Like
all his race, he loved festivities and splendour, and in car-
nival time the old hall in the Palazzo Vecchio was the
scene of many banquets to the fair ladies of Florence, fol-
lowed by recitations and plays with elaborate scenic effects.
After Cosimo's marriage with Camilla Martelli he with-
drew almost entirely from public life, and his son Fran-
cesco lived in the Palazzo Vecchio until he succeeded to the
throne.

We hear little about the palace until it was once more
decorated and embellished by Poccetti for the wedding of
the Cardinal Ferdinando de'Medici, who left the Church to
ascend the throne and marry Christine of Lorraine. He
added considerably to the palace on the eastern side,

PALAZZO VECCHIO 389

"where," writes an old chronicler, " from the great door

made by Tasso, carpenter and architect, as far as the corner

of the said palace which is opposite to Borgo de'Greci

where one turns to go into the Piazza, there was an old

and ugly curtain wall, eight or ten braccie high, so that the

rooms of the palace near the said door were exposed to the

view of all who passed by, and one saw balconies, terraces,

little gardens and such-like. And between the said rooms

and the curtain wall we have just mentioned, was a large

vacant space full of rubbish, where in the time of the

Signoria the lions had been kept. . . . Seeing all this

ugliness, the Cardinal decided that the palace should have

a fine and lordly facade behind as it had in front, that the

number of rooms should be increased, another courtyard

be made, and many other conveniences. Bernardo Buon-

talenti was ordered to make a design, and the work was at

once begun. In a few years the handsome and rich facade

we now see was finished, all of hewn stone and ' hozzi^ in

the rustic style. It has a grand air, and contains many fine

rooms, and a courtyard in the centre."

In those days great sculptors worked even in sugar for
their patrons, as when Maria de'Medici was married by
proxy to Henry IV. of France in 1600, Giovanni da
Bologna modelled various figures and statues in con-
fectionery and in sugar, which were moved by hidden
mechanism. Among them was an effigy of the King of
France, mounted on a charger which trotted down the table
in front of the Queen. He also arranged a huge fleur-de-
lis, built up of an infinite number of gold and silver cups
and goblets, statues of gold and silver, vases of rock crystal,
and ornaments inlaid with precious stones, in the Sala of
Leo X. in the Palazzo Vecchio.

The marriage of Cosimo de'Medici, son of the Grand
Duke Ferdinando I., with the Archduchess Maria Madda-
lena of Austria, was celebrated with extraordinary pomp
in 1607. A great banquet was given in the Hall of the

390 FLORENTINE PALACES

Five Hundred to the Florentine nobility, of which an
anonymous eyewitness has left a long description. Two
hundred and forty ladies sat opposite the Princes, as
" being more fair to look upon than men," and after dinner
appeared a Venus' shell gliding forward on sham waves,
which bore Zephyr, the messenger of the goddess who,
stopping in front of the bride, offered her all his mistress
could give. Then came the chariot of Venus drawn by
black sparrows in which sat Love, who declared all he had
was hers. On the raising of a curtain at the end of the
hall, angels floating among clouds were seen, who chanted :

" E sol risuona,
E Maddalena intuona
La valle, il colle, il monte, il prato il bosco
Di questo lido Tosco,

E'l Ciel. l'Aria, e la Terra e l'Onda piena
Cosmo, Cosmo risponde, e Maddalena."

After this the Princes retired by the corridor to the Palazzo
Pitti, " the Archduchess graciously inviting the ladies
present to follow her as far as the gallery, where a long row
of tables were laden with delicate sugarplums and con-
fectionery. What they could not eat or carry away was
seized by the populace which streamed in ; the Princes
watched with great amusement the demolition of all that
rare food, and then withdrew to their rooms.

Cosimo II. and his Austrian wife only used the old
palace occasionally for receptions and banquets. Their
son, that morose bigot Cosimo III., when he lost all hope
of seeing any descendants from his two sons, proclaimed
his daughter Anna Maria Luisa, married to the Elector
Palatine, heiress to the throne in the great hall. His pro-
clamation was, however, futile, and in 1723 his son Giovan
Gastone solemnlv received the Infante Don Carlos at the
door of the Palazzo Vecchio as heir to the throne. Austria,
however, interfered, and Francesco of Lorraine was pro-
claimed as future Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1737 his
representative received the oath of allegiance, and two

PALAZZO VECCHIO 391

years later the Grand Duke visited Florence, and splendid
festivities were given in his honour. But the Florentines
were very sore at his departure for Vienna after a short
visit, and still sorer at the invasion of Lorrainers and
Austrians, who filled so many of the Government posts.
In 1745 Francesco II. became Emperor of Austria, and his
second son Pietro Leopoldo succeeded to the Grand
Duchy. Zoby, in his History of Tuscany, describes how
the Senate of the Forty-eight, the Council of the Two
Hundred and the principal magistrates of Florence, as-
sembled in the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, where a
throne had been placed for the Grand Duke. The late
Emperor's will, leaving Tuscany to his second son, was
read aloud, and at the same time the renunciation by the
Emperor Joseph to any claims thereon. But Joseph died,
and once more a Tuscan Grand Duke became Emperor of
Austria, to the sorrow of his Italian subjects, who had
learned to appreciate Pietro Leopoldo at his proper value.
His second son, Ferdinando, became Grand Duke, and in
1 791 a fair was held in the Piazza, the Loggia de'Lanzi
was turned into a garden illuminated with many lamps,
and a magnificent pavilion was erected in front of the
old palace for the Court. Eight years later Ferdinando III.
with his wife and four children were driven out of Florence
by General Gaulthier in the name of the Directoire. A
Tree of Liberty was set up in the middle of the Piazza della
Signoria, newly christened della Liberta, and the French
flag was hoisted on the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. Gio-
vanni da Bologna's fine statue of Cosimo III. was about to
be destroyed and melted down for the benefit of the poor,
but was saved by the presence of mind of the President of
the Buon Governo and of the advocate Paolini, who remon-
strated with the mob, which had already tied ropes round
the horse to pull it down, saying that it was a pity to destroy
the effigy of despotism which now witnessed the restoration
of liberty in Florence. The Marquess Gino Capponi gives

392 FLORENTINE PALACES

a vivid account of the behaviour of the French soldiers in
his Ricordi. He saw them depart, and was in the Piazza
when, after months of silence, the great bell once more
rang out at midday and all present sank on their knees at
the beloved sound.

The old palace saw one ruler after another pass through
its great hall like puppets. Ferdinando III. returned for
some months, but was soon driven out again by the
French. Then Tuscany for a few vears became the King-
dom of Etruria, only to be merged in the French Empire
in 1808, and the following year Napoleon I. again created
a Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and gave it to his sister Elise
Baciocchi, who was already Duchess of Lucca and Princess
of Piombino.

The roof of the Palazzo Vecchio had for some time
been in a bad state, and the municipal architect, G. del
Rosso, was charged to survey the whole building. In 1809
the work began. The reservoir for rain water made by
Michelozzi had become useless, and was only an additional
weight on the columns of the courtyard, so it was done
away with, the cornice was renewed, and windows, which
had been arbitrarily pierced here and there, were closed
and the ancient ones restored. Del Rosso was forced
to whitewash the walls of the courtyard, decorated with the
golden lilies of Anjou on a blue ground — an emblem
utterly distasteful to the new ruler. The stucco ornaments
of the columns, and the frescoes in the vaults and round
the courtyard had suffered terribly, and were carefully
renovated, but those of the Austrian towns are now once
more almost invisible. In order to avoid the incessant
passage of the soldiers through the courtyard to their
guardroom, del Rosso was ordered to make an entrance
from the outside, and this necessitated the destruction of
the old ringhiera, so intimately connected with the history
of Florence. Part of it had already disappeared when
" Ammannati set up his huge, ugly fountain at the northern

PALAZZO VECCHIO 393

angle — il Biancone the Florentines call it — still it was with
unwilling hands that del Rosso levelled what remained and
made the platform, the steps and the door immediately
under the balcony. The ancient Marzocco, which had lost
all semblance of a lion, was removed, and on its beautiful
base was put the one by Donatello (replaced by a copy in
1885). It was at this time that the Alberghettino was dis--
covered in the tower.

With the fall of Napoleon ended the rule of his sister
Elise, and the Grand Duke Ferdinando III. once more
returned to Tuscany. He was succeeded in 1824 by his
son Leopoldo II. , under whose reign the lovely tower of
the old palace was restored to its pristine beauty by having
the plaster and whitewash, with which it had been be-
daubed a century before, removed. The architect,
Giuseppe Martelli, also took down one of the supporting
corbels of the tower, which being of friable sandstone was
breaking away under the great weight of 67,908 chilo-
grammes which rested on it. It was replaced by one of
hard stone, and at the same time the arms of the Florentine
Republic round the top of the palace were freed from
whitewash and restored.

On the 17th February, 1848, the Grand Duke Leopoldo
II. inaugurated the first parliament of constitutional
government in the Hall of the Five Hundred. But one
ministry after another fell, and the following year the Grand
Duke abandoned Tuscany. A provisional government
abolished the Senate and the Council in favour of an as-
sembly of representatives of the people, elected by universal
suffrage. There was fighting in the streets of Florence and
the friends of Austria were scheming to bring back Leo-
poldo II., so in April, 1849, a Commission, amongst whom
were Bettino Ricasoli and Gino Capponi, was named,
which not only met in the Palazzo Vecchio to conduct the
government of the country, but lived there as the Republi-
can Signoria had done in former times. A month later the

394 FLORENTINE PALACES

Austrians entered Florence and the Grand Duke's repre-
sentative took up his abode in the old palace, in front of
which was placed an iron railing where once was the
ringhiera, behind which Austrian sentinels paced back-
wards and forwards.

On the morning of the 27th April, 1859, Florence awoke
to the cry of Viva Vltalia and the same evening the Grand
Ducal family once more took the well-known road to
Vienna, while the tricolour flag was hoisted on the tower
of the Palazzo Vecchio amid the exultant shouts of the
crowd below. Four months later, in the Hall of the Five
Hundred, Baron Ricasoli, a descendant of the Bettino
Ricasoli who in the middle of the XlVth century locked the
door and sat upon the keys until his party had won the day,
ended his speech with these words: "Let us remember
that while in this hall, which has not echoed to the voice
of liberty for three centuries, we are dealing with the
affairs of Tuscany, our thoughts must be turned to Italy;"
and one by one the deputies passed in front of the pro-
visional ministry, and dropped into the urn their votes for
the union of Tuscany to the Kingdom of Italy under
King Victor Emanuel.

i860 awoke to the sound of the big bell of the Palazzo
Vecchio calling the people to a plebiscite. The result was
proclaimed from the platform, which had replaced the
ancient ringhiera, to the crowd which had waited for hours
in the Piazza, as 366,571 ayes, out of 386,445 voters. H.H.
Prince Eugenio of Savoia Carignano, the King's cousin,
was named Viceroy of Tuscany and Baron Bettino Ricasoli
Governor, with his official residence in the Palazzo Vecchio.
Five years later, when Florence was for a few years the
'capital of United Italy, the old palace became the seat of
the parliament and was sadly pulled about. The great
Hall of the Five Hundred was arranged as a House of
Parliament, doors were opened to give free access to the
various offices, and room had also to be found for the

PALAZZO VECCHIO 395

Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The architect Falconieri was
vehemently attacked and defended himself in a pamphlet,
declaring that he had done his utmost to respect all that
was beautiful, and at all events had finished that part of
the palace in the Via de'Leone which had been left so long
uncompleted.

In 1866 Baron Ricasoli announced in the great hall that
Victor Emanuel had declared war on Austria, and four
years later the King himself, amid delirious enthusiasm,
stated that his soldiers had entered Rome. With this the
story of the Palazzo Vecchio comes to an end. It is now the
seat of the municipality of Florence, and it only remains
for me to acknowledge the help I have derived from Signor
Aurelio Gotti's book Storia del Palazzo Vecchio in Firenze.

Arms of the Republic of Florence under the machicola- .
tions of the Palazzo Vecchio.

A white Lily on a red field ; the ancient arms of the city.

A red and white Shield divided lengthways; signifying
the union of Florence and Fiesole.

A red Lily on a white field; the arms of the city, 1251.

A blue Shield with the word Libertas in gold letters;
the arms of the Priors of Liberty.

A red Cross on a white field ; the arms of the People.

Two golden Keys on an azure (or white) field, placed
crossways; the arms of the Church.

A red Eagle standing on a green Dragon in a white
field, a small golden Lily on the head of the eagle; the
arms of the Guelph party. (Really the arms of Clement
III., who bestowed them on the Guelphs in 1365.)

Golden Lilies on an azure field with a golden Bar
(rastrello) at top; the arms of Charles of Anjou.

A shield divided lengthways to the left, golden Lilies

396 FLORENTINE PALACES

on an azure field to the right, red Stripes on a field or; the
arms of King Robert of Naples.

Under the machicolations of the tower are painted the
arms and emblems of the various quarters of the city. On
the southern side are the arms of S. Spirito, a white Dove
with golden rays in her beak on an azure field : the gon-
faloni, or banners, of the quarter of S. Spirito bear a
Ladder on a red field ; five Shells on a blue field ; a green
Dragon on a red field; a five-thonged Whip on a blue
field. On the eastern side are the arms of S. Croce, a
golden Cross on a blue field : the gonfaloni have a silver
shield with a red Cross on a black field with broad silver
rings round it; a Cartwheel on a blue field; a Lion on a
white field. To the west are the arms of S. Maria Novella,
a golden Sun with rays on an azure field : the gonfaloni
bear a white Lion on a blue field ; a blue Viper on a gold
field; an Unicorn on a blue field; a red Lion on a white
field. S. Giovanni, to the north, has its own Temple with
a suspended Key on either side on a blue field : the gon-
faloni bear two red Keys on a field or; a shield, the
upper half red and the lower of ermine, on a white field ; a
golden Lion on a blue field ; a green Dragon on a field or.
Some of these are almost entirely obliterated.

PALAZZO VITALI

Borgo degl'Albizsi. No. 26.

This palace, built by Ammannati for the great family
of the Pazzi, whose dolphins are still above the doorway,
is one of the literary landmarks of Florence. In the be-
ginning of the XVIIIth century it was the fashion for the
beaux esprits of the town to meet together at a chemist's
or a bookseller's shop, or now and then at each other's

PALAZZO VIVIANI 397

houses. Giovanni Pazzi, a studious, cultured man, was
generally to be found in his library at the very top of his
palace, in what remained of one of the ancient towers of
his family. Here his friends would meet in the evening
and they jokingly called his abode la Colombaia (the
dovecot) from its height, and himself il Torraiolo (the tower
pigeon). A society was formed in May, 1735, and each
member chose a nickname which had some reference to a
pigeon; their emblem was a tower with the motto from
Dante, Quanto veder si puo, and their seal an old intaglio
representing two doves feeding each other, to which was
added the words, Mutius Officiis. S. C. The Societa
Colombaia still meets and reads learned papers in Via
de'Bardi.

PALAZZO VIVIANI

Via S. Antonino. No. 9.

Vincenzio Viviani, the disciple and friend of Galileo,
rebuilt his house with the pension granted to him by
Louis XIV. of France, after the design of his pupil and
friend, G. B. Nelli. Fontanelle writes in his Eloge:
" Viviani called his house Aedes a Deo datae, an apt allu-
sion to the name bestowed on the monarch,1 and to the
origin of the building. . . . Galileo has not been for-
gotten, for his bust is over the door and the story of his
life is told in certain inscriptions on either side." From these
huge scrolls the palace is commonly called the Palazzo
de'Cartellone. Viviani was with Galileo during the last
three years of his life, and by his tender friendship in part
consoled the blind, infirm man for the loss of his daughter
Maria. Named Court Mathematician by Ferdinando II.,
he had much to do with regulating the course of the rivers in

1 Dieu-Donne.

393 FLORENTINE PALACES

Tuscany, and was greatly looked up to and respected.
He died in 1703, aged 81, leaving his real estate to his
nephew the Abbe Jacopo Panzanini for life, and then to
G. B. Nelli. All the personal estate was left to his nephew
save the library of printed books, which were to go to the
hospital of Sta. Maria Nuova. After the death of the
Abbe Panzanini, Vivian's manuscripts, amongst which
were many of Galileo which he had bought from his natural
son, and of Torricelli, were for a time religiously preserved
by his heirs, but at last the contents of the cupboards were
stowed away in the granary, and the servants began to
sell them for waste paper. Senator Nelli heard of it and
bought what remained from the various shop-keepers and
from the Panzanini.

To English people the palace is interesting, as when
Milton came to Florence he stayed here as the guest of
Viviani.

PALAZZO XIMENES D'ARAGONA (now PANCIA-

TICHI)

Boy go Pinti. No. 60.

Giuliano da San Gallo built this palace for himself and
his brother in 1490, while he was engaged in designing the
Villa of Poggio a Cajano. Lorenzo the Magnificent
ordered him to construct a large hall, the ceiling of which
was to be one huge arched vault, so Giuliano tried the
experiment on rather a smaller scale in his own house.
The result can be seen in a noble room on the second floor.
The palace, bought by the great Portuguese family
Ximenes d'Aragona, was considerably enlarged by Gher-
ardo Silvani in 1603 J tne large entrance hall and the court-
yard with a fine loggia leading into the garden were
probably built by him. In 1769 the daughter of the last

PALAZZO XIMENES D'ARAGONA 399

of the Ximenes d'Aragona married the Marquess Niccolo
Panciatichi. After her father's death the palace was let
to General Miot, French Minister at the Court of Tuscany,
whose guest Napoleon Bonaparte was for two days in 1796.
Lord Burgersh lived here when British Minister at
Florence, and his entertainments were the talk of the town,
as he turned the large courtyard into a ball-room by
covering it with a tent. The late Marquess Panciatichi
Ximenes d'Aragona only left his family palace in Via
Cavour for this one in 1850. Sixteen years later, in order
to prolong the Via del Mandorlo, it was cut in two, but it
is still one of the largest in Florence.

INDEX

Acciaiuoli, Acciaiuolo, sent to
manage bank at Naples, a
favourite of King Robert, i ;
Dardano, Gonfalonier of Justice,
i : Dardano, builds the church of
S. Niccoloin Florence, 3 ; Donato,
ambassador to France, 5 ; Lion-
ardo, Duke of Athens, strangled
by Mahomet II., 5; Xeri, conquers
Thebes and Bceotia and drives
the Spaniards out of Greece, 5 ;
Xiccola, appointed guardian of
the sons of the Princess of
Taranto, 2 ; Grand Seneschal of
the Kingdom of Naples, 2 ; builds
the Certosa near Florence, the
villa of Monte Guffone and the
Acciaiuoli Palace, 3 ; Matteo
Palmieri's description of, 3-4 ;
Bocchi's description of the palace,
4-5 ; Riccomanni, founder of the
Acciaiuoli bank, 1 ; Ruberto, ro-
mantic story of, 6-9.

Albany, Count of (the Pretender),
Sir Horace Mann on the, 297-
298-299.

Albany, Countess of, intrigue with
Count Alfieri, 298.

Albany, Duchess of, 299

Alberti, Alberto, Prior in 1294, 10 ;
Antonio, tortured and excluded
from all offices, 12 ; Benedetto,
Machiavelli's description of, 11;
Leon Battista, description of the,
by, 12-13 5 birth and education
of, 13 ; inventions by, 14 ; Trat-
tato della Famiglia by, 14; stren-

uous advocate for writing in
Italian, 15 ; death of, 15 ; J. A.
Symonds' description of, 15-16;
house of the Rucellai attributed
to, 113 ; architect of the Palazzo
Rucellai, 280 ; of the facade of
Sta. Maria Novella, 282.

Albizzi, Benincasa, Elder in 125 1,
17 ; Compagno, Prior in 1282,
17; Luca, adherent of the Medici,
20; Maso, founds the greatness
of Florence, 17-18 ; Piero, is be-
headed, 17 ; Rinaldo, rival of
Cosimode'Medici, 18 ; his inter-
view with Eugenius IV., 19-20, 74.

Alessandri, originally Albizzi, 20 ;
favourite barb of the, 21.

Alfieri, Count, 101 ; house of, 109.

Alighieri, Dante, 95 ; exile of, 96,
107, 144 ; portrait of, in Palazzo
del Podesta (Bargello), 214-215
and 233 ; a Prior, 96 ; quoted,
56, 155, 176, 219.

Altafronte, Castello d', ruined by a
flood of the Arno, 22 : residence
of the Judges of the Ruota, 23.

Altoviti, Altovito, a judge, knighted
by the Emperor Frederick II.,
28 ; Antonio, banker of Innocent
VIII., 30 ; Antonio, Archbishop
of Florence, mystic marriage of,
with the Abbess of S. Piero Mag-
giore, 30-31 ; Bindo, leader of
the revolt against the Duke of
Athens, cruelty of, 29 ; Bindo,
friend of Michelangelo, Raphael,
etc., 30 ; Davanzato, challenged

401 D D

402

INDEX

by the Prior of S.S. Apostoli, 28;
Giovan Battista, inherits name
and fortune of the Avila, 31 ;
Guinizzingo, Gonfalonier of Jus-
tice when the first stone of Sta.
Maria Novella was laid, 28 ;
Oddo, assists in framing the
Ordinamenti di Giustizia, 29.
Ammannati, Bartolommeo, archi-
tect of Palazzo Giugni, 115 ; of
Palazzo Griffoni, 122-123 ; prob-
ably of Palazzo Montalvo, 149 ;
adds to Palazzo Pitti, 187-188 ;
architect of the Palazzo Vitali,

396.
Amidei, Lambertuccio, daughter of,

jilted by Buondelmonti, 55.
Amieri, Ginevra degP, love story

of, 273.
Antinori, Niccolo, purchases the

Boni Palace, 36.
Arnolfo di Lapo, first architect of

the Palazzo del Podesta, 208 ;

architect of the Palazzo Spini,

308.

Baccio d'Agnolo (Baglioni), the
Palazzo Antinori attributed to,
36 ; architect of the Palazzo
Bartolini Salimbeni, 43-44 ; the
Palazzo Cocchi attributed to, 76 ;
221 ; smaller Torrigiani palace
begun by, 346 ; Domenico di,
architect of the Palazzo Bouturlin,
53 ; Giuliano di, the Palazzo
Griffoni attributed to, 123.

Badia, Iodico Del, quoted, 60, 76,
137, 167, 329, 331, 350.

Baldinucci, Filippo, 69, 128, 149,
159, entertainment in the court-
yard of the Palazzo Pitti described
by, 192-193 ; on Alfonso Parigi,

195-

Bandinelli, Bacio, no.

Bandini, Bernardo, joins the Pazzi

conspiracy, 76 ; Giovanni, betrays

Florence, 76.
Bardi, The, settle in Florence, 39 ;

fall of the, described by G. Villani,

40-42 ; created ImperialVicarii of

Vernio, 42 ; Giovanni founds the

society to reform recitative, 42.
Bartolini Salimbeni, Giovanni,

building of the palace by, 43 ;

Vasari's description of the palace,

43-44 ; origin of the frieze on the

palace, 44.
Bartolommei, Anton Maria, buys

the old Lamberteschi palace, 47 ;

origin of the Bartolommei, 47-48.
Bella, Giano Delia, 29, 167.
Benci di Cioni Dami, probably one

of the architects of the Loggia de'

Lanzi, 363.
Benedetto da Majano, Palazzo

Strozzi attributed to, 329, 331 ;

Sala de'Dugento attributed to

371.
Bianco, Raffaello del, architect of

the Palazzo Cocchi, yj.

Bicci, Lorenzo di, architect of the
Palazzo Uzzano, now Capponi,
74 ; Neridi makes a tabernacle
in the Palazzo Vecchio, 369.

Bisticci, Vespasiano da, on the
Acciaiuoli, 5, 320.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 5, 107 ; the
Decameron copied by F. Man-
nelli, 138-141 ; story of Messer
Geri Spini by, 308-313.

Bocchi, Francesco, description of
the Palazzo Acciaiuoli by, 4-5.

Bonaparte, Elisa, created Grand
Duchess of Tuscany, 205 ; inter-
view of with the Countess of
Albany, 205-206 ; is deposed,
206 ; 392.

Borghese, Prince Camillo, buys and
enlarges a Salviati palace, 52.

Botta, Marshal, re-arranges the
pictures in the Pitti palace, 199-
201.

Bouturlin, Count Demetrio, buys
the Palazzo Niccolini, 54.

Brunelleschi, Filippo, 42, architect
of the Palazzo Pazzi, 167 ; archi-
tect of the Palazzo Pitti, 185-187.

Buonarroti, Michelangelo, 30, 105,
121 ; architect of Palazzo Uguc-
cione, 349.

INDEX

403

Buondelmonti, The, declared rebels,
23 ; origin of the, 54 ; Buondel-
monte, his quarrel with Oddo
Fifanti, 55 : his marriage with a
daughter of the Amidei arranged,
55 ; sees Donati's daughter, 55 ;
murder of, 56 ; Ippolito, love
story of, 57-58 ; Zanobi, impli-
cated in a plot to assassinate the
Cardinal Giulio de'Medici, 59.

Buontalenti, Bernardo, builds the
palace of, 61-67 J miraculous
escape of, 69, 122, 136, 159;
entertainment in the courtyard of
the Pitti palace arranged by, 191—
192-193 ; builds the eastern
parade of the Palazzo Vecchio,
339-

Caccini, one of the architects of
Palazzo Nonfinito, 159.

Cambi, Giovanni, description of
Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni by,
43, 252, 256, 329.

Cambio, Arnolfo, architect of the
Palazzo Vecchio, 355.

Canacci, origin of the, 62 ; Caterina,
beauty of, 62 ; murder of, 63 ;
head of sent to the Duke Jacopo
Salviati by his Duchess, 64 ;
Giustino, description of by anony-
mous writer, 62.

Canigiani, Eletta, mother of Pet-
rarch, 67 ; Piero, Chancellortothe
Empress of Constantinople, 67.

Canto de' Diavoli, The, 352.

Cappello, Carlo, character of, 24 ;
epitaph of favourite horse of, 24.

Capponi, Marquess Alessandro,
builds the Palazzo Capponi, 70 ;
Marquess Gino, last of his branch
of the family, 70 ; Gino, takes
Pisa, 70-71 ; Lodovico, falls in
love with Maddalena Vettori,
135 ; motto and emblem invented
by, 136; decorates palace in
symbolical fashion, 136 ; Neri,
one of the most influential men
in Florence, 71 ; Piero, success
of as merchant, diplomatist and

soldier, 71 ; proud answer of to
Charles VI I. of France, 71 ; death
of, 72, 168 ; Niccolo, elected
Gonfalonier, 72 ; proclaims Jesus
Christ King of Florence, 72 ; is
deposed and imprisoned, 73 ;
his meeting with Michelangelo,
74 ; his death, 74.

Capponi (delle Rovinate), palace
of the originally Da Uzzano, 74.

Carriages first introduced into
Florence, 173.

Castellani, Francesco, knighted by
his father's bier, 23.

Cavalcanti, Guido de', game of
chess of, 279.

Cellini, Benvenuto, his medal for
Federigo Ginori, no ; on Bandi-
nelli's Hercules, 378.

Cerchi, Piero Monaldi on the, 75-
76 ; Vieri de', called to Rome by
the Pope, 95.

Cibo, The, introduce carriages into
Florence, 173 ; Francesco buys
the Palazzo Pazzi, 172 ; Ricciarda,
mistress of Alessandro de'
Medici, 172.

Cigoli (Cardi), Fra Lodovico, ar-
chitect of the Loggia of the
Palazzo Corsi Salviati, 76, 159.

Cinelli, Giovanni, 77, 101, 116,
122.

Cocchi, Palazzo praised by Vasari,
76 ; built by Raffaello del Bianco,

77-
Compagni, Dino, description of

Corso Donati by, 98 ; exclaims
against the avidity of the Floren-
tines, 179 ; on the storming of
the Palazzo del Podesta, 211 ; on
the Cerchi and the Donati, 313,

Corsi, origin of the, 80 ; Giovanni,
entrusted with the care of Aless-
andro de'Medici, 81; his nephews
buy the Palazzo Tornabuoni, 81 ;
Laura, marries the Marquess
Salviati, 81.

Corsini, palace built for the
Marquess Filippo, 81; Andrea S.

404

INDEX

where born, 82 ; charity of, 83 ;
Bishop of Fiesole, 82 ; canonized,

82 ; Amerigo, First Archbishop of
Florence, 83 ; Bartolommeo, buys
large estates, 84 ; Bartolommeo,
created Prince of Sismano by
Clement XII., 85 ; identifies
himself with the Spanish party,
86 ; Bertoldo, Governor of the
fortress of S. Giovanni, offers to
cede arms to the people, is
banished by Cosimo I. and de-
capitated, 84 ; Filippo, jurist and
ambassador, 83 ; Filippo, created
a Marquess by Urban VIIL, 84 ;
Filippo, travels with Prince
Cosimo de'Medici, his account
of places visited, 85 ; Giovanni,
lover of the Empress of Constan-
tinople, 82 ; Lorenzo, elected
Pope as Clement XII., 85 ;
Matteo, family historian, 82, 83 ;
makes large fortune in London,

83 ; author of the Rosaio del/a
Vita, 83 ; Neri, 82 ; Neri, made
a Cardinal by Clement XII.,
rules the Papal States under four
popes, 86 ; Neri, advocates the
independence of Tuscany at
Congress of Vienna, Minister of
the Interior, a free trader, 87 ;
Neri, Governor of Leghorn, 87 ;
Pietro, Bishop of Florence, 82 ;
Piero, builder of the first fortifi-
cations of Leghorn, 84 ; Tom-
maso, eminent as a jurist, honesty
of, death of, 82 ; Tommaso,
Prince, flies to Sicily, created a
Senator and a Count by Napoleon
I., Senator of Rome, 86 ; Tom-
maso, Prince, popularity of, 87.

Covoni, Count, 47, 51 ; Pierfilippo,
Count, 61.

Cronaco 1 1., architect of the Palazzo
Guadagni, 123, 174 ; courtyard
and cornice of the Palazzo Strozzi
built by, 330-331; the great Hall
of Council in the Palazzo Vecchio
built by, 374-375-

Cybo, Donna Veronica, 62 ; hires

assassins to murder Caterina
Canacci, 63 ; sends head of
Caterina Canacci to the Duke
Jacopo Salviati, 64.

Dati, Goro, description by, of the
race for the Palio, 21-22.

Davanzati, palace of the, 87-88 ;
Bernardo, translator of Tacitus,
88 ; member of Florentine
Academy, 91 ; Lasca's poem
about, 91; Francesco Rondinelli's
description of, 91-92 ; Giuliano,
knighted by Eugenius IV., 88 ;
Niccolo, founder of the convent
of Doccia, 88.

Dei, Benedetto, ambassador to
Constantinople, 124 ; Rinieri,
builds the Palazzo Guadagni,
123; Palazzo Cocchi built for the,

77-

Delia Casa, Giovanni, Bishop of
Benevento, author of Galateo,
160.

Donatello, 143-144.

Donati, palaces and towers of the,
92 ; Corso, 76 ; forces his sister
Piccarda to leave her convent
and marry, 95 ; repulse of the
Cerchi by, 95 ; banishment of,
96 ; Machiavelli's account of,
96-97-98 ; Dino Compagni's
description of, 98.

Dosio, Giovanni, probably added
to the Palazzo Bouturlin, 53 ;
architect of Palazzo Lardarel,

134-

Evelyn, John, 47, on the Palazzo
Pitti and its garden, 197.

Fabriczy, Herr von, on Brunel-

leschi, 186-187, 341, 342.
Falconieri, Paolo, architect of the

Palazzo Piccolellis, 180 ; of the

Palazzo Pucci, 234.
Ferdinando 1 1 1, (of Lorraine),Grand

Duke, 87, 201 ; is deposed, 202 ;

is reinstated, 206.

INDEX

405

Feroni, origin of the, 98 ; palaces of

.the' 99-.
Fioravanti, Neri di, rebuilds the

Palazzo del Podesta, 213-214,

217.
Fiorentino, Niccolo, medals by, 79.
Firenzuola, Simone di, 115.
Firidolfi, Ricasoli, account of the,

100 ; chapel in the palace painted

by Vasari, 99.
Fontana, Carlo, architect of Palazzo

Capponi, 70 ; of Palazzo Pancia-

tichi, 160.
Fossi, Palazzo, originally Alberti,

105; frescoed by Stalf, 105.
Frescobaldi, Dino, saves the first

seven cantos of the Inferno, 107 ;

Lamberto, builds the first bridge

of Sta. Trinita, 106 ; palaces and

towers of the, 105, 106 ; revolt of

the, 106.
Frey, Dr. Carl, on the Loggia de'

Lanzi, 362-363.

Geymiiller, Herr von, 342.
Giacomini, The, 133 ; Palazzo

Larderel built by, 134.
Gianfigliazzi, origin of the, 109 ;

palaces of the, 108.
Gibbon, Edward, on Cosimo de'

Medici, 246.
Ginori, Bartolommeo, chosen as a

model by Giovan Bologna, 1 1 1 ;

Carlo, Senator, founder of the

china manufactory,! 1 1 ; Federigo,

medal made by Benvenuto Cellini

for, no.
Ginori, Conti, Prince, his palace

the "old house" of the Medici,

112-113.
Ginori, Venturi, Marquess, palace

of, built by Bernardo Rucellai,

ii3-
Giugni, Vincenzio, 115, 116.

Giuliano da Majano, finishes the
Palazzo Pazzi, 167; rebuilds the
Sala de'Dugento, 371.

Gondi, Alberto, created Due de
Retz, 119; Giovanbattista, be-
comes a naturalized French sub-

ject, 119 ; Giuliano, builds the
Palazzo Gondi, 119; Jean Fran-
cois Paul, Cardinal de Retz, 120.

Grazzini (Lasca), poem by, 91.

Griffoni, Ugolino, 122.

Grosso, Niccolo (Caparra), 9, 123,

33i-
Guadagni, Alessandro, builds the

Palazzo in the Piazza del Duomo,

128; Bernardo, Gonfalonier of

Justice bribed by Cosimo de'

Medici, 127 ; Pierantonio, founds

the gallery, 1 28; Tommaso, builds

the San Clemente Palace, 128.

Guicciardini, Francesco, avarice of,

130 ; account of by Pitti, 131 ;

character of by Varchi, 132 ;

cruelty of, 131, 168.

Heywood, William, description of
the game of Calcio by, 33-34.

Incontri, The, 180.

Landi, Michele di, created Gonfa-
lonier of Justice, 365.

Landucci, Luca, diary of, 78, 79 ;
on the building of the Palazzo
Strozzi, 327.

Leopoldo I. (of Austria), proclaimed
Grand Duke of Tuscany, 201 ;
Leopoldo II.,Grand Duke, makes
great alterations in the Pitti
Palace, 207 ; is deposed, 207.

Lapi, Agostino, on the building of
the Pitti Palace, 188.

Lippi, Filippo, contract with Filippo
Strozzi, 323.

Lodovico I. (of Bourbon), created
King of Etruria by Napoleon I.,
202, 203; death of, 204.

Machiavelli, Niccolo, on Benedetto
Alberti, 1 1 ; death of Niccolo da
Uzzano a calamity for Florence,
18; meeting of Eugenius IV. and
Rinaldo degl'Albizzi, 19, 20, 59 ;
rivalry of the Cerchi and the
Donati, 95, 96 ; Corso Donati
described by, 96, 97, 98; on Luca

406

INDEX

Pitti, 185, 186 ; on Cosimo de'
Medici, 241, 243, 249 ; on the
murder of Giuliano de'Medici,
251, 252 ; on Niccolo and Tom-
maso Soderini, 305, 306; on Piero
Soderini, 307,321, 365, 3°6.

Manelli, The, different names of,
137 ; refuse to allow the corridor
connecting the Palazzo Pitti and
the Palazzo Vecchio to pass
through their house, 142 ; Ama-
retto, 138 ; Francesco, Boccac-
cio's friend, makes a copy of the
Deca?neron, J 38-1 39 ; Raimondo
takes Spinola prisoner, 141.

Mann, Sir Horace, on Lady Or-
ford's Cicisbeo, 154 ; on the
Count of Albany, on Marshal
Botta, 199-200.

Martelli, Camilla, wife of Cosimo I.,
her death, 144; Lodovico, a poet,
143 ; Lodovico, duel of with G.
Bandini, 143, 144 ; Ruberto,
patron and friend of Donatello,

143-

Medici, Alessandro de, 25, 36, 60,

72, 74, 81, 84, 109, in, 112, 129,
131 ; attempted murder of, 172,
237, 259, 260 ; created Duke,
261, 262 ; murder of, 263, 265,
266, 293, 335, 336, 351, 357,
382, 383, 384 ; Bernardetto de,
351 ; Carlo de', Cardinal, 61 ;
Clarice de', 259, turns Ippo-
lito and Alessandro out of
Palazzo Medici, 260, 333 ;
Cosimo de' (the elder), 18, 19, 26,
71, 74, 113, 144, 146, 156, 185, 186,
220, 234, 237 ; builds the Medici
palace, 241, 242 ; character of,
241 ; banishment and return of,

245 ; death of, 247 ; Gibbon on,

246 ; patron of artists and men of
letters, 246 ; imprisoned in the
Alberghettino, 366, 369 ; Cosimo
I., Grand Duke, 23, 30, 36, 60,
69, 84, 102, 114, 116, 122, 124,
128, 131, 135, 141, 142, 156, 162,
187, 232, 237 ; succeeds to the
Duke Alessandro, 266 ; proclama-

tion and marriage of, 267, 336,

337, 338, 339, 34o, 349, 35°, 37^,
384, 388 ; Cosimo II., Grand
Duke, lengthens the Palazzo
Pitti, 195, 196; marriage of, 389,
390 ; Cosimo III., Grand Duke,
48, 61 ; tour through Europe as
Prince, 85, 86, 99 ; rupture be-
tween him and his wife, 197-199,
390; Ferdinando I., Grand Duke,
121, 181 ; marriage festivities of,
191-193, 194, 237, 388, 389;
Ferdinando II., Grand Duke, 48,
85, 113, 195; picture gallery
begun by in the Palazzo Pitti,
196, 345, 397 ; Francesco I.,
Grand Duke, 23, 42, 60, 61, 114,
189, 191, 386 ; Giovanni de', des-
cription of by Machiavelli, 238-
241 ; Giovanni de', (delle Bande
Nere), 160, 294 ; Giovanni de'
(Leo X.), 163 ; is made a Car-
dinal, 252, 256 ; is elected Pope,
257 ; death of, 258, 332 ; Giovan
Carlo de', Cardinal, 84, 114 ;
Giovan Gastone, Grand Duke,
199, 291 ; Giuliano de', 35 ; mur-
der of, 171, 251, 293, 306, 379,
380 ; Giuliano de' (Duke of
Nemours), 255, 256 ; marriage
and death of, 257 ; statue of, 258;
Giulio de' (Clement VII.), 24,
59, 114, 130, 222, 231, 237, 256;
created Cardinal, 257 ; elected
Pope, 260, 261, 333 ; Ippolito de',
Cardinal, 72, 81, 259, 260; charac-
ter of by Varchi, 261 ; dies of
poison, 262 ; Isabella de', 189;
Lorenzo de' (the Magnificent),
25, 26 ; his entry into the lists
described by L. Pulci, 35, 51, 71,
78; deference of to his mother,
80, 107, 108, 168; attempted mur-
der of, 171, 251, 244, 248; mar-
riage of and election to rule
the State, 249 ; Niccolo Valori's
description of, 250 ; death of,
252, 270, 283, 287, 293, 306,
322, 324, 325, 326, 343 ; Lorenzo
de' (Duke of Urbino), 60, 101,

INDEX

407

256 ; Lorenzino de', house of,
112, 113; description of, 262; mur-
ders Duke Alessandro, 263-265 ;
Lucrezia de', 79, poetic gifts of, 80;
Lucrezia de' (daughter of Cosimo
I.), 188 ; Maria de', marriage of,
to Henri IV., 193, 194; Nannina
de', marriage of, 287, 288, 290;
Ottaviano de', house of, 60 ;
administers the family property,
60 ; Piero de; (son of Cosimo the
Elder), 71, 78, 79, 108, 174, 186,
244, 247 ; answer by to Acci-
aiuoli, 248 ; death of, 249 ; Piero
de' (son of Lorenzo), marriage of,
252 ; cedes Sarzana, etc., to
Charles VOL, 253 ; is expelled,
254; is drowned, 255, 377 ;
Rafifaello de', 53 ; Salvestro de",

238, 364-

Michelozzi, Michelozzo, architect of
the Palazzo Riccardi, 241-242,
243 ; Palazzo dello Strozzino
attributed to, 342 ; restores the
Palazzo Vecchio, 367-369.

Monaldi, Piero, manuscript history
of the Cerchi by, 75 ; manuscript
family history of, 145 ; manu-
script history of the Vecchietti

by, 352.

Montaigne, Michel de', on the

Palazzo Pitti, 190.
Montalvo, Antonio Ramirez di,

146 ; Leonora di, foundress of the

convent of Le Ouiete, 149-150.
Mozzi, The, 151 ; Cavaliere, Sir

Horace Mann on the, 154.
Murat, Joachim, proclaims the King

of Etruria, 203.

Nardi, Jacopo, 59, 133, 231, letter

on the tumult in the Palazzo

Vecchio, 381-382.
Nelli, G. B., architect of the Palazzo

Viviani, 397.
Nerli, The, Dante on, 155 ; join the

Paterines, 156 ; Tanay, adversary

of Savonarola, 156.
Nero, Tommaso del, architect of

the Palazzo Torrigiani, 345.

Nigetti, Matteo, rebuilds the Palazzo
de' Bardi, 39 ; one of the archi-
tects of the Palazzo Nonfinito,
159-

Orcagna, Andrea, reputed architect
of the Loggia de'Lanzi, 362-363.

Palmieri, Matteo, on Niccola
Acciaiuoli, 3-4.

Panciatichi, Bandino, Cardinal,
160 ; history of the, 161 ; Niccolo,
marries the heiress of the
Ximenes d'Aragona, 162.

Pandolfini, Agnolo, 14 ; Gianozzo,
Bishop of Troja, builds the
Palazzo Pandolfini, 163.

Paoletti, G., bastion of the Pitti
palace and the Palazzina della
Meridiana built by, 201.

Parigi, Alfonso, lengthens the Pa-
lazzo Pitti and restores the facade
to the perpendicular, 195-196.

Parigi, Giulio, architect of the
Palazzo dell' Antella, 32 ; loggia
of the Tessitori de'Drappi at-
tributed to, 60 ; adds to the
Palazzo Pitti, 195.

Passerini, Count Luigi, quoted, 17,
28, 36, 48, 102, 124, 161, 174, 212,
213, 215, 275.

Pazzi, Andrea, builds the Palazzo
Pazzi, 167 ; Francesco, conspires
with Sixtus IV. against the
Medici, 168 ; kills Giuliano de'
Medici, 171; is hanged, 172;
Jacopo, incites the people to
revolt, 171 ; is executed, 172 ;
Giovanni, founds the Societa
Colombaia, 397.

Peruzzi, account of the, 175 ; Arco
de', frescoed by Paolo Ucello,
176 ; Baldassare, architect and
painter, 180 ; houses of the,
assigned to distinguished guests,
179 ; Ridolfo, banished, 179; ruin
of the, 176; Ubaldino, 180.

Pisani, Andrea, enlarges the Palazzo
Vecchio, 359.

Pitti, Buonaccorso, chronicle of>

408

INDEX

182 ; Luca, begins the Palazzo
Pitti, 185 ; conspires against
Piero de' Medici, 186; Eleonora
di Toledo buys the Palazzo Pitti,
187 ; marriages of Cosimo I.'s
daughters in, 188-189; Mon-
taigne's description of, 190 ;
entertainment in courtyard of for
marriage of Ferdinando I., 191-
193; ceremonies for the marriage
of Maria de'Medici in, 194 ; Giu-
lio and Alfonzo Parigi add to,
195-196 ; beginning of gallery in,
196 ; description of by Evelyn,
196-197 ; Marguerite Louise of
Orleans and her cook in, 197-198-
199 ; Marshal Botta's work in,
described by Sir H. Mann, 199-
200-201 ; loggiata of begun by
Ruggieri, 201 ; Ferdinando III.
expelled from, 202 ; King and
Queen of Etruria in, 204 ; Elisa
Bonaparte in, 205-206 ; picture
gallery of, added to by Ferdinan-
do III., 207 ; Leopoldo II. leaves
the, 207.

Podesta, Palazzo del (Bargello),
building of, 208 ; burnings of the,
211 and 213 ; frescoes in chapel
of, 214-216 ; malefactors painted
on, 216-217 and 220-221, and 252 ;
Pagolo Boscoli's last night, by
Luca della Robbia, 222-231 ; in-
side of ruined when given up to
the Bargello, 252-253 ; uncover-
ing Dante's portrait in, 233.

Poliziano, Agnolo, 35, 80.

Pucci, The, 234-235.

Pulci, Luca, entry of Lorenzo de'
Medici into the lists described by,
35, Sex

Quaratesi, Marquess Niccolo, buys
the Palazzo Pazzi, 174.

Rastrelli, Abbate Modesto, on the
murder of the Duke Alessandro,
263-265 ; how the Gonfaloniers
and Priors lived in the palace,
357-

Ricasoli, Alberto, 100; Antonio,
takes S. Leo, 101 ; Bettino, Baron,
102 ; speech of in the Palazzo
Vecchio, 394 ; Rinieri, builds the
palace on the Lung'Arno, 101.
Riccardi, Palazzo, built by Cosimo
de'Medici, 241-243 ; chapel of,
243-245 ; Lorenzo de'Medici
accepts the position of ruler in,
249 ; Sforza visits Lorenzo in,
250; Pier Capponi and Charles
VIII. in, 254 ; Savonarola visits
Charles VIII. in, 255 ; the
Medici return to, 256 ; Leo X.
in, 257; Cardinal Giulio de'
Medici closes the loggia of, 258 ;
Ippolito de'Medici and Cardinal
Passerini in, 259 ; Clarice degl'
Strozzi turns the Cardinal, Ippo-
lito and Alessandro de'Medici
out of, 260 ; festivals in for
Charles V. and Margaret of
Austria, 262 ; meeting of the
Forty-eight in after the murder
of the Duke Alessandro, 266 ;
sale of to the Riccardi, 257 ;
added to by the Riccardi, 267-
268 ; let to the French Govern-
ment, 268-269.

Ridolfi, The, 270 ; hospital of the,
272.

Ristori Taddeo di, probably one of
the architects of the Loggia de'
Lanzi, 363.

Rondinelli, The, 272 ; Antonio, love
story of, 273-275 ; Francesco,
description of Bernardo Davan-
zati by, 91-92.

Rossi, Tribaldo de1, his description
of the laying of the first stone of
the Palazzo Strozzi, 226-227,
328 ; of the giraffe sent to
Lorenzo de'Medici, 343-344.

Rucellai, The, 275 ; Bernardo, mar-
riage of with Nannina de'Medici,
287 ; builds the palace in the
Oricellari gardens, 113; Giovanni,
marries Jacopa degl' Strozzi,
279-280 ; builds the Palazzo
Rucellai, 280 ; builds the facade

INDEX

409

of Sta. Maria Novella, 282 ; //
Zibaldone Quaresimale written by
283-287 ; Giovanni, letter of from
Avignon, 288-289 ; author of
Rosmunda, etc., 289-290 ; Gio-
vanni, his tessera, 291; Giulio,
suppresses the tribunal of the
Inquisition and curbs the power
of the clergy, 291-292.

Sacchetti, Franco, Cavalcanti's
game of chess described by, 281-
282.

San Clemente, Dukes of, 299, 303.

San Gallo, Bastiano da, continues
the Palazzo Pandolfini, 164.

San Gallo, Giovanfrancesco da,
architect, under Raphael, of the
Palazzo Pandolfini, 161.

San Gallo, Giuliano da, 36; architect
of the Palazzo Gondi, 119 ; stair-
case and fireplace in by, 120, 221 ;
probable architect of Palazzo
Strozzi, 331 ; of part of Palazzo
dello Strozzino, 342 ; architect
of Palazzo Xirnenes d'Aragona,
398.

Savonarola, advocates building the
great hall in the Palazzo Yecchio,
374 ; imprisonment, torture and
death of, 376.

Segni, Bernardo, 25, 131, 260; on
the death of Luisa Strozzi, 336,

337-

Serristori, The, 304.

Silvani, Pierfrancesco, joint archi-
tect of the Palazzo Corsini, 81 ;
rebuilds the Palazzo Guicciardini,
129; architect of the Palazzo San
Clemente, 297 ; enlarges the Pa-
lazzo Xirnenes d'Aragona, 398.

Sisto da Firenze, Fra, joint archi-
tect with Fra Ristoro da Campi
of the Palazzo del Podesta, 208.

Soderini, Niccolo, popularity of,
305 ; Tommaso, one of the chief
citizens of Florence, 305-306 ;
Piero, cowardice of, 306 ; Machia-
velli's lines on, 307.

Spini, The, 307 ; Geri, ability and

riches of, 308; Boccaccio's story
about, 308-313 ; Piero, Dino Com-
pagni on, 313 ; Doffo, leader of
the " Compagnacci " against
Savonarola, 314 ; north facade of
the palace rebuilt, 315.
Strozzi, Progenitor of the, 316 ;
murder of Ercole, 319; Ciriacor
works by, 319; Palla, great col-
lector of books, 320-321 ; Ales-
sandra, the letters of, 321 ; Filip-
po, account of, 322 ; marriages of,
323 ; builds the great palace, 324-
328 ; his account of the murder of
Giuliano de'Medici, 372-373-374;
death of, 328 ; Vasari attributes
the design of the palace to Bene-
detto da Majano, 329-331 ; Filip-
po the younger marries Clarice
de'Medici, 332 ; sent as a hostage
to Spain, 333 ; advisesthe Cardinal
Passerini, Ippolito and Alessan-
dro de'Medici to leave Florence,.
334 ; his daughter Luisa insulted,
335 ; her death, 336 ; taken prisoner
and tortured, 336; various accounts
of his death, 337 ; epitaphs of,
337-338 ; description of, 33.8-339 5
Piero, enters the service of
France, 339 ; Leone, Prior of
Capua, 335, 336 ; becomes a
French Admiral, plans fortifica-
tions in Malta, 340 ; Agnolo,
builds the Palazzo dello Stroz-
zino, 341 ; Palla Novello, buys
the houses of the Gondi, 341.
Stufa, Lotteringo Delia, one of the
founders of the Servite Order,
342 ; Luigi, 343 ; rhyme about,

344-
Symonds, J. A., on the Trattato

della Famiglia, 14; on Leon
Battista Alberti, 15-16, 130, 132,
246 ; on the poem of Ginevra
degl'Amieri, 274-275; on Bernar-
do Rucellai, 290 ; on Palla degl'
Strozzi, 320-321.

Tasso, Torquato, lines to Bianca
Cappel'o, 188.

4io

INDEX

Torrigiani, Luigi, Cardinal, last of
his family, 346 ; Pietro Guadagni,
inherits name and fortune of the,
346.

Uguccione, Giovanni, builds palace,
349 ; design of palace stolen, 350.

Valori, Filippo, 25, 26 ; Bacio, 25,
26 ; decorates his house, 27 ;
Niccolo, 26, 35, 80 ; Francesco, 73.

Varchi, Benedetto, 9, 24 ; on Bacio
Valori, 25, 59, 72, 131, 144;
attempted murder of the Duke
Alessandro, 172, 259 ; on Ippolito
de'Medici, 261, 262 ; state of
things in Florence after the
murder of the Duke Alessandro,
265-266, 333, 334 ; on LuisadegP
Strozzi, 335 ; on Luigi della
Stufa, 344.

Vasari, Giorgio, 3,30 ; onthe Barto-
lini Salimbeni Palace, 43-44, 53,
76, 78 ; chapel in the Ricasoli
Firidolfi Palace painted by, 99,
113, 114, 132, 142, 143, 159,' 163;
on Paolo Uccello, 176, 180, 187,
208 ; on the Palazzo del Podesta,
213-214, 252 ; on the Palazzo
Strozzi, 329-331, 355, 356; on
Michelozzi's work in the Palazzo
Vecchio, 367-369, 374, 379 ; work
of, in the Palazzo Vecchio, 385—

387..

Vecchietti, account of the, 352.

Vecchio, Palazzo, building of, 35 5—
356 ; life of the Gonfaloniere and
Priori in, 357 : ringhiera of, 357—
35S ; added to by the Duke of
Athens, 358-359 ; Dukeof Athens
expelled from, 360 ; lions of, 361 ;
Simoncino tortured in, 364 ;
Michele di Lando created Gonfa-
lonier in, 365 ; Cosimo de'Medici
imprisoned in, 366 ; Michelozzi
restores the, 366-369 ; Neri de'
Bicci paints tabernacle in, 369 ;
Baldaccio d'Anghieri murdered
in, 369-370 ; Sala de'Dugento

rebuilt in, 371 ; Archbishop of
Pisa and nobles hung from the
windows of, 271-274 ; great Hall
of Council built in, 374-375 ;
Savonarola imprisoned in, 375—
376 ; Michelangelo's David at
door of, 376-377 ; Bandinelli's
Hercules, description of, by
Benvenuto Cellini, 378-379 ;
Leonardo da Vinci's fresco in,
379 ; destruction of the wood-
work in the great Hall of, 380 ;
tumult in, 381-382 ; Niccolo
Capponi proclaims Jesus Christ
King of Florence in, 382-383 ;
Duke Alessandro proclaimed in,
383-384 ; Cosimo I. takes up his
abode in, 384-385 ; Vasari's work
in, 385-387 ; Buontalenti adds
the eastern facade to, 389 ; mar-
riage feasts in, 389-390 ; Del
Rosso's work in, 392 ; Baron
Ricasoli's speech in, 394 ; the
Hall of the Five Hundred becomes
the House of Parliament, 394-

395-

Velluti, The, 299 ; Donato, chroni-
cle of, 300 ; Paolo, chronicle of,
301-303.

Vespucci, Amerigo, 181.

Vettori, Maddalena, love story of,

135-136.

Victor Emanuel I., King, 207, 395.

Villani, Giovanni, the rising of the
people against the nobles des-
cribed by, 40-42; Cronica of, 52,
55, 76 ; on Pope Gregory X. in
Florence, 152, 179,211, 213, 355;
fortifications of the Palazzo Vec-
chio by the Duke of Athens
described by, 358-359 ; Filippo,
52 ; on Dante's portrait in the
Palazzo del Podesta, 214-215 ;
Matteo, 52 ; on the granite lions
of the Palazzo Vecchio, 361, 362.

Viviani,Vincenzio, friend of Galileo,
397 ; entertains Milton, 398.

Zenobius, S., miracle of, 31.

Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
bread street hill, e.c., and
bungay, suffolk.

Date Due

L. B. Cat. No. 1137

DG732.5.R81

3 5002 00192 6844

Ross, Janet

Florentine palaces & their stories,

""..

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