FOOTNOTES
[1] See Florentine Villas, Dent and Co., 1902.
[2] Le Bellezze della Città di Fiorenza. Scritte da M. Francesco Bocchi In Fiorenza. MDXCI.
[3] Opere Volgare di Leon Battista Alberti. Anicio Bonucci. Firenze. 1843.
[4] See Preface to Opere Volgare di L. B. Alberti. A. Bonucci.
[5] Manuale di Letteratura Italiana. Compilato dai Professori Alessandro d’Ancona e Orazio Bacci. Vol. ii p. 75. Firenze. G. Barbèra. 1904.
[6] 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. Pandolfini; V. Cortesi, mentioned 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; and many others.
[7] Renaissance in Italy. J. A. Symonds. Vol. ii, p. 247. Smith Elder and Co. 1897.
[8] See Paradiso degl’Alberti Edito da A. Wesselofsky. Bologna. 1867.
[9] Marietta de’ Ricci. Di A. Ademollo. Con correzione e aggiunte di Luigi Passerini. Vol. ii, p. 697. Firenze. 1845.
[10] Istoria di Firenze. Di Goro Dati. Dall’anno MCCCLXXX all’anno MCCCCV. con Annotazione. In Firenze MDCCXXXV. Nella Stamperia di Giuseppe Marmi.
[11] This gate, which was on the bank of the river, was destroyed in 1860. 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.
[12] Storie Fiorentine di Messer Bernardo Segni. Dall’Anno MDXXVII al MDLV. In Augusta. MDCCXXIII.
[13] Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Altoviti. Luigi Passerini. Firenze. 1871.
[14] See Storia Politica dei Municipii Italiani. Paolo Emiliani-Giudicci. Firenze. 1851.
[15] Now in the collection of Mrs. Gardiner, Fenway Court, Boston.
[16] De Ingressu Antonnii Altovitae Archiepiscopi Florentini, Historico Descripto Incerti Auctoris. Dominicus Morenius. Florentiae. MDCCCXV.
[17] 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.
[18] See Memorie del Calcio Florentino. Tratte da diverse Scritture e dedicate all’Altezze Serenissime di Ferdinando, Principe di Toscana e Violante Beatrice di Baviera. Firenze. 1688.
[19] Marietta de’ Ricci. A. Ademollo. 2A edizione con correzione e aggiunte per cura di Luigi Passerini. Vol. iv. p. 1303. Firenze. 1845.
[20] For an account of the Marquess F. Bartolommei and the bloodless Florentine revolution, see Il Rivolgimento Toscano e l’Azione Popolare, by his daughter Signora Matilda Gioli. Firenze. 1905.
[21] Marietta de’ Ricci, di A. Ademollo. 2A edizione con correzzioni e aggiunte per cura di Luigi Passerini. Vol. v., p. 1850. Firenze. 1845.
[22] 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.
[23] See Bulletino dell’Associazione per la Difesa di Firenze. Antica. 4a Fascicolo, 1904.
[24] Don Antonio de’ Medici al Casino di San Marco and Il Casino di San Marco. P. F. Covoni, 1892.
[25] Commentarj di Gino Capponi dell’Acquisto ovvero Presa di Pisa. Vol. 18, Script. Rer. Ital.
[26] Istoria delle Famiglie Fiorentine. Scritta nell’anno. 1607 da Piero di Giovanni Monaldi Cittadino Fiorentino. Tomo Unico. Al Sermo: Ferdinando Gran Duca di Toscana, con l’aggiunta di Monsre. Sommai, sino all’anno 1620.
[27] Raccolta Delle Migliori Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze. Disegnate e Descritte da R. ed E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo. Architetti. Firenze. G. Ferroni, 1876.
[28] 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.
[29] Vasari, Vol. III., p. 266 note; and Manni. Sigilli, xviii., 131.
[30] See Archivio Storico Italiano, Serie V., Tom. VI. Giovanna Tornabuoni e Ginevra de’ Benci. Dispensa 6a del 1890, p. 432.
[31] Now a villa, belonging to Mr. Cannon.
[32] Lasca. Rime, Vol. I., p. 113.
[33] Le Bellezze della Città de Firenze. Cinelli, 1677.
[34] Genealogia e Storia della famiglia Ricasoli. Luigi Passerini. Firenze, 1861.
[35] The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by John Addington Symonds, Vol. i, p. 113, 2nd edition. John C. Nimmo, London.
[36] Marietta de Ricci. Opus cit.
[37] See Miscellanea Florentina. Il Chiasso del Traditore, etc. Anno I, No. 12. 1886.
[38] Celio Malespina, Part II. Novella 24.
[39] For a full account of the Gondi family see Histoire Généalogique de la Maison de Gondi, par M. de Corbinelli, a Paris chez Jean-Baptiste Coignard, Rue St. Jaques, MDCCV. 2 Vols.
[40] See Raccolta delle Migliori Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze. Disegnate e Descritte da R. ed E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo. Architetti. Firenze. G. Ferroni, 1876.
[41] Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Guadagni. L. Passerini. Firenze, 1873.
[42] Cerrettiere Bisdomini, the infamous counsellor of the Duke of Athens, who was torn to pieces by the people in the Piazza della Signoria.
[43] See Apologia de’ Cappucci. Archivio Storico, Vol. IV. part II. p. 329.
[44] All these decorations have disappeared.
[45] See Raccolte delle Migliori Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze. Opus cit.
[46] Ricordi intorno ai costumi, azione e governo del Serenissimo Gran Duca Cosimo.
[47] Firenze, Città Nobilissima. Illustrata da Ferdinando L. del Migliore. In Firenze. MDCLXXXIV.
[48] See Florentine Villas, pp. 42–44. Dent. London, 1902.
[49] Istoria delle Famiglie Fiorentine. Scritta nell’anno 1607 da Piero di Giovanni Monaldi, Cittadino Fiorentino. Tomo unico. Al Sermo, Ferdinando Gran Duca di Toscana, con l’aggiunta di Monsre. Sommai, sino all’anno 1620.
[50] Vita della Venerabile Serva di Dio Donna Leonora Ramirez di Montalvo etc. etc. In Firenze L Anno MDCCXI.
[51] See Renaissance in Italy, J. A. Symonds. Vol. v. p. 239. London, 1868.
[52] Passerini, from whose Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Panciatichi I have taken most of the facts about the family, cites the deed of 9 June 1191: “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.”
[53] See Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri di Firenze, dal Comm. S. L. Peruzzi. Firenze. 1868.
[54] Paradise. Canto XVI, Dante. Cary’s translation.
[55] Cronica di Buonaccorso Pitti, con Annotazione. In Firenze. MDCCXX, nella Stamperia di Giuseppe Manni.
[56] Where wool is carded, spun and woven.
[57] Mann and Manners, Vol. II, p. 102.
[58] See Cronachette Storiche Florentine. Pierfilippo Covoni. Firenze, 1894.
[59] See Il Palazzo Pitti. Lettura fatta alla Società Colombaria nell’adunanza del dì 6. Marzo, 1887. Prof. Cosimo Conti. Succ. Le Monnier Firenze, 1887.
[60] Cronaca di Giovanni Villani, lib. 8, cap. 8.
[61] See Del Pretorio di Firenze. Lezione Academico, etc., da Luigi Passerini, 2A edizione, Firenze, 1855. Ricordi e Jouhaud.
[62] Hoc opus factum fuit tempore potestarie magnifici et potentis militis domini Fidesmini de Varano civis Camerinensis honorabilis potestatis ... the remainder is wanting.
[63] 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.”
[64] 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 façade of the Palazzo del Podestà.”
[65] By the effigy of the Duke was:
Avaro, traditore, e poi crudele,
Lussurioso, ingiusto e spergiuro,
Giammai non tenne suo stato securo.
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 più che altr’uom crudele;
Però mi grava più 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, Podestà 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.
7. And on a book which Friar Giotto of S. Gemignano holds in his hand:
Vie più m’incresce di me e mio fratello
Veder l’un traditore, l’altro ingrato,
Che veder te di signoria cacciato.
[66] Il Palazzo del Podestà. Illustrazione Storica di Giovan Battista Uccelli. Firenze, 1865.
[67] In large characters was written:
“Superbo, avaro, traditor, bugiardo,
Lussurioso, ingrato e pien d’inganni,
Son Bonnaccorso di Lapo Giovanni.”
[68] In one of these the Podestà, 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 Purg., 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.
[69] Descrizione dei Delinquenti condannati a morte in Firenze. Firenze, MDCCCI.
[70] See Archivio Storico Italiano, T. I. Firenze. G. P. Vieusseux, Editore, 1842.
[71] 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 Podestà, 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 Podestà 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 Podestà, as a traitor to his country.”
[72] Opus cit.
[73] See Jahrbuch d. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1903. Heft. IV. (Fabriczy, Giuliano da Majano in Siena.)
[74] Milan was famed for the construction of these “carrette,” which were much used there.
[75] Istoria di Firenze. By the Marquess Gino Capponi.
[76] Storia d’Alessandro de’ Medici. Abate Modesto Rastrelli. Firenze. MDCCLXXXI.
[77] See Miscellanea Fiorentina. Anno I, No. 12, 1886.
[78] See Cronachette Storiche Fiorentine. Pierfilippo Covoni. Firenze, 1894.
[79] At the end of the XVIIIth 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.
[80] More likely because it adjoins the chapel of the Misericodia.
[81] a Storia di Ginevra Amieri che fu sepolta viva in Firenze. Pisa. Nistri.
[82] Renaissance in Italy. J. A. Symonds. Vol. iv, p. 216, second edition, 1898.
[83] Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Rucellai. Luigi Passerini. M Callini e C. 1861.
[84] Novella, 68.
[85] Un Mercante Fiorentino e la Sua Famiglia, nel Secolo XV. G. Marcotti. G. Barbèra. Firenze. 1881.
[86] 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.)
[87] See Le Opere di Giovanni Rucellai per cura di Guido Mazzoni. Bologna. N. Zanichelli. 1887.
[88] Cronaca di Firenze di Donato Velluti. Dall’anno MCCC. in circa fino al MCCCLX. In Firenze. Presso D. M. Manni. MDCCXXXI.
[89] The Strozzi arms are three half moons.
[90] The conversation between the Pope and the prelates in the Consistory was as follows. The Pope asked: “Qualis Civitas est Florentia. 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 temporibus 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.”
[91] Lettere di una Gentildonna Fiorentina. Publicate da Cesare Guasti Firenze. G. C. Sansoni. 1877.
[92] i. e. of perfect alloy and weight. A fiorino was worth about 6s.
[93] The only place where pure and good ultramarine could be bought.
[94] Raccolta Delle Migliori Fabbriche Antiche e Moderne di Firenze. Disegnate e Descritte da R. ed. E. Mazzanti e T. del Lungo, architetti. Firenze. G. Ferroni. 1876.
[95] 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.
[96] Carriages were only introduced into Florence about 1534. See p. 173.
[97] Archivio Strozzi. Filza IX. A. No. 4.
[98] Le Famiglie Celebre Italiane, del Conte Pompeo Litta. Vol. V.
[99] Giuliano da Majano in Siena. Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsamlungen. 1903. P. 333.
[100] Magliabechiana Library.
[101] Le Bellezze della Città di Firenze. Gio. Cinelli. Firenze. 1677.
[102] Le Migliore Fabbriche, etc., opus cit.
[103] It remained untouched until 1410 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.
[104] Illustrazione Istorica del Palazzo della Signoria, etc. Modesto Rastrelli Firenze. 1792. presso Ant. Gius. Pagani e C. p. 52.
[105] or “rostrum,” derived from the word arringare—to harangue.
[106] 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 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.”
[107] See Die Loggia dei Lanzi zu Florenz. Eine quellenkritische Untersuchung von Dr. Carl Frey. Berlin. Wilhelm Hertz. 1885.
[108] The chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio is painted by Rodolfo Ghirlandajo, who, 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.”
[109] By Verrocchio, now in the Bargello.
[110] The Life of Benvenuto Cellini. Translated by J. A. Symonds. 2nd edition, p. 220. Vol. 2. John C. Nimmo. 1888.
[111] 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 Florentines 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.”
[112] First published in the Miscellanea Fiorentina. No. 9. September, 1886.
[113] He built the Loggia of the Mercato Nuovo.
[114] Raccolta di Lettere sulla 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.
[115] Miscellanea Fiorentina di Erudizione e Storia. By Signor Iodico Del Badia. No. 1. p. 4.
[116] Dieu-Donné.