From the Ponte alla Carraja to the Piazza di Cestello all the houses along the Lung’Arno once belonged to the Soderini, who came to Florence in the XIIth century. Ruggiero fought under the Guelph standard at Montaperti in 1260, and was the first of thirty-two Priors and his grandson the first of sixteen Gonfaloniers of Justice the family gave to Florence. Tommaso was twice Gonfalonier of Justice and as one of the leading men of the Guelph party was exiled after the Ciompi riots. The portrait by Donatello, of his son Francesco, the great enemy of Cosimo de’ Medici, is on the façade of Giotto’s campanile.
Niccolò, his nephew, was a great admirer and friend of S. Catherine of Siena. Whenever she came to Florence, she stayed in his house, and he bought and arranged for her a tiny house on the Costa di S. Giorgio as a place of retreat and meditation. He was so popular that when he was elected Gonfalonier Machiavelli tells us, “it was a marvellous thing to see what a concourse, not only of honourable citizens but of the people, accompanied him to the palace; and as he went a crown of olive was placed on his head to show that on him depended the welfare and the liberty of the country.” But he accomplished little during his term of office and his anti-Medicean policy proved his ruin. His brother Tommaso was on the contrary an intimate friend of Piero de’ Medici. He successfully negotiated the league between the Duke of Milan and the Republics of Venice and Florence, and when he went as ambassador to Rome, was knighted with great pomp by Paul II., who also bestowed on him the privilege of quartering the Papal Keys and the Triple Tiara in his arms. “Being one of the chief citizens,” writes Machiavelli, “and much superior to the others, his prudence and authority was recognized not only in Florence, but by all the princes of Italy. So that after the death of Piero many citizens came to visit him as the head of the city, and many princes wrote to him. But he, being prudent and knowing well his own fortune and that of their house, did not answer the letters of the princes, and gave the citizens to understand that they should not come to his house but go to that of the Medici.” He called a meeting of the chief citizens, to which Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici came, and after “a long and serious oration on the condition of the city and of Italy,” he concluded that the two young men must be continued in the position their forefathers had held. Machiavelli tells us that Lorenzo was governed very much by the advice of Messer Tommaso, in whose charge he left the city and the state when he went to Naples in 1479, Soderini being then the Gonfalonier. He died in 1484 leaving five sons, one of whom, Piero, was proclaimed Gonfalonier of Justice for life in 1502. He continued Savonarola’s constitution, but his want of decision caused his downfall. Giovanni Cambi in his quaint Istorie tells us “that another Gonfalonier was elected on the 28th September, 1512, because Piero Soderini, out of fear of the principal citizens who would have no more of him and demanded back their privileges, left the palace with three youths who had gone there fully armed, saying that if he did not come with them quietly they would cut him to pieces. He begged them to spare his life and they granted his request. Unknown to the Signori, who were then sitting in council, he went with them, and many citizens accompanied him from the palace as far as the house of Francesco and Pagholo Vettori. When he arrived at their house near the Ponte a Sta. Trinita, behind the loggia of the Frescobaldi, he refused, in his great anguish and fear for his life, to go further, his own house being at the Ponte alla Carraja near S. Frediano.” Virtù, or strength of character, was the one quality admired in those days, and Piero being a simple, good-hearted and not very courageous man, has been branded for ever as a fool by the biting pen of the famous secretary:
“La notte che morì Pier Soderini,
L’alma n’ando nell’inferno alla bocca;
E Pluto le grido: Anima sciocca,
Che inferno? va’ nel limbo de’ bambini,”
wrote Machiavelli with infinite scorn.
The Soderini palace, after passing through several hands, is now the property of Signor Schneiderff, and on the garden door is inscribed Jus: ut pal: flor:, words which have often puzzled passers-by. Passerini suggests that they were abbreviations of the motto engraved on Piero Soderini’s private seal ring, Justus ut palma florebit.
PALAZZO SPINI
Via Tornabuoni. No. 2.
According to a genealogy drawn up by one of the Spini in the XVth century the family descend from Spina Moscardi, who lived in the XIIth century; and whose ancestor, a Roman soldier, settled in Florence at the time of the foundation of the city. His sons were Manetti and Ugo, both knights of the Golden Spur and wealthy merchants. Verini names the Spini among the great families of Florence.