The Uguccione are a branch of the old family of Lippi-Scalandroni, and took their name from Bernardo di Uguccione, 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 purchased some adjoining houses and built the beautiful little palace which has been variously attributed to Raphael, Palladio, and Michelangelo. Raphael is out of the question, as he died thirty years before Giovanni thought of building his house. Cinelli declares that “the façade 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.”[101] This model was constructed by Mariotto Folfi, surnamed l’Ammogliato, from a design which Uguccione obtained from Rome, and is mentioned in a letter from the Commissary “delle Bande” to Cosimo I., 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 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 drawing 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.[102] 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 carriages.”
Uguccione evidently knew that he could rely on the interest the Duke took in his beautiful house, for he encroached 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 “according to the design, and to give greater beauty to the house.” The permission must have been granted, as in a drawing of the façade by the younger Vasari in the 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 Benedetto 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 proprietors 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 XI., and of Bernardetto, married to Giulia, natural daughter of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici, who bought Ottojano from the Gonzaga in the Kingdom of Naples. In 1737, his descendant, 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.
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. Donato. Two Gonfaloniers of Justice and twenty-four Priors did they give to the city. Vecchietto, Consul of Florence in 1128, 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.
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 architect 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 1311 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 Della 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 Della 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).
