Florentine palaces & their stories

by Janet Ross

COURTYARD OF PALAZZO VECCHIO.

Vasari’s statement that Arnolfo filled up most of the old tower to build his own upon was 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 Savonarola. 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.[103]

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 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 invitations 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.”[104] In front of the great door of the palace, where now are the steps and a platform, was the ringhiera,[105] erected in 1323, of which one hears so often in the history of Florence. Here the Podestà harangued the people from his bigoncia, or pulpit, and here the Gonfalonier received 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 himself 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 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 enlarge the piazza. Opposite to San Piero Scheraggio, he added the walls, encased with ‘bozzi,’ alongside of the palace to enlarge it, and in the width of the wall he constructed a secret staircase for going up and down without being seen. In the said façade 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 machicolations which sustain the alur surrounding Arnolfo’s original building. On the southern side, where once stood S. Piero Scheraggio, and now stands the Uffizi, 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 Podestà, 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 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 evening, 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 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 Podestà 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 were 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.”[106]

Three years later the Signoria decided to build a loggia, 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 declared that “a loggia was suitable for tyrants, not for the People,” and it remained in abeyance until, owing to incessant rain, the installation of the new Priors on the 1st 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 operis 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 intended 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 appellantur domus della moneta, whereas the resolution passed in 1374 deals with the acquisition and demolition of other people’s houses, indicating the intention of occupying a larger space. It is evident that as the necessary land had not been bought in 1374, nothing had been definitely 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 impression 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, Francesco 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.[107]

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[108] 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 Niccolò 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 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.