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 allusion to the name bestowed on the monarch,[116] and to the origin of the building.... Galileo has not been forgotten, 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 Tuscany, and was greatly looked up to and respected. He died in 1703, aged 81, leaving his real estate to his nephew the Abbé 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 Abbé 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 PANCIATICHI)
Borgo 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 Gherardo Silvani in 1603; the large entrance hall and the courtyard with a fine loggia leading into the garden were probably built by him. In 1769 the daughter of the last of the Ximenes d’Aragona married the Marquess Niccolò 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.
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.