TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been
placed at the end of the chapter.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
FLORENTINE
VILLAS
_This Edition is limited to 200 copies for England
and 100 copies for America_
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: (CAST OF THE FACE OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT, TAKEN
AFTER DEATH)]
FLORENTINE
VILLAS
BY
JANET ROSS
WITH REPRODUCTIONS IN PHOTOGRAVURE
FROM ZOCCHI’S ETCHINGS
AND MANY LINE DRAWINGS OF THE VILLAS
BY NELLY ERICHSEN
[Illustration: (Colophon)]
LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
NEW YORK: DUTTON & CO.
MDCCCCI
To
MARGARET
COUNTESS OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES
THE OWNER OF ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF THE
FLORENTINE VILLAS
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
IN MEMORY OF
OLD FAMILY TIES AND FRIENDSHIPS
BY HER COUSIN
JANET ROSS
PREFACE
Visitors to Florence are more or less intimately acquainted with the
history of her churches, galleries and palaces, but there are few books
dealing with the villas which crown the hills surrounding the lovely
city. For years friends have asked me to write some account of them and
the first beginning was made in an article in the _National Review_
(May 1894) called “A stroll in Boccaccio’s country,” dealing chiefly
with the two villas described by him in the _Decameron_ in language
of matchless grace and charm. Becoming interested in the subject I
collected what information I could about the Florentine Villas and the
families to whom they had belonged, and coming across Guiseppe Zocchi’s
rare work _Vedute delle Ville e d’altri luoghi della Toscana_ published
in 1744, it was thought that reproductions of his beautiful etchings
would enhance the interest of my book. Zocchi, about whom but little
is known, was born near Florence in 1711 and died in 1767. Frescoes
were executed by him in the Serristori and Rinuccini palaces and he was
commissioned by the people of Siena to decorate their city with painted
tapestries and hangings for a visit of Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
This he probably owed to his patron the Marquis Gerini to whom the
volume of engravings of the Villas was dedicated.
In early times the great Florentine families lived in their strong
castles like robber chieftains, waging incessant war on each other and
on the adjacent villages and towns, and when later they went to dwell
in the walled city they built their palaces like strongholds. High
towers and thick walls defended Guelf against Ghibelline, and as one
party or the other obtained supremacy the beaten rivals were driven to
seek refuge in their hill-castles. “The nobles,” writes Macchiavelli,
“were divided against each other and the people against the nobles....
And from these divisions resulted so many deaths, so many banishments,
so many destructions of families, as never befell in any other city.”
Life became more luxurious under the Medici; famous Master Builders,
such as Michelozzi, Ammannati and Buontalenti were charged by the rich
Florentines to design, or to enlarge and beautify, the villas which
are still the pride and glory of Florence. In the country houses of
the Medici, artists, poets and learned men met together and discussed
literary subjects with their princely hosts; others were used, much as
is the custom now, for summer retreats when the dust and heat of the
town made life irksome. The “villegiatura” still plays an important
part in the life of an Italian. The head of the family, his sons, their
wives and children, install themselves in the huge villas, and even
those who can afford to cross the Alps, hurry back to their country
places in September for the vintage—always a time of merriment—when
music and dancing recall the gaiety of olden days.
My work has been rendered pleasant by the kindness and courtesy of the
owners of the Villas described in these pages, and I have to thank H.
E. Prince Corsini for much valuable information, and for obtaining
permission from the Società Colombaria, of which he is the President,
to have the interesting and hitherto almost unknown deathmask of
Lorenzo the Magnificent, in their possession, photographed for my book.
To Cavaliere Angelo Bruschi, Librarian of the Marucelliana library,
I am indebted for unceasing kindness in suggesting and obtaining for
me rare pamphlets and manuscripts which illustrated the manners and
customs of bygone times. My thanks are also due to Mr Temple Leader
for allowing me to use the illustration out of his book, of Sir Robert
Dudley’s curious instrument for the measurement of tides; to my kind
friend Dr E. Percival Wright for reading the proof-sheets; to my niece
Lina Duff Gordon for visiting and describing some of the more distant
villas to which I was unable to go; to Colonel Goff for his drawing of
Countess Rasponi’s beautiful villa Font’ all ’Erta; to Miss Erichsen
whose charming drawings of the villas and gardens as they now appear
add so much to the beauty and interest of the book, and lastly to the
Dowager Countess of Crawford for lending me Zocchi’s volume of etchings
for reproduction.
JANET ROSS.
POGGIO GHERARDO,
FLORENCE.
CONTENTS
VILLA PALMIERI _Page_ 1
VILLA DI POGGIO A CAJANO ” 8
CAFAGGIUOLO ” 16
VILLA DI CAREGGI ” 26
VILLA DI RUSCIANO ” 37
VILLA DI POGGIO IMPERIALE ” 41
VILLA DI LAPPEGGI ” 48
VILLA DELLA PETRAJA ” 53
VILLA DI BELLOSGUARDO ” 59
VILLA DI CASTELLO ” 65
VILLA CORSINI AT CASTELLO ” 71
VILLA MEDICI AT FIESOLE ” 81
VILLA DELL’ AMBROGIANA ” 88
VILLA DI PRATOLINO ” 91
VILLA SALVIATI ” 97
VILLA DI FONT’ ALL’ ERTA ” 108
VILLA DI GAMBERAIA ” 116
VILLA DI MONTE GUFFONE ” 120
VILLA DI CASTEL-PULCI ” 126
VILLA DI POGGIO GHERARDO ” 131
VILLA DELLE SELVE ” 139
VILLA I COLLAZZI ” 143
VILLA FERDINANDA A ARTIMINO ” 148
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PHOTOGRAVURES
CAST OF THE FACE OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT, TAKEN
AFTER DEATH _Frontispiece_
VILLA PALMIERI _Facing page_ 1
VILLA DI POGGIO A CAJANO ” 8
CAFAGGIUOLO ” 16
VILLA DI CAREGGI ” 26
MEDALS OF COSIMO PATER PATRIAE, LORENZO DE’ MEDICI AND
MARSILIO FICINO ” 37
VILLA DI POGGIO IMPERIALE ” 41
VILLA DI LAPPEGGI ” 48
VILLA DELLA PETRAJA ” 53
MEDALS OF COSIMO II, BIANCA CAPPELLO AND MARIA
MADDALENA D’AUSTRIA ” 59
VILLA DI CASTELLO ” 65
VILLA CORSINI AT CASTELLO ” 71
MEDALS OF CATERINA SFORZA, SAVONAROLA AND PICO DELLA
MIRANDOLA ” 81
VILLA DELL’ AMBROGIANA ” 88
VILLA DI PRATOLINO ” 91
VILLA SALVIATI ” 97
MEDALS OF COSIMO I, DE’ MEDICI, ALESSANDRO DE’ MEDICI,
FERDINANDO I AND CHRISTINE OF LORRAINE ” 108
VILLA DI GAMBERAIA ” 116
VILLA DI MONTE GUFFONE ” 120
VILLA DI CASTEL-PULCI ” 126
MEDALS OF BOCCACCIO, MICHELANGELO AND DUKE FEDERIGO
OF URBINO ” 131
VILLA DELLE SELVE ” 139
VILLA I COLLAZZI ” 143
VILLA FERDINANDA A ARTIMINO ” 148
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
VILLA PALMIERI:
THE TERRACE _Page_ 1
THE VILLA AND TERRACE FROM THE LOWER GARDEN ” 7
VILLA DI POGGIO A CAJANO:
THE FACADE ” 8
CAFAGGIUOLO:
THE FACADE ” 16
CASTLE OF TREBBIO ” 25
VILLA DI CAREGGI:
THE GARDEN FRONT WITH LORENZO DE’ MEDICI’S LOGGIA ” 26
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 35
VILLA DI RUSCIANO:
THE NORTH FACADE ” 37
BRUNELLESCHI’S WINDOW ” 38
VIEW OF FLORENCE FROM THE VILLA _facing page_ 38
VILLA DI POGGIO IMPERIALE:
THE FORMAL GARDEN _page_ 41
THE GREAT ENTRANCE ” 46
VILLA DI LAPPEGGI:
THE TERRACE AND VILLA ” 48
VILLA DELLA PETRAJA:
THE VILLA, WITH VICTOR EMANUEL’S ILEX ” 53
THE FOUNTAIN OF VENUS, BY TRIBOLO AND GIOVANNI DA
BOLOGNA ” 58
VILLA DI BELLOSGUARDO:
THE NORTH FACADE AND TOWER ” 59
DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLA FROM THE PODERE OF THE
VILLA DELL’ OMBRELLINO _facing page_ 62
MONTAUTO, WITH THE TOWER OF BELLOSGUARDO IN THE
DISTANCE _page_ 64
VILLA DI CASTELLO:
THE GARDEN AND FOUNTAIN OF HERCULES, BY TRIBOLO
AND AMMANNATI ” 65
THE “APENNINES” FOUNTAIN ” 70
VILLA CORSINI AT CASTELLO:
THE BOSCO AND FOUNTAIN ” 71
SIR ROBERT DUDLEY’S INSTRUMENT FOR FINDING THE EBB
AND FLOW OF THE TIDES ” 75
(_By Permission of Mr Temple Leader_)
THE ROCOCO FACADE ” 80
VILLA MEDICI AT FIESOLE:
DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLA AND MONASTERY OF SAN
FRANCESCO AT FIESOLE, FROM SAN DOMENICO ” 81
GENERAL VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 85
THE TERRACE WITH FIESOLE IN THE BACKGROUND ” 87
VILLA DELL’ AMBROGIANA:
THE VILLA FROM THE COURTYARD ” 88
THE TOWN OF MONTELUPO ” 90
VILLA DI PRATOLINO:
THE SERVITE MONASTERY AT MONTE SENARIO ” 91
L’APPENNINO, GIGANTIC STATUE BY GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA ” 96
VILLA SALVIATI:
GENERAL VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 97
THE VILLA FROM THE TERRACE ” 107
VILLA DI FONT’ ALL’ ERTA:
BOCCACCIO’S “VALLE DELLE DONNE” WITH VILLA LANDOR
IN THE DISTANCE ” 108
AMMANNATI’S LOGGIA ” 111
VIEW OF THE VILLA BY COL. GOFF ” 115
VILLA DI GAMBERAIA:
THE WATER GARDEN ” 116
DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 119
VILLA DI MONTE GUFFONE:
GENERAL VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 120
THE VILLA AND TOWER ” 125
VILLA DI CASTEL-PULCI:
DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLA FROM A PODERE ” 126
THE GATEWAY OF THE BADIA A SETTIMO ” 130
VILLA DI POGGIO GHERARDO:
GENERAL VIEW OF THE VILLA FROM THE PODERE ” 131
DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 135
VIEW OF FLORENCE FROM THE CYPRESS TREES OF POGGIO
GHERARDO ” 138
VILLA DELLE SELVE:
SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD’S WALLS AT LASTRA A SIGNA ” 139
THE VILLA, WITH GALILEO’S TERRACE ” 142
VILLA I COLLAZZI:
THE LOGGIA ” 143
ON THE TERRACE ” 147
VILLA FERDINANDA A ARTIMINO:
GENERAL VIEW OF THE VILLA ” 148
THE MEDICI SHIELD ” 153
VILLA DI LAPPEGGI:
THE VIEW FROM THE TERRACE ” 162
[Illustration: VILLA PALMIERI]
[Illustration: (Drawing of Garden Banister, with statues.)]
VILLA PALMIERI
Schifanoja (avoid, or banish care) was the old name of Villa Palmieri
when it belonged to Cioni de’ Fini; then the Tolomei bought it in the
fourteenth century and called it Villa or Palazzo de’ Tre Visi, either
from a bas-relief representing the heads of the Trinity which once
existed in a bastion wall, or from a fountain with a head of Janus. In
1454 they sold the villa to Matteo Palmieri, who added to it; but it
was a descendant of his, Palmiero Palmieri, who in 1670 transformed
the house into “a most noble palace,” and called it by his own name.
The northern wing is said to have been built by him; the loggia which
connects the two wings and leads on to the grand terrace, guarded by
grim stone deities of bygone times, whence a stately double flight of
steps sweeps down to the lower gardens, was certainly his handiwork.
Palmiero also threw the long archway (forming the terrace) across the
old Fiesole road which once divided the Villa from the gardens, and
under this archway was the place of meeting of the brethren of the
Misericordia of Florence with those of Fiesole. Here they were entitled
to rest and allowed to accept a drink of vinegar and water because of
the steepness of the road to Fiesole. In 1874 the Earl of Crawford
bought Villa Palmieri and made a new carriage road up the hill of
Schifanoja to San Domenico; he closed the old one which passed under
the Arco de’ Palmieri, so now the brethren of the two confraternities
meet and rest in the little garden at the entrance gate.
The legendary derivation of the name of the old owners of the Villa is
poetical and pretty. When Otho I conquered Berenger IV Pope Agabetus
II sent a palm branch with a congratulatory message to the Emperor,
who appointed his favourite young cup-bearer to carry the branch
before him, and thus show the world how highly he had been honoured
by the Pope. The handsome lad came to be called _il Palmiero_ (the
palm-bearer), and his own name was forgotten. Some years later Otho
gave him a castle in the Mugello, and his grandson, who inherited the
family good-looks, won the heart of the only daughter of Latino, Lord
of Rasoio. Thus, according to the old legend, did the Palmieri become
powerful and possessed of great wealth. Their real story is more
prosaic. Vespasiano da Bisticci, bookseller and scribe, a biographer of
rare merit who was a contemporary of Matteo, writes: “The Florentine
Matteo di Marco Palmieri, born of parents in a humble condition of
life, founded his house and ennobled it by his singular virtues.”
They were of the guild of pharmacists, and in the State archives is
the note-book of Matteo, with entries of the different sources of the
family income. He often laments bitterly how little the pharmacy of the
Canto alle Rondine brought in, and how taxes increased every year.
Matteo Palmieri was born in 1405, Sozomeno of Pistoja instructed him
in grammar and rhetoric, and two great scholars—Ambrogio Traversari,
General of the Cistercians, and Carlo Aretino (Marsuppini), Chancellor
of the Republic of Florence, taught him Greek and Latin. Matteo was
appointed to pronounce the funeral oration in Santa Croce in 1453 of
Carlo Aretino, and his eloquence was such that he drew tears from all
present. A friend of Cosimo de’ Medici, and of all the famous humanists
of that period, he was an able scholar and an accomplished author at a
time when learning stood high, and when all Florence was ringing with
the praises of Pico della Mirandola, Poggio Bracciolino, and Marsilio
Ficino.
By his wife Cosa Serragli, to whom he was passionately attached,
Matteo had no children, so he adopted his brother Bartolomeo’s two
orphan sons, the younger of whom succeeded him in the family pharmacy.
In 1437 Matteo became Gonfalonier of Florence together with Adonardo
Acciajuoli; in 1445 he was elected Prior of the Commune, and again in
1468. In 1453 he was Gonfalonier of Justice, and was sent at various
times as ambassador of the Republic to King Alphonso of Naples, to
Siena, Pisa, Perugia, Bologna and Rome.
His book _Della Vita Civile_ was translated into French by de Rosiers;
_De Captivitate Pisarum_, and the Life of the Grand Seneschal
Acciajuoli, written in Latin, were translated into Italian and
published in a more or less mutilated form. But _Città di Vita_, the
poem which made the name of Matteo Palmieri celebrated, was never
published, and probably has not been read by a score of persons since
he wrote it. No doubt the Platonic philosophy, then so popular, had
taken a strong hold on him. Written in _terza rima_, it is one of
the last poems to have been inspired by the spirit of Dante, and
describes how the Cumean sybil leads the author to the Elysian fields
through Tartarus, and finally to the City of Life. Lionardo Dati,
a pious canon of the cathedral of Florence, who became secretary
to the Pope, and Bishop of Massa, to whom Matteo showed the work,
pronounced it to be “almost divine,” while Marsilio Ficino hailed him
as _Poeta Theologicus_. In spite of such praise Palmieri sealed up his
manuscript, and gave it into the care of the Pro-Consul of the Guild of
Notaries with strict orders that it should not be opened till after his
death. In 1475, at his funeral in San Pier Maggiore, it was placed upon
his breast, and Allemanno Rinnuccini in his funeral oration spoke of it
as “the glory of Matteo.” But when the contents of _Città di Vita_ were
known, the fury of the tribunal of the Inquisition knew no bounds; they
declared that the heresy of Origen contaminated its accursed pages,
and wanted to dig up the corpse of old Palmieri and burn it and the
poem in one fire. Fortunately the Republic had the strength of mind to
resist, and the manuscript was returned to the care of the Pro-Consul
of the Notaries. Several pages were damaged in 1557 when the Arno
flooded the city, and then with other precious documents it was removed
to the Laurentian Library. There it was locked up in a cupboard, of
which the librarian was not allowed to have the key lest his soul might
be contaminated by the odious heresies contained in its pages. The
heretical manuscript, with its dainty, imaginative illuminations of the
signs of the Zodiac, is now one of the treasures of the library, and on
its last page is the portrait of the author, showing a strong, bony and
clever face of true Florentine type.
According to Vasari, Sandro Botticelli painted a picture for the altar
of the Palmieri chapel in San Pier Maggiore “with an infinite number
of figures, being the Assumption of our Lady, with the zones of the
heavens, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Evangelists,
the Martyrs, the Confessors, the Doctors, the Virgins and the
Hierarchies; all after the design given him by Matteo, who was a man
of letters and of learning: and he executed the work after a masterly
fashion and with extreme diligence. He portrayed Matteo and his wife
kneeling at the foot of the picture. But although this work was most
beautiful and ought to have been above envy, there were some malicious
and evil-speaking persons who being unable to abuse it in other ways,
said Matteo and Sandro had fallen into the grave sin of heresy; let
none expect an opinion from me as to whether this be true or not;
enough that the figures painted by Sandro are in truth worthy of praise
for the great work he had in designing the circles of the heavens
and fitting foreshortenings and landscapes in divers different ways
between the figures and the angels; everything being excellently well
drawn.”[1] Eventually the picture was carried to Villa Palmieri and
walled up until the beginning of this century when it was taken out of
its hiding-place and sold. At length it passed into the collection of
the Duke of Hamilton and in 1882 was bought for our National Gallery.
Father Ricca in his exhaustive work on the churches of Florence devotes
a whole chapter to this “much-to-be-praised” picture and to the _Città
di Vita_. “In these cantos,” says the Jesuit father, “when talking of
the angels he [Matteo] follows the condemned opinions of Origen, more
from a poetic license than from any theological bias, and supposes
that our bodies are inhabited by those angels who are falsely thought
to have remained neutral when Lucifer fell; and that God, desirous to
try them once more, obliges them to adopt our human bodies. This is
the real story of Matteo’s book, which has been altered and corrupted
by malevolent and ignorant persons, whose calumnies and lies have been
believed even by ultra-montane writers, so that Germany, France and
England, were filled with the rumour thereof.”[2]
In 1766 Villa Palmieri was inhabited by Lord Cowper who had come on a
visit to Florence and found the place so attractive that he refused
to return to England. He married the beautiful Miss Gore who was
most popular in her Tuscan home, and the Villa was the scene of many
brilliant entertainments, as the Grand Duke admired the young and
lovely Countess and was a frequent guest. That dear old gossip, Sir
Horace Mann, tells us “the birth of her son [the late Lady Palmerston’s
first husband], diffused a riotous joy among the common people who
have expressed it for three days by little bonfires and lights at
their paper windows.” He also informs us that at a dull Court dinner
“the Comptroller of the Table has pleased the Grand Duke much by his
giving Lord Cowper and Lord Tylney beer and punch, which he thinks is
the constant beverage of the English.” The ambition long cherished by
Lord Cowper to be created a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire was at
length gratified in 1778, though his desire to be Prince Overkirk was
frustrated by the Nassaus, who, as Sir Horace writes, “objected to his
bearing their name with the title of Prince. The Emperor [Joseph II.]
therefore thought he had found a medium by substituting Overquerque[3]
but his cousins of that family have likewise put their negative to
that; so that it is now reduced to plain Prince Cowper, for which he
must pay ten thousand zecchins (about £5000). The heralds of the Empire
have objected to his bearing the arms of Nassau. They don’t allow such
a right from females, and more particularly when there is any male
branch of the family. Neither the Emperor nor my Lord seem to know what
they were about, when it was asked and granted, and I believe that
both now repent of it.” Horace Walpole in a letter to Mann criticising
Zoffany’s well-known picture of the Tribune in the Uffizzi (now at
Windsor) sneers at Lord Cowper’s title of Prince. He says “it is
crowded by a flock of travelling boys, and one does not know nor care
whom. You and Sir John Dick, as Envoy and Consul, are very proper. The
Grand Ducal family would have been so too.... I do allow Earl Cowper a
place in the Tribune; an Englishman who has never seen his Earldom, who
takes root and bears fruit in Florence and is as proud of a pinchbeck
principality in a third country, is as great a curiosity as any in the
Tuscan collection.”
Though eccentric, Lord Cowper was a patron of men of letters and had
a passionate admiration for Niccolò Macchiavelli; he subscribed large
sums to the erection of the great secretary’s tomb in Santa Croce
and to the publication of a complete edition of his works; while his
generous, hospitable character gained him great favour among the
Italians, who are generally inclined to quote the old proverb “an
italianised Englishman is a devil incarnate.”
In 1824 Villa Palmieri was bought by Miss Mary Farhill from the
executors of the last of the Palmieri. She was an odd woman, but the
Florentines appear to have liked her, and she was a favourite of the
Grand Duchess Marie Antoinette to whom she left her villa, and who sold
it in 1874 to the Earl of Crawford. He planted the hillside behind
the villa and made the gardens once more resemble the impassioned
description in the _Decameron_. As a scholar and a student his name
stands high, and he will long be remembered in his Tuscan home for many
a kindly and charitable act. In 1888 and in 1893 Lady Crawford lent her
beautiful villa to H.M. Queen Victoria.
Villa Palmieri has always been identified with the second villa visited
by the seven maidens and the three youths in the _Decameron_. Baldelli,
in his Life of Boccaccio, tells us that “owning a small villa in the
parish of Majano, Boccaccio took pleasure in describing the surrounding
country, more especially the lovely slopes and rich valleys of the
Fiesolean hills near his modest dwelling. Thus in the enchanting
picture he has drawn of the first halting-place of the joyous company
we recognise Poggio Gherardo, and in the sumptuous palace chosen by
them afterwards, in order not to be disturbed by tiresome visitors,
the beautiful Villa Palmieri. His fairy-like description of the tiny
circular valley into which Elisa led the lovely ladies to disport
themselves and bathe in the heat of the day, brings that small flat
meadow before us, through which the Affrico, after having divided two
hills and abandoned their stony ledges, meandering unites his waters in
a canal in the adjacent plain under the cloister of Doccia at Fiesole.”
Villa Palmieri will live for ever in Boccaccio’s exquisite and
untranslatable _Decameron_. “The Queen,” he writes, “led them to a
most beautiful and sumptuous palace situated somewhat above the plain
on a small hill. They entered and went all over it, and seeing the
large halls, the cleanly and well-decorated bed-chambers, completely
furnished with all that pertains thereunto, their praise was unstinting
and they reputed the owner to be rich and magnificent. Then descending
and seeing the vast and pleasant courtyards of the palace, the cellars
stocked with most excellent wines, and the copious springs of coldest
water, they commended the place yet more highly. Desirous of repose
they then seated themselves in a loggia overlooking the courtyard
(every place being covered with flowers pertaining to that season,
and with greenery), and the courteous steward came forward to welcome
them and offered rich and dainty sweetmeats and rare wines for their
refreshment.” The lovely gardens with _pergole_ of vines laden with
bunches of grapes, the hedges of jasmine and crimson roses, the carved
marble fountains, whose overflow of water was conducted by cunningly
devised underground channels down to the plain, where it turned two
mills “to the great profit of the lord of the villa,” are all described
by Boccaccio in his inimitable poetic prose.
[Illustration: (Drawing of elegant gardent stairway
leading to house, with statues.)]
The mills mentioned by Boccaccio were almost entirely destroyed by a
flood of the Mugnone in 1409. Two years later they were rebuilt, and a
third mill, nearer the town, was erected after the siege of Florence
in 1529, and bestowed upon the Foundling Hospital as compensation for
damage done to some of its farms. The arms of the Hospital, a swaddled
baby, are still to be seen on one of the walls near the mill.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] G. Vasari. Tom. III. p. 314. Firenze, 1879. Vasari states that in
addition to the Palmieri altarpiece Botticelli “painted two angels
in the Pieve of Empoli on the same side where is the St Sebastian by
Rossellino” (ed. 1568, I. 474). These two angels form the lateral
panels of a tabernacle containing St Sebastian by Rossellino, now
in the museum of the Pieve at Empoli. In the same museum is another
tabernacle formerly over the High Altar of the church. From documents
in the State archives of Florence it appears that the commission for
this second tabernacle was given on 28th March 1484 to Francesco
Botticini, and it requires but little acquaintance with Florentine art
to see that both are by the same hand, as Signor Milanese long since
hinted. From these two works our knowledge of Botticini as a painter
is derived, and the Palmieri altarpiece is evidently, from analogy of
manner, by the same master. It is remarkable that though Botticini fell
under many influences, no direct influence of Botticelli can be traced
in any of his works. Vasari, no doubt, misread the name _Botticelli_
for _Botticini_, just as he confused the name _Benozzo_ with _Melozzo_.
Vide ed. Sansoni, III. 51–2. I am indebted to Mr Herbert P. Horne for
the above information.
[2] Notizie Istoriche delle Chiese Fiorentine. G. Ricca. Tom. I. p.
155. Firenze, 1754.
[3] Lord Cowper’s mother was the youngest daughter and co-heiress
of Henry de Nassau d’Overquerque, Earl of Grantham, an illegitimate
descendant of Maurice of Nassau.
[Illustration: (Drawing of Villa Di Poggio a Cajano)]
VILLA DI POGGIO A CAJANO
There is an old tradition that a Roman citizen named Cajo once owned a
villa at Poggio a Cajano, hence the name Villa Caja, Rus Cajana; but
the present royal villa, about ten miles from Florence, dates from
the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He bought the old castle and the
estate from the powerful family of the Cancellieri of Pistoja, and
ordered Giuliano da San Gallo to design the imposing pile now towering
high above the little village nestling at its feet, and which was built
on the foundations of the ancient castle. From afar with its bastions,
it looks so like a great fortress, that when the Emperor Charles V
spent a day there in May 1536, he remarked that such walls were not
meet for a private citizen, and before leaving for Lucca he created the
bastard Alessandro de’ Medici Duke of Tuscany.
[Illustration: VILLA DI POGGIA A CAJANO.]
Lorenzo the Magnificent desired to have a large hall, vaulted with one
arch of huge span in his villa, so Giuliano da San Gallo constructed a
room according to Lorenzo’s idea in a house he was building for himself
in Florence, and this being a success he carried it out on a large
scale at Poggio a Cajano. Vasari writes “There is no doubt this is the
largest vault ever seen till now.” Later, by order of Leo X, Andrea
del Sarto, Franciabigio and Pontormo decorated the hall with frescoes
allegorical of the glories of the Medici. Del Sarto represents
the gifts sent by Egypt to Cæsar—metaphorical of the presents given
by the Sultan to Lorenzo; Franciabigio, under the guise of Cicero
returning from exile, illustrates the return of Cosimo de’ Medici to
Florence in 1434; Pontormo, in the banquet given by Syphax to Scipio,
figures the one given by the King of Naples to Lorenzo; while Titus
Flaminius, rejecting the ambassadors of Antiochus (also by Pontormo),
is illustrative of Lorenzo defeating the ambitious designs of Venice
at the Diet of Cremona. But the finest fresco by far is seldom pointed
out by guide book or guide—Pontormo’s exquisite lunette at one end
of the hall. I am proud to find my opinion ratified by Mr Berenson,
who writes, “Pontormo, who had it in him to be a decorator and
portrait painter of the highest rank, was led astray by his awe-struck
admiration for Michelangelo, and ended as an academic constructor of
monstrous nudes. What he could do when expressing _himself_, we see in
the lunette at Poggio a Cajano, as design, as colour, as fancy, the
freshest, the gayest, most appropriate mural decoration now remaining
in Italy.”[4] The fine external staircase, up and down which horses can
easily walk, was the work of Stefano d’Ugolino da Siena, and the frieze
is by one of the Della Robbia.
Beautiful are the gardens sloping down to the little river Ombrone.
Trees and shrubs grow luxuriantly, thanks to the moist soil. The fields
are intersected with small canals which in spring are fringed with
tall yellow iris, purple loosestrife and feathery meadowsweet, and
decked with white water-lilies. In the time of the Medici the whole
plain was cultivated with rice, which made it very unhealthy, and it is
still feverish. The little streamlet Ambra, flowing into the Ombrone
close by, has been more honoured in song than many a larger river.
Poliziano writes in his introduction to the study of Homer, “We also,
therefore, with glad homage dedicate to him this garland of Pieria’s
flowers, which Ambra, loveliest of Cajano’s nymphs, gave to me, culled
from meadows on her father’s shore, Ambra, the love of my Lorenzo,
whom Umbrone, the horned stream begat—Umbrone, dearest to his master
Arno—Umbrone, who now henceforth will never break his banks again.”[5]
On a small island, also called Ambra, Lorenzo planted rare flowers
and shrubs, and raised dykes round it to ward off the sudden floods
of the Ombrone. But one day “the horned stream” rose and carried away
the islet. Lorenzo vented his grief in that charming poem _Ambra_ in
which the Florentine love of, and delight in, the country is vividly
portrayed in idiomatic style by a thorough Tuscan, who knew and loved
his Ovid without servilely imitating him. After describing the flight
of Zephyr to Cyprus, where he dances with the lazy flowers amid the
joyous grass; and Boreas tearing the mist off the old white-headed
Alps, only to fling them back again, he continues, “Auster leaves hot
Ethiopia, dipping his dry sponges into the Tyrrhenean sea as he passes;
then heavy with water and girdled with clouds he squeezes his tired
hands when he reaches his destination, and the rivers joyously burst
forth from their ancestral caverns to meet the friendly waters. They
give thanks to Father Ocean, whose temples are adorned with rushes and
flowering reeds, conches and crooked horns joyfully resound, and his
wide bosom swells yet more; the fury conceived days ago against the
timid banks at length breaks forth, and foaming he bursts through the
hated dykes.”
The poor peasant has barely time to open the stable door and save his
cattle, the housewife carries away the baby in its cradle, some of
the family take refuge on the roof and “thence they watch their poor
riches, fruit of their toil, their one resource, vanish below; they
neither weep nor speak, for in their sorrowing hearts they fear for
their lives and seem to take no account of what was once most dear.
Thus a great ill drives out every other.” Ambra the beautiful nymph,
flies from the embraces of the river-god Ombrone, and prays to Diana
for help, who turns her into a rock.
Lorenzo, who was fond of horses and of racing, kept a large stud
at Poggio a Cajano, and Poliziano, writing to Valori, mentions an
invincible roan horse which, when sick or tired, refused all food save
from the hand of his master. When if lying down he heard Lorenzo’s
step, he would spring to his feet and neigh, rubbing his head against
him with every mark of affection. “What wonder,” exclaims Poliziano,
“that Lorenzo should be the delight of mankind when even brute beasts
shew such love for him.”
Varchi, whose admiration for Poggio a Cajano was great, tells us “the
Medici, that is the Cardinal and Ippolito and Alessandro left Florence
on Friday the 17th day of May 1527 at 18 o’clock, accompanied by Count
Piero Noferi and many others, (there were many who said, as the company
rode down Via Larga, which was crowded with people, that they would
one day repent letting them depart alive,) and went full of fear to
Poggio a Cajano, their villa of marvellous size and magnificence....
Hardly had the Medici left Florence than the people rushed to rob their
houses, and only with great difficulty could Niccolò [Capponi] and
other good men hold them back and save the houses; and the next day
(when, without knowing who set the rumour about, news spread that the
Pope had come out of Castel Sant’ Angelo) people said that the Medici
with a goodly following of foot and horse were returning to re-enter
Florence, and Lodovico Martelli publicly affirmed under the Loggia de’
Signori that from his place Le Gore they had been seen at Careggi,
their villa two miles outside Florence, and although (not so much
because he was a Martelli, who are generally held to be untrustworthy,
as because he was looked on as the sworn follower of his brother-in-law
Luigi Ridolfi) small reliance was placed on his word, nevertheless in
a few hours, this being repeated by one to the other and by the other
to another, there arose a great hubbub in Florence and the shops (this
by now had become a daily custom) and doors were closed. News of the
rising was taken by Nibbio, who spurred by fear left Florence in hot
haste and returned to Poggio to the Cardinal and the Magnificent,
besides which friends wrote to warn them and enemies to frighten
them, that Piero Salviati was preparing to start with two hundred
cross-bowmen on horseback; all these things so alarmed the Cardinal
that he, with all the others, left at once ... and went to Pistoja.”
There were great doings at Poggio a Cajano on the 24th July 1539 when
Cosimo I and his bride Eleonora of Toledo spent five days there on
their way from Pisa to Florence. Twenty-six years later their son
Francesco de’ Medici met his bride, Joan of Austria, at the same place,
where some time afterwards he died together with his second wife the
infamous Bianca Cappello. Little did the poor Arch-Duchess think that
the beautiful villa, where she first met her affianced husband, was to
become the favourite residence of the handsome and dissolute Venetian,
who rendered her life intolerable, and was suspected of poisoning
her only son. In 1578 Joan died, and on her deathbed entreated her
husband to give up his mistress. Sobbing he swore he would never see
her again, but two months afterwards, on the 5th June 1578, Francesco
I, was secretly married to Bianca Cappello (her husband having been
conveniently murdered some little time before) in the private chapel of
Palazzo Vecchio.
In September the Republic of Venice sent ambassadors to compliment the
new Grand Duchess and declare her to be “the daughter of St Mark,” and
she was solemnly crowned in Santa Maria de’ Fiore.
Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, brother and heir to Francesco I, had
kept aloof from the Tuscan court since the marriage with Bianca, but at
last, early in October 1587, he was persuaded to come to Florence and
was received by her with great demonstrations of affection. They went
off immediately to Poggio a Cajano for the shooting, and on the 8th
October the Grand Duke was attacked by fever, declared by the doctors
to be tertian. Two days later the Grand Duchess fell ill of the same
malady and the court physician called in Giulio Angeli da Barga,
professor of medicine at the University of Pisa, and Giulio Cini, the
doctor in attendance on the Cardinal. At first the illness of the Grand
Duke and of Bianca was kept secret, but when vague rumours reached
the ears of the Pope, it was declared that Francesco had over-eaten
himself with mushrooms, whereupon the Holy Father wrote him a homily
about abstaining from all indigestible food. To put an end to the
various rumours in circulation, a statement was sent to Rome on the
16th October, setting forth that “the Grand Duke has a double tertian
fever and incessant thirst; at present everything points towards his
restoration to health, as the fourth and seventh days have been easy
with abundant sweats, and we hope to go from good to better. But there
must be no excesses, and the approach of autumn makes us fear the
malady will be a long one. Cause therefore prayers to be said, all the
more that the Grand Duchess has almost the same sickness, and this
increases the malady of the Grand Duke because she cannot attend on
him.”
“On the ninth day,” writes Galluzzi, “the illness of the Grand Duke
augmented, and the fever was not purged by two bleedings. It increased
and breathlessness came on, so that he died on the night of the 19th
October. He had always insisted on treating himself according to his
own fashion, as to food and iced drinks, and as he was devoured by
ardent thirst during the whole course of illness it was thought that
he died burnt up by the heating meats and drinks in which he always
immoderately indulged. In the post-mortem examination the chief seat
of the malady was found to be the liver; this gave him a bad digestion
and a harshness of the stomach, which led him to indulge in elixirs
and such-like drinks for comfort. When the Grand Duke felt that death
was near he called his brother the Cardinal to his bed-side, and after
begging his pardon for past events, gave him the pass-word for the
fortresses, and recommended to his care his wife, Don Antonio,[6] his
ministers and all his friends. Cardinal Ferdinando comforted him as
best he could, but when he saw that all hope was lost he sent to take
possession of the fortresses and ordered the militia and the troops
to be called under arms. As soon as Francesco was dead, Cardinal
Ferdinando left Poggio a Cajano for Florence in order to be on the
spot if any disorders occurred, but before leaving he paid a visit to
the Grand Duchess Bianca, and ordered that her husband’s death should
be kept from her. He tried to comfort her with hopes of a speedy
recovery and consigned her to the care of Bishop Abbioso, her daughter
Pellegrina and her son-in-law Ulisse Bentivoglio. Her illness was less
severe than that of the Grand Duke, but she was weakened by former
maladies and by the violent medicines she had taken in the hopes of
bearing children. The outrageous noise, the trampling of many feet
and the tearful eyes of those about her made her aware of what had
happened, she lost consciousness and died at 18 o’clock on the 20th
October.”[7]
The Cardinal Grand Duke ordered her body to be opened in the presence
of the doctors, of her daughter and her son-in-law, and then to be
sent to Florence with the same formalities as had been used for the
Grand Duke; but he would not allow her to be buried in the tomb of
the Medici, and she was interred in the crypt of San Lorenzo in such
fashion that no memory of her should be left. He was moreover so
irritated with her artifices and intrigues, which the ministers vied
with each other in disclosing, that he ordered her arms to be effaced
wherever they were quartered with those of the Medici, and the arms of
his brother’s first wife, Joan of Austria, to be put in their place. He
also forbade the title of Grand Duchess being used before her name, and
in a decree relating to the birth of Don Antonio insisted on her being
repeatedly described as “the abominable Bianca.” No wonder Ferdinando
hated her. She had induced the Grand Duke Francesco to palm off a
supposititious son (Don Antonio) upon his heir, and had twice feigned
to be with child after her second marriage.
The deaths of Francesco and Bianca were naturally attributed to poison.
One version was that the Cardinal poisoned them; another that Bianca
made a tart with her own hands for her brother-in-law, who, warned
by the paling of a stone in his ring, refused to touch it, while her
husband insisted on eating largely of it and in despair she did the
same.
Little more than a year after this double tragedy Poggio a Cajano
resounded to the merry-making which greeted Cristina of Lorraine, the
youthful bride of the Grand Duke (late Cardinal) Ferdinando I. She
arrived on the evening of the 28th of April 1589 and was met by her
bridegroom and a gallant company of lords and ladies. Brought up at
the French court, tall, graceful, handsome and with charming manners,
the sixteen year old girl won all hearts. She does not seem to have
frequented Poggio a Cajano, and people thought it an odd choice of the
Grand Duke to meet his bride at the place which had been so fatal to
his brother, and if report said true was near being fatal to himself.
Cosimo III, the bigoted great-grandson of Ferdinando I, also married a
French Princess, Marguerite Louise, daughter of Gaston, Duc d’Orleans.
Good-looking and vivacious, used to the brilliant court of Louis XIV,
and passionately in love with Prince Charles of Lorraine, she came
to Tuscany determined to hate everything. Martinelli, whose father
was about the court, has left an amusing description of the tom-boy
games the young French Princess played, to the horror and disgust of
her husband, who passed his days in reading the lives of the saints
and was entirely under the influence of the Jesuits. He even tried to
put an end to all love-making and courtship in his dominions, by a law
forbidding young men to enter any house where there were marriageable
girls.
After the birth of three children Cosimo III considered the succession
to be secure and occupied himself no more with his wife. “He obliged
the Grand Duchess,” writes Martinelli, “to send the French cavaliers
and ladies of her court back to France, only a cook was allowed to
remain.” Cosimo, entirely given up to devotion and solitude, governed
his family as well as his dominions like Tiberius. He only permitted
his wife to indulge in the amusement of a concert for two or three
hours in the evening.... The Grand Duchess was young and found the
concert tiresome, or else being born in France she did not care for
Italian music, so she used to call for the cook who appeared in his
white apron and cap. This cook was, or pretended to be, extremely
ticklish, and the Princess knowing this took great pleasure in tickling
him, while he made all those contortions, screams and exclamations of
one who cannot bear to be tickled. Thus the Princess pursuing, and
the cook defending himself and running from one end of the room to
the other, caused her to laugh immoderately, and at last when tired
she would seize a pillow from off her bed and beat the cook with it
over the head and about the body while he shouted and begged for
mercy, and got first under and then on the bed of the Princess, who
continued to beat him, until tired out with laughing and beating she
would sink down on a chair. While these games were going on between
the Grand Duchess and her cook the musicians ceased playing and rested
until she sat down. For a long time the Grand Duke knew nothing of
what went on, but one evening the cook being very drunk shouted louder
than usual, so that Cosimo, whose rooms were at some distance from
those of the Grand Duchess, heard the extraordinary noise. When he
entered his wife’s apartments she was beating the cook on the Grand
Ducal bed. Horror-struck the Prince condemned the cook to the galleys,
but I believe he was eventually pardoned, and read his wife such a
lecture that she declared she would return to France....[8] She went to
Poggio a Cajano and her children, dressed in deep mourning, were sent
to bid her good-bye. Touched by their tears she determined to ask her
husband’s pardon and his permission to return to Florence; but this was
refused, and after spending some months in solitude at the villa the
Princess left for Paris, where she died in September 1721 at the age of
seventy-six, having spent her life in love and intrigue.
The son of Cosimo III, by this eccentric lady, made a bad husband to
the pretty and amiable Violante of Bavaria. He passed most of his time
at Poggio a Cajano with musicians and actors, and followed a young
Venetian singer, Vittoria Bombagia, to Venice for the carnival, whence
he returned desperately ill and soon afterwards died.
The beautiful villa continued to be used occasionally as a royal
residence by the family of Lorraine, and the iron bridge over the
Ombrone, about half a mile from the high road, was the first suspension
bridge built in Tuscany (1833) by Leopoldo II.
[Illustration: (Decorative emblum)]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Bernhard Berenson, _The Florentine Painters._
[5] _Carmina_, etc., p. 224. Translated by J. A. Symonds.
[6] The supposititious child of Bianca. He was said to have been
introduced into Palazzo Pitti in a lute, and the Grand Duke, persuaded
he was his child, left him large property, and bought for him the
estate and title of Prince of Capistrano in the Abruzzi. The real
mother was murdered by order of Bianca.
[7] Galuzzi. _Istoria del Granducato di Toscana._ Vol. IV. p. 54 _et
seq._
[8] _Lettere Familiare e Critiche di Vincenzio Martinelli._ Londra.
Presso G. Nourse, Libraio nello Strand. 1758.
[Illustration: (Drawing of Cafaggiuolo)]
CAFAGGIUOLO
Strictly speaking Cafaggiuolo, situated some eighteen miles from
Florence, can hardly be called a Florentine villa; but it is too
intimately connected with the history of the Tuscan city and of the
Medici not to be mentioned together with Careggi, Poggio a Cajano and
other well-known villas.[9]
[Illustration: CAFAGGIUOLO.]
The carriage road to Bologna climbs boldly up the hills behind Fiesole,
so swiftly that the hills which towered so high above us but a while
ago, now, as we look back upon them, seem to mingle with the plain; and
we plunge into the Mugello, where the olive is no longer seen. As San
Pier a Sieve is neared, memories intermingle of Florentine painters
and Florentine tyrants, and the land itself seems strangely divided
between the sense of absolute peace and of preparations for defence
against neighbouring foes. Vespignano, the birthplace of Giotto, lies
at no great distance, and further again the small fortified village
of Vicchio where Beato Angelico passed his earliest years. Above the
Sieve, which flows so quietly and evenly through the valley towards the
Arno, its pure green waters receiving a delicate shade from the
tall poplar trees on its low banks, rise low rounded hills covered with
oaks, while here and there a pine wood shows dark and unvaried through
spring and winter months. The tower of Trebbio, rising on its hill like
a castle keep, is seen in strong relief against the sky for many miles
round, and tells of past centuries of insecurity and warfare. Opposite
is the fortress of San Martino, now dismantled, built to guard the road
to Florence through the Mugello, and far and near can be descried small
watch-towers on the hill-tops; but vain seem these preparations made by
nobles and princes against their foes when we look at the long line of
the Apennines, scarred, rugged and woodless, stretched at right angles
across the valley.
Vasari tells us that Michelozzo Michelozzi designed for Cosimo the
Elder “the palace of Cafaggiuolo in the Mugello in the guise of a
fortress amid the woods, the copses and other matters appertaining to
fine and famous villas, and two miles distant from the said palace he
finished the Capuchin monastery, which is a very splendid thing.”[10]