Bernadino Nuti sold it in 1506 to Taddeo Gaddi, a grandson of the great
painter Taddeo who was an intimate friend of Dante. Taddeo the elder
made a large collection of manuscripts of the Divine Comedy which he
afterwards left to his son Angelo who, discarding the brush for trade,
established a banking-house at Venice with some of his brothers and
at last persuaded his father also to join him. Thenceforward, remarks
Litta, Taddeo only painted occasionally, from habit. Angelo died at
Venice in 1378 (or 1387), leaving his riches and manuscripts to his
nephew Angelo, who increased the collection by purchase and by copies
made with his own hand. Taddeo, Angelo’s son, as already said bought
Font’ all’ Erta in 1506. He was three times elected a Prior of the
Republic of Florence, and in 1496 was one of the Ten Magistrates
of Liberty and Peace at the time of the war with Pisa. In 1527 he
received Antonio Bonsi, the ambassador sent by Pope Clemente VII, (who
declared that unless he returned to Florence he would not be buried
in consecrated ground) “to try to reason and treat with the city.
But no sooner did he (Bonsi) arrive at Camerata in the villa of the
Gaddi, than the Signoria, declining to hear him or to listen to any
explanations, sent Messer Bartolomeo Gualterotti to tell him to depart
immediately, and Andrea Giugni to accompany him out of the state and
to see their orders were obeyed.”
Clemente paid for the reception of his ambassador by creating Taddeo’s
son Niccolò a cardinal in May 1527; but at Bologna two years later
Niccolò lost the favour of the Pope by warmly pleading the cause of
the Florentine envoys, and became an avowed enemy of the house of
Medici. In 1532 Taddeo Gaddi died and Font’ all’ Erta went to his
son Sinibaldo, one of the richest citizens of Florence and allied by
marriage with the Strozzi. When Duke Alessandro de’ Medici was murdered
in 1537 by his cousin Lorenzino, Cardinal Niccolò Gaddi was one of
the chief promoters of the efforts made by the exiled Florentines to
restore the republic. Leaving Rome with the Cardinals Salviati and
Ridolfi he hastened to Florence to collect troops and partisans. But
the young Cosimo was too wily. Cardinal Salviati had to fly the city,
Ridolfi hid in his own house, and “Gaddi,” writes old Varchi, “went
like a plucked fowl to his brother’s villa at Camerata,” where he lay
in hiding for some days and then left for Bologna.
Sinibaldo Gaddi was forced by Cosimo I, to contribute large sums “for
the needs of the state,” but in 1556 the Duke made him head of the
_Monte_ or Government bank as a kind of compensation. He died in 1558
and his son Niccolò inherited Font’ all’ Erta and made it what we now
see. Scipione Ammirato mentioning him in a letter says: “he is now at
his villa turning it into a palace more suited to the city than to the
country.” Ammannati is believed to have designed the magnificent loggia
and to have superintended the improvements and alterations of the villa.
Niccolò Gaddi must have been a remarkable man. He was sent by the Duke
Cosimo I, as ambassador to the Dukes of Ferrara and Mantua to announce
his promotion by the Pope to be Grand Duke of Tuscany, and afterwards
went to Rome to attend the ceremony of the coronation. In 1578 he was
created a Senator and was one of those charged to reform the statutes
of the guild of the merchants. A man of great learning and knowledge
of art, his library, picture gallery and museum of antiquities were
only second to those of the Medici. His garden, stocked with rare
trees, shrubs and medicinal herbs, was beautiful and Florence owes
the institution of her botanical garden chiefly to him. Niccolò was
twice married, but his children died young, and the sons of his
sister Maddalena, who had married a Pitti, became his heirs with the
obligation of adding his name to their own. In 1755 the remnants of his
fine library were bought by the Emperor Francis I, of Austria, Grand
Duke of Tuscany, from Gaspero Pitti-Gaddi. 355 manuscripts were given
to the Laurentian library, 727 manuscripts and 1451 rare editions of
old books to the Magliabecchiana, and 28 manuscripts relating to public
affairs to the Archives.
[Illustration: (Drawing of Villa.)]
That Niccolò Gaddi loved Font’ all’ Erta, generally called the
“Paradise of the Gaddi,” and was proud of it, is shown by the following
extracts from his will written five days before his death.
“In the name of God, on the ninth day of June 1591 Indiction 4.
Gregorio XIIII, the Holy Pontiff, and of His Serene Highness Ferdinando
Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, I Niccolò di Sinibaldo Gaddi Cavalier of
San Jacopo make my testament as follows:—
“Firstly I commend my soul to God and my body to be placed in Sta.
Maria Novella, in my place of burial.”
Chapter XL says: “And I also order that within two years of my death
my heirs shall have finished the Hall and the Loggia of the Palace
in Camerata and removed the well from the wall of the Hall, without
however filling it up, and made another in the wall of the small
courtyard of the kitchen, searching there for water, but should it not
be found they are to go to the spring and find the old well. Maestro
Lorenzo who builds organs, and Maestro Zanobi Grazia Dio mason, and
Maestro Fanelli stone-cutter, are informed of my intentions, therefore
let them be carried out according as they may direct. And in addition
let the arms of Strozzi[66] and of Gaddi be placed at the corners of
the said palace, and some memorial of him who made and restored them,
and I will that the men shall not be taken, even for one day, off the
work until all is finished....”
Chapter LXIII says: “... I will that in the Hall of the Palace of
Camerata an inscription shall be put up to my memory in such fashion
and in such a position as shall be judged proper by the most excellent
Signore Piero Angeli, whom I beg to do me the favour of visiting the
said Palace, and my heirs shall receive him with the honour due to his
most rare merits.”
Either “the most excellent Signore Piero Angeli” never went to Font’
all’ Erta or the heirs neglected to carry out the orders of Niccolò,
for inscription there is none. It is said that in the carnival season
faint sounds of old-fashioned dance music are heard there in the dead
of night, and the rustling of silk robes and silvery laughter. But all
attempts to see the ghostly dancers from the balcony running round the
top of the lofty hall have failed.
In 1770 the villa was bought by Marchese Ponticelli of Parma who sold
it to Niccolò Gondi, and in the drawing-room still hangs a portrait
of the fascinating Paule Françoise Marguerite de Gondi who married
the Duc de Crequy, de Bonne, de Lesdiguieres, &c., &c. She is pretty
in a _piquante_ French style, and wears coquettishly a blue robe
trimmed with ermine. Round the top of the room are frescoes by Maso
da San Friano (Tommaso di Antonio Manzuoli). The Loggia which gives
access to the villa is magnificent; it looks due south, over Florence
and the valley of the Arno. Two fine old date-palms growing against
it have withstood many a hard winter and give grace and beauty even
to Ammannati’s splendid building. Count Pasolini who bought the villa
in 1850 put up a fine Venetian lantern out of an old Contarini galley
under a Della Robbia Madonna in the Loggia.
The villa stands high, about a mile from Florence, and a winding
carriage road shaded by elms leads up from the plain ending in an
avenue of tall cypresses. Thence the view of the hill of Fiesole is
enchanting. Beautiful Doccia with its long line of arches lies bathed
in sunshine, and just below is the villa where St Louis Gonzaga stayed
with Pier Francesco del Turco to learn the Tuscan tongue. Landor’s old
villa, now belonging to Professor Willard Fiske, faces us, with the
valley of the Ladies below its garden wall, and the Affrico murmuring
through its grounds. Visions of the fair Fiametta and her companions
arise as one remembers how on the sixth day, after Elisa had crowned
Dioneo king and laughingly told him it was time he should find out
what a charge it was to rule over and guide women, the three youths
sat down to play at draughts while she led the Ladies to an unknown
valley. Leaving the “sumptuous palace” they walked about a mile, and
“entering by a narrow path on a side where a crystal clear streamlet
ran, they saw it to be as beautiful and delightful, especially at that
season when the heat was so great, as can be imagined. And according
to what some of them told me afterwards the level part of the valley
was as circular as though drawn with compasses, yet it was an artifice
of nature and not made by human labour. Little more than half a mile
in circumference it was surrounded by six hills of no great height,
and on the summit of each one was a palace built much in the shape of
a small castle. The sides of the hills sloped towards the plain, as
we see the seats in theatres from the top row descend in successive
flights, always restricting their circles. And these hillsides, at
least all those facing south, were clothed with vines, olive, almond,
cherry and other fruit trees, and not a palm of ground was lost. Those
looking to the north had copses of oak saplings, ash and other trees,
green and straight as they could be. There was no other approach to the
level plain than the one by which the Ladies had come; it was full of
fir-trees, cypresses, bays and a few pines, so well placed and so well
ordered as though planted by the greatest of artists. Little or no sun
entered there, even when high in the Heavens it only just touched the
earth clothed with sward of finest grass and rich in purple and other
flowers. Besides this a rivulet, which was not a less delight, came
from a valley dividing two of those small hills; it trickled down
steep rocks of sandstone, and made in its fall a sound most delightful
to hear, while the spray, from afar, seemed to be live silver broken
into the lightest of showers. On reaching the level the rivulet
gathered into a pleasant channel, rushed rapidly to the centre of the
plain and there formed a lakelet, such as now and again townsfolk,
who have the art, make in their gardens for fish-ponds. The depth of
the lakelet was not more than up to the breast of a man, and so clear
that not only the gravel bottom could be seen, but many fishes darting
about here and there.... When the Ladies had observed everything they
commended the place exceedingly and the heat being great, seeing the
lake before them and having no fear of being seen, they decided to
bathe ... and all seven disrobed and went down into the water, which
hid their lovely white bodies no more than a thin glass would hide a
crimson rose. Without causing the water to become turbid, they went
hither and thither after the fish, which had scant hiding-places,
trying to catch them with their hands. Having with great joy taken
some, they remained some time in the water and then came forth and
dressed.”
Returning to the Palace the Ladies described the valley and its lake
in such glowing terms that next morning another expedition was agreed
upon: “the sun’s rays had hardly begun to show when they started;
never had the nightingales and other birds seemed to sing so gaily as
on that morning. Accompanied by the song of birds they went as far
as the Valley of the Ladies where they were greeted by many more,
who appeared to them to rejoice at their coming. Walking about the
valley and examining it more minutely it seemed to them so much the
more beautiful than on the day before as the hour of the day was the
more suitable to its loveliness. And when they had broken their fast
with good wine and sweetmeats, in order not to be behind the birds
they began to sing, and the valley sang with them always repeating the
same songs they uttered, to which all the birds, as though loth to be
vanquished, added sweet and novel notes. But the hour for eating having
arrived and tables, according to the King’s pleasure, being set under
the tall and spreading trees near to the lovely lakelet, they seated
themselves; and whilst eating watched the fish swimming in the lake in
great shoals.”[67]
Font’ all’ Erta is intimately connected with the making of the kingdom
of Italy. Count Giuseppe Pasolini, who began public life in 1848 as
minister of Commerce, Agriculture and the Fine Arts to Pius IX, a post
he only occupied for a few months, bought it as already mentioned
in 1850, when he frankly joined the party of “Young Italy.” There
Ricasoli, Minghetti, La Marmora, Peruzzi, and all the liberal men of
Italy often met together, and English well-wishers of Italy were
frequent guests. In 1860 Count Pasolini became Governor of Milan for
the King of Italy, and two years later he entered the Farini ministry
for a short time as Minister for Foreign Affairs. Then he was named
Prefect of Turin, a post he resigned after voting the transfer of the
capital to Florence in 1864. His high character, undoubted ability
and conciliatory manner caused him to be chosen for the difficult
post of Commissary General of Venetia in 1866, and he entered Venice
on the 20th October, two days before the plebiscite which was all but
unanimous in favour of union with Italy—641,758 votes against 69. In
1867 Count Pasolini retired into private life, but in obedience to
the King’s express request he accepted the Presidency of the Senate
in March 1876. In December the same year he died at his family place
near Ravenna aged sixty-one, leaving Font’ all’ Erta to his daughter
Angelica, Countess Rasponi della Testa.
[Illustration: (Sketch of house through orchards)]
FOOTNOTES:
[64] _Ninfale Fiesolano._ Giov. Boccaccio. Firenze, 1834. Vol. XVII. p.
9. Translated by R. C. Trevelyan.
[65] _La villegiatura di Majano._ M.S. Roberto Gherardi, 1740.
[66] The mother of Niccolò Gaddi was Lucrezia, daughter of the Senator
Matteo Strozzi, and his second wife was Maria Strozzi.
[67] _Il Decamerone._ Gio. Boccaccio. Firenze, 1827. Giornata Sesta,
Novella X. p. 172, _et seq._
[Illustration: (Drawing of garden path with fountain, leading to Villa)]
VILLA DI GAMBERAIA
Nothing definite is known of the history of this charming villa
which stands among giant cypresses and gnarled ilexes on a terrace
high above Settignano and overlooks the Val d’ Arno. From the name
Gamberaia some have attempted to connect it with the great sculptor
Antonio Rossellino, who with his brother Bernardo, the architect, was
born in Settignano and whose family name was Gamberelli. But Antonio
who, writes Varchi, “was so refined and delicate in his works, their
beauty and smoothness being so perfect that his manner can in truth
be called natural and absolutely modern...” died about 1479, whereas
Gamberaia cannot have been built much before 1600. Not far off a small
house is still standing which has always been pointed out as the one
inhabited by the two artist brothers. It is unlikely that any of their
descendants should have made a fortune large enough to build such a
villa as Gamberaia or to lay out such a garden, without some record
being left. Popular tradition, which is all we have to depend on,
declares that several rills and springs of water formed a small lake or
pond near by where the country folk used to catch crayfish (Gamberi),
hence the name Gamberaia, the abode of crayfish. It is true that
over one of the doors is a coat of arms bearing three crayfish on
the right side and two half moons on the left, but I am informed by a
competent authority that it is a fancy shield of late times and that
the arms of the Gamberelli have six crayfish and a badge with three
fleur de lis, as may be seen in Vasari’s life of Rossellino. Over a
door in the large entrance hall is the inscription _Zenobius Lapius
Fundavit MDCX_, and by the courtesy of the present owner of Gamberaia
I have been lent a legal document about water rights, which has been
a disputed question for nearly three hundred years. In digging the
foundation of an out-house this winter (1900), a broken shield with the
Lapi arms has been discovered. From this fact it would appear to be
most probable that the builder of the villa was Zanobi Lapi; the pity
is that the name of his architect is not forthcoming. In the centre
of the villa is a small courtyard with elegant columns sustaining an
arcade out of which open vaulted rooms, and on the north and south
side of the villa project very original flying balconies supported on
three arches. A small spiral staircase, hidden in the square column
furthest from the house on one side, leads down from the first floor
into the terrace garden. Zanobi Lapi died in 1619, nine years after
he had built his villa, and left it to his nephews Jacopo di Andrea
Lapi, and Andrea di Cosimo Lapi, but failing heirs male he directed
that his property was to be divided between the families of Capponi and
Cerretani. Jacopo and Andrea evidently inherited their uncles’ love for
Gamberaia, as they at once began to buy up rights to the water from
neighbouring proprietors, and to make conduits and large reservoirs
to conduct it to various fountains and grottoes. In 1623 they bought
a house and a podere, or farm, called La Doccia, which was especially
rich in springs. Jacopo died the following year leaving a young son;
the lands and the houses in Florence were divided between the cousins,
but the villa of Gamberaia remained in their joint possession. “The
most illustrious Signore Cosimo Lapi, a noble Florentine” then began
to lay out one of the most characteristic seventeenth century gardens
in the neighbourhood of Florence, with grottoes inlaid with shells
of different kinds and various coloured marbles, statues, vases,
fountains and _jeux d’eaux_ of every description. In the archives of
Florence are several contracts made by him, between 1624 and 1635,
with his neighbours for the purchase of springs and rills of water
belonging to them, and the right to make conduits through their lands
for the conveyance of the water to Gamberaia. In 1636 he had a lawsuit
with a certain Signora Aurelia, a widow, who complained that he had
deprived her of necessary water by the deep trenches and reservoirs
dug near the confines of her property. The result of this inordinate
love of fountains and curious _jeux d’eaux_ was, that when “the most
illustrious Florentine Andrea Lapi” died in 1688, his son was obliged
to heavily mortgage the estate to pay off his father’s debts. Jacopo’s
son Giovan Francesco died in 1717 without heirs male, and the Lapi
property was divided between the Capponi and the Cerretani; the latter
taking three _podere_, or farms, and some small houses in Florence, the
Capponi the villa of Gamberaia and two _podere_.
[Illustration: VILLA DI GAMBERAIA.]
Remains of conduits, tanks and reservoirs in several properties near
Gamberaia still remain to attest the considerable works made by Andrea
Lapi for supplying water to his beloved villa. He no doubt planted the
noble cypresses that tower like dark green steeples on either side of
the long bowling alley that runs for some four hundred feet behind the
house, ending to the north in one of those elaborate half grottoes,
half fountains, inlaid with shells and decorated with stone figures of
impossible animals and queer people in high relief of which Francesco
de’Medici set the fashion at Pratolino and at Castello. To the south
the long green walk ends in a delightful old stone balustrade with
solemn grey stone figures, from whence the view over the fruitful,
gently rolling hills crowned with villas or peasant houses is beautiful.
The terrace garden looks down on Settignano, a little village that
can boast of more famous children than most large towns. Desiderio da
Settignano, whose every work shows, as Vasari says, “that grace and
simplicity that pleases everywhere and is recognised by everyone,” was
the son of a stone-cutter of Settignano. He was so popular that for
months after his death sonnets and epigrams were laid on his tomb by
admirers.
Excellent architects were Meo Del Caprina and his brother Luca; the
former worked at Ferrara and Rome, and designed the cathedral of Turin;
the latter fortified Librafratta and other Pisan towns. Simone Mosca da
Settignano was said to have been equal to Greek and Roman sculptors, he
worked with Antonio da San Gallo in Sta. Maria della Pace at Rome and
in the Farnese palace; also at Arezzo, Loreto, and at Orvieto, where
he was induced to settle with his family and devote himself to the
service of the cathedral. His son Francesco, called Moschino, “being
born almost with the mallet in his hand,” sculptured some figures in
the dome of Orvieto “to the wonder and astonishment of all beholders.”
Simone Gioli, pupil of Andrea Sansovino, was another admirable
sculptor, and his son Valerio carried on the family tradition. Antonio
di Gino Lorenzi was also from Settignano, he helped his master Triboli
to make the famous fountain at Castello and executed the monument of
Matteo Corte in the Campo Santo of Pisa. Moreni, in his _Dintorni di
Firenze_, gives a list of architects, sculptors and painters, too long
to insert here, who were born in the little hill village. But all
pale before the tremendous personality of Michelangelo Buonarroti,
“the deathless artist,” as John Addington Symonds calls him. Brought
to Settignano when but a few weeks old, his foster-mother was the
wife as well as the daughter of a stone-cutter. “I drew the chisel
and the mallet with which I carve statues in together with my nurse’s
milk,” he told Vasari. His father’s small grey house with a loggia and
a tower[68] lies below the terrace of Gamberaia, and forms a fitting
foreground to the view of Florence backed by the chain of the Apennines.
[Illustration: (Drawing of orchard tress, with Villa in background.)]
After various vicissitudes Gamberaia was bought a few years ago by
Princess Ghyka, who is restoring the beautiful old-fashioned garden to
its pristine splendour with infinite patience and taste.
FOOTNOTES:
[68] It now belongs to Signor Chiesa.
[Illustration: (Drawing of road leading to building with tower. Statue
of lion next to roadway.)]
VILLA DI MONTE GUFFONE
Monte Guffone was built at a time when castles and watch-towers were
needed on the Tuscan hills, and the Acciajuoli, rivals of the Peruzzi
and Bardi, determined to have a fortress-villa that should be a visible
sign of their power and magnificence. The site chosen for it was
the hilly country near San Casciano, between the river Pesa and the
streamlet Virginio, a little off the high road to Volterra, commanding
a varied landscape of vast woods of pine and oak, farms surrounded by
olive-groves and vineyards, and hill-set villages with winding roads
overhung with rosemary bushes. The first glimpse of Monte Guffone seen
across the misty waves of olives is of a grand and shapely massed group
of building, resting like a citadel on the shoulder of the hills.
From its midst rises a tall tower closely resembling that of Palazzo
Vecchio—with the difference that it starts straight from the ground.
Upon nearing the villa there is a delightful sense of variety, as
successive generations of the Acciajuoli have given it a different
character until finally it has become a beautiful but somewhat baroque
seventeenth century villa. Still, when walking on the broad balcony
which probably covers the ancient bastions, there is the feeling of a
great house built for defence, and the tower has been left untouched in
a courtyard into which look large Michelangelesque windows framed
with dark stone and set at regular intervals one from another, forming
a perfect piece of work of its kind, and contrasting pleasantly with
the mediæval watch-tower. On the northern side of the villa a façade
has been added giving it almost an ecclesiastical appearance, enhanced
by the group of sedate and sombre cypresses and ilexes growing at one
corner of this otherwise joyous looking building. To the same period
belongs the grand stone staircase on the garden side, leading down
to a grotto encrusted with shells and ornamented with statues of the
seasons, which even in their present shattered condition recall the
past almost Medicean splendour of the place. The wall slopes out with
spreading bastions forming an entrance to the grotto as though the
architect had remembered the gateway of some Etruscan city, and above
the arch is set a shield, supported by cupids, with the lions of the
Acciajuoli house.
[Illustration: VILLA DI MONTE GUFFONE.]