_Piazza Sta. Trinita. No. 8._
In 1516 Messer Lorenzo Bartolini, Apostolic Pro-notary, and his brother
Giovanni, bought five-eighths of a shop from Girolamo Deti, and a
year later several more shops from heirs of other members of the same
family. Two years afterwards garrulous old Giovanni Cambi notes in his
Diary, “at this time Giovanni Bartolini began a small palace at the
corner of Porta Rossa and the Terma, on the Piazza di Sta. Trinita,
where was the tavern of the Camel, and painters, shoemakers and a
baker. It will be a great ornament to the city, as it is in a good
position. Some of the shops belonged to the Soldanieri, who have been
for long away from the Florentine dominion, and now will have more
reason than ever to remain abroad, as the sale was made without their
consent.”
The Bartolini took possession of the property, and their _pulchrum
edifitium_ as the notary termed it, was already far advanced when
the Venerable Maestro Berdardino d’Oderigo Soldanieri, a Dominican,
arrived in Florence after a long absence. He lost no time in attacking
Bartolini for having taken unlawful possession of three-eighths of the
shop which belonged to his family, and was appeased with difficulty.
However finally all was arranged and Lorenzo Bartolini took up his
abode in the palace in 1521. Baccio d’Agnolo (Baglioni) was the
architect, and Vasari tells us, “this was the first edifice built with
square windows having frontispieces, and of which the columns of the
door support the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice; therefore the
Florentines derided these novelties with jibes and with sonnets, and
they hung it about with garlands of boughs as is done in churches for
the festivals, saying that it was more like the façade of a church than
of a palace; so that Baccio was nigh losing his reason: however knowing
that he had followed good examples and that the building was beautiful,
he took heart.” I may add that he revenged himself by inscribing over
the door, CARPERE PROMPTUS QUAM IMITARI, as a lesson to the people of
Florence.
Vasari again mentions this palace in his life of Cronaca, blaming
Baccio for having, “in order to imitate Cronaca, placed a huge antique
cornice, in fact the frontispiece of Montecavallo, on the top of a
small and elegant façade, so that nothing could be worse, and all
for lack of knowledge; it looks like a large hat on a small head.”
However he admits that “nevertheless the building has always been much
praised.” It has also been imitated, for the palace of the Duc de Retz,
in the Rue Montmartre in Paris, is copied from it. The origin of the
remarkably pretty friezes which surround the house under the first and
the second floor windows, of three poppies tied together, and the motto
_per non dormire_, which forms an architectural ornament, is said to
have been a trick attempted on Messer Bernuccio di Giovanni Salimbeni
of Siena, whose descendants came to Florence and took the name of
Bartolini. He was a great silk merchant, and with other friends passed
through Florence every year to go to the fair of Sinalunga with his
Florentine acquaintances. They determined to steal a march on Messer
Bernuccio, and one year mixed poppy juice with the wine served at the
banquet, intending to start at daylight and thus obtain the pick of the
market. But old Salimbeni was warned, and managed to change the flasks,
thus turning the tables on the Florentines to the great advantage of
the Sienese. He then invented the device and the motto, with which his
descendants ornamented their palace.
[Illustration: PALAZZO BARTOLINI SALIMBENI. PALAZZO BUONDELMONTI.
CORNER OF PALAZZO SPINI.]
In 1868 the palace was sold to Prince Ercole Pio di Savoia; whose
daughters still own it, and many readers will doubtless remember
it as the old Hôtel du Nord. Inside is a very pretty loggia and the
rooms are well-proportioned. It is sad to see one of the most exquisite
buildings in Florence falling to ruin.
Opposite the palace, on the Piazza di Sta. Trinita, stands the column
described by Evelyn in his Diary as being “of ophite, upon which is a
statue of Justice, with her balance and sword, out of porphyry, and
the more remarkable for being the first which had been carved out of
that hard material, and brought to perfection, after the art had been
utterly lost; they say this was done by hardening the tools in the
juice of certain herbs. This statue was erected on that spot, because
there Cosimo was first saluted with the news of Siena being taken....
Looking at the Justice, in copper, we are told that the Duke, asking a
gentleman how he liked the piece, he answered, that he liked it very
well, but that it stood too high for poor men to come at.”