_Via Tornabuoni. No. 1._
The palace, or rather the palaces, of the great family of the
Gianfigliazzi faced the Ponte a Sta. Trinita at the corner of the
Lung’Arno Corsini and the Via Tornabuoni. As Guelphs they were
expelled the city after the battle of Montaperti in 1260, but returned,
and three of them signed the famous peace of 1280. Eight years later
their palaces were nearly destroyed by the terrible flood which did
so much damage in Florence. The palaces Nos. 2 and 4 on the Lung’Arno
Corsini also belonged to them; in the former, with the lion of the
Gianfigliazzi carved by Desiderio da Settignano in the coat of arms on
the façade, the great poet Alfieri lived for some time, and there he
died.
At the beginning of the XVth century they bought from the Fastelli the
palace adjoining the church of Sta. Trinita, with a tower which had
been built by the Ruggerini, a Guelph family who were ruined in 1260.
The arms of the three different owners are still on the façade. The
loggia of the Gianfigliazzi, on the opposite side of the church at the
corner of the Via di Parione, was only closed and turned into a shop in
1732.
The Gianfigliazzi descend from a Giovanni son of Azzo (Gianni figlio
d’Azzo), who signed a convention with Siena in 1201. Two of the family
sat in the Council of Elders in 1278 and 1279; a few years later they
were excluded from office as nobles and their name only appears again
among the magistrates of the city after the departure of the tyrant
Duke of Athens. Geri de’ Gianfigliazzi was a poet and a friend of
Petrarch; Rinaldo, sent as Commissary of War against Visconti, was
created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Robert in 1402;
and Bongianni, another gallant soldier, was publicly knighted by the
Signoria in 1467 and died at the head of his troops under the walls
of Pietrasanta. His son Jacopo was one of the twelve citizens named
by Clement VII. to “reform” the State and elect Alessandro de’ Medici
absolute ruler of Florence. Several of the family were Senators under
the Medici, until the family became extinct in 1764.