_Piazza S. Firenze. No. 1._
The progenitor of the great family of the Gondi, whose descendants
played an important part in French history, was a certain Bellincozzo,
who owned a house and a tower in the XIIth century near Sta. Maria
degl’Ughi, in Florence. One of his descendants, Forte, signed the peace
with Genoa in 1201, and from his grandson Gondo the family took their
name. Geri de’ Gondi lent money to the Republic of Florence, his name
appearing as a large creditor in 1324, and a few years later that
of his son Simone, who solemnly swore allegiance to the Guelph party
in 1351. But seven years afterwards he was accused of intriguing in
favour of the Ghibellines, and he and his descendants were declared
incapable of holding office. This sentence was annulled in 1438 in
favour of his grandson, Simone, who was elected Gonfalonier of Justice,
and lent 8,000 golden florins to the State. His brother Leonardo sold
the old family house and tower near Sta. Maria degl’Ughi to Palla
Novello Strozzi in the XVth century, and in 1488 his son Giuliano
began to build the fine palace in Piazza San Firenze; Giuliano da San
Gallo, with whom he had made a close friendship at Naples, being his
architect. He rendered such services to King Ferdinando of Naples that
he offered him a large pension, but Gondi, being, as the Florentines
say, “all of one piece,” refused, on the plea that no citizen of a free
republic should accept money from a foreign potentate. So Ferdinando’s
son, King Alfonso, bestowed on him the privilege of placing a ducal
crown in his coat-of-arms. Giuliano was twice Gonfalonier of Justice,
and died in 1501, before his magnificent palace was finished.
[Illustration: COURTYARD OF PALAZZO GONDI.]
A cousin of his, Giovanbattista Gondi, went to Paris, became a
naturalized French citizen and married a lady-in-waiting of Queen
Catherine. Having no children he adopted his nephew Girolamo, a clever
politician employed by the Queen and her sons after her in various
delicate missions. He received Henri IV. and his bride on their entry
into Paris in the fine Hôtel de Gondi built by him, but which his son
Jean Baptiste was forced to sell. It was bought by the King, who gave
it to the Prince de Condé. He also built a palace in Florence near
Sta. Maria Maggiore, which was sold to the Orlandini. Another Gondi,
Alberto, married the _gouvernante_ of the royal children, widow of the
Baron de Retz. A distinguished soldier he was in such favour at Court
that he was sent by Charles IX. as his proxy to marry Elisabeth of
Austria. In 1573 he became a Marshal of France, and some years later
was one of the hundred noblemen of high birth who first received the
Order of St. Esprit. In 1584 he was created Duc de Retz, and was in
command of the troops when Henri IV. entered Paris. His eldest son
Charles, Marquis de Belle-Isle, married the Princesse Antoinette
d’Orleans, daughter of the Duc de Longueville and of the Princesse de
Bourbon, and was killed before Mont St. Michel when only twenty-seven.
Another son, Henri, in whose favour his uncle the Cardinal de Gondi
retired, became Bishop of Paris. The youngest was the first Archbishop
of Paris, and his nephew Jean François Paul, the famous Cardinal de
Retz who joined the ranks of the Fronde after incurring the enmity of
Mazarin, succeeded him. Imprisoned by order of the King in the castle
of Nantes, he contrived to escape to Spain, and embarked on a galley
lent to him by the King for Piombino. After passing some years in Rome
he resigned his archbishopric, and was allowed to return to France in
1662, when the King made him Abbot of St. Denis, where he wrote his
well-known memoirs.[39]
But to return to the stately palace in Florence which Giuliano de’
Gondi began in 1488, and by will charged his sons to finish. The
courtyard and the balustrade of the staircase, decorated with delicate
carvings of animals and foliage, are among the finest things San Gallo
ever did. In the large room upstairs is a handsome wooden ceiling, and
a beautiful fireplace with a _frontone_, or mantel-front, also by San
Gallo, representing the triumph of Neptune, and two statues of Hercules
and of Samson. “It is so richly carved and so varied in style, and so
beautiful,” writes Vasari, “that naught like it had been seen before,
nor one with so many figures.” The old Roman statue in the palace is
mentioned in a letter from Giuliano da San Gallo’s son, Francesco, to
the head of the hospital of the Innocenti. “My father told Michelangelo
that the statue in the house of the Gondi represents a Consul, and was
found when the foundations for the palace of the Guelph party were
being dug, where once existed the baths. He carried it to the Gondi
palace, which he was then building, with the intention of placing it at
the corner in the Piazza. But this was not done, as the palace was not
finished.”
The fountain in the courtyard was erected by the descendant and
namesake of Giuliano de’ Gondi, and by special grace he was allowed by
the Grand Duke Ferdinando I. to take water from the fountain in the
Piazza della Signoria. When Florence became the capital of Italy the
Via de’ Gondi was too narrow for the increased traffic, and a large
portion of the old palace was taken off, but the southern façade was
admirably rebuilt. The palace still belongs to the Gondi family.