_Piazza Mozzi. No. 3._
When the second line of walls was built round Florence in 1173, the
Oltrarno consisted of suburbs, and was chiefly inhabited by the poor.
But early in the following century rich and powerful families began to
build their houses and towers there, and among them were the Mozzi.
“Mozorum prisca paucide stirpe superunt
Area sola tenet nomen vicina fluente,”
writes Verino. In 1260 Jacopo di Cambio Mozzi was one of the leaders
of the Florentine army, and after the defeat of the Guelphs the houses
and towers of the Mozzi were sacked and destroyed, for which the city
paid them an indemnity. They then built a palace on the same spot,
where they received Pope Gregory X. and his whole court in magnificent
fashion, when going to the Council of Lyons. All the prelates of
distinction who passed through Florence were guests of the Mozzi, as
they, together with the Spini, were bankers of the Pope, and farmers
of the revenues of the Holy See. For that reason they had houses or
correspondents all over the world.
The Pope arrived on the 18th June, 1273, with Charles of Anjou, King
of Naples, and Baldwin of Flanders, who styled himself Emperor of
Constantinople, “and, as the sojourn of Florence pleased them,” writes
Villani, “because of the goodness of the water, the salubrity of the
air and the comfort to be found in the city, they determined to spend
the summer there. The Pope observing that so fine a city suffered by
reason of the parties (for the Ghibellines were in exile), willed that
they should return and make peace with the Guelphs, and it was done.
On the 2nd July the said Pope, with his cardinals, King Charles, the
Emperor Baldwin, all the barons and courtiers, and the Florentine
people, collected in the dry bed of the Arno at the foot of the bridge
of Rubaconte [now alle Grazie]; and the illustrious and great people
took their places on huge scaffoldings of wood which had been erected.
And there the Pope judged between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines,
under pain of excommunication to whomsoever did not obey. He caused the
leaders of each party to kiss each other on the mouth and make peace,
and give bail and hostages; and all the castles held by the Ghibellines
were to be given into the hands of King Charles.” The peace was but
short-lived, as the Ghibellines, warned of the evil intentions of the
King towards them, left the city four days later.
Things in Florence went from bad to worse, so that Pope Nicholas III.
was begged to send a legate to promote peace. Once more Palazzo Mozzi
“became a second Rome,” for the Cardinal Fra Latino Frangipani was an
honoured guest there in October 1278. His first task was to reconcile
the Guelphs, who had fallen out among themselves, and then he made
peace between them and the Ghibellines. The “Peace of Cardinal Latino”
was signed, amid general rejoicing, in the Piazza Vecchia of Sta. Maria
Novella in 1280.
In 1314 King Robert of Naples sent his brother Piero, Count of Gravina,
with three hundred horsemen, at the urgent request of the Florentines,
to help them against Uguccione della Fagiuola, whom the Pisans had
taken into their pay. The young Count dismounted at Palazzo Mozzi in
August, and Ammirato describes him as “prudent and discreet. He showed
no sign of the pride and haughtiness of royalty in his dealing with the
citizens, behaving courteously to all.... To these qualities were added
the natural advantages of remarkable beauty both of face and person.”
The Florentines were delighted with him, and his death at the battle of
Montecatini the following year was sincerely mourned. Seven years later
the old palace opened its doors to a very different guest. Walter de
Brienne, Duke of Athens and Count of Lecce, who was to become the hated
tyrant of Florence, stayed there for some time when he first arrived as
Vicario of the Duke of Calabria.
Several of the Mozzi were gallant soldiers, and became knights of
the Golden Spur. Vanni fought against the Pisans in 1292, and three
years later was sent as ambassador to the Pope, to beg him once more
to intervene in the internal dissensions of the city. Luigi Mozzi was
amongst those sent to Venice to negociate a treaty in 1337, and four
years later he was one of the twenty citizens of Florence who treated
for the purchase of Lucca. Afterwards he arranged a league with Siena
and Perugia. Marcantonio, canon of the cathedral of Sta. Maria del
Fiore in 1707, a man of considerable learning, was an “Arcadian,”
under the name of Dariseo Gortinano, and Archconsul of the Academia
della Crusca. His brother, Pier-Giannozzo Mozzi, was created a Count of
the Empire by Napoleon I.
It must have been a grandson of Pier-Giannozzo whom Sir Horace Mann
mentions as the friend of the eccentric Lady Orford. She died at
Pisa in 1781, and Mann writes: “Mozzi brought me her writing-box,
which I opened in his presence, and of a lawyer’s, in which I saw a
paper sealed with her seal, and, wrote on the cover by her, ‘A copy
of my last will.’... She has left everything she was possessed of to
Mozzi.... He is one of the most antient families among the nobilità
here, and not poor for this country. She, to be sure, chose him for
his beauty, which was then great and in its prime, but she wished it
to be thought that his learning (for which he is distinguished, and he
has just published some approved works on Mathematicks) biassed her
choice.... Mozzi’s attention has been greatly rewarded.” In 1784 Sir
Horace notes that “Florence is much amused by the marriage of Lady
Orford’s old Cicisbeo, Cavaliere Mozzi.”
The old palace and its large garden was sold by the last of the family
a few years ago to the Dowager Princess Carolath Beuthen.