_Piazza de’ Mozzi. No. 6._
The Torrigiani were vintners of Lamporecchio, and came to Florence in
the XIVth century, where they made a considerable fortune by trade. The
family then lived in the centre of Florence, and the fine old building,
now the Hotel Porta Rossa, was one of their palaces. The present
Palazzo Torrigiani was left to them by the Baron Gerbone Del Nero, a
relation, in 1816, when the loggia at the top was walled up and turned
into rooms, which has spoiled the façade. It was built by Tommaso Del
Nero in the XVIth century after his own design, and he must have been
a man of some genius, as he is said to have painted the decorations of
the interior of his palace with his own hands, as well as designing it.
He also founded the Academy of the _Alterati_, the precursor of that of
the Crusca, which first met in his house. His ancestor, Bernardo Del
Nero, was thrice Gonfalonier of Justice, and in 1483 Commissary-General
of War in the Lunigiana against Costanzo Sforza. The following year
he drove the Genoese out of Vada. His fate was a sad one, as after
his third term of office as Gonfalonier in 1497, he was accused of
conspiring in favour of the Medici and beheaded in the courtyard of the
Palazzo del Podestà when he was seventy-two years of age.
The riches of the Torrigiani family were increased by the inheritance
of the parsimonious Luca, Archbishop for twenty-four years of the rich
See of Ravenna and the son of an heiress. His brother Carlo bought the
estate of Decimo in the Pontifical States, when his son Raffaelo was
created a Marquess by Clement XI. in 1712. Cardinal Luigi Torrigiani
was Secretary of State to Clement XIII.; his devotion to the Jesuits,
and his blind obedience to their orders, nearly cost the Pope the
allegiance of France, Spain, and Portugal. Dismissed by Clement XIV.,
he died in 1777, the last male representative of his house, leaving
his possessions to his sister’s second son, Pietro Guadagni, with
the obligation of taking his name. Rich, and of some consequence in
the city, the Marquess Pietro Torrigiani was arrested by order of
the French General Gauthier, and transported to France with other
prominent citizens. When the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became the Kingdom
of Etruria he returned, and soon afterwards Etruria ceased to exist,
being declared a province of the French Empire. Napoleon I. named the
Marquess a member of the Council of the Department of the Arno, made
him a Baron, and in 1812 a French citizen, but on the restoration
of the house of Lorraine he resumed his Italian nationality and was
elected a Senator. His son Luigi was an able administrator and a patron
of the arts, and many of the finest pictures of the Torrigiani gallery
were bought by him. Carlo Torrigiani, his brother, devoted himself to
ameliorating the condition of the prisons and to popular education.
He started the society for building blocks of decent houses for small
artisans, and gained the hearts of the Florentines by his fearless
charity during the outbreak of cholera in 1855. An inscription to his
memory was placed by the municipality of Florence on the façade of his
small palace, which now belongs, as well as the larger one beside it,
to his nephew, the present Marquess Torrigiani. It was begun by Baccio
d’Agnolo for the Nasi family and finished by his son Domenico.
[Illustration: PALAZZO UGUCCIONE.]