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 5_Via de' Ginori
_ _ _ First Itinerary
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Turning to right from Via de' Gori you enter Via de' Ginori. The first
part of the street runs along the crenelated back wall of Palazzo Medici.
The first gate on the right, in fact, is what remains of the building's
garden where Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brothers used to play. The
gate is high but if the large wooden door is open you can peek inside.
Going toward Via Guelfa this street is a lively commercial area, lined
with noble palazzi that took its name from the Ginori family.
Originally from Calenzano they moved to Florence at the end of the
twelve hundreds and participated in the Republic with 5 Gonfaloniers
and 26 Priors. At the end of the fourteen hundreds the family divided
into various branches two of which the Ginori Lisci and Ginori Conti
have survived up until our time (see Itinerary 3). They maintained
their importance even under the Lorena thanks to the Marchese Carlo,
founder of the first Italian porcelain factory in his villa at Doccia
(1737) and his descendants, among whom we must note three congressmen
and senators of the Kingdom of Italy. The charm of one of the Ginoris
is tied to an awful crime, the assasination of Duke Alessandro in 1537.
Son of Clement VIII, he was tricked into going to what he thought was a
romantic rendezvous and treacherously murdered by his cousin
Lorenzaccio (see Via Cavour). The unknowing woman, whose name
nonetheless was involved in the horrible scandal, was Caterina
Soderini, the wife of Lorenzo Ginori. She was also Lorenzaccio's young
aunt because she was his mother's sister Maria Soderini. She would
later have a son Bartolomeo Ginori who was famous in Florence for his
imposing physical appearance: two meters and thirty centimeters tall
and very muscular, it is said that Gianbologna used him as a model in
his marble group called "The Rape of the Sabine Women" (plaster model
is in the Academy and the finished sculpture is in the Loggia dei
Lanzi).
Much later, in the times of Marchese Carlo Leopoldo (1788-1837), to
give more light to the first floor rooms with windows on Via dei
Ginori, it was decided to lower the houses on the other side of the
street. After all, they too belonged to the Ginori and in fact
constituted the first house the Ginori's had owned here. Today we still
see them as they were, with just the ground floor and another story on
top of it.
Before the street got the name Ginori it had other names. Via San
Lorenzo di Sopra was the unimaginative name of the first part up until
the corner of Via Taddea - which was called Canto del Bisogno or del
Bigno for some unknown reason - and the next part - that is up to Canto
alle Macine that intersects Via Guelfa, Via del Canto del Bisogno.
The Ginori houses are not the only noble houses in this street, which
is one of the most aristocratic in the city. At number 7 we have
Palazzo Neroni, its pronounced rustication on the ground floor is not
in proportion with the two upper floors. This is probably the
Gonfalonier Diotisalvi Neroni's fault (important politician, brother of
the archbishop of Florence Giovanni and married to a Ginori), he was
condemned to exile in 1466 with his entire family after the anti-Medici
revolt headed by the Pitti when Cosimo the Elder died against his son
Piero the Gouty. The palazzo, which had been left unfinished, was
completed with the least possible cost and sold in 1564 to Noferi di
Zanobi Bracci, whose family remained there until the beginning of the
nineteen hundreds when it passed on to the Albizi. Traditon has it that
the rusticated stones on the ground floor were the ones that were left
over from Michellozzo's
construction of Palazzo Medici, given to Diotisalvi by his friend
Cosimo sometime around 1460. The Michelozzian style of the rustication
is very impressive but there is no proof of this gift except for
Neroni's friendship with Cosimo which was betrayed after his death.
Diotisalvi's face is immortalized in a marble bust by Mino da Fiesole
done in 1464 and now in the Louvre.
At number 9 we find Palazzo di Montauto, once called Gerini, with two
lovely inginocchiate windows attributed to Ammannati. The facade was
once decorated with sgraffiti that has since deteriorated. According to
some scholars' reconstructions the facade was divided by a sequence of
pilasters called a classical screen that probably dated to around 1450
and therefore predates Leon Battista Alberti's
design for Palazzo Rucellai. At number 11 we find the principle Ginori
palazzo, built between 1516 and 1520 by uniting a group of houses its
design is attributed to Baccio d'Agnolo. Still owned by the family the
palazzo is still exquisitely decorated and enriched with frescoes by
Alessandro Gherardini in addition to numerous other masterpieces. It
hosted the famous conferences on "Italian Life" that were held between
1890 and 1895. Orators included Giosuč Carducci, D'Annunzio, Pascoli e
Pasquale Villari.
Parallel to this building on the other side of the street is located
Palazzo Medici and its garden. Once you pass a seventeenth century
tabernacle painted on canvas, you come to the wing that was built when
the Riccardi enlarged the building. You can recognize it because the
coat of arms has a key. The entrance to the Riccardian Library is
located here. Today it houses one of the principle civic collections of
codices, manuscripts and rare books. At number 26 there is an
inscription that reads "Here lived and died on XVIII December
MDCCCXLVII Liugi Pampaloni" sculptor whose works included Julia
Bonapart Clary's tomb in Santa Croce.
The following houses are rather modest but they were the Ginori's first
on this street. Marchese Carlo Ludovico (1788-1837) decided to lower
them cutting off the top of the building to give more light to the more
important Palazzo Ginori.
On the opposite side next to the first there are another two buildings
that belong to the Ginori at number 13 and 15: the latter is on the
corner with Via Taddea and is the ex Palazzo Taddei designed by Baccio
D'Agnolo. The same family owned the building on the opposite corner,
past Canto del Bisogno, where it seems that Raphael Sanzio stayed in
1505. He had just arrived from Urbino in search of fame and good
patrons. Taddeo di Francesco Taddei kindly offered him a place to stay
as the plaque on number 17 indicates even though it is more probable
that Raphael stayed at his home at number 15. |
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The Medici entrance
