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 1_Borgo San Lorenzo
_ _ _ Second Itinerary |
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Along with the name of borgo the street has also conserved its
mercantile character, even today it is filled with famous stores where
you can buy leather shoes, fabric and clothing. Let's look at it with
our backs to Piazza San Giovanni. The medieval Torre dei Marignolli is
on the left corner, this family also gave their name to the first part
of Via Cerretani that ends at Via Zannetti (see Itinerary 3). The
Marignolli (da Marignolle) was a famous family, with 23 Priors and 5
Gonfaloniers in the city government. Rustico de' Marignolli, killed in
a battle with the Ghibellines, was buried with great honor in San
Lorenzo while his last descendant, Curzio, was a sixteenth century poet
at Maria de' Medici's French court. Their coat of arms, gold with a
black horizontal strip is still visible on the architrave of the little
door next to the tower. On the corner you can also see a sixteenth
century 'Madonna' in a neoclassical tabernacle.
The very old Saracino or del Moro Pharmacy is on the opposite corner,
it has even had poets like il Lasca, Anton Francesco Grazzini's
pseudonym (1504-1584), as employees. A novelist and comedian in the
popular Florentine tradition that starts with Boccaccio's "Decamerone"
and includes works like Machiavelli's "Mandragola" (see Itinerary 3) he
was also a member of the Accademia della Crusca (where he kept his
pseudonym Lasca, which is a kind of fish, with the excuse that they had
to be covered in flour before they were fried). Grazzini came from a
family of tiralori the artisans who made gold and silver into thread
that could be woven into fabric, an art we will soon see in the streets
and workshops of the neighborhood.
The pharmacy, which has been ruined by a recent modernization, is
located on the ground floor of Nardi di Vaglia's house (number 2) a
building characterized by its eighteenth century lines. Like many other
houses in this area it belonged to the Opera di San Giovanni and was
given to many families until the eighteenth century when the Nardi,
from Mugello, bought and restructured it.
Right next door, at number 4, is the Casa dei Dolfi. Of little
architectural interest, the facade presents a complex composition made
up of a bust, a plaque and two bronze reliefs. They commemorate the
life of Giuseppe Dolfi, a bread maker and patriot who played a
important role in the events of 1859: the Provisory Tuscan Government,
the departure of Grand Duke Leopoldo ll and the consequential pacific
annexation of Tuscany. The bronzes depict two episodes of Dolfi with
his good friends Garibaldi (in a carriage) and Mazzini (in the house).
The plaque reads "Giuseppe Dolfi lived and died here on July 26
1869..." Three centuries earlier, while Lasca was still alive the
street hosted other illustrious people. In fact in Casa Pieralli was a
kind of hotel, the famous Locanda dell'Agnolo. A few decades ago a
group of citizens put up a plaque that reads: "In this house where
there was once the antique Locanda dell Agnolo where Michel de
Montaigne stayed in 1580 and in 1581". On his first visit he judged
Florence to be "the most expensive city" and he didn't even think that
it was beautiful. He changed his mind on his second visit though when
he granted Florence the right to be called "la bella" which means a
beauty. It is doubtful, however, that it had become less expensive
while he was away.
At that time Bartolomeo Ammannati had not yet built the San Giovannino
dei Gesuiti complex (see Itinerary 1) and the street was interrupted on
the right by a small alley that connected it to Via degli Spadai (Via
Martelli). You can still see a trace of it at number 38 red where above
the low building there is a coat of arms with a sun. The Torre dei
Rondelli rose at this corner and parts of the antique structure have
been brought to light. On top of the tower there are terraces where the
famous Ximeniano Observatory was located, dedicated to observing
astronomic events. It was founded in 1756 by a Sicilian priest with
Spanish origins named Leonardo Ximenes one of the most important
scientists of Lorentian
Tuscany. From 1872 to 1887 the Observatory entrusted to the Scallopi
fathers under the direction of Filippo Cecchi, a physic of notable
worth and a scholar of seismic phenomenon, he accepted this new
specialization under the direction of the priest Guido Alfani who was
called father of the earthquakes had seismic instruments implanted in
the tower's basement, an extremely safe and isolated place. The
Ximenian center is still one of the most famous seismic and
meteorological centers and it possesses many important scientific
collections, an archive and two collections of books, the older of
which is based on the Ximene's nucleus which includes mathematics,
astronomy and meteorology texts from the seventeenth to the nineteenth
centuries.
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L'ingresso Mercantile
