Chapter LXIII: says: “... I will that in the Hall of the Palace of (2)

The second day passed in like manner, and when the tenth and last tale came to an end, Filomena took the garland from off her own head and crowned Neifile queen, who said: “As you know to-morrow is Friday and the next day Saturday, days apt to be tedious to most people on account of the viands ordered to be eaten; besides Friday was the day on which He who died for our life suffered His passion, and it is therefore worthy of reverence. For this I consider it to be a proper and virtuous thing that we should rather say prayers to the honour of God than invent tales. And on Saturday it is the custom for women to wash their heads and remove any dust or dirt that may have settled there during the labours of the week; also they used to fast out of reverence for the Virgin Mother of God and then in honour of the coming Sunday rest from any and every work. Being therefore unable on that day to fully carry out our established order of life I think it would be well done to refrain from reciting tales also on that day. And as we shall then have been here four days, if we are desirous to avoid being joined by others, I conceive that it would be more opportune to quit this place and go elsewhere and I have already thought of a place and arranged everything.”

All commended the words and the project of the queen, and so it was established, but they looked forward with longing to Sunday. On that morning “with slow steps the queen, accompanied and followed by her ladies and by the three youths, and led by the song of maybe twenty nightingales and other birds, took her way towards the west by an unfrequented lane full of green herbs and flowers just beginning to open to the rising sun. Gossiping, joking and laughing with her company, she led them, after proceeding some two thousand paces, to a beautiful and splendid palace before the half of the third hour had passed.” (One and a half hours after sunrise.)

The “unfrequented lane” may yet be followed from Majano across the Affrico towards San Domenico. Here and there an old oak tree recalls the forest that once existed, and nearly every villa and village within sight is connected with some illustrious name. The joyous company probably passed—

“Where the hewn rocks of Fiesole impend
O’er Doccia’s dell, and fig and olive blend.
There the twin streams of Affrico unite,[75]
One dimly seen, the other out of sight,
But ever playing in his smoothen’d bed
Of polisht stone, and willing to be led
Where clustering vines protect him from the sun.
Here, by the lake, Boccaccio’s fair brigade
Beguiled the hours, and tale for tale repaid.”

Thus sang Walter Savage Landor, whose villa “Il Frusino,” now belonging to Professor Willard Fiske, stands just above the small plain where once was the lake of the “Valle delle Donne,” already silted up in the sixteenth century.

About that same time the remains of the strong castle of Majano were destroyed; the birthplace of the poet Dante da Majano whose poems in praise of his Nina (one of the first Italian poetesses) are well-known. She was a Sicilian, and although they never met she always called herself “la Nina di Dante.” He exchanged poems with Dante Alighieri, Chiari Davanzati, Guido Orlandi and others. Another poet, Meo di Majano, was born in the tiny hamlet, and “the not less prudent than virtuous sculptor,” Benedetto [da Majano] “the greatest master who ever held a chisel,” as Vasari calls him, and his brother the architect Giuliano. Macchiavelli had a house near by, and the Valori owned much property near Majano. The Villa Marmigliano is still standing, where the great platonist Marsilio Ficino was for so long the guest of Niccolò and Filippo Valori and where he finished his translation of Plato. Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano often came from the Medici Villa at Fiesole to visit their friends, and in one of his letters Ficino describes a walk on these hills with “our Pico” and their talk about a salubrious villa. The latter pointed out one as fulfilling all his desires and Ficino tells him “it is said to have been built by that wise man Leonardo Aretino, and just beyond was the abode of Giovanni Boccaccio.” Only divided by a small valley from the Valori lived the brothers Benivieni. Roberto Gherardo describes their villa, now belonging to Sir Willoughby Wade, as “the most ancient Villa della Querce, since 1272 in the possession of the Signori Baldovini Riccomanni, who bought it from Ciencio di Seminetto de’ Visdomini and sold it in 1483 to Michele Benivieni.” “Happy house of Benivieni,” exclaims Poliziano, “beloved of Apollo, favoured with all the celestial gifts. Of four brothers, you, Maestro Antonio, are a second Esculapius or Chiron; the second diligently studies the virtues of plants and herbs; the third, Girolamo, is a tender and learned poet; and Domenico, still a lad, gives himself with a gravity beyond his years, to poetry and the study of Aristotle.”

Lower down, on the other side of the little valley is the Salviatino, once belonging to the Dukes Salviati, whose good wine is immortalized in that jocund poem _Bacco in Toscana_.

“Lovely Majano, lord of dells,
Where my gentle Salviati dwells.
Many a time and oft doth he
Crown me with bumpers full fervently,
And I, in return, preserve him still
From every crude and importunate ill.
I keep by my side,
For my joy and pride,
That gallant in chief of his royal cellar
Val di Marina, the blithe care-killer;
But with the wine yclept Val di Botte
Day and night I could flout me the gouty.”[76]

FOOTNOTES:

[72] _Familie Celebre Toscane._ D. Tiribilli-Giuliani, riveduto dal Cav. R. Passerini. Firenze, 1862.

[73] Samuel Rogers. _Italy._ P. 136.

[74] Pampinea in the Introduction to the _Decameron_, after describing the horrors of the plague and the licentious life of the few inhabitants left in the town, suggests going to “our estates in the country, of which we all have a great many.” She was probably a Baroncelli—if one may attempt to identify personages or places in the _Decameron_.

[75] The Affrico and the Affricuzzo.

[76] _Opus cit._ See note page 70.

VILLA DELLE SELVE

The stately Villa delle Selve, built by Buontalenti, stands high on the crest of a hill overlooking the Arno below Signa about nine miles from Florence. The first mention of it is in the archives of the monastery of San Pier Maggiore where it is stated that the Commune of Florence, in the interest of the creditors of the Acciajuoli bank, sold “a podere with a hut, a brick kiln, etc., at a place called Le Selve in the parish of San Martino a Gangalandi for 270 golden florins.” It afterwards came into the possession of the Strozzi. And when Filippo Strozzi and his wife Clarice left Rome by stealth and sailed to Pisa, a messenger met them with letters from the Cardinal of Cortona and from Niccolò Capponi urging them to come to Florence, so Filippo, a prudent Florentine “decided,” writes old Varchi, “after much meditation not to be the one who, as the saying is, picks the chestnuts out of the fire, but determined to send Madonna Clarice on to feel the way; she being a woman and a Medici would, he conceived, not run the same risk as himself.... Clarice, as courageous as she was proud, accepted the commission without waiting to be entreated, and leaving Piero and Vincenzio her sons, in Empoli under the charge of their tutor Ser Francesco Zeffi, she went accompanied by only Antonio da Barberino and Maestro Marcantonio da San Gemignano to dine at Le Selve near Signa, a most favourite villa of Filippo’s and from thence the same evening proceeded to Florence.”

Marchese Filippo di Averardo Salviati bought the villa from the Strozzi and in 1611 lent it to his friend Galileo Galilei, who unfortunately for himself had resigned his professorship at Padua to accept the appointment of court mathematician in Florence. It is a curious fact that two of the greatest of Italians, Giovanni Boccaccio and Galileo Galilei, had a common ancestor in Bonajuto, Lord of Pogna in the Val d’Elsa. Bonajuto’s son Chellino was grandfather to Boccaccio; another son, Giovanni, was the father of a celebrated doctor Maestro Galileo from whom descended Vincenzio Galilei, a musician of some repute and author of a dialogue on music printed in Florence in 1581, he married Giulia Ammanati, and their son—the famous Galileo—was born in Pisa in 1564. A descendant of a third son of old Maestro Galileo was governor of Pisa in 1837 and most bitterly resented any allusion to his relationship with a man who had been in the prisons of the Inquisition. The arms of the two families are identical, save that the red ladder of the Galilei is placed vertically on a gold ground while that of the Chellini is diagonal.[77]

The room occupied by Galileo at the Selve communicates by a winding staircase with an upper terrace where he used to spend the nights in watching the stars. Here he discovered the spots on the sun and its revolution upon its axis, the ring of Saturn, the phases of Venus and Mars and their rotation round the sun, and here he wrote his treatise on the planets, the history of the sun-spots and other works. He loved the country and country pursuits, and his favourite recreation was working in the garden; very proud was he of his skill in pruning vines and fruit trees and he used to declare there was no better preservative of health than living in the open air. A wall at the back of the villa with a peculiar curve is said to have been built under his supervision. If two people whisper in a low voice at the ends each can hear the other distinctly.

In 1614 Filippo Strozzi died at Barcelona and Galileo left the villa he loved so well. About the same time a Dominican friar, Tommaso Caccini, preached a sermon in Santa Maria Novella denouncing Galileo and all professors of mathematics. “Mathematics are of the devil,” he exclaimed, “and mathematicians as the authors of all heresies should be driven out of every state.” Monks and theologians denied the existence of the Medicean planets, some even insisted that the moon shone by her own unaided light.[78]

From the broad terrace of the villa the view is magnificent, “you see half the world” the peasants say. Below is the glinting river fringed with tall poplars and on the summit of the hill on the opposite bank stands the huge Medicean Villa Artimino surrounded by ilexes. To the right is the picturesque old bridge across the Arno connecting Ponte a Signa with Beata Signa; further away still the grey machicolated walls and towers of Lastra a Signa stand out against the fruitful green plain. In the far distance Poggio a Cajano rises like a giant above the village clustering round it, and the trees look like shrubs beside the villa where Francesco I, and his second wife, “the infamous Bianca” as her brother-in-law called her, died on the 19th and 20th October 1587.

Lastra a Signa owes its walls, built in 1377, to the English condottiere Sir John Hawkwood; he advised the Republic of Florence to erect them as a defence against the Pisans who some years before, aided by English auxiliaries, had taken and burnt the strong castle of Gangalandi near by. Twenty years later Alberigo, a captain in the pay of Galeazzo Visconti Lord of Milan who was at deadly feud with the Republic of Florence, besieged and took Lastra a Signa. The walls were restored again in time to keep part of the army of the Prince of Orange at bay for some time in 1529. Francesco Ferrucci, whose head-quarters were at Empoli five miles lower down the river, had garrisoned the place with some of his best troops, and as long as their ammunition lasted they beat off the Spaniards. Whilst treating for the surrender, five hundred more Spanish Lances arrived with scaling ladders and battering-rams, made a breach in the walls (which still exists) and cut the defenders to pieces.

Beata Signa on the opposite bank of the river, owes its name of Beata (Blessed) to a shepherdess. Giovanna was a good and holy maiden who tended her flock of sheep on the banks of the Arno and worked miracles in days long past. Her mummified body still lies under an altar in the picturesque church, and on Easter Monday the pretty old-world _Festa degli Angeli_ is held in her honour. The confraternities of neighbouring parishes bring offerings of oil, for the lamp kept always burning before her tomb, in small barrels slung pannier fashion on a donkey. On a little platform above the barrels stands the Angel, the prettiest small child of the parish, supported by an iron upright ending in a hoop. Crowned with roses and carnations, decked with the pearl necklaces of the peasant women and often with a pair of white wings fastened to its shoulders, the Angel on the donkey form the centre of many processions which wind along the country lanes with banners flying and generally a band playing. As each procession arrives in the little townlet of Beata Signa it files into the old church, the Angel and the barrels of oil are lifted off the donkey in front of the altar of the Blessed Giovanna, the band plays its loudest and sometimes the donkey brays, which causes great amusement.

Near by the Villa delle Selve, nestling amid elms and cypresses on a spur of the same hill, is the church of Le Selve adjoining a monastery of Carmelite friars suppressed, like so many others, by Napoleon I. The abbot’s rooms are now inhabited by the village priest and the monk’s garden, with a fine old well in the centre and surrounded by two-storied cloisters, has been turned into a nursery for olive trees. The church, said to have been restored by Buontalenti, possesses a nave of considerable height and beauty terminating in an apse and under the high altar is a small crypt where St Andrea Corsini celebrated his first mass. The young priest fled from the grand preparations made in Florence, and took refuge with the monks at Le Selve; when at daybreak trembling with religious fervour he raised the chalice to his lips a vision of Our Lady appeared to him; smiling graciously she bent her head and said _Tu est servus meus_.

A miraculous crucifix is in the church, and every fifty years the _Festa_ of the Crucifix of Providence is celebrated in the month of April. Just before sunset the crucifix is borne out of the church followed by a long line of priests, little acolytes in snow-white robes and stalwart peasants dressed in their best carrying banners and canopies. The steep hill down to Ponte a Signa is all strewn with rose leaves, irises and sweet herbs, and the long procession winds down to the river and returns with flaring torches like a huge fiery serpent, creeping up the hill beneath the olives and cypresses when the stars come out. The peasants put candles in their windows and the stately villa, now the property of the Contessa Cappelli, becomes a blaze of light.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] See _Marietta de’ Ricci_. A. Ademollo. 2a Edizione con aggiunte di L. Passerini. Firenze, 1845. Vol. III. p. 816, and Vol. IV. p. 1216.

[78] _Vita di Galileo Galilei._ G. B. Clemente de’ Nelli. Losanna, 1793.

VILLA I COLLAZZI

On a ridge of the hills which rise above the fortress-convent built by Niccolò Acciajuoli for the monks of the Certosa, once stood a castle of the Buondelmonti; but all trace of it has long since disappeared and on the site stands the famous Florentine Villa I Collazzi, now belonging to Signor Bombicci-Pomi. When Messer Agostino Dini commissioned his architect to build him a house, the time for strongholds and mediæval castles had passed away, and the villa which rose upon the Tuscan hillside was characteristic of the century of Michelangelo. Such is the grandeur and beauty of I Collazzi, with its imposing double flight of steps leading from a broad terrace up to the courtyard, with its two wells crowned by fine old iron work, its lofty arcade and the large vaulted rooms wherein one feels a race of giants ought to live, that many have attributed its building to Michelangelo. But there are a few blemishes in the finish and detail of the decoration which, though by no means detracting from the general beauty of the whole structure, are easily recognised by a student of the Master, and lead him to suppose it to be rather a work of one of his scholars. The Dini papers have been lost, used to light the fires a century ago some say, and the only clue we have to the architect is from Baldinucci who tells us that Santi di Tito, scholar of Bronzino in painting and of Vasari in architecture, “worked for Agostino Dini at Giogoli ... for this same Agostino he also painted one of his finest altar pictures,” which is still in the chapel of I Collazzi. But those who support the theory that Michelangelo built the villa, say that Santi di Tito only completed the work begun by his great forerunner. The building raised upon the lonely Tuscan hill within a few miles of Florence, yet not within sight of her towers, is the finest villa of its kind to be found in all the countryside. There is nothing to spoil the impression of grandeur and beauty; the unfinished wing on the left of the courtyard only seems to give variety of line and grouping as one approaches between a long avenue of cypresses so closely planted together as to form a sombre green wall shutting out all else but the villa in front. Across the broad terrace, raised on high bastioned walls above the vineyards, the villa faces the valley of the Arno where villas are strewn like diamonds on the sunlit hills, and higher up towards the north the mountains behind Pistoja with their thick covering of snow show palely against the sky. The view opening out wider as the eye travels towards Prato seems even sunnier and more brilliantly coloured, for the country round here is subdued in tints, losing the sunlight early, and the shadows lie almost black on the ilex and pine woods near by. So striking is the monotonous scene of rounded pine-covered hills that the name I Collazzi (small hillocks) suggested itself to the Dini family for the fine villa they built in lieu of the modest abode which satisfied all their desires in those early days when great Florentine families lived simply and frugally, and the lady passed her time in looking after her household and teaching her daughters to sew and say their prayers. If the girl’s daily task was not done in time, “cuffs would fly, or even a cane would cleanse her skirts of dust,” says an old writer. Conversation with men, even with near relations, was not permitted; in some houses the girls were not allowed to play with their brothers and at table they never spoke save in answer to their parents. If an entertainment was given they were shut up in their own room, and looking out of the window was severely prohibited as it might lead to loss of reputation.

But things changed in the sixteenth century when Messer Agostino Dini built for himself this villa suited to a noble Florentine, and like many another spent too much money on bricks and mortar. No doubt the Dini were among the people blamed by Senator Vincenzio di Giovanni di Niccolò Giraldi who, writing to a friend in 1598, deplores the gradual extinction of simple old Florentine customs in favour of Spanish grandeur and magnificence. “Now,” he writes, “little girls wear dresses of fine cloth, not only in Florence but in the country, more suitable to brides than to children, and expect to be waited on by men and maid-servants. Going afoot is out of fashion, and that they may not accustom themselves to so rustic a custom they take the air in a carriage.... There are not more grains of sand in the bed of the Arno after a flood, than there are ornaments and flimsy vanities on their heads in order to augment the natural love of dress inherent in woman. And when of marriageable age they no longer rise with the sun to go to early mass, but lie abed so as not to lose their sleep or spoil their complexions. As to work, I am told the girls sometimes fashion pretty and delicate things but coarse sewing, such as our wives did, they will not look at, for such work and the making of their beds of a-morning is not noble, so is left to the maids.... When the blessed and much desired husband arrives none can describe the grandeur and comforts that are indulged in. Dresses of cloth of gold and of thick silk trimmed with gold lace of diverse kinds are bought for the bride, without reflecting whether they are suited to her own or her husband’s condition. She must be on a par with others, for there is no longer any difference between one person and another, or between high and low rank. People say such a one spends of his own and so may do as others do; it would be a small evil if he only spent what was his, but often now-a-days it becomes apparent that he spends what belongs to others. Then a carriage and fine horses are a necessity, for whoso takes a wife and does not set up a carriage would be flouted by the women and pointed at as ill-bred and miserly. So they pay their visits in Florence in noble fashion with great comfort, scornfully pitying the poor women of bygone times who trotted round on their own feet wearing coarse and heavy gowns only fit, as they consider, for peasants. The house must correspond and be furnished according to modern ideas. The walls are hung from floor to ceiling with damask, and fine pictures are needful; above all the chairs, when not covered with velvet, must at least be covered with silk so that the ladies may sit softly. Whoso takes a wife must also keep a good table, not served with homely dishes, which are plebeian, for the ladies of the present day insist on delicate food, not for gluttony—oh no—but because it keeps them healthy and of good heart, and consequently enables them to have fine and well-made children. If linen has to be sewn for the husband or babes the work is commonly sent to the convents, and then the husband is told there is so much to pay for such work and so much for the other and he has to loose his purse-strings or confront a pouting face.

“With what majesty do the ladies now drive in their carriage, a peacock when he rustles and spreads his tail is not so proud and puffed up. A new custom too has been introduced in order to have more frequent occasion for going about the town. Visits are paid to brides, even by those who are not relations, and thus the women can spy out other folk’s business, which is always attractive. If the house be not nobly furnished they jeer at the master thereof and call him a miser; but if it be better found than their own they return home discontented and begin to grumble, saying: ‘I have been to see such a one and her house is beautiful; she has this and the other and all is in good taste; but we live worse than artisans, so that I no longer dare invite anyone as I will not have it said that I, who am as good as many of them, and had a marriage portion large eno’ to enjoy what they have—but as it must be so, _pazienza_.’ And the poor wretch of a husband has to swallow it all, and either be constantly tormented, or content his wife and do what he dislikes or perchance cannot afford; for at length the perpetual clapper of the bell at night would break even the head of a ram, which is proverbially hard.

“The ladies now all carry fans attached to golden chains when they leave the house, and not only in the streets do they flutter them but in the churches, as an aid to devotion while hearing mass. I have been told by a lady of honour and veracity, not in fun but in sober earnest, that she has seen women’s smocks trimmed round with lace exactly like Monsignori’s surplices. When they leave town for their villas, if the carriages are too large and heavy to go the whole distance, a lettiga[79] is necessary because mounting a horse savours of rusticity, though I have seen my mother-in-law, wife of Messer Luigi Capponi, and the wife of his brother Alessandro, who were not exactly plebeians or beggars, going to their villa in Val d’ Elsa some twenty miles from Florence on the horses of their factor or peasants.

“Intending to write only about women I will but just mention that the young men of the present day imitate them in many things. They are lovers of ease, of amusements and of show; carriages are even more used by them than by the women and certainly more than is warranted by their youth. They emulate the maidens in dress, love comfort and anoint themselves with perfumes, in short they enjoy life and stint themselves in nothing, without thinking about increasing or preserving their estates. If they cannot live like princes, at least they try as far as they can to show how noble they are; their desires are those of emperors, their purses are those of beggars. Yet I do not imagine that our city will be less rich, for I know that land cannot run away nor money take wings; but I conceive that they may change masters. Soon our fine villas, if this style of life be persevered in, will be in the possession of shopkeepers, apothecaries, grocers and the like. The nobles will either live obscurely in Florence or retire to some small villa still left to them, to quarrel with their peasants over the division of the harvest, or pass the day in trying to shoot a hare or a few small birds to diminish the butcher’s bill; in short with a little smoke and no substance they will eke out their wretched life to the undoing and ultimate disappearance of their caste....”[80]

FOOTNOTES:

[79] A sedan chair borne between two mules.

[80] _Di Certe Usanze delle Gentildonne Fiorentine, nella seconda Meta del secola XVI. Lettera di Vincenzio Giraldi._ Nozze Gori-Moro. Edizione integra di LXXX esemplari. Firenze, Carnesecchi e Figli.

VILLA FERDINANDA A ARTIMINO

Long ere the Medici thought of building yet another princely villa on the Florentine hillside, or Cosimo I came to hunt in the woods above Signa, Artimino was a famous portion of the Arno valley and is continually mentioned in the oldest of the Tuscan chronicles. Its name may have come from the narrow defile (arctus minor) where the Arno forces its way through the barrier of hills at the Gonfolina and Artimino juts out into the valley like the prow of a ship, its foot bathed by the Ombrone and the Arno. It is really a spur of the great Mount Albano and so far back as the days of Cicero it had achieved a certain importance, for we find in his nineteenth epistle to Attico the mention that Silla had proclaimed Artimino, together with the territory of Volterra, public property in order to divide it amongst his soldiers. The hill of Artimino attracted not only the leaders of passing armies but numerous Roman families, who found the groves of ilex and oak upon its summit delightful sites for villas when they left the towns during the summer months. The valley of the Arno in those days may have suggested the same thoughts to a Roman poet as later to Ariosto, when he looked down from some Medicean terraced garden upon the “gay Arno,” and the palaces strewn so thickly over the hillsides. It is believed that the group of villas then standing on Artimino’s hill made quite a little community, and a certain record of life there has been preserved to us in a quantity of bronze idols, cinerary urns, necklaces and coins, mosaics and leaden tubes for conducting water of what may have been public baths found in the grottoes of the hillside. Scanty as is the history of the place in Roman times it begins to emerge in the tenth century, when Otto III, gave over Artimino and its church San Leonardo to the Pistojan bishop Antonino; and from this time we may date the building of its castle which was to serve as a protection to the frontiers of Pistoja against the ever encroaching raids of the Florentines. Now the Fattoria or agent’s house, a few peasants’ houses, part of a tower and an old wall, probably part of the ramparts whence the soldiers watched the valley far below for the approach of an enemy, are all that remain to recall the ancient village of Artimino. A stretch of country lane between the vineyards and an avenue of cypresses growing in a half circle behind the village now symbolise an age of securer peace, and between the straight, bare stems we see the little parish church of San Leonardo a little lower down on the hillside, with its loggia of rounded arches under which the peasants linger when they meet for mass on a Sunday morning. Its square campanile, so strongly built and tall, might easily have served as a watch-tower in the time of trouble.

The strong position of the old castle above the Arno valley caused it to be connected with several Florentine events during the prosperous but troubled times of the Commonwealth. Up to the year 1204 the people of Artimino enjoyed a certain amount of political independence, but when the struggle began between Pistoja and Florence the latter envied the rival Tuscan city the possession of so strong a fortress, situated on the summit of a steep and precipitous mountain and commanding the narrow defile. When the Florentines invaded the lands of Artimino it appeared, says the chronicler, as though a mighty tempest had swept over the land, leaving vines, olives and fruit trees bowed beneath its passage. A little later the people of Artimino began to prey upon the neighbouring Carmignano, which continued for some time to be a deadly foe; swooping down like falcons from their eyrie, hardly a day passed without bloodshed, and at last things came to such a pass that Pistoja had to send mediators to conciliate these war-like dwellers of the hill and their truculent neighbours. “But finding it impossible to obtain anything by persuasion, the mediators were obliged to have recourse to threats in order to induce them to keep the peace, which under pain of severe penalties and fines was at last arranged on the 28th June 1224, when the mediators returned to Pistoja where those of Carmignano swore fealty to the Consuls.”

During the war between Florence and Castruccio Castracane, the powerful tyrant of Lucca and Pistoja, Artimino had even more to suffer. Her castle being the key to the valley, the Florentines were not slow to assail it, and after a sharp fight it fell into their hands. Not content with taking two hundred prisoners, they threw down part of the castle walls and carried home in triumph the bell of the Commune which was “of great size and of most exquisite metal,” as the Florentine chronicler recounts with a certain amount of satisfaction. The evening on which Artimino fell a long streak of lurid smoke was seen above Florence, and on the previous night a great earthquake shook the city—thus did nature and war combine to cast terror in the minds of the mediæval Italians. After the battle of Altopascio Castracane gained back his castle, but no sooner did he leave it for some other military enterprise than the Florentines returned with renewed ardour to the attack. For three days the people of Artimino fought against their assailants, “but on the third,” says Villani, “the Florentines delivered the most terrible assault that ever castle sustained and the most renowned knights of the army were engaged; it lasted from midday until the first hour of the night and the pallisades and gates of the castle were set on fire. For which reason great fear fell upon the besieged and those who were badly wounded with darts, and they begged for mercy and offered to surrender if their lives were spared; and thus it was done. And on the morning of the 27th August they left and delivered up the castle. But in despite of all promises, when the knights who escorted them departed, many were killed.”

After this the Florentines took firm possession of Artimino, rebuilt its walls and kept infantry and cavalry there, as they found it a good place from whence to harass the territory of Pistoja. For some time after Castruccio’s death it was a subject of perpetual skirmishes and many were the changes of master. How eagerly the two cities desired Artimino is shown by the clause in the agreement of the Pistojese who consented to acknowledge the suzerainty of Gualtieri for three years on condition that, together with other places, Artimino was to be added once more to their territory.

Artimino fell finally to the dominion of Florence, and to the arms of her people—a sea-horse—was added the Lily of Florence as a seal to her submission to the mistress and tyrant of Tuscany.

The time of war passed away and with the coming of peaceful years we read no more of Artimino’s villages and of her walled castle. Another building rose upon the hill whose story brings us at once to the Medicean Grand Dukes of Tuscany. It is related by that pleasant gossip Baldinucci that “His Majesty Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, being one day a-hunting on the hill of Artimino (on the side towards Florence where one looks upon a lovely and most extensive tract of country), seated himself on a chair and calling Buontalenti to his side said: Bernardo, just on this spot where thou seest me, I desire to have a palace sufficient to contain me and all my court; think about it and be quick.” And the work was immediately begun according to his patron’s desire, with the result that a royal villa soon rose upon the hill which had withstood so many sieges, “containing abundantly,” continues Baldinucci, “all those delights which a Grandee can desire in his country residence.”

The Medici loved the beautiful villa which was called Ferdinanda after its builder, and much money was spent in buying more land and enclosing the property with a high wall, which divided the farms from the woods preserved for the Grand Ducal hunts. Pictures were brought in numbers to fill the vast halls and in the inventory we read of priceless objects, such as “a portrait of Lorenzo d’ Urbino de’ Medici by Raphael, a Madonna and Child by Cristofano Bronzino, and a picture by Titian.”

When in 1782 Pietro Leopoldo I, (the Austrian Grand Duke) sold Artimino to Lorenzo Bartolommei, Marchese di Montegiove, the estate consisted, as it does to-day, of about two thousand acres. Later the fine old place passed by inheritance to the noble family of the Passerini of Cortona and the villa is now owned by Conte Silvio Passerini.

The wine of Artimino was famous all over Tuscany even in the days when Redi, court physician to the Grand Duke Cosimo III, drank deeply of its vintage and sang enthusiastically of its perfections in his _Bacco in Toscana_:—

“Gods my life, what glorious claret!
Blessed be the ground that bare it!
’Tis Avignon. Don’t say a flask of it,
Into my soul I pour a cask of it.
Artimino’s finer still,
Under a tun there’s no having one’s fill:”[81]

The Villa Ferdinanda is less famous than it should be, for although some visit it and return to spread among their friends a description of its grandeur and beauty, few are tempted to climb the steep and winding road to the summit of the hill. Again—the house, although seen from a great distance, stands so high above the sea level (260 metres) that it gives only the impression of being very large and almost overbalanced by an enormous projecting roof, and but little idea is obtained of its architectural beauty. The lower part of the hill is scarred by quarries of _pietra serena_ and the landscape is a little bare and arid; but as we climb the narrow winding road we soon get into a delightfully cool and remote corner of the Arno valley, where the slopes are overgrown with thick masses of broom while ilexes and a few cypresses rise above the shimmering green of the young oaks. In parts stunted oaks form a hedge, broken in parts where rocks jut out covered with trailing ivy. Every step leads us to a fairer and more extensive view. A deep azure blue of sky and plain with paler blue of the Pistojan mountains rising to the west, seen across the Artimino fields of crimson clover as we stand within the light shade of a wood where no dark shadows lie, hold the very essence of a Tuscan morning in early May. This a place from which we can best see the limitless stretch of the valley from Florence down towards the sea, the windings of the calm river and the deepening glow of colour on the hills and about the white townlets of Sesto and Prato; and as the distant murmur of the workers in the valley rise up to us, behind in the trees “The nightingale with feathers new she sings.”

Nearing the summit we see some picturesque peasant houses resembling Lombard farms, with long finely built arcades and a smaller row of arches above. A sudden turn in the road brings us in sight of the great Villa Ferdinanda. It would be difficult either in words, or by drawings, to give an adequate idea of the sense of size together with perfect proportion, of beauty with almost severe simplicity, which we receive on approaching; and it is with astonishment that we remember our first impression when looking up at it from the plain. Buontalenti would seem to have endeavoured to build a very characteristic Medicean villa; it has a beautiful staircase going up to the entrance in the manner of a suspended arch, there are the inevitable lions, and going into the great hall we pass through a charming arched recess. Yet the architect, by placing the villa above a wide grass slope and causing the walls to project at the base, and building the corners to resemble towers (two of which are only carried half-way up, forming terraces) recalled the feudal villa-castle of much earlier date. Unlike the usual Tuscan building, humble or pretentious, Artimino’s villa has no courtyard, but is built with long vaulted rooms running through at right angles which bear curious mediæval names. There is the saloon of “the Bodyguard,” that of “the Lion,” with three grated windows looking out over Poggio a Cajano, another of “the Bear,” with views over Montelupo and the Ambrogiana, while the entrance hall goes by the title of “the Wars.” The enormous size of the villa is perhaps its most striking feature—the rooms upstairs are all large and finely built with groined roofs and huge chimneypieces, some having no doors but only a round arch to separate them. Nothing mean is to be found in any part of the place—the banqueting halls and the servants’ rooms are equally fine and built on the same magnificent and simple scale. The architect had dreamed of a noble race of men who were to inhabit so sumptuous a palace.[82]

FOOTNOTES:

[81] _Op. cit._ See note p. 70.

[82] Most of the facts are taken from a pamphlet, _Artiminius_, G. L. Passerini, printed (for private circulation only) in 1888, and from Repetti’s admirable _Dizionario Geografico Fisico Storico della Toscana_. Firenze, 1835.

INDEX

A

Acciajuoli, Cardinal, induces Cosimo III, to imprison his nephew, 123.

—— Dardano, 121.

—— Donato, Governor of Corinth, 123.

—— Francesco, strangled by order of the Sultan, 123.

—— Neri, Duke of Athens, &c., 123.

—— Niccola, gibbeted by Dante, 121.

—— —— Grand Seneschal, builds Monte Guffone, 121;
wins the heart of Catherine, widow of the Prince of Taranto, 121;
fights the Turks in Greece, 121;
trusted minister of Queen Joan of Naples, 122;
Papal envoy to Milan, 122;
death of, 122;
builds the Certosa near Florence, 122;
burial of, at the Certosa, 123, 143.

—— Roberto, sad love story of, 123, 124.

Alberti, Leo Battista, 27.

AMBROGIANA, VILLA dell’, 88–90.

—— built by Ferdinando I, 88;
marriage of Eleonora Orsini at, 88;
Don Antonio de’ Medici at, 89;
Maria de’ Medici at, 89;
decorated by Cosimo III, 89;
Ferdinando III, meets his bride at, 89;
now a prison, 89, 152.

Ammirato, Scipione, defence of Petraja described by, 54–55; 57, 109,
110.

Anjou, Robert of, 121.

Arcetri, Galileo at, 62, 63.

Arragona d’, Tullia, poetess and courtezan, 56–57.

Ariosto, Lodovico, lines on Florence by, 53; 62, 63, 126, 148.

ARTIMINO, VILLA FERDINANDA a, 148–152.

—— 141;
hill of Artimino mentioned by Cicero, 148;
given by Otto III, to the Bishop of Pistoja, 149;
old castle of Artimino taken and retaken by Florentines and
Pistojesi, 150;
built by Ferdinando I, 150;
pictures in, 151;
sold by Pietro Leopoldo I, 151;
present owner of, 151;
description of, 151–152;
wine of, praised by Redi, 151; 152.

Austria, Joan of, see Medici.

—— Margaret of, 20.

—— Maria Maddalena of, see Medici.

B

_Bacco in Toscana_, by Dr Francesco Redi, 70, 138, 151.

Baccini, G., quoted, 4.

Baldinucci, Filippo, quoted, 91, 150, 151.

Bandini, Giovanni, duel of, 42–44.

Baroncelli, Family of, 41.

—— Tommaso, favourite of Cosimo I, 41;
death of, 42.

—— The, buy Poggio, 132.

Bavaria, Violante of, see Medici.

Bella, Stefano Della, engravings of Pratolino by, 91.

BELLOSGUARDO, VILLA DI, 59–64.

—— owned by the Cavalcanti, 59;
sold to Tommaso Capponi, 61;
ruin of, 61;
confiscation of, by Cosimo I, 61;
bought by Girolamo Michelozzi, 61;
immortalised by Mrs Browning, 61;
view from, 61–62.

Benedict XIII, Pope, 78, 83.

Benivieni, The brothers, Villa of, 138;
praise of, by Poliziano, 138.

Berenson B., quoted, 9.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, life of, by Baldelli, 6;
description of Villa Palmieri by, 6–7; 57;
description of “limpid Fount” by, 108;
description of “Valley of the Ladies” by, 113; 114; 133;
youth of, described by Roberto Gherardi, 134;
description of youths and ladies leaving Florence by, 134;
description of the “Joyous Company” at Poggio Gherardo, 136; 137;
138.

Bologna, Giovanni da, statue of Apennines at Pratolino by, 92.

Bombicci-Pomi, Signor, present owner of I Collazzi, 143.

Bonajuto, Lord of Pogna, common ancestor of Boccaccio and Galileo,
140.

Bonaparte, Elise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, 40.

—— Napoleon, 64; 142.

Borghese, Princess, Cafaggiuolo bought by, 17.

—— Prince, wife of, inherits Villa Salviati, 106.

Botticelli, Sandro, picture painted for Matteo Palmieri by, described
by Vasari, 3.

Botticini, Francesco, pictures by, note, 4.

Bracciolini, Poggio, 29.

Brocchi, Dr G., description of Cafaggiuolo by, 17.

Bronzino, A., portrait of Bianca Cappello by, 23.

Browne, Kenworthy, Mr, present owner of house of Boccaccio’s father,
134.

Browning, Mrs Barrett, quoted, 59, 61.

Brunnelleschi, Filippo, 28;
enlarges Rusciano for Luca Pitti, 37;
note, 57.

Brunnelleschi, family of, defence of Petraja by, 54–55.

Buonarroti, Michelangelo, 27; 95; 118; 143.

Buontalenti, Bernardo, architect of Pratolino, 91;
storage of ice invented by, 93;
architect of Villa Delle Selve, 139;
architect of Villa Ferdinanda a Artimino, 150, 152.

Byron, Lord, 127.

C

CAFAGGIUOLO, VILLA di, 16–25.

—— designed by Michelozzi for Cosimo de’ Medici, 17;
description of, by Vasari, 17;
description of, by Dr G. Brocchi, 17;
letter from, by Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, 18;
letter from, by factor, 18;
Donatello, a landed proprietor at, 19;
Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici at, 19;
letter from, by A. Poliziano, 19–20;
Margaret of Austria at, 20;
Lorenzino de’ Medici flies to, 21;
murder of Donna Eleonora de’ Medici by her husband at, 22;
murder of Donna Eleonora de’ Medici at, described by Francesco I,
22;
Francesco I, and Bianca Cappello at, 23;
Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici at, 23–24;
majolica of, 25.

Canaccj, Caterina, tragic love story of, 103–106.

—— Bartolomeo, 104, 105;
beheaded for the murder of his step-mother, 106.

—— Francesco, 104, 105, 106.

—— Giustino, 103, 104, 105, 106.

Candia, Duke of, see Mario.

Capraja, original name, and first mention of, 90.

Caprina, Meo Del, and his brother Luca, 118.

Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, 40.

Cappello, Bianca, see Medici.

CAREGGI, VILLA di, 26–36.

—— built by Cosimo de’ Medici, 26;
origin of name of, 26;
Michelozzi architect of, 27;
Cosimo de’ Medici at, 28;
Platonic Academy at, 28;
death of Cosimo de’ Medici at, described by his son, 29–30;
Piero de’ Medici meets Lucrezia Tornabuoni at, 30;
Piero de’ Medici dies at, 30;
death of Lorenzo de’ Medici at, described by A. Poliziano, 32–34;
Savonarola at, 34;
Piero de’ Medici accused of drowning Pier Leoni at, 35;
burning of, 36;
various sales of, 36.

Cascioli, Monte, 128.

CASTELLO, VILLA di, 65–70.

—— description of, 65;
fountain of, 66;
grotto of, 66;
origin of name of, 67;
Caterina Sforza lives at, 68;
reception of Duke of Urbino at, 68–69;
death of Maria Salviati at, 69;
Cosimo I, retires to, after his marriage with Camilla Martelli, 69;
vineyards of, praised by Redi, 70;
gardens of, beautified by Pietro Leopoldo I, 70.

CASTEL-PULCI, VILLA di, 126–130.

CASTEL-PULCI, VILLA di, seized by Cardinal N. Orsini for debt, 126;
sold to Marchese Rinnucini, 126;
sold to Government for a lunatic asylum, 126;
view from, 128.

Castracane, Castruccio, 149, 150.

Catherine, titular Empress of Constantinople, 121.

Cavalcanti, Guido, mention of, by Dino Compagni, 59;
a friend of Dante, 59;
banishment and death of, 60;
description of, by Lorenzo de’ Medici, 60;
praise of, by Dante, 60;
sonnets by, 60.

—— Masino, beheaded, 60.

—— Paffiero, murder of Pazzino de’ Pazzi by, 61.

—— The, 60, 61.

Charles III, King of Spain, 79.

Charles VIII, King of France, 77.

Charles Emanuel IV, 46.

Clemente VI, Pope, 122.

—— VII, Pope, 99, 109, 110.

—— VIII, Pope, 100.

—— XII, Pope, 78, 79.

COLLAZZI, VILLA I, 143–147.

—— Signor Bombicci-Pomi present owner of, 143;
built by Messer Agostino Dini, 143;
attributed to Michelangelo, 143;
Santi di Tito probable architect of, 144;
picture by Santi di Tito at, 144; description of, 144.

—— Compagni, Dino, quoted, 59.

Corsini, Amerigo, Bishop, 77.

—— Andrea, Saint, 77;
apparition of the Virgin to, 142.

—— Bartolomeo, 78.

—— Bartolomeo, created Prince of Sismano, &c., 79.

—— Bertholdo, beheaded in 1555, 78.

—— Filippo, 78.

—— Lorenzo, created Pope as Clement XII, 78; 79.

—— Luca, friend of Savonarola, 77.

—— Marietta, wife of Macchiavelli, 77.

—— Neri, Cardinal, 78, 79.

—— Neri, Don, Prime Minister of Tuscany, 80.

—— Tommaso di Duccio, jurist and statesman, 77.

—— Tommaso, Don, present Prince, 72, 80.

Corsini, Villa at Castello, 71–80.

—— first known as “La Lepre de’ Rinieri,” 71;
various sales of, 71;
description of, 71–72;
inhabited by Sir Robert Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, 72.

Cortesi, Jacopo (il Borgognone), 70.

Cowper, Earl, inhabits Villa Palmieri, 4;
created Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, 5.

Crawford, Earl of, buys Villa Palmieri, 1, 6.

Cybo, Veronica, daughter of Prince of Massa, 100;
marriage of, described by G. Beggi, 100–102;
imperious temper of, 102;
murder of Caterina Canaccj by, 103–106.

D

Dante, Alighieri, quoted, 60;
quoted, 81; 109;
quoted, 121; 137.

Decameron, The, 6, 57, 133; note, 134, 136.

Demidoff, Prince, buys Pratolino, 96.

Dini, Agostino, builds I Collazzi, 143;
Santi di Tito works for, 144;
spends too much on building, 144.

Donatello. Landed proprietor at Cafaggiuolo, 19; 28.

Dudley, Sir Robert, 72;
conquers Guiana and discovers Trinidad, 72;
description of voyage by, 73–74;
his marriages, 74;
enters the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 75;
instrument for measuring tides invented by, 76;
created Duke of Northumberland, 76;
children of, 76.

Dupré, Prof. G., 51.

—— Signorina, present owner of Lappeggi, 51.

E

Eleonora of Toledo, see Medici.

Etruria, Kingdom of, 45, 46.

Evelyn, John, description of Pratolino by, 94.

Ewart, Dorothea, quoted, 56.

F

Fabriczy, Carl von, 37, 38.

Farhill, Miss, buys Villa Palmieri, 5.

Fagiuoli, Giovan Battista, facetious poem on Lappeggi by, 49;
Cardinal Francesco Maria’s wit described by, 49; note, 52.

Ferdinando III, (of Lorraine), 24;
lends Poggio Imperiale to King of Sardinia, 46;
lends Poggio Imperiale to Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, 47;
89;
destroys villa at Pratolino, 96.

Ferri, Antonio, architect of Lappeggi, 49, 52;
enlarges Villa Corsini, 71.

Ficino, Marsilio, 27;
President of the Platonic Academy, 28, 52, 82, 86;
translation of Plato finished at Villa Marmigliano, 137.

Fiesole, Description of, by B. Varchi, 81;
traditions of, 81;
mentioned by Dante, 81, 82, 83;
poem by A. Poliziano on, 86.

Fiske, Prof. Willard, present owner of Villa Landor, 113, 137.

FONT’ ALL’ ERTA, VILLA di, 108–115.

—— description by Roberto Gherardi of, 108–109;
bought by Taddeo Gaddi, 109;
A. Bonsi, ambassador of Clemente VII, at, 109;
inherited by Sinibaldo Gaddi, 110;
Loggia of, built by Niccolò Gaddi, 110;
bought by Niccolò Gondi, 112;
bought by Count Pasolini, 113;
meeting-place of the “Young Italy” party, 114;
inherited by Countess Rasponi della Testa, 115.

Francavilla, Pietro, Pietà by, 61.

Franco, Ser Matteo, meeting of Clarice de’ Medici and her children,
described by, 124–125; 127.

Frederick IV, King of Denmark, 50.

G

Gaddi, Angelo, 109.

—— Niccolò, builds Loggia at Fout’ all’ Erta, 110;
character of, 110;
will of, 112.

—— Sinibaldo, inherits Font’ all’ Erta, 110.

Gaddi, Taddeo (the elder), 109.

—— Taddeo (the younger), buys Font’ all’ Erta, 109.

Galilei, Galileo, lives at Bellosguardo, 62;
lives at Arcetri, 62, 63;
lives at Villa Delle Selve, 140.

Galluzzi, Riguccio, death of Francesco I, and of Bianca Cappello
described by, 12–13;
financial genius of Cosimo de’ Medici described by, 55.

GAMBERAIA, VILLA di, 116–119.

—— probable origin of name of, 116;
description of, 117;
garden of, laid out by Cosimo Lapi, 117;
becomes the property of the Capponi, 118;
cypresses and grotto of, 118;
Princess Ghyka present owner of, 119.

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, visit to Mario of, 107.

Gherardi, Gherardo di Bartolomeo, buys Poggio and calls it by his
name, 132.

—— Roberto, description of the Font’ all’ Erta by, 108–109;
account of Boccaccio’s youth by, 134;
description of Villa della Querce by, 138.

Ghyka, Princess, present owner of Gamberaia, 119.

Gioli, Simone, 118.

Giraldi, Senator Vincenzio di Giovanni di Niccolò, 144;
letter deploring the extinction of simple old Florentine manners,
144–147.

Giuliani, D. Tiribilli-, 123, 132.

Gondi, Niccolò, buys Font’ all’ Erta, 112.

Gregory IX, Pope, 129.

—— XIII, Pope, 112.

H

Hawkwood, Sir John, note, 54; 132.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, _Transformation_ written by, at Villa Montauto,
63.

Henry VII, Emperor, siege of Florence by, 42.

I

Innocent III, Pope, 23.

—— VI, Pope, 122.

J

Joan, of Austria, see Medici.

—— Queen of Naples, 122.

John XXII, Pope, 131.

L

Landino, Cristofano, 27, 28, 82.

Landor, Walter Savage, Villa of, 113;
description of the Affrico by, 137.

Lapi, Andrea, 117;
remains of works at Gamberaia, 118.

—— Cosimo, garden at Gamberaia laid out by, 117.

—— Jacopo, 117.

—— Zanobi, Gamberaia probably built by, 117.

—— The, property of the, divided, 118.

Lapini, A., quoted, 14.

LAPPEGGI, VILLA di, 48–52.

—— sold by the Ricasoli to Francesco de’ Medici, 48;
various owners of, 48;
favourite residence of Cardinal Francesco Maria de’ Medici, 49;
rebuilt by Ferri, 49;
celebrated by the poet G. B. Fagiuoli, 49;
Frederick IV, of Denmark at, 50, 51;
Violante of Bavaria at, 51;
present owner of, Signorina Dupré, 51;
description of, 52.

Leicester, Earl of, 72.

Leo X, Pope, 8, 20, 99.

Leoni, Pier, fresco of murder of, by G. F. Watts, 27; 35.

Leopoldo II, 15;
destruction of grottoes and statues at Pratolino by, 96.

Lodovico of Bourbon, created King of Etruria, 46.

Lorraine, Christine of, see Medici.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni, see Medici.

M

Macchiavelli, Niccolò, 77, 137.

Magaldi, Meglino di Jacopo di Magaldo, leaves Poggio to the
Congregation of the Visitation, 131.

—— The, appeal to the Cardinal-Legate against will of Meglino and
sell Poggio, 132.

Majano, Benedetto da, 137.

—— Dante da, 137.

—— Meo di, 137.

Mann, Sir Horace, on Lord Cowper, 5;
on Lady Orford, 87.

Manetti, G., 29.

Manni, Domenico, description of Roman remains near Florence, 67.

Mario (Duke of Candia) owner of Villa Salviati, 106;
visit of Garibaldi to, 107.

Martelli, Lodovico, duel of, 42–44.

Martinelli, V., quoted, 14.

Martino V, Pope, 77.

Martino, San, a Mensola, St Andrew buried in, 133;
pictures in, 133; 134.

Mecati, Abbate G. M., attempted murder of Lorenzo de’ Medici,
described by, 83–84.

Medici, Alessandro de’, 10, 36, 99, 100.

—— Antonio de, Don, supposititious child of Bianca Cappello, 12;
note, 48;
returns from wars in Hungary, 89.