At the S. corner of the Via Ricasoli¹Formerly Via del Cocomero, re-named from the patriot Bettino Ricasoli, who was born at No. 9 in 1808. and the Piazza S. Marco is the ancient Ospedale di S. Matteo, now the Accademia delle Belle Arti.

[Editor’s note: With few exceptions, the paintings listed in the various prior editions of Florence have been removed. Most are now in the Uffizi. Those works no longer in the Accademia, but included in the 6^th and 9^theditions, have been reassigned in this edition according to their present (2022) location. In the 9^th edition St. Clair Baddeley writes: “There are two rooms besides which are being prepared for other additions to this Gallery, which, since the war [WWI], has contributed a large quota of its masterpieces of the XV. and XVI. centuries to the new systematic scheme adopted so wisely in the Uffizi and Pitti Galleries (which King Victor Emanuel has now presented to the town and people of Florence), not to speak of several works of Beato Angelico which it has contributed to swell the collection of his works in San Marco.”]

In the little hall which was the original entrance are four admirable reliefs by Luca della Robbia. In the present entrance are some lovely works of the Della Robbia, and the bozzetto of a Statue of S. Matthew by Michelangelo.

Room 3: Galleria dei Prigioni (Gallery of the Slaves/Prisoners)

The corridor [the Galleria] leads at once to the Tribune.²The 9^th edition of Florence notes that the Corridor then contained “a magnificent series of sixteen Brussels tapestries which were purchased by Eleonora da Toledo in 1552 for 5,500 scudi d’oro. They depict the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, and Joseph.” p. 162.

There are beside statues more or less imperfect of some prisoners designed to have adorned the mighty tomb of Julius the Second (1518) in Rome. There is also a torso of a river-god and plaster-casts of the Moses in S. Pietro, in Vincoli, and the Pietà, in S. Peters.

Here, also, and of especial interest, is seen the unfinished statue by Michelangelo of S. Matthew intended once for the Duomo.

On the Corridor walls are a number of paintings including:

Room 4: The Tribune

The Tribune was opened April 1882.³Built by Emilio de Fabris, who also designed the western façade of the Duomo. Hither (owing to damage from rain), the famous Statue of David (1504) by Michelangelo—“Il Gigante”—has been removed from its original and far better situation at the gate of the Palazzo Vecchio, a position which was of the greatest interest, as having been chosen by Michelangelo himself at a council composed of all the great contemporary painters and sculptors.

Chiostro dello Scalzo (sig photo)

Chiostro dello Scalzo (No. 69 Via Cavour) belonged to the gardens of Ottaviano de’ Medici, where the Scalzi, or barefooted Recolletan friars, had a court, for the decorations of which they employed Andrea del Sarto and his friend Franciabigio, who lived with him. The subject chosen was the life of John the Baptist. The execution of the frescoes occupied them from 1517 to 1526. They are, beginning from the right: —

All these are by Andrea del Sarto, except 5 and 6, which are by Franciabigio, and 7, which (as well as the frieze) is the united work of the two friends. They are all executed in chiaroscuro.⁴In his pictures, Andrea del Sarto constantly painted his wife, Lucrezia de Fede, of a noble family which gave six Priors to Florence.

Near this (No. 63), in the Via Cavour, is the Casino Mediceo, adorned by Buontalenti in 1570 for Francesco I. It was in the gardens of this palace that Lorenzo the Magnificent used to collect all the literary celebrities of his time, and to its galleries that he invited all the young students of art to study from his antiquarian collections. The villa was sacked after the banishment of Piero de’ Medici, but restored as an academy in 1512. After the death of Francesco I. and Bianca Cappello their son Antonio resided here. Under the later Grand Dukes it was a barrack of the noble guard, and was used for public offices including, until 2012, the Court of Appeal with busts of the Grand Duchesses Maddalena of Austria and Vittoria della Rovere. In the rooms once inhabited by Prince Antonio, formerly the Court of Assizes, are frescoes portraying the history of the first four Grand Dukes. Opposite is the Farmacia di S. Marco.

Continuing south on via Cavour one turns right (east) onto via degli Alfani where the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure is located at No. 78. Ferdinando I. founded the Opficio in 1588 to produce mosaics.  Opened in 1882 and updated in 1995, the museum traces the history of Florentine mosaic work through three centuries. A notable examples of pietra dure (hard stone) work is Francesco Ferrucci’s Portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici.  Jacopo Ligozzi’s design for a table top, which includes flowers and insects arranged on a black ground, typifies much of the Opificio’s work. In the 18th c. the painter Giuseppe Zocchi collaborated with the workshop which made mosaic copies of his vedute (scenic views) of Florence.

Piazza SS. Annunziata (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Giovanni da Bologna, Ferdinand I.,

From the Accademia, a few steps (E.) bring us to the Piazza della SS. Annunziata (Servi di Maria), surrounded by arcades and decorated with busts of the Medicean Grand Dukes. It is adorned by an equestrian statue of Ferdinand I. (younger son of Cosimo I., first Cardinal, then Grand Duke) by Giovanni da Bologna (made from cannon taken from the Turks by Knights of S. Stephen) and two bronze fountains by Pietro Tacca. The central door on the left leads to the Foundling Hospital—Spedale degli Innocenti—founded in 1421, and designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. The medallions are by Andrea della Robbia. It contains several good pictures, especially: —

Over the door of the chapel is an Annunciation by Andrea della Robbia.

The Church of the SS. Annunziata was built by the Order of Servites—Servi di Maria—which was founded at Florence by seven noble Florentines, who used to meet daily to sing Ave Maria in the chapel of S. Zenobio, where the tower of Giotto now stands. It was originally built in 1250, but has been modernised, and is now the fashionable church of Florence, with the best music, and the only one open all day.⁵The Miserere is sung here between 5.30 and 7 o’clock on Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, and Good Friday. It is approached by a portico of seven arches by Antonio San Gallo and Ceccini, containing a lunette in mosaic of the Annunciation, by Dom. Ghirlandajo. Door to left leads to the cloisters. This leads into a courtyard surrounded by precious frescoes now enclosed with glass. Beginning from the right, they represent:

Baldinucci relates that when Jacopo da Empoli was copying this picture (#4) in 1570, an old lady stopped on her way to mass and talked to him. She showed him one of the figures in the fresco as the likeness of Andrea’s wife, and then disclosed that she herself was Lucrezia del Fede, the widow of the hatter, Carlo Recanati, in the Via S. Gallo, whom Andrea had married, to the great discomfort of his pupils, and who had so often served as his model.

SS. Annunziata Nave

The interior of the Annunziata, in form a Latin cross with apsidal choir, used to be filled (like the still unaltered church of S. Maria delle Grazie near Mantua) with waxen images of eminent living as well as dead persons, here suspended from the ceiling. On one side were the citizens,⁶The image of Lorenzo de’ Medici, by Verocchio, was in the dress in which he escaped assassination by the Pazzi; that of Giuliano was by Montelupo; that of Alessandro (which fell down three days before his murder) by Benvenuto Cellini. on the other popes and foreign potentates—even a Turkish Pasha. Vasari writes that after the Pazzi conspiracy, which left Giuliano dead and his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent wounded,

Bernardo Rossellino, Tomb of Orlando di Guccio de’ Medici, 1450s (photo via Web Gallery of Art)

Beginning on the right—
In the 1^st Chapel is: —
Jacopo da Empoli. The Virgin with saints (much restored).
In the 2^nd Chapel:
Tomb of Marchese Luigi Tempi-Marzi-Medici, by U. Cambi (1849).
In the 5^th Chapel:
The simple and beautiful XV. c. Tomb of Orlando de’ Medici by Simone di Betto, brother of Donatello. His last descendant, Carlotta de’ Medici, was buried near him in 1859.
In the 6^th Chapel:
The grave of Stradano the painter (1536–1605). Bust by his son Scipione.

In the Right Transept:

Bacci Bandinelli, Pietà from his own tomb monument (photo via Web Gallery of Art)

The Tomb of Bacci Bandinelli, being a Pietà from his own hand. The figure of Nicodemus is supposed to be a portrait of the artist, who is buried here with his father and wife.

Outside the Tribune:

Francesco da Sangallo, Monument to Angelo Marzi, 1546 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The Tomb of the Senator Donato dell’ Antella, who became a Servile late in life, ob. 1666, by Gio. Batt. Foggini; and that of Angiolo Marzi-Medici, Bishop of Arezzo, ob. 1546, by F. di San Gallo.

Il Volterrano, SS. Annunziata dome (sig photo)

The Tribune has a circular dome, painted by Il Volterrano, beneath which is the isolated choir, where the stalls and a ciborio are by Baccio d Agnolo. In the Cappella del Soccorso, behind the high-altar, is the tomb of Giovanni da Bologna, from his own design. The bas-reliefs are by his pupils, Tacca and Francavilla. The next tribune chapel has a picture of the Resurrection by Ang. Bronzino. In the principal chapel of the left transept are the tombs of the historians Giovanni, Matteo, and Filippo Villani (1275–1364).

Andrea del Sarto, Head of Christ

Michelozzo, Shrine of the Madonna (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The Last Chapel (left of entrance) (of the Annunciation, built from designs of Michelozzo, by Piero de’ Medici), has a gorgeous little shrine in front of it, with silver altar and hanging lamps.
Pietro Cavallini. The Annunciation, supposed to have been finished by angelic hands.

The crucifix here is by Giuliano di S. Gallo, the figure of the Infant Jesus by Baccio Bandinelli. The head of Christ over the altar is by Andrea del Sarto.

Carlo Dolci, Desiderio da Settignano, and Andrea del Sarto lie in this church.

In this church, S. Luigi Gonzaga, at ten years old, took the vows of chastity.

The large Cloister—dei Morti—attributed to Simone Pollajuolo and Michelozzo, is surrounded with frescoes by Poccetti.

Andrea del Sarto, La Madonna del Sacco, 1525

Over the door leading into the church is the charming and celebrated fresco of *Andrea del Sarto, called La Madonna del Sacco, 1525.

Michelangelo so highly thought of this work that he said to Raffaelle of its author, “ti farà sudar la fronte.” [it will make your brow sweat]

One of the greatest benefactors of the convent—il chiarissimo Falconieri—is buried beneath the fresco.

Cappella dei Pittori (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Opening into the cloister is the Cappella dei Pittori, where the Company of Painters (founded 1350) or Guild of S. Luke, used to hold their meetings. Over the altar are some small pictures by Fra Angelico. Jacopo Pontormo, Franciabigio, Benvenuto Cellini, and Lorenzo Bartolini are buried here. Montorsoli built the chapel at his own expense as a resting-place for them. The vestibule contains some second-rate works.

Behind the Annunziata runs the Via Gino Capponi, formerly Via S. Sebastiano, which contains a beautiful piece of Luca della Robbia over a door leading to a cloister which belonged to S. Piero Maggiore. Here, at the corner of the Via del Mandorlo, No. 24, is the house of Andrea del Sarto, and where he died wanting food; afterwards inhabited by Fed. Zuccaro.

Fontana, Palazzo Capponi, 1705

About the centre of the street (No. 28) is the Palazzo Capponi, built (1705) after a design by Fontana, where the illustrious statesman, Gino Capponi, died in 1876. The satirical poet Giusti also died here. The palace contains a few good pictures. The Capponi family,⁸Arms: Per bend, sable-argent. who came from Lucca in the XIII. c., has given ten gonfalonieri and fifty-six priori to the state. Its most celebrated members were Neri (d. 1457), who defeated the Duke of Milan at Anghiari, and his nephew Piero, whose boldness saved Florence from Charles VIII. of France: he was killed at the siege of Sojana in 1496. The nearly opposite Palazzo Velluti Zati (formerly San Clemente) was inhabited by Prince Charles Edward, who died here in 1788. No. 50 is the Palazzo Ruspoli, with beautiful gardens.

Guido Parigi, Palazzo della Crocetta, 1620,now

Museo Archeologico

Giulio Parigi, Palazzo della Crocetta, 1620 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

On a line with the front of the Annunziata is the Via della Colonna, containing, in the Palazzo della Crocetta (formerly a Medici Palace, No. 26), the Museo Archeologico. The Museo Etrusco (occupying the ground floor and great part of the first floor) is of the greatest interest, especially to those who have visited the remarkable sites where its treasures were found. Those little interested in antiquities will be struck by the great variety and beauty of the pottery, especially of the black vases of (bucchero) South Etruria; the furniture considered necessary for the tombs—candlesticks, bottles for ointment, small dinner services, all very curious. The small bronzes from Telamone are of wonderful beauty. Many interesting things come from the excavations in the Mercato Vecchio. Four objects deserve especial attention:—

A Chimera (part lion, goat, and serpent) of 300 to 400 B.C., found at Arezzo in 1554. The inscription on the left leg shows its dedication to the god Tin.

An exquisitely wrought bronze situla or bucket, found at Bolsena in 1871, with relief, Dionysos returning to Olympus.

Seven rooms of the first floor are occupied by the Egyptian Museum, a magnificent collection brought hither from S. Onofrio. A room on the left contains the Collection of Greek and Roman Bronzes, including the famous Idolino⁹In the 9^th  edition of Florence, the Idolino was dated c. 450 B.C. A note states: “By some artist of the Polycleitan circle. The motive is thought to be that of pouring a libation. This statue is a Greek original: probably the figure is that of a divinity.” Current scholarship regards the Idolino as an early Roman empire, pseudo-Polycleitan sculpture.  found at Pesaro in 1530, and brought to Florence by Vittoria della Rovere on her marriage with Ferdinando II.

Room I. represents the Terramare culture, with hut urns and furniture from the cemeteries of Vctulonia. In Room II. will be found jewellery from tombs of the vii.-vm. c. b.c., and the well-known bronze casket inlaid with silver plaques bearing mystic symbols. Volterra and Populonia are represented richly in Rooms IV.-VII. ; Orvieto (Volsinii) and Cortona in IX. and XI. The Etrurian towns and strongholds nearer Rome will be found recalled in XIV. and XVIII. ; Chiusi (or Clusimn), in Room VIII., in which are several ivth c. b.c. Greek (imported) objects from a tomb at Montepulciano. Fiesole has contributed things both Etruscan and Roman to Room XXIII. and in its neighbour and in XXI. will be seen relics of Roman ‘ Florentia/ especially from the neighbourhood of its Forum (Piazza Savoia or Mercato Vecchio), and the Gambrinus Halle of to-day.

The Egyptian Museum occupies the staircase and 7 rooms on the first floor, of which latter Room I. is devoted to the Gods and Goddesses, Room II. to Inscriptions and Sculpture, Room III. contains Mummies, Room VI. much domestic furniture, toilet articles and basketry, while in Room VII. is a beautiful wooden chariot dating from Rameses II.

A staircase at the end of the rooms on the right leads to the upper floor of the palace, which is entirely occupied by the precious collection of church vestments and embroideries brought from confiscated convents and churches, and by the vast collection of Arazzi¹⁰Deriving a name from Arras in French Flanders. or tapestries, removed from the galleries between the Uffizi and Pitti, or brought together from the old Tuscan palaces. This collection is probably the finest in existence, extending from the XVI. to XVIII. c.

A tapestry factory was established at Florence by Nicolaus Karcher and Jan van Roost of Brussels, under Cosimo I., but flourished and failed with the House of Medici. Many of the pieces exhibited here are wrought with arms of the Medici rulers and their different alliances; others, from pictures by well-known masters, are noble works of Branconi, Roost, Termini, Fevère, and Papiri.

Notice the beautiful Florentine tapestries made after designs by Francesco Ubertini (Il Bachiacca, 1494–1557): Angelo Bronzino (1502–1572), Francesco Salviati (1510–1563), and Jacopo Pontormo (1498–1558). There are also three rooms hung with Flemish sixteenth-century work, by unidentified makers, with episodes, illustrating the lives of Caesar and Henri II.

Six pieces of Gobelins tapestry by Jean Audran (1667–1756) portray the story of Esther and Ahasuerus. Consult the Catalogue by Professor Rigoni.

Opposite the Annunziata opens the Via dei Servi, running direct to the Duomo, where No. 15 is the Palazzo Boutourlin, built by Sebastiano da Montaguto from designs of Dom. di Baccio d’Agnolo. No. 10 is the Palazzo Fiaschi, which belonged to Sforza Almeni, killed (May 22, 1566) by Cosimo I. for fear he should betray secrets which he had discovered. No. 6 stands on the site of the palace of the Del Palagio family, who founded S. Francesco at Fiesole: here also, at the corner of Via del Castelaccio, were the studios of Jacopo da Empoli and Benedetto da Majano.

S. Michelino Visdomini, rebuilt c. 1560 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Pontormo, Madonna, Child, and Saints, 1518

Near the Duomo end of the street, on the left, is the church of S. Michelino Visdomini, with the arms of the founders on its front.¹¹Arms: Quarterly 1 and 4 Bendy, sable and or, 2 and 3, or. The Visdomini family had the right of installing the bishops of Florence, and, during a vacancy in the see, of administering the revenues appointed for the bishops’ table. In the Pucci¹²Arms of Pucci: Argent, a Moor’s head filletted, argent, on the fillet, 3 hammers, crosses or T’s, sable. chapel (the 2^nd right) is a fine Holy Family with SS. John and Francis by Pontormo (1518). Over the 5^th altar is the miraculous crucifix of the Bianchi carried in all old Florentine processions. The original church of this title was demolished in 1363 for the purpose of enlarging the Duomo.

At the left corner of the Piazza dell’ Annunziata is the Palazzo Ricci, built by Buontalenti on the site of an earlier house of the family in which S. Caterina dei Ricci was born.

Brunelleschi, Ospedale degli Innocenti Portico, 1419-27 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The Via dei Fibbiai leads into the Via degli Alfani, running E.–W. The swaddled babies over the doors on the left of this street mark the property of the Ospedale degli Innocenti. Several lovely small works of the Della Robbia school are preserved here. The Museo degli Innocenti contains numerous displays and interpretive panels detailing the history of the Ospedale, a foundling hospital established in 1445, and which served as an orphanage until 2000.

Domenico Ghirlandajo, The Adoration of the Magi, 1488

On the third floor, a long gallery, formerly a nursery and now used to display works of art, contains an early work by Botticelli, a Madonna and Child c. 1445 by Luca della Robbia, a Madonna Enthroned by Piero di Cosimo, and a beautiful Adoration of the Magi by Dom. Ghirlandajo that was once over the high-altar of the church.

On the right of Via degli Alfani are the remains of the Monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli. In the cloisters are frescoes by Andrea Castagno and Dom. Ghirlandajo. The Monastery was founded c. 1293 by Fra Guittone d’ Arezzo, a poet whom Dante introduces as mentioned by another poet, Buonagiunta of Lucca:

Giuliano da Sangallo, cloister, Convent of S. Maddalena de’ Pazzi, c. 1490

Opposite this monastery (No. 50) is the noble Palazzo Giugni (Della Porta), with a beautiful door and cortile, built (1577) from designs of Ammannati. The Guelphic family of Giugni, distinguished in the battle of Monteaperto, claims descent from Junius Brutus. Many of its members have been distinguished as warriors, ambassadors, and orators.⁴²

Crossing eastwards the Via della Pergola, which contains (R.) the well-known Teatro della Pergola, and where an inscription marks the house in which (No. 61) Bronzino lived, and (No. 59) where Benvenuto cast his Perseus, we reach the Via dei Pinti.Turning down it to the left, we pass, on the right, the Convent of S. Maddalena de’ Pazzi, so called from a Florentine nun of that old family, canonised in 1670. She is buried in the left transept of the church.
In the 2^nd Chapel on the left is:
*Cosimo Rosselli. The Coronation of the Virgin.
In the 4^th Chapel on the left:
Raffaellino del Garbo. S. Ignatius, S. Roch, and S. Sebastian: the latter carved in wood.

Pietro Perugino, Crucifixion with Saints, 1494-96 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Turning round the outer wall of the Convent, a door in the Via della Colonna gives admission to the Chapter-House, which contains a very beautiful fresco by Perugino of the Crucifixion. S. John and S. Benedict stand on the right, the Virgin and S. Bernard on the left. The Magdalen, in black with a red mantle, gazes, adoringly at the Saviour. The Virgin is also in black.

The Palazzo Gherardesca, near the northern end of the Via dei Pinti, on the left, was built in the XV. c. by Bartolommeo della Scala, who bequeathed it to Leo XI. (Alessandro de’ Medici). Some of its rooms are beautifully decorated with frescoes of the Poccetti school. On the 1^st floor is a ceiling painted by Il Volterrano.

At the corner of the Via Giuseppe Giusti, the Istituto Tecnico occupies the old convent of the Crocetta, named from a cross which its Dominican nuns affirmed to have been added to their dress by the Virgin in person. No. 62 in this street (corner) is Palazzo Panciatichi (formerly Ximenes), built for his own residence by Giovanni da San Gallo in 1490. Napoleon I. and Josephine stayed here as guests of the French ambassador. The adjoining building was a convent of the Salvestrini, and is now a school for lace-making (and selling) under Belgian nuns. Luca della Robbia was born in a house facing the convent in 1382. At 79 lived Bartolini, the

Robert Browning designer, Tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

sculptor.

The Borgo de’ Pinti ends at the Piazzale Donatello and the Porta Pinti, just outside which is the Protestant Cemetery. It was formerly a lovely spot, backed by the old walls of the city, but these have now been removed, and the place is encircled by dusty high-roads. Here, near Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Arthur Clough, Mrs. Trollope, and the American Theodore Parker, &c., rest the remains of Walter Savage Landor, who died at No. 2671 Via Nunziatina, on Sept. 17, 1864.

Following the Via Giusti for a short distance (E.), we reach Piazza d’ Azeglio,¹³Massimo d’Azeglio (1798– 1866) was Prime Minister of Sardinia, mentor to Camillo Cavour, and advisor to Victor Emmanuel II in the years leading to the unification of Italy. planted with trees and flowers. Walking along the west side of the piazza on via Farini we come to the Synagogue and Jewish Museum (via  Farini No. 6). The temple, an eclectic mix of Moorish and Byzantine styles topped with a copper-clad dome, was designed by the architects Vincenzo Micheli, Marco Treves, and Mariano Falcini. It dates from 1874–82.  The small museum on the upper floors contains silver objects, vestments, and ceremonial objects. With the destruction of the Jewish ghetto in the late 19th century, the synagogue became the new spiritual home for Florentine Jews.

Continuing southward on via Farini, turn left (E.) at via dei Pilastri, where a terrible tragedy occurred in 1639.

From via dei Pilastri  proceed to the Piazza and Church of S. Ambrogio. It consists of a plain long nave, having four over-arched altars at the sides. The choir has a side-chapel each way. To L. of door on west wall is a fourteenth-century fresco with the Martyrdom of S. Sebastian. The 2^nd altar R. has a Virgin and Saints by a disciple of Lorenzo di Credi; and over the 1^st altar is The Angel and Tobit, with S. Antonio, by Raffaelino del Garbo.The chief treasures of this little old-world, but at first unattractive, church are in the chapel to the L. of the choir (“Della Misericordia”). The first of these, L., is a masterpiece of Cosimo Rosselli, 1476,⁴³ a fresco in honour of a transubstantiation-miracle which occurred in Florence. The Piazza S. Ambrogio, as it was in the artist’s day, is represented in the picture.

Mino da Fiesole, Reliquary Altar, 1481-84

The altar in this chapel is a beautiful work of Mino da Fiesole of c. 1481, and encloses an ampulla containing the blood of which the story is told in a relief on the gradino, whereon the infant Christ rises from a chalice.

Mino died in Florence, and was buried in this church (1484). The architect, Simone Pollajuolo, called Il Cronaca; the sculptor, painter and goldsmith, Andrea Verocchio, who died in Venice; and the sculptor, Lionardo del Tasso (to whom the S. Sebastian on the left of the nave is due), are likewise buried here. So this little church is peculiarly rich. Moreover, a cortile entered from left contains interesting slabs, shields, and inscriptions.

South of the church take Via dei Macci then east to via Paolieri to Mercato S. Ambrogio in Piazza Ghiberti. Built by Giuseppe Mengoni , the architect of the Mercato Centrale in San Lorenzo, in 1873.

Against a house near this church is a beautiful terra-cotta shrine of S. Zanobio, and beneath it an inscription in honour of “the Immortal Pius VII.” having given his benediction on that spot.

Vasari, Loggia del Pesce, rebuilt 1956 in Piazza Ciompi (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Returning N. on via dei Macci and then W. on via Pietrapiana we come to the Piazza Compi where Giorgio Vasari’s Loggia del Pesce was installed in 1956 after being dismantled and removed during the demolition of the Mercato Vecchio in the late 19th c.

In the 1930s the blocks bounded by via Petrapiana, via Verdi, via dell’ Agnolo, and Borgo Allegri were razed by the Fascists  who intended to develop the area. However their plans came to naught and after the war rebuilding occurred without an overall plan. At the corner of via Verdi and via Pietrapiana is Giovanni Michelucci’s Sede Provinciale delle Poste e Telegrafi, 1959-67 (Provincial Post and Telegraph office). At 29, Pietrapiana, were the arms of Della Stufa, and at 48 lived Benedetto Varchi. the historian.

Down the Via Borgo Allegri we obtain in passing a fine view of S. Croce; and at No. 100, Cimabue had his studio, and gave Giotto his earliest instructions. At 96, Ghiberti lived and loved his work; and near by Antonio Rossellino painted and carved.

Etching by B.S. Sgrilli after G. Zocchi, Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, c. 1740s

If we continue and take Via S. Egidio we shall reach the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova, founded by Folco Portinari, father of Dante’s Beatrice. The work was suggested to him by his servant Monna Tessa, who began it by receiving sick persons and nursing them in a room in her master’s house. The Hospital has been greatly increased and altered in after years. The Loggia was added in 1598 by Buontalenti.

Lorenzo di Bicci, Consecration of St. Egidio by Pope Martin V in September 1420, c. 1424

Over the door of the church of S. Egidio (1478), which is annexed to the Hospital, is the Coronation of the Virgin, in terra-cotta, by Dello. On the right of the entrance is a fresco by Lorenzo de’ Bicci, representing Michele di Panzano, Governor of the Hospital, kneeling at the feet of Martin V. to receive the confirmation of its privileges. Eugenius IV., then a cathedral-canon, is seen in the blue robes of the Canons of S. Giorgio in Alga. On the left is another fresco of Panzano receiving a brief from the Pope, in front of the church of S. Maria Nuova. The ornament over the present door is seen in the fresco. The rest of the frescoes in this portico are by Pomerancio, except the Annunciation at the end, which is by Taddeo Zucchero.