The Story of Florence

_Non già Salvestro ma Salvator mundi_, "thou that with noble wisdom hast saved thy country." Thus in a sonnet does Franco Sacchetti hail Salvestro dei Medici, the originator of...

"Vedendo lo omnipotente Dio multiplicare li peccati della Italia, maxime nelli capi così ecclesiastici come seculari, non potendo più sostenere, determinò purgare la Chiesa sua...

At the eastern corner of the Piazza della Signoria--that great square over which almost all the history of Florence may be said to have passed--rises the Palazzo Vecchio, with i...

"Come a man destra, per salire al monte, dove siede la Chiesa che soggioga la ben guidata sopra Rubaconte, si rompe del montar l'ardita foga. per le scalee che si fero ad etade...

"There the traditions of faith and hope, of both the Gentile and Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the Baptistery of Florence is the last building raised on the eart...

The century that passed from the birth of Dante in 1265 to the deaths of Petrarch and Boccaccio, in 1374 and 1375 respectively, may be styled the _Trecento_, although it include...

Outside the portico of the Uffizi four Florentine heroes--Farinata degli Uberti, Piero Capponi, Giovanni delle Bande Nere, Francesco Ferrucci--from their marble niches keep watc...

The Via dei Martelli leads from the Baptistery into the Via Cavour, formerly the historical Via Larga. Here stands the great Palace of the Medici, now called the Palazzo Riccard...

Even as the Palazzo Vecchio or Palace of the Priors is essentially the monument of the _Secondo Popolo_, so the Palazzo del Podestà or Palace of the Commune belongs to the _Prim...

Before the imagination of a thirteenth century poet, one of the sweetest singers of the _dolce stil novo_, there rose a phantasy of a transfigured city, transformed into a capit...

At the end of the bustling noisy Via Calzaioli, the Street of the Stocking-makers, rises the Oratory of Our Lady, known as San Michele in Orto, "St. Michael in the Garden." Arou...

Turning southwards from the Piazza di San Marco into the Via Ricasoli, we come to the _Accademia delle Belle Arti_, with its collection of Tuscan and Umbrian pictures, mostly ga...

m. Maria Soderini. m. Maria Salviati. __|__________________________ |____________ | | | | LORENZO, LAUDOMIA, MADDALENA, COSIMO I. ("Lorenzino" m. Piero m. Roberto (Grand Duke),...

Giovanni, whom we know better as the Beato Angelico, took the habit of the order, and in which both his brother, Fra Benedetto, and himself were in turn priors. Savonarola's fel...

The setting of Florence is in every way worthy of the gem which it encloses. On each side of the city and throughout its province beautiful walks and drives lead to churches, vi...

[58][59] _The parentage of Ippolito and Alessandro is somewhat uncertain. The former was probably Giuliano's son by a lady of Pesaro, the latter probably the son of Lorenzo by a...