Part 13

(_Villa di Pelraja_).]

[Illustration: ALESSANDRO DE’ MEDICI.

By DOMENICO DI POLO.

(_Villa di Cafagginolo_).]

[Illustration: FERDINANDO I, AND CHRISTINE OF LORRAINE.

By MAZZAFERRI.

(_Villa di Pratolino_).]

When Florence became the capital of Italy the old Via di Font’ all’ Erta was done away with and a broad boulevard took its place. Remains of an old water-conduit and cistern of Roman work were unearthed below the tank mentioned by Roberto Gherardi; a rusty sacrificial knife, some human bones and a few bits of Roman pottery were also found near by. On moonlight nights “the White Spectre,” as the peasants call it, a dim form—a cloud of white mist—floated hither and thither over the spot, but the uneasy spirit has not been seen since the new road was made.

Font’ all’ Erta then came into the possession of the Nuti, and Bernadino Nuti sold it in 1506 to Taddeo Gaddi, a grandson of the great painter Taddeo who was an intimate friend of Dante. Taddeo the elder made a large collection of manuscripts of the Divine Comedy which he afterwards left to his son Angelo who, discarding the brush for trade, established a banking-house at Venice with some of his brothers and at last persuaded his father also to join him. Thenceforward, remarks Litta, Taddeo only painted occasionally, from habit. Angelo died at Venice in 1378 (or 1387), leaving his riches and manuscripts to his nephew Angelo, who increased the collection by purchase and by copies made with his own hand. Taddeo, Angelo’s son, as already said bought Font’ all’ Erta in 1506. He was three times elected a Prior of the Republic of Florence, and in 1496 was one of the Ten Magistrates of Liberty and Peace at the time of the war with Pisa. In 1527 he received Antonio Bonsi, the ambassador sent by Pope Clemente VII, (who declared that unless he returned to Florence he would not be buried in consecrated ground) “to try to reason and treat with the city. But no sooner did he (Bonsi) arrive at Camerata in the villa of the Gaddi, than the Signoria, declining to hear him or to listen to any explanations, sent Messer Bartolomeo Gualterotti to tell him to depart immediately, and Andrea Giugni to accompany him out of the state and to see their orders were obeyed.”

Clemente paid for the reception of his ambassador by creating Taddeo’s son Niccolò a cardinal in May 1527; but at Bologna two years later Niccolò lost the favour of the Pope by warmly pleading the cause of the Florentine envoys, and became an avowed enemy of the house of Medici. In 1532 Taddeo Gaddi died and Font’ all’ Erta went to his son Sinibaldo, one of the richest citizens of Florence and allied by marriage with the Strozzi. When Duke Alessandro de’ Medici was murdered in 1537 by his cousin Lorenzino, Cardinal Niccolò Gaddi was one of the chief promoters of the efforts made by the exiled Florentines to restore the republic. Leaving Rome with the Cardinals Salviati and Ridolfi he hastened to Florence to collect troops and partisans. But the young Cosimo was too wily. Cardinal Salviati had to fly the city, Ridolfi hid in his own house, and “Gaddi,” writes old Varchi, “went like a plucked fowl to his brother’s villa at Camerata,” where he lay in hiding for some days and then left for Bologna.

Sinibaldo Gaddi was forced by Cosimo I, to contribute large sums “for the needs of the state,” but in 1556 the Duke made him head of the _Monte_ or Government bank as a kind of compensation. He died in 1558 and his son Niccolò inherited Font’ all’ Erta and made it what we now see. Scipione Ammirato mentioning him in a letter says: “he is now at his villa turning it into a palace more suited to the city than to the country.” Ammannati is believed to have designed the magnificent loggia and to have superintended the improvements and alterations of the villa.

Niccolò Gaddi must have been a remarkable man. He was sent by the Duke Cosimo I, as ambassador to the Dukes of Ferrara and Mantua to announce his promotion by the Pope to be Grand Duke of Tuscany, and afterwards went to Rome to attend the ceremony of the coronation. In 1578 he was created a Senator and was one of those charged to reform the statutes of the guild of the merchants. A man of great learning and knowledge of art, his library, picture gallery and museum of antiquities were only second to those of the Medici. His garden, stocked with rare trees, shrubs and medicinal herbs, was beautiful and Florence owes the institution of her botanical garden chiefly to him. Niccolò was twice married, but his children died young, and the sons of his sister Maddalena, who had married a Pitti, became his heirs with the obligation of adding his name to their own. In 1755 the remnants of his fine library were bought by the Emperor Francis I, of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany, from Gaspero Pitti-Gaddi. 355 manuscripts were given to the Laurentian library, 727 manuscripts and 1451 rare editions of old books to the Magliabecchiana, and 28 manuscripts relating to public affairs to the Archives.

[Illustration: (Drawing of Villa.)]

That Niccolò Gaddi loved Font’ all’ Erta, generally called the “Paradise of the Gaddi,” and was proud of it, is shown by the following extracts from his will written five days before his death.

“In the name of God, on the ninth day of June 1591 Indiction 4. Gregorio XIIII, the Holy Pontiff, and of His Serene Highness Ferdinando Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, I Niccolò di Sinibaldo Gaddi Cavalier of San Jacopo make my testament as follows:—

“Firstly I commend my soul to God and my body to be placed in Sta. Maria Novella, in my place of burial.”

Chapter XL says: “And I also order that within two years of my death my heirs shall have finished the Hall and the Loggia of the Palace in Camerata and removed the well from the wall of the Hall, without however filling it up, and made another in the wall of the small courtyard of the kitchen, searching there for water, but should it not be found they are to go to the spring and find the old well. Maestro Lorenzo who builds organs, and Maestro Zanobi Grazia Dio mason, and Maestro Fanelli stone-cutter, are informed of my intentions, therefore let them be carried out according as they may direct. And in addition let the arms of Strozzi[66] and of Gaddi be placed at the corners of the said palace, and some memorial of him who made and restored them, and I will that the men shall not be taken, even for one day, off the work until all is finished....”

Chapter LXIII says: “... I will that in the Hall of the Palace of Camerata an inscription shall be put up to my memory in such fashion and in such a position as shall be judged proper by the most excellent Signore Piero Angeli, whom I beg to do me the favour of visiting the said Palace, and my heirs shall receive him with the honour due to his most rare merits.”

Either “the most excellent Signore Piero Angeli” never went to Font’ all’ Erta or the heirs neglected to carry out the orders of Niccolò, for inscription there is none. It is said that in the carnival season faint sounds of old-fashioned dance music are heard there in the dead of night, and the rustling of silk robes and silvery laughter. But all attempts to see the ghostly dancers from the balcony running round the top of the lofty hall have failed.

In 1770 the villa was bought by Marchese Ponticelli of Parma who sold it to Niccolò Gondi, and in the drawing-room still hangs a portrait of the fascinating Paule Françoise Marguerite de Gondi who married the Duc de Crequy, de Bonne, de Lesdiguieres, &c., &c. She is pretty in a _piquante_ French style, and wears coquettishly a blue robe trimmed with ermine. Round the top of the room are frescoes by Maso da San Friano (Tommaso di Antonio Manzuoli). The Loggia which gives access to the villa is magnificent; it looks due south, over Florence and the valley of the Arno. Two fine old date-palms growing against it have withstood many a hard winter and give grace and beauty even to Ammannati’s splendid building. Count Pasolini who bought the villa in 1850 put up a fine Venetian lantern out of an old Contarini galley under a Della Robbia Madonna in the Loggia.

The villa stands high, about a mile from Florence, and a winding carriage road shaded by elms leads up from the plain ending in an avenue of tall cypresses. Thence the view of the hill of Fiesole is enchanting. Beautiful Doccia with its long line of arches lies bathed in sunshine, and just below is the villa where St Louis Gonzaga stayed with Pier Francesco del Turco to learn the Tuscan tongue. Landor’s old villa, now belonging to Professor Willard Fiske, faces us, with the valley of the Ladies below its garden wall, and the Affrico murmuring through its grounds. Visions of the fair Fiametta and her companions arise as one remembers how on the sixth day, after Elisa had crowned Dioneo king and laughingly told him it was time he should find out what a charge it was to rule over and guide women, the three youths sat down to play at draughts while she led the Ladies to an unknown valley. Leaving the “sumptuous palace” they walked about a mile, and “entering by a narrow path on a side where a crystal clear streamlet ran, they saw it to be as beautiful and delightful, especially at that season when the heat was so great, as can be imagined. And according to what some of them told me afterwards the level part of the valley was as circular as though drawn with compasses, yet it was an artifice of nature and not made by human labour. Little more than half a mile in circumference it was surrounded by six hills of no great height, and on the summit of each one was a palace built much in the shape of a small castle. The sides of the hills sloped towards the plain, as we see the seats in theatres from the top row descend in successive flights, always restricting their circles. And these hillsides, at least all those facing south, were clothed with vines, olive, almond, cherry and other fruit trees, and not a palm of ground was lost. Those looking to the north had copses of oak saplings, ash and other trees, green and straight as they could be. There was no other approach to the level plain than the one by which the Ladies had come; it was full of fir-trees, cypresses, bays and a few pines, so well placed and so well ordered as though planted by the greatest of artists. Little or no sun entered there, even when high in the Heavens it only just touched the earth clothed with sward of finest grass and rich in purple and other flowers. Besides this a rivulet, which was not a less delight, came from a valley dividing two of those small hills; it trickled down steep rocks of sandstone, and made in its fall a sound most delightful to hear, while the spray, from afar, seemed to be live silver broken into the lightest of showers. On reaching the level the rivulet gathered into a pleasant channel, rushed rapidly to the centre of the plain and there formed a lakelet, such as now and again townsfolk, who have the art, make in their gardens for fish-ponds. The depth of the lakelet was not more than up to the breast of a man, and so clear that not only the gravel bottom could be seen, but many fishes darting about here and there.... When the Ladies had observed everything they commended the place exceedingly and the heat being great, seeing the lake before them and having no fear of being seen, they decided to bathe ... and all seven disrobed and went down into the water, which hid their lovely white bodies no more than a thin glass would hide a crimson rose. Without causing the water to become turbid, they went hither and thither after the fish, which had scant hiding-places, trying to catch them with their hands. Having with great joy taken some, they remained some time in the water and then came forth and dressed.”

Returning to the Palace the Ladies described the valley and its lake in such glowing terms that next morning another expedition was agreed upon: “the sun’s rays had hardly begun to show when they started; never had the nightingales and other birds seemed to sing so gaily as on that morning. Accompanied by the song of birds they went as far as the Valley of the Ladies where they were greeted by many more, who appeared to them to rejoice at their coming. Walking about the valley and examining it more minutely it seemed to them so much the more beautiful than on the day before as the hour of the day was the more suitable to its loveliness. And when they had broken their fast with good wine and sweetmeats, in order not to be behind the birds they began to sing, and the valley sang with them always repeating the same songs they uttered, to which all the birds, as though loth to be vanquished, added sweet and novel notes. But the hour for eating having arrived and tables, according to the King’s pleasure, being set under the tall and spreading trees near to the lovely lakelet, they seated themselves; and whilst eating watched the fish swimming in the lake in great shoals.”[67]

Font’ all’ Erta is intimately connected with the making of the kingdom of Italy. Count Giuseppe Pasolini, who began public life in 1848 as minister of Commerce, Agriculture and the Fine Arts to Pius IX, a post he only occupied for a few months, bought it as already mentioned in 1850, when he frankly joined the party of “Young Italy.” There Ricasoli, Minghetti, La Marmora, Peruzzi, and all the liberal men of Italy often met together, and English well-wishers of Italy were frequent guests. In 1860 Count Pasolini became Governor of Milan for the King of Italy, and two years later he entered the Farini ministry for a short time as Minister for Foreign Affairs. Then he was named Prefect of Turin, a post he resigned after voting the transfer of the capital to Florence in 1864. His high character, undoubted ability and conciliatory manner caused him to be chosen for the difficult post of Commissary General of Venetia in 1866, and he entered Venice on the 20th October, two days before the plebiscite which was all but unanimous in favour of union with Italy—641,758 votes against 69. In 1867 Count Pasolini retired into private life, but in obedience to the King’s express request he accepted the Presidency of the Senate in March 1876. In December the same year he died at his family place near Ravenna aged sixty-one, leaving Font’ all’ Erta to his daughter Angelica, Countess Rasponi della Testa.

[Illustration: (Sketch of house through orchards)]

FOOTNOTES:

[64] _Ninfale Fiesolano._ Giov. Boccaccio. Firenze, 1834. Vol. XVII. p. 9. Translated by R. C. Trevelyan.

[65] _La villegiatura di Majano._ M.S. Roberto Gherardi, 1740.

[66] The mother of Niccolò Gaddi was Lucrezia, daughter of the Senator Matteo Strozzi, and his second wife was Maria Strozzi.

[67] _Il Decamerone._ Gio. Boccaccio. Firenze, 1827. Giornata Sesta, Novella X. p. 172, _et seq._

[Illustration: (Drawing of garden path with fountain, leading to Villa)]

VILLA DI GAMBERAIA

Nothing definite is known of the history of this charming villa which stands among giant cypresses and gnarled ilexes on a terrace high above Settignano and overlooks the Val d’ Arno. From the name Gamberaia some have attempted to connect it with the great sculptor Antonio Rossellino, who with his brother Bernardo, the architect, was born in Settignano and whose family name was Gamberelli. But Antonio who, writes Varchi, “was so refined and delicate in his works, their beauty and smoothness being so perfect that his manner can in truth be called natural and absolutely modern...” died about 1479, whereas Gamberaia cannot have been built much before 1600. Not far off a small house is still standing which has always been pointed out as the one inhabited by the two artist brothers. It is unlikely that any of their descendants should have made a fortune large enough to build such a villa as Gamberaia or to lay out such a garden, without some record being left. Popular tradition, which is all we have to depend on, declares that several rills and springs of water formed a small lake or pond near by where the country folk used to catch crayfish (Gamberi), hence the name Gamberaia, the abode of crayfish. It is true that over one of the doors is a coat of arms bearing three crayfish on the right side and two half moons on the left, but I am informed by a competent authority that it is a fancy shield of late times and that the arms of the Gamberelli have six crayfish and a badge with three fleur de lis, as may be seen in Vasari’s life of Rossellino. Over a door in the large entrance hall is the inscription _Zenobius Lapius Fundavit MDCX_, and by the courtesy of the present owner of Gamberaia I have been lent a legal document about water rights, which has been a disputed question for nearly three hundred years. In digging the foundation of an out-house this winter (1900), a broken shield with the Lapi arms has been discovered. From this fact it would appear to be most probable that the builder of the villa was Zanobi Lapi; the pity is that the name of his architect is not forthcoming. In the centre of the villa is a small courtyard with elegant columns sustaining an arcade out of which open vaulted rooms, and on the north and south side of the villa project very original flying balconies supported on three arches. A small spiral staircase, hidden in the square column furthest from the house on one side, leads down from the first floor into the terrace garden. Zanobi Lapi died in 1619, nine years after he had built his villa, and left it to his nephews Jacopo di Andrea Lapi, and Andrea di Cosimo Lapi, but failing heirs male he directed that his property was to be divided between the families of Capponi and Cerretani. Jacopo and Andrea evidently inherited their uncles’ love for Gamberaia, as they at once began to buy up rights to the water from neighbouring proprietors, and to make conduits and large reservoirs to conduct it to various fountains and grottoes. In 1623 they bought a house and a podere, or farm, called La Doccia, which was especially rich in springs. Jacopo died the following year leaving a young son; the lands and the houses in Florence were divided between the cousins, but the villa of Gamberaia remained in their joint possession. “The most illustrious Signore Cosimo Lapi, a noble Florentine” then began to lay out one of the most characteristic seventeenth century gardens in the neighbourhood of Florence, with grottoes inlaid with shells of different kinds and various coloured marbles, statues, vases, fountains and _jeux d’eaux_ of every description. In the archives of Florence are several contracts made by him, between 1624 and 1635, with his neighbours for the purchase of springs and rills of water belonging to them, and the right to make conduits through their lands for the conveyance of the water to Gamberaia. In 1636 he had a lawsuit with a certain Signora Aurelia, a widow, who complained that he had deprived her of necessary water by the deep trenches and reservoirs dug near the confines of her property. The result of this inordinate love of fountains and curious _jeux d’eaux_ was, that when “the most illustrious Florentine Andrea Lapi” died in 1688, his son was obliged to heavily mortgage the estate to pay off his father’s debts. Jacopo’s son Giovan Francesco died in 1717 without heirs male, and the Lapi property was divided between the Capponi and the Cerretani; the latter taking three _podere_, or farms, and some small houses in Florence, the Capponi the villa of Gamberaia and two _podere_.

[Illustration: VILLA DI GAMBERAIA.]

Remains of conduits, tanks and reservoirs in several properties near Gamberaia still remain to attest the considerable works made by Andrea Lapi for supplying water to his beloved villa. He no doubt planted the noble cypresses that tower like dark green steeples on either side of the long bowling alley that runs for some four hundred feet behind the house, ending to the north in one of those elaborate half grottoes, half fountains, inlaid with shells and decorated with stone figures of impossible animals and queer people in high relief of which Francesco de’Medici set the fashion at Pratolino and at Castello. To the south the long green walk ends in a delightful old stone balustrade with solemn grey stone figures, from whence the view over the fruitful, gently rolling hills crowned with villas or peasant houses is beautiful.

The terrace garden looks down on Settignano, a little village that can boast of more famous children than most large towns. Desiderio da Settignano, whose every work shows, as Vasari says, “that grace and simplicity that pleases everywhere and is recognised by everyone,” was the son of a stone-cutter of Settignano. He was so popular that for months after his death sonnets and epigrams were laid on his tomb by admirers.

Excellent architects were Meo Del Caprina and his brother Luca; the former worked at Ferrara and Rome, and designed the cathedral of Turin; the latter fortified Librafratta and other Pisan towns. Simone Mosca da Settignano was said to have been equal to Greek and Roman sculptors, he worked with Antonio da San Gallo in Sta. Maria della Pace at Rome and in the Farnese palace; also at Arezzo, Loreto, and at Orvieto, where he was induced to settle with his family and devote himself to the service of the cathedral. His son Francesco, called Moschino, “being born almost with the mallet in his hand,” sculptured some figures in the dome of Orvieto “to the wonder and astonishment of all beholders.” Simone Gioli, pupil of Andrea Sansovino, was another admirable sculptor, and his son Valerio carried on the family tradition. Antonio di Gino Lorenzi was also from Settignano, he helped his master Triboli to make the famous fountain at Castello and executed the monument of Matteo Corte in the Campo Santo of Pisa. Moreni, in his _Dintorni di Firenze_, gives a list of architects, sculptors and painters, too long to insert here, who were born in the little hill village. But all pale before the tremendous personality of Michelangelo Buonarroti, “the deathless artist,” as John Addington Symonds calls him. Brought to Settignano when but a few weeks old, his foster-mother was the wife as well as the daughter of a stone-cutter. “I drew the chisel and the mallet with which I carve statues in together with my nurse’s milk,” he told Vasari. His father’s small grey house with a loggia and a tower[68] lies below the terrace of Gamberaia, and forms a fitting foreground to the view of Florence backed by the chain of the Apennines.

[Illustration: (Drawing of orchard tress, with Villa in background.)]