Florentine villas

About a mile outside Porta Romana on the heights of Arcetri stands the fine Villa Poggio Imperiale, now a school for girls. Formerly it was called Poggio Baroncelli, from the rich and powerful family of that name who owned large possessions on this side of Florence, and turned an old castle into a dwelling-house; but they failed in 1487, when the villa and much of the land belonging to it became the property of Agnolo Pandolfini, whose descendants sold it to Piero d’Alamanno Salviati. In 1548 the Salviati were declared rebels and Cosimo I seized all their possessions.

Cosimo had such an affection for Tommaso, one of the descendants of the Baroncelli, that he insisted on his living in the Medici palace in Via Larga (now palazzo Riccardi, Via Cavour). When in 1569 Pius V gave the Duke Cosimo I, in spite of strenuous opposition on the part of the Emperor Maximilian, the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, Tommaso Baroncelli rode out to meet him on his return from the coronation at Rome. “Such was his joy,” writes Cosimo Baroncelli (son of Tommaso) in a manuscript history of his family, “on seeing that great Prince his most gracious Lord, that he fainted and would have fallen from his horse if the attendants had not quickly supported him and lifted him from the saddle. They placed him on a low wall near the fountain of San Gaggio where he died, to the very great grief of H.H. and of the whole court; he being singularly beloved for his kind and courteous manners. He died in the year 1569 on the 21st March, the day of St Benedict the Abbot.”

There is a tradition that a duel took place close to the villa in 1312 between four Florentines and four Germans during the siege of Florence by the Emperor Henry VII, but the one between Lodovico Martelli and Giovanni Bandini is historical and has been minutely described by Varchi. “Lodovico di Giovan Francesco Martelli, a youth of great courage, having a secret enmity against Giovanni Bandini, seized a favourable occasion of fighting and if necessary dying, for the love of his city; he sent him a challenge, written by Messer Salvestro Aldobrandini, setting forth that he (Bandini) and all Florentines serving in the enemy’s ranks were traitors to their country, and that he was ready to prove this in the lists fighting hand to hand, leaving the choice of place, of arms and whether on foot or on horseback to him.... Giovanni, who lacked not courage and abounded in wit, tried to evade fighting in so bad a cause, and replied with more prudence than truth, that he was in the enemy’s camp to visit certain friends and not to fight against his country which he loved as well as anyone. This, whether true or false, ought to have sufficed Lodovico; but he being desirous at all costs to cross swords with Giovanni replied in such manner, that not to fail in the honour of a gentleman, on which he particularly prided himself, Giovanni was obliged to accept; it was arranged that each should choose a companion. Giovanni ... chose Bertino di Carlo Aldobrandini, a youth whose beard had but just begun to sprout ... Lodovico chose Dante di Guido da Castiglione, who accepted the risk solely for love of his country.

“Lodovico and Dante quitted Florence on the 2nd day of March (1530) leaving the Piazza San Michele Berteldi in the following order—to recount everything in minute fashion. In front of them were two pages clothed in red and white, on horses whose caparisons were of white leather, and then two other pages mounted on great chargers and dressed in the like manner; followed by two trumpeters blowing continuously. After these came Captain Giovanni da Vinci, a youth of extraordinary stature, the second of Dante, and Pagolo Spinelli, a citizen and an old soldier of great experience, second of Lodovico, and Messer Vitello Vitelli, umpire of both.... Then followed the two champions on fine Turkish horses of marvellous beauty and value. They wore tunics of red satin with sleeves of the same slashed with lace, their breeches were of red satin laced with white and lined with cloth of silver; on their heads were skull-caps of red satin and hats of red silk with white plumes. Six servants dressed in the same fashion as the pages on horseback walked by the stirrups of the knights ... and in their wake were several captains and brave soldiers with many of the Florentine militia, who having eaten with them that morning bore them company as far as the gate.... They followed the Via di Piazza, by Borgo Santo Apostolo, down Parione, crossing the Carraja bridge to the San Friano gate where was their baggage; twenty-one mules laden with all and every sort of thing they might want in the way of food or arms for man and horse. Not to be beholden to the enemy for anything, they carried with them bread, wine, oats, straw, wood, meat of all kinds, every sort of bird and of fish and of pastry, tents fitted with every convenience and furniture they could need even to water. They took a priest, a doctor, a barber, a butler, a cook and a scullion with them. Going out of the gate with all this baggage they went along under the walls, until close to the gate of San Pier Gattolini [now Porta Romana] they turned to the right ... where was the last of the enemy’s trenches, and then proceeded to Baroncelli [Poggio Imperiale], the whole camp running to see them, it having been agreed that until they stood before the Prince of Orange no shot should be fired from any artillery, either large or small on either side, and this was faithfully observed.

“At twelve on the day of St Gregory, which fell on a Saturday, they fought in two stockades.⁠[28] ... They fought in their shirts, that is breeches and no jackets, with the right sleeve cut off at the elbow, a sword and a short mailed glove on the sword hand and nothing on their heads.... Thus it was chosen by Giovanni to gainsay the opinion held of him in Florence, that he had more prudence than valour and behaved with more cunning than courage.

“Dante having caused his red beard which descended nearly to his waist to be shaved, attacked Bertino, and in the first round received a wound in his right arm and a slight touch on the mouth; he was then assailed with such fury by his adversary that without being able to shield himself he got three wounds on his left arm, one severe, and two slashes, so that if Bertino had continued to press him as he should have done, he was in such condition that he would have been forced to yield; being unable to hold his sword in only one hand he took it with both, and keenly watching the movements of his adversary saw how he rushed towards him with the utmost fury and inconsiderateness ... so advancing and extending both arms he drove his sword into Bertino’s mouth between the tongue and the uvula in such fashion that his right eye swelled forthwith; thus he who just before had boastingly promised to die a thousand times sooner than yield once, either vanquished by the extreme pain ... or else out of his senses, asked for quarter, to the very great displeasure of the Prince [of Orange] ... and died the following night at the sixth hour. Then Dante, to encourage his companion, shouted twice aloud ‘Victory, Victory,’ not being able, by reason of the laws agreed upon between them to otherwise help him.

“Lodovico at the first trumpet blast attacked Giovanni with incredible fury; but Giovanni, who was a master of fence and did not allow himself to be carried away by anger or any other passion, gave him a cut above the eyebrow, the blood from which began to impede his sight; therefore he with increased rage tried three times to seize his opponent’s sword with his left hand and wrest it from him, but Giovanni turning it quickly and drawing it hard towards him, always pulled it out of his hand and wounded him in three places in the said left hand; so that the more Lodovico tried to clear his eye from blood with his left hand in order to see light, the more he besmeared himself; nevertheless with his right hand he made a ferocious pass at Giovanni which passed more than a span beyond him, but did him no other harm than a slight scratch beneath the left breast. Then did Giovanni deal him a right-handed blow on the head, which he not being able to ward off in other fashion parried with his wounded left hand and tried once more to seize the sword. Failing in this and being severely wounded, he placed both hands to the hilt of his sword and resting it against his breast rushed at Giovanni to run him through; but the latter, agile as he was strong, sprang back, and at the same moment dealt him a blow on the head saying: ‘If thou wouldst not die yield thyself to me.’ Lodovico, unable to see and wounded in several places, answered: ‘I yield myself to the Marquis del Guasto,’⁠[29] but Giovanni insisting he yielded unto him.”⁠[30]

Lodovico Martelli died of his wounds twenty-four days after the duel, and it was solemnly decreed that his portrait should be placed in the Uffizi gallery among those of men famous for their patriotic virtues. Patriotism had, however, little to do with the duel, which was fought for love of Marietta Ricci, wife of Niccolò Benintendi.⁠[31]

In 1565 Cosimo I gave the villa to his favourite daughter Isabella, married to Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, with faculty to leave it by will to her children; if she died intestate it was to revert to the crown. Eleven years later she was strangled one summer’s night by her husband at their villa Cerreti Guidi, and in the following October her brother, the Grand Duke Francesco I, confirmed his brother-in-law in the possession of Poggio Baroncelli.

In 1619 it became the property of the Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife to Cosimo II. She bought it from Paolo Giordano Orsini, who was in want of money to pay the dower of his sister Camilla, engaged to Marcantonio Borghese, Prince of Sulmona. At the same time the Grand Duchess bought several farms to enlarge the grounds and make the broad carriage road leading up to the villa. She also planted the ilexes and cypresses which are now such a feature in the landscape. It became her favourite residence, and here Claudia de’ Medici, her sister-in-law, was married to Federigo Ubaldo della Rovere, eldest son to the Duke of Urbino, with less pomp than was usually displayed by the Medici owing to the recent death of the Grand Duke Cosimo II.

Maria Maddalena determined to enlarge and beautify her villa, and chose Giulio Parigi as her architect, changing its name from Poggio Baroncelli to Poggio Imperiale. She and Christine of Lorraine (mother, grandmother and guardians of the young Grand Duke Ferdinando II) entertained Prince Stanislao of Poland there in 1625 with the tragedy of St Ursula, a ball, and a ballet on horseback performed in an amphitheatre built for the purpose in front of the villa.

Ferdinando II married his cousin Vittoria, only child of Claudia de’ Medici and Federigo della Rovere, who died soon after the birth of his daughter. Brought up at Poggio Imperiale by her aunt Maria Maddalena, Vittoria bought the villa from her husband after his mother’s death for 62,500 scudi and spent large sums in enlarging and embellishing the place; several of the rooms added by her were frescoed by Volterrano (Baldassare Franceschini). When her half-brothers (by her mother’s second marriage with the Arch Duke Leopold of Austria) came to Florence she gave a magnificent entertainment there, including the favourite Florentine pastime of the Buratto or Saracen. Loud laughter greeted the unhappy wight whose lance missed the proper spot on the breast of Buratto and was then knocked off his horse by the staff unerringly wielded by the wooden statue.

Violante of Bavaria, wife of Prince Ferdinando, son of Cosimo III, lived occasionally at Poggio Imperiale, and it was frequently visited by her brother-in-law Gastone, the last of the Medicean Grand Dukes, who inherited all the vices but none of the talent of his house. Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, his successor, had a particular predilection for the imperial villa and spent 1,300,000 francs on enlarging it and building immense stables (now cavalry barracks). When he, on the death of his brother in 1790, became Emperor of Austria, his second son Ferdinando III succeeded to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and gave hospitality at Poggio Imperiale to the King of Sardinia and his wife, who had been compelled to quit Piedmont by the revolution. Charles Emanuel IV and Marie Clotilde arrived on the 19th January 1799, only to be driven out after a month of quiet and repose. They fled to Sardinia, and Napoleon having abolished Tuscany with a stroke of a pen, the Grand Duke took refuge with his brother in Vienna. A new kingdom—Etruria—was then created, with Lodovico of Bourbon, son of the Duke of Parma, as king. He died in 1803, leaving his young widow as regent for his little son, and Poggio Imperiale became her favourite residence. She added the rustic loggia and was beginning other improvements when Napoleon, unmoved by her tears and entreaties, swept Etruria off the map of nations and the poor Queen Regent and her small boy were driven into exile. A new mistress now ruled in the great villa—Napoleon’s sister, the brilliant Elise Bonaparte married to Captain Felice Baciocchi, who had been created Prince of Lucca and Piombino; and she gave balls and festivals to celebrate her brother’s victories in the villa which owed most of its splendour to Austrian princesses. Her grandeur was, however, short-lived; in 1814 she left Poggio Imperiale at dead of night, and Ferdinando III returned to Tuscany.

Three years later a royal company assembled in the “Villa of five hundred rooms,” as Poggio Imperiale was commonly called, to say farewell to the Arch Duchess Leopoldine of Austria who was to embark at Leghorn as the bride of the Crown Prince of Portugal and the Brazils. Her two sisters, one married to Prince Leopold of Naples the other to Napoleon, then a prisoner at St Helena, met her there together with the Princess of the Brazils who had come to receive her son’s future wife at the hands of Prince Metternich.

In the autumn of 1822, when Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, that strange compound of hesitation and daring, religion and mysticism, came as an exile to Florence, his father-in-law Ferdinando III lent him Poggio Imperiale, and here his son Victor Emanuel, the future King of United Italy, narrowly escaped being burnt to death as a baby. His nurse, driven distracted by the mosquitoes tried to burn them on the mosquito-net and set fire to the bed. Snatching up the child she clasped him to her breast and saved his life at the sacrifice of her own. When the “Re Galant’ Uomo” entered Florence on the 15th April 1860, his first visit was to Poggio Imperiale to see the room he had inhabited as a child, and the apartments occupied by his parents.