If you take place to be going for walks along borgo Pinti, pause at range 33, the place you can capture a glimpse of a private grassy room dotted with tall trees as a result of the huge entranceway of the palazzo not significantly from the corner of by way of Nuova dei Caccini. Passing by way of the open up doorways and the iron carriage gates, you cross a adorned atrium that sales opportunities into the backyard garden. What you see is a remnant of what was one of the most wonderful and unique gardens in Florence at the conclude of the 16th century.
The Caccini Backyard garden, off borgo Pinti, was a single of the most lovely and unique gardens in Florence at the conclude of the 16th century.
It extended as significantly as the rear of the Pergola theatre and, according to a drawing discovered in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, the backyard garden was divided into several spots where by new bulbs were cultivated and studied, with a fountain in the centre for watering the vegetation. Aside from its unique botanical patrimony, the backyard was also embellished with exquisite statuary. In the 1400s, the palazzo was owned by the Ferrantini loved ones ahead of it was inherited by the Caccini family, who enlarged and modernized it. Nonetheless, it was not until eventually over a century later that a member of that family members, Matteo Caccini, created the making famed for a lot more than its architecture.
Born to Giovanni Caccini and Maddalena di Paolo Corsini in Florence on April 15, 1573, Matteo Caccini was the godson of cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, who afterwards became grand duke of Tuscany. Released into the family’s mercantile business, Caccini quickly developed other pursuits in new music and then in horticulture. At the beginning, the latter pastime was confined to the household back garden in borgo Pinti, but he soon also begun to rent land from the wool workers’ guild powering the Santissima Annunziata church. He turned an avid collector of plants to the extent that, in a 1929 write-up on botanical record, the pioneer of geothermal energy, Piero Ginori Conti, described him as an “illustrious service provider and an professional in unusual plants”, who experienced supplied names to quite a few species at that time unknown in Italy. Many thanks to his ties with the Medici, Caccini was equipped to procure exotic flowers, bulbs and seeds from destinations like Turkey and Egypt, as perfectly as onions and potatoes from Virginia by way of one particular of the grand ducal brokers in Holland. He, in turn, bought or bartered these with his counterparts in the course of Italy and abroad. They integrated the celebrated Flemish horticulturist and director of the imperial professional medical backyard in Vienna, Charles de l’Escluse (or Clusius), with whom he corresponded in between 1606 and 1609 and who referred to Caccini as “vir illustrissimus”. Caccini experienced asked Charles de l’Escluse to introduce him to Capuchin friar and botanist Gregorio da Reggio, who also became his correspondent, other than his belief of Caccini was not as superior as that of their mutual pal. This can be witnessed in a letter penned in 1606, in which the monk waspishly explained Caccini as an newbie who was “not pretty professional in the profession”.
In 1818, the German philosopher lived in Palazzo Caccini, which is now divided into residences, although the stays of the backyard are surrounded on three sides by condominiums. In its place, a present day extension intended by architect Roland Pagnini was included to Palazzo Caccini at figures 7 to 21 on by way of Nuova dei Caccini in the 1970s.
In 1605, Caccini was embroiled in a critical incident. As a response to a row with a member of the Accademia, he lashed out with a knife, wounding his adversary in the face. Just after many days in prison, with the assistance of his connections at courtroom, he was equipped to leave for Rome in time to show up at the coronation of Alessandro de’ Medici as Pope Leo XI. It was only in 1608 that he could return to Florence and settle the make any difference with the person he experienced stabbed. He later on returned to Rome, in which he moved for numerous decades in influential ecclesiastical and scientific circles.
A guy who always championed and shielded his family’s standing and wealth, Caccini was however unsatisfied with one of his two brothers, Cosimo (1574-1648), who had taken the title of Tommaso when he became a Dominican friar. This was simply because Tommaso experienced develop into a critical player in the inquisition in opposition to Galileo Galilei and organized the paperwork for it. Caccini did much to discourage his brother, but with out accomplishment.
In 1624, Caccini married Ortensia Acciaiuoli. He died 16 a long time later, on September 20, 1640 and is buried in the Santa Croce Basilica.
In 1818, the German philosopher lived in Palazzo Caccini, which is now divided into apartments, even though the remains of the backyard garden are surrounded on three sides by condominiums. As an alternative, a modern day extension created by architect Roland Pagnini was included to Palazzo Caccini at figures 7 to 21 on by using Nuova dei Caccini in the 1970s. This was controversial and Italia Nostra, the countrywide association, whose mission is to safeguard Italy’s historic, inventive and purely natural heritage, objected to the task and managed to halt its building briefly in 1971, whilst at some point it went in advance.
