Palazzo Marzichi Lenzi, Florence Former home to famed glassmaker Antonio Neri |
Looking northeast toward the hills of Fiesole, the far end of the street was marked by the imposing gate in the city's final fortress walls, completed in 1333 (now Piazale Donatello). It was the last of six progressive enlargements of the city since the early Roman Empire. Even long after this expansion of the city limits, the land around Pinti remained thinly populated, dotted with fruit trees and grazing fields. What started as a center for the wool industry in Florence, progressed into a haven for artists and sculptors, new construction boomed, and finally, around the time of Antonio's birth the area became a fashionable district for wealthy courtiers.
At the head of Borgo Pinti stood one of the oldest hospitals in Florence, San Paolo a Pinti, documented as far back as the eleventh century. By the close of the sixteenth century, the small neighborhood hospital had been largely rendered superfluous by the much larger Santa Maria Nuova. Only a couple of blocks from San Paolo a Pinti, S. M.Nuova is where Antonio’s father Neri Neri would practice medicine. However, San Paolo was still apparently operating as a refuge where poor or infirmed travelers could find medicine and a bed for a couple of nights. The nearest apothecary was that of Luca Mini, located on the Piazza San Pier Maggiore, within easy range of both the hospital and of the Neri residence.
The Neri palazzo at no. 27 was erected in the fifteenth century, converted from what was a convent or a meditation house, which was in turn built upon much older structures dating from the 1300s. These were probably part of the Palazzo Ferrantini complex. The main house is now called the Palazzo Caccini and stands a few doors further, at no. 33 Borgo Pinti. In 1439, it hosted the Emperor of Constantinople John VIII Palaiologos, Patriarch Joseph II and his delegation, while attending the Ecumenical Council held in Florence. The Council began eight years earlier in Basil with the intent to address numerous issues, including unification between the Roman and several Eastern Orthodox Catholic churches. After nearly a decade of meetings, moving from one city to the next to accommodate politics and avoid the plague, they finally reached an accord in Florence, signed by the Patriarch, the Emperor and the Pope. However, two days later the elderly Joseph II died, and the agreement languished, never ratified by his fellow orthodox bishops back in Constantinople. The hosts of the Emperor and Patriarch were the Ferrantini family, wealthy bankers in Florence since the thirteenth century.
Directly across the street was the residence and workshop of sculptor Giambologna, complete with a bronze foundry. Giambologna was a favorite of the Medici, and after a successful period working in a space set up in the Palazzo Vecchio courtyard. The newly crowned Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici ordered the studio to be built on Borgo Pinti adjacent to the house that the artist had bought. This was in the winter of 1587-88, just after the deaths of Francesco I and Bianca Capello, when Antonio turned twelve years old. Apparently, the studio, along with a grant of some land in the countryside was recompense for work done for Francesco I. Giambologna specialized in large complex sculptures, and had a reputation for producing work with impeccable detail and smooth finished surfaces.
In the early 1500s Michelangelo Buonarroti, known to his countrymen as 'Il Divino' [the divine one], maintained a house with a spacious workshop somewhere on Borgo Pinti, it was paid for by the city cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, in anticipation of his sculpting the twelve apostles, a commission that was never fulfilled; only St. Matthew was started. Shortly thereafter Pope Julius II called Michelangelo to work in Rome. In 1508 the sculptor would find himself flat on his back in the Sistine Chapel, holding a paintbrush instead of a chisel. Pinti land-owners Alamanno Salviati and Giuliano da Sangallo together recommended Michelangelo to Julius II.
For Antonio Neri, knowing an army once marched down his street led by the Pope's envoy, residing across the street from sculptor Giambologna, living on property that the Byzantine Emperor occupied for a couple of years; it all sounds spectacular, and it is spectacular. However, we must acknowledge that in the grand scheme of Florence, Antonio Neri's Borgo Pinti is a relatively minor attraction. One can confidently point to any address in Florence and be certain that something of historical significance – potentially of great significance – transpired there. Simply walking the streets, one is ensured of following in the footsteps of great artists, kings, queens, emperors and popes, but also of alchemists, glassmakers, and innumerable other souls whose stories are no less potent.
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