Ville e giardini medicei in Toscana

The Medici have been one of the most prominent and important Italian noble families, whose power greatly affected the complex historical facts of the peninsula, characterised by a persistent political fragmentation until unification in modern times (1861). The origin of their wealth is connected with their banking activities, that allowed them to acquire a considerable amount of land properties, a solid network of supporters and followers within and outside Florence, and international connections in the French, English, Imperial and Papal courts. In addition to political supremacy, consolidated in Florence after 1434, the Medici imposed themselves as unequalled patrons, by making their court in Florence a masterpiece of Renaissance art and promoting the progress of science, arts and knowledge in general. Many prominent figures in the history of the period were members of this family: Lorenzo the Magnificent, popes Leo X and Clement VII, the queen of France, Catherine de’ Medici.

The “villa with garden” system dates back to the centuries of the Medici rule (15th to 18th) and the 16 monuments entered in the UNESCO list are a selection from the 36 properties of the family registered only in Tuscany. The amazing properties of the Medicis were filled with the works of the best artists and patronized by the most prominent representatives of the culture of the time: Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Galileo Galilei, Haendel, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Michelozzo, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Bernardo Buontalenti, Giambologna. Each Medicean villa shows a peculiar combination of halls, small studios, staircases, courtyards, porticos adorned with frescoes, paintings, sculptures, furniture, path in the greenery, gardens, pavilions, grottoes and nymphaeums, aqueducts, fountains, water basins – an array of magnificent places inspired to classical models, conceived by art masters to please the refined taste of their client: one of the most extraordinary Italian dynasties.

The architectural and decorative plans implemented in the Medicean villas developed a dialogue between figurative arts and structural solutions that progressively evolved towards more spectacular and commemorative structures. In fact, while the oldest buildings preserve pre-existing shapes expressing medieval values and defensive functions, subsequent villas are different, more open to the surrounding natural environment. The function of the garden was also to mediate and establish a dialogue between human and natural elements, and make the former an integral part of the latter. The Medicean gardens are the first examples of Italian gardens where rational elements play with natural and artificial ones in spectacular and picturesque paths among vegetation and minerals.

The system of villas with gardens allowed the Medicis to transform the territory by establishing a “gentle” but effective form of control. The new settlement pattern reflected the new organization models promoted by the dynasty and aimed at celebrating the political power of the family. The feudal landscape was dotted with towers and castles that clearly marked space contours and played war functions connected with the defence of the territory. In the Renaissance scenario under the Medici House rule, the territories of the principality were consolidated and the integration between man-made buildings and the natural environment stated the values of peace, order, and prosperity that characterised the humanist ideal of living. The uplifting role of simple agricultural activities, the practice of hunting, the intellectual otium, the healthiness and beauty of places were the reasons why the Medicean Court moved to their country estates in various periods of the year.

Villa or Castello Mediceo di Cafaggiolo (Barberino del Mugello, province of Florence), Villa or Castello del Trebbio (San Piero a Sieve, prov. of Florence), Villa Medicea di Careggi (Florence)

These are the three oldest buildings, built by Cosimo de’ Medici and designed by Michelozzo; still conceived for defensive purposes, in the feudal spirit, because they have towers and crenellations. The villa of Cafaggiolo is the prototype of the ancient Medicean fortified villa, which was the typical solution of the transition period between medieval and Renaissance architecture, the first example of “domus rustica”. The villa of Careggi shows a new cultural ambition: to take part in the urban activities of the Medicis, for its vicinity to the town of Florence, although it is still a country estate. This villa hosted the Neoplatonic Academy with Cosimo the Old and Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Villa Medici in Fiesole (Fiesole)

This villa was purchased by Cosimo for his son Giovanni. Started by Michelozzo in 1458, it can be considered as the first Medicean villa to be entirely inspired by the humanist ideal and provide a model for the subsequent Florence villas, prototype of the Renaissance villa. The structure overlooks the valley of the river Arno from a panoramic position and reflects the principles of healthiness, rationality and symmetry defined by Leon Battista Alberti for country estates. In 1469, Lorenzo became its owner and it was probably here that Agnolo Poliziano wrote his Rusticus.

Villa Medicea di Castello (Florence, località Castello)

This villa was purchased by the family in 1477 and restored first by Niccolò Pericoli, called “il Tribolo”, in 1537, and subsequently by Vasari and Buontalenti. Situated in a very panoramic position, it has gardens filled with grottoes, fountains, statues and a labyrinth to be interpreted as an initiatory path. In addition to this, the entire estate may be interpreted as an allegory of the Medicean myth and a celebration of the principality. Today it is the seat of Accademia della Crusca, a eading institution in the field of research on the Italian language.

Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano (Poggio a Caiano, Prato)

This villa was much loved by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who ordered its erection from Giuliano da Sangallo in 1479. Its gardens reflect the neoplatonic philosophy and recall the features of an initiatory path that plays with the elements of nature – water, fire, air and earth. Its plan is in the shape of an “H”. The style is clear and elegant, with geometric and proportional relationships between the base, the façade and the portico. The building presents many classical architectural features, later resumed by Serlio, Palladium, Vasari. Today the villa houses the Museo della Natura Morta “Museum of Still Life) and preserves a collection of over 200 works that belonged to the Medicean “quadreria” (picture collection).

Villa Medicea La Petraia (Florence, località Castello)

In 1544 Cosimo I restored and selected this villa as a princely residence: it had a mannerist garden with a famous sculpture by Giambologna depicting Venus-Florence in the fountain (today preserved inside the villa). This building today is part of the Polo Museale Fiorentino.

Boboli Gardens (Florence)

This is one of the most famous Italian gardens of the entire country. It is located in the historic centre of Florence. Designed as a garden for Palazzo Pitti, it was purchased by the Medicis in 1550. It is arranged on different levels and along two main axes that intersect in the fountain of Neptune. The Boboli gardens were designed as a scenery for the celebration of the life of princes and courts; right in the middle of the town, it was a theatrical space, a magical and playful environment inspiring mystery, developed along various paths where the symbols of the Renaissance still appear today in all their unconventional and enthralling spirit.

Villa di Cerreto Guidi (Cerreto Guidi, Florence)

It became a Medici property at mid sixteenth century and is characterised by four monumental staircases. In the past, it was located in the middle of extensive farmland and in the vicinity of a fauna-rich area for hunting in the marshland. Today it houses the Museo storico della Caccia e del Territorio (Historical Museum of Hunting and the Territory).

Villa Medicea di Seravezza (Seravezza, Lucca)

Seravezza is a little town at the foot of the Apuan Alps and this villa initially was a defence post in a border area. Ordered by Cosimo I, it was later used to ensure the control of the nearby marble quarries and mines of mercury, lead, iron and silver. It was built between 1561 and 1563 under the supervision of Bartolomeo Ammannati. It was also used as a hunting lodge. Today it houses an archive and a centre for the promotion of culture.

Pratolino Garden (Vaglia, località Pratolino, Florence)

The land was purchased by Francis I de’ Medici in 1568 and the project of the villa was prepared by Bernardo Buontalenti. Unfortunately, the original villa was completely destroyed, but the park of about 24 hectares is considered to be a splendid example of the typical mannerist “garden of marvels”. It is a triumph of the marvellous, whose forces the Prince wanted to dominate. Each of the various sections of the park plan has its own symbolic value: the wood as a reference to the primeval and the wild, the lawn as a space for parades and games, the secret garden as the hortus conclusus where special vegetable species are collected; and then statues, a mountain, grottoes, and fountains that – all together – form the theatrical setting of the garden, conceived as a universe of which the prince is the wizard, priest and king.

Villa Medicea La Magia (Quarrata, Pistoia)

This villa was purchased by the Medicis in 1584 and its restoration was carried out by Bernardo Buontalenti, who designed for the garden an artificial lake, a hunting and fishing reserve, and lemon-houses. Today the complex houses contemporary art exhibitions.

Villa Medicea di Artimino (Artimino Carmignano, Prato)

Dating back to the last few years of the sixteenth century, this villa is located on a little hill from which the entire Arno valley, Pistoia and the Apuan Alps can be admired. Ferdinand I ordered its construction as a winter hunting residence in the nearby forests. It has a compact rectangular structure with an admirable monumental staircase blooming out of the first level of a loggia.

Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale (Florence)

This is a large-size suburban villa that was conceived as a city palace. It was acquired by the Grand Duchess Mary Magdalene of Hapsburg in the seventeenth century, who introduced changes and embellishments. Additional considerable changes were also added in the following centuries. Today it houses a school, the State boarding school “Educandato Statale SS. Annunziata”.

In 1598, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand I de’ Medici, ordered the Fleming painter Iustus van Utens to decorate the lunettes of the hall of Villa Artimino. The works painted by Utens represent the general catalogue and the ideological mapping of the aristocratic villas scattered throughout the Tuscan territory. They depict the pleasant places where the Medicean court moved during the different periods of the year to hunt or to spend their time in idleness (otium), in order to recover a healthy contact with nature and farming. These activities are the expression of the humanist ideal of living, which rediscovers the teachings of the Latin classics, i.e. Seneca, Cato, and Martial.

According to Leon Battista Alberti, one of the most versatile and influential cultural icons of the Italian Renaissance, a country estate can raise the soul and rest the body with the beneficial properties of the locus amoenus where it lies. The place for such an estate had to be selected on the basis of certain criteria: it had to be a healthy, sunny place in proximity of a spring or small watercourse; it had to be far from the city, in a quiet position, but easy to reach through a smooth and not too long road, so that the owner and his family could go to and fro as they liked. The structure of the villa had to include extensive shaded gardens, porticoes for walking, some grassland for competitions and balls; the positions of windows, balconies and loggias had to take into account the exposure to the sun, prevailing winds and the conformation of the environment surrounding so as to ensure well-lighted, airy, symmetrical and pleasant spaces.

Cosimo de’ Medici pursued the program of the ancients to rediscover the virtues of having country estates and, since his houses were attended by scholars and courtiers, he gave Marsilio Ficino a home not far from his Villa in Careggi. That villa became the seat of the Neoplatonic Academy (1462), founded by Ficino and other intellectuals and poets, such as Pico della Mirandola, Poliziano, Nicola Cusano, Leon Battista Alberti, Bartolomeo Scala and Christopher Landino. Giuliano and Lorenzo de’ Medici also participated in those meetings, as they had close ties with the Careggi villa and its excellent garden, which was a perfect venue for philosophical debates or poetic meditation.

Cosimo de’ Medici, called The Old (Florence, 1389 – Florence, Villa di Careggi, 1464)

He is considered as the champion of the fortune, power and wealth of the family. A very clever banker, he contributed to the development of banks by opening numberless branches throughout Europe. His political and diplomatic skills allowed him to dominate the arena of the Republic of Florence and pave the way to the institutional supremacy of his offspring. He was a great patron and promoter of Florentine art and culture.

Caterina de’ Medici (Florence, 1519 – Castle of Blois, 1589) the daughter of Lorenzo II de’ Medici, grand-daughter of the Magnificent, she was an orphan child and had many misfortunes during her youth. She married Henry II of France. Three of her sons became kings of France and she ruled as regent for thirty years. She lived in a time of religious wars in all the European states, at the beginning of modernity, and was a rather controversial sovereign; sometimes defined as wicked, thirsty for power and Machiavellian in her actions, she earned the appellation of “black queen”. A daughter of her time, she was a smart ruler, but also a tolerant and firm one, and faced extreme perils to protect her crown and children. Her political and diplomatic skills became legend, and so did her optimism; her biography has been extensively studied and romanticized in many accounts.

► “Era il detto luogo sopra una picciola montagnetta, da ogni parte lontano alquanto alle nostre strade, di vari albuscelli e piante tutte verdi fronde ripieno piacevoli a riguardare. In sul colmo della quale era un palagio con bello e grande cortile nel mezzo, e con logge e con sale e con camere, tutte ciascuna, verso di sè bellissima, e di liete dipinture ragguardevole et ornata, con pratelli d’attorno e con giardini meravigliosi, e con pozzi d’acque freschissime, e con volte di preziosi vini”.

Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron

The Florentine villas of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries are testimonies of the value of rural life in the wake of the rediscovery of classical ideals. Both in their structure, inspired by ancient villas, and in the richly decorated gardens, Florentine villas try to integrate the human element with the natural environment. However, their residential structure4s never included premises for agricultural work, such as warehouses, sheds for animals or equipment, which were always placed in separate buildings. This feature characterises the Medicean villa and distinguishes it from Venetian Palladian villas, which pursued a total, practical and concrete, and not only ideal, integration with the agricultural environment by including service facilities in their very structures (barchesse). The Florentine and the Venetian villa systems are similar solutions adopted to control and manage large land properties, the former designed by the Medici family and the latter conceived by the Venetian patriciate.

The Delizie are the court residences of the Este House, built in the countryside around the city of Ferrara, down to the Po river delta to play a control function and to celebrate the ruling family as the Medicean villas did. In both cases, these residences were built in suburban areas because they were conceived as places to idle away, but at the same time they showed that their owners were the owners of the area, which was under their control. Also, in both cases these houses sought a balanced and regular relationship with the surrounding environment.

I. Lapi Ballerini, Le ville medicee: guida completa, Giunti, Firenze, 2011

M. Vannucci, Le donne di casa Medici : da Contessina de’ Bardi ad Anna Maria Luisa, Elettrice Palatina, tutte le protagoniste della storia della grande famiglia italiana, Newton Compton, Roma, 2011

O. De’ Medici di Toscana di Ottajano, Storia della mia dinastia: i Medici di Toscana dalle origini della famiglia alla perdita del Granducato: con l’aggiunta dei danni provocati alla Toscana dagli Asburgo Lorena durante il loro dominio, Polistampa, Firenze, 2001

Dall’Accademia neoplatonica fiorentina alla Riforma – celebrazioni del 5° centenario della morte di Lorenzo il Magnifico: convegno di studio, Firenze, Palazzo Strozzi, 30 ottobre 1992,  Olschki, Firenze, 1996

D. Mignani, Le ville medicee di Giusto Utens, Arnaud, Firenze, 1988

J. Orieux, Caterina de’ Medici. Un’italiana sul trono di Francia, Mondadori, Milano, 1987

L. Puppi, G.C. Sciolla, I. Belli Barsali, Le grandi ville italiane. Veneto, Toscana e Lazio, De Agostini, Novara, 1986

G.C. Sciolla, Ville medicee, Istituto geografico De Agostini, Novara, 1982

A. Altomonte, Il Magnifico. Vita di Lorenzo De’ Medici, Bompiani, Milano, 1982

A. Chastel, Arte e umanesimo a Firenze al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico: studi sul Rinascimento e sull’umanesimo platonico, Einaudi, Torino, 1964

whc.unesco.org/en/list/175/

www.unesco.beniculturali.it

www.regione.toscana.it/ville-e-giardini-medicei

www.uffizi.firenze.it/

The Medici are one of the most renowned and important Italian noble families. The origin of their wealth is connected with their banking activities, that allowed them to acquire a considerable amount of land and properties, a solid network of supporters and followers within and outside Florence, and international connections in the French, English, Imperial and Papal courts. In addition to political supremacy, consolidated in Florence after 1434, the Medici imposed themselves as unequalled patrons, by making their court in Florence a masterpiece of Renaissance art and promoting the progress of science, arts and knowledge in general. Many prominent figures in the history of the period were members of this family: Lorenzo the Magnificent, popes Leo X and Clement VII, the queen of France, Catherine de’ Medici.

The system of the “villas with garden” dates back to the centuries of the Medicean rule (15th-17th). The amazing properties of the Medicis were filled with the works of the best artists and patronized by the most prominent representatives of the culture of the time: Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Galileo, Haendel, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Michelozzo, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Bernardo Buontalenti, Giambologna.

The villas have marvellous gardens and spectacular architectures completed with mannerist decorations. Some of them were obtained by restoring older houses with medieval features, such as towers and crenellations, that expressed the previous needs for defence. Others were built according to humanist ideals, to obtain a perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape, also through the design of beautiful gardens with grottoes, fountains, paths, porticoes, which were the first examples of Italian gardens. Erected in particularly scenic locations, the Medicean villas were residences conceived for relaxation and diversion, for summer holidays or for hunting, but they were also used to control the surrounding land and the related farming or mining activities, as in the case of the villa of Seravezza, built in the vicinity of marble and silver quarries.

The system of villas with gardens allowed the Medicis to transform the territory by establishing a “gentle” but effective form of control and to celebrate their own political power. The values of peace, order, and prosperity make up the Medicean myth that embodied the humanist ideal of living. The uplifting role of simple agricultural activities, the practice of hunting, the intellectual otium (idleness), the healthiness and beauty of the places were the reasons why the Medicean Court moved to their country estates in various periods of the year.

Villa or Castello Mediceo di Cafaggiolo (Barberino del Mugello), Villa or Castello del Trebbio (San Piero a Sieve), Villa Medicea di Careggi (Florence)

These are the three oldest buildings, built by Cosimo de’ Medici and designed by Michelozzo; still conceived for defensive purposes, in the feudal spirit, because they have towers and crenellations. The villa of Cafaggiolo is the prototype of the ancient Medicean fortified villa, which was the typical solution of the transition period between medieval and Renaissance architecture, the first example of “domus rustica”. The villa of Careggi shows a new cultural ambition: to take part in the urban activities of the Medicis, for its vicinity to the town of Florence, although it is still a country estate. This villa hosted the Neoplatonic Academy with Cosimo the Old and Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Villa Medici in Fiesole (Fiesole)

This villa was purchased by Cosimo for his son Giovanni. Started by Michelozzo in 1458, it can be considered as the first Medicean villa to be entirely inspired by the humanist ideal and provide a model for the subsequent Florence villas, prototype of the Renaissance villa. The structure overlooks the valley of the river Arno from a panoramic position and reflects the principles of healthiness, rationality and symmetry defined by Leon Battista Alberti for country estates.

Villa Medicea di Castello  (Florence, località Castello)

This villa was purchased by the family in 1477 and restored first by Niccolò Pericoli, called “il Tribolo”, in 1537, and then by Vasari and Buontalenti. Situated in a very panoramic position, it has gardens filled with grottoes, fountains, statues and a labyrinth to be interpreted as an initiatory path. In addition to this, the entire estate may be interpreted as an allegory of the Medicean myth and a celebration of the principality. Today it is the seat of Accademia della Crusca, a eading institution in the field of research on the Italian language.

Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano (Poggio a Caiano, Prato)

This villa was much loved by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who ordered its erection from Giuliano da Sangallo in 1479. The gardens of the villa reflect the neoplatonic philosophy. The building presents many classical architectural features, later resumed by Serlio, Palladium, Vasari. Today the villa houses the Museo della Natura Morta “Museum of Still Life) and preserves a collection of over 200 works that belonged to the Medicean “quadreria” (picture collection).

Villa Medicea La Petraia (Florence, località Castello)

In 1544 Cosimo I restored and selected this villa as a princely residence: it had a mannerist garden with a famous sculpture by Giambologna depicting Venus-Florence in the fountain (today preserved inside the villa). This building today is part of the Polo Museale Fiorentino.

Boboli Gardens (Florence)

This is one of the most famous Italian gardens of the entire country. It is located in the historic centre of Florence. Designed as a garden for Palazzo Pitti, it was purchased by the Medicis in 1550. It is arranged on different levels and along two main axes that intersect in the fountain of Neptune. The Boboli gardens were designed as a scenery for the celebration of princes and court life. Located in the centre of the town, it was a theatrical and playful space where the symbols of the Renaissance still appear today in all their unconventional and enthralling spirit.

Villa di Cerreto Guidi (Cerreto Guidi, Florence)

It became a Medici property at mid sixteenth century and is characterised by four monumental staircases. In the past it was located in the middle of extensive farmland and in the vicinity of a fauna-rich area for hunting in the marshland. Today it houses the Museo storico della Caccia e del Territorio (Historical Museum of Hunting and the Territory).

Villa Medicea di Seravezza (Seravezza, Lucca)

Seravezza is a little town at the foot of the Apuan Alps and this villa initially was a defence post in a border area. Ordered by Cosimo I, it was later used to ensure the control of the nearby marble quarries and mines of mercury, lead, iron and silver. It was built between 1561 and 1563 under the supervision of Bartolomeo Ammannati. It was also used as a hunting lodge. Today it houses an archive and a centre for the promotion of culture.

Pratolino Garden (Vaglia, località Pratolino, Florence)

The land was purchased by Francis I de’ Medici in 1568 and the project of the villa was prepared by Bernardo Buontalenti. Unfortunately, the original villa was destroyed, but the 24-hectare park is considered to be a splendid example of the typical mannerist “garden of marvels”. All the parts of the park plan have their symbolic value: the wood as a reference to the primeval and the wild, the lawn is a space for parades and games, the secret garden as a place for collecting vegetable species, and then statues, a mountain, grottoes, fountains that – all together – form the theatrical setting of the garden, conceived as a universe of which the prince is the wizard, priest and king.

Villa Medicea La Magia (Quarrata, Pistoia)

This villa was purchased by the Medicis in 1584 and its restoration was carried out by Bernardo Buontalenti, who designed for the garden an artificial lake, a hunting and fishing reserve, and lemon-houses. Today the complex houses contemporary art exhibitions.

Villa Medicea di Artimino (Artimino Carmignano, Prato)

Dating back to the last few years of the sixteenth century, this villa is located on a little hill from which the entire Arno valley, Pistoia and the Apuan Alps can be admired. Ferdinand I ordered its construction as a winter hunting residence in the nearby forests. It has a compact rectangular structure with a staircase blooming out of the first level of a loggia.

Villa Medicea di Poggio Imperiale (Florence)

This is a large-size suburban villa that was conceived as a city palace. It was acquired by the Grand Duchess Mary Magdalene of Hapsburg in the seventeenth century, who introduced changes and embellishments. Additional considerable changes were also added in the following centuries. Today it houses a school, the State boarding school “Educandato Statale SS. Annunziata”.

In 1598, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand I de’ Medici, ordered the Fleming painter Iustus van Utens to decorate the lunettes of the hall of Villa Artimino. The works painted by Utens represent the general catalogue of the aristocratic villas scattered in the Tuscan territory. They depict the pleasant places where the Medicean court moved during the different periods of the year to hunt or to spend their time in idleness (otium), in order to recover a healthy contact with nature and farming. These activities are the expression of the humanist ideal of living, which rediscovers the teachings of the Latin classics, i.e. Seneca, Cato, and Martial.

According to Leon Battista Alberti, one of the most versatile and influential cultural icons of the Italian Renaissance, a country estate can raise the soul and rest the body with the beneficial properties of the locus amoenus where it lies. The place for such an estate had to be selected on the basis of certain criteria: it had to be a healthy, sunny place in proximity of a spring or small watercourse; it had to be far from the city, in a quiet position, but easy to reach through a smooth and not too long road, so that the owner and his family could go to and fro as they liked. The structure of the villa had to include extensive shaded gardens, porticoes for walking, some grassland for competitions and balls; the positions of windows, balconies and loggias had to take into account the exposure to the sun, prevailing winds and the conformation of the environment surrounding so as to ensure well-lighted, airy, symmetrical and pleasant spaces.

Cosimo de’ Medici pursued the program of the ancients to rediscover the virtues of having country estates and, since his houses were attended by scholars and courtiers, he gave Marsilio Ficino a home not far from his Villa in Careggi. That villa became the seat of the Neoplatonic Academy (1462), founded by Ficino and other intellectuals and poets, such as Pico della Mirandola, Poliziano, Nicola Cusano, Leon Battista Alberti, Bartolomeo Scala and Christopher Landino. Giuliano and Lorenzo de’ Medici also participated in those meetings, as they had close ties with the Careggi villa and its excellent garden, which was a perfect venue for philosophical debates or poetic meditation.

Cosimo de’ Medici, called The Old (Florence, 1389 – Florence, Villa di Careggi, 1464)

He is considered as the champion of the fortune, power and wealth of the family. A very clever banker, he contributed to the development of banks by opening numberless branches throughout Europe. His political and diplomatic skills allowed him to dominate the arena of the Republic of Florence and pave the way to the institutional supremacy of his offspring. He was a great patron and promoter of Florentine art and culture.

Caterina de’ Medici (Florence, 1519 – Castle of Blois, 1589) the daughter of Lorenzo II de’ Medici, grand-daughter of the Magnificent, she was an orphan child and had many misfortunes during her youth. She married Henry II of France. Three of her sons became kings of France and she ruled as regent for thirty years. She lived in a time of religious wars in all the European states, at the beginning of modernity, and was a rather controversial sovereign; sometimes defined as wicked, thirsty for power and Machiavellian in her actions, she earned the appellation of “black queen”. A daughter of her time, she was a smart ruler, but also a tolerant and firm one, and faced extreme perils to protect her crown and children. Her political and diplomatic skills became legend, and so did her optimism; her biography has been extensively studied and romanticized in many accounts.

The Florentine villas of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries are testimonies of the value of rural life in the wake of the rediscovery of classical ideals. Both in their structure, inspired by ancient villas, and in the richly decorated gardens, Florentine villas try to integrate the human element with the natural environment. However, their residential structure4s never included premises for agricultural work, such as warehouses, sheds for animals or equipment, which were always placed in separate buildings. This feature characterises the Medicean villa and distinguishes it from Venetian Palladian villas, which pursued a total, practical and concrete, and not only ideal, integration with the agricultural environment by including service facilities in their very structures (barchesse). The Florentine and the Venetian villa systems are similar solutions adopted to control and manage large land properties, the former designed by the Medici family and the latter conceived by the Venetian patriciate.

The Delizie are the court residences of the Este House, built in the countryside around the city of Ferrara, down to the Po river delta to play a control function and to celebrate the ruling family as the Medicean villas did. In both cases, these residences were built in suburban areas because they were conceived as places to idle away, but at the same time they showed that their owners were the owners of the area, which was under their control. Also, in both cases these houses sought a balanced and regular relationship with the surrounding environment.

Otium, name: Latin word meaning “idleness” that does not merely define a state of non-activity, but rather taking care of one’s spirit by relaxing or conducting mentally stimulating activities. The exercise of otium was a privilege of the ruling classes.

Champion, name: promoter, supporter, advocate.

Supremacy, name: dominion, predominance, hegemony, control.

Machiavellianism, name: expression deriving from the name of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), a Florentine intellectual, writer, poet, philosopher, and political theorist. His philosophy refounded political action based on the rational assessment of means and purposes. The adjective ‘Machiavellian’ indicates a cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous attitude, especially in politics.

Patronage, name: the action of protecting and supporting economically anybody devoted to art and culture.