Palazzo Buondelmonti, or Scali-Buondelmonti, is located in Piazza Santa Trinita in Florence.
The Scali had their houses on this site, which passed to the Del
Benes and then to the Cambis. The building was sold to the Buondelmonti
in 1517, who began the renovation completing the facade around 1525. The
Buondelmonti family, among the oldest in Florence, had some properties
in Borgo Santi Apostoli since the Middle Ages and was closely linked to
the church of Santa Trinita and to the Vallombrosans in general, since
their founder San Giovanni Gualberto was born from their family.
The palace is a typical example of the residential construction of
Florentine patrician families which developed at the end of the
fifteenth century, with more sober forms compared to the large palaces
of the first half of the fifteenth century (Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo
Medici...). In particular, if you want to find models of this decorative
typology, you have to look at Palazzo Gondi in Piazza San Firenze (by
Giuliano da Sangallo) or Palazzo Guadagni in Piazza Santo Spirito. The
project is attributed to Baccio d'Agnolo or Cronaca and was commissioned
by the brothers Lorenzo and Leonardo Buondelmonti.
In 1774 with
the extinction of the family, after the death of Francesco Gioacchino
Buondelmonti without male heirs, the palace was divided and rented by
Francesco's daughter.
In 1819 Gian Pietro Vieusseux opened the
famous Gabinetto Vieusseux, now housed in Palazzo Strozzi. In the rooms
of Palazzo Buondelmonti, personalities of great Italian and European
prominence met, such as Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Niccolò
Tommaseo, Gino Capponi, Alexandre Dumas, Stendhal and many others. In
1870 the Cabinet moved first to Palazzo Feroni and then to Palazzo
Strozzi, where it is still located today.
A twentieth-century
restoration has reopened the loggia on the top floor.
The building has the typical three floors plus roof terrace and with two orders of arched windows on seven axes, surrounded by simple stone frames. At the corners there is ashlar cladding. The ground floor, particularly high, is decorated with stone ashlars where four arches open, while the upper floors are plastered, even if originally they had monochrome graffiti with The enterprises of Buondelmonte and Filippo Buondelmonti degli Scolari Fiorentino (Pippo Spano ), leader who belonged to the Buondelmonti coterie, by Jacone.
Two plaques are affixed to the facade: one commemorates the hospitality given to Ludovico Ariosto by Zanobi Buondelmonti and the other commemorates Giovanni Pietro Vieusseux and his literary cabinet, which had its first headquarters here.