FONDAZIONE BIBLIOTECHE

Since its inception in 2012, the Library Foundation (Fondazione Biblioteche) has pursued its statutory goals, which include the promotion and awareness of its substantial book collection (over 70,000 volumes), the result of fundraising efforts by its founding members. Particularly prominent is the section on incunabula of Fondo Roberto Ridolfi, the first printed editions dating back to the second half of the fifteenth century. Among these, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili stands out for its excellence, a masterpiece of typographical art printed by the famous Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1499. This edition owes its fame to the beauty of its typographic characters and the splendor of its woodcuts, attributed to various painters, including Mantegna and Raffaello, who illustrated the allegorical landscapes of this work. Other incunabula worthy of note for the beauty of the woodcuts and the preciousness of the bindings, are: The Divine Comedy, commented by Cristoforo Landino, the Giostra di Lorenzo de’ Medici set in rhyme by Luigi Pulci, some works by Cicero such as the Orationes Philippicae and the Epistolae ad familiares and the Vitae Caesarum by Svetonius.

Of great interest are the Historical Archives of the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, an essential tool for understanding the economic and social history of Tuscany between the 19th and 20th centuries. They consist of 765 bound volumes containing the documents of the Cassa Centrale di Firenze and the Monti di Pietà of Firenze, Empoli, Montevarchi, Sansepolcro, and Cortona from 1581 to 1955. The Novecento Collection includes the company books from 1829 to 1992. 

Conference Room - Cassa Risparmio Firenze Library Foundation

In addition to their intrinsic artistic value, the collection of sixteen paintings by Gian Domenico Ferretti, displayed in this room, documents the pictorial history of the Commedia dell'Arte in Italy. In fact, Ferretti met Carlo Goldoni who was staying in Florence in 1742 with his friend Gori, president of the Florentine Academy of the Evangelist, of which they were both members. The meeting with Ferretti bore remarkable fruit, directing Goldoni toward comedies featuring Harlequin, and Ferretti toward pictorial representations of the character.

Until 1983, only a similar series of paintings by the same artist, composed of thirteen pieces, was known to exist. It is housed in the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL, along with four sketches and several drawings held in the Lawrence Museum of Art in Kansas and in the Simmons Collection in London. The sixteen canvases exhibited here were discovered in Siena in the home of descendants of the aforementioned Gori. They had never been restored and the old varnish, yellowed by time visible on the painted surface has been removed, allowing the original tone and luminosity to flourish again.

SOCIAL EVENTS

December 16, 2025: Guided tour for participants and accompanying persons of the Fondazione Santa Maria Nuova Museum. 

After the visit,  dinner will be offered to participants at the historic Palazzo Graziani near the Museum (see below for for instructions on how to reach it).

The main entrance to the Museum is located in Piazza Santa Maria Nuova 1, Firenze, Italy, just a few minutes walk from the Workshop venue. 

During the tour, we will retrace the history of the hospital founded by Folco Portinari in 1288, exploring the centuries and renovations that have left it as we see it today, after seven centuries of uninterrupted hospital activity! It also played an important role from an artistic perspective: it was the training ground for many artists, including Lorenzo Ghiberti and Leonardo da Vinci. The tour also includes the Chiostro delle Medicherie, which houses plants used by our ancestors as medicines: some still effective today, others terribly poisonous. Finally, it will be possible to visit the Matroneo delle Oblate, a special space in the Church of Sant'Egidio. 

For details on the centuries-old history of the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital:

Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova - Wikipedia.

GALA DINNER

The Gala Dinner will be offered to participants at the historic Palazzo Graziani. The main entrance is located in Via Borgo Pinti 13, just a few minutes walk from the Fondazione Santa Maria Nuova Museum. 

Palazzo Graziani is an ancient Florentine palace located at Borgo Pinti 13, facing Via di Mezzo, which allows for a distant view that would otherwise be difficult due to the narrowness of the street.

History

The Roffia family arrived in Florence in 1646 from San Miniato and purchased an old house from the Monaldi-Bandinelli family. The design of a new, unified façade dates back to 1696, promoted by Antonio Roffia and directed by Michele Magni, a disciple of Giovan Battista Foggini, with the assistance of Antonio Roffia himself, an amateur architect. After the Roffia family, the palace passed to the Morelli family, the Graziani Libri, the Magherini Graziani (late 19th century), and finally to the Mels Colloredo Graziani family, who still own it. The palace appears on the list drawn up in 1901 by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Fine Arts as a monumental building to be considered a national artistic heritage site.

Description

Exterior: Overall, the façade shows the continuation of traditional 16th-century models, except for the wrought-iron balcony, which, at this chronological time, appears somewhat unusual in Florentine architecture. The façade, structured on three floors by seven axes, is certainly elegant, especially in the design of the openings and the solution adopted to mark the central axis with a door, balcony, and large window. On the façade, inside the broken tympanum of the balcony door, is a shield bearing the coat of arms of the Roffia family. Also noteworthy is the main door, with its decorative panels and nailing. 

Interior: The interior of the palace was decorated in several stages. Around 1704, the main hall was decorated with scenes of imaginary architecture and ruins. In this hall, two coats of arms were found, which have helped to narrow down the dating: one Roffia-Adimari Morelli and one Chierici-Mari. The ground and first floors feature masterfully frescoed rooms, including those by Gian Domenico Ferretti. The second and third floors are currently used as a B&B and are therefore not open to visitors.