DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19776#0096
VILLA BOND I,
FLORENCE.
THE Villa of Garofano in Camerata, to call
it by its mediaeval name, stands on the old
road to Fiesole. Not the grand, new,
winding via/e, up which tourists flock and
tramlines grind ; a small, modest road between
dun-coloured walls leads up to the gateway, with
its simple columns and good old ironwork, but at
the back of the villa is a still narrower road,
hardly more than a track, and this is probably the
way by which the Court painter, Cimabue, rode,
to find and bring back a shepherd boy from the
hills beyond Fiesole ; and, more memorable still,
it must often have known the feet of Dante, for
this was the home of his later life in Florence,
and belonged to him at the time of his banish-
ment. The first notice we have of the villa is in
an instruction of May 16th, 1332, by Ser Saldi
Dini (an ancestor, we may take it, of that
Agostino Dini who long after built Villa Collazzi).
He portions out land between Piero and Jacopo, sons
of the dead poet, and their uncle, Francesco
Alighieri, and specifies the confines " which run
along the public road."
The sons made over the villa to their uncle,
to reimburse him for the loan of 205 golden
florins lent to their unhappy father in two loans,
March 14th and June 2nd, 1300. Francesco
Alighieri sold his newly-acquired possession at once,
and the purchasers were Giovanni and Accerito
Portinari, nephews of that Bice who was the
inspiration of the divine poet. When, by a decree
of the Duca de Atene, the act of confiscation
against Dante was annulled and all other possessions
restored to his heirs, the legal sale of this villa was
allowed to stand.
In 1427 we find that Bernardo di Giovanni
Portinari, nephew of Giovanni, the buyer,
possessed, among his other estates, a farm called
Garofano, with " a good gentleman's house " on
it, situated in Camerata, in the abbey of
Fiesole, and in the parish of San Bartolommeo.
The boundaries have become somewhat changed,
owing to deviations in the course of the torrential
river, Mugrone, and we find it sometimes described
as in the parish of San Marco, or even in that of
San Gervasio ; but this was the only piece of land
owned by the Portinari in Camerata. Names of
villas always change at the caprice of their owners,
and later we find it denominated Como. Portinari
sold the villa to his cousin, Giovanni di Guatteri,
and his wife, Francesca Strozzi, and they sold it
back to the Portinari in 1454. It remained in tin's
family till 1507, and then passed through several
other hands. Duke Salviati bought it in 1738,
and then again it had various owners for short
periods ; but every transfer is recorded, and we
have the utmost certainty that this was really
Dante's house. The shield of the Portinari is
carved on a wall not later than the second half
of the fourteenth century. At the time Salviati
bought it it is entered in the city annals as " a
villa in Camerata," which must have been that
of Dante, bought by the Portinari family.
It is worth while tracing its history minutely,
because so much of the old house still retains its
original aspect. In the centre is a small open
cortile, with slender columns, which support an
upper corridor running all round, with broad
eaves and open to the air ; from this open the
bedrooms, one of which goes by the name of
" Dante's room," and may, indeed, well have
been that of the master of the house. Its windows
lead out on to a loggia, from which there is a
view over Florence, and it is hardly going too
far to assume that when the exile's thoughts
turned back to his beloved city he must often
have pictured it as it looked from the loggia of
this, his own sweet home. It is one of the most
perfect views, looking off to Vallombrosa on the
one hand, and towards the mountain on which
stands the village of Incontro, where tradition says
that St. Francis and St. Dominic met, and on the
other to where the sharp shafts of the Carrara
mountains stand out against the horizon.
The villa now belongs to Signor Bondi,
whose beautiful copies of antique marbles and
terra-cottas in Signa earth are so well known to
travellers in Italy. Italians are beginning to
develop a love for horticulture, and Signor Bondi
has a gardener who takes prizes at many of the
great shows at Turin and elsewhere. The enclosure
round the pavilion is a blaze of colour, and there
are some splendid aloes, plants of over thirty years,
and which may live for another twenty years.
Some people are inclined to take exception to masses
of flowers in old Italian gardens as being an inno-
vation ; but nowadays we must have flowers ; and as
one drives away from Villa Bondi with one's hands
full of carnations and scented verbena, it is an
innovation which may be regarded leniently.
( 84 )
FLORENCE.
THE Villa of Garofano in Camerata, to call
it by its mediaeval name, stands on the old
road to Fiesole. Not the grand, new,
winding via/e, up which tourists flock and
tramlines grind ; a small, modest road between
dun-coloured walls leads up to the gateway, with
its simple columns and good old ironwork, but at
the back of the villa is a still narrower road,
hardly more than a track, and this is probably the
way by which the Court painter, Cimabue, rode,
to find and bring back a shepherd boy from the
hills beyond Fiesole ; and, more memorable still,
it must often have known the feet of Dante, for
this was the home of his later life in Florence,
and belonged to him at the time of his banish-
ment. The first notice we have of the villa is in
an instruction of May 16th, 1332, by Ser Saldi
Dini (an ancestor, we may take it, of that
Agostino Dini who long after built Villa Collazzi).
He portions out land between Piero and Jacopo, sons
of the dead poet, and their uncle, Francesco
Alighieri, and specifies the confines " which run
along the public road."
The sons made over the villa to their uncle,
to reimburse him for the loan of 205 golden
florins lent to their unhappy father in two loans,
March 14th and June 2nd, 1300. Francesco
Alighieri sold his newly-acquired possession at once,
and the purchasers were Giovanni and Accerito
Portinari, nephews of that Bice who was the
inspiration of the divine poet. When, by a decree
of the Duca de Atene, the act of confiscation
against Dante was annulled and all other possessions
restored to his heirs, the legal sale of this villa was
allowed to stand.
In 1427 we find that Bernardo di Giovanni
Portinari, nephew of Giovanni, the buyer,
possessed, among his other estates, a farm called
Garofano, with " a good gentleman's house " on
it, situated in Camerata, in the abbey of
Fiesole, and in the parish of San Bartolommeo.
The boundaries have become somewhat changed,
owing to deviations in the course of the torrential
river, Mugrone, and we find it sometimes described
as in the parish of San Marco, or even in that of
San Gervasio ; but this was the only piece of land
owned by the Portinari in Camerata. Names of
villas always change at the caprice of their owners,
and later we find it denominated Como. Portinari
sold the villa to his cousin, Giovanni di Guatteri,
and his wife, Francesca Strozzi, and they sold it
back to the Portinari in 1454. It remained in tin's
family till 1507, and then passed through several
other hands. Duke Salviati bought it in 1738,
and then again it had various owners for short
periods ; but every transfer is recorded, and we
have the utmost certainty that this was really
Dante's house. The shield of the Portinari is
carved on a wall not later than the second half
of the fourteenth century. At the time Salviati
bought it it is entered in the city annals as " a
villa in Camerata," which must have been that
of Dante, bought by the Portinari family.
It is worth while tracing its history minutely,
because so much of the old house still retains its
original aspect. In the centre is a small open
cortile, with slender columns, which support an
upper corridor running all round, with broad
eaves and open to the air ; from this open the
bedrooms, one of which goes by the name of
" Dante's room," and may, indeed, well have
been that of the master of the house. Its windows
lead out on to a loggia, from which there is a
view over Florence, and it is hardly going too
far to assume that when the exile's thoughts
turned back to his beloved city he must often
have pictured it as it looked from the loggia of
this, his own sweet home. It is one of the most
perfect views, looking off to Vallombrosa on the
one hand, and towards the mountain on which
stands the village of Incontro, where tradition says
that St. Francis and St. Dominic met, and on the
other to where the sharp shafts of the Carrara
mountains stand out against the horizon.
The villa now belongs to Signor Bondi,
whose beautiful copies of antique marbles and
terra-cottas in Signa earth are so well known to
travellers in Italy. Italians are beginning to
develop a love for horticulture, and Signor Bondi
has a gardener who takes prizes at many of the
great shows at Turin and elsewhere. The enclosure
round the pavilion is a blaze of colour, and there
are some splendid aloes, plants of over thirty years,
and which may live for another twenty years.
Some people are inclined to take exception to masses
of flowers in old Italian gardens as being an inno-
vation ; but nowadays we must have flowers ; and as
one drives away from Villa Bondi with one's hands
full of carnations and scented verbena, it is an
innovation which may be regarded leniently.
( 84 )