The cultural, artistic and literary contributions accompanying the economic changes we have just mentioned cannot simply be considered as descriptive or celebratory refl ections of these
events. They signify, instead, a new social awareness, advancement, consolidation and, frequently, far-sightedness. Thus, on the one hand, these additional forms of expression were
of major importance in supporting the advancement of the
middle-classes and their view of the world, and, on the other,
they supplied the very soil which gave rise to the studies of the
specialist treatises, an attempt to produce the kind of building
that was relevant to their particular ways of life.

We shall move on to examine some aspects of these cultural outposts and to
trace the thematic variations related to the evolution of the
productive and residential role of the extra-urban villa.
The movement of middle-class townsmen to the countryside
was the most striking event of the time in the Florentine area
and it coincided with the city’s greatest period of expansion,
following Arnolfo’s enlargement of the city. The enthusiastic
nature of this trend quite understandably amazed outsiders
and foreigners, while being commended by contemporary
local historians.

Giovanni Villani, according to Burckhardt the leading authority on the fashion for building villas around Florence, wrote in his Cronaca, before the mid-14th century:
“There was no citizen, high or low, who had not built, or was
not in the process of building, a large and expensive property
in the surrounding countryside, with a handsome dwelling and
fi ne buildings, much better than in the city. And all were guilty
of this and were thought to be mad because of the extravagant
expenditure. It was such a magnifi cent sight that those coming
from outside and not familiar with Florence believed that
the fi ne buildings and beautiful palaces in a three-mile band
outside the town made it a Roman style city.”

Villani’s reference to “Roman style” should not lead us astray and suggest a pre-dating of the revival of topoi from the classical world, which was instead a result of the humanist studies of the next century. Rome is cited here in a general sense, in line with the ennobling and celebratory tradition of the city’s historical writing (Florence as Rome’s daughter and heir,
referred to by Dante) and, perhaps more specifi cally, as an
indication of a model of the countryside drawn from current
Utopian-symbolic iconography, both lay and religious.
There is no doubt, that the move to take possession of the
countryside described by Villani was in turn supported and
reinforced by motives and ideas that were more typical of
feudal times, re-evoked by the literary works of the communal
era in the decisive shift from the Latin tongue to Italian. We
need only mention the more important writers: the desire to
escape to the country is the theme of Petrarch’s Vita solitaria,
“domum parvam sed delectabilem et honestam struxi”, writes
Petrarch, “cumque oliveta et aliquot vineas abunde quidem non
magna modestaque familia suffecturas”  (“I built a small but
pleasant and respectable house, with some olive-groves and
vineyards, large enough for a small and unpretentious family”).
In Boccaccio’s work the villa symbolizes a refuge from
evil and corruption and from the tragic nature of existence, as represented by the plague. If the signifi cance here was one of foreboding and prophecy, it could nevertheless be later re-evoked for other historical conditions. Whatever the case,
medieval literature frequently used the theme of nature and the landscape.

The rediscovery and reading of classical writers in the early
days of humanism therefore provided important confi rmation
of aspirations that were already widespread in Florentine
society at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th
centuries. But the Rei rusticae scriptores who now took the
stage – including the Romans, Cato, Varro, Columella, the
rusticus Palladio, and the Greek, Hesiod – provided further
food for thought, adding value to the literary notion of a
house in the country as a refuge, corresponding to the classical
topos of the joys of country life, and the practical and
educational concept of farming as the purpose and magistra
of life. The ideology of the paired words utilitas-delectatio, a
humanist concept, dates back to classical times and appears
in works of the most authoritative Latin writers, including
Cicero, Seneca and Pliny.
This philosophical and literary position was refl ected in works and commentaries by humanist writers at the very time when the particular fashion for suburban villas became part of the larger scene of events and changes in Florentine life and, especially, the waning of the climate of civic renewal which had
spanned the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The relationship between politics and culture, made possible at the peak of the communal era, was already crumbling at the very moment when individual contributions of artists and intellectuals
were coming to be appreciated. In its increasing estrangement
from political and social reality, the humanist debate found
in contemplative life an opportunity, and perhaps one of the
conditions, for a new moral equilibrium. The doubts which
troubled humanists during the second half of the 15th century
sought to fi nd appeasement in an ubi consistam, in an idealistic
approach, a return to the happy natural life. The fusion of
the literary tradition of Petrarch’s Vita solitaria and specialized
practical and ethical writings, such as de’Crescenzi’s
treatise, and newly discovered philosophical works from
antiquity, gave birth to a literary output that made villa life
(la vita in villa) the basis and mirror of a particular ideal of
a way of life. In the years following 1460 the fi nest and more
sophisticated literary masters of this school became part of
the Arcadian-bucolic inspired stream, bent on showing the
advantages of country life as a means both of escaping the
commercial world and of realizing a “virtuous life”.
The father of this line of thought was Leon Battista Alberti, the
first to set out the ethical principles forming the basis of rural

life. In his essay on the villa he writes: “Buy a villa to nourish and
sustain your family, not to give pleasure to other people . . . Buy
it from one who loved his property, not from one who attempted
to sell it many times . . . The best villa is the one that needs you to improve it with your work, without great expenditure . . . Having
bought your villa, the first aim will be to establish good relations
with your neighbours . . . ” In Libri della Famiglia too, where
in the dialogue between Lionardo, exponent of the culture
of the new generation, and Giannozzo, spokesman for the
last, both agree that the concept of the villa and living in the
country embody the moral bases of existence: “Who would
not take pleasure in his villa? The villa is of great, honourable
and reliable value. Any other occupation is fraught with a
thousand risks, carries with it a mass of suspicions and trouble,
and brings numerous losses and regrets. There is trouble in
purchasing, fear in transporting, anxiety in selling, apprehension
in giving credit, weariness in collecting what is due to you,
deceit in exchange. In all other occupations you are beset by
a multitude of worries and suffer constant anxiety. The villa
alone seems reliable, generous, trustworthy and honest. Managed
with diligence and love, it never wearies of repaying you
. . . You cannot praise the villa half as much as it deserves. It
is excellent for our health, helps maintain us and benefi ts the
family. Good men and prudent householders are always interested
in the villa and the farm which are both profi table and a
source of pleasure and honour. There is no need, as with other
occupations, to fear deceit and fraud from debtors or suppliers.
Everything is above board, visible and public. You will not
be cheated nor need to call upon notaries and witnesses, bring
lawsuits or engage in other irritating and depressing matters,
most of which are not worth the vexation of the spirit involved
in settling them. Consider too that you can retire to the farm
and live there in peace, caring for your family, dealing with
your own affairs, and chatting pleasantly in the shade about
oxen and wool, or wines and seeds. You can live undisturbed
by murmurs and tales and by the strife that breaks out periodically
in the city. You can be free of the suspicions, fears,
slanders, injuries, feuds, and other miseries which are too ugly
to mention. Among all the subjects discussed on the estate there
is none which can fail to delight you… Everyone teaches and
corrects you where you erred in planting or in the manner of
sowing. The cultivation and management of fi elds does not give
rise to envy, hate, and malevolence… and what is more, while
enjoying your estate you can escape the violence, and unrest
of the city, marketplace and palace. At the villa you can hide
yourself and avoid seeing all the stealing and crime, and the
great numbers of evil men who are always in sight in the city,
always murmuring in your ear, screaming and bellowing hour
after hour like frightful wild beasts. What a blessing to live in
a villa, what unheard of happiness.”

From Alberti’s right-minded and slightly limited realism we move to Marsilio Ficino’s more scholarly and literary escapism.
In Ficino’s treatise De vita, when he advises the literati to take walks in the Tuscan hills as an antidote to melancholy and a restorative tonic for both body and mind, or when he discusses the ideal residence in a letter to Filippo Valori,
expanding on the advantages of position and exposure, the
places he describes still seem to evoke a religious aura, a
sacred quality which evokes a blend of religious and pagan
themes. In his letter to Valori, the Pandolfi ni family’s villa
and Leonardo Bruni’s, glimpsed during a walk in the hills
of Fiesole, literally take on the appearance of apparitions,
since in this way they appear transformed, the outlines growing
blurred here and there, the perfecting of an ideal style.
Details concerning the typical, real and ideal character of
a villa are overshadowed by its “salutary” and “hallowed”
position, sheltered and cool in the summer, “among fi elds
and woods”.
Ficino’s descriptions are also drawn from his personal experience
as proprietor of a villa at Careggi. This was given to him by Cosimo de’ Medici and christened the “Academiola”, a name which, with its polite and respectfully modest use of the
diminutive, reminds us of the villa’s use as a meeting-place for writers and artists in the outskirts of Florence, thanks above all to the Medici, a supplement and complement to
the cultural life of the city. As we know, the Medici villa at
Careggi became the seat of the Platonic Academy, at the wish
of Cosimo the Elder. The founding members gathered here,
making it one of the leading Italian centres for intellectuals
in the mid-15th century, the cradle and disseminator of the
humanist movement. The most important exponents of the
cultural and artistic world gathered together here included:
Ficino, Niccolò Niccoli, Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola,
Brunelleschi, Alberti, Michelozzo, Donatello, Landino,
Scala and Marsuppini. It was here, in the summer of 1464,
that Cosimo died, expressing as his last wish that Ficino
bring him a copy of his most recent translation of one of
Plato’s works.
The villa at Poggio a Caiano, the favourite residence of
Cosimo’s successor Lorenzo the Magnifi cent, came to be
considered the most perfect exemplar. This was in part due
to its ex novo construction and originality, its importance
as a prototype of a particular typology and its fusion of
different idioms and symbolic canons. As the temple of
the Florentine intelligentsia and of humanist thinking (the
“Florentine Trianon”, to quote A. Chastel’s happy defi nition)
Poggio a Caiano became of central importance to the life and history of the Medici family, as Vasari was to recall
a century later when referring, in Ragionamenti, to “highly
learned men with whom, when at the villa at Careggi or the
one at Poggio a Caiano for their greater peace, (Lorenzo)
carried out noble studies”.
Of all the grand villas, Poggio a Caiano best refl ected the
celebratory mythology of Florence’s new cultural season,
so that its contents and stylistic features became models for
other Italian courts.
The Careggi villa was described in laudatory terms in a work
of elegiac verse by Avogadro (Alberto da Vercelli) entitled De
religione et magnifi centia Cosmi Medicis.11 In the literature
that fl ourished at Lorenzo the Magnifi cent’s court references
to delightful visits to the villa at Poggio a Caiano and to its
splendours occur frequently. Courtiers praised the building,
Michele Verino described the Poggio’s gardens, parks and
aviaries in a letter12 to his friend Canigiani, and Poliziano
actually dedicated one of his most elegant elegies to the villa,
Ambra mei Laurentis amor. Lorenzo the Magnificent him -
self dedicated an unusual mythological poem to the villa,
Ambra, in which the surroundings forming the villa’s natural setting are taken up and celebrated in mythological terms (the
current threatens to carry away the remains of the nymph
Ambra, Ombrone’s beloved, now transformed by Ombrone
into an island close by the villa). An important point, and
a complementary one here, is the extolling of country life
in allegory and myth represented by the symbolism of the
seasons of the year portrayed on the majolica frieze ornamenting
the villa’s entablature with agricultural motifs
(the growing of vines and wheat). Furthermore, to give an
example of a sequence of elements following a harmonious
order, this frieze was used by Ficino as an illustration in a
letter to Lorenzo which, according to Rupprecht, represents
a document marking the villa’s foundation.
At the beginning of the Cinquecento this enthusiasm for villa
life was widespread among the noble, merchant, banking and
intellectual élite of Italian society. Time was given to creative
activities which, to varying degrees, included residential and
farming matters, courtly life and all the necessary for diversion
and relaxation, or was reserved for withdrawing into
poetic quietude.

The Medici court’s Florentine villas, either visited and known personally or reproduced by architects and artists, played a leading role in disseminating this style of life. Giuliano da Maiano and Sangallo went to Naples, and Florentine artists gravitated to Rome, especially when a member of the Medici family rose to the papal throne. L. Puppi has attempted to demonstrate the creation and arrangement of a type of “humanist villa” that bridged the 15th and 16th centuries, before Palladio’s great season, modelled on the examples we have described above.15 In the mid-16th century another versatile talent, Anton Francesco Doni, in a work entitled Le Ville, succeeds in giving us a remarkably broad picture of the social and practical characteristics of an out-of-town villa We should linger a little on this distinctive fi gure, man of letters, artist and courtier, “mystical and calculating, a mixture
of contrasting principles and contradictory aspirations”. He
was a restless traveller who spent much time outside his native
city and an indefatigable writer and editor whose troubled
existence embodied the crisis in a world based on the studia
humanitatis entrusted with providing a civilized education.
Doni’s studies in Florence and important contacts with
areas of the Po Valley and the Veneto form a link between
two parallel worlds. However, according to Rupprecht, the
cultural roots of the treatise Le Ville are more obviously
identifi able as Tuscan than Venetian in the author’s concept
of culture.
Doni’s idea of classifying villas according to the social standing
of their commissioners was not new. A categorization
of this kind, traced by scholars and essayists to Vitruvius,
appears in both Alberti and Francesco di Giorgio (as well, in
a certain manner, in Pier de’ Crescenzi’s 14th-century treatise).
However, what is signifi cant about Doni’s work, as we shall
see, is the precision of the classifi cations and his use of a scale
of social values. Doni begins by fi rst describing a town villa:
“of a King, a Duke, and powerful and valorous lord”, specifying
that “There is no difference between the outside and the inside”.
Indeed, the features of the structure which he describes as, “a
space of two hundred or more yards each way”, with, “at the
top . . . a beautiful palazzo which was entered from a stairway
. . . with three parts, in fi ne and varied style, like that in the San
Lorenzo Library in Florence”, could well be the description of a sumptuous city palazzo. The princely examples which
Doni is referring to (the Castello of the Duke di Fiorenza,
Coppare of Ferrara, Marmirolo of Mantua and the Palazzo
Imperiale, Urbino) give some idea of the size of these early
villas. The Codice Reggiano, which we shall quote from, contains
a lengthy passage concerning this type of lordly villa,
which we cite below, offering precious fi rst-hand information
on the life that fi ve or six times a year a lord conducted in
the country during his week-long visits.
“On arriving in his Village on a Sunday morning he paid an
honorarium for a Mass to be performed, with music, instruments
and wonderful decorations, in which the whole Villa took
part. After this, at the Villa there was horse racing and jumping
. . . with lances and other devices, as the master of the stables
had instructed his riders. Then the table was set in the pillared
loggia overlooking the square, and with trumpets, pipes and
music his lordship came to table, cheering the whole village with
his friendly manner and his happy court. When the table was
prepared, everyone from the estate appeared with venison, kid,
hare, game birds, fruit and other things, everything presented
with goodwill. Whereupon with a happy expression he accepted
and thanked them graciously, praising the gifts and inviting them
to eat, because a Prince, Lord or gentleman may not lack good
manners. After lunch the peasants had a wrestling match, until
only one was left. It was certainly a fine thing to see the pride
and skill of those strong men. The young girls ran a race, and
then the young men. Then it was time for the Play, sometimes
performed before and sometimes after dinner, and with music
and dancing the day of entertainments and festivities drew to a
happy end. On Monday morning bright and early, as had been
arranged for the deputies, they went hunting for wildlife, boar
and deer. Lunch was served in some pretty hillside spot with a
good view, a suitable place having been found for such a prince,
and for the gentlemen; or atop a pleasing hill shaded by the thick
branches of a wood, where some good spring rises with sweet
fresh water, and all day was spent hunting with nets, snares and
dogs. In the evening they returned with a large bag, everyone
happy after the chase and pleased with the game, thinking of
their daring exploits with spears, the ferocity of the dogs and the
struggle of the wild creatures to defend themselves. With peaceful
hearts they ate their dinner at the palazzo with good appetite,
and after all their exertions went happily to bed. On the following
day he [the prince] attended to farming matters, doing some
pruning himself and ordering various fruit trees and vines to be
planted. He had roads improved, gardens ornamented and spent
the whole day engaged on the farm, except after lunch when he passed some time in amusements. On Wednesday morning, the
falconers prepared their birds and at a given time they had truly
royal sport, taking enormous pleasure in the battles in the air,
the flight of the wild birds and of the trained falcons, and one
could find no greater happiness. On one day, it was a Thursday,
he had the Villa prepared and with dogs and greyhounds went
hunting for small game, hare and foxes, giving the gentlemen the
greatest possible pleasure. After lunch, sheltered from the heat,
the gentlemen turned to games … with poles and balls etc. On
this special festive day his lordship was wont to bestow many
favours, taking note of requests and giving alms generously.
He then rode about the property, to see if the rivers were causing
damage and, with artful engineering, when necessary he
gave orders for bridges, the digging of ditches and clearing of
drains, before returning home where he lunched alone. Meanwhile,
the men prepared themselves and the fishing nets for
the best possible catch (according to the place), attended by
his lordship and the rest of the court with that pleasure which
in the opinion of many is keener than all other delights of the
Villa. Fishing only tires the eye, and for those who fi nd this
too peaceful, they may hunt when they wish, whether hunting
or bird-netting, whichever is preferred, and I enjoy both, and I
believe that one is worth the other . . . .”

The second villa to be defi ned is the country house for the
recreation and relaxation of the gentleman, and also, “this
is the farm for scholars”. The classical notion of a country
house being the place for scholars and men of letters, makes
its fi rst appearance in gentlemanly circles in Doni’s essay. Here
we find, albeit in terms of exaggerated grandeur compared
with the previously cited accounts, both the actual and ideal
characteristics of the villa so admired by the humanists: “A
closed courtyard with surrounding walls all painted with Flemish
landscapes” (Doni is here describing a villa that he knew in
Reggio), “and through a broad and well-proportioned entrance
with posts, architraves, cornices, columns and foundations; on
either side narrow urns, and others that allow you to sit comfortably
on the rim provided by the width of the worked stone,
and these are planted with sweet oranges, the rest are fi lled with
juniper, fl owers and fragrant herbs, and all that most delights
the master of the house. There should be two loggias on this
level, one for summer and one for winter. Between these lies
the entrance to the house, comfortable in all parts and supplied
with all necessary rooms, and this building should be at the
head of the courtyard . . . given an elegant appearance by vases,
paintings and architecture, with a generous number of windows
giving onto the courtyard with carved balustrades and balconies  . . . Gardens, fruit trees, pergolas and groves of trees should be
arranged in suitable places around the building”.
Doni continues his essay by comparing this type of villa to
the one “the great Lorenzo de’ Medici gave to Marsilio Ficino”.
He includes Cafaggiolo in this category, since in his view
it embodied the very essence of this type, designed to bring
together gentlemen and men of letters: “when a nobleman is
troubled by his efforts for the Republic, while another governs in
his place he seeks some quiet retreat two or three times a year
to more easily support the bothersome matters and intolerable
travail that so frequently affl ict him in government. So that he
is not overwhelmed by wearisome books, he climbs a hill, walks
the plain, pausing with some pleasing small volume in his hand,
and amid the greenery of some lovely glade he restores himself,
his eyes weary from reading many books of another kind; and
some take pleasure in grafting and pruning, planting fi ne fruit
trees and doing a little gardening, but only insofar as this labour
provokes no sweating . . . ”
These observations give a clear picture of the basic concepts
of the humanist villa, a harmonious balance between entertainment,
escape from the preoccupations of city life, and
working on the land, understood, naturally, as a pleasurable
activity.

The third villa is classified as “merchant property” and Doni
does not give a particular architectural type but describes instead a de facto social situation, noting the tendency of a newly wealthy merchant to buy a villa of a different size and status, as a place for undemanding relaxation.
This was a setting in which merchants:

“caper over the flowery meadows to recover from their days spent labouring over troublesome accounts, which has half atrophied their bodies!”
With the fourth villa, defi ned as an “economy house”, Doni
is describing a more modest construction, the outcome of a
worker’s savings, providing the owner with wine, grain and
wood, and with a purely utilitarian appearance. This would
seem similar in type to the traditional farmer’s house, built
to satisfy the simple practical needs of a family and, as the
writer stresses, with no particular style of a typological kind,
apart perhaps from the very casualness of the additions:
“These houses are built without a plan, there is a room for
the grandfather in the summer, a stall for a horse, the greatgrandfather;
a pigeon-loft for the old grandmother who is fond
of birds; an oven, barn and an extra roofed shelter turn a poor
house into a handsome lodging. However, it should have its
own elm tree on the road for withdrawing into the shade, the
workers’ gossip and the neighbours stories.”
The “villa”, or “utility hut”, occupying the fifth and last
position on this scale is the home of the peasant and Doni does not describe it as being of any particular type or pattern, but he uses the category to weave in a general eulogy of country life – “Oh the happy, free and lovely life of the
Villa, the tranquil peaceful life” – which outlines the course
of a farm-worker’s day, from rising at dawn, working in the
fields and eating his rustic meal before fi nally retiring for the
night. This confirms Doni’s view of villa life as an escape
from urban life, while nevertheless insisting on the innate
superiority of city life and the negative side of the concept
of rusticitas professed by Alberti and the Florentine humanists.
“. . . we of the Villa, born of gentlemen; we are here while
they go to dig . . . and there the fi elds will bear crops, while here
we live in suitable style . . . Thus, the Villa should be used as a
Villa and the City as a City. You cannot lie with dogs without
getting fleas . . . ”.
In the Venetian area the economic and cultural climate of the
Cinquecento was very different, the new ethical dimension
that farming assumed was the “sacred agriculture” praised by
Cornaro, which came to fruition with the Palladian villa.
To return to the larger villas in the Florence area, events
in the second half of the 16th and following centuries corroborate
the idea that their position was alternative and,
more frequently, supplementary to an urban residence. They
were frequently a refuge for those privileged men of letters
who enjoyed the benefi t of princely patrons; ivory towers
for creative minds troubled by moral reasoning, settings for
academic debate, perfect places for indulging in idyllic or sometimes mawkish sentiments, or passionate yearnings for
Arcadian graces or, at times, the transaction of offi cial or
business matters, where, in this instance, the poet and man
of letters provided a counterbalance to courtly ritual and
political negotiation.
Following the intercession of Cosimo I, Benedetto Varchi
returned to his native Florence in 1543, after living in Venice,
Ferrara, Padua and Bologna, and in 1558 the Grand Duke
actually made him a gift of Villa la Topaia, part of the ducal estates
of the Castello farm. Here, Varchi could surround himself
with his faithful friends, Bonsi, Oradini and Girolamo Razzi,
far from the more wearisome debates of Academicians and
scholars. Here, he could devote his time to writing the Istorie
Fiorentine, commissioned by Cosimo; here too he was also
to write Dialogo delle Lingue, known as Ercolano, which is set
against the background of Villa la Topaia. Lasca, a humorous
poet and leader of lively gatherings and pranks (himself
the owner of another famous villa in the neighbourhood of
Castello, Il Pozzino) buried his earlier literary diatribe with
Varchi to sing the praises of the Topaia’s delights in verse:
Varchi! / la vostra villa è posta in loco / ch’ella volge le spalle al
tramontano, / sicchè soffi a sua posta, o forte, o piano / nuocere
non vi può molto nè poco, / ( . . . ) Penso doman venire (e non
è baia) / Con esso voi a starmi alla Topaia.
To thank the Duke for his favours Varchi wanted to rename
his villa “Cosmiano”, while Lelio Torelli suggested the name “Varchiano”, until lack of agreement fi nally led the villa to
keep its original name. After the property had returned to the
Medici following Varchi’s death, Scipione Ammirato also
stayed there, before Grand Duke Ferdinando generously
gave him, according to Moreni, “the use and amenities of the
Petraia villa so that, in this gracious setting, he could conduct
his studies in greater tranquillity and give the fi nal touches to
completing Istorie Fiorentine and his other works.”
As places for offi cial gatherings, the Medici family’s Florentine
villas became particularly important at the end of the 16th century,
when the Grand Ducal residences had been established
throughout Tuscany (on the basis of Buontalenti’s designs)
and the earlier properties situated immediately around the
Grand Duchy’s capital served as alternatives to the Pitti
Palace for state occasions. There are numerous accounts
of the role the villa played in life of the court, including
theatrical performances and wedding celebrations, hunting
(among the most famous grounds in Europe); sumptuous
scenic displays, or simply a pleasant stay in the country
with all the trimmings demanded by the customs of court.
Some houses were also to be the scenes of bloody events and
mysterious deaths, all faithfully recorded by the chroniclers
of the day, while others were to serve as gilded cages for the
exile of rebel wives.
Furthermore, use of the various villas followed a seasonal
pattern which depended on their location and the opportunities they offered for amusement and relaxation.

According to the accounts of contemporary chroniclers, Grand Prince
Ferdinando, son of Cosimo III, used the Poggio a Caiano
villa chiefl y in the springtime “where he was entertained by the
comic performers he kept for the purpose”. In the summer he
preferred to stay at the Poggio Imperiale villa, while he almost
invariably passed the autumn at Pratolino, devoting his time
to hunting and music. During the 17th and 18th centuries not
only the Grand Duke but various family members also held
court while occupying a villa whose use had been ceded to
a younger son. During the reign of Grand Duke Ferdinand
II, the Castello villa was made over to his brother Cardinal
Giovan Carlo, and in 1664 the Lappeggi villa was given to
another brother, Prince don Mattias.
From the correspondence of Francesco Redi, poet and doctor
to the court during Cosimo III’s reign, we gain many
illuminating insights into courtly life in a villa at a time when
princely pomp and wasteful expenditure, shared by the parasites
in Cosimo’s entourage, were modelled on the lavish style
of the Spanish court, fi nanced by a levying of taxes which was
increasingly crippling to the Grand Duchy’s subjects.

As court doctor, Redi accompanied the Duke’s family in its moves and he applied himself to poetry not “as a profession, but rather as a pastime and to avoid sloth, while he was staying with at the villa with the court.” He obviously writes of the joys of rural life, as in Bacco in Toscana where he refers to the famous vineyards of Petraia and Castello.

Redi was also to be present at the signing of the treaty between Cosimo III and his wife Margherita Luisa d’Orléans, on the eve of her fi nal departure
from the Grand Duchy to return to France.
With the passing of the House of Medici, the enormous estates
the family had accumulated  were redistributed, part of the
far-reaching scheme of reformist measures embarked on by
Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine. A certain number of properties
were alienated, despite the dogged opposition of those
– tenants or administrators – who made lavish profi ts out
of their situations. In the general scheme to reorganize the
Grand Duchy’s lands and properties only fi ve estates were
to remain under personal administration: “The estates of
Poggio a Caiano and the ten annexed farms, Castello with
its vineyards and four annexed farms, and Cascine dell’Isola
with its eleven annexed farms, and Poggio Imperiale with its
twelve annexed farms, may continue to be administered for the
purpose of retreat and pleasure.”
The villas which were to remain the property of the ducal family
were also designed to be used for “the court’s recreation”.
The Grand Duchy of Lorraine’s interest in these recreational
visits is shown by the works of restoration and improvement
that they carried out, making changes to conform, especially
in the gardens, to the fashionable taste of the day (among
others, note the changes introduced to the gardens at Petraia
and Castello). However, a certain desire to cut down on expenses
by the Lorraine family resulted in the loss of at least
two splendid Medici residences, the villas of Pratolino and
Lappeggi, destroyed to avoid the costs of restoration.
Under French rule, and after Princess Elisa’s move from Lucca
to Florence, the Medici properties around the city had a new
hour of splendour due to the princess’s preference for these outlying
villas, and also to her keen interest in the arts. Elisa spent
most summers at Poggio a Caiano where, besides attending
to the interior decoration of the rooms and alterations to the
double staircase leading to the terrace encircling the first floor,
she opened a majestic avenue, twenty metres wide, planned
to extend as far as Prato. In Elisa’s day forty gardeners, aside
from the farm-workers and gamekeepers, were employed on the
enormous farm and hunting reserve. The lively society which
attended the court could enjoy boat trips on the river Ombrone
whose wandering course created little islands, linked by bridges
built from bank to bank. Elisa held court at Villa del Poggio
and during the summer she organised outdoor festivities and
concerts which were performed by famous musicians (including
Paganini), as well as more modest entertainments. One
of Elisa’s court ladies, Madame Ida Saint-Elme, wrote in her memoirs: “Dans les soirées intimes de la Grand-Duchesse,
on riait, on jouait au billard, quelquefois à cache-cache. Les
amusements les plus simples devenaient, par le contraste du
lieu et des personnages, les plaisirs les plus agréables et les
plus piquants. Les glaces, les sorbets, le punch circulaient sans
céremonie avec les bons mots. La Princesse me faisait lire les
verses . . .”.
The formal and official role of the Medici villas around Florence
drew to a close over the few years that Florence was
capital of the new realm, when the villas of Poggio a Caiano
and Petraia became satellites of the court at Palazzo Pitti.
However, this period proved of minor overall importance
since it was short-lived and left little mark apart from a few
points of detail arising from the less than perfect taste of
the House of Savoy.