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7 best and most distinguished libraries in Florence
Art & Culture

7 best and most distinguished libraries in Florence

15 enero, 2025 / By:
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Following the steps of German photographer Candida Höfer, who exceptionally portrayed the soul of libraries in solitude, same images in Florence reveal the splendour of the Marucelliana Library, born in the middle of the XVIII century after donation by the abbot Francesco Marucelli; the Biblioteca dell’Accademia della Crusca, placed within the Medici villa of Castello, as the largest library of linguistics and history of the Italian language; the Medicea Laurenziana Library designed by Michelangelo (holds its infamous Mannerist staircase) in the cloister of the basilica of San Lorenzo; the National Library of Florence, which also offers a free guided tour in Italian and English on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m.; the Biblioteca Riccardiana, stablished in 1600 and managed today by the Accademia della Crusca, it has also been described as «a unique example of what a patrician library in an aristocratic place (at Palazzo Medici-Riccardi) looked like;» the Biblioteca Moreniana (at Palazzo Medici-Riccardi as well), founded in the 18th century and composed of the collections of Domenico Moreni, and specialized in material on the history of Florence and Tuscany; and the modern library in the Novoli campus of the University of Florence (UniFi).…

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Uncommon Museums of Florence #1: Museum of Masonic Symbology
Art & Culture

Uncommon Museums of Florence #1: Museum of Masonic Symbology

14 enero, 2025 / By:
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Opened in March 2012, the Museum of Masonic Symbology was founded by Cristiano Franceschini in Florence as a private initiative with the aim to transmit to the brothers the evolution of different Masonic traditions over time. According to Franceschini, the museum is mostly visited by Brazilians, since there is a large number of Freemasons in that country. Moreover, for the broader secular public, the museum wants to make known the Masonic ideology, philosophy and ethics through the representation of symbols, on which these rituals are based. The collection on display includes ritual objects with etched, embroidered, applied, printed or engraved symbols. The first Italian masonic lodge, known as “The Lodge of the English-people” was created 1731 in Florence. The collection presented here comprehends more than ten thousand objects dated from the end of the eighteenth century and coming from around the world: dresses, aprons, belts, bottles, porcelain, pins, ties, stamps, photos, documents, books, glass slides or magic lanterns are part of the lot.
Museo di Simbologia Massonica – Via dell’Orto 7
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In Memoriam | Franco Zeffirelli Museum, seven decades of treasures
Art & Culture

In Memoriam | Franco Zeffirelli Museum, seven decades of treasures

13 enero, 2025 / By:
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The career of Franco Zeffirelli as cinema director, designer and producer of operas, theatre, cinema and Italian television has been honoured since October 2017 with a museum in the city centre, where the old Court of Florence used to seat. «The venue houses seventy years of treasures collected and made alive,» says the director’s son, Pippo Zeffirelli, executive vice president of the foundation managing the artist’s legacy. The museum houses more than 250 masterpieces by Zeffirelli among sketches, drawings, paintings, costumes and even the planning of a great project that never took place: the film adaptation of The Divine Comedy. The exhibition, divided chronologically into prose narrative, theatre, opera and cinema, reflects upon the development of theatrical installations and film productions, through themes and authors, together with fixed images, exemplifying all the main stages of the artistic career of Zeffirelli.
Franco Zeffirelli died on June 15, 2019, at the age of 96.
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The house of Piero Bargellini, a key figure during ‘l’alluvione di Firenze 1966’
Art & Culture

The house of Piero Bargellini, a key figure during ‘l’alluvione di Firenze 1966’

21 octubre, 2024 / By:
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The Arno River severely overflowed on November 4, 1966, provoking what is commonly known as ‘l’alluvione di Firenze.’ The city of Florence and part of Tuscany were inundated by the floods, causing an impact affecting the economic and cultural environment of Florence. Fortunately, as November 4 was a bank holiday, many businesses were closed, and a large part of the population was at home, thus avoiding an even bigger disaster. Nevertheless, 101 people died, 5,000 families lost their homes, and 6,000 businesses had to close. The deluge also destroyed and/or damaged countless works of art, prominent buildings and books. The damages could be repaired thanks to the efforts of Italian citizens, international committees and foreign donors. Piero Bargellini (1897-1980), writer, historian, politician and intellectual, was the mayor of Florence in that awkward moment.
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Uncommon museums of Florence #2: Stefano Bardini Museum
Art & Culture

Uncommon museums of Florence #2: Stefano Bardini Museum

17 mayo, 2024 / By:
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Stefano Bardini (1854-1922) was a prominent Italian antiquary who decided to transform his collection into a museum and donate it to the city of Florence. The building, a magnificent palace eclectic in style, where the museum has its headquarters, was acquired and restored by Bardini in 1881, in order to be used for his antiquarian trade activity. The antiquary modified the structure adding new gates and stairs, used medieval and Renaissance stones, chimneys, in addition, he affixed painted coffered ceilings. Bardini transformed the old building — the former church and convent of San Gregorio della Pace — into a wonderful neo-Renaissance villa, where, besides the exhibition halls, there were workshops so that the pieces were restored before selling them.
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Uncommon Museums of Florence #4: Stibbert Museum
Art & Culture

Uncommon Museums of Florence #4: Stibbert Museum

7 mayo, 2024 / By:
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Frederick Stibbert was born in Florence in 1838. He was an eccentric antique collector, of most weapons and armours. If he had lived today, any doctor would have diagnosed him Diogenes syndrome. In spite of this, being of good lineage, albeit not being aristocratic, Stibbert prepared some rooms of his house to keep his collection, which would be ended up transforming the house in a real museum. After his death, the collection and the site were donated to the city of Florence, as Maria de’ Medici shortly did before the dynasty became extinct.…

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Mimosa blosson on the International Women’s Day in Italy: la Festa della Donna
Art & Culture

Mimosa blosson on the International Women’s Day in Italy: la Festa della Donna

5 marzo, 2024 / By:
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The 8th of March is the International Women’s Day or, as it’s more commonly called in Italy, la Festa della Donna, where the importance of women is celebrated by the giving and receiving of mimosa blossom.
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Oltrarno artisan walk — Experience the local, the authentic and the hidden Florence with Maria B.
Art & Culture

Oltrarno artisan walk — Experience the local, the authentic and the hidden Florence with Maria B.

7 febrero, 2024 / By:
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Maria B. — half Italian, half Swedish — is a graphic designer with great sensitivity and passion for any form of aesthetics and beauty. Florentine Experience Shopping was created by Maria in 2015 to spread her love for authentic and incomparable Florentine craftsmanship. She spent months hunting handicraft workshops interacting with the artisans and designers, where she gained knowledge of what is behind a genuine artisan piece. Her private and customized ‘Oltrarno Artisan Walk’ — among other exciting and recommendable tours she also organizes — offers a unique visit to some arresting and extraordinary working spaces. There one can observe closely artisans creating the most delightful and outstanding handmade products, for instance: leather bags and shoes, gold and silversmiths, Florentine mosaic, wood art, and much more.…

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Florence, in the city of David
Art & Culture

Florence, in the city of David

4 enero, 2024 / By:
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The soul of David spreads throughout Florence as a ubiquitous and sheltering presence. All the cities have their symbol: the Statue of Liberty, the musicians of Bremen, the Berlin bear, the Eiffel Tower, the cock of Barcelos, the Christ of Corcovado, the Big Ben … The flower of the lily shares with the David the leadership of popularity in the city of the Renaissance.…

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Uffizi Square of Florence: the sculptures of the Great Tuscans
Art & Culture

Uffizi Square of Florence: the sculptures of the Great Tuscans

6 diciembre, 2023 / By:
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The particular design of the Galleria degli Uffizi shapes sort of a square, around which the lodge runs. In the 28 niches that border it, Cosimo I de’ Medici wanted to place sculptures of distinguished Florentines in the field of literature, the military and the government. However, it was not until the nineteenth century, when the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was under the rule of the Lorraines, that the publisher Vincenzo Batelli finally resumed the creation of these statues.

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