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Il giorno giovedì 11 febbraio 2010 (ore 16.30) è stato presentato a Palazzo Neroni, presso la Soprintendenza Archivistica della Toscana (Via Ginori 7, 50123 Firenze),  il volume La sede della Sapienza a Firenze. L’Università e l’Istituto Geografico Militare a San Marco, a cura di AMEDEO BELLUZZI e EMANUELA FERRETTI, Firenze 2009 (Istituto Geografico Militare).  Sono intervenuti Brenda Preyer e Marcello Verga.

Il volume raccoglie gli atti del convegno che si è tenuto nell’Aula Magna dell’Università di Firenze il 16 ottobre 2008. L’argomento centrale è la storia dell’area urbana fra la SS. Annunziata e S. Marco a Firenze, raffigurata fra le altre cose nella miniatura di Monte di Giovanni. In passato tale area,  nonostante la sua centralità, non era mai stata studiata nel dettaglio. Questo settore della città ha ospitato il collegio universitario, rimasto incompiuto (1429-36), laboratori di artisti e fonderie (quella del Rustici in primis), il Serraglio dei Leoni di Cosimo I fino alle scuderie lorenesi. L’inserimento in questo brano di città dell’Istituto Geografico Militare con Firenze Capitale e, subito dopo, dell’Isituto di Studi Superiori (poi UNFI) ha determinato gravi modifiche, coinvolgendo anche parte del convento della SS. Annunziata, le cui decorazioni sei- settecentesche, praticamente inedite essendo incluse in uno spazio militare, sono state studiate nel convegno e negli atti da Paolo Benassai. Nell’isolato insistevano anche delle monumentali scuderie (1515), già attribuite a Leonardo da Vinci, distrutte dalla costruzione università nel 1913.

Sommario: Sandro Rogari, L’Università  di Firenze (pp. 7-17); Jonathan Davies, The Studio fiorentino in the Renaissance (pp. 19-29); Emanuela Ferretti, La Sapienza di Niccolò da Uzzano e le stalle di Lorenzo de Medici (pp. 31-68); Francesco Paolo Di Teodoro, Leonardo e le stalle medicee nell’area della Sapienza (pp. 69-85); Andrea Cantile, Il contributo della cartografia storica per l’analisi della morfologia urbana: note sulla Sapienza fiorentina (pp. 87-97); Amedeo Belluzzi, Il serraglio dei leoni e la cavallerizza (pp. 99-116); Eugenio M. Casalini, L’ingresso al convento della SS. Annunziata. La porta vecchia e la porta nuova (pp. 117-123); Paolo Benassai, Presenze artistiche nel convento della SS. Annunziata al tempo di Cosimo III (pp. 125-147); Davide Turrini, Le Imperiali Scuderie di San Marco. Il quadrilatero e gli interventi lorenesi tardo settecenteschi (pp. 149-167); Gabriella Orefice, La “Palazzina dei Servi” e le sue trasformazioni ottocentesche (pp. 169-185); Gianluca Belli, Dalle Scuderie al Rettorato. L’Istituto di Studi Superiori tra San Marco e la SS. Annunziata (pp. 187-225); Elena Torretta, Le vicende architettoniche dell’Istituto Geografico Militare (pp. 227-261); Veronica Vestri, Carte d’archivio. Il testamento di Niccolò da Uzzano. Trascrizione e brevi note storico-archivistiche (pp. 263-280); Riferimenti bibliografici e Indice dei nomi.

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JOHN E. WILLS JR., ‘Author, Publisher, Patron, World: A Case Study of Old Books and Global Consciousness’, Journal of Early Modern History, 13 (2009), pp. 375-433.

Abstract: This essay focuses on the big books on distant parts of the world compiled by Olfert Dapper of Amsterdam between 1668 and 1688. It shows that in addition to his own efforts his publisher, Jacob van Meurs, and his patron, Nicolaes Witsen, made vital contributions to these works. It makes a case for the vital contribution to European knowledge of a wider world, and to the impact of that knowledge on broader cultural trends, of one who was not an eyewitness of distant shores but a diligent and sophisticated stay-at-home compiler. It urges scholars of these distant areas to pay attention to these books and others like them, and teachers to think about the benefits of discussing them with their students.

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The B.H. Breslauer Foundation, Empire State Building, suite 7210, 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118, Telephone: +33622-047580 (F. de Marez Oyens). Contact.

The Foundation is a private charitable foundation under Sec 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its main purpose is to give grants to libraries and not-for-profit institutions that collect rare books and manuscripts and are domiciled in the United States and to U.S. affiliates of foreign institutions that constitute “Charitable Organizations” under the Internal Revenue Code.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors will accept requests for grants from Institutional Libraries to help fund major acquisitions of manuscripts, printed books and bookbindings.

Applications for grants to make specific acquisitions can be made by correspondence or e-mail, and urgent requests may even be made by telephone. They should be accompanied by as much relevant documentation as possible on the desired acquisition, as well as precise information on provenance and price. Because of the nature of the rare book market and the auction process, the officers of the Foundation realize that effective decisions often need to be made promptly. Under any circumstances, their decisions will be final.

Click here to learn more about the B.H. Breslauer Foundation.

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EXHIBITION - The Drawings of Bronzino, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue. New York, New York 10028, Galleries for Drawings, Prints, and Photographs, 2nd floor), January 20, 2010–April 18, 20.

This exhibition is the first ever dedicated to Agnolo Bronzino (1503–1572), and will present nearly all the known drawings by, or attributed to, this leading Italian Mannerist artist, who was active primarily in Florence. A painter, draftsman, academician, and enormously witty poet, Bronzino became famous as the court artist to the Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and his beautiful wife, the Duchess Eleonora di Toledo. This monographic exhibition will contain approximately 60 drawings from European and North-American collections, many of which have never before been on public view. The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in collaboration with the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi and the Polo Museale Fiorentino, Florence.

From 1540 onward, Bronzino was court painter to Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and herein you will see examples of his portraits of Cosimo, his wife, Duchess Eleonora di Toledo, and their children. They demonstrate Bronzino’s sensitivity for elegant composition as well as his acute powers to create mood and capture the psychology of his aristocratic sitters. One of the artist’s most ambitious projects for the princely couple is a fresco cycle for the private Chapel of Eleonora di Toledo, and this exhibition includes drawings he executed for that Chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Also included are sheets that contributed to his designs for a series of tapestries on the Old Testament Story of Joseph, intended for one of the audience halls of the Palazzo Vecchio. Bronzino was among the founders of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence, the first art academy in Europe, and he is said to have had many pupils. The younger generations of Florentine artists particularly admired him for his technical virtuosity as a painter, and even Giorgio Vasari grudgingly praised him for his powers as a disegnatore (designer and draftsman) in his well-known Lives of the Artists.

Accompanied by a catalogue (336 pages, 274 illustrations,155 in full color, $60,00), authored by a team of international scholars, to be published by the Metropolitan Museum: Carmen C. Bambach, Janet Cox-Rearick, and George R. Goldner; with contributions by Philippe Costamagna, Marzia Faietti, and Elizabeth Pilliod. The five essays in this catalogue cover the subject of Bronzino’s draftsmanship through consideration of his life, the critical responses to his drawings from his lifetime to the twentieth century, his theory and practice in drawing, and his portraits. The authors contributed research that adds greatly to our understanding of Bronzino’s place in the history of Florentine drawing. In the sixty-two entries that follow, each individual sheet is analyzed in substantial detail. Every drawing is illustrated in color and is accompanied by comparative photographs. Sixty-two related paintings and tapestries follow the entry section, reproduced as full-page color illustrations that further enhance knowledge of Bronzino’s drawing even as they display his celebrated accomplishments in those mediums. The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Reviwed by DAVID FRANKLIN, The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLII, number 1286, May 2010, pp. 350-351.

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