Francesco Bocchi, The Beauties of the City of Florence. A Guidebook of 1591; Harvey Miller Publishers, 2006

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro

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Francesco Bocchi

The Beauties of the City of Florence

A Guidebook of 1591

Edited by Thomas Frangenberg and Robert Williams

Harvey Miller Publishers, 2006

Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, Florence, Uffizi Gallery

[1] From the Introduction of the authors ( p. 3):

“The text presented here, Francesco Bocchi’s Le Bellezze della città di Firenze..., originally published in 1591, is one of the most remarkable of Renaissance writings on art and thus an especially valuable document of the culture within which and for which Renaissance art was made. It is not exactly the first guidebook, nor is it entirely an art guidebook in the modern sense of the word, but it marks an important step in the history of guidebook literature, perhaps the definitive step in the formation of the modern genre. It seeks to direct people’s attention to outstanding objects, but also to offer instruction in how to look, what to think, and what to say... But its deepest source of interest is the lively discursive engagement with art to which it attests, and the passionate and eloquent way in which it makes the case that such engagement is a matter of the greatest urgency and importance” (p. 3).

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Massacre of the Innocents. Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel

[2] The Bellezze della città di Firenze, of which here is reported only the translation (annotated) into English, were published in 1591. We do not really know what reasons pushed Francesco Bocchi, a literate of not very wide fame outside of Florence, to conceive its preparation, nor do we know much about the time length of such preparation (from internal evidence - cf. p. 18 note 27 -it began at least in 1589). Nor can one say that this is the first attempt to draft a "guide" of the city: a precedent was the booklet published in 1510 by Francesco Albertini, entitled Memoriale di molte statue e pitture che sono nell’inclyta ciptà di Florentia (Memorial on many statues and paintings in the centre of Florence). A project (never completed) by Anton Francesco Doni is also known, as he aimed at gathering material for a great book on Florence. Surely the one by Bocchi was one of the earliest examples of a city guide with basically artistic interests. Already Schlosser did not fail to emphasise its importance in his Letteratura artistica (p. 371): "It is a booklet printed with grace, very easy to handle, of a right size for a guide, not too wordy nor too concise and sober. It established the genre of all such works that would be produced later on; the arrangement is strictly topographical, according to a fixed route conforms to the aspect of the city [note of the editor: five routes are provided, each of which extends from one of the town gates]. Of course this book has a great and lasting value to the scholar as an inventory of artistic heritage (public and private), in one of the most important centres of Italian art at the end of the Sixteenth century, despite all indications defective or incorrect. But its historical value is also in being the first of its kind that fully reflects the opinion of the literates on figurative art, the world of art critics and amateurs. "

Masaccio, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Florence, Brancacci Chapel

[3] The vision of art that underpins the work can be traced back, of course, to the one proposed by Vasari's Lives: Florence, then, as a centre for revival of the arts as from Cimabue and Giotto and their progressive improvement until reaching absolute excellence, as embodied by Michelangelo. If anything, a trace of deviation from the Vasari can be found in particular importance that Bocchi attached to the work of Andrea by Sarto (see p. 10), which he compared, in terms of the quality of the artistic work, to the figure of Michelangelo.

Andrea del Sarto, Madonna of the Harpies, Florence, Uffizi Gallery

[4] The Bellezze were written by Bocchi when he was about forty years old. It is worth recalling, however, three of his writings on arts which he drafted in his youth; they belong to the category of elogi (praises), in which, among elements of rhetoric nature, however also non-trivial moments of artistic criticism arise. The first is a tribute to Michelangelo, composed in Latin in 1564, when Bocchi was sixteen and the great master had just passed away. It is probably a school exercise: “In many respects it is a standard funeral oration, the kind of speech any aspiring orator would have to try his hand at sooner or later, but it is carefully researched and structured, and already gives evidence of a distinctive approach to art and to the task of writing about it” (p. 11). The praise remained unpublished, as well as the one written three years later, in honour of Andrea del Sarto (the latter praise was published in current times by Robert Williams with the title A Treatise by Francesco Bocchi in Praise of Andrea del Sarto in the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LII , 1989: 111-39). The praise first highlights the particular esteem which Bocchi felt, from an early age, for the Florentine painter and that will be reflected - as was already said - within the guide of Florence in 1591. “The essay is actually a bold and intensive interrogation of one of the fundamental principles of Renaissance art theory – the one that to a humanist like Bocchi is by far the most important – the idea that painting is like poetry... Ancient rhetorical theorists are cited as well as a number of Renaissance writers; some of the ideas derive from Leonardo da Vinci [note of the editor: for the influence of the writings of Leonardo on Francesco Bocchi, see Robert Williams, Leonardo and the Florentine Academy in Re -Reading Leonardo. The Treatise on Painting across Europe, 1550-1900]. All this learning is necessary in order to provide what Bocchi considers to be an adequate analysis of Andrea’s greatness as a painter, of the way in which his work elevates painting to poetry, and beyond that, to philosophy” (p. 13). In 1571, finally, Bocchi was able to publish a third pamphlet entitled Eccellenza del San Giorgio di Donatello (Excellence of San Giorgio by Donatello) where he dealt with the costume, the vivacity and the beauty of this statue. Paola Barocchi re-published it in Volume III of her Trattati d’Arte del Cinquecento fra Manierismo e Controriforma (Treaties of Art of the Cinquecento between Mannerism and the Counter Reformation).

Michelangelo, Tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Basilica of San Lorenzo, Medici Chapels
Source: Wikimedia Commons

[5] It remains to be said briefly on the fortune of the work. Assuming that the ultimate intention of the author was to provide a reliable guide to those who visited the city, it must be said that the initial editorial success of the Beauties of 1591 did not have to be astonishing, judging by the very limited number of copies that still remain today. If the Bellezze inaugurated a genre, therefore, as all modern commentators tend to write, the initial outcome was not a resounding success. And yet, eighty years later, namely in 1677, the Bellezze were republished in a much increased edition by Giovanni Cinelli. “Cinelli treats Bocchi’s text with considerable respect; it is reprinted in full, and distinguished from Cinelli’s copious additions by a cursive typeface. Most of the newly written text contains information about art works post-dating the original publication. In some places, however, Cinelli takes issue with individual assertions made by Bocchi or with the way information is provided” (p. 18). The guide, in the version Bocchi - Cinelli, experienced a very wide success. Nevertheless, there are reasons to reflect with some bitterness on what happened: while it is true that several fac-simile reprints have been published, no critical edition of the same in Italian ever appeared. We must therefore be content for this (meritorious) annotated translation into English.