ENGLISH VERSION Francesco Albertini; Memoriale di molte statue et picture... a Firenze (1510); Centro Di, 2010

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro

CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Waldemar H. de Boer
Memoriale di molte statue et picture sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia di Francesco Albertini (1510) [Guide to many statues and paintings in the centre of Florence]]
Un volumetto dedicato all'arte fiorentina

Centro Di, Firenze, 2010

[1] Text of the back cover:

"Published six years after Michelangelo's David had been placed in the Piazza della Signoria, the Memoriale di molte statue et picture sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia [Guide to many statues and paintings in the centre of Florence] by Francesco Albertini is the first known systematic description of the heritage of arts in town and can be considered as the prototype for all subsequent guides of Florence.  

This edition of the Memorial, with its accompanying annotations and illustrations, gives readers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the extraordinary wealth of masterpieces that Florence could claim in 1510, a large part of which has gone lost."

[2] The header of the front page shows (instead of the author’s name, i.e. Albertini) the one of the author of the critical edition, i.e. Waldemar H. de Boer.

[3] Traditionally, the Memorial by Albertini is considered the first artistic guide not only in Florence but throughout Italy, like Schlosser defined it in the Letteratura artistica (pp. 212-213); he however also did not fail to highlight its limits: "This guide, the oldest of Florence, and indeed of the whole of Italy, had an imitator only after a few dozens of years; however, is really a very rushed work, as it was drafted during a brief visit to his native city, and often gives the impression of what today we would call an out of print publication. [... ] Despite its flaws, Albertini is remarkable and worthy of esteem as the very first of the hardworking Italian ‘ciceroni’ (art guides). [ ... ] Moreover, Albertini is one of the sources of Vasari, already important enough for its first edition. "

Michelangelo Buonarroti, David, 1504. Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia

[4] To be honest, Schlosser's claims do not appear, in this case, particularly appropriate: first, it is to be wondered if the memorial is or is not an artistic guide of the city. It seems difficult to take the view it would be, in the traditional sense of the term, as pointed out by the same de Boer (p. 12). Nowhere in his work Albertini addresses himself to any potential visitor or, more generally, to an audience of spectators. The very brevity of the work (14 pages), combined with the high density of works and monuments listed (more than 200), points out in fact to a kind of inventory, prepared for perusal of author and a small circle of friends. In the dedication is Albertini himself, however, to make it known that the preparation of the work had been solicited by his friend, the sculptor and architect, Baccio da Montelupo. De Boer, in fact, believes that the memorial has been written to Baccio and a few of his friends only. Moreover, the spread of the booklet was very limited (today there are three known surviving copies), and it does not appear to have been ever reprinted. Finally, it is far from clear and undisputed that Vasari (or even Francesco Bocchi, who in 1591 drew only the first guide "modern" of the town) knew the script by Albertini (see p . 25 and p . No. 33 no. 58). For our part, what is amazing, if anything, is that Albertini (or Baccio da Montelupo ) choose - if indeed this was the case -  to publish the text, and not simply to make a few manuscript copies, carrying costs that, at the dawn of printing, were certainly not scarce. Probably, he chose a “fashionable" technology, to make a good impression on the recipients of the gift.

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistery

[5] About Albertini we do not know much. He moved from the countryside to Florence at an early age, was a canon at San Lorenzo. He made his ecclesiastical studies, but cultivated a passion for the fine arts. It was, in short, as he himself tells us, an amateur. But , given that modesty was not his strongest asset, we know (these are his own words, difficult to say how truthful they are) that he prepared an alternative model for the facade of Santa Croce (as he found that what had been build-up was "without order or measure"), that he followed the public lectures of many humanists , that he spent six months perfecting his studies in Bologna , and finally, "I consulted some sections of Vitruvius  et Leon Battista Alberti’s De architectura; in the Pope palace one door was designed by me" (p. 94). And – while according to his words, Francesco wrote much – very little has come down to our days. Among the few works, the Opusculum de mirabilus novae & Veteris Urbis Romae (Booklet on wonderful features of the new and old Rome) should be recalled, also printed in 1510. Valentini and Zucchini have partly reproduced it in 1953 in the fourth volume of their Codice topografico della città di Roma; it is a text carved in the tradition of the Mirabilia Urbis Romae, although it brings valuable information about modern Rome. It is very likely that the author used the experience of drafting the Opusculum to learn how to provide his Memorial of Florence with the features of a topographical survey (the material is distributed by taking into consideration the four districts of the town).

Detail from the Gates of Paradise: Salomon and the Queen of Sheba

[6] Albertini had moved to Rome in 1505, in the wake of Cardinal Fazio Santoro from Viterbo. Thus, when he wrote the Memorial, Francesco was living in Rome; the opportunity for the drafting of the work was given to him - he said - from a short visit to Florence in late August 1510. And even here, in my opinion, it would be worth raising some questions. Schlosser and de Boer essentially accept the idea that the draft was completed in a few days. To us it seems strange that all of this may have materialised in such a short span of time; we must not interpret the (intentional) conciseness of the work as a sign it was rushed. It is far more likely that the idea remained hidden for a long time (you do not prepare well documented texts in a few days) and that the final visit of 1510 was only the opportunity for a final check in Florence. What is however certain is that the strength of the work (net of blatant omissions, but always taking into account that this was a " pioneering " endeavour) is the extraordinarily high number (over 200) of works cited (and the very high percentage of correct attributions) and their exact location in the urban fabric of the city. If, therefore, the influence of the Memorial on later generations was quite small, its importance for the history of contemporary art is truly outstanding.

Detail from the Gates of Paradise: Histories of Joseph

[7 ] Published really remarkable , with a rich set of notes and interesting thoughts.