- Source: Palazzo degli Sporti
Palazzo degli Sporti, or Busini Ugolini, is a civic building in the historical centre of Florence, located between Via dell'Oriuolo 10 and Via Sant'Egidio in Florence, in front of an unnamed small square near the San Pierino arch, where it also leads to Borgo Pinti.
The palace appears in the list drawn up in 1901 by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Fine Arts, as a monumental building to be considered national artistic heritage (Italy).
History and description
The three-storey building, dating back to the 16th century, overlooks both Via dell’Oriuolo and Via Sant’Egidio with its façades with «sporti» on corbels, which are such a distinctive feature that they have given the building its current name. In this area are documented ancient houses of the Albizi that, almost in ruins, were sold in 1508 by Filippo di Michele da Nipozzano (Albizi) to Anton Francesco degli Albizi. Luca, his son, built the palace in its present form around 1532. In the course of time from the Albizi the property passed to the Orlandi (creditors of the Albizi), then to the Busini, later inheriting it from a nun of the family of the monastery of Santa Caterina al Monte, known as San Gaggio: This phase is referred to by the Wheel flanked by the palms of martyrdom that recurs on the doors, now closed, looking both onto via Sant’Egidio and via dell’Oriuolo, as a symbol of St. Catherine of Alexandria.
In the 19th century, the palazzo underwent a chamfer towards Piazza Salvemini to attenuate the sharpness of the sprone which, due to the projections on brackets, made it resemble the prow of a ship. The new façade on this short side, with the exception of the ground floor treated with faux rusticated ashlar in a manner decidedly typical of that period, does not, however, interrupt the unity of the design of the elevations of the upper floors, indicating that the chamfer must have affected only a low building body that presumably determined the sprone with a terrace.
In this house, in 1631, the Bolognese man of letters Agostino Coltellini formed a sodality with the aim of bringing together «in virtuous conversation» the young people who had emerged from the school of Humanities, which from 1635 became the Academy of Apatists. A tradition attributes, without foundation, the palace to Michelangelo Buonarroti, or doubtfully to Baccio d'Agnolo.
The building is currently in good condition following a recent restoration.
Notes
Bibliography
= Italian sources
=External links
Media related to Palazzo degli Sporti at Wikimedia Commons
Claudio Paolini, schede nel Repertorio delle architetture civili di Firenze di Palazzo Spinelli