The 2014 edition of Un Anno d’Arte exhibition series opens this year with Once in a Lifetime. Treasures from the Archives and Libraries of Florence on exhibit now through April 27, 2014 in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti, Florence. The exhibition displays 133 historic treasures including manuscripts, books and drawings — many never before seen by the general public — collected from 33 of the city’s most important institutions and archives.
Galileo Galilei, Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Padua, Salmin, 1897, 18x10mm, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence. This is believed to be the smallest book in the world, printed with movable type set by hand, published by Salmin publishers, renowned for their microscopic editions. Galileo expressed in the letter his theory and convictions.
“Topolino” (December 1932), Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence: copy of first issue of the comic Topolina (Mickey Mouse),, published by A. Vallecchi of Florence.
The books and documents on show will feature the first dictionary published by the Accademia della Crusca dated 1612, an edition of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists dated 1568, the first Italian edition of Topolino (Mickey Mouse) dated 1932, a letter book that belonged to Bianca Cappello, seven copies of the Divine Comedy (including one with illustrations by Alessandro Botticelli), the document with which Louis XI of France granted Piero de’ Medici permission to use the French lily in the coat of arms of the Tuscan dynasty, the law Pietro Leopoldo of Hapsburg Lorraine enacted in 1786 that abolished capital punishment in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Libro di Montaperti, the Testamento of Folco Portinari, the register of the Istituto degli Innocenti (a charitable institution and foundlings hospital founded in the XV century) bearing the name of the first child (Agata Smeralda) abandoned in the stone basin known as the “pila” and a papyrus from the first century B.C.
Three archive documents related to Michelangelo, a drawing by Raphael, the baptism certificate of Leonardo da Vinci and another text bearing his annotations, a lecture on Dante’s Inferno written by Galileo, works attributed to Andrea Mantegna, Alessandro Allori and Giovanni Stradano, autographs of Girolamo Savonarola, Poliziano, Cosimo I de’ Medici, Joachim Winckelmann, Ugo Foscolo, Giuseppe Pelli Bencivenni, Giovanni Fabbroni, Pietro Vieusseux, Eugenio Barsanti, Vasco Pratolini, Eduardo De Filippo, Dino Campana, and Nobel Laureate Eugenio Montale.
Letter-book of Bianca Cappello, 1586-1587, Archivio della Fondazione del Museo Horne, Florence. The antiquarian Herbert Horne purchased this important manuscript in 1909. It contains precious information on the historical and artistic events of that time and is a rarity inasmuch as it is the only surviving documentation about the writings of the Grand Duchess, wife of Francesco I de’Medici.
Once in a Lifetime. Treasures from the Archives and Libraries of Florence
Through April 27, 2014
Galleria Palatina- Palazzo Pitti
Florence – ITALY
Admission
Full rate: € 13.00
Opening hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 8:15am – 6:50pm; the ticket office closes at 6pm
Closed on Mondays
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