Giuliano da San Gallo built this palace for himself and his brother in 1490, while he was engaged in designing the Villa of Poggio a Cajano. Lorenzo the Magnificent ordered him to construct a large hall, the ceiling of which was to be one huge arched vault, so Giuliano tried the experiment on rather a smaller scale in his own house. The result can be seen in a noble room on the second floor. The palace, bought by the great Portuguese family Ximenes d’Aragona, was considerably enlarged by Gherardo Silvani in 1603; the large entrance hall and the courtyard with a fine loggia leading into the garden were probably built by him. In 1769 the daughter of the last of the Ximenes d’Aragona married the Marquess Niccolò Panciatichi. After her father’s death the palace was let to General Miot, French Minister at the Court of Tuscany, whose guest Napoleon Bonaparte was for two days in 1796. Lord Burgersh lived here when British Minister at Florence, and his entertainments were the talk of the town, as he turned the large courtyard into a ball-room by covering it with a tent. The late Marquess Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona only left his family palace in Via Cavour for this one in 1850. Sixteen years later, in order to prolong the Via del Mandorlo, it was cut in two, but it is still one of the largest in Florence. FOOTNOTES [1] See _Florentine Villas_, Dent and Co., 1902. [2] _Le Bellezze della Città di Fiorenza._ Scritte da M. Francesco Bocchi In Fiorenza. MDXCI. [3] _Opere Volgare di Leon Battista Alberti._ Anicio Bonucci. Firenze. 1843. [4] See Preface to _Opere Volgare di L. B. Alberti_. A. Bonucci. [5] _Manuale di Letteratura Italiana._ Compilato dai Professori Alessandro d’Ancona e Orazio Bacci. Vol. ii p. 75. Firenze. G. Barbèra. 1904. [6] This is not the place to enter more fully into the subject; the reader can consult J. A. Symonds’ _Renaissance in Italy_; the _Manuale_ quoted above; G. S. Scipioni, _L. B. Alberti e A. Pandolfini_; V. Cortesi, mentioned in the text; G. Mancini, _Vita di L. B. Alberti_; the _Arch. Stor. Ital._ serie iv. xix; A. Bonucci, _Opere Volgare di L. B. Alberti_; and many others. [7] _Renaissance in Italy._ J. A. Symonds. Vol. ii, p. 247. Smith Elder and Co. 1897. [8] See _Paradiso degl’Alberti_ Edito da A. Wesselofsky. Bologna. 1867. [9] _Marietta de’ Ricci._ Di A. Ademollo. Con correzione e aggiunte di Luigi Passerini. Vol. ii, p. 697. Firenze. 1845. [10] _Istoria di Firenze._ Di Goro Dati. Dall’anno MCCCLXXX all’anno MCCCCV. con Annotazione. In Firenze MDCCXXXV. Nella Stamperia di Giuseppe Marmi. [11] This gate, which was on the bank of the river, was destroyed in 1860. At the same time foundations of massive stone walls were discovered, and the ancient pavement of the city was found far below the present level. [12] _Storie Fiorentine di Messer Bernardo Segni._ Dall’Anno MDXXVII al MDLV. In Augusta. MDCCXXIII. [13] _Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Altoviti._ Luigi Passerini. Firenze. 1871.