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UFFIZI GALLERY 
The Uffizi Gallery was founded and unceas¬ 
ingly enlarged by the Medici. Although ori- 
ginally engaged in trade and industry, this fa¬ 
mily, even before it obtained the supreme power 
in Florence, did all in its power to encourage 
and foster the fine arts, science and literature. 
The first of the Medici who collected at his 
own expense pictures and sculptures with which 
to adorn his private mansions and the city of Flo- 
rence, was Cosimo of Giovanni, of Averardo, 
known as Pater Patriœ. His example was 
followed by Lorenzo the Magnificent, by the first 
Grand-Duke Cosimo I, and by the son of the 
latter, Francesco I. It is to Francesco that we 
may really attribute the formation of the Gallery. 
He took advantage of the great building which 
Cosimo I had projected to lodge all public of¬ 
fices; of which the foundations had been laid 
on Giorgio Vasari’s plans in 1500. This build¬ 
ing, Doric in style and rectangular in form, has