166
FLORENCE.
Imperialists, till Clement VII. had promised to pardon him
the fortifications he had constructed. In the sacristy is an
injured fresco of S. Thomas receiving the Cintola, by Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo.
The Porta S. Niccolò is the only one of the Florentine
gates which remains exactly in its ancient state, and it
retains its three tiers of arches.
(From near the entrance of the Via de’ Bardi, a passage
under an archway leads up the hill-side to the Porta S.
Giorgio, passing, on the right, the house inhabited by Galileo.
The gate dates from 1324, and has a fresco, by Bernardo
Daddi, of the Virgin and Child throned, with S. George and
S. Sigismund. The neighbouring Fortezza di S. Giorgio, or
Belvidere, was built by Buontalenti for Ferdinand I. The
Medici kept their treasures in a secret chamber beneath it.)
On the left of the street—Via Guicciardini—which faces
the Ponte Vecchio, is the Piazza S. Felicità, where a pillar
commemorates one of the murderous victories of S. Peter
Martyr over the heretics called Paterini. The tribune of the
Church belongs to the Guicciardini, and the historian Fran¬
cesco Guicciardini is buried in front of the high-altar. The
first chapel on the right contains a Deposition, by Jacopo
Pontormo : in the 5th chapel is a Madonna with Saints, by
Taddeo Gaddi. In the sacristy is a picture of the Martyr¬
dom of S. Felicitas and her sons, attributed to Neri de'
Bicci. In the chapter-house are frescoes, by Cosimo Ulivelli
and Agnolo Gheri, and over the altar a Crucifixion, by Niccolò
Gerini. The portico of the church contains some monu¬
ments from an old cemetery which existed here in earlier
times, including the incised figure of Barduccio Barducci, ob.
1414, who was twice Gonfalonier, and an altar-tomb with
a figure of Cardinal Luigi de’ Rossi, 1519, by Baccio di
Montelupo.
Now, on the left, we pass the Palazzo Guicciardini, nearly
opposite to which a tablet marks the house where Macchia-
velli died.
At the corner of the Via Toscanella an ancient well marks