Fioravanti family

They did not disdain to participate in some big business The Fioravanti were active in banking, especially associating with the Acciaioli, a family with which they had an uninterrupted relationship of interests and kinship.

From 1340 until December 1345, he was responsible for the expansion and restructuring of the Palazzo del Podestà, the Bargello, the most important Florentine project in those years in the field of civil architecture.

His son Francesco found the ideal ground already prepared for a personal affirmation and for determining a further social ascent of the family: he soon became one of the most important citizens of his time.

In particular he took care of the construction of the great hall of the council, with its imposing vaulted ceiling, as well as the open staircase in the courtyard with a three-mullioned window towards Piazza S. Firenze which made the building lose its appearance of a fortress.

On 19 May 1350 the Castella office prepared written instructions for the orthogonal, symmetrical and centralized plan of the new city of Giglio Fiorentino, of which Fioravanti is in all probability the author.

The stonemasons were in fact responsible for the purchase of the stone, mostly coming from quarries located near Florence, for its processing according to the instructions of the master builder Francesco Talenti, for its shipment to the construction site and for its installation.

Critics have linked his name to the reliefs of the Virtues and to the statues on the south side of the bell tower, but there are no documents in this regard (Venturi, 1906, pp.

Francesco Fioravanti, the son of Neri between 1374 and 1398 was elected a Prior and two Gonfalone, but his weight in the republican government was by far more decisive than what the three magistracies suggest.