| Abstrakt: |
The Tolomei Biffi collection has its origins with the Tolomei Gucci family, documented since the late thirteenth century in Florence, which in the mid-seventeenth century began an organic collecting activity aimed at decorating the family palace in Via de' Ginori. Later the art collection grew thanks to the legacies of several families, such as the Cecchi, the Mazzoni d'Urbech and the Biffi Castellani, who within a century merged into the Tolomei, who assumed the name Tolomei Biffi in 1752. Furthermore, the activity of some members of the family in the Florentine art market allowed the collection to be enriched with relevant works of art. Through the analysis of a number of inventories held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence and the Archivio di Stato of Florence, this essay aims to reconstruct the physiognomy of the Tolomei Biffi collection, its display in the family palace and its dispersion in the mid-nineteenth century, trying to define its status within the context of Florentine private collecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
