Firenze Santa Maria Novella

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Firenze
Santa Maria Novella
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E' molto semplice non si vede bene che col
cuore. L'essenziale è invisibile agli occhi
(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince)
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Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence,
situated just across from the main railway
station which shares its name. Chronologically,
it is the first great basilica in Florence, and
is the city's principal Dominican church
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Piazza Santa Maria Novella, the square in front
the church was used by Cosimo I for the yearly
chariot race (Palio dei Cocchi). This custom
existed between 1563 and late in the 19th
century. The two obelisks marked the start and
the finish of the race. They were set up to
imitate an antique Roman circus. The obelisks
rest on bronze tortoises, made in 1608 by the
sculptor Giambologna.
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The facade is not only the oldest of all the
churches in Florence but it is also the only
church with its original planned facade in place.
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Architecturally, it is one of the most important
Gothic churches in Tuscany. The exterior is the
work of Fra Jacopo Talenti and Leon Battista
Alberti.
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Albertis contribution consists of a broad frieze
decorated with squares and everything above it,
including the four white-green pilasters and a
round window, crowned by a pediment with the
Dominican solar emblem, and flanked on both sides
by enormous S-curved volutes.
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The pediment and the frieze are clearly inspired
by the antiquity, but the S-curved scrolls in the
upper part are new and without precedent in
antiquity. The scrolls (or variations of them),
found in churches all over Italy, all find their
origin here in the design of this church
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This church was called Novella (New) because it
was built on the site of the 9th-century oratory
of Santa Maria delle Vigne. When the site was
assigned to Dominican Order in 1221, they decided
to build a new church and an adjoining cloister.
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the green Cloister (Chiostro Verde)
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The Spanish Chapel (or Cappellone degli Spagnoli)
is the former chapterhouse of the monastery. It
is situated at the north side of the green
Cloister (Chiostro Verde).
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It was later called "Spanish Chapel", because
Cosimo I assigned it to Eleonora of Toledo and
her Spanish retinue (it was used by the courtiers
of Eleanor of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I)
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An armillary sphere and a gnomon were added to
the end blind arches of the lower façade by the
astronomer of Cosimo I. This armillary sphere was
designed and erected by Ignazio Danti in 1572
enabling him, with other instruments, to measure
the exact length of the year by determining the
true equinox. At the vernal equinox in March 1574
Danti observed that it was eleven days early
according to the Julian calendar. This was one of
the factors that led to the introduction of the
Gregorian calendar in 1582
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A memorial stone affixed to the Loggia dei Lanzi,
in Piazza della Signoria, recalls as a
historically significant moment the date on which
in Florence too, at the decree of Grand Duke
Francesco II of Lorraine, time began to be
measured starting from January 1st of each year.
It was 1750, the year in which the "Florentine
style" calendar was definitively abandoned in
favor of the one reformed by Pope Gregory XIII in
1582
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Before 1750, the Florentine year began ab
Incarnatione, on March 25, the day consecrated by
the Catholic Church to the Archangel Gabriel's
annunciation to Mary (nine months prior to the
birth of Jesus)
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That date also coincided with the beginning of
spring, which started only a few days earlier, on
March 21, when the Sun entered the constellation
of Aries
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For Florence, this was a particularly important
moment. It was the beginning of a new life marked
on the astronomical level by the first season of
the year, on the religious level by the festival
of the Annunciation - grandiosely honored in the
Church of the SS. Annunziata since the 13th
century - and on the level of the city's origins,
by the ancient Ludi Florales dedicated to Flora,
the goddess of springtime, for whom Florence had
been named.
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Two masterpieces by Botticelli, The Birth of
Venus and the Primavera, have indelibly engraved
in the collective consciousness the iconography
of Flora-Florentia associated with the birth that
recurs each year under the sign of Aries.
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Begin from the Middle Ages the Public Square of
Santa Maria Novella was used for festivities and
other shows. In the public square we can admire
the loggiato of the Hospital of San Paolo
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Text Internet Pictures Daniela Iacob All
copyrights belong to their respective owners
Presentation Sanda Foisoreanu
2011
Sound Firenze Santa Maria Novella - Pupo
Mattinata fiorentina - Claudio Villa
Firenze sogna - Giuseppe Di Stefano