THE VILLA CORSINI, NEAR FLORENCE 
PLATES 44, 45, 46 
HE beautiful Villa Corsini at Castello first belonged to the Strozzi family, who 
afterwards sold it in 1460 to the Rinieri, when the place was known as 
‘ La Lepre dei Rinieri.’ A century later it was bought by Francesco di Jacopo 
Sangalletti, and upon the confiscation of his estates by the Medici, it was 
sold to Pagolo Donati, in 1597. In 1618 it was bought by Cosimo II. de’ 
Medici, in order to add to the restricted accommodation of the two royal 
palaces at Castello and Petraja; in 1650 it was again sold, and eventually in 
1698 passed into the hands of the Corsini family, in whose possession it still remains. 
The garden as it now exists was laid out about this date, when many alterations were made 
to the villa, and the whole brought ‘ up to date,’ with a new stucco front of * rococo ’ design. 
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