THE GARDENS OF THE VILLA CORSINI 
AT GASTELLO, NEAR FLORENCE, ITALY 
By B. C. JENNINGS-BRAMLY 
T HE beautiful villa at Gastello, now the 
property of Prince Corsini, was originally 
built for one of the Strozzi family. The 
plan of the house, the style of the courtyard 
in its original proportions, and some of the 
old stone windows on the ground floor, all 
prove that it was built in the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury. As far back as 1460 it is known to 
have belonged to the Rinieri, when it was 
called the Lepre dei Rinieri. This odd 
name of Lepre 
(hare) was also 
that of the fam- 
i 1y , one of 
whom met with 
a tragic end in 
1538, when he 
and several 
other Floren¬ 
tine citizens 
were beheaded 
as rebels under 
Cosimo, First 
Grand Duke of 
Tuscany. The 
villa passed 
through many 
hands until it 
was bought in 
1618 by Cosi¬ 
mo II. dei 
Medici, from a 
MarchesaMal- 
aspina. Being 
close to the two 
royal villas of 
Petraia and Gastello, it was bought with 
the intention of adding to the restricted ac¬ 
commodation of these two palaces at times 
when the whole court migrated there. 
It remained in possession of the Medici 
only thirty-two years. In 1650 it was bought 
by Piero Cervieri, who in his turn sold it to 
the Jesuits in 1665. The order parted with 
it in 1672 to the Lanfredini, who increased 
the estate by buying adjoining land from 
the Medici, and eventually in 1698 sold it 
to the Corsini, in whose possession it has 
remained ever since. 
Until it became the property ot this family 
the house consisted of the cortile or courtyard, 
and the buildings to the north, which face 
the ilex wood. In shape the cortile remains 
what it was, a quadrangle with an open 
cloister running round three of its sides, 
but the light Ionic columns that once sup¬ 
ported it have been replaced by heavy pilas¬ 
ters built in 
brick and faced, 
like the rest of 
the house, with 
acoatof plaster. 
A terrace, pos¬ 
sibly roofed 
over, ran 
around the 
three open 
sides of the 
cortile on the 
flrstfloor. This 
terrace is now 
incorporated in 
the house and 
forms the pass¬ 
age connecting 
the old part 
with the new. 
The ilex 
wood and the 
vivajo or large 
water reservoir 
existed before 
the Corsini 
bought the villa, for Vasari, in his life of 
Tribolo, mentions a statue of a river god 
pouring water here into a stone basin orna¬ 
mented with lions’ heads. The statue and 
basin exist, but are no longer together. Vasari 
also mentions a fountain with another statue 
by Tribolo which from his description must 
have been very similar to the celebrated “ Man¬ 
nikin” at Brussels. Of this no trace remains. 
In 1698, when bought by the Corsini, 
the villa was not only enlarged but gen- 
THE ENTRANCE FROM THE PUBLIC ROAD 
125 
