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  • Garden of Palazzo Salviati, Florence.zoom in altra finestra
  • Garden of Palazzo Salviati, Florence.zoom in altra finestra

Palazzo Salviati Garden

Adjoining the Palazzo Salviati, the garden was famous in the 16th century for its zibibbo grapevines that Alamanno Salviati had sent from Greece. The Florentines renamed the grape variety "uva di ser Alamanno" (master Alamanno’s grapes) which with time was transformed into "salamanna". Various rare botanical varieties grew in the garden, including jasmine from Catalonia, cited by Antonio Targioni Tozzetti and Agostino del Riccio who reports in the manuscript Agricoltura sperimentale that the plant was brought to Florence in the late 16th century and given to Alamanno Salviati. The property was enlarged by architect Gherardo Silvani in the 17th century. In the eighteenth-century Cadastral Register the garden was indicated as semplicista, that is to say a garden of officinal plants. In the 19th century, the garden was enriched with greenhouses, including the ones that became famous for their pineapple cultivations, as recorded in 1878 by the Societą Toscana dell'Orticultura [Tuscan Horticultural Society].

Today divided into a public portion (one wing of the building is headquarters of the Professional Institute for Trade) and a private portion, the garden conserves few tokens of its original layout.

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Texts by Graziano Magrini

English translation by Victor Beard

Last update 07/gen/2008