Masterpieces of the Uffizi [antikvár]

the uffizi gallery Mention is first made of the Uffizi in a letter from the Grand Duke Cosimo I to the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari dated October 22, 1559: « ... We shall be satisfied if you will build the palace in conformity with the model you made of same for the Order of Magistrates ». In fact, as a modern innovation, the new building was intended to house the centralized judicial and administrative offices of the government, thus expressing the unity and greatness of the Medici state, which had recently become a Grand Duchy. Thirteen Directors were appointed to manage the various departments of the public administration, which included, among others, courts of justice, guilds and tax-offices, with the result that the new edifice was first known as the «Palace of the XIII Magistrates», which, however, was later, altered to the Uffizi or uffici, namely, « offices ». According to documents of the time, 234 owners were dispossessed of their houses standing between the Rwer Arno and the Piazza della Signoria, in order to make way for the new offices. During the work of demolition, a greater part of the Romanesque church of San Piero Scheraggio, which formerly stood in Via della Ninna between the Uffizi and the