Badia

Some say that the Badia was founded in 978 by the Countess Willa, mother of Hugh of Tuscany. On the original property chosen for the Badia, there was already a tiny structure known as the church of St. Stephen, which was architecturally incorporated into the Benedictine abbey.

In 1285 the Badia was renovated by Arnolfo di Cambio who turned its apse toward the east and the city walls (where Via del Proconsolo now runs). In the 1600s, the Badia was rotated again, this time with its apse pointed toward the Arno, and took the shape of a Greek cross. Hugh of Tuscany is buried in the tomb (below) on the east wall that, according to Vasari, was Mino da Fiesole’s masterpiece (ca. 1469-81).

According to popular legend, however, it was Hugh of Tuscany who decided to build the Badia after a frightening dream:

“It came to pass, as it pleased God, that while Hugh was riding through the wood during a hunt [...], he lost sight of all his companions. He came alone into a clearing where he saw what he supposed was a blacksmith’s workshop. But here he found men, black and deformed, who, instead of working iron, seemed to be tormenting men with fire and with hammer. He asked them what they were doing, and they replied, declaring that these were damned souls and that the soul of the Margrave Hugh was also condemned for similar pains on account of his worldly ways unless he should repent. Hugh, with great fear, commended himself to the Virgin Mary, and when the vision had ended, he remained so pricked in the spirit that, after his return to Florence, he sold all his patrimony in Germany and commanded that seven monasteries should be founded in Tuscany. The Badia of Florence, dedicated to Virgin Mary, was the first of them.” (Villani, Nuova cronica 5.2)

Dante, whose family home was nearby, grew up within earshot of the Badia’s bells, which rang out at least twice daily over what used to be the city’s old walls.

The Badia is of greatest interest to admirers of Dante for two reasons: its probable role - in one way or another - in his relationship with Beatrice, as both of them attended services here; and the fact that Giovanni Boccaccio stood here in what’s called the Pandolfini chapel (below) in 1373-74 as he delivered the first public lectures on the Divine Comedy. The space is named after Battista Pandolfini who commissioned this section of the church and the courtyard that separates it from Via Dante.

Coat of arms of the Pandolfini family