Drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci’s baptism certificate, as well as texts featuring his notes, a lecture by Galileo on Dante’s Inferno – these are just some of the documents visitors will be able to admire at the exhibition “Once in a Lifetime - Treasures from the archives and libraries of Florence,” on view until April 27 in the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti.
The exhibit, which opens the program "Florence 2014 - A Year in Art," features 133 pieces, including manuscripts, books and drawings from 33 public institutions encompassing 25 centuries of history – the goal is to offer visitors the unique chance to admire a selection of important documents, most of them previously unreleased, coming from the archives and libraries of the main cultural institutions of the city.
One of the highlights of the show is a page by Michelangelo, never before shown to the public in Italy, detailing how to carve stone blocks into a cross-shaped sculpture. Not to miss are also the first edition of the vocabulary of the Crusca (the most important institution responsible for regulating the Italian language as well as the oldest linguistic academy in the world), a 1568 edition of Le vite by Giorgio Vasari (the Italian Renaissance's most influential writing on art history), the first issue of Mickey Mouse dating back to 1932, a copy of the Divine Comedy with illustrations by Alessandro Botticelli, the document with which Louis XI of France granted Piero de’ Medici permission to use the French lily in the coat of arms of the Tuscan dynasty. Other documents include autographs of Girolamo Savonarola, Poliziano, Cosimo I de ' Medici, Ugo Foscolo, and Eugenio Montale.
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