ABSTRACT
Cafaggiolo is the first Medici property to come to public notice: despite its forbidding appearance, it overlooks the gentle, fertile plain of the Mugello, a region with great historic significance. Cafaggiolo appears to have come into Medici hands several generations after the founding of the republic in 1115, when the people of Florence had risen against the ruling margravine and established their independent city-state. This was a time of great social change when land ownership was moving from the nobility to the bourgeoisie. The earliest reference to Cafaggiolo, the 1319 will of the gonfalonier, Averardo de Medici II, describes the estate as a large house with an orchard. Records indicate that only two of Averardo’s sons inhabited Cafaggiolo, suggesting the property was not large enough to support all five of his offspring. By the mid-sixteenth century, the Medici were secure enough in their power that they no longer needed the pretence of ancient fortresses.
