Villa Salviatino, Maiano

The Villa Salviatino, Maiano, in the frazione of Maiano on the steep slope south of Fiesole, is a Tuscan villa overlooking Florence. A modest farmhouse in the 14th century, set among informally terraced slopes planted with vines and olives, the house in its vigna was purchased in 1427 by the Bardi family, bankers of Florence, who rebuilt it in such palatial fashion that when it was subsequently sold to Nicola Tegliacci in 1447, the new owner named it Palagio (palazzo) dei Tegliacci. In the 16th century it passed to Alamanno Salviati, who had it sumptuously frescoed and furnished; thus it gained its name as the Villa Il Salviatino, to distinguish it from the grander Villa Salviati "le Selve", near Lastra, to the west. The villa was celebrated by Francesco Redi, in his Bacco in Toscana (1685): "viva il nome Del buon Salviati, ed il suo bel Maiano". For a short period it was owned by the Italian tenor Giovanni Matteo Mario and his wife Giulia Grisi, the transaction was completed by financier N M Rothschild of London, then in 1871 the villa was purchased by Pietro Pagliano, who added a medievalizing crenellated tower, but a new, more sympathetic owner, the American Phelps Thomas, took ownership in 1882 and began a programme of free restoration and aggrandisement, to designs of the antiquarian architect Corinto Corinti (1843–1930). A large central staircase was added and grand cinq

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