Dalla Pubblica Comodità alla Pubblica Utilità: un caso di esproprio nella Firenze del Cinquecento

The “Fabbrica dei XIII magistrates”, known as Uffizi, is the largest building-yard raised in Florence in the second half of the XVI century. At the end of the year 1559 the architect and painter Giorgio Vasari presented the Duke of Florence Cosimo I de’ Medici, with a wooden model of the Uffizi loggia. At its back the loggia released the entrance to the place for the offices of the Florentine magistrates -hence the name “Uffizi” (“offices”)- assembled under a same roof. For the construction of this impressive building the minute medieval fabric was demolished with quick and implacable procedures. New acquisitions made during a transdisciplinary research --coordinated by the Direzione Generale per il Paesaggio, le Belle Arti, l’Architettura e l’Arte Contemporanee del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali-- shed light on the process of the expropriation, on the procedures of building estimation, and on the number and location of those houses. The reconstruction of the urban fabric pre-Uffizi has been the tool to focus the methods and timing of the foundation laying, decisive stages of construction for the rest of the building. In a very large border of the building, three paradigmatic examples have been chosen to synthesize the large number of cases of expropriation in the period 1560-1568. The three cases examined show that although in the policy of Cosimo I the public and private interest are inextricably linked, with regard to expropriation, the Duke keep a double register: for the construction of a buildings intended to the Duke’s private use, Cosimo is respectful of other people's property; for a building legitimized by the Publica Commoditas, the public benefit and the duke will prevail over the interests of the citizens.