Lest We Sleep

Walking Tours of Florence

Per Non Dormire: motto of the Bartolini-Salimbeni family

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The Palazzo Bartolini-Salimbeni, which stands on the east side of Piazza Santa Trinita, was built in the 1520s by Bartolomeo Baglioni (1462-1543), better known as Baccio d' Agnolo.

​The Bartolini-Salimbeni family were originally from Siena, but moved to Florence in the 14th century. The move proved successful and the family quickly amassed enormous wealth through the trading of silk.

​On the cross-bars of the windows there is an inscription in Latin: Per Non Dormire (Lest we sleep), which was the family motto. It refers to a story concerning a particularly unscrupulous member of the family, who was so keen to be the first to purchase a shipment of silk that he drugged the wine of his rival merchants with opium.

The family's emblem was made up of three opium poppies and it is emblazoned all over the facade of their palazzo. 

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Palazzo Bartolini-Salimbeni