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Lest We Sleep

24/6/2019

 
Walking Tours of Florence
Per Non Dormire, Palazzo Bartolini-Salimbeni, Florence
Per Non Dormire: motto of the Bartolini-Salimbeni family

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. 

Palazzo Bartolini-Salimbeni, Florence
Palazzo Bartolini-Salimbeni

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    Blogging about Florence:
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    My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England.

    Since 200I I have been living in Italy, where I run
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  • Private Tours
    • Private Tours of Rome
    • Private Tours of Florence
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  • Contact
  • Rome
  • Vatican
  • Florence
  • Venice
  • Tuscany
  • Gallery
  • Year in Art