in the middle Florencein a Via Del ProconsoloIn a confrontation Bargello There is a small chapel whose origins date back to beforeyear thousand. Inside is full of surprises: at the entrance there is a large and beautiful painting Philippine LibbyAnd the Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Bernardwho welcomes the visitor. Further inside is a funeral monument Hugh from Tuscanythe Marquis of Tuscany who remained in power between 961 and 1001, in the middle of the early Middle Ages. Today, his remains rest in an elegant funerary monument built between 1469 and 1481. Mino da Fiesolestudent artist Bernard Rossellino and coeval with Desire from Settignano. Work needs a Urgent recovery And in recent days, precisely on the occasion of the festivities that commemorate each year Hugh of Tuscany, a project for the redevelopment of the monument has been presented, made possible by the intervention of Florence FriendsInc., an American nonprofit organization that has raised and recruited more than any other organization since 1998 tens of millions of euros to storage of the Italian cultural heritage.
During the celebration of the memory of the great commander, Hugh’s ancient Tuscan armor was taken from the great sacristy in the sacristy where it is kept, and laid on a cushion in front of the tomb of the Marquis, whose “marks” are in monastery. Indeed, inside and outside the church is the coat of arms of Hugh of Tuscany, consisting of alternating vertical bands of white and red, which he also mentions Dante Alighieri In the Divine Comedyto me Canto XVI affiliate heaven: “Whoever bears the fine banner / The great baron whose name and value / Tommaso’s feast rest, / Obtaining militia and privilege from him.” The stone version of the coat of arms is placed above the entrance portal, the one in painted wood, and instead we find it above the altar of the church. But Why all this interest For the coat of arms of Hugh of Tuscany?
Because there is a hint of similarity driving Fame Hugh Tuscany To this day and even on the other side of the Atlantic. At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he created the coat of arms of Ugo, Philip Mazzyfrom a noble family of origin Poggio Cayano (today in the province of Prato), he was a traveler, and an eccentric (as well Freemason And the present in Revolution French) and ended with Virginia (in the US) to try farming Olive trees and vineyards in one of the residences Thomas Jefferson, the future US president. Soon a close relationship was born between Mazie and Jefferson that the former even “dictated” to the latter some parts of the United States Declaration of Independence. Mazee arrived in Virginia in 1773, but it didn’t take him long to become a friend and advisor to the American politician.
This is due to Mazze’s innovative ideas – according to some reconstructions – the first proposal for an American flag, submitted to George Washingtonwhich resume the Basic to Hugh from Tuscany or the seven vertical white and red stripes typical of the Marquis himself. The idea conquered the Americans and during the Continental Congress of 1777 the flag was adopted, but with 13 stripsHow many were Founding countries from the union. Maybe it’s just a myth, but there’s always someone around ready to swear that the idea of the red and white stripes somehow connects a leader who lived more than a thousand years ago in Florence to one of the most powerful nations in the world. the scientist.
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