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Rusciano

On folios 18v and 19r of Madrid Ms. II, Leonardo draws the Florentine hills on the left bank of the Arno and indicates two localities: Rusciano and Paradiso.
The former corresponds to the area occupied by the Villa di Rusciano (indicated on f. 17 of Madrid Ms. II by the name "Pitti", having been built by Brunelleschi for Luca Pitti), by the Bisarno and the sandbank shown on maps RL 12679 and RL 12680 (Windsor Castle).
The latter is also indicated on folio 23r of the same Madrid Ms. II. At the foot of the hill known as "del Paradiso" stands what was in Leonardo's time the monastery of San Salvatore and Santa Brigida. It consists of an extension of the villa called "Paradiso degli Alberti", which was the seat of one of the most important circles in the early days of Florentine humanist culture.
In the Paradiso Chapel are noteworthy cycles of frescoes from the late 14th century. Further up, on Via Fortini, is the Romanesque church of Santa Maria e Santa Brigida al Paradiso, recorded in 1181 as Santa Maria degli Scalzi, then "di Fabroro", and as "badiuzza a Moccoli"; lower down, still on Via del Paradiso, is Giovannozzi's nymphaeum in the Villa Bandini.

Texts by
Alessandro Vezzosi, in collaboration with Agnese Sabato / English translation by Catherine Frost
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