Convent of Scolopi

History

Originally, a convent, there were many houses belonging to various families, including the Martelli and Gori Ciampellis. On the side of Piazza San Marco it was the House of Medici. In 1557, the church and the annexed houses were granted to the Jesuits who erected the convent and enlarged the church. Once the Jesuits were suppressed, it was given to the Piarist Fathers who established their college there. Without prejudice to the close link between this building and the nearby church of San Giovannino, it can be identified in particular as the date of origin of the current complex in 1554, when part of this area was granted by Cosimo I de' Medici to the Jesuits to found a college there. They entrusted the design to Bartolomeo Ammannati so that, even before the construction of the church, in 1579, part of the building could be considered defined. However, various obstacles did not allow the completion of the works which, having remained interrupted for many years, only resumed in 1620 based on a project by architect Giulio Parigi.

In the second half of the 17th century the college still showed a considerable degree of indeterminacy, with a courtyard of which only the arm towards via de 'Martelli had finished and the one to the south had just begun. This situation did not change until, in 1686, the grand-ducal architect Giovanni Battista Foggini took charge of a new project. The latter opened an important construction site in 1688, followed later in the 19th century by Origoni.

... who definitively gave the structure a complete planimetric articulation linked to the functional and pedagogical needs of the Society of Jesus. …