The Barbadori family left an unusually varied legacy in Florence. Medieval towers in Borgo San Jacopo, political careers in the Florentine Republic and commissions involving Filippo Brunelleschi and Filippo Lippi all preserve traces of a family whose history stretched from commerce into politics and Renaissance patronage.
For travellers, the story of the Barbadori family Florence is particularly rewarding because much of it can still be followed on foot through the Oltrarno. Within a relatively small area, medieval tower houses, Santa Felicita and Santo Spirito reveal how a prosperous Florentine family could shape the city through property, public life and art.
Family: Barbadori
Origins: Documented in medieval Florence
Historic quarter: Oltrarno
Activities: Commerce, politics and patronage
Political allegiance: Guelph
Key figures: Donato, Niccolò, Bartolomeo and Gherardo Barbadori
Florence connections: Borgo San Jacopo, Santa Felicita and Santo Spirito
Artists and architects: Filippo Brunelleschi and Filippo Lippi
Best for: Family history, medieval Florence and Renaissance patronage
Who Were the Barbadori?
The Barbadori belonged to the prosperous families of medieval and Renaissance Florence. Their roots in the city reached back into the Middle Ages, while their properties concentrated particularly in the Oltrarno, the district south of the Arno.
Commerce provided an important foundation for the family’s prosperity. Like many successful Florentine merchant families, however, the Barbadori did not remain confined to business. Members entered public life, participated in the institutions of the republic and invested part of their wealth in religious and artistic patronage.
The family belonged to the Guelph political tradition. This placed the Barbadori within the factional world that shaped Florence long before the Medici established their dominance.
Understanding families such as the Barbadori helps correct a common impression of Florentine history. The city was never shaped by the Medici family alone. Numerous merchant families competed, cooperated, married and commissioned buildings and works of art, creating the social environment from which Renaissance Florence emerged.
Think of the Barbadori not as a ruling dynasty comparable with the Medici, but as an example of the prosperous families that formed the political and commercial fabric of republican Florence. Their surviving buildings and commissions make that wider world unusually visible today.
The Barbadori in the Oltrarno
The family’s strongest physical association with Florence lies south of the Arno. Their properties formed part of the dense medieval development around Borgo San Jacopo, immediately beyond Ponte Vecchio. This was an important location. Roads leading from the bridge connected the commercial centre north of the river with neighbourhoods and routes extending through the Oltrarno and beyond Florence.
Powerful families established houses and towers along these streets. These buildings provided homes and security while also displaying wealth and family status. Two surviving towers in Borgo San Jacopo preserve the Barbadori name. The better-known example stands at number 54, close to Piazzetta degli Angiolieri. The concentration of tower houses in this area makes Borgo San Jacopo one of the most useful places for imagining the urban landscape of medieval Florence.
Our Medieval Florence Walking Tour places these surviving tower houses within the wider network of fortified residences, narrow streets and powerful families that existed before Renaissance palaces transformed the city.
Begin in Borgo San Jacopo, only moments from Ponte Vecchio. The surviving stone towers provide the most immediate introduction to the Barbadori before their story continues into nearby churches and Renaissance patronage.
From Merchants to Florentine Politics
Commercial success opened the way to public office in republican Florence. Members of the Barbadori family served the city in political, administrative and diplomatic roles over several generations.
One particularly interesting figure was Donato Barbadori, a 14th-century jurist and politician. He taught law at the Florentine Studio and participated in diplomatic activity during the conflict between Florence and the papacy known as the War of the Eight Saints.
His son Niccolò Barbadori became still more prominent in the early 15th century. Niccolò served as a prior and undertook important diplomatic assignments for the republic.
In 1405, he participated in the negotiations that led to Florence’s acquisition of Pisa. The episode places a member of the Barbadori family directly within one of the republic’s most important territorial developments of the period.
Yet Niccolò’s political career would eventually bring him into conflict with the rising power of the Medici.
Niccolò Barbadori and the Rise of Cosimo de’ Medici
The early 1430s marked a decisive moment in Florentine politics. Rival groups struggled over the growing influence of Cosimo de’ Medici, whose wealth, alliances and political network increasingly challenged the traditional republican elite.
Niccolò Barbadori aligned himself with the circle around Rinaldo degli Albizzi. This group opposed Cosimo and initially succeeded in forcing him into exile in 1433.
The victory proved brief. Cosimo returned to Florence the following year, while several leading opponents lost their political position. In 1434, Niccolò Barbadori went into exile together with Rinaldo degli Albizzi and other adversaries of the Medici.
The episode gives the Barbadori story broader importance. Their history intersects directly with the political transformation that eventually allowed the Medici to dominate Florence while republican institutions formally continued to exist.
Our Medici Florence Walking Tour follows the places associated with the family’s rise and shows how political influence, banking and patronage became closely intertwined.
Niccolò Barbadori makes the family’s history more than a story about old buildings. His opposition to Cosimo de’ Medici places the Barbadori directly within the political struggle that changed the balance of power in 15th-century Florence.
Bartolomeo Barbadori and Brunelleschi
The family’s most important architectural legacy survives close to Borgo San Jacopo in Santa Felicita.
Around 1420, Bartolomeo Barbadori commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to create a family chapel in the church. Today it is generally known as the Barbadori-Capponi Chapel because its patronage later passed to the Capponi family.
The commission came at an extraordinary moment in Brunelleschi’s career. He was developing the architectural ideas that would help define the early Renaissance while simultaneously confronting the engineering challenge of the dome of Florence Cathedral.
Although later alterations changed elements of the chapel, it remains an important surviving example of Brunelleschi’s experiments with centrally organised space. Its association with the Barbadori demonstrates how private family patronage helped architects test and develop ideas that would transform Florentine architecture.
The Brunelleschi Florence Walking Tour includes Santa Felicita and places the chapel alongside the architect’s better-known projects at the Duomo, San Lorenzo, the Ospedale degli Innocenti and Santo Spirito.
From the Barbadori Chapel to Pontormo
The chapel’s history did not end with the Barbadori. In 1487, the family patronage passed to Antonio Paganelli. The Capponi family acquired the chapel in 1525, beginning another remarkable artistic chapter.
Lodovico Capponi commissioned Jacopo Pontormo to redecorate the space. Pontormo created the extraordinary Trasporto di Cristo, often called the Deposition, together with his Annunciation. These works now rank among the defining achievements of Florentine Mannerism.
This means that one small chapel connects three very different moments in Florentine history: Barbadori patronage and Brunelleschi’s early Renaissance architecture, Capponi patronage and Pontormo’s 16th-century painting.
For travellers, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of Santa Felicita. A relatively modest church near Ponte Vecchio contains layers of Florentine history that extend far beyond its understated exterior.
Borgo San Jacopo reveals the medieval Barbadori. Santa Felicita reveals their Renaissance ambitions. Within only a few minutes on foot, the family’s story moves from fortified tower houses to Brunelleschi and eventually to Pontormo.
Gherardo Barbadori and Santo Spirito
The family’s patronage extended beyond Santa Felicita. Another Barbadori commission connects the family with Santo Spirito, one of the most important Renaissance churches in the Oltrarno.
Gherardo Barbadori commissioned an altarpiece from Filippo Lippi for the family’s chapel in Santo Spirito. The resulting work, usually known as the Barbadori Altarpiece, was completed in the late 1430s and depicts the Virgin and Child surrounded by angels and saints.
The commission demonstrates that Barbadori patronage was not limited to architecture. By supporting one of the leading painters of the Florentine Renaissance, the family participated directly in the artistic culture developing around the city’s churches and religious institutions.
The altarpiece also illustrates how family chapels functioned in Renaissance Florence. They were places of devotion and burial, but also highly visible expressions of status, identity and cultural ambition.
The Barbadori name became connected with both Filippo Brunelleschi and Filippo Lippi. One commission shaped a chapel at Santa Felicita; another produced an important Renaissance altarpiece for Santo Spirito.
Where Is the Barbadori Altarpiece Today?
Visitors looking for Filippo Lippi’s Barbadori Altarpiece in Santo Spirito will not find it there today. The painting left Florence during the Napoleonic period and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
This makes the work part of a wider story familiar across Florence: important paintings originally created for specific churches and chapels were later removed from their architectural settings and entered museum collections.
For travellers visiting Santo Spirito, knowing the original connection remains worthwhile. The church and its chapels help explain the religious and social environment for which works such as the Barbadori Altarpiece were created.
The Barbadori Towers – A Medieval Legacy
The family’s surviving towers provide the clearest physical connection with the Barbadori today. Located in Borgo San Jacopo, they belong to the remarkable concentration of medieval tower houses that once characterised this part of the Oltrarno.
Florentine tower houses were much more than picturesque buildings. They combined domestic accommodation with defensive functions and projected the power of families competing within a politically unstable city.
Our dedicated article on the Barbadori Towers explores their architecture, location and relationship with medieval Borgo San Jacopo in greater detail.
For visitors, the towers provide an ideal starting point for discovering the family because they remain embedded in the same narrow streets where the Barbadori lived centuries ago.
Walk slowly through Borgo San Jacopo rather than treating it simply as a route between Ponte Vecchio and Santo Spirito. Look upward: medieval stonework and surviving tower houses reveal a very different Florence above the modern shopfronts.
Following the Barbadori Through Florence
The Barbadori story is unusually easy to explore on foot because its principal Florentine locations lie within the Oltrarno.
Begin near Ponte Vecchio and enter Borgo San Jacopo, where the surviving towers recall the family’s medieval presence. From there, continue to Santa Felicita to see the chapel originally commissioned by Bartolomeo Barbadori and later transformed by Pontormo.
A longer walk through the Oltrarno leads to Santo Spirito, where Gherardo Barbadori’s patronage once placed Filippo Lippi’s altarpiece within the family’s chapel.
The route is compact, but it spans several centuries. Medieval towers, Brunelleschi’s architecture and Renaissance painting reveal successive ways in which Florentine families expressed wealth, faith and social position.
Ponte Vecchio → Borgo San Jacopo → Barbadori Towers → Santa Felicita → Santo Spirito. The route turns a family history into a walk through medieval and Renaissance Florence.
Why the Barbadori Family Matters
The Barbadori were never a dynasty on the scale of the Medici, and that is precisely why their story is valuable.
They represent the broader class of prosperous families whose commercial activity, political participation and private patronage helped shape Florence. Their history shows how wealth moved from trade into public office, property, chapels, architecture and art.
The family’s political story also reflects the changing balance of power in Florence. Niccolò Barbadori’s opposition to Cosimo de’ Medici places the family on the losing side of one of the decisive political struggles of the 15th century. At the same time, commissions associated with Brunelleschi and Filippo Lippi demonstrate the cultural ambitions of the same social world.
For travellers, the Barbadori offer something especially appealing: their history remains visible. Rather than existing only in archives, it can still be traced through streets, towers and churches within a relatively small part of Florence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who were the Barbadori family?
The Barbadori were a prosperous Florentine family involved in commerce, republican politics and artistic patronage. Their strongest surviving connections are in the Oltrarno.
Where can I see the Barbadori legacy in Florence?
Borgo San Jacopo, Santa Felicita and Santo Spirito are the principal places associated with the family. They can easily be combined on a walk through the Oltrarno.
What are the Barbadori Towers?
They are surviving medieval tower houses associated with the family in Borgo San Jacopo. They preserve evidence of the fortified residential architecture that once characterised medieval Florence.
What is the Barbadori Chapel?
Bartolomeo Barbadori commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to create a family chapel in Santa Felicita around 1420. It later became known as the Barbadori-Capponi Chapel and contains major works by Pontormo.
What happened to the Barbadori Altarpiece?
Filippo Lippi painted the altarpiece for a Barbadori chapel in Santo Spirito. It was removed from Florence during the Napoleonic period and is now in the Louvre in Paris.
Were the Barbadori supporters of the Medici?
Not always. Niccolò Barbadori belonged to the political group opposing Cosimo de’ Medici and went into exile after Cosimo returned to Florence in 1434.
Is the Barbadori family worth researching before visiting Florence?
Yes, particularly for travellers interested in the Oltrarno. Their story connects medieval tower houses, republican politics, Brunelleschi, Pontormo and Renaissance patronage within a compact area of the city.
Further Reading on Firenze Casa
- Barbadori Towers – Medieval Florence in Borgo San Jacopo
- Santa Felicita – Florence’s Hidden Church
- Medieval Florence Walking Tour
- Brunelleschi Florence Walking Tour
- The Medici Family – The Dynasty That Shaped Florence
References
- Archivio di Stato di Firenze – records relating to Florentine families and public offices
- Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: entries relating to members of the Barbadori family
- Giovanni Villani – Nuova Cronica
- Giorgio Vasari – Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori
- Studies on Filippo Brunelleschi and the Barbadori Chapel at Santa Felicita
- Studies on Filippo Lippi and the Barbadori Altarpiece
- Historical studies on medieval tower houses and Florentine family patronage
