La Stanza del Trecento nel Museo Stibbert di Firenze
Martina Becattini
Between the late 1860s and the early 1870s, the Anglo-Florentine collector Frederick Stibbert (1838 – 1906) conceived the idea of creating a real museum in his house. It was to illustrate the history of countries distant in time and space through the European, Islamic and Japanese armoury. To realize his museum project, Stibbert not only gave his collections a historical-critical aim, but created a space specifically dedicated to them. This essay considers the creation of a room on the first floor of the villa, built in the 1890s, which was destined to become, according to Stibbert’s wish, the “Salone del trecento”. The reconstruction of the “Salone del trecento” is possible only through the study of documents because, from 1897 onwards, Stibbert himself ‘contaminated’ the set up of this room, having to find new spaces for the Japanese collection, which increased continuously.