| On November 4, 1333, severe flooding caused the collapse of Florence's first and oldest bridge, the Ponte Vecchio. Using early Florentine chronicles and numerous previously unpublished archival documents, this dissertation traces the history of this bridge, focusing on its reconstruction after the flood of 1333. Famous today for the jewelry shops that line its sloping street, the current Ponte Vecchio is the last fourteenth-century bridge to exist along the entire course of the Arno River and one of the few remaining examples of the once prevalent urbanized bridge typology. Much of the bridge's original mid-fourteenth-century appearance is now obscured beneath layers of later accretions that contribute to its current "picturesque" appearance, often mistakenly interpreted as its original character. To the contrary, as illustrated by new reconstruction drawings presented in this dissertation, an analysis of documentary, visual, and physical evidence reveals that the mid-trecento Ponte Vecchio's vaulted substructure was structurally advanced, and its urban superstructure, consisting of a main street flanked by four blocks of shops and a central piazza, was arranged according to a highly regularized plan based on rational geometric principles. Documentary evidence reveals that its design was approved by the consensus of an elected government committee (the bridge officials) and maintained by a second administrative body (the tower officials), who were responsible for enforcing strict government regulations imposed upon the completed bridge's orderly appearance. The Ponte Vecchio's innovative character indicates that its still unknown designer(s) must have had a high level of technical expertise and knowledge of the latest contemporary trends in Florentine rational urban design. Therefore, as this dissertation argues, the mid-fourteenth-century Ponte Vecchio was not "ad hoc" or "empirical," but rather it was a rare example of conscious urban design built ex novo in the densely packed heart of medieval Florence. |
