Page:The Voyage of Italy (1686).djvu/161

Part I. before the Great Duke, and the best Dancers are recompensed with an honorable reward.

The long Corridor.

6. From hence I was let into the long Corridor, or close Gallery, which runs from the New Palace to the Old, over the River, and over the tops of Houses, for the space of half a mile, with many Turnings and Windings. It's very useful for the Prince when he will go see his precious Treasure in the old Palace, or else go privately and hear how Justice is ministred there. For the Great Duke Francis gave order to Buontalenti, a rare architect, to break a Window from this Corridor into the great Room in the old Palace, where the Magistrates render Justice, but yet so privately, that none should perceive it. The Architect did it, by setting up there the Dukes Arms at large, and breaking a Window behind them so imperceptibly, that the Great Duke through the little Holes made in the six Boule's of his Arms, could both hear and see how Justice was rendered there by his Officers. And one day hearing a poor Woman oppressed by an unjust Sentence, he sent for the Judges, and reprehending them severely, he reversed the former sentence, and hearing the Cause a-new himself, pronounced Sentence for the poor Woman.

The new Palace.

7. This long Corridor led us to the new Palace, called the Palazzo di Piti, because it was begun to be built by Luca Piti, after the design of Brunelleschi: but the expenses growing too great for Pitti's Purse, it was bought by the Mother of great Cosmus the II, and afterwards