To this palace came the Pazzi conspirators to lure Giuliano to the Duomo and his doom.

Here did Charles VIII--Savonarola's "Flagellum Dei"-- lodge and loot, and it was here that Capponi frightened him with the threat of the Florentine bells; hither came in 1494 the fickle and terrible Florentine mob, always passionate in its pursuit of change and excitement, and now inflamed by the sermons of Savonarola, to destroy the priceless manuscripts and works of art; here was brought up for a year or so the little Catherine de' Medici, and next door was the house in which Alessandro de' Medici was murdered.
It was in the seventeenth century that the palace passed to the Riccardi family, who made many additions.

A century later Florence acquired it, and to-day it is the seat of the Prefect of the city.

Cosimo's original building was smaller; but much of it remains untouched.

The exquisite cornice is Michelozzo's original, and the courtyard has merely lost its statues, among which are Donatello's Judith, now in the Loggia de' Lanzi, and his bronze David, now in the Bargello, while Verrocchio's David was probably on the stairs.