The escutcheon on the corner of the house gives us the period of its erection.

The seven plain balls proclaim it Cosimo's.

Each of the Medici sported these palle, although each had also his private crest.

Under Giovanni, Cosimo's father, the balls were eight in number; under Cosimo, seven; under Piero, seven, with the fleur-de-lis of France on the uppermost, given him by Louis XI; under Lorenzo, six; and as one walks about Florence one can approximately fix the date of a building by remembering these changes.

How many times they occur on the facades of Florence and its vicinity, probably no one could say; but they are everywhere.