CHAPTER VIII.
The Uffizi I: The Building and the Collectors The growth of a gallery--Vasari's Passaggio--Cosimo I--Francis I--Ferdinand I--Ferdinand II--Cosimo III--Anna Maria Ludovica de' Medici--Pietro-Leopoldo--The statues of the facade--Art, literature, arms, science, and learning--The omissions--Florentine rapacity--An antique custom--Window views--The Uffizi drawings--The best picture.
The foreigner should understand at once that any inquiries into the history of the Uffizi family--such as for example yield interesting results in the case of the Pazzi and the Albizzi--are doomed to failure; because Uffizi merely means offices.

The Palazzo degli Uffizi, or palace of offices, was built by Vasari, the biographer of the artists, for Cosimo I, who having taken the Signoria, or Palazzo Vecchio, for his own home, wished to provide another building for the municipal government.

It was begun in 1560 and still so far fulfils its original purpose as to contain the general post office, while it also houses certain Tuscan archives and the national library.
A glance at Piero di Cosimo's portrait of Ferrucci in our National Gallery will show that an ordinary Florentine street preceded the erection of the Uffizi.

At that time the top storey of the building, as it now exists, was an open terrace affording a pleasant promenade from the Palazzo Vecchio down to the river and back to the Loggia de' Lanzi.

Beneath this were studios and workrooms where Cosimo's army of artists and craftsmen (with Bronzino and Cellini as the most famous) were kept busy; while the public offices were on the ground floor.