Lettere vasariane ritrovate (con missive di Giovanni Battista Busini, Ascanio Condivi e altri artisti a Lorenzo Ridolfi)

The essay presents some original letters of Vasari not identified by Karl Frey, author of the monumental "Literarische Nachlass", and printed by him according to Enrico Ridolfi’s transcription, first published in 1868. The identification of Vasari’s autographs within a file of the State Archive of Florence can shed some new insight both on his youth acquaintances as on his stay in Rome and Venice, and it reveals once again his mastery as a fine writer as well as his ability as a skilled weaver of interpersonal relations, widely exploited for his personal and professional growth. The file also contains letters by other artists, in primis Condivi and Giovanni Battista Busini, a proud anti-Medicean Florentine, a friend of Benedetto Varchi and in close contact with Lorenzo Ridolfi, brother and heir of Cardinal Niccolò. No less important is also the original of the letter (kept in the Biblioteca Moreniana in Florence) written by Vasari on March 26th, 1565, and known thanks to the edition by Gualandi, that shows us the artist as a leading figure at the Medici Court and actively working for Duke Cosimo