The Ponte Vecchio and the Art of Urban Planning in Late Medieval Florence

Abstract

The mid-fourteenth-century design of the Ponte Vecchio continues to be mischaracterized as an irrational example of late medieval Florentine architecture. Rather, as evidence presented in this essay will demonstrate, the superstructure of the Ponte Vecchio was based on a highly rational plan organized according to a sophisticated geometric proportional system. According to medieval aesthetic theory, such harmonious order was required for a design to be considered beautiful, a quality prescribed in the document that records the commission of the bridge. Once construction of the Ponte Vecchio was complete, regulations passed by the Florentine government forbade any modification that would detract from the bridge's appearance, indicating that its rational design was to be maintained. The Ponte Vecchio provides evidence to support recent theories that rational order and its maintenance were, in fact, the desired goals of late medieval Florentine urban planning and the legislation that regulated it.