Il casino Mediceo di San Marco e Bernardo Buontalenti. Fonti, metodi e iter della ricerca

This article explains the research method used for the thesis Il casino Mediceo di San Marco. Bernardo Buontalenti con Francesco dei Medici, defended by the author in 2023 at Sapienza Università di Roma. The dissertation highlights the exceptional role of the Casino of San Marco in the cultural and urban background of 16th-century Florence; it reconstructs the history of the original building, analysing the construction process, the architectural layout and the formal language; it describes the environment of the first artistic, scientific and alchemic laboratories, animated together by the architect, Bernardo Buontalenti, and the patron, Francesco I de’ Medici, at San Marco; finally, it outlines the main subsequent transformations. The geography of the sources considered, the instruments of analysis employed and the results achieved are set out for each of these topics, retracing the course of the research.