Ospedale del Ceppo is a medieval hospital in Pistoia

Pistoia

Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...

, Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, central Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

History

According to tradition, it was founded in 1277 by the company of Santa Maria or "del Ceppo dei poveri" ("The poor's stump"). In 1345 there were ongoing works for a new cloister, oratory and domus (residence for women). It became the main city's hospital after the donations received in the wake of the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

 of 1348. Initially given to the cathedral chapter

Cathedral chapter

In accordance with canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese in his stead. These councils are made up of canons and dignitaries; in the Roman Catholic church their...

, from 1350 the commune of Pistoia tried to inglobated the company. After the conquest of Pistoia by the Republic of Florence

Republic of Florence

The Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...

 (1401), the Florentine officially confirmed the lay status of the hospital.

In 1456 the hospital administrators commissioned the Florentine architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo a restoration of the building. The election of the spedalingo (rector) was often contended between the noble Pistoiese families, sometimes causing popular turmoil such as in 1498. In 1494 the Compagnia del Ceppo was expelled in 1494, the hospital administrated by the communal priori. In 1501 the hospital was submitted to the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence; the Florentine spedalingo, Leonardo Buonafede, ordered in this period the realization of the frieze which is now the main feature of the monumental façade.

In 1784 Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany aggregated the hospital to a new entity including the other Pistoiese hospital of San Gregorio, the Spedali Riuniti di Pistoia, the spedalingo returning to be a Pistoiese.

Description

The current complex is the result of a series of additions and restorations of the original 13th century edifice, which corresponds to today's corsia di Sant'Atto, a large ward with big windows now existing in a 16th century renovation. In the 15th century the wing and the current façade were added, with the Renaissance arcaded loggia

Loggia

Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...

 built in 1502, and inspired to the Ospedale degli Innocenti

Ospedale degli Innocenti

The Ospedale degli Innocenti is a historical building in Florence, central Italy. Designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in 1419, it was originally a children's orphanage. It is regarded as a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture...

 at Florence. The loggia is decorated by a ceramic glaze

Ceramic glaze

Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...

 frieze esecuted from 1525 by Santi Buglioni

Santi Buglioni

Santi Buglioni, byname of Santi di Michele was an Italian sculptor, the nephew and collaborator of Benedetto Buglioni....

: it portrays the seven works of mercy, mixed with scenes of the Virtues. A panel was replaced in 1586 by a new one, not in ceramic glaze.

Also from 1525 are the tondoes by Giovanni della Robbia

Giovanni della Robbia

thumb|250px|Saint Sebastian, [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.Giovanni della Robbia was an Italian Renaissance ceramic artist. He was the son of Andrea della Robbia and grandnephew of Luca della Robbia....

, depicting the Annunciation, the Glory of the Virgin, the Visitation and the Medici coat of arms.

The corsia di San Leopoldo ("Ward of St. Leopold"), now the seat of the Pistoia Medical Academy, was originally intended for the contagious patients.