Buildings

Convento di San Barnaba di Firenze

Affiliations (2 total)	Augustinians (OSA) Carmelites (OCarm)
Database ID	29

Parish of S. Lorenzo, Gonfalone Leon d'Oro, Sestiere Porta del Duomo	1289 to August 10th, 1343
Parish of S. Lorenzo, Gonfalone Leon d'Oro, Quartiere S. Giovanni	August 11th, 1343 to 1785

Arte dei Medici e Speziali		1335 to 1770
agostiniani di San Barnaba		1356 to 1506
frati Carmelitani della Congregazione di Mantova		1506 to 1522
suore di S. Barnaba		1522 to 1808

ASF, Manoscritti, 625, Rosselli, Sepoltuario Fiorentino, 1657 (copy)	pp. 1381-1384
G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine	vol. 7, pp. 53-67
S. Rosselli, Sepoltuario Fiorentino, autograph	pp. 1566-1569

[a] After defeating the Aretines at the Battle of Campaldino on the feast of Saint Barnabas in 1289, the chapter of San Lorenzo decided to build an oratory in his honor. Giuseppe Richa (7, p. 55) cites a parchment in the Archive of San Lorenzo indicating that the decision to begin was recorded on April 26, 1322.
[b] Construction of S. Barnaba had several stops and starts between 1309 and its ultimate completion in 1350.
[c] The church was initially given by the city to a group of Franciscans from the pilgrimage of Santa Croce all'Osmannoro. The Arte de' Medici e Speziali, after building a new conventual complex, gave it to a group of Augustinian Canons from Castelfranco di sotto, with the stipulation that they would not have ius patronatus See Richa, vol. 7, p. 57-58.
[d] A congregation of reformed Carmelites from Mantua took over S. Barnaba in 1506 after which a group of Observant Carmelite nuns was transferred to the convent. They remained until it was suppressed in 1808.
[e] After a series of changes to the church after it became the home of a group of Carmelite nuns, an elaborate gilded carved ceiling was installed over the original timber-truss roof by Giovanni Vernaccini.