Return to San Lorenzo

Our first visit to San Lorenzo we saw mostly the Medici Tombs. This time we saw the church proper, and especially the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Lorenzo the Great's Library).

Despite the great wealth of some of its parishioners, the

church of San Lorenzo somehow never got a proper facade

Another vast 14th and 15th century church,

architecture by Brunelleschi (at the same time he was doing

the Duomo dome); one might describe it as battleship-gray,

but the real name is pietra serena, and it really has a serene

effect

Map of the heavens, in one of the chapels

In another chapel, Lippi's Annunciation, noted for its use

of perspective

Entering the great old Biblioteca

A beautiful old room; the books were kept out on the reading

desks, chained

Arranged by subject...

The books, all incunibles, displayed in another room; note
chain

Works of Plato, Constantinople, 11th century