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"Miscellaneus history of Valdelsa"
Don Socrate Isolani, September 20, 1946
Part I
This aristocratic Villa, in which I took an interest in 1930 on the occasion of various archaeological finds in its grounds, belonged to Signora Ester, the widow of Brandini of Castelfiorentino. Situated at around three kilometres from this village from which one can reach by a public road the hill of Mozzano, as it is called, where there was the ancient Pieve di Castelfiorentino.
The Court of Elsa, known since the 8th century, was the seat of the Longobard Lords, comprising the territories of Castelfiorentino and Certaldo.
Various authors, working on the name of Cabbiavoli, claim that it originates from Gabii aula, that is, the Court of the Gabii family. Equally it could be a later corruption of the name Caput-aulae, that is, Centre of the Court, as taken from an inscription of 1592, of which we will speak later.
In 1924 the Marquis Bonifazio, founder of the family of the Counts of Alberti, married the Countess Waldrada, sister of Rodolfo II, King of Borgogna, from whom, as well as the title of Duke of Spoleto, he obtained vast possessions in Val di Bisenzio, in Maremma, in Val di Pesa and on the right bank of the Elsa, from Monterappoli as far as the borders of the territory of Poggibonsi. A large part of these lands went by division, to Count Alberto the Elder in 1070, who assigned this territory, as far as Pesa, to the Court of Elsa, which remained at the centre.
Count Alberto however, had accumulated many debts and to cover these had sold, in 1098 and 1113, many properties in Val di Pesa and others on the highest hills of Valdelsa, to the Abbey of Passignano. To complete his ruin, he fell, in 1118 into the disfavour of the Emperor, to whom he had shown scare fidelity and not a little rebelliousness. For this reason all of his possessions were confiscated and the Court of Elsa was assigned to the Imperial Power of San Miniato.
At that time, for almost forty years, the abandoned buildings of the Court of Elsa fell into complete ruin, until in 1155 a very young grandchild of the Count, also called Alberto, re-obtained all of those vast possessions that used to belong to his grandfather and which had not been sold off.
By now the Court of Elsa, as well as being in poor condition, was no longer a secure place, both because of the sales by his grandfather and because, during the confiscation, Timignano and Castelfiorentino were passed to the Bishop of Florence and therefore to that Republic: from being Caput-aulae, thus the centre of the Court, it became a border area. For this reason the Count built his residence, the sumptuous and well equipped Castle of Certaldo.
Upon the death of the Count, his children, by the agreement of 1208, divided up the vast possessions and the Val d'Elsa, with the hostelry of Castelfiorentino passed to Maghinardo. Because of this the construction of our Castle, I believe, should be dated from 1210, as the inscription on the wall in the Chapel of the Villa confirms.
Once the Castle was built, it logically maintained the name of the buildings on the nearby plateau, that is Caput-aulae, from which comes Cabbiavoli.
Major fortifications were added when it became the regular residence of a branch the Alberto Counts, because of the numerous divisions which occurred in that already rich and powerful family that had owned up to forty castles. The Alberto Counts were still living there in 1592, the years in which Count Alberto di Antonio restored and furnished the Chapel in that well appointed manner.
We do not precisely know when the Alberti Counts departed from or otherwise rid themselves of this villa, but it was certainly after 1600. From them it passed to the Mingardi family, who in 1734 or a little earlier and handed the castle to Giovanbattista Quaratesi. From the Quaratesi, the Castle and its annexes passed into the ownership of Cammillo del Mosca, Cavaliere di Santo Stefano and the last of that family. His widow sold that property to Signor Armando Arno' di Livorno. There were no children of this marriage, therefore the couple adopted a certain Antonio Casimiro. Antonio Casimiro married Zaira Tessieri from this matrimony Alice was born, but died at the age of 15, in 1871 and also the aforementioned Signora Ester, born in 1857.
Signora Ester, the only heir, married Signor Leopoldo Brandini di Castelfiorentino. In 1916 she became a widow with a good number of children, among whom Cavalier Arrigo, who had much affection for the land at Cabbiavoli and who died on 22nd March 1935 at the age of 48.
In April 1941 Signor Bruno Burgassi, owner of the well known distillery at Castelfiorentino, bought this property with the Villa of Cabbiavoli and on 28th February sold it to Signor Mario Puccioni, a worthy and energetic industrialist from Valdelsa.
