Il pittore Sebastiano Vini, il vescovo Ricasoli e alcuni ”cabrei” cinquecenteschi a Pistoia
The Painter Sebastiano Vini, Bishop Ricasoli and Some “Cabrei” of the Sixteenth Century in Pistoia

Summary/Abstract: The use of “cabrei” or “samples”, manuscript inventories of real estate and lands illustrated by maps and drawings reproducing individual houses, established itself in Tuscany, especially in Florence and Pistoia. Some common names of surveyors indicate that the production of these documents required particular expertise. The work of technicians was sometimes joined by that of artists, invited to design title pages and family coats of arms for these special codes, often of great size and richly bound. The technique used (in pencil or charcoal, pen and brown ink watercolors) was widespread among the Florentine Accademici del Disegno, especially among those closest to Giorgio Vasari, the main artist at the court of Cosimo I Medici. Distinguished at this type of graphic production was Sebastiano Vini, a painter who moved from Verona to Pistoia in the forties of the century. Several recent studies have been done about Vini, especially regarding his participation in Alessandro Allori’s workshop and in important works in preparation for the wedding of the Florentine Prince Francesco Medici and the Princess Joan of Habsburg. The artist’s style is recognisable in a coat of arms of the Ricasoli family, at the opening of a large cabreo showing the goods that belonged to the Bishop of Pistoia Giovan Battista Ricasoli, who was the artist’s patron and probably introduced him to the Medicis.

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