Villa Medici, Accademia di Francia a Roma

Roma Capitale records that the present building is of the mid-sixteenth century, designed by Giovanni Lippi, called Nanni di Baccio Bigio, for Cardinal Giovanni Ricci da Montepulciano, who had bought the Casina Crescenzi on the collis hortulorum in 1564, with irrigation work by Camillo Agrippa. Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici bought it in 1576 to house his art collection and in 1580 enclosed the villa between the Aurelian Walls and via Pinciana by buying Giulio Bosco's vineyard, creating the long north-south axis to the Parnaso. The inner façade carries garlands, masks, statues and antique reliefs and opens on a loggia over the gardens; the rectangular garden is divided into sixteen square beds, and the green estate covers over 7 hectares and largely keeps its sixteenth-century form. The Académie itself was founded in 1666 by Colbert, with Bernini, for the winners of the Prix de Rome, and has had its seat here since the early nineteenth century. The library, created in 1803 by Joseph-Benoît Suvée, director from 1795 to 1807, holds about 37,000 volumes, and the collections include portraits of 460 fellows from 1798 to 1936.