Yesterday afternoon we visited Museo Stibbert, home of Frederick Stibbert, collector extraordinaire, born in Florence to an English father and Italian mother in 1838.
Despite the death of his father when Frederick was only 11, he was sent to England for his education, but on its completion he moved back to Montughi in Florence, where his mother had bought a house.
At the age of 21, being the only male heir, Frederick inherited enormous wealth from his father and uncles (his grandfather had been general commander in the East India Company and Governor of Bengal). In 1866 he fought as a volunteer in Garibaldi’s army and won a silver medal.
Stibbert then seems seems to have been devoted most of the rest of his life to amassing huge collections of items, particularly arms and armour from the sixteenth century, and creating appropriate settings to display them in.
For Stibbert, his house was his museum, and his museum was his house.
Stibbert died in 1906 and three years later his house, with all the collections, were opened to the public, which had been his wish.
Tortoise Travel 