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Bernardo Buontalenti, born
on 1531 in Florence, Italy, and died June
1608 in Florence. He
was a stage designer, architect, theatrical
designer, military engineer and artist. He was
much employed in the design of fortifications,
villas, and gardens and is considered one of the
most important architects of the Mannerist
period (the Medici Villa in Pratolino, the
Tribune in the Uffizzi Gallery, the palace of
Bianca cappello in Via Maggio, the Forte
Belvedere, the Buontalenti Cave in the Boboli
Garden, the project for the new city of Livorno,
etc.)
He was also a great mechanic, and an
excellent mathematician. Besides that,
he is also traditionally considered the
inventor of modern gelato. The
Grand Duke Cosimo I de
Medici wanted him to
organize an opulent banquet to celebrate the
Spanish deputation, that had to stand
open-mouthed in front of so much splendour.
Buontalenti invented a new dessert for the
occasion: a sorbet made with
ice, salt (to lower the temperature), lemon,
sugar, egg, honey, milk and a drop of wine. His
cold cream was flavoured with bergamot and
orange and was the forerunner of the
modern Florentine cream. Buontalenti
was an expert of the ice conservation; he has
indeed projected some cold storage room both in
the Boboli Garden and in
the Cascine area. Near the Medici Fortress there
is a street called Via delle Ghiacciaie (i.g.
icehouse street), that owes its
name to the cellars covered with isolating cork
and wood panels, with a system of canes that let
the thawed ice flow down. Buontalenti probably
even built a sort of manual whisk to whip up the
cream.
The name of the gelato inventor has been
given to a gelato flavour: the
Buonatelenti, at base of egg cream and
whipped cream.
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