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FREE IRIS ORIGO: MARCHESA OF VAL DORCIA PDF Caroline Moorehead | 474 pages | 19 Jun 2014 | ALLISON & BUSBY | 9780749016562 | English | London, United Kingdom Iris Origo | Book Depository She lived in Italy, and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, near Montepulciano, which she purchased with her husband in the s. Her parents travelled widely after their marriage, particularly in Italy, when her father contracted tuberculosis. Following her father's death inIris and her mother settled in Italy, buying the Villa Medici in Fiesoleone of Florence's most spectacular villas. This meant that she grew up in one of the great centres of the Italian renaissance, a palatial dwelling built by Michelozzo for Cosimo de Medici, the founding father ofthe most celebrated family in Florentine history. There they formed a close friendship with Bernard Berensonwho lived not far away at Villa I Tatti. Iris was briefly enrolled at school in London, but was largely educated at home, by Professor Solone Monti as well as a series of French and German governesses. The marriage was to last until Following their divorce she married, as her third husband, the essayist Percy Lubbock. She died in Her second marriage reportedly failed because she was emotionally needy and had married a man who suffered from neurasthenia. The marriage was not happy. No one could outdo Sybil where neuroses were concerned, and she spent more and more time in bed on one pretext or another. Personal life Iris Cutting travelled to England and the United States in order to be launched in the society of both countries. Inshe first met Colin Mackenzie, a young Scottish businessman working in Milan; a romantic, Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia affair was followed by a lifelong friendship. It was in an advanced state of disrepair but, by dint of much hard work, care and attention, they succeeded in transforming it. Like many of the estate's buildings, the garden of La Foce was designed by a now almost forgotten British architect, Cecil Ross Pinsent He arrived in Florence at age 24, joining his friend Geoffrey Scott on a study-tour of Tuscan architecture. After that Pinsent worked for members of Berenson's sophisticated and rich circle in and around Florence. It was following the death of Gianni that Iris Origo embarked on her writing career, with a well-received biography of Giacomo Leopardi, published in The Observer said: " Her book is a monument to scholarship — the literary and historical background is painted with consummate skill, and a pattern of good taste. Following the surrender of Italy, Iris Origo also sheltered or assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war, who were seeking to make their way through the German lines, or simply to survive. Her account of this time, War in the Val D'Orciawas the first of her books to be a popular, as well as a critical, success. She and her husband, Antonio Origo, bought the palace in the early s. Construction of the Theatre of Marcellus, which could seat 20, people, was begun by Julius Caesar but it was completed in 11BC by the emperor Augustus, who named it after his favourite nephew. It was abandoned in the 4th century AD but later turned into a fortress and, later, into a family palazzo, constructed on the massive travertine blocks that make up the Roman theatre, known in Italian as the Teatro di Marcello. It passed into the hands of the Orsini family, after which it is named, in the 18th century. Death Antonio Origo died on 27 June Iris Origo died on 28 Juneaged La Foce estate. Gli Scafari. Cecil Pinsent and his gardens in Tuscany. Edited by M. Fantoni, H. Flores and J. Edifir, Florence ISBN Images and Shadows. London: John Murray. William Bayard Cutting, Esq. He was trained at Columbia College, as a lawyer, in which capacity he assisted his grandfather, Robert Bayard, in the management of his railroad company. Cutting and his brother, Fulton, started the sugar beet industry in the United States in He was Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia builder of railroads, operated the ferries of New York City, and developed part of the south Brooklyn waterfront, Red Hook. He was an outdoorsman and a gardener of great ability. She was the mother of Iris Origo, the Marchesa Origo. Villa Medici in Fiesole. It was built in 13 BC — 85 years before work started on the similarly-styled but more famous Coloseum — and began life as the Theatre of Marcellus. Named after Marcus Marcellus, the nephew of Emperor Augustus, the open-air auditorium allowed 11, spectators to watch dramatic and singing performances. The ft-diameter venue included a vast network of arches, corridors, columns, tunnels and ramps — many of which have survived to the day. It was an early example of an architectural form that was to become very common in the Roman world and inspire such famous edifices as Rome's Colosseum, pictured above. The theatre was reconstructed in the Middle Ages, removing the top tier of seating and the columns, and became used as a fortress of the Fabii. It was Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia to ruin over the next five centuries as a series of noblemen and their families moved in before the Orsini clan made it their home in the s. They built a palace on top of the ruins of the ancient theatre and gave it its current name, Palazzo Orsini. Iris Origo and her husband, Antonio Origo, bought the palace in the early Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia. Read more: information and pictures on www. La Foce was part of a consortium of local landowners through which the Fascist government helped finance an eight bed clinic, a primary school and a kindergarten - for which Origo provided the novel luxury of a horse-drawn carriage to transport children from the most remote farms. Godine Caroline Moorehead born Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia October is a human rights journalist and biographer. Moorehead has also written a number of non-fiction pieces centered on human rights including a history of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Dunant's Dream, based on previously unseen archives in Geneva, Troublesome People, a book on pacifists, and a work on terrorism, Hostages to Fortune. Her most recent work in this category is on refugees in the modern world named Human Cargo, published in Moorehead is currently working on a new book about French women of the Resistance who were sent to Auschwitz, and of whom only forty-nine survived. She specialized in human rights as a journalist, contributing a column first to the Times and then the Independent, and co-producing and writing a series of programs on human rights for BBC television. Available online. Rivista della Sociata' italiana delle storiche, pgs. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cecil Pinsent. This formal cloister offers the quiet tranquility of a private retreat, with numerous attractions, beautiful nature reserves and unspoilt beautiful beaches within easy reach. The most interesting artistic, historical and cultural sites of southern Tuscany are nearby, and are awaiting your discovery. Explore the medieval hillside villages on your way to Siena, marvel at settlements that date back to Renaissance times, try some Pecorino cheese in Pienza, and some wine in Montalcino or Montepulciano, where the refined beauty of the squares and churches blends perfectly with the ancient traditions of its wines. Iris Origo. It was built between and The villa owes its fame to Lorenzo il Magnifico who inherited the property in following the untimely death of his brother. The new master of the house turned the residence into a gathering place for artists, philosophers and men of letters such as Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia Ficino, Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia della Mirandola and Poliziano. The quadrangular building is a typical example of the 15th-century edifice, with square serena stone windows and broad loggias looking out Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia the surroundings. The villa remained the property of the Medici until It subsequently changed hands several times, and in was sold to Lady Orford, the sister-in-law of Horace Walpole. In the 19th century it was owned by the artist William Blundell Spence and in was purchased by Lady Sybil Cutting. Here Iris Origo spent fourteen years in an Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia of exceptional privilege, comfort, Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia wealth. Many friends of the family at Florence were other rich exiles, sophisticated and intellectual if somewhat rootless, and the author of this diary has confessed Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia she herself felt uncertain about who she was and where she belonged. Marriage to an Italian eventually made it possible to put down roots, and in the new couple bought a large estate in the heart of Tuscany, where her war-time diary War in Val D'Orcia: An Italian War Diaryand other books were written. Villa La Foce. Villa La Foce, Pergola covered with roses and wisteria. The Palazzo Orsini is grafted on top of the first-century Theatre of Marcellus. Theatre of Marcellus. A shaded area of the palace's gardens. Podere Santa Pia, view from the garden on the valley below. The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built by the Medici family. Enlarge map Villa Medici in Fiesole. La Foce means Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val DOrcia meeting point' as the fifteenth-century hostel was built at the intersection of the valley's two main roads.