Abstract

In the courtyard of Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence there are two monumental seventeenth century artillery pieces, signed and dated by the Florentine cannon founder Cosimo Cenni. One of them is a light cannon called Falcone Mediceo, the other, the Saint Paul Cannon, represents one of the most gigantic products of Tuscan Grand Duchy foundries. The Falcone Mediceo is decorated on the breech with the Galilean moons, recently discovered by the well-known scientist, while the Saint Paul Cannon has its breech adorned with a threedimensional Apostle Paul’s head and its body finely embellished with symbols of power, personifications of Virtues and monsters. The two cannons had an extraordinarily eventful history: once, respectively, on a galley and in the fortress of Livorno, they were both translated in Tunis and successively returned in the context of late nineteenth century diplomatic negotiations between Tunisian Beylik and the newborn Kingdom of Italy.