LAS 395e: The Political World of Galileo Galilei
Dottore Niccolò Capponi
(3 credits)
Capponi's class was absolutely wonderful - you were not mistaken in the least to recommend this class to us.  
Jeff Dole, Civil Engineering

Classroom
Palazzo Capponi delle Rovinate
Via dei Bardi, 36
Firenze 50125

The Palazzo Capponi, located in Oltr'Arno just opposite the Uffizi, is the private home of the Counts Capponi. Completed in 1411, the palazzo came into the family's hands in 1435 through inheritance, and the Capponi, a family made famous for the spirited challenge made by an ancestor, Piero Capponi, to a French invasion in 1494, have lived here ever since. Its courtyard has been noted as the first example of a truly Renaissance-style courtyard, in the manner of Brunelleschi.

The stately rooms that now house the family's art collection remain exactly as they were arranged over a century ago, the walls cloaked in the very silks that the family itself once produced. The works of art include primarily sixteenth and seventeenth century paintings, highlighted by the treasures of Jacopo Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto. Bill Moyers filmed a part of his television documentary The Power of the Past here, interviewing members of the family. Most recently, the author Thomas Harris set his thriller within these walls, imagining Dr. Hannibal Lecter as the curator of Palazzo Capponi in Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. Sir Anthony Hopkins shot several scenes of the film in the palace between May and June 2000.
From the Capponi website

Count/Dottore Niccolò Capponi admires music major Marie Heiniger’s rendition
of a Mozart sonata on his piano reportedly played by Franz Liszt.

Dr. Capponi dramatically emphasizes a point
about the early history of Florence in the Palazzo Vecchio

Political Science major Jessica Maves discusses politics with Dr. Capponi.
A pipe is a mandatory accessory for this type of intellectual discourse.