Michelangelo's staircase

At the top of the stairs in this inner courtyard you reach a tall, narrow vestibule where almost everything seems turned on its head. Columns sink into the walls, brackets hold nothing up, and in the middle of the space a stone staircase flows downward, its steps bulging outward at the centre.

Michelangelo drew it around 1524 for Giulio de' Medici, who by then had become Pope Clement VII, and it was meant to house the manuscripts that Cosimo and Lorenzo had gathered. Alongside their money the family owned knowledge, and they showed it off by paying scholars and having Greek texts copied that could be found nowhere else in Europe.

The reading room behind it still has its original wooden desks, where the most precious books were kept on chains. You could read them, but taking one away was out of the question.

Our next stop lies on the north side of the cathedral, by the side door of the sacristy.