Hall of the Eight

La Sala degli Otto (The Hall of the Eight)
The Sala degli Otto is bordered to the north by the shelter that connects the Salone dei Cinquecento to the Sala dei Duecento, and on the other three sides by the Palazzo's monumental staircases. It is reached both through the eastern side of the Sala dei Duecento and through a hallway. Its name comes from the Otto di Guardia or Otto di Pratica, a magistracy with the function of ensuring public safety instituted in 1378, though its origins are unknown. According to tradition (not upheld by historical and critical research) the Otto di Guardia used the room from its inception. Its wood panelled ceiling, decorated with rosettes surrounded by Angevin lilies, was created in the late fifteenth century by Giuliano da Maiano and his assistants. According to another hypothesis, the room could have corresponded to the Camera dell'Udienza with a chancellery annex which, according to some sources, was built for the magistracy in 1528, in substitution of another smaller space. According to that hypothesis, we cannot rule out that the wood ceiling was moved into this room from a different location. The Magistratura degli Otto, moved to the Bargello and stripped of its authority by Cosimo I de' Medici, was definitively abolished in 1777. During the last century, the room was used as a service hall for the adjacent Sala dei Duecento. When the City's mayoral committee began meeting there, the hall regained a function worthy of its illustrious past.