The small collection comes from the villa built at the end of the 19th century in Linari, a few kilometres away from Barberino Valdelsa, by Girolamo Mancini (1832-1924), nobleman from Cortona, celebrated librarian of the Accademia Etrusca as well as member of the national Parliament, after he married Amalia Capponi in 1873, heiress of the noble Florentine lineage who owned the castle that was the symbol of the small village. Here the collector, in addition to moving his well-stocked library there, carved out a “new treasure cell” to store his rare numismatic collection started by his ancestor, Bishop Ranieri Mancini of Fiesole (1735-1814) and expanded by him, consisting of 477 pieces including coins and medals dating from Etruscan Cortona to Risorgimento Italy, including the first rare Etruscan coins of the “wheel series.”

This villa is a secluded place in the quiet of the countryside. Here Mancini devoted himself to his studies and passions until his death in 1924.

In 1971, the Linari villa was sold by Mancini’s heirs to Dino and Manola Bardi, and when the woman died in 2010, the art collection, library and numismatic collection passed to her daughters Aloma and Antonella Bardi.

The generous Aloma Bardi and her husband Gabriele Boccaccini, considering it opportune to keep the collection intact to avoid its dispersion, in 2014 donated the library and numismatic collection to the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli, while they donated to the museum of Certaldo a nucleus of paintings from the seventeenth century, among which stands out for its quality a series of portraits of unattributed Spanish notables, still the subject of study, and a beautiful canvas by Ciro Ferri.