La Pietra Alberese e la calce nel territorio di Firenze, Prato e Pistoia

The PietraAlberese is a material rarely mentioned in the historical Florentine architecture with respect to Pietraforte, the stone of the Medieval Florence and Pietra Serena, the stone of the Renaissance. Nevertheless, Pietra Alberese has a great importance because it is the only limestone cropping out around Florence allowing the production of lime. It is a marly limestone belonging to the Ligurian series (Monte Morello Formation of Eocene age). In this work the different compositional and macroscopic characteristics of the lithotypes used to produce the various types of lime used in the traditional Florentine architecture are highlighted. At present this traditional lime is non more produced.