With the change of the capital of the new born Italian state to Rome in 1870, Palazzo del Quirinale, chosen as the new palace but completely empty, had to be equipped by the Savoy with furnishings and works of art found in the seats of the ancient pre-unification courts. There were also some carpets, the most important of which from Florence, coming from the ancient Medici-Lorraine collections. The best examples, which this book deals with, were about ten: four survive at the Quirinale, while others have been lost. The best known of that group, following vicissitudes reconstructed here for the first time, ended up in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, where it is called the "Hunting Carpet" and is the most famous carpet preserved in Italy. The history of the latter, like the others studied, is reconstructed step by step, documenting it in its main lines, from the arrival in Florence from the 16th Century to the present day, through a mass of inventory findings that also highlight the restorations and changes undergone by the pieces over time...