in the sixteenth century, cardinal ferdinand i de' medici bought the 6-metre high obelisk in rome and placed it in the gardens of the villa medici. when the grand duke peter leopold of lorraine became grand-duke of tuscany, he transferred to florence many of the artworks in the villa medici. in 1788 he moved the obelisk, which weighed 9000 kilograms, travelling to first to livorno, then by land to florence. the voyage took four months. he also moved the ancient roman basin made of granite that had been associated with the obelisk in the villa medici.