The history of Florence has been often written, and in
many ways. <...> In the life-like annals of the old chroniclers, who
set down with vigorous simplicity, what they themselves did
and heard and saw; and in the more philosophical narratives,
compilations, and collections, made with elaborate care and
judgment, which make the study of Italian history more grateful
than most researches of the kind; the tale of her greatness and
of her weakness has been told over and over again, from each
man's different point of view. <...> Some have occupied themselves
with the art story of the city — an aspect of her life which is
full of the deepest interest; others have devoted themselves to
the varied strifes which have rent her in pieces — chronicling
the casting out and taking back of her successive exiles, and her
own often blind and foolish struggle against supposed
tyrannical attempts, and confused misapprehension of her true
safety and interest. <...> Others, again, have treated Florence as but
one actor in the great drama of Italian history. <...> There is enough
material for all; and even the fragmentary efforts contained in
this volume — "short swallow flights" of biographical essay —
do not, I hope, require apology, so rich is the ground in all
directions, so tempting to the writer, so full of pleasant
illustration of the life and meaning of the great past. <...> I do not
promise the reader that he will find any consecutive history of
Florence in the following pages; for new histories are scarcely
needed, nor is the present writer qualified to undertake such a
task. <...> The biographical chapters which follow, however, cannot
but touch upon and indicate a certain portion of the greater
story; and involuntarily I have been obliged to trace the
progress, to some extent, of the struggle which was always
going
on,
surging and storming in the public palazzo and narrow streets
around, and in the wider, but more passive country which was
fuori — outside — the significant word employed to indicate
everything that was not Florence — all Europe, and all that the
world contained of good and lovely, being but a desert to those
2
The Makers of Florence
Introduction
unhappy ones who were on the wrong side of the walls; and at
the same time to show <...>
The_makers_of_Florence.pdf
MRS. OLIPHANT
The Makers of
Florence
Стр.1
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION. ..............................................................2
THE POET: DANTE...........................................................9
CHAPTER I. HIS YOUTH...............................................9
CHAPTER II. HIS PUBLIC LIFE..................................36
CHAPTER III. IN EXILE...............................................54
THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS. ....................................92
CHAPTER IV. GROUP I. — ARNOLFO — GIOTTO.92
CHAPTER V. GROUP II. — GHIBERTI,
DONATELLO, BRUNELLESCHI.............................................119
CHAPTER VI. A PEACEFUL CITIZEN.....................143
THE MONKS OF SAN MARCO...................................168
CHAPTER VII. I. — THE ANGELICAL PAINTER. .168
CHAPTER VIII. II. — THE GOOD ARCHBISHOP...188
CHAPTER IX. III. — GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA:
HIS PROBATION.......................................................................199
CHAPTER X. IY. — GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA:
THE PREACHER. ......................................................................212
CHAPTER XI. V. — SAVONAROLA AS A
POLITICIAN. .............................................................................230
CHAPTER XII. THE SPERIMENTO. .........................254
CHAPTER XIII. THE PROPHET'S END....................276
CHAPTER XIV. THE PIAGNONI PAINTERS. .........292
CHAPTER XV. MICHAEL ANGELO. .......................313
1
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INTRODUCTION.
The history of Florence has been often written, and in
many ways. In the life-like annals of the old chroniclers, who
set down with vigorous simplicity, what they themselves did
and heard and saw; and in the more philosophical narratives,
compilations, and collections, made with elaborate care and
judgment, which make the study of Italian history more grateful
than most researches of the kind; the tale of her greatness and
of her weakness has been told over and over again, from each
man's different point of view. Some have occupied themselves
with the art story of the city — an aspect of her life which is
full of the deepest interest; others have devoted themselves to
the varied strifes which have rent her in pieces — chronicling
the casting out and taking back of her successive exiles, and her
own often
blind
and
foolish struggle against supposed
tyrannical attempts, and confused misapprehension of her true
safety and interest. Others, again, have treated Florence as but
one actor in the great drama of Italian history. There is enough
material for all; and even the fragmentary efforts contained in
this volume — "short swallow flights" of biographical essay —
do not, I hope, require apology, so rich is the ground in all
directions, so tempting
to the writer, so full of pleasant
illustration of the life and meaning of the great past. I do not
promise the reader that he will find any consecutive history of
Florence in the following pages; for new histories are scarcely
needed, nor is the present writer qualified to undertake such a
task. The biographical chapters which follow, however, cannot
but touch upon and indicate a certain portion of the greater
story; and involuntarily
progress,
I have been obliged to trace the
to some extent, of the struggle which was always
going on,
surging and storming in the public palazzo and narrow streets
around, and in the wider, but more passive country which was
fuori — outside — the significant word employed to indicate
everything that was not Florence — all Europe, and all that the
world contained of good and lovely, being but a desert to those
2
Стр.4
The Makers of Florence
Introduction
unhappy ones who were on the wrong side of the walls; and at
the same time to show how, in the midst of this struggle, in
every interval, and even through the conflict of arms, the din of
internal fighting over a fierce barricade, or the wild clamor with
which one party after another was driven fuori — there still
went on, in strange serenity, another life in the very heart of the
warlike city. How the chippings of the mason's chisel, and the
finer tools of the wood-carver, and the noiseless craft of brush
and pigment, could keep going on through all the din, is as
curious a problem of Florentine life as any the imagination can
grasp. Yet they did so. One of the most costly, splendid, and
elaborate structures in the world — at
that time the most
elaborate and costly — got itself built and garnished while still
the tocsins of immemorial strife were sounding all about, the
fierce old bell pealing out its periodical summons from the airy
heights of the Palazzo Vecchio, and armed men, fierce and
furious, swarming about the streets. Giotto, tranquil and silent
in the heart of Florence, was working out the plans for his
Campanile with pencil and compasses, while Dante, in all the
bitter wrath of exile, roamed to and fro outside, calling upon
heaven and earth to avenge his wrongs, and appealing alike to
emperors and Condottieri to fall upon Florence and open the
gates to him — most wonderful and instructive contrast. And
Fra Angelico, on his knees in his cell, was painting those
heavenly angels who got him his name, while the struggle had
begun with the Medici which made them, after much resistance,
masters of the city. Did those painters, those builders, those
busy craftsmen, powdered with the marble dust of the rising
Duomo, take no notice of the fighting? or did not, rather, the
strokes of the chisel fall fast and furious in the early morning to
let the bold mason off, his day's bread earned, to cut off some
other craftsman's living in the afternoon, when "the old cow,"
the big hoarse Vacca of the city bell, lowed out her summons?
In this strange way the peaceful work and the strife went on
side by side, all the convulsions of the city offering little or no
hindrance to the adornment of the city in which the antagonists
were equally interested; nor, more strangely still, to the growing
wealth of Florence, where trade flourished and bankers
multiplied, notwithstanding that every other year there was a
3
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