Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1877-07-02
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MONDAY EVENING, JULY ,.
Medieval Florence.

The medieval Florence was very different
city from that which now evokes EXPLANATIONS
of delight from the tourist, as he glides through
the dreamland valley Of the Arno, and catches
first glimpse of it nestled amid the trees and
rearing its domss 10 lis graceful hollow. 10 tue
early years of Daote it was still unadorned by
the noble monuments which now lend it an au'
gust and antique grace whioh no other Euro
pean city so fully presents 1t was small com.
rared with its present extent, narrow streets and
high gloomy houses; tortuous labyrioths of al
ley and BY way; here and there quaint old edl
fee like the Abbey, aud the heavy. house built
Ponte Vecehio; the farther bank of the Aroo
rather straggliog hamlet than, as DOW, 40 ur-
ban quarter stately with palaces; modest, an.
cient churches, Lying deep down as 10 we'll,
in the heart of the tall houses-such WIS the
aspect of Florence 10 the middle Of the thir-
teeuth century.
Only one of the noble group Of buildings
which are now grouped in the square ofth cathe.
drsi stood there in Dsnte's childhood-the quaint
octsgon Of the Bsptistery, without, as yet, its
decoration OF marbles, as yet, ''in flint gray and
homelv." surrounded by crurnb'ing tombs and
sarcophagi the carvings Of which were worn
and broken, looked down upon By the tower OF
certain house in the square, which Wss called
The Watcher o. the Dead" The Palszzo
Vecchio was only then in process Of bulldlag
the cathedral was as yet, unlmaginedi the
glorious Csmpanile had, perhaps, not boon so
much as thought OF. Florence had only her
beautiful site her tall trees and thick evergreen
ing, azure skies and soft, golden sunsets, her
sparkling little river and her rounded eminenco;
and hillsides. with their rich, soft and luxurisnt
yerdue, to be proud Of
Thus the masters found Florence, and we
know how they left it. They old more than &C
complish the boast Of Augustus. that he had
found Rome brick, and left it marble" for they
embellished it with every charm of every art
One Of the most striking-perhsps the most
strange-of all the facts concerning the Floren
tine sge Of art is that stated by Mrs Oliphant in
the opening Of her study of Dante 1t was the con
trast between the din of constant civil! war
and the peaceful lsbores of the great artists.
both Of which went on at the same time
midst of the civil struggle SIN every interval,
and even through the conflict of arms, the din OF
internal fighting over fslcs bsrricade, or the
wild clsuor with which one party or another
was driven fuori without the walls there still
went on, in strange serenity, another lif, in the
weary heart of the wariike city. How the chip.
pings of the mason's chisel, and the finer tools o.
the wood carver, and tho noiseless craft of brush
and pigment. could keep going on through all
the dir. is as curious q problem Of Florentne
HIS as duy lhaSiDSIlOu Shu grasp tet NhSJ
did So
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