New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-22
Books for the SummersTraveller
Going Abroad.

O0tng ADrOdu.
LITTLE CITIES OF ITALY BY Andre
Maurel Translated by Helen Gerard
With a preface by Guglie.no Ferfero'
With thirty illustrations. SVo, PIP XVII
295 G.. F. Putnams Sons.
AN HISTORICAL GUIDE TO LONDON;
BY C. r. Stirling Taylor. Illustrated
with ffty-siX photographs. SVo' PIP
xii, 345. T.. y. Dutton * co.
MY SUMMER IN LONDON: With sX cur
pie and places, all set in relish OF
anecdote. and illustrated from spec IA.
photographs by w. j. Roberts. By
Dutton q Co.
SEEING EUROPE BY AUTOMOBILE.
FIVE thousand-mfle motor trip through
France. Switzerland. Germany ana
Italy with an excursion INTO A AN a,
Corfu. Dalmatia and Montenegro by
Lee Meriwether Illustrated. Svo PIP
4l5. The Baker & Taylor Company.
THE HIGH ROADS OF THE ALPS. a
motoring guide TO one hundred noun
tain passes. BY Charles L. Preston;
F. r. G. s. With i6 itineraries. lOz
Photographic Illustrations and eleven
maps and diagrams. Svo, pp. Nv, SSS.
Imported by Charles Scribners Sons.
For some time it has been little diff
ncult to look without suspicion upon
new book about Italy. That country
has been overrun by the tourist with
literary" aspirations, and perfect sea
OF printers ink has been wasted on "im-
pressions" having absolutely no value.
But once in a great while the unexpected
happens, and the traveller IN Italy gives
us a real book. We are genuinely CRATE
full to NJ. Andre Maurel. His Little
ah
the French Academy. there is nothing
about IL 20 suggest the high ambition
driving at such a goal. The author Is
as spontaneous. as light in hand, as
though he were merely writing letters
home" and had not the smallest thought
Of impressing anybody with the learning
he obviously possesses.
What is the secret Of this very excep-
tional success? II lies in the simple fact
that NJ. Maurel is a man Of Imagination
and a thinker. Everybody who writes
about Italy has a warm sympathy for
that land Of beauty. NJ. Maurel has that
and something more, an intuitive feeling
for the soul OF a people. By virtue OF
this resource he arrives at conclusions
which are not, TO be sure. wholly per-
suasIve but at least they are stimulat-
ing. having the force OF veritable ideas.
The cities he traverses are not all Tit
tie" I'm the strict sense Of the term. Flor
ence, for example, deserves another cpl
tibet. But NJ Maurel is accurate when
he so describes Mantua, Pisa, Lucca'
Bergamo, Padua, Arezzo. and so on, and
through the nature Of the portraits that
he draws Of these places we realize
them in that intimate and personal fash
ion which is only possible In small
town. These portraits give us all the
color and atmosphere that are TO be
found on the surface, and they are fun
Of those subtler traits which ere only 10
be got at by the traveller for whom his
tory is a living thing. There is no
pedantry here, there is no SNUG eX-
ploitation Of dates and the like. There
IS. instead, a discursive and yet not by
anv means loose treatment Of communal
CHARACTERISTICS, Of representative artists,
Of salient buildings or scenes, and OF
those minor, elusive conditions whlch
sometimes are most eloquent Of all In
their revelation Of a city's specific note.
For the lover OF art NJ. Maurel is pc
culiarlv beguiling companion. Read him
on Matteo Civitali at Lucca, on Sodoma
al Monte Oliveto, on Donatello and Fra
Fnippo at Prato. and on Palladio at VI
cenza. 1t is sheer delight for this well
poised enthusiast, too experienced TO go
wrong and too sensitive to bore himselI
or his readers with the pedantries OF
eo-called connoisseurship, never sits
down before a masterpiece as though
from malice aforethought but just cas-
ually happens upon 1t and then gives
free rein to his emotions. From the
CHAPTER on Vicenza, celebrating from
beginning to end, we must take at least
this passage:
The work OF PAladio is an achievement.
T. contamination. 1t is 10 him, 10 ms
efforts on behalf Of simplicity ana reason,
mai all the marvels born in Italy nave
led from Brunellesco and A1beru 10 bra.
mante. It Is by this compIehenslioId' e. e.
complete, so intelligent, and so varied 50
purely Latin I'm character, ana woven ol
The spirit Of the antique and OF the re
naissance, that the artistic reform oil l H
ladio 80 with the exception OF Mlcheiangelo'
who had enough 10 do 70 command us
own genius without looking ABOUT 10!
lessons-Faladio IS the last and the most 81
uerfect If not indeed the greatest, OF
that line born I'm Florence and dying al
Venice and al Rome. Let us look at MN,
let US hasten 20 allow his spirit % enter
our own being. Already SansoNlno nus
passed, 50 fine so charming, and so pleas
Ing but almost too ilowery. Here Is Ber-
mini: here We arc drowned In the Baroque,
which IS nothing but Sansovho gone
wrong and eXasperated. When Paladio
Ho2eared Charles Y had finished his con-
QUEST the harassed cities had given up the
struggle. Leo y had opened ms century.
Ills work was the last flower Of this SOIL
where art was nOuTiShed by CIVIC passions.
When this flower faded, Italy had no more
energy. no more purity, no more taste.
in the prosperity without jealousy IN
which she has since lived she has grown
soft: yielding 20 servitude and eXhaustinS
pressure. she has produced only the me
CiOcre, the clustering and the pretty. PAL
ladio was the last ornament Of that crown
which Italy created for herself. Others
after him have sought TO enrich this
crown. The eighteenth century even sue
ceeded in Frightening II with some glitter
ing stones But they have not embellishcd
81. even though they did not mar 1t. and
Jalladio remains the very synthesis OF that
soaring of genius inaugurated by Arnofo
and BrunellesCo
Constantly NJ. Maurel is talking in this
vein, but as he goes along he philoso-
phizes. and. summing up the history OF
enc city after another, finds in them all
evidence supporting political hypothe-
sis. Briefly this amounts TO a criticism
Of Italian unity in its present state as
giving the Italians independence with
out true liberty. The cities, he main