New-York tribune., 1912-12-14
ITALIAN JOURNEYS
Art and History, Shrines, Mon
uments and Nature.

A WANDERER IN FLORENCE. BY
z V Lucas With sixteen illustra-
tions in color by Harry Morley. and
thirty-eight reproductions from paint
ings and sculpture. Emo, pp. XIV, 51'
The Macmillan Company.
THE CITIES OF LoMBARDY. BY Ed
ward Hutton. with twelve ,illustIa- it
and twelve other illustrations lZmo, PIP.
tx, 800. The Macmillan Company
MOTOR RAMBLES IN ITALY. BY
Credo Harris. Illustrated from photo
graphs Svo. pp. xiv. "a Monat, yard
Wherever Mr.. Lucas goes a-wander-
ing. whether It be in Paris. in Hol-
land TO end in apotheosis before his
beloved Vermeer Of Leiden, or in his
own London, which he knows so well
and which has given him the sub
stance of so many of his books
wherever Mr.. Lucas goes and observes
and discovers he Will have many fol-
lowers. In his pages hovers the bou-
quet Of a fine and mellow culture. not
pursued and captured violently to be
paraded with self-conscious didactio
purpose, but gathered leisurely for the
ripe beauty it gives 10 life and thought
and reminiscence. One reads him with
delight, one looks back with greater
pleasure still What is best in his
books is apt to linger in the memory.
in softer outline yet, fruitful ever
after. He is serious in Florence. the
- - Of IA Ranqi0-
sance," as II subdued by the beauty
that is hers, the beauty Of her churches
and palaces, Of the Ufflzi and the Pitt,
by the grandeur OF the names asso-
ciated with hers, impressed also by tho
associations Of Casa Guidi and tho
Anglo American group OF poets; by
the beauty. finally. of the Arno and tho
Appenines deepening their magic pur-
piles at fall Of night.
With history he deals but lightly,
apart from It's bearing upon art, but
in the City Of the Red Lily the Medici
always linger in the background, wller-
ever one wanders. Their memory is
inseparable from that Of It's greatest
pictures. its best statues, and their es-
cutcheon proclaims their right to rec
ognition everywhere. Savonarola. too,
has his chapter.
OF course, like all pilgrims TO Flor
ence Mr. Lucas visits the duom0 first.
The story OF the building Of this Ca
thedral Of st. Mary Of the Flower-of
AZ. 10 n
himself on a subject unmistakably close
to his heart:
Giotto has suffered. / think, In reputa-
ton from Ruskin. who took him particu-
larly under his wing, persistently called
him "the shepherd and made him appear
as something between a sunday scnool
superintendent and the Creator. The
Mornings in Florence" and "Giotto ana
His Works in Padua" go Insist upon the
artists holiness and conscious purpose In
all he did that his genial worldnness.
shreWdness and humor, as brought out by
Dante Vasari. Sacchetti and Boccaccio,
are utterly excluded.
There are excursions. as matter OF
course. TO Fiesole and Settignano and
Vallombrosa and Prato. The illustra-
tions are good as how can they fall 10
be of a country whose artistic wealth
is ever fresh with beauty?
It is with history that Mr.. Hutton is
chiefly concerned in The Cities Of
Lombardy," and with ecclesiastical his
tory, more by token. Cathedrals.
churches and shrines are in his pages
monuments Of the Church, first of all.
though he does not neglect their ar
tistic significance. Lombardy. the
plain between the Alps TO the north
and northwest, and the Appenlnes 70
the south. has been through the ages
the buffer OF Italy proper. a cockpit Of
Europe far more fraught with historic
meaning than u the Belgian lowland-