Table of Contents

• PROEM.
• CHAPTER I.THE SHIPWRECKED STRANGER.
• CHAPTER II.A BREAKFAST FOR LOVE.
• CHAPTER III. THE BARBER'S SHOP.
• CHAPTER IV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
• CHAPTER V. THE BLIND SCHOLAR AND HIS DAUGHTER.

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[Page i]

Romola

by

George Eliot

author of "Adam Bede," "The Mill on the Floss,"
"Silas Marner," and "Scenes of Clerical Life"
In three volumes
Vol.I.



PUBLISHED BY

Smith, Elder and Co

65 Cornhill, London
MDCCCLXIII

PROEM.

MORE than three centuries and a half ago, in the mid spring-time of 1492, we are sure that the angel of the dawn, as he travelled with broad slow wing from the Levant ❦ The term generally refers to the area along the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, from western Greece to western Egypt; specifically corresponding typically to modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. to the Pillars of Hercules ❦ Figure from Greek mythology ❦ Another name for the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and North Africa, and from the summits of the Caucasus ❦ General term for the mountain range located between the Black and Caspian Seas. Often considered the border between Asia and Europe, though Asian influences are much stronger.  across all the snowy Alpine ridges to the dark nakedness of the Western isles, saw nearly the same outline of firm land and unstable sea —saw the same great mountain shadows on the same valleys as he has seen to-day—saw olive mounts, and pine forests, and the broad plains, green with young corn or rain-freshened grass—saw the domes and spires of cities rising by the river sides or mingled

Even if, instead of following the dim daybreak, our

Let us suppose that such a Shade has been permitted to revisit the glimpses of the golden morning, and is standing once more on the famous hill of San Miniato ❦ Church (with 11th-century foundations and a characteristic Romanesque "zebra-stripe" facade) and 15th-century monastery on the outskirts of town, overlooking Florence and featuring works by many Florentine artists including Rosselino, Pollaiuolo, Taddeo Gaddi, and Luca della Robbia, which overlooks Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871). from the south.

The Spirit is clothed in his habit as he lived: the fold of his well-lined black silk garment or luccoA specifically Florentine garment hang in grave unbroken lines from neck to ankle; his plain cloth cap, with its becchetto, or long hanging strip of drapery, to serve as a scarf in case of need, surmounts a penetrating face, not, perhaps, very handsome, but with a firm, well-cut mouth, kept distinctly human by a close-shaven lip and chin. It is a face charged with memories of a keen and various life passed below there on the banks of the gleaming river; and as he looks at the scene before him, the sense of familiarity is so much stronger than the perception of change, that he thinks it might be possible to descend once more amongst the streets, and take up that busy life where he left it. For it is not only the mountains and the westward-bending river that he recognizes; not only the dark sides of Mount Morello ❦ At a little over 3,000 feet (935 m), this is the highest mountain in the Florentine Valley, northwest of Florence. opposite to him, and the long valley of the Arno ❦ River in Italy that originates in the Appenines and flows into the Mediterranean. It is 150 miles (241 km) long and the most important river in Tuscany, passing through Florence, which was founded as a river city, and also through Pisa. that seems to stretch its gray low-tufted luxuriance to the far-off ridges of Carrara ❦ City famous for its fine white marble, from which most of Florentine sculptures and marble blocks used on buildings were carved; and the steep height of Fiesole ❦ A village in the immediate vicinity ofFlorence, now part of the larger metropolitan area which was famous for the countryside villas that the wealthy Florentine families, including the Medici, built there in the 15th century. The painter Fra Angelicolived in the Convent of San Domenico, founded in 1406, from ca. 1418 to 1441, and was ordained as a priest there., with its crown of monastic walls and cypresses; and all the green and gray slopes sprinkled with villas which he can name as he

"Surely," he thinks, "Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery can still ring her bells with the solemn hammer-sound that used to beat on the hearts of her citizens and strike out the fire there. And here, on the right, stands the long

At this the Spirit, with a sigh, lets his eyes travel on to the city walls, and now he dwells on the change there with wonder at these modern times. Why have five out of the eleven convenient gates been closed? And why, above all, should the towers have been levelled that were once a glory and defence? Is the world become so peaceful, then,

Life had its zest for the old Florentine when he, too, trod the marble steps and shared in those dignities. His politics had an area as wide as his trade, which stretched from Syria ❦ A middle Eastern country bordering on the Mediterranean Sea to Britain ❦ A northern European country that did not, as such, exist in the Renaissance, when England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were not yet united into the United Kingdom, but they had also the passionate intensity, and the detailed practical interest, which could belong only to a narrow scene of corporate action ; only to the members of a community shut in close by the hills and by walls of six miles' circuit, where men knew each other as they passed in the street, set their eyes every day on the memorials of their commonwealth, and were conscious of having not only the right to vote, but the chance of being voted for. He loved his honours and his gains, the business of his counting-house, of his guild, of the public council- chamber; he loved his enmities too, and fingered

For the Unseen Powers were mighty. Who knew —who was sure—that there was any name given to them behind which there was no angry force to be appeased, no intercessory pity to be won? Were not gems medicinal, though they only pressed the finger? Were not all things charged with occult virtues? Lucretius ❦ Ca. 99-55 BCE. A Roman poet and philosopher best known for his Epicurean work, De rerum natura or The Nature of Things. His work was rediscovered in the Renaissance by Poggio Bracciolini and had a major influence on the humanists. might be right—he was an ancient and a great poet; Luigi Pulci ❦ , too, who was suspected of not believing anything from the roof upward (dal tetto in su), had very much the air of being right over the supper-table, when the wine and riboboli ❦ witticisms were circulating fast, though he was only a poet in the vulgar tongue. There were even learned personages who maintained that Aristotle ❦ Ca. 384-322 BCE. Greek philosopher; regarded as the "Father of Western Philosophy" alongside Plato, and of tremendous influence on Medieval and Renaissance thinking., wisest of men (unless, indeed, Plato ❦ Ca. 420s-348 BCE. Greek philosopher; Aristotle's teacher. His idealist philosophy influenced Western philosophy and political thought as well as Christian theology. Widely admired in the Middle Ages as well as the Renaissance. were wiser), was a thoroughly irreligious philosopher; and a liberal scholar must entertain all speculations. But the negatives might, after all, prove false ; nay, seemed manifestly false, as the circling hours swept past him, and turned round with graver faces. For had not the world become Christian? Had he not been baptized in San Giovanni ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. , where the dome is awful with the symbols of coming judgment, and where the altar

He had smiled, perhaps, and shaken his head dubiously, as he heard simple folk talk of a Pope Angelico, who was to come by-and-by and bring in a new order of things, to purify the Church from simony, and the lives of the clergy from scandal—a state of affairs too different from what existed under Innocent the Eighth ❦ 1432-1492. Pope originally from Genoa, elected in 1484, whose bull, Summis desiderantes, supported the investigation of witches and wizards. Savonarola harshly criticized him for his worldliness and his nepotism inivolving the Medici family. for a shrewd merchant and politician to regard the prospect as worthy of entering into his calculations. But he felt the evils of the time, nevertheless; for he was a man of public spirit, and public spirit can never be wholly immoral, since its essence

"He was a noteworthy man, that Prior of San Marco ❦ 1452-1498. Dominican friar and religious leader who called for a Christian renewal against secularism and criticized the secular and religious leaders of Florence, in particular the Medici. Active in Florence in the 1490s as the prior of San Marco, until his excommunication and execution in 1498.]" thinks our Spirit; "somewhat arrogant and extreme, perhaps, especially in his denunciations of speedy vengeance. Ah, Iddio non paga il Sabato ❦ "God does not pay on Saturday." -

"There is knowledge of these things to be had in the streets below, on the beloved marmi ❦ marble pavement stones in front of the churches, and under the sheltering Loggie, where surely our citizens have still their gossip and debates, their bitter and merry jests as of old. For are not the well-remembered buildings all there? The changes have not been so great in those uncounted years. I will go down and hear—I will tread the familiar pavement, and hear once again the speech of Florentines."

Go not down, good Spirit! for the changes are great, and the speech of Florentines would sound as a riddle in your ears. Or, if you go, mingle with no politicians on the marmi ❦ marble pavement stones, or elsewhere ask no questions about trade in the Calimara; confuse yourself

BOOK I

CHAPTER I.THE SHIPWRECKED STRANGER.

THE Loggia de' Cerchi ❦ One of the noble families of influence in Florence, whose family house or palazzo was very close to the Piazza della Signoria. Oe of the White Guelph families, their influence on Florence was strongest in the 13th century. stood in the heart of old Florence, within a labyrinth of narrow streets behind the Badia ❦ This Benedictine church and monastery was founded in the 10th century and redesigned by di Cambio in 1285, to be again remodeled in the mid-1400s. , now rarely threaded by the stranger, unless in a dubious search for a certain severely simple door-place, bearing this inscription :

QUI NACQUE IL DIVINO POETA. ❦ Italian: Here, the divine poet (i.e. Dante) was born.

To the ear ofDante ❦ Ca. 1265-1321. A Florentine who was forced into exile in 1302. He was the author of the Divine Comedy and a number of other books, most of them not written in the customary Latin but in Tuscan Italian., the same streets rang with the shout and clash of fierce battle between rival families; but in the fifteenth century, they were only noisy with the unhistorical quarrels and broad jests of wool-carders in the cloth-producing quarters of San Martino ❦ Originally founded in the 9th century, this church's oratory became the headquarter of the Medici-supported confraternity of the Buonomini and featured frescoes attributed to Ghirlandaio's workshop. and Garbo.

Under this loggia, in the early morning of the
9th of April, 1492

The standing figure was the first to speak. He was a grey-haired, broad-shouldered man, of the type which, in Tuscan phrase, is moulded with the fist and polished with the pickaxe; but the self- important gravity which had written itself out in the deep lines about his brow and mouth seemed intended to correct any contemptuous inferences from the hasty Workmanship which Nature had bestowed on his exterior. He had deposited a large well-filled bag, made of skins, on the pavement, and before him hung a pedlar's basket, garnished partly with small woman's-ware, such as thread and pins, and partly with fragments of glass, which had probably been taken in exchange for those commodities.

"Young man," he said, pointing to a ring on the finger of the reclining figure, "when your chin has got a stiffer crop on it, you'll know better than to take your nap in street corners with a ring like that on your forefinger. By the holy 'vangels! if it had been anybody but me standing over you two minutes ago—but Bratti Ferravecchiis not the man to steal. The cat couldn't eat her mouse if she didn't catch it alive, and Bratti couldn't relish gain if it had no taste of a bargain. Why, young man, one San Giovanni ❦ St. John's feast day or Midsummer, June 24, three years ago, the Saint ❦ Late 1st C. BC to ca. 28-36 AD. Christian saint who foresaw the coming of Christ and baptized Christ in the River Jordan. According to the Gospel of Luke, he is related to Jesus through hs mother's side. He was executed by Herod (in some versions, on the behest of his daughter Salome. John the Baptist, Italian San Giovanni, is the patron saint of Florence. sent a dead body in my way—a blind beggar, with his cap well-lined with pieces—but, if you'll believe

The deep guttural sounds of the speaker were scarcely intelligible to the newly-waked, bewildered listener, but he understood the action of pointing to his ring: he looked down at it, and, with a half- automatic obedience to the warning, took it off and thrust it within his doublet, rising at the same time and stretching himself.

"Your tunic and hose match ill with that jewel, young man," said Bratti, deliberately. "Anybody might say the saints had sent you a dead body; but if you took the jewels, I hope you buried him—and you can afford a mass or two for him into the bargain."

Something like a painful thrill appeared to dart through the frame of the listener, and arrest the careless stretching of his arms and chest. For an instant he turned on Bratti with a sharp frown; but he immediately recovered an air of indifference, took off the red Levantine cap which hung like a great purse over his left ear, pushed back his long dark-brown curls, and glancing at his dress, said, smilingly,

"You speak truth, friend: my garments are as weather-stained as an old sail, and they are not old either, only, like an old sail, they have had a sprinkling of the sea as well as the rain. The fact is, I'm a stranger in Florence, and when I came in foot-sore last night I preferred flinging myself in a corner of this hospitable porch to hunting any longer for a chance hostelry, which might turn out to be a nest of blood-suckers of more sorts than one."

"A stranger in good sooth," said Bratti, "for the words come all melting out of your throat, so that a Christian and a Florentine can't tell a hook from a hanger. But you're not from Genoa ❦ Major city in Northern Italy? More likely from Venice ❦ Major city on the Eastern coastline of Northern Italy, famous for its canals., by the cut of your clothes?"

"At this present moment," said the stranger, smiling, "it is of less importance where I come from than where I can go to for a mouthful of breakfast. This city of yours turns a grim look on me just here: can you show me the way to a more lively quarter, where I can get a meal and a lodging?"

"That I can," said Bratti, "and it is your good fortune, young man, that I have happened to be walking in from Rovezzano ❦ A village near Florence this morning, and turned out of my way to Mercato Vecchio ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains. to say an Ave at the Badia. ❦ This Benedictine church and monastery was founded in the 10th century and redesigned by di Cambio in 1285, to be again remodeled in the mid-1400s. That, I say, is your good fortune. But it remains to be seen what is my profit in the matter. Nothing for nothing, young man. If I show you the way to Mercato Vecchio ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains., you'll swear by your patron saint to let me have the bidding for that stained

" Agreed, by San Niccolo ❦ ca. 270-342 AD, early Christian bishop and saint who lived in the Greek settlement of Myra in what is now Turkey. Associated with generosity, he later morphed into the modern "Santa Claus." Not typically associated with Florence. ," said the other, laughing. "But now let us set off to this said Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains., for I feel the want of a better lining to this doublet of mine which you are coveting."

"Coveting? Nay,"said Bratti, heaving his bag on his back and setting out. But he broke off in his reply, and burst out in loud, harsh tones, not unlike the creaking and grating of a cart-wheel: "Chi abbaratta—baratta—b'ratta—chi abbaratta cenci e vetri—b'ratta ferri vecchi?" ❦ Who wants to exchange rags, broken glass, or old iron?

"It's worth but little," he said presently, relapsing into his conversational tone. " Hose and altogether, your clothes are worth but little. Still, if you've a mind to set yourself up with a lute worth more than any new one, or with a sword that's been worn by a Ridolfi ❦ One of the many famiies of influence in Florence, along with the Bardi, the Strozzi, and the Albizzi, but one that receded into the background as the Medici became the most powerful of these. , or with a paternoster of the best mode, I could let you have a great bargain, by making an allowance for the clothes; for, simple as I stand here, I've got the best-furnished shop in the Ferravecchi ❦ The street of the scrap-iron dealers (now the via degli Strozzi) does not exist anymore, but it led to the Mercato Vecchio from the Western end of the Roman settlement, as part of the central E-W artery, the Decumanus , and it's close by the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains.. The Virgin be praised! it's not a pumpkin I carry on my shoulders. But I don't stay caged in my shop all day: I've got a wife and a raven to stay at home and mind the stock. Chi abbaratta—baratta—b'ratta? ... And now, young man, where do you come from, and what's your business in Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871).?"

"I thought you liked nothing that came to you without a bargain," said the stranger. "You've offered me nothing yet in exchange for that information."

"Well, well; a Florentine doesn't mind bidding a fair price for news : it stays the stomach a little, though he may win no hose by it. If I take you to the prettiest damsel in the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains. to get a cup of milk—that will be a fair bargain."

"Nay; I can find her myself, if she be really in the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains.; for pretty heads are apt to look forth of doors and windows. No, no. Besides, a sharp trader, like you, ought to know that he who bids for nuts and news, may chance to find them hollow."

"Ah! young man," said Bratti, with a sideway glance of some admiration, "you were not born of a Sunday—the salt shops were open when you came into the world. You're not a Hebrew, eh?—come from Spain ❦ Country in Southwestern Europe bordering on the Mediterranean on its Eastern coast. or Naples ❦ Major city in the South of Italy, eh? Let me tell you the Frati Minori ❦ the Franciscans are trying to make Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871). as hot as Spain ❦ Country in Southwestern Europe bordering on the Mediterranean on its Eastern coast. for those dogs of hell that want to get all the profits of usury to themselves and leave none for Christians; and when you walk the Calimara ❦ Incorrectly used by Eliot for the Via Calimala, named for one of the major Florentine guilds, this north/south street led from the Mercato Vecchioto the Via Por Santa Maria and thus directly to the Ponte Vecchio with a piece of yellow cloth in your cap, it will spoil your beauty more than a sword-cut across that smooth olive cheek of yours.—Abbaratta, baratta—chi abbaratta?— I tell you, young man, gray cloth is against yellow cloth; and there's as much gray cloth

"All that is very amusing information you are parting with for nothing," said the stranger, rather scornfully; "but it happens not to concern me. I am no Hebrew."

"See, now!" said Bratti, triumphantly; "I've made a good bargain with mere words. I've made you tell me something, young man, though you're as hard to hold as a lamprey. San Giovanni ❦ Late 1st C. BC to ca. 28-36 AD. Christian saint who foresaw the coming of Christ and baptized Christ in the River Jordan. According to the Gospel of Luke, he is related to Jesus through hs mother's side. He was executed by Herod (in some versions, on the behest of his daughter Salome. John the Baptist, Italian San Giovanni, is the patron saint of Florence. be praised ! a blind Florentine is a match for two one- eyed men. But here we are in the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains.."

They had now emerged from the narrow streets into a broad piazza, known to the elder Florentine writers as the Mercato Vecchio, or the Old Market ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains.. This piazza, though it had been the scene of a provision market from time immemorial, and may perhaps, says fond imagination, be the very spot to which the Fesulean ancestors of the Florentines descended from their high fastness to traffic with the rustic population of the valley, had not been shunned as a place of residence by Florentine wealth. In the early decades of the fifteenth century, which was now near its end, the Medici ❦ Italian banking family and political dynasty that ruled over Florence for most of the 15th and 16th centuries, and helped fund Renaissance art, architecture, and humanist culture. After a brief period during which they were ousted from Florence after 149 and other powerful families of the popolani grassi ❦ the wealthy but not aristocratic family, literally, "the fat common people", or commercial nobility, had their houses there, not perhaps finding their

"E vedesi chi perde con gran soffi, E bestemmiar colla mano alla mascella, E ricever e dar dimolti ingoffi." ❦ These lines from a poem La Proprieta i Mercato Vecchio by Antonio Pucci ❦ Ca. 1310-1388. Florentine poet famous for his burlesque poetry written in the Florentine dialect about local figures and stories. describe "a man breathing with great gasps, and blaspheming with his hand at his jaw, and taking and giving many blows" (cf. Sanders 690)

But still there was the relief of prettier sights: there were brood-rabbits, not less innocent and astonished than those of our own period; there were doves and singing-birds to be bought as presents for the chil- dren ; there were even kittens for sale, and here and there a handsome gattuccio, or "Tom," with the highest character for mousing; and, better than all, there were young, softly rounded cheeks and bright eyes, freshened by the start from the far-off castello ❦ Walled vilage at daybreak, not to speak of older faces with the unfailing charm of honest good-will in them, such as are never quite wanting in scenes of human in- dustry. And high on a pillar in the centre of the place—a venerable pillar, fetched from the church of San Giovanni ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery—stood. Donatello's ❦ 1386-1466. Florentine sculptor who introduced major innovations as well as classical elements in his works, mostly free-standing sculptures, many of which were on public display in Florence. His Statue of Plenty on the Mercato Vecchio was replaced in 1729 by another work. stone statue of Plenty ❦ This statue was taken down and replaced by another in 1729, but the column on which it stood remains, with a fountain near it, where, says old Pucci ❦ Ca. 1310-1388. Florentine poet famous for his burlesque poetry written in the Florentine dialect about local figures and stories. , the good wives of the market freshened their

But on this particular morning a sudden change seemed to have come over the face of the market. The deschi, or stalls, were indeed partly dressed with their various commodities, and already there were purchasers assembled, on the alert to secure the finest, freshest vegetables and the most unexception- able butter. But when Bratti and his companion entered the piazza, it appeared that some common pre-occupation had for the moment distracted the attention both of buyers and sellers from their proper business. Most of the traders had turned their backs on their goods, and had joined the knots of talkers who were concentrating themselves at different points in the piazza. A vendor of old clothes, in the act of hanging out a pair of long hose, had distractedly hung them round his neck in his eagerness to join the nearest group; an oratorical cheesemonger, with a piece of cheese in one hand and a knife in the other, was incautiously making notes of his emphatic pauses on that excellent specimen of marzolino ❦ an Italian cheese made from sheep's milk, traditionally in March; and elderly market-women! with their egg-baskets in a dangerously oblique position, contributed a wailing fugue of invocation.

In this general distraction, the Florentine boys, who were never wanting in any street scene, and were of an especially mischievous sort—as who

"Diavolo" said Bratti, as he and his companion came, quite unnoticed, upon the noisy scene; "the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains. is gone as mad as if the most Holy Father had excommunicated us again. I must know what this is. But never fear : it seems a thousand years to you till you see the pretty Tessa, and get your cup of milk ; but keep hold of me, and I'll hold to my bargain. Remember, I'm to have the first bid for your suit, specially for the hose, which, with all their stains, are the best panno di garbo ❦ Italian: stylish clothes—as good as ruined, though, with mud and weather stains."

"Olà, Monna Trecca,"Bratti proceeded, turning towards an old woman on the outside of the nearest group, who for the moment had suspended her wail to listen, and shouting close in her ear: "Here are the mules upsetting all your bunches of parsley : is the world coming to an end, then?"

"Monna Trecca" (equivalent to "Dame Greengrocer")

"A bad Easter and a bad year to you, and may you die by the sword!" she burst out, rushing towards her stall, but directing this first volley of her wrath against Bratti, who, without heeding the malediction, quietly slipped into her place, within hearing of the narrative which had been absorbing her attention; making a sign at the same time to the young stranger to keep near him.

"I tell you I saw it myself," said a fat man, with a bunch of newly-purchased leeks in his hand. "I was in Santa Maria Novella ❦ This Dominican church was begun in the 1240s, but not finished until 1360. Several famous architects, including Talenti and Alberti, had a hand in the design, and its famous side chapels (especially the Gondi, Strozzi and Tornobuoni Chapels) feature Renaissance paintings and sculptural work, including by Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, and the young Michelangelo.Florence, and saw it myself. The woman started up and threw out her arms, and cried out and said she saw a big bull with fiery horns coming down on the church to crush it. I saw it myself."

"Saw what, Goro?" said a man of slim figure, whose eye twinkled rather roguishly. He wore a close jerkin, a skull-cap lodged carelessly over his left ear as if it had fallen there by chance, a delicate linen apron tucked up on one side, and a razor stuck in his belt. "Saw the bull, or only the woman?"

"Why, the woman, to be sure; but it's all one, mi pare : it doesn't alter the meaning—va!" answered the fat man, with some contempt.

"Meaning? no, no; that's clear enough," said several voices at once, and then followed a confusion of tongues, in which "Lights shooting over San Lorenzo ❦ This large Renaissance church, the parish church of the Medici, was begun by Brunelleschi in the 1419, but many later artists, including Donatello and Michelangelo, had a hand in the design of the church, the two sacristies, and the Laurentian library, as well as in the frescoes and altarpieces which adorned it. . for three nights together"— "Thunder in the clear starlight"— "Lantern of the Duomo ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptisterystruck with the sword of St. Michael"— "Palle" ❦ Arms of Medici. ❦ Italian banking family and political dynasty that ruled over Florence for most of the 15th and 16th centuries, and helped fund Renaissance art, architecture, and humanist culture. After a brief period during which they were ousted from Florence after 149— "All smashed"— "Lions tearing each other to pieces"— "Ah! and they might well"— "Boto ❦ A votive image of Lorenzo, in wax, hung up in the Church of the Annunziata ❦ This church, founded by the Servite order in 1250, was redesigned by Michelozzo and Alberti in the 15th century and features art by a several 15th-century artists, but mostly by artists active in the high Renaissance after 1500 like Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo) , supposed to have fallen at the time of his death. Boto is popular Tuscan for Voto ❦ These signs and portents were recorded by Polizian ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. in a letter. caduto in Santissima Nunziata" ❦ This church, founded by the Servite order in 1250, was redesigned by Michelozzo and Alberti in the 15th century and features art by a several 15th-century artists, but mostly by artists active in the high Renaissance after 1500 like Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo) —"Died like the best of Christians"—"God will have pardoned him"—were often-repeated phrases, which shot across each other like storm-driven hailstones, each speaker feeling rather the necessity of utterance than of finding a listener. Perhaps the only silent members of the group were Bratti, who, as a new comer, was busy in mentally piecing together the flying fragments of information; the man of the razor; and a thin- lipped, eager-looking personage in spectacles, wearing a pen-and-ink case at his belt.

"Ebbene, Nello," said Bratti, skirting the group till he was within hearing of the barber. "It appears the Magnifico ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. is dead—rest his soul!—and the price of wax will rise ?"

"Even as you say," answered Nello; and then added, with an air of extra gravity, but with

A sharp and lengthened "Pst!" was suddenly heard darting across the pelting storm of gutturals. It came from the pale man in spectacles, and had the effect he intended; for the noise ceased, and all eyes in the group were fixed on him with a look of ex- pectation.

"'Tis well said you Florentines are blind," he began, in an incisive high voice. "It appears to me, you need nothing but a diet of hay to make cattle of you. What! do you think the death of Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. is the scourge God has prepared for Florence? Go! you are sparrows chattering praise over the dead hawk. What! a man who was trying to slip a noose over every neck in the Republic that he might tighten it at his pleasure! You like that; you like to have the election of your magistrates turned into closet-work, and no man to use the rights of a citizen unless he is a Medicean. That is what is meant by qualification now: netto di

[Page 31] specchio

"Nay, nay, Ser Cioni, keep astride your politics, and never mount your prophecy; politics is the better horse," said Nello. "But if you talk of portents, what portent can be greater than a pious notary? Balaam's ass was nothing to it."

"Ay, but a notary out of work, with his ink- bottle dry," said another bystander, very much out at elbows. "Better don a cowl at once, Ser Cioni; everybody will believe in your fasting."

The notary turned and left the group with a look of indignant contempt, disclosing, as he did so, the sallow but mild face of a short man who had been standing behind him, and whose bent shoulders told of some sedentary occupation.

"By San Giovanni ❦ Late 1st C. BC to ca. 28-36 AD. Christian saint who foresaw the coming of Christ and baptized Christ in the River Jordan. According to the Gospel of Luke, he is related to Jesus through hs mother's side. He was executed by Herod (in some versions, on the behest of his daughter Salome. John the Baptist, Italian San Giovanni, is the patron saint of Florence. , though," said the fat purchaser of leeks, with the air of a person rather shaken in his theories, "I'm not sure there isn't some truth in what Ser Cioni says. For I know I've good reason to find fault with the quattrini bianchi ❦ white farthings or quarters, a small coin myself. Grumble, did he say? Suffocation! I should think we do grumble; and, let anybody say the word, I'll turn out into the piazza with the readiest, sooner than have our money altered in our hands as if the magistracy were so many necromancers. And it's true Lorenzo might have hindered such work if lie would — and for the bull with the flaming horns, why, as Ser Cioni says, there may be many meanings to it, for the matter of that; it may have more to do with the taxes than we think. For when God above sends a sign, it's not to be supposed he'd have only one meaning."

"Spoken like an oracle, Goro!" said the barber. "Why, when we poor mortals can pack two or three meanings into one sentence, it were mere

"Thou art pleased to scoff, Nello," said the sallow, round-shouldered man, no longer eclipsed by the notary, "but it is not the less true that every revelation, whether by visions, dreams, portents, or the written word, has many meanings, which it is given to the illuminated only to unfold."

"Assuredly," answered Nello. "Haven't I been to hear the Frate ❦ 1452-1498. Dominican friar and religious leader who called for a Christian renewal against secularism and criticized the secular and religious leaders of Florence, in particular the Medici. Active in Florence in the 1490s as the prior of San Marco, until his excommunication and execution in 1498. in San Lorenzo ❦ This large Renaissance church, the parish church of the Medici, was begun by Brunelleschi in the 1419, but many later artists, including Donatello and Michelangelo, had a hand in the design of the church, the two sacristies, and the Laurentian library, as well as in the frescoes and altarpieces which adorned it. .? But then, I've been to hear Fra Menico da Ponzo ❦ A prominent Franciscan opponent of Savonarola (cf. Sanders 691) in the Duomo ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery too; and according to him, your Fra Girolamo ❦ 1452-1498. Dominican friar and religious leader who called for a Christian renewal against secularism and criticized the secular and religious leaders of Florence, in particular the Medici. Active in Florence in the 1490s as the prior of San Marco, until his excommunication and execution in 1498., with his visions and interpretations, is running after the wind of Mongibello ❦ Mongibello, also known as Mount Etna, is an active volcano on the island of Sicily, at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula., and those who follow him are like to have the fate of certain swine that ran head-long into the sea—or some hotter place. With San Domenico ❦ 1170-1221. Christian saint of Spanish origin; founder of the influential Dominican Order roaring è vero in one ear, and San Francisco ❦ 1181/2-1226. Christian saint of Italian origin who foudned the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (for men) and of Saint Clare (for women). He is the patron saint of animals, but also known for his emphasis on poverty. screaming è falso in the other, what is a poor barber to do—unless he were illuminated? But it's plain our Goro here is beginning to be illuminated, for he already sees that the bull with the flaming horns means first himself, and secondly all the other aggrieved taxpayers of Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871)., who are determined. to gore the magistracy on the first opportunity."

"Goro is a fool!" said a bass voice, with a note that dropped. like the sound. of a great bell in the midst of much tinkling. "Let him carry home his

The speaker had joined the group only in time to hear the conclusion of Nello's speech, but he was one of those figures for whom all the world instinctively makes way, as it would for a batteringram. He was not much above the middle height, but the impression of enormous force which was conveyed by his capacious chest and brawny arms bared to the shoulder, was deepened by the keen sense and quiet resolution expressed in his glance and in every furrow of his cheek and brow. He had often been an unconscious model to Domenico Ghirlandajo ❦ 1448-1494. Painter from Florence whose altarpieces and frescoes, including in Santa Maria Novella and Santa Trinita, are among the most famous artworks of 15th-century Italy. , when that great painter was making the walls of the churches reflect the life of Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871)., and translating pale aerial traditions into the deep colour and strong lines of the faces he knew. The naturally dark tint of his skin was additionally bronzed by the same powdery deposit that gave a polished black surface to his leathern apron: a deposit which habit had probably made a necessary condition of perfect ease, for it was not washed off with punctilious regularity.

Goro turned his fat cheek and glassy eye on the frank speaker with a look of deprecation rather than of resentment.

"Why, Niccolò, " he said, in an injured tone,"I've heard you sing to another tune than that, often enough, when you've been laying down the law at San Gallo ❦ This church was commissioned by a member of the prominent Sangallo family on a festa. I've heard you say yourself, that a man wasn't a mill-wheel, to be on the grind, grind, as long as he was driven, and then stick in his place without stirring when the water was low. And you're as fond of your vote as any man in Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871). — ay, and I've heard you say, if Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. —"

"Yes, yes," said Niccolò."Don't you be bringing up my speeches again after you've swallowed them, and handing them about as if they were none the worse. I vote and I speak when there's any use in it: if there's hot metal on the anvil, I lose no time before I strike; but I don't spend good hours in tinkling on cold iron, or in standing on the pavement as thou dost, Goro, with snout upward, like a pig under an oak-tree. And as for Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. —who's dead and gone before his time — he was a man who had an eye for curious iron-work; and if anybody says he wanted to make himself a tyrant, I say, Sia; I'll not deny which way the wind blows when every man can see the weathercock.' But that only means that Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. was a crested hawk, and there are plenty of hawks without crests whose claws and beaks are as good for tearing. Though if there was any chance of a real reform, so that Marzocco ❦ The stone Lion, emblem of the Republic. ❦ A civic statue of a lion was placed on the Piazza Vecchio in 1350, but a larger one by Donatello ❦ 1386-1466. Florentine sculptor who introduced major innovations as well as classical elements in his works, mostly free-standing sculptures, many of which were on public display in Florence. His Statue of Plenty on the Mercato Vecchio was replaced in 1729 by another work. created between 1418 and 1420 was not moved to this public space until 1812 might

"And that reform is not far off, Niccolò," said the sallow, mild-faced man, seizing his opportunity like a missionary among the too light-minded heathens; "for a time of tribulation is coming, and the scourge is at hand. And when the Church is purged of cardinals and prelates who traffic in her inheritance that their hands may be full to pay the price of blood and to satisfy their own lusts, the State will be purged too—and Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871). will be purged of men who love to see avarice and lechery under the red hat and the mitre because it gives them the screen of a more hellish vice than their own."

"Ay, as Goro's broad body would be a screen for my narrow person in case of missiles," said Nello; "but if that excellent screen happened to fall, I were stifled under it, surely enough. That is no bad image of thine, Nanni — or, rather of the Frate's; for I fancy there is no room in the small cup of thy understanding for any other liquor than what he pours into it."

"And it were well for thee, Nello," replied Nanni, "if thou could'st empty thyself of thy scoffs and thy jests, and take in that liquor too. The warning is ringing in the ears of all men: and it's no new story; for the Abbot Joachim prophesied of the coming time three hundred years ago, and now Fra

[Page 37] Girolamo

"Ay, and thou wilt see it thyself, Nanni, if thou wilt stare upward long enough," said Niccolò; "for that pitiable tailor's work of thine makes thy noddle so overhang thy legs, that thy eyeballs can see nought above the stitching-board but the roof of thy own skull."

The honest tailor bore the jest without bitterness, bent on convincing his hearers of his doctrine rather than of his dignity. But Niccolò gave him no opportunity for replying; for he turned away to the pursuit of his market business, probably considering farther dialogue as a tinkling on cold iron.

"Ebbene," said the man with the hose round his neck, who had lately migrated from another knot of talkers, "they are safest who cross themselves and jest at nobody. Do you know that the Magnifico ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. sent for the Frate ❦ 1452-1498. Dominican friar and religious leader who called for a Christian renewal against secularism and criticized the secular and religious leaders of Florence, in particular the Medici. Active in Florence in the 1490s as the prior of San Marco, until his excommunication and execution in 1498. at the last, and couldn't die without his blessing?"

"Was it so — in truth?" said several voices. "Yes, yes — God will have pardoned him.""He died like the best of Christians.""Never took his eyes from the holy crucifix.""And the Frate will have given him his blessing?"

"Well, I know no more," said he of the hosen; "only Guccio there met a staffiere ❦ Italian: footman or groom going back to Careggi ❦ Now part of larger Florence, Careggi used to be a village where the Medici family owned a villa or country home, remodeled by Michelozzofor Cosimo de 'Medici in the 1430s. It became the home of the Platonic Academy under Lorenzo di'Medici, and both Cosimo and Lorenzo died there, as did the famous humanist and protegee of the family, Marsilio Ficino., and he told him the Frate ❦ 1452-1498. Dominican friar and religious leader who called for a Christian renewal against secularism and criticized the secular and religious leaders of Florence, in particular the Medici. Active in Florence in the 1490s as the prior of San Marco, until his excommunication and execution in 1498. had been sent

"It's likely enough the Frate ❦ 1452-1498. Dominican friar and religious leader who called for a Christian renewal against secularism and criticized the secular and religious leaders of Florence, in particular the Medici. Active in Florence in the 1490s as the prior of San Marco, until his excommunication and execution in 1498.will tell the people something about it in his sermon this morning; is it not true, Nanni?" said Goro. "What do you think?"

But Nanni had already turned his back on Goro, and the group was rapidly thinning some being stirred by the impulse to go and hear "new things" from the Frate ("new things" were the nectar of Florentines); others by the sense that it was time to attend to their private business. In this general movement, Bratti got close to the barber, and said,—

"Nello, you've a ready tongue of your own, and are used to worming secrets out of people when you've once got them well-lathered. I picked up a stranger this morning as I was coming in from Rovezzano ❦ A village near Florence, and I can spell him out no better than I can the letters on that scarf I bought from the French cavalier. It isn't my wits are at fault, — I want no man to help me tell peas from paternosters, — but when you come to foreign fashions, a fool may happen to know more than a wise man."

"Ay, thou bast the wisdom of Midas, who could turn rags and rusty nails into gold, even as thou dost," said Nello, "and he had also something of the ass about him, But where is thy bird of strange plumage?"

Bratti was looking round, with an air of disappointment.

"Diavolo!" he said, with some vexation. "The bird's flown. It's true he was hungry, and I forgot him. But we shall find him in the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains., within scent of bread and savours, I'll answer for him."

"Let us make the round of the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains., then," said Nello.

It isn't his feathers that puzzle me," continued Bratti, as they pushed their way together. "There isn't much in the way of cut and cloth on this side the Holy Sepulchre that can puzzle a Florentine."

"Or frighten him, either," said Nello, "after he has seen an Inglese or a Tedesco." ❦ Italian: an Englishman or a German

"No, no," said Bratti, cordially; "one may never lose sight of the Cupola ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery and yet know the world, I hope. Besides, this stranger's clothes are good Italian merchandise, and the hose he wears were dyed in Ognissanti ❦ This church dates from the 13th century and was founded by the Umiliati, a lay order. It was rebuilt in the Baroque style in the 17th century, but some frescoes by Ghirlandaio and Botticelli were preserved. before ever they were dyed with salt water, as he says. But the riddle about him is —"

Here Bratti'sexplanation was interrupted by some jostling as they reached one of the entrances of the piazza, and before he could resume it they had caught sight of the enigmatical object they were in search of.

CHAPTER II.A BREAKFAST FOR LOVE.

AFTER Bratti had joined the knot of talkers, the young stranger, hopeless of learning what was the cause of the general agitation, and not much caring to know what was probably of little interest to any but born Florentines, soon became tired of waiting to know what was probably of little interest to any but born Florentines, soon became tired of waiting for Bratti's escort; and chose to stroll round the piazza, looking out for some vendor of eatables who might happen to have less than the average curiosity about public news. But as if at the suggestion of a sudden thought, lie thrust his hand into a purse or wallet that hung at his waist, and explored it again and again with a look of frustration.

"Not an obolus, by Jupiter!"he murmured, in a language which was not Tuscan or even Italian. "I thought I had one poor piece left. I must get my breakfast for love, then!"

He had not gone many steps farther before it seemed likely that he had found a quarter of the market where that medium of exchange might not be rejected.

In a corner, away from any group of talkers, two mules were standing, well adorned with red tassels and collars. One of them carried wooden milk-vessels, the other a pair of panniers filled with herbs and salads. Resting her elbow on the neck of the mule that carried the milk, there leaned a young girl, apparently not more than sixteen, with a red hood surrounding her face, which was all the more baby-like in its prettiness from the entire concealment of her hair. The poor child, perhaps, was weary after her labour in the morning twilight in preparation for her walk to market from some castello three or four miles off, for she seemed to have gone to sleep in that half-standing, half-leaning posture. Nevertheless, our stranger had no compunction in awaking her, but the means he chose were so gentle that it seemed to the damsel in her dream as if a little sprig of thyme had touched her lips while she was stooping to gather the herbs. The dream was broken, however, for she opened her blue baby-eyes, and started up with astonishment and confusion to see the young stranger standing close before her. She heard him speaking to her in a voice which seemed so strange and soft, that even if she had been more collected she would have taken it for granted that lie said something hopelessly unintelligible to her, and her first movement was to turn her head a little away, and lift up a corner of her green serge mantle as a screen. He repeated his words —

"Forgive me, pretty one, for awaking you. I'm dying with hunger, and the scent of milk makes breakfast seem more desirable than ever."

He had chosen the words "muoio di fame,"because he knew they would be familiar to her ears; and he had uttered them playfully, with the intonation of a mendicant. This time he was understood; the corner of the mantle was dropped, and in a few moments a large cup of fragrant milk was held out to him. He paid no further compliments before raging it to his lips, and while he was drinking, the little maiden found courage to look up at the long brown curls of this singular-voiced stranger, who had asked for food in the tones of a beggar, but who, though his clothes were much damaged, was unlike any beggar she had ever seen.

While this process of survey was going on, there was another current of feeling that carried her hand into a bag which hung by the side of the mule, and when the stranger set down his cup, he saw a large piece of bread held out towards him, and caught a glance of the blue eyes that seemed intended as an encouragement to him to take this additional gift.

"But perhaps that is your own breakfast," he said. "No, I have had enough without payment. A thousand thanks, my gentle one."

There was no rejoinder in words; but the piece of bread was pushed a little nearer to him, as if in impatience at his refusal; and as the long dark eyes

"Ah, then, if I must take the bread," he said, laying his hand on it, "I shall get bolder still, and beg for another kiss to make the bread sweeter."

His speech was getting wonderfully intelligible in spite of the strange voice, which had at first almost seemed a thing to make her cross herself. She blushed deeply, and lifted up a corner of her mantle to her mouth again. But just as the too presumptuous stranger was leaning forward, and had his fingers on the arm that held up the screening mantle, he was startled by a harsh voice close upon his ear.

"Who are you—with a murrain to you? No honest buyer, I'll warrant, but a hanger-on of the dicers—or something worse. Go! dance off, and find fitter company, or I'll give you a tune to a little quicker time than you'll like."

The young stranger drew back and looked at the speaker with a glance provokingly free from alarm and deprecation, and his slight expression of saucy amusement broke into a broad beaming smile as he surveyed the figure of his threatener. She was a stout but brawny woman, with a man's jerkin slipped over her green serge gamurra or gown, and the peaked hood of some departed mantle fastened round her sunburnt face, which, under all its coarseness and premature wrinkles, showed a half-sad, half-ludicrous

There was something irresistibly propitiating in that bright young smile, but Monna Ghita was not a woman to betray any weakness, and she went on speaking, apparently with heightened exasperation.

"Yes, yes, you can grin as well as other monkeys in cap and jerkin. You're a minstrel or a mountebank, I'll be sworn; you look for all the world as silly as a tumbler when he's been upside down and has got on his heels again. And what fool's tricks hast thou been after, Tessa?" she added, turning to her daughter, whose frightened face was more inviting to abuse. "Giving away the milk and victuals, it seems; ay, ay, thou'dst carry water in thy ears for any idle vagabond that didn't like to stoop for it, thou silly staring rabbit! Turn thy back, and lift the herbs out of the panniers, else I'll make thee say a few Ayes without counting."

"Nay, Madonna," said the stranger, with a pleading smile," don't be angry with your pretty Tessa for taking pity on a hungry traveller, who found himself unexpectedly without a quattrino. Your handsome face looks so well when it frowns, that I long to see it illuminated by a smile."

"Va via! ❦ Italian: Go away/Get along I know what paste you are made of. You may tickle me with that straw a good long while

As Monna Ghita lifted her formidable talons by way of complying with the first and last requisite of eloquence, Bratti, who had come up a minute or two before, had been saying to his companion, "What think you of this pappagallo ❦ Italian: parrot, Nello? Doesn't his tongue smack of Venice ❦ Major city on the Eastern coastline of Northern Italy, famous for its canals.?"

"Nay, Bratti," said the barber in an under tone, "thy wisdom has much of the ass in it, as I told thee just now; especially about the ears. This stranger is a Greek, else I'm not the barber who has had the sole and exclusive shaving of the excellent Demetrio ❦ 1423-1511, known by his Greek name as Demetrios Chalkondyles, was a Greek scholar who taught alongside the Italian humanists inf Florence (until 1492) as well as Padua and Milan. He published the first printed publication of Homer (1488) that is mentioned in the Proem of Romola., and drawn more than one sorry tooth from his learned jaw. And this youth might be taken to have come straight from Olympus ❦ The highest peak in Greece at a little less than 3,000 meters (9,577 feet). It is also the designated "heavenly" residence of the main Gods in Greek mythology. — at least when he has had a touch of my razor."

"Orsu! ❦ Italian: Come nowMonnaGhita!" continued Nello, not sorry to see some sport; "what has happened to cause such a thunder-storm? Has this young stranger been misbehaving himself?"

"By San Giovanni ❦ Late 1st C. BC to ca. 28-36 AD. Christian saint who foresaw the coming of Christ and baptized Christ in the River Jordan. According to the Gospel of Luke, he is related to Jesus through hs mother's side. He was executed by Herod (in some versions, on the behest of his daughter Salome. John the Baptist, Italian San Giovanni, is the patron saint of Florence. !" said the cautious Bratti, who had not shaken off his original suspicions concerning the shabbily-clad possessor of jewels, "he did right to run away from me, if he meant to get into mischief. I can swear that I found him under the Loggia de' Cerchi ❦ One of the noble families of influence in Florence, whose family house or palazzo was very close to the Piazza della Signoria. Oe of the White Guelph families, their influence on Florence was strongest in the 13th century. , with a ring on his finger such as I've seen

"The fact is," said Nello, eyeing the stranger good-humouredly, "this bello giovane ❦ Italian: beautiful young man has been a little too presumptuous in admiring the charms of Monna Ghita, and has attempted to kiss her while her daughter's back is turned; for I observe that the pretty Tessa is too busy to look this way at present. Was it not so, Messer?"Nelloconcluded, in a tone of courtesy.

"You have divined the offence like a soothsayer," said the stranger, laughingly. "Only that I had not the good fortune to find Monna Ghita here at first. I begged a cup of milk from her daughter, and had accepted this gift of bread, for which I was making a humble offering of gratitude, before I had the higher pleasure of being face to face with these riper charms which I was perhaps too bold in admiring."

"Va, va! be off, every one of you, and stay in purgatory till I pay to get you out, will you?" said Monna Ghita, fiercely, elbowing Nello, and leading forward her mule so as to compel the stranger to jump aside. "Tessa, thou simpleton, bring forward thy mule a bit: the cart will be upon us."

As Tessa turned to take the mule's bridle, she cast one timid glance at the stranger, who was now moving with Nello out of the way of an approaching market-cart; and the glance was just long enough

"Ebbene," said Bratti, raising his voice to speak across the cart "I leave you with Nello, young man, for there's no pushing my bag and basket any farther, and I have business at home. But you'll remember our bargain, because if you found Tessa without me, it was not my fault. Nellowill show you my shop in the Ferravecchi ❦ The street of the scrap-iron dealers (now the via degli Strozzi) does not exist anymore, but it led to the Mercato Vecchio from the Western end of the Roman settlement, as part of the central E-W artery, the Decumanus , and I'll not turn my back on you."

"A thousand thanks, friend!" said the stranger, laughing, and then turned away with Nelloup the narrow street which led most directly to the Piazza del Duomo. ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery

CHAPTER III. THE BARBER'S SHOP.

"To tell you the truth," said the young stranger to Nello, as they got a little clearer of the entangled vehicles and mules, "I am not sorry to be handed over by that patron of mine to one who has a less barbarous accent, and a less enigmatical business. Is it a common thing among you Florentines for an itinerant trafficker in broken glass and rags to talk of a shop where he sells lutes and swords?"

"Common? No: our Bratti is not a common man. He has a theory, and lives up to it, which is more than I can say for any philosopher I have the honour of shaving," answered Nello, whose loquacity, like an over-full bottle, could never pour forth a small dose. "Bratti means to extract the utmost possible amount of pleasure, that is to say, of hard bargaining, out of this life; winding it up with a bargain for the easiest possible passage through purgatory, by giving Holy Church his winnings when the game is over. He has had his will made to that effect on the cheapest terms a notary could be

"What Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. is that whose death you speak of?" said the stranger, appearing to have dwelt with too anxious an interest on this point to have noticed the indirect inquiry that followed it.

"What Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. ? There is but one Lorenzo, I imagine, whose death could throw the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains. into an uproar, set the lantern of the Duomo ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery leaping in desperation, and cause the lions of the Republic to feel under an immediate necessity to devour one another. I mean Lorenzo de' Medici ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. , the Pericles of our Athens ❦ Major city in Greece, and its main cultural center during the Classical Era (5th century BCE), much admired and studied by the Renaissance humanists, many of whom studied Attic and Homeric Greek to understand the writers of antiquity better. Eliot mentions a number of these and makes the knowledge of Greek culture a major theme in the novel.— if I may make such a comparison in the ear of a Greek."

"Why not?" said the other, laughingly; "for I doubt whether Athens ❦ Major city in Greece, and its main cultural center during the Classical Era (5th century BCE), much admired and studied by the Renaissance humanists, many of whom studied Attic and Homeric Greek to understand the writers of antiquity better. Eliot mentions a number of these and makes the knowledge of Greek culture a major theme in the novel., even in the days of Pericles, could have produced so learned a barber."

"Yes, yes; I thought I could not be mistaken," said the rapid Nello, "else I have shaved the vene- rable Demetrio Calcondila ❦ 1423-1511, known by his Greek name as Demetrios Chalkondyles, was a Greek scholar who taught alongside the Italian humanists inf Florence (until 1492) as well as Padua and Milan. He published the first printed publication of Homer (1488) that is mentioned in the Proem of Romola. to little purpose; but pardon me, I am lost in wonder: your Italian is better than his, though he has been in Italy ❦ Country in the Nothern mediterranean, famously shaped like a boot. During the Renaissance, it consisted of many smaller city states and protectorates, and cannot be considered a nation, but varying dialects of Italian, cultural similarities, and dynastic alliances connected the inhabitants of the geographical space to some extent. forty years—better even than that of the accomplished Marullo, who may be said to have married the Italic Muse in more senses than one, since he has married our learned and lovely Alessandra Scala ❦ 1475-1506. Female poet and scholar of Greek, daughter of Bartolomeo Scala, and married to Michael Marullo. After Marullo's death, she entered the convent of San Pier Maggiore in Florence. ."

"It will lighten your wonder to know that I come of a Greek stock, planted in Italian soil much longer than the mulberry-trees which have taken so kindly to it. I was born at Bari ❦ This city on the Southeastern coastline of Italy had Greek roots and was ruled by Byzantine Greeks in the Middle Ages. The population continued to be a mix of Greeks and Italians in the Renaissance. Tito's hometown thus enables him to argue that he is "a well-established foreign import, \ now acclimatized to Italy" (Sanders 693) , and my—I mean, I was brought up by an Italian—and, in fact, may rather be called a Graeculus than a Greek. The Greek dye was subdued in me, I suppose, till I had been dipped over again by long abode and much travel in the land of gods and heroes. And, to confess something of my private affairs to you, this same something of my private affairs to you, this same Greek dye, with a few ancient gems I have about me, is the only fortune shipwreck has left me. But— when the towers fall, you know, it is an ill-business for the small nest-builders — the death of your Pericles ❦ Ca. 495-429 BCE. Famous Greek orator and general, active during the Golden Age of Athens between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. makes me wish I had rather turned my steps towards Rome ❦ Major Renaissance city in Italy, former capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Vatican, from where most of the popes of the Renaissance ruled Rome and the surrounding countryside. , as I should have done, but for a

"Gnaffe ❦ Italian exclamation: Faith!", and so it will remain, I hope," said Nello. "Lorenzo ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. was not the only patron and judge of learning in our city—heaven forbid! Because he was a large melon, every other Florentine is not a pumpkin, mi pare. Have we not Bernardo Rucellai ❦ 1448-1514. Florentine oligarch, banker, and ambassador who was married into the Medici family and thus uncle to Popes Leo X and Clement VII. His Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Alberti and built between 1446-1451, became the template for classicizing façades in Florence. His garden became the meeting grounds for the humanists scholars for Florence. Marsilio Ficino was one of his teachers. , and Alamanno Rinuccini, and plenty more? And if you want to be informed on such matters, I, Nello, am your man. It seems to me a thousand years till I can be of service to a bel erudito ❦ Italian: handsome scholar or learned man like yourself. And, first of all, in the matter of your hair. That beard, my fine young man, must be parted with, were it as dear to you as the nymph of your dreams. Here at Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871)., we love not to see a man with his nose projecting over a cascade of hair. But, remember, you will have passed the Rubicon ❦ A shallow river in the northeast of Italy, near Ravenna, famously crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 BCE, marking the beginning of the Roman civil war that ended in his dictatorship and the end of the Roman Republic, when once you have been shaved: if you repent, and let your beard grow after it has acquired stoutness by a struggle with the razor, your mouth will by-and-by show no longer what >Messer Angelo ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. calls the divine prerogative of lips, but will appear like a dark cavern fringed with horrent brambles."

"That is a terrible prophecy," said the Greek, "especially if your Florentine maidens are many, of

"Tessa? she is a rough-handed contadina ❦ Italian: girl from the countryside around Florence: you will rise into the favour of dames who bring no scent of the mule-stables with them. But to that end, you must not have the air of a sgherro ❦ Italian: bully or ruffian, or a man of evil repute: you must look like a courtier, and a scholar of the more polished sort, such as our Pietro Crinito ❦ 1475-1507. Florentine humanist scholar and poet; discipline of Poliziano and his successor as Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Florence. —like one who sins among well-bred, well-fed people, and not one who sucks down vile vino di sotto in a chance tavern."

"With all my heart," said the stranger. "If the Florentine Graces demand it, I am willing to give up this small matter of my beard, but —"

"Yes, yes," interrupted Nello. "I know what you would say. It is the bella zazzera ❦ Italian: a fine head of hair— the hyacinthine locks, you do not choose to part with; and there is no need. Just a little pruning— ecco!— and you will look not unlike the illustrious prince Pico di Mirandola ❦ 1463-1494. Italian aristocrat and humanist scholar who spent relatively little time in Florence, but met Poliziano, Savonarola, Lorenzo de'Medici and Ficino there. He published works on Platonism, Neoplatonism and also on the Hebrew Kabbalah. He died in Florence, probably poisoned by political enemies.in his prime. And here we are in good time in the Piazza San Giovanni ❦ The plaza between Florence Cathedral and the Baptistery., and at the door of my shop. But you are pausing, I see: naturally, you want to look at our wonder of the world, our Duomo ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery, our Santa Maria del Fiore. ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery Well, well, a mere glance; but I beseech you to leave a closer survey till you have been shaved: I am quivering with the inspiration of my art even to the very edge of my razor. Ah, then, come round this way."

The mercurial barber seized the arm of the stranger, and led him to a point, on the south side of the piazza, from which he could see at once the huge dark shell of the cupola, the slender soaring grace of Giotto's ❦ ca. 1267-1337, Italian painter an architect from Florence who stands for the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. He designed the Campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral. campanile ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery, and the quaint octagon of San Giovanni ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. in front of them, showing its unique gates of storied bronze, which still bore the somewhat dimmed glory of their original gilding. ❦ The large East doors of the Baptistery ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. , also known as the "Gates of Paradise," were designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti ❦ 1378-1455. Florentine artist who created the bronze doors on the East side of the Florence Baptistery, the so-called Gates of Paradise as well as several bronze statues at Orsnamichele. between 1426 and 1452. They featured scenes from the Old Testament in large relief images that introduced a number of new Renaissance elements into sacred art, including the use of linear perspective. The inlaid marbles were then fresher in their pink, and white, and purple, than they are now, when the winters of four centuries have turned their white to the rich ochre of well-mellowed meerschaum; the facade of the cathedral did not stand ignominious in faded stucco, but had upon it the magnificent promise of the half-completed marble inlaying and statued niches, which Giotto ❦ ca. 1267-1337, Italian painter an architect from Florence who stands for the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. He designed the Campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral. had devised a hundred and fifty years before; and as the campanile ❦ The belltower of the Florence Cathedral ❦ , possibly designed by Giotto ❦ ca. 1267-1337, Italian painter an architect from Florence who stands for the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. He designed the Campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral., Andrea Pisano, or Francesco Talenti and built between 1334 and 1359, with the 14th-century statues supplemented by additional decor in the mid-15th century. in all its harmonious variety of colour and form led the eyes upward, high into the clear air of this April morning, it seemed a prophetic symbol, telling that human life must somehow and some time shape itself into accord with that pure aspiring beauty.

But this was not the impression it appeared to produce on the Greek. His eyes were irresistibly led upward, but as he stood with his arms folded and his curls falling backward, there was a slight touch of scorn on his lip, and when his eyes fell again they glanced round with a scanning coolness which was rather piquing to Nello's Florentine spirit.

"Well, my fine young man," he said, with some impatience, "you seem to make as little of our Cathedral ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery as if you were the Angel Gabriel come straight from Paradise. I should like to know if you have ever seen finer work than our Giotto's ❦ ca. 1267-1337, Italian painter an architect from Florence who stands for the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. He designed the Campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral. tower, or any cupola that would not look a mere mushroom by the side of Brunelleschi's ❦ 1377-1446. Italian architect and designer from Florence, considered to be the first modern engineer based on his construction of the dome of Florence Cathedral. Also involved in the design of Santo Spirito and San Lorenzo for Cosimo de' Medici. there, or any marbles finer or more cunningly wrought than these that our Signoria got from far-off quarries, at a price that would buy a dukedom. Come, now, have you ever seen anything to equal them?"

"If you asked me that question with a scimitar at my throat, after the Turkish fashion, or even your own razor," said the young Greek, smiling gaily, and moving on towards the gates of the Baptistery ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. , "I daresay you might get a confession of the true faith from me. But with my throat free from peril, I venture to tell you that your buildings smack too much of Christian barbarism for my taste. I have a shuddering sense of what there is inside — hideous smoked Madonnas; fleshless saints in mosaic, staring down idiotic astonishment and rebuke from the apse; skin-clad skeletons hanging on crosses, or stuck all over with arrows, or stretched on gridirons; women and monks with heads aside in perpetual lamentation. ❦ The Baptistery ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. with its early medieval origins featured a number of pre-Renaissance artworks, which reflected an earlier, medieval aesthetic that Tito thinks of as "barbaric" and not classical. I have seen enough of those wry-necked favourites of heaven at Constantinople. ❦ Today's Istanbul, Constantinople was the new name given to to the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium under Roman rule in 443 CE. The name was in use until the early 20th century But what is this bronze door rough with imagery? ❦ The large East doors of the Baptistery ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. , also known as the "Gates of Paradise," were designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti ❦ 1378-1455. Florentine artist who created the bronze doors on the East side of the Florence Baptistery, the so-called Gates of Paradise as well as several bronze statues at Orsnamichele. between 1426 and 1452. They featured scenes from the Old Testament in large relief images that introduced a number of new Renaissance elements into sacred art, including the use of linear perspective. These women's figures seem moulded in a different spirit from those

"Yes, yes," said Nello, with some triumph. "I think we shall show you by-and-by that our Florentine art is not in a state of barbarism. These gates, ❦ The large East doors of the Baptistery ❦ An 11th-century octagonal building in Romanesque style located directly east of the Florence Cathedral, the baptistery was the place where all Florentines were traditionally baptized. The vault mosaic of the Last Judgment, surrounded by other biblical scenes, dates from 1270-1300. Its enormous bronze doors, especially the East doors ("Gates of Paradise") designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti as well as several other works of art date from the Renaissance. , also known as the "Gates of Paradise," were designed and cast by Lorenzo Ghiberti ❦ 1378-1455. Florentine artist who created the bronze doors on the East side of the Florence Baptistery, the so-called Gates of Paradise as well as several bronze statues at Orsnamichele. between 1426 and 1452. They featured scenes from the Old Testament in large relief images that introduced a number of new Renaissance elements into sacred art, including the use of linear perspective. my fine young man, were moulded half a century ago, by our Lorenzo Ghiberti ❦ 1378-1455. Florentine artist who created the bronze doors on the East side of the Florence Baptistery, the so-called Gates of Paradise as well as several bronze statues at Orsnamichele., when he counted hardly so many years as you do."

"Ah, I remember," said the stranger, turning away, like one whose appetite for contemplation was soon satisfied. "I have heard that your Tuscan sculptors and painters have been studying the antique a little. But with monks for models, and the legends of mad hermits and martyrs for subjects, the vision of Olympus itself would be of small use to them."

"I understand," said Nello, with a significant shrug, as they walked along. "You are of the same mind as Michele Marullo ❦ 1458-1500. Michael Tarchionata Marullus was a Greek Renaissance scholar whose poetry brought him to the attention of the Medici family. He married Alessandra Scala, Bartolomeo Scala's daughter, in 1494., ay, and as Angelo Poliziano ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. himself, in spite of his canonicate, when he relaxes himself a little in my shop after his lectures, and talks of the gods awaking from their long sleep and making the woods and streams vital once more. But he rails against the Roman scholars who want to make us all talk Latin again 'My ears,' he says, 'are sufficiently flayed by the barbarisms of the learned, and if the vulgar are to talk Latin I would as soon have been in Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871). the day

"I see thou hast had custom already, Sandro," continued Nello, addressing a solemn-looking dark- eyed youth, who made way for them on the thresh- old. "And now make all clear for this signor to sit down. And prepare the finest scented lather, for he has a learned and a handsome chin."

"You have a pleasant little adytum ❦ Latin: inner sanctum of a temple there, I see," said the stranger, looking through a latticed screen which divided the shop from a room of about equal size, opening into a still smaller walled enclosure, where a few bays and laurels surrounded a stone Hermes. "I suppose your conclave of eruditi ❦ Latin: the learned, the scholars meets there?"

"There, and not less in my shop," said Nello, leading the way into the inner room, in which were

The sketch Nello pointed to represented three masks — one a drunken laughing Satyr, another a sorrowing Magdalen, and the third, which lay between them, the rigid, cold face of a Stoic: the masks rested obliquely on the lap of a little child, whose cherub features rose above them with some- thing of the supernal promise in the gaze which painters had by that time learned to give to the Divine Infant.

"A symbolical picture, I see," said the young Greek, touching the lute while he spoke, so as to bring out a slight musical murmur. "The child, perhaps, is the Golden Age, wanting neither worship nor philosophy. And the Golden Age can always

"Ah! everybody has his own interpretation for that picture," said Nello; "and if you ask Piero ❦ 1452-1522. Minor Florentine painter of the Renaissance who painted mythological and allegorical subjects in the style of the 1480s and 1490s. himself what he meant by it, he says his pictures are an appendix which Messer Domeneddio ❦ Italian: the Lord God has been pleased to make to the universe, and if any man is in doubt what they mean, he had better inquire of Holy Church. He has been asked to paint a picture after the sketch, but he puts his, fingers to his ears and shakes his head at that: the fancy is passed, he says —a strange animal, our Piero ❦ 1452-1522. Minor Florentine painter of the Renaissance who painted mythological and allegorical subjects in the style of the 1480s and 1490s. . But now all is ready for your initiation into the mysteries of the razor."

"Mysteries they may well be called," continued the barber, with rising spirits at the prospect of a long monologue; as he imprisoned the young Greek in the shroud-like shaving-cloth; "mysteries of Minerva and the Graces. I get the flower of men's thoughts, because I seize them in the first moment after shaving. (Aid you wince a little at the lather: it tickles the outlying limits of the nose, I admit.) And that is what makes the peculiar fitness of a barber's shop to become a resort of wit and learning. For, look now at a druggist's shop: there is a dull onclave at the sign of Il Moro ❦ Italian: "The Moor," here the name of the shop of one of Nello's rival, that pretends to rival mine; but what sort of inspiration, I beseech

"Suppose you let me look at myself," said the stranger, laughing. "The happy effect on my intellect is perhaps obstructed by a little doubt as to the effect on my appearance."

"Behold yourself in this mirror, then; it is a Venetian mirror from Murano ❦ A small settlement or "suburb" on a series of islands right outside Venice, famous for its glass and mirror making , the true nosce teipsum, ❦ Latin: know thyself, here in the sense of "the most crucial thing" as I have named it, compared with which the finest mirror of steel or silver is mere darkness. See now, how by diligent shaving, the nether region of your face may preserve its human outline, instead of presenting no distinction from the physiognomy of a bearded owl or a Barbary ape. I have seen men whose beards have so invaded their cheeks, that one might have pitied them as the victims of a sad, brutalizing chastisement befitting our Dante's ❦ Ca. 1265-1321. A Florentine who was forced into exile in 1302. He was the author of the Divine Comedy and a number of other books, most of them not written in the customary Latin but in Tuscan Italian. Inferno, if they had not seemed to strut with a strange triumph in their extravagant hairiness."

"It seems to me," said the Greek, still looking into a mirror, "that you have taken away some of my capital with your razor—I mean a year or two of age, which might have won me more ready credit for

"Not at all," said Nello, proceeding to clip the too extravagant curls; "your proportions are not those of a maiden. And for your age, I myself remember seeing Angelo Poliziano ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. begin his lectures on the Latin language when he had a younger beard than yours; and between ourselves, his juvenile ugliness was not less signal than his precocious scholarship. Whereas you—no, no, your age is not against you; but between ourselves, let me hint to you that your being a Greek, though it be only an Apulian Greek, is not in your favour. Certain of our scholars hold that your Greek learning is but a wayside degenerate plant until it has been transplanted into Italian brains, and that now there is such a plentiful crop of the superior quality, your native teachers are mere propagators of degeneracy. Ecco! your curls are now of the right proportion to neck and shoulders; rise, Messer, and I will free you from the encumbrance of this cloth. Gnaffe ❦ Italian exclamation: Faith!"! I almost advise you to retain the faded jerkin and hose a little longer; they give you the air of a fallen prince."

"But the question is," said the young Greek, leaning against the high back of a chair, and returning Nello's contemplative admiration with a look of inquiring anxiety; "the question is, in what quarter

Pian piano ❦ Italian: softly, softly" — not so fast," said Nello, sticking his thumbs into his belt and nodding to Sandro to restore order. "I will not conceal from you that there is a prejudice against Greeks among us; and though, as a barber unsnared by authorship, I share no prejudices, I must admit that the Greeks are not always such pretty youngsters as yourself: their erudition is often of an uncombed, unmannerly aspect, and encrusted with a barbarous utterance of Italian, that makes their converse hardly more euphonious than that of a Tedesco ❦ Italian: German in a state of vinous loquacity. And then, again, excuse me — we Florentines have liberal ideas about speech, and consider that an instrument which can flatter and promise so cleverly as the tongue, must have been partly made for those purposes; and that truth is a riddle for eyes and wit to discover, which it were a mere spoiling of sport for the tongue to betray. Still we have our limits beyond which we call dissimulation treachery. But it is said of the Greeks that their honesty begins at what is the hanging-point with us, and that since the old Furies went to sleep, your Christian Greek is of so easy a conscience that he would make a stepping- stone of his father's corpse."

The flush on the stranger's face indicated what seemed so natural a movement of resentment, that the good-natured Nello hastened to atone for his want of reticence.

"Be not offended,bel giovane ❦ Italian: handsome young man; I am but repeating what I hear in my shop; as you may perceive, my eloquence is simply the cream which I skim off my clients' talk. Heaven forbid I should fetter my impartiality by entertaining an opinion. And for that same scholarly objection to the Greeks," added Nello, in a more mocking tone, and with a significant grimace, "the fact is, you are heretics, Messer; jealousy has nothing to do with it : if you would just change your opinion about Leaven, and alter your Doxology a little, our Italian scholars would think it a thousand years till they could give up their chairs to you. Yes, yes it is chiefly religious scruple, and partly also the authority of a great classic,—Juvenal, is it not? He, I gather, had his bile as much stirred by the swarm of Greeks as our Messer Angelo ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. , who is fond of quoting some passage about their incorrigible impudence—audacia perdita."

"Pooh! the passage is a compliment," said the Greek, who had recovered himself, and seemed wise enough to take the matter gaily —

A rapid intellect and ready eloquence may carry off little impudence." ❦ A passage from Juvenal's Satires, inexactly translated by Tito here

"Assuredly," said Nello. "And since, as I see, you know Latin literature as well as Greek, you will not fall into the mistake of Giovanni Argiropulo ❦ 1415-1487. John Argyropoulos (with many spelling variations) was a humanist scholar from Greece, who studied at Constantinople and Padua who came as an exile to Florence on the invitation of Cosimo de ' Medici. He translated Greek texts into Latin and taught Lorenzo de ' Medici and Angelo Poliziano, possibly also Leonardo da Vinci., who ran full tilt against Cicero ❦ 106--43 BCE. Roman orator and senator famous for his rhetorical skills. His letters were rediscovered by Petrarch, which triggered a revival of interest in Cicero that was essential to the Renaissance interest in classical sources., and pronounced him all but a pumpkin-head. For, let me give you one bit of advice, young man — trust a barber who has shaved the best chins, and kept his eyes and ears open for twenty years — oil your tongue well when you talk of the ancient Latin writers, and give it an extra dip when you talk of the modern. A wise Greek may win favour among us; witness our excellent Demetrio ❦ , who is loved by many, and not hated immoderately even by the most renowned scholars."

"I discern the wisdom of your advice so clearly," said the Greek, with the bright smile which was continually lighting up the fine form and colour of his young face, "that I will ask you for a little more. Who now, for example, would be the most likely patron for me? Is there a son of Lorenzo who inherits his tastes? Or is there any other wealthy Florentine specially addicted to purchasing antique gems? I have a fine Cleopatra ❦ 69-30 BCE. Queen of Egypt under Roman Rule and famously allied first with Julius Caesar and then with Marc Anthony. She committed suicide after her and Marc Anthony's defeat by Octavian, the later Caesar Augustus, to avoid being taken as a captive to Rome. The Renaissance fascination with Cleopatra made art works with her image popular with wealthy collectors, and also caused the misidentification of figures (such as the Sleeping Ariadne, in the Vatican Belvedere since 1512, and a crucial prop in Eliot's 1872 novel Middlemarch) as "Cleopatras" cut in sardonyx, and one or two other intaglios and cameos, both curious and beautiful, worthy of being added to the cabinet of a prince. Happily, I had taken he precaution of fastening them within the lining of my doublet before I set out on my voyage. More-over, I should like to raise a small sum for my

"Let us see, let us see," said Nello, perusing the floor, and walking up and down the length of his shop. "This is no time to apply to Piero de' Medici ❦ 1416-1469, also known as Piero di Cosimo de 'Medici, because he was Cosimo's son, and Piero the Gouty because he was sickly and suffered from gout, was the father of Lorenzo and Guilano td' Medici. He effectifely ruled Florence (from his bedroom) for a short time, between 1464 and 1469. He was suceeded by Lorenzo. Not to be confused with the painter Piero di Cosimo , though he has the will to make such purchases if he could always spare the money but I think it is another sort of Cleopatra ❦ 69-30 BCE. Queen of Egypt under Roman Rule and famously allied first with Julius Caesar and then with Marc Anthony. She committed suicide after her and Marc Anthony's defeat by Octavian, the later Caesar Augustus, to avoid being taken as a captive to Rome. The Renaissance fascination with Cleopatra made art works with her image popular with wealthy collectors, and also caused the misidentification of figures (such as the Sleeping Ariadne, in the Vatican Belvedere since 1512, and a crucial prop in Eliot's 1872 novel Middlemarch) as "Cleopatras" that he covets most......... Yes, yes, I have it. What you want is a man of wealth, and influence, and scholarly tastes—not one of your learned porcupines, bristling all over with critical tests, but one whose Greek and Latin are of a comfortable laxity. And that man is Bartolommeo Scala ❦ 1430-1497. Florentine political and historian, who held several top official position, including secretary and gonfalionere, in the Florentine Republic under Cosimo and Piero de ' Medici. He was father to Alessandra Scala., the secretary of our Republic. He came to Florence as a poor adventurer himself—a miller's son—a 'branny monster,' as he has been nicknamed by our honey-lipped Poliziano, ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. who agrees with him as well as my teeth agree with lemon-juice. And, by-the-by, that may be a reason why the secretary may be the more ready to do a good turn to a strange scholar. For, between you and me, bel giovane ❦ Italian: handsome young man— trust a barber who has shaved the best scholars—friendliness is much such a steed as Ser Benghi's: it will hardly show much alacrity unless it has got the thistle of hatred under its tail. However, the secretary is a man who'll keep his word to you, even to the halving

"But how am I to get at this great man?" said the Greek, rather impatiently.

"I was coming to that," said Nello. "Just now everybody of any public importance will be full of Lorenzo's ❦ 1449-1492. Nicknamed "the Magnificent," he was the behind-the-scenes ruler of the Florentine Republic from 1469-1492, and an active patron of Renaissance art and humanist culture. death, and a stranger may find it difficult to get any notice. But in the meantime, I could take you to a man who, if he has a mind, can help you to a chance of a favourable interview with Scala ❦ 1430-1497. Florentine political and historian, who held several top official position, including secretary and gonfalionere, in the Florentine Republic under Cosimo and Piero de ' Medici. He was father to Alessandra Scala. sooner than anybody else in Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery—worth seeing for his own sake too, to say nothing of his collections, or of his daughter Romola, who is as fair as the Florentine lily before it got quarrelsome, and turned red."

"But if this father of the beautiful Romola makes collections, why should he not like to buy some of my gems himself?"

Nello shrugged his shoulders. "For two good reasons— want of sight to look at the gems, and want of money to pay for them. Our old Bardo de' Bardi is so blind that he can see no more of his daughter than, as he says, a glimmering of some- thing bright when she comes very near him: doubtless her golden hair, which, as Messer Luigi Pulci ❦ 1432-1484. Florentine poet patronized by Lorenzo dd 'Medici known best for his mock-epic poem Morgante (1483). says of his Meridiana's, 'raggia come stella per sereno.' ❦ Italian: "it shines like a star in the clear sky," from a passage from Morgante by Luigi Pulci ❦ 1432-1484. Florentine poet patronized by Lorenzo dd 'Medici known best for his mock-epic poem Morgante (1483). Ah, here come some clients of mine, and I shouldn't wonder if one of them could serve your turn about that ring."

CHAPTER IV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

"GOOD-DAY, MesserDomenico," ❦ Son of Bernardo Cennini and one of his assistants in his print shop said Nello to the foremost of the two visitors who entered the shop, while he nodded silently to the other. "You come as opportunely as cheese on macaroni. Ah! you are in haste—wish to be shaved without delay— ecco! And this is a morning when every one has grave matter on his mind. Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery orphaned— the very pivot of Italy ❦ Country in the Nothern mediterranean, famously shaped like a boot. During the Renaissance, it consisted of many smaller city states and protectorates, and cannot be considered a nation, but varying dialects of Italian, cultural similarities, and dynastic alliances connected the inhabitants of the geographical space to some extent. snatched away— heaven itself at a loss what to do next.   Oimè ❦ Italian: alas! Well, well; the sun is nevertheless travelling on towards dinner-time again; and, as I was saying, you come like cheese ready grated. For this young stranger was wishing for an honourable trader who would advance him a sum on a certain ring of value, and if I had counted every goldsmith and money-lender in Florence ❦ Founded by the Romans, Florence rose to prominence as a city famous for its Renaissance scholarship, art, and literature in the 1300s and early 1400s, but also for its turbulent political history, as the city alternated between being part of the Hapsburg empire, an independent republic, and ruled autocratically by the Medici family, who were to become the Dukes of Tuscany in the 16th century, dominating Florence politics until the mid-18th century. The city again played a major role during the nationalist movement to unify Italy in the 19th century, and was briefly the capital of Italy (1865-1871). on my fingers, I couldn't have found a better name than Menico Cennini ❦ Son of Bernardo Cennini and one of his assistants in his print shop. Besides, he bath other ware in which you deal—Greek learning, and young eyes — a double implement which you printers are always in need of."

The grave elderly man, son of that Bernardo Cennini ❦ 1414/5-1498. Florentine goldsmith, sculptor, and printer of the first book to be printed in Florence, in 1471, a commentary on Virgil by a Roman scholar, Maurus., who, twenty years before, having heard of the new process of printing carried on by Germans, had cast his own types in Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery, remained necessarily in lathered. silence and passivity while Nelloshowered. this talk in his ears, but turned a slow sideway gaze on the stranger.

"This fine young man has unlimited Greek, Latin, or Italian at your service," continued Nello, fond of interpreting by very ample paraphrase. "He is as great a wonder of juvenile learning as Francesco Filelfo ❦ 1398-1481. Child prodigy scholar and poet who spent a short time in Florence but then lived in Milan or our own incomparable Poliziano ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. . A second Guarino ❦ 1374-1460. Early humanist and manuscript collector who taught in Florence for a while and published a standard Latin grammar., too, for he has had the misfortune to be shipwrecked, and has doubtless lost a store of precious manuscripts that might have contributed some correctness even to your correct editions, Domenico. Fortunately, he has rescued a few gems of rare value. His name is—you said your name, Messer, was—?"

"Tito Melema," said the stranger, slipping the ring from his finger, and presenting it to Cennini ❦ , whom Nello, not less rapid with his razor than with his tongue, had now released from the shaving-cloth.

Meanwhile the man who had entered the shop in company with the goldsmith—a tall figure, about fifty, with a short trimmed beard, wearing an old felt hat and a threadbare mantle—had kept his eye fixed on the Greek, and now said abruptly,

"Young man, I am painting a picture of Sinon

Tito Melema started and looked round with a pale astonishment in his face as if at a sudden accusation; but Nello left him no time to feel at a loss for an answer: "Piero ❦ 1452-1522. Minor Florentine painter of the Renaissance who painted mythological and allegorical subjects in the style of the 1480s and 1490s. ," said the barber, "thou art the most extraordinary compound of humours and fancies ever packed into a human skin. What trick wilt thou play with the fine visage of this young scholar to make it suit thy traitor? Ask him rather to turn his eyes upward, and thou may'st make a Saint Sebastian ❦ 3rd century; died 288 CE. Roman soldier turned early Christian martyr, according to legend shot with arrows by Roman soldiers who were unable to kill him. of him that will draw troops of devout women, or, if thou art in a classical vein, put myrtle about his curls and make him a young Bacchus, or say rather a Phoebus Apollo, for his face is as warm and bright as a summer morning; it made me his friend in the space of a 'credo.'"

"Ay, Nello," said the painter, speaking with abrupt pauses; "and if thy tongue can leave off its everlasting chirping long enough for thy understand- ing to consider the matter, thou may'st see that thou bast just shown the reason why the face of Messere will suit my traitor. A perfect traitor should have a face which vice can write no marks on — lips that will lie with a dimpled smile—eyes of such agate-like brightness and depth that no infamy can dull them — cheeks that will rise from a murder and not look haggard. I say not this young man is a traitor: I mean, he has a face that would make him the more

With these last words Piero (called "di Cosimo," ❦ 1452-1522. Minor Florentine painter of the Renaissance who painted mythological and allegorical subjects in the style of the 1480s and 1490s. from his master, Cosimo Rosselli ❦ 1439-1507. Minor Florentine painer who was Piero di Cosimo's teacher and master) drew out two bits of tow, stuffed them in his ears, and placed himself in the chair before Nello, who shrugged his shoulders and cast a grimacing look of intelligence at the Greek, as much as to say, "A whimsical fellow, you perceive! Everybody holds his speeches as mere jokes."

Tito, who had stood transfixed, with his long dark eyes resting on the unknown man who had addressed him so equivocally, seemed recalled to his self-command by Piero's ❦ 1452-1522. Minor Florentine painter of the Renaissance who painted mythological and allegorical subjects in the style of the 1480s and 1490s. change of position, and, apparently satisfied with his explanation, was again giving his attention to Cennini ❦ Son of Bernardo Cennini and one of his assistants in his print shop, who presently said,—

"This is a curious and a valuable ring, young man. This intaglio of the fish with the crested serpent above it, in the black stratum of the onyx, or rather nicolo, is well shown by the surrounding blue of the upper stratum. The ring has, doubtless, a

"Yes, indeed," said Tito, meeting the scrutiny very frankly. "The ring was found in Sicily ❦ , and I have understood from those who busy themselves with gems and sigils, that both the stone and intaglio are of virtue to make the wearer fortunate, especially at sea, and also to restore to him whatever he may have lost. But,he continued smiling, "though I have worn it constantly since I quitted Greece ❦ Country on the northern edge of the Mediterranean, immediately east of Italy, and of enormous cultural influence dating back to the 5th-3rd century BCE. , it has not made me altogether fortunate at sea, you perceive, unless I am to count escape from drowning as a sufficient proof of its virtue. It remains to be seen whether my lost chests will come to light; but to lose no chance of such a result, Messer, I will pray you only to hold. the ring for a short space as pledge for a small sum far beneath its value, and I will redeem it as soon as I can dispose of certain other gems which are secured within my doublet, or indeed. as soon as I can earn something by any scholarly employment, if I may be so fortunate as to meet with such."

"That may be seen, young man, if you will come with me," said Cennini ❦ Son of Bernardo Cennini and one of his assistants in his print shop. "My brother Pietro ❦ , who is a better judge of scholarship than I, will perhaps be able to supply you with a task that may test your capabilities. Meanwhile, take back your ring until I can hand you the necessary florins, and, if it please you, come along with me."

"Yes, yes," said Nello, "go with Messer Domenico, ❦ Son of Bernardo Cennini and one of his assistants in his print shop you cannot go in better company; he was born under the constellation that gives a man skill, riches, and integrity, whatever that constellation may be, which is of the less consequence because babies can't choose their own horoscopes, and, indeed, if they could, there might be an inconvenient rush of babies at particular epochs. Besides, our Phoenix, the incomparable Pico ❦ 1463-1494. Italian aristocrat and humanist scholar who spent relatively little time in Florence, but met Poliziano, Savonarola, Lorenzo de'Medici and Ficino there. He published works on Platonism, Neoplatonism and also on the Hebrew Kabbalah. He died in Florence, probably poisoned by political enemies., has shown that your horoscopes are all a nonsensical dream — which is the less troublesome opinion. Addio, bel giovane! ❦ Italian: goodbye, handsome young man don't forget to come back to me."

"No fear of that," said Tito, beckoning a farewell, as he turned round his bright face at the door. "You are to do me a great service: — that is the most positive security for your seeing me again."

"Say what thou wilt, Piero ❦ ," said Nello, as the young stranger disappeared, "I shall never look at such an outside as that without taking it as a sign of a loveable nature. Why, thou wilt say next that Lionardo ❦ 1452-1519. Painter and inventor, born near Florence but only briefly active in Florence, first as a painter's apprentice (ca. 1466-1473) and then again between 1500 to 1506. Eliot has Nello discuss works here that Leonardo did not complete until after 1492--his Last Supper (completed 1498) and his John the Baptist (after 1506). , whom thou art always raving about, ought to have made his Judas ❦ Disciple of Jesus Christ who betrayed him to the Romans. as beautiful as St. John! ❦ St. John the Evangelist (or St. John the Apostle) is one of the four writers of the gospel (the story of Jesus Christ) in the Bible. He is traditionally thought to have been one of Christ's disciples, and is typically represented with is symbol, the Eagle. Not to be confused with St. John the Baptist, or San Giovanni Battista, who is the patron saint of Florence. But thou art as deaf as the top of Mount Morello ❦ Founded in 1225 by Franciscans, Santa Croce was rebuilt after 1294 after a design by di Cambio and features frescoes by Giotto in the early 14th century in two of the side chapels flanking the altar, and houses the tombs of Michelangelo and several other major Renaissance figures. Its spire was not added until the 1840s and considered an eyesore. with that accursed tow in thy ears. Well, well: I'll get a little more of this young man's history from him before I take him to Bardo Bardi."

CHAPTER V. THE BLIND SCHOLAR AND HIS DAUGHTER.

The Via de' Bardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family. ❦ A street running along the river Arno in the Oltrarnoneighborhood of Florence, ending on the West end at the Piazza de' Mozzi, a street noted in the history of Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery, lies in Oltrarno ❦ Italian for "other side," this is the name for the medieval settlement on the South Bank of the river Arno across from downtown Florence. Originally mostly inhabited by laborers and craftsmen, but in the late 15th and early 16th century wealthy Florentine families moved across the river. In the novel, the fact that Bardo and Romola live there, in a relatively wealthy street close to the river, but in poverty, suggests their liminal place in Florence society between the poor and the privileged humanists from wealthy families., or that portion of the city which clothes the southern bank of the river. It extends from the Ponte Vecchio ❦ This is the oldest of four medieval bridges connecting the south and north banks of the Arno in Florence Florence, built in 1178 to replace a Roman-era bridge and recognizable by the shops that lined it. to the Piazza de' Mozzi ❦ A plaza in front of the Mozzi family's 13th-century castle or palazzo, in the Oltrarnoneighborhood of Florence across from the Ponte alle Grazie at the head of the Ponte alle Grazie ❦ This bridge, one of the four that connected the Oltrarno side of Florence to the city center, was built in 1237 and leas from the Piazza de Mozzi on the south bank to the Via de Benci. In the late middle ages, the bridge featured a number of shrines and dwellings for female hermits, who later became the monastic community of La Murate near Santa Croce.; its right-hand line of houses and walls being backed by the rather steep ascent which in the fifteenth century was known as the Hill of Bogoli ❦ These gardens on the South bank of the Arno (the Oltrarno section of Florence) were designed in the late Renaissance in the mid-16th century, but had been the "Hill of Bogoli" where much Florentine pavement marble was quarried. They are located directly behind the western boundary of the Palazzo Pitti., the famous stone-quarry whence the city got its pavement — of dangerously unstable consistence when penetrated by rains; its left-hand buildings flanking the river and making on their northern side a length of quaint, irregularly- pierced facade, of which the waters give a softened loving reflection as the sun begins to decline towards the western heights. But quaint as these buildings are, some of them seem to the historical memory a too modern substitute for the famous houses of the Bardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family. family, destroyed by popular rage in the middle of the fourteenth century.

They were a proud and energetic stock, these

But, like more modern bankrupts, they did not, for all that, hide their heads in humiliation; on the contrary, they seem to have held them higher than ever, and to have been among the most arrogant of those grandi, ❦ Italian: the great (noble) families who under certain noteworthy circumstances, open to all who will read the honest pages of Giovanni Villani ❦ 1277?-1348. Florentine banker and city official, he also was the author of a famous chronicle of Florence, the Nuova Cronica (in Italian), which discussed events all the way up to 1346, and was continued by his brother and his nephew in the late 14th century., drew upon themselves the exasperation of the armed people in 1343. The Bardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family. , who had made themselves fast in their street between the two bridges, kept these narrow inlets, like panthers at bay, against the oncoming gonfalons of the people, and were only made to give way by an assault from the hill behind them. Their houses by the river, to the number of twenty-two palagi e case grandi ❦ Italian: palaces and large houses, were sacked and burnt, and many among the chief of those who bore theBardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family. name were driven from the city. But an old Florentine family was many-rooted, and we find the Bardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family. maintaining importance and rising again and again to the surface of Florentine affairs in a more or less creditable manner, implying an untold family history that would have included even more vicissitudes and contrasts of dignity and disgrace, of wealth and poverty, than are usually seen on the background of wide kinship. ❦ A sign that such contrasts were peculiarly frequent in Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery is the fact that Saint Antonine, Prior ❦ 1389-1459. Dominican friar from Florence, archbishop of Florence, 1446-1459, responsible for establishing a priory at San Marco, later to be held by Savonarola, and generally friendly with the Medici. of San Marco, and afterwards archbishop, in the first half of this fifteenth century, founded the society of Buonuomini di San Martino (Good Men of St. Martin ❦ 316 or 336-397. A Roman soldier who became bishop of Tours in Roman Gaul and was declared a saint. Famous for cutting his cloak in half to share with a beggar.) with the main object of succouring the poveri vergognosi— in other words, paupers of good family. In the records of the famous Panciatichi ❦ A less important family of Florentine merchants that built a palace in Florence the 17th century. In her note, Eliot uses the example of a member of the family who was impoverished to stress that Bardo de' Bardi's poverty despite his noble family roots is not unusual in Florence. We have not been able to track the source of her information about the family. family we find a certain Girolamo ❦ A less important family of Florentine merchants that built a palace in Florence the 17th century. In her note, Eliot uses the example of a member of the family who was impoverished to stress that Bardo de' Bardi's poverty despite his noble family roots is not unusual in Florence. We have not been able to track the source of her information about the family. in this century who was reduced to such a state of poverty that he was obliged to seek charity for the mere means of sustaining life, though other members of his family were enormously wealthy.

But the Bardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family.

In one of these Neri ❦ Supposedly a noble family from Tuscany, but the name (Italian for "black") is also used as a reference to the political faction of the Black Guelphs, who eventually drove the White Guelphs out of Florence, and it is not quite clear in what sense Eliot uses the name here. houses there lived, however, a descendant of the Bardi ❦ The Bardi, who also became the Counts of Vernio beginning in 1164, were an influential Florentine banking family that lent Edward III of England a substantial amount of gold in the 14th century. Their wealth increased steadily from the 12th to the 14the century, but went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III did not pay them back. The Medici continued to support the family, and the poverty of Romola's father as the (fictional) descendant does not quite mesh with the continuing prominence of the family. , and of that very branch which a century and a half before had become Counts of Vernio ❦ The historical Bardi family were also Counts of Vernio beginning in the 13th century. Vernio, only about 30 miles from Florence, remained an independent county seat in Tuscany until the 19th century. : a descendant who had inherited the old family pride and energy, the old love of pre-eminence, the old desire to leave a lasting track of his footsteps on the fast-whirling earth. But the family passions lived on in him under altered conditions: this descendant of theBardiwas not a man swift in street warfare, or one who loved to play the signor, fortifying strongholds and asserting the right to hang vassals, or a merchant and usurer of keen daring, who delighted in the generalship of wide commercial schemes: he was a man with a deep-veined hand cramped by much copying of manuscripts, who ate sparing dinners, and wore threadbare clothes, at first from choice and at last from necessity; who sat

The house in which Bardo lived was situated on the side of the street nearest the hill, and was one of those large sombre masses of stone building pierced by comparatively small windows, and surmounted by what may be called a roofed terrace or loggia, of which there are many examples still to be seen in the venerable city. Grim doors, with conspicuous scrolled hinges, having high up on each side of them small window defended by iron bars, opened on a groined entrance court, empty of everything but a massive lamp-iron suspended from the centre of the groin. A smaller grim door on the left hand admitted to the stone staircase, and the rooms on the ground floor. These last were used as a warehouse by the proprietor; so was the first floor; and both were filled with precious stores, destined to be carried, some perhaps to the banks of the Scheldt ❦ Shallow river in northern Europe running through France, Belgium, and the NetherlandsFrance, Belgium, and the Netherlands, some to the shores of Africa ❦ A continent that borders on its northern edge on the Mediterranean., some to the isles of the Egean ❦ The Mediterranean sea between the mainlands of Greece and of Turkey, or to the banks of the Euxine ❦ Body of water northeast of the Mediterranean between Turkey and Russia, connected to the Mediterranean through the DardanellesTurkey and Russia. Maso, the old serving-man, who returned from the Mercato ❦ The "Old Market," the central square of the ancient Roman settlemen and today the Piazza della Repubblica, was the most prominent marketplace of Renaissance Florence and is a key open-air location in Eliot's novel. A statue of of Plenty by Donatello stood at the market, but it was replaced in 1729; only the column on which it stands remains., with the stock of cheap vegetables, had to make his slow way up to the second story before he reached the door of his master, Bardo, through which we are

We follow Maso across the ante-chamber to the door on the left hand, through which we pass as he opens it. He merely looks in and nods, while a clear young voice says, "Ah, you are come back, Maso. It is well. We have wanted nothing."

The voice came from the farther end of a long, spacious room, surrounded with shelves, on which books and antiquities were arranged in scrupulous order. Here and there, on separate stands in front of the shelves, were placed a beautiful feminine torso; a headless statue, with an uplifted muscular arm wielding a bladeless sword; rounded, dimpled, infantine limbs severed from the trunk, inviting the lips to kiss the cold marble; some well-preserved Roman busts; and two or three vases of Magna Grecia. A large table in the centre was covered with antique bronze lamps and small vessels in dark pottery. The colour of these objects was chiefly pale or sombre: the vellum bindings, with their deep-ridged backs, gave little relief to the marble, livid with long burial; the once splendid patch of carpet at the farther end of the room had long been worn to dimness; the dark bronzes wanted sunlight upon them to bring out their tinge of green, and the sun was not yet high enough to send gleams of brightness through the narrow windows that looked on the Via de' Bardi. ❦ A street running along the river Arno in the Oltrarnoneighborhood of Florence, ending on the West end at the Piazza de' Mozzi

The only spot of bright colour in the room was made by the hair of a tall maiden of seventeen or eighteen, who was standing before a carved   leggio ❦ Italian: lectern, or reading-desk, such as is often seen in the choirs of Italian churches. The hair was of a reddish gold colour, enriched by an unbroken small ripple, such as may be seen in the sunset clouds on grandest autumnal evenings. It was confined by a black fillet above her small ears, from which it rippled forward again, and made a natural veil for her neck above her square-cut gown of black   rascia, or serge. Her eyes were bent on a large volume placed before her: one long white hand rested on the reading-desk, and the other clasped the back of her father's chair.

The blind father sat with head uplifted and turned a little aside towards his daughter, as if he were looking at her. His delicate paleness, set off by the black velvet cap which surmounted his drooping white hair, made all the more perceptible the likeness between his aged features and those of the young maiden, whose cheeks were also without any tinge of the rose. There was the same refinement of brow and nostril in both, counterbalanced by a full though firm mouth and powerful chin, which gave an expression of proud tenacity and latent impetuousness: an expression carried out in the backward poise of the girl's head, and the grand line of her neck and shoulders. It was a type of face of which one could not venture to say whether it would inspire love or

There was a certain nymph of Thebes ❦ Body of water northeast of the Mediterranean between Turkey and Russia, connected to the Mediterranean through the DardanellesTurkey and Russia named Chariclo, especially dear to Pallas;and this nymph as the mother of Teiresias. But once when in the heat of summer, Pallas, in company with Chariclo, was bathing her disrobed limbs in the Heliconian Hippocrene ❦ A sacred spring in Greek mythology, said to originate from the (real) Mount Helicon near Corinth, and associated with poetic inspiration, it happened that Teiresias coming as a hunter to quench his thirst at the same fountain, inadvertently beheld Minervaunveiled, and immediately became blind. For it is declared in the Saturnian laws, that he who beholds the gods against their will, shall atone for it by a Actœon heavy penalty. . . . When Teiresias had fallen into this calamity, Pallas, moved by the tears of Chariclo, endowed him with prophecy and length of days, and even caused his prudence and wisdom to continue after he had entered among the shades, so that an oracle spake from his tomb: and she gave him a staff, wherewith, as by a guide, he might walk without stumbling. . . . And hence, Nonnus ❦ 4th or 5th century CE. Epic poet from Hellenized Egypt, and author of the Dionysiaca, collecting the stories about the God Dionysus, including his trip to India., in the fifth book of the Dionysiaca,h introduces Actœon exclaiming that he calls Teiresias

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[Page 81] happy, since, without dying, and with the loss of his eyesight merely, he had beheld Minerva unveiled, and thus, though blind, could for evermore carry her image in his soul.

At this point in the reading, the daughter's hand slipped from the back of the chair and met her father's, which he had that moment uplifted; but she had not looked round, and was going on, though with a voice a little altered by some suppressed feeling, to read the Greek quotation from Nonnus ❦ 4th or 5th century CE. Epic poet from Hellenized Egypt, and author of the Dionysiaca, collecting the stories about the God Dionysus, including his trip to India., when the old man said—

"Stay, Romola; reach me my own copy of Nonnus ❦ 4th or 5th century CE. Epic poet from Hellenized Egypt, and author of the Dionysiaca, collecting the stories about the God Dionysus, including his trip to India.. It is a more correct copy than any in Poliziano's ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. hands, for I made emendations in it which have not yet been communicated to any man. I finished it in
1477

Romola walked to the farther end of the room, with the queenly step which was the simple action of her tall, finely-wrought frame, without the slightest conscious adjustment of herself.

"Is it in the right place, Romola?" asked Bardo, who was perpetually seeking the assurance that the outward fact continued to correspond with the image which lived to the minutest detail in his mind.

"Yes, father; at the west end of the room, on the third shelf from the bottom, behind the bust of Hadrian ❦ , above Apollonius Rhodius ❦ 3rd century BCE. Greek Author of the Argonautica and librarian at the library of Alexandria, allegedly embroiled in a literary dispute with Callimachus. and Callimachus ❦ ca. 305/310-240 BCE. Poet and scholar at the library of Alexandria who allegedly disputed with Apollonius about their poetry., and below Lucan ❦ 39 - 65 CE, Roman poet from Spain who got embroiled in a dispute with Nero and died by enforced suicide after having participated in a conspiracy against the emperor. and Silius Italicus ❦ 28-103 CE, author of the Punica and a loyal civil servant under Nero and the emperor Vitellius that succeeded Nero.."

As Romola said this, a fine ear would have detected in her clear voice and distinct utterance, a

But the father, unconscious of that soft radiance, looked flushed and agitated as his hand explored the edges and back of the large book.

"The vellum is yellowed in these thirteen years, Romola."

"Yes, father," said Romola, gently; "but your letters at the back are dark and plain still—fine Roman letters; and the Greek character," she continued, laying the book open on her father's knee, "is more beautiful than that of any of your bought manuscripts."

"Assuredly, child," said Bardo, passing his finger across the page, as if he hoped to discriminate line and margin. "What hired amanuensis can be equal

Seating herself on a low stool, close to her father's knee, Romola took the book on her lap and read the four verses containing the exclamation of Actœon.

"It is true, Romola," said Bardo, when she had finished; "it is a true conception of the poet; for what is that grosser, narrower light by which men behold merely the petty scene around them, compared with that far-stretching, lasting light which spreads over centuries of thought, and over the life of nations, and makes clear to us the minds of the immortals who have reaped the great harvest and left us to glean in their furrows? For me, Romola, even when I could see, it was with the great dead that I lived; while the living often seemed to me mere spectres—shadows dispossessed of true feeling

"And in one thing you are happier than your favourite Petrarca ❦ 1304-1374. Florentine poet (Sonnets to Laura) and humanist scholar, responsible for the rediscovery of Cicero's letters., father," said Romola, affectionately humouring the old man's disposition to dilate in this way; "for he used to look at his copy of Homer ❦ 8th century BCE? Posited author of the most famous Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. and think sadly that the Greek was a dead letter to him: so far, he had the inward blindness that you feel is worse than your outward blindness."

"True, child; for I carry within me the fruits of that fervid study which I gave to the Greek tongue under the teaching of the younger Crisolora ❦ Taught Greek in Florence after 1396 (Cf. Sanders 698), and Filelfo ❦ 1398-1481. Child prodigy scholar and poet who spent a short time in Florence but then lived in Milan, and Argiropulo ❦ 1415-1487. John Argyropoulos (with many spelling variations) was a humanist scholar from Greece, who studied at Constantinople and Padua who came as an exile to Florence on the invitation of Cosimo de ' Medici. He translated Greek texts into Latin and taught Lorenzo de ' Medici and Angelo Poliziano, possibly also Leonardo da Vinci.; though that great work in which I had desired to gather, as into a firm web, all the threads that my research had laboriously disentangled, and which would have been the vintage of my life, was cut off by the failure of my sight and my want of a fitting coadjutor. For the sustained zeal and unconquerable patience demanded from those who would tread the unbeaten paths of knowledge

"Father," said Romola, with a sudden flush and in an injured tone, "I read anything you wish me to read; and I will look out any passages for you, and make whatever notes you want."

Bardo shook his head, and smiled with a bitter sort of pity. "As well try to be a pentathlos and perform all the five feats of the palaestra with the limbs of a nymph. Have I forgotten thy fainting in the mere search for the references I needed to explain a single passage of Callimachus ❦ ca. 305/310-240 BCE. Poet and scholar at the library of Alexandria who allegedly disputed with Apollonius about their poetry.?"

"But, father, it was the weight of the books, and Maso can help me; it was not want of attention and patience."

Bardo shook his head again. "It is not mere bodily organs that I want: it is the sharp edge of a young mind to pierce the way for my somewhat blunted faculties. For blindness acts like a dam, sending the streams of thought backward along the already-travelled channels and hindering the course onward. If my son had not forsaken me, deluded by debasing fanatical dreams, worthy only of an energumen whose dwelling is among tombs, I might have gone on and seen my path broadening to the end of my life; for he was a youth of great promise . . . . But it has closed in now," the old man continued, after a short pause; "it has

Romola started from her seat, and carried away the large volume to its place again, stung too acutely by her father's last words to remain motionless as well as silent; and when she turned away from the shelf again, she remained standing at some distance from him, stretching her arms downward and clasping her fingers tightly as she looked with a sad dreariness in her young face at the lifeless objects around her—the parchment backs, the unchanging mutilated marble, the bits of obsolete bronze and clay.

Bardo, though usually susceptible to Romola's movements and eager to trace them, was now too entirely pre-occupied by the pain of rankling memories to notice her departure from his side.

"Yes," he went on, "with my son to aid me, I might have had my due share in the triumphs of this century: the names of the Bardi, father and son, might have been held reverently on the lips of scholars in the ages to come; not on account of frivolous verses or philosophic treatises, which are superfluous and presumptuous attempts to imitate the inimitable, such as allure vain men like Panhormita ❦ 1394-1471. Court poet of Milan and later founder of the Academy in Naples. He was famous for his light and frivolous poetry., and from which even the admirable Poggio ❦ 1380-1459. Well-connected chancellor (1439-1442) and historiographer of Florence and writer of light verse. As a humanist scholar, most famous for his recovery of manuscripts, including Lucretius's De Rerum Natura in 1417. did not keep himself sufficiently free; but because we should have given a lamp whereby men might have studied the supreme productions of the past. For why is a young man like Poliziano ❦ 1454-1494. Originally Angelo Ambrogini, and Latinized as Politian, he was a Florentine poet and classical scholar who taught at the University of Florence, tutored Lorenzo de' Medici's children, and was an active member of the Platonic Academy in Florence. He wrote in Italian, Latin and Greek, including on events in Florence and later in Mantua. , who was not yet born

In these last words the old man's voice, which had risen high in indignant protest, fell into a tone of reproach so tremulous and plaintive that Romola, turning her eyes again towards the blind aged face, felt her heart swell with forgiving pity. She seated herself by her father again, and placed her hand on his knee—too proud to obtrude consolation in words that might seem like a vindication of her own value, yet wishing to comfort him by some sign of her presence.

"Yes, Romola," said Bardo, automatically letting

"No, no, father; what could you do? besides, it is useless: wait till some one seeks me," said Romola, hastily.

"Nay, my child, that is not the paternal duty. It

"But I will study diligently," said Romola, her eyes dilating with anxiety. "I will become as learned as Cassandra Fedele ❦ 1465-1558. Female scholar with an extensive classical education, employed by Venice as its Latin Orator. Most of her orations and correspondence dates to before her marriage at age 34.Romola later tries to run away to Venice to find her, but turns back on Savonarola's orders.: I will try and be as useful to you as if I had been a boy, and then perhaps some great scholar will want to marry me, and will not mind about a dowry; and he will like to come and live with you, and he will be to you in place of my brother... and you will not be sorry that I was a daughter."

There was a rising sob in Romola's voice as she said the last words, which touched the fatherly fibre in Bardo. He stretched his hand upward a little in search of her golden hair, and as she placed her head under his hand, he gently stroked it, leaning towards her as if his eyes discerned some glimmer there.

"Nay, Romola mia, I said not so; if I have pronounced an anathema on a degenerate and ungrateful son, I said not that I could wish thee other than the sweet daughter thou hast been to me. For what son could have tended me so gently in the frequent sickness I have had of late? And even in learning thou art not, according to thy measure, contemptible. Something perhaps were to be wished in thy capacity of attention and memory, not incompatible even with the feminine mind. But as Calcondila ❦ 1423-1511, known by his Greek name as Demetrios Chalkondyles, was a Greek scholar who taught alongside the Italian humanists inf Florence (until 1492) as well as Padua and Milan. He published the first printed publication of Homer (1488) that is mentioned in the Proem of Romola. bore

The old man rose, and Romola, soothed by these beams of tenderness, looked happy again as she drew his arm within hers, and placed in his right hand the stick which rested at the side of his chair. While Bardo had been sitting, he had seemed hardly more than sixty: his face, though pale, had that refined texture in which wrinkles and lines are never deep but now that he began to walk he looked as old as he really was—rather more than seventy; for his tall spare frame had the student's stoop of the shoulders, and he stepped with the undecided gait of the blind.

"No, Romola," he said, pausing against the bust of Hadrian ❦ , and passing his stick from the right to the left that lie might explore the familiar outline with a "seeing hand." "There will be nothing else to preserve my memory and carry down my name as a member of the great republic of letters—nothing but my library and my collection of antiquities. And they are choice," continued Bardo, pressing the bust and speaking in a tone of insistance. "The collections of Niccolò ❦ 1363-1437. Niccolò Nicco was a wealthy Florentine collector of manuscripts and coins later left to Cosimo de 'Medici I know were larger: but take any collection which is the work of a single man—that of the great Boccaccio ❦ 1313-1375. Florentine writer most famous for the Decameron (written in Italian) and his compendium of Greek myths, the Genealogia deorum gentilium (in Latin). His collection of manuscripts from antiquity was donated to S. Spirito in Florence. even—mine will surpass it. That of Poggio ❦ 1380-1459. Well-connected chancellor (1439-1442) and historiographer of Florence and writer of light verse. As a humanist scholar, most famous for his recovery of manuscripts, including Lucretius's De Rerum Natura in 1417. was contemptible compared with mine. It will be a great gift to unborn scholars. And

The old man's voice had become at once loud and tremulous, and a pink flush overspread his proud, delicately-cut features, while the habitually raised attitude of his head gave the idea that behind the curtain of his blindness he saw some imaginary high

Romola was moved with sympathetic indignation, for in her nature too there lay the same large claims, and the same spirit of struggle against their denial. She tried to calm her father by a still prouder word than his.

"Nevertheless, father, it is a great gift of the gods to be born with a hatred and contempt of all injustice and meanness. Yours is a higher lot, never to have lied and truckled, than to have shared honours won by dishonour. There is strength in scorn, as there was in the martial fury by which men became insen- sible to wounds."

"It is well said, Romola. It is a Promethean word thou hast uttered," answered Bardo, after a little interval in which he had begun to lean on his stick again, and to walk on. "And I indeed am not to be pierced by the shafts of Fortune. My armour is the aes triplex ❦ Latin: the threefold brass [armor]; a quotation from Horace of a clear conscience, and a mind nourished by the precepts of philosophy. 'For men,' says Epictetus ❦ 55-135 AD. A late Greek stoic philosopher who lived in Rome for part of his life, enslaved as a child but later as a freedman., 'are disturbed not by things themselves, but by their opinions or thoughts concerning those things.' And again, 'whosoever will be free, let him not desire or dread that which it is in the power of others either to deny or inflict: otherwise, he is a slave.' And of all such gifts as are dependent on the caprice of fortune or of men, I have long ago learned to say, with Horace ❦ 65-8 BCE. Roman lyrical poet most famous for his Satires , but also for his literary theory, as described in the Ars Poetica, the Art of Poetry. Petrarch imitated his metric ideas and the concept of the Epistles, letters in poetic form, and he became widely influential during the Renaissance.—who, however, is too

'Sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere.' ❦ Latin: quotation from Horace's Epistles "There are those who do not have [luxuries] while others do not want to have them."

He is referring to gems, and purple, and other insignia of wealth; but I may apply his words not less justly to the tributes men pay us with their lips and their pens, which are also matters of purchase, and often with base coin. Yes, 'inanis'— hollow,empty—is the epithet justly bestowed on Fame."

They made the tour of the room in silence after this; but Bardo's lip-born maxims were as powerless over the passion which had been moving him, as if they had been written on parchment and hung round his neck in a sealed bag; and he presently broke forth again in a new tone of insistance.

"Inanis? yes, if it is a lying fame; but not if it is the just meed of labour and a great purpose. I claim my right: it is not fair that the work of my brain and my hands should not be a monument to me—it is not just that my labour should bear the name of another man. It is but little to ask," the old man went on, bitterly,"that my name should be over the door—that men should own themselves debtors to the Bardi Library in Florence ❦ The Florence cathedral, which replaced the earlier, smaller church of Santa Reparata in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, includes a separate baptistery, the Baptistery San Giovanni and a separate tower (campanile). Almost all Florentine artist of note had a hand in building and/or decorating this cathedral. Mentioned in Romolaare Brunelleschi (who created the large pointed dome), Cambio (plan for the cathedral, campanile), and Ghiberti (two sets of bronze doors of the baptistery. They will speak coldly of me, perhaps: a diligent collector and transcriber,' they will say, 'and also of some

At this moment Maso opened the door, and advancing to his master, announced that Nello, the barber, had desired him to say, that he was come with the Greek scholar whom he had asked leave to introduce.

"It is well," said the old man. "Bring them in."

Bardo, conscious that he looked more dependent when he was walking, liked always to be seated in the presence of strangers, and Romola, without needing to be told, conducted him to his chair. She was standing by him at her full height, in quiet majestic self-possession, when the visitors entered ; and the most penetrating observer would hardly have divined that this proud pale face, at the slightest