A View of Society and Manners in Italy, Volume 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes Relating to some Eminent CharactersMoore, John
History
A View of Society and Manners in Italy, Volume 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes Relating to some Eminent Characters
Moore, John
Italy -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Italy -- Social life and customs -- Early works to 1800
Most of the houses are built on the same plan, and have one small room
from the passage, which is conjectured to have been the shop, with a
window to the street, and a place which seems to have been contrived for
shewing the goods to the greatest advantage. The nature of the traffic
carried on at one particular house, is indicated by a figure in alto
relievo of a very expressive kind, immediately above the door.
It is to be wished they would cover one of the best houses with a roof,
as nearly resembling that which originally belonged to it as they could
imagine, with a complete assortment of the antique furniture of the
kitchen and each particular room. Such a house fitted up with accuracy
and judgment, with all its utensils and ornaments properly arranged,
would be an object of universal curiosity, and would swell the heart of
the antiquarian with veneration and delight. Only imagine, my dear Sir,
what those gentlemen must feel, when they see the venerable habitations
of the ancients in their present mournful condition, neglected, despised,
abandoned to the peltings of rain, and all the injuries of the weather!
those precious walls, which, were it possible to transport them to the
various countries of the world, would be bought with avidity, and placed
in the gardens of Princes! How must the bosoms of all true virtuosos
glow with indignation, when they behold the mansions of the ancient
Romans stripped of their ornaments, dishonoured, and exposed, like a
parcel of ragged galley slaves, in the most indecent manner, with hardly
any covering to their nakedness; while a little paltry brick house,
coming the Lord knows how, from a country which men of taste have always
despised, has been received with hospitality, dressed in a fine coat of
the richest marble, adorned with jewels and precious stones, and treated
with every mark of honourable distinction!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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