Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa: With Sixteen Illustrations in Colour by William Parkinson and Sixteen Other Illustrations, Second EditionHutton, Edward
History
Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa: With Sixteen Illustrations in Colour by William Parkinson and Sixteen Other Illustrations, Second Edition
Hutton, Edward
Art -- Italy -- Florence; Genoa (Italy) -- History; Tuscany (Italy) -- Description and travel
"The procession was headed," says Mr. Heywood, "by two trumpeters on
horseback, followed by a band of horsemen clad in military costumes, and
by war-cars full of arms and banners of the vanquished. Thereafter came
certain soldiers on foot with their hands bound, to represent prisoners
taken in the battle; then more trumpeters and drummers; and then the
triumphal chariot, drawn by four or six horses richly draped and adorned
with emblems and mottoes. It was accompanied and escorted by knights
and gentlemen on horseback. The noble ladies of the city followed in
their carriages, and behind them thronged an infinite people (_infinito
popolo_) scattering broadcast various poetical compositions, and singing
with sweet melodies in the previously appointed places, the glories of
the victory won, making procession through the city until night." After
dark, bonfires were lighted. On high above the triumphal car was set
some allegorical figure, such as Valour, Victory, or Fame.[72]
The last _Giuoco del Ponte_ was fought in 1807. "Certain pastimes," says
Signor Tribolati, "are intimately connected with certain institutions
and beliefs; and when the latter cease to exist, the former also perish
with them. The _Giuoco del Ponte_ was a relic of popular chivalry, one
of the innumerable knightly games which adorned the simple, artistic,
warlike life of the hundred Republics of Italy.... What have we to do
with the arms and banners of the tourneys? At most we may rub the
cobwebs away and shake off the dust and lay them aside in a museum."[73]
To come out of the Museo, that graveyard of dead beauty, of forgotten
enthusiasms, into the quiet, deserted Piazza di S. Francesco, where the
summer sleeps ever in the sun and no footstep save a foreigner's ever
seems to pass, is to fall from one dream into another, not less
mysterious and full of beauty. How quiet now is this old city that once
rang with the shouts of the victors home from some sea fight, or
returned from the Giuoco. Only, as you pass along Via S. Francesco and
turn into Piazza di S. Paolo, the children gather about you, reminding
you that in Italy even the oldest places--S. Paolo al Orto, for
instance, with its beautiful old tower that is now a dwelling--are put
to some use, and are really living still like the gods who have taken
service with us, perhaps in irony, to console themselves for our
treachery in watching our sadness without them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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