The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 402, Supplementary Number (1829)Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 402, Supplementary Number (1829)
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
"According to Montfaucon, the celebrated antiquary, the leaning of these
towers has been occasioned by the sinking of the earth. 'We several
times observed the tower called Asinelli, and the other near it, named
Garisenda. The latter of them stoops so much that a perpendicular, let
fall from the top, will be seven feet from the bottom of it; and, as
appears upon examination, when this tower bowed, a great part of it went
to ruin, because the ground that side that inclined stood on was not so
firm as the other, which may be said of all other towers that lean so;
for besides these two here mentioned, the tower for the bells of St.
Mary Zobenica, at Venice, leans considerably to one side. So also at
Ravenna, I took notice of another stooping tower occasioned by the
ground on that side giving way a little. In the way from Ferrara to
Venice, where the soil is marshy, we see a structure of great antiquity
leaning to one side. We might easily produce other instances of this
nature. When the whole structure of the Garisenda stooped, much of it
fell, as appears by the top of it.
"Bologna, like most of the cities of Italy, has been the seat of many
tragical incidents, affording such rich materials for her novelists.
Amongst others, is one which we give in the words of the excellent
critic by whom it is related. 'The family Geremie of Bologna were at the
head of the Guelphs, and that of the Lambertazzi of the Ghibbelines,
who formed an opposition by no means despicable to the domineering
party. Bonifazio Geremei and Imelda Lambertazzi, forgetting the feuds of
their families, fell passionately in love with each other, and Imelda
received her lover into her house. This coming to her brothers'
knowledge, they rushed into the room where the two lovers were, and
Imelda could scarcely escape, whilst one of the brothers plunged a
dagger, poisoned after the Saracen fashion, into Bonifazio's breast,
whose body was thrown into some concealed part of the house and covered
with rubbish. Imelda hastened to him, following the tracks of his blood,
as soon as the brothers were gone; found him, and supposing him not
quite dead, generously, as our own Queen Eleanor had done about the same
time, sucked the poison from the bleeding wound, the only remedy which
could possibly save his life; but it was too late: Imelda's attendants
found her a corpse, embracing that of her beloved Bonifazio.'"
The success of the Landscape Annual is very far from problematical. All
our _travelled_ nobility and people of fortune will buy it to refresh
their acquaintance with the beautiful scenes it includes; and it is
hardly possible to imagine a more agreeable book-companion on the
journey itself.
* * * * *
LITERARY SOUVENIR.
(_Concluded from Supplement, page 336_.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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