Florence (Famous city of central Italy)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a famous city of central Italy; on both sides of the Arno, 63 miles Leg- S. by W. of Bologna; 68 E. N. E. of horn, and 187 N.N.W. of Rome. It stands in a richly wooded, well-cultivated, and beautiful valley, encircled by the Apennines, and is well built and agreeable. of Its shape is nearly a square, the sides which almost correspond with the cardinal points; the Arno intersects it from S. E. to N. W., three of the quarters into the which it is divided being situated on right, and the fourth on the left bank of the river. The communication between the opposite sides of the river is main- 1 ence contains a great number of magnificent edifices and squares, generally adorned with statues, columns, or fountains; there are no fewer than 170 churches, 89 convents, 2 royal, and many theaters other palaces, hospitals, and great and small. Each angle of a street , fit to be presents an architectural view drawn for a scene in a theater. Many of the houses are palaces, and are fitted up with great magnificence. The Piazza Reale is the largest square; it has a fine marble fountain, and an equestrian statue in bronze of . The Duke Cosmo I. by by John of Bologna exactly in Piazza del Mercato Vecchio, the center of the city, has a marble for column from which Florence radiates is one mile on each side. The Arno decidedly superior to the Tiber at Rome. of mar- The bridge Santa Trinita, built ble in 1559 by Ammanati, is designed in a style of elegance and simplicity unriefforts of valed by the most successful the modern artists. The bridges, and handsome though not spacious quays by bordered, afford fine which the river is being in views of the river, Florence "Eterthis respect much superior to the , a nal City." The duomo, or cathedral marble, about vast edifice, coated with in height 500 feet in length, and 384 feet in to the top of of the cross, stands a Arspacious square. It was begun by by nolfo di Lapo in 1296, and finished brick, Brunelleschi in 1426. It is built of and veneered, as it were, with partiarranged in narrow colored marble slabs strips or panels. The interior is very belfry, adstriking. The campanile or it joining the duomo, but detached from , fine tower 288 feet in height. The is a church of Santa Croce, called the Pantheon of Florence, is interesting from its and tombs of containing the remains four of the greatest men of modern Italy, or indeed of modern times-Michael Angelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Alfieri. Palazzo Among the palaces are the , or Old Pa Palace, inhabited by the Vecchio Medici when citizens of Florence, which was begun in 1298, and finished in 1550. It is in a massive, severe, and gloomy style, with a tower 268 feet high. Adjoining it is the Piazza del Palazzo Vecchio, a square containing a fine colthe lection of statues, and a noble arcade, Loggia di Lanzi, under the porticoes of which are magnificent groups of sculpture. The Palazzo Pitti, erected in 1440, the ordinary residence of the King of Italy, is a vast and heavy structure; it is furnished in the most costly manner, and is enriched with a great number of the choicest works of art and virtu, and an excellent library. Attached to this palace are the Boboli Gardens, laid out by Cosmo I. in 1550, in the classical style. Connected with these gardens is the botanical garden, a museum of natural history, the Fontana anatomical collection in wax, etc. Another fine palace, the Riccardi (built in 1440), has a noble 1440), gallery with a ceiling painted by Luca Giordano, and a library of 40,000 volumes, open to the public. But the crowning glory of Florence is its Grand Gallery, occupying the upper floor of the Uffizi, a building erected after a design of Vasari, by Cosmo I., consisting of two parallel corridors or galleries, each 448 feet in length, and 72 feet apart, united at one end by a third corridor. This contains some masterpieces of statuary, as the world-renowned "Venus de Me dici," "The Knife-Grinder," the "Fawn," "Niobe and her Children," etc. The collection of pictures comprises superb examples of all the best schools. A splendid apartment, known as the Tribuna, contains the rarest treasures of the collection, and is in itself a wonder of art, with its cupola inlaid with mother-ofpearl, and its rich marble pavement. Besides the Riccardi and Laurentian libraries, the Magliabecchi library, containing a rare, extensive, and valuable collection of books, is also open to the public. Florence is subject to fogs in the winter; but in spring and autumn it is a delightful residence. The literary and educational institutions are both numerous and important. At the head of these is the famous Academia della Crusca. The charitable institutions are numerous, extensive, and well conducted. The encouragement given under the late as well as the present the present government, to artistic and scientific studies, ferred advantages on Florence unknown in most other parts of Italy. Manufactures silks, straw hats, articles of virtu, as intaglios, etc., jewelry, porcelain, perfumery, etc. Florence has produced more celebrated men than any other place in Italy, or, perhaps, of Europe; among others may be specified Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Villani, Cosmo and Lorenzo de Medici; Galileo, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Benvenuto Cellini, Alberti, Lapo, Brunelleschi, Giotto, Andrea del Sarto, Machiavelli; Popes Leo X. and XI., Clement VII., VIII., and XII. The origin of this city is not clearly ascertained; but it owed its first distinction to Sylla, who planted in it a Roman colony. In 541 it was almost wholly destroyed by Totila, King of the Goths. About 250 years afterward it was restored by Charlemagne. It then became the chief city of a famous republic; and was for a lengthened period in Italy what Athens had been in Greece in the days of Xenophon and Thucydides. At length, in 1537, the Medici, from being the first of her citizens, became sovereign dukes of Florence. The city afterward became the capital of the former grandduchy of Tuscany till 1860, when it was annexed to the new kingdom of Italy, and in 1865, the seat of government was transferred thither from Turin. Pop. about 235,000. FLORENCE CRITTENTON MIS- SION, an organization, established in 1883 by C. F. Crittenton, having for its purpose the tendering of aid to women in need of it, particularly those of an unfortunate class. lass. The mission has established homes in seven cities of the United States, and has one in Marseilles, France, and another in Tokyo, Japan. Its principal establishment is in New York City, and here over 1,000 girls have been cared for. The head office is in Washington, D. C., and a feature of the mission is the provision of summer homes, to which girls can be sent for the summer holidays.