Correspondence
A LETTER FROM FLORENCE. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—The Florentine season this year started rather badly owing to the lack of sunshine in March and the paucity of foreign visitors. Easter, however, brought them both ; and the flowers all came out together to make up for lost time. In villa gardens the belated glories of wistaria and the Judas- blossom blended with those of the early banksia and the China roses, in a riot of colour that almost outdazzled the tulips and irises in the beds.
Meanwhile, the social life was quickened by the almost simultaneous opening of the International Book Fair and the Etruscan Congress. From the former the absence of England is generally deplored. The French and Germans have separate pavilions of their own, detached from the main building. Though neither is so highly decorated nor so well filled as at the last Fair three years ago, both present a solemn, academic, even religious aspect, reminding one of mosques—or possibly synagogues. In the main building the Italian rooms are far more dignified and harmonious than they were in the former exhibition: For each room is decorated according to a single design, displaying a newborn sense of order and co-operation that is quite in keeping with the new spirit of the nation. At the last Book Fair three years ago, the Italian room bore a strong resemblance to certain London streets, where each architect seems to have set himself the task of devising a building in complete disharmony with all its neighbours ; for each publisher appeared anxious to outbbize his rivals by a section as much as possible in disaceord, whether in colour, proportion, or style of decoration. This year such assertive individualism has been laid aside in favour of a single harmonious design, which is simple and reposeful, as well as economical. There is evidence, too, of considerable progress in the art of printing and book production in many splendid volumes of an almost classical austerity, standard being set by the publications of the new State Printing Press with its magnificent volumes of Foseolo and Machiavelli, which are worthy to rank with the most beautiful books of the century. Another fine production is the new world-atlas of the Italian Touring Club. More than twenty other nations are exhibiting their books and many have sent well-known lecturers to advertise their intellectual wares in national " cultural weeks."
To attend the lectures and discussions of the Etruscan Congress is a much more serious business. From 8 o'clock in the morning until 7 at night the severely academic halls of the University are filled with learned audiences gathered from all parts of Europe to hear and debate the latest efforts to reveal the origin, the history, and the language of this great mysterious people. The eagerly expected exposition of Professor Trombetti of his reading of Etruscan texts proved to be very much out of the depth of most of his hearers, and judgment by the general public will probably be suspended until the method that he has applied to the papyri of Zagreb is found to be the key to some still undiscovered text. Meanwhile, Florence has had a chance of seeing Ruth Draper and Pavlova, and of hearing a new tenor, Tito Schipa, at the opera.—I am, Sir, &c., YOUR FLORENTINE. CORRAIIPONDEN"r.
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