Guide - Souvenir de Florence et Pays Environnants. Par le Dr. J.
Marcotti. (G. Barbera, Florence.)—In publishing Dr. lletarcotti's Guide-Souvenir, the Florentine editor, Signor G. Barbera, has laid travellers under a great obligation, for he has supplied a want long felt in Florence. The present volume, which is written in French, a language generally read and understood, is in a con- venient form, very prettily got-up, and enriched with good maps and illustrations. It has been very carefully compiled, the author having spared no pains in collecting information from the best sources. He has availed himself of the help of the most culti- vated people in Florence ; and in his account of Florentine history, literature, and art, he has had the valuable assistance of the great scholar, Signor Gaetano Milanesi,arch-consul of the Accademia della Crusca, and former superintendent of the Archives of State. The Guide, besides giving ample information to strangers who are anxious to visit all that is most worth seeing in the city, will be found a very useful book for students who are interested in the history of Florence, or who wish to study it from an artistic point of view. The account, also, of the surrounding country is full and interesting. The author, although an Italian, has perhaps been rather hard in his strictures on the Florentine character ; but some of his remarks are undeniably true. The people might profit by them if it were not that " Tre cose sono difficili : cuocere un novo, fare il letto a un cane, e insegnare a un Fiorentino ; "— viz. : "Ii y'a trois choses difficiles : cuire un ceuf, faire le lit it un chien, apprendre un Florentin." The alphabetical table of the principal artists, at the end of the book, is a valuable addition.
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