FLORENCE ILLUSTRATED.*
A supno3 book of the "gift" or de lica..8 order, which is not .simply a splendidly-printed and richly-illustrated edition of a
favourite author, should resemble a thoroughly good popular lecture,—such a lecture, for example, as Mr. Arnold, on one side, or Mr. Huxley, on another, can deliver, when not riding a hobby, or tilting against an antagonist. A discourse of the kind we mean is not a royal road to know- ledge; it would be a delusion and a snare, if it pre- tended to be anything of the sort. The effect it should have on the hearer is that of compacting the knowledge he already possesses, and of rendering it luminous. Somewhat similarly, a great gift-book, suggesting comfort, if not splendour, taken up at a moment of leisure and on purpose to be admired, while it need not be written in "the grand style," and, owing to circum- stances, cannot possibly be read with care, ought to fix one's -attention, even during the minute that suffices for the turning- over of its leaves, on what is most admirable and refining in luxury, on what, in fact, constitutes the moral justification for luxury. A really great gift-book, therefore, inevitably requires a really great subject. And what subject could be better than Florence, with its memories of Dante and Boccaccio, Michael Angelo and Galileo, Machiavelli and Savonarola,—" the fair, the happy, the glorious Florence," as Macaulay de- scribes it, in one of the most Corinthian, but also one of the best of his earlier essays, "the halls which rang with the mirth of Pulci, the cell where twinkled the midnight lamp of Politian, the statues on which the young eyes of Michael Angelo glared with the frenzy of a kindred inspiration, the gardens in which Lorenzo meditated some sparkling song for the May-day dance of the Etrurian virgins P" Florence, in its brightest days, seems to have been the very impersonation alike of what was richest in the Pagan Renaissance, and of what was most grandiose in Christian art; and a thoroughly well executed Florence Illustrated ought to be as inspiring and as promptly stimulating as a sonnet by a master-hand.
The publishers of this magnificent volume have not relied much, we imagine, on the historical and other letter-press. In .such of the political history of Florence as is really of per- manent value, we go—at least, we ought to go—to Machiavelli direct. For a survey of the Italian system, of which it was the fairest fruit—the fruit that rotted at the heart—we go to Macaulay's well-known essay. For the history, the literature, .and the art of the Italian Renaissance, we do not now need to go beyond English resources, — beyond the work of Mr. ,Symonds. The writer of the book before us does not, indeed, claim much for it, as it is subordinate to the illustrations ; and, indeed, he admits that he has himself discovered faults in it. Nor has he always been efficiently served by his English trans- lator. We repeatedly come upon slipshoddy and broken English like this :—" Countless books have been written about the Renaissance, and no effort has been spared to trace out the causes and to show by what combination of circum- stances, this sublime efflorescence of human genius was brought about." At the same time, the historical portion of the work, especially the history of the De Medici family, is clear and impartial, and the sketches of "Illustrious Florentines," if somewhat snippety, are crammed with facts. The book will, however, be judged by its illustrations, which are 500 in number. Even in this respect, it leaves, in our opinion, something to be desired, We should have liked in particular to have had more representations of the art—or rather, of the arts—of Michael
* Moreno : lh Ilis'orv, the Medioi, the Humantete, Lettere, Art. By Charles Yriarta. Translated by 0. B. Pitman. London : Sampson Low and Co.
Angelo, just as we should have liked to have had a fuller account of his life. But, leaving this out of consideration,
the volume is, in all essentials, what it should be. In respect of the historical and biographical illustrations, it is especially fascinating. On every page, some face, a Cosimo or a Lorenzo, a poet, a priest, or a painter, is sure to catch the eye, and is almost certain to conjure up a bril- liant or a tragic career. The reader unfamiliar with Italian history will certainly be struck with the plainness of feature that characterises so many eminent Florentines. Except those of them who gave themselves absolutely to a religious life, and whose faces indicate moral beauty or ecstatic elevation of spirit, or those whose absorption in politics is manifested in "the lines of care and policy and authority" which mark, but do not mar, a face like Mr. Gladstone's, they seem dull and even heavy men. A Londoner would find in any photographer's window half-a-dozen faces that would strike him as possessing more of what he would style "intellectuality," than the face of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as given hero. One portrait, however, stands out from the rest—prominent and seductive—that of the Florentine Cleopatra, Bianca Capello, whose fatal beauty is believed to have lured two men to their destruction. Even yet, her lips and eyes, full of " sweet, re- luctant, amorous delay," have an eerie fascination in them, Whoever wishes to understand the extraordinary extravagances of the Renaissance in Italy should look at the pieturea here given of the allegories actually represented on the occasion of Bianca's marriage with the Grand Duke Francesco, when, among other freaks," naked men and women had their bodies painted with gold, that they might represent the deities of Olympus." Still more generally attractive than even the portraits will probably be found the numerous and admirable specimens of the treasures of the Pitti Palace, and of Florentine Art generally. Those, however, are too well known to need specialisation or enumeration. We have said enough of the most sumptuous work of the gift-book type that has lately been published, and which, from its very character, calls for the cricticism of the eye, rather than of the pen.
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