2 OCTOBER 1920, Page 20

In the interesting series of Texts for Students the Society

for Promoting Christian Knowledge has just published two little books of Select Extracts Illustrating Florentine Life, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (Is. net each). Miss Roper, the editor, has chosen a number of interesting and characteristic passages from the chroniclers and story-tellers and from Vasari and Leonardo da Vinci. We may mention Sacchetti's sarcastic account of the failure of the city fathers to enforce a sumptuary law upon the women about the year 1350, and Capponys story of the popular rising of the Ciompi in 1378, as well as the picturesque narrative of Savonarola preaching and of the

processions of his followers. The extracts lend life and colour to the ordinary histories of Florence.