Stories and micro-stories told on the walls
Another place, like London whose cobalt plates we dealt with last week, where the flood of history has truly passed is Florence. On its walls appear a thousand testimonies of the history that has flown along the waters of the Arno; of history with a capital "S" and of history history with a small "s"; that is, of those micro-stories that more than anything else give an account of the particular character of this city and its inhabitants. If the history of modern London begins after the great fire of September 1666, the history of Florence, as the epicenter of modernity, has much more distant roots and therefore its manifestations are much more differentiated, varied and uneven. But perhaps an important value lies precisely here, because it is history that speaks directly, without institutional mediation.
To enhance and increase this heritage, Florence has not launched an organic project like the one implemented in London by English Heritage for plaques. In Florence everything was much more spontaneous, stratified and also, let's face it, neglected. There is no repertoire of epigraphs, they are not digitized and they are not even restored except for sporadic initiatives by individuals. But luckily there are the Florentines!
The Florentine Paolo Biagioni
Finally, a first and partial repertoire of epigraphs affixed to the walls of Florence has been published: The talking stones of Florence. From Dante to Mozart to Dostoevsky, a journey through the cradle of the Renaissance through his epigraphs by Paolo Biagioni, goWare 2016 (9,99 euros; available on all online bookstores).
It is a selection of 450 epigraphs (just under half) selected on the basis of criteria of representativeness and also legibility. For example, not all the epigraphs in Latin and those now rendered illegible by the wear and tear of time have been included. As we said, the work of collecting and cataloging these materials is not due to a city institution designated for this purpose, but to the abnegation and passion of Paolo Biagioni who are his moped who traveled the length and breadth of the city photographing these materials.
Biagioni is a Florentine DOCG. Born in the Santa Croce district, he worked as a fashion photographer and today is one of the animators of the stable company of the Cestello Theater. Biagioni also has a hobby of historical research and, one evening like many others, returning home he looked up from the pavement noticing a stone inscription that he was unable to interpret, he is a real Florentine. Possible? From that moment he set himself the goal of immortalizing with his camera all the stone inscriptions of the Tuscan capital, a rather daunting task since between slabs, stems, memorial stones and monuments, Florence and its surroundings preserve over 1000 messages left to posterity : to indicate the place of birth, death or stay of an artist, the walls that witnessed the occurrence of a significant historical event, the decree of a city authority at a time when there were no Official Gazettes, or simply to greet the traveler with a poetic verse or a quotation from some illustrious Florentine.
Paolo Biagioni writes in presenting his work: "By scrolling through this collection of mine, certainly incomplete, and reading these epigraphs one notices, first of all, the internationality of the characters to whom they refer and one therefore understands how much the city of Florence has been a reference over the centuries both for Europe and for the whole world.” And the epigraphs are the indelible testimony of the internationality of Florence.
A geolocated and interactive ebook organized in a double form of consultation
As we said, it was necessary to make a selection of this enormous widespread memorial, to offer the reader practicable and significant itineraries. The archive, thus filtered (almost 450 images), was then organized into 9 thematic itineraries (Historical place, Humanist, Men of art and science, Artistic place, Divine Comedy, Mr. Otto, Historical characters, History and Grand Tour ), identifiable as as many lines of a hypothetical means of public transport, where each stop corresponds to a plaque to visit, re-read and explore on site.
Furthermore, the interactivity of the electronic book allows the reader several advantages compared to a paper tourist guide: the tombstones, in fact, are presented by proximity (starting from the historic centre, moving in a spiral towards the periphery). They are all geolocated and give access to additional information on their content. Leafing through them in sequence, you can then walk around the city, crossing all nine routes. If, on the other hand, you prefer to follow a leitmotif, the book can "jump" to the next (or previous) stop on the chosen route.
The routes
Historical place. The itinerary indexes the tombstones that mark the place that saw the occurrence of a particularly significant historical event (from the death at the stake of Fra' Girolamo Savonarola to the proclamation of the unification of Italy).
Humanist. An itinerary to discover the places where the protagonists of Renaissance Italy were born (or lived) (of which Florence was the undisputed center), from Donatello to Leonardo da Vinci, from Ariosto to Galileo.
Men of art and science. Beyond the golden age of the XNUMXth-XNUMXth century, Florence continued to be a breeding ground for artists and luminaries as well as an attractive cultural pole for intellectuals from all over the world. This itinerary revisits the places where the inventor of radio communication Guglielmo Marconi lived and worked, the (unknown) inventor of the telephone Antonio Meucci, where the young Giosuè Carducci lived and where Fëdor Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot.
Divine Comedy. On the facades of the Florentine palaces there are 34 tombstones (a significant selection is presented here) bearing Dantesque quotations (9 from Inferno, 5 from Purgatory, 20 from Paradise) which review the main events of the city and its illustrious citizens.
Messrs Otto. Established in 1353 to repress and punish criminal episodes that took place in the city, the organ of the Otto di Guardia and Balia became over time the most important judiciary in Florence. With the decline of the municipal institutions and the rapid rise of the lordships, the Otto di Guardia and di Balia were one of the institutions of the Republic that most opposed the growing absolutism of the Medici who, however, gradually reduced their jurisdiction. They were definitively dissolved in 1777. The tombstones that we present here, bearing various resolutions concerning public order, mostly date back to the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries and are mainly located near places of worship, to preserve their peace and decorum. .
Historical characters. A quick review of the illustrious Italians who were born (or simply lived) on the banks of the Arno.
History. Small testimonies of a minor story (without a capital "S"), events that may not be included in school textbooks, but which have helped to change and define the "personality" of the city.
Grand Tour. Starting from the seventeenth century, the rich European (and later also the American) aristocratic youth began to undertake long training journeys, mainly with Italy as a destination. The "cradle of the Renaissance" was, of course, a must-see. The tombstones along this route attest to the presence in the city of numerous intellectuals (many, of course, poets), from Shelley to Milton, from Mr and Mrs Browning to George Eliot.
We could certainly stop here, but why deprive the reader, who wishes to explore this theme further, of the introduction by professor Dario Ragazzini, historian of education, to the work of Paolo Biagioni. Good continuation!
The story of the story
You go around the city and you get impressions and sensations from places and routes. Palaces and streets and squares and fountains overlap in the eyes and perceptions. And yet, we are almost never aware of how selective and imaginative our gaze is at the same time. We see a square, we look at a monument and we don't see the no parking sign that stands out in the foreground (we realize it immediately afterwards, in the photo we just took!).
Well, this particular guide to the epigraphs of Florence brings the city to life in a different way; it is a real tool that makes us reactivate the mind and sight. From the streets and the facades of the buildings, history overlooks us. But also the history of history.
The epigraph from many decades ago, placed on a restored building from several centuries earlier, informs us that Cellini cast his statue of Perseus there (via della Pergola 56).
The one from a few decades ago, placed on a historic building many centuries older, informs us that a hundred years earlier the inventor of the Florentine mask of Stenterello (Borgo Ognissanti 42) gave his shows there.
That of the sixteenth century, on a building many years earlier, still says that "remarkable" games are prohibited, that is, games that make noise, or rather noise (Piazza Strozzi). So in this square games were played, therefore the authority of the time supervised (the so-called committee of Otto di Guardia and Balia, of which, just to be clear, Niccolò Machiavelli was also secretary).
Those - so to speak - Dantesque, which contain verses from the Divine Comedy referring precisely to the place where the plaque is affixed (in many parts of the city): this means that the reference referred to may be prior to the building on which the memory is affixed.
Inside the supply chain of the history of the place
Therefore, we see the inscription and relate to what it reminds us of, but we also look and read by placing ourselves in a chronological sequence: the building that supports the plaque, the fact or character mentioned, the date of who placed the inscription. In short, these inscriptions transform the surface of the story that looks at us into a three-dimensional rendering, into a prospection of different insights over time: the building, the event (inhabitants, happenings), the institutions and the affixing associations, the instructions (one can do, cannot be done, how it can be done, or how and what to remember), or the support (its history, the choice to put the epigraph on it) what is recalled by the tombstone, who put it, when.
And also because. Finally, if you think about it, we also have a digital reproduction of the tombstone – located with GPS – and… we who consult the ebook (this too is a continuation of the tombstone). And the inscription, designed and especially for those who pass right there on foot, finds new life in digital reproduction and information for those who do not pass through there, but go there specifically, using tablets or smartphones, also reaching there using public transport. unthinkable times. Not to mention the possibility of using it without physically being on site.
The shape of the epigraphs
We have epigraphs that have a prescriptive form (it can be done, it can't be done) placed by the authorities of the time, and epigraphs that have the function of remembering: which characters? From which entities? Why? How described and recalled? In courtly form, in rhetorical form, in historical, documentary, obsequious, pedagogical and instructive form for the passer-by. Epigraphs of communication and epigraphs of commemoration.
Stone, marble, but also lead and metal epigraphs (although technically they should be called differently). Carved or inscribed with added metal letters. Simple and decorated. Big and small…
Epigraphs that tell the story of the city (the title of the ebook The talking stones is guessed): how it was and how it is represented for the inhabitants and tourists over the centuries.
This guide to talking stones is – in its own way – a guide to Florence! It is a tool and an aid to find, to look, to get excited and to have fun. I suggest: not too much cultural concern, not too much historical concern, just identification and information. In our heads the rest will come by itself.
The streets as written pages
Calvino, in Invisible Cities, wrote of the relationship between the city, the signs and the visitors: a city in which "the gaze travels the streets like written pages", a city that "makes you repeat its speech, and while you think you visit[ la] you do nothing but record the names with which it defines itself and all its parts” and you ask yourself what it contains or hides. And outside and above the city, the clouds, by chance and by the wind, have changing shapes on which you are immediately intent on recognizing figures and signs… As if to say the game of deciphering and at the same time following the trail indicated by the signs, but also the necessity and the freedom to get rid of it on the part of man who also in this remains an imaginator of… signals and signs.
The epigraphs are the spy of a part of history (only some events and some characters are remembered) in the swarm of all the others, major and minor, great and humble. The signs mentioned in this ebook are remnants of history that speaks to us, if we speak to history, even just having fun doing a "treasure hunt" for Florence with this tool now at our disposal.
Ah, I almost forgot: nose up, but let's remain shrewd pedestrians!
