Identifier: menmannersofoldf00biag (find matches)
Title: Men and manners of old Florence
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Biagi, Guido, 1855-1925
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago, A. C. McClurg and co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
us to determinethe site of the ancient walls with absolute certainty.The moat and wall, which together formed the cityboundary, ran on the eastern side from the CastellodAltafronte, where is now the Piazza dei Giudici,to San Firenze and the Badia and up the Via delProconsolo, forming an angle on the northern sideof the Piazza del Duomo, opposite to the modernCathedral Museum. Thence it went in a straightline past the Baptistery and the Archbishops house,along the present Via dei Cerretani. Near thecorner of the Via Rondinelli the moat joined theMugnone river, which then took its place, and flow-ing past San Michele Berteldi, now San Gaetano,and the houses of the Tornaquinci, afterwards calledTornabuoni, it emptied itself into the Arno at thepoint where the Santa Trinita bridge was subsequentlyerected. On the south side the walls followed thesite of the Via delle Terme as far as Por SantaMaria, and from the corner of the present Via Lam-bertesca they continued behind the church of San
Text Appearing After Image:
en WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 19 Piero Scheraggio, which stood where is now theentrance to the Uffizi Gallery. That part of themoat was named Scheraggio and it collected all therain-water of the city and carried it to the Arno. Giovanni Villani wrote that Florence possessedgood walls with towers at frequent intervals, andfour principal gates. These were the Porta SanPiero, at the point where the Corso joins the Viadel Proconsolo ; the Porta del Duomo (or SanGiovanni), in earlier times called the Bishops Gate,opposite the end of the Borgo San Lorenzo ; the PortaSan Brancazio, at the junction of streets near theStrozzi Palace ; and finally the Porta Santa Maria,which stood opposite the earliest bridge, built uponstone piles sunk in the Arno, and eventually calledthe Old Bridge, or Ponte Vecchio, after the construc-tion of the new bridge, or Ponte alia Carraia. Eachgate had a secondary or outer gate, enclosed withinbattlemented walls, the space in between being acourtyard, which spanned

Note About Images