tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482140050301347403.post1375709755292906343..comments2023-12-12T21:00:42.130+01:00Comments on From a Tuscan Hillside: The Manhattan of the Middle AgesAcanthushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03118790079140854402noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482140050301347403.post-82269113037633238262013-05-04T17:47:16.208+02:002013-05-04T17:47:16.208+02:00A lovely memory of a walk with meander through Sie...A lovely memory of a walk with meander through Siena's historic streets.Argentumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16371245087029520174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482140050301347403.post-42882684334950222472013-05-02T20:32:43.516+02:002013-05-02T20:32:43.516+02:00Thank you for these vivid photographs... it's ...Thank you for these vivid photographs... it's like taking a walk through Siena, culminating with the one of the best views in the world! I just learned yesterday that in 11th-century Pisa there were regulations about how high these towers could be. They were, of course, fortifications in those dangerous times of internecine fighting--so keeping the towers down had civic implications. Florence also has surviving towers from this period before the palazzi started going up, especially in the Oltrarno neighborhood.<br /><br />Looking around online, I found that Villani's chronicle narrates that in 1251, with the return of the Guelphs to the city, the city of Florence decided that «all towers of Florence be cropped down to 29 meters or even less; the stones from the cropped towers were used to build houses in Oltrarno». A decision with clear political implications...<br /><br />Here is the original:<br /><br />E como il popolo ebbe presa signoria e stato, sì ordinaro per più fortezza di popolo, che tutte le torri di Firenze, (che ce n'avea grande quantità alte braccia centoventi) si tagliassono e tornassono alla misura di cinquanta braccia e non più, e così fu fatto; e delle pietre si murò poi la città oltrarno.<br /><br />(Villani, ch. 39)<br /><br />The towers of Siena must have had a similar function.Acanthushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03118790079140854402noreply@blogger.com