54 BROWN : 



filled up, and the picture "restored" as best it might be. 

 But except as a landmark it has no more interest than an 

 expurgated Bible or Shakespeare. Not being the original, it 

 may be anything. 



Be that however as it may, the Palazzo del Podesta has 

 been restored whole as it was and with the lordly room spoken 

 of above, the passages, the lesser apartments of state, and 

 above all, the courtyard with its lilies and carved shields upon 

 the walls, its gallerj' and its staircase, which, if altered in any 

 way would be less or more than perfection, is one of the joys 

 of the whole earth. The building is only the better for being 

 used as a museum of choice and rare historical objects. 



You have had a good deal of stone and mortar. But 

 architecture is my favorite art, and I am going to give 3'ou a 

 little more. The Baths of Lucca is a watering place much 

 frequented by the Florentines, and a bridge over the Serchio, 

 near the Baths, may fairly enough have a place in this reading. 

 It was built by Narses, the general of Justinian, nine hundred 

 years ago and more. It leaps high over the river, which is 

 periodically flooded, and is of one arch only. The roadway 

 is wide enough for two men on foot to pass, but not for two 

 loaded asses. We used, of course, to call it the "asses' 

 bridge." It is so slight that if one stand in the middle and 

 "jounce," the bridge can plainly be felt to shake, yet there it 

 is ; and there seems to be no reason why it should not see yet 

 many, many generations out. 



The Duomo of Florence, the Cathedral Church of Santa 

 Maria del Fiore, was after a hundred years of work roofed 

 over and fit to worship in, but the cupola was not yet on. 

 Arnolfo was dead, and the very practical question arose, what 

 centering was to be used in turning the arch of the great dome 

 which the master had projected. Structure of wood all the 

 way up from the floor? An awful business, indeed, and 

 doubtful enough. A heap of earth with coins thrown in, so 

 that the poor people would come when the work was done, 

 and carr}' all away for the sake of what they might find ? 



