The Campanile and the Baptistery

A short way with Veronese critics--Giotto's missing spire--Donatello's
holy men--Giotto as encyclopaedist--The seven and twenty
reliefs--Ruskin in American--At the top of the tower--A sea of
red roofs--The restful Baptistery--Historic stones--An ex-Pope's
tomb--Andrea Pisano's doors--Ghiberti's first doors--Ghiberti's second
doors--Michelangelo's praise--A gentleman artist.

It was in 1332, as I have said, that Giotto was made capo-maestro,
and on July 18th, 1334, the first stone of his campanile was laid, the
understanding being that the structure was to exceed "in magnificence,
height, and excellence of workmanship" anything in the world. As
some further indication of the glorious feeling of patriotism then
animating the Florentines, it may be remarked that when a Veronese
who happened to be in Florence ventured to suggest that the city
was aiming rather too high, he was at once thrown into gaol, and,
on being set free when his time was done, was shown the treasury as
an object lesson. Of the wealth and purposefulness of Florence at
that time, in spite of the disastrous bellicose period she had been
passing through, Villani the historian, who wrote history as it was
being made, gives an excellent account, which Macaulay summarizes in
his vivid way. Thus: "The revenue of the Republic amounted to three
hundred thousand florins; a sum which, allowing for the depreciation of
the precious metals, was at least equivalent to six hundred thousand
pounds sterling; a larger sum than England and Ireland, two centuries
ago, yielded to Elizabeth. The manufacture of wool alone employed two
hundred factories and thirty thousand workmen. The cloth annually
produced sold, at an average, for twelve hundred thousand florins;