the ceilings which glow with the colours of Guido and the Carracci, can
never be neglected by any to whom learning and taste are dear.

"The external appearance of Bologna is singular and striking. The
principal streets display lofty arcades, and the churches, which are
very numerous, confer upon the city a highly architectural character.
But the most remarkable edifices in Bologna are the watch-towers,
represented in the engraving. During the twelfth century, when the
cities of Italy, 'tutte piene di tirranni,' were rivals in arms as
afterwards in arts, watch-towers of considerable elevation were
frequently erected. In Venice, in Pisa, in Cremona, in Modena, and in
Florence these singular structures yet remain; but none are more
remarkable than the towers of the Asinelli and Garisenda in Bologna. The
former, according to one chronicler, was built in 1109, while other
authorities assign it to the year 1119. The Garisenda tower, constructed
a few years later, has been immortalized in the verse of Dante.

"When the poet and his guide are snatched up by the huge Antaeus, the
bard compares the stooping stature of the giant to the tower of the
Garisenda, which, as the spectator stands at its base while the clouds
are sailing from the quarter to which it inclines, appears to be falling
upon his head,


"'As appears
The tower of Cariaenda from beneath
Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud
So sail across that opposite it hangs;
Such then Antaeus seem'd, as at mine ease
I mark'd him stooping.'