Day 2 sharing teaser #HistoryPix for "Inventing the Renaissance" (out in one month!). Often in Florence one sees buildings like this, where one section is rough stone standing out amid stucco neighbors. It's actually a remnant of the old Guelph-Ghibelline feuds that so long rocked Medieval Italy 1/?
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These are actually the bottom nubs of Medieval stone towers. The town of San Gimigniano is famous for having several still intact. Wealthy families built these as mini-fortresses within the city, where they could defend against riots, enemy families (think Montagues and Capulets) and invasion 2/?
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Signs of wealth and prestige, these all-stone buildings were also fireproof, leading to a terrible but effective tactic: take your family, treasures & goods up into your tower then set fire to enemies' homes and let the city burn around you while you sit safe above. This was VERY BAD for cities 3/?
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After many disasters, Florence's solution was to BAN private buildings over a certain height, forcing everyone who had a tower to knock the top off down to regulation height, leaving these recognizable stone nubs all around the city. This round one is the oldest (now a restaurant). 4/?
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My favorite tower stub is this one, in Via dei Cerchi. I lived on the top floor for a year as a grad student, up 111 steps! I had calves of steel by spring, but the views from the top looked like someone had put a poster of Florence on the wall except it was a window! 5/?
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Only city buildings were allowed to exceed the mandated height, which is why Florence's skyline is now all special buildings: monastery bell towers, the cathedral & baptistery, Orsanmichele the city's granary (tall to keep grain away from water & mice), the seat of government, and one special guy 6/?
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The tower on the right here is part of Bargello, the prison & police fortress, but it didn't start that way. It was built by a private family, who sold it to the city when the law banning towers was passed, and the city incorporated it into their prison fort. 7/?
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The city jail had to be a fortress in case someone from a powerful family was arrested and the family sent goons to break them out (those guys who bite their thumbs in the opening scene of Romeo & Juliet would totally have stormed the jail to bust Romeo out!). 8/?
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In this photo you can see how the brick battlements are a later addition, added to the tower as part of its transformation from private fortress to public. 9/?
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What did Florence look like back when it had all its towers? Its long-time ally across the mountains Bologna is famous for still having two intact towers, but in the Middle Ages Bologna was known as the City of 100 Towers because so many families built them. The reconstructions look... 10/?
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...absolutely incredible. Here's what Medieval Bologna would have looked like when all its towers were intact. Florence didn't have so many but did have dozens, so the richest part of the city center would have looked much like this. Much to the despair of the city fire brigade! 11/?
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So, whether in a film or on the street, if you ever see a historic Italian city and walk along a block where for some reason one chunk of wall is stone and all the others smooth, you're probably looking at a relic of the faction feuds that Guido Ruggiero aptly calls "The Italian 300 Years' War" 12/?
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I talk about this long war in "Inventing the Renaissance," one of many points of continuity which show how the supposed difference between a bad "Dark Ages" and Renaissance "golden age" is 100% propaganda, but fascinating propaganda with a deep history https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS
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@adapalmer Going to buy this when it's out as a "killing the Buddha" exercise ... I suspect a lot of what I (think I) know about the Renaissance is just the propaganda you talk about. Including first-hand, from Machiavelli.
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@adapalmer
Ordered!
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@adapalmer ooooh!
Aaand the paperback cover 😍😍
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@urlyman Excellent alt text, thank you! 💚 I believe the red toga man is Plato from the "The School of Athens" fresco by Raffaello. ^_^
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@herzleid many thanks! Updated 😊
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@adapalmer Very much looking forward to this book! Will there be an audiobook, perhaps even read by the author? We so love listening to you geek out on these and other topics on the podcast, though also I know recording an audiobook is work that takes time that might be earmarked for other important things… But ooooh it would be a fun listen!
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@SoMuchTea The audiobook for the UK and Commonwealth release (Canada, Australia etc.) has been recorded (they didn't ask me to record they knew I'd be too swamped, but I think the actress is great!) I'm not sure if the same audiobook will be available in the USA as well, still looking into it.
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@adapalmer That’s amazing! Reminds of those slender towers in NYC.
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@adapalmer Real UO vibes. Not enough footprint for a castle and you need floors to store all your l00t. Tower is the old standby!
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@adapalmer Astonishing!
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@adapalmer my takeaway from this as a frpg dweeb is that the scary arcane wizard towers should be smack dab in the middle of a bustling noisome city
once again blurring the boundary between d&d and shadowrun...
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@apophis @adapalmer Also, imagine the city taxes by land surface. If you are a wizard of the automata, or necromantic, disposition you can have a lot of space while paying very little.
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@Illuminatus @apophis Taxes were usually wealth taxes in this period, based on how much wealth a family owned. So whether one builds tall or wide, one's wealth is on display and taxes go up. But land in the city center cost $$$!! since everyone wants to be within the defensive walls, so it was still much cheaper to build tall than wide!
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@adapalmer @gvwilson
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@adapalmer This is a picture of Finelli's scale model, which could be more or less historically inaccurate. But it can probably sort of give you the idea of the amount of towers.
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@adapalmer Not quite Manhattan. But you'd have a view of goings on from the top of one of those. A few in Amsterdam IIRC
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@adapalmer how many "stories" are those towers? 10?
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@billseitz The buildings around them are three to four stories, so they're more like 12 to 18 stories!
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@adapalmer so taller than 95% of San Francisco!
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@billseitz 12 or more!
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@adapalmer @marick this is fascinating! now i want to know more about a) the conflicts that led to the towers being banned and b) how they had the power to enforce it.
thanks for sharing!
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@adapalmer Rapunzel!!!!
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@adapalmer
Did they have zip wires??
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