The Project Gutenberg eBook, Legends of Florence, by Charles Godfrey Leland

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Title: Legends of Florence
Collected from the People, First Series

Author: Charles Godfrey Leland

Release Date: June 12, 2010 [eBook #32786]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEGENDS OF FLORENCE***

Transcribed from the 1895 David Nutt edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

Legends of Florence
Collected from the People

_And Re-told_
_by_
_Charles Godfrey Leland_
(_Hans Breitmann_)

* * * * *

First Series

* * * * *

_LONDON_: _DAVID NUTT_
270-71 _STRAND_
1895

_Printed by_ BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
_At the Ballantyne Press_

PREFACE

This book consists almost entirely of legends or traditions of a varied
character, referring to places and buildings in Florence, such as the
Cathedral and Campanile, the Signoria, the Bargello, the different city
gates, ancient towers and bridges, palaces, crosses, and fountains, noted
corners, odd by-ways, and many churches. To all of these there are
tales, or at least anecdotes attached, which will be found as
entertaining to the general reader as they will be interesting, not to
say valuable, to the folklorist and the student of social history; but
here I must leave the work to speak for itself.

I originally intended that this should be entirely a collection of relics
of ancient mythology, with superstitions and sorceries, witchcraft and
incantations, or what may be called occult folk-lore, of which my work on
"Etruscan-Roman Remains in Popular Tradition" consists, and of which I
have enough additional material to make a large volume. But having
resolved to add to it local legends, and give them the preference, I
found th