of the Baptistery does not
give one the idea of a building restored in the thirteenth, but rather
in the fifteenth century.

THE PONTE VECCHIO[36]

BY CHARLES YRIARTE

Until the close of 1080 the Ponte Vecchio was built of wood, the heavy
masses of timber, tho offering no steady resistance to the stream,
dividing the muddy course of the waters into a thousand small currents,
and breaking its force. But in 1177 occurred one of those inundations
which were so frequent that traces of them may still be seen on the
walls of the quays. These inundations were one of the curses of
Florence, and tho the evil has been, to a certain extent, cured by the
construction of massive quays, they still occur in the direction of the
Cascine. An attempt was accordingly made in the twelfth century to
obviate this inconvenience by the construction of a stone bridge. This,
in turn, was carried away in 1333, and Taddeo Gaddi, who had already
made a name for himself by his architectural skill, was employed to
build a bridge capable of resisting the highest floods. The present
bridge was therefore erected in 1345, being 330 feet long by 44 wide.

With the double object of obtaining an income for the city and of
introducing a novel feature, shops were built on the two pathways, which
were 16 feet wide, and these were let to the butchers of Florence, thus
realizing the Eastern plan of concentrating the meat trade of a town in
one place. This arrangement lasted from 1422 until 1593, but in the
latter year, under Cosimo I., the "Capitani di Parte," who had the
supervision of the streets and highways, ordered that all the goldsmiths
and jewelers should take the place of the butchers, and in a few months,
the Ponte Vecchio became the wealthiest and most crowded thoroughfare of
Florence. In order to avoid shutting out a view of the stream and
interfering with the perspective, an open space had been reserved in the
center, and when the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi were connected with
the Pitti Palace by means of the large covered way carried over the
bridge, this space was left intact so as to afford a view of the
eminence of San Miniato upon one side, of the windings of the stream on
the other, and of the Cascine shrubberies and the mountains upon the
horizon.

SANTA CROCE[37]

BY CHARLES YRIARTE

Built by Arnolfo, then fifty-four years of age, by order of the Friars
of St. Francis, this venerable temple was raised upon the p