eems to be. Not the least charming thing upon
it is the masses of groundsel which have established themselves on
the pent roof over the goldsmiths' shops. Every visitor to Florence
must have longed to occupy one of these little bridge houses; but I
am not aware that any has done so.

One of the oldest streets in Florence must be the Via Girolami, from
the Ponte Vecchio to the Uffizi, under an arch. A turning to the left
brings one to the Piazza S. Stefano, where the barn-like church of
S. Stefano is entered; and close by is the Torre de' Girolami, where
S. Zenobius lived. S. Stefano, although it is now so easily overlooked,
was of importance in its day, and it was here that Niccolo da Uzzano,
the leader of the nobles, held a meeting to devise means of checking
the growing power of the people early in the fifteenth century and was
thwarted by old Giovanni de' Medici. From that thwarting proceeded
the power of the Medici family and the gloriously endowed Florence
that we travel to see.

CHAPTER XXI

S. Maria Novella

The great churches of Florence--A Dominican cathedral--The "Decameron"
begins--Domenico Ghirlandaio--Alessio Baldovinetti--The Louvre--The
S. Maria Novella frescoes--Giovanni and Lorenzo Tornabuoni--Ruskin
implacable--Cimabue's Madonna--Filippino Lippi--Orcagna's "Last
Judgment"--The Cloisters of Florence--The Spanish Chapel--S. Dominic
triumphant--Giotto at his sweetest--The "Wanderer's" doom--The Piazza,
as an arena.

S. Maria Novella is usually bracketed with S. Croce as the most
interesting Florentine church after the Duomo, but S. Lorenzo has of
course to be reckoned with very seriously. I think that for interest
I should place S. Maria Novella fifth, including also the Baptistery
before it, but architecturally second. Its interior is second in
beauty only to S. Croce. S. Croce is its immediate religious rival,
for it was because the Dominicans had S. Maria Novella, begun in
1278, that several years later the Franciscans determined to have an
equally important church and built S. Croce. The S. Maria Novella
architects were brothers of the order, but Talenti, whom we saw at
work both on Giotto's tower and on San Michele, built the campanile,
and Leon Battista Alberti the marble facade, many years later. The
richest patrons of S. Maria Novella--corresponding to the Medici at
S. Lorenzo and the Bardi at S. Croce--were the Rucellai, whose palace,
designed also by the wonderful versatile Alberti, w