trated
his discovery of the telescope; but Florence is proud of him and it
was here that he died, under circumstances tragic for an astronomer,
for he had become totally blind.

The frescoes in the Tribuna celebrate other Italian scientific
triumphs, and in the cases are historic telescopes, astrolabes,
binoculars, and other mysteries.

The Via Maggio, which runs from Casa Guidi to the Ponte Trinita, and
at noon is always full of school-girls, brings us by way of the Via
Michelozzo to S. Spirito, but by continuing in it we pass a house of
great interest, now No. 26, where once lived the famous Bianca Capella,
that beautiful and magnetic Venetian whom some hold to have been so
vile and others so much the victim of fate. Bianca Capella was born in
1543, when Francis I, Cosimo I's eldest son, afterwards to play such a
part in her life, was two years of age. While he was being brought up
in Florence, Bianca was gaining loveliness in her father's palace. When
she was seventeen she fell in love with a young Florentine engaged
in a bank in Venice, and they were secretly married. Her family
were outraged by the mesalliance and the young couple had to flee
to Florence, where they lived in poverty and hiding, a prize of 2000
ducats being offered by the Capella family to anyone who would kill
the husband; while, by way of showing how much in earnest they were,
they had his uncle thrown into prison, where he died.

One day the unhappy Bianca was sitting at her window when the young
prince Francis was passing: he looked up, saw her, and was enslaved on
the spot. (The portraits of Bianca do not, I must admit, lay emphasis
on this story. Titian's I have not seen; but there is one by Bronzino
in our National Gallery--No. 650--and many in Florence.) There was,
however, something in Bianca's face to which Francis fell a victim, and
he brought about a speedy meeting. At first Bianca repulsed him; but
when she found that her husband was unworthy of her, she returned the
Prince's affection. (I am telling her story from the pro-Bianca point
of view: there are plenty of narrators on the other side.) Meanwhile,
Francis's official life going on, he married that archduchess Joanna
of Austria for whom the Austrian frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio were
painted; but his heart remained Bianca's and he was more at her house
than in his own. At last, Bianca's husband being killed in some fray,
she was free from the persecution of her family and read