should construct a column at its own charges, and should furthermore place a statue of its patron saint in a niche of the same. It was, moreover, decreed, that every year, on the festival of each saint, the syndics of the respective guilds should make a collection, standing each by his own column during the whole day, for that purpose, with standard elevated and ensigns displayed. Such offerings as were made to the Virgin herself, however, were still reserved for the relief of the suffering poor.
In the year 1333, a great inundation had destroyed the defences of the Rubaconte bridge, thrown down the castle of Altafronte, greatly injured the old bridge, leaving only two of its piers standing; the same flood totally ruined the bridge of the Trinity, one pier only excepted, and that was miserably shattered. The bridge of Carraja was also much injured, and the flood-gates of Ognissanti broken down.[1] In this state of things, the inhabitants dwelling beyond the Arno were reduced to the necessity of crossing to their homes in boats.
It was, therefore, determined by those wrho then ruled the city, that these evils should be amended; wherefore, they called on Taddeo Gaddi—his master, Giotto, being then at Milan—to prepare a model and design for the bridge, nowcalled the Ponte Vecchio, charging him to construct it with all possible beauty as well as solidity. This, Taddeo at once proceeded to do: he spared no cost and no labour, erecting those mighty piers and those magnificent arches, all of hewn stone, on which now stand the twenty-two shops placed on each side of the bridge. There are forty-four in all. and the commune derives a large revenue from them, their occupants paying 800 florins yearly for rent.[2] The width of the bridge, from one side to the other, is thirtytwo braccia,[3] that of the central road sixteen; the shops are
- ↑ See-Villani, lib. ii, cap. i.
- ↑ These shops still remain. They are occupied almost entirely by the workers in gold and silver; and above them is carried the corridor, built by Vasari, to connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.
- ↑ The braccio varies in length, not only in different parts of Italy, but also according to the thing measured. In Parma, for example, the braccio for measuring silk is twenty-three inches, that for woollen or cotton is twenty-live and a fraction, while that by which the roads are measured is twenty-one only; in Siena, the braccio for cloth is fourteen inches only, while in Milan it is thirty-nine. The Florentine braccio, which is that here alluded to, is twenty three inches, English measure. —E. F.
