OLD FLORENCE

"Florence within her ancient limit-mark,

Which calls her still to matin prayers and noon,

Was chaste and sober, and abode in peace.

She had no amulet, no head-tires then,

No purfled dames; no zone, that caught the eye

More than the person did. Time was not yet,

When at his daughters' births the sire grew pale,

For fear the age and dowry should exceed,

On each side, just proportion. House was none,

Void of its family; nor yet had come

Sardanapalus to exhibit feats

Of chamber prowess. Montemalo yet

O'er our suburban turret rose; as much

To be surpast in fall, as in its rising.

I saw Bellincion Berti walk abroad

In leathern girdle, and a clasp of bone;

And, with no artificial colouring on her cheeks,

His lady leave the glass. The sons I saw

Of Nerli, and of Vecchio, well content

With unrobed jerkin; and their good dames handling

The spindle and the flax. Oh, happy they!"

Thus writes Dante, in Paradise, about the sobriety and simplicity of dress and manners in Florence in his day; and nearly a century later G. Villani tells us:

"The citizens of Florence lived soberly, on coarse viands and at small cost; they were rude and unpolished in many customs and courtesies of life, and dressed themselves and their women in coarse cloth; many wore plain leather, without cloth over it; bonnets on their heads; and all, boots on their feet. The Florentine women were without ornament; the better sort being content with a close gown of scarlet cloth of Ypres or of camlet, tied with a girdle in the ancient mode, and a mantle lined with fur, with a hood attached to be worn on the head. The common sort of women were clad in a coarse gown of cambrai in like fashion."

Things changed soon after this, as in 1415 the sage old Florentines were obliged to draw up a series of sumptuary laws, directed against the luxury and splendour of women's dress and of marriage festivals. They declared that such magnificence was opposed to all republican laws and usages, and only served to enervate and corrupt the people. If a citizen of Florence wished to give an entertainment in honour of a guest, he had to obtain a permit from the Priors of Liberty, for which he paid ten golden florins, and also to swear that such splendour was only exhibited for the honour and glory of the city. Whoever transgressed this law was fined twenty-five golden florins. It was considered shameful to have much plate; nearly all household implements were of brass, now and then beautified by having the arms of the family in enamel upon them. These sumptuary laws were not confined to Florence. The town of Pistoja enacted similar ones in 1322; Perugia in 1333. Phillipe le Bel promulgated sumptuary laws in France in 1310; Charles IX. in 1575; and Louis XIII. in 1614; with no greater success than the worthy old republicans.

Pandolfini, in his curious book, Del Governo della Famiglia, inveighs against the Florentine custom of painting the face. In his counsels to his young wife, Giovanna degli Strozzi, he says:

"Avoid all those false appearances by which dishonest and bad women try to allure men, thinking with ointments, white lead and paint, with lascivious and immoral dress, to please men better than when adorned with simplicity and true honesty. Not only is this reprehensible, but it is most unwholesome to corrupt the face with lime, poisons, and so-called washes. See, oh, my wife, how fresh and well-looking are all the women of this house! This is because they use only water from the well as an ointment; do thou likewise, and do not plaster and whiten thy face, thinking to appear more beautiful in my eyes. Thou art fresh and of a fine colour; think not to please me by cheatery and showing thyself to me as thou art not, because I am not to be deceived; I see thee at all hours, and well I know how thou art without paint."

The Florentine ladies appear to have held their own against all these attempts to convert them to a simpler mode of life. Sachetti gives an amusing instance of their ready wit while he was Prior of the Republic. A new judge, Amerigo degli Amerighi, came from Pesaro, and was specially ordered to see that the sumptuary laws were obeyed. He fell into disgrace for doing too little, and his defence is as follows:

"My masters, I have worked all my life at the study of law, and now that I thought I knew something I find I know nothing; for trying to discover the forbidden ornaments worn by your women, according to the orders you gave me, I have not found in any law-book arguments such as they give. I will cite you some. I met a woman with a border, all curiously ornamented and slashed, turned over her hood; the notary said to her, 'Give me your name, for you have an embroidered border.' The good woman takes off the border, which was attached to her hood with a pin, and holding it in her hand, replies that it is a garland. Others wear many buttons down the front of their dresses; I say to one, 'You may not wear those buttons,' and she answers, 'Yes, sir, I can, for these are not buttons, but coppelle, and if you do not believe me, see, they have no haft, and there are no buttonholes.' The notary goes up to a third, who was wearing ermine, and says, 'How can you excuse yourself, you are wearing ermine?' and begins to write the accusation. The woman replies, 'No, do not write, for this is not ermine, but lattizzo' (fur of any young sucking animal). The notary asked, 'And what is this lattizzo?' And the woman's answer was, 'The man is a fool!' "

The widows seem to have given less trouble; but they always took care that their dresses should be well cut and fit perfectly.

Philosophers, of course, wrote treatises on political economy, and poets satirised the different fashions of their times. Thus, in Lodovico Adimari, we read:

"The high-born dame now plasters all her checks

With paint by shovelfuls, and in curled rings

Or tortuous tresses twines her hair, and seeks

To shave with splintered glass the down that springs

On her smooth face and soft skin, till they seem

The fairest, tenderest of all tender things:

Rouge and vermilion make her red lips beam

Like rubies burning on the brow divine

Of heaven-descended Iris: jewels gleam

About her breasts, embroidered on the shrine

Of satins, silks, and velvets: like the snails,

A house in one dress on her back she trails."

Cennino Cennini, a painter, and pupil of Agnolo Gaddi, the godson of Giotto, says, in his Treatise on Painting:

"It might be for the service of young ladies, more especially those of Tuscany, to mention some colours which they think highly of, and use for beautifying themselves; and also certain washes. But as those of Padua do not use such things, and I do not wish to make myself obnoxious to them, or to incur the displeasure of God and of Our Lady, I shall say no more on this subject. But," he continues, "if thou desirest to preserve thy complexion for a long time, I advise thee to wash thyself with water from fountains, rivers, or wells. I warn thee that if thou usest cosmetics thy face will become hideous and thy teeth black; thou wilt be old before thy time, and the ugliest object possible. This is quite enough to say on this subject."

Cennini seems, notwithstanding, to have been employed to paint people's faces, if we may judge from the following passage in the same work:

"Sometimes you may be obliged to paint or dye flesh, faces of men and women in particular. You can mix your colours with yolk of egg; or should you wish to make them more brilliant, with oil, or liquid varnish, the strongest of all temperas. Do you want to remove the colours or tempera from the face? Take yolk of egg and rub it, a little at a time, with your hand on the face. Then take clean water, in which bran has been boiled, and wash the face; then more of the yolk of egg, and again rub the face with it; and again wash with warm water. Repeat this many times until the face returns to its original colour."

The sumptuary laws cited by the Osservatore Fiorentino are as follow:

"1st. It is forbidden for any unmarried woman to wear pearls or precious stones, and married dames may only wear ornaments to the value of forty golden florins at any one time.

"2nd. In the week preceding a wedding, neither bride nor bridegroom may ask to dinner or supper more than four persons not appertaining to the house.

"3rd. The brides who desire to go to church on horseback may do so, but are not to be accompanied by more than six women attendants.

"4th. On the marriage day, only sixteen women may dine in the bridegroom's house, six of the bride's family and ten of the bridegroom's, besides his mother, his sisters, and his aunts.

"5th. There may only be ten men of the family, and eight friends; boys under fourteen do not count.

"6th. During the repast, only three musicians and singers are allowed.

"7th. The dinner or supper may not consist of more than three solid dishes, but confectionery and fruit ad libitum.

"8th. The bride and...