See Also The Travel
Papers Of Mrs. Piozzi; Walpole's Letters To Sir Horace Mann, And
Doran's Mann And Manners At The Court Of Florence.
(Vide Appendix
A, p. 345)] the buildings, and the cicisbei.
Smollett nearly
always gives substantial value to his notes, however casual, for
he has an historian's eye, and knows the symptoms for which the
inquirer who comes after is likely to make inquisition.
Smollett's observations upon the state of Florence in Letters
XXVII and XXVIII are by no means devoid of value. The direct rule
of the Medici had come to an end in 1737, and Tuscany (which with
the exception of the interlude of 1798-1814 remained in Austrian
hands down to 1860) was in 1764 governed by the Prince de Craon,
viceroy of the Empress Maria Theresa. Florence was, indeed, on
the threshold of the sweeping administrative reforms instituted
by Peter Leopold, the archduke for whom Smollett relates that
they were preparing the Pitti Palace at the time of his stay.
This Prince governed the country as Grand Duke from 1765 to 1790,
when he succeeded his brother as Emperor, and left a name in
history as the ill-fated Leopold. Few more active exponents of
paternal reform are known to history. But the Grand Duke had to
deal with a people such as Smollett describes. Conservative to
the core, subservient to their religious directors, the "stupid
party" in Florence proved themselves clever enough to retard the
process of enlightenment by methods at which even Smollett
himself might have stood amazed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 58 of 535
Words from 15568 to 15824
of 143308
