DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0142
126 FIESOLE. [chap, xxxviii.
the top of Fesole." Poets, painters, philosophers, his-
torians, and tourists, have all kindled with its inspiration.
And in truth,
" Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty."
Description, then, would here be needless. Yet I may
remark, that with all its yastness and diversity, the scene
has a simple character. All the luxuriant pomp of the
Arno-vale, and the grandeur of the inclosing mountains,
are hut the framework, the setting-off of the picture, which
is Florence, fair Florence—
" The brightest star of star-bright Italy!"
hence beheld in all her brilliancy and beauty.
Within the walls of Fiesole, there are few remains
of antiquity. The principal is the Theatre, discovered
and excavated in 1809 by a Prussian noble, Baron
Schellersheim. It lies in a vineyard below the Cathedral,
to the east. When first disinterred, it was found to have
six gates or entrances in the outer circuit of wall, with
twenty tiers of seats, and five flights of steps; but little of
this is now to be seen, for it was soon re-covered with
earth, that the pulse-consuming canons of the Cathedral
might not be put on short commons of beans or artichokes.
All that is now visible is a portion of the outer circuit ot
wall, of small stone-work—a few of the seats, of massive
blocks, quarried, like those of the city-walls, from the hill
itself—and a flight of steps leading down to five vaults of
opus incertum and stone brick-work, called by the Fiesolani,
Le Buche delle Fate, or " Dens of the Fairies;" but verily
the fairies of Italy must be a gloomy race, whom
juvat ire sub umbra
Desertosque videre locos,
the top of Fesole." Poets, painters, philosophers, his-
torians, and tourists, have all kindled with its inspiration.
And in truth,
" Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty."
Description, then, would here be needless. Yet I may
remark, that with all its yastness and diversity, the scene
has a simple character. All the luxuriant pomp of the
Arno-vale, and the grandeur of the inclosing mountains,
are hut the framework, the setting-off of the picture, which
is Florence, fair Florence—
" The brightest star of star-bright Italy!"
hence beheld in all her brilliancy and beauty.
Within the walls of Fiesole, there are few remains
of antiquity. The principal is the Theatre, discovered
and excavated in 1809 by a Prussian noble, Baron
Schellersheim. It lies in a vineyard below the Cathedral,
to the east. When first disinterred, it was found to have
six gates or entrances in the outer circuit of wall, with
twenty tiers of seats, and five flights of steps; but little of
this is now to be seen, for it was soon re-covered with
earth, that the pulse-consuming canons of the Cathedral
might not be put on short commons of beans or artichokes.
All that is now visible is a portion of the outer circuit ot
wall, of small stone-work—a few of the seats, of massive
blocks, quarried, like those of the city-walls, from the hill
itself—and a flight of steps leading down to five vaults of
opus incertum and stone brick-work, called by the Fiesolani,
Le Buche delle Fate, or " Dens of the Fairies;" but verily
the fairies of Italy must be a gloomy race, whom
juvat ire sub umbra
Desertosque videre locos,