DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0143
THE CAMPANILE.
- Underneath,
Where the archangel, as alighted there,
Blesses the city from the topmost tower,
His arms extended—there in monstrous league
Two phantom shapes were sitting, side by side,
Or up, and, as in sport, chasing each other,
Horror and Mirth. -
Rogers.
It was mentioned in the former volume of this work
that the Campanile of St. Mark ’was the scene of Gali-
leo’s observations while resident in Venice. It ought to be
added, that when the philosopher, in the year 1 609, ex-
hibited to the Doge and to the senate his discovery of
the telescope, he was munificently rewarded by a decree
confirming him in his professorship for life, and by the
doubling of his annual salary. A curious anecdote re-
specting the prosecution of philosophical studies in the
Campanile is related by the author of the lately pub-
lished and excellent “ Life of Galileo.” Sirturi describes
a ludicrous violence which was done to himself, when,
with the first telescope which he had succeeded in
making, he went up into the tower of St. Mark at
Venice, in the vain hope of being there entirely unmo-
lested. Unluckily he was seen by some idlers in the
street: a crowd soon collected round him, who insisted
on taking possession of his instrument, and, handing it
one to the other, detained him there for several hours,
- Underneath,
Where the archangel, as alighted there,
Blesses the city from the topmost tower,
His arms extended—there in monstrous league
Two phantom shapes were sitting, side by side,
Or up, and, as in sport, chasing each other,
Horror and Mirth. -
Rogers.
It was mentioned in the former volume of this work
that the Campanile of St. Mark ’was the scene of Gali-
leo’s observations while resident in Venice. It ought to be
added, that when the philosopher, in the year 1 609, ex-
hibited to the Doge and to the senate his discovery of
the telescope, he was munificently rewarded by a decree
confirming him in his professorship for life, and by the
doubling of his annual salary. A curious anecdote re-
specting the prosecution of philosophical studies in the
Campanile is related by the author of the lately pub-
lished and excellent “ Life of Galileo.” Sirturi describes
a ludicrous violence which was done to himself, when,
with the first telescope which he had succeeded in
making, he went up into the tower of St. Mark at
Venice, in the vain hope of being there entirely unmo-
lested. Unluckily he was seen by some idlers in the
street: a crowd soon collected round him, who insisted
on taking possession of his instrument, and, handing it
one to the other, detained him there for several hours,