File:In and out of Florence; a new introduction to a well-known city (1910) (14782592805).jpg

Identifier: inoutofflorencen00kell (find matches)
Title: In and out of Florence; a new introduction to a well-known city
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Kellogg, Vernon Lyman, 1867-1937
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Publisher: New York: Holt
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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vor. It seems almost deserted,great trees grow struggling in its court, and ancientvines wander up its rough walls. The tower stillstands in its full height and strength, and parts ofthe old outer walls show how mighty and securea stronghold it was in the days of the Del Manzecca.These Del Manzecca seem to have been a wholly com-petent and picturesque family of medieval highway-men; and from their impregnable castle on the hill-top they harried the country for miles about, evento the very skirts of Florence. It was probablytheir over-boldness in this direction that led theFlorence Signoria, about the middle of the fourteenthcentury, to engage the valorous Hawkwood and hisfamous White Company to come over from Pisaand teach the Del Manzecca a needed lesson. In-deed, that whole line of fortress castles, inhabited byprideful, gentlemanly assassins of the road, begin-ning with Palagio al Poggio and going on withVincigliata and Castel di Poggio, and ending in Feudal Castles and Fiesole 205
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The tower of Castel di Poggio still stands in its full heightand strength. Torre del Gandi, seems to have been captured,sacked, and partially razed by this all-conqueringEnglish mercenary. 2o6 Outside the Walls Mrs, Janet Ross, the present owner and inhabi-tant of the old Palagio al Poggio, now known asPoggio Gherardo, and celebrated as the probablefirst stopping-place of Boccaccios story-telling groupof ladies and gentlemen, tells in her interestingsketch of a stroll in Boccaccios country, a storybf Vincigliata and Caste! di Poggio that is goodreading. Giovanni Usimbardi (owner of Vincigliata), afriend of Dante, Cavalcanti, and other illustriousFlorentines, had a daughter named Selvaggia, withwhom the two sons of Del Manzecca (owner ofCastel di Poggio, a short mile away) fell in love.Simone, the elder, asked her hand in marriage andwas refused, so he stabbed her father, but fortunatelyonly wounded him. The second son, Uberto, metthe maiden at Mass in the church of Santa Mariaa Vincig

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