File:Men and manners of old Florence (1909) (14584682040).jpg

Identifier: menmannersofoldf00biag (find matches)
Title: Men and manners of old Florence
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Biagi, Guido, 1855-1925
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago, A. C. McClurg and co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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rned home, thinking it a thousand years tillthey should obtain the keys. And they went to fetchthem, but first they paid the debts, as Giovanni hadordered. And when the debts were paid they weregiven the keys, and they returned home and openedthe chest and found therein the iron bar and thewriting : * This is the will of Giovanni Cavazza ; hewho unto others doth give himself and all^ by this rod ofiron shall he be killed withaV Now this example^ which is distinguished by thatpleasant cheerfulness which enlivens some of Boc-caccios tales, this jest which pleased our moralist somuch that he related it twice in his pages, and notwithout a touch of malice in his enjoyment, gives usan insight into certain hidden aspects of his nature,certain incorrigible defects in his character of astuteand circumspect merchant. Beneath the habit of thedevout moralist we discover the striped hose and thepurse of the merchant; under the outward semblanceof religious unction we recognise the furtive cunning
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THE CHURCH OF SANTA REPARATA AND THE CAMPANILE. (From a miniature of the Biadajoh.) (To face page 77- FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 77 of that native trickery which neither religion norexamples could succeed in restraining. The modernmerchant makes no pretences, because he belongs toa different age and a different race ; he knows nowaverings between good and evil, for the simple reasonthat he looks only to the useful, into which either ofthe other qualities may enter with varying percentage.The fourteenth-century merchant wants to make agood profit, but he always keeps an eye on the safetyof his soul, and his consequent uncertainties are easyto read between the lines of his counsels. Listen tothe practical and crafty advice he offers in matters ofbusiness : When thou hast need that another should renderthee a service, go into his house, that is, into the houseof the man from whom thou art going to ask theservice, because he will not refuse thee in his ownhouse as he would do outside. If

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