Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LOGGIA DEI LANZI. In seeking for those specimens of architecture most worthy of attention in Florence, the arcade styled Loggia dei Lanzi, is an object of peculiar interest, from its singular beauty and magnificence. It was usual in the early periods of this republic, and the practice was one in which they followed the ancients, to provide a space close to the government house, or seat of power, where the whole body of the people might meet in one great assembly, to take their share in public affairs, to which they were summoned by the tolling of the great bell of the city. The space originally allotted by the architect of the Palazzo Vecchio for this purpose, was guarded by a noble railing, but offered no shelter from the weather ; to obviate which inconvenience, in the year 1355, the Loggia dei Lanzi was built in one angle of the square. The erection of this edifice naturally excited great interest; and the object accordingly was pursued with that zeal and emulation, which then so peculiarly characterized this people. At the conclusion of many debates, and keen discussions, the design presented by Orcagna, an artist celebrated for his singular attainments in thethree sister arts, architecture, sculpture, and painting, was preferred. The building presents a magnificent colonnade, or open gallery, consisting of only three pillars, and three arches ; but these are large, spacious, and noble. Five steps run along the front on which the platform is raised, with fine effect, giving a certain air of grandeur to the whole. The columns rise out of a short and highly ornamented plinth, on flat clustered pilasters, great and small being bound together, in one vast massive shaft of thirty-five feet in height, terminating in a rich and beautiful capital of the Corinthian order. The ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.