Items related to Italy; Naples and Rome. Tr. by J. Durand
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ...the wealth and all the art of the city were displayed upon them; every invention and every resource of luxury and of recent discovery, every image and souvenir of the history of ancient poetry contributed to their embellishment. Chargers, caparisoned with the skins of lions and tigers, with housings and stirrups of gold and bridles fringed with silver, advanced in long procession; behind them followed heifers and mules superbly decked, and monstrous fantastic buffaloes disguised as elephants, and horses travestied as winged griffins. Shepherds in sable and ermine skins and crowned with garlands, priests in antique togas bearing candelabra and vases of gold, senators, lictors, and knights in gay armour, displaying their fasces and trophies, and jurisconsults, in long robes on horseback, all surrounded the cars, on which eminent Roman personages appeared amid the insignia of their offices and the monuments of their exploits. Through their proud nudity, valiant attitudes, and grand flowing drapery, these painted and sculptured forms heightened the pagan effect of this pagan procession, and taught energy and joyousness to living companions, who to the clang of trumpets and the acclamations of the crowd displayed themselves on the horses and cars around them. The generous sun, shining overhead, again illuminated a world similar to that of former days in the same place, that is to say, the same deep sentiment of natural poetic joyousness, the same blooming physical health and energy, the same eternal youthful inspiration, and the same triumphant reverential devotion to beauty. And when the spectators, after witnessing this long and rich array of splendid accoutrements, these rustling, flowing draperies, the bright glitter of silver scarfs, the yellow...
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
