The City of Florence: Historical Vistas and Personal Sightings

by R.W.B. Lewis

A New York Times Notable Book

In this deeply personal and learned labor of love, R.W.B. Lewis provides a new look at the glories of Florence, the smallish Tuscan city which has been a prime source for modern Western culture and which has also been his second home for fifty years. With a scholar's eye and a lover's passion, he invites us to share his vision of a city and the way of life it has engendered and inspired.

Genres: Italy, History, Travel, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis was an American literary scholar and critic who won a Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1976.

Reviews

[Jon Aingeru · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for getting a general overview on the history, art and culture of Florence. Gets too phylosophical at times, but it's a great read.

[Eszter · Rating 2 out of 5]

my quest to read countless dull books about florence in an attempt to feel like i am back there continues unabated with this book. to be fair, it doesn't ramble as much as the stones of florence and treats its readers to many interesting bits of trivia. eventually, i suppose i must face the fact that most nonfiction historical overviews of one city written by american expat academics will probably be very similar.

[Andrea Nadolny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thrifted this book two years ago in North Carolina and have finally gotten around to it. This book is dense, but also rich, in information. Slept with this book in my bed for the last three months as my late-night, wind-down read. Overall, I gained some insights into the Florentine lifestyle, history, and culture. 3 stars 🌟🌟🌟

Some quotes I highlighted:

"Except for Ponte Vecchio, all the bridges of Florence had been dynamited and reduced to rubble... Ponte Vecchio appears to have been spared by a direct order of Adolph Hitler." (pg 51)

"If we had a city as beautiful as yours, we would defend it to the last man." (pg 82)

"The David is an unparalleled work of art that overwhelms the moment one enters the gallery and sees it looming up at the far end. But it is now no more than an item, however big, in a museum. It no longer participates in the life and the history of the city, no longer embodies the city's battle for political freedom." (pg 118)

"[Cosimo] was also seeking to protect the Jewish population from attacks by citizens inflamed by that policy, or so it had been argued; and later generations even felt that the ghetto life had been 'a powerful preservative of communal solidarity and of traditional culture.'" (pg 174)

"Feel him such a handsome questioning cosmopolitan ghost." (pg 231)

"William Dean Howells took lodgings for the family in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, and soon was wondering 'why I should have thought of writing of the whole city, when one piazza in it was interesting enough to make a book about.'" (pg 251)

"menefregismo–fuckyouism, in American–is the earthy Italian word for it." (pg 254)

"But even the most chastened American can feel a spurt of good national feeling when he is made to undergo the miseries of the Italian postal system." (pg 254)

"Old things and places, he thought, tended to 'give over their secrets most freely in such a moist gray melancholy days.'" (pg 270)

"'Italy has never succeeded in finding a paternal image... It has always been a confederation of uncles, with an indulgent mother, the Church.'" (pg 317)

[Everett Egginton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Lewis’s The City of Florence in preparation for a forthcoming week-long arts focused tour of that world-renowned City. Having read the book, I do now feel better prepared to benefit from and enjoy what we’re (my wife and I) about to experience. The book is foremost a chronicle of the times that the author, along with his family and multitudinous invited friends, spent in Florence. And since the book “chronicled” the times preceding its publication (1995), in some ways it’s outdated. In others, it’s not outdated and thus very timely. It served its purpose!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too academic and pedantic, it feels as though the author wrote this for himself and himself alone (which I kind of appreciate).

Lewis feels like a man from a time gone by, and as we journey with him through the history of Florence, we enter a world that feels inhabited by bilingual tweed-clad professors content to explore the minutiae of a single building for years.

However, it scratched my itch for being immersed in Florentine history. The next best thing to being there.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a 3.5. Packed with an amazing amount of great information described in great detail. I would rate it even higher if Lewis didn't go off on long tangents of personal stories a bit off topic. Even though he fairly warns the reader it is part memoir, it makes it a little less smoothly readable. But, it did help me get ready for the glory that is Florence, and I have recommended to others with this caveat.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewis weaves personal memories of all the places he's lived in Florence with often-entertaining narratives about the people--some he's known personally, many from centuries past--who are just somehow related to those places.

[JodiP · Rating 5 out of 5]

In addition to The Stones of Florence, a great way to prepare for my trip. I'd never heard of Lewis before, and am so glad to have encountered him. I would have loved going to dinner with them. What a life he an dhis family lived while in Florence on and off again through the decades.

[Ken Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written discourse on many aspects of Florence. History, politics, architecture, art, urban planning: it's all described in an easily read narrative. Great preparation for a coming visit to Firenze. Personal anecdotes enliven.

[Marie Sharahova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much about politics and American soldiers =/ a few about art and Fiorentini.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful before traveling to Florence, but was hoping for something I could carry around and reread while in the city. Good history, easy read.

[Diana madden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging summary of the history and civic evolution of a city most visitors know selectively and superficially (myself included). Valuable for the bibliography alone, Professor Lewis share his deep insights into the literary figures who lived and worked in Florence. The second half of the book is a series of sketches of several neighborhoods where he and his family lived for long stretches from the 1960’s to the 1990’s which are lovely and share very particular and telling details from their day to day lives. Would recommend to readers interested in learning more about Florence, especially if anecdotes from the lives of the Brownings and Henry James, combined with broad stokes of the great families who built and influenced the city pique your fascination. This isn’t really a guidebook, but I have a great determination to explore some of the piazzi I have either missed entirely or crossed too quickly on route to a renowned fresco since visiting them with P. Lewis.
Side note, Lewis is a product of his era and this book is decidedly out of step with some contemporary attitudes (he never checks his privilege), but he’s telling his own love letter to a city, and region, he knows well and wants others to appreciate.

[Linda Roistacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book years ago before I took a trip to Florence with my daughter and my sister. A great way to get to know a place besides reading a traditional travel guide. The author recounts his own visits to Florence and his historical research and personal reactions and reflections.

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the many books I have read on Florence by visitors and sometime residents, this is easily the best. If you plan to be in Florence for any period of time beyond a few days read this book.

[Robert Mooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great, interesting, but sometimes rather dry, history of Florence.

[G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half of this was a good, if overly academic history of Florence. The second half is personal reminices mixed into a personal history. Liked the first half, couldn't finish the second half

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books-

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too complicated for me.