260
as large as life, it would really have been too horrible
for exhibition — You breathe more freely as you
step out into the open air again; and when the
bright sunshine and the crowded busy streets next
meet your eye, you are ready to ask : Is this indeed
a representation of a reality? Can this pure air have
been laden with pestilence ? Can this gay city have
ever been a city of the plague? (1) Descend now to
the first floor and enter the :
Tribune of Galileo, on the right of the first ve-
stibule. Its architecture is by Cav. Martelli, and was
inaugurated upon the meeting of the Italian Associa-
tion for the advancement of Science at Florence in
1841. In the centre is a statue of the Tuscan Philoso-
pher by Costoli, surrounded by niches, in which are
placed ists of his principal pupils, and with presses,
containing the instruments with which he made his
discoveries, including the telescope with which he dis-
covered the satellites of Jupiter; also those employed
in the experiments of the celebrated Accademia del
Cimento. Notice in the niche, to the right, a glass cover,
where is preserved one of the fingers of Galileo, sa-
crilegiously abstracted by Gori, when his remains were
removed from their resting place to the tomb, erected
by Viviani’s heirs, in the church of S. Croce (see p.
145). The walls are beautifully inlaid with marble
and jasper, the ceiling is richly painted in compart-
(1) These cases, containing the famous and terrible works by
Zummo, have been brought recently to the National Museum,
(see pag. 161) and the remainder will be removed, because the
Government intends to have all transferred to the Liceo di
Studii Superiori in Piazza S. Marco, on the corner of Via della
Sapienza ; (see pag. 109.)