44
EXTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.
decree, “do hereby opine and resolve that the Republic will
undertake nothing, unless with a determination that the performance -
shall be commensurate with the grandeur of the idea
which has emanated from the whole community.
Arnolfo is said to have begun by sinking wells round the
foundations of the Cathedral for the escape of mephitic gases,
which proceeded from the volcanic region below, and which he
thought would endanger the stability of the edifice. He included -
in his plan not only the space occupied by Santa
Reparata, but that of several smaller churches, one of which,
San Michele, was afterwards rebuilt beyond the first circuit of
walls by the Visdomini.1 Two noble families, the Falconieri
and the Bischieri, whose houses were threatened with destruction, -
raised objections to Arnolfo’s scheme, and he was accordingly -
obliged to make several alterations, and to reduce the
length of the nave to five instead of six arches ; but he left a
record of his original intention by still maintaining his six
windows, two of which are fictitious, with less space between
them than the other four, as he was obliged to reduce the
number within the building.
The foundation stone of the new edifice was laid on the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, September 8, 1296, by the
hands of Cardinal Pietro Valeriani, the first Papal Legate ever
sent to Florence. A decree had been issued two years previously, -
that every person making a will should bequeath
twenty soldi—equal to tenpence of our money—towards the
building, and the Legate granted indulgences to all who should
contribute to this pious work. Arnolfo died in 1310, the year
in which Dante was chosen one of the Priors of the Arts of
whom the Signory or Government was composed. The lofty
pretensions of the Florentine municipality, and the history of
the foundation of their Cathedral, are commemorated in two
Latin inscriptions, one of which is outside the building, facing
San Michele Visdomini, Via de’ Servi. See Topography, p. 12.
