Excerpt from The Makers of Venice: Doges, Conquerors, Painters, and Men of Letters When the present writer ventured to put upon record some of the impressions which mediaeval Florence has left upon history, in the lives and deeds of great men, the work was comparatively an easy one - for Florence is a city full of shadows of the great figures of the past. The traveler cannot pass along her streets without tread ing in the very traces of Dante, without stepping upon soil made memorable by footprints never to be effaced. We meet them in the crowded ways - the cheerful painters singing at their work, the prophet-monk going to torture and execution, the wild gallants with their Carnival ditties, the crafty and splendid statesman who subjugated the fierce republic. Faces start out from the crowd wherever we turn our eyes. The greatness of the sur roundings, the palaces, churches, frowning mediaeval castles in the midst of the City, are all thrown into the background by the greatness, the individuality, the liv ing power and vigor of the men who are their originators, and, at the same time, their inspiring soul. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.