The Mysteries of Florence
The Mysteries of Florence is an article written by Enrico Solito published in "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Viaggio in Italia / Italian Journey" edited by Gianluca Salvatori, Enrico Solito & Roberto Vianello, in 2012 (Bobi Bazlen Edizion).
The Mysteries of Florence
By Enrico Solito.
On the front cover of the second photo album from the Sveum Collection, a handwritten label reads: "Place & Picture-Photos of Interest". The album contains seven commercial photographs of Florence, not taken by Conan Doyle, along with many others, from Rome and Venice, England and Scotland, France and Greece. Regarding Florence the pictures illustrate some of the most famous locations and works of art in the capital of Tuscany.
The Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. This has always been host to some of the most famous masterpieces of Italian sculpture, like an outdoor museum at the disposition of the public. There, "Perseus", by Benvenuto Cellini, the "Rape of the Sabine Women" and "Hercules and the Centaur", both by Giambologna, stand out.
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The Palazzo Vecchio. This unique building, dating back to 1299, by Arnolfo di Cambio, has always been the seat of government of the city. Among others who offered their services were Dante Alighieri and Niccolò Machiavelli. At its main entrance, on the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Loggia dei Lanzi, where the original statue of David by Michelangelo once stood, is a copy of that famous sculpture. To one side, the Uffizi Museum opens onto the river Arno. From the Palazzo Vecchio, those with special authorisation, can continue on to the Palazzo Pitti, through a passageway above the Ponte Vecchio.
Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in Florence and the only one spared from the destruction of war in August 1944. The buildings on the bridge are craft shops (mostly dealing in gold) while the upper floor is a corridor called The Vasari Corridor, a fantastic link between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Pitti, designed by Giorgio Vasari. This allowed the Medici family, the rulers of the city, to travel from their palace to the seat of government without going into the street, thus avoiding possible attacks. Today the 'Corridor', which in parts overlooks the River Arno, houses a collection of self portraits by hundreds of famous painters.
The Duomo or Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The present façade was built only in 1887. Until then the original Fourteenth Century façade was completely bare. The Duomo took from 1296 to 1887 to build, and leading artists worked on it, including: Arnolfo di Cambio, Giotto (who designed the bell tower) Francesco Talenti, Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo and Brunelleschi (who built the famous dome).
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Saint John's Baptistery. Dating from the Fifth to Sixth century AD, this baptistery is of Romanesque style and was very tall for the small city which Florence then was. It is home to three unique sets of doors, a number of extraordinary sculptures and some really remarkable paintings.
The "Gates of Paradise". The East doors of the Baptistery, facing the Cathedral, were engraved by Lorenzo Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452. They are absolute masterpieces of the Renaissance period and even Michelangelo defined them as "Worthy of Paradise".
The Basilica of Santa Croce. The building of the Basilica, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, was started in 1294. This Franciscan church was once one of the most important gathering places in the city and a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The façade of this building was also completed in the mid-Nineteenth Century. An interesting detail is that the statue of Dante, which was inaugurated in 1865 in the centre of the square, was moved to a corner of the square in 1968.
All of these works are to be found in a very restricted space, at just a few hundreds of metres from the first railway station built inside the city walls of Florence, the Maria Antonia railway station, inaugurated in 1848. This station was renamed as the Santa Maria Novella railway station when the Grand Duchy of Tuscany fell from power in 1859. The current station with that name was built on the site of the old station in 1932.
The images are photographs taken by professionals (such as the outstanding prints published by the Alinari brothers) and then reproduced in series. These types of tourist photograph were (and are still) sold freely in Florence, but could probably also be purchased in other Italian cities and therefore they do not necessarily prove that a visit to the city involved took place: they may have been purchased somewhere during one of ACD's other trips to Italy. On the other hand it is true that there are pictures and postcards in the album, only of cities actually visited by the Doyles, and the album seems more a collection of interesting places where they stayed, recording memories of the places visited together, rather than a compilation of beautiful pictures to be admired like a book of art history. So did the Doyles really visit Florence, and, if so, when?
Between 2004 and 2007, members of Uno Studio in Holmes tried to reconstruct the movements of the Doyles in Italy. What we deduced from albums and from what we already knew about the trip in 1907 led us to conclude that after visiting Venice, the couple travelled to Rome and then to Naples without stopping in Florence. What led us to this conclusion was not just the lack of evidence at the Consulate and in hotels still in existence today, or the absence of ACD's signature at the Cabinet Viesseux (the famous library frequented by tourists passing through Florence). All these things could be explained by a very short stay. There is also the lack of personal photographs, taken by ACD, of the city in the album. There is no picture of Santa Maria Novella, and yet this beautiful basilica stands opposite the railway station and would have been the first place visited. ACD's subsequently published letters [1] to his mother confirm this hypothesis: on 9th October 1907, ACD wrote to his mother from Venice, saying that they would leave on Friday the 11th, stopping in Rome until the 14th to prepare their passports, visas and documents, and that they would leave on Monday evening for Naples, where they would board a ship and arrive in Constantinople on the 26th, after visiting Athens and Izmir. ACD apparently decided to go to Naples as quickly as possible and he makes no mention of a stopover in Florence.
The idea that the couple had stopped in 1907 is, however, contrary to what is written in ACD's letter, but it rested on the belief of all the railway experts we consulted, in that there was no direct link between Venice and Rome and that travellers had to switch trains, waiting for a long time in Bologna or Florence. A short visit, maybe between one train and another, could explain the purchase of commercial images and the lack of photographs taken by ACD (as happened in Izmir). We carried out research in Venice, Florence and Rome (at the central library of the State Railway) for links between Venice and Florence and we found out that the first connecting service between Venice and Rome was inaugurated in October 1907. The Doyles could have left Venice at 09:55 on the direct train (Number 441), and, without getting off the train, have arrived in Rome at 22:40. If the photos were acquired in 1907, however, this could have happened during the twenty minutes when that train stopped at Florence railway station, between 16:50 and 17:10, with ACD and Jean getting off the train for a few minutes, perhaps to refresh themselves. There was a large newspaper kiosk and bookstall on the station concourse. They were selling similar to those in the Albums, together with the Italian railway timetable "Pozzo" and Baedeker's Italy. On the right you can see what seems to be a second newsagent stall.
The Doyles could, of course, have changed their plans and stopped off in the "City of Flowers", at least for a few hours or overnight. In that way the pictures may easily have been bought on the 1907 trip, but we must recall that the second album contains material most probably bought during other trips. We recall though, for the record, that Jean Leckie had lived for a time in Florence, studying and perfecting her skills as a mezzo soprano [2], and surely she would not have missed the chance to show the city to her husband. Florence, as we have said, was a must for the cultured tourist and perhaps the visit was postponed to later years.
My friend and colleague Philip Weller has brilliantly demonstrated, finding unique material (a thing that with typical British understatement he makes light of and I, with Italian enthusiasm, highlight), that the Doyles' second trip was in 1913, and on the return journey from Egypt they passed through Rome and then on to Switzerland. They were scheduled to arrive in Rome on 14th June, leave again on the 17th and due to arrive in Interlaken on the 19th. The railway to the North from Rome had to pass through Florence, where all trains were obliged to stop (terminus) and it is possible that they stopped in "The City of Flowers" on that occasion, albeit a short visit seeing the times programmed on the postcard from ACD (from the Richard Lancelyn Green Bequest), and yet, as Weller points out, ACD was used to changing his original plans (a habit which is more Italian than British). This hypothesis of a short stop during their trip in 1913 finds important support in Weller's brilliant reconstruction where all the photos of the honeymoon are in the first album and with the second album containing pictures of other trips (1908, 1913 and some others smaller trips). However the albums weren't very orderly and some postcards may have been moved.
Finally, just to be thorough, we remind you that ACD returned to Italy during World War I, to visit the Italian front in the Summer of 1916. He was sent by Lord Newton, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, on a shortterm mission for propaganda purposes, after having first visited the British and French fronts in France. He spent a day between Udine and Monfalcone, the second day in the Carnian Alps watching the horrible mountain warfare and the third (and last) on the front in Trentino. The following day "I was back on the road to Paris" [3]. We can, therefore, entirely exclude the idea that the postcards belong to that period.
There is also the possibility that Jean had bought the pictures of Florence to show them to her husband and talk about her time in Florence, without them ever having gone to Tuscany together. Alternatively, it might be suggested that the Florence pictures date back to previous trips to Italy, when ACD came with his first wife. But, seeing as the other photos in the album are all of places they visited together, we prefer to think that they visited Florence at one time or another together.
If we were to place bets, we would put two days between Rome and Interlaken in 1913 in first place and the 20 minutes available in 1907 in second place, but, as you know betting is more a British than an Italian habit, and we do not want to push our Holmesism.
The change in timetable on 1st October, 1907 probably allowed the Doyles to reach Rome on a direct train and so prevents the author of this article proudly claiming the presence of ACD in his city while on honeymoon. The question remains of when the cards were bought: in 1907, inside the station during the stopover? In Rome or Naples, or even on subsequent trips, perhaps in 1913? The question remains unsolved. At least there is the consolation that the postcards were kept in the album among those worthy of interest.
Notes and Sources
Special thanks to Gianfranco Cataoli, Anna Graziani and Ernesto Petrucci of Italian State Railways for their help in finding the 1907 timetables.
