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Among Friends Extras
Librarian Martha Reilly explored Renaissance libraries in Florence, Italy.
A Trip to Renaissance Florence and Tuscany The moment my feet touched the ancient cobblestone streets of Florence, I was under its spell. I was extremely fortunate to receive the Zekavat Family Summer Sabbatical Grant to study for 15 days in this enchanting city, the birthplace of the Renaissance. My intention was to visit the great Renaissance libraries that were built during this time and to understand what was happening that allowed for the world of books and learning to expand beyond the walls of the medieval monasteries. I arrived in Florence having read several works about the many people who lived there during the 14th , 15th , and 16th centuries, and I was ready to see the places where they had walked and talked, worked and played, lived and died. During my visit I was astounded again and again by the sheer number of “giants among men” who left their mark on Florence and on the rest of the world; from the Medici family to Dante and Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo, as well as dozens of other creative and inspired artists, thinkers, and writers. One of the most important aspects of this trip was having enough time to see as many of the highlights of Renaissance Florence as possible. These included museums, important churches and cathedrals, public buildings and public spaces, private homes and gardens, and libraries. Every day was filled with history, science, and art. The morning I walked the 463 steps up through Brunelleschi’s Dome on the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, I marveled that I was in the same space that he masterfully engineered 550 years before me. At the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze, I saw the actual notebook Galileo used to sketch and take notes while viewing the moon through his telescope. An exhibition of “The History of the Book” at the newly renovated Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, which was designed by Michelangelo, was fascinating. Side trips to Arezzo, Assisi, Cortona, Siena, and Lucca provided a sense of what the rural life outside of Florence may have been and how important the relationship was between the city states of Italy. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have had time to study in Florence, and I am very excited to work with our faculty and students as a resource for this rich, complex, and important time in our cultural history.
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