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THE 2007 CELEBRATION OF THE WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR FAMILY



BEING 'THE CITY AND THE BOOK' INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, IV


In October 2007 we celebrated the family of Walter Savage Landor with a reading and concert in the English Cemetery, and with two lectures held at the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute, Florence, as well as with publication of materials on the Walter Savage Landor Website on Florin:

Florin Readings of Walter Savage Landor's Poetry:
http://www.florin.ms/gebir.mp3
 http://www.florin.ms/gebir2.mp3

Florin Essays Related to Walter Savage Landor:
Hengist Horne with the assistance of E.B. Barrett. Walter Savage Landor. From A New Spirit of the Age.
 Jean Field. 'Walter Savage Landor and Warwick'
 'Black and Red Letter Chaucer'
 'Walter Savage Landor and Rosa Madiai'
 'An Old Yellow Book: The Death and Burial of Elizabeth Barrett Browning'
 Kate Field. 'The Last Days of Walter Savage Landor', Atlantic Monthly
 Mark Roberts. The British Institute of Florence. 'L'iscrizione sulla tomba di Walter Savage Landor/ The inscription on Walter Savage Landor's Tomb'. In Italian and English
 Walter Savage Landor's Tomb through Time
 Allison Levy, Wheaton College. 'La vedova di Walter Savage Landor: Libri, corpi e l'incisione di memoria in Firenze/ Walter Savage Landor's Widow: Books, Bodies and Imprinting Memory in Florence'. In Italian and English
Walter Savage Landor befriended the young Augustus Hare who would later build Holmhurst St Mary out of the proceeds of his travel books with William Morris wallpaper and an Italian stone terrace. Hare also loved Italy and this website gives his guide book to Florence with his engravings for it, also obtainable in the CD 'Florence in Sepia'.
 Kristin Bragadottir, The National Library, Reykjavik. 'Notti bianche d'Islanda a Firenze: William Morris e Daniel Willard Fiske/ Northern Lights in Florence: William Morris and Daniel William Fiske'. (Daniel Willard Fiske acquired Landor's Villa Gherardesca in San Domenico, Fiesole, and carefully photographed it as it was, while amassing the largest collection of Icelandic materials outside of Iceland. In Italian and English.)
Piero Fusi. 'A. Henry Savage Landor'. In English
 Piero Fusi. 'A. Henry Savage Landor'. In Italian

THE SAVAGE LANDORS AND FLORENCE'S 'ENGLISH' CEMETERY

Cimitero 'degli Inglesi', 13 Ottobre 2007: The Savage Landor Family and the Swiss-owned, so-called 'English' Cemetery



Musica: Canone di Pachelbel: Flauto, Clarissa Bencini; Flauto e ottavino, Laura Manescalchi

Lettori: Julia Bolton Holloway, Presidente, Aureo Anello Associazione Biblioteca e Bottega Fioretta Mazzei; Maria Grazia Beverini Dal Santo, Presidente, Lyceum Club e Fondazione il Fiore

I. Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor loved gardens. Both Walter Savage Landor and Elizabeth Barrett Browning loved poetry and loved gardens. Seven years ago here all was dead, grey, ugly, from weed-killer. The more I read and the more I listened I learned that this so-called 'English' Cemetery had been a famous and most lovely garden. In Ireland once I saw a poetry garden. This hill can again become such a garden for poets and for ourselves. Now, thanks to Katherine Goldsmith of The Ecologist and to Dott. Vieri Torrigiani Malaspina of the Giardino Torrigiani, the wild strawberries have returned, the box hedge is restored and three pomegranates grace our three famous poets' graves. In a sense gardens and poems are human constructs married to nature, not violating her but seeking instead to heal and woo her into loveliness, into gracefulness, into fruitfulness.

Walter Savage Landor amava i giardini. Walter Savage Landor ed Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ambedue poeti, amavano la poesia e i giardini. Sette anni fa questo luogo appariva spoglio, brullo, brutto per il continuo utilizzo di sostanze diserbanti. Da numerosi diari e documenti apprendiamo che questo Cimitero detto 'degli Inglesi' era un famoso e bellissimo giardino. In Irlanda ho potuto ammirare un giardino della poesia, e questa collinetta potrebbe trasformarsi per tutti noi in uno splendido parco dei poeti. Ora, grazie alla generosità di Katherine Goldsmith, moglie del fondatore ed editore di The Ecologist, e grazie al Dott. Vieri Torrigiani Malaspina del Giardino Torrigiani, sono state create delle siepi di bosso e sono stati piantati tre piccoli melograni che adornano i sepolcri dei nostri illustri poeti, cominciano anche a spuntare le piantine di fragoline di bosco così come un tempo. In un certo senso i giardini e la poesia sono creazione dell'uomo intimamente legati alla natura, non la violano ma nel cercare di sanarla e corteggiarla ne esaltano bellezza, fecondità  e grazia.

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) is the poets' poet, beloved by the Shelleys and the Brownings. He was impetuous, generous and difficult, a Romantic writer who had outlived that famous poetic generation of Keats, Shelley and Byron. He was born in Warwick, educated at Rugby and Trinity, and published Gebir at twenty-three, then again in 1803 in both English and in Latin. The idea for the Arabian tale of Gebir, set in Egypt, came from a book Rose Aylmer, the daughter of Lord Aylmer, had lent him. Gebir was Shelley's favourite poem. It was also admired by Southey. In 1799 the young and beloved Rose Aylmer sailed for Bengal with her aunt, Lady Russell, dying there of cholera.

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), il poeta dei poeti, fu molto amato dai Shelley e dai Browning. Di temperamento impetuoso, uno spirito ribelle ma al contempo generoso, poeta romantico che sopravvive all'illustre generazione di Keats, Shelley e Byron. Nasce a Warwick e compie gli studi alla Rugby School e al Trinity College. Pubblica ventitreenne il poema epico Gebir, che ripubblica poi nuovamente nel 1803 in inglese e in latino. L'idea per il racconto arabo di Gebir gli derivò da un libro avuto in prestito da Rose Aylmer, figlia di Lord Aylmer. Gebir fu il poema più amato da Shelley e anche grandemente apprezzato da Robert Southey. Nel 1799 la giovane e amata Rose Aylmer compie un viaggio con la zia Lady Russell in Bengala e muore lì di colera.

Fighting at his own expense in Spain against Napoleon provided Savage Landor material for Count Julian. In 1811 he met Julia Thuillier, the daughter of a bankrupt Swiss banker, at a dance in Bath and immediately married her. They came to Florence in 1821, following a time in Wales. Here he acquired the Villa Gherardesca in San Domenico, now the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and began the Imaginary Conversations. In his poetry he is feminist, especially his Pericles and Aspasia. But in 1835 he separated from his wife and children, though writing poems to his daughter Julia and his son Arnold. There is a lovely portrait by Trajan Wallis of Julia and her daughter and son. Trajan Wallis also erected the tomb for his father, likewise a painter, here. Walter Savage Landor returned to Florence in 1858 only to be rejected by his family, the Brownings befriending him in his last years from their love for his poetry. The young American Kate Field adored him. Algernon Charles Swinburne visited him admiringly, then wrote the epitaph quoted on his humble grave. It is his widow Julia Savage Landor's statue by the Sicilian Michele Auteri Pomar that we saw on the tomb of their eldest son, Arnold Savage Landor, though she is buried in the Allori Cemetery. Present with us today are the widow of Dr John Landor, Professor Mary Landor, and the descendants of Julia's Julia's Julia, the Conti Negroni Bentivoglio of Modena and Vercelli.

Now at the statue's base
 

lie the remains of the great poet's son Walter Savage Landor II, the grandson, A. Henry Savage Landor, and Dr John Landor, likewise a descendant, the poet's family reconciled within this 'English' Cemetery's beautiful oval.



Per il dramma in versi Count Julian (Conte Julian) trae ispirazione dalla sua esperienza in Spagna dove combattè con le sue proprie risorse contro Napoleone. Nel 1811 conosce ad un ballo Julia Thuillier, figlia di un banchiere svizzero finito in bancarotta e subito la sposa. Essi giungono a Firenze nel 1821, dopo un periodo trascorso in Galles. A San Domenico di Fiesole acquista la Villa Gherardesca, ora Scuola di Musica di Fiesole ed inizia a scrivere Imaginary Conversations (Conversazioni immaginarie). Nella sua poesia si rivela un poeta femminista, in particolare cogliamo questo nel suo Pericles and Aspasia (Pericle e Aspasia). Separatosi dalla moglie e dai figli nel 1835 continua, tuttavia, a scrivere poesie che dedica ed invia alla figlia Julia e al figlio Arnold. Un bellissimo dipinto ad olio, opera di Trajan Wallis, ritrae Julia Savage Landor con la figlia Julia ed il figlio Arnold. Il padre di Trajan Wallis, anch'egli pittore, ha trovato sepoltura in questo cimitero. Walter Savage Landor fa ritorno a Firenze nel 1858 soffrendo il rifiuto da parte della sua famiglia. I Browning che amarono profondamente la sua poesia e a lui furono legati da profonda amicizia lo soccorrono negli ultimi difficili anni della sua vita. Algernon Charles Swinburne pieno di ammirazione giunge a Firenze in visita e per lui scrive il bellissimo epitaffio che oggi possiamo leggere sull'umile tomba. Sulla tomba di Arnold Savage Landor, figlio primogenito del poeta, anch'egli qui sepolto, possiamo ammirare la statua della madre Julia Savage Landor, opera dello scultore palermitano Michele Auteri Pomar. Julia Savage Landor riposa al Cimitero 'agli Allori'. Siamo grati ai numerosi discendenti di Walter Savage Landor e a Julia Savage Landor oggi qui presenti a questa cerimonia. Ai piedi di questo monumento riposano ora il secondogenito di Walter Savage Landor, che porta il suo stesso nome, il nipote A. Henry Savage Landor e il Dottor John Landor. La famiglia del poeta è qui riconciliata nell'ovale del bellissimo Cimitero 'degli Inglesi'.

Musica: Adagio dalla VI Sonata del Pastor Fido di Vivaldi

This passage in Gebir where the sea-nymph offers a reward was admired by all, especially the poet Shelley.

But I have sinuous shells, of pearly hue
Within, and they that lustre have imbibed
In the sun's palace porch, where when unyoked
His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave;
Shake one and it awakens, then apply
Its polisht lips to your attentive ear,
And it remembers its august abodes,
And murmurs as the ocean there.

Il passo in Gebir dove la nereide offre in dono delle conchiglie al pastore Tamar è un passo da tutti ammirato, in particolare da Shelley.

Ho conchiglie a spirale, dal cuore
di perla, imbevute del bagliore di luce
Nel portico del palazzo del sole, dove staccata dal giogo
La ruota del suo cocchio
Riposa a metà nell'onda;
Scuoti una conchiglia e si desta, avvicina
I lucenti suoi bordi al sollecito tuo orecchio,
Ricorda essa le auguste sue dimore,
E come l'oceano mormora.

Walter Savage Landor strongly defended the Florentine couple who became Protestant, Francesco and Rosa Madiai, writing his last Imaginary Conversation about their imprisonment. Their crime, reading the Bible in Italian. Rosa Madiai is buried beside the tomb of Arnold Savage Landor.

Walter Savage Landor difese con forza Francesco e Rosa Madiai convertitisi al protestantesimo e scrive di loro e della loro condanna al carcere nella sua ultima Imaginary Conversation. Il loro crimine fu quello di aver letto la Bibbia in italiano. Rosa Madiai riposa accanto ad Arnold Savage Landor.

Walter Savage Landor's quatrains are exquisite.

In 1909 the lines of his poem on Rose Aylmer were placed on her tomb in Calcutta.

Ah what avails the sceptred race,
Ah what the form divine!
What every virtue, every grace!
Rose Aylmer, all were thine.
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
May weep, but never see,
A night of memories and of sighs
I consecrate to thee.

Le quartine di Walter Savage Landor sono mirabili.

Nel 1909 i versi che il poeta compose nel 1799 per la sua musa Rose Aylmer sono stati posti come epitaffio sulla tomba di lei a Calcutta.

Ah, a cosa serve la razza imperiale,
La divina forma!
Ogni virtù e grazia!
Tutto ciò era in te, Rose Aylmer.
Questi occhi che ti vegliano, Rose Aylmer,
Possono piangerti ma non vederti.
Una notte consacro a te
Di memorie e sospiri.

And this one my favourite:

Death stands above me, whispering low
I know not what into my ear:
Of his strange language all I know
Is there is not a word of fear.

E questa quartina è la mia favorita.

Aleggia su di me la morte, bisbiglia lieve
Non so cosa al mio orecchio:
Della sua lingua straniera tutto ciò che so
E' che non c'è una parola di paura.

Musica: Sarabanda di J. S. Bach



II. The Writers: Their Books, Their Tombs

We celebrate today 180 years of the existence of this cemetery and its first burial, of the fifteen year old son of the Swiss Pastor, Jean David Marc Gonin. Signor Gerardo Kraft, President of the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church, will carry to his tomb his portrait, sent to us by the family's descendants in Paris. Piero Bazzanti has made him as if eighteen on his tomb, the portrait by Solomon Counis, also buried here, makes him as if twenty-two.

II. Gli scrittori: i loro libri, i loro sepolcri

Oggi ricordiamo e celebriamo anche il 180° anniversario della fondazione del Cimitero Porta à Pinti detto 'degli Inglesi'. Jean David Marc Gonin, primogenito quindicenne del Pastore svizzero Jean Pierre Gonin, fu il primo a trovare sepoltura in questo cimitero. La sua tomba fu eseguita nella bottega di Piero Bazzanti. Il Signor Gerardo Kraft, Presidente della Chiesa Evangelica Riformata Svizzera, porterà alla sua tomba una riproduzione fotografica del ritratto di lui, dono dei discendenti che vivono a Parigi. Il monumento di Piero Bazzanti lo rappresenta diciottenne, il ritratto di lui ventiduenne è opera di Solomon Counis. Anche'egli riposa in questo cimitero.

^*° JEAN DAVID MARC GONIN / SVIZZERA/ Gonin/ Giovanni/ Giovanni/ Svizzera/ Firenze/ 17 Gennaio/ 1828/ / 1/ Belle Arti scheda/ JEAN DAVID MARC GONIN/ NE A GENEVE LE 28 AVRIL 1812/ MORT A FLORENCE LE 17 JANVIER 1828/ JEUNE ET . . . D'AVENIR/ DONT LA TOMBE SOUARIT DANS . . . /N° 1/
N° 1              
                       Le dix neuf Janvier, mil-huit-cent-vingt huit John Gonin
Gonin              fils de Jean Gonin Président de Consistoire et de Louise
                       née Lafond, né
                       mort à  Florence, le dix sept Janvier, mil huit cent vingt huit
                       a reçu les honneures del la Sepulture en présence de Louis Wolf,
                       Giacomo Bizenzi, Louis Recordon et de plusieurs autres membres
                       du Consistoire . --- . En foi de quoi j'ai signé
                                                                            Auguste Colomb Pasteur~
 D25I/ Sculptor: Pietro Bazzanti: signature: P.BAZZANTI.F

  


Portrait of Jean David Marc Gonin painted 1834 by Salomon Guillaume Counis, °owned by descendants in Paris  

Tombs and paintings, poems and books, outlast our mortal bodies, carrying memories that converse with the future, across centuries. They tell stories. They are the Greek Anthology, they are Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology, but giving the story of Florence and her foreigners, rather than of St Louis and her Americans, of Athens and her citizens and slaves.

Tombe e i libri sopravvivono a noi fatti di fragile involucro mortale, sono memoria che lungo i secoli conversa con il tempo futuro. Sono l'Antologia palatina, sono l'Antologia di Spoon River. Gli epitaffi narrano la storia di Firenze e degli stranieri che nell'Ottocento elessero l'amata città a loro dimora.

To honour our poets, our writers, we now will bring their books to their tombs. I will hand to persons books who will at the end of this discourse carry them to the respective tombs, reading there the title page of one of them and perhaps a selection, next bringing them to the back room of the library where we will place them in display cases for all to see.

Per rendere omaggio ad alcuni degli scrittori che qui hanno trovato sepoltura consegno ad alcuni di voi dei volumi da porre sui loro sepolcri. Ognuno di voi leggerà il frontespizio di almeno uno dei libri di ciascun autore.


Musica: Danza ungherese di Brahms


WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

On Walter Savage Landor's newly-restored tomb are written Swinburne's lines:

La tomba di Walter Savage Landor è stata recentemente restaurata. Swinburne compone il suo epitaffio.

IN MEMORY OF/ WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR/ BORN 30th OF JANUARY 1775/ DIED 17th OF SEPTEMBER 1864/ AND THOU HIS FLORENCE TO THY TRUST/ RECEIVE AND KEEP/ KEEP SAFE HIS DEDICATED DUST/ HIS SACRED SLEEP/ SO SHALL THY LOVERS COME FROM FAR/ MIX WITH THY NAME/ MORNING STAR WITH EVENING STAR/ HIS FAULTLESS FAME/ A.G. SWINBURNE/

IN MEMORIA DI WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR NATO IL 30 GENNAIO 1775 MORTO IL 17 SETTEMBRE 1864 / E TU LA SUA FIRENZE CURA, ACCOGLI, SERBA LA SUA DONATA POLVERE, IL SUO SACRO SONNO. DA LONTANO GIUNGANO I TUOI AMANTI PER CONFONDERSI CON IL NOME TUO, FIRENZE, E LA PURA FAMA DI LUI COSI' COME LA STELLA DEL MATTINO CON LA STELLA DEL VESPRO. A. C. SWINBURNE

Count General Negroni Bentivoglio, descendant of Walter Savage Landor, will carry the books to his tomb. Pastore Mario Marziale, of the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church, instead, will carry the volume with the Imaginary Conversation about Rosa Madiai to her tomb. The Madiai's imprisonment was because, as Italians, they were forbidden to read the Bible. In this Protestant Cemetery countless tombs quote from the Bible in many alphabets and numerous languages. This is the place of the Book and of Freedom.

Il Conte Generale Negroni Bentivoglio, discendente della famiglia Savage Landor, porrà i suoi libri sulla sua tomba. Il Pastore Mario Marziale della Chiesa Evangelica Riformata Svizzera, porrà sulla tomba di Rosa Madiai uno dei volumi di Imaginary Conversations. I Madiai subirono l'umiliazione della condanna e del carcere. Italiani era loro proibita la lettura della Bibbia. In questo Cimitero Protestante innumerevoli iscrizioni sepolcrali citano passi tratti dalla Bibbia in molti alfabeti e diverse lingue. E' un luogo della memoria, del Libro dei libri, e della libertà.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb, however, lacks her name, her birth date, her poetry, her portrait, only giving her initials, her death date, and the sculptor's name who executed the similarly anonymous design of Frederic Lord Leighton. Leighton insisted on a broken slave shackle being placed on the tomb to honour Elizabeth's poetry against slavery.

Sulla tomba di Elizabeth Barrett Browning possiamo leggere solo la data di morte e il nome dello scultore che eseguì il sarcofago su disegno di Frederic Lord Leighton, anch'egli anonimo. Non compare il suo nome, ma solo le iniziali, manca la data di nascita e la sua effige. Leighton volle sulla tomba della poetessa una catena spezzata in omaggio alla sua poesia che porta il segno del suo grande odio e disprezzo per ogni forma di schiavitù.

E.B.B./ OB.1861.// FRANCESCO GIOVANNOZZI FECE.

Maria Grazia Beverini Del Santo, President of the Lyceum Club and of the Fondazione il Fiore, will carry to Elizabeth's newly-restored tomb her books, especially the Sonnets from the Portuguese translated into countless other languages, and her epic poem in nine books, Aurora Leigh.

Io porterò i suoi libri sul suo sepolcro restaurato nel 2006, in particolare i suoi 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' tradotti in un'infinità di lingue, ed il suo poema epico in nove libri Aurora Leigh.


ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH

Our third great poet is Arthur Hugh Clough whose poetry was published posthumously by his wife, Blanche, Florence Nightingale’s cousin, and his sister, Anne Jemima Clough, who founded Newnham College. Like Walter Savage Landor he had gone to Rugby School, Matthew Arnold composing Thyrsis for his epitaph. At Oxford Clough attended Balliol, winning the Oriel College Fellowship.

Il nostro terzo illustre poeta è Arthur Hugh Clough. La sua poesia fu pubblicata postuma dalla moglie, Blanche, cugina di Florence Nightingale, e dalla sorella, Anne Jemima Clough, fondatrice del Newnham College. Così come Walter Savage Landor compì gli studi alla Rugby School. Matthew Arnold compose l'elegia Thyrsis in memoria dell'amico. Ad Oxford frequentò il Balliol College, e fu Fellow dell'Oriel College.

ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH/ SOMETIME FELLOVV/ OF ORIEL COLLEGE OXFORD/ DIED AT FLORENCE/ NOVEMBER 13 MDCCCLXI/ AGED 42/ THE LAST FAREVVELL OF/ HIS SORROVVING VVIFE AND SISTER/

Mark Roberts of the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute of Florence will carry the volume of his poems to his tomb. It came to us as a gift from Walter Savage Landor's Warwick. The tomb was restored last year by the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze to celebrate European Heritage, because the design of the winged globe on the tomb, desired by Blanche Clough, was taken from Champollion's book on Egypt and Nubia owned by the Marchese Torrigiani.

Mark Roberts della Harold Acton Library del British Institute di Firenze porrà sulla tomba il volume delle sue poesie, dono della Walter Savage Landor Society di Warwick. La tomba è stata restaurata lo scorso anno dal Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze in occasione delle Giornate Europee del patrimonio. Il disegno del motivo egizio del disco solare alato che compare sulla tomba è stato tratto per volere di Blanche Clough dal volume di Champollion sull'Egitto e sulla Nubia posseduto dal Marchese Torrigiani.


ISA BLAGDEN

A great friend of Walter Savage Landor and of the Brownings was Isa Blagden of Bellosguardo. She, too, was a poet. And she and the poet Owen Meredith wrote books about each other, she a novel, he a poem, Owen Meredith being the pen-name for Lord Lytton, Viceroy of Indian.

Isa Blagden grande amica di Walter Savage Landor e dei Browning ospitò nella Villa Brichieri a Bellosguardo.molti degli stranieri che giungevano a Firenze. Anche Isa fu poeta. Ella e il poeta Owen Meredith scrissero libri sul loro amore, Isa Blagden una autobiografia romanzata, Agnes Tremorne, e Owen Meredith un poema su di lei, Lucile. Owen Meredith, pseudonimo di Lord Lytton, fu Viceré delle Indie.

ISABELLA [Cross on Flower Garland] BLAGDEN/ BORN . . . DIED . . . 1873/ THY WILL BE DONE . . ./

Corinna Gestri will carry her volume of poems to her tomb.

Corinna Gestri porrà  il volume delle sue poesie sul suo sepolcro.

POEMS/ BY THE LATE/ ISA BLAGDEN/ WITH A MEMOIR/ WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS/ EDINBURGH AND LONDON/ MDCCCLXXIII


FRANCES TROLLOPE

Frances Trollope was a writer of novels and of travels, and of the first anti-slave novel, Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, a book no longer in print but better than Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Not far from her tomb and that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is the tomb of Nadezhda, who came at 14, a Black slave from Nubia, and whose story is told on her tomb in Cyrillic.

Frances Trollope autrice di romanzi e di letteratura di viaggio. Suo il primo romanzo contro la schiavitù Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, un libro oramai fuori stampa ma più degno di nota di Uncle Tom's Cabin (La Capanna di Zio Tom) di Harriet Beecher Stow. Non lontano dalla sua tomba e dal sarcofago di Elizabeth Barrett Browning troviamo la tomba di Nadezhda, una schiava nera che giunge a Firenze dalla Nubia a quattordici anni d'età. La sua storia è narrata in cirillico sul basamento di una bellissima croce russa.

FRANCESCAE TROLLOPE/ QUOD MORTALE FUIT/ HIC IACET/ . . . / MEMORIA/ NULLUM MARMOR QUAERIT/ APUD STAPLETON/ IN AGRO SOMERSET ANGLORUM/ A.D. 1780 NATA/ FLORENTIAE/ TUMULUM A.D.1863/ NACTA EST

Debora Spini of Syracuse University will carry her anti-slavery novel, Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, to her tomb.

Debora Spini della Syracuse University porrà il romanzo Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw sulla sua tomba.

THEODOSIA TROLLOPE

Theodosia Garrow Trollope, Frances' daughter-in-law, and like Isa, part Jewish, part East Indian, wrote poetry, essays, translations.

Theodosia Garrow Trollope, nuora di Frances Trollope, e come Isa Blagden, per metà ebrea, e per metà le sue origini sono da ricercare nelle Indie Orientali, scrisse poesia, saggi. Fu anche traduttrice dall'italiano in inglese.

/ THEODOSIAE TROLLOPE/ T. ADOLFI TROLLOPE CONIUGIS/ QUOD MORTALE FUIT/ HIC IACET/ OBITUM EIUS FLEVERUNT OMNES/ QUANTUM AUTEM FERRI MERUIT/ VIR EUGUI SCRIPTORES/ SCIT SOLUS/ JOSEFE GARROW ARMr FILIA/ APUD TORQEW IN AGRORUM DEVON ANGLORUM NATA/ FLORENTIAE NOMEN AGENS LUSTRUM/ AD PLURES DIVINAE . . ./ MENSES APRILES A.D. 1865/

Lacking any of her books Alyson Price will take to her tomb her husband Thomas Adolphus Trollope's autobiography, What I Remember - where he remembers her.

Non abbiamo alcun volume dei suoi libri e Alyson Price le renderà omaggio ponendo sulla sua tomba l'autobiografia What I Remember del consorte Thomas Adolphus Trollope, nella quale egli la ricorda.


MARY SOMERVILLE

A great woman writer of science, Mary Somerville, buried her husband William here, and in her honour we have just now restored his tomb.

Grande scrittrice di testi scientifici, brillante astronoma e matematica, Mary Somerville, diede qui sepoltura al marito William. Per renderle omaggio è stato restaurato il bellissimo sepolcro del marito.

WILLIAM SOMERVILLE/ ELDEST SON OF THE HISTORIAN OF QUEEN ANNE/ BORN AT MINTO ROXBURGHSHIRE/ 22 APRIL 1771/ DIED AT FLORENCE 15 JUNE 1860/ GOD WILL REDEEM MY LIFE FROM/ THE POWER OF THE GRAVE 49 PSALM/

Mary Somerville herself is buried in Naples beneath a fine statue of her by the then twenty-year-old Calabrian Francesco Jerace. She had discovered two planets and taught Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, mathematics. Ada, then, with Charles Babbage, invented the computer, she suggesting to him the use of Jacquard loom cards with holes punched in them and the binomial theorem.

Mary Somerville ha trovato invece sepoltura a Napoli sotto la statua che la rappresenta, opera giovanile dello scultore calabrese Francesco Jerace. Mary Somerville scoprì due pianeti ed insegnò matematica ad Ada Lovelace, figlia di Lord Byron. Successivamente Ada e Charles Babbage idearono il computer. Fu lei a suggerire a Charles Babbage l'utilizzo delle schede perforate del telaio Jacquard e del sistema numerico binario.

Lyn Newton from Scotland will carry two of her many books to her husband’s grave.

Lyn Newton, scozzese, porrà due dei suoi numerosi libri sulla tomba del marito.

ON/ THE CONNEXION/ OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES/ BY MARY SOMERVILLE/ FOURTH EDITION/ LONDON:/ JOHN MURRAY, ALBERMARLE STREET/ MDCCCXXXVI

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS, From Early Life to Old Age,/ OF/ MARY SOMERVILLE,/ WITH SELECTIONS FROM HER CORRESPONDENCE,/ BY HER DAUGHTER,/ MARTHA SOMERVILLE/ BOSTON:/ ROBERTS BROTHERS,/ 1874


MARY YOUNG

Another woman writer, this time of religious history, buried here, is Mary Young.

Ha qui inoltre trovato sepoltura Mary Young, anch'ella scrittrice, autrice della biografia su Aonio Paleario, umanista e riformatore religioso.

HOLD [Anchor] FAST/ TO THE MEMORY OF/ MARY YOUNG/ DAUGHTER OF THE LATE/ JOHN STROTHER ANCRUM OF ROXBURGH/ AND WIDOW OF THE REV. ROBERT YOUNG DD MINISTER OF THE/ SCOTS CHURCH LONDON WALL/ ENDOWED WITH SUPERIOR AND REFINED INTELLECT/ FIRM CHARACTER AND ARDENT AFFECTIONS/ SHE WAS BY GOD'S GRACE ENABLED TO SPEND HER WHOLE LIFE IN HIS SERVICE/ AND IN SE. . E . .ING EFFORTS FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS/ HER FAITH WAS SIMPLE AND UNWAVERING/ SUPPORTED BY THIS FAITH AND CHEERED BY THE HOPE OF GLORY/ SHE ENDURED WITH FORTITUDE THE DECAY OF HER EARTHLY/ TABERNACLE AND JOYFULLY WELCOMED THE SUMMONS/ WHICH CALLED HER HENCE/ ON THE 27 DAY OF SEP 1867/ AGED 77/ AMEN. SO LET IT BE [Books and Palms]/

Il suo monumento reca anche un'iscrizione sepolcrale in italiano.

On the other side.

/ QUI RIPOSANO LE SPOGLIE MORTALI/ DI / MARIA YOUNG/ VISSE MOLTI ANNI IN ITALIA/ RACCOLSE NEGLI ARCHIVI NOTIZIE STORICHE/ CON CUI COMPOSE UN LIBRO ASSAI STIMATO/ LA VITA DI AONIO PALEARIO E I SUOI TEMPI/ DIMORO' LONGAMENTE IN PISA DOVE EDIFICO'/ UNA CHIESA EVANGELICA E UNA SCUOLA/ SOCCORSE SEMPRE I POVERI AMO' LO STUDIO E SI/ . . SE PER IL RISORGIMENTO DELLA LIBERTA' ITALIANA/ MORIVA IN FIRENZE ALL'ETA' DI 77 ANNI/ IL 27 SETTEMBRE 1867/ FRA LE BRACCIA DELLA INCONSOLABILE FIGLIA/ ALLA SUA CARA MEMORIA CONSACRONO QUESTA PIETRA/ CARLO E ROBINIA MATTEUCCI/

D.D. Ramsden will carry to her tomb a volume of the book she wrote.

D.D. Ramsden porrà sulla sua tomba uno dei volumi su Aonio Paleario.

THE LIFE AND TIMES/ OF/ AONIO PALEARIO/ OR A HISTORY OF/ THE ITALIAN REFORMERS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY/ PRESENTED BY ORIGINAL LETTERS AND UNEDITED DOCUMENTS/ BY M. YOUNG/ 'Their blood is shed/ In confirmation of the noblest claim,/ Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,/ to walk with God, to be divinely free,/ To soar, and to anticipate the skie'/ COWPER'S/ Task./ LONDON/ BELL AND DALDU, 186 FLEET STREET./ 1860

THOMAS SOUTHWOOD SMITH

Southwood Smith with Lord Ashley, who became the Earl of Shaftsbury, wrote against slavery and against the abuse of women and children in mines and factories, their Report changing England's laws.

Southwood Smith e Lord Ashley, poi Conte di Shaftsbury, nei loro scritti si espressero fermamente contro la schiavitù e lo sfruttamento delle donne e dei bambini nelle fabbriche e nelle miniere. Il loro lavoro fu determinante e portò ad una riforma in Inghilterra.

In Memory of SOUTHWOOD SMITH, Physician/ who through the promotion of sanitary/ reform in the principles of which he was the first to discover and through other philanthropic and literary labour was distinguished as a Benefactor of Mankind/ Born at Martock, Somersetshire/ Dec 21, 1788, Died at Florence/ Dec 10, 1861// + THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN IN THE KINGDOM/ OF THEIR FATHER/ MATTHEW XII v.43// [Below sculpted portrait medallion] / Ages shall honor, in their hearts enshrined, thee, SOUTHWOOD SMITH, Physician of Mankind/ Bringer of Air, Light, Health into the home/ Of the rich Poor of happier years to come/ Leigh Hunt/
 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning with Richard Horne wrote a essay on them both in New Spirit of the Age which Giorgio Nencetti will carry to the tomb.

Su di loro Elizabeth Barrett Browning e Richard Horne scrissero un saggio comparso in The New Spirit of the Age. Giorgio Nencetti porterà questo volume alla sua tomba.

ROBERT DAVIDSOHN

Robert Davidsohn, from Gdansk and Jewish, is the great historian of medieval Florence.

Robert Davidsohn, ebreo tedesco di Danzica, è il grande storico della Firenze medievale.

COMM. DOTT. PROF./ ROBERT DAVIDSOHN/ 26.4.1853-17.9.1937/

ROBERT DAVIDSOHN/ STORIA DI FIRENZE/ SANSONI: FIRENZE/ 1977

Alba Antuono of the Biblioteca Comunale will carry his volumes of the Storia di Firenze to his tomb.

Alba Antuono della Biblioteca Comunale porrà i suoi volumi sulla Storia di Firenze sulla sua tomba,

Laura Micol Fisher will carry Shakespeare's Plays to her great grandparents' tomb for they are Shakespeare's 'last' descendants.

Laura Micol Fisher porra il volume delle Opere di William Shakespeare sulla tomba dei suoi bisnonni, ultimi discendenti di Shakespeare.

ARNOLD HENRY SAVAGE LANDOR

And Arnold Henry Savage Landor is the Florentine-born writer, painter, explorer and inventor grandson of Walter Savage Landor. We ask Piero Fusi to carry his book, Everywhere to Henry Savage Landor’s new grave and read there its title page.

A. Henry Savage Landor, primogenito di Charles Savage Landor, e nipote del poeta Walter Savage Landor, nacque a Firenze. Dotato scrittore, pittore, esploratore, ideatore. Piero Fusi porrà il volume della sua opera autobiografica Everywhere sulla sua nuova tomba, e li leggerà il frontespizio del libro.

EVERYWHERE/ THE MEMOIRS OF AN EXPLORER/ By A. HENRY SAVAGE-LANDOR/ ILLUSTRATED/ T.FISHER UNWIN LTD/ LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE// I DEDICATE THIS BOOK/ TO MY SISTER/ ELFRIDA/ 1924

JOHN LANDOR

While Mary Gibbons Landor will carry the book by her husband, Dr John Landor, to his new grave in this Swiss-owned so-called 'English' Cemetery and read there its title page.

Mary Gibbons Lando, vedova del Dr. John Landor, porrà un testo del marito sulla tomba leggendone poi il frontespizio.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's first line to Aurora Leigh is from the Bible. It states ‘Of writing many books there is no end’.

Il poema epico Aurora Leigh di Elizabeth Barrett Browning si apre con le parole bibliche ˜Di scriver libri non si vedrà mai la fine"

Musica: Aria dal Flauto Magic



At the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute of Florence, Professor Michael Liversidge gave an illustrated lecture on Walter Savage Landor's collection of Tuscan Primitive paintings at the Villa Gherardesca, San Domenico, Fiesole,


Villa Gherardesca/ Villa Landor

which we shall publish at a later date, followed by an illustrated lecture by Piero Fusi on WSL's grandson, Arnold Henry Savage Landor, painter, writer, inventor, explorer.

 

A. HENRY SAVAGE LANDOR

italiano  English
 

Arnold Henry Savage Landor was born in Florence in 1865, where he died in 1924. His grandfather, Walter Savage Landor, had been a celebrated poet and writer, himself living for long periods in Florence.

Henry Savage Landor passed his childhood in Florence, and, being artistically precocious, as a boy attended the studio of Harry Jones Thaddeus, a talented Irish portrait painter. The books of Samuel Baker, Jules Verne and the French Journal des Voyages inspired him with a passion for travel. Not yet sixteen he went to Paris to study at the Julian studio directed by Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, where he amazed his teachers by his talent. Continuing his passion for drawing and painting he visited Holland, Spain, Malta, Morrocco and Egypt, painting many canvases. In England, while he was visiting his uncles, he was enchanted by the magnificent effects of grey and green of the countryside, so different from the colour tones he knew in Italy. In London he met Algernon Charles Swinburne, Theodore Watts and Lynn Linton.

With forty pounds sterling in his pocket he reached America, where he painted portraits of various people, including President Harrison and the very beautiful Miss Lincoln, granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln. In Chicago he met the actress Lily Langtry; he also painted the portrait of Cora Brown Potter, the celebrated American actress, as 'Juliet', and the actor Bellew, in the part of 'Antonio'. With the money he had made in America Landor then went to Vancouver where, in 1889, he embarked for Yokohama.

Filled with enthusiasm for all that was around him, in Nikko, Kyoto, Hakone, Kamakura and other places, he painted 24 large canvases and many other small ones. While in Japan - where western painting in oil had been introduced some decades earlier by Charles Wirgman and the Italians Edoardo Chiassone and Antonio Fontanesi - Landor carried out several portraits of people at the Mikado's Court. Among these is a life size portrait of the Countess Kuroda, second wife of the Prime Minister, that of the Countessa Saigo, daughter of the Prime Minister succeeding Count Kuroda, and one of the baby daughter of the Countess Hijikata, daughter of the Emperor's Treasurer. While in Tokyo, Landor carried out a half-size portrait of Sir Edwin Arnold, author of The Light of Asia or The Great Renunciation: Being the Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and Founder of Buddhism, 1899, and of many other books about India and Japan.


Cherry Blossom, Kyoto (1891)

From this visit to Japan we have his book Alone with the Hairy Ainu (1893), the account of his journey to the largely unexplored Island of Hokkaido, where he came to know the customs of the indigenous Ainu and painted many canvases.

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Ainu, Yezo (1891)                                                                              Ainu Chief, Yezo (1891)

After Japan he went to Korea, where he painted portraits of Min-san-ho, a nephew of the Wueen, and of one of the most important people in Korea, the Prince Min-Young-Huan, Commander in Chief becoming head of the Korean army, and Min-Young-Chun, Prime Minister, said to be Korea's Bismarck. From this journey to Korea, apart from the vivid sketches, we have his book, Corea, or Cho-Sen, the Land of the Morning Calm (1895). From Korea he went to the Great Wall and then to Peking, always sketching and making faithful notes of what he saw. In the most remote areas he often met famous people: at Hankow he met, for instance, Czar Nicholas of Russia and Prince George of Greece. The Czar commissioned him to paint a huge canvas of the shipwreck of the Russian cruise ship the Crisorok, which Landor had originally sketched on the west coast of the island of Yezo. The canvas was then given by the Czar to the Naval Club of Vladivostok.

At Peking he met Sir Robert Hart, the English writer proficient in Chinese. In 1891, after China, he visited Australia, where he painted a portrait of the Prime Minister of New South Wales, Sir Henry Parkes. The painting, because of its striking resemblance, excited much admiration in Sydney. While in Sydney, Landor painted the portrait of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the African explorer.

On his return to England, Landor was invited by Queen Victoria to Balmoral so that he could show her his drawings and tell her of his journeys. In London he became great friends with McNeill Whistler and Joseph Pennel.

In the first years of the twentieth century Landor was interested in making flying machines with bamboo and taffeta, but abandoned these inventions to take up travelling again.

This time he explored Tibet where, after terrible adversities and tortures, he discovered the sources of the Indus and the Brahmaputra. Landor returned fearlessly to Tibet a second time and then to Nepal.

After this, he came back to Europe, giving more and more lectures to great applause, which he repeated also in America. From his journeys to Tibet and Nepal come his books In the Forbidden Land (1898) and Tibet and Nepal (1905). In America Landor, hearing of the Boxer Rebellion in China, went immediately to Peking where he was the first to accompany General Linievitch in the triumphal entry parade of honour at the Forbidden City. From this journey came his book China and the Allies (1901).
 

Henry Savage Landor and Chanden Sing

In 1901 he journeyed to India from Russia, travelling on horseback through Persia, and the same year published his account of that journey in the book Across Coveted Lands (1902). He then went to the Philippines where he met the future General Pershing and, returning across America, he succeeded in convincing Theodore Roosevelt that he would be the man which America would need for its Army. Another book The Gems of the East, tells us of this adventurous journey of discovery (1904).


Morocco (1892)

Then it was Africa's turn. Landor dedicated himself to exploring that continent which was then almost unknown. In Abyssinia he painted the portrait of the Emperor Menelik. In 1906 he published Across Wildest Africa. In 1911 and 1912 he went to the Mato Grosso in Central America. On his return to Europe, during his lectures, he told thrilling stories: of meeting boa serpents, weeks of almost dying of starvation, voyages in canoes in rapids leading to the Amazon River, and many other terrible wanderings. In 1913, Landor published Across the Unknown South America.

He participated in the 1915-18 War on the Italian Front and presented a new invention, the armoured tank. His lectures were requested not only as entertainment for wordly society, but also by scholars.

U.S. Patent Office, Airship, 1917

In 1912 Landor spoke at the Sorbonne, introduced by Paul Deschanel. Later he was a guest of D'Annunzio. The poet, wearing yellow gloves, gave him, as soon as he entered, an inscribed copy of his last novel Più che l'amore, stating that it was inspired by Landor's book on Tibet (In the Forbidden Land). D'Annunzio suggested they collaborate on his next novel. Landor did not accept the offer. The poet, a few days later, said he was asked to write an article for the Corriere della Sera. Landor, tricked by this, showed him his notes, and entertained him with a number of anecdotes. After some years, Landor discovered in a fascicle of Critica, the journal edited by Benedetto Croce, some extracts of Annunzio's latest novel Forse che sì, forse che no, plagiarized from Landor's travels in the Philippines, in Asia and in Africa, which the novel's hero, a aviator explorer, recounted in the first person.

After so many misfortunes Henry Savage Landor's health broke down, and his travelling became less frequent. He was meanwhile lionized, becoming a friend of the Kings of Italy and Belgium and of Pope Pius X. With the outbreak of the Great War he dedicated himself to inventions and designed tanks and airships. He was a friend of General Cadorna. He knew many other people of his day: Prince Alexander of Serbia, Venizelos, King of Greece, Essad Pasha. In the theatre he knew Maud Adams and Sarah Bernhardt and painted a portrait of Sada Yacco, the famous Japanese actress. The rhythm of his life was not yet halted, but it began to slow down.

His sister Elfrida

His father Charles Savage Landor, son of Walter Savage Landor

The deaths of his parents was a great blow for him, so much that he retired to his home in Florence, where he died in 1924. His remains were laid to rest in the family chapel in the Cemetery of the Porte Sante at San Miniato in Florence. They are now re-interred in Florence's 'English' Cemetery.

Henry Savage Landor led, then, an intense and adventurous life, but what is remembered of him? The books have become rare and no longer read, being ethnographic, cartographic, photographic writings. There remain above all his vivacious paintings, documents of extreme human and artistic interest, scenes inspired by the daily life of distant peoples, ever expressed with a purity of tender and vivid colours and with an acute spirit of observation and great immediacy. The East with its dreaming picturesque atmosphere combined with a picturesque skill, redolent of Corot, Bonington, Constable, Turner and most of all of the Tuscan 'Macchiaioli' school of painters.

Three exhibitions of his paintings have been displayed in 1959-60 by the British Council, in the Palazzo del Drago at Rome, in the Palazzo Antinori in Florence and in Naples at the British Consulate.

hslportrait

His autobiography Everywhere: The Memoirs of an Explorer (1924), written in a pleasing and passionate way, is an extraordinary document of a life lived intensely, a witness to the history and customs of far away people of the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first twenty years of the twentieth one. An edition of Everywhere: The Memoirs of an Explorer is about to be published in Italian, in a new format with many photographs and other research materials from all over the world.


 

To contact the author:
Piero Fusi

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR WEBSITE: Recordings of Gebir I, Gebir II || Essay 'Walter Savage Landor' in New Spirit of the Age || Jean Field, 'Walter Savage Landor's Warwick' || 'Black and Red Letter Chaucer' || Kate Field, Atlantic Montly, 'The Last Days of Walter Savage Landor' || Mark Roberts, 'The Inscription on the Grave of Walter Savage Landor' || Alison Levy, 'The Widow of Walter Savage Landor' || Kristin Bragadottir, 'William Morris and Daniel Willard Fiske' (Villa Landor) || Piero Fusi, 'A. Henry Savage Landor'.

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