The Florence Flood

A lot of the photo sites we have linked to over the last couple of years are now gone - here are a couple of live ones:

Florence flood from Florin.ms

Florence flood photos from About Florence

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Seems like there is a new book out (November 2009) that we somehow missed - "Conservation Legacies of the Florence Flood of 1966":

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Well - I guess 43 is a quiet one. I had totally forgot about the flood this year, and I didn't notice any of the usual activity around town (I was sick for a couple of days - probably would have picked up on something if I was out and about more). Anyway - the date was yesterday. Maybe on the 45th there will be more activity (like there was on the 40th year).

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Here is an article weaving the recent tragic earthquakes in L'Aquila with the flood of 1966:

Many will remember the Florence flood of 1966. Once the waters receded and the mud remained, thousands went to Florence to help. I was sent by my parents to volunteer. I was basically a kid who helped carry things and acted as a gofer. I later learned that I was technically a "mud angel." I had been a witness and, in my small way, I helped. But, perhaps of greater importance was that I became totally convinced that I would try in my career to help keep great works of art safe.

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I can't find much news at all about the flood in English. I guess 42 is not a big deal. Of course it is pouring here in Florence today. Here is a slide show I just found on YouTube:

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A new review out of Dark Water, in the Economist:

THERE are, writes Robert Clark, two concepts of the legendary city on the banks of the Arno in northern Italy. One, called Firenze, is populated by the proud, hard-working people who live there. The other, known to many as Florence, is home to the world’s greatest concentration of sublime works of art. Both are susceptible to terrible flooding—and November is the cruellest month. The river Arno’s first great flood happened on November 4th 1333; there were 3,000 deaths and the reason given was the sinfulness of man. On November 4th 1966 another great flood inundated the city; 33 people died and the blame fell principally on Enel, Italy’s largest power company.

More here.

Tomorrow is the 42nd anniversary of the flood. We have had some rain here in Florence recently (finally!) to remind us, but the event seems to passing this year without much fanfare. I am sure there will be some remembrances held in town - maybe at the Palazzo Vecchio, etc. I will try to find some local news as I can't scrape anything up on the web at the moment.

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Random House was kind enough to put us in touch with Robert Clark, author of the new book "Dark Water". He answered a few of our questions below by email:

Florence Flood: How long were you in Florence researching the book and how did the grant process come about?

Robert Clark: I was in Florence, living in the Piazza del Carmine for most of two years. As I said (in the book), I'd gotten the fellowship before I came, and the book came, sideways as it were, as a result.

Continue reading "Interview with "Dark Water" author Robert Clark" »

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There is a new book to be released on October 7th about the 1966 flood of Florence and the aftermath of that fateful event. We were lucky enough to receive an advance copy and I am happy to say that if you are interested in the flood enough to have visited this website then you have to have a copy of this book: Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces. It is remarkable in its detail and scholarship and brings the events and the people involved to life like nothing else I have read. We will posting a more in depth review soon, as well as an excerpt from the book, and even an interview with the author. For now, you can pre-order a copy from Amazon.com.

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Google Scholar is a specialized search engine from Google that searches scholarly texts, professional journals, research papers, etc. Here is a search for the 1966 Florence Flood. This is a pretty interesting resource but unfortunately it seems that most of this material must be paid for to actually view in its entirety, on the sites listed by Google Scholar all you get are abstracts (mostly). Still - it is a good starting place to at least find relevant materials, titles, etc.

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This is an interesting clip from YouTube that is a mix of some contemporary docudrama looking stuff mixed in with some vintage film of the 1966 flood and work of the mud angels. I am not sure where it was taken from. If you can shed some light on the origins of this please let me know in the comments.

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"The Great Flood of Florence" came out during the 40th anniversary last year and is now available for purchase from Amazon.com:

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This site is gone from the Rai website. Here is a post on a message board that has several good black and white photos of the flood - I don't know about the copyright of these images, some of which seem familiar. There are a couple by the train station and the SITA station I have not seen before though.

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Here is some footage (1:42) of the Piazza Signoria on the night of the 40th anniversary of the flood. You can see the slideshow in the loggia and the purple lighting, etc. It was a very moving exhibit. We were there that night but only have still images.

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The "The Years of the Cupola" is a digital archive of all the works belonging to the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore relating to Brunelleschi's Dome. Of course, that means work damaged by the flood of 1966:

"The project to make images of the archival material contained in The Years of the Cupola available in Internet is a response to the challenge posed by the state of conservation of the original manuscripts, so damaged after the 1966 flood that traditional photography alone would be of limited usefulness for the reading of the faded script. The project presents both photography carried out before the flood, when available, and new images processed through techniques of "virtual restoration," in such a manner as to distinguish visual tools for reading from evidence of the current appearance of the leaves. Effort has been made to render the relationship between the various types of photography presented by the project as intuitive as possible.

This is an amazing project (and website) and should be a great source for scholars.

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Here is a really interesting resource - a video on the restoration of books immediately after the flood:

Originally produced by the Royal College of Art, London, 1968.

Book conservators begin to restore the many books damaged by the devastating flood in Florence, Italy in 1966. Peter Waters covers a book in leather. Christopher Clarkson makes a velum binding.

This video is made available from the University of Utah. Hat tip to PhiloBiblos

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