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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.
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.
]]>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.]]> Florence Flood: Did you meet any resistance working with the Italians on this subject?
Robert Clark: No, everyone in the neighborhood, everyone I met, had a story about the flood. They couldn't wait to talk. Some of the art restoration experts I interviewed were a little reticent: they didn't want to seem to be criticizing colleagues or mentors with whom they'd disagreed or had rivalries with, but in the end, they'd go ahead and dish! There are still a lot of controversies, a lot of second guessing and competition for funds and glory.
Florence Flood: How/when did you decide to write a non-fiction book and what was most challenging about non-fiction as compared to fiction for you?
Robert Clark: I'd never considered doing it as a novel: there are already the very fine ones by Robert Hellenga and Joanna Hines. It was going to be melding of history and art history, more still a memoir about discovering those histories.
We are still looking forward to conducting a phone interview with Mr. Clark that we will post as a podcast.
. 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.
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.
"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.
]]>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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