Dark Water: Art, Disaster, and Redemption in Florence

Anchor, October 2009. Paper Back. Very Good. Florence and her many masterpieces have captivated men and women of renown for decades: from Dante to John Ruskin and Elizabeth Barrett Browning [even Adolf Hitler wanted ten days to be anonymous in Florence 'worshiping as an artist at the feet of the old masters.') Each age had its floodwaters and devastation, but none equaled that of the 1966 flood. Novelist and nonfiction writer Robert Clark masterfully pieces together the night of 'that dark painted water' (Dante) through the recollections of eyewitnesses. From an aging countess who 'didn't believe in floods,' to the petrified psychiatric patients of San Salvi who 'screamed and beat the walls,' to Dom Luigi Stefani penning the simple prayer: 'Signore, dormi? Lord, are you sleeping?' The story continues in the flood's aftermath with the people who came to help; monks, university students, holocaust survivors, all came to salvage the waterlogged city. Art, architecture, and citizenry survived the ravages of the '96 flood, adapting, like the skin of a camel, to the feral extremes of nature, and bleeding though triumphant in the aftermath of devastation. Clark has compiled an account of the communion of history, man, and many of man's most brilliant creations, all brought together in rich and compelling narrative of the great 'city of masterpieces.' Annotated, with an extensive timeline, glossary, and bibliography. 354 pp. Near-New binding and unmarked interior with faint moisture marks to textblock. Overall very good condition.