Word: signoria
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...goodbye, to become a Dominican novice. With the courage and cold zeal of a saintly fanatic, Savonarola continued to rage against virtue's enemies until 1498, when the exasperated city fathers of Florence, urged on by Pope Alexander VI, hanged and burned him in the Piazza della Signoria...
FLORENCE'S PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA can boast that it is the greatest open-air sculpture museum in the world. There, with a commanding view, stands the massive equestrian statue of Cosimo I. Past the Fountain of Neptune is the copy of Michelangelo's great David. Still on public view are Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus and Donatello's Judith and Holoferaes...
Architecturally, the Piazza della Signoria is a unique example of the harmony of three styles, separated in time by some 250 years. Dominating them all is the rough-stoned Palazzo Vecchio, with its narrow, Tuscan-Gothic windows. At right angles stands the triple-arched Loggia dei Lanzi (named for the German lancers quartered there by the Medici), which many critics consider the most beautiful secular building in Florence. Between the two is the short, narrow street which Mannerist Painter Giorgio di Vasari created as a tour de force in perspective, leading to the Arno...