352 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. Part II. it. Such to^vers as the Asinelli and Garisenda at Bologna possess no more architectural merit than the chimneys of our factories. 3Iost of those subsequently erected were better than these, but still the Italians never caught the true idea of a s]>ire. Throughout the whole of the ^liddle Ages they retained their affection for the original rectangular form, making their towers as broad at the summit as at the base. With vei-y few exceptions, they are without buttresses, or any projection on the angles, to aid in giving them even an apj)earance of supj)ort. In conse- quence, when a spire was i)laced on such an e<lifice it always fitted awkwardly. The art Ijy which a tower was jire- })ared for its termi- nation, first l)y the graduated buttresses at its base, then by the strongly marked vertical lines of its ujipor portion, and a])ovoall )>y the circle of sjtireletsatthetop, out of which the cen- tral spire shot uj) as an absolute necessitv of the composition — •M
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Campanile, Palazzo Scaligeri, Verona. (From Street.) this art, so dear and so familiar to the Northern builders, was never understood by the Italians. If they, on the contrary, placed an
