Confusion at the Gates: Taking a Walk outside the Walls of Florence

• In Event: The Mechanics of Mobility in the Renaissance World I: Roads and Gates

Abstract

Both in Boccaccio’s Decameron and in Sacchetti’s Trecentonovelle protagonists found themselves disoriented outside of the city walls, experiencing confusion they did not expect to encounter within the familiar confines of Florence. This paper examines narrative possibilities of the city gates before modernity decontextualized and removed the gates from their original urban fabric. Forming liminal and transitional zones between the city and its countryside, city gates provided ample opportunities for story-telling, an activity prompted by the traveler’s experience of moving in and out of the city. My aim is to address the phenomenon of the encounters that happened "fuori le mura," in an area just outside the Porta San Gallo, near the river Mugnone. I consider the Porta San Gallo, hospices and shrines in its vicinity, as a single socio-spatial complex from the point of view of the person on the ground, walking, talking, and traversing the city.

Author

• Anatole Upart, University of Chicago