Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

Goethe visited Italy in 1786, fulfilling a lifelong dream of his. He viewed Florence as a prosperous town based on the generations that built the city. He also correctly perceived that there was a long succession of wise rulers in the city. "Still, the poet's perception, if not his inference, was right. Anyone coming to Florence and knowing nothing of its actual history would jump to the same conclusion. Only its intemperate climate betrays its inward character; on its 'good' days, in spring and through-out the autumn, it appears the spit and image of the ideally governed city, an architectural representation of justice, equity, proportion, order and balance" (Chapter 7, p. 189).

Florence was rebuilt every time a flood or whatever wiped it out and today there are not many ruins in the city. The Republic was threatened by foreigners many times in its...