The Bell-Tower

"The Bell-Tower" is a short story by Herman Melville, collected in The Piazza Tales and published in 1856.

In Renaissance Italy, an eccentric architect, Bannadonna, builds a colossal tower summited by a bell and an uncanny mechanical man to ring it. The story reveals the disturbing relationship among a creator, his creation, an obsessive artistic vision, and the Faustian bargain paid by his community for its construction.

One possible inspiration for the story is Giotto (c. 1267-1337), the great Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect who, in 1334, was commissioned to construct a similarly ambitious bell tower. The massive project was beset with difficulties: "Giotto did not live long enough to see it finished" (Vasari), and it suffered further delays by political turmoil and the Black Plague. His successors officially completed it in 1359, but it never fulfilled its original design.

Lorenzo de' Medici, "the Magnificent," memorialized the tower in 1490. A nearby plaque reads: "Do you admire a beautiful tower resounding with sacred sound? By my design this tower also reached for the stars. But I am Giotto, why cite such deeds? My name alone is worth a lengthy ode."

"The Bell-Tower":

• Kindle
• Gutenberg
• Online

Audiobooks:

• Librivox 40m
• HorrorBabble

Supplemental:

• "The Bell Tower" radio adaptation, The Weird Circle (1944)
• Ernst Krenek: The Bell Tower chamber opera in one act (1956)
• The Tower that Giotto Never Built lecture by Jeremy Boudreau

This meetup is part of the series The Risorgimento.