The Noisy Renaissance by Niall Atkinson

Author:Niall Atkinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penn State University Press

FIG. 119 Windows of the Sala dell’Udienza dei Signori, Palazzo Vecchio. Results from the tratte, or the drawing of names by lot for government offices, would be read out to the crowd assembled below in the square. Similarly, in 1494, the result of the priors’ vote to declare Piero de’ Medici a public enemy was communicated from the window to the citizens. Photo by author.

Anxiety about the inherent instability of a government’s ability to maintain acoustic clarity in the face of crisis is comically demonstrated in Sacchetti’s story about Florence’s war with the papacy of Gregory XI between 1375 and 1378.15 While besieged by mercenary armies, the city of Macerata is inundated by a mighty flood. A woman on her way down to the cellar for wine is suddenly submerged in water and cries out for help, “Accurr’uomo!” As her husband rushes to aid her, he too plunges helplessly into the water, echoing her desperate cry. From here, the cries of frantic neighbors set off a chorus of alarmed voices whose message is transmitted by the city’s guards until it reaches the central government, where it reverberates not as a call for help but a call to arms: “All’arme, aliarme!” Rumors rapidly proliferate about the enemy entering the city, alarm bells sound, guards take up arms, townspeople fill the streets, fearful and armed, and descend on the piazza, only to find it barricaded by a nervous government. The noise in the square only grows louder amid fears of imminent violence.

From victims, to guards, through the bureaucracy, to the executive government—an individual mishap is transformed into a military invasion, comically underscoring the possible distortions that a damaged soundscape could bring to bear on an unwitting populace already predisposed to the fear of attack. Seeing that no one was coming, the priors attempt to send a message back from the center to the periphery. Needless to say, this message, too, suffers a similar fate as it moves in fits and starts through unreliable means. The story ends with the comical figure of Frate Antonio, trapped under the weight of a large shield and a bell clapper, mistaken for the enemy by a frantic city in complete acoustic disarray. The priors then finally regain their nerve, everyone returns home, and the surrounding towns have much to laugh about. The narrator finishes by mocking the paranoia of a community that, like drunken geese, entangled itself in confusion while losing all semblance of reason.16

In the real world, the flow of official information required a constant repetition of official sounds. In a face-to-face economy, information was transmitted from the mouths, gestures, and visible signs of moving bodies. This underscores the important role that town criers (banditori) played in properly verbalizing official messages in an environment that always contained the potential to distort flows of information.17 In effect, the heralds “made public” (piuvichare) the will of the government in the network of spaces that they helped to constitute as public space.

Storytelling in the Piazza

Overhearing their conversation, we began to delight in his simplicity and in what the youths were saying to him.

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