I will begin with one written from Blandford Square, by George Eliot to me, which is of great interest.  It bears no date whatever, save that of place; but the subject of it dates it with considerable accuracy.

* * * * *

“DEAR MR. TROLLOPE,—­I am very grateful to you for your notes.  Concerning netto di specchio, I have found a passage in Varchi which decides the point according to your impression.” [Passages equally decisive might be found passim in the old Florentine historians.  And I ought to have referred her to them.  But as she had altogether mistaken the meaning of the phrase, I had insinuated my correction as little presumptuously as I could.]

“My inference had been gathered from the vague use of the term to express disqualification [i.e. NON netto di specchio expressed disqualification].  But I find from Varchi, b. viii. that the specchio in question was a public book, in which the names of all debtors to the Commune were entered.  Thus your doubt [no doubt at all!] has been a very useful caveat to me.

“Concerning the Bardi, my authority for making them originally popolani is G. Villani.  He says, c. xxxix., ’e gia cominciavano a venire possenti i Frescobaldi e Bardi e Mozzi ma di piccolo cominciamento.’  And c. lxxxi. ’e questi furono le principale case de Guelfi che uscirono di Firenze.  Del Sesto d’ Oltr’ Arno, i Rossi, Nerli, e parte de’ Manelli, Bardi, e Frescobaldi de’ Popoloni dal detto Sesto, case nobili Canigiani,’ &c.  These passages corrected my previous impression that they were originally Lombard nobles.

[It needs some familiarity with the Florentine chroniclers to understand that the words quoted by no means indicate that the families named were not of patrician origin.  “There walked into the lobby with the Radicals, Lord ——­ and Mr. ——­,” would just as much prove that the persons named had not belonged to the class of landowners.  But the passage is interesting as showing the great care she took to make her Italian novel historically accurate.  And it is to be remembered that she came to the subject absolutely new to it.  She would have known otherwise, that the Case situated in the Oltr’ Arno quarter, were almost all noble.  That ward of the city was the Florentine quartier St. Germain.]

“Concerning the phrase in piazza, and in mercato, my choice of them was partly founded on the colloquial usage as represented by Sacchetti, whose dialogue is intensely idiomatic.  Also in piazza is, I believe, used by the historians (I think even by Macchiavelli), when speaking of popular turn-outs.  The ellipse took my fancy because of its colloquial stamp.  But I gather from your objection that it seems too barbarous in a modern Italian ear.  Will you whisper your final opinion in Mr. Lewes’s ear on Monday?

[I do not remember what the ellipse in question was.  As regards the use of the phrase in piazza she is perfectly right.  The term keeps the same meaning to the present day, and is equivalent in political language to the street.]