Rome, city of towers
So ubiquitous was Italian tower building that it became synonymous in the medieval Italian mind with the city itself, characterised both in the art of the mid 12th century onwards, but also in literature, such Dante’s Inferno, from Canto 31: 'I seemed to make out many high towers; then I asked him: “Master, tell me, what’s this city?”'.
Image: Late 13th c. depiction of Rome - Staats und Universitatsbibliothek Hamburg Cod. 151 in scrin f. 107v
