Monday, June 30, 2014

Prevalida turris

Fanale dei Pisani, lighthouse, port of Livorno
In 1358 Petrarch wrote Itinerarium Syriacum (Syriac Itinerary) as an itinerary to the Holy Land for a friend to keep him company, as Petrarch himself was not willing to make the long sea voyage. He wrote:

«Post hec paucis passuum milibus, portus et ipse manufactus, Pisanum vocant, aderit et fere contiguum Liburnum, ubi prevalida turris est, cuius in vertice pernox flamma navigantibus tuti litoris signum prebet» (After a few miles there is the man-made harbor called Pisan port, close and almost adjoining Livorno, where a very strong tower arise, from whose top every night the flame shows the sailors the safe shore)

He was describing our lighthouse.

See also: The Lighthouse - The Caged Lighthouse - On Top of the Lighthouse - The Fresnel Lens
External links: Petrarch - Lighthouse (Wikipedia)

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10 comments:

  1. William KendallJune 30, 2014 at 12:10 AM

    A magnificent lighthouse, too!

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  2. Stefan JanssonJune 30, 2014 at 1:10 AM

    So it's an old one then! Looking good.

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  3. JackJune 30, 2014 at 1:35 AM

    I am impressed, VP. Petrarch didn't write anything about Hartford.

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  4. RevrunnerJune 30, 2014 at 3:12 AM

    Fortress-like.

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  5. cieldequimperJune 30, 2014 at 8:23 AM

    He talked about it well and it is a beautiful one.

    (Talking of lighthouses and keepers, there was an article about Clet last week in the local Quimper paper. He seems to have been there... :-) As for Ar Men, where his father was keeper, it was unlit for a long time and France being France, it took them ages to repair...)

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  6. HalcyonJune 30, 2014 at 8:34 AM

    I really like this one. Looks very sturdy, what you want from a lighthouse!

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  7. KarlJune 30, 2014 at 8:57 AM

    I also like this lighthouse.

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  8. DinaJune 30, 2014 at 9:28 AM

    We moderns, or at least we in non-seacoast places, tend not to realize how much comfort and safety lighthouses provided to seafarers, especially back then.

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  9. BirdmanJune 30, 2014 at 3:35 PM

    An apt description, I'd say. Emphasis on 'strong'.

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  10. UnknownJuly 1, 2014 at 2:02 PM

    Lovely! Both the tower and the shot.

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