Sherlock Holmes and the paper-made crime
Florence of English people: the Gabinetto Vieusseux

by Graziano Braschi
translated by Cristina Proto

In 1891, the year of Holmes' arrival, Florence still was more or less for the visitor "the Italian heart of Italy", as to say the crème de la crème, since it still was among the destinations included in the Grand Tour and the town chosen for the long stays by the afterwards so-called "Anglo-Florentines" or "Anglobeceri" ("Anglo-Yahoos").

Some decades are gone by, of course (we can say 30-40 years) since this particular community included figures such as Landor, the Brownings (Robert and Elizabeth with their literary salon in Casa Guidi in Via Maggio), the Trollopes, etc., but it kept itself still large, cultured and socially important.

The idea of Florence is since ever joint to the idea of beauty. Some decades before, Dickens exclaimed, while arriving in a coach on the top of the hill under which the whole town stretched: "But, how much beauty of another kind is here, when, on a fair clear morning, we look, from the summit of a hill, on Florence! See where it lies before us in a sun-lighted valley, bright with the winding Arno, and shut in by swelling hills; its domes, and towers, and palaces, rising from the rich country in a glittering heap, and shining in the sun like gold!"

In 1891, in a more prosaic way, Holmes will look at the town while approaching on a level, by the horse-drawn tramway which from Piazza Ginori arrived at the Railway Station.

The Anglo-Florentines were such a cultured community as to allow a scholar to write: "All the Anglo-Florentines wrote something: if spurred by desire of gain or fame, poetry, articles, novels; if moved only by longing for far-off friends: letters diaries memoirs, later collected and printed by the authors themselves or by their respectful heirs".

They were also avid readers, constantly in search for the vient de paraître, the book novelty.

To this end there was the British Institute, founded by the descendants of the Italianate English people during the Risorgimento, which included perhaps the richest English literary library of all Italy (the British Institute library is still along Lungarno Guicciardini).

Besides, there was the Gabinetto Scientifico-Letterario of Giovan Pietro Vieusseux with its circulating library and its up-to-date newspaper library, which, maybe with a kind of emphasis, was said to line up "on its shelves everything was written by the visitors in Florence, it was bought as soon as the printer finished the work, in order to satisfy the demands of the English readers longing to view it".

We have to add that the peculiarity of this circulating library was just the mixture between study works (literature, philosophy, science) and pleasant readings (among them in evidence the first crime stories, detective stories, etc.).

I hypothize that Holmes went, during his stay in Sesto and Florence, to the Gabinetto Vieusseux.

Why there? And why not to the British Institute? Doubtlessly because the latter was a crossroads crowded by a certain kind of English people, more or less "official representatives" of some authority, whom Holmes, being there incognito, wanted to avoid meeting.

The Vieusseux was more risk-free, attended by his compatriots - important figures too - bound only by literary interests

Besides, the Vieusseux library was attended by representatives of the circles of power, both the local ones and the ministerial ones. Florence, "former capital since 1866, had hosted all the ministries: all the ministers of government came often here: there were very influential circles within the power, included the closest relatives of the Savoias", Enrico Solito reminds us.

As a matter of fact, over those years we track down various exponents of those circles in the Vieusseux register of members (it was required to borrow books).

Surprising confirmation: in July 1891, the last but not the bottom among the Savoias of different degrees, Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of Abruzzi, signs on for the lending service.

The hypothesys becomes then more well-founded: Holmes goes to the Vieusseux to meet an emissary of the Italian government (or bound to the Savoias' entourage) within the "intricate international web which is developing over those years", as Enrico Solito writes, adopting the theory of Dr. Giovanni Cappellini.

So that afternoon Holmes took the horse-drawn tramway and got out near the railstation, then went along the modern and lively via de’ Panzani, turned into via de’ Rondinelli, which lead into the elegant via de’ Tornabuoni - elegant also the light bend that it takes - where famous shops overlooked: Caffè Giacosa, Caffè Doney with its dinner room; the florist Scarlatti… at the Libreria Internazionale Seeber, recently opened, he stopped for a moment in front of the small stand with a huge bunch of flowers in the middle and the foreign newspapers.

At the end, in Piazza S. Trinita, downstairs in the high and turreted Palazzo Feroni there was the Gabinetto Vieusseux.

Holmes got into the book lending room, similar to that of an English "reading cabinet". Dark wooden shelvings arranged down the walls and a rack in the middle. Behind the lending counter, dark wooden and irregular hexagon, stood a moustached chief clerk and a gaunt young clerk. The side of the counter was plastered with newspaper strips reviewing novelties and with a playbill informing about the initiatives of The Florence Diocesan Synod.

Holmes smiled at hearing the chaotic English spoken by the two clerks. So much the better, he may have thought.

It is possible that the meeting with the emissary took place in the most secluded room of the proper reading cabinet, and a whispered English was spoken: given the sensitivity of the matter it is unlikely that Holmes relied on his non excellent knowledge of Italian language.

Nothing else we know about that meeting. Just as we don’t know if Holmes joined the five o’ clock tea ceremony, a novelty introduced by the director Eugenio Vieusseux, nephew of the founder of the Institute, in deference to the numerous English attenders.

In an other room, Holmes was attracted by the large table with newspapers and magazines strewn on it, among which "The Strand Magazine".

Nowadays, by leafing through the register of members related to that year and to the previous ones, a further speculation crosses our mind. What if Holmes was there to hint down someone being Present over those years in Florence, perhaps hidden under an assumed name and fake references? Fascinating assumption: a detective incognito in search for a shadowy figure marked today in faded ink on yellowed paper.

Anyway, the curious can read the subscribers’ book at the Gabinetto Vieusseux in its current place in Strozzi Palace.

Further hypothesis, interlocking with the previous one, is that the purpose was to trace a book no more available in London, a document or memoirs or simply a note written by any graphomaniac visitor. As to say, in brief, that this mystery was displayed on the shelves of the library and the crime was paper-made.

After getting out of the Vieusseux in the late afternoon, Holmes reached the Lungarno near there.

Right in the middle of Ponte S.Trinita, he enjoyed (and anyone, provided in tune with it, can still enjoy it today) a view particularly suitable to his melancholic and fugitive nature: on one side the silhouette of the Ponte Vecchio, on the other side, the openness almost sea-like of the river toward the Cascine park.

While the Florentine iron-like grey nightfall loomed, Holmes retraced his steps. He enjoyed the blaze made by the electric light in via de’ Tornabuoni and via de’ Rondinelli. He stopped at the beginning of via de’ Cerretani: on the right the corridor made of lights led to Piazza del Duomo and then moved on to via de’ Calzaioli until Piazza della Signoria; on the left it led to the terminus of the tramway which would take him to Sesto.

He set off that way.

P.S. - Given the priority, undelayable feature of his engagement at the Gabinetto Vieusseux, I tend to exclude that Holmes, at least that afternoon, was able to visit two artistic-urbanistic novelties that over those years had intrigued, even shaken, the public opinion - therein included the Anglo-Florentines: the renewed façade of S.Maria del Fiore (inaugurated with flags flying in May 1887) and the demolition, during its execution, of the Ghetto and the Mercato Vecchio.
But, given the unexpected change of our friend’s curiosity, there‘s no way to bet on it.
And since then this story, above all as regards to the second event, would gather a stronger way towards a different direction.