{"id":"01KG6YHAB7YKRF06TVVDW4RATW","cid":"bafkreiejqotilzc2fhzzy2vyv5k2crk2pj5ebgxmba444dolsqlhvbpiji","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8054,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":7985,"text":"THE BELL-TOWER.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the south of Europe, nigh a once frescoed capital, now with dank\r\nmould cankering its bloom, central in a plain, stands what, at\r\ndistance, seems the black mossed stump of some immeasurable pine,\r\nfallen, in forgotten days, with Anak and the Titan.\r\n\r\nAs all along where the pine tree falls, its dissolution leaves a mossy\r\nmound—last-flung shadow of the perished trunk; never lengthening, never\r\nlessening; unsubject to the fleet falsities of the sun; shade\r\nimmutable, and true gauge which cometh by prostration—so westward from\r\nwhat seems the stump, one steadfast spear of lichened ruin veins the\r\nplain.\r\n\r\nFrom that tree-top, what birded chimes of silver throats had rung. A\r\nstone pine; a metallic aviary in its crown: the Bell-Tower, built by\r\nthe great mechanician, the unblest foundling, Bannadonna.\r\n\r\nLike Babel’s, its base was laid in a high hour of renovated earth,\r\nfollowing the second deluge, when the waters of the Dark Ages had dried\r\nup, and once more the green appeared. No wonder that, after so long and\r\ndeep submersion, the jubilant expectation of the race should, as with\r\nNoah’s sons, soar into Shinar aspiration.\r\n\r\nIn firm resolve, no man in Europe at that period went beyond\r\nBannadonna. Enriched through commerce with the Levant, the state in\r\nwhich he lived voted to have the noblest Bell-Tower in Italy. His\r\nrepute assigned him to be architect.\r\n\r\nStone by stone, month by month, the tower rose. Higher, higher;\r\nsnail-like in pace, but torch or rocket in its pride.\r\n\r\nAfter the masons would depart, the builder, standing alone upon its\r\never-ascending summit, at close of every day, saw that he overtopped\r\nstill higher walls and trees. He would tarry till a late hour there,\r\nwrapped in schemes of other and still loftier piles. Those who of\r\nsaints’ days thronged the spot—hanging to the rude poles of\r\nscaffolding, like sailors on yards, or bees on boughs, unmindful of\r\nlime and dust, and falling chips of stone—their homage not the less\r\ninspirited him to self-esteem.\r\n\r\nAt length the holiday of the Tower came. To the sound of viols, the\r\nclimax-stone slowly rose in air, and, amid the firing of ordnance, was\r\nlaid by Bannadonna’s hands upon the final course. Then mounting it, he\r\nstood erect, alone, with folded arms, gazing upon the white summits of\r\nblue inland Alps, and whiter crests of bluer Alps off-shore—sights\r\ninvisible from the plain. Invisible, too, from thence was that eye he\r\nturned below, when, like the cannon booms, came up to him the people’s\r\ncombustions of applause.\r\n\r\nThat which stirred them so was, seeing with what serenity the builder\r\nstood three hundred feet in air, upon an unrailed perch. This none but\r\nhe durst do. But his periodic standing upon the pile, in each stage of\r\nits growth—such discipline had its last result.\r\n\r\nLittle remained now but the bells. These, in all respects, must\r\ncorrespond with their receptacle.\r\n\r\nThe minor ones were prosperously cast. A highly enriched one followed,\r\nof a singular make, intended for suspension in a manner before unknown.\r\nThe purpose of this bell, its rotary motion, and connection with the\r\nclock-work, also executed at the time, will, in the sequel, receive\r\nmention.\r\n\r\nIn the one erection, bell-tower and clock-tower were united, though,\r\nbefore that period, such structures had commonly been built distinct;\r\nas the Campanile and Torre del ’Orologio of St. Mark to this day\r\nattest.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGCCBQ15QDEM5CEG7CHSQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0Q83SG0YEY0NHZFV8Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:57.479Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:07.743Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}