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Florentine tradition alive Tuscany’s very own Feast Day
[Christine Bates]
November 30th has officially been the Feast of the Tuscan Region since the year 2000. It celebrates ideals of peace, justice and liberty and all the bells in Tuscany are rung on this particular day, even though it is not a religious festivity.November 30th marks the anniversary of the Penal Reform Bill or Leopoldine Code which was passed under Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany between 1765 and 1790. This bill was particularly important because it abolished the death penalty (described by Pietro Leopoldo as barbaric) for the very first time (November 30th 1786) and ordered that all the gallows in Tuscany be immediately dismantled and destroyed.
Pietro Leopoldo, was the first of the Lorraine Grand Dukes. He introduced many social reforms when he came to power, increasing commerce by allowing free trade of agricultural products, reducing taxes and establishing government power over civil and penal jurisdiction and the great feudal proprietors.
The prince was highly intelligent and a clever organiser who understood the needs of his kingdom.
He encouraged trade and the development of new towns, created an efficient road system and reclaimed and repopulated the Maremma and the Chiana Valley. His most celebrated and modern reform however was the Leopoldine Code of 1786, inspired by the theories of Cesare Beccaria, and soon copied by other countries in Europe. Apart from sanctioning the abolition of the death penalty, torture and confiscation of the property of the accused, it also tried to ensure rights of defence, prescribing compensation for damages for those unjustly condemned.
Celebrations start in the afternoon with the procession in historic costume of the Florentine Republic from Palagio di Parte Guelfa to the Tuscan Regional Council in Via Cavour. Here it is joined by all the authorities before returning to Piazza Signoria where a bonfire is lit to symbolise death at the stake. Then all the church bells in every town in Tuscany are rung at 5pm followed by band music in the squares. Other events are organised before and after the main date.
Naturally Florence also rings the great bell of the Marzocco in the Bargello, normally only sounded on very solemn occasions. Once its toll meant that someone was about to suffer the death penalty, or alerted the Florentines in times of war, now, fortunately, the world has changed - at least we like to
think so...
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