Pia de' Tolomei

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Plaque remembering Pia de' Tolomei
Palazzo Tolomei
Vicolo della Torre
Siena, February 2022

“Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia;
Siena mi fé, disfecemi Maremma:
salsi colui che 'nnanellata pria
disposando m'avea con la sua gemma.”
(Purgatorio V, 133-136)
(Please remember me, who am La Pia.
Siena made me, in Maremma I was undone.
He knows how, the one who, to marry me,
first gave the ring that held his stone.)
(Purgatory V, 133-136)

“Pia de' Tolomei was an Italian noblewoman from Siena identified as ‘la Pia,’ a minor character in Dante's Divine Comedy who was murdered by her husband. Her brief presence in the poem has inspired many works in art, music, literature, and cinema. Her character in the Divine Comedy is noted for her compassion and serves a greater program among the characters in her canto, as well as the female characters in the entire poem.” (Pia de' Tolomei, Wikipedia)

Georges Méliès

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Birthplace of Georges Méliès
Panneau Histoire de Paris (Panel Histoire de Paris)
Boulevard Saint-Martin
Quartier des Arts-et-Métiers, 3rd arrondissement
Paris, July 2010

“Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (1861 – 1938), was a French illusionist, actor and film director who led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted colour. He was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards. His films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy.” (Georges Méliès, Wikipedia)

Soundbridge 2025

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“Soundbridge 2025” (a time capsule to be opened in 2025)
Granary Square, King's Cross
London, September 2015

“On June 29th 2012 there was a ceremony at which the sound gift was publicly broadcast. They vinyl recording was then be placed in a time capsule and buried in a wall at the centre of the King’s Cross development area in Granary Square. The burial place was marked by a large blue plaque and all the names of the contributors cut out of steel and secured to the wall surrounding the plaque. The time capsule will not be re-opened until the building development is completed in 2025. The project was included in the London Festival of Architecture’s King’s Cross Focus weekend, from July 6-8th, 2012.” (Soundbridge 2025)

The Wilderness

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“The wilderness shall blossom as the rose”
A new life for the Red Cross Garden, 2005
Redcross Way, Southwark
London, September 2015

Via de' Giudei

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Stylized map of the former Jewish ghetto
Via de' Giudei (Street of the Jews)
Bologna, June 2015

“The layout of Bologna's 16th century ghetto can still be precisely traced amid the narrow streets in the medieval heart of the city: here, a maze of alleys, covered bridges and small windows tells the story of a whole community forced to live in a specific area of the town by order of the Papal State beginning from 1556. In Bologna, Jews lived in the ghetto until 1569, when they were expelled for the first time. In 1586, they were allowed to come back to town and lived here again until 1593, year of their final expulsion: 900 people left Bologna and no Jewish community was allowed into town for more than two centuries” (The former Jewish ghetto and its workshops, Bologna Welcome)

Via dell'Inferno

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The corner of Via dell'Inferno (Hell Street)
With Via del Purgatorio (Purgatory Street)
Florence, April 2015

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Plaque honoring Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Piazza Santa Maria Novella
Florence, April 2014

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807 - 1882
American poet
master of the Neo-Latin languages
translator of The Divine Comedy
amid the Florentine dwellings
received this
in the Square that was called
“The Mecca of expatriates”)

Hotel Jeanne d’Arc

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Hôtel Jeanne d'Arc
Rue de Jarente, Le Marais
Quartier Saint-Gervais, 4th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

“About the only thing wrong with this gorgeous address is that everyone knows about it, meaning you need to book well in advance to snag one of its cosy, excellent value rooms. Games to play, a painted rocking chair for tots in the bijou lounge, knick knacks everywhere and the most extraordinary mirror in the breakfast room create a real ‘family home’ air to this 35-room house. The pièce de résistance: the 6th-floor attic room with sweeping, Paris rooftop view.” (Hôtel Jeanne d’Arc, Lonely Planet)

Travelling

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«El andar tierras y comunicar con diversas gentes hace a los hombres discretos.» (Miguel de Cervantes)
„Das Reisen in fremde Länder und der Umgang mit fremden Völkern schärft den Verstand.”
“Travelling and sojourning among various people makes men wise.”
Mehringplatz, Friedrichstadt, Kreuzberg
Berlin, September 2011

The plaques featured words of wisdom from European sages like Albert Einstein and Antoine De Saint-Exupery. At the time, Berlin's mayor expressed broad support for the project, writing, “Berlin (…) is where the various historical, cultural, and political experiences of a formerly divided continent come together. Our city is thus the ideal platform for encounters with Europe, for the exchange of ideas. The ‘Path of Visionaries’ is also committed to furthering the European dialogue.” (Berlin's vision of global unity, Deutsche Welle)

Nell'arzanà de' Viniziani

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Plaque quoting Dante's Inferno about the Venetian Arsenal
Placed on its wall, on the right of the Porta Magna
Venice, September 2012

Quale nell'arzanà de' Viniziani bolle l'inverno la tenace pece a rimpalmare i legni lor non sani, ché navicar non ponno - in quella vece chi fa suo legno nuovo e chi ristoppa le coste a quel che più vïaggi fece; chi ribatte da proda e chi da poppa; altri fa remi e altri volge sarte; chi terzeruolo e artimon rintoppa -; tal, non per foco ma per divin' arte, bollia là giuso una pegola spessa, che 'nviscava la ripa d'ogne parte. Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Inferno, XXI, vv. 7-18

(As in the Arsenal of the Venetians Boils in the winter the tenacious pitch To smear their unsound vessels o'er again, For sail they cannot; and instead thereof One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks The ribs of that which many a voyage has made; One hammers at the prow, one at the stern, This one makes oars, and that one cordage twists, Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen; Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine, Was boiling down below there a dense pitch Which upon every side the bank belimed.) Translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happiness Alley

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Vicolo della felicità (Happiness Alley)
Just opposite the Guinigi Tower
Lucca, March 2012

See also: Spinster's Boulevard

Tota pulchra es

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“Tota pulchra es et macula non est in te”
(You are all beautiful and no stain is in you)
Via dei Cappellari
Rome, May 2011

Novum Eboracum

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“Sigillum civitatis Novi Eboraci” (Seal of New York City)
New York, September 2008

External links: Novum Eboracum (Vicipaedia or Wikipedia in Latin)

Rione of Regola

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Plaque of Regola, the VII ‘rione’ of Rome
Piazza Benedetto Cairoli
Rome, September 2010

Ground Zero Cross

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Plaque on the World Trade Center cross
Church Street side of St. Peter's Church
New York, September 2008

Jacques de Molay

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Plaque commemorating Jacques de Molay
Square du Vert-Galant, Île de la Cité
Quartier Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, 1st arrondissement
Paris, July 2002

“When the Pont Neuf, was completed the bridge was at the west end of the Ile de la Cité, overlooking the river. Two small islands originally lay just west of the bridge; the Île a la Gourdaine or Island of the Patriarch, and the Ile aux Juifs, which had been the site of the persecution and execution of Jews, and which on 18 March had been the execution site of Jacques de Molay, the head of the Knights Templar, as well as another Templar leader, Geoffroi de Charney. Both were burned at the stake for heresy. A plaque commemorating Molay's execution sits at the entrance to the square, which now occupies the land.” (Square du Vert-Galant, Wikipedia)