WE may not approve of the manner in which Italy is living in her Past,
and celebrating centenaries when she ought to be setting her face
strenuously towards the Future; nevertheless, we must confess that the
Florentine fêtes a year or two back presented one historical spectacle
that was distinctly worth the trouble of reviving. We refer to the
mediæval game known as _Calcio_, or Kick, which is interesting to
English and American youths as bearing at least a superficial likeness
to Football. At the time of the fêtes it was indeed spoken of as the
Football of Florence; but it differs from Football in two ways that are
eminently characteristic of Italian character: it is more complicated
and more spectacular.
To begin with, there were twenty-seven actual players needed on each
side, besides trumpeters, drummers, standard-bearers, referees, and a
ball-thrower. Of the twenty-seven players, fifteen, divided into three
equal companies, were placed face to face with the enemy in the front
of the battle, and bore the brunt of the strife. They were called
Runners (_Corridori_) or Fronts (_Innanzi_).
Behind the three battalions of Runners were placed in loose order,
extending across the whole breadth of the field, five Spoilers
(_Sconciatori_), so called because their business was to spoil the game
for the Runners of the opposite side.
The Spoilers were supported by four Front Hitters (_Datori innanzi_);
and these again by three Back Hitters (_Datori indietro_). These Datori
may be spoken of as Half-backs and Backs.
The favourite Calcio ground in Florence was the square before the
church and convent of Santa Croce. Here the great costume matches
(_Calcio a livrea_) were held, as well as the ordinary games (not in
costume) which enlivened the cold afternoons during Carnival time.
A description of one of the costume matches at once makes clear the
fundamental difference between Calcio and Football.
The field was 100 metres long by 50 broad, enclosed top and bottom by
a palisade, on the left by a ditch, on the right by a low wall. Along
the wall were erected stands for the more honourable spectators and for
the umpires. At each end of the field was a tent round which stood the
referees, standard-bearers, etc., of their respective sides, together
with showily dressed halberdiers, who were also stationed at intervals
round the field.
The spectators being assembled, the umpires and, perhaps, some foreign
potentate or his ambassador, seated in the stand above the wall,
the grand march in of the players commenced. It was a procession of
picked men from the noblest Florentine families. For the Calcio was
an aristocratic game. It was not to be played “by any kind of scum:
not by artisans nor servants nor ignoble nor infamous men; but by
honoured soldier men of noble birth, gentlemen, and princes.” The ages
of the players ranged from eighteen to forty-five, and they were all
well-built, athletic men. They wore light shoes, long hose, doublet and
cap, and their costumes were of the most splendid material—velvet,
silk, cloth of gold or silver—for were not the brightest eyes of the
city to watch the game? Not only did each side have its own colours,
but the players had also to be dressed in the same material.
The march was opened by the trumpeters and drummers. Then came the
Runners, going in couples, and chequer fashion: a red, say, behind
a white, and _vice versâ_. The Runners were followed by nine more
drummers preceding the standard-bearers, each dressed in the colours
and bearing the flag of his side. Finally appeared the Spoilers, the
Half-Backs bearing the ball, and the Backs.
After making the round of the field the procession, at the sound of a
single trumpet-blast, split up into its component parts. Trumpeters,
drummers, referees, standard-bearers, placed themselves at the tents
of their respective sides; the Runners divided up into their companies
of five and faced each other in the centre of the field; the Spoilers
placed themselves at a distance of 13½ metres behind the Runners
and 9 metres from each other; the Half-backs 10½ metres behind the
Spoilers and 12 metres from each other; the Backs again 10½ metres
in the rear of the Half-backs and 17½ metres from each other.
A second trumpet blast, and the serving-men retired from the field; a
third, and the game began.
The Ball-bearer (_Pallaio_), in a parti-coloured dress formed of the
colours of both sides, threw the ball with great force against a
marble sign let into the middle of the wall on the right-hand side
of the field. It rebounded between the two ranks of the Runners, who
immediately rushed towards it, acting, however, not independently, but
in their companies.
The company of Runners which had possessed itself of the ball began,
of course, to work it with their feet towards the opposite goal. Now
came the turn of the Spoilers, of whom the two nearest left their
stations and ran obliquely at the advancing Runners, hustling them
and endeavouring to get the ball from them and pass it to their own
Runners, who were hovering near.
The Runners and the Spoilers worked the ball forward with their feet;
the Hitters (Half-backs and Backs) were allowed, nay, as their name
implies encouraged, to use their hands.
If the Runners succeeded in taking the ball past the Spoilers, they had
to face the onset of two Half-backs, who, if they got the ball, would
probably pitch it clear over the heads of the players to the Half-back
on the opposite side. This was considered very diverting play, and was
much appreciated by the onlookers.
Having pierced the lines of the Spoilers and Half-backs, the Runners
found themselves opposed by one of the Backs. The Backs were the
strongest men on the field, as, being placed so far apart, they were
obliged to act separately.
The ball was generally knocked, not kicked, over the goal. When this
happened the two sides changed places on the field; the winning side
marching to its new position with flag unfurled and waving, the losers
with furled flag and lowered staff.
Such is a diagram—a mere diagram, though a correct one—of the
Florentine _Calcio_. Its connection with Football evidently lies,
to adapt an expression from the vocabulary of folk-lore, in the
fundamental formula: to send a ball through a goal without the aid of
an instrument. But this formula developed differently in England and in
Florence. The traditions of the Florentines were military. Their youths
were trained to war from boyhood upward: they were accustomed to act
in bands. Has anyone ever noticed the truly military spirit in which
Dante continually combines the souls into bands, _schiere_, moving
and acting in unison? The remembrance of the disposition of the Roman
army, too, with its close and extended ranks, still lingered amongst
them. Add to this that they were a thoroughly artistic people, devoted
to spectacular effects and cunning in the planning of them, and we at
once perceive the cause of the radical difference between this most
interesting game of ancient Florence and the English Football.
Those were the times when Florentines penetrated either as merchants or
exiles, and generally as both combined, into all parts of the Peninsula
and of Europe; and they took their games with them. Matteo Strozzi’s
sons, one of whom was Filippo, the famous founder of the great Strozzi
Palace, more than once beg their mother to put balls in with linen,
etc., which she constantly despatched from Florence to her exiled
family, these balls being probably for the most energetic game of
_Pallone_, still played throughout Tuscany.
They took the _Calcio_ with them too, just as the English take their
football, cricket or tennis. Thus Tommaso Rinuccini, living at Lyons,
writes in his memoirs that: “When Henry III., King of Poland, after
the death of Charles IX. his brother, left Poland for France in 1575
to take possession of the kingdom, he passed through Lyons in France.
And the Florentines living in that city played before him a _Calcio_,
in which all the Florentine nobles took part, as it was their custom
to do. And they sent Pierantonio Bandini and Pierfrancesco Rinuccini,
two extremely handsome gentlemen and tall, both Florentines (who were
the standard-bearers in the _Calcio_), to invite his Majesty, in the
name of their native city, to be present at the celebration. King Henry
accepted the invitation and was a spectator of the game. When he spoke
to them before they left his presence he asked whether all Florentines
were as tall and handsome as they.”
It would be, indeed, well for the physical development of modern
Florentines should the _Calcio_ enter again into the ordinary life of
the youth of the city.