 |
 |
Subject: Time: 12:51 PM OFFICE MEMO Waits Date: 31/3/95 I am unfamiliar with English term 'waits', but the mid-fifteenth century Florentine practice may be of interest. The Sant'Agnese company, responsible for mounting the Ascension play each year in Santa Maria del Carmine, employed two watchmen from the Commune to stand guard on play-day/night. The Company also had an identification system of coloured beads and string. I deduce that the practice was as follows. Each year they would buy three strings of beads, each string a different colour, and distribute them to the three different "crews". Those with one colour were allowed up the spiral staircase and into Heaven; those of another were allowed up around and into Paradise; and the third colour was allowed onto to the rood screen. The Commune's "pifferi" or trumpeters were hired separately, to go around town before the festa. Nerida Newbigin