Romola · Chapter
V: The Blind Scholar and His Daughter explained
This chapter introduces the setting of the Via de' Bardi and the historical background of the Bardi family, once powerful merchants and nobles who fell from prominence.
What happens
This chapter introduces the setting of the Via de' Bardi and the historical background of the Bardi family, once powerful merchants and nobles who fell from prominence. The narrative then focuses on the blind scholar Bardo de' Bardi and his devoted daughter, Romola, in their home. Bardo, lamenting his lost sight and unfulfilled scholarly ambitions, discusses his library and the threat of printing presses with Romola. He expresses his disappointment that Romola, as a woman, cannot be the scholarly heir he desires, though he acknowledges her value and affection. Romola, in turn, offers to study diligently and become learned to be more useful to him, even hoping to attract a great scholar as a husband who could live with them. The chapter highlights the deep bond between father and daughter, set against Bardo's intellectual pride and his grief over his limitations.
Themes in this chapter
Knowledge and Erudition
The chapter is steeped in the world of classical scholarship. Bardo's identity is tied to his collection of manuscripts and his study of Greek and Latin, which he sees as a superior, lasting light compared to the 'grosser, narrower light' of the living world.
Female Agency and Marriage
Romola's limited agency is highlighted as her father discusses arranging a marriage for her. Her own proposal to become learned to attract a scholarly husband who could live with them shows her trying to navigate her constrained role.
Duty vs. Personal Desire
Romola's sense of duty to her father is clear in her offer to study and be useful. Bardo's personal desire for a male heir to continue his scholarly work conflicts with the reality of having a daughter, creating a source of tension.
Characters to notice
- Romola de' Bardi
Shows deep affection and pity for her blind father, kneeling beside him and offering to study diligently to be more useful. Her 'doubtful attractiveness' is transfigured by 'mingled pity and affection'.
- Bardo de' Bardi
The blind scholar, bitter about his lost sight and unfulfilled work. He laments the lack of a fitting coadjutor and expresses a low opinion of the feminine mind, though he shows tenderness towards Romola.
- Bernardo del Nero
Mentioned by Bardo as a friend who reproaches him for not seeking a fitting marriage for Romola and who tells him that Romola is fair.
Key passages
“And even these mechanical printers who threaten to make learning a base and vulgar thing—even they must depend on the manuscript over which we scholars have bent with that insight into the poet’s meaning which is closely akin to the mens divinior of the poet himself; unless they would flood the world with grammatical falsities and inexplicable anomalies that would turn the very fountain of Parnassus into a deluge of poisonous mud.”
Bardo argues that even the new printing presses, which he sees as cheapening knowledge, must rely on the careful work of scholars who understand the true meaning of the texts, or else they will produce a flood of errors.
Bardo expresses his disdain for the printing press and his belief in the superior value of traditional scholarly interpretation.
“For me, Romola, even when I could see, it was with the great dead that I lived; while the living often seemed to me mere spectres—shadows dispossessed of true feeling and intelligence.”
Bardo tells Romola that even before he lost his sight, he felt more connected to the great thinkers of the past than to the people around him, whom he found to be shallow and lacking in true understanding.
This reveals Bardo's intellectual isolation and his preference for the world of books over the world of men.