In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.

Lillian Gish
as Romola

Dorothy Gish
as Tessa

William Powell
as Tito Melema

Ronald Colman
as Carlo Bucellini

Charles Lane
as Baldassar Calvo

Herbert Grimwood
as Savonarola

Bonaventura Ibáñez
as Bardo Bardi

Frank Puglia
as Adolfo Spini

Amelia Summerville
as Brigida

Tina Ceccaci Renaldi
as Monna Ghita
CinemaSerf
It's actually quite hard to get excited about this rather dreary adaptation of George Eliot's quite gripping story of love and survival during the turbulent events in late 15th century Florence. As was common at the time of her writing this story (1862), she used language to expertly craft and deliv...