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+Project Gutenberg's Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7
+       Italy, Sicily, and Greece (Part One)
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Francis W. Halsey
+
+Release Date: July 16, 2006 [EBook #18845]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.
+
+THE COLISEUM AND ARCH OF TITUS]
+
+
+
+
+SEEING EUROPE
+
+WITH FAMOUS
+
+AUTHORS
+
+
+SELECTED AND EDITED
+
+WITH
+
+INTRODUCTIONS, ETC.
+
+BY
+
+FRANCIS W. HALSEY
+
+  _Editor of "Great Epochs in American History"
+  Associate Editor of "The Worlds Famous Orations"
+  and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc._
+
+
+IN TEN
+
+VOLUMES
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+Vol. VII
+
+ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE
+
+Part One
+
+
+FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
+FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
+[_Printed in the United States of America_]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES VII AND VIII
+
+Italy, Sicily and Greece
+
+
+Tourists in great numbers now go to Italy by steamers that have Naples
+and Genoa for ports. By the fast Channel steamers, however, touching at
+Cherbourg and Havre, one may make the trip in less time (rail journey
+included). In going to Rome, four days could thus be saved; but the
+expense will be greater--perhaps forty per cent.
+
+               ... "and now, fair Italy!
+  Thou art the garden of the world, the home
+  Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree;
+  Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
+  Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste
+  More rich than other climes' fertility;
+  Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
+  With an immaculate charm which can not be defaced."
+
+At least four civilizations, and probably five, have dominated Italy;
+together they cover a period of more than 3,000 years--Pelasgian,
+Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Italian. Of these the Pelasgian is, in the main,
+legendary. Next came the Etruscan. How old that civilization is no man
+knows, but its beginnings date from at least 1000 B.C.--that is, earlier
+than Homer's writings, and earlier by nearly three centuries than the
+wall built by Romulus around Rome. The Etruscan state was a federation
+of twelve cities, embracing a large part of central and northern
+Italy--from near Naples as far north perhaps as Milan and the great
+Lombard plain. Etruscans thus dominated the largest, and certainly the
+fairest, parts of Italy. Before Rome was founded, the Etruscan cities
+were populous and opulent commonwealths. Together they formed one of the
+great naval powers of the Mediterranean. Of their civilization, we have
+abundant knowledge from architectural remains, and, from thousands of
+inscriptions still extant. Cortona was one of their oldest towns. "Ere
+Troy itself arose, Cortona was."
+
+After the Etruscans, came Greeks, who made flourishing settlements in
+southern Italy, the chief of which was Paestum, founded not later than
+600 B.C. Stupendous ruins survive at Paestum; few more interesting ones
+have come down to us from the world of ancient Hellas. The oldest dates
+from about 570 B.C. Here was once the most fertile and beautiful part
+of Italy, celebrated for its flowers so that Virgil praised them. It is
+now a lonely and forsaken land, forbidding and malarious. Once thickly
+populated, it has become scarcely more than a haunt of buffalos and
+peasants, who wander indifferent among these colossal remains of a
+vanished race. These, however, are not the civilizations that do most
+attract tourists to Italy, but the remains found there of ancient Rome.
+Of that empire all modern men are heirs--heirs of her marvelous
+political structure, of her social and industrial laws.
+
+Last of these five civilizations is the Italian, the beginnings of which
+date from Theodoric the Goth, who in the fifth century set up a kingdom
+independent of Rome; but Gothic rule was of short life, and then came
+the Lombards, who for two hundred years were dominant in northern and
+central parts, or until Charlemagne grasped their tottering kingdom and
+put on their famous Iron Crown. In the south Charlemagne's empire never
+flourished. That part of Italy was for centuries the prey of Saracens,
+Magyars and Scandinavians. From these events emerged modern Italy--the
+rise of her vigorous republics, Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice; the
+dawn, meridian splendor and decline of her great schools of sculpture,
+painting and architecture, the power and beauty of which have held the
+world in subjection; her literature, to which also the world has become
+a willing captive; her splendid municipal spirit; a Church, whose
+influence has circled the globe, and in which historians, in a spiritual
+sense, have seen a survival of Imperial Rome. But here are tales that
+every schoolboy hears.
+
+Sicily is reached in a night by steamer from Naples to Palermo, or the
+tourist may go by train from Naples to Reggio, and thence by ferry
+across the strait to Messina. Its earliest people were contemporaries of
+the Etruscans. Phoenicians also made settlements there, as they did in
+many parts of the Mediterranean, but these were purely commercial
+enterprises. Real civilization in Sicily dates from neither of those
+races, but from Dorian and Ionic Greeks, who came perhaps as early as
+the founding of Rome--that is, in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The
+great cities of the Sicilian Greeks were Syracuse, Segesta and Girgenti,
+where still survive colossal remains of their genius. In military and
+political senses, the island for 3,000 years has been overrun,
+plundered and torn asunder by every race known to Mediterranean waters.
+Beside those already named, are Carthaginians under Hannibal, Vandals
+under Genseric, Goths under Theodoric, Byzantines under Belisarius,
+Saracens from Asia Minor, Normans under Robert Guiscard, German emperors
+of the thirteenth century, French Angevine princes (in whose time came
+the Sicilian Vespers), Spaniards of the house of Aragon, French under
+Napoleon, Austrians of the nineteenth century, and then--that glorious
+day when Garibaldi transferred it to the victorious Sardinian king.
+
+The tourist who seeks Greece from northern Europe may go from Trieste by
+steamer along the Dalmatian coast (in itself a trip of fine surprizes),
+to Cattaro and Corfu, transferring to another steamer for the Piræus,
+the port of Athens; or from Italy by steamer direct from Brindisi, the
+ancient Brundusium, whence sailed all Roman expeditions to the East, and
+where in retirement once dwelt Cicero. No writer has known where to date
+the beginnings of civilization in Greece, but with Mycenæ, Tiryns, and
+the Minoan palace of Crete laid bare, antiquarians have pointed the way
+to dates far older than anything before recorded. The palace of Minos
+is ancient enough to make the Homeric age seem modern. With the Dorian
+invasion of Greece about 1000 B.C., begins that Greek civilization of
+which we have so much authentic knowledge. Dorian influence was confined
+largely to Sparta, but it spread to many Greek colonies in the central
+Mediterranean and in the Levant. It became a powerful influence, alike
+in art, in domestic life, and in political supremacy. One of its noblest
+achievements was its help in keeping out the Persian, and another in
+supplanting in the Mediterranean the commercial rule of Phoenicians.
+Attica and Sparta became world-famous cities, with stupendous
+achievements in every domain of human art and human efficiency. The
+colossal debt all Europe and all America owe them, is known to everyone
+who has ever been to school.
+
+                                                              F. W. H.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII
+
+  Italy, Sicily, and Greece--Part One
+
+  INTRODUCTION TO VOLS. VII AND VIII--By the Editor.
+
+
+  I--ROME
+                                                                    PAGE
+  FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY--By Johann
+  Wolfgang von Goethe                                                  1
+
+  THE ANTIQUITIES--By Joseph Addison                                  10
+
+  THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS--By Rodolfo
+  Lanciani                                                            17
+
+  THE COLISEUM--By George S. Hillard                                  24
+
+  THE PANTHEON--By George S. Hillard                                  29
+
+  HADRIAN'S TOMB--By Rodolfo Lanciani                                 32
+
+  TRAJAN'S FORUM--By Francis Wey                                      35
+
+  THE BATHS OF CARACALLA--By Hippolyte
+  Adolphe Taine                                                       37
+
+  THE AQUEDUCT BUILDERS--By Rodolfo Lanciani                          41
+
+  THE QUARRIES AND BRICKS OF THE ANCIENT
+  CITY--By Rodolfo Lanciani                                           45
+
+  PALM SUNDAY IN ST. PETER--By Grace
+  Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott)                                         53
+
+  THE ELECTION OF A POPE--By Cardinal Wiseman                         55
+
+  AN AUDIENCE WITH PIUS X.--By Mary Emogene
+  Hazeltine                                                           59
+
+  THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S--By
+  George S. Hillard                                                   64
+
+  SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE--By Hippolyte
+  Adolphe Taine                                                       67
+
+  CATACOMBS AND CRYPTS--By Charles Dickens 69
+
+  THE CEMETERY OF THE CAPUCHINS--By Nathaniel
+  Hawthorne                                                           73
+
+  THE BURIAL PLACE OF KEATS AND SHELLEY--By
+  Nathaniel Parker Willis                                             75
+
+  EXCURSIONS NEAR ROME--By Charles Dickens                            78
+
+
+  II--FLORENCE
+
+  THE APPROACH BY CARRIAGE ROAD--By Nathaniel
+  Hawthorne                                                           83
+
+  THE OLD PALACE AND THE LOGGIA--By Theophile
+  Gautier                                                             86
+
+  THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY--By Grant Allen 92
+
+  THE CATHEDRAL--By Hippolyte Adolphe
+  Taine                                                               96
+
+  THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI--By
+  Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield                                   102
+
+  ARNOLFO, GIOTTO AND BRUNELLESCHI--By
+  Mrs. Oliphant                                                      106
+
+  GHIBERTI'S GATES--By Charles Yriarte                               116
+
+  THE PONTE VECCHIO--By Charles Yriarte                              119
+
+  SANTA CROCE--By Charles Yriarte                                    121
+
+  THE UFFIZI GALLERY--By Hippolyte Adolphe
+  Taine                                                              125
+
+  FLORENCE EIGHTY YEARS AGO--By William
+  Cullen Bryant                                                      131
+
+
+  III--VENICE
+
+  THE APPROACH FROM THE SEA--By Charles
+  Yriarte                                                            138
+
+  THE APPROACH BY TRAIN--By the Editor                               140
+
+  A TOUR OF THE GRAND CANAL--By Theophile
+  Gautier                                                            143
+
+  ST. MARK'S CHURCH--By John Ruskin                                  148
+
+  HOW THE OLD CAMPANILE WAS BUILT--By
+  Horatio F. Brown                                                   155
+
+  HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL--By Horatio F.
+  Brown                                                              161
+
+  THE PALACE OF THE DOGES--By John Ruskin                            163
+
+  THE LAGOONS--By Horatio F. Brown                                   174
+
+  THE DECLINE AMID SPLENDOR--By Hippolyte
+  Adolphe Taine                                                      177
+
+  THE DOVES OF ST. MARK'S--By Horatio F.
+  Brown                                                              183
+
+  TORCELLO, THE MOTHER CITY--By John Ruskin                          186
+
+  CADORE, TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE--By Amelia B.
+  Edwards                                                            189
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  VOLUME VII
+
+
+  FRONTISPIECE
+
+  THE COLISEUM AND THE ARCH OF TITUS
+
+
+  PRECEDING PAGE 1
+
+  THE PANTHEON, ROME
+  ROME: THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, AND DOME OF ST. PETER'S
+  ROME: RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS
+  ROME: THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE
+  THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY
+  THE TARPIAN ROCK IN ROME
+  INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM
+  THE COLISEUM, ROME
+  ST. PETER'S, ROME
+  ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S
+  ROME: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE
+  THE CATHEDRAL, FLORENCE
+
+  FOLLOWING PAGE 96
+
+  FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO
+  FLORENCE: THE OLD PALACE
+  FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI
+  FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
+  FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO
+  FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE
+  FLORENCE: HOUSE OF DANTE
+  FRONT OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+  INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+  THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE
+  VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL PALACE ON THE LEFT
+  VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE CAMPANILE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PANTHEON OF ROME
+Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[Illustration: THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, AND DOME OF ST. PETER'S
+RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS]
+
+[Illustration: THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE OF ROME]
+
+[Illustration: THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY
+Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[Illustration: THE TARPEIAN ROCK IN ROME]
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM]
+
+[Illustration: THE COLISEUM]
+
+[ST. PETER'S, ROME
+Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[Illustration: ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S]
+
+[Illustration: ROME: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE]
+
+[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+ROME
+
+
+FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY[1]
+
+BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
+
+
+At last I am arrived in this great capital of the world. If fifteen
+years ago I could have seen it in good company, with a well-informed
+guide, I should have thought myself very fortunate. But as it was to be
+that I should thus see it alone, and with my own eyes, it is well that
+this joy has fallen to my lot so late in life.
+
+Over the mountains of the Tyrol I have as good as flown. Verona,
+Vicenza, Padua, and Venice I have carefully looked at; hastily glanced
+at Ferrara, Cento, Bologna, and scarcely seen Florence at all. My
+anxiety to reach Rome was so great, and it so grew with me every moment,
+that to think of stopping anywhere was quite out of the question; even
+in Florence, I only stayed three hours. Now I am here at my ease, and as
+it would seem, shall be tranquilized for my whole life; for we may
+almost say that a new life begins when a man once sees with his own eyes
+all that before he has but partially heard or read of.
+
+All the dreams of my youth I now behold realized before me; the subjects
+of the first engravings I ever remembered seeing (several views of Rome
+were hung up in an anteroom of my father's house) stand bodily before my
+sight, and all that I had long been acquainted with, through paintings
+or drawings, engravings, or wood-cuts, plaster-casts, and cork models
+are here collectively presented to my eye. Wherever I go I find some old
+acquaintance in this new world; it is all just as I had thought it, and
+yet all is new; and just the same might I remark of my own observations
+and my own ideas. I have not gained any new thoughts, but the older ones
+have become so defined, so vivid, and so coherent, that they may almost
+pass for new ones....
+
+I have now been here seven days, and by degrees have formed in my mind a
+general idea of the city. We go diligently backward and forward. While I
+am thus making myself acquainted with the plan of old and new Rome,
+viewing the ruins and the buildings, visiting this and that villa, the
+grandest and most remarkable objects are slowly and leisurely
+contemplated. I do but keep my eyes open and see, and then go and come
+again, for it is only in Rome one can duly prepare oneself for Rome. It
+must, in truth, be confessed, that it is a sad and melancholy business
+to prick and track out ancient Rome in new Rome; however, it must be
+done, and we may hope at least for an incalculable gratification. We
+meet with traces both of majesty and of ruin, which alike surpass all
+conception; what the barbarians spared, the builders of new Rome made
+havoc of....
+
+When one thus beholds an object two thousand years old and more, but so
+manifoldly and thoroughly altered by the changes of time, but, sees
+nevertheless, the same soil, the same mountains, and often indeed the
+same walls and columns, one becomes, as it were, a contemporary of the
+great counsels of Fortune, and thus it becomes difficult for the
+observer to trace from the beginning Rome following Rome, and not only
+new Rome succeeding to the old, but also the several epochs of both old
+and new in succession. I endeavor, first of all, to grope my way alone
+through the obscurer parts, for this is the only plan by which one can
+hope fully and completely to perfect by the excellent introductory works
+which have been written from the fifteenth century to the present day.
+The first artists and scholars have occupied their whole lives with
+these objects.
+
+And this vastness has a strangely tranquilizing effect upon you in Rome,
+while you pass from place to place, in order to visit the most
+remarkable objects. In other places one has to search for what is
+important; here one is opprest, and borne down with numberless
+phenomena. Wherever one goes and casts a look around, the eye is at once
+struck with some landscape--forms of every kind and style; palaces and
+ruins, gardens and statuary, distant views of villas, cottages and
+stables, triumphal arches and columns, often crowding so close together,
+that they might all be sketched on a single sheet of paper. He ought to
+have a hundred hands to write, for what can a single pen do here; and,
+besides, by the evening one is quite weary and exhausted with the day's
+seeing and admiring.
+
+My strange, and perhaps whimsical, incognito proves useful to me in many
+ways that I never should have thought of. As every one thinks himself in
+duty bound to ignore who I am, and consequently never ventures to speak
+to me of myself and my works,[2] they have no alternative left them but
+to speak of themselves, or of the matters in which they are most
+interested, and in this way I become circumstantially informed of the
+occupations of each, and of everything remarkable that is either taken
+in hand or produced. Hofrath Reiffenstein good-naturedly humors this
+whim of mine; as, however, for special reasons, he could not bear the
+name which I had assumed, he immediately made a Baron of me, and I am
+now called the "Baron gegen Rondanini über" (the Baron who lives
+opposite to the Palace Rondanini). This designation is sufficiently
+precise, especially as the Italians are accustomed to speak of people
+either by their Christian names, or else by some nickname. Enough; I
+have gained my object; and I escape the dreadful annoyance of having to
+give to everybody an account of myself and my works....
+
+In Rome, the Rotunda,[3] both by its exterior and interior, has moved me
+to offer a willing homage to its magnificence. In St. Peter's I learned
+to understand how art, no less than nature, annihilates the artificial
+measures and dimensions of man. And in the same way the Apollo Belvidere
+also has again drawn me out of reality. For as even the most correct
+engravings furnish no adequate idea of these buildings, so the case is
+the same with respect to the marble original of this statue, as compared
+with the plaster models of it, which, however, I formerly used to look
+upon as beautiful.
+
+Here I am now living with a calmness and tranquility to which I have for
+a long while been a stranger. My practise to see and take all things as
+they are, my fidelity in letting the eye be my light, my perfect
+renunciation of all pretension, have again come to my aid, and make me
+calmly, but most intensely, happy. Every day has its fresh remarkable
+object--every day its new grand unequaled paintings, and a whole which a
+man may long think of, and dream of, but which with all his power of
+imagination he can never reach.
+
+Yesterday I was at the Pyramid of Cestius, and in the evening on the
+Palatine, on the top of which are the ruins of the palace of the Cæsars,
+which stand there like walls of rock. Of all this, however, no idea can
+be conveyed! In truth, there is nothing little here; altho, indeed,
+occasionally something to find fault with--something more or less absurd
+in taste, and yet even this partakes of the universal grandeur of all
+around....
+
+Yesterday I visited the nymph Egeria, and then the Hippodrome of
+Caracalla, the ruined tombs along the Via Appia, and the tomb of
+Metella, which is the first to give one a true idea of what solid
+masonry really is. These men worked for eternity--all causes of decay
+were calculated, except the rage of the spoiler, which nothing can
+resist. The remains of the principal aqueduct are highly venerable. How
+beautiful and grand a design, to supply a whole people with water by so
+vast a structure! In the evening we came upon the Coliseum, when it was
+already twilight. When one looks at it, all else seems little; the
+edifice is so vast, that one can not hold the image of it in one's
+soul--in memory we think it smaller, and then return to it again to find
+it every time greater than before.
+
+We entered the Sistine Chapel, which we found bright and cheerful, and
+with a good light for the pictures. "The Last Judgment" divided our
+admiration with the paintings on the roof by Michael Angelo. I could
+only see and wonder. The mental confidence and boldness of the master,
+and his grandeur of conception, are beyond all expression. After we had
+looked at all of them over and over again, we left this sacred building,
+and went to St. Peter's, which received from the bright heavens the
+loveliest light possible, and every part of it was clearly lit up. As
+men willing to be pleased, we were delighted with its vastness and
+splendor, and did not allow an over-nice or hypercritical taste to mar
+our pleasure. We supprest every harsher judgment; we enjoyed the
+enjoyable.
+
+Lastly we ascended the roof of the church, where one finds in little the
+plan, of a well-built city. Houses and magazines, springs (in appearance
+at least), churches, and a great temple all in the air, and beautiful
+walks between. We mounted the dome, and saw glistening before us the
+regions of the Apennines, Soracte, and toward Tivoli the volcanic hills.
+Frascati, Castelgandolfo, and the plains, and beyond all the sea. Close
+at our feet lay the whole city of Rome in its length and breadth, with
+its mountain palaces, domes, etc. Not a breath of air was moving, and in
+the upper dome it was (as they say) like being in a hot-house. When we
+had looked enough at these things, we went down, and they opened for us
+the doors in the cornices of the dome, the tympanum, and the nave. There
+is a passage all round, and from above you can take a view of the whole
+church, and of its several parts. As we stood on the cornices of the
+tympanum, we saw beneath us the pope passing to his mid-day devotions.
+Nothing, therefore, was wanting to make our view of St. Peter's perfect.
+We at last descended to the piazza, and took in a neighboring hotel a
+cheerful but frugal meal, and then set off for St. Cecilia's.
+
+It would take many words to describe the decorations of this church,
+which was crammed full of people; not a stone of the edifice was to be
+seen. The pillars were covered with red velvet wound round with gold
+lace; the capitals were overlaid with embroidered velvet, so as to
+retain somewhat of the appearance of capitals, and all the cornices and
+pillars were in like manner covered with hangings. All the entablatures
+of the walls were also covered with life-like paintings, so that the
+whole church seemed to be laid out in mosaic. Around the church, and on
+the high altar more than two hundred wax tapers were burning. It looked
+like a wall of lights, and the whole nave was perfectly lit up. The
+aisles and side altars were equally adorned and illuminated. Right
+opposite the high altar, and under the organ, two scaffolds were
+erected, which also were covered with velvet, on one of which were
+placed the singers, and on the other the instruments, which kept up one
+unbroken strain of music....
+
+And yet these glorious objects are even still like new acquaintances to
+me. One has not yet lived with them, nor got familiar with their
+peculiarities. Some of them attract us with irresistible power, so that
+for a time one feels indifferent, if not unjust, toward all others.
+Thus, for instance, the Pantheon, the Apollo Belvedere, some colossal
+heads, and very recently the Sistine Chapel, have by turns so won my
+whole heart, that I scarcely saw any thing besides them. But, in truth,
+can man, little as man always is, and accustomed to littleness, ever
+make himself equal to all that here surrounds him of the noble, the
+vast, and the refined? Even tho he should in any degree adapt himself to
+it, then how vast is the multitude of objects that immediately press
+upon him from all sides, and meet him at every turn, of which each
+demands for itself the tribute of his whole attention. How is one to get
+out of the difficulty? No other way assuredly than by patiently allowing
+it to work, becoming industrious, and attending the while to all that
+others have accomplished for our benefit.
+
+Of the beauty of a walk through Rome by moonlight it is impossible to
+form a conception, without having witnessed it. All single objects are
+swallowed up by the great masses of light and shade, and nothing but
+grand and general outlines present themselves to the eye. For three
+several days we have enjoyed to the full the brightest and most glorious
+of nights. Peculiarly beautiful at such a time is the Coliseum. At night
+it is always closed; a hermit dwells in a little shrine within its
+range, and beggars of all kinds nestle beneath its crumbling arches; the
+latter had lit a fire on the arena, and a gentle wind bore down the
+smoke to the ground, so that the lower portion of the ruins was quite
+hid by it, while above the vast walls stood out in deeper darkness
+before the eye. As we stopt at the gate to contemplate the scene through
+the iron gratings, the moon shone brightly in the heavens above.
+Presently the smoke found its way up the sides, and through every chink
+and opening, while the moon lit it up like a cloud. The sight was
+exceedingly glorious. In such a light one ought also to see the
+Pantheon, the Capitol, the Portico of St. Peter's, and the other grand
+streets and squares--and thus sun and moon, like the human mind, have
+quite a different work to do here from elsewhere, where the vastest and
+yet the most elegant of masses present themselves to their rays.
+
+
+
+
+THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY[4]
+
+BY JOSEPH ADDISON
+
+
+There are in Rome two sets of antiquities, the Christian, and the
+heathen. The former, tho of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable
+and legend, that one receives but little satisfaction from searching
+into them. The other give a great deal of pleasure to such as have met
+with them before in ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome can scarce
+see an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet or
+historian. Among the remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the
+commonwealth shows itself chiefly in works that were either necessary or
+convenient, such as temples, highways, aqueducts, walls, and bridges of
+the city. On the contrary, the magnificence of Rome under the emperors
+is seen principally in such works as were rather for ostentation or
+luxury, than any real usefulness or necessity, as in baths,
+amphitheaters, circuses, obelisks, triumphal pillars, arches, and
+mausoleums; for what they added to the aqueducts was rather to supply
+their baths and naumachias, and to embellish the city with fountains,
+than out of any real necessity there was for them....
+
+No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me so much as the ancient
+statues, of which there is still an incredible variety. The workmanship
+is often the most exquisite of anything in its kind. A man would wonder
+how it were possible for so much life to enter into marble, as may be
+discovered in some of the best of them; and even in the meanest, one has
+the satisfaction of seeing the faces, postures, airs, and dress of those
+that have lived so many ages before us. There is a strange resemblance
+between the figures of the several heathen deities, and the descriptions
+that the Latin poets have given us of them; but as the first may be
+looked upon as the ancienter of the two, I question not but the Roman
+poets were the copiers of the Greek statuaries. Tho on other occasions
+we often find the statuaries took their subjects from the poets. The
+Laocöon is too known an instance among many others that are to be met
+with at Rome.
+
+I could not forbear taking particular notice of the several musical
+instruments that are to be seen in the hands of the Apollos, muses,
+fauns, satyrs, bacchanals, and shepherds, which might certainly give a
+great light to the dispute for preference between the ancient and modern
+music. It would, perhaps, be no impertinent design to take off all their
+models in wood, which might not only give us some notion of the ancient
+music, but help us to pleasanter instruments than are now in use. By the
+appearance they make in marble, there is not one string-instrument that
+seems comparable to our violins, for they are all played on either by
+the bare fingers, or the plectrum, so that they were incapable of adding
+any length to their notes, or of varying them by those insensible
+swellings, and wearings away of sound upon the same string, which give
+so wonderful a sweetness to our modern music. Besides that, the
+string-instruments must have had very low and feeble voices, as may be
+guessed from the small proportion of wood about them, which could not
+contain air enough to render the strokes, in any considerable measure,
+full and sonorous. There is a great deal of difference in the make, not
+only of the several kinds of instruments, but even among those of the
+same name. The syringa, for example, has sometimes four, and sometimes
+more pipes, as high as the twelve. The same variety of strings may be
+observed on their harps, and of stops on their tibiæ, which shows the
+little foundation that such writers have gone upon, who, from a verse
+perhaps in Virgil's Eclogues, or a short passage in a classic author,
+have been so very nice in determining the precise shape of the ancient
+musical instruments, with the exact number of their pipes, strings, and
+stops....
+
+Tho the statues that have been found among the ruins of old Rome are
+already very numerous, there is no question but posterity will have the
+pleasure of seeing many noble pieces of sculpture which are still
+undiscovered; for, doubtless, there are greater treasures of this nature
+under ground, than what are yet brought to light.[5] They have often dug
+into lands that are described in old authors, as the places where such
+particular statues or obelisks stood, and have seldom failed of success
+in their pursuits. There are still many such promising spots of ground
+that have never been searched into. A great part of the Palatine
+mountain, for example, lies untouched, which was formerly the seat of
+the imperial palace, and may be presumed to abound with more treasures
+of this nature than any other part of Rome.
+
+But whether it be that the richest of these discoveries fall into the
+Pope's hands, or for some other reason, it is said that the Prince
+Farnese, who is the present owner of this seat, will keep his own family
+in the chair. There are undertakers in Rome who often purchase the
+digging of fields, gardens, or vineyards, where they find any likelihood
+of succeeding, and some have been known to arrive at great estates by
+it. They pay according to the dimensions of the surface they are to
+break up; and after having made essays into it, as they do for coal in
+England, they rake into the most promising parts of it, tho they often
+find, to their disappointment, that others have been beforehand with
+them. However, they generally gain enough by the rubbish and bricks,
+which the present architects value much beyond those of a modern make,
+to defray the charges of their search.
+
+I was shown two spaces of ground, where part of Nero's golden house
+stood, for which the owner has been offered an extraordinary sum of
+money. What encouraged the undertakers, are several very ancient trees,
+which grow upon the spot, from whence they conclude that these
+particular tracts of ground must have lain untouched for some ages. It
+is pity there is not something like a public register, to preserve the
+memory of such statues as have been found from time to time, and to mark
+the particular places where they have been taken up, which would not
+only prevent many fruitless searches for the future, but might often
+give a considerable light into the quality of the place, or the design
+of the statue.
+
+But the great magazine for all kinds of treasure, is supposed to be the
+bed of the Tiber. We may be sure, when the Romans lay under the
+apprehensions of seeing their city sacked by a barbarous enemy, as they
+have done more than once, that they would take care to bestow such of
+their riches this way as could best bear the water, besides what the
+insolence of a brutish conqueror may be supposed to have contributed,
+who had an ambition to waste and destroy all the beauties of so
+celebrated a city. I need not mention the old common-shore of Rome,
+which ran from all parts of the town with the current and violence of an
+ordinary river, nor the frequent inundations of the Tiber, which may
+have swept away many of the ornaments of its banks, nor the several
+statues that the Romans themselves flung into it, when they would
+revenge themselves on the memory of an ill citizen, a dead tyrant, or a
+discarded favorite.
+
+At Rome they have so general an opinion of the riches of this river,
+that the Jews have formerly proffered the Pope to cleanse it, so they
+might have for their pains what they found in the bosom of it. I have
+seen the valley near Ponte Molle, which they proposed to fashion into a
+new channel for it, until they had cleared the old for its reception.
+The Pope, however, would not comply with the proposal, as fearing the
+heats might advance too far before they had finished their work, and
+produce a pestilence among his people; tho I do not see why such a
+design might not be executed now with as little danger as in Augustus's
+time, were there as many hands employed upon it. The city of Rome would
+receive a great advantage from the undertaking, as it would raise the
+banks and deepen the bed of the Tiber, and by consequence free them from
+those frequent inundations to which they are so subject at present; for
+the channel of the river is observed to be narrower within the walls
+than either below or above them.
+
+Next to the statues, there is nothing in Rome more surprizing than that
+amazing variety of ancient pillars of so many kinds of marble. As most
+of the old statues may be well supposed to have been cheaper to their
+first owners than they are to a modern purchaser, several of the pillars
+are certainly rated at a much lower price at present than they were of
+old. For not to mention what a huge column of granite, serpentine, or
+porphyry must have cost in the quarry, or in its carriage from Egypt to
+Rome, we may only consider the great difficulty of hewing it into any
+form, and of giving it the due turn, proportion, and polish. The most
+valuable pillars about Rome, for the marble of which they are made, are
+the four columns of oriental jasper in St. Paulina's chapel at St.
+Maria Maggiore; two of oriental granite in St. Pudenziana; one of
+transparent oriental jasper in the Vatican library; four of Nero-Bianco,
+in St. Cecilia Transtevere; two of Brocatello, and two of oriental agate
+in Don Livio's palace; two of Giallo Antico in St. John Lateran, and two
+of Verdi Antique in the Villa Pamphilia. These are all entire and solid
+pillars, and made of such kinds of marble as are nowhere to be found but
+among antiquities, whether it be that the veins of it are undiscovered,
+or that they were quite exhausted upon the ancient buildings. Among
+these old pillars, I can not forbear reckoning a great part of an
+alabaster column, which was found in the ruins of Livia's portico. It is
+of the color of fire, and may be seen over the high altar of St. Maria
+in Campitello; for they have cut it into two pieces, and fixt it in the
+shape of a cross in a hole of the wall that was made on purpose to
+receive it; so that the light passing through it from without, makes it
+look, to those who are in the church, like a huge transparent cross of
+amber.
+
+
+
+
+THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS[6]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+The Palatine hill became the residence of the Roman emperors, and the
+center of the Roman Empire, not on account of its historical and
+traditional associations with the foundation and first growth of the
+city, nor because of its central and commanding position, but by a mere
+accident. At daybreak on September 21st, of the year 63 B.C., Augustus
+was born in this region, in a modest house, opening on the lane called
+"ad capita bubula," which led from the valley, where now the Coliseum
+stands, up the slopes of the hill toward the modern church and convent
+of St. Bonaventura.
+
+This man, sent by God to change the condition of mankind and the state
+of the world, this founder of an empire which is still practically in
+existence,[7] never deserted the Palatine hill all through his eventful
+career. From the lane "ad capita bubula" he moved to the house of
+Calvus, the orator, at the northeast corner of the hill overlooking the
+forum; and in process of time, having become absolute master of the
+Roman Commonwealth, he settled finally on the top of the hill, having
+purchased for his residence the house of Hortensius, a simple and
+modest house, indeed, with columns of the commonest kind of stone,
+pavements of rubble-work, and simple whitewashed walls.
+
+Whether this selection of a site was made because the Palatine had long
+before been the Faubourg St. Honoré, the Belgravia of ancient Rome, is
+difficult to determine. We know that the house of Hortensius, chosen by
+Augustus, was surrounded by those of Clodius, Scaurus, Crassus, Caecina,
+Sisenna, Flaccus, Catiline, and other members of the aristocracy. I am
+persuaded, however, that the secret of the selection is to be found in
+the simplicity, I will even say in the poverty, of the dwelling; in
+fact, such extreme modesty is worthy of the good sense and the spirit of
+moderation shown by Augustus throughout his career. He could very well
+sacrifice appearances to the reality of an unbounded power. It is just,
+at any rate, to recognize that even in his remotest resorts for
+temporary rest and retirement from the cares of government, he led the
+same kind of plain, modest life, spending all his leisure hours in
+arranging his collections of natural history, more especially the
+palaeo-ethnological or prehistoric, for which the ossiferous caverns of
+the Island of Capri supplied him with abundant materials.
+
+It was only after the victory of Actium that, finding himself master of
+the world, he thought it expedient to give up, in a certain measure, his
+former habits, and live in better style. Having bought through his
+agents some of the aristocratic palaces adjoining the old house of
+Hortensius, among them the historical palace of Catiline, he built a
+new and very handsome residence, but declared at the same time that he
+considered it as public property, not as his own. The solemn dedication
+of the palace took place on January 14th, of the year 26 before Christ.
+Here he lived, sleeping always in the same small cubiculum, for
+twenty-eight years; that is to say, until the third year after Christ,
+when the palace was almost destroyed by fire.
+
+As soon as the news of the disaster spread throughout the empire, an
+almost incredible amount of money was subscribed at once, by all orders
+of citizens, to provide him with a new residence; and altho, with his
+usual moderation, he would consent to accept only one denarius from each
+individual subscribed, it is easy to imagine how many millions he must
+have realized in spite of his modesty. A new, magnificent palace rose
+from the ruins of the old one, but it does not appear that the plan and
+arrangement were changed; otherwise Augustus could not have continued to
+sleep in the same room during the last ten years of his life, as we are
+told positively that he did.
+
+The work of Augustus was continued by his successor and kinsman,
+Tiberius, who built a new wing near the northwest corner of the hill,
+overlooking the Velabrum. Caligula filled with new structures the whole
+space between the "domus Tiberiana" and the Roman forum. Nero, likewise,
+occupied with a new palace the south-east corner of the hill,
+overlooking the valley, where the Coliseum was afterward built. Domitian
+rebuilt the "domus Augustana," injured by fire, adding to its
+accommodations a stadium for gymnastic sports. The same emperor raised
+an altogether new palace, in the space between the house of Augustus, on
+one side, and those of Caligula and Tiberius on the other. Septimius
+Severus and his son restored the whole group of imperial buildings,
+adding a new wing at the southwest corner, known under the name of
+Septizonium. The latest additions, of no special importance, took place
+under Julia Mamaea and Heliogabalus.
+
+Every emperor, to a certain extent, enlarged, altered, destroyed, and
+reconstructed the work of his predecessors; cutting new openings,
+walling up old ones, subdividing large rooms into smaller apartments,
+and changing their destination. One section alone of the imperial
+Palatine buildings remained unaltered, and kept the former simplicity of
+its plans down to the fall of the Empire--the section built by Augustus
+across the center of the hill, which comprised the main entrance, the
+portico surrounding the temple of Apollo, the temple itself, the Greek
+and Latin libraries, the shrine of Vesta, and the imperial residence.
+
+The architectural group raised by Augustus on the Palatine, formed, as
+it were, the vestibule to his own imperial residence. We know with
+absolute certainty that it contained at least one hundred and twenty
+columns of the rarest kinds of marbles and breccias, fifty-two of which
+were of Numidian marble, with capitals of gilt bronze; a group of
+Lysias, comprising one chariot, four horses and two drivers, all cut in
+a single block of marble; the Hercules of Lysippus; the Apollo of
+Scopas; the Latona of Cephisodotos, the Diana of Timotheos; the
+bas-reliefs of the pediment by Bupalos and Anthermos; the quadriga of
+the sun in gilt bronze; exquisite ivory carvings; a bronze colossus
+fifty feet high; hundreds of medallions in gold, silver, and bronze;
+gold and silver plate; a collection of gems and cameos; and, lastly,
+candelabras which had been the property of Alexander the Great, and the
+admiration of the East.
+
+Has the world ever seen a collection of greater artistic and material
+value exhibited in a single building? And we must recollect that the
+group built by Augustus comprises only a very modest section of the
+Palatine; that to his palace we must join the palaces of Tiberius,
+Caligula, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Septimius Serverus, Julia Mamaea,
+and Heliogabalus; that each one of these imperial residences equalled
+the residence of Augustus, if not in pure taste, certainly in wealth, in
+luxury, in magnificence, in the number and value of works of art
+collected and stolen from Greece and the East, from Egypt and Persia. By
+multiplying eight or ten times the list I have given above, the reader
+will get an approximate idea of the "home" of the Roman emperors in its
+full pride and glory. I have deliberately excluded from my description
+the residence or private house of Augustus, because he himself had
+deliberately excluded from it any trace of that grandeur he had so
+lavishly bestowed on the buildings which constituted the approach to
+it....
+
+During the rule of Claudius, the successor of Caligula, little or
+nothing was done toward the enlargement or the embellishment of the
+palace of the Cæsars. Nero, however, the successor of Claudius,
+conceived the gigantic plan of renewing and of rebuilding from the very
+foundations, not only the imperial residence, but the whole metropolis.
+In the rebuilding of the city the emperor secured for himself the lion's
+share; and his Golden House, of which we possess such beautiful remains,
+occupied the whole extent from the Palatine to the Quirinal, where now
+the central railway station has been erected. Its area amounted to
+nearly a square mile, and this enormous district was appropriated, or
+rather usurped, by the emperor, right in the center of a city numbering
+about two million inhabitants.
+
+Of the wonders of the Golden House it is enough to say that there were
+comprised within the precincts of the enchanting residence waterfalls
+supplied by an aqueduct fifty miles long, lakes and rivers shaded by
+dense masses of foliage, with harbors and docks for the imperial
+galleys; a vestibule containing a bronze colossus one hundred and twenty
+feet high; porticos three thousand feet long; farms and vineyards,
+pasture grounds and woods teeming with the rarest and costliest kind of
+game, zoological and botanical gardens; sulfur baths supplied from
+springs twelve miles distant; sea baths supplied from the waters of the
+Mediterranean, sixteen miles distant at the nearest point; thousands of
+columns crowned with capitals of Corinthian gilt metal; thousands of
+statues stolen from Greece and Asia Minor; walls encrusted with gems and
+mother-of-pearl; banqueting-halls with ivory ceilings, from which rare
+flowers and precious perfumes could fall gently on the recumbent
+guests.
+
+More marvelous still was the ceiling of the state dining-room. It was
+spherical in shape, and cut in ivory, to represent the constellated
+skies, and kept in constant motion by machinery in imitation of the
+movements of the stars and planets. All these details sound like
+fairy-tales, like the dream of a fertile imagination; still they are
+described minutely by contemporary and serious writers, by Suetonius, by
+Martial and by Tacitus. Suetonius adds that the day Nero took possession
+of his Golden House, he was heard to exclaim, "At last I am lodged like
+a man."
+
+The wonders created by him, however, did not last very long. Otho, his
+successor, on the very day of his election to the throne, signed an
+order of fifty millions of sesterces (two million dollars) to bring the
+Golden House to perfection; but after his murder Vespasian and Titus
+gave back to the people the greater portion of the ground usurped by
+Nero. They built the Coliseum on the very site of Nero's artificial
+lake, and the thermæ of Titus on the foundation of his private palace;
+they respected only that portion of Nero's insane construction which was
+comprised within the boundaries of the Palatine hill.
+
+
+
+
+THE COLISEUM[8]
+
+BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
+
+
+The Venerable Bede, who lived in the eighth century, is the first person
+who is known to have given to the Flavian amphitheater its comparatively
+modern and now universal designation of the Coliseum; tho the name,
+derived from a colossal statue of the emperor Nero which stood near it,
+was probably then familiar to men's ears, as we may infer from his so
+calling it without explanation or remark.
+
+When in its perfect state, the exterior, with its costly ornaments in
+marble, and its forest of columns, lost the merit of simplicity without
+gaining that of grandeur. The eye was teased with a multitude of
+details, not in themselves good; the same defects were repeated in each
+story, and the real height was diminished by the projecting and
+ungraceful cornices. The interior arrangements were admirable; and
+modern architects can not sufficiently commend the skill with which
+eighty thousand spectators were accommodated with seats; or the
+ingenious contrivances, by which, through the help of spacious
+corridors, multiplied passages, and staircases, every person went
+directly to his place, and immense audiences were dispersed in less time
+than is required for a thousand persons to squeeze through the entries
+of a modern concert-room. We know that this interior of the Coliseum was
+decorated with great splendor. The principal seats were of marble, and
+covered with cushions. Gilded gratings, ornaments of gold, ivory, and
+amber, and mosaics of precious stones, displayed the generosity of the
+emperors, and gratified the taste of the people.
+
+How, or at what period, the work of ruin first began does not distinctly
+appear. An earthquake may have first shattered its ponderous arches, and
+thus made an opening for the destroying hand of time. There can be no
+doubt that it suffered violence from the hands of civil and foreign war.
+But more destructive agencies than those of earthquake, conflagration or
+war, were let loose upon it. Its massive stones, fitted to each other
+with such nice adaptation, presented a strong temptation to the cupidity
+of wealthy nobles and cardinals, with whom building was a ruling
+passion; and for many ages the Coliseum became a quarry. The Palazzo
+della Cancelleria, the Palazzo Barberini, the Palazzo Farnese, and the
+Palazzo Veneziano were all built mainly from the plunder of the
+Coliseum; and meaner robbers emulated the rapacity of their betters, by
+burning into lime the fragments not available for architectural
+purposes.
+
+The material of which the Coliseum was built is exactly fitted to the
+purposes of a great ruin. It is travertine, of a rich, dark, warm color,
+deepened and mellowed by time. There is nothing glaring, harsh, or
+abrupt in the harmony of tints. The blue sky above, and the green earth
+beneath, are in unison with a tone of coloring not unlike the brown of
+one of our own early winter landscapes. The travertine is also of a
+coarse grain and porous texture, not splintering into points and edges,
+but gradually corroding by natural decay. Stone of such a texture
+everywhere opens laps and nooks for the reception and formation of soil.
+Every grain of dust that is borne through the air by the lazy breeze of
+summer, instead of sliding from a glassy surface, is held where it
+falls. The rocks themselves crumble and decompose, and turn into a
+fertile mold. Thus, the Coliseum is throughout crowned and draped with a
+covering of earth, in many places of considerable depth. Trailing plants
+clasp the stones with arms of verdure; wild flowers bloom in their
+seasons; and long grass nods and waves on the airy battlements. Life has
+everywhere sprouted from the trunk of death. Insects hum and sport in
+the sunshine; the burnished lizard darts like a tongue of green flame
+along the walls; and birds make the hollow quarry overflow with their
+songs. There is something beautiful and impressive in the contrast
+between luxuriant life and the rigid skeleton upon which it rests.
+
+As a matter of course, everybody goes to see the Coliseum by moonlight.
+The great charm of the ruin under this condition is, that the
+imagination is substituted for sight; and the mind for the eye. The
+essential character of moonlight is hard rather than soft. The line
+between light and shadow is sharply defined, and there is no gradation
+of color. Blocks and walls of silver are bordered by, and spring out of,
+chasms of blackness. But moonlight shrouds the Coliseum in mystery. It
+opens deep vaults of gloom where the eye meets only an ebon wall, upon
+which the fancy paints innumerable pictures in solemn, splendid, and
+tragic colors. Shadowy forms of emperor and lictor and vestal virgin and
+gladiator and martyr come out of the darkness, and pass before us in
+long and silent procession. The breezes which blow through the broken
+arches are changed into voices, and recall the shouts and cries of a
+vast audience. By day, the Coliseum is an impressive fact; by night, it
+is a stately vision. By day, it is a lifeless form; by night, a vital
+thought.
+
+The Coliseum should by all means be seen by a bright starlight, or under
+the growing sickle of a young moon. The fainter ray and deeper gloom
+bring out more strongly its visionary and ideal character. When the full
+moon has blotted out the stars, it fills the vast gulf of the building
+with a flood of spectral light, which falls with a chilling touch upon
+the spirit; for then the ruin is like a "corpse in its shroud of snow,"
+and the moon is a pale watcher by its side. But when the walls, veiled
+in deep shadow, seem a part of the darkness in which they are lost--when
+the stars are seen through their chasms and breaks, and sparkle along
+the broken line of the battlements--the scene becomes another, tho the
+same; more indistinct, yet not so mournful; contracting the sphere of
+sight, but enlarging that of thought; less burdening, but more
+suggestive.
+
+But under all aspects, in the blaze of noon, at sunset, by the light of
+the moon or stars--the Coliseum stands alone and unapproached. It is the
+monarch of ruins. It is a great tragedy in stone, and it softens and
+subdues the mind like a drama of Aeschylus or Shakespeare. It is a
+colossal type of those struggles of humanity against an irresistible
+destiny, in which the tragic poet finds the elements of his art. The
+calamities which crusht the house of Atreus are symbolized in its broken
+arches and shattered walls. Built of the most durable materials, and
+seemingly for eternity--of a size, material, and form to defy the
+"strong hours" which conquer all, it has bowed its head to their touch,
+and passed into the inevitable cycle of decay. "And this too shall pass
+away"--which the Eastern monarch engraved upon his signet ring--is
+carved upon these Cyclopean blocks. The stones of the Coliseum were once
+water; and they are now turning into dust. Such is ever the circle of
+nature. The solid is changing into the fluid, and the fluid into the
+solid; and that which is unseen is alone indestructible. He does not see
+the Coliseum aright who carries away from it no other impressions than
+those of form, size, and hue. It speaks an intelligible language to the
+wiser mind. It rebukes the peevish and consoles the patient. It teaches
+us that there are misfortunes which are clothed with dignity, and
+sorrows that are crowned with grandeur. As the same blue sky smiles upon
+the ruin which smiled upon the perfect structure, so the same beneficent
+Providence bends over our shattered hopes and our answered prayers.
+
+
+
+
+THE PANTHEON[9]
+
+BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
+
+
+The best preserved monument of ancient Rome, and one of the most
+beautiful buildings of the modern city, is unhappily placed. The
+Pantheon stands in a narrow and dirty piazza, and is shouldered and
+elbowed by a mob of vulgar houses. There is no breathing-space around,
+which it might penetrate with the light of its own serene beauty. Its
+harmonious proportions can be seen only in front; and it has there the
+disadvantage of being approached from a point higher than that on which
+it stands. On one side is a market; and the space before the matchless
+portico is strewn with fish-bones, decayed vegetables, and offal.[10]
+
+Forsyth, the sternest and most fastidious of architectural critics, has
+only "large draughts of unqualified praise" for the Pantheon; and, where
+he finds nothing to censure, who will venture to do any thing but
+commend? The character of the architecture, and the sense of
+satisfaction which it leaves upon the mind, are proofs of the enduring
+charm of simplicity. The portico is perfectly beautiful. It is one
+hundred and ten feet long and forty-four deep, and rests upon sixteen
+columns of the Corinthian order, the shafts being of granite and the
+capitals of marble. Eight of these are in front, and of these eight,
+there are four (including the two on the extreme right and left) which
+have two others behind them; the portico being thus divided into three
+portions, like the nave and side aisles of a cathedral; the middle
+space, leading to the door, being wider than the others. The granite of
+the shafts is partly gray and partly rose-colored, but, in the shadow in
+which they stand, the difference of hue is hardly perceptible. The
+proportions of these columns are faultless; and their massive shafts and
+richly-carved capitals produce the effect, at once, of beauty and
+sublimity. The pediment above is now a bald front of ragged stone, but
+it was once adorned with bas-reliefs in bronze; and the holes, made by
+the rivets with which they were fastened, are still to be seen.
+
+The aisles of the portico were once vaulted with bronze, and massive
+beams or slabs of the same metal stretched across the whole structure;
+but this was removed by Urban VIII., and melted into a baldachino to
+deface St. Peter's, and cannon to defend the castle of St. Angelo; and,
+not content with this, he has added insult to injury, and commemorated
+his robbery in a Latin inscription, in which he claims to be commended
+as for a praiseworthy act. But even this is not the heaviest weight
+resting on the memory of that vandal pope. He shares with Bernini the
+reproach of having added those hideous belfries which now rise above
+each end of the vestibule--as wanton and unprovoked an offense against
+good taste as ever was committed. A cocked hat upon the statue of
+Demosthenes in the Vatican would not be a more discordant addition. The
+artist should have gone to the stake, before giving his hand to such a
+piece of disfigurement.
+
+The cell, or main portion of the building to which the portico is
+attached, is a simple structure, circular in form, and built of brick.
+It was formerly encrusted with marble. The cell and the portico stand to
+each other in the most harmonious relation, altho it seems to be
+admitted that the latter was an addition, not contemplated when the cell
+was built. But in the combination there is nothing forced or unnatural,
+and they seem as necessary and as preordained complements, one to the
+other, as a fine face and a fine head. The cell is a type of masculine
+dignity, and the portico, of feminine grace; and the result is a perfect
+architectural union.
+
+The interior--a rotunda, surmounted by a dome--is converted into a
+Christian church, a purpose to which its form and structure are not well
+adapted; and the altars and their accessories are not improvements in an
+architectural point of view. But in spite of this--in spite of all that
+it has suffered at the hands of rapacity and bad taste--tho the panels
+of the majestic dome have been stript of their bronze, and the whole has
+been daubed over with a glaring coat of whitewash--the interior still
+remains, with all its rare beauty essentially unimpaired. And the reason
+of this is that this charm is the result of form and proportion, and can
+not be lost except by entire destruction. The only light which the
+temple receives is from a circular opening of twenty-eight feet in
+diameter at the top; and falling, as it does, directly from the sky, it
+fills the whole space with the purity of the heavens themselves. The
+magical effect of this kind of illumination it is impossible to
+describe....
+
+The pavement of the Pantheon, composed of porphyry, pavonazzetto, and
+giallo antico, tho constantly overflowed by the Tiber, and drenched by
+the rains which fall upon it from the roof, is the finest in Rome. There
+is an opening in the center, through which the water entering by the
+dome is carried off into a reservoir.
+
+The Pantheon has a peculiar interest in the history of art, as the
+burial place of Raphael. His grave was opened in 1833, and the remains
+found to be lying in the spot which Vasari had pointed out.
+
+
+
+
+HADRIAN'S TOMB[11]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+Nerva was the last Emperor buried in the mausoleum of Augustus.[12]
+Trajan's ashes were laid to rest in an urn of gold under his monumental
+column. Hadrian determined to raise a new tomb for himself and his
+successors, and, like Augustus, selected a site on the green and shady
+banks of the Tiber, not on the city side, however, but in the gardens of
+Domitia, which, with those of Agrippina, formed a crown property called
+by Tacitus "Nero's Gardens." The mausoleum and the bridge which
+gave access to it were substantially finished in A.D. 136.
+Antoninus Pius, after completing the ornamental part in 139, transferred
+to it Hadrian's ashes from their temporary burial-place in the former
+villa of Cicero at Puteoli, and was himself afterward interred there....
+
+Beside the passages of the "Hadrian's Life," and of Dion Cassius, two
+descriptions of the monument have come down to us, one by Procopius, the
+other by Leo I. From these we learn that it was composed of a square
+basement of moderate height, each side of which measured 247 feet. It
+was faced with blocks of Parian marble, with pilasters at the corners,
+crowned by a capital. Above the pilasters were groups of men and horses
+in bronze, of admirable workmanship. The basement was protected around
+by a sidewalk and a railing of gilt bronze, supported by marble pillars
+crowned with gilded peacocks, two of which are in the Giardino della
+Pigna, in the Vatican. A grand circular mole, nearly a thousand feet in
+circumference, and also faced with blocks of Parian marble, stood on the
+square basement and supported in its turn a cone of earth covered with
+evergreens, like the mausoleum of Augustus.
+
+Of this magnificent decoration nothing now remains except a few blocks
+of the coating of marble, on the east side of the quadrangle, near the
+Bastione di S. Giovanni. All that is visible of the ancient work from
+the outside are the blocks of peperino of the mole which once supported
+the outer casing. The rest, both above and below, is covered by the
+works of fortification constructed at various periods, from the time of
+Honorius (393-403) to our own days. In no other monument of ancient and
+medieval Rome is our history written, molded, as it were, so vividly, as
+upon the battered remains of this castle-tomb. Within and around it took
+place all the fights for dominion with which popes, emperors, barons,
+barbarians, Romans, have distracted the city for fifteen hundred years.
+
+Of the internal arrangement of the monument nothing was known until
+1825, when the principal door was discovered in the middle of the square
+basement facing the bridge. It opens upon a corridor leading to a large
+niche, which, it is conjectured, contained a statue of Hadrian. The
+walls of this vestibule, by which modern visitors generally begin their
+inspection, are built of travertine, and bear evidence of having been
+paneled with Numidian marble. The pavement is of white mosaic. On the
+right side of this vestibule, near the niche, begins an inclined spiral
+way, 30 feet high and 11 feet wide, leading up to the central chamber,
+which is in the form of a Greek cross.
+
+There is no doubt that the tomb was adorned with statues. Procopius
+distinctly says that, during the siege laid by the Goths to the castle
+in 537, many of them were hurled down from the battlements upon the
+assailants. On the strength of this passage topographers have been in
+the habit of attributing to the mausoleum all the works of statuary
+discovered in the neighborhood; like the Barberini Faun now in Munich,
+the exquisite statue of a River God described by Cassiano dal Pozzo,
+etc., as if such subjects were becoming a house of death. The mausoleum
+of Hadrian formed part of one of the largest and noblest cemeteries of
+ancient Rome, crossed by the Via Triumphalis. The tomb next in
+importance to it was the so-called "Meta," or "sepulcrum Romuli," or
+"sepulcrum Neronis," a pyramid of great size, which stood on the site of
+the church of St. Maria Transpontina, and was destroyed by Alexander VI.
+in 1499.
+
+
+
+
+TRAJAN'S FORUM[13]
+
+BY FRANCIS WEY
+
+
+In the midst of the busy quarters lying at the base of the Quirinal, you
+come out upon a great piazza which you name at once without ever having
+seen it before; Trajan's Column serves as ensign for a forum, of which
+Apollodorus of Damascus erected the porticoes. The lines described by
+the bases of a plantation of pillars will help you to identify the
+pesimeter of the temple which Hadrian consecrated, and the site of the
+Ulpian Library which was divided into two chambers--one for Greek books,
+and the other for Latin; and finally the situation of the basilica,
+opening on to the forum and with its apse in the north-northwest
+direction....
+
+It was in the Ulpian Basilica that, in 312, Constantine, having
+assembled the notables of the empire seated himself in the presbyterium,
+to proclaim his abjuration of polytheism in favor of the religion of
+Christ; on that day and spot the prince closed the cycle of antiquity,
+opened the catacombs, and inaugurated the modern world. The Acts of St.
+Sylvester describe many passages of the discourse in which, "invoking
+truth against mischievous divisions," and declaring that he "put away
+superstitions born of ignorance and reared on unreason," the emperor
+ordains that "churches be opened to Christians, and that the priests of
+the temples and those of Christ enjoy the same privileges." He himself
+undertakes to build a church in his Lateran palace.
+
+I do not think there exists any monument in the world more precious or
+more exquisite in its proportions than Trajan's Column, nor one that has
+rendered more capital service. This has been set forth with more
+authority than I can pretend to, by Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who
+has written best on his own art; his description sums up the subject and
+makes everything clear. A set of pictures of the campaigns of Trajan
+against the Decians--the bas-reliefs--reproduces the arms, the
+accouterments, the engines of war, the dwellings of the barbarians; we
+discern the breed of the warriors and their horses; we look upon the
+ships of the time, canoes and quinqueremes; women of all ranks, priests
+of all theogonies, sieges, and assaults. Such are the merits of this
+sculptured host, that Polidoro da Caravaggio, Giulio Romano, Michael
+Angelo, and all the artists of the Renaissance have drawn thence models
+of style and picturesque grouping.
+
+Trajan's Column is of pure Carrara marble. The shaft measures about
+ninety-four English feet, by twelve in diameter at the base, and ten
+below the capital, which is Doric and carved out of a single block; the
+column is composed of thirty-four blocks, hollowed out internally and
+cut into a winding stair. A series of bas-reliefs, divided from one
+another by a narrow band, run spirally around the shaft parallel to the
+inner staircase of a hundred and eighty-two steps, and describes
+twenty-three circuits to reach the platform on which the statue is
+placed. The foot and the pedestal are seventeen feet high; the torus, of
+enormous diameter, is a monolith; the whole construction rises a hundred
+and thirty-five feet from the ground. These thirty-four blocks,
+measuring eleven meters in circumference by one in height, had--a task
+of considerable precision--to have holes drilled in them for the screws
+of the staircase, it being necessary to determine from the inside
+precisely where these borings must be made in order not to break the
+continuity of the bas-reliefs, executed by several different hands, and
+which are more deeply worked in proportion as they gain in height, so as
+to appear of an equal projection.
+
+
+
+
+THE BATHS OF CARACALLA[14]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+You reach the Baths of Caracalla, the most imposing object after the
+Coliseum that one sees in Rome. These colossal structures are so many
+signs of their times. Imperial Rome plundered the entire Mediterranean
+basin, Spain, Gaul, and two-thirds of England, for the benefit of a
+hundred thousand idlers. She amused them in the Coliseum with massacres
+of beasts and of men; in the Circus Maximus with combats of athletes and
+with chariot races; in the theater of Marcellus with pantomimes, plays,
+and the pageantry of arms and costume; she provided them with baths, to
+which they resorted to gossip, to contemplate statues, to listen to
+declaimers, to keep themselves cool in the heats of summer. All that had
+been invented of the convenient, agreeable, and beautiful, all that
+could be collected in the world that was curious and magnificent, was
+for them; the Cæsars fed them and diverted them, seeking only to afford
+them gratification, and to obtain their acclamations.
+
+A Roman of the middle classes might well regard his emperors as so many
+public purveyors, administering his property, relieving him from
+troublesome cares, furnishing him at fair rates, or for nothing, with
+corn, wine, and oil, giving him sumptuous meals and well-got-up fêtes,
+providing him with pictures, statues, pantomimists, gladiators, and
+lions, resuscitating his "blasé" taste every morning with some
+surprising novelty, and even occasionally converting themselves into
+actors, charioteers, singers, and gladiators for his especial delight.
+In order to lodge this group of amateurs in a very suitable to its regal
+pretensions, architecture invented original and grand forms. Vast
+structures always indicate some corresponding excess, some immoderate
+concentration and accumulation of the labor of humanity. Look at the
+Gothic cathedrals, the pyramids of Egypt, Paris of the present day, and
+the docks of London!
+
+On reaching the end of a long line of narrow streets, white walls, and
+deserted gardens, the great ruin appears. There is nothing with which to
+compare its form, while the line it describes on the sky is unique. No
+mountains, no hills, no edifices, give any idea of it. It resembles all
+these; it is a human structure, which time and events have so deformed
+and transformed, as to render a natural production. Rising upward in the
+air, its moss-stained embossed summit and indented crest with its wide
+crevices, a red, mournful, decayed mass, silently reposes in a shroud of
+clouds.
+
+You enter, and it seems as if you had never seen anything in the world
+so grand. The Coliseum itself is no approach to it, so much do a
+multiplicity and irregularity of ruins add to the vastness of the vast
+enclosure. Before these heaps of red corroded masonry, these round
+vaults spanning the air like the arches of a mighty bridge before these
+crumbling walls, you wonder whether an entire city did not once exist
+there. Frequently an arch has fallen, and the monstrous mass that
+sustained it still stands erect, exposing remnants of staircases and
+fragments of arcades, like so many shapeless, deformed houses.
+
+Sometimes it is cleft in the center, and a portion appears about to fall
+and roll away, like a huge rock. Sections of wall and pieces of
+tottering arches cling to it and dart their projections threateningly
+upward in the air. The courts are strewed with various fragments, and
+blocks of brick welded together by the action of time, like stones
+incrusted with the deposits of the sea. Elsewhere are arcades quite
+intact, piled up story upon story, the bright sky appearing behind them,
+and above, along the dull red brickwork is a verdant head-dress of
+plants, waving and rustling in the midst of the ethereal blue.
+
+Here are mystic depths, wherein the bedewed shade prolongs itself among
+mysterious shadows. Into these the ivy descends, and anemones, fennel,
+and mallows fringe their brinks. Shafts of columns lie half-buried under
+climbing vines and heaps of rubbish, while luxuriant clover carpets the
+surrounding slopes. Small green oaks, with round tops, innumerable green
+shrubs, and myriads of gillyflowers cling to the various projections,
+nestle in the hollows, and deck its crest with their yellow clusters.
+All these murmur in the breeze, and the birds are singing in the midst
+of the imposing silence....
+
+You ascend, I know not how many stories, and, on the summit, find the
+pavement of the upper chambers to consist of checkered squares of
+marble; owing to the shrubs and plants that have taken root among them,
+these are disjoined in places, a fresh bit of mosaic sometimes appearing
+intact on removing a layer of earth. Here were sixteen hundred seats of
+polished marble. In the Baths of Diocletian there were places for three
+thousand two hundred bathers. From this elevation, on casting your eyes
+around, you see, on the plain, lines of ancient aqueducts radiating in
+all directions and losing themselves in the distance, and, on the side
+of Albano, three other vast ruins, masses of red and black arcades,
+shattered and disintegrated brick by brick, and corroded by time.
+
+You descend and take another glance. The hall of the "piscine" is a
+hundred and twenty paces long; that in which the bathers disrobed is
+eighty feet in height; the whole is covered with marble, and with such
+beautiful marble that mantel ornaments are now made of its fragments. In
+the sixteenth century the Farnese Hercules was discovered here, and the
+Torso and Venus Callipygis, and I know not how many other masterpieces;
+and in the seventeenth century hundreds of statues. No people, probably,
+will ever again display the same luxurious conveniences, the same
+diversions, and especially the same order of beauty, as that which the
+Romans displayed in Rome.
+
+Here only can you comprehend this assertion--a civilization other than
+our own, other and different, but in its kind as complete and as
+elegant. It is another animal, but equally perfect, like the mastodon,
+previous to the modern elephant.
+
+
+
+
+THE AQUEDUCT BUILDERS[15]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+One of the praises bestowed by Cicero on the founder of the city is that
+"he selected a district very rich in springs." A glance at the plan will
+at once prove the accuracy of the statement. Twenty-three springs have
+been described within the walls, several of which are still in
+existence; others have disappeared owing to the increase of modern soil.
+"For four hundred and forty-one years," says Frontinus, "the Romans
+contented themselves with such water as they could get from the Tiber,
+from wells, and from springs. Some of these springs are still held in
+great veneration on account of their health-restoring qualities, like
+the spring of the Camoenae, that of Apollo, and that of Juturna."
+
+The first aqueduct, that of the "Aqua Appia," is the joint work of
+Appius Claudius Cæcus and C. Plautius Venox, censors in 312
+B.C. The first built the channel, the second discovered the
+springs 1,153 meters northeast of the sixth and seventh milestones of
+the Via Collatina. They are still to be seen, much reduced in volume, at
+the bottom of some stone quarries near the farmhouse of La Rustica.
+
+The second aqueduct was begun in 272 B.C. by Manius Curius
+Dentatus, censor, and finished three years later by Fulvius Flaccus. The
+water was taken from the river Anio 850 meters above St. Cosimato, on
+the road from Tivoli to Arsoli (Valeria). The course of the channel can
+be traced as far as Gallicano; from Gallicano to Rome it is
+uncertain....
+
+In 144 B.C. the Senate, considering that the increase of the
+population had diminished the rate of distribution of water (from 530 to
+430 liters per head), determined that the old aqueducts of the Appia and
+the Anio should be repaired, and a new one built, the appropriation for
+both works being 8,000,000 sesterces, or 1,760,000 lire.
+
+The execution of the scheme was entrusted to Q. Marcius Rex. He selected
+a group of springs at the foot of the Monte della Prugna, in the
+territory of Arsoli, 4,437 meters to the right of the thirty-sixth
+milestone of the Via Valeria; and after many years of untiring efforts
+he succeeded in making a display of the water on the highest platform of
+the Capitol. Agrippa restored the aqueduct in 33 B.C.; Augustus
+doubled the volume of the water in 5 B.C. by the addition of
+the Aqua Augusta. In 196 Septimius Severus brought in a new supply for
+the use of his Thermae Severianae; in 212-213 Caracalla built a branch
+aqueduct, four miles long, for the use of his baths; in 305-306
+Diocletian did the same thing for his great thermæ; and, finally,
+Arcadius and Honorius devoted to the restoration of the aqueduct the
+money seized from Count Gildo, the African rebel.
+
+None of the Roman aqueducts are eulogized by Frontinus like the
+Claudian. He calls it "a work most magnificently done," and after
+demonstrating in more than one way that the volume of the springs
+collected by Claudius amounted to 4,607 quinariae, he says that there
+was a reserve of 1,600 always ready.
+
+The works, began by Caligula in A.D. 38, lasted fourteen years,
+the water having reached Rome only on August 1, 52 (the birthday of
+Claudius). The course of the aqueduct was first around the slopes of the
+Monte Ripoli, like that of the Marcia and of the Anio Vetus. Domitian
+shortened it by several miles by boring a tunnel 4,950 meters long
+through the Monte Affiano. Length of channel, 68,750 meters, of which
+15,000 was on arches; volume per day, 209,252 cubic meters. The Claudia
+was used for the Imperial table; a branch aqueduct, 2,000 meters long,
+left the main channel at Spem Veterem (Porta Maggiore), and following
+the line of the Via Caelimontana (Villa Wolkonsky), of the Campus
+Caelimontan (Lateran), and of the street now called di S. Stefano
+Rotondo, reached the temple of Claudius by the church of SS. Giovanni e
+Paolo, and the Imperial palace by the church of St. Bonaventura.
+
+The Anio Novus, like the Vetus, was at first derived from the river of
+the same name at the forty-second milestone of the road to Subiaco,
+great precautions being taken for purifying the water. The works were
+begun by Caligula in A.D. 38, and completed by Claudius on
+August 1, 52, on a most magnificent scale, some of the arches reaching
+the height of thirty-two meters above ground; and there were eight miles
+of them. Yet, in spite of the purifying reservoir, and of the clear
+springs of the Rivus Herculaneus (Fosso di Fioggio), which had been
+mixed with the water from the river, the Anio Novus was hardly ever
+drinkable. Whenever a shower fell on the Simbruine mountains, the water
+would get troubled and saturated with mud and carbonate of lime. Trajan
+improved its condition by carrying the head of the aqueduct higher up
+the valley, where Nero had created three artificial lakes for the
+adornment of his Villa Sublacensis. These lakes served more efficiently
+as "purgatories," than the artificial basin of Caligula, nine miles
+below. The Anio Novus reached Rome in its own channel after a course of
+86,964 meters, but for the last seven miles it ran on the same arches
+with the Aqua Claudia. The Anio Novus was the largest of all Roman
+aqueducts, discharging nearly three hundred thousand cubic meters per
+day.
+
+There are two places in the suburbs of Rome where these marvelous arches
+of the Claudia and Anio Novus can be seen to advantage; one is the
+Torre Fiscale, three miles outside the Porta S. Giovanni on the Albano
+road (to be reached also from the Tavolato station, on the upper Albano
+railway); the other is the Vicolo del Mandrione, which leaves the
+Labicana one mile outside the Porta Maggiore and falls into the
+Tusculana at the place called Porta Furba.
+
+
+
+
+THE QUARRIES AND BRICKS OF THE ANCIENT CITY[16]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+The materials used in Roman constructions are the "lapis ruber" (tufa);
+the "lapis Albanus" (peperino); the "lapis Gabinus" (sperone); the
+"lapis Tiburtinus" (travertino); the silex ("selce"); and bricks and
+tiles of various kinds. The cement was composed of pozzolana and lime.
+Imported marbles came into fashion toward the end of the republic, and
+became soon after the pride and glory of Rome....
+
+The only material which the first builders of Rome found at hand was the
+volcanic conglomerate called tufa. The quality of the stone used in
+those early days was far from perfect. The walls of the Palatine hill
+and of the Capitoline citadel were built of material quarried on the
+spot--a mixture of charred pumice-stones and reddish volcanic sand. The
+quarries used for the fortification of the Capitol were located at the
+foot of the hill toward the Argiletum, and were so important as to give
+their name, Lautumiae, to the neighboring district. It is probable that
+the prison called Tullianum, from a jet of water, "tullus," which sprang
+from the rock, was originally a portion of this quarry. The tufa blocks
+employed by Servius Tullius for the building of the city walls, and of
+the agger, appear to be of three qualities--yellowish, reddish, and
+gray; the first, soft and easily broken up, seems to have been quarried
+from the Little Aventine, near the church of St. Saba. The galleries of
+this quarry, much disfigured by medieval and modern use, can be followed
+to a considerable distance, altho the collapsing of the vaults makes it
+dangerous to visit them....
+
+The quarries of the third quality were, or rather one of them was,
+discovered on February 7, 1872, in the Vigna Querini, outside the Porta
+St. Lorenzo, near the first milestone of the Vicolo di Valle Cupa. It
+was a surface quarry, comprising five trenches 16 feet wide, 9 feet
+deep. Some of the blocks, already squared, were lying on the floor of
+the trenches, others were detached on two or three sides only, the size
+of others was simply traced on the rock by vertical or horizontal lines.
+This tufa, better known by the name of cappellaccio, is very bad. The
+only buildings in which it was used, besides the inner wall of the
+Servian agger, are the platform of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in
+the gardens of the German Embassy, and the "puticuli" in the
+burial-grounds of the Esquiline. Its use must have been given up before
+the end of the period of the Kings, in consequence of the discovery of
+better quarries on the right bank of the Tiber, at the foot of the
+hills now called Monte Verde....
+
+They cover a space one mile in length and a quarter of a mile wide on
+each side of the valley of Pozzo Pantaléo. In fact, this valley, which
+runs from the Via Portuensis toward the lake of the Villa Pamphili,
+seems to be artificial; I mean, produced by the extraction of the rock
+of millions of cubic meters in the course of twenty-four centuries. If
+the work of the ancient quarrymen could be freed from the loose material
+which conceals it from view, we should possess within a few minutes'
+drive from the Porta Portese a reproduction of the famous mines of El
+Masarah, with beds of rock cut into steps and terraces, with roads and
+lanes, shafts, inclines, underground passages, and outlets for the
+discharge of rain-water. When a quarry had given out, its galleries were
+filled up with the refuse of the neighboring ones--chips left over after
+the squaring of the blocks; so that, in many cases, the color and
+texture of the chips do not correspond with those of the quarry in which
+they are found. This layer of refuse, transformed by time into humus,
+and worked upon by human and atmospheric forces, has given the valley a
+different aspect, so that it looks as if it were the work not of
+quarrymen, but of nature.
+
+Tufa may be found used in many existing monuments of ancient Rome, such
+as the drains of the middle and southern basin of the left bank, the
+channels and arches of the Marcia and Anio Vetus, the Servian walls, the
+temples of Fortuna Virilis, of Hercules Magnus Custos, the Rostra, the
+embankment of the Tiber, etc. The largest and most magnificent quarries
+in the suburban district are the so-called Grotte della Cervara. No
+words can convey an idea of their size and of the regularity of their
+plan. They seem to be the work of a fanciful architect who has hewn out
+of the rock halls and galleries, courts and vestibules, and imitated the
+forms of an Assyrian palace.
+
+For the study of the peperino mines, which contain a stone special to
+the Alban district, formed by the action of hot water on gray volcanic
+cinders, the reader should follow on foot the line of the new Albano
+railway, from the place called Il Sassone to the town of Marino. Many of
+the valleys in this district, now made beautiful by vineyards and
+oliveyards, owe their existence to the pickax of the Roman stonecutter,
+like the valley of Pozzo Pantaléo. The most curious sight is a dolmen or
+isolated rock 10 meters high, left in the center of one of the quarries
+to certify the thickness of the bed of rock excavated. In fact, the
+whole district is very interesting both to the archeologist and to the
+paysagiste. The mines of Marino, still worked in the neighborhood of the
+railway station, would count, like the Grotte della Cervara, among the
+wonders of the Campagna, were they known to the student as they deserve
+to be.
+
+The principal Roman buildings in which the lapis Albanus has been used
+are: the Claudian aqueduct, the Cloaca Maxima, the temples of Antonius
+and Faustina, of Cybele, of the Eventus Bonus, of Neptune, the inclosure
+wall of the Forum Augustum, Forum Transitorium, and Forum Pacis, the
+Porticus Argonautarum, Porticus Pompeii, the Ustrinum of the Appian Way,
+etc. The sarcophagus of Cornelius Scipio Barbatus in the Vatican
+museum, and the tomb of the Tibicines in the Museo Municipale al Celio
+are also of this stone.
+
+Travertine stone was quarried in the plains of Tivoli at places now
+called Le Caprine, Casal Bernini, and Il Barco. This last was reopened
+after an interval of many centuries by Count G. Brazza, brother of the
+African explorer. Lost in the wilderness and overgrown with shrubs, it
+had not been examined, I believe, since the visit of Brocchi. It can be
+reached by stopping at the station of the Aquae Albulae, on the Tivoli
+line, and following the ancient road which led to the works. This road,
+twice as wide as the Appian Way, is flanked by substructures, and is not
+paved, but macadamized. Parallel with it runs an aqueduct which supplied
+the works with motive power, derived probably from the sulfur springs.
+There are also remains of tombs, one of which, octagonal in shape,
+serves as a foundation to the farmhouse del Barco.
+
+The most remarkable monument of the whole group is the Roman quarry from
+which five and a half million cubic meters of travertine have been
+extracted, as proved by the measurement of the hollow space between the
+two opposite vertical sides. That this is the most important ancient
+quarry of travertine, and the largest one used by the Romans, is proved,
+in the first place, by its immense size. The sides show a frontage of
+more than two and a half kilometers; the surface amounts to 500,000
+square meters. The sides are quite perpendicular, and have the
+peculiarity of projecting buttresses, at an angle of 90 degrees. Some of
+these buttresses are isolated on three sides, and still preserve the
+grooves, by means of which they could be separated from the solid
+mass....
+
+In order to keep the bottom of the works clean and free from the
+movement of the carts, for the action of the cranes, and for the
+maneuvres of the workmen, the chips, or useless product of the squaring
+of the blocks, were transported to a great distance, as far as the banks
+of the Anio, and there piled up to a great height. This is the origin of
+that chain of hills which runs parallel to the river, and of whose
+artificial formation no one, as far as I know, had the least suspicion.
+One of these hills, visible from every point of the neighboring
+district, from Hadrian's villa as well as from the Sulfur Baths, is
+elliptical in shape, 22 meters high, 90 meters long, and 65 meters wide.
+It can with reason be compared with our Testaccio. It is easy to imagine
+how immense must have been the number of blocks cut from the Cava del
+Barco during the period of the formation of this hill alone. Another
+proof of the antiquity of the quarry, and of its abandonment from
+imperial times down to our own day, is given by this fact....
+
+There are three collections of brick-stamps in Rome; one, of little
+value, in the Kircherian museum; the second in the last room of the
+Vatican library, past the "Nozze aldobrandine;" the third and best in
+the Museo Municipale al Celio. This last contains over a thousand
+specimens, and a unique set of the products of Roman kilns. In fact, the
+first hall of the Museo is set apart exclusively for the study of
+ancient building and decorative materials.
+
+Roman bricks were square, oblong, triangular, or round, the latter being
+used only to build columns in the Pompeiian style. The largest bricks
+that have been discovered in my time measure 1.05 meters in length.
+They were set into an arch of one of the great stairs leading to the
+avenue or boulevard established in Imperial times on the top of the
+agger of Servius. Roman bricks are very often stamped with a seal, the
+legend of which contains the names of the owner and the manager of the
+kilns, of the maker of the tile, of the merchant entrusted with the sale
+of the products, and of the consuls under whose term of office the
+bricks were made. These indications are not necessarily found all in one
+seal.
+
+The most important of them is the consular date, because it helps the
+student to determine, within certain limits, the date of the building
+itself. The rule, however, is far from being absolute, and before fixing
+the date of a Roman structure from that of its brick stamps one must
+take into consideration many other points of circumstantial evidence.
+When we examine, for instance, the grain warehouses at Ostia, or
+Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, and find that their walls have never
+undergone repairs, that their masonry is characteristic of the first
+quarter of the second century, that their bricks bear the dates of
+Hadrian's age and no others, we may rest assured that the stamps speak
+the truth. Their evidence is, in such a case, conclusive. But if the
+bricks are variously dated, or bear the names of various kilns, and not
+of one or two only, then their value as an evidence of the date of a
+building is diminished, if not lost altogether....
+
+The bricks, again, occasionally bear curious signs, such as footmarks of
+chickens, dogs, or pigs, which stept over them while still fresh,
+impressions of coins and medals, words or sentences scratched with a
+nail, etc. A bricklayer, who had perhaps seen better times in his youth,
+wrote on a tile the first verse of the Aeneid.
+
+The great manufacturing center of Roman bricks was the district between
+the viae Triumphalis, Cornelia, and the two Aureliae, now called the
+Monti della Creta, which includes the southern slopes of the Vatican
+ridge and the northern of the Janiculum. Here also, as at Pozzo
+Pantaléo, the traces of the work of man are simply gigantic. The valleys
+del Gelsomino, delle Fornaci, del Vicolo delle Cave, della Balduina, and
+a section of the Val d'Inferno, are not the work of nature, but the
+result of excavations for "creta figulina," which began 2,300 years ago,
+and have never been interrupted since. A walk through the Monti della
+Creta will teach the student many interesting things. The best point of
+observation is a bluff between the Vicolo della Cave and the Vicolo del
+Gelsomino, marked with the word "Ruderi" and with the altitude of 75
+meters, in the military map of the suburbs. The bluff rises 37 meters
+above the floor of the brick-kilns of the Gelsomino....
+
+Roman bricks were exported to all the shores of the Mediterranean; they
+have been found in the Riviera, on the coasts of Benetia, of
+Narbonensis, of Spain and Africa, and in the island of Sardinia. The
+brick-making business must have been very remunerative, if we judge from
+the rank and wealth of many personages who had an interest in it. Many
+names of emperors appear in brick-stamps, and even more of empresses and
+princesses of the imperial family.
+
+
+
+
+PALM SUNDAY IN ST. PETER'S[17]
+
+BY GRACE GREENWOOD (Mrs. Lippincott)
+
+
+Yesterday began Holy Week with the imposing but tedious ceremonies of
+Palm Sunday at St. Peter's. At nine o'clock in the morning we were in
+our places--seats erected for the occasion near the high altar, drest in
+the costume prescribed by church etiquette--black throughout, with black
+veils on our heads. At about ten the Pope entered, and the rites,
+ordinary and extraordinary, the masses and processions, continued until
+one.
+
+The entrance of the Pope into this his grandest basilica was, as usual,
+a beautiful and brilliant sight. He came splendidly vested, wearing his
+miter, and borne in his chair of state under a gorgeous canopy, between
+the flabelli--two enormous fans of white peacock feathers. He was
+preceded and followed by cardinals, bishops, arch-bishops, monsignori,
+abbots, the apostolic prothonotaries, generals of the religious orders,
+officers of the state, of the army, of his household, and the Guardia
+Nobile.
+
+He took his seat on the throne, and received the homage of the
+cardinals, who, kneeling, kissed his right hand. This is a ceremony
+which is always gone through with in the most formal, mechanical,
+business-like manner possible. Some palms, not in natural branches, but
+cut and wreathed in various strange, fantastic forms, lay on the altar.
+The Pope's chief sacristan took one of these, a deacon another, a
+sub-deacon a third, and knelt at the foot of the throne. His Holiness
+read prayers over them, sprinkled them with holy water, and incensed
+them three times. One of these is held beside the throne by the prince
+assistant during the service; another is borne by the Pope when in
+procession.
+
+After this, multitudes of palms were brought up for the Papal
+benediction. First came the cardinals, each, as he received his palm
+from the Pope, kissing it, the right hand and knee of His Holiness; then
+the bishops, who only kissed the palm and his right knee; then the
+abbots, who were only entitled to kiss the palm and his foot; then the
+governor of Rome, the prince assistant, the auditor, the treasurer, the
+maggiordomo, the secretaries, the chamberlains, the mace bearers, the
+deacons and sub-deacons, generals of the religious orders and priests in
+general, masters of the ceremonies, singers, clerks of the Papal chapel,
+students of Roman colleges, foreign ministers and their attachés,
+Italian, French, Spanish, Austrian, Russian, Prussian officers, noblemen
+and gentlemen, all came up in turn, knelt, received blest palms, and
+kissed the foot of the Sovereign Pontiff.
+
+During the distribution of the palms, anthems were sung by the choir,
+who were caged up in a sort of trellice workbox at the right of the
+altar. This long but brilliantly picturesque ceremony through, the Pope,
+after washing his hands, again mounted into his "sedia gestatoria," and
+bearing his palm, preceded and followed by all those to whom he had
+given palms, passed slowly down the nave of the church, blessing the
+kneeling and bending multitude right and left. This procession of palms
+was very striking and gorgeous from the beauty and variety of military
+arms and uniforms, and more than royal richness of the priestly
+vestments, the gleam of miters and maces, and of innumerable sacred
+symbols and insignia.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELECTION OF A POPE[18]
+
+BY CARDINAL WISEMAN
+
+
+The interval between the close of one pontificate and the commencement
+of another is a period of some excitement, and necessarily of much
+anxiety. Time is required for the electors to assemble, from distant
+provinces, or even foreign countries; and this is occupied in paying the
+last tribute of respect and affection to the departed Pontiff. His body
+is embalmed, clothed in the robes of his office, of the penitential
+color, and laid on a couch of state within one of the chapels in St.
+Peter's, so that the faithful may not only see it, but kiss its feet.
+This last act of reverence to the mortal remains of the immortal Pius
+VIII., the writer well recollects performing.
+
+These preliminaries occupy three days; during which rises, as if by
+magic, or from the crypts below, an immense catafalque, a colossal
+architectural structure, which fills the nave of that basilica
+illustrated by inscriptions, and adorned by statuary. Before this huge
+monument, for nine days funeral rites are performed, closed by a funeral
+oration. For the body of the last Pope there is a uniform resting-place
+in St. Peter's--a plain sarcophagus, of marbled stucco, hardly noticed
+by the traveler, over a door beside the choir, on which is simply
+painted the title of the latest Pontiff. On the death of his successor
+it is broken down at the top, the coffin is removed to the under-church,
+and that of the new claimant for repose is substituted. This change
+takes place late in the evening, and is considered private. I can not
+recollect whether it was on this or on a subsequent occasion that I
+witnessed it with my college companions....
+
+In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are called,
+the cardinals assemble in a church near the Quirinal palace, and walk
+thence in procession, accompanied by their conclavisiti, a secretary, a
+chaplain, and a servant or two, to the great gate of the royal
+residence, in which one will remain as master and supreme lord. Of
+course the hill is crowded by persons lining the avenue kept open for
+the procession. Cardinals never before seen by them, or not for many
+years, pass before them; eager eyes scan and measure them, and try to
+conjecture, from fancied omens in eye, or figure, or expression, who
+will shortly be the sovereign of their fair city, and, what is more, the
+Head of the Catholic Church from the rising to the setting sun.
+
+Equal they pass the threshold of that gate; they share together the
+supreme rule, temporal and spiritual; there is still embosomed in them
+all the voice yet silent, that soon will sound, from one tongue, over
+all the world, and the dormant germ of that authority which will soon
+again be concentrated in one man alone. To-day they are all equal;
+perhaps to-morrow one will sit enthroned, and all the rest will kiss his
+feet; one will be sovereign, the others his subjects; one the shepherd,
+and the others his flock....
+
+While we have been thus sketching, hastily and imperfectly, one of many
+who passed almost unnoticed in the solemn procession to conclave, on the
+2d of September, 1823, we may suppose the doors to have been inexorably
+closed on those who composed it. The conclave, which formerly used to
+take place in the Vatican, was on this occasion, and has been
+subsequently, held in the Quirinal palace. This noble building, known
+equally by the name of Monte Cavallo, consists of a large quadrangle,
+round which run the papal apartments. From this stretches out, along a
+whole street, an immense wing, its two upper floors divided into a great
+number of small but complete suites of apartments, occupied permanently,
+or occasionally, by persons attached to the Court.
+
+During conclave these are allotted, literally so, to the cardinals, each
+of whom lives apart, with his attendants. His food is brought daily from
+his own house, and is examined, and delivered to him in the shape of
+"broken victuals," by the watchful guardians of the turns and lattices,
+through which alone anything, even conversation, can penetrate into the
+seclusion of that sacred retreat. For a few hours, the first evening,
+the doors are left open, and the nobility, the diplomatic body, and in
+fact all presentable persons, may roam from cell to cell, paying a brief
+compliment to their occupants, perhaps speaking the same good wishes to
+fifty, which they know can be accomplished in only one.
+
+After that all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for the entrance
+of any cardinal who is not yet arrived; but every aperture is jealously
+guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of various tribunals,
+who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened and read, that no
+communications may be held with the outer world. The very street on
+which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded and guarded by a
+picket at each end; and as, fortunately, there are no private residences
+opposite, and all the buildings have access from the back, no
+inconvenience is thereby created.
+
+While conclave lasts, the administrative power rests in the hands of the
+Cardinal Chamberlain, who strikes his own coins during its continuance;
+and he is assisted by three cardinals, called the "Heads of Orders,"
+because they represent the three orders in the sacred college, of
+bishops, priests and deacons. The ambassadors of the great powers
+receive fresh credentials to the conclave, and proceed in state, to
+present them to this delegation, at the grille. An address, carefully
+prepared, is delivered by the envoy, and receives a well-pondered reply
+from the presiding cardinal.
+
+Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel contained within the
+palace, and there, on tickets so arranged that the voter's name can not
+be seen, write the name of him for whom they give their suffrage. These
+papers are examined in their presence, and if the number of votes given
+to any one do not constitute the majority, they are burned, in such a
+manner that the smoke, issuing through a flue, is visible to the crowd
+usually assembled in the square outside.
+
+Some day, instead of this usual signal to disperse, the sound of pick
+and hammer is heard, and a small opening is seen in the wall which had
+temporarily blocked up the great window over the palace gateway. At last
+the masons of the conclave have opened a rude door, through which steps
+out on the balcony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many,
+or to the few, who may happen to be waiting, that they again possess a
+sovereign and a Pontiff.
+
+
+
+
+AN AUDIENCE WITH PIUS X[19]
+
+BY MARY EMOGENE HAZELTINE
+
+
+We arrived in Rome at three in the afternoon, with letters which ensured
+us an audience with the Pope. A friend, long resident in Rome, who
+advised us to present them at once, accompanied us to the Vatican.
+Passing through an interesting part of the city, including the St.
+Angelo Bridge across the Tiber, we soon found ourselves in the
+world-famous Colonnade of St. Peter's. Ascending the steps leading to
+the Vatican, we passed the Swiss Guard in their famous uniforms designed
+by Michelangelo, and climbed what seemed like endless stairs, passing
+guards at almost every turn, who pointed out the way indicated by the
+address on our credentials.
+
+Arriving at an anteroom, a priestly secretary, speaking excellent
+English, read our letter with what seemed to us, from the expression of
+his face, great interest and evident approval. Why should this not have
+been? Our letter was from the Apostolic Delegate then in Washington--the
+Pope's own representative in America. It was in Italian, in the highest
+official form, and conveyed the intelligence that we were traveling in
+Italy for a brief vacation, mentioned all four of us by name, and said
+that, while we were not Catholics, we respected the faith and would
+carefully observe all the forms prescribed for an audience. The
+monseigneur whom we were to see was at that time engaged with several
+bishops. Because of this, we were asked to present ourselves at the same
+hour on Saturday, meanwhile leaving our letter.
+
+Promptly at the hour I was again at the door of the major domo,
+Monseigneur Bisleti, to be received again by the priestly secretary, by
+whom I was taken into the palatial rooms of the monseigneur. A moment
+here was sufficient to explain my errand and receive from the
+monseigneur the long-coveted permission, which I found had already been
+made out in due form for four persons. Our cards entitled us to
+admission on the following day, which made necessary unexpected haste in
+arranging for the official costume of black. Fortunately we had all
+brought black veils and some of us either gowns or skirts. With help
+from others, we secured one or two necessary waists, and from our
+hostess obtained the rosaries I wished to have blest by the Pope. Our
+hostess then gave us a dress rehearsal, in order that we might fully
+understand what to us would be an imposing ceremony. An audience is a
+great function and the procedure accordingly is rigid.
+
+On reaching the Vatican next day, we were directed by the Swiss Guard,
+not to the major domo's apartments as before, but through a court and
+thence up the grandest of staircases in three long flights, the walls
+lined with beautiful marbles more wonderful than many pictures, the
+light coming through magnificent stained-glass windows. In every sense
+here was a palatial, an imperial, entrance. At the head of the stairway
+we were met by gorgeous chamberlains, the body servants of the Pope,
+clad in superb magenta brocaded velvet, with knee breeches, magenta silk
+stockings, and great silver buckles on their shoes. Streamers hanging
+from their arms at the back, added to the official appearance of these
+men in their gorgeous uniforms.
+
+We were shown through a magnificent antechamber, and then into a series
+of reception rooms, through which we were motioned on, until we came to
+the fourth, where were just four chairs which seemed to be waiting for
+us four. Swiss guards patrolled the rooms, and others--chamberlains, I
+suppose. We had a full half hour in which to wait here, but we could use
+it to advantage, in watching the gathering company, and viewing the
+magnificent room, hung as it was with rich red moire silk, as were all
+others of the suite. The ladies in black garb became very effective
+figures in this brilliant setting. There were many beautiful tapestries
+in the rooms, one room having a tapestried frieze. The furniture was
+massive, either of inlaid wood or heavy gilt, and the floors of
+beautiful inlaid marble. It is not possible to give any adequate idea of
+these stately rooms, nor of their exquisite appointments; nor yet of the
+gathering company, for many high officials of the church passed before
+us and through to rooms beyond, which added to the interest of the
+occasion and the splendor of the scene.
+
+We learned soon that this was to be no ordinary audience, but a special
+one granted to alumni of the American College in Rome. A few days before
+we left New York, a large company of American priests, graduates of the
+American College, had sailed on a chartered steamer to celebrate the
+fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the college, from which they had
+received holy orders. This audience had been specially arranged for
+them. We were therefore more than favored in having an audience at the
+same time, a fact due probably to the credentials with which we had come
+provided. We now understood that the officials of the church who had
+entered this room were our own American bishops. With them had however
+come others of high rank. Over their priestly robes of black they wore
+rich purple silk capes, falling to the floor, and purple sashes. (There
+are, of course, technical terms for these garments, but I do not know
+them.) The special body guard of the Pope, three men chosen from the
+Palatine guard, and in soldier's uniform, now passed through the room
+with a noble guard of the Knights of Malta and Count Moroni, also in
+uniform, with chapeau, feathered with plumes of black and white.
+
+At exactly half after eleven, Monseigneur Bisleti, watch in hand,
+bustled through, followed by bishops and priests. We were at once on our
+knees, for His Holiness was seen to be approaching from rooms beyond. As
+he advanced we could see his small figure, clad in white, surrounded by
+court attendants, American bishops, an archbishop, the Palatine guard,
+Monseigneur Bisleti, and the Knight of Malta. Between us and the doorway
+through which he approached, stood a girl of twelve, in white garments
+and veil. She had come from her first communion. Near her was a
+Franciscan monk, who evidently had just returned from some mission
+field, for he was bronzed, and haggard, and worn as to his garments. As
+the Pope passed he gave a special word of blessing to the monk, and a
+smile to the child.
+
+The ceremony of the audience itself was simple. The Pope walked past the
+kneeling people, giving to each his hand. This each one took, kissing
+his ring. Filling the center of the room, as we were kneeling around the
+sides, were the priestly courtiers, the Papal delegate, in gray robes, a
+prominent figure among them. The Pope passed on through several rooms
+filled with waiting priests. We were then all bidden to follow to the
+throne room, for a special ceremony. An audience generally ends when the
+Pope leaves the room in which he receives you, giving his blessing to
+all as he leaves.
+
+In the throne room now the American alumni were to present their
+addresses to the Pope. As we entered, undergraduates of the college were
+discovered already there singing. Until the addresses were read, the
+singing was continued. It was all a magnificent sight, the little white
+father on his splendid throne, his court about him, his special body
+servant holding his red cape (to be used in case of drafts), and, as a
+background for all the colors of the court scene, several hundred
+black-robed priests.
+
+Monseigneur Kennedy, rector of the college, read an address, as did Rev.
+Father Wall of Baltimore, president of the association. To these the
+Pope replied, reading from a manuscript. After this, he rose, mingled
+with his entourage, and chatted pleasantly with bishops and others. A
+picture was then taken of the court, the priests and students. These
+American priests and undergraduates were a fine company of men. The Pope
+finally gave his blessing to all who were assembled in the room, and the
+great function was over.
+
+
+
+
+THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S[20]
+
+BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
+
+
+The visitor to St. Peter's should not fail to ascend to the dome; a long
+journey, but involving no danger and not a great amount of fatigue. From
+the church to the roof the passage is by an inclined plane of pavement,
+with so gradual an ascent that loaded mules pass up without difficulty.
+In stepping out upon the roof, it is difficult to believe that we are
+more than one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, or that so
+extensive an architectural surface could have been reared in air by the
+patient labor of men's hands. It rather seems as if a little village had
+been lifted up by some geological convulsion. Here are wide spaces to
+walk about in, houses for human habitation, a fountain playing, and all
+the signs of life. The views are everywhere fine, and one can fancy that
+the air is purer and the sky more blue than to those left below. The
+dome soars high above the eye, and a new sense of its magnitude seizes
+upon the mind. The two cupolas which flank the façade are upward of one
+hundred feet high, and the five smaller ones which crown the chapels are
+of great size; but here they seem like dwarfs clinging about a giant's
+knee.
+
+The dome of St. Peter's, as is well known, is double; and between the
+outer and inner wall is a series of winding passages and staircases, by
+which the ascent is made to the top. The length of these passages and
+staircases, their number, and the time it takes to traverse them, are a
+new revelation of the size of this stupendous structure. We begin to
+comprehend the genius and courage which planned and executed a work so
+novel and so bold. From the galleries inside, the view of the interior
+below is most striking. It looks as the earth may look from a balloon.
+The men moving upon the pavement appear like that "small infantry warred
+on by cranes"; and even the baldacchino hardly swells beyond the
+dimensions of a candelabrum.
+
+At the base of the ball, a railing, unseen from below, enables the
+visitor whose nerves are tolerably good to enjoy an extensive and
+beautiful prospect, embracing a region interesting not merely to the eye
+but to the mind: the cradle of that mighty Roman race which here began
+its ever-widening circle of conquest and annexation. It comprises the
+Campagna, the Tiber, the distant Mediterranean, the Apennines, the Alban
+and Sabine hills, and the isolated bulk of Soracte. From no point on
+earth can the eye rest upon so many spots on which the undying light of
+human interest lingers.
+
+From this place the ascent is made to the interior of the ball itself,
+into which most travelers climb, probably more for the sake of saying
+that they have been there than anything else. Tho the ball looks like a
+mere point from below, it is nearly eight feet in diameter; and the
+interior will hold a dozen persons without inconvenience. Altho I
+visited it on a winter's day, the atmosphere was extremely hot and
+uncomfortable, from the effect of the sun's rays upon the gilded bronze.
+By means of an exterior ladder, it is possible to climb to the foot of
+the cross; a feat which few landsmen would have the nerve to undertake.
+
+
+
+
+SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE[21]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+We followed the street which ascends and descends, bordered with palaces
+and old hedges of thorn, as far as Santa Maria Maggiore. This basilica,
+standing upon a large eminence, surmounted with its domes, rises nobly
+upward, at once simple and complete, and when you enter it, it affords
+still greater pleasure. It belongs to the fifth century; on being
+rebuilt at a later period, the general plan, its antique idea, was
+preserved. An ample nave, with a horizontal roof, is sustained by two
+rows of white Ionic columns. You are rejoiced to see so fine an effect
+obtained by such simple means; you might almost imagine yourself in a
+Greek temple.
+
+It is said that a temple of Juno was robbed of these columns. Each of
+them bare and polished, with no other ornament than the delicate curves
+of its small capital, is of healthful and charming beauty. You
+appreciate here the good sense, and all that is agreeable in genuine
+natural construction, the file of trunks of trees which bear the beams,
+resting flat and providing a long walk. All that has since been added is
+barbarous, and first, the two chapels of Sixtus V. and Paul V., with
+their paintings by Guido, Josepin, and Cigoli, and the sculptures of
+Bernini, and the architecture of Fontana and Flaminio. These are
+celebrated names, and money has been prodigally spent, but instead of
+the slight means with which the ancients produced a great effect, the
+moderns produce a petty effect with great means.
+
+When the bewildered eye is satiated with the elaborate sweep of these
+arches and domes, with the splendors of polychromatic marbles, with
+friezes and pedestals of agate, with columns of oriental jasper, with
+angels hanging by their feet, and with all these bas-reliefs of bronze
+and gold, the visitor hastens to get away from it as he would to escape
+from a confectioner's shop. It seems as if this grand, glittering box,
+gilded and labored from pavement to lantern, caught up and tore at every
+point of its finery the delicate web of poetic reverie; the slender
+profile of the least of the columns impresses one far more than any of
+this display of the art of upholsterers and parvenus. Similarly to this
+the façade, loaded with balustrades, and round and angular pediments,
+and statues roosting on its stones, is a "hôtel-de-ville" frontage.
+
+The campanile, belonging to the fourteenth century, alone presents an
+agreeable object; at that time it was one of the towers of the city, a
+distinctive sign which marked it on the old plans so black and sharp,
+and stamped it forever on the still corporeal imaginations of monks and
+wayfarers. There are traces of every age in these old basilicas; you see
+the diverse states of Christianity, at first enshrined in pagan forms,
+and then traversing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to muffle itself
+up finally, and bedeck itself with modern finery. The Byzantine epoch
+has left its imprint in the mosaics of the great nave and the apsis,
+and in its bloodless and lifeless Christs and Virgins, so many staring
+specters motionless on their gold backgrounds and red panels, the
+fantoms of an extinct art and a vanished society.
+
+
+
+
+CATACOMBS AND CRYPTS[22]
+
+BY CHARLES DICKENS
+
+
+There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine prison, over what is said to
+have been--and very possibly may have been--the dungeon of St. Peter.
+This chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated to that saint;
+and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my recollection, too.
+It is very small and low-roofed; and the dread and gloom of the
+ponderous, obdurate old prison are on it, as if they had come up in a
+dark mist through the floor. Hanging on the walls, among the clustered
+votive offerings, are objects, at once strangely in keeping, and
+strangely at variance, with the place--rusty daggers, knives, pistols,
+clubs, divers instruments of violence and murder, brought here, fresh
+from use, and hung up to propitiate offended Heaven; as if the blood
+upon them would drain off in consecrated air, and have no voice to cry
+with. It is all so silent and so close, and tomb-like; and the dungeons
+below are so black and stealthy, and stagnant, and naked; that this
+little dark spot becomes a dream within a dream; and in the vision of
+great churches which come rolling past me like a sea, it is a small
+wave by itself, that melts into no other wave, and does not flow on with
+the rest.
+
+It is an awful thing to think of the enormous caverns that are entered
+from some Roman churches, and undermine the city. Many churches have
+crypts and subterranean chapels of great size, which, in the ancient
+time, were baths, and secret chambers of temples, and what not; but I do
+not speak of them. Beneath the church of St. Giovanni and St. Paolo,
+there are the jaws of a terrific range of caverns, hewn out of the rock,
+and said to have another outlet underneath the Coliseum--tremendous
+darknesses of vast extent, half-buried in the earth and unexplorable,
+where the dull torches, flashed by the attendants, glimmer down long
+ranges of distant vaults branching to the right and left, like streets
+in a city of the dead; and show the cold damp stealing down the walls,
+drip-drop, drip-drop, to join the pools of water that lie here and
+there, and never saw, and never will see, one ray of sun. Some accounts
+make these the prisons of the wild beasts destined for the amphitheater;
+some, the prisons of the condemned gladiators; some, both. But the
+legend most appalling to the fancy is, that in the upper range (for
+there are two stories of these caves) the early Christians destined to
+be eaten at the Coliseum shows, heard the wild beasts, hungry for them,
+roaring down below; until, upon the night and solitude of their
+captivity, there burst the sudden noon and life of the vast theater
+crowded to the parapet, and of these, their dreaded neighbors, bounding
+in!
+
+Below the church of San Sebastiano, two miles beyond the gate of San
+Sebastiano, on the Appian Way, is the entrance to the catacombs of
+Rome--quarries in the old time, but afterward the hiding-places of the
+Christians. These ghastly passages have been explored for twenty miles;
+and form a chain of labyrinths, sixty miles in circumference.
+
+A gaunt Franciscan friar, with a wild, bright eye, was our only guide,
+down into this profound and dreadful place. The narrow ways and openings
+hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy air, soon blotted
+out, in all of us, any recollection of the track by which we had come;
+and I could not help thinking: "Good Heaven, if, in a sudden fit of
+madness he should dash the torches out, or if he should be seized with a
+fit, what would become of us!" On we wandered, among martyrs' graves;
+passing great subterranean vaulted roads, diverging in all directions,
+and choked up with heaps of stones, that thieves and murderers may not
+take refuge there, and form a population under Rome even worse than that
+which lives between it and the sun. Graves, graves, graves; graves of
+men, of women, of their little children, who ran crying to the
+persecutors, "We are Christians! We are Christians!" that they might be
+murdered with their parents; graves with the palm of martyrdom roughly
+cut into their stone boundaries, and little niches, made to hold a
+vessel of the martyrs' blood; graves of some who lived down here, for
+years together, ministering to the rest, and preaching truth, and hope,
+and comfort, from the rude altars, that bear witness to their fortitude
+at this hour; more roomy graves, but far more terrible, where hundreds,
+being surprized, were hemmed in and walled up; buried before death, and
+killed by slow starvation.
+
+Such are the spots and patches in my dream of churches, that remain
+apart and keep their separate identity. I have a fainter recollection,
+sometimes, of the relics; of the fragment of the pillar of the Temple
+that was rent in twain; of the portion of the table that was spread for
+the Last Supper; of the well at which the woman of Samaria gave water to
+our Savior; of two columns from the house of Pontius Pilate; of the
+stone to which the sacred hands were bound, when the scourging was
+performed; of the grid-iron of Saint Lawrence, and the stone below it,
+marked with the frying of his fat and blood; these set a shadowy mark on
+some cathedrals, as an old story, or a fable might, and stop them for an
+instant, as they flit before me. The rest is a vast wilderness of
+consecrated buildings of all shapes and fancies, blending one with
+another; of battered pillars of old Pagan temples, dug up from the
+ground, and forced, like giant captives, to support the roofs of
+Christian churches; of pictures, bad, and wonderful, and impious, and
+ridiculous; of kneeling people, curling incense, tinkling bells, and
+sometimes (but not often) of a swelling organ; of Madonne, with their
+breasts stuck full of swords, arranged in a half-circle like a modern
+fan; of actual skeletons of dead saints, hideously attired in gaudy
+satins, silks, and velvets trimmed with gold; their withered crust of
+skull adorned with precious jewels, or with chaplets of crusht flowers;
+sometimes, of people gathered round the pulpit, and a monk within it
+stretching out the crucifix, and preaching fiercely; the sun just
+streaming down through some high window on the sail-cloth stretched
+above him and across the church, to keep his high-pitched voice from
+being lost among the echoes of the roof. Then my tired memory comes out
+upon a flight of steps, where knots of people are asleep, or basking in
+the light; and strolls away, among the rags and smells, and palaces, and
+hovels, of an old Italian street.
+
+
+
+
+THE CEMETERY OF THE CAPUCHINS[23]
+
+BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+The cemetery is beneath the church, but entirely above ground, and
+lighted by a row of iron-grated windows without glass. A corridor runs
+along besides these windows, and gives access to three or four vaulted
+recesses, or chapels, of considerable breadth and height, the floor of
+which consists of the consecrated earth of Jerusalem. It is smoothed
+decorously over the deceased brethren of the convent, and is kept quite
+free from grass or weeds, such as would grow even in these gloomy
+recesses, if pains were not bestowed to root them up. But, as the
+cemetery is small, and it is a precious privilege to sleep in holy
+ground, the brotherhood are immemorially accustomed, when one of their
+number dies, to take the longest-buried skeleton out of the oldest
+grave, and lay the new slumberer there instead. Thus, each of the good
+friars, in his turn, enjoys the luxury of a consecrated bed, attended
+with the slight drawback of being forced to get up long before daybreak,
+as it were, and make room for another lodger.
+
+The arrangement of the unearthed skeletons is what makes the special
+interest of the cemetery. The arched and vaulted walls of the burial
+recesses are supported by massive pillars and pilasters made of
+thigh-bones and skulls; the whole material of the structure appears to
+be of a similar kind; and the knobs and embossed ornaments of this
+strange architecture are represented by the joints of the spine, and the
+more delicate tracery by the smaller bones of the human frame. The
+summits of the arches are adorned with entire skeletons, looking as if
+they were wrought most skilfully in bas-relief. There is no possibility
+of describing how ugly and grotesque is the effect, combined with a
+certain artistic merit, nor how much perverted ingenuity has been shown
+in this queer way, nor what a multitude of dead monks, through how many
+hundred years, must have contributed their bony framework to build up
+these great arches of mortality. On some of the skulls there are
+inscriptions, purporting that such a monk, who formerly made use of that
+particular head-piece, died on such a day and year; but vastly the
+greater number are piled up indistinguishably into the architectural
+design like the many deaths that make up the one glory of a victory.
+
+In the side walls of the vaults are niches where skeleton monks sit or
+stand, clad in the brown habits that they wore in life, and labeled
+with their names and the dates of their decease. Their skulls (some
+quite bare, and others still covered with yellow skin, and hair that has
+known the earth-damps) look out from beneath their hoods, grinning,
+hideously repulsive. One reverend father has his mouth wide open, as if
+he had died in the midst of a howl of terror and remorse, which perhaps
+is even now screeching through eternity. As a general thing, however,
+these frocked and hooded skeletons seem to take a more cheerful view of
+their position, and try with ghastly smiles to turn it into a jest. But
+the cemetery of the Capuchins is no place to nourish celestial hopes;
+the soul sinks forlorn and wretched under all this burden of dusty
+death; the holy earth from Jerusalem, so imbued is it with mortality,
+has grown as barren of the flowers of Paradise as it is of earthly weeds
+and grass. Thank Heaven for its blue sky; it needs a long, upward gaze
+to give us back our faith. Not here can we feel ourselves immortal,
+where the very altars in these chapels of horrible consecration are
+heaps of human bones.
+
+
+
+
+THE BURIAL PLACE OF KEATS AND SHELLEY[24]
+
+BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS
+
+
+A beautiful pyramid, a hundred and thirteen feet high, built into the
+ancient wall of Rome, is the proud "Sepulcher of Caius Cestius." It is
+the most imperishable of the antiquities, standing as perfect after
+eighteen hundred years as if it were built but yesterday. Just beyond
+it, on the declivity of a hill, over the ridge of which the wall passes,
+crowning it with two moldering towers, lies the Protestant
+burying-ground.
+
+It looks toward Rome, which appears in the distance, between Mount
+Aventine and a small hill called Mont Testaccio, and leaning to the
+south-east, the sun lies warm and soft upon its banks, and the grass and
+wild flowers are there the earliest and tallest of the Campagna. I have
+been here to-day, to see the graves of Keats and Shelley. With a
+cloudless sky and the most delicious air ever breathed, we sat down upon
+the marble slab laid over the ashes of poor Shelley, and read his own
+lament over Keats, who sleeps just below, at the foot of the hill.
+
+The cemetery is rudely formed into three terraces, with walks between,
+and Shelley's grave and one other, without a name, occupy a small nook
+above, made by the projections of a moldering wall-tower, and crowded
+with ivy and shrubs, and a peculiarly fragrant yellow flower, which
+perfumes the air around for several feet. The avenue by which you ascend
+from the gate is lined with high bushes of the marsh-rose in the most
+luxuriant bloom, and all over the cemetery the grass is thickly mingled
+with flowers of every dye. In his preface to his lament over Keats,
+Shelley says:
+
+"He was buried in the romantic and lonely cemetery of the Protestants,
+under the pyramid which is the tomb of Cestius, and the massy walls and
+towers, now moldering and desolate, which formed the circuit of ancient
+Rome. It is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with
+violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death, to think that
+one should be buried in so sweet a place."
+
+If Shelley had chosen his own grave at the time, he would have selected
+the very spot where he has since been laid--the most sequestered and
+flowery nook of the place he describes so feelingly.
+
+On the second terrace of the declivity are ten or twelve graves, two of
+which bear the names of Americans who have died in Rome. A portrait
+carved in bas-relief, upon one of the slabs, told me, without the
+inscription, that one whom I had known was buried beneath. The slightly
+rising mound was covered with small violets, half hidden by the grass.
+It takes away from the pain with which one stands over the grave of an
+acquaintance or a friend, to see the sun lying so warm upon it, and the
+flowers springing so profusely and cheerfully. Nature seems to have
+cared for those who have died so far from home, binding the earth gently
+over them with grass, and decking it with the most delicate flowers. We
+descended to the lower enclosure at the foot of the slight declivity.
+The first grave here is that of Keats. The inscription runs thus:
+
+"This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who,
+on his death-bed in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power
+of his enemies, desired these words to be engraved on his tomb: 'Here
+lies one whose name was written in water.'"
+
+He died at Rome in 1821. Every reader knows his history and the cause of
+his death. Shelley says, in the preface to his elegy:
+
+"The savage criticism on his poems, which appeared in the "Quarterly
+Review," produced the most violent effect on his susceptible mind; the
+agitation thus originated ended in a rupture of a blood-vessel in the
+lungs; a rapid consumption ensued, and the succeeding acknowledgments,
+from more candid critics, of the true greatness of his powers, were
+ineffectual to heal the wound thus wantonly inflicted."
+
+Keats was, no doubt, a poet of very uncommon promise. He had all the
+wealth of genius within him, but he had not learned, before he was
+killed by criticism, the received, and, therefore, the best manner of
+producing it for the eye of the world. Had he lived longer, the strength
+and richness which break continually through the affected style of
+"Endymion" and "Lamia" and his other poems, must have formed themselves
+into some noble monuments of his powers. As it is, there is not a poet
+living who could surpass the material of his "Endymion"--a poem, with
+all its faults, far more full of beauties. But this is not the place for
+criticism. He is buried fitly for a poet, and sleeps beyond criticism
+now. Peace to his ashes!
+
+
+
+
+EXCURSIONS NEAR ROME[25]
+
+BY CHARLES DICKENS
+
+
+The excursions in the neighborhood of Rome are charming, and would be
+full of interest were it only for the changing views they afford of the
+wild Campagna. But every inch of ground in every direction is rich in
+associations, and in natural beauties. There is Albano, with its lovely
+lake and wooded shore, and with its wine, that certainly has not
+improved since the days of Horace, and in these times hardly justifies
+his panegyric. There is squalid Tivoli, with the river Anio, diverted
+from its course, and plunging down, headlong, some eighty feet in search
+of it, with its picturesque Temple of the Sibyl, perched high on a crag;
+its minor waterfalls glancing and sparkling in the sun; and one good
+cavern yawning darkly, where the river takes a fearful plunge and shoots
+on, low down under beetling rocks.
+
+There, too, is the Villa d'Este, deserted and decaying among groves of
+melancholy pine and cypress-trees, where it seems to lie in state. Then,
+there is Frascati, and, on the steep above it, the ruins of Tusculum,
+where Cicero lived, and wrote, and adorned his favorite house (some
+fragments of it may yet be seen there), and where Cato was born. We saw
+its ruined amphitheater on a gray, dull day, when a shrill March wind
+was blowing, and when the scattered stones of the old city lay strewn
+about the lonely eminence, as desolate and dead as the ashes of a
+long-extinguished fire.
+
+One day we walked out, a little party of three, to Albano, fourteen
+miles distant; possest by a great desire to go there by the ancient
+Appian Way, long since ruined and overgrown. We started at half-past
+seven in the morning, and within an hour or so were out upon the open
+Campagna. For twelve miles we went climbing on, over an unbroken
+succession of mounds, and heaps, and hills of ruin. Tombs and temples,
+overthrown and prostrate; small fragments of columns, friezes,
+pediments; great blocks of granite and marble; moldering arches
+grass-grown and decayed; ruin enough to build a spacious city from; lay
+strewn about us. Sometimes loose walls, built up from these fragments by
+the shepherds, came across our path; sometimes a ditch, between two
+mounds of broken stones, obstructed our progress; sometimes, the
+fragments themselves, rolling from beneath our feet, made it a toilsome
+matter to advance; but it was always ruin. Now, we tracked a piece of
+the old road above the ground; now traced it underneath a grassy
+covering, as if that were its grave; but all the way was ruin.
+
+In the distance, ruined aqueducts went stalking on their giant course
+along the plain; and every breath of wind that swept toward us, stirred
+early flowers and grasses, springing up, spontaneously, on miles of
+ruin. The unseen larks above us, who alone disturbed the awful silence,
+had their nests in ruin; and the fierce herdsmen, clad in sheepskins,
+who now and then scowled out upon us from their sleeping nooks, were
+housed in ruin. The aspect of the desolate Campagna in one direction,
+where it was most level, reminded me of an American prairie; but what is
+the solitude of a region where men have never dwelt, to that of a
+desert, where a mighty race have left their footprints in the earth from
+which they have vanished; where the resting-places of their dead have
+fallen like their dead; and the broken hour-glass of Time is but a heap
+of idle dust! Returning by the road at sunset, and looking, from the
+distance, on the course we had taken in the morning, I almost felt (as I
+had felt when I first saw it, at that hour) as if the sun would never
+rise again, but looked its last, that night, upon a ruined world.
+
+To come again to Rome, by moonlight, after such an expedition, is a
+fitting close to such a day. The narrow streets, devoid of footways, and
+choked, in every obscure corner, by heaps of dung-hill-rubbish, contrast
+so strongly, in their cramped dimensions, and their filth and darkness,
+with the broad square before some haughty church; in the center of
+which, a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk, brought from Egypt in the days of
+the Emperors, looks strangely on the foreign scene about it; or perhaps
+an ancient pillar, with its honored statue overthrown, supports a
+Christian saint; Marcus Aurelius giving place to Paul, and Trajan to St.
+Peter. Then, there are the ponderous buildings reared from the
+spoliation of the Coliseum, shutting out the moon, like mountains; while
+here and there are broken arches and rent walls, through which it gushes
+freely, as the life comes pouring from a wound. The little town of
+miserable houses, walled, and shut in by barred gates, is the quarter
+where the Jews are locked up nightly, when the clock strikes eight--a
+miserable place, densely populated, and reeking with bad odors, but
+where the people are industrious and money-getting. In the daytime, as
+you make your way along the narrow streets, you see them all at
+work--upon the pavement, oftener than in their dark and frowsy shops;
+furbishing old clothes, and driving bargains.
+
+Crossing from these patches of thick darkness out into the moon once
+more, the fountain of Trevi, welling from a hundred jets, and rolling
+over mimic rocks, is silvery to the eye and ear. In the narrow little
+throat of street beyond, a booth drest out with flaring lamps, and
+boughs of trees, attracts a group of sulky Romans around its smoky
+coppers of hot broth, and cauliflower stew; its trays of fried fish, and
+its flasks of wine. As you rattle around the sharply twisting corner, a
+lumbering sound is heard. The coachman stops abruptly, and uncovers, as
+a van comes slowly by, preceded by a man who bears a large cross; by a
+torch-bearer, and a priest; the latter chanting as he goes. It is the
+dead-cart, with the bodies of the poor, on their way to burial in the
+Sacred Field outside the walls, where they will be thrown into the pit
+that will be covered with a stone to-night, and sealed up for a year.
+
+But whether, in this ride, you pass by obelisks, or columns, ancient
+temples, theaters, houses, porticoes or forums, it is strange to see how
+every fragment, whenever it is possible, has been blended into some
+modern structure, and made to serve some modern purpose--a wall, a
+dwelling-place, a granary, a stable--some use for which it never was
+designed, and associated with which it can not otherwise than lamely
+assort.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+FLORENCE
+
+
+THE APPROACH BY CARRIAGE ROAD[26]
+
+BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+Immediately after leaving Incisa, we saw the Arno, already a
+considerable river, rushing between deep banks, with the greenish hue of
+a duck-pond diffused through its water. Nevertheless, tho the first
+impression was not altogether agreeable, we soon became reconciled to
+this hue, and ceased to think it an indication of impurity; for, in
+spite of it, the river is still, to a certain degree, transparent, and
+is, at any rate, a mountain stream, and comes uncontaminated from its
+source. The pure, transparent brown of the New England rivers is the
+most beautiful color; but I am content that it should be peculiar to
+them.
+
+Our afternoon's drive was through scenery less striking than some which
+we had traversed, but still picturesque and beautiful. We saw deep
+valleys and ravines, with streams at the bottom; long, wooded hillsides,
+rising far and high, and dotted with white dwellings, well toward the
+summits. By and by, we had a distant glimpse of Florence, showing its
+great dome and some of its towers out of a sidelong valley, as if we
+were between two great waves of the tumultuous sea of hills; while, far
+beyond, rose in the distance the blue peaks of three or four of the
+Apennines, just on the remote horizon. There being a haziness in the
+atmosphere, however, Florence was little more distinct to us than the
+Celestial City was to Christian and Hopeful, when they spied at it from
+the Delectable Mountains.
+
+Keeping steadfastly onward, we ascended a winding road, and passed a
+grand villa, standing very high, and surrounded with extensive grounds.
+It must be the residence of some great noble; and it has an avenue of
+poplars or aspens, very light and gay, and fit for the passage of the
+bridal procession, when the proprietor or his heir brings home his
+bride; while in another direction from the same front of the palace
+stretches an avenue or grove of cypresses, very long and exceedingly
+black and dismal, like a train of gigantic mourners. I have seen few
+things more striking, in the way of trees, than this grove of cypresses.
+
+From this point we descended, and drove along an ugly, dusty avenue,
+with a high brick wall on one side or both, till we reached the gate of
+Florence, into which we were admitted with as little trouble as
+custom-house officers, soldiers, and policemen can possibly give. They
+did not examine our luggage, and even declined a fee, as we had already
+paid one at the frontier custom-house. Thank heaven, and the Grand
+Duke!
+
+As we hoped that the Casa del Bello had been taken for us, we drove
+thither in the first place, but found that the bargain had not been
+concluded. As the house and studio of Mr. Powers[27] were just on the
+opposite side of the street, I went to it, but found him too much
+engrossed to see me at the moment; so I returned to the "vettura," and
+we told Gaetano to carry us to a hotel. He established us at the Albergo
+della Fontana, a good and comfortable house. Mr. Powers called in the
+evening--a plain personage, characterized by strong simplicity and warm
+kindliness, with an impending brow, and large eyes, which kindle as he
+speaks. He is gray, and slightly bald, but does not seem elderly, nor
+past his prime. I accept him at once as an honest and trustworthy man,
+and shall not vary from this judgment. Through his good offices, the
+next day we engaged the Casa del Bello. This journey from Rome has been
+one of the brightest and most uncareful interludes of my life; we have
+all enjoyed it exceedingly, and I am happy that our children have it to
+look back upon.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD PALACE AND THE LOGGIA[28]
+
+BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER
+
+
+Every great capital has its eye; at Rome it is the Campo Vaccino; at
+Paris, the Boulevard des Italiens; at Venice, the Place St. Mark; at
+Madrid, the Prado; at London, the Strand; at Naples, the Via di Toledo.
+Rome is more Roman, Paris more Parisian, Venice more Venetian, Madrid
+more Spanish, London more English, Naples more Neapolitan, in that
+privileged locality than anywhere else. The eye of Florence is the Place
+of the Grand Duke--a beautiful eye. In fact, suppress that Place and
+Florence has no more meaning--it might be another city. It is at that
+Place, therefore, that every traveler ought to begin, and, moreover, had
+he not that intention, the tide of pedestrians would carry him and the
+streets themselves would conduct him thither.
+
+The first aspect of the Place of the Grand Duke has an effect so
+charming, so picturesque, so complete, that you comprehend all at once
+into what an error the modern capitals like London, Paris, St.
+Petersburg, fall in forming, under the pretext of squares, in their
+compact masses, immense empty spaces upon which they run aground all
+possible and impossible modes of decoration. One can touch with his
+finger the reason which makes of the Carrousel and Place de la Concorde,
+great empty fields which absorb fountains, statues, arches of triumph,
+obelisks, candelabra, and little gardens. All these embellishments, very
+pretty on paper, very agreeable also, without doubt, viewed from a
+balloon, are almost lost for the spectator who can not grasp the whole,
+his height only rising five feet above the ground.
+
+A square, in order to produce a beautiful effect, ought not to be too
+big; it is also necessary that it should be bordered by varied monuments
+of diverse elevations. The Place of the Grand Duke at Florence unites
+all these conditions; bordered by monuments regular in themselves, but
+different from one another, it is pleasing to the eye without wearying
+by a cold symmetry.
+
+The Palace of the Seigneurie, or Old Palace, which by its imposing mass
+and severe elegance at first attracts the attention, occupies a corner
+of the Place, instead of the middle. This idea, a happy one, in our
+opinion, regrettable for those who only see architectural beauty in
+geometrical regularity, is not fortuitous; it has a reason wholly
+Florentine. In order to obtain perfect symmetry, it would have been
+necessary to build upon the detested soil of the Ghibelline house,
+rebellious and proscribed by the Uberti; something that the Guelph
+faction, then all-powerful, were not willing to allow the architect,
+Arnolfo di Lapo, to do. Learned men contest the truth of this tradition;
+we will not discuss here the value of their objections. It is certain,
+however, that the Old Palace gains greatly by the singularity of this
+location and also leaves space for the great Fountain of Neptune and
+the equestrian statue of Cosmo the First.
+
+The name of fortress would be more appropriate than any other, for the
+Old Palace; it is a great mass of stone, without columns, without
+frontal, without order of architecture. Time has gilded the walls with
+beautiful vermilion tints which the pure blue of the sky sets off
+marvelously, and the whole structure has that haughty and romantic
+aspect which accords well with the idea that one forms for oneself of
+that old Palace of the Seigneurie, the witness, since the date of its
+erection in the thirteenth century, of so many intrigues, tumults,
+violent acts, and crimes. The battlements of the palace, cut square,
+show that it was built to that height by the Guelph faction; the
+trifurcated battlements of the belfry indicate a sudden change on the
+accession to power of the Ghibelline faction.
+
+Guelphs and Ghibellines detested each other so violently that they
+exprest their opinions in their garments, in the cut of their hair, in
+their arms, in their manner of fortifying themselves. They feared
+nothing so much as to be captured by one another, and differed as much
+as they possibly could. They had a special salutation after the manner
+of the Freemasons and the Companions of Duty. The opinions of the
+ancient owners of the Old Palace at Florence can be recognized by this
+characteristic; the walls of the city are crenelated squarely in the
+Guelph fashion, and the tower on the ramparts has the Ghibelline
+battlements of swallow-tail shape.
+
+The Vecchio Palace has for its basement several steps which were used in
+former times as a species of tribune, from the top of which the
+magistrates and demagogs harangued the people. Two colossal statues of
+marble--Hercules slaying Cacus, by Bandinelli, and David the Conqueror
+of Goliath, by Michael Angelo--mount near the door their age-long watch,
+like two gigantic sentinels whom someone has forgotten to relieve. The
+statue of David by Michael Angelo besides the inconvenience there is in
+representing under a gigantic form a Biblical hero of notoriously small
+size, seemed to us a trifle common and heavy, a rare defect with this
+master; his David is a great big boy, fleshy, broad-backed, with
+monstrous biceps, a market porter waiting to put a sack upon his back.
+The working of the marble is remarkable and, after all, is a fine piece
+of study which would do honor to any other sculptor except Michael
+Angelo; but there is lacking that Olympian mastership which
+characterizes the works of that superhuman sculptor.
+
+One of the most curious features of the Old Palace is the grand salon, a
+hall of enormous dimensions, which has its legend. When the Medici were
+driven from Florence, in 1494, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who directed the
+popular movement, proposed the idea of constructing an immense hall
+where a council of a thousand citizens would elect the magistrates and
+regulate the affairs of the republic. The architect Cronaca had charge
+of this task and acquitted himself of it with a celerity so marvelous
+that Brother Savonarola caused the rumor to spread that angels
+descended from heaven to help the masons and continued at night the
+interrupted work. The invention of these angels tempering the mortar and
+carrying the hod is all done in the legendary style of the Middle Ages
+and would furnish a charming subject for a picture to some ingenuous
+painter of the school of Overbeck or of Hauser. In this rapid
+construction Cronaca displayed, if not all his genius, at least all his
+agility. The work has been justly admired and often consulted by
+architects.
+
+When the Medici returned to power and transferred their residence from
+the Palace of the Via Larga, which they had occupied, to the Palace of
+the Seigneurie, Cosmo wished to change the Council Hall into an audience
+chamber, and charged the presumptuous Bacchio Bandinelli, whose designs
+had attracted him, with various alterations of an important character;
+but the sculptor had undoubtedly presumed too much on his talent as an
+architect, and in spite of the assistance of Giuliano Baccio d'Agnolo,
+whom he called to his aid, he worked for ten years without being able to
+conquer the difficulties which he had created for himself.
+
+It was Vasari who raised the ceiling several feet, finished the work and
+decorated the walls with a succession of frescoes which may still be
+seen, and which represent different episodes in the history of
+Florence--combats, and captures of cities, the whole being a travesty of
+antiquity, an intermingling of allegories. These frescos, painted with
+an intrepid and learned mediocrity, display the commonplace tones,
+swelling muscles and anatomical tricks in use at that epoch among
+artists.
+
+We have already called attention to the fact that colossal dimensions
+are not at all necessary to produce effect in architecture. The Loggia
+de Lanzi, that gem of the Place of the Grand Duke, consists of a portico
+composed of four arcades, three on the façade, one in return on the
+gallery of the offices. It is a miniature of a monument; but the harmony
+of its proportions is so perfect that the eye in contemplating it
+experiences a sense of satisfaction. The nearness of the Palace of the
+Seigneurie, with its compact mass, admirably sets off the elegant
+slenderness of its arches and columns. The Loggia is a species of Museum
+in the open air. The "Perseus" of Benvenuto Cellini, the "Judith" of
+Donatello, the "Rape of the Sabines" of John of Bologna, are framed in
+the arcades. Six antique statues--the cardinal and monastic virtues--by
+Jacques, called Pietro, a Madonna by Orgagna adorn the interior wall.
+Two lions, one antique, the other modern, by Vacca, almost as good as
+the Greek lions of the arsenal at Venice, complete the decoration.
+
+The Perseus may be regarded as the masterpiece of Benvenuto Cellini, an
+artist so highly spoken of in France, without scarcely anything being
+known about him. This statue, a little affected in its pose, like all
+the works of the Florentine school, has a juvenile grace which is very
+attractive.
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY[29]
+
+BY GRANT ALLEN
+
+
+Only two considerable rivers flow from the Apennines westward into the
+Mediterranean. The Tiber makes Rome; the Arno makes Florence. In
+prehistoric and early historic times, the mountainous region which forms
+the basin of these two rivers was occupied by a gifted military race,
+the Etruscans, who possest a singular assimilative power for Oriental
+and Hellenic culture. Intellectually and artistically, they were the
+pick of Italy. Their blood still runs in the veins of the people of
+Tuscany. Almost every great thing done in the Peninsula, in ancient or
+modern times, has been done by Etruscan hands or brains. The poets and
+painters, in particular, with few exceptions, have been, in the wide
+ethnical sense, Tuscans.
+
+The towns of ancient Etruria were hill-top strongholds. Florence was not
+one of these; even its neighbor, Fiesole (Faesulue), did not rank among
+the twelve great cities of the Etruscan league. But with the Roman
+conquest and the Roman peace, the towns began to descend from their
+mountain peaks into the river valleys; roads grew important, through
+internal trade; and bridges over rivers assumed a fresh commercial
+value. Florence (Florentia), probably founded under Sulla as a Roman
+municipium, upon a Roman road, guarded the bridge across the Arno, and
+gradually absorbed the population of Fiesole. Under the later empire,
+it was the official residence of the "Corrector" of Tuscany and Umbria.
+During the Middle Ages, it became, for all practical purposes, the
+intellectual and artistic capital of Tuscany, inheriting in full the
+remarkable mental and esthetic excellences of the Etruscan race.
+
+The valley of the Arno is rich and fertile, bordered by cultivable
+hills, which produce the famous Chianti wine. It was thus predestined by
+nature as the seat of the second city on the west slope of Italy.
+Florence, however, was not always that city. The seaport of Pisa (now
+silted up and superseded by Leghorn) first rose into importance; possest
+a powerful fleet; made foreign conquests; and erected the magnificent
+group of buildings just outside the town which still form its chief
+claim upon the attention of tourists. But Florence with its bridge
+commanded the inland trade, and the road to Rome from Germany. After the
+destruction of Fiesole in 1125, it grew rapidly in importance; and, Pisa
+having sustained severe defeats from Genoa, the inland town soon rose to
+supremacy in the Arno basin. Nominally subject to the Emperor, it became
+practically an independent republic, much agitated by internal quarrels,
+but capable of holding its own against neighboring cities. Its chief
+buildings are thus an age or two later than those of Pisa; it did not
+begin to produce splendid churches and palaces, in emulation of those of
+Pisa and Siena, till about the close of the 13th century. To the same
+period belongs the rise of its literature under Dante, and its painting
+under Giotto. This epoch of rapid commercial, military, and artistic
+development forms the main glory of early Florence.
+
+The 14th century is chiefly interesting at Florence as the period of
+Giottesque art, finding its final crown in Fra Angelico. With the
+beginning of the 15th, we get the dawn of the Renaissance--the age when
+art set out once more to recover the lost perfection of antique
+workmanship. In literature, this movement took the form of humanism; in
+architecture and sculpture, it exhibited itself in the persons of
+Alberti, Ghiberti, Della Robbia, and Donatello; in painting, it showed
+itself in Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Verrocchio....
+
+We start, then, with the fact that up to nearly the close of the 13th
+century (1278), Florence was a comparatively small and uninteresting
+town, without any buildings of importance, save the relatively
+insignificant Baptistery; without any great cathedral, like Pisa and
+Siena; without any splendid artistic achievement of any kind. It
+consisted at that period of a labyrinth of narrow streets, enclosing
+huddled houses and tall towers of the nobles, like the two to be seen to
+this day at Bologna. In general aspect, it could not greatly have
+differed from Albenga or San Gimignano in our own time. But commerce was
+active; wealth was increasing; and the population was seething with the
+intellectual and artistic spirit of its Etruscan ancestry. During the
+lifetime of Dante, the town began to transform itself and to prepare for
+becoming the glorious Florence of the Renaissance artists. It then set
+about building two immense and beautiful churches--Santa Croce and
+Santa Maria Novella--while, shortly after, it grew to be ashamed of its
+tiny San Giovanni (the existing Baptistery), and girded itself up to
+raise a superb cathedral, which should cast into the shade both the one
+long since finished at maritime Pisa and the one then still rising to
+completion on the height of Siena.
+
+Florence at that time extended no further than the area known as Old
+Florence, which means from the Ponte Vecchio to the Cathedral in one
+direction, and from the Ponte alla Carraja to the Grazie in the other.
+Outside the wall lay a belt of fields and gardens, in which one or two
+monasteries had already sprung up. But Italy at that moment was filled
+with religious enthusiasm by the advent of the Friars both great orders
+of whom, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, had already established
+themselves in the rising commercial city of Florence. Both orders had
+acquired sites for monastic buildings in the space outside the walls and
+soon began to erect enormous churches. The Dominicans came first, with
+Santa Maria Novella, the commencement of which dates from 1278; the
+Franciscans were a little later in the field, with Santa Croce, the
+first stone not being placed till 1294.
+
+
+
+
+THE CATHEDRAL[30]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+Desirous of seeing the beginnings of this Renaissance we go from the
+Palazzo-Vecchio to the Duomo. Both form the double heart of Florence,
+such as it beat in the Middle Ages, the former for politics, and the
+latter for religion, and the two so well united that they formed but
+one. Nothing can be nobler than the public edict passed in 1294 for the
+construction of the national cathedral.
+
+"Whereas, it being of sovereign prudence on the part of a people of high
+origin to proceed in its affairs in such a manner that the wisdom no
+less than the magnanimity of its proceedings can be recognized in its
+outward works, it is ordered that Arnolfo, master architect of our
+commune, prepare models or designs for the restoration of Santa Maria
+Reparata, with the most exalted and most prodigal magnificence, in order
+that the industry and power of men may never create or undertake
+anything whatsoever more vast and more beautiful; in accordance with
+that which our wisest citizens have declared and counselled in public
+session and in secret conclave, to wit, that no hand be laid upon the
+works of the commune without the intent of making them to correspond to
+the noble soul which is composed of the souls of all its citizens united
+in one will."
+
+
+[FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE OLD PALACE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE HOUSE OF DANTE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FRONT OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL PALACE ON THE LEFT
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE CAMPANILE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+
+In this ample period breathes the grandiose pride and intense patriotism
+of the ancient republics. Athens under Pericles, and Rome under the
+first Scipio cherished no prouder sentiments. At each step, here as
+elsewhere, in texts and in monuments, is found, in Italy, the traces,
+the renewal and the spirit of classic antiquity.
+
+Let us, accordingly, look at the celebrated Duomo--but, the difficulty
+is to see it. It stands upon flat ground, and, in order that the eye
+might embrace its mass it would be necessary to level three hundred
+buildings. Herein appears the defect of the great medieval structure;
+even to-day, after so many openings, effected by modern demolishers,
+most of the cathedrals are visible only on paper. The spectator catches
+sight of a fragment, some section of a wall, or the façade; but the
+whole escapes him; man's work is no longer proportioned to his organs.
+It was not thus in antiquity; temples were small or of mediocre
+dimensions, and were almost always erected on an eminence; their general
+form and complete profile could be enjoyed from twenty different points
+of view.
+
+After the advent of Christianity, men's conceptions transcended their
+forces, and the ambition of the spirit no longer took into account the
+limitations of the body. The human machine lost its equilibrium. With
+forgetfulness of the moderate there was established a love of the odd.
+Without either reason or symmetry campaniles or bell-towers were
+planted, like isolated posts, in front or alongside of cathedrals; there
+is one of these alongside of the Duomo, and this change of human
+equipoise must have been potent, since even here, among so many Latin
+traditions and classic aptitudes, it declares itself.
+
+In other respects, save the ogive arcades, the monument is not Gothic,
+but Byzantine, or, rather, original; it is a creature of a new and mixed
+form like the new and mixed civilization of which it is the offspring.
+You feel power and invention in it with a touch of quaintness and fancy.
+Walls of enormous grandeur are developed or expanded without the few
+windows in them happening to impair their massiveness or diminish their
+strength. There are no flying buttresses; they are self-sustaining.
+Marble panels, alternately yellow and black, cover them with a
+glittering marquetry, and curves of arches let into their masses seem to
+be the bones of a robust skeleton beneath the skin.
+
+The Latin cross, which the edifice figures, contracts at the top, and
+the chancel and transepts bubble out into rotundities and projections,
+in petty domes behind the church in order to accompany the grand dome
+which ascends above the choir, and which, the work of Brunnelleschi,
+newer and yet more antique than that of St. Peter, lifts in the air to
+an astonishing height its elongated form, its octagonal sides and its
+pointed lantern. But how can the physiognomy of a church be conveyed by
+words? It has one nevertheless; all its portions appearing together are
+combined in one chord and in one effect. If you examine the plans and
+old engravings you will appreciate the bizarre and captivating harmony
+of these grand Roman walls overlaid with Oriental fancies; of these
+Gothic ogives arranged in Byzantine cupolas; of these light Italian
+columns forming a circle above a bordering of Grecian caissons; of this
+assemblage of all forms, pointed, swelling, angular, oblong, circular
+and octagonal. Greek and Latin antiquity, the Byzantine and Saracenic
+Orient, the Germanic and Italian middle-age, the entire past, shattered,
+amalgamated and transformed, seems to have been melted over anew in the
+human furnace in order to flow out in fresh forms in the hands of the
+new genius of Giotto, Arnolfo, Brunnelleschi and Dante.
+
+Here the work is unfinished, and the success is not complete. The façade
+has not been constructed; all that we see of it is a great naked,
+scarified wall similar to a leper's plaster.[31] There is no light
+within. A line of small round bays and a few windows fill the immensity
+of the edifice with a gray illumination; it is bare, and the
+argillaceous tone in which it is painted depresses the eye with its wan
+monotony. A "Pieta" by Michael Angelo and a few statues seem like
+spectres; the bas-reliefs are only vague confusion. The architect,
+hesitating between medieval and antique taste, fell only upon a lifeless
+light, that between a pure light and a colored light.
+
+The more we contemplate architectural works the more do we find them
+adapted to express the prevailing spirit of an epoch. Here, on the flank
+of the Duomo, stands the Campanile by Giotto, erect, isolated, like St.
+Michael's tower at Bordeaux, or the tower of St. Jacques at Paris; the
+medieval man, in fact, loves to build high; he aspires to heaven, his
+elevations all tapering off into pointed pinnacles; if this one had been
+finished a spire of thirty feet would have surmounted the tower, itself
+two hundred and fifty feet high. Hitherto the northern architect and the
+Italian architect are governed by the same instinct, and gratify the
+same penchant; but while the northern artist, frankly Gothic, embroiders
+his tower with delicate moldings, and complex flower-work, and a stone
+lacework infinitely multiplied and intersected, the southern artist,
+half-Latin through his tendencies and his reminiscences, erects a
+square, strong and full pile, in which a skilful ornamentation does not
+efface the general structure, which is not frail sculptured bijou, but a
+solid durable monument, its coating of red, black and white marble
+covering it with royal luxuriance, and which, through its healthy and
+animated statues, its bas-reliefs framed in medallions, recalls the
+friezes and pediments of an antique temple.
+
+In these medallions Giotto has symbolized the principal epochs of human
+civilization; the traditions of Greece near those of Judea; Adam,
+Tubal-Cain, and Noah, Daedalus, Hercules, and Antaeus, the invention of
+plowing, the mastery of the horse, and the discovery of the arts and the
+sciences; laic and philosophic sentiment live freely in him side by side
+with a theological and religious sentiment. Do we not already see in
+this renaissance of the fourteenth century that of the sixteenth? In
+order to pass from one to another, it will suffice for the spirit of the
+first to become ascendant over the spirit of the second; at the end of a
+century we are to see in the adornment of the edifice, in these statues
+of Donatello, in their baldness so expressive, in the sentiment of the
+real and natural life displayed among the goldsmiths and sculptors,
+evidence of the transformation begun under Giotto having been already
+accomplished.
+
+Every step we take we encounter some sign of this persistency or
+precocity of a Latin and classic spirit. Facing the Duomo is the
+baptistery, which at first served as a church, a sort of octagonal
+temple surmounted by a cupola, built, doubtless, after the model of the
+Pantheon of Rome, and which, according to the testimony of a
+contemporary bishop, already in the eighth century projected upward the
+pompous rotundities of its imperial forms. Here, then, in the most
+barbarous epoch of the Middle Ages, is a prolongation, a renewal, or, at
+least, an imitation of Roman architecture. You enter, and find that the
+decoration is not all Gothic; a circle of Corinthian columns of precious
+marbles with, above these, a circle of smaller columns surmounted by
+loftier arcades, and, on the vault, a legion of saints, and angels
+peopling the entire space, gathering in four rows around a grand, dull,
+meager, melancholy Byzantine Christ. On these three superposed stories
+the three gradual distortions of antique art appear; but, distorted or
+intact, it is always antique art. A significant feature, this,
+throughout the history of Italy; she did not become Germanic. In the
+tenth century the degraded Roman still subsisted distinct and intact
+side by side with the proud barbarian....
+
+Sculpture, which, once before under Nicholas of Pisa, had anticipated
+painting, again anticipated it in the fifteenth century; these very
+doors of the baptistery enable one to see with what sudden perfection
+and brilliancy. Three men then appeared, Brunelleschi, the architect of
+the Duomo, Donatello, who decorated the Campanile with statues, and
+Ghiberti, who cast the two gates of the baptistery, all three friends
+and rivals, all three having commenced with the goldsmith's art and a
+study of the living model, and all three passionately devoted to the
+antique; Brunelleschi drawing and measuring Roman monuments, Donatello
+at Rome copying statues and bas-reliefs and Ghiberti importing from
+Greece torsos, vases and heads which he restored, imitated and
+worshiped.
+
+
+
+
+AN ASCENT OF THE GREAT DOME[32]
+
+BY MR. AND MRS. EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD
+
+
+The traveler who, turning his back to the gates of Ghiberti, passes, for
+the first time, under the glittering new mosaics and through the main
+doors of Santa Maria Del Fiore experiences a sensation. He leaves behind
+him the façade, dazzling in its patterns of black and white marble, all
+laced with sculpture, he enters to dim, bare vastness--surely, never was
+bleaker lining to a splendid exterior. Across a floor that seems
+unending, he makes long journeys, from monument to monument; to gigantic
+condottieri, riding ghost-like in the semi-darkness against the upper
+walls; to Luca's saints and angels in the sacristies; to Donatellos's
+Saint John, grand and tranquil in his niche, and to Michelangelo's
+group, grand and troubled in its rough-hewn marble.
+
+At length, in the north transept, he comes to a small door, and entering
+there, he may, if legs and wind hold out, climb five hundred and fifteen
+steps to the top of the mightiest dome in the world, the widest in span,
+and the highest from spring to summit. For the first one hundred and
+fifty steps or so, there are square turnings, and the stone looks sharp,
+and new, and solid; a space vaulted by a domical roof follows, and is
+apparently above one of the apsidal domes to the church; then a narrow
+spiral staircase leads to where a second door opens upon a very narrow,
+balustraded walk that runs around the inner side of the dome.
+
+He is at an altitude of sixty-seven meters, exactly at the spring of the
+cupola and the beginning of the Vasari frescoes; the feet are at an
+elevation of one meter less than is that of the lower tops of Notre Dame
+de Paris, and yet the dome follows away overhead, huge enough, high
+enough to contain a second church piled, Pelion-like upon the first.
+Before, in the dimness, is the vastest roof-covered void in the world;
+it is terrific, and if the visitor is susceptible, his knees shake, and
+his diaphragm seems to sink to meet them.
+
+The impression is tremendous; no wonder that the Tuscans felt
+Brunelleschi to be the central figure of the Renaissance. Again and
+again, whether in the gallery or between the walls of the dome, the
+thought comes; men built this, and one man dared it and planned it. Not
+even the Pyramids impress more strongly; for if Brunelleschi built a
+lesser pyramid, he hollowed his and hung it in the air.
+
+On the other side of the space, a small black spot becomes a door when
+the traveler has giddily circled half the dome; it opens upon another
+staircase, up which he climbs between the two skins of the cupola, or
+rather between two of the three, like a parasite upon a monster.
+Sometimes the place suggests a ship, with the oculi as gunports,
+piercing to the outer day, or else, his mind fresh from that red inferno
+of Vasari's frescoes, the traveler is tunneling up through a volcanic
+crater with a whole Typhonic Enceladus buried below.
+
+To right and left, the smooth, cemented surface curves away and upward,
+brick buttresses appear constantly, but always with the courses of brick
+laid slanting to the earth's level, and perpendicular to the thrust of
+the dome. Every possible effect of light and obscurity makes the strange
+vistas yet more weird, and, now and then, there is a feeling of standing
+upon the vast, rounding slope of some planet that shines at one's feet,
+then gradually falls away into the surrounding blackness.
+
+The famous "oaken chain" of Vasari's life of Brunelleschi is there,
+bolted together in successive beams. Last of all, a long, straight
+staircase, straight because without turn to right or left, curves upward
+like an unradiant, bowed Valhalla-bridge to a great burst of daylight,
+and the climber is upon the top of the dome.
+
+He is as completely cut off from the immediately surrounding earth as
+upon a cloud girdled mountain, for the dome swells so vastly below that
+the piazza can not be seen about transept or choir, and not one of the
+apsidal domes shows a tile of its covering, while the nave, that huge
+and tremendous nave of Santa Maria, looks but a narrow, and a distant
+roof. At one's back, the marble of the lantern is handsome and creamy in
+color, but battered and broken; its interior is curious--a narrow funnel
+of marble, little wider than a man's body, set with irons on either
+side, is the only ladder, so that the climb up is a close squeeze. There
+is a familiar something gone from the surroundings, and that something
+is soon remembered to be Dante's baptistery, which does not exist from
+Brunelleschi's dome, being blotted out by the façade of Santa Maria. One
+hundred feet below, showing its upper and richer portion gloriously from
+this novel point of view, is what from the piazza is the soaring bell
+tower, the Campanile of Giotto.
+
+
+
+
+ARNOLFO, GIOTTO, BRUNELLESCHI[33]
+
+BY MRS. OLIPHANT
+
+
+Arnolfo, sometimes called di Cambio and sometimes di Lapi, was the first
+of the group of Cathedral builders in Florence. Who Arnolfo was seems to
+be scarcely known, tho few architects after him have left greater works
+or more evidence of power. His first authentic appearance in history is
+among the band of workmen engaged upon the pulpit in the Duomo at Siena,
+as pupil or journeyman of Niccolo Pisano, the great reviver of the art
+of sculpture--when he becomes visible in company with a certain Lapo,
+who is sometimes called his father (as by Vasari) and sometimes his
+instructor, but who appears actually to have been nothing more than his
+fellow-workman and associate....
+
+The Cathedral, the Palazzo Pubblico, the two great churches of Santa
+Croce and Santa Maria Novella, all leaped into being within a few years,
+almost simultaneously. The Duomo was founded, as some say, in 1294, the
+same year in which Santa Croce was begun, or, according to others, in
+1298; and between these two dates, in 1296, the Palace of the Signoria,
+the seat of the Commonwealth, the center of all public life, had its
+commencement. All these great buildings, Arnolfo designed and began, and
+his genius requires no other evidence. The stern strength of the
+Palazzo, upright and strong like a knight in mail, and the large and
+noble lines of the Cathedral, ample and liberal and majestic in ornate
+robes and wealthy ornaments, show how well he knew to vary and adapt his
+art to the different requirements of municipal and religious life and to
+the necessities of the age.
+
+We are not informed who they were who carried out the design of the
+Duomo. Arnolfo only lived to see a portion of this, his greatest work,
+completed--"the three principal tribunes which were under the cupola,"
+and which Vasari tells us were so solid and strongly built as to be able
+to bear the full weight of Brunelleschi's dome, which was much larger
+and heavier than the one the original architect had himself designed.
+Arnolfo died when he had built his Palazzo in rugged strength, as it
+still stands, with walls like living rock and heavy Tuscan cornices--tho
+it was reserved to the other masters to put upon it the wonderful crown
+of its appropriate tower--and just as the round apse of the cathedral
+approached completion; a hard fate for a great builder to leave such
+noble work behind him half done, yet the most common of all fates. He
+died, so far as there is any certainty in dates, in 1300, during the
+brief period of Dante's power in Florence, when the poet was one of the
+priors and much engaged in public business; and the same eventful year
+concluded the existence of Cimabue, the first of the great school of
+Florentine painters--he whose picture was carried home to the church in
+which it was to dwell for all the intervening centuries with such pride
+and acclamation that the Borgo Allegri is said to have taken its name
+from this wonderful rejoicing....
+
+No more notable or distinct figure than Giotto is in all the history of
+Florence. He was born a peasant, in the village of Vespignano in the
+Mugello, the same district which afterward gave birth to Fra Angelico.
+Giotto had at least part of his professional training in the great
+cathedral at Assisi built over the bones of St. Francis, was one of
+those homely, vigorous souls, "a natural person," like his father, whom
+neither the lapse of centuries nor the neighborhood of much greater and
+more striking persons about them, can deprive of their naive and genuine
+individuality. Burly, homely, characteristic, he carries our attentions
+always with him, alike on the silent road, or in the king's palace, or
+his own simple shop. Wherever he is, he is always the same, shrewd,
+humorous, plain-spoken, seeing through all pretenses, yet never
+ill-natured in doing so--a character not very lofty or elevated, and to
+which the racy ugliness of a strong, uncultivated race seems
+natural--but who under that homely nature carried appreciations and
+conceptions of beauty such as few fine minds possess.
+
+Of all the beautiful things with which Giotto adorned his city, not one
+speaks so powerfully to the foreign visitor--the forestiere whom he and
+his fellows never took into account, tho who occupy so large a space
+among the admirers of his genius nowadays--as the lovely Campanile which
+stands by the great cathedral like the white royal lily beside the Mary
+of the Annunciation, slender and strong and everlasting in its delicate
+grace. It is not often that a man takes up a new trade when he is
+approaching sixty, or even goes into a new path out of his familiar
+routine. But Giotto seems to have turned without a moment's hesitation
+from his paints and panels to the less easily-wrought materials of the
+builder and sculptor, without either faltering from the great enterprise
+or doubting his own power to do it. His frescoes and altarpieces and
+crucifixes, the work he had been so long accustomed to, and which he
+could execute pleasantly in his own workshop or on the cool new walls of
+church or convent, with his trained school of younger artists round to
+aid him, were as different as possible from the elaborate calculations
+and measurements by which alone the lofty tower, straight, and lightsome
+as a lily, could have sprung so high and stood so lightly against that
+Italian sky.
+
+Like the poet or the romancist when he turns from the flowery ways of
+fiction and invention, where he is unencumbered by any restrictions save
+those of artistic keeping and personal will, to the grave and beaten
+path of history--the painter must have felt when he too turned from the
+freedom and poetry of art to this first scientific undertaking. The
+Cathedral was so far finished by this time, its front not scarred and
+bare as afterward, but adorned with statues according to old Arnolfo's
+plan, who was dead more than thirty years before; but there was no
+belfry, no companion peal of peace and sweetness to balance the hoarse
+old vacca with its voice of iron.
+
+Giotto seems to have thrown himself into work not only without
+reluctance but with enthusiasm. The foundation-stone of the building was
+laid in July of that year, with all the greatness of Florence looking
+on; and the painter entered upon his work at once, working out the most
+poetic effort of his life in marble and stone, among the masons'
+chippings and the dust and blaze of the public street. At the same time
+he designed, tho it does not seem sure whether he lived long enough to
+execute, a new façade for the Cathedral, replacing Arnolfo's old statues
+by something better.
+
+Of the Campanile itself it is difficult to speak in ordinary words. The
+enrichments of the surface, which is covered by beautiful groups set in
+a graceful framework of marble, with scarcely a flat or unadorned spot
+from top to bottom, have been ever since the admiration of artists and
+of the world. But we confess, for our own part, that it is the structure
+itself that affords us that soft ecstasy of contemplation, sense of a
+perfection before which the mind stops short, silenced and filled with
+the completeness of beauty unbroken, which Art so seldom gives, tho
+Nature often attains it by the simplest means, through the exquisite
+perfection of a flower or a stretch of summer sky.
+
+Just as we have looked at a sunset we look at Giotto's tower, poised far
+above in the blue air, in all the wonderful dawns and moonlights of
+Italy, swift darkness shadowing its white glory at the tinkle of the Ave
+Maria, and a golden glow of sunbeams accompanying the mid-day angelus.
+Between the solemn antiquity of the old baptistery and the historical
+gloom of the great cathedral, it stands like the lily--if not, rather,
+like the great angel himself hailing her who was blest among women, and
+keeping up that lovely salutation, musical and sweet as its own beauty,
+for century after century, day after day. Giotto made not only the
+design, but even, Vasari assures us, worked at the groups and
+"bassi-relievi" of these "stories in marble, in which are depicted the
+beginning of all the arts." ...
+
+Filippo of Ser Brunellescho of the Lapi, which is, according to
+Florentine use, his somewhat cumbrous name, or Brunelleschi for short,
+as custom permitted him to be called, was the son of a notary, who as
+notaries do, hoped and expected his boy to follow in his steps and
+succeed to his practise. But, like other sons doomed their fathers' soul
+to cross, Filippo took to those "figuretti" in bronze which were so
+captivating to the taste of the time, and preferred rather to be a
+goldsmith, to hang upon the skirts of art, than to work in the paternal
+office. He was, as Vasari insinuates, small, puny, and ugly, but full of
+dauntless and daring energy as well as genius. From his gold and silver
+work, the "carvings" which old Bartoluccio had been so glad to escape,
+and from his "figuretti," the ambitious lad took to architectural
+drawing, of which, according to Vasari, he was one of the first
+amateurs, making "portraits" of the Cathedral and baptistery, of the
+Palazzo Pubblico, and the other chief buildings of the city. He was so
+eloquent a talker that a worthy citizen declared of him that he seemed
+"a new St. Paul;" and in his thoughts he was continually busy planning
+or imagining something skilful and difficult.
+
+The idea of completing the Cathedral by adding to it a cupola worthy of
+its magnificent size and proportions seems to have been in the young
+man's head before the Signoria or the city took any action in the
+matter. Arnolfo's designs are said to have been lost, and all the young
+Filippo could do was to study the picture in the Spanish chapel of Santa
+Maria Novella, where the cathedral was depicted according to Arnolfo's
+intention; and this proof to the usefulness of architectural
+backgrounds, no doubt, moved him to those pictures of building which he
+was fond of making.
+
+After his failure in the competition with Ghiberti for the baptistery
+gates, Filippo went to Rome, accompanied by Donato. Here the two friends
+lived and studied together for some time, one giving himself to
+sculpture, the other to architecture. Brunelleschi, according to Vasari,
+made this a period of very severe study. He examined all the remains of
+ancient buildings with the keenest care; studying the foundations and
+the strength of the walls, and the way in which such a prodigious load
+as the great dome, which already he saw in his mind's eye, could best be
+supported.
+
+So profound were his researches that he was called the treasure-hunter
+by those who saw him coming and going through the streets of Rome, a
+title so far justified that he is said in one instance to have actually
+found an ancient earthenware jar full of old coins. While engaged in
+these studies, his money failing him, he worked for a jeweller according
+to the robust practise of the time, and after making ornaments and
+setting gems all day, set to work on his buildings, round and square,
+octagons, basilicas, arches, colosseums, and amphitheaters, perfecting
+himself in the principles of his art.
+
+In 1407 he returned to Florence, and then there began a series of
+negotiations between the artist and the city, to which there seemed at
+first as if no end could come. They met, and met again, assemblies of
+architects, of city authorities, of competitors less hopeful and less
+eager than himself. His whole heart, it is evident, was set upon the
+business. Hearing Donatello at one of these assemblies mention the
+cathedral at Orvieto, which he had visited on his way from Rome,
+Filippo, having his mantle and his hood on, without saying a word to
+anyone, set straight off from the Piazza on foot, and got as far as
+Cortona, from whence he returned with various pen-and-ink drawings
+before Donato or any one else had found out that he was away.
+
+Thus the small, keen, determined, ugly artist, swift and sudden as
+lightning, struck through all the hesitations, the consultations, the
+maunderings, the doubts, and the delays of the two authorities who had
+the matter in hand, the Signoria and the Operai, as who should say the
+working committee, and who made a hundred difficulties and shook their
+wise heads, and considered one foolish and futile plan after another
+with true burgher hesitation and wariness.
+
+At last, in 1420, an assembly of competitors was held in Florence, and a
+great many plans put forth, one of which was to support the proposed
+vault by a great central pillar, while another advised that the space to
+be covered should be filled with soil mixed with money, upon which the
+dome might be built, and which the people would gladly remove without
+expense afterward for the sake of the farthings! An expedient most droll
+in its simplicity. Brunelleschi, impatient of so much folly, went off to
+Rome, it is said, in the middle of these discussions, disgusted by the
+absurd ignorance which was thus put in competition with his careful
+study and long labor. Finally the appointment was conceded to him.
+
+The greatest difficulty with which he had to contend was a strike of his
+workmen, of whom, however, there being no trades' unions in those days,
+the imperious master made short work. And thus, day by day, the great
+dome swelled out over the shining marble walls and rose against the
+beautiful Italian sky. Nothing like it had been seen before by living
+eyes. The solemn grandeur of the Pantheon at Rome was indeed known to
+many, and San Giovanni[34] was in some sort an imitation of that; but
+the immense structure of the cupola, so justly poised, springing with
+such majestic grace from the familiar walls to which it gave new
+dignity, flattered the pride of the Florentines as something unique,
+besides delighting the eyes and imagination of so beauty-loving a race.
+
+With that veiled and subtle pride which takes the shape of pious fear,
+some even pretended to tremble, lest it should be supposed to be too
+near an emulation of the blue vault above, and that Florence was
+competing with heaven; others, with the delightful magniloquence of the
+time, declared that the hills around the city were scarcely higher than
+the beautiful Duomo; and Vasari himself has a doubt that the heavens
+were envious, so persistent were the storms amid which the cupola arose.
+
+Yet there it stands to this day, firm and splendid, uninjured by
+celestial envy, more harmonious than St. Peter's, the crown of the
+beautiful city. Its measurements and size and the secrets of its
+formation we do not pretend to set forth; the reader will find them in
+every guide-book. But the keen, impetuous, rapid figure of the
+architect, impatient, and justly impatient, of all rivalry, the murmurs
+and comments of the workmen; the troubled minds of the city authorities,
+not knowing how to hold their ground between that gnome of majestic
+genius who had fathomed all the secrets of construction and built a
+hundred Duomos in his mind, while they were pottering over the
+preliminaries of one; have all the interest of life for us.
+
+Through the calm fields of art he goes like a whirlwind, keen, certain,
+unfailing in his aim, unsparing in means, carried forward by such an
+impulse of will and self-confidence that nothing can withstand him. Sure
+of his own powers, as he was when he carved in secret the crucifix which
+was to cover poor Donatello with confusion, he saw before him, over his
+carvings, as he worked for the Roman goldsmith, the floating vision of
+the great dome he was to build--and so built it, all opposition
+notwithstanding, clearing out of his way with the almost contemptuous
+impatience of that knowledge which has no doubt of itself, the competing
+architects.
+
+
+
+
+GHIBERTI'S GATES[35]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+The Baptistery is the most ancient building in Florence. If not of pagan
+origin it dates from the earliest ages of Christianity. It was coated
+with marble of different colors by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1293, while in
+the sixteenth century Agnolo Gaddi designed the lantern; but long before
+Arnolfo's time it had been employed as a Christian place of worship,
+being used as a cathedral up to 1128, when it was converted into a
+baptistery.
+
+This building contains three gates, which have no parallel in the world.
+The oldest is that on the southern side, upon which Pisano spent
+twenty-two years of his life, a most beautiful work representing, in
+twenty compartments, the life of St. John the Baptist. The frieze which
+runs round it was commenced nearly a century afterward by Ghiberti, and
+Pollaiuolo had much to do with its completion.
+
+The northern gates are by Ghiberti, and, like those of Pisano, are
+divided into twenty compartments, the subject being the life of Christ.
+The bronze door-posts are delicately carved with flowers, fruit, and
+animals. These gates were first placed on the eastern side, but in 1452
+were removed to make room for Ghiberti's still finer work.
+
+On the third façade, that which faces the Duomo, is the Porta del
+Paradiso, so named by Michael Angelo, who declared that this gate was
+worthy to be the entrance into Paradise. Ghiberti divided each panel
+into five parts, taking the following as his subjects, after suggestions
+made by Leonardo Bruni Aretino: (1) Creation of Adam and Eve; (2) Cain
+and Abel; (3) Noah; (4) Abraham and Isaac; (5) Jacob and Esau; (6)
+Joseph in Egypt; (7) Moses on Mount Sinai; (8) The Capture of Jericho;
+(9) David Slaying Goliath; (10) The Queen of Sheba and Soloman.
+
+The frieze contains statuettes of the prophets and prophetesses and
+portrait-busts of men and women still alive, including Ghiberti himself,
+and his father; while the frame-posts, with their masses of vegetation
+and flora wrought in bronze, are admirable for their truth to nature.
+Bronze groups representing the "Decapitation of St. John the Baptist,"
+by Danti, and the "Baptism of our Lord," by Andrea Sansovino, surmount
+two of the gates, which were at one time heavily gilded, tho few traces
+of this are now visible.
+
+The Baptistery, empty as it appears to the eye upon first entering it,
+is replete with beautiful monuments, a description of which would fill a
+good-sized volume. It is built, as I have already said, upon an
+octagonal plan. The altar, which formerly stood beneath the cupola, has
+been removed. On the 24th of June every year the magnificent retablo in
+massive silver, which is preserved among the treasures in the Opera del
+Duomo, is displayed in the Baptistery. The silver alone weighs 325
+pounds, including two center-pieces, two side-pieces, and a silver
+crucifix with two statuettes seven feet high, and weighing 141 pounds,
+the group being completed by two statues of Peace in engine-turned
+silver. Many artists were employed upon the making of it. Finiguerra,
+Pollaiuolo, Cione, Michelozzi, Verrocchio, and Cennini made the lower
+parts and the bas-reliefs of the front, while the cross, executed in
+1456, is by Betto di Francesco, and the base of it by Milano di Domenico
+dei and Antonio Pollaiuolo.
+
+The interior of the cupola of San Giovanni is ornamented with some of
+the oldest specimens of mosaic decoration in Florence, these Byzantine
+artists being the first, after Murano and Altino, to exercise their
+craft in Italy, and being succeeded by Jacopo da Turita, Andrea Tafi,
+and Gaddo Gaddi.
+
+The handsome tomb of Baldassare Cossa (Pope John XXIII., deposed at the
+time of the Council of Constance), was reared in the Baptistery by
+Donatello. The Holy of Holies is relatively modern, having been erected
+at the expense of the Guild of the "Calimala," as the men who gave the
+finishing touch to the woolen stuffs manufactured abroad were called.
+The baptismal font, in a building specially used for christening, would,
+as a matter of course, be intrusted to artists of great repute, and that
+at San Giovanni is attributed to Andrea Pisano. Upon each face is
+represented one of the baptisms most famous in the history of the
+Catholic religion, an inscription beneath explaining each episode; but
+this font is, unfortunately, so much in the background that it escapes
+the notice of many visitors.
+
+Donatello carved the wooden statue of the Magdalen which occupies one of
+the niches, the thin emaciated face being typical of the artist's
+partiality for reproducing in their smallest details the physical
+defects of his subject. The exterior aspect of the Baptistery does not
+give one the idea of a building restored in the thirteenth, but rather
+in the fifteenth century.
+
+
+
+
+THE PONTE VECCHIO[36]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+Until the close of 1080 the Ponte Vecchio was built of wood, the heavy
+masses of timber, tho offering no steady resistance to the stream,
+dividing the muddy course of the waters into a thousand small currents,
+and breaking its force. But in 1177 occurred one of those inundations
+which were so frequent that traces of them may still be seen on the
+walls of the quays. These inundations were one of the curses of
+Florence, and tho the evil has been, to a certain extent, cured by the
+construction of massive quays, they still occur in the direction of the
+Cascine. An attempt was accordingly made in the twelfth century to
+obviate this inconvenience by the construction of a stone bridge. This,
+in turn, was carried away in 1333, and Taddeo Gaddi, who had already
+made a name for himself by his architectural skill, was employed to
+build a bridge capable of resisting the highest floods. The present
+bridge was therefore erected in 1345, being 330 feet long by 44 wide.
+
+With the double object of obtaining an income for the city and of
+introducing a novel feature, shops were built on the two pathways, which
+were 16 feet wide, and these were let to the butchers of Florence, thus
+realizing the Eastern plan of concentrating the meat trade of a town in
+one place. This arrangement lasted from 1422 until 1593, but in the
+latter year, under Cosimo I., the "Capitani di Parte," who had the
+supervision of the streets and highways, ordered that all the goldsmiths
+and jewelers should take the place of the butchers, and in a few months,
+the Ponte Vecchio became the wealthiest and most crowded thoroughfare of
+Florence. In order to avoid shutting out a view of the stream and
+interfering with the perspective, an open space had been reserved in the
+center, and when the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi were connected with
+the Pitti Palace by means of the large covered way carried over the
+bridge, this space was left intact so as to afford a view of the
+eminence of San Miniato upon one side, of the windings of the stream on
+the other, and of the Cascine shrubberies and the mountains upon the
+horizon.
+
+
+
+
+SANTA CROCE[37]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+Built by Arnolfo, then fifty-four years of age, by order of the Friars
+of St. Francis, this venerable temple was raised upon the piazza called
+Santa Croce, where formerly stood a small church belonging to the order
+of the Franciscan monks. They had resolved to embellish and enlarge
+their church, and Cardinal Matteo D'Acquasparta, general of the
+Franciscan Order, proclaimed an indulgence to all contributors toward
+the undertaking. The church was far enough advanced in 1320 for services
+to be held in it, tho the façade was then, as until a very recent period
+it remained, a plain brick wall, without facing or any other ornament.
+Santa Croce was not singular in this respect, for San Lorenzo and many
+other Florentine churches have never been decorated externally.
+
+In 1442 Cardinal Bessarion, the founder of St. Mark's Library at Venice,
+was delegated to perform the ceremony of consecration. Donatello and
+Ghiberti, incomplete as was the façade, executed some statues and a
+stained-glass window for it, but it is only within the last few years
+that the city of Florence completed the work, leaving untouched the
+grand piazza which had been the scene of so many fêtes and intestine
+quarrels, and upon which is now erected a statue to Dante. The façade of
+Santa Croce was completed in 1863. The expense was principally borne by
+Mr. Francis Sloane, an Englishman.
+
+The interior is striking from its vast size, the church being built in
+the shape of a Latin cross with nave, aisles, and transepts, each of the
+seven pointed arches being supported on the octagonal column. Opposite
+the front entrance is the high altar, while all around the walls and
+between the side altars--erected in 1557 by Vasari by order of Cosimo
+I.--are the monuments of the illustrious dead. First of all on the left
+there is Domenico Sestini, a celebrated numismatist, whose bust was
+carved by Pozzetti. While in the first chapel on the right is the tomb
+of Michael Angelo, who died at Rome on the 17th of February, 1564; the
+monument was designed by Vasari, the bust was executed by Battista
+Lorenzo. Two contemporary sculptors, Valerio Cioli and Giovanni
+Dell'Opera, did the allegories of Sculpture and Architecture, the
+frescoes around the monument being by Battista Naldini. A nobler tomb
+might well have been raised to the memory of Michael Angelo. The body
+was deposited in the church on the 12th of March, 1564, and lay in
+state, for the people of Florence to come and pay him the last tribute
+of respect.
+
+The next tomb is only commemorative, for it does not contain the ashes
+of Dante, in whose honor it was erected in 1829 by Ricci, as a tardy
+homage on the part of Florence to one who suffered so much for her sake
+in life.[38]
+
+After Dante comes Victor Alfieri, whose name has been borne with
+distinction by his descendants. This monument was erected by Canova in
+1807. Compared with the monuments of the fifteenth century and of the
+Renaissance, which are to be seen in such splendid profusion in
+Florence, these tombs seem so inferior that it is impossible not to
+wonder how the decadence was brought about. It is not at Florence alone
+that this feeling manifests itself; for at Venice, in the splendid
+temple of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, beside the tombs of doges and
+condottieri of the fifteenth century there stands that wretched monument
+upon which the great name of Titian has been traced. This is evidently
+the result of an inevitable law to which humanity is subject. Genius
+comes into the world, grows, spreads, and covers the earth with its
+shadow; then slowly the sap runs back from the verdant trunk, the tree
+yields less luscious fruit and flowers not so fair, until at last the
+branches wither and the tree dies.
+
+Close beside Alfieri is buried Machiavelli, his tomb, like so many of
+the others, being of modern erection, and consequently less beautiful
+than if it had been the work of a sculptor who had studied in the school
+of Ghiberti or Donatello. By the side of Machiavelli rests Luigi Lanzi,
+a name less generally known, tho celebrated in his time as an
+historiographer of painting, or an art critic as we should now call him.
+His friend, Chevalier Ornofrio Boni, prepared the design for his tomb,
+which was executed at public cost. The pulpit--a fine specimen of
+fifteenth-century sculpture, carved by Benedetto da Maiano at the cost
+of Pietro Mellini, who presented it to the church--is well worth close
+inspection; and close by, between the tombs of Lanzi and Leonardo
+Bruni, is a group in freestone, representing the Annunciation. This was
+one of the first of Donatello's works, and gave an earnest of his future
+genius.
+
+The tomb of Leonardo Bruni Aretino is one of the five or six greatest
+works of this nature which ever left the sculptor's hands; it has been
+used as a model by the sculptors of all the tombs in Santa Maria del
+Popolo at Rome. The monument to Leonardo Bruni is the highest expression
+of sculptural art, combining all the taste of ancient Greece with the
+grace, the power, the calm, the supreme harmony, and the perfection
+which genius alone confers, its tranquil and subdued beauty comparing
+favorably with the theatrical effect and garish splendor of the
+monuments in St. John Lateran and St. Peter's at Rome. The superb
+mausoleums of Leopardi and of the Lombardi at Venice are, perhaps,
+equally beautiful; but I am inclined to give the preference to the work
+of Bernardo Rossellini. He became acquainted with Leonardo Bruni at the
+Papal Court, where he, as well as Leo Battista Alberti, was a director
+of the pontifical works. The Madonna let into the upper part of the
+monument is by Andrea Verocchio....
+
+In visiting Santa Croce it is impossible not to feel how erroneous are
+the views often held as to the exact place which will be allotted in the
+roll of history to the men of the day. Many of the names in this
+Pantheon are almost unknown, the tomb next to that of Galileo containing
+the dust of Mulazzi-Signorini, who has never been heard of out of Italy.
+Another unavoidable reflection is that the talent of the sculptor is
+rarely in proportion to that of the man whose memory he is about to
+perpetuate. Machiavelli was commemorated by two obscure sculptors like
+Foggini and Ticcati, and Michael Angelo by Battista Lorenzi. What has
+the world not lost by the refusal of Michael Angelo's offer to erect a
+tomb to Dante when the city of Florence was about to ask Ravenna to
+restore his remains to her!
+
+The convent annexed to Santa Croce was also built by Arnolfo. It was
+originally occupied by the Franciscan monks, and it was here that, from
+1284 to 1782, the Inquisition held its sittings. The notorious
+Frenchman, Gaulthier de Brienne, Duke of Athens, who for a brief period
+ruled Florence as Captain of the People, selected this monastery as his
+residence in June, 1342, but having in September of the same year
+succeeded in getting himself elected ruler of Florence for life, he
+removed to the Palazzo Vecchio. His reign, however, was of only brief
+duration, for the year following he was expelled by the people.
+
+
+
+
+THE UFFIZI GALLERY[39]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+What can be said of a gallery containing thirteen hundred pictures? For
+my own part I abstain. Examine catalogs and collections of engravings,
+or rather come here yourself. The impressions borne away from these
+grand store-houses are too diverse and too numerous to be transmitted
+by the pen. Observe this, that the Uffizi is a universal depot, a sort
+of Louvre containing paintings of all times and schools, bronzes,
+statues, sculptures, antique and modern terracottas, cabinets of gems,
+an Etruscan museum, artists' portraits painted by themselves,
+twenty-eight thousand original drawings, four thousand cameos and
+ivories and eighty thousand medals. One resorts to it as to a library;
+it is an abridgment and a specimen of everything....
+
+We ascend the great marble staircase, pass the famous antique boar and
+enter the long horseshoe corridor filled with busts and tapestried with
+paintings. Visitors, about ten o'clock in the morning, are few; the mute
+custodians remain in their corners; you seem to be really at home. It
+all belongs to you, and what convenient possessions! Keepers and
+majordomos are here to keep things in order, well dusted and intact; it
+is not even necessary to give orders; matters go on of themselves
+without jar or confusion, nobody giving himself the slightest concern;
+it is an ideal world such as it ought to be. The light is excellent;
+bright gleams from the windows fall on some distant white statues on the
+rosy torso of a woman which comes out living from the shadowy obscurity.
+Beyond, as far as the eye can see, marble gods and emperors extend away
+in files up to the windows through which flickers the light ripple of
+the Arno with the silvery swell on its crests and eddies.
+
+You enter into the freedom and sweet repose of abstract life; the will
+relaxes, the inner tumult subsides; one feels himself becoming a monk,
+a modern monk. Here, as formerly in the cloisters, the tender inward
+spirit, chafed by the necessities of action, insensibly revives in order
+to commune with beings emancipated from life's obligations. It is so
+sweet no longer to be! Not to be is so natural! And how peaceful the
+realm of human forms withdrawn from human conflict! The pure thought
+which follows them is so conscious that its illusion is transient; it
+participates in their incorporeal serenity, and reverie, lingering in
+turn over their voluptuousness and violence, brings back to it plenitude
+without satiety.
+
+On the left of the corridors open the cabinets of precious things--the
+Niobe hall, that of portraits, that of modern bronzes, each with its
+special group of treasures. You feel that you have a right to enter,
+that great men are awaiting you. A selection is made among them; you
+reenter the Tribune; five antique statues form a circle here--a slave
+sharpening his knife; two interlocked wrestlers whose muscles are
+strained and expanded; a charming Apollo of sixteen years whose compact
+form has all the suppleness of the freshest adolescence; an admirable
+Faun instinct with the animality of his species, unconsciously joyous
+and dancing with all his might; and finally, the "Venus de Medici," a
+slender young girl with a small delicate head, not a goddess like her
+sister of Milo, but a perfect mortal and the work of some Praxiteles
+fond of "hetairae," at ease in a nude state and free from that somewhat
+mawkish delicacy and bashful coquetry which its copies, and the restored
+arms with their thin fingers by Bernini, seem to impose on her.
+
+She is, perhaps, a copy of that Venus of Cnidus of which Lucian relates
+an interesting story; you imagine while looking at her, the youths'
+kisses prest on the marble lips, and the exclamations of Charicles who,
+on seeing it, declared Mars to be the most fortunate of gods. Around the
+statues, on the eight sides of the wall, hang the masterpieces of the
+leading painters. There is the "Madonna of the Goldfinch" by Raphael,
+pure and candid, like an angel whose soul is a bud not yet in bloom; his
+"St. John," nude, a fine youthful form of fourteen, healthy and
+vigorous, in which the purest paganism lives over again; and especially
+a superb head of a crowned female, radiant as a summer noonday, with
+fixt and earnest gaze, her complexion of that powerful southern
+carnation which the emotions do not change, where the blood does not
+pulsate convulsively and to which passion only adds a warmer glow, a
+sort of Roman muse in whom will still prevails over intellect, and whose
+vivacious energy reveals itself in repose as well as in action.
+
+In one corner a tall cavalier by Van Dyck, in black and with a broad
+frill, seems as grandly and gloriously proud in character as in
+proportions, primarily through a well-fed body and next through the
+undisputed possession of authority and command. Three steps more and we
+come to the "Flight into Egypt," by Correggio, the Virgin with a
+charming spirited face wholly suffused with inward light in which the
+purity, archness, gentleness and wildness of a young girl combine to
+shed the tenderest grace and impart the most fascinating allurements.
+Alongside of this a "Sibyl" by Guercino, with her carefully adjusted
+coiffure and drapery, is the most spiritual and refined of sentimental
+poetesses.
+
+I pass twenty others in order to reserve the last look for Titian's two
+Venuses. One, facing the door, reclines on a red velvet mantle, an ample
+vigorous torso as powerful as one of Rubens' Bacchantes, but firmer--an
+energetic and vulgar figure, a simple, strong unintellectual courtezan.
+She lies extended on her back, caressing a little cupid naked like
+herself, with the vacant seriousness and passivity of soul of an animal
+in repose and expectant. The other, called "Venus with the Dog," is a
+patrician's mistress, couched, adorned and ready. We recognize a palace
+of the day, the alcove fitted up and colors tastefully and magnificently
+contrasted for the pleasure of the eye; in the background are servants
+arranging clothes; through a window a section of blue landscape is
+visible; the master is about to arrive.
+
+Nowadays we devour pleasure secretly like stolen fruit; then it was
+served up on golden salvers and people sat down to it at a table. It is
+because pleasure was not vile or bestial. This woman holding a bouquet
+in her hand in this grand columnar saloon has not the vapid smile or the
+wanton and malicious air of an adventuress about to commit a bad action.
+The calm of evening enters the palace through noble architectural
+openings. Under the pale green of the curtains lies the figure on a
+white sheet, slightly flushed with the regular pulsation of life, and
+developing the harmony of her undulating forms. The head is small and
+placid; the soul does not rise above the corporal instincts; hence she
+can resign herself to them without shame, while the poesy of art,
+luxury and security on all sides comes to decorate and embellish them.
+She is a courtezan but also a lady; in those days the former did not
+efface the latter; one was as much a title as the other and, probably,
+in demeanor, affection and intellect one was as good as the other. The
+celebrated Imperia had her tomb in the church of San Gregorio, at Rome,
+with this inscription: "Imperia, a Roman courtezan worthy of so great a
+name, furnished an example to men of perfect beauty, lived twenty-six
+years and twelve days, and died in 1511, August 25." ...
+
+On passing from the Italian into the Flemish galleries one is completely
+turned around; here are paintings executed for merchants content to
+remain quietly at home eating good dinners and speculating over the
+profits of their business; moreover in rainy and muddy countries dress
+has to be cared for, and by the women more than the men. The mind feels
+itself contracted on entering the circle of this well-to-do domestic
+life; such is the impression of Corinne when from liberal Italy she
+passes to rigid and dreary Scotland. And yet there is a certain picture,
+a large landscape by Rembrandt, which equals and surpasses all; a dark
+sky bursting with showers among flocks of screaming crows; beneath, is
+an infinite stretch of country as desolate as a cemetery; on the right a
+mass of barren rocks of so mournful and lugubrious a tint as to attain
+to the sublime in effect. So is it with an andante of Beethoven after an
+Italian Opera.
+
+
+
+
+FLORENCE EIGHTY YEARS AGO[40]
+
+BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
+
+
+There is a great deal of prattle about Italian skies; the skies and
+clouds of Italy, so far as I have had an opportunity of judging, do not
+present so great a variety of beautiful appearances as our own; but the
+Italian atmosphere is far more uniformly fine than ours. Not to speak of
+its astonishing clearness, it is pervaded by a certain warmth of color
+which enriches every object. This is more remarkable about the time of
+sunset, when the mountains put on an aerial aspect, as if they belonged
+to another and fairer world; and a little after the sun has gone down,
+the air is flushed with a glory which seems to transfigure all that it
+encloses.
+
+Many of the fine old palaces of Florence, you know, are built in a
+gloomy tho grand style of architecture, of a dark-colored stone, massive
+and lofty, and overlooking narrow streets that lie in almost perpetual
+shade. But at the hour of which I am speaking, the bright warm radiance
+reflected from the sky to the earth, fills the darkest lanes, streams
+into the most shadowy nooks, and makes the prison-like structures
+glitter as with a brightness of their own.
+
+It is now nearly the middle of October, and we have had no frost. The
+strong summer heats which prevailed when I came hither, have by the
+slowest gradations subsided into an agreeable autumnal temperature. The
+trees keep their verdure, but I perceive their foliage growing thinner,
+and when I walk in the Cascine on the other side of the Arno, the
+rustling of the lizards, as they run among the heaps of crisp leaves,
+reminds me that autumn is wearing away, tho the ivy which clothes the
+old elms has put forth a profuse array of blossoms, and the walks murmur
+with bees like our orchards in spring. As I look along the declivities
+of the Appenines, I see the raw earth every day more visible between the
+ranks of olive-trees and the well-pruned maples which support the vines.
+
+If I have found my expectations of Italian scenery, in some respects,
+below the reality; in other respects, they have been disappointed. The
+forms of the mountains are wonderfully picturesque, and their effect is
+heightened by the rich atmosphere through which they are seen, and by
+the buildings, imposing from their architecture or venerable from time,
+which crown the eminences. But if the hand of man has done something to
+embellish this region, it has done more to deform it. Not a tree is
+suffered to retain its natural shape, not a brook to flow in its natural
+channel. An exterminating war is carried on against the natural herbage
+of the soil. The country is without woods and green fields; and to him
+who views the vale of the Arno "from the top of Fiesole," or any of the
+neighboring heights, grand as he will allow the circle of the mountains
+to be, and magnificent the edifices with which the region is adorned, it
+appears, at any time after mid-summer, a huge valley of dust, planted
+with low rows of the pallid and thin-leaved olive, or the more dwarfish
+maple on which vines are trained.
+
+The simplicity of nature, so far as can be done, is destroyed; there is
+no fine sweep of forest, no broad expanse of meadow or pasture ground,
+no ancient and towering trees clustered about the villas, no rows of
+natural shrubbery following the course of the brooks and rivers. The
+streams, which are often but the beds of torrents dry during the summer,
+are confined in straight channels by stone walls and embankments; the
+slopes are broken up and disfigured by terraces; and the trees are kept
+down by constant pruning and lopping, until half way up the sides of the
+Appenines, where the limit of cultivation is reached, and thence to the
+summit is a barren steep of rock, without herbage or soil. The grander
+features of the landscape, however, are fortunately beyond the power of
+man to injure; the lofty mountain-summits, bare precipices cleft with
+chasms, and pinnacles of rock piercing the sky, betokening, far more
+than any thing I have seen elsewhere, a breaking up of the crust of the
+globe in some early period of its existence. I am told that in May and
+June the country is much more beautiful than at present, and that owing
+to a drought it now appears under disadvantage....
+
+Florence, from being the residence of the Court,[41] and from the vast
+number of foreigners who throng to it, presents during several months of
+the year an appearance of great bustle and animation. Four thousand
+English, an American friend tells me, visit Florence every winter, to
+say nothing of the occasional residents from France, Germany, and
+Russia. The number of visitors from the latter country is every year
+increasing, and the echoes of the Florence gallery have been taught to
+repeat the strange accents of the Slavonic. Let me give you the history
+of a fine day in October, passed at the window of my lodgings on the
+Lung Arno, close to the bridge.
+
+Waked by the jangling of all the bells in Florence and by the noise of
+carriages departing loaded with travelers, for Rome and other places in
+the south of Italy, I rise, dress myself, and take my place at the
+window. I see crowds of men and women from the country, the former in
+brown velvet jackets, and the latter in broad-brimmed straw hats,
+driving donkeys loaded with panniers or trundling hand-carts before
+them, heaped with grapes, figs, and all the fruits of the orchard, the
+garden, and the field. They have hardly passed, when large flocks of
+sheep and goats make their appearance, attended by shepherds and their
+families, driven by the approach of winter from the Appenines, and
+seeking the pastures of the Maremma, a rich, but, in the summer, an
+unhealthy tract on the coast.
+
+The men and the boys are drest in knee-breeches, the women in bodices,
+and both sexes wear capotes with pointed hoods, and felt hats with
+conical crowns; they carry long staves in their hands, and their arms
+are loaded with kids and lambs too young to keep pace with their
+mothers. After the long procession of sheep and goats and dogs and men
+and women and children, come horses loaded with cloths and poles for
+tents, kitchen utensils, and the rest of the younglings of the flock.
+
+A little after sunrise I see well-fed donkeys, in coverings of red
+cloth, driven over the bridge to be milked for invalids. Maid-servants,
+bare-headed, with huge high carved combs in their hair, waiters of
+coffee-houses carrying the morning cup of coffee or chocolate to their
+customers, baker's boys with a dozen loaves on a board balanced on their
+heads, milkmen with rush baskets filled with flasks of milk, are
+crossing the streets in all directions. A little later the bell of the
+small chapel opposite to my window rings furiously for a quarter of an
+hour, and then I hear mass chanted in a deep strong nasal tone.
+
+As the day advances, the English, in white hats and white pantaloons,
+come out of their lodgings, accompanied sometimes by their hale and
+square-built spouses, and saunter stiffly along the Arno, or take their
+way to the public galleries and museums. Their massive, clean, and
+brightly-polished carriages also begin to rattle through the streets,
+setting out on excursions to some part of the environs of Florence--to
+Fiesole, to the Pratolino, to the Bello Sguardo, to the Poggio
+Imperiale. Sights of a different kind now present themselves. Sometimes
+it is a troop of stout Franciscan friars, in sandals and brown robes,
+each carrying his staff and wearing a brown broad-brimmed hat with a
+hemispherical crown. Sometimes it is a band of young theological
+students, in purple cassocks with red collars and cuffs, let out on a
+holiday, attended by their clerical instructors, to ramble in the
+Cascine. There is a priest coming over the bridge, a man of venerable
+age and great reputation for sanctity--the common people crowd around
+him to kiss his hand, and obtain a kind word from him as he passes.
+
+But what is that procession of men in black gowns, black gaiters, and
+black masks, moving swiftly along, and bearing on their shoulders a
+litter covered with black cloth? These are the Brethren of Mercy, who
+have assembled at the sound of the cathedral bell, and are conveying
+some sick or wounded person to the hospital. As the day begins to
+decline, the numbers of carriages in the streets, filled with
+gaily-drest people attended by servants in livery, increases. The Grand
+Duke's equipage, an elegant carriage drawn by six horses, with coachmen,
+footmen, and out-riders in drab-colored livery, comes from the Pitti
+Palace, and crosses the Arno, either by the bridge close to my lodgings,
+or by that called Alla Santa Trinità, which is in full sight from the
+windows. The Florentine nobility, with their families, and the English
+residents, now throng to the Cascine, to drive at a slow pace through
+its thickly-planted walks of elms, oaks, and ilexes.
+
+As the sun is sinking I perceive the Quay, on the other side of the
+Arno, filled with a moving crowd of well-drest people, walking to and
+fro, and enjoying the beauty of the evening. Travelers now arrive from
+all quarters, in cabriolets, in calashers, in the shabby "vettura," and
+in the elegant private carriage drawn by post-horses, and driven by
+postillions in the tightest possible deer-skin breeches, the smallest
+red coats, and the hugest jack-boots. The streets about the doors of the
+hotels resound with the cracking of whips and the stamping of horses,
+and are encumbered with carriages, heaps of baggage, porters,
+postillions, couriers, and travelers. Night at length arrives--the time
+of spectacles and funerals.
+
+The carriages rattle toward the opera-houses. Trains of people,
+sometimes in white robes and sometimes in black, carrying blazing
+torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, pass
+through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The Brethren of
+Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The rapidity of their
+pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their eyes through their
+masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of supernatural
+appearance. I return to bed, and fall asleep amid the shouts of people
+returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches of the music with
+which they had been entertained during the evening.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+VENICE
+
+
+THE APPROACH FROM THE SEA[42]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+To taste in all their fulness his first impressions of Venice, the
+traveler should arrive there by sea, at mid-day, when the sun is high.
+By degrees, as the ship which carries him enters the channels, he will
+see the unparalleled city emerging from the lap of the lagoon, with its
+proud campaniles, its golden spires, its gray or silvery domes and
+cupolas. Advancing along the narrow channels of navigation, posts and
+piles dot here and there with black that sheet of steel, and give
+substance to the dream, making solid and tangible the foreground of the
+illusive distance.
+
+Just now, all that enchanted world and fairy architecture floated in the
+air; little by little all has become distinct; those points of dark
+green turn into gardens; that mass of deep red is the line of the
+ship-building yards, with their leprous-looking houses and with the
+dark-colored stocks on which are erected the skeletons of polaccas and
+feluccas in course of construction; the white line showing so bright in
+the sun is the Riva dei Schiavoni, all alive with its world of
+gondoliers, fruit-sellers, Greek sailors, and Chioggiotes in their
+many-colored costumes. The rose-colored palace with the stunted
+colonnade is the Ducal Palace. The vessel, on its way to cast anchor off
+the Piazzetta, coasts round the white and rose-colored island which
+carries Palladio's church of Santa Maria Maggiore, whose firm campanile
+stands out against the sky with Grecian clearness and grace. Looking
+over the bow, the traveler has facing him the Grand Canal, with the
+Custom House where the figure of Fortune veers with the wind above her
+golden ball; beyond rise the double domes of the Salute with their great
+reversed consoles, forming the most majestic entrance to this watery
+avenue bordered by palaces.
+
+He who comes for the first time to Venice by this route realizes a
+dream--his only dream perhaps ever destined to be surpassed by the
+reality; and if he knows how to enjoy the beauty of nature, if he can
+take delight in silver-gray and rose-colored reflections in water, if he
+loves light and color, the picturesque life of Italian squares and
+streets, the good humor of the people and their gentle speech which
+seems like the twittering of birds, let him only allow himself to live
+for a little time under the sky of Venice, and he has before him a
+season of happiness without alloy.
+
+
+
+
+THE APPROACH BY TRAIN[43]
+
+BY THE EDITOR
+
+
+After leaving Padua the land for several miles is flat sand. No grass or
+tree grows here. Lagoons and canals intersect the land. At the right are
+marshes bordering the Adriatic. Along the horizon, light smoky clouds
+blend imperceptibly with the water. Other clouds, floating overhead, are
+reflected in the brown and waveless water. Far across this expanse
+glides here and there a small boat, propelled by a man standing erect.
+Through dim mists, settled over the bay, we sight flying birds that call
+loudly as they increase their flight. Absolutely without motion is this
+water. The sole objects that move are boats and birds. The water
+shimmers and sparkles wherever the sun, passing in and out of clouds,
+lights it up. The shallow bay broadens until our view includes no land.
+Everywhere extends a realm of waveless waters, in which fishing stakes
+stand erect, and tall plants grow.
+
+How strangely all this differs from the blue Mediterranean we saw a
+fortnight ago when riding from Genoa to Leghorn, under that cloudless
+sky of blue; in that stirring breeze, and an almost tropical
+temperature, tho it was late in December; along that rocky,
+tunnel-pierced coast, with deep olive groves bordering the way; the sea
+a boundless vision of water moving and resounding against the shore;
+whitecaps everywhere visible on its broad expanse. Here on this road to
+Venice is complete repose, lifeless, sleepy repose--as of the dead--not
+without poetry, but of the Orient and of mystics, rather than of
+Provence, or the Ligurian shore and active, stalwart men.
+
+We sight in the distance over the lagoon, the white walls and roof line
+of Venice. The railway starts on its long course over one of the noblest
+bridges in the world. It is more than two miles long. Some 80,000 piles
+were used in its foundations, the superstructure entirely of stone, with
+arches of 33 feet span each, and 222 in number. Along the roadway, on
+either side is a stone balustrade. At each pier a balcony curves
+outward. For four years a thousand men were engaged in building this
+viaduct, and the total cost was $10,000,000. Having crossed, we reach an
+island; then cross another, but shorter, bridge and pass to another
+island. Our train thereafter comes to a stop for we have reached Venice
+and enter a magnificent station, built of stone, with high semi-circular
+roof, lofty waiting rooms, mosaic floors. We pass out through a spacious
+doorway, and directly below, and in front, see the Grand Canal, bordered
+on its farther shore by palaces and other noble structures of white
+marble. A wide and broad plaza here fronts the water, and a stairway at
+its edge leads downward to where are waiting a score of gondolas.
+
+We step into one of these boats, and begin our first gondola ride in
+Adriatic waters. It is late afternoon. The western sun lies dying in a
+mass of yellow and soft brown clouds. On the high walls of the great
+white station its rays fall with startling brightness and cast long
+shadows of waiting gondoliers upon the plaza floor. The white palaces
+opposite are shrouded in somber hues. A warm mist seems to rise from the
+water. All is still as in the mid-Atlantic. When a sound is made, echoes
+sharp and clear come from shore to shore.
+
+Our boat glides away from this scene. Adjusting ourselves to its motion,
+we roll from side to side in our little house of glass on a downy seat
+and could pass the whole night here contentedly. Such rest, such
+appalling silence, we never knew before. Those gondoliers do their work
+with consummate skill. They have all the ease that comes of practise in
+any calling however difficult. The sharp cut of an oar as it enters the
+water is for a moment heard, but never a splash. The boat rolls
+constantly, but we feel no strain. It moves as if it were a toy swan
+drawn by a magnet in a child's hand.
+
+From the Grand Canal we enter a narrow street. Sharp corners are turned
+quickly, swift-moving boats are passed, narrow passages entered, and we
+glide into deep shadows under bridges, but never a collision, or danger
+of one, occurs. The gondolier at crossings cries out his warning. We
+hear, but do not see, another who calls aloud in similar tones. The two
+voices are heard again, each in an echo. Far away in this watery but
+populous solitude, a church bell tolls.
+
+We have had a quarter-hour's ride when the gondola comes to rest before
+broad stone steps leading upward to a wide doorway. Here is our hotel,
+an ancient palace, rich in marble and granite, with broad corridor, a
+noble stairway, and mosaic floors. It is Sunday on St. Mark's Place--a
+bright, warm Sunday it has been, such as winter can not give in our own
+country. Here, indeed, is a foreign land, its life and spirit more
+foreign than Rome. No scene in the wide world can rival this St. Mark's
+scene, with the islands across the way in the broad lagoon--a
+magnificent piazza, bordered by the façades of splendid palaces, by
+statues, columns, and ornate capitals, another piazza near it surrounded
+on three sides by noble arcaded structures and on the fourth by the half
+Gothic, half Byzantine Church of St. Mark's, the most resplendent
+Christian edifice in Europe. In one corner rises the stupendous
+Campanile, high above palace roofs, arcades and church domes, its bells
+sounding their notes upon an otherwise silent world.
+
+
+
+
+A TOUR OF THE GRAND CANAL[44]
+
+BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER
+
+
+The Grand Canal of Venice is the most wonderful thing in the world. No
+other city affords a spectacle so fine, so bizarre, so fairy-like. As
+remarkable bits of architecture, perhaps, can be found elsewhere, but
+nowhere located under such picturesque conditions.
+
+There each palace has a mirror in which to gaze at its beauty, like a
+coquettish woman. The superb reality is doubled by a charming
+reflection. The water lovingly caresses the feet of these beautiful
+façades, which a white light kisses on the forehead, and cradles them
+in a double sky. The small boats and big ships which are able to ascend
+it seem to be made fast for the express purpose of serving as set-offs
+or ground-plans for the convenience of the decorators....
+
+Each bit of wall narrates a story; every house is a palace; at each
+stroke of the oars the gondolier mentions a name which was as well known
+in the times of the Crusades as it is to-day; and this continues both to
+left and right for a distance of more than half a league. We have made a
+list of these palaces, not of all, but the most remarkable, and we do
+not dare to transcribe it here on account of its length. It covers five
+or six pages: Pierre Lombard, Scamozzi, Sansovino, Sebastiano Mazzoni,
+Sammichelli, the great architect of Verona; Selva, Domenico Rossi,
+Visentini, have drawn the plans and directed the construction of these
+princely dwellings, without reckoning the unknown artists of the Middle
+Ages who built the most picturesque and most romantic of them--those
+which give Venice its stamp and its originality.
+
+On both banks, façades altogether charming and beautifully diversified
+succeed one another without interruption. After an architecture of the
+Renaissance with its columns comes a palace of the Middle Ages in Gothic
+Arab style, of which the Ducal Palace is the prototype, with its
+balconies, lancet windows, trefoils, and acroteria. Further along is a
+façade adorned with marble placques of various colors, garnished with
+medallions and consoles; then a great rose-colored wall in which is cut
+a large window with columnets; all styles are found there--the
+Byzantine, the Saracen, the Lombard, the Gothic, the Roman, the Greek,
+and even the Rococo; the column and the columnet; the lancet and the
+semicircle; the fanciful capital, full of birds and of flowers, brought
+from Acre or from Jaffa; the Greek capital found in Athenian ruins; the
+mosaic and the bas-relief; the classic severity and elegant fantasy of
+the Renaissance. It is an immense gallery open to the sky, where one can
+study from the bottom of his gondola the art of seven or eight
+centuries. What treasures of genius, talent, and money have been
+expended on this space which may be traversed in less than a quarter of
+an hour! What tremendous artists, but also what intelligent and
+munificent patrons! What a pity that the patricians who knew how to
+achieve such beautiful things no longer exist save on the canvases of
+Titian, of Tintoretto, and du Moro!
+
+Even before reaching the Rialto, you have, on the left, in ascending the
+Canal, the Palace Dario, in Gothic style; the Palace Venier, which
+presents itself by an angle, with its ornamentation, its precious
+marbles and medallions, in the Lombard style; the Fine Arts, a classic
+façade joined to the old Ecole de la Charité and surmounted by a figure
+riding upon a lion; the Contarini Palace, in architectural style of
+Scamozzi; the Rezzonico Palace with three superimposed orders; the
+triple Giustiniani Palace, in the style of the Middle Ages, in which
+resides M. Natale Schiavoni, a descendant of the celebrated painter
+Schiavoni, who possesses a gallery of pictures and a beautiful daughter,
+the living reproduction of a canvas painted by her ancestor; The Foscari
+Palace, recognizable by its low door, by its two stories of columnets
+supporting lancets and trefoils, where in other days were lodged the
+sovereigns who visited Venice, but now abandoned; the Balbi Palace, from
+the balcony of which the princes leaned to watch the regattas which took
+place upon the Grand Canal with so much pomp and splendor, in the palmy
+days of the Republic; the Pisani Palace, in the German style of the
+beginning of the fifteenth century; and the Tiepolo Palace, very smart
+and relatively modern. On the right, there nestles between two big
+buildings, a delicious little palace which is composed of a window and a
+balcony; but such a window and balcony! A guipure of stone, of scrolls,
+of guillochages, and of open-work, which would seem possible of
+execution only with a punching machine upon one of those sheets of paper
+which cover baptismal sugar-plums, or are placed upon globes of lamps.
+We greatly regretted not having twenty-five thousand francs about us to
+buy it, since that was all that was demanded for it....
+
+The Rialto, which is the most beautiful bridge in Venice, with a very
+grandiose and monumental air, bestrides the canal by a single span with
+a powerful and graceful curve. It was built in 1691, under the Dogeship
+of Pasquale Cigogna, by Antonio da Ponte, and replaced the ancient
+wooden drawbridge. Two rows of shops, separated in the middle by a
+portico in the form of an arcade and permitting a glimpse of the sky,
+burden the sides of the bridge, which can be crossed by three paths;
+that in the center and the exterior passageways furnished with
+balustrades of marble.
+
+Around the Bridge of the Rialto, one of the most picturesque spots of
+the Grand Canal, are gathered the oldest houses in Venice, with
+platformed roofs, on which poles are planted to hang banners; their long
+chimneys, their bulging balconies, their stairways with disjointed
+steps, and their plaques of red coating, the fallen flakes of which lay
+bare the brick walls and the foundations made green by contact with the
+water. There is always near the Rialto a tumult of boats and gondolas
+and of stagnant islets of tied-up craft drying their tawny sails, which
+are sometimes traversed by a large cross....
+
+Below and beyond the Rialto are grouped on both banks the ancient
+Fondaco dei Tedeschi, upon the colored walls of which, in uncertain
+tints, may be devined some frescoes of Titian and Tintoretto, like
+dreams which come only to vanish; the fish-market, the vegetable market,
+and the old and new buildings of Scarpagnino and of Sansovino, almost
+fallen in ruins, in which are installed various courts....
+
+On the right rises the Palace della Cà d'Oro, one of the most charming
+on the Grand Canal. It belongs to Mademoiselle Taglioni,[45] who has
+restored it with most intelligent care. It is all embroidered, fringed,
+carved in a Greek, Gothic, barbaric style, so fantastic, so light, so
+aerial, that it might be fancied to have been built expressly for the
+nest of a sylph. Mlle. Taglioni has pity for these poor, abandoned
+palaces. She has several of them en pension, which she maintains out of
+pure commiseration for their beauty; we were told of three or four upon
+which she has bestowed this charity of repair....
+
+In going to a distance from the heart of the city, life is extinct. Many
+windows are closed or barred with boards; but this sadness has its
+beauty; it is more perceptible to the soul than to the eyes, regaled
+without cessation by the most unforeseen accidents of light and shade,
+by buildings so varied that even their dilapidation only renders them
+more picturesque, by the perpetual movement of the waters, and that blue
+and rose tint which composes the atmosphere of Venice.
+
+
+
+
+ST. MARK'S CHURCH[46]
+
+BY JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+Beyond those troops of ordered arches there rises a vision out of the
+earth, and all the great square seems to have opened from it in a kind
+of awe, that we may see it far away--a multitude of pillars and white
+domes, clustered into a long low pyramid of colored light; a
+treasure-heap, it seems, partly of gold, and partly of opal and
+mother-of-pearl, hollowed beneath into five great vaulted porches,
+ceiled with fair mosaic, and beset with sculpture of alabaster, clear as
+amber and delicate as ivory--sculpture fantastic and involved, of palm
+leaves and lilies, and grapes and pomegranates, and birds clinging and
+fluttering among the branches, all twined together into an endless
+network of buds and plumes; and, in the midst of it, the solemn forms of
+angels, sceptered and robed to the feet, and leaning to each other
+across the gates, their figures indistinct among the gleaming of the
+golden ground through the leaves beside them, interrupted and dim, like
+the morning light as it faded back among the branches of Eden, when
+first its gates were angel-guarded long ago.
+
+And round the walls of the porches there are set pillars of variegated
+stones, jasper and porphyry, and deep-green serpentine spotted with
+flakes of snow, and marbles, that half refuse and half yield to the
+sunshine, Cleopatra-like, "their bluest veins to kiss"--the shadow, as
+it steals back from them, revealing line after line of azure undulation,
+as a receding tide leaves the waved sand; their capitals rich with
+interwoven tracery, rooted knots of herbage, and drifting leaves of
+acanthus and vine, and mystical signs, all beginning and ending in the
+Cross; and above them, in the broad archivolts, a continuous chain of
+language and of life--angels, and the signs of heaven, and the labors of
+men, each in its appointed season upon the earth; and above these,
+another range of glittering pinnacles, mixed with white arches edged
+with scarlet flowers--a confusion of delight, amid which the breasts of
+the Greek horses are seen blazing in their breadth of golden strength,
+and the St. Mark's Lion, lifted on a blue field covered with stars,
+until at last, as if in ecstasy, the crests of the arches break into a
+marble foam, and toss themselves far into the blue sky in flashes and
+wreaths of sculptured spray, as if the breakers on the Lido shore had
+been frost-bound before they fell, and the sea-nymphs had inlaid them
+with coral and amethyst.
+
+Between that grim cathedral of England and this, what an interval! There
+is a type of it in the very birds that haunt them; for, instead of the
+restless crowd, hoarse-voiced and sable-winged, drifting on the bleak
+upper air, the St. Mark's porches are full of doves, that nestle among
+the marble foliage, and mingle the soft iridescence of their living
+plumes, changing at every motion, with the tints, hardly less lovely,
+that have stood unchanged for seven hundred years.
+
+And what effect has this splendor on those who pass beneath it? You may
+walk from sunrise to sunset, to and fro, before the gateway of St.
+Mark's, and you will not see an eye lifted to it, nor a countenance
+brightened by it. Priest and layman, soldier and civilian, rich and
+poor, pass by it alike regardlessly. Up to the very recesses of the
+porches, the meanest tradesmen of the city push their counters; nay, the
+foundations of its pillars are themselves the seats--not "of them that
+sell doves" for sacrifice, but of the venders of toys and caricatures.
+Round the whole square in front of the church there is almost a
+continuous line of cafés, where the idle Venetians of the middle classes
+lounge, and read empty journals; in its center the Austrian bands[47]
+play during the time of vespers, their martial music jarring with the
+organ notes--the march drowning the miserere, and the sullen crowd
+thickening round them--a crowd, which, if it had its will, would
+stiletto every soldier that pipes to it. And in the recesses of the
+porches, all day long, knots of men of the lowest classes, unemployed
+and listless, lie basking in the sun like lizards; and unregarded
+children--every heavy glance of their young eyes full of desperation and
+stony depravity, and their throats hoarse with cursing--gamble, and
+fight, and snarl, and sleep, hour after hour, clashing their bruised
+centesimi upon the marble ledges of the church porch. And the images of
+Christ and His angels look down upon it continually....
+
+Let us enter the church itself. It is lost in still deeper twilight, to
+which the eye must be accustomed for some moments before the form of the
+building can be traced; and then there opens before us a vast cave, hewn
+out into the form of a cross, and divided into shadowy aisles by many
+pillars. Round the domes of its roof the light enters only through
+narrow apertures like large stars; and here and there a ray or two from
+some far away casement wanders into the darkness, and casts a narrow
+phosphoric stream upon the waves of marble that heave and fall in a
+thousand colors along the floor. What else there is of light is from
+torches, or silver lamps burning ceaselessly in the recesses of the
+chapels; the roof sheeted with gold, and the polished walls covered with
+alabaster, give back at every curve and angle some feeble gleaming to
+the flames; and the glories round the heads of the sculptured saints
+flash out upon us as we pass them, and sink again into the gloom.
+
+Under foot and over head, a continual succession of crowded imagery, one
+picture passing into another, as in a dream; forms beautiful and
+terrible mixed together; dragons and serpents, and ravening beasts of
+prey, and graceful birds that in the midst of them drink from running
+fountains and feed from vases of crystal; the passions and the pleasures
+of human life symbolized together, and the mystery of its redemption;
+for the mazes of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at
+last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every
+stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapt round it, sometimes
+with doves beneath its arms, and sweet herbage growing forth from its
+feet; but conspicuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the
+church before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of
+the apse. And altho in the recesses of the aisles and chapels, when the
+mist of the incense hangs heavily, we may see continually a figure
+traced in faint lines upon their marble, a woman standing with her eyes
+raised to heaven, and the inscription above her, "Mother of God," she
+is not here the presiding deity. It is the cross that is first seen, and
+always, burning in the center of the temple; and every dome and hollow
+of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised
+in power, or returning in judgment.
+
+Nor is this interior without effect on the minds of the people. At every
+hour of the day there are groups collected before the various shrines,
+and solitary worshipers scattered through the darker places of the
+church, evidently in prayer both deep and reverent, and, for the most
+part, profoundly sorrowful. The devotees at the greater number of the
+renowned shrines of Romanism may be seen murmuring their appointed
+prayers with wandering eyes and unengaged gestures; but the step of the
+stranger does not disturb those who kneel on the pavement of St. Mark's;
+and hardly a moment passes from early morning to sunset in which we may
+not see some half-veiled figure enter beneath the Arabian porch, cast
+itself into long abasement on the floor of the temple, and then rising
+slowly with more confirmed step, and with a passionate kiss and clasp of
+the arms given to the feet of the crucifix, by which the lamps burn
+always in the northern aisle, leave the church, as if comforted....
+
+It must therefore be altogether without reference to its present
+usefulness, that we pursue our inquiry into the merits and meaning of
+the architecture of this marvelous building; and it can only be after we
+have terminated that inquiry, conducting it carefully on abstract
+grounds, that we can pronounce with any certainty how far the present
+neglect of St. Mark's is significative of the decline of the Venetian
+character, or how far this church is to be considered as the relic of a
+barbarous age, incapable of attracting the admiration, or influencing
+the feelings of a civilized community. Now the first broad
+characteristic of the building, and the root nearly of every other
+important peculiarity in it, is its confessed incrustation. It is the
+purest example in Italy of the great school of architecture in which the
+ruling principle is the incrustation of brick with more precious
+materials. Consider the natural circumstances which give rise to such a
+style. Suppose a nation of builders, placed far from any quarries of
+available stone, and having precarious access to the mainland where they
+exist; compelled therefore either to build entirely with brick, or to
+import whatever stone they use from great distances, in ships of small
+tonnage, and for the most part dependent for speed on the oar rather
+than the sail. The labor and cost of carriage are just as great, whether
+they import common or precious stone, and therefore the natural tendency
+would always be to make each shipload as valuable as possible. But in
+proportion to the preciousness of the stone, is the limitation of its
+possible supply; limitation not determined merely by cost, but by the
+physical conditions of the material, for of many marbles pieces above a
+certain size are not to be had for money. There would also be a tendency
+in such circumstances to import as much stone as possible ready
+sculptured, in order to save weight; and therefore, if the traffic of
+their merchants led them to places where there were ruins of ancient
+edifices, to ship the available fragments of them home. Out of this
+supply of marble, partly composed of pieces of so precious a quality
+that only a few tons of them could be on any terms obtained, and partly
+of shafts, capitals, and other portions of foreign buildings, the island
+architect has to fashion, as best he may, the anatomy of his edifice.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE OLD CAMPANILE WAS BUILT[48]
+
+BY HORATIO F. BROWN
+
+
+The wide discrepancy of the dates, 888 to 1148, may perhaps be accounted
+for by the conjecture that the work of the building [the Campanile]
+proceeded slowly, either with a view to allowing the foundations to
+consolidate, or owing to lack of funds, and that the chroniclers
+recorded each resumption of work as the beginning of the work. One point
+may, perhaps, be fixt. The Campanile must have been some way above
+ground by the year 997, for the hospital founded by the sainted Doge,
+Pietro Orseolo, which is said to have been attached to the base of the
+tower, was consecrated in that year. The Campanile was finished, as far
+as the bell-chamber at least, in 1148, under the Doge Domenico Moresini,
+whose sarcophagus and bust surmount the portal of the San Nicoll del
+Lido.
+
+The chroniclers are at variance among themselves as to the date of the
+foundation, nor has an examination of the foundations themselves led to
+any discovery which enables us to determine that date; but one or two
+considerations would induce us to discard the earlier epochs. The
+foundations must have been designed to carry a tower of the same
+breadth, tho possibly not of the same height, as that which has recently
+fallen. But in the year of 888 had the Venetians such a conception of
+their greatness as to project a tower far more massive than any which
+had been hitherto constructed in Italy? Did they possess the wealth to
+justify them in such an enterprise? Would they have designed such a
+tower to match St. Mark's, which was at that time a small church with
+walls of wood? It is more probable that the construction of the
+Campanile belongs to the period of the second church of St. Mark, which
+was begun after the fire of 976 and consecrated in 1094.
+
+The height of the Campanile at the time of its fall was 98.60 meters
+(322 ft.), from the base to the head of the angel, tho a considerable
+portion of this height was not added till 1510; its width at the base of
+the shaft 12.80 meters (35 ft. 2 in.), and one meter (3 ft. 3 in.) less
+at the top of the shaft. The weight has been calculated at about 18,000
+tons.
+
+Thanks to excavations at the base of the tower made by Com. Giacomo
+Boni, at the request of Mr. C. H. Blackall, of Boston, U. S. A., in the
+year 1885, a report of which was printed in the Archivio Veneto, we
+possess some accurate knowledge about a portion of the foundation upon
+which this enormous mass rested.
+
+The subsoil of Venice is composed of layers of clay, sometimes
+traversed by layers of peat, overlying profound strata of watery sand.
+This clay is, in places, of a remarkably firm consistency; for example,
+in the quarter of the town known as Dorsoduro or "hard-back," and at the
+spot where the Campanile stood. A bore made at that point brought up a
+greenish, compact clay mixed with fine shells. This clay, when dried,
+offered the resisting power of half-baked brick. It is the remarkable
+firmness of this clay which enabled the Venetians to raise so ponderous
+a structure upon so narrow a foundation.
+
+The builders of the Campanile proceeded as follows: Into this bed of
+compact clay they first drove piles of about 9 1/2 in. in diameter with a
+view to consolidate still further, by pressure, the area selected. That
+area only extends 1.25 meter, or about 4 ft. beyond the spring of the
+brickwork shaft of the tower. How deep these piles reach Boni's report
+does not state. The piles, at the point where he laid the foundation
+bare, were found to be of white poplar, in remarkably sound condition,
+retaining their color, and presenting closely twisted fiber. The clay in
+which they were embedded has preserved them almost intact. The piles
+extended for one row only beyond the superimposed structure. On the top
+of these piles the builders laid a platform consisting of two layers of
+oak beams, crosswise. The lower layer runs in the line of the Piazza,
+east to west, the upper in the line of the Piazzetta, north to south.
+Each beam is square and a little over 4 in. thick. This oak platform
+appears to be in bad condition; the timbers are blackened and friable.
+While the excavation was in progress sea-water burst through the
+interstices, which had to be plugged.
+
+Upon this platform was laid the foundation proper. This consisted of
+seven courses of stone of various sizes and of various kinds--sandstone
+of two qualities, limestone from Istria and Verona, probably taken from
+older buildings on the mainland, certainly not fresh-hewn from the
+quarry. The seventh or lowest course was the deepest, and was the only
+one which escaped, and that but slightly; the remaining six courses were
+intended to be perpendicular. These courses varied widely from each
+other in thickness--from 0.31 to 0.90 meters. They were composed of
+different and ill-assorted stone, and were held together in places by
+shallow-biting clamps of iron, and by a mortar of white Istrian lime,
+which, not being hydraulic, and having little affinity for sand, had
+become disintegrated. Boni calls attention to the careless structure of
+this foundation proper, and maintains that it was designed to carry a
+tower of about two-thirds of the actual height imposed upon it, but not
+more.
+
+Above the foundation proper came the base. This consisted of five
+courses of stone set in stepwise. These courses of the base were all the
+same kind of stone, in fairly regular blocks, and of fairly uniform
+thickness. They were all intended to be seen, and originally rose from
+the old brick pavement of the Piazza; but the gradual subsidence of the
+soil--which is calculated as proceeding at the rate of nearly a meter
+per 1,000 years--caused two and a half of these stepped courses to
+disappear, and only two and a half emerged from the present pavement.
+
+Thus the structure upon which the brick shaft of the Campanile rested
+was composed of (1) the base of five stepped courses, (2) the
+foundations of seven courses almost perpendicular, (3) the platform of
+oak beams, and (4) the piles. The height of the foundation, including
+the base, was 5.02 meters, about 16 ft., or one-twentieth of the height
+they carried. Not only is this a very small proportion, but it will be
+further observed that the tradition of star-shaped supports to the
+foundations is destroyed, and that they covered a very restricted area.
+In fact, the foundations of the Campanile belonged to the primitive or
+narrow kind. The foundations of the Ducal Palace, on the other hand,
+belonged to the more recent or extended kind. Those foundations do not
+rest on piles, but on a very broad platform of larch beams--much thicker
+than the oak beams of the Campanile platform--reposing directly on the
+clay. Upon this platform, foundations with a distended escarpment were
+built to carry the walls, the weight of which was thus distributed
+equally over a wide area.
+
+Little of the old foundations of the Campanile will remain when the work
+on the new foundations is completed. The primitive piles and platform
+are to stand; but new piles have been driven in all round the original
+nucleus, and on them are being laid large blocks of Istrian stone, which
+will be so deeply bonded into the old foundations that hardly more than
+a central core of the early work will be left ...
+
+In a peculiar fashion the Campanile of San Marco summed up the whole
+life of the city--civil, religious, commercial, and military--and
+became the central point of Venetian sentiment. For the tower served the
+double needs of the ecclesiastic and the civic sides of the Republic.
+Its bells marked the canonical hours; rang the workman to his work, the
+merchant to his desk, the statesman to the Senate; they pealed for
+victory or tolled for the demise of a Doge. The tower, moreover, during
+the long course of its construction, roughly speaking, from the middle
+of the tenth to the opening of the sixteenth centuries, was contemporary
+with all that was greatest in Venetian history; for the close of the
+tenth century saw the conquest of Dalmatia, and the foundations of
+Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic--that water-avenue to the Levant and
+the Orient--while by the opening of the sixteenth the Cape route had
+been discovered, the League of Cambray was in sight, and the end at
+hand.
+
+The tower, too, was a landmark to those at sea, and when the mariner had
+the Campanile of San Nicolo on the Lido covering the Campanile of St.
+Marks, he knew he had the route home and could make the Lido port. The
+tower was the center of popular festivals, such as that of the Svolo on
+Giovedi grasso, when an acrobat descended by a rope from the summit of
+the Campanile to the feet of the Doge, who was a spectator from the
+loggia of the Ducal Palace.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL[49]
+
+BY HORATIO T. BROWN
+
+
+We come now to the dolorous moment of the fall in July, 1902.
+Infiltration of water had been observed in the roof of Sansovino's
+Loggetta where that roof joined the shaft of the Campanile. At this
+point a thin ledge of stone, let into the wall of the Campanile,
+projected over the junction between the leaden roof of the Loggetta and
+the shaft of the tower. In order to remedy the mischief of infiltration
+it was resolved to remove and replace this projecting ledge. To do this
+a chase was made in the wall of the Campanile, which, at this point,
+consisted of a comparatively modern surface of masonry, placed there to
+repair the damage caused by lightning strokes.
+
+This chase was cut, not piecemeal, but continuously. The work was
+carried out on Monday, July 7th. During the process the architect in
+charge became alarmed at the condition of the inner part of the wall
+laid bare by the cut. He exprest his fears to his superiors, but
+apparently no examination of the tower was made till the Thursday
+following. Even then the imminence of the danger does not seem to have
+been grasped. On Saturday, the 12th, a crack was observed spreading
+upward in a sloping direction from the cut above the roof of the
+Loggetta toward the northeast angle of the shaft, then crossing the
+angle and running up almost perpendicularly in the line of the little
+windows that gave light to the internal passage from the base to the
+bell-chamber.
+
+This crack assumed such a threatening aspect, and was making such
+visible progress, that the authorities in charge of the tower felt bound
+to inform the Prefect, tho the danger was represented as not immediate,
+and the worst they expected was the fall of the angle where the crack
+had appeared. A complete collapse of the whole tower was absolutely
+excluded. As a precautionary measure the music in the Piazza was
+suspended on Saturday evening. On Sunday orders were issued to endeavor
+to bind the threatened angle.
+
+But by Monday morning early (July 14th) it was evident that the
+catastrophe could not be averted. Dust began to pour out of the widening
+crack, and bricks to fall. A block of Istrian stone crashed down from
+the bell-chamber, then a column from the same site. At 9.47 the ominous
+fissure opened, the face of the Campanile toward the church and the
+Ducal Palace bulged out, the angle on the top and the pyramid below it
+swayed once or twice, and threatened to crush either the Sansovino's
+Library or the Basilica of San Marco in their fall, then the whole
+colossus subsided gently, almost noiselessly, upon itself, as it were in
+a curtsey, the ruined brick and mortar spread out in a pyramidal heap, a
+dense column of white powder rose from the Piazza, and the Campanile was
+no more.
+
+It is certainly remarkable, and by the people of Venice it is reckoned
+as a miracle, that the tower in its fall did so little harm. Not a
+single life was lost, tho the crowd in the Piazza was unaware of its
+danger till about ten minutes before the catastrophe.
+
+
+
+
+THE PALACE OF THE DOGES[50]
+
+BY JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+The Ducal Palace, which was the great work of Venice, was built
+successively in the three styles. There was a Byzantine Ducal Palace, a
+Gothic Ducal Palace, and a Renaissance Ducal Palace. The second
+superseded the first totally; a few stones of it (if indeed so much) are
+all that is left. But the third superseded the second in part only, and
+the existing building is formed by the union of the two. We shall review
+the history of each in succession.
+
+1st. The Byzantine Palace. In the year of the death of Charlemagne, 813,
+the Venetians determined to make the island of Rialto the seat of the
+government and capital of their state. Their Doge, Angelo or Agnello
+Participazio, instantly took vigorous means for the enlargement of the
+small group of buildings which were to be the nucleus of the future
+Venice. He appointed persons to superintend the raising of the banks of
+sand, so as to form more secure foundations, and to build wooden bridges
+over the canals. For the offices of religion, he built the Church of
+St. Mark; and on, or near, the spot where the Ducal Palace now stands,
+he built a palace for the administration of the government. The history
+of the Ducal Palace therefore begins with the birth of Venice, and to
+what remains of it, at this day, is entrusted the last representation of
+her power....
+
+In the year 1106, it was for the second time injured by fire, but
+repaired before 1116, when it received another emperor, Henry V. (of
+Germany), and was again honored by imperial praise. Between 1173 and the
+close of the century, it seems to have been again repaired and much
+enlarged by the Doge Sebastian Ziani. Sansovino says that this Doge not
+only repaired it, but "enlarged it in every direction;" and, after this
+enlargement, the palace seems to have remained untouched for a hundred
+years, until, in the commencement of the fourteenth century, the works
+of the Gothic Palace were begun.
+
+Venice was in the zenith of her strength, and the heroism of her
+citizens was displaying itself in every quarter of the world. The
+acquiescence in the secure establishment of the aristocratic power was
+an expression, by the people, of respect for the families which had been
+chiefly instrumental in raising the commonwealth to such a height of
+prosperity....
+
+In the first year of the fourteenth century, the Gothic Ducal Palace of
+Venice was begun; and as the Byzantine Palace was, in its foundation,
+coeval with that of the state, so the Gothic Palace was, in its
+foundation, coeval with that of the aristocratic power. Considered as
+the principal representation of the Venetian school of architecture, the
+Ducal Palace is the Parthenon of Venice, and Gradenigo its Pericles.
+
+Before it was finished, occasion had been discovered for farther
+improvements. The Senate found their new Council Chamber inconveniently
+small, and, about thirty years after its completion, began to consider
+where a larger and more magnificent one might be built. The government
+was now thoroughly established, and it was probably felt that there was
+some meanness in the retired position, as well as insufficiency in the
+size, of the Council Chamber on the Rio.
+
+It appears from the entry still preserved in the Archivio, and quoted by
+Cadorin, that it was on the 28th of December, 1340, that the
+commissioners appointed to decide on this important matter gave in their
+report to the Grand Council, and that the decree passed thereupon for
+the commencement of a new Council Chamber on the Grand Canal.
+
+The room then begun is the one now in existence, and its building
+involved the building of all that is best and most beautiful in the
+present Ducal Palace, the rich arcades of the lower stories being all
+prepared for sustaining this Sala del Gran Consiglio. In saying that it
+is the same now in existence, I do not mean that it has undergone no
+alterations; it has been refitted again and again, and some portions of
+its walls rebuilt; but in the place and form in which it first stood, it
+still stands; and by a glance at the position which its windows occupy,
+the spectator will see at once that whatever can be known respecting the
+design of the Sea Façade, must be gleaned out of the entries which
+refer to the building of this Great Council Chamber.
+
+Cadorin quotes two of great importance, made during the progress of the
+work in 1342 and 1344; then one of 1349, resolving that the works at the
+Ducal Palace, which had been discontinued during the plague, should be
+resumed; and finally one in 1362, which speaks of the Great Council
+Chamber as having been neglected and suffered to fall into "great
+desolation," and resolves that it shall be forthwith completed.
+
+The interruption had not been caused by the plague only, but by the
+conspiracy of Faliero, and the violent death of the master builder. The
+work was resumed in 1362, and completed within the next three years, at
+least so far as that Guariento was enabled to paint his Paradise on the
+walls, so that the building must, at any rate, have been roofed by this
+time. Its decorations and fittings, however, were long in completion;
+the paintings on the roof being only executed in 1400....
+
+The works of addition or renovation had now been proceeding, at
+intervals, during a space of a hundred and twenty-three years. Three
+generations at least had been accustomed to witness the gradual
+advancement of the form of the Ducal Palace into more stately symmetry,
+and to contrast the works of sculpture and painting with which it was
+decorated--full of the life, knowledge, and hope of the fourteenth
+century--with the rude Byzantine chiselling of the palace of the Doge
+Ziani. The magnificent fabric just completed, of which the new Council
+Chamber was the nucleus, was now habitually known in Venice as the
+"Palazzo Nuovo;" and the old Byzantine edifice, now ruinous, and more
+manifest in its decay by its contrast with the goodly stones of the
+building which had been raised at its side, was of course known as the
+"Palazzo Vecchio." That fabric, however, still occupied the principal
+position in Venice. The new Council Chamber had been erected by the side
+of it toward the Sea; but there was not then the wide quay in front, the
+Riva dei Schiavoni, which now renders the Sea Façade as important as
+that to the Piazzetta. There was only a narrow walk between the pillars
+and the water; and the old palace of Ziani still faced the Piazzetta,
+and interrupted, by its decrepitude, the magnificence of the square
+where the nobles daily met.
+
+Every increase of the beauty of the new palace rendered the discrepancy
+between it and the companion building more painful; and then began to
+arise in the minds of all men a vague idea of the necessity of
+destroying the old palace, and completing the front of the Piazzetta
+with the same splendor as the Sea Façade. But no such sweeping measure
+of renovation had been contemplated by the Senate when they first formed
+the plan of their new Council Chamber. First a single additional room,
+then a gateway, then a larger room; but all considered merely as
+necessary additions to the palace, not as involving the entire
+reconstruction of the ancient edifice. The exhaustion of the treasury,
+and the shadows upon the political horizon, rendered it more imprudent
+to incur the vast additional expense which such a project involved; and
+the Senate, fearful of itself, and desirous to guard against the
+weakness of its own enthusiasm, passed a decree, like the effort of a
+man fearful of some strong temptation to keep his thoughts averted from
+the point of danger. It was a decree, not merely that the old palace
+should not be rebuilt, but that no one should propose rebuilding it. The
+feeling of the desirableness of doing so was too strong to permit fair
+discussion, and the Senate knew that to bring forward such a motion was
+to carry it.
+
+The decree, thus passed in order to guard against their own weakness,
+forbade any one to speak of rebuilding the old palace, under the penalty
+of a thousand ducats. But they had rated their own enthusiasm too low;
+there was a man among them whom the loss of a thousand ducats could not
+deter from proposing what he believed to be for the good of the state.
+Some excuse was given him for bringing forward the motion, by a fire
+which occurred in 1419, and which injured both the Church of St. Mark's,
+and part of the old palace fronting the Piazzetta. What followed, I
+shall relate in the words of Sanuto.
+
+"Therefore they set themselves with all diligence and care to repair and
+adorn sumptuously, first God's house; but in the Prince's house things
+went on more slowly, for it did not please the Doge to restore it in the
+form in which it was before; and they could not rebuild it altogether in
+a better manner, so great was the parsimony of these old fathers;
+because it was forbidden by laws, which condemned in a penalty of a
+thousand ducats any one who should propose to throw down the old palace,
+and to rebuild it more richly and with greater expense.
+
+"But the Doge, who was magnanimous, and who desired above all things
+what was honorable to the city, had the thousand ducats carried into the
+Senate Chamber, and then proposed that the palace should be rebuilt;
+saying: that, since the late fire had ruined in great part the Ducal
+habitation (not only his own private palace, but all the places used for
+public business), this occasion was to be taken for an admonishment sent
+from God, that they ought to rebuild the palace more nobly, and in a way
+more befitting the greatness to which, by God's grace, their dominions
+had reached; and that his motive in proposing this was neither ambition,
+nor selfish interest; that, as for ambition, they might have seen in the
+whole course of his life, through so many years, that he had never done
+anything for ambition, either in the city, or in foreign business; but
+in all his actions had kept justice first in his thoughts, and then the
+advantage of the state, and the honor of the Venetian name; and that, as
+far as regarded his private interest, if it had not been for this
+accident of the fire, he would never have thought of changing anything
+in the palace into either a more sumptuous or a more honorable form; and
+that during the many years in which he had lived in it, he had never
+endeavored to make any change, but had always been content with it as
+his predecessors had left it; and that he knew well that, if they took
+in hand to build it as he exhorted and besought them, being now very
+old, and broken down with many toils, God would call him to another life
+before the walls were raised a pace from the ground. And that therefore
+they might perceive that he did not advise them to raise this building
+for his own convenience, but only for the honor of the city and its
+Dukedom; and that the good of it would never be felt by him, but by his
+successors." ...
+
+Then he said, that 'in order, as he had always done, to observe the
+laws, he had brought with him the thousand ducats which had been
+appointed as the penalty for proposing such a measure, so that he might
+prove openly to all men that it was not his own advantage that he
+sought, but the dignity of the state.' There was no one (Sanuto goes on
+to tell us) who ventured, or desired to oppose the wishes of the Doge;
+and the thousand ducats were unanimously devoted to the expenses of the
+work. "And they set themselves with much diligence to the work; and the
+palace was begun in the form and manner in which it is at present seen;
+but, as Mocenigo[51] had prophesied, not long after, he ended his life,
+and not only did not see the work brought to a close, but hardly even
+begun."
+
+There are one or two expressions in the above extracts which, if they
+stood alone, might lead the reader to suppose that the whole palace had
+been thrown down and rebuilt. We must however remember, that, at this
+time, the new Council Chamber, which had been one hundred years in
+building, was actually unfinished, the council had not yet sat in it;
+and it was just as likely that the Doge should then propose to destroy
+and rebuild it, as in this year, 1853, it is that any one should propose
+in our House of Commons to throw down the new Houses of Parliament,
+under the title of the "old palace," and rebuild them....
+
+It was in the year 1422 that the decree passed to rebuild the palace;
+Mocenigo died in the following year, and Francesco Foscari was elected
+in his room. The great Council Chamber was used for the first time on
+the day when Foscari entered the Senate as Doge--the 3rd of April, 1423,
+according to the "Caroldo Chronicle;" the 23d, which is probably
+correct, by an anonymous MS., No. 60, in the Correr Museum; and the
+following year, on the 27th of March, the first hammer was lifted up
+against the old palace of Ziani. That hammer stroke was the first act of
+the period properly called the "Renaissance." It was the knell of the
+architecture of Venice--and of Venice herself.
+
+The central epoch of her life was past; the decay had already begun; I
+date its commencement from the death of Mocenigo. A year had not yet
+elapsed since that great Doge had been called to his account; his
+patriotism, always sincere, had been in this instance mistaken; in his
+zeal for the honor of future Venice, he had forgotten what was due to
+the Venice of long ago. A thousand palaces might be built upon her
+burdened islands, but none of them could taken the place, or recall the
+memory, of that which was first built upon her unfrequented shore. It
+fell; and, as if it had been the talisman of fortune, the city never
+flourished again.
+
+I have no intention of following out, in their intricate details, the
+operations which were begun under Foscari and continued under succeeding
+Doges till the palace assumed its present form, for I am not in this
+work concerned, except by occasional reference, with the architecture of
+the fifteenth century; but the main facts are the following. The palace
+of Ziani was destroyed; the existing façade to the Piazzetta built, so
+as both to continue and to resemble, in most particulars, the work of
+the Great Council Chamber. It was carried back from the Sea as far as
+the Judgment angle; beyond which is the Porta della Carta, begun in
+1439, and finished in two years, under the Doge Foscari; the interior
+buildings connected with it were added by the Doge Christopher Moro (the
+Othello of Shakespeare) in 1462.
+
+Some remnants of the Ziani Palace were perhaps still left between the
+two extremities of the Gothic Palace; or, as is more probable, the last
+stones of it may have been swept away after the fire of 1419, and
+replaced by new apartments for the Doge. But whatever buildings, old or
+new, stood on this spot at the time of the completion of the Porta della
+Carta were destroyed by another great fire in 1479, together with so
+much of the palace on the Rio that, tho the saloon of Gradenigo, then
+known as the Sala de Pregadi, was not destroyed, it became necessary to
+reconstruct the entire façades of the portion of the palace behind the
+Bridge of Sighs, both toward the court and canal.
+
+The palace was not long permitted to remain in finished form. Another
+terrific fire, commonly called the great fire, burst out in 1574, and
+destroyed the inner fittings and all the precious pictures of the Great
+Council Chamber, and of all the upper rooms on the Sea Façade, and most
+of those on the Rio Façade, leaving the building a mere shell, shaken
+and blasted by the flames. It was debated in the Great Council whether
+the ruin should not be thrown down, and an entirely new palace built in
+its stead. The opinions of all the leading architects of Venice were
+taken, respecting the safety of the walls, or the possibility of
+repairing them as they stood. These opinions, given in writing, have
+been preserved, and published by the Abbé Cadorin, and they form one of
+the most important series of documents connected with the Ducal Palace.
+
+I can not help feeling some childish pleasure in the accidental
+resemblance to my own name in that of the architect whose opinion was
+first given in favor of the ancient fabric, Giovanni Rusconi. Others,
+especially Palladio, wanted to pull down the old palace, and execute
+designs of their own; but the best architects in Venice, and, to his
+immortal honor, chiefly Francesco Sansovino, energetically pleaded for
+the Gothic pile, and prevailed. It was successfully repaired, and
+Tintoret painted his noblest picture on the wall from which the Paradise
+of Guariento had withered before the flames.
+
+The repairs necessarily undertaken at this time were however extensive,
+and interfere in many directions with the earlier work of the palace;
+still the only serious alteration in its form was the transposition of
+the prisons, formerly at the top of the palace, to the other side of the
+Rio del Palazzo; and the building of the Bridge of Sighs, to connect
+them with the palace, by Antonio da Ponte. The completion of this work
+brought the whole edifice into its present form; with the exception of
+alterations in doors, partitions, and staircases among the inner
+apartments, not worth noticing, and such barbarisms and defacements as
+have been suffered within the last fifty years, by, I suppose, nearly
+every building of importance in Italy.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAGOONS[52]
+
+BY HORATIO F. BROWN
+
+
+The colonization of the Venetian estuary is usually dated from the year
+452, the period of the Hunnish invasion under Attila, when the Scourge
+of God, as he was named by his terror-stricken opponents, sacked the
+rich Roman cities of Aquileia, Concordia, Opitergium, and Padua. In one
+sense the date is correct. The Hunnish invasion certainly gave an
+enormous increase to the lagoon population, and called the attention of
+the mainlanders, to the admirable asylum which the estuary offered in
+times of danger.
+
+When Alcuin, the great scholar from Yorkshire, was teaching
+Charlemagne's son and heir, Pepin, he drew up for his pupil's use a
+curious catechism of questions and answers. Among others this occurs:
+"What is the sea." "A refuge in time of danger." Surely a strange
+answer, and one which can hardly be reckoned as true except in the
+particular case of the Venetian lagoons. For the mainlanders were caught
+between the devil of Attila and the deep sea of the Adriatic, and had
+they not found the lagoons ready at hand to offer them an asylum and to
+prove a refuge in time of danger, it must have fared hard with them.
+
+But this date of 452 is not to be taken as the date of the very earliest
+occupation of the lagoon. Long before Attila and his Huns swept down
+upon Italy, we know that there was a sparse population occupying the
+estuary, engaged in fishing and in the salt trade. Cassiodorus, the
+secretary of the Gothic King Theodoric the Great, has left us a picture
+of this people, hardy, independent, toughened by their life on the salt
+water; their means of living; the fish of the lagoons; their source of
+wealth; the salt which they extracted from its waters; their houses,
+wattled cabins built upon piles driven into the mud; their means of
+locomotion light boats which were tied to the door posts like horses on
+mainland.
+
+"Thus you live in your sea-birds' home," he exclaims, "rich and poor
+under equal laws; a common food supports you; house is like unto house;
+and envy, that curse of all the world, hath no place there." No doubt
+this early population of the lagoons, already intimately associated
+with its dwelling-place, modified by it and adapted to it, helped to
+form the basis upon which the latter strata of population, the result of
+the Hunnish invasion, could rest; and in all probability some of the
+characteristics of this early population, its independence and its
+hardihood, passed into the composition of the full-grown Venetian race.
+But beyond the brief words of Cassiodorus we know little about these
+early lagoon-dwellers. It is really with the Hunnish invasion that the
+history of Venice begins its first period of growth.
+
+The population which flocked from the mainland to seek refuge in the
+estuary of Venice came from many different cities--from Aquileia, from
+Concordia, from Padua; and tho the inhabitants of all these, no doubt,
+bore the external stamp which Rome never failed to impose, yet, equally
+doubtless, they brought with them their own particular customs, their
+mutual hates and rivalries.
+
+While living on the mainland these animosities had wider space in which
+to play, and were therefore less dangerous, less explosive. But in the
+lagoons, under stress of suffering, and owing to confinement and
+juxtaposition, they became intensified, exaggerated, and perilous. There
+was a double problem before the growing Venetian population which
+required to be solved before Venice and the Venetians could, with any
+justice, be considered a place and a people. First, the various and
+largely hostile populations who had taken refuge in the lagoon had to be
+reconciled to each other; and secondly, they had to be reconciled to
+their new home, to be identified with it and made one with it.
+
+The lagoon achieved both reconciliations; the isolation of its waters,
+their strangeness, gradually created the feeling of unity, of family
+connection, among the diverse and hostile components of the population,
+till a fusion took place between the original and the immigrant
+inhabitants, and between the people and their home, and Venice and the
+Venetians emerge upon the history of the world as an individual and
+full-grown race. But this reconciliation and identification were not
+accomplished at once. They cost many years of struggle and of danger.
+The unification of Venice is the history of a series of compromises, an
+historical example of the great law of selection and survival.
+
+
+
+
+THE DECLINE AMID SPLENDOR[53]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+Venice the beautiful city ended, pagan-like, as did its sisters the
+Greek republics, through nonchalance and voluptuousness. We find,
+indeed, from time to time, a Francis Morosini, who like Aratus and
+Philopoemen, renews the heroism and victories of ancient days; but,
+after the seventeenth century, its bright career is over. The city,
+municipal and circumscribed, is found to be weak, like Athens and
+Corinth, against powerful military neighbors who either neglect or
+tolerate it; the French and the Germans violate its neutrality with
+impunity; it subsists and that is all, and it pretends to do no more.
+Its nobles care only to amuse themselves; war and politics with them
+recede in the background; she becomes gallant and worldly....
+
+But the evening of this fallen city is as mellow and as brilliant as a
+Venetian sunset. With the absence of care gaiety prevails. One
+encounters nothing but public and private fêtes in the memoirs of their
+writers and in the pictures of their painters. At one time it is a
+pompous banquet in a superb saloon festooned with gold, with tall
+lustrous windows and pale crimson curtains, the doge in his simarre
+dining with the magistrates in purple robes, and masked guests gliding
+over the floor; nothing is more elegant than the exquisite aristocracy
+of their small feet, their slender necks and their jaunty little
+three-cornered hats among skirts flounced with yellow or pearly gray
+silks.
+
+At another it is a regatta of gondolas and we see on the sea between
+San-Marco and San-Giorgio, around the huge Bucentaur[54] like a
+leviathan cuirassed with scales of gold, flotillas of boats parting the
+water with their steel becks. A crowd of pretty dominos, male and
+female, flutter over the pavements; the sea seems to be of polished
+slate under a tender azure sky spotted with cloud-flocks while all
+around, as in a precious frame, like a fantastic border carved and
+embroidered, the Procuraties, the domes, the palaces and the quays
+thronged with a joyous multitude, encircle the great maritime Venetian
+sheet....
+
+In truth they never concern themselves with religion except to repress
+the Pope; in theory and in practise, in ideas and in instincts, they
+inherit the manners, customs and spirit of antiquity, and their
+Christianity is only a name. Like the ancients, they were at first
+heroes and artists, and then voluptuaries and dilettanti; in one as in
+the other case they, like the ancients, confined life to the present. In
+the eighteenth century they might be compared to the Thebans of the
+decadence who, leagued together to consume their property in common,
+bequeathed what remained of their fortunes on dying to the survivors at
+their banquets. The carnival lasts six months; everybody, even the
+priests, the guardian of the capucins, the nuncio, little children, all
+who frequent the markets, wear masks. People pass by in processions
+disguised in the costumes of Frenchmen, lawyers, gondoliers, Calabrians
+and Spanish soldiery, dancing and with musical instruments; the crowd
+follows jeering or applauding them. There is entire liberty; prince or
+artizan, all are equal; each may apostrophize a mask. Pyramids of men
+form "pictures of strength" on the public squares; harlequins in the
+open air perform parades. Seven theaters are open. Improvizators declaim
+and comedians improvize amusing scenes. "There is no city where license
+has such sovereign rule." ...
+
+The Chiogga campaign is the last act of the old heroic drama; there, as
+in the best days of the ancient republics, a besieged people is seen to
+save itself against all hope, artizans equipping vessels, a Pisani
+conqueror undergoing imprisonment and only released to renew the
+victory, a Carlo Zeno, surviving forty wounds, and a doge of seventy
+years of age; a Contarini, who makes a vow not to leave his vessel so
+long as the enemy's fleet is uncaptured, thirty families, apothecaries,
+grocers, vintners, tanners admitted among the nobles, a bravery, a
+public spirit like that of Athens under Themistocles and of Rome under
+Fabius Cunctator. If, from this time forth, the inward fire abates we
+still feel its warmth for many long years, longer kept up than in the
+rest of Italy, and sometimes demonstrating its power by sudden
+outbursts.
+
+The nobles, on their side, are always ready to fight. During the whole
+of the sixteenth century, even up to the seventeenth and beyond, we see
+them in Dalmatia, in the Morea, over the entire Mediterranean, defending
+the soil inch by inch against the infidels. The garrison of Famagouste
+yields only to famine, and its governor, Bragadino, burned alive, is a
+hero of ancient days. At the battle of Lepanto the Venetians alone
+furnish one half of the Christian fleet. Thus on all sides, and
+notwithstanding their gradual decline, peril, energy, love of country,
+all, in brief, which constitutes or sustains the grand life of the soul
+here subsists, while throughout the peninsula foreign dominion, clerical
+oppression and voluptuous or academical inertia reduces man to the
+system of the antechamber, the subtleties of dilettantism and the babble
+of sonnets.
+
+But if the human spring is not broken at Venice, it is seen insensibly
+losing its elasticity. The government, changed into a suspicious
+despotism, elects a Mocenigo doge, a shameless speculator profiting on
+the public distress, instead of that Charles Zeno who had saved the
+country; it holds Zeno prisoner two years and entrusts the armies on the
+mainland to condottieri; it is tied up in the hands of three
+inquisitors, provokes accusations, practises secret executions and
+commands the people to confine themselves to indulgences of pleasure. On
+the other hand luxury arises. About the year 1400 the houses "were quite
+small;" but a thousand nobles were enumerated in Venice possessing from
+four to seventy thousand ducats rental, while three thousand ducats were
+sufficient to purchase a palace.
+
+Henceforth this great wealth is no longer to be employed in enterprises
+and in self-devotion, but in pomp and magnificence. In 1495, Commine
+admires "the grand canal, the most beautiful street, I think, in the
+world, and with the best houses; the houses are very grand, high and of
+excellent stone--and these have been built within a century. All have
+fronts of white marble, which comes from Istria, a hundred miles away,
+and yet many more great pieces of porphyry and of serpentine on them;
+inside they have, most of them, at least two chambers with gilded
+ceilings, rich screens of chimneys with carved marble, the bedsteads
+gilded and the 'ostevents' painted and gilded and well furnished
+within." On his arrival twenty-five gentlemen attired in silk and
+scarlet come to meet him; they conduct him to a boat decked with crimson
+silk; "it is this most triumphant city I ever saw."
+
+Finally, while the necessity of pleasure grows the spirit of enterprise
+diminishes; the passage of the Cape in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century places the commerce of Asia in the hands of the Portuguese; on
+the Mediterranean and the Atlantic the financial measures of Charles V.,
+joined to bad usage by the Turks, render abortive the great maritime
+caravans which the state dispatches yearly between Alexandria and
+Bruges. In respect to industrial matters, the hampered artizans, watched
+and cloistered in their country, cease to perfect their arts and allow
+foreign competitors to surpass them in processes and in furnishing
+supplies to the world.
+
+Thus, on all sides, the capacity for activity becomes lessened and the
+desire for enjoyment greater without one entirely effacing the other,
+but in a way that, both commingling, they produce that ambiguous state
+of mind similar to a mixed temperature which is never too severe and in
+which the arts are generated. Indeed, it is from 1454 to 1572, between
+the institution of state inquisitors and the battle of Lepanto, between
+the accomplishment of internal despotism and the last of the great
+outward victories, that the brilliant productions of Venetian art
+appear. John Bellini was born in 1426, Giorgone died in 1511, Titian in
+1578, Veronese in 1572 and Tintoretto in 1594. In this interval of one
+hundred and fifty years this warrior city, this mistress of the
+Mediterranean, this queen of commerce and of industry became a casino
+for masqueraders and a den of courtezans.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOVES OF ST. MARK'S[55]
+
+BY HORATIO F. BROWN
+
+
+In Venice the pigeons do not allow you to forget them, even if one
+desired to forget a bird that is so intimately connected with the city
+and with a great ceremony of that ancient republic which has passed
+away. They belong so entirely to the place, and especially to the great
+square; they have made their homes for so many generations among the
+carvings of the Basilica, at the feet of the bronze horses, and under
+the massive cornices of the New Procuratie, that the great Campanile
+itself is hardly more essential to the character of the piazza than are
+these delicate denizens of Saint Mark's.
+
+In the structure of the ducal palace, the wants of the pigeons have been
+taken into account, and near the two great wells which stand in the
+inner courtyard little cups of Istrian stone have been let into the
+pavement for the pigeons to drink from. On cold, frosty mornings you may
+see them tapping disconsolately at the ice which covers their drinking
+troughs, and may win their thanks by breaking it for them. Or if the
+wind blows hard from the east, the pigeons sit in long rows under the
+eaves of the Procuratie; their necks drawn into their shoulders, and the
+neck feathers ruffled round their heads, till they have lost all shape,
+and look like a row of slate-colored cannon-balls.
+
+From Saint Mark's the pigeons have sent out colonies to the other
+churches and campi of Venice. They have crossed the Grand Canal, and
+roost and croon among the volutes of the Salute, or, in wild weather,
+wheel high and airly above its domes. They have even found their way to
+Malamocco and Mazzorbo; so that all Venice in the sea owns and protects
+its sacred bird. But it is in Saint Mark's that the pigeons "most do
+congregate;" and one can not enter the piazza, and stand for a moment at
+the corner, without hearing the sudden rush of wings upon the air, and
+seeing the white under-feathers of their pinions, as the doves strike
+backward to check their flight, and flutter down at one's feet in
+expectation of peas or grain. They are boundlessly greedy, and will
+stuff themselves till they can hardly walk, and the little red feet
+stagger under the loaded crop. They are not virtuous, but they are very
+beautiful.
+
+There is a certain fitness in the fact that the dove should be the
+sacred bird of the sea city. Both English "dove" and Latin "columba"
+mean the diver; and the dove uses the air much as the fish uses the sea,
+it glides, it dives, it shoots through its airy ocean; it hovers against
+the breeze, or presses its breast against the sirocco storm, as you may
+see fish poised in their course against the stream; then with a sudden
+turn it relaxes the strain and sweeps away down the wind. The dove is an
+airy emblem of the sea upon which Venice and the Venetians live, but
+more than that--the most permanent quality in the color of the lagoons,
+where the lights are always shifting, is the dove-tone of sea and sky;
+a tone which holds all colors in solution, and out of which they emerge
+as the water-ripples or the cloud-flakes pass--just as the colors are
+shot and varied on a young dove's neck.
+
+There is some doubts as to the origin of these flocks of pigeons which
+shelter in Saint Mark's. According to one story, Henry Dandolo, the
+Crusader, was besieging Candia; he received valuable information from
+the interior of the island by means of carrier-pigeons, and, later on,
+sent news of his successes home to Venice by the same messengers. In
+recognition of these services the government resolved to maintain the
+carriers at the public cost; and the flocks of to-day are the
+descendants of the fourteenth-century pigeons. The more probable
+tradition, however, is that which connects these pigeons with the
+antique ceremonies of Palm Sunday.
+
+On that festival the Doge made the tour of the piazza, accompanied by
+all the officers of State, the Patriarch, the foreign ambassadors, the
+silver trumpets, all the pomp of the ducal dignity. Among other largess
+of that day, a number of pigeons, weighted by pieces of paper tied to
+their legs, used to be let loose from the gallery where the bronze
+horses stand, above the western door of the church. Most of the birds
+were easily caught by the crowd, and kept for their Easter dinner; but
+some escaped, and took refuge in the upper parts of the palace and among
+the domes of Saint Mark's. The superstition of the people was easily
+touched, and the birds that had sought the protection of the saint were
+thenceforth dedicated to the patron of Venice. The charge of supporting
+them was committed to the superintendents of the corn stores, and the
+usual hour for feeding the pigeons was nine o'clock in the morning.
+During the revolution of 1797, the birds fared as badly as the
+aristocracy, and were left to take care of themselves; but when matters
+settled down again the feeding of the pigeons was resumed by the
+municipality, and takes place at two in the afternoon, tho the incessant
+largess of strangers can leave the birds but little appetite for their
+regular meal.
+
+In spite of the multitudes of pigeons that haunt the squares of the
+city, a dead pigeon is as rare to see as a dead donkey on the mainland.
+It is a pious opinion that no Venetian ever kills a pigeon, and
+apparently they never die; but the fact that they do not increase so
+rapidly as to become a nuisance instead of a pleasure, lends some color
+to the suspicion that pigeon pies are not unknown at certain tables
+during the proper season.
+
+
+
+
+TORCELLO, THE MOTHER CITY[56]
+
+BY JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the
+city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level,
+and hoist themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and
+there into shapeless mounds, and interrupted by narrow creeks of sea.
+One of the feeblest of these inlets, after winding for some time among
+buried fragments of masonry, and knots of sunburned weeds whitened with
+webs of fucas, stays itself in an utterly stagnant pool beside a plot of
+greener grass covered with ground-ivy and violets. On this mound is
+built a rude brick campanile, of the commonest Lombardic type, which if
+we ascend toward evening (and there are none to hinder us, the door of
+its ruinous staircase swinging idly on its hinges), we may command from
+it one of the most notable scenes in this wide world of ours.
+
+Far as the eye can reach, a waste of wild sea moor, of a lurid
+ashen-gray; not like our northern moors with their jet-black pools and
+purple heath, but lifeless, the color of sackcloth, with the corrupted
+sea-water soaking through the roots of its acrid weeds, and gleaming
+hither and thither through its snaky channels. No gathering of fantastic
+mists, nor coursing of clouds across it; but melancholy clearness of
+space in the warm sunset, oppressive, reaching to the horizon of its
+level gloom. To the very horizon, on the northeast; but to the north and
+west, there is a blue line of higher land along the border of it, and
+above this, but farther back, a misty band of mountains, touched with
+snow.
+
+To the east, the paleness and roar of the Adriatic, louder at momentary
+intervals as the surf breaks on the bar of sand; to the south, the
+widening branches of the calm lagoon, alternately purple and pale green,
+as they reflect the evening clouds or twilight sky; and almost beneath
+our feet, on the same field which sustains the tower we gaze from, a
+group of four buildings, two of them little larger than cottages (tho
+built of stone, and one adorned by a quaint belfry), the third an
+octagonal chapel, of which we can see but little more than the flat red
+roof with its rayed tiling, the fourth, a considerable church with nave
+and aisles, but of which, in like manner, we can see little but the long
+central ridge and lateral slopes of roof, which the sunlight separates
+in one glowing mass from the green field beneath and gray moor beyond.
+There are no living creatures near the buildings, nor any vestige of
+village or city round about them. They lie like a little company of
+ships becalmed on a faraway sea.
+
+Then look farther to the south. Beyond the widening branches of the
+lagoon, and rising out of the bright lake into which they gather, there
+are a multitude of towers, dark, and scattered among square-set shapes
+of clustered palaces, a long irregular line fretting the southern sky.
+Mother and daughter, you behold them both in their widowhood--Torcello
+and Venice. Thirteen hundred years ago, the gray moorland looked as it
+does this day, and the purple mountains stood as radiantly in the deep
+distances of evening; but on the line of the horizon, there were strange
+fires mixed with the light of sunset, and the lament of many human
+voices mixed with the fretting of the waves on their ridges of sand. The
+flames rose from the ruins of Altinum; the lament from the multitude of
+its people, seeking, like Israel of old, a refuge from the sword in the
+paths of the sea.
+
+The cattle are feeding and resting upon the site of the city that they
+left; the mower's scythe swept this day at dawn over the chief street of
+the city that they built, and the swathes of soft grass are now sending
+up their scent into the night air, the only incense that fills the
+temple of their ancient worship.
+
+
+
+
+CADORE, TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE[57]
+
+BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS
+
+
+We reached Pieve di Cadore about half-past eleven A.M., delays
+included. The quaint old piazza with its gloomy arcades, its antique
+houses with Venetian windows, its cafés, its fountain, and its loungers,
+is just like the piazzas of Serravalle, Longarone, and other provincial
+towns of the same epoch. With its picturesque Prefettura and
+belfry-tower one is already familiar in the pages of Gilbert's "Cadore."
+There, too, is the fine old double flight of steps leading up to the
+principal entrance on the first floor, as in the town-hall at
+Heilbronn--a feature by no means Italian; and there, about midway up the
+shaft of the campanile, is the great, gaudy, well-remembered fresco,
+better meant than painted, wherein Titian, some twelve feet in height,
+robed and bearded, stands out against an ultramarine background, looking
+very like the portrait of a caravan giant at a fair....
+
+Turning aside from the glowing piazza and following the downward slope
+of a hill to the left of the Prefettura, we come, at the distance of
+only a few yards, upon another open space, grassy and solitary,
+surrounded on three sides by rambling, dilapidated-looking houses, and
+opening on the fourth to a vista of woods and mountains. In this little
+piazza stands a massive stone fountain, time-worn and water-worn,
+surmounted by a statue of Saint Tiziano in the robes and square cap of
+an ecclesiastic. The water trickling through two metal pipes in the
+pedestal beneath Saint Tiziano's feet, makes a pleasant murmuring in the
+old stone basin; while, half hidden behind this fountain, and leaning up
+as if for shelter against a larger house adjoining, stands-a small
+whitewashed cottage upon the side-wall of which an incised tablet bears
+the following record:
+
+    "Nel MCCCCLXXVII Fra Queste Vmili Mura Tiziano Vecellio Vene a
+    celebre Vita Donde vsciva gia presso a cento Anni In Venezia Addi
+    XXVII Agosto MDLXXVI."
+
+A poor, mean-looking, low-roofed dwelling, disfigured by external
+chimney-shafts and a built-out oven; lit with tiny, blinking, medieval
+windows; altogether unlovely; altogether unnoticeable; but--the
+birthplace of Titian!
+
+It looked different, no doubt, when he was a boy and played outside here
+on the grass. It had probably a high, steep roof, like the homesteads in
+his own landscape drawings; but the present old brown tiles have been
+over it long enough to get mottled with yellow lichens. One would like
+to know if the fountain and the statue were there in his time; and if
+the water trickled ever to the same low tune; and if the women came
+there to wash their linen and fill their brazen water jars, as they do
+now. This lovely green hill, at all events, sheltered the home from the
+east winds; and Monte Duranno lifted his strange crest yonder against
+the southern horizon; and the woods dipt down to the valley, then as
+now, where the bridle-path slopes away to join the road to Venice.
+
+We went up to the house, and knocked. The door was opened by a sickly,
+hunchbacked lad who begged us to walk in, and who seemed to be quite
+alone there. The house was very dark, and looked much older inside than
+from without. A long, low, gloomy upstairs chamber with a huge penthouse
+fire-place jutting into the room, was evidently as old as the days of
+Titian's grandfather, to whom the house originally belonged; while a
+very small and very dark adjoining closet, with a porthole of window
+sunk in a slope of massive wall, was pointed out as the room in which
+the great painter was born.
+
+"But how do you know that he was born here?" I asked. The hunchback
+lifted his wasted hand with a deprecating gesture. "They have always
+said so, Signora," he replied. "They have said so for more than four
+hundred years."
+
+"They?" I repeated, doubtfully. "The Vecelli, Signora." "I had
+understood that the Vecellio family was extinct." "Scusate, Signora,"
+said the hunchback. "The last direct descendant of 'Il Tiziano' died not
+long ago--a few years before I was born; and the collateral Vecelli are
+citizens of Cadore to this day. If the Signora will be pleased to look
+for it, she will see the name of Vecellio over a shop on the right-hand
+side, as she returns to the Piazza."
+
+I did look for it; and there, sure enough, over a small shop-window I
+found it. It gave one an odd sort of shock, as if time were for the
+moment annihilated; and I remember how, with something of the same
+feeling, I once saw the name of Rubens over a shop-front in the
+market-place at Cologne.
+
+I left the house less incredulous than I entered it. Of the identity of
+the building there has never been any kind of doubt; and I am inclined
+to accept with the house the identity of the room. Titian, it should be
+remembered, lived long enough to become, long before he died, the glory
+of his family. He became rich; he became noble; his fame filled Italy.
+Hence the room in which he was born may well have acquired, half a
+century before his death--perhaps even during the lifetime of his
+mother--that sort of sacredness which is generally of post-mortem
+growth. The legend, handed down from Vecellio to Vecellio in
+uninterrupted succession, lays claim, therefore, to a more reliable
+pedigree than most traditions of a similar character.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] From "Travels in Italy." Translated by A. J. W. Morrison and Charles
+Nisbet. Goethe's visit to Italy was made in 1786. He was then only
+thirty-seven years of age. The visit had important influence on his
+subsequent career. The greatest of his works were still to be written.
+It was not until after 1794 that Goethe devoted himself entirely to
+literature.
+
+[2] Goethe at this time had published several short plays besides "The
+Sorrows of Werthé," "Wilhelm Meister," and a few other works less
+important.
+
+[3] By that name Italians know the Pantheon.
+
+[4] From "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the years 1701, 1702,
+1703." At the time of his departure for Italy, Addison was twenty-nine
+years old. None of his important works had then been written.
+
+[5] Addison's belief has been amply justified by the extensive
+excavations made since his time.
+
+[6] From "Ancient Rome, In the Light of Recent Discoveries." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1888.
+
+[7] Lanciani here has referred to the Catholic Church, in which
+historians have seen, in the spiritual sense, a survival of imperial
+Rome.
+
+[8] From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin CO.
+
+[9] From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.
+
+[10] Mr. Hillard was writing in 1853.
+
+[11] From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[12] This mausoleum, built by Augustus on the bank of the Tiber for
+himself and his family, had long been used as the imperial sepulcher.
+
+[13] From "Rome." By arrangement with, and by permission of, the
+publishers, John C. Winston Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[14] From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1868.
+Translated by John Durand.
+
+[15] From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[16] From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[17] From "Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe." Mrs. Lippincott's
+visit was made in 1852.
+
+[18] From "Recollections of the Last Four Popes, and of Rome in their
+Times." Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-1865), an English
+cardinal, was famous during his lifetime for intellectual vigor and
+scholarly attainments. In presenting an intimate view of a papal
+election it was his unusual privilege to describe not only "the things
+he saw," but also, as his later destiny revealed, to tell of the things
+of which he formed a part. The election pictured is that of Leo XII.
+
+[19] From "Six Novices on the Grand Tour, by One of Them." Privately
+printed. (1911.) By permission of the author.
+
+[20] From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.
+
+[21] From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1868.
+Translated by John Durand.
+
+[22] From "Pictures from Italy."
+
+[23] From "The Marble Faun." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.
+
+[24] From "Pencillings by the Way."
+
+[25] From "Pictures from Italy."
+
+[26] From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special arrangement with,
+and by permission of, the publishers of Hawthorne's works, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1899.
+
+[27] Hiram Powers, the American sculptor, who lived long in Florence,
+and is best known for his "Greek Slave."
+
+[28] From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.
+
+[29] From "Florence."
+
+[30] From Taine's "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement
+with, and by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Translated
+by John Durand. Copyright, 1869.
+
+[31] Since Taine wrote, the façade has been added.
+
+[32] From "Italian Cities." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1900.
+
+[33] From "The Makers of Florence." Published by the Macmillan Co.
+
+[34] That is, the Baptistery at Florence.
+
+[35] From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C. Winston
+Co. Copyright, 1837.
+
+[36] From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C. Winston
+Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[37] From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C. Winston
+Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[38] Dante was buried at Ravenna. The reader will recall Byron's lines:
+
+"Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar,
+Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore."
+
+[39] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and
+by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869.
+Translated by John Durand.
+
+[40] From "Letters of a Traveller." Bryant's letter is dated in May,
+1834.
+
+[41] The court of the Austrian Grand Duke Leopold III. In 1859 Leopold
+was expelled, and Florence, with Tuscany, was annexed to the Sardinian
+kingdom.
+
+[42] From "Venice: Its History, Art, Industries and Modern Life."
+Published by John C. Winston Co.
+
+[43] From "Two Months Abroad." Privately printed. (1878.)
+
+[44] From "Journeys In Italy." By arrangement with, and by permission
+of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.
+
+[45] Marie Taglioni, the ballet dancer, who was born in Stockholm of
+Italian parents in 1804 and married to Count Gilbert de Voisons in
+1847, when she retired from the stage. She died in 1884.
+
+[46] From "The Stones of Venice." St. Mark's is merely a church. It is
+not a cathedral; that is, it is not the "cathedra" of a bishop.
+Originally it was the private chapel of the Doge. Likewise, St. Peter's
+at Rome is a church only--the church of the Pope. The cathedral of the
+Pope (who is the Bishop of Rome), is St. John Lateran.
+
+[47] Venice and territory adjacent to it were long in subjection to
+Austria. Having put an end to the republic in 1797 (the republic had
+then had an unbroken existence for about thirteen hundred years),
+Napoleon, by the treaty of Campo Formio, ceded this territory to
+Austria. In 1805, however, Venetia was added by Napoleon to his Kingdom
+of Italy. In 1814, after the first fall of Napoleon, it was ceded back
+to Austria and in 1815 became part of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom.
+Under the leadership of Manin, in 1848, a republic was proclaimed in
+Venice, but Austria laid siege to the city and captured it. It was not
+until 1866, at the conclusion of the war against Austria, that Venice
+was annexed to the new Italian kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.
+
+[48] From "In and Around Venice." Published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
+
+[49] From "In and Around Venice." Published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
+After its fall, the Venetians set about raising funds for rebuilding
+the Campanile. In the course of several years, the new structure was
+finished and the event duly commemorated.
+
+[50] From "The Stones of Venice."
+
+[51] Several men of this name are famous in Venetian annals, as
+soldiers, statesmen and doges. The one here referred to is Tommaso, who
+defeated the Turks, added Dalmatia to the Venetian domain, greatly
+encouraged commerce and founded the Venetian library.
+
+[52] From "Life on the Lagoons." Published by the Macmillan Co.
+
+[53] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and
+by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869.
+
+[54] The state ship of Venice.
+
+[55] From "Life on the Lagoons." Published by the Macmillan Co.
+
+[56] From "The Stones of Venice."
+
+[57] From "Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: A Midsummer Ramble
+in the Dolomites." Published by E. P. Dutton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors,
+Volume 7, by Various
+
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, by Various Authors
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7
+       Italy, Sicily, and Greece (Part One)
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Francis W. Halsey
+
+Release Date: July 16, 2006 [EBook #18845]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/imgcover.jpg" alt="cover" title="cover" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="TITUS" id="TITUS"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img001.jpg"
+             alt="THE COLISEUM AND ARCH OF TITUS" /><br />
+         <b>THE COLISEUM AND ARCH OF TITUS<br />Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.</b>
+    </div>
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h1>SEEING EUROPE</h1>
+
+<h2>WITH FAMOUS</h2>
+
+<h2>AUTHORS</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img2a.jpg" alt="Title Page Illustration" title="Title Page Illustration" /></div>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/img2b.jpg" alt="Title Page Illustration" title="Title Page Illustration" /></div>
+<h4>SELECTED AND EDITED</h4>
+
+<h4>WITH</h4>
+
+<h4>INTRODUCTIONS, ETC.</h4>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2>FRANCIS W. HALSEY</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>
+<i>Editor of "Great Epochs in American History"<br />
+Associate Editor of "The Worlds Famous Orations"<br />
+and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc.</i>
+</p>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img2c.jpg" alt="Title Page Illustration" title="Title Page Illustration" /></div>
+<div class="figright"><img src="images/img2d.jpg" alt="Title Page Illustration" title="Title Page Illustration" /></div>
+<h4>IN TEN</h4>
+
+<h4>VOLUMES</h4>
+
+<h4>ILLUSTRATED</h4>
+
+
+<h3>Vol. VII</h3>
+
+<h3>ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE</h3>
+
+<h3>Part One</h3>
+
+
+<p class='center'>FUNK &amp; WAGNALLS COMPANY<br />
+NEW YORK AND LONDON<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1914, <span class="smcap">by</span><br />
+[<i>Printed in the United States of America</i>]</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES VII AND VIII</h2>
+
+<h3><b>Italy, Sicily and Greece</b></h3>
+
+
+<p>Tourists in great numbers now go to Italy by steamers that have Naples
+and Genoa for ports. By the fast Channel steamers, however, touching at
+Cherbourg and Havre, one may make the trip in less time (rail journey
+included). In going to Rome, four days could thus be saved; but the
+expense will be greater&mdash;perhaps forty per cent.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">... "and now, fair Italy!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou art the garden of the world, the home</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More rich than other climes' fertility;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With an immaculate charm which can not be defaced."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>At least four civilizations, and probably five, have dominated Italy;
+together they cover a period of more than 3,000 years&mdash;Pelasgian,
+Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Italian. Of these the Pelasgian is, in the main,
+legendary. Next came the Etruscan.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> How old that civilization is no man
+knows, but its beginnings date from at least 1000 B.C.&mdash;that is, earlier
+than Homer's writings, and earlier by nearly three centuries than the
+wall built by Romulus around Rome. The Etruscan state was a federation
+of twelve cities, embracing a large part of central and northern
+Italy&mdash;from near Naples as far north perhaps as Milan and the great
+Lombard plain. Etruscans thus dominated the largest, and certainly the
+fairest, parts of Italy. Before Rome was founded, the Etruscan cities
+were populous and opulent commonwealths. Together they formed one of the
+great naval powers of the Mediterranean. Of their civilization, we have
+abundant knowledge from architectural remains, and, from thousands of
+inscriptions still extant. Cortona was one of their oldest towns. "Ere
+Troy itself arose, Cortona was."</p>
+
+<p>After the Etruscans, came Greeks, who made flourishing settlements in
+southern Italy, the chief of which was Paestum, founded not later than
+600 B.C. Stupendous ruins survive at Paestum; few more interesting ones
+have come down to us from the world of ancient Hellas. The oldest dates
+from about 570 B.C. Here was once the most fertile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> and beautiful part
+of Italy, celebrated for its flowers so that Virgil praised them. It is
+now a lonely and forsaken land, forbidding and malarious. Once thickly
+populated, it has become scarcely more than a haunt of buffalos and
+peasants, who wander indifferent among these colossal remains of a
+vanished race. These, however, are not the civilizations that do most
+attract tourists to Italy, but the remains found there of ancient Rome.
+Of that empire all modern men are heirs&mdash;heirs of her marvelous
+political structure, of her social and industrial laws.</p>
+
+<p>Last of these five civilizations is the Italian, the beginnings of which
+date from Theodoric the Goth, who in the fifth century set up a kingdom
+independent of Rome; but Gothic rule was of short life, and then came
+the Lombards, who for two hundred years were dominant in northern and
+central parts, or until Charlemagne grasped their tottering kingdom and
+put on their famous Iron Crown. In the south Charlemagne's empire never
+flourished. That part of Italy was for centuries the prey of Saracens,
+Magyars and Scandinavians. From these events emerged modern Italy&mdash;the
+rise of her vigorous republics, Pisa, Genoa, Flor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>ence, Venice; the
+dawn, meridian splendor and decline of her great schools of sculpture,
+painting and architecture, the power and beauty of which have held the
+world in subjection; her literature, to which also the world has become
+a willing captive; her splendid municipal spirit; a Church, whose
+influence has circled the globe, and in which historians, in a spiritual
+sense, have seen a survival of Imperial Rome. But here are tales that
+every schoolboy hears.</p>
+
+<p>Sicily is reached in a night by steamer from Naples to Palermo, or the
+tourist may go by train from Naples to Reggio, and thence by ferry
+across the strait to Messina. Its earliest people were contemporaries of
+the Etruscans. Ph&oelig;nicians also made settlements there, as they did in
+many parts of the Mediterranean, but these were purely commercial
+enterprises. Real civilization in Sicily dates from neither of those
+races, but from Dorian and Ionic Greeks, who came perhaps as early as
+the founding of Rome&mdash;that is, in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The
+great cities of the Sicilian Greeks were Syracuse, Segesta and Girgenti,
+where still survive colossal remains of their genius. In military and
+political senses, the island for 3,000<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> years has been overrun,
+plundered and torn asunder by every race known to Mediterranean waters.
+Beside those already named, are Carthaginians under Hannibal, Vandals
+under Genseric, Goths under Theodoric, Byzantines under Belisarius,
+Saracens from Asia Minor, Normans under Robert Guiscard, German emperors
+of the thirteenth century, French Angevine princes (in whose time came
+the Sicilian Vespers), Spaniards of the house of Aragon, French under
+Napoleon, Austrians of the nineteenth century, and then&mdash;that glorious
+day when Garibaldi transferred it to the victorious Sardinian king.</p>
+
+<p>The tourist who seeks Greece from northern Europe may go from Trieste by
+steamer along the Dalmatian coast (in itself a trip of fine surprizes),
+to Cattaro and Corfu, transferring to another steamer for the Pir&aelig;us,
+the port of Athens; or from Italy by steamer direct from Brindisi, the
+ancient Brundusium, whence sailed all Roman expeditions to the East, and
+where in retirement once dwelt Cicero. No writer has known where to date
+the beginnings of civilization in Greece, but with Mycen&aelig;, Tiryns, and
+the Minoan palace of Crete laid bare, antiquarians have pointed the way
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> dates far older than anything before recorded. The palace of Minos
+is ancient enough to make the Homeric age seem modern. With the Dorian
+invasion of Greece about 1000 B.C., begins that Greek civilization of
+which we have so much authentic knowledge. Dorian influence was confined
+largely to Sparta, but it spread to many Greek colonies in the central
+Mediterranean and in the Levant. It became a powerful influence, alike
+in art, in domestic life, and in political supremacy. One of its noblest
+achievements was its help in keeping out the Persian, and another in
+supplanting in the Mediterranean the commercial rule of Ph&oelig;nicians.
+Attica and Sparta became world-famous cities, with stupendous
+achievements in every domain of human art and human efficiency. The
+colossal debt all Europe and all America owe them, is known to everyone
+who has ever been to school.</p>
+
+<p class='author'>
+F. W. H.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII</h2>
+
+<h3>Italy, Sicily, and Greece&mdash;Part One</h3>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="Introduction">
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><a href='#INTRODUCTION'><span class="smcap">Introduction To Vols. VII and VIII</span>&mdash;By the Editor.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th colspan="2">I&mdash;ROME</th></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">Page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">First Days in the Eternal City</span>&mdash;By Johann</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wolfgang von Goethe</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Antiquities</span>&mdash;By Joseph Addison</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_10'><b>10</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Palace of the C&aelig;sars</span>&mdash;By Rodolfo</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lanciani</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_17'><b>17</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Coliseum</span>&mdash;By George S. Hillard</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Pantheon</span>&mdash;By George S. Hillard</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hadrian's Tomb</span>&mdash;By Rodolfo Lanciani</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_32'><b>32</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Trajan's Forum</span>&mdash;By Francis Wey</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Baths of Caracalla</span>&mdash;By Hippolyte</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Aqueduct Builders</span>&mdash;By Rodolfo Lanciani</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Quarries and Bricks of the Ancient</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>City&mdash;By Rodolfo Lanciani</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_45'><b>45</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palm Sunday in St. Peter</span>&mdash;By Grace</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott)</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_53'><b>53</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Election of a Pope</span>&mdash;By Cardinal Wiseman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Audience With Pius X</span>.&mdash;By Mary Emogene</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hazeltine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ascent of the Dome of St. Peter's</span>&mdash;By</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>George S. Hillard</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_64'><b>64</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Santa Maria Maggiore</span>&mdash;By Hippolyte</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Catacombs and Crypts</span>&mdash;By Charles Dickens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Cemetery Of the Capuchins</span>&mdash;By Nathaniel</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hawthorne</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Burial Place of Keats and Shelley</span>&mdash;By</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nathaniel Parker Willis</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Excursions Near Rome</span>&mdash;By Charles Dickens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th colspan="2">II&mdash;FLORENCE</th></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Approach by Carriage Road</span>&mdash;By Nathaniel</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hawthorne</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Palace and the Loggia</span>&mdash;By Theophile</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Gautier</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Origins of the City</span>&mdash;By Grant Allen</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Cathedral</span>&mdash;By Hippolyte Adolphe</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ascent of the Dome of Brunelleschi</span>&mdash;By</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span>Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Arnolfo, Giotto and Brunelleschi</span>&mdash;By</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. Oliphant</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ghiberti's Gates</span>&mdash;By Charles Yriarte</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ponte Vecchio-</span>-By Charles Yriarte</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_119'><b>119</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Santa Croce</span>&mdash;By Charles Yriarte</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Uffizi Gallery</span>&mdash;By Hippolyte Adolphe</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Florence Eighty Years Ago</span>&mdash;By William</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cullen Bryant</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_131'><b>131</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><th colspan="2">III&mdash;VENICE</th></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Approach From the Sea</span>&mdash;By Charles</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Yriarte</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Approach by Train</span>&mdash;By the Editor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Tour of the Grand Canal</span>&mdash;By Theophile</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Gautier</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">St. Mark's Church</span>&mdash;By John Ruskin</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">How the Old Campanile Was Built</span>&mdash;By</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Horatio F. Brown</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_155'><b>155</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">How the Campanile Fell</span>&mdash;By Horatio F.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Brown</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Palace of the Doges</span>&mdash;By John Ruskin</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Lagoons</span>&mdash;By Horatio F. Brown</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_174'><b>174</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Decline Amid Splendor-</span>-By Hippolyte</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Doves of St. Mark's</span>&mdash;By Horatio F.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Brown</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_183'><b>183</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Torcello, the Mother City</span>&mdash;By John Ruskin</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_186'><b>186</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cadore, Titian's Birthplace</span>&mdash;By Amelia B.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Edwards</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><th>VOLUME VII</th></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FRONTISPIECE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#TITUS"><span class="smcap">The Coliseum and the Arch of Titus</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PRECEDING PAGE&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#PANTHEON"><span class="smcap">The Pantheon, Rome</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#ROME"><span class="smcap">Rome: the Tiber, Castle of St. Angelo, And Dome of St. Peter's</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#ROME2"><span class="smcap">Rome: Ruins of the Palace of The C&aelig;sars</span></a></span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#ROME3"><span class="smcap">Rome: the San Sebastian Gate</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#METELLA"><span class="smcap">The Tomb of Metella on the Appian Way</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#TARPIAN_ROCK"><span class="smcap">The Tarpeian Rock in Rome</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#INTERIOR_COLISEUM"><span class="smcap">Interior of the Coliseum</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#COLISEUM"><span class="smcap">The Coliseum, Rome</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#ST_PETERS"><span class="smcap">St. Peter's, Rome</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#ST_PETERS2"><span class="smcap">Rome: Interior of St. Peter's</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#SANTA_MARIA"><span class="smcap">Rome: Interior of Santa Maria Maggiore</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#CATHEDRAL_FLORENCE"><span class="smcap">The Cathedral, Florence</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FOLLOWING PAGE&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE1"><span class="smcap">Florence: Bridge Across the Arno</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE2"><span class="smcap">Florence: the Old Palace</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE3"><span class="smcap">Florence: the Loggia Di Lanzi</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE4"><span class="smcap">Florence: Cloister of Santa Maria Novella</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE5"><span class="smcap">Florence: Cloister of San Marco</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE6"><span class="smcap">Florence: the Pitti Palace</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FLORENCE7"><span class="smcap">Florence: House of Dante</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#FRONT_ST_MARKS"><span class="smcap">Front of St. Mark's, Venice</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#INTERIOR_ST_MARKS"><span class="smcap">Interior of St. Mark's, Venice</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#DUCAL_PALACE"><span class="smcap">The Ducal Palace, Venice</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#PIAZZA"><span class="smcap">Venice: Piazza of St. Mark's, Ducal Palace on the Left</span></a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;" class="smcap"><a href="#VIEW_OF_VENICE">View of Venice From the Campanile</a></span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="PANTHEON" id="PANTHEON"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img15.jpg"
+             alt="THE PANTHEON OF ROME" /><br />
+         <b>THE PANTHEON OF ROME<br />Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="ROME" id="ROME"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img16.jpg"
+             alt="THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO" /><br />
+         <b>THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, AND DOME OF ST. PETER'S<br />Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="ROME2" id="ROME2"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img17.jpg"
+             alt="RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CAESARS" /><br />
+         <b>RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE C&AElig;SARS</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="ROME3" id="ROME3"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img17a.jpg"
+             alt="THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE OF ROME" /><br />
+         <b>THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE OF ROME</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="METELLA" id="METELLA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img18.jpg"
+             alt="THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY" /><br />
+         <b>THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="TARPIAN_ROCK" id="TARPIAN_ROCK"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img18a.jpg"
+             alt="THE TARPEIAN ROCK IN ROME" /><br />
+         <b>THE TARPEIAN ROCK IN ROME<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="INTERIOR_COLISEUM" id="INTERIOR_COLISEUM"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img19.jpg"
+             alt="INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM" /><br />
+         <b>INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="COLISEUM" id="COLISEUM"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img19a.jpg"
+             alt="THE COLISEUM" /><br />
+         <b>THE COLISEUM</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="ST_PETERS" id="ST_PETERS"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img20.jpg"
+             alt="ST. PETER'S, ROME" /><br />
+         <b>ST. PETER'S, ROME<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="ST_PETERS2" id="ST_PETERS2"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img21.jpg"
+             alt="ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S" /><br />
+         <b>ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="SANTA_MARIA" id="SANTA_MARIA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img21a.jpg"
+             alt="INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE" /><br />
+         <b>INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="CATHEDRAL_FLORENCE" id="CATHEDRAL_FLORENCE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img22.jpg"
+             alt="THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE" /><br />
+         <b>THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE</b>
+    </div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<h2>ROME</h2>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h3>FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3>
+
+<h4>BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE</h4>
+
+
+<p>At last I am arrived in this great capital of the world. If fifteen
+years ago I could have seen it in good company, with a well-informed
+guide, I should have thought myself very fortunate. But as it was to be
+that I should thus see it alone, and with my own eyes, it is well that
+this joy has fallen to my lot so late in life.</p>
+
+<p>Over the mountains of the Tyrol I have as good as flown. Verona,
+Vicenza, Padua, and Venice I have carefully looked at; hastily glanced
+at Ferrara, Cento, Bologna, and scarcely seen Florence at all. My
+anxiety to reach Rome was so great, and it so grew with me every moment,
+that to think of stopping anywhere was quite out of the question; even
+in Florence, I only stayed three hours. Now I am here at my ease, and as
+it would seem, shall be tranquilized for my whole life; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> we may
+almost say that a new life begins when a man once sees with his own eyes
+all that before he has but partially heard or read of.</p>
+
+<p>All the dreams of my youth I now behold realized before me; the subjects
+of the first engravings I ever remembered seeing (several views of Rome
+were hung up in an anteroom of my father's house) stand bodily before my
+sight, and all that I had long been acquainted with, through paintings
+or drawings, engravings, or wood-cuts, plaster-casts, and cork models
+are here collectively presented to my eye. Wherever I go I find some old
+acquaintance in this new world; it is all just as I had thought it, and
+yet all is new; and just the same might I remark of my own observations
+and my own ideas. I have not gained any new thoughts, but the older ones
+have become so defined, so vivid, and so coherent, that they may almost
+pass for new ones....</p>
+
+<p>I have now been here seven days, and by degrees have formed in my mind a
+general idea of the city. We go diligently backward and forward. While I
+am thus making myself acquainted with the plan of old and new Rome,
+viewing the ruins and the buildings, visiting this and that villa, the
+grandest and most remarkable objects are slowly and leisurely
+contemplated. I do but keep my eyes open and see, and then go and come
+again, for it is only in Rome one can duly prepare oneself for Rome. It
+must, in truth, be confessed, that it is a sad and melancholy business
+to prick and track out ancient Rome in new Rome; however, it must be
+done, and we may hope at least for an incalculable gratification. We
+meet with traces both of majesty and of ruin, which alike surpass all
+con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>ception; what the barbarians spared, the builders of new Rome made
+havoc of....</p>
+
+<p>When one thus beholds an object two thousand years old and more, but so
+manifoldly and thoroughly altered by the changes of time, but, sees
+nevertheless, the same soil, the same mountains, and often indeed the
+same walls and columns, one becomes, as it were, a contemporary of the
+great counsels of Fortune, and thus it becomes difficult for the
+observer to trace from the beginning Rome following Rome, and not only
+new Rome succeeding to the old, but also the several epochs of both old
+and new in succession. I endeavor, first of all, to grope my way alone
+through the obscurer parts, for this is the only plan by which one can
+hope fully and completely to perfect by the excellent introductory works
+which have been written from the fifteenth century to the present day.
+The first artists and scholars have occupied their whole lives with
+these objects.</p>
+
+<p>And this vastness has a strangely tranquilizing effect upon you in Rome,
+while you pass from place to place, in order to visit the most
+remarkable objects. In other places one has to search for what is
+important; here one is opprest, and borne down with numberless
+phenomena. Wherever one goes and casts a look around, the eye is at once
+struck with some landscape&mdash;forms of every kind and style; palaces and
+ruins, gardens and statuary, distant views of villas, cottages and
+stables, triumphal arches and columns, often crowding so close together,
+that they might all be sketched on a single sheet of paper. He ought to
+have a hundred hands to write, for what can a single pen do here; and,
+besides, by the evening one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> is quite weary and exhausted with the day's
+seeing and admiring.</p>
+
+<p>My strange, and perhaps whimsical, incognito proves useful to me in many
+ways that I never should have thought of. As every one thinks himself in
+duty bound to ignore who I am, and consequently never ventures to speak
+to me of myself and my works,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> they have no alternative left them but
+to speak of themselves, or of the matters in which they are most
+interested, and in this way I become circumstantially informed of the
+occupations of each, and of everything remarkable that is either taken
+in hand or produced. Hofrath Reiffenstein good-naturedly humors this
+whim of mine; as, however, for special reasons, he could not bear the
+name which I had assumed, he immediately made a Baron of me, and I am
+now called the "Baron gegen Rondanini &uuml;ber" (the Baron who lives
+opposite to the Palace Rondanini). This designation is sufficiently
+precise, especially as the Italians are accustomed to speak of people
+either by their Christian names, or else by some nickname. Enough; I
+have gained my object; and I escape the dreadful annoyance of having to
+give to everybody an account of myself and my works....</p>
+
+<p>In Rome, the Rotunda,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> both by its exterior and interior, has moved me
+to offer a willing homage to its magnificence. In St. Peter's I learned
+to understand how art, no less than na<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>ture, annihilates the artificial
+measures and dimensions of man. And in the same way the Apollo Belvidere
+also has again drawn me out of reality. For as even the most correct
+engravings furnish no adequate idea of these buildings, so the case is
+the same with respect to the marble original of this statue, as compared
+with the plaster models of it, which, however, I formerly used to look
+upon as beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Here I am now living with a calmness and tranquility to which I have for
+a long while been a stranger. My practise to see and take all things as
+they are, my fidelity in letting the eye be my light, my perfect
+renunciation of all pretension, have again come to my aid, and make me
+calmly, but most intensely, happy. Every day has its fresh remarkable
+object&mdash;every day its new grand unequaled paintings, and a whole which a
+man may long think of, and dream of, but which with all his power of
+imagination he can never reach.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday I was at the Pyramid of Cestius, and in the evening on the
+Palatine, on the top of which are the ruins of the palace of the C&aelig;sars,
+which stand there like walls of rock. Of all this, however, no idea can
+be conveyed! In truth, there is nothing little here; altho, indeed,
+occasionally something to find fault with&mdash;something more or less absurd
+in taste, and yet even this partakes of the universal grandeur of all
+around....</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday I visited the nymph Egeria, and then the Hippodrome of
+Caracalla, the ruined tombs along the Via Appia, and the tomb of
+Metella, which is the first to give one a true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> idea of what solid
+masonry really is. These men worked for eternity&mdash;all causes of decay
+were calculated, except the rage of the spoiler, which nothing can
+resist. The remains of the principal aqueduct are highly venerable. How
+beautiful and grand a design, to supply a whole people with water by so
+vast a structure! In the evening we came upon the Coliseum, when it was
+already twilight. When one looks at it, all else seems little; the
+edifice is so vast, that one can not hold the image of it in one's
+soul&mdash;in memory we think it smaller, and then return to it again to find
+it every time greater than before.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the Sistine Chapel, which we found bright and cheerful, and
+with a good light for the pictures. "The Last Judgment" divided our
+admiration with the paintings on the roof by Michael Angelo. I could
+only see and wonder. The mental confidence and boldness of the master,
+and his grandeur of conception, are beyond all expression. After we had
+looked at all of them over and over again, we left this sacred building,
+and went to St. Peter's, which received from the bright heavens the
+loveliest light possible, and every part of it was clearly lit up. As
+men willing to be pleased, we were delighted with its vastness and
+splendor, and did not allow an over-nice or hypercritical taste to mar
+our pleasure. We supprest every harsher judgment; we enjoyed the
+enjoyable.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly we ascended the roof of the church, where one finds in little the
+plan, of a well-built city. Houses and magazines, springs (in appearance
+at least), churches, and a great tem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>ple all in the air, and beautiful
+walks between. We mounted the dome, and saw glistening before us the
+regions of the Apennines, Soracte, and toward Tivoli the volcanic hills.
+Frascati, Castelgandolfo, and the plains, and beyond all the sea. Close
+at our feet lay the whole city of Rome in its length and breadth, with
+its mountain palaces, domes, etc. Not a breath of air was moving, and in
+the upper dome it was (as they say) like being in a hot-house. When we
+had looked enough at these things, we went down, and they opened for us
+the doors in the cornices of the dome, the tympanum, and the nave. There
+is a passage all round, and from above you can take a view of the whole
+church, and of its several parts. As we stood on the cornices of the
+tympanum, we saw beneath us the pope passing to his mid-day devotions.
+Nothing, therefore, was wanting to make our view of St. Peter's perfect.
+We at last descended to the piazza, and took in a neighboring hotel a
+cheerful but frugal meal, and then set off for St. Cecilia's.</p>
+
+<p>It would take many words to describe the decorations of this church,
+which was crammed full of people; not a stone of the edifice was to be
+seen. The pillars were covered with red velvet wound round with gold
+lace; the capitals were overlaid with embroidered velvet, so as to
+retain somewhat of the appearance of capitals, and all the cornices and
+pillars were in like manner covered with hangings. All the entablatures
+of the walls were also covered with life-like paintings, so that the
+whole church seemed to be laid out in mosaic. Around the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> church, and on
+the high altar more than two hundred wax tapers were burning. It looked
+like a wall of lights, and the whole nave was perfectly lit up. The
+aisles and side altars were equally adorned and illuminated. Right
+opposite the high altar, and under the organ, two scaffolds were
+erected, which also were covered with velvet, on one of which were
+placed the singers, and on the other the instruments, which kept up one
+unbroken strain of music....</p>
+
+<p>And yet these glorious objects are even still like new acquaintances to
+me. One has not yet lived with them, nor got familiar with their
+peculiarities. Some of them attract us with irresistible power, so that
+for a time one feels indifferent, if not unjust, toward all others.
+Thus, for instance, the Pantheon, the Apollo Belvedere, some colossal
+heads, and very recently the Sistine Chapel, have by turns so won my
+whole heart, that I scarcely saw any thing besides them. But, in truth,
+can man, little as man always is, and accustomed to littleness, ever
+make himself equal to all that here surrounds him of the noble, the
+vast, and the refined? Even tho he should in any degree adapt himself to
+it, then how vast is the multitude of objects that immediately press
+upon him from all sides, and meet him at every turn, of which each
+demands for itself the tribute of his whole attention. How is one to get
+out of the difficulty? No other way assuredly than by patiently allowing
+it to work, becoming industrious, and attending the while to all that
+others have accomplished for our benefit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Of the beauty of a walk through Rome by moonlight it is impossible to
+form a conception, without having witnessed it. All single objects are
+swallowed up by the great masses of light and shade, and nothing but
+grand and general outlines present themselves to the eye. For three
+several days we have enjoyed to the full the brightest and most glorious
+of nights. Peculiarly beautiful at such a time is the Coliseum. At night
+it is always closed; a hermit dwells in a little shrine within its
+range, and beggars of all kinds nestle beneath its crumbling arches; the
+latter had lit a fire on the arena, and a gentle wind bore down the
+smoke to the ground, so that the lower portion of the ruins was quite
+hid by it, while above the vast walls stood out in deeper darkness
+before the eye. As we stopt at the gate to contemplate the scene through
+the iron gratings, the moon shone brightly in the heavens above.
+Presently the smoke found its way up the sides, and through every chink
+and opening, while the moon lit it up like a cloud. The sight was
+exceedingly glorious. In such a light one ought also to see the
+Pantheon, the Capitol, the Portico of St. Peter's, and the other grand
+streets and squares&mdash;and thus sun and moon, like the human mind, have
+quite a different work to do here from elsewhere, where the vastest and
+yet the most elegant of masses present themselves to their rays.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY JOSEPH ADDISON</h4>
+
+
+<p>There are in Rome two sets of antiquities, the Christian, and the
+heathen. The former, tho of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable
+and legend, that one receives but little satisfaction from searching
+into them. The other give a great deal of pleasure to such as have met
+with them before in ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome can scarce
+see an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet or
+historian. Among the remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the
+commonwealth shows itself chiefly in works that were either necessary or
+convenient, such as temples, highways, aqueducts, walls, and bridges of
+the city. On the contrary, the magnificence of Rome under the emperors
+is seen principally in such works as were rather for ostentation or
+luxury, than any real usefulness or necessity, as in baths,
+amphitheaters, circuses, obelisks, triumphal pillars, arches, and
+mausoleums; for what they added to the aqueducts was rather to supply
+their baths and naumachias, and to embellish the city with fountains,
+than out of any real necessity there was for them....</p>
+
+<p>No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me so much as the ancient
+statues, of which there is still an incredible variety. The work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>manship
+is often the most exquisite of anything in its kind. A man would wonder
+how it were possible for so much life to enter into marble, as may be
+discovered in some of the best of them; and even in the meanest, one has
+the satisfaction of seeing the faces, postures, airs, and dress of those
+that have lived so many ages before us. There is a strange resemblance
+between the figures of the several heathen deities, and the descriptions
+that the Latin poets have given us of them; but as the first may be
+looked upon as the ancienter of the two, I question not but the Roman
+poets were the copiers of the Greek statuaries. Tho on other occasions
+we often find the statuaries took their subjects from the poets. The
+Laoc&ouml;on is too known an instance among many others that are to be met
+with at Rome.</p>
+
+<p>I could not forbear taking particular notice of the several musical
+instruments that are to be seen in the hands of the Apollos, muses,
+fauns, satyrs, bacchanals, and shepherds, which might certainly give a
+great light to the dispute for preference between the ancient and modern
+music. It would, perhaps, be no impertinent design to take off all their
+models in wood, which might not only give us some notion of the ancient
+music, but help us to pleasanter instruments than are now in use. By the
+appearance they make in marble, there is not one string-instrument that
+seems comparable to our violins, for they are all played on either by
+the bare fingers, or the plectrum, so that they were incapable of adding
+any length to their notes, or of varying them by those insensible
+swell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>ings, and wearings away of sound upon the same string, which give
+so wonderful a sweetness to our modern music. Besides that, the
+string-instruments must have had very low and feeble voices, as may be
+guessed from the small proportion of wood about them, which could not
+contain air enough to render the strokes, in any considerable measure,
+full and sonorous. There is a great deal of difference in the make, not
+only of the several kinds of instruments, but even among those of the
+same name. The syringa, for example, has sometimes four, and sometimes
+more pipes, as high as the twelve. The same variety of strings may be
+observed on their harps, and of stops on their tibi&aelig;, which shows the
+little foundation that such writers have gone upon, who, from a verse
+perhaps in Virgil's Eclogues, or a short passage in a classic author,
+have been so very nice in determining the precise shape of the ancient
+musical instruments, with the exact number of their pipes, strings, and
+stops....</p>
+
+<p>Tho the statues that have been found among the ruins of old Rome are
+already very numerous, there is no question but posterity will have the
+pleasure of seeing many noble pieces of sculpture which are still
+undiscovered; for, doubtless, there are greater treasures of this nature
+under ground, than what are yet brought to light.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> They have often dug
+into lands that are described in old authors, as the places where such
+particular statues or obelisks stood, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> have seldom failed of success
+in their pursuits. There are still many such promising spots of ground
+that have never been searched into. A great part of the Palatine
+mountain, for example, lies untouched, which was formerly the seat of
+the imperial palace, and may be presumed to abound with more treasures
+of this nature than any other part of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>But whether it be that the richest of these discoveries fall into the
+Pope's hands, or for some other reason, it is said that the Prince
+Farnese, who is the present owner of this seat, will keep his own family
+in the chair. There are undertakers in Rome who often purchase the
+digging of fields, gardens, or vineyards, where they find any likelihood
+of succeeding, and some have been known to arrive at great estates by
+it. They pay according to the dimensions of the surface they are to
+break up; and after having made essays into it, as they do for coal in
+England, they rake into the most promising parts of it, tho they often
+find, to their disappointment, that others have been beforehand with
+them. However, they generally gain enough by the rubbish and bricks,
+which the present architects value much beyond those of a modern make,
+to defray the charges of their search.</p>
+
+<p>I was shown two spaces of ground, where part of Nero's golden house
+stood, for which the owner has been offered an extraordinary sum of
+money. What encouraged the undertakers, are several very ancient trees,
+which grow upon the spot, from whence they conclude that these
+particular tracts of ground must have lain un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>touched for some ages. It
+is pity there is not something like a public register, to preserve the
+memory of such statues as have been found from time to time, and to mark
+the particular places where they have been taken up, which would not
+only prevent many fruitless searches for the future, but might often
+give a considerable light into the quality of the place, or the design
+of the statue.</p>
+
+<p>But the great magazine for all kinds of treasure, is supposed to be the
+bed of the Tiber. We may be sure, when the Romans lay under the
+apprehensions of seeing their city sacked by a barbarous enemy, as they
+have done more than once, that they would take care to bestow such of
+their riches this way as could best bear the water, besides what the
+insolence of a brutish conqueror may be supposed to have contributed,
+who had an ambition to waste and destroy all the beauties of so
+celebrated a city. I need not mention the old common-shore of Rome,
+which ran from all parts of the town with the current and violence of an
+ordinary river, nor the frequent inundations of the Tiber, which may
+have swept away many of the ornaments of its banks, nor the several
+statues that the Romans themselves flung into it, when they would
+revenge themselves on the memory of an ill citizen, a dead tyrant, or a
+discarded favorite.</p>
+
+<p>At Rome they have so general an opinion of the riches of this river,
+that the Jews have formerly proffered the Pope to cleanse it, so they
+might have for their pains what they found in the bosom of it. I have
+seen the valley near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Ponte Molle, which they proposed to fashion into a
+new channel for it, until they had cleared the old for its reception.
+The Pope, however, would not comply with the proposal, as fearing the
+heats might advance too far before they had finished their work, and
+produce a pestilence among his people; tho I do not see why such a
+design might not be executed now with as little danger as in Augustus's
+time, were there as many hands employed upon it. The city of Rome would
+receive a great advantage from the undertaking, as it would raise the
+banks and deepen the bed of the Tiber, and by consequence free them from
+those frequent inundations to which they are so subject at present; for
+the channel of the river is observed to be narrower within the walls
+than either below or above them.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the statues, there is nothing in Rome more surprizing than that
+amazing variety of ancient pillars of so many kinds of marble. As most
+of the old statues may be well supposed to have been cheaper to their
+first owners than they are to a modern purchaser, several of the pillars
+are certainly rated at a much lower price at present than they were of
+old. For not to mention what a huge column of granite, serpentine, or
+porphyry must have cost in the quarry, or in its carriage from Egypt to
+Rome, we may only consider the great difficulty of hewing it into any
+form, and of giving it the due turn, proportion, and polish. The most
+valuable pillars about Rome, for the marble of which they are made, are
+the four columns of oriental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> jasper in St. Paulina's chapel at St.
+Maria Maggiore; two of oriental granite in St. Pudenziana; one of
+transparent oriental jasper in the Vatican library; four of Nero-Bianco,
+in St. Cecilia Transtevere; two of Brocatello, and two of oriental agate
+in Don Livio's palace; two of Giallo Antico in St. John Lateran, and two
+of Verdi Antique in the Villa Pamphilia. These are all entire and solid
+pillars, and made of such kinds of marble as are nowhere to be found but
+among antiquities, whether it be that the veins of it are undiscovered,
+or that they were quite exhausted upon the ancient buildings. Among
+these old pillars, I can not forbear reckoning a great part of an
+alabaster column, which was found in the ruins of Livia's portico. It is
+of the color of fire, and may be seen over the high altar of St. Maria
+in Campitello; for they have cut it into two pieces, and fixt it in the
+shape of a cross in a hole of the wall that was made on purpose to
+receive it; so that the light passing through it from without, makes it
+look, to those who are in the church, like a huge transparent cross of
+amber.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE PALACE OF THE C&AElig;SARS<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY RODOLFO LANCIANI</h4>
+
+
+<p>The Palatine hill became the residence of the Roman emperors, and the
+center of the Roman Empire, not on account of its historical and
+traditional associations with the foundation and first growth of the
+city, nor because of its central and commanding position, but by a mere
+accident. At daybreak on September 21st, of the year 63 B.C., Augustus
+was born in this region, in a modest house, opening on the lane called
+"ad capita bubula," which led from the valley, where now the Coliseum
+stands, up the slopes of the hill toward the modern church and convent
+of St. Bonaventura.</p>
+
+<p>This man, sent by God to change the condition of mankind and the state
+of the world, this founder of an empire which is still practically in
+existence,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> never deserted the Palatine hill all through his eventful
+career. From the lane "ad capita bubula" he moved to the house of
+Calvus, the orator, at the northeast corner of the hill overlooking the
+forum; and in process of time, having become absolute master of the
+Roman Commonwealth, he settled finally on the top of the hill, having
+purchased for his residence the house of Hortensius, a simple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> and
+modest house, indeed, with columns of the commonest kind of stone,
+pavements of rubble-work, and simple whitewashed walls.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this selection of a site was made because the Palatine had long
+before been the Faubourg St. Honor&eacute;, the Belgravia of ancient Rome, is
+difficult to determine. We know that the house of Hortensius, chosen by
+Augustus, was surrounded by those of Clodius, Scaurus, Crassus, Caecina,
+Sisenna, Flaccus, Catiline, and other members of the aristocracy. I am
+persuaded, however, that the secret of the selection is to be found in
+the simplicity, I will even say in the poverty, of the dwelling; in
+fact, such extreme modesty is worthy of the good sense and the spirit of
+moderation shown by Augustus throughout his career. He could very well
+sacrifice appearances to the reality of an unbounded power. It is just,
+at any rate, to recognize that even in his remotest resorts for
+temporary rest and retirement from the cares of government, he led the
+same kind of plain, modest life, spending all his leisure hours in
+arranging his collections of natural history, more especially the
+palaeo-ethnological or prehistoric, for which the ossiferous caverns of
+the Island of Capri supplied him with abundant materials.</p>
+
+<p>It was only after the victory of Actium that, finding himself master of
+the world, he thought it expedient to give up, in a certain measure, his
+former habits, and live in better style. Having bought through his
+agents some of the aristocratic palaces adjoining the old house of
+Hortensius, among them the historical palace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> of Catiline, he built a
+new and very handsome residence, but declared at the same time that he
+considered it as public property, not as his own. The solemn dedication
+of the palace took place on January 14th, of the year 26 before Christ.
+Here he lived, sleeping always in the same small cubiculum, for
+twenty-eight years; that is to say, until the third year after Christ,
+when the palace was almost destroyed by fire.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the news of the disaster spread throughout the empire, an
+almost incredible amount of money was subscribed at once, by all orders
+of citizens, to provide him with a new residence; and altho, with his
+usual moderation, he would consent to accept only one denarius from each
+individual subscribed, it is easy to imagine how many millions he must
+have realized in spite of his modesty. A new, magnificent palace rose
+from the ruins of the old one, but it does not appear that the plan and
+arrangement were changed; otherwise Augustus could not have continued to
+sleep in the same room during the last ten years of his life, as we are
+told positively that he did.</p>
+
+<p>The work of Augustus was continued by his successor and kinsman,
+Tiberius, who built a new wing near the northwest corner of the hill,
+overlooking the Velabrum. Caligula filled with new structures the whole
+space between the "domus Tiberiana" and the Roman forum. Nero, likewise,
+occupied with a new palace the south-east corner of the hill,
+overlooking the valley, where the Coliseum was afterward built. Domitian
+rebuilt the "domus Augustana," injured by fire, adding to its
+accommodations a stadium<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> for gymnastic sports. The same emperor raised
+an altogether new palace, in the space between the house of Augustus, on
+one side, and those of Caligula and Tiberius on the other. Septimius
+Severus and his son restored the whole group of imperial buildings,
+adding a new wing at the southwest corner, known under the name of
+Septizonium. The latest additions, of no special importance, took place
+under Julia Mamaea and Heliogabalus.</p>
+
+<p>Every emperor, to a certain extent, enlarged, altered, destroyed, and
+reconstructed the work of his predecessors; cutting new openings,
+walling up old ones, subdividing large rooms into smaller apartments,
+and changing their destination. One section alone of the imperial
+Palatine buildings remained unaltered, and kept the former simplicity of
+its plans down to the fall of the Empire&mdash;the section built by Augustus
+across the center of the hill, which comprised the main entrance, the
+portico surrounding the temple of Apollo, the temple itself, the Greek
+and Latin libraries, the shrine of Vesta, and the imperial residence.</p>
+
+<p>The architectural group raised by Augustus on the Palatine, formed, as
+it were, the vestibule to his own imperial residence. We know with
+absolute certainty that it contained at least one hundred and twenty
+columns of the rarest kinds of marbles and breccias, fifty-two of which
+were of Numidian marble, with capitals of gilt bronze; a group of
+Lysias, comprising one chariot, four horses and two drivers, all cut in
+a single block of marble; the Hercules of Lysippus; the Apollo of
+Scopas; the Latona of Cephisodotos, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> Diana of Timotheos; the
+bas-reliefs of the pediment by Bupalos and Anthermos; the quadriga of
+the sun in gilt bronze; exquisite ivory carvings; a bronze colossus
+fifty feet high; hundreds of medallions in gold, silver, and bronze;
+gold and silver plate; a collection of gems and cameos; and, lastly,
+candelabras which had been the property of Alexander the Great, and the
+admiration of the East.</p>
+
+<p>Has the world ever seen a collection of greater artistic and material
+value exhibited in a single building? And we must recollect that the
+group built by Augustus comprises only a very modest section of the
+Palatine; that to his palace we must join the palaces of Tiberius,
+Caligula, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Septimius Serverus, Julia Mamaea,
+and Heliogabalus; that each one of these imperial residences equalled
+the residence of Augustus, if not in pure taste, certainly in wealth, in
+luxury, in magnificence, in the number and value of works of art
+collected and stolen from Greece and the East, from Egypt and Persia. By
+multiplying eight or ten times the list I have given above, the reader
+will get an approximate idea of the "home" of the Roman emperors in its
+full pride and glory. I have deliberately excluded from my description
+the residence or private house of Augustus, because he himself had
+deliberately excluded from it any trace of that grandeur he had so
+lavishly bestowed on the buildings which constituted the approach to
+it....</p>
+
+<p>During the rule of Claudius, the successor of Caligula, little or
+nothing was done toward the enlargement or the embellishment of the
+palace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> of the C&aelig;sars. Nero, however, the successor of Claudius,
+conceived the gigantic plan of renewing and of rebuilding from the very
+foundations, not only the imperial residence, but the whole metropolis.
+In the rebuilding of the city the emperor secured for himself the lion's
+share; and his Golden House, of which we possess such beautiful remains,
+occupied the whole extent from the Palatine to the Quirinal, where now
+the central railway station has been erected. Its area amounted to
+nearly a square mile, and this enormous district was appropriated, or
+rather usurped, by the emperor, right in the center of a city numbering
+about two million inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Of the wonders of the Golden House it is enough to say that there were
+comprised within the precincts of the enchanting residence waterfalls
+supplied by an aqueduct fifty miles long, lakes and rivers shaded by
+dense masses of foliage, with harbors and docks for the imperial
+galleys; a vestibule containing a bronze colossus one hundred and twenty
+feet high; porticos three thousand feet long; farms and vineyards,
+pasture grounds and woods teeming with the rarest and costliest kind of
+game, zoological and botanical gardens; sulfur baths supplied from
+springs twelve miles distant; sea baths supplied from the waters of the
+Mediterranean, sixteen miles distant at the nearest point; thousands of
+columns crowned with capitals of Corinthian gilt metal; thousands of
+statues stolen from Greece and Asia Minor; walls encrusted with gems and
+mother-of-pearl; banqueting-halls with ivory ceilings, from which rare
+flowers and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> precious perfumes could fall gently on the recumbent
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>More marvelous still was the ceiling of the state dining-room. It was
+spherical in shape, and cut in ivory, to represent the constellated
+skies, and kept in constant motion by machinery in imitation of the
+movements of the stars and planets. All these details sound like
+fairy-tales, like the dream of a fertile imagination; still they are
+described minutely by contemporary and serious writers, by Suetonius, by
+Martial and by Tacitus. Suetonius adds that the day Nero took possession
+of his Golden House, he was heard to exclaim, "At last I am lodged like
+a man."</p>
+
+<p>The wonders created by him, however, did not last very long. Otho, his
+successor, on the very day of his election to the throne, signed an
+order of fifty millions of sesterces (two million dollars) to bring the
+Golden House to perfection; but after his murder Vespasian and Titus
+gave back to the people the greater portion of the ground usurped by
+Nero. They built the Coliseum on the very site of Nero's artificial
+lake, and the therm&aelig; of Titus on the foundation of his private palace;
+they respected only that portion of Nero's insane construction which was
+comprised within the boundaries of the Palatine hill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE COLISEUM<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD</h4>
+
+
+<p>The Venerable Bede, who lived in the eighth century, is the first person
+who is known to have given to the Flavian amphitheater its comparatively
+modern and now universal designation of the Coliseum; tho the name,
+derived from a colossal statue of the emperor Nero which stood near it,
+was probably then familiar to men's ears, as we may infer from his so
+calling it without explanation or remark.</p>
+
+<p>When in its perfect state, the exterior, with its costly ornaments in
+marble, and its forest of columns, lost the merit of simplicity without
+gaining that of grandeur. The eye was teased with a multitude of
+details, not in themselves good; the same defects were repeated in each
+story, and the real height was diminished by the projecting and
+ungraceful cornices. The interior arrangements were admirable; and
+modern architects can not sufficiently commend the skill with which
+eighty thousand spectators were accommodated with seats; or the
+ingenious contrivances, by which, through the help of spacious
+corridors, multiplied passages, and staircases, every person went
+directly to his place, and immense audiences were dispersed in less time
+than is required for a thousand persons to squeeze through the entries
+of a modern concert-room. We know that this interior of the Coliseum was
+decorated with great splendor. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> principal seats were of marble, and
+covered with cushions. Gilded gratings, ornaments of gold, ivory, and
+amber, and mosaics of precious stones, displayed the generosity of the
+emperors, and gratified the taste of the people.</p>
+
+<p>How, or at what period, the work of ruin first began does not distinctly
+appear. An earthquake may have first shattered its ponderous arches, and
+thus made an opening for the destroying hand of time. There can be no
+doubt that it suffered violence from the hands of civil and foreign war.
+But more destructive agencies than those of earthquake, conflagration or
+war, were let loose upon it. Its massive stones, fitted to each other
+with such nice adaptation, presented a strong temptation to the cupidity
+of wealthy nobles and cardinals, with whom building was a ruling
+passion; and for many ages the Coliseum became a quarry. The Palazzo
+della Cancelleria, the Palazzo Barberini, the Palazzo Farnese, and the
+Palazzo Veneziano were all built mainly from the plunder of the
+Coliseum; and meaner robbers emulated the rapacity of their betters, by
+burning into lime the fragments not available for architectural
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The material of which the Coliseum was built is exactly fitted to the
+purposes of a great ruin. It is travertine, of a rich, dark, warm color,
+deepened and mellowed by time. There is nothing glaring, harsh, or
+abrupt in the harmony of tints. The blue sky above, and the green earth
+beneath, are in unison with a tone of coloring not unlike the brown of
+one of our own early winter landscapes. The travertine is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> also of a
+coarse grain and porous texture, not splintering into points and edges,
+but gradually corroding by natural decay. Stone of such a texture
+everywhere opens laps and nooks for the reception and formation of soil.
+Every grain of dust that is borne through the air by the lazy breeze of
+summer, instead of sliding from a glassy surface, is held where it
+falls. The rocks themselves crumble and decompose, and turn into a
+fertile mold. Thus, the Coliseum is throughout crowned and draped with a
+covering of earth, in many places of considerable depth. Trailing plants
+clasp the stones with arms of verdure; wild flowers bloom in their
+seasons; and long grass nods and waves on the airy battlements. Life has
+everywhere sprouted from the trunk of death. Insects hum and sport in
+the sunshine; the burnished lizard darts like a tongue of green flame
+along the walls; and birds make the hollow quarry overflow with their
+songs. There is something beautiful and impressive in the contrast
+between luxuriant life and the rigid skeleton upon which it rests.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of course, everybody goes to see the Coliseum by moonlight.
+The great charm of the ruin under this condition is, that the
+imagination is substituted for sight; and the mind for the eye. The
+essential character of moonlight is hard rather than soft. The line
+between light and shadow is sharply defined, and there is no gradation
+of color. Blocks and walls of silver are bordered by, and spring out of,
+chasms of blackness. But moonlight shrouds the Coliseum in mystery. It
+opens deep vaults of gloom where the eye meets only an ebon wall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> upon
+which the fancy paints innumerable pictures in solemn, splendid, and
+tragic colors. Shadowy forms of emperor and lictor and vestal virgin and
+gladiator and martyr come out of the darkness, and pass before us in
+long and silent procession. The breezes which blow through the broken
+arches are changed into voices, and recall the shouts and cries of a
+vast audience. By day, the Coliseum is an impressive fact; by night, it
+is a stately vision. By day, it is a lifeless form; by night, a vital
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>The Coliseum should by all means be seen by a bright starlight, or under
+the growing sickle of a young moon. The fainter ray and deeper gloom
+bring out more strongly its visionary and ideal character. When the full
+moon has blotted out the stars, it fills the vast gulf of the building
+with a flood of spectral light, which falls with a chilling touch upon
+the spirit; for then the ruin is like a "corpse in its shroud of snow,"
+and the moon is a pale watcher by its side. But when the walls, veiled
+in deep shadow, seem a part of the darkness in which they are lost&mdash;when
+the stars are seen through their chasms and breaks, and sparkle along
+the broken line of the battlements&mdash;the scene becomes another, tho the
+same; more indistinct, yet not so mournful; contracting the sphere of
+sight, but enlarging that of thought; less burdening, but more
+suggestive.</p>
+
+<p>But under all aspects, in the blaze of noon, at sunset, by the light of
+the moon or stars&mdash;the Coliseum stands alone and unapproached. It is the
+monarch of ruins. It is a great tragedy in stone, and it softens and
+subdues the mind like a drama<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> of Aeschylus or Shakespeare. It is a
+colossal type of those struggles of humanity against an irresistible
+destiny, in which the tragic poet finds the elements of his art. The
+calamities which crusht the house of Atreus are symbolized in its broken
+arches and shattered walls. Built of the most durable materials, and
+seemingly for eternity&mdash;of a size, material, and form to defy the
+"strong hours" which conquer all, it has bowed its head to their touch,
+and passed into the inevitable cycle of decay. "And this too shall pass
+away"&mdash;which the Eastern monarch engraved upon his signet ring&mdash;is
+carved upon these Cyclopean blocks. The stones of the Coliseum were once
+water; and they are now turning into dust. Such is ever the circle of
+nature. The solid is changing into the fluid, and the fluid into the
+solid; and that which is unseen is alone indestructible. He does not see
+the Coliseum aright who carries away from it no other impressions than
+those of form, size, and hue. It speaks an intelligible language to the
+wiser mind. It rebukes the peevish and consoles the patient. It teaches
+us that there are misfortunes which are clothed with dignity, and
+sorrows that are crowned with grandeur. As the same blue sky smiles upon
+the ruin which smiled upon the perfect structure, so the same beneficent
+Providence bends over our shattered hopes and our answered prayers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE PANTHEON<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD</h4>
+
+
+<p>The best preserved monument of ancient Rome, and one of the most
+beautiful buildings of the modern city, is unhappily placed. The
+Pantheon stands in a narrow and dirty piazza, and is shouldered and
+elbowed by a mob of vulgar houses. There is no breathing-space around,
+which it might penetrate with the light of its own serene beauty. Its
+harmonious proportions can be seen only in front; and it has there the
+disadvantage of being approached from a point higher than that on which
+it stands. On one side is a market; and the space before the matchless
+portico is strewn with fish-bones, decayed vegetables, and offal.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>Forsyth, the sternest and most fastidious of architectural critics, has
+only "large draughts of unqualified praise" for the Pantheon; and, where
+he finds nothing to censure, who will venture to do any thing but
+commend? The character of the architecture, and the sense of
+satisfaction which it leaves upon the mind, are proofs of the enduring
+charm of simplicity. The portico is perfectly beautiful. It is one
+hundred and ten feet long and forty-four deep, and rests upon sixteen
+columns of the Corinthian order, the shafts being of granite and the
+capitals of marble. Eight of these are in front, and of these eight,
+there are four (including the two on the extreme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> right and left) which
+have two others behind them; the portico being thus divided into three
+portions, like the nave and side aisles of a cathedral; the middle
+space, leading to the door, being wider than the others. The granite of
+the shafts is partly gray and partly rose-colored, but, in the shadow in
+which they stand, the difference of hue is hardly perceptible. The
+proportions of these columns are faultless; and their massive shafts and
+richly-carved capitals produce the effect, at once, of beauty and
+sublimity. The pediment above is now a bald front of ragged stone, but
+it was once adorned with bas-reliefs in bronze; and the holes, made by
+the rivets with which they were fastened, are still to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>The aisles of the portico were once vaulted with bronze, and massive
+beams or slabs of the same metal stretched across the whole structure;
+but this was removed by Urban VIII., and melted into a baldachino to
+deface St. Peter's, and cannon to defend the castle of St. Angelo; and,
+not content with this, he has added insult to injury, and commemorated
+his robbery in a Latin inscription, in which he claims to be commended
+as for a praiseworthy act. But even this is not the heaviest weight
+resting on the memory of that vandal pope. He shares with Bernini the
+reproach of having added those hideous belfries which now rise above
+each end of the vestibule&mdash;as wanton and unprovoked an offense against
+good taste as ever was committed. A cocked hat upon the statue of
+Demosthenes in the Vatican would not be a more discordant addition. The
+artist should have gone to the stake, before giving his hand to such a
+piece of disfigurement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The cell, or main portion of the building to which the portico is
+attached, is a simple structure, circular in form, and built of brick.
+It was formerly encrusted with marble. The cell and the portico stand to
+each other in the most harmonious relation, altho it seems to be
+admitted that the latter was an addition, not contemplated when the cell
+was built. But in the combination there is nothing forced or unnatural,
+and they seem as necessary and as preordained complements, one to the
+other, as a fine face and a fine head. The cell is a type of masculine
+dignity, and the portico, of feminine grace; and the result is a perfect
+architectural union.</p>
+
+<p>The interior&mdash;a rotunda, surmounted by a dome&mdash;is converted into a
+Christian church, a purpose to which its form and structure are not well
+adapted; and the altars and their accessories are not improvements in an
+architectural point of view. But in spite of this&mdash;in spite of all that
+it has suffered at the hands of rapacity and bad taste&mdash;tho the panels
+of the majestic dome have been stript of their bronze, and the whole has
+been daubed over with a glaring coat of whitewash&mdash;the interior still
+remains, with all its rare beauty essentially unimpaired. And the reason
+of this is that this charm is the result of form and proportion, and can
+not be lost except by entire destruction. The only light which the
+temple receives is from a circular opening of twenty-eight feet in
+diameter at the top; and falling, as it does, directly from the sky, it
+fills the whole space with the purity of the heavens themselves. The
+magical effect of this kind of illumination it is impossible to
+describe....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The pavement of the Pantheon, composed of porphyry, pavonazzetto, and
+giallo antico, tho constantly overflowed by the Tiber, and drenched by
+the rains which fall upon it from the roof, is the finest in Rome. There
+is an opening in the center, through which the water entering by the
+dome is carried off into a reservoir.</p>
+
+<p>The Pantheon has a peculiar interest in the history of art, as the
+burial place of Raphael. His grave was opened in 1833, and the remains
+found to be lying in the spot which Vasari had pointed out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HADRIAN'S TOMB<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY RODOLFO LANCIANI</h4>
+
+
+<p>Nerva was the last Emperor buried in the mausoleum of Augustus.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>
+Trajan's ashes were laid to rest in an urn of gold under his monumental
+column. Hadrian determined to raise a new tomb for himself and his
+successors, and, like Augustus, selected a site on the green and shady
+banks of the Tiber, not on the city side, however, but in the gardens of
+Domitia, which, with those of Agrippina, formed a crown property called
+by Tacitus "Nero's Gardens." The mausoleum and the bridge which
+gave access to it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> were substantially finished in <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 136.
+Antoninus Pius, after completing the ornamental part in 139, transferred
+to it Hadrian's ashes from their temporary burial-place in the former
+villa of Cicero at Puteoli, and was himself afterward interred there....</p>
+
+<p>Beside the passages of the "Hadrian's Life," and of Dion Cassius, two
+descriptions of the monument have come down to us, one by Procopius, the
+other by Leo I. From these we learn that it was composed of a square
+basement of moderate height, each side of which measured 247 feet. It
+was faced with blocks of Parian marble, with pilasters at the corners,
+crowned by a capital. Above the pilasters were groups of men and horses
+in bronze, of admirable workmanship. The basement was protected around
+by a sidewalk and a railing of gilt bronze, supported by marble pillars
+crowned with gilded peacocks, two of which are in the Giardino della
+Pigna, in the Vatican. A grand circular mole, nearly a thousand feet in
+circumference, and also faced with blocks of Parian marble, stood on the
+square basement and supported in its turn a cone of earth covered with
+evergreens, like the mausoleum of Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>Of this magnificent decoration nothing now remains except a few blocks
+of the coating of marble, on the east side of the quadrangle, near the
+Bastione di S. Giovanni. All that is visible of the ancient work from
+the outside are the blocks of peperino of the mole which once supported
+the outer casing. The rest, both above and below, is covered by the
+works of fortification constructed at various periods, from the time of
+Honorius (393-403) to our own days. In no other monu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>ment of ancient and
+medieval Rome is our history written, molded, as it were, so vividly, as
+upon the battered remains of this castle-tomb. Within and around it took
+place all the fights for dominion with which popes, emperors, barons,
+barbarians, Romans, have distracted the city for fifteen hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>Of the internal arrangement of the monument nothing was known until
+1825, when the principal door was discovered in the middle of the square
+basement facing the bridge. It opens upon a corridor leading to a large
+niche, which, it is conjectured, contained a statue of Hadrian. The
+walls of this vestibule, by which modern visitors generally begin their
+inspection, are built of travertine, and bear evidence of having been
+paneled with Numidian marble. The pavement is of white mosaic. On the
+right side of this vestibule, near the niche, begins an inclined spiral
+way, 30 feet high and 11 feet wide, leading up to the central chamber,
+which is in the form of a Greek cross.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that the tomb was adorned with statues. Procopius
+distinctly says that, during the siege laid by the Goths to the castle
+in 537, many of them were hurled down from the battlements upon the
+assailants. On the strength of this passage topographers have been in
+the habit of attributing to the mausoleum all the works of statuary
+discovered in the neighborhood; like the Barberini Faun now in Munich,
+the exquisite statue of a River God described by Cassiano dal Pozzo,
+etc., as if such subjects were becoming a house of death. The mausoleum
+of Hadrian formed part of one of the largest and noblest cemeteries of
+ancient Rome, crossed by the Via<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Triumphalis. The tomb next in
+importance to it was the so-called "Meta," or "sepulcrum Romuli," or
+"sepulcrum Neronis," a pyramid of great size, which stood on the site of
+the church of St. Maria Transpontina, and was destroyed by Alexander VI.
+in 1499.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>TRAJAN'S FORUM<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY FRANCIS WEY</h4>
+
+
+<p>In the midst of the busy quarters lying at the base of the Quirinal, you
+come out upon a great piazza which you name at once without ever having
+seen it before; Trajan's Column serves as ensign for a forum, of which
+Apollodorus of Damascus erected the porticoes. The lines described by
+the bases of a plantation of pillars will help you to identify the
+pesimeter of the temple which Hadrian consecrated, and the site of the
+Ulpian Library which was divided into two chambers&mdash;one for Greek books,
+and the other for Latin; and finally the situation of the basilica,
+opening on to the forum and with its apse in the north-northwest
+direction....</p>
+
+<p>It was in the Ulpian Basilica that, in 312, Constantine, having
+assembled the notables of the empire seated himself in the presbyterium,
+to proclaim his abjuration of polytheism in favor of the religion of
+Christ; on that day and spot the prince closed the cycle of antiquity,
+opened the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> catacombs, and inaugurated the modern world. The Acts of St.
+Sylvester describe many passages of the discourse in which, "invoking
+truth against mischievous divisions," and declaring that he "put away
+superstitions born of ignorance and reared on unreason," the emperor
+ordains that "churches be opened to Christians, and that the priests of
+the temples and those of Christ enjoy the same privileges." He himself
+undertakes to build a church in his Lateran palace.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think there exists any monument in the world more precious or
+more exquisite in its proportions than Trajan's Column, nor one that has
+rendered more capital service. This has been set forth with more
+authority than I can pretend to, by Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who
+has written best on his own art; his description sums up the subject and
+makes everything clear. A set of pictures of the campaigns of Trajan
+against the Decians&mdash;the bas-reliefs&mdash;reproduces the arms, the
+accouterments, the engines of war, the dwellings of the barbarians; we
+discern the breed of the warriors and their horses; we look upon the
+ships of the time, canoes and quinqueremes; women of all ranks, priests
+of all theogonies, sieges, and assaults. Such are the merits of this
+sculptured host, that Polidoro da Caravaggio, Giulio Romano, Michael
+Angelo, and all the artists of the Renaissance have drawn thence models
+of style and picturesque grouping.</p>
+
+<p>Trajan's Column is of pure Carrara marble. The shaft measures about
+ninety-four English feet, by twelve in diameter at the base, and ten
+below the capital, which is Doric and carved out of a single block; the
+column is composed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> thirty-four blocks, hollowed out internally and
+cut into a winding stair. A series of bas-reliefs, divided from one
+another by a narrow band, run spirally around the shaft parallel to the
+inner staircase of a hundred and eighty-two steps, and describes
+twenty-three circuits to reach the platform on which the statue is
+placed. The foot and the pedestal are seventeen feet high; the torus, of
+enormous diameter, is a monolith; the whole construction rises a hundred
+and thirty-five feet from the ground. These thirty-four blocks,
+measuring eleven meters in circumference by one in height, had&mdash;a task
+of considerable precision&mdash;to have holes drilled in them for the screws
+of the staircase, it being necessary to determine from the inside
+precisely where these borings must be made in order not to break the
+continuity of the bas-reliefs, executed by several different hands, and
+which are more deeply worked in proportion as they gain in height, so as
+to appear of an equal projection.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE BATHS OF CARACALLA<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4>
+
+
+<p>You reach the Baths of Caracalla, the most imposing object after the
+Coliseum that one sees in Rome. These colossal structures are so many
+signs of their times. Imperial Rome plundered the entire Mediterranean
+basin, Spain, Gaul, and two-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>thirds of England, for the benefit of a
+hundred thousand idlers. She amused them in the Coliseum with massacres
+of beasts and of men; in the Circus Maximus with combats of athletes and
+with chariot races; in the theater of Marcellus with pantomimes, plays,
+and the pageantry of arms and costume; she provided them with baths, to
+which they resorted to gossip, to contemplate statues, to listen to
+declaimers, to keep themselves cool in the heats of summer. All that had
+been invented of the convenient, agreeable, and beautiful, all that
+could be collected in the world that was curious and magnificent, was
+for them; the C&aelig;sars fed them and diverted them, seeking only to afford
+them gratification, and to obtain their acclamations.</p>
+
+<p>A Roman of the middle classes might well regard his emperors as so many
+public purveyors, administering his property, relieving him from
+troublesome cares, furnishing him at fair rates, or for nothing, with
+corn, wine, and oil, giving him sumptuous meals and well-got-up f&ecirc;tes,
+providing him with pictures, statues, pantomimists, gladiators, and
+lions, resuscitating his "blas&eacute;" taste every morning with some
+surprising novelty, and even occasionally converting themselves into
+actors, charioteers, singers, and gladiators for his especial delight.
+In order to lodge this group of amateurs in a very suitable to its regal
+pretensions, architecture invented original and grand forms. Vast
+structures always indicate some corresponding excess, some immoderate
+concentration and accumulation of the labor of humanity. Look at the
+Gothic cathedrals, the pyramids of Egypt, Paris of the present day, and
+the docks of London!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On reaching the end of a long line of narrow streets, white walls, and
+deserted gardens, the great ruin appears. There is nothing with which to
+compare its form, while the line it describes on the sky is unique. No
+mountains, no hills, no edifices, give any idea of it. It resembles all
+these; it is a human structure, which time and events have so deformed
+and transformed, as to render a natural production. Rising upward in the
+air, its moss-stained embossed summit and indented crest with its wide
+crevices, a red, mournful, decayed mass, silently reposes in a shroud of
+clouds.</p>
+
+<p>You enter, and it seems as if you had never seen anything in the world
+so grand. The Coliseum itself is no approach to it, so much do a
+multiplicity and irregularity of ruins add to the vastness of the vast
+enclosure. Before these heaps of red corroded masonry, these round
+vaults spanning the air like the arches of a mighty bridge before these
+crumbling walls, you wonder whether an entire city did not once exist
+there. Frequently an arch has fallen, and the monstrous mass that
+sustained it still stands erect, exposing remnants of staircases and
+fragments of arcades, like so many shapeless, deformed houses.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it is cleft in the center, and a portion appears about to fall
+and roll away, like a huge rock. Sections of wall and pieces of
+tottering arches cling to it and dart their projections threateningly
+upward in the air. The courts are strewed with various fragments, and
+blocks of brick welded together by the action of time, like stones
+incrusted with the deposits of the sea. Elsewhere are arcades quite
+intact, piled up story upon story, the bright sky appearing behind them,
+and above,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> along the dull red brickwork is a verdant head-dress of
+plants, waving and rustling in the midst of the ethereal blue.</p>
+
+<p>Here are mystic depths, wherein the bedewed shade prolongs itself among
+mysterious shadows. Into these the ivy descends, and anemones, fennel,
+and mallows fringe their brinks. Shafts of columns lie half-buried under
+climbing vines and heaps of rubbish, while luxuriant clover carpets the
+surrounding slopes. Small green oaks, with round tops, innumerable green
+shrubs, and myriads of gillyflowers cling to the various projections,
+nestle in the hollows, and deck its crest with their yellow clusters.
+All these murmur in the breeze, and the birds are singing in the midst
+of the imposing silence....</p>
+
+<p>You ascend, I know not how many stories, and, on the summit, find the
+pavement of the upper chambers to consist of checkered squares of
+marble; owing to the shrubs and plants that have taken root among them,
+these are disjoined in places, a fresh bit of mosaic sometimes appearing
+intact on removing a layer of earth. Here were sixteen hundred seats of
+polished marble. In the Baths of Diocletian there were places for three
+thousand two hundred bathers. From this elevation, on casting your eyes
+around, you see, on the plain, lines of ancient aqueducts radiating in
+all directions and losing themselves in the distance, and, on the side
+of Albano, three other vast ruins, masses of red and black arcades,
+shattered and disintegrated brick by brick, and corroded by time.</p>
+
+<p>You descend and take another glance. The hall of the "piscine" is a
+hundred and twenty paces long; that in which the bathers disrobed is
+eighty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> feet in height; the whole is covered with marble, and with such
+beautiful marble that mantel ornaments are now made of its fragments. In
+the sixteenth century the Farnese Hercules was discovered here, and the
+Torso and Venus Callipygis, and I know not how many other masterpieces;
+and in the seventeenth century hundreds of statues. No people, probably,
+will ever again display the same luxurious conveniences, the same
+diversions, and especially the same order of beauty, as that which the
+Romans displayed in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Here only can you comprehend this assertion&mdash;a civilization other than
+our own, other and different, but in its kind as complete and as
+elegant. It is another animal, but equally perfect, like the mastodon,
+previous to the modern elephant.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE AQUEDUCT BUILDERS<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY RODOLFO LANCIANI</h4>
+
+
+<p>One of the praises bestowed by Cicero on the founder of the city is that
+"he selected a district very rich in springs." A glance at the plan will
+at once prove the accuracy of the statement. Twenty-three springs have
+been described within the walls, several of which are still in
+existence; others have disappeared owing to the increase of modern soil.
+"For four hundred and forty-one years," says Frontinus, "the Romans
+contented themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> with such water as they could get from the Tiber,
+from wells, and from springs. Some of these springs are still held in
+great veneration on account of their health-restoring qualities, like
+the spring of the Camoenae, that of Apollo, and that of Juturna."</p>
+
+<p>The first aqueduct, that of the "Aqua Appia," is the joint work of
+Appius Claudius C&aelig;cus and C. Plautius Venox, censors in 312
+<span class="smcap">B.C.</span> The first built the channel, the second discovered the
+springs 1,153 meters northeast of the sixth and seventh milestones of
+the Via Collatina. They are still to be seen, much reduced in volume, at
+the bottom of some stone quarries near the farmhouse of La Rustica.</p>
+
+<p>The second aqueduct was begun in 272 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> by Manius Curius
+Dentatus, censor, and finished three years later by Fulvius Flaccus. The
+water was taken from the river Anio 850 meters above St. Cosimato, on
+the road from Tivoli to Arsoli (Valeria). The course of the channel can
+be traced as far as Gallicano; from Gallicano to Rome it is
+uncertain....</p>
+
+<p>In 144 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> the Senate, considering that the increase of the
+population had diminished the rate of distribution of water (from 530 to
+430 liters per head), determined that the old aqueducts of the Appia and
+the Anio should be repaired, and a new one built, the appropriation for
+both works being 8,000,000 sesterces, or 1,760,000 lire.</p>
+
+<p>The execution of the scheme was entrusted to Q. Marcius Rex. He selected
+a group of springs at the foot of the Monte della Prugna, in the
+territory of Arsoli, 4,437 meters to the right of the thirty-sixth
+milestone of the Via Valeria; and af<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>ter many years of untiring efforts
+he succeeded in making a display of the water on the highest platform of
+the Capitol. Agrippa restored the aqueduct in 33 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>; Augustus
+doubled the volume of the water in 5 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> by the addition of
+the Aqua Augusta. In 196 Septimius Severus brought in a new supply for
+the use of his Thermae Severianae; in 212-213 Caracalla built a branch
+aqueduct, four miles long, for the use of his baths; in 305-306
+Diocletian did the same thing for his great therm&aelig;; and, finally,
+Arcadius and Honorius devoted to the restoration of the aqueduct the
+money seized from Count Gildo, the African rebel.</p>
+
+<p>None of the Roman aqueducts are eulogized by Frontinus like the
+Claudian. He calls it "a work most magnificently done," and after
+demonstrating in more than one way that the volume of the springs
+collected by Claudius amounted to 4,607 quinariae, he says that there
+was a reserve of 1,600 always ready.</p>
+
+<p>The works, began by Caligula in <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 38, lasted fourteen years,
+the water having reached Rome only on August 1, 52 (the birthday of
+Claudius). The course of the aqueduct was first around the slopes of the
+Monte Ripoli, like that of the Marcia and of the Anio Vetus. Domitian
+shortened it by several miles by boring a tunnel 4,950 meters long
+through the Monte Affiano. Length of channel, 68,750 meters, of which
+15,000 was on arches; volume per day, 209,252 cubic meters. The Claudia
+was used for the Imperial table; a branch aqueduct, 2,000 meters long,
+left the main channel at Spem Veterem (Porta Maggiore), and following
+the line of the Via Caelimontana (Villa Wolkonsky), of the Campus
+Caelimontan (Lateran), and of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> street now called di S. Stefano
+Rotondo, reached the temple of Claudius by the church of SS. Giovanni e
+Paolo, and the Imperial palace by the church of St. Bonaventura.</p>
+
+<p>The Anio Novus, like the Vetus, was at first derived from the river of
+the same name at the forty-second milestone of the road to Subiaco,
+great precautions being taken for purifying the water. The works were
+begun by Caligula in <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 38, and completed by Claudius on
+August 1, 52, on a most magnificent scale, some of the arches reaching
+the height of thirty-two meters above ground; and there were eight miles
+of them. Yet, in spite of the purifying reservoir, and of the clear
+springs of the Rivus Herculaneus (Fosso di Fioggio), which had been
+mixed with the water from the river, the Anio Novus was hardly ever
+drinkable. Whenever a shower fell on the Simbruine mountains, the water
+would get troubled and saturated with mud and carbonate of lime. Trajan
+improved its condition by carrying the head of the aqueduct higher up
+the valley, where Nero had created three artificial lakes for the
+adornment of his Villa Sublacensis. These lakes served more efficiently
+as "purgatories," than the artificial basin of Caligula, nine miles
+below. The Anio Novus reached Rome in its own channel after a course of
+86,964 meters, but for the last seven miles it ran on the same arches
+with the Aqua Claudia. The Anio Novus was the largest of all Roman
+aqueducts, discharging nearly three hundred thousand cubic meters per
+day.</p>
+
+<p>There are two places in the suburbs of Rome where these marvelous arches
+of the Claudia and Anio Novus can be seen to advantage; one is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+Torre Fiscale, three miles outside the Porta S. Giovanni on the Albano
+road (to be reached also from the Tavolato station, on the upper Albano
+railway); the other is the Vicolo del Mandrione, which leaves the
+Labicana one mile outside the Porta Maggiore and falls into the
+Tusculana at the place called Porta Furba.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE QUARRIES AND BRICKS OF THE ANCIENT CITY<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY RODOLFO LANCIANI</h4>
+
+
+<p>The materials used in Roman constructions are the "lapis ruber" (tufa);
+the "lapis Albanus" (peperino); the "lapis Gabinus" (sperone); the
+"lapis Tiburtinus" (travertino); the silex ("selce"); and bricks and
+tiles of various kinds. The cement was composed of pozzolana and lime.
+Imported marbles came into fashion toward the end of the republic, and
+became soon after the pride and glory of Rome....</p>
+
+<p>The only material which the first builders of Rome found at hand was the
+volcanic conglomerate called tufa. The quality of the stone used in
+those early days was far from perfect. The walls of the Palatine hill
+and of the Capitoline citadel were built of material quarried on the
+spot&mdash;a mixture of charred pumice-stones and reddish volcanic sand. The
+quarries used for the fortification of the Capi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>tol were located at the
+foot of the hill toward the Argiletum, and were so important as to give
+their name, Lautumiae, to the neighboring district. It is probable that
+the prison called Tullianum, from a jet of water, "tullus," which sprang
+from the rock, was originally a portion of this quarry. The tufa blocks
+employed by Servius Tullius for the building of the city walls, and of
+the agger, appear to be of three qualities&mdash;yellowish, reddish, and
+gray; the first, soft and easily broken up, seems to have been quarried
+from the Little Aventine, near the church of St. Saba. The galleries of
+this quarry, much disfigured by medieval and modern use, can be followed
+to a considerable distance, altho the collapsing of the vaults makes it
+dangerous to visit them....</p>
+
+<p>The quarries of the third quality were, or rather one of them was,
+discovered on February 7, 1872, in the Vigna Querini, outside the Porta
+St. Lorenzo, near the first milestone of the Vicolo di Valle Cupa. It
+was a surface quarry, comprising five trenches 16 feet wide, 9 feet
+deep. Some of the blocks, already squared, were lying on the floor of
+the trenches, others were detached on two or three sides only, the size
+of others was simply traced on the rock by vertical or horizontal lines.
+This tufa, better known by the name of cappellaccio, is very bad. The
+only buildings in which it was used, besides the inner wall of the
+Servian agger, are the platform of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in
+the gardens of the German Embassy, and the "puticuli" in the
+burial-grounds of the Esquiline. Its use must have been given up before
+the end of the period of the Kings, in consequence of the discovery of
+better quarries on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> the right bank of the Tiber, at the foot of the
+hills now called Monte Verde....</p>
+
+<p>They cover a space one mile in length and a quarter of a mile wide on
+each side of the valley of Pozzo Pantal&eacute;o. In fact, this valley, which
+runs from the Via Portuensis toward the lake of the Villa Pamphili,
+seems to be artificial; I mean, produced by the extraction of the rock
+of millions of cubic meters in the course of twenty-four centuries. If
+the work of the ancient quarrymen could be freed from the loose material
+which conceals it from view, we should possess within a few minutes'
+drive from the Porta Portese a reproduction of the famous mines of El
+Masarah, with beds of rock cut into steps and terraces, with roads and
+lanes, shafts, inclines, underground passages, and outlets for the
+discharge of rain-water. When a quarry had given out, its galleries were
+filled up with the refuse of the neighboring ones&mdash;chips left over after
+the squaring of the blocks; so that, in many cases, the color and
+texture of the chips do not correspond with those of the quarry in which
+they are found. This layer of refuse, transformed by time into humus,
+and worked upon by human and atmospheric forces, has given the valley a
+different aspect, so that it looks as if it were the work not of
+quarrymen, but of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Tufa may be found used in many existing monuments of ancient Rome, such
+as the drains of the middle and southern basin of the left bank, the
+channels and arches of the Marcia and Anio Vetus, the Servian walls, the
+temples of Fortuna Virilis, of Hercules Magnus Custos, the Rostra, the
+embankment of the Tiber, etc. The largest and most magnificent quarries
+in the suburban district are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> the so-called Grotte della Cervara. No
+words can convey an idea of their size and of the regularity of their
+plan. They seem to be the work of a fanciful architect who has hewn out
+of the rock halls and galleries, courts and vestibules, and imitated the
+forms of an Assyrian palace.</p>
+
+<p>For the study of the peperino mines, which contain a stone special to
+the Alban district, formed by the action of hot water on gray volcanic
+cinders, the reader should follow on foot the line of the new Albano
+railway, from the place called Il Sassone to the town of Marino. Many of
+the valleys in this district, now made beautiful by vineyards and
+oliveyards, owe their existence to the pickax of the Roman stonecutter,
+like the valley of Pozzo Pantal&eacute;o. The most curious sight is a dolmen or
+isolated rock 10 meters high, left in the center of one of the quarries
+to certify the thickness of the bed of rock excavated. In fact, the
+whole district is very interesting both to the archeologist and to the
+paysagiste. The mines of Marino, still worked in the neighborhood of the
+railway station, would count, like the Grotte della Cervara, among the
+wonders of the Campagna, were they known to the student as they deserve
+to be.</p>
+
+<p>The principal Roman buildings in which the lapis Albanus has been used
+are: the Claudian aqueduct, the Cloaca Maxima, the temples of Antonius
+and Faustina, of Cybele, of the Eventus Bonus, of Neptune, the inclosure
+wall of the Forum Augustum, Forum Transitorium, and Forum Pacis, the
+Porticus Argonautarum, Porticus Pompeii, the Ustrinum of the Appian Way,
+etc. The sarcophagus of Cornelius Scipio Barbatus in the Vatican<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+museum, and the tomb of the Tibicines in the Museo Municipale al Celio
+are also of this stone.</p>
+
+<p>Travertine stone was quarried in the plains of Tivoli at places now
+called Le Caprine, Casal Bernini, and Il Barco. This last was reopened
+after an interval of many centuries by Count G. Brazza, brother of the
+African explorer. Lost in the wilderness and overgrown with shrubs, it
+had not been examined, I believe, since the visit of Brocchi. It can be
+reached by stopping at the station of the Aquae Albulae, on the Tivoli
+line, and following the ancient road which led to the works. This road,
+twice as wide as the Appian Way, is flanked by substructures, and is not
+paved, but macadamized. Parallel with it runs an aqueduct which supplied
+the works with motive power, derived probably from the sulfur springs.
+There are also remains of tombs, one of which, octagonal in shape,
+serves as a foundation to the farmhouse del Barco.</p>
+
+<p>The most remarkable monument of the whole group is the Roman quarry from
+which five and a half million cubic meters of travertine have been
+extracted, as proved by the measurement of the hollow space between the
+two opposite vertical sides. That this is the most important ancient
+quarry of travertine, and the largest one used by the Romans, is proved,
+in the first place, by its immense size. The sides show a frontage of
+more than two and a half kilometers; the surface amounts to 500,000
+square meters. The sides are quite perpendicular, and have the
+peculiarity of projecting buttresses, at an angle of 90 degrees. Some of
+these buttresses are isolated on three sides, and still preserve the
+grooves, by means of which they could be separated from the solid
+mass....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In order to keep the bottom of the works clean and free from the
+movement of the carts, for the action of the cranes, and for the
+maneuvres of the workmen, the chips, or useless product of the squaring
+of the blocks, were transported to a great distance, as far as the banks
+of the Anio, and there piled up to a great height. This is the origin of
+that chain of hills which runs parallel to the river, and of whose
+artificial formation no one, as far as I know, had the least suspicion.
+One of these hills, visible from every point of the neighboring
+district, from Hadrian's villa as well as from the Sulfur Baths, is
+elliptical in shape, 22 meters high, 90 meters long, and 65 meters wide.
+It can with reason be compared with our Testaccio. It is easy to imagine
+how immense must have been the number of blocks cut from the Cava del
+Barco during the period of the formation of this hill alone. Another
+proof of the antiquity of the quarry, and of its abandonment from
+imperial times down to our own day, is given by this fact....</p>
+
+<p>There are three collections of brick-stamps in Rome; one, of little
+value, in the Kircherian museum; the second in the last room of the
+Vatican library, past the "Nozze aldobrandine;" the third and best in
+the Museo Municipale al Celio. This last contains over a thousand
+specimens, and a unique set of the products of Roman kilns. In fact, the
+first hall of the Museo is set apart exclusively for the study of
+ancient building and decorative materials.</p>
+
+<p>Roman bricks were square, oblong, triangular, or round, the latter being
+used only to build columns in the Pompeiian style. The largest bricks
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> have been discovered in my time measure 1.05 meters in length.
+They were set into an arch of one of the great stairs leading to the
+avenue or boulevard established in Imperial times on the top of the
+agger of Servius. Roman bricks are very often stamped with a seal, the
+legend of which contains the names of the owner and the manager of the
+kilns, of the maker of the tile, of the merchant entrusted with the sale
+of the products, and of the consuls under whose term of office the
+bricks were made. These indications are not necessarily found all in one
+seal.</p>
+
+<p>The most important of them is the consular date, because it helps the
+student to determine, within certain limits, the date of the building
+itself. The rule, however, is far from being absolute, and before fixing
+the date of a Roman structure from that of its brick stamps one must
+take into consideration many other points of circumstantial evidence.
+When we examine, for instance, the grain warehouses at Ostia, or
+Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, and find that their walls have never
+undergone repairs, that their masonry is characteristic of the first
+quarter of the second century, that their bricks bear the dates of
+Hadrian's age and no others, we may rest assured that the stamps speak
+the truth. Their evidence is, in such a case, conclusive. But if the
+bricks are variously dated, or bear the names of various kilns, and not
+of one or two only, then their value as an evidence of the date of a
+building is diminished, if not lost altogether....</p>
+
+<p>The bricks, again, occasionally bear curious signs, such as footmarks of
+chickens, dogs, or pigs, which stept over them while still fresh,
+impressions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> of coins and medals, words or sentences scratched with a
+nail, etc. A bricklayer, who had perhaps seen better times in his youth,
+wrote on a tile the first verse of the Aeneid.</p>
+
+<p>The great manufacturing center of Roman bricks was the district between
+the viae Triumphalis, Cornelia, and the two Aureliae, now called the
+Monti della Creta, which includes the southern slopes of the Vatican
+ridge and the northern of the Janiculum. Here also, as at Pozzo
+Pantal&eacute;o, the traces of the work of man are simply gigantic. The valleys
+del Gelsomino, delle Fornaci, del Vicolo delle Cave, della Balduina, and
+a section of the Val d'Inferno, are not the work of nature, but the
+result of excavations for "creta figulina," which began 2,300 years ago,
+and have never been interrupted since. A walk through the Monti della
+Creta will teach the student many interesting things. The best point of
+observation is a bluff between the Vicolo della Cave and the Vicolo del
+Gelsomino, marked with the word "Ruderi" and with the altitude of 75
+meters, in the military map of the suburbs. The bluff rises 37 meters
+above the floor of the brick-kilns of the Gelsomino....</p>
+
+<p>Roman bricks were exported to all the shores of the Mediterranean; they
+have been found in the Riviera, on the coasts of Benetia, of
+Narbonensis, of Spain and Africa, and in the island of Sardinia. The
+brick-making business must have been very remunerative, if we judge from
+the rank and wealth of many personages who had an interest in it. Many
+names of emperors appear in brick-stamps, and even more of empresses and
+princesses of the imperial family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>PALM SUNDAY IN ST. PETER'S<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY GRACE GREENWOOD (Mrs. Lippincott)</h4>
+
+
+<p>Yesterday began Holy Week with the imposing but tedious ceremonies of
+Palm Sunday at St. Peter's. At nine o'clock in the morning we were in
+our places&mdash;seats erected for the occasion near the high altar, drest in
+the costume prescribed by church etiquette&mdash;black throughout, with black
+veils on our heads. At about ten the Pope entered, and the rites,
+ordinary and extraordinary, the masses and processions, continued until
+one.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance of the Pope into this his grandest basilica was, as usual,
+a beautiful and brilliant sight. He came splendidly vested, wearing his
+miter, and borne in his chair of state under a gorgeous canopy, between
+the flabelli&mdash;two enormous fans of white peacock feathers. He was
+preceded and followed by cardinals, bishops, arch-bishops, monsignori,
+abbots, the apostolic prothonotaries, generals of the religious orders,
+officers of the state, of the army, of his household, and the Guardia
+Nobile.</p>
+
+<p>He took his seat on the throne, and received the homage of the
+cardinals, who, kneeling, kissed his right hand. This is a ceremony
+which is always gone through with in the most formal, mechanical,
+business-like manner possible. Some palms, not in natural branches, but
+cut and wreathed in various strange, fantastic forms, lay on the altar.
+The Pope's chief sacristan took one of these, a deacon another, a
+sub-deacon a third, and knelt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> at the foot of the throne. His Holiness
+read prayers over them, sprinkled them with holy water, and incensed
+them three times. One of these is held beside the throne by the prince
+assistant during the service; another is borne by the Pope when in
+procession.</p>
+
+<p>After this, multitudes of palms were brought up for the Papal
+benediction. First came the cardinals, each, as he received his palm
+from the Pope, kissing it, the right hand and knee of His Holiness; then
+the bishops, who only kissed the palm and his right knee; then the
+abbots, who were only entitled to kiss the palm and his foot; then the
+governor of Rome, the prince assistant, the auditor, the treasurer, the
+maggiordomo, the secretaries, the chamberlains, the mace bearers, the
+deacons and sub-deacons, generals of the religious orders and priests in
+general, masters of the ceremonies, singers, clerks of the Papal chapel,
+students of Roman colleges, foreign ministers and their attach&eacute;s,
+Italian, French, Spanish, Austrian, Russian, Prussian officers, noblemen
+and gentlemen, all came up in turn, knelt, received blest palms, and
+kissed the foot of the Sovereign Pontiff.</p>
+
+<p>During the distribution of the palms, anthems were sung by the choir,
+who were caged up in a sort of trellice workbox at the right of the
+altar. This long but brilliantly picturesque ceremony through, the Pope,
+after washing his hands, again mounted into his "sedia gestatoria," and
+bearing his palm, preceded and followed by all those to whom he had
+given palms, passed slowly down the nave of the church, blessing the
+kneeling and bending multitude right and left. This procession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> palms
+was very striking and gorgeous from the beauty and variety of military
+arms and uniforms, and more than royal richness of the priestly
+vestments, the gleam of miters and maces, and of innumerable sacred
+symbols and insignia.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE ELECTION OF A POPE<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CARDINAL WISEMAN</h4>
+
+
+<p>The interval between the close of one pontificate and the commencement
+of another is a period of some excitement, and necessarily of much
+anxiety. Time is required for the electors to assemble, from distant
+provinces, or even foreign countries; and this is occupied in paying the
+last tribute of respect and affection to the departed Pontiff. His body
+is embalmed, clothed in the robes of his office, of the penitential
+color, and laid on a couch of state within one of the chapels in St.
+Peter's, so that the faithful may not only see it, but kiss its feet.
+This last act of reverence to the mortal remains of the immortal Pius
+VIII., the writer well recollects performing.</p>
+
+<p>These preliminaries occupy three days; during which rises, as if by
+magic, or from the crypts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> below, an immense catafalque, a colossal
+architectural structure, which fills the nave of that basilica
+illustrated by inscriptions, and adorned by statuary. Before this huge
+monument, for nine days funeral rites are performed, closed by a funeral
+oration. For the body of the last Pope there is a uniform resting-place
+in St. Peter's&mdash;a plain sarcophagus, of marbled stucco, hardly noticed
+by the traveler, over a door beside the choir, on which is simply
+painted the title of the latest Pontiff. On the death of his successor
+it is broken down at the top, the coffin is removed to the under-church,
+and that of the new claimant for repose is substituted. This change
+takes place late in the evening, and is considered private. I can not
+recollect whether it was on this or on a subsequent occasion that I
+witnessed it with my college companions....</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are called,
+the cardinals assemble in a church near the Quirinal palace, and walk
+thence in procession, accompanied by their conclavisiti, a secretary, a
+chaplain, and a servant or two, to the great gate of the royal
+residence, in which one will remain as master and supreme lord. Of
+course the hill is crowded by persons lining the avenue kept open for
+the procession. Cardinals never before seen by them, or not for many
+years, pass before them; eager eyes scan and measure them, and try to
+conjecture, from fancied omens in eye, or figure, or expression, who
+will shortly be the sovereign of their fair city, and, what is more, the
+Head of the Catholic Church from the rising to the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>Equal they pass the threshold of that gate; they share together the
+supreme rule, temporal and spir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>itual; there is still embosomed in them
+all the voice yet silent, that soon will sound, from one tongue, over
+all the world, and the dormant germ of that authority which will soon
+again be concentrated in one man alone. To-day they are all equal;
+perhaps to-morrow one will sit enthroned, and all the rest will kiss his
+feet; one will be sovereign, the others his subjects; one the shepherd,
+and the others his flock....</p>
+
+<p>While we have been thus sketching, hastily and imperfectly, one of many
+who passed almost unnoticed in the solemn procession to conclave, on the
+2d of September, 1823, we may suppose the doors to have been inexorably
+closed on those who composed it. The conclave, which formerly used to
+take place in the Vatican, was on this occasion, and has been
+subsequently, held in the Quirinal palace. This noble building, known
+equally by the name of Monte Cavallo, consists of a large quadrangle,
+round which run the papal apartments. From this stretches out, along a
+whole street, an immense wing, its two upper floors divided into a great
+number of small but complete suites of apartments, occupied permanently,
+or occasionally, by persons attached to the Court.</p>
+
+<p>During conclave these are allotted, literally so, to the cardinals, each
+of whom lives apart, with his attendants. His food is brought daily from
+his own house, and is examined, and delivered to him in the shape of
+"broken victuals," by the watchful guardians of the turns and lattices,
+through which alone anything, even conversation, can penetrate into the
+seclusion of that sacred retreat. For a few hours, the first evening,
+the doors are left open, and the nobility, the diplo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>matic body, and in
+fact all presentable persons, may roam from cell to cell, paying a brief
+compliment to their occupants, perhaps speaking the same good wishes to
+fifty, which they know can be accomplished in only one.</p>
+
+<p>After that all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for the entrance
+of any cardinal who is not yet arrived; but every aperture is jealously
+guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of various tribunals,
+who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened and read, that no
+communications may be held with the outer world. The very street on
+which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded and guarded by a
+picket at each end; and as, fortunately, there are no private residences
+opposite, and all the buildings have access from the back, no
+inconvenience is thereby created.</p>
+
+<p>While conclave lasts, the administrative power rests in the hands of the
+Cardinal Chamberlain, who strikes his own coins during its continuance;
+and he is assisted by three cardinals, called the "Heads of Orders,"
+because they represent the three orders in the sacred college, of
+bishops, priests and deacons. The ambassadors of the great powers
+receive fresh credentials to the conclave, and proceed in state, to
+present them to this delegation, at the grille. An address, carefully
+prepared, is delivered by the envoy, and receives a well-pondered reply
+from the presiding cardinal.</p>
+
+<p>Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel contained within the
+palace, and there, on tickets so arranged that the voter's name can not
+be seen, write the name of him for whom they give their suffrage. These
+papers are examined in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> presence, and if the number of votes given
+to any one do not constitute the majority, they are burned, in such a
+manner that the smoke, issuing through a flue, is visible to the crowd
+usually assembled in the square outside.</p>
+
+<p>Some day, instead of this usual signal to disperse, the sound of pick
+and hammer is heard, and a small opening is seen in the wall which had
+temporarily blocked up the great window over the palace gateway. At last
+the masons of the conclave have opened a rude door, through which steps
+out on the balcony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many,
+or to the few, who may happen to be waiting, that they again possess a
+sovereign and a Pontiff.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>AN AUDIENCE WITH PIUS X<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY MARY EMOGENE HAZELTINE</h4>
+
+
+<p>We arrived in Rome at three in the afternoon, with letters which ensured
+us an audience with the Pope. A friend, long resident in Rome, who
+advised us to present them at once, accompanied us to the Vatican.
+Passing through an interesting part of the city, including the St.
+Angelo Bridge across the Tiber, we soon found ourselves in the
+world-famous Colonnade of St. Peter's. Ascending the steps leading to
+the Vatican, we passed the Swiss Guard in their famous uniforms designed
+by Michelangelo, and climbed what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> seemed like endless stairs, passing
+guards at almost every turn, who pointed out the way indicated by the
+address on our credentials.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at an anteroom, a priestly secretary, speaking excellent
+English, read our letter with what seemed to us, from the expression of
+his face, great interest and evident approval. Why should this not have
+been? Our letter was from the Apostolic Delegate then in Washington&mdash;the
+Pope's own representative in America. It was in Italian, in the highest
+official form, and conveyed the intelligence that we were traveling in
+Italy for a brief vacation, mentioned all four of us by name, and said
+that, while we were not Catholics, we respected the faith and would
+carefully observe all the forms prescribed for an audience. The
+monseigneur whom we were to see was at that time engaged with several
+bishops. Because of this, we were asked to present ourselves at the same
+hour on Saturday, meanwhile leaving our letter.</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at the hour I was again at the door of the major domo,
+Monseigneur Bisleti, to be received again by the priestly secretary, by
+whom I was taken into the palatial rooms of the monseigneur. A moment
+here was sufficient to explain my errand and receive from the
+monseigneur the long-coveted permission, which I found had already been
+made out in due form for four persons. Our cards entitled us to
+admission on the following day, which made necessary unexpected haste in
+arranging for the official costume of black. Fortunately we had all
+brought black veils and some of us either gowns or skirts. With help
+from others, we secured one or two neces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>sary waists, and from our
+hostess obtained the rosaries I wished to have blest by the Pope. Our
+hostess then gave us a dress rehearsal, in order that we might fully
+understand what to us would be an imposing ceremony. An audience is a
+great function and the procedure accordingly is rigid.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the Vatican next day, we were directed by the Swiss Guard,
+not to the major domo's apartments as before, but through a court and
+thence up the grandest of staircases in three long flights, the walls
+lined with beautiful marbles more wonderful than many pictures, the
+light coming through magnificent stained-glass windows. In every sense
+here was a palatial, an imperial, entrance. At the head of the stairway
+we were met by gorgeous chamberlains, the body servants of the Pope,
+clad in superb magenta brocaded velvet, with knee breeches, magenta silk
+stockings, and great silver buckles on their shoes. Streamers hanging
+from their arms at the back, added to the official appearance of these
+men in their gorgeous uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>We were shown through a magnificent antechamber, and then into a series
+of reception rooms, through which we were motioned on, until we came to
+the fourth, where were just four chairs which seemed to be waiting for
+us four. Swiss guards patrolled the rooms, and others&mdash;chamberlains, I
+suppose. We had a full half hour in which to wait here, but we could use
+it to advantage, in watching the gathering company, and viewing the
+magnificent room, hung as it was with rich red moire silk, as were all
+others of the suite. The ladies in black garb became very effec<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>tive
+figures in this brilliant setting. There were many beautiful tapestries
+in the rooms, one room having a tapestried frieze. The furniture was
+massive, either of inlaid wood or heavy gilt, and the floors of
+beautiful inlaid marble. It is not possible to give any adequate idea of
+these stately rooms, nor of their exquisite appointments; nor yet of the
+gathering company, for many high officials of the church passed before
+us and through to rooms beyond, which added to the interest of the
+occasion and the splendor of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>We learned soon that this was to be no ordinary audience, but a special
+one granted to alumni of the American College in Rome. A few days before
+we left New York, a large company of American priests, graduates of the
+American College, had sailed on a chartered steamer to celebrate the
+fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the college, from which they had
+received holy orders. This audience had been specially arranged for
+them. We were therefore more than favored in having an audience at the
+same time, a fact due probably to the credentials with which we had come
+provided. We now understood that the officials of the church who had
+entered this room were our own American bishops. With them had however
+come others of high rank. Over their priestly robes of black they wore
+rich purple silk capes, falling to the floor, and purple sashes. (There
+are, of course, technical terms for these garments, but I do not know
+them.) The special body guard of the Pope, three men chosen from the
+Palatine guard, and in soldier's uniform, now passed through the room
+with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> noble guard of the Knights of Malta and Count Moroni, also in
+uniform, with chapeau, feathered with plumes of black and white.</p>
+
+<p>At exactly half after eleven, Monseigneur Bisleti, watch in hand,
+bustled through, followed by bishops and priests. We were at once on our
+knees, for His Holiness was seen to be approaching from rooms beyond. As
+he advanced we could see his small figure, clad in white, surrounded by
+court attendants, American bishops, an archbishop, the Palatine guard,
+Monseigneur Bisleti, and the Knight of Malta. Between us and the doorway
+through which he approached, stood a girl of twelve, in white garments
+and veil. She had come from her first communion. Near her was a
+Franciscan monk, who evidently had just returned from some mission
+field, for he was bronzed, and haggard, and worn as to his garments. As
+the Pope passed he gave a special word of blessing to the monk, and a
+smile to the child.</p>
+
+<p>The ceremony of the audience itself was simple. The Pope walked past the
+kneeling people, giving to each his hand. This each one took, kissing
+his ring. Filling the center of the room, as we were kneeling around the
+sides, were the priestly courtiers, the Papal delegate, in gray robes, a
+prominent figure among them. The Pope passed on through several rooms
+filled with waiting priests. We were then all bidden to follow to the
+throne room, for a special ceremony. An audience generally ends when the
+Pope leaves the room in which he receives you, giving his blessing to
+all as he leaves.</p>
+
+<p>In the throne room now the American alumni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> were to present their
+addresses to the Pope. As we entered, undergraduates of the college were
+discovered already there singing. Until the addresses were read, the
+singing was continued. It was all a magnificent sight, the little white
+father on his splendid throne, his court about him, his special body
+servant holding his red cape (to be used in case of drafts), and, as a
+background for all the colors of the court scene, several hundred
+black-robed priests.</p>
+
+<p>Monseigneur Kennedy, rector of the college, read an address, as did Rev.
+Father Wall of Baltimore, president of the association. To these the
+Pope replied, reading from a manuscript. After this, he rose, mingled
+with his entourage, and chatted pleasantly with bishops and others. A
+picture was then taken of the court, the priests and students. These
+American priests and undergraduates were a fine company of men. The Pope
+finally gave his blessing to all who were assembled in the room, and the
+great function was over.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD</h4>
+
+
+<p>The visitor to St. Peter's should not fail to ascend to the dome; a long
+journey, but involving no danger and not a great amount of fatigue. From
+the church to the roof the pas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>sage is by an inclined plane of pavement,
+with so gradual an ascent that loaded mules pass up without difficulty.
+In stepping out upon the roof, it is difficult to believe that we are
+more than one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, or that so
+extensive an architectural surface could have been reared in air by the
+patient labor of men's hands. It rather seems as if a little village had
+been lifted up by some geological convulsion. Here are wide spaces to
+walk about in, houses for human habitation, a fountain playing, and all
+the signs of life. The views are everywhere fine, and one can fancy that
+the air is purer and the sky more blue than to those left below. The
+dome soars high above the eye, and a new sense of its magnitude seizes
+upon the mind. The two cupolas which flank the fa&ccedil;ade are upward of one
+hundred feet high, and the five smaller ones which crown the chapels are
+of great size; but here they seem like dwarfs clinging about a giant's
+knee.</p>
+
+<p>The dome of St. Peter's, as is well known, is double; and between the
+outer and inner wall is a series of winding passages and staircases, by
+which the ascent is made to the top. The length of these passages and
+staircases, their number, and the time it takes to traverse them, are a
+new revelation of the size of this stupendous structure. We begin to
+comprehend the genius and courage which planned and executed a work so
+novel and so bold. From the galleries inside, the view of the interior
+below is most striking. It looks as the earth may look from a balloon.
+The men moving upon the pavement appear like that "small infantry warred
+on by cranes"; and even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> the baldacchino hardly swells beyond the
+dimensions of a candelabrum.</p>
+
+<p>At the base of the ball, a railing, unseen from below, enables the
+visitor whose nerves are tolerably good to enjoy an extensive and
+beautiful prospect, embracing a region interesting not merely to the eye
+but to the mind: the cradle of that mighty Roman race which here began
+its ever-widening circle of conquest and annexation. It comprises the
+Campagna, the Tiber, the distant Mediterranean, the Apennines, the Alban
+and Sabine hills, and the isolated bulk of Soracte. From no point on
+earth can the eye rest upon so many spots on which the undying light of
+human interest lingers.</p>
+
+<p>From this place the ascent is made to the interior of the ball itself,
+into which most travelers climb, probably more for the sake of saying
+that they have been there than anything else. Tho the ball looks like a
+mere point from below, it is nearly eight feet in diameter; and the
+interior will hold a dozen persons without inconvenience. Altho I
+visited it on a winter's day, the atmosphere was extremely hot and
+uncomfortable, from the effect of the sun's rays upon the gilded bronze.
+By means of an exterior ladder, it is possible to climb to the foot of
+the cross; a feat which few landsmen would have the nerve to undertake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4>
+
+
+<p>We followed the street which ascends and descends, bordered with palaces
+and old hedges of thorn, as far as Santa Maria Maggiore. This basilica,
+standing upon a large eminence, surmounted with its domes, rises nobly
+upward, at once simple and complete, and when you enter it, it affords
+still greater pleasure. It belongs to the fifth century; on being
+rebuilt at a later period, the general plan, its antique idea, was
+preserved. An ample nave, with a horizontal roof, is sustained by two
+rows of white Ionic columns. You are rejoiced to see so fine an effect
+obtained by such simple means; you might almost imagine yourself in a
+Greek temple.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that a temple of Juno was robbed of these columns. Each of
+them bare and polished, with no other ornament than the delicate curves
+of its small capital, is of healthful and charming beauty. You
+appreciate here the good sense, and all that is agreeable in genuine
+natural construction, the file of trunks of trees which bear the beams,
+resting flat and providing a long walk. All that has since been added is
+barbarous, and first, the two chapels of Sixtus V. and Paul V., with
+their paintings by Guido, Josepin, and Cigoli, and the sculptures of
+Bernini, and the architecture of Fontana and Flaminio. These are
+cele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>brated names, and money has been prodigally spent, but instead of
+the slight means with which the ancients produced a great effect, the
+moderns produce a petty effect with great means.</p>
+
+<p>When the bewildered eye is satiated with the elaborate sweep of these
+arches and domes, with the splendors of polychromatic marbles, with
+friezes and pedestals of agate, with columns of oriental jasper, with
+angels hanging by their feet, and with all these bas-reliefs of bronze
+and gold, the visitor hastens to get away from it as he would to escape
+from a confectioner's shop. It seems as if this grand, glittering box,
+gilded and labored from pavement to lantern, caught up and tore at every
+point of its finery the delicate web of poetic reverie; the slender
+profile of the least of the columns impresses one far more than any of
+this display of the art of upholsterers and parvenus. Similarly to this
+the fa&ccedil;ade, loaded with balustrades, and round and angular pediments,
+and statues roosting on its stones, is a "h&ocirc;tel-de-ville" frontage.</p>
+
+<p>The campanile, belonging to the fourteenth century, alone presents an
+agreeable object; at that time it was one of the towers of the city, a
+distinctive sign which marked it on the old plans so black and sharp,
+and stamped it forever on the still corporeal imaginations of monks and
+wayfarers. There are traces of every age in these old basilicas; you see
+the diverse states of Christianity, at first enshrined in pagan forms,
+and then traversing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to muffle itself
+up finally, and bedeck itself with modern finery. The Byzantine epoch
+has left its imprint in the mosaics of the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> nave and the apsis,
+and in its bloodless and lifeless Christs and Virgins, so many staring
+specters motionless on their gold backgrounds and red panels, the
+fantoms of an extinct art and a vanished society.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CATACOMBS AND CRYPTS<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CHARLES DICKENS</h4>
+
+
+<p>There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine prison, over what is said to
+have been&mdash;and very possibly may have been&mdash;the dungeon of St. Peter.
+This chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated to that saint;
+and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my recollection, too.
+It is very small and low-roofed; and the dread and gloom of the
+ponderous, obdurate old prison are on it, as if they had come up in a
+dark mist through the floor. Hanging on the walls, among the clustered
+votive offerings, are objects, at once strangely in keeping, and
+strangely at variance, with the place&mdash;rusty daggers, knives, pistols,
+clubs, divers instruments of violence and murder, brought here, fresh
+from use, and hung up to propitiate offended Heaven; as if the blood
+upon them would drain off in consecrated air, and have no voice to cry
+with. It is all so silent and so close, and tomb-like; and the dungeons
+below are so black and stealthy, and stagnant, and naked; that this
+little dark spot becomes a dream within a dream; and in the vision of
+great churches which come rolling past<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> me like a sea, it is a small
+wave by itself, that melts into no other wave, and does not flow on with
+the rest.</p>
+
+<p>It is an awful thing to think of the enormous caverns that are entered
+from some Roman churches, and undermine the city. Many churches have
+crypts and subterranean chapels of great size, which, in the ancient
+time, were baths, and secret chambers of temples, and what not; but I do
+not speak of them. Beneath the church of St. Giovanni and St. Paolo,
+there are the jaws of a terrific range of caverns, hewn out of the rock,
+and said to have another outlet underneath the Coliseum&mdash;tremendous
+darknesses of vast extent, half-buried in the earth and unexplorable,
+where the dull torches, flashed by the attendants, glimmer down long
+ranges of distant vaults branching to the right and left, like streets
+in a city of the dead; and show the cold damp stealing down the walls,
+drip-drop, drip-drop, to join the pools of water that lie here and
+there, and never saw, and never will see, one ray of sun. Some accounts
+make these the prisons of the wild beasts destined for the amphitheater;
+some, the prisons of the condemned gladiators; some, both. But the
+legend most appalling to the fancy is, that in the upper range (for
+there are two stories of these caves) the early Christians destined to
+be eaten at the Coliseum shows, heard the wild beasts, hungry for them,
+roaring down below; until, upon the night and solitude of their
+captivity, there burst the sudden noon and life of the vast theater
+crowded to the parapet, and of these, their dreaded neighbors, bounding
+in!</p>
+
+<p>Below the church of San Sebastiano, two miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> beyond the gate of San
+Sebastiano, on the Appian Way, is the entrance to the catacombs of
+Rome&mdash;quarries in the old time, but afterward the hiding-places of the
+Christians. These ghastly passages have been explored for twenty miles;
+and form a chain of labyrinths, sixty miles in circumference.</p>
+
+<p>A gaunt Franciscan friar, with a wild, bright eye, was our only guide,
+down into this profound and dreadful place. The narrow ways and openings
+hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy air, soon blotted
+out, in all of us, any recollection of the track by which we had come;
+and I could not help thinking: "Good Heaven, if, in a sudden fit of
+madness he should dash the torches out, or if he should be seized with a
+fit, what would become of us!" On we wandered, among martyrs' graves;
+passing great subterranean vaulted roads, diverging in all directions,
+and choked up with heaps of stones, that thieves and murderers may not
+take refuge there, and form a population under Rome even worse than that
+which lives between it and the sun. Graves, graves, graves; graves of
+men, of women, of their little children, who ran crying to the
+persecutors, "We are Christians! We are Christians!" that they might be
+murdered with their parents; graves with the palm of martyrdom roughly
+cut into their stone boundaries, and little niches, made to hold a
+vessel of the martyrs' blood; graves of some who lived down here, for
+years together, ministering to the rest, and preaching truth, and hope,
+and comfort, from the rude altars, that bear witness to their fortitude
+at this hour; more roomy graves, but far more terrible, where hun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>dreds,
+being surprized, were hemmed in and walled up; buried before death, and
+killed by slow starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the spots and patches in my dream of churches, that remain
+apart and keep their separate identity. I have a fainter recollection,
+sometimes, of the relics; of the fragment of the pillar of the Temple
+that was rent in twain; of the portion of the table that was spread for
+the Last Supper; of the well at which the woman of Samaria gave water to
+our Savior; of two columns from the house of Pontius Pilate; of the
+stone to which the sacred hands were bound, when the scourging was
+performed; of the grid-iron of Saint Lawrence, and the stone below it,
+marked with the frying of his fat and blood; these set a shadowy mark on
+some cathedrals, as an old story, or a fable might, and stop them for an
+instant, as they flit before me. The rest is a vast wilderness of
+consecrated buildings of all shapes and fancies, blending one with
+another; of battered pillars of old Pagan temples, dug up from the
+ground, and forced, like giant captives, to support the roofs of
+Christian churches; of pictures, bad, and wonderful, and impious, and
+ridiculous; of kneeling people, curling incense, tinkling bells, and
+sometimes (but not often) of a swelling organ; of Madonne, with their
+breasts stuck full of swords, arranged in a half-circle like a modern
+fan; of actual skeletons of dead saints, hideously attired in gaudy
+satins, silks, and velvets trimmed with gold; their withered crust of
+skull adorned with precious jewels, or with chaplets of crusht flowers;
+sometimes, of people gathered round the pulpit, and a monk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> within it
+stretching out the crucifix, and preaching fiercely; the sun just
+streaming down through some high window on the sail-cloth stretched
+above him and across the church, to keep his high-pitched voice from
+being lost among the echoes of the roof. Then my tired memory comes out
+upon a flight of steps, where knots of people are asleep, or basking in
+the light; and strolls away, among the rags and smells, and palaces, and
+hovels, of an old Italian street.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE CEMETERY OF THE CAPUCHINS<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE</h4>
+
+
+<p>The cemetery is beneath the church, but entirely above ground, and
+lighted by a row of iron-grated windows without glass. A corridor runs
+along besides these windows, and gives access to three or four vaulted
+recesses, or chapels, of considerable breadth and height, the floor of
+which consists of the consecrated earth of Jerusalem. It is smoothed
+decorously over the deceased brethren of the convent, and is kept quite
+free from grass or weeds, such as would grow even in these gloomy
+recesses, if pains were not bestowed to root them up. But, as the
+cemetery is small, and it is a precious privilege to sleep in holy
+ground, the brotherhood are immemorially accustomed, when one of their
+number dies, to take the longest-buried skeleton out of the oldest
+grave, and lay the new slumberer there in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>stead. Thus, each of the good
+friars, in his turn, enjoys the luxury of a consecrated bed, attended
+with the slight drawback of being forced to get up long before daybreak,
+as it were, and make room for another lodger.</p>
+
+<p>The arrangement of the unearthed skeletons is what makes the special
+interest of the cemetery. The arched and vaulted walls of the burial
+recesses are supported by massive pillars and pilasters made of
+thigh-bones and skulls; the whole material of the structure appears to
+be of a similar kind; and the knobs and embossed ornaments of this
+strange architecture are represented by the joints of the spine, and the
+more delicate tracery by the smaller bones of the human frame. The
+summits of the arches are adorned with entire skeletons, looking as if
+they were wrought most skilfully in bas-relief. There is no possibility
+of describing how ugly and grotesque is the effect, combined with a
+certain artistic merit, nor how much perverted ingenuity has been shown
+in this queer way, nor what a multitude of dead monks, through how many
+hundred years, must have contributed their bony framework to build up
+these great arches of mortality. On some of the skulls there are
+inscriptions, purporting that such a monk, who formerly made use of that
+particular head-piece, died on such a day and year; but vastly the
+greater number are piled up indistinguishably into the architectural
+design like the many deaths that make up the one glory of a victory.</p>
+
+<p>In the side walls of the vaults are niches where skeleton monks sit or
+stand, clad in the brown habits that they wore in life, and labeled
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> their names and the dates of their decease. Their skulls (some
+quite bare, and others still covered with yellow skin, and hair that has
+known the earth-damps) look out from beneath their hoods, grinning,
+hideously repulsive. One reverend father has his mouth wide open, as if
+he had died in the midst of a howl of terror and remorse, which perhaps
+is even now screeching through eternity. As a general thing, however,
+these frocked and hooded skeletons seem to take a more cheerful view of
+their position, and try with ghastly smiles to turn it into a jest. But
+the cemetery of the Capuchins is no place to nourish celestial hopes;
+the soul sinks forlorn and wretched under all this burden of dusty
+death; the holy earth from Jerusalem, so imbued is it with mortality,
+has grown as barren of the flowers of Paradise as it is of earthly weeds
+and grass. Thank Heaven for its blue sky; it needs a long, upward gaze
+to give us back our faith. Not here can we feel ourselves immortal,
+where the very altars in these chapels of horrible consecration are
+heaps of human bones.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE BURIAL PLACE OF KEATS AND SHELLEY<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS</h4>
+
+
+<p>A beautiful pyramid, a hundred and thirteen feet high, built into the
+ancient wall of Rome, is the proud "Sepulcher of Caius Cestius." It is
+the most imperishable of the antiquities, stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>ing as perfect after
+eighteen hundred years as if it were built but yesterday. Just beyond
+it, on the declivity of a hill, over the ridge of which the wall passes,
+crowning it with two moldering towers, lies the Protestant
+burying-ground.</p>
+
+<p>It looks toward Rome, which appears in the distance, between Mount
+Aventine and a small hill called Mont Testaccio, and leaning to the
+south-east, the sun lies warm and soft upon its banks, and the grass and
+wild flowers are there the earliest and tallest of the Campagna. I have
+been here to-day, to see the graves of Keats and Shelley. With a
+cloudless sky and the most delicious air ever breathed, we sat down upon
+the marble slab laid over the ashes of poor Shelley, and read his own
+lament over Keats, who sleeps just below, at the foot of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>The cemetery is rudely formed into three terraces, with walks between,
+and Shelley's grave and one other, without a name, occupy a small nook
+above, made by the projections of a moldering wall-tower, and crowded
+with ivy and shrubs, and a peculiarly fragrant yellow flower, which
+perfumes the air around for several feet. The avenue by which you ascend
+from the gate is lined with high bushes of the marsh-rose in the most
+luxuriant bloom, and all over the cemetery the grass is thickly mingled
+with flowers of every dye. In his preface to his lament over Keats,
+Shelley says:</p>
+
+<p>"He was buried in the romantic and lonely cemetery of the Protestants,
+under the pyramid which is the tomb of Cestius, and the massy walls and
+towers, now moldering and desolate, which formed the circuit of ancient
+Rome. It is an open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> space among the ruins, covered in winter with
+violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death, to think that
+one should be buried in so sweet a place."</p>
+
+<p>If Shelley had chosen his own grave at the time, he would have selected
+the very spot where he has since been laid&mdash;the most sequestered and
+flowery nook of the place he describes so feelingly.</p>
+
+<p>On the second terrace of the declivity are ten or twelve graves, two of
+which bear the names of Americans who have died in Rome. A portrait
+carved in bas-relief, upon one of the slabs, told me, without the
+inscription, that one whom I had known was buried beneath. The slightly
+rising mound was covered with small violets, half hidden by the grass.
+It takes away from the pain with which one stands over the grave of an
+acquaintance or a friend, to see the sun lying so warm upon it, and the
+flowers springing so profusely and cheerfully. Nature seems to have
+cared for those who have died so far from home, binding the earth gently
+over them with grass, and decking it with the most delicate flowers. We
+descended to the lower enclosure at the foot of the slight declivity.
+The first grave here is that of Keats. The inscription runs thus:</p>
+
+<p>"This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who,
+on his death-bed in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power
+of his enemies, desired these words to be engraved on his tomb: 'Here
+lies one whose name was written in water.'"</p>
+
+<p>He died at Rome in 1821. Every reader knows his history and the cause of
+his death. Shelley says, in the preface to his elegy:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The savage criticism on his poems, which appeared in the "Quarterly
+Review," produced the most violent effect on his susceptible mind; the
+agitation thus originated ended in a rupture of a blood-vessel in the
+lungs; a rapid consumption ensued, and the succeeding acknowledgments,
+from more candid critics, of the true greatness of his powers, were
+ineffectual to heal the wound thus wantonly inflicted."</p>
+
+<p>Keats was, no doubt, a poet of very uncommon promise. He had all the
+wealth of genius within him, but he had not learned, before he was
+killed by criticism, the received, and, therefore, the best manner of
+producing it for the eye of the world. Had he lived longer, the strength
+and richness which break continually through the affected style of
+"Endymion" and "Lamia" and his other poems, must have formed themselves
+into some noble monuments of his powers. As it is, there is not a poet
+living who could surpass the material of his "Endymion"&mdash;a poem, with
+all its faults, far more full of beauties. But this is not the place for
+criticism. He is buried fitly for a poet, and sleeps beyond criticism
+now. Peace to his ashes!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>EXCURSIONS NEAR ROME<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CHARLES DICKENS</h4>
+
+
+<p>The excursions in the neighborhood of Rome are charming, and would be
+full of interest were it only for the changing views they afford of the
+wild Campagna. But every inch of ground in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> every direction is rich in
+associations, and in natural beauties. There is Albano, with its lovely
+lake and wooded shore, and with its wine, that certainly has not
+improved since the days of Horace, and in these times hardly justifies
+his panegyric. There is squalid Tivoli, with the river Anio, diverted
+from its course, and plunging down, headlong, some eighty feet in search
+of it, with its picturesque Temple of the Sibyl, perched high on a crag;
+its minor waterfalls glancing and sparkling in the sun; and one good
+cavern yawning darkly, where the river takes a fearful plunge and shoots
+on, low down under beetling rocks.</p>
+
+<p>There, too, is the Villa d'Este, deserted and decaying among groves of
+melancholy pine and cypress-trees, where it seems to lie in state. Then,
+there is Frascati, and, on the steep above it, the ruins of Tusculum,
+where Cicero lived, and wrote, and adorned his favorite house (some
+fragments of it may yet be seen there), and where Cato was born. We saw
+its ruined amphitheater on a gray, dull day, when a shrill March wind
+was blowing, and when the scattered stones of the old city lay strewn
+about the lonely eminence, as desolate and dead as the ashes of a
+long-extinguished fire.</p>
+
+<p>One day we walked out, a little party of three, to Albano, fourteen
+miles distant; possest by a great desire to go there by the ancient
+Appian Way, long since ruined and overgrown. We started at half-past
+seven in the morning, and within an hour or so were out upon the open
+Campagna. For twelve miles we went climbing on, over an unbroken
+succession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> mounds, and heaps, and hills of ruin. Tombs and temples,
+overthrown and prostrate; small fragments of columns, friezes,
+pediments; great blocks of granite and marble; moldering arches
+grass-grown and decayed; ruin enough to build a spacious city from; lay
+strewn about us. Sometimes loose walls, built up from these fragments by
+the shepherds, came across our path; sometimes a ditch, between two
+mounds of broken stones, obstructed our progress; sometimes, the
+fragments themselves, rolling from beneath our feet, made it a toilsome
+matter to advance; but it was always ruin. Now, we tracked a piece of
+the old road above the ground; now traced it underneath a grassy
+covering, as if that were its grave; but all the way was ruin.</p>
+
+<p>In the distance, ruined aqueducts went stalking on their giant course
+along the plain; and every breath of wind that swept toward us, stirred
+early flowers and grasses, springing up, spontaneously, on miles of
+ruin. The unseen larks above us, who alone disturbed the awful silence,
+had their nests in ruin; and the fierce herdsmen, clad in sheepskins,
+who now and then scowled out upon us from their sleeping nooks, were
+housed in ruin. The aspect of the desolate Campagna in one direction,
+where it was most level, reminded me of an American prairie; but what is
+the solitude of a region where men have never dwelt, to that of a
+desert, where a mighty race have left their footprints in the earth from
+which they have vanished; where the resting-places of their dead have
+fallen like their dead; and the broken hour-glass of Time is but a heap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+of idle dust! Returning by the road at sunset, and looking, from the
+distance, on the course we had taken in the morning, I almost felt (as I
+had felt when I first saw it, at that hour) as if the sun would never
+rise again, but looked its last, that night, upon a ruined world.</p>
+
+<p>To come again to Rome, by moonlight, after such an expedition, is a
+fitting close to such a day. The narrow streets, devoid of footways, and
+choked, in every obscure corner, by heaps of dung-hill-rubbish, contrast
+so strongly, in their cramped dimensions, and their filth and darkness,
+with the broad square before some haughty church; in the center of
+which, a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk, brought from Egypt in the days of
+the Emperors, looks strangely on the foreign scene about it; or perhaps
+an ancient pillar, with its honored statue overthrown, supports a
+Christian saint; Marcus Aurelius giving place to Paul, and Trajan to St.
+Peter. Then, there are the ponderous buildings reared from the
+spoliation of the Coliseum, shutting out the moon, like mountains; while
+here and there are broken arches and rent walls, through which it gushes
+freely, as the life comes pouring from a wound. The little town of
+miserable houses, walled, and shut in by barred gates, is the quarter
+where the Jews are locked up nightly, when the clock strikes eight&mdash;a
+miserable place, densely populated, and reeking with bad odors, but
+where the people are industrious and money-getting. In the daytime, as
+you make your way along the narrow streets, you see them all at
+work&mdash;upon the pavement, oftener than in their dark and frowsy shops;
+furbishing old clothes, and driving bargains.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Crossing from these patches of thick darkness out into the moon once
+more, the fountain of Trevi, welling from a hundred jets, and rolling
+over mimic rocks, is silvery to the eye and ear. In the narrow little
+throat of street beyond, a booth drest out with flaring lamps, and
+boughs of trees, attracts a group of sulky Romans around its smoky
+coppers of hot broth, and cauliflower stew; its trays of fried fish, and
+its flasks of wine. As you rattle around the sharply twisting corner, a
+lumbering sound is heard. The coachman stops abruptly, and uncovers, as
+a van comes slowly by, preceded by a man who bears a large cross; by a
+torch-bearer, and a priest; the latter chanting as he goes. It is the
+dead-cart, with the bodies of the poor, on their way to burial in the
+Sacred Field outside the walls, where they will be thrown into the pit
+that will be covered with a stone to-night, and sealed up for a year.</p>
+
+<p>But whether, in this ride, you pass by obelisks, or columns, ancient
+temples, theaters, houses, porticoes or forums, it is strange to see how
+every fragment, whenever it is possible, has been blended into some
+modern structure, and made to serve some modern purpose&mdash;a wall, a
+dwelling-place, a granary, a stable&mdash;some use for which it never was
+designed, and associated with which it can not otherwise than lamely
+assort.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<h2>FLORENCE</h2>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h2>THE APPROACH BY CARRIAGE ROAD<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE</h4>
+
+
+<p>Immediately after leaving Incisa, we saw the Arno, already a
+considerable river, rushing between deep banks, with the greenish hue of
+a duck-pond diffused through its water. Nevertheless, tho the first
+impression was not altogether agreeable, we soon became reconciled to
+this hue, and ceased to think it an indication of impurity; for, in
+spite of it, the river is still, to a certain degree, transparent, and
+is, at any rate, a mountain stream, and comes uncontaminated from its
+source. The pure, transparent brown of the New England rivers is the
+most beautiful color; but I am content that it should be peculiar to
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Our afternoon's drive was through scenery less striking than some which
+we had traversed, but still picturesque and beautiful. We saw deep
+valleys and ravines, with streams at the bottom; long, wooded hillsides,
+rising far and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> high, and dotted with white dwellings, well toward the
+summits. By and by, we had a distant glimpse of Florence, showing its
+great dome and some of its towers out of a sidelong valley, as if we
+were between two great waves of the tumultuous sea of hills; while, far
+beyond, rose in the distance the blue peaks of three or four of the
+Apennines, just on the remote horizon. There being a haziness in the
+atmosphere, however, Florence was little more distinct to us than the
+Celestial City was to Christian and Hopeful, when they spied at it from
+the Delectable Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Keeping steadfastly onward, we ascended a winding road, and passed a
+grand villa, standing very high, and surrounded with extensive grounds.
+It must be the residence of some great noble; and it has an avenue of
+poplars or aspens, very light and gay, and fit for the passage of the
+bridal procession, when the proprietor or his heir brings home his
+bride; while in another direction from the same front of the palace
+stretches an avenue or grove of cypresses, very long and exceedingly
+black and dismal, like a train of gigantic mourners. I have seen few
+things more striking, in the way of trees, than this grove of cypresses.</p>
+
+<p>From this point we descended, and drove along an ugly, dusty avenue,
+with a high brick wall on one side or both, till we reached the gate of
+Florence, into which we were admitted with as little trouble as
+custom-house officers, soldiers, and policemen can possibly give. They
+did not examine our luggage, and even declined a fee, as we had already
+paid one at the fron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>tier custom-house. Thank heaven, and the Grand
+Duke!</p>
+
+<p>As we hoped that the Casa del Bello had been taken for us, we drove
+thither in the first place, but found that the bargain had not been
+concluded. As the house and studio of Mr. Powers<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> were just on the
+opposite side of the street, I went to it, but found him too much
+engrossed to see me at the moment; so I returned to the "vettura," and
+we told Gaetano to carry us to a hotel. He established us at the Albergo
+della Fontana, a good and comfortable house. Mr. Powers called in the
+evening&mdash;a plain personage, characterized by strong simplicity and warm
+kindliness, with an impending brow, and large eyes, which kindle as he
+speaks. He is gray, and slightly bald, but does not seem elderly, nor
+past his prime. I accept him at once as an honest and trustworthy man,
+and shall not vary from this judgment. Through his good offices, the
+next day we engaged the Casa del Bello. This journey from Rome has been
+one of the brightest and most uncareful interludes of my life; we have
+all enjoyed it exceedingly, and I am happy that our children have it to
+look back upon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE OLD PALACE AND THE LOGGIA<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY TH&Eacute;OPHILE GAUTIER</h4>
+
+
+<p>Every great capital has its eye; at Rome it is the Campo Vaccino; at
+Paris, the Boulevard des Italiens; at Venice, the Place St. Mark; at
+Madrid, the Prado; at London, the Strand; at Naples, the Via di Toledo.
+Rome is more Roman, Paris more Parisian, Venice more Venetian, Madrid
+more Spanish, London more English, Naples more Neapolitan, in that
+privileged locality than anywhere else. The eye of Florence is the Place
+of the Grand Duke&mdash;a beautiful eye. In fact, suppress that Place and
+Florence has no more meaning&mdash;it might be another city. It is at that
+Place, therefore, that every traveler ought to begin, and, moreover, had
+he not that intention, the tide of pedestrians would carry him and the
+streets themselves would conduct him thither.</p>
+
+<p>The first aspect of the Place of the Grand Duke has an effect so
+charming, so picturesque, so complete, that you comprehend all at once
+into what an error the modern capitals like London, Paris, St.
+Petersburg, fall in forming, under the pretext of squares, in their
+compact masses, immense empty spaces upon which they run aground all
+possible and impossible modes of decoration. One can touch with his
+finger the reason which makes of the Carrousel and Place de la Concorde,
+great empty fields which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> absorb fountains, statues, arches of triumph,
+obelisks, candelabra, and little gardens. All these embellishments, very
+pretty on paper, very agreeable also, without doubt, viewed from a
+balloon, are almost lost for the spectator who can not grasp the whole,
+his height only rising five feet above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>A square, in order to produce a beautiful effect, ought not to be too
+big; it is also necessary that it should be bordered by varied monuments
+of diverse elevations. The Place of the Grand Duke at Florence unites
+all these conditions; bordered by monuments regular in themselves, but
+different from one another, it is pleasing to the eye without wearying
+by a cold symmetry.</p>
+
+<p>The Palace of the Seigneurie, or Old Palace, which by its imposing mass
+and severe elegance at first attracts the attention, occupies a corner
+of the Place, instead of the middle. This idea, a happy one, in our
+opinion, regrettable for those who only see architectural beauty in
+geometrical regularity, is not fortuitous; it has a reason wholly
+Florentine. In order to obtain perfect symmetry, it would have been
+necessary to build upon the detested soil of the Ghibelline house,
+rebellious and proscribed by the Uberti; something that the Guelph
+faction, then all-powerful, were not willing to allow the architect,
+Arnolfo di Lapo, to do. Learned men contest the truth of this tradition;
+we will not discuss here the value of their objections. It is certain,
+however, that the Old Palace gains greatly by the singularity of this
+location and also leaves space for the great Fountain of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> Neptune and
+the equestrian statue of Cosmo the First.</p>
+
+<p>The name of fortress would be more appropriate than any other, for the
+Old Palace; it is a great mass of stone, without columns, without
+frontal, without order of architecture. Time has gilded the walls with
+beautiful vermilion tints which the pure blue of the sky sets off
+marvelously, and the whole structure has that haughty and romantic
+aspect which accords well with the idea that one forms for oneself of
+that old Palace of the Seigneurie, the witness, since the date of its
+erection in the thirteenth century, of so many intrigues, tumults,
+violent acts, and crimes. The battlements of the palace, cut square,
+show that it was built to that height by the Guelph faction; the
+trifurcated battlements of the belfry indicate a sudden change on the
+accession to power of the Ghibelline faction.</p>
+
+<p>Guelphs and Ghibellines detested each other so violently that they
+exprest their opinions in their garments, in the cut of their hair, in
+their arms, in their manner of fortifying themselves. They feared
+nothing so much as to be captured by one another, and differed as much
+as they possibly could. They had a special salutation after the manner
+of the Freemasons and the Companions of Duty. The opinions of the
+ancient owners of the Old Palace at Florence can be recognized by this
+characteristic; the walls of the city are crenelated squarely in the
+Guelph fashion, and the tower on the ramparts has the Ghibelline
+battlements of swallow-tail shape.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Vecchio Palace has for its basement several steps which were used in
+former times as a species of tribune, from the top of which the
+magistrates and demagogs harangued the people. Two colossal statues of
+marble&mdash;Hercules slaying Cacus, by Bandinelli, and David the Conqueror
+of Goliath, by Michael Angelo&mdash;mount near the door their age-long watch,
+like two gigantic sentinels whom someone has forgotten to relieve. The
+statue of David by Michael Angelo besides the inconvenience there is in
+representing under a gigantic form a Biblical hero of notoriously small
+size, seemed to us a trifle common and heavy, a rare defect with this
+master; his David is a great big boy, fleshy, broad-backed, with
+monstrous biceps, a market porter waiting to put a sack upon his back.
+The working of the marble is remarkable and, after all, is a fine piece
+of study which would do honor to any other sculptor except Michael
+Angelo; but there is lacking that Olympian mastership which
+characterizes the works of that superhuman sculptor.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most curious features of the Old Palace is the grand salon, a
+hall of enormous dimensions, which has its legend. When the Medici were
+driven from Florence, in 1494, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who directed the
+popular movement, proposed the idea of constructing an immense hall
+where a council of a thousand citizens would elect the magistrates and
+regulate the affairs of the republic. The architect Cronaca had charge
+of this task and acquitted himself of it with a celerity so marvelous
+that Brother Savonarola caused the rumor to spread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> that angels
+descended from heaven to help the masons and continued at night the
+interrupted work. The invention of these angels tempering the mortar and
+carrying the hod is all done in the legendary style of the Middle Ages
+and would furnish a charming subject for a picture to some ingenuous
+painter of the school of Overbeck or of Hauser. In this rapid
+construction Cronaca displayed, if not all his genius, at least all his
+agility. The work has been justly admired and often consulted by
+architects.</p>
+
+<p>When the Medici returned to power and transferred their residence from
+the Palace of the Via Larga, which they had occupied, to the Palace of
+the Seigneurie, Cosmo wished to change the Council Hall into an audience
+chamber, and charged the presumptuous Bacchio Bandinelli, whose designs
+had attracted him, with various alterations of an important character;
+but the sculptor had undoubtedly presumed too much on his talent as an
+architect, and in spite of the assistance of Giuliano Baccio d'Agnolo,
+whom he called to his aid, he worked for ten years without being able to
+conquer the difficulties which he had created for himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was Vasari who raised the ceiling several feet, finished the work and
+decorated the walls with a succession of frescoes which may still be
+seen, and which represent different episodes in the history of
+Florence&mdash;combats, and captures of cities, the whole being a travesty of
+antiquity, an intermingling of allegories. These frescos, painted with
+an intrepid and learned mediocrity, display the commonplace tones,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+swelling muscles and anatomical tricks in use at that epoch among
+artists.</p>
+
+<p>We have already called attention to the fact that colossal dimensions
+are not at all necessary to produce effect in architecture. The Loggia
+de Lanzi, that gem of the Place of the Grand Duke, consists of a portico
+composed of four arcades, three on the fa&ccedil;ade, one in return on the
+gallery of the offices. It is a miniature of a monument; but the harmony
+of its proportions is so perfect that the eye in contemplating it
+experiences a sense of satisfaction. The nearness of the Palace of the
+Seigneurie, with its compact mass, admirably sets off the elegant
+slenderness of its arches and columns. The Loggia is a species of Museum
+in the open air. The "Perseus" of Benvenuto Cellini, the "Judith" of
+Donatello, the "Rape of the Sabines" of John of Bologna, are framed in
+the arcades. Six antique statues&mdash;the cardinal and monastic virtues&mdash;by
+Jacques, called Pietro, a Madonna by Orgagna adorn the interior wall.
+Two lions, one antique, the other modern, by Vacca, almost as good as
+the Greek lions of the arsenal at Venice, complete the decoration.</p>
+
+<p>The Perseus may be regarded as the masterpiece of Benvenuto Cellini, an
+artist so highly spoken of in France, without scarcely anything being
+known about him. This statue, a little affected in its pose, like all
+the works of the Florentine school, has a juvenile grace which is very
+attractive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY GRANT ALLEN</h4>
+
+
+<p>Only two considerable rivers flow from the Apennines westward into the
+Mediterranean. The Tiber makes Rome; the Arno makes Florence. In
+prehistoric and early historic times, the mountainous region which forms
+the basin of these two rivers was occupied by a gifted military race,
+the Etruscans, who possest a singular assimilative power for Oriental
+and Hellenic culture. Intellectually and artistically, they were the
+pick of Italy. Their blood still runs in the veins of the people of
+Tuscany. Almost every great thing done in the Peninsula, in ancient or
+modern times, has been done by Etruscan hands or brains. The poets and
+painters, in particular, with few exceptions, have been, in the wide
+ethnical sense, Tuscans.</p>
+
+<p>The towns of ancient Etruria were hill-top strongholds. Florence was not
+one of these; even its neighbor, Fiesole (Faesulue), did not rank among
+the twelve great cities of the Etruscan league. But with the Roman
+conquest and the Roman peace, the towns began to descend from their
+mountain peaks into the river valleys; roads grew important, through
+internal trade; and bridges over rivers assumed a fresh commercial
+value. Florence (Florentia), probably founded under Sulla as a Roman
+municipium, upon a Roman road, guarded the bridge across the Arno, and
+gradually absorbed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> population of Fiesole. Under the later empire,
+it was the official residence of the "Corrector" of Tuscany and Umbria.
+During the Middle Ages, it became, for all practical purposes, the
+intellectual and artistic capital of Tuscany, inheriting in full the
+remarkable mental and esthetic excellences of the Etruscan race.</p>
+
+<p>The valley of the Arno is rich and fertile, bordered by cultivable
+hills, which produce the famous Chianti wine. It was thus predestined by
+nature as the seat of the second city on the west slope of Italy.
+Florence, however, was not always that city. The seaport of Pisa (now
+silted up and superseded by Leghorn) first rose into importance; possest
+a powerful fleet; made foreign conquests; and erected the magnificent
+group of buildings just outside the town which still form its chief
+claim upon the attention of tourists. But Florence with its bridge
+commanded the inland trade, and the road to Rome from Germany. After the
+destruction of Fiesole in 1125, it grew rapidly in importance; and, Pisa
+having sustained severe defeats from Genoa, the inland town soon rose to
+supremacy in the Arno basin. Nominally subject to the Emperor, it became
+practically an independent republic, much agitated by internal quarrels,
+but capable of holding its own against neighboring cities. Its chief
+buildings are thus an age or two later than those of Pisa; it did not
+begin to produce splendid churches and palaces, in emulation of those of
+Pisa and Siena, till about the close of the 13th century. To the same
+period belongs the rise of its literature under Dante, and its painting
+under Giotto.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> This epoch of rapid commercial, military, and artistic
+development forms the main glory of early Florence.</p>
+
+<p>The 14th century is chiefly interesting at Florence as the period of
+Giottesque art, finding its final crown in Fra Angelico. With the
+beginning of the 15th, we get the dawn of the Renaissance&mdash;the age when
+art set out once more to recover the lost perfection of antique
+workmanship. In literature, this movement took the form of humanism; in
+architecture and sculpture, it exhibited itself in the persons of
+Alberti, Ghiberti, Della Robbia, and Donatello; in painting, it showed
+itself in Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Verrocchio....</p>
+
+<p>We start, then, with the fact that up to nearly the close of the 13th
+century (1278), Florence was a comparatively small and uninteresting
+town, without any buildings of importance, save the relatively
+insignificant Baptistery; without any great cathedral, like Pisa and
+Siena; without any splendid artistic achievement of any kind. It
+consisted at that period of a labyrinth of narrow streets, enclosing
+huddled houses and tall towers of the nobles, like the two to be seen to
+this day at Bologna. In general aspect, it could not greatly have
+differed from Albenga or San Gimignano in our own time. But commerce was
+active; wealth was increasing; and the population was seething with the
+intellectual and artistic spirit of its Etruscan ancestry. During the
+lifetime of Dante, the town began to transform itself and to prepare for
+becoming the glorious Florence of the Renaissance artists. It then set
+about building two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> immense and beautiful churches&mdash;Santa Croce and
+Santa Maria Novella&mdash;while, shortly after, it grew to be ashamed of its
+tiny San Giovanni (the existing Baptistery), and girded itself up to
+raise a superb cathedral, which should cast into the shade both the one
+long since finished at maritime Pisa and the one then still rising to
+completion on the height of Siena.</p>
+
+<p>Florence at that time extended no further than the area known as Old
+Florence, which means from the Ponte Vecchio to the Cathedral in one
+direction, and from the Ponte alla Carraja to the Grazie in the other.
+Outside the wall lay a belt of fields and gardens, in which one or two
+monasteries had already sprung up. But Italy at that moment was filled
+with religious enthusiasm by the advent of the Friars both great orders
+of whom, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, had already established
+themselves in the rising commercial city of Florence. Both orders had
+acquired sites for monastic buildings in the space outside the walls and
+soon began to erect enormous churches. The Dominicans came first, with
+Santa Maria Novella, the commencement of which dates from 1278; the
+Franciscans were a little later in the field, with Santa Croce, the
+first stone not being placed till 1294.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE CATHEDRAL<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4>
+
+
+<p>Desirous of seeing the beginnings of this Renaissance we go from the
+Palazzo-Vecchio to the Duomo. Both form the double heart of Florence,
+such as it beat in the Middle Ages, the former for politics, and the
+latter for religion, and the two so well united that they formed but
+one. Nothing can be nobler than the public edict passed in 1294 for the
+construction of the national cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>"Whereas, it being of sovereign prudence on the part of a people of high
+origin to proceed in its affairs in such a manner that the wisdom no
+less than the magnanimity of its proceedings can be recognized in its
+outward works, it is ordered that Arnolfo, master architect of our
+commune, prepare models or designs for the restoration of Santa Maria
+Reparata, with the most exalted and most prodigal magnificence, in order
+that the industry and power of men may never create or undertake
+anything whatsoever more vast and more beautiful; in accordance with
+that which our wisest citizens have declared and counselled in public
+session and in secret conclave, to wit, that no hand be laid upon the
+works of the commune without the intent of making them to correspond to
+the noble soul which is composed of the souls of all its citizens united
+in one will."</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE1" id="FLORENCE1"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img119.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE2" id="FLORENCE2"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img119a.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: THE OLD PALACE" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: THE OLD PALACE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE3" id="FLORENCE3"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img120.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE4" id="FLORENCE4"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img121.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE5" id="FLORENCE5"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img121a.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: THE CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: THE CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE6" id="FLORENCE6"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img122.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FLORENCE7" id="FLORENCE7"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img122a.jpg"
+             alt="FLORENCE: THE HOUSE OF DANTE" /><br />
+         <b>FLORENCE: THE HOUSE OF DANTE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="FRONT_ST_MARKS" id="FRONT_ST_MARKS"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img123.jpg"
+             alt="FRONT OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE" /><br />
+         <b>FRONT OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="INTERIOR_ST_MARKS" id="INTERIOR_ST_MARKS"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img124.jpg"
+             alt="INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE" /><br />
+         <b>INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="DUCAL_PALACE" id="DUCAL_PALACE"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img125.jpg"
+             alt="THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE" /><br />
+         <b>THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="PIAZZA" id="PIAZZA"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img126.jpg"
+             alt="VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL PALACE ON THE LEFT" /><br />
+         <b>VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL PALACE ON THE LEFT<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p><a name="VIEW_OF_VENICE" id="VIEW_OF_VENICE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img126a.jpg"
+             alt="VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE CAMPANILE" /><br />
+         <b>VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE CAMPANILE<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b>
+    </div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<p>In this ample period breathes the grandiose pride and intense patriotism
+of the ancient republics. Athens under Pericles, and Rome under the
+first Scipio cherished no prouder sentiments. At each step, here as
+elsewhere, in texts and in monuments, is found, in Italy, the traces,
+the renewal and the spirit of classic antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>Let us, accordingly, look at the celebrated Duomo&mdash;but, the difficulty
+is to see it. It stands upon flat ground, and, in order that the eye
+might embrace its mass it would be necessary to level three hundred
+buildings. Herein appears the defect of the great medieval structure;
+even to-day, after so many openings, effected by modern demolishers,
+most of the cathedrals are visible only on paper. The spectator catches
+sight of a fragment, some section of a wall, or the fa&ccedil;ade; but the
+whole escapes him; man's work is no longer proportioned to his organs.
+It was not thus in antiquity; temples were small or of mediocre
+dimensions, and were almost always erected on an eminence; their general
+form and complete profile could be enjoyed from twenty different points
+of view.</p>
+
+<p>After the advent of Christianity, men's conceptions transcended their
+forces, and the ambition of the spirit no longer took into account the
+limitations of the body. The human machine lost its equilibrium. With
+forgetfulness of the moderate there was established a love of the odd.
+Without either reason or symmetry campaniles or bell-towers were
+planted, like isolated posts, in front or alongside of cathedrals; there
+is one of these alongside of the Duomo,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> and this change of human
+equipoise must have been potent, since even here, among so many Latin
+traditions and classic aptitudes, it declares itself.</p>
+
+<p>In other respects, save the ogive arcades, the monument is not Gothic,
+but Byzantine, or, rather, original; it is a creature of a new and mixed
+form like the new and mixed civilization of which it is the offspring.
+You feel power and invention in it with a touch of quaintness and fancy.
+Walls of enormous grandeur are developed or expanded without the few
+windows in them happening to impair their massiveness or diminish their
+strength. There are no flying buttresses; they are self-sustaining.
+Marble panels, alternately yellow and black, cover them with a
+glittering marquetry, and curves of arches let into their masses seem to
+be the bones of a robust skeleton beneath the skin.</p>
+
+<p>The Latin cross, which the edifice figures, contracts at the top, and
+the chancel and transepts bubble out into rotundities and projections,
+in petty domes behind the church in order to accompany the grand dome
+which ascends above the choir, and which, the work of Brunnelleschi,
+newer and yet more antique than that of St. Peter, lifts in the air to
+an astonishing height its elongated form, its octagonal sides and its
+pointed lantern. But how can the physiognomy of a church be conveyed by
+words? It has one nevertheless; all its portions appearing together are
+combined in one chord and in one effect. If you examine the plans and
+old engravings you will appreciate the bizarre and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> captivating harmony
+of these grand Roman walls overlaid with Oriental fancies; of these
+Gothic ogives arranged in Byzantine cupolas; of these light Italian
+columns forming a circle above a bordering of Grecian caissons; of this
+assemblage of all forms, pointed, swelling, angular, oblong, circular
+and octagonal. Greek and Latin antiquity, the Byzantine and Saracenic
+Orient, the Germanic and Italian middle-age, the entire past, shattered,
+amalgamated and transformed, seems to have been melted over anew in the
+human furnace in order to flow out in fresh forms in the hands of the
+new genius of Giotto, Arnolfo, Brunnelleschi and Dante.</p>
+
+<p>Here the work is unfinished, and the success is not complete. The fa&ccedil;ade
+has not been constructed; all that we see of it is a great naked,
+scarified wall similar to a leper's plaster.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> There is no light
+within. A line of small round bays and a few windows fill the immensity
+of the edifice with a gray illumination; it is bare, and the
+argillaceous tone in which it is painted depresses the eye with its wan
+monotony. A "Pieta" by Michael Angelo and a few statues seem like
+spectres; the bas-reliefs are only vague confusion. The architect,
+hesitating between medieval and antique taste, fell only upon a lifeless
+light, that between a pure light and a colored light.</p>
+
+<p>The more we contemplate architectural works the more do we find them
+adapted to express the prevailing spirit of an epoch. Here, on the flank
+of the Duomo, stands the Campanile by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Giotto, erect, isolated, like St.
+Michael's tower at Bordeaux, or the tower of St. Jacques at Paris; the
+medieval man, in fact, loves to build high; he aspires to heaven, his
+elevations all tapering off into pointed pinnacles; if this one had been
+finished a spire of thirty feet would have surmounted the tower, itself
+two hundred and fifty feet high. Hitherto the northern architect and the
+Italian architect are governed by the same instinct, and gratify the
+same penchant; but while the northern artist, frankly Gothic, embroiders
+his tower with delicate moldings, and complex flower-work, and a stone
+lacework infinitely multiplied and intersected, the southern artist,
+half-Latin through his tendencies and his reminiscences, erects a
+square, strong and full pile, in which a skilful ornamentation does not
+efface the general structure, which is not frail sculptured bijou, but a
+solid durable monument, its coating of red, black and white marble
+covering it with royal luxuriance, and which, through its healthy and
+animated statues, its bas-reliefs framed in medallions, recalls the
+friezes and pediments of an antique temple.</p>
+
+<p>In these medallions Giotto has symbolized the principal epochs of human
+civilization; the traditions of Greece near those of Judea; Adam,
+Tubal-Cain, and Noah, Daedalus, Hercules, and Antaeus, the invention of
+plowing, the mastery of the horse, and the discovery of the arts and the
+sciences; laic and philosophic sentiment live freely in him side by side
+with a theological and religious sentiment. Do we not already see in
+this renaissance of the fourteenth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> century that of the sixteenth? In
+order to pass from one to another, it will suffice for the spirit of the
+first to become ascendant over the spirit of the second; at the end of a
+century we are to see in the adornment of the edifice, in these statues
+of Donatello, in their baldness so expressive, in the sentiment of the
+real and natural life displayed among the goldsmiths and sculptors,
+evidence of the transformation begun under Giotto having been already
+accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Every step we take we encounter some sign of this persistency or
+precocity of a Latin and classic spirit. Facing the Duomo is the
+baptistery, which at first served as a church, a sort of octagonal
+temple surmounted by a cupola, built, doubtless, after the model of the
+Pantheon of Rome, and which, according to the testimony of a
+contemporary bishop, already in the eighth century projected upward the
+pompous rotundities of its imperial forms. Here, then, in the most
+barbarous epoch of the Middle Ages, is a prolongation, a renewal, or, at
+least, an imitation of Roman architecture. You enter, and find that the
+decoration is not all Gothic; a circle of Corinthian columns of precious
+marbles with, above these, a circle of smaller columns surmounted by
+loftier arcades, and, on the vault, a legion of saints, and angels
+peopling the entire space, gathering in four rows around a grand, dull,
+meager, melancholy Byzantine Christ. On these three superposed stories
+the three gradual distortions of antique art appear; but, distorted or
+intact, it is always antique art. A significant feature, this,
+throughout the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> history of Italy; she did not become Germanic. In the
+tenth century the degraded Roman still subsisted distinct and intact
+side by side with the proud barbarian....</p>
+
+<p>Sculpture, which, once before under Nicholas of Pisa, had anticipated
+painting, again anticipated it in the fifteenth century; these very
+doors of the baptistery enable one to see with what sudden perfection
+and brilliancy. Three men then appeared, Brunelleschi, the architect of
+the Duomo, Donatello, who decorated the Campanile with statues, and
+Ghiberti, who cast the two gates of the baptistery, all three friends
+and rivals, all three having commenced with the goldsmith's art and a
+study of the living model, and all three passionately devoted to the
+antique; Brunelleschi drawing and measuring Roman monuments, Donatello
+at Rome copying statues and bas-reliefs and Ghiberti importing from
+Greece torsos, vases and heads which he restored, imitated and
+worshiped.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>AN ASCENT OF THE GREAT DOME<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY MR. AND MRS. EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD</h4>
+
+
+<p>The traveler who, turning his back to the gates of Ghiberti, passes, for
+the first time, under the glittering new mosaics and through the main
+doors of Santa Maria Del Fiore experiences a sensation. He leaves behind
+him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the fa&ccedil;ade, dazzling in its patterns of black and white marble, all
+laced with sculpture, he enters to dim, bare vastness&mdash;surely, never was
+bleaker lining to a splendid exterior. Across a floor that seems
+unending, he makes long journeys, from monument to monument; to gigantic
+condottieri, riding ghost-like in the semi-darkness against the upper
+walls; to Luca's saints and angels in the sacristies; to Donatellos's
+Saint John, grand and tranquil in his niche, and to Michelangelo's
+group, grand and troubled in its rough-hewn marble.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in the north transept, he comes to a small door, and entering
+there, he may, if legs and wind hold out, climb five hundred and fifteen
+steps to the top of the mightiest dome in the world, the widest in span,
+and the highest from spring to summit. For the first one hundred and
+fifty steps or so, there are square turnings, and the stone looks sharp,
+and new, and solid; a space vaulted by a domical roof follows, and is
+apparently above one of the apsidal domes to the church; then a narrow
+spiral staircase leads to where a second door opens upon a very narrow,
+balustraded walk that runs around the inner side of the dome.</p>
+
+<p>He is at an altitude of sixty-seven meters, exactly at the spring of the
+cupola and the beginning of the Vasari frescoes; the feet are at an
+elevation of one meter less than is that of the lower tops of Notre Dame
+de Paris, and yet the dome follows away overhead, huge enough, high
+enough to contain a second church piled, Pelion-like upon the first.
+Before, in the dimness, is the vastest roof-covered void in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> world;
+it is terrific, and if the visitor is susceptible, his knees shake, and
+his diaphragm seems to sink to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>The impression is tremendous; no wonder that the Tuscans felt
+Brunelleschi to be the central figure of the Renaissance. Again and
+again, whether in the gallery or between the walls of the dome, the
+thought comes; men built this, and one man dared it and planned it. Not
+even the Pyramids impress more strongly; for if Brunelleschi built a
+lesser pyramid, he hollowed his and hung it in the air.</p>
+
+<p>On the other side of the space, a small black spot becomes a door when
+the traveler has giddily circled half the dome; it opens upon another
+staircase, up which he climbs between the two skins of the cupola, or
+rather between two of the three, like a parasite upon a monster.
+Sometimes the place suggests a ship, with the oculi as gunports,
+piercing to the outer day, or else, his mind fresh from that red inferno
+of Vasari's frescoes, the traveler is tunneling up through a volcanic
+crater with a whole Typhonic Enceladus buried below.</p>
+
+<p>To right and left, the smooth, cemented surface curves away and upward,
+brick buttresses appear constantly, but always with the courses of brick
+laid slanting to the earth's level, and perpendicular to the thrust of
+the dome. Every possible effect of light and obscurity makes the strange
+vistas yet more weird, and, now and then, there is a feeling of standing
+upon the vast, rounding slope of some planet that shines at one's feet,
+then gradually falls away into the surrounding blackness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The famous "oaken chain" of Vasari's life of Brunelleschi is there,
+bolted together in successive beams. Last of all, a long, straight
+staircase, straight because without turn to right or left, curves upward
+like an unradiant, bowed Valhalla-bridge to a great burst of daylight,
+and the climber is upon the top of the dome.</p>
+
+<p>He is as completely cut off from the immediately surrounding earth as
+upon a cloud girdled mountain, for the dome swells so vastly below that
+the piazza can not be seen about transept or choir, and not one of the
+apsidal domes shows a tile of its covering, while the nave, that huge
+and tremendous nave of Santa Maria, looks but a narrow, and a distant
+roof. At one's back, the marble of the lantern is handsome and creamy in
+color, but battered and broken; its interior is curious&mdash;a narrow funnel
+of marble, little wider than a man's body, set with irons on either
+side, is the only ladder, so that the climb up is a close squeeze. There
+is a familiar something gone from the surroundings, and that something
+is soon remembered to be Dante's baptistery, which does not exist from
+Brunelleschi's dome, being blotted out by the fa&ccedil;ade of Santa Maria. One
+hundred feet below, showing its upper and richer portion gloriously from
+this novel point of view, is what from the piazza is the soaring bell
+tower, the Campanile of Giotto.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ARNOLFO, GIOTTO, BRUNELLESCHI<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY MRS. OLIPHANT</h4>
+
+
+<p>Arnolfo, sometimes called di Cambio and sometimes di Lapi, was the first
+of the group of Cathedral builders in Florence. Who Arnolfo was seems to
+be scarcely known, tho few architects after him have left greater works
+or more evidence of power. His first authentic appearance in history is
+among the band of workmen engaged upon the pulpit in the Duomo at Siena,
+as pupil or journeyman of Niccolo Pisano, the great reviver of the art
+of sculpture&mdash;when he becomes visible in company with a certain Lapo,
+who is sometimes called his father (as by Vasari) and sometimes his
+instructor, but who appears actually to have been nothing more than his
+fellow-workman and associate....</p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral, the Palazzo Pubblico, the two great churches of Santa
+Croce and Santa Maria Novella, all leaped into being within a few years,
+almost simultaneously. The Duomo was founded, as some say, in 1294, the
+same year in which Santa Croce was begun, or, according to others, in
+1298; and between these two dates, in 1296, the Palace of the Signoria,
+the seat of the Commonwealth, the center of all public life, had its
+commencement. All these great buildings, Arnolfo designed and began, and
+his genius requires no other evidence. The stern strength of the
+Palazzo, upright and strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> like a knight in mail, and the large and
+noble lines of the Cathedral, ample and liberal and majestic in ornate
+robes and wealthy ornaments, show how well he knew to vary and adapt his
+art to the different requirements of municipal and religious life and to
+the necessities of the age.</p>
+
+<p>We are not informed who they were who carried out the design of the
+Duomo. Arnolfo only lived to see a portion of this, his greatest work,
+completed&mdash;"the three principal tribunes which were under the cupola,"
+and which Vasari tells us were so solid and strongly built as to be able
+to bear the full weight of Brunelleschi's dome, which was much larger
+and heavier than the one the original architect had himself designed.
+Arnolfo died when he had built his Palazzo in rugged strength, as it
+still stands, with walls like living rock and heavy Tuscan cornices&mdash;tho
+it was reserved to the other masters to put upon it the wonderful crown
+of its appropriate tower&mdash;and just as the round apse of the cathedral
+approached completion; a hard fate for a great builder to leave such
+noble work behind him half done, yet the most common of all fates. He
+died, so far as there is any certainty in dates, in 1300, during the
+brief period of Dante's power in Florence, when the poet was one of the
+priors and much engaged in public business; and the same eventful year
+concluded the existence of Cimabue, the first of the great school of
+Florentine painters&mdash;he whose picture was carried home to the church in
+which it was to dwell for all the intervening centuries with such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> pride
+and acclamation that the Borgo Allegri is said to have taken its name
+from this wonderful rejoicing....</p>
+
+<p>No more notable or distinct figure than Giotto is in all the history of
+Florence. He was born a peasant, in the village of Vespignano in the
+Mugello, the same district which afterward gave birth to Fra Angelico.
+Giotto had at least part of his professional training in the great
+cathedral at Assisi built over the bones of St. Francis, was one of
+those homely, vigorous souls, "a natural person," like his father, whom
+neither the lapse of centuries nor the neighborhood of much greater and
+more striking persons about them, can deprive of their naive and genuine
+individuality. Burly, homely, characteristic, he carries our attentions
+always with him, alike on the silent road, or in the king's palace, or
+his own simple shop. Wherever he is, he is always the same, shrewd,
+humorous, plain-spoken, seeing through all pretenses, yet never
+ill-natured in doing so&mdash;a character not very lofty or elevated, and to
+which the racy ugliness of a strong, uncultivated race seems
+natural&mdash;but who under that homely nature carried appreciations and
+conceptions of beauty such as few fine minds possess.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the beautiful things with which Giotto adorned his city, not one
+speaks so powerfully to the foreign visitor&mdash;the forestiere whom he and
+his fellows never took into account, tho who occupy so large a space
+among the admirers of his genius nowadays&mdash;as the lovely Campanile which
+stands by the great cathedral like the white royal lily beside the Mary
+of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Annunciation, slender and strong and everlasting in its delicate
+grace. It is not often that a man takes up a new trade when he is
+approaching sixty, or even goes into a new path out of his familiar
+routine. But Giotto seems to have turned without a moment's hesitation
+from his paints and panels to the less easily-wrought materials of the
+builder and sculptor, without either faltering from the great enterprise
+or doubting his own power to do it. His frescoes and altarpieces and
+crucifixes, the work he had been so long accustomed to, and which he
+could execute pleasantly in his own workshop or on the cool new walls of
+church or convent, with his trained school of younger artists round to
+aid him, were as different as possible from the elaborate calculations
+and measurements by which alone the lofty tower, straight, and lightsome
+as a lily, could have sprung so high and stood so lightly against that
+Italian sky.</p>
+
+<p>Like the poet or the romancist when he turns from the flowery ways of
+fiction and invention, where he is unencumbered by any restrictions save
+those of artistic keeping and personal will, to the grave and beaten
+path of history&mdash;the painter must have felt when he too turned from the
+freedom and poetry of art to this first scientific undertaking. The
+Cathedral was so far finished by this time, its front not scarred and
+bare as afterward, but adorned with statues according to old Arnolfo's
+plan, who was dead more than thirty years before; but there was no
+belfry, no companion peal of peace and sweetness to balance the hoarse
+old vacca with its voice of iron.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Giotto seems to have thrown himself into work not only without
+reluctance but with enthusiasm. The foundation-stone of the building was
+laid in July of that year, with all the greatness of Florence looking
+on; and the painter entered upon his work at once, working out the most
+poetic effort of his life in marble and stone, among the masons'
+chippings and the dust and blaze of the public street. At the same time
+he designed, tho it does not seem sure whether he lived long enough to
+execute, a new fa&ccedil;ade for the Cathedral, replacing Arnolfo's old statues
+by something better.</p>
+
+<p>Of the Campanile itself it is difficult to speak in ordinary words. The
+enrichments of the surface, which is covered by beautiful groups set in
+a graceful framework of marble, with scarcely a flat or unadorned spot
+from top to bottom, have been ever since the admiration of artists and
+of the world. But we confess, for our own part, that it is the structure
+itself that affords us that soft ecstasy of contemplation, sense of a
+perfection before which the mind stops short, silenced and filled with
+the completeness of beauty unbroken, which Art so seldom gives, tho
+Nature often attains it by the simplest means, through the exquisite
+perfection of a flower or a stretch of summer sky.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we have looked at a sunset we look at Giotto's tower, poised far
+above in the blue air, in all the wonderful dawns and moonlights of
+Italy, swift darkness shadowing its white glory at the tinkle of the Ave
+Maria, and a golden glow of sunbeams accompanying the mid-day angelus.
+Between the solemn antiquity of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the old baptistery and the historical
+gloom of the great cathedral, it stands like the lily&mdash;if not, rather,
+like the great angel himself hailing her who was blest among women, and
+keeping up that lovely salutation, musical and sweet as its own beauty,
+for century after century, day after day. Giotto made not only the
+design, but even, Vasari assures us, worked at the groups and
+"bassi-relievi" of these "stories in marble, in which are depicted the
+beginning of all the arts." ...</p>
+
+<p>Filippo of Ser Brunellescho of the Lapi, which is, according to
+Florentine use, his somewhat cumbrous name, or Brunelleschi for short,
+as custom permitted him to be called, was the son of a notary, who as
+notaries do, hoped and expected his boy to follow in his steps and
+succeed to his practise. But, like other sons doomed their fathers' soul
+to cross, Filippo took to those "figuretti" in bronze which were so
+captivating to the taste of the time, and preferred rather to be a
+goldsmith, to hang upon the skirts of art, than to work in the paternal
+office. He was, as Vasari insinuates, small, puny, and ugly, but full of
+dauntless and daring energy as well as genius. From his gold and silver
+work, the "carvings" which old Bartoluccio had been so glad to escape,
+and from his "figuretti," the ambitious lad took to architectural
+drawing, of which, according to Vasari, he was one of the first
+amateurs, making "portraits" of the Cathedral and baptistery, of the
+Palazzo Pubblico, and the other chief buildings of the city. He was so
+eloquent a talker that a worthy citizen declared of him that he seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+"a new St. Paul;" and in his thoughts he was continually busy planning
+or imagining something skilful and difficult.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of completing the Cathedral by adding to it a cupola worthy of
+its magnificent size and proportions seems to have been in the young
+man's head before the Signoria or the city took any action in the
+matter. Arnolfo's designs are said to have been lost, and all the young
+Filippo could do was to study the picture in the Spanish chapel of Santa
+Maria Novella, where the cathedral was depicted according to Arnolfo's
+intention; and this proof to the usefulness of architectural
+backgrounds, no doubt, moved him to those pictures of building which he
+was fond of making.</p>
+
+<p>After his failure in the competition with Ghiberti for the baptistery
+gates, Filippo went to Rome, accompanied by Donato. Here the two friends
+lived and studied together for some time, one giving himself to
+sculpture, the other to architecture. Brunelleschi, according to Vasari,
+made this a period of very severe study. He examined all the remains of
+ancient buildings with the keenest care; studying the foundations and
+the strength of the walls, and the way in which such a prodigious load
+as the great dome, which already he saw in his mind's eye, could best be
+supported.</p>
+
+<p>So profound were his researches that he was called the treasure-hunter
+by those who saw him coming and going through the streets of Rome, a
+title so far justified that he is said in one instance to have actually
+found an ancient earthenware jar full of old coins. While<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> engaged in
+these studies, his money failing him, he worked for a jeweller according
+to the robust practise of the time, and after making ornaments and
+setting gems all day, set to work on his buildings, round and square,
+octagons, basilicas, arches, colosseums, and amphitheaters, perfecting
+himself in the principles of his art.</p>
+
+<p>In 1407 he returned to Florence, and then there began a series of
+negotiations between the artist and the city, to which there seemed at
+first as if no end could come. They met, and met again, assemblies of
+architects, of city authorities, of competitors less hopeful and less
+eager than himself. His whole heart, it is evident, was set upon the
+business. Hearing Donatello at one of these assemblies mention the
+cathedral at Orvieto, which he had visited on his way from Rome,
+Filippo, having his mantle and his hood on, without saying a word to
+anyone, set straight off from the Piazza on foot, and got as far as
+Cortona, from whence he returned with various pen-and-ink drawings
+before Donato or any one else had found out that he was away.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the small, keen, determined, ugly artist, swift and sudden as
+lightning, struck through all the hesitations, the consultations, the
+maunderings, the doubts, and the delays of the two authorities who had
+the matter in hand, the Signoria and the Operai, as who should say the
+working committee, and who made a hundred difficulties and shook their
+wise heads, and considered one foolish and futile plan after another
+with true burgher hesitation and wariness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At last, in 1420, an assembly of competitors was held in Florence, and a
+great many plans put forth, one of which was to support the proposed
+vault by a great central pillar, while another advised that the space to
+be covered should be filled with soil mixed with money, upon which the
+dome might be built, and which the people would gladly remove without
+expense afterward for the sake of the farthings! An expedient most droll
+in its simplicity. Brunelleschi, impatient of so much folly, went off to
+Rome, it is said, in the middle of these discussions, disgusted by the
+absurd ignorance which was thus put in competition with his careful
+study and long labor. Finally the appointment was conceded to him.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest difficulty with which he had to contend was a strike of his
+workmen, of whom, however, there being no trades' unions in those days,
+the imperious master made short work. And thus, day by day, the great
+dome swelled out over the shining marble walls and rose against the
+beautiful Italian sky. Nothing like it had been seen before by living
+eyes. The solemn grandeur of the Pantheon at Rome was indeed known to
+many, and San Giovanni<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> was in some sort an imitation of that; but
+the immense structure of the cupola, so justly poised, springing with
+such majestic grace from the familiar walls to which it gave new
+dignity, flattered the pride of the Florentines as something unique,
+besides delighting the eyes and imagination of so beauty-loving a race.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With that veiled and subtle pride which takes the shape of pious fear,
+some even pretended to tremble, lest it should be supposed to be too
+near an emulation of the blue vault above, and that Florence was
+competing with heaven; others, with the delightful magniloquence of the
+time, declared that the hills around the city were scarcely higher than
+the beautiful Duomo; and Vasari himself has a doubt that the heavens
+were envious, so persistent were the storms amid which the cupola arose.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there it stands to this day, firm and splendid, uninjured by
+celestial envy, more harmonious than St. Peter's, the crown of the
+beautiful city. Its measurements and size and the secrets of its
+formation we do not pretend to set forth; the reader will find them in
+every guide-book. But the keen, impetuous, rapid figure of the
+architect, impatient, and justly impatient, of all rivalry, the murmurs
+and comments of the workmen; the troubled minds of the city authorities,
+not knowing how to hold their ground between that gnome of majestic
+genius who had fathomed all the secrets of construction and built a
+hundred Duomos in his mind, while they were pottering over the
+preliminaries of one; have all the interest of life for us.</p>
+
+<p>Through the calm fields of art he goes like a whirlwind, keen, certain,
+unfailing in his aim, unsparing in means, carried forward by such an
+impulse of will and self-confidence that nothing can withstand him. Sure
+of his own powers, as he was when he carved in secret the crucifix which
+was to cover poor Donatello with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> confusion, he saw before him, over his
+carvings, as he worked for the Roman goldsmith, the floating vision of
+the great dome he was to build&mdash;and so built it, all opposition
+notwithstanding, clearing out of his way with the almost contemptuous
+impatience of that knowledge which has no doubt of itself, the competing
+architects.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>GHIBERTI'S GATES<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CHARLES YRIARTE</h4>
+
+
+<p>The Baptistery is the most ancient building in Florence. If not of pagan
+origin it dates from the earliest ages of Christianity. It was coated
+with marble of different colors by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1293, while in
+the sixteenth century Agnolo Gaddi designed the lantern; but long before
+Arnolfo's time it had been employed as a Christian place of worship,
+being used as a cathedral up to 1128, when it was converted into a
+baptistery.</p>
+
+<p>This building contains three gates, which have no parallel in the world.
+The oldest is that on the southern side, upon which Pisano spent
+twenty-two years of his life, a most beautiful work representing, in
+twenty compartments, the life of St. John the Baptist. The frieze which
+runs round it was commenced nearly a century afterward by Ghiberti, and
+Pollaiuolo had much to do with its completion.</p>
+
+<p>The northern gates are by Ghiberti, and, like those of Pisano, are
+divided into twenty com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>partments, the subject being the life of Christ.
+The bronze door-posts are delicately carved with flowers, fruit, and
+animals. These gates were first placed on the eastern side, but in 1452
+were removed to make room for Ghiberti's still finer work.</p>
+
+<p>On the third fa&ccedil;ade, that which faces the Duomo, is the Porta del
+Paradiso, so named by Michael Angelo, who declared that this gate was
+worthy to be the entrance into Paradise. Ghiberti divided each panel
+into five parts, taking the following as his subjects, after suggestions
+made by Leonardo Bruni Aretino: (1) Creation of Adam and Eve; (2) Cain
+and Abel; (3) Noah; (4) Abraham and Isaac; (5) Jacob and Esau; (6)
+Joseph in Egypt; (7) Moses on Mount Sinai; (8) The Capture of Jericho;
+(9) David Slaying Goliath; (10) The Queen of Sheba and Soloman.</p>
+
+<p>The frieze contains statuettes of the prophets and prophetesses and
+portrait-busts of men and women still alive, including Ghiberti himself,
+and his father; while the frame-posts, with their masses of vegetation
+and flora wrought in bronze, are admirable for their truth to nature.
+Bronze groups representing the "Decapitation of St. John the Baptist,"
+by Danti, and the "Baptism of our Lord," by Andrea Sansovino, surmount
+two of the gates, which were at one time heavily gilded, tho few traces
+of this are now visible.</p>
+
+<p>The Baptistery, empty as it appears to the eye upon first entering it,
+is replete with beautiful monuments, a description of which would fill a
+good-sized volume. It is built, as I have already said, upon an
+octagonal plan. The altar, which formerly stood beneath the cupola, has
+been re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>moved. On the 24th of June every year the magnificent retablo in
+massive silver, which is preserved among the treasures in the Opera del
+Duomo, is displayed in the Baptistery. The silver alone weighs 325
+pounds, including two center-pieces, two side-pieces, and a silver
+crucifix with two statuettes seven feet high, and weighing 141 pounds,
+the group being completed by two statues of Peace in engine-turned
+silver. Many artists were employed upon the making of it. Finiguerra,
+Pollaiuolo, Cione, Michelozzi, Verrocchio, and Cennini made the lower
+parts and the bas-reliefs of the front, while the cross, executed in
+1456, is by Betto di Francesco, and the base of it by Milano di Domenico
+dei and Antonio Pollaiuolo.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the cupola of San Giovanni is ornamented with some of
+the oldest specimens of mosaic decoration in Florence, these Byzantine
+artists being the first, after Murano and Altino, to exercise their
+craft in Italy, and being succeeded by Jacopo da Turita, Andrea Tafi,
+and Gaddo Gaddi.</p>
+
+<p>The handsome tomb of Baldassare Cossa (Pope John XXIII., deposed at the
+time of the Council of Constance), was reared in the Baptistery by
+Donatello. The Holy of Holies is relatively modern, having been erected
+at the expense of the Guild of the "Calimala," as the men who gave the
+finishing touch to the woolen stuffs manufactured abroad were called.
+The baptismal font, in a building specially used for christening, would,
+as a matter of course, be intrusted to artists of great repute, and that
+at San Giovanni is attributed to Andrea Pisano. Upon each face is
+represented one of the baptisms most famous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> in the history of the
+Catholic religion, an inscription beneath explaining each episode; but
+this font is, unfortunately, so much in the background that it escapes
+the notice of many visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Donatello carved the wooden statue of the Magdalen which occupies one of
+the niches, the thin emaciated face being typical of the artist's
+partiality for reproducing in their smallest details the physical
+defects of his subject. The exterior aspect of the Baptistery does not
+give one the idea of a building restored in the thirteenth, but rather
+in the fifteenth century.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE PONTE VECCHIO<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CHARLES YRIARTE</h4>
+
+
+<p>Until the close of 1080 the Ponte Vecchio was built of wood, the heavy
+masses of timber, tho offering no steady resistance to the stream,
+dividing the muddy course of the waters into a thousand small currents,
+and breaking its force. But in 1177 occurred one of those inundations
+which were so frequent that traces of them may still be seen on the
+walls of the quays. These inundations were one of the curses of
+Florence, and tho the evil has been, to a certain extent, cured by the
+construction of massive quays, they still occur in the direction of the
+Cascine. An attempt was accordingly made in the twelfth century to
+obviate this inconvenience by the construction of a stone bridge. This,
+in turn, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> carried away in 1333, and Taddeo Gaddi, who had already
+made a name for himself by his architectural skill, was employed to
+build a bridge capable of resisting the highest floods. The present
+bridge was therefore erected in 1345, being 330 feet long by 44 wide.</p>
+
+<p>With the double object of obtaining an income for the city and of
+introducing a novel feature, shops were built on the two pathways, which
+were 16 feet wide, and these were let to the butchers of Florence, thus
+realizing the Eastern plan of concentrating the meat trade of a town in
+one place. This arrangement lasted from 1422 until 1593, but in the
+latter year, under Cosimo I., the "Capitani di Parte," who had the
+supervision of the streets and highways, ordered that all the goldsmiths
+and jewelers should take the place of the butchers, and in a few months,
+the Ponte Vecchio became the wealthiest and most crowded thoroughfare of
+Florence. In order to avoid shutting out a view of the stream and
+interfering with the perspective, an open space had been reserved in the
+center, and when the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi were connected with
+the Pitti Palace by means of the large covered way carried over the
+bridge, this space was left intact so as to afford a view of the
+eminence of San Miniato upon one side, of the windings of the stream on
+the other, and of the Cascine shrubberies and the mountains upon the
+horizon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>SANTA CROCE<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CHARLES YRIARTE</h4>
+
+
+<p>Built by Arnolfo, then fifty-four years of age, by order of the Friars
+of St. Francis, this venerable temple was raised upon the piazza called
+Santa Croce, where formerly stood a small church belonging to the order
+of the Franciscan monks. They had resolved to embellish and enlarge
+their church, and Cardinal Matteo D'Acquasparta, general of the
+Franciscan Order, proclaimed an indulgence to all contributors toward
+the undertaking. The church was far enough advanced in 1320 for services
+to be held in it, tho the fa&ccedil;ade was then, as until a very recent period
+it remained, a plain brick wall, without facing or any other ornament.
+Santa Croce was not singular in this respect, for San Lorenzo and many
+other Florentine churches have never been decorated externally.</p>
+
+<p>In 1442 Cardinal Bessarion, the founder of St. Mark's Library at Venice,
+was delegated to perform the ceremony of consecration. Donatello and
+Ghiberti, incomplete as was the fa&ccedil;ade, executed some statues and a
+stained-glass window for it, but it is only within the last few years
+that the city of Florence completed the work, leaving untouched the
+grand piazza which had been the scene of so many f&ecirc;tes and intestine
+quarrels, and upon which is now erected a statue to Dante. The fa&ccedil;ade of
+Santa Croce was completed in 1863. The expense was principally borne by
+Mr. Francis Sloane, an Englishman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The interior is striking from its vast size, the church being built in
+the shape of a Latin cross with nave, aisles, and transepts, each of the
+seven pointed arches being supported on the octagonal column. Opposite
+the front entrance is the high altar, while all around the walls and
+between the side altars&mdash;erected in 1557 by Vasari by order of Cosimo
+I.&mdash;are the monuments of the illustrious dead. First of all on the left
+there is Domenico Sestini, a celebrated numismatist, whose bust was
+carved by Pozzetti. While in the first chapel on the right is the tomb
+of Michael Angelo, who died at Rome on the 17th of February, 1564; the
+monument was designed by Vasari, the bust was executed by Battista
+Lorenzo. Two contemporary sculptors, Valerio Cioli and Giovanni
+Dell'Opera, did the allegories of Sculpture and Architecture, the
+frescoes around the monument being by Battista Naldini. A nobler tomb
+might well have been raised to the memory of Michael Angelo. The body
+was deposited in the church on the 12th of March, 1564, and lay in
+state, for the people of Florence to come and pay him the last tribute
+of respect.</p>
+
+<p>The next tomb is only commemorative, for it does not contain the ashes
+of Dante, in whose honor it was erected in 1829 by Ricci, as a tardy
+homage on the part of Florence to one who suffered so much for her sake
+in life.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>After Dante comes Victor Alfieri, whose name has been borne with
+distinction by his descen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>dants. This monument was erected by Canova in
+1807. Compared with the monuments of the fifteenth century and of the
+Renaissance, which are to be seen in such splendid profusion in
+Florence, these tombs seem so inferior that it is impossible not to
+wonder how the decadence was brought about. It is not at Florence alone
+that this feeling manifests itself; for at Venice, in the splendid
+temple of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, beside the tombs of doges and
+condottieri of the fifteenth century there stands that wretched monument
+upon which the great name of Titian has been traced. This is evidently
+the result of an inevitable law to which humanity is subject. Genius
+comes into the world, grows, spreads, and covers the earth with its
+shadow; then slowly the sap runs back from the verdant trunk, the tree
+yields less luscious fruit and flowers not so fair, until at last the
+branches wither and the tree dies.</p>
+
+<p>Close beside Alfieri is buried Machiavelli, his tomb, like so many of
+the others, being of modern erection, and consequently less beautiful
+than if it had been the work of a sculptor who had studied in the school
+of Ghiberti or Donatello. By the side of Machiavelli rests Luigi Lanzi,
+a name less generally known, tho celebrated in his time as an
+historiographer of painting, or an art critic as we should now call him.
+His friend, Chevalier Ornofrio Boni, prepared the design for his tomb,
+which was executed at public cost. The pulpit&mdash;a fine specimen of
+fifteenth-century sculpture, carved by Benedetto da Maiano at the cost
+of Pietro Mellini, who presented it to the church&mdash;is well worth close
+inspection; and close by, be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>tween the tombs of Lanzi and Leonardo
+Bruni, is a group in freestone, representing the Annunciation. This was
+one of the first of Donatello's works, and gave an earnest of his future
+genius.</p>
+
+<p>The tomb of Leonardo Bruni Aretino is one of the five or six greatest
+works of this nature which ever left the sculptor's hands; it has been
+used as a model by the sculptors of all the tombs in Santa Maria del
+Popolo at Rome. The monument to Leonardo Bruni is the highest expression
+of sculptural art, combining all the taste of ancient Greece with the
+grace, the power, the calm, the supreme harmony, and the perfection
+which genius alone confers, its tranquil and subdued beauty comparing
+favorably with the theatrical effect and garish splendor of the
+monuments in St. John Lateran and St. Peter's at Rome. The superb
+mausoleums of Leopardi and of the Lombardi at Venice are, perhaps,
+equally beautiful; but I am inclined to give the preference to the work
+of Bernardo Rossellini. He became acquainted with Leonardo Bruni at the
+Papal Court, where he, as well as Leo Battista Alberti, was a director
+of the pontifical works. The Madonna let into the upper part of the
+monument is by Andrea Verocchio....</p>
+
+<p>In visiting Santa Croce it is impossible not to feel how erroneous are
+the views often held as to the exact place which will be allotted in the
+roll of history to the men of the day. Many of the names in this
+Pantheon are almost unknown, the tomb next to that of Galileo containing
+the dust of Mulazzi-Signorini, who has never been heard of out of Italy.
+Another unavoidable reflection is that the talent of the sculptor is
+rarely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> in proportion to that of the man whose memory he is about to
+perpetuate. Machiavelli was commemorated by two obscure sculptors like
+Foggini and Ticcati, and Michael Angelo by Battista Lorenzi. What has
+the world not lost by the refusal of Michael Angelo's offer to erect a
+tomb to Dante when the city of Florence was about to ask Ravenna to
+restore his remains to her!</p>
+
+<p>The convent annexed to Santa Croce was also built by Arnolfo. It was
+originally occupied by the Franciscan monks, and it was here that, from
+1284 to 1782, the Inquisition held its sittings. The notorious
+Frenchman, Gaulthier de Brienne, Duke of Athens, who for a brief period
+ruled Florence as Captain of the People, selected this monastery as his
+residence in June, 1342, but having in September of the same year
+succeeded in getting himself elected ruler of Florence for life, he
+removed to the Palazzo Vecchio. His reign, however, was of only brief
+duration, for the year following he was expelled by the people.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE UFFIZI GALLERY<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4>
+
+
+<p>What can be said of a gallery containing thirteen hundred pictures? For
+my own part I abstain. Examine catalogs and collections of engravings,
+or rather come here yourself. The impressions borne away from these
+grand store-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>houses are too diverse and too numerous to be transmitted
+by the pen. Observe this, that the Uffizi is a universal depot, a sort
+of Louvre containing paintings of all times and schools, bronzes,
+statues, sculptures, antique and modern terracottas, cabinets of gems,
+an Etruscan museum, artists' portraits painted by themselves,
+twenty-eight thousand original drawings, four thousand cameos and
+ivories and eighty thousand medals. One resorts to it as to a library;
+it is an abridgment and a specimen of everything....</p>
+
+<p>We ascend the great marble staircase, pass the famous antique boar and
+enter the long horseshoe corridor filled with busts and tapestried with
+paintings. Visitors, about ten o'clock in the morning, are few; the mute
+custodians remain in their corners; you seem to be really at home. It
+all belongs to you, and what convenient possessions! Keepers and
+majordomos are here to keep things in order, well dusted and intact; it
+is not even necessary to give orders; matters go on of themselves
+without jar or confusion, nobody giving himself the slightest concern;
+it is an ideal world such as it ought to be. The light is excellent;
+bright gleams from the windows fall on some distant white statues on the
+rosy torso of a woman which comes out living from the shadowy obscurity.
+Beyond, as far as the eye can see, marble gods and emperors extend away
+in files up to the windows through which flickers the light ripple of
+the Arno with the silvery swell on its crests and eddies.</p>
+
+<p>You enter into the freedom and sweet repose of abstract life; the will
+relaxes, the inner tumult subsides; one feels himself becoming a monk,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+a modern monk. Here, as formerly in the cloisters, the tender inward
+spirit, chafed by the necessities of action, insensibly revives in order
+to commune with beings emancipated from life's obligations. It is so
+sweet no longer to be! Not to be is so natural! And how peaceful the
+realm of human forms withdrawn from human conflict! The pure thought
+which follows them is so conscious that its illusion is transient; it
+participates in their incorporeal serenity, and reverie, lingering in
+turn over their voluptuousness and violence, brings back to it plenitude
+without satiety.</p>
+
+<p>On the left of the corridors open the cabinets of precious things&mdash;the
+Niobe hall, that of portraits, that of modern bronzes, each with its
+special group of treasures. You feel that you have a right to enter,
+that great men are awaiting you. A selection is made among them; you
+reenter the Tribune; five antique statues form a circle here&mdash;a slave
+sharpening his knife; two interlocked wrestlers whose muscles are
+strained and expanded; a charming Apollo of sixteen years whose compact
+form has all the suppleness of the freshest adolescence; an admirable
+Faun instinct with the animality of his species, unconsciously joyous
+and dancing with all his might; and finally, the "Venus de Medici," a
+slender young girl with a small delicate head, not a goddess like her
+sister of Milo, but a perfect mortal and the work of some Praxiteles
+fond of "hetairae," at ease in a nude state and free from that somewhat
+mawkish delicacy and bashful coquetry which its copies, and the restored
+arms with their thin fingers by Bernini, seem to impose on her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She is, perhaps, a copy of that Venus of Cnidus of which Lucian relates
+an interesting story; you imagine while looking at her, the youths'
+kisses prest on the marble lips, and the exclamations of Charicles who,
+on seeing it, declared Mars to be the most fortunate of gods. Around the
+statues, on the eight sides of the wall, hang the masterpieces of the
+leading painters. There is the "Madonna of the Goldfinch" by Raphael,
+pure and candid, like an angel whose soul is a bud not yet in bloom; his
+"St. John," nude, a fine youthful form of fourteen, healthy and
+vigorous, in which the purest paganism lives over again; and especially
+a superb head of a crowned female, radiant as a summer noonday, with
+fixt and earnest gaze, her complexion of that powerful southern
+carnation which the emotions do not change, where the blood does not
+pulsate convulsively and to which passion only adds a warmer glow, a
+sort of Roman muse in whom will still prevails over intellect, and whose
+vivacious energy reveals itself in repose as well as in action.</p>
+
+<p>In one corner a tall cavalier by Van Dyck, in black and with a broad
+frill, seems as grandly and gloriously proud in character as in
+proportions, primarily through a well-fed body and next through the
+undisputed possession of authority and command. Three steps more and we
+come to the "Flight into Egypt," by Correggio, the Virgin with a
+charming spirited face wholly suffused with inward light in which the
+purity, archness, gentleness and wildness of a young girl combine to
+shed the tenderest grace and impart the most fascinating allurements.
+Alongside of this a "Sibyl" by Guercino, with her carefully adjusted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+coiffure and drapery, is the most spiritual and refined of sentimental
+poetesses.</p>
+
+<p>I pass twenty others in order to reserve the last look for Titian's two
+Venuses. One, facing the door, reclines on a red velvet mantle, an ample
+vigorous torso as powerful as one of Rubens' Bacchantes, but firmer&mdash;an
+energetic and vulgar figure, a simple, strong unintellectual courtezan.
+She lies extended on her back, caressing a little cupid naked like
+herself, with the vacant seriousness and passivity of soul of an animal
+in repose and expectant. The other, called "Venus with the Dog," is a
+patrician's mistress, couched, adorned and ready. We recognize a palace
+of the day, the alcove fitted up and colors tastefully and magnificently
+contrasted for the pleasure of the eye; in the background are servants
+arranging clothes; through a window a section of blue landscape is
+visible; the master is about to arrive.</p>
+
+<p>Nowadays we devour pleasure secretly like stolen fruit; then it was
+served up on golden salvers and people sat down to it at a table. It is
+because pleasure was not vile or bestial. This woman holding a bouquet
+in her hand in this grand columnar saloon has not the vapid smile or the
+wanton and malicious air of an adventuress about to commit a bad action.
+The calm of evening enters the palace through noble architectural
+openings. Under the pale green of the curtains lies the figure on a
+white sheet, slightly flushed with the regular pulsation of life, and
+developing the harmony of her undulating forms. The head is small and
+placid; the soul does not rise above the corporal instincts; hence she
+can resign her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>self to them without shame, while the poesy of art,
+luxury and security on all sides comes to decorate and embellish them.
+She is a courtezan but also a lady; in those days the former did not
+efface the latter; one was as much a title as the other and, probably,
+in demeanor, affection and intellect one was as good as the other. The
+celebrated Imperia had her tomb in the church of San Gregorio, at Rome,
+with this inscription: "Imperia, a Roman courtezan worthy of so great a
+name, furnished an example to men of perfect beauty, lived twenty-six
+years and twelve days, and died in 1511, August 25." ...</p>
+
+<p>On passing from the Italian into the Flemish galleries one is completely
+turned around; here are paintings executed for merchants content to
+remain quietly at home eating good dinners and speculating over the
+profits of their business; moreover in rainy and muddy countries dress
+has to be cared for, and by the women more than the men. The mind feels
+itself contracted on entering the circle of this well-to-do domestic
+life; such is the impression of Corinne when from liberal Italy she
+passes to rigid and dreary Scotland. And yet there is a certain picture,
+a large landscape by Rembrandt, which equals and surpasses all; a dark
+sky bursting with showers among flocks of screaming crows; beneath, is
+an infinite stretch of country as desolate as a cemetery; on the right a
+mass of barren rocks of so mournful and lugubrious a tint as to attain
+to the sublime in effect. So is it with an andante of Beethoven after an
+Italian Opera.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>FLORENCE EIGHTY YEARS AGO<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT</h4>
+
+
+<p>There is a great deal of prattle about Italian skies; the skies and
+clouds of Italy, so far as I have had an opportunity of judging, do not
+present so great a variety of beautiful appearances as our own; but the
+Italian atmosphere is far more uniformly fine than ours. Not to speak of
+its astonishing clearness, it is pervaded by a certain warmth of color
+which enriches every object. This is more remarkable about the time of
+sunset, when the mountains put on an aerial aspect, as if they belonged
+to another and fairer world; and a little after the sun has gone down,
+the air is flushed with a glory which seems to transfigure all that it
+encloses.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the fine old palaces of Florence, you know, are built in a
+gloomy tho grand style of architecture, of a dark-colored stone, massive
+and lofty, and overlooking narrow streets that lie in almost perpetual
+shade. But at the hour of which I am speaking, the bright warm radiance
+reflected from the sky to the earth, fills the darkest lanes, streams
+into the most shadowy nooks, and makes the prison-like structures
+glitter as with a brightness of their own.</p>
+
+<p>It is now nearly the middle of October, and we have had no frost. The
+strong summer heats which prevailed when I came hither, have by the
+slowest gradations subsided into an agreeable autumnal temperature. The
+trees keep their verdure, but I perceive their foliage growing thin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>ner,
+and when I walk in the Cascine on the other side of the Arno, the
+rustling of the lizards, as they run among the heaps of crisp leaves,
+reminds me that autumn is wearing away, tho the ivy which clothes the
+old elms has put forth a profuse array of blossoms, and the walks murmur
+with bees like our orchards in spring. As I look along the declivities
+of the Appenines, I see the raw earth every day more visible between the
+ranks of olive-trees and the well-pruned maples which support the vines.</p>
+
+<p>If I have found my expectations of Italian scenery, in some respects,
+below the reality; in other respects, they have been disappointed. The
+forms of the mountains are wonderfully picturesque, and their effect is
+heightened by the rich atmosphere through which they are seen, and by
+the buildings, imposing from their architecture or venerable from time,
+which crown the eminences. But if the hand of man has done something to
+embellish this region, it has done more to deform it. Not a tree is
+suffered to retain its natural shape, not a brook to flow in its natural
+channel. An exterminating war is carried on against the natural herbage
+of the soil. The country is without woods and green fields; and to him
+who views the vale of the Arno "from the top of Fiesole," or any of the
+neighboring heights, grand as he will allow the circle of the mountains
+to be, and magnificent the edifices with which the region is adorned, it
+appears, at any time after mid-summer, a huge valley of dust, planted
+with low rows of the pallid and thin-leaved olive, or the more dwarfish
+maple on which vines are trained.</p>
+
+<p>The simplicity of nature, so far as can be done,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> is destroyed; there is
+no fine sweep of forest, no broad expanse of meadow or pasture ground,
+no ancient and towering trees clustered about the villas, no rows of
+natural shrubbery following the course of the brooks and rivers. The
+streams, which are often but the beds of torrents dry during the summer,
+are confined in straight channels by stone walls and embankments; the
+slopes are broken up and disfigured by terraces; and the trees are kept
+down by constant pruning and lopping, until half way up the sides of the
+Appenines, where the limit of cultivation is reached, and thence to the
+summit is a barren steep of rock, without herbage or soil. The grander
+features of the landscape, however, are fortunately beyond the power of
+man to injure; the lofty mountain-summits, bare precipices cleft with
+chasms, and pinnacles of rock piercing the sky, betokening, far more
+than any thing I have seen elsewhere, a breaking up of the crust of the
+globe in some early period of its existence. I am told that in May and
+June the country is much more beautiful than at present, and that owing
+to a drought it now appears under disadvantage....</p>
+
+<p>Florence, from being the residence of the Court,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> and from the vast
+number of foreigners who throng to it, presents during several months of
+the year an appearance of great bustle and animation. Four thousand
+English, an American friend tells me, visit Florence every winter, to
+say nothing of the occasional residents from France, Germany, and
+Russia. The number of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> visitors from the latter country is every year
+increasing, and the echoes of the Florence gallery have been taught to
+repeat the strange accents of the Slavonic. Let me give you the history
+of a fine day in October, passed at the window of my lodgings on the
+Lung Arno, close to the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>Waked by the jangling of all the bells in Florence and by the noise of
+carriages departing loaded with travelers, for Rome and other places in
+the south of Italy, I rise, dress myself, and take my place at the
+window. I see crowds of men and women from the country, the former in
+brown velvet jackets, and the latter in broad-brimmed straw hats,
+driving donkeys loaded with panniers or trundling hand-carts before
+them, heaped with grapes, figs, and all the fruits of the orchard, the
+garden, and the field. They have hardly passed, when large flocks of
+sheep and goats make their appearance, attended by shepherds and their
+families, driven by the approach of winter from the Appenines, and
+seeking the pastures of the Maremma, a rich, but, in the summer, an
+unhealthy tract on the coast.</p>
+
+<p>The men and the boys are drest in knee-breeches, the women in bodices,
+and both sexes wear capotes with pointed hoods, and felt hats with
+conical crowns; they carry long staves in their hands, and their arms
+are loaded with kids and lambs too young to keep pace with their
+mothers. After the long procession of sheep and goats and dogs and men
+and women and children, come horses loaded with cloths and poles for
+tents, kitchen utensils, and the rest of the younglings of the flock.</p>
+
+<p>A little after sunrise I see well-fed donkeys,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> in coverings of red
+cloth, driven over the bridge to be milked for invalids. Maid-servants,
+bare-headed, with huge high carved combs in their hair, waiters of
+coffee-houses carrying the morning cup of coffee or chocolate to their
+customers, baker's boys with a dozen loaves on a board balanced on their
+heads, milkmen with rush baskets filled with flasks of milk, are
+crossing the streets in all directions. A little later the bell of the
+small chapel opposite to my window rings furiously for a quarter of an
+hour, and then I hear mass chanted in a deep strong nasal tone.</p>
+
+<p>As the day advances, the English, in white hats and white pantaloons,
+come out of their lodgings, accompanied sometimes by their hale and
+square-built spouses, and saunter stiffly along the Arno, or take their
+way to the public galleries and museums. Their massive, clean, and
+brightly-polished carriages also begin to rattle through the streets,
+setting out on excursions to some part of the environs of Florence&mdash;to
+Fiesole, to the Pratolino, to the Bello Sguardo, to the Poggio
+Imperiale. Sights of a different kind now present themselves. Sometimes
+it is a troop of stout Franciscan friars, in sandals and brown robes,
+each carrying his staff and wearing a brown broad-brimmed hat with a
+hemispherical crown. Sometimes it is a band of young theological
+students, in purple cassocks with red collars and cuffs, let out on a
+holiday, attended by their clerical instructors, to ramble in the
+Cascine. There is a priest coming over the bridge, a man of venerable
+age and great reputation for sanctity&mdash;the common people crowd around
+him to kiss his hand, and obtain a kind word from him as he passes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But what is that procession of men in black gowns, black gaiters, and
+black masks, moving swiftly along, and bearing on their shoulders a
+litter covered with black cloth? These are the Brethren of Mercy, who
+have assembled at the sound of the cathedral bell, and are conveying
+some sick or wounded person to the hospital. As the day begins to
+decline, the numbers of carriages in the streets, filled with
+gaily-drest people attended by servants in livery, increases. The Grand
+Duke's equipage, an elegant carriage drawn by six horses, with coachmen,
+footmen, and out-riders in drab-colored livery, comes from the Pitti
+Palace, and crosses the Arno, either by the bridge close to my lodgings,
+or by that called Alla Santa Trinit&agrave;, which is in full sight from the
+windows. The Florentine nobility, with their families, and the English
+residents, now throng to the Cascine, to drive at a slow pace through
+its thickly-planted walks of elms, oaks, and ilexes.</p>
+
+<p>As the sun is sinking I perceive the Quay, on the other side of the
+Arno, filled with a moving crowd of well-drest people, walking to and
+fro, and enjoying the beauty of the evening. Travelers now arrive from
+all quarters, in cabriolets, in calashers, in the shabby "vettura," and
+in the elegant private carriage drawn by post-horses, and driven by
+postillions in the tightest possible deer-skin breeches, the smallest
+red coats, and the hugest jack-boots. The streets about the doors of the
+hotels resound with the cracking of whips and the stamping of horses,
+and are encumbered with carriages, heaps of baggage, porters,
+postillions, couriers, and travelers. Night at length arrives&mdash;the time
+of spectacles and funerals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The carriages rattle toward the opera-houses. Trains of people,
+sometimes in white robes and sometimes in black, carrying blazing
+torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, pass
+through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The Brethren of
+Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The rapidity of their
+pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their eyes through their
+masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of supernatural
+appearance. I return to bed, and fall asleep amid the shouts of people
+returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches of the music with
+which they had been entertained during the evening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<h2>VENICE</h2>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h2>THE APPROACH FROM THE SEA<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY CHARLES YRIARTE</h4>
+
+
+<p>To taste in all their fulness his first impressions of Venice, the
+traveler should arrive there by sea, at mid-day, when the sun is high.
+By degrees, as the ship which carries him enters the channels, he will
+see the unparalleled city emerging from the lap of the lagoon, with its
+proud campaniles, its golden spires, its gray or silvery domes and
+cupolas. Advancing along the narrow channels of navigation, posts and
+piles dot here and there with black that sheet of steel, and give
+substance to the dream, making solid and tangible the foreground of the
+illusive distance.</p>
+
+<p>Just now, all that enchanted world and fairy architecture floated in the
+air; little by little all has become distinct; those points of dark
+green turn into gardens; that mass of deep red is the line of the
+ship-building yards, with their leprous-looking houses and with the
+dark-colored stocks on which are erected the skeletons of polaccas and
+feluccas in course of construction; the white line showing so bright in
+the sun is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Riva dei Schiavoni, all alive with its world of
+gondoliers, fruit-sellers, Greek sailors, and Chioggiotes in their
+many-colored costumes. The rose-colored palace with the stunted
+colonnade is the Ducal Palace. The vessel, on its way to cast anchor off
+the Piazzetta, coasts round the white and rose-colored island which
+carries Palladio's church of Santa Maria Maggiore, whose firm campanile
+stands out against the sky with Grecian clearness and grace. Looking
+over the bow, the traveler has facing him the Grand Canal, with the
+Custom House where the figure of Fortune veers with the wind above her
+golden ball; beyond rise the double domes of the Salute with their great
+reversed consoles, forming the most majestic entrance to this watery
+avenue bordered by palaces.</p>
+
+<p>He who comes for the first time to Venice by this route realizes a
+dream&mdash;his only dream perhaps ever destined to be surpassed by the
+reality; and if he knows how to enjoy the beauty of nature, if he can
+take delight in silver-gray and rose-colored reflections in water, if he
+loves light and color, the picturesque life of Italian squares and
+streets, the good humor of the people and their gentle speech which
+seems like the twittering of birds, let him only allow himself to live
+for a little time under the sky of Venice, and he has before him a
+season of happiness without alloy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE APPROACH BY TRAIN<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY THE EDITOR</h4>
+
+
+<p>After leaving Padua the land for several miles is flat sand. No grass or
+tree grows here. Lagoons and canals intersect the land. At the right are
+marshes bordering the Adriatic. Along the horizon, light smoky clouds
+blend imperceptibly with the water. Other clouds, floating overhead, are
+reflected in the brown and waveless water. Far across this expanse
+glides here and there a small boat, propelled by a man standing erect.
+Through dim mists, settled over the bay, we sight flying birds that call
+loudly as they increase their flight. Absolutely without motion is this
+water. The sole objects that move are boats and birds. The water
+shimmers and sparkles wherever the sun, passing in and out of clouds,
+lights it up. The shallow bay broadens until our view includes no land.
+Everywhere extends a realm of waveless waters, in which fishing stakes
+stand erect, and tall plants grow.</p>
+
+<p>How strangely all this differs from the blue Mediterranean we saw a
+fortnight ago when riding from Genoa to Leghorn, under that cloudless
+sky of blue; in that stirring breeze, and an almost tropical
+temperature, tho it was late in December; along that rocky,
+tunnel-pierced coast, with deep olive groves bordering the way; the sea
+a boundless vision of water moving and resounding against the shore;
+whitecaps everywhere visible on its broad expanse. Here on this road to
+Ven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>ice is complete repose, lifeless, sleepy repose&mdash;as of the dead&mdash;not
+without poetry, but of the Orient and of mystics, rather than of
+Provence, or the Ligurian shore and active, stalwart men.</p>
+
+<p>We sight in the distance over the lagoon, the white walls and roof line
+of Venice. The railway starts on its long course over one of the noblest
+bridges in the world. It is more than two miles long. Some 80,000 piles
+were used in its foundations, the superstructure entirely of stone, with
+arches of 33 feet span each, and 222 in number. Along the roadway, on
+either side is a stone balustrade. At each pier a balcony curves
+outward. For four years a thousand men were engaged in building this
+viaduct, and the total cost was $10,000,000. Having crossed, we reach an
+island; then cross another, but shorter, bridge and pass to another
+island. Our train thereafter comes to a stop for we have reached Venice
+and enter a magnificent station, built of stone, with high semi-circular
+roof, lofty waiting rooms, mosaic floors. We pass out through a spacious
+doorway, and directly below, and in front, see the Grand Canal, bordered
+on its farther shore by palaces and other noble structures of white
+marble. A wide and broad plaza here fronts the water, and a stairway at
+its edge leads downward to where are waiting a score of gondolas.</p>
+
+<p>We step into one of these boats, and begin our first gondola ride in
+Adriatic waters. It is late afternoon. The western sun lies dying in a
+mass of yellow and soft brown clouds. On the high walls of the great
+white station its rays fall with startling brightness and cast long
+shadows of waiting gondoliers upon the plaza floor. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> white palaces
+opposite are shrouded in somber hues. A warm mist seems to rise from the
+water. All is still as in the mid-Atlantic. When a sound is made, echoes
+sharp and clear come from shore to shore.</p>
+
+<p>Our boat glides away from this scene. Adjusting ourselves to its motion,
+we roll from side to side in our little house of glass on a downy seat
+and could pass the whole night here contentedly. Such rest, such
+appalling silence, we never knew before. Those gondoliers do their work
+with consummate skill. They have all the ease that comes of practise in
+any calling however difficult. The sharp cut of an oar as it enters the
+water is for a moment heard, but never a splash. The boat rolls
+constantly, but we feel no strain. It moves as if it were a toy swan
+drawn by a magnet in a child's hand.</p>
+
+<p>From the Grand Canal we enter a narrow street. Sharp corners are turned
+quickly, swift-moving boats are passed, narrow passages entered, and we
+glide into deep shadows under bridges, but never a collision, or danger
+of one, occurs. The gondolier at crossings cries out his warning. We
+hear, but do not see, another who calls aloud in similar tones. The two
+voices are heard again, each in an echo. Far away in this watery but
+populous solitude, a church bell tolls.</p>
+
+<p>We have had a quarter-hour's ride when the gondola comes to rest before
+broad stone steps leading upward to a wide doorway. Here is our hotel,
+an ancient palace, rich in marble and granite, with broad corridor, a
+noble stairway, and mosaic floors. It is Sunday on St. Mark's Place&mdash;a
+bright, warm Sunday it has been, such as win<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>ter can not give in our own
+country. Here, indeed, is a foreign land, its life and spirit more
+foreign than Rome. No scene in the wide world can rival this St. Mark's
+scene, with the islands across the way in the broad lagoon&mdash;a
+magnificent piazza, bordered by the fa&ccedil;ades of splendid palaces, by
+statues, columns, and ornate capitals, another piazza near it surrounded
+on three sides by noble arcaded structures and on the fourth by the half
+Gothic, half Byzantine Church of St. Mark's, the most resplendent
+Christian edifice in Europe. In one corner rises the stupendous
+Campanile, high above palace roofs, arcades and church domes, its bells
+sounding their notes upon an otherwise silent world.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>A TOUR OF THE GRAND CANAL<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY TH&Eacute;OPHILE GAUTIER</h4>
+
+
+<p>The Grand Canal of Venice is the most wonderful thing in the world. No
+other city affords a spectacle so fine, so bizarre, so fairy-like. As
+remarkable bits of architecture, perhaps, can be found elsewhere, but
+nowhere located under such picturesque conditions.</p>
+
+<p>There each palace has a mirror in which to gaze at its beauty, like a
+coquettish woman. The superb reality is doubled by a charming
+reflection. The water lovingly caresses the feet of these beautiful
+fa&ccedil;ades, which a white light kisses on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> the forehead, and cradles them
+in a double sky. The small boats and big ships which are able to ascend
+it seem to be made fast for the express purpose of serving as set-offs
+or ground-plans for the convenience of the decorators....</p>
+
+<p>Each bit of wall narrates a story; every house is a palace; at each
+stroke of the oars the gondolier mentions a name which was as well known
+in the times of the Crusades as it is to-day; and this continues both to
+left and right for a distance of more than half a league. We have made a
+list of these palaces, not of all, but the most remarkable, and we do
+not dare to transcribe it here on account of its length. It covers five
+or six pages: Pierre Lombard, Scamozzi, Sansovino, Sebastiano Mazzoni,
+Sammichelli, the great architect of Verona; Selva, Domenico Rossi,
+Visentini, have drawn the plans and directed the construction of these
+princely dwellings, without reckoning the unknown artists of the Middle
+Ages who built the most picturesque and most romantic of them&mdash;those
+which give Venice its stamp and its originality.</p>
+
+<p>On both banks, fa&ccedil;ades altogether charming and beautifully diversified
+succeed one another without interruption. After an architecture of the
+Renaissance with its columns comes a palace of the Middle Ages in Gothic
+Arab style, of which the Ducal Palace is the prototype, with its
+balconies, lancet windows, trefoils, and acroteria. Further along is a
+fa&ccedil;ade adorned with marble placques of various colors, garnished with
+medallions and consoles; then a great rose-colored wall in which is cut
+a large window with columnets; all styles are found there&mdash;the
+Byzantine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> the Saracen, the Lombard, the Gothic, the Roman, the Greek,
+and even the Rococo; the column and the columnet; the lancet and the
+semicircle; the fanciful capital, full of birds and of flowers, brought
+from Acre or from Jaffa; the Greek capital found in Athenian ruins; the
+mosaic and the bas-relief; the classic severity and elegant fantasy of
+the Renaissance. It is an immense gallery open to the sky, where one can
+study from the bottom of his gondola the art of seven or eight
+centuries. What treasures of genius, talent, and money have been
+expended on this space which may be traversed in less than a quarter of
+an hour! What tremendous artists, but also what intelligent and
+munificent patrons! What a pity that the patricians who knew how to
+achieve such beautiful things no longer exist save on the canvases of
+Titian, of Tintoretto, and du Moro!</p>
+
+<p>Even before reaching the Rialto, you have, on the left, in ascending the
+Canal, the Palace Dario, in Gothic style; the Palace Venier, which
+presents itself by an angle, with its ornamentation, its precious
+marbles and medallions, in the Lombard style; the Fine Arts, a classic
+fa&ccedil;ade joined to the old Ecole de la Charit&eacute; and surmounted by a figure
+riding upon a lion; the Contarini Palace, in architectural style of
+Scamozzi; the Rezzonico Palace with three superimposed orders; the
+triple Giustiniani Palace, in the style of the Middle Ages, in which
+resides M. Natale Schiavoni, a descendant of the celebrated painter
+Schiavoni, who possesses a gallery of pictures and a beautiful daughter,
+the living reproduction of a canvas painted by her ancestor; The Foscari
+Palace, recognizable by its low door, by its two stories of columnets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+supporting lancets and trefoils, where in other days were lodged the
+sovereigns who visited Venice, but now abandoned; the Balbi Palace, from
+the balcony of which the princes leaned to watch the regattas which took
+place upon the Grand Canal with so much pomp and splendor, in the palmy
+days of the Republic; the Pisani Palace, in the German style of the
+beginning of the fifteenth century; and the Tiepolo Palace, very smart
+and relatively modern. On the right, there nestles between two big
+buildings, a delicious little palace which is composed of a window and a
+balcony; but such a window and balcony! A guipure of stone, of scrolls,
+of guillochages, and of open-work, which would seem possible of
+execution only with a punching machine upon one of those sheets of paper
+which cover baptismal sugar-plums, or are placed upon globes of lamps.
+We greatly regretted not having twenty-five thousand francs about us to
+buy it, since that was all that was demanded for it....</p>
+
+<p>The Rialto, which is the most beautiful bridge in Venice, with a very
+grandiose and monumental air, bestrides the canal by a single span with
+a powerful and graceful curve. It was built in 1691, under the Dogeship
+of Pasquale Cigogna, by Antonio da Ponte, and replaced the ancient
+wooden drawbridge. Two rows of shops, separated in the middle by a
+portico in the form of an arcade and permitting a glimpse of the sky,
+burden the sides of the bridge, which can be crossed by three paths;
+that in the center and the exterior passageways furnished with
+balustrades of marble.</p>
+
+<p>Around the Bridge of the Rialto, one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> most picturesque spots of
+the Grand Canal, are gathered the oldest houses in Venice, with
+platformed roofs, on which poles are planted to hang banners; their long
+chimneys, their bulging balconies, their stairways with disjointed
+steps, and their plaques of red coating, the fallen flakes of which lay
+bare the brick walls and the foundations made green by contact with the
+water. There is always near the Rialto a tumult of boats and gondolas
+and of stagnant islets of tied-up craft drying their tawny sails, which
+are sometimes traversed by a large cross....</p>
+
+<p>Below and beyond the Rialto are grouped on both banks the ancient
+Fondaco dei Tedeschi, upon the colored walls of which, in uncertain
+tints, may be devined some frescoes of Titian and Tintoretto, like
+dreams which come only to vanish; the fish-market, the vegetable market,
+and the old and new buildings of Scarpagnino and of Sansovino, almost
+fallen in ruins, in which are installed various courts....</p>
+
+<p>On the right rises the Palace della C&agrave; d'Oro, one of the most charming
+on the Grand Canal. It belongs to Mademoiselle Taglioni,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> who has
+restored it with most intelligent care. It is all embroidered, fringed,
+carved in a Greek, Gothic, barbaric style, so fantastic, so light, so
+aerial, that it might be fancied to have been built expressly for the
+nest of a sylph. Mlle. Taglioni has pity for these poor, abandoned
+palaces. She has several of them en pension, which she main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>tains out of
+pure commiseration for their beauty; we were told of three or four upon
+which she has bestowed this charity of repair....</p>
+
+<p>In going to a distance from the heart of the city, life is extinct. Many
+windows are closed or barred with boards; but this sadness has its
+beauty; it is more perceptible to the soul than to the eyes, regaled
+without cessation by the most unforeseen accidents of light and shade,
+by buildings so varied that even their dilapidation only renders them
+more picturesque, by the perpetual movement of the waters, and that blue
+and rose tint which composes the atmosphere of Venice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ST. MARK'S CHURCH<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY JOHN RUSKIN</h4>
+
+
+<p>Beyond those troops of ordered arches there rises a vision out of the
+earth, and all the great square seems to have opened from it in a kind
+of awe, that we may see it far away&mdash;a multitude of pillars and white
+domes, clustered into a long low pyramid of colored light; a
+treasure-heap, it seems, partly of gold, and partly of opal and
+mother-of-pearl, hollowed beneath into five great vaulted porches,
+ceiled with fair mosaic, and beset with sculpture of alabaster, clear as
+amber and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> delicate as ivory&mdash;sculpture fantastic and involved, of palm
+leaves and lilies, and grapes and pomegranates, and birds clinging and
+fluttering among the branches, all twined together into an endless
+network of buds and plumes; and, in the midst of it, the solemn forms of
+angels, sceptered and robed to the feet, and leaning to each other
+across the gates, their figures indistinct among the gleaming of the
+golden ground through the leaves beside them, interrupted and dim, like
+the morning light as it faded back among the branches of Eden, when
+first its gates were angel-guarded long ago.</p>
+
+<p>And round the walls of the porches there are set pillars of variegated
+stones, jasper and porphyry, and deep-green serpentine spotted with
+flakes of snow, and marbles, that half refuse and half yield to the
+sunshine, Cleopatra-like, "their bluest veins to kiss"&mdash;the shadow, as
+it steals back from them, revealing line after line of azure undulation,
+as a receding tide leaves the waved sand; their capitals rich with
+interwoven tracery, rooted knots of herbage, and drifting leaves of
+acanthus and vine, and mystical signs, all beginning and ending in the
+Cross; and above them, in the broad archivolts, a continuous chain of
+language and of life&mdash;angels, and the signs of heaven, and the labors of
+men, each in its appointed season upon the earth; and above these,
+another range of glittering pinnacles, mixed with white arches edged
+with scarlet flowers&mdash;a confusion of delight, amid which the breasts of
+the Greek horses are seen blazing in their breadth of golden strength,
+and the St. Mark's Lion, lifted on a blue field covered with stars,
+until at last,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> as if in ecstasy, the crests of the arches break into a
+marble foam, and toss themselves far into the blue sky in flashes and
+wreaths of sculptured spray, as if the breakers on the Lido shore had
+been frost-bound before they fell, and the sea-nymphs had inlaid them
+with coral and amethyst.</p>
+
+<p>Between that grim cathedral of England and this, what an interval! There
+is a type of it in the very birds that haunt them; for, instead of the
+restless crowd, hoarse-voiced and sable-winged, drifting on the bleak
+upper air, the St. Mark's porches are full of doves, that nestle among
+the marble foliage, and mingle the soft iridescence of their living
+plumes, changing at every motion, with the tints, hardly less lovely,
+that have stood unchanged for seven hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>And what effect has this splendor on those who pass beneath it? You may
+walk from sunrise to sunset, to and fro, before the gateway of St.
+Mark's, and you will not see an eye lifted to it, nor a countenance
+brightened by it. Priest and layman, soldier and civilian, rich and
+poor, pass by it alike regardlessly. Up to the very recesses of the
+porches, the meanest tradesmen of the city push their counters; nay, the
+foundations of its pillars are themselves the seats&mdash;not "of them that
+sell doves" for sacrifice, but of the venders of toys and caricatures.
+Round the whole square in front of the church there is almost a
+continuous line of caf&eacute;s, where the idle Venetians of the middle classes
+lounge, and read empty journals; in its center the Austrian bands<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+play during the time of vespers, their martial music jarring with the
+organ notes&mdash;the march drowning the miserere, and the sullen crowd
+thickening round them&mdash;a crowd, which, if it had its will, would
+stiletto every soldier that pipes to it. And in the recesses of the
+porches, all day long, knots of men of the lowest classes, unemployed
+and listless, lie basking in the sun like lizards; and unregarded
+children&mdash;every heavy glance of their young eyes full of desperation and
+stony depravity, and their throats hoarse with cursing&mdash;gamble, and
+fight, and snarl, and sleep, hour after hour, clashing their bruised
+centesimi upon the marble ledges of the church porch. And the images of
+Christ and His angels look down upon it continually....</p>
+
+<p>Let us enter the church itself. It is lost in still deeper twilight, to
+which the eye must be accustomed for some moments before the form of the
+building can be traced; and then there opens before us a vast cave, hewn
+out into the form of a cross, and divided into shadowy aisles by many
+pillars. Round the domes of its roof the light enters only through
+narrow apertures like large stars; and here and there a ray or two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> from
+some far away casement wanders into the darkness, and casts a narrow
+phosphoric stream upon the waves of marble that heave and fall in a
+thousand colors along the floor. What else there is of light is from
+torches, or silver lamps burning ceaselessly in the recesses of the
+chapels; the roof sheeted with gold, and the polished walls covered with
+alabaster, give back at every curve and angle some feeble gleaming to
+the flames; and the glories round the heads of the sculptured saints
+flash out upon us as we pass them, and sink again into the gloom.</p>
+
+<p>Under foot and over head, a continual succession of crowded imagery, one
+picture passing into another, as in a dream; forms beautiful and
+terrible mixed together; dragons and serpents, and ravening beasts of
+prey, and graceful birds that in the midst of them drink from running
+fountains and feed from vases of crystal; the passions and the pleasures
+of human life symbolized together, and the mystery of its redemption;
+for the mazes of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at
+last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every
+stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapt round it, sometimes
+with doves beneath its arms, and sweet herbage growing forth from its
+feet; but conspicuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the
+church before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of
+the apse. And altho in the recesses of the aisles and chapels, when the
+mist of the incense hangs heavily, we may see continually a figure
+traced in faint lines upon their marble, a woman standing with her eyes
+raised to heaven, and the inscription<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> above her, "Mother of God," she
+is not here the presiding deity. It is the cross that is first seen, and
+always, burning in the center of the temple; and every dome and hollow
+of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised
+in power, or returning in judgment.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this interior without effect on the minds of the people. At every
+hour of the day there are groups collected before the various shrines,
+and solitary worshipers scattered through the darker places of the
+church, evidently in prayer both deep and reverent, and, for the most
+part, profoundly sorrowful. The devotees at the greater number of the
+renowned shrines of Romanism may be seen murmuring their appointed
+prayers with wandering eyes and unengaged gestures; but the step of the
+stranger does not disturb those who kneel on the pavement of St. Mark's;
+and hardly a moment passes from early morning to sunset in which we may
+not see some half-veiled figure enter beneath the Arabian porch, cast
+itself into long abasement on the floor of the temple, and then rising
+slowly with more confirmed step, and with a passionate kiss and clasp of
+the arms given to the feet of the crucifix, by which the lamps burn
+always in the northern aisle, leave the church, as if comforted....</p>
+
+<p>It must therefore be altogether without reference to its present
+usefulness, that we pursue our inquiry into the merits and meaning of
+the architecture of this marvelous building; and it can only be after we
+have terminated that inquiry, conducting it carefully on abstract
+grounds, that we can pronounce with any certainty how far the present
+neglect of St. Mark's is significa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>tive of the decline of the Venetian
+character, or how far this church is to be considered as the relic of a
+barbarous age, incapable of attracting the admiration, or influencing
+the feelings of a civilized community. Now the first broad
+characteristic of the building, and the root nearly of every other
+important peculiarity in it, is its confessed incrustation. It is the
+purest example in Italy of the great school of architecture in which the
+ruling principle is the incrustation of brick with more precious
+materials. Consider the natural circumstances which give rise to such a
+style. Suppose a nation of builders, placed far from any quarries of
+available stone, and having precarious access to the mainland where they
+exist; compelled therefore either to build entirely with brick, or to
+import whatever stone they use from great distances, in ships of small
+tonnage, and for the most part dependent for speed on the oar rather
+than the sail. The labor and cost of carriage are just as great, whether
+they import common or precious stone, and therefore the natural tendency
+would always be to make each shipload as valuable as possible. But in
+proportion to the preciousness of the stone, is the limitation of its
+possible supply; limitation not determined merely by cost, but by the
+physical conditions of the material, for of many marbles pieces above a
+certain size are not to be had for money. There would also be a tendency
+in such circumstances to import as much stone as possible ready
+sculptured, in order to save weight; and therefore, if the traffic of
+their merchants led them to places where there were ruins of ancient
+edifices, to ship the avail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>able fragments of them home. Out of this
+supply of marble, partly composed of pieces of so precious a quality
+that only a few tons of them could be on any terms obtained, and partly
+of shafts, capitals, and other portions of foreign buildings, the island
+architect has to fashion, as best he may, the anatomy of his edifice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HOW THE OLD CAMPANILE WAS BUILT<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HORATIO F. BROWN</h4>
+
+
+<p>The wide discrepancy of the dates, 888 to 1148, may perhaps be accounted
+for by the conjecture that the work of the building [the Campanile]
+proceeded slowly, either with a view to allowing the foundations to
+consolidate, or owing to lack of funds, and that the chroniclers
+recorded each resumption of work as the beginning of the work. One point
+may, perhaps, be fixt. The Campanile must have been some way above
+ground by the year 997, for the hospital founded by the sainted Doge,
+Pietro Orseolo, which is said to have been attached to the base of the
+tower, was consecrated in that year. The Campanile was finished, as far
+as the bell-chamber at least, in 1148, under the Doge Domenico Moresini,
+whose sarcophagus and bust surmount the portal of the San Nicoll del
+Lido.</p>
+
+<p>The chroniclers are at variance among themselves as to the date of the
+foundation, nor has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> an examination of the foundations themselves led to
+any discovery which enables us to determine that date; but one or two
+considerations would induce us to discard the earlier epochs. The
+foundations must have been designed to carry a tower of the same
+breadth, tho possibly not of the same height, as that which has recently
+fallen. But in the year of 888 had the Venetians such a conception of
+their greatness as to project a tower far more massive than any which
+had been hitherto constructed in Italy? Did they possess the wealth to
+justify them in such an enterprise? Would they have designed such a
+tower to match St. Mark's, which was at that time a small church with
+walls of wood? It is more probable that the construction of the
+Campanile belongs to the period of the second church of St. Mark, which
+was begun after the fire of 976 and consecrated in 1094.</p>
+
+<p>The height of the Campanile at the time of its fall was 98.60 meters
+(322 ft.), from the base to the head of the angel, tho a considerable
+portion of this height was not added till 1510; its width at the base of
+the shaft 12.80 meters (35 ft. 2 in.), and one meter (3 ft. 3 in.) less
+at the top of the shaft. The weight has been calculated at about 18,000
+tons.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to excavations at the base of the tower made by Com. Giacomo
+Boni, at the request of Mr. C. H. Blackall, of Boston, U. S. A., in the
+year 1885, a report of which was printed in the Archivio Veneto, we
+possess some accurate knowledge about a portion of the foundation upon
+which this enormous mass rested.</p>
+
+<p>The subsoil of Venice is composed of layers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> of clay, sometimes
+traversed by layers of peat, overlying profound strata of watery sand.
+This clay is, in places, of a remarkably firm consistency; for example,
+in the quarter of the town known as Dorsoduro or "hard-back," and at the
+spot where the Campanile stood. A bore made at that point brought up a
+greenish, compact clay mixed with fine shells. This clay, when dried,
+offered the resisting power of half-baked brick. It is the remarkable
+firmness of this clay which enabled the Venetians to raise so ponderous
+a structure upon so narrow a foundation.</p>
+
+<p>The builders of the Campanile proceeded as follows: Into this bed of
+compact clay they first drove piles of about 9&frac12; in. in diameter with a
+view to consolidate still further, by pressure, the area selected. That
+area only extends 1.25 meter, or about 4 ft. beyond the spring of the
+brickwork shaft of the tower. How deep these piles reach Boni's report
+does not state. The piles, at the point where he laid the foundation
+bare, were found to be of white poplar, in remarkably sound condition,
+retaining their color, and presenting closely twisted fiber. The clay in
+which they were embedded has preserved them almost intact. The piles
+extended for one row only beyond the superimposed structure. On the top
+of these piles the builders laid a platform consisting of two layers of
+oak beams, crosswise. The lower layer runs in the line of the Piazza,
+east to west, the upper in the line of the Piazzetta, north to south.
+Each beam is square and a little over 4 in. thick. This oak platform
+appears to be in bad condition; the timbers are blackened and friable.
+While<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the excavation was in progress sea-water burst through the
+interstices, which had to be plugged.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this platform was laid the foundation proper. This consisted of
+seven courses of stone of various sizes and of various kinds&mdash;sandstone
+of two qualities, limestone from Istria and Verona, probably taken from
+older buildings on the mainland, certainly not fresh-hewn from the
+quarry. The seventh or lowest course was the deepest, and was the only
+one which escaped, and that but slightly; the remaining six courses were
+intended to be perpendicular. These courses varied widely from each
+other in thickness&mdash;from 0.31 to 0.90 meters. They were composed of
+different and ill-assorted stone, and were held together in places by
+shallow-biting clamps of iron, and by a mortar of white Istrian lime,
+which, not being hydraulic, and having little affinity for sand, had
+become disintegrated. Boni calls attention to the careless structure of
+this foundation proper, and maintains that it was designed to carry a
+tower of about two-thirds of the actual height imposed upon it, but not
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Above the foundation proper came the base. This consisted of five
+courses of stone set in stepwise. These courses of the base were all the
+same kind of stone, in fairly regular blocks, and of fairly uniform
+thickness. They were all intended to be seen, and originally rose from
+the old brick pavement of the Piazza; but the gradual subsidence of the
+soil&mdash;which is calculated as proceeding at the rate of nearly a meter
+per 1,000 years&mdash;caused two and a half of these stepped courses to
+disappear, and only two and a half emerged from the present pavement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thus the structure upon which the brick shaft of the Campanile rested
+was composed of (1) the base of five stepped courses, (2) the
+foundations of seven courses almost perpendicular, (3) the platform of
+oak beams, and (4) the piles. The height of the foundation, including
+the base, was 5.02 meters, about 16 ft., or one-twentieth of the height
+they carried. Not only is this a very small proportion, but it will be
+further observed that the tradition of star-shaped supports to the
+foundations is destroyed, and that they covered a very restricted area.
+In fact, the foundations of the Campanile belonged to the primitive or
+narrow kind. The foundations of the Ducal Palace, on the other hand,
+belonged to the more recent or extended kind. Those foundations do not
+rest on piles, but on a very broad platform of larch beams&mdash;much thicker
+than the oak beams of the Campanile platform&mdash;reposing directly on the
+clay. Upon this platform, foundations with a distended escarpment were
+built to carry the walls, the weight of which was thus distributed
+equally over a wide area.</p>
+
+<p>Little of the old foundations of the Campanile will remain when the work
+on the new foundations is completed. The primitive piles and platform
+are to stand; but new piles have been driven in all round the original
+nucleus, and on them are being laid large blocks of Istrian stone, which
+will be so deeply bonded into the old foundations that hardly more than
+a central core of the early work will be left ...</p>
+
+<p>In a peculiar fashion the Campanile of San Marco summed up the whole
+life of the city&mdash;civil, religious, commercial, and military&mdash;and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+became the central point of Venetian sentiment. For the tower served the
+double needs of the ecclesiastic and the civic sides of the Republic.
+Its bells marked the canonical hours; rang the workman to his work, the
+merchant to his desk, the statesman to the Senate; they pealed for
+victory or tolled for the demise of a Doge. The tower, moreover, during
+the long course of its construction, roughly speaking, from the middle
+of the tenth to the opening of the sixteenth centuries, was contemporary
+with all that was greatest in Venetian history; for the close of the
+tenth century saw the conquest of Dalmatia, and the foundations of
+Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic&mdash;that water-avenue to the Levant and
+the Orient&mdash;while by the opening of the sixteenth the Cape route had
+been discovered, the League of Cambray was in sight, and the end at
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>The tower, too, was a landmark to those at sea, and when the mariner had
+the Campanile of San Nicolo on the Lido covering the Campanile of St.
+Marks, he knew he had the route home and could make the Lido port. The
+tower was the center of popular festivals, such as that of the Svolo on
+Giovedi grasso, when an acrobat descended by a rope from the summit of
+the Campanile to the feet of the Doge, who was a spectator from the
+loggia of the Ducal Palace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HORATIO T. BROWN</h4>
+
+
+<p>We come now to the dolorous moment of the fall in July, 1902.
+Infiltration of water had been observed in the roof of Sansovino's
+Loggetta where that roof joined the shaft of the Campanile. At this
+point a thin ledge of stone, let into the wall of the Campanile,
+projected over the junction between the leaden roof of the Loggetta and
+the shaft of the tower. In order to remedy the mischief of infiltration
+it was resolved to remove and replace this projecting ledge. To do this
+a chase was made in the wall of the Campanile, which, at this point,
+consisted of a comparatively modern surface of masonry, placed there to
+repair the damage caused by lightning strokes.</p>
+
+<p>This chase was cut, not piecemeal, but continuously. The work was
+carried out on Monday, July 7th. During the process the architect in
+charge became alarmed at the condition of the inner part of the wall
+laid bare by the cut. He exprest his fears to his superiors, but
+apparently no examination of the tower was made till the Thursday
+following. Even then the imminence of the danger does not seem to have
+been grasped. On Saturday, the 12th, a crack was observed spreading
+upward in a slop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>ing direction from the cut above the roof of the
+Loggetta toward the northeast angle of the shaft, then crossing the
+angle and running up almost perpendicularly in the line of the little
+windows that gave light to the internal passage from the base to the
+bell-chamber.</p>
+
+<p>This crack assumed such a threatening aspect, and was making such
+visible progress, that the authorities in charge of the tower felt bound
+to inform the Prefect, tho the danger was represented as not immediate,
+and the worst they expected was the fall of the angle where the crack
+had appeared. A complete collapse of the whole tower was absolutely
+excluded. As a precautionary measure the music in the Piazza was
+suspended on Saturday evening. On Sunday orders were issued to endeavor
+to bind the threatened angle.</p>
+
+<p>But by Monday morning early (July 14th) it was evident that the
+catastrophe could not be averted. Dust began to pour out of the widening
+crack, and bricks to fall. A block of Istrian stone crashed down from
+the bell-chamber, then a column from the same site. At 9.47 the ominous
+fissure opened, the face of the Campanile toward the church and the
+Ducal Palace bulged out, the angle on the top and the pyramid below it
+swayed once or twice, and threatened to crush either the Sansovino's
+Library or the Basilica of San Marco in their fall, then the whole
+colossus subsided gently, almost noiselessly, upon itself, as it were in
+a curtsey, the ruined brick and mortar spread out in a pyramidal heap, a
+dense column of white powder rose from the Piazza, and the Campanile was
+no more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is certainly remarkable, and by the people of Venice it is reckoned
+as a miracle, that the tower in its fall did so little harm. Not a
+single life was lost, tho the crowd in the Piazza was unaware of its
+danger till about ten minutes before the catastrophe.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE PALACE OF THE DOGES<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY JOHN RUSKIN</h4>
+
+
+<p>The Ducal Palace, which was the great work of Venice, was built
+successively in the three styles. There was a Byzantine Ducal Palace, a
+Gothic Ducal Palace, and a Renaissance Ducal Palace. The second
+superseded the first totally; a few stones of it (if indeed so much) are
+all that is left. But the third superseded the second in part only, and
+the existing building is formed by the union of the two. We shall review
+the history of each in succession.</p>
+
+<p>1st. The Byzantine Palace. In the year of the death of Charlemagne, 813,
+the Venetians determined to make the island of Rialto the seat of the
+government and capital of their state. Their Doge, Angelo or Agnello
+Participazio, instantly took vigorous means for the enlargement of the
+small group of buildings which were to be the nucleus of the future
+Venice. He appointed persons to superintend the raising of the banks of
+sand, so as to form more secure foundations, and to build wooden bridges
+over the canals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> For the offices of religion, he built the Church of
+St. Mark; and on, or near, the spot where the Ducal Palace now stands,
+he built a palace for the administration of the government. The history
+of the Ducal Palace therefore begins with the birth of Venice, and to
+what remains of it, at this day, is entrusted the last representation of
+her power....</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1106, it was for the second time injured by fire, but
+repaired before 1116, when it received another emperor, Henry V. (of
+Germany), and was again honored by imperial praise. Between 1173 and the
+close of the century, it seems to have been again repaired and much
+enlarged by the Doge Sebastian Ziani. Sansovino says that this Doge not
+only repaired it, but "enlarged it in every direction;" and, after this
+enlargement, the palace seems to have remained untouched for a hundred
+years, until, in the commencement of the fourteenth century, the works
+of the Gothic Palace were begun.</p>
+
+<p>Venice was in the zenith of her strength, and the heroism of her
+citizens was displaying itself in every quarter of the world. The
+acquiescence in the secure establishment of the aristocratic power was
+an expression, by the people, of respect for the families which had been
+chiefly instrumental in raising the commonwealth to such a height of
+prosperity....</p>
+
+<p>In the first year of the fourteenth century, the Gothic Ducal Palace of
+Venice was begun; and as the Byzantine Palace was, in its foundation,
+coeval with that of the state, so the Gothic Palace was, in its
+foundation, coeval with that of the aristocratic power. Considered as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+the principal representation of the Venetian school of architecture, the
+Ducal Palace is the Parthenon of Venice, and Gradenigo its Pericles.</p>
+
+<p>Before it was finished, occasion had been discovered for farther
+improvements. The Senate found their new Council Chamber inconveniently
+small, and, about thirty years after its completion, began to consider
+where a larger and more magnificent one might be built. The government
+was now thoroughly established, and it was probably felt that there was
+some meanness in the retired position, as well as insufficiency in the
+size, of the Council Chamber on the Rio.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from the entry still preserved in the Archivio, and quoted by
+Cadorin, that it was on the 28th of December, 1340, that the
+commissioners appointed to decide on this important matter gave in their
+report to the Grand Council, and that the decree passed thereupon for
+the commencement of a new Council Chamber on the Grand Canal.</p>
+
+<p>The room then begun is the one now in existence, and its building
+involved the building of all that is best and most beautiful in the
+present Ducal Palace, the rich arcades of the lower stories being all
+prepared for sustaining this Sala del Gran Consiglio. In saying that it
+is the same now in existence, I do not mean that it has undergone no
+alterations; it has been refitted again and again, and some portions of
+its walls rebuilt; but in the place and form in which it first stood, it
+still stands; and by a glance at the position which its windows occupy,
+the spectator will see at once that whatever can be known respecting the
+design of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> Sea Fa&ccedil;ade, must be gleaned out of the entries which
+refer to the building of this Great Council Chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Cadorin quotes two of great importance, made during the progress of the
+work in 1342 and 1344; then one of 1349, resolving that the works at the
+Ducal Palace, which had been discontinued during the plague, should be
+resumed; and finally one in 1362, which speaks of the Great Council
+Chamber as having been neglected and suffered to fall into "great
+desolation," and resolves that it shall be forthwith completed.</p>
+
+<p>The interruption had not been caused by the plague only, but by the
+conspiracy of Faliero, and the violent death of the master builder. The
+work was resumed in 1362, and completed within the next three years, at
+least so far as that Guariento was enabled to paint his Paradise on the
+walls, so that the building must, at any rate, have been roofed by this
+time. Its decorations and fittings, however, were long in completion;
+the paintings on the roof being only executed in 1400....</p>
+
+<p>The works of addition or renovation had now been proceeding, at
+intervals, during a space of a hundred and twenty-three years. Three
+generations at least had been accustomed to witness the gradual
+advancement of the form of the Ducal Palace into more stately symmetry,
+and to contrast the works of sculpture and painting with which it was
+decorated&mdash;full of the life, knowledge, and hope of the fourteenth
+century&mdash;with the rude Byzantine chiselling of the palace of the Doge
+Ziani. The magnificent fabric just completed, of which the new Council
+Chamber<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> was the nucleus, was now habitually known in Venice as the
+"Palazzo Nuovo;" and the old Byzantine edifice, now ruinous, and more
+manifest in its decay by its contrast with the goodly stones of the
+building which had been raised at its side, was of course known as the
+"Palazzo Vecchio." That fabric, however, still occupied the principal
+position in Venice. The new Council Chamber had been erected by the side
+of it toward the Sea; but there was not then the wide quay in front, the
+Riva dei Schiavoni, which now renders the Sea Fa&ccedil;ade as important as
+that to the Piazzetta. There was only a narrow walk between the pillars
+and the water; and the old palace of Ziani still faced the Piazzetta,
+and interrupted, by its decrepitude, the magnificence of the square
+where the nobles daily met.</p>
+
+<p>Every increase of the beauty of the new palace rendered the discrepancy
+between it and the companion building more painful; and then began to
+arise in the minds of all men a vague idea of the necessity of
+destroying the old palace, and completing the front of the Piazzetta
+with the same splendor as the Sea Fa&ccedil;ade. But no such sweeping measure
+of renovation had been contemplated by the Senate when they first formed
+the plan of their new Council Chamber. First a single additional room,
+then a gateway, then a larger room; but all considered merely as
+necessary additions to the palace, not as involving the entire
+reconstruction of the ancient edifice. The exhaustion of the treasury,
+and the shadows upon the political horizon, rendered it more imprudent
+to in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>cur the vast additional expense which such a project involved; and
+the Senate, fearful of itself, and desirous to guard against the
+weakness of its own enthusiasm, passed a decree, like the effort of a
+man fearful of some strong temptation to keep his thoughts averted from
+the point of danger. It was a decree, not merely that the old palace
+should not be rebuilt, but that no one should propose rebuilding it. The
+feeling of the desirableness of doing so was too strong to permit fair
+discussion, and the Senate knew that to bring forward such a motion was
+to carry it.</p>
+
+<p>The decree, thus passed in order to guard against their own weakness,
+forbade any one to speak of rebuilding the old palace, under the penalty
+of a thousand ducats. But they had rated their own enthusiasm too low;
+there was a man among them whom the loss of a thousand ducats could not
+deter from proposing what he believed to be for the good of the state.
+Some excuse was given him for bringing forward the motion, by a fire
+which occurred in 1419, and which injured both the Church of St. Mark's,
+and part of the old palace fronting the Piazzetta. What followed, I
+shall relate in the words of Sanuto.</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore they set themselves with all diligence and care to repair and
+adorn sumptuously, first God's house; but in the Prince's house things
+went on more slowly, for it did not please the Doge to restore it in the
+form in which it was before; and they could not rebuild it altogether in
+a better manner, so great was the parsimony of these old fathers;
+because it was forbidden by laws, which condemned in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> penalty of a
+thousand ducats any one who should propose to throw down the old palace,
+and to rebuild it more richly and with greater expense.</p>
+
+<p>"But the Doge, who was magnanimous, and who desired above all things
+what was honorable to the city, had the thousand ducats carried into the
+Senate Chamber, and then proposed that the palace should be rebuilt;
+saying: that, since the late fire had ruined in great part the Ducal
+habitation (not only his own private palace, but all the places used for
+public business), this occasion was to be taken for an admonishment sent
+from God, that they ought to rebuild the palace more nobly, and in a way
+more befitting the greatness to which, by God's grace, their dominions
+had reached; and that his motive in proposing this was neither ambition,
+nor selfish interest; that, as for ambition, they might have seen in the
+whole course of his life, through so many years, that he had never done
+anything for ambition, either in the city, or in foreign business; but
+in all his actions had kept justice first in his thoughts, and then the
+advantage of the state, and the honor of the Venetian name; and that, as
+far as regarded his private interest, if it had not been for this
+accident of the fire, he would never have thought of changing anything
+in the palace into either a more sumptuous or a more honorable form; and
+that during the many years in which he had lived in it, he had never
+endeavored to make any change, but had always been content with it as
+his predecessors had left it; and that he knew well that, if they took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+in hand to build it as he exhorted and besought them, being now very
+old, and broken down with many toils, God would call him to another life
+before the walls were raised a pace from the ground. And that therefore
+they might perceive that he did not advise them to raise this building
+for his own convenience, but only for the honor of the city and its
+Dukedom; and that the good of it would never be felt by him, but by his
+successors." ...</p>
+
+<p>Then he said, that 'in order, as he had always done, to observe the
+laws, he had brought with him the thousand ducats which had been
+appointed as the penalty for proposing such a measure, so that he might
+prove openly to all men that it was not his own advantage that he
+sought, but the dignity of the state.' There was no one (Sanuto goes on
+to tell us) who ventured, or desired to oppose the wishes of the Doge;
+and the thousand ducats were unanimously devoted to the expenses of the
+work. "And they set themselves with much diligence to the work; and the
+palace was begun in the form and manner in which it is at present seen;
+but, as Mocenigo<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> had prophesied, not long after, he ended his life,
+and not only did not see the work brought to a close, but hardly even
+begun."</p>
+
+<p>There are one or two expressions in the above extracts which, if they
+stood alone, might lead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> the reader to suppose that the whole palace had
+been thrown down and rebuilt. We must however remember, that, at this
+time, the new Council Chamber, which had been one hundred years in
+building, was actually unfinished, the council had not yet sat in it;
+and it was just as likely that the Doge should then propose to destroy
+and rebuild it, as in this year, 1853, it is that any one should propose
+in our House of Commons to throw down the new Houses of Parliament,
+under the title of the "old palace," and rebuild them....</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1422 that the decree passed to rebuild the palace;
+Mocenigo died in the following year, and Francesco Foscari was elected
+in his room. The great Council Chamber was used for the first time on
+the day when Foscari entered the Senate as Doge&mdash;the 3rd of April, 1423,
+according to the "Caroldo Chronicle;" the 23d, which is probably
+correct, by an anonymous MS., No. 60, in the Correr Museum; and the
+following year, on the 27th of March, the first hammer was lifted up
+against the old palace of Ziani. That hammer stroke was the first act of
+the period properly called the "Renaissance." It was the knell of the
+architecture of Venice&mdash;and of Venice herself.</p>
+
+<p>The central epoch of her life was past; the decay had already begun; I
+date its commencement from the death of Mocenigo. A year had not yet
+elapsed since that great Doge had been called to his account; his
+patriotism, always sincere, had been in this instance mistaken; in his
+zeal for the honor of future Venice, he had forgotten what was due to
+the Venice of long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> ago. A thousand palaces might be built upon her
+burdened islands, but none of them could taken the place, or recall the
+memory, of that which was first built upon her unfrequented shore. It
+fell; and, as if it had been the talisman of fortune, the city never
+flourished again.</p>
+
+<p>I have no intention of following out, in their intricate details, the
+operations which were begun under Foscari and continued under succeeding
+Doges till the palace assumed its present form, for I am not in this
+work concerned, except by occasional reference, with the architecture of
+the fifteenth century; but the main facts are the following. The palace
+of Ziani was destroyed; the existing fa&ccedil;ade to the Piazzetta built, so
+as both to continue and to resemble, in most particulars, the work of
+the Great Council Chamber. It was carried back from the Sea as far as
+the Judgment angle; beyond which is the Porta della Carta, begun in
+1439, and finished in two years, under the Doge Foscari; the interior
+buildings connected with it were added by the Doge Christopher Moro (the
+Othello of Shakespeare) in 1462.</p>
+
+<p>Some remnants of the Ziani Palace were perhaps still left between the
+two extremities of the Gothic Palace; or, as is more probable, the last
+stones of it may have been swept away after the fire of 1419, and
+replaced by new apartments for the Doge. But whatever buildings, old or
+new, stood on this spot at the time of the completion of the Porta della
+Carta were destroyed by another great fire in 1479, together with so
+much of the palace on the Rio that, tho the saloon of Gradenigo, then
+known as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> Sala de Pregadi, was not destroyed, it became necessary to
+reconstruct the entire fa&ccedil;ades of the portion of the palace behind the
+Bridge of Sighs, both toward the court and canal.</p>
+
+<p>The palace was not long permitted to remain in finished form. Another
+terrific fire, commonly called the great fire, burst out in 1574, and
+destroyed the inner fittings and all the precious pictures of the Great
+Council Chamber, and of all the upper rooms on the Sea Fa&ccedil;ade, and most
+of those on the Rio Fa&ccedil;ade, leaving the building a mere shell, shaken
+and blasted by the flames. It was debated in the Great Council whether
+the ruin should not be thrown down, and an entirely new palace built in
+its stead. The opinions of all the leading architects of Venice were
+taken, respecting the safety of the walls, or the possibility of
+repairing them as they stood. These opinions, given in writing, have
+been preserved, and published by the Abb&eacute; Cadorin, and they form one of
+the most important series of documents connected with the Ducal Palace.</p>
+
+<p>I can not help feeling some childish pleasure in the accidental
+resemblance to my own name in that of the architect whose opinion was
+first given in favor of the ancient fabric, Giovanni Rusconi. Others,
+especially Palladio, wanted to pull down the old palace, and execute
+designs of their own; but the best architects in Venice, and, to his
+immortal honor, chiefly Francesco Sansovino, energetically pleaded for
+the Gothic pile, and prevailed. It was successfully repaired, and
+Tintoret painted his noblest picture on the wall from which the Paradise
+of Guariento had withered before the flames.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The repairs necessarily undertaken at this time were however extensive,
+and interfere in many directions with the earlier work of the palace;
+still the only serious alteration in its form was the transposition of
+the prisons, formerly at the top of the palace, to the other side of the
+Rio del Palazzo; and the building of the Bridge of Sighs, to connect
+them with the palace, by Antonio da Ponte. The completion of this work
+brought the whole edifice into its present form; with the exception of
+alterations in doors, partitions, and staircases among the inner
+apartments, not worth noticing, and such barbarisms and defacements as
+have been suffered within the last fifty years, by, I suppose, nearly
+every building of importance in Italy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE LAGOONS<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HORATIO F. BROWN</h4>
+
+
+<p>The colonization of the Venetian estuary is usually dated from the year
+452, the period of the Hunnish invasion under Attila, when the Scourge
+of God, as he was named by his terror-stricken opponents, sacked the
+rich Roman cities of Aquileia, Concordia, Opitergium, and Padua. In one
+sense the date is correct. The Hunnish invasion certainly gave an
+enormous increase to the lagoon population, and called the attention of
+the mainlanders, to the admirable asylum which the estuary offered in
+times of danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Alcuin, the great scholar from Yorkshire, was teaching
+Charlemagne's son and heir, Pepin, he drew up for his pupil's use a
+curious catechism of questions and answers. Among others this occurs:
+"What is the sea." "A refuge in time of danger." Surely a strange
+answer, and one which can hardly be reckoned as true except in the
+particular case of the Venetian lagoons. For the mainlanders were caught
+between the devil of Attila and the deep sea of the Adriatic, and had
+they not found the lagoons ready at hand to offer them an asylum and to
+prove a refuge in time of danger, it must have fared hard with them.</p>
+
+<p>But this date of 452 is not to be taken as the date of the very earliest
+occupation of the lagoon. Long before Attila and his Huns swept down
+upon Italy, we know that there was a sparse population occupying the
+estuary, engaged in fishing and in the salt trade. Cassiodorus, the
+secretary of the Gothic King Theodoric the Great, has left us a picture
+of this people, hardy, independent, toughened by their life on the salt
+water; their means of living; the fish of the lagoons; their source of
+wealth; the salt which they extracted from its waters; their houses,
+wattled cabins built upon piles driven into the mud; their means of
+locomotion light boats which were tied to the door posts like horses on
+mainland.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus you live in your sea-birds' home," he exclaims, "rich and poor
+under equal laws; a common food supports you; house is like unto house;
+and envy, that curse of all the world, hath no place there." No doubt
+this early pop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>ulation of the lagoons, already intimately associated
+with its dwelling-place, modified by it and adapted to it, helped to
+form the basis upon which the latter strata of population, the result of
+the Hunnish invasion, could rest; and in all probability some of the
+characteristics of this early population, its independence and its
+hardihood, passed into the composition of the full-grown Venetian race.
+But beyond the brief words of Cassiodorus we know little about these
+early lagoon-dwellers. It is really with the Hunnish invasion that the
+history of Venice begins its first period of growth.</p>
+
+<p>The population which flocked from the mainland to seek refuge in the
+estuary of Venice came from many different cities&mdash;from Aquileia, from
+Concordia, from Padua; and tho the inhabitants of all these, no doubt,
+bore the external stamp which Rome never failed to impose, yet, equally
+doubtless, they brought with them their own particular customs, their
+mutual hates and rivalries.</p>
+
+<p>While living on the mainland these animosities had wider space in which
+to play, and were therefore less dangerous, less explosive. But in the
+lagoons, under stress of suffering, and owing to confinement and
+juxtaposition, they became intensified, exaggerated, and perilous. There
+was a double problem before the growing Venetian population which
+required to be solved before Venice and the Venetians could, with any
+justice, be considered a place and a people. First, the various and
+largely hostile populations who had taken refuge in the lagoon had to be
+reconciled to each other; and secondly, they had to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> be reconciled to
+their new home, to be identified with it and made one with it.</p>
+
+<p>The lagoon achieved both reconciliations; the isolation of its waters,
+their strangeness, gradually created the feeling of unity, of family
+connection, among the diverse and hostile components of the population,
+till a fusion took place between the original and the immigrant
+inhabitants, and between the people and their home, and Venice and the
+Venetians emerge upon the history of the world as an individual and
+full-grown race. But this reconciliation and identification were not
+accomplished at once. They cost many years of struggle and of danger.
+The unification of Venice is the history of a series of compromises, an
+historical example of the great law of selection and survival.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE DECLINE AMID SPLENDOR<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4>
+
+
+<p>Venice the beautiful city ended, pagan-like, as did its sisters the
+Greek republics, through nonchalance and voluptuousness. We find,
+indeed, from time to time, a Francis Morosini, who like Aratus and
+Philopoemen, renews the heroism and victories of ancient days; but,
+after the seventeenth century, its bright career is over. The city,
+municipal and circumscribed, is found to be weak, like Athens and
+Corinth, against powerful mili<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>tary neighbors who either neglect or
+tolerate it; the French and the Germans violate its neutrality with
+impunity; it subsists and that is all, and it pretends to do no more.
+Its nobles care only to amuse themselves; war and politics with them
+recede in the background; she becomes gallant and worldly....</p>
+
+<p>But the evening of this fallen city is as mellow and as brilliant as a
+Venetian sunset. With the absence of care gaiety prevails. One
+encounters nothing but public and private f&ecirc;tes in the memoirs of their
+writers and in the pictures of their painters. At one time it is a
+pompous banquet in a superb saloon festooned with gold, with tall
+lustrous windows and pale crimson curtains, the doge in his simarre
+dining with the magistrates in purple robes, and masked guests gliding
+over the floor; nothing is more elegant than the exquisite aristocracy
+of their small feet, their slender necks and their jaunty little
+three-cornered hats among skirts flounced with yellow or pearly gray
+silks.</p>
+
+<p>At another it is a regatta of gondolas and we see on the sea between
+San-Marco and San-Giorgio, around the huge Bucentaur<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> like a
+leviathan cuirassed with scales of gold, flotillas of boats parting the
+water with their steel becks. A crowd of pretty dominos, male and
+female, flutter over the pavements; the sea seems to be of polished
+slate under a tender azure sky spotted with cloud-flocks while all
+around, as in a precious frame, like a fantastic border carved and
+embroidered, the Procuraties, the domes, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> palaces and the quays
+thronged with a joyous multitude, encircle the great maritime Venetian
+sheet....</p>
+
+<p>In truth they never concern themselves with religion except to repress
+the Pope; in theory and in practise, in ideas and in instincts, they
+inherit the manners, customs and spirit of antiquity, and their
+Christianity is only a name. Like the ancients, they were at first
+heroes and artists, and then voluptuaries and dilettanti; in one as in
+the other case they, like the ancients, confined life to the present. In
+the eighteenth century they might be compared to the Thebans of the
+decadence who, leagued together to consume their property in common,
+bequeathed what remained of their fortunes on dying to the survivors at
+their banquets. The carnival lasts six months; everybody, even the
+priests, the guardian of the capucins, the nuncio, little children, all
+who frequent the markets, wear masks. People pass by in processions
+disguised in the costumes of Frenchmen, lawyers, gondoliers, Calabrians
+and Spanish soldiery, dancing and with musical instruments; the crowd
+follows jeering or applauding them. There is entire liberty; prince or
+artizan, all are equal; each may apostrophize a mask. Pyramids of men
+form "pictures of strength" on the public squares; harlequins in the
+open air perform parades. Seven theaters are open. Improvizators declaim
+and comedians improvize amusing scenes. "There is no city where license
+has such sovereign rule." ...</p>
+
+<p>The Chiogga campaign is the last act of the old heroic drama; there, as
+in the best days of the ancient republics, a besieged people is seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> to
+save itself against all hope, artizans equipping vessels, a Pisani
+conqueror undergoing imprisonment and only released to renew the
+victory, a Carlo Zeno, surviving forty wounds, and a doge of seventy
+years of age; a Contarini, who makes a vow not to leave his vessel so
+long as the enemy's fleet is uncaptured, thirty families, apothecaries,
+grocers, vintners, tanners admitted among the nobles, a bravery, a
+public spirit like that of Athens under Themistocles and of Rome under
+Fabius Cunctator. If, from this time forth, the inward fire abates we
+still feel its warmth for many long years, longer kept up than in the
+rest of Italy, and sometimes demonstrating its power by sudden
+outbursts.</p>
+
+<p>The nobles, on their side, are always ready to fight. During the whole
+of the sixteenth century, even up to the seventeenth and beyond, we see
+them in Dalmatia, in the Morea, over the entire Mediterranean, defending
+the soil inch by inch against the infidels. The garrison of Famagouste
+yields only to famine, and its governor, Bragadino, burned alive, is a
+hero of ancient days. At the battle of Lepanto the Venetians alone
+furnish one half of the Christian fleet. Thus on all sides, and
+notwithstanding their gradual decline, peril, energy, love of country,
+all, in brief, which constitutes or sustains the grand life of the soul
+here subsists, while throughout the peninsula foreign dominion, clerical
+oppression and voluptuous or academical inertia reduces man to the
+system of the antechamber, the subtleties of dilettantism and the babble
+of sonnets.</p>
+
+<p>But if the human spring is not broken at Venice, it is seen insensibly
+losing its elasticity. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> government, changed into a suspicious
+despotism, elects a Mocenigo doge, a shameless speculator profiting on
+the public distress, instead of that Charles Zeno who had saved the
+country; it holds Zeno prisoner two years and entrusts the armies on the
+mainland to condottieri; it is tied up in the hands of three
+inquisitors, provokes accusations, practises secret executions and
+commands the people to confine themselves to indulgences of pleasure. On
+the other hand luxury arises. About the year 1400 the houses "were quite
+small;" but a thousand nobles were enumerated in Venice possessing from
+four to seventy thousand ducats rental, while three thousand ducats were
+sufficient to purchase a palace.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforth this great wealth is no longer to be employed in enterprises
+and in self-devotion, but in pomp and magnificence. In 1495, Commine
+admires "the grand canal, the most beautiful street, I think, in the
+world, and with the best houses; the houses are very grand, high and of
+excellent stone&mdash;and these have been built within a century. All have
+fronts of white marble, which comes from Istria, a hundred miles away,
+and yet many more great pieces of porphyry and of serpentine on them;
+inside they have, most of them, at least two chambers with gilded
+ceilings, rich screens of chimneys with carved marble, the bedsteads
+gilded and the 'ostevents' painted and gilded and well furnished
+within." On his arrival twenty-five gentlemen attired in silk and
+scarlet come to meet him; they conduct him to a boat decked with crimson
+silk; "it is this most triumphant city I ever saw."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Finally, while the necessity of pleasure grows the spirit of enterprise
+diminishes; the passage of the Cape in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century places the commerce of Asia in the hands of the Portuguese; on
+the Mediterranean and the Atlantic the financial measures of Charles V.,
+joined to bad usage by the Turks, render abortive the great maritime
+caravans which the state dispatches yearly between Alexandria and
+Bruges. In respect to industrial matters, the hampered artizans, watched
+and cloistered in their country, cease to perfect their arts and allow
+foreign competitors to surpass them in processes and in furnishing
+supplies to the world.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, on all sides, the capacity for activity becomes lessened and the
+desire for enjoyment greater without one entirely effacing the other,
+but in a way that, both commingling, they produce that ambiguous state
+of mind similar to a mixed temperature which is never too severe and in
+which the arts are generated. Indeed, it is from 1454 to 1572, between
+the institution of state inquisitors and the battle of Lepanto, between
+the accomplishment of internal despotism and the last of the great
+outward victories, that the brilliant productions of Venetian art
+appear. John Bellini was born in 1426, Giorgone died in 1511, Titian in
+1578, Veronese in 1572 and Tintoretto in 1594. In this interval of one
+hundred and fifty years this warrior city, this mistress of the
+Mediterranean, this queen of commerce and of industry became a casino
+for masqueraders and a den of courtezans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE DOVES OF ST. MARK'S<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY HORATIO F. BROWN</h4>
+
+
+<p>In Venice the pigeons do not allow you to forget them, even if one
+desired to forget a bird that is so intimately connected with the city
+and with a great ceremony of that ancient republic which has passed
+away. They belong so entirely to the place, and especially to the great
+square; they have made their homes for so many generations among the
+carvings of the Basilica, at the feet of the bronze horses, and under
+the massive cornices of the New Procuratie, that the great Campanile
+itself is hardly more essential to the character of the piazza than are
+these delicate denizens of Saint Mark's.</p>
+
+<p>In the structure of the ducal palace, the wants of the pigeons have been
+taken into account, and near the two great wells which stand in the
+inner courtyard little cups of Istrian stone have been let into the
+pavement for the pigeons to drink from. On cold, frosty mornings you may
+see them tapping disconsolately at the ice which covers their drinking
+troughs, and may win their thanks by breaking it for them. Or if the
+wind blows hard from the east, the pigeons sit in long rows under the
+eaves of the Procuratie; their necks drawn into their shoulders, and the
+neck feathers ruffled round their heads, till they have lost all shape,
+and look like a row of slate-colored cannon-balls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From Saint Mark's the pigeons have sent out colonies to the other
+churches and campi of Venice. They have crossed the Grand Canal, and
+roost and croon among the volutes of the Salute, or, in wild weather,
+wheel high and airly above its domes. They have even found their way to
+Malamocco and Mazzorbo; so that all Venice in the sea owns and protects
+its sacred bird. But it is in Saint Mark's that the pigeons "most do
+congregate;" and one can not enter the piazza, and stand for a moment at
+the corner, without hearing the sudden rush of wings upon the air, and
+seeing the white under-feathers of their pinions, as the doves strike
+backward to check their flight, and flutter down at one's feet in
+expectation of peas or grain. They are boundlessly greedy, and will
+stuff themselves till they can hardly walk, and the little red feet
+stagger under the loaded crop. They are not virtuous, but they are very
+beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain fitness in the fact that the dove should be the
+sacred bird of the sea city. Both English "dove" and Latin "columba"
+mean the diver; and the dove uses the air much as the fish uses the sea,
+it glides, it dives, it shoots through its airy ocean; it hovers against
+the breeze, or presses its breast against the sirocco storm, as you may
+see fish poised in their course against the stream; then with a sudden
+turn it relaxes the strain and sweeps away down the wind. The dove is an
+airy emblem of the sea upon which Venice and the Venetians live, but
+more than that&mdash;the most permanent quality in the color of the lagoons,
+where the lights are always shifting, is the dove-tone of sea and sky;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+a tone which holds all colors in solution, and out of which they emerge
+as the water-ripples or the cloud-flakes pass&mdash;just as the colors are
+shot and varied on a young dove's neck.</p>
+
+<p>There is some doubts as to the origin of these flocks of pigeons which
+shelter in Saint Mark's. According to one story, Henry Dandolo, the
+Crusader, was besieging Candia; he received valuable information from
+the interior of the island by means of carrier-pigeons, and, later on,
+sent news of his successes home to Venice by the same messengers. In
+recognition of these services the government resolved to maintain the
+carriers at the public cost; and the flocks of to-day are the
+descendants of the fourteenth-century pigeons. The more probable
+tradition, however, is that which connects these pigeons with the
+antique ceremonies of Palm Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>On that festival the Doge made the tour of the piazza, accompanied by
+all the officers of State, the Patriarch, the foreign ambassadors, the
+silver trumpets, all the pomp of the ducal dignity. Among other largess
+of that day, a number of pigeons, weighted by pieces of paper tied to
+their legs, used to be let loose from the gallery where the bronze
+horses stand, above the western door of the church. Most of the birds
+were easily caught by the crowd, and kept for their Easter dinner; but
+some escaped, and took refuge in the upper parts of the palace and among
+the domes of Saint Mark's. The superstition of the people was easily
+touched, and the birds that had sought the protection of the saint were
+thenceforth dedicated to the patron of Venice. The charge of supporting
+them was committed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> to the superintendents of the corn stores, and the
+usual hour for feeding the pigeons was nine o'clock in the morning.
+During the revolution of 1797, the birds fared as badly as the
+aristocracy, and were left to take care of themselves; but when matters
+settled down again the feeding of the pigeons was resumed by the
+municipality, and takes place at two in the afternoon, tho the incessant
+largess of strangers can leave the birds but little appetite for their
+regular meal.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the multitudes of pigeons that haunt the squares of the
+city, a dead pigeon is as rare to see as a dead donkey on the mainland.
+It is a pious opinion that no Venetian ever kills a pigeon, and
+apparently they never die; but the fact that they do not increase so
+rapidly as to become a nuisance instead of a pleasure, lends some color
+to the suspicion that pigeon pies are not unknown at certain tables
+during the proper season.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>TORCELLO, THE MOTHER CITY<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY JOHN RUSKIN</h4>
+
+
+<p>Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the
+city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level,
+and hoist themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and
+there into shapeless mounds, and interrupted by narrow creeks of sea.
+One of the feeblest of these inlets, after winding for some time among
+buried fragments of mason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>ry, and knots of sunburned weeds whitened with
+webs of fucas, stays itself in an utterly stagnant pool beside a plot of
+greener grass covered with ground-ivy and violets. On this mound is
+built a rude brick campanile, of the commonest Lombardic type, which if
+we ascend toward evening (and there are none to hinder us, the door of
+its ruinous staircase swinging idly on its hinges), we may command from
+it one of the most notable scenes in this wide world of ours.</p>
+
+<p>Far as the eye can reach, a waste of wild sea moor, of a lurid
+ashen-gray; not like our northern moors with their jet-black pools and
+purple heath, but lifeless, the color of sackcloth, with the corrupted
+sea-water soaking through the roots of its acrid weeds, and gleaming
+hither and thither through its snaky channels. No gathering of fantastic
+mists, nor coursing of clouds across it; but melancholy clearness of
+space in the warm sunset, oppressive, reaching to the horizon of its
+level gloom. To the very horizon, on the northeast; but to the north and
+west, there is a blue line of higher land along the border of it, and
+above this, but farther back, a misty band of mountains, touched with
+snow.</p>
+
+<p>To the east, the paleness and roar of the Adriatic, louder at momentary
+intervals as the surf breaks on the bar of sand; to the south, the
+widening branches of the calm lagoon, alternately purple and pale green,
+as they reflect the evening clouds or twilight sky; and almost beneath
+our feet, on the same field which sustains the tower we gaze from, a
+group of four buildings, two of them little larger than cottages (tho
+built of stone, and one adorned by a quaint belfry), the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> third an
+octagonal chapel, of which we can see but little more than the flat red
+roof with its rayed tiling, the fourth, a considerable church with nave
+and aisles, but of which, in like manner, we can see little but the long
+central ridge and lateral slopes of roof, which the sunlight separates
+in one glowing mass from the green field beneath and gray moor beyond.
+There are no living creatures near the buildings, nor any vestige of
+village or city round about them. They lie like a little company of
+ships becalmed on a faraway sea.</p>
+
+<p>Then look farther to the south. Beyond the widening branches of the
+lagoon, and rising out of the bright lake into which they gather, there
+are a multitude of towers, dark, and scattered among square-set shapes
+of clustered palaces, a long irregular line fretting the southern sky.
+Mother and daughter, you behold them both in their widowhood&mdash;Torcello
+and Venice. Thirteen hundred years ago, the gray moorland looked as it
+does this day, and the purple mountains stood as radiantly in the deep
+distances of evening; but on the line of the horizon, there were strange
+fires mixed with the light of sunset, and the lament of many human
+voices mixed with the fretting of the waves on their ridges of sand. The
+flames rose from the ruins of Altinum; the lament from the multitude of
+its people, seeking, like Israel of old, a refuge from the sword in the
+paths of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The cattle are feeding and resting upon the site of the city that they
+left; the mower's scythe swept this day at dawn over the chief street of
+the city that they built, and the swathes of soft<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> grass are now sending
+up their scent into the night air, the only incense that fills the
+temple of their ancient worship.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CADORE, TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></h2>
+
+<h4>BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS</h4>
+
+
+<p>We reached Pieve di Cadore about half-past eleven <span class="smcap">A.M.</span>, delays
+included. The quaint old piazza with its gloomy arcades, its antique
+houses with Venetian windows, its caf&eacute;s, its fountain, and its loungers,
+is just like the piazzas of Serravalle, Longarone, and other provincial
+towns of the same epoch. With its picturesque Prefettura and
+belfry-tower one is already familiar in the pages of Gilbert's "Cadore."
+There, too, is the fine old double flight of steps leading up to the
+principal entrance on the first floor, as in the town-hall at
+Heilbronn&mdash;a feature by no means Italian; and there, about midway up the
+shaft of the campanile, is the great, gaudy, well-remembered fresco,
+better meant than painted, wherein Titian, some twelve feet in height,
+robed and bearded, stands out against an ultramarine background, looking
+very like the portrait of a caravan giant at a fair....</p>
+
+<p>Turning aside from the glowing piazza and following the downward slope
+of a hill to the left of the Prefettura, we come, at the dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>tance of
+only a few yards, upon another open space, grassy and solitary,
+surrounded on three sides by rambling, dilapidated-looking houses, and
+opening on the fourth to a vista of woods and mountains. In this little
+piazza stands a massive stone fountain, time-worn and water-worn,
+surmounted by a statue of Saint Tiziano in the robes and square cap of
+an ecclesiastic. The water trickling through two metal pipes in the
+pedestal beneath Saint Tiziano's feet, makes a pleasant murmuring in the
+old stone basin; while, half hidden behind this fountain, and leaning up
+as if for shelter against a larger house adjoining, stands-a small
+whitewashed cottage upon the side-wall of which an incised tablet bears
+the following record:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Nel MCCCCLXXVII Fra Queste Vmili Mura Tiziano Vecellio Vene a celebre
+Vita Donde vsciva gia presso a cento Anni In Venezia Addi XXVII Agosto
+MDLXXVI."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A poor, mean-looking, low-roofed dwelling, disfigured by external
+chimney-shafts and a built-out oven; lit with tiny, blinking, medieval
+windows; altogether unlovely; altogether unnoticeable; but&mdash;the
+birthplace of Titian!</p>
+
+<p>It looked different, no doubt, when he was a boy and played outside here
+on the grass. It had probably a high, steep roof, like the homesteads in
+his own landscape drawings; but the present old brown tiles have been
+over it long enough to get mottled with yellow lichens. One would like
+to know if the fountain and the statue were there in his time; and if
+the water trickled ever to the same low tune; and if the women came
+there to wash their linen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> and fill their brazen water jars, as they do
+now. This lovely green hill, at all events, sheltered the home from the
+east winds; and Monte Duranno lifted his strange crest yonder against
+the southern horizon; and the woods dipt down to the valley, then as
+now, where the bridle-path slopes away to join the road to Venice.</p>
+
+<p>We went up to the house, and knocked. The door was opened by a sickly,
+hunchbacked lad who begged us to walk in, and who seemed to be quite
+alone there. The house was very dark, and looked much older inside than
+from without. A long, low, gloomy upstairs chamber with a huge penthouse
+fire-place jutting into the room, was evidently as old as the days of
+Titian's grandfather, to whom the house originally belonged; while a
+very small and very dark adjoining closet, with a porthole of window
+sunk in a slope of massive wall, was pointed out as the room in which
+the great painter was born.</p>
+
+<p>"But how do you know that he was born here?" I asked. The hunchback
+lifted his wasted hand with a deprecating gesture. "They have always
+said so, Signora," he replied. "They have said so for more than four
+hundred years."</p>
+
+<p>"They?" I repeated, doubtfully. "The Vecelli, Signora." "I had
+understood that the Vecellio family was extinct." "Scusate, Signora,"
+said the hunchback. "The last direct descendant of 'Il Tiziano' died not
+long ago&mdash;a few years before I was born; and the collateral Vecelli are
+citizens of Cadore to this day. If the Signora<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> will be pleased to look
+for it, she will see the name of Vecellio over a shop on the right-hand
+side, as she returns to the Piazza."</p>
+
+<p>I did look for it; and there, sure enough, over a small shop-window I
+found it. It gave one an odd sort of shock, as if time were for the
+moment annihilated; and I remember how, with something of the same
+feeling, I once saw the name of Rubens over a shop-front in the
+market-place at Cologne.</p>
+
+<p>I left the house less incredulous than I entered it. Of the identity of
+the building there has never been any kind of doubt; and I am inclined
+to accept with the house the identity of the room. Titian, it should be
+remembered, lived long enough to become, long before he died, the glory
+of his family. He became rich; he became noble; his fame filled Italy.
+Hence the room in which he was born may well have acquired, half a
+century before his death&mdash;perhaps even during the lifetime of his
+mother&mdash;that sort of sacredness which is generally of post-mortem
+growth. The legend, handed down from Vecellio to Vecellio in
+uninterrupted succession, lays claim, therefore, to a more reliable
+pedigree than most traditions of a similar character.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> From "Travels in Italy." Translated by A. J. W. Morrison
+and Charles Nisbet. Goethe's visit to Italy was made in 1786. He was
+then only thirty-seven years of age. The visit had important influence
+on his subsequent career. The greatest of his works were still to be
+written. It was not until after 1794 that Goethe devoted himself
+entirely to literature.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Goethe at this time had published several short plays
+besides "The Sorrows of Werth&eacute;," "Wilhelm Meister," and a few other
+works less important.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> By that name Italians know the Pantheon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> From "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the years 1701,
+1702, 1703." At the time of his departure for Italy, Addison was
+twenty-nine years old. None of his important works had then been
+written.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Addison's belief has been amply justified by the extensive
+excavations made since his time.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> From "Ancient Rome, In the Light of Recent Discoveries." By
+special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers,
+Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1888.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Lanciani here has referred to the Catholic Church, in which
+historians have seen, in the spiritual sense, a survival of imperial
+Rome.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin
+<span class="smcap">Co</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin
+Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Mr. Hillard was writing in 1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By
+special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers,
+Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This mausoleum, built by Augustus on the bank of the Tiber
+for himself and his family, had long been used as the imperial
+sepulcher.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> From "Rome." By arrangement with, and by permission of,
+the publishers, John C. Winston Co. Copyright, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement
+with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt &amp; Co. Copyright,
+1868. Translated by John Durand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By
+special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers,
+Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By
+special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers,
+Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> From "Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe." Mrs.
+Lippincott's visit was made in 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> From "Recollections of the Last Four Popes, and of Rome in
+their Times." Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-1865), an English
+cardinal, was famous during his lifetime for intellectual vigor and
+scholarly attainments. In presenting an intimate view of a papal
+election it was his unusual privilege to describe not only "the things
+he saw," but also, as his later destiny revealed, to tell of the things
+of which he formed a part. The election pictured is that of Leo XII.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> From "Six Novices on the Grand Tour, by One of Them."
+Privately printed. (1911.) By permission of the author.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin
+Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement
+with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt &amp; Co. Copyright,
+1868. Translated by John Durand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> From "Pictures from Italy."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> From "The Marble Faun." Published by Houghton, Mifflin
+Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> From "Pencillings by the Way."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> From "Pictures from Italy."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers of Hawthorne's
+works, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Hiram Powers, the American sculptor, who lived long in
+Florence, and is best known for his "Greek Slave."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and
+by permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> From "Florence."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> From Taine's "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt &amp; Co.
+Translated by John Durand. Copyright, 1869.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Since Taine wrote, the fa&ccedil;ade has been added.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> From "Italian Cities." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright,
+1900.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> From "The Makers of Florence." Published by the Macmillan
+Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> That is, the Baptistery at Florence.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C.
+Winston Co. Copyright, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C.
+Winston Co. Copyright, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C.
+Winston Co. Copyright, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Dante was buried at Ravenna. The reader will recall
+Byron's lines:
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore."</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement
+with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt &amp; Co. Copyright,
+1869. Translated by John Durand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> From "Letters of a Traveller." Bryant's letter is dated in
+May, 1834.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> The court of the Austrian Grand Duke Leopold III. In 1859
+Leopold was expelled, and Florence, with Tuscany, was annexed to the
+Sardinian kingdom.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> From "Venice: Its History, Art, Industries and Modern
+Life." Published by John C. Winston Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> From "Two Months Abroad." Privately printed. (1878.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> From "Journeys In Italy." By arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Marie Taglioni, the ballet dancer, who was born in
+Stockholm of Italian parents in 1804 and married to Count Gilbert de
+Voisons in 1847, when she retired from the stage. She died in 1884.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> From "The Stones of Venice." St. Mark's is merely a
+church. It is not a cathedral; that is, it is not the "cathedra" of a
+bishop. Originally it was the private chapel of the Doge. Likewise, St.
+Peter's at Rome is a church only&mdash;the church of the Pope. The cathedral
+of the Pope (who is the Bishop of Rome), is St. John Lateran.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Venice and territory adjacent to it were long in
+subjection to Austria. Having put an end to the republic in 1797 (the
+republic had then had an unbroken existence for about thirteen hundred
+years), Napoleon, by the treaty of Campo Formio, ceded this territory to
+Austria. In 1805, however, Venetia was added by Napoleon to his Kingdom
+of Italy. In 1814, after the first fall of Napoleon, it was ceded back
+to Austria and in 1815 became part of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom.
+Under the leadership of Manin, in 1848, a republic was proclaimed in
+Venice, but Austria laid siege to the city and captured it. It was not
+until 1866, at the conclusion of the war against Austria, that Venice
+was annexed to the new Italian kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> From "In and Around Venice." Published by Charles
+Scribner's Sons.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> From "In and Around Venice." Published by Charles
+Scribner's Sons. After its fall, the Venetians set about raising funds
+for rebuilding the Campanile. In the course of several years, the new
+structure was finished and the event duly commemorated.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> From "The Stones of Venice."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Several men of this name are famous in Venetian annals, as
+soldiers, statesmen and doges. The one here referred to is Tommaso, who
+defeated the Turks, added Dalmatia to the Venetian domain, greatly
+encouraged commerce and founded the Venetian library.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> From "Life on the Lagoons." Published by the Macmillan
+Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement
+with, and by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt &amp; Co. Copyright,
+1869.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> The state ship of Venice.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> From "Life on the Lagoons." Published by the Macmillan
+Co.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> From "The Stones of Venice."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> From "Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: A
+Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites." Published by E. P. Dutton &amp; Co.</p></div></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7
+       Italy, Sicily, and Greece (Part One)
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Francis W. Halsey
+
+Release Date: July 16, 2006 [EBook #18845]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.
+
+THE COLISEUM AND ARCH OF TITUS]
+
+
+
+
+SEEING EUROPE
+
+WITH FAMOUS
+
+AUTHORS
+
+
+SELECTED AND EDITED
+
+WITH
+
+INTRODUCTIONS, ETC.
+
+BY
+
+FRANCIS W. HALSEY
+
+  _Editor of "Great Epochs in American History"
+  Associate Editor of "The Worlds Famous Orations"
+  and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc._
+
+
+IN TEN
+
+VOLUMES
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+Vol. VII
+
+ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE
+
+Part One
+
+
+FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
+FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
+[_Printed in the United States of America_]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES VII AND VIII
+
+Italy, Sicily and Greece
+
+
+Tourists in great numbers now go to Italy by steamers that have Naples
+and Genoa for ports. By the fast Channel steamers, however, touching at
+Cherbourg and Havre, one may make the trip in less time (rail journey
+included). In going to Rome, four days could thus be saved; but the
+expense will be greater--perhaps forty per cent.
+
+               ... "and now, fair Italy!
+  Thou art the garden of the world, the home
+  Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree;
+  Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
+  Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste
+  More rich than other climes' fertility;
+  Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
+  With an immaculate charm which can not be defaced."
+
+At least four civilizations, and probably five, have dominated Italy;
+together they cover a period of more than 3,000 years--Pelasgian,
+Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Italian. Of these the Pelasgian is, in the main,
+legendary. Next came the Etruscan. How old that civilization is no man
+knows, but its beginnings date from at least 1000 B.C.--that is, earlier
+than Homer's writings, and earlier by nearly three centuries than the
+wall built by Romulus around Rome. The Etruscan state was a federation
+of twelve cities, embracing a large part of central and northern
+Italy--from near Naples as far north perhaps as Milan and the great
+Lombard plain. Etruscans thus dominated the largest, and certainly the
+fairest, parts of Italy. Before Rome was founded, the Etruscan cities
+were populous and opulent commonwealths. Together they formed one of the
+great naval powers of the Mediterranean. Of their civilization, we have
+abundant knowledge from architectural remains, and, from thousands of
+inscriptions still extant. Cortona was one of their oldest towns. "Ere
+Troy itself arose, Cortona was."
+
+After the Etruscans, came Greeks, who made flourishing settlements in
+southern Italy, the chief of which was Paestum, founded not later than
+600 B.C. Stupendous ruins survive at Paestum; few more interesting ones
+have come down to us from the world of ancient Hellas. The oldest dates
+from about 570 B.C. Here was once the most fertile and beautiful part
+of Italy, celebrated for its flowers so that Virgil praised them. It is
+now a lonely and forsaken land, forbidding and malarious. Once thickly
+populated, it has become scarcely more than a haunt of buffalos and
+peasants, who wander indifferent among these colossal remains of a
+vanished race. These, however, are not the civilizations that do most
+attract tourists to Italy, but the remains found there of ancient Rome.
+Of that empire all modern men are heirs--heirs of her marvelous
+political structure, of her social and industrial laws.
+
+Last of these five civilizations is the Italian, the beginnings of which
+date from Theodoric the Goth, who in the fifth century set up a kingdom
+independent of Rome; but Gothic rule was of short life, and then came
+the Lombards, who for two hundred years were dominant in northern and
+central parts, or until Charlemagne grasped their tottering kingdom and
+put on their famous Iron Crown. In the south Charlemagne's empire never
+flourished. That part of Italy was for centuries the prey of Saracens,
+Magyars and Scandinavians. From these events emerged modern Italy--the
+rise of her vigorous republics, Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice; the
+dawn, meridian splendor and decline of her great schools of sculpture,
+painting and architecture, the power and beauty of which have held the
+world in subjection; her literature, to which also the world has become
+a willing captive; her splendid municipal spirit; a Church, whose
+influence has circled the globe, and in which historians, in a spiritual
+sense, have seen a survival of Imperial Rome. But here are tales that
+every schoolboy hears.
+
+Sicily is reached in a night by steamer from Naples to Palermo, or the
+tourist may go by train from Naples to Reggio, and thence by ferry
+across the strait to Messina. Its earliest people were contemporaries of
+the Etruscans. Phoenicians also made settlements there, as they did in
+many parts of the Mediterranean, but these were purely commercial
+enterprises. Real civilization in Sicily dates from neither of those
+races, but from Dorian and Ionic Greeks, who came perhaps as early as
+the founding of Rome--that is, in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The
+great cities of the Sicilian Greeks were Syracuse, Segesta and Girgenti,
+where still survive colossal remains of their genius. In military and
+political senses, the island for 3,000 years has been overrun,
+plundered and torn asunder by every race known to Mediterranean waters.
+Beside those already named, are Carthaginians under Hannibal, Vandals
+under Genseric, Goths under Theodoric, Byzantines under Belisarius,
+Saracens from Asia Minor, Normans under Robert Guiscard, German emperors
+of the thirteenth century, French Angevine princes (in whose time came
+the Sicilian Vespers), Spaniards of the house of Aragon, French under
+Napoleon, Austrians of the nineteenth century, and then--that glorious
+day when Garibaldi transferred it to the victorious Sardinian king.
+
+The tourist who seeks Greece from northern Europe may go from Trieste by
+steamer along the Dalmatian coast (in itself a trip of fine surprizes),
+to Cattaro and Corfu, transferring to another steamer for the Piraeus,
+the port of Athens; or from Italy by steamer direct from Brindisi, the
+ancient Brundusium, whence sailed all Roman expeditions to the East, and
+where in retirement once dwelt Cicero. No writer has known where to date
+the beginnings of civilization in Greece, but with Mycenae, Tiryns, and
+the Minoan palace of Crete laid bare, antiquarians have pointed the way
+to dates far older than anything before recorded. The palace of Minos
+is ancient enough to make the Homeric age seem modern. With the Dorian
+invasion of Greece about 1000 B.C., begins that Greek civilization of
+which we have so much authentic knowledge. Dorian influence was confined
+largely to Sparta, but it spread to many Greek colonies in the central
+Mediterranean and in the Levant. It became a powerful influence, alike
+in art, in domestic life, and in political supremacy. One of its noblest
+achievements was its help in keeping out the Persian, and another in
+supplanting in the Mediterranean the commercial rule of Phoenicians.
+Attica and Sparta became world-famous cities, with stupendous
+achievements in every domain of human art and human efficiency. The
+colossal debt all Europe and all America owe them, is known to everyone
+who has ever been to school.
+
+                                                              F. W. H.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII
+
+  Italy, Sicily, and Greece--Part One
+
+  INTRODUCTION TO VOLS. VII AND VIII--By the Editor.
+
+
+  I--ROME
+                                                                    PAGE
+  FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY--By Johann
+  Wolfgang von Goethe                                                  1
+
+  THE ANTIQUITIES--By Joseph Addison                                  10
+
+  THE PALACE OF THE CAESARS--By Rodolfo
+  Lanciani                                                            17
+
+  THE COLISEUM--By George S. Hillard                                  24
+
+  THE PANTHEON--By George S. Hillard                                  29
+
+  HADRIAN'S TOMB--By Rodolfo Lanciani                                 32
+
+  TRAJAN'S FORUM--By Francis Wey                                      35
+
+  THE BATHS OF CARACALLA--By Hippolyte
+  Adolphe Taine                                                       37
+
+  THE AQUEDUCT BUILDERS--By Rodolfo Lanciani                          41
+
+  THE QUARRIES AND BRICKS OF THE ANCIENT
+  CITY--By Rodolfo Lanciani                                           45
+
+  PALM SUNDAY IN ST. PETER--By Grace
+  Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott)                                         53
+
+  THE ELECTION OF A POPE--By Cardinal Wiseman                         55
+
+  AN AUDIENCE WITH PIUS X.--By Mary Emogene
+  Hazeltine                                                           59
+
+  THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S--By
+  George S. Hillard                                                   64
+
+  SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE--By Hippolyte
+  Adolphe Taine                                                       67
+
+  CATACOMBS AND CRYPTS--By Charles Dickens 69
+
+  THE CEMETERY OF THE CAPUCHINS--By Nathaniel
+  Hawthorne                                                           73
+
+  THE BURIAL PLACE OF KEATS AND SHELLEY--By
+  Nathaniel Parker Willis                                             75
+
+  EXCURSIONS NEAR ROME--By Charles Dickens                            78
+
+
+  II--FLORENCE
+
+  THE APPROACH BY CARRIAGE ROAD--By Nathaniel
+  Hawthorne                                                           83
+
+  THE OLD PALACE AND THE LOGGIA--By Theophile
+  Gautier                                                             86
+
+  THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY--By Grant Allen 92
+
+  THE CATHEDRAL--By Hippolyte Adolphe
+  Taine                                                               96
+
+  THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI--By
+  Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield                                   102
+
+  ARNOLFO, GIOTTO AND BRUNELLESCHI--By
+  Mrs. Oliphant                                                      106
+
+  GHIBERTI'S GATES--By Charles Yriarte                               116
+
+  THE PONTE VECCHIO--By Charles Yriarte                              119
+
+  SANTA CROCE--By Charles Yriarte                                    121
+
+  THE UFFIZI GALLERY--By Hippolyte Adolphe
+  Taine                                                              125
+
+  FLORENCE EIGHTY YEARS AGO--By William
+  Cullen Bryant                                                      131
+
+
+  III--VENICE
+
+  THE APPROACH FROM THE SEA--By Charles
+  Yriarte                                                            138
+
+  THE APPROACH BY TRAIN--By the Editor                               140
+
+  A TOUR OF THE GRAND CANAL--By Theophile
+  Gautier                                                            143
+
+  ST. MARK'S CHURCH--By John Ruskin                                  148
+
+  HOW THE OLD CAMPANILE WAS BUILT--By
+  Horatio F. Brown                                                   155
+
+  HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL--By Horatio F.
+  Brown                                                              161
+
+  THE PALACE OF THE DOGES--By John Ruskin                            163
+
+  THE LAGOONS--By Horatio F. Brown                                   174
+
+  THE DECLINE AMID SPLENDOR--By Hippolyte
+  Adolphe Taine                                                      177
+
+  THE DOVES OF ST. MARK'S--By Horatio F.
+  Brown                                                              183
+
+  TORCELLO, THE MOTHER CITY--By John Ruskin                          186
+
+  CADORE, TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE--By Amelia B.
+  Edwards                                                            189
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  VOLUME VII
+
+
+  FRONTISPIECE
+
+  THE COLISEUM AND THE ARCH OF TITUS
+
+
+  PRECEDING PAGE 1
+
+  THE PANTHEON, ROME
+  ROME: THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, AND DOME OF ST. PETER'S
+  ROME: RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CAESARS
+  ROME: THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE
+  THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY
+  THE TARPIAN ROCK IN ROME
+  INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM
+  THE COLISEUM, ROME
+  ST. PETER'S, ROME
+  ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S
+  ROME: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE
+  THE CATHEDRAL, FLORENCE
+
+  FOLLOWING PAGE 96
+
+  FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO
+  FLORENCE: THE OLD PALACE
+  FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI
+  FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
+  FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO
+  FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE
+  FLORENCE: HOUSE OF DANTE
+  FRONT OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+  INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+  THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE
+  VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL PALACE ON THE LEFT
+  VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE CAMPANILE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE PANTHEON OF ROME
+Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[Illustration: THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, AND DOME OF ST. PETER'S
+RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CAESARS]
+
+[Illustration: THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE OF ROME]
+
+[Illustration: THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY
+Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[Illustration: THE TARPEIAN ROCK IN ROME]
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM]
+
+[Illustration: THE COLISEUM]
+
+[ST. PETER'S, ROME
+Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[Illustration: ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S]
+
+[Illustration: ROME: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE]
+
+[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+ROME
+
+
+FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY[1]
+
+BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
+
+
+At last I am arrived in this great capital of the world. If fifteen
+years ago I could have seen it in good company, with a well-informed
+guide, I should have thought myself very fortunate. But as it was to be
+that I should thus see it alone, and with my own eyes, it is well that
+this joy has fallen to my lot so late in life.
+
+Over the mountains of the Tyrol I have as good as flown. Verona,
+Vicenza, Padua, and Venice I have carefully looked at; hastily glanced
+at Ferrara, Cento, Bologna, and scarcely seen Florence at all. My
+anxiety to reach Rome was so great, and it so grew with me every moment,
+that to think of stopping anywhere was quite out of the question; even
+in Florence, I only stayed three hours. Now I am here at my ease, and as
+it would seem, shall be tranquilized for my whole life; for we may
+almost say that a new life begins when a man once sees with his own eyes
+all that before he has but partially heard or read of.
+
+All the dreams of my youth I now behold realized before me; the subjects
+of the first engravings I ever remembered seeing (several views of Rome
+were hung up in an anteroom of my father's house) stand bodily before my
+sight, and all that I had long been acquainted with, through paintings
+or drawings, engravings, or wood-cuts, plaster-casts, and cork models
+are here collectively presented to my eye. Wherever I go I find some old
+acquaintance in this new world; it is all just as I had thought it, and
+yet all is new; and just the same might I remark of my own observations
+and my own ideas. I have not gained any new thoughts, but the older ones
+have become so defined, so vivid, and so coherent, that they may almost
+pass for new ones....
+
+I have now been here seven days, and by degrees have formed in my mind a
+general idea of the city. We go diligently backward and forward. While I
+am thus making myself acquainted with the plan of old and new Rome,
+viewing the ruins and the buildings, visiting this and that villa, the
+grandest and most remarkable objects are slowly and leisurely
+contemplated. I do but keep my eyes open and see, and then go and come
+again, for it is only in Rome one can duly prepare oneself for Rome. It
+must, in truth, be confessed, that it is a sad and melancholy business
+to prick and track out ancient Rome in new Rome; however, it must be
+done, and we may hope at least for an incalculable gratification. We
+meet with traces both of majesty and of ruin, which alike surpass all
+conception; what the barbarians spared, the builders of new Rome made
+havoc of....
+
+When one thus beholds an object two thousand years old and more, but so
+manifoldly and thoroughly altered by the changes of time, but, sees
+nevertheless, the same soil, the same mountains, and often indeed the
+same walls and columns, one becomes, as it were, a contemporary of the
+great counsels of Fortune, and thus it becomes difficult for the
+observer to trace from the beginning Rome following Rome, and not only
+new Rome succeeding to the old, but also the several epochs of both old
+and new in succession. I endeavor, first of all, to grope my way alone
+through the obscurer parts, for this is the only plan by which one can
+hope fully and completely to perfect by the excellent introductory works
+which have been written from the fifteenth century to the present day.
+The first artists and scholars have occupied their whole lives with
+these objects.
+
+And this vastness has a strangely tranquilizing effect upon you in Rome,
+while you pass from place to place, in order to visit the most
+remarkable objects. In other places one has to search for what is
+important; here one is opprest, and borne down with numberless
+phenomena. Wherever one goes and casts a look around, the eye is at once
+struck with some landscape--forms of every kind and style; palaces and
+ruins, gardens and statuary, distant views of villas, cottages and
+stables, triumphal arches and columns, often crowding so close together,
+that they might all be sketched on a single sheet of paper. He ought to
+have a hundred hands to write, for what can a single pen do here; and,
+besides, by the evening one is quite weary and exhausted with the day's
+seeing and admiring.
+
+My strange, and perhaps whimsical, incognito proves useful to me in many
+ways that I never should have thought of. As every one thinks himself in
+duty bound to ignore who I am, and consequently never ventures to speak
+to me of myself and my works,[2] they have no alternative left them but
+to speak of themselves, or of the matters in which they are most
+interested, and in this way I become circumstantially informed of the
+occupations of each, and of everything remarkable that is either taken
+in hand or produced. Hofrath Reiffenstein good-naturedly humors this
+whim of mine; as, however, for special reasons, he could not bear the
+name which I had assumed, he immediately made a Baron of me, and I am
+now called the "Baron gegen Rondanini ueber" (the Baron who lives
+opposite to the Palace Rondanini). This designation is sufficiently
+precise, especially as the Italians are accustomed to speak of people
+either by their Christian names, or else by some nickname. Enough; I
+have gained my object; and I escape the dreadful annoyance of having to
+give to everybody an account of myself and my works....
+
+In Rome, the Rotunda,[3] both by its exterior and interior, has moved me
+to offer a willing homage to its magnificence. In St. Peter's I learned
+to understand how art, no less than nature, annihilates the artificial
+measures and dimensions of man. And in the same way the Apollo Belvidere
+also has again drawn me out of reality. For as even the most correct
+engravings furnish no adequate idea of these buildings, so the case is
+the same with respect to the marble original of this statue, as compared
+with the plaster models of it, which, however, I formerly used to look
+upon as beautiful.
+
+Here I am now living with a calmness and tranquility to which I have for
+a long while been a stranger. My practise to see and take all things as
+they are, my fidelity in letting the eye be my light, my perfect
+renunciation of all pretension, have again come to my aid, and make me
+calmly, but most intensely, happy. Every day has its fresh remarkable
+object--every day its new grand unequaled paintings, and a whole which a
+man may long think of, and dream of, but which with all his power of
+imagination he can never reach.
+
+Yesterday I was at the Pyramid of Cestius, and in the evening on the
+Palatine, on the top of which are the ruins of the palace of the Caesars,
+which stand there like walls of rock. Of all this, however, no idea can
+be conveyed! In truth, there is nothing little here; altho, indeed,
+occasionally something to find fault with--something more or less absurd
+in taste, and yet even this partakes of the universal grandeur of all
+around....
+
+Yesterday I visited the nymph Egeria, and then the Hippodrome of
+Caracalla, the ruined tombs along the Via Appia, and the tomb of
+Metella, which is the first to give one a true idea of what solid
+masonry really is. These men worked for eternity--all causes of decay
+were calculated, except the rage of the spoiler, which nothing can
+resist. The remains of the principal aqueduct are highly venerable. How
+beautiful and grand a design, to supply a whole people with water by so
+vast a structure! In the evening we came upon the Coliseum, when it was
+already twilight. When one looks at it, all else seems little; the
+edifice is so vast, that one can not hold the image of it in one's
+soul--in memory we think it smaller, and then return to it again to find
+it every time greater than before.
+
+We entered the Sistine Chapel, which we found bright and cheerful, and
+with a good light for the pictures. "The Last Judgment" divided our
+admiration with the paintings on the roof by Michael Angelo. I could
+only see and wonder. The mental confidence and boldness of the master,
+and his grandeur of conception, are beyond all expression. After we had
+looked at all of them over and over again, we left this sacred building,
+and went to St. Peter's, which received from the bright heavens the
+loveliest light possible, and every part of it was clearly lit up. As
+men willing to be pleased, we were delighted with its vastness and
+splendor, and did not allow an over-nice or hypercritical taste to mar
+our pleasure. We supprest every harsher judgment; we enjoyed the
+enjoyable.
+
+Lastly we ascended the roof of the church, where one finds in little the
+plan, of a well-built city. Houses and magazines, springs (in appearance
+at least), churches, and a great temple all in the air, and beautiful
+walks between. We mounted the dome, and saw glistening before us the
+regions of the Apennines, Soracte, and toward Tivoli the volcanic hills.
+Frascati, Castelgandolfo, and the plains, and beyond all the sea. Close
+at our feet lay the whole city of Rome in its length and breadth, with
+its mountain palaces, domes, etc. Not a breath of air was moving, and in
+the upper dome it was (as they say) like being in a hot-house. When we
+had looked enough at these things, we went down, and they opened for us
+the doors in the cornices of the dome, the tympanum, and the nave. There
+is a passage all round, and from above you can take a view of the whole
+church, and of its several parts. As we stood on the cornices of the
+tympanum, we saw beneath us the pope passing to his mid-day devotions.
+Nothing, therefore, was wanting to make our view of St. Peter's perfect.
+We at last descended to the piazza, and took in a neighboring hotel a
+cheerful but frugal meal, and then set off for St. Cecilia's.
+
+It would take many words to describe the decorations of this church,
+which was crammed full of people; not a stone of the edifice was to be
+seen. The pillars were covered with red velvet wound round with gold
+lace; the capitals were overlaid with embroidered velvet, so as to
+retain somewhat of the appearance of capitals, and all the cornices and
+pillars were in like manner covered with hangings. All the entablatures
+of the walls were also covered with life-like paintings, so that the
+whole church seemed to be laid out in mosaic. Around the church, and on
+the high altar more than two hundred wax tapers were burning. It looked
+like a wall of lights, and the whole nave was perfectly lit up. The
+aisles and side altars were equally adorned and illuminated. Right
+opposite the high altar, and under the organ, two scaffolds were
+erected, which also were covered with velvet, on one of which were
+placed the singers, and on the other the instruments, which kept up one
+unbroken strain of music....
+
+And yet these glorious objects are even still like new acquaintances to
+me. One has not yet lived with them, nor got familiar with their
+peculiarities. Some of them attract us with irresistible power, so that
+for a time one feels indifferent, if not unjust, toward all others.
+Thus, for instance, the Pantheon, the Apollo Belvedere, some colossal
+heads, and very recently the Sistine Chapel, have by turns so won my
+whole heart, that I scarcely saw any thing besides them. But, in truth,
+can man, little as man always is, and accustomed to littleness, ever
+make himself equal to all that here surrounds him of the noble, the
+vast, and the refined? Even tho he should in any degree adapt himself to
+it, then how vast is the multitude of objects that immediately press
+upon him from all sides, and meet him at every turn, of which each
+demands for itself the tribute of his whole attention. How is one to get
+out of the difficulty? No other way assuredly than by patiently allowing
+it to work, becoming industrious, and attending the while to all that
+others have accomplished for our benefit.
+
+Of the beauty of a walk through Rome by moonlight it is impossible to
+form a conception, without having witnessed it. All single objects are
+swallowed up by the great masses of light and shade, and nothing but
+grand and general outlines present themselves to the eye. For three
+several days we have enjoyed to the full the brightest and most glorious
+of nights. Peculiarly beautiful at such a time is the Coliseum. At night
+it is always closed; a hermit dwells in a little shrine within its
+range, and beggars of all kinds nestle beneath its crumbling arches; the
+latter had lit a fire on the arena, and a gentle wind bore down the
+smoke to the ground, so that the lower portion of the ruins was quite
+hid by it, while above the vast walls stood out in deeper darkness
+before the eye. As we stopt at the gate to contemplate the scene through
+the iron gratings, the moon shone brightly in the heavens above.
+Presently the smoke found its way up the sides, and through every chink
+and opening, while the moon lit it up like a cloud. The sight was
+exceedingly glorious. In such a light one ought also to see the
+Pantheon, the Capitol, the Portico of St. Peter's, and the other grand
+streets and squares--and thus sun and moon, like the human mind, have
+quite a different work to do here from elsewhere, where the vastest and
+yet the most elegant of masses present themselves to their rays.
+
+
+
+
+THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY[4]
+
+BY JOSEPH ADDISON
+
+
+There are in Rome two sets of antiquities, the Christian, and the
+heathen. The former, tho of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable
+and legend, that one receives but little satisfaction from searching
+into them. The other give a great deal of pleasure to such as have met
+with them before in ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome can scarce
+see an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet or
+historian. Among the remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the
+commonwealth shows itself chiefly in works that were either necessary or
+convenient, such as temples, highways, aqueducts, walls, and bridges of
+the city. On the contrary, the magnificence of Rome under the emperors
+is seen principally in such works as were rather for ostentation or
+luxury, than any real usefulness or necessity, as in baths,
+amphitheaters, circuses, obelisks, triumphal pillars, arches, and
+mausoleums; for what they added to the aqueducts was rather to supply
+their baths and naumachias, and to embellish the city with fountains,
+than out of any real necessity there was for them....
+
+No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me so much as the ancient
+statues, of which there is still an incredible variety. The workmanship
+is often the most exquisite of anything in its kind. A man would wonder
+how it were possible for so much life to enter into marble, as may be
+discovered in some of the best of them; and even in the meanest, one has
+the satisfaction of seeing the faces, postures, airs, and dress of those
+that have lived so many ages before us. There is a strange resemblance
+between the figures of the several heathen deities, and the descriptions
+that the Latin poets have given us of them; but as the first may be
+looked upon as the ancienter of the two, I question not but the Roman
+poets were the copiers of the Greek statuaries. Tho on other occasions
+we often find the statuaries took their subjects from the poets. The
+Laocoeon is too known an instance among many others that are to be met
+with at Rome.
+
+I could not forbear taking particular notice of the several musical
+instruments that are to be seen in the hands of the Apollos, muses,
+fauns, satyrs, bacchanals, and shepherds, which might certainly give a
+great light to the dispute for preference between the ancient and modern
+music. It would, perhaps, be no impertinent design to take off all their
+models in wood, which might not only give us some notion of the ancient
+music, but help us to pleasanter instruments than are now in use. By the
+appearance they make in marble, there is not one string-instrument that
+seems comparable to our violins, for they are all played on either by
+the bare fingers, or the plectrum, so that they were incapable of adding
+any length to their notes, or of varying them by those insensible
+swellings, and wearings away of sound upon the same string, which give
+so wonderful a sweetness to our modern music. Besides that, the
+string-instruments must have had very low and feeble voices, as may be
+guessed from the small proportion of wood about them, which could not
+contain air enough to render the strokes, in any considerable measure,
+full and sonorous. There is a great deal of difference in the make, not
+only of the several kinds of instruments, but even among those of the
+same name. The syringa, for example, has sometimes four, and sometimes
+more pipes, as high as the twelve. The same variety of strings may be
+observed on their harps, and of stops on their tibiae, which shows the
+little foundation that such writers have gone upon, who, from a verse
+perhaps in Virgil's Eclogues, or a short passage in a classic author,
+have been so very nice in determining the precise shape of the ancient
+musical instruments, with the exact number of their pipes, strings, and
+stops....
+
+Tho the statues that have been found among the ruins of old Rome are
+already very numerous, there is no question but posterity will have the
+pleasure of seeing many noble pieces of sculpture which are still
+undiscovered; for, doubtless, there are greater treasures of this nature
+under ground, than what are yet brought to light.[5] They have often dug
+into lands that are described in old authors, as the places where such
+particular statues or obelisks stood, and have seldom failed of success
+in their pursuits. There are still many such promising spots of ground
+that have never been searched into. A great part of the Palatine
+mountain, for example, lies untouched, which was formerly the seat of
+the imperial palace, and may be presumed to abound with more treasures
+of this nature than any other part of Rome.
+
+But whether it be that the richest of these discoveries fall into the
+Pope's hands, or for some other reason, it is said that the Prince
+Farnese, who is the present owner of this seat, will keep his own family
+in the chair. There are undertakers in Rome who often purchase the
+digging of fields, gardens, or vineyards, where they find any likelihood
+of succeeding, and some have been known to arrive at great estates by
+it. They pay according to the dimensions of the surface they are to
+break up; and after having made essays into it, as they do for coal in
+England, they rake into the most promising parts of it, tho they often
+find, to their disappointment, that others have been beforehand with
+them. However, they generally gain enough by the rubbish and bricks,
+which the present architects value much beyond those of a modern make,
+to defray the charges of their search.
+
+I was shown two spaces of ground, where part of Nero's golden house
+stood, for which the owner has been offered an extraordinary sum of
+money. What encouraged the undertakers, are several very ancient trees,
+which grow upon the spot, from whence they conclude that these
+particular tracts of ground must have lain untouched for some ages. It
+is pity there is not something like a public register, to preserve the
+memory of such statues as have been found from time to time, and to mark
+the particular places where they have been taken up, which would not
+only prevent many fruitless searches for the future, but might often
+give a considerable light into the quality of the place, or the design
+of the statue.
+
+But the great magazine for all kinds of treasure, is supposed to be the
+bed of the Tiber. We may be sure, when the Romans lay under the
+apprehensions of seeing their city sacked by a barbarous enemy, as they
+have done more than once, that they would take care to bestow such of
+their riches this way as could best bear the water, besides what the
+insolence of a brutish conqueror may be supposed to have contributed,
+who had an ambition to waste and destroy all the beauties of so
+celebrated a city. I need not mention the old common-shore of Rome,
+which ran from all parts of the town with the current and violence of an
+ordinary river, nor the frequent inundations of the Tiber, which may
+have swept away many of the ornaments of its banks, nor the several
+statues that the Romans themselves flung into it, when they would
+revenge themselves on the memory of an ill citizen, a dead tyrant, or a
+discarded favorite.
+
+At Rome they have so general an opinion of the riches of this river,
+that the Jews have formerly proffered the Pope to cleanse it, so they
+might have for their pains what they found in the bosom of it. I have
+seen the valley near Ponte Molle, which they proposed to fashion into a
+new channel for it, until they had cleared the old for its reception.
+The Pope, however, would not comply with the proposal, as fearing the
+heats might advance too far before they had finished their work, and
+produce a pestilence among his people; tho I do not see why such a
+design might not be executed now with as little danger as in Augustus's
+time, were there as many hands employed upon it. The city of Rome would
+receive a great advantage from the undertaking, as it would raise the
+banks and deepen the bed of the Tiber, and by consequence free them from
+those frequent inundations to which they are so subject at present; for
+the channel of the river is observed to be narrower within the walls
+than either below or above them.
+
+Next to the statues, there is nothing in Rome more surprizing than that
+amazing variety of ancient pillars of so many kinds of marble. As most
+of the old statues may be well supposed to have been cheaper to their
+first owners than they are to a modern purchaser, several of the pillars
+are certainly rated at a much lower price at present than they were of
+old. For not to mention what a huge column of granite, serpentine, or
+porphyry must have cost in the quarry, or in its carriage from Egypt to
+Rome, we may only consider the great difficulty of hewing it into any
+form, and of giving it the due turn, proportion, and polish. The most
+valuable pillars about Rome, for the marble of which they are made, are
+the four columns of oriental jasper in St. Paulina's chapel at St.
+Maria Maggiore; two of oriental granite in St. Pudenziana; one of
+transparent oriental jasper in the Vatican library; four of Nero-Bianco,
+in St. Cecilia Transtevere; two of Brocatello, and two of oriental agate
+in Don Livio's palace; two of Giallo Antico in St. John Lateran, and two
+of Verdi Antique in the Villa Pamphilia. These are all entire and solid
+pillars, and made of such kinds of marble as are nowhere to be found but
+among antiquities, whether it be that the veins of it are undiscovered,
+or that they were quite exhausted upon the ancient buildings. Among
+these old pillars, I can not forbear reckoning a great part of an
+alabaster column, which was found in the ruins of Livia's portico. It is
+of the color of fire, and may be seen over the high altar of St. Maria
+in Campitello; for they have cut it into two pieces, and fixt it in the
+shape of a cross in a hole of the wall that was made on purpose to
+receive it; so that the light passing through it from without, makes it
+look, to those who are in the church, like a huge transparent cross of
+amber.
+
+
+
+
+THE PALACE OF THE CAESARS[6]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+The Palatine hill became the residence of the Roman emperors, and the
+center of the Roman Empire, not on account of its historical and
+traditional associations with the foundation and first growth of the
+city, nor because of its central and commanding position, but by a mere
+accident. At daybreak on September 21st, of the year 63 B.C., Augustus
+was born in this region, in a modest house, opening on the lane called
+"ad capita bubula," which led from the valley, where now the Coliseum
+stands, up the slopes of the hill toward the modern church and convent
+of St. Bonaventura.
+
+This man, sent by God to change the condition of mankind and the state
+of the world, this founder of an empire which is still practically in
+existence,[7] never deserted the Palatine hill all through his eventful
+career. From the lane "ad capita bubula" he moved to the house of
+Calvus, the orator, at the northeast corner of the hill overlooking the
+forum; and in process of time, having become absolute master of the
+Roman Commonwealth, he settled finally on the top of the hill, having
+purchased for his residence the house of Hortensius, a simple and
+modest house, indeed, with columns of the commonest kind of stone,
+pavements of rubble-work, and simple whitewashed walls.
+
+Whether this selection of a site was made because the Palatine had long
+before been the Faubourg St. Honore, the Belgravia of ancient Rome, is
+difficult to determine. We know that the house of Hortensius, chosen by
+Augustus, was surrounded by those of Clodius, Scaurus, Crassus, Caecina,
+Sisenna, Flaccus, Catiline, and other members of the aristocracy. I am
+persuaded, however, that the secret of the selection is to be found in
+the simplicity, I will even say in the poverty, of the dwelling; in
+fact, such extreme modesty is worthy of the good sense and the spirit of
+moderation shown by Augustus throughout his career. He could very well
+sacrifice appearances to the reality of an unbounded power. It is just,
+at any rate, to recognize that even in his remotest resorts for
+temporary rest and retirement from the cares of government, he led the
+same kind of plain, modest life, spending all his leisure hours in
+arranging his collections of natural history, more especially the
+palaeo-ethnological or prehistoric, for which the ossiferous caverns of
+the Island of Capri supplied him with abundant materials.
+
+It was only after the victory of Actium that, finding himself master of
+the world, he thought it expedient to give up, in a certain measure, his
+former habits, and live in better style. Having bought through his
+agents some of the aristocratic palaces adjoining the old house of
+Hortensius, among them the historical palace of Catiline, he built a
+new and very handsome residence, but declared at the same time that he
+considered it as public property, not as his own. The solemn dedication
+of the palace took place on January 14th, of the year 26 before Christ.
+Here he lived, sleeping always in the same small cubiculum, for
+twenty-eight years; that is to say, until the third year after Christ,
+when the palace was almost destroyed by fire.
+
+As soon as the news of the disaster spread throughout the empire, an
+almost incredible amount of money was subscribed at once, by all orders
+of citizens, to provide him with a new residence; and altho, with his
+usual moderation, he would consent to accept only one denarius from each
+individual subscribed, it is easy to imagine how many millions he must
+have realized in spite of his modesty. A new, magnificent palace rose
+from the ruins of the old one, but it does not appear that the plan and
+arrangement were changed; otherwise Augustus could not have continued to
+sleep in the same room during the last ten years of his life, as we are
+told positively that he did.
+
+The work of Augustus was continued by his successor and kinsman,
+Tiberius, who built a new wing near the northwest corner of the hill,
+overlooking the Velabrum. Caligula filled with new structures the whole
+space between the "domus Tiberiana" and the Roman forum. Nero, likewise,
+occupied with a new palace the south-east corner of the hill,
+overlooking the valley, where the Coliseum was afterward built. Domitian
+rebuilt the "domus Augustana," injured by fire, adding to its
+accommodations a stadium for gymnastic sports. The same emperor raised
+an altogether new palace, in the space between the house of Augustus, on
+one side, and those of Caligula and Tiberius on the other. Septimius
+Severus and his son restored the whole group of imperial buildings,
+adding a new wing at the southwest corner, known under the name of
+Septizonium. The latest additions, of no special importance, took place
+under Julia Mamaea and Heliogabalus.
+
+Every emperor, to a certain extent, enlarged, altered, destroyed, and
+reconstructed the work of his predecessors; cutting new openings,
+walling up old ones, subdividing large rooms into smaller apartments,
+and changing their destination. One section alone of the imperial
+Palatine buildings remained unaltered, and kept the former simplicity of
+its plans down to the fall of the Empire--the section built by Augustus
+across the center of the hill, which comprised the main entrance, the
+portico surrounding the temple of Apollo, the temple itself, the Greek
+and Latin libraries, the shrine of Vesta, and the imperial residence.
+
+The architectural group raised by Augustus on the Palatine, formed, as
+it were, the vestibule to his own imperial residence. We know with
+absolute certainty that it contained at least one hundred and twenty
+columns of the rarest kinds of marbles and breccias, fifty-two of which
+were of Numidian marble, with capitals of gilt bronze; a group of
+Lysias, comprising one chariot, four horses and two drivers, all cut in
+a single block of marble; the Hercules of Lysippus; the Apollo of
+Scopas; the Latona of Cephisodotos, the Diana of Timotheos; the
+bas-reliefs of the pediment by Bupalos and Anthermos; the quadriga of
+the sun in gilt bronze; exquisite ivory carvings; a bronze colossus
+fifty feet high; hundreds of medallions in gold, silver, and bronze;
+gold and silver plate; a collection of gems and cameos; and, lastly,
+candelabras which had been the property of Alexander the Great, and the
+admiration of the East.
+
+Has the world ever seen a collection of greater artistic and material
+value exhibited in a single building? And we must recollect that the
+group built by Augustus comprises only a very modest section of the
+Palatine; that to his palace we must join the palaces of Tiberius,
+Caligula, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Septimius Serverus, Julia Mamaea,
+and Heliogabalus; that each one of these imperial residences equalled
+the residence of Augustus, if not in pure taste, certainly in wealth, in
+luxury, in magnificence, in the number and value of works of art
+collected and stolen from Greece and the East, from Egypt and Persia. By
+multiplying eight or ten times the list I have given above, the reader
+will get an approximate idea of the "home" of the Roman emperors in its
+full pride and glory. I have deliberately excluded from my description
+the residence or private house of Augustus, because he himself had
+deliberately excluded from it any trace of that grandeur he had so
+lavishly bestowed on the buildings which constituted the approach to
+it....
+
+During the rule of Claudius, the successor of Caligula, little or
+nothing was done toward the enlargement or the embellishment of the
+palace of the Caesars. Nero, however, the successor of Claudius,
+conceived the gigantic plan of renewing and of rebuilding from the very
+foundations, not only the imperial residence, but the whole metropolis.
+In the rebuilding of the city the emperor secured for himself the lion's
+share; and his Golden House, of which we possess such beautiful remains,
+occupied the whole extent from the Palatine to the Quirinal, where now
+the central railway station has been erected. Its area amounted to
+nearly a square mile, and this enormous district was appropriated, or
+rather usurped, by the emperor, right in the center of a city numbering
+about two million inhabitants.
+
+Of the wonders of the Golden House it is enough to say that there were
+comprised within the precincts of the enchanting residence waterfalls
+supplied by an aqueduct fifty miles long, lakes and rivers shaded by
+dense masses of foliage, with harbors and docks for the imperial
+galleys; a vestibule containing a bronze colossus one hundred and twenty
+feet high; porticos three thousand feet long; farms and vineyards,
+pasture grounds and woods teeming with the rarest and costliest kind of
+game, zoological and botanical gardens; sulfur baths supplied from
+springs twelve miles distant; sea baths supplied from the waters of the
+Mediterranean, sixteen miles distant at the nearest point; thousands of
+columns crowned with capitals of Corinthian gilt metal; thousands of
+statues stolen from Greece and Asia Minor; walls encrusted with gems and
+mother-of-pearl; banqueting-halls with ivory ceilings, from which rare
+flowers and precious perfumes could fall gently on the recumbent
+guests.
+
+More marvelous still was the ceiling of the state dining-room. It was
+spherical in shape, and cut in ivory, to represent the constellated
+skies, and kept in constant motion by machinery in imitation of the
+movements of the stars and planets. All these details sound like
+fairy-tales, like the dream of a fertile imagination; still they are
+described minutely by contemporary and serious writers, by Suetonius, by
+Martial and by Tacitus. Suetonius adds that the day Nero took possession
+of his Golden House, he was heard to exclaim, "At last I am lodged like
+a man."
+
+The wonders created by him, however, did not last very long. Otho, his
+successor, on the very day of his election to the throne, signed an
+order of fifty millions of sesterces (two million dollars) to bring the
+Golden House to perfection; but after his murder Vespasian and Titus
+gave back to the people the greater portion of the ground usurped by
+Nero. They built the Coliseum on the very site of Nero's artificial
+lake, and the thermae of Titus on the foundation of his private palace;
+they respected only that portion of Nero's insane construction which was
+comprised within the boundaries of the Palatine hill.
+
+
+
+
+THE COLISEUM[8]
+
+BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
+
+
+The Venerable Bede, who lived in the eighth century, is the first person
+who is known to have given to the Flavian amphitheater its comparatively
+modern and now universal designation of the Coliseum; tho the name,
+derived from a colossal statue of the emperor Nero which stood near it,
+was probably then familiar to men's ears, as we may infer from his so
+calling it without explanation or remark.
+
+When in its perfect state, the exterior, with its costly ornaments in
+marble, and its forest of columns, lost the merit of simplicity without
+gaining that of grandeur. The eye was teased with a multitude of
+details, not in themselves good; the same defects were repeated in each
+story, and the real height was diminished by the projecting and
+ungraceful cornices. The interior arrangements were admirable; and
+modern architects can not sufficiently commend the skill with which
+eighty thousand spectators were accommodated with seats; or the
+ingenious contrivances, by which, through the help of spacious
+corridors, multiplied passages, and staircases, every person went
+directly to his place, and immense audiences were dispersed in less time
+than is required for a thousand persons to squeeze through the entries
+of a modern concert-room. We know that this interior of the Coliseum was
+decorated with great splendor. The principal seats were of marble, and
+covered with cushions. Gilded gratings, ornaments of gold, ivory, and
+amber, and mosaics of precious stones, displayed the generosity of the
+emperors, and gratified the taste of the people.
+
+How, or at what period, the work of ruin first began does not distinctly
+appear. An earthquake may have first shattered its ponderous arches, and
+thus made an opening for the destroying hand of time. There can be no
+doubt that it suffered violence from the hands of civil and foreign war.
+But more destructive agencies than those of earthquake, conflagration or
+war, were let loose upon it. Its massive stones, fitted to each other
+with such nice adaptation, presented a strong temptation to the cupidity
+of wealthy nobles and cardinals, with whom building was a ruling
+passion; and for many ages the Coliseum became a quarry. The Palazzo
+della Cancelleria, the Palazzo Barberini, the Palazzo Farnese, and the
+Palazzo Veneziano were all built mainly from the plunder of the
+Coliseum; and meaner robbers emulated the rapacity of their betters, by
+burning into lime the fragments not available for architectural
+purposes.
+
+The material of which the Coliseum was built is exactly fitted to the
+purposes of a great ruin. It is travertine, of a rich, dark, warm color,
+deepened and mellowed by time. There is nothing glaring, harsh, or
+abrupt in the harmony of tints. The blue sky above, and the green earth
+beneath, are in unison with a tone of coloring not unlike the brown of
+one of our own early winter landscapes. The travertine is also of a
+coarse grain and porous texture, not splintering into points and edges,
+but gradually corroding by natural decay. Stone of such a texture
+everywhere opens laps and nooks for the reception and formation of soil.
+Every grain of dust that is borne through the air by the lazy breeze of
+summer, instead of sliding from a glassy surface, is held where it
+falls. The rocks themselves crumble and decompose, and turn into a
+fertile mold. Thus, the Coliseum is throughout crowned and draped with a
+covering of earth, in many places of considerable depth. Trailing plants
+clasp the stones with arms of verdure; wild flowers bloom in their
+seasons; and long grass nods and waves on the airy battlements. Life has
+everywhere sprouted from the trunk of death. Insects hum and sport in
+the sunshine; the burnished lizard darts like a tongue of green flame
+along the walls; and birds make the hollow quarry overflow with their
+songs. There is something beautiful and impressive in the contrast
+between luxuriant life and the rigid skeleton upon which it rests.
+
+As a matter of course, everybody goes to see the Coliseum by moonlight.
+The great charm of the ruin under this condition is, that the
+imagination is substituted for sight; and the mind for the eye. The
+essential character of moonlight is hard rather than soft. The line
+between light and shadow is sharply defined, and there is no gradation
+of color. Blocks and walls of silver are bordered by, and spring out of,
+chasms of blackness. But moonlight shrouds the Coliseum in mystery. It
+opens deep vaults of gloom where the eye meets only an ebon wall, upon
+which the fancy paints innumerable pictures in solemn, splendid, and
+tragic colors. Shadowy forms of emperor and lictor and vestal virgin and
+gladiator and martyr come out of the darkness, and pass before us in
+long and silent procession. The breezes which blow through the broken
+arches are changed into voices, and recall the shouts and cries of a
+vast audience. By day, the Coliseum is an impressive fact; by night, it
+is a stately vision. By day, it is a lifeless form; by night, a vital
+thought.
+
+The Coliseum should by all means be seen by a bright starlight, or under
+the growing sickle of a young moon. The fainter ray and deeper gloom
+bring out more strongly its visionary and ideal character. When the full
+moon has blotted out the stars, it fills the vast gulf of the building
+with a flood of spectral light, which falls with a chilling touch upon
+the spirit; for then the ruin is like a "corpse in its shroud of snow,"
+and the moon is a pale watcher by its side. But when the walls, veiled
+in deep shadow, seem a part of the darkness in which they are lost--when
+the stars are seen through their chasms and breaks, and sparkle along
+the broken line of the battlements--the scene becomes another, tho the
+same; more indistinct, yet not so mournful; contracting the sphere of
+sight, but enlarging that of thought; less burdening, but more
+suggestive.
+
+But under all aspects, in the blaze of noon, at sunset, by the light of
+the moon or stars--the Coliseum stands alone and unapproached. It is the
+monarch of ruins. It is a great tragedy in stone, and it softens and
+subdues the mind like a drama of Aeschylus or Shakespeare. It is a
+colossal type of those struggles of humanity against an irresistible
+destiny, in which the tragic poet finds the elements of his art. The
+calamities which crusht the house of Atreus are symbolized in its broken
+arches and shattered walls. Built of the most durable materials, and
+seemingly for eternity--of a size, material, and form to defy the
+"strong hours" which conquer all, it has bowed its head to their touch,
+and passed into the inevitable cycle of decay. "And this too shall pass
+away"--which the Eastern monarch engraved upon his signet ring--is
+carved upon these Cyclopean blocks. The stones of the Coliseum were once
+water; and they are now turning into dust. Such is ever the circle of
+nature. The solid is changing into the fluid, and the fluid into the
+solid; and that which is unseen is alone indestructible. He does not see
+the Coliseum aright who carries away from it no other impressions than
+those of form, size, and hue. It speaks an intelligible language to the
+wiser mind. It rebukes the peevish and consoles the patient. It teaches
+us that there are misfortunes which are clothed with dignity, and
+sorrows that are crowned with grandeur. As the same blue sky smiles upon
+the ruin which smiled upon the perfect structure, so the same beneficent
+Providence bends over our shattered hopes and our answered prayers.
+
+
+
+
+THE PANTHEON[9]
+
+BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
+
+
+The best preserved monument of ancient Rome, and one of the most
+beautiful buildings of the modern city, is unhappily placed. The
+Pantheon stands in a narrow and dirty piazza, and is shouldered and
+elbowed by a mob of vulgar houses. There is no breathing-space around,
+which it might penetrate with the light of its own serene beauty. Its
+harmonious proportions can be seen only in front; and it has there the
+disadvantage of being approached from a point higher than that on which
+it stands. On one side is a market; and the space before the matchless
+portico is strewn with fish-bones, decayed vegetables, and offal.[10]
+
+Forsyth, the sternest and most fastidious of architectural critics, has
+only "large draughts of unqualified praise" for the Pantheon; and, where
+he finds nothing to censure, who will venture to do any thing but
+commend? The character of the architecture, and the sense of
+satisfaction which it leaves upon the mind, are proofs of the enduring
+charm of simplicity. The portico is perfectly beautiful. It is one
+hundred and ten feet long and forty-four deep, and rests upon sixteen
+columns of the Corinthian order, the shafts being of granite and the
+capitals of marble. Eight of these are in front, and of these eight,
+there are four (including the two on the extreme right and left) which
+have two others behind them; the portico being thus divided into three
+portions, like the nave and side aisles of a cathedral; the middle
+space, leading to the door, being wider than the others. The granite of
+the shafts is partly gray and partly rose-colored, but, in the shadow in
+which they stand, the difference of hue is hardly perceptible. The
+proportions of these columns are faultless; and their massive shafts and
+richly-carved capitals produce the effect, at once, of beauty and
+sublimity. The pediment above is now a bald front of ragged stone, but
+it was once adorned with bas-reliefs in bronze; and the holes, made by
+the rivets with which they were fastened, are still to be seen.
+
+The aisles of the portico were once vaulted with bronze, and massive
+beams or slabs of the same metal stretched across the whole structure;
+but this was removed by Urban VIII., and melted into a baldachino to
+deface St. Peter's, and cannon to defend the castle of St. Angelo; and,
+not content with this, he has added insult to injury, and commemorated
+his robbery in a Latin inscription, in which he claims to be commended
+as for a praiseworthy act. But even this is not the heaviest weight
+resting on the memory of that vandal pope. He shares with Bernini the
+reproach of having added those hideous belfries which now rise above
+each end of the vestibule--as wanton and unprovoked an offense against
+good taste as ever was committed. A cocked hat upon the statue of
+Demosthenes in the Vatican would not be a more discordant addition. The
+artist should have gone to the stake, before giving his hand to such a
+piece of disfigurement.
+
+The cell, or main portion of the building to which the portico is
+attached, is a simple structure, circular in form, and built of brick.
+It was formerly encrusted with marble. The cell and the portico stand to
+each other in the most harmonious relation, altho it seems to be
+admitted that the latter was an addition, not contemplated when the cell
+was built. But in the combination there is nothing forced or unnatural,
+and they seem as necessary and as preordained complements, one to the
+other, as a fine face and a fine head. The cell is a type of masculine
+dignity, and the portico, of feminine grace; and the result is a perfect
+architectural union.
+
+The interior--a rotunda, surmounted by a dome--is converted into a
+Christian church, a purpose to which its form and structure are not well
+adapted; and the altars and their accessories are not improvements in an
+architectural point of view. But in spite of this--in spite of all that
+it has suffered at the hands of rapacity and bad taste--tho the panels
+of the majestic dome have been stript of their bronze, and the whole has
+been daubed over with a glaring coat of whitewash--the interior still
+remains, with all its rare beauty essentially unimpaired. And the reason
+of this is that this charm is the result of form and proportion, and can
+not be lost except by entire destruction. The only light which the
+temple receives is from a circular opening of twenty-eight feet in
+diameter at the top; and falling, as it does, directly from the sky, it
+fills the whole space with the purity of the heavens themselves. The
+magical effect of this kind of illumination it is impossible to
+describe....
+
+The pavement of the Pantheon, composed of porphyry, pavonazzetto, and
+giallo antico, tho constantly overflowed by the Tiber, and drenched by
+the rains which fall upon it from the roof, is the finest in Rome. There
+is an opening in the center, through which the water entering by the
+dome is carried off into a reservoir.
+
+The Pantheon has a peculiar interest in the history of art, as the
+burial place of Raphael. His grave was opened in 1833, and the remains
+found to be lying in the spot which Vasari had pointed out.
+
+
+
+
+HADRIAN'S TOMB[11]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+Nerva was the last Emperor buried in the mausoleum of Augustus.[12]
+Trajan's ashes were laid to rest in an urn of gold under his monumental
+column. Hadrian determined to raise a new tomb for himself and his
+successors, and, like Augustus, selected a site on the green and shady
+banks of the Tiber, not on the city side, however, but in the gardens of
+Domitia, which, with those of Agrippina, formed a crown property called
+by Tacitus "Nero's Gardens." The mausoleum and the bridge which
+gave access to it were substantially finished in A.D. 136.
+Antoninus Pius, after completing the ornamental part in 139, transferred
+to it Hadrian's ashes from their temporary burial-place in the former
+villa of Cicero at Puteoli, and was himself afterward interred there....
+
+Beside the passages of the "Hadrian's Life," and of Dion Cassius, two
+descriptions of the monument have come down to us, one by Procopius, the
+other by Leo I. From these we learn that it was composed of a square
+basement of moderate height, each side of which measured 247 feet. It
+was faced with blocks of Parian marble, with pilasters at the corners,
+crowned by a capital. Above the pilasters were groups of men and horses
+in bronze, of admirable workmanship. The basement was protected around
+by a sidewalk and a railing of gilt bronze, supported by marble pillars
+crowned with gilded peacocks, two of which are in the Giardino della
+Pigna, in the Vatican. A grand circular mole, nearly a thousand feet in
+circumference, and also faced with blocks of Parian marble, stood on the
+square basement and supported in its turn a cone of earth covered with
+evergreens, like the mausoleum of Augustus.
+
+Of this magnificent decoration nothing now remains except a few blocks
+of the coating of marble, on the east side of the quadrangle, near the
+Bastione di S. Giovanni. All that is visible of the ancient work from
+the outside are the blocks of peperino of the mole which once supported
+the outer casing. The rest, both above and below, is covered by the
+works of fortification constructed at various periods, from the time of
+Honorius (393-403) to our own days. In no other monument of ancient and
+medieval Rome is our history written, molded, as it were, so vividly, as
+upon the battered remains of this castle-tomb. Within and around it took
+place all the fights for dominion with which popes, emperors, barons,
+barbarians, Romans, have distracted the city for fifteen hundred years.
+
+Of the internal arrangement of the monument nothing was known until
+1825, when the principal door was discovered in the middle of the square
+basement facing the bridge. It opens upon a corridor leading to a large
+niche, which, it is conjectured, contained a statue of Hadrian. The
+walls of this vestibule, by which modern visitors generally begin their
+inspection, are built of travertine, and bear evidence of having been
+paneled with Numidian marble. The pavement is of white mosaic. On the
+right side of this vestibule, near the niche, begins an inclined spiral
+way, 30 feet high and 11 feet wide, leading up to the central chamber,
+which is in the form of a Greek cross.
+
+There is no doubt that the tomb was adorned with statues. Procopius
+distinctly says that, during the siege laid by the Goths to the castle
+in 537, many of them were hurled down from the battlements upon the
+assailants. On the strength of this passage topographers have been in
+the habit of attributing to the mausoleum all the works of statuary
+discovered in the neighborhood; like the Barberini Faun now in Munich,
+the exquisite statue of a River God described by Cassiano dal Pozzo,
+etc., as if such subjects were becoming a house of death. The mausoleum
+of Hadrian formed part of one of the largest and noblest cemeteries of
+ancient Rome, crossed by the Via Triumphalis. The tomb next in
+importance to it was the so-called "Meta," or "sepulcrum Romuli," or
+"sepulcrum Neronis," a pyramid of great size, which stood on the site of
+the church of St. Maria Transpontina, and was destroyed by Alexander VI.
+in 1499.
+
+
+
+
+TRAJAN'S FORUM[13]
+
+BY FRANCIS WEY
+
+
+In the midst of the busy quarters lying at the base of the Quirinal, you
+come out upon a great piazza which you name at once without ever having
+seen it before; Trajan's Column serves as ensign for a forum, of which
+Apollodorus of Damascus erected the porticoes. The lines described by
+the bases of a plantation of pillars will help you to identify the
+pesimeter of the temple which Hadrian consecrated, and the site of the
+Ulpian Library which was divided into two chambers--one for Greek books,
+and the other for Latin; and finally the situation of the basilica,
+opening on to the forum and with its apse in the north-northwest
+direction....
+
+It was in the Ulpian Basilica that, in 312, Constantine, having
+assembled the notables of the empire seated himself in the presbyterium,
+to proclaim his abjuration of polytheism in favor of the religion of
+Christ; on that day and spot the prince closed the cycle of antiquity,
+opened the catacombs, and inaugurated the modern world. The Acts of St.
+Sylvester describe many passages of the discourse in which, "invoking
+truth against mischievous divisions," and declaring that he "put away
+superstitions born of ignorance and reared on unreason," the emperor
+ordains that "churches be opened to Christians, and that the priests of
+the temples and those of Christ enjoy the same privileges." He himself
+undertakes to build a church in his Lateran palace.
+
+I do not think there exists any monument in the world more precious or
+more exquisite in its proportions than Trajan's Column, nor one that has
+rendered more capital service. This has been set forth with more
+authority than I can pretend to, by Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who
+has written best on his own art; his description sums up the subject and
+makes everything clear. A set of pictures of the campaigns of Trajan
+against the Decians--the bas-reliefs--reproduces the arms, the
+accouterments, the engines of war, the dwellings of the barbarians; we
+discern the breed of the warriors and their horses; we look upon the
+ships of the time, canoes and quinqueremes; women of all ranks, priests
+of all theogonies, sieges, and assaults. Such are the merits of this
+sculptured host, that Polidoro da Caravaggio, Giulio Romano, Michael
+Angelo, and all the artists of the Renaissance have drawn thence models
+of style and picturesque grouping.
+
+Trajan's Column is of pure Carrara marble. The shaft measures about
+ninety-four English feet, by twelve in diameter at the base, and ten
+below the capital, which is Doric and carved out of a single block; the
+column is composed of thirty-four blocks, hollowed out internally and
+cut into a winding stair. A series of bas-reliefs, divided from one
+another by a narrow band, run spirally around the shaft parallel to the
+inner staircase of a hundred and eighty-two steps, and describes
+twenty-three circuits to reach the platform on which the statue is
+placed. The foot and the pedestal are seventeen feet high; the torus, of
+enormous diameter, is a monolith; the whole construction rises a hundred
+and thirty-five feet from the ground. These thirty-four blocks,
+measuring eleven meters in circumference by one in height, had--a task
+of considerable precision--to have holes drilled in them for the screws
+of the staircase, it being necessary to determine from the inside
+precisely where these borings must be made in order not to break the
+continuity of the bas-reliefs, executed by several different hands, and
+which are more deeply worked in proportion as they gain in height, so as
+to appear of an equal projection.
+
+
+
+
+THE BATHS OF CARACALLA[14]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+You reach the Baths of Caracalla, the most imposing object after the
+Coliseum that one sees in Rome. These colossal structures are so many
+signs of their times. Imperial Rome plundered the entire Mediterranean
+basin, Spain, Gaul, and two-thirds of England, for the benefit of a
+hundred thousand idlers. She amused them in the Coliseum with massacres
+of beasts and of men; in the Circus Maximus with combats of athletes and
+with chariot races; in the theater of Marcellus with pantomimes, plays,
+and the pageantry of arms and costume; she provided them with baths, to
+which they resorted to gossip, to contemplate statues, to listen to
+declaimers, to keep themselves cool in the heats of summer. All that had
+been invented of the convenient, agreeable, and beautiful, all that
+could be collected in the world that was curious and magnificent, was
+for them; the Caesars fed them and diverted them, seeking only to afford
+them gratification, and to obtain their acclamations.
+
+A Roman of the middle classes might well regard his emperors as so many
+public purveyors, administering his property, relieving him from
+troublesome cares, furnishing him at fair rates, or for nothing, with
+corn, wine, and oil, giving him sumptuous meals and well-got-up fetes,
+providing him with pictures, statues, pantomimists, gladiators, and
+lions, resuscitating his "blase" taste every morning with some
+surprising novelty, and even occasionally converting themselves into
+actors, charioteers, singers, and gladiators for his especial delight.
+In order to lodge this group of amateurs in a very suitable to its regal
+pretensions, architecture invented original and grand forms. Vast
+structures always indicate some corresponding excess, some immoderate
+concentration and accumulation of the labor of humanity. Look at the
+Gothic cathedrals, the pyramids of Egypt, Paris of the present day, and
+the docks of London!
+
+On reaching the end of a long line of narrow streets, white walls, and
+deserted gardens, the great ruin appears. There is nothing with which to
+compare its form, while the line it describes on the sky is unique. No
+mountains, no hills, no edifices, give any idea of it. It resembles all
+these; it is a human structure, which time and events have so deformed
+and transformed, as to render a natural production. Rising upward in the
+air, its moss-stained embossed summit and indented crest with its wide
+crevices, a red, mournful, decayed mass, silently reposes in a shroud of
+clouds.
+
+You enter, and it seems as if you had never seen anything in the world
+so grand. The Coliseum itself is no approach to it, so much do a
+multiplicity and irregularity of ruins add to the vastness of the vast
+enclosure. Before these heaps of red corroded masonry, these round
+vaults spanning the air like the arches of a mighty bridge before these
+crumbling walls, you wonder whether an entire city did not once exist
+there. Frequently an arch has fallen, and the monstrous mass that
+sustained it still stands erect, exposing remnants of staircases and
+fragments of arcades, like so many shapeless, deformed houses.
+
+Sometimes it is cleft in the center, and a portion appears about to fall
+and roll away, like a huge rock. Sections of wall and pieces of
+tottering arches cling to it and dart their projections threateningly
+upward in the air. The courts are strewed with various fragments, and
+blocks of brick welded together by the action of time, like stones
+incrusted with the deposits of the sea. Elsewhere are arcades quite
+intact, piled up story upon story, the bright sky appearing behind them,
+and above, along the dull red brickwork is a verdant head-dress of
+plants, waving and rustling in the midst of the ethereal blue.
+
+Here are mystic depths, wherein the bedewed shade prolongs itself among
+mysterious shadows. Into these the ivy descends, and anemones, fennel,
+and mallows fringe their brinks. Shafts of columns lie half-buried under
+climbing vines and heaps of rubbish, while luxuriant clover carpets the
+surrounding slopes. Small green oaks, with round tops, innumerable green
+shrubs, and myriads of gillyflowers cling to the various projections,
+nestle in the hollows, and deck its crest with their yellow clusters.
+All these murmur in the breeze, and the birds are singing in the midst
+of the imposing silence....
+
+You ascend, I know not how many stories, and, on the summit, find the
+pavement of the upper chambers to consist of checkered squares of
+marble; owing to the shrubs and plants that have taken root among them,
+these are disjoined in places, a fresh bit of mosaic sometimes appearing
+intact on removing a layer of earth. Here were sixteen hundred seats of
+polished marble. In the Baths of Diocletian there were places for three
+thousand two hundred bathers. From this elevation, on casting your eyes
+around, you see, on the plain, lines of ancient aqueducts radiating in
+all directions and losing themselves in the distance, and, on the side
+of Albano, three other vast ruins, masses of red and black arcades,
+shattered and disintegrated brick by brick, and corroded by time.
+
+You descend and take another glance. The hall of the "piscine" is a
+hundred and twenty paces long; that in which the bathers disrobed is
+eighty feet in height; the whole is covered with marble, and with such
+beautiful marble that mantel ornaments are now made of its fragments. In
+the sixteenth century the Farnese Hercules was discovered here, and the
+Torso and Venus Callipygis, and I know not how many other masterpieces;
+and in the seventeenth century hundreds of statues. No people, probably,
+will ever again display the same luxurious conveniences, the same
+diversions, and especially the same order of beauty, as that which the
+Romans displayed in Rome.
+
+Here only can you comprehend this assertion--a civilization other than
+our own, other and different, but in its kind as complete and as
+elegant. It is another animal, but equally perfect, like the mastodon,
+previous to the modern elephant.
+
+
+
+
+THE AQUEDUCT BUILDERS[15]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+One of the praises bestowed by Cicero on the founder of the city is that
+"he selected a district very rich in springs." A glance at the plan will
+at once prove the accuracy of the statement. Twenty-three springs have
+been described within the walls, several of which are still in
+existence; others have disappeared owing to the increase of modern soil.
+"For four hundred and forty-one years," says Frontinus, "the Romans
+contented themselves with such water as they could get from the Tiber,
+from wells, and from springs. Some of these springs are still held in
+great veneration on account of their health-restoring qualities, like
+the spring of the Camoenae, that of Apollo, and that of Juturna."
+
+The first aqueduct, that of the "Aqua Appia," is the joint work of
+Appius Claudius Caecus and C. Plautius Venox, censors in 312
+B.C. The first built the channel, the second discovered the
+springs 1,153 meters northeast of the sixth and seventh milestones of
+the Via Collatina. They are still to be seen, much reduced in volume, at
+the bottom of some stone quarries near the farmhouse of La Rustica.
+
+The second aqueduct was begun in 272 B.C. by Manius Curius
+Dentatus, censor, and finished three years later by Fulvius Flaccus. The
+water was taken from the river Anio 850 meters above St. Cosimato, on
+the road from Tivoli to Arsoli (Valeria). The course of the channel can
+be traced as far as Gallicano; from Gallicano to Rome it is
+uncertain....
+
+In 144 B.C. the Senate, considering that the increase of the
+population had diminished the rate of distribution of water (from 530 to
+430 liters per head), determined that the old aqueducts of the Appia and
+the Anio should be repaired, and a new one built, the appropriation for
+both works being 8,000,000 sesterces, or 1,760,000 lire.
+
+The execution of the scheme was entrusted to Q. Marcius Rex. He selected
+a group of springs at the foot of the Monte della Prugna, in the
+territory of Arsoli, 4,437 meters to the right of the thirty-sixth
+milestone of the Via Valeria; and after many years of untiring efforts
+he succeeded in making a display of the water on the highest platform of
+the Capitol. Agrippa restored the aqueduct in 33 B.C.; Augustus
+doubled the volume of the water in 5 B.C. by the addition of
+the Aqua Augusta. In 196 Septimius Severus brought in a new supply for
+the use of his Thermae Severianae; in 212-213 Caracalla built a branch
+aqueduct, four miles long, for the use of his baths; in 305-306
+Diocletian did the same thing for his great thermae; and, finally,
+Arcadius and Honorius devoted to the restoration of the aqueduct the
+money seized from Count Gildo, the African rebel.
+
+None of the Roman aqueducts are eulogized by Frontinus like the
+Claudian. He calls it "a work most magnificently done," and after
+demonstrating in more than one way that the volume of the springs
+collected by Claudius amounted to 4,607 quinariae, he says that there
+was a reserve of 1,600 always ready.
+
+The works, began by Caligula in A.D. 38, lasted fourteen years,
+the water having reached Rome only on August 1, 52 (the birthday of
+Claudius). The course of the aqueduct was first around the slopes of the
+Monte Ripoli, like that of the Marcia and of the Anio Vetus. Domitian
+shortened it by several miles by boring a tunnel 4,950 meters long
+through the Monte Affiano. Length of channel, 68,750 meters, of which
+15,000 was on arches; volume per day, 209,252 cubic meters. The Claudia
+was used for the Imperial table; a branch aqueduct, 2,000 meters long,
+left the main channel at Spem Veterem (Porta Maggiore), and following
+the line of the Via Caelimontana (Villa Wolkonsky), of the Campus
+Caelimontan (Lateran), and of the street now called di S. Stefano
+Rotondo, reached the temple of Claudius by the church of SS. Giovanni e
+Paolo, and the Imperial palace by the church of St. Bonaventura.
+
+The Anio Novus, like the Vetus, was at first derived from the river of
+the same name at the forty-second milestone of the road to Subiaco,
+great precautions being taken for purifying the water. The works were
+begun by Caligula in A.D. 38, and completed by Claudius on
+August 1, 52, on a most magnificent scale, some of the arches reaching
+the height of thirty-two meters above ground; and there were eight miles
+of them. Yet, in spite of the purifying reservoir, and of the clear
+springs of the Rivus Herculaneus (Fosso di Fioggio), which had been
+mixed with the water from the river, the Anio Novus was hardly ever
+drinkable. Whenever a shower fell on the Simbruine mountains, the water
+would get troubled and saturated with mud and carbonate of lime. Trajan
+improved its condition by carrying the head of the aqueduct higher up
+the valley, where Nero had created three artificial lakes for the
+adornment of his Villa Sublacensis. These lakes served more efficiently
+as "purgatories," than the artificial basin of Caligula, nine miles
+below. The Anio Novus reached Rome in its own channel after a course of
+86,964 meters, but for the last seven miles it ran on the same arches
+with the Aqua Claudia. The Anio Novus was the largest of all Roman
+aqueducts, discharging nearly three hundred thousand cubic meters per
+day.
+
+There are two places in the suburbs of Rome where these marvelous arches
+of the Claudia and Anio Novus can be seen to advantage; one is the
+Torre Fiscale, three miles outside the Porta S. Giovanni on the Albano
+road (to be reached also from the Tavolato station, on the upper Albano
+railway); the other is the Vicolo del Mandrione, which leaves the
+Labicana one mile outside the Porta Maggiore and falls into the
+Tusculana at the place called Porta Furba.
+
+
+
+
+THE QUARRIES AND BRICKS OF THE ANCIENT CITY[16]
+
+BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
+
+
+The materials used in Roman constructions are the "lapis ruber" (tufa);
+the "lapis Albanus" (peperino); the "lapis Gabinus" (sperone); the
+"lapis Tiburtinus" (travertino); the silex ("selce"); and bricks and
+tiles of various kinds. The cement was composed of pozzolana and lime.
+Imported marbles came into fashion toward the end of the republic, and
+became soon after the pride and glory of Rome....
+
+The only material which the first builders of Rome found at hand was the
+volcanic conglomerate called tufa. The quality of the stone used in
+those early days was far from perfect. The walls of the Palatine hill
+and of the Capitoline citadel were built of material quarried on the
+spot--a mixture of charred pumice-stones and reddish volcanic sand. The
+quarries used for the fortification of the Capitol were located at the
+foot of the hill toward the Argiletum, and were so important as to give
+their name, Lautumiae, to the neighboring district. It is probable that
+the prison called Tullianum, from a jet of water, "tullus," which sprang
+from the rock, was originally a portion of this quarry. The tufa blocks
+employed by Servius Tullius for the building of the city walls, and of
+the agger, appear to be of three qualities--yellowish, reddish, and
+gray; the first, soft and easily broken up, seems to have been quarried
+from the Little Aventine, near the church of St. Saba. The galleries of
+this quarry, much disfigured by medieval and modern use, can be followed
+to a considerable distance, altho the collapsing of the vaults makes it
+dangerous to visit them....
+
+The quarries of the third quality were, or rather one of them was,
+discovered on February 7, 1872, in the Vigna Querini, outside the Porta
+St. Lorenzo, near the first milestone of the Vicolo di Valle Cupa. It
+was a surface quarry, comprising five trenches 16 feet wide, 9 feet
+deep. Some of the blocks, already squared, were lying on the floor of
+the trenches, others were detached on two or three sides only, the size
+of others was simply traced on the rock by vertical or horizontal lines.
+This tufa, better known by the name of cappellaccio, is very bad. The
+only buildings in which it was used, besides the inner wall of the
+Servian agger, are the platform of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in
+the gardens of the German Embassy, and the "puticuli" in the
+burial-grounds of the Esquiline. Its use must have been given up before
+the end of the period of the Kings, in consequence of the discovery of
+better quarries on the right bank of the Tiber, at the foot of the
+hills now called Monte Verde....
+
+They cover a space one mile in length and a quarter of a mile wide on
+each side of the valley of Pozzo Pantaleo. In fact, this valley, which
+runs from the Via Portuensis toward the lake of the Villa Pamphili,
+seems to be artificial; I mean, produced by the extraction of the rock
+of millions of cubic meters in the course of twenty-four centuries. If
+the work of the ancient quarrymen could be freed from the loose material
+which conceals it from view, we should possess within a few minutes'
+drive from the Porta Portese a reproduction of the famous mines of El
+Masarah, with beds of rock cut into steps and terraces, with roads and
+lanes, shafts, inclines, underground passages, and outlets for the
+discharge of rain-water. When a quarry had given out, its galleries were
+filled up with the refuse of the neighboring ones--chips left over after
+the squaring of the blocks; so that, in many cases, the color and
+texture of the chips do not correspond with those of the quarry in which
+they are found. This layer of refuse, transformed by time into humus,
+and worked upon by human and atmospheric forces, has given the valley a
+different aspect, so that it looks as if it were the work not of
+quarrymen, but of nature.
+
+Tufa may be found used in many existing monuments of ancient Rome, such
+as the drains of the middle and southern basin of the left bank, the
+channels and arches of the Marcia and Anio Vetus, the Servian walls, the
+temples of Fortuna Virilis, of Hercules Magnus Custos, the Rostra, the
+embankment of the Tiber, etc. The largest and most magnificent quarries
+in the suburban district are the so-called Grotte della Cervara. No
+words can convey an idea of their size and of the regularity of their
+plan. They seem to be the work of a fanciful architect who has hewn out
+of the rock halls and galleries, courts and vestibules, and imitated the
+forms of an Assyrian palace.
+
+For the study of the peperino mines, which contain a stone special to
+the Alban district, formed by the action of hot water on gray volcanic
+cinders, the reader should follow on foot the line of the new Albano
+railway, from the place called Il Sassone to the town of Marino. Many of
+the valleys in this district, now made beautiful by vineyards and
+oliveyards, owe their existence to the pickax of the Roman stonecutter,
+like the valley of Pozzo Pantaleo. The most curious sight is a dolmen or
+isolated rock 10 meters high, left in the center of one of the quarries
+to certify the thickness of the bed of rock excavated. In fact, the
+whole district is very interesting both to the archeologist and to the
+paysagiste. The mines of Marino, still worked in the neighborhood of the
+railway station, would count, like the Grotte della Cervara, among the
+wonders of the Campagna, were they known to the student as they deserve
+to be.
+
+The principal Roman buildings in which the lapis Albanus has been used
+are: the Claudian aqueduct, the Cloaca Maxima, the temples of Antonius
+and Faustina, of Cybele, of the Eventus Bonus, of Neptune, the inclosure
+wall of the Forum Augustum, Forum Transitorium, and Forum Pacis, the
+Porticus Argonautarum, Porticus Pompeii, the Ustrinum of the Appian Way,
+etc. The sarcophagus of Cornelius Scipio Barbatus in the Vatican
+museum, and the tomb of the Tibicines in the Museo Municipale al Celio
+are also of this stone.
+
+Travertine stone was quarried in the plains of Tivoli at places now
+called Le Caprine, Casal Bernini, and Il Barco. This last was reopened
+after an interval of many centuries by Count G. Brazza, brother of the
+African explorer. Lost in the wilderness and overgrown with shrubs, it
+had not been examined, I believe, since the visit of Brocchi. It can be
+reached by stopping at the station of the Aquae Albulae, on the Tivoli
+line, and following the ancient road which led to the works. This road,
+twice as wide as the Appian Way, is flanked by substructures, and is not
+paved, but macadamized. Parallel with it runs an aqueduct which supplied
+the works with motive power, derived probably from the sulfur springs.
+There are also remains of tombs, one of which, octagonal in shape,
+serves as a foundation to the farmhouse del Barco.
+
+The most remarkable monument of the whole group is the Roman quarry from
+which five and a half million cubic meters of travertine have been
+extracted, as proved by the measurement of the hollow space between the
+two opposite vertical sides. That this is the most important ancient
+quarry of travertine, and the largest one used by the Romans, is proved,
+in the first place, by its immense size. The sides show a frontage of
+more than two and a half kilometers; the surface amounts to 500,000
+square meters. The sides are quite perpendicular, and have the
+peculiarity of projecting buttresses, at an angle of 90 degrees. Some of
+these buttresses are isolated on three sides, and still preserve the
+grooves, by means of which they could be separated from the solid
+mass....
+
+In order to keep the bottom of the works clean and free from the
+movement of the carts, for the action of the cranes, and for the
+maneuvres of the workmen, the chips, or useless product of the squaring
+of the blocks, were transported to a great distance, as far as the banks
+of the Anio, and there piled up to a great height. This is the origin of
+that chain of hills which runs parallel to the river, and of whose
+artificial formation no one, as far as I know, had the least suspicion.
+One of these hills, visible from every point of the neighboring
+district, from Hadrian's villa as well as from the Sulfur Baths, is
+elliptical in shape, 22 meters high, 90 meters long, and 65 meters wide.
+It can with reason be compared with our Testaccio. It is easy to imagine
+how immense must have been the number of blocks cut from the Cava del
+Barco during the period of the formation of this hill alone. Another
+proof of the antiquity of the quarry, and of its abandonment from
+imperial times down to our own day, is given by this fact....
+
+There are three collections of brick-stamps in Rome; one, of little
+value, in the Kircherian museum; the second in the last room of the
+Vatican library, past the "Nozze aldobrandine;" the third and best in
+the Museo Municipale al Celio. This last contains over a thousand
+specimens, and a unique set of the products of Roman kilns. In fact, the
+first hall of the Museo is set apart exclusively for the study of
+ancient building and decorative materials.
+
+Roman bricks were square, oblong, triangular, or round, the latter being
+used only to build columns in the Pompeiian style. The largest bricks
+that have been discovered in my time measure 1.05 meters in length.
+They were set into an arch of one of the great stairs leading to the
+avenue or boulevard established in Imperial times on the top of the
+agger of Servius. Roman bricks are very often stamped with a seal, the
+legend of which contains the names of the owner and the manager of the
+kilns, of the maker of the tile, of the merchant entrusted with the sale
+of the products, and of the consuls under whose term of office the
+bricks were made. These indications are not necessarily found all in one
+seal.
+
+The most important of them is the consular date, because it helps the
+student to determine, within certain limits, the date of the building
+itself. The rule, however, is far from being absolute, and before fixing
+the date of a Roman structure from that of its brick stamps one must
+take into consideration many other points of circumstantial evidence.
+When we examine, for instance, the grain warehouses at Ostia, or
+Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, and find that their walls have never
+undergone repairs, that their masonry is characteristic of the first
+quarter of the second century, that their bricks bear the dates of
+Hadrian's age and no others, we may rest assured that the stamps speak
+the truth. Their evidence is, in such a case, conclusive. But if the
+bricks are variously dated, or bear the names of various kilns, and not
+of one or two only, then their value as an evidence of the date of a
+building is diminished, if not lost altogether....
+
+The bricks, again, occasionally bear curious signs, such as footmarks of
+chickens, dogs, or pigs, which stept over them while still fresh,
+impressions of coins and medals, words or sentences scratched with a
+nail, etc. A bricklayer, who had perhaps seen better times in his youth,
+wrote on a tile the first verse of the Aeneid.
+
+The great manufacturing center of Roman bricks was the district between
+the viae Triumphalis, Cornelia, and the two Aureliae, now called the
+Monti della Creta, which includes the southern slopes of the Vatican
+ridge and the northern of the Janiculum. Here also, as at Pozzo
+Pantaleo, the traces of the work of man are simply gigantic. The valleys
+del Gelsomino, delle Fornaci, del Vicolo delle Cave, della Balduina, and
+a section of the Val d'Inferno, are not the work of nature, but the
+result of excavations for "creta figulina," which began 2,300 years ago,
+and have never been interrupted since. A walk through the Monti della
+Creta will teach the student many interesting things. The best point of
+observation is a bluff between the Vicolo della Cave and the Vicolo del
+Gelsomino, marked with the word "Ruderi" and with the altitude of 75
+meters, in the military map of the suburbs. The bluff rises 37 meters
+above the floor of the brick-kilns of the Gelsomino....
+
+Roman bricks were exported to all the shores of the Mediterranean; they
+have been found in the Riviera, on the coasts of Benetia, of
+Narbonensis, of Spain and Africa, and in the island of Sardinia. The
+brick-making business must have been very remunerative, if we judge from
+the rank and wealth of many personages who had an interest in it. Many
+names of emperors appear in brick-stamps, and even more of empresses and
+princesses of the imperial family.
+
+
+
+
+PALM SUNDAY IN ST. PETER'S[17]
+
+BY GRACE GREENWOOD (Mrs. Lippincott)
+
+
+Yesterday began Holy Week with the imposing but tedious ceremonies of
+Palm Sunday at St. Peter's. At nine o'clock in the morning we were in
+our places--seats erected for the occasion near the high altar, drest in
+the costume prescribed by church etiquette--black throughout, with black
+veils on our heads. At about ten the Pope entered, and the rites,
+ordinary and extraordinary, the masses and processions, continued until
+one.
+
+The entrance of the Pope into this his grandest basilica was, as usual,
+a beautiful and brilliant sight. He came splendidly vested, wearing his
+miter, and borne in his chair of state under a gorgeous canopy, between
+the flabelli--two enormous fans of white peacock feathers. He was
+preceded and followed by cardinals, bishops, arch-bishops, monsignori,
+abbots, the apostolic prothonotaries, generals of the religious orders,
+officers of the state, of the army, of his household, and the Guardia
+Nobile.
+
+He took his seat on the throne, and received the homage of the
+cardinals, who, kneeling, kissed his right hand. This is a ceremony
+which is always gone through with in the most formal, mechanical,
+business-like manner possible. Some palms, not in natural branches, but
+cut and wreathed in various strange, fantastic forms, lay on the altar.
+The Pope's chief sacristan took one of these, a deacon another, a
+sub-deacon a third, and knelt at the foot of the throne. His Holiness
+read prayers over them, sprinkled them with holy water, and incensed
+them three times. One of these is held beside the throne by the prince
+assistant during the service; another is borne by the Pope when in
+procession.
+
+After this, multitudes of palms were brought up for the Papal
+benediction. First came the cardinals, each, as he received his palm
+from the Pope, kissing it, the right hand and knee of His Holiness; then
+the bishops, who only kissed the palm and his right knee; then the
+abbots, who were only entitled to kiss the palm and his foot; then the
+governor of Rome, the prince assistant, the auditor, the treasurer, the
+maggiordomo, the secretaries, the chamberlains, the mace bearers, the
+deacons and sub-deacons, generals of the religious orders and priests in
+general, masters of the ceremonies, singers, clerks of the Papal chapel,
+students of Roman colleges, foreign ministers and their attaches,
+Italian, French, Spanish, Austrian, Russian, Prussian officers, noblemen
+and gentlemen, all came up in turn, knelt, received blest palms, and
+kissed the foot of the Sovereign Pontiff.
+
+During the distribution of the palms, anthems were sung by the choir,
+who were caged up in a sort of trellice workbox at the right of the
+altar. This long but brilliantly picturesque ceremony through, the Pope,
+after washing his hands, again mounted into his "sedia gestatoria," and
+bearing his palm, preceded and followed by all those to whom he had
+given palms, passed slowly down the nave of the church, blessing the
+kneeling and bending multitude right and left. This procession of palms
+was very striking and gorgeous from the beauty and variety of military
+arms and uniforms, and more than royal richness of the priestly
+vestments, the gleam of miters and maces, and of innumerable sacred
+symbols and insignia.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELECTION OF A POPE[18]
+
+BY CARDINAL WISEMAN
+
+
+The interval between the close of one pontificate and the commencement
+of another is a period of some excitement, and necessarily of much
+anxiety. Time is required for the electors to assemble, from distant
+provinces, or even foreign countries; and this is occupied in paying the
+last tribute of respect and affection to the departed Pontiff. His body
+is embalmed, clothed in the robes of his office, of the penitential
+color, and laid on a couch of state within one of the chapels in St.
+Peter's, so that the faithful may not only see it, but kiss its feet.
+This last act of reverence to the mortal remains of the immortal Pius
+VIII., the writer well recollects performing.
+
+These preliminaries occupy three days; during which rises, as if by
+magic, or from the crypts below, an immense catafalque, a colossal
+architectural structure, which fills the nave of that basilica
+illustrated by inscriptions, and adorned by statuary. Before this huge
+monument, for nine days funeral rites are performed, closed by a funeral
+oration. For the body of the last Pope there is a uniform resting-place
+in St. Peter's--a plain sarcophagus, of marbled stucco, hardly noticed
+by the traveler, over a door beside the choir, on which is simply
+painted the title of the latest Pontiff. On the death of his successor
+it is broken down at the top, the coffin is removed to the under-church,
+and that of the new claimant for repose is substituted. This change
+takes place late in the evening, and is considered private. I can not
+recollect whether it was on this or on a subsequent occasion that I
+witnessed it with my college companions....
+
+In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are called,
+the cardinals assemble in a church near the Quirinal palace, and walk
+thence in procession, accompanied by their conclavisiti, a secretary, a
+chaplain, and a servant or two, to the great gate of the royal
+residence, in which one will remain as master and supreme lord. Of
+course the hill is crowded by persons lining the avenue kept open for
+the procession. Cardinals never before seen by them, or not for many
+years, pass before them; eager eyes scan and measure them, and try to
+conjecture, from fancied omens in eye, or figure, or expression, who
+will shortly be the sovereign of their fair city, and, what is more, the
+Head of the Catholic Church from the rising to the setting sun.
+
+Equal they pass the threshold of that gate; they share together the
+supreme rule, temporal and spiritual; there is still embosomed in them
+all the voice yet silent, that soon will sound, from one tongue, over
+all the world, and the dormant germ of that authority which will soon
+again be concentrated in one man alone. To-day they are all equal;
+perhaps to-morrow one will sit enthroned, and all the rest will kiss his
+feet; one will be sovereign, the others his subjects; one the shepherd,
+and the others his flock....
+
+While we have been thus sketching, hastily and imperfectly, one of many
+who passed almost unnoticed in the solemn procession to conclave, on the
+2d of September, 1823, we may suppose the doors to have been inexorably
+closed on those who composed it. The conclave, which formerly used to
+take place in the Vatican, was on this occasion, and has been
+subsequently, held in the Quirinal palace. This noble building, known
+equally by the name of Monte Cavallo, consists of a large quadrangle,
+round which run the papal apartments. From this stretches out, along a
+whole street, an immense wing, its two upper floors divided into a great
+number of small but complete suites of apartments, occupied permanently,
+or occasionally, by persons attached to the Court.
+
+During conclave these are allotted, literally so, to the cardinals, each
+of whom lives apart, with his attendants. His food is brought daily from
+his own house, and is examined, and delivered to him in the shape of
+"broken victuals," by the watchful guardians of the turns and lattices,
+through which alone anything, even conversation, can penetrate into the
+seclusion of that sacred retreat. For a few hours, the first evening,
+the doors are left open, and the nobility, the diplomatic body, and in
+fact all presentable persons, may roam from cell to cell, paying a brief
+compliment to their occupants, perhaps speaking the same good wishes to
+fifty, which they know can be accomplished in only one.
+
+After that all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for the entrance
+of any cardinal who is not yet arrived; but every aperture is jealously
+guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of various tribunals,
+who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened and read, that no
+communications may be held with the outer world. The very street on
+which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded and guarded by a
+picket at each end; and as, fortunately, there are no private residences
+opposite, and all the buildings have access from the back, no
+inconvenience is thereby created.
+
+While conclave lasts, the administrative power rests in the hands of the
+Cardinal Chamberlain, who strikes his own coins during its continuance;
+and he is assisted by three cardinals, called the "Heads of Orders,"
+because they represent the three orders in the sacred college, of
+bishops, priests and deacons. The ambassadors of the great powers
+receive fresh credentials to the conclave, and proceed in state, to
+present them to this delegation, at the grille. An address, carefully
+prepared, is delivered by the envoy, and receives a well-pondered reply
+from the presiding cardinal.
+
+Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel contained within the
+palace, and there, on tickets so arranged that the voter's name can not
+be seen, write the name of him for whom they give their suffrage. These
+papers are examined in their presence, and if the number of votes given
+to any one do not constitute the majority, they are burned, in such a
+manner that the smoke, issuing through a flue, is visible to the crowd
+usually assembled in the square outside.
+
+Some day, instead of this usual signal to disperse, the sound of pick
+and hammer is heard, and a small opening is seen in the wall which had
+temporarily blocked up the great window over the palace gateway. At last
+the masons of the conclave have opened a rude door, through which steps
+out on the balcony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many,
+or to the few, who may happen to be waiting, that they again possess a
+sovereign and a Pontiff.
+
+
+
+
+AN AUDIENCE WITH PIUS X[19]
+
+BY MARY EMOGENE HAZELTINE
+
+
+We arrived in Rome at three in the afternoon, with letters which ensured
+us an audience with the Pope. A friend, long resident in Rome, who
+advised us to present them at once, accompanied us to the Vatican.
+Passing through an interesting part of the city, including the St.
+Angelo Bridge across the Tiber, we soon found ourselves in the
+world-famous Colonnade of St. Peter's. Ascending the steps leading to
+the Vatican, we passed the Swiss Guard in their famous uniforms designed
+by Michelangelo, and climbed what seemed like endless stairs, passing
+guards at almost every turn, who pointed out the way indicated by the
+address on our credentials.
+
+Arriving at an anteroom, a priestly secretary, speaking excellent
+English, read our letter with what seemed to us, from the expression of
+his face, great interest and evident approval. Why should this not have
+been? Our letter was from the Apostolic Delegate then in Washington--the
+Pope's own representative in America. It was in Italian, in the highest
+official form, and conveyed the intelligence that we were traveling in
+Italy for a brief vacation, mentioned all four of us by name, and said
+that, while we were not Catholics, we respected the faith and would
+carefully observe all the forms prescribed for an audience. The
+monseigneur whom we were to see was at that time engaged with several
+bishops. Because of this, we were asked to present ourselves at the same
+hour on Saturday, meanwhile leaving our letter.
+
+Promptly at the hour I was again at the door of the major domo,
+Monseigneur Bisleti, to be received again by the priestly secretary, by
+whom I was taken into the palatial rooms of the monseigneur. A moment
+here was sufficient to explain my errand and receive from the
+monseigneur the long-coveted permission, which I found had already been
+made out in due form for four persons. Our cards entitled us to
+admission on the following day, which made necessary unexpected haste in
+arranging for the official costume of black. Fortunately we had all
+brought black veils and some of us either gowns or skirts. With help
+from others, we secured one or two necessary waists, and from our
+hostess obtained the rosaries I wished to have blest by the Pope. Our
+hostess then gave us a dress rehearsal, in order that we might fully
+understand what to us would be an imposing ceremony. An audience is a
+great function and the procedure accordingly is rigid.
+
+On reaching the Vatican next day, we were directed by the Swiss Guard,
+not to the major domo's apartments as before, but through a court and
+thence up the grandest of staircases in three long flights, the walls
+lined with beautiful marbles more wonderful than many pictures, the
+light coming through magnificent stained-glass windows. In every sense
+here was a palatial, an imperial, entrance. At the head of the stairway
+we were met by gorgeous chamberlains, the body servants of the Pope,
+clad in superb magenta brocaded velvet, with knee breeches, magenta silk
+stockings, and great silver buckles on their shoes. Streamers hanging
+from their arms at the back, added to the official appearance of these
+men in their gorgeous uniforms.
+
+We were shown through a magnificent antechamber, and then into a series
+of reception rooms, through which we were motioned on, until we came to
+the fourth, where were just four chairs which seemed to be waiting for
+us four. Swiss guards patrolled the rooms, and others--chamberlains, I
+suppose. We had a full half hour in which to wait here, but we could use
+it to advantage, in watching the gathering company, and viewing the
+magnificent room, hung as it was with rich red moire silk, as were all
+others of the suite. The ladies in black garb became very effective
+figures in this brilliant setting. There were many beautiful tapestries
+in the rooms, one room having a tapestried frieze. The furniture was
+massive, either of inlaid wood or heavy gilt, and the floors of
+beautiful inlaid marble. It is not possible to give any adequate idea of
+these stately rooms, nor of their exquisite appointments; nor yet of the
+gathering company, for many high officials of the church passed before
+us and through to rooms beyond, which added to the interest of the
+occasion and the splendor of the scene.
+
+We learned soon that this was to be no ordinary audience, but a special
+one granted to alumni of the American College in Rome. A few days before
+we left New York, a large company of American priests, graduates of the
+American College, had sailed on a chartered steamer to celebrate the
+fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the college, from which they had
+received holy orders. This audience had been specially arranged for
+them. We were therefore more than favored in having an audience at the
+same time, a fact due probably to the credentials with which we had come
+provided. We now understood that the officials of the church who had
+entered this room were our own American bishops. With them had however
+come others of high rank. Over their priestly robes of black they wore
+rich purple silk capes, falling to the floor, and purple sashes. (There
+are, of course, technical terms for these garments, but I do not know
+them.) The special body guard of the Pope, three men chosen from the
+Palatine guard, and in soldier's uniform, now passed through the room
+with a noble guard of the Knights of Malta and Count Moroni, also in
+uniform, with chapeau, feathered with plumes of black and white.
+
+At exactly half after eleven, Monseigneur Bisleti, watch in hand,
+bustled through, followed by bishops and priests. We were at once on our
+knees, for His Holiness was seen to be approaching from rooms beyond. As
+he advanced we could see his small figure, clad in white, surrounded by
+court attendants, American bishops, an archbishop, the Palatine guard,
+Monseigneur Bisleti, and the Knight of Malta. Between us and the doorway
+through which he approached, stood a girl of twelve, in white garments
+and veil. She had come from her first communion. Near her was a
+Franciscan monk, who evidently had just returned from some mission
+field, for he was bronzed, and haggard, and worn as to his garments. As
+the Pope passed he gave a special word of blessing to the monk, and a
+smile to the child.
+
+The ceremony of the audience itself was simple. The Pope walked past the
+kneeling people, giving to each his hand. This each one took, kissing
+his ring. Filling the center of the room, as we were kneeling around the
+sides, were the priestly courtiers, the Papal delegate, in gray robes, a
+prominent figure among them. The Pope passed on through several rooms
+filled with waiting priests. We were then all bidden to follow to the
+throne room, for a special ceremony. An audience generally ends when the
+Pope leaves the room in which he receives you, giving his blessing to
+all as he leaves.
+
+In the throne room now the American alumni were to present their
+addresses to the Pope. As we entered, undergraduates of the college were
+discovered already there singing. Until the addresses were read, the
+singing was continued. It was all a magnificent sight, the little white
+father on his splendid throne, his court about him, his special body
+servant holding his red cape (to be used in case of drafts), and, as a
+background for all the colors of the court scene, several hundred
+black-robed priests.
+
+Monseigneur Kennedy, rector of the college, read an address, as did Rev.
+Father Wall of Baltimore, president of the association. To these the
+Pope replied, reading from a manuscript. After this, he rose, mingled
+with his entourage, and chatted pleasantly with bishops and others. A
+picture was then taken of the court, the priests and students. These
+American priests and undergraduates were a fine company of men. The Pope
+finally gave his blessing to all who were assembled in the room, and the
+great function was over.
+
+
+
+
+THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S[20]
+
+BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
+
+
+The visitor to St. Peter's should not fail to ascend to the dome; a long
+journey, but involving no danger and not a great amount of fatigue. From
+the church to the roof the passage is by an inclined plane of pavement,
+with so gradual an ascent that loaded mules pass up without difficulty.
+In stepping out upon the roof, it is difficult to believe that we are
+more than one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, or that so
+extensive an architectural surface could have been reared in air by the
+patient labor of men's hands. It rather seems as if a little village had
+been lifted up by some geological convulsion. Here are wide spaces to
+walk about in, houses for human habitation, a fountain playing, and all
+the signs of life. The views are everywhere fine, and one can fancy that
+the air is purer and the sky more blue than to those left below. The
+dome soars high above the eye, and a new sense of its magnitude seizes
+upon the mind. The two cupolas which flank the facade are upward of one
+hundred feet high, and the five smaller ones which crown the chapels are
+of great size; but here they seem like dwarfs clinging about a giant's
+knee.
+
+The dome of St. Peter's, as is well known, is double; and between the
+outer and inner wall is a series of winding passages and staircases, by
+which the ascent is made to the top. The length of these passages and
+staircases, their number, and the time it takes to traverse them, are a
+new revelation of the size of this stupendous structure. We begin to
+comprehend the genius and courage which planned and executed a work so
+novel and so bold. From the galleries inside, the view of the interior
+below is most striking. It looks as the earth may look from a balloon.
+The men moving upon the pavement appear like that "small infantry warred
+on by cranes"; and even the baldacchino hardly swells beyond the
+dimensions of a candelabrum.
+
+At the base of the ball, a railing, unseen from below, enables the
+visitor whose nerves are tolerably good to enjoy an extensive and
+beautiful prospect, embracing a region interesting not merely to the eye
+but to the mind: the cradle of that mighty Roman race which here began
+its ever-widening circle of conquest and annexation. It comprises the
+Campagna, the Tiber, the distant Mediterranean, the Apennines, the Alban
+and Sabine hills, and the isolated bulk of Soracte. From no point on
+earth can the eye rest upon so many spots on which the undying light of
+human interest lingers.
+
+From this place the ascent is made to the interior of the ball itself,
+into which most travelers climb, probably more for the sake of saying
+that they have been there than anything else. Tho the ball looks like a
+mere point from below, it is nearly eight feet in diameter; and the
+interior will hold a dozen persons without inconvenience. Altho I
+visited it on a winter's day, the atmosphere was extremely hot and
+uncomfortable, from the effect of the sun's rays upon the gilded bronze.
+By means of an exterior ladder, it is possible to climb to the foot of
+the cross; a feat which few landsmen would have the nerve to undertake.
+
+
+
+
+SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE[21]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+We followed the street which ascends and descends, bordered with palaces
+and old hedges of thorn, as far as Santa Maria Maggiore. This basilica,
+standing upon a large eminence, surmounted with its domes, rises nobly
+upward, at once simple and complete, and when you enter it, it affords
+still greater pleasure. It belongs to the fifth century; on being
+rebuilt at a later period, the general plan, its antique idea, was
+preserved. An ample nave, with a horizontal roof, is sustained by two
+rows of white Ionic columns. You are rejoiced to see so fine an effect
+obtained by such simple means; you might almost imagine yourself in a
+Greek temple.
+
+It is said that a temple of Juno was robbed of these columns. Each of
+them bare and polished, with no other ornament than the delicate curves
+of its small capital, is of healthful and charming beauty. You
+appreciate here the good sense, and all that is agreeable in genuine
+natural construction, the file of trunks of trees which bear the beams,
+resting flat and providing a long walk. All that has since been added is
+barbarous, and first, the two chapels of Sixtus V. and Paul V., with
+their paintings by Guido, Josepin, and Cigoli, and the sculptures of
+Bernini, and the architecture of Fontana and Flaminio. These are
+celebrated names, and money has been prodigally spent, but instead of
+the slight means with which the ancients produced a great effect, the
+moderns produce a petty effect with great means.
+
+When the bewildered eye is satiated with the elaborate sweep of these
+arches and domes, with the splendors of polychromatic marbles, with
+friezes and pedestals of agate, with columns of oriental jasper, with
+angels hanging by their feet, and with all these bas-reliefs of bronze
+and gold, the visitor hastens to get away from it as he would to escape
+from a confectioner's shop. It seems as if this grand, glittering box,
+gilded and labored from pavement to lantern, caught up and tore at every
+point of its finery the delicate web of poetic reverie; the slender
+profile of the least of the columns impresses one far more than any of
+this display of the art of upholsterers and parvenus. Similarly to this
+the facade, loaded with balustrades, and round and angular pediments,
+and statues roosting on its stones, is a "hotel-de-ville" frontage.
+
+The campanile, belonging to the fourteenth century, alone presents an
+agreeable object; at that time it was one of the towers of the city, a
+distinctive sign which marked it on the old plans so black and sharp,
+and stamped it forever on the still corporeal imaginations of monks and
+wayfarers. There are traces of every age in these old basilicas; you see
+the diverse states of Christianity, at first enshrined in pagan forms,
+and then traversing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to muffle itself
+up finally, and bedeck itself with modern finery. The Byzantine epoch
+has left its imprint in the mosaics of the great nave and the apsis,
+and in its bloodless and lifeless Christs and Virgins, so many staring
+specters motionless on their gold backgrounds and red panels, the
+fantoms of an extinct art and a vanished society.
+
+
+
+
+CATACOMBS AND CRYPTS[22]
+
+BY CHARLES DICKENS
+
+
+There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine prison, over what is said to
+have been--and very possibly may have been--the dungeon of St. Peter.
+This chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated to that saint;
+and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my recollection, too.
+It is very small and low-roofed; and the dread and gloom of the
+ponderous, obdurate old prison are on it, as if they had come up in a
+dark mist through the floor. Hanging on the walls, among the clustered
+votive offerings, are objects, at once strangely in keeping, and
+strangely at variance, with the place--rusty daggers, knives, pistols,
+clubs, divers instruments of violence and murder, brought here, fresh
+from use, and hung up to propitiate offended Heaven; as if the blood
+upon them would drain off in consecrated air, and have no voice to cry
+with. It is all so silent and so close, and tomb-like; and the dungeons
+below are so black and stealthy, and stagnant, and naked; that this
+little dark spot becomes a dream within a dream; and in the vision of
+great churches which come rolling past me like a sea, it is a small
+wave by itself, that melts into no other wave, and does not flow on with
+the rest.
+
+It is an awful thing to think of the enormous caverns that are entered
+from some Roman churches, and undermine the city. Many churches have
+crypts and subterranean chapels of great size, which, in the ancient
+time, were baths, and secret chambers of temples, and what not; but I do
+not speak of them. Beneath the church of St. Giovanni and St. Paolo,
+there are the jaws of a terrific range of caverns, hewn out of the rock,
+and said to have another outlet underneath the Coliseum--tremendous
+darknesses of vast extent, half-buried in the earth and unexplorable,
+where the dull torches, flashed by the attendants, glimmer down long
+ranges of distant vaults branching to the right and left, like streets
+in a city of the dead; and show the cold damp stealing down the walls,
+drip-drop, drip-drop, to join the pools of water that lie here and
+there, and never saw, and never will see, one ray of sun. Some accounts
+make these the prisons of the wild beasts destined for the amphitheater;
+some, the prisons of the condemned gladiators; some, both. But the
+legend most appalling to the fancy is, that in the upper range (for
+there are two stories of these caves) the early Christians destined to
+be eaten at the Coliseum shows, heard the wild beasts, hungry for them,
+roaring down below; until, upon the night and solitude of their
+captivity, there burst the sudden noon and life of the vast theater
+crowded to the parapet, and of these, their dreaded neighbors, bounding
+in!
+
+Below the church of San Sebastiano, two miles beyond the gate of San
+Sebastiano, on the Appian Way, is the entrance to the catacombs of
+Rome--quarries in the old time, but afterward the hiding-places of the
+Christians. These ghastly passages have been explored for twenty miles;
+and form a chain of labyrinths, sixty miles in circumference.
+
+A gaunt Franciscan friar, with a wild, bright eye, was our only guide,
+down into this profound and dreadful place. The narrow ways and openings
+hither and thither, coupled with the dead and heavy air, soon blotted
+out, in all of us, any recollection of the track by which we had come;
+and I could not help thinking: "Good Heaven, if, in a sudden fit of
+madness he should dash the torches out, or if he should be seized with a
+fit, what would become of us!" On we wandered, among martyrs' graves;
+passing great subterranean vaulted roads, diverging in all directions,
+and choked up with heaps of stones, that thieves and murderers may not
+take refuge there, and form a population under Rome even worse than that
+which lives between it and the sun. Graves, graves, graves; graves of
+men, of women, of their little children, who ran crying to the
+persecutors, "We are Christians! We are Christians!" that they might be
+murdered with their parents; graves with the palm of martyrdom roughly
+cut into their stone boundaries, and little niches, made to hold a
+vessel of the martyrs' blood; graves of some who lived down here, for
+years together, ministering to the rest, and preaching truth, and hope,
+and comfort, from the rude altars, that bear witness to their fortitude
+at this hour; more roomy graves, but far more terrible, where hundreds,
+being surprized, were hemmed in and walled up; buried before death, and
+killed by slow starvation.
+
+Such are the spots and patches in my dream of churches, that remain
+apart and keep their separate identity. I have a fainter recollection,
+sometimes, of the relics; of the fragment of the pillar of the Temple
+that was rent in twain; of the portion of the table that was spread for
+the Last Supper; of the well at which the woman of Samaria gave water to
+our Savior; of two columns from the house of Pontius Pilate; of the
+stone to which the sacred hands were bound, when the scourging was
+performed; of the grid-iron of Saint Lawrence, and the stone below it,
+marked with the frying of his fat and blood; these set a shadowy mark on
+some cathedrals, as an old story, or a fable might, and stop them for an
+instant, as they flit before me. The rest is a vast wilderness of
+consecrated buildings of all shapes and fancies, blending one with
+another; of battered pillars of old Pagan temples, dug up from the
+ground, and forced, like giant captives, to support the roofs of
+Christian churches; of pictures, bad, and wonderful, and impious, and
+ridiculous; of kneeling people, curling incense, tinkling bells, and
+sometimes (but not often) of a swelling organ; of Madonne, with their
+breasts stuck full of swords, arranged in a half-circle like a modern
+fan; of actual skeletons of dead saints, hideously attired in gaudy
+satins, silks, and velvets trimmed with gold; their withered crust of
+skull adorned with precious jewels, or with chaplets of crusht flowers;
+sometimes, of people gathered round the pulpit, and a monk within it
+stretching out the crucifix, and preaching fiercely; the sun just
+streaming down through some high window on the sail-cloth stretched
+above him and across the church, to keep his high-pitched voice from
+being lost among the echoes of the roof. Then my tired memory comes out
+upon a flight of steps, where knots of people are asleep, or basking in
+the light; and strolls away, among the rags and smells, and palaces, and
+hovels, of an old Italian street.
+
+
+
+
+THE CEMETERY OF THE CAPUCHINS[23]
+
+BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+The cemetery is beneath the church, but entirely above ground, and
+lighted by a row of iron-grated windows without glass. A corridor runs
+along besides these windows, and gives access to three or four vaulted
+recesses, or chapels, of considerable breadth and height, the floor of
+which consists of the consecrated earth of Jerusalem. It is smoothed
+decorously over the deceased brethren of the convent, and is kept quite
+free from grass or weeds, such as would grow even in these gloomy
+recesses, if pains were not bestowed to root them up. But, as the
+cemetery is small, and it is a precious privilege to sleep in holy
+ground, the brotherhood are immemorially accustomed, when one of their
+number dies, to take the longest-buried skeleton out of the oldest
+grave, and lay the new slumberer there instead. Thus, each of the good
+friars, in his turn, enjoys the luxury of a consecrated bed, attended
+with the slight drawback of being forced to get up long before daybreak,
+as it were, and make room for another lodger.
+
+The arrangement of the unearthed skeletons is what makes the special
+interest of the cemetery. The arched and vaulted walls of the burial
+recesses are supported by massive pillars and pilasters made of
+thigh-bones and skulls; the whole material of the structure appears to
+be of a similar kind; and the knobs and embossed ornaments of this
+strange architecture are represented by the joints of the spine, and the
+more delicate tracery by the smaller bones of the human frame. The
+summits of the arches are adorned with entire skeletons, looking as if
+they were wrought most skilfully in bas-relief. There is no possibility
+of describing how ugly and grotesque is the effect, combined with a
+certain artistic merit, nor how much perverted ingenuity has been shown
+in this queer way, nor what a multitude of dead monks, through how many
+hundred years, must have contributed their bony framework to build up
+these great arches of mortality. On some of the skulls there are
+inscriptions, purporting that such a monk, who formerly made use of that
+particular head-piece, died on such a day and year; but vastly the
+greater number are piled up indistinguishably into the architectural
+design like the many deaths that make up the one glory of a victory.
+
+In the side walls of the vaults are niches where skeleton monks sit or
+stand, clad in the brown habits that they wore in life, and labeled
+with their names and the dates of their decease. Their skulls (some
+quite bare, and others still covered with yellow skin, and hair that has
+known the earth-damps) look out from beneath their hoods, grinning,
+hideously repulsive. One reverend father has his mouth wide open, as if
+he had died in the midst of a howl of terror and remorse, which perhaps
+is even now screeching through eternity. As a general thing, however,
+these frocked and hooded skeletons seem to take a more cheerful view of
+their position, and try with ghastly smiles to turn it into a jest. But
+the cemetery of the Capuchins is no place to nourish celestial hopes;
+the soul sinks forlorn and wretched under all this burden of dusty
+death; the holy earth from Jerusalem, so imbued is it with mortality,
+has grown as barren of the flowers of Paradise as it is of earthly weeds
+and grass. Thank Heaven for its blue sky; it needs a long, upward gaze
+to give us back our faith. Not here can we feel ourselves immortal,
+where the very altars in these chapels of horrible consecration are
+heaps of human bones.
+
+
+
+
+THE BURIAL PLACE OF KEATS AND SHELLEY[24]
+
+BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS
+
+
+A beautiful pyramid, a hundred and thirteen feet high, built into the
+ancient wall of Rome, is the proud "Sepulcher of Caius Cestius." It is
+the most imperishable of the antiquities, standing as perfect after
+eighteen hundred years as if it were built but yesterday. Just beyond
+it, on the declivity of a hill, over the ridge of which the wall passes,
+crowning it with two moldering towers, lies the Protestant
+burying-ground.
+
+It looks toward Rome, which appears in the distance, between Mount
+Aventine and a small hill called Mont Testaccio, and leaning to the
+south-east, the sun lies warm and soft upon its banks, and the grass and
+wild flowers are there the earliest and tallest of the Campagna. I have
+been here to-day, to see the graves of Keats and Shelley. With a
+cloudless sky and the most delicious air ever breathed, we sat down upon
+the marble slab laid over the ashes of poor Shelley, and read his own
+lament over Keats, who sleeps just below, at the foot of the hill.
+
+The cemetery is rudely formed into three terraces, with walks between,
+and Shelley's grave and one other, without a name, occupy a small nook
+above, made by the projections of a moldering wall-tower, and crowded
+with ivy and shrubs, and a peculiarly fragrant yellow flower, which
+perfumes the air around for several feet. The avenue by which you ascend
+from the gate is lined with high bushes of the marsh-rose in the most
+luxuriant bloom, and all over the cemetery the grass is thickly mingled
+with flowers of every dye. In his preface to his lament over Keats,
+Shelley says:
+
+"He was buried in the romantic and lonely cemetery of the Protestants,
+under the pyramid which is the tomb of Cestius, and the massy walls and
+towers, now moldering and desolate, which formed the circuit of ancient
+Rome. It is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with
+violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death, to think that
+one should be buried in so sweet a place."
+
+If Shelley had chosen his own grave at the time, he would have selected
+the very spot where he has since been laid--the most sequestered and
+flowery nook of the place he describes so feelingly.
+
+On the second terrace of the declivity are ten or twelve graves, two of
+which bear the names of Americans who have died in Rome. A portrait
+carved in bas-relief, upon one of the slabs, told me, without the
+inscription, that one whom I had known was buried beneath. The slightly
+rising mound was covered with small violets, half hidden by the grass.
+It takes away from the pain with which one stands over the grave of an
+acquaintance or a friend, to see the sun lying so warm upon it, and the
+flowers springing so profusely and cheerfully. Nature seems to have
+cared for those who have died so far from home, binding the earth gently
+over them with grass, and decking it with the most delicate flowers. We
+descended to the lower enclosure at the foot of the slight declivity.
+The first grave here is that of Keats. The inscription runs thus:
+
+"This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who,
+on his death-bed in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power
+of his enemies, desired these words to be engraved on his tomb: 'Here
+lies one whose name was written in water.'"
+
+He died at Rome in 1821. Every reader knows his history and the cause of
+his death. Shelley says, in the preface to his elegy:
+
+"The savage criticism on his poems, which appeared in the "Quarterly
+Review," produced the most violent effect on his susceptible mind; the
+agitation thus originated ended in a rupture of a blood-vessel in the
+lungs; a rapid consumption ensued, and the succeeding acknowledgments,
+from more candid critics, of the true greatness of his powers, were
+ineffectual to heal the wound thus wantonly inflicted."
+
+Keats was, no doubt, a poet of very uncommon promise. He had all the
+wealth of genius within him, but he had not learned, before he was
+killed by criticism, the received, and, therefore, the best manner of
+producing it for the eye of the world. Had he lived longer, the strength
+and richness which break continually through the affected style of
+"Endymion" and "Lamia" and his other poems, must have formed themselves
+into some noble monuments of his powers. As it is, there is not a poet
+living who could surpass the material of his "Endymion"--a poem, with
+all its faults, far more full of beauties. But this is not the place for
+criticism. He is buried fitly for a poet, and sleeps beyond criticism
+now. Peace to his ashes!
+
+
+
+
+EXCURSIONS NEAR ROME[25]
+
+BY CHARLES DICKENS
+
+
+The excursions in the neighborhood of Rome are charming, and would be
+full of interest were it only for the changing views they afford of the
+wild Campagna. But every inch of ground in every direction is rich in
+associations, and in natural beauties. There is Albano, with its lovely
+lake and wooded shore, and with its wine, that certainly has not
+improved since the days of Horace, and in these times hardly justifies
+his panegyric. There is squalid Tivoli, with the river Anio, diverted
+from its course, and plunging down, headlong, some eighty feet in search
+of it, with its picturesque Temple of the Sibyl, perched high on a crag;
+its minor waterfalls glancing and sparkling in the sun; and one good
+cavern yawning darkly, where the river takes a fearful plunge and shoots
+on, low down under beetling rocks.
+
+There, too, is the Villa d'Este, deserted and decaying among groves of
+melancholy pine and cypress-trees, where it seems to lie in state. Then,
+there is Frascati, and, on the steep above it, the ruins of Tusculum,
+where Cicero lived, and wrote, and adorned his favorite house (some
+fragments of it may yet be seen there), and where Cato was born. We saw
+its ruined amphitheater on a gray, dull day, when a shrill March wind
+was blowing, and when the scattered stones of the old city lay strewn
+about the lonely eminence, as desolate and dead as the ashes of a
+long-extinguished fire.
+
+One day we walked out, a little party of three, to Albano, fourteen
+miles distant; possest by a great desire to go there by the ancient
+Appian Way, long since ruined and overgrown. We started at half-past
+seven in the morning, and within an hour or so were out upon the open
+Campagna. For twelve miles we went climbing on, over an unbroken
+succession of mounds, and heaps, and hills of ruin. Tombs and temples,
+overthrown and prostrate; small fragments of columns, friezes,
+pediments; great blocks of granite and marble; moldering arches
+grass-grown and decayed; ruin enough to build a spacious city from; lay
+strewn about us. Sometimes loose walls, built up from these fragments by
+the shepherds, came across our path; sometimes a ditch, between two
+mounds of broken stones, obstructed our progress; sometimes, the
+fragments themselves, rolling from beneath our feet, made it a toilsome
+matter to advance; but it was always ruin. Now, we tracked a piece of
+the old road above the ground; now traced it underneath a grassy
+covering, as if that were its grave; but all the way was ruin.
+
+In the distance, ruined aqueducts went stalking on their giant course
+along the plain; and every breath of wind that swept toward us, stirred
+early flowers and grasses, springing up, spontaneously, on miles of
+ruin. The unseen larks above us, who alone disturbed the awful silence,
+had their nests in ruin; and the fierce herdsmen, clad in sheepskins,
+who now and then scowled out upon us from their sleeping nooks, were
+housed in ruin. The aspect of the desolate Campagna in one direction,
+where it was most level, reminded me of an American prairie; but what is
+the solitude of a region where men have never dwelt, to that of a
+desert, where a mighty race have left their footprints in the earth from
+which they have vanished; where the resting-places of their dead have
+fallen like their dead; and the broken hour-glass of Time is but a heap
+of idle dust! Returning by the road at sunset, and looking, from the
+distance, on the course we had taken in the morning, I almost felt (as I
+had felt when I first saw it, at that hour) as if the sun would never
+rise again, but looked its last, that night, upon a ruined world.
+
+To come again to Rome, by moonlight, after such an expedition, is a
+fitting close to such a day. The narrow streets, devoid of footways, and
+choked, in every obscure corner, by heaps of dung-hill-rubbish, contrast
+so strongly, in their cramped dimensions, and their filth and darkness,
+with the broad square before some haughty church; in the center of
+which, a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk, brought from Egypt in the days of
+the Emperors, looks strangely on the foreign scene about it; or perhaps
+an ancient pillar, with its honored statue overthrown, supports a
+Christian saint; Marcus Aurelius giving place to Paul, and Trajan to St.
+Peter. Then, there are the ponderous buildings reared from the
+spoliation of the Coliseum, shutting out the moon, like mountains; while
+here and there are broken arches and rent walls, through which it gushes
+freely, as the life comes pouring from a wound. The little town of
+miserable houses, walled, and shut in by barred gates, is the quarter
+where the Jews are locked up nightly, when the clock strikes eight--a
+miserable place, densely populated, and reeking with bad odors, but
+where the people are industrious and money-getting. In the daytime, as
+you make your way along the narrow streets, you see them all at
+work--upon the pavement, oftener than in their dark and frowsy shops;
+furbishing old clothes, and driving bargains.
+
+Crossing from these patches of thick darkness out into the moon once
+more, the fountain of Trevi, welling from a hundred jets, and rolling
+over mimic rocks, is silvery to the eye and ear. In the narrow little
+throat of street beyond, a booth drest out with flaring lamps, and
+boughs of trees, attracts a group of sulky Romans around its smoky
+coppers of hot broth, and cauliflower stew; its trays of fried fish, and
+its flasks of wine. As you rattle around the sharply twisting corner, a
+lumbering sound is heard. The coachman stops abruptly, and uncovers, as
+a van comes slowly by, preceded by a man who bears a large cross; by a
+torch-bearer, and a priest; the latter chanting as he goes. It is the
+dead-cart, with the bodies of the poor, on their way to burial in the
+Sacred Field outside the walls, where they will be thrown into the pit
+that will be covered with a stone to-night, and sealed up for a year.
+
+But whether, in this ride, you pass by obelisks, or columns, ancient
+temples, theaters, houses, porticoes or forums, it is strange to see how
+every fragment, whenever it is possible, has been blended into some
+modern structure, and made to serve some modern purpose--a wall, a
+dwelling-place, a granary, a stable--some use for which it never was
+designed, and associated with which it can not otherwise than lamely
+assort.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+FLORENCE
+
+
+THE APPROACH BY CARRIAGE ROAD[26]
+
+BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+Immediately after leaving Incisa, we saw the Arno, already a
+considerable river, rushing between deep banks, with the greenish hue of
+a duck-pond diffused through its water. Nevertheless, tho the first
+impression was not altogether agreeable, we soon became reconciled to
+this hue, and ceased to think it an indication of impurity; for, in
+spite of it, the river is still, to a certain degree, transparent, and
+is, at any rate, a mountain stream, and comes uncontaminated from its
+source. The pure, transparent brown of the New England rivers is the
+most beautiful color; but I am content that it should be peculiar to
+them.
+
+Our afternoon's drive was through scenery less striking than some which
+we had traversed, but still picturesque and beautiful. We saw deep
+valleys and ravines, with streams at the bottom; long, wooded hillsides,
+rising far and high, and dotted with white dwellings, well toward the
+summits. By and by, we had a distant glimpse of Florence, showing its
+great dome and some of its towers out of a sidelong valley, as if we
+were between two great waves of the tumultuous sea of hills; while, far
+beyond, rose in the distance the blue peaks of three or four of the
+Apennines, just on the remote horizon. There being a haziness in the
+atmosphere, however, Florence was little more distinct to us than the
+Celestial City was to Christian and Hopeful, when they spied at it from
+the Delectable Mountains.
+
+Keeping steadfastly onward, we ascended a winding road, and passed a
+grand villa, standing very high, and surrounded with extensive grounds.
+It must be the residence of some great noble; and it has an avenue of
+poplars or aspens, very light and gay, and fit for the passage of the
+bridal procession, when the proprietor or his heir brings home his
+bride; while in another direction from the same front of the palace
+stretches an avenue or grove of cypresses, very long and exceedingly
+black and dismal, like a train of gigantic mourners. I have seen few
+things more striking, in the way of trees, than this grove of cypresses.
+
+From this point we descended, and drove along an ugly, dusty avenue,
+with a high brick wall on one side or both, till we reached the gate of
+Florence, into which we were admitted with as little trouble as
+custom-house officers, soldiers, and policemen can possibly give. They
+did not examine our luggage, and even declined a fee, as we had already
+paid one at the frontier custom-house. Thank heaven, and the Grand
+Duke!
+
+As we hoped that the Casa del Bello had been taken for us, we drove
+thither in the first place, but found that the bargain had not been
+concluded. As the house and studio of Mr. Powers[27] were just on the
+opposite side of the street, I went to it, but found him too much
+engrossed to see me at the moment; so I returned to the "vettura," and
+we told Gaetano to carry us to a hotel. He established us at the Albergo
+della Fontana, a good and comfortable house. Mr. Powers called in the
+evening--a plain personage, characterized by strong simplicity and warm
+kindliness, with an impending brow, and large eyes, which kindle as he
+speaks. He is gray, and slightly bald, but does not seem elderly, nor
+past his prime. I accept him at once as an honest and trustworthy man,
+and shall not vary from this judgment. Through his good offices, the
+next day we engaged the Casa del Bello. This journey from Rome has been
+one of the brightest and most uncareful interludes of my life; we have
+all enjoyed it exceedingly, and I am happy that our children have it to
+look back upon.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD PALACE AND THE LOGGIA[28]
+
+BY THEOPHILE GAUTIER
+
+
+Every great capital has its eye; at Rome it is the Campo Vaccino; at
+Paris, the Boulevard des Italiens; at Venice, the Place St. Mark; at
+Madrid, the Prado; at London, the Strand; at Naples, the Via di Toledo.
+Rome is more Roman, Paris more Parisian, Venice more Venetian, Madrid
+more Spanish, London more English, Naples more Neapolitan, in that
+privileged locality than anywhere else. The eye of Florence is the Place
+of the Grand Duke--a beautiful eye. In fact, suppress that Place and
+Florence has no more meaning--it might be another city. It is at that
+Place, therefore, that every traveler ought to begin, and, moreover, had
+he not that intention, the tide of pedestrians would carry him and the
+streets themselves would conduct him thither.
+
+The first aspect of the Place of the Grand Duke has an effect so
+charming, so picturesque, so complete, that you comprehend all at once
+into what an error the modern capitals like London, Paris, St.
+Petersburg, fall in forming, under the pretext of squares, in their
+compact masses, immense empty spaces upon which they run aground all
+possible and impossible modes of decoration. One can touch with his
+finger the reason which makes of the Carrousel and Place de la Concorde,
+great empty fields which absorb fountains, statues, arches of triumph,
+obelisks, candelabra, and little gardens. All these embellishments, very
+pretty on paper, very agreeable also, without doubt, viewed from a
+balloon, are almost lost for the spectator who can not grasp the whole,
+his height only rising five feet above the ground.
+
+A square, in order to produce a beautiful effect, ought not to be too
+big; it is also necessary that it should be bordered by varied monuments
+of diverse elevations. The Place of the Grand Duke at Florence unites
+all these conditions; bordered by monuments regular in themselves, but
+different from one another, it is pleasing to the eye without wearying
+by a cold symmetry.
+
+The Palace of the Seigneurie, or Old Palace, which by its imposing mass
+and severe elegance at first attracts the attention, occupies a corner
+of the Place, instead of the middle. This idea, a happy one, in our
+opinion, regrettable for those who only see architectural beauty in
+geometrical regularity, is not fortuitous; it has a reason wholly
+Florentine. In order to obtain perfect symmetry, it would have been
+necessary to build upon the detested soil of the Ghibelline house,
+rebellious and proscribed by the Uberti; something that the Guelph
+faction, then all-powerful, were not willing to allow the architect,
+Arnolfo di Lapo, to do. Learned men contest the truth of this tradition;
+we will not discuss here the value of their objections. It is certain,
+however, that the Old Palace gains greatly by the singularity of this
+location and also leaves space for the great Fountain of Neptune and
+the equestrian statue of Cosmo the First.
+
+The name of fortress would be more appropriate than any other, for the
+Old Palace; it is a great mass of stone, without columns, without
+frontal, without order of architecture. Time has gilded the walls with
+beautiful vermilion tints which the pure blue of the sky sets off
+marvelously, and the whole structure has that haughty and romantic
+aspect which accords well with the idea that one forms for oneself of
+that old Palace of the Seigneurie, the witness, since the date of its
+erection in the thirteenth century, of so many intrigues, tumults,
+violent acts, and crimes. The battlements of the palace, cut square,
+show that it was built to that height by the Guelph faction; the
+trifurcated battlements of the belfry indicate a sudden change on the
+accession to power of the Ghibelline faction.
+
+Guelphs and Ghibellines detested each other so violently that they
+exprest their opinions in their garments, in the cut of their hair, in
+their arms, in their manner of fortifying themselves. They feared
+nothing so much as to be captured by one another, and differed as much
+as they possibly could. They had a special salutation after the manner
+of the Freemasons and the Companions of Duty. The opinions of the
+ancient owners of the Old Palace at Florence can be recognized by this
+characteristic; the walls of the city are crenelated squarely in the
+Guelph fashion, and the tower on the ramparts has the Ghibelline
+battlements of swallow-tail shape.
+
+The Vecchio Palace has for its basement several steps which were used in
+former times as a species of tribune, from the top of which the
+magistrates and demagogs harangued the people. Two colossal statues of
+marble--Hercules slaying Cacus, by Bandinelli, and David the Conqueror
+of Goliath, by Michael Angelo--mount near the door their age-long watch,
+like two gigantic sentinels whom someone has forgotten to relieve. The
+statue of David by Michael Angelo besides the inconvenience there is in
+representing under a gigantic form a Biblical hero of notoriously small
+size, seemed to us a trifle common and heavy, a rare defect with this
+master; his David is a great big boy, fleshy, broad-backed, with
+monstrous biceps, a market porter waiting to put a sack upon his back.
+The working of the marble is remarkable and, after all, is a fine piece
+of study which would do honor to any other sculptor except Michael
+Angelo; but there is lacking that Olympian mastership which
+characterizes the works of that superhuman sculptor.
+
+One of the most curious features of the Old Palace is the grand salon, a
+hall of enormous dimensions, which has its legend. When the Medici were
+driven from Florence, in 1494, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who directed the
+popular movement, proposed the idea of constructing an immense hall
+where a council of a thousand citizens would elect the magistrates and
+regulate the affairs of the republic. The architect Cronaca had charge
+of this task and acquitted himself of it with a celerity so marvelous
+that Brother Savonarola caused the rumor to spread that angels
+descended from heaven to help the masons and continued at night the
+interrupted work. The invention of these angels tempering the mortar and
+carrying the hod is all done in the legendary style of the Middle Ages
+and would furnish a charming subject for a picture to some ingenuous
+painter of the school of Overbeck or of Hauser. In this rapid
+construction Cronaca displayed, if not all his genius, at least all his
+agility. The work has been justly admired and often consulted by
+architects.
+
+When the Medici returned to power and transferred their residence from
+the Palace of the Via Larga, which they had occupied, to the Palace of
+the Seigneurie, Cosmo wished to change the Council Hall into an audience
+chamber, and charged the presumptuous Bacchio Bandinelli, whose designs
+had attracted him, with various alterations of an important character;
+but the sculptor had undoubtedly presumed too much on his talent as an
+architect, and in spite of the assistance of Giuliano Baccio d'Agnolo,
+whom he called to his aid, he worked for ten years without being able to
+conquer the difficulties which he had created for himself.
+
+It was Vasari who raised the ceiling several feet, finished the work and
+decorated the walls with a succession of frescoes which may still be
+seen, and which represent different episodes in the history of
+Florence--combats, and captures of cities, the whole being a travesty of
+antiquity, an intermingling of allegories. These frescos, painted with
+an intrepid and learned mediocrity, display the commonplace tones,
+swelling muscles and anatomical tricks in use at that epoch among
+artists.
+
+We have already called attention to the fact that colossal dimensions
+are not at all necessary to produce effect in architecture. The Loggia
+de Lanzi, that gem of the Place of the Grand Duke, consists of a portico
+composed of four arcades, three on the facade, one in return on the
+gallery of the offices. It is a miniature of a monument; but the harmony
+of its proportions is so perfect that the eye in contemplating it
+experiences a sense of satisfaction. The nearness of the Palace of the
+Seigneurie, with its compact mass, admirably sets off the elegant
+slenderness of its arches and columns. The Loggia is a species of Museum
+in the open air. The "Perseus" of Benvenuto Cellini, the "Judith" of
+Donatello, the "Rape of the Sabines" of John of Bologna, are framed in
+the arcades. Six antique statues--the cardinal and monastic virtues--by
+Jacques, called Pietro, a Madonna by Orgagna adorn the interior wall.
+Two lions, one antique, the other modern, by Vacca, almost as good as
+the Greek lions of the arsenal at Venice, complete the decoration.
+
+The Perseus may be regarded as the masterpiece of Benvenuto Cellini, an
+artist so highly spoken of in France, without scarcely anything being
+known about him. This statue, a little affected in its pose, like all
+the works of the Florentine school, has a juvenile grace which is very
+attractive.
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY[29]
+
+BY GRANT ALLEN
+
+
+Only two considerable rivers flow from the Apennines westward into the
+Mediterranean. The Tiber makes Rome; the Arno makes Florence. In
+prehistoric and early historic times, the mountainous region which forms
+the basin of these two rivers was occupied by a gifted military race,
+the Etruscans, who possest a singular assimilative power for Oriental
+and Hellenic culture. Intellectually and artistically, they were the
+pick of Italy. Their blood still runs in the veins of the people of
+Tuscany. Almost every great thing done in the Peninsula, in ancient or
+modern times, has been done by Etruscan hands or brains. The poets and
+painters, in particular, with few exceptions, have been, in the wide
+ethnical sense, Tuscans.
+
+The towns of ancient Etruria were hill-top strongholds. Florence was not
+one of these; even its neighbor, Fiesole (Faesulue), did not rank among
+the twelve great cities of the Etruscan league. But with the Roman
+conquest and the Roman peace, the towns began to descend from their
+mountain peaks into the river valleys; roads grew important, through
+internal trade; and bridges over rivers assumed a fresh commercial
+value. Florence (Florentia), probably founded under Sulla as a Roman
+municipium, upon a Roman road, guarded the bridge across the Arno, and
+gradually absorbed the population of Fiesole. Under the later empire,
+it was the official residence of the "Corrector" of Tuscany and Umbria.
+During the Middle Ages, it became, for all practical purposes, the
+intellectual and artistic capital of Tuscany, inheriting in full the
+remarkable mental and esthetic excellences of the Etruscan race.
+
+The valley of the Arno is rich and fertile, bordered by cultivable
+hills, which produce the famous Chianti wine. It was thus predestined by
+nature as the seat of the second city on the west slope of Italy.
+Florence, however, was not always that city. The seaport of Pisa (now
+silted up and superseded by Leghorn) first rose into importance; possest
+a powerful fleet; made foreign conquests; and erected the magnificent
+group of buildings just outside the town which still form its chief
+claim upon the attention of tourists. But Florence with its bridge
+commanded the inland trade, and the road to Rome from Germany. After the
+destruction of Fiesole in 1125, it grew rapidly in importance; and, Pisa
+having sustained severe defeats from Genoa, the inland town soon rose to
+supremacy in the Arno basin. Nominally subject to the Emperor, it became
+practically an independent republic, much agitated by internal quarrels,
+but capable of holding its own against neighboring cities. Its chief
+buildings are thus an age or two later than those of Pisa; it did not
+begin to produce splendid churches and palaces, in emulation of those of
+Pisa and Siena, till about the close of the 13th century. To the same
+period belongs the rise of its literature under Dante, and its painting
+under Giotto. This epoch of rapid commercial, military, and artistic
+development forms the main glory of early Florence.
+
+The 14th century is chiefly interesting at Florence as the period of
+Giottesque art, finding its final crown in Fra Angelico. With the
+beginning of the 15th, we get the dawn of the Renaissance--the age when
+art set out once more to recover the lost perfection of antique
+workmanship. In literature, this movement took the form of humanism; in
+architecture and sculpture, it exhibited itself in the persons of
+Alberti, Ghiberti, Della Robbia, and Donatello; in painting, it showed
+itself in Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Verrocchio....
+
+We start, then, with the fact that up to nearly the close of the 13th
+century (1278), Florence was a comparatively small and uninteresting
+town, without any buildings of importance, save the relatively
+insignificant Baptistery; without any great cathedral, like Pisa and
+Siena; without any splendid artistic achievement of any kind. It
+consisted at that period of a labyrinth of narrow streets, enclosing
+huddled houses and tall towers of the nobles, like the two to be seen to
+this day at Bologna. In general aspect, it could not greatly have
+differed from Albenga or San Gimignano in our own time. But commerce was
+active; wealth was increasing; and the population was seething with the
+intellectual and artistic spirit of its Etruscan ancestry. During the
+lifetime of Dante, the town began to transform itself and to prepare for
+becoming the glorious Florence of the Renaissance artists. It then set
+about building two immense and beautiful churches--Santa Croce and
+Santa Maria Novella--while, shortly after, it grew to be ashamed of its
+tiny San Giovanni (the existing Baptistery), and girded itself up to
+raise a superb cathedral, which should cast into the shade both the one
+long since finished at maritime Pisa and the one then still rising to
+completion on the height of Siena.
+
+Florence at that time extended no further than the area known as Old
+Florence, which means from the Ponte Vecchio to the Cathedral in one
+direction, and from the Ponte alla Carraja to the Grazie in the other.
+Outside the wall lay a belt of fields and gardens, in which one or two
+monasteries had already sprung up. But Italy at that moment was filled
+with religious enthusiasm by the advent of the Friars both great orders
+of whom, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, had already established
+themselves in the rising commercial city of Florence. Both orders had
+acquired sites for monastic buildings in the space outside the walls and
+soon began to erect enormous churches. The Dominicans came first, with
+Santa Maria Novella, the commencement of which dates from 1278; the
+Franciscans were a little later in the field, with Santa Croce, the
+first stone not being placed till 1294.
+
+
+
+
+THE CATHEDRAL[30]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+Desirous of seeing the beginnings of this Renaissance we go from the
+Palazzo-Vecchio to the Duomo. Both form the double heart of Florence,
+such as it beat in the Middle Ages, the former for politics, and the
+latter for religion, and the two so well united that they formed but
+one. Nothing can be nobler than the public edict passed in 1294 for the
+construction of the national cathedral.
+
+"Whereas, it being of sovereign prudence on the part of a people of high
+origin to proceed in its affairs in such a manner that the wisdom no
+less than the magnanimity of its proceedings can be recognized in its
+outward works, it is ordered that Arnolfo, master architect of our
+commune, prepare models or designs for the restoration of Santa Maria
+Reparata, with the most exalted and most prodigal magnificence, in order
+that the industry and power of men may never create or undertake
+anything whatsoever more vast and more beautiful; in accordance with
+that which our wisest citizens have declared and counselled in public
+session and in secret conclave, to wit, that no hand be laid upon the
+works of the commune without the intent of making them to correspond to
+the noble soul which is composed of the souls of all its citizens united
+in one will."
+
+
+[FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE OLD PALACE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FLORENCE: THE HOUSE OF DANTE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[FRONT OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL PALACE ON THE LEFT
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+[VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE CAMPANILE
+Illustration: Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
+
+
+In this ample period breathes the grandiose pride and intense patriotism
+of the ancient republics. Athens under Pericles, and Rome under the
+first Scipio cherished no prouder sentiments. At each step, here as
+elsewhere, in texts and in monuments, is found, in Italy, the traces,
+the renewal and the spirit of classic antiquity.
+
+Let us, accordingly, look at the celebrated Duomo--but, the difficulty
+is to see it. It stands upon flat ground, and, in order that the eye
+might embrace its mass it would be necessary to level three hundred
+buildings. Herein appears the defect of the great medieval structure;
+even to-day, after so many openings, effected by modern demolishers,
+most of the cathedrals are visible only on paper. The spectator catches
+sight of a fragment, some section of a wall, or the facade; but the
+whole escapes him; man's work is no longer proportioned to his organs.
+It was not thus in antiquity; temples were small or of mediocre
+dimensions, and were almost always erected on an eminence; their general
+form and complete profile could be enjoyed from twenty different points
+of view.
+
+After the advent of Christianity, men's conceptions transcended their
+forces, and the ambition of the spirit no longer took into account the
+limitations of the body. The human machine lost its equilibrium. With
+forgetfulness of the moderate there was established a love of the odd.
+Without either reason or symmetry campaniles or bell-towers were
+planted, like isolated posts, in front or alongside of cathedrals; there
+is one of these alongside of the Duomo, and this change of human
+equipoise must have been potent, since even here, among so many Latin
+traditions and classic aptitudes, it declares itself.
+
+In other respects, save the ogive arcades, the monument is not Gothic,
+but Byzantine, or, rather, original; it is a creature of a new and mixed
+form like the new and mixed civilization of which it is the offspring.
+You feel power and invention in it with a touch of quaintness and fancy.
+Walls of enormous grandeur are developed or expanded without the few
+windows in them happening to impair their massiveness or diminish their
+strength. There are no flying buttresses; they are self-sustaining.
+Marble panels, alternately yellow and black, cover them with a
+glittering marquetry, and curves of arches let into their masses seem to
+be the bones of a robust skeleton beneath the skin.
+
+The Latin cross, which the edifice figures, contracts at the top, and
+the chancel and transepts bubble out into rotundities and projections,
+in petty domes behind the church in order to accompany the grand dome
+which ascends above the choir, and which, the work of Brunnelleschi,
+newer and yet more antique than that of St. Peter, lifts in the air to
+an astonishing height its elongated form, its octagonal sides and its
+pointed lantern. But how can the physiognomy of a church be conveyed by
+words? It has one nevertheless; all its portions appearing together are
+combined in one chord and in one effect. If you examine the plans and
+old engravings you will appreciate the bizarre and captivating harmony
+of these grand Roman walls overlaid with Oriental fancies; of these
+Gothic ogives arranged in Byzantine cupolas; of these light Italian
+columns forming a circle above a bordering of Grecian caissons; of this
+assemblage of all forms, pointed, swelling, angular, oblong, circular
+and octagonal. Greek and Latin antiquity, the Byzantine and Saracenic
+Orient, the Germanic and Italian middle-age, the entire past, shattered,
+amalgamated and transformed, seems to have been melted over anew in the
+human furnace in order to flow out in fresh forms in the hands of the
+new genius of Giotto, Arnolfo, Brunnelleschi and Dante.
+
+Here the work is unfinished, and the success is not complete. The facade
+has not been constructed; all that we see of it is a great naked,
+scarified wall similar to a leper's plaster.[31] There is no light
+within. A line of small round bays and a few windows fill the immensity
+of the edifice with a gray illumination; it is bare, and the
+argillaceous tone in which it is painted depresses the eye with its wan
+monotony. A "Pieta" by Michael Angelo and a few statues seem like
+spectres; the bas-reliefs are only vague confusion. The architect,
+hesitating between medieval and antique taste, fell only upon a lifeless
+light, that between a pure light and a colored light.
+
+The more we contemplate architectural works the more do we find them
+adapted to express the prevailing spirit of an epoch. Here, on the flank
+of the Duomo, stands the Campanile by Giotto, erect, isolated, like St.
+Michael's tower at Bordeaux, or the tower of St. Jacques at Paris; the
+medieval man, in fact, loves to build high; he aspires to heaven, his
+elevations all tapering off into pointed pinnacles; if this one had been
+finished a spire of thirty feet would have surmounted the tower, itself
+two hundred and fifty feet high. Hitherto the northern architect and the
+Italian architect are governed by the same instinct, and gratify the
+same penchant; but while the northern artist, frankly Gothic, embroiders
+his tower with delicate moldings, and complex flower-work, and a stone
+lacework infinitely multiplied and intersected, the southern artist,
+half-Latin through his tendencies and his reminiscences, erects a
+square, strong and full pile, in which a skilful ornamentation does not
+efface the general structure, which is not frail sculptured bijou, but a
+solid durable monument, its coating of red, black and white marble
+covering it with royal luxuriance, and which, through its healthy and
+animated statues, its bas-reliefs framed in medallions, recalls the
+friezes and pediments of an antique temple.
+
+In these medallions Giotto has symbolized the principal epochs of human
+civilization; the traditions of Greece near those of Judea; Adam,
+Tubal-Cain, and Noah, Daedalus, Hercules, and Antaeus, the invention of
+plowing, the mastery of the horse, and the discovery of the arts and the
+sciences; laic and philosophic sentiment live freely in him side by side
+with a theological and religious sentiment. Do we not already see in
+this renaissance of the fourteenth century that of the sixteenth? In
+order to pass from one to another, it will suffice for the spirit of the
+first to become ascendant over the spirit of the second; at the end of a
+century we are to see in the adornment of the edifice, in these statues
+of Donatello, in their baldness so expressive, in the sentiment of the
+real and natural life displayed among the goldsmiths and sculptors,
+evidence of the transformation begun under Giotto having been already
+accomplished.
+
+Every step we take we encounter some sign of this persistency or
+precocity of a Latin and classic spirit. Facing the Duomo is the
+baptistery, which at first served as a church, a sort of octagonal
+temple surmounted by a cupola, built, doubtless, after the model of the
+Pantheon of Rome, and which, according to the testimony of a
+contemporary bishop, already in the eighth century projected upward the
+pompous rotundities of its imperial forms. Here, then, in the most
+barbarous epoch of the Middle Ages, is a prolongation, a renewal, or, at
+least, an imitation of Roman architecture. You enter, and find that the
+decoration is not all Gothic; a circle of Corinthian columns of precious
+marbles with, above these, a circle of smaller columns surmounted by
+loftier arcades, and, on the vault, a legion of saints, and angels
+peopling the entire space, gathering in four rows around a grand, dull,
+meager, melancholy Byzantine Christ. On these three superposed stories
+the three gradual distortions of antique art appear; but, distorted or
+intact, it is always antique art. A significant feature, this,
+throughout the history of Italy; she did not become Germanic. In the
+tenth century the degraded Roman still subsisted distinct and intact
+side by side with the proud barbarian....
+
+Sculpture, which, once before under Nicholas of Pisa, had anticipated
+painting, again anticipated it in the fifteenth century; these very
+doors of the baptistery enable one to see with what sudden perfection
+and brilliancy. Three men then appeared, Brunelleschi, the architect of
+the Duomo, Donatello, who decorated the Campanile with statues, and
+Ghiberti, who cast the two gates of the baptistery, all three friends
+and rivals, all three having commenced with the goldsmith's art and a
+study of the living model, and all three passionately devoted to the
+antique; Brunelleschi drawing and measuring Roman monuments, Donatello
+at Rome copying statues and bas-reliefs and Ghiberti importing from
+Greece torsos, vases and heads which he restored, imitated and
+worshiped.
+
+
+
+
+AN ASCENT OF THE GREAT DOME[32]
+
+BY MR. AND MRS. EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD
+
+
+The traveler who, turning his back to the gates of Ghiberti, passes, for
+the first time, under the glittering new mosaics and through the main
+doors of Santa Maria Del Fiore experiences a sensation. He leaves behind
+him the facade, dazzling in its patterns of black and white marble, all
+laced with sculpture, he enters to dim, bare vastness--surely, never was
+bleaker lining to a splendid exterior. Across a floor that seems
+unending, he makes long journeys, from monument to monument; to gigantic
+condottieri, riding ghost-like in the semi-darkness against the upper
+walls; to Luca's saints and angels in the sacristies; to Donatellos's
+Saint John, grand and tranquil in his niche, and to Michelangelo's
+group, grand and troubled in its rough-hewn marble.
+
+At length, in the north transept, he comes to a small door, and entering
+there, he may, if legs and wind hold out, climb five hundred and fifteen
+steps to the top of the mightiest dome in the world, the widest in span,
+and the highest from spring to summit. For the first one hundred and
+fifty steps or so, there are square turnings, and the stone looks sharp,
+and new, and solid; a space vaulted by a domical roof follows, and is
+apparently above one of the apsidal domes to the church; then a narrow
+spiral staircase leads to where a second door opens upon a very narrow,
+balustraded walk that runs around the inner side of the dome.
+
+He is at an altitude of sixty-seven meters, exactly at the spring of the
+cupola and the beginning of the Vasari frescoes; the feet are at an
+elevation of one meter less than is that of the lower tops of Notre Dame
+de Paris, and yet the dome follows away overhead, huge enough, high
+enough to contain a second church piled, Pelion-like upon the first.
+Before, in the dimness, is the vastest roof-covered void in the world;
+it is terrific, and if the visitor is susceptible, his knees shake, and
+his diaphragm seems to sink to meet them.
+
+The impression is tremendous; no wonder that the Tuscans felt
+Brunelleschi to be the central figure of the Renaissance. Again and
+again, whether in the gallery or between the walls of the dome, the
+thought comes; men built this, and one man dared it and planned it. Not
+even the Pyramids impress more strongly; for if Brunelleschi built a
+lesser pyramid, he hollowed his and hung it in the air.
+
+On the other side of the space, a small black spot becomes a door when
+the traveler has giddily circled half the dome; it opens upon another
+staircase, up which he climbs between the two skins of the cupola, or
+rather between two of the three, like a parasite upon a monster.
+Sometimes the place suggests a ship, with the oculi as gunports,
+piercing to the outer day, or else, his mind fresh from that red inferno
+of Vasari's frescoes, the traveler is tunneling up through a volcanic
+crater with a whole Typhonic Enceladus buried below.
+
+To right and left, the smooth, cemented surface curves away and upward,
+brick buttresses appear constantly, but always with the courses of brick
+laid slanting to the earth's level, and perpendicular to the thrust of
+the dome. Every possible effect of light and obscurity makes the strange
+vistas yet more weird, and, now and then, there is a feeling of standing
+upon the vast, rounding slope of some planet that shines at one's feet,
+then gradually falls away into the surrounding blackness.
+
+The famous "oaken chain" of Vasari's life of Brunelleschi is there,
+bolted together in successive beams. Last of all, a long, straight
+staircase, straight because without turn to right or left, curves upward
+like an unradiant, bowed Valhalla-bridge to a great burst of daylight,
+and the climber is upon the top of the dome.
+
+He is as completely cut off from the immediately surrounding earth as
+upon a cloud girdled mountain, for the dome swells so vastly below that
+the piazza can not be seen about transept or choir, and not one of the
+apsidal domes shows a tile of its covering, while the nave, that huge
+and tremendous nave of Santa Maria, looks but a narrow, and a distant
+roof. At one's back, the marble of the lantern is handsome and creamy in
+color, but battered and broken; its interior is curious--a narrow funnel
+of marble, little wider than a man's body, set with irons on either
+side, is the only ladder, so that the climb up is a close squeeze. There
+is a familiar something gone from the surroundings, and that something
+is soon remembered to be Dante's baptistery, which does not exist from
+Brunelleschi's dome, being blotted out by the facade of Santa Maria. One
+hundred feet below, showing its upper and richer portion gloriously from
+this novel point of view, is what from the piazza is the soaring bell
+tower, the Campanile of Giotto.
+
+
+
+
+ARNOLFO, GIOTTO, BRUNELLESCHI[33]
+
+BY MRS. OLIPHANT
+
+
+Arnolfo, sometimes called di Cambio and sometimes di Lapi, was the first
+of the group of Cathedral builders in Florence. Who Arnolfo was seems to
+be scarcely known, tho few architects after him have left greater works
+or more evidence of power. His first authentic appearance in history is
+among the band of workmen engaged upon the pulpit in the Duomo at Siena,
+as pupil or journeyman of Niccolo Pisano, the great reviver of the art
+of sculpture--when he becomes visible in company with a certain Lapo,
+who is sometimes called his father (as by Vasari) and sometimes his
+instructor, but who appears actually to have been nothing more than his
+fellow-workman and associate....
+
+The Cathedral, the Palazzo Pubblico, the two great churches of Santa
+Croce and Santa Maria Novella, all leaped into being within a few years,
+almost simultaneously. The Duomo was founded, as some say, in 1294, the
+same year in which Santa Croce was begun, or, according to others, in
+1298; and between these two dates, in 1296, the Palace of the Signoria,
+the seat of the Commonwealth, the center of all public life, had its
+commencement. All these great buildings, Arnolfo designed and began, and
+his genius requires no other evidence. The stern strength of the
+Palazzo, upright and strong like a knight in mail, and the large and
+noble lines of the Cathedral, ample and liberal and majestic in ornate
+robes and wealthy ornaments, show how well he knew to vary and adapt his
+art to the different requirements of municipal and religious life and to
+the necessities of the age.
+
+We are not informed who they were who carried out the design of the
+Duomo. Arnolfo only lived to see a portion of this, his greatest work,
+completed--"the three principal tribunes which were under the cupola,"
+and which Vasari tells us were so solid and strongly built as to be able
+to bear the full weight of Brunelleschi's dome, which was much larger
+and heavier than the one the original architect had himself designed.
+Arnolfo died when he had built his Palazzo in rugged strength, as it
+still stands, with walls like living rock and heavy Tuscan cornices--tho
+it was reserved to the other masters to put upon it the wonderful crown
+of its appropriate tower--and just as the round apse of the cathedral
+approached completion; a hard fate for a great builder to leave such
+noble work behind him half done, yet the most common of all fates. He
+died, so far as there is any certainty in dates, in 1300, during the
+brief period of Dante's power in Florence, when the poet was one of the
+priors and much engaged in public business; and the same eventful year
+concluded the existence of Cimabue, the first of the great school of
+Florentine painters--he whose picture was carried home to the church in
+which it was to dwell for all the intervening centuries with such pride
+and acclamation that the Borgo Allegri is said to have taken its name
+from this wonderful rejoicing....
+
+No more notable or distinct figure than Giotto is in all the history of
+Florence. He was born a peasant, in the village of Vespignano in the
+Mugello, the same district which afterward gave birth to Fra Angelico.
+Giotto had at least part of his professional training in the great
+cathedral at Assisi built over the bones of St. Francis, was one of
+those homely, vigorous souls, "a natural person," like his father, whom
+neither the lapse of centuries nor the neighborhood of much greater and
+more striking persons about them, can deprive of their naive and genuine
+individuality. Burly, homely, characteristic, he carries our attentions
+always with him, alike on the silent road, or in the king's palace, or
+his own simple shop. Wherever he is, he is always the same, shrewd,
+humorous, plain-spoken, seeing through all pretenses, yet never
+ill-natured in doing so--a character not very lofty or elevated, and to
+which the racy ugliness of a strong, uncultivated race seems
+natural--but who under that homely nature carried appreciations and
+conceptions of beauty such as few fine minds possess.
+
+Of all the beautiful things with which Giotto adorned his city, not one
+speaks so powerfully to the foreign visitor--the forestiere whom he and
+his fellows never took into account, tho who occupy so large a space
+among the admirers of his genius nowadays--as the lovely Campanile which
+stands by the great cathedral like the white royal lily beside the Mary
+of the Annunciation, slender and strong and everlasting in its delicate
+grace. It is not often that a man takes up a new trade when he is
+approaching sixty, or even goes into a new path out of his familiar
+routine. But Giotto seems to have turned without a moment's hesitation
+from his paints and panels to the less easily-wrought materials of the
+builder and sculptor, without either faltering from the great enterprise
+or doubting his own power to do it. His frescoes and altarpieces and
+crucifixes, the work he had been so long accustomed to, and which he
+could execute pleasantly in his own workshop or on the cool new walls of
+church or convent, with his trained school of younger artists round to
+aid him, were as different as possible from the elaborate calculations
+and measurements by which alone the lofty tower, straight, and lightsome
+as a lily, could have sprung so high and stood so lightly against that
+Italian sky.
+
+Like the poet or the romancist when he turns from the flowery ways of
+fiction and invention, where he is unencumbered by any restrictions save
+those of artistic keeping and personal will, to the grave and beaten
+path of history--the painter must have felt when he too turned from the
+freedom and poetry of art to this first scientific undertaking. The
+Cathedral was so far finished by this time, its front not scarred and
+bare as afterward, but adorned with statues according to old Arnolfo's
+plan, who was dead more than thirty years before; but there was no
+belfry, no companion peal of peace and sweetness to balance the hoarse
+old vacca with its voice of iron.
+
+Giotto seems to have thrown himself into work not only without
+reluctance but with enthusiasm. The foundation-stone of the building was
+laid in July of that year, with all the greatness of Florence looking
+on; and the painter entered upon his work at once, working out the most
+poetic effort of his life in marble and stone, among the masons'
+chippings and the dust and blaze of the public street. At the same time
+he designed, tho it does not seem sure whether he lived long enough to
+execute, a new facade for the Cathedral, replacing Arnolfo's old statues
+by something better.
+
+Of the Campanile itself it is difficult to speak in ordinary words. The
+enrichments of the surface, which is covered by beautiful groups set in
+a graceful framework of marble, with scarcely a flat or unadorned spot
+from top to bottom, have been ever since the admiration of artists and
+of the world. But we confess, for our own part, that it is the structure
+itself that affords us that soft ecstasy of contemplation, sense of a
+perfection before which the mind stops short, silenced and filled with
+the completeness of beauty unbroken, which Art so seldom gives, tho
+Nature often attains it by the simplest means, through the exquisite
+perfection of a flower or a stretch of summer sky.
+
+Just as we have looked at a sunset we look at Giotto's tower, poised far
+above in the blue air, in all the wonderful dawns and moonlights of
+Italy, swift darkness shadowing its white glory at the tinkle of the Ave
+Maria, and a golden glow of sunbeams accompanying the mid-day angelus.
+Between the solemn antiquity of the old baptistery and the historical
+gloom of the great cathedral, it stands like the lily--if not, rather,
+like the great angel himself hailing her who was blest among women, and
+keeping up that lovely salutation, musical and sweet as its own beauty,
+for century after century, day after day. Giotto made not only the
+design, but even, Vasari assures us, worked at the groups and
+"bassi-relievi" of these "stories in marble, in which are depicted the
+beginning of all the arts." ...
+
+Filippo of Ser Brunellescho of the Lapi, which is, according to
+Florentine use, his somewhat cumbrous name, or Brunelleschi for short,
+as custom permitted him to be called, was the son of a notary, who as
+notaries do, hoped and expected his boy to follow in his steps and
+succeed to his practise. But, like other sons doomed their fathers' soul
+to cross, Filippo took to those "figuretti" in bronze which were so
+captivating to the taste of the time, and preferred rather to be a
+goldsmith, to hang upon the skirts of art, than to work in the paternal
+office. He was, as Vasari insinuates, small, puny, and ugly, but full of
+dauntless and daring energy as well as genius. From his gold and silver
+work, the "carvings" which old Bartoluccio had been so glad to escape,
+and from his "figuretti," the ambitious lad took to architectural
+drawing, of which, according to Vasari, he was one of the first
+amateurs, making "portraits" of the Cathedral and baptistery, of the
+Palazzo Pubblico, and the other chief buildings of the city. He was so
+eloquent a talker that a worthy citizen declared of him that he seemed
+"a new St. Paul;" and in his thoughts he was continually busy planning
+or imagining something skilful and difficult.
+
+The idea of completing the Cathedral by adding to it a cupola worthy of
+its magnificent size and proportions seems to have been in the young
+man's head before the Signoria or the city took any action in the
+matter. Arnolfo's designs are said to have been lost, and all the young
+Filippo could do was to study the picture in the Spanish chapel of Santa
+Maria Novella, where the cathedral was depicted according to Arnolfo's
+intention; and this proof to the usefulness of architectural
+backgrounds, no doubt, moved him to those pictures of building which he
+was fond of making.
+
+After his failure in the competition with Ghiberti for the baptistery
+gates, Filippo went to Rome, accompanied by Donato. Here the two friends
+lived and studied together for some time, one giving himself to
+sculpture, the other to architecture. Brunelleschi, according to Vasari,
+made this a period of very severe study. He examined all the remains of
+ancient buildings with the keenest care; studying the foundations and
+the strength of the walls, and the way in which such a prodigious load
+as the great dome, which already he saw in his mind's eye, could best be
+supported.
+
+So profound were his researches that he was called the treasure-hunter
+by those who saw him coming and going through the streets of Rome, a
+title so far justified that he is said in one instance to have actually
+found an ancient earthenware jar full of old coins. While engaged in
+these studies, his money failing him, he worked for a jeweller according
+to the robust practise of the time, and after making ornaments and
+setting gems all day, set to work on his buildings, round and square,
+octagons, basilicas, arches, colosseums, and amphitheaters, perfecting
+himself in the principles of his art.
+
+In 1407 he returned to Florence, and then there began a series of
+negotiations between the artist and the city, to which there seemed at
+first as if no end could come. They met, and met again, assemblies of
+architects, of city authorities, of competitors less hopeful and less
+eager than himself. His whole heart, it is evident, was set upon the
+business. Hearing Donatello at one of these assemblies mention the
+cathedral at Orvieto, which he had visited on his way from Rome,
+Filippo, having his mantle and his hood on, without saying a word to
+anyone, set straight off from the Piazza on foot, and got as far as
+Cortona, from whence he returned with various pen-and-ink drawings
+before Donato or any one else had found out that he was away.
+
+Thus the small, keen, determined, ugly artist, swift and sudden as
+lightning, struck through all the hesitations, the consultations, the
+maunderings, the doubts, and the delays of the two authorities who had
+the matter in hand, the Signoria and the Operai, as who should say the
+working committee, and who made a hundred difficulties and shook their
+wise heads, and considered one foolish and futile plan after another
+with true burgher hesitation and wariness.
+
+At last, in 1420, an assembly of competitors was held in Florence, and a
+great many plans put forth, one of which was to support the proposed
+vault by a great central pillar, while another advised that the space to
+be covered should be filled with soil mixed with money, upon which the
+dome might be built, and which the people would gladly remove without
+expense afterward for the sake of the farthings! An expedient most droll
+in its simplicity. Brunelleschi, impatient of so much folly, went off to
+Rome, it is said, in the middle of these discussions, disgusted by the
+absurd ignorance which was thus put in competition with his careful
+study and long labor. Finally the appointment was conceded to him.
+
+The greatest difficulty with which he had to contend was a strike of his
+workmen, of whom, however, there being no trades' unions in those days,
+the imperious master made short work. And thus, day by day, the great
+dome swelled out over the shining marble walls and rose against the
+beautiful Italian sky. Nothing like it had been seen before by living
+eyes. The solemn grandeur of the Pantheon at Rome was indeed known to
+many, and San Giovanni[34] was in some sort an imitation of that; but
+the immense structure of the cupola, so justly poised, springing with
+such majestic grace from the familiar walls to which it gave new
+dignity, flattered the pride of the Florentines as something unique,
+besides delighting the eyes and imagination of so beauty-loving a race.
+
+With that veiled and subtle pride which takes the shape of pious fear,
+some even pretended to tremble, lest it should be supposed to be too
+near an emulation of the blue vault above, and that Florence was
+competing with heaven; others, with the delightful magniloquence of the
+time, declared that the hills around the city were scarcely higher than
+the beautiful Duomo; and Vasari himself has a doubt that the heavens
+were envious, so persistent were the storms amid which the cupola arose.
+
+Yet there it stands to this day, firm and splendid, uninjured by
+celestial envy, more harmonious than St. Peter's, the crown of the
+beautiful city. Its measurements and size and the secrets of its
+formation we do not pretend to set forth; the reader will find them in
+every guide-book. But the keen, impetuous, rapid figure of the
+architect, impatient, and justly impatient, of all rivalry, the murmurs
+and comments of the workmen; the troubled minds of the city authorities,
+not knowing how to hold their ground between that gnome of majestic
+genius who had fathomed all the secrets of construction and built a
+hundred Duomos in his mind, while they were pottering over the
+preliminaries of one; have all the interest of life for us.
+
+Through the calm fields of art he goes like a whirlwind, keen, certain,
+unfailing in his aim, unsparing in means, carried forward by such an
+impulse of will and self-confidence that nothing can withstand him. Sure
+of his own powers, as he was when he carved in secret the crucifix which
+was to cover poor Donatello with confusion, he saw before him, over his
+carvings, as he worked for the Roman goldsmith, the floating vision of
+the great dome he was to build--and so built it, all opposition
+notwithstanding, clearing out of his way with the almost contemptuous
+impatience of that knowledge which has no doubt of itself, the competing
+architects.
+
+
+
+
+GHIBERTI'S GATES[35]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+The Baptistery is the most ancient building in Florence. If not of pagan
+origin it dates from the earliest ages of Christianity. It was coated
+with marble of different colors by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1293, while in
+the sixteenth century Agnolo Gaddi designed the lantern; but long before
+Arnolfo's time it had been employed as a Christian place of worship,
+being used as a cathedral up to 1128, when it was converted into a
+baptistery.
+
+This building contains three gates, which have no parallel in the world.
+The oldest is that on the southern side, upon which Pisano spent
+twenty-two years of his life, a most beautiful work representing, in
+twenty compartments, the life of St. John the Baptist. The frieze which
+runs round it was commenced nearly a century afterward by Ghiberti, and
+Pollaiuolo had much to do with its completion.
+
+The northern gates are by Ghiberti, and, like those of Pisano, are
+divided into twenty compartments, the subject being the life of Christ.
+The bronze door-posts are delicately carved with flowers, fruit, and
+animals. These gates were first placed on the eastern side, but in 1452
+were removed to make room for Ghiberti's still finer work.
+
+On the third facade, that which faces the Duomo, is the Porta del
+Paradiso, so named by Michael Angelo, who declared that this gate was
+worthy to be the entrance into Paradise. Ghiberti divided each panel
+into five parts, taking the following as his subjects, after suggestions
+made by Leonardo Bruni Aretino: (1) Creation of Adam and Eve; (2) Cain
+and Abel; (3) Noah; (4) Abraham and Isaac; (5) Jacob and Esau; (6)
+Joseph in Egypt; (7) Moses on Mount Sinai; (8) The Capture of Jericho;
+(9) David Slaying Goliath; (10) The Queen of Sheba and Soloman.
+
+The frieze contains statuettes of the prophets and prophetesses and
+portrait-busts of men and women still alive, including Ghiberti himself,
+and his father; while the frame-posts, with their masses of vegetation
+and flora wrought in bronze, are admirable for their truth to nature.
+Bronze groups representing the "Decapitation of St. John the Baptist,"
+by Danti, and the "Baptism of our Lord," by Andrea Sansovino, surmount
+two of the gates, which were at one time heavily gilded, tho few traces
+of this are now visible.
+
+The Baptistery, empty as it appears to the eye upon first entering it,
+is replete with beautiful monuments, a description of which would fill a
+good-sized volume. It is built, as I have already said, upon an
+octagonal plan. The altar, which formerly stood beneath the cupola, has
+been removed. On the 24th of June every year the magnificent retablo in
+massive silver, which is preserved among the treasures in the Opera del
+Duomo, is displayed in the Baptistery. The silver alone weighs 325
+pounds, including two center-pieces, two side-pieces, and a silver
+crucifix with two statuettes seven feet high, and weighing 141 pounds,
+the group being completed by two statues of Peace in engine-turned
+silver. Many artists were employed upon the making of it. Finiguerra,
+Pollaiuolo, Cione, Michelozzi, Verrocchio, and Cennini made the lower
+parts and the bas-reliefs of the front, while the cross, executed in
+1456, is by Betto di Francesco, and the base of it by Milano di Domenico
+dei and Antonio Pollaiuolo.
+
+The interior of the cupola of San Giovanni is ornamented with some of
+the oldest specimens of mosaic decoration in Florence, these Byzantine
+artists being the first, after Murano and Altino, to exercise their
+craft in Italy, and being succeeded by Jacopo da Turita, Andrea Tafi,
+and Gaddo Gaddi.
+
+The handsome tomb of Baldassare Cossa (Pope John XXIII., deposed at the
+time of the Council of Constance), was reared in the Baptistery by
+Donatello. The Holy of Holies is relatively modern, having been erected
+at the expense of the Guild of the "Calimala," as the men who gave the
+finishing touch to the woolen stuffs manufactured abroad were called.
+The baptismal font, in a building specially used for christening, would,
+as a matter of course, be intrusted to artists of great repute, and that
+at San Giovanni is attributed to Andrea Pisano. Upon each face is
+represented one of the baptisms most famous in the history of the
+Catholic religion, an inscription beneath explaining each episode; but
+this font is, unfortunately, so much in the background that it escapes
+the notice of many visitors.
+
+Donatello carved the wooden statue of the Magdalen which occupies one of
+the niches, the thin emaciated face being typical of the artist's
+partiality for reproducing in their smallest details the physical
+defects of his subject. The exterior aspect of the Baptistery does not
+give one the idea of a building restored in the thirteenth, but rather
+in the fifteenth century.
+
+
+
+
+THE PONTE VECCHIO[36]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+Until the close of 1080 the Ponte Vecchio was built of wood, the heavy
+masses of timber, tho offering no steady resistance to the stream,
+dividing the muddy course of the waters into a thousand small currents,
+and breaking its force. But in 1177 occurred one of those inundations
+which were so frequent that traces of them may still be seen on the
+walls of the quays. These inundations were one of the curses of
+Florence, and tho the evil has been, to a certain extent, cured by the
+construction of massive quays, they still occur in the direction of the
+Cascine. An attempt was accordingly made in the twelfth century to
+obviate this inconvenience by the construction of a stone bridge. This,
+in turn, was carried away in 1333, and Taddeo Gaddi, who had already
+made a name for himself by his architectural skill, was employed to
+build a bridge capable of resisting the highest floods. The present
+bridge was therefore erected in 1345, being 330 feet long by 44 wide.
+
+With the double object of obtaining an income for the city and of
+introducing a novel feature, shops were built on the two pathways, which
+were 16 feet wide, and these were let to the butchers of Florence, thus
+realizing the Eastern plan of concentrating the meat trade of a town in
+one place. This arrangement lasted from 1422 until 1593, but in the
+latter year, under Cosimo I., the "Capitani di Parte," who had the
+supervision of the streets and highways, ordered that all the goldsmiths
+and jewelers should take the place of the butchers, and in a few months,
+the Ponte Vecchio became the wealthiest and most crowded thoroughfare of
+Florence. In order to avoid shutting out a view of the stream and
+interfering with the perspective, an open space had been reserved in the
+center, and when the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi were connected with
+the Pitti Palace by means of the large covered way carried over the
+bridge, this space was left intact so as to afford a view of the
+eminence of San Miniato upon one side, of the windings of the stream on
+the other, and of the Cascine shrubberies and the mountains upon the
+horizon.
+
+
+
+
+SANTA CROCE[37]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+Built by Arnolfo, then fifty-four years of age, by order of the Friars
+of St. Francis, this venerable temple was raised upon the piazza called
+Santa Croce, where formerly stood a small church belonging to the order
+of the Franciscan monks. They had resolved to embellish and enlarge
+their church, and Cardinal Matteo D'Acquasparta, general of the
+Franciscan Order, proclaimed an indulgence to all contributors toward
+the undertaking. The church was far enough advanced in 1320 for services
+to be held in it, tho the facade was then, as until a very recent period
+it remained, a plain brick wall, without facing or any other ornament.
+Santa Croce was not singular in this respect, for San Lorenzo and many
+other Florentine churches have never been decorated externally.
+
+In 1442 Cardinal Bessarion, the founder of St. Mark's Library at Venice,
+was delegated to perform the ceremony of consecration. Donatello and
+Ghiberti, incomplete as was the facade, executed some statues and a
+stained-glass window for it, but it is only within the last few years
+that the city of Florence completed the work, leaving untouched the
+grand piazza which had been the scene of so many fetes and intestine
+quarrels, and upon which is now erected a statue to Dante. The facade of
+Santa Croce was completed in 1863. The expense was principally borne by
+Mr. Francis Sloane, an Englishman.
+
+The interior is striking from its vast size, the church being built in
+the shape of a Latin cross with nave, aisles, and transepts, each of the
+seven pointed arches being supported on the octagonal column. Opposite
+the front entrance is the high altar, while all around the walls and
+between the side altars--erected in 1557 by Vasari by order of Cosimo
+I.--are the monuments of the illustrious dead. First of all on the left
+there is Domenico Sestini, a celebrated numismatist, whose bust was
+carved by Pozzetti. While in the first chapel on the right is the tomb
+of Michael Angelo, who died at Rome on the 17th of February, 1564; the
+monument was designed by Vasari, the bust was executed by Battista
+Lorenzo. Two contemporary sculptors, Valerio Cioli and Giovanni
+Dell'Opera, did the allegories of Sculpture and Architecture, the
+frescoes around the monument being by Battista Naldini. A nobler tomb
+might well have been raised to the memory of Michael Angelo. The body
+was deposited in the church on the 12th of March, 1564, and lay in
+state, for the people of Florence to come and pay him the last tribute
+of respect.
+
+The next tomb is only commemorative, for it does not contain the ashes
+of Dante, in whose honor it was erected in 1829 by Ricci, as a tardy
+homage on the part of Florence to one who suffered so much for her sake
+in life.[38]
+
+After Dante comes Victor Alfieri, whose name has been borne with
+distinction by his descendants. This monument was erected by Canova in
+1807. Compared with the monuments of the fifteenth century and of the
+Renaissance, which are to be seen in such splendid profusion in
+Florence, these tombs seem so inferior that it is impossible not to
+wonder how the decadence was brought about. It is not at Florence alone
+that this feeling manifests itself; for at Venice, in the splendid
+temple of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, beside the tombs of doges and
+condottieri of the fifteenth century there stands that wretched monument
+upon which the great name of Titian has been traced. This is evidently
+the result of an inevitable law to which humanity is subject. Genius
+comes into the world, grows, spreads, and covers the earth with its
+shadow; then slowly the sap runs back from the verdant trunk, the tree
+yields less luscious fruit and flowers not so fair, until at last the
+branches wither and the tree dies.
+
+Close beside Alfieri is buried Machiavelli, his tomb, like so many of
+the others, being of modern erection, and consequently less beautiful
+than if it had been the work of a sculptor who had studied in the school
+of Ghiberti or Donatello. By the side of Machiavelli rests Luigi Lanzi,
+a name less generally known, tho celebrated in his time as an
+historiographer of painting, or an art critic as we should now call him.
+His friend, Chevalier Ornofrio Boni, prepared the design for his tomb,
+which was executed at public cost. The pulpit--a fine specimen of
+fifteenth-century sculpture, carved by Benedetto da Maiano at the cost
+of Pietro Mellini, who presented it to the church--is well worth close
+inspection; and close by, between the tombs of Lanzi and Leonardo
+Bruni, is a group in freestone, representing the Annunciation. This was
+one of the first of Donatello's works, and gave an earnest of his future
+genius.
+
+The tomb of Leonardo Bruni Aretino is one of the five or six greatest
+works of this nature which ever left the sculptor's hands; it has been
+used as a model by the sculptors of all the tombs in Santa Maria del
+Popolo at Rome. The monument to Leonardo Bruni is the highest expression
+of sculptural art, combining all the taste of ancient Greece with the
+grace, the power, the calm, the supreme harmony, and the perfection
+which genius alone confers, its tranquil and subdued beauty comparing
+favorably with the theatrical effect and garish splendor of the
+monuments in St. John Lateran and St. Peter's at Rome. The superb
+mausoleums of Leopardi and of the Lombardi at Venice are, perhaps,
+equally beautiful; but I am inclined to give the preference to the work
+of Bernardo Rossellini. He became acquainted with Leonardo Bruni at the
+Papal Court, where he, as well as Leo Battista Alberti, was a director
+of the pontifical works. The Madonna let into the upper part of the
+monument is by Andrea Verocchio....
+
+In visiting Santa Croce it is impossible not to feel how erroneous are
+the views often held as to the exact place which will be allotted in the
+roll of history to the men of the day. Many of the names in this
+Pantheon are almost unknown, the tomb next to that of Galileo containing
+the dust of Mulazzi-Signorini, who has never been heard of out of Italy.
+Another unavoidable reflection is that the talent of the sculptor is
+rarely in proportion to that of the man whose memory he is about to
+perpetuate. Machiavelli was commemorated by two obscure sculptors like
+Foggini and Ticcati, and Michael Angelo by Battista Lorenzi. What has
+the world not lost by the refusal of Michael Angelo's offer to erect a
+tomb to Dante when the city of Florence was about to ask Ravenna to
+restore his remains to her!
+
+The convent annexed to Santa Croce was also built by Arnolfo. It was
+originally occupied by the Franciscan monks, and it was here that, from
+1284 to 1782, the Inquisition held its sittings. The notorious
+Frenchman, Gaulthier de Brienne, Duke of Athens, who for a brief period
+ruled Florence as Captain of the People, selected this monastery as his
+residence in June, 1342, but having in September of the same year
+succeeded in getting himself elected ruler of Florence for life, he
+removed to the Palazzo Vecchio. His reign, however, was of only brief
+duration, for the year following he was expelled by the people.
+
+
+
+
+THE UFFIZI GALLERY[39]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+What can be said of a gallery containing thirteen hundred pictures? For
+my own part I abstain. Examine catalogs and collections of engravings,
+or rather come here yourself. The impressions borne away from these
+grand store-houses are too diverse and too numerous to be transmitted
+by the pen. Observe this, that the Uffizi is a universal depot, a sort
+of Louvre containing paintings of all times and schools, bronzes,
+statues, sculptures, antique and modern terracottas, cabinets of gems,
+an Etruscan museum, artists' portraits painted by themselves,
+twenty-eight thousand original drawings, four thousand cameos and
+ivories and eighty thousand medals. One resorts to it as to a library;
+it is an abridgment and a specimen of everything....
+
+We ascend the great marble staircase, pass the famous antique boar and
+enter the long horseshoe corridor filled with busts and tapestried with
+paintings. Visitors, about ten o'clock in the morning, are few; the mute
+custodians remain in their corners; you seem to be really at home. It
+all belongs to you, and what convenient possessions! Keepers and
+majordomos are here to keep things in order, well dusted and intact; it
+is not even necessary to give orders; matters go on of themselves
+without jar or confusion, nobody giving himself the slightest concern;
+it is an ideal world such as it ought to be. The light is excellent;
+bright gleams from the windows fall on some distant white statues on the
+rosy torso of a woman which comes out living from the shadowy obscurity.
+Beyond, as far as the eye can see, marble gods and emperors extend away
+in files up to the windows through which flickers the light ripple of
+the Arno with the silvery swell on its crests and eddies.
+
+You enter into the freedom and sweet repose of abstract life; the will
+relaxes, the inner tumult subsides; one feels himself becoming a monk,
+a modern monk. Here, as formerly in the cloisters, the tender inward
+spirit, chafed by the necessities of action, insensibly revives in order
+to commune with beings emancipated from life's obligations. It is so
+sweet no longer to be! Not to be is so natural! And how peaceful the
+realm of human forms withdrawn from human conflict! The pure thought
+which follows them is so conscious that its illusion is transient; it
+participates in their incorporeal serenity, and reverie, lingering in
+turn over their voluptuousness and violence, brings back to it plenitude
+without satiety.
+
+On the left of the corridors open the cabinets of precious things--the
+Niobe hall, that of portraits, that of modern bronzes, each with its
+special group of treasures. You feel that you have a right to enter,
+that great men are awaiting you. A selection is made among them; you
+reenter the Tribune; five antique statues form a circle here--a slave
+sharpening his knife; two interlocked wrestlers whose muscles are
+strained and expanded; a charming Apollo of sixteen years whose compact
+form has all the suppleness of the freshest adolescence; an admirable
+Faun instinct with the animality of his species, unconsciously joyous
+and dancing with all his might; and finally, the "Venus de Medici," a
+slender young girl with a small delicate head, not a goddess like her
+sister of Milo, but a perfect mortal and the work of some Praxiteles
+fond of "hetairae," at ease in a nude state and free from that somewhat
+mawkish delicacy and bashful coquetry which its copies, and the restored
+arms with their thin fingers by Bernini, seem to impose on her.
+
+She is, perhaps, a copy of that Venus of Cnidus of which Lucian relates
+an interesting story; you imagine while looking at her, the youths'
+kisses prest on the marble lips, and the exclamations of Charicles who,
+on seeing it, declared Mars to be the most fortunate of gods. Around the
+statues, on the eight sides of the wall, hang the masterpieces of the
+leading painters. There is the "Madonna of the Goldfinch" by Raphael,
+pure and candid, like an angel whose soul is a bud not yet in bloom; his
+"St. John," nude, a fine youthful form of fourteen, healthy and
+vigorous, in which the purest paganism lives over again; and especially
+a superb head of a crowned female, radiant as a summer noonday, with
+fixt and earnest gaze, her complexion of that powerful southern
+carnation which the emotions do not change, where the blood does not
+pulsate convulsively and to which passion only adds a warmer glow, a
+sort of Roman muse in whom will still prevails over intellect, and whose
+vivacious energy reveals itself in repose as well as in action.
+
+In one corner a tall cavalier by Van Dyck, in black and with a broad
+frill, seems as grandly and gloriously proud in character as in
+proportions, primarily through a well-fed body and next through the
+undisputed possession of authority and command. Three steps more and we
+come to the "Flight into Egypt," by Correggio, the Virgin with a
+charming spirited face wholly suffused with inward light in which the
+purity, archness, gentleness and wildness of a young girl combine to
+shed the tenderest grace and impart the most fascinating allurements.
+Alongside of this a "Sibyl" by Guercino, with her carefully adjusted
+coiffure and drapery, is the most spiritual and refined of sentimental
+poetesses.
+
+I pass twenty others in order to reserve the last look for Titian's two
+Venuses. One, facing the door, reclines on a red velvet mantle, an ample
+vigorous torso as powerful as one of Rubens' Bacchantes, but firmer--an
+energetic and vulgar figure, a simple, strong unintellectual courtezan.
+She lies extended on her back, caressing a little cupid naked like
+herself, with the vacant seriousness and passivity of soul of an animal
+in repose and expectant. The other, called "Venus with the Dog," is a
+patrician's mistress, couched, adorned and ready. We recognize a palace
+of the day, the alcove fitted up and colors tastefully and magnificently
+contrasted for the pleasure of the eye; in the background are servants
+arranging clothes; through a window a section of blue landscape is
+visible; the master is about to arrive.
+
+Nowadays we devour pleasure secretly like stolen fruit; then it was
+served up on golden salvers and people sat down to it at a table. It is
+because pleasure was not vile or bestial. This woman holding a bouquet
+in her hand in this grand columnar saloon has not the vapid smile or the
+wanton and malicious air of an adventuress about to commit a bad action.
+The calm of evening enters the palace through noble architectural
+openings. Under the pale green of the curtains lies the figure on a
+white sheet, slightly flushed with the regular pulsation of life, and
+developing the harmony of her undulating forms. The head is small and
+placid; the soul does not rise above the corporal instincts; hence she
+can resign herself to them without shame, while the poesy of art,
+luxury and security on all sides comes to decorate and embellish them.
+She is a courtezan but also a lady; in those days the former did not
+efface the latter; one was as much a title as the other and, probably,
+in demeanor, affection and intellect one was as good as the other. The
+celebrated Imperia had her tomb in the church of San Gregorio, at Rome,
+with this inscription: "Imperia, a Roman courtezan worthy of so great a
+name, furnished an example to men of perfect beauty, lived twenty-six
+years and twelve days, and died in 1511, August 25." ...
+
+On passing from the Italian into the Flemish galleries one is completely
+turned around; here are paintings executed for merchants content to
+remain quietly at home eating good dinners and speculating over the
+profits of their business; moreover in rainy and muddy countries dress
+has to be cared for, and by the women more than the men. The mind feels
+itself contracted on entering the circle of this well-to-do domestic
+life; such is the impression of Corinne when from liberal Italy she
+passes to rigid and dreary Scotland. And yet there is a certain picture,
+a large landscape by Rembrandt, which equals and surpasses all; a dark
+sky bursting with showers among flocks of screaming crows; beneath, is
+an infinite stretch of country as desolate as a cemetery; on the right a
+mass of barren rocks of so mournful and lugubrious a tint as to attain
+to the sublime in effect. So is it with an andante of Beethoven after an
+Italian Opera.
+
+
+
+
+FLORENCE EIGHTY YEARS AGO[40]
+
+BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
+
+
+There is a great deal of prattle about Italian skies; the skies and
+clouds of Italy, so far as I have had an opportunity of judging, do not
+present so great a variety of beautiful appearances as our own; but the
+Italian atmosphere is far more uniformly fine than ours. Not to speak of
+its astonishing clearness, it is pervaded by a certain warmth of color
+which enriches every object. This is more remarkable about the time of
+sunset, when the mountains put on an aerial aspect, as if they belonged
+to another and fairer world; and a little after the sun has gone down,
+the air is flushed with a glory which seems to transfigure all that it
+encloses.
+
+Many of the fine old palaces of Florence, you know, are built in a
+gloomy tho grand style of architecture, of a dark-colored stone, massive
+and lofty, and overlooking narrow streets that lie in almost perpetual
+shade. But at the hour of which I am speaking, the bright warm radiance
+reflected from the sky to the earth, fills the darkest lanes, streams
+into the most shadowy nooks, and makes the prison-like structures
+glitter as with a brightness of their own.
+
+It is now nearly the middle of October, and we have had no frost. The
+strong summer heats which prevailed when I came hither, have by the
+slowest gradations subsided into an agreeable autumnal temperature. The
+trees keep their verdure, but I perceive their foliage growing thinner,
+and when I walk in the Cascine on the other side of the Arno, the
+rustling of the lizards, as they run among the heaps of crisp leaves,
+reminds me that autumn is wearing away, tho the ivy which clothes the
+old elms has put forth a profuse array of blossoms, and the walks murmur
+with bees like our orchards in spring. As I look along the declivities
+of the Appenines, I see the raw earth every day more visible between the
+ranks of olive-trees and the well-pruned maples which support the vines.
+
+If I have found my expectations of Italian scenery, in some respects,
+below the reality; in other respects, they have been disappointed. The
+forms of the mountains are wonderfully picturesque, and their effect is
+heightened by the rich atmosphere through which they are seen, and by
+the buildings, imposing from their architecture or venerable from time,
+which crown the eminences. But if the hand of man has done something to
+embellish this region, it has done more to deform it. Not a tree is
+suffered to retain its natural shape, not a brook to flow in its natural
+channel. An exterminating war is carried on against the natural herbage
+of the soil. The country is without woods and green fields; and to him
+who views the vale of the Arno "from the top of Fiesole," or any of the
+neighboring heights, grand as he will allow the circle of the mountains
+to be, and magnificent the edifices with which the region is adorned, it
+appears, at any time after mid-summer, a huge valley of dust, planted
+with low rows of the pallid and thin-leaved olive, or the more dwarfish
+maple on which vines are trained.
+
+The simplicity of nature, so far as can be done, is destroyed; there is
+no fine sweep of forest, no broad expanse of meadow or pasture ground,
+no ancient and towering trees clustered about the villas, no rows of
+natural shrubbery following the course of the brooks and rivers. The
+streams, which are often but the beds of torrents dry during the summer,
+are confined in straight channels by stone walls and embankments; the
+slopes are broken up and disfigured by terraces; and the trees are kept
+down by constant pruning and lopping, until half way up the sides of the
+Appenines, where the limit of cultivation is reached, and thence to the
+summit is a barren steep of rock, without herbage or soil. The grander
+features of the landscape, however, are fortunately beyond the power of
+man to injure; the lofty mountain-summits, bare precipices cleft with
+chasms, and pinnacles of rock piercing the sky, betokening, far more
+than any thing I have seen elsewhere, a breaking up of the crust of the
+globe in some early period of its existence. I am told that in May and
+June the country is much more beautiful than at present, and that owing
+to a drought it now appears under disadvantage....
+
+Florence, from being the residence of the Court,[41] and from the vast
+number of foreigners who throng to it, presents during several months of
+the year an appearance of great bustle and animation. Four thousand
+English, an American friend tells me, visit Florence every winter, to
+say nothing of the occasional residents from France, Germany, and
+Russia. The number of visitors from the latter country is every year
+increasing, and the echoes of the Florence gallery have been taught to
+repeat the strange accents of the Slavonic. Let me give you the history
+of a fine day in October, passed at the window of my lodgings on the
+Lung Arno, close to the bridge.
+
+Waked by the jangling of all the bells in Florence and by the noise of
+carriages departing loaded with travelers, for Rome and other places in
+the south of Italy, I rise, dress myself, and take my place at the
+window. I see crowds of men and women from the country, the former in
+brown velvet jackets, and the latter in broad-brimmed straw hats,
+driving donkeys loaded with panniers or trundling hand-carts before
+them, heaped with grapes, figs, and all the fruits of the orchard, the
+garden, and the field. They have hardly passed, when large flocks of
+sheep and goats make their appearance, attended by shepherds and their
+families, driven by the approach of winter from the Appenines, and
+seeking the pastures of the Maremma, a rich, but, in the summer, an
+unhealthy tract on the coast.
+
+The men and the boys are drest in knee-breeches, the women in bodices,
+and both sexes wear capotes with pointed hoods, and felt hats with
+conical crowns; they carry long staves in their hands, and their arms
+are loaded with kids and lambs too young to keep pace with their
+mothers. After the long procession of sheep and goats and dogs and men
+and women and children, come horses loaded with cloths and poles for
+tents, kitchen utensils, and the rest of the younglings of the flock.
+
+A little after sunrise I see well-fed donkeys, in coverings of red
+cloth, driven over the bridge to be milked for invalids. Maid-servants,
+bare-headed, with huge high carved combs in their hair, waiters of
+coffee-houses carrying the morning cup of coffee or chocolate to their
+customers, baker's boys with a dozen loaves on a board balanced on their
+heads, milkmen with rush baskets filled with flasks of milk, are
+crossing the streets in all directions. A little later the bell of the
+small chapel opposite to my window rings furiously for a quarter of an
+hour, and then I hear mass chanted in a deep strong nasal tone.
+
+As the day advances, the English, in white hats and white pantaloons,
+come out of their lodgings, accompanied sometimes by their hale and
+square-built spouses, and saunter stiffly along the Arno, or take their
+way to the public galleries and museums. Their massive, clean, and
+brightly-polished carriages also begin to rattle through the streets,
+setting out on excursions to some part of the environs of Florence--to
+Fiesole, to the Pratolino, to the Bello Sguardo, to the Poggio
+Imperiale. Sights of a different kind now present themselves. Sometimes
+it is a troop of stout Franciscan friars, in sandals and brown robes,
+each carrying his staff and wearing a brown broad-brimmed hat with a
+hemispherical crown. Sometimes it is a band of young theological
+students, in purple cassocks with red collars and cuffs, let out on a
+holiday, attended by their clerical instructors, to ramble in the
+Cascine. There is a priest coming over the bridge, a man of venerable
+age and great reputation for sanctity--the common people crowd around
+him to kiss his hand, and obtain a kind word from him as he passes.
+
+But what is that procession of men in black gowns, black gaiters, and
+black masks, moving swiftly along, and bearing on their shoulders a
+litter covered with black cloth? These are the Brethren of Mercy, who
+have assembled at the sound of the cathedral bell, and are conveying
+some sick or wounded person to the hospital. As the day begins to
+decline, the numbers of carriages in the streets, filled with
+gaily-drest people attended by servants in livery, increases. The Grand
+Duke's equipage, an elegant carriage drawn by six horses, with coachmen,
+footmen, and out-riders in drab-colored livery, comes from the Pitti
+Palace, and crosses the Arno, either by the bridge close to my lodgings,
+or by that called Alla Santa Trinita, which is in full sight from the
+windows. The Florentine nobility, with their families, and the English
+residents, now throng to the Cascine, to drive at a slow pace through
+its thickly-planted walks of elms, oaks, and ilexes.
+
+As the sun is sinking I perceive the Quay, on the other side of the
+Arno, filled with a moving crowd of well-drest people, walking to and
+fro, and enjoying the beauty of the evening. Travelers now arrive from
+all quarters, in cabriolets, in calashers, in the shabby "vettura," and
+in the elegant private carriage drawn by post-horses, and driven by
+postillions in the tightest possible deer-skin breeches, the smallest
+red coats, and the hugest jack-boots. The streets about the doors of the
+hotels resound with the cracking of whips and the stamping of horses,
+and are encumbered with carriages, heaps of baggage, porters,
+postillions, couriers, and travelers. Night at length arrives--the time
+of spectacles and funerals.
+
+The carriages rattle toward the opera-houses. Trains of people,
+sometimes in white robes and sometimes in black, carrying blazing
+torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, pass
+through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The Brethren of
+Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The rapidity of their
+pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their eyes through their
+masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of supernatural
+appearance. I return to bed, and fall asleep amid the shouts of people
+returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches of the music with
+which they had been entertained during the evening.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+VENICE
+
+
+THE APPROACH FROM THE SEA[42]
+
+BY CHARLES YRIARTE
+
+
+To taste in all their fulness his first impressions of Venice, the
+traveler should arrive there by sea, at mid-day, when the sun is high.
+By degrees, as the ship which carries him enters the channels, he will
+see the unparalleled city emerging from the lap of the lagoon, with its
+proud campaniles, its golden spires, its gray or silvery domes and
+cupolas. Advancing along the narrow channels of navigation, posts and
+piles dot here and there with black that sheet of steel, and give
+substance to the dream, making solid and tangible the foreground of the
+illusive distance.
+
+Just now, all that enchanted world and fairy architecture floated in the
+air; little by little all has become distinct; those points of dark
+green turn into gardens; that mass of deep red is the line of the
+ship-building yards, with their leprous-looking houses and with the
+dark-colored stocks on which are erected the skeletons of polaccas and
+feluccas in course of construction; the white line showing so bright in
+the sun is the Riva dei Schiavoni, all alive with its world of
+gondoliers, fruit-sellers, Greek sailors, and Chioggiotes in their
+many-colored costumes. The rose-colored palace with the stunted
+colonnade is the Ducal Palace. The vessel, on its way to cast anchor off
+the Piazzetta, coasts round the white and rose-colored island which
+carries Palladio's church of Santa Maria Maggiore, whose firm campanile
+stands out against the sky with Grecian clearness and grace. Looking
+over the bow, the traveler has facing him the Grand Canal, with the
+Custom House where the figure of Fortune veers with the wind above her
+golden ball; beyond rise the double domes of the Salute with their great
+reversed consoles, forming the most majestic entrance to this watery
+avenue bordered by palaces.
+
+He who comes for the first time to Venice by this route realizes a
+dream--his only dream perhaps ever destined to be surpassed by the
+reality; and if he knows how to enjoy the beauty of nature, if he can
+take delight in silver-gray and rose-colored reflections in water, if he
+loves light and color, the picturesque life of Italian squares and
+streets, the good humor of the people and their gentle speech which
+seems like the twittering of birds, let him only allow himself to live
+for a little time under the sky of Venice, and he has before him a
+season of happiness without alloy.
+
+
+
+
+THE APPROACH BY TRAIN[43]
+
+BY THE EDITOR
+
+
+After leaving Padua the land for several miles is flat sand. No grass or
+tree grows here. Lagoons and canals intersect the land. At the right are
+marshes bordering the Adriatic. Along the horizon, light smoky clouds
+blend imperceptibly with the water. Other clouds, floating overhead, are
+reflected in the brown and waveless water. Far across this expanse
+glides here and there a small boat, propelled by a man standing erect.
+Through dim mists, settled over the bay, we sight flying birds that call
+loudly as they increase their flight. Absolutely without motion is this
+water. The sole objects that move are boats and birds. The water
+shimmers and sparkles wherever the sun, passing in and out of clouds,
+lights it up. The shallow bay broadens until our view includes no land.
+Everywhere extends a realm of waveless waters, in which fishing stakes
+stand erect, and tall plants grow.
+
+How strangely all this differs from the blue Mediterranean we saw a
+fortnight ago when riding from Genoa to Leghorn, under that cloudless
+sky of blue; in that stirring breeze, and an almost tropical
+temperature, tho it was late in December; along that rocky,
+tunnel-pierced coast, with deep olive groves bordering the way; the sea
+a boundless vision of water moving and resounding against the shore;
+whitecaps everywhere visible on its broad expanse. Here on this road to
+Venice is complete repose, lifeless, sleepy repose--as of the dead--not
+without poetry, but of the Orient and of mystics, rather than of
+Provence, or the Ligurian shore and active, stalwart men.
+
+We sight in the distance over the lagoon, the white walls and roof line
+of Venice. The railway starts on its long course over one of the noblest
+bridges in the world. It is more than two miles long. Some 80,000 piles
+were used in its foundations, the superstructure entirely of stone, with
+arches of 33 feet span each, and 222 in number. Along the roadway, on
+either side is a stone balustrade. At each pier a balcony curves
+outward. For four years a thousand men were engaged in building this
+viaduct, and the total cost was $10,000,000. Having crossed, we reach an
+island; then cross another, but shorter, bridge and pass to another
+island. Our train thereafter comes to a stop for we have reached Venice
+and enter a magnificent station, built of stone, with high semi-circular
+roof, lofty waiting rooms, mosaic floors. We pass out through a spacious
+doorway, and directly below, and in front, see the Grand Canal, bordered
+on its farther shore by palaces and other noble structures of white
+marble. A wide and broad plaza here fronts the water, and a stairway at
+its edge leads downward to where are waiting a score of gondolas.
+
+We step into one of these boats, and begin our first gondola ride in
+Adriatic waters. It is late afternoon. The western sun lies dying in a
+mass of yellow and soft brown clouds. On the high walls of the great
+white station its rays fall with startling brightness and cast long
+shadows of waiting gondoliers upon the plaza floor. The white palaces
+opposite are shrouded in somber hues. A warm mist seems to rise from the
+water. All is still as in the mid-Atlantic. When a sound is made, echoes
+sharp and clear come from shore to shore.
+
+Our boat glides away from this scene. Adjusting ourselves to its motion,
+we roll from side to side in our little house of glass on a downy seat
+and could pass the whole night here contentedly. Such rest, such
+appalling silence, we never knew before. Those gondoliers do their work
+with consummate skill. They have all the ease that comes of practise in
+any calling however difficult. The sharp cut of an oar as it enters the
+water is for a moment heard, but never a splash. The boat rolls
+constantly, but we feel no strain. It moves as if it were a toy swan
+drawn by a magnet in a child's hand.
+
+From the Grand Canal we enter a narrow street. Sharp corners are turned
+quickly, swift-moving boats are passed, narrow passages entered, and we
+glide into deep shadows under bridges, but never a collision, or danger
+of one, occurs. The gondolier at crossings cries out his warning. We
+hear, but do not see, another who calls aloud in similar tones. The two
+voices are heard again, each in an echo. Far away in this watery but
+populous solitude, a church bell tolls.
+
+We have had a quarter-hour's ride when the gondola comes to rest before
+broad stone steps leading upward to a wide doorway. Here is our hotel,
+an ancient palace, rich in marble and granite, with broad corridor, a
+noble stairway, and mosaic floors. It is Sunday on St. Mark's Place--a
+bright, warm Sunday it has been, such as winter can not give in our own
+country. Here, indeed, is a foreign land, its life and spirit more
+foreign than Rome. No scene in the wide world can rival this St. Mark's
+scene, with the islands across the way in the broad lagoon--a
+magnificent piazza, bordered by the facades of splendid palaces, by
+statues, columns, and ornate capitals, another piazza near it surrounded
+on three sides by noble arcaded structures and on the fourth by the half
+Gothic, half Byzantine Church of St. Mark's, the most resplendent
+Christian edifice in Europe. In one corner rises the stupendous
+Campanile, high above palace roofs, arcades and church domes, its bells
+sounding their notes upon an otherwise silent world.
+
+
+
+
+A TOUR OF THE GRAND CANAL[44]
+
+BY THEOPHILE GAUTIER
+
+
+The Grand Canal of Venice is the most wonderful thing in the world. No
+other city affords a spectacle so fine, so bizarre, so fairy-like. As
+remarkable bits of architecture, perhaps, can be found elsewhere, but
+nowhere located under such picturesque conditions.
+
+There each palace has a mirror in which to gaze at its beauty, like a
+coquettish woman. The superb reality is doubled by a charming
+reflection. The water lovingly caresses the feet of these beautiful
+facades, which a white light kisses on the forehead, and cradles them
+in a double sky. The small boats and big ships which are able to ascend
+it seem to be made fast for the express purpose of serving as set-offs
+or ground-plans for the convenience of the decorators....
+
+Each bit of wall narrates a story; every house is a palace; at each
+stroke of the oars the gondolier mentions a name which was as well known
+in the times of the Crusades as it is to-day; and this continues both to
+left and right for a distance of more than half a league. We have made a
+list of these palaces, not of all, but the most remarkable, and we do
+not dare to transcribe it here on account of its length. It covers five
+or six pages: Pierre Lombard, Scamozzi, Sansovino, Sebastiano Mazzoni,
+Sammichelli, the great architect of Verona; Selva, Domenico Rossi,
+Visentini, have drawn the plans and directed the construction of these
+princely dwellings, without reckoning the unknown artists of the Middle
+Ages who built the most picturesque and most romantic of them--those
+which give Venice its stamp and its originality.
+
+On both banks, facades altogether charming and beautifully diversified
+succeed one another without interruption. After an architecture of the
+Renaissance with its columns comes a palace of the Middle Ages in Gothic
+Arab style, of which the Ducal Palace is the prototype, with its
+balconies, lancet windows, trefoils, and acroteria. Further along is a
+facade adorned with marble placques of various colors, garnished with
+medallions and consoles; then a great rose-colored wall in which is cut
+a large window with columnets; all styles are found there--the
+Byzantine, the Saracen, the Lombard, the Gothic, the Roman, the Greek,
+and even the Rococo; the column and the columnet; the lancet and the
+semicircle; the fanciful capital, full of birds and of flowers, brought
+from Acre or from Jaffa; the Greek capital found in Athenian ruins; the
+mosaic and the bas-relief; the classic severity and elegant fantasy of
+the Renaissance. It is an immense gallery open to the sky, where one can
+study from the bottom of his gondola the art of seven or eight
+centuries. What treasures of genius, talent, and money have been
+expended on this space which may be traversed in less than a quarter of
+an hour! What tremendous artists, but also what intelligent and
+munificent patrons! What a pity that the patricians who knew how to
+achieve such beautiful things no longer exist save on the canvases of
+Titian, of Tintoretto, and du Moro!
+
+Even before reaching the Rialto, you have, on the left, in ascending the
+Canal, the Palace Dario, in Gothic style; the Palace Venier, which
+presents itself by an angle, with its ornamentation, its precious
+marbles and medallions, in the Lombard style; the Fine Arts, a classic
+facade joined to the old Ecole de la Charite and surmounted by a figure
+riding upon a lion; the Contarini Palace, in architectural style of
+Scamozzi; the Rezzonico Palace with three superimposed orders; the
+triple Giustiniani Palace, in the style of the Middle Ages, in which
+resides M. Natale Schiavoni, a descendant of the celebrated painter
+Schiavoni, who possesses a gallery of pictures and a beautiful daughter,
+the living reproduction of a canvas painted by her ancestor; The Foscari
+Palace, recognizable by its low door, by its two stories of columnets
+supporting lancets and trefoils, where in other days were lodged the
+sovereigns who visited Venice, but now abandoned; the Balbi Palace, from
+the balcony of which the princes leaned to watch the regattas which took
+place upon the Grand Canal with so much pomp and splendor, in the palmy
+days of the Republic; the Pisani Palace, in the German style of the
+beginning of the fifteenth century; and the Tiepolo Palace, very smart
+and relatively modern. On the right, there nestles between two big
+buildings, a delicious little palace which is composed of a window and a
+balcony; but such a window and balcony! A guipure of stone, of scrolls,
+of guillochages, and of open-work, which would seem possible of
+execution only with a punching machine upon one of those sheets of paper
+which cover baptismal sugar-plums, or are placed upon globes of lamps.
+We greatly regretted not having twenty-five thousand francs about us to
+buy it, since that was all that was demanded for it....
+
+The Rialto, which is the most beautiful bridge in Venice, with a very
+grandiose and monumental air, bestrides the canal by a single span with
+a powerful and graceful curve. It was built in 1691, under the Dogeship
+of Pasquale Cigogna, by Antonio da Ponte, and replaced the ancient
+wooden drawbridge. Two rows of shops, separated in the middle by a
+portico in the form of an arcade and permitting a glimpse of the sky,
+burden the sides of the bridge, which can be crossed by three paths;
+that in the center and the exterior passageways furnished with
+balustrades of marble.
+
+Around the Bridge of the Rialto, one of the most picturesque spots of
+the Grand Canal, are gathered the oldest houses in Venice, with
+platformed roofs, on which poles are planted to hang banners; their long
+chimneys, their bulging balconies, their stairways with disjointed
+steps, and their plaques of red coating, the fallen flakes of which lay
+bare the brick walls and the foundations made green by contact with the
+water. There is always near the Rialto a tumult of boats and gondolas
+and of stagnant islets of tied-up craft drying their tawny sails, which
+are sometimes traversed by a large cross....
+
+Below and beyond the Rialto are grouped on both banks the ancient
+Fondaco dei Tedeschi, upon the colored walls of which, in uncertain
+tints, may be devined some frescoes of Titian and Tintoretto, like
+dreams which come only to vanish; the fish-market, the vegetable market,
+and the old and new buildings of Scarpagnino and of Sansovino, almost
+fallen in ruins, in which are installed various courts....
+
+On the right rises the Palace della Ca d'Oro, one of the most charming
+on the Grand Canal. It belongs to Mademoiselle Taglioni,[45] who has
+restored it with most intelligent care. It is all embroidered, fringed,
+carved in a Greek, Gothic, barbaric style, so fantastic, so light, so
+aerial, that it might be fancied to have been built expressly for the
+nest of a sylph. Mlle. Taglioni has pity for these poor, abandoned
+palaces. She has several of them en pension, which she maintains out of
+pure commiseration for their beauty; we were told of three or four upon
+which she has bestowed this charity of repair....
+
+In going to a distance from the heart of the city, life is extinct. Many
+windows are closed or barred with boards; but this sadness has its
+beauty; it is more perceptible to the soul than to the eyes, regaled
+without cessation by the most unforeseen accidents of light and shade,
+by buildings so varied that even their dilapidation only renders them
+more picturesque, by the perpetual movement of the waters, and that blue
+and rose tint which composes the atmosphere of Venice.
+
+
+
+
+ST. MARK'S CHURCH[46]
+
+BY JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+Beyond those troops of ordered arches there rises a vision out of the
+earth, and all the great square seems to have opened from it in a kind
+of awe, that we may see it far away--a multitude of pillars and white
+domes, clustered into a long low pyramid of colored light; a
+treasure-heap, it seems, partly of gold, and partly of opal and
+mother-of-pearl, hollowed beneath into five great vaulted porches,
+ceiled with fair mosaic, and beset with sculpture of alabaster, clear as
+amber and delicate as ivory--sculpture fantastic and involved, of palm
+leaves and lilies, and grapes and pomegranates, and birds clinging and
+fluttering among the branches, all twined together into an endless
+network of buds and plumes; and, in the midst of it, the solemn forms of
+angels, sceptered and robed to the feet, and leaning to each other
+across the gates, their figures indistinct among the gleaming of the
+golden ground through the leaves beside them, interrupted and dim, like
+the morning light as it faded back among the branches of Eden, when
+first its gates were angel-guarded long ago.
+
+And round the walls of the porches there are set pillars of variegated
+stones, jasper and porphyry, and deep-green serpentine spotted with
+flakes of snow, and marbles, that half refuse and half yield to the
+sunshine, Cleopatra-like, "their bluest veins to kiss"--the shadow, as
+it steals back from them, revealing line after line of azure undulation,
+as a receding tide leaves the waved sand; their capitals rich with
+interwoven tracery, rooted knots of herbage, and drifting leaves of
+acanthus and vine, and mystical signs, all beginning and ending in the
+Cross; and above them, in the broad archivolts, a continuous chain of
+language and of life--angels, and the signs of heaven, and the labors of
+men, each in its appointed season upon the earth; and above these,
+another range of glittering pinnacles, mixed with white arches edged
+with scarlet flowers--a confusion of delight, amid which the breasts of
+the Greek horses are seen blazing in their breadth of golden strength,
+and the St. Mark's Lion, lifted on a blue field covered with stars,
+until at last, as if in ecstasy, the crests of the arches break into a
+marble foam, and toss themselves far into the blue sky in flashes and
+wreaths of sculptured spray, as if the breakers on the Lido shore had
+been frost-bound before they fell, and the sea-nymphs had inlaid them
+with coral and amethyst.
+
+Between that grim cathedral of England and this, what an interval! There
+is a type of it in the very birds that haunt them; for, instead of the
+restless crowd, hoarse-voiced and sable-winged, drifting on the bleak
+upper air, the St. Mark's porches are full of doves, that nestle among
+the marble foliage, and mingle the soft iridescence of their living
+plumes, changing at every motion, with the tints, hardly less lovely,
+that have stood unchanged for seven hundred years.
+
+And what effect has this splendor on those who pass beneath it? You may
+walk from sunrise to sunset, to and fro, before the gateway of St.
+Mark's, and you will not see an eye lifted to it, nor a countenance
+brightened by it. Priest and layman, soldier and civilian, rich and
+poor, pass by it alike regardlessly. Up to the very recesses of the
+porches, the meanest tradesmen of the city push their counters; nay, the
+foundations of its pillars are themselves the seats--not "of them that
+sell doves" for sacrifice, but of the venders of toys and caricatures.
+Round the whole square in front of the church there is almost a
+continuous line of cafes, where the idle Venetians of the middle classes
+lounge, and read empty journals; in its center the Austrian bands[47]
+play during the time of vespers, their martial music jarring with the
+organ notes--the march drowning the miserere, and the sullen crowd
+thickening round them--a crowd, which, if it had its will, would
+stiletto every soldier that pipes to it. And in the recesses of the
+porches, all day long, knots of men of the lowest classes, unemployed
+and listless, lie basking in the sun like lizards; and unregarded
+children--every heavy glance of their young eyes full of desperation and
+stony depravity, and their throats hoarse with cursing--gamble, and
+fight, and snarl, and sleep, hour after hour, clashing their bruised
+centesimi upon the marble ledges of the church porch. And the images of
+Christ and His angels look down upon it continually....
+
+Let us enter the church itself. It is lost in still deeper twilight, to
+which the eye must be accustomed for some moments before the form of the
+building can be traced; and then there opens before us a vast cave, hewn
+out into the form of a cross, and divided into shadowy aisles by many
+pillars. Round the domes of its roof the light enters only through
+narrow apertures like large stars; and here and there a ray or two from
+some far away casement wanders into the darkness, and casts a narrow
+phosphoric stream upon the waves of marble that heave and fall in a
+thousand colors along the floor. What else there is of light is from
+torches, or silver lamps burning ceaselessly in the recesses of the
+chapels; the roof sheeted with gold, and the polished walls covered with
+alabaster, give back at every curve and angle some feeble gleaming to
+the flames; and the glories round the heads of the sculptured saints
+flash out upon us as we pass them, and sink again into the gloom.
+
+Under foot and over head, a continual succession of crowded imagery, one
+picture passing into another, as in a dream; forms beautiful and
+terrible mixed together; dragons and serpents, and ravening beasts of
+prey, and graceful birds that in the midst of them drink from running
+fountains and feed from vases of crystal; the passions and the pleasures
+of human life symbolized together, and the mystery of its redemption;
+for the mazes of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at
+last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every
+stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapt round it, sometimes
+with doves beneath its arms, and sweet herbage growing forth from its
+feet; but conspicuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the
+church before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of
+the apse. And altho in the recesses of the aisles and chapels, when the
+mist of the incense hangs heavily, we may see continually a figure
+traced in faint lines upon their marble, a woman standing with her eyes
+raised to heaven, and the inscription above her, "Mother of God," she
+is not here the presiding deity. It is the cross that is first seen, and
+always, burning in the center of the temple; and every dome and hollow
+of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised
+in power, or returning in judgment.
+
+Nor is this interior without effect on the minds of the people. At every
+hour of the day there are groups collected before the various shrines,
+and solitary worshipers scattered through the darker places of the
+church, evidently in prayer both deep and reverent, and, for the most
+part, profoundly sorrowful. The devotees at the greater number of the
+renowned shrines of Romanism may be seen murmuring their appointed
+prayers with wandering eyes and unengaged gestures; but the step of the
+stranger does not disturb those who kneel on the pavement of St. Mark's;
+and hardly a moment passes from early morning to sunset in which we may
+not see some half-veiled figure enter beneath the Arabian porch, cast
+itself into long abasement on the floor of the temple, and then rising
+slowly with more confirmed step, and with a passionate kiss and clasp of
+the arms given to the feet of the crucifix, by which the lamps burn
+always in the northern aisle, leave the church, as if comforted....
+
+It must therefore be altogether without reference to its present
+usefulness, that we pursue our inquiry into the merits and meaning of
+the architecture of this marvelous building; and it can only be after we
+have terminated that inquiry, conducting it carefully on abstract
+grounds, that we can pronounce with any certainty how far the present
+neglect of St. Mark's is significative of the decline of the Venetian
+character, or how far this church is to be considered as the relic of a
+barbarous age, incapable of attracting the admiration, or influencing
+the feelings of a civilized community. Now the first broad
+characteristic of the building, and the root nearly of every other
+important peculiarity in it, is its confessed incrustation. It is the
+purest example in Italy of the great school of architecture in which the
+ruling principle is the incrustation of brick with more precious
+materials. Consider the natural circumstances which give rise to such a
+style. Suppose a nation of builders, placed far from any quarries of
+available stone, and having precarious access to the mainland where they
+exist; compelled therefore either to build entirely with brick, or to
+import whatever stone they use from great distances, in ships of small
+tonnage, and for the most part dependent for speed on the oar rather
+than the sail. The labor and cost of carriage are just as great, whether
+they import common or precious stone, and therefore the natural tendency
+would always be to make each shipload as valuable as possible. But in
+proportion to the preciousness of the stone, is the limitation of its
+possible supply; limitation not determined merely by cost, but by the
+physical conditions of the material, for of many marbles pieces above a
+certain size are not to be had for money. There would also be a tendency
+in such circumstances to import as much stone as possible ready
+sculptured, in order to save weight; and therefore, if the traffic of
+their merchants led them to places where there were ruins of ancient
+edifices, to ship the available fragments of them home. Out of this
+supply of marble, partly composed of pieces of so precious a quality
+that only a few tons of them could be on any terms obtained, and partly
+of shafts, capitals, and other portions of foreign buildings, the island
+architect has to fashion, as best he may, the anatomy of his edifice.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE OLD CAMPANILE WAS BUILT[48]
+
+BY HORATIO F. BROWN
+
+
+The wide discrepancy of the dates, 888 to 1148, may perhaps be accounted
+for by the conjecture that the work of the building [the Campanile]
+proceeded slowly, either with a view to allowing the foundations to
+consolidate, or owing to lack of funds, and that the chroniclers
+recorded each resumption of work as the beginning of the work. One point
+may, perhaps, be fixt. The Campanile must have been some way above
+ground by the year 997, for the hospital founded by the sainted Doge,
+Pietro Orseolo, which is said to have been attached to the base of the
+tower, was consecrated in that year. The Campanile was finished, as far
+as the bell-chamber at least, in 1148, under the Doge Domenico Moresini,
+whose sarcophagus and bust surmount the portal of the San Nicoll del
+Lido.
+
+The chroniclers are at variance among themselves as to the date of the
+foundation, nor has an examination of the foundations themselves led to
+any discovery which enables us to determine that date; but one or two
+considerations would induce us to discard the earlier epochs. The
+foundations must have been designed to carry a tower of the same
+breadth, tho possibly not of the same height, as that which has recently
+fallen. But in the year of 888 had the Venetians such a conception of
+their greatness as to project a tower far more massive than any which
+had been hitherto constructed in Italy? Did they possess the wealth to
+justify them in such an enterprise? Would they have designed such a
+tower to match St. Mark's, which was at that time a small church with
+walls of wood? It is more probable that the construction of the
+Campanile belongs to the period of the second church of St. Mark, which
+was begun after the fire of 976 and consecrated in 1094.
+
+The height of the Campanile at the time of its fall was 98.60 meters
+(322 ft.), from the base to the head of the angel, tho a considerable
+portion of this height was not added till 1510; its width at the base of
+the shaft 12.80 meters (35 ft. 2 in.), and one meter (3 ft. 3 in.) less
+at the top of the shaft. The weight has been calculated at about 18,000
+tons.
+
+Thanks to excavations at the base of the tower made by Com. Giacomo
+Boni, at the request of Mr. C. H. Blackall, of Boston, U. S. A., in the
+year 1885, a report of which was printed in the Archivio Veneto, we
+possess some accurate knowledge about a portion of the foundation upon
+which this enormous mass rested.
+
+The subsoil of Venice is composed of layers of clay, sometimes
+traversed by layers of peat, overlying profound strata of watery sand.
+This clay is, in places, of a remarkably firm consistency; for example,
+in the quarter of the town known as Dorsoduro or "hard-back," and at the
+spot where the Campanile stood. A bore made at that point brought up a
+greenish, compact clay mixed with fine shells. This clay, when dried,
+offered the resisting power of half-baked brick. It is the remarkable
+firmness of this clay which enabled the Venetians to raise so ponderous
+a structure upon so narrow a foundation.
+
+The builders of the Campanile proceeded as follows: Into this bed of
+compact clay they first drove piles of about 9 1/2 in. in diameter with a
+view to consolidate still further, by pressure, the area selected. That
+area only extends 1.25 meter, or about 4 ft. beyond the spring of the
+brickwork shaft of the tower. How deep these piles reach Boni's report
+does not state. The piles, at the point where he laid the foundation
+bare, were found to be of white poplar, in remarkably sound condition,
+retaining their color, and presenting closely twisted fiber. The clay in
+which they were embedded has preserved them almost intact. The piles
+extended for one row only beyond the superimposed structure. On the top
+of these piles the builders laid a platform consisting of two layers of
+oak beams, crosswise. The lower layer runs in the line of the Piazza,
+east to west, the upper in the line of the Piazzetta, north to south.
+Each beam is square and a little over 4 in. thick. This oak platform
+appears to be in bad condition; the timbers are blackened and friable.
+While the excavation was in progress sea-water burst through the
+interstices, which had to be plugged.
+
+Upon this platform was laid the foundation proper. This consisted of
+seven courses of stone of various sizes and of various kinds--sandstone
+of two qualities, limestone from Istria and Verona, probably taken from
+older buildings on the mainland, certainly not fresh-hewn from the
+quarry. The seventh or lowest course was the deepest, and was the only
+one which escaped, and that but slightly; the remaining six courses were
+intended to be perpendicular. These courses varied widely from each
+other in thickness--from 0.31 to 0.90 meters. They were composed of
+different and ill-assorted stone, and were held together in places by
+shallow-biting clamps of iron, and by a mortar of white Istrian lime,
+which, not being hydraulic, and having little affinity for sand, had
+become disintegrated. Boni calls attention to the careless structure of
+this foundation proper, and maintains that it was designed to carry a
+tower of about two-thirds of the actual height imposed upon it, but not
+more.
+
+Above the foundation proper came the base. This consisted of five
+courses of stone set in stepwise. These courses of the base were all the
+same kind of stone, in fairly regular blocks, and of fairly uniform
+thickness. They were all intended to be seen, and originally rose from
+the old brick pavement of the Piazza; but the gradual subsidence of the
+soil--which is calculated as proceeding at the rate of nearly a meter
+per 1,000 years--caused two and a half of these stepped courses to
+disappear, and only two and a half emerged from the present pavement.
+
+Thus the structure upon which the brick shaft of the Campanile rested
+was composed of (1) the base of five stepped courses, (2) the
+foundations of seven courses almost perpendicular, (3) the platform of
+oak beams, and (4) the piles. The height of the foundation, including
+the base, was 5.02 meters, about 16 ft., or one-twentieth of the height
+they carried. Not only is this a very small proportion, but it will be
+further observed that the tradition of star-shaped supports to the
+foundations is destroyed, and that they covered a very restricted area.
+In fact, the foundations of the Campanile belonged to the primitive or
+narrow kind. The foundations of the Ducal Palace, on the other hand,
+belonged to the more recent or extended kind. Those foundations do not
+rest on piles, but on a very broad platform of larch beams--much thicker
+than the oak beams of the Campanile platform--reposing directly on the
+clay. Upon this platform, foundations with a distended escarpment were
+built to carry the walls, the weight of which was thus distributed
+equally over a wide area.
+
+Little of the old foundations of the Campanile will remain when the work
+on the new foundations is completed. The primitive piles and platform
+are to stand; but new piles have been driven in all round the original
+nucleus, and on them are being laid large blocks of Istrian stone, which
+will be so deeply bonded into the old foundations that hardly more than
+a central core of the early work will be left ...
+
+In a peculiar fashion the Campanile of San Marco summed up the whole
+life of the city--civil, religious, commercial, and military--and
+became the central point of Venetian sentiment. For the tower served the
+double needs of the ecclesiastic and the civic sides of the Republic.
+Its bells marked the canonical hours; rang the workman to his work, the
+merchant to his desk, the statesman to the Senate; they pealed for
+victory or tolled for the demise of a Doge. The tower, moreover, during
+the long course of its construction, roughly speaking, from the middle
+of the tenth to the opening of the sixteenth centuries, was contemporary
+with all that was greatest in Venetian history; for the close of the
+tenth century saw the conquest of Dalmatia, and the foundations of
+Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic--that water-avenue to the Levant and
+the Orient--while by the opening of the sixteenth the Cape route had
+been discovered, the League of Cambray was in sight, and the end at
+hand.
+
+The tower, too, was a landmark to those at sea, and when the mariner had
+the Campanile of San Nicolo on the Lido covering the Campanile of St.
+Marks, he knew he had the route home and could make the Lido port. The
+tower was the center of popular festivals, such as that of the Svolo on
+Giovedi grasso, when an acrobat descended by a rope from the summit of
+the Campanile to the feet of the Doge, who was a spectator from the
+loggia of the Ducal Palace.
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL[49]
+
+BY HORATIO T. BROWN
+
+
+We come now to the dolorous moment of the fall in July, 1902.
+Infiltration of water had been observed in the roof of Sansovino's
+Loggetta where that roof joined the shaft of the Campanile. At this
+point a thin ledge of stone, let into the wall of the Campanile,
+projected over the junction between the leaden roof of the Loggetta and
+the shaft of the tower. In order to remedy the mischief of infiltration
+it was resolved to remove and replace this projecting ledge. To do this
+a chase was made in the wall of the Campanile, which, at this point,
+consisted of a comparatively modern surface of masonry, placed there to
+repair the damage caused by lightning strokes.
+
+This chase was cut, not piecemeal, but continuously. The work was
+carried out on Monday, July 7th. During the process the architect in
+charge became alarmed at the condition of the inner part of the wall
+laid bare by the cut. He exprest his fears to his superiors, but
+apparently no examination of the tower was made till the Thursday
+following. Even then the imminence of the danger does not seem to have
+been grasped. On Saturday, the 12th, a crack was observed spreading
+upward in a sloping direction from the cut above the roof of the
+Loggetta toward the northeast angle of the shaft, then crossing the
+angle and running up almost perpendicularly in the line of the little
+windows that gave light to the internal passage from the base to the
+bell-chamber.
+
+This crack assumed such a threatening aspect, and was making such
+visible progress, that the authorities in charge of the tower felt bound
+to inform the Prefect, tho the danger was represented as not immediate,
+and the worst they expected was the fall of the angle where the crack
+had appeared. A complete collapse of the whole tower was absolutely
+excluded. As a precautionary measure the music in the Piazza was
+suspended on Saturday evening. On Sunday orders were issued to endeavor
+to bind the threatened angle.
+
+But by Monday morning early (July 14th) it was evident that the
+catastrophe could not be averted. Dust began to pour out of the widening
+crack, and bricks to fall. A block of Istrian stone crashed down from
+the bell-chamber, then a column from the same site. At 9.47 the ominous
+fissure opened, the face of the Campanile toward the church and the
+Ducal Palace bulged out, the angle on the top and the pyramid below it
+swayed once or twice, and threatened to crush either the Sansovino's
+Library or the Basilica of San Marco in their fall, then the whole
+colossus subsided gently, almost noiselessly, upon itself, as it were in
+a curtsey, the ruined brick and mortar spread out in a pyramidal heap, a
+dense column of white powder rose from the Piazza, and the Campanile was
+no more.
+
+It is certainly remarkable, and by the people of Venice it is reckoned
+as a miracle, that the tower in its fall did so little harm. Not a
+single life was lost, tho the crowd in the Piazza was unaware of its
+danger till about ten minutes before the catastrophe.
+
+
+
+
+THE PALACE OF THE DOGES[50]
+
+BY JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+The Ducal Palace, which was the great work of Venice, was built
+successively in the three styles. There was a Byzantine Ducal Palace, a
+Gothic Ducal Palace, and a Renaissance Ducal Palace. The second
+superseded the first totally; a few stones of it (if indeed so much) are
+all that is left. But the third superseded the second in part only, and
+the existing building is formed by the union of the two. We shall review
+the history of each in succession.
+
+1st. The Byzantine Palace. In the year of the death of Charlemagne, 813,
+the Venetians determined to make the island of Rialto the seat of the
+government and capital of their state. Their Doge, Angelo or Agnello
+Participazio, instantly took vigorous means for the enlargement of the
+small group of buildings which were to be the nucleus of the future
+Venice. He appointed persons to superintend the raising of the banks of
+sand, so as to form more secure foundations, and to build wooden bridges
+over the canals. For the offices of religion, he built the Church of
+St. Mark; and on, or near, the spot where the Ducal Palace now stands,
+he built a palace for the administration of the government. The history
+of the Ducal Palace therefore begins with the birth of Venice, and to
+what remains of it, at this day, is entrusted the last representation of
+her power....
+
+In the year 1106, it was for the second time injured by fire, but
+repaired before 1116, when it received another emperor, Henry V. (of
+Germany), and was again honored by imperial praise. Between 1173 and the
+close of the century, it seems to have been again repaired and much
+enlarged by the Doge Sebastian Ziani. Sansovino says that this Doge not
+only repaired it, but "enlarged it in every direction;" and, after this
+enlargement, the palace seems to have remained untouched for a hundred
+years, until, in the commencement of the fourteenth century, the works
+of the Gothic Palace were begun.
+
+Venice was in the zenith of her strength, and the heroism of her
+citizens was displaying itself in every quarter of the world. The
+acquiescence in the secure establishment of the aristocratic power was
+an expression, by the people, of respect for the families which had been
+chiefly instrumental in raising the commonwealth to such a height of
+prosperity....
+
+In the first year of the fourteenth century, the Gothic Ducal Palace of
+Venice was begun; and as the Byzantine Palace was, in its foundation,
+coeval with that of the state, so the Gothic Palace was, in its
+foundation, coeval with that of the aristocratic power. Considered as
+the principal representation of the Venetian school of architecture, the
+Ducal Palace is the Parthenon of Venice, and Gradenigo its Pericles.
+
+Before it was finished, occasion had been discovered for farther
+improvements. The Senate found their new Council Chamber inconveniently
+small, and, about thirty years after its completion, began to consider
+where a larger and more magnificent one might be built. The government
+was now thoroughly established, and it was probably felt that there was
+some meanness in the retired position, as well as insufficiency in the
+size, of the Council Chamber on the Rio.
+
+It appears from the entry still preserved in the Archivio, and quoted by
+Cadorin, that it was on the 28th of December, 1340, that the
+commissioners appointed to decide on this important matter gave in their
+report to the Grand Council, and that the decree passed thereupon for
+the commencement of a new Council Chamber on the Grand Canal.
+
+The room then begun is the one now in existence, and its building
+involved the building of all that is best and most beautiful in the
+present Ducal Palace, the rich arcades of the lower stories being all
+prepared for sustaining this Sala del Gran Consiglio. In saying that it
+is the same now in existence, I do not mean that it has undergone no
+alterations; it has been refitted again and again, and some portions of
+its walls rebuilt; but in the place and form in which it first stood, it
+still stands; and by a glance at the position which its windows occupy,
+the spectator will see at once that whatever can be known respecting the
+design of the Sea Facade, must be gleaned out of the entries which
+refer to the building of this Great Council Chamber.
+
+Cadorin quotes two of great importance, made during the progress of the
+work in 1342 and 1344; then one of 1349, resolving that the works at the
+Ducal Palace, which had been discontinued during the plague, should be
+resumed; and finally one in 1362, which speaks of the Great Council
+Chamber as having been neglected and suffered to fall into "great
+desolation," and resolves that it shall be forthwith completed.
+
+The interruption had not been caused by the plague only, but by the
+conspiracy of Faliero, and the violent death of the master builder. The
+work was resumed in 1362, and completed within the next three years, at
+least so far as that Guariento was enabled to paint his Paradise on the
+walls, so that the building must, at any rate, have been roofed by this
+time. Its decorations and fittings, however, were long in completion;
+the paintings on the roof being only executed in 1400....
+
+The works of addition or renovation had now been proceeding, at
+intervals, during a space of a hundred and twenty-three years. Three
+generations at least had been accustomed to witness the gradual
+advancement of the form of the Ducal Palace into more stately symmetry,
+and to contrast the works of sculpture and painting with which it was
+decorated--full of the life, knowledge, and hope of the fourteenth
+century--with the rude Byzantine chiselling of the palace of the Doge
+Ziani. The magnificent fabric just completed, of which the new Council
+Chamber was the nucleus, was now habitually known in Venice as the
+"Palazzo Nuovo;" and the old Byzantine edifice, now ruinous, and more
+manifest in its decay by its contrast with the goodly stones of the
+building which had been raised at its side, was of course known as the
+"Palazzo Vecchio." That fabric, however, still occupied the principal
+position in Venice. The new Council Chamber had been erected by the side
+of it toward the Sea; but there was not then the wide quay in front, the
+Riva dei Schiavoni, which now renders the Sea Facade as important as
+that to the Piazzetta. There was only a narrow walk between the pillars
+and the water; and the old palace of Ziani still faced the Piazzetta,
+and interrupted, by its decrepitude, the magnificence of the square
+where the nobles daily met.
+
+Every increase of the beauty of the new palace rendered the discrepancy
+between it and the companion building more painful; and then began to
+arise in the minds of all men a vague idea of the necessity of
+destroying the old palace, and completing the front of the Piazzetta
+with the same splendor as the Sea Facade. But no such sweeping measure
+of renovation had been contemplated by the Senate when they first formed
+the plan of their new Council Chamber. First a single additional room,
+then a gateway, then a larger room; but all considered merely as
+necessary additions to the palace, not as involving the entire
+reconstruction of the ancient edifice. The exhaustion of the treasury,
+and the shadows upon the political horizon, rendered it more imprudent
+to incur the vast additional expense which such a project involved; and
+the Senate, fearful of itself, and desirous to guard against the
+weakness of its own enthusiasm, passed a decree, like the effort of a
+man fearful of some strong temptation to keep his thoughts averted from
+the point of danger. It was a decree, not merely that the old palace
+should not be rebuilt, but that no one should propose rebuilding it. The
+feeling of the desirableness of doing so was too strong to permit fair
+discussion, and the Senate knew that to bring forward such a motion was
+to carry it.
+
+The decree, thus passed in order to guard against their own weakness,
+forbade any one to speak of rebuilding the old palace, under the penalty
+of a thousand ducats. But they had rated their own enthusiasm too low;
+there was a man among them whom the loss of a thousand ducats could not
+deter from proposing what he believed to be for the good of the state.
+Some excuse was given him for bringing forward the motion, by a fire
+which occurred in 1419, and which injured both the Church of St. Mark's,
+and part of the old palace fronting the Piazzetta. What followed, I
+shall relate in the words of Sanuto.
+
+"Therefore they set themselves with all diligence and care to repair and
+adorn sumptuously, first God's house; but in the Prince's house things
+went on more slowly, for it did not please the Doge to restore it in the
+form in which it was before; and they could not rebuild it altogether in
+a better manner, so great was the parsimony of these old fathers;
+because it was forbidden by laws, which condemned in a penalty of a
+thousand ducats any one who should propose to throw down the old palace,
+and to rebuild it more richly and with greater expense.
+
+"But the Doge, who was magnanimous, and who desired above all things
+what was honorable to the city, had the thousand ducats carried into the
+Senate Chamber, and then proposed that the palace should be rebuilt;
+saying: that, since the late fire had ruined in great part the Ducal
+habitation (not only his own private palace, but all the places used for
+public business), this occasion was to be taken for an admonishment sent
+from God, that they ought to rebuild the palace more nobly, and in a way
+more befitting the greatness to which, by God's grace, their dominions
+had reached; and that his motive in proposing this was neither ambition,
+nor selfish interest; that, as for ambition, they might have seen in the
+whole course of his life, through so many years, that he had never done
+anything for ambition, either in the city, or in foreign business; but
+in all his actions had kept justice first in his thoughts, and then the
+advantage of the state, and the honor of the Venetian name; and that, as
+far as regarded his private interest, if it had not been for this
+accident of the fire, he would never have thought of changing anything
+in the palace into either a more sumptuous or a more honorable form; and
+that during the many years in which he had lived in it, he had never
+endeavored to make any change, but had always been content with it as
+his predecessors had left it; and that he knew well that, if they took
+in hand to build it as he exhorted and besought them, being now very
+old, and broken down with many toils, God would call him to another life
+before the walls were raised a pace from the ground. And that therefore
+they might perceive that he did not advise them to raise this building
+for his own convenience, but only for the honor of the city and its
+Dukedom; and that the good of it would never be felt by him, but by his
+successors." ...
+
+Then he said, that 'in order, as he had always done, to observe the
+laws, he had brought with him the thousand ducats which had been
+appointed as the penalty for proposing such a measure, so that he might
+prove openly to all men that it was not his own advantage that he
+sought, but the dignity of the state.' There was no one (Sanuto goes on
+to tell us) who ventured, or desired to oppose the wishes of the Doge;
+and the thousand ducats were unanimously devoted to the expenses of the
+work. "And they set themselves with much diligence to the work; and the
+palace was begun in the form and manner in which it is at present seen;
+but, as Mocenigo[51] had prophesied, not long after, he ended his life,
+and not only did not see the work brought to a close, but hardly even
+begun."
+
+There are one or two expressions in the above extracts which, if they
+stood alone, might lead the reader to suppose that the whole palace had
+been thrown down and rebuilt. We must however remember, that, at this
+time, the new Council Chamber, which had been one hundred years in
+building, was actually unfinished, the council had not yet sat in it;
+and it was just as likely that the Doge should then propose to destroy
+and rebuild it, as in this year, 1853, it is that any one should propose
+in our House of Commons to throw down the new Houses of Parliament,
+under the title of the "old palace," and rebuild them....
+
+It was in the year 1422 that the decree passed to rebuild the palace;
+Mocenigo died in the following year, and Francesco Foscari was elected
+in his room. The great Council Chamber was used for the first time on
+the day when Foscari entered the Senate as Doge--the 3rd of April, 1423,
+according to the "Caroldo Chronicle;" the 23d, which is probably
+correct, by an anonymous MS., No. 60, in the Correr Museum; and the
+following year, on the 27th of March, the first hammer was lifted up
+against the old palace of Ziani. That hammer stroke was the first act of
+the period properly called the "Renaissance." It was the knell of the
+architecture of Venice--and of Venice herself.
+
+The central epoch of her life was past; the decay had already begun; I
+date its commencement from the death of Mocenigo. A year had not yet
+elapsed since that great Doge had been called to his account; his
+patriotism, always sincere, had been in this instance mistaken; in his
+zeal for the honor of future Venice, he had forgotten what was due to
+the Venice of long ago. A thousand palaces might be built upon her
+burdened islands, but none of them could taken the place, or recall the
+memory, of that which was first built upon her unfrequented shore. It
+fell; and, as if it had been the talisman of fortune, the city never
+flourished again.
+
+I have no intention of following out, in their intricate details, the
+operations which were begun under Foscari and continued under succeeding
+Doges till the palace assumed its present form, for I am not in this
+work concerned, except by occasional reference, with the architecture of
+the fifteenth century; but the main facts are the following. The palace
+of Ziani was destroyed; the existing facade to the Piazzetta built, so
+as both to continue and to resemble, in most particulars, the work of
+the Great Council Chamber. It was carried back from the Sea as far as
+the Judgment angle; beyond which is the Porta della Carta, begun in
+1439, and finished in two years, under the Doge Foscari; the interior
+buildings connected with it were added by the Doge Christopher Moro (the
+Othello of Shakespeare) in 1462.
+
+Some remnants of the Ziani Palace were perhaps still left between the
+two extremities of the Gothic Palace; or, as is more probable, the last
+stones of it may have been swept away after the fire of 1419, and
+replaced by new apartments for the Doge. But whatever buildings, old or
+new, stood on this spot at the time of the completion of the Porta della
+Carta were destroyed by another great fire in 1479, together with so
+much of the palace on the Rio that, tho the saloon of Gradenigo, then
+known as the Sala de Pregadi, was not destroyed, it became necessary to
+reconstruct the entire facades of the portion of the palace behind the
+Bridge of Sighs, both toward the court and canal.
+
+The palace was not long permitted to remain in finished form. Another
+terrific fire, commonly called the great fire, burst out in 1574, and
+destroyed the inner fittings and all the precious pictures of the Great
+Council Chamber, and of all the upper rooms on the Sea Facade, and most
+of those on the Rio Facade, leaving the building a mere shell, shaken
+and blasted by the flames. It was debated in the Great Council whether
+the ruin should not be thrown down, and an entirely new palace built in
+its stead. The opinions of all the leading architects of Venice were
+taken, respecting the safety of the walls, or the possibility of
+repairing them as they stood. These opinions, given in writing, have
+been preserved, and published by the Abbe Cadorin, and they form one of
+the most important series of documents connected with the Ducal Palace.
+
+I can not help feeling some childish pleasure in the accidental
+resemblance to my own name in that of the architect whose opinion was
+first given in favor of the ancient fabric, Giovanni Rusconi. Others,
+especially Palladio, wanted to pull down the old palace, and execute
+designs of their own; but the best architects in Venice, and, to his
+immortal honor, chiefly Francesco Sansovino, energetically pleaded for
+the Gothic pile, and prevailed. It was successfully repaired, and
+Tintoret painted his noblest picture on the wall from which the Paradise
+of Guariento had withered before the flames.
+
+The repairs necessarily undertaken at this time were however extensive,
+and interfere in many directions with the earlier work of the palace;
+still the only serious alteration in its form was the transposition of
+the prisons, formerly at the top of the palace, to the other side of the
+Rio del Palazzo; and the building of the Bridge of Sighs, to connect
+them with the palace, by Antonio da Ponte. The completion of this work
+brought the whole edifice into its present form; with the exception of
+alterations in doors, partitions, and staircases among the inner
+apartments, not worth noticing, and such barbarisms and defacements as
+have been suffered within the last fifty years, by, I suppose, nearly
+every building of importance in Italy.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAGOONS[52]
+
+BY HORATIO F. BROWN
+
+
+The colonization of the Venetian estuary is usually dated from the year
+452, the period of the Hunnish invasion under Attila, when the Scourge
+of God, as he was named by his terror-stricken opponents, sacked the
+rich Roman cities of Aquileia, Concordia, Opitergium, and Padua. In one
+sense the date is correct. The Hunnish invasion certainly gave an
+enormous increase to the lagoon population, and called the attention of
+the mainlanders, to the admirable asylum which the estuary offered in
+times of danger.
+
+When Alcuin, the great scholar from Yorkshire, was teaching
+Charlemagne's son and heir, Pepin, he drew up for his pupil's use a
+curious catechism of questions and answers. Among others this occurs:
+"What is the sea." "A refuge in time of danger." Surely a strange
+answer, and one which can hardly be reckoned as true except in the
+particular case of the Venetian lagoons. For the mainlanders were caught
+between the devil of Attila and the deep sea of the Adriatic, and had
+they not found the lagoons ready at hand to offer them an asylum and to
+prove a refuge in time of danger, it must have fared hard with them.
+
+But this date of 452 is not to be taken as the date of the very earliest
+occupation of the lagoon. Long before Attila and his Huns swept down
+upon Italy, we know that there was a sparse population occupying the
+estuary, engaged in fishing and in the salt trade. Cassiodorus, the
+secretary of the Gothic King Theodoric the Great, has left us a picture
+of this people, hardy, independent, toughened by their life on the salt
+water; their means of living; the fish of the lagoons; their source of
+wealth; the salt which they extracted from its waters; their houses,
+wattled cabins built upon piles driven into the mud; their means of
+locomotion light boats which were tied to the door posts like horses on
+mainland.
+
+"Thus you live in your sea-birds' home," he exclaims, "rich and poor
+under equal laws; a common food supports you; house is like unto house;
+and envy, that curse of all the world, hath no place there." No doubt
+this early population of the lagoons, already intimately associated
+with its dwelling-place, modified by it and adapted to it, helped to
+form the basis upon which the latter strata of population, the result of
+the Hunnish invasion, could rest; and in all probability some of the
+characteristics of this early population, its independence and its
+hardihood, passed into the composition of the full-grown Venetian race.
+But beyond the brief words of Cassiodorus we know little about these
+early lagoon-dwellers. It is really with the Hunnish invasion that the
+history of Venice begins its first period of growth.
+
+The population which flocked from the mainland to seek refuge in the
+estuary of Venice came from many different cities--from Aquileia, from
+Concordia, from Padua; and tho the inhabitants of all these, no doubt,
+bore the external stamp which Rome never failed to impose, yet, equally
+doubtless, they brought with them their own particular customs, their
+mutual hates and rivalries.
+
+While living on the mainland these animosities had wider space in which
+to play, and were therefore less dangerous, less explosive. But in the
+lagoons, under stress of suffering, and owing to confinement and
+juxtaposition, they became intensified, exaggerated, and perilous. There
+was a double problem before the growing Venetian population which
+required to be solved before Venice and the Venetians could, with any
+justice, be considered a place and a people. First, the various and
+largely hostile populations who had taken refuge in the lagoon had to be
+reconciled to each other; and secondly, they had to be reconciled to
+their new home, to be identified with it and made one with it.
+
+The lagoon achieved both reconciliations; the isolation of its waters,
+their strangeness, gradually created the feeling of unity, of family
+connection, among the diverse and hostile components of the population,
+till a fusion took place between the original and the immigrant
+inhabitants, and between the people and their home, and Venice and the
+Venetians emerge upon the history of the world as an individual and
+full-grown race. But this reconciliation and identification were not
+accomplished at once. They cost many years of struggle and of danger.
+The unification of Venice is the history of a series of compromises, an
+historical example of the great law of selection and survival.
+
+
+
+
+THE DECLINE AMID SPLENDOR[53]
+
+BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE
+
+
+Venice the beautiful city ended, pagan-like, as did its sisters the
+Greek republics, through nonchalance and voluptuousness. We find,
+indeed, from time to time, a Francis Morosini, who like Aratus and
+Philopoemen, renews the heroism and victories of ancient days; but,
+after the seventeenth century, its bright career is over. The city,
+municipal and circumscribed, is found to be weak, like Athens and
+Corinth, against powerful military neighbors who either neglect or
+tolerate it; the French and the Germans violate its neutrality with
+impunity; it subsists and that is all, and it pretends to do no more.
+Its nobles care only to amuse themselves; war and politics with them
+recede in the background; she becomes gallant and worldly....
+
+But the evening of this fallen city is as mellow and as brilliant as a
+Venetian sunset. With the absence of care gaiety prevails. One
+encounters nothing but public and private fetes in the memoirs of their
+writers and in the pictures of their painters. At one time it is a
+pompous banquet in a superb saloon festooned with gold, with tall
+lustrous windows and pale crimson curtains, the doge in his simarre
+dining with the magistrates in purple robes, and masked guests gliding
+over the floor; nothing is more elegant than the exquisite aristocracy
+of their small feet, their slender necks and their jaunty little
+three-cornered hats among skirts flounced with yellow or pearly gray
+silks.
+
+At another it is a regatta of gondolas and we see on the sea between
+San-Marco and San-Giorgio, around the huge Bucentaur[54] like a
+leviathan cuirassed with scales of gold, flotillas of boats parting the
+water with their steel becks. A crowd of pretty dominos, male and
+female, flutter over the pavements; the sea seems to be of polished
+slate under a tender azure sky spotted with cloud-flocks while all
+around, as in a precious frame, like a fantastic border carved and
+embroidered, the Procuraties, the domes, the palaces and the quays
+thronged with a joyous multitude, encircle the great maritime Venetian
+sheet....
+
+In truth they never concern themselves with religion except to repress
+the Pope; in theory and in practise, in ideas and in instincts, they
+inherit the manners, customs and spirit of antiquity, and their
+Christianity is only a name. Like the ancients, they were at first
+heroes and artists, and then voluptuaries and dilettanti; in one as in
+the other case they, like the ancients, confined life to the present. In
+the eighteenth century they might be compared to the Thebans of the
+decadence who, leagued together to consume their property in common,
+bequeathed what remained of their fortunes on dying to the survivors at
+their banquets. The carnival lasts six months; everybody, even the
+priests, the guardian of the capucins, the nuncio, little children, all
+who frequent the markets, wear masks. People pass by in processions
+disguised in the costumes of Frenchmen, lawyers, gondoliers, Calabrians
+and Spanish soldiery, dancing and with musical instruments; the crowd
+follows jeering or applauding them. There is entire liberty; prince or
+artizan, all are equal; each may apostrophize a mask. Pyramids of men
+form "pictures of strength" on the public squares; harlequins in the
+open air perform parades. Seven theaters are open. Improvizators declaim
+and comedians improvize amusing scenes. "There is no city where license
+has such sovereign rule." ...
+
+The Chiogga campaign is the last act of the old heroic drama; there, as
+in the best days of the ancient republics, a besieged people is seen to
+save itself against all hope, artizans equipping vessels, a Pisani
+conqueror undergoing imprisonment and only released to renew the
+victory, a Carlo Zeno, surviving forty wounds, and a doge of seventy
+years of age; a Contarini, who makes a vow not to leave his vessel so
+long as the enemy's fleet is uncaptured, thirty families, apothecaries,
+grocers, vintners, tanners admitted among the nobles, a bravery, a
+public spirit like that of Athens under Themistocles and of Rome under
+Fabius Cunctator. If, from this time forth, the inward fire abates we
+still feel its warmth for many long years, longer kept up than in the
+rest of Italy, and sometimes demonstrating its power by sudden
+outbursts.
+
+The nobles, on their side, are always ready to fight. During the whole
+of the sixteenth century, even up to the seventeenth and beyond, we see
+them in Dalmatia, in the Morea, over the entire Mediterranean, defending
+the soil inch by inch against the infidels. The garrison of Famagouste
+yields only to famine, and its governor, Bragadino, burned alive, is a
+hero of ancient days. At the battle of Lepanto the Venetians alone
+furnish one half of the Christian fleet. Thus on all sides, and
+notwithstanding their gradual decline, peril, energy, love of country,
+all, in brief, which constitutes or sustains the grand life of the soul
+here subsists, while throughout the peninsula foreign dominion, clerical
+oppression and voluptuous or academical inertia reduces man to the
+system of the antechamber, the subtleties of dilettantism and the babble
+of sonnets.
+
+But if the human spring is not broken at Venice, it is seen insensibly
+losing its elasticity. The government, changed into a suspicious
+despotism, elects a Mocenigo doge, a shameless speculator profiting on
+the public distress, instead of that Charles Zeno who had saved the
+country; it holds Zeno prisoner two years and entrusts the armies on the
+mainland to condottieri; it is tied up in the hands of three
+inquisitors, provokes accusations, practises secret executions and
+commands the people to confine themselves to indulgences of pleasure. On
+the other hand luxury arises. About the year 1400 the houses "were quite
+small;" but a thousand nobles were enumerated in Venice possessing from
+four to seventy thousand ducats rental, while three thousand ducats were
+sufficient to purchase a palace.
+
+Henceforth this great wealth is no longer to be employed in enterprises
+and in self-devotion, but in pomp and magnificence. In 1495, Commine
+admires "the grand canal, the most beautiful street, I think, in the
+world, and with the best houses; the houses are very grand, high and of
+excellent stone--and these have been built within a century. All have
+fronts of white marble, which comes from Istria, a hundred miles away,
+and yet many more great pieces of porphyry and of serpentine on them;
+inside they have, most of them, at least two chambers with gilded
+ceilings, rich screens of chimneys with carved marble, the bedsteads
+gilded and the 'ostevents' painted and gilded and well furnished
+within." On his arrival twenty-five gentlemen attired in silk and
+scarlet come to meet him; they conduct him to a boat decked with crimson
+silk; "it is this most triumphant city I ever saw."
+
+Finally, while the necessity of pleasure grows the spirit of enterprise
+diminishes; the passage of the Cape in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century places the commerce of Asia in the hands of the Portuguese; on
+the Mediterranean and the Atlantic the financial measures of Charles V.,
+joined to bad usage by the Turks, render abortive the great maritime
+caravans which the state dispatches yearly between Alexandria and
+Bruges. In respect to industrial matters, the hampered artizans, watched
+and cloistered in their country, cease to perfect their arts and allow
+foreign competitors to surpass them in processes and in furnishing
+supplies to the world.
+
+Thus, on all sides, the capacity for activity becomes lessened and the
+desire for enjoyment greater without one entirely effacing the other,
+but in a way that, both commingling, they produce that ambiguous state
+of mind similar to a mixed temperature which is never too severe and in
+which the arts are generated. Indeed, it is from 1454 to 1572, between
+the institution of state inquisitors and the battle of Lepanto, between
+the accomplishment of internal despotism and the last of the great
+outward victories, that the brilliant productions of Venetian art
+appear. John Bellini was born in 1426, Giorgone died in 1511, Titian in
+1578, Veronese in 1572 and Tintoretto in 1594. In this interval of one
+hundred and fifty years this warrior city, this mistress of the
+Mediterranean, this queen of commerce and of industry became a casino
+for masqueraders and a den of courtezans.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOVES OF ST. MARK'S[55]
+
+BY HORATIO F. BROWN
+
+
+In Venice the pigeons do not allow you to forget them, even if one
+desired to forget a bird that is so intimately connected with the city
+and with a great ceremony of that ancient republic which has passed
+away. They belong so entirely to the place, and especially to the great
+square; they have made their homes for so many generations among the
+carvings of the Basilica, at the feet of the bronze horses, and under
+the massive cornices of the New Procuratie, that the great Campanile
+itself is hardly more essential to the character of the piazza than are
+these delicate denizens of Saint Mark's.
+
+In the structure of the ducal palace, the wants of the pigeons have been
+taken into account, and near the two great wells which stand in the
+inner courtyard little cups of Istrian stone have been let into the
+pavement for the pigeons to drink from. On cold, frosty mornings you may
+see them tapping disconsolately at the ice which covers their drinking
+troughs, and may win their thanks by breaking it for them. Or if the
+wind blows hard from the east, the pigeons sit in long rows under the
+eaves of the Procuratie; their necks drawn into their shoulders, and the
+neck feathers ruffled round their heads, till they have lost all shape,
+and look like a row of slate-colored cannon-balls.
+
+From Saint Mark's the pigeons have sent out colonies to the other
+churches and campi of Venice. They have crossed the Grand Canal, and
+roost and croon among the volutes of the Salute, or, in wild weather,
+wheel high and airly above its domes. They have even found their way to
+Malamocco and Mazzorbo; so that all Venice in the sea owns and protects
+its sacred bird. But it is in Saint Mark's that the pigeons "most do
+congregate;" and one can not enter the piazza, and stand for a moment at
+the corner, without hearing the sudden rush of wings upon the air, and
+seeing the white under-feathers of their pinions, as the doves strike
+backward to check their flight, and flutter down at one's feet in
+expectation of peas or grain. They are boundlessly greedy, and will
+stuff themselves till they can hardly walk, and the little red feet
+stagger under the loaded crop. They are not virtuous, but they are very
+beautiful.
+
+There is a certain fitness in the fact that the dove should be the
+sacred bird of the sea city. Both English "dove" and Latin "columba"
+mean the diver; and the dove uses the air much as the fish uses the sea,
+it glides, it dives, it shoots through its airy ocean; it hovers against
+the breeze, or presses its breast against the sirocco storm, as you may
+see fish poised in their course against the stream; then with a sudden
+turn it relaxes the strain and sweeps away down the wind. The dove is an
+airy emblem of the sea upon which Venice and the Venetians live, but
+more than that--the most permanent quality in the color of the lagoons,
+where the lights are always shifting, is the dove-tone of sea and sky;
+a tone which holds all colors in solution, and out of which they emerge
+as the water-ripples or the cloud-flakes pass--just as the colors are
+shot and varied on a young dove's neck.
+
+There is some doubts as to the origin of these flocks of pigeons which
+shelter in Saint Mark's. According to one story, Henry Dandolo, the
+Crusader, was besieging Candia; he received valuable information from
+the interior of the island by means of carrier-pigeons, and, later on,
+sent news of his successes home to Venice by the same messengers. In
+recognition of these services the government resolved to maintain the
+carriers at the public cost; and the flocks of to-day are the
+descendants of the fourteenth-century pigeons. The more probable
+tradition, however, is that which connects these pigeons with the
+antique ceremonies of Palm Sunday.
+
+On that festival the Doge made the tour of the piazza, accompanied by
+all the officers of State, the Patriarch, the foreign ambassadors, the
+silver trumpets, all the pomp of the ducal dignity. Among other largess
+of that day, a number of pigeons, weighted by pieces of paper tied to
+their legs, used to be let loose from the gallery where the bronze
+horses stand, above the western door of the church. Most of the birds
+were easily caught by the crowd, and kept for their Easter dinner; but
+some escaped, and took refuge in the upper parts of the palace and among
+the domes of Saint Mark's. The superstition of the people was easily
+touched, and the birds that had sought the protection of the saint were
+thenceforth dedicated to the patron of Venice. The charge of supporting
+them was committed to the superintendents of the corn stores, and the
+usual hour for feeding the pigeons was nine o'clock in the morning.
+During the revolution of 1797, the birds fared as badly as the
+aristocracy, and were left to take care of themselves; but when matters
+settled down again the feeding of the pigeons was resumed by the
+municipality, and takes place at two in the afternoon, tho the incessant
+largess of strangers can leave the birds but little appetite for their
+regular meal.
+
+In spite of the multitudes of pigeons that haunt the squares of the
+city, a dead pigeon is as rare to see as a dead donkey on the mainland.
+It is a pious opinion that no Venetian ever kills a pigeon, and
+apparently they never die; but the fact that they do not increase so
+rapidly as to become a nuisance instead of a pleasure, lends some color
+to the suspicion that pigeon pies are not unknown at certain tables
+during the proper season.
+
+
+
+
+TORCELLO, THE MOTHER CITY[56]
+
+BY JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the
+city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level,
+and hoist themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and
+there into shapeless mounds, and interrupted by narrow creeks of sea.
+One of the feeblest of these inlets, after winding for some time among
+buried fragments of masonry, and knots of sunburned weeds whitened with
+webs of fucas, stays itself in an utterly stagnant pool beside a plot of
+greener grass covered with ground-ivy and violets. On this mound is
+built a rude brick campanile, of the commonest Lombardic type, which if
+we ascend toward evening (and there are none to hinder us, the door of
+its ruinous staircase swinging idly on its hinges), we may command from
+it one of the most notable scenes in this wide world of ours.
+
+Far as the eye can reach, a waste of wild sea moor, of a lurid
+ashen-gray; not like our northern moors with their jet-black pools and
+purple heath, but lifeless, the color of sackcloth, with the corrupted
+sea-water soaking through the roots of its acrid weeds, and gleaming
+hither and thither through its snaky channels. No gathering of fantastic
+mists, nor coursing of clouds across it; but melancholy clearness of
+space in the warm sunset, oppressive, reaching to the horizon of its
+level gloom. To the very horizon, on the northeast; but to the north and
+west, there is a blue line of higher land along the border of it, and
+above this, but farther back, a misty band of mountains, touched with
+snow.
+
+To the east, the paleness and roar of the Adriatic, louder at momentary
+intervals as the surf breaks on the bar of sand; to the south, the
+widening branches of the calm lagoon, alternately purple and pale green,
+as they reflect the evening clouds or twilight sky; and almost beneath
+our feet, on the same field which sustains the tower we gaze from, a
+group of four buildings, two of them little larger than cottages (tho
+built of stone, and one adorned by a quaint belfry), the third an
+octagonal chapel, of which we can see but little more than the flat red
+roof with its rayed tiling, the fourth, a considerable church with nave
+and aisles, but of which, in like manner, we can see little but the long
+central ridge and lateral slopes of roof, which the sunlight separates
+in one glowing mass from the green field beneath and gray moor beyond.
+There are no living creatures near the buildings, nor any vestige of
+village or city round about them. They lie like a little company of
+ships becalmed on a faraway sea.
+
+Then look farther to the south. Beyond the widening branches of the
+lagoon, and rising out of the bright lake into which they gather, there
+are a multitude of towers, dark, and scattered among square-set shapes
+of clustered palaces, a long irregular line fretting the southern sky.
+Mother and daughter, you behold them both in their widowhood--Torcello
+and Venice. Thirteen hundred years ago, the gray moorland looked as it
+does this day, and the purple mountains stood as radiantly in the deep
+distances of evening; but on the line of the horizon, there were strange
+fires mixed with the light of sunset, and the lament of many human
+voices mixed with the fretting of the waves on their ridges of sand. The
+flames rose from the ruins of Altinum; the lament from the multitude of
+its people, seeking, like Israel of old, a refuge from the sword in the
+paths of the sea.
+
+The cattle are feeding and resting upon the site of the city that they
+left; the mower's scythe swept this day at dawn over the chief street of
+the city that they built, and the swathes of soft grass are now sending
+up their scent into the night air, the only incense that fills the
+temple of their ancient worship.
+
+
+
+
+CADORE, TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE[57]
+
+BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS
+
+
+We reached Pieve di Cadore about half-past eleven A.M., delays
+included. The quaint old piazza with its gloomy arcades, its antique
+houses with Venetian windows, its cafes, its fountain, and its loungers,
+is just like the piazzas of Serravalle, Longarone, and other provincial
+towns of the same epoch. With its picturesque Prefettura and
+belfry-tower one is already familiar in the pages of Gilbert's "Cadore."
+There, too, is the fine old double flight of steps leading up to the
+principal entrance on the first floor, as in the town-hall at
+Heilbronn--a feature by no means Italian; and there, about midway up the
+shaft of the campanile, is the great, gaudy, well-remembered fresco,
+better meant than painted, wherein Titian, some twelve feet in height,
+robed and bearded, stands out against an ultramarine background, looking
+very like the portrait of a caravan giant at a fair....
+
+Turning aside from the glowing piazza and following the downward slope
+of a hill to the left of the Prefettura, we come, at the distance of
+only a few yards, upon another open space, grassy and solitary,
+surrounded on three sides by rambling, dilapidated-looking houses, and
+opening on the fourth to a vista of woods and mountains. In this little
+piazza stands a massive stone fountain, time-worn and water-worn,
+surmounted by a statue of Saint Tiziano in the robes and square cap of
+an ecclesiastic. The water trickling through two metal pipes in the
+pedestal beneath Saint Tiziano's feet, makes a pleasant murmuring in the
+old stone basin; while, half hidden behind this fountain, and leaning up
+as if for shelter against a larger house adjoining, stands-a small
+whitewashed cottage upon the side-wall of which an incised tablet bears
+the following record:
+
+    "Nel MCCCCLXXVII Fra Queste Vmili Mura Tiziano Vecellio Vene a
+    celebre Vita Donde vsciva gia presso a cento Anni In Venezia Addi
+    XXVII Agosto MDLXXVI."
+
+A poor, mean-looking, low-roofed dwelling, disfigured by external
+chimney-shafts and a built-out oven; lit with tiny, blinking, medieval
+windows; altogether unlovely; altogether unnoticeable; but--the
+birthplace of Titian!
+
+It looked different, no doubt, when he was a boy and played outside here
+on the grass. It had probably a high, steep roof, like the homesteads in
+his own landscape drawings; but the present old brown tiles have been
+over it long enough to get mottled with yellow lichens. One would like
+to know if the fountain and the statue were there in his time; and if
+the water trickled ever to the same low tune; and if the women came
+there to wash their linen and fill their brazen water jars, as they do
+now. This lovely green hill, at all events, sheltered the home from the
+east winds; and Monte Duranno lifted his strange crest yonder against
+the southern horizon; and the woods dipt down to the valley, then as
+now, where the bridle-path slopes away to join the road to Venice.
+
+We went up to the house, and knocked. The door was opened by a sickly,
+hunchbacked lad who begged us to walk in, and who seemed to be quite
+alone there. The house was very dark, and looked much older inside than
+from without. A long, low, gloomy upstairs chamber with a huge penthouse
+fire-place jutting into the room, was evidently as old as the days of
+Titian's grandfather, to whom the house originally belonged; while a
+very small and very dark adjoining closet, with a porthole of window
+sunk in a slope of massive wall, was pointed out as the room in which
+the great painter was born.
+
+"But how do you know that he was born here?" I asked. The hunchback
+lifted his wasted hand with a deprecating gesture. "They have always
+said so, Signora," he replied. "They have said so for more than four
+hundred years."
+
+"They?" I repeated, doubtfully. "The Vecelli, Signora." "I had
+understood that the Vecellio family was extinct." "Scusate, Signora,"
+said the hunchback. "The last direct descendant of 'Il Tiziano' died not
+long ago--a few years before I was born; and the collateral Vecelli are
+citizens of Cadore to this day. If the Signora will be pleased to look
+for it, she will see the name of Vecellio over a shop on the right-hand
+side, as she returns to the Piazza."
+
+I did look for it; and there, sure enough, over a small shop-window I
+found it. It gave one an odd sort of shock, as if time were for the
+moment annihilated; and I remember how, with something of the same
+feeling, I once saw the name of Rubens over a shop-front in the
+market-place at Cologne.
+
+I left the house less incredulous than I entered it. Of the identity of
+the building there has never been any kind of doubt; and I am inclined
+to accept with the house the identity of the room. Titian, it should be
+remembered, lived long enough to become, long before he died, the glory
+of his family. He became rich; he became noble; his fame filled Italy.
+Hence the room in which he was born may well have acquired, half a
+century before his death--perhaps even during the lifetime of his
+mother--that sort of sacredness which is generally of post-mortem
+growth. The legend, handed down from Vecellio to Vecellio in
+uninterrupted succession, lays claim, therefore, to a more reliable
+pedigree than most traditions of a similar character.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] From "Travels in Italy." Translated by A. J. W. Morrison and Charles
+Nisbet. Goethe's visit to Italy was made in 1786. He was then only
+thirty-seven years of age. The visit had important influence on his
+subsequent career. The greatest of his works were still to be written.
+It was not until after 1794 that Goethe devoted himself entirely to
+literature.
+
+[2] Goethe at this time had published several short plays besides "The
+Sorrows of Werthe," "Wilhelm Meister," and a few other works less
+important.
+
+[3] By that name Italians know the Pantheon.
+
+[4] From "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the years 1701, 1702,
+1703." At the time of his departure for Italy, Addison was twenty-nine
+years old. None of his important works had then been written.
+
+[5] Addison's belief has been amply justified by the extensive
+excavations made since his time.
+
+[6] From "Ancient Rome, In the Light of Recent Discoveries." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1888.
+
+[7] Lanciani here has referred to the Catholic Church, in which
+historians have seen, in the spiritual sense, a survival of imperial
+Rome.
+
+[8] From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin CO.
+
+[9] From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.
+
+[10] Mr. Hillard was writing in 1853.
+
+[11] From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[12] This mausoleum, built by Augustus on the bank of the Tiber for
+himself and his family, had long been used as the imperial sepulcher.
+
+[13] From "Rome." By arrangement with, and by permission of, the
+publishers, John C. Winston Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[14] From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1868.
+Translated by John Durand.
+
+[15] From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[16] From "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome." By special
+arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[17] From "Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe." Mrs. Lippincott's
+visit was made in 1852.
+
+[18] From "Recollections of the Last Four Popes, and of Rome in their
+Times." Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-1865), an English
+cardinal, was famous during his lifetime for intellectual vigor and
+scholarly attainments. In presenting an intimate view of a papal
+election it was his unusual privilege to describe not only "the things
+he saw," but also, as his later destiny revealed, to tell of the things
+of which he formed a part. The election pictured is that of Leo XII.
+
+[19] From "Six Novices on the Grand Tour, by One of Them." Privately
+printed. (1911.) By permission of the author.
+
+[20] From "Six Months in Italy." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.
+
+[21] From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1868.
+Translated by John Durand.
+
+[22] From "Pictures from Italy."
+
+[23] From "The Marble Faun." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.
+
+[24] From "Pencillings by the Way."
+
+[25] From "Pictures from Italy."
+
+[26] From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special arrangement with,
+and by permission of, the publishers of Hawthorne's works, Houghton,
+Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1899.
+
+[27] Hiram Powers, the American sculptor, who lived long in Florence,
+and is best known for his "Greek Slave."
+
+[28] From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.
+
+[29] From "Florence."
+
+[30] From Taine's "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement
+with, and by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Translated
+by John Durand. Copyright, 1869.
+
+[31] Since Taine wrote, the facade has been added.
+
+[32] From "Italian Cities." By special arrangement with, and by
+permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1900.
+
+[33] From "The Makers of Florence." Published by the Macmillan Co.
+
+[34] That is, the Baptistery at Florence.
+
+[35] From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C. Winston
+Co. Copyright, 1837.
+
+[36] From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C. Winston
+Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[37] From "Florence." By permission of the publishers, John C. Winston
+Co. Copyright, 1897.
+
+[38] Dante was buried at Ravenna. The reader will recall Byron's lines:
+
+"Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar,
+Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore."
+
+[39] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and
+by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869.
+Translated by John Durand.
+
+[40] From "Letters of a Traveller." Bryant's letter is dated in May,
+1834.
+
+[41] The court of the Austrian Grand Duke Leopold III. In 1859 Leopold
+was expelled, and Florence, with Tuscany, was annexed to the Sardinian
+kingdom.
+
+[42] From "Venice: Its History, Art, Industries and Modern Life."
+Published by John C. Winston Co.
+
+[43] From "Two Months Abroad." Privately printed. (1878.)
+
+[44] From "Journeys In Italy." By arrangement with, and by permission
+of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.
+
+[45] Marie Taglioni, the ballet dancer, who was born in Stockholm of
+Italian parents in 1804 and married to Count Gilbert de Voisons in
+1847, when she retired from the stage. She died in 1884.
+
+[46] From "The Stones of Venice." St. Mark's is merely a church. It is
+not a cathedral; that is, it is not the "cathedra" of a bishop.
+Originally it was the private chapel of the Doge. Likewise, St. Peter's
+at Rome is a church only--the church of the Pope. The cathedral of the
+Pope (who is the Bishop of Rome), is St. John Lateran.
+
+[47] Venice and territory adjacent to it were long in subjection to
+Austria. Having put an end to the republic in 1797 (the republic had
+then had an unbroken existence for about thirteen hundred years),
+Napoleon, by the treaty of Campo Formio, ceded this territory to
+Austria. In 1805, however, Venetia was added by Napoleon to his Kingdom
+of Italy. In 1814, after the first fall of Napoleon, it was ceded back
+to Austria and in 1815 became part of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom.
+Under the leadership of Manin, in 1848, a republic was proclaimed in
+Venice, but Austria laid siege to the city and captured it. It was not
+until 1866, at the conclusion of the war against Austria, that Venice
+was annexed to the new Italian kingdom of Victor Emmanuel.
+
+[48] From "In and Around Venice." Published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
+
+[49] From "In and Around Venice." Published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
+After its fall, the Venetians set about raising funds for rebuilding
+the Campanile. In the course of several years, the new structure was
+finished and the event duly commemorated.
+
+[50] From "The Stones of Venice."
+
+[51] Several men of this name are famous in Venetian annals, as
+soldiers, statesmen and doges. The one here referred to is Tommaso, who
+defeated the Turks, added Dalmatia to the Venetian domain, greatly
+encouraged commerce and founded the Venetian library.
+
+[52] From "Life on the Lagoons." Published by the Macmillan Co.
+
+[53] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and
+by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869.
+
+[54] The state ship of Venice.
+
+[55] From "Life on the Lagoons." Published by the Macmillan Co.
+
+[56] From "The Stones of Venice."
+
+[57] From "Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: A Midsummer Ramble
+in the Dolomites." Published by E. P. Dutton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors,
+Volume 7, by Various
+
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