Chapter XX The Janiculan
Gate of Sto. Spirito—Church, Convent, and Garden of S. Onofrio—The Lungara—Palazzo Salviati and the Botanic-Garden—S. Giovanni alla Lungara—Palazzo Corsini—The Farnesina—Porta Settimiana—S. Pietro in Montorio—Fontana Paolina—Villa Lante—Porta and Church of S. Pancrazio—Villa Doria-Pamfili—Chapel of St. Andrew’s Head.
The Janiculan is a steep crest of hill which rises abruptly on the west bank of the Tiber, and breaks imperceptibly away on the other side into the Campagna towards Civita Vecchia. Its lower formation is a marine clay abounding in fossils, but its upper surface is formed of the yellow sand which gave it the ancient name of Mons Aureus,—still commemorated in Montorio—S. Pietro in Montorio.
A tradition universally received in ancient times, and adopted by Virgil, derives the name of Janiculum from Janus, who was the sun-god, as Jana, or Diana, was the moon-goddess. On this hill Janus is believed to have founded a city, which is mentioned by Pliny under the name of Antinopolis. Ovid makes Janus speak for himself as to his property:
“Arx mea collis erat, quem cultrix nomine nostro
Nuncupat hæc ætas, Janiculumque vocat.”378
Fons, the supposed son of Janus, is known to have had an altar here in very early times.379 Janus Quirinus was a war-god, “the sun armed with a lance.” Thus, in time of peace, the gates of this temple were closed, both because his worship was then unnecessary, and from an idea of preventing war from going forth. It was probably in this character that he was honoured on a site which the Romans looked upon as “the key of Etruria,” while other nations naturally regarded it as “the key of Rome.”
Janus was represented as having a key in his hand.
“Ille tenens dextra baculum, clavemque sinistra.”
“Par un hasard singulier, Janus, qu’on représentait une clef à la main, était le dieu du Janicule, voisin du Vatican, où est le tombeau de Saint Pierre, que l’on représente aussi tenant une clef. Janus, comme Saint Pierre, son futur voisin, était le portier céleste.”—Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 229,
When the first Sabine king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, “like the darlings of the gods in the golden age, fell asleep, full of days,”380 he was buried upon the sacred hill of his own people, and the books of his sacred laws and ordinances were buried near him in a separate tomb.381 In the sixth century of the republic, a monument was discovered on the Janiculan, which was believed to be that of Numa, and certain books were dug up near it which were destroyed by the senate in the fear that they might give a too free-thinking explanation of the Roman mythology.382
Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome, connected the Janiculan with the rest of the city by building the Pons Sublicius, the first bridge over the Tiber; and erected a citadel on the crest of the hill as a bulwark against Etruria, with which he was constantly at war.383 Some escarpments, supposed to belong to the fortifications of Ancus, have lately been found behind the Fontana Paolina. It was from this same ridge that his Etruscan successor, Tarquinius Priscus, coming from Tarquinii (Corneto), had his first view of the city over which he came to reign, and here the eagle, henceforth to be the emblem of Roman power, replaced upon his head the cap which it had snatched away as he was riding in his chariot. Hence, also, Lars Porsena, king of Etruria, looked upon Rome, when he came to the assistance of Tarquinius Superbus, and retired in fear of his life after he had seen specimens of Roman endurance, in Horatius Cocles, who kept the falling bridge; in Mutius, who burnt his hand in the charcoal; and in the hostage, Cœllia, who swam home across the Tiber,—all anecdotes connected with the Janiculan.
After the time of the kings this hill appears less frequently in history. But it was here that the consul Octavius, the friend of Sylla, was murdered by the partisans of Marius, while seated in his curule chair,—near the foot of the hill Julius Cæsar had his famous gardens, and on its summit the Emperor Galba was buried. The Christian associations of the hill will be noticed at the different points to which they belong.
From the Borgo (Chap. XV.) the unfinished gate called Porta Sto. Spirito, built by Antonio da San Gallo, leads into the Via Lungara, a street three-quarters of a mile long, formed by Sixtus V., and occupying the whole length of the valley between the Tiber and the Janiculan.
Immediately on the right, the steep “Salita di S. Onofrio” leads up the hillside to the Church of S. Onofrio, built in 1439 by Nicolo da Forca Palena, in honour of the Egyptian hermit, Honophrius.
“St. Onofrius was a monk of Thebes, who retired to the desert, far from the sight of men, and dwelt there in a cave for sixty years, and during all that time never beheld one human being, or uttered one word of his mother-tongue except in prayer. He was unclothed, except by some leaves twisted round his body, and his beard and hair had become like the face of a wild beast. In this state he was discovered by a holy man whose name was Paphnutius, who, seeing him crawling on the ground, knew not at first what live thing it might be.”
—Jameson’s Sacred Art.
From the little platform in front of the convent is one of the loveliest views over the city. The church is approached by a portico, decorated with glazed frescoes by Domenichino. Those on either side of the door represent the saints of the Hieronomyte Order (the adjoining convent belongs to Hieronomytes), viz.: S. Jerome, Sta. Paula, St. Eustochium, S. Pietro Gambacorta of Pisa, St Augustine the hermit, S. Nicolo di Forca Palena, S. Onofrio and the Blessed Benedict of Sicily, Philip of St. Agatha, Paul of Venice, Bartholomew of Cesarea, Mark of Manuta, Philip of Fulgaria, and John of Catalonia. Over the door is a Madonna and Child. In the side arcade are three scenes in the life of St. Jerome. 1. Represents his baptism as a young man at Rome. 2. Refers to his vision of the Judgment (described in his letter to Eustochium), in which he heard the Judge of the World ask what he was, and he answered, “I am a Christian.” But the Judge replied, “No, you lie, for you are a Ciceronian,” and he was condemned to be scourged, but continued to protest that he was a Christian between every lash. 3. Is a scene alluded to in another letter to Eustochium, in which Jerome says, “O how often when alone in the desert with the wild beasts and scorpions, half dead with fasting and penance, have I fancied myself a spectator of the sins of Rome, and of the dances of its young women.”
The church has a solemn and picturesque interior. It ends in a tribune richly adorned with frescoes, those of the upper part (the Coronation of the Virgin, and eight groups of saints and angels) being by Pinturicchio, those of the lower (the Virgin and Saints, Nativity, and Flight into Egypt) by Baldassare Peruzzi.
On the left of the entrance is the original monument of Tasso (with a portrait), erected after his death by Cardinal Bevilacqua. Greatly inferior in interest is a monument recently placed to his memory in the adjoining chapel, by subscription, the work of De Fabris. Near this is the grave of the poet, Alessandro Guidi, ob. 1712. In the third chapel on the left is the grave of the learned Cardinal Mezzofanti, born at Bologna, 1774, died at Rome, 1849.
The first chapel on the right, which is low and vaulted, with stumpy pillars, is covered with frescoes relating to S. Onofrio.
The second chapel on the right, which is very richly decorated, contains a Madonna crowned by Angels, by Annibale Caracci. Beyond this is the fine tomb of Archbishop Sacchi, ob. 1502. The beautiful lunette, of the Madonna teaching the Holy Child to read, is by Pinturicchio. The tomb is inscribed:
“Labor et gloria vita fuit,
Mors requies.”
Ladies are never admitted to visit the convent, except on April 25th, the anniversary of the death of Tasso. It is approached by a cloister, decorated with frescoes from the life of S. Onofrio.
“S. Onofrio is represented as a meagre old man, with long hair and beard, grey and matted, a leafy branch twisted round his loins, a stick in his hand. The artist generally tries to make him look as haggard and inhuman as possible.”—Mrs. Jameson.
In a passage on the first floor is a beautiful fresco of the Virgin and Child with the donor, by Leonardo da Vinci.
“To 1513 belongs a Madonna, painted on the wall of the upper corridor of the convent of S. Onofrio. It is on a gold ground: the action of the Madonna is beautiful, displaying the noblest form, and the expression of the countenance is peculiarly sweet; but the Child, notwithstanding his graceful action, is somewhat hard and heavy, so as almost to warrant the conclusion that this picture belongs to an earlier period, which would suppose a previous visit to Rome.”
—Kugler.
Torquato Tasso came to Rome in 1594, on the invitation of Clement VIII., that he might be crowned on the Capitol, but as he arrived in the month of November, and the weather was then very bad, it was decided to postpone the ceremony till late in the following spring. This delay was a source of trouble to Tasso, who was in feeble health, and had a presentiment that his death was near. Before the time for his crowning arrived he had removed to S. Onofrio, saying to the monks who received him at the entrance, “My fathers, I have come to die amongst you!” and he wrote to one of his friends, “I am come to begin my conversation in heaven in this elevated place, and in the society of these holy fathers.” During the fourteen days of his illness, he became perfectly absorbed in the contemplation of divine subjects, and upon the last day of his life, when he received the papal absolution, exclaimed, “I believe that the crown which I looked for upon the Capitol is to be changed for a better crown in heaven.” Throughout the last night a monk prayed by his side till the morning, when Tasso was heard to murmur, “In manus tuas, Domine,” and then he died. The room in which he expired, April 25, 1595, contains his bust, crucifix, inkstand, autograph, a mask taken from his face after death, and other relics. The archives of S. Onofrio have this entry:
“Torquato Tasso, illustrious from his genius, died thus in our monastery of S. Onofrio. In April, 1595, he caused himself to be brought here that he might prepare for death with greater devotion and security, as he felt his end approaching. He was received courteously by our fathers, and conducted to chambers in the loggia, where everything was ready for him. Soon afterwards he became dangerously ill, and desired to confess and receive the most Holy Sacrament from the prior. Being asked to write his will, he said that he wished to be buried at S. Onofrio, and he left to the convent his crucifix and fifty scudi for alms, that so many masses might be said for his soul, in the manner that is read in the book of legacies in our archives. Pope Clement VIII. was requested for his benediction, which he gave amply for the remission of sins. In his last days he received extreme unction, and then, with the crucifix in his hand, contemplating and kissing the sacred image, with Christian contrition and devotion, being surrounded by our fathers, he gave up his spirit to the Creator, on April 25, 1595, between the eleventh and twelfth hours (i.e., between 7 and 8 A.M.), in the fiftieth year of his age. In the evening his body was interred with universal concourse in our church, near the steps of the high altar, the Cardinal Giulio Aldobrandini, under whose protection he had lived during the last years, being minded to erect to him, as soon as possible, a sumptuous sepulchre; which, however, was never carried into effect; but after the death of the latter, the Signor Cardinal Bevilacqua raised to his memory the monument which is seen on entering the church on the left side.”
Ladies are admitted to the beautiful garden of the convent on ringing at the first large gate on the left below the church.
This lovely plot of ground, fresh with running streams, possesses a glorious view over the city, and the Campagna beyond S. Paolo. At the further extremity, near a picturesque group of cypresses, are remains of the oak planted by Tasso, the greater part of which was blown down in 1842. A young sapling is shooting up beside it. Beyond this is the little amphitheatre, overgrown with grass and flowers, where S. Filippo Neri used to teach children, and assemble them “for the half-dramatic musical performances which were an original form of his oratorios. Here every 25th of April a musical entertainment of the Accademia is held in memory of Tasso,—his bust, crowned with laurel wreaths, and taken from the cast after death, being placed in the centre of the amphitheatre.”384
Returning to the Lungara, on the left is a Lunatic Asylum, founded by Pius IX., with a pompous inscription, and beyond it, a chain bridge to S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini. On the right is the handsome Palazzo Salviati, which formerly contained a fine collection of pictures, removed to the Borghese Palace, when, upon the property falling into the hands of Prince Borghese, he sold the palace to the government, who now use it as a repository for the civil archives. The adjoining garden now belongs to the Sapienza, and has been turned into a Botanic Garden. The modernized church of S. Giovanni alla Lungara dates from the time of Leo IV. (845—857), and is now attached to a reformatory. On the right is a large Convent of the Buon Pastore.
We now reach, on the right, the magnificent Palazzo Corsini, built originally by the Riario family, from whom it was bought by Clement XII. in 1729, for his nephew Cardinal Neri Corsini, for whom it was altered to its present form by Fuga.
This palace was in turn the resort of Caterina Sforza, the brave duchess of Imola; of the learned Poet Cardinal di S. Giorgio; of Michael Angelo, who remained here more than a year on a visit to the cardinal, “who,” says Vasari, “being of small understanding in art, gave him no commission”; and of Erasmus, who always remembered the pleasant conversations (confabulationes mellifluæ) of the “Riario Palace,” as it was then called. In the seventeenth century the palace became the residence of Queen Christina of Sweden, who died here on April 19, 1689, in a room which is distinguished by two columns of painted wood.
“With her residence in Rome, the habits of Christina became more tranquil and better regulated. She obtained some mastery over herself, suffered certain considerations of what was due to others to prevail, and consented to acknowledge the necessities incident to the peculiarities of her chosen residence. She took a constantly increasing part in the splendour, the life, and the business of the Curia, becoming indeed eventually altogether identified with its interests. The collections she had brought with her from Sweden, she now enlarged by so liberal an expenditure, and with so much taste, judgment, and success, that she surpassed even the native families, and elevated the pursuit from a mere gratification of curiosity, to a higher and more significant importance both for learning and art. Men such as Spanheim and Havercamp thought the illustration of her coins and medals an object not unworthy of their labours, and Sante Bartolo devoted his practised hand to her cameos. The Coreggios of Christina’s collection have always been the richest ornament of every gallery into which the changes of time have carried them. The MSS. of her choice have contributed in no small degree to maintain the reputation of the Vatican library, into which they were subsequently incorporated. Acquisitions and possessions of this kind filled up the hours of her daily life, with an enjoyment that was at least harmless. She also took interest and an active part in scientific pursuits; and it is much to her credit that she received the poor exiled Borelli, who was compelled to resort in his old age to teaching as a means of subsistence. The queen supported him with her utmost power, and caused his renowned and still unsurpassed work, on the mechanics of animal motion, by which physiological science has been so importantly influenced and advanced, to be printed at her own cost. Nay, I think we may even venture to affirm, that she herself, when her character and intellect had been improved and matured, exerted a powerfully efficient and enduring influence on the period, more particularly on Italian literature. In the year 1680, she founded an academy in her own residence for the discussion of literary and political subjects; and the first rule of this institution was, that its members should carefully abstain from the turgid style, overloaded with false ornament, which prevailed at the time, and be guided only by sound sense and the models of the Augustan and Medicean ages. From the queen’s academy proceeded such men as Alessandro Guidi, who had previously been addicted to the style then used, but after some time passed in the society of Christina, he not only resolved to abandon it, but even formed a league with some of his friends for the purpose of labouring to abolish it altogether. The Arcadia, an academy to which the merit of completing this good work is attributed, arose out of the society which assembled around the Swedish queen. On the whole, it must needs be admitted, that in the midst of the various influences pressing around her, Christina preserved a noble independence of mind. To the necessity for evincing that ostentatious piety usually expected from converts, or which they impose on themselves, she would by no means subject herself. Entirely Catholic as she was, and though continually repeating her conviction of the pope’s infallibility, and of the necessity for believing all doctrines enjoined either by himself or the Church, she had nevertheless an extreme detestation of bigots, and utterly abhorred the direction of father confessors, who were at that time the exclusive rulers of all social and domestic life. She would not be prevented from enjoying the amusements of the carnival, concerts, dramatic entertainments, or whatever else might be offered by the habits of life at Rome; above all, she refused to be withheld from the internal movement of an intellectual and animated society. She acknowledged a love of satires, and took pleasure in Pasquin. We find her constantly mingled in the intrigues of the court, the dissensions of the papal houses, and the factions of the cardinals.... She attached herself to the mode of life presented to her with a passionate love, and even thought it impossible to live if she did not breathe the atmosphere of Rome.”
—Ranke’s Hist. of the Popes.
In 1797 this palace was used as the French embassy, and on the 28th of December was the scene of a terrible skirmish, when Joseph Buonaparte, then ambassador, attempted to interfere between the French democratic party and the papal dragoons, and when young General Duphot, who was about to be married to Buonaparte’s sister-in-law, was shot by his side in a balcony. These events, after which Joseph Buonaparte immediately demanded his passports and departed, were among the chief causes which led to the invasion of Rome by Berthier, and the imprisonment of Pius VII.385
The collections now in the palace have all been formed since the death of Queen Christina. The Picture Gallery is open to the public from nine to twelve, every day except Sundays and holidays.
The following criticism, applicable to all the private galleries in Rome, is perhaps especially so to this:
“You may generally form a tolerably correct conjecture of what a gallery will contain, as to subject, before you enter it,—a certain quantity of Landscapes, a great many Holy Families, a few Crucifixions, two or three Pietàs, a reasonable proportion of St. Jeromes, a mixture of other Saints and Martyrdoms, and a large assortment of Madonnas and Magdalenes, make up the principal part of all the collections in Rome; which are generally comprised of quite as many bad as good paintings.”
—Eaton’s Rome.
The 1st room is chiefly occupied by pretty but unimportant landscapes by Orizzonti and Vanvitelli, and figure pieces by Locatelli. We may notice (the best pictures being marked with an asterisk):
1st Room.—
24, 26. Canaletti.
2nd Room.—
12. Madonna and Child in glory: Elis. Sirani.
11, 27. Fruit: Mario di Fiori.
15. Landscape: G. Poussin.
17, 19. Landscapes with Cattle: Berghem.
20. Pietà: Lod. Caracci.
41. S. Andrea Corsini: Fr. Gessi.
3rd Room.—
1. Ecce Homo: Guercino.*
9. Madonna and Child: A. del Sarto.
13. Holy Family: Barocci.
16, 20. Rock Scenes: Salvator Rosa.
17. Madonna and Child: Caravaggio.
23. Sunset: Both.*
26. Holy Family: Fra. Bartolomeo.
43. Two Martyrdoms: Carlo Saraceni.
44. Julius II.: after Raphael.
The portrait of Julius II. (della Rovere) is a replica or copy of that at the Pitti Palace. There are other duplicates in the Borghese Gallery, at the National Gallery in England, and at Leigh Court in Somersetshire. Julius II. ob. 1513.
49. St. Appollonia: Carlo Dolce.
50. Philip II. of Spain: Titian.
52. Vanity: Carlo Saraceni.*
88. Ecce Homo: Carlo Dolce.
4th Room.—
1. Clement XII. (Lorenzo Corsini, 1730—40): Benedetto Luti.
4. Cupid asleep: Guido Reni.
11. Daughter of Herodias: Guido Reni.*
16. Madonna: Guido Reni.
22. Christ and the Magdalen: Barocci.
27. Two Heads: Lod. Caracci.
28. St. Jerome: Titian.
40. Faustina Maratta—his daughter: Carlo Maratta.
41. Fornarina: Giulio Romano, after Raphael,—replica of the picture at Florence.
42. Old Man: Guido.
44. A Hare: Albert Durer.*
55. Death of Adonis: Spagnoletto.
In this room is an ancient marble chair, found near the Lateran—and on a table “the Corsini Vase,” in silver, with reliefs representing the judgment of Areopagus upon the matricide of Orestes.
5th Room.—(In which Christina died, with a ceiling by the Zuccari.)
2. Holy Family: Pierino del Vaga.
12. St. Agnes: Carlo Dolce.*
14. Madonna reading: Sassoferrato.
20. Ulysses and Polyphemus: Lanfranco.
23. Madonna and Child: Albani.
26. Madonna and Child: Sassoferrato.
37. Addolorata: Guido Reni.
38. Ecce Homo: Guido Reni.
39. St. John: Guido Reni.
6th Room.—
19. Portrait: Holbein.
20. Mgr. Ghiberti: Titian.
21. Children of Charles V.: Titian.*
22. Old Woman: Rembrandt.*
23. Male Portrait: Giorgione.
31. Caterina Bora, Wife of Luther: Holbein.*
32. Male Portrait: Vandyke.
34. Nativity of the Virgin. Miniature from Durer.
40. Cardinal Divitius de Bibbiena: Bronzino.
47. Portrait of Himself: Rubens.*
48. A Doge of Venice: Tintoret.
54. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese: Titian.*
68. Cardinal Neri Corsini: Baciccio.
7th Room.—
1. Madonna and Child: Murillo.*
13. Landscape: G. Poussin.
15. St. Sebastian: Rubens.
18. Christ bearing the Cross: Garofalo.
21. Christ among the Doctors: Luca Giordano.
22. Descent of the Holy Spirit: Fra Angelico.
23. Last Judgment: Fra Angelico.
24. Ascension: Fra Angelico.
“A Last Judgment by Angelico da Fiesole, with wings containing the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, is in the Corsini Gallery. Here we perceive a great richness of expression and beauty of drapery; the rapture of the blessed is told, chiefly by their embraces and by their attitudes of prayer and praise. It is a remarkable feature, and one indicative of the master, that the ranks of the condemned are entirely filled by monks.”
—Kugler.
26. Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew: Lod. Caracci.
30. Woman taken in Adultery: Titian.*
35. Gonfaloniere of the Church: Domenichino.
8th Room.—
8. Christ before Pilate: Vandyke.
12. St. George: Ercole Grandi.
13. Contemplation: Guido Reni.
15. Landscape: G. Poussin.
17. Judith and Head of Holofernes: Gérard de la Nuit.
24. St. Jerome: Guercino.
25. St. Jerome: Spagnoletto.
43. Mosaic portrait of Clement XII. and his nephew Cardinal Neri Corsini.
In this room are two modern family busts with touching inscriptions.
Cabinet:
26. Madonna and Child: Spagna.*
9th Room.—
2. Village Interior: Teniers.
9. Innocent X.: Velasquez (a replica of the Doria portrait).
26. Female Portrait: Bronzino.
28, 29. Battle-pieces: Salvator Rosa.
30. Two Heads: Giorgione.
40. Madonna Addolorata: Cignani.
49. Madonna and Child: Gherardesco da Siena.
One of the gems of the collection, a highly finished Madonna and Child of Carlo Dolce, is usually shown in a glass case in the first room.
The Corsini Library (open every day except Wednesdays) contains a magnificent collection of MSS. and engravings, founded by Cardinal Neri Corsini. It has also some beautiful original drawings by the old masters. Behind the palace, on the slope of the Janiculan, are large and beautiful Gardens adorned with fountains, cypresses, and some grand old plane-trees. There is a fine view from the Casino on the summit of the hill.
“A magnificent porter in cocked hat and grand livery conducted the visitors across the quadrangle, unlocked the ponderous iron gates of the gardens, and let them through, leaving them to their own devices, and closing and locking the gates with a crash. They now stood in a wide avenue of ilex, whose gloomy boughs, interlacing overhead, effectually excluded the sunlight; nearly a quarter of a mile further on, the ilexes were replaced by box and bay trees, beneath which the sun and shade divided the path between them, trembling and flickering on the ground and invading each other’s dominions with every breath of wind. The strangers heard the splash of fountains as they walked onwards by banks precipitous as a hill-side, and covered with wild rank herbage and tall trees. Stooping to gather a flower, they almost started, as looking up, they saw, rising against a sky fabulously blue, the unfamiliar green ilex and dark cypress spire.”
—Mademoiselle Mori.
Opposite the Corsini Palace is the beautiful villa of the Farnesina (open on Sundays from 10 to 3), built in 1506 by Baldassare Peruzzi for the famous banker Agostino Chigi, who here gave his sumptuous and extravagant entertainments to Leo X. and his court—banquets at which three fish cost as much as 230 crowns, and after which the plate that had been used, was all thrown into the Tiber.386 This same Agostino Chigi was one of the greatest of art patrons, and has handed down to us not only the decorations of the Farnesina, but the Sibyls of Sta. Maria della Pace, which he also ordered from Raphael.
“Le jour où Leon X. alla prendre possession de la basilique de Latran, l’opulent Chigi se distingua. Le théâtre qui s’élevait devant son palais était rempli des envoyés de tous les peuples, blancs, cuivrés, et noirs; au milieu d’eux on distinguait les images de Vénus, de Mars, de Minerve, allusion singulière aux trois pontificats d’Alexander VI., de Jules II, et de Léon X. Vénus a eu son temps: disait l’inscription; Mars a eu le sien; c’est aujourd’hui le règne de Minerve. Antoine de San-Marino, qui demeurait près de Chigi, répondit aussitot en plaçant sur sa boutique la statue isolée de Vénus, avec ce peu de mots: Mars a régné, Minerve règne, Vénus régnera toujours.”—Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne, ii. 109.
The Farnesina contains some of the most beautiful existing frescoes of Raphael and his school. The principal hall was once open, but has now been closed in to preserve the paintings. Its ceiling was designed by Raphael (1518—20), and painted by Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni, with twelve scenes from the story of Psyche as narrated by Apuleius:
A king had three daughters. The youngest was named Psyche, and was more lovely than the sunshine. Venus, the queen of beauty, was herself jealous of her, and bade her son Cupid to destroy her charms by inspiring her with an unworthy love (1). But Cupid, when he beheld Psyche, loved her himself, showed her to the Graces (2), and carried her off. He only visited her in the darkness of night, and bade her always to repress her curiosity as to his appearance. But while Cupid was sleeping, Psyche lighted a lamp, and looked upon him,—and a drop of the hot oil fell upon him and he awoke. Then he left her alone in grief and solitude. Venus in the mean time learnt that Cupid was faithless to her, and imprisoned him, and sought assistance from Juno and Ceres that she might find Psyche, but they refused to aid her (3). Then she drove to seek Jupiter in her chariot drawn by doves (4), and implored him to send Mercury to her assistance (5). Jupiter listened to her prayer, and Mercury was sent forth to seek for Psyche (6). Venus then showed her spite against Psyche, and imposed harsh tasks upon her which she was nevertheless enabled to perform. At length she was ordered to bring a casket from the infernal regions (7), and even this, to the amazement of Venus, she succeeded in effecting (8). Cupid, escaped from captivity, then implored Jupiter to restore Psyche to him. Jupiter embraced him (9), and bade Mercury summon the gods to a council on the subject (see the ceiling on the right). Psyche was then brought to Olympus (10), and became immortal, and the gods celebrated her nuptial banquet (ceiling painting on left).
“On the flat of the ceiling are two large compositions, with numerous figures,—the Judgment of the Gods, who decide the dispute between Venus and Cupid, and the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche in the festal assembly of the gods. In the lunettes of the ceiling are amorini, with the attributes of those gods who have done homage to the power of Love. In the triangular compartments between the lunettes are different groups, illustrative of the incidents in the fable. They are of great beauty, and are examples of the most tasteful disposition in a given space. The picture of the three Graces, that in which Cupid stands in an imploring attitude before Jupiter; a third, where Psyche is borne away by Loves, are extremely graceful. Peevish critics have designated these representations as common and sensual, but the noble spirit visible in all Raphael’s works prevails also in these: religious feeling could naturally find no place in them; but they are conceived in a spirit of the purest artlessness, always a proof of true moral feeling, and to which a narrow taste alone could object. In the execution, indeed, we recognise little of Raphael’s fine feeling; the greatest part is by his scholars, after his cartoons, especially by G. Romano. The nearest of the three Graces, in the group before alluded to, appears to be by Raphael’s own hand.”
—Kugler.
The paintings were injuriously retouched by Carlo Maratta. The garlands round them are by Giovanni da Udine. The second room contains the beautiful fresco of Galatea floating in a shell drawn by dolphins, by Raphael himself.
“Raphael not only designed, but executed this fresco; and faded as is its colouring, the mind must be dead to the highest beauties of painting, that can contemplate it without admiration. The spirit and beauty of the composition, the pure and perfect design, the flowing outline, the soft and graceful contours, and the sentiment and sweetness of the expression, all remain unchanged; for time, till it totally obliterates, has no power to injure them.... The figures of the attendant Nereid, and of the triumphant Triton who embraces her, are beautiful beyond description.”
—Eaton’s Rome.
“The fresco of Galatea was painted in 1514. The greater part of this is Raphael’s own work, and the execution is consequently much superior to that of the others. It represents the goddess of the sea borne over the waves in her shell; tritons and sea-nymphs sport joyously around her; amorini, discharging their arrows, appear in the air like an angel-glory. The utmost sweetness, the most ardent sense of pleasure, breathe from this work; everything lives, feels, vibrates with enjoyment “—Kugler.
The frescoes of the ceiling, representing Diana in her Car, and the story of Medusa, are by Baldassare Peruzzi; the lunettes are by Sebastian del Piombo and Daniele da Volterra. Michael Angelo came one day to visit the latter, and not finding him at his work, left the colossal head, which remains in a lunette of the left wall, as a sign of his visit.
In the upper story are two rooms; the first, adorned with a frieze of subjects from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, contains large architectural paintings by Baldassare Peruzzi; the second has the Marriage of Alexander and Roxana, and the family of Darius in the presence of Alexander, by Sodoma.
The Porta Settimiana at the end of the Lungara preserves in its name a recollection of the gardens of Septimius Severus, which existed in this quarter. From hence the Via delle Fornaci ascends the hill, and leads to the broad new carriage-road, formed in 1867 under the superintendence of the Cav. Trochi. A Via-Crucis with a staircase will conduct the pedestrian by a shorter way to the platform on the hill-top.
The succession of beggars who infest this hill and stretch out their maimed limbs or kiss their hands to the passers-by will call to mind the lines of Juvenal:
“Cæcus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles,
Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes,
Blandaque devexæ jactaret basia rhedæ.”
Sat. iv. 116.
The Church of S. Pietro in Montorio was built by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, from designs of Baccio Pintelli, on the site of an oratory founded by Constantine upon the supposed spot of St. Peter’s crucifixion.
The first chapel on the right belongs to the Barberini, and contains pictures by Sebastian del Piombo, (painted in oil upon stone, a process which has caused them to be much blackened by time,) from drawings of Michael Angelo. The central picture represents the Scourging of Christ, a subject of which Sebastian was especially fond, as it gave the opportunity of displaying his great anatomical power. On the left is St. Peter, on the right St. Francis,—on the ceiling is the Transfiguration,—outside the arch are a Prophet and a Sibyl. The second chapel on the right has paintings by pupils of Perugino; the fifth contains St. Paul healed by Ananias, by Vasari.
The fourth chapel on the right is of some interest in the history of art. Julius III. had it greatly at heart to build and beautify this chapel as a memorial to his family, to contain the tombs of his uncle Cardinal Antonio di Monti, and of Fabiano, who first founded the splendours of his house. The work was entrusted to Michael Angelo and Vasari, who were at that time on terms of intimate friendship. They disputed about their subordinates. Vasari wished to employ Simone Mosca for the ornaments, and Raffaello da Montalupo for the statues; Michael Angelo objected to having any ornamental work at all, saying that where there were to be marble figures, there ought to be nothing else, and he would have nothing to do with Montalupo because his figures for the tomb of Julius II. had turned out so ill. When the chapel was finished Michael Angelo confessed himself in the wrong for not having allowed more ornament. The statues were entrusted to Bartolomeo Ammanati.
The first chapel on the left has St. Francis receiving the stigmata attributed to Giovanni de Vecchi.
“A barber of the Cardinal S. Giorgio was an artist, who painted very well in tempera, but had no idea of design. He made friends with Michael-Angelo, who made him a cartoon of a St. Francis receiving the stigmata, which the barber carefully carried out in colour, and his picture is now placed in the first chapel on the left of the entrance of S. Pietro in Montorio.”—Vasari, vi.
The third chapel on the left contains a Virgin and Child with St. Anne, of the school of Perugino; the fourth, a fine Entombment, by an unknown hand; the fifth, the Baptism of Christ, said to be by Daniele da Volterra.
The Transfiguration of Raphael was painted for this church, and remained here till the French invasion. When it was returned from the Louvre it was kept at the Vatican. Had it been restored to this church, it would have been destroyed in the siege of 1849, when the tribune and bell-tower were thrown down. Here, in front of the high altar, the unhappy Beatrice Cenci was buried without any monument.
Irish travellers may be interested in the gravestones in the nave, of Hugh O’Neil of Tyrone, Baron Dungannon, and O’Donnell of Tyrconnell (1608). Near the door is the fine tomb, with the beautiful sleeping figure of Julian, Archbishop of Ragusa, ob. 1510, inscribed “Bonis et Mors et Vita dulcis est.” An inscription below the steps in front of the church commemorates the translation of a miraculous image of the Virgin hither in 1714.
In the cloister is the Tempietto, a small domed building resting on sixteen Doric columns, built by Bramante in 1502, on the spot where St. Peter’s cross is said to have stood. A few grains of the sacred sand from the hole in the centre of the chapel are given to visitors by the monks as a relic.
“St. Peter, when he was come to the place of execution, requested of the officers that he might be crucified with his head downwards, alleging that he was not worthy to suffer in the same manner his divine Master had died before him. He had preached the cross of Christ, had borne it in his heart, and its marks in his body, by sufferings and mortification, and he had the happiness to end his life on the cross. The Lord was pleased not only that he should die for his love, but in the same manner himself had died for us, by expiring on the cross, which was the throne of his love. Only the apostle’s humility made a difference, in desiring to be crucified with his head downward. His Master looked toward heaven, which by his death he opened to men; but he judged that a sinner formed from dust, and going to return to dust, ought rather in confusion to look on the earth, as unworthy to raise his eyes to heaven. St. Ambrose, St. Austin, and St. Prudentius ascribe this his petition partly to his humility, and partly to his desire of suffering more for Christ. Seneca mentions that the Romans sometimes crucified men with their heads downward; and Eusebius testifies that several martyrs were put to that cruel death. Accordingly, the executioners easily granted the apostle his extraordinary request. St. Chrysostom, St. Austin, and St. Austerius say that he was nailed to the cross; Tertullian mentions that he was tied with cords. He was probably both nailed and bound with ropes.”
—Alban Butler.
The view from the front of the church is almost unrivalled.
Behind it is the famous Fontana Paolina, whose name, by a curious coincidence, combines those of its architect, Fontana, and its originator, Paul V. It was erected in 1611, and is supplied with water from the Lake of Bracciano, by the aqueduct of the Aqua Trajana, thirty-five miles in length. The red granite columns, which divide the fountain, were brought from the temple of Minerva in the Forum Transitorium.
“The pleasant, natural sound of falling water, not unlike that of a distant cascade in the forest, may be heard in many of the Roman streets and piazzas, when the tumult of the city is hushed; for consuls, emperors, and popes, the great men of every age, have found no better way of immortalising their memories, than by the shifting, indestructible, ever new, yet unchanging, up-gush and down-fall of water. They have written their names in that unstable element, and proved it a more durable record than brass or marble.”
—Hawthorne.
“Il n’y a rien encore, dans quelque état que ce soit, à opposer aux magnifiques fontaines qu’on voit à Rome dans les places et les carrefours, ni à l’abondance des eaux qui ne cessent jamais de couler; magnificence d’autant plus louable que l’utilité publique y est jointe.”
—Duclos.
A little beyond this fountain is the modern Porta S. Pancrazio, near the site of the ancient Porta Aurelia, built by Pius IX. in 1857, to replace a gate destroyed by the French under Oudinot in 1849. Many buildings outside the gate, injured at the same time, still remain in ruins.
The lane on the right, inside the gate, leads to the Villa Lante, built in 1524 by Giulio Romano, for Bartolomeo da Pescia, secretary of Clement VII. It still contains some frescoes of Giulio Romano, though they are only lately uncovered, as the house was used, until the last two years, as a succursale to the Convent of the Sacré Cœur at the Trinità de’ Monti.
Not far outside the gate are the Church and Convent of S. Pancrazio, founded in the sixth century by Pope Symmachus, but modernized in 1609 by Cardinal Torres. Here Crescenzio Nomentano, the famous consul of Rome in the tenth century, is buried; here Narses, after the defeat of Totila, was met by the pope and cardinals, and conducted in triumph to St. Peter’s to return thanks for his victory; here, also, Peter II. of Arragon was crowned by Innocent III., and Louis of Naples was received by John XII.
A flight of steps leads from the church to the Catacomb of Calepodius, where many of the early popes and martyrs were buried. It has no especial characteristic to make it worth visiting. Another flight of steps leads to the spot where S. Pancrazio was martyred. His body rests with that of St. Victor beneath the altar. A parish church in London is dedicated to St. Pancras, in whose name kings of France used to confirm their treaties.
“In the persecution under Diocletian, this young saint, who was only fourteen years of age, offered himself voluntarily as a martyr, defending boldly before the emperor the cause of the Christians. He was therefore beheaded by the sword, and his body was honourably buried by Christian women. His church, near the gate of S. Pancrazio, has existed since the year 500. St. Pancras was in the middle ages regarded as the protector against false oaths, and the avenger of perjury. It was believed that those who swore falsely by St. Pancras were immediately and visibly punished; hence his popularity.”
—Jameson’s Sacred Art.
Turning to the left from the gate, on the side of the hill between this and the Porta Portese, is the Catacomb of S. Ponziano.
“Here is the only perfect specimen still extant of a primitive subterranean baptistery. A small stream of water runs through this cemetery, and at this one place the channel has been deepened so as to form a kind of reservoir, in which a certain quantity of water is retained. We descend into it by a flight of steps, and the depth of water it contains varies with the height of the Tiber. When that river is swollen so as to block up the exit by which this stream usually empties itself, the waters are sometimes so dammed back as to inundate the adjacent galleries of the catacomb; at other times there are not above three or four feet of water. At the back of the font, and springing out of the water, is painted a beautiful Latin cross, from whose sides leaves and flowers are budding forth, and on the two arms rest ten candlesticks, with the letters Alpha and Omega suspended by a little chain below them. On the front of the arch over the font is the Baptism of our Lord in the river Jordan by St. John, whilst St. Abdon, St. Sennen, St. Miles, and other saints of the Oriental Church occupy the sides. These paintings are all of late date, perhaps of the seventh or eighth century: but there is no reason to doubt but that the baptistery had been so used from the earliest times. We have distinct evidence in the Acts of the Martyrs that the sacrament was not unfrequently administered in the cemeteries.”—The Roman Catacombs—Northcote.
In this catacomb is an early Portrait of Christ, much resembling that at SS. Nereo ed Achilleo.
“The figure is, however, draped, and the whole work has certain peculiarities which appear to mark a later period of art. Both these portraits agree, if not strictly, yet in general features, with the description in Lentulus’s letter (to the Roman senate), and portraits and descriptions together serve to prove that the earliest Christian delineators of the person of the Saviour followed no arbitrary conception of their own, but were guided rather by a particular traditional type, differing materially from the Grecian ideal, and which they transmitted in a great measure to future ages.”—Kugler, i. 16.
In this vicinity are the Catacombs of SS. Abdon and Sennen, of St. Julius, and of Sta. Generosa.
Opposite the Porta S. Pancrazio is the entrance of the beautiful Villa Pamfili Doria (open to pedestrians and to two-horse carriages after 12 o’clock on Mondays and Fridays), called by the Italians “Belrespiro.” The Casino contains a few (not first-rate) ancient statues, and some views of Venice in the seventeenth century by Heintius. The garden, for which especial permission must be obtained, is full of beautiful azaleas and camellias.
From the ilex-fringed terrace in front of the casino is one of the best views of St. Peter’s, which is here seen without the town,—backed by the Campagna, the Sabine Mountains, and the blue peak of Soracte. The road to the left leads through pine-shaded lawns and woods, and by some modern ruins, to the lake, above which is a graceful fountain. A small temple raised in 1851 commemorates the French who fell here during the siege of Rome in 1849. The word “Mary” in large letters of clipped box on the other side of the grounds is a memorial of the late beloved Princess Doria (Lady Mary Talbot). Not far from this is a columbarium.
The site of the Villa Doria was once occupied by the gardens of Galba, and here the murdered emperor is believed to have been buried.
“Un certain Argius, autrefois esclave de Galba, ramassa son corps, qui avait subi mille outrages, et alla lui creuser une humble sépulture dans les jardins de son ancien maître; mais il fallut retrouver la tête: elle avait été mutilée et promenée par les goujats de l’armée. Enfin Argius la trouva le lendemain, et la réunit au corps déjà brûlé. Les jardins de Galba étaient sur le Janicule, près de la voie Aurélienne, et on croit que le lieu qui vit le dernier dénouement de cette affreuse tragédie est celui qu’occupe aujourd’hui la plus charmante promenade de Rome, là où inclinent avec tant de grâce sur les pentes semées d’anémones et où dessinent si délicatement sur l’azur du ciel et des montagnes leurs parasols élégants les pins de la villa Pamphili.”—Ampère, Emp. ii. 80.
The foundation of the Villa Pamfili Doria is due to the wealth extorted by Olympia Maldacchini during the reign of her brother-in-law, Innocent X.
“Innocent X. fut, pour ainsi dire, contraint de fonder la maison Pamphili. Les casuistes et les jurisconsultes levèrent ses scrupules, car il en avait. Ils lui prouvèrent que le pape était en droit d’économiser sur les revenus du saint-siége pour assurer l’avenir de sa famille. Ils fixèrent, avec une modération qui nous fait dresser les cheveux sur la tête, le chiffre des libéralités permises à chaque pape. Suivant eux, le souverain pontife pouvait, sans abuser, établir un majorat de quatre mille francs de rente nette, fonder une seconde géniture en faveur de quelque parent moins avantagé, et donner neuf cent mille francs de dot à chacune de ses nièces. Le général des jésuites, R. P. Vitelleschi, approuva cette décision. Là-dessus, Innocent X. se mit à fonder la maison Pamphili, à construire le palais Pamphili, à créer la villa Pamphili, et à pamphiliser, tant qu’il put, les finances de l’église et de l’état.”—About, Rome Contemporaine.
There are two ways of returning to Rome from the Villa Doria—one, which descends straight into the valley to the Porta Cavalleggieri, passing on the left the Church of Sta. Maria delle Fornaci; the other, skirting the walls of the city beneath the Villa Lante, which passes a Chapel, where St. Andrew’s head, lost one day by the canons of St. Peter’s, was miraculously re-discovered!
“On ne voit pas que de nouveaux monuments religieux se rapportent aux deux apparitions de Pyrrhus en Italie; seulement les augures firent rétablir le temple du dieu des foudres nocturnes, le dieu étrusco-sabin Summanus, en expiation sans doute de ce que la tête de la statue de Summanus, placée sur le temple de Jupiter Capitolin, avait été détachée par la foudre, et, après qu’on l’eut cherchée en vain, retrouvée dans le Tibre.
“Je ne compare pas, mais j’ai vu le long des murs de Rome, entre la porte Cavalleggieri et la porte Saint Pancrace, une petite chapelle élevée au lieu où l’on a retrouvé la tête de Saint André apportée solennellement de Constantinople à Rome au quinzième siècle, et qui s’était perdue.”—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 55.
“Therefore farewell, ye hills, and ye, ye envineyarded ruins!
Therefore farewell, ye walls, palaces, pillars, and domes!
Therefore farewell, far seen, ye peaks of the mythic Albano,
Seen from Montorio’s height, Tibur and Æsula’s hills!
Ah, could we once ere we go, could we stand, while, to ocean descending,
Sinks o’er the yellow dark plain slowly the yellow broad sun,
Stand from the forest emerging at sunset, at once in the champaign,
Open, but studded with trees, chestnuts umbrageous and old,
E’en in those fair open fields that incurve to thy beautiful hollow,
Nemi imbedded in wood, Nemi inurn’d in the hill!—
Therefore farewell, ye plains, and ye hills, and the City Eternal!
Therefore farewell! we depart, but to behold you again!”
A. H. Clough, Amours de Voyage.
The End
Showing the more important streets and buildings. (right-side of map)]
Footnotes
1 Dionysius, xii. 8.
2 Livy, v. 13.
3 Observe.—Here and elsewhere the arms of the Della Rovere—an oak-tree. Robur, an oak,—hence Rovere.
4 The beautiful 15th century altar of four virgin saints at S. Cosimato in Trastevere, is said to have been brought from this chapel.
5 All authorities agree that this beautiful portrait is not the work of Raphael. Kugler also denies that it is the likeness of Cæsar Borgia.
6 See Kugler, ii. 449.
7 Of the many Handbooks for Italy which have appeared, perhaps that of Du Pays (in one volume) is the most comprehensive, and—as far as its very condensed form allows—much the most interesting.
8 See Trollope’s Life of Vittoria Colonna.
9 See “Un Figliuol’ di Maria, ossia un Nuovo nostro Fratello,” edited by the Baron di Bussiere. 1842.
10 It is more worth while to visit the Palazzo Chigi at Lariccia, near Albano, which retains its stamped leather hangings, and much of its old furniture. Here may be seen, assembled in one room, the portraits of the twelve nieces of Alexander VII., who were so enchanted when their uncle was made pope, that they all took the veil immediately to please him!
11 This Gallery has been closed since the Sardinian occupation.
12 So called from the Jesuit father of that name, who lived in the 17th century.
13 Galat. ii. 7.
14 Philipp. iv. 22.
15 2 Timothy i. 16
16 Philemon 23.
17 Philipp. ii. 22.
18 Kugler.
19 Varro, De Ling. Lat. v. 42.
20 Smith’s Roman Mythology.
21 Vitruvius, iv. 7, 1.
22 Pliny, xxxv. 12.
23 Pliny, vii. 39.
24 Livy, vii. 3.
25 Pliny, xxxiii. 18.
26 Pliny, xxxvi. 5.
27 Tacitus, Hist. iii. 74.
28 Tacitus, Hist. iv. 53.
29 Zosimus, lib. v. c. 38.
30 Valerius Maximus, ii. 3. 3.
31 Vitruvius, iii. 2, 5; Propertius, iv. 11, 45; Cic. pro Planc. 32.
32 Livy, vi. 20.
33 Livy, v. 48.
34 Velleius Paterc. ii. 3.
35 See Merivale, Hist. of the Romans, vol. vi.
36 Dyer’s Rome, 407, 408, 409.
37 Ampère, Emp. i. 22.
38 When 400 houses and three or four churches were levelled to the ground to make a road for his triumphal approach.—Rabelais, Lettre viii. p. 21.
39 Dyer’s City of Rome, p. 379.
40 R, right; L, left.
41 The statue of Leo X. is interesting as having been erected to this popular art-loving pope in his lifetime. It is inscribed—“Optimi liberalissimique pontificis memoriæ.”
42 Plin. Nat Hist xxix. 14, I; Plut. Fort. Rom. 12.
43 Hist. Rom. i. 382.
44 The “Dies Iræ,” by Tommaso di Celano, of the fourteenth century.
45 “Per gradus qui sunt super Calpurnium fornicem.”
46 Paradiso, canto xii.
47 Hist. Rome.
48 “Est locus in carcere quod Tullianum appellatur, ubi paululum descenderis ad lævam, circiter duodecim pedes humi depressus. Eum muniunt undique parietes, atque insuper camera lapideis fornicibus vincta; sed incultu, tenebris, odore fœda. atque terribilis ejus facies.”—Sall. Catil. lv.
49 See Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 31.
50 This story is most picturesquely told by Dante. Purg. x. 72.
51 Ovid, Fasti, v. 575, 699.
52 Statius, i. 6. Livy, vii. 6.
53 Livy, vii. 6. Varr. iv. 32.
54 Pliny, xv. 18.
55 Suetonius, Aug. 22.
56 Cicero de Off. ii. 25.
57 Livy, iii. 48.
58 Pliny, xv. 29.
59 Vitruvius, iii.
60 Ampère, Emp. ii. 233.
61 Josephus, vii. 37.
62 Pliny, xxxvi. 7.
63 See Percy’s Romanism.
64 See the whole question of Simon Magus discussed in Waterworth’s “England and Rome.”
65 Prudentius contra Symmac. i. 1, 25.
66 Dion Cassius, lxvi. 15.
67 S. Buonaventura is perhaps best known to the existing Christian world as the author of the beautiful hymn, “Recordare sanctæ crucis.”
68 Varro, de R. Rust i. 2, and iii. 16.
69 See Poggio, De Vanitate Fortunæ.
70 This inscription, found in the catacomb of S. Agnese, runs:
“Sic præmia servas Vespasiane dire
Premiatus es morte Gaudenti letare
Civitatis ubi gloriæ tuæ autori,
Promisit iste Kristus omnia tibi
Quï alium paravit theatrum in cœlo.”
71 See Hemans’ Catholic Italy.
72 A work has been published by S. Deakin on the Flora of the Coliseum. This was very remarkable, but has greatly suffered during the so-called cleansing of the building by the Italian government in 1871.
73 Quamdiu stat Colysæus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colysæus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.
74 See Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 289—292.
75 “Quis a signo Vertumni in circum maximum venit, quin is unoquoque gradu de avaritia tua commoneretur? quam tu viam tensarum atque pompæ ejus modi exegisti, ut tu ipse ire non audeas.”—In Verrem, i. 59.
76 Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 44. See Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 32.
77 Varro, de Ling. Lat. iv. 8.
78 “There is no doubt that many of the amusements, still more many of the religious practices now popular in this capital, may be traced to sources in Pagan antiquity. The game of morra, played with the fingers (the micare digitis of the ancients); the rural feasting before the chapel of the Madonna del divino Amore on Whit Monday; the revelry and dancing sub diu for the whole night on the Vigil of St. John, (a scene on the Lateran piazza, riotous, grotesque, but not licentious); the divining by dreams to obtain numbers for the lottery; hanging ex voto pictures in churches to commemorate escapes from danger or recovery from illness; the offering of jewels, watches, weapons, &c., to the Madonna; the adorning and dressing of sacred images, sometimes for particular days; throwing flowers on the Madonna’s figure when borne in processions (as used to be honoured the image, or stone, of Cybele); burning lights before images on the highways; paying special honour to sacred pictures, under the notion of their having moved their eyes; or to others, under the idea of their supernatural origin—made without hands; wearing effigies or symbols as amulets (thus Sylla wore, and used to invoke, a little golden Apollo hung round his neck); suspending flowers to shrines and tombs; besides other uses, in themselves blameless and beautiful, nor, even if objectionable, to be regarded as the genuine reflex of what is dogmatically taught by the Church. This enduring shadow thrown by Pagan over Christian Rome is, however, a remarkable feature in the story of that power whose eminence in ruling and influencing was so wonderfully sustained, nor destined to become extinct after empire had departed from the Seven Hills.”—Hemans’ Monuments of Rome.
79 Made to flow with wine under Heliogabalus.
80 Pliny, xxxiv. 2.
81 Livy, xxi. 62.
82 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i.
83 Dyer, 104.
84 Livy, v. 40.
85 Dion Cassius, lxiii. 21.
86 Ampère, iii. 48.
87 Vitruvius, iii. 3.
88 Fasti, i. 515.
89 Plin. H. N. vii. 36; Val. Max. v. 4—7; Festus, p. 609.
90 Beatrice and Lucrezia Cenci were imprisoned in the Corte Savella, and led thence to execution.
91 See the account of the Basilica of St. Lorenzo fuori Mura.
93 See Dyer’s City of Rome.
94 Sat. iii.
95 Sat. xvi.
96 See Dr. Philip’s article on “The Jews in Rome.”
97 This account is much abridged from the interesting translation in Whiteside’s “Italy in the Nineteenth Century,” from “Beatrice Cenci Romana, Storia del Secolo xvi. Raccontata dal D. A. A. Firenze.”
98 Livy, iv. 16; xxxviii. 28.
99 Merivale, Hist. of Romans under the Empire, chap. xl.
100 Merivale, chap. xl.
101 Sueton. Aug. 72.
102 Livy, i. 41.
103 Livy, i. 41.
104 The palace of Numa was close to the Temple of Vesta; that of Tullus Hostilius was on the Cœlian; those of Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus on the Esquiline.
105 Dionysius, ii. 50; Livy, i. 12.
106 Varr, iv. 8.
107 Vell. Paterc. ii. 81.
108 Tac. Ann. xi. 2.
109 Dion Cassius mentions that the ceilings of Halls of Justice in the Palatine were painted by Severus to represent the starry sky. The old Roman practice was for the magistrate to sit under the open sky, which probably suggested this kind of ceiling.
110 Ann, iv. 54.
111 Tac. Ann. xiii. 18; Suet. Ner. 33; Dion. lxi. 7.
112 See Gibbon, i. 133.
113 Tacitus, Hist. i. 77; Suet. Vitell. 15.
114 Merivale, ch. xlv.
115 Suet. Cal. 22.
116 Suet. Claud. 10. “Prorepsit ad solarium proximum, interque prætenta foribus vela se abdidit.” The solarium was the external terraced portico, and this still remains.
117 Tac. Ann. xi. 37, 38; Dion. lx. 31; Suet. Claud. 39.
118 Tac. Ann. xii. 67; Suet Claud. 44.
119 Dionysius, i. 32; Livy, xxix. 14.
120 Dyer’s Hist. of the City of Rome.
121 Ep. i. 70.
122 Festus, 340, 348.
123 Suet. Tib. 47; Cal. 21, 22; Tac. Ann. vi. 45.
124 De re Rust, iii. 5.
125 Pliny, xxxvi. 2.
126 See Smith’s Dict. of Roman Biography.
127 Plin. H. N. xvii. 1.
128 ix. 1, 4.
129 Suet. Nero, 2.
130 Smith’s Dict. of Roman Biography.
131 Tollam altius tectum, non ut ego te despiciam, sed ne tu aspicias urbem eam, quam delere voluisti.—De Harusp. Res. 15.
132 Cic. pro Dom. ad Pont. 42.
133 See Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 528.
134 Dion Cass. liiii. 27.
135 Dyer, p. 143.
136 Pro Quinet. 1, 2, 22, 24, 26.
137 Pro Verr. i. 14, 39.
138 Ad Att. vi. 6.
139 Macrob. Saturn, ii. 9.
140 Varr. R. R. iii. 17; Pliny, H. N. ix. 55.
141 Suet. Aug. 72.
142 Plut. Romul. xi.
143 Tac. Ann. xii. 24.
144 Prell. R. Myth. 456.
145 Cic. de Div. i. 45; Livy, v. 32.
146 Plut. Rom. Sol. 2.
147 Cic. Brut. 34.
148 Padre Garucci, S. J., has published an exhaustive monograph on this now celebrated “Graffito Blasphemo.” Roma, 1857.
149 The Palace of Nero is described in Tacitus, Ann. xv. 42, and Suetonius, Ner. 31.
150 Septimius Severus was born A.D. 146, near Leptis in Africa. Statius addresses a poem to one of his ancestors, Sept. Severus of Leptis.
151 Martial, xii. Ep. 75.
152 Dion Cass. Commod.
153 Lamprid. Elagab. 8.
154 Cassiod. vii. 5.
155 Dyer’s Rome, p. 222.
156 Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 460.
157 Trebellius Pollio.
158 Gibbon, v. 1.
159 S. Filippo Neri.
160 Mrs. Jameson.
161 Montalembert, Moines d’Occident.
162 Milman’s Latin Christianity, vol. II.
163 Rome possesses at least eight fine modern statues of saints:—besides those of Sta. Silvia and St. Gregory, are the Sta. Agnese of Algardi, the Sta. Bibiana of Bernini, the Sta. Cecilia of Moderno, the Sta. Susanna of Quesnoy, the Sta. Martina of Menghino, and the S. Bruno of Houdon.
164 See Roma Sotterranea, p. 106.
165 “Deus, qui sanctum Joannem confessorem tuum perfectæ suæ abnegationis, et crucis amatorem eximium efficisti, concede; ut ejus imitationi jugiter inhærentes, gloriam assequamur æternam.”—Collect of St. John of the Cross, Roman Vesper-Book.
166 A square nimbus indicates that a portrait was executed before, a round after the death of the person represented.
167 See Emile Braun—the building of the Macellum is described by Dion Cassius, xi. 18; Notitia, Reg. ii.
168 Best known by his comic pictures in the Uffizi at Florence.
169 Virg. Æn. viii. 104, 108, 216; Ov. Fast. i. 551.
170 Ov. Fast. v. 149.
171 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 79.
172 Varro, iv. 7.
173 Livy, i, 20.
174 Ovid, Fast. iii. 295.
175 “Onions, hair, and pilchards.”—See Plutarch’s Life of Numa.
176 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 427.
177 Dionysius, iii. 43.
178 Ovid, Fast. v. 293.
179 Fast. iii 883.
180 Ovid, Trist. iii. 71.
181 See the account of the Ch. of Sta. Francesca Romana, Chap. iv.
182 Livy, v. 22.
183 Ovid, Fast. vi. 727.
184 Martial, x. Ep. 56.
185 Propert. iv. El. 9.
186 Mart. vi. Ep. 64.
187 There is a beautiful picture of Sta. Sabina by Vivarini of Murano, in St. Zacharia at Venice.
188 Hemans’ Monuments in Rome.
189 Commemorated in the beautiful Memoir of “A Dominican Artist” (Rivingtons, 1872).
190 Some antiquaries attribute them to the wall of the Aventine, built by Ancus Martius. The arch, of course, is an addition.
191 Hemans’ Story of Monuments in Rome, ii. 228.
192 Livy, i. 10.
193 Livy, xxvii. 25; xxix. 11.
194 Hemans’ Mediæval Sacred Art.
[195] This bust has been supposed to represent the poet Ennius, the friend of Scipio Africanus, because his last request was that he might be buried by his side. Even in the time of Cicero, Ennius was believed to be buried in the tomb of the Scipios. “Carus fuit Africano superiori noster Ennius: itaque etiam in sepulchro Scipionum putatur is esse constitutus ex marmore.”—Cic. Orat. pro Arch. Poeta.
196 Dyer’s Hist. of the City of Rome.
197 Coppi, Memorie Colonnesi, p. 342.
198 See Dyer’s Hist. of the City of Rome, p. 85.
199 Ibid. p. 97.
200 Ibid. p. 122.
201 This story is told by St. Ambrose.
202 This story is represented in one of the ancient tapestries in the cathedral of Anagni.
203 Amm. Marcell. lib. xxvii. c.
204 Roma Sotterranea, p. 130.
205 Roma Sotterranea, p. 177.
206 Roma Sotterranea, p. 97.
207 St. Melchiades, buried in another part of the catacomb, who lived long in peace after the persecution had ceased.
208 Hippolytus, Adrias, Marca, Neo, Paulina, and others.
209 St. Damasus was buried in the chapel above the entrance.
210 “A more striking commentary on the divine promise, ‘The Lord keepeth all the bones of his servants: He will not lose one of them’ (Ps. xxxiii. 24), it would be difficult to conceive.”—Roma Sotterranea.
211 Roma Sotterranea, p. 180.
212 Alban Butler, viii. 204.
213 Roma Sotterranea, p. 182.
214 Roma Sotterranea, p. 242.
215 Roma Sotterranea, p. 247.
216 Lord Lindsay’s Christian Art, i. 46.
217 Alban Butler, viii. 148.
218 Lib. Pont.
219 Now Santa Maria, an island near Gaieta.
220 Alban Butler, v. 205.
221 Alban Butler, v. 205.
222 For these and many other particulars, see an interesting lecture by Mr. Shakespere Wood, on “The Fountain of Egeria,” given before the Roman Archæological Society.
223 Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 402.
224 Merivale, Romans under the Empire, ch. xi.
225 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 141
226 Dionysius, ii. 63.
227 Ovid, Met. xiv. 452, 453.
228 Dyer’s Rome, p. 95.
229 Pliny, Hist. Nat. xv. 35, 2.
230 Dion Cass. liv.
231 “De Cæsare vicino scripseram ad te, quia cognoram ex tuis literis, eum σὑνναον, Quirino malo, quam Saluti.” Ad Att. xii. 45.
232 Vespasian had a brother named Sabinus; his son’s name recalls that of Titus Tatius.
233 “Deus, qui inter cætera sapientiæ tuæ miracula etiam in tenera ætate maturæ sanctitatis gratiam contulisti; da, quæsumus, ut beati Stanislai exemplo, tempus, instanter operando, redimentes, in æternam ingredi requiem festinemus.”—Collect of St. S. Kostka, Roman Vesper-Book.
234 Cardinal Wiseman’s Life of Pius VII.
235 By this same master is the interesting fresco of Sixtus IV. and his nephews—now in the Vatican gallery.
236 The body of this saint is said to repose at S. Lorenzo fuori Mura; his head is at the Quirinal; at S. Lorenzo in Lucina his gridiron and chains are shown.
237 Jameson’s Sacred and Legendary Art.
[238] Roma Christiana.
239 Dyer, p. 94.
240 “At Rome, Selvaggi made a Latin distich in honour of Milton, and Salsilli a Latin tetrastich, celebrating him for his Greek, Latin, and Italian poetry; and he in return presented to Salsilli in his sickness those fine Scazons or Iambic verses having a spondee in the last foot, which are inserted among his juvenile poems. From Rome he went to Naples.”—Newton.
241 A holy hermit of Scete, who died 391.
242 See Roma Sotterranea, p. 174.
243 Une Chrétienne à Rome.
244 The reasons for this belief are given in “The Roman Catacombs of Northcote,” p. 78.
245 The bodies were removed to Sta. Sabina in the fifth century by Celestine I.
246 Cramer’s Ancient Italy, i. 389.
247 Cic. Phil. ix. 7. See Dyer’s Rome, p. 215.
248 Sat i. 8, 15.
249 See Hemans’ Catholic Italy, Part I.
250 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 38.
251 Varro, de Ling. Lat. iv. 8.
252 Fest. v. Septimone.
253 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 65.
254 Fest. p. 297.
255 Cicero pro doma sua, 38; Dionysius, viii. 79; Livy, ii. 41.
256 See Dyer’s City of Rome, p. 65. The Acts of the Martyrs mention that several Christians suffered “In tellure.”
257 See Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 421.
258 See Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 431.
259 Liv. i. 26; Dionysius, iii. 22.
260 Merivale, Romans under the Empire, ch. liii.
261 “Des huit figures ébauchées il y en a deux aujourd’hui au musée du Louvre (les deux esclaves). Lorsque Michel-Ange eut renoncé à son plan primitif il en fit don à Roberto Strozzi. Des mains de Strozzi elles passèrent dans celles de François 1er, et puis dans celles du connétable de Montmorency, qui les plaça à son château d’Ecouen, d’où elles sont venues au Louvre. Quatre autres prisonniers sont placés dans la grotte de Buontalenti au jardin du Palais Pitti, à Florence. Un groupe, représentant une figure virile en terrassant une seconde, se voit aujourd’hui dans la grande salle del Cinquecento, au Palais vieux de Florence, où elle fut placé par Côsme 1er.”—F. Sabatier.
262 The wife of Oswy, king of Northumberland received a golden key containing filings of the chains from Pope Vitalianus, in the sixth century.
263 Acts xii. II.
264 Hist. Rom. i. 464.
265 “Ciampini gives an engraving of this figure without the key: a detail, therefore, to be ascribed to restorers:—surely neither justifiable nor judicious.”—Hemans.
266 With a square nimbus, denoting execution in his lifetime, as at Sta. Cecilia and Sta. Maria in Navicella.
267 See Hemans’ Catholic Italy.
268 Croiret, Vie des Saints.
269 I. 26.
270 Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 177.
271 It was found in the gardens of the convent of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva
272 This pagan benediction of the animals is represented in a bas-relief in the Vatican (Museo Pio-Clementino, 157). A peasant bearing two ducks as his offering, brings his cow to be blessed by a priest at the door of a chapel, and the priest delaying to come forth, a calf drinks up the holy water. Ovid describes how he took part in the feast of Pales, and sprinkled the cattle with a laurel bough. (Fasti, iv. 728.)
273 His flat tombstone is in the centre of the nave.
274 This story is the subject of two of Murillo’s most beautiful pictures in the Academy at Madrid. The first represents the vision of the Virgin to John and his wife,—in the second they tell what they have seen to Pope Liberius.
275 This mosaic will bring to mind the beautiful lines of Dante:—
“L’amor che mosse già l’eterno padre
Per figlia aver di sua Deita trina
Costei che fu del figlio suo poi madre
Dell’ universo qui fa la regina.”
276 See Sta. Dorothea, ch. xvii.
277 St. Venantius was a child martyred at Camerino, under Decius, in 250. Pope Clement X., who had been bishop of Camerino, had a peculiar veneration for this saint.
278 This figure of the Virgin is of great interest, as introducing the Greek classical type under which she is so often afterwards represented in Latin art.
[279] It was near the Lateran, on the site of the gardens of Plautius Lateranus, that the famous statues of the Niobedes, attributed to Scopus, now at Florence, were found. The fine tomb of the Plautii is a striking object on the road to Tivoli.
280 See Sta. Pudenziana, ch. x.
281 These columns are mentioned in the thirteenth century list of Lateran relics, which says that all the relics of the Temple at Jerusalem brought by Titus, were preserved at the Lateran.
282 There is a curious mosaic portrait of Clement XII. in the Palazzo Corsini.
283 Sergius III. ob. 911; Agapetus II. ob. 956; John XII. ob. 964; Sylvester II. ob. 1003; John XVIII. ob. 1009; Alexander II. ob. 1073; Pascal II. ob. 1118; Calixtus II. ob. 1124; Honorius II. ob. 1140; Celestine II. ob. 1143; Lucius II. ob. 1145; Anastasius IV. ob. 1154; Alexander III. ob. 1159; Clement III. ob. 1191; Celestine III. ob. 1198; Innocent V. ob. 1276—were buried at St. John Lateran, besides those later popes whose tombs still exist.
284 “Ces monuments, consacrés par la tradition, n’ont pas été jugés cependant assez authentiques pour être solennellement exposés a la vénération des fidèles.”—Gournerie.
285 Sta. Helena is claimed as an English saint, and all the best authorities allow that she was born in England,—according to Gibbon, at York—according to others, at Colchester, which town bears as its arms a cross between three crowns, in allusion to this claim. Some say that she was an innkeeper’s daughter, others that her father was a powerful British prince, Coilus or Coel.
286 Emp. ii. 43.
287 The existence of this inscription makes the destruction of this catacomb under Pius IX. the more extraordinary.
288 Dyer’s Rome, 70.
289 Ampère, Hist. ii. 10.
290 Ampère, Emp. i. 184.
291 Pliny, H. N. xxxv. 37, 2; and 49, 4.
292 Dyer, 111.
293 Dyer, 211.
294 It was close to this temple of Hercules that the bodies of Sta. Symphorosa and her seven sons, martyred under Hadrian (“the seven Biothanati”), were buried by order of the emperor. Sta. Symphorosa herself had been hung up here by her hair, before being drowned in the Tiber.
295 Dyer, 113, 115.
296 Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 198.
297 Dyer, 115.
298 Dyer, 115, 116.
299 Pliny, H. N. xxxvi. 15, 24.
300 So called from a fountain adorned with the figure of a sow, which once existed here.
301 “Here rests Hadrian, who found his greatest misfortune in being obliged to command.”
302 There is a chapel dedicated to St. Bridget in S. Paolo fuori Mura. Sion House, in England, was a famous convent of the Brigittines.
303 See Penny Cyclopædia, and Lewes’s Hist. of Philosophy.
304 Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, act iii. sc. 2.
305 So called from a slight hollow, scarcely now perceptible, left by a reservoir made by Agrippa for the public benefit, and used by Nero in his fêtes.
306 The story of St. Agnes is told by St. Jerome.
307 Donna Olympia soon after died of the plague at her villa near Viterbo.
308 “Les maisons de la Place Navone sont assises sur la base des anciens gradins du cirque de Domitien. Sous ces gradins étaient les voûtes habitées par des femmes perdues.”—Ampère, Emp. ii. 137.
309 A corruption of “Epiphania”—Epiphany.
310 “Living, great nature feared he might outvie
Her works; and, dying, fears herself to die.”
Pope’s Translation (without acknowledgment) in
his Epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller.
311 Raphael lay in state beneath his last great work, the Transfiguration.
312 See Gregorovius, Grabmāler der Pāpste.
313 Author of the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum”—“A treasure of information on all points connected with the decorations and services of the mediæval church. Durandus was born in Provence about 1220, and died in 1290 at Rome.”—Lord Lindsay.
314 It is no honour to me to be like another Apelles, but rather, O Christ, that I gave all my gains to thy poor. One was a work for earth, the other for heaven—a city, the flower of Etruria, bare me, John.
315 That part of the ancient Campus Martius which contains the Theatre of Marcellus and Portico of Octavia, is described in Chapter V.; that which belongs to the Via Flaminia in Chapter II.
316 Vasari, v.
317 A scholar of Bronzino.
318 See Vasari, vol. vii.
319 It is interesting to observe that the same vision was seen under the same circumstances in other periods of history.
“So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it... and David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.”—1 Chron. xxi. 14—16.
“Before the plague of London had begun (otherwise than in St. Giles’s), seeing a crowd of people in the street, I joined them to satisfy my curiosity, and found them all staring up into the air, to see what a woman told them appeared plain to her. This was an angel clothed in white, with a fiery sword in his hand, waving it, or brandishing it over his head: she described every part of the figure to the life, and showed them the motion and the form.”—Defoe, Hist. of the Plague.
320 The pictures at Ara Cœli and Sta. Maria Maggiore both claim to be that carried by St. Gregory in this procession. The song of the angels is annually commemorated on St. Mark’s Day, when the clergy pass by in procession to St. Peter’s; and the Franciscans of Ara Cœli and the canons of Sta. Maria Maggiore, halting here, chaunt the antiphon, Regina cœli, lætare.
321 Hemans’ Story of Monuments in Rome.
322 “Deus, qui apostolo tuo Petro collatis clavibus regni celestis ligandi et solvendi pontificium tradidisti; concede ut intercessionis ejus auxilio, a peccatorum nostrorum legibus liberemur: et hanc civitatem, quam te adjuvante fundavimus, fac ab ira tua in perpetuum permanere securam, et de hostibus, quorum causa constructa est, novos et multiplicatos habere triumphos, per Dominum nostrum,” &c.
323 The same whom Alexander VI. had intended to poison, when he poisoned himself instead.
324 At the time of its erection Sixtus V. conceded an indulgence of ten years to all who, passing beneath the obelisk, should adore the cross on its summit, repeating a pater-noster.
325 The inscription is from Isaiah iv. 6, “A tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”
326 It may not be uninteresting to give the actual words of the benediction:—
“May the holy apostles Peter and Paul, in whose power and dominion we trust, pray for us to the Lord! Amen.
“Through the prayers and merits of the blessed, eternal Virgin Mary, of the blessed archangel Michael, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and all saints—may the Almighty God have mercy upon you, may your sins be forgiven you, and may Jesus Christ lead you to eternal life. Amen.
“Indulgence, absolution, and forgiveness of all sins—time for true repentance, a continual penitent heart and amendment of life,—may the Almighty and merciful God grant you these! Amen.
“And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon you, and remain with you for ever. Amen.”
327 “Exuens se chlamyde, et accipiens bidentem, ipse primus terram aperuit ad fundamenta basilicæ Sancti Petri continendam; deinde in numero duodecim apostolorum duodecim cophinos plenos in humeris superimpositos bajulano, de eo loco ubi fundamenta Basilicæ Apostoli erant jacenda.”—Cod. Vat. 7. Sancta Cæcil. 2.
328 The façade of the old basilica is seen in Raphael’s fresco of the Incendio del Borgo, and its interior in that of the Coronation of Charlemagne.
329 See Fergusson’s Handbook of Architecture, vol. ii.
330 As in the portico of the temple of Mars were preserved the verses of the poet Attius upon Junius Brutus.
331 These letters are in real mosaic. Those in the nave and transepts are in paper—to complete them in mosaic would have been too expensive.
332 Innocent sent two bishops to receive it at Ancona, two cardinals to receive it at Narni, and went himself, with all his court, to meet it at the Porto del Popolo.
333 Eaton’s Rome.
334 Gregorovius, Grabmäler der Päpste.
335 There is a fine portrait of Urban VIII. by Pietro da Cortona, in the Capitol gallery.
336 See Vasari, vi. 265.
337 This mosaic occupied ten men constantly for nine years, and cost 60,000 francs.
338 Gregorovius.
339 He had been bishop of St. Alban’s, and a missionary for the conversion of Norway.
340 The principal authorities for the fact of St. Peter’s being at Rome—so often denied by ultra-protestants—are: St. Jerome, Catalogus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum, in Petro; Tertullian, de Prescriptionibus, c. xxxvi.; and Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. ii. cap. xxiv.
341 See Hemans’ Catholic Italy, vol. i.
342 See Dyer’s Hist. of the City of Rome, p. 358.
343 Pliny, xxxv. 15.
344 Tac. Ann. xv. 44.
345 In the Campo-Santo of Pisa.
346 Fifteen Psalms are sung before the Miserere begins, and one light is extinguished for each—the Psalms being represented by fifteen candles.
347 See the account of the “Tombs of the Scipios” in Chapter IX.
348 Who is buried by the altar of S. Pietro in Vincoli.
349 Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne, ii. 62.
350 For a detailed account of this collection, see Dennis’ “Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria,” whence many of the quotations above are taken; also Mrs. Hamilton Gray’s “Sepulchres of Etruria.”
351 Vasari calls it Palazzo nel Bosco del Belvedere.
352 “This is perhaps the grandest of the whole series. Here the Almighty is seen rending like a thunderbolt the thick shroud of fiery clouds, letting in that light under which his works were to spring into life.”—Lady Eastlake.
353 The candle is ingeniously made crooked in the socket, not to interfere with the lines of the architecture, while the flame is straight.
354 “According to the ‘Spiritual Meadow’ of John Moschus, who died A.D. 620, the lion is said to have pined away after Jerome’s death, and to have died at last on his grave.”
355 See Stefano Infessura, Rev. Ital. Script, tom. iii.
356 Corio, 1st mil. p. 876.
357 Ampère, i. 436.
358 See Hemans’ Monuments in Rome.
359 Piranesi’s engraving shows that a hundred years ago there existed, in addition, a colossal bust, and a hand holding the serpent-twined rod of Æsculapius.
360 Wordsworth.
361 Hemans’ Monuments in Rome.
362 See the Acts of the Martyrs St. Hippolytus and St. Adrian, and the Acts of St. Calepodius, quoted by Canina, R. Aut. p. 584.
363 Plautus, Capt. i. I, 22.
364 See the Epistle of St Denis, the Areopagite, to Timothy.
365 The accounts of the apostle’s death vary greatly: “St. Prudentius says that both St. Peter and St. Paul suffered together in the same field, near a swampy ground, on the banks of the Tiber. Some say St. Peter suffered on the same day of the month, but a year before St. Paul. But Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, and most others, affirm that they suffered the same year, and on the 29th of June.”—Alban Butler.
366 It is under the shadow of S. Paolo that Cervantes (“Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda”) places the scene of the death of Periander.
367 Mrs. Jameson.
368 Among the most interesting of the objects lost in the fire were the bronze gates ordered by Hildebrand (afterwards Gregory VII.) when legate at Constantinople, for Pantaleone Castelli, in 1070, and adorned with fifty-four scriptural compositions, wrought in silver thread.
369 This picture is now called the Nuptials of Vertumnus and Pomona.
370 Turrigeræ Antemnæ.—Virg. Æn. vii. 631.
371 —— Antemnaque prisco
Crustumio prior.
372 The other two were Cæcina and Crustumium.
373 See Dyer’s Hist. of the City of Rome.
374 Masses of reddish rock of volcanic tufa are still to be seen here, breaking through the soil of the Campagna.
375 Built by Mario Mellini in the fifteenth century.
376 Martial, Ep. x. 45, 5.
377 Martial, Ep. vi. 92, 3.
378 Fast. i. 246.
379 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 227.
380 Niebuhr, i. 240.
381 Arnold, Hist. vol. i.
382 Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 389.
383 Niebuhr, i. 353.
384 Hemans.
385 See Thiers’ History of the French Revolution.
386 It has been supposed that the beautiful silver vase which is shown in the Corsini Palace, and which was picked up in the Tiber, belonged to this plate.