THE QUIRINAL AND VIMINAL.
Palazzo Barberini--Palazzo Albani--S. Carlo a Quattro Fontane--S.
Andrea a Monte Cavallo--Quirinal Palace--Palazzo della
Consulta--Palazzo Rospigliosi--Colonna Gardens and Temple of the
Sun--S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo--Sta. Caterina di Siena--SS.
Domenico e Sisto--Sta. Agata dei Goti--Sta. Maria in Monte--S.
Lorenzo Pane e Perna--Sta. Pudenziana--S. Paolo Primo Eremita--S.
Dionisio--S. Vitale.
It is difficult to determine the exact limits of what in ancient times
were regarded as the Quirinal and Viminal hills. They, like the
Esquiline and Cœlian, are "in fact merely spurs or tongues of hill,
projecting inwards from a common base, the broad table-land, which
slopes on the other side almost imperceptibly into the Campagna."[224]
That, which is described in this chapter as belonging to these two
hills, is chiefly the district to the right of the Via Quattro Fontane,
and its continuations--which extend in a straight line to Sta. Maria
Maggiore.
The Quirinal, like all the other hills, except the Palatine and the
Cœlian, belonged to the Sabines in the early period of Roman history,
and is full of records of their occupation. They had a Capitol here
which is believed to have been long anterior to that on the Capitoline,
and which was crowned by a temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. This
Sabine capitol occupied the site of the present Palazzo Rospigliosi.
The name Quirinal is derived from the Sabine word _Quiris_--signifying a
lance, which gave the Sabines their name of Quirites, or lance-bearers,
and to their god the name Quirinus.[225] After his death Romulus
received this title, and an important temple was raised to him on the
Quirinal by Numa,[226] under this name, thus identifying him with Janus
Quirinus, the national god. This temple was surrounded by a sacred grove
mentioned by Ovid.[227] It was rebuilt by the consul L. Papirius Cursor,
to commemorate his triumph after the third Samnite war, B.C. 293, when
he adorned it with a sun-dial (_solarium horologium_), the first set up
in Rome, which, however, not being constructed for the right latitude,
did not show the time correctly. This defect was not remedied till
nearly a century afterwards, when Q. Marcius Philippus set up a correct
dial.[228] In front of this temple grew two celebrated myrtle-trees, one
called _Patricia_, the other _Plebeia_, which shared the fortunes of
their respective orders, as the orange-tree at Sta. Sabina now does that
of the Dominicans. Thus, up to the fifth century, Patricia flourished
gloriously, and Plebeia pined; but from the time when the plebeians
completely gained the upper hand, Patricia withered away.[229] The
temple was rebuilt by Augustus, and Dion Cassius states that the number
of pillars by which it was surrounded accorded with that of the years of
his life.[230]
Adjoining the temple was a portico:
"Vicini pete porticum Quirini:
Turbam non habet otiosiorem
Pompeius."
_Martial_, xi. Ep. i.
----"Officium cras
Primo sole mihi peragendum in valle Quirini."
_Juvenal, Sat._ ii. 132.
Hard by was a temple of Fortuna Publica,
"Qui dicet, Quondam sacrata est colle Quirini
Hac Fortuna die Publica; verus erit."
_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 375.
also an altar to Mamurius, an ancient Sabine divinity, probably
identical with Mars, and a temple of Salus, or Health, which gave a name
to the Porta Salutaria, which must have stood nearly on the site of the
present Quattro Fontane, and near which, not inappropriately, was a
temple of Fever, in the Via S. Vitale, where fever is still prevalent.
The site of the temple of Quirinus is ascertained to have been nearly
that now occupied by S. Andrea a Monte Cavallo. On the opposite side of
the street, where part of the papal palace now stands, was the temple of
Semo-Sanctus, the reputed father of Sabinus. Between these two temples
was the House of Pomponius Atticus (the friend and correspondent of
Cicero), a situation which gave an opportunity for the witticism of
Cicero when he said that Caesar would rather dwell with Quirinus than
with Salus, meaning that he would rather be at war than be in good
health.[231]
In the same neighbourhood lived Martial the epigrammatist, "on the
third floor, in a narrow street," whence he had a view as far as the
portico of Agrippa, near the Flaminian Way. Below, probably on the site
now occupied by the Piazza Barberini, was a Circus of Flora.
"Mater, ades, florum, ludis celebranda jocosis:
Distuleram partes mense priore tuas.
Incipis Aprili: transis in tempora Maii.
Alter te, fugiens; cum venit, alter habet.
Quum tua sint cedantque tibi confinia mensum,
Convenit in laudes ille vel ille tuas.
Circus in hunc exit, clamataque palma theatris:
Hoc quoque cum Circi munere carmen eat."
_Ovid, Fast._ v. 183.
Among the great families who lived on the Quirinal were the Cornelii,
who had a street of their own, _Vicus Corneliorum_, probably on the
slopes behind the present Colonna Palace; and the Flavii, who were of
Sabine origin.[232] Domitian was born here in the house of the Flavii,
afterwards consecrated by him as a temple, in which Vespasian, Titus,
and Domitian himself were buried, and Julia the ugly daughter of
Titus--well known from her statues in the Vatican.
As some fragments remain of the two buildings erected on the Quirinal
during the later empire, Aurelian's Temple of the Sun, and the Baths of
Constantine, they will be noticed in the regular course.
* * * * *
On the ascent of the hill, just above the Piazza del Tritone, is the
noble _Barberini Palace_, built by Urban VIII. from designs of Carlo
Maderno, continued by Borromini, and finished by Bernini, in 1640. It is
screened from the street by a magnificent railing between columns,
erected 1865--67, and if this railing could be continued, and the block
of houses towards the piazza removed, it would be far the most splendid
private palace in Rome.
This immense building is a memorial of the magnificence and ambition of
Urban VIII. Its size is enormous, the smallest apartment in the palace
containing forty rooms. The Prince at present inhabits the right wing;
with him lives his elder brother the Duke, who abdicated the family
honours in his favour. In the left wing--occupied in the beginning of
this century by the ex-king (Charles VII.) and queen of Spain, and the
"Prince of Peace"--is the huge apartment of the late Cardinal Barberini,
now uninhabited. On this side is the grand staircase, upon which is
placed a lion in high relief, found on the family property at
Palestrina. It is before this lion that Canova is said to have lain for
hours upon the pavement, studying for his tomb of Clement XIII. in St.
Peter's. The _guarda-roba_, badly kept, contains many curious relics of
family grandeur; amongst them is a sedan-chair, painted by Titian.
The _Library_ (open on Thursdays from nine to two) contains a most
valuable collection of MSS., about 7000 in number, brought together by
Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Urban VIII. They include
collections of letters of Galileo, Bembo, and Bellarmine; the official
reports to Urban VIII., relating to the state of Catholicism in England
in the time of Charles I.; a copy of the Bible in the Samaritan
character; a Bible of the fourth century; several MSS. copies of Dante;
a missal illuminated by Ghirlandajo; and a book of sketches of ancient
Roman edifices, of 1465, by Giuliano de Sangallo,--most interesting to
the antiquarian and architect, as preserving the forms of many public
buildings which have disappeared since that date. Among the 50,000
printed books is a Hebrew Bible of 1788, one of the twelve known copies
of the complete edition of Soncino; a Latin Plato, by Ficino, with
marginal notes by Tasso and his father Bernardo; a Dante of 1477, with
notes by Bembo, &c.
In the right wing is a huge _Hall_ (adorned with second-rate statues),
with a grand ceiling by _Pietro da Cortona_ (1596--1669), representing
"Il Trionfo della Gloria," the Forge of Vulcan, Minerva annihilating the
Titans, and other mythological subjects--much admired by Lanzi, and
considered by Kugler to be the most important work of the artist. Four
vast frescoes of the Fathers of the Church are preserved here, having
been removed from the dome of St. Peter's, where they were replaced with
mosaics by Urban VIII. Below are other frescoes by _Pietro da Cortona_,
a portrait of Urban VIII., and some tapestries illustrative of the
events of his reign and of his own intense self-esteem--thus the Virgin
and Angels are represented bringing in the ornaments of the papacy at
his coronation, &c. But the conceit of Pope Urban reaches its climax in
a room at the top of the house, which exhibits a number of the Barberini
bees (the family crest) flocking against the sun, and eclipsing it--to
typify the splendour of the family. The Will of Pope Urban VIII. is a
very curious document, providing against the extinction of the family in
every apparent contingency; this, however, now seems likely to take
place; the heir is a Sciarra. The pillars in front of the palace, and
all the surrounding buildings, teem with the bees of the Barberini,
which may also be seen on the Propaganda and many other great Roman
edifices, and which are creeping up the robe of Urban VIII. in St.
Peter's.
"The Barberini were the last papal nephews who aspired to
independent principalities. Urban VIII., though he enriched them
enormously, appears to have been but little satisfied with them. He
used to complain that he had four relations who were fit for
nothing, the first, Cardinal Francesco, was a saint, and worked no
miracles: the second, Cardinal Antonio, was a monk, and had no
patience: the third, Cardinal Antonio the younger, was an orator
(_i.e._ an ambassador), and did not know how to speak: and the
fourth was a general, who could not draw a sword."--_Goethe,
Romische Briefe._
On the right, on entering the palace, is the small _Collection of
Pictures_ (open when the custode chooses to be there), indifferently
lodged for a building so magnificent. We may notice:--
_2nd Room._--
34. Urban VIII.: _Andrea Sacchi_.
35. A Cardinal: _Titian_.
48. Madonna and Child, St. John, and St Jerome: _Francia_.
54. Madonna and Child: _Sodoma_.
58. Madonna and Child: _Giovanni Bellini_.
63. Daughter of Raphael Mengs: _Mengs_.
67. Portrait of himself: _Masaccio_.
74. Adam and Eve: _Domenichino_.
_3rd Room._--
73. The "Schiava:" _Palma Vecchio_.
"The so-called Slave (a totally unmeaning name) is probably a mere
school picture, of grand beauty, but with too clumsy a style of
drapery, too cold an expression, and too brown a carnation for
Titian--to whom it is attributed."--_Kugler._
76. Castel Gandolfo: _Claude Lorraine_.
78. Portrait: _Bronzino_.
79. Christ among the Doctors--painted in five days, in 1506:
_Albert Durer_.
81. "The mother of Beatrice Cenci"? _Caravaggio_.
82. The Fornarina (with the painter's name on the armlet):
_Raphael_.
"The history of this person, to whom Raphael was attached even to
his death, is obscure, nor are we very clear with regard to her
likenesses. In the tribune at Florence there is a portrait,
inscribed with the date 1512, of a very beautiful woman holding the
fur trimming of her mantle with her right hand, which is said to
represent her. The picture is decidedly by Raphael, but can hardly
represent the Fornarina; at least it has no resemblance to this
portrait, which has the name of Raphael on the armlet, and of the
authenticity of which (particularly with respect to the subject)
there can hardly be a doubt. In this the figure is seated, and is
uncovered to the waist; she draws a light drapery around her; a
shawl is twisted round her head. The execution is beautiful and
delicate, although the lines are sufficiently defined; the forms
are fine and not without beauty, but at the same time not free from
an expression of coarseness and common life. The eyes are large,
dark, and full of fire, and seem to speak of brighter days. There
are repetitions of this picture, from the school of Raphael, in
Roman galleries."--_Kugler._
86. Death of Germanicus: _Poussin._
88. Seaport: _Claude Lorraine._
90. Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto._
93. Annunciation: _Botticelli._
But the interest of this collection centres entirely around two
portraits--that (81) of Lucrezia, the unhappy wife of Francesco Cenci,
by _Scipione Gaetani_, and that (85) of Beatrice Cenci, by _Guido Reni_.
"The portrait of Beatrice Cenci is most interesting as a just
representation of one of the loveliest specimens of the workmanship
of nature. There is a fixed and pale composure upon the features;
she seems sad and stricken down in spirit, yet the despair thus
expressed is lightened by the patience of gentleness. Her head is
bound with folds of white drapery, from which the yellow strings of
her golden hair escape, and fall about her neck. The moulding of
her face is exquisitely delicate; the eyebrows are distinct and
arched; the lips have that permanent meaning of imagination and
sensibility which suffering has not repressed, and which it seems
as if death scarcely could extinguish. Her forehead is large and
clear; her eyes, which we are told were remarkable for their
vivacity, are swollen with weeping, and lustreless, but beautifully
tender and serene. In the whole mien there is a simplicity and
dignity, which, united with her exquisite loveliness and deep
sorrow, is inexpressibly pathetic. Beatrice Cenci appears to have
been one of those persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell
together without destroying one another; her nature simple and
profound. The crimes and miseries in which she was an actor and
sufferer, are as the mask and the mantle in which circumstances
clothed her for her impersonation on the scene of the
world."--_Shelley's Preface to the Cenci._
"The picture of Beatrice Cenci represents simply a female head; a
very youthful, girlish, perfectly beautiful face, enveloped in
white drapery, from beneath which strays a lock or two of what
seems a rich, though hidden luxuriance of auburn hair. The eyes are
large and brown, and meet those of the spectator, evidently with a
strange, ineffectual effort to escape. There is a little redness
about the eyes, very slightly indicated, so that you would question
whether or no the girl had been weeping. The whole face is very
quiet; there is no distortion or disturbance of any single feature;
nor is it easy to see why the expression is not cheerful, or why a
single touch of the artist's pencil should not brighten it into
joyousness. But, in fact, it is the very saddest picture ever
painted or conceived; it involves an unfathomable depth of sorrow,
the sense of which comes to the observer by a sort of intuition. It
is a sorrow that removes this beautiful girl out of the sphere of
humanity, and sets her in a far-off region, the remoteness of
which, while yet her face is so close before us,--makes us shiver
as at a spectre. You feel all the time you look at Beatrice, as if
she were trying to escape from your gaze. She knows that her sorrow
is so strange and immense, that she ought to be solitary for ever
both for the world's sake and her own; and this is the reason we
feel such a distance between Beatrice and ourselves, even when our
eyes meet hers. It is infinitely heart-breaking to meet her glance,
and to know that nothing can be done to help or comfort her,
neither does she ask help or comfort, knowing the hopelessness of
her case better than we do. She is a fallen angel--fallen and yet
sinless: and it is only this depth of sorrow with its weight and
darkness, that keeps her down to earth, and brings her within our
view even while it sets her beyond our reach."--_Hawthorne,
Transformation._
"The portrait of Beatrice Cenci is a picture almost impossible to
be forgotten. Through the transcendent sweetness and beauty of the
face, there is a something shining out that haunts me. I see it
now, as I see this paper, or my pen. The head is loosely draped in
white; the light hair falling down below the linen folds. She has
turned suddenly towards you; and there is an expression in the
eyes--although they are very tender and gentle--as if the wildness
of a momentary terror, or distraction, had been struggled with and
overcome, that instant; and nothing but a celestial hope, and a
beautiful sorrow, and a desolate earthly helplessness remained.
Some stories say that Guido painted it the night before her
execution; some other stories, that he painted it from memory,
after having seen her on her way to the scaffold. I am willing to
believe that, as you see her on his canvas, so she turned towards
him, in the crowd, from the first sight of the axe, and stamped
upon his mind a look which he has stamped on mine as though I had
stood beside him in the concourse. The guilty palace of the Cenci:
blighting a whole quarter of the town, as it stands withering away
by grains: had that face, to my fancy, in its dismal porch, and at
its black blind windows, and flitting up and down its dreary
stairs, and growing out of the darkness of its ghostly galleries.
The history is written in the painting; written, in the dying
girl's face, by Nature's own hand. And oh! how in that one touch
she puts to flight (instead of making kin) the puny world that
claims to be related to her, in right of poor conventional
forgeries!"--_Dickens._
"Five days had been passed by Beatrice in the secret prisons of the
Torre Savella, when, at an early hour in the morning, her advocate,
Farinacci, entered her sad abode. With him appeared a young man of
about twenty-five years of age, dressed in the fashion of a writer
in the courts of justice of that day. Unheeded by Beatrice, he sat
regarding her at a little distance with fixed attention. She had
risen from her miserable pallet, but, unlike the wretched inmate of
a dungeon, she seemed a being from a brighter sphere. Her eyes were
of liquid softness, her forehead large and clear, her countenance
of angelic purity, mysteriously beautiful. Around her head a fold
of white muslin had been carelessly wrapped, from whence in rich
luxuriance fell her fair and waving hair. Profound sorrow imparted
an air of touching sensibility to her lovely features. With all the
eagerness of hope, she begged Farinacci to tell her frankly if his
visit foreboded good, and assured him of her gratitude for the
anxiety he evinced, to save her life and that of her family.
"Farinacci conversed with her for some time, while at a distance
sat his companion, sketching the features of Beatrice. Turning
round, she observed this with displeasure and surprise; Farinacci
explained that this seeming writer was the celebrated painter,
Guido Reni, who, earnestly desiring her picture, had entreated to
be introduced into the prison for the purpose of obtaining so rich
an acquisition. At first unwilling, but afterwards consenting, she
turned and said, 'Signor Guido, your renown might make me desirous
of knowing you, but how will you undervalue me in my present
situation. From the fatality that surrounds me, you will judge me
guilty. Perhaps my face will tell you I am not wicked; it will show
you, too, that I now languish in this prison, which I may quit,
only to ascend the scaffold. Your great name, and my sad story, may
make my portrait interesting, and,' she added, with touching
simplicity, 'the picture will awaken compassion if you write on one
of its angles the word, _innocente_.' The great artist set himself
to work, and produced the picture now in the Palazzo Barberini, a
picture that rivets the attention of every beholder, which, once
seen, ever after hovers over the memory with an interest the most
harrowing and mysterious."--_From "Beatrice Cenci, Storia del
Secolo XVI., Raccontata dal D.A.A., Firenze." Whiteside's
Translation._
There is a pretty old-fashioned garden belonging to this palace, at one
corner of which--overhanging an old statue--was the celebrated
_Barberini Pine_, often drawn by artists from the Via Sterrata at the
back of the garden, where statue and pine combined well with the Church
of S. Caio; but, alas, this magnificent tree was cut down in 1872.
At the back of the palace-court, behind the arched bridge leading to the
garden, is--let into the wall--an inscription which formed part of the
dedication of an arch erected to Claudius by the senate and people, in
honour of the conquest of Britain. The letters were inlaid with bronze.
It was found near the Palazzo Sciarra, where the arch is supposed to
have stood.
Ascending to the summit of the hill, we find four ugly statues of
river-gods, lying over the _Quattro Fontane_, from which the street
takes its name.
On the left is the _Palazzo Albani_, recently restored by Queen
Christina of Spain.
"In one of its rooms is a very ancient painting of Jupiter and
Ganymede, in a very uncommon style, uniting considerable grandeur
of conception, great force and decision, and a deep tone and colour
which produce great effect. It is said to be Grecian."--_Eaton's
Rome._
The opposite church, _S. Carlo a Quattro Fontane_, is worth observing
from the fact that the whole building, church and convent, corresponds
with one of the four piers supporting the cupola of St. Peter's. Here
was formed the point of attack against the Quirinal Palace, November 16,
1848, which caused the flight of Pius IX., and the downfall of his
government. From a window of this convent the shot was fired which
killed Monsignor Palma, one of the pontifical secretaries, and a writer
on ecclesiastical history--who had unfortunately exposed himself at one
of the windows opposite. The church contains two pictures by _Mignard_
relating to the history of S. Carlo.
Turning down Via del Quirinale, on the left is _S. Andrea a Monte
Cavallo_ (on the supposed site of the temple of Quirinus), erected, as
it is told by an inscription inside, by Camillo Pamphili, nephew of
Innocent X., from designs of Bernini. It has a Corinthian façade and a
projecting semicircular portico with Ionic columns. The interior is
oval. It is exceedingly rich, being almost entirely lined with red
marble streaked with white (Sicilian jasper), divided by white marble
pillars supporting a gilt cupola. The high altar--supposed to cover the
body of St. Zeno--between really magnificent pillars, is surmounted by a
fine picture, by _Borgognone_, of the crucifixion of St. Andrew. Near
this is the tomb, by _Festa_, of Emmanuel IV., king of Sardinia, who
abdicated his throne in 1802, to become a Jesuit monk in the adjoining
convent, where he died in 1818. On the right is the chapel of Santa
Croce, with three pictures of the passion and death of Christ by
_Brandini_; and that of St. Francis Xavier, with three pictures by
_Baciccio_, representing the saint preaching,--baptizing an Indian
queen,--and lying dead in the island of Sancian in China. On the left
is the chapel of the Virgin, with pictures, by _David_, of the three
great Jesuit saints--St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Borgia, and St.
Luigi Gonzaga--adoring the Virgin, and, by _Gerard de la Nuit_, of the
Adoration of the Shepherds and of the Magi; and lastly the chapel of S.
Stanislas Kostka, containing his shrine of gold and lapis-lazuli, under
an exceedingly rich altar, which is adorned with a beautiful picture by
_Carlo Maratta_, representing the saint receiving the Infant Jesus from
the arms of his mother. At the sides of the chapel are two other
pictures by _Maratta_, one of which represents S. Stanislas "bathing
with water his breast inflamed with divine love," the other his
receiving the host from the hands of an angel. These are the three
principal incidents in the story of the young S. Stanislas, who belonged
to a noble Polish family and abandoned the world to shut himself up
here, saying, "I am not born for the good things of this world; that
which my heart desires is the good things of eternity."
"I have long ago exhausted all my capacity of admiration for
splendid interiors of churches; but methinks this little, little
temple (it is not more than fifty or sixty feet across) has a more
perfect and gem-like beauty than any other. Its shape is oval, with
an oval dome, and above that another little dome, both of which are
magnificently frescoed. Around the base of the larger dome is
wreathed a flight of angels, and the smaller and upper one is
encircled by a garland of cherubs--cherub and angel all of pure
white marble. The oval centre of the church is walled round with
precious and lustrous marble, of a red-veined variety, interspersed
with columns and pilasters of white; and there are arches, opening
through this rich wall, forming chapels, which the architect seems
to have striven hard to make even more gorgeous than the main body
of the church. The pavement is one star of various tinted
marble."--_Hawthorne, Notes on Italy._
The adjoining _Convent of the Noviciate of the Order of Jesus_ contains
the room in which S. Stanislas Kostka died, at the age of eighteen, with
his reclining statue by _Le Gros_, the body in white, his dress (that of
a novice) in black, and the couch upon which he lies in yellow marble.
Behind his statue is a picture of a celestial vision which consoled him
in his last moments. On the day of his death, November 13, the convent
is thrown open, and mass is said without ceasing in this chamber, which
is visited by thousands.
"La petite chambre de S. Stanislas Kostka, est un de ces lieux où
la prière naît spontanément dans le cœur, et s'en échappe comme
par un cours naturel."--_Veuillot, Parfum de Rome._[233]
In the convent garden is shown the fountain where "the angels used to
bathe the breast of S. Stanislas burning with the love of Christ."
Passing the Benedictine convent, with a courtyard containing an old
sarcophagus as a fountain, and a humble church decorated with rude
frescoes of St. Benedict and Sta. Scholastica, we reach a small and
popular church, rich in marbles, belonging to the _Perpetua Adoratrice
del Divin Sacramento del Altare_, founded by sister Maddalena of the
Incarnation, who died 1829, and is buried on the right of the entrance.
Here the low monotonous chant of the perpetual adoration may be
constantly heard.
The _Piazza of the Monte Cavallo_ has in its centre the red granite
obelisk (ninety-five feet high with its base) erected here by Antinori
in 1781, for Pius VI. It was originally brought from Egypt by Claudius,
A.D. 57, together with the obelisk now in front of Sta. Maria Maggiore,
and they were both first placed at the entrance of the mausoleum of
Augustus. At its base are the colossal statues found in the baths of
Constantine, of the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux reining in their horses.
These statues give a name to the district. Their bases bear the names of
Phidias and Praxiteles, and though their claim to be the work of such
distinguished sculptors is doubtful, they are certainly of Greek origin.
Copies of these statues at Berlin have received the nicknames of
Gehemmter Fortschritt, and Beförderter Rückschritt,--Progress checked
and Retrogression encouraged.
"At the time when the _Mirabilia Romæ_ were published, that is,
about the thirteenth century, these statues were believed to
represent the young philosophers, Praxiteles and Phidias, who came
to Rome during the reign of Tiberius, and promised to tell him his
most secret words and actions provided he would honour them with a
monument. Having performed their promise, they obtained these
statues, which represent them naked, because all human science was
naked and open to their eyes. From this fable, wild and absurd as
it is, we may nevertheless draw the inference that the statues had
been handed down from time immemorial as the works of Phidias and
Praxiteles, though those artists had in the lapse of ages been
metamorphosed into philosophers. May we not also assume the
existence of a tradition that the statues were brought to Rome in
the reign of Tiberius? In the middle ages the group appears to have
been accompanied by a statue of Medusa, sitting at their feet, and
having before her a shell. According to the text of the
_Mirabilia_, as given by Montfaucon in his _Diarium Italicum_, this
figure represented the Church. The snakes which surrounded her
typified the volumes of Scripture, which nobody could approach
unless he had first been washed--that is, baptized--in the water of
the shell. But the Prague MS. of the _Mirabilia_ interprets the
female figure to represent Science, and the serpents to typify the
disputed questions with which she is concerned."--_Dyer's Hist. of
the City of Rome._
"L'imitation du grand style de Phidias est visible dans plusieurs
sculptures qu'il a inspirées, et surtout dans les colosses de
Castor et Pollux, domptant des chevaux, qui ont fait donner à une
partie du mont Quirinal le nom de _Monte Cavallo_.
"Il ne faut faire aucune attention aux inscriptions qui attribuent
un des deux colosses à Phidias et l'autre à Praxitèle, Praxitèle
dont le style n'a rien à faire ici; son nom a été inscrit sur la
base de l'une des deux statues, comme Phèdre le reprochait déjà à
des faussaires du temps d'Auguste, qui croyaient augmenter le
mérite d'un nouvel ouvrage en y mettant le nom de Praxitèle. Quelle
que soit l'époque où les colosses de Monte Cavallo ont été
exécutés, malgré quelques différences, on doit affirmer que les
deux originaux étaient de la même école, de l'école de
Phidias."--_Ampère, Hist. Romaine_, iii. 252.
"Chacun des deux héros dompte d'une seule main un cheval fougueux
qui se cabre. Ces formes colossales, cette lutte de l'homme avec
les animaux, donnent, comme tous les ouvrages des anciens, une
admirable idée de la puissance physique de la nature
humaine."--_Mad. de Staël._
"Ye too, marvellous Twain, that erect on the Monte Cavallo
Stand by your rearing steeds in the grace of your motionless movement,
Stand with your upstretched arms and tranquil regardant faces,
Stand as instinct with life in the might of immutable manhood,--
O ye mighty and strange, ye ancient divine ones of Hellas."
_A. H. Clough._
"Before me were the two Monte Cavallo statues, towering
gigantically above the pygmies of the present day, and looking like
Titans in the act of threatening heaven. Over my head the stars
were just beginning to look out, and might have been taken for
guardian angels keeping watch over the temples below. Behind, and
on my left, were palaces; on my right, gardens, and hills beyond,
with the orange tints of sunset over them still glowing in the
distance. Within a stone's throw of me, in the midst of objects
thus glorious in themselves, and thus in harmony with each other,
was stuck an unplaned post, on which glimmered a paper lantern.
Such is Rome."--_Guesses at Truth._
Close by is a fountain playing into a fine bason of Egyptian granite,
brought hither by Pius VII. from the Forum, where it had long been used
for watering cattle.
On the left, is the _Palace of the Consulta_, built in 1730 by Clement
XII. (Corsini), from designs of Fuga. Before its gates, under the old
regime, some of the Papal Guardia Nobile were always to be seen sunning
themselves in a uniform so resplendent that it could scarcely be
believed that the pay of this "noble guard" of the Pope amounted only to
£5 6_s._ 3_d._ a month!
On the right, is the immense _Palace of the Quirinal_, which also
extends along one whole side of the street we have been pursuing.
"That palace-building, ruin-destroying pope, Paul IV., began to
erect the enormous palace on the Quirinal Hill; and the
prolongation of his labours, by a long series of successive
pontiffs, has made it one of the largest and ugliest buildings
extant."--_Eaton's Rome._
The chief, indeed almost the only, interest of this palace arises
from its having been the favourite residence of Pius VII.
(Chiaramonte). It was here that he was taken prisoner by the
French. General Radet forced his way into the pope's room on the
night of June 6, 1809, and, while excusing himself for being the
messenger, hastily intimated to the pontiff, in the name of the
emperor, that he must at once abdicate his temporal sovereignty.
Pius absolutely refused, upon which he was forced to descend the
staircase, and found a coach waiting at the entrance of the palace.
Here the pope paused, his face streaming with tears, and, standing
in the starlit piazza, solemnly extended his arms in benediction
over his sleeping people. Then he entered the carriage, followed by
Cardinal Pacca, and was hurried away to exile.... "Whirled away
through the heat and dust of an Italian summer's day, without an
attendant, without linen, without his spectacles--fevered and
wearied, he never for a moment lost his serenity. Cardinal Pacca
tells us, that when they had just started on this most dismal of
journeys, the pope asked him if he had any money. The secretary of
state replied that he had had no opportunity of providing himself.
'We then drew forth our purses,' continues the cardinal, 'and
notwithstanding the state of affliction we were in at being thus
torn away from Rome, and all that was dear to us, we could hardly
compose our countenances, on finding the contents of each purse to
consist--of the pope's, of a papetto (10_d._), and of mine, of
three grossi (7½_d._). We had precisely thirty-five baiocchi
between us. The pope, extending his hand, showed his papetto to
General Radet, saying, at the same time, 'Look here--this is all I
possess.'"[234].... Six years after, Napoleon was sent to St.
Helena, and Pius VII. returned in triumph to Rome!
It was from this same palace that Pius IX.--who has never inhabited it
since--made his escape to Gaeta during the revolution of 1848, when the
siege of the Quirinal by the insurgents had succeeded in extorting the
appointment of a democratic ministry.
"On the afternoon of the 24th of November, the Duc d'Harcourt had
arrived at the Quirinal in his coach as ambassador of France, and
craved an audience of the sovereign. The guards wondered that he
stayed so long; but they knew not that he sat reading the
newspapers in the papal study, while the pope had retired to his
bed-room to change his dress. Here his major-domo, Filippani, had
laid out the black cassock and dress of an ordinary priest. The
pontiff took off his purple stole and white pontifical robe, and
came forth in the simple garb he had worn in his quiet youth. The
Duc d'Harcourt threw himself on his knees exclaiming, 'Go forth,
holy Father; divine wisdom inspires this counsel, divine power will
lead it to a happy end.' By secret passages and narrow staircases,
Pius IX. and his trusty servant passed unseen to a little door,
used only occasionally for the Swiss guards, and by which they were
to leave the palace. They reached it, and bethought them that the
key had been forgotten! Filippani hastened back to the papal
apartment to fetch it; and returning unquestioned to the wicket,
found the pontiff on his knees, and quite absorbed in prayer. The
wards were rusty, and the key turned with difficulty; but the door
was opened at last, and the holy fugitive and his servant quickly
entered a poor hackney coach that was waiting for them outside.
Here, again, they ran risk of being discovered through the
thoughtless adherence to old etiquette of the other servant, who
stood by the coach, and who, having let down the steps, knelt, as
usual, before he shut the door.
"The pope wore a dark great coat over his priest's cassock, a
low-crowned round hat, and a broad brown woollen neckcloth outside
his straight Roman collar. Filippani had on his usual loose cloak;
but under this he carried the three-cornered hat of the pope, a
bundle of the most private and secret papers, the papal seals, the
breviary, the cross-embroidered slippers, a small quantity of
linen, and a little box full of gold medals stamped with the
likeness of his Holiness. From the inside of the carriage, he
directed the coachman to follow many winding and diverging streets,
in the hope of misleading the spies, who were known to swarm at
every corner. Beside the Church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino, in the
deserted quarter beyond the Coliseum, they found the Bavarian
minister, Count Spaur, waiting in his own private carriage, and
imagining every danger which could have detained them so long. The
sovereign pressed the hand of his faithful Filippani, and entered
the Count's carriage. Silently they drove on through the old gate
of Rome,--Count Spaur having there shown the passport of the
Bavarian minister going to Naples on affairs of state.
"Meanwhile the Duc d'Harcourt grew tired of reading the newspapers
in the pope's study; and when he thought that his Holiness must be
far beyond the walls of Rome, he left the palace, and taking
post-horses, hastened with all speed to overtake the fugitive on
the road to Civita Vecchia, whither he believed him to be flying.
As he left the study in the Quirinal, a prelate entered with a
large bundle of ecclesiastical papers, on which, he said, he had to
confer with the pope; then his chamberlain went in to read to him
his breviary, and the office of the day. The rooms were lighted up,
and the supper taken in as usual; and at length it was stated that
his Holiness, feeling somewhat unwell, had retired to rest; and his
attendants, and the guard of honour, were dismissed for the night.
It is true that a certain prelate, who chanced to see the little
door by which the fugitive had escaped into the street left open,
began to cry out, 'The pope has escaped! the pope has escaped!' But
Prince Gabrielli was beside him; and, clapping his hand upon the
mouth of the alarmist, silenced him in time, by whispering, 'Be
quiet, Monsignore; be quiet, or we shall be cut to pieces!'
"Near La Riccia, the fugitives found Countess Spaur (who had
arranged the whole plan of the escape) waiting with a coach and six
horses--in which they pursued their journey to Gaeta, reaching the
Neapolitan frontier between five and six in the morning. The pope
throughout carried with him the sacrament in the pyx which Pius the
Seventh carried when he was taken prisoner to France, and which, as
if with prescience of what would happen, had been lately sent to
him as a memorial by the Bishop of Avignon."--_Beste._
It is in the Quirinal Palace that the later conclaves have always met
for the election of the popes.
"In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are
called, after the death of a pope, the cardinals assemble (at S.
Sylvestro a Monte Cavallo), and walk in procession, accompanied by
their conclavisti, 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, in figure, or in expression, who will be
shortly the sovereign of their fair city; and, what is much more,
the head of the Catholic Church, from the rising to the setting
sun. They all enter equal over the threshold of that gate: they
share together the supreme rule, spiritual and temporal: there is
still embosomed in them all, the voice yet silent, that will soon
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, and others his subjects; one the shepherd, and the
others his flock.
* * * * *
"From the Quirinal Palace stretches out, the length of a whole
street, an immense wing, divided in its two upper floors 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 own attendants. His food is
brought daily from his own house, and is overhauled, 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 its occupant, perhaps speaking the same good wishes
to fifty, which they know can only be accomplished in one. After
that, all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for any cardinal
to enter, 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 picquet at each end; and as, fortunately, opposite
there are no private residences, and all the buildings have access
from the back, no inconvenience is thereby created.... In the mean
time, within, and unseen from without, _fervet opus_.
"Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel belonging to the
palace, included in the enclosure, and there, on tickets so
arranged that the voter's name cannot 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 burnt 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, 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 in waiting, that they again possess a
sovereign and a pontiff."--_Cardinal Wiseman._
"Sais-tu ce que c'est qu'un conclave? Une réunion de vieillards,
moins occupés du ciel que de la terre, et dont quelques-uns se font
plus maladifs, plus goutteux, et plus cacochymes qu'ils ne le sont
encore, dans l'espérance d'inspirer un vif interêt à leurs
partisans. Grand nombre d'éminences ne renonçant jamais à la
possibilité d'une élection, le rival le plus près de la tombe
excite toujours le moins de répugnance. Un rhumatisme est ici un
titre à la confiance; l'hydropisie a ses partisans: car l'ambition
et la mort comptent sur les mêmes chances. Le cercueil sert comme
de marchepied au trône; et il y a tel pieux candidat qui
négocierait avec son concurrent, si la durée du nouveau règne
pouvait avoir son terme obligatoire comme celui d'un effet de
commerce. Eh! ne sais-tu pas toi-même que le pâtre d'Ancône brûla
gaiement ses béquilles dès qu'il eut ceint la tiare; et que Léon
X., élu à trente-huit ans, avait eu grand soin de ne guérir d'un
mal mortel que le lendemain de son couronnement?"--_Lorenzo
Ganganelli (Clement XIV.) à Carlo Bertinazzi, Avril 16, 1769._
Under the rule of the Popes the palace was shown from 12 A.M. to 4 P.M.
on presentation of a ticket, which could easily be obtained through a
banker. It was stripped of all historical memorials and contained very
few fine pictures, so was little worth visiting. Since the winter of
1870--71 the palace has been appropriated as the residence of the
Sardinian Royal Family.
On the landing of the principal staircase, in a bad light, is a very
important fresco by _Melozzo da Forli_, a rare master of the Paduan
school.[235]
"On the vaulted ceiling of a chapel in the Church of the SS.
Apostoli at Rome, Melozzo executed a work (1472) which, in those
times, can have admitted of comparison with few. When the chapel
was rebuilt in the eighteenth century some fragments were saved.
That comprehending the Creator between angels was removed to a
staircase in the Quirinal palace, while single figures of angels
were placed in the sacristy of St. Peter's. These detached portions
suffice to show a beauty and fulness of form, and a combination of
earthly and spiritual grandeur, comparable in their way to the
noblest productions of Titian, although in mode of execution rather
recalling Coreggio. Here, as in the cupola frescoes of Coreggio
himself, half a century later, we trace that constant effort at
true perspective of the figure, hardly in character, perhaps, with
high ecclesiastical art; the drapery, also, is of a somewhat
formless description; but the grandeur of the principal figure, the
grace and freshness of the little adoring cherubs, and the elevated
beauty of the angels are expressed with an easy naïveté, to which
only the best works of Mantegna and Signorelli can
compare."--_Kugler._
Passing through a great hall, one hundred and ninety feet long, we are
shown a number of rooms fitted up by Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. for the
papal summer residence. They contain few objects of interest. In one
chamber is a Last Supper by _Baroccio_;--in the next a fine tapestry
representing the marriage of Louis XIV. The following rooms contain some
good Gobelin tapestries.
Several apartments have mosaic pavements, brought hither from pagan
edifices. The chamber is shown in which Pius VII. died,--the bed has
been changed. In the next room--an audience chamber--he was taken
prisoner. Here is a curious ancient pietra-dura of the
Annunciation,--the ceiling is painted by Overbeck. In one of the
following rooms are some pictures, including--
S. Giorgio: _Pordenone_.
"One picture especially attracted me at the Quirinal; a St. George,
the conqueror of the dragon, and deliverer of the maiden. No one
could tell me the name of the master, till a modest little man
stepped forward, and told me the picture was by Pordenone the
Venetian, one of his best works, showing all his merits. This quite
explained my liking for it; the picture had struck me, because
being best acquainted with the Venetian school, I could best
appreciate the merits of one of its masters."--_Goethe, Romische
Briefe._
Marriage of S. Catherine: _Battoni_.
St. Peter and St. Paul: _Fra Bartolomeo_.
"The two standing figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, as large as
life, were executed during a short residence in Rome. The first was
completed by Raphael after Fra Bartolomeo's departure."--_Kugler._
The room which is decorated with a fine modern tapestry of the martyrdom
of St. Stephen, has a plaster frieze, being the original cast of the
Triumph of Alexander the Great, modelled for Napoleon by _Thorwaldsen_.
One of the last rooms shown is a kind of picture gallery. Among the best
works here are:--
Saul and David: _Guercino_.
Ecce Homo: _Domenichino_.
St. Jerome: _Spagnoletto_.
The Flight into Egypt: _Baroccio_.
Here also is a worthless picture of the Battle of Mentana, presented to
Pius IX. by the English Catholic ladies.
The _Private Chapel of the Pope_, opening from this gallery, contains a
magnificent picture of the Annunciation by _Guido_, and frescoes of the
life of the Virgin by _Albani_. The great hall of the Consistory, a bare
room with benches, has a fresco of the Virgin and Child by _Carlo
Maratta_, over an altar.
The _Gardens of the Quirinal_ can be visited with an order from 8 to 12
A.M. They are in the stiff style of box hedges and clipped avenues,
which seems to belong especially to Rome, and which we know to have
been popular here even in imperial times. Pliny, in his account of his
Tusculan villa, describes his gardens decorated with "figures of
different animals, cut in box: evergreens clipped into a thousand
different shapes; sometimes into letters forming different names; walls
and hedges of cut box, and trees twisted into a variety of forms." But
the Quirinal gardens are also worth visiting, on account of the many
pretty glimpses they afford of St. Peter's and other distant buildings,
and the oddity of some of the devices--an organ played by water, &c. The
Casino, built by Fuga, has frescoes by _Orizonti_, _Pompeo Battoni_, and
_Pannini_.
If we turn to the left on issuing from the palace, we reach--on the
left--the entrance to the courtyard of the vast _Palazzo Rospigliosi_,
built by Flaminio Ponzio, in 1603, for Cardinal Scipio Borghese, on a
portion of the site of the Baths of Constantine. It was inhabited by
Cardinal Bentivoglio, and sold by him to Cardinal Mazarin, who enlarged
it from designs of Carlo Maderno. From his time to 1704 it was inhabited
by French ambassadors, and it then passed to the Rospigliosi family. The
present Prince Rospigliosi inhabits the second floor, his brother,
Prince Pallavicini, the first.
The palace itself (well known from its hospitalities) is not shown, but
the _Casino_ is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is situated at the
end of a very small but pretty garden planted with magnolias, and
consists of three chambers. On the roof of the central room is the
famous Aurora of Guido.
"Guido's Aurora is the very type of haste and impetus; for surely
no man ever imagined such hurry and tumult, such sounding and
clashing. Painters maintain that it is lighted from two
sides,--they have my full permission to light theirs from three if
it will improve them, but the difference lies
elsewhere."--_Mendelssohn's Letters_, p. 91.
"This is the noblest work of Guido. It is embodied poetry. The
Hours, that hand in hand encircle the car of Phœbus, advance
with rapid pace. The paler, milder forms of those gentle sisters
who rule over declining day, and the glowing glance of those who
bask in the meridian blaze, resplendent in the hues of heaven,--are
of no mortal grace and beauty; but they are eclipsed by Aurora
herself, who sails on the golden clouds before them, shedding
'showers of shadowing roses' on the rejoicing earth; her celestial
presence diffusing gladness, and light, and beauty around. Above
the heads of the heavenly coursers, hovers the morning star, in the
form of a youthful cherub, bearing his flaming torch. Nothing is
more admirable in this beautiful composition than the motion given
to the whole. The smooth and rapid step of the circling Hours as
they tread on the fleecy clouds; the fiery steeds; the whirling
wheels of the car; the torch of Lucifer, blown back by the velocity
of his advance; and the form of Aurora, borne through the ambient
air, till you almost fear she should float from your
sight."--_Eaton's Rome._
"The work of Guido is more poetic than that of Guercino, and
luminous, and soft, and harmonious. Cupid, Aurora, Phœbus, form
a climax of beauty, and the Hours seem as light as the clouds on
which they dance."--_Forsyth._
Lanzi points out that Guido always took the Venus de Medici and the
Niobe as his favourite models, and that there is scarcely one of
his large pictures in which the Niobe or one of her sons is not
introduced, yet with such dexterity, that the theft is scarcely
perceptible.
The frescoes of the frieze are by _Tempesta;_ the landscapes by _Paul
Brill_. In the hall are busts, statues, and a bronze horse found in the
ruins of the Baths.
There is a small collection of pictures--the only work of real
importance being the beautiful _Daniele di Volterra_ of our Saviour
bearing his cross, in the room on the left. In the same room are two
large pictures, David triumphing with the head of Goliath,
_Domenichino_; and Perseus rescuing Andromeda, _Guido_. In the room on
the right are, Adam gathering fig-leaves for Eve, in a Paradise which is
crowded with animals like a menagerie, _Domenichino_; and Samson pulling
down the pillars upon the Philistines, _Ludovico Caracci_.
A second small garden belonging to this palace is well worth seeing in
May from the wealth of camellias, azaleas, and roses, with which it is
filled.
Opposite the Rospigliosi Palace, by ringing at a gate in the wall, we
gain admission to the _Colonna Gardens_ (connected with the palace in
the Piazza SS. Apostoli, by a series of bridges across the intervening
street). Here, on a lofty terrace which has a fine view towards the
Capitol, and overshadowed by grand cypresses, are the colossal remains
of the _Temple of the Sun_ (huge fragments of cornice) built by Aurelian
(A.D. 270--75). At the other end of the terrace, looking down through
two barns into a kind of pit, we can see some remains of the _Baths of
Constantine_--built A.D. 326--and of the great staircase which led up to
them from the valley below. The portico of these baths remained erect
till the time of Clement XII. (1730--40), and was adorned with four
marble statues, of which two--those of the two Constantines--may now be
seen on the terrace of the Capitol.
Beneath the magnificent cypress-trees on the slope of the hill are
several fine sarcophagi. Only the stem is preserved of the grand
historical pine-tree, which was planted on the day on which Cola di
Rienzi died, and which was one of the great ornaments of the city till
1848, when it was broken in a storm.
Just beyond the end of the garden, are the great _Convent_ and _Church
of S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo_--belonging to the Missionaries of St.
Vincent de Paul--in which the Cardinals meet before going in procession
to the Conclave. It contains a few rather good pictures. The cupola of
the second chapel has frescoes by _Domenichino_, of David dancing before
the Ark,--the Queen of Sheba and Solomon,--Judith with the head of
Holofernes,--and Esther fainting before Ahasueras. These are considered
by Lanzi as some of the finest frescoes of the master. In the left
transept is a chapel containing a picture of the Assumption, painted on
slate, considered the masterpiece of _Scipione Gaetani_. The last chapel
but one on the left has a ceiling by _Cav. d'Arpino_, and frescoes on
the walls by _Polidoro da Caravaggio_. The picture over the altar,
representing St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, is by _Mariotto
Albertinelli_. Cardinal Bentivoglio--who wrote the history of the wars
in Flanders, and lived in the Rospigliosi Palace--is buried here.
We now reach the height of Maganaopoli, from which the isthmus which
joined the Quirinal to the Capitoline was cut away by Trajan. Here is a
cross-ways. On the right is a descent to the Forum of Trajan, at the
side of which is the villa of Cardinal Antonelli, and beyond it, the
handsome modern palace of Count Trapani, cousin to the King of Naples.
Opposite, is the _Church of Sta. Caterina di Siena_, possessing some
frescoes attributed, on doubtful grounds, to the rare master _Timoteo
della Vite_. Adjoining, is a large convent, enclosed within the
precincts of which is the tall brick mediæval tower, sometimes called
the Tower of Nero, but generally known as the _Torre delle Milizie_,
_i.e._ the Roman Militia. It was erected by the sons of Peter Alexius, a
baron attached to the party of the Senator Pandolfo de Suburra. The
lower part is said to have been built in 1210, the upper in 1294 and
1330.
"People pass through two regular courses of study at Rome,--the
first in learning, and the second in unlearning.
"'This is the tower of Nero, from which he saw the city in
flames,--and this is the temple of Concord,--and this is the temple
of Castor and Pollux,--and this is the temple of Vesta,--and these
are the baths of Paulus-Æmilius,'--and so on, says your lacquey.
"'This is not the tower of Nero,--nor that the temple of Castor and
Pollux,--nor the other the temple of Concord,--nor are any of these
things what they are called,' says your antiquary."--_Eaton's
Rome._
The Convent of Sta. Caterina was built by the celebrated Vittoria
Colonna, who requested the advice of Michael Angelo on the subject, and
was told that she had better make the ancient "Torre" into a belfry. A
very curious account of the interview in which this subject was
discussed, and which took place in the Church of S. Silvestro a Monte
Cavallo, is left us in the memoirs of Francesco d'Olanda, a Portuguese
painter, who was himself present at the conversation.
Near this point are two other fine mediæval towers. One is to the right
of the descent to the Forum of Trajan, being that of the Colonnas, now
called _Tor di Babele_, ornamented with three beautiful fragments of
sculptured frieze, one of them bearing the device of the Colonna, a
crowned column rising from a wreath. The other tower, immediately facing
us, is called _Torre del Grillo_, from the ancient family of that name.
Opposite Sta. Caterina is the handsome _Church of SS. Domenico e Sisto_,
approached by a good double twisted staircase. Over the second altar on
the left is a picture of the marriage of St. Catherine by _Allegrani_,
and, on the anniversary of her (visionary) marriage (July 19), the dried
hand of the saint is exhibited here to the unspeakable comfort of the
faithful.
Turning by this church into the Via Maganaopoli (formerly Baganaopoli, a
corruption of Balnea Pauli--Baths of Emilius Paulus), we pass on the
left the _Palazzo Aldobrandini_, with a bright pleasant-looking court
and handsome fountain. The present Prince Aldobrandini is brother of
Prince Borghese. Of this family was S. Pietro Aldobrandini, generally
known as S. Pietro Igneo, who was canonized because, in 1067, he walked
unhurt, crucifix in hand, through a burning fiery furnace ten feet long
before the church door of Settimo, near Florence, to prove an accusation
of simony which he had brought against Pietro di Pavia, bishop of that
city.
In the Via di Mazzarini, in the hollow between the Quirinal and Viminal,
is the _Convent of Sta. Agata in Suburra_, through the courtyard of
which we enter the _Church of Sta. Agata dei Goti_. A tradition declares
that this (like S. Sabba on the Aventine) is on the site of a house of
Sta. Silvia, mother of St. Gregory the Great, who consecrated the church
after it had been plundered by the Goths, and dedicated it to Sta.
Agata. It was rebuilt by Ricimer, the king-maker, in A.D. 472. Twelve
ancient granite columns and a handsome opus-alexandrinum pavement are
its only signs of antiquity. The church now belongs to the Irish
Seminary. In the left aisle is the monument of Daniel O'Connell, with
bas-reliefs by Benzoni, inscribed:--
"This monument contains the heart of O'Connell, who dying at Genoa
on his way to the Eternal City, bequeathed his soul to God, his
body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome. He is represented at the
bar of the British House of Commons in MDCCCXXIII., when he refused
to take the anti-catholic declaration, in these remarkable
words--'I at once reject this declaration; part of it I believe to
be untrue, and the rest I know to be false.' He was born vi. Aug.
MDCCLXXVI., and died xv. May, MDCCCXLVIII. Erected by Charles
Bianconi, the faithful friend of the immortal liberator, and of
Ireland the land of his adoption."
At the end of the left aisle is a chapel, which Cardinal Antonelli (who
has his palace near this) decorated, 1863, with frescoes and arabesques
as a burial-place for his family. In the opposite chapel is a gilt
figure of Sta. Agata carrying her breasts--showing the manner in which
she suffered.
"Agatha was a maiden of Catania, in Sicily, whither Decius the
emperor sent Quintianus as governor. He, inflamed by the beauty of
Agatha, tempted her with rich gifts and promises, but she repulsed
him with disdain. Then Quintianus ordered her to be bound and
beaten with rods, and sent two of his slaves to tear her bosom with
iron shears, and as her blood flowed forth, she said to him, 'O
thou cruel tyrant! art thou not ashamed to treat me thus--hast thou
not thyself been fed at thy mother's breasts?' Thus only did she
murmur. And in the night a venerable man came to her, bearing a
vase of ointment, and before him walked a youth bearing a torch. It
was the holy apostle Peter, and the youth was an angel; but Agatha
knew it not; though such a glorious light filled the prison, that
the guards fled in terror.... Then St. Peter made himself known and
ministered to her, restoring with heavenly balm her wounded
breasts.
"Quintianus, infuriated, demanded who had healed her. She replied,
'He whom I confess and adore with heart and lips, he hath sent his
apostle who hath healed me.' Then Quintianus caused her to be
thrown bound upon a great fire, but instantly an earthquake arose,
and the people in terror cried, 'This visitation is sent because of
the sufferings of the maiden Agatha.' So he caused her to be taken
from the fire, and carried back to prison, where she prayed aloud
that having now proved her faith, she might be freed from pain and
see the glory of God;--and her prayer was answered and her spirit
instantly departed into eternal glory, Feb. 5, A.D. 251."--_From
the "Legende delle SS. Vergini."_
Agatha (patroness of Catania) is one of the saints most reverenced by
the Roman people. On the 5th of February her vespers are sung here,
which contain the antiphons:--
"Who art thou that art come to heal my wounds?--I am an apostle of
Christ, doubt not concerning me, my daughter.
"Medicine for the body have I never used; but I have the Lord Jesus
Christ, who with his word alone restoreth all things.
"I render thanks to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for that thou hast
been mindful of me, and hast sent thine apostle to heal my wounds.
"I bless thee, O Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, because through
thine apostle thou hast restored my breasts to me.
"Him who hath vouchsafed to heal me of every wound, and to restore
to me my breasts, him do I invoke, even the living God.
* * * * *
"Blessed Agatha, standing in her prison, stretched forth her hands
and prayed unto the Lord, saying, 'O Lord Jesus Christ, my good
master, I thank thee because thou hast given me strength to
overcome the tortures of the executioners; and now, Lord, speak the
word, that I may depart hence to thy glory which fadeth not away."
The tomb of John Lascaris (a refugee from Constantinople when taken by
the Turks) has--in Greek--the inscription:--
"Lascaris lies here in a foreign grave; but, stranger, that does
not disturb him, rather does he rejoice; yet he is not without
sorrow, as a Grecian, that his fatherland will not bestow upon him
the freedom of a grave."
Passing the great Convent of S. Bernardino Senensis, we reach the Via
dei Serpenti, interesting as occupying the supposed site of the Vallis
Quirinalis, where Julius Proculus, returning from Alba Longa,
encountered the ghost of Romulus:
"Sed Proculus Longâ veniebat Julius Albâ;
Lunaque fulgebat; nec facis usus erat:
Cum subito motu nubes crepuere sinistræ:
Retulit ille gradus, horrueruntque comæ.
Pulcher, et humano major, trabeâque decorus,
Romulus in mediâ visus adesse viâ."
_Ovid, Fast._ ii. 498.
Turning to the right down the Via dei Serpenti, we reach the Piazza Sta.
Maria in Monti, containing a fountain, and a church dedicated to SS.
Sergius and Bacchus, two martyrs who suffered under Maximian at Rasapha
in Syria.
One side of this piazza is occupied by the _Church of Sta. Maria in
Monti_, in which is deposited a figure of the beggar Labre (canonized by
Pius IX. in 1860), dressed in the gown of a mendicant-pilgrim, which he
wore when living. Over the altar is a picture of him in the Coliseum,
distributing to his fellow-beggars the alms which he had obtained. His
fête is observed here on April 16. (At No. 3 Via dei Serpenti, one may
visit the chamber in which Labre died--and in the Via dei Crociferi,
near the fountain of Trevi, a chapel containing many of his relics,--the
bed on which he died, the crucifix which he wore in his bosom, &c.)
"Benoît Joseph Labre naquit en 1748 dans le diocèse de Boulogne
(France) de parents chrétiens et jouissant d'une modeste aisance.
D'une piété vive et tendre, il voulut d'abord se faire religieux;
mais sa santé ne put résister, ni aux règles des Chartreux, ni à
celles des Trappistes, chez lesquels il entra successivement. _Il
fut alors sollicité intérieurement_, est il dit dans la notice sur
sa vie, _de mener une vie de pénitence et de charité au milieu du
siècle_. Pendant sept années, il parcourut en pèlerin-mendiant,
les sanctuaires de la Vierge les plus vénérés de toute l'Europe; on
a calculé qu'il fit, à pied, plus de cinq mille lieues, pendant ces
sept années.
"En 1777, il revint en Italie, pour ne plus en sortir. Il habitait
Rome, faisant seulement une fois chaque année, le pèlerinage de
Lorète. Il passait une grande partie de ses journées dans les
églises, mendiait, et faisait des œuvres de charité. Il couchait
quelquefois sous le portique des églises, et le plus souvent au
Colysée derrière la petite chapelle de la cinquième station du
chemin de la croix. L'église qu'il fréquentait le plus, était celle
de Ste. Marie des Monts; le 16 Avril, 1783, après y avoir prié fort
longtemps, en sortant, il tomba, comme évanoui, sur les marches du
péristyle de l'église. On le transporta dans une maison voisine, où
il mourut le soir."--_Une Année à Rome._
Almost opposite this church, a narrow alley, which appears to be a
_cul-de-sac_ ending in a picture of the Crucifixion, is in reality the
approach to the carefully concealed _Convent of the Farnesiani Nuns_,
generally known as the _Sepolte Vive_. The only means of communicating
with them is by rapping on a barrel which projects from a wall on a
platform above the roofs of the houses,--when a muffled voice is heard
from the interior,--and if your references are satisfactory, the barrel
turns round and eventually discloses a key by which the initiated can
admit themselves to a small chamber in the interior of the convent. Over
its door is an inscription, bidding those who enter that chamber to
leave all worldly thoughts behind them. Round the walls are
inscribed,--"Qui non diligit, manet in morti."--"Militia est vita
hominis super terram."--"Alter alterius onera portate"; and, on the
other side, opposite the door,
"Vi esorto a rimirar
La vita del mondo
Nella guisa che la mira
Un moribondo."
In one of the walls is an opening with a double grille, beyond which is
a metal plate, pierced with holes like the rose of a watering-pot. It is
beyond this grille and behind this plate, that the abbess of the Sepolte
Vive receives her visitors, but she is even then veiled from head to
foot in heavy folds of thick bure. Gregory XVI., who of course could
penetrate within the convent and who wished to try her, said, "Sorella
mia, levate il velo." "No, mio padre," she replied, "E vietato dalla
nostra regola."
The nuns of the Sepolte Vive are never seen again after they once assume
the black veil, though they are allowed double the ordinary noviciate.
They never hear anything of the outer world, even of the deaths of their
nearest relations. Daily, they are said to dig their own graves and lie
down in them, and their remaining hours are occupied in perpetual and
monotonous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Returning as far as the Via Pane e Perna (a continuation of the Via
Maganaopoli) we ascend the slope of the _Viminal Hill_, now with
difficulty to be distinguished from the Quirinal. It derives its name
from _vimina_, osiers, and was once probably covered with woods, since a
temple of Sylvanus or Pan was one of several which adorned its principal
street--the Vicus Longus--the site of which is now marked by the
countrified lane called Via S. Vitale. This end of the hill is crowned
by the _Church of S. Lorenzo Pane e Perna_, built on the site of the
martyrdom of the deacon St. Laurence, who suffered under Claudius II.,
in A.D. 264, for refusing to give up the goods of the Church. Over the
altar is a huge fresco, representing the saint extended upon a red-hot
gridiron, and below--entered from the exterior of the church--a crypt
is shown as the scene of his cruel sufferings.[236]
"Blessed Laurentius, as he lay stretched and burning on the
gridiron, said to the impious tyrant, 'The meat is done, make haste
hither and eat. As for the treasures of the Church which you seek,
the hands of the poor have carried them to a heavenly
treasury.'"--_Antiphon of St. Laurence._
The funeral of St. Bridget of Sweden took place in this church, July
1373, but after resting here for a year, her body was removed by her son
to the monastery of Wastein in Sweden.
Under the second altar on the right are shown the relics of St. Crispin
and St. Crispinian, "two holy brothers, who departed from Rome with St.
Denis to preach the Gospel in France, where, after the example of St.
Paul, they laboured with their hands, being by trade shoemakers. And
these good saints made shoes for the poor without fee or reward (for
which the angels supplied them with leather), until, denounced as
Christians, they suffered martyrdom at Soissons, being, after many
tortures, beheaded by the sword (A.D. 300)."[237] The festival of St.
Crispin and St. Crispinian is held on October 25, the anniversary of the
battle of Agincourt.
"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered."
_Shakespeare, Henry V._
Throughout the middle ages the statues of Posidippus and Menander, now
in the gallery of statues at the Vatican, were kissed and worshipped in
this church under the impression that they represented saints (see Ch.
XV.). They were found on this site, which was once occupied by the baths
of Olympias, daughter-in-law of Constantine.
The strange name of the church, Pane e Perna, is supposed to have had
its origin in a dole of bread and ham once given at the door of the
adjacent convent. In the garden belonging to the convent is a mediæval
house of _c._ 1200. The campanile is of 1450.
The small neighbouring _Church of S. Lorenzo in Fonte_ covers the site
of the prison of St. Lawrence, and a fountain is shown there as that in
which he baptized Vicus Patricius and his daughter Lucilla, whom he
miraculously raised from the dead.
Descending the hill below the church--in the valley between the
Esquiline and Viminal--we reach at the corner of the street a spot of
preëminent historical interest, as that where Servius Tullius was
killed, and where Tullia (B.C. 535) drove in her chariot over the dead
body of her father. The Vicus Urbius by which the old king had reached
the spot is now represented by the Via Urbana; the Vicus Cyprius, by
which he was about to ascend to the palace on the hill Cispius, by the
Via di Sta. Maria Maggiore.
"Servius-Tullius, après avoir pris le chemin raccourci qui partait
du pied de la Velia et allait du côté des Carines, atteignit le
Vicus-Cyprius (Via Urbana).
"Parvenu à l'extrémité du Vicus-Cyprius, le roi fut atteint et
assassiné par les gens de Tarquin auprès d'un temple de Diane.
"C'est arrivés en cet endroit, au moment de tourner à droite et de
gagner, en remontant le Vicus-Virbius, le Cispius, où habitait son
père, que les chevaux s'arrêtèrent; que Tullie, poussée par
l'impatience fièvreuse de l'ambition, et n'ayant plus que quelques
pas à faire pour arriver au terme, avertie par le cocher que le
cadavre de son père était là gisant, s'écria: 'Eh bien, pousse le
char en avant.'
"Le meurtre s'est accompli au pied du Viminal, à l'extrémité du
Vicus-Cyprius, là où fut depuis le Vicus-Sceleratus, la rue
Funeste.
"Le lieu où la tradition plaçait cette tragique aventure ne peut
être sur l'Esquilin: mais nécessairement au pied de cette colline
et du Viminal, puisque, parvenu à l'extrémité du Vicus-Cyprius, le
cocher allait tourner à droite et remonter pour gravir l'Esquilin.
Il ne faut donc pas chercher, comme Nibby, la rue Scélérate sur une
des pentes, ou, comme Canina et M. Dyer, sur le sommet de
l'Esquilin, d'où l'on ne pouvait monter sur l'Esquilin.
"Tullie n'allait pas sur l'Oppius (San-Pietro in Vincoli), dans la
demeure de son mari, mais sur le Cispius, dans la demeure de son
père. C'était de la demeure royale qu'elle allait prendre
possession pour le nouveau roi.
* * * * *
"Je n'oublierai jamais le soir où, après avoir longtemps cherché le
lieu qui vit la mort de Servius et le crime de Tullie, tout-à-coup
je découvris clairement que j'y étais arrivé, et m'arrêtant plein
d'horreur, comme le cocher de la parricide, plongeant dans l'ombre
un regard qui, malgré moi, y cherchait le cadavre du vieux roi, je
me dis: 'C'était là!'"
_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ ii. 153.
Turning to the left, at the foot of the Esquiline, we find the
interesting _Church of Sta. Pudenziana_, supposed to be the most ancient
of all the Roman churches ("omnium ecclesiaram urbis vetustissima").
Cardinal Wiseman, who took his title from this church, considers it was
the principal place of worship in Rome after apostolic times, being
founded on the site of the house where St. Paul lodged, A.D. 41 to 50,
with the senator Pudens, whose family were his first converts, and who
is said to have himself suffered martyrdom under Nero. On this ancient
place of worship an oratory was engrafted by Pius I. (_c._ A.D. 145), in
memory of the younger daughter of Pudens, Pudenziana, perhaps at the
request of her sister Prassede, who is believed to have survived till
that time. In very early times two small churches existed here, known
as "Titulus Pudentis" and "Titulus Pastoris," the latter in memory of a
brother of Pius I.
The church, which has been successively altered by Adrian I. in the
eighth century, by Gregory VII., and by Innocent II., was finally
modernised by Cardinal Caetani in 1597. Little remains of ancient
external work except the graceful brick campanile (_c._ 1130) with
triple arcades of open arches on every side separated by bands of
terra-cotta moulding,--and the door adorned with low reliefs of the Lamb
bearing a cross, and of Sta. Prassede and Sta. Pudenziana with the vases
in which they collected the blood of the martyrs, and two other figures,
probably St. Pudens and St. Pastor.
The chapel on the left of the tribune, which is regarded as the "Titulus
Pudentis," has an old mosaic pavement, said to have belonged to the
house of Pudens. Here is a bas-relief by Giacomo della Porta,
representing our Saviour delivering the keys to St. Peter; and here is
preserved part of the altar at which St. Peter is said to have
celebrated mass (the rest is at the Lateran), and which was used by all
the early popes till the time of Sylvester. Among early Christian
inscriptions let into the walls, is one to a Cornelia, of the family of
the Pudenziani, with a rude portrait.
Opening from the left aisle is the chapel of the Caetani family, with
tombs of the seventeenth century. Over the altar is a bas-relief of the
Adoration of the Magi, by _Paolo Olivieri_. On each side are fine
columns of Lunachella marble. Over the entrance from the nave are
ancient mosaics,--of the Evangelists and of Sta. Pudenziana collecting
the blood of the martyrs. Beneath, is a gloomy and neglected vault, in
which all the sarcophagi and coffins of the dead Caetani are shown by
torchlight.
In the tribune are magnificent mosaics, ascribed by some to the eighth,
by others to the fourth century, and considered by De Rossi,[238] as the
best of all ancient Christian mosaics.
"In conception and treatment this work is indeed classic: seated on
a rich throne in the centre, is the Saviour with one arm extended,
and in the other hand holding a book open at the words,
_Conservator Ecclesiæ Pudentianæ_; laterally stand SS. Praxedis and
Pudentiana with leafy crowns in their hands; and at a lower level,
but more in front, SS. Peter and Paul with eight other male
figures, all in the amply-flowing costume of ancient Romans; while
in the background are seen, beyond a portico with arcades, various
stately buildings, one a rotunda, another a parallelogram with a
gable-headed front, recognizable as a baptistery and basilica,
here, we may believe, in authentic copy from the earliest types of
the period of the first Christian emperors. Above the group, and
hovering in the air, a large cross, studded with gems, surmounts
the head of our Saviour, between the four symbols of the
Evangelists, of which one has been entirely, and another in the
greater part, sacrificed to some wretched accessories in woodwork
actually allowed to conceal portions of this most interesting
mosaic! As to expression, a severe solemnity is that prevailing,
especially in the principal head, which _alone_ is crowned with the
nimbus--one among other proofs, if but negative, of its high
antiquity."--_Heman's Ancient Christian Art._
Besides Sta. Pudenziana and St. Pudens,--St. Novatus and St. Siricius
are said to be buried here. Those who visit this sanctuary every day
obtain an indulgence of 3000 years, with remission of a third part of
their sins! Excavations made by Mr. J. H. Parker, in 1865, have laid
bare some interesting constructions beneath the church,--supposed to be
those of the house of Pudens--a part of the public baths of Novatus, the
son of Pudens, which were in use for some centuries after his time, and
a chamber in which is supposed to have been the oratory dedicated by
Pius I. in A.D. 145.
"Eubulus greeteth thee, and _Pudens_, and Linus, and Claudia, and
all the brethren."--_2 Timothy_ iv. 21.
The following account of the family of Pudens is received as the legacy
of Pastor to the Christian Church.
"Pudens went to his Saviour, leaving his daughters strengthened
with chastity, and learned in all the divine law. These sold their
goods, and distributed the produce to the poor, and persevered
strictly in the love of Christ, guarding intact the flower of their
virginity, and only seeking for glory in vigils, fastings, and
prayer. They desired to have a baptistery in their house, to which
the blessed Pius not only consented, but with his own hand drew the
plan of the fountain. Then calling in their slaves, both from town
and country, the two virgins gave liberty to those who were
Christians, and urged belief in the faith upon those who had not
yet received it. By the advice of the blessed Pius, the
affranchisement was declared, with all the ancient usages, in the
oratory founded by Pudens; then, at the festival of Easter,
ninety-six neophytes were baptized; so that thenceforth assemblies
were constantly held in the said oratory, which night and day
resounded with hymns of praise. Many pagans gladly came thither to
find the faith and receive baptism.
"Meanwhile the Emperor Antonine, being informed of what was taking
place, issued an edict commanding all Christians to dwell apart in
their own houses, without mixing with the rest of the people, and
that they should neither go to the public shops, nor to the baths.
Praxedis and Pudentiana then assembled those whom they had led to
the faith, and housed them. They nourished them for many days,
watching and praying. The blessed bishop Pius himself frequently
visited us with joy, and offered the sacrifice for us to the
Saviour.
"Then Pudentiana went to God. Her sister and I wrapped her in
perfumes and kept her concealed in the oratory. Then, at the end of
twenty-eight days, we carried her to the cemetery of Priscilla, and
laid her near her father Pudens.
"Eleven months after, Novatus died in his turn. He bequeathed his
goods to Praxedis, and she then begged of St. Pius to erect a
titular (a church) in the baths of Novatus, which were no longer
used, and where there was a large and spacious hall. The bishop
made the dedication in the name of the blessed virgin Praxedis. In
the same place he consecrated a baptistery.
"But, at the end of two years, a great persecution was declared
against the Christians, and many of them received the crown of
martyrdom. Praxedis concealed a great number of them in her
oratory, and nourished them at once with the food of this world and
with the word of God. But the Emperor Antonine, having learnt that
these meetings took place in the oratory of Priscilla, caused it to
be searched, and many Christians were taken, especially the priest
Simetrius and twenty-two others. And the blessed Praxedis collected
their bodies by night, and buried them in the cemetery of
Priscilla, on the seventh day of the calends of June. Then the
virgin of the Saviour, worn out with sorrow, only asked for death.
Her tears and her prayers reached to heaven, and fifty-four days
after her brethren had suffered, she passed to God. And I, Pastor,
the priest, have buried her body near that of her father
Pudens."--_From the Narration of Pastor._
Returning by the main line of streets to the Quattro Fontane, we skirt
on the right the wall of the Villa Negroni (see Ch. XI). Beyond this, on
the left, is the _Church of S. Paolo Primo Eremita_. The strange-looking
palm-tree over the door, with a raven perched upon it and two lions
below, commemorates the story of the saint, who, retiring to the desert
at the age of 22, lived there till he was 112, eating nothing but the
dates of his tree for twenty-two years, after which bread was daily
brought to him by a raven. In his last hours St. Anthony came to visit
him and was present at his burial, when two lions his companions came to
dig his grave. The sustaining palm-tree and the three animals who loved
S. Paolo are again represented over the altar. Further on the left, we
pass the Via S. Vitale, occupying the site of the Vicus Longus,
considered by Dyer to have been the longest street in the ancient city.
Here stood the temples of Sylvanus, and of Fever, with that of Pudicitia
Plebeia, founded _c._ B.C. 297, by Virginia the patrician, wife of
Volumnius, when excluded from the patrician temple of Pudicitia in the
Forum Boarium, on account of her plebeian marriage. "At its altar none
but plebeian matrons of unimpeachable chastity, and who had been married
to only one husband, were allowed to sacrifice."[239]
The _Church of S. Vitale_ on the Viminal, which now stands here, was
founded by Innocent I. in A.D. 416. The interior is covered with
frescoes of martyrdoms. It is seldom open except early on Sunday
mornings. S. Vitale, father of S. Gervasius and S. Protasius, was the
martyr and patron saint of Ravenna who was buried alive under Nero.
Beyond this, on the left of the Via delle Quattro Fontane, is the
_Church of S. Dionisio_, belonging to the Basilian nuns, called
Apostoline di S. Basilio. It contains an Ecce Homo of _Luca Giordano_,
and the gaudy shrine of the virgin martyr Sta. Coraola.
END OF VOL. I.
[Illustration: ROME
Showing the more important streets and buildings. (left-side of map)]
[Illustration]
WALKS IN ROME
TWO VOLS.--II.
WALKS IN ROME
BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE
AUTHOR OF "MEMORIALS OF A QUIET LIFE," "WANDERINGS IN SPAIN," ETC
TWO VOLUMES.----II.
_FIFTH EDITION_
LONDON
DALDY, ISBISTER & CO.
56, LUDGATE HILL
1875
[_All rights reserved_]
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
CONTENTS.