| queen of the Franks, converted her husband to the catholic faith. The history of this queen of the Lombards of the sixth century contains some natural and touching particulars. So great was the popularity of Theodolinda that at the death of Antaris, her first husband, the chief men of the nation in exaggerated. At the top of a staircase, the Virgin, the Infant Jesus and some angels, a beautiful fresco covered with glass, shamefully restored, is by BerBardino Luini. A bust of Saint Bernard, very fine, formerly in the convent library, is now in the church: the features are gentle, almost graceful, and form a contrast with the rigour, power, irresis-vited her to chose a second whom they tible eloquence, and agitated life of this great hermit. A small stone in the wall of the cemetery of the convent of Chiaravalle points out the burial-place of Pagano della Torre, podesta of Milan, who died in 1241. So mean a monument to such a personage, of so great a family,-a monument erected by the people, whose affection La Torre had merited, if the epitaph, which for once appears sincere, may be credited,-shows a republican simplicity perfectly antique. This tomb is for the middle ages like the stone slab of the Scipios, and both are more worthy of respect than the splendid mausoleums, the master-pieces of art, which succeeded them. In the cemetery of Chiaravalle, in 1282, the heretic Guillelmina was interred as a saint, and afterwards exhumed in 1300 as a witch, and burnt with two of her living followers; she had pretended to found an apostleship of women, to have successors of her own sex, like Saint Peter, and to replace the Roman pontificate by a female papacy. One of the two sectarians burnt with the corpse of Guillelmina was the abbess Maifreda, a nun of the order of the Umiliate, whom she had appointed her vicar, with the same powers as the vicar of Jesus Christ, but who was only the first martyr of these lamentable follies. CHAPTER III. Monza.-Theodolinda.—Iron crown.-Archives.Hector Visconti.-Palace. Greco, on the road to Monza, has some fine frescos by Bernardino Luini, discovered a few years since. Monza, a smail well-situated town, with its rich basilic, offers the oldest and most numerous vestiges of the Lombards; this old basilic, founded by queen Theodolinda and exhibiting in every part traces of her life, seems as if it were the temple of the Italian Clotilda, who, like the promised to recognise as their king. Theodolinda fixed her choice on Agigulphus, duke of Turin, who was worthy of such an honour. The queen, without communicating her intention to him, simply invited him to come to her court. She went as far as Lomello to meet him, and there having ordered a cup to be brought, she drank half of its contents and presented it to him to drink the rest. The duke of Turin, on returning the cup, kissed the princess's hand with great respect. "That is not, said Theodolinda, blushing, the kiss that I have a right to expect from him whom 1 intend to be my lord and master. The Lombard nation has empowered me to chose a king, and it is you that it invites, by my mouth, to reign over it and me." Agigulphus's gold crown, which the canon Frisi has described in his Historical Memoirs of Monza, was taken to Paris in 1799 and put in the cabinet of medals in the great Library; it was stolen in 1804, and melted down by the thieves. How strange the fate of this Lombard crown, to be conferred with such ingenuous grace, and to fall and come to its end by felon hands at Paris! After the affecting marriage of Theodolinda and Agigulpbus, it is disagreeable to see them so grossly deceived by the crafty muleteer in Boccaccio's novel, which has been imitated by La Fontaine. The reliquary of queen Theodolinda, a toilet cabinet of the middle ages, contains her crown, sapphire cup, perhaps the one she presented to Agigu phus, ber fan of red parchment, and her comb, which, from the present taste of ladies for the Gothic, would be still a near approch to the fashion. Among other articles in the treasury of Monza is a grand relic, namely, the entire gown of the Virgin, gorgeously enclosed in a silver frame, which is exposed on holy days. This pretended gown is a sort of cotton of no great an 1 Giorn. III. nov. iv.; La Font., Cont. liv. II. tiquity, in which even the Italian clergy in ceneral full of propriety and good sense do not believe, and which it is time to leave off exhibiting. This attempt to establish, as among the pagans, one religion for the people and another for the priests, is a deception unworthy the truth of Christianity. The iron crown, the real wonder of Monza, is enclosed in the upper part of a large cross placed in a chapel of the cathedral; it is rarely seen but at a certain distance, and during the short service which always accompanies its exposition. The canons afterwards show an imitation of the true crown, which you may handle and contemplate at your ease, as well as the very costly, but sometimes very insignificant, presents made by sundry sovereigns to this cathedral; such, for instance, are certain little loaves of gold and silver presented through cardinal Caprara at Napoleon's coronation as king of Italy. I confess that I preferred to all this rich and modern jewellery the gradual of Saint Gregory, a fine parple manuscript, given to the cathedral of Monza by that great pope, who was the friend and confidant of the amiable Theodolinda; and particularly the famous papyrus containing a statement of the relics that he sent ber, a frail and venerable monument of twelve centuries, the real king of papyrus, as the canon Frisi enthusiastically Mys, who dethrones without pity another papyrus belonging to the marquis Maffei. In my first journey I only saw the iron crown at a distance; a close inspection has since been allowed me, as well as of the iren circle it encloses, which, as every body knows, is made of one of the nails used in the Passion. I had been presented to the archpriest and the chapter by an ecclesiastic attached to the Ambrosian library, who was passing his vacation at Monza, the place of his birth. The herophant of the temple was a good sort of man, but no great genius. I could not pardon him for the disorder and fitby condition of his archives, hh have no catalogue but an inventory of the objects restored by France, in hich the titles are mutilated. * The letters of Saint Gregory's gradual are in god and viver; the latter are almost effaced, but them of good are in beter preservation. • M. de Sismondi says that at one and the same A series of medallions painted on the circular vault of the church of Monza, represents the princes who have been crowned with the iron crown, from Agigulphus, the beloved husband of Theodolinda, to Charles V. After this last no brow has dared to bear it till Napoleon. Among the historical mementos which abound at Monza, is a painting representing the solemn reception given to Henry III. by Saint Charles Borromeo. May they, in that chapel which contains one of the instruments of our Saviour's Passion (the chapel del San Chiodo), have repented together of the Saint Bartholomew massacre, if it be true that this illustrious saint was privy to it! The remarkable paintings of this basilic are: the ceiling, by Isidore Bianchi; the frescos near the high altar, by Montalto and Cesare Procaccini; a St. Gerard on a column, by Bernardino Luini; the Visitation, by Guercino. The so badly kept archives contain an antique and curious collection of bulls and papal briefs, and diplomas of the emperors, bound at Paris, and bearing the arms of the empire. One of the celebrated ivory diptychs represents Boetius in prison, comforted by Elpis, a distinguished Sicilian lady, his first wife, holding a ten-stringed lyre, or according to some interpreters, by an allegorical figure of Poetry. In the cemetery appertaining to the church is a strange corpse, that of Hector or Astor Visconti, exhumed after about three centuries and found entire. Hector Visconti, one of the many bastards of Benarbo, received the surname of the Fearless soldier; being blockaded in the castle of Monza, he defended himself there against the troops of duke Philip Maria, until, as he was leading his horse to the well, a fragment of rock thrown by a balista broke his leg, and killed him. The body of Hector Visconti has since been put in a niche under one of the arcades which surround the cemetery were it not for its whiteness the dried corpse might be taken for an armed mummy standing upright; and this brave knight, leaning on time Benarbo bad thirty-six children, and eighteen women pregnant by him. (Hist, des Rép. tt., ch. LUJ.) his old iron sword which bears his cipher, seems still to be facing the enemy. The palace of Monza is noble and regular, and one of Piermarini's best performances. The chapel passes for a masterpiece. In the rotunda of the orangery are the Adventures of Psyche, celebrated frescos by Appiani, which began his reputation. The gardens and hot-houses are vast and magnificent; as is also the park, which is crossed by the Lambro, and is nearly three leagues in circumference. vres are now assigned, but a French architect would do but little with that sum. It must also be allowed that the climate of Italy is less destructive than ours, and that the materials are of better quality and cheaper. The comfortable retreats of the ancient monks may still be seen, to the number of twenty-four; they are of a single story, with a fountain and small garden. Spatio brevi Spem longam reseces. The remains of the palace of Federico whose name is unknown. The elegant The Gothic church is by a builder Barbarossa at Monza have become pub-front, adorned with exquisite sculptures lic property; the residence of this humbled and restiff emperor is now a store house for the town. CHAPTER IV. The Charterhouse of Pavia.-Tomb of Giovanni Galeas Visconti.-Arts encouraged by the monasteries.-Francis I. at the Charterhouse. It is impossible to contemplate the lustre, richness, and ornaments of the Charterhouse (Certosa) of Pavia, without becoming an admirer of its ancient masters, and feeling oneself almost a Carthusian. Splendour like this is the most innocent of all, as it is due to the culture and improvement of the soil: "The only conquest," as one writer felicitously expresses himself, "which does not increase the number of the unhappy." The sumptuousness of the world, by which people are so dazzled, scems less deserving of respect than that of these magnificent recluses. The Charterhouse was suppressed by Joseph II., who confiscated its revenue amounting to a million; at a subsequent period the Directory stripped it even of the lead on the roof: all these philosophic ravages, this ungrateful violence towards the benefactors of the country, this destruction of a national and religious monument and miracle of art, do not inspire less abhorrence and compassion than any other ruin. For the repairs of the Charterhouse, which is not irretrievably injured, 5000 li * Melon, Essai politique sur le commerce. The taking off the lead gave admission to the rain, which has done much damage to several parts of the church and injured the paintings; many by the first masters of the fifteenth century, seems to be by Borgognone, no less skilful as an architect than good as a painter. The small columns beneath the ogive have been reckoned worthy of Bambaja; the basso-relievos near the principal entrance are supposed to be by Gobbo; they represent a Visitation, a Miracle, a funeral Procession, and are masterpieces for grace, nature, and truth. The splendid tomb of the founder of the Charterhouse, Giovanni Galeas Visconti, finished in 1562 by Cristoforo Romano, is placed in the church. It is such a monument as ought to be erected by characters like these monks, to whom death, always present, supplied the place of ambition, memory, and meditation. The tomb of Giovanni Galeas has always been empty; it was not finished til! one hundred and sixty years after his death; during this long interval, the place where his remains had been temporarily deposited was forgotten, and, like the Egyptian kings spoken of by Bossuet, this duke of Milan has never enjoyed his sepulchre. Behind this mausoleum are the figures in demi-relievo of Louis the Moor and his wife Beatrice, attributed to Gobbo; the figure of Beatrice is one of the cleverest performances of the time; the chill of death alone has extinguished the expression of her features. Despite the spoliation of 1798, the Charterhouse of Pavia still presents some remarkable paintings; for instance, there paintings also were carried away in 1798; the Gradual of the Cartbusiaus is in the Brera library, but as was usual with such amateurs of books, It has been stripped of its rich covering. elect is by Danielo Crespi. The frescos of the choir were the last and finest paintings of this great artist, who, before the age of forty, was carried off, as well as his whole family, by the plague of Milan in 1630. The brazen gates of the tabernacle are by Francesco Brambilla; the stalls, a precious piece of inlaid work of the year 1486, are by Bartolommeo di Pola. A basso-relievo by Denis Bussola, the Massacre of the Innocents, is regarded as one of the best sculptures in the church for nature and expression. A Virgin surrounded with angels adoring the Infant Jesus, by Perugino, is admirable. are on the interior of the front the fresco | the Relics, Christ in the midst of the of the Assumption, by Giuseppe Procaccini; the Virgin adoring the Infant Jesus, in Montagna's style, is by Ambrosio Fossano; and St. Veronica showing the Saviour's winding-sheet to a number of women, by Camillo Procaccini. The dowers in hard stone, a rich | and brilliant mosaic, which embellish the front of this altar and several others, are the work of the Sacchi family, established at the Charterhouse, which, from one generation to another, has always followed the same occupation, and remained there in succession for three centuries. The monastic orders, by their uninterrupted duration, have afforded and secured to the arts more certain and permanent encouragement than all the governments. The painting in six compartments, of the year 1496, by Macrin The little court called the court of the Fountain, near the grand court, is decorated with works in stucco, which are not surpassed in beauty and elegance by the finest works in marble. Brantome informs that when Francis I. after his defeat was taken prisoner in the Charterhouse park, he desired to be conducted to church to perform his devotions, and when there, the first object that presented itself to his eyes was this inscription from the Psalms: Bonum mihi quia humiliasti me, ut discam justificationes tuas It was a great and affecting lesson, such as religion alone could give to the Abe, a good old Piedmontese painter, who made the first approaches to the modern style, is esteemed for the truth of its colouring. Two frescos from the Life of St. Syrius, by Antonio Busca, repeat the same countenances, and prove the indolence and eccentricity of the author. The Virgin, her Son, St. Peter and St. Paul, a picture now become duil and much damaged, is by Guercino, An Annunciation, by Camillo Procac-king who had lost all except honour.1 cini, by its arrangement and attitude of the beads, recalls his clever imitation of Parm-giano. The ceiling of the new sarristy is by Alessandro Casolani, a painter of Siena in the sixteenth century, who was esteemed by Guido. An Asrumpton, the upper part of which, of beausal expression and colouring, is by Gobbo, and the lower part, precise and true, by Bernardino Campi. The Christ before the high-priest is one of the best works of Paggi, à Genoese painter of the Siteenth century. An Annunciation is by Cesare Procaccini, and a Virgin, the Infant Jesus, two saints and three angels full of grace playing on instruments, by Bartolommeo Montagna, a pupal of Giovanni Bellini, a painter of the middle of the fifteenth century; he was of Venetian origin but born at Vicenza, as it has been proved by a dis- Among the many projects for employtinguished man of that town, Counting the buildings of the Charterhouse, Leonardo Trissino, whose information there is one which seems feasible and and terary taste make him worthy of the Bame The old sacristy has a St. Martin, by Bernardino Luini, and a superb St. perhaps fictitious, as it is not in the original of the Ambrose, by Fossano. At the altar of Some persons have received from the Charterhouse an impression different from mine; they found it rich and pretty, but not remarkable for grandeur; the situation, instead of combining the horrors generally attributed to monasteries of this sort, is exposed, flat, and monotonous. But the Carthusians of Pavia, being husbandmen, were doubtless more attentive to the quality of the land, than to its picturesque appearance. As to the impression produced by the building, it is owing, I believe, to the fact of those persons having visited it on their return from Italy, and after my several voyages I can easily conceive it. Nevertheless I thought it incumbent on me to attempt a relation of what I felt on surveying this monastic splendour, before I became accustomed to it. This so often quoted expression of Francis I. is letter written to his mother the queen-regent. Pavia struck me by the singular contrast which exists between some of its ancient monuments, the remnants of the middle ages, when it was the seat of the kings of Lombardy or the capital of a republican state, and the modern and scientific aspect of its university, with its museum of natural history, its cabinets of experimental philosophy and anatomy, and its botanical garden. The museum of natural history has had the honour, rather uncommon to this kind of establishment, of inspiring the small but beautiful poem of Mascheroni, in which Daphnis calls the attention of Lesbia to the productions of nature with which it is enriched. 3 The number of students is fourteen hundred: these youths have a distinguished appearance, and are noted for their ardour and capacity. As in university towns, the crowd of idlers and curious persons who are usually found in large capitals, do not interfere with the lessons, each feels that every one goes there to study. If Pavia lost some years ago many of its most celebrated professors, such as Tamburini, Volta, and Scarpa, 4 it still owned some able masters, such as the professor of mathematical and experimental philosophy, S. Configliacchi; of natural history, Brugnatelli; of botany, Moretti; of mi- | neralogy and zoology, Zandrini; of general chemistry and pharmaceutics, Marabelli; of anatomy, Panizza, the worthy successor of Scarpa, and corresponding member of the Academy of sciences at Paris; of medical clinics and therapeutics, del Chiappa; of pure elementary Lettres Persanes, let. Ixxxv. Although founded, as it is sald, by Charlemagne, this university had greatly declined. Maria Theresa remodelled it, and its organisation does not In reality belong to a more remote period than the middle and close of the last century. mathematics and surveying, Bordon great mathematician; of ecclesiastic l Prina; of Roman law, as related to common law, Beretta; of mechan Borgnis; of political sciences, Lanfr chi. No one is allowed to follow university courses without having [ viously been at the Lyceum. The co of instruction is divided into three pa viz. the faculty of politico-legal stuc medico-chirurgico-pharmaceutical : dies, and philosophical studies, w nearly correspond with our facultie law, sciences, and letters, notwithstand the title of philosophical given to the I The course of the faculty of polit legal studies lasts four years; the foll ing are the professorships: statist introduction to politico-legal studi natural law, private and public; cri nal law; Roman law, as compared the common law; ecclesiastical la Austrian universal civil law, and differences with the French civil 1 commercial law; maritime law; polit sciences and the penal code, and judic procedure. The course of the faculty of med chirurgico-pharmaceutical studies c tinues five years; the professorships a mineralogy; introduction to the stud medicine and surgery; practical a tomy: botany; zoology; compara anatomy and physiology; general mistry; animal and pharmaceutical c mistry; introduction to the study theoretical surgery, pharmaceutical tetics, materia medica; general pathol etiology and semeiosis; midwifery; th retical surgery: use of instruments theory of bandages: materia medica treatise on poisons; general patholo hygiene and general therapeutics; pi tical medical instruction at the patie bed-side; special therapeutics of the a internal maladies; veterinary art; for sic medicine; theoretical instructions the diseases of the eyes; public hygi (polizia medicale). The course of the faculty named ph sophical studies lasts two years: one of its courses is not necessary to ob 3 Lesbia was the Arcadian name of Grism Suardt of Bergamo, a woman whose genius poet was pure, noble, harmonious, but some diffuse. 4 He died October 31, 1832, aged eighty-five ye |