Walks in Rome

lazzo Rospigliosi-Colonna Gardens and Temple of the Sun-S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo-Sta. Caterina di Siena-SS. Domenico e Sist

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 t

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

l 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

he temple w

te porticu

n habet o

pei

l, xi.

ficiu

peragendum in

, Sat.

temple of Fo

ndam sacrata es

die Publica;

Fast.

th, which gave a name to the Porta Salutaria, which must have stood nearly on the site of the present Quattro Fonta

tands, 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

ow street," whence he had a view as far as the portico of Agrippa, near the Flaminian Way

lorum, ludis ce

artes mense

i: transis in

ens; cum venit

edantque tibi c

laudes ille

exit, clamataqu

m Circi muner

Fast.

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

nal during the later empire, Aurelian's Temple of the Sun, and the

ntinued by Borromini, and finished by Bernini, in 1640. It is screened from the street by a magnificent railing between columns, erected 1865-67, a

ur. 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 t

ism 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 pre

osaics 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

d 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 patien

of Pictures (open when the custode chooses to be there), indif

Ro

VIII.: And

ardinal

ild, St. John, and

a and Chil

nd Child: Gio

of Raphael

t of himsel

nd Eve: Do

Ro

hiava:" Pal

ure, of grand beauty, but with too clumsy a style of drapery, too cold an expr

andolfo: Cla

trait:

tors-painted in five day

of Beatrice Ce

h the painter's name o

t 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 ex

f Germanicu

rt: Claud

mily: Andre

ciation:

traits-that (81) of Lucrezia, the unhappy wife of Francesco Cenci,

r 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, whi

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 immens

nt; 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

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

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 si

-was the celebrated Barberini Pine, often drawn by artists from the Via Sterrata at the back of the garden, where

h formed part of the dedication of an arch erected to Claudius by the senate and people, in honour of the conquest of Bri

ugly statues of river-gods, lying over the Quatt

Albani, recently restored b

mon style, uniting considerable grandeur of conception, great force and decision, and a

he 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, on

nuel 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 Kostk

h 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 v

, 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 cons

x où la prière na?t spontanément dans le c?ur, et s'en échapp

here "the angels used to bathe the breast of

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 Madd

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 Pra

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 sh

il a inspirées, et surtout dans les colosses de Castor et Pollux, domptant des c

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'époq

colossales, cette lutte de l'homme avec les animaux, donnent, comme tous les ouvrages des

Twain, that erect

teeds in the grace of y

retched arms and tra

h life in the might o

ange, ye ancient di

. Cl

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 di

yptian granite, brought hither by Pius VII. from the F

s, under the old regime, some of the Papal Guardia Nobile were always to be seen sunning themselves in a uniform so resple

Quirinal, which also extends along one whol

e on the Quirinal Hill; and the prolongation of his labours, by a long series of success

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

s escape to Gaeta during the revolution of 1848, when the siege of the Quirinal by

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

ty 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 Ba

e 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

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 carri

the later conclaves have always

rocession. 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 ru

* *

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 ever

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 bloc

e 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 tr?ne; et il y a tel pieux candidat qui négocierait avec son concurrent, si la durée du nouveau règne pouvait avoir son

obtained through a banker. It was stripped of all historical memorials and contained very few fine pictures, so was little

ad light, is a very important fresco by Melozzo d

ced 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 p

gory XVI. for the papal summer residence. They contain few objects of interest. In one chamber is a Last Supper by Baroccio;-

d,-the bed has been changed. In the next room-an audience chamber-he was taken prisoner. Here is a curious ancient pietra

gio: Po

ll 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

S. Catheri

St. Paul: Fr

life, were executed during a short residence in Rome. The first w

er frieze, being the original cast of the Triumph of Alexander the Great, modelled for Napoleon by T

David:

mo: Dom

me: Spag

into Egyp

he Battle of Mentana, presented to Pi

nunciation by Guido, and frescoes of the life of the Virgin by Albani. The great hall of the Consis

culan 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 Quiri

se, 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 tim

sdays and Saturdays. It is situated at the end of a very small but pretty garden planted with magno

ch sounding and clashing. Painters maintain that it is lighted from two sides,-they have my full permission to l

ed 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 beautifu

nd soft, and harmonious. Cupid, Aurora, Ph?bus, form a climax of beauty,

models, and that there is scarcely one of his large pictures in which the Niobe or one of h

scapes by Paul Brill. In the hall are busts, statues

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 gathe

well worth seeing in May from the wealth of came

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.

tem is preserved of the grand historical pine-tree, which was planted on the day on which Cola di Rien

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 la

way 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 v

osed within the precincts of which is the tall brick medi?val tower, sometimes called the Tower of Nero, but generally known as the Torre delle Milizie, i.e. the Roman Militia. It was

ses of study at Rome,-the first in le

emple of Concord,-and this is the temple of Castor and Pollux,-and this is the templ

Pollux,-nor the other the temple of Concord,-nor are any of these

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 th

ow called Tor di Babele, ornamented with three beautiful fragments of sculptured frieze, one of them bearing the device of the Colonna, a cr

r the second altar on the left is a picture of the marriage of St. Catherine by Allegrani, and, on the anniversary of her

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

ventine) 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. Tw

e 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 re

decorated, 1863, with frescoes and arabesques as a burial-place for his family. In the opposite ch

ear 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

t 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 al

reverenced by the Roman people. On the 5th of February

y wounds?-I am an apostle of Christ,

; but I have the Lord Jesus Christ, who

t, for that thou hast been mindful of me, an

us Christ, because through thine apost

very wound, and to restore to me my brea

* *

Jesus Christ, my good master, I thank thee because thou hast given me strength to overcome the tortures of

from Constantinople when taken by the

urb him, rather does he rejoice; yet he is not without sorrow, as a Greci

enti, interesting as occupying the supposed site of the Vallis Quirinalis, whe

Longa venieb

ebat; nec fa

tu nubes crep

gradus, horru

mano major, tr

media visus

Fast.

aria in Monti, containing a fountain, and a church dedicated to SS. Sergiu

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 m

ter, 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

es 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. M

rrel 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 t

orto a

ta de

uisa ch

orib

hind 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

viciate. They never hear anything of the outer world, even of the deaths of their nearest relations. Daily, they are said to dig their

r 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,

t, 'The meat is done, make haste hither and eat. As for the treasures of the Church which you s

ch, July 1373, but after resting here for a year, her body w

ul, 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, th

Crispian shal

to the endin

t shall be

eare, H

n, were kissed and worshipped in this church under the impression that they represented saints (see Ch. XV.).

a dole of bread and ham once given at the door of the adjacent convent. In the garde

n of St. Lawrence, and a fountain is shown there as that in which he baptized Vic

at 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 reache

ci qui partait du pied de la Velia et allait du c?té

le roi fut atteint et assassiné par les g

ère, que les chevaux s'arrêtèrent; que Tullie, poussée par l'impatience fièvreuse de l'ambition, et n'ayant plus que quelques pas à fai

l, à l'extrémité du Vicus-Cyprius, là où fut

isque, 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, c

e de son mari, mais sur le Cispius, dans la demeure de son père. C'était

* *

ie, tout-à-coup je découvris clairement que j'y étais arrivé, et m'arrêtant plein d'horreur, comme le cocher de la parr

ist. Rom.

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

cient 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 relie

a 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 w

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. Pudenzia

he eighth, by others to the fourth century, and considered by

ns; 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 fo

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

s, and Linus, and Claudia, and al

of Pudens is received as the legac

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 af

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 hous

ept her concealed in the oratory. Then, at the end of twenty-eight days, we

ect a titular (a church) in the baths of Novatus, which were no longer used, and where there was a large and spacious hall

rnt 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 calend

ee 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

rior is covered with frescoes of martyrdoms. It is seldom open except early on Sunday mornings. S. Vitale, fath

sio, belonging to the Basilian nuns, called Apostoline di S. Basilio. It contains an

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