Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . Thewhole basilica is surrounded by columns, and has an ancient roof of rafters ; and to the leftof it opens that celebrated chapel of St. James, which contains treasures of architecture,sculpture, fresco-painting, and terra-cotta, in the highest style of the Renaissance ; FLORENCE. 179 amongst them a fine monument to a cardinal of Portugal, whose statue reclines on anexquisitely carved sarcophagus. The ancient Etruscan city of Fiesole seems to invite us from the hill on which sheis throned, with her tall campanile and Capuchin convent on the topmost summit o
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . Thewhole basilica is surrounded by columns, and has an ancient roof of rafters ; and to the leftof it opens that celebrated chapel of St. James, which contains treasures of architecture,sculpture, fresco-painting, and terra-cotta, in the highest style of the Renaissance ; FLORENCE. 179 amongst them a fine monument to a cardinal of Portugal, whose statue reclines on anexquisitely carved sarcophagus. The ancient Etruscan city of Fiesole seems to invite us from the hill on which sheis throned, with her tall campanile and Capuchin convent on the topmost summit of theheight. Halfway up the steep road to Fiesole, on a sunny olive-covered slope, standsthe favourite creation of Cosmo the First, the Badia, built by Brunelleschi. All thesurroundings are in harmony with each other. Around a peaceful cloistered courtyardare built the church, the refectory, the library, and other halls; and towards the city andthe smiling landscape opens a delightful pillared loggia. In the sunny, deserted rooms. VIEW IN THE VAL daRNO. we may fancy ourselves surrounded by the spirits of those illustrious men who were sofar in advance of their age, and who hastened the dawn of that most flourishing epochin Italian history, the Renaissance, the time of a new intellectual birth ; until the powersof darkness and priestcraft, supported by French and Spanish swords, trod down theripening harvest! In those days noble and profound ideas grew up amidst a refined andjoyous society ; Art and Philosophy were marked by sublime tendencies, and at the sametime by the purest humanity. In those days well might a Pico della Mirandola exclaim : God made man at the end of the six clays of creation, in order that he mightacknowledge the laws of the universe, love its beauty, and admire its grandeur. Godbound man to no special spot of earth, to no fixed action, to no iron necessities ; butgave him movement and free will. I have placed thee in the centre of the world, saysthe Creato
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
