above it commands a fine view of Val d'Arno. Further on. are the Villas of the late Madame Catalani and Lord Normanby; Villa Mario, which belonged to Mario, the singer; Villa Palmieri de' tre Vise, where Boccaccio places his story-tellers of the Decameron during the plague of 1348; Villa Mozzi del Garbo and Villa Melzi, both seats of the Medici; Villa Guadagni, in which B. della Scala wrote his History of Florence. Here also is the Villa of Baron Ricasoli (the statesman, and a descendant of an old Tuscan family), on the site of St. Gerolamo Convent. The estate produces good wine. The Franciscan Badia, or Abbey of St. Bartolommeo, is near.

Fiesole, or Fesulea, the ancient Fæsulæ; an Etruscan city, the mother of Florence, on a conspicuous hill, 1,000 feet high, about 4 miles from Florence, now marked by a cathedral. There are remains of massive stone walls, and of an amphitheatre. From the "top of Fiesole" half the extent of Val d'Arno may be descried, with its villas, palaces, convents, farms, and towns in every variety of combination.

Protestant Cemetery, outside the Porta Pinti. Here A. F. Clough, the poet, is buried (1861); with other former residents. On the Bologna Road, is

Pratolino, marked by a colossal statue of the Apennines, by G. da Bologna, 60 feet high, in a garden; the view is nearly 20 miles all round.

"Who can reach the summit of the hill of Pratolíno and not feel a sense of delight and admiration? Florence, the city which derives its name from the abundance of flowers blossoming in its fields and gardens, glitters in all the pride of its beauty across that sunlit valley, through which the waters of the Arno flow now, as they flowed in the old days of Tuscan glory. Its porticoes, its domes, its spires, the massive tower of the Bargello, and the dusky prisons hard by, rise in varied groups of sculptured marble, of ornamented loggie, of painted palaces. Below the Ponte Vecchio, which spans the river with its old fashioned jewellers' and goldsmiths' shops, the winding Arno is seen shut in by swelling hills, whose declivities are dotted with churches, castles, and villas.

"The distant aspect of Florence is brighter than the appearance of the streets themselves, which are severe and sombre. Yet the more the traveller advances into them, the more he becomes aware of the greatness of Italian genius. The rugged, strongly-built palaces of the Ghibelines and Guelphs, and the numberless churches, bring to his mind the grandeur and wealth of the past, a grandeur which still sheds light upon the world." Arrivabene.

2. Passing out of the gate by the Cascine, on the Pistoja Road, are-the Villa S. Donato, a country seat of the the Demidoff family (built 1828), who farmed the government tobacco revenue; Petraja di Castello and Villa di Quarti, both favourite seats of the Medici; La Doccia, a factory of Marquis Ginori, famous for its porcelain, called doccia, from the duct or conduit, which carries the water to the city; and at length, Poggio a Cajano, the site

of another Grand Ducal seat. Here Francesco I. and Bianca Cappello died of poison.

3. From the south side of Florence, out by Porta S. Miniato, a road passes up the Arno, to Monte Santa Croce, and the Franciscan Church of S. Salvatore, by Cronaca; above which, in the cemetery, is the old Church or Basilica of

*S. Miniato, rebuilt 1013; a beautiful and wellproportioned specimen of a Romanesque church, 165 feet by 70, divided into three aisles. It contains bas-reliefs, paintings, and frescoes, and an ancient crypt, or second choir below the other choir. In the sacristy are S. Spinelli's series of frescoes from the life of St. Benedict. This venerable church stands among cypresses, and is reached by a Via Crucis, ending in a beautiful prospect. Here Giusti, the poet, was buried, 1849.

4. The road from Porta Romana passes Poggio Imperiale (Poggio means a hill), another seat of the Medici. Villa Albizzi, on Monte Bellosguardo, in which Galileo lived for a time. Arcetri, another hill, celebrated for its vino verde, or green wine, the "verdea soavissima," celebrated by Redi, which they say Galileo amused himself by cultivating. He was considered a good judge of wine and used to say, "Il vino è un composito di luce e d'amore." On the hill and marked by his bust over the door, whence there is a fine prospect, stands his Torre del Gallo, or Observatory; and close to it the Villa del Giojello, in which he spent his last years under the censure of the Inquisition. "There it was," says Milton, "that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner ('under arrest,' as it were), to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought." But "e pur si muove" the world moves in spite of them. In this direction is the shrine of Santa Maria Impruneta, a black Virgin, held in great honour. To the west, near the Pesa, 8 miles, are the tonic springs of S. CASCIANO (Inn, Campana), near a house where Machiavelli lived.

5. Railway Excursion-To Pontassieve, on the Arezzo line; whence it is 10 or 12 miles to the "Etrurian shades" of Vallombrosa, under the Apennines (once a convent); now a Forest School, with 5 professors, an arboretum, and plantations. See Bradshaw's Continental Guide.

The country parts round Florence are divided into fields, edged with ditches and poplars, and planted with vines, corn, olives, &c. There are two harvests yearly. The wheat being thick sown and cut down before it is ripe, furnishes the valuable straw which is plaited for Leghorn hats. Barley is now grown for beer. The farmers are an industrious and intelligent race, healthy and comfortable, neither rich nor poor. They are not able to keep servants, but every member of the family works hard. A black beaver hat and yellow umbrella are not uncommon. The oxen are dun-coloured and stall-fed.

"In the rich and fertile Valdarno, so thickly studded with villas as to have suggested Ariosto's well-remembered saying, that if brought together

they would make two Romés-the farmer and proprietor look less to the corn and wine than to the oil, as a source of profit and wealth. The Oil is the great thing. Always below rather than above the demand in quantity, the golden oil is readily exchangeable at any moment into solid gold; and by a recognised usage of long standing all transactions are paid in ready money. Nothing can be more primitive and unimproved than the Tuscan method of obtaining this valuable produce from the berry, or than that of settling accounts between landlord and tenant. Almost every estate has its villa, the country residence of the landowner. Often his fattore or bailiff inhabits it, or a portion of it. Nor is it rare for the house of the contadino or farmer to be close to that of his landlord, or even under the same roof. To the villa is brought all the produce of the land. The grapes are there pressed into wine, and the olives into oil, by a clumsy process which has not varied for centuries. The oil when drawn off is poured into small barrels of a regular size, containing a certain number of flasks, and supposed to form each half an ass's load. Then one barrel to the landlord, and one to the tenant, till the whole yield is equally divided between them. So also with the wine and so with the corn. Money rents are almost if not altogether unknown. This is the metayer system which prevails throughout Italy, and from which the only thing excepted is the produce of the beehives, which goes entirely to the tenant."-T. A. Trollope. Florence is a delightful place to live in. It has a fine climate; provisions are cheap; there are good libraries and reading-rooms; the people are sprightly and polished, and noted for thrift. There is a saying that when a child is sent to school they give him a piece of bread and half a lemon for luncheon. His greediness makes him eat the lemon first; and his teeth being set on edge, he is obliged to leave the bread, which is thus spared for another meal.

It was founded by a colony of Roman soldiers settled here by Octavianus. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the republic was at the height of its prosperity, through its great trade, its banking operations, and its manufactures of silk, woollen, &c. Its revenue was 300,000 florins, equal to £60,000 in the present day.

The gold florin (which took its name here) or zecchino, had a figure of St. Giovanni Battista on one side. Large transactions were entered into with Edward III. of England, to whom the citizens lent upwards of a million and a half of florins; and his inability to repay it produced distress and bankruptcy.

Under the Guelph party, Florence became predominant against its neighbours, Pisa, Siena, &c.; but bitter party contests raged at home, between the black and white Guelphs; in one of which Dante, who was a white Guelph, was expelled by "quello ingrato popolo maligno," in 1301. Α foreign adventurer, Walter de Brienne, who had

been called to rule them for a time, was in 1343, also expelled; and the anniversary of this "cacciata di Duca d' Atene," or Duke of Athens as he is styled, is still observed on 26th July, by a procession of the Gonfaloniere and all the trades to St. Michele, accompanied by the Knights of St. Stephen, an Order created to fight the Saracens. Every citizen was obliged to be free of the twelve greater or lesser Arti or trade companies, and each of the seven Arti Maggiori, in turn, elected a Priori or Chief Magistrate every two months. The grandi or nobles were excluded. This form of government subsisted more or less till the Medici obtained supreme power in 1512, by the overthrow of P. Loderino, the Perpetual Gonfaloniere.

After the peace of Villafranca, 1360, the people made up their mind, come what would, not to take back the Grand Duke. The arrival of the Commendatore Buoncompagnias Governor-General, and the energy of Ricasoli as Dictator (descended from a Florentine family of the thirteenth century), settled the matter, against the intrigues in behalf of the old dynasty; and the annexation of Central

Italy was virtually accomplished. A plot was tried to blow up Buoncompagni and others, at a ball, at the Palazzo della Crocelle; and even some English residents were found to exert themselves in opposition to the new order of things. It remained the temporary capital of Italy till 1871, when the king's government moved to Rome, followed by the British and other legations.

Among the natives or residents of Florence in the present day are Giusti and Leopardi, the poets; Nicolini, author of "Arnaldo di Brescia," who, when prosecuted for his liberal opinions, was protected by the late Grand Duke; Count Guicciardini, the leader of the Protestant party; Giuseppe Dolfi, the patriotic baker, who was denounced by Lord Normanby; P. Giudici, author of the "History of Italian Literature;" Guerazzi, the author of "La Battaglia di Benevento," who was sent to Elba, the Tuscan Botany Bay, and became minister during the events of 1849; and G. P. Vieusseux, editor of the "Archivio Storico Italiano."

ROUTE 26-Continued.

Florence to Rome, viâ Empoli, Siena, Orvieto, Orte, &c.

The old high road to Rome, now done by rail; and offering an alternative route to the more inland rail via Arezzo, Perugia, Foligno, &c., in Route 27. Since 1875, these two rails have been linked together between Cortona and Chiusi in such a way as to give a Direct Rail to Rome, viâ Pontassieve (see page 143), Arezzo Cortona, Terentola, Chiusi, Orvieto, Orte, Borghetto, Montorso, Monte Rotondo, and Rome; or 159 miles, in 8 to 12 hours. All these are described in Routes 26, 27, which are left, to some extent, as formerly arranged, to suit the convenience of travellers going leisurely from place to place.

Osteria Bianca (Stat.), or Ponte a Elsa. To the right is Santa Miniato dei Tedeschi, on a hill; so called because the Vicar of the German Emperors in Italy fixed his seat here.

Castel-Fiorentino (Stat.), population, 6,745, near an old military post, fortified by the Florentines.

Certaldo (Stat.) A pretty little walled town (population, 6,519), overlooking Val d'Elsa, among the Tuscan Hills, the last resting-place of Boccaccio, the father of Italian prose, who is buried in the church (1375) of which he was Canonico. A road winds up to the old place, once the feudal seat of the Counts Alberti, then of its Florentine governors and vicars, whose armorial bearings cover the walls of the Rocca or Castle. His tomb bears his effigy (not older than 1503), in the costume of his day, with a round cheerful face, and his epitaph. Near the church is his small house (with A. Passaglia's statue), in which are preserved some of his furniture and MSS., his autograph, early editions of his Decameron, a fresco on the wall, and pieces of his tombstone, which was removed 1783, by a bigoted friar. The book of signatures contains the name of Sismondi, and some lines by Pananti, a Florence poet, to the effect that the people believe Messer Giovanni to be a magician, who built a ponte di cristallo, or bridge of glass, down to the valley; but that his magic consists entirely in the charm of his style.-(T. A. TROLLOPE'S Impressions of a Wanderer). Landor, in one of his "Imaginary Conversations," describes Boccaccio's reception of Petrarch in this house. From the top of it there is a view of S. Gemignano, or Geminiano, and its twelve towers, 10 miles off; a curious old decayed mediæval town, which, in 1220, had as many as thirty-one churches. The principal one is full of frescoes, by Ghirlandajo, Gozzoli, &c. It was always fighting with its neighbours, Siena and Volterra.

Poggibonsi (Stat.) Population, 7,337.

The

old Podium Bonitii, with remains of a castle on the hill. Short line of 5 miles to Colle d'Elsa, on a hill, the seat of paper works,

The line enters the valley of the Staggia, with the Chianti Hills on the left.

"If any one," says Count Arrivabene, "should go to Tuscany, not merely for the sake of running through the galleries of Florence, or in order to walk up and down the Cascine, but with a view to acquiring some knowledge of the country, I would advise him not to miss a tour in the valley of Chianti. He will there see Italian nature and agriculture in their fullest development, he will find green and refreshing lawns, picturesque mountains, and secluded spots of unrivalled beauty. The Castle of Broglio, a massive edifice of the middle ages, is not the least of the attractions of this valley. It is still intact, and speaks eloquently of the power and glory of the Ricasoli family. The towers, with their strongly-built battlements, the large court-yards, the marble watch-boxes of the sentries, the drawbridges, and other accessories of feudal magnificence are yet to be seen in nearly the same condition as when the castle was inhabited by the first Barou Bettino in the fourteenth century.'

Then through a tunnel under Monte S. Dalmazzo, to Siena Station, near Porta S. Lorenzo.

SIENA (Stat),

The ancient Sena Julia, on the Via Clodia.
Population, 23,445.

Hotels: Grand Hotel di Siena; Continental; Aquila Nera, near the station; Le Arme d'Inghilterra; La Scala. Chianti and other wines are to be had.

Conveyances.-To Arezzo, 24 miles.
English Church Service.

*Chief Objects of Notice. - Piazza del Campo, Piazza Pubblico, Duomo, S. Dominico, Academy.

At the height of its prosperity, before the plague of 1348, Siena had a population of 180,000. It was a republic in the eleventh century, and after passing through the revolutions common to most Italian cities, and falling under the dictatorship of the Petrucci family, it became part of Tuscany in the sixteenth century. This ancient place stands on the slopes of three elevated tufa hills, at the junction of three or four roads, and is surrounded by walls about 5 miles in circuit, though one-half of the space enclosed is garden ground.

The narrow streets run in and out between tall old houses which look like castles, and are faced with stone and tiles. Water is liberally supplied by 15 miles of Aqueducts to the public Fountains, &c. At the north-west extremity is the Fortezza, or Citadel, erected by Cosmo I., and facing the Lizza Promenade. The old rococo gateway, which stood here, was demolished in 1887.

From being so high, 1,300 feet above the sea, Siena has a healthy and agreeable temperature, and was not invaded by cholera. It has a reputation for its handsome women and for speaking good Italian. It is the seat of a province, an archbishop, and a university. In Strada dell' Oca, near the Dominican Church, is an oratory, in which Santa Caterina di Siena was born, 1347, who made

herself remarkable by her letters and exertions on behalf of the Papacy; who by some Roman Catholics is thought a crazy impostor, and by others a seraphic saint. She pretended that she was taught Latin by a miracle, that she had frequent conversations with Christ, and that he at last espoused her by putting a ring on her right hand. No one ever saw the ring, but she persisted that it was always there; and the subject has often been painted.

The Siena School of Painting, began in the thirteenth century, and numbers several early masters, - as Duccio di Buoninsegna, S. Memmi, Sodoma, Pacchiarotto, Beccafumi, B. Peruzzi, &c., down to F. Vanni, and Marco da Siena in the sixteenth century. All their productions are of a devotional character.

Out of its thirty-three old Gates, eight are now open in the walls. Porta Romana was built, 1327, by the brothers Agnolo and Agostino, and has a fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin (1459). Porta Camullia, on the Florence Road, has this hospitable inscription:-"Cor magis tibi Sena pandit." Porta Pispini has Sodoma's fresco of the Nativity. Porta Fonte Branda is near the Dominican Church and the old Branda Fountain, erected 1193 by Bellamino, and mentioned by Dante.

The Piazza del Campo Vit. Em., or chief open place at the centre of the town, whence eleven streets branch out, is a large paved semicircle sloping to the south, bordered by arcades and large buildings, viz.: -the Palazzo del Governo (now the Post and Police Offices), a handsome pile, built by Pius II., as Palazzo Piccolomini, with a loggia added 1450, and facing the Follonica Fountain, erected 1249; the Palazzo Pubblico, or Law Court and Prison, with its tall tower; and the Casino de' Nobili, formerly the Chamber of Commerce, or Loggia of S. Paolo, built 1417. An elegant fountain, named Fonte Gaja (or joyful), when the water first appeared in 1343, is the work of Jacopo della Quercia, styled "del Fonte," from this performance. Close to it is the Foro Boario, or Cattle Market. Here the markets and horse-races are held. The Races, called Il Paglio (flag), are held 2nd July, and 15th August, or Festival of the Assumption, by the seventeen Contrade (city wards), which take name from some animal, as Cont. della Lupa, Cont. dell' Aquila, &c. Each ward runs a horse. At this mediæval festival, the carroccio, the companies of armed warriors, the heralds, and the jesters, with a cap and bell, parade in quaint costume round the piazza of the town hall. It was thus celebrated in Victor Emmanuel's progress in 1860, through Central Italy. (See STORY'S Roba di Roma.)

The Palazzo Pubblico, or Della Signoria, is a massive pile, built 1295-1327, and much cracked by the earthquake of 1797; its high and graceful tower, called Torre del Mangia was added, 1325. It contains works of early Siena masters, worth notice. In the Biccherna Room-Sodoma's Madonnaand Saints; and P. Lorenzetti's Coronation of the

Virgin. Ballestre Room-A Lorenzetti's wallpaintings of Good and Bad Government (1338); and the public Archives, some ancient. Grand Council Room-S. Memmi's large and curious fresco of the Madonna, St. Gerome, St. Gregory, &c. (1315); Portrait of General Ricci, and Sodoma's Saints. Madonna Chapel, built 1348, after the Great Plague, which swept away 80,000-Frescoes, portraits, &c., by T. Bartoli; and Sodoma's Holy Family. Consistory Room-Ceiling by Beccafumi, with his chiaro-scuro figure of Justice, dark at the feet and the light gradually increasing towards the head; Portraits of Alexander VII. and other natives. Priori Room- S. Spinelli's eleven or twelve paintings of Frederic I. (Barbarossa) and Alexander III.

The Duomo, on a hill, west of Piazza del Campo, begun 1243 and finished about 1380, is on the site. of a Temple of Minerva, and is striped with black and white marble inside and out. It is an imposing specimen of Italian-Gothic, 290 feet long, overspread with ornaments even to the very spouts, in a style opposed to a noble and majestic simplicity. The front, turned to the east, is by Giovanni da Pisa, most elaborately carved, and comprises three great gable-headed portals of equal size, a large circular window, low cloistered towers with pyramids, statues, &c. Among the sculptures which cover it are Della Quercia's prophets and angels, and many curious heraldic animals figuring in the arms of towns once allied with Siena (represented by a she-wolf), as the stork for Perugia; goose, Orvieto; elephant, Rome; dragon, Pistoja; hare, Pisa; rhinoceros, Viterbo; horse, Arezzo; vulture, Volterra; lynx, Lucca; and the buck, Grosseto. The columns stand on lions. The lofty Clock Tower, by the brothers Agnolo and Agostino, of Siena, contains a clock dated 1148. It was rebuilt 1389, and is in eight stories.

Within, the pillars are wreathed with leaves and fruit; the vaulting is coloured in azure and gold; the dome is 58 feet in diameter. The marble pavement is adorned with eight curious Bible subjects and Sibyls, by Beccafumi, done by the insertion of grey marble into white; which are covered over, but are shown for a fee. On the pilasters of the Cupola are trophies taken from the Florentine Guelphs, at the great battle of Monte Aperto in 1260. The high altaris by B. Peruzzi; its bronze tabernacle occupied another artist for a period of nine years Notice the painted Windows and terra cotta portraits of Popes and Anti-popes, including Gregory VII and Alexander III., both natives. The choir paintings, by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1311), were thought so much of, that they were brought to the church in public procession. Below the choir is the old octagon Baptistery of St. John, cased in marble; and containing frescoes by Beccafumi, &c., and bas-reliefs on the fout, by Donatello, Ghiberti, Della Quercia, and Pallajuolo, Among the Chapels are the following:

Chigi Chapel, built by Alexander VII., of that family, is rich with marbles, silver, lapis lazuli,

bronzes, &c., and has Bernini's statues of St. Jerome and Magdalene, and C. Maratta's mosaics.

S. Giovanni Battista Chapel, by B. Peruzzi. It has Della Quercia's Adam and Eve; and Donatello's statue of St. John the Baptist. The octagon marble pulpit is a celebrated work, by Niccolò da Pisa and his sons. On the left of the nave is the Libreria, founded by Pius II. (Eneas Sylvius), and built by his nephew Cardinal Piccolomini (Pius III.). It is ornamented, outside, with arabesques, by Marrina, and a fresco by Pinturicchio; one of the eleven gaudy pictures (the rest being inside), illustrating the principal events in Pius II.'s life and painted 1503-7.

This Library contains a beautiful antique group of the Three Graces, found in digging the foundations in the thirteenth century; S. Ricci's tomb of Mascagni; and another of B. Bandini, with angels, designed by M. Angelo; bas-relief of Donatello; but only a few books, and antiphonals full of old miniatures.

The Cathedral Square is surrounded by the exDucal Palace, the Great Hospital and the Palazzo del Magnifico. The Hospital was founded by a shoemaker, and bears the motto, "Sutor ultra crepidam." The Ducal Palace comprises part of an earlier cathedral, never completed.

S. Agostino's Church, near Porta Tufi; a cross, built 1755, by Vanvitelli, annexed to the Toleomei College, an edifice in the Florentine style. It contains pictures by Perugino (Christ on the Cross), Sodoma, Matteo di Siena, Spagnoletto, F. Vanni.

Del Carmine, near Porta S. Marco, has a clock and cloister, by B. Peruzzi, with paintings by Beccafumi, and Casolani, a native artist. The Pozzo di Diana is a deep well in the cloister.

La Concezione, near Porto Camullia, rebuilt 1528, by B. Peruzzi, has marble columns in the nave, and paintings by Matteo da Siena, Casolani, Vanni.

*S. Domenico, near Porta Fonte Branda, was built 1220-1465, and much damaged by the earthquake of 1797. Here are Sodoma's three pictures of the Ecstacy, Fainting, &c., of Santa Caterina da Siena, who was a Dominican sister; and her portrait by A. di Vanni. It has G. di Paolo's Madonna (1426) and Matteo di Siena's St. Barbe. Near it, in the Oratory, or Cell, of St. Catherine, which occupies the site of the dyer's shop in which she was born, are found frescoes of events in her life, by Vanni; such as her receiving the Stigmata, by Sodoma; and her visit to the Body of St. Agnes. She went to Avignon to bring back the Pope. In the cell and in the churches of S. Cristoforo and S. Bernardino, are frescoes, &c., by Pacchiarotto (who was here till 1535). The Fonte Branda faces the church.

Fonte Giusto Church, near Porta Camullia, built 1482, to commemorate a victory over the Florentines. It contains B. Peruzzi's fine Sibyl announcing the Birth of Christ to Augustus; and a glove and other ex-voto offerings sent by Columbus, on his return to Europe.

S. Francesco, near Porta Ovile, a large church' built 1326, by Agnold and his brother Agostino. Here is a Descent from the Cross, a master-piece of Sodoma; whose frescoes are seen in the Oratory of St. Bernadino, with paintings by Beccafumi, V. Salimbeni, &c.

S. Quirico, near the Botanic Gardens, contains two good pictures, viz., Vanni's Descent from the Cross and Casolani's Flight into Egypt.

S. Martino, at the back of the Palazzo Pubblico; a fine church, with a front by Fontana, 1613. It contains Della Quercia's coloured statues, Guercino's Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, Guido's Circumcision, and a curious Battle-piece by L. Cini, who was present (1526) when it was fought outside the Camullia gate.

Gli Servi (i.e., Servants of Maria) Church, near the Lunatic Asylum and Porta Romana.

S. Spirito, near Porta Pispini, built 1345; the cupola, 1504; the front added by B. Peruzzi. It has paintings by Sodoma, Vanni, Salimbeni (four subjects in the Life of St. Hyacinth); and a good fresco by Fra Bartolommeo.

It

The Istituto di Belle Arti, or *Academy, out of the Via Pellicceri has a useful and interesting series of Siena artists, especially the early masters, arranged in six rooms, by Professor Mussini. begins with a St. Peter and St. John, by Pierrolini of Siena (about 1100?), and a Madonna and Child, on wood, by Guido di Ghezzo da Siena (1221), claimed by the Sienese as the earliest in modern art. It also comprises Sodoma's fine fresco of Christ at the Pillar There are a few by Titian, Annibale Carracci, &c.; also cartoons of Beccafumi's ornamented pavement, in the cathedral; some good specimens of wood carving, for which Siena is celebrated; and a mutilated marble group of the Graces.

Facing the Palazzo Pubblico, is the University, founded 1203. It has the tomb of Arringhieri, a jurist, by Goro di Gregorio (1374).

The Biblioteca is in the room of the Academy degl' Intronati (i.e., the Heavies or Stupids). It contains 60,000 volumes and 5,000 manuscripts: among which are a prose version of the Æneid of the thirteenth century, Greek Evangelaires of the ninth century; brought from Constantinople. Also Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, dictated by her (she could not write); and Letters of L. and F. Socinus or Sozzino (both natives) the founders of Socinianism: with Designs of B. Peruzzi, &c. Near the cathedral is the Great Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, built in the fourteenth century, with frescoes in the chapel.

The Lunatic Asylum of S. Niccolò, is near Porta Romana and the Servi Church.

Most of the Palaces here are without the distinguishing court, and some of them are in a halfGothic style, with curious fret-work in the windows.

Palazzo Buonsignori, near the ex-Ducal Palace, is Italian-Gothic, of brick, with terra cotta ornaments in the front.