When day broke, the whole city was in an uproar. There is a curious representation of the burning of a heretic on the arch. Some Famous Convents and Monasteries. Vasari, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori; con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi. The Salimbeni were expelled in 1374, their houses and possessions wasted; but they gathered together in the contado, captured many castles, and carried on a formidable war against the State. 63] High up on the wall above this picture are two half figures of saints (34, 36), damaged, but genuine Ambrogios. Martini and rossi price. —— Andrea di Naddino, converted by St. Catherine, 46.
The long wall between them sets forth the life of the cloister and the life of the world, the one leading to Heaven, the other to Hell. The earlier engagements mostly resulted in favour of the Sienese with their French allies and German mercenaries. The heads are fine, almost worthy of Ghirlandaio, but they have been somewhat restored. —— VII., Pope (Fabio Chigi), character of, 160. Maria della Scala, to which the place belonged, made it over to him, and he founded the present convent upon the site of the chapel. Martini and rossi commercial 1974. The curtain is raised, and behind the gilded bars of the shrine the pale, strange face appears, its features still recognisable.
—— Scipione, novelist, 241, 252, 253, 254, 290, 291. Tavolette di Biccherna e di Gabella, 269-275. As she knelt with the severed head in her hands, her white robe all crimsoned over with his blood, Catherine had one of those mystical visions which she can only tell in terms of blood and fire. Following up the Via Camollia towards the gate, we have on the right the Campansi, a former convent of Franciscan nuns, now a poor-house. Wondrous revelations came to her of the Divine Beauty; she smelt the fragrance of unearthly lilies, and heard the celestial music of Paradise, led by Mary Magdalene, singing con voce alta e con grazia di singolar dolcezza. Cerretani, family of the, 37, 40. For albeit {221} thou hast saved it many times from various accidents and fearful wars, as from that of Montaperti and this other last of Camollia, never has there hung over it an affliction equal to this of to-day, when its only benefactor and protector, Charles V., desires to make in it a Castle. "Before you, magnificent and potent Lords, Lords Priors, Governors of the Commune, and Captain of the People of Siena, "—thus begins a petition of February 25th, 1465 (i. e. 1466)—"the least of your children and servants, the Officers over the Adornment of your City, with due reverence set forth that they are continually thinking how to do what may be to the adorning of the city, especially on the Strada Romana where pass the strangers who give praise to all the city. " The Archbishop Francesco Bandini, Enea Piccolomini and others broke through the Spanish lines, and escaped to Montalcino. In their place it is surrounded with olive plantations, which temper with their silvery softness the austerity of the towers and the walls:—. But Boccaccio has given us a vivid picture of the poet himself at one of these typical Sienese entertainments, {132} which would seem to have been a tournament in the Campo. And he made me promise by the love of God that, when the time for the execution came, I would be with him. 94] The fall of Constantinople in 1453 gave Bishop Enea the opportunity of coming forward as the champion of the cause of Christendom against the Moslem, the eloquent advocate of a new crusade.
From the Via di Valle Piatta the steep Via del Costone winds down the side of the hill upon which the Duomo and Spedale stand, to the Fontebranda. Of Baldassare's paintings Siena only possesses a few of his earliest and some of his very latest. Baldassare Peruzzi, Messer Giorgio tells us, was never tired of praising it; "and one day that I saw it with him, uncovered, as I was passing through Siena, I was struck dumb with admiration. " They stretch from Peter in a continuous chronological line round the church, to Lucius III., who sat on the Throne of the Fisherman from 1181 to 1185, succeeding to Alexander III., when our Henry II. A young monk, "loving his parents more than reason would, " cannot be buried after death, until Benedict bids them lay the Sacred Host upon his breast. At the same time he tried to treat with the Borgia, using Antonio da Venafro as a go-between. Catherine, with her mystic longings for shedding her blood for the cause, was amazed at his pusillanimity, and sent him letters of characteristic remonstrance, reminding him that he need have no fear, because he was not worthy of the grace of martyrdom, exhorting him to be a man and not a woman, laying all the blame on herself (as she invariably does in her severest letters), pleading love as her excuse for rebuking him. Then the Signoria with all the Council went to the Duomo, to return thanks to God and to the Virgin Mary, the Te Deum Laudamus was sung, the bells rang a gloria, and they returned to the Palace. These varied influences combined with that of Florence to produce eclecticism; "a most singular and charming eclecticism, saved from the pretentiousness and folly usually controlling such movements by the sense for grace and beauty even to the last seldom absent from the Sienese. " In the Palace the Caesar received the abdication of the Nine, forced them to renounce all the privileges he had granted them, to annul the oath he had sworn to their ambassadors—while the younger nobles, shouting and cheering, led the populace to sack the palaces of the Provveditori di Biccherna and Consoli di Mercanzia, and the houses of the wool merchants, to release the prisoners, to hunt out the luckless Podestà and War-Captain.
It was originally in Santo Spirito. U. Uberti, Farinata degli, 10, 12. Then came, in Dante's immortal phrase, "the havoc and the great slaughter that dyed the Arbia red. " From the tenth to the twelfth century, San Gimignano was subject to Volterra and more particularly to the Bishop of that city; but in the course of the twelfth century, its people were gradually winning their way to virtual independence and self-government, like the other communes of Tuscany, and like them beginning to exert supremacy and authority over the petty nobles of the small castles in the vicinity. Apart from the great beauty of the individual figures, the spiritual power and imaginative insight of the whole conception are surely worthy of the century of Dante and Petrarch. We should visit the battle-field to-day, for the walk or drive is one of the pleasantest in the neighbourhood of Siena. Above the choir there is a fine circular stained-glass window, representing the Death, Assumption, and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, with the four Evangelists and four chief early patrons of Siena; it was executed by Giacomo di Castello in 1369, according to a document recently discovered in the Archivio dell'Opera del Duomo. "If anything can be done through me that may be to the honour of God and the union of yourselves with the holy Church, I am prepared to give my life, if need be. "
149] Further on are the church and convent of San Girolamo—at present in the hands of the Sisters of Charity. 1] Already the glorious Duomo, though needless to say not in its present form, had been consecrated by Pope Alexander, and the Dogana stood on the site of the present Palazzo Comunale, a sign of increasing commercial prosperity. Succeeds to his father's despotism, 93; his character, 93, 94; flies from Siena and is declared a rebel, 94; goes mad, 98; entertains the younger Lorenzo de' Medici, 248. Charlemagne, alleged privileges granted by him to Siena, 2. Natale Baldoria, Monumenti Artistici in San Gimignano. The mercenaries of the guard of the Piazza held the openings to the Terzo di San Martino for the Noveschi, with artillery, but appear to have made little real resistance; comparatively few persons had been killed on either side, when evening saw the Libertini masters of the situation.
18] Augusta Drane, vol. A number of the subject towns refused to acknowledge them; Montepulciano gave itself to Perugia, and the Sienese, in revenge, persuaded the governor of Cortona to revolt against the Perugians. The convent itself is of very ancient origin, and in the further cloister is the famous Pozzo della Diana—which, however, may possibly have no connection, save by name, with Dante's cut at the vain hopes and foolish expenditure of the Sienese. Brandano died in Siena during the siege, in May 1554. The Sienese made him public architect to the Republic, and afterwards Capomaestro of the Duomo. We, albeit unworthy of so great an office, in the name of Blessed Christ and of His Immaculate Mother, accept your vows and oblations. Induced by this slight and the desire of avenging Luzio, Leonardo and his sons with a force of armed men lay in wait for Pandolfo, on his way to visit their own kinsman, Petrino Bellanti, who lay sick. The books of condemnation, the papers of the Nine, were burnt before the Emperor's eyes in the piazza, and their official chest was dragged through the city at the tail of an ass.
From one of the former cloisters there is a fine view of the mountains to the south. A solemn Mass was celebrated in the Duomo, with great offerings to the miraculous Madonna, and the Twelve commissioned Lippo di Vanni to paint the fresco in memory of the glorious event. 69] In the following century Giacomo della Quercia was commissioned to make the marble fountain, from which he was afterwards known as Giacomo della Fonte; he produced a work which has been described as deservedly ranking "among the model fountains of the world. " A large altarpiece, badly preserved (67), is one of the works that he painted as an offering for the church of the Spedale, and is signed: "The work of Laurentius Petri, sculptor, alias El Vecchietta, for his devotion. "
Benzi, family of the, 205. In November 1403, the Salimbeni (who, in opposition to the Malavolti and Tolomei, had been among the foremost in introducing the ducal sovereignty into Siena) and the heads of the Dodicini, probably instigated by the Florentines, called the Sienese to arms to recover their liberty. The Florentines instantly summoned the Podestà and the leaders of the expedition to appear before them, and, when they did not appear, condemned the Commune of San Gimignano to pay a heavy fine, and their Podestà, with one hundred and forty-eight men of the town, to be burned alive. Biccherna, Tavolette di, 269-275. 13a Yeah thats the spot. However that may be, the present aspect of the Casa della Consuma is prosaic and modern. Appendix to Sozzini, Diario, Documents vi. The number of the slain Guelfs probably lies somewhere between 10, 000, which is the Sienese estimate, and the 2500 given by Villani. 56] In Mondolfo, Pandolfo Petrucci, p. 99. In earlier times—those eventful days that preceded Montaperti—the General Council met in San Cristofano opposite. The Florentines secretly fanned the flames. There are also a frescoed Coronation of the Madonna ascribed to Sano, on the right wall, an Annunciation with the Magdalene and St Antony by Girolamo di Benvenuto, on the left, and a Madonna in glory with Saints in the manner of Pacchia.
59] By a decree of the Balìa on September 14th, 1509; but this was not quite such a recognition of his dynasty as might appear, because a similar exception was made in 1518 (though only in their own homes) for some of the Piccolomini.